Join us for our summer clip show as User Friendly turns 14!

William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens.

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Technology architect.

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And this is user friendly 2.0

I am your host Bill.

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And joining me Gretchen.

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Bill welcome to this week's show.

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Hello there. Hello.

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So how do you feel being another year

older,

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Whoopi. It's good. Yeah. There you go.

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Working is right.

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So either

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we all have our birthday on the same day

or user friendly is turning 14 this year.

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We're going into our 14th year.

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So that's middle school

or just starting high school.

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Yeah. There you go.

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Okay, so this could be a chaotic time, but

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certainly with events of the world

it would qualify as that.

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Yeah.

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But but anyway

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in Reno, Nevada, in a station

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that had a studio in a mall

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and not one of the more used

malls in Reno.

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Nice. You know, City Town Mall.

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What is that called now?

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A Reno town mall? Town.

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Old town used to be Old town mall.

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Yeah, I think they changed the name.

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But anyway, so it's a nice mall.

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I mean, it's really cool

and still has the esthetic

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from when it was older,

which has all these fountains and things.

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Definitely worth a visit.

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It's not a dead mall or anything,

but it is definitely not

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the one with your anchor stores

and all that kind of thing anymore.

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There's a lot of cool

local stuff in there,

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and one of them is the radio station

that we started at, which would be fine.

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The fact that it's in a mall

is no big deal.

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The fact that the studio did not have

a door was a big deal.

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And I know we've talked about this

a little bit in the past, but,

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you know, some of our sound effects,

which we did on purpose, of course,

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included drills and crying

children and other things.

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So people warming up musical instruments.

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But, you know, the weird thing

about that whole mall that you guys don't

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obviously remember is that a

the mall used to look like an old West

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town on purpose,

and there was an actual radio station

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in the lower area

in the center of the walking area,

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and there was an actual little room

that was completely closed off,

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and it had windows

and you could see the DJ.

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Yeah.

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And it was a legitimate,

really good radio station

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that wasn't infestation

we were on was legitimate,

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but it wasn't certainly wasn't

anything of that high of a production.

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No, no, it was the one that was

there was like one of the normal ones

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that people listened

to, like the entire town.

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So yeah. Yeah.

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So that was definitely.

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And then we kind of went from there

and have settled when user friendly.

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So user friendly 2.0 for anybody

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that doesn't know was a reboot of the show

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So we went from a half hour

to an hour format.

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We signed on with Salem Salem Media

at that point and I heard podcasts.

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So basically what you hear

now is from that reboot,

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but there were seasons

of user friendly prior to that.

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A lot of them are on the website.

If you want to go back and listen.

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If you do,

that's on you. I'm warning you. But

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but it's,

you know, something that this is become

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a lot longer running show than I think

any of us would have ever thought.

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Yeah, yeah.

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You know.

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Idea started around my kitchen table.

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I remember that in all of us were there,

and we still had our two

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missing people at the time.

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And it was,

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you know, Jeremy and Molly have left us.

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And it's also very interesting because

we still have our original team together,

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and they didn't leave by choice.

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So, you know, it's a situation where it's

a little bit unusual as these things

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go and has something that

we've really enjoyed doing over the years.

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We started out as a pure technology show.

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We added the pop culture.

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I think actually I kept trying to add it

sooner than that.

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Yeah, the one that we actually do it,

I don't recall because we started

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talking about lightsabers

and other things earlier.

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Yeah.

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So, because it was

it was more interesting.

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People who like science and technology

tend to like science fiction

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and comic books

and and and fantasy literature.

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They they're more outgoing

and they want to explore the world.

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Right. So. Right.

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Absolutely.

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Like, you know, but from that time,

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you know, we've grown up

and it's been kind of cool.

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I don't think we've lost kind of the

what we love to cover.

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Like you say,

Gretchen, is technology and pop culture

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and kind of all the fun stuff

that goes along with it.

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It, you know, we used to do movie reviews.

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We don't do that so much anymore.

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We do them once in a while,

like last week.

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But the reality of the situation is,

is there's enough new stuff coming out

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in both areas right now

that it really creates something

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that's a little unique to cover.

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And we get some things

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that aren't necessarily covered

by everyone else, which is kind of fun.

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Definitely attending the comic cons

and all that kind of stuff.

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We're going to be having a review

of some East Coast things coming up

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in the next couple of weeks

from our reporter Bradley over there,

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but it is something where it's

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kind of fun to be able to do these things

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and look at it

from a little different perspective.

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So, you know, I don't know, it's

just been kind of a cool thing.

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And I don't know, Gretchen,

we even want to

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costume contest one year

I think in San Jose.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah we did.

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And that was funny, you know.

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And it wasn't the first time

long before Bill you were involved.

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Jeremy and Gretchen and I had met kind

of coming out of high school.

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So this was like a million years ago,

and it feels like it.

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And we ended up entering a costume contest

at a Star Trek convention.

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Yep. Dressed in Renaissance Faire gear.

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And we entered into the Q continuum

and took first place.

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And boy, was everybody else

unhappy with us.

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Yeah, well, those Trekkies were mad.

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You know, the year before,

I tripped on the stage dressed

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as a cross between Lieutenant

Uhura and Yeoman Rand.

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Yeah. So.

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And I remember Jeremy

had a really long ponytail back then,

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and he was dressed,

I think, as a Starfleet

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officer or something,

and he was asked to Starfleet officers.

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Do you wear your hair?

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Long Wharf was.

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It was the best answer

he could have given to you.

