The Couple's Table

Tech Troubles and Creative Triumphs

Heather & Tom Season 1 Episode 132

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Picture this: you’ve just wrapped up a tough week, and you’re looking for that perfect blend of tech insight and personal connection to kick off the weekend. You’ve found it at the Couple’s Table, where today we’re serving up a candid feast of conversation, from the quirks of tech gear reliability to the heartwarming tales of growth within our YouTube Huddle Up Community. Our gears grind over a temperamental Sony lens, but we don’t let it cloud the lively debate over camera brands or the shared triumphs of our fellow creators.

Imagine diving headfirst into the intricate dance of content strategy, navigating the whims of algorithms while remaining steadfast in our educational mission. Our episode is a harmony of personal anecdotes and professional experiences, where you’ll learn how to strike that elusive balance between appeasing the algorithm and fulfilling our creative passions. We ponder over the intricacies of channel expansion and share giggles over freeze frames, as we embrace the technical gremlins that join us this week.

Join us as we explore the profound impact of creativity and community, understanding that each piece of content shared is a tile in the vibrant mosaic of our collective experience. We wrap up with heartfelt thanks, leaving you with a sprinkle of good vibes and the anticipation of what’s to come at the NAB Show. So grab your headphones, and let’s close out the week together with a dose of inspiration and a side of laughter here at the Couple’s Table.

🟣 CONNECT WITH HEATHER —
My Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustcreate
My Tutorial Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherramirez
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/heatherjustc...
Website: http://www.heatherjustcreate.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH TOM —
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tombuck 
Instagram: @sodarntom

🟣 CONNECT WITH HEATHER —
My Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustcreate
My Tutorial Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherramirez
My Gaming Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustplay
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/heatherjustcreate
Website: http://www.heatherjustcreate.com

🟣 CONNECT WITH TOM —
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tombuck
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sodarntom

Speaker 1:

hello and welcome. My name is tom and I'm heather, and you're sitting at the couple's table couple's table is a live stream podcast here on this channel. Join us for better or worse for richer or poorer in sickness and in hell uh, every friday 1 pm, pacific standard time. I was trying to think of something semi-clever and we should change our intro I? You know, I said that like a year ago. All right, everyone, hello checking in I guess I should check our audio.

Speaker 2:

Huh, we played with the audio because I was re-listening to the couples table at the gym and it sounded really low. I was turning it up and then I reached max volume and I was like I feel like it needs to be a little louder.

Speaker 1:

I think it's good. Now it's hard to tell when I'm listening on a quiet phone out of reach.

Speaker 2:

We'll tweak it as we go. All right, parker Jennings in the house. Hello.

Speaker 1:

Homesick, mac mac, nice to see you. Oh, mac, I got your email for the podcast. I just haven't responded to yet. But thank you, it will be the next episode friday always is in the house.

Speaker 2:

Hello, hello, bailey, hello, good to see you. Dave den, my first time here, going to mostly be listening in the background while I work. Well, it's very good to see you. Uh, dave den is part of the youtube huddle up which I do over on my other channel at youtubecom, slash heather ramirez, where we do the youtube huddle up, and it's a lot of fun and you could join us. Uh, so does tech troublemaker, and call me cubby.

Speaker 1:

They are also the whole cohort is here the cohort.

Speaker 2:

All the youtube huddle up crew is here. Richard is in the house. Hey, folks and pete, hey, tom and heather it's friday, it is I don't know why. I'm just realizing that I took a nap again. So I don't know friday's like at 11 30, I'm like clocking out, punching out there.

Speaker 1:

It's time to take a nap uh more like partners in crime I haven't gotten to watch the huddle up because I'm busy, so I don't know what y'all doing over there, but all right?

Speaker 2:

well, you're gonna join us after next week, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that's also not true, because I did re-watch some of yesterday's but wednesday or wednesday's see, yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 2:

We have a good time. It's a good group. I'm really excited about it, yeah it's cool, don't go ben he's in the hall.

Speaker 1:

He got hot. He'd go lay on the. Yeah, that's the thing.

Speaker 2:

He gets hot, so he goes to the hardwood floor. That's the only reason why he leaves. But, all right, what's up, tom? Uh, a couple things. We have a lot to talk about do we?

Speaker 1:

we do, actually, we have a lot to talk, yeah I'm have things. I have things here there are things on the desk.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to give a little bit of a shout out to something that's really cool and I don't know what we did before that made me think of this, but for a long time I've been using to tie up my cables. I've been using these little cable whips, these things here Cable whippies, whips and normally I've been using these think tank ones that are red, but they like stopped making them years ago so I bought a bunch and they're like slowly running out. And so somebody uh reached out to me chris from metcalf noodles reached out to me and was like hey, you want to try some of these out. And so he sent me a bunch of stuff here look how colorful these are and they like there's a whole bunch of them. They're just cable whips. This isn't like a sponsor thing. I just think it's cool, because he was basically like this is a side business he started during the pandemic. It's just like one guy does everything on his own.

Speaker 1:

I bought cheaper versions of these, since my favorite think tank ones aren't around anymore and they're they're horrible. And so I was like sure, I'll try them out. And he was like I think you'll like them because they come in all these crazy colors and stuff, um, which I do like. And so he sent them to me. I've been using them on all my cables and stuff lately. Um, he sent me like a huge collection of them and I just thought that was really cool, like they're really useful. I really like the colors. I've been needing good replacements because every time one of mine gets used or broken or lost I feel used my color for to hold them all together there's some really good purples in there.

Speaker 2:

This is a great, fantastic hold on this is a.

Speaker 1:

This is a good, this is like a perfect.

Speaker 2:

This is a perfect it's a perfect. It's hard to find the perfect purple but this is it. It's a good one there we go. I don't know if it looks like right here, yeah, look at that fully going through on the camera, but in person it's a good one.

Speaker 1:

There we go. I don't know if it looks like right here yeah, look at that fully going through on the camera, but in person it's a very nice, rich, beautiful, vibrant, purple. Um. So yeah, metcalf noodles. There's kind of the logo, but metcalf is spelled m-e-t-c-a-l-f?

Speaker 1:

um that's tiny, it's just one dude in southern california who does everything himself and that's awesome. He's been doing it for a few years now and I just wanted to give a shout out because I thought that was cool and it solved the problem for me and I'm really excited about it there you go so there we go perfect, and while you were talking about that, the riopel room has tuned in and so is art. What up? What, uh?

Speaker 2:

he said oh, uh, call me cubby, says tom. I liked your video on the fine mic. Since I'm a newbie, I like the look of that one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a really cool mic. I like the lights on it. It was a. How much was that microphone? I think it was like thirty five dollars. It was no, no, no, no, that one was a USB XLR combo. It's like 50 bucks. But it's a good sounding mic.

Speaker 2:

Great if you touch it, it like picks up all of the noise I mean I rarely touch.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it's just part of those. Things is like, sometimes it's it's a problem with the product, but sometimes it's like you just have to learn how to use the tool that you're using. You know, and that's that's the case there and the mic I'm using today. I thought he'd be here. I was waiting for audio hotline to pop in, but, um, he was doing a stream last week where he was using the re20 and talking about it. I haven't used mine in a long time and that's what made me want to use it today.

Speaker 1:

Great, so there we go perfect I think those are all my updates I thought you had like so many. You know there's a lot of stuff over there most of these are just the cables for the couples table the table cables, all right. Well, do you want to move on to? You know there's a lot of stuff over there. Most of these are just the cables for the couple's table, the table cables, all right.

