# Talking Timeshares - Episode 2!  (Embarc Palm Desert rebranding to HGVC)



## TUGBrian (Jun 25, 2022)

so one of the items I wanted to do with this whole podcast type thing was create quick and easy blurbs about regular topics here on the forums that might be of interest to owners, ie the popular forum topics that hit the newsletter each week!

as an example for episode 2, I have made a ton of changes to improve the production quality (hurray, im not rocking anymore)....and have this ultra fancy new intro I hope you all like!

will still likely host timeshare thursday as an interactive zoom call, but these are just short informative "news headlines" so to speak to further share TUG content with the world!

hope you enjoy my 2nd attempt at bringing my happy happy joy joy mug to your computers and mobile devices!








(and for those of you who missed the first version to see how THAT went compared to episode 2, here is the link to that thread!  https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/t...-zoom-tomorrow-6-23-at-1-30pm-eastern.340673/  )


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## Arusso (Jun 25, 2022)

Excellent job Brian !  A You Tube channel is an excellent way to get information out.  If you permit,  I made a couple of observations.  I relate these with the purpose of improving the quality of the production.  Over the years, I have made several observations from having watched many podcasts and educational channels.  The really good nonprofessional presenters keep the  jargon to a minimum.  This is especially relevant if one of your goals in the podcasts and the channel is to educate people.  Some are not as conversant with all the background detail surrounding the subject matter.  The second observation I have is that it's obvious that you are reading from a prepared text.  That's fine.  It allows you to efficiently stay on message especially when conveying a lot of information.  But, because you are, speak just a bit slower and give emphasis (when needed) either by a brief pause, or inflection in your voice.  It's also acceptable to repeat some phrases for emphasis.  I say this as a physician and retired naval officer - one of the first things I learned is that if you want people to understand what you are talking about  -  you must look at them directly (i.e. into the camera) and speak slowly and clearly - especially when you are dealing with us seniors !  

BTW, I like the faux virtual fireplace.  Makes it look like a fireside chat.  

The other matter I want to relay is that when I navigated to You Tube and typed in Tug2,  the very first video presented is strange to say the least.   I do not want to comment  here because it is inappropriate to do so, unless, of course, you wish to comment.  That said, I just want to say that I appreciate your efforts in being able to disseminate factually correct information to us. 

Thank you ! 
Nando


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## TUGBrian (Jun 25, 2022)

I admit I enjoy freeform talking much more, and tried that in the first episode (and will do so in the interactive videos as well)...however I find myself talking even faster...and saying "ah" and "um" WAY more than reading the text.

I found it simply read better (ha...see what I did there?) when reading...and i retyped the text about 20 times before i was comfortable with the wording for episode 2!

speaking fast has always been one of my biggest issues, it goes back to my teaching days and its something I struggle with very much.  I was hoping that reading the text would get me to deliberately slow down, but that is something ill have to continue to work on for sure!

do you mean the first video on the TUG channel?  episode 1?   yea that one is rough for sure!  It was 100% a learning experience for me...as was episode 2 with comments like yours.  I fully expect to try to make each one a little bit better every time!

or the super odd video that someone created using our logo years ago that has all sorts of very bizarre things in it?   im pretty sure most if not all of the views on that were from when someone posted this video shortly after it was uploaded and everyone went to watch it.  not much we can do about that one other than scratch our heads at how completely and utterly mad someone had to be to put together something that absurd in an effort to bash the site. 

if i had to put money on it, i can think of a few select individuals who were banned from the TUG forums for being some of the most obnoxious and bat-shit crazy folks ever to own a timeshare.  that entire video seems right in their wheelhouse for sure!


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## Arusso (Jun 25, 2022)

Brian,  your a good sport for taking my observations to heart.  I know you want to do a good job.  I taught medical students and residents in my specialty and was accused of speaking too slowly !!  In any event, the You Tube video that I was referring to was published in 2019.  It's pretty obvious the narrator, despite the nice music and video,  is clearly not an American English speaker.  Sounds very UK English to me.  Curiously, there is no ID from the producer and it only had 325 some odd views.   The message is that TUG data mines and sells its membership information to third parties in addition to not providing any information to people who want to exit their TSs.   On the later misstatement, I can certainly attest to the fact that there is an entire forum or two devoted to this subject. and many Tuggers have given advice to others on the subject.  On the former, I have no reason to believe any of my personal membership information was sold to third parties.  TUG membership has grown by leaps and bounds.  If you were doing something unethical or illegal, it would not be too difficult to discern.  I'm, not an attorney, but those statements made in the video sure seem to be libelous.  "Nuff said.  Buona fortuna and buona notte.


