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This interview was recorded online with Riverside.fm, and it starts after Akash asks Tangela how she got into podcasting. Akash Thakkar is a sound designer based in Seattle, WA. He talks about how he segued into gaming audio from initially going to college at the Berklee College of Music to be a touring drummer. While in college he also put a lot of effort into learning "charisma" as he had been extremely socially awkward.

He graduated in 2012 and moved to Seattle. He found audio work very quickly after moving there. He's worked on a number of games including Destiny, Heat Signature, Hyper Light Drifter and most recently the new DLC for Outer Wilds.

He's also just recently launched his own podcast. Akash talks a bit about false starts as practice.

Tangela realized Akash is her first guest who has a podcast (however her previous guest Cinnamon Denise subsequently launched her podcast The Music Executive).

They talk about how releasing content like podcasts and YouTube and blogs and such are a source of networking.

Tangela recommends The Go-Giver by Bob Burg.

Akash realized during college how important a great teacher is (shoutout to Michael Sweet and Jeff Faust at Berklee) for learning new things. Coupled with the Buddhist concept Mudita, the joy of seeing someone else succeed, this is the impetus behind his content he has produced over the years. "I want other people to make me irrelevant because they're doing so well."

They also talk about sources of bad advice and how/why that happens. But as for good advice, most of the time a person simply needs to do the thing and do it as simply, as babiest, smallest thing imaginable.

"It's the equivalent of doing one pushup, not a hundred"

Also, most of the time, you don't need to buy anything beyond the simple stuff. Doing the simple stuff, starting, is better than most of the people who say they "want" to do the thing.

Moving on to Impostor Syndrome! Akash thinks it can't be gotten rid of, because doing new things makes us impostors.

"If we aren't feeling impostor syndrome, we aren't being creative, period"

Next up, talking about how to interrupt those internal negative self-talk thoughts.

Akash is an avid reader. Books were one of the avenues he used to learn to get over his shyness during college. Self education is underrated!

"The best professionals know when to drop the ball"

Perfection happens with iteration, not with the first take. This section is about getting things done so that perfection can happen later.

Can a CRM save Tangela from retyping the same email ten times?

"What's the correct speed to drive?"

This analogy is...