In this video Brandon S Hire (The Noise Floor A/V) is interviewed about his ability to buckle down and do great work consistently despite having less than ideal working conditions. Brandon gives actionable advice on how you can move past your obstacles and closer to your goals.
today we’re talking resourcefulnesstakingaction moving forward getting startedalreadyif you’re spinning your wheels and notgetting the results that you needthis is the interview you must listen toso stick around[Music]hey welcome back everybody thanks forbeing here good to see youi’m adam clairmont and this is onceagain the adam clairmont show where wetalk about how to startand grow a career in audio withactionable tips from meand from others and before we begin iwant to talk to you a little bit aboutgrowing that business and growing thatclient list head over to adamclairmont.com/clientlist because i’ve got a pdf guidethat i would love for you to have it’san easy step by step on how to startgetting those greater clients the betterclients the clients that really fit intowhat you do the clients you want to havethe clients that you’re looking otherpeople working within going i want thoseonesif you don’t really know how to get themif you don’t know the first steps please adamclairmont.com/clientlist love free to have it takes30 seconds it’ll go directly to yourinboxso let’s get on to the show and learn alittle bit more so todayi’m really excited to bring you brandons hire so you probably know brandon froma lot of audio forums uh facebook groupsand probably particularly his own blogthe noise floor avuh brandon’s uh mix and masteringengineer out of columbus ohioand he just has such a cool perspectiveon things he’s always been reallyhelpfuland just seems like a really great dudeas my earbuds fall on my ears sobrandon welcome to the show if it can gowrong it will go wrong in the worstpossible time rightwhere’s the cut button so brandoni’m really glad you agreed to do thisbuddy of course umi’ve been seeing your posts just likemany people online for probably goodfive yearsum and you know there’s a million peopleon the forums we all know that and a lotof themare just kind of some wahoos a lot ofthem are really great but you’re justone of those people that sort of likecuts through thethe noise shall we say we’ll owe it toyour to your blogi just feel like you just bring a littlebit more uh clarity to some things insome other people sometimes and it juststood out to meso um you know recently i’ve you knowbeen watching your youtube channel i’vebeen seeing your blogand i just thought i gotta talk to thisguy i gotta finally meet this guy andget a little facetimeso what part of the country are you fromi’m in new york i’m in albanyokay next time i’m in albany uh i’mcoming with coffeeoh yeah i got somewhere next to me yougot some uh i i’ve i’ve just finished mysecond cup i’ll be getting more afterwe’re doneyeah well that sounds like a plan man inyour yes so when you’re in columbus ohiorightand is that where you got your starthave you always been in columbusuh i i’ve lived a few places in inthis country but um the most the longestthattime that i’ve spent anywhere has beenhere in columbus ohio yesum i actually got my my degree here in2004back when there were virtually no audioschools you know full sail was barely onanybody’s radar we have the recordingworkshop an hour south of herebut you know that wasn’t intensiveenough for what i wanted to doso i got an associate’s degree at ohiouniversity actually traveled an hourto zanesville four days a week just toget the degreefor you know three years of schoolingbecause there weren’t many options backthenfor somebody who wanted to do audio andand videoet cetera i mean the degree wasn’t evenin audio recording it was inuh electronic multimedia which tells youwhere things were back then you knowmost of the things that i have learned ilearned after i got that education sothe fact thatnow here in columbus ohio there areseveral schools dedicated just to thatincluding my friends up at group viewi’m like these people havea lot of resources at their disposalthat they really should be utilizingso um in 2004 i got that degree2006 i moved to indiana and that’s wherei really started taking my firstclients um well not not very many ilived in a college town and those arenotoriously brokeyou know right but um perfect forclients righti gotta write exactly uh i did get acouple of clients though and then afterthat i moved toum denver colorado uh more specificallyup in conifer up in the foothillsand i started a mobile studio up there iwould actually take my geara little boss hard disk recorder the br1600and a bunch of microphones andeverything else down to people’srehearsal spaces record them there bringit home and mix it theredid that part time while working at agrocery store in the deliyou know and then moved back to ohio in2010 andslowly started building things up fromthere and i’ve been here ever since thenthat’s awesome yeah and and based onyour blog like you know thati i’ve i’ve gathered quickly that you’rean incredibly resourceful personand like that idea of like sort of goinggoing where they arethat remote thing and especially thenbecause it was a little bit harder thanum i remember i tried that out probablyprobably around that same time period iwant to sayoh 607 i tried to get a remote rig goingbecause of the time uh a laptop and abig interfaceit was it wasn’t really quite there orit was super expensiveto get anything more than a couple oftracks in with a laptop that waspowerful enoughand reliable enough so i had this bigo2rand i had a mackie 24 what was it amackie hard disk recorder or mackie hdrsomething like thatin this big-ass uh uh travel caseit sucked and i gave up on like afterlike the first two two shows maybe rightbut like yeah like i love