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Trenton ReynoldsIt is Friday, January 13th, 2017. This is Room in the Trees, a podcast about making space. for creative conversation. The following was recorded on Thursday, January 12th, 2017. This is episode number 32, Monumental Megan. Room in the Trees is hosted by Sabrina Ward-Harrison and me, Trent Reynolds. Show notes, including pictures, links, video, and more for every episode can be found at roominthetrees.com. And if you like this podcast, please consider showing your support. You can become a subscribing patron and have access to extra little bits of content on occasion, including our most recent Christmas adventure. You can become a patron at patreon.com backslash room. And you can also really help us out by rating us on iTunes. And the link for that is from thetreez.com/itunes. This week we recorded a conversation with a long-time friend, someone whose name has popped up in several episodes, Megan Roberts Young, a tremendously creative and talented person. and one of Sabrina's closest friends. And now, monumental Megan.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- Just about anything Megan, language we speak is just funny. - It does. - So Jen, we have a thing about the number 12. oh it does mean something it does correlate to something but it is kind of the same it's funny how it comes up a lot it comes up so today i realized it's the 12th and we're recording at 12 o'clock my time so totally appropriate what's what would be another example of when 12 might
show up?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonLike all the time. Like there were 12... There were 12 buttons. No. Megan, what would be another time?
Megan Roberts YoungIt's usually just with a date or a time on the clock or... Oh, I called you at... this exact time, it was 8:12. And we had that with, oh, it's 5:25. And these are just silly jokes from forever ago, but they really have stuck the test of time. And they just show up and it's just like, it just triggers that funny time. The story behind them aren't not that interesting. It's just like that we both still remember those times or those numbers. It's just very funny to me. Is this feedbacky? This is all very new to me. You're doing a great job. There's no funny feedback?
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, a little bit. I was getting a little funny, but it sounds like it worked its way through.
Okay.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's like something was clogged in the drain a little bit. Like slowed down then sped up really fast. It might have been my left.
Okay.
Megan Roberts YoungSo, you're what? I was going to say, maybe it was my laughing.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, your laughter fogged the drain a little bit. So I want to introduce Megan. Okay. So Megan and I went to, well, all three of us went to high school together. in Southern California and Megan was my best friend in high school and we went through just some growing and changing growing up together and we did we did so probably from like 16 16 17 18 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. No. 16, like... But those are very formative years.
Trenton ReynoldsVery formative years.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonExactly. Like the music we were listening to, the movies we were watching. That was... Yes. Yes. Yes.
Trenton ReynoldsDid you guys go through license, car license time... together? We did. That was a big thing.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonHaving a car and Megan had a... Do you want to describe the car you had? The bug. I remember the bug.
Megan Roberts YoungWe had the privilege of my dad... found and restored a 1976 VW convertible bug and we found out later had been like kind of a dark purple color but they had it stripped and repainted and reupholstered and everything and it they had it painted red and it was going to be a car that all three of us could share so when I got my license it was the car that I that I would practice on and learn how to drive stick on and then on down to Emily and Molly. But it was a very fun car on sunny days to turn up the music and drive around with a good buddy named Sabrina. Very, very fun.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI remember something about the gas. The gas, you always had to keep a little notebook in there because the gas gauge didn't work. You had to record the number of the miles.
Megan Roberts YoungI had forgotten that. Yes. There was lots of... It was so old and it was drivable, but it got to the point where it felt a little dangerous. I brought it up to Westmont at one point and I found a job on the job board once that It's just a babysitting job. So I was driving this, picking up a kid from school and realized he was like, Megan, I can see the ground. Like he was sitting in the back and the back floor had like been eaten through and there was like a carpet over it. But he's like, I can see the road.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI was like, so put the carpet down. Let's just get home real quick.
Megan Roberts YoungBut anyway, and one time Molly on the freeway, The front was the trunk where you put stuff. And so the front flew up on the freeway, and she couldn't see anything. And it's like, okay, we're needing to maybe make some changes here with the bug. But it was a very fun car.
