Hi, everyone. Alright, let's jump right into it. Okay, so this workshop today is all about why your story matters. I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm 32 years old. I know I drink a lot of water, and I sleep well. So I look like this. I'm Filipino American. I'm a goldstar daughter. So if you're non military, that means that someone in your family passed away while on active duty and that was my father when I was 10. So I honor him by calling myself a goldstar daughter. I'm also a veteran spouse My husband is there in the back telling me to get in front of the camera. I met him 20 years later, but the lights like in my face. I'm also for a mama my dogs right there. So I was gonna show you a picture of my family but you can see them live right here. So that's cool. I'm a former so cow girl, San Diego. Anyone? Yes. Yes, yes, forever so cowgirl. I currently live in Virginia Beach. I get asked often, Jen, why did you leave paradise? I say because of my husband, and people get it. So thanks, honey. I actually do love Virginia Beach. I like to say that it's like San Diego just with the four seasons. So there's that. I've been an entrepreneur since 2010. And not on purpose. When around the time I graduated college, I was fired from four jobs consecutively. So I was told early on in my professional career that I probably shouldn't work a job. So I've been self employed for about a decade now. And I just started podcasting just last summer, and I got to share that with you today. I like to see you all and engage with all of you, you can see that my contact information is all here. And you can also text me if you want. If you have any questions or you want to meet up after if you think I'm cool, which would be cool. Feel free to text me or if you do take pictures, which I'd really appreciate. Feel free to send that to me as well. But I want to have an open dialogue with all of you. So I'm going to be honest And quite often to raise your hand if you relate, or just give me like a weird look. So at least I know that you know you're here today. All right, so let's go ahead and jump into it. So today what we're going to be covering is why your story matters. And how podcasting is the perfect medium to share your story, and help other people share theirs. I'm going to give you a case study of my passion project, the teper project, like your girl Tifa. It's short for the Filipino American woman project. And then we're going to get into QA. Also, don't worry too much about taking pictures of the slides. Because this is all in your web app for free. You're welcome. So feel free to download that so you don't have to take pictures of the slides. Alright, storytelling, what is storytelling? Well, I pulled from the most credible source Wikipedia and what storytelling is. So storytelling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrical or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives. Which are shared as means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, or instilling moral values. So let me break that down. Why share stories? Well, it's the best form of education. I want you all to just take a minute and think about a time where you're like, Man, I'm never going to do that again. Or, gosh, I learned my lesson. Anyone ever had a moment like that before? Like, I'll never do that again. Or lesson learned. Okay. Anyone want to share what that lesson was? Anything that comes to mind? No, that's okay. But I bet you I bet you that with that lesson, you have a great story to tell me behind that lesson. And so every lesson can be best learned and memorized through storytelling. You think about the media conglomerates like Disney, and why we like to binge watch on Netflix or Hulu or HBO because stories really captivate us and we learn a lot from stories. Okay? Also we know that storytelling is the old form of education way back to hieroglyphics in Egypt about 5000 years ago, and also all the way back to caveman crafting things on rocks and stuff with mud on paper. Of course, a lot has changed since then. Right? We don't do that anymore. I mean, some people still do, but not everyone. We have technology to help us really share our stories. And but yeah, a lot of things have not changed, however, is that storytelling is still very important till this day. And we're all still very drawn to listening to stories and to telling stories. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, yes. I'm glad you're here. The last thing I want to share is that representation is everything today. What gets documented gets passed down more than what doesn't get documented, right? Like you're more likely to remember something if it's in front of you than if it isn't in front of you. You're more likely to read the lines then read in between the lines.
