Here are a few background noises that we’ve noticed sneaking their way into recordings lately. Some required redoing audio segments, but others were left in as the background noise of life in general…

• ceiling fun hum (re-recorded the segment)
• dog snoring (left in)
• furnace kicked on (cleaned up in editing)
• phone ringing (left in)
• dishes clanging during an interview in a restaurant (left in)
• birds chirping (left in)

What you do with the background noises in your audio is up to you and can depend on what audience the recording is for. In many cases it’s actually okay to leave in a slight noise, in other cases you might want to have it edited and remove the extra noise.

Birds chirping when you’re recording outdoors can be considered ambient noise and is to be expected. I can say from experience that ceiling fans frequently ruin audio recordings in the summer months.

Surprisingly, the things we don’t notice as noise in our day to day lives, like the hum of a ceiling fan or the dishwasher running, can be the most annoying sounds to pick up on a recording. While they’re just white noise to us during the day and barely even noticeable, they seem magnified on a recording. And because they’re long and constant noises that last a long time, they’re often the most difficult to edit out afterwards.

Before you hit record, take a moment to do a quick check of your surroundings for anything that your microphone might pick up, even the things that you wouldn’t normally consider noisy, like that ceiling fan or a nearby air vent. When you’re finished recording, be sure to listen through your audio all the way for any sound inconsistencies that may have found their way in.

News outlets and radio shows pointed out how funny and entertaining she was, how she calmed nervous passengers with her engaging humor. They all missed the most important part that stood out to me…. She got people to pay attention at a point when most people are checking their phones, trying to remember if they unplugged their curling before they left, reading a book, and doing anything but paying attention to the potentially life saving information that she is giving them as part of her job. Had there been an emergency on this flight, these passengers would be prepared.

She did her job in an amazing way. She eased nerves of the nervous, she relaxed the anxiety and tension of a crowded flight, and she made sure everyone heard the information they needed to hear in a memorable way in case they should need to recall it later.

She knew her audience, she engaged them in the best way, and they enjoyed her message so much they shared it without being asked to. Think about that for a moment…. No, really. Take a few minutes to think about how you’re delivering your information. Are people paying attention?

We should all want to be this awesome at our job. Whatever your message is, it’s not of any use unless people actually hear it. How awesome would it be if your audience loved hearing your message so much they shared it with all their friends just because they enjoyed hearing it so much? Know your audience, present your information in a way that will be well-received by them, and your job will be much easier and hopefully a bit more fun too.

Set A Schedule

Write down all of the things you need to do, in business and in life. Create a schedule that works for you to get all of these things done. We all have different lives and time constraints. Maybe you can devote your mornings to your business or maybe you can only work on your business a couple nights per week. Decide when you can fit “working” hours into your schedule and pencil them in.

Time Yourself

Many of us underestimate the time it actually takes to complete tasks. That leads us to over scheduling, and then we feel bad when we can’t get everything on our lists done. Time yourself on your basic tasks and get a realistic time frame for how long it takes to complete everything.

Plan Your Day

Once you know how long things take, you can realistically plan your day. Get out your schedule with your “working hours” penciled in and then decide what tasks you can fit into those designated times.

Automate Where You Can

Chances are, you can automate many of your tasks. Instead of spending hours writing social media updates every day, you can use a free tool like HootSuite, and spend a chunk of time writing them on ONE DAY. You can set up the day and time you want them to appear in the future.

Delegate to Get More Done

You can also free up some of your time by delegating tasks to a virtual assistant. This will allow you to focus on the tasks you enjoy and/or the tasks that can only be completed by you.

Don’t forget that one of the biggest lessons in time management is knowing that it’s okay to take a break from business to enjoy your life. You will never get everything done. Get the important stuff done and then enjoy some free time.

To be honest, I’m not sure if they even realize they’re doing it. I know they wouldn’t talk that way about a client or customer if we were sitting at a table together, so seeing them talk this way on social media is even more disheartening.

If you’re hopping on Twitter or Facebook to complain every time a client or customer does something that bothers you, I beg you to stop and think before you hit the post button.

I like to apply a THINK posting policy when it comes to things being said on social media.
Is what you’re posting True?
Is what you’re posting Helpful?
Is what you’re posting Inspiring or Interesting?
Is what you’re posting Necessary?
Most importantly, is it Kind?

If none of the above apply and you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t post it on your Facebook wall or Twitter account for the world to see. Please.

Consider the following …

I am not your client or your customer, but we’re friends on Facebook. I know you, you know me, we’ve had lunch together, I know some of your clients, you know some of my clients, whether through mutual relationships or through referrals.

Now, it’s Saturday afternoon and I’m on Facebook checking out what everyone’s up to, looking at pictures of cute kittens and checking out recipes for fancy cookies. I see you’ve posted a rant about a client on your business page.

The first time it happens I might think you’re having a bad day, so I don’t really pay it much mind and I drop you an email or a post to hopefully cheer you up a bit. Everyone has bad days, it’s okay.

A few days later I see you’ve posted another rant about a client or customer, and it’s not only a rant, it’s very specific. And a week later, again. Yikes, this is obviously more than just a bad day.

Here’s the thing… when I see someone posting things like that talking about clients negatively, referring to their customers as stupid idiots, and, quite frankly, being kind of a jerk, I’m not going to refer business to that person no matter how much I like or respect them. In fact, I start to respect them a little less every time they hit the button to post one of those rants.

If you’re feeling the need to vent about a client, customer, or work project, hop on Skype and tell a friend, or chat with your spouse, journal about it, do whatever you need to do to get it out of your system and feel better about it. But your public Twitter and Facebook pages that you use for business are really not the appropriate place for such discussion.

If you’re feeling this way often, it might be a good idea to reevaluate how you decide whether or not to work with a client, because you’re obviously getting into a lot of work situations where there’s a lot of friction and disagreement. However, calling your client a stupid idiot on Twitter or Facebook is not the solution. The fact that the project is over and you’re not going to work with them anymore doesn’t make it any better.

Like I said, when I see people doing this on social media I take them off my list of people to refer business to, because I don’t want my clients to be treated in such a way. I’m sure others do the same thing when they see this happening.

And even worse, if a potential new client or customer has stopped by your Facebook page or Twitter feed during their research phase before they hire you and it happens to be on a day when you’ve posted a rant, they are most likely going to leave and never come back. To them seeing you rant about your current or past client on the business page is a big red flag.

Two takeaways here….

• Use the THINK model and check those off in your mind before you hit the post button.
• Rants about clients on social media could be turning off potential clients and losing you referral business.

Audio in marketing can be extremely effective when it’s done right. Listening to a recording of something is often far more compelling than reading it in print.
Of course, there are wrong ways to use audio. For example, you don’t want to have one of those websites that blasts music right away when somebody visits it. This will probably do more harm than good, and most people simply click away from those type of pages.

(Video not displaying or simply prefer to read? Of course we have a transcript ready for you right here on the page…)
You can also download the transcript and presentation as a PDF file. Just click here.

