The Freelance Playbook

Don't Get Left Behind [Ep191]

• Ariel Martinez

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it! We've all heard that one before. When you have found your method that works well for your business, how often are you looking at new gear or software to help improve your efficiency and output? Let's talk about this.

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Ariel Martinez

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 Ariel Martinez (00:00): The problem is, is that freelancers don't see themselves as entrepreneurs. Mike Hernandez (00:03): Ouch. Ariel Martinez (00:04): They don't, Mike Hernandez (00:05): You just hit the nail. Ariel Martinez (00:06): It really is freelancers. See themselves as you're gonna give me this much money and I'm gonna do this work for you. And that's stagnant. That is like freelancer 1 0 1. That's where you start, but that's not where you're supposed to stay. Right. As you grow, as you get bigger, we talked a lot about this in our last episode, you want to be able to scale. Welcome back to another episode of the ifilmmaker podcast. My name's Ariel Martinez with this is big Mike. Mike Hernandez (00:36): Yeah. Mike Hernandez, Ariel Martinez (00:37): Mike Hernandez. So how have you been, man? Mike Hernandez (00:40): I'm I'm doing good, Ariel Martinez (00:41): Man. Since the last episode, a couple minutes ago. Mike Hernandez (00:43): It was great. I changed my shirt, my pants, my underwear, my socks, my shoes. I'm brand new. I'm ready. Nice. Had three steps, three sips of your extremely hot coffee and I gave up Ariel Martinez (00:53): Yeah. Burn your tongue. Mike Hernandez (00:54): Yeah. Maybe by the time we're done. It'll Ariel Martinez (00:55): Be good. Can you talk normal? All right. Quick question for you. When was the last time you've updated your equipment? Mike Hernandez (01:05): Um, my laptop. You bought laptop with that? Yeah. I mean, that's probably my biggest money maker in a sense right now. Ariel Martinez (01:13): Okay. Because you do a lot of Mike Hernandez (01:14): Editing. I do a lot editing. Yeah. Do a ton of shooting, but, Ariel Martinez (01:16): And that's your main and that's your main editing machine? Mike Hernandez (01:20): Yeah, so I got, uh, the 16 inch, uh, I mean, I don't have the M one chip because it's all stuff which can probably go into our topic today. But, um, yeah, I maxed it out fully. Got it. Maxed it out. I had a client that was the work was coming in where just fully paid itself off. So I didn't have to pay anything outta pocket for it. Gotcha. Maxed it out. Now, Ariel Martinez (01:36): What about production gear? Mike Hernandez (01:38): Uh, I got the a seven S three. So that was the nice thing. Ariel Martinez (01:41): When was that? Mike Hernandez (01:42): Uh, right after I came out. Oh yes. Actually I was a month after like, you know, the whole period of, so Ariel Martinez (01:48): You didn didn't pre-order it like Mike Hernandez (01:49): Me? No, you, you were right Ariel Martinez (01:50): On it. I was like day. It announced day I bought it. Yeah, Mike Hernandez (01:53): No, no, I wish. Yeah, that's awesome. But I had it just in time for everything I needed and I did get jobs specifically because I owned that camera. Sure. That was nice. Um, and then, you know, I got some lenses for it and stuff like that, but yeah, just the, like a lot of the basic packages, I got a tentacle sync. Yeah. Nice. That's that's brand. I think that's the newest thing actually. Technical Ariel Martinez (02:11): Sync is there's a lot of things coming out. Lot of things, 2020, you know, despite all the, the whole pandemic thing, there were a lot of releases, man. A lot of new gear, a lot of new cameras, a lot of everything. Have you come across people that are sort of they're, they're pretty old school. Right? When I say old school, I mean like 5, 6, 7 years ago, old school in the sense that like stuck the stuff that they're using. Right. So I, that happens to me all the time where I come across, people like that all the time where they're using a lot of old gay year now there's nothing wrong with it. Right. Um, but you know, I I've, I've worked with people that, and you know, maybe people listening to this very episode, they don't want to upgrade anything cuz it's working for them. Mike Hernandez (02:59): If, if it ain't have Ariel Martinez (03:00): You heard that? Yeah, there you go. