Some Artwork is Still Not Showing Up in Apple's Podcast App

Missing Artwork In Apple's Podcast App from Elsie Escobar on Vimeo.

As of June 29 podcast artwork is still missing from within Apple's Podcasts App.

Here's a little video from the Top Stations view. 

I wonder where the images are being pulled from?

Does it have to do with the resolution?

Thoughts?

PS

I created this little video using a nifty little iOS app called Display Recorder. Here's the link to the app. Although I think it might have been pulled already...I recorded the audio using iMovie for iOS and then uploaded directly to Vimeo. Neato huh?

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Time For Clarity (Sauca) In Social Media To Deepen Relationships

In order to cultivate and grow relationships, you have to choose yourself first.

I had a really hard time doing this for myself for the majority of my life, and thus made less than stellar choices regarding those that I chose to get close to. I've got the real life thing a bit under control, but now it's the time to do it up in cyber space!

Now that I'm feeling that I am emerging from my Mama cave (for those of you that do not know, I stay at home with my 3 year old and 4 month old and do all my work in the wee hours of the morning) I think it's time to magnify and grow the quality of relationships I have online.

A bit of my social media history- Twitter paradise

I got onto social media way before it was as cool as it is now. I remember getting on twitter "back in the day" forging a ton of new relationships with people I had never met because none of my real life friends and acquaintances were on twitter.

That was perhaps the best experience I had with social media. I had a handful of active first adopters that I kept in contact with via text messages if you can believe that!

I actually received a text message every time anyone updated their twitter status! gulp

And I loved it :D

In fact some of those first twitter followers have now been in my life now since spring 2007. Wow. Almost 5 years. They are folks that I hold in my heart very closely even though there are some I've never met!

Twitter chaos

As of now, I no longer properly hang out on Twitter because it's just too much. My stream does not feed me. There are a ton of people I don't know, and to be honest don't care enough to know because I haven't invested any time there.

I generally get too overwhelmed with the amount of updates, and when I try to find the folks that I really do want to follow, I can't find them :(

What's even more ironic is that I help other people get comfortable with twitter as well as help it work for them...sigh

Enough is enough.

I'm clarifying my social media presence and I'm starting with Twitter.

Clarity in social media engagement = authentic offerings all around

In yoga, clarification, purity, cleanliness, is called Sauca.

There are two main aspects to Sauca, inner and outer. There is inner purity and practices that sustain that, and there is the outer purity and the steps we take towards creating that.

This social media clean-up if you will is external in nature and as a by product clarity and purity of mind and heart ensues. The more refined and meaningful social media relationships and engagement become, the greater ease in creating authentic connections that both empower yourself as well as others.

I can't wait to share how I did it and if it's making my connections more meaningful :)

Have you gone through this? What tools did you use to clean up the chaos?

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This series of posts is a part of #40to40, my personal countdown toward my 40th birthday. It's all about bringing clarity to who I am in all facets of my life. You can follow my tech posts through their tag #40to40 in this blog, or my yoga/health #40to40 posts over at Elsie's Yoga Kula :)

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IMAGE CREDIT via Creative Commons "frustration" by -reuben-

State Farm Insurance totally scored by thinking outside the box. Reward? Viral Heaven

Have you seen the following video?

Chances are you have. 

It was released on March 1st. As I write this it has had 3,911,718 views!

Yep...that's A LOT. 

How innovative and cool is that?

I just heard about this from one of my favorite podcasts (Buzz Out Loud) as they interviewed Adam Sadowsky president of Syynlabs who came up with the idea and executed it for OK go. I was intrigued and decided to check it out. 

Although it was obviously incredible and amazingly creative I was most surprised by the sponsorship: State Farm Insurance

What?

And then it clicked....Riiiight....BRILLIANT PAIRING!!! 

I gotta say, that it's shifted my perception of State Farm completely. That sort of brand perception change is priceless. Great job State Farm for taking a chance and saying OK go!  :D

And if they didn't have a vision of this at all, holy moses, talk about luck lining up with the creative juice of the universe ;)

Extended Follow Friday for February 26, 2010 @_elan_ #ff #followfriday

I just finished writing an interview/article about Elán for Beatweek Magazine, BUT I still had some things to say, about this artist, so I’m adding a bit more here! (FYI that article is not published yet, but will be very soon!) 

I’m not going to tell you too much about Elán’s latest record or about her prior records or about any publicity tour or anything like that. I share Elán with you because I think she’s a really awesome human being.

My favorite things about Elán:

In random order :)

Her commitment to continuing to participate in the conversation with her fans and friends via social media.

She is genuine and truly grateful for the relationships. She is accessible and honest. She not only responds to folks but adds to the dialogue. She is at times blunt, other times funny and always honest and courteous.

Her honor for herself.

In the music business, or I venture to say in the entertainment business as a whole, this is a very tough thing to do. Particularly if you happen to be a stunning blonde. It is sooo easy to pull the beauty sex card. It is easy because it’s basically expected. Elán could have very easily just stepped into it, just as hundreds of other physically blessed people have done. Elán is doing it her way. Her image is her own. She chooses what she wants to put out onto the world. At times she is sexy (but seriously, how could she NOT be, she just is) but she doesn’t push it out there. At times she is rough and hard, other times playful and light. I absolutely enjoy seeing this woman enjoy being in her own skin.

