The Story of Thrift Diving and Welcome! - #1

Welcome to my new podcast! In this episode, I'm sharing with you how "thrift diving" the blog, podcast, and YouTube channel were born. I'm also sharing what we'll be talking about in this new podcast series! 

Transcript

Hey, what's up? It's Serena Appiah here from ThriftDiving.com. Welcome. This is Episode 1 of my new Thrift Diving podcast. You have no idea how long I have wanted to start this podcast.

It was my goal to start it probably a year ago, but it just didn't happen. And it's one of those things that's on your To-Do list and you know you're going to get to it and you're working on it, but it just is a slow process. Well, I'm here to tell you it's finally happening. So, we're going to talk a little bit about the episodes that I have coming up, that I've been working hard behind the scenes on. And just talk to you a little bit about why I'm starting this podcast, why I didn't start one sooner and how you can get involved in this podcast, because I don't want it to be just me talking to you every single week. I want this to be a conversation between you and me.

So, you're going to see some guests coming up in the next episodes, relevant to topics that we talk about here on Thrift Diving. We're talking about environmental issues. We're talking about DIY, productivity, like how do you get your projects done? And we're going to talk about all of those things. 

So, I want to jump into this podcast, just talking a little bit about why I'm starting a podcast. If you've been following me for some time, you know that I've got a blog, ThriftDiving.com. I'm on YouTube. I've been there since 2012. I love filming DIY projects and creating, inspiring, and teaching. I never consider myself to be better than everybody else.

No. If you've seen my projects, you know that I mess up all the time. Some people will actually call me out on it, but I think it's one of the things that make me just like you.  I make projects. I make mistakes during those projects and I am very humble about it. And I learned from it. And what I do is I try to teach you.

So, part of why I wanted to do a podcast is so that we could dig a little deeper into not just the topics that we like to talk about on Thrift Diving, but to sometimes go behind the scenes and figure out what went well with the project and what didn't go well. How do we prevent those problems from happening again?

And some of the topics that we talk about, like power tools in the videos that I'm normally posting, we're going to talk about that during these episodes. We're going to talk about paint, decorating, but we're also going to talk about environmental issues too, because there is a real cost of buying things new. There's a real cost of the materials that we're using and the impact they have on the environment. 

So, these are all the kinds of topics that I want to go into. And I feel like, during videos and blog posts, you can't really go too far into detail, right? You kind of lose people. But podcasts are a little different because, you know, a lot of times you can put this on, you can just work on a project while you're listening.

You can work--I mean, gosh, you can sweep your kitchen floor. Well, do people even sweep anymore? I do. I do sweep my kitchen floor, but you can vacuum the house. You can do all these things and still be able to capture the conversations that we're having here at Thrift Diving without stopping your normal routine of doing whatever you love-- projects and cleaning. Not that we love cleaning. 

So those are the reasons why I started and the reason I didn't start sooner, I'm going to be completely honest with you. I'm putting it all out on the table. One thing you may not know about me, I am so inconsistent. And this was one of my fears starting a podcast because when you podcast every week, people are expecting you to deliver.

You got to a date, you have a time, and that podcast is available every single week. And if you've been a reader of my channel or a viewer of my channel, a reader of my blog, you will know that I am not consistent. I can go one week between posts. I can go three weeks. So, I'm hoping that I can be a little bit more consistent in the new year so that every single week I have something great to deliver to you. So, we'll see how that goes. Hold me to it, please! 

Another reason that I didn't start sooner is because I hate the sound of my voice.  It's always been this uncomfortable, scratchy-- and I hope it's not too bad for you today-- this scratchy voice that I just, I never really liked. And it seems like as I get older, it's gotten harder.

Well, I had recently gone to the ENT and they did some tests. They couldn't find anything, no nodules, no explanation. And they said, you know, we think this might be something that speech pathology can handle. And I'm like, speech, what, what are you talking about? I can, I can talk fine. I just don't like the way it sounds.

Well, the speech pathologist had said, we think that it's Muscle Tension Dysphonia.  MTD. So basically, all it is, is that before I speak, I need to massage my throat. Yes. This little soft area in here, right between your chin and your chest, kind of massage that.

I don't do it as often as I should. So, I'm kind of dealing with that, which is why sometimes my voice sounds like I'm hoarse because it is--the muscles are not working properly. Anyway, if we can get past all of that, I think you and I are going to have a very close relationship. 

All right. So, I just wanted to talk a little bit about how I started Thrift Diving, because if you're new here, or even if you've been reading me or watching me for a while, you may not even know how this all started, and I'll keep it short.

But I have always been a writer at heart.  I'm going to give you a little back history here. Do you remember that series of books, Sweet Valley High? Remember it was Sweet Valley Twins when they were in middle school and then they became high school students and Elizabeth and Jessica, you know, they were complete opposites? 

Well, I was more like Elizabeth. I was so inspired by her love of journaling and those little white and black composition books that I decided I was going to become a writer like her. And so, I started writing in these notebooks and journaling, and it just stuck with me for my entire life. Well, fast-forward years later, there's this thing called blogs that are exploding.

And I was pregnant with my first son at the time. And someone said, Hey, we can actually write on this blog to share our pregnancy pictures and what's going on with our babies and all that.  

 So that's what I did. I started writing online and kept writing, kept writing, password protected. Didn't want anyone to see it. 

Fast forward to 2012 or no, 2010, we bought a house and I started blogging about my house and didn't realize until 2012 that people were actually doing this and making money.

