How a Disney Bar, Two Lapu-Lapus, and David Zucker Accidentally Created Plot Twist Radio (BONUS MINI)

[00:00:00] Welcome to Plot Twist Radio, the show where creativity, storytelling, and the unpredictable path of the creative life all collide. I'm your host, Erin Egnatz. Okay, so here's the thing. I probably should have done this in season one, or at least one of the first 45 episodes, but I never actually introduced myself properly, so I will do that now.

[00:00:22] My name is Erin Egnatz. I am the host of Plot Twist Radio. Some of you may know me from my venture of Hauntings Around America, which is a platform that I created to spotlight haunted locations throughout the United States. Hauntings Around America kind of came out of nowhere. It was one of those things where we were in lockdown for 2020, and I was bored, and I started writing about all the haunted locations I had ever been to,

[00:00:50] and some of the experiences I had. It kind of evolved over time into me traveling the country, which I have been doing for the past five years, going to haunted locations like Tombstone, Gettysburg, Salem. I've been out to California. I think in the past five or six years, I've done 42 states, so I've been busy.

[00:01:16] In addition to Hauntings Around America, I am also an author. I write under the pen name Eliza Nevius. I have four books published currently. The Key to Wonderland, which is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. Professionally Unprofessional, which is a romantic comedy. And the Lux Bellator series, which is the Jaded Knight, and the spinoff of it, which is the Dudwich. Those are my four that I have currently, and I have a few more coming out this year.

[00:01:46] So if I'm not working as a ghost hunter, or I'm not being Eliza Nevius, I'm at home. I live right outside of Chicago in northwest Indiana with my husband and my three children. We also have four cats, two dogs, and an extremely judgy bearded dragon who's actually glaring at me right now. I'm also a historian. I specialize in the American Civil War as far as history goes, but I'm also a history professor.

[00:02:13] I teach at a university in California, where I teach Greek and Roman civilizations, and sometimes art history, depending on the need for that semester. But when I'm not doing all of that, I am here in this seat as the host of Plot Twist Radio. Now that I've introduced myself properly, I should probably get into the basis of Plot Twist Radio.

[00:02:36] I never told you why it's called Plot Twist Radio, and I definitely never told you about the night where I completely, unintentionally backed myself into doing this podcast. Probably not the story you were expecting. And when I say unintentionally backed myself into a podcast, I mean that there may have been rum involved. I want you to picture this. I'm out of town. I'm actually in Florida, staying at Disney World. I was staying at the Polynesian.

[00:03:04] I was actually down there for work, but I decided to stay at Disney because I like Disney and it's all festive. So I was actually taking a break, and I wandered to the main house of the Polynesian where they have two excellent bars. I was bored. My brain was, like, tired from working. So I decided to order a Lapu-Lapu, and for those of you who have ever experienced the Lapu-Lapu, you know what happens next.

[00:03:30] For those of you who have never experienced the Lapu-Lapu, let me explain it for you. So first of all, Lapu-Lapu is a drink that comes to you in a pineapple. Inside that pineapple is several kinds of rum, including black seal rum, which is a really strong rum. It tastes delicious. You can suck that thing down. Doesn't leave it burn.

[00:03:55] But it's really tricky because you don't realize how strong it is until you are halfway through the second one, and then it's like, uh-oh. By this point, I was well into uh-oh territory, and a girl sat down next to me who happens to be a PR person in SoCal. We started talking, which is really funny because if you know me in real life, I'm very, very introverted. I do not go out of my way to talk to people. I'm just very shy. I'm very quiet.

[00:04:24] I know that is at odds with what I do, but I'm a very quiet person. But you get rum in me, and I become just the Pied Piper. I have so much to say. And apparently one of those things was strategizing plot twist radio. I, you know, I had enough booze to where I felt very confident. And you know that level where suddenly every idea you've ever had feels like a million-dollar plan. Yeah, that level.

[00:04:51] And somehow, I still don't fully remember how this escalated, but as we were talking, she was like, you know, do a podcast. You need to do a podcast. And I was like, yeah, I do. You're right. I got to do a podcast. But not just any podcast. It's got to be something different. Something where we don't just talk about careers and success and the highlight reel. We talk about the moment where everything changed. The plot twist.

[00:05:13] And at some point in this very confident, very passionate, possibly slightly unhinged conversation, I said it out loud. Like, committed to it. Out loud to other people. You know when you say something out loud and immediately your brain goes, oh no, now you actually have to do this, Erin. So I decided to follow through. I went back to my room, really intoxicated. Sat down at my laptop. Closed my book because I wasn't getting anywhere with that anyway.

