Episode 554 Scott DeLuzio Christmas Thoughts and Easier Access to Support Transcript

This transcript is from episode 554 with Scott DeLuzio.

Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Merry Christmas, everybody. I wanted to take a moment to have an episode with you guys today on Christmas. Knowing full well that a lot of times folks maybe skip an episode here and there, and I, I, I don’t want to have any of my guests feel shortchanged or anything like that on a day like today where a lot of people are.

Spending time with family or, or things like that. So, I wanted to still put out an episode let you guys know, uh, that we’re still here. I wanna slow things down a little bit here and, just check in with, with folks, see how, how people are doing. Before we get into the meat of the episode here today, I, I wanna, uh, first I hope you and your family are doing well especially today on, on Christmas, but just know that, you know, some people do look forward to this time of year.

Others muscle through it one day at a time. Either way, you’re not alone in how you feel about it. And if [00:01:00] you have somebody who you do care about, reach out to them. A short message can go a long way, especially this time of year. I also wanna talk about something new going on with the podcast, with the website that we have for the podcast over at Drive On Podcast dot com.

After more than 500 episodes, actually clo getting close to 550 some odd episodes or maybe even over that at this point. It’s hard to. Keep track at this point. There’s just so many episodes. But I think it’s fair to say that no one’s gonna sit down and listen to the whole archive of episodes.

Going back to the very beginning and listening straight through. Maybe you have been here since the beginning for the last six and a half-ish years, and, and if so, great. But someone just discovering the podcast right now, I think it would be hard to go back and listen to everything. And, and there’s a lot of content that’s been.

Created over the years. Even listening to one episode a day would take you over a year and a half to listen to every [00:02:00] episode, not counting new episodes that get released in the future. So yeah, it would take a long time to listen to everything if you’re just discovering the podcast right now. And you may not need to listen to everything.

Not every episode applies to every single person. Um, but there are definitely episodes out there that, that apply to certain individuals. And you may only need a, a couple of episodes to get the inspiration, get the advice, get the hope that you might be looking for. Even trying to find those one or two episodes though that, that talk about whatever it is that you’re dealing with, can feel like a lot of work when you’re dealing with such a high volume of episodes.

I, on the website, I’ve categorized the episodes into various categories. I think probably 10 or so categories. But even still, some of the categories have hundreds of episodes in them. So even trying to narrow it down and trying to find that one or two episodes that apply to whatever you’re going through can be [00:03:00] kind of difficult.

So I’m realizing that the categories just aren’t specific enough, and I don’t know that it makes sense to add even more categories to drill it down and get even more granular with the different kind of categories. So. What do you do? What do you do with all this information, all these episodes, which don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great content out there, but it can be overwhelming.

And the last thing you wanna do to someone who is maybe feeling overwhelmed right now as it is, is make them feel even more overwhelmed with. Hey, come check out this web website with all these great podcast episodes, and you shove 550 some odd episodes in their face. Uh, it’s a lot of content and they’re gonna, they’re gonna get overwhelmed really quickly.

Uh, I’m sure there’s some folks out there who, who might see it that way. So I’ve been experimenting a little bit here with a chat bot tool that I’ve added to the website. I’ve, I’ve trained this tool on the full catalog of episodes [00:04:00] that I have, so over 550 some odd episodes. I’ve, I’ve trained it on plus some extra stuff that I, I’ve thrown in there as well that you won’t necessarily find in any of the episodes, but it’s still good, important information to.

To have in in a chat bot tool where, where you’re gonna be interacting with folks who are maybe asking certain questions and, and want to know about, uh, certain types of things. So, so you can go to the website again. Drive On Podcast dot com. You can chat with this chat bot and ask it almost anything.

Pretty much anything really. The tool that I use for this does keep a log of questions that were asked, so I wanna be transparent here as far as. What type of stuff gets collected and, and how it’s used and, and things like that. Because I don’t want anyone going on there and saying, no, you know, this isn’t for me.