thatresourcefulness that you figured outlike you know where’s the nicheyou know what can i do to get it andthat’s the thing you got to figure outwhat you can do with what you have andjust go for it and not question itbecause it’s always going to bechallengesi remember meeting mentors in coloradouh this one guy in particular who uh iactually met because hetalked one of my clients into going tohim instead and then when i brought thefiles over to himso he could finish a project he was likeokay well where’s the pro tools file iwas like well i don’t use pro tools he’slikewhat are you using i’m like uh a boss br1600and uh you know the these short pg-58syou knowit’s like he’s like hold up i know guyswith 10 times the gear that youhave who are saying they’re not readybecause they don’t have enough equipmentand here youare going out there and actually doingthis you knowlike that that’s that’s what it takesand the guy likedecided to take me under his wing andstart like uh mentoring me one-on-oneand i’ll always be grateful to the guyum his name is bob swanson from swan prostudios out in coloradoum but yeah so you know people recognizeit whenuh you as you apparently have and ii appreciate it you know i’m trying notto sound you know full of myself herebutapparently when you have a tenacity tojust kind of do it and not let anythingstop youpeople take notice and so it’s alwaysgood to be recognized for that thank youyeah well not only do people take noticebut things happenright i mean it sounds it’s very clichebut it’s like you know it’s like sayingyou knowuh what is it you miss a hundred percentof the ballthe shots you don’t take right orwhatever it is yeah shots you don’t takewhateverum i i just want to repeat what you justsaid because ii live by it too like that whole idea oflike waiting for that perfect momentwaiting for the right gear waiting forthisum you know brandon and i were justspeaking before this beganyou know we’re audio guys yet somehow welanded in a little bit of a video domainwith youtube and blogging and i justmentioned you know i istarted this thing on a whim myself andi think so far most of my videos are outof focussorry guys uh i’ve had a video personi’m learning but the point being and ithink you would agree is likeyou know um i’ve learned a lot as i’vewent and i wouldn’t have learnedanything had i waited to figure outi’m still trying to figure out the videothing guys sorry why do you think mostof my videos werejust screen captures with my voice for along time righti wasn’t really set up for it but youknow i found a way to do it that i feltstill represented me in a moreprofessional lightand that got me some you know somereally cool projects like plug-inwalkthroughs foraix dsp tokyo dawn labs etc you know soi’m like creating contentbuzz digital labs audio assault forthese developersusing the screen capture and voice overapproachyou know heavily inspired by dan moralwho also mentored me through some ofthatas i was trying to kind of develop thatniche of itbut you know as i started looking at itgoing you know what i think i want to bea little bit more on camera i’m like ireally got to start diving in andlearning this stuff becauseit’s going to look terrible otherwiseand that’s just going to shoot mycredibility in the footso you know you just got to figure outwhere you areevaluate what you need to do to getbetter don’t be afraid to put outsomethingthat is as good as you can do for rightnow even if it could be better later andjust keep movingit’s all about forward momentum period iagree with that100 that’s that’s fantastic adviceyeah we get so caught up in the toolsrightand especially you know reading you knowmagazines oryou know i just dated myself nobody’sreading the magazines probablyi’m just i used to flip through like eqmagazine or like even like thesweetwater catalogyou know there’s just or just goingonline and you’ll see mixed with themasters and studio’s love for breakthere’s so much available to see thatlooks so sensationalized and amazingand there’s a lot to be it’s it isamazingbut it’s not needed right but i meaneven needed in terms of like you knowwhat are our basic needs okay we used tobe hunter-gatherersfood and shelter no it’s not needed inthat respectyou know it’s nice to have and if youhave the means it’sawesome to do but as long as you havethebasic things that you need to get thejob doneand you know how to do it with thosetools thenokay what’s stopping you exactlyyeah yeah i think it’s probably farbetteruse of money to invest in yourself andyour craft and your abilities than toinvestin gear honestly one thingthat actually helps people kind of learnmore about the gear that they haveis and that’s often overlooked isreadingthe owner’s manual for the for theplug-in it’s not justhere’s how to use this plug-in but it’salso hey there’s some audio concepts inhere they’re discussingwhat is that about go down that rabbithole start learning startyou know figuring out what why arepeople talking aboutyou know uh linearity what doeslinearity mean why are people talkingaboutgame structure what does that mean inthe digital realmversus the analog realm is there adifference there is but we’ll get intothat another timeum you know and why are you know startquestioningeverything that everybody teaches younot because you’re beinguh deliberately skeptical but becauseyou’re trying to figure out where allthese pieces fitand when you invest in yourself in thatway thenyou know you learn how to adapt to othersituations like you mentionedbeing resourceful i remember myprofessor in collegei i the the um the i o was brokengoing into uh i think it was adobeauditionuh the i o was broken and i found a wayto patch in throughuh one of my boss hard disk recordersusing the rca outputs into the back ofthe cd burnerand run that into the computer and hewas like