Being a travel enthusiast, one of the first podcasts I listened to is called Amateur Traveler with host, Chris Christensen. (sidenote: if you are going ANYWHERE – domestic or international – go to amateurtraveler.com and search for your destination. You’ll likely find a podcast episode or blog post that will help you plan your trip.) I’m such an amateur traveler (AT) fan that I’ve listened to all 700+ episodes, planned my family’s vacation to Costa Rica based on one of the AT episodes, and became a patron of the show this past year.
As a patron, I can attend monthly patron Zoom meetings. I hesitated to do this, wondering what the conversation would be like, and feeling a bit intimidated and nervous logging on.
During my first patron meeting I talked about my recent Grand Canyon rafting trip – which was easy to do because it was the trip of a lifetime! One of the other patrons, Randy, was a huge rafting enthusiast.
He was about to take his 10th trip through the Canyon.
Two days after the patron Zoom meeting, I had an email from Chris Christensen asking Randy and I if we would like to be guests on the show. I was ecstatic! I had never imagined being on a podcast – and even more exciting, a guest on my favorite podcast.
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Chris and Randy. If you are interested, listen here or below. And even more exciting was that I fulfilled a dream I didn’t know I had. I’ve reflected on my hesitation in joining that first patron meeting, and how so many of us hesitate to do something we might want to do but feels a bit uncomfortable. If I hadn’t logged onto the Zoom patron meeting, and spoken up about my trip, I never would have been on the podcast.
Take a moment and think about what experience you might want to “lean into” that could bring an unexpected surprise?