Episode 7

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Published on:

1st Aug 2024

Adventures in Spanglish, Family Dystopias, and More with Neal Veglio

Join your host Danny Brown as he puts this week's 5 random questions to Neal Veglio. Answers include why Modern Family is more fact than fiction, why a great British tradition needs to continue, and why sliced bread isn't the best thing. Let's jump in!

Answering the questions this week: Neal Veglio

Owner of podcast agency Podknows Podcasting, helping deliver real world results to serious podcasters and organizations. He's also the founder of Podmastery, a service and podcast that helps you increase your podcast's success.

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Transcript
Neal:

The funny thing is that Modern Family, the Spanglish, all those

Neal:

stereotyped movies and television shows where you've got the angry Latina in

Neal:

the house, that is not fabricated.

Neal:

That's not an exaggeration.

Neal:

That is exactly what it is like being with, living with, or even

Neal:

conversing with an angry Latina woman.

Danny:

Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show where

Danny:

every question is an adventure.

Danny:

I'm your host Danny Brown.

Danny:

And each week, I'll be asking my guests five questions created

Danny:

by a random question generator.

Danny:

The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I,

Danny:

which means this could go either way.

Danny:

So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Danny:

Today's guest is Neal Veglio, who's the owner of podcast

Danny:

agency Podknow Podcasting.

Danny:

which helps deliver real world results to serious podcasters and organizations.

Danny:

He's also the founder of Podmastery, a service and podcast that helps

Danny:

you increase your podcast success.

Danny:

And as someone who's been in the podcasting space since 2001, he's

Danny:

probably older than 98 percent of all podcasters out there.

Danny:

So be gentle if you see him down your local supermarket.

Danny:

Neal, welcome to the show, mate.

Neal:

Thank you, young Danny.

Neal:

Appreciate your kindness there about my age.

Danny:

That's yeah, I thought I was speaking to Emperor Palpatine there.

Danny:

Oh, he's coming in there.

Danny:

A little bit of Palpatine, a little bit of Animal from the Muppets,

Danny:

and maybe even a tiny piece of Yoda in there for a good measure.

Danny:

How

Danny:

are

Danny:

you doing, Neal?

Neal:

I'm fantastic.

Neal:

I'm really excited because I get to be on your brand new podcast that's

Neal:

only been going for a few weeks now.

Neal:

Yeah really good.

Neal:

And, fresh, I'm going to do it because you won't, because you're Mr Diplomatic, Fresh

Neal:

from your company's amazing live stream where you unveiled a load of new features.

Neal:

So I'm loving podcasting today.

Danny:

Yeah, thanks, mate.

Danny:

And yeah, I'm for listeners that don't know, I'm the head of podcaster

Danny:

support and experience at Captivate.

Danny:

fm.

Danny:

And we had a feature release or a feature update, earlier today.

Danny:

goes out tomorrow as we're recording this.

Danny:

And so we did a live stream.

Danny:

The CEO and co founder Mark Asquith did the live stream for that.

Danny:

And it was cool.

Danny:

Neal was in the old chat there chucking his comments at us

Danny:

and being a nice supporter.

Danny:

So that was good.

Danny:

So yeah, it's great.

Danny:

Excited to see that come out as well, mate.

Danny:

So thanks for all the good words that you're putting in there.

Neal:

Pleasure.

Neal:

Always a pleasure to support you guys.

Danny:

Now I have to get the elephant in the room out of the way.

Danny:

first before we jump into the five random questions.

Danny:

You're a good, proud Englishman.

Danny:

We've just finished the Euros.

Danny:

Did you watch it?

Danny:

Are you an English supporter or what was your take?

Danny:

What happened?

Neal:

I'm one of those typical armchair supporters where I don't

Neal:

watch any club level football.

Neal:

And then I suddenly become an expert when we're at a tournament level.

Neal:

And yes, I did watch it.

Neal:

No, I didn't have any expectations.

Neal:

And very proud of the boys, very proud of Gareth.

Neal:

Sad to hear he's, he's decided enough's enough.

Neal:

But yeah, I come from the footballing capital of the world.

Neal:

It's not like I can't watch it, is it really?

Neal:

It's against the law.

Danny:

That's true.

Danny:

Did you go out for any games, like any of the pubs that were holding it or anything,

Danny:

or were you just watching at home?

Neal:

Armchair supported, Danny.

Neal:

I

Neal:

don't leave the house for any good reason, unless it's a really good reason.

Danny:

When in England, I see.

Danny:

I got to be careful here because I'm Scottish, obviously.

Danny:

So anytime I speak about the English football team, there's

Danny:

a bit of bias comes over, I was.

Danny:

I did want Spain to win it, not because we're playing England, I'll

Danny:

be honest but primarily because of the way the media always tends to

Danny:

build England up pre tournament.

Danny:

Then they rip into them and they rip into the players and they ripped into

Danny:

Southgate, sometimes valid, oftentimes not valid, and then they start to build them

Danny:

up again as they get closer to the final.

Danny:

I can't be done with that kind of sports journalism and Spain played the

Danny:

better football throughout the whole tournament, so it was nice to see

Danny:

that, get them the goal, if you like.

Neal:

Absolutely.

Neal:

I think the difference this time around, certainly from

Neal:

where I was watching things.

Neal:

I think that, there was a definite divide between people that were being mean

Neal:

about Gareth and the boys and people that were just, they didn't know what they

Neal:

were talking about, and it, for me it did feel like most of the country that

Neal:

weren't the crazy gatekeeper football fans were definitely getting behind

Neal:

them and were proud, it was actually a really nice tournament this time

Neal:

round and yeah, you had some trouble, but you're always going to get trouble

Neal:

when you get a bunch of Englishmen and some beer together in the same room.

