Podcasting lesson #1 — don’t do work someone else has already done for you

March 14, 2005 on 9:25 pm | In Uncategorized |

The rethink(ip) boys have their first podcast "in the can."  It is finished and after Mix-Master B (Buchanan) gets a chance to work his magic, we’ll get a link up.

I thought I’d take some time to discuss the process for all of you considering your own podcast.

What was the first thing the law librarians at my alma matter (Go Salukis!!!) taught me?  NEVER DO WORK SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY DONE FOR YOU.  Why didn’t I learn?

Both Buchanan and myself individually spent hours figuring out "how to record a joint podcast."  We both figured it out, but it is a real pain…not for the faint of heart.  Denise Howell uses a fancy cell phone to record her podcasts, whereas Buchanan and me were using "virtual audio cables" to record Skype conversations (Matt on the PC, me on the Mac).  Examples of this "virtual audio cable" concept are detailed here, here and here (among a dozen others…feel free to add your favorite in the comments if you want to).   

I’ll have to be honest with you…it probably took me and investment of 12+ hours of reading, configuring and swearing (along with a new USB headset and a purchase of some software) to even get it to work.  While the Skype model did work, we decided to go to Plan B.

If I had it all to do over again, I would have started with Plan B.  Why?  Opportunity cost.  Why bother figuring it out for yourself when someone else has already done it for you.  Enter Conference Calls Unlimited.

For Matt Homann’s Think Tank Tuesday (TTT) project we used a conference call company by the name of Conference Calls Unlimited (CCU).  Part of TTT was a Tuesday telephone conference hosted by CCU.  This conference was recorded for any of the participants to download and listen to later.  Thinking back to TTT it dawned on me!!!  Telephone conference plus .mp3 equals podcast!  I put a call into CCU CEO Zane Safrit (blog: CCUCEO) [note:  his blog is worth adding to your news aggregator...it is quite a goldmine for customer relations ideas] to ask if it could be done. 

Conference Calls Unlimited is a really neat company.  How often to you call a company and get a human being on the phone rather than an answering machine/automated torture system.  Their business is built around three values:  (1) the customer is a friend, not a number; (2) you don’t charge friends more than a fair price; and (3) exceeding customer expectations is always a good idea.  When other companies were investing in said torture machines and advertising, CCU invested in people and customer relationships.  It really shows…the entire process of setting up the podcast (like any phone conference) was personally handled by one of CCU’s staff members (Cindy).  She called to make sure I received the log in information, called to make sure I was ready, and called to make sure the .mp3 was received OK.  When was the last time your conference call company did that?  I’m a believer and plan on using CCU for all of my conference calls in the future.

Zane (back to my call/email) replied that not only did they have a new podcasting plan, but other podcasters were already using it (I’ll have to ask Zane for links…).  We decided to give it a try.

Using CCU for the podcast was a breeze.  Late Friday night the three of us called into the conference line, chatted up a storm (the podcast) and when I showed up for work on Monday the .mp3 file was sitting there, waiting for Mix-Master B to edit it.  Amazingly simple.  Great sound quality (other than my cheap phone…see the footnotes).

If you want to try your hand (voice) at podcasting (or conference calling) call Conference Calls Unlimited (1-888-901-3471) and (I’m sure) they’ll set you up.

Save your billable time (don’t mess with "virtual audio cables") and maximize your opportunity cost…don’t do work someone else has already done for you!

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Some foot notes regarding podcasting:

1.  Note to self…don’t use a clunky telephone you still have from college.  Cheap phones sound cheap.  Thus, my voice isn’t as loud on the podcast as I wish, whereas Matt and Doug (who were using better phones) sound great.

2.  Getting three patent attorneys together to chat about the law AND RECORD IT feels much like an episode of The Apprentice.  I can Donald Trump’s voice now, "RETHINK(IP) CORP., your task this week is to create a podcast…"  The only difference is that we get to do it over and over again (ala Groundhog Day) until we get it right.  Bear with us in the meantime.

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