Here are ten quick tips on how you can use audio to help your business:

#1) Use Audio to Increase List Opt-Ins

A frequently overlooked use of audio is to increase list opt-ins. They say the money is in the list, and that’s often true. Oftentimes adding a small snippet of audio to your opt-in page can dramatically increase your conversion rates.

If you’re more comfortable speaking than writing, you can also have that audio transcribed and use that as the text on the page.

#2) Audio Testimonials are Powerful Things

Audio testimonials on product and service pages are also very powerful. Hearing somebody say how good your product is or how wonderful a service was is far more powerful than just reading it on the page.

The Speakpipe Plugin for WordPress makes audio testimonials really easy. You can get that at Speakpipe.com.

The free version of that plugin is plenty for the occasional testimonial. There is an upgrade available that costs a few dollars per month if you want to upgrade and use that service more frequently.

#3) Keep it Short and Sweet

If you’re using snippets of audio to promote a product, to promote a service, or to get opt-ins, you want to keep your audio short and sweet. For quick marketing points, try to keep the audio to around two or three minutes, sometimes even less.

A 90 second audio or video can actually increase your conversion rates because it’s long enough to get your message across, but short enough to keep people’s attention.

Obviously, if you’re recording something like a demo, a podcast episode or a full information product, your audio is going to be a lot long than two or three minutes.

#4) Audio Versions of Information Products

Speaking of information products; have audio versions of those info products. Many people are auditory in nature and they would much rather listen to a recording of your product than to read the print version.

Offering audio can increase your profits, increase your conversion rate, and it definitely increases the chances of people actually using the information you shared with them in your product.

#5) Interview an Expert = Instant Credibility

You can always interview an expert for instant credibility in any market. Find someone well known in your niche and interview them.

Interviews like this make great opt-in bribes for your newsletter, awesome podcast episodes, and they’re perfect bonuses for your information products. They help to establish your credibility while giving your friend and mentor a nice credibility boost as well.

#6) Record Your Webinars

Don’t forget to record your webinars and have a replay available. You’ll probably have people that are attending live, but as long as you record it you can use that as a bonus for a product, you can use it as a pre-sales video, and you can do all sorts of things with the audio snippets.

You can create little sneak peeks and trailers with bits and pieces of the recording. Those can be really useful when you sell the replay or when you want to give people a preview of things for joining your list.

You can take the webinar itself and create a full product by combining it with the replay, transcripts, and an audio version that people can take on their iPod if they want to. Add a few bonuses to that and you’ve created a massive value product in no time flat.

#7) Teleseminars & Conference Calls

The same goes for your teleseminars and conference calls. You can use these recordings to create products or to promote your existing products.

Recording conference calls and coaching sessions provides you with valuable content to use in promotions and to create new products with. You can even transcribe them and use sections of those transcripts as blog posts on your blog.

#8) Use Affordable (or FREE) Software

One of the things I’m asked about most often is what software to use when recording audio. You don’t have to buy the most expensive software. A lot of people mistakenly believe that they need a $500 program or an expensive monthly service to get an effective recording. That just isn’t the case.

You can use affordable software, or even free open source software like Audacity, to record your audio. No one will know the difference.

#9) Good Sound Quality Matters

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you don’t want it to be fuzzy either. Whether you’re recording a welcome message for your sales letter, a full length podcast episode, or your newest information product, the audio quality is very important.

That is achieved more through your microphone than through your recording program. If you have to choose between software and equipment, I say go with equipment and get a good microphone.

I’m currently using the Blue Snowball Microphone with my desktop computer; everything sounds fine and it’s easy to use. I can switch and plug it into my laptop if I want, it’s USB plug in and play.

You can generally pick up a USB powered microphone for between $30 and $60 on Amazon or your favorite electronics retailer.

#10) Outsource It If You Must

The last tip of the day is if you’re not comfortable with audio, just outsource it and have someone else do it.

A lot of people just don’t want to record their voice for one reason or another. If that’s the case, there are services and virtual assistants that will handle your audio for you. If you need help finding a virtual assistant you can contact us at the Small Business Transcriptionist and we can help you find one to work on your project.

The bottom line is audio in marketing can be extremely effective for boosting your business. Implementing one or all of today’s tips will help you achieve good results in growing your business with audio.

Thank you for joining me today. Remember, here at the Small Business Transcriptionist we’d be happy to help you with transcripts, finding a virtual assistant, or putting together your next information product.

Have you started using webinars as a marketing tool in your business yet? If not, here are several reasons why you should start considering it:

People See Webinars As Being Of High Value

With more and more businesses creating websites and blogs on a daily basis, you have to set yourself apart from them to get the attention of potential customers.

People view webinars as having a very high value. That means, they will be more likely to sign up for your free webinar. Getting someone’s name and email is the first step of a great marketing plan.

Webinars Help You Connect With An Audience

I’m sure you know that developing a great relationship with your audience will help you achieve more sales.

People want to do business with people they like. Your blog readers, Twitter followers, Facebook Fans, and newsletter subscribers have developed a relationship with you based on words that they read via a screen.

Strong relationships can certainly be built that way, but once you add in the element of a webinar, you can connect to your audience on a whole new level.

Webinars Allow You To Sell, Without Being Pushy

Yes, you will be giving out some great information for free, but while you’re doing that, you are able to slowly set up the sale.

For example, let’s say that you are a Business Coach, and your webinar topic is time management. You can share 5 tips that you use, and that you’ve taught your clients. You can give out some real life examples of how your clients have become successful.

At the end of the presentation, you’ll have people who are ready to join your next coaching program. They have heard you give good advice; they’ve heard success stories; and they want to be successful, too.

You Can Sell The Webinar!

Throughout this article, I’ve given you reasons why webinars are great for growing your list and getting more sales, but did you realize you can even sell the webinar? Most services allow you to record the webinar. You can also choose to have the audio transcribed, and then add a little formatting to create an ebook. You can easily sell that as an info product.

We can help you with all of that last part – just send us your recording and we’ll take care of the transcripts. We can also do a full package including editing, formatting, and ecover graphics. (click here to contact us and get started on that)

They have a special love for creating educational apps for kids, including a helpful selection of apps for kids on the Autism spectrum. But it’s not all fun and games at Goatella; they can also help you with custom apps for small businesses and websites.

For those that aren’t app-savvy, can you tell us a little bit about the app world and how things work when you want a custom app for your website?

Getting a custom app is like getting other custom design work such as a graphic or website. You give us a summary of what you want, and provide information we will need. We then go about creating the app to your specifications. We can send you screen-shots along the way of how the app is turning out so you have an idea of what it will look like at final release.

To get folks thinking outside the website a little bit, what kind of cool things can be done with an app for a typical small business aside from just delivering their website content to mobile users?

The app should do something useful so that users will open it. Perhaps it can provide type of calculator, tool, or a tip of the day. Since the types of small business are so varied, so are the apps we can produce for them.

How can having a customized app get new exposure for a small business?

