256: Switch On
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(upbeat music)
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Hello and welcome to Connected episode 256.
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It's made possible by our sponsors,
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Pingdom, Smile, and DoorDash.
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I'm your host, Steven Hackett,
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and I'm joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
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(birds cawing)
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And by Mr. Myke Curley. Well, I'm here. Yeah, you're not on the beach.
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Hello. Hey, how are you? I'm very good. Are you? I feel like you need to provide some follow-up
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about how you're feeling. Oh, I fractured my spine. Well, you're... I don't think we need to
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go into it any further than that, do we? A vertebrae. Well, I still have a spine. I could
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say I broke it. I broke my back. I've been saying that to some people. All of these things are
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somewhat true. Yeah, your spine is like the gooey bits. No, no, no, no. The spine is the bone.
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You're thinking of the spinal cord. Maybe. I didn't touch that. Okay. Luckily, the doctor was
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very happy to show me that my spinal cord was intact.
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But yeah, you may remember a few episodes ago when I was ever so slightly merry at the
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beach, one of the reasons is because I was trying to get the pain to go away because
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either the day before or two days before I had a silly accident where I jumped off something
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too high, had a bad landing.
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Turns out after an MRI that I have indeed fractured a vertebrae in my lumbar spine,
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which apparently the note says that now I am like medically 10% shorter, which I don't
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fully understand what that means.
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That seems like too much.
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I assume that it must be like my spine is 10% smaller for the time being.
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So that's fun.
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Do your pants seem longer than they used to?
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Like these were shorts and now they're jeans.
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Yeah, it's weird.
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I don't have to duck my head down anymore.
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I don't really get what the 10% means.
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It's one of those things where like, "Here's your report."
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And it's like, "Here's a bunch of stuff I've never understood before."
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But yeah, I'm dealing with a spinal injury.
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I'm glad you are okay. I'm glad it's not more serious than it is.
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It's a minor loss of anterior vertebral body height, so it's the height of my spine, basically.
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But yeah, it's quite a thing.
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Is it worth the rush that you felt?
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No, if you see me in San Francisco when we're going to be there next week,
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hug me gently, I guess, would be my request.
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Well, we got that.
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That's a good bit of follow-up, though, right?
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Like, "Oh, follow up, I actually fractured my spine."
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Just in one place. And there's no surgery or anything, right? You just have to take it easy.
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12 weeks of recovery.
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Where I was told, and I quote, to avoid pain.
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Like, in life?
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That was the advice I was given.
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Philosophical pain?
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Yeah. When he explained it to the doctor, it made more sense, but I just liked the phrase,
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because that was how he started it. But it's basically the idea of,
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"If something hurts, stop doing it."
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So you're off Twitter for 12 weeks?
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Yeah, it's just a lot of things I can't do anymore.
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But yeah, so there we go. That's where I am. 12 weeks of recovery, in theory.
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Probably shouldn't be taking multiple transatlantic flights during that period of time,
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but like, gotta be there for the people, man. Gotta be there for the people.
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That's right. You're a podcaster of the people.
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Spinal no spine.
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I mean, you still have one. You're not...
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It's not complete, though.
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We're not pouring you into a bucket.
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I don't know. Maybe I lost a tiny piece.
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if you could turn it into a keychain or something.
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- I don't want them to go in there and get it though.
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Stay away. - I could do it.
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- Yeah, okay.
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- I got some tools. - I got the tools.
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I got a very specific set of skills.
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- Look, if you can upgrade the RAM in a Mac Mini,
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you can basically do spinal surgery.
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- Yeah, I mean, humans don't have RAM doors either.
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- That's true. - If you think about it.
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- That's all done.
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We spoke about RSS last episode, I think,
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and you were onto me about cleaning out
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my RSS subscriptions, and I have done so.
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I neglected to write down the number of subscriptions
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I had before I started cleaning, so that's my bad.
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But I got rid of a lot of duplicate stuff
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like we talked about, and it is nicer.
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It really is.
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On the topic of RSS, though, I did
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want to point out that Net News Wire, which
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is a name that should be familiar to a lot
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of our listeners-- it was an RSS reader for the Mac
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for a long, long time.
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And iOS, yes.
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I forget about the iOS version because it wasn't very good.
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But it is been sold a couple times anyways, it is now back in the hands of Brent Simmons
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who created it.
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And he is working on net newswire version five, there's a public beta, I have that link
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in the show notes.
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I've been running it on my Mac for a while now.
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And it's definitely a beta like there's some customization, like particularly font size
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customization that I really wish was there.
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That's not there yet.
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But it's really nice.
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And it is fast and lightweight.
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And it doesn't crash like reader does in the background.
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So I'm enjoying it.
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So if you are using Feedbin, you can check this out on the Mac.
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That is the only syncing engine that it hooks up
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to at the moment.
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You can also just have local accounts
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if you're not doing RSS anywhere else.
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But if you're a Feedbin customer like I am,
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you can plug into that.
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That feels very artisanal to not have your RSS service syncing.
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Yeah, it does, right?
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I only believe in RSS on this one machine.
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and I don't want my subscriptions
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to go anywhere else.
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That feels very like hipster RSS.
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And he has said that there are plans to add more services,
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but it's a beta and Feedbin apparently
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was the one that got done first.
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- Is that probably the most popular Feedbin?
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- Feedly, I think, is the most popular.
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Looking at the stats for 512 pixels,
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Feedly by far is the most popular.
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But I think Feedbin is kind of popular
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amongst our circles maybe, 'cause it's really simple.
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It's like, you pay for it.
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Feedly is free, but a lot of people don't like the way their apps work or the way they
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I don't remember the crazy one that I'm on.
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What am I on?
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I Know Reader or something?
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I Know Reader.
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Yeah, that's like the Federico for a T-shirt version.
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And it has a lot of what is effectively server-side rules you can do with it, right?
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Where you can set up none of that.
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Absolutely zero of it.
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I just signed up for it because it was what Federico told me to sign up for.
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The Content Reader for Power Users Who Want to Save Time.
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That's their time.
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that does describe you.
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- I am a PAL user and I do want to save time, so.
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- We have one, I don't know, I put it in followup
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'cause there really wasn't a place for it,
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but I wanna talk about the MacBook Pros
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that we spoke about weeks ago
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that were being recalled for battery failures.
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It is the 15-inch, late 2015,
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so like the last one before
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the USB-C Thunderbolt touch bar revolution.
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A great laptop, Marco and I have both praised it,
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we've both used it on and off over the years.
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And they have this big deal where like the batteries are catching fire.
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Apple has some like really strong language about that.
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If you own one of these machines, please look at the link in the show notes and
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check your serial number and make sure that you are not in, in this list where
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you need to have your MacBook pro serviced.
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I'd heard from a couple of people who are sort of still in like Mac service.
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Roles and to get these repaired.
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It takes a while because they're not shipping them via air.
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they're being shipped by truck because they don't want to put these on airplanes because some of these batteries are
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you know dangerous and turns out that that has caught up to to the MacBook Pro the FAA has
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announced that these machines are not
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Allowable on flights anymore
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following in the footsteps of the note 7 and I have a lot of questions about this like how
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How are airline safety regulators and staff going to know that you have a 2015 and not a 2013 or 14 to look the same or
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If your serial number is in the batch or if it's not I don't know
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I have a lot of questions about the nuts and bolts of this. That's the thing is like, okay
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Well, what if you got it fixed? How do you prove that? Yeah, I don't know, right
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Like if you had this laptop and you went through the recall program
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How do you show the air flight?
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Agent or whatever. What are they called flight attendant that you have a fixed laptop? It's a good question
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Maybe yeah, you get a little like sticker with it. That's a little airplane on it with a thumbs up emoji
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So I have a terrible thing. I have a terrible admission to make for you now worse than breaking your back. Yeah
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When I was looking at this article, I was like, I think we have one of these computers
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And I hadn't thought to get it checked. I don't know if Adina has a 15 or a 13. I don't
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remember. So I just sent her a text message and I was like, "Oh, you should check this."
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Right? And then she said, "Oh my god, is that why it gets so hot?" So that's what's going
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on. That's what's going on in my life. We are not taking it with us on the plane. But
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I don't know if it's the 13 or the 15 that she has, but irrespective, that computer gets
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hot apparently. So that's good to know.
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Only the 15th blow up.
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So that's good.
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But did the 13 need to be recalled as well?
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I don't think so.
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It's probably just a lot.
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That's good news.
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Bloomberg, man, they got the picture of the right laptop and everything.
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Congratulations, everybody.
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It is August and we have a couple of just reminders.
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One today is Wednesday, August 14.
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There is one day left to pick up a relay FM fifth anniversary t shirt.
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you're listening to this on August 16, it is too late and it is gone forever. And I'm sorry. So
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there may be some pins still available that we have a small selection of pins still available.
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Yes. There will be pins left. Those will just sell until they're sold out. But the shirts are
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like a pre order so they get printed stuff. So if you haven't gotten one of these, now's the time.
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I will say I have some of the enamel pins here and they are really cool. And I'm really excited
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to see the shirts when they ship in a few weeks. Secondly, Relay FM membership
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month is August, kind of bleeds into September too, you know mid-August to
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mid-September. Yeah. And this is the time of year where we talk about the
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membership program here at Relay FM. It goes on year-round, there are perks
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year-round, so we send a behind-the-scenes newsletter each month,
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and we have a Relay FM members only podcast that I host where I pull hosts
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from different shows and we talk about something. Sometimes I interview a host
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about something they've done and that's really cool. I really enjoy doing that
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show and that is a member perk. You can learn more about membership at relay.fm/membership
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or if you go to relay.fm/connected you can support this show with just a
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couple of clicks. But the big perk happens in August and September where we
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release members only bonus episodes of every show. Some shows team up and do
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things. Some shows do it solo, so like for instance on Liftoff, Jason and I are going to be watching
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the movie Armageddon, which is going to be a real adventure, and we're going to talk about that.
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Myke, you, Gray, and Jason have completed another text adventure.
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It's going to be out on Friday.
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I've heard it. I think it's the best one yet. I love it so much.
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Thank you. Thank you very much.
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So go check that out. We would love your support. If you are a Relay F a member of,
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whether it's this show or any other show, thank you for your support. It really means the world
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to us. Yeah, thank you very much. All right, this is our annual relay FM q&a episode. So
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every August, Myke, you and I take questions and we answer them. We've done it on video,
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we've done it connected. So we're doing it connected this year. And we're gonna get into
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that. But first, I want to tell you about our first sponsor, if that's okay, I would
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love it. This episode is brought to you by pingdom, the company that makes website performance
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and monitoring really easy. Everyone loves a fast website and pingdom is helping keep
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your favorite sites online. Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Slack,
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Relay.fm. These are just a few of the websites services that trust Pingdom to
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take care of their monitoring. Websites are pretty complicated. We're well past
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care about your users having the smoothest site experience possible. And
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You can set up how Pingdom will notify you.
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So like I said, we use this on Relay FM.
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So I get a text message and a push notification
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from Pingdom if the website is down.
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You don't wanna hear your website being down
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from an email or a tweet.
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You wanna know so you can get in there and get it working.
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And Pingdom gives you that power.
