Influential Introvert: Communication Coaching for Professionals with Performance Anxiety - How the Girl Scouts Tackle Tough Topics on The Girl Talk Podcast

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

Remember a few episodes ago when I was talking to podcast editing extraordinaire Steve Stewart? We chatted about how to create your podcast editing side hustle, and he talked about finding clients at conferences.   Well, today I’m speaking with a client of mine whom I met at Podcast Movement last year.   I’m speaking with Idelle Erickson, who works for the Girl Scouts and produces the Girl Talk podcast.   We talk about what a podcast producer does, and Idelle walks us through her process of creating a Girl Talk episode, plus shares how she engages Girl Talk listeners.    Idelle is so lovely and I’m happy to have her as a friend. I was actually crying before we recorded this episode because l can't stop thinking about all the children forced to be in lock down in abusive situations. I want to create a recovery program for abused kids that uses audio to help them feel comfortable speaking up and healing. Want to help me? Get in touch.    *** Hello. I’m Sarah, your host and founder of Podcast Launch Academy. Are you ready to launch a podcast that builds your brand and business, connects you to your global community, and grows your influence? Visit sarahmikutel.com to see how we can work together. Here’s a special treat for you: Use my Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I’ve gotten to know the Buzzsprout team over this last year and love their customer service so much, I moved my shows over there.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

To be honest, a lot of the topics we were talking about, I knew that if I got into the conversation, there were a lot of things I would have to share about myself that I wasn't sure I was like ready to share with this huge audience. Have you been wanting to start a podcast for a while now, but something's holding you back? Maybe it's fear of putting yourself out there or confusion about the technology. I'm Sarah Mikital and on podcasting step by step, I'll break down how to podcast. with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and the confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams. Let's get started. Remember a few episodes ago when I was talking to podcast editing extraordinaire Steve Stewart? We were chatting about how to create your podcast editing side hustle and he talked about finding clients at conferences. Well, today I'm speaking with

a editing client of mine whom I met at podcast movement last year. I am speaking with Idle Erickson, who works for the Girl Scouts, and she produces the Girl Talk podcast. I don't take on many editing clients, but I really believe in the Girl Scouts mission, and I love the quality of the show that Idle is producing. So how could I say no? In this episode, we talk about what a podcast producer does, and Idle walks us through her process of creating a girl talk episode. Adele is such a lovely person and I am so happy that I have become friends with her over this last year. I was actually crying before we recorded this episode and it took us like a few episodes or a few episodes. What am I even saying? It took us a few tries to get through the intro and I'll tell you why I was so upset at the end of the episode. But until then, enjoy this conversation. It was actually quite cheerful and happy and so I think you're going to be.

like it. Welcome, Ida. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hi, Sarah. It's good to be here. You work for the Girl Scouts. So for whoever is not familiar with the Girl Scouts, could you just tell us what that is and how did you end up there? Girl Scouts in the U.S. have been around since 1912. It's an organization that provides inclusive programming for girls. That's all about them. Our curriculum is focused on leadership and building up girls' confidence. Our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, and that still holds true today. And Girl Scouts has changed a lot over the years. It looks a lot different now than it even looked when we were kids. So we try to be forward thinking and progressive and keep up with what girls want and what they need right now. So I got into working for the Girl Scouts. Actually,

deliberately, I was a Girl Scout as a kid. My mom was a troop leader and I was in it until I graduated from high school. I had a really small. Yeah, I had a really small troop. There were only three of us at the end, but we just felt, it felt really good. Like, we were leaders in our Girl Scout community. Like, our, like, our, like, regional Girl Scout groups, like, would ask us to do all this leadership stuff and we were the oldest troop and it just felt really cool. So we stayed. What do you mean leadership step? What kind of things were you doing? Girl Scouts have these regional areas called service units. So like there's the council, which is where the actual like professional people work. So I work for Girl Scout Council in Minnesota and our sort of

subgroups are everything else is led by volunteers. We have about 125 staff and we serve 49 counties. and we have about 30,000 girls and 9,000 volunteers. So those 9,000 volunteers deliver the Girl Scout program, and our job is to support them. And then also provide some, like, top-level professional Girl Scout programming. So these volunteer groups lead their sort of regional areas that might have anywhere from 100 to 500 girls. And so when I was a kid, like when I was in high school,

