Join the Creative Work Hour crew as they reflect on their daily podcasting journey during National Podcast Post Month. In this episode, they discuss collaboration, challenges, and future aspirations for the podcast. Listen in to discover their insights and share your thoughts on how you'd like the podcast to evolve!

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is November the 30th, 2024, and we've been recording a little podcast every day this month for National Podcast Post Month. I ask a question to get the conversation started and we go from there. 

In the room today we have myself Greg, we have Alessandra, we have Bobby B, we have Artemis, We have Shadows Pub, Jennifer, Dr. Melanie, Adriennen, Devin, Dr. Timika and Bobbie W. Today's question is in 2 parts and it's about the last 30 months and then going forward. 

What has your experience been like recording a podcast every day for the last 30 days? 
And then the second part to that question, looking ahead, what are your hopes and aspirations for the future of the Creative Work Hour podcast? And I'll go to Alessandra.

Yeah, thank you, Greg. Yeah, it's such a good two-part question. And what it's been like for me is the last 2 years I've worked on my own podcast idea, my own little world, and it was a struggle and I didn't have very much  fun. But when we did it together as a group, I got out of the way of being the producer and let somebody else do that who actually loves doing that, thank you Greg for leading us through all of this and coming up with the tools. And you just, you made it so easy. 

It just shows me it doesn't have to be like some big, serious thing. Like even though I was only doing a 5 minute podcast, I was making it heavy. And that was not bringing the energy to the table to energize the project itself. It was really, it was taking something from me because I was just going at it in an isolated mindset. 

And when we decided to do it together, it was like the whole thing changed and it became like a happy thing that I love doing with you every day. The organizational part of it, we've gotten faster and faster at how to do it. And I love that we just bounce ideas and answers and questions to each other, just like we were all sitting around in a big living room, you know, with cans of soft drinks and sparkling waters and things with too much sugar in them. 

So it's been really fantastic and very much a dream come true. So thank you. And thank you, Jennifer, for having this crazy idea and for chasing it for 17 years.

Force for the future, Alessandra. Force for the future.

Oh, what's for the future?

Yeah. Oh,

I don't know. My brain is full.  Can you come  back? Come back to me later.

I'll circle back to you. 

Dr. TImeka, how about you? How has the last 30 days been for you and what do you, what are your hopes going forward?

Well, I'll start with this, Alessandra, to allow the team to step in, you know, when we know that it's not where we want it to be. I mean, for me, that's true leadership. So I wanted to say thank you because, you know, not all people have that skill. But as far as I know, I came in on the tail end of the podcast and I have enjoyed it so much that if I look back at all of the ones I missed, I might cry and say, why wasn't I a part of it? So that's where I am with the last 30 days. 

Moving forward, I think I will give it a try. Even if it's not a success, at least I know I tried. And I think that would just be another road that I didn't feel comfortable with that I have to make myself feel comfortable with. So I've enjoyed it to the max. And my favorite part of any podcast is the MC. And I said this a thousand times, the intro and the exit, you have to have the skill to make it run smoothly. And Greg, you've just emanated that throughout the entire time I've been a part.

Thank you so much, Dr. Tamika. Bobby B, how about yourself? 

What's the last 30 days been like and what do you hope for going forward?

I have been A substitute host and a co-host all that It's been so much fun being involved at this level or layer of the process. And I just think you've convinced me that it's going to be easy enough to take that next step because it comes back to that humble confidence. You guys, I know you're within arm's reach if things stumble and God bless editing. So let's just click and clack our way down the road and do this at a deeper level. And that's where my future is.

Thank you, Bobby. ARTEMIS, how about yourself?  I'm not sure if you've got the full question I'll give again. 

What's the last 30 days been like for you recording the podcast for Creative Work Hour? And what are your hopes and aspirations going forward?

