Reflecting on the first ever Team Building Around the World Podcast

Transcript - Reflecting on the first ever Team Building Around the World Podcast

The following is a presentation of TeamBonding providing more than 100 live, virtual or hybrid corporate team building activities for companies around the world. Visit team bonding.com to schedule your event now.

 

Rich, your host 

Hello, Team once again, it’s me, your old friend, Rich Rininsland. Welcome to Team Building Around the World, the podcast where I speak to people from the team bonding, team building industry, from all across the globe. Well, my friends, what can I say today is kind of a very special episode in that we are wrapping up our season one of Team Building Around the World. So with me, I have the two people who made this entire thing possible for me, Melissa Ehlers and David Yas from Podcast 617, right here in Boston. We’re gonna meet with them in a second. But of course, I have to start off by giving some love to my supporters. The show is supported by the Catalyst team building network. Find out more about the world’s largest network of team building providers at catalystglobal.com we also want to thank our friends at B1G1 which can make your business a real force for good. So visit B1G1.com to get started now, ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, please join me in welcoming my producer, Melissa Ehlers and our great friend and helpful advisor, Mr. David Yas.

 

David Yas 

Got that applause Rich

 

Rich, your host 

Threw some laugh in there for you too, buddy.

 

David Yas 

you know, I don’t know about you, Melissa, I’m pinching myself to be a guest on team building.

 

Melissa Ehlers 

I’m very excited to be back. It’s been a real interesting time getting this up and running and recording, yeah

 

Rich, your host 

Just to explain to everybody out there listening. It’s been a week since we actually recorded our last episode of the season, which means Melissa and I have not spoken to each other in seven days. So it’s been weird to go from not talking to someone Melissa. What other changes have you noticed in your world?

 

Melissa Ehlers 

In this time, it’s harder to keep track of time because I lived by a calendar that had time zones from everywhere around the world, and now I only have to keep track of one time zone.

 

Rich, your host 

Yep, it’s very true. I was actually talking to a friend of mine, and they were asking me if I was available for something today. And I was like, Sure, you want to go right now. Let’s go do that right now. When suddenly my phone chimed in, telling me that I had to do this podcast right now. So like, wait, no, that’s Friday. Oh, wait, it’s Friday.

 

David Yas 

That might be like a pandemic thing, because we schedule these zoom meetings, and then sometimes we schedule them recurring. And every Thursday at five, I get a couple pings of people trying to log on to this, this big networking zoom call that I canceled, like a month ago, but I forgot to cancel the whole zoom thing. So we get into these, this, this weird twilight zone that we live in. We get into these patterns. And yes, I’m having withdrawal too.

 

Rich, your host 

Well, David, let’s just to explain to everybody who you are, tell, tell us a little bit about yourself, because when we actually met you, you were with our episode zero, and you were actually interviewing us. So nobody actually figured out who the hell this guy is, who’s talking to us. So why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself? Yes, but I’m just making a note here. I’m scratching this down episode zero. Great name for crime thriller. Think about it. That’s my next podcast.

 

David Yas 

That’s a good question. But who am I? Why did I just breeze in and tell you guys what to do and then breeze out? I don’t know. I started the Boston Podcast Network. It’s pod 617, dot com, little more than two years ago. I’ve always dabbled in podcast, decided to devote full time to it, and so we host a few dozen shows on pod 617, dot com. What we do? We produce the thing. Now, when I met the great David Goldstein, he just, he sort of saw me as a opportunistic sort of Hired Gun to come in. I mean that, and I’ve always wanted to be a hired gun, so I like calling myself that.

 

Melissa Ehlers 

Dream come true, right there.

 

David Yas 

yes, that’s right. That’s right. Who wouldn’t want to be yes exactly that. And I want to emerge from a body of water with a knife in my mouth. That’s the other thing other than that. So I got one out of two. So he thought that I could be helpful in launching the thing. Because that’s, you know, pretty much what we do here is we launch podcasts from everything from, you know, helping with the intro music and any voiceovers that’s needed, and putting in the spots and all sort of the technical stuff to the show conception and then distributing it and marketing it for sure. And so that’s what we do. So that’s what we did. And I gotta say, since I’m off the payroll, I’m not getting paid to say this anymore, but it was a great idea for a podcast, and I’m delighted at the way it came together. When you’re doing a podcast, the best ones, as we know, are telling stories. And I was, I’m a sucker for a good team building exercise. I was a camp counselor for like, six years, and I probably still doing it now, if it were socially excited, socially acceptable. It’s just, it’s just fun to me to come up with creative ways. And so to hear these stories from all around the globe about your colleagues, friends, contacts and people that are passionate about team building, it was cool. Just a great idea for a show. And so here, like I said, not even getting paid to say this right now, but go listen to all the back the episodes. Yeah. Yeah,

 

Rich, your host 

it is. It is actually really fascinating. I I’ll be completely honest, since we’re being at the at the close of season and waiting patiently to see if the money is ever going to come in for us to get a season two, but it’s, it’s been an amazing treat to go from not really even knowing what I wanted this podcast to be to suddenly meeting all of these amazing people from all across the globe and hearing their stories and finding out how they went. For some of them, it’s a very simple story of as a kid, I like going and doing these outdoor things with Outward Bound and other such things in Europe too. This is now my livelihood, and we’re always coming up with and innovating new things. And then, of course, I mean, Melissa, you can, you can chime in here. How many pants ripping episodes have we heard?