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right. That's the sort of the mentality. Yeah. Behind, you know, maintaining your equipment and keeping it there. Do you agree with that? What's your, what's your position on that? Mike Hernandez (03:14): When Ariel Martinez (03:14): It comes to production and all that Mike Hernandez (03:16): Stuff? Yeah. When it comes to production, um, I think you need to by alley everything that's coming out. Um, I think if you become stagnant in anything in life, eventually you're gonna get left behind and I don't wanna get left behind. Yeah. Ariel Martinez (03:28): Now that saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But nobody's saying it's broken. Mike Hernandez (03:33): That's the thing it's not broken. Ariel Martinez (03:35): So you're not fixing anything. Yeah. They're Mike Hernandez (03:37): Improving. So that may not fully lie to this. Ariel Martinez (03:40): Right. Exactly. But, um, but people do use that as a reason why they don't get or improve their stuff. I've had a, a couple people tell me that exact phrase, if it ain't broke, don't fix it type of deal. I'm not gonna name any names, but I've had some people that say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Here's a perfect example. Not even production related. I have a friend of mine that uses the desktop version of, uh, QuickBooks, which is great. And that's how QuickBooks first started. But then as I was sort of showing him, I use the online version of it. It's not you by the way. Mike Hernandez (04:16): No. And I actually have someone who uses the desktop right now. Yeah. Yeah. And they swear by it. And I was like, use the online version. Ariel Martinez (04:21): This is why it's Mike Hernandez (04:22): Available everywhere. Ariel Martinez (04:24): My friend is keeping receipts. He is stacking up all the receipts and plugging them in and all that stuff, which is great. You're right. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. However, you're not fixing, you're improving. I throw away all my receipts because I take a picture of it and QuickBooks logs it into my books. I could send invoices and estimates all that through my phone. And it's all logged in the records. Like everything you can do. And then some is a avail. So it's an improvement, it's an efficiency improvement. You don't have to wait to send that estimate to your client for you. Don't have to wait for you to go to the office onto your desk to send that estimate when you can just do it real quick from your phone, your client's not waiting. So it's improving your workflow. Mike Hernandez (05:07): Most of the time, every upgrade or any, you know, change, every, all companies are looking to become better. I mean sure. To provide their clients of value. And most of the time when we get upgrades, either on a laptops or, or gear, stuff like that, um, there's sometimes a little bit of a learning curve time period. Yeah. But if it pays out at the end yeah. Where you can do things more efficient, quicker, all the, that good stuff it's worth it. Yeah. Ariel Martinez (05:32): So I think it's a, I, I think personally, by the way, anything we say here today is our own personal opinion. Mike Hernandez (05:39): Yeah. But I, Ariel Martinez (05:40): I think it's a mistake to be stagnant in your ways and never improve and never try to upgrade. Now, some people might be saying, yeah, I'll always want to improve. What I mean is improve. What I mean is, are you willing to sell off all your gear to get better stuff? What I mean is, are you willing, you know, are you willing to sort of want to be more efficient in your workflow where you can provide the same service or better, right. With less work that you have to do yourself? You know? So those are things as a business person, because as a freelancer, you are a business person. You have to think about that stuff. If you could provide the same service with less effort, I don't call that lazy. I call that smart. Yeah. Right. Time management, you can provide the same service better and still get paid the same. Ariel Martinez (06:30): If not more. You know what I mean? That is what I'm talking about today. Yeah. So, uh, I have some friends of mine that at they're still rolling. They're still rocking with certain cameras that are still good. You can still get great quality with it. Right. And I don't want a dog on anybody today, but I wanna point this out to so that people can realize like, no matter how busy we get, like try to always keep an eye out for ways to improve work. So I have a buddy of mine that is incredibly busy and I'm so happy for them. They have way more work than I do. I don't know how they can handle that. But they're so fricking busy that they have no idea what the latest Sony camera is, what the latest lens is for their system like software, that they could be. Ariel Martinez (07:18): Things like that, which is great. That's amazing to be. That's what