Archive for the 'Podcasts' Category



Podcasts On The Run

Friday 8 September 2006 @ 8:55 am

I’m headed out to Palm Springs this weekend for The Summer Symposium hosted by the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Speakers Association. I’m looking forward to hearing some great speakers and hoping to improve my speaking and presentation skills. Since I’ll have a 2 hour drive I decided to download some podcasts to take along in the car.

I decided to look up some of my fellow bloggers podcasts and headed over to Rosa Say’s blog, Talking Story. I went down the list in her Ho’ohana Community and found the following…

The cranky middle manager show with Present Like a Pro

Kevin Eikenberry on the Advanced Selling Podcast

Dwayne Melancon With Lisa Haneberg on Focus & Change

Greg Balanko-Dickson & Phil Gerbyshak in How’s your Creative IQ?

Easton Ellsworth via the Podcasting Roundtable

Lisa Haneberg and her Virtual Fireside Podcasts

Rosa is hosting a learning symposium all month on her site and it will be great to hear some of the participants via their podcasts. Be sure to check out her month of learning series.

You can also check out the MBA On The Run podcasts here.

We also have put up a test video podcast here.

Have a great weekend!


Comments (0)  | Posted in Business,iPod,Podcasts    


Podcast Book Review: The Fred Factor

Friday 1 September 2006 @ 6:02 am

Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of reading and listening to a number of great books. Books that motivate and inspire and have changed my life for the better. I thought I would share one of the gems with you today.

The “Fred Factor” is a small book that touts just over 100 pages. It’s based on a true story of a Postman named Fred and his extraordinary gift of helping and encouragement. Written by author and motivational speaker Mark Sanborn, this little book is a powerhouse of motivation for individuals or groups. I’ve put together a short 6 minute podcast that will give you a short introduction to this great little book.

Podcast: The Fred Factor

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

 As part of the MBA On The Run program, I’ve had the pleasure of listening to over 30 popular business oriented audio books this year. I would like to share some of my reviews and experiences with you. Over the next few months, I hope to be able to bring you a book review
a week. Some will be podcasts and other will be written reviews.

I’ve included my list of titles below. Most are available as audio books which are available on iTunes and also in printed version which are available online through our success store.

Many of these titles are powerful, life changing works.

Leadership Titles

Networking-People Skills

Business-Entrepreneurship

Life Hacks & Organization

Success & Motivation

Marketing & Branding


Financial

Innovation, Technology, & Creativity

Storytelling

Inspirational-Spiritual


Comments (3)  | Posted in iPod,MBA,Podcasts    


Adventures In Podcasting

Monday 5 June 2006 @ 6:18 am

I spent the weekend discovering the world of Podcasting. It was an amazing journey fraught with pitfalls and frustration. Podcasting is not as easy as it sounds. Creating the audio vocal track is only the beginning. To create something that sounds professional you’ll need to mix the audio track with intro music and add noise reduction. Then you need to upload it, create a XML feed and publish the link where people can find it. There are a few software packages that make this task much easier.

If you have a Mac, the garage band software that is included in the iLife suite is setup to make this task easy. Unfortunately on my Mac-Mini you can’t just plug a microphone in and start recording. The Mac is setup for line-level input so you’ll need to purchase a USB microphone or amplify a standard microphone. This was a frustrating little “gotcha” that kept me from using my Mac on my first Podcast experience.

Next I tried my Windows XP computer. I plugged my Sony microphone into the PC and tested the recording. It worked great and I was on my way. I went online and looked for PC based podcasting programs. The most popular was a program called Propaganda which is available for free testing (full featured but with unacceptable company name audio overlays on the final output). The test went well and I decided to purchase the full version.

With the full version loaded, I was ready to go. I recorded some audio which was full of um’s and ah’s and paused all over the place. I found that I couldn’t just wing it. I needed a script. I tried using some blog posts as the outline and the result was much better. The more I practiced, the more expression I was able to add. One of the big battles was trying to get a consistent vocal level. I found that keeping the microphone close but below my mouth worked pretty well. This reduced the breathing noises that are sometimes picked up in audio recordings.

With the audio recorded, I added some intro music and put all the clips together. I added some clip info and cover art and then published the final podcast on the web. The next step was the creation of a XML file for subscribers and then a listing on feedburner. The final step was a link uploaded to iTunes and Odeo. This whole process took many hours the first time around. There are actually quite a few steps and multiple pieces of software are involved.

The finished product is available on a feed from Feedburner. You can subscribe to the feed and be notified when it is updated. The link on iTunes is in process and hopefully will be available in a day or two. Once I get this process refined I’ll post some detailed instructions on the individual steps.

For now you can subscribe to the link by clicking the icon below. Please let me know what you think.

For a listing of all of our current blog feeds, please check out our feed page.


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