Reiley [00:00:25] Hey guys, welcome to the Radcast. This is our Open Mic Episode. And it's also just Josh and I today. It is us and we are just hanging out and enjoying our fourth Open Mic. It's kind of been crazy doing this in between holidays. I had this idea and then we started doing it and then it was holidays and all the other things that happened with holidays. But here we are and here is open mic, just you and I. But I'm excited because I feel like we have a lot of cool things to talk about today, even though for the most part, it's just pretty unscripted. I think we were talking a good bit pre show about just different things. And so I think we'll have a good time in this episode today. But yeah, how are you? 

Josh [00:01:12] I'm good. Hanging out, recovering from the holidays, traveling and stuff.

Reiley [00:01:20] … you were in Vegas right?

Josh [00:01:22] Yeah, for a night…

Reiley [00:01:24] How was that?

Josh [00:01:25] It was good, just kind of like hunkered down at my friend’s house because it’s really bad out there, you know with COVID…

Reiley [00:01:35] Oh yeah, the thing that’s still happening, and still going on…

Reiley [00:01:54] What kind of music do you produce Josh? 

Josh [00:01:56] We make old country style stuff now. And the likes of Patsy Cline…

Reiley [00:02:47] Did you have a good new year? Because you were out there for Christmas and New Year's? 

Josh [00:02:52] Pretty chill New Year's. Just sat in the kitchen with a couple of my friends and watched the ball drop, and watched the time change…

Reiley [00:02:59] That's super fun. 

Josh [00:03:02] About three hours after you did. You beat me to the New Year. How does that feel?

Reiley [00:03:06]  Honestly, it was pretty good. I actually had a pretty fun New Year's, to be honest. It was funny because when Ryan and I recorded an episode last week when we were talking about it, at that point we already had our New Year's plans and you obviously had your new year’s plans. Everyone pretty much had their plans set in stone. But by the time the episode actually released, it would have already passed. So we were talking in hypotheticals. We were like, I'm supposed to be doing this. So I guess we'll see if that happened later. And to be honest, I was pretty spot on with what I ended up doing. So we had a couple of my friends came down from West Virginia that I went to school with at WVU, and we just had New Year's at my apartment, it was pretty chill. I decorated my apartment and it was all cute. And then honestly, I didn't even turn. I don't even think we turned the TV on. I just think we were waiting for the twelve o'clock time to change because, like, I don't remember, like, anything really big happening about it, so we played cards, and obviously I did not win…Actually it’s a good story. So the first time I taught you rummy, you kicked my ass…But it was good New Year’s. And apart from that we heard some interesting news to start off our conversational parts of today. But have you heard that the time is actually like getting faster in the sense that there's debate about changing [of] time length of a minute? Have you heard about this? 

Josh [00:05:11] Just very vaguely before, but like it’s kinda crazy. 

Reiley [00:05:27] Right. Because that's kind of the debate. Apparently 2020 had the shortest day 28 times over compared to 2005, which is probably weird to think about. And also last year was 0.5 millisecond shorter than the last 60 years, or something random like that. But I just think that it is so interesting because now the conversation is -- do you change time, do you change the length of time? Which like, some people were saying [that] this was isn't going to be decided until 2023 when all the members that decide time , or whatever get together and basically go, “Okay, I guess we're going to change time, or change the scope of a minute”, because that's what essentially it's getting affected. 

Josh [00:06:25] I'm imagining a big time convention. “Did you go to the Time-Con last year?”.

Reiley [00:06:31] But like, what is your opinion? Like, what is your thought on that? 

Josh [00:06:34] It could be cool. I mean, it's like it is fun to think about it in terms of like, it feels very [much] like David Lynch “oh we just decide it's shorter” and then everything like goes a little bit faster, or something like, “oh, we can just decide, if everyone just decides that it's like like 1907. We'll just go back in time” — that’s how time travel works by the way…

Reiley [00:07:21] It's interesting because it begs the question of — you know, how you get out of work and it's like five, or 5:30, or whatever. The sun's gone. It’s like when you wake up, the sun's not out. You leave the office and the sun's already down —  do you feel like, because I feel that this debate's been around for a while and obviously, like we're on the younger scope of the work-life deal. But the work week -- I feel like there's a lot of debate about this right now, even because of COVID. What's the time that's too much working?