there you gohe was like really uh i mean you did itthat’sthat’s that’s awesome you did it nobodyelse was figuring out how to do this ididn’t even think of that butyeah so you know you just got to figureout what the pieces are andwhere they go and then you you can takethe gloves off and just do what you needto doyou know so investing in yourself andyour and your in your education aboutwhat you’re doingis extremely important because you startseeing what’s inwhat in the grand scheme of things isthebare bones necessity and what is youknow icing on the cake it’s cool butif you don’t have it you still have cakeso that’s right yeahyou know i remember seeing a video incollege uhback in the day uh it was eddie kramerin the studio and he was producing thisbandand i mean this was this was i think in2000i don’t even know when the video wasshot but it seemed fairly current at thetimebut you think eddie kramer who’s workedwith and here’s this whoever bannedbut he had i remember he had this eightchannel mackie mixerand at no point in the video was hegoing well normally when i’m onmy ssl or when i’ve got my studer andi’m you know at abbey roadand nope he was just like okay i’ve gota top and a low shelfand he’s just just like he’s all rightall right so i’m going to add a littlebit of 12kshelf on this and i’m going to take alittle bit of the low and he’s like i’mgoing to move the mic a little bitand it was it’s yeah he doesn’t hedidn’t even careflinch he didn’t poo poo it nothing aguy who could have any studio in theworldand it sounded like it sounded greatyeah you know so i mean if if he can ifhe can work with a eight-channel mackiemixeri’ve got no nothing to stand on to say ishouldn’t be able to do the same thingyou know exactly exactlyso yeah and then you know so brandonthat kind of leads me into anotherthought hereyou know you you’ve been uh working onaudio for quite some timeand you seem very busy and you’re alwaysvery consistent with your blog and i seeall your posts with your clients andeverythingand it’s really cool and then um youknow if we can talk about this for amomentyou’ve been open about your familydynamic as well you know you work athomeand if you want to elaborate elaborateon that but umwhat i’m just amazed at is umyour ability to get work done hey youwere talking about your resourcefulnessbut also your tenacityamidst a family life that can be prettystressful and challengingand i don’t hear any complaintsand i’m just going to adjust i’m notgoing to dive into it too much on theside buti just want to preface this too bysaying and not to put anybody downspecifically but you know we hear andsee onlineand in our own lives a lot of people wholike to complainabout some things that are going on thatreally seem pretty trivial and they makeexcuses for why they can’t do the thingthat they loveso do you want to talk a little bitabout what what your family life is likeand what you go through in day to daysure okay i amone of four adults in the house i’m theonly member of the house whois not disabled in one way or another mytwin daughters are 22 and they arespecial needsuh living with autism have around theclockone-on-one eye contact supervisionrequirementsum and it can be a highintensity uh thing when things are youknow heating upbehaviorally or um you know whenwe’re having trouble finding staff tocome inand help us because of staff turnoverwhich happens sometimesand then i’ve got to figure out how toget things done while still making surethat my family is taken care of whichcan bea huge challenge whichyou know makes sense to say that butuntil you’re in the thick of it you haveno idea justhow oh my godyou kind of get in those moments uh andthenof course my wife unfortunately isdisabled as welluh suffering from a migraine that hasnot stoppedonce in more than six years uhyes yes that’s and you i’m notexaggerating thatshe has had the same migraine since uhmarch of 2014 and it has not stopped ithas disabled herand uh triggered other autoimmuneresponseswe have a uh disability benefits hearinguh her her third try uh coming up herein about 30 days soyou know fingers crossed on that becausethat’ll take some pressure off and maybei’ll actually get a chance to get a goodnight’s restyou know um because you know we lost herincome when she quit workingand i had to make up for that well alsoat times not having anystaff due to restructuring ofuh you know medicaid and other things uhwe’ve had some challenging times overthe past couple of yearsand if not forum by the grace of god and the skin ofuhof my teeth and whatever’s left of myhair wewe’ve made it through that and uh youknow arein a more stable place which is good andyou knowit’s it’s it’s the thing that all of thechallenges i’ve ever faced in my lifehave taught me is it’s not what happensto you everyone has [ __ ] that happens tothemyou can bleep that if you need toeveryone has [ __ ] that happens to themit’s how you respond to ityou know because it’s every things aregoing to happen to peopleand that’s just the way that life goeswhatcounts is the way that you respond tothat and that’s the only thing thatmatters are you gonnagive up and say okay well everythingjustsucks and it’s too much for me and ineed toquit and try to make things easier whichis valid depending on the circumstancesthat is veryvery very valid you know there arepeople whounfortunately have had to place theirloved ones like my twin daughters inassisted living facilities and you knowit is what it isuh because they did not have the meansespecially over the past few yearsduringrestructuring of medicaid and cuts inother placesto uh you know take care of their lovedone the waythat they wanted to at home so they hadto surrender their loved one to thestate and place them in a group homeand just so that they could leave thehouse and provide for the