And, and let this resource go to waste. So the tool I use, like I said, does keep a log of the questions that were asked, but they remain anonymous. [00:05:00] So I, what that means is I might see what was asked, but I won’t know who asked the question unless you explicitly put in your name, my, my name is, you know, Joe Smith or whatever.

And explicitly share that type of information. Then yeah, of course I’ll be able to see that. I just recommend avoiding entering in that type of information. It’s never gonna ask you for your name or your email address or any of that type of information. So there’s no reason to really put that stuff in.

The only information that I do get that could be somewhat considered identifiable is your country. Like, so if you’re in the US it’ll say United States and the type of browser that you’re using, you know, Chrome, Firefox, safari tho, those types of things. That’s pretty much all I get. Outside of the, the question itself.

So I just want to emphasize the privacy aspect so that users feel comfortable using the platform, this chat bot tool, without worrying that someone is gonna judge them for what they ask. Or you know, it’s, it’s pretty much anonymous. [00:06:00] I’m not gonna know who it is. And even if I do re review the chats at all.

Which I may not, I, I, I may, uh, at some point take a look just to see, you know, how it’s being used. But, uh, if I do review the chats at all, it’s really just gonna be to identify any issues that the chat bot couldn’t handle and find ways to improve it either by creating more episodes on the topics that people are looking for or adding resources.

That can assist users in the future in, in one way or another. So there’s, there’s all sorts of different things that, that we can do here. So, so for example, if you have a question about sleep or anger or burnout, relationships, service, dogs, housing, education, VA benefits, or gosh, anything else that might be bugging you might be having a tr having some sort of trouble with.

It might even be something that, Hey, I think I listened to an episode a couple years ago from this podcast and they talked about. Something that was really cool and I just can’t remember what it was. I can’t remember the episode. I can’t remember the [00:07:00] guest’s name. I, I just can’t remember what it was, but.

I know there was something there. This chat, ba chat bot, excuse me, can guide you without sorting through pages and pages of, of past episodes. I think when I, I looked at, uh, the backend of my website. There’s 20 episodes per page. There’s like 28 some odd pages. So, you know, imagine scrolling through page, after page, after page, that’s gonna be very time consuming, very tedious for anyone to do.

And so what I’ve realized is that a tool like this. Yes, it’s a AI based tool. It’s, it’s a, you know, chat bot that you, you can talk with. And so it’s, no, it’s not a live person that you’re talking to. There’s nobody on the other end that’s actively reading what you’re typing or, or any of those types of things.

It’s, it’s an AI tool. And it’s been trained, like I said, on all the episodes that I have from this podcast. And as time goes on, I’ll, I’ll. [00:08:00] Continue to add more. I mean, I add them right away because that, that’s maybe just a little bit time consuming. But I’ll, I’ll go ahead and, you know, add episodes, uh, you know, in over time.

To this, to this chat bot. And as new content is added, it’ll just keep getting better and better and it’ll be able to answer more and more types of questions. So if you’re interested in learning how to use it again, like I mentioned go on over to Drive On Podcast dot com and I’m actually going to share my screen here with you guys so you can see exactly how it works.

So, you know, if you’re over here on Drive On Podcast dot com. And again, this is, this is the website here. You can see over on the side, I, I have this list of categories and as you can imagine, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Yeah, like I said, 10 categories. Divide that out. Over 550 some odd episodes that, that’s a lot of episodes per category.

And, and some categories have way more than others. And, and some of [00:09:00] them have several hundred episodes in in, in that category. And some episodes fall into multiple categories ’cause just the topics that we, we talk about. So. It can get hard to, to look at these categories and try to figure out where you might be able to get some answers to whatever it is that you might be going through.

So to use the chat bot go on over here to this red circle. On the bottom, it has a little chat bubble in it and the drive on logo. So you can go ahead and click that. I wanted to make it red so it stands out. On the page so it’s not this typical green or, you know, those kind of muted colors that, that we have the green or gold or anything like that.

