BONUS EPISODE: St-st-studio

For your second BONUS episode between seasons, Taz and Asha share exciting plans for the future of Awesomely Off-Topic.

Thanks so much for all your support so far - you rock!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

You're listening to Awesomely Off Topic, the podcast where we talk books, brand business, and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. We're Taz and after ex journos, now coaches, creators and chaos navigators. Let's go! So between seasons of Awesomely Off Topic, we thought we'd bring you a special bonus episode. How exciting it is. Very exciting. Well, it is exciting for us because of where we've just been. Yes. We are on our way back to Tasha Towers from visiting my studio. So for quite a few years now, I've had a studio that I use for craft work and admin and office bits. And a couple of years back, we moved from one studio into two smaller ones. So we've been over there today to have a sort out and see if we can find a way to clear one of those studios, clear the smaller one out, and turn it into a dedicated podcast studio. Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00 1:04

A podcast studio. Yes, sorry, I did. Yeah. I actually was just delaying because I wasn't quite sure if I was gonna say anything else.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Well, I'm waiting for you to say more, Ash, by all means.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

No, I've forgotten what I was gonna say now, so carry on.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

So yeah, we've been over there today, we've mapped it all out, we've decided how we're gonna decorate it, we've found a way to get all of my usual stuff into a single studio space so that we can convert the second studio space into a dedicated podcast studio, and it's gonna be bloody awesome, isn't it, Asher? It is exactly Asher driving. The other reason we're doing this is because we're testing the brand new microphones again that we talked about in the last series. The ones we use for walking around the woodland, we're testing them for being in the car to see if it gets rid of that dreadful sound of us being underwater if we've got the tires on the road.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I'll try not to go into kind of parking, park gates, and get in a state about which space I'm gonna take.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Although we do need to stop at the supermarket, so it's entirely possible. I know it is possible. She did make me reverse the car out of the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

She didn't carry it because it was quite busy, and also because since we went into a certain well-known brand of householdy store, we realised that their spaces are quite slim and our car is a bit wide.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

That's not the one she made me reverse out of, no, but therefore we had to keep getting asked by the staff, didn't we? Getting called out over the town because people at either side couldn't go into their car.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I parked it perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

For once I'd actually parked it thanks to good old Stan, Stan my car, Stanley Tucson.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So if you're listening, people at the range, sort your car parking spaces.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I don't know if it's everywhere, it's just that particular one. But it was like we went in twice and we're only in there for about 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

The range at Boston and Lancashire.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And they were there were two people who said that they couldn't get in their car because we parked too close. But we were exactly halfway in the spa halfway in the space? What do I mean?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

In the middle of the space. That aside, Ash, what are you off topic already and we've only been on for two minutes?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

What are you most excited about about our new studio space?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Well, I'm loving the fact that we're gonna brand it up, which will look really cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, we're gonna very cleverly brand it so that it's raw something off topic. Yeah. Taz Thornton and all this you're awesome and turquoise tiger.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I know, it's gonna be very colourful. It's gonna be wonderful. And also that there's gonna be a special little space for me and my brand. Oh booknook. There is gonna be a booknook, which is gonna be great. So I can do different podcasts and things, not podcasts. Oh, podcasts. You could. I could, but doing video from there, which will be really cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, it's sounding really exciting. And also, of course, it means that we'll be fully branded up so that if we decide to bring in any guests, we've got video as well now. Yes. So this feels like us another step on in our podcasting experience.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

I'm glad you used the E word and not the J word.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

I know I had to stop myself because neither of us like the E word, do we?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

But we would use it.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

I know, I know. So we decided that as the first series was about us finding our feet. Well, it's a pair of buzzards in that tree then. Wow. Oh, I love seeing buzzets in the wild. Anyway, we decided that as series one was all about us kind of finding our feet and learning to podcast on a shoestring, series two, we step things up, we get a little bit more strategic, and creating a dedicated physical studio sounds like a good move for us. It doesn't mean that we can't still do the out in the wild episodes. No, I know we can do a bit of everything, really, can't we? But it will be good to have a dedicated, fully branded space. So that means we can, if we choose to, start building in some video as well. This is always going to be an audio first podcast, I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Definitely on those days when you know the makeup's not quite where it should be indeed, it might not even be on. I really don't want to scare too many people all at once. Yeah. Everything everywhere all at once, wasn't that a movie, I think?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

