Episode 106: Talking Live Streaming With Ross Brand

Episode 106 Talking Live Streaming With Ross Brand

00:00

Hey, everybody, Rob

00:01

Cairns here. I’m the co founder and chief creative making, I guess it’s stunning digital marketing. I hope everybody’s having a great day. In today’s podcast, I sit down with my good friend Ross Brand. Ross is a live stream expert. And he’s my go to guy. When I’ve live streaming questions. I’ve been doing live streaming for a while. So please do me a favor, grab your favorite drink, sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation that Ross and I had.

00:43

Everybody Rob Cairns here. I’m here with my good friend Ross brand. Ross is a live streaming expert. So how are you today, Russ?

00:53

I’m great. Thanks so much for having me on the show, Robert.

00:56

It’s a pleasure. I thought we’d do a little bit of live streaming. You and I were talking all fair. I can I can remember when I first started live streaming. I was doing BMX events. And I’d sit on top of the 10 foot ramp with a with a webcam. And I’d record off the top of a webcam with a laptop in my hand, and the cell connection and things that come along way. So how did you get into live streaming? What’s your background? And and how have you progressed,

01:26

I worked 12 years on air and radio. And then I went on to do other things left broadcasting. I enjoyed the time that I had there. I had some great experiences. I had a few not so great experiences. But overall, I had a nice run for 12 years, I was hosting shows I was doing reporting, I was covering pro and college sports. And and just it was it was a wild experience. And then I went into doing other things. And 2015 came along and I stumbled into a platform called blab, I thought I was going into some sort of text chat thing because somebody had posted that we’re doing a Twitter chat, and then we’re going to talk about it in blab. And I thought talk about it meant some sort of enhanced Twitter chat type format. And I woke up in talk radio heaven. And there’s all these people hosting talk shows there. It’s basically talk radio with webcams. And long story short, I fell in love with broadcasting again. And I was initially just going to cover what people were doing, and share what they were doing on my social media as a way to sort of promote what people were doing. I thought people were really good. I thought it was interesting. Seeing all these shows, instead of around news and sports and entertainment. They’re all these shows around business and marketing and human resources and you know, finance and all these different areas of business, I thought it was very exciting and a lot of small business owners and coaches and consultants building their personal brand. And I felt like okay, maybe there’s an opportunity to sort of be the media about live streaming, sort of like Social Media Examiner is for all things social media, but within a month or so I started hosting a show and once I started hosting the show, then that everything changed to the focus being on on show hosting and content creation not being a member of the media so to speak. So that’s where it went, I really fell in love with the hosting shows and the whole the whole thing except, you know, instead of being working for a radio station, I’m working for myself and making my own schedule in the beginning, you know, building it with the idea let’s do this right, I just had this feeling like maybe this will become a business maybe this will become something whatever it is right so he went through a few iterations it started out as like a media company covering live streaming then it became almost like a network in which at my website had nothing but all these different shows on it. And eventually it morphed into being what it is now which is a mixture of content, but also consulting coaching classes and production as well as you know, business consulting so I I really love it I couldn’t be happier I’m having more fun, more engaged in it now than I would have been 20 years ago. So I I’m very grateful to have this sort of second run at doing something that I love. But to be able to do it from home and in a way that I control my schedule and decide on what I want to work on and who I want to work with and what time I want to work so I’m you know not on them. The the night shift or the weekend. I don’t have to work on Thanksgiving it for you here covering it. Thanks Giving football game, you know, not that these were terrible things, but it’s just you know, this is my personality. I’m more of like an entrepreneur who’s a creative than I am somebody who is a strictly a creative who can give over control to the company or to, you know somebody else’s format. So I love having, you know, the type of creative control, and also from the business side of putting together something that combines my different interests that I really love. And I, I, again, I’ve just feel so grateful to have this opportunity.

05:38

Yeah, it’s a great one. And I think the big thing about live streaming, and even podcasting, and even working in broadcasting is to people you meet, I mean, the people that I’ve met doing podcasting, or I’ve met in the online journey, it’s incredible. And, you know, some of these people, if you weren’t live streaming you would have never met. And that’s pretty incredible.

