Growth Comes By Ending Something So You Can Begin Something New

“You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.” ― John Irving, The World According to Garp It's time to say goodbye! Only to The Yellow Studio 2.0. It's officially over. Done. Next week I'll be getting The Yellow Studio 3.0 set up. Version 3.0 will be a transition studio that I hope will take me through the end of 2023. After that, I'm planning to settle into The Yellow Studio 4.0. Around 1999 The Yellow Studio 1.0 was born, dubbed with that name because I wanted the walls painted this yellow color. Bright. Sunshiney. Cheerful. That was the goal. And it worked. Especially after I invested in four Ballard Street prints. They worked well with a yellow background. Truth is, everything worked well with the yellow walls as a background. Over more than 2 decades every "podcast" episode - save those done from the field - was produced right here from inside this yellow room. Except for the first audio files that I uploaded to the Internet, 100% of my podcasts have emanated from The Yellow Studio. A few friends have inquired, "Are you gonna miss it?" No, not really. I'm sentimental so I'm leaving with fond memories. The countless hours spent - especially in the nighttime hours when sleep evades me - listening to music, writing, reading, researching, studying, recording, coaching, conversing with friends (in person or online)...an awful lot of life has happened in this room. I'm thankful for all of it, but it's time to turn the page and start creating a new chapter. Time for a new beginning. That excites me. Version 3.0 will not be yellow, but The Yellow Studio has grown to represent more than a color. It's optimism. Positive vides. Wisdom. Insights. Experiences. It's figuring things out. Learning from mistakes. Always improving! Those things matter more than the color of the walls. But I do love the color. And I will miss that a lot. What I won't miss is this moving business. Talk about a whipping! I enjoyed the hard work of purging, but boxing up 45 years of your life together - even post purge - is a ridiculous amount of work. Rhonda has been diligently packing the most tedious items like china, glassware and lots of breakable stuff. Additionally, she's had to box up her sewing room, which has been daunting because of the sheer volume of things she needs to keep. Thankfully, during the transition she'll continue to have some needed space for her craft. Just today I told her, "I'm sure glad podcasting isn't as space intensive as your passion." ;) I don't plan on skipping more than a beat or two during this move so be patient. I'll try to get back in the groove was soon as I can. The old "broadcast table" of Version 1.0 and 2.0 is gone! The old Heil Audio boom arms, which have served me so well for 20 years, gone! They've been creaky for awhile now so it's past time to retire them. The original Toshiba 43" flat panel TV hanging in the studio stayed in the studio, proudly owned by new masters. The original Rode Rodecaster Pro that YOU helped me get...not quite gone, but it will be soon. It's pristine and I'll be selling it to help defray the investment I've already made into the newer Rode Rodecaster Pro 2. Boxed up, but not going away - except for the rest of 2023 - are the Ballard Street prints, the ladies that welcomed folks inside The Yellow Studio, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum - and the dragons and other figurines that populated the studio. These things are going to be safely stowed away in the location of The Yellow Studio 4.0. They'll just remain boxed, safely stored in the comfortable warmth of bubblewrap. ;) The new studio will have a brand new 62" long desk, on casters. That'll be a first and I'm looking forward to the prospect of moving the studio around as I want. Maybe I won't move it around much at all. But it's nice knowing I can. The new studio will have a brand new chair. I sold my Herman Miller Mirra chair because the armrests are awful. They drove me crazy for years and so I made somebody happy with a killer deal. I was ready to move on. I know the Mirra and Aeron get rave reviews, but I don't personally think they're worth the money. One day I may break that down further, but that's not the point today. I've invested in a modestly priced, highly-rated chair. I've about decided that those of us spend a lot of time in office/studio chairs might be better served investing in a chair that can serve us well for 2-3 years. After that, we can do it over again. Easier to do when you're not spending over $1,000 for a chair. Besides, I'm kinda ready for a change after a few years - just because. The new studio will have at least two new mics. The only mic that isn't stowed away for the rest of the year is my Tech Zone Audio Stellar X. That's what you're hearing right now. It's been my go-to mic for the past few years. I break the first rule of podcasting by using a condenser mic over a