rest of theirfamilyand that is a terrible heartbreakingsituation that we were almost init is not a failure to recognize whenyou’re up against that wall and makethat decisionyou know it’s merely evaluatingwhere you are and respondingappropriately again it’s how you respondyou know so it is validto make those heartbreaking decisions tookay this is too much i can’t handlethis anymore depending on thecircumstance and depending on what elseyou have going onevery situation is unique to you and youonlyso no one else can judge you for thedecisions you make and what you decideisgood to push through and what you decideis too much that is all up to youbut for me it was not too much it wasworth fighting totry to preserve things the way that theywere because i knew it would bereally detrimental to the mentalwelfare of my not only myself but mywifeas well as my twin girls tomake the decision to place my girls in agroup home theythrive on familiarity due to autism andyou know they thrive onconsistency due to the same thing theyneed their routine anything thatinterrupts that including all thismadness we’ve had over the last fewmonthsthat has disrupted that and that hascaused issues soimagine uprooting them from their homewhere they know everything and puttingthem in a group home environmentand not feeling like you did everythingyou could tokind of preserve that for them i wasn’tabout to do that until we absolutely hadno choice and it almost came to thatin 2017 but thankfully it didn’t we’reherewe made it through that and not everyfamily that year was as lucky as we wereandthat needs to be that needs to be statedum you know so it’sit’s about keeping your priorities inorder making sure thatyou know what needs to be done andpushing throughwith like the just notbeing willing to budge unless there’s noother optionif you really want it you have to pushfor it and sometimes it takes thingsbeing that importantto really make you have the drive topush that hardand that’s a good point yeah it is it isit is what it isbut you know the the the thing is as ialways tell peopleyeah i’ve got a lot of challenges on myplate a lot of people have a lot ofchallenges on their plate i’m notspecial in thatin that you know i’ve sure i’ve gotuh you know young adults in my house whohave special needs who need a lot ofattention and i’ve got to try to workthrough thatbut you know what it would be similar tohavingtriplets who are all in their you knowjust just verging on their terrible twosfor a for a single parent you know whati meanuh and not not saying my wife is like aa a triplet in herterrible too i’m not equating my wife inthat i’m saying like you know the stresslevel it’s similar to that so somepeople can relate with that i just haveto deal with iton a longer more persistent basis sothat stress level is therebut it can be managed it’s just mine hasto be managed for a longer period oftimeso everybody has their challengesmine just happens to be longer what areyou going to do about it you’re going tosit there and complain about it i havedone thati have totally done that and i’m veryguilty of that buti still had to pick myself up and getback to work it’s called ventingsometimes you knowexactly exactly i had to pick myself upand get back to work because food stillneeded to be put on the tableand that’s that was the that was thebottom line that was the only thing icould do after ventingwas get back to work get back up andkeep goingyeah yeah i mean that’s that’s a heavystory and and thank youso much for you know that’s you know alot of private details thereagain you said a lot that’s reallyimportant there hey you mentioned thatsometimes it takes a really importantoccurrence in your life to reallygive you the motivation to move forwardrightif anybody out there likes to listen toyou know professional or personaldevelopment you call that the whyyou know everyone’s saying you know youhave a goal all right what’s yourpurpose what’s your whybecause just wanting something isn’tenough there’s got to be a reason behinditum so some people struggle withmotivation for a lot of reasons thatmight beone they just haven’t actually had agood reason to do the thing that theysay they loveyou know especially in audio you knowback inthe the good old days of 2019 andearlier we had such a thing here asinterns did a lot of interviews andbrought people in and i noticed you knowi’m sure you’ve mentioned oryou’ve seen this too uh and people we’vedealt with brandon butthere’s a lot of people who want to dowhat we do not everybody who wants to dowhat we dois willing to work for it you knowand you clearly are willing to work forit some people aren’t even willing tojust show up on timeand that’s considered their kind ofworking for it umso those people clearly haven’t reallyfound a good enough reasonto go after and do the things that maybethey don’t really like to do in order todo the thing that they lovebecause everything that you love there’sstuff about it that maybe isn’t greatum but if it’s something you love enoughumall those things that aren’t great theybecome less notgreat because right balance is out umso if you you know you’re with peopleyou love in your homeso all that stuff that’s not as great isa little bit less not as great becauseyou’re with the people you know insteadof the alternativeis where i’m going right so yeah myfamily makes me smile every damn day ilove them todayand i wouldn’t want to be anywhere elsei’m very happy where i am in spite ofany challenges that make make peoplethink you know oh yeah he’s goteverything really horrible i don’t i’vegot a wonderful life i’ve got awonderful familyi love it here you know there’ssomething wrong with acknowledging thatthere are challengesi have that why you know preservationwas partof that why but um you know it’suh sometimes i’ll just say this let’si i