Neal:

It's always going to be a nightmare, isn't it?

Danny:

Not just football fans.

Danny:

You see them podcasting people when they go to the events.

Danny:

Get the old three beers at the meetups, etc.

Danny:

Ooh, we could tell tales.

Danny:

Alrighty, Neal, so it's five random questions.

Danny:

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring up the random question

Danny:

generator and we'll see how this goes.

Danny:

You ready for the questions today?

Danny:

I'm excited.

Danny:

Let's do it.

Danny:

Okay, question number one.

Danny:

What is something you learned in the last week?

Neal:

Oh, that's a good one.

Neal:

Off to a strong start.

Neal:

I would say, as he pauses for time and uses filler words,

Neal:

you're Jordan Pickford in goal.

Neal:

I'll tell you what it was.

Neal:

Okay, I'm going to be completely honest, actually.

Neal:

Talking about Jordan Pickford, this is a football related

Neal:

what I've learned this week.

Neal:

I'm glad I didn't tweet it because I saw the pure vitriol that came back at this

Neal:

person when they did tweet about it.

Neal:

I didn't realize that the Spanish National Anthem had no lyrics.

Neal:

I learned that the hard way.

Neal:

Cause I was sat there with my wife watching game.

Neal:

And of course, yeah, Gareth and the boys, they're all like, Oh God, save the king.

Neal:

And I was sat there thinking, hang on a minute.

Neal:

That's right.

Neal:

Why the Spanish not as patriotic?

Neal:

Unlike Ian Dale, I didn't actually tweet that and bless him.

Neal:

He came in for quite a bit of flack on X.

Neal:

Because of that that comment.

Neal:

But yeah, I'm in the same camp.

Neal:

I did not realize that the Spanish National Anthem has no lyrics.

Danny:

That is interesting.

Danny:

I saw them.

Danny:

Like you mentioned, I saw the team standing there and the anthem was

Danny:

playing in the background and nobody was mouthing, even if you're just like

Danny:

half hearted about the anthem, because I know there's a whole political thing

Danny:

going on in Spain with the Basque region versus some other parts of Spain, etc.

Danny:

And some team members come from the Basque region, some don't.

Danny:

So there's that, that possible, political side of it, but he never knew it was

Danny:

because there's no lyrics at all.

Danny:

So do you have any more information on that?

Danny:

How that came about or?

Neal:

Not a clue.

Neal:

I've got no idea.

Neal:

All I saw was a bunch of players that were completely stony silent and I

Neal:

thought, wow, okay they're obviously either really confident or really don't

Neal:

care about their country, which was a terrible assumption to make on my part.

Neal:

And I've learned from it.

Neal:

Unlike Ian Dale, who probably hasn't.

Neal:

So yeah, it was very surprising, but now I feel that I've got one up at

Neal:

a pub quiz when when someone tries to catch me out and say, sing the

Neal:

national anthem for Spain, Neal.

Danny:

Let me clear my throat.

Danny:

I'll have to, I'll have to link to Ian's tweet.

Danny:

I'll find the tweet and link to that in the show notes, em.

Danny:

Cause yeah, I was watching it.

Danny:

I was thinking the really, as you say, they've got a really steely gaze.

Danny:

I just thought they were so focused on the game at hand and what was coming up.

Danny:

Maybe they didn't want to waste their breath singing the anthem.

Danny:

They wanted to save it for the battle that was about to come.

Danny:

But I wonder if there's any other countries that don't sing.

Danny:

The Scots don't care.

Danny:

We've got our national one from the Flower of Scotland.

Danny:

We'll study.

Danny:

Mumble that if I remember it.

Danny:

I know Canada is very patriotic about their national anthem.

Danny:

The US, obviously, hugely patriotic for their national anthem.

Danny:

But I wonder if there's any countries on top of that, that don't have

Danny:

words to the national anthem.

Neal:

I'm sure you'll get listeners emailing in and telling you, Danny,

Neal:

how did you not know about I know.

Neal:

Outer Wherever it's called, National Anthem not having lyrics.

Danny:

See, now I'm going to research that after this episode.

Danny:

I'm going to start researching that and I'm going to drop a whole, but

Danny:

I might not drop all the links in.

Danny:

I might set up a nice little Easter egg, treasure hunt.

Danny:

Okay, I'm going to do a special giveaway for anybody that can tell me

Danny:

how many countries do not have words to the National Anthems and what these

Danny:

words are, just to confuse people.

Danny:

But that's very cool.

Danny:

That's an interesting little, tidbit to kick the episode off.

Danny:

So yeah, that's further investigation is needed for that, I think.

Danny:

So now that we know that Spain was not ignoring their royal family or

Danny:

whoever the national anthem would be in honor of, let's have a look

Danny:

and see what question number two is.

Danny:

All right, Neal, I'm a bit of foodie, so I know what I would do here, I think.

Danny:

But question number two, what is the one food that you would never give up?

Neal:

Beef.

Neal:

Oh, beef.

Neal:

And in particular, if you want me to get really niche, roast beef.

Danny:

I'm thinking there's a, I'm thinking there's a Sunday roast

Danny:

reason for that

Danny:

here.

Danny:

Are you a traditionalist?

Danny:

Every Sunday you've got the roast on?

Neal:

I'm not as often as I'd like.

Neal:

Unfortunately, I'm married to a a Costa Rican woman by descent and

Neal:

they didn't really do roast beef roast family meals in Latin America.

Neal:

I get treated whenever I go and visit my mam and of course, like

Neal:

everybody's mam, my mam cooks the best roast beef on the planet.

Neal:

So it's always a treat to go, it's obviously a treat to go home and

Neal:

see the parents anyway but certainly having mum preparing a nice roast

Neal:

beef for a little boy is definitely a highlight in the value family.

