 This video is a recording of my recent appearance on the chitchat across the pond podcast with Alison Sheridan And it was a great conversation that I think you'll enjoy Hello, welcome to take one tech. My name's Alec So this is a bit of a different video to my usual tutorials because it's a recording of the appearance that I've literally just made on Alison Sheridan's chitchat across the pond podcast and This is quite meaningful for me because it's been around about 16 years since I started using the Mac And Alison was one of the people that I listened to when trying to find my way around the Mac for the first time way back in 2006 With the Nosella cast and also the Mac roundtable podcast and various other things that she's done And if you want to know a thing or two about consistency Alison can probably teach you a thing or two about that as well I'll leave her to explain but first of all welcome Alison And do you want to tell us a little bit about the chitchat across the pond podcast Pod feet and all of the other podcasts you do as well Oh, I'd hate to plug my own stuff, you know Alec that that's something I'd really hate to do but Pod feet.com is a is a site with a whole bunch of podcasts on it My flagship show is called the Nosella cast which is a show that's been going on Every single week for coming up on 17 years in may it'll be 17 years And I have never missed an episode in 17 years, which is just crazy coming up I should not say all the way there Yeah So that's a solo show with some guest participants from time to time But then I have an offshoot of that which is chitchat across the pond where I just talk to people I find interesting in technology That's been going on one of my this is episode 712. So it's been going on for quite a while too It's it's an odd show just because of how it evolved Chitchat across the pond is kind of an overarching show of two other shows So there's chitchat across the pond light, which is what you'll be watching or hearing now And then there's uh programming by stealth, which is also under chitchat across the pond But that's a propeller beanie nerdy show where barbou shots is teaching the audience to program in an audio podcast We've been doing it for I don't know four or five years And it just sort of evolved and if I'd done it from the beginning I would not have two shows under one name But uh chitchat across the pond light is the uh the lighter stuff It does get nerdy, but nothing nearly as nerdy as programming by stealth Is that it does indeed I've listened to some of the stuff you do with Bart and it's uh fantastic Yeah, we have we have a lot of fun together. We've been podcasting together for probably 14 or 15 of the 17 years So it's uh, yeah, he's he's my pal. He's the best guy on on the no silicast He does a segment every other week called security bits and that's a huge part of that show too. So great stuff So, uh, shall we get into the interview? Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's switch hats. So I'm interviewing you now great stuff That's a little introduction for my channel. So let's now pick up with the podcast interview itself And I should say I will of course leave links to Alison's website and all of the places that you can find her down in the description as well Well, it's that time of the week again It's time for chitchat across the pond this is episode number 712 for january 20th 2022 And I'm your host Alison Sheridan this week. Our guest is the wizard alec johnson alec. Welcome to the show Thank you very much for having me. Alison. It's a pleasure to be here All right, so alec is the host of the youtube channel take one tech He does amazing how-to guides on stream deck hazel keyboard maestro And many of the basic features of the mac operating system when I first found his youtube video tutorials I just started devouring him because I was learning so much and I think I know everything About the mac and everything But I just got on a stream deck and he had these great videos that were just right to the point jumped in No faffing about just just got right to what I wanted to learn And uh, so I asked alec would he come on the show? Because I wanted him to talk about how he creates the show and are these amazing tutorials They're unique in the style and quality of the content the way he lays things out And I didn't even realize how unique they really were if you can forgive me using how unique as a phrase Because you do some things that are just Bananas in my mind So, um before we dig into this show and how you do what you do Can you give us some background on yourself? You're like your tech background? How long you've been a mac person where you're from that sort of thing? Yeah, sure. So, uh, My background's in engineering so mechanical engineering But done quite a few different things over the course of my my career I moved to thailand and from the uk originally but moved to thailand 16 years ago For a long time over here had an architectural design and construction company But i've always used sort of tech obviously as a a core part of everything i'm doing And it was actually the same time that I moved over to thailand was when I switched from pc to mac I was a vista casualty for windows And it was around about that time that I was obviously looking for ways to expand my mac knowledge And that's when I first came across uh, no silicast the mac round table and all the other great mac podcasters To help me get up to speed with with the mac and obviously once you've uh gone down the mac route That's it for life then isn't it so I you know, I told alec when we were talking before he started recording that I feel like I'm meeting an old friend I mean, we have so much in common. I didn't know you're a mechanical engineer until just now I'm a mechanical engineer. Yeah, I mean this is this is getting spooky It's always good when two geeks meet Exactly exactly now the only way I can tell you're in thailand is we have a little bit more of a lag than uh That we usually do it must be you're so far around the world there that that's uh That's what's causing it About the other side Yeah, yeah about as far away as you can be so you've been a mat person for how long then would that be I've run with 16 years Okay, okay, right run. It's so that the only windows I ever used was vista So you're a vista casualty and I I only dip my toe in once into windows and I I apparently picked the worst possible time to check it out The thing I like to say about windows is that I never felt like I could make it sing You know, I could get there I could get from a to b and I could get it done But I just felt like I was just plotting forcing my way through that I couldn't I never got it You know just to do my bidding Yeah, well, I think a lot of windows