our regional group knew that, are that my troupe, the three of us, were really interested in acting as leaders for younger girls. So we would have these big events that were coordinated by these volunteers. And we would come in and we would do some of the coordinating and lead songs. And we would go to weekend camps. And we were just sort of seen as like the cool kids who were sort of in charge as 16 year old girls. The cool big sisters. Yeah, kind of. And so you wanted to wear. for the Girl Scouts you applied there. So what was your first role? So my first role, well, so I kind of always wanted to work for Girl Scouts. I worked for Boy Scouts for a while at a camp

that was really important to me and was a really great experience. But Boy Scouts, to be honest, isn't a place that I want to work. So really, why? Just for a lot of reasons, Boy Scouts in the U.S. have always had issues with allowing people from the queer community to be part of them. And a lot of their values are just sort of behind the ball. And that wasn't really something I was interested as a gay person and as a woman. And, you know, I had this really great experience. And my dad was really involved in Boy Scouts when I was a kid. But I knew I didn't really want to like have that be part of my life as an adult.

Are the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts related at all? They are not related at all. So that's something that's sort of confusing. A lot of places in the world, a lot of countries, their scouting programs are co-ed. But Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in the U.S., they were founded actually by two people who were really closely related and founded on sort of the same initial idea, but they've never actually been the same. I like the idea of there being like a safe space for girls to show up and be themselves and learn leadership qualities. And how do you feel about that? I think it's super important.

And I didn't really recognize how important that was until I started working there. It's just like seeing how girls open up at all ages, like from kindergarten to seniors in high school. seeing how they open up and voice their opinions and raise their hands and learn how to take risks and not be afraid to fail and they go to camp and they ride horses and they learn to swim and do all this stuff that if they were in a co-ed environment, they might sort of take a back seat just because that's what happens when boys are involved. boys tend to sort of take over the conversation a lot of the time just because of how our society is. And just like seeing that firsthand and how girls act completely different when they're just around other girls. And I say girls, we use girls as sort of just a term for our members. Technically, we're a single gender organization and that's not changing. but we do have a lot of openness and flexibility for girls who are maybe trans or non-binary,

and they might not even use female pronouns, but we say girls just because that's sort of an easy way to bucket our members. So I just want to say that too. What is your role exactly? My title is Operations Project Manager. Like I love behind the scenes stuff. I love support work and coordinating. projects. And so I work with our chief operating officer. I do her executive support. And then I also work sort of as a partner with her to run a lot of staff committees and manage projects. And sometimes

I get bored and need something creative. And I, so I do things like make a podcast for myself, which I feel really lucky to have that opportunity to be able to do that. Yeah. I mean, make up my own projects sometimes, but usually I'm supporting our operations teams. So our team that does girl recruitment and volunteer support and community engagement and our staff-led troops team and program and outdoor program, I sort of just support all of those teams running committees and managing projects. Wow, that's so interesting. I thought your job was marketing. I do marketing sometimes. times. Jane of all trades, I guess. When I, because yeah, when I think of podcasts, I typically think of

marketing. So you're the podcast producer for Girl Talk. Tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah. It was sort of my brainchild a couple years ago. We have two staff members, Hannah and Shana. And Shana actually doesn't work for Girl Scouts anymore. She's no longer on the podcast. But the two of them are just these like powerhouse super smart, awesome, like engaging youth workers. And everybody, like my coworkers one day, we were doing this event called Day at the Capitol where we do advocacy work with like a few hundred girls at the Minnesota State Capitol. And there's some programming involved in that. And they were just being so awesome. And everybody was like, how can we get these two together?

We need like a solid project where they're just working together, being awesome together. And I really like podcasts and knew a little bit about sort of like what goes into it. I mean, I learned a lot more and it was a lot harder than I thought. But I was like, let's start a podcast and I'll produce it and they'll be on it. And they'll just talk and be awesome. And everyone was like, okay, that sounds awesome. and then they all sort of forgot about it and didn't know that I was like brooding and putting together all of these plans and budgets for it.

