Welcome to the new year!

We are celebrating our five-year mark as we enter 2025.

We began during the COVID-19 pandemic and have since produced over 124 episodes.

We appreciate our loyal listeners and enjoy making the podcasts.

We emphasize the importance of having the right co-host and maintaining a good rhythm in their conversations.

Our podcast focuses on interviewing experts to provide valuable information to listeners.

We encourage listener feedback and suggestions for future topics, aiming to be a resource for the community.

The show plans topics well in advance and is open to exploring new experts and international perspectives.

We are implementing a "Buy Me A Coffee" app to help cover podcast costs and receive feedback.

If you like this episode, please let us know. We appreciate the feed back, and your support of offset costs of producing the podcast!

We stress the accessibility of podcasts for all age groups and provide instructions for listening.

Thanks to you, our listener, and wish you happy holidays and a happy New Year.

Key Moments

[00:00:00]: Reflecting on the Year and Looking Ahead

[00:00:14]: Celebrating Five Years of Podcasting

[00:00:41]: Overcoming Challenges and Reaching 100 Episodes

[00:01:25]: The Importance of Finding the Right Co-Host

[00:02:08]: Conducting Interviews: Virtual vs. In-Studio

[00:02:52]: Providing Resources and Expert Advice

[00:04:26]: Planning and Preparing for the Upcoming Year

[00:06:21]: Encouraging Listener Feedback and Topic Suggestions

[00:07:48]: Expanding Topics and Expert Network

[00:11:05]: Introducing the 'Buy Me a Coffee' Feature

We would love to hear from you.

Give us your feedback, or suggest a topic, by leaving us a voice message.

Email us at hello@lookingforwardourway.com.

Find us on Facebook.

Please review our podcast on Google!

And of course, everything can be found on our website, Looking Forward Our Way.

Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle 270 Media® Podcast Consultants.

Copyright 2025 Carol Ventresca and Brett Johnson

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

If you like this episode, please let us know. We appreciate the feed back, and your support of offset costs of producing the podcast!

We are Looking Forward Our Way. Well, it is that time of year again, end of year, the obligatory, What did we do this year? What are we doing next year?

We just want to say hi to everybody.

Exactly, exactly. Without any experts but ourselves at the microphone. We want to thank you for being a loyal listener. We really appreciate it. We have a ton of fun putting these podcasts together. And as we enter 2025, we are now at our five-year mark. Yes. Can you believe it? With looking forward our way.

Yeah. I remember our first conversations of, should we do this or not in the middle of COVID?

Right, exactly. And I'm glad we did, because I think Good point that we take a look back at our older episodes, and we have a lot of COVID-focused episodes, but that got us through. We had to discuss it. I think that information was valuable at that point in time. But what's so fun is that this past year, we passed 100 episodes, where this one will be 124. Odds are against any podcast making it past the first year.

It is. It truly is. Brett, you do all of the statistics and things. And how many? What's the percentage?

It's 20 %. Don't make it past year one.

And we're at year five.

Year five, with this iteration of the podcast.

Right. We'd actually be at year eight with our first podcast.

Yeah, exactly. It's funny. I brought this up to Carol a while back, and it didn't dawn on her until we had an episode that we changed some roles, that it's when you find the right partner as a co-host, you stick with it. When you start changing chairs and doing things a little bit differently, it throws you off completely.

Well, and we've even seen that when we've done things on virtually as opposed to face-to-face, because as we talk, we cue each other through the conversation with or without guests. But once you have that rhythm, you don't want to break it.

Yeah. The virtual interview is much more difficult when you're used to it face-to-face, for sure. Alan, but that lends toward where we are, that we definitely search out. Our podcast is based on interviewing experts and getting their expert advice. Right. And of course, some interviews are going to be via Zoom because they're out of country, possibly, or out of town, that thing. But when we can in studio, I think they have a blast coming in and talking about what they're good at.

Yes. And many of our guests have come to us with not having had podcast background. And so coming into a studio has really been significant for them.

Yeah, exactly. And we've gotten a good feedback, too, that we... This is inside baseball information, but we do give them an outline of what we're going to talk about. And I think that's comforting to know where we're thinking about going. And we always joke going, these are actually our rubber bumpers because we have to know that we get back on track because we'll deep dive. We'll go down rabbit holes because our experts are so good at what they do, they start to bring things up that we didn't even think about. Right. Oh, absolutely. And we want to go more there.

And it all goes back to the notion of Our goal, or at least it's been my goal, is to provide information to the community, to our listeners, on a topic that may be really important to them or somebody they know. Maybe it isn't important today, but it could be tomorrow. But the idea that there are so many resources available to all of us, and the only way to know is somebody to give you those resources, and that's what I hope that we can do each time.

I don't think there's been an episode that you or me or both of us have learned something. Oh, right. Or taken action or been able to give someone else advice that we think of somebody in our mind during that interview. I need to tell that person this because I just heard that from this person.

I just did that this weekend. I was corresponding with actually a national organization on elder abuse and said, Oh, yeah, here, by the way, here's one of the podcasts I did regarding that topic.

Right, exactly. Speaking of experts, So this coming year, not a lot is going to change for us, but we always tweak. We always, truly, listener, we take a look at the end of the year. We start talking probably in November about, okay, how did this year go? Did we like who we talked to, which we always do? Did we cover the topic? What topics did we cover? Did we cover enough of this? Did we fulfill what we were planning on doing? And it always changes.

Obviously, it just does. Things come up.