users who sort of grew up on windows or that's the only thing they know They think that that's the way it has to be and then it's only when you sort of come from that world to try and make that you think Oh, why was I suffering all that time? I didn't realize there was a much easier way to do things the logical way Yeah, I'm hoping a listener Jill From the north woods who contributes a lot to the show is trying to make the transition from windows to the mac And she's where I was with windows is she can do things with the mac But it's still plotting for her so it's going to be interesting to watch her her journey and see whether she gets there But this isn't about Jill we want to talk about you so You create these video tutorials and the first thing I was really impressed with was the layout of the videos So, uh, I tend to do video when I do videos for screencast online. It's just the content That's all you see I've also seen people do a talking head that's kind of superimposed over the video And it's kind of fun because you get to see the person but it does distract I think from the video itself, but you've done something completely different Can you describe the layout and maybe get into how you do that? Yeah, sure. So, um, it's it's it usually starts with sort of me talking to camera So no content on the screen initially just just me, you know, explaining what we're going to be doing I do find that it's useful sometimes to have that sort of eye contact and interaction when, you know, somebody's trying to explain something to you And then I'll maybe if it's a software package, then I'll still be on the screen But sort of over to one side. So I've changed the sort of layout of my my video Scenes if you like the different templates, but It's often, you know a picture of a mac with the content on the screen And then me over to one side But then sometimes I'm demonstrating some piece of hardware like the stream deck, for example So I also have a camera above the desk that points down at the stream deck So that can show how that works And then other times I'll maybe have all three So if I'm demonstrating, for example, how to set up the stream deck It's sometimes useful to be able to see the hardware device and the software application and then Have me being able to gesture And explain what I'm talking about as well You know So when you described how you show your your screen, I think that's what makes it I don't know classy is the best word I can come up with for it is you have this graphic of what looks like a An iMac screen, for example, it's not a really a photo. I don't think but it's got the It's got the foot of the stand and and it just looks it just looks really clean and it's like, okay That's the mac This is where you are and then for the first time I saw you pull your screen your stream deck out and it it showed up down below and I'm not sure all videos would really require that but the cool thing about the stream deck is you have an on-screen thing that you're messing with But those changes that you're making in the in the app are also happening on a piece of hardware at the same time So it's really cool to see those together. That's really powerful Yeah, I try not to overuse it But it certainly does have its benefits to be able to show the two things at once so that people can see sort of how one thing's relating to another at times Yeah, and the and the stream deck pushing those buttons is changing what's going on on that graphic of the of the computer monitor So having those three pieces cemented together if you've never used a stream deck I can imagine it would be crucial to to understanding what was going on. Yes. Yeah Yeah, and I mean the stream decks just uh, I should say as you mentioned it there it is a sort of integral part to How I do everything as well on the uh, not just in producing the videos but on on the mac I mean stream deck was originally for uh live streamers to do things on their live streams and you know Bring up comments or things like that if they're doing a youtube stream or something like that Um, but I've just found that it's become It's become sort of my main productivity tool really because I can link it in with things like keyboard maestro and Different things on the mac to actually get stuff done on the mac as well Yeah, um, I'm gonna be doing a whole thing on stream deck on on i've been working on my title I think it's gonna be something along the lines of I didn't need a stream deck until I did Or or something like that because so many people have told me I needed a stream deck and I could never figure out Why but then my friend pat dangler loaned me one and I started playing with it and it was clumsy And I couldn't really see what the great value was and then I found your videos I went oh it can do that. Oh it can do that. Hey, wait a minute. I could connect this and this and this Oh my gosh Now I you couldn't tear it out of my cold dead finger So I went out and bought my own just a couple of the days ago And and some of them are as simple as I'm going to press a button right now and turn off the light on my face Oh, look there. It's back. There's a light switch on the lamp, but it's still easier to do it on this stream deck Yeah, one once you get one you'll realize the the world of possibilities that open up for it And incidentally there is a an app that you can download a stream deck app for the phone So you can try it out or try out the functionality before actually going out and buying one and normally that is a That kept me from buying the stream deck Because it was so clumsy to get out the phone Open it up do something with it when I already had keystrokes for things that I was convinced That was the thing that convinced me. I didn't need one. You got you right, right? Having the buttons right on my desk that was that was much better I totally agree. You can't beat the the sort of tactile feel of the the buttons and it's not the it's not the same experience but It gives you an idea of how you can sort of create actions and the sort of actions that you can create and so I mean, I tried the mobile version for two days and then ordered the real one because It was it was what sort of I was just like, let me just see kind of what the interface is like how it works and What it can do, but then yes, I immediately pretty much went and bought the hardware version I think By the way, Alec has a thing that called buy me a coffee and the one video of yours that made me buy you a coffee Which is how I tricked you into talking to me today I gotta remember that one was uh that I um Oh, you showed how to Use text expander with stream deck But the but the intermediary needed to be a keyboard maestro But there was a tool you needed to download To the stream deck in order