Ep. 30 It's our Birthday

In this episode, Chickey Delta Phi reflects on the two-year journey of the podcast, sharing the challenges and triumphs faced along the way. From humble beginnings during quarantine to reaching listeners across the globe, Caiya expresses gratitude for the support received and discusses future aspirations, including community engagement and content improvement.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Celebrating 2yrs of Podcasting
• 7:00 Journey of Growth & Development
• 18:02 Future Goals & Community Engagement

Transcript

Chickey Delta Phi (00:03.724)
Yo, your mom just called and I think she said she'd get up to if I just came up with a new episode. Now if you're thinking what I'm thinking, I think it's time that we sit back, relax, and tune into this week's episode.

Chickey Delta Phi (00:16.163)
Yo, what's up everyone. Welcome back to Chickey Delta Phi. I'm your host Caiya, and I have been on vacation,

Chickey Delta Phi (00:21.102)
I have been preparing for it. I have been on a boat. I've been having a great time and enjoying myself, but I'm glad to be back and It's a little bit late, but now the podcast is two years old It's been a roller coaster we started this back in 2023 it is now in 2025 and A lot has happened. There's been a lot of changes a lot of upgrades a lot of time put into it here and there

But overall, you guys have been listening since day one. And I have to say thank you so much because without your support, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be hitting two years. We would not be doing any of this. I know I have a funk of not being creative at times and it happens to the best of us and I'm working on and everything, but vacation has been a nice little reset for me.

And I know that when we first started this podcast, it was me and Jansen. And I will have to say it goes all the way back to 2020, I believe, because we were stuck in quarantine. And we may have talked about it a couple of times on like past episodes, but it started as an idea. And that idea was like, maybe we should start a podcast because we were stuck in quarantine. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on. The world was just going upside down.

And we were like, it would be fun if we had a podcast and to share it with anybody. So when that happened, I was, I think I had a laptop, I had a laptop of my own at the time, cause I was in North Carolina and I was sitting in my car and like, had like my Xbox gaming headset and I'm like, maybe I can run a mic through that heads, like maybe I can run the mic through it and record on like, you know, my notes app or something.

And so I would sit in my car and just try to record and I'm like, I can probably save some money and do a little bit better. And after, let's say like 2022, I was like, you know, we should really get it going and everything. And so it turned into me investing in a microphone and that sort of interface and a whole bunch of other stuff. Even the software that I'm using, I invested a lot of money because I'm just like, even if this doesn't

Chickey Delta Phi (02:49.355)
become like a full time hobby, it's still a nice hobby to have. So after investing in everything and learning how to get started podcasting, I got in contact with Janzen and I was like, Janzen, let's start episode one. And I will say that was a whole dumpster fire in itself. That is not my favorite episode. Even years later, it's not my favorite. And I...

I'm like my biggest critic. when I say, when I say that's not my favorite, it's solely because there was no thought behind it. You like, not going to say you, I feel like it was like a deer in headlights. was like nothing was going to happen. Like I was, I was excited and nervous at the time, but I wasn't sure of how it was going to turn out.

So it was kind of like a let's just run and figure out what's going to happen. And it was, it was tough. Like I can't even listen to that one back just because of like how bad the audio was and how much I did not know about editing. It was a fun episode to have, but there were so many things that could have done, like I could have done better. So I made it a goal for me.

to do better each and every episode. Now, episode one, that was recorded on my interface and everything, then was Janzen's phone call was recorded through that. And I think we had that entire phone call through Snapchat. It was either Snapchat or just a regular phone call. But I was like, the audio is so trash on this. I don't know how to edit it. I don't know how to make it better. And so we got to episode two.

And in that episode we had Lynnell, which I need to get her back on this podcast and everything, but we had Lynnell so the audio was a little bit better because I found a website similar to Zoom and I was like, okay, great. We can kind of get it going a little bit. Audio was still a little bit trash. That was on my end because I was not familiar with editing, but had that going as well and it got a little bit better. But when we first uploaded our very first episode,

Chickey Delta Phi (05:12.465)
It had, I think it had hit like 50 downloads, like automatically. And it was mainly from like our friends and family in North Carolina and Georgia. And I was like, crap, like we got like, we're doing something now. Like we're making progress. We're actually doing something. And for a good minute, I was recording episodes left and right. I was trying my best to do it with Janssen and everything, but you know, like things happen. He ended up, I think at that time.