I think that's what we're all trying to achieve. But the problem is, you know, if, if you let, if you are not up to date with the latest gear, that's out there, the latest software that you could potentially be utilizing, you might be given away more man hours and you need to, you might be given away, like what could, uh, you know, what normally takes you two hours to do could possibly take you 20 minutes now. Perfect example, tentacle sync is a great product, phenomenal product. Are they sponsoring this? No, they're not sponsoring this. Hey, 10 sink. Hey tentacle sink 10 sink. Hey, I do all their products because it's an amazing, amazing product. Now they've been in the industry for a little while now, but they haven't been as noticeable as the last year or two, right? Ariel Martinez (08:12): Yes. So a couple friends of mine, I've been using technical sync now for like two and a half years, three years. Uh, and a couple of friends of mine. They recently discovered it when I say recent, I mean like four months ago, four or five months ago. And they posted about it like a lot, you know, they, they loved it lifesaver. And, but I've been telling about that about technical sync to them for, for a little while now. But you know, they, they, they didn't realize how easy it made audio recording, so efficient and syncing in post. If you don't do it correctly, syncing audio with video and post could be incredibly daunting in nightmare. It, it would suck, but they make it so efficient. So now you don't have to compromise a lot of people don't like to record audio in camera. I personally don't have a problem with that cuz they want to use the external recorder. And that's another thing like why, like if you don't know the good preempt that these new cameras are coming out with, you might not know that they're probably just as good as not better than your external recorder. Right? So it's just things like that where you're working harder, not smarter. And again, it's not about being lazy. It's about working smarter Mike Hernandez (09:24): When I first got started. Um, and, and this was for post editing. I was full-time employee. And um, there was this other editor who, who knew a lot more than I did. He ended up becoming my mentor and taught me everything was great. It, but I didn't know how to do this certain technique. And I figured, well, I'll just work harder and I'll just spend little time and that'll justify it. Then one day I saw how he did something. He purchased his software and it was little money. So that means it required me half to invest. He did it in seconds and it was taking me like an hour. And that's the point where I realized, okay, I gotta stop with this mindset. Yeah. Of just being stuck in my ways, because it's what I know. And I don't wanna learn something new. Well, once I just took the time to learn whatever it was, that at that time, boom saved me so much. And uh, but it's a mentality too. And a lot of times it's not just in business, it shows up in every area. Ariel Martinez (10:15): It is a mentality. And as I'm, you know, still kind of teaching Chris here as well, my editor, I, I always, Mike Hernandez (10:24): It was awesome by Ariel Martinez (10:25): The way, it was awesome. By the way he edit our podcast. I always try to teach people the shortcuts for everything. Yes. Right. And that's always my main route. Put it this way. I bar I don't even know how to find it like the long way, because I've always gotten accustomed to always shortcut everything, everything, everything, anyone that's an editor knows this shortcut shortcut shortcut. Mike Hernandez (10:44): And if it does exist, create it. Ariel Martinez (10:45): Yeah. And, and it got to the point where like, if I, if I was to, like, if I'm looking at Chris editing and I see him take the long route, I'm like it irks you. Right. Why, why do you do it that way? Mike Hernandez (10:54): It irks me when I see that I'm like, oh, Ariel Martinez (10:57): Did you know that a shortcut exists for that thing that you wanted to do? Uh, Mike Hernandez (11:02): You know, I, I deal a lot with that with, um, a volunteer base program that I, that I work with some people and they're all volunteers. And so, but I'm watching and it kills me to use a certain software. This is not like a software we use. Yeah. Yeah. It's a different kind of production software. Yeah. And uh, oh, it kills me. I'm like, please just hit apple this or command or whatever it is, you know? And it's like, it just irks me every time I see that. And I'm like, just gimme a second, have a little patience with me, watch and pay off at the end. And it does, you know, but oh my goodness, Ariel Martinez (11:32): They