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It was really cool.

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So, yeah, we still have some of the prizes

and stuff that go back to that.

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And, you know,

so there's a history of all of this.

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And then back in 2013,

we had all met through some other things

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and started putting this together.

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And it's just been usually a weekly

some seasons it's been weekly,

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some seasons it hasn't.

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But since User friendly 2.0 came out,

we've been strictly weekly

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and have had a lot of fun with it

and the listenership.

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All of you listening to the show

is really grown up and we appreciate that.

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It's amazing

some of the input that we're getting

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and this isn't input sometimes,

like the stuff

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I will use that word

since we're on the air that some YouTube

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things get,

that it's just like trolls and things.

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But most of the feedback we get from

you is actually very informative.

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It's good.

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It's how we program the show

and I really appreciate it.

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I love that interaction.

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You know, it's a lot of fun.

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So this week

we're going to be doing a clip show.

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We're going to give you

a couple of interviews that have been

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the most talked about in the last year,

according to AI that analyzed it.

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Now, I will forewarn you, this isn't the

three most loved interviews necessarily.

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It's the three that created

the most conversation.

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That doesn't mean they're bad, but

it just means that there were certainly

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a lot of well-founded comments

on some of the different things here.

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And instead of trying

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to talk about all this

before we actually have the interviews,

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we'll just go ahead and switch

over to that here in a second

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and let you hear them and tell us

what you think about hearing them again.

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All right. Here we go.

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Joining us now, guest

Heather Rose Walters, game writer

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and inventor of Iffley,

the code free game writing software.

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Welcome to user Friendly.

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Thank you so much.

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Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to be here.

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Oh, this is going to be great.

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I'm reading through everything

before we started the interview today.

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This sounds very interesting because I'm

curious to know what this even is.

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I'm a programmer,

so anytime stuff like this comes up,

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it's just an area of like,

okay, let's see how that works.

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But let's start with you and your company

and what is interactive fiction,

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because I think that kind of

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gets us into the realm

of what we want to talk about today.

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Definitely.

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Interactive fiction

is exactly what it sounds like.

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It's fiction that you interact with,

although some people have used it

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also with nonfiction,

but that's a whole nother interview.

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It's a form of gaming,

but it's just entirely text based.

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So technically,

all of the original games out there

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where you just were typing

text is a form of interactive fiction.

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So right now there's a whole bunch

of different versions of it, like

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Bandersnatch on Netflix

is kind of a form of interactive fiction.

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B choose your own adventure

books from like back in the 80s,

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although they do still publish

now are like a, you know, a

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physical copy of interactive fiction.

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And now there's a ton of apps out there

where you can play

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interactive fiction games on your phone,

and they're just text based stories

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where you get to choose

and affect the narrative.

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So I'm going to date myself here,

but this would be like

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in the old days, Zork or Hitchhiker's

Guide to the Galaxy, that kind of thing.

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Right? Yeah, exactly.

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Yeah, I know now the more common ones.

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Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

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I would just say I used to it.

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I love those games.

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Yeah, yeah. Super exciting.

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Now it's more common

for the interactive fiction to have like

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buttons that you select

as opposed to typing in, you know,

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an infinite number of options,

although those still do exist.

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But typically when someone talks

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about interactive

fiction, more often than not it's an app

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that's all text based,

and you have buttons that you can select

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and you're following the story down

a path.

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I remember old software like that

that would tell you

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take you on an adventure.

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So this makes a lot of sense.

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I enjoy that

more than some of the new games too.

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Still, it's just there's more ability

to be in there and you're not having

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to learn like five hours of how

to play the game before you play the game.

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So, you know, it's just

it makes a huge difference.

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All right.

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If we what is Iffley.

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Why did you invent it?

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Tell us a little bit

about what you're doing.

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Sure. Yeah, well, I'm a game writer.

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I was working in a game studio in Oregon,

Soma Games in Newburgh.

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They're awesome.

We were working on the red wall games.

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If you're familiar with Redwall,

it's a book series.

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I was obsessed with it as a kid.

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We were working on the games

and we started an interactive fiction

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app, Lost Legends of Red.

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So essentially it's the story set

within the Red wall universe.

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But me and the writers were creating

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interactive fiction stories

for that space.

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And as I was working on it, me

and one of the writer were the ones

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who are kind of mainly creating

that stuff.

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We just really hit a wall

in our creative process of writing,

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whereas I had come from more screenplay

and book writing has been

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what I've kind of done in the past,

more linear.

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You can really get into a flow

like you sit down and you just write.

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You don't have programing, you don't have

technical things kind of blocking you.

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So I just kept thinking to myself like,

man, I wish there was something I could do

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that would just be really easy.

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We ended up the studio

used artist's draft, which is amazing

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if you're creating bigger games,

but we would have to like

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write it in Google Docs and then kind of

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send it to the devs

and they would have to like copy and paste

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it, or we'd have to copy

and paste it into our draft.

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It was very like just kind of not ideal.

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And I just thought,

you know, for a game studio,

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you use the bigger

things like artist's draft or whatever.

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But for a new writer,

especially someone who's never done game

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writing, it's really hard to get into

because of the technical block.

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And so I just I just had this picture

in my mind of how I wanted it to be.

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And I am not a programmer.

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I'm not a developer.

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I'm a writer writer first.

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So I ended up getting laid off

from that job,

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which was a big bummer,

but a blessing disguise because I

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then had time to work on the design

for this, so I just designed

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exactly how I wanted it to look,

but I didn't actually build it.

