Naked Neighbours, Eloquent Elbows, and More with Frank Racioppi
Join your host Danny Brown as he puts this week's 5 random questions to Frank Racioppi. Answers include a naked neighbour, a special use for lotion, and a life in one word. Let's jump in!
Answering the questions this week: Frank Racioppi
After 38 years as a speechwriter and editor for a Fortune 50 company, I retired and indulged my love of podcasting, starting and managing a successful podcast review online publication -- Ear Worthy. I started it in 2017 and have enjoyed connecting with indie podcasters and anyone who supports podcasting. My brother Paul and I had a podcast four years ago called False Facts, but it was difficult to keep a regular recording schedule. I loved writing my entire life and wrote for print magazines in the 80s from New Jersey Monthly, The Pet Dealer, American Health, The Sewing Circle, etc. I've also published five novels and four nonfiction books in the last four years. The novels range from a romance about two people bonding over the love of reading called For The Love Of Books to Least Best Employee, a novel about surviving as middle management in Corporate America. My most popular nonfiction book was called The COVID Hotel.
Further reading for this episode
- PodSummit - Canada's Podcast Event
- Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service
- Verbal Diorama
- Podcast On Society And Culture | Multispective | Shanghai
- Life Shift Podcast - Pivotal Moments
- Daily Tips That May or May Not Help You with Arielle and Ned
Products I Use for 5 Random Questions
Note: these contain affiliate links, so I may get a small percentage of any product you buy/use when using my link.
My equipment:
- Shure SM7B dynamic mic
- TZ Audio Stellar X2 condenser mic
- Rodecaster Pro II audio production studio
- Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor Headphones
- JOBY Wavo Boom Arm
- Elgato Wave Mic Arm Low Profile
Recommended resources:
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Transcript
Frank: Most of those facts actually are not accurate anymore, and so that should change your judgment.
Speaker:Frank: So I'm always reticent to make a rash judgment and say, well, let me see.
Speaker:Frank: This is what happens. Even when there's these famous trials,
Speaker:Frank: people will be like, oh, yeah, I know he's guilty, or I know they're not guilty, whatever.
Speaker:Frank: Well, the trial hasn't even started yet, so let's just see what evidence is
Speaker:Frank: presented, and then we can get to that word, or those two words, exact truth.
Speaker:Frank: Because right now, you don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.
Speaker:Frank: We're going to have to wait to find out what it is.
Speaker:Danny: Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure.
Speaker:Danny: I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests 5 questions
Speaker:Danny: created by a random question generator.
Speaker:Danny: The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I,
Speaker:Danny: which means this could go either way.
Speaker:Danny: So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.
Speaker:Danny: But before we do that, I want to give a quick shout out and thanks to Bob LeDrew
Speaker:Danny: in Canada, who left a really nice review for the show on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker:Danny: saying you might think the format would lead to disjointed interviews,
Speaker:Danny: but Danny's skill as a host in friendly style means the conversations are free-flowing,
Speaker:Danny: honest and centred on humanity.
Speaker:Danny: So thanks so much, Bob, I appreciate you. If you enjoy the show and want to
Speaker:Danny: leave a review, you can do that over at fiverandomquestions.com forward slash
Speaker:Danny: review, and I'll give you a shout out just like this one.
Speaker:Danny: Now to this week's guest. Today's guest is Frank Racciopi.
Speaker:Danny: After 38 years as a speechwriter and editor for a Fortune 500 company,
Speaker:Danny: he retired and indulged his love of podcasting by creating four podcast blogs,
Speaker:Danny: which included the popular online publication Earworthy that Frank started in
Speaker:Danny: 2017 and helps indie podcasters by reviewing and featuring their shows.
Speaker:Danny: In the 80s, he wrote for print magazines like American Health,
Speaker:Danny: New Jersey Monthly, and more.
Speaker:Danny: He's published five novels and four nonfiction books in the last four years,
Speaker:Danny: with his most popular nonfiction book sharing his 18 days in quarantine at the
Speaker:Danny: COVID Hotel at the end of 2021, start of 2022.
Speaker:Danny: So, Frank, welcome to Five Random Questions.
Speaker:Frank: Danny, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And at the risk of Apple polishing
Speaker:Frank: the host, that was a great review by the gentleman.
Speaker:Danny: That was a lovely review. And in fairness, I know Bob. I've known him for a little while.
Speaker:Danny: Being in Canada, we kind of bump into each other at events.
Speaker:Danny: But yeah, he's a really nice guy, much like yourself, that's very supportive
Speaker:Danny: of podcasts and shows that he listens to. So yeah, that was really nice of him.
Speaker:Frank: All right. Well, great. I'm a little nervous about the questions because most
Speaker:Frank: interviews, you prepare for the questions.
Speaker:Frank: Now it's like without a net.
Speaker:Danny: I'll promise to be gentle with you. But hey, I don't know the questions either.
Speaker:Danny: So that's a little bit of like sharing the load, if you like.
Speaker:Danny: If the load was 95%, you and 4%, me and 1%, whoever else wanted to take the blame.
Speaker:Danny: I do have to ask you a couple of quick things, though, before we jump into the
Speaker:Danny: main question ourselves.
Speaker:Danny: I'd mentioned there, you've written nine books in just four years.
Speaker:Danny: So what's your typing speed?
Speaker:Frank: It's not as fast as it sounds like it would be. It's about 40 words a minute,
Speaker:Frank: but I end up, after I end up typing, I spend more time going back and actually
Speaker:Frank: re-editing than I do the actual typing.
Speaker:Frank: So I learned that the hard way, and then luckily, as a writer,
Speaker:Frank: writing's pretty solitary, but I have a team of people.
Speaker:Frank: So I have a copy editor, I have a grammar editor, besides Grammarly,
Speaker:Frank: the program, and then I have what's called a beta reader, and that person,
Speaker:Frank: you know, reads every chapter.
Speaker:Frank: So I've got people, they'll come back and make changes, and then I'll go back and edit.
Speaker:Frank: So my writing, typing speed isn't fast, but then again, even for people who
Speaker:Frank: type 90 words a minute, you still have to go back, and good writing's about good editing.
Speaker:Danny: I mean, it's just when you mention like nine books and four,
Speaker:Danny: especially with fiction, I feel like nonfiction. Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker:Danny: What's your preference? Is it fiction or nonfiction from a writing point of view?
Speaker:Frank: I would say now fiction. The last several books I've done have been novels.
Speaker:Frank: I started off with one, two, three nonfiction books, but I've transitioned into
Speaker:Frank: fiction, and I'm starting to enjoy that.
Speaker:Frank: Before I worked for the same company for 30 some odd years, I was a magazine
Speaker:Frank: writer when print was big back in the 80s. That's how old I am.
Speaker:Frank: And that was enjoyable. And that was all nonfiction.
Speaker:Frank: As a matter of fact, if I can tell you a really quick story about that,
Speaker:Frank: if you don't mind. So I did an article for a magazine called American Fitness.
Speaker:Frank: And the article was about bone density. So it was a pretty scientific article.
Speaker:Frank: I had done a lot of research.
Speaker:Frank: It was a long article. And I think it was about 3,000 words.
Speaker:Frank: Anyway, they paid you 10 cents back then for a word.
Speaker:Frank: So I got like $300. and then I got a call from the photographer they hired,
Speaker:Frank: the magazine hired, to take a picture for the article.
Speaker:Frank: So he was just trying to get an idea of, you know, what I was looking for and
Speaker:Frank: I was like, hey, you're, you know, you're the expert.
Speaker:Frank: So he sent me a copy of the photo and I talked to him and I said,
Speaker:Frank: oh, that was great. I really appreciate it.