Josh [00:07:58] I think it’s both the change in the minute and also the new work set up. It's kind of important to think about. Like our concept of time is made up. Only a fun, side mission you can go on. It's like looking into how different cultures use a visualized time because the Western culture usually uses a linear method, but that's not the only way to visualize time, which is very fun. 

Reiley [00:08:26] Alright. Elaborate.

Josh [00:08:28] There's some, like a lot of Asian, specifically I think of the Japanese culture, I think of it like cyclical, [with] visuals, where it's like, oh, cool, next time I can do it. Whereas in the West it’s, “Oh, I'll never get that chance again”, or like, “Oh, this happened”, or like, “this will never happen again”. Or it feels like you're running out of time. Like when you visualize it in a different way. There’s this very specific country, it’s like Madagascar, or something, somewhere, I don't know where it is, I forgot where it is, where they visualized time as something that’s flowing into the back of your head and forward. And so you're like, I guess for us, we would visualize that as we're moving down the timeline, but we're looking backwards. But like for them, it's like flowing forward. But you can only see it as it's going, for instance, like it's hard to wrap your head around... 

Reiley [00:09:25] I'm trying to think about this as this is one of those where you really have to concentrate and meditate on… But it is interesting just to think about in general just how work, and just the time we spend in work affects everything else. I mean, like essentially I wish there were seven more hours in the day where I could do more work. But I feel like there needs to be that balance. But, where do you feel like? I mean, I guess it kind of even goes into just like agency life in general. What does that line look like for you as far as work life and stuff [is concerned]? 

Josh [00:10:13] I always try to make sure that I'm leaving space for things other than work. It’s part of the fun of  — man, I like this episode, because we are tying time to everything — Time is a decided thing. Humans made it up. It's relative to some things. At the end of the day we could just decide it's a different time and it's not like someone discovered a clock. We have different cultural norms of an 8-hour work week, a little industrial revolution’s [right] product there. I am on the team ‘Abolish Daylight Savings’...You can just wake up at a different time if you need the sunlight. I feel it's not that useful. The other countries don't jump on. Why are we doing it? 

Reiley [00:11:18] I feel some people saw use of it forever ago. But I mean, to your point -- is that needed now? Like it was needed for a time… We need that time for other things. I feel like society and life has progressed in a different way, that time could probably be used somewhere else. But where do you put it? Where would you put that extra time? 

Josh [00:11:47] Probably more creative things. Probably more music things, or stuff at home, more like thinking and all. Honestly, more rest. I think a lot of people, that's part of the work week and post work, like kinda how I divide up my time, like I've recently been focusing, I realized that in  the last couple of years, I’ve been setting up time to rest because otherwise it's like you just kind of go, go, go. And then I'm finding that I'm more productive giving myself more time to rest and less time to work because it's like, you'll burn yourself out. I mean, you want to think, if you get on social media, especially like LinkedIn, you can get sucked into this productivity culture, and stuff, and [all] that. I know how to work hard, but also [how to] work smart, not [only] hard. You can work 40 hours a week and give me like 20 hours worth of work. Or you can just spend more time planning, and resting, [then] you come in with a fresh mind, like you can come in and be like, “oh, I can handle this really fast now”, and you work better. You feel better. You feel more energized while you're working. I think it's an important thing to really try and stay. It's like creating time for you to be resting, not thinking about work, and then also creating time to be creating stuff, like making stuff for yourself. And I think it makes you like a more well-rounded person and kind of helps improve every aspect of what happens. 

