Rabiah Coon - does serving fries in the college cafeteria prepare you for performing stand-up on stage?

For this episode I’m speaking with Rabiah Coon, who gave herself a mission to do one particular, quite scary thing before she was 40. It was originally a one-time ambition but, thankfully, Rabiah has continued with her new creative release, even after moving from the US to the UK right before a global pandemic hit.

Rabiah enjoyed writing as a child, and took some courses at college, but was scared to consider it as a career choice. Rabiah is a curious person who likes to explore new things, which is how her career progressed from serving fries to operational management and working in IT. After 20 years in IT her writing is being revived for a new marketing role in the day job, but also for her creative release as a stand-up comedian.

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Researched, edited and produced by Claire Waite Brown
Music: Day Trips by Ketsa Undercover / Ketsa Creative Commons License Free Music Archive - Ketsa - Day Trips
Artworks: Emily Portnoi emilyportnoi.co.uk
Photo: Ella Pallet

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Transcript

Claire Waite Brown: 1:14

Hi, Rabiah. Hello. How are you doing?

Unknown: 2:17

Well, thanks for having me. It's nice to see you virtually and hear you. So yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 2:22

Yeah, you too. So tell me what your newfound creative outlet is.

Unknown: 2:30

It's there. Well, I'm kind of one of those people who tries to put my hand in a lot of different things. But comedies the main one right now, then I have a podcast too. But comedy has been like a big focus. For brilliant.

Claire Waite Brown: 2:42

Okay, I'm looking forward to hearing more about how that came about. Let's go back however, did you have a creative childhood? Well,

Unknown: 2:52

I would say that my childhood, I would do some writing. I was always kind of bashful about sharing it. I feel like when I tried to share it, no one was really that interested. So it was kind of go well, you read this paper I wrote and stuff. And I would write poetry. And so I've always written things, but more privately and for myself. But I didn't really have anything where I was gifted artistically or something. It was more just kind of, I don't know, academics and reading more than anything, right. And then I would write but just not realise it was something I might be decent at.

Claire Waite Brown: 3:27

Yeah, yeah. So how did your education and then Korea progress?

Unknown: 3:33

Yeah. So I mean, a teacher in high school really influenced me. I mean, I always did well, in school, it was just kind of one of those things that I did. I worked hard, but I did well. And so I was in a advanced English class, we have these things in the US called AP tests, and they're just advanced placement. And you'll get college credit if you pass a certain standardised test. And so I took writing, and I'm from what I remember, was only a person who passed in our class, the standardised test, but that teacher just had a real impact on me. And then I didn't really do anything with writing, though. until college again. I mean, I remember I wrote for the school newspaper in fourth grade, but that was the closest I got to doing anything. And then in college, I took, I kind of went through some stuff and just some depression, and my uncle got sick and passed away. And I got, I got sick for a little bit. And then I ended up just this one quarter and college taking writing. I was kind of like, Screw it, I'm not going to focus on my major, which is political science. Just going to focus on writing. And I went into this writing class, and we read a piece in The New Yorker, by this author, Jack McPhee, and it was about shad fishing, this kind of fish and I don't care about fishing. I still don't really know what a shad is. But the way it was written, was so incredible that it lit something in me where I was like, wow, you can write about fishing, and it can be this incredible. And it changed me It changed the way I looked at writing and the way I looked at writing nonfiction. And it's when I started reading the New Yorker, and I have to say, I've probably skipped most articles in the New Yorker versus reading them just because I haven't ever been able to force myself. I had one year in New York City when I was living there that was commuting on the train. I could I could get through an issue a week for a little while, but um, it changed everything and I think but it didn't change enough because then I still was scared to do it for a living. I mean, I wanted to and So I would take like a tech screenwriting course right after college, but I just kind of ended up working. I ended up working in it pretty quick after college and I'm still in it. It wasn't until about two years ago, I took a writing class at Esalen, Veselin Institute in Big Sur, in California, where I'm from. And that lit the spark in me again, that did it.