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All Pingdom needs is your URL
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and they take care of the rest.
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So go to pingdom.com/relayfm right now
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for a 14-day free trial, there's no credit card required.
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And when you sign up, use the code connected at checkout
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to get a huge 30% off your first invoice.
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My thanks to Pingdom for their support of this show
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and Relay FM.
00:13:23
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- So we have over the last couple of weeks
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been asking for our listeners to send us in questions
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under the hashtag RelayQA,
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and we have lots of wonderful questions
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that we're gonna go through today.
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The first comes from Kate.
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Kate asks, "Since the last Q&A, is there anything in particular that has happened in relation
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to the company or otherwise that you hadn't previously thought could be possible?"
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What do you think?
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I think the frequency of live shows and the success of them that we have, especially maybe
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over the last six months or so, kind of starting with our tour, right, that was in October.
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Considering we didn't do any live shows the year prior, we did our live show in June,
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which was one of the bigger ones that we'd done ever.
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Actually, it was the biggest we'd done ever at The Hammer at WWDC.
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And then we enjoyed that so much that we went on tour in October and we did a bunch of shows
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in a bunch of cities and have kind of since then been doing more and more of them and
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I mean we're doing another two next week, right?
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Back to back.
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Back to back. That's going to be a new experience. We're going to be doing our big live show
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Thursday, Penn Addict Live on Friday. But like just the way that we, well, the way that
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you have kind of, you know, you're the kind of the driving force behind the live shows,
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But the way that we've been able to have these things come together and be more frequent
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and be successful has been a surprise to me.
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It's not a lot, but we're not losing money on live shows anymore, which we had been previously.
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Yes, the first several were at a loss.
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I think that's a good answer.
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I think looking back over the last 12 months, that's what comes to mind for me as well.
00:15:17
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►
that we've done. We did WBC like you said we did Chicago, New York, Toronto on that
00:15:23
◼
►
tour. Mac power users had has had two live shows. And we did WBC again, and now this.
00:15:30
◼
►
And I think to say that like the company does like a yearly theme do thing was like you
00:15:34
◼
►
guys talk a lot about in cortex, but I don't know if relay does that as a company, but
00:15:38
◼
►
if there would have been one for the last 12 months, it would have been like, live shows
00:15:42
◼
►
It was like getting us out into the world.
00:15:45
◼
►
We wanna do more of them.
00:15:47
◼
►
I'm already sort of having some ideas put together
00:15:49
◼
►
for early 2020, and it'll be something that we continue
00:15:52
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►
because it's so great to do what we do with an audience,
00:15:56
◼
►
hang out with people, and I really love it.
00:15:59
◼
►
And we're at a point now,
00:16:01
◼
►
this big thing, I'm just gonna show Excluded
00:16:03
◼
►
'cause it's so bonkers.
00:16:06
◼
►
Like, we've kinda gotten to a rhythm of how they work,
00:16:08
◼
►
like what we need to do, the equipment's all dialed in.
00:16:10
◼
►
So some of the stress of making it happen
00:16:13
◼
►
has faded over time, and it means that I think
00:16:16
◼
►
we're more willing to do them more often.
00:16:19
◼
►
- And because people will ask me,
00:16:21
◼
►
I would love to do a show in London at some point,
00:16:23
◼
►
and we will, I just don't know when.
00:16:26
◼
►
But it's something that I really want to do,
00:16:29
◼
►
but it's just something that is more difficult,
00:16:33
◼
►
because it's all dependent on what show is it gonna be.
00:16:36
◼
►
- Yeah, well, I'll say here,
00:16:38
◼
►
if we wanna do a connection in London,
00:16:39
◼
►
Fedrick is pretty close. You know, I can come over. Yeah. Something.
00:16:43
◼
►
What is something? Yeah. I would like to do that very much,
00:16:46
◼
►
but it's just a case of the logistics of that. Yes. Are significant.
00:16:51
◼
►
Yes. That's a big deal.
00:16:52
◼
►
So, so like it's the thing that we would really love to do,
00:16:56
◼
►
but it's just about when, but it is something that we will do maybe over the next
00:17:00
◼
►
12 months. Right. Like maybe sometime in 2020, hopefully if we can find a reason,
00:17:04
◼
►
I don't know, but like, it would be a wonderful thing to do. We,
00:17:08
◼
►
we do really want to do it so it's just a case of working it out.
00:17:11
◼
►
uh Scott asked where did the idea for Relay come from what got the ball rolling?
00:17:15
◼
►
I guess it depends what Scott is like actually asking but like my the way I am interpreting this
00:17:21
◼
►
is like why did you start the company um and I guess it was just a case of wow we'd both been
00:17:27
◼
►
doing this stuff for a long time like I started in 2010 you started not too long after that and
00:17:34
◼
►
we'd moved through various things, right? Like setting up a very kind of small duct tape
00:17:40
◼
►
together network, which we moved over to 5x5 and then it kind of just got to the point where
00:17:47
◼
►
I felt like I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve but didn't have the outcome that I
00:17:52
◼
►
was looking for, which was for podcasting to be my full-time career, right? Like I feel like I'd
00:17:57
◼
►
achieved everything I wanted but didn't have the outcome. So then I was like, okay, well then I
00:18:03
◼
►
I need to start again, I guess is probably the best way to think of it.
00:18:07
◼
►
And for me, starting again was doing it on my own and like in my own way and all
00:18:12
◼
►
that kind of stuff. And I shared that with you.
00:18:15
◼
►
And when I shared that with you, you were kind of like, oh, me too.
00:18:17
◼
►
So, so we just did it.
00:18:19
◼
►
Here we are.
00:18:20
◼
►
Yeah. And then it was just a case of like working out, like, this is everything that
00:18:26
◼
►
we know, this is everything that we've learned and these are the ways that we
00:18:28
◼
►
would want to do it. And when we did it that way and when we own the business,
00:18:33
◼
►
and could profit the way that a business does,
00:18:36
◼
►
it made more sense for us.
00:18:38
◼
►
And the next question actually leads into the rest
00:18:41
◼
►
of what I'm about to say.
00:18:42
◼
►
So I will hold on that on a minute.
00:18:44
◼
►
But that was why it was just a case of like,
00:18:47
◼
►
create being like creatively itchy feet, right?
00:18:51
◼
►
Which is like, do you familiar with that phrase?
00:18:54
◼
►
- So like, we know we just wanted to do something new
00:18:56
◼
►
and wanted to do something different.
00:18:57
◼
►
And I also felt like I had other challenges
00:19:01
◼
►
that I needed to face because everything that I'd done
00:19:04
◼
►
to that point hadn't gotten me to my ultimate goal.
00:19:08
◼
►
- Yeah, I think that's well said.
00:19:09
◼
►
For me, when we started this, you were further down the road
00:19:13
◼
►
into wanting to do this for a living.
00:19:16
◼
►
And again, this goes into the second question here
00:19:19
◼
►
in a second, but very quickly it became clear to me
00:19:24
◼
►
that if this company were successful,
00:19:26
◼
►
we could both do it full time.
00:19:29
◼
►
And for me, at least, that wasn't my goal
00:19:32
◼
►
in starting the company.
00:19:33
◼
►
Like I admit that my vision of it at the beginning was,
00:19:37
◼
►
hey, you know what, we can make some pretty decent
00:19:39
◼
►
side money and we'll have a place to do our own thing.
00:19:42
◼
►
And I definitely didn't foresee
00:19:44
◼
►
where it is now five years later.
00:19:46
◼
►
- I mean, even, but then though,
00:19:48
◼
►
when we started, it was a dream.
00:19:50
◼
►
It wasn't like an inevitability.
00:19:52
◼
►
- Definitely.
00:19:53
◼
►
- Right, so it did feel like, okay,
00:19:55
◼
►
we could maybe build something different
00:19:59
◼
►
and earn some good side money.
00:20:00
◼
►
But, and then hopefully one day turn it into
00:20:04
◼
►
what we do for a living.
00:20:05
◼
►
But that hopefully came quicker than we imagined, I think.
00:20:09
◼
►
- Yep, so this is Aaron's question,
00:20:11
◼
►
perfectly suited for where we're going.
00:20:14
◼
►
When y'all decided to go full time,
00:20:16
◼
►
being full time in the company, were you profitable?
00:20:18
◼
►
How many shows did you have at that point?
00:20:21
◼
►
And before going full time, how many hours were you putting
00:20:24
◼
►
in a week to podcasting and Relay FM?
00:20:26
◼
►
So your story is pretty well known.
00:20:29
◼
►
You went full time in relay much sooner
00:20:32
◼
►
than I anticipated, but it worked out.
00:20:37
◼
►
- Yeah, I mean, what was it like a month
00:20:39
◼
►
after we started that I quit?
00:20:42
◼
►
Like, I don't think it was long.
00:20:43
◼
►
- It was not long.
00:20:44
◼
►
- It feels like kind of about that time.
00:20:48
◼
►
I'll find the episode, like the best telling
00:20:51
◼
►
of these stories, like this particular story is on analog.
00:20:56
◼
►
Oh, I quit in October. Yeah, I quit in October. So we'd been around for a couple of months.
00:21:02
◼
►
So we launched in the middle of August and then in the middle of October, I quit my day job.
00:21:08
◼
►
At that point, the company was profitable. That was why I did it. Like, it was...
00:21:15
◼
►
We were able to be profitable in that sense quickly because we didn't have a lot of overhead.
00:21:21
◼
►
Right? Like a company like ours that only exists on the internet doesn't have a lot of
00:21:26
◼
►
of overhead. So provided that we could get advertising, which we did from the start because
00:21:31
◼
►
we both built contacts by that point, we were able to be profitable. Like the first thing
00:21:37
◼
►
that had to happen was we repaid the money that both me and you invested. And we kind
00:21:43
◼
►
of did that up until I guess October or whatever. And then once we were set, it was like, all
00:21:48
◼
►
right. It was just a case of I had a bunch of stuff happened to me, but really it was
00:21:52
◼
►
like I could see what our bookings were and I knew that I could at least last three months.
00:21:58
◼
►
And so then it was at that point it was like well let's just try it like I might as well
00:22:02
◼
►
just try it now because we can get there. So that was it. We were still at our original
00:22:08
◼
►
no we'd grown in shows then I think we had like six or seven shows at that point.
00:22:13
◼
►
Upgrade and Clockwise had definitely come over at that point.
00:22:15
◼
►
Yeah Rocket too I think.
00:22:17
◼
►
It's right in there somewhere.
00:22:18
◼
►
around that sort of time. So we had started to grow a little bit. Again, that was much
00:22:24
◼
►
faster than expected. Jason joining was a big shock to all of us in a good way, but
00:22:32
◼
►
that was a big surprise. We weren't expecting to have started any new shows by that point.
00:22:40
◼
►
So Rocket was in January, so it was a little bit later, but I think that was the next show
00:22:45
◼
►
after Jason's two shows. So we'd started to grow and things were looking up, right?