If your app provides useful information or a useful tool people may be able to use it to discover your business. Not everyone will find your app through your website, people will end up finding your app through the app store and from there being lead to your website. If your app has something useful that the person uses every day then they will be reminded of your business ever day, so you’re always fresh in their head if the need something.

You guys do both iOS and Android app development at Goatella. How difficult is to take an app that was already done for iOS and create an Android version? (and vice-versa?)

It’s two completely separate programs. iOS apps are written in Objective C and Android apps are written in Java. Although creating or having one may give us a visual idea of what the other should look like, the programming doesn’t carry over at all, so it’s like starting from scratch.

Most people think of just having an app that displays their website, but there are all sorts of cool things out there that apps, some are just for fun and others are tools. Your team developed a nifty fabric calculator for my cross stitch website awhile back that has been really popular (I get compliments on it all the time) – What other cool tool apps have you worked on lately?

Its important to keep in mind that although your app can be a great resource for information, in order to be approved on the Apple app store it can’t just be a mini version of your site and actually has to “do” something. It’s up to the reviewer you are randomly assigned to decide if your app is useful.

One cool tool we made for kids allows them to build words. It was inspired by time I spent working in a kindergarten class. The student picks the beginning blend such as “Bl” and can build a word by choosing the ending sound such as “ack” “end” or “ink”.

One of our very popular free apps is a Xylophone for kids. It sounds simple but is very entertaining.

Those are all really great apps and the kids stuff is useful and fun at the same time, which is always good. Do you have any recommendations on how small businesses might incorporate tool apps into their overall marketing strategy?

Think about your users and what would be useful to them. What do YOU use ever day, what do you wish you had had an app to do for youself… chances are that it will also be useful to some the millions of app users out there.

Last question; I know the project cost is going to vary widely per project, so it’s always best to get a specific quote. Can you give us a ballpark price estimate for a small business that wants a simple custom app to deliver their website for iOS and Android users?

As we mentioned earlier in the interview, iOS apps and Android app are a completely different program, so you will probably get them quoted separately. Some things are easier to do in one language while other things are easier in the other language so the cost for the apps won’t always be the same if you want both.

For a very simple and small app with a few pages of information prices would start at about $500. Obviously it goes up from there depending on the size of the app what you all want it to be able to do.

If your app is free we can distribute it for you under our licenses. If you want to charge money for your app you’ll need to buy your own licenses. That is $15/year for Google Play, free for the Amazon app store, free for the NooK app store (only the color NooKs) and $99/year for the Apple App store.

Check out these other cool examples from the Goatella portfolio;

• iVocalize,
• iSpeak Grid,
• Eye Contact Trainer,
• Cross Stitch Fabric Calculator

One quick sub-question before we go. How would you recommend handling that to work for iOS since they require your app do something “extra” other than just deliver the website to the user?

This will vary widely by what your business does. If your running a travel agency maybe your app can convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. If your selling mortgages maybe you can have a mortgage calculator. In Loretta’s case she had a site about cross stitching so we made a cross stitch calculator. Just think about what might be useful to your users, and we can probably create it!

Thank you for joining us for this week’s spotlight. Be sure to check out the Goatella app portfolio, they have some really fun and interesting things going on right now. Stop by again next week for another small business spotlight, or you can have them delivered straight to your inbox if you’re on our weekly updates list;

At the same time, you have to make sure you sound natural during the conversation. Because an interview truly is that – a conversation. The audience has to be able to feel the flow and chemistry between you and your guest. You want to sound spontaneous, but also informed and .

A great interview will have your audience captivated for the entire duration. If it’s an educational piece, your audience will learn something. If it’s something fun, they’ll walk away thoroughly entertained.

Do a Pre-Interview

Talk to your guest beforehand. Don’t just jump on the call and do the interview.

Start by giving your guest a list of sample questions. You might want to hear the answer to some of those questions to make sure they know how to answer.

Don’t try to guide their answers; you just want to make sure you’re both on the same page about how the interview should be conducted. Also ask them if there are any questions they want you to ask.

Get clear on their story. If you’re interviewing someone whose background is important, make sure you know the chronological order of how things happened. And make absolutely sure you know how to pronounce your guest’s name.

Feel Out Their Limits

Often time’s the best interviews are the ones that really push the boundaries to the limits. Of course, you don’t want to make your guests uncomfortable. So if you’re going to be asking those kinds of questions, make sure you run them by your guest first.

For example, if you’re running a business show, questions you might want to run by your guest first include things like:
• How much money do you personally take home?
• When your first business failed, how did you face the investors whose money you lost?
• Did you use any “black hat” techniques when you first built your company?

Questions that might cause your guest to balk shouldn’t be avoided, but you should try to feel out their limits before the call.

Do Your Research Beforehand

Do thorough research into your guest’s background. Even if you have extremely cooperative guests, this can still make a big difference.

Where did their career start? What were some highlights of their career and what were the rough spots? What opinions do they have that are more controversial? What original ideas did they put out in the world?

Read their website. Look them up on Google. Check their LinkedIn profile and Facebook pages.

Learning about your guests will allow you to formulate informed questions.

Fix the Sound Before You Start When Possible

Before you start the interview, make sure all your sound is good. This is something that can change from call to call, so check it everytime.

Start by checking the levels. You and your guest should have approximately the same volume. If one or the other is louder, adjust the levels on your mixer.

If you’re noticing feedback or background noise, try making adjustments. You might ask your guest to move closer to the mic so you can turn down their levels and blend out any background noise.

If they’re on a Skype connection and you’re noticing stuttering or delay, you might ask them to close other windows and other applications that might be taking up bandwidth.

Get your sound and connection issues sorted out before you start the interview.

Pick Topics and Guests You’re Genuinely Curious About

A lot of podcasters choose guests based on who’s big in an industry or who they think their audience will like. While this is okay every once in a while, the best way to produce home run content is to interview guests you’re genuinely curious about.

When you’re genuinely curious about a guest, you’ll ask much better and much deeper questions. You’ll be much more attentive and be able to dive in more with your guests. You’ll have more on-air chemistry and livelier discussion, which are much more interesting to your audience.

Much like you can get “sucked in” to an interesting discussion, you and your guest can both get “sucked in” to an interesting interview. For someone listening, these kinds of interviews have a magnetic quality. Whenever possible, try to interview people who you’re genuinely curious about.

Demonstrate Your Guest’s Credibility

Start by demonstrating your guest’s credibility.

Remember: Your listener’s attention is very scarce. If you want someone to sit through a 20 to 60 minute interview with you and your guest, you need to sell them on your guest.

Be brief, but be powerful and succinct. Talk about your guest’s past, your guest’s achievements and the benefits the interview can offer to your listeners.

If you’ve met your guest prior to the interview, you might include a brief line or two about how and where you met them, and how that was important to you in relation to the topic of conversation. This is particularly effective if talking to a mentor or someone who has inspired your work.