 

Melissa Ehlers 

Oh my god, between pants rippings as one of the most embarrassing story and then having to literally continue or send out an assistant to go buy you a pair of pants and hope they get your size right to animal stories of animals interrupting depending on where in the globe you are. Yeah, there’s literally one of those in every episode when it’s your silliest or most embarrassing or anything along those lines,

 

David Yas 

and sometimes both, sometimes animals with no pants. I guess that’s why the original title for the podcast was rejected and that it was your butt is showing. I think what we landed on is good as well.

 

Rich, your host 

Actually, Disney, Disney wanted to sue us because we tried to work the term Donald ducking into it. And we can’t go against the great empire.

 

David Yas 

You know, you mentioned rich being renewed for a season two. Now I feel like I’m a Netflix personality, which is exciting, but if I’m not, if there was quasi serious, I wasn’t sure, but I imagine there are still a ton more stories out there to tell, and also there are probably a lot different ways to go with this podcast. You could be entertaining, you could be instructive, and everything in between. Yeah,

 

Rich, your host 

they’re very true. I mean, we have, we still have so many people who are part of the catalyst network who were kind enough to come and join us and talk about not only their personal experiences in the industry, but also their point of view culturally, from where they’re coming from. So there’s still hundreds of people out there just to talk to about that, but not wanting to get into the same thing over and over and over again. We also had the idea of starting to talk to maybe some of the clients that have made use of a team building industry, and what what their experience was like, and would they come back and do it again? We

 

Melissa Ehlers 

are also looking at, hopefully talking to some facilitators on the international scale, not just some of our local ones that, like we did for this past season with Paul Duro and Stuart Downey, who are some of our lead facilitators here in the Boston area, but looking at getting those facilitators that speak those multiple languages. For example, when we were speaking to Stuart Harris from Hong Kong, he has staff that speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese all on staff in order to accommodate who comes to his events.

 

Rich, your host 

Yeah, it’s fascinating stuff. The stories are out there. We just got to go find them. And of course, there are other industries where teamwork is an important part of their field. And the idea of reaching out and trying to talk to some of them. Of course, we’ve got to get some momentum going on the podcast. So if I can ask everybody who’s listening within the sound of my voice, you know, go ahead and like and subscribe and do all the things and give us that five star rating and leave us a kind little review. And if you don’t have a kind review to live, you know, shut up. It’s fine, relax. Yeah.

 

David Yas 

And if you do, you’d never know. You could be mentioned in season two. You could get a shout out and which, which would be nice. Yeah, I think it would be cool to hear more of the stories, just more of the stuff. The companies that you work with, I imagine a lot of times their favorite day of the year was the day they worked with one of your team building teams. That’s really hard to say, but I’m working. And so, you know, there are in there scavenger hunts, and there are, you know, all kinds of wacky game shows that have been put on, and to hear the experience and how it helped. Rich ameliss, actually, I’m wondering you got, I feel like you got into a fair amount of discussion about virtual team building, but I think that’s probably what’s what on everybody’s minds, and the more I hear about it, we’re actually developing some stuff here at pod 617, I did not pay for this promotion, but I’m saying to certain that now it’s vague enough that it won’t sound salesy, but we’re developing actual products that’ll be sort of akin to live podcast that you can do with a group. And so maybe be part podcast, part game show, part fun. Because I think now people are starting to realize that the big meetings, I don’t want to throw cold water on the idea of team building in person, because it’ll come back, but it could be a while. You know, I was talking interviewing somebody who was the president of a bank yesterday, and she said that, you know, they have had discussions that they. May not come back full bore until there’s a vaccine, and that could be a year from now, right? So is there more of those stories to be told the way that we can still do a lot of these things virtually? I’m sure.

 

Rich, your host 

Go ahead. Melissa,

 

Melissa Ehlers 

no, I think there really is, because a lot of people who are in the live events industry, before we started this podcast. My main focus was producing theater events, doing the clue lives ever murder mysteries. And so we have had to stop it all. We cannot do anything. And even with the phased reopening, we’re still with the new guidelines that have just been released. We’re still not looking at live events for some time, possibly not until the end of 2021, yeah.So that was quite a long time. People really saying that, yeah, because in Massachusetts, we might not be open until phase four, and that’s not starting until there’s vaccine or a proven therapy that works, right? Yeah. So that’s, that’s quite a long time, but a lot of these companies that do team building for their bread and butter, they pivoted so quickly. And that’s a word that I now hate, is everyone’s like, Well, what did you pivot to? But they made that change so quickly to offer really different and unique events and trying to get that same experience of the team building that you get live than when you’re doing it on the computer in your homes.

