Transcript of Bitesize Ep 73 - Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English Podcast. Today's episode is a bitesize one, and we have Harry with us to go through some conversation cards that I will talk to you about in more detail in a moment. But before we do. Hello, Harry. How are you doing today?

Harry:
Hello, Charlie. Hello, listeners. Very well, thank you. Yeah. Feeling good. Just had a quick shower before this chat. I'm in the mood to record a podcast. Though I wanted to mention that I haven't been listening to podcasts recently. Though I love them. I enjoy the, you know, format of podcasts. Got any recommendations?

Charlie:
There's a good one called the British English Podcast. No, there's well, there is one that we're going to be using a product of. I don't know if you meant to segue onto this so smoothly, but there's a podcast called The Diary of a CEO, and we're going to be talking about the product that they have. It's not sponsored. I just got them for Christmas. Stacey gave me them, these conversation cards, because we don't have any questions to ask each other now that we're 12 years into our relationship. So it keeps the conversation flowing. We're all out. Yeah.

Harry:
I can't think of anything to ask you.

Charlie:
What you and me?

Harry:
Yeah.

Charlie:
As in our friendship.

Harry:
I'm done. Question wise. I'm all out.

Charlie:
Okay. Fair enough. Well, yeah. Glad that we have the cards as well as Stacey and I, but going back to podcast recommendations, I have appreciated one called Lex Friedman Podcast. It's quite high brow. I don't know if you're looking for a silly one. I quite like, actually it's not silly, but it's very heartwarming. A podcast called The Moth, which is, uh, very emotive. It's very thought provoking, perhaps. And yeah, it brings me to tears. I won't be shy to admit to you that it can bring me to tears if I'm washing up, doing something that doesn't fit in the dishwasher like a big pot, doing that, looking out occasionally to the garden and I've got a tear in my eye.

Harry:
Really?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Ah. You're not just crying because you have to wash up for the fifth time that day. It's literally the the. Yeah, you've been brought to tears by the the stories.

Charlie:
Yeah. I mean, sometimes my hot tap is scaldingly hot and that also brings me to tears. But I can tell when it's the tap and when it's the podcast.

Harry:
I burnt my mouth the other day on a on a cup of soup.

Charlie:
Ouff!

Harry:
We were given these new mugs, you know, with a, like a thermal mug with a lid.

Charlie:
Right. Yeah.

Harry:
We were given them at work and I was like, oh, that's very nice of you. Thank you. I'll try that out on one of the cuppa soups that are provided. And I had, I took a sip. I was trying to kind of slurp a sip out of it. It's just a little hole in the top of the the lid in the lid. And I and I took way too much into my mouth and oh, it hurts. So I had to go. I had to dribble it out onto the the mug. Of course, it didn't go in because the lid was on. So I just dribbled this scalding hot soup, uh, onto the lid. And luckily no one was around to see it, but my tongue was in bits after that really.

Charlie:
Deadly. I'm glad that your company is providing you with Cuppa soup to fuel your engagements on the telephone.

Harry:
Yeah, no it's good.

Charlie:
Is that free of charge? As many cuppa soups as you want?

Harry:
Oh, yeah, as many as you like. I mean, unlimited supply. They'd be weird to have more than one cuppa soup on a shift. But you could if you want.

Charlie:
Would your manager sort of spot it and just make eye contact with you to say, that's not cool.

Harry:
Is that your third cuppa soup, Harry? I yeah, I don't think they'd actually bring themselves to say you've had more than your allotted amount of cuppa soup. There's an unwritten rule as to how much you can have.

Charlie:
You're dealing with a phone in and you're going through the flow chart and you're getting to a very serious question, and then they like, stop you. Get off that headset. Is that your third cuppa soup?

Harry:
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Charlie:
But yeah. The moth. I encourage you to check out the moth. And I also listen to another one that is called No Stupid Questions. It's a psychology professor and a, an economics professor, and they're having a chat.

Harry:
Yeah, that sounds interesting. They Americans?

Charlie:
They are Americans. Yes.

Harry:
They always are.

Charlie:
You will have to... You will have to accept that they are American. But the but the British one that I wanted to talk about today is the Diary of a CEO. Do you know anything about the host of this show?

Harry:
Yeah. It's the first time I came to know of this guy. I can't tell you his name. Don't remember his name, but I saw him on chat show or a quiz show. I think he was on. Uh, would I lie to you? A game show? It's not a quiz show or a chat show. It's a game show.

Charlie:
Yeah, panel show.