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I hired amazing devs to build it and now

have partners devs who are working on it.

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But basically it is no code,

no syntax, no logic, just typing.

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You just type.

You can create your whole story.

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There's no design, you don't.

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There's just nothing but words.

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So the same experience

you get, like writing a screenplay

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in Final Draft

or writing your book in Microsoft Word.

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This is what a flea is for interactive

fiction if we also is a platform.

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So with one click

you can publish your interactive game on

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iFly and anyone

can go play it and it's free.

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That sounds amazing.

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So is it like an AI picks up

what you send to it and creates the game?

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How does that work?

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No, no no, I mean the

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AI has a lot of great uses. I

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so I don't want to bash it too much.

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Although I know a lot of

writers are very like not pro AI.

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So I want to be really sensitive to

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like how much we do use it

and we don't use it with Iffley at all.

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It is a software built,

a browser based software.

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So you're typing and it

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the software is designed to take

what you're typing and create the game.

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So you have content blocks, which is where

your story is and you have budgets.

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You type into a content block, you

hit shift, enter, and it makes a button.

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When a person is playing that,

they see the text and they see a button.

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So it's very simple writing to playing.

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And you also as a writer,

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you'll see like the tracking lines,

you'll see the trails of the story.

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Whereas the writer,

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the reader player will just see the text

and the immediate buttons before them.

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And you can obviously test it.

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There's like a reader view

as you're writing.

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There's you can now we've added a feature

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where you can actually add images

if you want, but you don't have to.

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And so that's kind of it's behind

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the scenes like a

I sort of compare it to a bread maker.

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Creating bread is a very long,

arduous technical process.

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And if you get a bread maker,

as long as you have the ingredients

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and the ingredients in my mind

are good writing and a good story, you

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just throw it in and the game comes out

and it really is that simple.

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Oh, that sounds absolutely amazing.

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Gretchen's our resident author here,

and we've been thinking about some stuff

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for some of her books.

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And, Gretchen, you know,

this might be interesting to try.

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Yeah, it sounds interesting.

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I'm thinking more like dad adventure.

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But, you know, you know, because

you believe in different directions.

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Yeah,

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yeah, I

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think it would be really cool for Dungeon

Master's to, like, draft their games

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ahead of time or preserve the choices

that their players made to, like,

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replay campaigns.

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You could have it all in a game.

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Yeah.

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You know, you could almost

you could actually.

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Now that's interesting.

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Now I'm starting to get an understanding

of what this is.

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And I'm starting to think there's

a million ways to use something like that.

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Yeah.

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And you know, and I asked the AI question

because this always comes up,

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our other co-host

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who's not on right now, it tends to agree

with you on your opinion of AI.

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So you're in a friendly environment

with that.

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I and I was an artist.

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Yeah. And he's so.

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Yeah.

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And I'm always one

I like AI when it's used properly.

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But you know people are doing things

that are not within that environment.

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Other conversation.

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But you know so well back now

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red will game series.

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Let's looking into a little bit

of your background and so many games.

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Go ahead and talk about this writing.

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How was that like

and what was your adventure there.

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Oh yeah.

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Well I was kind of a

I'll try and give the Reader's Digest

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version here, but I was actually trying

to be a screenwriter in LA.

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And through some like family health

issues, I had to move back to Oregon.

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And that was kind

of devastating at the time.

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But then I discovered

this local game studio,

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and they're working on the Red wall

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series, which Red wall is a beloved

series of books like If somebody.

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It's kind of this like secret fandom,

because some people have just

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never heard of it,

but the people who've heard of it

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are like obsessed because it's it's

got tons of books there long.

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They're about these anthropomorphic

forest animals who essentially act

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as like Knights of valor.

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And, you know, they have amazing feasts

and like, battles with bad guys.

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And it's like, right

and wrong and good and evil

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and they're beautiful by Brian Jacks

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recipes. Like,

they just an amazing series.

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If you haven't checked it out,

highly recommend.

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They're great for ages.

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I would say like ten and up,

but really adults can enjoy it too.

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They're quite thick, like

the books are quite thick.

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So yeah.

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So this game, this studio is the

has the right to those books for games.

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So they have a 3D adventure game,

a few 3D adventure games

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that I was the head writer on,

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and the interactive fiction app,

which I was also the head writer on.

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The very first one I wasn't there for,

but the 3D adventure,

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first one for the second and third,

and then the app.

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And then I think they also have created

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like a cooking app, because food is super

big in the red whale universe.

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Like the food descriptions are kind of

famous, the famously beautiful.

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So they played with that a lot too.

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But yeah, writing was a dream. It was.

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I was just so grateful to be working with

the writers I was working with.

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Working in a world that you love

is like a dream come true as a writer.

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Yeah.

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So it was really, really magical.

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And the layoff was a bummer.

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But as you guys probably know,

like game studios and the world of gaming,

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you know, layoffs are kind of rampant.

Unfortunately.

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It's just kind of part of the industry

right now.

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Another also another interview where

it goes in cycles to I mean you see that.

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And yeah, right now is not the best time

to be getting into this industry,

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but it is a good time

to do what you're doing and creating

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something that's, you know, unique

and kind of fun to work with.

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I could see where that would be. Now.

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I totally see how Bill Snodgrass

could fit into this.

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I wish he were on this interview with us.

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He would be just

I think he would love that.

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I can tell you that.

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So and then local game studios,

summer games.

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I'm sorry.

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Did you see that was in Newburgh, Oregon?