 

David Yas 

I just want to say, as an aside, I just, I’m fascinated by the idea that that, you know, the working on this vaccine. I’m sure this Mars, people in the world are working on it. It’s just a little odd to me that we have no idea what’s going to happen. So I picture people that look like Matt Damon and Good Will Hunting, just like staring down at these staring down if I were, if I worked in that room, see if I worked in that room doing anything, even if I was just like the, you know, the guy fetching coffee once a day, I would like, look down at a piece of paper and scream, I’ve got it. Oh, wait a minute. Nope, nope. That’s not it. Sorry.

 

Rich, your host 

How are you born and bred in Boston. Dave, yes, sir, yeah, you can tell because you think Matt Damon is the height of smart looking people. That’s that’s a specifically Boston thing, by the way. All love and support to Matt Damon.

 

David Yas 

Are you trying to tell me that that Matt Damon is not smart? Well, he’s got, Matt’s name is wicked smart. Okay, I’m just seeing it in his eyes.

 

Rich, your host 

I’m originally from Philly, and, if will, Smith is in the heroin movie. I don’t know what the movie’s about. I don’t get it.

 

David Yas 

He’s pretty damn smart, and Matt Damon can’t rap, so

 

Rich, your host 

Well, I’m sure he could given enough time, though, I guess. All right, guys, let me take it. Let me take a quick break. If you don’t mind, let me take a quick break here, because we do need to take a second to give some love. And I want to tell all of you about a company that I am very proud to be a part of, team bonding. TeamBonding was founded over 20 years ago with one simple question, how can employees have a great time while fostering strong, authentic bonds between people who work together? They’ve created a catalog of innovative events, using the power of play as a learning tool and tapping into the correlation of work and play, from scavenger hunts to Jeopardy and so much more, the team bonding of activities, both Live, Virtual and hybrid, maximizes the impact of team building with accent on fun. Visit team bonding.com. To schedule your event now, TeamBonding when you want seriously fun results. That was a fantastic live read. Well. there’s some editing. I already know that I have to do.

 

Melissa Ehlers 

Yeah, I’ll be more mindful of time.

 

Rich, your host 

I know I looked at the clock and I went, Melissa is not telling me it’s time to go do a live read. I better do a live read.

 

David Yas 

Sorry, I was rambling. It’s a podcast, and that’s what I do.

 

Rich, your host 

Yeah, do not sweat it, but let’s talk about some of that mechanics. Dave, of live reads and podcasting itself, because a lot of this, I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know when we first came on board, and suddenly people were throwing words at me like, live read. How do you think we did as someone who does this professionally? What’s your honest opinion from the beginning to the end? Because you were with us pretty much all along the way?

 

David Yas 

you nailed it. And I’m not just saying that because you’re my friends, but you I mean it doesn’t I mean people in the podcasting industry can sound like they know all the rules, but the fact that matter is there aren’t really rules. There are guidelines. There are things that develop. Like you say the live read is one that you just did, and I kind of make fun of it, because it’s supposed to be the ad that doesn’t sound like an ad. That’s just what it is. And they’re effective. They’re actually nothing new. I mean, they’ve been done in radio for eons, I’m sure, but it just so happens that podcasting adopted it as the official way to get the word out. And it works because a podcast is designed to be a conversation. It’s designed to be like listening in on two people chatting, and so there is admittedly a bit of manipulation, but it’s it’s just like rich. Thank you for telling me about your Dad’s experience in. Vietnam. It reminds me about Squarespace. What just happened before? Before, you know it, you tricked the listener into, into listen into, you know, hearing about this product or whatever, but it’s good. I mean, you know the there are things like the lives read, there’s certain editing. But the fact of the matter is, you guys both came armed with what you need and want. To me, it’s being a good listener, being a conversationalist, being you have to be someone that can put together a sentence, but as I stumble through a sentence here, but, but really, it’s those skills that I imagine, Melissa, you have honed in in theater, whether on the stage or behind the stage, or whatever you say side stage, and rich you as well. We you, we’ve sort of joked about this, but there’s that rule in improv, yes. And, you know, someone comes up with the funny, you know, says, Hey, I just did a pack of horses. Just go through here, and then the next person comes on stage, and they better say yes. They better say yes. And also the elephants were right behind him, or something. The worst improv skit ever. I just thank you, but, but you get the point right, and that is, to me, the key of podcasting. What? What is the key to being a good conversationalist? You know, we know one when we see one, but it’s that seldom deconstructed. I’m curious of what you guys think as to whether you’re the improv shops actually help in developing that cool, natural conversation that you want to podcast. Most definitely, I think

 

Melissa Ehlers 

it gives the kind of not exactly fearless, but it takes down that filter that a lot of people have in those public speaking engagements that they’re terrified of. There’s a reason there’s public fear speaking because people don’t want to say the wrong thing. I know with me, I don’t have that fear. Yes, I’m going to say the wrong thing. Go, well, sorry about that. Sorry, we’ll move on.