06:02

I think my entire network changed. I mean, not that I lost the old network that I had. But in reality, people who are doing live streaming and podcasting, and are tend to be very active on social media, people who tend to be active on social media, are very open to engaging on social media. And so I really, when I look at who I’m spending time online with on a daily basis, and online is really the only way most of us are interacting with other people right now, outside of maybe an immediate family member. I’m finding that, you know, it’s people who I’ve met, either through live streaming through podcasting, or because of those things. They came into my world because I was active in social communities, and so forth to be a part of live streaming and podcasting, and events and so forth. So yeah, my, everything changed. When I stumbled into blab that day, I always feel like from that day on, I have an entirely new community of people that I’m in contact with, on a daily basis. Some of them go back to them, but to that first few days, but many of them came along the way, but had I not stumbled into blab that day? I don’t know, you know, probably would have come across live streaming at some point. But there was something about that that was a huge change in terms of my network. And

07:34

no, no question about that. And it’s funny, we can’t come up blab. And then we’ve all done like the Hangouts On Air routine. We remember when hangouts on air and I was sharing with you off, off camera and OFF AIR how I did BMX event sitting on a 10 foot. Right, right. And I have really cool footage I was looking at before we got on this call guy by name of Drew bezanson. He’s like Canada’s number one BMX rider at an event in Toronto, where he went 10 feet up, grabbed, grabbed a overhang, pulled his bike up, and came down from 15 feet. And that was shot with a web camera back in the days that hangouts on air on top of a 10 foot. And then we’ve kind of moved to things like OBS V max. And of course, you’re big involved in stringer. And what do you think of the platform changes and talk about stream yard a little bit? Yeah,

08:32

so blab was fun. And at times the content was good, and the times the content, there were ebbs and flows, and there was certainly a wide variety from from really good stuff to really bad, inappropriate stuff on Blab. But the problem with Blam, although it was really well engineered for building a social community, it wasn’t really well engineered for live streaming. And it technically it was not stable, it wasn’t reliable. And at some point, the people running it basically stopped committing, you know, they broke their commitment to the product and the community that was building around it, and it kind of fell apart. And then other apps came along that were web browser based apps that started to add some of the functionality of the more professional complex apps. So you have like OBS and you have Wirecast which have a huge learning curve, and require time to set up and time to produce and a lot of variables when it came to bringing on a guest and getting that audio right and getting their video grabbed from a Skype or zoom and then pulling it in to OBS or Wirecast there was just a lot involved and it was complicated. So your choice was either to To really become an expert in those platforms, and spend a lot of pre show time getting everything set up, or it was to take a chance on one of the other web browser based live streaming platforms or apps that popped up, which none of despite their virtues, none of we’re able to get the stability down. Yet stream yard came along, and was stable from day one, if they did nothing else, they immediately interjected stability that had never been seen before. In a consumer focused browser based live streaming app, the quality of the audio and video in 720 p coming from a variety of different sources, whether it was coming from a DSLR, mirrorless, camera, mini camera, camcorder, consumer webcam, or coming from the built in camera in your laptop, it always was there, it was stable, it looked good. They built it to work with people from different quality of bandwidth, if you met the minimum, they would make it work and they made the audio work, there wasn’t that, you know, where somebody would be coming in and coming out, you know, they’d have to reset their browser, you’d miss work, none of that it was completely stable. It looked good. And it was a professional looking. I mean, it was good enough that you could you know, look at you, you see celebrities in the US, you see journalists, you see all different types of people, businesses using stream yard, some you can hardly even tell they’re using stream yard. And so that was the other aspect is they, they started integrating all these different tools that allowed you to brand your broadcast your own way, you know, OBS and Wirecast give you complete and 100% control anything pretty much If you can dream it, you can find a way to do it there. And you can make your broadcast look like nobody else’s broadcast. With web based tools for live streaming, you have some limits, and stream yard, you have limits on where the windows go and some of the layouts and things like that. But through using backgrounds, through using overlays, whether transparent overlays or borders, or different types of aspects, adding logos, playing video clips, and, you know, now with green screen especially, you can make your your broadcast look very unique. And even if it’s got a few of those little elements that say like, Oh, this is a stream yard broadcast or whatever. I mean, it looks so unique that it doesn’t really matter. And I’ve watched shows where I couldn’t tell right away, is this a stream yard show or not? And I’ve certainly looked at more than enough that if it’s, if there’s a hint it is I’ll pick it up in a minute or two. But the fact that I can always tell means that you can do some really creative things with it. But what do we really want to do, right? When we’re having when we’re doing a live stream to social media, we’re recording a podcast, we’re doing something that we’re distributing for business for marketing for consulting, where we’re showcasing our products and services, we want the video to be stable, we want to be able to have the conversation with another person. And both video and audio are stable and working. And, you know, stream yard has done that out of the box. And they’ve done it consistently. And that’s why, you know, I’m just super proud to be affiliated with stream yard and hosting shows for them. Because it’s just great to be able to be with a product that works well. And that people really love using because it makes it so easy. And especially when it comes to getting your guest on you just send them a link, they click the link. And there they are. I’m sorry, it’s kind of a long answer. But I’m very passionate about what makes stream yard different having gone through all these other iterations. And one more thing, if you don’t mind. Um, you mentioned Google Hangouts On Air and Google Hangouts On Air certainly had stability. It was a it was a stable platform that worked. It was reliable, the quality was good. But they had Google behind it number one, and number two, it was dated it was it was inflexible. It wasn’t really, even though they had hangouts on air, and you could broadcast and stream to social media. It really didn’t feel like a broadcast platform. It felt like a meeting or webinar platform. And you know, it just didn’t really have the right For a show.