Neal:

Whenever we have a meetup.

Neal:

So yeah, that's probably, it probably is a childhood thing.

Neal:

I think a lot of these food related comforts tend to come

Neal:

from your childhood don't they?

Neal:

Whether there's a certain chocolate bar that reminds you of happy

Neal:

memories or whether there's you know, a certain type of dessert or a

Neal:

meal, but yeah for me roast beef, it definitely reminds me of simpler times.

Neal:

When we weren't all sat with our phones out on the table when we were eating, and

Neal:

we were actually talking to each other and conversing like normal human beings.

Danny:

Why, I also wonder if the, I love a good roast beef.

Danny:

I'll make a roast now and again, like I'm married to a Canadian and she loves,

Danny:

Sunday roast when I make a Sunday roast, whether it's roast beef or maybe it's

Danny:

a pork loin or something like that.

Danny:

But I also wonder, you mentioned, it's like simpler times or

Danny:

childhoods where it came from.

Danny:

I wonder now with the influx of tech and phones and all that kind

Danny:

of stuff that maybe roast dinners aren't quite certainly in the UK.

Danny:

It's a very UK specific thing.

Danny:

I feel a roast beef dinner, a Sunday roast, etcetera.

Danny:

I wonder if I'm that sort of going to die down and more

Danny:

people just do their own thing.

Danny:

And, don't get together as often for that kind of, family get together.

Neal:

Oh, that's a very depressing thing that you brought up there, Danny.

Neal:

That's made me feel very sad, thinking of this utopia, dystopian

Neal:

future where, families are all having their own individual meals

Neal:

and all consumed in their own virtual reality worlds on their phones.

Neal:

I don't think I want to live in that world, Danny.

Neal:

I want to go back to the eighties and just eat prawn cocktails for starters and

Neal:

a bit of sweet corn and some roast beef.

Neal:

Thanks very much.

Danny:

Yeah I can see it now.

Danny:

You look at some, our kids are very active.

Danny:

They're like competitive athletes.

Danny:

My son plays football, soccer in North America and my

Danny:

daughter's a competitive cheer.

Danny:

So they're very active in the evenings.

Danny:

They've got lots of training.

Danny:

They've got games and competitions and all that stuff.

Danny:

So sometimes it's harder to get together as a family.

Danny:

And a lot of the time my wife does the driving, she'll be like, Oh, Be with

Danny:

the kids and I'm just at home eating beans on toast for my dinner or my tea,

Danny:

whatever you want, whatever you call it.

Danny:

But we do try and make an effort.

Danny:

Obviously, when everybody's in the same vicinity, we'll make an effort to sit

Danny:

down and have that family get together.

Danny:

But I can see as well.

Danny:

I completely agree.

Danny:

It's very much Something I wouldn't want to see become the norm, but

Danny:

I can also understand how it could become the norm, depending on, what

Danny:

your life's and business, et cetera.

Neal:

Yeah.

Neal:

We all live very busy lives and you know that the whole.

Neal:

This is what I think I've noticed as I've got older is that, it becomes harder and

Neal:

harder to make that time for family time just because of the pressures of business.

Neal:

If you've got a job, you've got 9 million tasks you've got to

Neal:

complete before the end of the day.

Neal:

And even with the hybrid remote working now that, it's

Neal:

pretty much become the norm.

Neal:

It's still seems to be that overzealous, overambitious bosses

Neal:

like to pile work on their staff, even if they're based at home doing it.

Neal:

Yeah, it is.

Neal:

It's a special time and I really hope that we don't lose it.

Neal:

I hope it, it definitely stays with us.

Danny:

And you mentioned your wife.

Danny:

Is it Costa Rican, your wife?

Danny:

Costa Rican descent Costa Rican, that's right.

Danny:

Cost.

Danny:

Has she had, prior to marrying you and moving to the UK, et cetera,

Danny:

had she had like a Sunday roast equivalent or not equivalent?

Danny:

Has she had us traditional Sunday roast?

Danny:

Was that her first introduction to it?

Neal:

That was her first introduction to it, meeting me, as if I wasn't enough.

Neal:

The fact that I introduced roast beef into a life just may give

Neal:

us the icing on the cake, Danny.

Danny:

I can imagine.

Danny:

And what's her specialty then?

Danny:

I can imagine she's maybe got a specialty or two for dinners.

Neal:

Name any sort of, underground Latin American dish.

Neal:

So you got rosa con pollo.

Neal:

You've got, all the stuff that you wouldn't get in a Tex Mex restaurant,

Neal:

basically, the proper stuff.

Neal:

The pico de gallo and all that kind of stuff.

Neal:

She really specializes in that.

Danny:

That's awesome.

Danny:

I think if I ever get to the Podcast Show in London, which I keep pushing Mark to

Danny:

get me over to, but no success yet, I'm gonna have to employ your wife, I think,

Danny:

to make a nice dish, because I love that kind of food, and that would be amazing

Danny:

to have it be proper, authentic as well, as opposed to, not that I have a shop

Danny:

there, but like a Taco Bell or something.

Danny:

No, thank you.

Neal:

You don't want to go to Taco Bell if you've got the choice of a Taco

Neal:

Bell on my wife's cooking, absolutely.

Danny:

I never could understand why Taco Bell became so popular.

Danny:

Maybe cost cheapness, the cost and food, etc.

Danny:

But when you taste the food, I just like when I never had a Taco Bell.

Danny:

prior to moving to Canada.

Danny:

And I, when I first moved here because I was still going through the process

Danny:

and getting my visa or my permanent residence and all that sorted out,

Danny:

I had to take certain like odd jobs where you just try to make some money.