Reiley [00:13:36] I totally agree with you. I think, you know, to piggyback off of what you just said, I feel like, to that point, as much as society, I feel you see on Instagram – do this for yourself, create an Instagram feed that's for who you are, your own aesthetic. There's all these things I feel like really try to push people to really ‘be you’ and ‘it's your decision’... And I think that's all fine and good. But is there actually that actionable push to make the time for yourself? Like it's not about just like these decisions are mine and “I'm deciding to say this now”, and “I'm going to post this because this is what I want to post”, and “I'm going to share this because this goes with my narrative”, and whatever.  It's absolutely awesome. But then at the end of the day, like, how much time are you actually giving to yourself to be a better person? And I'm talking to myself… I mean, I need to give myself more time. I genuinely wish I had -- and I talk about seven hours of the day. I wish I had more time because I genuinely wish I had more time to do yoga. I wish I had more time to read a book. I wish I had more time to do music, and/or listen to music and do other things. To be outside, like, I love [the] outside. And I feel I don't have any time to be outside…You slow down from other things and you try to jump on something else…we only have 24 hours…

Josh [00:15:17] What really helped me is I spent a long time learning about different cultures like perspectives on time and different conceptualizations. There's a lot out there. 

Reiley [00:15:29] Like what was your biggest one?

Josh [00:15:32] Well, some people ask, “do you feel like time is moving forward or is time happening to you”? Some people visualize it. And like the circles, like I said. Other people see it as a collage of events that aren't linear. And I think if you really dig into how you are actually conceptualizing time, that's kind of like the groundwork of how you think, because some people get really caught into a linear time where it's like, they always keep putting things in front of themselves. And so, it's like a bunch of goals that you're going to not keep reaching. And then it's all these things, stuff like – if you get too far, and it’s really useful, like that's exactly why we have time and how it can get so much done. Like we are probably like in a given day, like producing more than like people are doing in weeks. 

Reiley [00:16:24] Oh absolutely. 

Josh [00:16:25] But that's why we advance so fast as a society, like as a world, recently. Because time gives us that agreed upon -- here's how we're going to measure time, and the distance between things, and events -- so we can meet together and collaborate on things and kind of like be on the same page. But some people get into this mindset of like, oh, we've measured it. So, “I only have this much time left”, and you constantly feel like you're running out of something. And it's true and it's not true. It's like it's true if you visualize it that way. If you don't, then it's not true anymore… I feel like I'm on the trippy side of things now. 

Reiley [00:17:10] I feel like we went down this road. Now we're just going to stay on it. I mean, at this point, like we're just going to talk about this, because I think it is useful for a lot of reasons in the sense of I mean, we're both in the GenZ–millennial bracket. And I feel our generation specifically, and I think this definitely applies for every generation, but I feel like our generation specifically has just been absorbed… It’s like an expectation piece is now in front of our face all the time. You are seeing what everyone is doing all the time. And whether you realize it or not, you're even comparing yourself to like, “Oh my gosh, this person's already doing this in their life?” And it makes you think about things. And then you feel rushed with your time. You feel like, am I even making use of my time? And it's like I made a thing -- I liked how Caitlyn, in one of the episodes that released last week before New Year's and in that Open Mic episode she was talking about New Year's resolutions and she was talking about making a word for your year. And I really liked that idea. And so I kind of took it on and kind of made a word for my year. And I kind of chose the word of growth. And I'm trying to apply that in a couple of areas in my life, whether that's personally, from a spiritual or religious standpoint, whether it's like mental health, like physically --- growth, like trying to grow, trying to be better at work, all that kind of stuff. But in that, I have to accept the fact that this is my only -- this is like my window of opportunity. It’s like, no one else gets to do what Josh is doing. No one else gets to do what Reiley is doing, like no one gets to do what, even you as the listener [are doing]. No one else gets to really do what you're doing right now. And like, how cool is that your role in society is contributing to who you are. And it's like this bigger idea of just being you and making the most of that, even though it probably feels like, “oh, other people are doing this”...

Josh [00:19:16] It's so important, especially in the world of social media and hyperconnectivity. You can easily feel like you're way behind other people and then easily feel like you're not unique at all. And so, you get caught in this world of watching other people live and then you just kind of beat yourself up like, oh, I'm not doing this. And it's like, do you actually want to do that? Like, really take a look at like do you actually want to be doing that at this point of your life? 

Reiley [00:19:43] Is that good for you? 