to talk to keyboard maestro in order to talk to to uh text expander And that sounds really complicated, but you watch alec for I don't know five or ten minutes and you're like, oh, okay I just install this connect that connect that okay now i'm done and and I use a lot of text expander snippets so being able to have that in my my stream deck That was that was worth the uh the coffee. I bought you Well, thank you very much for the coffee and I've just got to say when I saw it the name was just pod feet. I thought I know that name Very nice surprise Well, that was well for you to say you knew me. I mean, okay, we got to stop the fan fest here So talk to me about how now you've got these three different things going on in the video at the same time You've got the view of your face. You've got uh the the screen displayed on a fake iMac And then you've got an area below when you need it for when you want to show something physical How do you build all of that? How are you doing all those three things at the same time? What is your software? What's your setup doing? Okay, so it's a program called ecam live, which is basically live production software for the mac A lot of people may have heard of a software called obs open broadcast open broadcast software Which a lot of live streamers use and that is cross platform open source The trouble with cross platform is you often get the the worst of both worlds Whereas obviously a dedicated platform software often you can get better results and Ecam live just got great developers behind it It's just two guys a lot of people can't believe that it is because of the the rate of development of it two twins and kent and glenn And it's just it's just such an amazing application and it's Very sort of mac like in in its layout and the way it works and the way you can do all of this stuff But yeah, it's just a really really nice piece of software that basically you can build out different scenes So when I was talking about I have a you know shot of me talking to camera Then there's the one of the different screenshots So I can just sort of switch between the different views if I've got a sort of desktop view I can switch to a different desktop view and move things around on the screen Or if I want to go to a top down camera Then I've got a top down shot that I can show what's going on from the top And so I'm able to do do all of this sort of live as I'm demonstrating to be able to show the different elements And so ecam live is the secret source For the audio only audience as he was saying that it switched to his desktop and you could see him moving things around And then it switched to a camera that apparently is pointing down at his keyboard And he was able to show the physical thing as well And then you've got like a layout created that that squirts all three of those into their respective places on that single screen That's right. Yes. So you start with a blank canvas and you can just build up different scenes So you can show, you know, where you want all of the different things on your screen And then yes, they're they're just labeled as different scenes and then using the stream deck You're just basically pressing buttons to switch to those different Scenes and then you can add in things like graphics Overlays things like that and sound effects. So you can bring in little sort of lower thirds things like that Just with the touch of a other button. So It's it's quite for the audio audience He's now he's now putting up and enjoy this video give it a thumbs up and enjoying my content buy me a coffee He's spamming us right now So we use meme alive to do this which is another Professional tool that that allows us to do some of that But what's interesting is how quickly and easily you're doing that and I'm guessing I'm spitball in here You're pressing buttons on the stream deck to cause those changes in ecamm live. That's right. Yes So you can assign all of those different things to buttons the of all of the the third party plugins for stream deck Ecamm live has got by far the most comprehensive. I mean, I don't know exactly how many actions It's like 30 or 40 different actions that they've got So basically anything that you can do in or almost anything you can do in ecamm live You can do with a stream deck button that's already been created for it. So Okay, so Is this sort of similar to an app having hooks for apple script or for Shortcuts now having the hooks already built Yes. Yeah, very much so. I mean a lot of a lot of apps now are having these building these plugins for stream deck and loop deck is a very sort of similar device as well But yeah having the things built so you can just control them directly from From stream decks very useful Okay, okay. So you're not spending a lot of time goofing around trying to Manage a piece of software to push different buttons by using the stream deck That allows you to just keep smoothly going as you're switching ideas on on on the show, right? That's it. Yes. Yeah, and like I say there all the actions are sort of pre-built So you just sort of dragging them in and then deciding, you know for the change scene You just it's a drop down that's linked to the app So you can just say which particular scene you want that button to switch to And then yeah, it's very intuitive So you must have spent a lot of time up front Building things to allow you to be more efficient. What is it? There's always the Chinese proverb There's always time to stop and sharpen the axe Yes, like you think oh, I can't stop because I'm in such a hurry But if you take the time to sharpen the axe then you're going to be faster more efficient later Yeah, definitely. I mean when I started my my youtube channel, which was 15th of may last year I basically spent like a month beforehand just getting everything set up for it. So Yeah, working figuring out different scenes different scene layouts and all that sort of stuff and yeah got all that work done up front I'm still tweaking it. It's still an evolution. But yeah, it was definitely some work up front to just get that all set up, right? I can't believe it's our anniversary date is almost the same may 13th is when the no-sella cast started I wish a happy anniversary every year together So a big part of what you do is you do a lot of keyboard maestro also, right? Yes, yeah, I mean I use that just I've been using that for almost as long as I've been using the mac I forget exactly when I Realized that that was a thing but yeah, it's it's one of those that with Text expander and a couple of other tools are kind of like core tools that I use for Productivity and so when I started the channel It was all the idea was it was going to be around sort of mac productivity and mac applications. And then I got the stream