And then we got it together. And so the concept is it's a podcast for girls, which there aren't a lot out there. Like for like our target audience is girls like 14 to 18 and young women and are sort of accidental. audience is also younger girls. So it's really, the concept is that it's not about Girl Scouts. It's by Girl Scouts. So we're part of our like marketing strategy is that Girl Scouts are the girl experts. So that was where this sort of came out of. And it was my idea to to have this podcast that was for girls by Girl Scouts, not about Girl Scouts. So like talking about tough topics that not everybody is talking about in a way that girls want to listen to or engage with. So things

about race and culture and advocacy, bravery, lighter stuff like video games and nature as self-care. And we did a two-part episode on leadership and what that looks like. And we try to get really like diverse guests and bring in a lot of new ideas and new perspectives. And we do most of our episodes sort of more like experience episodes rather than somebody like speaking for a whole group of people. So I really like storytelling. I've always been a big fan of things like This American Life and Fresh Air. Those were the shows that I used to listen to on the radio that kind of got me into listening to podcasts. And I wanted something that sort of emulated that, but was for girls, but not talking down to them. And the podcast I could find out there that were like

for kids were just they weren't that. You know, there's some stuff on YouTube, but not really in the podcast world. So I, yeah, you're right. I haven't seen too much. There's like stuff for little, little kids, like that brushing your teeth. Right. I think my Gimlet is putting out. And then, you know, a lot of things for adults, but not really, I haven't seen anything.

Actually, now I don't think about it other than girl talk about addressing issues that teens are going through. And I think you guys do a fantastic job. I've edited a few of your episodes. And I love the interviews. I mean, you guys have such interesting conversations, even for topics that I never normally would check out. Like you interviewed a female CEO of a construction company. And at first I'm like, what's this going to be about? And she was such an interesting character and made me so interested in construction. Because she was just talking about it from a sustainability point of view in the future of like cities. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is fascinating.

She was so interesting. I would love to talk to you about your process, Adele, just like from start to finish of creating an episode. Because like podcast producer is a full time job for a lot of people. So this is very impressive that you are doing this kind of as your side hustle at your operations job. So tell me about like your planning process for, do you, do like seasons walk me through this. It definitely turned out to be more work than I thought, but I've still been able to work it into my, just like my regular work day, basically. It's mostly because I have a team, which I'm really lucky for. So we have a really like rock star communications

team. And they're a small team, but they do so much work. And they're all like really good at it. I mean, we have designers and we have a really great brand. So I already had that resource to tap into. So, like, basically, I can just, I can just, like, put in work orders and they'll spit out this beautiful design work. And all I have to do is, like, write the copy, which I like doing. So I'm really lucky. Natalie manages the website. And she's also, I got lucky because she was really into this.

Like, she likes podcasts and she was, she had helped her. brother-in-law set up a podcast and like she really helped me with a lot of the initial research like choosing a hosting service and and she kind of manages those like subscriptions and keeping that stuff together and we do that to get like together her and I and then Hannah is our host and you're our editor and and then those people who do our social media I do have a team and that's what makes this possible so for like content production I brainstorm episodes with my team. So like with Hannah and formerly with Shana.

Right now, Hannah and are kind of doing it on our own. But we plan out a season. So we kind of fell into this cadence of six episode seasons, which just felt right. So we figure out what's doable and what we're really interested in out of like a big brainstorm list.

So we throw out topics that we think girls would be interested, things that we're really interested in. And then I kind of look at that and decide like what's doable, what is actually going to create good content and what could we possibly find a guest for who's somebody that's easily accessible to us. So we haven't done any remote interviews yet. That's a goal of mine to learn how to do, especially right now, since we're in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and we're all working from home.

