[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/556488270?secret_token=s-mLTrN" params="color=#1fbcd2&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]I’ve always been fascinated by advice columnists. How does someone have the confidence, the sheer nerve to answer other people’s questions about how to live their lives? My guest on the newest episode of Five Things is Minda Honey, an advice columnist for Louisville's LEO Weekly who focuses on relationships and dating, and she told me that being humble is just a trap. She has confidence to spare, and even though I'm not in the dating world, I appreciate her level-headed, compassionate advice.
In addition to her column, she's the author of a series of essays at Longreads called #datingwhilewoke, she's working on a memoir about her dating life, and she leads workshops and classes around the area. She also has very strong opinions about rice.
On the importance of a proper rice cooker:
"My mom is Filipino, so growing up, we always had one of those really classic all-white rice cookers with the big flowers on it. We had rice with every meal, and whenever you make a new batch of rice, she's also super insistent that you cross the rice before you serve it. You take the paddle and you draw a cross in it. So the rice cooker is very important. I was going into grad school and my rice cooker, the cord got a short in it. So I'm this jobless, carless grad student and the first thing I do is go out and buy a $180 rice cooker."
On moving from sales to freelance writing:
"Because I had this sales and marketing background, I know how to build a client pipeline, I know it's a numbers game so who cares about rejection. I know a lot of it is just, do people like you and trust you and want to work for you? People never really ask to see my resume or who else I've written for because there's somebody else in Louisville who's vouched for me."
On giving relationship advice:
"A lot of times, I feel like a bad relationship is just like the flu: it's just got to run its course. Because you can tell someone, oh, this person's no good for you, and that person will know, but if you just have these very strong overwhelming feelings, there's not much you can do until you can figure out a way to minimize those feelings. So I try to be very understanding, come from that perspective. I know what you're going through is hard and it seems like the answer is simple, but sometimes the most simple things are the most complicated."