So go ahead and click on that icon and it’s gonna open up this chat bot, and you can go ahead and click on one of these. Pre-filled questions or go ahead and type in whatever it is that you’re, you’re worried about. So any, any kind of issue that you may be having. I’m just gonna put something in here that I, I kind of pre-typed and I, I just wanna paste that in.

But [00:10:00] I’m just going to put that in. Hit submit. It’s gonna think for a second here. And boom, it, now it’s given you all sorts of information. And if you look at it. Go ahead and read through everything, if that sounds like something that you’re interested in. Each one of these numbers next to the the paragraphs here give you a different episode.

And so you can go ahead and, and click on that. So this one here gave you eight episodes to pick from versus 550 episodes or, or more. As time goes on, we’re gonna have even more episodes. By this time next year we’ll probably be around 600. So, you know, so it gives you a lot of information gives you a few different options for whatever it is that you’re looking for.

Of course, I’m gonna ask you to subscribe to the podcast, so it has a little link here to get you to subscribe, maybe even sign up to email, newsletter, those types of things. But those are all optional. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I’d appreciate if you did, but you don’t have to.

Another cool feature here is you can share this conversation, so it’s a little share icon at the top. You can click on that. [00:11:00] You can copy it and you can send it to a friend or a loved one, or someone who might be struggling. So you can, you can send that to someone if you’re doing research on behalf of a, another veteran that you know, and and you want to be able to help out and say, Hey, look, here’s, here’s.

Resources, here’s some answers to the thing that you’ve been dealing with. So you can copy that link, send it to ’em, send it in a text message, send it in a email, in a Facebook message or something. Whatever it is. However you communicate with that person, you could send it however you want. I. That way the person will be able to get this information rather easily and you can just kind of share it that way.

So, so the tool is super simple to use. Again, just click on the button, type in whatever you want to, to find out about. And within, like you saw, within seconds, you’re gonna have information based on the podcast. So it’s, this is not chat GPT where it’s going out and creating information based off of [00:12:00] nothing that it’s.

Coming up with somehow, and it’s, it’s, it’s not real people’s conversations. This is stuff like, I’ve specifically trained this tool on all of the episodes that I have, all the conversations that I’ve had with hundreds of veterans, hundreds of people who, uh, support veterans in one way or another. All of those people.

Have contributed a a ton to this podcast and they have inspirational stories. Sometimes they’re sad stories, sometimes they’re stories of things that, that are gonna give people hope. And so I want to be able to share those with people in a way that you can, you can go ahead, click on any one of these episodes from this chat bot, and it’ll just give you.

All the information that you’re looking for rather quickly. And so instead of searching through episodes, episode after episode and not finding what it is that you’re looking for, this is gonna get you [00:13:00] there really quickly. So again, head on over to Drive On Podcast dot com, click that red circle with the chat bubble and the the drive on logo in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Again, I made it red so it stands out against the standard green and, and. Other colors that I use everywhere else. So this, this should stand out. I may change the icon later on, but whatever I do, I’m gonna make sure that it’s something that just stands out so you, you can see it easily on the page.

Also, I don’t have a good name for this chat bot yet, so if you have one, if there’s something that you, you think of that might relate to this chat bot. That would be awesome. Let me know either sending an email or on social media at Drive On Podcast send me a message. Just let me know that, that you’ve thought of something you know, rather cool for for this chat bot.

Like I said, this chat bot is also helpful for family members, loved ones, people like that, who just want a better way to support that their, the veterans in their lives. If you bring up [00:14:00] something. On the chat bot that I haven’t covered yet the chat bot will let you know that you can request a topic to be covered on the podcast, uh, or even how to put your name in to be a guest.

So you just ask it, you know, how do I. Be a guest, how do I and how do I request a topic? And it’ll send you to a, a, a separate form so it’s not associated with this chat bot at all. It’ll send you to a separate form that you can fill out and it’ll email me with all the information and for the topic, or whether you wanna be a guest and things like that.

And none of that’s different. I, I’ve had those things on, on the website for for years, uh, to, to get gas on. So, you know, I want this show to. Be of service to you, to the listeners, to the the veterans and their families and their loved ones. I want this show to be useful and of service to you guys.