Trenton ReynoldsBut what I was thinking as listening to you talk is that I think a lot of what we talk about on this podcast is visual. art, you know, is things of making, you know, making stuff with your hands and working with paint and stuff like that. But what you're talking about is the bigger picture, I don't know, I think is just as relevant to our conversation as working with physical media. I see this so often, like, I'll have students come into class that have, that used to have paint or draw when they're in high school or I'll be at, I'll have a show and somebody will come up to me and want to tell me about how they remember, you know, that they used to really love making stuff, painting or whatever the case may be, ceramics, whatever the creative part of their life was. And you can sense this kind of longing or this appetite for that or that they sense a that there is an important piece missing in, I don't know, in their, in their being. And I don't know, that's, I guess that's what I'm hearing from you is that, that you sense that there's something in writing that's important for you, like personal fulfillment-wise, but also as a way to explore and understand your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your life, you know, and things that are happening around you. And I think that's hard. It's hard to, well, A, to recognize that, and then B, to find a way to create room for that in your life and find a way to express that in the context of, you know, a very different set of circumstances than you had when you originally had. when you maybe came across that skill or ability.
Yes. Anyway.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah, it is hard to find the time. And I think I'm coming to realize there is no perfect time. There is no perfect scenario. And there's no perfect mood either like whether you know it is visual art or um long hand long hand writing i was just reading a great book by julia cameron called the right to write and she just talks so much about well her book is about writing but in the the bigger picture of just the things that hold us back from doing what we really want to do and whether it be fears or procrastinating or whatever it is and she talks about that just like any mood is fine to show up and do your creative expression and so that feels freeing and then also just whatever the fear is not letting that stop you so the the getting started can be the hard part but when you can get beyond that it it's really good
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI love that metaphor that you talked about, um, from the, you got from the book also about kind of having a conversation. Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember that.
Megan Roberts YoungThis was another book that I was reading with a friend, but there was, I was talking about something that I had been fearful of. And I, I think I don't remember, remember growing up as a fearful person, but I think after my dad died, there was a new wellspring of fears that kind of, reared their ugly heads in different ways and so that's been something that I've had to work through in the years since but this line in the book said something that I've loved and I've thought about it a lot and I've done a little writing about it which is what if you were to invite your fears to tea? And just that idea of like, whether it's a project you need to do or the writing that you needed to get done or the painting you've been putting off, kind of asking a deeper question like, well, what am I really afraid of? And making it kind of funny like, oh, I'm going to invite my fear to tea. I'm going to have them sit down and whatever the fear is, ask them, So I'm drinking Earl Grey today. What are you going to have? Oh, you want coconut chai? I love coconut chai too. I'm kind of, you know, making light of it a little bit, but kind of turning it on its head. Like, hey, take the scary out of it and invite it and kind of look at it a different way. Like when I said to you earlier, Sabrina, like come in through a different door. Like, I think that's important sometimes. Like sometimes you have to enter whatever it is through a different door. and see it a little differently or try to look at it, I don't know, in a different way and getting the procrastination out of the way or the fear. - I love that, I just love that. I love that so much.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- It's been helpful. - And I think sometimes visual, yeah, visual, it's something, it's a visual way to address the fear. Like, you know, like it comes up in your mind, like, okay. sit down, you know, not push it away, but literally just invite it. Okay.
Trenton ReynoldsI think one thing that's difficult for a lot of people is getting any kind of creative energy from the stage of it being just an idea into something that actually exists in the world. And I think that that probably has a lot to do with what we're talking about too is like just fears, you know, are these vague kind of underlying things that they might be very specific, they might be attached to, you know, very vivid imagery, but, but they're so interlinked with everything else that I think that it's hard to, it can be hard to kind of get at them, or kind of really define them and what they are. So I can imagine that inviting them to To tea is a way to personify, to try to understand exactly what it is that you're dealing with rather than having it be this vague, overarching emotion.
