CJ Ripka, Raw & Real – Episode 90

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Veteran podcaster CJ Ripka has been creating audio content for over a decade. He started when it was still just called “audio blogging”. His skills as a host and personality have shot up, though, since he started his own shows, Average 2 Awesome and his current show, Raw & Real.

CJ has recently expended his podcasting portfolio, joining Ray Rideout, Jr. every day on The Crossroads of Podcasting and inviting Ray to co-host Raw & Real. The two have also started the SDWV Podcast Network, of which this show is an inaugural member, to help podcasts build audiences and earn incomes from their shows!

We have a great chat about making podcasts for the national guard, the struggle of setting your own rate, how creating a celebrity persona helps you succeed and what you do when injuries or external forces not just impact your business but prevent you from doing your thing entirely.

Bernadette Bentley: A Princess of Entertainment – Episode 89

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All-around geek entertainer Bernadette Bentley is a lifelong performer who never let others crush her enthusiasm. She may be best known for cosplaying Xena: Warrior Princess at conventions around California and the States, but Bernadette is passionately pursuing her dream of enriching lives with entertainment.

Bernadette’s nature refuses to let her focus on one thing at a time, which has led her to act on stage and screen, in voice over and web shows. She’s hosted geek events and cosplay conventions. She co-founded Le Geek So Chic, a traveling fashion show that highlights the cream of geek clothing design. Her newest venture is Bernadazzled, a company that allows Bernadette to indulge her love of rhinestoning by creating glamorous fashion items and bringing a little extra sparkle to the world!

We have a great chat about the external pressure from well-meaning folks to not just settle down and get a real job but also to focus on One Thing, the power of lists, the epic experience that was both her first convention AND her first cosplay as Xena, meeting Lucy Lawless, working with a community of fantastic fellow creatives and enthusiasts, moving on when people act against you and helping an animal rescue charity take care of their dogs!

Featured photo from Bernadette Bentley’s website; taken by Estrada Photography

Monte Cook, Monte Cook Games: Episode 88

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Game designer and writer Monte Cook has worked on hundreds of roleplaying and board game products. He co-designed the Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, served as design consultant on the Pathfinder roleplaying game and, in 2012, co-founded Monte Cook Games, LLC. As Creative Director and Lead Designer, Monte co-created the Cypher System roleplaying game rules that are the heart of The Strange and the award-winning Numenera.

Monte also bends his writerly talents to novels and fiction, comic books and nonfiction works. In his spare time, he makes the odd YouTube series with fellow geeks, like the a tongue-in-cheek take on ghost hunting reality shows, Geek Seekers, co-starring Jen Page.

Please listen for a great chat about sleeping on couches while interning with an RPG company, some of the dearly departed brands of the RPG industry, why you shouldn’t listen to gossip about the “big guys” and the differences between working for and running an RPG company.

Huge thanks to my guest for episode 87, Jen Page, for getting me in touch with Monte!

Jen Page: All-In on Geekiness – Episode 87

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Full-time multi-talent geek Jen Page is a wonderful example of what can happen when we connect the little dynamo of energy inside us to the things we love to do. She juggles a full-time job managing Microsoft’s community of casual gamers with acting in indie films and web series, modelling her own fantasy fashion creations and making mermaid tails on commission!

Jen and I have a great chat about the life of someone who has gone all-in on every aspect of herself. We touch on how being a navy brat helped Jen overcome shyness, how stage work is not her thing, her secret desire to be a freelance thief for tabletop roleplaying game groups and just how she manages to make time for all her interests and a day job that doesn’t stick to a set nine-to-five!

Thanks to my guest for Episode 71, Tonja Davis, for getting me in touch with Jen!

Lauren Matesic, Castle Corsetry: Episode 86

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Castle Corsetry owner-operator and cat-lover Lauren Matesic has designed and built hundreds of corsets as well as custom costume orders specialising in expertly tailored spandex suits and impeccable cosplay recreations.

As a geeky girl herself, Lauren’s enthusiasm makes her work truly exceptional, and fellow geeks have come to know Lauren as the go-to girl for commission cosplays for conventions across the country every year. Her designs have been worn by geek-culture celebrities like Team Unicorn, Ivy Doomkitty and Adrianne Curry!