But it will be nice to be able to to film some episodes and also to start filming some episode teaser trailers.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

That'd be really good. So what else are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

What excites you about our dedicated studio? Just to make it our space more. I think what's happened is we've used it and we've used it well, but it's we've never really claimed it and branded it. And I think the fact that we're branding, I know I keep going on about that, but we're really doing that. And I don't know why we haven't done that. I think it's just time and distraction and awesomely off topic. We've gone off topic with other things. Yeah. And it's you've even got, haven't you? You've even got a little sign on there which is going to go up in one of the rooms, I think, which you haven't used before, which says.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I don't know. What's it?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Doesn't it say girl cave? I found it when I was sorting out through yeah. Oh yeah, you bought me that years ago. The old studio before we even moved to this. You've never you've never erected it, darling.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

I have never erected that thing you got. No erections in your studio. I know, no erections in my studio, not in my woman cave. Yeah, you bought me that at the initial studio where we had the how can we explain it? How should we say this? How can we be polite? Moving swiftly on. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as they say. Well, we've had. You're gonna break the mics now. Well done. Well, we had the interesting experience with the person who we were renting the studio from. And eventually.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

We were actually reminded about that today because when we were sorting out some stuff and moving between the two studios, we found something that reminded us of that, didn't we? You mean the pop-up Christmas tree? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yes, when the studio owner was having a go at try she'd find it felt like she'd try and find any excuse to come and have a go at what we were doing. I don't think she wanted us there essentially. Well, she didn't, she served me notice in the end. The demograph, we weren't right, we weren't right. No. I didn't wear enough didn't wear enough silk scarves at a jaunty angle or something like that. Needed a silk scarf at a jaunty angle together with something like a Jules Gillet.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Careful now. We might be offending. We have might have listeners that love Jules Gillets, and we love Jules Gillets, and if you'd like to sponsor, please do.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

I do like Jules, but you know what I mean. It was that's the country set. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So yeah, anyway, moving swiftly on the street.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So anyway, we had a pop-up Christmas tree because one of the criticisms was that I hadn't made the studio look festive enough. So I went and bought one of those pop-up Christmas trees, just pulled it up and left it inside the door. Yeah. Oh dear. One of our proudest moments now. I know, I know. So we found that today. That aside, yeah. What about series two? What are you getting excited about for series two, Ash?

SPEAKER_00 7:39

I think we're gonna be a bit braver with some of the topics we're gonna cover, aren't we? We've talked about this. We're gonna dive a bit deeper, which is always good. Yeah. But we're gonna be no holds barred a bit more, I think, than we have been. We've been playing safe a little bit, I I believe. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah. I also want to talk about the other idea we had, which was we would like to invite you all together. So was that what I was supposed to say?

SPEAKER_00 8:03

We don't script this, you say whatever you want. I know, but it's just the way you kind of said that, and I thought, oh no, I haven't. I have said something else.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I had another thought rocketing in.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Don't do that from left field.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, bless you.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Well, at this rate has the supermarket, it's not far away. We're gonna have another supermarket gate, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

We might do, we might do it. It was hospital gate last time.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Oh, yeah, it was hospital date, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

We're going, we would like to invite you all to send us in your questions on anything you like, but we'd like to invite you to do it in video format. Oh. So portray video just shot on your phone. No more than a than a minute or so. 20, 30 seconds max. Did you still up with that? No, we'd already had that plan on the top set of it. Did we did we? We did. Where was I? Maybe I dreamt it. Maybe I had a conversation with you in my head.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

I'm intentive, I'm inattentive.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I may have I may have had a conversation in my head with you. Well, I've had the conversation with you, even if you weren't present at the time.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Oh yeah, probably. Never mind. Anyway, carry on.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

