Episode 17: Building in Public

In Episode 17 of the Creative Work Hour podcast, we explore "Building in Public," focusing on transparency and community engagement as we share our creative process with listeners. Hosts Greg, Alessandra, Ken, Devin, Bobby B, Bailey, and Hillary discuss overcoming perfectionism and the importance of embracing a Minimum Viable Product approach. We invite our audience to join us in shaping the podcast's future through suggestions and participation, emphasizing the power of surprise and creativity in our community-driven initiative.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is November the 17th, 2024. And what we're going to talk about today is podcasting and specifically the Creative Work Hour podcast. Have you heard of the concept building in public? It's a buzzword, it's all over the internet and people are talking about it, but what does it mean? 

Well, it means that you are doing things on the fly live and building it in front of an audience. And that's kind of what we're doing with the Creative Work Hour podcast. Alessandra, I'll let you introduce us because this was 1 of your ideas also, but just to discuss between the group, the podcast and where we're going with this.

Yeah, well, I tell you what, it's been a request of many of our crew for 2 and a half years. And every time I tried to get into the middle of it, I would stall it out because of perfectionism. My goal for this is the third, not PodPomo, National Podcast Post month that I have participated in along with all of the Creative Work Hour cast. And what we have figured out is the best improvement that I could make on the podcast is to get out the way. Get out the way, Alessandra. So here we are. 

We're actually making a minimum viable product of a little podcast. And this is the 17th, as you said, Greg. And so, you know, within a couple of hours, we'll have out the 17th MVP podcast.

We're over halfway through the month, right?

Whoa! Yeah. So I like it. And many of us met through the whole concept of building things in public. Like I met Rochelle, who's another musician. And it turns out she's also another clarinetist, as am I, as is Greg. And so is Dr. Melanie and Rochelle. And I met because I was recording my clarinet playing and even going on live to what was then Twitter when it was a kinder environment. 

They would probably eat me alive now. But we actually built our community in part from friends that we met when we were all just out there trying to build things in public. So creative work hour is the umbrella LLC, nonprofit organization that has many different versions. We do 160, like 160 events a month. Just us, Just us chickens.

We've got a lot of different faces.

Yeah. So 1 started just as, you know, to benefit the performing arts. But what we realized is that everything fits into the group that's called Practice Not Perfect. Because if you're studying for a test, well, when you sit down to take that test, that's a performance. So you need to do practice, not perfect. So these all have different things. Like today is a Sunday. It's the third Sunday of the month. And what we do is we have a movie day. And So that's another thing. That's 1 of the 160 events that we do each month. 

So what we wanted to do in this podcast episode is talk about how we want to design the podcast, the real 1 that's not the 30 daily episodes.

Would that be the non-Napapomo? Oh my God, that's so good. 

Say that 5 times? 

That's so good.

It'll be the non-Napapomo.

I love it. 

Yeah, so it'll be the real deal. And so we'll expand a little bit. Like Greg, you would say that the MVP version of our podcast right now is like what? 10, 12 minutes?

Yes, it's running about 10 to 12, 15 minutes, Mark. We're trying to keep it under 15 minutes.

Yeah, so we can talk about it. I would just like to hear from everybody. What do you think it would be not, what is your favorite podcast length? I'm not asking that. What I'm asking is, What do you think might be good for us, for just us chickens, as we're growing our ability and our tech stack to do podcasting? Would it be 20 minutes?

Do you like that 15 to 20 minute length? 

Do you like 20 to 25, 25 to 30? I'm kind of thinking capping it at 30 would be good. So it's a light lift.

Right, because we've got to, you know, gather the content and do behind the scenes and things like that. So a 30 minute podcast is a little bit longer than 30 minutes. So absolutely, yes.

Yeah. Anyway, I'm just opening up to ideas, feedback. We've got Ken in the room. We have Devin, we've got Bobby B, Bailey, Hillary, let's design it together.

What would you like to see on the podcast?

I guess it would be, you know, like 1 podcast that I listened to, the guy asks kind of like the same set of questions, so there's a set of consistency. But as you were just saying earlier today, you know, the diversity of this group and what it does. So I'm curious how well that may or may not apply. 

I guess the point of this is, you know, you're highlighting creative work members, right? And I think if you are going to say, have a recipe of questions, so there's a bit of consistency in this response that we're getting from people. They've just got to be the really good right set of questions.

Ah, well, Greg, tell, tell Hillary a little bit about the set of questions that we've been banking over on the side. And so it's very, it's very affirming Hillary that you're saying that.

Yeah. We have a Rumble studio, which is an asynchronous podcast platform. We put a set of questions that we discussed and if people are not able to appear on the podcast, they can take part in the podcast asynchronously for the Rumble Studio. But you're right, there does need to be some consistency of blueprint, right? I absolutely would agree with that, Hilary. Perhaps the way to do that might be to do it in series. So we might have, For example, I'm just thinking out loud, maybe a tiny desk concert series where we talk about for a few episodes, tiny desk concerts and what that's about. I like that. Yeah. And then maybe we'll have another series on, so it's themed. Yeah. We're going to run out of scenes.

