Mike's Podcast Confessions: When Faking It Isn't Making It (No Ladyboys Today)

Vulnerability rarely makes an appearance in expat podcasts about Thailand, but in this raw solo episode, I pull back the curtain on both my mental health struggles and the financial reality of creating independent content. While I genuinely love my life in Pattaya and remain grateful for every sunrise I witness here, I've recently found myself battling low energy days that have affected my ability to maintain our regular podcast schedule.

After two years of production, I'm finally addressing something that's been weighing on me - I haven't been fully honest with you. Despite occasionally implying that listener support funds our equipment and studio time, the truth is everything comes out of my pocket. With just two financial supporters, we don't even cover basic hosting costs. This admission represents my rejection of the "fake it till you make it" mentality that pervades online content creation. While I can continue funding everything myself for several more months, there will eventually be a limit to what I can sustain without additional support.

Beyond finances, this episode explores something universally relevant regardless of where you live - the importance of mental health and supportive relationships. I share my personal strategies for navigating difficult periods, emphasizing how crucial it is to surround yourself with people who genuinely care about your wellbeing. From my experience, reaching out when you're struggling isn't met with judgment but with respect and support. If you're feeling down, whether in Thailand or anywhere else, remember that tomorrow might be better - and there have been countless times in my life where pushing through difficult periods led to complete transformations just months later. I'm taking next week off to recharge, but I'll be back soon with more authentic conversations about the Thailand you don't see in travel brochures. If you value what we're building here, please consider supporting us through Patreon, or even just leaving a comment or like to let me know you're listening.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Mental Health Update
• 3:00 The Truth About Podcast Finances
• 7:12 Support Needed for Future Growth
• 8:54 Managing Mental Health Low Days
• 12:23 Importance of Supportive Relationships
• 15:41 Taking a Break and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello everyone and welcome back to my DIY podcast. I'm Mike and today I'm doing something weird, something different. So I'm doing. First of all, it's a solo episode and it's going to be kind of a short episode. Don't worry, I'm not announcing that we are quitting the podcast or taking a long break or something like that. We would take a break for one week, so next week there will be no episode.

Speaker 1: 0:33

The reason for that is me. Lately I've been a little bit down mentally, not like depressed or something, but I find it very hard to do everything I do I need to do in order to make sure that we have new guests and the episodes are running. And it's not because I'm not happy where, with where the podcast is right now. I am. I am kind of happy. I think we grew substantially and like I mean subscriber wise and stuff like that. But there are other things that make me feel like I'm not as happy. No, let me rephrase that I am happy. I'm happy to do that. I think I have a very important message that I do try to make sure we reach our listeners, not only about the fun and the sexy parts and everything in Pattaya, but more about how important it is to actually appreciate everything here. I got actually a very nice comment the other day. Someone told me that it's refreshing to see a podcaster in Pattaya which is an expat or whatever, like a foreigner, that is actually happy to be there here, sorry, and not complaining all the time how the Thais are like that, that I love Thai people, you know that, and I'm not complaining about the prices and everything. I just like showing there is an increase or decrease. It's okay, but I do happy.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Every day I wake up here I'm happy, but it doesn't mean that sometime, like you know, like everyone, sometimes you're up, sometimes you are down, and I actually did something that made me. How would I explain that? I did something that actually made me feel like I'm not honest with you guys. So all my life people told me you have to fake it till you make it. You know that bullshit phrase. I fucking hate it and I never did it before. Really I have never done it before and I I thought it's stupid and I didn't believe in that and I still don't believe in that. I think it's always best to be honest to yourself first and to other about where are you standing, in any font or whatever.

Speaker 1: 3:21

But one thing I did. It was that I was telling you guys that, thanks to your support, we are able to do that in a studio or getting more equipment or everything. And that was kind of a lie, because everything that we are doing in this podcast is coming out of my own pocket. Right now. We don't have. We have, I'll be honest, we have like two supporters. That's it, and of course, it's not enough for anything like like. It doesn't even like cover the cost of the. So when you're doing a podcast, there is something that call like a podcast host. You're uploading everything there and give you some editing tools and then it's like distributing it all over the place. So it doesn't even cover this cost, which is the basic thing that I paid. I'm paying it like for already two years and now with the studio and the equipment for example, this excellent microphone, by the way, I'm shooting it from from my phone right now. This is why it's not, it will might not be as good quality as normally we are providing you in the studio, but the studio cost the, the equipment that we bring um.

Speaker 1: 4:44

I'm not paying for guests. I'm against that. I think, like when I'm giving like the stage for the platform for other people to tell their story. I think I shouldn't pay them because it's elevating both of us in some way not only me because, for example, some of the girls some way not only me, because, for example, some of the girls, uh, they have their own like only friends, or twitter or sorry, x or whatever, and like they have their own followers and new people might see them through my podcast. And the opposite way, like if they post it on their twitter, maybe new people will know about my podcast. And this way I'm not paying for my guests yet. It's something that in the future, if we might be able to generate enough money, we would bring like high priority guests. I hope so, of course. Then it might be collaboration or I have to pay for that.

Speaker 1: 5:47

But again, that's not important right now. What important, what's important for me right now, is to tell you guys that I lie to you. Your support is not enough right now in order to keep this podcast going. I'm still paying it out of my own pocket. It's not that a lot of money. Again, we are in thailand and things are cheaper. I will not get into the prices, but it's much cheaper than doing the in the US, so I have very good deal with the studio in order to do it there and I try to buy things like equipment when it on sale and basically that's it.