 

David Yas 

Yeah, but right, and it’s, it’s, you know, there was an improv troupe at my college called without a net. I’m sure there was a zillion of them called without a net, but, but what’s,

 

Rich, your host 

what’s the matter with Annette? Is she okay? Was there? She couldn’t show up that

 

David Yas 

she went to Idaho, Idaho, Alaska. Suck At improv. You can be good at podcasting and suck it improv, but without a net meaning, there’s no script. There’s nothing to fall back on. And part of that is really runs through the the spirit of a good podcast. And by that, I mean, you don’t know where the conversation is going to go. You have to, you have to trust. You certainly trust yourself and trust your guest that this is going someplace good. And so if you know, I tell a story about how there’s a legendary sports radio guy, Eddie Andelman in Boston, who almost invented the medium here in this city. And I say that because I’m about to tell a story why he sucked as an interviewer. This guy is interviewing the great Ted Williams, obviously, years ago, before Ted passed away, sure, and he’s he’s just doing kind of a general check in with Ted the veteran. And what are you up to these days? And oh, I heard you’re in the fishing Hall of Fame. And so Eddie says to Ted, what do you think of this year’s edition of the Red Sox? And he says, well, Eddie, a few good bats, a few good arms, but let me tell you, they’ve got a secret weapon. And Eddie Hanuman, I kid you not, says, well, that’s great TED. So let’s talk a little bit about fishing. He just said that the greatest hitter of all time just said, our team has a secret weapon, and you didn’t ask him what it was. So it’s, it’s, you got to notice those little forks in the road, right? And Rich, I imagine that happened a lot, because you’re talking to a lot of colorful people, and so you know, you didn’t know that story was going to come up about the iguana or the sloth. What was it? I can’t remember what animal it was.

 

Rich, your host 

and the and the other, the other, my favorite, is the attacking, not hippo, Rhino. Was it hippo or Rhino? No, the attacking hippo. That’s always like, yeah, no, there’s, there’s a lot of those moments where I have this little notepad that I have kept after I did my first two interviews, I suddenly realized, yeah, I can follow a natural conversation. That’s something that I’m skilled enough to do. But there are things there in the middle of someone talking I want to remember to go back to. So I have this scratch pad that is furiously now full over the over the few weeks of us recording over and over and over again. It is just furiously full of questions and one word sentences or one word little comments that are underlined three times, because I have to remember that that’s something I want to get back to. And it’s always funny, because when I first meet the guest, when they first come on the Zoom call, I’m always very excited to meet them, and I thank them for coming on, of course. And I’m like, you might remember that Melissa sent you a list of questions that we’re probably going to go over, just something to help you as a guideline for what the show is going to be. And they nod yes, and they’re very they’re like, very thankful that we send it to them. Like, now you can just throw that out, because I’m not married to that at all. I’m going to actually talk to you, and we’re going to talk to each other, and it’s going to be two people from the same industry. Three just telling stories and sharing time and they I will either get people go, Oh, okay, good, good, good, or I will get people go, wait, what? But I have answers. I had one guest hold up a sheet where he had printed out the questions and written in his answers to what those,

 

Melissa Ehlers 

one of those high school tests that you have with the blue Bucha. It was neat. And it was like, Oh, I’m so sorry. But the reason why we came up with the guide is because I would say more than half of our guests are English as their second language, and to speak to someone that is not in their native language, I just wanted to have them have a little bit of something, and their English was amazing, better

 

Rich, your host 

than mine. And I’m from, and I’m from English.

 

Melissa Ehlers 

English is your first language?

 

Rich, your host 

Sorry, what? I didn’t follow anything. You just said, Bb, English,

 

David Yas 

yo, yo, soy, English, yeah, and that’s, that’s a great approach. And obviously, you know, some people will want the comfort of having those questions, and I would imagine, certainly, if English is your second language. But the the danger of sending the questions is you get some people think, oh, podcast, you’ve got rich, you’ve got a fancy microphone there, I can see, and it’s like, I’m being on. It’s this is the closest I’ll get to being interviewed by Tom Brokaw, and so I’m going to answer as such, and that, that I think you guys would agree is, is not the road you want to go down. I actually interviewed on my podcast. I interviewed a doctor. There’s a documentary out now on Netflix called Lennox Hill, which is excellent, by the way, about the host the hospital, and just follows kind of the real life day to day of neurosurgeons. One of these dudes happens to be my fraternity brother. I’m watching Netflix. I’m going, Hey, crap. I know that guy. What the hell? So I had him on my podcast, and unfortunately, I couldn’t get him to, like, break down and tell any of the old fraternity stories, because he’s been coached up and polished up by a PR team. And maybe some people on Netflix. Who knows? And it wasn’t a bad interview, but, you know, I don’t want someone to be, you know, answered like, you know, name, rank and serial number and yes and yes. Rich, this is, this has been an effective way to build teams. No, you want to hear? Oh, that reminds me of the time, yeah, when I split my pants because

