Wouldn’t it be nice to hear all about the life of celebrities who you follow on Instagram? Ben Trinh founder of the podcast, First and Featured, has done exactly so. On seamless Tuesday, June 11, Ben had an exclusive chat with The Knockturnal telling us all about the creation story of his podcast and gets real with some of the struggles that he has faced throughout his career.
Despite his age, Trinh has an already impressive resume of working in Brand and Marketing for Lyft, Postmates, and opening his own branding company Bredfor.com, not to mention his new podcast First and Featured. Each Monday, the series releases another interview with a different high-profile celebrity and influencer. As hosts, Trinh and Marvel (his co-host) embark on deep and probing discussions that reveal the vulnerable underbelly of these celebrities that we all know and like on Instagram. Read on to hear about who he has interviewed and his inspiration behind this podcast.
The Knockturnal: One thing that I love about your podcast I that you are not afraid to get personal with your subject. What first inspired you to begin this podcast as a kind of peek behind the curtain of fame?
Ben Trinh: I am in the world of tech and entertainment. I grew up as an artist creating, and I think I was just yearning for the creation of something that allows me to get others in my network to tell a story. I’m a big fan of storytelling and of getting to the know the ‘who’ behind the social media numbers and to show their true colors. I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to that stuff, and that is why I decided to start this podcast.
The Knockturnal: You mentioned in some of your podcasts that you yourself are an artist and poet, what inspires you in your work?
Ben Trinh: For me, I started writing poems competitively actually, I did slam poetry in High School, and I was going to different schools and we would battle for prize money. What inspires me to write is that it is a creative outlet for me. As was a teenager going into college, it wasn’t exactly the norm or the ‘cool’ thing to do. I think that writing is such beautiful art that allows you to carefully speak your mind but also in an unfiltered raw way with your emotions because everyone speaks and writes differently. I think poetry for me, and it’s different for everyone, was a creative outlet, and allowed me to share with others what I had been doing or am doing.
I have also done some acting. A lot of the guests on the podcast say that I have a nice radio voice. I didn’t know that was a thing. I think that is definitely the best compliment I’ve gotten in a long time. I attribute that to being on a stage for acting and also being a competitor of the spoken word and poet. That forces you to really use your voice to get the intention off the page.
The Knockturnal: Your cohost is platinum-producing artist, chef, and former D1 college basketball player, Marvel Alexander, how did you first meet your co-host?
Ben Trinh: When I wanted to start this podcast, I knew nothing about the backend, technical side. The audio is a little daunting and I imagine for a lot of creatives out there, it’s not the easiest thing to do. So, I asked my network if anyone knew anyone who was good with audio. Very open-ended. I got introduced to Marvel and we had lunch, we hit it off, we vibe off each other, he loved my stories, I loved the fact that I was trying to get others who had a large platform to be their true selves on the podcast and answer some questions that are normally harder to answer. That first day after lunch he said, “do you want to swing by my studio really quickly?” to hear the album he’s working on. I had nothing to do that day, so I went down to check it out. It’s so good! He not only sings and produces the whole album, but it was a great experience to be in that studio right before it was released. He’s a great co-host!
The Knockturnal: You have hosted some pretty cool people: Alexis Rehn, Brother Nature, Josh Peck, to name a few, how do you decide who to have on your podcast?
Ben Trinh: We want to really pull the story from someone who already has a platform of established followers because we know that the followers might not know their true self of who they really are. We tend to start with my network. So, all the people that have been featured so far are friends or folks that I have worked with before. it’s as simple as having a conversation with them and inviting them on the podcast and telling them about the launch of an exciting project that I’m working on. Everyone that has been featured was super excited and super down to be a part of it, so they came over to my apartment, which I turned into a Studio, and we just kicked and had a good time. It was super casual.
The Knockturnal: As we said before, you do get very personal with the people that you have on your show, do you have a method preparing for your interviews?
Ben Trinh: Totally! I definitely, first and foremost, make sure that I am being respectful. I usually let them know the blueprint of the types of questions that I am going to ask and if they want me to avoid anything. Everyone has been saying that they want this opportunity to tell their story. In terms of formulating questions, I really think about if I were a follower of one of these people, which a lot of the followers are Gen Z, what would I want to know about them. What would be the most relatable and human thing that I would want to ask? There are obviously the normal questions like, what is their favorite music and what are their career goals, but I saw a recurring theme that allowed them to open up, which is talking about their relationships. Something that is a bit more taboo normally to ask and talk about. I figured that as a fan, people probably want to know their dating life, what dating is like, what type of friendships have been broken over the years, and what that means for the current relationship now. So, when thinking about questions, I try to think about not only my perspective and not only what I would like to know, but if I were a follower, what would they want to know.
The Knockturnal: You have been in the branding and entertainment line of work for some time, first starting out with Lyft and now Postmates, how did you first get into the entertainment and branding industry?
Ben Trinh: I was an early employee at Lyft. I actually was a Lyft ambassador, so at the time a was a college kid, and I would tell people about Lyft and was paid by the amount to people signed up and used your Promo Code. I did well enough that Lyft wanted to hire me, and move me to Las Vegas, were Lyft wasn’t at yet. While I was there, my job quickly turned from operations in Lyft to Partnerships in Entertainment and Marketing field. I started taking care of rides for celebrities and DJs and that’s how these relationships started. Once I had built up this network, that kind of propelled me into the Entertainment and Marketing and Brand space.
I had eventually left Lyft to start my own Influencer Agency and do what I did for Lyft, but for other clients. So that’s how I got started.
The Knockturnal: What is the biggest challenge that you have faced so far in your career?
Ben Trinh: Can I answer this a little unorthodoxly? I think ageism is a thing in our modern work world. I think that because I am younger than a lot of my peers, often times, if I’m talking to a partner or a team member, who I haven’t met in person yet over the phone, that conversation is very different than after we meet in person and after they see how young I may look. There are subtle differences that I can pick up on, sometimes it’s a respect type of thing, sometimes it’s them thinking that I’m too young to be calling the shots and be at the same station as them. I think ageism is a big thing, so I think that has been the biggest challenge that I have faced.
Some of the people that I have had on the show are very young but are also some of the most mature people that I have spoken to. Take Alexis Rhen as an example, she is in her very early twenties and on her episode where some of the deepest conversation that I have ever had.
The Knockturnal: What can we look forward to your second series of First and Featured?
Ben Trinh: I want to maintain the level of diversity on the podcast. I’m not talking about, gender or age, but I’m talking about industries or interests. Just make sure that it appeals to different audiences. Going back to why we started the podcast, we want folks to tell their stories and show their true selves on a platform that they may not necessarily always do that for. I want to make sure that their stories are diverse enough that they can be told to multiple audiences. So, people that tuned in for the episode on Alexis Rhen could be a totally different audience than those for Brother Nature. So hopefully they see that it doesn’t matter if you have 1,000 followers or 1 million, you’re still human, you’re still like the rest of us, you still have a story to tell, and you still have low points in your life and go through adversity and hardships. They are not that much different than the rest of us.