Danny:

And one of them was a mystery shopper.

Danny:

And part of that was going to fast food restaurants and, making notes of the

Danny:

ambience, the cleanliness and that.

Danny:

But because of that, you had to buy the stuff there to see

Danny:

what the whole process was like.

Danny:

That was my first taste of Taco Bell, and I was appalled, mate.

Danny:

Appalled.

Danny:

I thought, oh.

Neal:

Thought you were going to say, it was pleasantly surprising.

Neal:

Oh

Danny:

no, it was awful.

Danny:

And I may be better now, I doubt it.

Danny:

I pretty much guaranteed the same recipe.

Danny:

But yeah, no Taco Bell for me.

Danny:

I'm sorry.

Neal:

You

Neal:

know that probably, when did you move to Canada?

Neal:

How long ago was that?

Danny:

2006, so almost 20 years now.

Neal:

There's probably way more Taco Bells here now in the UK

Neal:

than were here when you were here.

Neal:

It's becoming a growing brand.

Neal:

There's even my local town, they've got a Taco Bell as well.

Neal:

Yeah, it's, they're

Neal:

coming over

Neal:

like locusts.

Danny:

That's probably why people were leaving the UK then.

Danny:

It has nothing to do with Brexit, it's Taco Bell's fault.

Danny:

You heard it here first.

Danny:

Alrighty Neal, moving swiftly on from the whole Taco Bell debauchery,

Danny:

which I feel could happen if you actually had too much Taco Bell.

Danny:

Let's have a look at what question number three would be.

Danny:

This, ooh, okay, this is an interesting one.

Danny:

Because, yeah, I'm just gonna let you have it, mate.

Danny:

What's question number three, Neal?

Danny:

What's one difference between us that you love?

Neal:

Is this between you and I?

Danny:

I'm, see, this is what I'm, this is what I love about the show.

Danny:

It's just popped up.

Danny:

I have no idea what the context is between the, so let's go two options.

Danny:

So let's go the difference between you and I as people, me and you,

Danny:

and then maybe let's go as cultural.

Danny:

So English versus Scottish or however you want to approach that side of it.

Neal:

Okay.

Neal:

Interesting.

Neal:

Intriguing.

Neal:

Okay.

Neal:

The difference between you and I, on a personal level, is pretty, I mean

Neal:

we have to go to the work thing, in the, you're clearly someone that

Neal:

is an indie podcaster, and you love podcasts, you're, borderline need

Neal:

an intervention, to be honest with you, the amount of podcasts that you

Neal:

launch, I worry about you sometimes.

Neal:

Especially knowing that you're a family man and, time is poor as it is.

Neal:

Versus me, who is a business owner who does podcasting for a living for

Neal:

other people and would love to do more podcasts for myself, but simply

Neal:

there aren't enough hours in the day.

Neal:

So I think that's like the most obvious difference between you

Neal:

and I personally, culturally.

Neal:

Interestingly, I think there's a similar maybe difference in the creative aspect

Neal:

in that I think you perhaps probably approach your content in a kind of,

Neal:

I love getting content out there and I wanna just share knowledge with the

Neal:

world and you're really good at what you do with the One Minute Podcast Tips

Neal:

that you do, which I'm a big fan of.

Neal:

You've had podcasts in the past where you've interviewed people.

Neal:

Obviously you've got this now, which is obviously a very different

Neal:

approach versus me, who is.

Neal:

So beyond tied down in the minutiae and the perfectionism of like barely even

Neal:

getting one episode out a month I think I could really learn something from

Neal:

someone like you culturally where You just go, do you know what content is great.

Neal:

Let's just get this out there and, and we just rush through it and get it all done.

Neal:

And honestly, when you listen to what you're producing, you

Neal:

listen to what I'm producing.

Neal:

You can't tell the difference.

Neal:

So there's a learning moment there.

Neal:

Neal, stop getting bogged down in the detail, but I think that's what

Neal:

makes it brilliant in this industry is that, you've got some people

Neal:

that approach things in one way.

Neal:

You've got some people that approach things in a different way.

Neal:

It makes us all really different and unique and it.

Neal:

It's just that, without wishing to sound poetic, it's like that smorgasbord of

Neal:

different tasty dishes that people can tuck into and find their own preferences.

Danny:

I almost wonder, and A, thank you.

Danny:

A, thank you for The kind words about my content approach, but then

Danny:

B, what's that a little, sorry, passive aggressive because you

Danny:

just throw it out there, Danny.

Danny:

You get it done.

Danny:

You don't care about it.

Danny:

You're it's out there.

Danny:

So I see what you did.

Danny:

Are you monkey?

Neal:

Not

Neal:

at

Neal:

all.

Danny:

I almost wonder so when I was back in the UK years ago, I'd be,

Danny:

I'm going to say early, mid twenties.

Danny:

My age wise.

Danny:

So I was, I'm still a big gamer, but I was a huge video gamer then

Danny:

and the Dreamcast was about to come out in the UK, something like that.

Danny:

And I knew people that worked at Sega as game testers.

Danny:

So they'd, work on games, et cetera, to test them.

Danny:

And the last thing they wanted to do When they got home was play video games

Danny:

because they've been so focused on trying to identify small little bugs, glitches,

Danny:

stuff that should have worked, that should have worked and didn't work, etcetera.

Danny:

And I wonder if that's maybe the same with someone in your position that does

Danny:

so much for podcasters and, companies and production companies, etcetera.

Danny:

The last thing you want to do when you've been podcasting all day long,

Danny:

For someone else or working on podcasts all day long for someone else is

Danny:

now go back and record and edit and publish and market your own thing.

Danny:

I wonder if that's part of it as well mate.

