Reducing Echo, Sound Reflections or Reverb from audio recordings

Since I come across audio issues in videos quite often, I thought I'd write a quick article explaining about sound reflections (echoes) and some tips on how to control them.

Correcting echo in recordings?!?!

Ok, the title is a misnomer.  You will have a VERY hard time reducing echo from completed audio recordings.  Echo or sound reflections are exactly the same pitch as your voice, and much harder to remove from recordings [Ed - as compared to background noise, see below] without affecting the quality of your own vocals.

What you do instead is control your recording environment before you record.  Here's a good quick video someone created, with tips on controlling your recording environment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daa-Qp7C3qE

If you must reduce echoes and reflections in the recordings, I give some quick tips at the end of the article.  But let's assume you did a test recording or can re-record first.

My first attempt - control reflections in my bedroom.
desk for recording on right with blanket on desk,
pinned a towel on the curtain behind desk over the wall.

Controlling the environment - My first attempt

When I first tried recording, I was working at my temporary desk in my bedroom.  I planned to make many courses, so I needed to have great quality.

So I in a similar way to the video's first section and recorded in my bedroom.  I put blankets on the walls with thumbtacks, a towel on my desk, pinned a towel to my curtains behind my desk with clothespins, etc. See the image "My first attempt" to the right.

It worked great, in spite of wooden floors and bare ceiling.  But once I moved my desk back into my living room, I didn't want to record in my bedroom any more -- and I wanted to see if I could do even better.

Second attempt - works beautifully

PVC frame.

The audio quality in my living room is abysmal.  It has an archway to the kitchen, and a long hallway.  Recordings outside the booth sound like I'm shouting on stage in an auditorium.  I honestly started looking for the automatic "reverb" setting that must be on the application I was recording in.

Then I built a PVC booth, which is more similar to the 2nd part of the video above -- a dedicated cubby with padded walls for recording.  In the video, he uses mattresses and blankets and says that you can cover all 4 sides.  That's what I did.

First I drew myself a sketch and decided how tall I wanted the booth, so I could figure out what types of connectors I'd need, and how many pieces of pipe.  I already owned a PVC pipe cutter -- I brought that to the store with me along with a tape measure and fine-point permanent marker to mark lengths of pipe.

I hung heavy duty moving
blankets from the frame,
and draped some garden
cloth over the top.

The booth is made from inexpensive 1-inch PVC pipes, and a bunch of connectors.  I cut pipes to the right length for the tall poles while in the parking lot, so they would fit in my little hatchback.  When I got home, I finished cutting out all the smaller pieces and built myself a booth that's about 6'4" tall (a foot over my head) and about 4 foot by 3 foot.

I bought 3 thick "heavy duty" moving blankets to hang from it, and I found the perfect sized clamps to hold up the blankets at a "dollar store."

Assembly was quick.  I didn't glue the pipes so it can be disassembled, but it can also skew, so I have it in the corner of the room where I can nudge it towards the wall so it has no place to go.  You could build a better booth, I'm certain!  I just needed a place to hang my blankets.  I also could change how it's assembled to make it larger inside if I want to, but I haven't needed to.

This booth works much better than the blankets strewn around the room, especially considering it's in the worst room in the house!

Sound booth interior:
clamp lamp, mic with pop
filter on stand.

Inside the booth I have a mic stand with a mic, and pop filter.  I have a clamp lamp I already owned to help me see notes or just not be in the dark within the booth.  I use clothes pins to pin up notes, or I have a small flexible camera tripod and an iPhone adapter so I can hang my iPhone up and read notes from the screen.

Next I want to make a version for when I'm sitting at my desk doing screencasts.  I've also considered ways I could possibly use the current booth materials to create a greenscreen for video recordings.

What about background noise?

The sound of machine fans running, cars driving by, my chickens clucking, or just the mic's noise with no other desired noises going on is called "background noise."

To get rid of it it's called "Noise Reduction" -- you can take a (free) application like Audacity.  You record about 30 seconds at the beginning or end of each lecture without talking.  That's a "noise profile".  Then you first have to select the noise profile section without talking and tell Audacity that "this is the background noise profile"  Then you tell it to filter that out of your recording.  Because that sounds different from your voice, that's pretty easy to do.  [Ed -- see Noise Reduction in Audacity or watch this video.]

Another way to reduce background noise is to get closer to the mic.  The closer you are the easier it will be to filter everything else out.

I already recorded, now what?

