Episode 15 - From Crisis to Creativity: How Two Sisters Found Healing Through Podcasting

Welcome back to Andi & Mich—the podcast where two sisters, two generations, and a whole lot of realness come together.

In this very special episode, we're taking you way behind the scenes—back to the moment this podcast was born… in a hospital waiting room.

What started during our mom’s life-threatening heart crisis turned into one of the most life-giving creative projects we’ve ever done. Between 5 a.m. surgery check-ins, screaming in parking lots, and cracked jokes over cafeteria food, we somehow found the clarity to say: “Let’s start a podcast.”

This episode is a raw, funny, and heartfelt reflection on grief, healing, creativity, and joy. We talk about:

• How chaos and creativity collided to spark the idea for this show
• What it means to dream during hard times (and why it’s not selfish)
• Why grief and laughter are not opposites, but sacred companions
• The power of reclaiming your voice when life feels out of control
• Lessons learned as Latina sisters, daughters, and podcast newbies
• Why creativity is a scientifically backed healing tool—not fluff

If you’ve ever felt stuck in survival mode and wondered whether it’s “okay” to follow your dreams when everything feels messy—this episode is your permission slip. You don’t need to wait for things to calm down before you create. Sometimes the chaos is the spark.

🎧 Whether you're a longtime listener or new to our chaos—this one’s a must-listen.

🫶 Tag us @andiandmichpodcast and tell us: what dream are you holding onto right now?

#AndiAndMich #LatinaPodcasters #PodcastOriginStory #GriefAndJoy #CreativeHealing #SisterPodcast #StartThePodcast #HealingThroughLaughter #VoiceAndVulnerability #JoyInTheMess #WomenInPodcasting #RealLifePodcast #PodcastBehindTheScenes #CreativeDuringCrisis #PodcastTips #ReclaimYourVoice #EmotionalResilience #HealingJourney #PodcastStartup #CreateAnyway

If you liked this episode please like and follow our podcast, leave us a comment, and share it with a friend. Visit us on Youtube for extra content and full episodes https://www.youtube.com/@AndiandMich

Your support helps us to keep the conversations going. <3

-Andi and Mich

The Andi and Mich Podcast: Two Sisters, Two Generations, Unique Perspectives, Lots of Laughs

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to Andy and Mitch, the podcast where two sisters, two generations, and way too many emotions come together to figure it all out. Okay but today we are taking you behind the scenes like way behind back to the moment we decided to start this podcast. Spending way too much time in a hospital waiting room. Yeah, lots of doctors, hospital coffee, tears, takeout, and in the middle of all that. Hey, should we start a podcast? Because why not start something new when everything else is literally falling apart? We're sharing the story of how this podcast was born and why we believe it's actually vital to keep dreaming, creating, and staying connected to joy even during the hardest times. Let's get into it. So let's rewind, mom's heart surgery major. It was just a lot of up and downs in like very heavy, intense ways, emotionally. You could technically say that we've been stressed out since last year. Birth. I mean, it turned from a, something doesn't feel right to like an immediate life threatening situation. So everything else in our lives had to stop. And we just had to shift focus and try to understand what was happening and try to be supportive and make hard decisions together as a family, that we thought would be best for the outcome. And then once you make those decisions, then you gotta like go through the whole thing. And put your trust in these strangers that you don't know, to do the right thing and to provide the right kind of care. The surgeon she got was the best. And to say that was a miracle in itself, like he just got called in to consult on the difficulty of her case, and then he decided to take it. Shout out to hospital staff, doctors, nurses, like we had some really wonderful nurses that were so helpful and kind and caring. There was a few that it was like, wow, you must be an angel here to guide us. So it was like we went through all of this stuff around the health issue with the heart and whether or not surgery was gonna happen and then on surgery day, right, we had to be there at like 5:00 AM, so you and I both barely had any rest. Yeah. Drove over there at like 4:30 in the morning and the nurse that came to get mom and prep her for her surgery was like the sweetest, kindest, warmest, almost like a big sister vibe. She was from Kenya. She was the best. Yeah and we were so stressed and she was so lovely at five in the morning. And one of the things that she said to us was, go home, she said people come here and they sit here and they wait for hours and hours and hours and they're stressed and they're exhausted and you can't be of any help to anybody in that state. So she like reiterated over and over she said,"look at me, go home, sleep, eat something, rest and then come back when the doctor calls you to come back." Yep."Do not sit in this waiting room and burn yourself out, you have to take care of yourself in order to be there for your mom cause she's gonna need you more than ever once she comes out of this." And it was so like honest but warm. I think we felt like she was just hugging our souls in the moment. Then we got food and we came back, laid on the sofa. Rested. And I'm like, you know what we should do? We should start a podcast. My dog was witness, he just agreed. That was probably like the peak of stress, like the most stressful moment of like