deck to Use for the video production and then that became the focus of a lot of my videos just because I fell in love with it so But the fact that it integrates so well with keyboard maestro means that lots of the things that you can do with You know previously with just keyboard shortcuts So you can now do all sorts of fancy stuff with linking the stream deck to keyboard maestro to do those keystrokes You know, I I don't have obviously near as many things in keyboard maestro as you do because I've only started using it But maybe a year ago But one of the reasons I didn't think I needed a stream deck was because I didn't I know keystrokes I'm a keystroke girl. I just you know, I'm all over the keystrokes But first of all, I'm running out of keystrokes to to assign as I get better at it I'm like, okay now it's I'm gonna have to hold on the q and the zero at the same time or something But I was like, I already know the keystroke for that, but I don't know what it is But there's something easier about pressing a button than using the keystroke and It's already in my head, but apparently there's a translation that happens I'm doing some sort of coordinate transformation to get it into my fingers and that is just enough Cognitive load that it's easier to press the button on the on the stream deck and I don't I can't explain that So I As I say had architectural design and construction company over here and with the the architecture side of stuff I was used to using one hand on the mouse on the other hand on a 3d mouse 3d space mouse I could move in all different directions and then having Little buttons on the side of that so that basically with my hand on two different devices I could still just do everything that I needed to do on the computer So the thing about keystrokes is I do use keystrokes over stream deck if I'm typing and I've got both hands on the keyboard But as soon as you've got one hand off the keyboard They can sometimes be a bit more tricky You're moving your hand back and forth from the mouse And so the thing that I find is quite good about the stream deck is it's back to that thing of having One hand on one device and one hand poised over another one And so if I'm doing stuff that isn't sort of typing heavy Then that's where the stream deck really comes into its own because I've just got The buttons there that I can just press with a single tap no Modifier keys or anything like that. So that's where I find it useful for me Yeah, that that is very interesting. I think one of the other things is it's if you're visual at all I think it's maybe a better way There's a lot of people who don't like keystrokes That just it just isn't a thing You know, I've tried to convince a couple of people to use text expander and they're just and they're just like No, that doesn't do anything for me. It's like how I couldn't live without a text expander So I think our brains are different But I have a keyboard maestro macro the gentleman named mike price wrote for me and his His name in the chat room is grumpy the one of the seven dwarves So he wrote this fabulous keyboard maestro macro that does just Eliminates a really annoying step in putting chapter marks in for me And so I made a button and I put the seventh seven dwarf grumpy on the button And so my brain thinks grumpy first then it goes. Okay command control option shift h for hindenburg You know, that's way more work than going grumpy and I press the button You know, I can see it and I don't have to think about what it is because I associate it with mike Yeah, it's definitely got that more tactile feel. It's also good for when when you're creating new macros and things like that in keyboard maestro Then you you don't have to build that muscle memory quite so much because you have got that visual cue of the The icon on the stream deck you can create something that That matches up with whatever it is the macro is for I really liked one of the videos that I watched that you did was So when you when you're playing with the stream deck you you want to put little icons in you could put just words If you're just a word person some of my stuff just does say it has the name of what it is because I know it by that But you need little icons and and I was kind of doing some icon stuff And I was downloading icon sets and they were like they weren't really what I wanted And then I came across you've got a video on how to use keynote to create icons that mean something to you and That was again, you're just using all of the max stuff. You're you pull all the pieces together to say You know, I could do this in a different application. I mean it could be done in powerpoint or whatever But I know keynote so I'm going to do it in keynote and you walk through the steps and This I'm I'm really a fangirl here. You can tell but you don't you don't fool around at the beginning of your videos There's not like three minutes of you telling me what you're going to tell me and telling me how you're going to Tell me and how I should subscribe a blah blah blah you go. Okay today. We're going to talk about this All right, let's go And and yet you also don't start in the middle You know a lot of people start with a really complicated setup that they already know and they're adding to it You're you're like, okay. Here's an empty keynote document. All right. We want to go to the slide master Let's go into there and let's start to work on this and I really appreciate the simplicity of that and using tools that we Maybe already have Well, thank you. I mean, yeah the the the whole sort of my Thing behind the channel is I'm a lot of people's go to tech guy And so I always just imagine that I'm explaining to somebody In my life, you know who I'm I'm just trying to explain how to do something and the steps that you need to go through So although sometimes I may have covered stuff in previous videos as well Unless it's a series of videos where there is a distinct sort of flow to them I always do try and come at each one with you know, let's Tell somebody how to go from you know a to b with with all the steps that they need And I leave all of the you know like and subscribe. Usually I leave that all till the end Yeah, yeah that can wait, but it's so many videos. They just seem to waste so much time doing the setup And I think I do that in my own in my own podcast My stories always start with 20 minutes of why I started doing this and then I tell you what I'm going to tell you So I don't practice what I like, but that's me In keyboard maestro one of the things I've found to be a problem is people start in the middle on that Like that's the one where people already have a lot of stuff built up And I started watching your beginning one and I think that's going to help me get more foundational