Reflecting with Rob Wreglesworth

What strategies and challenges are involved in creating, refining, and promoting a podcast to reach a broader audience while maintaining its authenticity and personal enjoyment for the host?

Rob Wreglesworth and Craig Constantine dive into the challenges of podcasting, focusing on the unexpected joys and hurdles they encounter.

The willingness of of people to lend their time so generously I think is probably the thing that surprised me the most

~ Rob Wreglesworth, 2:11

One of the key topics they explore is the impact of podcasting on connecting with people they previously thought were out of reach. Rob shares his astonishment at how podcasting has opened doors to in-depth conversations with innovators and leaders who would otherwise be inaccessible. This revelation highlights podcasting’s unique power to facilitate meaningful dialogue and share insightful stories with a wider audience.

[Something might be] mundane and old hat to me, but could be really interesting and insightful to a listener. So I’ve gone to the other end of the spectrum now and just decided to ship the whole conversation pretty much unedited—unless there’s any horrendous bits that need cutting out. That’s definitely helped me cut down [time spent].

~ Rob Wreglesworth, 19:25

Another significant part of their conversation revolves around the technical and creative aspects of podcasting, such as editing and the use of AI tools. They discuss the delicate balance between over-editing and maintaining the authenticity of the conversation, emphasizing the importance of letting the natural flow of dialogue guide the editing process.

Additionally, they touch on the innovative use of AI, like ChatGPT, to enhance the podcasting process, from generating episode notes to improving show discoverability. This exploration sheds light on the evolving landscape of podcasting, where technology plays a crucial role in enhancing content quality and listener experience.

Takeaways

The power of podcasting — reveals its unique ability to connect with thought leaders and innovators previously considered unreachable, highlighting the medium’s capacity for in-depth and meaningful conversations.

The surprise of generosity — discusses how individuals are often more willing to share their time and stories on podcasts than expected, offering rich, engaging content for listeners.

Editing for authenticity — explores the balance between editing content for clarity and preserving the natural flow of conversation, emphasizing the importance of authenticity in engaging the audience.

The use of AI in podcasting — touches on innovative ways to utilize AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing the podcasting process, from generating episode notes to improving show discoverability and listener engagement.

The challenge of verbal ticks — addresses the continuous effort to improve speaking skills, including the identification and reduction of verbal ticks, to ensure clear and effective communication.

The evolution of content strategy — considers the decision-making process behind what content to edit out and what to keep, aiming to deliver the most value to listeners while maintaining interest and relevance.

The impact of episode notes and SEO — evaluates the effectiveness of various methods for enhancing podcast discoverability, including the debated value of publishing full transcripts for SEO purposes.

Resources

Innovate Eco — Rob’s podcast.

https://innovate-eco.com/ — The Innovate Eco web site.

https://www.instagram.com/innovate_eco/ — Rob is @innovate_eco on Instagram.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robwreg/ — Rob on LinkedIn.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Conversation

Good conversation mixes opinions, feelings, facts and ideas in an improvisational exchange with one or more individuals in an atmosphere of good will. It inspires mutual insight, respect and, most of all joy. It is a way of relaxing the mind, opening the heart and connecting, authentically, with others To converse well is surprising, humanizing and fun.

~ Paula Marantz Cohen

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When it’s permanent

Anyone who must in some sense bet on ideas rather than merely commenting on them has similar incentives. Which means anyone who wants such incentives can have them, by turning their comments into bets: if you write about a topic in some fairly durable and public form, you’ll find you worry much more about getting things right than most people would in a casual conversation.

~ Paul Graham from, How to Be an Expert in a Changing World

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I’ve previously talked about several reasons why I blog, but this article by Graham reminds me of another: An incentive to be honest.

What I write here is going to hang around for a while. (At least, that’s my plan.) I’m enticed to think a tad more deeply about things before I share them, select a quote or add my commentary. I’m only writing for myself, sure, but I’d like to look back years hence and find on balance that what I wrote was reasonable and useful.

How about you?

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Scaf 101: Epilogue

(Part 12 of 13 in series, Scaf 101)

Closing thoughts, other random clamps and ideas.

A fist full of clamps

Here are three more clamps. The first two you will certainly end up with, eventually. The third one is just a fun, sort of, “what would you ever do with that?”

Split cross

This is your new best friend, the “split cross”. This is better than sliced bread. This clamp can be opened (by tapping one of the pins out), and then placed onto an existing pipe in a structure. Note that the pins are slightly tapered. You’ll see they stick out on one side (that’s the thick end) and they are flush on the other (that’s the thin end, the end you tap).

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With these clamps, you can add another pipe, like this, when someone says the top one is too high…

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Or you can just throw a precision (or balance etc.) rail right into the middle of a build. I keep one, 10-foot-plus pipe laying around for this purpose. You can even strap on extra bars angled across the build if you bolt to the vertical poles. You can strap to two different horizontal poles, at different heights and make odd-angle slopes. There’s tons you can do with this clamp.

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90° single outlet

There’s a 90° single outlet tee which is handy for making really clean builds:

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Swivel mount

I have a few of these that I use as feet on my ground rails. Makes the pipes sit neatly on just about anything. But you could also attach these to big wooden blocks, and then use them as feet on the bottom of your scaf corners to keep it from sinking into your lawn. (Because of the set screw, these feet would move easily with the scaf when you pick it up.)

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The simple wooden feet are great, but in the lawn, they tend to flip over and come away when you move the scaf. So using feet that are attached to the legs would be slick.

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A few clamps more

Clamps are easy; point, click, ship. (Unless you’re lucky enough to live near a place that stocks them.) But as you accumulate more steel pipe, you’re going to want to start cutting it yourself.

…well, ok maybe you never end up cutting a single pipe yourself. If you buy your steel pipe from a supply house, you can just list all the lengths you want. But if you’re just going to buy a couple sticks at a time, then one day, you’re going to want to make a few cuts.

Ye ‘ol hacksaw is tedious, and the ends are never perfectly square. The gonzo method is to buy a chop saw and fit it with a metal-cutting blade. But the middle-of-the-road method is to buy a heavy duty “tubing cutter”. A steel pipe cutter will make short work of schedule 40, 1-1/4″ steel pipe. (But you will need to clamp the pipe down somehow to resist the cutter’s rotation.) For example, a “Ridgid 32820”.

The good, the bad and the clampy

I think I’ve done a reasonable job of capturing, and organizing everything (and more) that I’d wish I’d been able to find on the first day I started thinking about buying some scaf. Along the way, I had a lot of fun indulging my scaf habit and I hope you (fellow pragmatist) enjoyed reading this far.

Where to go from here? …to the clamp web sites, to the scaf supply depot, to your first scaf build party with friends!

On the other hand, if you’re in the mood to stare at your screen more, I have a #scaf tag for all the scaf posts on my site. They are mostly photos of built scaf, so perhaps you’ll find some ideas/inspiration.

Finally, a big shout out to Blake up in the Boston area for being a huge scaf-addict and spreading the scaf love. They don’t have anything scaf-specific on the web, but if you hunt them down on your favorite social medium or in real life, there’s pretty much scaf everywhere: Parkour Generations Americas Boston on DuckDuckGo

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