← The Podcast Gauntlet - Throw Down, Discuss, Rise & Shine in Podcasting
The Podcast Gauntlet - Throw Down, Discuss, Rise & Shine in Podcasting
Ignore the Chemistry Set: Podcasting is Plug & Play!
00:20:50
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- [00:02]
A
You are listening to the two guys talking Podcast network. I can remember science when I was in high school. A subject, gotta be honest, I just did not have a whole lot of interest in. But you know what I learned later life is chemistry sets. More importantly, I've learned you gotta just ignore the chemistry. Everything is just plug and play. Or is it? It's time to break open the human chemistry sets here inside the podcast Gauntlet, where we throw down, discuss. Rise and shine in podcasting. Greetings everybody. I'm Mike Wilkerson, one of your hosts.
- [00:58]
B
And I'm Brian Entsminger, the other one of your hosts.
- [01:01]
A
Man, Brian, this is going to be a banger here. Mostly because I am a huge fan of not only identifying human chemistry sets, but trying to find the ones that not only benefit me, but benefit the people that I'm interacting with. In one of our previous episodes, we had talked about the value of not only negotiating chemistry sets, not only the real benefit of finding really great ones that work, but most importantly, and this is the piece that most people forget about chemistry sets, especially the human ones. You're not always going to gel with everybody. Sometimes the chemistry set, it just does not work.
- [01:39]
B
Yeah, I've found that to be true on pretty much any show. Right. So I've co hosted a couple of shows. I've also had a solo show. The chemistry set there was terrible. It was all pretty acidic. And then I also did an interview show. And one of the things that I've found that I really enjoy about a co hosted show is if you have a chemistry set that works, you can kind of rinse and repeat. Whereas with an interview show every week you're throwing another element into the beaker, stirring it around and trying to figure out what's going to foam out of the top. And you hope it is not Clorox and something that's going to create a bomb. That's one of the things I really like about a co hosted show. The, the risk, however, is if you get into a co hosted show and the chemistry set isn't there, it's not there for every episode that you record together.
- [02:31]
A
Yeah, I, this is something I'd actually wanted to hold off for another program that I'm doing called the Podcaster Debrief. But this is an incredibly appropriate one. Going to leave all of the names of the people used inside of this episode of the podcast Gauntlet have been changed to protect the innocent as well as all the things that we talked about. Because I don't, I don't Want her to feel bad. But there was one, one time that I remember that whenever I think of Chemistry Set, I instantly think of this one where Woman was absolutely lovely. She is. She's tremendous. And she still is. She invited me on to talk about a movie that I have great endearment to that I can't tell you the title of, unfortunately, because it'll out her. Anyway, she invited me to come on and talk about the follow up to this movie. And I said, oh, oh, yeah, I'm in. No question. And it was in person, by the way, so it wasn't like we didn't have the bubble of 700 miles away or anything cool like that. So I went in there and, you know, I admired her podcast studio and her. And my conversation was just wonderful. And then we hit the record button and I'm not entirely sure what happened because she did her little. Her little intro beat thing. And then I would respond and then she would kind of look up at the ceiling and then she would reach over and she would hit the stop button. And I gotta be honest, I don't know that I've ever done that in my podcast career. That's just. That's not. I've never done that. And so it just, it struck me and I'm like, is everything okay? You know, I wanted to make sure everything's right. She's like, you know, I'm not sure. I'm like, oh, okay, well, you want to try again? She's like, yeah, yeah, let's try again. And so the whole rigmarole, straightening, whatever, there was no video back then, by the way. It was only audio. And so she hits the record button. She runs through a kind of a different iteration of her intro and pitches it over to me as her co host for this episode. And I run through whatever it was that I said, and once again, the ceiling got stared at. And she reaches over and she hits the stop button again. She goes, you know, I just. I don't know what, I don't know how to explain it. And I'm like, I don't know how to explain it either. Tell me more. And we just kind of looked at each other. We both knew without having really to say anything else, that maybe this wasn't actually going to happen. And so she hits the recording button for the third time. And we actually got through that. It