In this week's episode, I brought back two of my friends and previous guests of the show: Tina Huang & Luke Barousse. I spent the last 2 weeks with them in Arkansas & Texas. In this episode, we talk about what we learned from collaborating on content and seeing each other's working styles. We also learn about what Tina thinks about the American south and Luke's country accent.
Luke's Past Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGBFVo2XL-g&ab_channel=Ken%27sNearestNeighborsPodcast
Tina's Past Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfV4nm004VQ&ab_channel=KenJee
Transcription:
[00:00:00] Tina: It's pretty interesting. The reason why so many people like white-collar workers are so stressed these days, one of the series is hot back in the caveman days. Stress was used as a way for you to move your body. So when you naturally move your body, because something is hunting you then you're going to keep running, right?
And then that will relieve the stress you experience from being hunted. But we feel a lot of stress right now. From things like, you know, deadlines at work or stuff like that, but you can't relieve that stress because you're not actually moving your body to relieve it. So you're just trying to move your brain to do so. That's why exercise is so important because you're kind of compensating for that, getting that stress out of your body. Cause it's a very physiological reaction that has to occur.
[00:00:49] Ken: This episode of Ken's Nearest Neighbors is powered by Z by HP's high compute, workstation-grade line of products and solutions. Today, I had the pleasure of interviewing Luke Barousse and Tina Huang. This is both of their second appearances on the Ken's Nearest Neighbors Podcast. I'll link their first episodes in the description below.
Now, many of you may or may not know that I spent the last a little bit over a week traveling with the two of them. This was an incredible learning experience for me. It was my first time co-locating with other content creators and data scientists. And I think between the three of us, we learned quite a bit about how other people work and the benefits of working together.
In this episode today, we're going to talk about some of our different working styles and how the collaboration between us turned into some really incredible new ideas, new content and new philosophies on putting stuff into the world. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. I know I had a blast speaking with these two. This is a very special episode of Ken's Nearest Neighbors. We are currently in the Content House, the ... House, the Data Influencer House. I don't know if any of us are influencers. I don't consider myself an influencer.
[00:01:55] Luke: Fight is ...
[00:01:55] Ken: No, but we wanted to take the time to do something live and in person I spent the last basically week and a half with Luke and Tina. And I thought it would be incredible to bring them in, to talk about what we learned from working together. I mean, obviously a lot of us are working in isolation now and it was really cool and exciting to be able to learn from other people and see how they do things.
So this could be related to any work. This could be related to your data work. You know, there are many data scientists who started during the pandemic, who have literally never worked with other people in person. Right. You're working asynchronously, all these things. Yeah. Tina had her job. She is, she never went into the office. Right.
I think that that's pretty crazy. So I want to start with you guys to learn about, Hey, like what did you take away from this experience? Whether it was related to content, whether it was related to coworking, how did that go?
[00:02:52] Luke: I want to start.
[00:02:56] Tina: Okay, you can start too. Thank you for that question, Ken. Very insightful. Let me think about this. Oh yes. Okay. So I think from this experience, what the biggest takeaway I have gotten is that there are a lot of things that I could be improving that I didn't know about. And I wouldn't have known if I were doing it by myself.
Because in my mind, I'm just like, Oh, I'm just going to do this this way. And this is probably fine. And then after being with Ken and Luke, and they're all like blue lights on lights off, you know,
so there is like doing all these crazy things with cameras, like having multiple different angles, like color grading, things like that. Things I just absolutely knew nothing about made me realize how there was so much more I can be doing, so much more I can be expressing about myself that I just simply wasn't.
So that was like huge takeaway that I was going there. And the second one was that before coming here, I actually really believed in working in isolation because I've just always done so, and I'm like, Oh, this has worked for me. So I don't need other people. I don't need to talk to anyone. But then after coming here, like realizing that there's so much information that you could be sharing each other and the creativity just absolutely goes through the roof. Like, something that I think I will take back. And then I would love to be able to talk with other careers and decree with other careers as well.
