Recently, I’ve been invited to join Izlain, @mevsmyselfandi, for his Podcast, Couch Podtatoes. He sent out a twitter post earlier asking for two #NBI2015 newcomers to come on to the show as guests. Since one of my reasons I started my blog was to help get over my awkward fears, I decided to throw myself into the deep end and took him up on his offer. I’m glad I did because Izlain was really cool about it, and gave me some tips.
The show was suppose to also star Eri, @ausj3w3l, and another newcomer. Unfortunately noone else joined in and Eri couldn’t make it because of her new schedule, so it was just Izlain and myself. *Gulp*
Suffice to say, I was nervous about this. The closer it came to doing it, and getting on voice, the more I was overthinking my situation. My hesitation had nothing to do with Izlain personally, it had to do with my fear of talking with others. Public speaking is a terrifying prospect, one that many of us share, according to science. It doesn’t help that I’m a huge introvert, I tend to keep to myself, and don’t normally talk when caught in big groups.
I had thought the show would be ultra short with just him and myself. I was sort of relying on two other people to be there to take the attention away from me. Izlain called and I looked at the answer button for a few seconds before finally picking up.
Izlain started a bit of a pre-show chat to get me comfortable. As he started the show and ran through his spiel, it came time to put the spotlight on me. I started with short answers at first, but as the show went on, I sort of just forgot about being on air, and more like I was just talking to him, like two people having a conversation.
By the end, the show was recorded, and I felt good. I’m glad I accepted and made another step closer to being more comfortable with voice chat.
Thank you, Izlain.
Also, a shoutout to Ravanel Griffon for the great suggestion of doing this post.