And sometimes the best direction comes straight from the people who are listening. You know, I don’t have all the answers. I can certainly try to find those answers. [00:15:00] I just need to know what questions people are, are looking for. So, now. While I’m adding the chat bot to the website, unfortunately I’m also going to be taking something away from the podcast after the new year.

So beginning in January, 2026, the show is going, going to go back to one episode per week released on twos when the show started back in 2019. It started off as once one episode per week, uh, type of show. At the beginning of 2022, I started to put out two episodes a week, and I did this because quite frankly, I had a backlog of of guests that I’ve recorded episodes with.

I, I think I had somewhere around five, maybe six months of content prerecorded all sitting there ready to go, and. To me it was just, that’s too long to wait after recording an episode with a guest and, and getting it out there for for the world to hear [00:16:00] it. By the time the episodes were coming out, I, I forgot that I even had some of these conversations ’cause it had just been so long.

So, so what I did then was I decided, you know what, I’ll, I’ll take that backlog of episodes and I’m going to do every two weeks. And I cut that six months down to three months or somewhere around there. I forget the exact time period, but it was something long like that. And. Then I took, took a little time off.

I was able to kind of catch back up. But I decided I’m gonna keep that cadence of two episodes a week. And I never missed a week posting on either Cadence, uh, that one episode a week in the beginning, or two episodes a week. You know, up until now since I started the show, I, every week since I started has had an episode come out and never missed it.

And that’s partially why I wanted to put this episode out there. Today. To make sure that I can continue saying that I’ve never missed that cadence. It’s important to me to put out episodes when I say I will, because you never know who might be sitting there waiting to listen to an episode.

Someone who might feel let down if [00:17:00] what they’re expecting to be there just doesn’t show up. So I don’t wanna let anyone down, obviously. So I’m putting it out there now and hopefully you guys will understand the time commitment. Running a show like this requires. Two episodes a week is 104 episodes per year.

Each episode’s roughly 45 minutes long. That’s just on air recording time. That’s not any of the behind the scenes stuff. The, there’s editing, scheduling, drafting, the show notes, the graphics, social media posts, other behind the scenes type content. So assume another 45 minutes per episode for all that other stuff.

And we’re looking at an hour and a half minimum time commitment per episode. From me, that doesn’t even include the back and forth with guests to get them scheduled on the show, which sometimes can take quite a while. So let’s just use two hours per episode for argument’s sake here. That’s 208 hours per year dedicated to this podcast.

Or in work days. It’s about [00:18:00] 26 8 hour days per year that I’ve been spending for the last three years on this podcast. So that’s. That’s roughly three months of of content over the last three years or, or work over the last three years, uh, that I’ve done solely dedicated to this podcast. Nothing else.

This podcast doesn’t pay me anything. I’ve had some sponsors in the past and, you know, I, I do get a little bit of money here and there so I can’t say it doesn’t pay me anything, but it’s. Not even enough to cover the the expenses that I have. So it’s not like I’m making any money. I, I suppose is maybe a better way to say this.

I’m not making any money on this podcast so I have a full-time job too. So as you can imagine, anyone else who has a full-time job, you know that it takes a lot of time out of your schedule. Adding another. 200 plus hours to your schedule. At some point something’s gotta give. You know, I can’t spend time with my family or rest or recharge or do just about anything else.

[00:19:00] With that time that I’m spending doing the podcast stuff of course I could hire someone to do some of the behind the scenes stuff, but like I said, this podcast doesn’t pay me anything, so I’m not quite in a position to do that right now. So. I’ve enjoyed putting episodes out at that cadence for the last three years, so two episodes a week, but I’ve realized it’s time to slow down a bit.

As I said earlier, there are over 500 episodes already, so there’s no shortage of content and I still get a steady stream of great guests who request to be on the show. But the workload for me has just been tough to manage. My, it came down to this, basically my choices were to either shut the show down completely or slow it to a pace that I can handle.