information And that's that's kind of the goal of where you started Yes, I mean, so I have got the beginner's guide to keyboard maestro Which I've still got to finish that and go on to the intermediate and advanced So I haven't made all of the whole series yet But yeah, that is definitely one that is a More of a series where I'm going to go through a whole sort of a bit like I did with the stream deck videos Where it is a kind of chain of videos that you follow through from start to finish To be kind of almost like a a sort of course really So if we went to take one tech on youtube, we'd be able to see this as a here's the series on on Stream deck here's the series on keyboard maestro. Have you done them on a text expander? I've got one that was basically about the My core productivity apps so of which text expander was one I think I've done about two or maybe three videos on text expander But I intend to do a whole sort of series on all of these productivity tools that I use so They're still more to come Well, that's that's what's fun when you've got so many you want to do That's when you can tell you've got an enthusiasm to keep going I've got about 150 in my omnifocus list at the moment, so videos to make So I haven't talked yet about why I called you a wizard Explain the title of your of your channel So it's called take one tech and the reason is that I do all of my videos Live to tape as it were live to disk It recorded in in one take and using ecam live is the thing that allows me to do that because I can just go from You know start to finish bringing my Title sequence the music that I have in the beginning where I do my little intro The title sequence then I do all of my sort of demos and things like that and going all the way through to my end scene Where it's got my sort of outro, you know watch these videos next that sort of thing And it's just all done in one take using ecam live and so Sure, sure the ecam live stuff makes it easier But I don't believe it's possible. I really really truly don't believe this is the wizard part I don't believe you can actually do this because You're you're talking for 20 or 30 minutes On a highly technical topic. You're stepping through You know methodical steps that are clearly well thought out well laid out ahead of time It's not possible to do that one take it can't be done I like I make videos for screencast online video tutorials, and I think they're fantastic They're really really good and there's probably I don't know 150 Separate pieces strung together to make a 20 30 minute video or 30 40 minute video There's no way I could do that and and these are usually they're on topics that I know like the back of my hand It's not like I don't know them. I just How How do you do this? It's impossible I mean, do you have notes in front of you that you're actually Stepping through to remember what you wanted to say next I I don't have um, I don't have notes or a script. I just sort of think in advance though about like the You know, I have to give it some thought because I've got to obviously get the you know If I if I'm talking about a piece of software then I'll have the web browser open with the website I'll have somewhere else on my screen where you know with stream deck for example have the stream deck app open So make sure everything is all positioned By the way, I speed up that with I use a moon for window management on the mac So what I have with my stream deck is I've got a button that when I press it It opens everything that I need to be opened and then it organizes it all in the right place And so I can be kind of up and running quite quickly with that so that sort of speeds up the workflow The reason why I came to this this Point of doing videos this way was because I was creating course content for some of the other Businesses that I'm involved in and it was I was I was really my own worst enemy when it comes to editing because if I knew that I could edit I would retake things multiple times And then when I did come to edit it. I was not the best editor in any case So so then I was making life hard for myself with all of these extra edits And so I would be spending an awful lot more time on the editing than on the production And I just I didn't really enjoy the process and I thought I just need to get down to doing this in a in a More streamlined way And so that's when I started looking into this possibility of using something like ecamp to do it all in in one take The way that I approach it though is I do think as I say thinking that I'm just Explaining it to you know a friend a colleague or something like that and taking them through the steps that I would would take And I'm also mindful of the fact that I'm a lot more critical of myself than other people Generally are and I think that's the same for everyone So I call myself a recovering perfectionist because I would always before want everything to be absolutely perfect And that would actually hold me back from creating the content Um, and so what I realized is that actually if I just get things out there There's plenty of mistakes in my videos, you know in terms of oms and r's and things like that That if I was editing I would want to go and take all of those little Things out and sometimes I miss things as well in the video So, you know, if I had it formally scripted then that might Eliminate some of that, but I just found that my flow when I was trying to read from scripts wasn't very good either so Yeah, it's just a case of practicing and that was the whole point of the channel really to practice this process And you've been doing these take one tech you've done. How many videos in a row? Every week it's um, it was actually I I wanted to aim for doing it 100 videos in my first 100 days Um, so I did days. Yep So I did I did achieve that and then now the goal is to carry on basically and do 365 in a year So basically a video a day now. I'm not aiming to record a video a day It's just a sort of average over that time. That's kind of my my goal So I am a little bit behind with that at the moment, but um, uh, yeah It's just a case of setting a goal and then there's nothing like a goal to motivate you What I like about your you called the mistakes, but where you'll I don't know Do some little little flub and you make that little giggle like you just did you? You know, it's just you're just like, yep. Well, okay moving on but What I still can't wrap my brain around is how you tell a cohesive story from beginning to end of how to use a tool I understand using moon. I've got a button that does that, you know That's that's all my my stuff up right where I want it Only because you showed me how to do it But it's on the stream deck now, you know But I had a keyboard maestro macro that puts everything