Skedsheet Blog

We make flash movies to explain how our software works, and how to use it.  Over the time that I’ve been doing them, I’ve gotten ok at it.  There’s still lots of room for improvement, but here’s what I’ve learned.

1) Use good tools
I’ve got decent headset to record audio – a Logitech headset with a noise-cancelling microphone.  It wasn’t even expensive – under $20.  The noise cancelling helps because I don’t have a soundproof room, and there are always slight background noises.

To record, I use Camtasia Studio software, which costs about $300.  It can do pretty much everything I want – the only complaint I have is that for long, full-screen videos there’s some problems synching the audio tracks.  Supposedly this can be fixed with a better computer or their latest upgrade.  I used different software before, but ran into bugs that were time-consuming and frustrating.  The other company went out of business, too – which didn’t help with bug fixes or support.

2) Be yourself
I still really like the idea of having a professionally produced video where  a guy with an English accent narrates in a deep baritone voice, but it’s much more useful to do them myself.  Both because of the expense, and the fact that we try to make many, short videos.

Being yourself is a little scary at first, but once you over the initial embarrassment, it’s actually very liberating.  I realized that I’ll always have the California informality that I acquired in college and living at the beach – and as long as I can provide value, nobody will be mad at my accent.

3) Make it short
Edit, edit, edit!  A video over 2 minutes starts to get really boring, and the longest help video I’ve recorded (typing sample Visual Basic code) is still under 8 minutes – which is an eternity.  Just talking fast isn’t enough.  In fact, you still need to be slow enough to be understood, so you must limit the content of your recording to be a single, coherent thought.

4) Write a script
Maybe other folks are great extemporaneous speakers, but I’m not one of them.  For me to make a video, first I write a script.  Then I try recording it, and listen to myself.  Based on that, I edit the script.  Then, I repeat that process a few times.  Finally, when I’m happy with what I plan to say, I can go to the next step.

5) Practice
I usually have my script visible while I’m doing the “real” recording, but to make it sound natural and smooth, you’ve got to practice.  After I do a few recordings to make sure that the script is okay, I go through it a few times as practice.  Then, I start recording, and usually flub it a bit.  If it’s  just a short mess-up, I keep going to fix it when I’m editing, but more often than not, I just try starting from the beginning.  After saying the same script 5-10 times, it starts to become ingrained, and hopefully then I can concentrate on showing some emotion and enthusiasm in my voice, rather than worrying about the details of what I want to say.

Of all of these, I think keeping it short is the hardest, but also the most useful.  It makes it easier to write a script, and much easier to practice.  But, you need them all for a video to sound good, or at least decent.

Here are five books that don’t typically make it to the list of business how-to’s, but are all inspirational to me.  They’re pretty short, entertaining, and a few are free.  While each one’s a bit different, they have  underlying lessons about being persistent, methodical, and determined.

5: The Manual
The KLF’s pamphlet is a sarcastic, funny expose of how one band got some fame and fortune.  Despite the tone, there’s a lot to be learned about having an audacious goal and going for it without a safety net.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as easy as they describe, but it is enjoyable to read.

4: Zipper: exploration in novelty
How is it possible that the zipper took so long to get from idea to being everywhere?  In today’s world where you have the feeling that your products are out of date after 6 months, it’s amazing that the it took decades for the zipper to get popular.  Even though the first “modern” zipper was invented around 1913, it wasn’t until some slick advertising and marketing in the 1930’s found the right target – kids.  It’s not always your product that needs work – you’ve got to find the right market, too.

3: The Autodesk File
This was the book that made me want to start a business.  I remember reading it while I was in grad school, and starting to dream.  John Walker’s hyper-organized documentation gives a description of a bunch of guys who just get started without a real product or strategy.  It’s a lesson in how to build a company around people.  If you changed the 80’s era technical stuff, this could be written today.

2: The Game: penetrating the secret society of pickup artists
It’s weird, but I see lots of situations as analogies to sales.  When I read this book; in addition to being amused and a voyeur, I saw some guys who apply some very specific rules of how to act in order to close the deal.  The way they get good is by practicing constantly, and trying to out-do each other.  When I’m talking to customers and prospects, I wish I had as much discipline as guys in this book.

1: Tommy Boy
Okay, it’s not a book.  Before doing this, I didn’t have much sales experience.  Watching Chris Farley take over as a business owner and bumbling his way to success was surprisingly instructional.  The real-life lessons I learned are that authenticity and persistence really do pay off.

I just re-read them all.  With skedsheet we’re doing something new, and it feels good to remember how much hard work it takes to do that.

I’m working on a plan for marketing skedsheet.  We’re trying to build marketing into the product by making it easy to use and easy to share, but people need to hear about it before they can use it or share it.  I’m outlining some steps in our marketing plan, and then will try to fill in the details later.

Phase 1:  No product yet.

1. Figure out who is our target audience
2. Identify places to talk about skedsheet
3. Build a clean, functional website
4. Write articles about the problems we solve

Phase 2: have a product

1. Make a demo
2. Do some news releases
3. Advertise
4. Start talking about skedsheet

These ideas are from a variety of sources, but I like Guerrila Publicity a lot.  It would be nice to turn this plan into a spreadsheet and a calendar, so hopefully my marketing plan can become an example skedsheet, too.

If you’re like me, there’s a good chance that you’re using some spreadsheets, and at least one of those spreadsheets isn’t really calculating anything – it’s just a list of things with dates and some other details.

At work, we’ve got one that we use to track accounts receivable – I suppose there’s a feature in QuickBooks that could do it, but because of how we do payments, it seems easier to track each customer’s outstanding balance, payment dates, and due dates on a separate spreadsheet.

In my personal life, I’ve got an excel spreadsheet of activities that I can take my kids to. I’ve got a list of everything that’s remotely appealing to us on a monthly basis, so I have one place to review my choices. I usually don’t plan ahead much, so it’s nice to see what’s open when I need to entertain them on a moment’s notice.

If you’re a construction subcontractor, based on the thousands that we’ve seen via JobTracker, you probably have a spreadsheet of the various jobs you’re working on with dates for the installs, measures, or production you’re doing. There are also columns for the details of the jobs you’re working on – colors, materials, and other specifications. In addition to the spreadsheet, you have some kind of calendar (maybe outlook or a whiteboard) to get an overview of what’s going on every day.

From customers, friends, and family it seems like there are lots of other folks that need a skedsheet: recruiters who’re juggling candidates, event planners trying to coordinate their vendors and guests, and engineers tracking a large development project that needs to pull together at the end.

If you’re already using a spreadsheet and a separate calendar, you can use a skedsheet.