it makes this a little bit harder. I can teach you how to do that. It's quite simple. Yes, I would love for you to teach me how to do that. Yeah, so I find guests, and then I dig into content creation. So I make a detailed outline for an episode. I usually do it kind of right before we're going to record it, honestly. Like, I ruminate on it for a long time, and I get the time set up for us to all meet together

and do our interview or do just our episode with ourselves. And then I sit down and I write a series of questions. There's usually about six questions, like high-level questions with like sub-points that are things that we want to remember to talk about or things that I think would be interesting to our audience that I know the people who are going to be on the show are going to be able to talk about. So we each have this kind of solid outline to keep us on task and we try to keep our recordings to around 50 minutes to an hour. hour so that they're not too terrible to edit down into a listenable amount of time. Then we just kind of knock out those six episodes. And yeah. So what does that look like exactly? When you do that outline, do you share it with your co-host and the guest in advance? I do. So I always ask the guests if they prefer to see it beforehand or if they would like to be

sort of surprised and off the cuff because some people, some people really like to plan. And so my strategy, and it was sort of, I sort of developed this with our original editor who was doing some production work with me and he had done a lot of like video directing, a play directing, and he just had sort of a different take on it. So he sort of developed this, this idea that we were going to try to come to it really fresh and not talk about it beforehand. So we have this thing where like when we're chatting before the episode, if we start getting into the topic, because sometimes we're so excited about the topic that we're like, oh, I was reading this article and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we have to be like, nope, zip it.

Like, don't talk about it because you end up blabbing all of your really great. You lose the magic. You lose the magic. Yeah, I think that a combination can work. Sending certain questions that are going to require some thought and just make the conversation go so much smoother. I have not had the experience where people are just reading off of a page. You know, I think that can be a fear of some people, that people are just going to be like reading scripts. And usually they say yes and see the questions.

And sometimes I just send the high level topics and not the sub-questions or like, well, so I forgot a step. When we have a guest, I always meet with them beforehand. A lot of times they're people we work with. we have such a plethora of cool, interesting people that we work with. So most of our guests have been actually just coworkers, but I've had two guests who were girls. So, I mean, they're both older, but I say girls, they were both like 17. So for them, it's hard to, like, come into the office.

So I've done phone conversations with them. But I always meet for about an hour with our guests beforehand to sort of flesh out what they want to talk about and make sure that it's something that's really interesting to them and that the questions reflect what they are able and want to talk about. So that helps me build that outline. So I basically just bring a notebook and write whatever they say in our meeting. And then I build that into the outline and decide what I'm curious about and what I think Hannah would be curious about based on what they want to talk about.

So that's a big part of it too. The pre-interview. Yes, a pre-interview that really determines what our actual topic Because sometimes it's honestly just a cool person that we know has a really, a really like interesting life or like interesting things to share. And we don't necessarily have a topic in mind. So I'll meet with them and be like, do you want to be on the podcast? Yes, definitely. Okay, what should we talk about? And I give them a few ideas about things that I know they're interested in or that I know they do on the side or it's part of their job. And then we go from there. Do you batch record your six episodes, like all in the same week? Or what does that cadence look like? The recording, so we've kind of changed things up. The first two seasons, we're in the middle of our third season right now.

So our first two seasons, we batch recorded. And then I released them biweekly, you know, for however many months it took, you know, three months to release them. and then we'd have this big long break in between that was sort of undetermined. Like, who knows when we'll have our next season. So we've switched to trying to keep up and have one episode per month now to release so we can cover the whole year. But initially, we were just recording. We would wait until we had six recorded and edited and then start releasing them.

But that just, it left too much sort of open it up in the air and it was too. easy to have a really long break in between. So I have this problem that's sort of unique to us where Hannah is also a camp director. So she's a, she's our STEM manager during the like school year. And then in the summer, she goes off and lives at one of our camps and is a camp director and can't do any podcasting. So right now we're trying to build up enough episodes to get us through the summer. So I look at calendars and I find a day and then I find something that works with our guest. So it's not super prescribed. So you record the interview and then you send it off to me to edit. And then what comes next in your process? I guess as far as promotion, how do you guys promote? We promote through

our Girl Scout channels. So we have a whole like a pretty huge social media following of our members and some just public people. And we have a pretty top-notch social media game, honestly, with our communications team. So there's a calendar of posts and we post about a lot of things all the time with these like really cute, beautiful, beautifully designed posts. So I,

every time I release an episode, I put in a request for that team to put together a social post for me, and then they push it out to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and sometimes LinkedIn. And I write copy for it, so I pull some good bits out of my show notes. And then we have some girl talk giffy stickers that we've put together and stuff. So they usually put together like a cute post for me. and then push that out, usually a couple days after I release the episode. And then Hannah and I do a bunch of posting on our own personal pages.

