Rosa Linda Román (00:00): Hello, everyone. Welcome to New Mexicast. I'm Rosa Linda Román. And before we get started, I want to share what you can expect here on this podcast. First, you should know that my family lives on a sailing catamaran, and this is my personal audio journal. What you're about to hear is an episode from 2016, when we were just starting our journey of moving from our home in New Mexico, onto the boat, as a long time broadcast journalist, I wasn't sure how I was going to keep working while pursuing this crazy new lifestyle. This journal is where I worked through a lot of things, both personally and professionally. That means you will hear about experiments with new technologies like Blab and Periscope and testing out systems to make the move easier like wild tree meal prep. And KonMari for downsizing our stuff. As you can imagine, some of these experiments were successful. Well, some like Blab and wild tree don't even exist anymore, but I decided to leave even the failed experiment in this audio journal. So you could get the whole story of how we went from New Mexicast to New Mexicastaways. If you like, what you hear, please stick around till the end and I'll share how you can find out where we are now and how you can get much more content by joining the New Mexi-Castaways crew. Enjoy! Theme Music: 00:00 Sailing away on a boat. Hailing from New Mexico. Enchanting stories as they go. Riding the tides, taking your time. Sailing away on a boat. Theme Music Rosa Linda Román: 00:28 Hello and welcome to NewMexicast the enchanting show featuring interesting people and places in New Mexico and beyond. This is NewMexicast audio edition. I'm Rosa Linda Roman, your host. And this is my place to share my rambling thoughts. Just about the process of making a TV show about my family's coming up, upcoming move onto a 45 foot sailing catamaran and about whatever happens to be on my mind at any given time. So today what is on my mind is a, an amazing feeling of freedom. Right now I just dropped off, let's see, about 10 bags, 55 gallon size bags full of clothing and two pallets of books containing 805 books and 200 magazines. Uh, I dropped them off for a donation at my son's daycare cause they're having a big garage sale this summer. And I did so because I'm going through this organization process called KonMari, which I've talked about in past episodes. Rosa Linda Román: 01:38 Basically it's based on a book by Marie Kondo, the life changing magic of tidying up. And I'm using that as a way to decide what to get rid of as we are preparing to leave our home in New Mexico and move on to the boat. Uh, we, I, uh, have been doing it as a 90 day countdown and today is day 60 into that countdown, which is crazy to think I only have 30 days left till we leave. Um, and so I, the reason I have this massive feeling of freedom is because I dropped off that stuff and I'm making the rounds, dropping off stuff, other things. Uh, so right now, for example, I am driving to, um, the little tiny airport in Edgewood, New Mexico to, uh, bring back some books or, or donate some books to a really nice guy who taught me, who was going to teach me how to fly. Rosa Linda Román: 02:38 I thought that I wanted to become a private pilot and I was so excited about this big plan until I actually went up in the plane and took the first, not even a lesson. I mean, he just let me in the plane and my husband and I each took a turn. Uh, going up and, and working the, the controls and, uh, it, uh, I hated it. I realized, my husband always told me it's like being in a tin can up in the air. And that's exactly what it felt like to me. So I'm, I'm about to take those, like, it was like these very expensive books I bought because I was going to have this be my new, um, my new passion. And, and so I'm bringing those books over to the wonderful gentleman who was willing to teach me as a thank you. Um, so someone else can use them because I'm not going to, so that's one more thing that's gonna be off my plate and out of my house. And then I'm going to go return some camera equipment to a friend who I borrowed it from to work on creating the, uh, Better Bookbinding online course to teach people how to make books with my friend Mita Saldania. So I'll talk about that after this break. I'm going to go and drop off these books and I'll be right back. Theme Music Rosa Linda Román: 03:57 All right, one errand done. I dropped off the pilot books. I didn't get to see my, a instructor, he was out up in the air, but I got to talk to another person there at the airfield who would pass on the books and my message. Um, so that feels good. I'm glad to get that done and now I'm going to go take my friends, uh, equipment back to him. And then I'm going to a field trip for my daughter's class. Every year, the sixth