Recording my first guest.

This week the scary part began. I interviewed my first guest, my good friend and a lobbyist for 25+ years.

I didn’t feel nervous to conduct the interview. I interview people all the time for consulting projects. I just wasn’t sure if anyone else would find our conversation interesting, or if he would have any good stories to share. Fortunately, he had some great stories about killing bills, working on campaigns, and other insights. We got off to a bit of a rocky start with a delay and then some technical difficulties, but we recorded an hour’s worth of content. I am editing that down, and I hope to have a worthwhile episode that will appeal to a wider audience.

Another thing that happened this week is that many of my former colleagues attended an annual health care conference in California. One I used to attend every year. And since word about How to Kill a Bill had gotten out, people were talking about me. That’s a good thing, I told myself. You need to create a buzz. You need some anticipation so that when you go live, people are eager to listen.

But it’s also scary. These are people I respect and look up to, people I’ve worked with for years who will be judging me, maybe even laughing behind my back. Or… they will think it’s great, help spread the word, and maybe even ask to be on my show. Maybe by next year’s conference, I will be conducting interviews in my hotel room in between discussion panels and conference sessions?