Speaker 1: Through the dozens of virtual keynotes I've been doing since
Speaker 1: the pandemic hit. Along with the work that I do
Speaker 1: for this show how I work, I get a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about my setup. People ask me things like
Speaker 1: why is your image so clear? Where do you record
Speaker 1: your podcast interviews from? Why do you sound like you're
Speaker 1: in a professional recording studio. So the answer to all
Speaker 1: of these questions is that I have a dad who
Speaker 1: is an electrical engineer and a computer programmer and does
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of research to tell me
Speaker 1: what to buy and how to set it up. So
Speaker 1: today I want to take you through the key bits
Speaker 1: of equipment in my home office and how I have
Speaker 1: created what for me, is the ultimate home office setup.
Speaker 1: My name is doctor Amantha Imbat. I'm an organizational psychologist
Speaker 1: and founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and this is
Speaker 1: how I work, a show how to help you do
Speaker 1: your best work. So for context for this episode, I
Speaker 1: should add that as of January twenty twenty one, Inventium,
Speaker 1: my organization officially became a remote first organization.
Speaker 2: So we made this decision midway through twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: And since then I've gradually been improving my home office setup.
Speaker 1: So while I don't recommend that you need to mirror
Speaker 1: my exact setup because that would be overkill for the
Speaker 1: average at home worker, there might be a few things
Speaker 1: here to take inspiration from. Okay, first up with my computer,
Speaker 1: which is an iMac with a twenty seven inch monitor.
Speaker 2: So for the last decade of my working life, I
Speaker 2: have been a very.
Speaker 1: Loyal MacBook laptop user, oscillating between thirteen and twelve inch screens.
Speaker 1: I needed my computer to be portable, as my pre
Speaker 1: COVID schedule required me to travel once or twice every fortnight,
Speaker 1: either interstate or overseas, and I like to travel light.
Speaker 1: But since the pandemic hit and all my commitments moved
Speaker 1: to being virtual, I decided that it was time to
Speaker 1: think about investing in a real computer. So I use
Speaker 1: a iMac twenty seven inch, and now that I've been
Speaker 1: using it for the better part of a year, I
Speaker 1: would really struggle to switch back to a laptop, and
Speaker 1: on the rare occasions where I do so, I may
Speaker 1: be on the move or working outside of my home.
Speaker 1: It is bizarre how difficult I find it to make
Speaker 1: that transition back. So my iMac is super fast and
Speaker 1: super big, and even though most of my work involves
Speaker 1: writing or speaking as opposed to work that traditionally benefits
Speaker 1: from a large screen and fast processor, like graphic design
Speaker 1: or video editing, it has been a game changer. I
Speaker 1: love being to fill the huge screen with a word
Speaker 1: document or a keynote file. The next thing that's part
Speaker 1: of my setup is a Dell twenty seven inch four
Speaker 1: K monitor, so this was another computer related game changer
Speaker 1: for me moving to a two screen setup. I used
Speaker 1: to think that the two screen setup or even a
Speaker 1: three screen setup was just for video editor types and
Speaker 1: those finance folks who seem to require having fifteen spreadsheets
Speaker 1: up at the one time.
Speaker 2: But no, it is for people like me too.
Speaker 1: It has dramatically reduced the amount of command tabbing that
Speaker 1: I do, and is also very helpful for virtual keynote
Speaker 1: so that I can see my slides as well as
Speaker 1: my speaker notes at the same time. Okay, Next on
Speaker 1: the list is a Canon XA twenty video camera, and
Speaker 1: I do link to all these in the show notes. FYI,
Speaker 1: So I've experimented with a few webcams this year, such
Speaker 1: as the Logitech Brio, which was pretty good and the
Speaker 1: Huddlecam HD Pro, which was good, but I found it
Speaker 1: almost impossible to get the color mix right. And then,
Speaker 1: after being inspired by Yob van Dervoortz setup, who I
Speaker 1: had on the show a few months ago, I asked
Speaker 1: my dad if he could hook up his Canon video camera,
Speaker 1: the XA twenty into my computer, which I tended to
Speaker 1: just use the Canon Video camera for filming online training videos.
Speaker 1: So again this has been awesome. What I particularly love
Speaker 1: is that I can be in focus in the foreground
Speaker 1: when I use this video camera while my background looks blurry,
Speaker 1: which I think looks super profresh.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I also use an Elgado Kamlink four K, which is
Speaker 1: the device that turns the video camera into a webcam.
Speaker 1: Very important, although slightly boring, but important alright. Next is
Speaker 1: the sure KSM eight dynamic microphone. So I own two
Speaker 1: of these beautiful microphones, which I purchased nearly three years
Speaker 1: ago when I started the How I Work podcast. So
Speaker 1: if you are looking for a high end ish microphone,
Speaker 1: I recommend going to a shop and.
Speaker 2: Trying out a few. So I've learned that different.
Speaker 1: Microphones actually sound better for different voices, so in that sense,
Speaker 1: reviews online only get.
Speaker 2: You so far.
Speaker 1: So there were some mics that came highly recommended, but
Speaker 1: I just didn't like the tone they produced with my voice.
Speaker 2: But I do love these Shore microphones.
Speaker 1: Now I should add that this mic is overkill if
Speaker 1: you're only using it for meetings, but if you're looking
Speaker 1: for something in between the quality of an inbuilt mic
Speaker 1: in your laptop or on your AirPods. I did love
Speaker 1: the blue Yetti, which I used for a few months
Speaker 1: before I merged my home podcast studio with my work
Speaker 1: computer setup.
Speaker 2: Okay, I also.