Well, I've only been in, this is my second one, and I really appreciate you guys making me a part of this because I think it's a really great initiative. And I think if you guys, or we, keep going through and doing these, it'll be really cool in a couple of years to go back and listen to some of the older ones. And Greg, I really love the way that you bring us in and take us out. I think It's fantastic. So I guess I just answered both questions in one sentence.

Thank you, Artemis. Shadows, how about you?

It's been interesting seeing a collective of guests rather than a single or dual guest as often happens on podcasts. But I think it's worked and you know, a lot of it's worked because of the way Greg and Alexander have worked together on it. So yeah, carry on. Maybe not every day.

Jennifer, how about you? What do you think?

Well, I am a big fan of building in public. I think the great thing about NaPod PoMo is that it is a fast get good challenge, meaning you're going to learn a lot about yourself and about the project and you'll develop your voice and your flow and your systems along the way. You don't have to have the entire map. You just need to have what's in front of you. And as you get to each stage, you can see further along the journey. So I've really appreciated it. 

Now I've only been in a few of these, not that I'm not part of creative work hour, just that I haven't been part of the recordings. And I have appreciated listening to everyone. 

I really like that it's a varied group of folks. I actually don't know what I'm going to hear when I hit play. I know I'm going to hear Greg and I know I'm going to hear Alessandra, but anyone else in the room? It's a question mark and that makes it interesting and exciting. And then when I hear regulars, it's like, okay, this is fun. And then new voices, it's like, oh, that's fun too. 

I like the dynamic. I agree that the leadership that Greg and Alessandra have both put together into this project. I like the fact that you can create a podcast that you're not the sole person responsible for. It's important to know that it can be anything that you want it to be. And that's the beauty of it, right? 

You're in control just because the typical big podcasts are like, you know, this one person does this one thing and that's popular. That doesn't have to be what you do. You get to decide and you can make it anything that you want it to be. So as far as going forward, I certainly hope that this continues. 

A daily podcast is a big kind of a big grind and as we all experience in the month of November, it can wear on you even if there's a lot of magic that's happening. I would hope that you all would continue or that this would continue at least weekly because there is such wonderful value in it. And even though I'll miss having your voices in my ears every single day.

Thank you, Jennifer. Dr. Melanie, how about you?

Well, I wouldn't wanna keep doing this every day because it does get in the way of creative work hour, but I like the idea of doing it every so often. I don't know, once a month or quarterly or something. I think it's kind of interesting. I really like hearing what people say. I haven't been on a bunch of these. 

I love Greg's intro and I love the questions. So that's been fun. I haven't been on a ton of them because they happen at times. I can't be here, but you know, it's been interesting and fun and

I've learned some stuff. 

Thank you Dr. Melanie, Adrian, how about you?

Well, I can't say something different than everybody else, but I'm in the same agreement with what everybody else said that I generally don't usually like podcasts where there's multiple people in there. It gets chaotic and messy, but the way it works here, it's just bold. Like everybody just really thinks about what they're saying and sums it up in a really good way in their own Christmas downpour. But you're not going to get as much diversity as you are on these calls on other podcasts. I would say that for the future, I would like to see like little segments or maybe in between the 2 questions having more of Andy's music because it's fun. 

And also maybe showcasing some of the other people in this group and some of their credos, the things that they do, whether that's music or poetry or something else. I'm going to be actually cool to do in between the 2 questions.

Absolutely. Some great ideas. Devin, how about you?

Thanks, Greg. Well, I was hoping this was going to be more of a true crime podcast. I was disappointed none of us were found dead in the library in the last 30 days. But other than that, it was really enjoyable. I really had fun, honestly, interacting with everyone that was able to be here. And Greg, you made it so easy, so light and breezy. I looked forward to showing up every day and you made me think the questions are great. I really thought about things in a different way, both for myself and listening to other people.

So going forward, I would absolutely, if we could do this on a semi-regular basis, weekly, monthly, just about anything, I would make sure to show up. So thanks again for doing such a great job. I can make us proud of my UK passport.