 

Rich, your host 

there were a couple of there are a couple of those. And hopefully I added them together so they don’t sound like that anymore. But there were a couple of those where in the very beginnings of the interview, we did have those people who were Yes and thank you for having me. And here I am. And this is what I do, and this is and as but as soon as I asked them a question of, what’s the silliest thing that ever happened to you while you were leading an event, all that goes away and they get they get right back down to it?

 

David Yas 

Yeah, it also, it also helped when you hit the whoopee cushion sound effect.

 

Rich, your host 

I never did that. I am not a morning. I

 

David Yas 

know. I’m joking. I was about to say, after the seventh time, it got a little old, you know? Yeah, yeah. I always, my fallback is, if things go really awry, I hit the Betty Hill theme that always

 

Rich, your host 

one you were also, you were also really showing our age right now, Dave,

 

David Yas 

I got the the Curb Your Enthusiasm too, so I guess that’s

 

Rich, your host 

a little bit more current. That probably a little more All right, give me one more second, guys. Let me take a step away, because I do want to tell everybody about b1, g1, which can make your business a real force for good. And I’m going to sound like this is an actual conversational thing. Now that Dave pointed out how much this still sounds like a commercial. Has no clothes when you’re part of b1, g1 you bring new purpose, meaning and relevance to your business by making giving a core of what you do. Unlike conventional giving models, b1, g1 helps small and medium sized businesses achieve more social impact by embedding giving activities in their everyday business operations to create unique giving stories, every business transaction can impact lives from just as little as one cent. So please visit B, 1g one.com to get started. B1, g1, business for good.

 

David Yas 

You know, Rich, I joked about the coziness and the folksiness of the live read, but, but I have to say, if you’re a podcast fan, not only do you come to expect it, but you come to actually sort of enjoy them. They’re comforting, you know, you it’s like, you know, hearing having your morning cup of coffee. You know that live read is coming, and it just kind of flows over you. One of my podcast Heroes is the comedian Adam Carolla. This has been doing in the daily podcast for years. He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for downloads. I saw him do a live show. He takes the show on the road and he does live podcasting, and somebody from the audience shouted out, live read. And he’s like, you know, this is a live show. We don’t have to do a live read. We’re like, live read, live read, he goes, Okay, let me tell you about the people like GEICO, you know. And it’s just, it’s part of the fabric of a podcast now, so and you didn’t you do them very well, Rich, thank you. I feel comforted. I

 

Rich, your host 

do have. I have been told I have a certain folksy wisdom, yes.

 

David Yas 

And I have a strange. Sudden urge to get in touch with the people that be one. Need to do that right now, if

 

Rich, your host 

only I had, if only I had a business anyway, work on that. So Melissa, let me ask you real quick, favorite podcast, favorite podcast, memory of the show? I was gonna say my favorite podcast? Yeah, no, we did that. We did that in the F zero. This is now fear of our show. What’s your favorite memory?

 

Melissa Ehlers 

Oh, god, that’s Oh, there are so many. It was just being able to talk to that many people from that many different places. It was incredible. And it’s so nice to know that once Americans are allowed to travel again, we have a place to stay in pretty much almost any country in the world, there

 

Rich, your host 

are a lot of very kind people out there in the world who are like, if you guys ever come out this way, come crash on my couch? Yeah, I’m like, You’re a 25 year old billionaire and I’m a 50 something podcaster. I think one of the funny

 

Melissa Ehlers 

stories is it’s more behind the scenes with you and me, when something would go off the rails. That wasn’t really probably appropriate. It’s uh, get it back. Me typing to you furiously so it was not to interrupt the flow. Get it back. Get it back

 

Rich, your host 

again. Zoom, chat has become our best friend. Yeah, it really, really has. Melissa was always that Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder whenever we’d be doing an interview, and something not necessarily would go wrong, but the conversation might go in a way where it’s like, Hey, I was not expecting that to come up, and then I would just watch Melissa start frantically putting things in like, nope, edit this that can’t be done. No, can’t do that. I’m like, I’ll, I’ll make it nice. Hold on. Let me. Let me do this. The

 

Melissa Ehlers 

other thing is kind of also like the dead stops. We would ask them, because we would always talk about charities, because b1, g1, is a huge part of the catalyst, team building network in the work that they do. Rich would turn the conversation to so tell me about what charities you work with. We don’t work with charities. Oh,

 

David Yas 

that’s not a yes and yeah,

 

Rich, your host 

yeah. So that’s one of those. Okay, great. So let’s talk about and just try and go and in my head going, I’ll know exactly when this is, because there’ll be that huge gap. And I will just edit a few seconds before and a few seconds after. And after

