podcasting Archives - Daniel J. Lewis

Why Moving Your Home Business Out of Your Home May Be Your Best Decision

April 2, 2016 by Daniel J. Lewis 4 Comments

Working from home seems like the entrepreneur's dream, but it may not be as fun, productive, and profitable as you may think.

I left my full-time job in 2011 to fully commit to my growing podcast-consulting business (known as The Audacity to Podcast). Being recently married, I thought the combination of doing what I love, around the woman I love, and in the place I was most comfortable was a dream come true.

But it was far more stressful than I ever expected. Moving my studio office out of my home—four years later—was one of the best things I did for my business and my marriage.

Your story and situation are probably quite different from mine. So you may need to adjust my advice for your circumstances.

1. Clear boundaries

My home office had always been in the lower level of our bilevel home. (These seemingly state-mandated constructions are like two-story homes half-sunken into the ground. The entry is between the two floors with immediate stairways. The kitchen, living room, and bedrooms are usually upstairs and the “family room” and fireplace are usually downstairs.) And there was no door to my office.

Not having a door is an issue all on its own. But the proximity of my workspace to the rest of my life made it difficult to create and maintain healthy boundaries.

It was too easy to be interrupted by home life. Every brief question, kitchen noise, and even small moments of affection were interruptions.

Plus, it was difficult for me to stay away from work when my same PC also doubled as an entertainment device.

When I moved my business into separate office space, it made it much easier to leave work at work and enjoy home at home. The small commute gives me time to transition between work and home mentalities. Plus, my home is no longer set up for intense, focused work, so I'm far less tempted to let that kind of work interrupt my home life.

It's now much easier to make home a place for family and my office a place for work.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Moving your business out of your home creates clear boundaries.” quote=”Moving your business out of your home creates clear boundaries.”]

2. Greater focus

With far fewer interruptions, it's much easier for me to focus on my business priorities while I'm at work. There's no washing machine, there are no clashing dishes, and there's no noise-maker from hell (also known as the vacuum clean or—worse—the dryer buzzer).

Working from home requires a lot of discipline. You still need discipline working from a private office, but the opportunities to be distracted are far fewer. It's like the difference in maintaining a diet while you're walking in a park versus walking through the candy aisle.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Moving your business out of your home brings greater focus.” quote=”Moving your business out of your home brings greater focus.”]

3. Improved relationships

I totally love my wife! I made a lifetime-binding oath before God and man that I would always and forever love her. But that's not easy when I'm being selfish and under pressure. Marriage is hard work (because it means my changing and growing), but it's totally worth it!

During the first few years of my business, it was only my wife and me in the house—all day, every day. That continuous exposure to each other was bound to stir up nastiness we didn't realize we had (marriage doesn't create problems, it reveals them). So in addition to learning how to live together and become more Christlike toward each other, we also had the extra stress of my new business.

With blurry boundaries came frequent interruptions. With the interruptions came reduced productivity and increased stress. With increased stress came more temptation to be ugly.

I'm not saying that a home business will cause problems in your marriage. But it certainly is an additional burden stacked on what you may already be struggling to work through, which makes it easier to fail.

I hated facing a crisis multiple times every day. My crisis (or turning point) was how to balance loving my wife and investing myself in my business. I hated making those decisions between important priorities, and I was confronted with them throughout the day. Those decisions, alone, caused more stress in addition to all the other stresses (especially when I would make the wrong decision).

When I moved my business into a separate office, my marriage improved significantly. It wasn't this decision, alone. There were other things changing, too. But removing this collection of stresses made it easier to focus on and appreciate my relationship with my wife.

Let me be clear. Moving my office did not save my marriage; God saved my marriage. And I believe God gave us the wisdom to finally move my office space and relieve some of that stress on our most important relationship on Earth.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Moving your business out of your home can improve your family relationships!” quote=”Moving your business out of your home can improve your family relationships!”]

4. More flexibility

My business is podcasting and helping podcasters. This means I record a lot of audio and video—reviews, podcast episodes, consulting, courses, promotional videos, and more. That kind of multimedia work requires specialized equipment, a quiet environment, and sometimes lots of space.

Recording anything was always a challenge. I would cage our dog and ask my wife to be absolutely quiet—no dishes, microwave oven, flushing toilets, and sometimes not even walking around (because my office was below the kitchen and dining room). My activities and responsibilities were conflicting with my wife's activities and responsibilities. This meant my recording times were extremely limited, or the inconveniences would create additional conflict.

Plus, it wasn't practical to leave my video equipment set up, especially while we were trying to sell our house.

Now, having my own, dedicated space gives me the flexibility to arrange the space how I need it and leave my equipment set up. This makes it much easier to record something when time and inspiration hit.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Moving your business out of your home gives you more flexibility!” quote=”Moving your business out of your home gives you more flexibility!”]

Is a separate office for you?

As for me and my wife, we realized that even though working from home is very comfortable and affordable, it's far better for both our family and my business for me to work away from home—not even a small building on our property.

Your situation may be unique and still share some similarities with mine. You really have to decide this for yourself. But I hope this gives you some ideas to discuss with your family and associates.

Please comment with your own working-from-home stories and what inspired your decision for where you work.

The ethics of choosing affiliate links in your blog or podcast

April 19, 2013 by Daniel J. Lewis 13 Comments

How much consideration do you put into choosing which affiliates links you use?