00:22:53
◼
►
And so then it was, I think it was like, "Okay, this is becoming much more of a thing than
00:22:58
◼
►
we'd anticipated, a little bit faster than we anticipated." But your story is very different
00:23:03
◼
►
It is. So I went full-time almost a year into the company. We were in very different stages
00:23:10
◼
►
of the life of the time. I had three kids. In fact, my third was born the month after
00:23:15
◼
►
we launched Relay. It's like, I'd taken a bunch of my own money, poured it in this company,
00:23:19
◼
►
like, "Oh, we're going to have a baby in a month." It was chaotic in hindsight.
00:23:25
◼
►
So I had a job that I really liked at a company I liked doing work that I enjoyed. And because
00:23:32
◼
►
we had three kids, my wife worked only part-time, my bar to make the jump was higher than yours
00:23:39
◼
►
was at that point.
00:23:41
◼
►
And I could have done it earlier.
00:23:44
◼
►
For me, there was probably three to four or five months or something where the money made
00:23:50
◼
►
sense to do it, but I was hesitant to do it.
00:23:53
◼
►
And I've told this story before, but basically Jason Snell and David Sparks ganged up on
00:23:58
◼
►
me at WWDC and said, "Look, you need to quit your job.
00:24:02
◼
►
You need to do relay."
00:24:04
◼
►
And they were right.
00:24:06
◼
►
I went I came home and quit my job and I was hesitant to though, right if you remember
00:24:12
◼
►
Right, like when we were talking about it
00:24:14
◼
►
Like I had a hesitancy of you Quentin because I was scared about
00:24:18
◼
►
Because I do the lion's share or at least at that time did the lion's share of the advertising work
00:24:24
◼
►
Which was where all of our money was coming from at that point. Yeah, I was really worried about
00:24:29
◼
►
Being responsible for putting food on your family's table
00:24:33
◼
►
Like that was like a big big like thing that I was really scared about
00:24:37
◼
►
But again, it was just like a case of like I was able to get over that quicker
00:24:42
◼
►
Then you were able to make your decision
00:24:45
◼
►
but like I remember when we were originally talking about it like that was like a real just like a real like
00:24:49
◼
►
Nervousness that I had because at that point the only person being supported full-time by relay was me
00:24:57
◼
►
everybody else wasn't and there is like I think now we're at the case where there are more people who have large parts of their income
00:25:05
◼
►
from our company and that kind of spreading of it feels more natural and it doesn't really concern me anymore because we
00:25:13
◼
►
Feel not because I'm a monster because I feel like we're pretty we're pretty solid
00:25:17
◼
►
There is like a case of like we would know very far in advance now if someone was gonna have a problem. Yeah
00:25:25
◼
►
Right. Yep. So the way that way things work just to round up Aaron's question before going full-time
00:25:31
◼
►
How many hours were you putting in a week? I don't know. It was a lot
00:25:34
◼
►
I mean I was working 40 hours a week at a job and then
00:25:37
◼
►
Probably working another 15 hours a week easily on
00:25:41
◼
►
Relay stuff, you know in the evenings and weekends and I was actually thinking about this
00:25:46
◼
►
I'm probably putting in the same amount of hours, right?
00:25:49
◼
►
Like I genuinely think that like the amount of hours I'm putting in now was the same
00:25:53
◼
►
I was putting in then but I was also working a job at the same time because now I have a much better work-life balance
00:25:58
◼
►
But then it was like I mean, I'm doing about the same amount of shows
00:26:02
◼
►
Right and I do less editing now than I used to and stuff like that
00:26:07
◼
►
while still doing the business management and we now have
00:26:10
◼
►
People we've hired to take jobs away from as well
00:26:13
◼
►
Like I reckon I'm probably doing about that because I was effectively working two full-time jobs, right?
00:26:19
◼
►
I would come home at 6 and I'd be done at 1
00:26:22
◼
►
Like that was kind of my my life at the time. So I probably don't don't do any
00:26:29
◼
►
more or less hours than I used to, which is horrifying to think about, but I'm
00:26:36
◼
►
happy that I made that sacrifice in my life because now I have the life I want.
00:26:39
◼
►
It's a difficult thing to do, it's a difficult thing for most people, and I
00:26:43
◼
►
was just at the stage in my life where I could do it, and I consider myself very
00:26:46
◼
►
fortunate that I was in that part. Mm-hmm. I'm reading the show notes for
00:26:51
◼
►
upgrade episode one which is September 2014. I've forgotten this it was Jason's
00:26:58
◼
►
review of the iPhone 6 and 6 plus that feels so long ago. I was when that when
00:27:04
◼
►
episode one launched I was in a hotel room in Italy because it was we weren't
00:27:10
◼
►
we weren't planning on doing the first episode then it was but Jason had an
00:27:15
◼
►
iPhone so wouldn't it be great to have the first episode go up and it went up
00:27:20
◼
►
on the embargo time of the iPhone 6. So it's like, well, this is the perfect way to launch
00:27:26
◼
►
the show. But like I had the, there were funny things like the intro music. I didn't hear
00:27:31
◼
►
it until the episode went up. I'd never heard the song. Just like little stuff like that.
00:27:37
◼
►
All right, back to Kate. There's a lot of Kate questions.
00:27:40
◼
►
Kate had lots of great questions. There's going to be a lot of Kate questions.
00:27:43
◼
►
#KateQA. Is this where you expected to be on your fifth anniversary? How is it different
00:27:49
◼
►
to your initial ideas of the company.
00:27:51
◼
►
I think I said a second ago,
00:27:54
◼
►
I could never have predicted the level
00:27:57
◼
►
which would be operating now, both in the number of shows,
00:28:00
◼
►
but in the amazing people we work with.
00:28:02
◼
►
And that's really what I come back to with this.
00:28:04
◼
►
If you had told me five years ago,
00:28:06
◼
►
I would get to work with the people we get to work with,
00:28:09
◼
►
many of whom I knew and looked up to,
00:28:11
◼
►
and many who I didn't know, but now look up to now
00:28:14
◼
►
as I've gotten to know them,
00:28:16
◼
►
that's what humbles me the most,
00:28:17
◼
►
is that there are so many amazing people that post shows on our network.
00:28:22
◼
►
Without a doubt. Just personal heroes up and down, right? It's kind of a wild thing to be
00:28:29
◼
►
in that position. And also because I am a guy, the financials are incredible too. I never thought
00:28:39
◼
►
that we would be at the place that we are, right? The fact that we are able to both be supported
00:28:44
◼
►
and we're able to help out so many other people with their like creative autonomy basically
00:28:50
◼
►
is kind of wild like I don't there is there are so many things right that you could
00:28:56
◼
►
basically if if if us of five years ago had access to our own website as it is now and our
00:29:05
◼
►
spreadsheets we wouldn't believe any of it it would all seem like oh what you did was
00:29:11
◼
►
create your dream version of what was going to happen and give it to me.
00:29:15
◼
►
Because that is kind of where we are like this. We have,
00:29:18
◼
►
I think exceeded at this point,
00:29:20
◼
►
all of our wildest expectations for what this company could be. So,
00:29:26
◼
►
I can't help but look back now and just be like,
00:29:29
◼
►
and feel very grateful for it all.
00:29:32
◼
►
Jackson asks, what has been something that you didn't expect to be difficult,
00:29:37
◼
►
but was surprisingly so when running a podcast network?
00:29:40
◼
►
The mental load of working with such a large group of people is a big one for me.
00:29:45
◼
►
I carry around in my brain the desires, needs and requirements of all of our hosts constantly.
00:29:52
◼
►
And that's just part of who I am as a person. That sort of stuff really weighs on my mind.
00:29:59
◼
►
And I've had to do a lot over time to help me cope with that. But making sure that everybody is happy
00:30:09
◼
►
and get what they need, that is a thing that like it really, it really weighs on me.
00:30:16
◼
►
And I think it helps, right? Like I think it's a plus. I think we both have this, right? Like
00:30:21
◼
►
I think our hosts like to work with us because they enjoy working with us and part of that is
00:30:26
◼
►
because we care about them. So it's a big thing that I carry around and I don't think I would
00:30:32
◼
►
have expected, especially because again, like I didn't think that we would have as many shows
00:30:36
◼
►
and hosts as we have. So that's been a big thing for me.
00:30:39
◼
►
Yeah, that's a good answer. I think something that comes to mind for me is the, as we've
00:30:44
◼
►
grown, I find it difficult sometimes to hand things off to other people. Like you said,
00:30:49
◼
►
we have a couple people helping us now internally with internal tasks, and you did that much
00:30:57
◼
►
quicker than I did.
00:30:58
◼
►
Because I was going to lose my mind otherwise. That was the problem.
00:31:01
◼
►
And so that's been really good. That's been a very successful part of our business over the last couple years, having people come in and help.
00:31:10
◼
►
The reason I was laughing just now is I am reminded of a call that me and you had a couple of months ago where I basically demanded that you do it.
00:31:17
◼
►
Like that there was just tasks that you were doing that you didn't need to do anymore that we could pay somebody to do.
00:31:22
◼
►
And you were very hesitant of it.
00:31:24
◼
►
And I understand because it's within your nature to want to manage that stuff.
00:31:28
◼
►
Yes, and you were right, and it's been amazing to have helped in certain things.
00:31:33
◼
►
And so that's something that I continue to look at and continue to make decisions about
00:31:38
◼
►
what I need to do, what I can give to other people. And there will always be parts of
00:31:44
◼
►
the work that are just my favorites, and there's other things that sort of fall to me naturally
00:31:49
◼
►
with my skill set, but there are lots of other things that lots of people can help with. So
00:31:54
◼
►
that has been something I've had to learn and it's been good, it's been really good,
00:31:58
◼
►
but it was a lesson to learn. Here's a great question from Kate, this is for you Stephen,
00:32:04
◼
►
you've had lots of show changes in the past year, you joined MacPower users, you had subnet,
00:32:09
◼
►
query and download or retire, what are or were the different challenges of the shows, what have
00:32:14
◼
►
you learned from them and what is going on with you? That's quite the body count when you list
00:32:18
◼
►
I'm all out. So I joined Mac Power Users in January, but that move was in the works for some
00:32:25
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time. When David asked me to join, it was a couple months before or whenever it was. And I knew then,
00:32:33
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he and I talked about it, you and I talked about it, the three of us talked about it,
00:32:36
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I talked to Katie about it, a lot of conversations to make sure this was the right decision.
00:32:40
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I knew when I accepted the role of co-host on MPU, that it was going to require a lot of time
00:32:48
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and energy from me. And I didn't have that in my schedule when I said yes. And so I looked at what
00:32:55
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I was doing. And query in particular, I knew kind of right off the bat that it was probably time to
00:33:02
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wind it down. The query and MPU are related in a way and query if you're not familiar with it,
00:33:07
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you probably aren't it wasn't hugely successful. But it was a show where we sort of answered tech
00:33:11
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questions from the audience. And it's straight into MPU territory quite often, as you would
00:33:15
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imagine. And I knew that I didn't want to do two shows that were that alike. And looking at
00:33:22
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The Raw Numbers, Quarry just wasn't that big of a show, and so it was kind of an easy decision to
00:33:27
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►
let that go. It was hard because I hosted that show originally with Serendi Caldwell,
00:33:32
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who is amazing. It was her idea, and I just kind of came on to help with it. And then she had a
00:33:39
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career change, and I was joined by Micah, and I couldn't ask for two better co-hosts for that
00:33:43
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►
show. I love both Serenity and Micah deeply. And that made it hard. And it made it hard to,
00:33:49
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like, I called Serenity and was like, "I think I have to, like, the thing we created, I have to
00:33:52
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move on from." And she was very supportive in that, as was Micah. He really understood it. So
00:33:57
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that was important to me that we ended it correctly. Subnet was a little bit different.