[00:04:24] Ken: Incredible. What do you think, Luke?
[00:04:26] Luke: That's phenomenal answer. And she gave too. And so that her second one was actually mine. So thanks Tina. I appreciate that.
No. So, I think building on that second point of that I would say work in isolation and I think, you know, so like my videos, I do everything myself. I write it, shoot it, edit it. Like, I just can't see going anywhere differently with that. But, it's just like, this is how like potentially outsourcing things.
But more importantly, I think the importance of just like working with others and like iterating through things. Cause like we would have come up with ideas, like our thumbnail, we were talking about thumbnails or whatever, and I would spit out an idea and then you would, you or Tina would just like build on it further and then I'd build on it further and we'd just go back and forth.
And we'd usually, I feel like come to a much better answer than I would ever get to in isolation by myself. So yeah. I think that the iteration of being around people, it's just so crazy that the pandemic of working by yourself. And sometimes I think you need that like physical interaction.
[00:05:31] Ken: Yeah. I absolutely love that. I think to me, something was very interesting is to see how very different people with very different systems are successful. It is for people that don't know Luke and Tina are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they work. Like, Luke is I'd say like, hyper-organized, very methodical, meticulous.
Like if something's not right, he'll just like, shoot it again. And the Tina's very much like, Hey, bias towards action. Let's do this. I want to try. I want to experiment, not that Luke does an experiment, but there's two, like completely, totally not necessarily opposing, but like most of the time contrarian philosophies.
And I think you guys both grew so much from seeing like the opposite end of the spectrum and seeing it be successful. And to me, that's so cool. It's like, it's not the similar things that you see in each other that makes you learn. It's the different forces that are at play. You're like, Oh, that's interesting.
I didn't even conceptualize that it could be done that way. Right. And you're like, Oh, I thought I was doing, I thought, like the other thing for me is like, I was like, wow, I thought I was putting thought or work into some of these things. And it's like, Wow, like the way that Luke thinks about a thumbnail or thinks about a problem, it's fundamentally different than I do.
So for anyone who cares about content creation, Luke told me this thing about, you know, basically each of your thumbnails, you want to tell a story, right. And to me, that's pretty compelling. I mean, I'd never thought about it in that way. And it's been very meaningful to me to do as well. Yeah.
[00:07:08] Tina: And I also learn that Luke has a great Southern accent.
[00:07:14] Luke: ... on podcast.
[00:07:16] Ken: Yes. We also learned that Tina is scared of literally everything.
[00:07:19] Tina: Yeah. I am afraid, but I still do it.
[00:07:22] Ken: And that's an important thing. Incredible, Tina. So we went to Arkansas and then we are in Austin now.
[00:07:33] Tina: I thought it was in Alabama.
[00:07:34] Ken: Yes. Tina legitimately thought Arkansas was in Alabama, but you know, she's not American. So sort of a pass.
[00:07:42] Luke: I don't know anything about Canada.
[00:07:45] Tina: I thought Austin was in Dallas.
[00:07:48] Ken: Tina, you're just exposing yourself.
[00:07:51] Luke: You don't have to say anymore.
[00:07:53] Tina: Okay, I just want it to be completely transparent and honest with you guys.
[00:07:57] Ken: And that's kind of smart unless we were to like bring it up later.
[00:08:00] Tina: Yeah, I'm just telling you, guys, I don't know what's happening pretty much all the time.
[00:08:07] Ken: What did you think of the American South? And we had very different foods. You heard some very different accents. What was your experience like? You went to a Buc-ee's, which is a giant gas station for what people don't know.
[00:08:25] Tina: Yeah. It was a great experience. Like, firstly, I learned that everything can be fried. Like literally everything can be fried. It is amazing how not everybody is really, really fat. Like it's absolutely, I think I gained like five pounds on this trip alone. I like, I mean, Luke is not fat because he exercises a lot. Yeah, so that was the biggest one.