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Yes. That's interesting.

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Town for a game studio

for those that don't work

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is kind of a, oh,

about half hour outside of Portland.

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It's a really cool small town,

but it's more wine country

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and it seems a little bit

like there wouldn't appear there.

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But hey, you never know, right?

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Yeah, yeah.

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So where do you see this going?

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Well, my goal is to grow the community.

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Grow the company right now.

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You know, it's a it's like a side project

that I'm working on.

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I'm working with a couple other devs

and another marketer friend

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who are working on building it up

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and adding more features

to make the writing tool easy to use.

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Building the community, giving writers

more resources to market to their readers.

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I really dream of this

being like a very viable indie publishing

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path for writers to create their own work,

because you can also actually

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sell games on a flea.

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You can just set a price tag and people

can purchase and play it right there.

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You can also post it for free.

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You don't have to sell it,

but I do really dream of it

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being like a sustainable source of income

for writers in the future, because

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publishing and the game industry,

you know, is just really rough

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right now for creative writers

who want to make a living.

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And I would love for this

to be an opportunity for them,

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a source of income for them,

and just a community of readers

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and writers to enjoy what we love,

which is games and game writing.

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And then personally, yeah,

I really hope it grows into a company

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that I can be proud of.

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And, you know,

I think the other thing about this too,

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that's unique from a lot of you've

talked about game engines in the past.

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I've worked with unreal

a little bit in some of these things.

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And one of the problems with that is

if you're just getting into that industry

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or want to try something out, it is

extremely expensive to do it that way.

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And it sounds like

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this would be a great entry point

for somebody that just wants to stick

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their toll in the water

and see if they like it,

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and do it in a way that they can kind of

just make it work.

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So I'm enthused.

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I think this sounds like a really cool

for thank you.

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I'm really excited about it.

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And I will add that there are other free

platforms for interactive fiction.

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There's twine, there's choice script,

but I will say all of them have some kind

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of technical element that could be

a barrier of entry for writers.

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Now some writers go to twine

and they love the technical element.

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You can make a really detailed game

with twine if you want to get into code

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and all of that.

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But for writers

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who have no interest in code

and who really just want like

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a book with choices,

they want to write that

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and they want it to be available

for their writers to play electronically.

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Twine and Troy script.

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And as far as the draft is expensive,

but even the free choices

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are just too technical.

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Like I tried before I was a game writer.

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I was like,

I'm going to just break into this.

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And I mean, I'm

the least technical person, you know?

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So it was very hard for me.

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So that's kind of the inspiration

behind it.

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But yeah, it's it's free.

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You can just go to if

and sign up and start writing right away.

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You can literally publish right away.

I mean, we have content guidelines.

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You can't publish,

you know, horrible things.

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Other generally flexible.

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It's a it's go and make a game.

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You can literally make a game in a day

if it's short, you know, think of a world

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you love.

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If it's a book already working on,

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you can make a game set in that world

and have it just be a ten minute game.

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You could go do that right now and be

have it be live by the end of the day.

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Wow. Amazing.

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I think we're going to

have lots of questions about this.

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So I

we might be needing to have you on again.

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What do you think, Bill?

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I was just about to say that actually

because this is going to be

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I know our listeners

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well, and we've got a lot of people

that ask a lot of good questions.

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But the interest in something like this,

because it's unique, is there.

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And I don't know, Gretchen,

you're a published writer.

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You are an in-depth programmer, right?

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You wouldn't need something like this.

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Oh, yeah. Right.

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In-depth programing.

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I could probably destroy your computer

with the knowledge I have

464

and not be able to fix it.

465

I relate,

466

and I and I bring that up sarcastically,

of course, because it's just it's a thing

467

that those are two very different

disciplines.

468

You know what you're saying?

469

It reminds me of a meme.

470

I saw this little girl daddy,

what is formatting C colon mean?

471

You know, it's like, yeah,

that's the thing that I do know how to do.

472

And that's what would ruin your computer.

473

If, you know, if.

474

That's right, that's great.

475

All right.

We'll check it out and let us know.

476

And like we were just saying

send in your questions

477

and comments on this

because this is really cool.

478

Give it a try

and let us know what you think.

479

Yeah. There is there anything

else you'd like to tell us?

480

Well, if you do use if we

481

love your feedback, we're, you know, it's

me and two devs right now working on it.

482

So it's a small but but hardy team

and we'd love your feedback.

483

If you encounter any bugs, let us know.

484

If you have future ideas, let us know!

485

There's a contact form on the page,

so you can just drop an email

486

that goes to my personal email box,

you know?

487

So I will see everyone.

488

I'd love to hear it. And on the show.

489

Of course, put your questions in.

490

I'd love to come back and answer

any questions.

491

That'd be amazing.

492

Yeah, well, that will be a given. So.

493

All right. Well, listen, Heather,

thank you so much for joining us today.

494

This is amazing.

495

And I'm just looking forward

to people trying this out.

496

I think I might even give it a go myself.

497

So again please do not co.

498

And and again thank you for being here.

499

Thank you so much for having me

I really appreciate it.

500

This is user friendly 2.0.

501

We are going to be having another

interview for you in the next segment.

502

So stay tuned for that.

503

This is user friendly 2.0.

504

We'll be back after the break.

505

He's from the future.

506

He's got a really big computer

507

and he uses it uses it every day.

508

And he uses it uses it in every way.

509

What she uses for you know, I'm

not that sure because we use is huge.

510

Welcome back.

511

This is user friendly 2.0.