get to, they get to the same final outcome, but they go the long route. Yeah. Right. But it takes time and we're not talking cutting corners here. We're not talking to grading any quality here, Mike Hernandez (11:43): Efficient Ariel Martinez (11:44): It's efficient. That's all it is. You're getting the same exact results. There are no cutting corners here. People like to, you know, they say it's lazy. So a perfect example. The entirety of everything that I buy is for efficiency. Chris has that engraved in his head efficiency is what I go for. Always. I had a friend one time ask me, uh, cuz now I utilize Siri like crazy on my iPhone. I tell Siri to set my alarm. I tell Siri to rate events, set reminders, and even dial phone numbers where previously we look at a phone number and we're looking up and down as we dial it. Right. We're looking up and down to dial number by number so that you can dial the correct number. Yeah. But instead, now I just say, I, I can't say now she'll hear me. Hey Siri, dial 1-800-HUNDRED 6, 5 7, 8 2, 4 8. Ariel Martinez (12:34): Right. I could just look at the number and say it and she'll dial it. I utilize that. I had a, some people would be like you lazy by yes. I was gonna say that I had a friend of mine that said you were so lazy. Yeah. I said, Hey, listen, why don't you look at it in encyclopedia. Instead of going to Google to search things up, don't call me lazy, call it efficient. All right. Good point. So, so that was like, it's, it's the same thing you're getting to the same outcome, much faster. I'm just utilizing the tools that I have before me. Listen, I paid for that service right when I bought my iPhone, I paid for that. So I paid for that service. Right. And I want things done in an efficient manner. So I'm constantly on the lookout for things that make my work workflow easier. Ariel Martinez (13:15): Right? Because again, as we've said in the past two episodes, profit maximization, right. If I could get the same amount of output with less work, that means that I can offer more and make more money, more profit. Right. So bottom line, that's, that's the bottom line. When you want, 'em make more money, you know, you have to work, you have to try and see how to get things done better. So how does that come into the production aspect of it? So for me, I used to do everything manual focus, everything. There's nothing wrong with that going manual. It gets the job done until I came to the ACE, have an S three, the FX three, the FX nine, right? All these cameras that have like unprecedented, like spectacular auto focus, it does not lose you. And if you know how to utilize their different features and their zones and the spot focus and all that stuff correctly, you could really make good use out of, of it. Ariel Martinez (14:15): Right? The reason why that's important to me is because I realize for the way that I shoot and the way that I get B roll, what this means is that what would normally take me three, four attempts at getting a nice rack focus or a nice, uh, you know, adding or sliding shot, trying to maintain, focus manually. I do it in one and it comes out perfect. What that means is that I can get more shots with the same amount of time and have more variety that's in variety. That's, that's huge and have the same variety. And not only that, there are certain shots that when, when I was focusing manually, I wouldn't even attempt because I know the difficulty of that shot. So for example, try being at 2.8, even have a guy run to your camera and you right. Focus on them, keep maintain, focus on them while they're running toward your camera. Mike Hernandez (15:10): I know exactly what that's like. You know what I mean? Ariel Martinez (15:12): First AC be focused on, I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you're gonna do 2, 3, 4 takes five takes. Yeah. Until you feel or you think we got it right? Yeah. How about getting it in one take and you know, you got it and Mike Hernandez (15:26): Being a one man band though, because if you had someone dedicated to a different story, but yeah. One man band is like you can't. Yeah. And rely Ariel Martinez (15:32): On that. Exactly. So that's what I'm talk. So I, I didn't mention that part. Like we're talking about an experience, focus puller. That's gonna cost you a lot of money Mike Hernandez (15:41): A lot. Yeah. Ariel Martinez (15:42): Try doing that at, on the first take every time at F 1.4, I did that. You know what I, I mean, like with these cameras and one Mike Hernandez (15:51): With the auto focus feature Ariel Martinez (15:52): With the auto focus features, you could easily do that with your prime prime. You could, you could