00:34:02
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Subnet was a daily show, five days a week we had for a long time. Most of that year, doing, like,
00:34:10
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tech headlines, like quick tech headlines. A lot of people have
00:34:12
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sent on their smart speakers. Daily is just hard. And I had
00:34:16
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helped with it. Part of the way through where Jason took some
00:34:18
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Micah took some, but it just got to a point where it was not a
00:34:23
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lot of work, but it was work every day. And it was it kind of
00:34:27
◼
►
felt like shackles on my to do list every day to do that show
00:34:31
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►
at the end of the day. And, and I really wanted the the overhead
00:34:36
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back from from those projects. And so by the time I joined MPU, subnet and query had been
00:34:43
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marked as retired downloads a little bit different download is a show I did with Jason Stell. Again,
00:34:48
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it was tech headlines, but in like a panel discussion format. I still believe in that
00:34:52
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idea of a show. But it's kind of got to a point where Jason and I couldn't put into it what we
00:34:58
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needed to and we thought about doing a host change. That's really tricky. We kind of decided
00:35:03
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that at least for now that idea is sort of had its run. I still believe in that show format. I
00:35:10
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►
still want a show like that on Relay FM, but it was kind of clear that download wasn't quite
00:35:15
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what we wanted it to be. And I'm very proud of that show as well. Jason and I, I think we did
00:35:21
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►
a really good job, just to speak candidly, with the the panel members that we had. That we had
00:35:29
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lots of diverse voices on that show.
00:35:31
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And that was really important to us.
00:35:33
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And it was important to talk with people
00:35:35
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who were experts in their field
00:35:36
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and talk to people who really know their stuff.
00:35:39
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And it was a lot of fun to get to know a lot of people
00:35:41
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through downloads, a lot of friends of mine now
00:35:43
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►
that I've met in this industry,
00:35:44
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because they were download guests
00:35:45
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and that was our first interaction.
00:35:47
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So something like that, I think,
00:35:49
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►
could come back at some point.
00:35:50
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But those were kind of the challenge of the shows
00:35:53
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and why we wound them down.
00:35:55
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►
MPU has been extremely rewarding.
00:35:58
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The audience of MPU is fantastic.
00:36:01
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They are extremely engaged, extremely involved in the show,
00:36:06
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►
and they've really welcomed me with open arms.
00:36:10
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►
You know, it's a big change to change a host
00:36:12
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►
after nine years, and I went into it knowing that,
00:36:16
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►
and knowing that I had to prove that I was,
00:36:19
◼
►
you know, that David had made the right choice,
00:36:21
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►
and I think now, nine months into it or whatever,
00:36:25
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►
that it's gone really well, and the show is healthy,
00:36:27
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►
and the audience is just as engaged as they were before.
00:36:30
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So I think we've transitioned smoothly.
00:36:33
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►
And for anyone who listens to MPU,
00:36:35
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►
I appreciate you taking a chance on me
00:36:40
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►
knowing that it does change the show fundamentally.
00:36:43
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►
But I think it's doing really well.
00:36:46
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►
- A change show is not a bad show.
00:36:48
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►
It's just changed.
00:36:49
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►
- Just changed.
00:36:50
◼
►
- I wanna say a little bit about Subnet and Download.
00:36:54
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►
- They were both experiments.
00:36:57
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►
Subnet was an experiment in working on a completely different format to be
00:37:02
◼
►
delivered via a different medium, which is to be like Echos and Google Homes and
00:37:07
◼
►
stuff like that. And that was a project that we started when we were approached
00:37:12
◼
►
by Anchor to kind of see if we wanted to make content like that. And we tried it
00:37:18
◼
►
and ultimately realized that that experiment was never going to lead
00:37:21
◼
►
anywhere that we were really that happy with under that kind of guise, right?
00:37:25
◼
►
Like, it was a time sink for you and I could never work out how we would make money on
00:37:32
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►
And at that point it seemed like, okay, this isn't right for now.
00:37:37
◼
►
Later on this might be a thing that we can work out, but it wasn't a good use of your
00:37:41
◼
►
time and so maybe there's something else that we could do in the future with it.
00:37:45
◼
►
And download was an experiment in like, and we've got questions about this later so again
00:37:50
◼
►
I won't say too much about it right now, but like can we push out into wider technology?
00:37:55
◼
►
And the answer was yes, but we couldn't break it to the level that you and Jason wanted,
00:38:02
◼
►
The show was very successful, but it wasn't as successful as our Apple-focused shows.
00:38:09
◼
►
So it got to the point where you both wanted to focus on things that were better for you.
00:38:16
◼
►
So they were both experiments and they were successful to a point, but neither of them
00:38:21
◼
►
got to where we wanted to be.
00:38:23
◼
►
And I think as a company, we're trying to be a little bit more focused on that, right?
00:38:28
◼
►
Like we can take some risks, but if they're not going to work, then we've got to be willing
00:38:32
◼
►
to let them go.
00:38:35
◼
►
Is that fair to say?
00:38:36
◼
►
I know that your shows, I don't want to speak for you, but yeah, no, no, it is.
00:38:40
◼
►
And I think that download may have been more successful in our goal of breaking past Apple
00:38:45
◼
►
if Jason had been paired with somebody who wasn't so Apple centric as I am.
00:38:49
◼
►
And like that was just a staffing issue.
00:38:51
◼
►
that that may have hurt it. But it was also interesting to doing some that download at
00:38:56
◼
►
the same time was actually great because to prep for download, like I was already doing the work
00:39:01
◼
►
every day with subnet looking for the three tech hons of the day. So with download picking the four
00:39:04
◼
►
for the week is like here already 12 like let's just pick out of here what seems to be the most
00:39:09
◼
►
important. So they were very influential on each other. And when subnet ended download kept going
00:39:15
◼
►
for another six months. I felt that difference was like, oh, like, I didn't realize how much heavy
00:39:19
◼
►
lifting subnet was doing for download, just like an interesting thing behind the scenes. But yeah,
00:39:25
◼
►
we you know, experimented with it, it didn't pan out. That doesn't mean it was a bad idea. It just
00:39:29
◼
►
means that that specific execution didn't do quite what we wanted it to do. Alright, we have
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more questions. We want to tell you about our second sponsor. And that is DoorDash. Whether
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Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, and the Cheesecake Factory. So I've been using DoorDash. Like I said, I have
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this favorite taco place. Myke, you're coming to Memphis. We're going to eat there. It's just
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inevitable. And there have been times where it's like, oh, just chaos at home. I just want something
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delivered. You order, it shows up in the app, you get an estimated time of delivery. Everything is
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and all of Relay FM.
00:41:20
◼
►
All right, so the next question comes from Kate.
00:41:23
◼
►
Kate wants to know, what is your favorite new thing,
00:41:25
◼
►
work-related or otherwise, that you
00:41:27
◼
►
have started doing this year?
00:41:30
◼
►
I kind of want to answer otherwise.
00:41:32
◼
►
We're talking a lot about work.
00:41:33
◼
►
You should answer.
00:41:34
◼
►
Otherwise was in that, so you should answer otherwise.
00:41:36
◼
►
So I'm going to answer otherwise.
00:41:38
◼
►
I have gotten into fishing again this year.
00:41:41
◼
►
So I did that as a kid, and I've been doing more of it.
00:41:44
◼
►
My daughter enjoys it.
00:41:45
◼
►
My dad enjoys it.
00:41:47
◼
►
We've been several times.
00:41:49
◼
►
And it's really nice to not be on the internet
00:41:52
◼
►
and go do something outside.
00:41:54
◼
►
And so that is an otherwise thing for me.
00:41:57
◼
►
As far as work, look, I'm having a ball on Mac Power Users.
00:42:02
◼
►
It's working with David Sparks is a dream come true.
00:42:05
◼
►
Working with that audience is amazing.
00:42:07
◼
►
I love that I can get super nerdy about the Finder
00:42:08
◼
►
and Federico isn't rolling his eyes like he does here.
00:42:12
◼
►
So MPU has just been like seriously bucket list type stuff
00:42:15
◼
►
as far as work.
00:42:16
◼
►
- I can't really think of anything I'm doing personally.
00:42:20
◼
►
I mean I have other work related projects,
00:42:22
◼
►
like getting into product manufacturing
00:42:25
◼
►
has been pretty interesting for me
00:42:26
◼
►
and it's something I wanna keep working on.
00:42:28
◼
►
But my kind of work thing is this year
00:42:33
◼
►
started to hand over editing projects to the very wonderful and talented Jim
00:42:38
◼
►
Metzendorf who helps us out with a selection of shows and having somebody
00:42:43
◼
►
who I trust edit some shows for me instead of me doing them has been like a
00:42:48
◼
►
really nice thing. It's been great for the regular shows that I have that I've
00:42:52
◼
►
handed to Jim but it's also really great when like I have a particularly
00:42:56
◼
►
difficult edit that I haven't got time to do for whatever reason I can just ask
00:43:01
◼
►
gym to do it for me and he'll do it and that's been like given me a lot of
00:43:07
◼
►
stress relief and freedom and time back so that's been one of my favorite work
00:43:12
◼
►
things that I've done for myself this year rather than like making things
00:43:16
◼
►
better for everybody else it's like it was just like a thing for me to help my
00:43:18
◼
►
working life yeah right but like there are things that we always try and do in
00:43:22
◼
►
the company to make things better but like this is for me for my own work
00:43:25
◼
►
right which is making the shows so that's been like a really wonderful
00:43:29
◼
►
thing for me. It's been good and I can see the change in your work with Jim
00:43:36
◼
►
taking over more of your editing. So yeah because you get you get the invoice so
00:43:41
◼
►
you just see me like that dude I do literally see the change. No it's great and
00:43:49
◼
►
I've used him for a few things and he's gonna do the connected game show which
00:43:53
◼
►
I've apologized to him in advance of how crazy that's gonna be. So mm-hmm trust Jim
00:43:58
◼
►
with it. It's the best. Kyle wants to know what is your favorite non relay podcast? It's
00:44:05
◼
►
either wonderful by Griffin and Rachel McElroy or Dubai Friday. I will I will second Dubai Friday.
00:44:13
◼
►
I'm also really enjoying app stories that John and Federico do that it's kind of partially behind the
00:44:20
◼
►
scenes at Mac stories, partially interviews topic stuff, but they do it sort of in a Mac stories way
00:44:26
◼
►
and I don't miss an episode.
00:44:29
◼
►
I was trying to scroll through my overcast
00:44:32
◼
►
to find something that is not tech-ish.
00:44:35
◼
►
One that's half tech, half creative stuff
00:44:38
◼
►
is the Stallman podcast by our friend Tyler Stallman.