If there's no option to re-record with more control for echo and reflections, you might be able to play with the noise filter, or a sound gate, and reduce the reflections.  But it takes a lot of time and experimentation to get the settings right for you, your voice and your environment.

Go forth and record!

It's always best to record the cleanest, clearest audio you can right from the start and save a lot of time on the editing & audio processing end.  If you have a lot of audio to clean up, it can take hours to fix minutes of audio.

So try recording in your room before & after the blankets, try further and closer to the mic, try with and without a pop filter, and use headphones so you can actually hear your recording more accurately than through computer speakers.  Side-by-side you should be able to tell the difference in the recording quality.

Test!  Test again!  If you test and think you have it all right, then go back to record the next morning -- test again.  The worst things are simple, like the pop filter moved and now is against the mic, or you forgot to turn the mic on, or you are dehydrated so you have dreadful mouth noises today, or you can hear the rain outside but it wasn't raining yesterday.  Test & listen to it.  Play with the editing commands with a short test piece.  Are you happy with how it came out?  Did it take too much fussing and still not sound very good?  Tweak the equipment, recording settings & environment until everything is right for today.

And feel free to ask for help.

New:  Someone pointed out this great article -- if you're the engineer and DIY type, plan to create a serious DIY home studio, and can drop some cash on higher-end materials to soundproof, this article's for you.

Victim or Perpetrator?

If you're in professional services of any type, where you have to put a price tag on your time, this definitely happens to you. If you are not, it's likely you're doing this to people delivering professional services to you.

Let's look back, for a moment, to my post "Thank You For Your Time" -- are you expressing gratitude to people for their one finite commodity, their time?

Service professionals in all industries struggle with the question of pricing. The actual real value of the dollar fluctuates constantly, the purchase power of each greenback gets weaker by the moment, housing, stocks, retirement savings plans, investments, everything around us is bouncing around like a yo-yo on a daily basis, but we need to have a snapshot fixed hourly or service-based rate that we can quote to people. Or perhaps today we're sending out a 20-page proposal on a 6-month contract and trying to gaze deeply into our crystal ball and project our financial needs for 6-months + the period of time we'll be looking for the next contract + padding for inflation and emergencies over 6 months, and oh yeah a profit margin so maybe we can actually advertise.

But for some reason, people have little or no respect for time -- our one finite commodity. As they firmly grasp and push forward the hands of our lifetime clock, taking our time that we will never get back, the mechanisms screaming protest in clockwork agony, they hold onto their wallets for dear life. Money, however, is an asset that you can quite readily get. Ask any affiliate marketer, you can get a residual income for an up-front investment. That up-front investment, again, is time. But it will continually pay off, the check's in the mail from the company paying you a commission. If you ask law of attraction aficionados money is ready to come to you in great quantities once you free yourself from disbelief and actually act on your dreams, fulfill your mission in life and STOP WASTING TIME by getting in your own way.

Even as they lengthen our lives with medicines, cybernetic enhancements, nanoprobes, and everything that the creativity of science can leverage against the Reaper, lives will still run out. We can squeeze only so much out of life before it is gone. With the caveat of a few people on ice awaiting immortality.

So why do people "leak minutes" on the boob tube? (I don't) Why do we often commit sins of robbing others of their time and being stingy on the compensation? While we should come at this with an attitude of gracious thankfulness, instead we hang on to our wallet when someone is willing to leverage their expertise, blood, sweat, and most especially precious moments to further our cause. It's perhaps one of the leading causes of burnout amongst the experts, since we always have to fight for the right to feed our families, insure our business, plan our financial future. Hear the sound of clients crying in agony, clinging to their wallets like we were ripping out their heart, when what they're paying for is the ransom for saving them that one absolutely finite commodity -- time.

If you could do it yourself, in less time than it takes you to make that money, and with the same quality, then you should do it yourself. What you are hiring is higher quality than you can produce, with less of a <cough> commitment <cough> of your time (remember: the pig is committed*), far less stress, and the ability to "set it and forget it" with regard to achieving the results you need. You decide what price that's worth to you, and PLEASE save the expert a lot of time by telling us up-front if there's a hard price limit on what that's worth to you. We shouldn't spend 5 hours writing the 20 page proposal if we can tell we'll need over $15,000 to do the work, but your hard limit is $10,000.

Below is a video message that's absolutely brilliant. I think it was meant to be funny, but I didn't laugh. I thought I would share it to help you understand the patent ridiculousness of arguing with service professionals who have set their fees, or poured over your RFP to give you a quote.