Your intro for your guest should be no more than a minute or a minute and a half. But by the time your intro is done, people should be on the edge of their seats, ready to really absorb everything your guest says.

Ask the Hard Questions

Don’t just play on the surface. The best interviewers are the ones that aren’t afraid to ask the really hard hitting questions.

Ask about their insecurities and their challenges. Ask about real numbers. Look for things that most people wouldn’t have guessed about your guest. Try to chip away from their public persona and really get to know the real person. Try to get to the real experience, rather than just the surface level explanation.

As an interviewer, it’s common to want to go easy on your guests. You want to maintain rapport with your guests. You don’t want to offend, to step on toes or to make your interviewee mad. Unfortunately, when you go light on your guests, you aren’t serving your audience.

Yes, you should absolutely help your guests look good on your show. But you can do that by digging for the real picture, instead of just settling for more shallow answers.

Go With the Flow, But Have a Backup Plan

Don’t go into your interview with a rigid outline of what you want to talk about. Instead, follow the energy of the conversation. Go into things that seem most interesting in the moment.

That said, you should always go into your interviews with a plan. Once one line of thought is complete, you should immediately know where to take it next so that everything flows together nicely.

Don’t worry so much about transitioning. One topic does not have to smoothly transition into another. If one topic is finished, you can simply take a breath, bring up another completely unrelated topic and begin a new discussion. If you feel the need to do so, you can insert a short stinger audio snippet to indicate the change of topics. If you air advertisements this might be a good time to insert the ad break as well.

A great interview is one where the interviewer is sharing the excitement of a topic with a guest all the way until it starts to die out, then a new topic is quickly introduced and the energy picks up again. The interview should never feel boring.

Put Yourself in Your Audience’s Shoes

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What would your audience want you to ask your interviewee right now?

For example, let’s say you run a podcast for people who’re starting a restaurant for the first time. You’re interviewing someone who has started 20 restaurants in the last decade.

You might be tempted to ask him high level questions or questions about what it’s like to operate such a large operation. But when you put yourself in your audience’s shoes, you quickly realize that your audience doesn’t care about any of that. They want to know how to open and run one restaurant.

Put yourself in your audience shoes. It helps if there are specific people you can think of. What questions would benefit them most?

Talk Less

When you’re interviewing a guest, it’s important to remember that the interview is not about you. You might be tempted to share your opinions, your stories or your thoughts while your guest is on the air. More often than not, you’re better off letting your guest speak instead.

Sharing your own thoughts or experiences should be done only very briefly. You can share something if it helps you ask a question or helps cement a point home. You can use your own experiences to help move the interview along.

However, throughout the majority of the interview, all of your listeners’ attention should be focused almost exclusively on your guest. Yes, you can chime in here and there, but it should be the exception to the rule. Your guest’s time is a rare commodity – Make the most of it.

It seems that they were using a digital automated transcription program to transcribe the speeches and when Senator Marc Rubio did the Spanish version of the speech someone failed to switch the program from English to Spanish. Automated transcription programs create the words phonetically, which can often make for messy transcripts even when you have the correct language selected. When you have the wrong language selected and you’re talking about something like student loan debts, well you end up with a transcript that reads along the lines of, “of course the human feces predicament to we have been championed.”

Yeah. That’s awesome, right? know what’s even better than that? No one caught the mistake until after the transcripts went out and various sources started reporting about the error… meaning no one proofed them, no one bothered to look at them, they just pushed them through a pipeline of going through the motions and assuming it was fine.

Want to avoid that kind of transcription mistake happening in your business?

Get actual people to do your important transcriptions, not computer automated programs. At the very least, get real people to proofread your transcripts before you go sending them out into the public view.

Here at the Small Business Transcriptionist your audios and videos are transcribed by real people, and after that phase they’re proofread by real people.

Before you receive the final transcript I go over it again a third time myself and double check for any errors that might have been missed in proofreading.
Our process allows for accurate transcription and a readable cleaned up final product with a nice flow.

Use a Good Microphone

The microphone you use makes a huge difference in the quality of your recording. Many camcorders and computers come with built in microphones that generally don’t pick up sound well and can have background noises and distractions. That’s not to say you won’t get a good recording with the built-in microphone, because it’s possible under the right conditions. Check out condenser microphones for consistent recording quality all the time.

Turn Everything Off and Listen

Ideally you want to have no background noise at all. If you’re recording from home then aquariums, air conditioners, refrigerators and other ambient noises can interfere with the quality of your audio. Turn off whatever you can hear running in the background before you begin recording.

Add Music Later

Some people add audio to their podcasts. The audio file might operate as a sign that the podcast is beginning or ending or it might be part of the podcast itself. For example, a meditation podcast might have soothing music playing in the background. Instead of trying to talk over it, add the music to your recording during the editing phase.

Experiment with the Positioning Of the Microphone

If the microphone is at a bad angle your P sounds may sound harsh. Too close to you, too high or too low and you may get a hissing S. Test your microphone distances and angles until you have the clearest sound. If you’re still hearing P’s and S’s, try adding a pop filter to your microphone, it’s inexpensive and it can make all the difference.

Consistency

While you will have fluctuations in your tone and volume, too much of a variation can cause problems. Your body movements play an important role in these fluctuations. When you’re recording, try to sit relatively still. Find a comfortable sitting position that is a good distance away from the microphone. When you’re relaxed, your breathing will be relaxed too and that will help control your volume.

Another feature that will help maintain a consistent volume and tone will be the placement of your microphone. Try to keep it directly in front of you rather than off to the side.

Finally, make sure to record your audio in a room without an echo effect. Generally if the room has furniture, carpet, and other materials they’ll absorb sound. It won’t bounce and you won’t have to deal with an echo. Test the sound in various rooms in your home or office to find the best space for your podcast. You may be surprised to find that you’re recording in your bedroom or at the kitchen table.

Faster, Faster

The simple premise of the children’s book, Ten Apples Up On Top, starts with a lion balancing an apple on his head, just to see if he can do it. His friends join in and soon they are stacking more and more apples on their heads and doing stunts while chanting “We can’t let them drop.” While they are playing, an angry bear tries to knock their apples off their heads with a mop. The indication is that the mob that begins chasing them does not want them playing their game because they can’t do it and it annoys them.

Riley loves Dr. Seuss as I’m sure most of us do. Ten Apples Up on Top has become a fast favorite as she’s learning to count higher numbers. She loves for me to read the book as fast as I can. As I’ve been reading it to her over the past few weeks, the little wheels in my head relate it to my work day. What starts as a simple, enjoyable game, becomes competitive. The competition is not only between the other animals but also breaking their personal best. I can’t stop. I can’t fail and I definitely can’t drop anything. There’s my to-do list, my child, keeping up with the house and the bills. Oh and occasionally I have to eat.

At one point in the book, the tiger is walking on a power line like a tight rope with 7 apples on his head. How many days in a week do you feel like you are walking a tight rope in a huge hurry? Maybe not with 7 apples on your head, but I’m sure the swarm of thoughts in your head and the length of your to-do list is comparable.