was a series of episodes, and an episodic series is where I'll leave it. And we got done with it and it was showcased, it was inside of her process and Shared with audience. So it worked. But what I can tell you definitively is that's the one time I can remember inside a podcast I'm ever that there were not only a series of speed bumps, there were at least two times and then probably a couple times during our third recording where it was full stop. You know, like we didn't actually know where to go or it wasn't progressing the way that she had thought it might, and so she didn't know where to go with it. But most importantly, I've always prided myself on even if we can't figure out what's going on, we can at least talk about why it didn't work so that we can either avoid what we need to do or we can find a path to change so that we can do whatever the project, blah, whatever it is. I pride myself on that because I want to be working and moving forward to build things Right. Yeah, Not Here was very, very strange. And that's one of the very few samples that I always use when I talk about chemistry sets. She's a lovely lady. She has a really good, devoted, focal audience to that content. Terribly passionate, very articulate, smoking hot. Like just. She's a gorgeous woman. And it just. None of it worked. And it was the chemistry set that failed. It just. It was not meant to be. And I share that story not so that all of you can. Boy, I sure hope that never happens to me because I can tell you, if it hasn't already happened and it's gonna happen. Yeah, it's gonna happen. It's just the way that it is. And I want you to arm yourself with the knowledge that it is going to happen versus you're just going to be this, this all malleable element inside of the chemistry sets that we're talking about that you can just kind of mangle and work in, and it all works out just fine. Because sometimes it doesn't work. Yeah.
- [07:20]
B
And I think that's perfectly appropriate. Right. We don't necessarily gel with everybody. It's not that we can't get along with everybody, although there are some people that are more difficult. The thing that pops into my head is, as we talk about this, the question might be coming up, well, what do I do if I find myself in that situation? If it's a guesting situation, I think you just need to prepare, practice learning to roll with the punches as best you can. Now, that's fully acknowledging that in some cases you may not be able to. For example, I tend to like to roll with the punches. But I tend to be a little bit light, have a little bit of levity. If I can, I can still be intense. But if I'm on a show with someone where it's very, very slow and very, very methodical, I may not be able to fit into that show. It's not that I don't want to, but it's just the way my brain works. Conversely, as a host, one of the things that I would do, especially if I was bringing on guests, is I would try and figure out early on, is this a person who needs a structure? Is this a person that just needs to feel like I'm in control and this is going in a good place and they can just kind of relax and talk. Is this a person that needs to not know anything? Right. And just come in and shoot the breeze and, and allow me to do that. And then that changes how I prepare and how I prepare them. Because my goal as a host is to receive them in such a way that they're as comfortable as possible and as open as possible. Because I'm not Barbara Walters interviewing the President. I'm not trying to catch a politician in a lie. I'm trying to take this guest that I have respect for, whether I've ever met them or not. I believe they have value to offer or I wouldn't bring them on. So I want to present them in the best way possible. That doesn't mean that I'm. Well, it probably means I'm not a journalist, I'm probably an entertainer, although I may not be very entertaining. But that's my goal, is to bring them on, present them well, and then do what I can to make that possible for them as a potential co host. This is where things get interesting. Because if you recognize the chemistry set isn't there, you might just need to say, hey, this isn't working, and then work through that. And that's difficult. I hope that none of you ever face that. So far, I've not faced that. I've had a co hosted show that we closed out, but it wasn't because it didn't work as a group of hosts. It was because it just no longer worked for us, period. And that was uncomfortable. It wasn't fun because I loved that show, but we had to let it go. But if you can just prepare, learn to roll with it, and then start to recognize, maybe if this person presents in such a way that I can see that they're like whatever it is that is problematic for you emotionally, relationally, in terms of your Pacing, figure that out, and then maybe bow out early instead of getting into that. I don't know. Mike, what do you think?
