Episode 1: An Introduction
Welcome to our first episode!
Just a quick episode to discuss who we are and how we got here. Hopefully this short 20 minutes will give you an idea of what the podcast will be like moving forward!
Transcript of the episode
Monica: Oh my God. Uh, we are recording our first podcast, currently.
Carolee: I can’t believe it.
Together: We can't believe it either, so long.
Monica: I know.
Carolee: Now we’re actually doing the thing. Look at us, two people with ADHD finally doing their thing.
Monica: I know. I'm so proud of us. So yeah, since it's our first episode, I maybe like we can start out by just introducing ourselves.
Carolee: Yeah.
Monica: And then we can say yeah, where this all came from.
Carolee: Sure. You want to go first. I can be like, we should Roshambo for it or something, but um I'll go first since I go first alphabetically in English.
Monica: Awesome.
Carolee: Then we'll have to figure out like what it is in Korean for the next one. Um, so, yeah, my name is Carolee. I live in the United States on the East Coast, outside of Baltimore, Maryland, which become relevant when we talk about why this is the show is called what it is.
I'm a writer and a content creator right now. My biggest project is a lot of small projects. So I'm working right now, specifically on kick starting a blog where I will be writing about neurodiversity business, all kinds of just things like chronic illness and business and how all those things impact each other.
I call it alien entrepreneurship. When you just kind of feel like this was written for a whole other species, hopefully I got you so that you can feel like I'm speaking your language. That's a little bit about me. How about you?
Monica: Hi, my name is Monica and I live in Seoul, South Korea. Like Carolee mentioned, I you know, I'm just, just a little bit like Carolee, like a lot of different projects, but I would say like my main focus is I coach people to improve their English skills and it could be anything from presentations, from like career, like interview skills, like resume writing, anything that like very, very customized and tailored. But since like last year I, um discovered Twitter. I've discovered like this whole space of courses and course creators and it's been like so stimulating and that's why yeah, like these days, I'm like working on a lot of, a lot of small projects.
Um, I'm trying to, you know, like create content on YouTube. Now we have this podcast. I also like, you know, write. And you know, just yeah, a lot of things that I want to, I want to do.
Carolee: Yeah. We're like the Queens of too many projects. Too many ideas.
Monica: Yeah.
Monica: I know too many projects, too many ideas very little time. And I think at the heart, like how this, this came out to be how did we, how do we meet Carolee? Like I remember. Like you know, I don’t, I was trying to trace back exactly how we got connected.
Carolee: So I want to say we met on Twitter probably first. That's the way I remember it. And I think it was right before SCP or SYP rather.
Monica: Yeah.
Carolee: And I feel like that was really like, we just started talking and then we ended up in SYP together. And we would just like talk in like private chat to each other, or talk to each other on Twitter DM while everything else is going on. I think we just kind of like bonded over kind of being in the same space and mindset pretty frequently, especially because like, and I keep shortening it so I should explain it's a Superpower of Your Productivity by Khe, my brain's blanking right now. What's Khe’s last name?
Monica: Khe Hy.
Carolee: Thank you so much. You're going to be my backup brain from the scene.
Monica: But I, you know, I do remember now okay. Like, Now I remember, I, I remembered that you were asking about PTYA as well.
Carolee: Yea, absolutely.
Monica: And you were asking about like the, the course, part-time Youtuber Academy, and then I was telling you about it. And, and then I was asking you what you did, and then you were this like tech consultant, like, because I'm very low tech. I was like, oh, like asking all these questions. And I remember you were just so generous with your time. Like, I remember you were just explaining like about Instagram, about like, you know, the work that you did.
And, and then you, you took like PTYA and then I was telling you, oh my God, you have to take Supercharger Productivity. Like I'm taking this course. We took that together and we super bonded. And then like, I was opening this like, you know, of course club, which is like this group where.
Carolee: That’s right.