Speaker:Frank: He said, yeah, you know, he said, And I got to tell you, photography is really,
Speaker:Frank: it's really profitable for me, this freelance photography.
Speaker:Frank: I made $7,000 for the photo.
Speaker:Frank: And I paused for a second. I said, wait, wait, what?
Speaker:Frank: I made $300 and you made $7,000? He said, yeah, I'm sorry about that.
Speaker:Frank: But, you know, that's just the way it goes.
Speaker:Danny: Now then, did you continue writing for that magazine? Or did you at least try
Speaker:Danny: to renegotiate your rates or the rates that they were paying you?
Speaker:Frank: I tried to do that. And they basically, their response to that was,
Speaker:Frank: let's see, take it or leave it.
Speaker:Frank: So I continued to do a few more articles for them and work with the same photographer.
Speaker:Frank: And I was actually happy for him that he was making good money.
Speaker:Frank: We worked well together.
Speaker:Danny: So now it always seems I've got a few writer friends and it always seems that
Speaker:Danny: writers are viewed as the least valuable at times when it comes to,
Speaker:Danny: you know, contributions and what they get paid.
Speaker:Danny: I know now it seems better. Like a lot of publications will pay,
Speaker:Danny: say, a dollar per word. So at least if you've got the high word count,
Speaker:Danny: you do know that research, you'll get paid properly for your time.
Speaker:Danny: But there's still ones that just want to skim as much as they can off the writer for some reason.
Speaker:Frank: Sure. And of course, nowadays, because of the internet over the last 25 years, most writing is free.
Speaker:Frank: So there's all those print magazines are all gone. So access to that avenue
Speaker:Frank: for freelance writing is gone.
Speaker:Frank: So you really have to generate any revenue through writing, just like doing
Speaker:Frank: a podcast review through a publication in which pays you for reads and impressions.
Speaker:Frank: Submissions and and that's usually how i'll work is that i'll work for publications
Speaker:Frank: where i'll get paid either way.
Speaker:Danny: Right and that's a good thing i mean how are you finding substack i know you're
Speaker:Danny: um you're on substack but you're also on medium you're on you know blogger etc
Speaker:Danny: how are you finding the different ones when it comes to potential premium subscribers
Speaker:Danny: and payments anything like that uh
Speaker:Frank: I mean it's all pretty modest there's some people on substack and i i have to
Speaker:Frank: say i I'm a fan of both Medium and Substack there,
Speaker:Frank: but there's people on Substack that have done a far better job than I have of
Speaker:Frank: monetizing their Substack, and they'll have thousands of paid subscribers.
Speaker:Frank: And I'm at a small, small part of that.
Speaker:Frank: So there is potential there, and I do recognize that, that it's up to me to
Speaker:Frank: go out and sort of unleash that potential in order to get those subscribers,
Speaker:Frank: and of course, I mean, quite frankly, get that revenue. But it is there.
Speaker:Frank: And Medium, the same thing. I know a few people that write articles,
Speaker:Frank: and they'll get, as you know, you'll get paid per read and impression.
Speaker:Frank: So a read on Medium, somebody will correct me, I think is 30 seconds or more.
Speaker:Frank: An impression is 30 seconds or less. Anyway, there's some people who get 50,000
Speaker:Frank: reads or impressions. And so you could make some money like that.
Speaker:Danny: Well, unfortunately, while I can't pay you for appearing today,
Speaker:Danny: I do value, a little 10 years length there, I do value you appearing on the
Speaker:Danny: show and putting yourself up to what we have for five random questions.
Speaker:Danny: So you're ready to throw down yourself to the gauntlet?
Speaker:Frank: I am ready as I ever will be.
Speaker:Danny: Okay, let's bring up the five random questions and see what we have this week.
Speaker:Danny: Question number one. And remember, this is a PG show, so be careful here.
Speaker:Danny: What part of your body could use a little lotion?
Speaker:Frank: Oh, well, actually, and you may not believe this, I love this question.
Speaker:Frank: Because this is, for me, this is fairly easy. easy
Speaker:Frank: being the age that i'm at and i
Speaker:Frank: see this in other people the area that needs
Speaker:Frank: lotion all the time is the elbows both
Speaker:Frank: both elbows if you not that i
Speaker:Frank: make a practice of looking at that but if you look at people
Speaker:Frank: who are like myself up there in age one of
Speaker:Frank: the ways that you can your age can portray you
Speaker:Frank: is your elbows so i always uh my
Speaker:Frank: partner linda is always like put lotion on your
Speaker:Frank: elbows and knees today uh knees as
Speaker:Frank: well they that's two areas that dry out quite a bit so there's maybe more you
Speaker:Frank: may not want to know that much about lotion and my daily lotion lotion practices
Speaker:Frank: but it's definitely elbows first uh then knees especially in the summer now
Speaker:Frank: because you're always wearing shorts so yeah uh definitely um.
Speaker:Danny: Well, the elbows are such a weird part of skin. You know, if you look at them,
Speaker:Danny: there's like this flappy bit of skin that basically does nothing.
Speaker:Danny: I guess, okay, if you bend your arms and make sure that your elbow bone doesn't
Speaker:Danny: stick out and pop out your skin because it stretches, but it's such a weird part.
Speaker:Danny: But I can see why you'd want to, you know, lotion up your elbows.
Speaker:Danny: I was going to say grease up and that didn't sound right at all.
Speaker:Danny: But lotion up your elbows.
Speaker:Danny: Do you think that's because obviously the elbows got a lot more use as well?
Speaker:Danny: You'll lean on them on chairs and desks and stuff. you're leaning on if you're
Speaker:Danny: traveling on a train or a jet and you're against a window or anything like that
Speaker:Danny: or is it just the fact that because it's such a weird skin it gets more wrinkly quicker
Speaker:Frank: Yeah well i think the elbow is different for a couple reasons so so for example
Speaker:Frank: if you have your arms hanging down loose and so then your elbow has that extra
Speaker:Frank: skin but if you tense your arm in any way, it makes the skin taut.
Speaker:Frank: So that sort of that looseness disappears.
Speaker:Frank: So it sort of depends on what you're doing.
Speaker:Frank: So if you want to get rid of the looseness on your skin with your elbows,
Speaker:Frank: try to walk like Arnold Schwarzenegger with your arms kind of tilted,
Speaker:Frank: or you've just worked out and lifted 400 pounds, and it'll get rid of that elbow sag.
Speaker:Danny: I can almost picture or let me show his listeners doing that exercise as listening.
Speaker:Danny: You know, I've done in the gym, for example whether they're doing groceries or walking you
Speaker:Danny: know in the park or something i mean i was just doing it now obviously this is an
Speaker:Danny: audio only show so you won't see this if you're
Speaker:Danny: listening to this episode um but i was like doing straightening my
Speaker:Danny: arm as frank was speaking and you know bringing it back up and just seeing the
Speaker:Danny: effect of that elbow skin so yeah it's um it's weird how like i used to use
Speaker:Danny: lotion a lot when i was younger um and i don't as much now now that i'm older
Speaker:Danny: and i really should but it's weird how a lot of people still don't and men in
Speaker:Danny: particular in particular, actually,
Speaker:Danny: don't see using lotion as a viable exercise.
Speaker:Danny: How do you feel about that? Is that something that you feel we should do more?
Speaker:Frank: Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I was going to give credit to a podcast,
Speaker:Frank: Ariel and Ned's Daily Tips That May or May Not Help You.
Speaker:Frank: They had a tip on last year, right when they started, that said that.