I thought, "Are you kidding me? You mean I've been blogging all this time, complaining about my day job, that I could have been blogging and making money?! Okay. Sign me up. I'm going to figure out how to do this and make money at it." 

So fast forward now. It's been eight--no, nine years. Cause we're in 2021.

It's been nine years and I've been able to make a full-time income with this since 2015. And if you want to read more about that, you can read about how I got fired from my job. Yes, I was fired in 2015. And instead of listening to my husband and going to get a "normal job," I decided I was going to blog full time.

Somehow, it worked, and I've been doing very well. So, you can read about that down below. I will leave a link. So that's how I got started. And Thrift Diving really came about because when we bought this old house, it was full of wallpaper, avocado green toilets. I mean, it was the 1970s house you think of when you think 1970s. It wasn't too bad, but it had a lot of stuff that needed to be done and we didn't have any money left.

Nobody told you that, okay, you have enough money to buy the house, but do you have enough money to decorate the house? What about repairs? What about improvements? I had no money for this, and I walked around really for about two or three months after we bought the house., just feeling so anxious in my stomach.

It just felt so uncomfortable. And I remember those early days and thinking, "Oh my gosh, did we make a mistake? Did we sell our two-bedroom condo for this??" And it's given us this many problems.  I'm just overwhelmed. Thankfully, here we are, fast forward all these years, I feel comfortable in my house.

I finally love my house. And we're going to talk about that in an upcoming episode, because this thing about hating your house, it's very real. I despised my house for a number of years, but now I'm finally loving my house. And we will talk about that. But Thrift Diving came about because I didn't have enough money to do all these things.

I couldn't afford to do repairs from professionals, contractors.  Had to learn how to do it myself. And that's where I started going to thrift stores and came up with a name Thrift Diving because you've heard of dumpster diving. Well, I would go thrift diving and that's how I discovered thrift diving in 2010. Actually, well, 2012 is when I changed the name. 

So here we are today, 2021, brand new year. And I think this year I wanted to get a little bit closer to you and not just be--I mean, now I'm behind a microphone--but I didn't want to just be someone on the screen talking to you from a video. I wanted to discuss topics, things that I know are relevant to you.

So some of the episodes that we have coming up that I already recorded. I filmed them too. You will see the videos, but in Episode 2, we're talking to Charles Gilkey. He is a author, he's a podcaster, and he's a productivity guru. And I happened to stumble upon his book. He wrote this book called Start Finishing.

And it's for creative people. And when I saw this book and he talked about all these tips and tricks on how to get your projects done, and it's specifically for creative people. I was like, if I start a podcast, I got to get this guy on. And so, I did, I interviewed him, and you will listen to that in Episode 2. It's a wonderful episode. Get some pen and paper because you're going to get a lot of tips.

And then in Episode 3, I'm talking to Kaveri Marathe. She's someone that I met   the end of 2019, and she is a sustainability guru. Right? She's all about how our earth is being destroyed by some of the consumerism that we participate in, whether it's clothing, whether it's things for your home. And so, she and I dig into a conversation in episode three.

Episode four, we're talking gardening tips with Eric Rochow. He's from Garden Fork. And if you have ever heard of Garden Fork, I've been on his podcast. So, you may have heard us talking before. And then the next two episodes are going to be fantastic.

Episode 5 is with Chelsea and Adam Gibson. They're from Time to Go Adventure. They actually lived in my neighborhood and they were renovating a huge bus to be sort of like a mini home for themselves. And you'll hear the story of that. But they have completely transformed this orange school bus into this amazing home for their family.

And guess what? They didn't know how to do any DIY before they got started. So, I talked to them in Episode 5. And then in Episode 6, we're talking about insurance and I know people think insurance, it's not very interesting, but this is a good conversation because whether it's your home insurance, your--well, we don't really talk about car insurance--but we mainly talk about your home insurance and why it's so important to have adequate coverage. Because if you're having people come into your house to do DIY projects or contractors, they better be insured, and you better have enough insurance too.

So, we're talking about all these topics. As you can see, there's just so much cool stuff that otherwise I may not have captured if I was just doing DIY projects. So, I feel like there's these other conversations that we should be having. And now with the podcast, we can talk about it. 

As you can see, I'm so excited. And you know, I will tell you that some of these episodes I recorded a year ago, maybe even more than a year ago. And this is how long I've been sitting on all these rich conversations, because I just didn't have the time to sit down and make sure that it all comes together. I'm so excited, guys, that this is coming together and that you're joining me and really having a conversation with me because I want to know what you think of these topics.

So, you're going to be able to leave comments down below. And if there's certain topics that you want to hear about, email me serena@thriftdiving.com and I will put them on the calendar. We will talk about them. But I have a lot of stuff that I like to talk about and talking is one of the things that I enjoy most, even though I don't like the sound of my voice.

But definitely be sure to keep listening, because Episode 2 with Charles Gilkey is right there, and we are going to have a great time with this podcast. Thank you so much. And remember, follow me at thriftdiving.com. You can find me on YouTube and also these conversations are also on my YouTube channel. I started another channel specifically for this podcast.

Find the link down below if you want to watch versus listening and guess what? You can even download the transcript. If you want to read it, you can read it as well. So, you've got all these amazing things for you. All right, guys. That's the end of Episode 1. I will see you next up in Episode 2!

Thanks for listening!