Speaker 2:

Well, do you want to move on to?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2:

All right, we've been talking about it for a couple weeks now, but today we really wanted to just kind of highlight the schedule, and that is NAB, of highlight the schedule and that is nab, nab show 2024, starting from april 14th to the 17th. I guess it's technically the 13th is the 17th. Oh, the exhibit hall is right is sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday. Uh, here, let me make this a little bit bigger, because yeah, so we've talked about this before.

Speaker 1:

If you've never been to NAB it's the National Association of Broadcasters, but it's huge in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center I've never gone, we've never gone, but it's always been on my bucket list since way pre-YouTube like I've always wanted to go. And this year seems particularly interesting because not only is it back in full swing you know, know, after the pandemic and everything, but this year they seem to be folding in like online content creation more than normal, because typically it's like broadcast industry stuff. So it's not like a youtube convention or an online creator convention. It's broadcast industry, which I'm always just fascinated by and I kind of want to go check it out. So it's not really like a vidcon or anything. But it's 2024. It's kind of hard to not acknowledge that. You know, online content creation, it's sort of a big part of this stuff.

Speaker 1:

Now best ai tools for creators they have whole sessions on the creator economy and, like casey neistat's a featured speaker on wednesday. So there's, they're really like embracing that part of things, which I think is super duper exciting yeah and so yeah, so uh, we got.

Speaker 1:

There's all kinds of stuff like you can do classes and things if you want to. But, um, if you just kind of want to go for the basic thing, that would be the exhibition hall where it's all the booths. I think it's like, I don't know, the full las vegas convention center, which is very big, so it might be something you need more than one day to get all the way through, and that's pretty cool. And and and nab. I had a like help desk question for nab and so I reached out to them, we started talking and then they gave heather and I our own promo codes. We make no money off of these.

Speaker 2:

It's not an ad or anything, but it's a way for you to get to the exhibit hall for free, yes, which is awesome so if you go to nab showcom, nab show, you can nab your tickets and you click on register.

Speaker 1:

Uh, you can sign up as an attendee. Actually, can we go back to the thing so I can show everyone? Where it is yeah, you can click on register right here and then you can do attend, you can do attendee and then you fill out all your info. Um, and the most basic pass. This is just the exhibition hall pass, which I think is like 160 170, but if you use promo code heather24 it'll be free.

Speaker 1:

Zero dollars, free 99 there you go and you can get into the exhibition hall and then, if you wanted to add stuff, if there were some classes or some trainings or some talks that you wanted to attend, you could add those if you wanted. But if you just want to get in for free to the basics, um, that's all you need to do. Just promo code heather 24 and you get free and, like I said, this isn't an ad. We don't get like a kickback on any of that?

Speaker 1:

um, it's just a cool thing. They were just like hey, you guys talk about nab, do you want a way to like help?

Speaker 2:

your audience. Get there, make the post for the youtube.

Speaker 1:

Huddle up people, yeah those promo codes just were supposed to become active yesterday, so they should be working. Everything should be good.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it should be a ton of fun and we are gonna be there all monday and tuesday. I think we should try to plan like a time to meet up at the exhibit hall, like let's meet up at a booth at a certain time and take a group photo. Yeah, so we'll talk about that as the day gets closer, logistics.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, herding cats.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, it should be fun. So let us know if you're going to go. Richard is going gonna be there. Awesome uh, dave says I heard. Nab is where da vinci resolve.

Speaker 1:

Talks about the released tech features a lot of companies release new things at nab. Uh, because it's why not, you know, like everybody's? It's sort of the place where all media and press outlets are like looking for the new things that come out and it's like why not make that the time where you announce stuff? So lots of cool audio video related products are released and announced at neb and I know of a couple of them in advance. They're gonna be pretty freaking cool I know uh tech travel maker.

Speaker 2:

I still wish I could be at neb, but deja has me traveling so excited. All the creators who are going, yeah it should be fun mcj, are you gonna be there, because that would be awesome. How do you feel?

Speaker 1:

about it because originally, like, it's something I've wanted to do forever, but it's always been like yeah you know, I taught broadcast. I worked at a tv station. It sort of seemed like it was in my wheelhouse. And now, all these years later, how are you feeling?

Speaker 2:

I'm excited because I feel like we haven't gone to like, uh, an event like this since vidcon 2019, 2019, so a different world um, yeah, and then that vidcon was my third one and it was so different from the first one I went to, so like I'm excited to just I feel like things like this are always so exciting and it's just fun to connect with people in real life, and especially with this one in particular, it really sounds like a lot of the brands and companies that you know we use their tools and in our creative process are gonna have their booths there with all their newest and latest and all that. I think that's going to be really I don't know cool to check out. So I'm very, very, very excited yeah plus it's in vegas.

Speaker 1:

So get a phone call even though I was there. You were there just last weekend that's why we didn't do the couple's table I know, but it'll be fun.

Speaker 2:

Uh okay, introvert amateur is here. Amateur amateur hello everyone. Just finished recording my next video for the huddle up goal. Woot. Question to tom was there an update regarding your damaged sony 24 millimeter 1.4 gm? Don't know if I missed it on your podcast there's not.

Speaker 1:

So what introvert amateur is talking about? There is my main camera lens since I switched to sony has been the 24 millimeter f 1.4 g master, which is like a 13 to 1500 lens kind of fluctuates in price. I bought it when I got my a7S III three years ago now. So now you're like okay, lens is three years old. If it has an issue, maybe that's not a problem. It's the only G Master lens that I've ever owned. But G Master, I know that's what they call their high end lenses. It's not my favorite name of a lens.

Speaker 2:

That's funny.

Speaker 1:

But everybody else I know who's owned a G Master lens other than the 70 to 200, but like the 16 to 35, the 24 to 35 has had some kind of issue with them, and mine has been in my studio 98% of the last three years. Like it's not, it's not beat up, it's not a travel lens, it's you know, it's my bread and butter lens. Like it's. The image quality is amazing. The autofocus is amazing. You can do focus, breathing compensation. So it's a perfect lens, except that it just sort of maybe like eight months ago, the focus just sometimes stops working and like it completely stops working. It won't autofocus on anything. I can't switch manual or autofocus. I can't even manually focus it because it's focused by wire and it just sort of dies and then it will like start up again.

Speaker 1:

And so I reached out to Sony. They offered to, like you know, check it out and inspect it, and when it got shipped back to them they just kept saying, oh no, it's working perfectly. Like. We've tested all these bodies. I did all kinds of testing between different bodies, different lenses. It definitely narrowed it down to just that lens, um. So they shipped it back and then it was working for me and honestly, I thought that it just got knocked around during shipping and, like that, put something loose and now it's working again. And so a few months went by. I had the problem a couple times, um, but usually resolved a little bit, and then a while ago it happened again and it wouldn't resolve. So I had to send it in again and the same thing happened where they did all kinds of tests, couldn't find anything wrong, send it back.

Speaker 1:

And now I'm at the point where it's like I'm actually really frustrated. I appreciate them taking it and checking it in, but I feel like, truthfully, I feel like Sony did a lot of work to not replace the camera lens, of work to not replace a camera lens. And when I did a review on the lens after a couple months after having it, I talked about how good it was, but I was really nervous about the build quality because it's it feels very plasticky and cheap and I was like I don't know, I hope it lasts, but it's a G master lens, it should work great. Now I don't know like, truthfully, I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't recommend any of them because they're too expensive.