Speaker:Frank: So I'll back up for a second. Usually when I put lotion on, and I think it is
Speaker:Frank: important to do that, I would do it, take a shower, get out,
Speaker:Frank: and then kind of towel off and then do it in a couple of minutes.
Speaker:Frank: But according to them and then i kind of
Speaker:Frank: researched this as soon as you take a shower when
Speaker:Frank: you're still wet you should throw the lotion on right away and it kind of seeps
Speaker:Frank: into your skin uh so i'm a little unshaky on scientific ground there i don't
Speaker:Frank: remember all the podcasts but so i started doing that and i think i uh i think
Speaker:Frank: it helps so get a shower or a bath and then put Put the lotion on right away.
Speaker:Frank: And I'm not afraid as a man to say that, although I guess some people may be.
Speaker:Danny: No, and that's a great show as well. I listen to that a lot.
Speaker:Danny: And I'll leave a link to that podcast in the show notes so you can check out
Speaker:Danny: for yourself. But yeah, it's an awesome show.
Speaker:Danny: But I guess that's similar to being at the beach or whatever where you're putting
Speaker:Danny: sunscreen lotion on. And a lot of people do it after they've come out.
Speaker:Danny: So they put it on before they go for a swim in the lake, for example.
Speaker:Danny: And they wait till it dries and then they go in the lake, then they come out
Speaker:Danny: and put it on while they're still wet as a top-up. So I guess that ties into that a little bit maybe.
Speaker:Frank: Oh yeah, before people really had a sense how the sun was bad for you,
Speaker:Frank: I'm not sure if you witnessed this, but I remember,
Speaker:Frank: as a teenager, especially women would come onto the beach and then just slather
Speaker:Frank: themselves with baby oil,
Speaker:Frank: Because that would enhance the whole tanning process.
Speaker:Frank: Now, I don't think anybody does that now because they realize that's pretty bad for your skin.
Speaker:Frank: But that was something that was fairly common. That and those aluminum boards
Speaker:Frank: that they would hold under their face. It's amazing how things have changed.
Speaker:Danny: Yeah, thankfully. I mean, our kids love the – we're fortunate where we are.
Speaker:Danny: We have a lake about a 10, maybe 50-minute walk from our house.
Speaker:Danny: And so our kids go up there all the time. And they know, you know,
Speaker:Danny: get protection and make sure you're good to go. a bit. So there you go.
Speaker:Danny: If you're looking to make sure that your elbow is looked after,
Speaker:Danny: that's the first place you should lotion up. You heard it from Frank.
Speaker:Frank: And there's no copay for that. That's a freebie.
Speaker:Danny: There you go. Even better. Okay, so let's have a look at what question number two holds for us.
Speaker:Danny: All right, Frank, question number two. When scrolling through social media,
Speaker:Danny: do you prefer posts from celebrities or from your best friends?
Speaker:Frank: Boy, another good question. Well, I'm going to start by saying,
Speaker:Frank: Danny, that I have a confession to make.
Speaker:Frank: I've got another confession to make.
Speaker:Frank: I canceled my Facebook account like four years ago.
Speaker:Frank: And a couple of reasons I did that is one is I kept getting hacked and someone
Speaker:Frank: was constantly stealing my account.
Speaker:Frank: I never thought that Facebook was that great at security.
Speaker:Frank: Not sure what other people think. And then it got taken over by a Russian or Chinese bot.
Speaker:Frank: I'm not sure what or which and that was a two-month process of trying to get that finally canceled.
Speaker:Frank: And so I deleted my account, never started a backup again. So that's the one
Speaker:Frank: social media outlet I don't have.
Speaker:Frank: So having said all that, my answer is I prefer posts from celebrities rather than friends.
Speaker:Frank: And does that surprise you, by the way?
Speaker:Danny: Oh, no. I mean, because I feel that with your publications and with what you
Speaker:Danny: do online, it seems that you're more geared towards others outside your circle
Speaker:Danny: and helping them and being involved with them.
Speaker:Danny: And maybe you keep your friends for offline more. I don't know if that's maybe right or wrong.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. And I think the other part of that is somehow
Speaker:Frank: in this is, I think, my partner Linda still has a Facebook account.
Speaker:Frank: And I'm not sure how big a trend this is, but a lot of people on Facebook post
Speaker:Frank: things of their activities where I question, do people really need to know that?
Speaker:Frank: We have a friend who, every time they go out for dinner, posts that they're
Speaker:Frank: at this restaurant and take pictures of what they're eating.
Speaker:Frank: And so I'm happy that they're having a great time and enjoying themselves,
Speaker:Frank: but I'm not sure if looking at their their their food at the restaurant is all all that significant.
Speaker:Frank: So I would rather, that's why, and when you say celebrities,
Speaker:Frank: that's people, like I consider you a celebrity.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, I'm a podcast fan, so
Speaker:Frank: people like Ariel Nissenblatt is a celebrity to me, so I'll look at that.
Speaker:Frank: Podcast movements coming up, the Tribeca Audio Festival, to me,
Speaker:Frank: those are celebrities, so I'll check those things out. the LifeShip podcast,
Speaker:Frank: Malcolm Hooley, those are celebrities.
Speaker:Frank: So I want to see what, you know, what they're doing.
Speaker:Danny: No, thank you. And I did a little laugh there. I apologize. I didn't mean to
Speaker:Danny: be flippant when you said that.
Speaker:Danny: I appreciate that, mate. I do. And I hear what you say.
Speaker:Danny: I look at, when I used to blog a lot before I did podcast, and I look at bloggers
Speaker:Danny: in the social media space and really look up to them, as you mentioned, as celebrities,
Speaker:Danny: you know, guys like Chris Brogan, for example, I used to religiously read all
Speaker:Danny: this stuff and met him a couple of times at events and got a lot of starstruck and that. So I hear you.
Speaker:Danny: From that point of view then, as you mentioned, it's more in the space,
Speaker:Danny: like you said, the podcasting space.
Speaker:Danny: Who would you like to sit down and have a quick bite with?
Speaker:Frank: Well, the first person would be Mark from Captivate.
Speaker:Danny: I can make that happen.
Speaker:Frank: Probably James Cridlin from Pod News, Ariel Nissenblatt, Lauren Pesel from Tink Media.
Speaker:Frank: They're all fascinating people. There's a woman who does a podcast who lives
Speaker:Frank: in Singapore. Her podcast is called Multispective.
Speaker:Frank: Her name is Jenica Sadwani, and she does a podcast where people have gone through
Speaker:Frank: trauma and sort of come out on the top side of all that. She's fascinating.
Speaker:Frank: I would love to sit down and actually interview her.
Speaker:Frank: So here's the one thing about celebrity I always find is that although people
Speaker:Frank: think that celebrities are famous to everybody, it's really pretty contextual.
Speaker:Frank: Not to go on too long, but I'll give you a good example of that.
Speaker:Frank: That a couple years ago i was in atlantic city it's not far like 50 minutes
Speaker:Frank: from our house and i was just um sitting down getting something to eat and reading
Speaker:Frank: and uh two huge security guys come over to me and said hey you're not going
Speaker:Frank: to cause a problem because a celebrity's coming by,
Speaker:Frank: i'm like no that's fine who's a
Speaker:Frank: celebrity and they said that he's
Speaker:Frank: some uh some dj on
Speaker:Frank: some reality show like well listen first of all i've never heard
Speaker:Frank: of him so not really sure that i would care that if he went by and i wouldn't
Speaker:Frank: even know him if i saw him so to me he's not a celebrity they're like oh okay
Speaker:Frank: he just went by then on the flip side of that i went to a live recording in
Speaker:Frank: atlantic city of the slate money podcast and felix salmon is the host there
Speaker:Frank: this is several years ago.