 

David Yas 

that is the that is the saving grace of the podcast. I mean, I like you rich. I mean, and by the way, you’re listening to an edit version of this podcast, there’s been very little like Rich is very good at doing this thing seamlessly and recording it live. And those who produce podcasts will tell you that’s a dream come true, because it’s going to save you a lot of time in the editing. But you do, I said, without a net before you do have a net if things go really terribly, just pause and say, Well, it’s a podcast. Probably cut this part out. And, you know, every once in a while you’ll get a guest that just can’t put their words together. I’m not saying any on this show, but I mean, I had editing one the other day where I think the guy said, and like, seven times in a row, and, yeah, and, and, and, yeah, and I’m picturing viewers like driving off bridges. Like, stop saying

 

Rich, your host 

it’s very funny story I actually had. This did not come up on the pod, or it wasn’t in the podcast. I edited this out, but I do need to share that there was, there was a guest I had on who’s very much an ummer, oh boy. And he was one of those ummers where it was um becomes part of the word, so it’s a mend and um and, and I am and, and when you’re actually editing, looking at the wave file of the speech, there’s no differentiation between the um and the word. So some of those had to make it in. I couldn’t not have them come in. But the funniest part was he stops mid sentence during answering one of my questions, and starts laughing. And I’m like, What did I miss? What just happened? He goes, my partner is literally standing on the other side of the room, going,

 

David Yas 

no every

 

Rich, your host 

time I do it

 

Melissa Ehlers 

and said, shot in it

 

Rich, your host 

stop. Going,

 

David Yas 

Yeah, at one point, um, was my crutch, too. I think I’ve, I’ve replaced it with and which is really no better, except it at least, at least it’s a word. But at one point, I actually had you keep a notepad rich, which, which I was gonna advise, don’t let that fall into the wrong hands, because someone will think it’s, it’s the ramblings of a madman, and the men in the white suits will be coming to get you. The same would occur. I have a mini whiteboard that I keep in it so I can scrap but it looks like it, you know, it looks like part, you know, recipe for manicotti, and part, like Unabomber manifesta, but it’s but sometimes I write with the with the line through it, and just keep looking at it, because that is something that you it’s like anything else people say on the occasions where I get compliments, hey, you’re very good. You’re very natural at this. That’s nice to say, but really, it’s like anything else. It’s it’s reps, it’s you actually, you actually hone your skill by doing it over and over and over again. So it’s like, you know. Hitting a golf ball, which I suck at as well. But anyway, but and have you found that rich? Did you have you? I’m curious, did you found that your start you were doing things differently on show number 15 than you were on show number one? Oh, absolutely

 

Rich, your host 

yes. There are moments where as I’m editing things together, like I would be editing a show that was two weeks ago and editing another show that was from from the day before, just from the order that we had decided we wanted to promote them in. And as I’m listening to myself, I’m going, my God, what happened in only 10 episodes? Yeah, where I became a lot sounding a lot more comfortable and a lot more involved in the conversation, because I would get in the very beginning, I will admit this, especially my first interview with Mr. Baker, who is a who’s a lovely man but a talker. You ask that guy to tell you a story, and suddenly it’s it’s war and peace, and you didn’t realize that that was what was happening. But again, loved everything he was saying. Was enraptured with with every iota that was coming out of him. And I found myself listening to him. I’m barely in that show. Thank God for the live reads. No one would remember that I was part of the show, if not for that. It was the guy Baker episode. Wasn’t

 

David Yas 

that the highest rated show so far? That’s a joke. Rough room.

 

Speaker 2 

Oh. In the history of the episode, but,

 

Rich, your host 

David, let me ask you. I mean, how long have you been How long have you been doing this?

 

David Yas 

I’ve been doing this episode. It feels like yours rich. I’ve been doing my own podcasts for I don’t know. I just, I just hit 300 episodes. I know. Yeah, I know that because I just discovered that Apple podcasts actually will start deleting your oldest episodes as soon as you hit 300 thanks a lot, Apple podcast. Wow. Yeah, I didn’t know that until I got up to 300 so, yeah, so been doing, been doing that for years, been producing podcasts here at pod 617, for the two and a half years or so. And what’s, what’s cool about this, this industry, in this practice, is podcasts aren’t going away. And I don’t say that because they’re wildly popular. They are, but I say that because they’re really just for them to go away. Would be like, I don’t know, phone calls going away. Like, it’s not, it’s not so much like, it’s not like genre of entertainment, like, not like reality shows. It’s not just the true crime stories. It can really be whatever you want it to be. It can be educational. It can be, you know, you can design it that you want just 12 people to listen. You can design so you want 12 million people to listen. I mean, good luck with that. But, and so it’s, it’s just this, this mode. It’s this wonderfully unique mode of Media and Communication and Marketing. It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping, as I say all the time, so that, but that’s, but that’s what’s cool about it. And I don’t know if I answered your question, but it’s a podcast, right? Yeah. So

 

Rich, your host 

no, I just want to say, I got to ask, with all the experience you’ve had, do you find that you hate your own voice? I have been because you spent so much more time editing than you do talking to people. And I cannot tell you how sick I am of hearing myself Yes

 

David Yas 

and no. I mean, some, sometimes, I guess I hate my voice. I love my microphones. I’ve always been a microphone guy. You know, you remember to date to date ourselves again. You must remember Mr. Microphone, right? Mr. Microphone was this toy that they sold where it was just a look like a look.

