Producer’s SkilL: Moving On

Producer’s SkilL: Moving On

by | Nov 14, 2021 | Freelancing, Podcasting

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14 NOVEMBER 2021

written by Mike

PRODUCER’S SKILL:

MOVING ON

Draft 1, draft 2, draft 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! Does it ring a bell?

Most people who work in creative industries ask the question – is this version good enough to release? 

Or should I spend a little more time on it?

Podcasting is no different. Even with the simplest podcasts, there is always something to adjust.

A little cut there, edit here, a bit of noise to clean up.

And while you do that, it feels like working, like you are doing something.

However, I would argue that after a certain point, the extra work is often counterproductive.

The question is, where is that point?

The answer is – it depends if you are an amateur or professional.

And let me make a distinction between the two. I’m not talking about skill, experience or knowledge.

When I say amateur, I mean a person creating the work for themselves, for free, or trying to start and work on a portfolio.

They can even make money from it, but it’s a side hustle, a little extra cash.

A Professional is someone who is working a job, and the work pays the bills. It is the primary source of income. So when someones ask – what do you do for a living? It is mainly that.

Before my first proper audio job – and I did small jobs here and there – I was an amateur.

I had no deadlines, pressures or incentives to finish the project. I could work on them till the end of the day.

Of course, the fear of being judged by others also played a part in that.

However, it was my job at the movie studio that opened my eyes to how professionals work.

And it was nothing like I ever expected!

Various documentaries, movies, and social media make us believe that we can sit in front of our piano, drawing board, or whatever, then wait until creative inspiration comes.

The magic happens, everyone comes in with incredible ideas, and the final product will bring us fame and fortune.

Maybe that was the case in the past when there were like two bands – Beatles, Rollings Stones – and everyone listened to them.

Today, content is king. And that means quality and quantity!

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Don’t get me wrong, and I still believe that quality wins over quantity. However, the overall winner will be someone who can do quality content with and release often.

That’s not easy.

Back to my job at the studio.

We worked on big projects, big blockbusting movies.

Before joining the team, I always thought that this kind of high profile work would be very organised, creative and magical.

When I look back at that time, there was magic to it, no doubt about it.

However, it was far from what I expected.

Chaos, stress, strict deadlines and last-minute changes were our everyday bread.

You couldn’t stop and spend hours on one tiny thing when you had a thousand other things to do – and the deadline? Yesterday morning!

I remember when I was unsure about something, I asked my boss – highly respected head of the sound mix department and one of the most brilliant people I knew. 

He said to me

‘If it sounds good, then it is good!’

Because it wasn’t just him working on the project. It was hundreds of people, and what it counted was to get the results before the deadline. 

As good as possible, of course, but still, it was a job to finish.

I took that advice and applied it to many things in my life – podcasts, of course, being the one.

When you produce podcasts as a job, it is not just you and your standards that matter. There is a team of people as well as listeners who expect the job to finish. The fact you would like to spend more time on the project doesn’t matter. The intention does not matter.

What matters is the final result.

If you’d ask me to listen to my old work – be it older episodes or projects I have done. I would cringe thinking, ‘how on Earth could I release it. I could make it so much better now!’

Yes, now. With more knowledge and experience.

But at that time, I did the best job I could do and moved on.

That’s the point. 

It is a point when you have done the best you could and know it is time to move on.

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I worked on an episode and finished it 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time, and it is just sitting there.

Do I go back and tinker? Adjust more? Perfect the mix?

No.

I know I’ve done the best job I could according to my schedule and deadlines, and I have to move on and get on to the next thing. Otherwise, I will never finish.

Or there was a different situation some time ago when I worked on a project with a deadline in mind.

It was stressful, I was doing all the production and music, and there were many fixes, drafts and re-does on the way. In addition, I was working morning to evening every day.

Then finally, we finished it! The last draft was ticked off.