And like, honestly, our social media game could be a little higher. I would like to have our own social media, like, just for the podcast. But right now, just with my work and having to fit this into my job, right now we just sort of like use the Girl Scouts' channels. Yeah. Well, I mean, and it's such a big platform. I think that's, you know, a smart idea to get it out there to as many people as possible. Do you have any sort of communications that goes to troop leaders so they could have conversations based on the episodes? Yeah, we do. So we also have targeted newsletters that go to different audiences, troop leaders and the sort of like higher level volunteers that manage the troop leaders. and then also just one that goes to Girl Scout families like parents and anybody who's a member

gets their own sort of newsletter email. So a lot of times I'll include a push for the podcast in those newsletters to get the word out and get parents looking at them and encouraging their girls to listen. I love that because it just takes the conversation to the next level. It's kind of like a book club for the modern age. Yeah, totally. And we actually, now that we're doing a lot of virtual programming in this sort of weird time we're living in, we did a blog post. We have a blog called In the Loop that's actually really awesome and has a lot of great articles that's for trip leaders and parents. And we did a recent article where Hannah and I put together some discussion questions around three of our favorite and most discussable episodes that we chose. And that actually got quite a bit of engagement. We saw our download numbers jump a good little bit when that went out.

So I know people are engaging with it. We encourage people to listen to the episode and then meet up with each other on Zoom or on Skype or FaceTime and talk through the discussion questions. And I think we chose our failure episode and one about talking about race and difference. and then one of our more recent episodes about hair and how that ties with your identity and stereotypes and microaggressions. Yeah. And yeah, so you guys have several engagements like activities because at the end of your episodes, you have something called Girls Pick where a girl calls in and talks about her like

favorite recommendations that she has for people. Yeah. We love to hear from girls on what they're into right now. Yes, I love that. You're trying to get them involved in the show in different ways. I think that's really creative. And you've been getting involved more. I think you started out more of like the producer role and Shana left. Unfortunately, she was a great voice. But so now you've stepped up kind of as like a co-host.

So how do you feel about that? Has it has this has podcasting more changed you in any way? Yeah, you know, that's a really good question. I think it has. I like behind the same. scenes work, I don't always recognize my own talents and, like, capability to be out in front like that, which is kind of why I transitioned my whole career from really, like, frontline youth work to, to more of a support and operations role, just because I think I've always had trouble being confident in my own knowledge. Like, I like to be the one who's, like, bolstering the people who I think are like really smart and should actually be doing the work with

the kids. And so I think I didn't exactly trust myself in the beginning to be that expert and like have like I didn't know if anybody wanted to hear what I had to say. And also like a lot of to be honest, I'm going to get real with you here, Sarah. So get real. To be honest, like a lot of the topics we were talking about, I knew that if I got into the conversation, there were a lot of things I would have to share about myself that I wasn't sure I was like ready to share with this huge audience. And I was watching like, Hannah and Shana be super brave and shared just everything about themselves. And I was like, oh, you guys are so cool. Like, everybody's going to love this.

Nobody wants to hear what I want to talk about. And I knew I'd have to like sort of like talk about. being gay and like I don't know there were just a lot of things about myself that I'd have to like talk about not that I don't talk about those things but I was like you know our family's going to want to hear this is a Girl Scout podcast like but I was just holding myself back and now that now that I have built up more confidence and like I get a lot of kudos for the shows that I'm on and people kept asking why I wasn't on more and that just you know that made me feel of good and built up my confidence and made me think like people do people do want to hear my

stories too and i have a perspective and i also honestly sort of thought i was too old like hannah and shana are younger than me and i wanted to have this sort of like younger perspective like we're all millennials but they're on the you know they're seven eight years younger than me and they just sort of have more of like a pulse on what's going on with girls right now and so i I kind of, that was part of it too. Like I wanted their perspective as these like younger women who were professionals. But yeah, that's my story. Well, I think that you add a lot to it.

