My 1st Podcast – Behind The Scene Story & 4 Lessons

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As the story has it, I was recently featured on a podcast for income-seeking bloggers called Do You Even Blog with Pete (the podcast host) and Lily from The Frugal Gene.

You can listen to it here: An inside look at 2 new bloggers who are crushing it – Lily and Ms. FAF

I listen to podcasts often.  They are great free resources that I can access during my commute and when I do housework.

Some of my most favorites are the Bigger Pockets Podcast, The Rental Income Podcast, and The Smart Passive Income Podcast.

I am always amazed at how natural, articulate, and knowledgeable the guests on those podcasts sound.

I never thought that I would be on a podcast myself until one day.

The email

After publishing my 4th month blog traffic report for July, I got an email from Mrs. Adventure Rich saying she would like to connect Lily and me with Pete at Do You Even Blog so that we can be featured on one of his episodes.

When I saw the email, I felt like I was in a dream. These were the thoughts that came to my mind:

— “Is it for real? Am I dreaming?”

— “This email looks real. The podcast exists. Why would someone want to interview me?”

— “Should I say no and just keep a low profile? I don’t want to embarrass myself. The reader seem to have a good impression of me so far.”

— “Should I say yes? This is a great opportunity to put my (nick)name out there and grow my blog.”

— “I wonder what Lily thinks. I need to ask her.”

After consulting with each other, Lily and I decided that this would be a great opportunity for us to connect with a larger audience. We responded to Pete’s email with a resounding Yes.

Later that day, Mr. FAF had an evening full of his wife’s excited talk about being on a podcast. He asked me a couple of questions and moved on with his life. I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The preparation

That faithful night finally came. I had been reminding Mr. FAF about the interview (9 PM EST on Aug 9) every day for a week leading up to the interview.

I came home that day feeling excited and nervous about the interview. I tried to finish dinner quickly and went over the questions to make sure I wouldn’t say anything embarrassing.

Although I wanted to be well prepared, I didn’t want to sound too rehearsed. I practiced answering all the questions once and felt like I couldn’t breathe properly while waiting.

If it were just me, I maybe wouldn’t care that much. But this interview involved Pete, Lily, and Mrs. Adventure Rich, so I had to be careful. I put myself under so much pressure like I was going live on CNN.

Since Skype doesn’t usually work well on my 5-year-old Toshiba, I borrowed Mr. FAF’s Macbook and had both computers sitting in front of me. I needed a backup laptop in case one died on me for some reason.

Mr. FAF knew that he would need to make sure that Baby FAF wouldn’t come into our room crying or bang on the door when I was interviewing (Baby FAF usually goes to bed at around 10 PM).

Mr. FAF said he wanted to sit next to me at the interview. But he decided not to since he had to watch Baby FAF. Mr. FAF, my my mother-in-law (MIL), and Baby FAF stayed on the first floor until late that day so that it would be quiet for me to conduct the interview on the second floor.

The interview

The interview finally started. Pete was such an amazing host. He began the interview with a friendly conversation that put me at ease. I felt like I was chatting with a friend over coffee.

Over the next 1.5 hours, we would experience multiple internet connection problems in both Seattle and DC. At one point, I was talking passionately about my blog reports when I heard a knock on the door.

It turned out to be my MIL leaving our folded laundry at the door. I returned to the interview and lost my chain of thought. At one point, I totally lost connection since our router decided to reboot for some mysterious reason.

I secretly hoped that Pete would ask Lily and me more questions so that I could keep talking since it was so much fun. But it was getting late, and the interview had to come to an end. I went from being nervous to being excited for the release of the podcast and future interview opportunities.

Mr. FAF is frequently reminded about the release date of my episode. He probably couldn’t wait for it to come out so that I would stop talking about the podcast so much. I had such a great experience interviewing with Pete that I would recommend the podcast to anyone.

The lessons

Below are what I learned from my first ever podcast.

1. Networking is powerful. 

Mrs. Adventure Rich is a great personal finance blogger. She leaves feedback on my posts on a regular basis. I also retweet her amazing content on Twitter. I never thought too much of that. It was something other bloggers and I were doing for each other anyway.

Mrs. Adventure Rich, through an email to Pete and another one to Lily and me, has opened up a whole new world of networking to me. Now I can reach out to a larger audience through both my writing and my voice.

The only interviews I have had so far are job interviews. Now I know there is another type of interviews I enjoy doing and look forward to: podcasts.

2. I need to get out of my comfort zone. 

My first reaction when I saw Mrs. Adventure Rich’s email was to say no to the podcast. I’m terrified of public speaking and was afraid that I would ruin the image I’ve built for my blog so far. When I have to give a presentation at work, I practice it multiple times to the point where I know the content by heart.

With the podcast, however, I didn’t want to make it sound like I was reading from a cheat sheet. I wanted to sound natural and comfortable because that was the only way I could make the interview sound enjoyable to the listener. After the interview ended, I knew appearing on a podcast was something I would be happy to do over and over again.

Blogging has pushed me out of my comfort zone multiple times: from writing about my personal life online to voicing my thoughts to hundreds and thousands of people I haven’t met. The next time when there’s an opportunity I feel afraid to take, I will think about the podcast and push myself to take on the challenge.

3. Being frugal can pay off more than you think.

Usually, when we think about frugality, it conjures up the idea of money saving, debt payoff, and wealth building. For me, frugality has motivated me to start a blog to connect with other like-minded individuals and appear on a podcast to share my passion and strategies.

I don’t know what the future holds, but this experience has reaffirmed my belief that the only way for me to move forward is to believe in what I’m doing and work hard for it.

4. Being on a podcast doesn’t have to be scary. 

Prior to the podcast, I was terrified of putting myself out there through an interview. When I write a post, I can always go back and edit it multiple times to make sure that it conveys exactly what I think and won’t cause confusion.

When I am interviewed, however, I can answer a question only once. While I was certain Pete would be happy to edit out something I didn’t feel comfortable sharing, I didn’t want to create more work for him. That caused more pressure for me to say something “perfect.”

It turned out that there was no “perfect” answer to any questions because I am not perfect. I did my best and hope the audience wouldn’t mind it if they didn’t like something I said.

Conclusion

It has been 5 days since I had the podcast with Pete and Lily, but I still feel so happy just thinking about it. I know it’s not a big deal for a lot of people, but for me it might be just a dream come true.

It’s dream I never even thought about, but it’s something I know has become a reality and might lead to many other dreams that I don’t know even exist.

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