Are you the victim or perpetrator? Enjoy:






Perhaps this can help change people's attitudes? Here's my wishful-thinking:

If you're in need of an expert's services...quit haggling. If you must, ask if the price is final, or if there's budge room, but don't whine if the quote is final. Perhaps removing a few unnecessary items from a quote will lower the price to an acceptable fee for excellent service. You can save precious minutes, or hours if you keep requesting revisions to a quote -- both yours and the professionals. And if you're more interested in price than the high quality of the professional who gave you the quote, ask: "Do you know someone who can provide a comparable service for $1000?" Cut to the chase. Everyone can save some grey hairs on the issue.

On the service person's end: if you've poured over pricing and you think it's fair -- It Is! Quit letting customers haggle. If you really feel that you want to work with them, level with them: "What exactly are you willing to pay?" Then decide whether you can remove some items from the list of deliverables to bring it down to their price, but don't compromise. If there's no equitable solution cut your losses, reclaim precious minutes and walk away. Someone so willing to haggle over everything is going to be a source of pain for every moment while you're on the job. If you lower your prices, you will resent doing the work. You shouldn't charge money if your very best will be tinged with resentment or regret. Don't low-ball yourself by jumping the gun and offering lower fees if the potential client hesitates. Just keep your trap shut and wait. Either they want you or they don't want you: they'll speak with their wallet.

*In the making of the average american breakfast, the chicken and cow are involved, the pig is committed.

Are we causing our nightmares?

"Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. And lo, no one was there." -- unknown

May I coach you?

As individuals we have no control over our national or worldwide economy. Anything causing us to feel out of control is a source of anxiety to us. And anxiety is a perpetual level of fear.

I hear about people afraid to open their statements for investments. I hear about people afraid to part with their money. I hear about people living in fear of the economy.

Fear is an unsubstantial prison warden. When we fear, we shrink into ourselves. We no longer are self-actualized, although we continue to be self-determined. Look at those words, because hidden in them is the crux of the situation.

Actualization is the act of bringing dreams to reality, or in this particular moment, the act of facing reality. Self-Actualization is the realization of the basic human drive to become who and what we want to become, or the act of facing reality in this very moment and being at peace with it. As long as you are running away from your financial reality, you cannot be self-actualized.

Self-determined -- we are all self-determined whether we like it or not. This is the act of determining or causing our own reality. "To be the decisive factor in..." is the dictionary definition I'd like to focus on. We are all the final deciding factor in our own realities. We each have the last say about who and what we are. Are we fearful? Or are we faithful?

So let me say this again: When we fear we are no longer self-actualized, although we continue to be self-determined. When we fear, we impose limitations on our ability to dream & grow. When we fear, we are making ourselves into something fearful. Often, even worse, when we fear we make ourselves into something to be feared. When we fear, we are bringing our fear into reality, but it is the reality of our nightmares, not the reality of our dreams.

I listened to an interview of a financial coach the other day who said (to paraphrase) that running away from our financial reality is only going to attract more financial uncertainty. We can't get money unless we face the current reality of how much money we have. Guilty as accused, I immediately did as he suggested and made my financial map. I split a page into 4 boxes. In one, I put my current debts. In another, I put my current liquid assets & immediate accounts receivable (checks in the mail). In another I put my accounts payable (and in some cases a due date). In the 4th quadrant, where most people would put their investments & large assets (perhaps a home, retirement accounts), I jotted down decisions of where to move my liquid assets to cover bills. My whole financial picture fit on one page. My payables & debts far outweigh my income, but facing that reality is the important part. I'm not going to get out of my current financial conundrum from hiding from it or being afraid to pay the bills. The financial coach in the interview says that people who face their finances every week find that their finances correct themselves within 6 months. I'm prepared to do that, and I am prepared to remove fear from my life.

Another piece of the puzzle fell into place last night. I purchased a book last night: "To Sell is Not to Sell" by Greta Schulz. One small section stands so apart from the others I flipped through so far. It's about our civic duty in the midst of wars, famines, financial hardship. It is the duty of our soldiers to fight. It is the duty of our firefighters to protect. They face overwhelming decisions in-the-moment and simply have to plow ahead and do what they do -- they cannot allow fear to immobilize them. They work to protect, to make secure. And they do not ask a leave of absence simply because they are fighting overwhelming odds, or because they may not live to see it through. In the aftermath of 9/11 Greta was immobilized. To paraphrase: How can business go on when the firefighters are digging through the ashes for survivors (I add, "or breathing toxic fumes that will haunt them for years...."), and our soldiers are being deployed? she asked. How can we do "business as usual" when our country is under attack?

