How I Survived My First Ever Podcast
The key is having a professional host as a guide.
My friend and former colleague, Bhavana Hindupur, invited me on her podcast, and I said yes. I’m not sure what I was thinking, but somehow I managed to survive. If you’re terrified of blogging, speaking, karaoke, heights, sharks, spiders, clowns, or anything else on this planet, I highly recommend trying out a podcast. They were absolutely terrifying to me. Doing something that scares the absolute $h!t out of you every once in a while is therapeutic. I have given many corporate and conference talks, sung more karaoke songs than most, given conference keynotes, and written hundreds of blogs. Nothing could prepare me for the absolute terror of participating in my first ever podcast.
Let’s go!
Bhavana is a terrific blogger, and a professional podcast host. I’ve listened to and enjoyed her previous podcasts, and have also enjoyed reading many of her blogs. You can find here blog and previous podcasts linked below on Substack.
Bhavana introduced me in the podcast as her former manager’s manager. Yeah, I’ve been a manager a few times in my career. I enjoy building great technical teams, which usually leads me to becoming a manager. I guess since I was Bhavana’s manager’s manager, the old joke applies. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, manage. Those who can’t manage, manage managers. That’s me.
I really enjoyed the conversation with Bhavana in her North Star Podcast. I am honored to have been invited as a guest speaker. I love telling stories, but I definitely find writing a more forgiving storytelling medium. I can’t edit myself as I am speaking live, unrehearsed. As this was my first podcast, I’m going to be somewhat forgiving of myself. I found myself monologuing a bit more than I expected. When I tell stories sometimes, the stories will seem winding and meandering at first, but will almost always find their way back to the original point. You’ll enjoy three or four stories extra along the way.
If you want to hear from a former manager of someone’s former manager who has been coding non-stop for 42 years, is finishing up writing his first book about an open source Java library he created 20 years ago, blogs so prolifically he has lost count of the number of blogs, has enjoyed creating some great technical teams over a career spanning three decades, and had the great fortune to work with super talented developers like Bhavana, then have a watch and listen.
I find the most terrifying thing about speaking is watching yourself afterwards. I am very critical of myself. This is definitely one of the most challenging mediums I have encountered so far. Which is only motivating me even more to practice and improve. I have now given two podcasts. The second one will be audio only. I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet, but I enjoyed the conversation with the second podcast host as well.
I have Bhavana to thank for helping me overcome my fear of joining in on a podcast. I had been avoiding podcasting for years. It was much more comfortable having a conversation with someone I know first. Thank you Bhavana for the opportunity, and for the great conversation.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my first ever podcast!
Check out Bhavana’s other podcasts and blogs on Substack.
I am the creator of and committer for the Eclipse Collections OSS project, which is managed at the Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse Collections is open for contributions. I am writing a book this year about Eclipse Collections. Stay tuned!
