Explore A New Idea In 5 Minutes

How Cool Is This? is a 5 minute podcast about ideas.

People send in their ideas, whether it’s something they’re working on already or something they want to work on or just something they think should exist. Then, we talk about if their ideas are cool.

Each short episode features a new idea, and anyone can submit anything by calling our hotline. Cool line? Hotline.

We joked in the first episode that nobody wanted to hear our ideas, so we would talk about their ideas instead. This was borne out of the perception that “Two White Guys Hosting A Podcast” is an oversaturated market (Brian is half-Hispanic but codes as white). More than that, though, we assumed there were so many great ideas that people have thought of but never brought to fruition because of resource constraints, lack of skill, or a lack of belief in themselves.

So this show was designed to give those people an easy platform for expressing their ideas. It’s evolved a bit since then and we’re experimenting with a lot of different approaches. But we’d eventually like to get to the point where, in addition to making an entertaining podcast, we can take some of those theoretical ideas that people submit and help bring them to reality.

Also, podcasts are too long! Brian was walking through Penn Station in NYC in May 2020 and saw a “Visit Philly” advertisement that said, “It’s only 90 minutes to Philadelphia. That’s a podcast.” So we figured there’s an opportunity to take this medium that has always been long and make it short.

This was pre-Quibi, of course, but now we’ve been around longer than they have.

Brian has had another podcast since 2014, so he had the equipment already. Nick is an advertising writer with a background in radio who has some spare time and spare change. Other than that, Brian quit drinking about a month before we launched this, so the time and money he saved from going out to bars and having fun with friends all sort of went toward this and a few other projects outside of work. Since then, it’s just been one of those “when there’s a will, there’s a way” situations.

There’s a lot more nuance in podcasting than social media. Either for jobs or personal reasons, we’ve both been inundated with social media for the better part of a decade. It’s an easy scapegoat these days, but there’s gotta be more natural ways to connect with people. Through this, we’ve been exposed to tons of interesting people and ideas. Usually people who submit are very passionate about their ideas, and we try to be nice, but it’s refreshing to hear creative and promising perspectives when the news is so drab all the time.

Also, we’re hoping to evolve beyond a podcast into helping bring ideas to reality. It could be a marketplace or something. Don’t need to overthink it, but we’d love to be able to poach disaffected big tech workers who want more purpose in their lives but are waiting for lightning to strike.

The podcast is structured so people can submit their ideas, then Nick and I talk about the ideas afterward. It can be self-service. We have a hotline for people to call and send in their ideas: 848-863-9917. Not everyone loves the elevator pitch concept, so occasionally we will do Zoom calls with quick interviews, then piecemeal the idea together on their behalf.

For our parts, we’ll usually record 10-15 minutes of banter, and chop it down to fit into the 5 minute format.

How Cool Is This? is designed so anyone can call in and share an idea. Since we’re advertising professionals by trade, we could probably help people promote their ideas with custom media plans, especially some of the startups and businesses we feature from time-to-time.

We've also started an awards show called The Coolios, which highlights:

The Coolest Idea That Already Exists The Best Idea That Wasn't That Cool
Shrodinger's Cool: Ideas That Are Simultaneously Cool and Uncool The Least Cool Idea
*The Coolest Idea That Doesn't Exist Yet

Finally, since we usually say the word "cool" anywhere from 15-20 times per episode, we've explored launching a drinking game alongside the show.

Really commit to it, or don’t do it. There are so many people who think it’s easy and give up when they realize it’s a lot of work. You won’t feel like you know what you’re doing until you’ve got a few dozen episodes under your belt. We’re sure everyone says that, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good advice.

Our site is howcoolisthis.show and we’re anywhere people listen to podcasts. It’s only 5 minutes, so it’ll take less time to listen than it probably took to read all this!