He was graduating, believe, either graduating or he's in the military, one of the two. But it was so much trial and error when we first started. And there's been a lot of improvement now. And I will say like that first episode is so hard for me to listen to because my mom would be like, like you guys ramble a lot. You guys are talking like y'all were laughing too much. This and that. And I'm like, yeah, I get it.

But what makes it hard for me listen to it is mainly just like the constant laughter and like the bad audio. So like I said, I made it like my goal to do better. And when it came down to creating everything, like I did it all solely by myself. Even though I did have help making the logo when we first started. The logo was kind of like a kind of like little kid drawing a little bit, but I managed to make it better.

And it's still the exact same way that I had it back in 2023. The only difference that I just upgraded the color a little bit and everything. I'm just rambling a little bit, but it's okay. But starting out, it wasn't easy. In that very first episode, I had a lot of jitters. I was really excited and I just didn't know what to expect. But...

through trial and error and getting better each and every episode, I improved. I managed to put more care into the episodes that I had. My favorite episode to this day is still episode four, Space Cadet. And now my second favorite is gonna be Cabin 23 because there is a lot of thought put into that to make it like a story, even though everything that we said was based on true events that had happened.

Chickey Delta Phi (07:28.754)
And episode four, you guys get introduced to Colby. And I am truly grateful to have him part of this podcast and everything. And I'm grateful for our friendship because a lot has changed and we have gotten, we've grown a lot. And he's just like another little brother to me. And I'm glad that there are people that actually enjoy listening to him and having him on. Because he's like, he's Colby. He's part of the family and.

I'm glad that I've managed to bring him on as a co-host and ever since then he's been on the podcast. I know at times I'm by myself, but when I have somebody else, it's always going to be Colby. And sometimes I wake him up in the of night and I'm like, you know what, let's just record. But we always have something to talk about and I'm glad that we can meet up whenever it's possible and just have a conversation and to share it with you guys.

because this podcast was mainly built on sharing our stories and showing the world two geezers can just, you know, anything can happen. We're just sharing our story and we're inviting you guys into our crazy world because we live in a small town, but the things that we go through, other people may go through it as well, or it may be a good story that...

someone's like, I've never experienced that before, or I never heard that before. You never know who you're going to come, like who you're going to cross paths with. And I will say when we first started this, I wasn't expecting the podcast to make it out of Georgia and North Carolina. But since then, it has made it around the world to other countries, cities. It's made it to a lot of places and I'm grateful for that growth.

because if I didn't stick to it, we would not be where we are. And it's so crazy to think about it, because we have reached over 12 countries and 95 cities since we started the podcast. And the amount of downloads we have, it was already big when we first started, because we hit a lot of accomplishments within that first two months of us starting.

Chickey Delta Phi (09:51.273)
But we have reached over 700 downloads and we have created over 35 episodes for you guys. And I am grateful to be able to say. My passion, it's slow, it's growing still and everything, but I am grateful to say that through hard work, anything can happen. And I'm like, I'm not good at writing, but I can tell a story all day and being able to just talk.

It's like, it's very therapeutic for me, I will say that. And sometimes like you just gotta ramble. And there were episodes where I just ramble and I just talk about my frustrations and everything. But it ends up just being me and whoever's listening. And if you manage to sit through and listen to the entire thing, I appreciate you. Like honestly, thank you so much for listening because I'm not really expecting much. I'm just...

getting my thought around and just going from there and de-stressing after a long day of work. And a lot of you can agree, like sometimes like after you get out work, you just want to de-stress and relax. And podcasting is that for me, is my de-stressor. Like sometimes like if I'm having a bad day and I'm like, if I'm not too tired, I'll just take a shower and I get off and then just turn on all my stuff and start recording.

And if it's good, I keep it. If it's not good, I'm just ranting, just to be ranting, just to get that all out. And I try my best not to talk about things directly at work because that's like my main stressor. But there's so many things that happen outside of that, which create good stories. And I feel like when I started this, I was mainly using it to de-stress a lot, but now...

I'm using it as storytelling. And a lot of the stories that we do tell on here or our experiences, like they're a hundred percent true. There may be times where we may tweak a little bit to keep you engaged, but 99 % of the time our stories are true. And it's all about like relating to one another. Cause we live in a world where everyone is so divided, but no one like

Chickey Delta Phi (12:12.846)
Everyone may share the same experiences, but they won't say it out loud. And I feel like having this platform, I'm able to talk about things that I experienced on my end. And there may be someone, whether they're in the US or around the world or wherever. And they're like, oh, I can relate to that because that happened to me a couple of years ago, a month ago, yesterday, or even earlier today, whatever it may be.