Josh [00:19:44] It's like you need to, like, there's a bunch of different timelines. I think you can be a lot of different things actually. It's like -- I did this for myself. It's like some people are like, “Oh, what's the next thing I'm going to do?”, and I'm like, what else am I going to do? That's kind of where I try to go. Like, I don't have to be one thing, or at a time I can do a lot of different things.

Reiley [00:20:06] I agree with you. I think this is something else. I was talking to someone the other day and we were discussing this a little bit because I also feel like there's all this pressure on you. You just said this. What are you going to do? Like who you're going to be like, what career are you trying to do? Like what is X?... And it's like, it has to be this definite thing you make when you're in your early 20s. And it's like chill. Like I am figuring myself out still. There's all these other factors that are coming into play here. And I also think that, like, it's like a really false expectation to hold on to people because there are people way older than us, like people even in their 70s and 80s who are reestablishing their life, and recreating their life, and redefining their life. And there's nothing wrong with that. Like, you're never one thing in your life, like you can be you can be a student at one part in your life. And then you can be a career person in another part of your life, and can be a mother. And you can be all [that, and more] at the same time too.

Josh [00:21:07] I don't expect to ever figure out. I'm not even trying at this now or I'm like, I'm going to see what else I'm going to do. 

Reiley [00:21:18] I totally agree with that. Where do you get your inspiration from? Like when you're looking at things like when you're trying to work on things about your life or do whatever, like where are you going for that kind of inspiration? You've already talked a lot about going through other cultures and learning through things like that. That was clearly a big part of your life. 

Josh [00:21:39] Usually I'm pretty curious. I mean, a lot of people are, but I get in and look at all the pieces of something. And so, I was like, why do we think of time in a line? And so I was like, I'm going to look it up. And then I was like, “oh, wait, a lot of people don't”. A part of what led to that was like, I saw an artist was making a series of watches in which you could only see the hand when there is sun and so, basically after 5 pm, or something it just disappeared, and so, you couldn't see where the hand was. And he made a second one where it's just like there was sunlight out on… It’s a watch which says that the sun’s out, or like is it daytime or is it nighttime, basically. 

Reiley [00:22:39] What did you take away from that? 

Josh [00:22:40] I think it feels more free because when you, like, lock yourself into a schedule because I don't like schedules… I work nine to five and I don't have a problem with that. But like when I leave I'm like, I want to do this. I'm not leaving. You want to have like you kind of need to have some options available. Like there is some planning still. But it's not the lock-in planning… I'm going to go home and then I'm going to do my next bass lesson. And I don't have a time frame set up… It helped me realize that you can do a lot more than you think you can like after work, because like when I was like, OK, I'm going to go to the gym when I get home, I'm going to work out for an hour… I'm going to do this for an hour and I'm going to do this. But when I get home, I don't want to do it like I'm not excited about it anymore. Now it's just another task. And all of a sudden I've extended my workday, and then it's like not fun anymore, but like setting it up to where it's like I want to try these things and more. That's helped. And I think a big key of inspiration is like you got to look for stuff outside. Like I don't listen to podcasts. I don't only listen to advertising podcasts, I listen to fun podcasts. But most of the time I am either reading a book that's fun, watching movies. Like for most of these I read reviews on it to read critics’ articles about it. There's really great video essays out there on YouTube that help you break down what the artist was trying to say and how different people are interpreting it, there are two ways here. It's like maybe you missed a point that a different person picked up or a critic might say like, oh, it was about this and you might disagree. You can disagree with critics, but it's kind of the fun of art. And that's where I get a lot of ideas from. Consuming art is trying to bring in things that bring enjoyment or make me think stuff like that. And I think I think it's another thing that's kind of progressed. It's helped me learn a lot more. I am against this weird and hyperactive productivity culture — you need to schedule every day. You need meal prep, no seasonings. You should only listen to business and investing books and podcasts — I still read about that stuff, like I still keep up but,  you got to have some color, have some flavor, have some art, a movie… because that's the only way you're going to take yourself out of your box and also find inspiration. And part of that is like in the rest too.