Neal:

It's really interesting you bring this up because this actually has surfaced

Neal:

for me quite recently actually when I was talking to somebody about my processes

Neal:

and it is really interesting that.

Neal:

Obviously I come from a radio presenter background that was my gig for you

Neal:

know nearly 30 years was going into radio studios in front of the mic

Neal:

holding down morning radio shows and writing the comedy bits and performing

Neal:

the skits and playing the music and talking to callers and all that stuff.

Neal:

And I really loved it.

Neal:

Don't get me wrong.

Neal:

I really enjoyed it, but it didn't fire me up in the same way that it

Neal:

does when I'm actually producing other.

Neal:

And I learned this producing others was really exciting to me, like

Neal:

the fact that I could take someone.

Neal:

Who was slightly unseasoned and didn't have necessarily my

Neal:

experience and my skill set.

Neal:

And helping them to grow their skill sets to basically emulate

Neal:

what I'd been doing before.

Neal:

And I really picked up on the fact that I get way more.

Neal:

Out of doing that for others than I ever do for myself.

Neal:

So I think there's a big aspect, I think you're right.

Neal:

I think there is that aspect of, busman's holiday.

Neal:

To quote a British term.

Neal:

You don't necessarily want to do as a hobby that you do as a job.

Neal:

But also I think it's probably that it doesn't turn me on quite as much to

Neal:

stick my own content out there in a feed.

Neal:

and see the data coming back on me.

Neal:

It really turns me on when I see the data coming in for a client or

Neal:

for someone I've been consulting with or training or, coaching.

Neal:

That is a different ballgame to me.

Neal:

And I think That is the interesting part is that maybe I need to look

Neal:

at gamifying this slightly more for myself to make it much more of a much

Neal:

more of a dopamine hit to actually get that content out there for myself.

Danny:

Good point.

Danny:

And that's it as well.

Danny:

It comes back to the whole, like a lot of podcasters start

Danny:

it as a passion project, right?

Danny:

It's a hobby project in the might and meander.

Danny:

Along as a hobby and meander is a horrible word.

Danny:

I apologize.

Danny:

I don't mean you meander because you don't want to take your podcast to

Danny:

monetization or growth or anything like that, but they're completely happy

Danny:

about keeping it as a hobby because that's what they're passionate about.

Danny:

They're passionate about talking about their Star Wars love or their love of

Danny:

Jason and the Argonauts, and the effects that Ray Harryhausen did back in the day.

Danny:

But then, to your point, if you're not passionate about creating the

Danny:

content, then the content itself might suffer anyway, because you're just

Danny:

going to start mailing it in, just to make sure that you've met your quota

Danny:

of one episode per month, and it's out there, here's my marketing, and

Danny:

you're done, ready for the next one, and then you go back to obviously,

Danny:

Being super passionate about creating great, podcasts and great experiences

Danny:

for your clients who then can see the results and the effects of that work.

Danny:

So I feel that the your passion side is more geared towards the behind the scenes

Danny:

as opposed to front end stuff, right?

Neal:

I think I'd agree with that.

Neal:

I think, yeah, it's a different, it's a different approach,

Neal:

obviously, and there's a different output, but I think, yeah, for me.

Neal:

Sitting down and recording something into a microphone.

Neal:

It's usually done because I'm, it's a means to an end.

Neal:

It's either it's a marketing thing, be it with the PodMastery, which

Neal:

is very much, I enjoy doing it.

Neal:

Don't get me wrong.

Neal:

I love to do the PodMastery podcast, but it doesn't hold that same passion for me.

Neal:

I try and put a bit of as much of me into it as I can.

Neal:

But it's never going to fill me with as much joy as getting someone

Neal:

else and putting their brand out there and getting them the results.

Neal:

It's just a weird block that I've got mentally around it where, of

Neal:

course I love doing it, but I prefer doing other things for other people.

Danny:

It's like they say you've got great voices for, what

Danny:

is it, great voices for TV?

Danny:

Great face for radio.

Danny:

Great face for podcasting.

Neal:

I've heard that one before.

Neal:

That's why I never went into TV, mate.

Danny:

You know what?

Danny:

I was like doing a show, I think I was a guest on a show a while back

Danny:

and someone said that, and I don't think they meant it to be mean.

Danny:

But as the way it came across, I think it was more because of my accent and this

Danny:

was a North American podcaster, so it sounded a bit more exotic, if you like.

Danny:

But they said, oh, you've got a great voice for, do you do video?

Danny:

Something like this.

Danny:

Do you do video?

Danny:

I don't.

Danny:

I only do audio.

Danny:

Yeah, I can see why.

Neal:

Wow.

Neal:

How rude.

Danny:

I do feel they were on about the vocal, but I didn't

Danny:

really want to push them.

Danny:

I'm not George Clooney.

Danny:

So I can understand that, but I thought that was an interesting choice of a

Danny:

phrase to come and introduce me with.

Danny:

We'll see.

Danny:

Anyway, so there you go.

Danny:

Listeners, if you want Neal to get super passionate and yak along for

Danny:

ages, speak about podcast production and not about podcast making.

Danny:

Hey there, Danny here.

Danny:

This podcast will forever be free to listen to, but if you enjoy Five

Danny:

Random Questions and get value from the show and want to support it.

Danny:

You can either do that with a donation of your choosing, or as a monthly supporter

Danny:

with a 5 Random Questions membership.

Danny:

Choose your preference over at 5randomquestions.

Danny:

com forward slash support.

Danny:

And now, back to this week's episode.

Danny:

Alrighty, so we're about three, we are at, there's no about it.

Danny:

We're three fifths of the way through, so let's go and see what

Danny:

question number four holds for us.

Danny:

Okay, I have a little guess.

Danny:

Or maybe I've got a guess on what this might be, but you might

Danny:

already be fluent, so we shall see.