Megan Roberts YoungAnd humor helps me a lot. And so it's kind of funny, right, to think of the scary pile of bills that I've been avoiding every time I walk back and forth to the garage that I don't want to deal with. But if I turn it around and come through a different door and go... okay, come here little medical bill, just pull up a chair with me and what can I get you today? It just makes it funny and it takes the fear, the edge off, right? And I feel like you can apply that to anything that you're having trouble starting. Like... okay, I don't have to be super epically excited about this, but it's something I need to do. And then a lot of times it ends up like, I'm so glad I did that. I'm so glad I wrote today. I'm so glad I got out my paints and here I am.
Thank you.
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyeah i love i love sometimes one thing that's helped me is doing a timer like especially things like bills too i would say i'm going to time give my i'm going to do this for 10 minutes and i'm going to stand up and do something else like the the feeling that it's not there's containment around like if I say I'm gonna sit down and handle all this and maybe I will maybe I will but knowing that just do it or I'll even do it something for five minutes like just do this for five minutes that's reasonable
Trenton Reynoldschunk of time the phrase is coming from a different door here's the quote leave
Megan Roberts Youngthe familiar for a while change rooms in your mind for a day so that's what it was change rooms in your mind for a day and I think that yeah I think that that was maybe a contempt is a contemporary of Rumi so it's Hafiz H a F I Z I'm not very familiar with his writing but I really liked that quote a
lot That's great.
Trenton ReynoldsSo what are some of the, you don't need to get into any specifics, but what are some of your ideas or things that you want to start in on this year? Or what's missing? What are you trying to accomplish?
Megan Roberts Youngyeah well um one thing i feel very excited about is um next wednesday is my birthday and i've decided to take myself to a little day writing retreat at a local retreat center and it's called casa casa de maria and they actually have um free day retreats sometimes under different topics and this one is about writing and it's like I think the title of it is bless the old to welcome the new writing in a new year so looking back on your year and then looking forward and a way to kind of bless your life so I don't really know exactly what it's gonna be like but it's led by a former Santa Barbara
Trenton Reynoldsintention like where other other people are doing the same thing and yeah there's an energy to be had in a group yeah
Megan Roberts Youngabsolutely on the same activity yeah one other thing I was going to say is I would like to do a project where I print up some of the photos of our year in Ecuador. And it's embarrassing that I haven't even, that I haven't done that, but I haven't. And that was a long time ago that we lived there. But we took a lot of photographs and I wrote a lot during that time. And so I have a vision of wanting to put some of those images together with writing, whether it's in a book that we print up or something. But that feels like a big thing that I would like to try to do.
Wow.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat was such a monumental time for you, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a big year. So we're all people that are put, maybe something of the word is the word, we're all kind of, a lot of people right now are all trying, they're finding their own way through, like the metaphor of going through a different door. We're all kind of in our own way, you know, inventing our way through this living process and experience. experience, and finding our voices in the world, and it can be something that easily you can wake up in the morning and just go, I don't even know. I don't know. I don't even know what I'm saying. I don't know.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's a big step and also the element of getting permission to change your mind or change the shape of how you are. I think the pressure that you have to... We're in a strange stage of where people... There's that, like, pick what you want to do, don't change your mind, stick with it, like kind of a previous generation, but then this other, like... There's, you know... You know, like, this other part of where pressure, like, you have to come up with the whole thing yourself and kind of make the whole thing work on your own and...
