13 September 2010 ~ 20 Comments

FA012 – Foolish Q&A + What Are Our Core Values

Audio

Today we do something different.  Izzy and I answer questions we have received on our voicemail.  Maybe we should call it the Fool Phone like the old Adam West Batphone.  But we aren’t going to name it that since Izzy won’t let me have a utility belt to go with it–something about endangering the populace.

We also talk about defining the core values of what Foolish means to us and to you.  So we need your help in what you think a Foolish Adventure is.

Call in and leave questions or comments on our voicemail [+1 (480) 331-4695] or feel free to jump into the conversation in the comments section.

Enjoy your Foolish Adventure,

t

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As always, you can find all the past editions here.

  • Patriciawydler

    Thank you. Thank you for including my question in your episode. I was flattered. It made me feel special. And talking about special, what is the special touch that an online business has that energizes a consumer to want to come back and hear the rest of the story? I left you a voicemessage in your answering machine: What ingredient of mystery do you have to create in your website, or episodes that createes in a listener an urge to come back (and become a repeat listener)? I think izzy and Tim have developed something in their episodes that makes us want to listen to the next episode. You are great! Thanks for making me feel special.

  • John

    I love my freedom too! It is so rewarding to work hard and I reap what I put in. I have two boys and this is a main reason I prefer to manage my own time. Foolish values rule! Freedom is the ability to go outside and play with my son at lunch. Having no time clock. No commute. Better food in my kitchen. Window in my office. I am just over-all ecstatic I took the jump 6 months ago! Thanks for the show guys, great as always

  • http://www.videotools.com.br Jener

    As for the second quetsion , regarding how to hold videos, just wanted to share this:

    http://getmediacore.com/features

    I haven’t really used it but thought it maybe good….I personally use screencast.com. For me that’s perfect.

    http://www.screencast.com

    Thanks again for the great sharing. Cheers!

  • Anonymous

    Great point on making your business work for you instead of the other way around. I’m working on my business plan and I thought I had a great angle only to realize that I would be producing custom video content per “sale” and I would have to work like 60 hours a day just to make a decent buck, or dramatically increase the price tag. While the second option is possible I don’t think my market would support that price tag. I think the “bits” business model is one that can get skewed towards manufacturing (even if the product is digital) if you are not careful.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M7GA7ZX4AS5H3JGROQHFF7S7YI SusetteF

    Wow, This is like early Izzy Videos–the info is so good I wonder how long before one has to pay. It was great hearing my comment, although I rambled! Sorry about that! BTW, you two are good together.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    Thanks for the kind comments.

    The Foolish Adventure Show will remain free for as long as we do it and it will always have the best information we have available to us.

    There will be products that we will sell that just can’t be done in our show format. This is how Izzy and I will be able to afford to keep the Show free and be able to cover the cost of our time.

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Thanks for the great voicemail. I’m glad we were able to answer your question…

    Regarding how to keep people coming back to your website. There are lots of things you can do. Here are some:

    * Create amazing content. If it’s amazing, people will come back. (We’re trying to create amazing content here. The audience will need to determine if we’re succeeding.)
    * Get email addresses via an email list. When you post new content that’s valuable to them, you can email your audience and let them know there’s new content.
    * Make it easy to subscribe, via email, RSS, or whatever.
    * Post regularly.

    The biggest, best, most important way is to create content that’s valuable to your audience. That beats everything.

    I hope that helps!

    All the best,

    Izzy

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    John, congrats to you for the success! :-)

    And yes, Foolish Values DO rule!

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Thanks for the resources Jener! I’ve heard alot of good things about screencast.com, but I’ve never used them.

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Received your voicemail today. Great one. I think we’ll almost certainly play it and respond to it soon.

    Regarding a business plan — I like what the 37 Signals guys call a business plan. They call it a “Business Guess”. :-)

    The best thing to do is put together a strategy and then take action. It’s nearly impossible to properly plan, and it’s really not that helpful.