Speaker 1:

The only thing is especially the autofocus, when it does work, and the focus breathing compensation are really important and they don't work. You can't get that with non-Sony lenses. You can get good autofocus but not focus breathing compensation on Sony cameras without using a Sony lens. And so it's kind of a bummer and a lot of people I know who've had the 16 to 35 have had issues with it.

Speaker 1:

A lot of it is focus issues and for me I was just sort of frustrated because I was like, okay, well, at this point, like if I was already sort of I definitely like it's just it makes me lose faith, I guess, a little bit in the camera system and it's like I have no interest in getting new cameras because Sony cameras serve all my needs but in a couple of years if I need a new camera, there's not much that's keeping me from like exploring other brands. Like they're not building up any customer loyalty. I guess is the point there. So I recommend that lens for the quality of it, because it's so the image quality is so, so good. But I don't recommend it for the reliability because, like I said, mine been in my studio for three years.

Speaker 2:

The best care of his stuff it's.

Speaker 1:

It's just, you don't even go outside, yeah it's been outside a few times been, but I usually don't travel with it because I it's the one I use for everything and so I don't want anything to happen to it. I'd rather use like one of my other, you know, maybe lower quality lenses when I'm out and about, because it just feels safer, which is crazy, because those lenses are all fine and this one is the one that now has issues and I don't know, it's frustrating, um, so yeah, poor customer service experience.

Speaker 1:

It was crazy to me because at this point they like they really did a lot of testing and kept me updated with it, so like talk, like the, the support from the team of people who tested. They were really good and really detailed and they're like, if it happens again, like film everything, document, everything, send it to us and I appreciate that. But at this point it's been so long Now I can't rely on it. So it's like I'm not taking that lens to nab, for example, because I can't have it just stop focusing in the middle of a day and that sucks because there's reasons I would want to use that lens, but it's a lens I can't rely on anymore and that's my only.

Speaker 1:

Experience with sony's most expensive lenses is like oh it's expensive and unreliable, and shipping it back and forth weeks of back and forth, it just feels like had they just said, oh man, sorry about your lens, we'll replace it, or we'll just repair the autofocus motors or whatever, like it would have endeared me to them so hard. Like, oh, sony took care of me, but now it's like I've spent so much money on your cameras and stuff and it's like now I'm dubious of the quality and the service. So what's my incentive to like stay a customer or continue recommending them?

Speaker 1:

not a lot, yeah well, I'm still using canon I mean that my sony cameras have all been fantastic and the quality is great like, although I I do have.

Speaker 2:

There's a part of me that's like I think it might be time to try 4K. I don't know, I'm so obsessed about changing everything because everything looks so good. Look, doesn't this all look good?

Speaker 1:

Right, it does, and the thing is, I've always preferred Canon's lenses, but I really like the features of Sony's cameras.

Speaker 2:

And you can merge them a little bit, but it's not a smooth, a smooth merging, so it's like yeah, dj wear in the house. Another youtube huddle lover is so great to see everyone here. Uh, simply, obs is here. Hi hi hi. That sucks tier. It's a lot of wasted time and money. Come to the nikon camp, like me. Now they also have cinema cameras, like red cameras nikon did.

Speaker 1:

Let me borrow the z9 last year.

Speaker 2:

That was a really fun camera. Jared uses Nikon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, nikons are great. I had no issue with it. My Sony cameras have all been fantastic Like they've been super reliable.

Speaker 2:

Oh, Art just got his pass.

Speaker 1:

Nice, oh, with our thing. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

It works. Yay, yeah, so we'll let you guys know It'll be monday or tuesday. I would say tuesday we meet up. Yeah, I don't know we'll let you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm not committing to. I don't know enough. So I'm not committing to anything at this point because I don't know enough yeah, I'll do it, I'll think, I'll plan it.

Speaker 2:

Uh, you should probably bring to nab and if it fails, hand it over to sony reps there or do an indiana jones on their stand with their plan.

Speaker 1:

And this isn't even like I wasn't like flexing a YouTube muscle of like. Well, you know, I have a channel and now I'm not going to recommend it, it was nothing along those lines. I'm just going through normal customer service things and it's like I don't know. It's just you're spending a lot of time, money and energy. You're paying all these employees. It would have been so much quicker to just like replace the lens. Give me a refurbished one like I don't care, but it's just so weird I get it.

Speaker 2:

Love candy lenses, perverse sony cameras and menus. You could adapt ef lenses to email for studio stuff you can.

Speaker 1:

I have a video about that actually, but the autofocus ain't ain't the business ain't broke, don't fix it, that's let's see if it is broke, don't fix. It is also their slogan well, what else is up?

Speaker 2:

I made a short this week you did? Yeah, I did really quickly shout out to the youtube freaking auto love for, like, honestly, that's the reason why I did it. I would have just kept pushing it off like forever, and it really it was fun. I'm going to admit it, it was fun.

Speaker 1:

I was. I had to leave to go play hockey. I think it was like 1210. I left the Huddle Up is at one. I played hockey from one to two and and in the car on the way home I was listening to the replay of it and you were like, oh yeah, my short that I made. And I was like short and I was trying to figure. I was like I left at 12 10. You were still getting ready. I know you, you come in here 10 minutes ish before the show starts.

Speaker 2:

So it's like I started recording 12, 30, yeah, and I finished editing 12 50. That's crazy. Which? Like that's? That's not knowing how to use this program, like that's never making a short before.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it. You know it's interesting because I can see how people can turn these out very quickly. I mean, of course, you can do four second shorts. You know it doesn't have to be anything. But for me, though, it was like it was nice to kind of as soon as I did one, I was like, oh, ok, I can see how I can fold this in and the the different perspectives I would be able to share through shorts, because sometimes it's like, ok, like even we do this, do we live stream this? Do we make a video of this? You know, I mean not so much for you anymore, because it's just like. You know, live streaming is it's kind of like the bonus. But I don't know, two years ago I was like I don't, this could go either way.

Speaker 2:

You know, sometimes you do want the live input, sometimes you just want to do pre-recorded, edited um, and so even with shorts, it's like is it a short, is it a pre-record, you know, is it normal, like I don't know. But now I feel like, having done one, I can, at least for my uh content and what I make, I can see where it would fit in and I really need to do that. So yeah, youtube huddle up.

Speaker 1:

Thank you guys there's been so many people who've sent you messages where they're like yeah, I know it's so great, it's such a good group, I think I want to tell you this last night because you were, you were like I just know, it's so great, it's such a good group. I think I want to tell you this last night because you were, you were like I just love it's just such a good.

Speaker 1:

I don't know it's like such a yeah, special thing we were talking about like why? Why share something? Because it always comes down to like why do you?

Speaker 2:

let's get into it. Look at all my notebook. I have a. Why do I create okay? This is gonna be a video of mine.

Speaker 1:

Well, so something that's innately special to you what you're talking about is your ability. Heather has this thing where, like when she shows up places, stuff that wouldn't happen otherwise tends to happen Like people gravitate towards her that sounds sus. People gravitate towards you, people open up to you sort of like.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you took a japanese class last fall and you know it's like everybody's literally like planning out of town trips to go to, like you know la or whatever they're they're doing, end of the semester, buffets, all these things, and it's like that's. I don't think you even realize it all the way, because this just stuff just happens everywhere you go, but people in the class are like no, this is unusual, we don't do this in our other classes, we don't do this in this class normally. Um, you know, I've seen you play a pickup hockey hockey game, hoppy, pickup hockey game with, like you know, kind of like older, more veteran players who are a little more like not jaded, but a little different.