grade at the middle school, they put on a world fair and have all these, um, have the fifth and second graders from the local elementary, um, participate in like basically the kids pick a country and then they prepare like a presentation and food from each of those countries, um, from their country of choice and then the kids come and taste them and enjoy. Rosa Linda Román: 04:57 So I'm going to go to that. And I, I've been thinking about the fact that like really I, what I want to do today is keep working and sorting and getting rid of stuff. But the reality is if you keep pushing too much and forget to stop and enjoy, um, then really what is the point, you know. I mean, the fact of the matter is, the whole reason I'm doing any of this was so that I can have the freedom to come and go and be with my kids while they're still little. And as my husband says, still want to be with us. So I'm going to go, even though it's hard to stop in the middle, especially of doing this KonMari system, I really just want to get it all done and sort through everything and finish. But I'm going to take the day. And not only is it my one daughter's, field trip, but it's also, my other daughter earned a, an ice cream party for her class. RosaLinda Roman: 05:53 They earned one through some of their testing or whatever they did. So I'm going to go and help with that. So, um, that's, uh, that's what's on my mind today. Just really making sure that in the middle of all this, um, work that we're doing and you know how much I'm accomplishing, I mean, I'm proud of the work I'm doing, but I want to make sure to, to not overwork to the point where I'm not enjoying it. And if it means we have to leave a day or two later to move onto the boat, so be it, you know, there's worse things that could happen. So what else is on my mind? I finished recording the Better Bookbinding online course, and that was huge. I learned a ton from that experience. Um, I, I looked at it as going to university to learn about building an online course. RosaLinda Roman: 06:43 And I'm still in the process of learning that I'm using a platform called the New Kajabi, um, k.a.j.a.b.i., and that's going to be where I, how's the the course and I have to learn how to build it and all about lead magnets and, and designing and building this online course and eventually, hopefully getting, um, people actually buying it. So that's, it's an ongoing, um, university experience, if you will. Um, you know, self-taught really, but, um, I'm, I'm still have a lot to learn, but from the actual shooting of it, I, I've already learned a ton. I did it as a three camera shoot. Um, I used my Canon Vixia, which is my main camera, um, for the primary camera one. And then I borrowed my friend's Nikon, I don't know what kind of icon, but it's a DSLR camera for camera two. And that shot was more on like her hands, my friend me, his hands as she, um, worked on the books. Rosa Linda Román 07:46 And then I used a really fun and funny rigged, um, selfie stick, which I should put a picture in the show notes about of my studio. Um, I basically use whatever's around me to make pretty pictures when I need to. Um, and so I used a tripod, some uh, painters tape and a selfie stick to, um, put a third camera, my camera mic, my phone above her hands so I could get kind of a bird's eye view, um, from the top down. And so I had three cameras. I used a Zoom H for an um, audio device with my Road Lavalier mic, uh, to record the audio. I learned a lot of things the hard way and um, I hired, I'm hiring a, um, an editor to edit it and he's going to hate me by the time he's done cause I made a lot of stupid mistakes. Rosa Linda Román: 08:46 Number one, I know you should always monitor your audio. I'm on headphones and I did not do that. And so there were a number of times where the audio um, w like I left it to meet his hands before the shoot, she had to um, hit record on the audio recorder and uh, there's a few sections where maybe she double punched it or whatever. And so we do not have audio from that section, so we'll have to use the audio from another camera. Well, on some of them, the other camera, my uh, um, my ca-no, what is it? Is it my can? Yeah, the Canon Vixia. Um, I had my Road Lavalier mic on, attached to it on top of the camera. Well, I didn't plug it in very well. Apparently and all it is, is this horrible buzzing noise. It's really bad. Uh, and then sometimes the cell phone camera above the hands just stopped recording either because I, I ran out of space or whatever. Rosa Linda Román 09:47 So needless to say it's not perfect, but with three cameras and an audio device hopefully put together, we can patch it enough to actually make it work. Um, but it really helped me to see, it does take a lot of work to create something of the quality