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## TUGBrian (Jun 25, 2022)

yea ive not encountered that many lies and dishonest statements since the last timeshare sales presentation I read about....


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## dioxide45 (Jun 25, 2022)

Unfortunately YouTube controls the results of search when you type in a certain subject or keyword. Not many people would be searching for "tug2" or even "Timeshare Users Group" in YouTube search, so many won't ever see that odd video. Having your YouTube channel come up at the top of the results usually requires some effort. Many new channels complain that they can't find their channel in search after posting a few videos. Getting the channel ranked comes with time and consistent uploads. As a YouTuber myself (odd to call myself that), YouTube is a lot of work. From coming up with topics, writing scripts or video outlines to recording then editing and coming up with good titles descriptions and thumbnails it is almost a full time job, just without the full time pay.


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## TUGBrian (Jun 26, 2022)

agreed, i spent a few hours just on that 2min vid last night...but honestly coming up with topics is certainly the easy part...heck even coming up with a few minutes of chit chat about each of the topics is the easy part!  I dont believe we had published anything on the channel in quite some time (just looked, and last video was 6 years ago, wow!) so it really doesnt surprise me that it doesnt rank very high.  I would imagine once you hit the 1000 subscriber mark you likely get a boost in the ratings as well.

I certainly dont want to create content for contents sake, vs actually apply SOME sort of useful knowledge into a short video for folks to watch!  Also have the double challenge of trying to make a topic on timeshares or timesharing somewhat interesting, or at the very least entertaining!

I sure wish I was better at not using "ah" and "uhm" when I just talk as it would make it much much easier to record if I could just chat about the subject.  That said, ive seen how many takes some of the most popular youtube folks go thru to get one working clip, so maybe im not alone in wishing I were better at talking without a script!  So I may be just kidding myself in thinking I could churn anything out with one or two attempts!  (even episode two required 4 or 5 takes, and i was just reading off a script I wrote)

perhaps Ill mix it up a bit over the next few attempts and see if I am able to produce better results.  they say practice makes perfect!


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## dioxide45 (Jun 26, 2022)

Ah and uhm are fillers that are used while you are thinking of what to say. Do a search on Google on how to avoid saying them. One thing is to talk more slowly to give your mind time to catch up to what you are saying. If you are using a video editing program, you can also trim out the ahs and uhms with a simple cut. For the most part people won't notice or care that there is a blip in the video and it provides for a better delivery.

I have found when recording video that I don't usually say ah or uhm at all, but I am finding other words I use instead like "so" and even "keep in mind". Odd

Another bit of feedback I have on the video is figure out how to make it fill the entire video player. It looks like it may be a 720 recording rendered at 1080. Making yourself larger in the frame is also good. You don't want to be a little talking head way down at the bottom. This may require purchasing additional equipment that can zoom or sitting closer to the camera.


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## TUGBrian (Jun 26, 2022)

been doing a ton of reading today, discovered that the most likely cause of the blurry video is poor lighting so we will see about updating that!

also plan to update the microphone vs the built in one on the video camera, that should at least i hope improve the voice sounds.

i actually chose my head in the corner specifically, i figured if im going to add more slices of photos/instructions/etc in some videos...id like to have the space for it.  Id be mortified to click on a video that was 95% my face in the picture!  but maybe that will play better!  Ill keep tinkering with it.  hope to just make it a little better each time, and perhaps more folks will enjoy it a bit more each time!

keep the feedback coming, ill listen to it all and implement any changes i can for improving!


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## dioxide45 (Jun 26, 2022)

TUGBrian said:


> been doing a ton of reading today, discovered that the most likely cause of the blurry video is poor lighting so we will see about updating that!
> 
> also plan to update the microphone vs the built in one on the video camera, that should at least i hope improve the voice sounds.
> 
> ...


Lighting and sound are perhaps the two most important things you can invest in. There are plenty of lighting kits you can buy on Amazon for around a hundred bucks. Also check out YouTube for YouTube video creation. Think Media does a lot of tech gear videos for creating online video.


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