Hey, it's Elena with the Daily Elena podcast bringing you a bonus episode. I just launched my first episode of the Daily Elena podcast, and I wanted to share more on how I came up with my podcast, specifically the name. One thing about me is that I love storytelling. I like getting to know people beyond what they share on social media or in those short moments of daily interaction, and I believe that everyone has a story to share and that we can not somehow benefit from hearing each other's story.
I have also been sharing my own story of having been undocumented and how I went to college, but it's usually only when someone else would ask me to speak up like at an event, at a conference or maybe a workshop. I didn't used to have the courage to just share my story on my own terms, for example, like I'm doing now in a podcast, but that's part of that learning process for me too. My podcast will also be a platform for many other fearless leaders to motivate, inspire, and connect. So the name, the Daily Elena actually came to mind when I was working in my previous job at a university here in Arizona, and this was my first time ever supervising staff.
I had eight students staff that I worked with. Looking back, this was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling jobs that I had, but at the same time, it was very demanding because there was a lot of different tasks to balance, like I was teaching, aside from supervising the students that I did, and I was also advising. So it was just a lot to balance, but this meant that I didn't always have time to meet one-on-one individually with my students staff, which was what I had initially anticipated. So instead, I found other ways to make sure that I was still supporting my students and getting them the information that they needed.
So every Friday, I would actually send them an email with just an overview of resources and information that I thought they should have. In that email that I was sent to my students, I would include internships, scholarships, research opportunities, information on making sure they were submitting their hours correctly, but I just wanted them to feel prepared. So they needed to do their job, but I remember one day making a comment to one of my students staff about how much information I was sharing through my weekly Friday emails, and I remember saying I hope that you don't feel overwhelmed. I hope it's not a lot of information.
And she said, no, it's actually really helpful, and it's all just in one place, so it made it nice to easily reference. But then we started joking about how this huge massive email could maybe even become a weekly newsletter, and we started joking about names for it. And she suggested the daily Elena, and I'm like, hold on. I actually really like that name, especially because I've always wanted to have my own podcast that I create from start to finish.
One of my own newsletter too, I've always thought about that. But I really liked the sound of it, the daily Elena, and the name just clicked, and from then on, I knew that this was going to happen. I was going to have a podcast. It was going to be called the daily Elena.
So that conversation probably took place last year and maybe October and November, but since then I had this idea growing, like in the back of my mind, knowing that I would one day have a podcast of my own. And again, how's the name? It was going to be the daily Elena. I remember telling my students, it was going to happen one day, like just wait for it, and I'm going to send it to you guys, so I knew it was going to happen to them.
A few months later, I had my script written out for my first episode. A few months after that, I actually started taking time to record and edit it. And my first episode in this episode too, they're being recorded in a closet in my hallway. I'm in a cramped little space right now, but it's just exciting to think that this was just an idea last year, and it's now finally coming to existence.
And I'm someone who loves sharing information, whether that's in the form of an email to students or on social media, but I think this podcast does a really good job of being able to share other people's stories and resources too. So my desire of making sure my student staff were informed and updated truly didn't inspire the creation of this podcast. I have since learned a lot about editing and just figuring out how to have to podcast, but I'm only one full episode in and now one bonus episode. But if this is something that you wanted to do, I say go for it.
Go ahead and do it. Why not tell stories on your own terms? Why not share an ala-dana podcast? And if you share your ideas with others, they can also help hold you accountable kind of the way I felt accountable to my students because I started telling them, I'm going to make a podcast because you gave me this really good name.
But I want to say thank you to my former student Maria, who I still keep in touch with. And I'll consider her one of my mentees, but thank you Maria for inspiring the name of my podcast and helping bring my podcast vision to life with the name of the daily Elena.