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Adventures in Spanglish, Family Dystopias, and More with Neal Veglio
Episode 7 • 1st August 2024 • 5 Random Questions • Danny Brown
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Join your host Danny Brown as he puts this week's 5 random questions to Neal Veglio. Answers include why Modern Family is more fact than fiction, why a great British tradition needs to continue, and why sliced bread isn't the best thing. Let's jump in!

Answering the questions this week: Neal Veglio

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

Neal's Website

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5 Random Questions is an entertainment podcast brought to you by Danny Brown.

If you enjoy the show, get the full experience with The 5RQ Companion, where I talk about the question that stayed with me, the one thing you didn't hear, and a question for you, the listener.

Please let your friends know they can listen for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, as well as their preferred podcast app, or online at 5 Random Questions.

Winner of the Best Interview Podcast at the 2025 Ear Worthy Podcast Awards.

5 Random Questions is part of the Mercury Podcast Network - for more Mercury podcasts, head to www.mercurypodcasts.com.

All questions provided by ConversationStarters.

Transcripts

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

the house, that is not fabricated.

Neal:

That's not an exaggeration.

Neal:

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

Neal:

conversing with an angry Latina woman.

Danny:

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

Danny:

every question is an adventure.

Danny:

I'm your host Danny Brown.

Danny:

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

Danny:

by a random question generator.

Danny:

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

Danny:

which means this could go either way.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

agency Podknow Podcasting.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

you increase your podcast success.

Danny:

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

Danny:

probably older than 98 percent of all podcasters out there.

Danny:

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

Danny:

Neal, welcome to the show, mate.

Neal:

Thank you, young Danny.

Neal:

Appreciate your kindness there about my age.

Danny:

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

Danny:

Oh, he's coming in there.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

How

Danny:

are

Danny:

you doing, Neal?

Neal:

I'm fantastic.

Neal:

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

Neal:

only been going for a few weeks now.

Neal:

Yeah really good.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

So I'm loving podcasting today.

Danny:

Yeah, thanks, mate.

Danny:

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

Danny:

support and experience at Captivate.

Danny:

fm.

Danny:

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

Danny:

goes out tomorrow as we're recording this.

Danny:

And so we did a live stream.

Danny:

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

Danny:

And it was cool.

Danny:

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

Danny:

and being a nice supporter.

Danny:

So that was good.

Danny:

So yeah, it's great.

Danny:

Excited to see that come out as well, mate.

Danny:

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

Neal:

Pleasure.

Neal:

Always a pleasure to support you guys.

Danny:

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

Danny:

first before we jump into the five random questions.

Danny:

You're a good, proud Englishman.

Danny:

We've just finished the Euros.

Danny:

Did you watch it?

Danny:

Are you an English supporter or what was your take?

Danny:

What happened?

Neal:

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

Neal:

watch any club level football.

Neal:

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

Neal:

And yes, I did watch it.

Neal:

No, I didn't have any expectations.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

It's against the law.

Danny:

That's true.

Danny:

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

Danny:

or were you just watching at home?

Neal:

Armchair supported, Danny.

Neal:

I

Neal:

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

Danny:

When in England, I see.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

a bit of bias comes over, I was.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

build England up pre tournament.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

up again as they get closer to the final.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

that, get them the goal, if you like.

Neal:

Absolutely.

Neal:

I think the difference this time around, certainly from

Neal:

where I was watching things.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

Not just football fans.

Danny:

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

Danny:

Get the old three beers at the meetups, etc.

Danny:

Ooh, we could tell tales.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

generator and we'll see how this goes.

Danny:

You ready for the questions today?

Danny:

I'm excited.

Danny:

Let's do it.

Danny:

Okay, question number one.

Danny:

What is something you learned in the last week?

Neal:

Oh, that's a good one.

Neal:

Off to a strong start.

Neal:

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

Neal:

you're Jordan Pickford in goal.

Neal:

I'll tell you what it was.

Neal:

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

Neal:

Talking about Jordan Pickford, this is a football related

Neal:

what I've learned this week.

Neal:

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

Neal:

person when they did tweet about it.

Neal:

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

Neal:

I learned that the hard way.

Neal:

Cause I was sat there with my wife watching game.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

That's right.

Neal:

Why the Spanish not as patriotic?

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Because of that that comment.

Neal:

But yeah, I'm in the same camp.

Neal:

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

Danny:

That is interesting.

Danny:

I saw them.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

because there's no lyrics at all.

Danny:

So do you have any more information on that?