Speaker 1: Use a focus right Scarlet two two I two, which
Speaker 1: is the device that connects the mic to the computer.
Speaker 1: Next up, one of my favorite pieces of equipment is
Speaker 1: the sound device is Mixed Pre six. So I larned
Speaker 1: my lesson the hard way about recording backup audio for
Speaker 1: all podcast interviews, as I think many podcast interviewers do.
Speaker 1: I now use the Mixed Pre six for recording backups
Speaker 1: of all my interviews, and back in the days where
Speaker 1: I could actually interview my How I Work guests in person,
Speaker 1: I would take the Mixed Pre six out as my
Speaker 1: portable recording device. It is amazing at cutting out background
Speaker 1: noise and.
Speaker 2: Is super simple to use all right.
Speaker 1: Next up is lights, and I use the Algato key
Speaker 1: Light Air and I've got a couple of those. So
Speaker 1: over the last twelve months, I've experimented with a few
Speaker 1: various ring lights, which ended up being really tricky to
Speaker 1: position and also annoying to look at. So the Algado
Speaker 1: key light as was a great solution. I've got two
Speaker 1: of them and they sit either side of my computer.
Speaker 1: So this gives me even lighting for virtual keynotes and
Speaker 1: meetings because the lighting is coming from the side, and
Speaker 1: as a very important bonus, they are not shining right
Speaker 1: in my eyes because they are set to the side,
Speaker 1: so that's awesome. Now. I also love my controller, which
Speaker 1: is an Algato stream Deck. It is a little device
Speaker 1: that sits in front of my keyboard that lets me
Speaker 1: program in various shortcuts that I can do with the
Speaker 1: touch of a button. So, for example, if I want
Speaker 1: to switch on my lights, instead of having to go
Speaker 1: into the app which has the remote control on my phone,
Speaker 1: I can simply hit one button on my Elgado stream deck.
Speaker 1: And if I want to open up my calendar, for example,
Speaker 1: I just press one button. If I want to open
Speaker 1: up a specific page on a website, such as Inventiums
Speaker 1: Events page. Again, I can program the stream deck to
Speaker 1: do just that at the touch of a button. Okay,
Speaker 1: couple of more recent editions. One is the glide Gear
Speaker 1: tellyprompter stand. So a pet hate of mine and probably
Speaker 1: of millions of zoom ms, teams, WebEx and so on
Speaker 1: users around the world.
Speaker 2: Is that you can't actually look at the.
Speaker 1: Person on the other side of the screen, on the
Speaker 1: other side of your virtual meeting and make direct eye
Speaker 1: contact with them at the same time because the computer
Speaker 1: pro the computer camera is located in a different spot
Speaker 1: to their image on the screen.
Speaker 2: This is so annoying.
Speaker 1: So enter the glide Gear TMP one hundred teleprompter stand,
Speaker 1: which I've attached to my video camera with a lily
Speaker 1: Put eleven inch monitor. So this allows me to actually
Speaker 1: make eye contact with people in video calls while I
Speaker 1: look directly at the screen and look at them on
Speaker 1: the screen. It's a game changer. It's so good. Now
Speaker 1: finally I have invested in a Lifespan fitness treadmill desk.
Speaker 1: So I've been wanting to get a treadmill desk for
Speaker 1: a while and I finally did it. It comes with
Speaker 1: a standing desk and I use it to work from
Speaker 1: at least a few times a day, and I'll walk
Speaker 1: slowly well doing my work so I don't fall over.
Speaker 1: And I also use it for phone meeting so that
Speaker 1: I can take notes while I'm chatting on the phone.
Speaker 1: And this helps me effortlessly get to ten thousand steps
Speaker 1: every day without fail. So that's my home office setup.
Speaker 1: And that is it for today's show. If you've been
Speaker 1: loving how I work and require something else for your
Speaker 1: podcast fix, you might also enjoy Mom and MIA's latest
Speaker 1: season of Lady Startup Stories, hosted by Georgia Love, who
Speaker 1: you might remember from The Bachelorette.
Speaker 2: Every week, female.
Speaker 1: Entrepreneurs from across Australia and abroad sit down with Georgia
Speaker 1: to talk about how they built their businesses. Recently, Georgia
Speaker 1: was joined by sisters and co founders Hannah and Rachel
Speaker 1: vassd sec I hope I pronounced that correctly, the ladies
Speaker 1: behind popular jewelry label Francesca.
Speaker 2: They chat about growing their.
Speaker 1: Business from a market stall to a flat, as well
Speaker 1: as what it's really like to work with your family.
Speaker 2: Have a little listen to these sisters.
Speaker 3: I remember I was doing cash flow forecasts back then,
Speaker 3: being like how long can I survive? But you know,
Speaker 3: some days you'd get someone come in and spend a
Speaker 3: couple of hundred dollars, three or four hundred dollars, and
Speaker 3: I'd be able to breathe again, you know. And we
Speaker 3: started getting really busy that Christmas, and it's almost like
Speaker 3: we'd started nurturing this customer base and everyone wanted to
Speaker 3: support the local business. And it's funny, like I didn't
Speaker 3: even have enough money to have extra stock made. We
Speaker 3: would literally have stock out, and then when we'd close
Speaker 3: the store, we'd go upstairs and make more stock and
Speaker 3: put it out for the next day.
Speaker 1: Oh, Michael, so you're still handmaking it all yourselves at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we handmade everything. I'd probably say ninety five percent
Speaker 3: of the stock we handmade.
Speaker 1: You can listen to the Lady Startup Stories with Georgia
Speaker 1: Love wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: And that is it for today, and I'll see you
Speaker 2: next time.