And so, my other question for you all is have you ever had experience where you're like, man, if I was told about this when I was younger, if I heard about this, if someone shared this with me when I was younger, my life would be so different. Anyone feel that way? Like man had only had only right, if you just told me what it was like to lose my virginity would have been a different story, right? So, and also, the truth is that we are already a diverse nation. Like if we all look at each other in this room, we're all different. That's already a fact. And today, we have the means to let everyone know, right? People are hungry for new stories, people are hungry for representation. And even if there are people that look a lot like you, there's still an aspect of you that people need to hear about, that you need to share to the world. And that was writing it. Alright, so by raising hands or funny looks in order to raise your hand if you feel Miss underrepresented in media or in history. Anyone? Yeah, yeah. Right? Who feels like they could see more representation? Right. more stories? who see Yeah, who thinks he can be out there more? And who wants to be the change? Yes, everyone. Everyone else I didn't raise your hand, you can leave. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Please don't leave. So how do we do that? How do we be the change? Well, it starts with sharing your story. History is really a collection of stories that get handed down, or documented by victors and survivors. Everyone in this room are descendants of victors or survivors. And today, we all have the opportunity to share our stories. There's no better time today than to do it in the safest environment. Although I know that could be debatable. We have the safest environment right now with the tools and the resources and the community to document our stories for today and for tomorrow's history.
Cool. Cool. All right. So this was an article I was featured in a couple years ago. And I just wanted to share my take on the importance of storytelling. And so I have found that storytelling is the most powerful and effective way of connecting with others. Because when we're connected, I believe that we're empowered to embrace the beauty that's within ourselves and with each other. By Me, credited by me.
That's fine. All right. So storytelling is cool, right? We want to tell our story. Who doesn't want to tell their story? No, okay, good. Because I was about to say, there's a door. I'm just kidding. Don't leave, don't leave. Alright, so now I want to talk to you about why podcasting is the way to share your story. So a bunch of you have probably already attended a lot of sessions today. Probably worn out. Some of you had coffee before this. Thanks for waking up and being here. So what I'm going to do is just share with you the reasons why you should share your story via podcasting, you know, for the sake of this presentation. So when you get a podcast, you get to contribute to today's oral history, you know, oral history or like storytelling. Normally that's done verbally, but you have a chance to record it, you know, for generations to come. You can be the voice and the representation you've been looking for. One of the girls I interviewed on my podcast show, she had a really good quote, and it said something like, find a hole in the world, in the shape of you and fill it. And if you feel like something is missing, it's because it's your job to fill it. And when you fill it, when you fill that hole, you inspire other people to do the same. You inspire people to say, hey, you're a square that doesn't fit in a circle because you're meant to fit in a square shaped hole. And when you inspire others to do the same, you build community. I'm sure some of you have heard the phrase, your vibe attracts your tribe. And that's the fun part too, is like when you feel like you can own your story. You can say whatever you want, you can be whatever you want, and there's going to be people you're going to find people out there that are going to be attracted to you. The cool thing about podcasting too, is it's just so accessible. Who here does not have a smartphone? Like who does not have a smartphone? I mean, you all found this probably because of the live app on your phone. So cool. So if you have a smartphone, which everyone here has not disagreed, so it means you have a smartphone, it means that you have access to podcasting and listening to podcasts. That's very convenient. podcasting is like picking up a book, you know, and then leaving it and then picking up where you left off. That's the beauty of podcasting. You can listen to it whenever you want. You don't have to listen to it a certain time. You have to tune in a certain time. You can just listen to it. You can download it, listen to on the plane, when you're in the bathroom, lots of ways you can multitask. And I had some listeners tell me that they listened to our podcast show on the road trip. They just binge listen. So lots of ways very accessible. And also, this is just for a marketing thing. If you're ever interested in I'm sure there's plenty of workshops that talk about this, but you could even read Purpose your podcasting into other mediums such as social media, like cutting little audio clips, they can feature certain parts of the of the interview, or the podcast or the audio, you can turn into video, you can turn into a book, which is one thing that I working toward with my show, etc, etc. Now, if you need more reasons, then I encourage you to check out the messengers, which is free on YouTube. It was actually created by Chris midsoles. And the pod fest founders. I watched it, I binged it. I mean, I watched it on YouTube on the ride down here. And it gives you a million reasons why you should get into podcasting. Cool. Here. Cool. I appreciate everyone nodding their head. It's great. It's great feedback. All right. All right. So what I want to do now is get into the case study, I want to get into my passion project, the Tifa project, the Filipino American woman project, and how storytelling how sharing my story has helped other people share their stories, etc, etc. and how we did it through podcasts. So a little background about me. I was born as an ad child, to immigrant parents, from the Philippines, in Japan. And I want you to just imagine this for a moment. How many stories or resources are out there? For someone that looks like me? That's an American that was born in Japan. Not a lot. Nah. And as I got older, I started to go through an identity crisis of not feeling enough of like anything. I didn't feel Filipino enough, because I was very Americanized. I didn't feel American enough, because I don't look American. And because I was born in Japan, everyone kept asking me, do you speak Japanese? And I was like, No, I don't. I'm not Japanese. And so it was kind of interesting. This is my family. That's my mom laughing really hard. That's my dad with the glasses. He passed away in 98. That's my brother hugging him. That's me looking like I don't want to be their little one. And that's my mom. If you see her holding the stroller. That's my sister. So I'm the middle child and family. I'm the problem child. middle child. Yeah, yes. Yes. Respect, telling you telling you gotta represent.