Angry, Soul Sucking Mob

Then there is the negativity chasing me. Others didn’t want me to branch out from a “secure” corporate job and start a service based company. They don’t want me to branch out from my successful transcription company and write a book, offer coaching services or be innovative.

They most definitely don’t understand why I waste so much time on Twitter. They don’t want me to connect with others or have conversations, because it’s not the way they do it. They proclaim traditional methods work and you should just use them. Or worse “You should just get a job.” Sure, I’ll get a job so I can come home and spent 6 hours a night playing Farmville, just like you…

In the end of Ten Apples Up On Top, the mob chasing the 3 original animals run into a huge cart of apples 9 times the size of a horse. All the animals end up with Ten apples on their heads, and find that it is a fun game to play. All the other animals had to do was change their perspective. It wasn’t hurting anything for their friends to try something new.

When others break through from “I don’t understand this” to “I’ll give it a try”, they are enlightened to a whole new world of possibilities. How often could you teach someone a new technique or method rather than arguing with them (and giving into their negativity)?

Do you remember what made the “game” you’re playing fun when you started out?

Happy Thanksgiving,

Erica

P.S.  A side note: Many people don’t know about Ten Apples Up on Top is it was original a political cartoon written under the pen name Theo. LeSieg. (Dr. Seuss is also a pen name for writer Theodor Seuss Geisel in case you didn’t know.) Seuss was very pro-WWII. He drew many political cartoons against isolationism and denouncing Hilter and Mussolini. Seuss was trying to get people to look at the situation from another point of view.

Learn from Andrea Olson and Lynn Terry. Today we are going to discuss 2 styles more similar to mine.

John Morgan- Moleskine Master

Morgan said he has a notepad system & records headline ideas, blog post ideas, and keeps a separate notepad for writing his content. Instead of crawling out of bed at night if he has a great idea, he grabs the pen and notepad on the bedside table. What John and I have in common is we both hand-write most of our content before typing and polishing it.John has a pile of Moleskines similar to mine.

John is the self-described Chuck Norris of personal branding. He’s an awesome guy and pretty smart. Go read more of about his posts at http://brandbreakout.com. Twitter him at @JohnMorgan.

John Navin- My Favorite Kind of Client

I talk to John Navin on the phone more than I talk to my mother. (That may be because my mom has been in China for the past month and at $3.99 a minute…) He is a more verbal person and I can grasp his ideas with more clarity on the phone. Since John and I are working on a large writing project together, talking on the phone is much easier than me trying to use my Advanced ESP skills.

The technique here starts from us knowing John’s strength and him having the resources to facilitate that skill. Four Camtasia videos later and I have the information I need and John has created a new facet to his product line. John has a hard drive full of transcripts and content and pulls most of his blog posts from those files rather than reinventing the wheel.

Personal Style

I never leave my house without my digital recorder. I dictate when I’m in an inconvenient place to write like driving down the road, which is usually where I get the most new ideas. I also record most of my client meetings. I conveniently give my dictation files to my transcriptionists.

As I mentioned before, I hand-write most of my content. Even though it seems that typing at 160 wpm it would be faster to sit at the computer and write, my writing flows better with a note pad. If I spend 3 times as long trying to get the content out by using someone else’s method, it would have been quicker to do what worked best to start with.

Get outside your box and find what’s productive. Feel free to try the methods in these 3 posts and be sure to let us know what works for you too.

Thanks for playing along.

Erica

writing method for me. Part 1: Included insight from Joey Strawn. Today’s post delves into Andrea Olson’s thoughtful method and Lynn Terry’s structured method.

Andrea Olson- Most Eloquent Blogger

“I usually build them around a fully-formed phrase or sentence that comes to me. Then I sit down at the computer & write the rest.”

Rather than forcing her writing, Andrea blogs from the heart. Her posts are deep and thoughtful and I love her blog  http://amultitudeofthings.com. She creates great conversations and most of her posts are relatively short but full of content. Check out her blog for an example of how to do this internet thing right.  She’s also on Twitter.

Lynn Terry- Most Honest Answer

Last week while having lunch with me, Lynn and I were discussing transcribing and writing and blogging. I emailed her to follow up on something she said during lunch. Her answer is very thorough so I’m cutting and pasting it to ensure you get it all.

“Anytime I have an idea for a blog post, I put that idea into a draft in WordPress. It might be a keyword phrase and a few thoughts, or just a general idea, and then I save it. That way I can access it and finish working on it from any device – my iPad, my Droid X, Macbook or PC.

I currently have over 500 drafts in WordPress, so I usually start with one of those when I sit down to blog. Other times I’ll get a creative idea and just write, edit & publish a blog post all in one sitting.

I’m a stickler for formatting. I usually do all of my formatting before I even write the blog post. I create the title, choose the keyword phrase, place the image, put in the signature and P.S. etc – all before the actual content is written. You can see my process at: http://www.clicknewz.com/1993/how-to-write-a-blog-post (which also serves as a visual example).”

Follow the above link to Lynn’s blog. I take no responsibility for the number of hours you stay on her site soaking up all of her brilliance. When you get done, make your way to her Facebook Fan Page.

Have you picked up any tricks from these methods?

Erica

P.S. Tomorrow’s post features John Morgan and John Navin to wrap up this 3 part post.

No matter what I do, I can’t seem to sit down at the computer and type out all the thoughts in my head. Finally I broke out one of my old engineering pads from when I was at Auburn majoring in Agronomy and Soils. Two hours later, I had about 20 pages written for my blog, my paper and several other projects. There’s nothing special about the paper. It’s just a green engineering pad with a grid on it that I used to draw landscapes. I also go through a ton of Moleskines every month.

So I did some asking around to see what methods other people use to write their posts. I got a lot of great answers so be sure to check back for Part 2 and 3 to hear methods from Andrea Olson, Lynn Terry, John Morgan and John Navin.

Joey Strawn- Most Flexible Poster

Joey uses Word or his WordPress Dashboard, and likes to try new methods often when he writes his blog posts. He’s been experimenting with Mindmaps (which I love) and writes in different locations. Following him on Twitter, I constantly have to edit his tweets to redistribute them, because he’s quite verbose. (I wish I had that problem.)

I think the key to learn from Joey is to try to step outside the box and find the method that works best- instead of using a process just because everyone else is doing it. Plus Joey has a lot to teach you about blogging, social media and making new friends. He blogs with a hint of sarcasm and honesty that you don’t find around the internet much. Joey’s blogging exemplifies “play outside of the box and you’ll stand out from the crowd.”

Joey loves social media, branding, movies, his wife and blogs about it all at http://JoeyStrawn.com and For Bloggers by Bloggers. Joey offers blog coaching that I highly suggest. Find him on Twitter @Joey_Strawn.

More Tomorrow

Part 2 is on techniques from Andrea Olson and Lynn Terry.

I’m having a lot of fun investigating everyone’s different styles. Let us know what your techniques are or if you have questions we can help you with!