512

Send us your questions.

513

Send us

your comments. We'd love to hear from you.

514

User friendly Dot show is the one

stop place to be able to do that.

515

Also to listen to back episodes.

516

Find out where we're streaming,

check out Tech Wednesday, read the blog

517

and all of the other cool things

that we have out there for you to do.

518

So user friendly dot show.

519

All right,

so our guest today is Al Kushner.

520

He is an expert on growth strategy

521

using AI with social media

specifically linked in.

522

Has written a number of books

on the subject and classes, and just is

523

the general expert that I've ever talked

to on this kind of thing.

524

So let's

go ahead and jump to the interview.

525

Joining us now, guest Al Kushner,

who is an author

526

and does a lot of very interesting things

with LinkedIn.

527

Welcome to User Friendly.

528

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

529

So before we begin on everything,

let me give you an opportunity

530

to give a little bit better

background than I just did.

531

Can you tell us a little bit

532

about what you're doing on both fronts

and where you're headed with things?

533

Well, I wrote the book on the link,

the LinkedIn advantage.

534

So I'm hoping to educate people

about how to use AI and LinkedIn together

535

to help streamline the process

536

and make it much faster and easier to use

537

so they can be more

not afraid of using the platform,

538

which a lot of people can get intimidated

by, say the least.

539

So, and that's true about LinkedIn,

I've noticed that, you know,

540

I think it's a little bit different.

541

I like it, but I know there's

a lot of people that are like, oh,

542

I don't know, you know, what to do

or how to do it or that type of a thing.

543

So interesting

to talk about the idea of using

544

AI with social marketing and social media

and that kind of thing.

545

And, you know, it's involved in everywhere

else.

546

Obviously, this has been

the big news of the last 2 or 3 years now.

547

Tell us a little bit

about what it means to work with

548

LinkedIn or social media in general with

AI versus a conventional way of doing it?

549

Well, what I like about AI

is that it actually helps

550

to create ideas for content

that normally may take hours or days.

551

Some people get writer's block,

don't know what to say.

552

So using AI technology

will give you ideas of what to say,

553

and if you use it strategically,

you can post more frequently on LinkedIn,

554

which is always going to be an advantage,

as well as to create

555

content for scripts, for videos,

or for a whole host of other things.

556

So it really gives

you will save you a lot of time,

557

and as well as efforts that normally

you would do with conventional ways.

558

All right.

559

So let's talk specifics about your book.

560

Go ahead and give us a little background

and synopsis on specifically

561

what you are putting together

and what is for also people

562

who are want to use AI technology,

who want to use LinkedIn

563

in a way that help

to make more quality connections.

564

The idea, of course, is that by reading

the book, you can become possibly

565

a thought leader in your field

and dominate the competition.

566

Because of the resources

that I have available.

567

AI technology is changing in

so many ways,

568

and and LinkedIn is very receptive

to people

569

who put content on LinkedIn

that is of value.

570

And if you do it the right way,

if you be more of a giver than a taker,

571

you'll find LinkedIn will be very much

a great platform to make all the

572

connections and to gain followers

and to grow your business exponentially.

573

So what inspired you to create this book?

574

Well, I've looked at the books

in the market that were talking

575

about LinkedIn, and most of them

didn't really address AI at all.

576

So I said, well,

there's an opportunity over here.

577

And I jumped at it.

578

I think it was great because the fact

that LinkedIn is close to a billion users,

579

I mean, this was huge

as far as the opportunity

580

to have the book reach so many people

and the fact that the AI technology

581

is always changing and evolving,

that is just going to be the future.

582

And I think that those

who are looking to embrace it

583

have a resource that they can use

to help, whether it's creating content

584

or scripts or video or a whole host

of other things to save you time.

585

This will definitely be a good way to

to learn about how to do that.

586

So it doesn't become a time

suck as a lot of platforms do

587

now. Have you

588

actually sat down and done metrics

on the difference between just using

589

a platform, liking LinkedIn,

and then using it with your system

590

and see what the real difference is time

saving being one of them.

591

But it would seem like

you would get a lot more back.

592

Like you were saying earlier,

from being able to set up partnerships

593

and followers

and all of that kind of thing.

594

Well, what I found to be is helping

and creating videos.

595

Videos on LinkedIn has become

pretty much a

596

well, I guess. So.

597

It's pretty rare that people post videos,

but now it's become more prevalent.

598

I think that it's actually the algorithm

really loves videos on LinkedIn

599

and will help to create more awareness

once you post it on the site.

600

So it really encourages you to do video

as much as possible.

601

And a lot of people

don't do it for a number of reasons.

602

And a sweet spot for videos,

I would say is about 90s long.

603

So if you do that and post consistently

at least 2 or 3 times a week,

604

you'll certainly.

605

I mean, I've seen a difference

in terms of the amount of views that I've,

606

that I've reached because of using videos

compared to standard tech.

607

So that already was,

for me, a game changer right there.

608

Now, is there

609

a difference between posting a video

directly to the platform

610

and sharing ones like say, that you would

already have posted on YouTube?

611

Does that work the same way

or is posting it directly better?

612

Posting directly is better.

613

The algorithm definitely views

it more native

614

compared to sharing a link

that goes outside of LinkedIn.

615

They really frown against that.

616

So if you have a video,

even though it may take longer

617

to upload directly to LinkedIn as opposed

618

to sharing a link outside,

619

and that makes sense.

620

So how does somebody find your book?

621

They can go to

Amazon will be available July 4th,

622

and it's currently available in hardcover

so they can actually purchase directly.

