Dealing With Tech Issues And Staying Productive On The Road
Reid: Alright. Where’s everybody? There you go, there you go much better. Alright, this is take two and…well it actually takes three because…but take one had no sound so we’re adding how to deal with technology problems…
All: [Laughing]
Reid: How to deal with technology problems and also recreate half of the first video which was how to remain productive on the road. Introduce yourselves, dive in, go! And…and then let us know if you can hear the sound good. Go. Somebody go.
Stella: Hi, I’m Stella Harris from http://stellaharris.net/
Lola: I’m Dirty Lola of Sex Ed A Go Go at http://sexedagogo.com/
Jimanekia: And I am Jimanekia Eborn from http://sewjim.com/
Allison: And I’m Allison Moon from http://girlsex101.com/
Reid: And I’m Reid Mihalko from https://reidaboutsex.com/ and I’m also the creator of Sex Geek Summer Camp at http://www.sexgeeksummercamp.com/
Lola: Are you sure?
Reid: I’m juggling a lot right here. There’s a lot of technology going on but this is awesome and fun and we had a co-working day today which is one way to stay productive on the road is to get a bunch of your friends together and to have them shame you if you’re not staying on focusing on the task. And then other things that were that we did to remain productive, I was talking about bringing a hard drive that I do with me that has all of my working files on it because I don’t sync things to the cloud that that’s just me right now.
Allison: Oh yeah I talked about boundaries, having boundaries when you’re being hosted by hosts that you love and enjoy spending time with but still telling them ahead of time when you can do social stuff but when you also need to work.
Reid: Yeah and I added onto that like get a bunch of work done in the morning and then have social time.
Lola: Great and I talked about making sure you bring your actual work with you, your resource material for projects and things that you’re working on because it won’t help if you’ve left it at home.
Jimanekia: That’s right.
Stella: I talked about prioritizing because I know that I am less productive when I’m traveling and so I need to know what are the essential must to do’s
Reid: Cool.
Jimanekia: Yeah and I talked about making list. Sometimes having something like visually written down and as you scratch it off can help and also if you do the list beforehand, you don’t forget all the things that you actually need to do instead of be like “I’ll just remember it” you won’t.
Reid: Yeah. Well but especially when you’re on the road and you’re like tired
Lola: Yeah
Allison: And the context is if you’re…
Reid: and like there’s a lot going on.
Allison: Yeah.
Lola: Yeah
Reid: I also try to automate stuff as much as I can before I hit the road.
Lola: Yeah and a tip that kind of covers both of things you said, wunderlist is a great list app that you can actually put due dates on and it’ll actually give you it’ll prioritize for you so if you put something is due on whatever date it’ll show you that it’s coming up that this is the thing you need to work on and you can also divide your list into like a work list, a home list or whatever list you want to make, grocery whatever it is and then each task within a list can be prioritized. So maybe you don’t need to finish one list before you go to the other but your multiple of lists will all pop up when you’re…as soon as you open the app so you know what you need to work on right away.
Reid: Okay. Other technology fails let’s switch to that. So something I didn’t do I usually ask people like if they can hear me but because we have so many people I have the selfie stick set so far away I can’t see what people are writing you can probably ‘coz you’re like a hawk
Allison: Yeah
Reid: What…what are people saying?
Allison: Everybody is just saying hi.
Reid: Okay good but…but again like asking…asking people if they can hear you when you’re doing like these kinds of live stream things if you can hear
Allison: Stella is out of frame.
Reid: If you can hear us you know like, like if you can hear us hit a bunch of emoticons like whatever you want to do to get so that you know that people are….that it’s working. Other fails? Stella, did you say you had a PowerPoint?
Stella: Yeah, I was teaching a class for Kink Fest a couple of years ago that I always use PowerPoint for and it wasn’t agreeing with the conference center system and so I couldn’t use it, I had to sort of wing it and I think it ended up actually being a really good class because I think sometimes I get really dependent on my notes and crutches because I refused to just believe I know the stuff and then when it’s off-the-cuff I think I’m actually sometimes they have been better but every time since that’s happened I’ve had printouts of my notes so that if I can’t rely on my computer for some reason, I have a hard copy to go to
Reid: Yeah
Stella: to make sure I stay on my outline.