go to 1.4, if you wanted to, and you have the option to set that transition speed to nice and fast so that it could track that person. Incredible. You know what I mean? Or if you wanna do a nice rack focus, slow down that speed track. There's nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, your not gonna ask you, did you do that manually or did you do that with auto focus? Cause if then I'm not gonna pay you as much. Yeah, no. So that's, that's sort of where that comes Mike Hernandez (16:19): Out, but it pays off in variety and other things that you can do, Ariel Martinez (16:22): It pays Mike Hernandez (16:22): Off. Get ahead of schedule. Ariel Martinez (16:24): Oh my gosh. Mike Hernandez (16:25): Allow new things to be introduced into the shot list. It's Ariel Martinez (16:27): Gotten to the point where now I can track people. I used to, because of that. Here's another, here's another point. It's because of that, that before, when I was focusing manually, I required a big monitor. I needed to see that focus, but now I don't really need it just because I know it's in focus. Right. I can see when I have it on the subject's face, I can see that little square on their eye. And so that's sort of what I mean, like that's why, you know, at the moment, right now, as we're recording this, I live and die by these cameras. Like this is the camera that this is the choice for me now for, for bigger, more cinematic production work. Like it's very relative. It's very, you know, subjective people have their styles and stuff like that for the variety of colors. And this gives you great colors. Now they Sony has changed their colors. Um, it's really, really good now. Uh, very, very comparable and people prefer still can people still prefer black magic. That's great. At what expense, like, are you okay with not being able to have that sort of reliability is being able to shoot raw, a big factor for you? So it really goes down to like the type of work that you're doing as well. Yeah. That's just how I shoot. I'm very running gun. Mike Hernandez (17:42): Yeah. You're ruffling a lot of feathers right now. Am Ariel Martinez (17:44): I Mike Hernandez (17:45): All these people that die hard to their brands? No, Ariel Martinez (17:47): Dude, look, Mike Hernandez (17:48): First off. There is no perfect camera. There Ariel Martinez (17:50): Is no perfect Mike Hernandez (17:50): Camera. It's for me, it's about, what's my client clientele. What are my projects? What do they require? And then that's what I base it off of. Um, you said something earlier, um, off of camera that I thought was great. If it came time to have to decide whether you should move to something, go out and rent it. You had mentioned sure. Rent it, try it out. See if it works for you. I think that's a great method on the process of moving to something brand new. Ariel Martinez (18:15): Yeah, no, no. A hundred percent. Like you wanna know what you're getting yourself into. I, I mentioned earlier that I bought the a seven S three on the day that it was announced. I pre-ordered it, but that came comes out of like, I knew Sony's history. I know what they're about to offer. I know that they wouldn't say something and really not be the case. Right. Like some other camera manufacturer do. And they overheat like in two minutes, we're not naming any names, not naming any names, uh, like right there. You see what I mean? Like, uh, but you see what I mean? Like it's, it's reliable and you know, what, if it wasn't, Hey, I just return it, right? Mike Hernandez (18:56): Yeah. Yeah. Ariel Martinez (18:57): So be but, uh, but yeah, that, that was like sort of the, the factor for me. I knew that we needed to go in that direction. And you know, when I decided to sell all, all my gear, right. I decided, you know, this was my first full frame camera, but this whole time I've been shooting super 35 and below APSC micro four thirds. So I've had different lenses essentially. Uh, so if I was gonna fully embrace full frame with auto focus and all those features, I had to make that jump. So it was a big decision where sell everything. My, my lenses, my cameras, and upgrade everything full frame, have the proper lenses for it. And like really embrace it really go for it, go all in. But it was an educated decision based on what I needed and what these cameras were able to offer me. Ariel Martinez (19:43): So that's sort of the deal there. And then the low light, amazing low light, you know, to be able to have that. So it opened up more doors for me, put it that way to work more efficiently, have more options, not miss the shot. You know, how many times do you miss a shot? Like where you're shooting verte and