00:44:40
◼
►
He does interviews with creators and talks about tech,
00:44:43
◼
►
and even if I'm not super into the world
00:44:47
◼
►
that he's talking about, he does such a good job
00:44:50
◼
►
explaining things and getting good stuff out of people
00:44:53
◼
►
interviews that you know you have not I'm not really trying to choose between
00:44:56
◼
►
Final Cut and Premiere but I'll listen to an hour of him talking to people
00:44:59
◼
►
about it because it's he makes it so interesting. Yeah he's also very talented.
00:45:03
◼
►
I have been trying to listen to less technology shows obviously I love them
00:45:09
◼
►
but because I make them I'm trying to have less like input of it so I feel
00:45:17
◼
►
like my thoughts can be more organically generated from me than listening to other people and
00:45:24
◼
►
then feel like I'm repeating what they're saying or like hesitating from saying something
00:45:30
◼
►
or talking about something because I'm concerned that all this is just like what I heard on
00:45:34
◼
►
such and such show. I don't want to be kind of like restricted like that. So I do listen
00:45:41
◼
►
to a couple of the big tech shows. I mean, if you're thinking about it, I'm probably
00:45:45
◼
►
into it, but the shows that I'm adding into my life, I'm trying to make them more entertainment
00:45:51
◼
►
than technology.
00:45:52
◼
►
Yeah, I think that's, I think that can be wise.
00:45:55
◼
►
And I go through periods where I don't listen to many tech podcasts at all, or just don't
00:45:59
◼
►
listen to many podcasts.
00:46:00
◼
►
You know, I sort of have seasons where I back off, but it's, there's so much good stuff
00:46:06
◼
►
out there, right?
00:46:07
◼
►
Like we could name a ton of podcasts and just this would go on forever.
00:46:10
◼
►
So we should move on.
00:46:12
◼
►
So Kevin asks, how do you battle possible fatigue covering Apple News on multiple shows?
00:46:17
◼
►
I imagine it must be tough to find your own take multiple times a week.
00:46:21
◼
►
I think you should answer this because you have two new shows you have upgraded connected
00:46:25
◼
►
while very different.
00:46:26
◼
►
There's a lot of topic overlap.
00:46:27
◼
►
So this this I toss this to you.
00:46:31
◼
►
I work very, very, very hard on this.
00:46:34
◼
►
I try as good, like I try as hard as possible to not have overlap.
00:46:41
◼
►
So there will be a lot of times where like you might say,
00:46:45
◼
►
should we talk about this on connected? And I'm like,
00:46:48
◼
►
I don't want to talk about it cause I've just spoke about it like for 45 minutes
00:46:50
◼
►
on upgrade and like, and I just don't want to repeat myself.
00:46:53
◼
►
So like we try and work on other topics or if we are going to cover something,
00:46:58
◼
►
I typically, you probably don't even notice this,
00:47:01
◼
►
but like if there's a topic that was on upgrade and connected,
00:47:04
◼
►
I either A) don't say much about it on connected because I've already said
00:47:09
◼
►
everything or B) there are times where I have kept specific things for the other
00:47:15
◼
►
show so like I have thoughts for one show and thoughts for another show so
00:47:19
◼
►
I'm not repeating myself constantly right like that is like a big thing that
00:47:23
◼
►
I try and do because I don't want to do that I don't want to do it for me let
00:47:27
◼
►
alone for the listener like I don't want to just keep saying the same things over
00:47:30
◼
►
over and over again. So I try to keep a split between the two of them because I think it's
00:47:35
◼
►
very possible to do it. There is enough topics most weeks that it can be done that way. And
00:47:40
◼
►
I try not to repeat myself. So that's how. And to be honest, I think that I do a pretty
00:47:46
◼
►
good job about it because I never get complaints about it. I feel like the only times people
00:47:50
◼
►
ever do complain about it to me, at least what I've seen, I don't know if those people
00:47:54
◼
►
listen to the shows like they just see that I do two shows that are focused on Apple News.
00:47:58
◼
►
But yeah, that's kind of my thing and like there are things over time that have naturally become
00:48:05
◼
►
the beat of one show or the other. Right. Right. So like, for example, I started talking about
00:48:11
◼
►
folding phones on upgrade. And I don't really think Jason cared too much about me to give him
00:48:16
◼
►
my Samsung Galaxy Fold update every week. So it came here. So it came here because you guys were
00:48:21
◼
►
more interested in me talking about it. Sure, if that's what you think is happening, that's fine.
00:48:26
◼
►
Yeah, exactly. Or at least you will be more willing to just let me do it. I don't know.
00:48:30
◼
►
But like, there are things that over time have just settled into each show, dependent on like
00:48:37
◼
►
the overlapping interests. Like for example, upstream. Talking about streaming services and
00:48:43
◼
►
the content is way more a me and Jason thing than it would be with you two, right? Because I don't
00:48:49
◼
►
think that you two care about the inner workings of NBC too much but me and Jason seem to really
00:48:53
◼
►
care about it because Jason cares about the entertainment. I really am just fascinated in
00:48:58
◼
►
the way that businesses work so that's why that works. So like you know each show has its own
00:49:03
◼
►
things on the face of it they seem like they would be the same but they're actually not at all.
00:49:09
◼
►
Yep I think that's a good answer. I have no complaints.
00:49:12
◼
►
Dr. Geek asks do you feel that Relay is too Apple centric rather than technology as a whole?
00:49:17
◼
►
I would say there's always room to add non Apple tech stuff like we did with download.
00:49:22
◼
►
There are a couple of things though, if you look at the wider like tech podcasting scene,
00:49:28
◼
►
it is a lot of Apple centric stuff. Of course, we have material that covers Google and Android.
00:49:33
◼
►
But like, you'd be hard pressed to find a really successful or a handful of successful shows,
00:49:40
◼
►
covering like Microsoft and Windows or covering Amazon and its products. So I don't think there's
00:49:46
◼
►
really room for like a Windows focused PC focused show. But I think there there is always room to go
00:49:52
◼
►
a little bit broader. For us. We started is sort of in this area covering Apple is most of the
00:49:59
◼
►
people we work with cover Apple. And I feel like we've done a good job at diversifying the types
00:50:06
◼
►
of shows that cover this stuff. And you know, things like upgrade, which you know, also cover
00:50:09
◼
►
media streaming, like you said, adding things to it organically. But it hasn't been a problem. And
00:50:15
◼
►
And in fact, there are strengths to it that sponsors who have products or services that
00:50:23
◼
►
integrate into the Apple ecosystem, or they want Apple's customers to be their customers,
00:50:28
◼
►
you know, we are in a good position as far as that's concerned.
00:50:30
◼
►
So it hasn't ever really, I don't think it's ever really a problem.
00:50:34
◼
►
And I don't think Apple's gonna go out of business anytime soon.
00:50:37
◼
►
So I think we're okay there too.
00:50:39
◼
►
I don't think it's an issue.
00:50:41
◼
►
Like, I don't think really FM needs to be all things to all people.
00:50:45
◼
►
it's just not a thing that we need to do, right? We do have an audience focus, that's
00:50:51
◼
►
kind of where we fit, and that's just kind of where we are. We have a lot of shows that
00:50:57
◼
►
are not about Appleton. Honestly, if you look at our roster today, our roster of shows,
00:51:03
◼
►
that is not the majority anymore, like talking about Apple. It's not by any stretch of the
00:51:09
◼
►
imagination.
00:51:10
◼
►
We've got video game coverage, we have space with Liftoff, we have creativity in art, design
00:51:19
◼
►
development.
00:51:20
◼
►
Weird Wikipedia articles.
00:51:22
◼
►
Yes, that's the key.
00:51:24
◼
►
Lists of things.
00:51:26
◼
►
I just think that it's not the majority of shows anymore.
00:51:30
◼
►
The people that host them are mostly in that world.
00:51:35
◼
►
That's a different thing.
00:51:36
◼
►
I think that's maybe why it feels that way.
00:51:37
◼
►
All right, Hunter asks, "You have so many shows centered
00:51:40
◼
►
around technology that assume the audience has
00:51:42
◼
►
some basic knowledge of how computers work.
00:51:44
◼
►
Would you consider a show focused on the basic whys
00:51:48
◼
►
and hows of computing?"
00:51:49
◼
►
So this question made me think of query.
00:51:53
◼
►
And query had sort of this fundamental issue
00:51:56
◼
►
at the heart of it of people that
00:51:58
◼
►
have these sorts of questions aren't podcast listeners.
00:52:02
◼
►
And if they are, they're not listening
00:52:05
◼
►
to podcasts on tech networks, right?
00:52:08
◼
►
They're listening to mainstream stuff.
00:52:10
◼
►
And so there's that issue where there's a mismatch
00:52:15
◼
►
of desired audience and actual audience.
00:52:18
◼
►
There's also the thing that I also struggled with on query.
00:52:20
◼
►
And MPU, we do a pretty good job of this
00:52:22
◼
►
'cause David has so much experience in it
00:52:24
◼
►
and I'm learning kind of from him how to do this better.
00:52:27
◼
►
But it's actually kind of hard to explain
00:52:30
◼
►
some concepts in technology,
00:52:32
◼
►
especially basic concepts, just over audio.
00:52:35
◼
►
You do need some sort of common denominator of understanding
00:52:40
◼
►
to make that work.
00:52:41
◼
►
So for instance, we did an episode of "NPU"
00:52:44
◼
►
a while back about Keyboard Maestro.
00:52:46
◼
►
And we spent the first 20 minutes
00:52:48
◼
►
talking about the interface of Keyboard Maestro.
00:52:50
◼
►
But really, that show was designed for you
00:52:52
◼
►
to go, look at the show notes, and maybe
00:52:54
◼
►
download the trial of the app and listen
00:52:55
◼
►
as you're checking it out.
00:52:57
◼
►
There's a tricky line to walk there.
00:53:00
◼
►
But having a show that's really focused on the basics,
00:53:03
◼
►
that could probably work on YouTube,
00:53:04
◼
►
that can work on the web,
00:53:05
◼
►
I don't know if it works in podcasting as well.
00:53:08
◼
►
- That is a very good answer that I was not thinking of,
00:53:11
◼
►
so you did a much better job than I would have
00:53:13
◼
►
at that question, so thank you for taking that one.
00:53:16
◼
►
- Kate wants to know, what is it like employing someone?
00:53:18
◼
►
How has it changed the split of roles between the two of us,
00:53:21
◼
►
and how has the roles of these people changed over time?
00:53:25
◼
►
We have five contractors now that we work with, right? Five, six people that have
00:53:34
◼
►
various levels of time that they give to us from a few hours a month to like 20 hours a week,
00:53:44
◼
►
you know? There's like a scale that we have across the different people that we work with.
00:53:48
◼
►
It's definitely changed the way that we work, me and you, because we don't have to do all the
00:53:54
◼
►
things anymore and has changed our jobs in the sense that we have a lot more
00:53:58
◼
►
things that we're just working on oversight of as opposed to like the
00:54:02
◼
►
actual nuts and bolts. You know my kind of feeling on like what is it like
00:54:05
◼
►
employing someone if you find the right person it's fantastic. That's well
00:54:10
◼
►
said. I think too I think it changes the way we work because we're not just
00:54:14
◼
►
working alone so like if we have an idea for something or we want to change
00:54:20
◼
►
something, we are now working with the people who would be involved in that, right?