Reid: Yeah. I always try to make sure that I designed my…if I have a PowerPoint I design what I’m talking about so that I could teach it if I didn’t have a PowerPoint-like and…and again like sometimes it’s that’s tricky or hard but I think it’s really useful because just expect that something’s gonna go wrong
Lola: Yeah
Allison: Yeah, I never trust the conference center’s Wi-Fi and I never trust that they’ll have all the dongles that are necessary
Stella: Yeah
Allison: or the cables that are necessary
Reid: Yeah
Allison: just
Lola: you mentioned hotspot on your phone.
Allison: Yeah
Reid: Yeah
Allison: so yeah using hot spots if you can or again just knowing that you know this…the material well enough to be able to wing it is
Stella: Yeah
Allison: actually the best way feeling it.
Reid: Yeah, I had I have a… when I travel I have a ziplock filled with every dongle that has ever been made for Apple computers
Allison: It’s true. It’s really this big.
Reid: Yeah. Some of them are old and big but everyone’s [Inaudible 00:05:15] it’s like “Reid, Reid do you have a dongle for a 19 you know…”
Allison: Yeah
Reid: “1992 laptop?” I’m like “I probably do.”
Allison: and actually that’s the thing like you’ve saved your own ass a couple times but you’ve saved other people’s asses
Reid: Yeah
Allison: way off more often. I think that’s a beautiful thing a service to provide if you’re the guy
Lola: Yeah
Allison: who’s got all the things…
Jimanekia: Yeah it’s true.
Reid: I’m the dongle guy. Ask Reid if he’s got a dongle for you.
All: [Laughing]
Reid: Anyone else?
Allison: Oh, external power sources. I actually invested in like a couple hundred dollar brick power source because I was going on a like cross-country flight and I knew that I wouldn’t have power at my seat and so it’s like I had so much work to do, I’m like I’m gonna it’s…it’s heavy and it’s big but it’s totally worth it.
Reid: Yeah and that was like powered your laptop
Allison: It powered…it powered my laptop twice and my cell phone three times.
Reid: Wow.
Allison: Yeah, it was great.
Reid: Yeah I’ve got a couple of little…little batteries that I use and it’s challenging with my phone because I have this cool mic that that that goes into the port
Allison: he says with a rage
Reid: My cool mic. Hey, and it is it’s very cool and…and so what I just did is I just ordered a splitter for my phone that hopefully, I can plug the mic in and an extra battery so we’ll see how that goes we’ll beta test it.
Allison: Can I add one more thing?
Lola: Yeah.
Allison: Okay so I’m a writer and for a long long time I had a journal with me everywhere I went and I would just write notes and stuff but I got out of that habit somewhere along my travels and one of the things that is maddening to me is when I don’t have access to my computer or other technology to not be able to write things down. It’s so silly to me that I stopped getting the habit of carrying paper with me but I’m trying to get that back into my life where it’s like a notebook with multiple writing utensils in every bag at every time because there’s gonna be inspiration that strikes, there’s gonna be a time when I don’t want to whip out the iPod on the subway or something but I want to be able to write something down, paper.
Reid: I have a friend who takes…who does memos on their phone and and instead of paper which may or may not work for you it depends.
Allison: Yeah sometimes it gives me good but I think analog
Reid: Yeah
Allison: is always
Reid: Analog is good
Allison: a good way to back up things.
Reid: because digital files like disappear on your hard drive and then you don’t find them until like months later
Jimanekia: Or never. I have to lost things.
Allison: Yeah.
Lola: Yeah
Reid: Anybody…anybody else?
Lola: Be really super realistic about what you could actually work on while you’re on the road like if you are going to a conference that’s a three-day conference and you’re speaking a lot maybe you’re not actually gonna get to write that article that you that is due when you get home I’ve done that and had to go “Sorry, can I get an extension?” So not maybe not saving things like that for when you’re like when you’re doing you know you’re gonna hit the road because you’re not honest about actually having time to work on it you’re not gonna get to it anyway.
Reid: The other thing I’ll add is I would make a list of like three or five things that you could do if you could do just one of them little things that would make you feel productive so that when you’re at a conference or something and you feel like the rest of your business is coming off the hinges, there’s like one or two things you could do right when you wake up so that you’re like alright, I got some stuff done today…for me that’s for me that’s social media so if I can…can post something new or tweet something new that’s…that’s about my business then I feel like at least I’m doing some kind of promotion and then I feel like like come late at night I’m not so worried that my business is falling apart ‘coz I get anything done and that’s can be really tricky when you’re at a conference or if you’re emceeing an entire event or something like that.