that I envision. I mean, I guess that you could just take one cell phone and shoot something and call it an online course. But you know, with my broadcasting background, I'm really about making sure everything is quality and uh, so I just didn't feel comfortable doing it halfway. So, um, I definitely don't, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I would want to do another online course. Um, we'll see how it goes. If it actually makes money and if it's, if it's something that, once it's done, I feel good about. Um, the, the other thing it has taught me or is, is teaching me, I should say, is that it's, um, how to interact with and manage someone when you have somebody editing your work. Rosa Linda Román: 10:52 And that's new to me because I've always edited everything myself and I've never worked with someone else. Well, I have hired a guy through Upwork and he lives in Canada and he has been editing this better bookbinding course for me. So that's been a very new experience. He's, he's got, he knows he's very good, but there's a lot of things he has to learn still. Um, and so I've got, I'm learning how to manage that and how, you know, you, it's, it's tough working with someone else cause you have to really help them understand your vision and when your vision isn't, um, if the tools that you have, like the video that I've taken, some, they're not perfect. So I need to help express to him how to fix some of the problems. And, you know, I, I have a way of, um, making things work even when they're not ideal. Rosa Linda Román: 11:49 It's just how I am as an editor. And, uh, so I've got to convey the way to do that on some of these shots. Like if the audio is the wrong audio or if I'm, maybe she's not, look the, the face shot doesn't look as good as the hand shot, you know, trying to find the balance like that. Um, and, and express that to someone else. That's the challenge. Um, alright, so I've arrived at my destination to drop off the camera equipment, so I'm gonna pause this now and I will return after this break. Theme Music Rosa Linda Román: 12:26 All right. I'm, 0 for two. As far as people being there when I am dropping off the equipment, I'll have to go back and see Tom another time. He is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Tom McGill. He does these, um, he's a retired scientist from I think Los Alamos labs, one of the labs here in New Mexico. And he has a, he's also an artist, so he created, he creates these, um, huge busts, copper, I think they're copper busts of, um, famous scientists because he also, he often says, you know, the, the, um, athletes and, and actors get all this attention, but some of the most amazing people, scientists and mathematicians, um, nobody knows who they are. So he makes these amazing busts of these, uh, these, uh, scientists and mathematicians. Um, but he's also just a kind soul. And I was working, he used to let me use his studio so I could do editing for New Mexicast away from my home where I wasn't getting anything done because of laundry and dishes and kids. Rosa Linda Román: 13:47 And so I would go to his house, his studio a few times a week and do my editing in the quiet. He's got like a sound room, um, for recording music or audio. And I would just sit in there in silence and get some editing done, which was very nice. So, and I met him through a 48 hour film project, which that's the, that was a fun project. If you are interested in filmmaking and you don't know where to start, start there. Find a local 48 hour film project in your neighborhood or in your area and go to the mixer and sign up to be crew on a team. Just volunteer to help. It's all volunteer. And the way the 48 hour film project works is you get an assignment on a Friday night at six or 7:00 PM and they give you a line of dialogue, a, you pick a genre, you pick, uh, what did they give you? Rosa Linda Román: 14:41 A prop and a character that has to be in the movie. And then in 48 hours you have to write, shoot, edit and finish your whole film and turn it in by 7:00 PM on Sunday or maybe 6:00 PM, whatever the deadline is. So 48 hours later you have to hand in that film. And if you miss the cutoff by even a minute, you are disqualified. And I have been on a team that made the deadline and I have been on a team that was disqualified and it's quite a rush either way. It's an amazing experience. It truly is. But, that's a really good way to learn how to do filmmaking. And I worked with Tom and then eventually he helped us when I made the film with the elementary school that my daughters go to. He was one of the big helpers crew. RosaLinda Roman: 15:35 He ran sound for us. So, it's amazing how when you put your pride aside and allow others to help you, you find the most amazing people out in the community. I mean, Tom, I would