And then also like just people are just very different in the South. Everything is very large. I think that came out a little bit wrong. I mean that everything around me is very large. Like trucks are very large.
[00:09:01] Luke: We went to Buc-ee's and it has a hundred gas pumps.
[00:09:03] Tina: Exactly. There was that. It was, everything was like, just so much of something. I think that is the American dream. I think the South is the American dream.
[00:09:13] Ken: Wow. So are you going to move here or what?
[00:09:16] Tina: I made a move to Alabama. I would like to do that after my ...
[00:09:23] Ken: What was your favorite thing that you ate on the trip?
[00:09:26] Tina: Ooh, I really, so the first meal we ever had was the seafood. What is that called? Like the seafood food.
[00:09:33] Luke: The boiled seafood.
[00:09:35] Tina: But also the fried stuff.
[00:09:37] Luke: Like the fried okra.
[00:09:38] Tina: Yeah, like fried okra.
[00:09:40] Luke: Oh, the hush puppies.
[00:09:41] Tina: I wasn't so sure about the hush puppies though. I really liked the story behind the hush puppies. So I liked all fried okra a lot, the seafood boils amazing. I like that it was a lot cleaner than other seafood boils that I have been eating previously.
It was actually pretty clean. It wasn't like don't do butter or anything like that. Also fried mushrooms was amazing. I really, I think I just really liked fried food. That's probably what it is. And I come to the South and everything is tried. And like, this is amazing. Everything is wonderful. Fried chicken, I love fried chicken as well. As you can see, I gained five pounds.
[00:10:16] Ken: Tina is like, I'll have to lose all this weight before we go to the creator meetup. And then we just ate fried food the whole time.
[00:10:23] Luke: Also Ken is a great chef and a great personal will come to your house and we'll cook for you. So that was like one of the, I think the highlights of having somebody that comes in and just like me and Tina didn't even have to decide what we would be. Can we just throw something together?
[00:10:40] Ken: Yeah, my therapist would say it's because I'm a complete control freak, but that's okay. I don't mind, I quite enjoy cooking.
[00:10:46] Luke: Like, Ken, how about we we grilled this chicken, and he's like, no, we're going to bake it. I'm like, Okay.
[00:10:55] Tina: I just say, Oh no, I did it, brined salmon. Oh no. And then he has the brined salmon I just.
[00:11:03] Ken: Yeah. So for those who don't know, if you eat salmon and you, you brine it with salt and sugar, so you don't get that like white film of stuff on the top, that looks kind of gross. It doesn't really affect the flavor very much, but it's about presentation. A lot of the times.
[00:11:19] Tina: The presentation is amazing. Like he does the fancy spoon sauce thing that makes everything look really cool. I probably won't be doing that, but I really appreciate it.
[00:11:30] Ken: Yeah, that was cause we had some extra time we're waiting for someone on dinner, so.
[00:11:34] Tina: Oh yeah. That's also another thing I seem to be very poor communication. I'm not really sure what's happening. Like somebody would tell me something and then I just like, I don't know I was supposed to
[00:11:45] Ken: do.
So actually let's talk about that. I think that that's a really interesting thing. So in person you're like awful at communication, but digitally you're amazing at communication. Right. Like, is it because there's a log or like.
[00:11:57] Tina: I just feel like it's not real ... podpast.
[00:12:04] Luke: And so I think a good example of this with Tina writes is we're shooting video of Tina. I'm shooting a video with Tina and I needed to get her to smile. And I told her I'm like, Smile, smile. And she just wouldn't smile. And so like like feeling awkward because when we tell him to smile, smile, and she just did it. And then afterwards, and we show her the thing she's like, I should've smiled in that. They were like, we told you to smile, like multiple times, and she's like, Oh, I thought you were just kiddng.
[00:12:35] Tina: I thought you were telling yourself to smile. I just didn't know. I felt like maybe this is cultural, and I didn't want to ... on anybody else.