Speaker:Frank: Probably and probably a lot of people listening to this don't know who he is
Speaker:Frank: but people in podcast podcasting. Some people do.
Speaker:Frank: There was maybe 100 people there. It would be like he was Elvis.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, people just mobbed him.
Speaker:Frank: So sort of celebrities, contextual, it just sort of matters who,
Speaker:Frank: you know, what group you're a celebrity in.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, some people like Taylor Swift, it doesn't matter the group.
Speaker:Frank: They're a celebrity for everybody.
Speaker:Frank: But for most people, it really is pretty situational.
Speaker:Danny: I remember not quite celebrity because it's a physical item as opposed to a person.
Speaker:Danny: But not long after I moved to Canada, I was at a pub with my friend it was like
Speaker:Danny: a sports bar and the owner of the sports bar was pretty well connected in the
Speaker:Danny: Canadian sports world so there was a bunch of people taking pictures with this trophy
Speaker:Danny: and he asked me hey do you want to get your picture taken yeah yeah sure I'll
Speaker:Danny: get my picture taken so I stood next to this trophy got my picture taken no idea what the trophy was
Speaker:Danny: sent it off to my wife who was at home I like sent a quick text with a picture
Speaker:Danny: said hey I got a picture with this trophy what is it well that's a Stanley Cup ah
Speaker:Danny: okay Okay, so unlike the biggest cup in hockey, obviously, right?
Speaker:Danny: So yeah, like you say, it's very contextual and who and what you know,
Speaker:Danny: or what you view as a celebrity, if you like.
Speaker:Frank: Oh yeah, absolutely. And because I'm a huge podcast fan, but specifically an
Speaker:Frank: independent podcaster fan.
Speaker:Frank: So I would be more excited about meeting an independent podcaster than I would
Speaker:Frank: say, like somebody well-known, like a Joe Rogan, or a Dax Shepard.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, they're well-known.
Speaker:Frank: People know what they're about. I am more interested in the indie podcasters
Speaker:Frank: because their story is sort of untold.
Speaker:Frank: And on top of that, a network-supported podcaster, they have one job,
Speaker:Frank: to come in and do the show.
Speaker:Frank: As you know, being an independent podcaster or working with Captivate,
Speaker:Frank: you're doing everything.
Speaker:Frank: You're the IT person. You're the writer. You're the producer.
Speaker:Frank: You're the director. You're the editor. you're the sound person, marketing person.
Speaker:Frank: There's a lot of hats there. That person, to me, is a celebrity.
Speaker:Danny: And that's a great way to put it. As you say, it's a lot of work.
Speaker:Danny: I think that's what sometimes puts people off podcasting after they've started
Speaker:Danny: and they realize how much work's involved.
Speaker:Danny: And that's why you see a lot of podcasters stop before episode six or before
Speaker:Danny: episode seven. So yeah, that's a great point regarding that.
Speaker:Danny: And to Frank's point, I can 100% concur, support for indie podcasters is so
Speaker:Danny: important. and Frank does an
Speaker:Danny: amazing job of that. So I just wanted to give that shout out to you, mate.
Speaker:Frank: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker:Danny: Speaking of appreciation, I appreciate your answer there. Moving on.
Speaker:Danny: You can tell I have to sometimes tenuously link there.
Speaker:Danny: But speaking of that, let's have a look at question number three.
Speaker:Danny: Question three, Frank. What is the stupidest thing you've done because someone dared you to?
Speaker:Frank: Oh, my gosh. Oh, that's a good one. All right. So, Danny, this is going to be
Speaker:Frank: somewhat embarrassing.
Speaker:Frank: And it's a PG show, so I'll keep it as family friendly as possible.
Speaker:Frank: So I'm a big football fan, like a lot of people.
Speaker:Frank: And because I'm, although I live in South Jersey, I grew up in North Jersey.
Speaker:Frank: And i'm a big new york giants football
Speaker:Frank: fan and partially too because the my
Speaker:Frank: company took me around to different states so i've lived in
Speaker:Frank: illinois connecticut uh georgia
Speaker:Frank: lived in atlanta for 11 years uh california so
Speaker:Frank: when you get to travel around you you take
Speaker:Frank: your team with you so anyway big giants
Speaker:Frank: fan and the i think it was 2007 they
Speaker:Frank: play the patriots and that may be the the year that the Patriots were undefeated
Speaker:Frank: at that point I think it was 2007 anyway the um the Giants are huge underdogs
Speaker:Frank: in the Super Bowl so we have a whole bunch of people around and.
Speaker:Frank: They were we had some Patriot fans there and Giant
Speaker:Frank: fans and so forth because I have some family that's up
Speaker:Frank: in New England they had were down for the game so somebody
Speaker:Frank: said and of course it was a few hours
Speaker:Frank: into the game so we had some spirits uh liberally
Speaker:Frank: during the first three or four three quarters into
Speaker:Frank: the fourth quarter and someone said uh do you think the giants were losing towards
Speaker:Frank: the end of the game they said well i'll tell you what let's make a bet i said
Speaker:Frank: oh okay and he said let's do the reverse bet you're a giant fan so if the giants
Speaker:Frank: win you have to go out your front door and run
Speaker:Frank: down the street naked and come back.
Speaker:Frank: And vice versa. I said, okay, you know, I'll take that bet.
Speaker:Frank: And of course they end up winning the game and had to do that.
Speaker:Frank: And so luckily it was dark out and there was no one out and about.
Speaker:Frank: So it was quick. It was a quick streak.
Speaker:Danny: I was going to ask, do you have a lot of kids in your neighborhood?
Speaker:Frank: No, I wouldn't have done it then. I wouldn't have done it. It was pretty late
Speaker:Frank: at night, so it was fast. It's probably the fastest I've ever run.
Speaker:Danny: And was this, so you mentioned this is 2007 you mentioned, yeah, you think, 2007?
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, I think so. I can look at, I can.
Speaker:Danny: Yeah, so this would have been pre, I guess, pre-popular social media.
Speaker:Danny: So at least you wouldn't have had anyone, like, live streaming or filming you
Speaker:Danny: as you were going, you know, embarrassing you later in life and whatever.
Speaker:Frank: Oh, my God. That's one of the benefits to pre-social media is that you don't
Speaker:Frank: have those kinds of things. It always seems to be camera at the wrong time.
Speaker:Danny: I would have hated to have had social media when I was a teen.
Speaker:Danny: I was like a teen back in the, I'm going to think similar to you, mate.
Speaker:Danny: I was a teen back in the 80s. I would not like to, some of the stuff that I
Speaker:Danny: did, Dan, I would not like to have appeared on, you know, TikTok or whatever.
Speaker:Frank: Oh, absolutely. On an adjunct to that, when I retired from my job,
Speaker:Frank: I'll come back to this in a second.
Speaker:Frank: I had this crazy idea that, so I was a writer and I have a teaching degree and
Speaker:Frank: I taught for my company for years.
Speaker:Frank: So I said, well, when I retire, I'm going to get a job that's totally different,
Speaker:Frank: like a work with your hands, not a job of where you're in charge of anything.
Speaker:Frank: You're just so I found this job, which I which I really did like.
Speaker:Frank: So I became a school bus driver for a little while and I did really enjoy that job.
Speaker:Frank: And so one day I'm driving the school bus and I was high school and there you
Speaker:Frank: can see in the back and there was one of the students,
Speaker:Frank: female students, was flashing people as they went by.
Speaker:Frank: So I you there's a microphone. So I stopped the bus, got the microphone,
Speaker:Frank: said, what what are you doing?
Speaker:Frank: And she said, oh, well, they dared me to do that.
