Participant #1:
Hey everyone. Michael here with Hello Cupcake, it's me and I just wanted to welcome you to my very first podcast to give you a little bit of information about me. I am a diabetic blogger and Vlog blogger who deals with mental health issues and I live on an extreme fixed income due to the fact that I am on SSDI, which is Social Security disability income. So a lot of my videos and things that I talk about on YouTube are going to be posted here in podcast format. Also, if you want to head over to the YouTube channel, it's YouTube. Comholocupcake, it's me. Otherwise you can get all of that information in podcast form here on Anchor. Fm. I am just a regular everyday guy and I go through everyday problems and just do the best I can with what I have afforded to me.

Participant #1:
That being said, you never know what you're going to get from my videos or from the podcast or whatever. And I've thought about doing podcasting for a long time and nine times out of ten I go completely unscripted. Like right now is completely unscripted. I don't mess around with a bunch of editing and stuff like that. I don't know if I'm going to be adding sound effects or whatever later on into the podcast or whatever, but I just want to build a community and really kind of give a voice to the voiceless because that's what Hello Cupcake, it's Me has been all about from the very beginning. When I first started the blog, it was all about me just getting shit off of my chest because I didn't feel like I had anywhere else or anyone to talk to. And so it was just a form of like a deer diary type session and it's kind of evolved from there. I will admit that I post way more content on YouTube and Instagram and places like that than I actually do on my blog anymore. But from time to time I will just sit in front of the keyboard and bang out an entire blog post because I just need to get that raw emotion off of my chest into Word format and it's a form of therapy. Over the last couple of years I've been taking a lot of online psychology courses and stuff, and I actually have become a certified peer counselor in the state of Washington. And prior to that I was in and out of the mental health system just trying to get help for the depression, bipolar, PTSD, and some of the other stuff that I have going on. So it has been a long journey with a lot of ups and downs and everything in between. You know, like I said, I just try to do my best and I present that in a format that I think is easily digestible for people. And I get a shit ton of trolls and stuff talking about how useless and worthless and all this other stuff that I am and how I should kill myself and this and the other thing and for every one of those trolls that come out me like that, there's people in my DM telling me, Michael, I am really thankful for everything that you talk about, everything that you say. I felt the same exact way didn't know that anyone else felt that way. So it's kind of rewarding that in helping others, I'm helping myself. So a lot of times there's going to be those episodes where you're just like, what the actual fuck is he talking about? Like, right now I'm really manic even though I just had, like, this huge traumatic thing happened to me yesterday. Today I'm, like really manic and really happy and hyper and everything else. In 2 hours from now, I could be an emotional wreck crying, depressed and everything else in between but I'm just doing the best I can and living day to day. So, yeah, thank you for coming along on this journey with me. I post videos on YouTube every Wednesday and Saturday and then sometimes in between I post stuff but typically I post everything on Wednesdays and Saturdays so I'm assuming that that's going to be the upload schedule for podcasts here so I look forward to meeting and talking to you all every week and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, you can shoot an email to me. HelloCupcakeitsme@gmail.com and yeah talk to you all then. Bye, guys.