And I would much rather keep it going and make sure each episode gets the attention that it deserves as far as the editing and all the, the show notes and other things like that. I wanna make sure that I’m, I’m doing it, doing it [00:20:00] well, not rushing through it just because I need to get this episode out or anything like that.

It’ll also allow me to be a little bit more picky about who I bring on as a guest. So, in addition to the quality of the editing and, and that type of thing the quality of the guests will, will be there as well. Uh, not, not to say that the guests I’ve had in the past were not qua quality guests, but I’ll be able to be a little bit more picky, uh, going forward.

And so I’m, I’m gonna be prioritizing quality overall over, over quantity at this point. Not to say that I won’t. At some point go back up to two episodes a week or maybe even more. Who knows? If, if something happens and I, I decide that, that makes sense I, I may do that. But for now, one episode a week is pretty much all I can handle and still be able to be sane and be able to get other obligations done that I need to do.

So, so I’m stepping back just a little bit. Not, not going away, just, just stepping back a bit. But I do wanna be [00:21:00] transparent about that and, and let people know that episodes will only be one once a week on Tuesdays. So if you’re expecting something on, on Thursdays that’s not gonna happen going forward until I, I decide to make some sort of changes, but for now, I don’t, I don’t think that’s really gonna happen any, anytime soon.

And since today, you know, Christmas falls on a release date this year for an episode, I did not wanna put out a regular guest interview that would just end up getting buried under everyone’s holiday plans, visiting family, and doing all the things that people do on, on the holidays. At the same time, I didn’t wanna skip a day.

So, like I said, it’s important to me to put out an episode every day. That’s why you’re getting this update. That, let’s us stay connected without pushing a guest into a day when listeners are busy with family and other things that they have going on, uh, this, this time of year. So, I also wanna remind you guys that I, I really do value your opinions and your ideas.

If there is a [00:22:00] story that you want told, a topic that you want explored, uh, a guest that you want me to interview, reach out and let me know. If you’d like to share your own experience, I’m open to that too. Reach out, let me know, you know, what those experiences are and how you might be able to contribute to the audience and, and things like that.

So, you know, I feel like this, this podcast has always been built around conversations with people who understand. What other veterans are going through, whether they’re a veteran themselves they might be a, a family member of a veteran. They might be you know, someone who supports and works with veterans.

But generally the people who are on this show, they understand what’s going on with veterans in the veteran community. The, the stuff that we kind of carry around, around with us and you know, kind of what happens when we take that uniform off and just become a regular Joe, you know, before we wrap up though, with this episode today, I, I just wanna remind you guys, take care of yourself today, and [00:23:00] as you go on into the, the new year, if you’re having a hard time, reach out to somebody, somebody that you trust, a battle buddy, a, a family member or friend, somebody, anybody just reach out and, and talk.

You’re not gonna be a burden to anybody. Nobody’s going to roll their eyes because. Your phone number is coming up on the caller ID again, on their phone. You know, they’re, they’re gonna be grateful that you did reach out and, and talk to them about whatever it is that you have going on. But if you’re beyond that point, if you’re in a crisis situation again, I know this time of year can be hard for a lot of folks.

If you’re in that kind of situation, you think you might do harm to yourself or somebody else. Dial 9, 8, 8, that that number is out there now. Press one for the veterans crisis line, I think they call it. Yeah. So nine, eight, eight and, and dial one. Just call that right away. Not gonna hurt anything.

To, to give them a call. And, and get the, the help that you need. [00:24:00] So thank you guys for listening to this episode. For. Being there for all these years. I, I hope that you have a, a wonderful Merry Christmas and, and a happy New Year. There, there’ll be another episode between now and then, but it’s not specifically focused on you know, any holidays or anything like that.

So I, I did want to get that opportunity. I wish you guys merry Christmas and a happy New Year with this episode to all of those who celebrate tho those holidays. And to anyone who is working today, whether you’re a first responder, you’re in the military, deployed overseas, or you’re on duty stateside, or whatever else you might be doing, thank you for sacrificing time away from your loved ones for the rest of us, we really do appreciate it.

And um, Merry Christmas.