 

Rich, your host 

And I’ll be back to pick up later.

 

David Yas 

Yeah, the ad inexplicably featured a guy like emerging from a convertible car, talking to some hot check on the side of the road and saying, Hey, good looking. We back to pick up later. And his voice is emanating from the radio in the car, because that was the what the toy was. You could tune into radio and talk, and your voice would come out of the radio. Oh, man, I love that thing. I wanted to carry the thing around wherever I go. So I like my toys. It’s it’s not even so much my voice. It’s that I do hate when I screw up. And I do hate when I think of something that I should have said there. There are moments when the Dave who recorded a podcast a month ago is saying, what’s the name of that guy who used to be the governor of Georgia? And meanwhile, the day the present Dave knows who it is. And I’m screaming at myself, you idiot. How could you have forgotten that? But I’m getting old, and it happens. So podcasting is like anything else. It has its share of regrets. And the other thing, though, Rich, I wonder if you do this sometimes I’m listening to a podcast. It’s an exchange between me and another person, and they say something, and in my head, I already know what I’m about to say, not because I remember saying it’s just because that’s what I would say. And this, it’s a really creepy, self reflective thing, isn’t it?

 

Rich, your host 

It really, is it really, really is you find out. So much more about yourself when you don’t realize you’re going to be listening to yourself weeks later.

 

David Yas 

Yes, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s strange, and it’s also that time shifting thing. That’s what podcasts are all about. I mean, most podcasts, like the ones on the on this show, are evergreen. I mean, these things will be listenable for years into the future, because we’re not talking about, you know, current events per se. Sometimes I say to my guests, you know you’re talking to people in the future right now. And they say, What do you mean? So, well, this, this, you know. So if you told them the lottery tickets, you know, they could go buy the lottery, because you know you’re talking to them in the future. No, actually, it’s the other way around. Anyway, it’s this time shifting thing, and we live in it. We live in a time shifting world now, right? I mean, on demand. I mean, you know, when we’re watching something on Netflix, I want all 12 episodes. I don’t have one. Wait till next week. Who does that anymore? That’s, yeah, that’s so 2009

 

Rich, your host 

All right, gang, we’re getting just about to the end of this. We don’t want to take up too much more of your time my listeners out there, but when we did an episode zero, it’s important to remember, for those who didn’t actually hear it, or don’t remember because that was so long ago, please feel free go and jump back and listen to that where David actually had Melissa and I do my speed round, which is, of course, when we force our guests to actually answer a series of questions within 60 seconds, trying to get as many questions done as they can. But now I get to actually torture Dave, Oh no, he’s going to go solo. Prepare the speed round. You’re not supposed to be prepared. That’s the whole

 

David Yas 

point. Now I know tables are turning, all right. David, yes, if you’re ready, I am. Let’s begin.

 

Rich, your host 

What’s your name? Dave, who’s your favorite teacher?

 

David Yas 

Uh, Mr. Connelly, back at Milton Academy, taught me how to love poetry, and that sounds creepy, but it wasn’t. Which

 

Rich, your host 

would you rather be? Attractive, a genius or famous?

 

David Yas 

What happens if I’m all three? Oh, geez, I’ll take, I guess I’ll take genius. I don’t know. I want all of them. Who’s your

 

Rich, your host 

favorite musician?

 

David Yas 

I’ll go with Billy Joel, as sort of predictable as that may be, Billy’s my boy.

 

Rich, your host 

Who’s your least favorite musician?

 

David Yas 

I’ve developed a newfound hatred for Lionel Richie. I do a music podcast. We’ve come across a lot of his old songs. They’re much too drippy and sad. I’ve had me enough. Lionel, sorry. Lionel,

 

Rich, your host 

what historical age would you like to live in?

 

David Yas 

That time right before they stopped serving brunch at the casino. Now, I don’t know, you know, I’ll go with the like the 50s or the 60s. It seemed like everybody was having a lot of fun.

 

Rich, your host 

That’s a that’s a gentleman six for Mr. David, yes, ladies and gentlemen, a gentleman six meaning that was not very good at all. No, you did not. That was actually really well done. Well, our average

 

Melissa Ehlers 

for the speed round was eight to 10. Yep, up was still

 

Rich, your host 

13. The numbers still to be beat 13. So

 

David Yas 

that’s disappointing, because I was actually straining to keep my answers short, and I just couldn’t you really,

 

 

you really, really. When

 

Melissa Ehlers 

they ever had the episode where it was the 13 answers, I’m like, is he gonna run out of question?