- [10:14]
A
I think that you've provided a number of really good logs for the fire, so to speak. One of the ones that struck me the most is that you can't prepare for that. It is rolling with the punches and changes that you are provided inside the scenario. The other thing that you got me with was there are a number of different things that people do to prepare, and I think really does depend on the topic because everything from. Again, I cut my teeth in entertainment review. So usually the front end of what we're talking about is that you'd have to have watched the episode or the movie that we're talking about. And really that's all I ever ask people when. When I. When I say, what's your favorite movie? And they'll go, my favorite movie is the Martian. And I'll go, oh, okay, well, let's make sure we both watch the Martian. And then we're going to meet on insert date at whatever time. We're going to connect virtually. Let me know if you have questions. Okay, cool. And that's kind of it. I want there to be this very conversational thing where over my years of podcasting, I am a host. There's no question. I think I've had host DNA in me since forever. I was creating puppet shows when I was sick with all of my stuffed animals, and then guiding each of them as a director. I mean, it was really strange. The natural piece of that, though, is that all I want you to do is I want you to come on and speak. That's really all the preparation I require of people, is to just come on. Thank you for taking the time to come and talk to me, because that is incredibly valuable to me. And with the mechanics and the chemistry set that I bring, I'm hoping that I can start stirring the cauldron with your perspective. And we're making something that's not only vibrant, but you simply can't get elsewhere. And having that kind of gravitas and telling people that is. I think it's magnetic, because when I can identify. I think this is probably a piece of why Brian chose to come in on the podcast Gauntlet at all. The idea of the podcast Gauntlet was unique. I still think that it is because we're broaching every modern myth and idea that broaches itself inside of podcasting, and we're giving you honest perspectives about it. I mean, I can't point to Another program that does just that and just that I can't. But when you start talking about being able to talk about things and that there's a central gravity that I think is the piece of this chemistry set that I'm talking about. When you can sense that and you want to be part of it, it then creates another element with the combined constituent elements to make something else. That is the chemistry set that you really enjoy participating in. Yeah. And it's palpable when you listen or watch a podcast episode thing and you can taste the value that somebody that's making it is giving to you. That's where I want to be in content creation. Forget all the stuff that are checkbox stuffs that have to be done, because if you don't do it this way, you'll fail, frankly. That's why we're doing the. That's why we're doing the podcast Gauntlet. Because I got. I. And I still get so tired of it where, you know, your episodes have got to be 23 minutes or you're going to be. You're going to, you're going to fail. No, it's not. That's not how any of this works. And that again, that strident. That's not how any of this works is what propels me inside of this program. And I again, the reason we made this episode. This is not just podcasting, this is life. You are going to come across people that are just not your fit inside of the chemistry set of your life. And it doesn't mean they're bad people. That doesn't make you a bad person. It just means that when you two interact or you series of people interact, something just doesn't smell right. You can't get the stick in there to start churning it to make it. And it's, look at all these. It's just not working. And that's doesn't have to be anything more than that. It's. You just have to be able to recognize it and then step forward to jump through the time. Not unlike I did with this lady, where she didn't articulate anything that she thought was going wrong. I wasn't going to provide her supposition of what I thought might be going wrong because I can't get in her head. And so we just pushed on through. We captured her episode and she published the episode. Thankfully.