this crazy surgery that's about to take place knowing the statistics around success. Mm-hmm. And we're like. This sounds like a great idea. You know what sounds really good right now? That's what happened. Do you remember that moment? I do remember that. I also remember that she was so lovely that she let both of us in, she hid me because they're not supposed to, but because of the odds of the surgery, she was like, both of you can come in. Which is very nice of her. Yeah. And she was like, you better be quiet or you're gonna get me in trouble. Don't make any noise. It was so interesting too. And this is just a side tangent of how many of the nurses and doctors were shocked that both of us were there all the time. Like we were there every day and after a few days it's exhausting but we were there for a few weeks. So much so that some of the people thought we work there. Thought we were like doctors. But we knew how to navigate the shit outta the hospital. And they had like really good lunch too. The cafeteria food was pretty delicious. So I was like, okay, at least she's getting good food, the very least, if things go awry, she had decent meals. The majority of 2025 for us has been really wild. It's been a lot because even before all the things hit the fan in the world, we were already running on empty. Yeah we were already like, are we planning to remodel the house so mom can come home to a usable space or are we planning a funeral? And that sounds sad, but that was true every day we were just in limbo trying to figure out if she would be strong enough to go through the surgery that she needed to go through. But she couldn't come home, she had to stay at the hospital, it was like, she won't survive if she goes home and she also won't survive without surgery, but she's not strong enough to do the surgery yet. And so that's the space we were living in for so long until we shifted to the caregiving. Full blown recovery phase, which is a whole nother beast. Yeah. It was hard to move from like having to deal with that, having to deal with our own emotions, processing stuff, not being an emotional wreck in front of our mother so that she didn't feel hopeless. Yeah. And at the same time, we were lucky to have each other through it because I feel like if one of us was more removed or not around, that would've been really hard to take on solo. And, and also to have your partner and your daughter who helped us a ton too. Mm-hmm. And some family that showed up to provide support out of nowhere, like we had a cousin that drove like over an hour away after work. Just to, try to bring us dinner and like, say hello and spend time. As we talked about, our family is very intuitive whether we like to admit it or not and like that cousin who drove, drove because she had a dream that our mother told us she needed her, which is very wild'cause no one had spoken to her in a hot second. And so she just went out of her way to show up, which is really beautiful. I think I also had a little bit of PTSD from that moment'cause it was really reminiscent of dad, where everyone just showed up. And I was like, oh shit, no. It's real when every, all the family members start coming out of the woodwork but it's also navigating not only our own stuff, but then now we talked about this is like, it's even harder because you also now become the person holding space for them because they don't really know what they're walking into and then when they see the person in the state that they're really in and understand the gravity of the situation. They tend to fall apart too. And we were putting on the brave face and also comforting them when it should have been the opposite. I think some of our family members did better than others because, you know, our mother's very beloved, she's very loved and so it was really hard for people and they didn't know, they thought she was just there for like a hospital visit. She's gonna go home and also, you know, some of our family members saw the worst of it because when she had first come out of, an angiogram that they did, she suffered amnesia. And so when they saw her, she didn't even remember who she was and it was very scary for them. Yeah, because our mom's a big personality. She's very much an extrovert. She loves everybody, everybody loves her. She's very social, you know, she'll listen to anything you have to say, she'll buy anything you're selling. She's very like, wants to make everybody feel seen and included and heard and kids love her, animals love her, she's just like a walking heart. Literally. Yeah, I mean, she has a bad attitude sometimes, but she's a Gemini, so what do you gem expect. We know it's coming. Don't even lie, Geminis, if you're listening to this right now, you know exactly what we're talking about. You guys are literally walking coins 24/7, heads or tails, we don't know. So that was like the start of our 2025. It was like Happy New Year and then boom chaos. So once we got to a place where it felt more stable, and then the rest of the world opened up to us more fully, it was like, oh shit. Oh, did you hear about the big beautiful bill. Also democracy is falling apart. On and on and on. It's been a wild, ride. So looking back, do you think we were a little emotionally unhinged? I mean, we screamed in the parking lot. It's just like you find yourself kind of numb, like you start numbing out because it's just too much and so I told Mitch, we got in the car and I'm like, okay, here's what we're gonna do we're gonna scream, I'm gonna count to three, and we're just gonna scream to the top of our lungs. There's nobody else in this parking lot. I mean, if there was, I mean, it was