Harry:
We've definitely talked about that. A panel show. Exactly. Yeah. And he was on the panel. That's how I came to know of him. And then I learnt that he was on Dragons Den. Uh, the show where entrepreneurs go and try to get investment for their products. Uh, and then I heard about his podcast, and I've watched the the odd clip of him interviewing people like Jordan Peterson and, uh, Mia Khalifa I think, um, the the ex-porn star now businesswoman slash social media lady. Ah, influencer. So yeah, I've seen him around, but I've never watched a whole episode. Would you recommend it?

Charlie:
I'm actually like you with this. I've mainly engaged with the clips on YouTube. He's got a channel called diary of a CEO clips, and it's all just these short bits, and that's really what I've got out of it. Or like consumed of his show. But I did hear about these conversation cards and I was gifted them for Christmas. I think we should give them a go. And let me explain how it works. So there's a box of conversation cards, and they are broken into three categories, or three levels, depending on the level of conversation and connection that you're looking for. Level one is warm up. Use these cards to initiate engaging conversations and break the ice. I think after having known each other. What is it? 14 years, 2009 we met. Around that yeah.

Harry:
14 years.

Charlie:
We probably need to break the ice a bit, don't we? Level two is open up as you're ready to dive deeper and build stronger connections. Use these questions to help open up and share on a deeper level. And then level three, the deep end. Dive in, embrace vulnerability, and experience a level of connection like never before. So I'm excited to get to level three with you, Harry. We're going to do one from each category and hopefully, as it said, get to a level of connection like never before.

Harry:
Wow.

Charlie:
Ready for it?

Harry:
Yeah. I'm ready. Sounds amazing.

Charlie:
Okay, I've gone through some of these. And one thing I would critique is that there are a lot of your most, your best, your most favourite thing. And I find those stressful. So if we see that, let's just change it to one that comes to mind first. Yeah?

Harry:
That's a good one. Yeah. Because superlatives are annoying sometimes you don't, you know, don't have a favourite or the best. This the best that, the worst this, the best cuppa soup you've ever had. Like come on.

Charlie:
Exactly. And then I feel like it's you're having to put on a performance and you're allowed to be judged by someone else, say, oh, that's your best. Gosh, that's rubbish. It's not about that.

Harry:
Is that all you've done? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I had a date and the girl was like, how many holidays do you go on a year? It was one of her questions. Awful. And I felt like I had to... Cause she was like, because I go on lots of holidays and I like going on really nice holidays. So then I felt like I had to sell the holiday, the kind of holidays that I'd been on.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
You know, it's like, come on, come on now.

Charlie:
Did you go on a second date with that one?

Harry:
No.

Charlie:
There we go. Alright. So level one, if you could be part of any brand or company, past or present, which would it be and why?

Harry:
That's a really nice question actually, I like that, I like that.

Charlie:
Okay, good.

Harry:
Okay. One that comes to my mind, a brand that I like is Oatly. They, uh. Why is that funny?

Charlie:
Oh my God, I would have never, ever guessed that you would say Oatly. Are you... is it oat milk? Or are you saying Oakley the sunglasses?

Harry:
No. Oatly. As in the the oat milk brand.

Charlie:
Oh my God. I cannot wait to hear this answer. That is fantastic.

Harry:
I like their branding and I like their values. I think they they seem like a company that values, you know, sustainability and but also kind of honesty, you know, that they're often they have a bit on the back of, I like the way they write about things. It's very informal. And they say things like the boring but important bits. They write in a kind of humorous way about important things or things that they consider important in the world of sustainability and, and manufacturing, you know, making oat milk.

Charlie:
Nice. Okay, well recovered.

Harry:
And I like it.

Charlie:
You didn't have to recover it. I just found it, found it incredibly random. Of all the companies you choose an oat milk company. But yeah, sustainability. You like the casualness of the branding and the visual of it. Okay.

Harry:
I like the lettering they use. It kind of looks a bit like it was written on a typewriter. I like the font. I can imagine they're a fun group of guys and girls to work with.

Charlie:
Cool. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's important. I'm not saying that the ideas that I had in my mind are any better. They're probably more immature. But I thought of big companies that have like a lifestyle to go with it. I don't know if an oat milk company necessarily has a lifestyle attached to it, do they?

Harry:
I imagine so, I bet a lot of people that work for Oatly are vegans or, you know, people who have a kind of quite a healthy lifestyle and diet, I imagine.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah.

Harry:
You know, people who drink oat milk tend to have plant based diets, don't they?

Charlie:
So do you reckon you'd have to drink oat milk to be able to work there?

Harry:
I think it no, I don't think so. I don't think you had, you'd have to, but I think if you believe in the products that you're selling, that you're producing, then it's definitely, uh, it'd be good for your career. Right? And and you're believing in the product that you're, you know, promoting or whatever your job is. I think that would, that would help. I think that's generally advisable, right?

