Brewing an Episode with The Stationery Cafe Podcast

To start this week, something incredible happened. The Stationery Cafe hosted me as a guest in their latest episode! It still doesn’t seem real, but you can find the link here. All of the credit goes to April (@penguinscreative) who organized this episode, edited the recording and put together the materials for launch. Between hosting the podcast and the virtual meetups, I’m so grateful to her for helping us find joy in this community.

When April first messaged me on Instagram to be on the podcast, I questioned what I was reading for a second. I’ve been a listener of The Stationery Cafe podcast since the beginning and couldn’t believe that I was asked to be a part of an episode. To quote the first part of my immediate reaction (which is now immortalized as a printed picture): “WHAT. Really???”

I felt really excited about it, of course, but a part of me also thought I would be the least interesting person to be interviewed about stationery so far. While using stationery in everyday life has been a meaningful and enjoyable journey for me, it remains a hobby. I don’t have any products to sell, and I mostly stick to non-video content because I feel the most at home when I’m writing. I was a little worried I wouldn’t have a lot to talk about.

April helped my nerves by sending me a list of questions in advance - asking about my current 2021 lineup, journaling routine, my style, and how I use my journals in a functional way among other things. I prepared for the episode by writing down my thoughts in the BK Grid notebook, which I’m using as a creative log this year. Lo and behold, I wrote two and a half pages of notes! Once I got started I found it difficult to stop, and realized I had a lot to share about my own journaling philosophy and various stationery items I love.

I can’t recall if this was before, during or after the recording but I joked with April that even though I’ve been an introvert for most of my life, I almost become an extrovert when it comes to this hobby. I started my Instagram account and began posting on the blog because I wanted to meet people who loved stationery as much as I did - because I wasn’t sure where to find fellow analogue enthusiasts near me. Four years later, I’ve met a ton of people in the Bay Area who enjoy journaling - and others all over the world. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that when I travel again in the future, I can arrange a meetup with a stationery friend in so many different places.

When the day of the Zoom recording came, I was so nervous. I read over my notes a few hours before and tested my mic, fretting that the outside noises may ruin the conversation (I’m not too far from a main road in my neighborhood and I hear loud cars going by all the time). But once again, April was so kind to leave plenty of time in the Zoom before the recording for us to chat and get comfortable first. We talked about how quietly we spent the holiday season, current events in the United States, and how our recent journaling was going.

We also recalled how we met each other in person at the pre-PlannerCon meetup in 2019. The Bay Area Planners group organized a meetup in downtown San Francisco on a weekday evening before PlannerCon, and I remember walking over a few blocks after work to a Joe’s & The Juice. We stayed there until it was nearly closing time, sharing our stationery supplies and what we were going to do at the conference that weekend.

Once the recording began our conversation picked up naturally from there. I actually didn’t refer to my notes as much as I thought I would, which meant I accidentally forgot to mention a few things. But the great thing about it was that we were able to go from one topic to the next in a fluid fashion, and also expand on the topic of discussion at the time if it made sense. Most of all, I appreciated April leading the conversation and asking additional questions for me to elaborate on certain details.

Even after we finished recording the episode, we talked for a good while about so many other things - growing up in Taiwan/Korea, our current lives in Seattle/SF Bay Area, and our travel wishes in a post-COVID world. Now I definitely have another person to meet up with once I can visit the Pacific Northwest again!

Being on the podcast was such a fun and unique experience to start this year, and I’m now more inspired than ever to continue creating in my journals. I hope you’ll continue to stay for the rest of my analogue journey. If you haven’t done so already, please check out more episodes of The Stationery Cafe on their website!

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