Danny:

How that came about or?

Neal:

Not a clue.

Neal:

I've got no idea.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

And I've learned from it.

Neal:

Unlike Ian Dale, who probably hasn't.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

national anthem for Spain, Neal.

Danny:

Let me clear my throat.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Cause yeah, I was watching it.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

The Scots don't care.

Danny:

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

Danny:

We'll study.

Danny:

Mumble that if I remember it.

Danny:

I know Canada is very patriotic about their national anthem.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

words to the national anthem.

Neal:

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

Neal:

how did you not know about I know.

Neal:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

I might not drop all the links in.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

words are, just to confuse people.

Danny:

But that's very cool.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

and see what question number two is.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Neal:

Beef.

Neal:

Oh, beef.

Neal:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

reason for that

Danny:

here.

Danny:

Are you a traditionalist?

Danny:

Every Sunday you've got the roast on?

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Whenever we have a meetup.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

from your childhood don't they?

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

a pork loin or something like that.

Danny:

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

Danny:

childhoods where it came from.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

It's a very UK specific thing.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

people just do their own thing.

Danny:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

future where, families are all having their own individual meals

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

a bit of sweet corn and some roast beef.

Neal:

Thanks very much.

Danny:

Yeah I can see it now.

Danny:

You look at some, our kids are very active.

Danny:

They're like competitive athletes.

Danny:

My son plays football, soccer in North America and my

Danny:

daughter's a competitive cheer.

Danny:

So they're very active in the evenings.

Danny:

They've got lots of training.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

whatever you want, whatever you call it.

Danny:

But we do try and make an effort.

Danny:

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

Danny:

down and have that family get together.

Danny:

But I can see as well.

Danny:

I completely agree.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

your life's and business, et cetera.

Neal:

Yeah.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

complete before the end of the day.

Neal:

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

Neal:

pretty much become the norm.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Yeah, it is.

Neal:

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

Neal:

I hope it, it definitely stays with us.

Danny:

And you mentioned your wife.

Danny:

Is it Costa Rican, your wife?

Danny:

Costa Rican descent Costa Rican, that's right.

Danny:

Cost.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Has she had us traditional Sunday roast?

Danny:

Was that her first introduction to it?

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

us the icing on the cake, Danny.

Danny:

I can imagine.

Danny:

And what's her specialty then?

Danny:

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

Neal:

Name any sort of, underground Latin American dish.

Neal:

So you got rosa con pollo.

Neal:

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

Neal:

basically, the proper stuff.

Neal:

The pico de gallo and all that kind of stuff.

Neal:

She really specializes in that.

Danny:

That's awesome.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

there, but like a Taco Bell or something.

Danny:

No, thank you.

Neal:

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

Neal:

Bell on my wife's cooking, absolutely.

Danny:

I never could understand why Taco Bell became so popular.

Danny:

Maybe cost cheapness, the cost and food, etc.

Danny:

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

Danny:

prior to moving to Canada.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

And one of them was a mystery shopper.

Danny:

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

Danny:

ambience, the cleanliness and that.

Danny:

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

Danny:

what the whole process was like.

Danny:

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

Danny:

Appalled.

Danny:

I thought, oh.

Neal:

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

Neal:

Oh

Danny:

no, it was awful.

Danny:

And I may be better now, I doubt it.

Danny:

I pretty much guaranteed the same recipe.

Danny:

But yeah, no Taco Bell for me.

Danny:

I'm sorry.

Neal:

You

Neal:

know that probably, when did you move to Canada?

Neal:

How long ago was that?

Danny:

2006, so almost 20 years now.

Neal:

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

Neal:

than were here when you were here.

Neal:

It's becoming a growing brand.

Neal:

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

Neal:

Yeah, it's, they're

Neal:

coming over

Neal:

like locusts.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

You heard it here first.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

What's question number three, Neal?

Danny:

What's one difference between us that you love?

Neal:

Is this between you and I?

Danny:

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

Danny:

It's just popped up.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

and then maybe let's go as cultural.

Danny:

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

Neal:

Okay.

Neal:

Interesting.

Neal:

Intriguing.

Neal:

Okay.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

launch, I worry about you sometimes.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

there aren't enough hours in the day.

Neal:

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

Neal:

and I personally, culturally.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

approach versus me, who is.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

listen to what I'm producing.

Neal:

You can't tell the difference.

Neal:

So there's a learning moment there.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

that approach things in one way.