Alright. So as I got older, I thought, Okay, well, maybe maybe in order to learn my story, people will say like, you don't know who you are, you should study history. Okay, so in high school, I studied Advanced Placement history. And I did not see my face in any American history books in order to feel that way. You're just like, Where am I? Like, I'm not in here. But for whatever reason, I'm in America. So there has to be in here somehow, right? And then in college, I was like, Oh, cool. There's like one Filipino American history class that I was lucky to take. And it's not always offered on this college campus because the funding is, you know, really low or whatever. I took this class. And again, I couldn't relate because I moved around a lot as a military child. And I didn't see my family in it. I didn't see you know, relatives in it. I just couldn't relate to him. More importantly, I'm not a big facts and figures person. So it just went all over my head. And even in my own community, because if there's one thing that you need to know about the Philippines is that it is thousands of islands, with over 200 different dialects, with different religions. And it's been colonized for hundreds of centuries for hundreds of years by the Spaniards, and then by the Americans. And then in just the last decade, we became an independent country. So we're still trying to figure out our identity. And so if you talk to anyone in my community, everyone has their own definition of being Filipino. And more importantly, some of them are really too gung ho for me to make me feel comfortable talking about it. I've been told once before that I wasn't Filipino enough amongst my Filipino community, because I couldn't speak any of the dialects. So that's great for self identity or identity crisis and stuff. I thought, Okay, well, what if I look up something online? So I thought, let me just do a Google search. Let's see if anyone, you know, posted anything about being Filipino American woman. And I don't know if you all ever looked up anything about Asians. But I saw a lot of negative news. I saw there was an article that talks about why Filipino American women are not in politics. I saw stuff about how to date a Filipino American woman, and more importantly, why you shouldn't date them. And lastly, this was very striking for me, mail order Filipino brides from the Philippines. Because if you don't know, Philippines is a third world country. And a lot of people are trying to find ways to leave the country to find better opportunities. And so women will put themselves on these websites and say, you can order me to be your bride and I will be a great wife to you. So that's what's going on in our community. And I thought people were like, Oh, don't trust the internet. Don't trust the internet. Internet has nothing full of crap. So it's like, Okay, fine. I'll go to library. I'll see what the library has. So I went to San Diego Public Library, and I decided to do a search of a couple things. First, I start with American history. I thought, okay, 30,000 you know, 30,000 books that makes a lot of sense. It's America. And I wanted to kind of, you know, start narrowing it down. I was like, oh, what about American women? About 2000? I was like, Okay, interesting. And I looked up Filipino American history, which, by the way, Filipinos have been in America since the 1500s. So this is very shocking to me. To find that there's only 200 bucks about us. I decided to look about look up Filipino American women specifically, I found six. And I wanted to look up the individual, the individual, Filipino American woman. And I found one. So I don't know about this. But if this was you, if you were that one, you really start to think to yourself, Am I supposed to be here? Like, am I taking up space when I show up as myself? So that's how I felt it started to make more sense to me why I felt like I didn't fit in anywhere. I was like, oh, because there's just no information about me. And the interesting thing about this book Is that it was a memoir from a medical aid in the Philippines and World War Two. It was published 20 years ago about a story 70 years ago. So I was like, okay, that is completely outdated. If I base my life off of that memoir. I don't know who I'd be right now. I probably would not be relevant. Back in 2016. Facebook Live is all the rage and when use Facebook Live? No one. Yeah, just me and my husband. Cool. Thanks, Andy. appreciate your support.