Claire Waite Brown: 5:53

Okay, well, that's brilliant. Why? Why political science? Do you think?

Unknown: 6:00

I was always interested in politics I always admired for better or worse, I admired the people in government. I don't know. I mean, I admire people who serve. You know, I think there are people who serve and they spend their life in service of others. And that can be in the government or otherwise. And so I admire those people, and I admire the parts of them that are doing that. But I just I was always interested as a kid. I don't know why, because it certainly isn't for my family. My, I mean, my family's pretty engaged now, or they have been for the last like four or five years because of what's been going on in the US. But I was always, and I always thought it was so important to vote. And I had this kind of Resolute attitude about that. And so, and I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. And that was the path. I really wanted to be a prosecutor actually. And then I, I realised I didn't, you know, life happened and things happened. And my, my black and white views changed a lot of grey, and I just was like, Oh, I don't want to do that anymore. But yeah, Polly sigh was the path to being a lawyer. And that's what I thought I wanted to do. Plus, I thought law was success. I thought that was going to be me being successful, you know?

Claire Waite Brown: 7:04

Yeah. Interesting. You said you fell into jobs, then after college kind of thing came about? And how did that lead to what you do now?

Unknown: 7:16

Just so people know, I mean, I just left role as a project manager in it, which I've been in for five years, I started a marketing role. And how I got into that role is very similar to how I got into my other roles. And so right after college I had been working in, it could sound fancy, and say Housing and Dining, I worked in the cafeteria, serving fries, you know, and other things. And I, I was a student manager eventually, and helped with training programmes, I've always been kind of a person who's curious and who tries to do a little bit more. And that can be, you know, when you grow up the younger sibling of someone like me, it's pretty annoying. But I saw in college, when I was working in the cafeteria, I ended up doing some training programmes and stuff that help the HR department. And so then this woman was going on maternity leave. And they asked me if I'd fill in, in the HR department, helping coordinate training with people who were English as a second language speakers, and according all the trainings across the department, and just doing other admin kind of things. And I also wasn't getting student loans anymore, and I really needed more money cuz I need to start paying them back. And when you're working in those low wage jobs, it gets it gets real very fast after college. And so I took a part time job in a call centre. And I was working selling flowers. Basically, it was a flower company, and I asked for more things to do, because I would work overnight. So a lot of times, I would work during the week, you know, at my job eight to five, then I go the other job from like six or seven to 11 or 12. And then on the weekend, I'd get the overnight shift. And so I ended up becoming a supervisor, and then someone saw like, hey, this isn't working out, you keep trying to do these other projects, kind of operations stuff. And I never had labels for things I just was kind of trying to improve processes, I moved operations and warehouse management and product management. And I just kept saying yes to things and people kept offering them. And that's kind of like I became a product manager in the mobile and web space. And that's what led me to where I am because I was, there was again, hey, do you want to do this or try this? And sure. And I worked all over I worked in New York City in Dallas. Now I'm here in London, but I just kind of kept doing a good job and asking questions and being curious and I moved around. And so now with my current role after being in it for almost 20 years, I was asked if I wanted to try out the marketing side. And that it's it's been hard to reckon with because someone's actually just recognising who I am and what I'm good at and given me a chance to do it professionally. And that's insane to me. And it's in a different it's in the context of it, but it's it's amazing and it's it's kind of applying my creativity to work and I didn't think that would ever happen to be honest. So

Claire Waite Brown: 10:09

that is amazing. So can I ask how did stand up comedy start coming into your psyche?