Megan Roberts Youngit's just so good and it helps us feel connected and it gives more life to what we're feeling inside that we feel like is important to do and to share. And it can feel daunting to know, where do I, where do I go with this? Or what do I, where is this going to end up? But, um, I think I've had just had a renewed sense of the importance of collaborating and whether that's just the conversation that you have with somebody that inspires you to do something or if it's like, "No, actually this is my partner in this and we're going to create the blog," or we're going to, like you and Trent, "We're going to do this podcast." it's just so important to work to bounce ideas off and be in it together and um my friend Anna and I both have a love of writing and poetry and we're kind of all over the place with like what would this blog even be but but certainly the shared desire to want to nourish people with, you know, whether it's literally like recipes that we found yummy or like, no, I'm going to nourish your soul because I hope to, because I want to share this writing with you, um, that we share that desire. So certainly the end point seems like, oh, that's foggy. I have no idea how we're going to get there, but it's, it's so exciting and fun to be in it with somebody for sure.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonTrent maybe we can talk we talked about maybe talking a little bit about how we started the podcast
Trenton ReynoldsI wanted to mention that one of the I think both Sabrina and I listen to a lot of podcasts ourselves and the more podcasts I listen to, the more I realize that a lot of these people, it doesn't even really matter what they talk about. It's their personalities. It's the things that generally interest them and the questions that they're asking themselves and the challenges that they're facing that I relate to. Hearing them process those things or hearing maybe the things that I I'm interested in process through a different point of view is what really compels me about listening to that person. So I think that is part of what gave me the courage to think, "Well, I have no idea what I would say in a podcast." I generally have some pretty specific interests that I would... would appeal to a certain audience, you know. But when it comes down to it, not feeling the pressure that I have to, you know, stay on topic all the time, that, you know, the reason I like podcasts is for the people and no matter what they say is gonna be fine, you know. And I don't know, I think giving myself permission just to be me and not fulfill some expectation or role, So, I don't know, a blog where you talk about recipes and talk about relationships and, you know, I'm sure there are thousands of people that would love that and be totally invested in that because of you. and their connection with you.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- And that you love doing it. I think that has to be, so you set it up, you create it like that you're doing with Anna, it's like you're creating this thing together because by making it, you're enjoying and loving the process of doing it together. - Totally. - That sounds like that's really critical, and I think, I find Trent and I have to sometimes remind ourselves that this is...
Megan Roberts Youngwe're... no I don't... I think we...
Sabrina Ward Harrisonwell, like, it's beneficial on a personal level as much as it's also something we want to really bring our best to to share it publicly. But the more authentic it is, the genuinely... like have a conversation with a friend like just just go into a conversation just have it
Trenton Reynoldsjust have that that's another problem with with this format is or with trying to be authentic or trying to just have a real conversation is that when it becomes something that you're doing every week and that's something that's planned and you know you've got to get this thing produced and you're trying to you know come up with regular episodes and you know trying to build an audience in the community it can be difficult and I know we have come up against this several times where you know it'll feel forced and feel like we're just kind of having a conversation or going through the motions because this is is what we do on Thursday mornings, we record a podcast, you know? But one thing that I value about our, what we've created is that, you know, it's happened several times where we've been able to recognize that and we just decide to publish.
Megan Roberts YoungI think that's a good reminder. It's showing up anyway. And that's a discipline. And that discipline in a good way, you know, not in a good sense of the word. And you're right. It's okay. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can use it or not. But it's the showing up is a big deal.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI think that's what I got over when I think about blogs. That's one thing when I think about them, like, it just seems like a lot of technical stuff to make it look good. And just like, if you could just, you know, use masking tape to just like tape up against the screen, what you want there's a virtual tape that we can use but then it's stupid yeah virtual tape um but i think that's that's always in my if you have if you have that know-how it's like um simpler maybe technology is getting easier with with that like Oh my gosh, that's just... You want to be sharing the recipes, but you don't want to spend seven hours on Instagram and online trying to... And then comparing it to other people's websites and trying to make it more... Yeah, it's... No, definitely a...
Megan Roberts YoungI want, you know... Yeah, a discipline almost to kind of go, you know what? Because it's so easy to get sucked into looking at other stuff. And you do want some ideas, but not to get into the, yeah, comparing and it needs to look like this person's or... And I think one thing that could help with that, it does feel a little daunting to... you know, all the pieces to it, but keeping the audience really small in our minds. Like I think somebody else, Anna was talking about an author she was reading that, that said, you know, I just really started this for like 10 of my friends, 10 of my closest friends. That's, that's all that this is for that. That's all who this is for. And, um, Yeah, maybe just the idea of the reframe coming and changing rooms in your mind for a day. Like, if this is all I'm doing it for, this group of, you know, girlfriends or something, then that's worth it. That's worth doing. And it takes some of the pressure off. But there certainly are some of the logistical pieces that feel like, I don't know, that's a lot. That's a lot of work. But the dream still feels exciting, too. So having to put those next to each other.