15:02

Yeah. So, so true. And we talk about stream yard and easy to use. It’s funny Ross, I think I tagged you, like months ago, I was sitting in the Trump police medium. And one of my good friends now retired, it was the Trump with social media officer in it. And Scott mills and I, a shout out to Scott, have done a lot of live streaming together. And I said, Scott, I need to show you something. And he said, What do you need to show me You always have something in your product called streaming. And I need to tell you about my friend Ross, because, frankly, this is revolutionary what the guys up there are doing and what’s happening. And I jumped on the media room. And at the time, I didn’t have my external web camera, I just had a laptop in the bag. And I did a quick live stream for about five minutes on streaming to Facebook Live from the Trump police media room. And the big thing is, there’s no stream keys required it connects, we all know the frustration of going to be as then trying to find your stream key and trying to teach a novice who doesn’t understand that how to find stuff. And that’s just like,

16:14

the average person wants to go to Facebook or wants to go to YouTube or twitch or Periscope, Twitter, maybe LinkedIn live, and they want to, they want to just click a button and select it as a destination. And you know, one time you authorize your account with your name and password. And that’s for authorizing the destination. As far as stream yard goes, they don’t even keep a password on file sent to your email, they send you a code, you punch that one time code in. And then you’re basically logged in until you log out and make a conscious choice to lock out.

16:49

Yeah, which is actually better for security as far as I’m concerned. But they you know, the whole team and, and those looking at string there, you gotta check out to group on Facebook, because George and his team and Ross’s in that group of multiloader people, there’s some really cool stuff going on. And there’s really great conversations that go on around screen here.

17:11

And they’re a Canadian company, by the way, they’re located in Vancouver. I believe gage and Dan the two co founders met playing hockey or there’s a there’s a picture of them playing hockey together. That’s up on the website. So I mean, they’re very much focused in the Vancouver area I believe but they’re located in I don’t know exactly where they’re located. But they’re they’re in Canada. I know that and and they’re Canadian company and they’re really a wonderful start up somebody who just feel good to be a part of and root for and and want to see make it because they’re they’re really providing a service that the community for live streaming and for content creation. And podcasting has needed to be able to have something that’s easy to use, and yet still good quality that you can confidently publish and distribute and feel good about what you’re putting out there.

18:08

Yeah, no, no kidding. One of the things she talked a lot about was video, but I’m gonna switch gears because I think what people mistake when they’re live streaming is audio is as important as video if not more important than the video itself. Do you have any thoughts on that?