Danny:

Question number four.

Danny:

If you could learn any language fluently, what would it be?

Neal:

Your guess would be correct.

Neal:

You obviously picked up on the Costa Rican wife thing.

Neal:

Yeah, Spanish.

Neal:

I did try.

Neal:

When we first met, I did try and learn it.

Neal:

I'll be completely honest.

Neal:

I picked up maybe, I don't know.

Neal:

10 percent of conversational Spanish.

Neal:

I actually had, this was in the days when, you had to literally download stuff to

Neal:

your MP3 devices because we didn't have iPhones that were connected directly to

Neal:

Spotify and Apple podcasts back then.

Neal:

I had this audio book and the name of the chap that read the audio book escapes me

Neal:

now, but he was a Portuguese fella and he taught pretty much every single language.

Neal:

And one of those languages was Spanish.

Neal:

And I loved the way that he did it because rather than saying,

Neal:

saying and is E and saying you is do and all this sort of stuff.

Neal:

And the way that we tend to learn basic, languages, he would literally

Neal:

go straight in with an immersion.

Neal:

So it was like you're in a shop and you want to buy a loaf of bread and some milk.

Neal:

How are you going to do this?

Neal:

And then he'd do role playing and things like that.

Neal:

And I found that really helpful for my then younger brain to absorb it.

Neal:

But it's like anything.

Neal:

You get to a certain age.

Neal:

I started this when I was about 31, I'm 48 now.

Neal:

And by the time I got to about 33, I was just like, I'm too old to learn language.

Neal:

And I just got lazy, honestly.

Neal:

And what I found was that talking to my in laws, I was getting by enough.

Neal:

I thought now I think I can just chill out on this.

Neal:

But of course, like anything, you don't use it, you lose it.

Neal:

And so I've.

Neal:

Definitely, I frustrate my mother in law because she's trying to talk to me and

Neal:

she's asking me for more wine and I'm not hearing her because I'm not understanding

Neal:

so she goes with an empty glass for about ten minutes too long and so I get told

Neal:

off yeah, it would be really nice to be able to just click a button in the head

Neal:

and then suddenly be fluent in Spanish so I can talk to my family and please

Neal:

my wife and get her off my back and talk to some of their friends whenever we go

Neal:

on holiday, which we do quite often go back to the States and visit with them.

Neal:

So yeah, that would be definitely my number one now, I think, to learn

Neal:

rather than French, which to be honest, Academically, I probably could do it.

Danny:

I think that's it.

Danny:

I don't know what the UK is like now.

Danny:

I know when I was at like primary school into high school in the UK, French was

Danny:

I think it was an option, actually.

Danny:

French and German.

Danny:

That was the two languages you could learn.

Danny:

And I took both.

Danny:

But after I left high school, I didn't use them.

Danny:

So they just went by the wayside.

Danny:

But I'm wondering, I'm thinking of the Modern Family here as well, actually.

Danny:

When your wife gets angry at you, does she rattle off in Spanish and you're thinking,

Danny:

I really wish I knew what Spanish was now?

Neal:

The problem is I know exactly what she's saying when she's riffing

Neal:

off in Spanish with the swear words.

Neal:

Absolutely.

Neal:

And it makes it more painful because I know exactly what she's saying.

Neal:

But yeah, that is, the funny thing is that Modern Family, the

Neal:

Spanglish, all those stereotyped.

Neal:

Movies and television shows where you've got the angry Latina in the house.

Neal:

That is not fabricated.

Neal:

That's not an exaggeration.

Neal:

That is exactly what it is like being with, living with, or even

Neal:

conversing with an angry Latina woman.

Danny:

You got that passion, right?

Danny:

They've always, I always find that culture very passionate

Danny:

about most things that they do.

Danny:

So I can see that.

Danny:

And it's funny you mentioned like the stereotypical approaches

Danny:

of movies, TV shows, et cetera.

Danny:

I used to watch a show back in the UK.

Danny:

You could probably remember as well, I would imagine Mind Your Language.

Neal:

Ah, yes.

Danny:

Yeah.

Danny:

And I keep seeing little clips of that on YouTube now and again, and

Danny:

I am not sure if some of that could be, presented today or go out as a

Danny:

TV show today, because I feel some of that was very near the knuckle.

Danny:

Not that it was, not that it'd get cancelled to use a term that gets

Danny:

bandied about rightly and wrongly today, but I feel that was really

Danny:

funny, but I can also see that, struggling to get maybe produced today.

Neal:

Oh, 100%.

Neal:

It would be pulled off the air as soon as it was aired.

Neal:

It's yeah, sad, but there we are.

Neal:

That's the world we live in now.

Danny:

Top tips then.

Danny:

If you want to, not upset Neal, but if you want to confuse Neal, speak Spanish.

Danny:

Just learn the basics of Spanish and speak Spanish in front of him.

Danny:

Alright, we've reached the end almost.

Danny:

We're in the home straight now.

Danny:

Coming in to question number five.

Danny:

Let's see what we've got for this one.

Danny:

Haha, okay.

Danny:

I'm curious about this because I feel this is, this the terminology

Danny:

is very British, I feel.

Danny:

Could be wrong.

Danny:

Could be a more global thing.

Danny:

But Neal.

Danny:

Question number five.

Danny:

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Neal:

The knife.

Neal:

Isn't it obvious?

Danny:

Ah, my grief, that's the shortest answer ever.

Danny:

And now we're roll out of time.

Neal:

Really, it's what do they call it?

Neal:

It's not Schrodinger's cat, is it?

Neal:

It's some somebody's dog.

Neal:

It's like the, Most obvious answer is normally the right one.

Neal:

I think that really You can't slice bread without a knife.