like five in the morning, right? Somebody else was there. They probably thought we were batshit crazy. No, there was a guy, he was a little bit far and he was walking and he did see us, but he was just like nodding like, yeah, I get it. He's like, same. And we just screamed in the car. And then we laughed and then we were like, let's go get breakfast. I think we laughed a lot too. I think that was really helpful. But definitely a little bit emotionally unhinged. Like in a very goofy, you don't know what you're gonna get from us kinda way. And also like innately wise,'cause we both like doing creative things, we're both creative people. So it was almost like our brain was like, Hey, this is an outlet and I need you to see it and pay attention to it'cause it will help you. Yeah, a lot of times we don't realize that, like, when we need creativity, we need to have that outlet or to engage in a creative act especially when we're under a lot of stress. It's our brain's way of saying, I need you to help me out. Like I'm overloaded and you need to help me out now. It can feel ridiculous to think about taking on something like this or even thinking about being creative in any way when everything feels like it's falling apart around you, but it really isn't. We have the added bonus of having such a traumatic life, I call it a bonus, and here's why. I think it gives you a lot of knowledge and experience to deal with life differently. And that does kind of fuel creativity. There's a creative element in that, where you kind of have to come up with ways to survive. This sounds really dark, but I'm just saying like, it gives you this grit. And this resilience that you don't find in a lot of people I mean, studies have found that resilience and grit are often built out of surviving hardships. And so because we've had that, it's kind of fine tuned us to be able to laugh in those moments, to not just get stuck in that frozen state. Who do you think, laughed more during our first recordings? You? I don't know. I feel like we both laugh a lot. I think you laugh more. I cackle. When I laugh, laugh, I sound like I'm a whole different woman. Or a bird. Do you think you were tech support or vibe coordinator? I feel like you were both for a while. It depended on how much sleep each of us got. Fair. I think that's still the case. It's a balance between, there's certain tech things you do, there's certain tech things I do, and then the vibes like we're trying to keep each other aligned. You mean in the podcast or in life? Because I was talking about the hospital. In the podcast. Oh, you're more vibe coordinator, i'm more tech support I think. In the hospital. I thought the hospital like. If our podcast had a launch theme song, what would it be? I will Survive, it could also be... like a Loony Tunes, where it's just gibberish, but it makes sense. I actually like that the best. That's what it felt like, a montage of failed intros and someone yelling, wait, are we recording? We did have a few instances where we thought we were recording and then we weren't. Oh my God and those were the best takes. We're like, man, we nailed it and then it's like, not recorded. We're like, no, no. Alright, I wanna go back to what you were saying a minute ago. Let's talk about the myth of survival mode. This idea that in hard times you're only supposed to be serious, focus, hustle, no joy allowed'cause everything's serious and you gotta be making important decisions. Like creativity is only for when things are calm and stable. I mean, let's be real, that's never the case. Doing something creative, like creating this podcast for us, like it didn't pull us away from reality. It became like a tool that grounded us in it and helped us like reconnect to ourselves. Yeah, I mean, how many people can say they recorded their first episode while healing a broken heart? Literally. Doing sound checks between crisis modes and medical updates. Let's expand on that. When have you felt like you had to get serious and put joy on hold? That's the general default sentiment all the time. I feel like when anything is difficult, hard involves fear, grief, especially like if you're grieving, you're not allowed to feel joy. And I think that's a myth. Once you experience your first loss of a family member or friend, you understand that tears are part of unexpressed love and joy is part of unexpressed love. And it's a combo situation when you're experiencing grief. Yeah you can experience both'cause I think we're programmed to feel ashamed or embarrassed if we're not down in the dumps with everyone 100% of the time and so to feel joy while you're experiencing hardship or a scary time or grief. You can be made to feel like that's a betrayal, but it's not because the grief doesn't go away it's still there. You're just giving yourself an opportunity to experience another emotion and potentially an outlet of some sort for all the stuff that you're holding onto and not giving voice to and not talking about. I would argue too when you're able to laugh, and when you're able to find some of the joy and even some of the beauty and some of those hard moments, it's almost like a catalyst, like something that helps the grief move through you and grief is not like this stagnant thing. It doesn't stay forever the way that people portray it but it also doesn't really leave you, it kind of just comes in waves. So if you're in a position where you're grieving and you feel stuck, just know it's gonna come in waves and be patient with yourself. Maybe give yourself permission to feel those little moments of joy or recant good things or laugh at some of the hardships. Even sometimes the people