- [14:39]
B
One thing that popped into my head as you were talking is going back to some of the tropes. If you talk to somebody with a background in radio as an example, and they Talk about what's the ideal co hosted situation. It's either two or three people and it's some combination of opposites attract. I don't want to go down the models, but there's a two person and a three person model that all involve either an idiot and a smart person, or a jerk and a not jerk or a conservative and a liberal or something like that. I think in my view that makes for okay entertainment because it plays to two different bases. But I think me personally relationally as well as if you want to have a show that really truly has value, you want to watch work with another person or some people where there's enough in common as a foundation that you're kind of coming from the same place and enough different that you have different perspectives on some things. Because in my view what that does is then it kind of homogenizes things a little bit in the sense that even if you disagree on what's the best microphone as an example, or disagree on who should be the next president or something, if there's something foundationally that you agree on that you can say, this is the reason that we're together, if you will, these other things are great, we'll talk about this. But this is our foundational thing. Then that relationship as well as potentially that show has some staying power because there's enough in common between you that you can go, I totally respect this person. I disagree on a lot of things or on several things or on a few things or whatever it is. But I have so much respect for this person that I can't talk bad about them. I can't disrespect that person because I believe in them as a person. I believe that we have enough in common that that person matters to me. And we can talk about these other things that we disagree about all day long and give you different perspectives, but we're not coming from different places.
- [16:40]
A
The different places comment I think is one of the most important pieces. There's a business relationship I'm about to engage in and I have intentionally sought out some people that I know think diametrically different than I do, especially when it comes to business. And it's because to make this next stair step that I want inside of what's going on inside of my own business circle. I want someone else's perspective that I know is not mine. And I don't know many people that do that. I think that in general, most people try to surround themselves with people that think alike because you, you'd think, okay, so my Values and what I think are important are an overriding factor to what I think is important, especially when we're talking about business, especially when we're talking about large scale proportions of an income that if they were to either just disappear or become smaller, much smaller, then things would be very different in your life. Absolutely. But what if you don't do that? What if you try a different chemistry set and you at least try a different chemistry set? Well, who knows, right?
- [17:49]
B
Yeah.
- [17:50]
A
And that's what we're talking about here, guys. We're not talking about you going out of your way to try and make sure you find somebody that thinks against what you think to involve them in your working day processes. I'm not telling you to do that. I'm gonna do that with a piece of business experience that I got coming up because I've tried many other things where I think other people kind of know what I'm talking about when I talk about a podcast network, when I talk about the variety, and I am talking about a wide variety of services that I and my podcast network offer. The difference though, is that I want somebody that is outside the cone of general expectation and experience that might be inside of podcasting to give me their perspective, because I want a different chemistry set. Those are just a few of the things that Brian and I are talking about when we talk about chemistry sets. In particular, the. The human chemistry sets that are involved inside of podcasting. And frankly, again, this is another one where we're using this model to not only push into an area of what I think is valuable content, but this is life. This is a life thing that I don't think I know that enough younger people are not hearing nowadays. They're not hearing the context of your life as a chemistry set. Seek out the people that work well with you in a chemistry set. But remember, not everybody's going to be an element that works inside of your chemistry set. And that's what we're talking about inside this episode of the podcast Gauntlet. Brian, I got two questions. You ready for them?
- [19:24]
B
Oh, I don't know. It's going to be tough, but we'll give it a shot.
- [19:27]
A
This one, my friend, has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the people that are watching this video over on the YouTubes via the Internets. Have you hit the like button here, down below? Because if you haven't, the algorithms aren't going to help us propel through the intertubes to make sure that people find us on the Internets and so if you don't mind, a little depress of the button would be great, which will help prevent Brian and I from being depressed.
- [19:53]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [19:55]
A
All right, the second question I got for you. What do you guys think of this? The concept of chemistry set is something I have loved for a very long time. It's also something that I always appreciate when I can look at someone and I can literally say, nope. The neat part is that it's fun to find different segues so that you jog off onto something else or you find a different project to get involved in. Because you know what? When you get stirred up into that particular chemistry set, nothing good happens. Find that. Seek that out inside of your life, but also inside of podcasting, because that's what we do here at the Podcast Gauntlet. You see, we throw down, we discuss. We rise and shine inside of podcasting. Until next time, I'm Mike Wilkerson, one of your hosts.
- [20:41]
B
And I'm Brian Ensminger, the other one of your hosts.
- [20:44]
A
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.