00:54:26
◼
►
So when you're talking about the sales process, or again, this live show is just in my mind,
00:54:31
◼
►
so I apologize, I keep using this example.
00:54:33
◼
►
There's a lot of moving parts there, and so I have help doing some of these things that
00:54:38
◼
►
in the past I would have done by myself, and it would have been really stressful.
00:54:43
◼
►
And having somebody come alongside me and take some of those things, and I trust them
00:54:47
◼
►
that it will be done correctly in the way that I want and all those things is a huge,
00:54:53
◼
►
a huge deal. And it frees us up to focus on what we need to focus on, but also like honestly,
00:54:58
◼
►
we're a better company for it. We're a better company for having these other people helping
00:55:02
◼
►
us and bringing their expertise and their know-how and their attention to detail to
00:55:08
◼
►
their various components of the company that they touch.
00:55:10
◼
►
There is like an incredibly valuable thing in having somebody say to you, "Why do you
00:55:14
◼
►
do it this way?"
00:55:16
◼
►
So I don't know.
00:55:17
◼
►
Because that's how we've always done it.
00:55:19
◼
►
Because in 2015, we didn't know what we were doing.
00:55:22
◼
►
So we do it that way for like four more years.
00:55:25
◼
►
Yeah, we run way better now because we have other people.
00:55:28
◼
►
Like when you're not just doing something on your own,
00:55:31
◼
►
when you have other people that you're working with,
00:55:33
◼
►
it forces you to standardize some stuff.
00:55:35
◼
►
And that is very valuable.
00:55:38
◼
►
Yeah, it also allows us to be more ambitious with things
00:55:43
◼
►
because we're able to grow.
00:55:45
◼
►
So that's been really great.
00:55:46
◼
►
You know, I guess kind of we still do have a division between us, right.
00:55:50
◼
►
And like who manages what in our company.
00:55:53
◼
►
And the way that it works is like those contractors naturally sit
00:55:57
◼
►
in the divisions that me and Steven have created for ourselves.
00:56:00
◼
►
So like I very rarely interact with a wonderful developer
00:56:05
◼
►
because it's just not.
00:56:08
◼
►
I can't help.
00:56:10
◼
►
So it's pointless.
00:56:11
◼
►
I tell all I do is tend to cause work for him in like not a good way, you know, just
00:56:18
◼
►
like, what about this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then I leave the slack room.
00:56:22
◼
►
But you know, it's just that is your skill set, like, so you manage that. And it works
00:56:28
◼
►
well that way.
00:56:29
◼
►
Yeah, I take your crazy ideas and I
00:56:31
◼
►
filter them,
00:56:33
◼
►
filter them. That's, that's the word I was looking for. And yeah, I mean, and you know,
00:56:38
◼
►
handle the sales side of the company, right? I'm not out there selling ads. We
00:56:43
◼
►
tried that. I'm really bad at it, like hilariously bad at it, and you and that
00:56:49
◼
►
part of the company, you know, I can speak into that if I have an idea or a
00:56:53
◼
►
question, but that's sort of your side. And so when things come in to our shared
00:56:57
◼
►
inbox or there's a question from a host, you and I know kind of who needs to pick
00:57:02
◼
►
that up. Very rarely is there something that comes into the company that I'm like,
00:57:05
◼
►
I'm not actually sure who should do this."
00:57:08
◼
►
Or you know, it's become very clear every time.
00:57:12
◼
►
Gray gave us this advice years ago of like, we should have a, what's the word I'm looking
00:57:19
◼
►
An organizational chart.
00:57:21
◼
►
Oh no, that didn't come from Gray, it came from a book that we read on Cortex.
00:57:24
◼
►
Close enough.
00:57:25
◼
►
I give Gray credit.
00:57:26
◼
►
He's not going to hear this.
00:57:27
◼
►
It came from a book that y'all read on Cortex.
00:57:32
◼
►
An organizational chart makes a lot of sense.
00:57:34
◼
►
And we did that when we were a company of two.
00:57:36
◼
►
We did that years ago.
00:57:37
◼
►
And as we've added roles and as we've expanded what we do,
00:57:42
◼
►
that is still the template for where things go.
00:57:45
◼
►
And honestly, I think we did a pretty good job
00:57:47
◼
►
when we did that because we haven't changed much of it
00:57:49
◼
►
over the years.
00:57:50
◼
►
We've just expanded based on it.
00:57:51
◼
►
- Yeah, 'cause I think we haven't really moved
00:57:55
◼
►
into other areas, right?
00:57:57
◼
►
Or just August, maybe like when we started doing
00:58:00
◼
►
more merchandise stuff,
00:58:01
◼
►
that just felt like something that was naturally your thing. The E myth revisited was the book,
00:58:07
◼
►
bad book, good piece of advice. Alright, before we move on to our next set of questions I want
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◼
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Yeah, that's that's serious stuff. Yeah, you know, scan and
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00:59:34
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►
FM. Alright, Brian asks, Is there any podcasting gear that
00:59:38
◼
►
you are currently desiring?
00:59:40
◼
►
No, I put this in for you. Like I don't want to touch anything
00:59:45
◼
►
in my setup. I'm pretty happy.
00:59:47
◼
►
I just bought something for our live show. I was limited to
00:59:51
◼
►
Recording four tracks at once on my previous recorder and now I can do ten. I bought what is it?
00:59:56
◼
►
We bought the sound devices. Hang on. I like the way I like like when we wait
01:00:01
◼
►
Well, I mean, I mean as you're like it has literally anything to do with me. I mean, it's your money, too
01:00:06
◼
►
I'm looking at the box sound devices mix pre 10. Is it the 10 or the 10 T? Ooh
01:00:12
◼
►
10 T don't know if there is a 10 10 T. Maybe it's just 10 T
01:00:18
◼
►
I don't know what the T isn't there for.
01:00:21
◼
►
Totally awesome, I think.
01:00:23
◼
►
So that will go out for the first time in our San Francisco show.
01:00:26
◼
►
So I had a picture on Instagram a couple days ago setting it up in my office and getting
01:00:30
◼
►
all the settings the way I want them and stuff.
01:00:32
◼
►
It's a really incredible piece of hardware.
01:00:34
◼
►
You know, past that, at this point, I really only buy gear when something breaks or my
01:00:40
◼
►
needs expand like this that makes pre-10T.
01:00:43
◼
►
I would not just go out and buy this, but we had a need and we want to do bigger, more
01:00:47
◼
►
ambitious things so more tracks at once is important so we now own that. Usually
01:00:52
◼
►
what happens is Stephen's like hmm this is gonna be difficult to do with the
01:00:56
◼
►
gear and I'm like alright so what other options do we have and he goes away
01:01:00
◼
►
and he looks it's like well there's this thing but I don't know and so just buy it.
01:01:03
◼
►
Yeah pretty much out goes. We are an audio company like we need gear there's no
01:01:08
◼
►
harm because then you're like oh so let's just keep it all like just you
01:01:10
◼
►
have a big club cabinets just put the gear in the cabinet because we're not
01:01:15
◼
►
always gonna need the 10T. Sometimes we might need the 6 or whatever it was you
01:01:18
◼
►
heard before. Like you do not need to bring the 10T to San Jose because we
01:01:22
◼
►
don't need 6 microphones next year. We're just gonna need 3. But it's super cool. But you have the
01:01:27
◼
►
smaller one is just as good right? This is a wild question.
01:01:32
◼
►
Majd asks which podcast do you feel most like your regular self when you
01:01:39
◼
►
recall? This came from the chat room. That is so good. That is so good and I don't
01:01:44
◼
►
know... all right so I feel like every show that I do by and large has just like a
01:01:51
◼
►
different part of who I am in it depending on what is needed right? I
01:01:56
◼
►
would say that like it's probably this show or Bonanza where I'm more just like
01:02:03
◼
►
who I am as opposed to like holding something back specifically because it's
01:02:08
◼
►
not really appropriate for the show. Business Myke. Yeah it's like if you're
01:02:12
◼
►
being serious, which I feel like I'm being serious on most of my other shows by and large,
01:02:19
◼
►
right? Cortex is pretty relaxed, but we have quite a narrow subject kind of area that we
01:02:28
◼
►
pull from, right? Maybe playing for fun as well a little bit, but yeah, the shows where
01:02:34
◼
►
I'm more relaxed are definitely where I'm more who I am most of the time.
01:02:40
◼
►
Yeah, I mean, I think Connected is it for me out of my four.
01:02:44
◼
►
We've been doing it the longest out of all the shows I do, and so we're the most comfortable
01:02:48
◼
►
with each other.
01:02:49
◼
►
It is the show that has the tendency to go off the rails, the easiest, you know.
01:02:54
◼
►
Which shows more of who you are, right?
01:02:57
◼
►
I think in those scenarios.
01:02:58
◼
►
But it isn't always like appropriate.
01:03:00
◼
►
That's true.
01:03:01
◼
►
You know, Liftoff is pretty serious, MPU is pretty serious.
01:03:03
◼
►
A genius like in a way, like so I need you to script it.
01:03:06
◼
►
So I write those, even the jokes and everything, but we are playing roles on that show, right?
01:03:13
◼
►
There are jokes that I want to make.
01:03:15
◼
►
Yeah, because you make me a conspiracy theory acceptor all the time.
01:03:20
◼
►
So they have like, we have lanes on that show.
01:03:23
◼
►
So I would say out of my four it's connected.
01:03:25
◼
►
Ted asks, "Do you think that Relay will ever start using video in podcasts?"
01:03:29
◼
►
I'm going to answer this in two parts.
01:03:31
◼
►
One, I think doing-
01:03:33
◼
►
No, two, maybe.
01:03:39
◼
►
I think that if we just added video to what we do now,
01:03:42
◼
►
it would be incredibly boring and not very compelling.
01:03:46
◼
►
Because it's just people--
01:03:47
◼
►
I don't think it would add a lot.
01:03:48
◼
►
No, it's just people staring into a camera
01:03:50
◼
►
with a microphone and headphones.
01:03:52
◼
►
There is a universe where Relay does pure-- or adds
01:03:56
◼
►
some sort of video component that's way down the road,
01:03:59
◼
►
if ever, because that would require a lot more people
01:04:02
◼
►
and space and how do we do that when we're 100% remote.
01:04:05
◼
►
But I think doing like just making connected video podcasts just isn't
01:04:10
◼
►
interesting to me because it's just us sitting in the dark talking about
01:04:15
◼
►
Zach asks, what are the origins of your switch on tagline
01:04:20
◼
►
that you saw have sort of had but have never used?
01:04:24
◼
►
And why haven't you ended up using it?
01:04:26
◼
►
This is 100 percent your thing.
01:04:29
◼
►
So if you're wondering like, like, what are you talking about?
01:04:32
◼
►
It's in the footer of our of our website.
01:04:35
◼
►
and it's in some Twitter banners, it pops up every now and then, switch on.
01:04:39
◼
►
Yeah, I mean I just felt like we needed a tagline, and so we did that and it just never got used.