there is no reshoot for that. Like, can you, can you redo that? Like, no, there's, you've already missed a moment. You know, we're talking about weddings here, but, uh, there's other places where that will, uh, apply. It's just the, the, the, the efficiency and how easy it is to do it again, saving time, thus being able to provide more work, us, making more profits. So that's sort of where it really comes down to the upgrading of the gear. If it it's not fixed, but it's improvable, you know, you could always improve. And I think that we can, could continue to move forward, trying to improve our craft, get better at our quality, uh, but also improve our gear as well. This comes down to computers, too, Mike Hernandez (20:43): Computers, everything, hardware, everything, software Ariel Martinez (20:45): Rendering time means that's time that you can't really use your computer for other things. So, I mean, obviously it all depends on your budget Mike Hernandez (20:53): Too. So right now you've got, are you using new M one chip? Cause that's, that's kind of falls into what we're talking about, but it's, I don't know that it's been fully figured out yet. Ariel Martinez (21:04): Yeah. I, I, I just bought another iMac. Okay. Another iMac, a 20, 20, I have a 2019. I gave that to Chris and I got the 2020, um, fully loaded. Again, it has life 10 core processor. It has 124 gigs of Ram Mike Hernandez (21:20): Edits for you. It's Ariel Martinez (21:21): So fast edits for me, man. It's it's beast. Mike Hernandez (21:24): 16 Ariel Martinez (21:24): Gigs of graphics are Mike Hernandez (21:27): So, but you had the M one didn't you? Well, we Ariel Martinez (21:30): Had, well, we still do. We have the Mac mini Mike Hernandez (21:32): M one. Got it, got it. And it was Ariel Martinez (21:34): How, but it started slowing down really? Like it got to a point where even on my 2019 iMac, it was like, it doesn't compare. Wow. Mike Hernandez (21:41): At all. Interesting. Ariel Martinez (21:42): It's powerful for what it is, but it's, it's no, there is no comparison. Granted it is the eight gigabyte of Ram, but we've done it where it's only premier pro that it's using and maybe it wasn't even optimized, but it, the thing is we got it and it slowed down at the more we used it because the renders for, for example, the, these episodes for the podcast with the Chris was editing in the, in that McMininy, that was his computer. Uh, but what used to be like 35, 40 minutes to export now turned into two hours. Whoa. For the same length of episode, he's not changing anything. That was very suspect there. Yeah. It's just it's time. We could not afford for him to be sitting there doing hours, you know? Yeah. So that's, well, he Mike Hernandez (22:30): Likes solitaire though. He likes, so he Ariel Martinez (22:32): Likes solitaire. He likes Instagram, Ariel Martinez (22:36): But, uh, yeah. So I had to make that decision where look, my computer works phenomenal. It took what, 15 minutes in my computer, the 2019. So I gave him that computer and then I got a 20, 21. Um, and now we're both editing off I'm at, and that works, man. That computer's gonna last us for years. I don't care what the M one brings. Like, that's great, you know, but I was just in a situation where I needed something. Now I can't wait for apple to announce it when they decide to announce it. So, uh, we'll see. I mean, again, that doesn't mean that let's say tomorrow, apple announces something that really blows this out of the water for half the price. Now I gotta make a decision. Yeah. Just like my cameras. Do I sell this off and get that? I'm willing to do it. If it shows that I can, I can, uh, improve my efficiency, my output significantly faster. How much is it gonna cut it down by? And what does that mean for me? Does that mean that I can go out? We can go out there and do more work. That might be a better business as Mike Hernandez (23:30): I just can't imagine. Um, an entrepreneur that has a mindset of just kind of getting stuck with something that works and make it work. Ariel Martinez (23:37): But see, the problem is, is that freelancers don't see themselves as entrepreneurs. Mike Hernandez (23:41): Ouch. Ariel Martinez (23:42): They Mike Hernandez (23:42): Don't, you just hit the nail. Ariel Martinez (23:44): It really is freelancers. See themselves as you're gonna give me this much money and I'm gonna do this work for you. And that's stagnant. That is like freelancer 1 0 1. That's where you start, but that's not where you're supposed to stay. Right. As you grow, as you get bigger, we talked a lot about this in our last episode, you want to be able to scale. So you have to find ways to free