And I think that I learn from people from every age. And, you know, I love having friends who are like 20 years older than me and 20 years younger than me. I think I really appreciate that diversity. And I could definitely like, so I think. think on the hair episode, was that when things started to sort of like shift for you as far as your comfortability level? Because I could hear this conversation in your episode where, you know, you have quite a short hair. And you said, like, I'm not sure if I should talk about this. And then you're like, I'm going to talk about it. You got to hear that whole back part where I decided maybe

I needed therapy. Tell me about that episode. Yeah. So we did an episode about hair. And Shana had wanted to talk about being a black woman and what comes along with that. And like, oh my gosh, we learned. Like, I think Hannah and I learned so much from her that day just about like all the microaggressions and like things that happen for black women because their hair is a different texture than like. than like white people's hair

and just how many people come up to her and want to touch her hair and like I don't know. It's just it was very interesting and so she had wanted to talk about that and we decided that we wanted both of our perspectives and a lot of my life

I've just gotten, I don't know it's just been sort of like a struggle forever to have the hairstyle that I want which sounds so silly but so I decided that I would talk about it like honestly, Hannah asked me to talk about it. And I said, yes. So I kind of went into it, not really knowing what I was going to talk about or how deep I was going to get into it. And a lot of my, feelings around it were from when I was a kid. And I know my mom listens to my show and she loves,

she loves it. And it makes it very proud. And I didn't want her to feel bad about like all this baggage I had from my childhood. So. Because you have very short hair, right? And it's part of their identity. Yeah. And it's, like more of a, like what you would consider more of like a, like a male, like a masculine haircut, you know, it's not just like I have like a pixie cut. And that's how it's always been. And I also just have a really androgynous style. So a lot of it is around just like being misgendered forever, which, you know, that's all getting easier and like more fluid, I think, in a lot of places in the world. But like in the early 90s, like that was a tough.

spot to be in. And so there's just a lot that goes into that that I just have never really talked about outwardly. And do you feel like podcasting is helping you be more comfortable talking about it? I do because part of it is just getting like a lot of positive feedback from my my friends and my colleagues who listen to the show and like being being really real in that moment. I was really nervous about it. And now I don't know why I was so nervous because it turned out so great. And I really hope that our girl listeners and like young women that are listening, get something out of that and feel connection. Like that's, that's a big part of why I wanted to do girl talk in the first place was to like talk about these topics that girls would feel connected to, even if it's

just like one girl who's like, oh, you know, there's somebody out there. there who's like me and thinking about things like me, you know, our episode with Kadra Muhammad about about like being Somali in Minnesota and like, I don't know, I just felt like this was sort of along the same lines. Like just if you can connect with somebody out there, then that's worth it. Yeah, it is. It is so worth it. And I think it's worth it for you as an individual and then also for the people hearing. And I just like, I continually get blown away, get blown away by the power of podcasting because I was just like you for most of my career. You know, like, I liked being the supportive role for other people and helping like build them up. And I still like doing that for other

people. But part of it is definitely like a hiding thing. You know, like I love helping people. But part of it's like, okay, I'm just going to hide back here in the shadows. And. I would say podcasting for me has definitely helped me make that shift where I'm more comfortable being visible and yeah and hopefully helping people as well. Yeah. Well, so did you have sort of the same thing happen where like you got positive feedback? Like what made you feel like you were comfortable doing it? I think exactly what you said about you do it and then you're like, that wasn't so bad. And yeah, I mean, a positive feedback definitely helps. I think we all get more confident when people think we're more competent, you know, when we're displaying,

when we're displaying, like, we know what we're talking about and people like, write to you and are like, oh my God, you help me out. This episode was amazing. Yeah, that definitely builds you up. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I do have something great to say. We're like worthy and listening to. So, yeah, I think the feedback definitely helps. And then also just realizing once you start doing it, all of your worries just sort of melt away because. We build things up in our head and imagine the worst possibilities instead of imagining the best possibilities often, I think. And so one thing that I like to tell my podcast students all the time is, you know, you have to, you know, you can't wish yourself brave. You have to take brave action. And then those feelings are going to catch up to you.