01:04:45
◼
►
It's not in like the official logo we use, it's kind of in the footer sometimes.
01:04:50
◼
►
It used to be in more places than it is now.
01:04:52
◼
►
It has slowly faded.
01:04:54
◼
►
Because it never caught on and we never used it for any... like I never think about it until I see it.
01:04:59
◼
►
Do you even remember like why?
01:05:01
◼
►
No, like why switch on?
01:05:04
◼
►
I mean, I think we just felt like we needed something more and I don't know, it never
01:05:09
◼
►
really went anywhere, it was fine.
01:05:10
◼
►
I mean, I naturally expect like we're doing this thing again where Simon's going to send
01:05:14
◼
►
us a message and be like, oh, I came up with that, like the entire name for the company.
01:05:19
◼
►
Which is always funny.
01:05:20
◼
►
It's like, I don't remember where the name of our company came from.
01:05:21
◼
►
I'm sure, well, even me or Steven recommended it, but our designer Simon came up with it
01:05:26
◼
►
because he's a genius.
01:05:27
◼
►
And so I expect that he probably came up with Switch On as well, but you really like took
01:05:33
◼
►
This made me want to bring up relay.fm.
01:05:38
◼
►
Because you did it during the Pingdom ad.
01:05:40
◼
►
No, yeah I did.
01:05:42
◼
►
I was kind of like going for the URL.
01:05:45
◼
►
But you get the URLs on none of the other websites.
01:05:47
◼
►
But now if I edited that ad like I was going to, now I have to cut this out so you've created
01:05:51
◼
►
some sort of paradox in my editing?
01:05:52
◼
►
No, because you're going to have to keep that in because I'm talking about this whole "I
01:05:56
◼
►
want to talk about relay.fm" as a thing right now.
01:05:58
◼
►
Because this definitely ties into your feelings.
01:06:03
◼
►
So the switch on tagline was something that you really liked and I didn't dislike it,
01:06:07
◼
►
but you really wanted it used in a lot of places, right?
01:06:11
◼
►
Because you are a person who believes in consistency of branding, which has been very useful for
01:06:17
◼
►
us just from a branding perspective, which is why I also, in my mind, the design part
01:06:22
◼
►
of our business mostly falls in your remit, right?
01:06:25
◼
►
Because you're very good at that.
01:06:28
◼
►
But this also comes to the name of our company, right? The name of our company is Relay FM.
01:06:34
◼
►
That is the name of our company.
01:06:36
◼
►
A lot of people write it as Relay.fm, which I totally understand because it's our URL.
01:06:40
◼
►
If you're going to write something not correct, at least putting the URL in instead is good,
01:06:44
◼
►
right? Instead of calling it like Real FM, which we get a lot. R-E-A-L, which is hilarious.
01:06:51
◼
►
So like, you know, if you're going to do it that way. But that I know frustrates you greatly.
01:06:56
◼
►
But the funniest thing is the idea that when we launched, we decided we were never going
01:07:01
◼
►
to call it Relay.
01:07:02
◼
►
We would always refer to it as Relay FM.
01:07:06
◼
►
And when people started calling it Relay, it was like, "No, don't do it.
01:07:09
◼
►
Don't do that.
01:07:10
◼
►
Call it Relay FM."
01:07:11
◼
►
At this point, we've let that go completely.
01:07:15
◼
►
Yeah, because we just lost that battle.
01:07:19
◼
►
But like, even me and you, like, just naturally, it just felt like, "Oh, I can't even keep
01:07:23
◼
►
hold of this."
01:07:24
◼
►
Right, that I would just call it Relay.
01:07:26
◼
►
So that's one thing that slipped away,
01:07:29
◼
►
is the idea of Relay FM.
01:07:30
◼
►
But the Relay.fm thing, I know is just like--
01:07:33
◼
►
It bothers me.
01:07:34
◼
►
You're never going to win that battle.
01:07:35
◼
►
But I agree with you that we have to try to keep it.
01:07:38
◼
►
Because our company's name is not Relay.fm.
01:07:41
◼
►
It is Relay FM.
01:07:42
◼
►
That is the company.
01:07:44
◼
►
But as I say, as far as getting something slightly wrong,
01:07:48
◼
►
having the actual URL is like, that works pretty good.
01:07:51
◼
►
It irks me sometimes when our hosts do it.
01:07:54
◼
►
That's really what irks me.
01:07:56
◼
►
But you did it.
01:07:57
◼
►
Well, I was going to fix it, but then we did all this.
01:08:01
◼
►
I just want everybody to know that you're fallible.
01:08:03
◼
►
On occasion, I make a tiny error.
01:08:06
◼
►
But yeah, switch on.
01:08:07
◼
►
Maybe one day we will have a new tagline that we'll use more.
01:08:11
◼
►
But for now, switch on.
01:08:13
◼
►
I think the only places on the website is in the footer.
01:08:16
◼
►
Yeah, and then there's a few Twitter banners.
01:08:18
◼
►
I remember when you were very, very consistent on Twitter
01:08:21
◼
►
banners all being the same.
01:08:23
◼
►
and the Twitter handles and I lost that too.
01:08:25
◼
►
The problem is with consistency--
01:08:27
◼
►
- Because our format of Twitter handles is bad.
01:08:28
◼
►
- It is bad.
01:08:29
◼
►
The problem with consistency is
01:08:30
◼
►
once you start adding people, you just lose, right?
01:08:33
◼
►
Like if it's just me and you doing everything,
01:08:35
◼
►
I can enforce it.
01:08:37
◼
►
- All right, so I wanna make a petition now
01:08:38
◼
►
to see if anybody can help us.
01:08:40
◼
►
@RelayFM has always been suspended.
01:08:44
◼
►
If anybody can help us get that, please help us.
01:08:48
◼
►
We have tried the trademark route.
01:08:49
◼
►
We have a trademark on our name.
01:08:51
◼
►
Twitter will not pay any attention to our requests.
01:08:53
◼
►
The reason that so many of our shows
01:08:55
◼
►
are underscore something FM
01:08:56
◼
►
is because we couldn't get relay FM.
01:08:59
◼
►
I would really like that Twitter handle.
01:09:02
◼
►
- Like wouldn't that be nice to have?
01:09:04
◼
►
No one has used it in over five years it has been suspended.
01:09:09
◼
►
We would really like it.
01:09:10
◼
►
And then we could go for a little bit more consistency
01:09:12
◼
►
in our names by dropping the underscores where possible.
01:09:15
◼
►
- All right, Lee asks,
01:09:16
◼
►
how do you plan getting new voices onto the network
01:09:19
◼
►
rather than the usual rotation.
01:09:21
◼
►
- Can I answer this?
01:09:23
◼
►
- So I've been thinking about this question a lot.
01:09:25
◼
►
I think that where we are today in 2019,
01:09:29
◼
►
I'm happy with the progress that we have made
01:09:31
◼
►
from when we started.
01:09:33
◼
►
When we started, we had zero diversity in our host makeup.
01:09:38
◼
►
And since then, we have worked very hard
01:09:43
◼
►
to try and balance that a little bit better.
01:09:46
◼
►
I'm happy with the progress we've made.
01:09:47
◼
►
there is always more progress to make, right?
01:09:50
◼
►
Like you can always continue to go down that route.
01:09:53
◼
►
So I, you know, we are always gonna continue working on it.
01:09:57
◼
►
I am happy that I believe that we have helped
01:10:00
◼
►
some shows get off the ground with hosts
01:10:02
◼
►
that were new to podcasting.
01:10:04
◼
►
Well, I know that they were, right?
01:10:05
◼
►
Like we have helped many people, it was like their first show
01:10:08
◼
►
they've been as part of a panel and that's really great.
01:10:11
◼
►
And I would like for us to continue to keep doing that.
01:10:16
◼
►
Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to work with everyone that we would want to.
01:10:21
◼
►
As it stands right now, we have very limited resources that we're able to... because we're
01:10:26
◼
►
very involved, right, to a point.
01:10:29
◼
►
And I think that we have limited resources.
01:10:32
◼
►
Even if we never need to interact with the host of a show, still having any show on the
01:10:38
◼
►
network takes resources from us.
01:10:41
◼
►
Like attention and making sure that everything's taken care of.
01:10:45
◼
►
Because I don't want anybody to ever be on relay FM and it's like, oh, it's basically
01:10:50
◼
►
like just having an account at Libsyn, right?
01:10:54
◼
►
Because we're not a podcast host, right?
01:10:57
◼
►
We are not a place where someone just hosts a show.
01:11:00
◼
►
We don't want to be like that.
01:11:01
◼
►
So we don't have the ability to take really any of the pitches that we get because we
01:11:06
◼
►
get daily people wanting to have shows on the network.
01:11:11
◼
►
And it's just not something that we're able to do.
01:11:13
◼
►
And one of the reasons for this is because we cannot guarantee success for any person
01:11:18
◼
►
or any show.
01:11:19
◼
►
And this is especially true for people that are brand new.
01:11:22
◼
►
So we give resources and advice and assistance, but it is impossible for us to help somebody
01:11:29
◼
►
find a sizable and long lasting audience.
01:11:31
◼
►
This is not a thing.
01:11:33
◼
►
We are not able to take Real AFM listeners and just point them towards a new show.
01:11:39
◼
►
We can do everything we can to promote it.
01:11:41
◼
►
We can mention it.
01:11:42
◼
►
We can have it.
01:11:43
◼
►
not a thing where we can guarantee success for somebody. This is just not a thing. I
01:11:47
◼
►
wished it was, but it isn't. So we can give all of the assistance that we can, but we
01:11:53
◼
►
can never make guarantees. So this is something that needs to come from the show, the individuals
01:11:59
◼
►
from the content to help grow something. So we have to continue to find a balance between
01:12:04
◼
►
new people and people with existing audiences. Because if we have limited time, considering
01:12:09
◼
►
we are a business, like we need our shows to make sense for us.
01:12:13
◼
►
And if people want to make money from a show, they have to have an audience
01:12:18
◼
►
that they're bringing to the show.
01:12:19
◼
►
And there isn't too much, unfortunately, that we are able to do to guarantee
01:12:25
◼
►
that for someone. We cannot guarantee it.
01:12:26
◼
►
So basically, this is a really long way of saying I think we have brought a lot
01:12:31
◼
►
of people in that you may have never heard of before, but now they're like
01:12:35
◼
►
really popular and successful people.
01:12:38
◼
►
We are continuing to try and do that.
01:12:40
◼
►
We have a show launching pretty soon that has a host that I would expect
01:12:46
◼
►
the vast majority of our audience has never heard of before
01:12:48
◼
►
because they're in a completely different world to technology.
01:12:50
◼
►
So we're going to keep trying to do that,
01:12:53
◼
►
but we can't really just take pictures anymore.
01:12:58
◼
►
I mean, it tends to be that a show that we launch on Relay,
01:13:01
◼
►
one of the hosts is known to us or known to someone on our network.
01:13:05
◼
►
And there's been like, I think that you should talk to this person kind of thing.