[00:12:50] Luke: This is what those Southern boys do. They held themselves to smile.
[00:12:54] Ken: So, you know, who asked the most blunt questions all the time? She's like, Oh, this is what I choose to be very sensitive of other people.
[00:13:00] Tina: Yeah, I didn't want him feed and it's for this podcast as well. So somebody told me it's supposed to start at 8:30. Right. And I thought they were kidding about it. I also thought it was a live stream. So I didn't show up until 9:20.
[00:13:13] Ken: When everyone in the house is like, Oh yeah, you got, you're doing the podcast at 8:30 this morning. Right.
[00:13:19] Tina: I don't know. I just like didn't understand what that meant. I think it's okay. In all honesty, I think what it is, is that in person, I just like, I'm not very good at listening to other people. Cause I just kind of sit here and think about stuff. And when people are talking to me, I just assume that they're talking to each other or something like that.
[00:13:39] Ken: So, how can we reconcile that? Do we just have to be like, Tina?
[00:13:42] Tina: Yeah. I think you actually have to do that. You have to be like, Tina, you need to be here at 8:30 because you are required to be in this podcast.
[00:13:55] Ken: Maybe it's good [laugh] office. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I said maybe it's good you never went in the office at work.
[00:14:01] Tina: As I have worked in the office before indefinitely, this has always been in problems. I'm just like, Oh wow, what's happening. Everybody's leaves. And they're like, Oh, we're supposed to get lunch. I'm like, Okay.
[00:14:13] Ken: Well, I mean, it's very interesting. Cause I'm the complete opposite. Like I'm like very much, I'm so bad at digital communication, but I would like to think pretty good at in-person communication where it's like, I dunno, it's like something about being present and past girlfriends I've had have been like, you need to listen better. And so I tried to do better at that, but who knows?
[00:14:36] Tina: I still don't listen. I think.
[00:14:40] Ken: Tina, your whole channel is about learning. That should be your next challenge.
[00:14:43] Tina: Learning how to listen. What do you guys think about that video? Learning how to listen.
[00:14:47] Ken: In the comments, let us know if you want to see that video from Tina.
[00:14:50] Luke: Two years on a cell phone.
[00:14:54] Ken: So, so we did a lot of work on brainstorming, thumbnail ideas and something like that. And a thumbnail that I absolutely loved was the one where. It was like about your phone's listening to you. And I put yours on the phone and I mean, the click-through rate wasn't that bad, but I was like, I guess people got weirded out by ears on a cell phone, but that's one we're probably going to need to reshoot at some point.
[00:15:20] Tina: Yes, I see I wasn't listening.
[00:15:28] Luke: I wouldn't. And I wouldn't say for you, you're not a bad listener. Right. Cause you'll have your, you'll get in deep conversations with people on supplements. You'll get in deep conversation with people and you're, you're actively listening for that. But I think, I dunno, just, I think it just somewhere different whenever you're like, we're talking about like, we're talking about something like doing a podcast, it's not like a conversation. It's like a, just like a different thing. A different form of communication.
[00:15:50] Ken: Yeah. That's true.
[00:15:50] Luke: Cause you are not a bad listener at all.
[00:15:53] Tina: Yeah. As I'm aware that I should be listening, I think I'm quite good at listening to, it's often not aware that I am being spoken to where like I'm supposed to be listening to something.
[00:16:08] Ken: Yeah, I know. it's a really interesting thing. So how did you guys feel from going when it was just us until like meeting so many more people? You know, I like one thing that we determined over the course of this trip is I'm very extroverted. You guys are both more introverts. And I think that that's something like I try to be really mindful of.
It's it's difficult because I want to talk all the time, but how do you mitigate those situations? I mean, even for anyone else who's working or whatever it might be. How do you handle people like me in a work setting or when you can't get rid of us. Or like, you know, what do you do to manage communication? Or how do you, how do you effectively work through that.