For most of my podcasts, affiliate links are easy—Amazon.com for everything because they sell everything at usually great prices.

But on my “how-to” podcast about podcasting, The Audacity to Podcast, affiliates are more complicated. I recommend many more products:

mixers,
microphones,
software,
audio cables,
video cameras,
mobile devices,
web hosting,
and anything else that helps podcasting.

In the past, I've used several affiliates:

The decision for a link is hard when affiliate programs vary in payouts and certain companies will happily reshare my content if I use their affiliates exclusively. But when a single product is the same price on several sites, it's even harder to decide which affiliate to use.

I appreciate the affiliate relationship I have with B&H, but I know it's often more convenient and cheaper for my audience to purchase from Amazon.com.

A quick poll on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ revealed overwhelming preference for Amazon.com, even when other retailers had the same price. The reasons usually focused on the following.

Amazon Prime members who could get free two-day shipping
Amazon.com giftcards earned through programs like Swagbucks
Account already exists on Amazon and don't want to sign up somewhere else
Amazon.com's trusted reputation

I even prefer Amazon.com for most purchases because they usually have the best price, we have a warehouse nearby, and I regularly earn free giftcards from Swagbucks. Am I violating any rule by using an affiliate link to a retailer I may not prefer?

Then looking on the profit side, I usually make more money through my Amazon affiliates than I do with other affiliate links. Almost every month, I sell enough items through my combined Amazon tracking IDs that I earn a 6.5% commission (I'm always so close to 7%!). Each additional item sold through Amazon increases the possibility that I could earn a higher percentage rate.

Amazon offers handy widgets and plenty of linking options, including simply adding “tag=danieljlewis-20” to any URL to turn it into an affiliate link.

Then there's B&H. They have a great website, accurate search, great customer service, and handy link creation. While they offer a variety of widget formats, making widgets are a pain. My earning potential with B&H is a little lower. But they've reminded me that if I exclusively use B&H affiliate links in my product reviews, they would share my reviews with their social-media followers. And the better I perform, the more likely I can borrow some demo units for more reviews.

For most podcasting equipment I talk about on The Audacity to Podcast, I end up including affiliate links to both Amazon.com and B&H. This makes my linking process twice as long.

So what's the ethical thing to do? I believe that is to continue offering Amazon.com affiliate links first unless a better price or better product is available elsewhere. Sure, this won't make me popular with companies like B&H, but I believe this will give my followers the right options for them to make their own choices. After all, they're smart people.

How do you handle affiliate links for the same product from competing retailers? I'd love to hear your opinions and experience in the comments below.

5 steps to overcoming a competitive attitude

March 5, 2013 by Daniel J. Lewis Leave a Comment

I work in several competitive spaces:

I host a podcast about podcasting (The Audacity to Podcast), and there are a few others;
I offer one-on-one consulting, and there are many others who offer the same services;
I host a Once Upon a Time podcast (ONCE podcast), and there are more than a dozen others; and
I'm a web designer, public speaker, and presentation designer, and you know there are tens of thousands of others like that.

There are many ways I'm tempted to feel competitive or approach others with a competitive attitude. Here are five steps I follow to address my perspective, especially as it relates to content-creators on the Internet.

1. Admit that you feel competitive

Don't be naive about competition. You may want to pretend that you're not in competition with others, but the actual facts are undeniable. If you do a similar thing as others, that makes you competition with each other.

Sometimes, you just have to admit to yourself or others around you. Sometimes, this may even mean acknowledging to your competition that you recognize your place.

But this is your first step to set things right. Competition is a good thing in business. It drives companies to innovate. But if you stay feeling competitive, you'll eventually start feeling antagonistic about others.

2. Recognize this as a sign of success

If you have no competition, then you either have a monopoly, or you're magical enough to make something work that no one else can.

Look at others in your niche as an indication that the niche is maturing and has great potential.

Even if someone else is finding huge success in your field, this doesn't mean they're stealing from you. This shows you some of the potential you could have in that same niche if you really put yourself into it.

3. Foster a community

Several people doing similar things can work more effectively when they team up and work together. Look for ways that you can create a community between you and your competition. Acknowledge their successes and the unique experience they bring to the field. Invite them to contribute to what you're doing.

In content-creation, the subject is covered much better when more people cover it from their different perspectives. It's like making a three-dimensional object—running all the processes from only one side returns an incomplete product. But let each person approach with their specialties from their angle, and you'll have a thorough result that aids the consumer much better.

4. Look for how you can improve

Consider the smartphone wars. Apple and Google are fierce competition with their mobile operating systems. But this competition has forced each company to find new ways of improving their own products.

Yes, this sometimes leads to patent wars, too. But others times it leads to outside-the-box thinking, such as Microsoft did with it's Windows Phone operating system that is quite different from iOS or Android.

Find what's working for others but don't copy it; look for how you can make something similar—or even completely different—work for you, too. If someone else offers specialized training, maybe you could also offer specialized training but on a different subject.

5. Commit to having character

Your competition won't always respond well to you. In my fields, I have some “competition” who are now close friends and we frequently refer people to each other. But some of my other “competition” won't play nice.

This is where you have to commit to be the better person by continuing your practice in honor and respect. This may even be a public behavior by recognizing the others when relevant and appropriate, or encourage your content-consumers to also check out what others are doing in the same field.

How do you deal with competitiveness? I'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.