18:27

Well, I must say that I’ve been saying since I started that audio is the most important part of your live video. And it wasn’t just because I came from radio and had limited experience with video. So my audio was going to be better than my video without trying. But it actually is the truth. Because if you’re doing a live stream, and the video goes out and the audio stays on, people can can still get all the content, essentially the value in the content, the conversation, they can hear what’s going on, they can receive the information, they can get entertained, they can laugh along. But if the audio goes out, then there’s really nothing I mean, how long can you stare at a couple of talking heads before you move on to something else. So the value of the show is largely in the audio and also people’s tolerance for bad audio. If an audio spread if audio is breaking up. You can’t really follow along you get a headache. You can’t You can’t deal with it. If videos breaking up with the audios Fine. Then you listen to it as though it’s a podcast or radio show. A lot of times that’s how I consume live streaming content Anyway, I’m working in another browser and I have it on and a lot of times I’ll throw in the chat. You know listening radio style or whatever is

19:50

working you do that.

19:52

You know I’m driving right now. So doing this radio style and that’s just a way of letting people Know that you know I’m not being rude if I don’t respond to your chat, I’m just not able to do that right now because I have to work or drive or what have you. But I still want to enjoy that that content and be a part of the show and gain what I can from it and I think you can be a part of the show just participating as an audio consumer. And in still enjoy what makes a live show special, which is the call ends and the guests and the the, the the audience feedback to the host, the host chooses to share that and speak to questions from the chat all that stuff is great. And like I say, you can enjoy that just listening via audio. So yeah, audio is so important. It’s just, it’s how you come across, I guess it’s a visual medium, but I’m telling you, the first four years that I was doing this, almost every significant purchase every significant thing that I worked on that I upgraded, that I cared about was focused on audio, and it’s only been really within this calendar year that I have started focusing or really made the investment of time and and funds to now upgrade my video so I mean I used for a year and a half or so I used the built in webcam in my laptop and then I moved to a Logitech webcam and use that up until maybe April March or April of this year. So you know and and now I’m using a Sony A 6400 that I love. And I have you know, I added some LED lights, I added a green screen cameras on a tripod, it’s raised a little bit I got the ATM Mini Pro it’s a hardware switcher that allows me to do multi cam, which I’m not using at the moment but I use while we’re doing audio anyway so why would I be using what I’m saying is I don’t you I’m not always using it for my broadcast now but I’m learning about how I can use it in multi camera when that that comes along. And I also find that the quality going through that switcher is better even if I’m just doing one camera than your standard capture cards. So yeah, video is important the look and feel and the bar is also raising because now everybody’s doing video calls and video chats and video conferencing and, and and video meetings for work. So everybody’s at least using a built in webcam, many people have added a Logitech C 929 22 x Logitech Brio. Some people already have DSLRs at home, and they’ve hooked them up, they’ve learned about what a capture card is. And so if you’re working in the in the field, now’s the time I felt, you know, let’s upgrade this and really start to bring the visual side up to where I feel the audio and the content are. And I always like to say you know your content, if your content is ahead of your tech, you’re doing the right thing, if your content is behind your tech, now you’re you’re you’re gonna struggle because you’ve set a standard and that and now you have to reach that standard that you spent money on or you’re gonna feel like you’re not you’re not succeeding, better to get that momentum going by creating content. And then, you know, you wake up one day and you go, yeah, this is pretty good. You know, this is getting better, I’m getting more confident. I probably deserve a better microphone, or I probably, you know, imagine how good this would be if I had more light or if I had that’s that’s when you know, it’s time I think to upgrade your kit and and, and and invest some and I’m glad I did it that way. Because having worked in radio, I could have gone out and bought a professional mic and so forth, right from day one. But the fact that I didn’t enabled me to get it when I was ready in terms of the whole live streaming thing because being in radio or being in TV, as you can see today, as newscasters do things from home. Yeah. And the quality isn’t always so good. The lighting isn’t always Oh, no,

24:29

no kidding. Right?

24:31

That being in radio or being in TV certainly gives you an advantage in being experienced in presenting information in a certain way and doing interviews. But it doesn’t give you any advantage with the technology or the entire aesthetic static of putting together a live streaming show and the average podcast there could probably set up better audio for your $10 million a year newscaster than that Person good for themselves.