who are in the situations, like our mother particularly, who was having really hard moments with herself, coming to terms with the fact that she might not live past those two weeks where it became really difficult. Even she was cracking jokes, you know? And some of it was from fear and some of it was from like, you can't just stop living just because you might be dying. Because we all are dying, right? Yeah. But that's why it's so important to be able to allow yourself to feel, the plethora of emotions. And sometimes it feels if we laugh or we dream or we're being creative, that it can be irresponsible during hard times. But grief and laughter are not opposites, they're companions on the emotional rollercoaster of being alive. And it create a sense of vulnerability, which is really interesting when you really think about it. Because when you laugh, you're putting your guard down. Like when you're sharing humor with people, you're putting your guard down and you're showing your humanness to each other and like grief cracks us open and laughter kind of helps us stitch ourselves back together. These little giggles are healing moments for us in the process. And it's not just with grief, fear, stress, uncertainty, all of those things. Both can coexist at the same time. How has this podcast challenge or shifted the mindset for you? Doing this was a reminder. It was like a very powerful reminder, things don't have to be siloed, they can coexist. And there is a purpose for doing both at the same time, for taking on like a creative project that, which kudos to us, we've both been very committed to, following through on. By taking that on during a time when we're giving 90% of ourselves to caregiving and other things. It was such a necessary outlet that we probably didn't even realize that we needed as much as we did. And then we started to have so much fun doing it. And it just became something that we looked forward to. Something that's like kind of a superpower of both of us is that we have always had this ability to find the light in the dark. I love really like edgy dark comedians. There's something so cathartic about the fact that we live in this space where you can find the contradiction, the humor lives within the contradiction of the statements but if you listen to the entirety of the joke, the contradiction exists within it. And so I think that is something that's really been like a superpower of us is like, we find the contradictory moments within the seriousness of what is occurring, on a subconscious level that we're able to giggle and laugh and make silly jokes to kind of just like take the edge off. Yeah because laughter is really a healer, right? It's such a healing modality like. I think biologically science proves it releases all the good, feel good chemicals in our body. But there's something really sacred about it like if we let joy do its sacred work, it does remind us that we're alive. That we're connected and we are capable of finding light even in the dark. And it's like if you can't laugh at life, then what are you even doing? The people that carry themselves through life without joy and laughter, I can't even imagine what that is like. I feel like I've used laughter as a tool since being a kid and experiencing hardship as a kid, but always being able to laugh with people and find those moments where you can do that. It does, like you said, it sheds light on something that is very heavy and very dark. And then it gives you a moment to breathe in that and it creates connection'cause like when you can laugh with other people, like you're connecting with them beyond words. I really do think that just comes from life experience and loss and grief and hardship. And not everybody experiences stuff that gives them that tool. So sometimes if you know you're not particularly skilled in that area, or you're not familiar with those kind of tools, having or leaning into friendships that you may have or close companions that you have that exhibit those tools is really helpful too because they can be the ones that kind of provide the comedic relief to the hardship of life. Finish the sentence, I used to think dreaming during hard times was blank, but now I know it's blank. I used to think dreaming during hard times was selfish. And now I know that it's a necessary superpower. Dreaming encompasses the idea of like joy and creativity and humor, if you can tap into that, it's a superpower. Like you will be much better off being able to utilize whatever part of that you can than if you just ignore it and feel like, oh, it's selfish or shameful. I agree with that. So essentially kind of what we're saying is creativity it really is a lifeline. It reminds us that being creative and that the importance of continuing to do something isn't fluff, right? It's medicine and all of that keeps us grounded and reminds us who we are and sometimes. You tap into parts of yourself that are more creative than you ever thought you could be. You're learning a new skill. Like we learned how to do all this stuff from scratch, really? We had no clue what we were doing, we messed up intros, deleted full episodes by accident. Yeah, glitched out. Deleted. It still hurts. I think one of the times I got so mad. Yeah, you did. And Mitch was like. Let's just, it's okay. Let's just rerecord it. We'll do it right now. And I was like, no. I packed up my stuff and I left. I was so mad. I was like, I can't believe we put all this effort into this. And then it just like didn't pan out. Yeah. But I had to let it go. And also, that's part of the hardship that I was saying, creativity is great and it's fun and it's worth it, but it is not easy