Speaker:Frank: So now this is after i had done the stupid giants thing and i so i said to her
Speaker:Frank: i've done things like that before and they're dumb so just stop it right now
Speaker:Frank: and we'll forget about all that but dares are dangerous.
Speaker:Danny: Well and and the interesting thing is as well and i'm not sure who inspired
Speaker:Danny: who whether you inspired will or will inspired you the old school movie will
Speaker:Danny: ferrell's character it's called frank oh
Speaker:Frank: And oh yeah.
Speaker:Danny: Yeah he does he runs naked
Speaker:Frank: And doesn't he see his wife in a car as he's running by yeah.
Speaker:Danny: Alongside it yeah so i feel there was
Speaker:Danny: some inspiration going on there from you know i feel you you'll do some royalties
Speaker:Danny: from will ferrell we'll have to get him get him to like pay up there so there
Speaker:Danny: you go if you want to see frank embarrassed now that we're in the age of social
Speaker:Danny: media maybe take him to a football game have some tipples and let's do the reverse That's there.
Speaker:Danny: Speaking of dares, let's dare and move on to question number four.
Speaker:Danny: This is an interesting one, Frank. Question four.
Speaker:Danny: Would you rather never be able to express yourself accurately or always have to say the exact truth?
Speaker:Frank: Ah, this is a great question. And it reminds me of the...
Speaker:Frank: What's that Jim Carrey movie where he's... Liar, liar. I love that.
Speaker:Frank: I absolutely love that movie.
Speaker:Frank: And this question sort of has sort of the corona of the same concept there.
Speaker:Frank: So to try to be honest here, I don't think anybody can get through their entire
Speaker:Frank: day, and this is also part of the movie, without at least a couple white lies.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, we do that all the time. And sometimes we do that. Sometimes we don't
Speaker:Frank: tell the truth for what we consider to be admirable reasons.
Speaker:Frank: Hey, how do I look today? You look great. How did I do? You did great.
Speaker:Frank: You know, wonderful job. You did good. And that may not exactly be the truth,
Speaker:Frank: but at what point here, what's the point of the negative feedback if it's not to, not to teach.
Speaker:Frank: So, uh, it's, I would say, um, gosh, that is really a tough one.
Speaker:Frank: I guess, yeah. Not expressing yourself accurately.
Speaker:Frank: That's a tough one because, uh, especially as a writer, I mean,
Speaker:Frank: that's, That's the key to that, is you want to express yourself accurately,
Speaker:Frank: especially like if you're reviewing a podcast,
Speaker:Frank: you want to make sure that you're
Speaker:Frank: very accurate and you're also explaining exactly how good the podcast is.
Speaker:Frank: So I would say, yeah, having to say the exact truth, especially since doing
Speaker:Frank: podcast reviews is really about the accuracy.
Speaker:Frank: And so I do five to seven podcast reviews and recommendations during the week.
Speaker:Frank: And I got a comment from somebody saying, you know, movie critics review movies,
Speaker:Frank: and sometimes they'll really pan the movie and give it a terrible review.
Speaker:Frank: Why don't you ever do that with a podcast?
Speaker:Frank: And I wrote him back and said, I'm going to answer that. But first of all,
Speaker:Frank: I want to tell you, that's an excellent question.
Speaker:Frank: It's a very good question. And I said, the answer to that, from my perspective, is this.
Speaker:Frank: There's about 120 movies that come out a year.
Speaker:Frank: You think 52 weeks out of the year, that's a couple movies a week,
Speaker:Frank: although it's not that consistent.
Speaker:Frank: There's weeks where there's none, and then during the summer,
Speaker:Frank: there's like five all at once there.
Speaker:Frank: So there's not a lot out there. So if there's just one movie that comes out
Speaker:Frank: and you review, it's not very good.
Speaker:Frank: That's fair. but as we talked about before
Speaker:Frank: the show there's hundreds of thousands of podcasts
Speaker:Frank: and there's thousands of really good
Speaker:Frank: ones so why would
Speaker:Frank: i so in pot for people or podcast fans what they're looking for is that that
Speaker:Frank: great podcast that they don't know is out there it's there you just can't find
Speaker:Frank: it and i've i mean as a reviewer i found there where someone said hey listen
Speaker:Frank: to this podcast, this independent podcast,
Speaker:Frank: and it's from this person, like for example.
Speaker:Frank: I listened to this woman several years ago that has a sewing podcast.
Speaker:Frank: Now, I don't know anything about sewing, and she had a cute title for it called Sew What?
Speaker:Frank: She was terrific on it. So for people who like sewing, I'm like,
Speaker:Frank: I don't know anything about sewing.
Speaker:Frank: But if you do, you need to listen to this podcast.
Speaker:Frank: And that's the idea with podcast discoverability. It's about how do I find a
Speaker:Frank: podcast that I'm going to love about a topic I love?
Speaker:Frank: So if I love Star Wars, there's plenty of them out there. But maybe I'm missing one. on.
Speaker:Frank: So that's the reason, you know, I always want to try to find something to give
Speaker:Frank: people to listen to, not to listen to.
Speaker:Danny: And that's a really good point. Like you say, it's easy for us as humans to criticize something.
Speaker:Danny: You see it online all the time. You know, people, like they'll rage bait or
Speaker:Danny: they'll hate bait, so they'll be negative and sometimes vitriol is out the roof
Speaker:Danny: because they just want clicks on their links to the blog posts or their YouTube videos or whatever.
Speaker:Danny: But it's not always that you get someone that just wants to you
Speaker:Danny: know shine the light on people doing the good stuff right and i
Speaker:Danny: think that's like a key thing where as you say it
Speaker:Danny: really helps especially indie podcasters it really
Speaker:Danny: helps people find them because you're you're
Speaker:Danny: only going to be sharing the good stuff so now people know hey if i want to
Speaker:Danny: um find a podcast about x i know frank's honest i know he'll only share stuff
Speaker:Danny: he enjoys and recommends so i'm going to check out a frank and i'm going to
Speaker:Danny: check out his recommendation so i think that that works both ways and it's it's
Speaker:Danny: a good thing to see as well right absolutely
Speaker:Frank: And as i think more about this question the last
Speaker:Frank: word of the question is truth and so
Speaker:Frank: uh i remember from years ago during the uh george w bush administration he had
Speaker:Frank: a press secretary named arie fleischer so he comes out and i i forget what the
Speaker:Frank: crisis was but he comes out and they the press asks him a lot of questions and he says you know,
Speaker:Frank: first facts are often the most unreliable.
Speaker:Frank: And I really took that to heart and remember that that word truth,
Speaker:Frank: well, sometimes when we have these media crises where something happens,
Speaker:Frank: right away people have a rush to judgment.
Speaker:Frank: It happened because of this. It's that person's fault. They did this and they shouldn't have done it.
Speaker:Frank: And then we find out a couple of months later, well, most of those facts actually
Speaker:Frank: are not accurate anymore.
Speaker:Frank: And so So that should change your judgment. So I'm always reticent to make a
Speaker:Frank: rash judgment and say, well, let me see.
Speaker:Frank: Let's just see what happens. Even when there's these famous trials,
Speaker:Frank: people will be like, oh, yeah, I know he's guilty or I know they're not guilty or whatever.
Speaker:Frank: The trial hasn't even started yet, so let's just see what evidence is presented,
Speaker:Frank: and then we can get to that word, or those two words, exact truth.
Speaker:Frank: Because right now, you don't know what it is, I don't know what it is,
Speaker:Frank: we're going to have to wait to find out what it is.
Speaker:Danny: It always reminds me, it's a great point, it reminds me not to make light of any war at all.