And so Facebook Live is all the rage. And basically, I had all a marketing agency at the time before I started working with my husband. And I decided I was like, You know what, rather than whatever, whatever the books say about us or don't say about us, whatever my community says or doesn't say about us, like, whatever, whatever anyone says about us, I'm gonna just turn this around and actually talk to people that look like me and ask them how they identify as Filipino American women. So I did a really cool facebook live interview. And it was really cool I did in 2018. And we got a lot of viewership for it. We were featured in media were featured in the news for it. So it was great. It Great when you started to do a Google search of Filipino American women, you would find that our Facebook Live would be up in the Google search. I was like, Yes, that's right represent. And I wanted to find a way to make it more accessible for people like me to find stories like me. So that was really cool. That was fun. I went on hiatus, because my husband and I moved to Virginia Beach loves paradise. Just kidding. Virginia Beach is so cool. And in that time, I had some time to reflect. And I was wondering, like, even though we were able to record all these stories, why was it that it started to get harder to ask people to share their stories, and I found that people were intimidated to share their stories on the camera. They were afraid to show their face, especially if it's live. You know, they're kind of like, I don't know about that. Like, should I wear makeup and you know, half the show half the shows I did. I wasn't even wearing makeup. I was like, let's do it. But you know, if you don't do it a lot, and it's your first time ever sharing your story ever being told that your story matters. It's very intimidating to your story on Facebook Live. Also tired of putting a face up for each live interview? I'm an introvert. I know. You can't tell but I really am. I'm a high functioning introvert. And yeah, I just started getting tired of showing my face up showing my face and overalls, being tired. I was tired of being a one woman band, being able to run the shows on my own, produce them and market them. I found that women it was just hard for them to really like stick to it. So in 20, last last summer, when my husband and I first moved to Virginia Beach, we when we first moved to the east coast, essentially, I really started to struggle with loneliness and mild depression. I was new to the east coast, I didn't have any friends, I didn't have any family. I had my husband and my dog. And I was really struggling too. I kind of came to this realization because my husband and I, we had moved collectively, I think 10 to 15 times in the last handful years, I came to this conclusion that it was really difficult for me to make friends in person, because eventually I was gonna leave and it was gonna it was gonna be hard to maintain those relationships. And when I was really struggling with mild depression, I read this book that talks about in order to get Out of depression, you just have to focus on one step at a time toward community. And I thought, How do I build community, like if I can't do it locally. And so my husband is what we call the dog and pony show for our business. He is the face of it, he gets featured in media quite often. And so there was a host of this podcast show that wanted to interview him. And unfortunately, they're having technical difficulties. So I remember he had sent anchor, and I know that people have different schools of thoughts when it comes to where your web host. But let me tell you, when I saw this, and I was thinking of a way of trying to build community again, and I knew somehow in my mind that podcasting was a way to do it. But I didn't want to be intimidated. Like I was so intimidated by just the setup of it. So that when I saw this, it just made complete sense to me that I was going to revive my project, and I was going to interview Filipino American women. Yeah, so this was really the catalyst for me to just get started. And if any of you attended Chris commit services workshop earlier, he talks about starting ugly rather than starting perfect. And so I was just like, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna see what happens.