cause there's moments like that that happen and you have to be able to just keep rolling with the punches. And showing up anyway and giving yourself permission to be joyful and to reconnect with, our own voices in this case'cause we're both doing this as a duo. Yeah. One of the biggest takeaways is reconnecting to your voice, because I do think that when you're in crisis mode or you are caregiving or you're facing a time of hardship, we tend to shift into people pleasing mode. And in that we automatically become a little disconnected from our own voice. And then we become taken over by whatever event is unfolding in front of us and when you're putting everything on hold, even more so. Doing something like this, specifically the podcast. And I think this is true for both of us, it helped us to stay connected, like to come back to our voice and even more so like find our voice in the chaos. Yeah, true. Even if where you are is in a hospital waiting room, whispering ideas between doctor updates. If you've got a dream, don't wait for things to be perfect. I think create from where you are. That's another lesson learned. If we weren't in this space of hardship and we had the conversation of, hey, we should do a podcast, do you think we would actually have done it? You had the idea of doing a podcast, I think that's the first time I heard it was from you. And then when you came to the thing like, we should do a podcast, I was like, okay, and then I just dove in. Yeah. I don't think it would've come together in the way that it did if we were waiting for the perfect time. It's almost like the timing presented itself. Everything stopped just enough for us to say, well, we should do something with this energy and so it's like you had an outlet, you knew what you were gonna do, and then you're like, you basically invited me to be part of this version. The different levels of healing through a creative project. And specifically for us doing a podcast, because if we think about being women podcasters being Latina podcasters coming from the families that we came from where people didn't talk openly a lot about. Still don't talk. About very much of anything besides chisme.. So giving voice like by using our voices in this way, it's also doing some generational healing. It even like has encouraged our mom to talk more about some things with us. Yeah, it is generational healing, and it does give our mother more courage to talk about things maybe she never thought she could. Another thing I wanna say too is like, it's making me recognize how many women probably throughout our lineage, who were never asked these questions. Right? Like no one ever was curious to ask them. Or even felt like they had the freedom to speak openly about a lot of these things. Whatever the case is, it's very healing to have intentionally put ourselves in this position. I'm very grateful for it. I like, I love what we're doing with the podcast and more importantly, I love the effects that it's having on us. And it's validating a lot of experiences cause as women, I can say this confidently, we're like the secret keepers of everyone's junk. I also mean this by like lived experiences. Like if things go wrong, people expect you never to speak about it. It's shunned to speak about it and this is from all walks of life, right? Even in professional settings, relationships, friendships, like we are secret keepers. And that's just part of the gig, unfortunately. And so I think this is like a really beautiful way to kind of break out of those molds and challenge a lot of those structures. Let's also talk about how creativity is far more than just feeling artsy. It's a scientifically recognized coping strategy. It can intensify and channel emotional processing. As Andy mentioned, if fosters resilience and psychological growth, especially post-traumatic growth. It boosts emotional wellbeing in students and during crises and it's predictable and measurable, across cultures and various settings. It is science back proven it's in the research. Yeah and whenever you're taking on a creative project, I think that's. If you're really paying attention, that's probably the most powerful takeaway is the impact that it's having, not only on you, but other parts of your life, including your family and your lineage. Let's get into a little bit of reflection about the podcast, because I think that's specifically what the big creative outlet was for us going through crisis. How effortless the act of conversation is with you about topics that I never speak about. Hmm. Like sexy stuff. Yeah and how it's kind of bleeding in other areas. Now I'm like sharing with like certain people that I was more reserved with. I'm like, oh my God, have you seen that one show where they're all naked? Like, they're like, what are you talking about? That sounds weird. I'm like, yeah, it sounds weird, but watch it and then report back. But then it's not weird anymore once you watch it. Yeah, so I think that's a big one, is just like, the ease of transitioning back to being so comfortable with myself that I'm open about talking about things that i've just kind of held close to my chest. You know what I mean? Yeah. What about you? Two things one is, the level of compatibility between us as sisters. Like seeing how we're so different from each other but it like compliments each other in a really weird way. And so it's this balance, it feels like we're like the seesaw, we're on each side, right? Two are like the aha moments where sometimes I think I'm gonna talk about one thing, but I'll say something else and then later I'm like, why did I say that? And then how much you learn about yourself