You can always find something in the things that you watch and the things that you listen to. And a lot of times I escape into podcasting because it's a different world for me. It's just me in my, in my setup and I'm just talking and I can say whatever I want, do whatever I want. As long as, you know, I'm not being disrespectful or anything to anybody specifically, but I can say and do whatever I want.

and have no care in the world. when I do talk, I'm going to make sure that I can back up what I'm saying with factual evidence. Because a lot of times we don't have that. we have to be better on what we listen to and what we view oftentimes. And I feel like when you listen to this podcast, it goes everywhere left, right, up, down, back and forth. But we try to have a good time.

I'm not going to really talk about what's going on in the world specifically, just because I'm here to just de-stress and to have a good time with you guys. So when you're listening to this, when you're driving, like if you're driving a new car, hitting the gym, or just relaxing, you're not like worried about what's going on in the world. It's mainly like, okay, I got about 15 to 30 minutes or so to just listen to this podcast.

or watch a YouTube video or whatever, like whatever it is, you have that time to just reflect, breathe and just laugh or just, yeah, just reflect or laugh. It's all about having a good time. And I say many, many times again, this podcast was built on good times and good vibes. And what I mean by that is that we are going to have a good time no matter what. If the world is burning down, we will keep partying like it's 1995 and

Chickey Delta Phi (14:37.558)
It's all about just having fun, just having a conversation. It's like, this is like being on the phone with like a friend that you haven't talked to in a little bit. It's just like a phone call. You're enjoying it. You may be tired and want to put it down for a second. That's fine. But you can always come back to the phone call because we're always going to be here. No matter what, whether we got one person constantly supporting us or we got a hundred people or 50 people, whatever the number may be, whoever we have.

You are always going to be part of the family and we will not let you down. We're always going to try to release episodes and everything. And if we do have like a hiccup where we don't upload for weeks on end, best believe we are trying our best to bring you an episode that's going to be a whole lot better and to make you like, make you forget about that break that you just had. I'm just like, I've, I've said it time and time again, sometimes I'm not consistent with uploading and

That is my fault. Sometimes I just don't want to record. But when I do want to record, I'm going to give you good quality. I'm going to give you something that will keep you entertained until the next episode. If you have to go back and listen to previous episodes, go for it. If you just want to binge all the episodes and then when we come back, you're like, I caught up to all the episodes, then I can hear like the growth and everything. That's great because. We're going to be better than the last and.

going off, going off of that last sentence, this is episode 30 to my knowledge. And I will say it since the very first, like since the first episode, I have noticed that I am able to talk more and to kind of have, like, I have everything like planned out a little bit to how I want it, like to go in different like orders to make sure there is structure.

and the things that I do. But I will say that I have improved a lot when it comes down to talking and just relaxing in. I had a habit before of like talking really fast and like when I get excited, I do talk fast, but I try to like slow it down so that it's easier for people to listen to. But I don't want to be talking slow. Like I'm reading a novel where it's like, and then the bird went left. No.

Chickey Delta Phi (17:03.68)
I don't want to talk slow. I want to talk at like a good pace to where like you can pay attention and keep up without having to go back the last 10 seconds or the last 15 seconds to realize what did she say? You know? but there's, like, I'm still excited. I'm just like a little kid in the candy store. Every time I hit the record button, because there's so many things that I want to share with you guys, but I have to section it. I have to put it in a way that

It makes sense not only for the viewer, but also for me. So this episode is mainly on the growth of the podcast. There is going to be an episode soon about my vacation and a whole bunch of other stuff, but this is mainly about the podcast and how we have achieved a lot within the last two years. From the very first episode to now, there has been a lot of growth.

There's been a lot of changes and there's been a lot of time put into it. I don't want to give you a half-ass episode where it's rushed or there's no context behind it. Where it's just rambling just to get an episode out. I'm going to give you the best of the best that I can always give and present that. Because I'm not going to give, I'm going to always give you my best.