Yeah. So, oh my gosh, Idle, this conversation has been so lovely. I would love to wrap it up playing a game that you play on your podcast called. Would You Rather? Yes. So tell us how you play this on your episode and then let's play. Okay. So Would You Rather is a recurring segment at the end of our episodes that comes right before

Girls Pick. And it came about like when we were putting together our podcast episode structure when we were first planning out the show. Like we, you know, we knew what kind of topics we wanted to cover. I knew we needed like a solid intro. and then I thought, like, I don't know, we all listened to podcasts that had these sort of like recurring segments. So Hannah and Shana really like to debate things and like talk about their perspectives about stuff.

So we decided that maybe would you rather would be a cool segment to do. So I find a question or make one up or solicit one from a friend. And I try to find some that are funny and some that are really deep. And then for each episode, we do. would you rather question and it's always a secret to the guest and the hosts and I'm the only one who knows what it is. So I have a good one for us today, I think. I'm kind of excited about it. I feel like in a weird way, if we like whatever we pick is going to be sort of telling about our personality, which is what makes a good, would you rather question. I do love a good personality test.

Yeah. And maybe you won't think it is, but I think it is. It's sort of a funny way. Okay. Okay. Would you rather have all your clothes fit perfectly or have the most comfortable pillow blankets and sheets in existence? My gut reaction, what, like, immediate reaction was a comfortable pillow of blanket in existence. But, like, so if my clothes aren't fitting perfectly, what's the alternative? Just normal clothes? Yeah, just normal clothes. So it really, you know, it depends if you have a hard time finding clothes that fit you perfectly. And I think we can say like, like they fit you perfectly in a way that like everybody thinks you look great all the time and you feel super confident and awesome. Man, well, that does sound good. But also I don't know if you have this problem, but I have never

found the perfect pillow. I've been searching for the perfect pillow my entire life. Well, I just moved into, normally I flash air. So for like the last 10 years since I've been over here in Europe, I've done flat sharing with other people and usually the apartments come furnished which I love. I love not having to deal with having stuff. But this year I got my own police and had to buy furniture and like I didn't really invest in anything super great. And so I've got like I've got a few pillows but they're not like quality pillows or anything like that. And I don't have like the best mattress and I don't have like the best blanket. or anything. So I'm thinking, that would be nice if I just had a perfect night's sleep all the time. I have to say, having everyone think my clothes look great

does sound really nice. But if I'm going, if I'm going, if the goal of this game is immediate reaction, and I'm not sure if it is, I guess you said it's debating. The goal is not immediate reaction, but it's good to talk about that. Let's hash it out. So how about you?

What do you say? Well, I also feel like having, the best night's sleep sounds awesome. Like, I like my mattress. It's decent. And I have a foofy duvet that I like. But like, I don't know. I've never found the perfect pillow that gives me the perfect night's sleep. And that just sounds really great.

But see, I'm very torn. But I think, honestly, I have to pick the clothes fit perfectly one because that's like, that's like kind of a struggle for me. Like, I like my clothes, but I have a hard time finding dress. clothes that fit me and like I buy men's clothes and I have like sort of I have sort of like a teenage boy's body like I have no I have no hips like men's pants fit me great but like I also make for like a very small man I have a really hard time finding clothes especially like like blazers and stuff that don't make me look like I'm like wearing something from my dad's closet you know like

you can get all that stuff tailored, but I don't know if that kind of money, dude. Like, you can get all your clothes tailored and then look great, but like, I'm buying stuff from like J-Crew Factory. Like, I want like, I'm not going to spend more than $30 on the shirt. So I think I'd have to pick that one because that just sounds really like it would solve a lot of my problems. I remember seeing an episode of Sex in the City a long time ago and Samantha dated a very short man. who ended up, who was buying clothes in like the junior boys section. Yes.

I remember that. Maybe that's your solution. It's, well, so that doesn't work either because I'm, I'm tall enough that that doesn't work. So I've bought, okay, full disclosure, like, I've bought, like, shirts in, like, the Husky boys section, but then they're, like, it's sort of square and, like, too wide and also not long enough. So I'm wearing this like weird polo shirt and and I'm like, I used to golf a lot. And so like I'm golfing and like this weird shirt is like flying up and like I don't know.