Yeah.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah. Do you guys remember the moment where you said, I've watched the awesome fort building inception of Room in the Trees and the collecting of the items and I just loved it so much. And I, was that where the conversation happened where you said, let's do a podcast or where was that?
Trenton ReynoldsI don't think podcasts were really a thing when we did that.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, you're right. I don't know when we decided. We did that. We did The Room in the Trees.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd I think we just kept in touch after that. And then eventually when podcasting became more, you know, in the public consciousness, I think, or at least in our consciousness, I think... I think I suggested it that we might try podcasting and then Sabrina you were interested in that but then so we started recording conversations but at first it they were just really unstructured and really personal information conversations. - Yeah, yeah. - And I remember that it just, like I think we both could tell that it wasn't the right stuff to be publishing for a general audience. - Yeah. - And it took us a while. - I wonder what I was talking about. - I don't think it was like especially intensely personal but it just wasn't the right tone. I don't know. I think it just took us a while to have lots of conversations and to know that we were recording them 'cause in the act of recording them, it puts you in a different mental space. Of like saying, I know that this is for an audience and not just to have a conversation. So I think initially they were kind of just wandering a little bit, just like normal, conversations but I don't know when did we decide to actually start publishing
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI know I know it's funny I don't remember I it's funny I've remembered certain places that I was like I remember the backyard I was in talking to you about about it and being by the water talking about it. 'Cause we were still at that time, we were kind of floating around the idea of this, that was in Snapchat just came, no, was it Snapchat that just came out or Periscope? And we were wondering if we were gonna do, we were gonna start a website that had, and,
and
Sabrina Ward Harrisontake people on adventures or something.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, and there was going to be video involved and kind of day-in-the-life type feel, walking around with cameras and stuff like that. And I think we still have aspirations to do something like that, but that's another thing is it takes time to realize what you're actually capable of technically and just psychologically. - Exactly, that's a good point. - What do I have the mental energy to actually figure out and do regularly?
Megan Roberts Young- Yes, that's a great point.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- And we recorded with, it's funny, but it made such a difference, but we recorded both individually with handheld recordings and then I would send them to Trenton And he sort of stitched the two recordings together. And it's a lot of work both ways. But that was the change in being able to record this.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, when we found Zencaster, zencaster.com, go check it out.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsIt made such a huge difference just in taking so much of the friction of producing the show that it really enabled us to. to expect to be able to create a show every week.
Right.
Trenton ReynoldsSo that's, finding the right tools is definitely a big part of it.
Mm-hmm.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd then I think we just dove into the idea, I don't remember when we decided, okay, this is our first episode. Isn't it like... Something Fernando.
Trenton ReynoldsYes, I can't remember the name.
Megan Roberts YoungWas that a poet about a moon? A poem about a moon? The moon?
Yes, I have it. I have, yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh my gosh, I have it on my wall right here. It says, to be great, be entire. What is yours? Nothing exaggerate or exclude. Be whole in each thing. Put all that you are into the least you do. Like that on which each place, the whole moon shines for she. lives a lot Fernando Pessoa
Trenton ReynoldsI remember there being something something that triggered us thinking like okay enough enough practice we got to get this out and I can't remember what that was but I do remember that there was some kind of urgency put on actually a starting to produce and publish. I know. I don't know. But regardless, I think the point, you know, like really it often takes an event or a set of circumstances that kind of forces your hand to take that first step because it's kind of scary to actually for the first time. Put something out into the world for a larger audience.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah, it does feel scary. Gotta invite it to tea.