never have met him. He wouldn't have been in my peer group. Um, but I feel like he's someone I will always consider a friend. Um, and the same thing with Toby Unis. He's the guy that did the, was the director of photography for my movie with the Roadrunner Reels. And I met him through the TV station that, um, runs New, that aires NewMexicast UAVQ. Um, and he, uh, was a director and switcher. He switched shows for them. And we just kept in touch and he's, he's just a great friend as well. And the other one that I really appreciate is Mike Miller. I met him on my first 48 hour film project. Rosa Linda Román: 16:36 And we work together to create a movie, a little movie called Recycle Rant, which was a lot of fun. Uh, not an award winning movie, but definitely a fun project. And then he went on to help me and he was massively important and helpful on the Roadrunner Reels film for my, for the elementary school. So I mean that's really how you build a community and uh, you just work for people and with people and you put your pride aside and allow yourself to just be on a crew. Don't, you don't have to be the first, you know, first AD or some big title in order to make connections, get experience and really, uh, lead to finding the thing that you want to do. That said, you also have to trust yourself and put yourself out there. If you do have skills, a lot of people that I know that have skills or like, oh, it's not, I'm not good enough, it's not enough. Rosa Linda Román: 17:33 It's, I'm not, you know, like they don't have the confidence to, um, to put themselves out there in their professional capacity that they may have skills in. And I learned that from the, uh, also from a 48 hour film project when I started, um, I went to Austin with a team from Albuquerque. They call themselves AustiKirky cause they do 48 hour films here and they do 48 hour films in Austin. And, they needed an editor or they said they needed an assistant editor. And so I said, you know what, I'll, I'll do that. That's fine. I ended up being one of the primary editors because I had a lot of experience and I didn't even realize how much I could contribute until it got down to the wire. And I said, you know, I can handle this, let me do this. Rosa Linda Román: 18:23 And we did make the deadline and it was a good little film. So anyway, I dunno what I'm, what I'm again, that's what this audio podcast is for, for my ramblings. So I don't really, I have to keep, I have to stop trying to apologize for that because if you're listening to this, you're listening by choice, right. And that this is part of my process and my journey and I think others can benefit from this and that is there's always that self doubt inside. Like, oh, it's not good enough. Oh, they won't like it. Oh, I won't. It won't, you know, I'm not going to get their approval. But more and more, the more I move forward, especially with this boat venture with a lot of people now that we're in the home stretch, a lot of people are questioning why we're doing this and are we crazy. Rosa Linda Román: 19:11 And I think that having to answer that over and over really not being defensive, but just genuinely giving my true and honest reasons for doing this. Um, it really forces me to stay true to myself and, and get clear on what I want and realize that it doesn't really matter what other people think as long as I know I'm doing right by my family and my, and following my true self and my true calling. Right. And the, one of the biggest pitfalls I've had in my past and especially in my broadcasting career was chasing applause, wanting that recognition and, and hoping that I could get the Emmy, which I never did. And you know, needing that affirmation from outside and over and over again. I've, I've had examples of why that is detrimental to my overall happiness and to the overall happiness of my family. Rosa Linda Román: 20:14 And so as I'm doing these audio recordings is part therapy, part, um, brainstorming and the process of allowing myself to share without feeling the need to explain myself. That is a really huge lesson that I am working on learning. And I hope you guys benefit from these and I hope, uh, if you do, you can leave a review for me on iTunes. And if you would like to know more about my video, I do mostly live work on either periscope or, um, Facebook live. You can find me on both platforms as NewMexicast and even as we move on to the boat, it is my intention to share that journey with all of you. So I hope you have a wonderful day. I just arrived at my kid's school and I am going on a field trip. Have a great day. And, uh, thanks for tuning in. I'm Rosa Linda Román. Theme Music: 21:25 Sailing away on a boat. Hailing from New Mexico. Enchanting stories as they go. Riding the tides, taking your time. Sailing away on a boat.