Speaker 1: 6:30

But this is something that I did want to say to you guys that, yes, we do need your support very much and it's not it's not me begging you. Okay, that's important for me to tell you. But if you do think that the content we provide for you and for us we are enjoying that as well is good and it's something that you are enjoying weekly and you want to continue, enjoy that, eventually I will not have enough money to to keep creating that. It's not in the next week or in the next month. I can go few more months, even more than that, but for my own pocket, but there will be a limit for that, of course. So if it the it is something that you want to see going on and growing in the future, if you can, any donation will be tremendous for us. You will not be you.

Speaker 1: 7:33

You can't believe how much because we do enjoy that doing the podcast and we do enjoy you guys, because I'm not doing it only for me. I'm doing it because I know there are other people that interested in pattaya, in thailand in general, in ladyboys and ladies in the bar scene, in the nightlife scene. That like, for example, the reason I started this podcast after I did it with my ex-wife and I the reason I continue with that, because I was actually looking for a podcast that doing something like this, that talking about those kind of subject subjects, but there wasn't any, and this is also what gave me the confidence of like, okay, I'm going through with this, I will try it, and you guys proved me as listeners, of course, that there is audience for that. It's not a huge audience and we are still growing monthly by actually a sub I cannot speak now a big number, okay, and I'm happy with that and, as I told you. So that's about that.

Speaker 1: 8:50

But I want to to talk again about what I started talking in the beginning of the episode. I want to talk about mental states that some people are in for me, like, as I told you, I'm not depressed, I'm not in any sort of danger of harming myself or something, but I just have like low days, like low energy days, and I try to do as much stuff as I can that make me feel better, like listening to music, go eat in a nice restaurant, meet people that I love and I care about and care about me also. And yeah, I'm trying, but sometimes that's not enough and I find myself, like, as Ellie always says, like rotting in my room for a few days, and that's okay if it happens to you. First of all, accept it. Some days are not good, some weeks are not good, hell heck. Some years sometimes are not good, and it's okay. The the key for that is to keep fighting, to keep going, and I really think it's not the first time it happened to me, it's not the second and it sure is not the last time it happens to me. So I just remind myself always like, hey, tomorrow might be better, tomorrow might be better, tomorrow might be better every day Well, every day before I go to sleep, and some days be better. Tomorrow might be better Every day. Well, every day before I go to sleep, and some days are better.

Speaker 1: 10:24

And luckily, I found people that I love here that care about me and I care about them, and we surrender surrounding each other and we make sure that whenever someone is down, the other people help him, and I'm not only talking about Scott and Michelle. I'm talking about people that you don't know because they refuse, sadly, to come on the podcast. Some of them are Thai people, some of them are foreigners, some of them are even from my country, and I'm happy for that, and this is the point I want to talk about mainly Make sure and sometimes it's not easy, but make sure you have people that you love and they love you back around you. It's so important. If you suffer from, I will just say, mental instability but I think no one really suffer from that, everyone have that. Like, as I said, some days are good, some days are bad, but make sure that the people that are near you and you see them and you talk with them normally are people that you like and they like you and you have common interest and you are friends. That I will always make sure that when I'm reaching the edge, I will grab one of my friends and I will tell him hey, I'm down, I need your help, like, just talk with me or let's go somewhere or do something that I like or we like as friends, and it helps. It helps and I encourage everyone of everyone in the world actually, but right now I'm talking to people that actually listen.

Speaker 1: 12:31

If you feel down, reach out to someone and just tell them don't be shy, don't, don't think they will judge you badly. The the opposite is the the actually actual, actual truth. They will judge you badly. The opposite is the actual truth. They will respect it. Reach to them. Reach them and say hey, buddy or girlfriend or whatever, it doesn't matter, I need your help, I'm down, let's do something. And I'm glad. I'm glad that I'm in a point in my life that I can understand that. I understand how big of a power is that and how important it is. And I'm thankful for my friends and my listeners and my family, of course, and everyone that I love and loves me back. Yeah, I know it's funny, but but yeah, some people actually love me back. So I'm joking. But again, this is the point that I want to get through.

Speaker 1: 13:35

This is not about Pattaya. This is not about Thailand, is about about men, mental health or just, in general, people's mental health. It's okay to be down. Really, it is okay to be down. It is okay to have bad days. Elevate yourself, use other people in a good way, ask them to help you and be okay. Don't give up, because giving up is not the answer. Be okay, don't give up because giving up is not the answer. Like, if I think how many times I was, I was very down in my life and I almost gave up and then, like a month later or a year later, my life was like completely changed and I was happy. And again I am happy. Now, don't get me wrong, I am happy. I feel like I'm repeating myself, so I don't want to go there.

Speaker 1: 14:30

But again I will just say thank you guys for listening. I'm taking a week off, only one week. So next Friday or Saturday there will not be an episode, so we will come back after that and, um, that's it. So thank you. And if you can, as I said, even a like or subscribe. Subscribe, even a like or subscribe is a lot. But if, if you can and I really we really need it in order to make sure this podcast will stay in high quality and in a studio and bring you the best guests that we can, please go to the Patreon, go to the Buzzsprout. The Patreon is better in my opinion. It's much easier. Also, the payment there. Help us get this podcast moving forward to the next level.

Speaker 1: 15:25

Okay, and again, I appreciate even every comment that you leave me. I try to make sure that you guys know that. So the guys that did left me comments and I answered again. Thank you for doing that, and every like is very important. And that's it, guys. So you know it was a short one. I love you, I really do. I love you guys. Thank you, guys, and girls, by the way. Yeah, thank you, and hopefully in two weeks everything will be much brighter and more colorful and my face will not be like that. I might smile again. So thank you, guys, and I see you next time. Bye, bye.