Monica: Like looking over courses by, yea, we looked at we looked at Steph Smith’s, you know, doing content right together. And yeah, I just feel like, you know, you were, you like put words to like what was going on in my brain. And it was just so refreshing to to not be able to understand like something that was going on in my brain. And then you would like, you would just say like exactly the right words of like, yeah, that's exactly what's happening with my brain.
Carolee: Totally.
Monica: And yeah, just having a twin, a brain twin, and like just emotionally. And for me it was like fascinating to connect with somebody.
Carolee: Yea.
Monica: A stranger over Twitter, like over the internet.
Carolee: Yeah.
Monica: And yeah. So this is how like our podcast 13 Apart came about.
Carolee: Yeah. I think at one point, both of us were like, I've always wanted to start a podcast. So we were like, why don't we just do it together to make sure that we actually do this.
Monica: I know.
Carolee: And the idea of 13 Apart being at the time, it's no longer the case thanks to our bizarre, think about time zones, daylight savings time here in the US pronounced 14 hours apart, but generally when things are reasonable or 13 hours apart, we're basically on opposite sides of the world and we're on opposite time schedules.
And so it's like, I'm getting up, you're going to bed. You're getting up, I'm going to bed. And so we've managed to have this like almost like time delay, like asyn, we have an asynchronous friendship.
Monica: I love that.
Carolee: I do too. It's kind of, and we've gotten to like, through this process of you know, Twitter DMs, and spending time in courses together and learning these things and being open and sharing with one another. We have this really fantastic friendship that, like I said, just bonded, like blossomed over this weird, like asynchronous us being on opposite sides of the world, like, like situation.
And I think that's been the thing that has been, I think it's just so cool. Cause like, for me, I was at a point where twitter was just like a cesspool of sadness. And you're always talking about how much fun you were having. I was like, she's doing it right. You know, what- what's she doing that I'm not? And you literally like helped me focus in on like, oh yeah, no, she's, she's talking to people who, the stuff that she's interested in, like I was watching you go through this whole thing.
I learned so much. I feel like you're like my Twitter sensei, but yeah, it was just like, and it was so cool for us as to have that thing that we bonded over and all this stuff. And so I think that's been kind of this the evolution of what kind of 13 Apart is, is it's like finding that commonality with how, with other humans across technology and, you know, like the ability for us to continue to do that and all the weird ways it kind of happens.
And the differences in how people think and what people are experiencing and because like never in my life, I think I would find someone on Twitter who has like a very similar brain to me, and like lives on the opposite side of the world and goes like all this stuff. It's, it’s, it's almost magical. If you think back to like, when the internet started, like, this is what we were promised and I feel like this is what Meta is trying to do and probably won't do super well. But yeah, I feel like, like this was the promise of the internet was it's like, you can communicate with people.
Monica: I love that.
Carolee: Across the globe, you know? And like we get to do it.
Monica: I love that. I love that.
Carolee: Amazing other people. Like we met each other, both amazing. And now we've met all these other amazing people. Thanks to, like you were saying, the courses that we take, the conversations that we have, you know, the, the content that we consume.
I was just like, that's kind of how, the way I feel as though I was like, oh yeah, you know, when I got onto the internet back in the nineties this was the thing, they were telling us, it's like, someday we'll be able to talk to another human with a, with a camera across the world.
Monica: I know. This is amazing. And I think you hit the right point of like what our vision for 13 Apart is. And yeah, it's just like two very, very different backgrounds, super different people. But then there is this like super strong bond.
Carolee: Right.
Monica: I don't know if it's like our ADHD or like taste design taste, or like love for stationary, like whatever it is.
Carolee: Yeah.
Monica: But like how this bonds are so powerful and I don't know about you, but I just wanted a space where we could explore things that we were interested in, whether that is, I don't know, like web three or like crypto or like cooking or like Japanese art. Whatever, whatever it is I, I was super excited to, to explore that with, you know, w-with, with somebody. And,
Carolee: Figure it out. This is all-
Monica: This is, we’ll figure out right now.