If it's not my best, you will not see it. It's just like how I do my photography all the time. It's like when I'm taking pictures for people, whether it's for players or friends or whoever it may be, I'll take a lot of photos and I'll go back and I'll look through each and every single photo. And if I don't like it, I will not send it. And if you like when I'm getting paid for it, I will give you the best of the best. I'm like I charge cheap for my photos, but if I take 50 photos for you.

and six of them are not up to good quality, then you're not getting those. You will get the rest of them. And that is just like how it is for podcasting. I record so many episodes and I just record my thoughts oftentimes. I do have episodes that's saved where I'm just like, this could be used for something else or I'm just ranting in this one. But...

Chickey Delta Phi (19:23.264)
I will not just give you a half-assed episode. There have been times where I have done that before in the past, but I won't do that anymore. If I feel like if I feel like it's not good in my own expectation, I'm not going to upload it. If I feel like I can do better, I'll record it over and over and over. There have been times where I have recorded an episode like three times and I'm like, this is ass. Like I cannot give this to y'all.

because it's a good concept, but the execution of it is not the best. It's not what I want. And a lot of the times I don't like, not even a lot of times, all the time, we don't script anything on the podcast. We just run with it. If we have a topic, we'll talk about it beforehand and be like, okay, we're going to discuss this, this and this, but I want to try to keep it in order. And we do that oftentimes. And so like, I have a notebook and everything where

I have everything written down and I try to like keep everything in a, like, I have it all written down in a certain way so that I know, okay, this is the point I'm going to talk about now. And everything that I, like, I just put like little bullet points. I just have like little things that I want to mention. And then when I get towards the end of that last bullet point, I'm going to switch it to the next one and go from there. I like structure and having structure, especially when podcasting makes it a whole lot easier for people to listen to.

But it'll be like I said, I don't, I'm not going to give you like half ass work. I'm going to give you the best that I can always give. And if I can't give it to you that week, I will get it to you at another time that I know will work for everybody. And we do have some stuff planned for our two year anniversary of the podcast. And one of my things that I do want to do

is create a playlist. Now I am, I love music. I love all like kinds of music and I'm really like, I will sit there and just like, like just decompress and just listen to a song and break it down and really, okay. I like the sound of the trumpet or the piano or the guitar, whatever it may be. The beat, it's always going to be there, but I like breaking down music, but I do want to create a playlist that is created by everybody, not just me, but you, the listener.

Chickey Delta Phi (21:48.16)
So in the next couple of months or so, I'm going to put out like a link on our Instagram and on like the description of this podcast. And it'll be like, if you want to add a song, go to like the Google link and you can upload whatever you want. It'll be like, there like you, it'll be information on it, but it'll mainly be like, all music is welcome. But the theme that we're trying to go for, like it'll explain that and everything. But I want to create a playlist to where.

You guys can listen to it at any time and you can be like, I helped create that playlist or this is such a good playlist. Actually just played like on my drive somewhere. Like if you're going to the beach or something, you can play it and it's going to be a lot of songs put together. And the plan is to like, it's going to be first created on Apple music, but I'm also going to have it available on Spotify as well for those who do use that. And it'll be our podcast playlist.

And it'll be a playlist available no matter what. Like whether we stop podcasting or retake like a hiatus, that playlist will be available at your disposal. And when you submit a song, we'll definitely like, you know, we'll give you a shout out and everything for it. But this, that's just something that I really want to do, which is get everyone involved, whether you're in the U.S. or Canada or around the

you to submit something and like just be a part of this playlist that we're gonna make because like I said I'm like I love music and if you ever look at our Instagram I'm always using music to promote our episodes no matter what it's all but it's always a specific like vibe I love like 80s and 90s music especially so I always like try to like go back like Daft Punk and stuff but

I do want like, do want to have that and everything with you guys. So stay tuned for that. Another thing that I really want to do is make better content. I want to do like better episodes in the last. So like moving forward, I have like a rating system for all my episodes to where I look at them and I'm like, oh, is this one good? Is this one better than the last episode or the last five episodes? And if not,

Chickey Delta Phi (24:10.478)
I go through and I try like, I'm going to try to listen to them and like break it down and figure, okay, this is where I think people are listening. And this is where I think people are like around losing people. What can I do to keep the listener engaged for the entire duration? Or if you have to, if it's too long of an episode, have to split it 20 and 20 or however long. Then we have it go that way as well to where we're going to start looking back at our episodes and understanding what can we do better?