Unknown: 10:21

Yeah, so you know I it's funny. I'm just this weekend I had this epiphany I was out. I was out having beers with a mate as one might say here and And I just remembered this, this guy, Victor Borga. He's this comedian and piano player from Denmark. And I remembered it suddenly, and it just came flying back. And I sent a video of the guy to my friend. And he goes, Why I can see where your humour came from. And I'm not silly the way he is. But there's a there's the writing. So I would watch out my grandma. So I just, over time writing my sets, I realised more and more how much of an influence my grandma has been. And it's kind of, it's just interesting, but I think I've always liked comedy. I mean, I always watched Dave Letterman growing up, and I'm not a comedy nerd. So I can't name every comedian like some people can. But I just I always wanted to try it. And it was this thing that I didn't articulate for a while. And then finally, like, I was around 30 or so. And I said, I'm gonna do comedy. By the time I'm 40. And I'm the friend in the group that everyone said, oh, you should do comedy. Do you do comedy? And, you know, it doesn't translate from being just a smartass among your friends to the stage always. It really doesn't. I mean, it's kind of a thing people don't get because you're not being yourself really, at that point when you're on stage. And so I, I just said, well, by the time I'm 40, I'll do it. But then it became this statement I said that I had to stick with because it was like the only time I really stated like, by the time I'm x age, I'll do something. So I waited. I mean, I waited until I was 39. You know, the eve of my turning into an adult, you know what I mean? But I, like I mentioned I took that writing course at Esalen I was this this kind of gift I gave myself to go to this beautiful place and right. And that wasn't comedy writing, but it was more narrative writing. And I just, I was like, Oh, I held my own with these people who are some of them have been writers for their whole lives. And I had real writing instructors and informed me that okay, I could do it, I could write in a funny way. But I have a lot of serious things to write about too. And so then I took that kind of momentum in 2000 to 2018. And on 2019, I signed up for a comedy class, and I paid for it. And I was like, Alright, now I have to go. And then I took the stage for the first time in March of 2019. And I turned 40 in May. And so I, the deal was I had to do it once. And then I just kind of I kept doing it. And I kept the writing doesn't come as easy as I'd like it to. But it comes and the part that excites me the most is that and the part that excites me even more than that is putting together a set and having a line that goes through things that don't seem related, and then saying, Oh, that word didn't work. But that word. We're does and all of it. And so yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 13:08

Speaking of which, what is your style? And how do you go about preparing your set, but also getting yourself out there and getting booked and putting yourself on stage in front of people.

Unknown: 13:22

So it's, well, first of all, it's more admin than I thought. I mean, I did not expect to be tough to project manage by comedy, but I do. So as far as writing and writing a set, I mean, some people carry a notebook, I might do that. Or I'll just put it in my notes on my phone, I just read an article about how people use notes for everything. It's almost like a journal of theirs stream of consciousness at this point, I use a Notes application on my phone. And if I just something makes me laugh, and I'll put it in there. And sometimes it'll be six months. And I'll go back to it and say, oh, yeah, I'll just scroll through and say, oh, yeah, that's fine. I can do something of that. Now. I try to just find something I find funny, or a premise that I like and then build on it. And so I do a bit about I choked. I choked in a restaurant. I needed the Heimlich I truly did. It didn't work out. I mean, it was it was scary. But I found a way to exaggerate a few things and interpret a few things that that make it funny. And so I ended up writing about it. Six months later, I didn't write about it right away. I was kind of scared actually, time what happened. So there's things like that, or I'll just see something occurs. And I'll just think, Well, maybe it's a throwaway joke, or maybe I'll turn it into a bit. And so I'll put it together set just based on like different things I've worked out and tried to throw new thing into tested out long doing old stuff. So you kind of are safe because you do old stuff that works. And then you do new stuff that you don't know what's going to happen, but you can recover from. And then just with booking gigs, I mean in London. It's a lot of work. I mean, you have to email people talk to people fill in Google Forms, hope you get on. Make sure you update your calendar. So don't double booked yourself. Because a lot of people do that. There's this idea of a bringer where you have to have someone with you so that you can perform which is really hard when you just move to a country but it's even harder if you've been doing comedy for years. Your friends don't want to go see every single see you do the same bit the same set you did like 50 times before. So I get you know I just book gigs and I'm talking to people and try to build relationships with people when they're the people. I want to Be involved with creatively. There's different types of humour, different types of comics. But I found that I've been able to build a really nice community here for myself now, at least, a friendly face. When I walk into most gigs, I'll usually recognise someone and they'll recognise me. And hopefully I didn't do anything to upset them last time I

Claire Waite Brown: 15:50

saw them.