Speaker 1:

And suddenly they're like almost giggling and acting like kids playing hockey again.

Speaker 1:

And you're not, you're just doing your thing, you're not like trying to yeah, you just sort of have this my thing you sort of have this thing that just follows you around and that you bring to whatever you do, and the huddle up has been really cool to see get going again because, um, you've gotten a number of messages from people saying they've been wanting to get started. They've been trying, but this is the one thing that finally kicked them into gear. Like now they're and I was thinking yesterday like I'm sure all of those people, or most of them at least, have watched other YouTube coaches' videos, they've listened to podcasts, they've probably read stuff on. Like I'm sure they've gone through all of the getting started creator focused things. And it didn't quite click until this. And then it clicked and made them take the leap, which is really really special Because you can easily say that the stuff you know, like there's no secret recipe.

Speaker 1:

It's like yeah, start making stuff, experiment, keep trying. Like you know, anyone can say those things, but there's something really special about this specific, I don't know thing that you create that helps other, that benefits others in a cool way that's so nice.

Speaker 2:

Look at you. No, look at you. It's I don't know. It's fun and I'm I'm if you haven't tuned into the youtube huddle we're having a great time over there every Wednesday, 1pm civic standard time. It's just a fun. I mean I'm lucky because it's not me, it's. You know, like I can do it all day, whatever, but if no one's there, it doesn't matter, but it's a good, it's just a good like positive group, you know, and I'm sure you could say, like I set the time, I'm sure, like, oh, someone can try to do the same thing and it would be different, whatever, but, like I know, it's just fun. But I hope that you can join us oh yeah, in what capacity?

Speaker 1:

as as a on the board as a huddle upper yes, get on there, man I was thinking of joining it for my second channel maybe, but or even my main channel to me.

Speaker 2:

I think what would be cool is that it's not about it's not it it it shows you. You have 140, 50 000 subscribers. I don't know where you're at 141, okay, 140 000 subscribers. I think what it would show is that there's no finish line, like you're always trying to challenge yourself or try something new, or you always care about it. So it's like even when you are, you know, past the silver plate Signed in my six figure brand deals.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can. You know my studio actually has been recreated in our giant estate compound that we moved into. You think it's the same studio, but it's not. I'm kidding.

Speaker 2:

But I think, like what I think would also be cool is that it shows everyone that you, even at your level, you're doing the same thing that everyone is doing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's true.

Speaker 2:

That's why it's like I think it's a cool thing, because it's not when I reach this level, it will all feel easy. No, it's still hard, like it's still always a challenge. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you can join us. It's a conscious effort. It'd be a fun thing to do. You do If you'll have me.

Speaker 2:

Are you kidding? Will we have him? Will you join us? No, it'll be super fun. Okay, OBS is here. I actually filmed a video this morning, First time I have not been live on my channel. Oh, that's great. That's pretty crazy. Eight pen questions. I need to watch it. Interpret Amateur. Totally agree. Joined the first Huddle Up a few years ago and rejoined the current one and thanks to Heather and the Huddle Up, I was able to cross 1K subs and get monetized.

Speaker 1:

That's a big milestone. Those are both big milestones.

Speaker 2:

I feel like Interpret Amateur's channel is hitting a real good momentum right now.

Speaker 1:

It's hitting that boiling point where it all starts going, Andre. This is turning into a delayed huddle up after party that's fine, okay.

Speaker 2:

48 hours later, two weeks now, andre has has been the kid as I'm like packing up my stuff to leave the classroom he busts in at the door last second, throws the homework onto the desk and gets the sticker. Oh good for you yeah, it's the best, uh, dj, where yep went through some of the courses. Some of it helped, some just confuses me. Um, I was big ups to you both. I'm thankful for my time with y'all oh oh, that's really nice uh, hi, my name is tom.

Speaker 2:

I'm a new creator trying to get my hockey channel to take off uh, peter greg, hey, do you own a hockey team now too?

Speaker 1:

sort of we're actually starting a new one for the summer season yes, which?

Speaker 2:

is pretty cool call me, call me. We need some 2024 youtube huddle up hats. It's a great group to be a part of. Thank you for leading it heather. Oh, that'd be great we should paddle up I already got some merch going youtube huddle up something like that Huddle.

Speaker 1:

Heads no.

Speaker 2:

I have not heard that one yet. People have said like Huddlers Huddle Uppers, the Huddle Puddle. I don't know. None of them are clicking for me.

Speaker 1:

Huddies.

Speaker 2:

No, Actually no.

Speaker 1:

She didn't hate that one as much as the others uh, anyway.

Speaker 2:

So. So how do you feel about shorts? You, are you ever gonna I?

Speaker 1:

make shorts. Sometimes I just don't. I mean, my last one was semi-recent, I don't remember. Oh, I've been putting shorts on my second channel. I guess I just do them sometimes when I kind of feel like it, but there's zero strategy I want I have the data, but I'm gonna wait till youtube huddle up to share it, okay, because?

Speaker 2:

I posted on both instagram and youtube and it was very different well we'll see yeah, in like for the rest of the week, yeah yeah, I, the one thing I do with my shorts is I don't.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, the one thing I do with my shorts is I don't post them to my subscription feed. Gosh, I'm like yawning right now Like a non. I can't like where it is. I can't not do it. It was like closing my eyes.

Speaker 2:

It was weird, it's Friday afternoon.

Speaker 1:

I don't post it to the subscription feed, so they it's purely like algorithmic, which is super weird, because the thing that's happened for me with them most of them is they just sit at zero for like a couple of hours and then eventually, usually within a day, they shoot up to about 3,200 and then nothing. And then maybe like six months later they pick up and go like I have a couple that have actually gone on to things, but that's kind of in my experience. I don't, and I don't know even how to look in like conversion rate and whatever I don't think.

Speaker 2:

I don't think it matters, it's just I think what it is it's like, I think why I'm excited to talk about it is you're witnessing me change my mind on something yeah, that's always fun yeah, because I was just I've.

Speaker 2:

I'm telling you I don't want to be we talked about this in the last episode. I don't want to be the person who's like oh, that the whippersnappers. You know like, oh, you know, like back in my day we didn't have that, or hell, here's this new thing. I'm not gonna do it, or whatever, and I'm glad that I'm. I'm glad that I'm forcing myself to try this new format. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean I don't have the negative feelings that I had before. I don't watch a lot of short form stuff myself typically.

Speaker 2:

I still have the aversion of like when I accidentally tap the tab.

Speaker 1:

I'm like, oh my God, I can't get out of there fast enough. But that's also in a weird way to me.

Speaker 2:

I go into my history and I remove all of them.

Speaker 1:

Me too, in a weird way. That's not even me disliking shorts, that's me disliking the interface, where I just feel like now I'm thrown into like the middle of the open ocean and I have no yeah, that's what it feels like it's not my youtube experience where I can like look at something, read comments on something, like be kind of a little more intentional with it. It's just a barrage of stuff, but yeah, but that's not the content. The the shorts problem.