yourself up. A lot of that has to do with how you shoot and how you edit. So the stuff that you use has to be able to get out of your way when you need it to when the job is done, get out of the way. But this job, like I, if again, if I could do the same exact job and this is where anything, all these people that sell stuff on Amazon, all these people like these third party companies that sell the same product all the, the time. Ariel Martinez (24:30): Yeah. Yeah. They, they find ways to make the same exact product, but they wanna make it faster and better. So the same thing, like McDonald's, Bergy take any big conglomerates. Like they make easy products, they try to find ways to make it more efficient. They wanna make it faster. They, you know, that's sort of like where we're at. So as a business person, you have to put your business mentality to work. You have to change your mindset from what you, what is what, you know, it's not broken. So let's continue to do this and do this and do this. How many clients have you ran into that are very old school in their operation. Mike Hernandez (25:09): Okay. So I have one. Okay. It's an entertainment company and they still do everything off of Microsoft word. Ariel Martinez (25:15): Okay. Mike Hernandez (25:17): Run. I mean like, like run everything, Ariel Martinez (25:19): Microsoft word. Mike Hernandez (25:20): Yeah. Doesn't even make sense. And so even like little things like proposals and everything, it's all off Microsoft word and that's it. And they're stuck. There's all these softwares that can help them read so much faster. But the person who's in charge of that area refuses to get with the times. And they do everything off of Microsoft. If they can't find anything, they don't know how to do anything and the back end of it. And so that reminds me of that type of person. They just cheat. This person does not want to move forward Ariel Martinez (25:49): At all. Yeah. And one thing that also happens is that when a company gets really big and grows and grows and grows, the longer you stay stagnant in where you are, meaning in the equipment that you use and the software that you use, the harder it is to switch later. So now I have one of my clients, they just switched everything from Google to Microsoft office and they had to transfer everything over. They made that jump, um, and that was like grueling for them like grueling. Wow. That's, that's tough. Like you have like what 25 employees. And you've had that for like seven, eight years. That's seven, eight years data of data that they had to transfer. And it was tough. Office was available back then. They started on Google G suite put it that way. And I guess office 360 was sort of, they, they got accustomed to it. Ariel Martinez (26:40): But actually the funny thing is that a lot of their employees are hating it. They, they hate that office 360. Uh, I just switched from office 360 to Google workspace. It went the other way. It went, the other word totally messed up. It works for you, I guess. Yeah. So I went from office 360 to Google workspace, cuz it's what works for me better. I think it's more user friendly. That's what I wanted. It's more user friendly in office 360. I was constantly spending a lot of time troubleshooting things. It should be easy to use that time is money. Yeah. So that's why everything has always worked with Google. I just decided, you know, I need something. So let, let's go back over. Let's not back. Let's go to Google workspace and it's been great. It was an easy transition for me. I also don't have a long history in office 360. Ariel Martinez (27:31): Uh, it was an easy transition and easy decision in the sense that it's gonna save me time. I don't wanna be me again. It's gotta get outta my way. Like efficient. Just, just do what I need you to do. And don't make me have to look for those answers. If I have to Google solutions to the problems that I'm having for your software. That means that it's not very user friendly. You know, if you're having issues like that and it's not a very easy fix there. So that's sort of my whole thing. And, and again, that's the reason also why I stick to apple products, right? And it's not a preface cuz I, I, I personally think gave PC a legitimate chance. I went out, I bought a $1,500 PC and I made a whole episode about this switching from Mac to PC. Uh, I never announced it when I switched back though, people just sort of figured that out when they saw my post, like, Hey, now you're back to apple. Ariel Martinez (28:21): But uh, I gave it a legitimate chance. I was there for three months, but that was three months of troubleshooting, three months of troubleshooting. Wow. I should