I've been meaning to write about this in my Log for a while now. Turned out, one of youse guys said something first.

Peter Yates posted the following comment: Was a bit worried as your normal pattern stalled. But no worries, life happens, birthday wishes to your young dad and don't apologise, your output is normally amazing and we think you're pretty superhuman. Chill, your next videos will always be worth waiting for.

Thanks for noticing, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, it's just been a busy couple of weeks. Everything's fine. I took a trip up to Philly to see Lauren's family, I've been fighting off what feels like a never-ending cold, and I pulled a muscle along my rib cage doing something stupid (1), so I've been a little run down. Add in tax day, which somehow still eats a full day even when everything is organized, plus my dad's birthday and some family time, and it all stacks up pretty quick.

That said, I have been working, just more behind the scenes. I've been deep into the Developer Series building a full Dark Mode system for Access where you can toggle light and dark and have your forms follow along. I even got it to trigger Windows dark mode from Access, which is pretty cool. Of course, Office does its own thing, so I was up until almost 3am last night wrestling with that, but I finally got it working. I'll be showing that soon in the next developer lesson. I've also got the next TechHelp ready to record, just haven't had a chance to sit down and hit the button.

Your comment about my output got me thinking too. Since 2020 I've been pushing out basically a video a weekday, and that's added up to over 1600 TechHelp videos (official count according to YouTube is 1188 free and 459 extended cuts). It's been great, but I think it's time to adjust a bit. Channel growth and new memberships have definitely slowed, Access isn't as mainstream as it used to be, and I feel like I've reached a bit of saturation. At this point, most people who use Microsoft Access and have searched for help over the past few years have probably already found me. The channel is still growing, which is great, but it's not at the same pace it used to be, so I want to shift my focus more toward where it matters most.

Plus, I don't know if you've noticed lately, but I've been trying to step up the production quality a bit. Better title slides, cleaner intro text, smoother flow, that kind of thing. All of that takes more time. There's more planning, more prep. AI definitely helps with things like generating images and tightening up scripts (2), but it's not magic. It used to be I could sit down, throw together a basic slide, hit record, and knock out a 15-minute video in an hour or two. Now, with the extra polish, that same 15-minute video can take three or four hours.

The upside is I'm seeing better results. Views per video are going up when I put that extra effort into the presentation, the intro, and the overall polish. Those little details help with search placement too, and it's working. If you search for most Microsoft Access topics, there's a good chance you'll see one or two of my videos pop up. And if not, I want to know, because I'll go make one for that keyword. But I promise you, I'm never going to put out that AI slop you see all over YouTube now. That stuff is just painful to watch.

So going forward, I'm planning to scale back a little on the free content and shift more energy into member content and developer lessons. You'll still see TechHelp, just probably one or two a week, with at least one extended cut for members. I'm aiming for one or two developer lessons a month, which should turn into a steady flow of new courses. Quick Queries will still be around, hopefully on Fridays, but you know how that goes, sometimes life wins.

I'm also going to be spending more time on some of the bigger course projects I've been working on. The SQL Server for Access course is a big one that I really want to push forward. I'd like to do an Access with AI course. I've also been wanting to go back and completely redo my Word and Excel courses (3), especially adding more VBA content. There's a ton of potential there that I've only scratched the surface on, and those are products Microsoft is still actively promoting (unlike our favorite red-headed stepchild). There's also a lot of really interesting integration work between Access, Word, and Excel that I want to explore more deeply.

I'm still going to be producing plenty of content, just maybe not at the same breakneck pace I've kept up over the past few years. Plus, I'm getting old. I'm slowing down, lol.

Bottom line, a little less quantity, a little more quality, and more focus on the stuff that keeps the lights on. And don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.

LLAP
RR

(1) Something Stupid

Stupid thing you say? Yeah, this one's on me being an idiot. As you guys know from my Fitness series, I've been doing really well lately, working out consistently, eating better, getting stronger, feeling healthier (down 30 pounds, woot!). So naturally, we're goofing around and Lauren says, "Pick me up," like I'm Superman carrying Lois Lane. Not a fireman's carry, the other one, the romantic movie version where the groom carries his bride across the threshold on their honeymoon.

Yeah... turns out those little muscles that run from the front of your ribs around to your spine are not something I've been training. I pulled one pretty good. For the first couple of days I could barely lift my arm or twist, and even flipping over in bed felt like I was getting stabbed. That was almost two weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to the point where I might be able to try a very light workout again. Moral of the story: one, I need to remember I'm over 50 and maybe stop doing dumb stuff like that. And two, don't ignore the little stabilizer muscles. It's not just squats and bench presses. Those small muscles matter, because when you pull one, it really friggin hurts. And being over 50, that stuff takes a long time to heal.

(2) Using AI

For the record, the content is all mine. I'm not having AI generate my lessons or teach for me. The only obvious thing I use it for is generating images, like the title slides. I'm not exactly going to build a full Enterprise bridge set in my house or go buy a screen-accurate Starfleet uniform... although, let's be honest, that would be friggin' awesome.

As far as the videos themselves, I don't script them. If you've watched my stuff, you can probably tell I'm mostly ad libbing. I'll put together an outline of what I want to cover with notes, usually run through it once myself to make sure I didn't miss anything, and then I hit record. Afterward, I'll feed the transcript into AI to help me clean up an intro, which you may have noticed I've started adding more of lately. That's mainly because Google and YouTube pay a lot of attention to those first 30 seconds for search relevance. I'll also sometimes have it help with a quick closing summary.

Every now and then, if a video feels a little light, I might ask, "What else could I add here?" and it'll remind me of something I haven't thought about in a while. That's less about AI being smart and more about me having 30 years of Access stuff rattling around in my head. Bottom line, the teaching, the explanations, the content... that's all me. AI just helps smooth the edges a bit.

(3) Excel Courses

I get asked this a lot: why bother with Word and Excel when there's already so much Excel content out there? A couple reasons. First, a lot of what's out there isn't very good, and I know I can do better. Second, the audience for Excel and Word is massive compared to Access. With Access, I'm a big fish in a small pond. With Excel, I'll be a smaller fish, sure, but it's a much bigger pond with a lot more opportunity. Even a small slice of that audience can go a long way. Fun fact: of my top ten all-time videos, two of them are Word and two of them are Excel, so only six of them are Access.

The other big goal is to use Excel as a gateway drug into Access. I want to teach Excel the right way, but also show where its limits are. Like, yes, you can build data tables in Excel, but here's where a database really shines. I'll likely include companion lessons showing how to take what we just did in Excel and do it properly in Access. Same idea with SQL Server content. Use those larger audiences to introduce people to better tools and workflows, and hopefully bring more folks into Access along the way. And most importantly, I am a pooblished Excel author, so I've got that going for me. Sure, the book's from 2010, but it still counts, lol.

And Yes... Yes, I said "pooblished," while adjusting my tweed jacket, sipping tea with my pinky up.