Trenton ReynoldsGotta invite it to tea.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd then you sort of let it go, I think. The other thing is when you're enjoying it, like I really enjoy these conversations, so it almost makes it easier to just, to just, not be so critical of if it's good or if it's bad because I enjoyed it like well so there's not the weight of like well that was totally a waste of time
Megan Roberts Youngyeah it was the process you had fun doing it and that's enough
um
Trenton ReynoldsI think something that we've talked about before is just how daunting it is to this feeling of expectation that we have to do all the different things, all the different social media. Like you have to be on Facebook, you have to be on Twitter, you have to be on Instagram, you got to be. to try to figure out and get running. But I think what I've come to is that instead of starting with the idea that you have to fulfill this expectation of being on all these different platforms, instead starting with your problem. Like what is it that I'm trying to accomplish? And finding the appropriate tool for that instead of just feeling like you've got check off all these social media boxes. You know, like, for me, so much of what I want to do and the ways that I want to engage and connect with people is accomplished on Instagram. Like, a little bit of text and some images and, like, I'm good. That's, and granted, it doesn't reach the wider audience that I could reach if I were on all the social platforms, but there's... a reality of my life situation that I can't do all that.
Right.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd you can't be checking back to them. I think there are ways you can publish in one place and I think it can go on multiple things but you also don't want to be checking and reading
Megan Roberts Youngand replying and... That's a lot of maintenance. Forwarding.
Yeah.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah, that's... Like, thinking about all that in that way, like, oh, I have to check off all these social media platform checkboxes is enough to make me go, mm, never mind. But I think it's a good question to ask what you just said. What am I trying to accomplish? No, no. look at it that way.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd what's the easiest way to solve that problem? What has the least friction to my current life?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd I think, and maybe thinking about, I'm just a big fan of letting things grow naturally. Like my mom saying when I made Spilling Open, she said, if it's supposed to be in the world now or 20 years from now, it will be. And there's something about, I think, keeping it sincere, like what you're doing and what we're doing feels sincere. in its growth as well. We're not trying to push the river. And I think a lot of people are kind of trying to... There's a lot of frantic pushing the... Like, well, I'll just buy more followers and I'll tag these people in this and hashtag this stuff to get these people to see it. It's really slowing down to just... letting things develop as they should and at the same time be present and keep showing up for it and bring your all to it but I'm a big fan of authenticity on that front. Yeah so I think in my
Megan Roberts Youngbeginning stages that looks like right now just showing up for at least 10 minutes a day of writing and making that my daily practice and not even sure to what end that will come but just the practice of doing that and seeing where it goes from there.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI want to share one thing about your writing that I'll forever was the best gift anyone's ever given me hands down was when I was in high school my junior year I went abroad to on AFS to France to stay with the family. She's a student for the summer and Megan wrote I think I was going to be gone 70 days or something 75 days or something and she the day before I left gave me this box of 75 envelopes with something like written or something funny or it was like I'm going to cry which is really like the most monumentally touching and it really got me through and there would just be some funny thing you'd put out of a magazine and it stuck to the paper because I was just going to be homesick and that was obviously before the internet and anything you could I think I had one call home but just to have that oh my gosh and just that excitement like it Kind of like an activity calendar. Yeah, something to open each day. Yeah.
Megan Roberts YoungI forgot about that. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYour writing and your messages have been such a big part of my life that way.
Thank you.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI've used the word monumentally a couple times today in this conversation. It's not a go-to in my wheelhouse of vocabulary.
Megan.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonMonumental Megan.
Megan Roberts YoungThat's a good one. I'm going to write that down right now. Monumental Megan. Monumental.
Okay.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh. Another thing we did in high school that I love that we did, I think it's sort of similar to what we're talking about now, like doing things with intention about, okay, we're stuck in this high school. How can we have some experiences that are meaningful Monumental. Uniquely monumental. And utilizing the time that we had. And one of them was the Freedom Garden. Yes. Yeah. Remember that?
Megan Roberts YoungWe would take our lengthy 35-minute lunch. Do you want to describe it? Or however long it was. Not very long. And we had... some sunflower seeds that we got from somewhere and we decided to plant them in a little median patch of dirt with, had weeds, I think it was on Commonwealth Avenue. It was just in the middle, so we parked the car on the side And then we planted these seeds and we would go, I don't know how many times a week we'd go, but a few times and water, water and tend our little garden. And it felt so, it did feel so like radical to get away in that way. Like we weren't just going to Taco Bell. We were going to our garden.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI don't know. It just felt so like nobody else is doing this.