01:13:08
◼
►
because that's just where we are. We are at a stage right now where we can't add
01:13:13
◼
►
shows very easily. So when we do add shows we do think long and hard about
01:13:20
◼
►
the makeup of the people because we are not in a position anymore where we can
01:13:25
◼
►
just add as many shows as we want. So when we have a new opportunity come our
01:13:28
◼
►
way we're like is this meeting the goals that we have as a company for what we
01:13:32
◼
►
want our diversity to look like and we just keep working on it and we keep
01:13:35
◼
►
trying but we're not in really a place where we can just do everything. I hope
01:13:42
◼
►
that that has answered the question.
01:13:44
◼
►
Yeah, well said. I don't have anything to add.
01:13:46
◼
►
Max asks, "I was curious what traits you find are best in a host. Who do you like
01:13:52
◼
►
and what do you like listening to and what do you look for in hosts for shows?"
01:13:55
◼
►
I think it's somebody who has a point of view and a voice that is unique but also
01:14:04
◼
►
like with that on the the opposite of the coin is somebody who can do it for
01:14:08
◼
►
like the long haul there are lots of people who have good ideas but we want
01:14:13
◼
►
to work with people and want to do projects that are long-lasting and if
01:14:17
◼
►
you look at our roster over the five over the five years there have been
01:14:22
◼
►
shows that have ended I spoke about you know three of them that I know the vast
01:14:26
◼
►
majority of shows that have ended have come from you yes I'm at the graves for
01:14:30
◼
►
all three of those shows myself.
01:14:32
◼
►
But really, most of our shows last a long time
01:14:35
◼
►
and we wanna have relationships with hosts that span years.
01:14:39
◼
►
And so that's something we always look at too,
01:14:41
◼
►
both from an idea perspective and a host perspective.
01:14:43
◼
►
But somebody who can bring something unique to the table
01:14:45
◼
►
with their background, their expertise,
01:14:49
◼
►
their view of the world that is unique and interesting,
01:14:53
◼
►
that seems really easy, but it's not.
01:14:57
◼
►
And I think for both of us, we've either had always
01:15:03
◼
►
or have learned kind of what that means
01:15:06
◼
►
and what that looks like in different content areas.
01:15:10
◼
►
And our final question comes from Odin.
01:15:12
◼
►
What a name.
01:15:14
◼
►
I don't think-- I'm not sure if this is their real name.
01:15:16
◼
►
It may be the name that they choose on Twitter.
01:15:18
◼
►
I hope it is their real name.
01:15:20
◼
►
Maybe they're the real Odin.
01:15:22
◼
►
Then this question has even more gravity now
01:15:24
◼
►
that Odin was Lord of Thunder.
01:15:26
◼
►
God of Thunder is asking this.
01:15:28
◼
►
Oh, no, Thor is God of Thunder.
01:15:30
◼
►
Odin is just like, anyway, Odin's Thor's dad,
01:15:32
◼
►
but I don't remember what Odin is God of, if anything.
01:15:35
◼
►
Anyway, how has your company strategy changed
01:15:38
◼
►
as you look at the next five years?
01:15:40
◼
►
How will you ensure that you keep trying new things?
01:15:42
◼
►
I don't think you have to keep trying new things, do you?
01:15:45
◼
►
Is that a thing?
01:15:47
◼
►
- I think that you need, we need, we are,
01:15:50
◼
►
like I think we've done a good job of this,
01:15:51
◼
►
of evolving our idea over time,
01:15:54
◼
►
and evolving what a relay FM show is, and how it works,
01:15:59
◼
►
that is something we will always look at.
01:16:03
◼
►
We always wanna make sure that we're remaining relevant,
01:16:04
◼
►
and we wanna make sure that we're remaining interesting.
01:16:07
◼
►
- And maybe that's what new things means, right?
01:16:10
◼
►
Sometimes. - Yes.
01:16:11
◼
►
I don't think new things mean that we're going to start
01:16:14
◼
►
all of a sudden a YouTube channel,
01:16:16
◼
►
or we're going to start a consulting firm
01:16:19
◼
►
you and I are doing something on the side, you know, based on
01:16:23
◼
►
really like, I don't think it's that stuff. For me, it's always
01:16:27
◼
►
remembering what works and and how we got to where we are
01:16:31
◼
►
through hard work of ourselves and hard work of other people.
01:16:34
◼
►
And the relationships we have with our hosts, that's the most
01:16:36
◼
►
important thing to me. And, and making sure that that recipe is
01:16:42
◼
►
always tended to and that it works in the environment that
01:16:44
◼
►
we're in. And our industry has seen a lot of change over the
01:16:48
◼
►
last five years and I think the next five years could see even more change
01:16:52
◼
►
with more players coming in, companies, big media companies coming in spending
01:16:59
◼
►
lots of money, doing lots of things. Some will be successful, some will not. Through
01:17:04
◼
►
all of that what what will keep Relay FM alive and well is us... Relay.fm.
01:17:10
◼
►
Relay.fm switch on. What will keep us switching on is really remembering and
01:17:18
◼
►
focusing on what makes relay stuff good, but with an eye cut towards, are there any big
01:17:23
◼
►
shifts happening in the larger ecosystem that we need to be aware of? And so far, just candidly,
01:17:30
◼
►
there haven't been many, you have companies doing big stuff. Now that's really affected us. We work
01:17:36
◼
►
with some of those companies, we know a lot of people doing interesting things. But what what
01:17:41
◼
►
has made relay from successful for the last five years, that will be a thread through the next
01:17:45
◼
►
five, I guarantee it.
01:17:47
◼
►
I love that answer. What a great way to finish. Switch off, Stephen.
01:17:50
◼
►
Switch off! Someone had a really good idea in the chat room that we should replace switch on with
01:17:56
◼
►
a text from the challenge coin, which also for sale in the store, the text is creative,
01:18:02
◼
►
curious, obsessive. That is our actual, like, we came up with that as like the secondary tagline,
01:18:09
◼
►
I guess, but didn't use it everywhere. Relay FM is an independent podcast network of people who
01:18:14
◼
►
who are creative, curious, and maybe a little obsessive.
01:18:17
◼
►
Just like its hosts.
01:18:18
◼
►
Yeah, it should say creative, curious, obsessive.
01:18:20
◼
►
I like that.
01:18:21
◼
►
Who came up with that?
01:18:21
◼
►
- That was, I'm scrolling in the chatroom, I'm sorry.
01:18:26
◼
►
- Thanks, Dave G.
01:18:27
◼
►
- Thanks, Dave G.
01:18:28
◼
►
Dave G, if you don't own a challenge coin,
01:18:30
◼
►
shoot me an email.
01:18:31
◼
►
We'll send you one.
01:18:32
◼
►
- Oh, damn, son.
01:18:33
◼
►
Look at that.
01:18:34
◼
►
- You have to prove you're Dave G somehow
01:18:35
◼
►
because IRC is useless.
01:18:38
◼
►
All right, so there are some links in the show notes.
01:18:41
◼
►
Mostly we just talked about ourselves, so sorry about that.
01:18:44
◼
►
But you can find those at relay.fm/connected/256.
01:18:46
◼
►
Don't apologize.
01:18:47
◼
►
Be proud of yourself.
01:18:49
◼
►
You did this.
01:18:50
◼
►
You did this.
01:18:51
◼
►
Five years, you did this.
01:18:52
◼
►
Be proud of yourself.
01:18:53
◼
►
You did too.
01:18:54
◼
►
I'm just saying, I am proud of myself.
01:18:57
◼
►
Oh, don't worry.
01:18:57
◼
►
No one needs to tell me.
01:18:58
◼
►
No one needs to tell me.
01:19:01
◼
►
If there's one thing I can do, it's be proud of myself.
01:19:03
◼
►
Totally fine.
01:19:05
◼
►
Own it, man.
01:19:05
◼
►
You did this.
01:19:07
◼
►
Don't apologize.
01:19:07
◼
►
Anyways, so there's some links there.
01:19:09
◼
►
If you're listening to this the day it comes out,
01:19:11
◼
►
the day after it comes out, and you
01:19:12
◼
►
You won a Relay FM 5th anniversary shirt.
01:19:14
◼
►
Time is running out, so go check that out over
01:19:17
◼
►
on cottonbureau.com/stores/relay-fm.
01:19:19
◼
►
Pins and Challenge claims.
01:19:21
◼
►
Still available.
01:19:22
◼
►
Go buy them.
01:19:22
◼
►
Sorry I just spoke over the URL.
01:19:24
◼
►
Say it again.
01:19:25
◼
►
I think it's relay.fm/store is the short version.
01:19:27
◼
►
Let's see if that redirects.
01:19:30
◼
►
You just go to Cotton Bureau and search Relay FM
01:19:32
◼
►
and you'll find it too.
01:19:32
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Or just make it your home page.
01:19:34
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I mean, honestly.
01:19:35
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So you'll always be ready for the new merch.
01:19:37
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That's right.
01:19:38
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Yeah, relay.fm/store.
01:19:40
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Yes, that redirects.
01:19:41
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That redirects.
01:19:42
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- After two redirects, but it will take you there.
01:19:44
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Don't worry about it, it's fine.
01:19:45
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- Let's not talk about that.
01:19:46
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- I don't wanna know what's holding that together.
01:19:50
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Tape and luck.
01:19:51
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You can also check out our membership
01:19:53
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at relay.fm/membership.
01:19:56
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We love our members.
01:19:57
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We love everybody, but our members hold a special place
01:19:59
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in our heart, you know, can't lie.
01:20:03
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One day Federico will be back.
01:20:04
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In the meantime, if you wanna follow him on Twitter,
01:20:06
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you can do so at Vitici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I.
01:20:09
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- He's not gonna be here next week.
01:20:11
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He's not going to be here next week because he's not coming to San Francisco.
01:20:14
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He used to write at MacStories.net at some point, a beautiful iOS review will appear.
01:20:19
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So stay tuned for that.
01:20:24
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He's like in it.
01:20:26
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He's not talking to us.
01:20:27
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He's like...
01:20:28
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Yeah, we spoke about this last time, right?
01:20:30
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We're just not really sure if he's...
01:20:32
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Like what's going on, if he's alive, if he's just all automated.
01:20:35
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I don't know.
01:20:37
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I was adding previous Q&As to the show notes and I came across this 2017 and it's a video
01:20:44
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and you look like a baby.
01:20:45
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I didn't have a beard.
01:20:48
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So the previous QAs will be in the show notes.
01:20:52
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Yep, that was as per request of Champion Question Ask a Kate.
01:20:56
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Including one in which I'm very sick.
01:21:00
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You're always so sick for the important things.
01:21:02
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So you can follow Federico or what's left of him.
01:21:04
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►
You can follow Myke on Twitter @imyke.
01:21:08
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Myke, of course, is the host of a bunch of shows
01:21:10
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►
at relay.fm/shows.
01:21:12
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You can check those out.
01:21:14
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You can follow me on Twitter as ismh
01:21:16
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and I write 512pixels.net.
01:21:19
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I have to thank our sponsors this week,
01:21:20
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Pingdom, DoorDash, and Smile.
01:21:24
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And until I see you in just a couple days, Myke,
01:21:27
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say goodbye.
01:21:28
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- See you tomorrow.
01:21:29
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It's literally tomorrow.
01:21:31
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- Sweet dreams!