25:02

So true, what it’s actually showing us and I was talking to a colleague this week, because we all have all these newscasters at home that are perfect is they You don’t have to be good qualities important, but you don’t have to be 1% 100% perfect. Because we’re all used to now, these newscasters trying to broadcast from home and they don’t have perfect aesthetics. So, I know in

25:26

many cases, it’s worse than what we’re doing. I mean, and it’s amazing, because, you know, you think with all the money they’re being paid, and all the money, these stations have, that whatever it took to get them set up, right, you would do and they would want to do, and some of it’s sort of like, hey, well, we want it to feel casual. Well, it can still feel like a casual home broadcast, and I can hear it really well, right, nobody goes, I’m gonna have a casual conversation with a friend, should I use the phone with good reception or the phone with bad reception? Man, I’ll use the one with bad reception. Because it’ll feel more casual. I mean, that’s insane. I mean, sometimes it shows that look, the most casual, you think about all the money they put into the set, to make it just that casual looking. But you’re right, you’re right, because we’re so used to communicating and watching stuff this way, it doesn’t shock us to see a famous news anchor or news reporter or sports reporter doing some commentary or show from their own apartment or home or wherever. And with a green screen, sometimes you can’t even really tell. But a lot of times you can tell, especially with the guests, people who are regularly on shows, but usually they send out a crew with a green screen and whatnot to, to record their guests segment. And now they’re just you know, Skyping in their own video and, and, and how much the quality drops is, is unbelievable. And it’s not because they didn’t have a professional crew, they just didn’t learn the basics of having to do this for themselves. And once you do it for yourself, you you know, you could go on any type of show tomorrow and look better and sound better than some of the people who are being paid, you know, ungodly amounts of money to do this.

27:19

And, and they’re sending out their guests of all silly things, air pods, that are Bluetooth, which have a microphone in them. And they wonder why the audio coming in is awful.

27:30

And I can’t get over that I can’t or they’re sending them they’re sending some stations or sending blue yetis which No offense, the Blue Yeti, it’s a fine microphone, if you know how to use it. But people who’ve never done any audio before, you know, have a habit of turning the gain up too high. And you know, putting it on omni directional and putting it next to their keyboard. And so, you know, you give people the wrong tool for something. And don’t be surprised when they use it the wrong way. It could be the right tool if you know how to use it. But you think that they would just send them, you know, a basic handheld dynamic microphone, which would be so easy for most news reporters, and it’s what they use anyway on a day to day basis. But no, they don’t want them to be in front of a microphone. So they’ll send them ear pods or they’ll send them a lav mic, which you know, you know, they’re plugging right into their computer. And so of course, it’s not going to sound like it does coming through, you know, $1,000 mixers and with you know that you had an audio engineering staff working on it and everything else so

28:40

true. So Roz is somebody who’s going to get started in live streaming, and they haven’t done it before. Yeah. Do you have some starter equipment that you would suggest to somebody I know you and I have talked about equipment, but usually we’re talking more high end stuff somebody started Sure.

28:58

Start out with what you have. So your phone, if you have a modern iPhone or a modern Android phone, you have a studio right in your phone. The built in mic is better than you’d think it would be on your phone. The cameras probably excellent. You can start out live streaming from your phone. If you want to set up more of a desktop laptop style stream, your laptop certainly we’ll have a built in webcam your desktop will have a built in webcam, you may want to go to the external webcam because the quality is much greater and the price isn’t steep under normal circumstances because of the shortage right now, and I’ll try and be political and how I say this. There may be certain places where online that are very popular usually for buying things quickly. You may want to avoid becoming As the different sellers can raise the prices on a regular basis and have boosted those prices by three 410 times, so you want to look at retail outlets that tend to sell always at lists or below so that you’re not paying more and don’t adjust the price based on what’s happening at the moment in terms of availability. Yeah. Did I say that politically?