[00:16:51] Tina: Pretend that I am not listening.
[00:16:53] Ken: And then you eventually actually start not listening?
[00:16:56] Tina: Oh, no, no. And honestly though, because we were so luckily Luke had three places to sleep. So I would just close the door and that was like, I would just be hiding in my room and I think over time.
[00:17:07] Luke: Next time meet up. I'm only getting one room. We'd all have to be in it together.
[00:17:11] Ken: And we like he's back on the submarine. Also for anyone listening, I've had individual podcasts with both Luke and Tina, so you can check those out. I'll definitely link those. If you want more of the inside jokes that we're going to tell here.
[00:17:25] Tina: What about you, Luke? How do you deal with social people?
[00:17:27] Luke: Yeah, so you like, you go and you will go lock yourself in your room. I think my way of doing it is through exercise. So, I'll just go do my own thing and just plug in headphones and get away. And so that's how I just sort of decompress and recharge myself. And I'm able to like, think about conversations and be able to get back into it. Cause I'm a strong introvert. So I like need time alone to recharge. I don't, I'm not, I can't function.
[00:17:57] Tina: Is that why Luke you exercise for four hours a day?
[00:18:00] Luke: I don't exercise for like four hours..
[00:18:02] Ken: Fine. It's like two hours and 43 minutes.
[00:18:05] Luke: I do like an hour of a CrossFit. And then like maybe an hour or more of mountain bike.
[00:18:11] Tina: Two and a half, two and a half.
[00:18:12] Luke: Every single I do it also for diffuse learning, so.
[00:18:18] Ken: What you can learn about in a Tina's new video. Yeah. It's interesting. You see Luke and he's throwing the, that was the medicine ball down really hard. And he's like, Ken fricking talk all the time. Just.
[00:18:34] Luke: Ken's Nearest Neighbors, ugh.
[00:18:40] Ken: So we also got outside quite a bit. We did some mountain biking, which was new to me. How did you feel about that? I mean, I was actually very, very scared at some times, which I thought was like, I personally liked that feeling. Tina, we know you're scared of everything, but you work through it. How does that fear of approaching a jump or something like that compared to talking with new people and conversation and those types? I mean, it's, I would imagine it's different, but.
[00:19:10] Tina: Yeah. I wouldn't much preferred jumping on a bike and potentially dying. No, I'm kidding. That's so different. Yeah. I'm like deathly afraid every time, but they just kept on going somewhere. I guess I have to do this too. I'm like a people pleaser, so I can't possibly impede, like, I don't want to, you know, they're doing their things, so I'm like, Okay, I have to do this too. I was like super scared entire time. Yeah, also my butt really hurt.
[00:19:38] Ken: Mine hurts so bad on the seats, but it was worth it.
[00:19:42] Luke: Biked for like two or three days in a row. And then yeah, the third day I was like, Hey, y'all ready to go biking. You're like, I can't sit down. No bike.
[00:19:52] Ken: Yeah. And if anyone doesn't know Luke has just a very structured, but for biking from all the squats.
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The Bruce Caboose.
[00:20:37] Luke: I was really surprised with y'all mountain biking skills, right? So they it's both Tina and Ken are very athletic beyond their like intellectual skills. So y'all were able to pick up mountain bike and really quickly. And I guess it also surprised me with you, like immediately getting into jumping, like actually like going full speed and trying to hit a jump to like get air because normally people don't do that.
They get very scared. They don't want to leave the air, like get any air. So I was like really surprised with that, but both y'all are picking it up really quick. So it was really crazy to just start on easy trails and then go up to local farm, hard to treat. Okay.
[00:21:12] Ken: Well, I think any pretty much everyone in our profession has some weird relationship with risk, right? I mean, yeah. I mean, there's, you have to have some gear that says, Hey, I want to go out and put content out there. I want to do something that deviates from a traditional, like leisure time or work. And I find that really interesting. You know there are also a lot of people that are terrified of other things, but they're willing to take certain risks, whether it's on a mountain bike or with content or those types of things.