Writers, poets, artists, those who create, you know, dimensional art, you know, real tangible things versus things that are intellectual.

I'm loving that!

I'm taking notes. Maybe I won't lose them. Ken, what do you have?

I'm also for the surprise factor. I'm thinking of this kid's book where he is home alone and he's watching the TV set and he's watching Walter Cronkite do the news. And then as he's falling asleep, the old static comes on the analog TV. And then as he's watching the static, Suddenly he's watching these lizard people and he has to find them. Of course, it takes him to a volcano in Hawaii. Now, that's like a complete non-secular way to go from sitting in your living room, watching Walter Cronkite to being in a volcano hanging out with lizard people.

But I guess what I'm getting at with the creative work hour is that our minds do make these leaps. And so I think I like to be surprised, you might have guessed. And I think people do like to be surprised. Perhaps not quite that much of a tangent, but yeah.

Yeah, we could do a round table episode where it's kind of, we just let the conversation flow. We could work that into a series as well. Bailey, I don't know if you're still with us. What would you like to see on the creative workout podcast?

I am not completely sure I like the idea of inviting other people to be a part of the community sort of thing. Like they listen to our conversations and enjoy our community as well. But I also love the tiny desk concert idea. I think that could be something that they could benefit from as

well. 

Can I tell you a little something about what I found? Day before yesterday, after we finished the discussion and we ended the Zoom meeting, I got the recording and I Thought that I'd sent it over to Greg. 

I actually had sent him the yesterday 1 But I had like cleaned up my desktop and I had closed that file without renaming it So guess what I got to do for the next 2 hours is like I got to go searching through all of the M4A files and listen to them and trying to find that that day's recording. I found some tiny desk concerts and 1 that I found, I told Greg about this, 1 that I found was from a year before last and it was Bailey playing flute.

I don't remember what the piece was offhand, but we started the recording and he is like nailing it and Then I hear a little something outside the chord, outside the arpeggio, and then I heard another 1. 

Then it started to multiply in a very short timeframe, like 4 seconds. Then Bailey stops and he goes, ''Oh, Sorry, I freaked out. It was so good. I couldn't stop laughing. And then I went to the very next file. You could tell that we started the recording over again. He did not miss a lick. But there was something so wonderful about, yeah, keep going. 

Yeah, keep going. 

Wait a minute. The wheels are coming off. Wait, sorry. I freaked out. 

That's so us. 

That is so us. We're going to have to create a podcast episode out of that with its contrast of, I mean, in 2 seconds flat, you reset yourself. I reset the recording. You took a breath and you took our breath away. It was really amazing, Bailey.

It reminds me of that song. And I don't know the whole words, but it's 4 wheels on my wagon, but I'm still rolling along and then there's 3 wheels on the wagon and 2. 

Yeah. All the wheels came off. It's so good. Yes, we do break into songs spontaneously, don't we? Yeah, Devin, what do you have? What are you thinking?

I would really like to highlight some of the members and their interests. And I know we have crossover just from conversations we've had, but there's been no opportunity to really explore that. Like for instance, Ken and Gray are both into board games.

All right, They like to know a lot about it. They're into it. Gray creates them. I don't know if they've ever created 1. But there's a lot of knowledge. I would love to hear them talking about board games because I would learn a lot and it would be entertaining. I know we have other crossovers. Obviously

Bailey and Andy are both composers. I don't know anything about that world. I would be really curious to know about processes and tools and how that works, because I've just never dipped a toe in that. So, and then Hillary, I would love to know what it means to be a witch. I don't know how to turn someone into a mute, but I would like to. So, yeah. And maybe there's some...

That's a good skill to have.

I thought here we go. So, we could learn a lot from each other if we were able to do, I hate to say deep dive because that's the podcast creating thing, but I would love to do deep dives into some of the specific interests of our community.

Crossovers. I love that as a word. We could have a crossover series.

I'd love to see people step up and volunteer, maybe send suggestions. I wouldn't mind talking about, you know, this topic or I would like to talk about that topic and it would be great. Then we could feature an episode around that, right? Yeah. We could have the crossover, we could have series, we could have what else?

I'm actually seeing a big tie-in between the music and the board games and other things, perhaps even the witchcraft, where there's the components, like the components of the game or the instruments, and then there's the mechanisms, like how the parts interact. So then here you have like the notes and the note structures, but then you have like the story or the narrative arc. And so all 3 of those are a big part of a board game. I think they're part of the music, and I think they're part of many other creative things.

The knee bones connected to the thigh bone!

Yeah. And Devin's breaking into dance. Yep. All right. Well, we are out of time. I'm handing it back to Greg because Greg has the most beautiful and entertaining clothes for each recording of the Creative Work Hour podcast. So Greg.

Well, thank you everyone. And it's happened again. You've wasted another perfectly few good minutes listening to the Creative Work Hour podcast. But if you've got a topic or a subject you'd like to hear us discuss, you can send an email: me@creativeworkhour.com 

That's a wrap.