Lola: Yeah.
Reid: Anything else?
Allison: Oh, I want to know what your…do any of you guys travel with merch.
Reid: Merchandise tips.
Lola: Yes. Okay, zip bags like having your merch separated into little bags and like and then in little bags so I carry stickers but all the stickers are together, all the buttons are in another bag together and then all of that is in another zip bag together. When I fly everything is in a clear ziplock bag because if you have to put it underneath the plane they…I get searched all the time, this way they won’t like plow through your stuff, they can pick it up and look through it ‘coz the last thing you want them is ruffling up your stickers or your merch and stuff. I roll up I do like comb towels and like but those get folded and put
Reid: Let’s get some emoticons for…this might be the first the first Facebook live of my work comb towels was mention so let’s hit some
Lola: Comb towels
Allison: If you want to comb towel for Dirty Lola
Reid: hit some emoticons
Allison: for Dirty Lola
Lola: for Dirty Lola
Reid: you know where to get them
Lola: [Inaudible 00:09:46] So that yeah like that stuff gets all put in in baggies and I just it keeps it clean and also if…if they’re going to search your bag, they can see it.
Reid: I just started using zip locks for my sex geek t-shirts and putting them by size and…and it’s it feels like it takes more but the stuff is so much more organize and easier to travel.
Lola: Yeah
Reid: Any other merch tips?
Lola: Oh, shipping why would it caught if it’s…a lot of time it’s cheaper to ship yourself a box than it is to pack a bag and pay for the
Reid: especially these books
Lola: Yeah
Reid: ‘coz you can do media mail
Lola: Yeah
Allison: Yeah books are great for media mail but books, by the way, are heavy.
Reid: Yeah
Allison: So if you can notice already, if you’re considering writing a book and traveling with it and selling it on the road, do yourself a favor and ship it ahead of time. Do not try and travel with it, it will cause you tears, frustrations, and heartache
Lola: Yeah
Allison: especially when the suitcase decides to crap out
Lola: Right
Allison: while traveling through the wintery streets.
Lola: And pack in the box that you ship tape and a return address because you’re probably gonna ship it home too and that way you’re not in a hotel trying to find a place to print your UPS label, your FedEx label or whatever
Reid: Yeah
Lola: And you can just tape it up and usually if you do that you can give it to the hotel desk and they will send it out for you.
Reid: Yeah
Stella: You’re good.
Reid: We…this year for…for Sex Geek Summer Camp, Cathy set up a whole FedEx account and we had everything pre-shipped, it was it made everything really good but then I don’t know why but this was the year that FedEx like lost a shit ton of our boxes. It was just weird I don’t think it was it was because we pre-labeled things um but it was so much easier but you just have to put the work in ahead of time and kind of think ahead
Lola: Yeah
Reid: but that worked really well and I like flying Southwest Airlines because you can just check a second bag for free and so I try to keep all of my…my stuff in one bag and then I have a free bag for merch.
Allison: Yeah this is a that’s like a life tip that I ‘coz I’m such a cheap buzzer like “I’m gonna get like the cheapest flight even if I have to leave at 6 a.m. and there are no free bags so I’m gonna save $20 by making my life miserable” and I mean that might make
Reid: and $60 in luggage
Allison: Yeah so it makes no sense it was like spend a little bit more money for the free bags and also um make your life easier by flying out at a time that works for your emotional bandwidth so that when you arrive, you arrive happy and healthy as opposed to miserable and angry at everyone.
Lola: Yeah and have a good suitcase that won’t fuck around.
Jimanekia: Spend a little more for a good suitcase.
Lola: That is big with…that rolls all four wheels.
Reid: Oh, all four should
Jimanekia: Yes.
Reid: changed my life.
Jimanekia: Save yourself.
Reid: Oh my goodness.
Jimanekia: shoulder it.
Lola: A 50-pound suitcase
Reid: Yeah
Lola: That rolls on all four wheels.
