Last Thursday I recorded the interview for Episode 2 with professional poker player and childhood friend, Brett Richey. Unlike the incredible fear I had before listening to my first interview with Borbay (it took me 3 weeks to listen to it), I couldn't wait to listen to the audio that I got with Brett. The difference had nothing to do with the guests and everything to do with me just being strangely nervous and fearful of hearing my own voice from the Borbay interview. 

Having overcome that discomfort, I listened closely to the Brett interview in hopes that the content come across interesting (it does), but also to critique my style. With no formal coaching or practice prior to the Borbay interview, I think I am doing OK so far. However, in the Brett interview the number of times I say "certainly" is overwhelming. I am glad to have discovered the habit, and look forward to breaking it, but it started to sound to me like fingernails on a chalkboard. I hope I am being overly critical of myself. I will allow you the listener to be the judge. The interview with Brett will be posted on Friday, November 1st. Please listen and send me any and all constructive criticism. I certainly would appreciate it!

So happy to have finally navigated the the world of podcasting to have Comfort Zone Exit available for download in the i-Tunes Store. I can now officially "launch" the podcast!

There has been an enormous amount of learning and effort put into getting this first podcast complete and published. While I will continue to learn plenty and make improvements along the way, having the structure built to support future shows should allow me to get into a schedule of recording, editing, and publishing. 

I will be publishing shows twice per month. So please subscribe in the i-Tunes store so you don't miss any. I would certainly appreciate comments and feedback.

Tonight I will be doing my final preparations for my interview with Brett Richey. We are recording tomorrow and I will have it published before the November 4th airing of the WSOP Main Event Final table. 

Note: This is a bit of a "soft launch." It was my hope and goal to have my Borbay interview into the i-tunes store by today, but I ran into a ton of tech issues that a non-tech guy could not overcome. So today I launch with the audio available on the website, and soon to be in the i-tunes store!

Launching this podcast and creating this website has been incredibly fun and rewarding, yet stressful, and frustrating all at the same time. I recorded my first interview with Jason Borbet over a month ago. I was so nervous about how it would sound, and afraid of hearing my own voice, that it took me 3 weeks just to open the audio file that we had recorded. 

Once I did finally open the recording of our interview, something amazing happened....I realized that it was actually interesting (ok, you be the judge), and that my voice isn't all that scary (ok, you be the judge). So over the last 10 days I've given myself a crash course in simple website design, and audio editing on GarageBand. After a 4 hour editing session of the original audio file, I made some rookie mistakes, and had to start all over again last night at 10pm. I had to cut in a new intro to the podcast, because at the time I recorded the interview with Jason, I had not yet even named or branded the podcast. 

What was originally going to be "The ScottCast" became "Comfort Zone Exit." I was uncomfortable having my name in the title because the show is not meant to be about me.  Such a title would have little ability to draw people in based upon name alone. So I came up with "Comfort Zone Exit" as I was writing the copy for my intro to "The ScottCast." I was happy to have found a fun and interesting name for the show, but it meant buying another URL name and doing some redesign of this website.

The intro that I wrote and recorded for Comfort Zone Exit, I have since edited out of the original show. It was too long winded and didn't sound good when I was reading it but trying not to sound like I was reading it. However, that intro explains exactly my reasons and motivation for starting the podcast. So here it is:

Welcome to Comfort Zone Exit. I am Scott Sehon. This podcast is inspired by and being produced in collaboration with the voice in my head….you know the voice, we all have it. It is the benevolent consciousness that is with us all the time, and with which we debate the merits of all decisions in our life, no matter how great or inconsequential.

This podcast is about me Exiting My Comfort Zone to do something I’ve never done before….produce and offer original content to the public for their consumption and hopefully enjoyment. But much more than being about me, this podcast is designed to be about my guests and the interesting stories and backgrounds that they will be sharing.

The podcast is not intended to spark angry debate or to touch on hot political or social topics. The podcast is intended to be about storytelling and sharing.

I do have 2 primary reasons and goals for doing this. First and foremost, to create audio recordings as historical documentation of interesting people from my life, and the stories they have to tell.

Those who know me well, know that I have always taken great care to document the past as it relates to me, my friends, and my family. That has mostly been manifested in meticulous keeping of photographs and video. Audio recordings of me speaking with people I know and to hear their stories, is just an extension of something that I have been doing since childhood, it’s just a new medium through which to collect memories.

My second goal is to hopefully inspire people to take on a project of some kind in theirs lives that perhaps they have always wanted to do, but undertaking it will require them to step outside of their comfort zone. The launching of this PODCAST is exactly that for me. We all have a voice in our heads that speaks to us. The same voice that told me to run across the United States in 2003, has been telling me for a long time to start this PODCAST. The voice persisted and I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Just the launching of this podcast has required me to learn audio editing software and to create and design a website. 2 things I had no idea how to do just 6 weeks ago. As you will be able to tell from the podcast and from checking out my website, I still have a lot of learning to do in those areas, but I am enjoying the challenge of doing it.

I plan to feature guests who in one way or another do things or have done things way out of the comfort zone as most Americans would see it. Hopefully, they will be able to provide insight into what drove them and motivated them to undertake their projects, or in some cases, undertake entire careers that are outside of most comfort zones. So we all have that voice in our heads telling us to pursue things that we are passionate about or things that we have always wanted to try, but just don’t take the steps necessary to even start it, let alone complete and succeed at…..I hope that I can help turn up the volume of that voice to a level that you just can’t ignore.

So, from Pipestem Studios I present to you the very first edition of Comfort Zone Exit.


-Scott