Erica

P.S. If you like these techniques, I’d love for you to share them on Facebook or Twitter.

So I’m 4 steps into 10 in Zen to Done by Leo Babauta. Zen to Done is a minimalist, productivity ebook. The ebook walks you through nearly a year of steps to change your habits to become more organized and less stressed. It’s one of those teach a man to fish ideals.

The Habits are:

1. Collect
2. Process
3. Plan
4. Do
5. Simple, trusted system
6. Organize
7. Review
8. Simplify
9. Routine
10. Find your Passion

Collecting was easy for me because I already did most of those things. I started entering appointments into my phone immediately, standing in front of the reception desk and not getting a reminder card. I always used to get one, oh in case I forget. I can’t ever remember actually looking for one of those cards and if I forgot the appointment how would I remember the little card.

The only thing I have really deviated on in Zen to Done is the device advice. My Blackberry never leaves my side (yes I’m an addict.) I have the automation and sync set on my Blackberry to even remove a few of the processing steps now.

Leo says in Step 1 “So for papers coming to your desk, you should have one place to collect them: an inbox.” And you have to learn to only touch the paper once. I also still use the measles method in this guest post by John Erdman. When I receive a paper it gets a spot. Every time I see the paper, it gets another spot. When my daughter, Riley, decides she likes spotted paper its time to clean the desk!

Dean Hunt said recently at the Brand Out Marketing Breakout or B O M B (I’ll stay off that special FBI list) workshop in Nashville “Don’t go back to anything. Rereading emails wastes 97 hours per year. That’s 9 days. If you touch it, take action and complete it.” Link to Dean and John.

Leo says Process to Empty. Empty is scary when you first start out. I’m sure you’ve all had that shock occasionally when you have nothing in your email inbox… Imagine it happening every day. It’s actually quite an accomplished feeling. I’ve been totally sorting, processing/responding and deleting emails to Zero a day for over a month. And once the backlog is gone, it really doesn’t take that long.

Paper- Dreaded Paper

I hate paper. Stacks and stacks of paper everywhere. When I was 16 I started working for an attorney. My first day on the job she told me “Always create a paper trail. No matter how bad you screwed up, someone else screwed up worse.”

As you might imagine there was paper on paper on paper in this office and for the first year I was there I didn’t have my own computer. I think it gave me a compulsion of being organized. My boss didn’t have time to know where all the files were but I could tell her exactly where to look. I loved working for her.

Now that I get to run things myself, I scan everything. If I need it, it’s in my computer. I’ve managed to never lose anything and I have external harddrive backups and Mozy to thank for that. And then I shred. I don’t have a filing cabinet.

If I have an important paper (like my business licenses) I put it on a French bulletin board on the back wall of my office.

MITs

“Take Control of Your Day, Instead of Letting the needs and wants and priorities of others control it for you.”

This is the hard part for me. I know what I need and want to get done. I get a great start and then 15 hours of audio comes in and suddenly someone else’s needs stepped in line in front of mine and then the line changed directions.

I know I know. Close my email. its not as easy as it sounds. And my Blackberry tattles on my inbox.

When it’s not my clients or lovely contractors needing my attention, in comes my 3 year old, usually followed or proceeded closely by our kitten that doesn’t know she’s not a 3 year old.

I took the plunge on this whole heartedly and it works. I’m super pumped to finish out the last 7 monthly tasks in the book. I’ve tried different programs in the past to get a clamp on super-organization and always failed because I tried to change everything at once. Between Zen to Done and using my Mindmaps, I almost feel like a different person. I’m much less stressed. I don’t have email hanging over me for days. I’m getting a lot better about getting things done on my to-do list that aren’t urgent, crisis status,  but need to be done.

Because the system teaches you to set a few big goals for each week and a few smaller goals for each day, you can manage your day better. I am much more likely to get two things done than 12. Having a super long to-do list doesn’t help. If you read my mindmap post, you know I have started tracking out all my to-dos and projects on a big mindmap. When I want to work on a particular project, I collapse all the other legs. Visually all I see on my screen are the tasks I need to work on and I work on them until I’m done. Freemind has a big green checkmark icon that I can click so at the end of the day, I see a field of green checkmarks and feel accomplished. Doing the mindmaps this way keeps me from writing and rewriting my to-do list. Probably saved several forests already.

After Zen to Done

I’m sure you will hear more about Leo from me. I’ve bought all of his books aftergot started on Zen to Done. Like I said, I’m on step 4 so I’ve been working on this for several months. I think the reason Zen to Done works is you don’t go into it with the misconception that it’s going to work overnight. You do have to work at it. But Leo’s primer is perfect to get you started. And you can’t beat the price either. For less than $10, how can you go wrong?

What would be the best part of being more organized for you?

Mine is definitely getting things done quicker with less stress so I can get out and spend time with my daughter.

Talk to you soon,

Erica

P.S. Be sure to catch the rest of my tools series, starting with Mindmaps and finishing up on Monday and Wednesday. I’m also giving away an autographed copy of  Scott Stratten’s new book UnMarketing.

Disclaimer: Please assume all external links are affiliate links. Many are not and I personally use every tool suggested on this site. However due to federal laws, I choose to give a blanket disclosure.

Headsets
Plantronics .Audio 995 Wireless Stereo Headset

I love, love, love my 995 Wireless Headset. In fact, I’m on vacation right now and it’s on my night table in the hotel room with me. I never travel without it and I use it nearly every day. It has a USB receiver which gives it a better sound quality and connection than a Bluetooth device. When I was transcribing a great deal, I would use it for 8-10 hours a day and it was still comfortable to wear. I even gave one away for our business anniversary in February. I also bought one for my Project Manager.

The audio quality is phenomenal. Many times the quality using my Skype subscription is much better than using my cell phone or even a land line phone. The microphone is sound cancelling and I have had instances where my daughter was talking to me and the person on the other end of the phone couldn’t hear her.

The only thing about the Plantronics .Audio 995 Wireless Headset is it’s a little bulky because of the additional padding for comfort. I wish Plantronics made one of these headsets that folded for easier travel.

I could talk about this headset all day but for $55-70, my best advice is order one now.

So if I love the Plantronics headset so much why do I need another device? First the headset can’t record two or more people well. Second on occasion you may want to record a live speech or interview. Read on for microphone and handheld recorder suggestions.

Microphones

The Blue Snowball mic is also around $50-90 depending on where you get it and if it’s on sale. For the price, the audio quality is great. It’s best used for recording 2 person interviews, perhaps that you have in your home office or recording speeches. You can set the Snowball on the podium and it will pick up your speech from 2-3 feet away. You could also set it 5-8 feet from the speaker system and get a good quality recording.

If you want to record an in-person panel with several people, check out the Yeti below.
I own the white Snowball. There are several color options as well.

Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone

The Blue Yeti microphone is relatively new but has striking quality. If you want Professional DVD quality, this is the microphone you want. It has a deep sound without some of the hollow sound that you might get with low quality microphones.