And so Wow, let me tell you. We're about to hit 50 episodes. We're at 49. Right now. We're at 12,000 downloads. We have guests reaching out to me, saying, Can I share my story? I used to looking for people because I want to share my story. I'm ready. Wow, that's amazing because I didn't have to try, you know, I wasn't gonna have to, like try anywhere to follow up with anyone. They just reached out to me, that I found for them, it's more convenient to digest it. You know, rather than sitting around watching a video, they can just, you know, plug it in their car, and they can listen to it privately. Because if you don't know, there's a lot of women of color who have to kind of feel closeted about their culture because they feel like they need to blend into you know, white America. And White is great though my husband's white, but still, and, and anyway, overall, overall, through our experience, we were able to build a community very quickly. The best part is is that I met my co host. That's not a she's laughing. I met her for the first time in December, we did not know each other. She found me on Instagram. And I was trying to talk about obscene things to make her laugh so we can take photos. And it worked. And yeah, I met my co host. It's been great. She jumped on the sixth episode. And she's been on every episode ever since. And because of all the feedback we've gotten from our community, we're planning on doing a rebranding and relaunching for 2020. So stay tuned. Stay tuned. I want to talk about the impact, and actually how I was able to speak today. So I attended the podcast last year, it's the podcast, anyone know, okay, look it up. It's great. It's on your thing right here. She podcasts, look it up. And so she podcasts was looking for speakers and speakers for pod fests. And at that time, I didn't have a lot of downloads. I didn't have a big community. I literally started my podcast show, you know, just a couple of months ago, I don't know, maybe weeks ago. And I could be thinking, Oh, I'm not qualified enough. I'm not skillful enough. I can't speak well, I mean, I think I speak well, but you know, you know, you think those things When you're very insecure, and I just thought, you know what, I'm going to go for it. Anyway, I'm going to try to be a speaker at pod Fest, even though I've never been there. So first timer, first timer, I bought this. And so I thought, I decided to work with my community. So we're very active on Instagram, particularly Instagram stories. And in the best way, we decided to harass pod fest and encouraging them to learn about us and encourage us to speak here today. So these are some of the messages that our community was able to send to pod fest. I asked them, hey, what does this show meant for you so far? Because we want to represent, we want to show our face out here. And so it was really cool because you don't take it from me. And when you see when you see this, I want you to think of Could I provide this for my community as well? can I provide this for people like me as well? So you know, our community with our show, they they feel visible, they feel validated. They feel like they're not alone. They feel like they're reclaiming the roots. They feel empowered. Oh my gosh, just so many beautiful things. I mean, you could see it all right there. They're having a sense of connection and community representation. representation is big, and redefining what it means to be a p&i or Filipino American woman in America. So another thing too, literally this week, I was like, Hey, I'm going to work on my presentation. And I figured I might as well ask my community, why they think storytelling is so important. And so these are all messages as well from them sharing, like, why they felt like our show is very important. And storytelling is important. So same thing. It's mainly about bringing awareness, community healing, breaking the cycle, defining ourselves, which, you know, society has always defined us in a way and honoring our identity and our ancestry. I'm not gonna read all this, but you have no idea how many love letters we get for our show, just for us being ourselves just for me being myself. And a lot of these women are just reaching out saying, Oh my gosh, what a breath of fresh air. Thank you so much for You know, making this show possible. And I just want you to imagine like, don't worry if you don't have to read all this. But I just want you to imagine if you did this for your community, how powerful would that be? That you could do that all because you told yourself that your voice mattered. And you inspired other people to share their stories. Like, let me tell you, you know, $12,000 is nothing for this type of feedback for this type of community and all these love letters. It's the reason why I can stand here today and just be myself because, like, I know that I'm not here to please you. I'm not looking for any of your approval. Okay, I don't need it. Because I got this.
Okay. And you know, don't don't read this either. I know, it's a lot. I was told. I was told by the speakers not to like fill up the screen or like, I'm gonna fill up a screen anyway. Like, it's my it's my presentation. But also the emails like just the long love letters that we've been receiving from people who just say thank you for sharing this. Thank you for validating us for making us feel seen, because we're here. We're here in America, and we need more people that feel underrepresented to speak up. Yes, sir. Yes, yes. Okay, so cool thing, you know how you harassed pod fest and she podcasts to be on the show or to be here today? Well, a month after I applied, I was accepted to speak. So here I am today speaking to all of you. So thank you. Thanks for being here. And this is actually my second speaking engagement. I spoke yesterday at the military creator con, talking about my other podcast show holding