Unknown: 15:50

I don't know. I mean, that's possible. And I just tried to like not be too self deprecating with myself, just because I have done a lot of therapy. So I know, I know where that comes from. And I know it makes people it's funny. Sometimes Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable when you say things that are clearly untrue about yourself that you just have a bad self image versus you're being funny and exaggerating something. And so I've tried to be careful about that the subject of myself and other subjects, too. I know everyone's complaining about woke stuff, but it's like, I don't know, if you have to say something racist, then you probably just need to find something else to say honestly, like, you know, that's my opinion. So say what you want, but just know someone's going to talk about it. And I watch it too. Because I mean, even as someone who considers himself pretty, pretty woke and pretty aware, I learn every day I learn something, I think about who am I making fun of in my jokes. And am I making fun of someone I don't want to make fun of. So that's when you turn it on yourself, kind of. But it's interesting, though, to put it all together. I really love doing it, though. That's the part that I find the most interesting, and I'm very organised. So I like to have an organised set. And I've been complimented for my organisation. I don't know if they think I'm funny, but they think I'm organised. Just kind of nice.

Claire Waite Brown: 17:06

Yeah, brilliant. You've mentioned about coming to London. It wasn't it wasn't that long ago, that you came coming to London? How is that kind of affected? Your comedy side of things, genuinely your resilience? Because you came here at quite a tough time?

Unknown: 17:24

Yeah, yeah, I arrived in January of 2020. At the very end of January to I like to say that because it's not like I got that extra month, people might think I got I got, you know, a couple days in January. And then yeah, I got around a little bit right before before locked down the initial lockdown. So I got to meet a few people and start to see how things work when I moved here. And people might relate to this when they are trying a new thing or whatever. But I tried to fit what I thought they wanted to hear. And I think that could apply in any way. Like you're trying to match what you think people want versus doing what's true to you. And so I tried to change my jokes. I tried to write new jokes for London. Audience like I just made up what I thought they wanted and, and really, I had this kind of moment where I said, Alright, you're not, nothing's working. We've done three gigs, nothing's working. And maybe you should just try, wait, what was working and then change it if you find there's something there. And so that little like six weeks time gave me that opportunity. And then we went into lockdown. And so some of us transition on a zoom. And we did zoom comedy gigs. And I actually just met this weekend, a woman that I've met online that was in a zoom comedy room, like on a gig, she was funny, she thought I was funny. We just connected. She's from Alaska lives in Germany. I'm from California live here in London, she came here for a contest and stayed with me for two nights. And it could have gone either way. But it went really well. And I've had a few people like I've met now in person we met online, in person. And now we're back online. And I think the most shocking thing is just been everyone's height. And I've surprised people with my height, I think I come off as shorter on online for some reason. But that's the feedback I've gotten. But I think it really the connection that was built and also just the ability to keep doing the comedy, the people who organise this, organise these gigs, it takes a lot of work. They give everyone opportunity to connect and to keep working on their stuff. And so I think participating that really helped me a lot. It helped me build a life within a studio flat. That was everywhere. It's been weird to transition out to be honest with you like the more I go out the more audit is because I kind of knew what my life was for a year and a half the only life I knew in London, and now it's changed. So that's a bit jarring. I think people aren't talking about that too much. But it's happening but uh, moving to a new country and then in that situation really made me appreciate the fact that I had these creative outlets to, to do things. I started a podcast in that time to like if everyone did fine. But we have something to say. And we have people on it have something to say, I don't wanna be too defensive. But But yeah, it's just, I don't know, it just helped build like, my ability to say, Okay, I saw life is one way now. It's another way I can adjust. And that's been really uh, now I'm doing the same thing again. I think everyone is we're adjusting again and yeah, it's cool.

Claire Waite Brown: 20:26

Yeah. What are the differences? And what are your preferences with performing online and performing in clubs, which I know you're doing more of now. Yeah.

