The Divi Nation Podcast, Episode 12 – Developing Systems to Work Smarter, Save Money & Live Better with Sarah Oates

In this episode of Divi Nation, the official Divi podcast, I sat down with Sarah Oates, our very first guest from Australia! Sarah is a web designer who over the years has had to develop certain systems, habits, rituals, and the like to optimize both her work and life. We talk about the necessity of these systems for freelancers and how someone might go about developing the right ones for themselves.

Divi Nation Episode 12: Developing Systems to Work Smarter, Save Money & Live Better with Sarah Oates

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Sarah is a talented and hard working freelance web designer with a great story. Being drawn to design and the web through related work and interests it gradually became the primary passion and pursuit of her professional life. The transition wasn’t easy, of course, with two kids and two jobs to contend with but after pushing through those challenges she has gained valuable experience and insight to share with the whole community. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

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This Week in WordPress 10

In this edition of This Week in WordPress, guest host Sarah Oates and I talk about getting things done, artificial intelligent personal assistants, and making room for serendipity in a busy schedule.

Developing Systems to Work Smarter, Save Money & Live Better with Sarah Oates

In this Divi Nation interview, I sat down with web designer Sarah Oates to talk about the habits, rituals, and systems she’s developed and implemented over the years to work smarter, save money, and live better.

The book I mentioned and recommended is called The Power of Full Engagement. It’s all about maximizing your energy to get more done in less time. It’s a great read and I couldn’t recommend it higher.

Divi Quick Tip: How to Create Modules That Overlap Sections

In this Divi Quick Tip we show you how to create a module that appears to overlap two sections. This is perfect for achieving that “broken grid” effect and adding another level of novelty to a Divi built page.

Use the code below to follow along:

.section-overlap:before {
content:'';
width:100%;
position:absolute;
height:18%;
top:-18%;
z-index:1;
background-color:#cecece;
}
 
.cta-overlap {
 z-index:2;
}

Production Notes

As always, below is the list of the software and gear used to create Divi Nation.

• Scrivener for the scripts.
• Skype for the interviews.
• Ecamm Call Recorder for the interview recordings.
• Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 for call recording and webcam segments.
• Canon XA20 Professional Camcorder for my segment videos
• iPad Teleprompter for segment videos.
• LimoStudio Light Kit w/ Backdrop for my lighting.
• Screenium for screencasting.
• Rode Procastor mic for my interview audio.
• Zoom H6 for my segment audio.
• Adobe Audition for audio editing.
• Adobe After Effects CC 2015 for the motion graphics.
• Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 for video editing.
• Blubrry PowerPress for podcasting from WordPress.

I spent a great deal of time this last week with my H6 zoom and its boom attachment, trying to get the best sound quality out of them. I spent just as much time after that in Adobe Audition looking for the best combination of audio effects and processes to apply to the recordings I made.

For that particular mic the best settings on the H6 ended up being a lo cut filter of 115Hz, a vocal compression, and RAW file recording at 48kHz/24bit. In Adobe Audition I then applied a parametric equalizer, normalization, dynamic compression, and vocal enhancement.

In the end I think the sound quality of the scenes in front of the backdrop are actually much better than they were before, but still not up to the level of quality I’d like. As a result we’ve made the decision to get a new mic. Specifically, the Rode NTG4 PLUS Shotgun Mic.

Since I record these episodes at least a week in advance, I’m happy to report that I’ve already received the new mic and run several sound tests with it. The audio quality is a big step up and I can’t wait to share the results with you in episodes 14 & 15.

If you have any production related thoughts or questions, please feel free to drop me a line in the comments section below. I love to talk shop 🙂

Nominate Our Next Co-Host!

We are looking for Divi enthusiasts to co-host Divi Nation each week. If you are interested in sharing your experience with the Divi community, be sure to submit your application below so that we can get in touch! Or, if there is someone else you’d like to see featured on the show, please take a moment to nominate them so that we can reach out to them.

Apply/Nominate a Divi Nation Co-Host