Strong Feelings

Hey look, it’s a bonus-ode! We sent our demo to a bunch of friends, and they sent us back, like, a zillion questions. So we thought we’d answer a few on air—and then ask you a question of our own.

> Does it alienate potential clients if I’m tweeting a lot about sexual harassment in tech? Do I care?

> —A listener from San Francisco

As always, we’ve got the show notes—and a full transcript—right here.

## Show notes

How many bottles of wine does it take to answer your mail? Technically none, but it’s more fun this way.

In this week’s mailbag, we talk about:

- The, uh, pleasures of [Pennsylvania’s state-run wine and spirits stores](https://www.finewineandgoodspirits.com/).

- What it means to do “big” things, and the reasons women often minimize their accomplishments (it ain’t all imposter syndrome, folks).

- Whether this podcast is business or pleasure (it’s BOTH, dammit).

- Why the [Instant Pot](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2017/11/the_instant_pot_is_now_an_entire_economy_and_religion.html) is “all game no shame.”

- What growth and career progression look like when your job’s not a standard 9-to-5.

- The personal, the professional, and the ramifications of tweeting with reckless abandon.

- Karen McGrane’s “[Give a crap. Don’t give a fuck](http://alistapart.com/column/give-a-crap-dont-give-a-fuck).” inspired Sara to get more vulnerable in her writing.

- The fact that Katel’s a CEO. Just sayin’.

Thanks as always to our friends [The Diaphone](https://thediaphone.bandcamp.com/) for the use of our theme song, Maths, off the album of the same name!

## Transcript

**JENN LUKAS:** Welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas.

**KATEL LEDÛ:** I’m Katel LeDû.

**SARA WACHTER-BOETTCHER:** And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher.

**SWB:** Hey everyone, today on No, You Go, we’re doing something a little bit different. You see, we sent out our demo episode to a whole bunch of friends recently, and we started getting a lot of questions back from them. So what we thought we would do is go through that mailbag and answer some questions. And we thought, even better, let’s open up some wine, and answer those questions with the mics on.

So, why don’t we go ahead and see what our listeners have to say.

[Intro music]

**SWB:** So, Jenn, what are we drinking tonight?

**JL:** I have good news for you, this wine is already started. We are drinking tonight a lovely Côtes du Rhône.

**ALL:** Mmmmmmmmm

**KL:** That’s fancy, for fancy ladies.

**JL:** It’s from the wine cellar of 11th Street Liquors.

[Laughter]

**SWB:** I was gonna say, it’s fancy, via South Philadelphia.

**KL:** That’s right.

**JL:** The South Philadelphia State Store. Thank you state store.

**KL:** We don’t mess around.

**SWB:** Okay, so let’s see what’s in the mailbag!”

**KL:** So, a listener from Vancouver, Canada asks, “How did you know you wanted to do big things?”

**SWB:** That’s such a tough question. I spent my childhood and early adulthood feeling really ambitious, but kind of not knowing where to put that ambition—like not being clear what I was working toward. And it was not until probably my late twenties that I had some idea of what I might be working toward in my career. I feel like it was more of a gradual figuring out

It’s the very first episode of No, You Go! Jenn, Katel, and Sara get together to talk about the itch to get out of a professional rut and start something new—whether that’s changing jobs, launching a company, building a side gig, or maybe even…idk….starting a podcast?

> Fuck it, let’s just do it. Let’s be unapologetic women asking to do work, and to be paid fairly for it.

> —Becca Gurney, co-founder, [Design Choice](http://www.designchoice.studio/)

Read on for more of what we covered, and read the full transcript for all the, like, verbatim quotes, you know?

## Show notes

First, we tell the story of how No, You Go got started:

- Sara has an idea, but forgets that Austin Kleon already wrote a book called Show Your Work and narrowly avoids totally ripping him off.

- Jenn shares what it’s like to trade a thousand side projects for some stability—and, oh yeah, one super-cool baby.

- Katel opens up about how working at home alone can get, well, lonely—and asks us to join her “awesome after-school kickass club.”

- We all fully embrace the athleisure lifestyle.

Next, we kick off the show—and 2018—by hearing how four women who made big changes last year knew it was time for something new:

- [Becca Gurney](http://beccagurney.com/), co-founder of [Design Choice](http://www.designchoice.studio/), tells us how the pay gap in the [AIGA Design Census](https://designcensus.org/) plus the 2016 election turned her from freelance designer to outspoken advocate for equality in design.

- [Jenn Schiffer](http://jennmoney.biz/), community engineer for Fog Creek’s [Glitch](https://glitch.com/) platform, shares how fear kept her stuck in a rut and not doing her best work—until an opportunity to build community for other engineers brought her life back.

- [Lara Hogan](http://larahogan.me/), co-founder of [Where With All](http://where-with-all.com/), describes how meeting her now-business-partner led her away from managing engineering teams and toward building a consulting business.

- [Mina Markham](http://mina.codes/), senior front-end architect at Slack (and creator of the famed [Pantsuit design system](https://medium.com/git-out-the-vote/pantsuit-the-hillary-clinton-ui-pattern-library-238e9bf06b54#.c6rnwv18f) used by the Hillary Clinton campaign), describes trusting her gut to guide her through three new jobs and three cross-country moves in just three years.

### Also in this episode

- Archie’s hair, Cheryl Blossom’s lips, and why [Riverdale](http://www.cwtv.com/shows/riverdale/) is our favorite CW teen drama

- Shout outs to [Call Your Girlfriend](http://www.callyourgirlfriend.com/) and [Shine Theory](https://www.thecut.com/2013/05/shine-theory-how-to-stop-female-competition.html)

- Jenn’s rad [formula for speaking fees](http://www.thenerdary.net/post/84544230452/a-formula-for-speaking-fees) post from the Nerdary

- [California Style Sheets](https://medium.com/cool-code-pal/a-call-for-web-developers-to-deprecate-their-css-1f6430781393) forever

- Lara Hogan’s [Donut Manifesto](http://larahogan.me/donuts/)

- Our endless devotion to [Olivia Pope wine glasses](https://www.crateandbarrel.com/camille-23-oz.-red-wine-glass/s544517)

- Final tips from designer and educator [Sam Kapila](http://samkapila.com/)

Many thanks to [The Diaphone](https://thediaphone.bandcamp.com/) for the use of their song, Maths, in our theme music!

_[](https://codepen.io/)_