down the fort for military families. And it was cool because at that time, we only had 5000 downloads. So you know, I'm just saying that it's not about the numbers it's about the value the quality and the community that you bring you know that you know, that you provide for your listenership? Okay, all right, everyone, coming to the end coming in close. If you're looking for a sign, this is it. Feel free to take a picture to this is a sign. This is a sign. I'm wait for you take out your phones. Do it. Take a picture. This is not me the sign. I mean, I will post For you, but oh my god, I'm sorry. Yeah, this is the side, the side. If this is a sign, if sorry, let me say it again, if you're looking for a sign, this is it. There's no better opportunity, this moment to contribute to today's stories and tomorrow's history. And let me tell you like, even though this is a passion project of mine, I have been able to become a better storyteller and show up as I am in everything else that I do in the business I do with my husband, around my friends around my peers. So even if this is like, even if it's not to monetize, which we're planning on doing that for summer, look out for that. Even even so it still does something for you. It makes you feel validated and makes you feel like you can show up as you are. And it sounds so bizarre to say that because some people are already feel entitled to showing up as they are. And some people like me had to struggle with how to get to a mental place to say I matter and I'm here and so this is your time. This is it. This is your moment. Your story ultimately, why why should you share your story because your story validates other's stories, and in turn, you feel validated. Like I said, I wouldn't be here today. If it wasn't for my community, even my husband for supporting me and my dog. That's sleeping. Great. He's so into my presentation right now. And the other pictures, I'm gonna go to next slide. It's gonna be over this is it the sirens going away? Okay, here we go. It's gone. It's gone. It's over. Alright, so before we get into q&a, I just want some affirmations to share with all of you. I want you to tell yourself that I am more than enough. That's one step higher than I am enough. Because you already are enough. Jesus died for our sins, y'all. Like you're saved, you're saved, you're qualified, you're more than qualified. And some people think, gosh, it's so selfish of me to share my story. It's so selfish of me to show up and take up space and to be so self centered. But I want you to reframe that and I want you to say it's selfless to share my story. Your story is so needed Trust me, I wouldn't be standing here today. If my community like didn't need me, like, to me, this has become more of a responsibility than anything else. It's a responsibility. It's your duty to share your story. It is selfless, share your story. And I want you to know that because someone is waiting to hear your story. You know, someone, someone's life is going to change because you decided to open up and share your story. And some people say, I don't know how to find my voice. I don't know how to share my story. And I like to say the best way to find your voice is to use it. Just use it. It's not gonna be perfect. That's why you can start a free web hosting, like anchor so you could just mess up and then you could take your business seriously, your podcast seriously. So there's that. I want to thank you all so much for being here. I'm going to open the floor for QA. And I hope that today we're able to gain some knowledge or some more conviction to be who you are and show up as you are and contribute to today's oral history. So thank you so much. Oh yeah, sorry, I probably should have said do this because my dog gets anxious. Um oops. Anyway, there's that. Alright, so I am open to questions. I know how much time I have left. is I want to do 15 minutes. I got one
question. Yes.
Yeah, project Go for it.
Okay, cool. I can just like talk to I am I can come up with anything. Really? I wasn't good.
Hi. I apologize for my dog,
Dylan, and thank you for sharing. You told us what got you started on this journey. I just wanted to ask, because I'm someone that I've experienced the drive to start
along the line. Sometimes you get discouraged
That's a great question. I totally get the whole discouraging thing. It's hard because when you're doing podcasting, you're kind of doing it alone most of the time. So you're like, is anyone even listening? Like, what keeps me going is, is the community honestly, even that first email, that first message, when I see the downloads, that keeps me going, it tells me that someone is listening, someone needs it. And, and I need it most of all, like, if you're discouraged, just see it as an opportunity. Like, just see it as a conviction, like, turn into conviction be like, I have to do this, like I have to put myself out there. Because like this, it's this moment that that moment that you're discouraged, is a very defining moment for you. Because no one is silencing you anymore. Like we're in America. We're in America, you know, any other third world country, it's a different story. But no one is silencing you anymore. There's there's plenty of mediums to put your voice out there. And so you just need to remember that and just know that Yeah, that's it. I think that's it. Just that conviction in Knowing that like, there's the only person that stopping you is yourself. And it's going to be hard. Like on my shows, I'm very transparent about mental health and mild depression. And I'll say it on the show one time, I was like, I'm not feeling great today, we published that. You know, and some of our some of our most popular shows are really about mental health. People love to hear it, people love to hear it. People love to hear that you're not having a great day. So, so I talked about a lot.