This is kind of weird.
Megan Roberts Young- Really fun. - Really fun and different.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- It was really fun. And remember how it was so hard to get parking and like it was such a big deal and we'd go in your bug and be just racing through town as fast as we could to go there and get back home. - And they grew.
Megan Roberts YoungAnd they were really beautiful. - So good. Yeah, they did.
Trenton ReynoldsI wonder if it's still there. - Just side note, I lived on Commonwealth. - I know. - What part of Commonwealth was this on?
I don't remember.
Megan Roberts YoungWell, um...
Trenton ReynoldsLook on Google Maps.
Megan Roberts YoungI feel like it could have been around, like, does Will... Did Willadonda kind of come into Commonwealth? Yes, it did.
Trenton ReynoldsThat's where we were at, Willadonda and Commonwealth. Oh, that's funny. What if... I don't... What if... Oh, that's unfortunate. What if the Freedom Garden is still there on Willadonda? I'm totally looking this up.
Megan Roberts YoungBut it was not shady. Sketchy. Culturally shady. Totally sketchy part of Commonwealth.
Trenton ReynoldsI am looking at Willadonda and Commonwealth. Oh. Google Maps.
There's no medium.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah, it was a very small kind of little triangular-shaped medium.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, it's triangular.
Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat's a good memory. Meg, do you have any other, do you have any funny story? Let's see.
Megan Roberts YoungOh, well, no memory. I was going to tell you something that Ivy said today. Should I tell you? Oh, tell us. I try to write down things that they say because a lot of times they're just like, I I can't believe you just said that. That's really funny. But today she said to Everett, "Everett, I wish we could go back to the time "when you didn't have any hair." And Everett was like, "Why?" You were just, you were so cute as a little baby. those keep me laughing those quotes I'll try to think of another story do you
Sabrina Ward Harrisonhave any trend recent recent ones from one of your girls they're daily I just
Trenton Reynoldscan't nothing's popping my mind right now Eden it is a source of never-ending enjoy I'm hearing the words that she comes up with. Like she likes to add mic to everything. So like the extruder in the, or she calls like computers, mic computers. And we have no idea, no idea how she comes up with this. It's kind of like a, yeah, I guess it must be like a McDonald's thing, right? everything. So Mick Pewter, and then she's, she's got this extruder in the Play-Doh set that she calls a Mickstruder. And she calls my guitar a Mictar. Totally unprompted. She just, for some reason, she's in her mind. It's Mick everything.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI love hearing stories like that. It's so funny. I'll tell you one about my dog.
Tell us. Here's one. Definitely.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWant to hear something random? My dog, Lucy. My dog, Lucy, literally thinks one of her... She's had this little stuffed bear, white bear, that kind of looks like her for probably six or seven years. and she totally thinks it is her baby, and she has to get it. If it's, like, she'll cry. If it's, like, stuck under weight, she can smell that thing from... It's not like... I don't know. It probably does smell bad. It's very small, but... if she has to go outside, she has to go get it. And I'm like, come on, Lucy. I'm like, where is she? And she's like frantically looking all over like through the bed sheets for it. And she holds it like it's like a little cup where she just holds it by the little tip of it. like the nape of its neck so just like a little like a little bit on its it's it's a specific part of because it's all just colored like this one part of its body so weird i think it's so weird so cool it's like kind of fascinating so i've bought in the exact same toy because i thought well it'd be good you know like how kids get a special blanket so you think we'll just get a no none of the other bears are exactly exactly the same she doesn't doesn't have any connection to them doesn't like them at all yeah well i could we could talk to you forever meg so nice
Megan Roberts Youngthank you for making time likewise thank you guys it's very fun for me very fun enter the conversation thank you
Sabrina Ward Harrisonand you know what you could even start a podcast together with her
Trenton Reynoldsyou could that's a great idea it is not very difficult and yeah
Sabrina Ward Harrisonbecause you have a great voice and you're wow i don't know funny if you ever want to do that let us know we give you some tips And I know what web... Trenton, do you have any quick tips we can share for people? Please. I'm going to write this down.