hope for anybody out there whohasn’t found that whythat they’re able to find it withoutsuch extreme circumstancesyeah yeah agreed well we’ll put it thatwayso let let’s talk aboutyou know a little less than the pan thefamily side because you gave us thatcontextso with someone with that kind of a homedynamicand you’re working from home let’s let’salso mention thatum you know you don’t have some privatestudio you don’t haveyou don’t have the luxury of walking outthe door andleaving distractions behind you evenwhen you’re working you’re still in theenvironment ina way so it’s still around you um yeahand these things you know if you’re ifyou’re listening and thinking this isnot related to audio you’re a millionpercent wrongbecause right so much of the job is notabout the product that you give at theend of the day it’s the how you getthereand in order for anybody to deliver workno matter what you do at a high levelyour mental state your physical stateeverything around you your environmentreally needs to be in a certain way inorder for you to really be able to focusand do the best workright it’s difficult if you don’t havethose things in order sowhat i was what i’d like to ask youbrandon is considering the context ofyour environment you must have createdandyou mentioned your girls thrive on umfamiliarity and routineso you i’m imagining i’m assuming thatin order for you to be as consistent asyou arewith the work that you do and to be ableto provide for your family you must havethat sort of consistency and routinewith your lifei’m imagining built in a way that allowsyou toput yourself in a place to work at ahigh level still and producequality work can you can you elaborate alittle bit i’m like what you’ve donemaybe it’s something thatthat people can pick up on and andpeople who are struggling to get to thatnext point maybe they can see like okaywellthat is clearly working so it must beable to work for mesure um and on that note if it works forone person it might not necessarily workfor another person so i would sayuse the main point the main idea behindsomething instead ofuh you know saying well i have to dothis exact system the exact way thisperson points outuse the main point behind why and adaptthat to you and think well what makessense in that context for me that’s whati would advise anybody to doi live with adhd so for meroutine is also extremely important iget distracted super easily whichdoesn’t helpwhen i have to work out in the main roomof the housearound my my girls i love them but theyaredistracting to put it mildly umyou know and so that means on days thati know that i’m going to beyou know prioritizing dad duty i can’thave something major on my plate i haveto evaluatewhat i’m going to be able to reasonablyaccomplishin a given day or time and in a giventime spanand you know accommodate thatappropriately by not schedulingthings like interviews uh onlike sundays when i’m out in the mainliving room surrounded by the noiseof you know uh uh kids shows like lennyand larryand bo on the go like repeat it over andover and over again for 58 hoursyou know um it’s it is what it isuh you have to be that i mean that onemay seem obvious for any of the parentsout thereoh he’s working in audio he doesn’t wantto do it when he’s around his kids andit’s too noisy i don’t always have achoice in that matterthere’s a video on my youtube channelsome may have seen it but not very manydid based on the analytics and that’sfine it’s still out there if anyonewants to see itabout some of the challenges that i’vehad to face when working in audioat the living room table and i shot thatjustoff the cuff on my iphone no special micgoing into the phone you knowso that i could get good audio i didn’teven bother with lighting or anythingthis that was completelyunscripted raw reel the way that it isfor meon days like that with the sound of youknow my daughters in the roomthey’re not on camera i want to protectthem from from youtube for their owndignitybut i’ll talk about them and you knowyou hear what it’s like sonically inthat room while i’m in there trying toget work done andquite frankly with that in mind and howmany times i have to shift what room i’min in the house it’s no wonder i’vemoved frommixing on monitors to mixing inheadphones because there’s no way that ican consistentlywait for the day of the week when imight be able to get up to my controlroom and turn the monitors on toto do a mix recall you know uh a clientwants it now i got to do it nowi’m not going to tell them well i’m notgoing to be back in the control roomuntil wednesdaybut dude it’s thursday you’re gonna makeme wait six days yeah that’s not gonnaflyit’s not gonna fly so i’ve come i’veswitched to mixing with headphones andi’ve gotten so good at it especiallythanks to these olosthat you know i i’m mixing and masteringexclusively on these now i took down mymonitors the other day in my controlroom because i’m just simply not usingthemno i have a mobile session coming up i’mgoing to take them to thatbut other than that i’m i’m just notusing them for anything they’recollecting dust so i took them downbecause they’re taking up spaceand i can use that space in that roomwhen i’m up there filming videosfor things like lighting and other setelements and all of the audio that i’mdoingmonitoring wise is through these youknow i don’t have clients in there toimpresswith my with my monitors because it’s myhome i’m not bringing theminto my home unless they already know mygirls and my girls are comfortable withthemso you know things like that you knowunderstanding what yourneeds are in your environment andadapting it appropriately right now i amin a walk-in closet off of the masterbedroomi’m touching this wall i’m touching theother wall right now i’m touching thiswall and now i’m touching the doora five foot by