dynamic mic. But I don't care. I like the crispiness of condenser mics and The Yellow Studio was always conducive for the condenser mics I've leaned on - this Stellar X and the Rode NT1. The new studio will have the Earthworks ETHOS broadcast condenser mic and the brand new Gen 5 Rode NT1, another condenser that has some cool tech built-in. The new studio will have some new headphones. Most of my headphones are packed away. They'll stay that way until early next year. The Sony MDR7506 has been my most used phones for years. I've replaced the ear cups more times than I can count. They're really great headphones. I have no complaint. I'm just ready for a change so I'm going back to a brand I used long before these Sony's made their entrance, Sennheiser. I'm keeping the Sony's and I also have the AKG K240's, which never get used. They're uncomfortable for me. And I prefer phones that fit a bit tighter on my big 'ol head. They don't. The new studio will have a new boom arm, the Rode PS1+. I hope it's everything folks claim. I'm really tired of the squeakiness of the Heil's. I've endured it for at least the past 5 years so I'm looking forward to seeing if the Rode's can be adjusted during recording without embarrassing me. For now, the same computer will serve at the heart of the new studio - an i7 Intel-basd 27" Apple iMac. I hope to squeeze another year out of this machine, after which I'm hoping to replace it with an Apple laptop of some sort. I need to huddle with fellow podcasting buddy, Jim Collison (TheAverageGuy.TV) about outboard/external data storage. Jim's much more technically proficient than me. I've got a handful of external spinning hard drives. I also use BackBlaze for online backup, but I'd like to organize my data storage more efficiently. Jim's likely the perfect coach to help me figure that out. I hope to do that sometime this year before I make version 4.0 my permanent home. The new studio will also have a new white photo-video retractable background. You won't see it unless you pay attention to some of my video work, which never happens here at LTW. I want a clean background and I plan to keep the details of my space more confidential for the balance of 2023 (in my Elmer Fudd voice, "ssshhh, be berry, berry quiet"). The new studio will also feature two new Elgato Key Light Air desk lights. They'll serve as my work lights as well as video lights. I've not had good lighting...EVER. This will be a first. I may have to start wearing makeup like those fancy TV news anchormen. Lots of changes for version 3.0. And I suspect 4.0 will have fewer changes like these, but it'll have a monumental change in location. So it's all exciting. Everything is hard until it's easy. Everything is slow until it's fast. That's how this process has been for us. 2022 was a hard year. Well, to be more accurate, we've had a bit of tough go since 2018. I've shared enough here - for those who pay close attention - to satisfy the most curious. But personal difficulties aren't unique to us. You have them, too. This year began much like the past 5. Until things began to take a turn. When they turned, they really turned. At first, we were thinking it may not be real. Maybe we should be reluctant to think momentum is happening. It could be a trick. Turns out it wasn't a trick. So we pushed hard and leaned into wisdom to figure out what our next steps should be. That's when it went from good to better. For months I'd been casually keeping up with a possible opportunity. But I never thought of seizing it. I was just paying attention to see what might happen with it. I figured somebody would find it suitable, but time went on and things continued to grow even more enticing. More favorable for somebody willing to see it for what I saw it for - a pretty solid opportunity. Yes, I'm talking about buying another place - the place where The Yellow Studio version 4.0 could be born. The goal was to sell where the original studio was, sit tight and see how the world might unfold between now and the end of the year. When it comes to real estate, my prophet skills are terrible. It's easy to predict what might happen. It's more difficult to put your own money on the line to back up your prediction. These are unprecedented times and I'm happy to report, I have no clue what might happen. But I'm a business guy. And I'm now an old business guy, which means I know what I like and I can spot a good deal for me. That doesn't mean it's a good deal for you. So this property I'd been watching continued to get more attractive. Around the middle of the month it got so attractive I couldn't ignore it. Up to this point I hadn't shared with Rhonda my fascination with this place. So on a Saturday I told her about it. I asked her to do two things: a) find a reason to not take advantage of it, and b) ask yourself if you were lose it would you regret it? I'd been doing both of those and I wasn't able to find a reason not to jump on it....