Reiley [00:26:27] You need to give your mind. I think I like that. And you need to give your mind time to just process what happened even in the day. I'm a big journal-er; I love to journal. I love to write. And that is a huge thing for me, it is just like taking the time to journal and write. And I noticed there was a week a couple of weeks ago where I did not make time to journal, and it was something I would normally do every day or every other day. And it really messed with my week because I just did not have -- I did not make that extra Reiley time, you know what I mean? I make a cup of tea, I have my journal, I just start writing. And it's not a certain time of the day. It's just whenever I deem it necessary for me to start writing or I have something on my mind I want to write about, whether it's poetry, or short story, or whatever, it's just like the writing, just getting it out there. And it's really critical to give yourself that kind of time, because I know, like, when you don't give yourself your own time, it affects, like, how you even interact with other people. And I think the other thing I noticed is when I would do like when I would work out, or do some yoga or something in the morning, like when I made the morning about myself, or kind of ritualized my mornings, I was doing things for myself before I came to work where I'm doing things for other people. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying I'm over here at work. I'm not trying to say like, I felt like that sounded bad. Like this kind of sounded bad, but you know what I mean. This is about – if you make time for yourself, I feel like you can, it's like a psychological thing…I think there's a lot of cool things that I think can come from just giving yourself just the necessary time that you need. And as a society, I kind of fear that, like maybe we're not actually giving ourselves the time we think we are. Like posting on Instagram about yourself; I think that's fine. And it might be your time. But is that really “your time”?...

Josh [00:29:08] I think it's part of the whole production. I think that's my key concept of time and also like making room for inspiration. You have to let go of the idea of wasting time. I think that’s my key, I'm not running out of time. I'm not wasting time. Maybe I'm sitting there drinking a cup of coffee, but it's like people took beans, they took the pit of a berry, dried it out, roasted it, and then someone crushed them up and roasted it. And I bought it from them to help support the local coffee shop and I get to sit there and drink it. 

Reiley [00:29:49] Yeah, I like that story.

Josh [00:29:51] If you open up time to do something that's maybe not going to make you. Maybe it costs you money, but it's creative and it's helping you express yourself, or learn something new. I'm taking online bass lessons so I don't ever plan on playing bass live, or recording. I just think it's fun. I love to, I love to cook and stuff. I might not ever work in a restaurant. I might not even make a meal again. It's fun and that's what helps me learn, helps me kind of clear my head and think about something else. And a lot of times I'll learn, learn how to learn better for other things; learning how to play music. I'm like, “oh, I can apply this learning technique to this like advertising thing”. When you give yourself that space to let your mind wander, you get these really cool ideas. 

Reiley [00:30:49] I agree with that. I have a little field notebook. I carry with me because if I am by myself just doing things I really like being able to have that notebook, so when I do have that thought, it's just written down. Because whether that's helping me in something that I'm thinking about for the Radcast or something for another part of work, or whether another part of life, or something else that's going on, whatever it is, I just like having the thoughts written down because they're kind of your baseline. They're kind of your foundation. They're kind of where you're going back to, and other things you're creating for yourself. And I think there's a lot that I think people can take away from just -- I am using the word ritualizing, but you know what I mean, right?. It's like just taking the time for you and making it intentional. That's another big word. I love that word. I mean, because I think without the intentionality of things, you're going to miss just a whole scope of opportunity.

Josh [00:31:51] Exactly, You're not wasting time. Do something fun. Do something creative. Do something that’s — I don’t know. I feel like the key here is to do more fun things, and [be] more inspired, or fulfilled… That was fun, I liked that.

Reiley [00:32:10] That’s okay. I am here for this. That felt like it was good, you know. But on a less serious note, I feel like we always get on a TikTok topic and at some point, in  some form or fashion. So I feel like I feel like you have to have an opinion about something that happened on TikTok…

Josh [00:32:26] You know what else is inspiring? TikTok!

Reiley [00:32:29] Make time for TikTok. Yeah.

Josh [00:32:35] Have you seen Ratatouille: the musical? 