Then a realization came to Greta -- she realized that it is the duty of a firefighter to find the survivors, to fight the blaze. It is the duty of the soldiers to fight for our freedom & to protect our country. Surely they have a healthy fear, but -- to get patriotic and pragmatic both -- it is the duty of the business owner to go back to business as usual, to protect the economy that funds those soldiers, to contribute to the tax base that feeds those firefighters. I will take it one step further: It's the duty of the consumer to continue to purchase services and products (no matter how much more choosy they will be about it) to complete that cycle.

Business must go on. We have a terrific country, and if you're running from financial reality through fear, you are in the way of both the progress of yourself and others. You are contributing to the financial instability of our country. It is your civic duty to purchase goods & services, to provide goods & services, to give this country economic stability. And since we're all self-determined, we must start with ourselves. We each can only change our own outcomes -- that is self-determination. I refuse to buy into the recession: I continue to purchase goods & services.

To allow the fear to control us is a lack of faith. We have a "Chinese menu" of whom we are committing our lack of faith against: God or higher powers, our President, our country, our economic system, our state, county or town, even our children's future employability. To quit spending money is a selfish act against our neighbors, it is entirely about thinking of ourselves and our family first before thinking of the needs of others. And lastly, spend it now because the value of your liquid assets may dwindle further if you don't: what good is holding on to the money? If the money isn't flowing, if people are holding on to their money, there is nothing that can stop the spiral. The only way for our money to keep its value is to keep it circulating, otherwise it's a pile of empty promises & the bad debt our money is backed with, rather than a means of economic exchange.


I face my financial reality, that frees me up to be self-actualized, because to live out my dreams, I must not fear.


I have lived my life by this memorized chant by Frank Herbert, from Dune: "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Maximize Networking Results in any venue

How can networking events work for you if attendance is still dwindling? If you're not looking at them as a small trade-show where you'll get tons of leads, are they still worth attending?

Here's 3 quick tips to use individualized invitations to markedly increase the value of any event you attend:

Invite referral partners: Stack the room. Your referral partner(s!) will get a little more face-time with you, which puts you at the top of their mind. If they're a networkaholic, they'll appreciate meeting a new group, and on the selfish side you get more kudos so they'll want to do you a favor in-turn. If you received a referral from them, invite them AND pay for their fee to come to the networking event. How's that for a "thank you!" gift? Note, you're not taking them out to lunch -- ask your accountant if you can tag it as an incentive gift for taxes.

Invite prospects: Suddenly you have a reason to reach out to a prospect without giving a sales pitch! This is for them -- right? You can introduce them to your network, and they might get business from it. For you, the networking event becomes an opportunity for a high-touch contact with low pressure. Don't talk about your services unless they mention their interest in your products, but do allow them a chance to get to know you and your other referral partners better. If you have clients or referral partners in the room, someone else may talk them into closing the sale! You have increased your value to the client without doing anything you wouldn't have been doing anyway.

Invite clients: Another opportunity for a high-touch contact, which is excellent customer service and maintains top-of-mind awareness with someone who has already paid you. Talk them up to others, and play matchmaker for them. They're living, walking, breathing proof that you do your work, and do it well. They're an on-the-spot testimonial for your services. They may evangelize you to the group. If you do your 30 second or 1 minute presentation on a service they did NOT purchase (yet) or maybe don't even know you offer, you may just be able to up-sell it to them later.

Work on making it a habit to invite one person to every networking event you attend -- or invite 3 people to the QED luncheons to get $15 off your next luncheon. Shuffle these invites into your normal sales calls, schedule dance cards with referral partners before or after a networking event, and make these invitations a normal part of your ongoing customer service.

Let everyone know how it works out for you--I've been applying these techniques and I like how it has been working out.

For local networking venues see NetworkaholicsAnonymous.org -- and make sure you join us at the QED Networking Luncheons and QED Hudson Valley Business Edge Conference events!

Don't Panic!

or The value of thinking things through before someone gets hurt....

Has anyone else noticed that some people seem to be having a knee-jerk reaction to this so-called downturn in the economy? I want to talk about the value of thinking things through before you make moves that could jeopardize your business. I have started doing consulting, coaching and brainstorming with people, to help them come up with new ideas and plans for their business. This is in direct contrast to thinking about things on one's own, and not planning at all. No sounding board. No opinions from anyone else.

