Alayna Gardner on Starting a Podcast During the Pandemic

During quarantine, I found that I needed something to focus on during my furlough. Finally, after a few months I decided that I should try to build something with my free time. It ended up taking me two months to record my first podcast. I talked about it with my husband and with my closest friend and the equipment was ordered, but it took me from April to June to build up the courage to record my first episode. After I had announced it to more than just my closest circle, I knew I had to keep going with it.

I built a lot of relationships Through MPI that provided me with the connections to start this podcast. People would have been less likely to hop on an hour-long phone call with me to discuss their job and interests If I didn’t already have these relationships. While it was difficult to talk about hospitality at a time when many of my guests and I were no longer doing the job we were so passionate about, it also helped me realize the amazing industry I was in. Calling and connecting with people that I probably would’t have spent an hour on the phone with if it wasn’t for my podcast helped me out so much.

In January I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. In the last few months, I’ve tried to speak publicly about this diagnosis. Whenever I see someone be open about their mental health, it helps me normalize mine. I really struggled to find value in my time when I had no projects to work on, no friends to see and was stuck inside my home. Having my podcast helped me realize that while I was isolated for the safety of myself and everyone I care about, I was not alone in the journey through this year and I had a fantastic group of people surrounding me that not only cared about my professional success but my personal success as well. MPI has meant so much to me in the three years that I’ve been a member, and without MPI my podcast would not exist. Thank you to all the members of the MPI Philadelphia Area chapter who have made my quarantine bearable.

Last month I made a hard decision to leave my hospitality industry job. Like many others, I went back to work in July and discovered that my job was no longer the same and that it was going to be a long road before I got even close to where I was before the shutdown. There was a lot of things that went into my decision to take a job outside of the industry, but something that I know to be true is that in every job there is the ability to use my hospitality skills and the skills that I learned as a volunteer for this chapter. While my podcast will no longer be solely focused on hospitality, my new season will release on January 6th and will focus on professional people leading successful lives in and out of the office. I want to focus on what makes people happy and how they are able to balance their life.

Please give my last season a listen and subscribe for next season to I Need More Coffee: https://anchor.fm/ineedmorecoffee