Cool. So my question is, you know, sometimes when you hear stories, from presenters on on stage, a lot of them have stories of like, say, tragedy to try it. But there's a lot of people who may look at themselves and they don't necessarily feel that their life was like traveling or trying. Mm hmm. So how do you encourage the person to tell stories if they don't see themselves as that kind of person where I don't have nothing to really tell them about because you know, yeah, I just basically live life is nothing really? Yeah, you know?
Yeah. So you're like I'm privileged, I ain't got no problems. Who wants to hear my privileged story? The privileged people? No, I get that I've had people in the past say that my life is an interesting, and let me tell you, when my co hosts like shit, like, pick their brains, we end up finding something. And so I just want to let you all know, like, despite how privileged you think you are, despite how basic you think your life is, I bet you it's not. I bet you you all have something to share. I bet you all have skeletons in the closet. I bet I bet. And I think when you say that, I think I challenge you to work through that. And you know, like, I was thinking, you know, I was thinking now that my husband might hear that, you know, I was thinking with my husband, I was like, Oh, you know, he was raised in like Middle America. And he was like, you know, he he skipped through life pretty well, but without realizing he grew up with a lot of emotional So even though he looks great on paper, and you know, on paper, we look well, you know, in a way he struggles with that. And so everyone is struggling with something. And storytelling doesn't always have to be about like from trial to trial. It could be about something funny, you know, it could be about, like, you know, talking about sharing a story the other day, I was like I went to I went to McDonald's, because at midnight, I was hungry. And I was like, the only restaurant that was open. And I ran into the lady at the restaurants Filipina. And I just shared the story of like, how I randomly of all places, I met this Filipina, and that turned out to be really funny story, like, people ended up messaging me and they're like, Man, I wish I can go to McDonald's and run into an empty, you know, so. So I think there's a story in there, and there's a lot of ways to study how to become a better storyteller. And so I would encourage you to look into resources like that as well. But everyone has a story even though like you think you don't everyone has a story. Like I bet you have a story because I don't know you. And I don't know how I can relate to you. So I know that there's there's a story that you have to share to me like I know I can learn a lot from from you, I could tell it ready. Cool. Okay. Anyone else? This is it. Yes. What do you say is like your process for preparing for? Like, what do you mean with them beforehand? Yeah. Okay, that's a great question. So she was asking I'm sorry, what your name? Kendra. Thank you, Kendra. Kendra was asking how do we prepare our guests to be interviewed on our show? Great question. We actually send questions ahead of time. So if you're looking to prep people, not everyone requires it, not everyone demands it. Some people are fine on the fly. But for people that it's their first time sharing their story, we do give them a list of questions. If you're interested in those questions, you could always text me and or email me and I'd be happy to give you some starting questions. So thanks, Ricardo. Yeah, so we usually send them what I do is I send the document questions. And then I also send them like, what to expect, like how do you prepare because a lot of times people are calling in and so I say Oh, make sure you sit in the closet because then the audio is a lot better. You know, make sure if you're one time when Um, we're in this girl she was we were interviewing her in her hotel bathroom. And it was echoey. And I was all like, what if you wrap a towel around your phone, and you weren't, like it wasn't echoey you know. So just being able to prepare people ahead of time, you could send documents or even talk to talk to them about and perhaps even right before you do the interview. So, any other questions? Going once? Yes. So I am a social worker. So I'm used to hearing people's stories behind closed doors and not having them broadcast everywhere. I'm starting to realize that I need to share my story as well. Yeah, I'm being a female and I also my podcast is with my husband too. So trying to level that out and share my story, but also having other females on who come from other fun ways. And so having other marginalized you know, people come on and share their stories. Do you have any advice You know, moving forward allows people to get comfortable to share their stories. Hmm.
Yeah, that's that's a good question. So when I do my show, I don't straight up say, Hey, are you Filipino? I want to interview you. Like, I don't do that. Because, because trust me, I get it wrong to like somebody. Well, I think that Filipinos are so not Filipino. It's so wrong. We look so different. We're also mixed, you know, because we have thousands of different islands recolonized Chinese people came in Spaniards, all that we all look different. And some of us are mixed, really mixed. So what I like to do is I like to share, like some bullet points of what we're looking for. So like, for me, I say, Oh, you know, we're looking for people who are individuals in America who identify pronouns she her and are a Filipino descent. So if you put a list, it's like, oh, we're looking for people with this background with this experience. If you do it that way and promote it that way. Like you will have people like come to you, and even you can even start like what I also like to do is I do that but then when people do show up and people are interested, I always ask one of the questionnaires or questions I asked in our questionnaire is, do you have any recommendations? Do you have anyone else that you would recommend be on our show? And so that alone has made it so easy for us to find guests for a show? centric question. Yeah.