This microphone costs around $120. It is next on my list to get for my own office. I’ve had the opportunity to see this at a conference and Lynn Terry featured this microphone on her blog recently with sound quality comparisons.

The only drawback to this microphone is it is slightly large. This helps when recording a round table but it may be intrusive or hard to store. However, if you want all of your audio to sound like it was recorded in a professional studio, this is probably the microphone you want.

Audio-Technica AT2020 USB Condenser USB Microphone
If you are familiar with music recording or were in Band, you may have heard of Audio Technica before. Their higher end products are very popular in recording studios. Their AT2020 is an affordable option for a home user.

If you want Professional Quality audio for videos or any reason, this microphone is much smaller than the Yeti. Not only is it easier to store, it has a huge number of stands that fit it. You could choose any variation from a microphone stand you would use on stage, to a short stand to sit on the desk to even one with a flexible arm that clamps to the side of the desk.

The only “bad” thing I have heard about this Audio Technica is that the microphone is unidirectional. The Blue Yeti records from all sides. Basically the Audio Technica is awesome if you are all sitting on the same side of the table. In a round table position, you may lose the people “behind” the microphone. It is much better used for single person recordings. The price on the Audio Technica AT2020 is around $115. Be sure to purchase the USB version if you want to use it with your computer.

Handheld Recorders

I love this digital recorder. I have the VN 5200PC and the VN 6200PC. The 6200 is the same price as the 5200 I bought last year except it has twice the memory at 1GB. The 6200 will hold over 445 hours of audio. The batteries will literally die before you can fill the memory.

This recorder connects to your computer with a micro USB cable that is included (although any micro USB you have will work.) There is an “upgrade” that has a built in USB, like a Flip Camcorder , however the sound quality is not as good. I purchased one and actually returned it and got the 6200 because of the difference in sound quality.

You may wonder why I have 2 of these recorders. I leave one in my purse and I never ever leave the house without it. I use it to dictate articles while I am driving and I have used it a number of times to record an impromptu interview when I randomly came across someone I needed to talk to. The sound quality is good enough that I recorded a backup of several seminars, including Bob the Teacher’s SIMPLE Seminar in February. There was a malfunction with the professional recording equipment and he cut in a few minutes of my recordings that would have been lost.

If you know of other recording devices that would be a helpful addition to a home office please let me know so I can test them out and add them to the list.

Thanks
Erica

Disclaimer: Please assume all links on this website are affiliate links. I have tested all of these devices and personally own most of them.

Be sure to soak this one up. Nicole is a smart cookie. You may remember my post on Nicole from several months ago.  One of my favorite web courses is Outsource Weekly, where Nicole explains in-depth how to avoid business overwhelm through outsourcing.

________________________________________________________

Hi Erica!

Thanks so much for asking me here today to talk about Guest Blogging. It was such a treat to meet you in person in February and I can’t wait to see you again. (I hope it’s soon!)

Ok. Let’s dig into the topic. You sent me some questions regarding my Blog Tour. Before I get into those, I’ll back up a bit to explain what exactly a Blog Tour is and why it’s special.

We all know the benefits of Guest Blogging –

• Getting exposure to new people.
• Building relationships with those people.
• Establishing yourself as an ‘endorsed’ expert all over the ‘net.
• And, also building relationships with the blog owners that you visit.

Guest blogging is great. I’m doing it right now, right? And, I’m meeting new wonderful people who hopefully will like what I have to say.

So, we know what Guest Blogging is, but what exactly is a blog tour?

Well, it’s Guest Blogging on Steroids. I took Guest Blogging to new levels during the summer of 2009 – and it worked like a charm.

What I did was to “go on tour” to 15 popular blogs in my niche. I spent one full week guest blogging at each blog, usually while the blog owner was on vacation, in order to keep their blogs active and interesting while they sipped margaritas on the beach.

At the end of my Blog Tour, I had been featured on 15 blogs, had links to my posts all over Twitter, and had 15 new JV partners. Plus, I had a ton of content that I’d written that I could turn into an infoproduct.

And, yes, I do teach a course about Guest Blogging and you’re welcome to check it out here:

http://simplevirtualteamsuccess.com/resources/blogtour

So, that’s the back story. Now, to dig into your questions.

What was the hardest part of doing your Blog World Tour?

That’s a great question. I think the hardest part for me was coming up with 75 article topics. That’s why I do NOT recommend that you do a 15 week daily blog tour for your first attempt. It was hard.

However, I do recommend that you sit down and do a brainstorming session before you start. It’s a lot easier to sit down and write an article if you’ve got your ducks in a row first than to sit down and think “ok. What am I going to write about today” – every single day – as you can imagine.

Should you allow your “host” to influence your topic and what you write?

Hmm… “Influence” could mean a number of things, so let me see if I can explain.

On the one hand, yes, it is their blog and I always asked my hosts if they had a preference for what they wanted me to write about. For instance, I wouldn’t come on this blog and write about puppy care, obviously. Erica asked me to talk about Guest Blogging, so here I am. So, yes, I do try to jump through hoops for people that I like when they’re kind enough to welcome me onto their blog. It’s a great honor to be entrusted with someone’s readership so I definitely am respectful of that.

However, on the other hand, it’s my reputation on the line, so, while I want to be polite to my host, always, and give their readers what they want, obviously I would say “no” to any requests they have that make me uncomfortable. There are tons of bloggers on the ‘net and you’ll always find another one who will be glad to feature your content.

What are the advantages of using a VA to coordinate your Blog World Tour?

Oh my goodness. I don’t think I could have pulled my Blog Tour off without a VA. The advantages are many!

• She researched blogs based upon my criteria.
• She contacted them with my request.
• She got them scheduled on my calendar.
• She asked them about topics.
• She got me logins for my week that I was scheduled.
• She reminded them to Tweet about the blog posts after I published them.
• And, she even helped me to brainstorm topics.

She was indispensable.

Yes, you can do it alone, especially on a smaller scale, but it helps to have someone to help you.

What are the best resources you can suggest to get started?

Of course my Blog Tour Guide is very helpful. I’ve sold LOTS of copies of it and people love it. You’ll learn from my mistakes so you don’t need to make them yourself.

I’d also recommend you check out Shelancer.com – if you need to get a Virtual Assistant to help you along the way.

Well, all, thank you so much for reading! And, Erica, thank you for having me here. I do appreciate it!

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

Visit My: Internet Business Marketing Blog

(I hope you all enjoyed Nicole’s tips as much as I did. Be sure to grab a copy of her Blog World Tour Guide if you haven’t already!)

Tip #1- First sell multiple packages. Sell your Audio, your Transcripts, and sell them Packaged together.

Sell your Transcripts ALONE for enough to cover the cost of the transcription. Simple learn from our clients who sell the transcripts to their seminars for as much as $1397 a pop- one SINGLE sale pays for the transcription.

If your teleseminar is One Hour of audio and you paid $60 for the transcription, selling your transcripts for $37 and the package of audio and transcripts for $67 will cover your costs, with only one sale.