 

Rich, your host 

That was, there was a brief moment of me going, Nope, ask that, nope. Ask one. Just like that, nope, nope, nope. Okay, there it is. There’s one notes. If there is anybody who’s actually curious about this, these questions actually come from 101 fun and interesting questions to perka Boring gatherings. So you can find that on Huffington post.com and like I said, I edit them. I shorten them down. I tried to make them simple, one or two word answers for my guests, guys, hey, guess what? That officially wraps up season one team building around the world. Before we say goodbye, David, please tell everybody where they can find podcast. 617, out there. Yeah.

 

David Yas 

Well, I’ll correct you. You get a gentleman six for that comment. No, it’s pod six months. It’s pod 617, dot com, sorry, it’s P, O, d6, one, seven.com. You can get in touch with me. There finds all kinds of bells and whistles. You can learn how to be a guest on my show. Appreciate it. It’s podcast. Heaven in pod in pod. We trust, right? Guys, absolutely.

 

Rich, your host 

Now, Melissa, you’re still working in this time of COVID, and everybody has Is there anybody you would like to send some thanks to, first of

 

Melissa Ehlers 

all, thanks to Dave Yaz, because this would not have been as smooth as it was without his help and advice. The emails that I would send him, of like, I know this is probably a stupid question, but and his patience and getting. Us through that special thank you to Dave Goldstein. David Goldstein, I should say not Dave, two different people for him to finally after me haranguing him for two years to let me do this project that I have been trying to do for two years, regardless of how it started and evolved, I’m really pleased with how it turned out in the end, the end product, with what you and I were able to do. And you also because in this pipe dream, when this started a couple years ago, sitting in the marketing office and said, All right, we’re starting. Why don’t we have a podcast? I go through my phone and the first name I went to is rich. Rich is the host that we want that is 100% it sent him the message. And none of this would have been possible without you too, also going through and helping me kind of define what we wanted to do. Fantastic.

 

Rich, your host 

Thank you. And, of course, for myself, yeah, just to continue on to that, please. Mr. David Goldstein, thank you very much. Everybody go to team bonding.com to learn more about his fantastic company and what you can do with it. Thank you, Mr. David Yaz, you are literally the Atlas holding us up on your shoulders so that we you’ve made this so much easier for us to do just by giving us a resource we can go to to answer all of our silly questions. There’s

 

David Yas 

so much to so much love in the room on the podcast, three different rooms, I know I promised I wasn’t gonna cry. It truly was a labor of love. You guys are class acts, talented, fun, my kind of people, genius, genius, famous. And what was the other one? Just decide

 

Rich, your host 

which one of us is which, all right, Melissa. Melissa is going to get genius. I’m sorry, that’s just the way that. And I do want to, of course, thank everybody at team bonding who put their all their effort into actually making this possible, not only setting up the website for it, giving us, giving us our fantastic logo, to taking over for us when we’re going to be moving on to other things, so that they can make sure that this podcast stays up and keeps moving forward. So they have been fantastic. And without them, none of this, of course, would be possible. And of course, thanks to Mr. Todd Therriault, who plays our piano music, which you’ll be hearing in just a second. If you can find Mr. Todario anywhere, please do check him out. T, O, D, D, T, H, E R, i o, t, Todd Terrio. He’s here in the Boston area, and he’s one of the more talented musicians I have ever had the pleasure of

 

Melissa Ehlers 

working with. Actually, it’s T H E R, A, U, L, T,

 

David Yas 

ever the producer?

 

Rich, your host 

I don’t think you’re right, but I will actually edit to whichever one is correct.

 

Melissa Ehlers 

We should also thank Esther from catalyst network. She’s the one that helped book all of these amazing guests through the catalyst network, so that’s someone we should definitely be thanking as well,

 

Rich, your host 

absolutely. And of course, all of my guests, without them, this show would just be me talking for half an hour, and no one wants to hear that. I have a 14 year old who reminds me, no one wants to hear me talk for a half an hour at a time. But of course, my last very special thank you goes to you, all of our listeners, without you again, what’s the point of all of this? So thank you for listening to team building around the world. Please never forget if you like this show, share with your friends or colleagues, and we’d always be grateful if you would subscribe to us an apple podcast, or wherever you find your favorite find your favorite podcast, and leave us that lovely favorable review. If you don’t have a favorable review to leave, I still love you. Don’t worry about it. I don’t. All Past episodes can be found at team bonding.com, and that’s been it for me. Guys on behalf of Melissa alers, David Yaz and me, Richmond and loud, this has been team building around the world. Always remember, if you’re within the sound of my voice, you’re on my team now, and I will always be on yours. Thank you everyone, and we’ll see you next time.