So we'd like you to invite you to send us your questions to address in the podcast on any topic you like, and make them just portrait videos shot on your shot on your phone is fine. And you can email them to us, or you can WhatsApp them to us, or you can, I don't know if you can send them through the website, but get these videos to us and we'll feature some of them on the podcast. Sounds like a plan. Yeah, and remember to include your name and if you've got a business, feel free to mention that too. But we will start choosing some of these questions to play live on our podcast and answer them. Ooh, nice idea. I like it. No, I think I would have remembered that. So, okay. I must have had a conversation with you in my head then. Maybe you do. It's entirely possible.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

I have conversations in my own head quite a lot, but it's what I remember. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

So what else? We're gonna get a bit more strategic. We've said that. Yeah. We're going to plan out our episode arcs, but we're definitely never going to go into scripting or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

No, it's not us at all, is it really? Just a bit too constrained, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

There's so many uh episodes, so many topics, sorry, that are around our kind of lives, businesses, the world in general, that so far we haven't really drilled down on enough. So we're gonna make sure that we include some of those. And again, if you have anything you would like us to cover, please, please, please get in touch and tell us. So I think that probably wraps up nicely. Just before we try to do parking gate. Do you want me to keep it recording? Parking gate.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

We did get some good feedback from that. So let's see what happens this time because it's a bit busier, it's a Friday night, so quite a few people are going off. It's to pick up people.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Asher is now going to tackle Morrison's car park on a Friday night. Morrison's good luck. I'm coming in. So yeah, we'll stay on so you get a parking gate again. Everybody send good vibes. I know you're not going to be hearing this until the back.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

There's lots of cars.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

See, this is a special, special bonus, isn't it? Not only are you getting a bonus episode, you're getting a bonus parking gate. Yeah, exactly. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I'm very confident, Daz. And now the driver is turning into the car park. I know, I am. Into the wilds of the now, where do I go now? Because this is a bit where I get it all wrong, because that's the Jill mother and driving past the disabled spots. I'm gonna keep going. She's gonna keep going, she's driving past the trolley. Oh, is it oh, can I go in there? Oh no. Oh, I'm not going past the I'm not going. Oh, I could have gone through. And now our driver could have gone through again.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

In the wilds of the tarmac car park. Wilds of the tarmac car.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

I am gonna go right hang on, hang on. The greater stressed driving person. What about my card? I'm going in here, I'm going in here now. I'm going in here. What? Trolley cabin. There's cabin through the city. Oh, I could have gone through. Never mind. It's alright. I don't like going near there in case I'm gonna be able to. Are you sure you're actually in the space? I am, I'm not. Don't you just open your door and have a little chat? I'm sure I am. Oh, I'm a bit wonky. You can do what you want. But I'm in, I'm in. You're in? A wonky button in, as the actress said to the bishop. No, the bishop said to the actress, or the bishop said to the bishop. Ooh, controversial. We have our greater stressful driver successfully parked on her first. Is that an Asembra impression? Yeah, I'm not very good at it. It's really bad, and I need a wee. But you knew who it was. What? Yeah, I did know. I knew it was him, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Okay, so given that. The lady looks very familiar. What lady? That's the one.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

That lady in that cut No, the lady. No, not him, the lady that's the passenger. Oh, I couldn't see it behind his head. Is she a dark passenger? From what was that from? Dexter. Dexter. Anybody love that show? Fabulous show. Nothing like a good suit or colour show. Are you looking at me and saying that? No, because you don't have cauliflower heads. You don't have a have a perm and set and perm either. Not yet. But I did have it in my twenties. It was waxed. Wax tips. Tips. Tips does.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And on that note, lovely, lovely listeners, we'll conclude our bonus episode. Is this a b you mean this is a bonus?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

I don't think it is. I think it's quite the opposite. And you've enjoyed our bonus episode. I haven't we've lost we've lost two-thirds of our listening public. Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

So we look forward to bringing you news of the studio. We look forward to speaking to you in our second season. And we will see you next Tuesday.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

You've been listening to Awesome New Off Topic. Follow or subscribe to make sure you don't miss the next one. We're Adrick Milwater and Taz Thornton, and we'll be back soon.