we're supposed to do and it does my lighting and all that kind of stuff I'm not even doing video of myself I'm just doing video of the screen and I've got an outline and a layout maybe I do too much planning And it's because I have that planning but I just I need to know where the story is going to go I need to know where the beginning middle and end is going to be I need to know what the detailed steps are that I don't want to miss And make sure I'm teaching everything about that tool I'm just trying to come up with excuses for why I can't do what you do I think you hit on something there though Because I always used to find that when I did have stuff before that was doing where I'd write a script for it So some of the other video production stuff I was trying to do before and killing myself with the editing In those things I would tend to write a script and so the the thing that I found with that for me was If I deviated from the script then I would feel I was lost and I would I would you know have to get back to it Whereas with not having a script. I'm never off script And so I don't have to worry about that sort of aspect of it So that was from for me personally that was kind of quite liberating to think well I don't have a particular script that I'm working to So I guess and so I don't really do a script for the the video tutorials But I do have For example, I just did one on parallels toolbox and there's 40 separate tools in parallels toolbox and I did about I don't know 27 of them in 40 minutes So for each one of those I needed to go through it And find out what was the important thing that it could do and how did it do it? You know, were there any switches that needed to be flipped to make this do what you wanted to do Was there a setting file or something like that? So that's all in a and an I thoughts Uh Mind map. So in that mind map, I've got this is the name of the tool This is what the problem it solves and this is what you got to remember to say There's no way I'm going to remember 27 tools in my head every one of those things. I just Even though I use these tools all the day long. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the tool I don't know how you keep it all in your head to do it in order. I mean I could do I used to always tell people people say oh making video tutorials is easy I said no making good video tutorials is hard Making just turning on a microphone and a video camera and starting to yak is is that's easy But you're doing both I I I do give it it's not like I go into it with no thought whatsoever though I do go through those steps that you're talking about Um as well and thinking about, you know, what I've got to say So I do I do I don't just go in it totally unplanned I think about this sort of things that I'm going to talk about and especially if I'm doing your head about Yeah, yeah, unless I'm doing something like a software update where there is lots of different So I've done videos about software updates for different things So in that case if there is like a list of features that have come out Then I'll definitely just have a list of those to refer to to make sure I do cover all of those Um, but generally for the the regular tutorials then I just uh Go into it and hope for the best I think you're an absolute wizard. I don't uh I don't even well, how long is an average one of your videos? They're around about 25 30 minutes So my aim was to do 100 videos that were averaging 30 minutes And so yeah, I'm just slightly short of that, but I'm not gonna not gonna beat myself up about that I think the the things that you've uh been talking about about how to automate using uh Ecamm live and using stream deck and and keyboard maestro and moom I think all those things are useful But I think you have a magical talent that and then insert magic here Oh, well, thank you very much And I don't mean that just just to make you gush uh or just to make you blush and me gush It's it's it's all it's all a practice, you know, that's the the the point of it It's I am I'm I'm improving the process and hopefully improving the sort of technique of doing it as well So and then I'm as well as the youtube stuff Then I'm also then making video content for some of my other things as well Okay, okay, do you um So in terms of planning Describe like today. I'm gonna do a video on uh intermediate stream deck. What would your what would your planning be? So my sort of youtube time is in the early hours of the morning I wake up at around about three o'clock and then four till six is kind of my youtube time before the The kids get up before it gets noisy in the house Wow Three in the morning But I go to bed late. It's a lot of people think I wasn't asleep, but I go to bed at sort of eight or nine in the evening So I still got plenty of sleep Um, but um, yeah, so then I come down and I just look at my omnifocus list and then Pick a video or often there'll be a question that's been asked on the in one of my other videos Or in one of the facebook groups that I'm in where someone's asked how to do something So I'll often just make a video that's directly answering somebody which also makes it I find easier to make a video if somebody's asked a direct question And I'm making a video for them about that question. Then I've got somebody sort of in my mind Um, and then yeah, I'll just sort of sit down think about what needs to be covered Open up all the relevant things. So the application the any Preferences windows or anything like that and just make sure that I've got those all like aligned in the different scenes Showing the different parts of the desktop And then yeah, give it a little bit of thought and and go into it And then once I've finished it save the the video file to disk And then I'll just upload that to youtube and then the the thumbnails for youtube I just took a lot of sort of silly pictures There is a sort of thing youtube face and all these sort of shocked expressions and things like that Which surprisingly do make a difference in terms of the click-through rate, uh, but really yeah, they really do There's a great tool for youtube called tube buddy, which will go through and basically analyze all of your Thumbnails and I can tell you that alex shocked face gets a five percent click-through rate Whereas a neutral face gets a three percent click-through rate So those are crazy pictures that people do have been analyzed to death and they really work Which is why people do them. So It's that is so funny I I saw those they're they're they're cheesy They're very cheesy. Yeah, my yeah, my daughter does make fun of me for them But I just basically this was this was back when I was getting everything set up I just took a whole load of pictures of Of myself to use for these thumbnails and