This week our very own Alan Rappa makes his triumphant return to the podcast! Hilarity and great conversation ensues.
When the interview I had planned for this week fell through, Alan volunteered to join me for an impromptu chat. We had a great time during his interview episode back in June, and have both been keen on talking again on-mic. So, this ended up being the perfect opportunity for us to catch up and discuss a few different topics we’ve been thinking about.
Alan Rappa returns from the Galaxy’s Edge
Alan had a lot to say about his recent trip to Galaxy’s Edge, and how he managed to get a few toy photos taken while he was there. We also shared some lessons we’ve learned about traveling with toys, and how exciting it can be to step outside your comfort zone.
He also expanded on this thoughts about Lume Cube 2.0, and we had a cathartic therapy session talk about social media anxiety and how it’s affecting us as artists.
There’s a little something for everyone in this episode, so I think you’ll really enjoy it. Thanks to Alan for taking the time on a Friday night to sneak off and record a podcast with me after putting the kids to bed. I look forward to having you back on the show soon!
-James
Alan and I would love to continue the conversation with you. What are your thoughts on traveling with toys? Have you dealt with social media anxiety? Should Alan post that BB-8 photo?? Sound off in the comments below!
I cannot believe no one has posted on this yet!
Just listen to the podcast…. and was shocked. I cannot believe that so much goes through your minds and posting on IG. I started getting sick of IG a while ago and decided to drop it completely. They still exist if i need to contact someone i know exclusively on IG, but i don’t post or browse. I left because it just took too much time to post brows etc. I had no clue that there was so much more going on in peoples minds, causing stress an anxiety, and that they put up with that and don’t leave. I heard a fellow a while ago talking about how to create real change in your life (in his case it was reducing his environmental footprint). He was touring and talking about this book he wrote, but was still struggling to actually break out of the habbits he had. A couple who were at one of his talks came to get a book signed and said, “we are about to get married and we realized from this book that we should make a plan for how we want to live our lives together to reduce our footprint as a couple… this is our plan, please sign it as a witness. The guy was floored because he realized he had never written down a plan for how he was going to eat, how much travel by air and car etc he would allow himself… so he wrote a plan on a piece of notepad paper. He decided to eat vegan for breakfast and lunch, and vegetarian for dinner, limit his cab rides to x per week, and stop flying for personal trips ( still does business trips). It didn’t take a lot of time to make the plan, and it wasn’t crazy to detailed, but it was something concrete to aim for. I kept hearing you say… things like “this sounds so stupid to hear myself say this… or… did you lose followers?…. not that that matters…” if the question comes up so easily perhaps it matters more than you want to admit, since you feel it sounds stupid coming out of your mouth, then i think you know that it feels true. Saying true things is great, but to make changes, setting rules for yourself might help. Like… i will not think about when to post an image. When the image is saved from PP it will be posted. The rule lets you free up some mental space… you no longer wonder about it, you just follow the rule.
IG bugs me because it does not really promote relationships. Talking to eachother like you two did is what really feeds relationships. Sharing your personality with your follwers like that fellow you mentioned, is the bare minimum for developing relationships online. I think a large portion of instagram is people all trying to gain… recognition i guess. But gaining recognition is sooo different from gaining friends. Having people like your work is sooo different from having people connect with you through your work. How many followers have you gained… several thousand? Now how many people have you developed relationships with through your IG…. i am willing to bet it’s in the tens. People are not able to develope and maintain thousands or even hundreds of friends, we keep trying to measure our social media presence by the same criteria we judge our close friends… and thats why it’s stressful as hell. Giving consideration to whether your 1000 followers will like your next photo is fine if you are in business… but are you? Are you building a brand for yourself? Or trying to enjoy a hobby with friends?
Oi, i could go on, but i shouldn’t rant. Again, i have dealt with social media anxiety… but i didn’t realize there was so much more to be anxious about. I really hope that talking about it on the podcast, and continuing to talk about it with those actual friends spawns some positive action.
Great episode, I’m looking forward to the follow up!
James, Alan,
I just wanted to say thank you. I really connected with this episode, and I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate it. I’ve faced some of these issues myself, and to hear someone else discuss the same challenges, almost word for word provides a significant amount of comfort and realization that I’m not alone in these struggles. I don’t typically take the time to post on these types of things, but this episode in particular really resonated with me, and i just wanted to let you know that I appreciate it, and to say thank you. Keep up the awesome work!