Jul 24, 20234 min read

The First Year | Podcast

Updated: Jan 12

Hey, you! 🥰

A year ago I decided to start my own podcast. I can't fully remember why, but I thought it would be cool. For the longest time, I didn't even know what a podcast was and I've never had an interest in them until I watched the series "Only Murders in the Building", which made me want to give true crime podcast a shot, and well hook, line, and sinker. Hahaha.

So when I sat down to think what I would talk about, my mind went blank. I don't have any talents. I'm not an expert in anything whatsoever. Sure, I have passions but were they worth talking about? I wasn't so sure. I wanted something authentic and natural.

And then it hit me! I would talk about our life experiences. Nothing more natural and authentic than that! And you wouldn't believe the shit we've been through.

Just this year, we've had to hitchhike our way to Paris, take the most uncomfortable night train to Lourdes, been sick more times than you can count on the fingers of one hand, hosted a foreign exchange student, prepared a confirmation, and we still don't know if we're going to the Philippines or not by the end of this week.

And I haven't talked about all the other things we've experienced in our life and that includes travelling with a dead person in a plane. I swear you can't make things up like that! Hahaha

In 12 months, I have put out 26 episodes (including this one). That's 14 more episodes than Meghan Markle's podcast in 3 years!!! I don't want to compare, but yeah, I feel pretty productive! Pat on the shoulder.

In case you're wondering, I'm not doing it thinking of the money I could make. Although, needless to say, if it did generate money that would be wonderful especially to finance future adventures. But deep inside, I feel like the podcast, the blog, and all of my socials are proof of life. I want to leave a trace of our lives somewhere out there.

And it's funny because the other day, my daughter and I had a discussion and when I asked her, why she loved going out so much. She answered me, "I want to live Mom. I want to live in the moment. I don't want to be stuck in my room - I want to be out there and experience things." I didn't tell her then, perhaps because I was a bit surprised by her answer, but I don't think anyone could have understood her more than me at that moment.

As of today, season 1 is officially done and hopefully in September, we will be back in business with season 2. I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to talk about then.

But before I say goodbye, I want to answer some recent questions I received and I thought they were pretty interesting. I always love receiving questions from our listeners, so please keep them coming.

First - what lessons have you learned after one year of having a podcast?

This is not easy work! I basically do everything from A-Z. I plan the episode, write the post, record, edit, upload, and then share on my socials. It's not physically hard as some other jobs might be, but it's not easy peasy either. And it takes a lot of time!

Second - do you consider collaborations with other podcasters?

Yes and no. Yes because it sounds like fun and no, because I wouldn't know where to begin and how it works. But that's definitely something to think about.

And lastly, what are you expecting from your podcast?

I just want to continue what I'm currently doing. I like to start each episode with, "Hi Friends! Welcome to A Life with Love Podcast. We all have a story to tell, here’s ours." That's cool, but I was thinking that once in a while I would like to hear your stories too. A huge jaw-dropping moment for me was looking at my stats a few weeks after I started and seeing that people from around the world were listening to our podcast. Belgium, USA, UK, France, Philippines, Brazil, Singapore, Italy, just to name a few. I also regularly receive messages of support from friends. I feel a bit shy when I do, but it's also very comforting! And I was thinking, wow I would love to hear their stories. Your stories.

So this is it. I feel like I need to end this with something cheesy like yeah I survived. Or better yet, if it makes you happy then it doesn't have to make sense to anybody else.