Speaker 2:

That's me not liking how they're serving it up, which is just trying to do what other platforms are doing uh, homesick mac is saying andre has got that stage presence when filming his videos. Well-weighted sarcasm, self-distance, really enjoying his content. Huddle, huddle. Andre says my new goal for next one is a showing up on his star you get a sticker well, it's crazy because then I was like, oh, is it the time change?

Speaker 1:

because the whole world doesn't change time when we do right, but we, but our time changed, even if someone else didn't.

Speaker 2:

But ours changed so the whole world has to know that, oh, america changed their time today yeah, now they're over on this time so weird.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so weird I remember it happened when peter and I were doing our podcast oh, really, because it was like was it easier?

Speaker 2:

I that I don't remember, but I just remember like we had our routine because it would usually be early in the morning for me and then it was like yeah yeah uh dj, where, when you have topics you really want to cover but you know they will not be popular with your channel, is it better to hold off or put them on a new channel? This is the question for the ages, I feel like, and I think everyone thinks about this.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if you had a thought and it went in the right.

Speaker 2:

I'm looking at you because you have a very loyal, large following on a main channel and then a second channel. Yeah, and then a podcast and the Couples Table and all these other outlets.

Speaker 1:

I guess there's two ways that I think about that. One is, which we've talked about before, like is it a different audience? Like if it's a total, you know, like my main channel, if I wanted to put a hockey video on there, it, it there's just no overlap, so that obviously goes on the second channel or something um. But then there's videos that will be less popular. Like I have a video, a couple videos, that are like audio basics and final cut basics, so things like what is compression, what you know how to set up, final cut, pro um, basics of final cut titles, and things which are all videos that I want to be on the channel. But I know, I know that they're like not gonna be bangers.

Speaker 1:

In terms of performance, they're gonna be the ones that just hang out and are helpful for a long time. But they're they're gonna be 10 out of 10s when I release them for like that week or whatever, and that's fine. But it's like you. You kind of have to know that, I guess, and prepare yourself for that. And then I always kind of look around, which I'm always a little torn.

Speaker 1:

If I have a video that does really well, then I think like, okay, cool, the channel's doing well, I can afford one that's gonna like tank things a little bit.

Speaker 1:

But then it's like, well, if I've got momentum, I would rather publish another video that could keep the momentum going.

Speaker 1:

And then when you're like, well, if I have a video that doesn't do as well, then after that there's no momentum to keep going, that's like that going to hurt.

Speaker 1:

I guess there's never really a good time, but just kind of knowing, I guess if the video is just not a popular video because like it's bad and no one wants to watch it is different from, it's not for the broadest audience, and so, like I said, like a video about audio compression, I know most of the people who don't want to watch that my channel aren't going to be interested in that, but a decent chunk of them will be, and it's one of those things that's going to like keep popping up. It answers the questions people would have when they hit a certain point in their like audio production journey, and then, if they find that video, it will be helpful to them, and then maybe they look at this channel that it's on and realize like, oh, there's all this other stuff that's like interesting or helpful too, and so those videos can end up being incredibly valuable over time, even though they look like failures at the beginning Failures in terms of analytics.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, performance, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1:

But it's hard though.

Speaker 2:

It's hard when you're like I love this video, I want people to see this video, but I know youtube's gonna just not like this video it's hard, though, because it's also like it depends you know, because it's like I what would be a topic that wouldn't be popular with your channel that you also feel compelled to make content about.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean I think it's when things get more. Niche is what I, what I've experienced it's, it's like you know not everyone, I mean dive into the weeds that hard okay, so that's for yours.

Speaker 2:

I feel like the problem that I'm seeing is, or that I see more often, is my channel's about this, but I want to make something about something totally random or something, and then now it's like do you just start a second channel?

Speaker 1:

that's where I would think about like start a second channel if you have like 50 ideas related to that one. You know like not just one video, but you're like, oh, there's a bunch here, otherwise you could always have like my second channel is just a hodgepodge and I don't, and but I know that that means the channel's not gonna grow it's not. I know that it's not for that, but I don't care because that's not what it's for.

Speaker 1:

That's for me to put my like. Here's a hockey video, here's a um. I forget what else. We've what other? Videos I've done music music, yeah, bass related stuff yeah home projects like whatever you know like, and that's fun for me to just make and share that stuff regardless of how it does otherwise. You can find ways to try and sometimes it's a fun creative challenge to figure out how you can make the unrelated idea related yeah, so like hockey is a good example.

Speaker 1:

it's not related to my channel, but something I love. But I've been filming short form content like the mic'd up videos, and now that I've done a decent chunk of those, I think it would be fun to do a how to do this because it's relevant, like lots of people need to film sports stuff. So how do you mic up an athlete in a way that's not obtrusive to them, not damaging to your gear? How do you film them? How do you edit this? How do you get the audio and the video to sound?

Speaker 2:

and look good. Um, now it's suddenly related, so I can make a hockey video, but it's really an audio video production related video.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that. There's sometimes things like that will happen yeah, uh, all right.

Speaker 2:

Well, there you go. Anything else going on in your world?

Speaker 1:

well, there's. Uh, let's see here. Uh, andre said appreciate that, homesick mac, lovely for you to say. I did actually not publish on wednesday I rendered out the video, watched it, re-edited from 17 to 8 dang and then published yesterday awesome, good job and dj where I said thank you. Um, that's some crazy revision to go from 17 to eight minutes. You just like 17 to 16 and a half or something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sometimes you need a second look, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, and sometimes it's almost like dominoes. Like you, you find one little thing you can cut out and suddenly, because that has been cut out, now all this other stuff can get cut out too. It's like you know, I don't know. I mean, videos should be as long as they need to be, but short and concise is always good too yeah, yeah what else on your list over there, huh?

Speaker 2:

oh, why do I create?

Speaker 1:

yeah, why do you create?

Speaker 2:

that's supposed to be a video, so I hope I don't put it here but you know what's fun about the podcast?

Speaker 1:

sometimes you can hash out that's true, hash out things and then when you go to make a video, it's like all right we're just, it's a little we don't have to, but it's no, I don't mind.

Speaker 2:

Uh well, I wanted to make a video where I talk about why I create content. I guess, and I think when we ask people about content creation, it's like oh, what do you create content about? Do you say something like audio video or whatever? But for me, I think it's like it's not even so much what I'm talking about, but why I'm choosing to create content, like to create videos specifically. That's what I was focusing on.

Speaker 2:

So I wrote down four things so far. First one is to express myself creatively. That one's kind of obvious. The second one I wrote gratitude, because I feel like, for the content that I make, I feel like for a lot of people I'm, I'm sharing the thing that makes me happy or excited. Like I'm, I'm going out of my way to talk or highlight, talk about or highlight this thing because I want to talk about it with other people, and YouTube allows me to connect with other people and so it allows me to also see, like you know.

Speaker 2:

You know, when I film vlogs, I'm just like look at the ants crawling across the sidewalk or look at the palm trees against the mountains. Like you only see that in the desert. So it's like I know this is all here, but I don't. I think I'm more present and more grateful as I'm recording, because I'm thinking about like someone else is going to watch this and I want them to see what I see, or I want them to feel what I feel or see it from my perspective. Um, the other thing I put was I like being a coach and cheerleader? Uh, because a lot of my content is like focusing on empowering or information or being helpful or you know, butt kicking or whatever, like I've always liked doing that and I always want my content to do that.

Speaker 1:

You're a good butt kicker.