What would make you feel more comfortable to like, you know, you said that a lot of females do not feel comfortable, you know, sharing their stories on Facebook Live, right. Yeah. You know, I just thought what would make people feel more comfortable?
to share their story? Yeah, that's a good question. The reason why I found podcasting to work for my community, is because they don't see people face to face. So they feel like they can be in the safety of their home when they call in. So so just letting them know like, Hey, you could even ask them like, what would be most comfortable for you? Do you need me to be next to you? Like do you know what have you so I would just like that's what I would do is just even ask them ahead of time. And give them tips. You know, like, Oh, you know where wrap yourself with your favorite blankie? Like, that's okay. You know, or like, you know, make sure that you take a nap beforehand or have coffee or like, you know, what do you you could even ask them, What do you need from us. And like I mentioned earlier, making sure you give them documents ahead of time saying what listing what to expect for the interview, saying, Hey, this is what's gonna happen before the interview, during the interview. And after the interview. This is how you can call in. You could there is a video component, but you don't have to turn that on. And also it helps when you already have had other people that you interviewed, because people will see themselves in their stories. And they're like, oh, like that person really inspired me. I want to share my story. So being able to cause like, it causes a ripple effect. Once you get one story, you will find someone else and find someone else. And also, always ask them like Do you have anyone else that you recommend that could be on our show? Because after a while, it won't be about you. You know, after a while, like like it's not about me this this whole thing is not about me. It's about the women who shared their stories and then they connected me with other people to share their stories. So in the beginning, it may seem hard, but eventually you're going to see this snowball effect of people recommending and, and everything. And as long as you continue to create a safe space for them to share their story, and you'll learn that through trial and error, you'll learn that through the questions that you ask. I always try to make it a point to make people laugh. So that's my thing. People say, I'm really funny on my show. I like to believe them funny. But you know, trying to make them laugh, like early on is a great like icebreaker as well. And as you dive deeper into the questions, like people start to feel more comfortable, you know, as you make them feel comfortable, and then they'll open up more even on their own. So yeah, cool. Yes, ma'am.
Question. Yes.
That's a great question. So she was asking, it sounds like I do a lot of remote interviews. Thank you. Two minutes, remote interviews. How do I do it? So when I did Facebook Live, I'm not gonna knock this Over, when I did Facebook Live, I used to do a lot of in person in San Diego. But I found that it was like a lot of work for people to commute to downtown, and pay for parking. And I was like, I totally get it, I'd be the same way too. So I try to do everything online also, because our community is everywhere. And the thing about the Philippines is that a lot of people leave the country to find better opportunities. And so Filipinos are scattered all over the world. And so the best our best option is to interview them remotely. So what I like to do is I have I use if anyone wants to write this down, I use calendly. It's like calendar, but with an L y. And I use that to schedule my interviews. And sometimes we have seasons where we like pump out all the interviews really quickly. And then we schedule them out. So like for us we try to release an episode every five days. I haven't done that lady lately, so don't look at my podcasts. But I mean actually do but no, we it's it's cool because you can even schedule it out. So it looks like you're publishing every five days. But it also depends on like how many shows you want to produce anyway, like for me, I just Wanted to pump them out. I was like, I want to get these stories out there and get these stories out there. But some people do their shows once a week. Some people do their shows once a month. Some people do it whenever they want to do it. So I just say start ugly, as Chris says, and and eventually you'll find your rhythm and your comfort level to how many people you can interview. Some people do eight interviews back to back in a day, and then they just schedule it out, you know? So it just depends on your comfort level and your bandwidth.
Let's go for Jen, everybody. Great job.
I will drink it now for you. Yeah. Thanks, Alex. Thank you everyone so much. I'll be around. Feel free to text me if you want to hang. I came here in an RV so I'm nearby with my dog. So thanks, everyone.