Speaker:Danny: It reminds me, I think it might have been when the Western allies were looking
Speaker:Danny: to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Speaker:Danny: And he had he had a news like a
Speaker:Danny: government official like maybe an army official that was
Speaker:Danny: his official media um reporter uh
Speaker:Danny: person you know sharing updates obviously to to
Speaker:Danny: the people on the news channels and i'll never forget it because it did make
Speaker:Danny: me chuckle and it goes to your point of the exact truth so he stood there and
Speaker:Danny: he's broadcasting in front of the camera you know to the people watching saying
Speaker:Danny: that there are no u.s tanks or there are no tanks in i think it was Iraq. I can't recall.
Speaker:Danny: My memory is hazy. There are no tanks in the city.
Speaker:Danny: And right behind them, tanks started rumbling by as he was broadcasting it from
Speaker:Danny: the allies that had just entered the city.
Speaker:Danny: And that will always, always stick with me when, to your point,
Speaker:Danny: when it comes to people and propaganda and everything like that.
Speaker:Danny: And you have to, you know, if you're doing something like that,
Speaker:Danny: yeah, you have to have the exact truth, right?
Speaker:Frank: Sure. And then, I mean, to To use your example there, which is a good one.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, so truth changes depending on your perspective and even through the years.
Speaker:Frank: So to go to a similar example, during before the Iraq war started,
Speaker:Frank: the reason for the war, besides replacing Saddam Hussein, was,
Speaker:Frank: of course, there were weapons of mass destruction.
Speaker:Frank: Now, I know this is somewhat debatable, but it seems to be that nobody ever found them.
Speaker:Frank: So therefore so is the truth that they just could never find them or that they
Speaker:Frank: were never there you know not sure about that that's for political people but
Speaker:Frank: that just i think that just goes to prove that trying to find truth is extremely
Speaker:Frank: difficult extremely difficult.
Speaker:Danny: Well one thing we can agree on when it
Speaker:Danny: comes to the exact truth is it's true we've reached question
Speaker:Danny: number five uh-oh so we've
Speaker:Danny: done well here frank we've got to the end we're doing good but they've been
Speaker:Danny: really good questions and that's what i love about this podcast like the questions
Speaker:Danny: are always fun and they're always good and sometimes you'll get complete curveball
Speaker:Danny: questions it really does make you thinking you know so thank you for answering
Speaker:Danny: questions so far let's have a look and seeing what the final question is
Speaker:Danny: Okay, this is a really good one to finish this episode off with for the five random questions.
Speaker:Danny: Question five, Frank, describe your life using one word.
Speaker:Frank: Wow, Danny, this is a deep question. My gosh, I can't say the word podcast.
Speaker:Danny: You could, yep. It'd be accurate as well.
Speaker:Frank: You know what? There's a lot of different words or adjectives I could use,
Speaker:Frank: but because of what I'm currently involved in uh now
Speaker:Frank: and maybe this doesn't relate just to me and and
Speaker:Frank: i don't want to belabor this point but i'd use the word uh
Speaker:Frank: courage and i use
Speaker:Frank: and i'm going to relate that the podcast thing because um i
Speaker:Frank: get the opportunity to interact with people
Speaker:Frank: like you other people in independent podcasting who
Speaker:Frank: are courageous enough to start this
Speaker:Frank: venture and I feel like
Speaker:Frank: it's so amazing that people can bootstrap oh you know most of these independent
Speaker:Frank: podcasts are bootstrapped and so they don't have the funding that other people
Speaker:Frank: have and so they're a or in a lot of cases the technical expertise so for For example,
Speaker:Frank: I always recommend an independent podcaster that's starting.
Speaker:Frank: I said, go listen to Danny's one-minute podcast tips.
Speaker:Frank: It doesn't take a lot of time. You can listen to them anytime you want.
Speaker:Frank: But I'll tell you that it'll help you get the technology part of the podcast thing squared away.
Speaker:Frank: And if anything else, when it comes to that, you need to have the IT part of that first.
Speaker:Frank: You need to have good sound design. So, I mean, I know maybe this is a little
Speaker:Frank: bit of a cop-out, but again,
Speaker:Frank: just because of what I'm doing now, and I really do love doing that,
Speaker:Frank: I can't tell you how much I... It isn't just a job.
Speaker:Frank: I feel like when I listen to a new podcast, and I'll take a second to tell you
Speaker:Frank: my process for doing that.
Speaker:Frank: So, because every day I get up, I'm an early riser at like 5.30.
Speaker:Frank: So I get coffee and then read the news. And then by 7 o'clock in the morning, I'm out the door.
Speaker:Frank: And I walk six miles a day. And that takes about an hour, over an hour and a
Speaker:Frank: half, hour and 40 minutes or something like that.
Speaker:Frank: And so those 100 minutes every day are, this is where I'm listening to either
Speaker:Frank: three kinds of podcasts, the ones that I love every day that I'll,
Speaker:Frank: you know, I'll listen to no matter what, I just, I can't miss them.
Speaker:Frank: And then the ones that I've discovered that I'm listening to,
Speaker:Frank: and the last is the brand new podcast.
Speaker:Frank: And I really do try to focus on independent podcasts. And I can't wait to some
Speaker:Frank: days to get out there and listen to them.
Speaker:Frank: And then that's my process is I'll listen to them sometimes for a couple days in a row,
Speaker:Frank: because I don't want to again back to our earlier question I
Speaker:Frank: don't want to make a rash judgment gee I listened to one of your episodes and
Speaker:Frank: it wasn't your best so I'll try to listen to at least four or five episodes
Speaker:Frank: and then come back and then be able to write about it review it recommend it
Speaker:Frank: to other people that's a good feeling and I always talk about how these people are putting themselves
Speaker:Frank: out there on doing these podcasts it's uh well as you know i mean it's an amazing
Speaker:Frank: venture but it really it does take a lot of guts to do that it really does.
Speaker:Danny: Well i think the the thing is from a creator point of view to your point and
Speaker:Danny: obviously for yourself that does the reviews and putting your own reviews and
Speaker:Danny: your thoughts out there you're opening yourself up to the internet and we all
Speaker:Danny: know what the internet can be like there's great internet but there's also really
Speaker:Danny: bad internet and you have no control over that whatsoever you can only create what you
Speaker:Danny: can and do it to to your
Speaker:Danny: liking and hopefully others will like it right but yeah it's
Speaker:Danny: um i i see your point on the courage when as you
Speaker:Danny: mentioned because it's nerve-wracking right um i i see you you you were like
Speaker:Danny: a you were a speech writer i'm sure a lot of people that you wrote speeches
Speaker:Danny: for often felt nervous before they got up on stage because they're putting themselves
Speaker:Danny: out there you know and they're putting themselves out to open to feedback that
Speaker:Danny: could be that could go either way, right?
Speaker:Frank: No, absolutely. And when you're doing a speech for somebody,
Speaker:Frank: you always have to remember, when I wrote speeches for a lot of executives,
Speaker:Frank: even the CEO of our company, I'm writing the words and helping them craft that.
Speaker:Frank: But ultimately, they're the ones out there on the stage.
Speaker:Frank: So when you're the speechwriter, no one criticizes you.
Speaker:Frank: They just criticize the person giving the speech. So I basically have the easiest job in the world.
Speaker:Frank: And that you know that's the tough part of the podcast there
Speaker:Frank: is even if you're in a network supported environment
Speaker:Frank: where you have say spotify is
Speaker:Frank: hiring all these people and you have this whole team of
Speaker:Frank: people which is which is great still the bottom line is if your name's on the
Speaker:Frank: podcast uh it's all about you no one's gonna write a review and say hey you
Speaker:Frank: know by the way i don't know about the sound designer and the intro music i'm
Speaker:Frank: not sure they did a really good job most of it's going to be about the podcaster themselves.