Speaker 2:

And then the last one is to share my gift, which is like I don't even know. I don't even know what that is, but it's like I guess it's creating content that only I can, and I don't know what that means, but it kind of feels like, well, if I'm my unique person, right, like, if I'm this unique person and I do have the ability to, to share the gifts that I have, then shouldn't I, right, like, shouldn't I share, share what I have with others if I could? I guess there's a sense of like responsibility, a duty, you know, right, yeah, because I could. I guess it comes down to like, especially like a, you know, 38 year old and I get that there's a lot of people who are older than me um, but it's like I'm getting to a point where it's like, okay, it's not, it's definitely not about growth or accolades or whatever, but it's like, if you look at all the things that you can do in your life, why would you go out of your way to go make something like? Why put in the effort?

Speaker 2:

right why, like, who care? You could just sit on the couch and do nothing, but for some reason, you, we, I choose to, to to like formulate something, create something that didn't exist and then share it with others. And I think it comes down to I like that I can share a piece of me and it can make a positive impact on somebody else. And if I could do that all the time, why wouldn't I? Right, I don't know. So that's where I was going with that.

Speaker 1:

That's a cool thing to explore, because the why is always tough, because it like. Well, why do that? You could just not, there's no point. But I feel like you could distill that for anything in life.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think that the interesting part that I'm seeing right now is like I really see creating content as an art, but I, I think, because it's so associated with glamour and fame and fortune and and, like you know, like okay, I'm on vidcon's like newsletter every single feature they featured creator they show is young, has colored hair, and I know I do too. But like it, you know it, it's a very like you kind of look like a youtube creator, you know, and and I know there's obviously diversity, but I think if you showed the pictures to like a kid, they'd be like, yeah, that's a youtube creator, it's almost like if, uh, what is it like?

Speaker 1:

law and order have an episode about like a youtuber yeah, like we can.

Speaker 2:

What would they cast the person to look like?

Speaker 1:

exactly that would that would appeal to like the widest possible audience of like. This is one of those youtubers, influencers or whatever.

Speaker 2:

yeah, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's like someone could also, you know, to the woods, like go to a house in the woods and write poetry, but no one says anything about that being like weird.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

But then if you want to make content, it's like, it's almost like, oh, so you want, you know, you want all these people to follow you or whatever Like.

Speaker 1:

I mean, those are definitely feelings.

Speaker 2:

But to me it's the same. It's like you're, you're expressing yourself creatively. It's just a different medium. It just so happens. It just so happens that we do have distribution attached to our medium, whereas, like, if you make a painting, no one can see it unless you, you know, post it it's much harder to get eyeballs on yeah how are people going to see your painting like, yeah, you know, you have to go, take it somewhere?

Speaker 1:

something I had to get over and starting my channel was the feeling of like another person, essentially saying you know like what, what, oh like. Why do you think people want to listen to you like?

Speaker 2:

what makes you someone that people should listen to and it's like I and it's like I think of all these.

Speaker 2:

I, you know, I think of I met a lot of, uh, older people when I moved here, because the demographic is a lot older here. There's a lot of people who retire here and stuff, um, and a lot of them are so creative and artistic and they're doing like, like, they've definitely smashed the barrier to me of like, oh, when you're this age, you just stop being creative. Right, you can still like, do these incredible things that I feel like I would never have imagined for that age and I also want it to be, except like I also want digital media to be accessible. You know, like it shouldn't be like all that tech stuff or anything, is it, you know, or I don't know?

Speaker 2:

I just I just know how much it has empowered me yeah you know, like I always feel really like I can't believe I made that. You know, there's so many times I look at my old videos. I'm like, look at, look at her go, that's me like what and I just like that sense of fulfillment and I don't know, just seeing what you're capable of, I feel like if someone can explore that, like you've tried all the other hobbies and it hasn't clicked for you but you haven't tried this, like what, if this could be the thing that unlocks a, a thing inside of you that you didn't know you had. You know, I don't know, these are just the things I I think those are all cool thoughts.

Speaker 2:

Things I think about. I don't know if it makes sense.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I think it's very, very interesting. Wait, what? Why won't my? Why won't my username? Max username, my comment tag like Max with my name. Oh, if you want to tag people in comments, you should do at and then their channel name, which is sometimes a little tricky.

Speaker 2:

Which doesn't work on mobile.

Speaker 1:

And also doesn't work on mobile.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have to do it on desktop.

Speaker 1:

It was the B-roll.

Speaker 1:

Way too much long B-roll segments, yeah, yeah, I mean it's like anything, it's like drone footage. Instead of this whole drone montage, maybe you only need three seconds of a drone shot to to actually serve a purpose and like show something and explain something, and now it's good. You know like a good b-roll shot can be really helpful, but you know, multiple random 40 second montages in an eight minute video is like it becomes a little much after hundreds of days well, so I shared why you create, why I create, why do you create tom?

Speaker 2:

why does everyone create here?

Speaker 1:

let's open it up I mean there, there is the personal growth side of it, which is and I guess why is different from what?

Speaker 2:

yeah why do you create?

Speaker 1:

mean a big thing for me too is because I just really like cameras and microphones and like audio video production. I like using those things, I like making things, and I grew up in a time where I would constantly make stuff, but it almost felt silly because nothing could happen with it, and it was like even into adulthood. It's like I have a camera on a slider, I can get a really cool shot of this thing, and then I can look at it and be like is that a cool shot of this thing? And now it's like, oh, you can actually share that and people can see it. And then, on top of that, you can give it a purpose and it can be beneficial in some way and you can. What happened there? What's that now?

Speaker 2:

are we on?

Speaker 1:

something I think we're on, so that was weird I don't know something, just flippity floppity out here was that the prompter?

Speaker 2:

the prompter just, we just updated the prompter software and the prompter did a thing flippity flopped real quick here.

Speaker 1:

But yes, I mean that's. I don't know the personal growth side was such an unexpected what do you?

Speaker 1:

mean Like being more comfortable with myself, my ability to share things, to communicate effectively, to feel like I have something of value to offer. Those are all things that I did not when I started my channel. I didn't want to be on camera, like I was supposed to be behind the camera making things about other people and it was just out of necessity that I was like I need someone with my same schedule who could be on camera. Well, that happens to be me, so I'll go do that. I had like hardly ever been on camera as an adult, at least, you know. Like as a kid I didn't care about.

Speaker 2:

Like one of my favorite things has been watching you. Oh my gosh, you know go through the personal growth.

Speaker 1:

I have a video. Uh, this must have been like a year or two before I started my channel. I was applying to be an apple distinguished educator, um, and you have to submit like a video about what you do and it was really like the first time I had to make like an about, like this is me and what I do video and it is oh, we have to watch it it is so. I mean I haven't watched it in like a couple of years, but it's bad.

Speaker 2:

What do you mean? Bad it's so cringy. Oh, come now. It can't be bad, it's on the server.

Speaker 1:

I mean we can pull it up right now if you wanted to, but it's Well. Actually I don't know, because it's a lot of like very identifying info about schools and students, but it's uh, it was. It was a weird thing where I remember like having to mic myself up for the first time and like set up an interview thing, especially with like manual focus only cameras, and like try to like record a thing and have someone try to like help hold a camera to get a shot and like I guess that's the other thing, because, like when I I used to go to your classroom a lot when you were teaching and I would see it in the kids, that I would see them get excited about the thing that they made and it made them want to make something else.