An example is switching your branding. An overnight change of your branding is tantamount to wiping your marketing slate clean.

I went to a website I had been to before, and their design and overall "feel" to their website was so starkly different I thought they may have lost ownership of their domain name, or I misspelled it and landed on a "parked domain" page. If I was less familiar with the company, I would have gone back to whatever search engine I had come from. I scrutinized the links, clicked around, and found out that it was indeed the same business. There was no connection to the old website -- no visual clue-in that it was the same company. The logo, gone. All the images, changed. The About Us page didn't have the name of the people in the organization. It's almost like they sold the company (they didn't sell the company!). The only clue left was testimonials that mentioned people by name.

In a global economy, some of our intrinsic differentiating factors are where we are, the people in our business, and the personal connections we build with others outside of our organization. I panicked as a marketing maven, because in my mind they had just cut off all their current prospects by changing their design and market positioning so drastically. As a web designer & programmer, I can also say there is a problem created on the technical end: When people are looking for your website in a search engine, what they typed into the search engine in the past could stop working. Had this person taken a little more time, and perhaps consulted with someone (read: ME) before the change, there could be an analysis of keyword history for the website.  A plan could be created to shift the business branding & site design without so drastically alienating loyal followers. A graphic designer could have suggested visual cues intended for established clients or prospects to establish that this is indeed the same company. As it stands now, a complete change of the design and the content means that the website may very well be starting from scratch even with regard to prior visitors as well as search engine rankings. Ouch.

There are so many things to do to shift the focus of your business without metamorphosing into an entirely new entity. My business' shifts of late have been happening slowly over time. My first "adjunct" website was NetworkaholicsAnonymous.org which would make NO sense as part of my main website -- it's intended to be an entirely separate entity and in many ways a business venture unto itself. LiberateYourWebsite.net is based on my tag line, and first showed on business cards as a website address that pointed directly to my website packages.  Now it is a separate website, and is hopefully a less confusing portal for information about my website packages & services -- the packages didn't change, just how clearly they were presented.  Eclectictech.net is my corporate website, and only still holds some straggling service/product information such as maintenance packages. Another domain was for pointing to the section of my website about brainstorming sessions, and is now a separate website (LiberateYourBusiness.net) to showcase my consulting, coaching & brainstorming services. It's not an overnight shift -- much of this was years in the making.

Perhaps I shouldn't panic. Maybe other people have, like me, had a lull in business allowing them to put plans into action that they had on the back-burner for months or years. I hope so. But if you're panicking and really feel like you need to change something -- take some time to think it through, talk it over with people whose judgement you trust and who are willing to really tell you what they think. If you need impartial help to figure out your best possible future, come up with a plan of action, and to help talk you off the ledge of knee-jerk marketing, that's where my business coaching & consulting services shine.

Here's something I'll probably have to explain for the rest of my life:

The difference between coaching & consulting:

Coaches sit in an interesting grey area between consultants and facilitators. They help you figure out where you want to go, and then helping you get there by way of fostering your own growth. Coaches may be able to give advice when you are stuck, but their main purpose is to open up choices for you, and help you accomplish your goals. You define the goal, the coach helps you get there by helping you draw a map.  When needed, the coach might tell you where the nearest 3 gas stations and rest areas are while they're at it.

Consultants have answers. They don't usually teach you how to get there yourself (there are moments a consultant can become a trainer  -- and a trainer is more like a coach), usually they are brought into a situation to be or provide the solution to a problem. You OR the consultant defines a goal, the Consultant takes you there -- by handing you a mapped route with specific rest points or picking you up and carrying you piggyback if need be.

Someone who is both consultant and coach can switch between the roles if needed.  At times they may give expert advice, or even roll up their sleeves and do something for you. At other times, it would be better if you learned about doing it yourself, or it's a situation where you must be fully invested in the results, otherwise there are no results at all.

Ok, here's an example of the difference:

You might need a technical consultant to help you install a computer network. You wouldn't want a coach unless you are somewhat technically proficient, and wanted to learn how to do it yourself. However, you need a coach if you're going to grow your business: you shouldn't hire a consultant to come in and build your business for you or you won't be able to maintain the changes. It takes a personal commitment and new habits from the top of your organization down. You can't outsource that.  Consultants help change something. Coaches help you change.