How do you guys view risk in your career, view risk in, I guess in life, is there something that you have a philosophy on it or.
[00:22:04] Luke: Well, we sort of talked about that a little bit with a risk on bikes. Like a flight or fright mindset. So I look at it as you know, with like, I guess you probably could explain it better with like the back in the caveman days.
Can you talk about that kind of stuff? But, so I look at it as specific to exercise. I like to take risks mainly to just like, understand that what a real stress is. So I will just I like to jump on a bike. I like to, it can be dangerous. I broke my wrist last year. Going over the handlebars, but I like to take that type of risk because then I can come back after I ride my bike and do that and get back into whatever the environment I'm in and working in and realize that, Hey, maybe this project I'm working on that I'm stressing about so much.
Like it's actually not that big of a deal. Like it's sort of helps level out or helps me put it better in perspective of what the actual stresses of that. So I like the inject risk outside of a work in order to help mellow myself out in work.
[00:23:13] Tina: #NoFinancialAdvice, Yolo all your stonks to take risk. You would not agree with that statement.
[00:23:21] Luke: No.
[00:23:21] Tina: That's very bad. Actually, so that story about the caveman thing. It's pretty interesting. The reason why so many people like white-collar workers are so stressed these days, one of the theories is not pocking the caveman days, stress was used as a way for you to move your body. So when you naturally move your body, because something is hunting you then you're going to keep running, right?
And then that will relieve the stress you experience from being hunted. But we feel a lot of stress right now. From things like, you know, deadlines at work or stuff like that, but you can't relieve that stress because you're not actually moving your body to relieve it. So you're just trying to move your brain to do so. That's why exercise is so important because you're kind of compensating for that, getting that stress outside of your body. Cause it's a very physiological reaction that has to occur.
[00:24:11] Ken: Yeah. I think that's the physiological aspect is very fascinating to me. So like what are, what happens in our body with stress and excitement is almost virtual identity. But it's up to our brain to determine if it's scary or exciting. And that, to me a long time ago gave me the power over to control if something is scary or if I was exhilarated by it, you know, an example, I gave a keynote a couple of weeks a week ago, two weeks ago. And when I got on stage, I was a hundred or so people - nothing.
Just like, I'm completely unbothered by it, but that's because I'm viewing it as something really exciting rather than something I'm terrified. I'm like, they're like my foot's tapping and I'm jittery and whatever it is, but it's not that I'm scared. It's that like, Wow. I'm super amped about this experience.
And it's how I framed that scenario. And I think that that's a really important thing to realize. I mean, the mountain biking, I was scared. Right. But then once you start getting yeah. But once you start getting going, you get used to it. And you're like, Okay, this is really exciting. Like, I mean, in something new like that, you're always thinking about worst case scenario.
I was like, Oh, I fall, it's not soft. Like snow, like skiing. Like I'm used to. It'll hurt real bad, but once you're like, Okay, well, if I don't lean into it a little bit, I have a higher chance of falling, you know, to me, that's, that's wild. Like if you don't really embrace the speaking and you come off nervous, then it's gonna turn out worse because you're going to show up nervous or whatever it might be. So you might as well just dive all the way in and immerse yourself into it.
[00:25:43] Tina: Key though, is how you still feel that emotion, right. And actually think that's important because if you don't feel it, it means you don't care. So you clearly do care a lot about it, and you're using that adrenaline to feel you in order to speak better, to be more aware, to be more alert while some, like other people may feel that as fear.
So I think that people, when people say like, Oh, how do you get better at public speaking? How do you get over that fear? How do you get over that feeling? I think you would never do. If you actually care about public speaking, you just learn to channel it in a different way.
[00:26:13] Ken: I think you think about it in a different way. Right. I will say, I think you, you generally do acclimate a little bit. Yeah. I mean, when I do. I mean, are you as nervous every time you do a live stream now is when you started.