Unknown: 20:41

Well, I think, buttoning up your jeans, you know, that's no, but, uh, so online. So yeah, that's actually it's interesting because in person you are, if you do well, you do well, right? You know what that is, but when you don't, oh, man, I mean, they're just there, their whole body is there. So you're not even just seeing their face, not like you, but you're seeing their whole body to kind of reject you. And, you know, but it's kind of nice, because after a performance to you get the hang out and talk to people and see each other. So that's a little different. Maybe someone might come up and say, Great job or whatever, they just might ignore you. And they walked by, which is fine. So in person, I think there's just the energies there. And you, you can detect it, and you can play off the room a little bit more and online. I think it actually helped me because it I got used to silence and not because I wasn't funny, necessarily, but just because people are muted, you know, or they're not even showing their camera. And when I was comfortable with my material, certain of it, then it's fine. Not to be conceited. But I know what's funny, and I know some of mine's not, and the stuff that I know is funny, I'm okay, if I don't hear anything. The stuff that's not I become very uneasy, but it made me deal with it a little bit. So now on stage, it's a little easier, not much easier, but a little easier to deal. The online, you had the camera to play with in a different way, which was fun. But I mean, I prefer in person for sure. But online was good, because also you didn't have to commute. I mean, you saved a lot of time, it was more accessible, I think, what opened my eyes a lot. And even when I did a show in Camden fringe, like the venues aren't accessible to people who have mobility issues. And even if they're hearing impaired, they're not necessarily accessible, where zoom has captioning, and people can just see it in their living room. So I think that that's something that needs to be addressed more, and I think we'll see more blending of online and in person because of that. So that was something I wasn't maybe aware of just because it's not an issue I have to deal with. But yes, I like both, but they're very different. They're very different.

Claire Waite Brown: 23:28

Creativity, found.co.uk is the place to go to find workshops, courses, supplies, kits and books to help you get creative. So if you're looking for your own creativity found experience, go have a browse to see what's on offer so far. And if you can help adults to find their new creative passion, please get in touch on social media, or through the contact details from the website. Stand up, obviously, you are very organised, and you are scripted. But you're not completely tethered by a script as you would be in a theatre production. And obviously, when you're out there in real life, audiences do react, and that plays a big part in the performance. Have you learned any lessons or developed in confidence with regards to dealing with your audience there and then, and maybe dealing with what you've heard, or what you felt after the show and your own kind of resilience and acceptance?

Unknown: 24:31

Yeah, actually, I've learned a lot and and it's iterative, like I learn it, and I forget it. And then I learn it again. But I think a couple things. I mean, typically I don't get heckled, which is good I have and I've handled it poorly, where I try to just get them back. And I've handled it better, where I just kind of throw it away. And it's better to not if I want to do my set, then I need to have respect for myself and my time and not spend on those people. If I want to make them the focus, then I can do that. And I think that maybe if I had more experience, I would make them the focus sometimes. But if I have only five minutes on stage, I don't wanna spend three of it with these people. If people don't laugh and stuff I try. I've worked really hard and I'm not good at it yet, but to not internalise things while I'm on stage. Because one thing I've found and is, I'll record my sets a lot. I don't hear clearly when I'm on stage. So I am busy trying to figure out what I'm saying. And trying to react to things but I might not hear as many laughs as I got. And so when I listened back when, okay, that didn't go as badly as I thought it doesn't feel as gross and sometimes it does sometimes like okay, well what didn't work and then it'll, I'll have to try to remember well, yeah, cuz I started feeling really badly at that point. So I didn't deliver the next thing well, and so it's this thing of trying to almost realise when I'm not present, and then to remember the next time to stay present and I don't know if that happens with you with performance, but I feel like being present really helps, even when you're having to interact and feed off of audiences. I think too, it's not Shakespeare, you know, and I've told this other comics, I don't know if it ever helps them, but they go, Oh, I'm gonna forget my line. And I'll do the same thing. Oh, I forgot one of my punch lines. And it happened to friend last night. And I'm just like, Yeah, but no one knew. You know what I mean? Because if I can't imagine doing Shakespeare, there's all these experts sitting there going, Oh, they didn't do this. Right. You know, but no one knows our stuff. So it's, it's kind of like a freedom in that. And, you know, if you mess up, you just do the next thing. The one thing I did learn, and I don't know, if I learned it from someone, or I made it up, I don't think I did. I'll I won't take credit for making up. Because no matter how my set today goes, my next steps are the same. It's to reflect on it either if it goes badly, or well, I'll still reflect on it. And then it's to do the next show. If I did badly, I don't skip the next show. And if I did, well, I don't skip the next show. I just do it. And then I'll do badly or Well, the next time. So that's kind of freeing in a way. There's no real consequence. Unless I mean, if it's a contest, you don't win it. Well, whatever. But it takes a lot. And it's just, I have to remind myself constantly because I want to quit, like once a week. No, just because I'm like, What am I doing this for? Yeah. So but then once a week, I think oh, maybe I'll make it to, you know,