However, then the deadline was moved by three weeks! This meant that suddenly, with my time to spare, I had extra four weeks!

Did I go back and start re-doing stuff, remixing or re-working my music?

No.

I’ve done the best I could at that moment, and even though I knew I could spend more time on it and tinker and adjust and improve, I didn’t go back.

It was time to move on,

I think you understand what I’m trying to say. 

When you work in the creative industry, your thinking and approach change.

It’s not about being a perfectionist and working on the project forever. It’s about doing the best you can, given the expectations, deadlines, budgets, limitations and thousands of other things you must consider.

It is the only way to stay sane and healthy. 

And don’t get me wrong. I want to go back; I want to improve these projects and make them better.

In my heart, I am still a perfectionist, but I counter it with realism and what is expected.

I do try to go above the expectations whenever I can, but I know where to stop.

The art of moving on is counterintuitive and extremely difficult, but in my opinion, it is the way to long and healthy success.

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Social Media & Podcasts

Social Media & Podcasts

by | Jul 24, 2021 | Business, Podcasting

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24 JULY 2021

written by Mike

SOCIAL MEDIA

& PODCASTS

I’m going to skip explaining what social media is and what platforms are available for podcasters.

It is safe to say that you are aware of what is happening out there, plus these platforms tend to change every few years.

What I’d like to do instead is to ask a couple of questions.

Do you need social media channels for your podcast, and if yes, which ones?

You may (or may not) be a podcast listener, and if you are, then no doubt you have a few favourite shows. 

When you want to find out more about a podcast, you either visit their website or a social media channel.

Here is how things get tricky.

Some shows have friendly websites and several social media channels (with a substantial following); other shows don’t have either!

No website, no Facebook, No Insta!

What is the deal here?

Before we move forward with the answers, remember that I’m speculating. I didn’t actually do any in-depth research, and I write these blogs for fun (and out of boredom, I guess).

Now that we got that out of the way let’s proceed.

For some podcasters, it makes sense to have an active social media channel; for others, it doesn’t. So there it is, the secret answer.

Podcasting is difficult – it takes time to write, record and produce a podcast episode. On top of that, you have to think about audio production, gear, podcast hosting and uploading the content.

With all of that, taking on social media may be detrimental to your show, as it will take time from the actual work on the podcast!

Of course, it all depends on the type of show that you want to do. If it’s something like Casefile, a continuous show, then social media makes sense.

You want to stay in touch with listeners and promote new (weekly) episodes.

However, suppose your show is a limited series with 8 or ten episodes. In that case, social media won’t be as critical – it can still be but in a different way.

Let’s say you are planning a second season. Then, keeping your social media presence alive makes sense.

However, if you are done after one series, then think about it. Will you keep posting content a year from now? Two years?

Unless, you as a producer, have your own social media account where you promote the show.

Or you have the whole network, with multiple projects going.

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As you can see, this is a bit more complicated than everybody thinks.

You also have to think about the actual content. What do you want to produce, and which platform is the most suitable for your ideas?

Looking at Casefile again, our host is anonymous, so Insta or Snapchat stories don’t make much sense. Not in a ‘classic’ mind anyway.

But if I was to start a Mike Migas podcast, then posting stories and vlogging would be much more suitable.

Then, think about what kind of content you want to post.

It would be a good idea that the social channels match the podcast. For example, if you run a financial podcast and then on social channels post videos of your dog, it doesn’t make sense for the listeners to follow you there unless there is an established connection.

A piece of content can either help or hurt your brand. Think about that!

The messaging should be consistent over all of the active channels.

It is a good idea that the feel of the social media content matches the actual feel of the podcast. So, for example, a serious show about murders posting funny images will be a mismatch.

Also, every platform is slightly different and will require a different look and content – some are all about videos, Twitter all about short messages, Insta about pictures, etc.

As you can see, at first, we may think that social media should be a no-brainer when starting a podcast. However, only after you realise how much work goes into that, you may want to stop and think if it is really worth it.