Neal:

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

Neal:

It makes us all really different and unique and it.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

I almost wonder, and A, thank you.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

just throw it out there, Danny.

Danny:

You get it done.

Danny:

You don't care about it.

Danny:

You're it's out there.

Danny:

So I see what you did.

Danny:

Are you monkey?

Neal:

Not

Neal:

at

Neal:

all.

Danny:

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

Danny:

I'm going to say early, mid twenties.

Danny:

My age wise.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

and it is really interesting that.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

And I really loved it.

Neal:

Don't get me wrong.

Neal:

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

Neal:

does when I'm actually producing other.

Neal:

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

Neal:

the fact that I could take someone.

Neal:

Who was slightly unseasoned and didn't have necessarily my

Neal:

experience and my skill set.

Neal:

And helping them to grow their skill sets to basically emulate

Neal:

what I'd been doing before.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

To quote a British term.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

stick my own content out there in a feed.

Neal:

and see the data coming back on me.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

That is a different ballgame to me.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

Good point.

Danny:

And that's it as well.

Danny:

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

Danny:

it as a passion project, right?

Danny:

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

Danny:

Along as a hobby and meander is a horrible word.

Danny:

I apologize.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Being super passionate about creating great, podcasts and great experiences

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

as opposed to front end stuff, right?

Neal:

I think I'd agree with that.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Sitting down and recording something into a microphone.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

is very much, I enjoy doing it.

Neal:

Don't get me wrong.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

is it, great voices for TV?

Danny:

Great face for radio.

Danny:

Great face for podcasting.

Neal:

I've heard that one before.

Neal:

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

Danny:

You know what?

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Something like this.

Danny:

Do you do video?

Danny:

I don't.

Danny:

I only do audio.

Danny:

Yeah, I can see why.

Neal:

Wow.

Neal:

How rude.

Danny:

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

Danny:

really want to push them.

Danny:

I'm not George Clooney.

Danny:

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

Danny:

phrase to come and introduce me with.

Danny:

We'll see.

Danny:

Anyway, so there you go.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Hey there, Danny here.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

with a 5 Random Questions membership.

Danny:

Choose your preference over at 5randomquestions.

Danny:

com forward slash support.

Danny:

And now, back to this week's episode.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

question number four holds for us.

Danny:

Okay, I have a little guess.

Danny:

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

Danny:

already be fluent, so we shall see.

Danny:

Question number four.

Danny:

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

Neal:

Your guess would be correct.

Neal:

You obviously picked up on the Costa Rican wife thing.

Neal:

Yeah, Spanish.

Neal:

I did try.

Neal:

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

Neal:

I'll be completely honest.

Neal:

I picked up maybe, I don't know.

Neal:

10 percent of conversational Spanish.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Spotify and Apple podcasts back then.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

And one of those languages was Spanish.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

go straight in with an immersion.

Neal:

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

Neal:

How are you going to do this?

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

But it's like anything.

Neal:

You get to a certain age.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

And I just got lazy, honestly.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

And so I've.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

I think that's it.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

I think it was an option, actually.

Danny:

French and German.

Danny:

That was the two languages you could learn.

Danny:

And I took both.

Danny:

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

Danny:

So they just went by the wayside.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

I really wish I knew what Spanish was now?

Neal:

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

Neal:

off in Spanish with the swear words.

Neal:

Absolutely.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

Spanglish, all those stereotyped.

Neal:

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

Neal:

That is not fabricated.

Neal:

That's not an exaggeration.

Neal:

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

Neal:

conversing with an angry Latina woman.

Danny:

You got that passion, right?

Danny:

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

Danny:

about most things that they do.

Danny:

So I can see that.

Danny:

And it's funny you mentioned like the stereotypical approaches

Danny:

of movies, TV shows, et cetera.

Danny:

I used to watch a show back in the UK.

Danny:

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

Neal:

Ah, yes.

Danny:

Yeah.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Neal:

Oh, 100%.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

That's the world we live in now.

Danny:

Top tips then.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Alright, we've reached the end almost.

Danny:

We're in the home straight now.

Danny:

Coming in to question number five.

Danny:

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

Danny:

Haha, okay.

Danny:

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

Danny:

is very British, I feel.

Danny:

Could be wrong.

Danny:

Could be a more global thing.

Danny:

But Neal.

Danny:

Question number five.

Danny:

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Neal:

The knife.

Neal:

Isn't it obvious?

Danny:

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

Danny:

And now we're roll out of time.

Neal:

Really, it's what do they call it?