five foot room off of themaster bedroom that’s about nine feettalland i have some you know that it lookskind of cool on camerawhich i know you can’t see it right nowyou’ll see it when you get the footagelater from my end butit looks kind of cool on camera here butit is just a walk-in closet it is sweatyin herei’ve got a little usb powered fan tohelp keep me cool when i’m notwhen i don’t have a hot mic on but thisway i’m able to hear through these paperthin wallson the other side of that wall is thestove in the kitchen i can hear if mydaughter is having a meltdownback there behind me if my wife needs myhelp she’s in bedsix feet from me if she needs me i canhear her i can get up and address theissuei’m in a central location in the housewhere i can hear everythingand i can address whatever needs tohappen i’m not doing a lot of actualrecording in this space unless it’syou know a voice over or something likethat and if i’m doing something otherthan that it’s usually something thatcan be done with a virtual instrumentor a di input like a guitar you know soyou you just you have toas as i said earlier look at the thingsthat you haveto face and just makethe changes that you need in order tocontinue to move forward in spite ofwhatever challenges you may have in yourworldbecause it doesn’t matterif you’re not producing content itdoesn’t matter if you’re notfinishing projects you know i rememberwhen i was first trying to figure all ofthis out i had a clientwho knew that my kids were special needsand knew that one of them hasobsessive-compulsive disorderand will create three-hour longmeltdowns if she doesn’t get the thingthat she wantsyou know so even though i’m telling theguy you know i’m sorry i didn’t finishyour mix revisionsi had to guard the freezer for threehours because somebody wantedmore chicken nuggets and i wouldn’t lether have any more becauseyou can’t just eat chicken nuggets fordinner every day and it turned into abig long thingthat lasted for hours well i lost thatclientbecause they didn’t care no they weren’tvery understanding of that they werelikewell just control your freaking kid dudei’m like yeahyou don’t get it you say you get it butyou don’t get itso at some point you know right goodriddance to themif they don’t get that then that’s aclient there’s gonna be other thingsdown the lineright insignificant that they’ll stillblow up over it so those are the peoplei don’t mind losing eitherso i i don’t either but you know theother thing was i still hadn’t ironedout how to work with these conditionsyetat that point in time i dropped the ballon that client because i was stilltrying to figure everything outyou know i was still trying to figurewhy i wasn’t proficient mixing onheadphones yeti didn’t have monitors at home they wereat the studio space i was renting at thetime which i eventually closedso i could come home and be a caregiverto my kids and basically work at homestart up the blog and everything elsethat i needed to do umyou know i i i was in a differentcircumstance at the time and that wasnot sustainable giventhe uh increasing need at homeand so i don’t fault them for leaving idrop the balli you know recognize your failures anddon’t dwell on it what can you do toimprove itfor me it was pull the plug on thefacility i was rentingthank god i didn’t have any debt on anyof the gear i hadyou know but pulled a plug on thefacility that i was rentinguh liquidate anything i absolutelydidn’t need andjust downsize to only the smallestfootprint necessary so i can move aroundfrom room to roomtake care of the family where i’m neededand take care of my clientswhile i’m taking care of my family andjust you know move from an hourly rateon mixing toa flat rate because i don’t know if i’mgoing to get pulled away for two hoursto address a meltdown what if i forgotto clock out oh crapso how much do i actually how much am iactually owedam i over charging am i under chargingno i’m not worrying about any of thatit’s alla flat rate now i’m not i’m ijust simplify everything make it whatyou need to doin order to keep moving and just focuson forward momentumbecause as long as you are movingforwardthat is progress it’s not completion ofeverything in the perfectway in the perfect time frame everysingle time it ismoving forward and consistently doing sothat’s the only measure of success thatyou can usein situations like this especiallyi like i like i like the whole i likeall thatand one of the things that i’m hearingis sort of like you’re not holdingand i feel like i’d feel the same waytoo you’re not necessarilyputting anything on a pedestal you’renot holding anything too sacredas like this is how i do it this is whati need this is where i need to beyou know that how to do the job rightand you’re justwilling to continue to do the jobwhatever you got around youwherever you are in whatever time of dayit’s kind of what i’m hearingexactly that’s kind of again just damndude you’re just the resourcefulyou’re just you gotta be yeah you knowat a certain point you’ve just got to beable to figure it out and keep movingyeah and because you know at the end ofthe day nobody’s asking mewell do you you know what whataccommodations can i make for youryour family life they’re asking me aboutwell where’s my product exactly yeahyeah so you’re basically you’re just notreally getting hung up on the detailsright you know you’re not sitting theregoing well again what we mentionedbeforewell i can’t really do this yet becausei don’t have this set up or i don’t havethat set up or that’s reallyinconvenient for me over here i’m usedto doing it that way and i can’t do itthat way now so i’ll wait and wait andwait and wait and waitno right that’s right any time that yousee down timelook at what you could be doing duringthat downtime and that reallyis not something that’s very easy forsomebody