[00:05:42] And decided to open up a call for pitches. Because why not, right? Why not? And what that means is PR or whoever will pitch you, yes, to be on the show. I had worked this from the other side, but I've never worked it. Coming in, having pitches come to me. So in my call for pitches, I created plot twist radio. And I had all these bullet points and a description of what I was going to do.

[00:06:10] Reading back, I had no idea what I was talking about in the description. But apparently it was intriguing enough to those that pitched to me that when I woke up the next morning, headbanging, you know, nausea, all the fun stuff. I also had an inbox full of pitches from authors, screenwriters, songwriters. And I'm like, whoa, what did I do?

[00:06:35] So I, you know, I went back and I was looking and I was like, holy shit. I have to do a podcast. I don't know where I'm going to fit this into my life, my very, very busy life. But here we go. I've never done a show in my life. I've never hosted a show. I've always been the guest. I've never been the host. But I already had 50 pitches. So I'm reading through the pitches. They're all fantastic. You know, authors, most of them you've already heard from if you've been listening since the beginning. Excellent writers, very interesting stories.

[00:07:05] And I'm like, oh, wow. OK. And then I get to David Zucker's pitch, his people who are fantastic. They said, you know, David would like to do the show, but can you do it in two weeks? And I'm like, holy hell, what did I do? What did I do? Oh, I have to do this now. And so I started scrambling like, OK, how am I going to do this? What am I going to do? Fast forward two weeks. I'm scared to death, but I'm ready to do it. David was wonderful.

[00:07:35] You guys have probably heard the interview by now. It's up to like 70,000 views on YouTube. So I'm very thankful for that. Thank you guys, all of you, because I couldn't have done it without you, of course. And I decided to, you know, to stick with it because I actually enjoyed doing it. I didn't realize I was going to like it. Because like I said, it's me stepping out of my comfort zone. And I did OK.

[00:08:02] I know I didn't do great because that was my very first interview and I didn't know what I was doing. But I stuck with it. And then the next day I had a very interesting conversation with an author and then a musician and then another author. And I started to feel more confident. I started to feel more comfortable. And I started to realize that, you know, Plot Twist Radio isn't just some stupid drunken idea. It's actually an interesting concept. And I think I could really do something with it.

[00:08:31] Now we're almost 50 episodes in. And I think I'm booked out till October. Like I'm way out there already. And I couldn't be more thankful for the guests that I've had. I couldn't be more thankful for just all of it. And for all of the listeners and our numbers are going up more and more every day. And I could not be more thankful. So what I'm my plan is as we move into season two is to actually have a plan this time.

[00:08:58] Not just fly by the seat of my pants like I usually do. So yeah, it was more of the messy, unexpected, slightly chaotic moments where you just decide and here it is. And I love it. But going into season two, it's going to be far more structured. We are, like I said, we're booked out till October. That's insane. That's crazy. I cannot believe so many people want to be on the show. But I'm so thankful that they want to be on this show.

[00:09:26] So what do we have to look forward to for season two? So first thing, I'm going to be doing a lot of video interviews. That is something that I did not do in season one. Why? Because I am not a very confident person, especially when it comes to being on screen. That is not what I like to do. I do not like to be on. I do not like to see myself. But I know that most people do like to watch videos. So moving forward in season two, we will be on screen.

[00:09:53] Not only will it be audio, it will also be video for those of you who prefer that. So, guess-wise, we are expanding what Plot Twist Radio means. It is no longer just about writing. What it means now is the plot twist in life. You know, everyone has a plot twist. What was the big event that changed your life? So that's where we're going with Plot Twist Radio. And that opens us up to new guests.

[00:10:18] Like, Jeff Blum is a former MLB star who played for the Chicago White Sox during their 2005 World Series run. He actually is one of the reasons they won the World Series. Just an incredible moment. And it was an incredible interview. He's now the Houston Astros announcer. So he's still in baseball. And it was a fun interview to have. Also, we had Kevin Pierce, who was a former snowboarder. He used to be on top of the world.

[00:10:46] He was going to the Olympics before a traumatic brain injury halted all of that progress. And we talk about that and his life after the injury. Very interesting conversation. And I can't wait for you to listen to that one. In addition, we also have songwriters and singers like Five for Fighting. We also have other MLB players. We have some actors and actresses, other musicians. Definitely some names that you will recognize.

[00:11:15] So for season two, be ready for bigger stories, more unexpected turns, and a lot more of those moments where you realize you don't really get to plan your life as much as you think you do. So stay tuned for season two of Plot Twist Radio. So once again, thank you to my guests. Thank you to my followers. And listeners. And until next time, I'm Erin, and this is Plot Twist Radio.