Reiley [00:32:39] OK, we talked about this a little bit, but I'm not going to lie to you. I didn't know anything about this beforehand. I, I saw a glimpse of it and then part of me was like, it's probably a joke. Realized it's not a joke. It's actually pretty serious. They raised a million dollars. Actually it's super casual, a little pocket change, but there is a million dollars to help the Actors Guild Fund…

Josh [00:33:29] It started on TikTok. There are all these trends of people, like a girl getting on her boyfriend's shoulders and then pulling his hair around the kitchen and it’d be like cooking and having music in the background. So funny. 

Reiley [00:33:48] Now those stories are the best. I do love those trends, but it just kept on going from there. 

Josh [00:33:52] And then someone one day just made a TikTok and they're like, what if Ratatouille movie was a musical? And then someone replied to that with a TikTok and was like, it would sound like this. And then made a song. And then someone was like, here's a better version. And it just snowballed. And I think that's kind of the beauty of TikTok. It's so collaborative. And people will take a trail and just run with it. And it's cool because by the end of it you'll have thousands of people involved, the more people use those songs and stuff and make jokes about it, people are like, “wait, what if we actually did it right? And they're like, “no, it's just a joke”. And then more people did it, but like what if we actually did it and what if actual Broadway actors were getting on? And then I saw it, probably like three, where there are these real life Broadway producers, who are making TikToks. And like I saw one specifically, he was like, I've produced these Broadway shows. He’s like, “I could, I'm willing to”. And I saw a couple where they were pitching them, where it's like a job interview, “I did this, this and this, I have this much experience, like TikTok. I'm asking you, can I produce this for you?” And like, “[I] would love to be your producer. Let the people -- I want the people to decide”...The important note here is inspiration. Sometimes you need to put it out in the world, and let people help you cross the finish line.

Reiley [00:35:56] I think there's a lot of collaboration that's still happening and needs to happen more. And I hope that in 2021 that just as a society we see more just coming together. And I would love for that to be more of a thing that we see in 2021, because I agree. It's, um, it's important. And I think all jokes aside, I think the timeliness of this episode, and we're talking about time and talking about collaboration and just being together. It makes me feel like there's so much that can happen in 2021. And I just hope I don't know, I would love for it to just be a really positive year and just a lot of really good stories to come out of this year. I would love for that to happen. 

Josh [00:36:46] I think we're set up really well to have that happen. We've got more tools than ever ready available to have collaboration, and a lot of people are willing -- there's a lot of creative people out there who lost their outlets this year, and I think if you lean into it we can have even more stuff this year. 

Reiley [00:37:08] Absolutely. I'm excited for this year. I think there's going to be a lot of, um, a lot of fun about this year and especially fun on the Radcast. Obviously, we're going to have a lot more of these -- Open Mic, Ad Gab, News. Guests. It's all going to be there. And I'm very excited for this just to continue. And, for all the episodes that are up and coming, it's crazy because if you all saw it, we released our 100th episode last week, which is super exciting. And we'll probably -- I feel like by the rate we were going in 2020, we would probably have released our 200th this year as well, more than likely. So it's also exciting. But I am very thankful that you came on today and that we got to do this again. Yeah, this is fun. I like open mic and maybe next week we'll have Catilyn and Alex come back on, and maybe one day we'll do it with all five of us…But that’s it from us today…

Reiley [00:38:16] Please follow along the Radcast. We love hearing from you. We've been reading the reviews recently and the reviews have been awesome. Love hearing from you guys. And I'm happy you guys are enjoying our content during the show. We are on YouTube and we have like all these videos there on YouTube. So please go to YouTube, check them out, and then all of our highlights from episodes are on our Instagram @the.rad.cast. Now, pull that up here, and you can obviously follow Josh and I, if you're ever so inclined. I mean it's open to that possibility. Josh has a really cool username courtesy of his middle name. JoshChill, over here. And, you're welcome to follow me as well. And obviously, please follow Ryan Alford, if you have not already. He is on Instagram @RyanAlford. And then the Radcast is a product of Radical company, and that's a full digital marketing agency in Greenville, South Carolina. So we know what we're talking about here. We're talking about marketing, there is a reason why. So go check out Radical company as well. And we will see you tomorrow with the news. So see you next time.

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