[00:26:28] Tina: That's fair, I was definitely way more nervous during that. However, maybe I'm just not as accustomed to doing talks, but whenever I do a talk, even though it's something that I'd done previously, I still, I always get that feeling. And so interestingly, whenever I film a video, I still get that exact same feeling. And it's been almost two years now. So every time I still feel that all my nerves get jumbled up.
[00:26:52] Ken: When in that process, is it, is it when you release the video or is it when you're filming the video? I feel nothing. When I'm filming it, it's like, this is business as usual. I'm doing my script and then once I release it, that's when I'm like, Wow, this is actually going to the world. That's the performance, no.
[00:27:10] Tina: Because it's already done. So it's like, now it's up to fade.
[00:27:15] Luke: I would say my nervousness or my level of energy or excitement is writing down here and then shooting the video here and then back to editing, it goes back down and released.
[00:27:27] Ken: Well, we've also talked about this quite a bit is that I have no qualms about making the video. That's the easiest part for me and you guys, I mean, Luke, you love the editing the most. Tina, I don't know what part of the process he liked the most. She likes like the shooting the most too.
[00:27:43] Tina: I like thinking about what I'm going to talk.
[00:27:47] Ken: So you like the planning, so we should, we should just, Tina should script it. I should have recorded new collaboration channel coming up, everyone.
[00:27:58] Tina: About mountain biking.
[00:28:00] Ken: That'd be wild and we need to get like Shashank to voice over it.
[00:28:06] Luke: Yeah.
[00:28:07] Tina: Luke goes over this hill. He has completed the jump. I'm not very good at it.
[00:28:16] Ken: No, no. Keep going.
[00:28:19] Tina: Yeah. I don't know what else do you do, except that.
[00:28:22] Luke: That's pretty much it. I go back up the hill.
[00:28:24] Tina: Oh, Okay.
[00:28:25] Ken: No, he uses his electric bike to go back up the hill and leaves us in the dust. Amazing. So I think we have to take Tina to the airport. But..., if you want to talk for nine more minutes? Sure.
[00:28:43] Tina: Yes. Anything else.
[00:28:45] Luke: You have something to share?
[00:28:46] Tina: No.
[00:28:49] Ken: Well, if you did have something to share for the listeners, this is the 99th episode, almost the 100th episode. The hundredth episode teaser is actually with my dad and I bring him on, which is actually a wild conversation.
The man, the old man is crazy. But I mean, do you have anything that you'd like to share? Probably more related to this experience, just all coming together. Obviously meeting me as I'm sure like, Oh, wild. I am just kidding.
[00:29:17] Luke: One of the joys of my life right now.
[00:29:21] Ken: No. Is there anything you think other people could take away from congregating more in person these days? I mean, obviously there are safety concerns but I honestly didn't remember or realize how valuable and experience it is to actually be physically co-located with people again. Is again, is there anything that you guys would take away from that or would like to communicate about that?
[00:29:46] Luke: So I guess I liked the colleague, the co-locating act, so, okay. So whenever I was working as a data analyst, I worked with teams remotely and I would go, you know, I would go visit them sometimes and work with them in person. But I never really, you know, if people aren't talking about things they're excited about, I don't feel like there's a there's not much productivity.
So is there sometimes I went on business trips to go talk with people and meet with people in person and they weren't excited about it or what they were doing. I did notice there were sometimes like like one of my first projects as data analyst. There was this one guy was working with and I would have to travel to go meet him, very passionate about it, very productive meetings.
But so, yeah, I think it just all goes to passion and getting people around you that have that same passion. It's not just being in person. If you're not having that same common interest, I don't think there's going to be fruitful or beneficial. It's going to be, it's going to, there'll be just might as well just do in call.
[00:30:55] Tina: Yeah. First thing is staring up. Ken is very different in person. I think.
[00:31:00] Luke: Yeah. I mean, we met him in his voice was like completely different in person.