Claire Waite Brown: 27:21

the Do you see a relationship between you mentioned at the very beginning of this episode about the new role in your day job? Do you see relationship in perhaps gaining confidence through doing the comedy that has somehow maybe subconsciously filtered into your day job?

Unknown: 27:42

Yeah, sure. In my day job, in general, I mean, I'll have to, I'll have to really think on my feet well, and I have to do that in comedy. And then I have to speak confidently about whatever it is, and speak with the client and speak with different people I might not expect to and a lot of times, begging and giving presentations really intimidates people, but it's like I've I've had to present some of the toughest stuff I'll ever have to onstage because it's just really hard to just go and talk to random people who don't necessarily want you to succeed, you know? So I think it's helped with that. And, yeah, it's given me a little bit more just self confidence. It's weird, because I beat you up. But it also gives you confidence, because it tells you that yeah, you can do it. And so even if a meeting goes badly, I can go well, okay, I can just, at least, with a meeting, you can go have luxury of emailing the person and saying, hey, hey, that didn't part didn't go, Well, I want to re articulate this, like in comedy, you can email the audience and let them know, Hey, guys, I'm really funny. I really am. Here's how the bit was supposed to go. Come back. So, um, but yeah, it's helped me with work for sure. And it's given me, it's kind of made me more efficient at work in a way because, like, if I have something to do after work, I can't sit and work for 12 hours, because I've got to leave at 6pm to get to my gig. So now I have to get my stuff done by six where I would say before, I mean, I do work hard. And I did work long hours. But sometimes I would probably say unnecessarily. And I think a lot of people do that they don't timebox themselves. So they go, Oh, I had to work really long day, it's like, Well, did you or did you? Kind of not value your time? Right. And sometimes we have to work 12 hour days, sometimes it's like, well, we put it on ourselves. And and so it's made me see that

Claire Waite Brown: 29:24

talking about the young Rabea, who liked writing, but didn't feel confident enough to share that writing. You are sharing your writing now by performing it? And do you feel that you can do more with your writing and have the confidence behind that? That you might use it elsewhere?

Unknown: 29:47

Yeah, absolutely. I I dream would be to like get published in the New Yorker, you know, ultimately write that. But that's I don't know, that's a lot of people's treat. But I think also, I want to do more spoken word kind of things. If I could. I've written a lot of poetry over the years now some of it, I will burn, If I ever find out like this is the date of your death in the future. The day before there will be some things gone. Some of them will be my poetry. No way. But yeah, I mean, and I've shared some of that too, here and there. And that's tricky that that really makes me feel vulnerable, sharing that more than the comedy and then writing. Like, I'll write things on my blog, and I'm trying to write more. Like the other night I just, I was supposed to do maybe some schoolwork and I was also supposed to do, I just thought, oh, I have to go this admin done and whatever. But I was really wanting to write something about an experience. I want to see a concert and I wanted to write about that. And I just respected kind of what I was thinking about and just did it and it was partly because I talked to my therapist the day before just about some things and I thought no, I'm gonna listen to myself and do it and it felt really good and I think I want to do that more. Because I think I can write, and I think I have things to say, that aren't just on on the comedy stage. So it's getting me more and more into like, just giving myself time to do these creative things. And not just one, but several. And that's, that's been kind of nice.