Neal:

How can sliced bread be the best thing?

Danny:

You could use a spoon, maybe.

Danny:

It'd be uneven.

Neal:

It wouldn't look very well sliced!

Danny:

Yeah, but maybe that's what Oh, you know what?

Danny:

Maybe There weren't knives before sliced bread.

Danny:

Maybe people used spoons.

Danny:

Oh, that doesn't look good, doesn't it?

Danny:

They look better than that, doesn't it?

Danny:

My presentation's awful.

Danny:

I can't show that to Queen Mary or Aunt Nancy.

Danny:

So then they thought we need something sharper.

Danny:

What's sharp?

Danny:

I don't know.

Danny:

We'll create something.

Neal:

If ever the podcasting thing dries up, Danny, I think you've

Neal:

got a great future as a politician.

Neal:

You're able to take something that is clearly undebatable and debate it

Danny:

still.

Danny:

There's a joke in there about mass debates and we can't,

Danny:

it's too, it's a too easy one.

Danny:

We won't go there.

Danny:

That's, I could never be a politician in all honesty.

Danny:

I like the abuse and stuff that they get thrown at them.

Danny:

I, and I feel, I can't remember who said it.

Danny:

There was a comedian.

Danny:

And I, I think it might have been George Carlin actually that said the

Danny:

very fact that someone wants to be a politician and the power that comes

Danny:

with that is the very reason they shouldn't be a politician, which I

Danny:

always thought was a really good thing.

Danny:

Obviously there's great politicians out there, but then you look at

Danny:

some and obviously in the UK, you've just had an election.

Danny:

There's been all sorts of craziness leading up to that, point in time.

Danny:

So yeah, I.

Danny:

Politicians, I will give that a pass, I feel, mate.

Neal:

Probably sensible, to be honest.

Neal:

Although I hear the parties are great.

Neal:

Yeah, exactly.

Danny:

I heard of them.

Danny:

They're really good.

Danny:

I'm going to, I'm going to take the knife out of the equation, okay?

Danny:

I'm going to cheat here.

Danny:

I know that was your answer and generally I would allow it, but no, I'm going

Danny:

to take the knife out of the equation.

Neal:

Your

Neal:

show your rules, Danny.

Danny:

That's fine.

Danny:

So before the knife then, prior to the knife, what was the

Danny:

best thing before sliced bread?

Neal:

Ladies and gentlemen, Danny is obviously one of the linesmen

Neal:

from one of the England games in the Euros recently and just

Neal:

changing the roles as he goes along.

Neal:

That's absolutely fine.

Neal:

I would say then, in which case, before Sliced Bread, what was the best thing?

Neal:

Surely, it has to be

Neal:

Music.

Danny:

Any particular genre?

Danny:

Just music.

Danny:

Just the creative outlet of music.

Neal:

I think we have to give props to the OGs, don't we?

Neal:

It has to be the old classical guys like Mozart, Beethoven,

Neal:

because, let's be honest about it.

Neal:

Without them, we wouldn't have, any of the Bebe Rexhas or David Guetta

Neal:

or any of the other nonsense that the kids are listening to these days.

Neal:

So yeah, I think with music is a, is something which now this is interesting

Neal:

actually, because what's interesting for me, it's probably dull as ditch

Neal:

water for you and your listeners.

Neal:

But for me, it's quite impactful that I can, even though I don't work

Neal:

directly in the music industry anymore, I was a, as I mentioned, I was a radio

Neal:

broadcast of many years and radio music was a big part of that job.

Neal:

And much like we alluded to earlier with busman's holiday, when

Neal:

you're Doing something for a job.

Neal:

The last thing you want to do really is go home and do more of that.

Neal:

So listening to music, focusing on it and listening with the headphones

Neal:

on my head when I got home from work wasn't something I did often, but when

Neal:

I did, obviously I was listening to the sort of music that I absolutely

Neal:

wanted to listen to, not the stuff I was paid to churn out on the speakers.

Neal:

And I still now to this day, I will still find myself if I

Neal:

really need to get into sort of a place of Zen or calm or whatever.

Neal:

I will stick some classical music on and it's really, I never would, I was never

Neal:

into classical music when I was younger.

Neal:

My dad was a big fan.

Neal:

He was into opera and, the Pavarotti's and Domingo's and the classical

Neal:

pieces and, orchestral, you name it.

Neal:

He was into all that, but I never was.

Neal:

And I found myself thinking, Dad, what do you see in all this?

Neal:

It's just a bunch of string instruments playing random notes, but As you get

Neal:

older, I think you start to appreciate older music, and more recently, I'd say

Neal:

about five to ten years ago, I started discovering the Beatles and listening

Neal:

to some of their stuff and appreciating it, and Yeah, I think music, it's one

Neal:

of those things that it just brings us together, it equalises everything

Neal:

and it just brings focus to us.

Danny:

And as the Spanish national team showed, you don't need words to

Danny:

go with music, you can still enjoy it.

Neal:

Nice callback, I love it.

Neal:

It's like you've done this before.

Danny:

Oh, I don't know.

Danny:

But yeah, music, like you say, it's a big connector.

Danny:

You don't have to know the language.

Danny:

You could, I don't understand, obviously, the language of opera.

Danny:

But I can appreciate the emotion that's clearly coming through from the singer.

Danny:

And I think that's a great call.

Danny:

All right, Neal.

Danny:

So we've reached the end.

Danny:

We've made it through the five random questions.

Danny:

And I appreciate your willingness to share and open up on that.

Danny:

As is the want to make it fair on every guest.

Danny:

I obviously do allow you, and I'm not going to say allow.

Danny:

I've said that before.

Danny:

That's wrong.

Danny:

I encourage you to share a random question of your own.