[00:31:05] Ken: I did also have COVID so I was over it, but yeah.
[00:31:11] Luke: When we met him and he's like talking all weird to us in real life because this really Ken Jee.
[00:31:18] Tina: Well, after a while, like the weird stuff came out and then it was normal again. Yeah, I think for me, the biggest takeaway was definitely that I should co-locate. What is it called? Co-located. Co-located with other people and other people. Yeah. Live with everybody else. It actually is amazing. It's just, the ideas are flowing and I also feel like I'm a lot more open to taking risks and a lot more open to doing things. I wouldn't do.
It for me when I film, I just filmed everything in one setting and I'm just like, Okay, now that's it. But with Luke, you know, you do it through multiple days. You like plan different B roll and things like that. And I would normally just be like, Oh no, that's too hard. That's too much effort.
I have to move my camera. I'm like, Okay, like this is something that I can take away and be able to start doing for myself. Because at, before it just didn't, I just, like, I just thought that was way too hard for me to possibly do something like that. And just that risk that I conceive as risk at that point is something that I was able to overcome with people around. So I think it's really, really important to be around people. Passionate about what it is that they do. And then I think really amazing things can come out of it. Also. I can't wait until the next one.
[00:32:36] Ken: Yeah. Well, I mean a hundred percent agree. I think that, so one thing that we don't think about that much is about how nice it is for recording and stuff, to have other people around. I mean, I don't have to shoot all my own stuff on a tripod. We all double check it. I mean, the production quality of this podcast episode is going to be so much higher than any other ones, because, you know, I had Luke to help me set up three cameras and make it all really nice. Right?
[00:33:04] Luke: It just speeds up the workflow so much faster. It gets you more creative, give different angles and then you're not just like I mess up so often by myself. Just messing up audio or whatever ankle.
[00:33:16] Ken: And then you have to go and like do whatever change stuff and whatever it might be. And you also, I found a very powerful motivation. I mean, seeing other people work has been really eye-opening to me, it's like, Wow, Luke's working on this really hard. I should be working on something. To me, that's cool. It's such like a different environment and the motivation you got and the sort of collaboration opportunities. It's very much a scenario where one plus one equals three, right?
Where if you're together, just the amount of ideas or different perspectives. I mean, in my room by myself, I have no one telling me that's a bad idea. Right. I have no one saying. Yeah. All right. Here's on the phone. We're not bad, but there are other things where it looks just like, Wow, that's just terrible. I'm like.
[00:34:08] Tina: But he says it nicer. He's like, Hmm, maybe.
[00:34:10] Ken: Not after two glasses of wine.
[00:34:12] Tina: Well, that's true then becomes like, why would you think that.
[00:34:17] Ken: Wow. That was really bad. Like why, why did I do that? And it's because there was no discussion around it. It's like, yeah, it's a discussion in your head and it's nothing.
And that happens to me a lot. I do polls on YouTube and I'm like, Wow, what I thought people would be interested in, just not at all. And that's okay. I mean, that's like, I cherish that I want more of that in my life. So I'm definitely looking forward to more, more things like this. Again, you'll, you'll probably see some of the best content that at least I've ever been a part of coming out of this trip. I'm really excited for everyone to be a part of that as well by seeing it.
[00:34:56] Tina: I would like now to bow to Luke.
[00:34:59] Luke: Tina likes to make me uncomfortable by bowing to me.
[00:35:04] Tina: Yeah. I'm just like trying to show my appreciation also apologizing for not listening. So, you know, it's like one of those things where you just keep following it, it's like you're preemptively apologizing for whatever it is that you're going to do.
Yeah, that's true. But I've failed a few times prior. So I feel like that compensates in some fashion. I'm sorry.
[00:35:28] Ken: It is okay. I will, let's not make you late to the airport. Thank you both for coming on for this very special Q&A chat. I hope to do more in-person podcasts. This is really sick. Sweet. Thank you guys.
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