who has adhd like me you getdistracted with the phone games or withthe radio orwith politics or whatever it may be andyou just want to keep kind ofyou know feeding your brain to get thatdopamine hitand not focusing on what you could bedoing better but the otherthe other morning you know with my wifeand i were discussingyou know system upgrades a new computerfor me this one’s about five years oldand you know i had to take her totwo doctor appointments in a row and i’mbasically sitting in the car for threehoursjust twiddling my thumbs waiting forthese appointments to be over i’m likeif i had a laptop i could be editingthese videos that i’m releasing inoctoberright now or i could be you know tryingto get thisthis guitar amp tone dialed in anamplitube or something you know iif i had i mean i’ve got the headphonesthat i trust i could do this in the carif i had a laptopso now i’m thinking okay well if i doget ayou know a new desktop computer for mostof my work should i also be getting alaptop sowhen i can go out and do these thingswhile waiting and sitting idlyi can still be productive and keepworking you knowwhere are the opportunities for that tohappen andyou just got to keep evaluating thingsas you find that downtimewhat can i be doing with this and justtry to keep goingand that’s really tough to do sometimesbut you’ve got to do ityeah i’m glad you mentioned that andthat’s something that i i didn’t reallylearnthat perspective um untillater on uh probably i’m gonna guessmaybe like five or so years ago and whati’m talking about is like actuallyintentionally evaluating your dayevaluating your productivity and sayingwhat can i do betterand i’m not talking about you knoweq’ing the vocal better or anything likethat and again like that stuff thati know it has its place and you know idon’t want to make people think that idon’t care about the sound of a productit’s importantbut there are so many other things thatcan go into your day andand into your craft and just into youryou know your box of tools that hasnothingto do with eq’ing your vocal or gettinga lot of kick drumwhat i’m saying is like you know it ifyou canpinpoint that you just wasted an hourand and here’s a kicker think about theamount of amount of time you’re thumbingthrough facebook or instagram orwhatever it isthat’s not really productive and and ifwe’re being honestmaybe i’m the only one here i’m sure i’mnot it’s not all thatenjoyable not all the time you knowit’s not designed to be it’s designed tokeep you hooked in yeah but it’s notdesigned to be enjoyable if you canstart to evaluate those things andhere’s the thing you have toyou have to intentionally do this it’snot gonna you’re not gonna accidentallyone day go oh i just realized i’m reallyinefficientand i know exactly what to do this islike sort of a skill that you sort ofhave to incorporateinto your work life or your personallife and it’s really just sayingwhere where’s the fat what are my goalsi’m not getting there fast enough welllook at all this time wasting facebookorit’s like you mentioned you you realizelike uh you know for mewhen i’m in line at the grocery storeit’s like 10 minutes it’s email time formeyou know that’s the stuff i don’t haveto wait around the studio and doing thator you’re gonna bugging my family athome because i’m on my phone instead ofpaying attention to them it’s just likei’m not i’m not it’s your that or stareat the tabloid magazinesyou know i i don’t even do grocerystores anymore it’s uh order onlineinstacart grocery delivery all thatthere you go that’s another way honestlyyeah that’s not for everybody it is alittle more expensive sometimesdepending on which service you usebut you know that’s that’s not the pointwhere am i saving that time and whatopportunity can i use with that time tomake more moneyor provide better care for my family etcinstead of spending you know 90 minutesgoing around especially during apandemic at a grocery store surroundedby the publicuh you know we were doing this beforethe pandemic but you know instead ofdoing thati’m you know having my my daughters helpme pick the grocery liston the app and then hitting order andthenyou know taking them with me to go pickit up at the curbside or something andthey they like doing that but theyaren’t getting overwhelmedby the men by the magnitude of theinside of the storeor by all the noises from inside etc idon’t have to sit there and wait foryou know the the the queen coupon ladyin front of meuh or okay you know i support the wicprogram but sometimes those transactionsgo really slow and when you havesomebodywith autism in line with you who isreally anxiousabout getting through the line andgetting to the next thing that can causea meltdown situationand it is what it is so i’ve justcompletely eliminatedany need for going into a store that idon’t have to think now that theinternet will do that for meyou know there’s a large part of it thatis aboutautomation and consolidationand delegation and sure those are thingsthat are really helpful with adhd butwith anything in life whatsoeverif you don’t have to be doing it andit’s not going to be a significantburden to outsource itoutsource it yeah outsource it oreliminate it yeaheliminate it yes why do i need to worryabout a huge you knowconsole and racks full of gear when youknow i’malways you know moving around todifferent rooms in the house as long asi’ve gotall of my drives with me and i have youknow aenvironment that i can listen to righthere on my head that’s consistenti can get my work done so why do i needto worry about all of the outboard stuffyou know i’ve consolidated it all into avery small footprintin a 5×5 closet you know it is what itisyou don’t need it so get rid of it andthenif you’re able to use it awesome if iget some time up in mymaster control room where i’ve got twoamazing