About The Apprenticeship Diaries Podcast

The Apprenticeship Diaries (T.A.D) Podcast

Hosted by Amy Nicholls and Rico Illiano, this podcast is a collection of professional education journeys (some apprenticeships, some formal education).

What was the start?

How have times changed?

What was specific or not specific?

What can the future gain from the past?

Could we be better moving ahead?

This entire podcast is an apprenticeship journey in itself. It started as a simple want to podcast (after Amy discovered the medium). Like most wants, the 'thought' was the easiest part; Whereas the execution was/is the real challenge.

Both of your hosts have full-time jobs and do this podcast as a passion project (as of April 29, 2021). Moreover, our audio engineer, Chuck Nunn, works for us out of the goodness of his heart (Bless him! We hope to pay him one day. 🙏). As you listen to our show and view it on Instagram, you'll note a lot of things: audio debacles (none of which are Chuck's doing), late postings, a gaggle of different looks, fonts, logo changes, etc... This is a moving art piece in itself... A Diary; An Apprenticeship Diary!

Although diaries are traditionally kept personal and not to be read out loud, we encourage everyone to look at ours. The hope is that with enough stories, honesty, and transparency, we can help humans love each other better through challenging times (You know... like when you're trying to teach or learn?)😬.  

Our first episode aired on Sept 1st, 2019 and it was called, "First to Walk the Plank"; This was Amy's first time sharing her apprenticeship journey on record. In the background and everyday since, this podcast has had it's hosts scrambling to learn and keep up with the demands of what it actually takes to be podcasters and what is involved with podcasting. Your hosts learn, live and love together. The start of this podcast was also the beginning of Amy and Rico's personal relationship (which often gets in the mix as well). 

We have a heavy focus on Tattoo Artistry (mostly because it is Amy's area of expertise and a profession that is taught via apprenticeship), but as we assessed the premise of the podcast, we realized that all professions deserved a deep dive into the question of, "What it takes?" All professions are confronted with the changing of time, techniques, education, technology, attitudes, etc... Furthermore, even when paying for higher education and getting a degree, we have seen that it hardly prepares a person for what's next. Typically, there's specific work-place, on-sight knowledge, that must be obtained after getting a job (an apprenticeship in our eyes). We want to hear all about the journey.

We've now been podcasting for a time and feel a bit more steady than in the beginning. There's still technical issues (none of which are ever Chuck's fault) and constant work involved with learning podcasting, but we get better all the time... and that's the point!

Join us for more tales of "beginnings" and see how the tattoo artists and professionals, we revere, got started!

If you would like to offer your professional origin story, please email us at theapprenticeshipdiaries@gmail.com We take tales at all stages... You don't even have to have an apprenticeship yet; You just have to have a simple idea of what you want and be willing to talk about it. We would love to say, "We knew you when...!"

~REMEMBER: The only difference between you and your mentor is time and how much you want to get the F out of your own way! 

Wherever you find us, we ask that you please rate and write a review. This helps our baby podcast so very much! If you got nothing good or constructive to say, we ask that you spend your listening time on another podcast. No sense wasting more time on the the things we don't like... Right?