My brainstorming sessions are a blend of consulting & coaching sessions. I usually spend a portion of the time helping you figure out where you want to go (coaching), and helping you figure out the next steps to get there. Then if needed I'll give advice on marketing (consulting), since you might not have a lot of ideas on things to do to reach your target market (but defining it is coaching) &/or venues for inexpensive marketing to your target market (consulting). With some people, I help them define their needs in daily operations (coaching), or even mapping out cycles in their business workflow (a blend).

I strongly encourage people to either take advantage of my brainstorming sessions OR to try my complimentary exploratory coaching session. Either one can change your outlook on your business permanently, but with a sense of excitement instead of panic.

Never make changes when you're in a place of panic. If the changes are a reaction to the economic climate, and not what you really want to be doing with your business, the changes will be temporary at best and they will confuse your prospects. To make lasting changes that will have you happy to work every day, you need to spend more time planning, less time acting.

Call today so I can help you out. 845-820-0262.

Pack Rat and Synchronicity

I'm an unashamed pack-rat. It's my doom, especially in a small home. It's also occasionally enabled those odd moments of synchronicity to occur. Right now is one of those times. Being organized is exceptionally important, mind you. But I get stressed out when I go on the occasional tossing streak, because at the time I collected something, I probably had a reason for it, whether conscious or subconscious.

Flashback to something like 2-3 years ago, when I was frequently combing Craigslist for what was going on in the Hudson Valley. My eye was caught by an ad for massage space by the hour. On the surface, I thought Maxine Ward, my favorite massage therapist could use the space for her practice. I gave the info to Maxine, but held on to it myself. It tickled my mind somewhere -- I couldn't let that paper go. I found it during a descavation (that's to say the digging out of one's desk under long-standing rubble). Try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to categorize it, and I couldn't figure out what to do with it. So, it being on a Post-It™ note, I just stuck it to my desktop almost under my keyboard -- it was temporary. I'd do something with it shortly.

I did. A few days later, under the sounds of jackhammers, and exchange students with dust masks and brushes gingerly brushing the sand off the desktop, I got annoyed at said Post-It™ note. I have this wonderful saying captured from a judge from the MyDreamApp.com competition:

I welcome with open arms any tool that tries to make me more organized! But I have one reservation about this idea –– and this is largely a personal problem ––— to me, Post-It notes are, in a way, the very opposite of organization. They're 3 inch squares of pastel-packed institutionalized chaos, the paper product demon spawn of Lucifer himself. What starts with one simple Post-It note "Don'’t forget to e-mail Ged!" quickly devolves into four hundred incomprehensible notes saying things like "magic beans" and "do thing".

During the descavation, my partner Chris (yeah, Chris) laughs because I'll find pieces of sticky note that are rendered completely undecipherable by time. The exchange student hands me something that might be useful, or beetle dung. I just exclaim "Magic Bean!" or "Do Thing!" and throw it out. My partner chuckles.

I was having a "Do Thing!" moment when looking at this note. I grabbed it, crumpled it, tossed it into the recycling with dozens of other Post-It™s. Then the little voice in my head said "Noooooo!" and it turned into a scene from Indiana Jones, with everyone rushing to the precipice of a newly uncovered chamber of some ancient Pharaoh's tomb. I dove nearly head-first into my recycle bin and fished it out. I had it -- I knew suddenly why I had been holding on to that piece of paper for Two Years. I was becoming a coach, business & life coach, and there was no way with my towers of pack-rat-itis that I'd have clients peacefully recline in my home office and tell me their dreams. No. Nope. No-way.

Suddenly the piece of paper was a string of rubies, the collar of the Pharaoh's wife, a new sarcophagus. I could use this woman's hourly massage room to coach clients. The heavens opened up, and pixie dust rained down on me. An epiphany.

Today she returned my call, and we're meeting later this week. You can tell I'm a little excited.

Was this an epiphany, design of my conspiratorial subconsious, the world's Abundance, divine design, or just a coincidence? I don't care!! "What does it matter--you weren't looking anyway." (What Dreams May Come) I wrote to Cindy Marsh-Croll, professional organizer, just to let her know:

Score: 1 for being a Pack-Rat.

But then again, if it weren't for Croll Organizing, there would have been no descavation at this site in the first place. Thank you, Cindy for teaching me that there might be some treasures, or even an ancient city, buried on my desk. I might even find Atlantis!

Note: Post-It™ is a trademark, probably registered, of its respective trademark holders and thus I didn't manufacture or attempt to claim the label as my own....I just tried throwing it out.

Note 2: My son wants me to make another disclaimer. I disclaim my ability to make another disclaimer on his behalf. I'm just doing this because it makes him laugh.