    The best solution is almost always to take an action now. You can course-correct later. This is definitely Foolish. :-)

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Susette! Thanks for the voicemail.

    As Tim says, we’re keeping the Foolish Adventure podcast free. Hopefully that will help *change the world* — one of our big goals with this thing. :-)

  • Anonymous

    Great stuff thanks Izzy. I’ll be working on filming a few new products starting tomorrow.

    BTW do you know how to change the encoding of a feedburner feed. Somehow mine is set for UTF-5 instead of 8.

    Random question I know.

    Shannon Rogers

  • http://www.ronniecreates.blogspot.com Ronniecrowley

    Great show again – you mention something called Lipscum?? Where you host your video. Looking for somewhere to host a “professional” video which I want to add to website. In my “day job” we manage associations and one is paying for a video to made so now I’m responsible for getting this hosted and added to the website. Can’t seem to find Lipscum – so thinking I’m miss hearing the name. What I need is a free hosting site where I can load the video and then link onto the website. Not Utube it isn’t good enough for what we’re doing. Can you help me? I know on the paperclipping you provide links to products you mention and it would be great if you could do the same but I also know this takes time so is a big ask. The wood whisper also mentioned the site he used but haven’t had the chance to go back and get the name of what he said. My problem is I’m usually listening on my iphone as I drive to and from school.

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Hi Ronnie,

    I use Libsyn – http://www.libsyn.com — to host my videos. Marc uses Blip.tv.
    Libsyn isn’t free, and Blip.tv is.

    I hope that helps!

    All the best,

    Izzy

  • Michael

    How do you create membership only (password protected) RSS feeds? Is this something that aMember handles?

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Yes, Amember can protect an RSS feed. You make a regular RSS feed, put it in
    a folder all its own, and then use Amember to control access to it.

    I hope that helps!

  • Steve

    Hi Guys, thanks so much for including my question, I was quite surprised to hear my voice coming out of your podcast, very cool. And yes, you are correct I am indeed a professional video producer. Although every survey or study you listen to says how much business is interested in utilizing online video for their marketing I see production firm after production firm going out of business.

    Just last month I met a video guy who used to have 3 offices across the US, satellite trucks and all the stuff a freelance news and documentary videographer needs in order to be at the top of his game. (At one point, he was making $100,000 PER MONTH to give you some idea) Now he struggles to put gas in his truck and is losing his home.

    I hope to hang in there in some form but this economy is frankly kicking my butt.

    I am looking into E-Junkie to provide some of the distribution “back end” for the videos but even if you host the videos on a site like Libsyn or your own server they still place a 2GB file size limit due to the way they “hide” the true hosting location of the file – they say doing that somehow routes the file through their system which seems odd but okay. 2GB is fine for me anyway

  • http://www.tortagialla.com Linda Tieu

    Just wanted to say thanks for doing this podcast. It’s great to hear the advice from others who have been through the journey of building a business.

  • http://trickynag.com Tracy

    I liked your comment about “just do it”. But, I wish you’d been a bit firmer about telling people that at some point they really need to get some professional (accountant/tax & lawyer) advice. Before I started my adventure (I have quite a ways to go before I reach the level of foolish) I worked as a lawyer. Too often I saw people jump into things without understanding basic tax or legal implications. It never ended cheaply for them. Also, it’s way easier to do some basic tax planning when your income is small and you start out, than when you suddenly have a rather large income.

    I’m all for your approach, and it’s great when you make peanuts, but people need to get to a lawyer & tax accountant to protect themselves and their hard earned income. Dad was a successful small business. His advice – get a good lawyer and a good accountant. Both of his served him well and set up his affairs so that he continues to earn a great income with hardly any work well past his retirement. He is now 78. (As an aside, he never had business cards and he read the newspaper every day.)

    Loving the show, learning lots, and slowly becoming more foolish.

  • http://FoolishAdventure.com Tim Conley

    We do encourage people to seek legal and accounting advice, but we don’t want it to be another excuse to not take action. But I agree we shouldn’t be so cavalier about it. Thanks.