Danny:

So hit me up with your own random question.

Neal:

This one's actually very similar to one of the questions that I had in a sort

Neal:

of way and you'll get this in a moment.

Neal:

But if you could instantly master any new skill, hobby,

Neal:

or talent with zero practice.

Neal:

You wake up one morning and it's there.

Neal:

What would it be?

Danny:

That's a good one.

Danny:

See, part of me wants to say pottery.

Danny:

I don't know why it's just popped up my head.

Danny:

It just seemed like a nice relaxing thing to do.

Danny:

I was probably watching a YouTube video the other day that

Danny:

mentioned pottery for some reason.

Danny:

I feel that it needs to be something that would benefit my wife because she

Danny:

does all this stuff around the house.

Neal:

You know who's boss.

Danny:

She does a lot of the driving and everything, with the

Danny:

kids, gets them to sports, etc.

Danny:

So I feel that Yeah, I'm gonna actually go with that, actually.

Danny:

So my wife does a lot of crafting.

Danny:

She owns a Cricut, which makes, she's got like the laser cutter

Danny:

and the steel cutter and all that.

Danny:

So she'll make a whole bunch of really cool crafts.

Danny:

And her goal is to do it for fun.

Danny:

And we've talked about maybe, set up a little online store

Danny:

or a local store where we live.

Danny:

We're in a little village about three hours north of Toronto.

Danny:

So it's great in the summer because a lot of cottagers come up and it's a

Danny:

nice boom industry for tourists, etc.

Danny:

So it'd be cool to make stuff that we could sell, from the house, etc.

Danny:

So I'm going to say.

Danny:

If I could wake up tomorrow and be as expert as the people that's teaching

Danny:

my wife craft courses, et cetera, so I could just do all that while

Danny:

she's out with the kids at the sports and all that would be my skill set.

Danny:

I think about effort away from her side because she still wants to

Danny:

come home, do all the craft and then I'll look for opportunity to market.

Danny:

So that would be, I think, mate,

Neal:

I love it.

Neal:

And now we've understood fully why why Danny's wife.

Neal:

Is so committed to him because he's obviously a lovely man.

Neal:

It's always wanted to take work off her hands.

Danny:

Yeah it's happy wife, happy life.

Danny:

Isn't that the phrase?

Neal:

Yeah, I keep getting told this.

Neal:

I need to learn that one.

Neal:

Don't

Neal:

I?

Danny:

I think I don't know what that would be for husbands because there's

Danny:

no rhyming word for husband, is there?

Danny:

I don't know that we are just happy.

Danny:

We just as long as we've got a Sunday roast and an ice beer

Danny:

in front of us, life is good.

Danny:

Life is good.

Neal:

Yeah.

Danny:

So Neal, before I let you go, mate, obviously I do want to encourage listeners

Danny:

to check out, your podcast production agency, and all the cool stuff that you

Danny:

do for clients and other podcasters.

Danny:

So where's the best place to find out more about that and connect with you online.

Neal:

I would be delighted if anybody would want to connect on LinkedIn.

Neal:

I love LinkedIn.

Neal:

I live pretty much on LinkedIn.

Neal:

I'm also on Twitter.

Neal:

I'm not on there as often these days, it's always good to chat

Neal:

to fellow podcast enthusiasts.

Neal:

So by all means, look me up on there.

Neal:

If you're looking from the sort of like the, the podcasting services and advice

Neal:

point of view, then pod knows podcasting.

Neal:

co.

Neal:

uk is where I get the bills paid.

Danny:

And I'll be sure to leave all these links in the show notes.

Danny:

So whichever app you're listening to this episode on.

Danny:

Make sure to check them out.

Danny:

They'll link out directly to Neal and his website.

Danny:

So again, Neal, thanks for taking part today in 5 Random Questions.

Neal:

No, thanks for having me.

Neal:

It's been an absolute pleasure and great fun.

Danny:

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions.

Danny:

If you enjoy this week's episode, be sure to follow for free on the

Danny:

app you're currently listening on or online at fiverandomquestions.com.

Danny:

And if you feel like leaving a review, that would make me happier

Danny:

than that time I realized podcasting was primarily an audio platform.

Danny:

At least in the early days, and my lack of George Clooney looks and

Danny:

charisma would not be a hindrance.

Danny:

But seriously, if you did want to leave a review or recommend the show

Danny:

to someone else, I'd be super grateful.

Danny:

Until the next time, keep asking those questions.

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About the Podcast

5 Random Questions
The podcast where every question is an adventure
Welcome to 5 Random Questions with your host, Danny Brown! Each week, Danny sits down with his special guest and uses a random question generator to come up with five unpredictable, thought-provoking, and sometimes downright hilarious questions.

No topic is off-limits as Danny and his guests dive into their answers, sparking lively discussions filled with laughter, surprises, and occasional deep insights.

As a special twist, every guest gets to turn the tables and ask Danny any random question they like, putting him on the spot and keeping things fresh and fun.

Whether you're looking for a good laugh, some unexpected wisdom, or just an entertaining chat, 5 Random Questions is the podcast for you. Tune in for a mix of humour and heart, and discover something new with every episode!
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About your host

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Danny Brown

Danny Brown is the host of 5 Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure! He also hosts, and co-hosts, several other podcasts - if you called him a serial podcaster, you wouldn't be wrong! He's been in the podcasting space for over 10 years, and has the scars to prove it.

He's the Head of Podcaster Support and Experience at Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast hosting, distribution, analytics, and monetization platform for the serious indie podcaster.

He lives in beautiful Muskoka, Ontario, Canada with his wife and two kids, where he spends winters in front of a cozy fire and summers by the lake. Well, when he finds time away from podcasting, of course...