then I've got just a photoshop file So then I just go and throw up the title Choose one of these random embarrassing pictures And then that's the thumbnail created and and then the video is up sort of Within sort of two hours basically so from sitting down to think what video I'm going to make to it being up is No more than two hours So just to put this in perspective for the audience, uh, let's say I'm going to do Parallel stool box like I said I'm going to do parallel stool box A week before the video before my start dated the video so the video is doing a Monday I usually start the video the Monday before the Monday before that I sit down with the tool and I open up I thoughts and I start going methodically through each tool and it takes me about a week to create that that That mind map Then on Monday, I try to start recording And I don't because it's hard. So I procrastinate till Tuesday usually By Tuesday night, I'm like, oh, I really got to start So I'll just turn on the recorder and record the intro voice so I can I can say okay I started and once I can get over that static friction I start and it will take me from Tuesday through Probably Saturday to create that 40 minute video and that's working. Maybe three to four hours a day That's how long it takes me to do it and it's not because I'm bad at editing or I just like editing It's it just takes forever Now I'm I'm thinking I'm doing this wrong Well, that was my experience before of doing it except I was bad at editing so add on a significant amount of time extra to that Um, there is there is something really liberating about knowing that you haven't got another shot at it So whereas before if I made a mistake, I would Go back and then I'd think oh, well that if I if I'm going to edit this bit Then I need to go back even further and just like redo this this part Whereas knowing that you can just sort of run on through it and if I make a mistake then You know, you've probably seen I will just as you say either laugh at it or Highlight the fact that I've made an error or something like that Knowing that I'm talking to the way I think about it. I'm talking to a friend who's going to Not really be overly critical and just it's it's kind of the same in in everyday conversation. We make Little mistakes here and there and it's it's not an issue really is it? Although I should say I do view this differently for my youtube channel as if I was doing something obviously if you're doing You know actual paid tutorials a course material and things like that then It is I think a little bit more Important that the you are covering wise is actually vital that you are covering all the different things So there is a slight difference I think with Or the way that I see it with my youtube content because of the way that I've sort of positioned it from the outset So it's kind of yeah, there is there's definitely a freedom I know I do my work for my own podcast very differently than what I do for don mccallister for screencast online Those are two completely different things. I I want to be perfect when I'm doing it for dons Especially since it's a paid tutorial service. I need to be I need to be spot on. I can't be be messing things up I'm just thinking though that I It seems like I ought to be able to record longer before stopping I I don't ever record longer than say two to three minutes at a shot Right, and so it seems like if I said okay, alice, then you got to record for 20 minutes and you don't get to edit There's going to be no editing. What would happen? Would I be able to go longer? I bet not It's it's worth a try. I mean Yeah, one of those things once you once you once you just decide that right. I'm not going to edit this then it's It's you know, I'm not going to stop at least then see how far before you Think there's something you need to maybe edit afterwards and especially if you are doing something where you're recording the screen um, and then you can sort of you can always can always go and add in an extra little bit then It's uh, it's worth trying Yeah, yeah, well that gets into the piece that'll depending on the application that you're demonstrating and whether it's the mac or or ios Things can have moved too or you know, you've scrolled a window And now if you go back to that you you can't just insert a piece You can't do it. You have to rerecord or or you have to do some fade through to pretend that whole thing never happened You know erase what you just did But i'm not even doing it with if Doing it with my video of my face at the same time. Oh forget about it. That's Because then all of a sudden your head jumps, you know, because you were looking to the right versus the left And all of a sudden you look like max headroom or something. Yep That is uh, that is still astonishing to me that you can do it So that also explains why you're able to look right into the the camera I I feel like you're talking to me when you're doing the video because you're looking right into that camera And I always assume that you somehow had the teleprompter behind that So I actually do have a teleprompter, but I use it for eye contact So I for in business on zoom calls then I want to be able to look at the person and so traditionally in zoom calls People are kind of looking off to the side looking somewhere else because they're not looking at you And so being able to look into the screen and see the other person looking back is Is the way that I do that. So I have a A desview t3 teleprompter which just slots over the top of my my camera lens And then I use a lily put a7 field monitor that's actually a field monitor for a camera But that is that is underneath the teleprompter has a secondary display for my mac And so that actually when i'm recording my videos that has the output from Ecamm live displayed on there. So I can still see when I look in the screen I can still see that what's going out is correct, but I'm looking down the camera I would love to have a picture of what you just described because I can't really quite picture it Um, oh, he's going to do it live in the video. He's going to bring it up on screen. Oh my gosh So I've got my my remember. This is an audio podcast as you described it So I've got my monitor, which is a 43 inch phillips monitor the reason why I like the it's a regular size Regular aspect ratio, I should say so it's a 4k monitor But then I've basically got sort of I think of it is sort of four hd Areas if you think of it split into four Of the screen so I can have my ecamm live stuff over on one side I could have an application on the top right bottom left and right and so on So I've got different spaces on the screen where I can put things and then also I have a kind of Low-cost mic boom arm, but that's got my my old mobile phone