Episode 192
Unleash Full Potential for Video: Leveling Up and Learning
On The Visual Lounge, we often talk about getting better, leveling up, and improving how we make and use video by 1%.
It's great to talk about, but what's the secret to that happening? Pretty easy; you have to do something. However, for that to work, you need to not just talk about it but make the time available to play, experiment, to try new things with the videos you create.
Thanks for being a viewer of the channel. From all of us at TechSmith & The Visual Lounge podcast, we want to wish you a wonderful and successful 2024!
Key points from this episode:
- 00:00 - Introduction
- 00:30 - Thinking about scheduling
- 01:00 - Put together the idea of Leveling Up and Scheduling.
- 01:35 - Build in time and space to play around with and explore new ideas
- 02:05 - How I learned from building the TechSmith Academy
- 02:40 - If you want to get better - do this!
- 03:08 Video is about exploring and learning through experimentation, leading to better problem-solving skills.
- 04:00 - Give yourself time!
- 04:58 - What are you thinking about?
Important links and mentions:
Want to get better at video? Check out TechSmith Academy - free learning about creating and using video.
Looking for video editing software? Try Camtasia
#podcast #videocreation #learnin
Transcript
Hey, everybody. Happy end of 2023. It is a great time to stop
Speaker:and reflect as the days are getting darker and darker as we
Speaker:approach the darkest night of the year, it's a time to bring a little light
Speaker:into our lives and, and reflect on what could be. And I've been thinking about
Speaker:a couple things. First of all, there's something that's been on my mind.
Speaker:At the end of every podcast, I say something like, take some time to level
Speaker:up every single day. So there's that piece. Hold on to
Speaker:that. I'll be back to it. The other piece I've been thinking of a lot
Speaker:about and spending a lot of time in, not just for my work, but for
Speaker:myself and for some other charitable responsibilities I have,
Speaker:is think about scheduling. I'm not a big
Speaker:scheduler. I don't really love having detailed plans. But what I'm finding is
Speaker:that it is a thing that helps me move forward. It helps me know what
Speaker:I should be focusing on, where I should be going. And I don't always love
Speaker:it, but I'm finding the great power in ability to look ahead and say,
Speaker:like, yes, that is the destination. That's where I need to get to, where I
Speaker:need to be, when I need to be. So when I started putting these two
Speaker:thoughts together, something occurred to me that I think could
Speaker:be really helpful in 2024 for me and maybe for you.
Speaker:So I'm bringing it to you. We don't often
Speaker:schedule and give ourselves time to level up. We don't give
Speaker:ourselves time to improve. We say in earnest, like, oh,
Speaker:yeah, take some time to learn. But I think what we do is we like,
Speaker:take some time to learn, but get everything else done. Don't bother to actually dedicate
Speaker:time to it. And what I'm feeling like and what I think could be very
Speaker:powerful in 2024 if we change that and actually say, let's
Speaker:build in space to get better, let's build in
Speaker:space. Time to play, time to experiment, time to try
Speaker:things. Now, here's the thing that I've learned over my years in working in
Speaker:video. The truth is, the time that I've learned best
Speaker:things like using video or really doing anything, is when I had something I needed
Speaker:to do or wanted to do. When I've just gotten to explore and
Speaker:try to make something, not because I'm going to use it, not because it's being
Speaker:driven by a deadline, but because I needed to do something. I
Speaker:wanted to do something. One example of this is about six years ago,
Speaker:we were building the Techsmith Academy and the first kind of videos that we were
Speaker:making for the Techsmith Academy are more scenario kind of based.
Speaker:There's a story that goes along with it, which meant scripting meant
Speaker:heavy. Storyboarding meant a lot of things, things that
Speaker:I had kind of done but never had really done. But when I
Speaker:gave myself time to really script and do that and then bring it
Speaker:into video production in a way that I'd never done before, I got to learn
Speaker:so much. My learning curve was like, yeah, this is really hard,
Speaker:but I learned so much faster. And I think the reality is that if
Speaker:you want to get better at anything in 2024, you need to schedule time
Speaker:for it. You need to give yourself time to play, to explore, to make stuff,
Speaker:and not necessarily, again, with the end purpose of, you're going to publish it,
Speaker:but take the time and give yourself the time to make
Speaker:something. Now, I don't know what the frequency is going to look like for that.
Speaker:That could be once a week, that could be once a month, that could be
Speaker:once a quarter. It might be more frequent than that. But I
Speaker:think find time to play, especially in video. I think video
Speaker:is a lot about watching things and saying, hey, can I make something that looks
Speaker:like that? It's about exploring structure and style and saying, like,
Speaker:what if I move these things around? And I'm not worried about ruining
Speaker:the project because it's got to get done by saying, like, let's change it
Speaker:around a little bit. Give yourself a chance to look at something and say, can
Speaker:I make that same look and feel for something for
Speaker:me, just because I want to see if I can do it? And I bet
Speaker:as you do, that you will learn so much faster. You will learn so much
Speaker:more, because that exploratory learning opportunity is going
Speaker:to give you the skills and tools that you need that are going to not
Speaker:only allow you to do those cool things, but allow you to do the other
Speaker:things, maybe better. You're going to find new ways to approach a
Speaker:problem or an issue or thinking through, like, oh, you know what? I did that
Speaker:before. Now let's apply it to this, and then you understand it better.
Speaker:So as we go into the year of 2024, as
Speaker:we shut off the darkness, as the winter solstice is upon us,
Speaker:and we go on to the newest, brightest days
Speaker:ahead, because hopefully 2024 is going to be amazing for you. I
Speaker:hope that you take that time to give yourself some time to actually explore
Speaker:the things that you're trying to do. And it could be
Speaker:video. It could be anything that you're working on. If you're doing content
Speaker:for your team, you're making instructional content, you're making
Speaker:the best widget ever out there. Explore to see what you can do.
Speaker:See how you can get better. But dedicate time to it. Don't just let it
Speaker:be a thing that happens to you. Be
Speaker:intentional. Be proactive. Be thoughtful in how you're going to do that.
Speaker:Give yourself the challenge. Because otherwise you'll never learn as quickly as you
Speaker:do if you give yourself that time. So thanks everybody.
Speaker:I really am looking forward to 2024. More great episodes of the podcast,
Speaker:more great comments, and here conversations on LinkedIn. Love to hear what you're
Speaker:thinking about. What are you going into 2024 thinking about? Are you
Speaker:thinking about something? How you're going to get better? Are you thinking about something that
Speaker:you're like, man, I want to stop doing whatever it is. Put it
Speaker:in the doobie doo down below. I'd love to hear it. And like we
Speaker:always say, I hope you take some time to level up every single day. Thanks
Speaker:everybody. Bye.