With Casefile, we didn’t really have a social media presence initially. It took us months to slowly get into the groove of things, and it is only recently that we have a cohesive strategy for that.

Your priority should be your podcast, so don’t spread yourself too thin with other channels, especially if it’s just you or two people.

Start with one or two and stick to it, and as you grow, you and when you start are getting ahead, then think of adding extra channels of communication.

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The good thing about social media is that you get direct and instant feedback, and this can be extremely useful at the beginning.

However, and this is only my opinion, the longer you do it and develop your podcasting style, social media can become a distraction.

Especially when you get a bit of traction – you start attracting trolls and negative, borderline abusive comments.

Personally, I’m not a fan of social media. I keep the apps off my phone, and I don’t use the networks for my own profile. However, I keep them for professional use.

When it comes to social media comments, we are fortunate enough to have people that moderate them. So I tend to check the initial feedback after releasing an episode – maybe for a day or two.

But then I stop and never look at them again.

One negative comment out of 100 can still affect me, even after a few years of dealing with that. Therefore I would rather not see them at all!

So bear that in mind as well when starting to post and engage on social channels!

It feels like it’s necessary to be everywhere at all times; the FOMO is real. 

However, I’d argue that we should stick to things that feel authentic and not bother what other people think or say.

The important thing is to have fun and enjoy the creative process. If you can manage that, I think that’s already a success.

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Pros and Cons of Working From Home

Pros and Cons of Working From Home

by | Jun 16, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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16 JUNE 2019

written by Mike

PROS AND CONS OF

WORKING FROM HOME

 

One of the recent changes in how people work is the focus on flexibility as well as comfort and working from home seems to tick these two boxes.

There aren’t many more comfortable places than our own homes and having an office next to your bedroom (or in your bedroom) offers a lot of flexibility with your day.

In the past, working from home meant running a business and being self-employed; however, this is also changing. More and more companies, especially ones that operate on the internet, allow their employees to do some work from home. It may be an occasional day here and there or a flexible schedule, but, I can see these options available more easily now.

Working from home still seems like a dream come through for many people, and they envy those who have that opportunity. It means having no boss, no schedule and of course no dress code as you can do your task in PJs and no one will mind a thing.

From my personal experience, after 3.5 years of working from the comfort of my home, I can say that I have a good comparison to the standard office environment.

I have had many jobs before, and in different places and even though working from home does have a lot of upside and positives, like, with everything else, it has its downsides too.

Here is a list of good and less ideal things that I found after a few years of having the office less than three steps away from my bed.

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PROS

No schedule

Matthew Walker is a scientist and professor who researches sleep, and in his book Why We Sleep, he demonstrates that we are not all wired in the same way. Naturally, some people prefer to work in the mornings, but there are also those who need a later start. Unfortunately, most companies (and services) favour a morning 9-5 routine, which for many people means a grumpy way to start a day. The obvious positive of working from home is that you can set a schedule that works for you. You can set the hours that you prefer and take as many breaks as you want.

No dress code

Not everyone likes to dress up every day, put on makeup and iron a fresh shirt. No dress code is even better than a casual one, because you can work in your PJs or your robe or wear nothing at all! No one will look at you or comment behind your back.

Services and appointment

Most people work 9-5, which means that necessary services like health appointments are either busy, closed or available for you on weekends. Same goes for gyms, restaurants and cinemas. Having your schedule means that you can book these appointments during day hours when there is little queuing. Gyms and cinemas are empty, and restaurants offer more deals as they want customers during quiet periods. It is honestly one of the best things that you gain when working from home.

 

No unnecessary meetings

Anyone who ever worked in the office understands the pain of pointless meetings, and the time wasted on gossiping near the coffee machine and just general unproductive activities that happen during office hours.