Claire Waite Brown: 31:18

You mentioned about your time and respecting your time. And that's a really good thing that you can do now and way that you can think that you can allow yourself to do more writing, because quite often, my guests, we talk about that balance, and it can be the admin side of running a creative business is way more than the actual lovely, creative time you get to do it.

Unknown: 31:42

Yeah, I've heard you guys talk about that. And it totally resonated with me, because so what I've tried to do, and it's not, look, it's not always working, but I try and my friend told me this. She said, she does defensive calendaring. And you know how Americans talk funny anyways, so now. But the idea and I guess you would call it dire diary ng flow. So maybe I should change things to calendar. But basically, the idea is that she'll just block time in your calendar where no one can book anything. And it nothing can be booked. Because then it gives her time to do what she needs to do. And, you know, I have to do that with my podcasts. Like, I don't want to record a new comedy every single night. So I blocked time. So that gives me time. And then I can say, yeah, alright, what do I have to get done today, and I get those things done, what would be nice to get done, and what can wait. And I just kind of tried to organise things that way. Do admin for 15 minutes, and just get knocked out, versus try to write and do admin, and watch TV and do this all the same time. And I get my mind works that way, where I think of all the five things I need to do, but it's like, Alright, no focus on one for this amount of time and get it done. And that's been helpful. But it's hard. It's really hard. And people, they're being business people and being creative. And it would be nice if we could all have an admin to do this stuff for us. Honestly, I wish I could have an admin do my work.

Claire Waite Brown: 33:10

So tell me about your podcast.

Unknown: 33:13

Yes. And you're a guest on my podcast. It was a fun episode. But now my podcast, it's called more than work. And this isn't the first time my podcast that I interviewed bands about 15 years ago. And that was cool. But we didn't know how to monetize. So Mark Marin won that battle. But my podcast now I'm passionate about kind of like you like sharing other people's stories. To help others really, service is something I'm passionate about. And one way I see people not serving themselves is just by making their whole self worth based on their job and their job title. And working at kind of a startup that grew really fast in my 20s. I saw it happen to myself and to my friends over time where we thought we actually were really good at our jobs, we thought we were nothing. If we didn't have those, we were nothing if we didn't work the crazy hours. And we're nothing if we had to leave the job and go somewhere else. And it got really tiring seeing people go through that and going through it myself. And not seeing myself as a full person outside of work. And so I developed the podcast or produced it, I guess, to kind of tell the stories of people who either found work that's meaningful, that's kind of representing their values to like people work in nonprofits and stuff off and it's reflecting their values as a person. So but then also people find things outside of work. So creative things or otherwise, like, and just talk to them. And it's been really out. It's been so great. I learned so much every time and then like you I edit my own thing. And so I listen to it again, and learn so much and get so much out of it. And it's just been really awesome to have so many people willing be willing to talk to me. Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 34:54

Yeah, it's really sociable, isn't it? I love talking to meeting people and their stories, and having a good chat. What's your podcast called?

Unknown: 35:03

More than work podcast?

Claire Waite Brown: 35:05

Yeah. Brilliant. And Rabea? Generally, how can people contact you? Yeah, you

Unknown: 35:12

can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Tick tock. Which the TIC TOCs are really boring that I do. I don't do funny ones. I just post my podcasts there. But yeah, and that's Robbie, a comedy or more than work pod or Robbia. See any of those places. So I'm pretty Google bubble, as one might say if they're again making up words. Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 35:36

Like the Americans do, we'll just make up a new word for it. Yeah.

Unknown: 35:40

strategically.

Claire Waite Brown: 35:45

Oh, that's brilliant. Thank you so much for Aviat that's been absolutely superb.

Unknown: 35:50

Gold. Thank you. Thanks for having me on here.

Claire Waite Brown: 35:55

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