I look like a strange like 14 year old boy whose mom bought ill-fitting clothes for them. So. Well, I think I have another solution for you. You can go on like a destination holiday. Not destination holiday. You can go on a vacation somewhere where like Thailand or something and they've got tailors. Where tailoring's really cheap?

Everywhere. Yeah. And then just have them telling all your clothes. You can buy a new wardrobe over there, have it tailored. You're done. That's actually an excellent idea.

I have a co-worker who her husband goes to China a couple times a year for his work and she goes with him usually like once a year. And she got a recommendation from someone to have a shirt made and tailored. So she has this like one perfectly tailored, like silk shirt that was, I don't know, like $60.

And it was like made from the ground up for her, which just seems cool. So yes, I did know that was a possibility. And maybe that's maybe that's my solution. Well, I'm feeling a bit indecisive about our thing. And that's a con we have like the same personality type. Yeah, we have the same personality type in one of like one of our flaws is indecisive. All right. I'm going to go with comfortable bed. All right. I was kind of hoping we'd have the opposite. It's good when we end up with different.

I'm surprised because I feel like we agree in everything. Well, it's also not that we disagree here. It's just that we have different priorities. Yeah. Well, this was fun and it was so nice to chat to you. So, Idle, where can people find out more about you? You can find out more about me on, well, you can find out more about my show on the GirlTalk website, girltalk.g.org. To find out more about me, you can find me on social media with my name.

All of my social media is private, though, so you'll have to request and I'll have to decide if I'm going to let you in. Tell us what your name is again. Idle Erickson. And my handles usually start with Deltron and then with some series of numbers afterwards. 1,000 or 5,000 depending on what platform you're on. Because I'm like a robot. Thank you very much, Idle. Yeah, thanks, Sarah. This has been great. I had so much fun playing Would You Rather with Idle. And I love how thoughtful girl talk is. The best podcasts are rarely recorded on the fly. They take thought and effort, and I love that Idael and her team were thinking about engagement from the very

beginning. They've turned their podcast into a modern book club for troop leaders to discuss at meetings, which I think is so cool. And I love how they're inviting girls to call in and talk about what their favorite recommendations are to share on the show. These recurring elements make podcasts so special. So here is why I was crying before I interviewed Idle. As of this recording, most of the world is still on lockdown because of the pandemic. And I can't stop thinking about the poor children who are stuck at home with abusive parents. I think about this every day. I was crying about this to my mom yesterday. Who lives an ocean away? So my poor mother probably thinks I'm having a nervous breakdown. But I have been wanting to do something to help kids and

abusive situations for a long time. And I wasn't sure what to do. And I was thinking like it had to be a one-on-one thing, like a volunteer thing. And my life, I'll be honest, has not been that stable over the last 10 years. I've been bouncing here and there and everywhere. And I never wanted to disappoint a kid. But now I'm realizing I could actually do something maybe that scales bigger. So I just have like a sort of a spark of an idea. I would love to talk to a child psychologist about putting together a program for abused and neglected children to help them find their voice and recover their confidence by working with audio. So I have a few different ideas kicking around in my head. I obviously need to talk to some professionals who actually work with

children to help develop this. I'm looking for a real rock star who has had massive success in transforming the lives of children who've been abused at home. So if you are that person, that psychologist or therapist or counselor and would like to talk to me about this, please get in touch. Or if you want to get involved in another way, maybe you are expert at writing grants. I'm not sure what sort of technology components will be needing, hopefully keeping it as simple as possible. If you've already created a program like this, let me know and I will support you however I can. These children are just in my heart and I want to help support them, you know, however we can. So anyway, get in touch with me, Sarah at sarahmicatel.com.

I hope you have a beautiful week wherever you are. I love you. Thank you for listening to podcasting step by step. You are now one step closer to launching that podcast you've been dreaming about. But I want to get you even closer. I created a free guidebook for you with actionable worksheets called eight mistakes new podcasters make and how to fix them. To find that, head on over to sarahmicatel.com slash fix. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation cheat sheet with simple, formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.