and your level of. Of comfortability and stories that you tell about your life. Is there an episode or moment that's felt most true to you or an episode that we've done so far that's like your favorite? The sister one that was my favorite because like the vibe is just, there we're like laughing, having a good time. It was very effortless in editing because it's like, it was just really funny. I think the ones where we laugh the most are my favorite. Yeah, agreed. It's interesting when you're doing podcasting because you kind of have to find your flow. And I know that some people are very heavily scripted because I like to do research. I did a lot of research on like podcasting and setting up episodes. And some people are very heavily scripted. Some people are not scripted at all. They're just winging it. And I feel like we found like a middle ground where we wanna have a sense of what we wanna talk about but then it feels effortless and it does feel natural. And sometimes we don't even follow what's in front of us we're just like, okay, we're gonna go rogue and talk about whatever. But I do think the times when we're getting in the groove and we're just flowing with conversation and the energy's right. We've had just the right amount of caffeine. Just the right amount of food. All of the above. How do you think we stay creatively inspired? Because we do get tired. We are busy in life, we have a lot of other things going on. Uh, yeah, I don't know. I'm really trying to figure that one out. If you think you're gonna go into being like this creative person and it's gonna be like really easy. It's like, no, it takes, it takes work in the form of dedicating time to it and then, and making sure that you, you show up and do what you say you're gonna do. Mm-hmm. Which is sometimes harder for people than it is for others. So what I feel emotionally, in terms of like joy and happiness that I get out of being creative is worth it. So much so that I will be creative in uncomfortable spaces or tense spaces despite. And I can say this for many creatives, but for myself with this one, what makes this even more exciting is that this is such an easygoing situation. And so I think because it's light, giggly, fun, the work is worth it. What about you? I think it's because it's fun. I really enjoy doing it. It's, I think it's using our brain cells in new ways. So it's making us think and learn new skills that, hey, we can now produce podcasts all over the world if we wanted to'cause we know how to do it. Just saying hire us as a duo.. Yeah like I think it's feeding our brains, it's feeding our souls, it's feeding our spirit and I just enjoy doing it. Like to give up a, a half a day or a day to work together and record and do all the editing and things that we need to do for it on the back end. It's fun for me. And so because it has that joy attached to it, it feels easier to stay inspired and to jump into creativity because it's meaningful mm-hmm. In a like, joyful way, right. And I do think that's important. If you're gonna pick a project to work on, that joy does need to be one of the elements of it. In order for it to really be fulfilling and meaningful for you. Yeah. There's actually an equation for this. It's creativity equals imagination multiplied by action. So imagination is the ability to think of the possibilities and action turning thoughts into reality. If you were to identify the critical elements of creativity. Those probably vary between people, but for the most part, I would say joy needs to be one. And I think from that comes purpose and meaning. And then there has to be action too, right? Yeah, you know what's interesting is, like you say that, and I think it's different for everyone. I agree with that because I, meaning does come sometimes ahead of time of the act of creating for me but a lot of times it comes after. Mm-hmm. So sometimes, like I'll write a song or a story or whatever. I'll do something and then I'm just doing it. And then later I'm like, oh, wow, there's some real depth in there, what the hell? You know? Yeah. Like after the fact, and even like with the podcast episodes. So, I think meaning does exist in the initiating want to create something. But it's deepened in the aftermath. Yeah, it exists in the, in the initiating act of wanting to create, but the deep meaning resides in the result. Is there anything that we've said or done on the podcast that you still think about? Oh yeah. I just hope my ex over hears that one episode. I think about that sometimes. Who cares? I feel like, yeah, if you're listening, you know who you are. Who cares? We need to feel empowered to talk about whatever we wanna talk about From our perspectives based on our experience. Experiences. Wow. Look at us. I know. Look at us growing. No, I meant because we finish each other's sentences. Oh, sandwiches. Yeah. Yeah. We each other's sandwiches. Oh my gosh. What about funniest or weirdest moments while based on what we've recorded so far? We're like 15 episodes in. I know, I actually went back and listened to them, which I never do that for any project. I went back and started listening to them. I was like, oh, they're pretty good. Oh, that one's really funny I do the same thing i'm like, wow, that's us. That's pretty incredible. I think it also helps build confidence too, because. We as individuals get in our own heads about things. Yeah, a lot, especially when you're trying to do something creative and or you are going to take that leap and be vulnerable and put it out to the public where strangers are going to pay attention to something that you've created and you can create some weird story, but then you hear