Neal:

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

Neal:

It's some somebody's dog.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

How can sliced bread be the best thing?

Danny:

You could use a spoon, maybe.

Danny:

It'd be uneven.

Neal:

It wouldn't look very well sliced!

Danny:

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

Danny:

Maybe There weren't knives before sliced bread.

Danny:

Maybe people used spoons.

Danny:

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

Danny:

They look better than that, doesn't it?

Danny:

My presentation's awful.

Danny:

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

Danny:

So then they thought we need something sharper.

Danny:

What's sharp?

Danny:

I don't know.

Danny:

We'll create something.

Neal:

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

Neal:

got a great future as a politician.

Neal:

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

Danny:

still.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

We won't go there.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

There was a comedian.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

always thought was a really good thing.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

So yeah, I.

Danny:

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

Neal:

Probably sensible, to be honest.

Neal:

Although I hear the parties are great.

Neal:

Yeah, exactly.

Danny:

I heard of them.

Danny:

They're really good.

Danny:

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

Danny:

I'm going to cheat here.

Danny:

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

Danny:

to take the knife out of the equation.

Neal:

Your

Neal:

show your rules, Danny.

Danny:

That's fine.

Danny:

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

Danny:

best thing before sliced bread?

Neal:

Ladies and gentlemen, Danny is obviously one of the linesmen

Neal:

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

Neal:

changing the roles as he goes along.

Neal:

That's absolutely fine.

Neal:

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

Neal:

Surely, it has to be

Neal:

Music.

Danny:

Any particular genre?

Danny:

Just music.

Danny:

Just the creative outlet of music.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

because, let's be honest about it.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

water for you and your listeners.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

you're Doing something for a job.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

into classical music when I was younger.

Neal:

My dad was a big fan.

Neal:

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

Neal:

pieces and, orchestral, you name it.

Neal:

He was into all that, but I never was.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

and it just brings focus to us.

Danny:

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

Danny:

go with music, you can still enjoy it.

Neal:

Nice callback, I love it.

Neal:

It's like you've done this before.

Danny:

Oh, I don't know.

Danny:

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

Danny:

You don't have to know the language.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

And I think that's a great call.

Danny:

All right, Neal.

Danny:

So we've reached the end.

Danny:

We've made it through the five random questions.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

I've said that before.

Danny:

That's wrong.

Danny:

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

Danny:

So hit me up with your own random question.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

or talent with zero practice.

Neal:

You wake up one morning and it's there.

Neal:

What would it be?

Danny:

That's a good one.

Danny:

See, part of me wants to say pottery.

Danny:

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

Danny:

It just seemed like a nice relaxing thing to do.

Danny:

I was probably watching a YouTube video the other day that

Danny:

mentioned pottery for some reason.

Danny:

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

Danny:

does all this stuff around the house.

Neal:

You know who's boss.

Danny:

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

Danny:

kids, gets them to sports, etc.

Danny:

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

Danny:

So my wife does a lot of crafting.

Danny:

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

Danny:

and the steel cutter and all that.

Danny:

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

Danny:

And her goal is to do it for fun.

Danny:

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

Danny:

or a local store where we live.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

nice boom industry for tourists, etc.

Danny:

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

Danny:

So I'm going to say.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

So that would be, I think, mate,

Neal:

I love it.

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

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

Danny:

Yeah it's happy wife, happy life.

Danny:

Isn't that the phrase?

Neal:

Yeah, I keep getting told this.

Neal:

I need to learn that one.

Neal:

Don't

Neal:

I?

Danny:

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

Danny:

no rhyming word for husband, is there?

Danny:

I don't know that we are just happy.

Danny:

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

Danny:

in front of us, life is good.

Danny:

Life is good.

Neal:

Yeah.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

do for clients and other podcasters.

Danny:

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

Neal:

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

Neal:

I love LinkedIn.

Neal:

I live pretty much on LinkedIn.

Neal:

I'm also on Twitter.

Neal:

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

Neal:

to fellow podcast enthusiasts.

Neal:

So by all means, look me up on there.

Neal:

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

Neal:

point of view, then pod knows podcasting.

Neal:

co.

Neal:

uk is where I get the bills paid.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

Make sure to check them out.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Neal:

No, thanks for having me.

Neal:

It's been an absolute pleasure and great fun.

Danny:

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions.

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

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

Danny:

charisma would not be a hindrance.

Danny:

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

Danny:

to someone else, I'd be super grateful.

Danny:

Until the next time, keep asking those questions.

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