Carolee: I feel like that's kind of the thing is like, and that's the thing that I'm trying to like, make sure that I keep putting front of mind. And I feel like you could probably commiserate with this to a certain extent where you're like, we're both have this perfectionist drive or like okay out of the gate, we're going to do it the best possible way. And we hold ourselves to these incredibly high standards. I shouldn't be speaking for you, but I kind of through our conversations.
Monica: Totally, totally, totally.
Carolee: I have that. That's another thing we have in common and you know, it's like, we're starting a podcast. Neither one of us have ever done a podcast before. We're trying, we’re just, we’re figuring out live, you know, like that whole thing. And so it's like, yeah, it’s gonna be, it's going to be an interesting, and I think it'll be, it'll be really interesting, I think, you know, someday down the road when we're at our 100th episode or something like that.
Monica: I know.
Carolee: Come back to this first one.
Monica: I know. I can’t wait.
Carolee: What were we doing?
Monica: I know. I can't wait.
Carolee: When you look back and you're just like kind of cringing over. You're like, Ooh, it was so bad. Look at the lighting. Oh my God. Look at our backgrounds. Oh, so.
Monica: I know.
Carolee: Um, but I think, well, I think for one, episode one hundred absolutely has to be like us in Korea together and doing something amazing.
Monica: Yeah.
Carolee: But that episode, like 100, I think will be just the two of us is saying like, we really shouldn't have watched this. We’re so-.
Monica: Yeah. True. But yeah, like I think my, my, my thoughts for this was like, you know, I, I just want us to to like, have, again, like many people say this, but an excuse to meet really interesting people and people that are like, so darn special, but like are hidden. There's some people that I meet in courses and some of the things they say I'm like blown away. Like they're their life stories. And nobody knows about them. And I want to, I want to like, you know, get to know them a little bit better.
Carolee: Absolutely.
Monica: So hopefully we can, we can have them on our podcast.
Carolee: Absolutely.
Monica: What are some topics that you are interested in? That you wanted to explore?
Carolee: Like generally?
Monica: And pick apart.
Carolee: Oh, yeah, I was going to say, I was like, one of the things that kind of made me think of is also when we were talking about, you know, we are very similar, but we have really different backgrounds. It's like, even some of the stuff where it's like, I feel like we have kind of a strange Venn diagram with each other where it's like, we have a common group of people that we both know and we'll talk to, but then we have very divergent groups on the outside of that, on the other two sides.
And that's actually something that I feel like is kind of a thing that I'm trying to explore a little bit more, is bringing like those two different sides together. And there's a couple of people that I've seen towards speaking about, especially around personal knowledge management and things of that nature, but like most of my friends and the people who I talk about business with, and, and those types of things are super creative weirdos.
And I say that in like, obviously the most like loving way, because I am myself a super creative weirdo. But you know, it's like I have an, a lot of them are in the creative industry and things of that nature. And then on my other side, and I know all these people who run like serious businesses and like you were saying, like web three and crypto and super techie.
And I feel like one of the things that I think will be really cool is this kinda like melding all of those, storing them together and then seeing what the soup tastes like, where you know, I have friends who like, are crazy, you know, content creators on Tik Tok and Instagram, and they're doing fashion content and all this stuff, but they have like a really, like really interesting vision of what business is like from that perspective, you know? And a few in particular and it's like, you know, my best friend is a fine jeweler, but they have to run this business. And what is that like? You know, what are the systems that work in that scenario? And so it's like, yes, we have our hands kind of in that pie.
And then we've got their hands in this other thing as well. I feel like that's another part of that, like 13 Apart spirit is it's like, we're all the same. We're all running businesses. We're all trying to create content. We're all trying to like do this whole, I work on the web type of thing, but each of us is coming to it with our own angle and our own lens and all that kind of stuff.
