The HVAC podcast arena is growing by the day. It is a great way to discuss the issues of the day. Joining the ranks recently were Charlie Jelen and Dan Gentry from Trane with their podcast “Cool Air, Hot Takes.” The ACHR NEWS recently sat down with the duo to discuss the process.
ACHR NEWS: How did you get the idea for the podcast, and why did you guys decide to do it?
Jelen: Well, it was a pretty easy start. Dan and I go way back. We met in seventh grade. We both ended up in the HVAC world. Dan didn’t always work at Trane, while I have. Then he came over to Trane, and HVAC is what we talk about. I think we started this because people got sick of hearing what we had to say when we were supposed to be hanging out with them.
We were at a bar one day, and it was literally like, why don’t we start a podcast? And that sparked the idea, and we ran with it.
ACHR NEWS: Are both of you fans of podcasts? Do you listen to a lot yourself?
Jelen: Yeah, we both listen to a lot of podcasts.
ACHR NEWS: Remind me again of your specific titles at Trane?
Gentry: I’m an Applications Engineer.
Jelen: I’m a Sales Leader for Sustainable Systems.
ACHR NEWS: There are many ways to do a podcast. How did you decide what the finished product was going to sound like?
Jelen: I’m a huge fan of sports talk radio. I’ve grown up listening to Dan Patrick. That sports style of show is something that I’ve always gravitated towards. We combined that with some of the podcasts that we like in the space. Those are where they do interviews, and you kind of learn more about the person, but also the broader topic that they’re talking about.
Then the stat of the day was an exact rip-off of the Dan Patrick show.
Gentry: I love how the show turned into a program with sections, like segments. I really like how we do the segments. I think it’s fun and clear.
ACHR NEWS: Trane is a big corporation, and big corporations have a lot of rules. How much is the company involved in the process?
Jelen: Oh, no, they’re very involved. When we pitched it, I thought they were going to say the podcast is not for us, but to their credit, they did not. They see this as a different avenue and platform to tell our story in a little different way. So, legal got involved. As did leadership, PR, and marketing.
ACHR NEWS: Who came up with the name?
Gentry: Our first iteration of the name was Cool and Hot. And then the production company that we work with gave us a list of like 30. But when we saw “Cool Air and Hot Takes,” we knew that was a cool name and we had to go with it.
ACHR NEWS: I assume you’re trying to hit the trends of the industry?
Jelen: Yeah, we’re trying to mix it up a little bit. The building sector is right square in the middle of massive change. You’ve got the energy sector going through a massive change. We also want to provide some technical topics.
ACHR NEWS: What is the target audience?
Gentry: People who listen to podcasts and are in the built environment, and anything adjacent to it.
ACHR NEWS: Is it taking more of your time than you thought it was going to or less? Is it more fun than you thought it was going to be?
Gentry: I didn’t know what to expect from time, honestly. I think the time part’s okay, but I would definitely say it’s more fun than I expected. I was hoping it would be fun, but it has exceeded my hopes. I genuinely enjoy recording these.
Jelen: My day-to-day is to stay up to date on broader topics in our industry and make sure that Trane’s positioned well for where we’re at and where our clients want to go. Some of it is just a natural part of my job that we aggregate into the show. It’s a labor of love for sure.
It is super fun to record these episodes. Dan and I are good friends outside of work, and so being able to just do this inside of work is even better.
ACHR NEWS: Did you do any research into how long you wanted these podcasts to run?
Gentry: I think the way that we’re structured the content that we’re trying to get across, if we went longer than 35 minutes, it would probably get too deep and too much information. We’re trying to keep it to 30-35 minutes so that it’s digestible information. Generally speaking, that’s as long as I want to listen to a podcast and I’m in that target audience.