So there I was, just having a normal day at work. Took some calls, worked on some things, listened to some podcasts – the usual. My phone beeped and buzzed to tell me that I received something new in my inbox on my Gmail account. I looked down and saw one word as the sender: Ross.

My eyebrows furrowed. I didn’t trust  my phone so I opened up my Gmail on my work computer and pulled up the most recent message in my inbox.

There it was. A message from Ross Mathews.“Hello Gina! Ross here. I’m putting together the award show episode and I was wondering if you’d like to be involved…”

WHAT?!

Now as a super-fan of the podcast Straight Talk with Ross, I have written into the show multiple times. Not just to Ross, but also to Fagsy and Nikki as well. They all have emails tied to the show and Ross has advertised that he gets all the alerts for the emails straight to his phone. I had never heard from him before, but I had always felt confident that he would at least see some of my emails coming through.

Since I had just been nominated the previous week for the Best Listener of the Year Straight Talkie Award, I had just sent a couple messages via social media to the STWR podcast gang thanking them for the recognition. I guess this somehow made me top of mind!

Ross asked if I wanted to record a segment and said that he would send me the script. I replied to his email of course within minutes, not even trying to play it cool.

“ROSS!!! OH MY GOSH, OF COURSE!! Anything you need! …”

I was extremely excited when I received his next email. He explained that during the award show, there would be an “In Memorium” portion where they would pay tribute to the funny segments, jokes and other things lost this year. It included a list and a couple other instructions, and ended telling me to let him know if he had any questions.

I printed out the script and took a lunch break where I walked home to my apartment so that I could record in the comfort of my own home. I didn’t want to keep Ross Mathews waiting so I made sure that I got to work right away. I only took about three takes before I felt confident enough to send my recording to Ross. Along with the attachment, I also sent him a huge thank you again – I definitely sounded a little fan-girly, but I wanted him to know how much I appreciated everything.

The following episode was the Christmas special, so that wouldn’t be the one where I made my debut. I had to patiently wait another week for the award ceremony to be released.

Ross of course did some editing to my segment, which I expected, including adding music and sound effects behind my list of fallen podcast inside jokes. Another great surprise was that he teamed up my recording with Fagsy singing and giving sound bites behind me as well, which – as a big fan of his – made me super happy.

There were a ton of STWR characters that were included in cameos as the show was made, including recordings from Jackie Beat and other listeners like me. It felt so cool and validating to be a part of that family in any way shape or form.

Find Straight Talk With Ross wherever you listen to podcasts, and go to the episode released on December 27th. It’s Episode 260 – The 2018 Straight Talkies! The “In Memorium” segment with me and Fagsy Malone starts around minute 24:44. Or for the direct link, you can CLICK HERE .

Thanks for reading!