When working from home, there is none of that. When you had enough, you can stop and do what you want to do – go shopping, read a book or watch a movie. There is no need to sit idly in front of the screen staring at the clock.

No pressure

Of course, there is always a bit of pressure when working with clients however when a deadline approaches and you work alongside other people the stress feeds on itself and it is very easy to be consumed by the bubble of pressure, stress and anxiety. I find working from home much more relaxed than the office or any other work environment.

When I’m stressed, I know, it is me who spreads the pressure around, and I can’t blame anyone else.

 

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It would be to easy to list all the good things when you can sit at home and do your work. Like most things in life, working from home isn’t for everyone, and it has some consequences. Here are five things that I noted about having an office at your home that you may not enjoy.

CONS

No schedule

I am a believer that routines help to guide our days and to improve skills, develop projects and make us healthier in the long run. However, with no schedule set by managers, this goes out of the window, and it can have a negative effect on your life.

When you have flexibility with your time, there is always an opportunity to move things to another hour, another day. You can sleep how much you want, take naps, favour pleasure over work and get little done.

To combat that I have my schedule that I stick to every day and in some ways, it is more rigid that schedules I had when I worked somewhere else.

No dress code

Sitting in your robe or PJs all day may seem like a good idea; however, it can also lead to stopping in taking care of yourself. Most of us like to look good in the mirror, but when day after day, there is no reason for it, it can develop in a bad habit. It’s all about balance, I tend to work in regular clothes rather than sweatpants, but my partner likes to work in her PJs in the morning. However, we still dress up when we leave the house.

No reason to leave the house

When working from home, and especially when you are busy with work, there may be days that you spend between your four walls. Even if you live in your perfect place, be it a centre of a bustling city or a quiet residential part, you are still confined to your home office.

Add to that no need to dress up every day, leaving the house may become problematic. It’s great that you can be more productive at home, but it is so easy to sit in front of the screen all day and then watch some TV show in the evening when suddenly realising that last time you opened your front door was two days ago.

 

It gets lonely

The unnecessary meetings are annoying, and you may not like the gossiping near the coffee machine, but with time, you start to miss it. You begin to miss the chitchat with your workmates, meeting new people in person and everyday banter. Working at home gets lonely. I am lucky that my partner also works at home, but it means that we get lonely together.

The crucial bit is to go out of your comfort zone, join some activities and clubs in your area and meet people there. It is much more challenging to do when you do your work from home, and it’s harder to make new friends. 

Feedback and ideas

It is much easier to offer feedback when the person is sitting next to you.

Emails get lost, multiple time zones play their role too and, with time, you forget what you wanted to say in the first place.

Another thing is that creativity can also suffer, having multiple people in the office means bouncing ideas off each other, trying new things, listening to different opinions. When you work from home, even with a team of people over the internet, it is much harder to create that environment.

 

After a few years of working from home, I can now see that it is not for everyone. It requires discipline as well as a proper willingness to leave the house. To meet new people, you have to get out of your comfort zone, join local clubs and pick up new activities.

It is something that I didn’t think of at the beginning of my journey, and it is still something that I am working to fix in my own life. Looking at my sister and friends who lead busy lives in the centre of London, they love their office environment – the hustle and bustle of it.

My current work requires a quiet studio, so I’m glad I can do it from home and even that I’m on a different time zone than my teammates because I can do my job without too many disruptions.

However, it does get lonely, and sometimes I wish that I could attend a meeting or two, even if it were just a waste of time.

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Is Solopreneurship Worth It?

Is Solopreneurship Worth It?

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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19 FEBRUARY 2019

written by Mike

IS SOLOPRENEURSHIP

WORTH IT?

 

You may have noticed that being an entrepreneur, running a business, even freelancing became quite trendy in recent years. It seems that everyone is working towards being their own boss, having freedom of choice and control over their day. Add to that, with the development of the internet and global economy the focus is on individuality, ‘I’ has a more strength that it used to in the past.