Trenton ReynoldsOne is just check out Zencaster. It's a website that we've been using. I think it's free for... We only use the free part of it, but there are other advanced features that you can get if you want to pay... little monthly subscription. But really what happens is you just have a URL, a website, a link that you can send to whoever. They click on it and they're taken to the chat room and the website records all of the different people in the conversation and automatically uploads that audio, all those files to a Dropbox account. So now you've got all the different audio and it can it has the ability to automatically mix all those different audio feeds into a single program so you really don't even know how to need to know how to edit. If you wanted to not edit anything and just use the whole conversation you you're done. It does all the work for you. But if you wanted to, you can take all those audio files into GarageBand or an audio editor and edit out all the stuff that you don't necessarily want to include. So I don't know. Zencaster is super, super easy to use.
And it's spelled Z-E-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G-A-N-C-A-R-G
Sabrina Ward HarrisonC-E-N-C-A-S-T-R. Gotcha. Okay. That's very interesting. And then when people wonder about, people I know have asked me, what's the process as far as putting it on iTunes?
Trenton ReynoldsSo podcasts, essentially it is an RSS feed, which is, it's... essentially just a technology that allows programs to check in periodically to see if there's new content. So what iTunes is, is essentially it's just a directory of all these feeds. It doesn't host any of the audio files. It just has the information. of if a new episode has been uploaded or not. So you need somebody to host the audio files. SoundCloud is a good one for that. And then there are, there's another one that I can't remember the name of. We use Squarespace, which has its own RSS creator. So you just upload the audio file to Squarespace and it will, automatically connect to iTunes if you set it up right. It's a little fiddly. Getting the RSS feed set up and then registering that RSS feed on iTunes, all the information is out there, but it does take a little bit of... digging. But essentially you just need to create register your RSS feed. Well, A, have somebody hosting your audio files. B, have an RSS feed that you can that is generated as you upload new content. and then C, you've got to register that RSS feed with iTunes. Anyway, I guess I'm probably making it a little more complicated than it needs to be, but it is achievable if you just kind of take it one step at a time.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah, no, that's fun to think about. You guys are great people to ask more questions of, so thank you.
Trenton ReynoldsOh, the other thing that I want to mention is Patreon. You could also just bypass... Is what? Oh, yeah. Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon. You could just do Patreon and not even register on iTunes, if that sounds daunting to do all that stuff, and just post all your stuff to Patreon and YouTube, and you're going to reach a pretty big audience just that way.
Cool.
Trenton ReynoldsThere's lots of ways to get the stuff out there.
Megan Roberts YoungYeah. Thanks, you guys.
Trenton ReynoldsOne thing that I wanted to...
Megan Roberts YoungI love what you're doing.
Trenton ReynoldsMegan, one thing that I wanted to just say is that, you know, this idea of coming in from a different door for some reason that... clicked with me. And I think, you know, tell it, the stories that we tell ourselves are so important, I think, in how we just motivate ourselves to do stuff every day and recognizing that we have the, the, the power to change that story, even if it's something as little as getting you know paying your bills and getting that off your to-do list you know is is there are so many ways to to take control of the stories that we are without thinking telling ourselves you know that we have that's a decision that we get to make i don't know i think that's such a powerful idea and so i appreciate you sharing that with us you're welcome what different door are you going
Sabrina Ward Harrisonto go through this week trent well sabrina
Trenton Reynoldsso many doors so many doors I could go through
Sabrina Ward Harrisonattitude
Trenton ReynoldsMegan thank you so much for taking some time to talk with us this week it was awesome to catch up with you and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you create this year and thanks to all of you for joining us this week. Really glad you're there. Check out the website, roomofthetrees.com for show notes, pictures, links, etc. And you can also really help us by rating us on iTunes. Find your way there by following the link from entries.com/iTunes. And now it's time for another week. Invite your problems to tea. Find another door, another room, another space, and a new perspective. 2017, time to take charge of your story.