Speaker:Frank: So, yeah, I mean, you're hanging out there as the podcaster.
Speaker:Danny: Well, that's, I mean, thankfully, well, the show is new, so it's only had a
Speaker:Danny: couple of reviews anyway.
Speaker:Danny: So I'm wary of what reviews might come in as, you know, this goes any six months, a year or whatever.
Speaker:Danny: I know friends of mine that are podcasters, they've got horrible reviews and
Speaker:Danny: it kicks you back a bit, right? It kicks them back a bit.
Speaker:Danny: But like you say, you've got to put that aside and just, you know,
Speaker:Danny: keep enjoying doing what you're doing.
Speaker:Danny: And if it's valid, then take that feedback and work on it, you know,
Speaker:Danny: to improve the content quality, etc. If it's not valid, ignore it.
Speaker:Danny: Let them go bump up someone else.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah. Well, I mean, back to your specific podcast, Five Random Questions.
Speaker:Frank: One of the things I really like about it is sometimes I'll go out and do some
Speaker:Frank: searches on the number of podcasts in a different genre.
Speaker:Frank: So I wrote an article about this saying that, and again, this is an absolute.
Speaker:Frank: I think the people at Sounds Profitable collect a lot more solid data than I have.
Speaker:Frank: And so the easiest format for people to do in a podcast is an interview podcast.
Speaker:Frank: So there's not a lot of cost.
Speaker:Frank: I'm not a huge true crime fan.
Speaker:Frank: I do like some of their podcasts, but they cost a lot of money because you have
Speaker:Frank: to do a lot of research. There's a lot of time involved.
Speaker:Frank: There's a lot of people involved. When you're doing an interview podcast,
Speaker:Frank: it's the host and a guest or guests.
Speaker:Frank: Guests sometimes you are prepared
Speaker:Frank: sometimes you're not it all sort of depends on the the
Speaker:Frank: show but what i like is different about
Speaker:Frank: your show and that's what i one of the things i like about podcasting i think
Speaker:Frank: is so inventive is that it always takes a a genre that you think okay well you
Speaker:Frank: know this is it this is traditional interview podcast and does tweaks it just
Speaker:Frank: a little bit it to make it so much more interesting.
Speaker:Frank: And that's the neat part about this is that,
Speaker:Frank: If you just asked me five questions that you had prepared and OK, that'd still be good.
Speaker:Frank: But what makes this so exciting is that neither one of us know.
Speaker:Frank: And for anybody listening, by the way, as a part of this process,
Speaker:Frank: and I've listened to a couple of the shows already on this, it really is pretty.
Speaker:Frank: It really is totally random.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, totally random. So, you know, it's all about extemporizing.
Speaker:Frank: And that's that's difficult. So love this show. I love the courage that comes
Speaker:Frank: from people like you hosting the show, but also for the guests I've heard so
Speaker:Frank: far on the show. So, yeah, so excellent.
Speaker:Danny: Well, I appreciate that, Wayne, and I think you'll really enjoy next week's episode.
Speaker:Danny: I think it's next week or the week after. Katie Lohr, who's a Canadian podcaster,
Speaker:Danny: she does Pod the North. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Danny: She came on and she had some real interesting questions.
Speaker:Danny: And then Em, who does the Verbal Diorama podcast, she will also be on,
Speaker:Danny: I think, at the end of August. and she got a good few deep questions.
Speaker:Danny: We went really deep with them, which was unexpected and makes for an interesting.
Speaker:Danny: So I think you'll look out for them, but I appreciate that as well.
Speaker:Danny: You're an ongoing supporter as always.
Speaker:Frank: Well, I'm excited about the M because Verbal Diorama is exactly one of those
Speaker:Frank: podcasts that I found a few months ago.
Speaker:Frank: I was out looking for a good independent like movie review podcast and I came
Speaker:Frank: across our podcast And Verbal Diorama doesn't yell as a title.
Speaker:Frank: This is a film review, and it's not a review so much as it's an explanation
Speaker:Frank: of everything that happened in making the movie.
Speaker:Frank: But it really is a fabulous podcast.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, she's done some absolute great shows.
Speaker:Frank: She did Cloverfield recently, which was really good.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, she's actually terrific. And when I went back and forth with her,
Speaker:Frank: one of the reasons I found it so astounding that in the UK, they have an independent podcast award,
Speaker:Frank: and she's part of that whole process. And we don't really have that here.
Speaker:Frank: And so that's why I was thinking, I'm not sure.
Speaker:Frank: Katie probably told you if Canada has independent podcast report.
Speaker:Frank: I don't, the States doesn't. So that's something that we need.
Speaker:Danny: Yeah, you've got the Canadian Podcast Awards, but I feel that mixes,
Speaker:Danny: because I know CBC, which is a big news organization in Canada,
Speaker:Danny: they were involved as a submission as well.
Speaker:Danny: So they were up alongside indie podcasters. So there's Canadian Podcast Awards,
Speaker:Danny: but I don't think there's a specific indie one. So that'd be nice to see.
Speaker:Danny: So maybe that's something that needs to be led on for sure.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, well, that's great that you got two fabulous people coming up.
Speaker:Frank: So I can't wait to hear them. So great.
Speaker:Danny: No, no, for sure. And speaking of courage, you've got through,
Speaker:Danny: you've had the courage, you've got through the five random questions of this week's episode.
Speaker:Danny: And 100% fairness to every guest, it's now your turn to throw a random question
Speaker:Danny: back at me and take the heat off you.
Speaker:Frank: Okay, this is great. All right, so I was thinking about my question.
Speaker:Frank: Now, we already, for the listeners that don't know, Danny's had some water problems
Speaker:Frank: in his basement that are somewhat considerable.
Speaker:Frank: But I had a more philosophical question, so I know that you've been in Canada for, what, since 2006?
Speaker:Danny: Six, yeah.
Speaker:Frank: Six, so almost 20 years.
Speaker:Frank: In your mind, what's the difference between Canadians and Americans?
Speaker:Frank: And I guess I would mean in two ways, outlook and behavior.
Speaker:Danny: Interesting. So I know, funnily enough, when Canadians go abroad,
Speaker:Danny: they always make sure that they've got the Canadian flag on their backpack,
Speaker:Danny: like a little sticker or something or a patch or something, because a lot of
Speaker:Danny: Canadians don't like getting mistaken for Americans.
Speaker:Danny: But I feel that, and let me preface that, or let me clarify that, quantify that.
Speaker:Frank: That's true. That's true, by the way.
Speaker:Danny: Well, I feel that's understandable from one point of view, but it goes back
Speaker:Danny: to the exact truth and the two truths or the two points of view, right?
Speaker:Danny: There's good actors and bad actors in every country. There's good people,
Speaker:Danny: bad people, and there's like good examples and bad examples of every country.
Speaker:Danny: And I feel often the US gets a bad rap because we see a lot of the bad examples
Speaker:Danny: because that's what the media likes to show.
Speaker:Danny: And they don't show the good work. There's a guy in the US, he's like,
Speaker:Danny: he goes across every state and he mows lawns in every state for people that need their lawn mowed.
Speaker:Danny: So it could be vets, it could be people with disabilities, it could be people
Speaker:Danny: that just can't do their own lawns.
Speaker:Danny: But what he does is he invites kids to join this challenge.
Speaker:Danny: So like the 50-yard challenge, I think it's called. And again,
Speaker:Danny: I'll leave a link in the show notes.