Thank you, Devin. Bobby W, how about you? What are your thoughts?

I've really enjoyed just, you know, the collaborative effort from everyone and just learning a little bit more about everyone and their thoughts we don't usually get into you know much when we go around you know for creative work hours so it's just been it's just been really nice getting to know everyone and I also really appreciate the you know with you being the host and keeping everything on track and the intros and the outros. 

That's kind of what I'd like to see in the future is I would love to do these once a week. That doesn't, you know, every day is a grind for everyone. But once a week would be very cool.

Thank you, Bobbie.

I'll circle back to Alessandra in just a moment. 

I'll give my thoughts, but you know, the podcast couldn't happen if it wasn't for everybody that's taken part there would be no podcast so truly as a team and a collaborative effort and I've really enjoyed doing it it's been an honor for me it's been a privilege just listening to the the diversity of the answers coming up with some questions throwing some curveballs and just really seeing how things unfold. I'd like to see it continue. 

As other people have mentioned, daily would be a bit of a heavy lift, but maybe weekly or monthly, that's something that we will talk about on future Creative Work Hour sessions and see where we want to go because it is a team effort and it's not what I want, Alessandra wants, Bobby wants, it's what collectively and what we can do, right? 

But I'll bring it back to Alessandra for closing remarks and then I'll shut us down.

All right, we're gonna shut them down. Well, what I love is that we figured out that we could do a thing. We don't have to do it like everybody else. We didn't even know if this was possible, but we made a thing. 

It makes me think of that movie with Billy Crystal, and it's where they were doing a vacation, the 3 of them were doing a vacation together, and they ended up at a farm, and they ended up as part of the farm experience, they ended up helping a cow give birth. And I just remember Billy Crystal having this shit-eating grin on his face when the little calf was born. He's like, we made a cow! Well, we made a cow!

We made a cow! And so our rolling forward with it is we have built some skills we didn't have before, or we sharpened skills that we didn't know that we had, And we have figured out a very micro featherweight way to go about doing this project. So we know how to work together live and in recordings. We also know how to share the space and not step on each other's toes. We know how to let somebody lead and let somebody close us. 

We know how to work in a 10 to a 12 minute package. So here's what I'm going to pitch. And if you could come up with an idea that beats this 1, go for it. But we're going to start somewhere, All right?

So I propose that we on Saturdays and Sundays do a little 10 to 12 minute thing after creative work hour, after the first hour, take a stretch. We do our recording for 10 to 12 minutes. 

We know how Greg is going to lead us. We know how he's going to finish us off. Are you going
to finish us off? Yeah, he's going to finish us off. And this is what we'll do with it is we'll make one recording a week out of the teeny tiny itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini of a podcast recording on Saturday. Grab that one. Then on Sunday we'll do another one and those two recordings together, even if the crew is a different configuration of people, those two recordings together will comprise one weekly podcast from us. 

If we figure out that there's something that we could do that's easier than even that, well then we'll give that a go, but we'll start somewhere, and that is to capture the momentum of the skills and the excitement that we've brought together by doing this crazy thing that we didn't even think we could do it, but here we are. It's a beautiful thing. 

It's a happy thing. It's good for my energy. I have seen it be good for Greg's energy as well. So what are you thinking? Greg, I want to give you the final word because this has been your baby.

And it's been truly an honor. And I think that the idea of doing a Saturday and a Sunday micro recording will give an opportunity for people who can't be there on a Saturday that may be able on a Sunday and giving content for one weekly episode.  I think that's doable and might be a great way going forward. 

But what do you think? 
What has your experience been? 
How have you enjoyed listening to the crew over the last 30 days? 

And what would you like to see?
We'd be interested to hear.

But it's happened again, you've wasted a perfectly few good minutes listening to the Creative Work Hour podcast when you could have been doing something different. 

Check back again because we will be back. 
So yeah, watch this space. Thank you everyone.