it back and you're like, oh, that's way better than I ever thought it was or was going to be. I think podcasting also teaches you to just let go. Because you have to free flow and again, you may in your head think I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say it this way, it's gonna sound so amazing. And then you do it and you're like or something else comes out and you're like, that's not what I wanted to say. But it just fit better anyways. And so there's a flow that you have to just release and let go and trust yourself. And the more you do it, the more you trust. Now we just jump on. We're like, what are we say? What are we talking about? I don't even read the questions ahead of time. Because we've built a different level of trust in ourselves and each other. In the process to just go wherever the conversation takes us, even if it's not where we initially thought it was gonna be. I like that more than anything I like things that feel authentic and I think that you do too. And that's kind of why we're like, no bs, no filler. Yeah, also in a head space where I'm done performing, I'm done being performative. Right? It's more of, we're taking so much goodness away from this experience. That the people that are gonna listen and relate are gonna find it, and they're gonna listen and they're gonna relate and they're gonna really enjoy it as much as we do. And the people that don't won't. And that's okay. Get outta here. Scram. Actually, don't we need you to stay and listen? No, please subscribe and share with 10 of your friends. We have a lot of bloopers. Because, you know, sometimes we're over caffeinated and then it's like, or sometimes I say a real name and I'm like, no retract, retract the real name. Yeah, we're trying to protect those who are not volunteering to be. Except for Monica in that one episode she's out there, but there's a thousand Monicas and you'll never know which one. Oh my God. What's an episode that almost didn't happen, but you're glad it did. The fashion fails. Yeah. I was really against it and then, and then Andy convinced me, and I'm glad it, I'm glad it did happen because after the people that I've listened to it so far that we know have like really responded to it and like felt really empowered to be like their own little fashionistas. Yeah, you were so against it. I really was. And then it actually ended up being good. I think one of the ones that I was like on the fence of was pet peeves because I thought we're gonna sound like two crazy old ladies, but it's actually really funny. Like I really enjoyed listening to it, and got a lot of good feedback about it. So you just never know, right? Listen, we're not here to please anybody. We're just trying to be ourselves, that's all we can do. The best we can do in life is be the best version of us. And if you like it, great and if you don't, I don't care. And at times the worst version of us, which makes it so, yeah which makes it sometimes the funniest. Yeah. Well the best version of me also makes a lot of mistakes. There you have it. You got it. I'm the Chaos sister. Have you heard that episode? You know, I thrived in the tornado of life. So we've learned a lot of new skills we've talked about that editing, interviewing each other, marketing, you know, who knows where it'll go next, but what's something you think you'd do differently if we were starting over today? Nothing really. We were chatting about it'cause there was no expectation and now there's like a little bit of growth and like a little bit of like cool things happening. People actually listening. It's just nice and I still don't have like these incredibly rigid standards, and I think that's why it's so free right now. I wanna keep that mentality about it, for as long as possible. But it's also exciting to hear that people are actually finding it and that people are listening and relating and it makes me feel like we're doing something good in a world right now that's pretty chaotic. Yeah and that was really part of our initial goal. When we talked about like, what was the purpose behind it, not realizing all the other things we were gonna get out of it. But when we were trying to build the basic structure of the podcast, it was, we just want to be some good in the world. And help people feel connected and seen and heard as just ordinary people living ordinary lives. And if we could be a spark of joy for somebody, then wow we've totally made it. We've done it. We've done it. We've done our job. Realizing that we were doing a lot of that for each other, and also recognizing that there's just not enough of that out there. And to be two women doing it, if these men can get online and show up they're. The worst opinions ever, let's be real. And talk about nonsense, then we can do the same thing and do it better. Uh, except not nonsense facts. Okay? We're based in mostly science, sometimes opinion, a little bit of emotion and some chaos, the best. The best recipe for people who are thinking about maybe doing a podcast or are interested, what's something that you would want them to know? I'm not gonna share any of my secrets with you. Secret sauce. What you said earlier, really resonated with me is that it's work. Like be consistent, be dedicated. Have fun with it'cause if you're not having fun with it, then what are you even doing? And know that Yeah there's a little work that you're gonna have to put into it, you know? Yeah. Anything that's quality takes effort and so you just apply that equation to anything in life, a relationship, a podcast, an art project, a funeral. And what I will say too is we started with like cheapy basic mics that we still use from