Her love for her family.

I dare you to find and interview with Elán where she doesn’t in some way mention some member of her family. While doing research for my interview with her, the greatest thing that stuck out at me was how much she loved and respected her family. Her father and mother have been a major influence on this woman’s life, in a good way. What’s lovely to see is that she is NOT her parents or her family. She is herself, and that is the greatest gift that she gives back to them. She honors them by being herself. Her brother has been by her side from the beginning. From what I can see, he is her friend, confidant, producer, band member, advisor all rolled up into one!

It’s simply lovely to see a woman in the entertainment business that chooses to empower herself in such life affirming and auspicious ways.

So my pick for this Extended Follow Friday is @_elan_

Consider checking out her music as the majority is in English, although her latest is in Spanish (iTunes Link). And if you’re not up for the music, follow her Tumblr blog. It rocks

Oh yea...and stayed tuned for more about Elán coming up next week for Beatweek Magazine!

Publishing a Podcast Episode of Elsie's Yoga Kula: My Process

I often get questions regarding podcasting. I love it actually, as I love podcasting and truly enjoy helping folks get themselves going. I thought that I’d share my process with one of my podcast episodes. My podcast is primarily my live yoga classes recorded and posted, but within the past 6 months I’ve been posting a series within Elsie’s Yoga Class: Live and Unplugged Podcast called Elsie’s Yoga Kula (EYK). In this series I don’t ‘teach’ per say, but offer responses to feedback that I receive, share products and reviews of yogic things, and as of the latest, do interviews. 

This episode was unique, as are much of the EYK episodes, so the following process is not necessarily the norm, but it may give you a bit of insight of what it takes to commit to producing something like this. 

The Process:

Scheduled interview with James Wvinner way in advance, so I’d have time to prep for it, and made sure that I would have babysitting, as holding interviews with a 16 month old is not optimal. 

Prepped for the interview (1.5 hours)

• Googled subject
• Studied personal site/business site, 
• Studied FB pics and vids. 
• Searched for any other social media profiles.
• Researched prior interviews.
• Emailed subject list of possible questions, plus a request for feedback, making sure to honor his boundaries, plus to give him the ability to tell me specific things that he’d like to speak about. (I don’t do this with all my interviewees, I feel it out, depending on what is the intention of the interview)

Conducted interview (30 min)

• Used my Zoom H2 Recorder to record my audio.
• Had James call into my conference call line, and recorded our conversation there. 

*I did not do any Skype recording because I do not have the luxury of being in one place. Being a Mom I have to be ready to record anytime anywhere, whether there is an Internet connection or not. This is the set up that at this moment gives me the most freedom...although not the best audio...but it’s enough for the moment.

Wrote “script” for the rest of the episode (30 min)

• I’ve been currently using MacJournal to write my blog posts/shownotes/scripts. It works lovely for me, as I have everything organized in one place. 
• I also use Evernote for the feedback that I use in the show. Whenever I get an email, FB message, find an article I put it in Evernote tag it (example eyk #4) and when I’m writing my script, I just search for my tag, and voila!

Recorded the episode (20 min)

• Using my H2 Zoom Recorder. 
• In the bathroom in the middle of the night (quietest place and quietest time)
• Macbook on my lap with MacJournal on Full Screen (makes for a lovely ‘TelePrompTer’)

Edited episode (2 hrs)

• Imported all audio from the H2, plus downloaded MP3 from the conferencing site.
• Used Garageband to edit all audio, exported to iTunes. 

*Usually it doesn’t take me THIS long to edit an episode but the interview really did take me a while.

NOTE: Made sure that I got all editing done, as I knew that all the other stuff  (id3 tags, artwork, uploading, etc) I could do while taking care of my toddler. The editing was all done at night (dawn).

Polishing Audio (60 min) 

• I downloaded the audio to my iPod and listened to it while I washed dishes and fed my baby, to make sure the quality and levels were ok
• Re-encoded the audio as I wanted better quality
• Edited id3 tags and added artwork 

Publishing of Podcast and corresponding shownotes + publicity (2 hrs)

• Uploaded audio file to Libsyn
• Used Smultron to edit my final shownotes
• Finalized shownotes on Wordpress, plus added pictures and a gazillion links
• Published podcast episode in Libsyn
• Pinged iTunes
• Published corresponding blog post for episode
• Posted link to FB Fan Page/Personal Page
• Twittered

NOTE: Thanks to my daughter taking an unusually long 2 hr nap I was able to get all this done at once! If not, this process could have taken the entire day. 

Tallying the time, the whole process took me almost 6 hrs! How’s that for quick and easy? No wonder I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. My intentions are always there. My ideas are always flourishing, but motherhood is the sucker of all time and energy. 

So, fancy peeps, see any ways that I could streamline the process? or wanna know more or have any questions?

Look forward to hearing from you!