sounding rams of consolesand i’ve got a a a mix or master thatdoesn’thave a hard deadline andthe client can wait for the day when ican get back up there to do the reprinti’ll use them because i love them butmost of my work does not go through thembecause it it is not practical for mei will take them out to various studioswhen i’m trackingso i can use the preamps for recordingbutif i am just working at home they don’tget much usei keep them because i love them but theydon’t get much useso you know if if it’s not 100 necessarywhy are you putting all of your time andenergy into itwherever it is in your life you gottatrim it out if you’re trying to be moreefficientbecause that’ll give you more time toget more done and make you feel moreproductivebasically brandonthat’s a great place to end thank youthat wasi i i knew i knew that you would be uhbringing some great thought and and somegreat perspective and ideas for peopleum but yeah youreally blew my mind here i appreciate itthank youi just i want everybody to i mean youknow i would love you to listen to thisepisode i’d i’d love you to listen tothis episodetwice i’m gonna say that um againyou know we all want the loud kick drumwe all want the great sounding vocal andand the film and all that kind of stuffand i know you’re going to get therebut the stuff that gets you there issometimes not the cue or the gearit’s it’s really these practices and themindset and the day to daythat brandon you know outlined for youit’s it’s really the motivating factorit’s the why that you mentioned it’sit’s just doing it it’s not waiting it’sjust doing it learning as you goyou’re gonna get there so much faster ifyou just put the pedals in motionum so listen back to this twice becausehe just dropped so much knowledgeand so many great nuggets i can’t evenrecap them alland the last thing i’ll say before youwrap that up on that noteis don’t listen to the internetlisten listen to your clients don’tlisten to the internetbecause the internet is going to tellyou well you can’t do this without thisor this or this or this or this or thisyour clients are only going to careabout what they hear your clients areonly going to care about you deliveringon time and that they enjoy the resultsyou gave them the internet is going tosay wellyou’re not a pro because you don’t havethis or this or this like the guywho mentored me out in colorado i knowpeople whohave 10 times the gear you have whowon’t start because they don’t feel likethey havewhat they need and these were you knowprobably people who are hanging outon gear [ __ ] all day listening topeople feed them thisbs narrative that they are notwell equipped enough to be professionalswell i’m sorry if i need a room to trackdrums in there are plenty of greatsounding rooms here in columbus ohio icani can outsource to go to as aguest engineer and work from andi’m sorry but i don’t care what randominternet person saysabout the sound of of arecording or mixing session that theywere not a part of making the decisionsonmy client is happy with the level of thebanjo in that rock songi don’t care what you think basicallybecause my client is very happy withthat it represents theirtheir desired uh you know artisticvision so i don’t care what you thinkbecause the person who paid me is happyyeah so don’t listen to the internetlisten to your clientsgood advice that’s the last piecebrandon thank you so much for hangingouttoday uh everybody uh for moreinformation or to reach out to brandondirectly you can visituh noiseforav.com i’m gonna add thatdescriptionor that link in the description below soyou can check that out and please checkout his youtube channel againnoise floor av uh he has some greatcontent there oh by the way brian iforgot to ask uh thewhat what other gear do you plan ondestroying anytime soonanything coming for us i’ve had somerequestsfor some old pv amps that the legendis that they would survive being tossedout of the back of a moving vehicle ahum but i have yet to find one and uh youknowwe’ll we’ll see we’ll see um that that58 still works so you know i ii i don’t know we’ll we’ll see what elsegoes umyou know uh p people love that video soi may keep going down that road for surebutum that was a lot of funyeah he’s got a a great video about a 58i’ll say no moreum i’ll say no it lived just know thatitit’s it’s tough as nails and wouldprobably survive after keith richardsdiesso yeah be sure to give him uh give hima subscribe hit his bellmake sure you’re checking out all of hisvideos he has some great tutorialsum and you heard it today i mean justsuch a cool guy um this is somebody thatyou want to listen to forget the littlething you said don’t spitdon’t listen to people on the internettake a listen to this guyi appreciate that thank you uh and alsowhile you’re here on adam’s channel don’t forget to uh smash the like buttonfor the youtube algorithm as uh grahamstefan would say but yeah umhit the like button because that’ll tellyoutube what videosit should show to other people based onwho likes what and uhalso like and uh hithit subscribe and ring the notificationbell on adam’s channel while you’re hereas well so thank you very much forwatchingall right well much love in the virtualroom we’re in right nowthank you brandon uh and for everybodyelse uh don’t forget adamclairmont.com/clientlist it’ll help you get some ideason how to reach out to the next peoplethat you really want to be working withand that’s kind of all we have today ilove this episodemake sure you listen back again writesome things down andlet me know in the comments uh whatresonated with youthe most today all right i would love tohear howwhat brandon mentioned is gonna help youin your journey and in your audio careerall right everybody so i’ll talk to yousoon brandon thank you very much see youall next time
Adam Clairmont 