not have that many issues and not have an easy way of fixing anything. Anytime apple has an issue. Again, my experience it's always been an easy fix. It's always been pretty straightforward and there's a, um, but that's the very few times that it has an issue. It just works, you know? And then there's just the side features also the airdrop, right? I, I have, I finish a video, I want it on my phone. I can easily airdrop it. Yes. Re retains the quality, the ecosystem that whole apple ecosystem is what makes everything so efficient. I can copy on my computer and paste it on my iPad and vice versa. And on my phone, um, the app, my watch, like everything is a great ecosystem. Ariel Martinez (29:11): So I love that whole, it makes it efficient for me. I can set up meetings and all that stuff with Siri and all that. It's, it's amazing. And that's where efficiency for me is, is really working. I don't think that PC has something like that. They just have really good, you know, editing machine, but that's pretty much it, that's sort of what it comes down to for me is just the efficiency, the workflow. So I, yeah, I'm willing to, to pay more money and I acknowledge, I have to pay more money to get the system that I need to do the work that I need, whereas it would've cost me half the price. Mike Hernandez (29:42): Yeah. But it pays off at the end of the day. Ariel Martinez (29:43): It pays off. It pays off for sure, for me. Um, and so yeah, I mean that's, that's sort of, my whole thing is efficiency. That's like, I, I, I need to put that on the wall somewhere efficient, you know, be efficient. Chris knows that. Yeah. Be efficient. Mike Hernandez (29:57): Get off solitaire, Ariel Martinez (29:58): Get off. Mike Hernandez (30:02): Just Ariel Martinez (30:03): So I think this is a great answer. I Mike Hernandez (30:03): Think it's great. Yeah. We gotta be willing to be fluid. Yeah. You know, with what we do and our commitments to even certain brands, you Ariel Martinez (30:09): Know? Yeah. I have, I definitely don't have brand allegiance. People think that I have brand allegiance of Sony. I don't, I really don't. If Canon comes out with a better product, I'm going can yeah. If, if black magic comes out with a better product, I'm going with black magic. It's, it's what gives me what I need to get the job that I need to get done at the most efficient way possible. Mike Hernandez (30:29): I had a DP I worked with that had, um, Fullen cannon for years, 30 years of photography and went into video discovered. Yeah, I don't, well, I already said Canon. So I discovered Sony Mike Hernandez (30:40): And he, he, he was convinced that that was the right move for him. He went and sold. I don't even know how many, I mean, the room could be filled up with the amount of lenses I had holy cow and, and, uh, I'm exaggerated a little bit. But um, he sold everything off, all of his fellow photographers at that time in the studio, he worked out a lot. Were, they were all like making fun of him and everything. And uh, he, and then of showing some stuff to them, they couldn't believe it. Yeah. They were shocked. And I spoke to one of 'em today. Who's no longer at that studio is now on his own. Yeah. I was like, let me see what you're showing with. Sure enough. Ariel Martinez (31:14): The scene cannon camera. Mike Hernandez (31:15): He, he, he, no, he switched. Oh, they're making fun of this guy. That's so good. Uh, it was fun. I'm not just saying this Sony, the camera, you know what I mean? But, um, but it worked for them and it was cool to see that they were willing to, he sold all his glasses as well. And, and I've also heard stories go the other way around, so sure, sure. But um, that commitment to being able to grow for what works for you, your clientele, what Ariel Martinez (31:35): Pays it's what's important to you, man. It really is. Um, and what that value is, is different for everybody. That whole brand allegiance thing that should not, that doesn't exist when it comes to business. It's whatever makes you the bucks. Mike Hernandez (31:49): Yeah. At the end of the day, you're running a business. Yeah. Yeah. Ariel Martinez (31:51): That's tagline for the show. Whatever makes you the bucks. Well, this is a great episode. I think that we got pretty good information there. Uh, thank you guys for watching this episode. Remember you could find all the links to our contacts, our Instagram, our Facebook down in the show notes below Mr. Big Mike. Mike Hernandez (32:12): You're the big guy here. Got him Ariel Martinez (32:16): Until next time. We'll see you guys on the next episode of the iPhone maker podcast. 

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