Ever since Grace Bonney (aka Design*Sponge) started her radio program, After the Jump, I’ve been an avid listener. I may not get to listen live, but I definitely go through sessions where I listen to past episodes back to back. Thirty minutes is perfect amount of time to get a dose of inspiration and After the Jump is such a great name – it references when there’s a jump in a blog post, signalling more, deeper information and conversation. I know I’ve contributed to Design*Sponge for 6 great years and over 500 posts (this month I’m stepping down to make time for other projects), but it was still such an honor to be invited onto the show. This morning Grace and I cozied up in the Heritage Radio Network studio out of Roberta’s [pizza] in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I was kind of nervous, but the time flew by, and Grace totally knows what she’s doing. She and I chatted about my life in Paris, the importance of global connections and making and maintaining contacts. I talked about creating a job I can do from anywhere, teaching on Skillshare, giving Vayable tours, how I’ve made so many of my amazing friends (who are my best contacts), and how travel has influenced what I do now. As with anything, I came up with many more things to say after we were done, but that’s how the cookie crumbles. One thing I will add that I’ve learned this week is that if you have international clients or work on an international team make the effort to meet in person – it seriously makes a world of difference to have that human connection behind you. The story online and through email is only half the story.

You can listen to the full episode here, or download it on iTunes. Grace blogged about it too – read her post here.

Grace in the booth!

View to the booth inside Roberta’s (great pizza!). It’s a 2-way window but actually not distracting.

The unsuspecting façade, pizza oven in the back. Welcome to Roberta’s!

In addition to my episode, I also really loved Grace’s recent shows with Julia Turshen (on business lessons) and the full Design*Sponge team –Amy and Max – talking about hard work. A new episode of The Lively Show with Grace just went live too. Even though I’ve known Grace for years, I learn something new every time I listen to her on a podcast. All are great listens while you get your work done!

Images with text courtesy of Design*Sponge.