Teresa Tomeo Interview (and podcast)

I was on the radio this morning! I chatted about homeschooling and bling and tiaras with Teresa Tomeo for 20 minutes that seemed to fly by. I was completely nervous and unsure how these things work. I had no idea that I was going to get thrown straight into the deep end of the swimming pool.

My interview was set to begin at 7:35 my time. I kicked my husband and children out of the house at 7:20 (because he’s a nice guy who drove them around for half an hour so I could talk on the phone in a quiet house.) I waited for the phone to ring as I paced the house and rehearsed the answers to all the questions I had imagined she would ask.

At 7:34, one minute before I went on the air, it finally rang. It was Teresa’s producer who said, “Hi, Rebecca, this is Andrew. Are you ready?”

“Hi, Andrew.” I answered. “Sure..”

“Great here’s Teresa.” and I could hear her reading the announcements and news. I was on the air! No prep. No “this is what we’re going to do”. Nothing. Just ‘click’ and we’re live.

The first segment went okay, I guess. I’m a bit rabid squirrel-ish and totally forgot that I needed to breathe. She didn’t ask any of the questions I had imagined, so I had to make things up right on the spot. (I need to work on that apparently.) After the longest/shortest 8 minutes ever, it was time for a commercial break.

She chatted with me during the pause like we were old friends. I don’t know if she’s always like that or if she was thinking “I need to calm this chick down.” Whatever her reason, it worked a tiny bit.

Then segment two began and she asked me the same question she had on the break before asking for call in questions. Surprise!!! There was more than one. Who knew? She took the one from the only male caller. He wanted to know what to say to his overwhelmed wife and how she was supposed to teach with so many little kids in the house.

My heart stopped racing and attempting to jump out of my chest. All of a sudden I was calm. This was an answer I knew. I had answered it dozens of time.Right in that moment, I was the expert. I was completely in my element and could have done that for an hour easily.

Sadly, that was the only caller we had time to take, and I feel badly that I didn’t get to talk to the others. (If you were one of them, please send me your questions. I’ll answer them here. Promise.)

To sum it up, it was completely terrifying and then really easy. It’s a skill I’m working to learn.

Anyway, in case you didn’t get to listen this morning, CLICK HERE to listen. I start around minute 29. Rabid squirrel followed by “the expert.” Par for the course.