And I think it's so interesting to see what we can learn from each other. Like I learned so much about project management. Like we were talking before we came on, just like my husband works in video games. He does a totally different type of work than I do. But we can sit and have common discussions about project management and creativity and all of these things besides working in wildly different field.
But I feel like that's such a cool part of what it is to be an online entrepreneur. You know, where you have to wear a million hats, where you are like your, every department. Your HR, your marketing, your, your, all your, you know, finances, your everything. Is there so much commonality where it's like, yeah, we all have to be on Instagram.
Or, oh yeah. You know, like we're all doing reels and we hate them. Or maybe that's just me. But with each of us coming to it as like, oh, I'm doing this about jewelry, or I'm doing this about my course, or I'm doing this about the new dress that I got, because it's like, who my sponsor is right now, or this is how I do this about video games.
We're all doing the same thing, but we're doing it so differently. I think there's so much we can learn from each other.
Monica: Yeah, absolutely. Like I love the idea of the second of having the Venn diagram, where and even, you know, like that being part of like our like little branding kind of idea, where-
Carolee: Totally.
Monica: We have like a lot of different interests and you know, I'm, I'm deep in like education and the, the whole like second brain and, and you know, miss on PLAs and like writing. And so there, there are a lot of different like people that I want to meet and even like chefs and like, cooks and like-
Carolee: Totally.
Monica: I learned so much just by looking at somebody do what they do. Like, I can find so many little applications to like my work or to like other things. And yeah, I just can't wait to, to explore and to tap into all of this, you know, like different people doing different things. So we can like learn from each other.
Carolee: Yeah, absolutely.
Monica: I know that courses are a big part also like, you know, we can talk about courses too.
Carolee: Yup.
Monica: I know we're on some courses together as, as usual and yeah, that's, that's another space, but yeah. What are you most excited about?
Carolee: Wow, there's so much. I think that's kind of the thing and maybe, I don't know. It's interesting. I call my brain kind of like a potentiality machine where it's like, it tries to think about all of the things that could happen. And so I think that's really the thing it's like, I think, you know, maybe it's too early to start talking about the 100th episode, but I'm just like, that's gonna, for as much as I'm going to cringe, I'm also gonna be like, wow, we really did it.
And that's kind of that I am super excited about is just to be like this process and how much we're going to learn about ourselves, about other people and all these things. I think it's just that potential is just so cool.
Monica: I also like, you know, I, as I said, like, I love this, this idea of. I mean, it's fascinating to be able to connect with a complete, complete stranger out of like internet magic. And I just am so excited about like, you know, who is going to. Who are we going to meet through this?
Carolee: Yea.
Monica: Like, what's going to resonate with this content and maybe like, create something and like, maybe that happens to me with like YouTube sometimes, like people will leave comments like, oh, you know, like I was just waiting for this, for this particular project that I was working on like thank you so much.
And yeah, I see that potential for, for us to like, talk about things that maybe you know, as ADHD people, like we just like super, super notice everything. And we have this like very, very like sensitive, I don't know, like our resonance sort of, you know, meter, it's it's so like Paul, like it's, it's like, you know, it's it's working really well all the time,
Carolee: Yes.
Monica: So hopefully we can surface some of the things that people don't notice and make them more noticeable. I love to see how people, you know, react to those things.
Carolee: Yeah, and I think hopefully I think it'll be really, it will just be interesting if nothing else, you know, like. Having that wealth of people, like you were saying and finding the resonance of how, how much there really is. I think-
Monica: Yea.
Carolee: -especially in a situation where, you know, I think it's really easy to find differences in people to just really focus on like, what can we learn from each other?
And I think so much of what courses, especially like the cohort based courses that you and I tend to take. Is that like, yes, you're being taught. There's a teacher, but you do learn so much just as much from the teacher as you do from your fellow students. It's like, you know, one person's insight can tumble into something that like radically changes your life.
And I think that, that this is just a continuation of that, but this is intentionally setting out to say where are the students that are going to like change the way we think. Who are they?
