Last Saturday I did my first live radio interview. KFI AM 640, the Rich on Tech show with Rich DeMuro — a real tech reporter, a real audience, up to nine minutes live on air. No edits. No retakes.
My friends called and texted afterward. “Excellent.” “Killed it.” “Didn’t know you could do that.”
I’ll take the win — and I’ve listened back a few times with a notepad, because I’m my own toughest critic and because interviewing is a skill like any other.
Next time I lead with my strongest point instead of building toward it. Next time I trust the pause instead of filling it. That effortless fluidity the best broadcasters have? It doesn’t come from prep or from reading about it. It comes from doing enough of these that it becomes second nature. I’m at rep one. That’s not a knock on rep one — it’s just an honest read of where the reps take you.
Here’s the thing, though. I’d do it again tomorrow, twice.
Because there were two versions of this story available to me.
In the first, I wait. I tell Rich “not yet.” I take a media training course, rehearse in the mirror for six months, hold out until I feel ready. And I never go on — because “ready” is a finish line that keeps moving. There’s always one more thing to prepare.
In the second — the one that actually happened — I say yes to something I wasn’t fully polished for, sit in the chair, and get the only kind of experience that counts: the live kind. Real microphone. Real audience. No undo button.
The version of me doing interview number ten is going to be smooth. He’ll lead with his best point. He’ll let a good line breathe. He’ll sound like he belongs there — because he will. But here’s what I keep coming back to: that guy only gets to exist because the guy at interview number one was willing to get in the chair before he felt ready.
We burn so much energy trying not to look like beginners that we never give ourselves the chance to become anything else. The discomfort we’re all so afraid of is just the toll on the road to getting good at something. Everyone who’s excellent at anything paid it. The only people who didn’t are the ones who never started.
If you’re a founder or a CEO, you are also your company’s promoter. Nobody carries your message with more conviction than you.
Sitting in that chair wasn’t a side quest — it was the job. Getting the word out, telling the story, being willing to be the face of the thing you built. That’s not beneath the work. On most days, it is the work.
I run a cybersecurity company. My whole professional life is about reducing risk, closing gaps, being the prepared one in the room. And I’ve learned that growth asks for the opposite instinct — a willingness to walk into a room where you might not be perfect, on purpose, because that room is the only place the skill actually lives.
So here’s my honest takeaway, the one I’d hand to anyone sitting on an opportunity they don’t feel ready for:
Say yes before you’re ready. Get the reps. Listen back and take the notes. Then go get the next one.
The future doesn’t belong to the comfortable. It belongs to the people willing to get uncomfortable first.
Onto rep number two.
Andy Vaca is the founder & CEO of GRYHAT Cybersecurity, a vCISO and compliance practice serving Orange County businesses and DoD contractors. When he’s not in the chair, he’s helping local companies get found, get secure, and get results.
Ready to put your business in the spotlight? See what we do at gryhat.com →