On top of all that, Lauren’s latest project is an upcoming web series Pawsplay, which launches on the AWE Me YouTube channel Monday, July 18th!

Lauren and I have a great chat about the challenges of working with spandex, how the makers’ collective that Lauren lucked into sharing office space with inspire and challenge her (and made her the most awesome office space in the world) and about how keeping your child self’s imagination alive after when people say the days of dress-up ought to be over is at the heart of getting paid to play.

Bebo (Brittanie Boe): Working from Home Marketing Board Games – Episode 85

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Board game marketer Brittanie Boe, known to pretty much everyone as Bebo, is an example of paid to play success for those of us who feel like life has locked us into the nine-to-five. She is a single mother and lover of board games who had a day job working in the marketing department of an insurance company.

Now, Bebo is the marketer for a board game distributor, managing multiple social media channels with a team of fellow enthusiasts, attending industry and fan conventions and generally helping enthusiasts find the right games for their tastes. On top of all that, she works from her home!

And if that’s not enough, Bebo joins forces with my guest for episode 77, Teri Litorco; together, they are the blogging, YouTubing and podcasting duo of tabletop gaming, The Board Dames!

It was great chatting with Bebo about how she transitioned from day-job dullness to work-from-home wonderment, how Bebo’s friends and family help stop her from losing herself in work and what her next steps will be – as well as her not-so-secret desire to form a country music band!

Travis Bain: Terrifying and Thrilling on a Tight Budget – Episode 84

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Independent film maker Travis Bain has been in love with movies and the making of them most of his life. His day job is filming weddings and corporate videos, but he pours his spare time into movies like the indie horror film Throwback, the upcoming disaster thriller Landfall, and a currently in preproduction love letter to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Starspawn.

We chat about how a Mexican singer led to Travis committing to the course of his life, the difference between producers and directors, how hard it is to get your hands on the works of H.P. Lovecraft outside a major city and how kids these days substitute ambition for genuine love and curiosity.

Kimberley Clark: A Self-Published Urban Fantasy Author – Episode 83

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Self-published author of urban and erotic fantasy Kimberley Clark is determined to make sure that every item on herbucket list is crossed off. One of those items was to write a novel – yet after completing that project, Kimberley discovered that rather than moving on to the next thing, she had to keep going as a writer.

Kimberley is now the self-published author of a trilogy of erotic urban fantasy novels, the Battles in the Dark series, which are on sale on Amazon. We had a great chat about pursuing your dreams, the struggle in finding a good editor and the choice between self-publishing and seeking out a traditional publisher.

Elle Sommerling: Freelance Voice Talent – Episode 82

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Though she’s only 21 years old, Elle Sommerling has almost ten years of experience behind the microphone, the majority of which is as a working voice artist. She’s soon to graduate university in the United States with a degree is in Education, but her passion lies in voice acting.

Elle – who, when this chat was recorded, was still using her real name of Ann Tworek in her voice work endeavours – has completed work for international companies as well as small-time amateur character projects and currently has ongoing projects in both the commercial and character acting fields.

As an aspiring voice talent myself, it was great to chat with Elle about how her family helped her get started in voice performance, how she juggled study with freelance voice work and how boxes and closets can be vital to good sound recording!

Adam Koebel: A Full-Time Online Game Master – Episode 81

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Tabletop roleplaying game GM Adam Koebel is at the forefront of an explosion of RPG popularity online. Though the creative storytelling hobby of tabletop roleplaying games have been around since the advent of Dungeons & Dragons in the mid-seventies, it’s only in the last few years that people have been able to harness live streaming and YouTube videos to present their play for others’ entertainment.

Adam is currently the Game Master in Residence at Roll20, a platform for playing tabletop RPGs across the Internet, and GM of the RollPlay: Swan Song and Rollplay: Balance of Power campaigns for Twitch live-streaming channel itmeJP.

Adam also co-designed the award-winning Dungeon World tabletop roleplaying game and streams analytical content and video game play from Vancouver, Canada. Join me as I have a great geek-out over a shared hobby and chat about how modern technology is enabling not just RPGs as entertainment, but all us hobbyists a chance to improve our skills and find our audiences!