Charlie:
Yeah. And I agree, like lots of companies do do this. Like for example, when Stacey worked at Puma, she wasn't allowed to wear Adidas trainers. When she worked at Abercrombie & Fitch... Yeah, well...

Harry:
Kind of a bit naziism isn't it.

Charlie:
Yeah it is. Yeah. And that's why I'm surprised that you want to work for a company that requires you to drink oat milk. What if you wanted cow milk?

Harry:
I don't think they do. I think I think it's.

Charlie:
I thought in your imagination they do.

Harry:
No, you've put those words in my mouth.

Charlie:
Are those words vegan?

Harry:
What I said was, it's probably beneficial for you to prosper in in a job working for a company like Oatly if you like the products. I think I think that's important to work for a company you like. I like oat milk and I specifically like Oatly oat milk. So I think that would make sense. And and if you like the way they promote their products, you know, the way they write about it and stuff and you believe in it and you think, oh, I can imagine myself writing something like this about Oatly, but in a different way. Then you'd be like, okay, yeah, I can see myself working there. But yeah, I've always liked Oatly. I like the casualness to it all. Yeah. And I find it's quite funny sometimes the stuff they write, like, I like the way that every carton is a little bit different. Whenever you get there's a little something you can like cut out. I don't do it. But they'll, they put different things on the back of the, the cartons to engage you. And I think that's quite nice. And I think it tastes ruddy good, especially in a, in a cup of tea. I love it. And whenever I tell people about Oatly and then they have it, like Matt for example, he'd never had oat milk. I don't know why you find this so amusing. It's weird.

Charlie:
Just because it's coming from conversations around you and trying to understand who you are. To now be a full on sponsorship of Oatly this episode, it's quite...

Harry:
Well no but you asked me what brand would you want to work for? And I feel like whatever I would have chosen, uh, it would have been highly amusing.

Charlie:
Well, okay. Example I was thinking of is Red bull, and I don't even like the product, so I wouldn't go on about how delicious the drink is and how energised I feel. But no, I'm just finding it amusing that you chose Oatly still. But yeah, Red bull I thought.

Harry:
So you would go with Red bull, would you? Even though you don't like the product or believe in it?

Charlie:
That was one of the first that I thought of because of, again, the lifestyle that I think people... When I was a graduate that was quite attractive because it was a fun, energetic new company that were throwing a lot of money at marketing, and people had very sort of out of the box thinking towards the experiential part of that marketing, like they were doing all sorts of things to try and raise brand awareness. And the offices were really cool. So the people that would work there are probably quite creative. So that would be that would have been one. Now I wouldn't want to work there, obviously, but not obviously.

Harry:
Why not now?

Charlie:
Because I'm not thirsty to be around eager, eager people.

Harry:
Right. Well, you should come and work for Oatly then. We're way more chilled out.

Charlie:
Yeah, maybe.

Harry:
Sit down, make yourself a brew with some Oatly. Or definitely not Alpro. You don't have to drink oat milk, but it helps.

Charlie:
Yeah, see, that's the problem. That's where I don't think my career will flourish with Oatly because I'm still a cow milk drinker.

Harry:
Yeah. So yeah, it helps to like the products that the company you choose to work for, I guess.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah it does.

Harry:
If your cow milk all day, every day, then you're a bit and you're walking into Oatly, you probably feel a bit. You might feel guilty. You know, everyone's sitting around with their oat milks. You might feel like you're not one of the gang.

Charlie:
No, I would feel quite awkward, to be honest.

Harry:
With your flask of cow's milk.

Charlie:
I mean, I'm not drinking cow's milk on its own. It goes in a coffee.

Harry:
Yeah, but you'd have to bring it. You'd have to conceal it. If you were bringing it into the office, you'd probably have to conceal it. If you wanted to make it, I don't know.

Charlie:
Yeah, well, I'd probably put it in an Oatly carton.

Harry:
Oh, wow. You'd go to those lengths?

Charlie:
Yeah. If I'm working for Oatly, I'm disguising my hatred for the company's product.

Harry:
Right. Oh, you hate Oatly.

Charlie:
I hate the oat milk taste in general.

Harry:
Do you?

Charlie:
Yeah. It's too sweet, I think.

Harry:
I love it, I love it.

Charlie:
But there we go, guys. We've broken the ice to find oat milk under it. It's a bitesize episode, so we're going to actually go on to level two in the next bitesize episode, and then probably level three in the following bitesize episode, so we'll leave it here for now. Thank you very much for listening to the end of this episode. Thank you, Harry, for breaking the ice with me at least.

Harry:
You're welcome.

Charlie:
Okay. Alright. We'll see you guys soon. All the best. Bye bye.