Reinventing the ????

So it is interesting to think that I am awake at 2:50am. Maybe it is the hot summer night or the restlessness of the next step. So what do I do I turn on the computer and contemplate just that.

Steps within every business happen. You open your doors. You make your first sale. You may even have a great group of repeat customers, but how did you get here? It struck me as I sit here on this warm summer night that first; this really is unlike any post I have made recently and second; we all reinvent ourselves or at least we should. From time to time we should take a breath, look around and take a hard look at where we are in life. Now sometimes that is a scary thing to do I realize, but I guess I was fortunate that events happened that made me look at my life a year ago. As I begin year 2 in business and almost a full year in the blogasphere it is time to take those steps again.

The reason I started this business was because I really only wanted to work for myself. I find this incredibly rewarding, but the one thing I do miss is the amount of interaction with the other employees. People and your relationships with them are really some of the rewards in life. I am fortunate that I have worked for some great clients so far and it really was the people. So I guess I have traded one form of relationship for another and some would say you are able to really take the time with clients that you may not be able to do with co-workers. Personal gain only gets you so far in life it is how you form those bonds with your clients or I guess the way that I would treat them would be friends. I think I have made a pretty good trade in that regard, but what about the other reasons which were, Family, Time, and personal satisfaction.

I think that those are the things I am struggling with the most. I really am blessed to have a great girlfriend. She has opened my eyes to many things and we just recently had the conversation about working conditions. For all of you out there that operate home based businesses you can appreciate what I am about to say in that it is tough to run a business out of your home and have kids that are home during the summer. Plus side you can go out on a nice summer day and do something, but it also can make them a tad stir crazy. So I think it may be time to get an office. Now Bend is not exactly the best place for real estate, but it may just be workable. This will mean I may have to actually have office hours again which is not exactly my favorite, but it will give a feeling of okay here is where I work and here (home) is were I relax. Increased overhead, but I think it may be time.

I really am feeling a strong pull to grow the business. Not necessarily to make it bigger, but better. More focused on what I love to do and that is live events. I realized that I have not produced an event for a couple of months and would love to do another. I just love the adrenaline rush you get when everything is working and you are enjoying the event. I may need some reinvention here. I think I need to go back to my roots and develop some marketing materials that can help sell those services better. Show people why they need to hire us.

You know the reason you should be doing anything though is because you love it and I most certainly do!

Yes More Functionality

So as you will see by the post below I am working on adding even more functionality and include even better photo links. We are working fast and furious on the DVD for Above the Noise and I hope to go into authoring by the end of next week.

Thought for the day: How will HD filter down into use by everyone in the home?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Mac VS PC

Okay why the heck would I take a swipe at this one... I am definitely treading in uncalm waters! Let me get this out of the way. I edit with Premiere Pro on a PC and have in one way or another edited on a PC for the last 7 years. So with that disclaimer out of the way let me talk a bit of the reasons that I would go to a Mac for doing what I do.

I am in the business of creating media. I want a tool that will do the job in a cost effective manner and one that has many features built into one piece of software. I think for everything that has been done Microsoft has done an outstanding job when it comes to tools for the office, but that is what they have focused on. Apple has focused on developing tools for media professionals.

I recently did a job for a client that required me to edit some video pieces into a short movie and then play it back during the final banquet. Now I have been editing on a PC, but I had access to a G4 laptop and decided to give it a whirl. The process went so much smoother and I was even able to burn a simple DVD in less time than with my PC. I know the Mac may be slower, but the workflow is in my opinion much better and even quicker on a mac. I encourage Apple to take this opportunity over the next 2 years to really develop fast efficient computers with Intel.

Okay now back to work on my PC... Oh but I crave a new G5 with Final Cut Pro.

Podcasts?

So the question of the day for me has to be the natural extension of podcasting into video. Apple deserves some credit here. I know that they are the little company that people either love, hate, or love to hate; but they are changing the landscape of how media is delivered. With the new update of iTunes they have included a feature for podcasting. This alone leads to greater equalization in media by allowing anyone with a way to record audio to publish their thoughts on the matter. What this means from a marketing standpoint is podcasting can be an extremely useful tools with tips of the day or even speeches from CEOs or even more. I know that the more traditional marketing people would tell you that the potetial for your message to be copied and diluted is also there, but I think this is just another way that we can reach out to our customers. I think I really went off into a tangent though.

I think that the engineers are working hard on how can they include video podcasting. Imagine the ability to not only deliver audio, but deliver your commercials or other content directly to your customer. Now the trick here is that customers know when they are being sold something so you have to give them something that is real about your product or better ways to use them. This seems to be a natural extension of even events with the ability to deliver your conferences at first in audio, but also long term with video as well.

This is going to be fun!