30:30

Yeah, it’s it’s a big issue actually. This Yeah, go ahead. Robert Pena, sorry, and you can’t get supplies. So that’s the other problem. So so

30:40

if you have to live with that built in webcam live, we live with it for now, but know that you know, ideally in a Logitech C 920, or Logitech C 922. x. I mean, a Logitech C 920. USD should be 50 $60, maybe a Logitech C 920. x shouldn’t be much more than 100 USD. If you’re paying more for either of those, you know, you might want to spend $100 for a Logitech C 920. But in for now, but have that external webcam on your list of things, then I break it down to two other items really, that that Robert, that I think are essential, and one is an external mic, and I recommend the Samson cue to you. If that isn’t available, and it should be, but if it’s not available, there’s also the ATR two are at 2005 from Audio Technica, it’s at 2005. There’s also the ATR 2100 x, which is a little more expensive, all three of those mics. I’m not gonna say they’re the same mic, but they’re very similar and how they’re constructed and how they work. And basically, they’re dynamic mics that reject noise from outside the mic, and they sound remarkably good for the price that they’re at, and they plug in USB, so you don’t need to invest in a mixer or audio interface at the current time, but they come with XLR cables. So if you do have an opportunity to use it with a mixer or audio interface, or even plug into a professional soundboard, or use it on stage through a soundboard, you can do all those things with it. It’s a very versatile mic, you can use it as a handheld mic on the go, you can take it with you. So I would recommend the Samsung q two you have those three, but any of those three mics, either the Samson or those Audio Technica, the CTA, the eight t r was ATR 2100, x one and the 82,005. All three of them are good mics, the Samson to me is a little bit warmer and richer sounding. mics depend on your voice. So what sounds good on me might not sound as good on somebody else. And what sounds good on you might not sound good on me. But basically, most people seem to really like the Samson. And when they go from earbuds to Samson, they can’t believe how good that cue to you. Sounds. That’s the mic that I use for the first two and a half years or so that I was, I was live streaming. The other thing I would say is, if you don’t get a mic right now, the difference between using your built in mic and using earbuds or headphones that have a little mic for you know, making a phone call or whatever, those the difference between the built in mic in your webcam or in your computer. And even just using headphones with a little phone call mic or earbuds or whatever is so big, that use those right? If you aren’t, if you only have the option of using built in your earbuds, use the ear buds, they’ll sound much better, you’re closer to the mic, you won’t get as much echo because you have you’ll have something in your ears. And if you’re doing an interview, it’s a necessity in order to hear somebody without there being an echo that goes out to them in the audience. So that’s what I would say the other thing I would say is for 1399 USD from from a company called newer. It’s I think it’s any ew er or any Wu Er, yeah, from newer. There’s a boom arm that’s 1399 it was 1399 when I got it five years ago, it’s still 1399 it’s not the one that I’m using right now because now I have a much heavier mic, but that boom arm will take the mic off your desk so that you don’t have to sit hunched over. Your posture is good. You can move it out of the way when you’re not doing a show. And also you’re moving it off your desk and away from your computer. It’s not picking up your fan. It’s not picking up vibrations if you click your mouse Type on your keyboard. So those two items the boom arm and the microphone, I know the Samson cue to you comes with a foam windscreen. So you’ll have that to cover your mic. And you’re pretty much good to go. I mean any other essentials you can think of Robert.

35:15

I like the idea of getting a pop filter as well, I use one but that’s basically what I’ve done. And I’ve gotten a mic on a boom arm. I like that I’ve gotten a pop filter. I know for high end stuff I’ve had the pleasure and past of using the Sennheiser wireless mic kit, which is really cool, because you take the wireless dongle, and you plug it into the soundboard. And then you plug the receiver right into the laptop. And the sound you get is exactly the same sound going into the soundboard, which is incredible, but not to start, but that’s basically

35:58

it Sennheiser makes amazing wireless mics, but those are, they’re a little bit of a little low cost involved. I mean, getting a lav mic, if you have earbuds or headphones and you know, putting it on your shirt, if you’re doing live streaming, there’s a mic from boya that’s about $20 USD. Pretty darn good mic, but you’re gonna find that the best sound for your money will come from I think that Samson cue to you. And if you get that are one of those Audio Technica mics that I mentioned, you have to be comfortable with the mic being close to you. A lot of people think that they can push it off camera, and then just, you know, turn up the game and and that’ll be fine. But that that just really doesn’t sound that good. Those mics or any dynamic mic in general works best if you are, you know within a fist length away from the microphone, so you really got to be close to it, but the sound will be really good.