attached to it and then I use an application called camo That allows me to basically use that as the top down camera So that's just position sort of above my desk. Um, but then directly in front of me. I've got um, My camera, which is a 10 year old canon eos 60d is mounted on top of the the monitor stand And then yeah, I've got my sort of teleprompter in front of that That has the the monitor On top of it To um, wow to be it so that I can look into the screen and I'm looking At well at you in this case, but otherwise this monitor is basically it's just a it's an extension of the monitor So I can just drag things on and off it in the same way that I could do with a sort of regular Screen and so I have the output from ecamm on here normally or if I'm in a zoom call Then the zoom window is up up there instead Okay, okay, that is uh, that is a that is a crazy setup That's a if you could take a photo of that afterwards that I could put it in the show notes I think that would be a really interesting shot. I want to see how you take a photo of yourself standing at that doing that I just realized uh, I didn't ask you one really important question. What do you record your videos? What do you use to record the videos? so that is um That is ecamm live and it just records them straight to disc So whatever i'm doing ecamm there is a record button on there Um, and I also use it. I do a weekly live stream as well Onto youtube and so I use ecamm live for that. So ecamm lives basically like the The production environment if you like where you I don't know the sounds or the things like that Um, and then then that can either record or it can be used for streaming out to a platform So for streaming to youtube Twitch twitter wherever it happens to be I was going to guess that you were using screen flow, but I guess since you don't need an editor That's not a part of the workflow at all. That's it. Yeah, and in ecamm as well as cameras You can also then use uh sort of screen sharing overlay So I can pick a specific application or a specific part of the screen that I want to share or the whole screen And so that's just the part of the process of actually building up the different scenes Adding in that as an element Wow, that is really interesting Okay, so this is uh This might be turning now into allison sneaking in a personal question of something she wants to know how to do But I know a lot of people talk about using the stream deck which I haven't explained very well But it's a device that plugs in over usb to your to your computer um If you push a button on that For audio like you want to I am not ever going to have zingers and noise little things that come into my recordings Not going to do it. I can't stand those but I don't understand how it gets from pushing a button to making a noise into a recording I can't I don't there's a big missing piece in there because the button isn't sound Right, so there is a built-in button on the stream deck itself for for audio and so stream deck has um audio uh like an audio stock library if you like built into it as well so on the stream deck there would be a um A little button or the sound board maybe that's correct. Yeah, so sound board so you can play audio from that And there is also so you can play any audio that you've already got on your computer But there's also a little button up at the top which is the stream deck store And then in the stream deck store you can go into Music and sound effects and there are you know different sort of stock music and sound effects that you can download And so then when you actually add those into your When you've downloaded them and then you go back into your stream deck and you add in a play audio for example Then you can just play that audio now. It will come through your computer as through system audio It's coming from stream deck. So the stream deck application So if you were to think about it in audio hijack terms Then the sound source would be stream deck. That's where it's actually emanating from Oh, okay. Okay. So it's coming from so the stream deck application would have to be open Uh, yes. Yeah. Well, actually the stream deck application is open and sits in the menu bar You don't need the physical window open But okay, if you're using stream deck, the stream deck is open in the background So if you were doing a recording then you would have Audio hijack you would have a an input which would be the stream deck and then you could feed that into whichever Okay, okay Because I got as far as figuring out that I could download sound effects Which was pretty cool because they were a bunch of free sound effects, which was fun Uh, I have thought that maybe something in between my segments on my show would be good But I've never gotten around to doing it plus. I don't know hard But I just couldn't figure out how to connect that once I downloaded I went, okay I don't know where it is and I don't know how to play it. I don't know where I don't know how to gizinta, you know Yeah, for those not watching the video He actually just demonstrated the whole thing By popping with ecam showing his screen showing all of the things that he was just explaining Well, this is this has been this has been really fantastic. I feel like we could talk for days and hours here But I probably should cut us off. Uh, if people wanted to find you on youtube, they would go to At just search for take one tech and you'll find me All right, uh, what any other websites what should they look for you on twitter or Yeah, take one tech.io is my website and that that'll have links to all of my other social profiles and things like that I've always said everything good is it is under.io. I've never found something on.io. That wasn't amazing everything Shoot, I should have gone podfy.io that I'd be way better at this if I'd done that Well, Alec, thank you so much for letting us cut into your your 4 a.m. in thailand YouTube time and now you're going to miss your 365 days and you're going to blame me. It's going to be a terrible thing, right? No problem. I'll catch up somehow, I'm sure All right, thanks for joining us. Hope to talk to you again soon. Thank you very much for having me It's been a pleasure Well, I hope you found that interesting and if so then leave a comment down below to let me know What you thought while you're down there, of course, don't forget to like and subscribe But even more important than that is head over to pod feet.com and Check out some of Alice's other work over there and some of her other great podcasts And don't forget obviously to subscribe in your podcast player of choice That's all for me for this video, but don't go anywhere. There are plenty more videos Coming right up over on the right hand side. So until the next time have a wonderful day