623

It's also available in audiobook.

624

You can go to Spotify

and you on the waiting list

625

for July 4th release for the audiobook,

as well as e-book version.

626

So also my website Linked Vantage. Com.

627

There's a lot of great resources,

including free ebooks,

628

how to optimize your profile

so you can go there.

629

Reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Another way to connect.

630

So just off the top few options

631

there that gives us

a few different places to look.

632

And I know you're giving us a QR code

that will also help to narrow

633

that down a little bit.

634

So we have that shared out to everybody.

635

Is there anything else

you want to tell us?

636

Nothing that comes to mind, in fact,

that if you're going to

637

be posting on LinkedIn,

you really need to, before you do

638

any outreach is optimize

639

your profile was the first thing

people to do is to check out your profile.

640

And if your picture is really not

where it's at.

641

You know, invest money,

642

get a headshot portrait professional,

that would be the first thing to do.

643

Take a look at your background image

as well and see if you can update that.

644

These things are essential

for any type of outreach on there.

645

A lot of times people don't even do that.

646

You know, they leave their head

647

or blank in the background and images,

some car image they took.

648

You know, with a camera,

you've really got to take the time

649

because you don't get a second chance

to make a first impression.

650

And that's really makes a difference.

651

So before you do any outreach,

optimize your profile.

652

Look for keywords.

653

Also include anything that you've done,

any awards that you've received,

654

any volunteer work you have is always

going to be looked upon more favorably.

655

And others who haven't done that,

and most importantly is recommendations

656

in as many recommendations as you can.

657

You know,

658

because that third party endorsements

are critical to any type of outreach.

659

They want to know who's use your services,

who's satisfied with your work.

660

And a lot of people ignore that.

661

And that's something that I always stress

to people as optimize your profile.

662

I have a course on it

that tells you how to do the right thing,

663

keywords,

and it really makes a difference.

664

You can really achieve

a lot higher results

665

if you do something like that,

because people are going to judge you.

666

And if you don't look

well on LinkedIn, it's

667

going to not be in your interest

to do any outreach.

668

I'll let you get that up to speed.

669

All right.

670

So you just mentioned something

I didn't know about.

671

Tell us about your course.

672

I have, of course, my website where it

673

it's about a ten,

674

ten modules that go through the steps

and how to optimize your profile

675

from the headshot to creating bio

676

that is going to be impactful,

and also how to use it with AI to generate

677

the keywords that are going to get

678

you found on LinkedIn,

which I think is really crucial.

679

So it goes

you through all the details on it.

680

And I have a second one, of course,

that teaches you how to do outreach

681

and what words to say to people

who you're connecting with and offer value

682

to whoever you're connecting with.

683

When I do not reach, I offer a free

e-book, you know, to help people.

684

And it's really,

685

you know, you want to really just connect

with someone and give them value.

686

A lot of times people,

when they first connect, they pitch slept.

687

Not sure if you're familiar with the term,

but nobody likes me pitch at all

688

and I find majority of wise they're doing

it, and that's a really turn off.

689

And usually unfriend

these people, even block them,

690

because they just really didn't

make common sense.

691

So you really, whenever you're connected

with someone, don't do anything like that.

692

Just be friendly.

693

If you can offer any book that's great or,

you know, just keep it under wraps.

694

And most importantly, when they post on

LinkedIn, you want to comment in the post.

695

You know, you want to show that you're

adding something to the post,

696

because most of the time when they do

post, most people don't even look at it.

697

The most part, it's kind of lonely.

698

So and do something more than you know.

699

Thanks for sharing and stuff.

700

You know,

701

trying to be a little more descriptive

and how the post was helpful for them.

702

And and that's something that will help

to create awareness.

703

And they may decide to reach out to you

and say,

704

you know,

I appreciate your comments on it.

705

And you know, what else do you do?

706

That's really a good way

to connect with someone.

707

Sometimes it's better

to be a follower of an influencer

708

and try to do an outreach connect, because

most of the time you won't get accepted.

709

And if anything more you do that,

it may be considered like spam

710

with LinkedIn algorithms.

So you want to try to avoid that.

711

Ideally, follow if it's an influencer

you want to be with, and if they do post,

712

you can actually be alerted

when they do post,

713

so you can respond quickly to that post

and provide them

714

with commentary that would be favorable

to whatever they're saying.

715

I think is a great

way to connect with people.

716

All right.

717

Perfect. Well, thank you for joining us

today.

718

Welcome the opportunity.

719

Thank you again.

720

And now for something

completely different.

721

I hope that didn't get us banned

on the BBC.

722

Bill, you have a new role playing game

723

that you've been looking at,

Call of Cthulhu.

724

Go ahead and tell us about it

and give us your thoughts.

725

Well, it's a new campaign from for,

colloquially called

726

Sutra of the Pale Leaves Twin Sons Rising.

727

It's the first book of two,

contains three scenarios.

728

And the interesting thing is usually

729

takes place

730

This one is set in 1980s Japan.

731

Oh, okay. That's different.

732

Yeah, yeah.

733

Which is interesting because Japan has

a very big following of color.

734

They they love their color.

735

Like we love our dad.

736

No, but I think

737

this is the first time I've ever heard

of a different situation at all.

738

Is it always been 1920s,

or is it that just usually the case,

739

just usually the case?

740

I mean, I've had some that are 1950s.

741

It all depends.

742

They like that era because of the noir.

743

I think feeling well is

it wasn't the original writers stories

744

set in the 20s or am I wrong?