Reid: But you know what though if I had if I had to do a lot of off-roading like like to the snow and stuff
Allison: Stella’s not on the frame
Reid: Oh, sorry. If I had to do a lot of through the snow and slush I think I might want a two-wheeler with big knobby wheels, I’m not sure.
Lola: It [Inaudible 00:12:45] I don’t go where there’s snow.
All: [Laughing]
Reid: There you go, there you have it. Alright, we’re gonna leave you now it’s Friday. Have a great Friday!
Jimanekia: Bye!
Stella: Bye!
Reid: Go see Thor. I missed that on the first video. Thor is out…short hair.
Allison: Do you stalk in Marvel? What’s going on?
Jimanekia: Is that supposed to be a surprise?
Allison: Oh.
Reid: Make my Marvel. Alright, bye, everyone! Hey thanks Apple for the great phone upgrade that keeps crashing, that’s annoying. Alright, so where were we? Hard drive
Allison: I have another point on that though
Reid: Yup
Allison: nevermind, I forgot. Oh, wait! Now I remember.
Jimanekia: It’s back.
Allison: Okay. So huge thing in my productivity changed when I moved from Gmail to using on a mail app on my computer ‘coz I didn’t need Wi-Fi to be able to answer emails.
Reid: Yeah
Allison: That changed the game for me.
Stella: Cool
Reid: Yeah. I’ve…I’ve used I still use Apple Mail and I run all my Gmail through it so that I can because when I fly a lot and they’ll always be a flight that for some reason doesn’t have Wi-Fi so I can answer and work on emails and then everything I’ll send as soon as I get you know get Wi-Fi. I had another one too…oh, figure out what routines you need to have in them like for me in the morning so that I kind of set myself in my zone so like I’m…for those of you who know I’m a bulletproof coffee nerd and so like if I can sit if, I can do my coffee and not be distracted by like my hosts I can start getting into my work groove and then take time like reward hangout time like around lunchtime or something like that. So I try to get a bunch of stuff done early in the day and then go hang out with my…whoever’s hosting me.
Lola: Remember your time zone changes and to change them I…like right now my laptop says it’s 8:06 p.m. it is not that time, right? And if I was setting up things on my website it would be all wacky with posting if I wanted to post right now. So just remember where you are, what time zone you’re in, yeah.
Reid: I also try to automate as much as I can before I hit the road so I scheduled my HootSuites and…and whatever other kinds of things I can get scheduled ahead of time so that when I’m on the road that stuff’s already happening. Anything else?
Stella: Like you mentioned routines, keeping to your regular routines and self-care as much as possible, reminding her to sleep, and reminding to eat all of that
Jimanekia: Start to drink water
Stella: you can actually do work
Lola: Yeah
Reid: Anything else?
Lola: I think that’s all that I mention
Allison: Well, there’s another one that I use is the having a hot spot actually really helpful.
Lola: Oh yeah
Allison: because there are often times when you don’t have Wi-Fi and it’s really unreliable and you have like a Skype meeting with somebody really important and you can’t get to Wi-Fi.
Lola: Yeah
Allison: I’ve had many freaked out because I haven’t been able to get internet exactly when I do or it’s not fast enough to be able to support what I need. So either supporting a hot spot on your phone here at like only turning it on when you’re on the road or just having it all always available is a really good idea.
Lola: Yeah
Reid: Alright.
Stella: Yay!
Lola: Yay!
Reid: I think that’s it.
Allison: And we’ve been co-working for like the past six hours so we got a little bit low energy.
Reid: So we’re little punchy, we’re little punchy
Lola: We’re like ah
Reid: and there’s a hot tub so maybe it’s hot tub time?
All: [Yay!]
Jimanekia: It’s French fries time.
Lola: French fries and carbs
Reid: Oh, it’s French fries, we’ve got French fries warming in the oven and then maybe hot tub time. Alright, leave a leave some of your productivity tips for us. And then one more time, where can people find you? Allison go!
Allison: http://girlsex101.com/
Jimanekia: http://sewjim.com/
Lola: http://sexedagogo.com/
Stella: http://stellaharris.net/
Reid: And https://reidaboutsex.com/. We’ll put some…all those links in the descriptions and have a great weekend everybody. Go see Thor! We’re seeing Thor tonight.
Lola: [Inaudible 00:16:35] Marvel
Reid: Thor! Short-haired Chris Hemsworth. Come on! Bye!