Amazon you don't have to invest a ton of money. You can start with as many of the free, easy, low cost tools and it all works the same. That is one bit of advice that I would give to somebody who wants to start something, whether it be a podcast or anything else. Just start. Like Andy mentioned right now, if you're doing a podcast, there's free tools out there. There's a lot of programs that may it really easy to streamline things that are affordable. You don't have to get like, the whole setup with an interface and a mixing board and all the things, you can get some small mics and kind of work your way up to those things. And there's free softwares you can use. Yeah. But the really what I would advise is like, make sure that you create something that sounds like you. So whatever you're doing, it has to sound like you, and you don't want it to be like this robotic, boring thing, you want it to be interesting and fun just like you probably are. And you might not be. And then if you're not, then like, don't do a podcast. Do something else. Wow. Do do something else that's fun but do something else that like still like makes you like joyful. What about our next level vision? What are we dreaming of next? I tend to thrive when I'm telling no one what I'm doing, and I just show them what I've done. Yeah. I've noticed that with every creative endeavor. If I overshare prior to actually completing it, the things will always shift and change in eb and flow. And so I like to, I like to just continue to do things and then be like, Hey, surprise, look what I've done. And also I'd love to hear what people wanna hear. Like if there's certain things that you really love that we've done or you would love to hear us do, send it to us in a DM and it might show up at some point. How do we want our listeners to feel after each episode? Like, Hmm. Oh expression. No worries. What's the word for that? There's a German word for it, for sure. Yeah. It's like, I don't know if there is a word for it specifically, but like that sense of like calm, joy, confidence. You know the way that you feel when you feel like, oh yeah, I get it, and somebody gets me. Yeah, it's called ausatmen which is a German word to exhale calmly. Yeah, like a sense of calm, peace, joy, you know, like A joyful contentment, right. Also like an an excitement to like hear the next thing or share something that came up for you when you were listening with somebody else and like to spread the joy. And to continue the conversation beyond our podcast. Like that's the dream. To take what we're dishing out and hand it out to other people too. That'd be nice. It's like when you're in line, like when you're in line buying food or you're at Starbucks and then the person in front of you pays it forward. And that little like excitement that you get when you're like, they paid for me. And then the dread that you're like. How much is the person's behind me though? 100%. We want you to fill that. Just the first part, not the second part. In terms of how do we want our listeners to feel after each episode? I want them to feel like if they sat in a conversation with two of their closest friends. Yeah. Warm. Even if you weren't able to speak, sometimes in those moments where you leave and you're like, the hilarious crap that they just said, or the fun stuff that they, or the heavy stuff that they just said gave you that card to be human. To feel like you can be yourself. Yeah'cause we're grown women, like there's probably a lot of people who are listening to this and they feel some sort of the mix of things that we're unpacking. To have that outlet that I didn't have when I was younger or that you maybe didn't feel like you had at certain points in your life where you just needed another grown woman to say, yeah, it's totally fine, you're Even when shit's falling apart and you're getting your hands messy, you're still okay. And you're gonna be okay. Yeah. That would be really, really great. Yeah. Then I would know we succeeded. Yeah what is it called? Fail forward, do things imperfectly, take chances you know, embrace yourself. I had a moment where I was like, are you just saying adjective? Adjective? Third thing here. I agree with that, I love that answer 100%. We want it to feel like you just had a cup of coffee with someone that just made you feel good, and heard you and saw you, and there's a sense of warmth and joy that goes with that and a relief. So if you're listening to us and you're thinking, that's batshit crazy, you are right. And now is the time, maybe now is exactly the time. That moment it was just like, it was the perfect moment to say, Hey, we should do this together because, one, we're having really great conversations'cause we're spending all this time together and really bonding. And two, somebody somewhere might be able to relate to that and we can share that out and laugh with other people and, normalize a lot of what we're experiencing. After all, we're just humans. We are just humans. Alright, here's your reminder. You don't have to earn your joy. You don't have to wait to be stable or done healing before you create, even in the midst of chaos. If we can make a podcast in the middle of a heart crisis, literally, you can follow that dream that's been poking at you silently in the back of your mind. So we wanna know what is your dream? Share it, we wanna hear it. And hey, send this to someone who needs this reminder that their dreams matter, especially in the midst of uncertainty and they should start as soon as they feel they're ready. Your dreams aren't just stories you tell at night. They're blueprints for what's possible. See you next time. Bye bye.