745

Lovecraft was in the tens and 20s.

746

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

747

Okay.

748

So that makes sense.

749

So tell us a little bit more about it.

750

Well,

751

And it is a.

752

Interesting

753

take on The Yellow King,

which is a creature in the mythos of H.P.

754

Lovecraft in the mythos.

755

And it has him being more

756

of a neutral party

than an antagonist or a protagonist,

757

which is going to be interesting.

758

What do you end up with the scenarios

here?

759

Just a quick rundown.

760

You have Dream Eater, which is a strange

dreams of monstrous torment.

761

The people of Ikaruga

762

fanfic rumors speak of a

763

cursed manga comic book,

764

the Pallid Mask of Tokyo.

765

A murderer is discovered,

but the corpse has no face.

766

You. That's creepy.

767

Yeah.

768

Yep. So these can be played as a campaign

setting.

769

All three together in order

or individually as you like.

770

So do you play characters

that are supposed to be Japanese?

771

Yes. Or. Oh, cool.

772

Okay,

so it is a completely different setup.

773

And these modules are like storylines,

right?

774

Yeah, they're like normal campaigns,

like we used to play, you know,

775

like descent into Avernus or other things.

776

Right. Okay. So yeah. No that's it.

777

So is the environment

immersive into Japan,

778

you know, like the cities

and the landscape and.

779

Oh wow. Oh yeah.

780

I mean it's got a,

781

it's got a map in here of just the rail

line system, you know, that Japan uses and

782

say, I am impressed by how much detail

they put into it, but

783

they really threw it.

784

A lot of that 1980s

feel, the artwork style,

785

just what different things you could find.

786

You know, the internet was coming of age.

787

What what role computers in such plays

in this campaign?

788

Video games of course, manga,

789

which was a big thing in the 80s

and still is.

790

And again,

791

like I said, the artwork style in here

really is reminiscent of that era.

792

Nate, I wish I could,

I wish I could see it.

793

Well, I'm imagine that out

and you could certainly do that online.

794

Yeah, you know Gretchen,

but I know with role playing games

795

in general, you have some that

a lot of care and quality goes into.

796

And Bill, it sounds like you're saying

797

that this is one that's fairly

well done like that he does that.

798

I've noticed they really put the time and

effort into every product they put into.

799

Just give you a

as best to experience as possible.

800

Like we just covered two weeks ago,

age of likings, just the amount of detail

801

they went into that to character creation,

let alone the setting.

802

You know, they

they really pull out the stops on that.

803

And I'm always impressed by their company.

804

I mean,

805

role playing games, when done right

are your true open world.

806

We could say that in video games

when you can kind of all around

807

and stuff, but the imagination

is really the limit on these things.

808

If it's done well,

it really is a lot of fun and you know,

809

some are better than others. In this case,

it sounds great.

810

Now, are you actually playing a campaign

with these or Call of Cthulhu right now?

811

And I know you have in the past.

812

I'm looking forward to running this one

813

when I have some downtime

in my current campaigns.

814

We are very in-depth into what we're

815

at with daddy currently,

but I'm looking forward to these.

816

Like I usually run them

817

when we have people

that are going to be gone for a period

818

of time or something like that,

just so we have something to do.

819

That makes that makes total sense.

820

I mean, we kind of do the same thing

up here too, is we have the main one,

821

and then if people are missing

or if we just don't feel like it,

822

you have a backup mission,

you know, like game.

823

Yeah. Yeah. Like West.

824

I don't know if that's exactly

the right term for it, but it's

825

certainly that kind of an idea and and.

826

Yeah. So all right.

827

Is this something you just order from

Amazon or pick up at your game shop or.

828

Yeah.

829

Or you can pick it up

from Chaosium directly.

830

I always suggest

ordering directly from them

831

because you also get that

and usually you get the PDFs of it.

832

Yeah.

833

And plus you're supporting the author

a little bit more

834

if you go through a third party site

and it's just the way it is,

835

and that's how they make money, but they

take a little bit more of a piece of it.

836

So I try to do that,

especially with artistic things like this,

837

whether it's books or,

you know, of artwork of some other kind,

838

and get it straight from the person

that actually published it when you can.

839

Yeah, it totally makes sense.

840

All right.

841

So question that's come in from listeners

when you've talked about this

842

in the past,

is there a Call of Cthulhu video game?

843

Yes there is.

844

I think there was actually a few of them

really.

845

Have you have you played any of them?

846

I didn't know this until

847

I've played

848

one based on the Call of Cthulhu

Mythos idea.

849

Came out really good.

850

It was a story driven one.

851

I know there's what was it,

852

The Sinking City or something,

I believe was a video game that came out

853

3 or 4 years ago.

854

It was based on,

855

that sounds familiar.

856

A number of them.

857

Have we played the game Sinking City,

where it's like it's getting lower

858

and the water is rising, and

you have to figure something out before

859

a certain time,

otherwise everything goes under.

860

Yeah, you're playing a video.

861

That's what he is.

862

The main character's doing

is trying to figure out different things.

863

Now it's a little bit more pulp

than I believe most color,

864

because there was a lot

of enemies and shooting and

865

stuff

that not necessarily happens in the blue,

866

which is usually just you

against the universe of.

867

Right?

868

Right.

869

But totally makes sense.

870

And I like I say, I didn't

I hadn't even really thought about that

871

until someone asked the question.

872

And, you know, it's worth

checking some of these out to, especially

873

if this is a jara that you're into

and a quick search on the internet.