Speaker:Danny: Amazing guy, amazing initiative. So kids will join the 50-yard challenge and
Speaker:Danny: they'll go around their neighbourhoods mowing the lawns for people that need
Speaker:Danny: the lawns mowed for help. And like I say, it's amazing.
Speaker:Danny: You don't get to hear that, right? You don't get that focus on there.
Speaker:Danny: So I just wanted to quantify that when I mentioned the whole Canadian flag on
Speaker:Danny: the backpack or the case or whatever.
Speaker:Danny: I feel the main difference is, and I think this again boils down to cities and
Speaker:Danny: maybe states or whatever,
Speaker:Danny: I feel a lot of Canadians will be more approachable to talking with a stranger,
Speaker:Danny: as opposed to Americans.
Speaker:Danny: Having said that, when in New York, I found a lot of New Yorkers would love
Speaker:Danny: to chat when they hear your accent or they hear you're in a restaurant.
Speaker:Danny: Very open, very friendly. I found that in Denver.
Speaker:Danny: I found a lot of people in Denver really friendly, really open when I was there last year.
Speaker:Danny: So I feel maybe by stereotypical default,
Speaker:Danny: fault canadians are seen as friendly and approachable whereas
Speaker:Danny: maybe americans are are seen as not standoffish
Speaker:Danny: that's a british thing i feel it's a very definite british
Speaker:Danny: thing but maybe less inclined to open a
Speaker:Danny: conversation with a stranger or want to continue a conversation but i feel like
Speaker:Danny: i say i have to do the yin and yang with that right it depends where and how
Speaker:Danny: culturally i feel there's There's maybe more willingness on a Canadian to travel
Speaker:Danny: to different countries and expand their worldview,
Speaker:Danny: as opposed to where I feel maybe a lot of Americans, whether it's like financial,
Speaker:Danny: whether it's just like because America is such a big country,
Speaker:Danny: there's a lot to do in America anyway, are less likely to travel outside America
Speaker:Danny: when it comes to learning about other cultures, etc.
Speaker:Danny: I don't know if you'd agree with that. That's something you'd seen or not.
Speaker:Frank: Oh, yeah. No, I do agree with that. Actually, we do a lot of cruising and travel overseas.
Speaker:Frank: And yeah, I agree with that. Matter of fact, some of our best cruises have been,
Speaker:Frank: we were on board once with the whole cruise is basically a few Americans,
Speaker:Frank: Canadians, and people from the UK.
Speaker:Frank: We had just a blast with all of them.
Speaker:Danny: No, and then that's it, right? I mean, the stereotypical would say,
Speaker:Danny: well, we'd have a great time with the Canadians, not so much a good time with
Speaker:Danny: Americans or not such a good time with the Brits because the Brits are stiff
Speaker:Danny: upper lip and they don't want to talk to anybody that's not, you know, not brutish.
Speaker:Danny: So yeah, it's a great question. And I think like I say, it's got a lot of context,
Speaker:Danny: you know, going back to your initial answer and one of the other questions about
Speaker:Danny: context, right? That needs a lot of that, I feel.
Speaker:Frank: Oh, yeah. And, you know, that's the you mentioned this about the about the British
Speaker:Frank: is that you have to be careful about cultural stereotypes.
Speaker:Frank: I mean, we bet we met some British folks on one of our cruises that they were so friendly.
Speaker:Frank: I even said to the to the one couple, I'm like, you're so friendly.
Speaker:Frank: You're American, because sometimes Americans are accused of being over friendly too soon.
Speaker:Frank: Like they kind of swarm at you and he
Speaker:Frank: was like yeah we've been told that and we
Speaker:Frank: find that as a compliment so yeah the
Speaker:Frank: one thing I will say is that we've met a lot of Canadians and the one thing
Speaker:Frank: I would say is that I do feel bad because it seems like that in North America
Speaker:Frank: everything ends up being dominated by what's going on in the states rather than
Speaker:Frank: Canada and so for example You mentioned Katie.
Speaker:Frank: Now, I read her sub stack all time about Canadian podcasts,
Speaker:Frank: and I wrote a couple of articles that said, hey, by the way,
Speaker:Frank: folks in the U.S., I don't know if you know this before, but the Canadians and
Speaker:Frank: the Australians are kicking our butt when it comes to percentage of podcasting listening.
Speaker:Frank: So we've got to get going on that. There's a lot going on in both countries, especially in Canada.
Speaker:Frank: I know a lot of people in the States may not know that, but there's a lot going there.
Speaker:Danny: Yeah, and it's good to see. But there's a great podcast event in Calgary next
Speaker:Danny: month, and that's really highlighting a lot of the Canadian stuff.
Speaker:Danny: So, yeah, it's good to see Canada sort of catching up. And as you mentioned,
Speaker:Danny: Australia catching up on the U.S., you know, when it comes to podcasting and podcast listenership.
Speaker:Frank: Well, thanks for the tip on Calgary. Actually, I'm going to be in Calgary September 16th.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, we're going to Banff and
Speaker:Frank: Lake Louise. So if they have the podcast thing, I have to try to attend.
Speaker:Danny: It's around about that time, actually, about around about the third week,
Speaker:Danny: I think. But yeah, it looks like a pod summit. I think it's pod summit, actually.
Speaker:Danny: There you go. I think it's pod summit in Calgary, September 1920.
Speaker:Danny: But yeah, so that looks like a good event.
Speaker:Danny: So, Frank, this has been an absolute delight. We had a good chat pre-recording.
Speaker:Danny: We've had an awesome chat during recording.
Speaker:Danny: It's been a delight. For people that want to catch up with you,
Speaker:Danny: whether it's online but not Facebook, want to check out Earworthy and all the
Speaker:Danny: other stuff that you're doing and check out the awesome recommendations you
Speaker:Danny: do, where can people best find you and connect with you?
Speaker:Frank: So, Danny, a couple of places. One is you can go to my sub stack,
Speaker:Frank: which is podalization.substack.com, P-O-D-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N.substack.com.
Speaker:Frank: Or you can go to Medium and just search for Earworthy. You can find me there.
Speaker:Frank: You can find me on Blogger at podcastreports.blogspot.com as well.
Speaker:Frank: So I'm in a couple of different places, and I'm on social media,
Speaker:Frank: except, of course, for Facebook. Sorry about that.
Speaker:Frank: Yeah, and I always love to get feedback from people about,
Speaker:Frank: hey listen to this podcast you'll love it and most times when I get that information
Speaker:Frank: almost all the time they're right and it gives me another opportunity to write
Speaker:Frank: a review on a great podcast.
Speaker:Danny: And I will be sure to leave all these links in the show notes and I highly recommend
Speaker:Danny: checking them out because Frank does a great job at really going in depth with
Speaker:Danny: every review and recommendation so I highly recommend checking out I'll be sure
Speaker:Danny: to leave the links in the show notes to be make sure you check them out to link
Speaker:Danny: through to so again Frank I appreciate your time today oh Danny Danny,
Speaker:Frank: Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. I appreciate it.
Speaker:Danny: Thanks for listening to 5 Random Questions. If you enjoyed this week's episode,
Speaker:Danny: be sure to follow for free on the app you're currently listening on or online
Speaker:Danny: at 5randomquestions.com.
Speaker:Danny: And if you feel like leaving a review, well, that would make me happier than
Speaker:Danny: that time I found out I could replace blogging with podcasting because I could
Speaker:Danny: never be as talented or as fruitful as Frank when it comes to typing speed and output.
Speaker:Danny: Seriously, if you want to leave a review, you can do that at 5randomquestions.com
Speaker:Danny: forward slash review. you, it would make my day.
Speaker:Danny: Until the next time, keep asking those questions.