Monica: I know. I know exactly. It's just like, sort of like excited about what we don't know, but we're so excited. So I had this thing, like, I know some podcasts have this like tradition, like, you know, Tim Varies has this like question, what would you put on the, on like a billboard? Is there any question that we could like ask our guests?
Carolee: Ooh. I feel like we could really get a good one, like for me, so-.
Monica: I think that you would have a good idea.
Carolee: So I have I've studied everything. And so at one point I was sitting in psychology and then I tried, I got training in being a life coach. And the one thing that I am incredibly good at, unsurprisingly, is confrontational questions.
Monica: Nice.
Carolee: And so the type of thing that I tend to ask people, I must be like, we should play good cop, bad cop here, but the thing I tend to ask people is like, the thing that they need to stop doing.
Monica: Oooh.
Carolee: So something that's like, and then what are you going to do instead? Like, that's something that I find-
Monica: Ok.
Carolee: -just interesting in people like, I don't think it's the final question, because I feel like it kind of opens something up that you want to have a bigger conversation about.
But like for me, one of the things that I really enjoyed doing is like, what, what's the thing that you're still assuming that now you feel like has been changed, you know, like what was the thing that you walked into this conversation with an assumption around, or, or some sort of idea that you're now looking at in a totally different way. I think that's such a cool, such a cool question, because I'm so curious about people's thought processes and like how they think things through and all of that.
Monica: Yea.
Carolee: It's just like, I want to see, I want to see how the sausage is made. You just like a, really like a really gross turn of phrase. I want to see how you got from like, here to here.
Monica: Yeah.
Carolee: Because I learned so much about my own brain.
Monica: Totally.
Carolee: And my own thought process by looking at other people.
Monica: I, I love and for me, the person who is like super good at like, at sort of narrating what's going on through their brains to me, it's like Tiago Forte. Like he, he’s like so good. Like he has at the very, very precise word for like, what's going on in your brain and what he does. And also like Marie Poulin, like she also, to me, like both of them, like have a very, very specific way of like talking about what's going on through their brain.
Carolee: Yeah, absolutely.
Monica: So yeah. Finding a question where we can learn about their thought process. That'd be very interesting. Yeah.
Carolee: So we'll have to think about that. If you're listening to this podcast and you have an idea, we'd love to hear it. Audience participation is always welcome. We love, obviously we're very into hearing about other people's thoughts. So with the bus though, like send it in, bring it on.
Monica: Tell us a good question. A good question that can tell us something unique about the person and it can be kind of universal, like everybody can answer. So we can put that as our traditional question. Yeah, like a billboard question.
Carolee: Yea, that like either as a way to like kick it off and kind of see where things spiral out from there or I feel like, I feel like it's like, what did you learn today class?
Monica: Yeah. I love that. I love that.
Carolee: Right. Write an essay, ask them post it on Twitter, #buildinpublic. Like, I joke about it being cliché, but I'm a hundred percent the building public person.
Monica: Yeah, same, same.
Carolee: I need accountability. I need people to see me for that fear of failure that lives inside of my head. And it's like, somebody's watching you. One of your 100 Twitter followers-.
Monica: One of your six followers?
Carolee: Yeah, they are very emotionally invested in me.
Monica: Yeah. I love that. So that's, you know, I think, I think yeah, we'll as a goodbye. Okay. So we are excited to, or, you know, like see you in our next episode.
Carolee: Yea. Yes. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. And I'm grateful for people who are listening to this. We're going to be along for the ride with us. It's just, it's super exciting. Like I said, I have wanted to do this for so long. I'm so grateful that we're finally like, okay, we're setting a date. We're making a commitment. We're telling other people! We're doing it. We’re making it happen.
Monica: Yea. So thank you. Thank you for listening. And we hope to see you for our next episode.
Carolee: Yeah. Thanks so much everybody.
Together: Bye-bye.