When I talk to my grandmother, who was a refugee during communist oppression, her growing up and later life was much different from mine. It was all about community, being together and working towards goals that helped everyone around. Today, it is still about community but we all have an individual voice and a platform to project it.

Is it for better or for worse?

I can’t be a judge of that, but what I have learned is that running a team, or business works better with the ‘old days’ mindset.

Being a part of a team means compromises. It means that you won’t always get your way, that sometimes you have to admit that your ideas may not be the best solution to a problem. 

When I left my job I knew that I wanted to do something on my own – to be my own boss, make my own decisions. However, I also understood the trap, working on the business is very different from working in the business. Creating a job for yourself is easy, but creating a self-sustaining machine that works without you – not so simple.

Being part of the team means synergy – a mix of ideas that bounce off each other, that grow together and form into one solution – it’s a creative process, and it comes with pain. Egos need to be stored away, individual ambitions left outside the door.

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It doesn’t matter if I’m talking about the bigger team which I was a part of in the past, or much smaller group working on Casefile podcast. The answer is clear – I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own.

I found that being a solopreneur offers freedom, but also has blind spots. Fortunately, when we left out jobs, it wasn’t just me – it was always my partner and I. If I wasn’t sure of something – she offered her point of view and vice versa.

Even a team of just two people had an exponential advantage over just being on my own. We tend to get fixated on ideas and develop a tunnel vision that omits better solutions to the problem. Another set of eyes and ears can and often will offer a fresh take on something that drives you mad for a long time.

Of course, some work can require the alone time – art, writing, composing to name a few. Once the tasks and goals are discussed between Casefile team, we go each way and do work on our own, without supervision. That’s where the creative process of being a solopreneur helps. In the above example, no one tells me how to edit, write music or mix the podcast – that’s my area of expertise.

After the tasks are completed, we get together again and offer feedback to each other – constructive input that it’s always welcomed. There may be something that I thought was a brilliant move, but other team members don’t think so we work hard to reach a consensus and make sure that the final, in this example podcast, is polished, so it satisfies all parties involved.

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Sometimes I like being alone, and other times I hate it. When I work I close the door and can get annoyed if someone interrupts my flow. However, I also need someone – a flatmate, my partner – to be in downstairs office. Someone I can ask for a second opinion and feedback when I get stuck.

It’s not always possible to have that, but the easiest way to overcome this is the internet. Besides being a part of a fantastic team and living with creative people, I’m also a part of online communities. There are so many people around the globe that share similar ideas and have the same problems.

It’s easy to post a question, a query and ask for feedback. There is a 99% chance that someone in the past had a similar problem to yours and found a solution. It’s much faster to follow that rather than spending time on finding the fix yourself.

We are tribal ‘animals’, communities and teams thrive when they work towards the same goals, the potential of group thinking is limitless.

Think about your favourite companies, music bands, films. It’s extremely rare that these projects came to fruition without any help, with just one person doing it all. Even authors have editors, marketers, PR companies and designers that help to publish a book. It may be just one name on the cover, but you can be sure that it was a team of dedicated people that helped to put it there.

Last but not least, running and being part of a team is difficult. I’m a fan of Ray Dalio’s take on that, his ideas of meritocracy and transparency. Dictatorships rarely work out, democracy can often lead to a standstill, but meritocracy can work wonders if done right. 

I don’t want to be negative on solopreneurs and like I said before, I enjoy being alone. However, my short professional experience taught me over and over again than having a team of people is always better than trying to figure out everything on my own.

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When Do You Quit?

When Do You Quit?

by | Jan 17, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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17 JANUARY 2019

written by Mike

WHEN DO YOU QUIT?

Running a business is hard, running a startup is even more difficult. But, you know what is even harder – running a failing business.

I heard somewhere that it is more rewarding to run a successful business that may not be in your area of interests than running a failing one, that you are passionate about. Reading through business books, blog and articles you may often stumble upon contradicting information. For some reason, catchy-sounding lines are the basis for the whole ideology. 