874

I actually see looks like five games

that are based on

875

the sinking city

being the one that you just talked about

876

dark corners of the Earth, Bloodborne

dredged, to name a few of the other ones.

877

And yeah, so no, it totally makes sense

that that that would be the case.

878

And if anybody's listening that has played

these, let us know

879

what you think of them.

880

Because sometimes video game ports of role

881

playing games can be great

and other times not so much.

882

We've seen a lot of games based

as a, for example, on Dungeons and Dragons

883

over the years, and this is something

that goes back to, well, retro computers.

884

I think there's actually a Dungeons

and Dragons game on the in television.

885

There might even be on the first Ataris,

and some of them are very good,

886

and some of them are just like,

what is going on here, you know?

887

Yeah.

888

So definitely, absolutely,

definitely worth checking out.

889

And one of the things too,

that's kind of cool

890

and this time is

you can actually look at playthroughs

891

and different stuff like that.

892

And even on the role playing game front,

it's kind of interesting to check it out

893

and see, you know,

what others do and get some ideas.

894

And I think I might have even mentioned

this a few weeks ago on the show,

895

but we're playtesting

Shadowrun and ended up

896

I didn't know much about the character

generation, so I asked ChatGPT

897

to generate a character for me,

and in about 10s

898

had the character sheet and everything

the way I wanted.

899

I made a few changes on it,

but yeah, some things like that

900

have certainly changed over the years,

but the face of it, not so much.

901

It's still, you know, about imagination,

usually more or less.

902

So how did that playthrough go?

903

We haven't had it yet.

904

We were supposed to do it last Friday.

905

I had a personal emergency last week,

so we had to put it off.

906

And I think we're going to be doing it

this coming Friday

907

if everything goes well.

908

So I will certainly talk about it here

when I know

909

you'll have to tell me how initiative is.

910

I've heard

it can be quite a complicated subject.

911

Oh, yeah.

912

Just creating the

characters, you know, it's

913

because mine was done in 30s.

914

Everybody else took 2 or 3 hours,

so, you know.

915

But yeah, really,

916

I'm sure they figured, yeah,

I'm sure they figured out how I did it.

917

But it's an in-depth creation.

918

Yeah. And that's not the longest one.

919

There are some systems where take 6

or 8 hours, I think I want to say

920

Elfquest or something was one like that

that I did a long time ago.

921

And the session

zero was, was like a whole day.

922

Yeah.

923

Dredd is like that where it's based on

Judge Dredd, where you create a character

924

and your character can die in character

creation.

925

So it's, you know, that's nice,

926

but you basically have a session

just for character creation.

927

And if your character survives,

you get the character of the end, but

928

it can take six hours.

929

Yeah.

930

And I know with Triton Gaming System,

that one took me quite a while

931

to figure out because as they said,

they don't hold handhold for anybody.

932

So that one took me a while

to get a character made.

933

Yeah, and some of these.

934

It's not easy either,

because some of it is intuitive.

935

And then you have

936

some of these other systems

where there's charts and graphs,

937

and I think more information

than you need to become a pilot.

938

Yeah.

939

You have to figure out

to get a dump properly.

940

And then if you don't do something right,

the character doesn't work out.

941

And we're missing some,

you know, characteristic or something

942

you need for the game.

943

And then you get to do it all over again.

944

Or in my case,

the nice to our game masters

945

and just allow them to let me respawn

with the appropriate changes.

946

Oh my god.

947

Yeah, that is kind of a bummer.

948

I used to have that happen.

949

What was?

950

We used to play with some friends.

951

It was a desk part game

952

and I would always die.

953

It seemed like right

in the beginning of it,

954

I can't even remember

the name of that anymore.

955

I wasn't part of that.

956

I don't remember that

this would have been 15 years ago,

957

and you and Jeremy were there,

but we were.

958

Yeah.

I'm not surprised that you don't remember.

959

It was not that. Was it that bad?

960

I don't

961

know if I would go that far,

but it definitely

962

was not, let's just say, not as much fun

as the actual role playing game.

963

And being that it was as complicated,

it's like,

964

why wouldn't you just do the regular game,

you know?

965

Yeah, little Pathfinder

put out a card game.

966

And that one was really interesting

967

because it played like Pathfinder, right?

968

But you were using the cards instead of

worrying about character sheets.

969

Had a little card,

and then you had a weapon

970

card and your magic card and yeah,

971

I mean, it seems like you I want to say

it was like Dungeon Mayhem or something.

972

Oh, yeah.

973

I don't think I've heard of that. Yeah.

974

Or something along those lines.

975

It's not as pretty close,

and I'm sure there's a lot of people

976

listening that love this,

and I think that's great.

977

I'm not dissing it.

I'm just saying it wasn't quite my thing.

978

But you know, but

I'm not really into card games that much.

979

I did Magic The Gathering at one time.

980

And you know, some of those.

981

The Pikachu one, you know.

982

Yeah.

983

And and again,

if it's something you have to like

984

what you're doing, and I am not saying

these are bad, I think they're well done.

985

But like, even Pokemon Pikachu,

you know, that kind of a thing.

986

I was more in the augmented reality stuff

with that,

987

where you could actually buy a watch

and it would tell you where the monster is

988

when you were walking around

so that you could catch it.

989

Now, to me, that was cool the game,

990

but that part of it was really,

really cool, you know?

991

So all right,

well that's it for this week.

992

Until next week.

993

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994

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995

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996

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997

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998

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999

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