Tip #2- Presell your transcripts.

May people may click on your link and truly be interested in your teleseminar. Then they see the date or time and know they can’t make it. Rather than having them close the page or click away, let them know they can purchase the audio or transcripts at a special presales rate. Better yet, give them the audio for prepurchasing the transcripts. You have just made money before your event has even started.

Tip #3- Keep your Audience Hot and Wanting more.

We have become a highly Attention Deficient society. People don’t like to wait. Now imagine that you are a client who has prepaid for transcripts to the client who is charging $1397 for their seminar transcripts, and four months after the seminar you still don’t have your purchase. Would you be a happy client?

All of the examples I have used today are real life experiences from our transcription clients. Now, trust me, the 4 MONTH turnaround was not our fault. Bonus Tip: Don’t use the cheap recording companies. They are notorious for disappearing, bad quality audio and taking weeks to months for you to receive your audio.

If you are hosting a more simple teleseminar, notify your transcriptionist or transcription company of the date or your call. If you are working with the right transcriptionist, they will be prepared for your transcript and work with you to have the transcripts to your clients within 48 hours. This keeps your clients excited about your products and more likely to buy from you in the future.

Now I know what you might be thinking if you have worked with a “large box” transcription company before- 48 hour turnaround is going to cost a fortune! Not so! Whether you work with a solo transcriptionist or a small business transcription company, be clear on what you are promising to your clients AND make sure the template for your transcripts is arranged in advance. By being prepared, you leave less to chance and have the potential to create raving fans that will return to hear your calls again.

Be sure to leave me a comment with your questions and comments. I’d love to discuss your teleseminar ideas and transcript needs- Feel free to schedule an appointment with me at http://Tungle.me/Cosminsky at a your most convenient time.

Erica

Who? Why? What?

If you are a speaker who has been invited to a myriad of talks, what happens to each speech you make right after you delivered it? I

t either gets stuck in a pile of recorded tapes or you make profit out of them. Yes, even speeches from years ago can actually be put to good use by means of transcription. Instead of letting it collect dust, why don’t you have professionals transcribe it and after which, you can sift through the text, eliminating redundancies and making sure that you retain the essential parts. This can then be turned into an e-book or an e-course which you can make available for purchase to the whole world.

Now, what about business meetings where there are a number of people involved. Most likely, you will not be able to take note of every word that the board members will say and because of that, you might be missing important information in the process. With that said, having a handy voice recorder ready and having it transcribed after will give you a black and white copy of the meeting details you just had. That easy, really. Transcripts are very important to every business model because, unlike remembering each and every word, you have a hard copy of all the important details of every event in your business. Instead of playing the audio file over again to look for a specific part, you can just quickly scan it when it is written down with the use of modern software. It makes transactions easier and business models much faster.

Easier: Reference, Searchablity and Repurposing

With that said, it is easy to understand why more and more companies and businesses are using the services of transcription companies. However, you should not just settle for any transcription company basically because each has their own strong points. You would want to get the services of one that has been proven in the field either by colleagues or by feedback from other people. Remember that transcription is a delicate job, one word error may mean a whole different thing so you need to be very careful in choosing the company that will handle your audio files.

The transcription industry is rapidly becoming high in demand basically because most business models benefit a lot from their services. Now, if you want to make life easier for you by not having to write down every single word from your business meeting (and missing out on important parts because you are too preoccupied), then grab a recorder with you and send the file to a transcription company. They will know what to do.

I personally have all of my mastermind, and coaching calls transcribed. It makes it much easier to make a detailed to-do list or mindmap of what I need to accomplish. I also typically record my client calls for easier reference to instructions as well as details. Even if you don’t have every thing transcribed, it can be helpful to have a recorder handy to catch your to-do lists or brillant ideas that you would forget when you got home from the store. Most cell phones have recording features now to make it even easier to use this simple technique to organize your day and your business.

Erica

I was asked
• Aren’t they your competition?
• Aren’t you worried they will steal ideas or clients from you?
• You don’t want them taking your marketing strategies do you?

Simple Answers

Technically, yes. They are my “competition.” But if they were going to steal my ideas, clients and marketing materials, they probably wouldn’t put themselves in a position for me to see them do it.

One of the ladies I was having a twitter conversation with is a former employee of mine. She didn’t leave me because of any issues. Only because she had the desire to own her company. Shortly after she went out on her own, CS emailed me asking if I was ok with what she had done. Another lady she had worked for chewed her ear off for having entrepreneurial dreams. To that lady, CS was now the enemy- the dreaded competition.

I’m sure you’ve noticed everyday more and more teleseminars are being recorded. Hundreds, if not thousands of live events are happening. The supply of work for a transcriptionist is only limited by the imagination of the speakers and business owners in world.

Sure we all want more clients, but there is no realistic way for one freelance transcriptionist or even a company with more than 30 transcriptionists like mine to do ALL the work in the market. We can sure try but at some point, quality starts to fail, deadlines don’t get met and stress levels rise. Unrealistic deadlines and expectations promised to a client, will only result in one thing, an unhappy client.

The one thing in the world, I don’t want is an unhappy client. One mad client is worse than no clients.

Pizza Box Competition

You can keep your “competition” fears. The way I see it, business wouldn’t be what it is today if someone hadn’t taken a good idea and elaborated on it.

For example, the pizza box- how many pizza boxes have been in your house this year? In the 1940s, pizzas were put were slid into a thick paperboard-paperbag. They were flimsy and didn’t hold heat in at all. In the 1960s, the corrugated pizza box was developed. The earliest corrugated boxes still required staples or tons of tape. Next came a connected corner “roll-over” box with a paper lock. Pizza Hut, Papa John’s Pizza, and Little Caesars Pizza still use these boxes. These are the ones that if you ever mess up the little tab holding the box together, the whole thing comes apart. Dominos uses a slightly different box that isn’t entirely square to save on materials. It’s also more stable. Now I’m not some kind of pizza box nut. I found most of this information here. Pizza Packaging Overview & History

My point is- of all the designs shown, none of them were designed by the same person. If it weren’t for continued efforts, we’d still be carrying soggy pizza in a grocery bag.

Are you backing yourself in a corner?

Even though you see tons of marketing experts everyday, many are booked out several weeks for appointments. If it was as simple as clicking on my home page and stealing my copy, marketers would have gone out of business a long time ago. Writing isn’t something you can just pick up on by stealing. It has to be taught (or outsourced.)

Just as a doctor may present a case in front of his peers for advice, you may need a sounding board or have questions. Your marketing consultant or accountant isn’t going to know anything about how to design a good tarantula cage (insert your niche here.) But Joe’s Tarantula World/website may hold golden information. And they may be a potental client if you can make their design better and keep your skills in your hand. Here is where the student becomes the master.

If you aren’t networking in your market or similar fields, you may be missing out on fantastic opportunities or partnerships. A simple conversation may spark an idea and start a trusted friendship. Stop hiding and start collaborating.