37:00

Yeah, it’s worth doing. The other thing I’ve played with him past is the Rode mics. Some people think road is overrated. I’ve had really good luck, especially on a smartphone with a Rode mic. I have a Rode shotgun that I use that I really like. But it depends on who you talk to a lot of people think road is overpriced. I don’t necessarily agree it’s about finding the right mic to do the right job. Kind of

37:31

so I mean road has some good mics I you know, I haven’t tried all their mics there. I have, I have a couple of products from road that I that they’re in my kind of a list because of these non mic products right. They make my boom arm which is fantastic and sturdy and holds up a great mic. And they make what’s called the I XLR, which is a little interface that connects to an XLR microphone and plugs into an iPhone. Yeah, and so you don’t need to carry around an XLR cable when you’re live streaming on the go. So for that I’m forever ever grateful I combine that with the road reporter app. And I can live stream or podcast either video audio and you know get really great quality sound with that. And I’ve gone through a lot of different types of little interfaces to use to get Pro Audio mic sound into a phone. And while there are a lot of them are good, very few of them are truly portable. And and this one’s really portable and wonderful. So Rhodes on my good list because of those things, but I’m not as familiar with, with their lav mics. I’ve used them a couple of times and but not enough to really come away with a judgement.

38:56

Yeah, it’s a tough one. Ross, thanks very much for your time today. I as I said to you coming on, you’re kind of one of my go to people when I have live streaming questions, and you’re always approachable. And you’re always good to community, which I appreciate. How can somebody get in touch with you? And what’s your website? And what’s what’s the best way to get ahold you?

39:20

Sure. So my websites live stream universe.com. If you’re interested in learning more about some of the products that I talked about, you can go live stream universe.com slash resources. And that will have my little write up on them. And I have other places online as well where you can find I don’t you know, there might be some affiliate links. I don’t care if you use them, but just know that there’s their stuff online that I have where you can follow up and learn more about these these resources. The other thing I do is I do a $5 Fridays every Friday. I have a q&a a live q&a A zoom meeting that’s just for the people who sign up. And you have a chance to ask me as many questions as time allows. And it’s just for the people who come in. And so if you need help, what microphone should I get? Should I get this one or that one? You know, any type of question? What topics? Should I talk about my business? Is this anything that can be answered? And, you know, a quick answer or short answer? I call it micro consulting. It’s a great opportunity. And sometimes there’s a small crowd. And so it’s almost like you get an hour of consulting to yourself for $5. So sign up at you don’t have to buy or anything. Just go to livestream universe comm slash five. No livestream universe comm slash Friday, livestream universe comm slash Friday, join the email list and I’ll send you a notification when we have the next one. Occasionally, I send out a free trial to people who sign up for the list. So you can just come for free one day and watch and ask your questions and get free help. So it’s basically $5. Otherwise, once a week, one o’clock eastern on Friday, so we’d love any of your community wants to join that they are welcome to sign up and be a part of it.

41:19

Yeah. Thanks, Ross. Have an amazing day.

41:23

Thanks so much, Robert. I enjoyed it.

41:25

Take care. Bye. Bye. A very special thank you to Ross Brand for joining me today on the SDM show. I hope you enjoyed the vast array of information that Ross shared with us on the podcast. If you want to get in touch with me, head on over to our website at stunning digital marketing.com feel free to email me at VIP at stunning digital marketing comm or you can call me for 166247647 if you want to connect with me on Twitter, I’m at Rob Karen’s. I’m also an all other social media platforms. You can find those in the footer on our website. If I can help you in any way, please let me know. jump on over to our website stunning digital marketing.com scroll down the bottom and sign up for our weekly and sometimes bi weekly marketing newsletter to help you and your business succeed. We promise we’ll never sell your information and generally as a rule, I don’t do a lot of hard sales in that newsletter. I do a few from time to time. As always, this podcast is dedicated my late father Bruce Cairns . Keep your feet underground. Keep reaching for the stars and make your business succeed. Bye for now.