We were recently guests of the Debt Free Guys™ on their Queer Money® Podcast. The show is Episode 160, “5 Tips for Mastering Geoarbitrage.”

We are definitely more introverts than extroverts, and this podcast was a big deal for us! We built our website and social media platforms so we could share stories about our personal experiences and make sure our friends and family had a way to follow us while we travel, and also as tools for connecting with people and making new friends along the way.

One of the biggest surprises from our full time travels so far, is that our virtual networks have become really important to us. We are always excited when someone makes an effort to connect with us online, and we never turn down an opportunity to talk with people or meet in person with our new internet friends. When someone reaches out to talk with us about FIRE, money, travel, or LGBT+ issues that’s a huge bonus since those are all topics we really care about. Most of these discussions have been email or video chats, but a few have been in person.

The most recent example was when someone in their 20s who is focused on FIRE as an LGBT+ person reached out to us on Facebook. So we squeezed in 4 hours of driving to sit and talk with them for 2 hours about their life and experiences, and ours, over nachos and margaritas in Tucson, AZ the other day. We want to be there for anyone who needs an ear or a friend. The FIRE community is growing, but it can still be isolating. Life can be isolating! We could all benefit from making more connections.

When the Debt Free Guys reached out to us about setting up a time to chat for their podcast, we were thrilled. We like them, we trust them, and we believe in the entrepreneurial goals they have set for themselves, so we were excited to participate. We have really enjoyed watching the Debt Free Guys blossom over the last couple of years, and we are proud members of the Queer Money community that they have poured their hearts and souls into.

When we got their invite we were in Kyoto, Japan and about to travel to Tokyo. We were at the tail end of 5 months in Asia, and we were feeling pretty excited about how our first year as post-FIRE nomads was going. The first thing we realized after we picked a date for the podcast interview was that we would have to go out and buy a microphone. We visited two electronics stores in Kyoto and the second one had a great option to squeeze into our nomad bags. Trying to talk to the sales people about what we wanted was funny, it was definitely one of the harder things we tried to communicate with our very poor Japanese vocabulary and Google Translate. Karaoke microphones are easy to find, but microphones for Skype or podcasting not so much.

Neither of us had ever been interviewed before. And we were nervous, so we asked the Debt Free Guys to give us an idea of the questions they would ask. They sent over 14 questions, and since we are nerds we practiced answering them. A lot. We used our dry erase markers to write on the mirrors and windows in our Tokyo hotel room, and we also got a giant note pad and markers to capture some trigger words that would help us remember what we most wanted to say on each topic.

When we finally had the interview it was 9pm for us in Tokyo, and early morning for the Debt Free Guys back in the US. As they promised, the interview was really more of a conversation between friends, and we didn’t need to worry about it feeling formal or intense. Since it was very conversational there were a couple of questions they asked off the cuff that we were not prepared for, which momentarily caused a bit of a shock for us so we just did our best. As we remind ourselves constantly, we are not experts we are just us!

So all in all, our first (and possibly only) podcast experience was a good one. We really appreciated the Debt Free Guys’ patience and generosity throughout the interview process. We were grateful for the opportunity to tell some of our stories, to make new connections in the FIRE and Queer Money communities, and to get to know the Debt Free Guys a little better.