Have you ever read something in the lines of?

Fail fast.

Failure is a learning opportunity.

Don’t give up, push through mistakes.

Persistence is the key.

It’s always darkest before dawn, and it’s always hardest before the finish line.

I’m not saying I don’t agree with the above. I do think persistence is the key, and we shouldn’t frown upon failure. However, is it always the case? Is persistence always a virtue? A quote that I think could be the best answer to the questions is:

Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.

Most of us would agree that putting more money and effort into a failing project is not the smartest idea; however, we all do it. On the other hand, we read sayings like ‘most businesses take around 18 months to be profitable’.

Which one is true? When do you stop, when do you keep pushing?

The first step to understand the situation is understanding a common sunken cost fallacy.

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Sunken cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that, in summary, means an irrational clinging to things that have already cost you something. When you invested time, money and effort into something, it’s hard to let go. The aversion to loss and pain is strong and can distort your judgment.

The fallacy is around whenever you look. Relationships, careers, businesses – people are afraid to quit, even though the tough decision would work out for the better in the long run.

To know where to cut costs, exit the investment or quit the project, I have learned to look at the problem from different angles.

Would I invest in the business right now?

Would I choose the same career right now?

Do I want to do this a year from now?

I learned my lessons from many projects I started and quit, some in time, some a bit too late. However, I can guarantee that with time you will get better at noticing the signs, you will see if it’s worth pursuing your goal. I don’t want to end on a vague note so here are the most recent examples of ‘quitting’ that come to my mind.

A year or so ago, my brother, my partner and I decided to start an Amazon FBA business. After weeks of research, we found our first niche, the product and the manufacturer. We scouted the competition, we had a name and started working on website and packaging. We paid for samples, we have done tests and were ready to go.

However, we weren’t 100% happy with the numbers. We knew it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but we were so far already in the process. The decision? We scrapped the whole idea and decided to start from scratch.

Some older projects were a YouTube channel I started with my girlfriend – we run it for three months and shut it down.

I started a blog on sound engineering and decided to go Adsense route – to make money from advertising and grow the site. After months of creating the site and content – I scrapped it altogether.

We’ve started a design agency with a focus on fitness, which we ended only after a couple of months and working with few clients.

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There were many others, but you can see the pattern. The good thing about it is that from each project we had something that we could recycle into something else. The newest ideas usually stop at the research phase, in the past, it took us too long until we decided to pause.

I also have an unhappy example of a close family member who didn’t want to stop and with every loan, every contribution he made to his failing business it became harder and harder to quit. It eventually led to bankruptcy and debt.

Quitting is not as bad as it sounds, especially when you understand that it is better to pivot. Of course, with time and experience, it becomes much clearer when to do that. There are so many opportunities out there, the fear of missing out is real – diving straight into a new project may not always be the best way to do that.

For me, initial research is essential, if something feels off that this stage – it won’t be much better later on. Then it’s all about setting goals and sticking to them, give it time to develop but don’t go overboard. Some businesses can be profitable from the start, and most take some time to get there especially when you add the cost of labour, first promotion, marketing and growth.

Not too mention that first profit will usually be invested back into the business, therefore it can be difficult to wait that long.

There are few ways to do it though, starting a project on the side while working a job is one, getting investment is another option. However have it planned before and be always ready for the worst case scenario, because rarely things go our way.

Just a few days ago we got an email that prompted us to re-think the whole strategy for a new idea. Everything was ready, everything was in place, and yet the ‘black swan’ event appeared and put us on our toes. Always be prepared for the adjustment.

If you plan to test it out for three months and after that, you do not see the results, it’s time to re-think the strategy. It’s a delicate balance to know when to stop or keep going, in the end, it comes down to experience and doing it over and over again. At least that’s what works for my team and me.

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