Speaker 2:

And it's that I saw that whole thing with you of like, not only like, okay, gear and tech and all that, but also what you're saying and how you're saying it, even even the whole thing about whether to change your channel name from the enthusiasm project to tom buck, like that was a whole thing. Or whether you should put jokes in your videos or not, or you know, just it's like I don't know. It's been so cool to see yeah, that was.

Speaker 1:

It was fun teaching too, when students would show their work and somebody would do something really good or really cool and you could see that like click, because I can do lessons about like here's depth of field and framing or whatever, and I like here's demos and all this stuff.

Speaker 1:

But once they saw somebody else in their class make a thing that looked like a movie or looked, looked and sounded just like something was really special about it, that's where I could see. Then the next time we would do like a project critique day, you would sort of see like multiple other people, yeah, and that was really cool to see someone, because that's the thing, like they could see me doing it, even though I'm literally explaining it, or even having them come up in front of the class and like do it. It's very different when it's literally someone else, like a peer not a peer as in person, not a peer as in show up but when it's one of their peers doing something, then I think it makes it a lot more accessible, which is why it's like I don't know. It also ties into like why representation is really important in media and on social media platforms and things and um you know, why I get kind of like fired up about that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Uh, texture maker says that he's going to color his hair blue. I tried to get Tom to do that.

Speaker 1:

He got so scared. I mean, I tried just nothing showed up. I have more gray hair now, Maybe it would show up more easily yeah, 90s pop star style.

Speaker 2:

That's what I see in my head for youtuber aiden is why mcj creates. That's great art. I create because I love that. I found a way to stay involved with combat sports and my older sister told me apparently I have always loved cameras.

Speaker 1:

It's perfect, perfect, just like it's fun and you realize those things mesh I didn't realize it either, that I was super into camera.

Speaker 2:

I didn't, yeah, I didn't. I didn't realize it was a thing that you could be into, because I was so focused on the thing that I was recording yours is almost like a means to an end, like yeah, like I, I didn't realize. Yeah, I wasn't even thinking about the camera. I was thinking about like, yeah, that's kind of a difference in our approach, because you're like, I need to film this thing.

Speaker 1:

You're like okay, I need a camera, like how do I, how do I get good sound like, whereas me I'm like this camera will get this and this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because I have this, then I could do this no, yeah, it's almost like's, almost like that's so funny Flipped. Yeah, I wish I had my old movies. Yeah, me too. Mark is saying what are your thoughts on gen AI using your content for training? I have no idea what that means.

Speaker 1:

Like how AI to learn what it learns? It, you know, uses existing stuff to train itself.

Speaker 2:

Oh.

Speaker 1:

So how would you feel about your videos being?

Speaker 2:

used to train ai.

Speaker 1:

Oh, oh, I see, I see, so our content being a source a source yeah, a source of it, if someone were to type in like youtube coach thumbnail or something, and somehow it goes through all your stuff and makes a thumbnail that looks kind of similar to yours. Oh, we should try to do that, but I mean, how would you feel about your stuff being used to train?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, I'm not sure, because I feel like it's one of those things where I'd have it's kind of like oh, how would you feel if someone took one of your videos and used it to sell their course and uploaded it on your channel? I don't know how I would feel until it happened. And then I felt very violated and I felt I felt horrible, it felt not good. So I can say what I think I'll feel like, but I really don't know.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, how would, how would you feel?

Speaker 1:

um, I think it. It probably depends on the context. If it's something like you know, I can make a video that explains how to I don't know how to set up a microphone and then someone takes the info from that video and learns how to set up their microphone and get better sound and now they have sound quality like me in their videos. I think that's great, like that's the whole point of the video. If it's someone takes my video and puts it on their channel, that's a different thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but that's not like AI training, that's like no, I know, but I mean like those examples there. So the AI training if the AI is looking at like the stuff I'm making as an example of something in the world, versus just taking what I make and like mushing it into something else for somebody else. I think there are two kind of different things one I am okay with and one I'd feel a little weird about, but in both cases I don't think there's anything I could do about any of it.

Speaker 2:

So I don't know right. Uh, today my hair looks like syndrome on the incredible that's cool yeah, haircut tomorrow. Uh, julia says I create because it's fun to share my perspective. I really enjoy taking pics using video cameras and recreating that moment in the editing process. It's fun to tell my own story. I love that.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I was just thinking the other day. I was like aren't pictures crazy? I know we take them for granted, but like you can just capture.

Speaker 2:

Let me tell you about this thing called video.

Speaker 1:

I'm not even going that far, I'm just video. I mean picture Like you can just a moment, you capture it, just it's like you can see people and places and that's absolutely crazy.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God, you know what we should do? Huh, we should. Okay, here's what the couple stable one day we should do like a photo project, and we should. We should be like okay, the prompt is like create or something, and then everyone has to show a picture. That that is that that's fun, and then we'll get like 20 people to like show pictures and we just go through all of them. How fun would that be, maybe a fun one we don't have to do that.

Speaker 2:

That would be very cool, though I'd love to see what everyone comes up with for this day.

Speaker 1:

It's like that'd be really. I mean that's yeah, yeah, it's simple, it's not like a thing of a yeah, use your phone. Tom channel could be the basis for thousands of new video.

Speaker 2:

Oh lord okay, you know what we should do. Sorry, I don't know why I have all these ideas right now. We should get an ai and you guys should do a pun battle.

Speaker 1:

You have to outsmart the ai I have not found ai to be very good at puns really and I've tried, like even asking it, to like add wordplay into things and we'll see it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, your brain has been trained by this since you were born. So, uh, let's see in the pews. How do you deal with having to go on hiatus? We're forced to because a lot of our audience gives up youtube, social media, for lent. Oh, that's interesting. Um, well, I've gone on many a hiatus and I think both of us would see it, see this the same way, but, like I wouldn't, I wouldn't say anything in terms of your channel, because the reason why I wouldn't say anything is because, well, I think in your case, it's different because you know you're doing it together with the audience yeah, so that maybe that's different.

Speaker 2:

But, like for my hiatus, I always think that as a viewer, you might want, as a creator, you might want to tell your existing viewers, but I always think that as a viewer, you might want, as a creator, you might want to tell your existing viewers, but I always think that you're, a lot of your viewers haven't found you yet. So for you to like make an announcement about how you're going on a hiatus and then say someone finds you two days into the hiatus, it's kind of like, oh, that sucks, whereas if you didn't even say anything and you come back, they wouldn't even have to know that you had to leave for some reason or whatever, especially if you have a decent, like sized catalog of videos and stuff so yeah, I don't know how would you handle hiatus.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the same thing I'm, unless it's for a specific reason or something, unless it makes sense to mention it, I wouldn't even mention it. But yeah, in your case it's kind of cool because you're doing it with the audience or with a lot of the audience, so it's it's almost like a I don't know. It's kind of a cool audience building thing like we're doing it together, together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's true, it's different different than most other situations. We refrain from releasing new material for a couple of weeks before easter, but we know it's hurting our analytics and it is hurting analytics.

Speaker 1:

And hey, I mean, in the context of like your niche and your topic, like that, you're talking about making a sacrifice for something you believe in and care about and that's. That's an example of you're giving up something that's important to you. It could have a negative effect in these ways, but that's a sacrifice you're willing to make for for the thing, so again it could be. This is how we're also doing this with you, along with you oh, I like that. Well, look at you I can say smart things sometimes uh coach constance.

Speaker 2:

Hey, heather and tom, happy spring. Anything new on your mighty community? Any plans for it? Uh, tom and I do the pre-show.