Cabin 23 was a good episode. And so I'm going to be using that and Space Cadet and maybe the Mac and Cheese Showdown. But I want to be able to like take little pieces of our popular episodes and make episodes around that, like in the same theme of like if we have special episodes, do like a whole special thing for that. Or if you have a special guest. Like incorporate them into a way that

Not only will it keep you guys engaged, but it'll keep them entertained as well. So it's all about how can I, how can I entertain you guys better and how can I produce good quality episodes to where it'll get shared with more and more people. And I do want to interact with you guys more. know I've been using the Instagram a lot lately when we have like our videos and everything for the episodes we've been using, like we've been uploading on there and Tik Tok.

So I want to get back to interacting with you guys more and understanding what you guys want to hear. And I believe I have a link down in the podcast description to where you can submit a topic if you choose to. And if you have a topic, don't, don't be afraid. Send it. Just we'll look at it. And if we can fit it into something that we want to discuss, we will. Or if we just have to create a

like a whole episode just for your topic. We can do that. We can do that as well. I want to get you guys involved. I want to interact with you guys. I want to know what you guys think and how we can do better all around. another thing that I really want to do is I want to reach more countries and cities. I know we are mainly United States based and everything, and I do want to more provinces and Canada.

Chickey Delta Phi (26:32.172)
I want to reach more territories. Like I just want to reach more countries as a whole because the more countries that we've reached, the more likely people are going to be engaged in sharing it. And there have been people in, in Chile that's been listening to it. And I know like all of our, all of our listeners in the U S we appreciate you, Canada. We appreciate you. We appreciate all of our listeners, especially the ones like overseas and everything. Like we see you.

We appreciate you. Hell, I get excited when I see like a new country and I'm like, oh my gosh, we just made it somewhere else. Like when we first started, I was like, we made it to Florida and like Florida is like, it's like four hours from like from where I live. And I'm like, Jesus. But like, I would get excited every time. It didn't matter. It didn't matter if the city was here or like across the seas. I was excited. I still, I still do get excited. Like we had made it to Japan.

And we made it to two cities in Japan. I got super excited. I was like, we made it all the way to Tokyo. And then there was like another small city that we made it to. And I was like, we're making progress. We are making progress. And I, and I love it. enjoy it. And I hope that those who are listening overseas, you are enjoying it as well. Now I know a little bit of Spanish and I do try my best to like, if it's like a new

If it's like a really like new country, I try to give them a shout out on our Instagram. Or sometimes like if I can through the podcast, like I will learn like the language just to say like, thank you. Because I am truly grateful for everyone that listened to the podcast because like I say time and time again, without you, this podcast is nothing. And I was, I was never expecting it to make it out of the U S and I'm glad that it has made it out of the U S and has reached many other countries and cities and.

Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I really do appreciate you guys. Um, but I do have a main goal moving forward. My main goal, cause right now we're at over 700 downloads. My main goal is to be able, is to hit a thousand downloads by the end of the year. And if we do that, I'm going to try my best to get some stuff out for you guys. And, um, that like,

Chickey Delta Phi (28:56.917)
What I'm talking about is like, it's been in the works for a little bit now, but I want to do my best to like, get like stickers and like actual like merchandise for you guys. Another main thing, like even though we are a small podcast, I do want to give back to the community as much as possible. So, we're going to be doing a whole bunch of stuff with that, like whether it's doing like charity events and, just giving back to people. Cause that's like a main thing that I do love is giving back to.

not only those that are less fortunate, but those that are in a crisis and they need help in any way possible. So, I do plan on doing that sometime towards the of the year when things are good financially. And I do want to get like merchandise out for you guys soon. Like when we hit a thousand or so, like I do want to get that out, but I am grateful beyond grateful to be hitting two years with this podcast.

It started as just a simple idea and it's turned into a nice little hobby. And I hope that moving forward into like the next like couple of weeks, months and years that we can continue to grow. And I know everybody's getting into podcasting, but I hope that we can keep building on what we have now and be able to look back on the next five years. So be like, yeah, we started out with a small podcast.

and now like we're really pumping out episodes weekly. We're doing this, we're doing that, we're hitting X amount of downloads, we're getting deals with people, we're doing different kinds of promotions, this and that. I'm excited for what the future has to hold. I hope you guys are excited as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please share it with whoever, don't care if it's with your dog. Just share it, talk about it amongst other people.

and help us reach our goal of a thousand by the end of the year. I love and appreciate you guys. And with all that being said, I'll see you guys next episode.