Speaker 1:

A couple of pre-show over there, that's fun sometimes nobody's there, then it's just an av check yeah, we do our sound check over there, um.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, other than that, I don't think there's any uh plans, right? I?

Speaker 1:

mean, we talked about, like you know, relaunching, but you reorganize and restructured.

Speaker 2:

It just wasn't like yeah, there's no like ribbon cutting or anything I could do a ribbon cutting, I wouldn't mind. I was thinking about trying to build a thing for the youtube huddle up to go to there but I kind of like I don't know. I don't know, we'll see.

Speaker 1:

I haven't thought of it yet, but we'll see it's there, yeah uh, jules says, oh, that would be fun photo challenge.

Speaker 2:

Gil says it'd be fun. I feel like we should do this. Yeah, that sounds cool. Um, what's going on next week? You want to do the photo challenge?

Speaker 1:

I don't think there's anything else, right I?

Speaker 2:

feel like this would be fun. I don't know how to get everyone's photos, though we'd have.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we'd have to. I don't know. See, this is where, if there was, oh, they can put them in the mighty. Oh, that's true. Um, that's good friday, so I don't know, there might be people who aren't around because it's not a holiday, but yeah hey, sammy what's up, sammy?

Speaker 2:

well, let's, let's, we'll figure it out, and then, yeah, maybe we'll do it next week.

Speaker 1:

We do have that email list stay updated with stuff, so it's in the description. If you want to sign up for Couples Table Updates. That's all that it is. It's not a spam list.

Speaker 2:

Not a spam list. Is there a regular weekly time for this Couples Table? Yes, every Friday, 1 pm Pacific Standard Time.

Speaker 1:

We are here something.

Speaker 2:

yes which was the case last week, but otherwise, yeah, we've been quite consistent with every friday, 1 pm pacific standard time. I can't talk about. It's a fun thing to look forward to yeah, okay, can we talk about one last thing? Sure do you guys know about handles ice cream?

Speaker 1:

is that where you want to? Are you hinting at me? I hella want handles.

Speaker 2:

I'm not gonna lie I'm supposed to go to a body combat class tonight, but I want to just why not both? Because I.

Speaker 1:

You get handles Now, let it digest for a few hours and then you go burn it off.

Speaker 2:

Henrik Kuto. Half the fun of tuning in is seeing my mic. Tom is on this week. I don't know if it says anything anymore. Sometimes I do really weird things with my mic and everyone just like, yeah, whatevs. Well, hi, henrik Kuto, I've never seen you before. It's good to see you here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you for noticing. I haven't used the RE20 in forever.

Speaker 2:

I'll tell you this right now Tom makes he thinks about the microphone he's going to use.

Speaker 1:

I don't, because I just use the same one. You have your mic for years. It's gorgeous, it sounds good and works good.

Speaker 2:

But Tom puts a lot of thought into hmm, which?

Speaker 1:

one am I going to use today? I think about it days in advance. It's not even that Like. I set it up on like Monday.

Speaker 2:

So if you want to be excited and share your excitement about the mic in the comments. Look at how happy he is, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You see this today, but I thought it would be maybe too annoying. I was going to use my handheld nab mic wirelessly so I could be like, oh, you should over here but then I was like if this is annoying to listen to in a podcast format. But I was like that'd be kind of fun, I don't have to like do this.

Speaker 2:

Then I was worried about going out of focus, because why don't you do it? Back uh, rick on.

Speaker 1:

Mike says if you don't burn off the ice cream, you'll have love handles oh also the re20 is amazing it's definitely a mic that I I'm liking it more now, but, uh, I wanted to use this because of audio hotline. Last week, like I said, he was using it talking about it sounding really good on it. Yesterday we were at the gym. The gym always has sports shows and so many sports shows where it's like people just hanging out at desks like talking about sports. They all have re20s just pointed at them.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it weird one guy had one like this and I was like buddy, I don't think that's the position for that microphone why, well, because it's supposed it's a.

Speaker 2:

Oh, a forward tracing. You always talk on the side.

Speaker 1:

sometimes, though, his was like it was literally like behind me. It was way too. I don't know. I'm sure someone who was running the audio for that show was like cranking out their like gain on that channel. But I was like, okay, I need, I need to like.

Speaker 2:

What do you need to do?

Speaker 1:

It's a microphone that has such a rabid fan base and I know it's a good microphone and I appreciate it, but it has not clicked with me and so I was like almost wanting to use it to decide if, like, should I get rid of it or should I keep it. I like having it because, honestly, the only reason I keep it at this point is because it pops up in videos where people are like how does this new microphone compare to the RE-20? And I have one on hand to compare it to on handles.

Speaker 2:

I had to write the photo challenge, so don't forget that's a good idea. Have you ever thought of using a shotgun mic? That'd be cool with the MKH-50.

Speaker 1:

Actually that was another thing I was going to say was the Audio-Technica AT897, because I have produced podcasts with that mic. I have produced podcasts with that mic. My first podcast ever, which I wasn't a part of but I was producing, were all done with shotgun microphones and they sound shockingly good in less than well-treated environments because they're very good at isolating the sound and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Gil says Heather, what's the lighting setup like in your studio? And you just gave me an idea for the next episode. Let's go over it next week. Yeah, you turn everything off and then turn it all on.

Speaker 1:

You've got yours dialed in so well and I'm in the process of potentially kind of tearing up part of my studio maybe and moving some things around, but I can't quite figure it out.

Speaker 2:

He always has an itch to do that. All right, I do.

Speaker 1:

But this is a big, this would be a bigger, this would be the biggest. This would be me changing a lot.

Speaker 2:

I told you about it oh okay, last question does any of you devolve into everybody trying to interview each other or envy any everyone else's cool gear?

Speaker 1:

we're kind of talking about this this morning actually. Um, it can devolve into just like what is? Devolve Like degenerate into.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the opposite of evolve. Yeah, oh, like the band.

Speaker 1:

Devo.

Speaker 2:

Look, the other thing I wrote was word of the day, because you keep saying a lot of words and I'm like, oh, I should use these words.

Speaker 1:

I do say a lot of words.

Speaker 2:

Why are we getting all?

Speaker 1:

like laggy. All of a sudden, are we? Oh okay, that's time to go.

Speaker 2:

I guess, so maybe some. Uh well, we've never been to nab so I don't know if it'll. Yeah, I only know what I've seen. I don't do gear so like I don't know, I'm not gonna talk about that yeah, I don't, that's what uh yeah, I don't know maxi's moving in july, so new room, new shapes, of course totally new setup.

Speaker 1:

Oh boy, you get everything dialed in. We're totally frozen now and then you have to.

Speaker 2:

This happened before, a while ago well, that means it's time to clear, time to clear the table all right, enjoy this freeze frame of us in a very unpleasant pose, okay we'll catch you guys next week despite that, we appreciate you being here.

Speaker 1:

Hope you have a safe, happy, healthy, fun rest of your week and we will see you next time that's the screen. Share still with the weird why is this boy? Okay, we'll catch you guys next time I'm wondering when you go to the outro if it'll fix. Let me change the camera.

Speaker 2:

Boom, oh my god, we're just stuck in. Can you go to the outro? If it'll fix, let me change the camera Boom. Oh my God, we're just stuck in.

Speaker 1:

Can you go to the outro?

Speaker 2:

Okay, bye everybody.