Yeah, exactly. But for the most part, we've been very, very happy with every year that we've put things together. But it also pushes us to look for more experts. From the very beginning, I had told Carol that it'll certainly be nice after we get into year number one, year number two, that we have this group of experts that we can always go to. Right. That we always know we can go to this person for this and this person for this, and then we bring them back on the show. And we don't have to introduce ourselves to new people necessarily all the time. We've learned nothing beats expert advice. Exactly. We have, as I always say, a corral of experts that we go to, but that doesn't limit us to what we want to talk about. We will We have. We've taken a look at experts outside of central Ohio. We've gone international this past year, which has been fun. Oh, absolutely. It was a lot of fun. And luckily, we have the technology that gets us there.

I don't know that folks realize that we actually are planning what we want to cover through all of next year already. It's some we have down, we've got scheduled, they're going to happen. Others will start conversations with people in January that may not actually get posted until the end of the year. There is really a lot of forward planning in what we're doing.

We need your input as well, too, as a listener. We could use your help in two different ways. Number one is that, yes, if there are topics that we have covered or haven't covered, or if we have covered you a little bit more detail in a different direction or that we haven't covered, we'd love to have your input on, can you cover this? Can you find an expert to cover this? Certainly. We'll try. Yeah. Please let us know. Yeah, because the podcast is here for you as well, the listener. It's not just for us. Yes, we learn and it's somewhat self-serving. I mean, we have a blast doing it. We learn things. But we also keep in mind that we represent the listener. Absolutely. We're that demographic or male, female. We come from the same perspective of that age group.

We actually bring our distinctly different experiences It's family composition to the table, different things that I've gone through that Brett hasn't or Brett's gone through that I haven't. It really makes it for a better conversation that way.

Yes, it does. I think that is heard and seen through the guests and their answers as well, too. Right. Addressing it. We definitely want your input. We also want your input in regards to knowing that we're covering the right things. Let us know that an episode really hit home.

Right. We identified the basic areas that we wanted to discuss five years ago, and things may have changed in your life, and let us know that, that suddenly there's something else at play that you need information on. Right.

And as a listener, when you hear something that resonated with you or helped you, or you know someone in your world that could benefit from listening to this podcast, send them, if you're on our email newsletter, subscription, send them the newsletter, or share the episode, or ask us, Hey, I have a friend who could listen to that episode. Can you send the episode to them. Certainly, email us. I can send them a link.

That's not a problem. You know, too, that brings up a really good point. We put together those lists of resources for every show and say you lost it, you can't find it, just let us know. I'd be I had to send it to you as an email attachment. Because I've got them all, there's not a problem. We are more than happy to share that information. If you do forward one of the emails or a link to one of the podcast, just always remember, those resources are listed in the show notes, whether it's on a podcast player or on our website.

We don't talk about this enough either. We just talked about this prior to recording that we don't talk about our home base, LookingForwardOurway. Com. Our website has everything that we've said on every podcast. So if you miss something or it's an episode that got away from you, but you know we talked about it, you can go to lookingforwardourway. Com and find that episode. Right. We've also created two tabs at the top, one called Beat Our Experts. So that's going to list everyone we've talked to for the most part, as well as another tab called Nothing Beats Expert Advice, which we have revised to at least lead you down a path to find that episode you probably are looking for. If nothing else, email us and we'll send you what you're looking for.

Exactly. We are more than happy to help out, particularly if somebody is really in a bad situation and need some resources quickly, we can get those to you.

Yeah. We are not creating a one-way conversation here. We want to have that two-way conversation. We truly do want to hear from you because number one, that solidifies that we're doing the right thing. Number two, we know we don't know everything that we should be covering. We are not insulated. We keep our ears to the ground. We watch the news. Things pop up that I'll throw an email at Carol What do you think about this topic? But then it's like, But who do we talk to? But that makes us work. And some topics we haven't covered. We've talked about a topic maybe a year and a half ago, and we finally found an expert to talk about it.

Exactly.

So it does take some time. But if you're wanting a certain topic and you may know somewhere to go with an expert around it, certainly, we will pursue it. We'll pursue that idea.

Yes, absolutely. And we really do want to make sure that we meet our goal, which is to be a resource for our community. Exactly.

With that, there is one new thing we're going to implement this year. We have some costs involved with putting this podcast together, and we're going to implement what's called the Buy Me A Coffee app, where if you like an episode, you can go to the website, and then the link will be in the show notes as well, too. But the website is the main place. Click on Buy Me A Coffee and give us a tip. It's a tip jar that It's a great way for you to, number one, have ownership of that episode. You go, Yeah, that was a really good one. Yeah, I'll buy you a coffee on that one. And it's a donation, basically. But it's a great opportunity for us to get feedback from you that we know we hit an accord somewhere that it's enough so that you saying, Yeah, that was really good. I'm going to give you a few bucks for that. I really appreciate you saving me some money because of that episode. We We're trying to implement tools to help you give us feedback as easy as possible. Yes.

And we would love to hear from you. We really want to know if we're on the right track, but also if there are topics that are really critical in your world and you haven't figured out where to get the resources, we're going to do our best to find them for you.

Yeah, exactly. Everything you want to find, again, Our website, lookingfordourway. Com. The podcast, as you're hearing on your podcast player, we're available everywhere. So when you are advocating for the podcast, you're sharing an episode, you're telling people, Hey, have you listened to Looking Forward Our Way podcast? And They don't know how to even sign up for a podcast or follow a podcast, we have instructions on our website. But help them. Or if we need to address it, send us an email. It's like, Hey, I have a friend who doesn't know how to do a podcast. I really couldn't tell them not to do it either. Can you tell them? Yeah, Yes. Or if nothing else, they go to the. Com, lookingford ourway. Com, and listen to the podcast there. That's the easiest way, really.

It is. I guess, too, that I want to encourage folks to realize that podcast Podcasts aren't just for young folks. You would be surprised at how many of your friends and family members are listening to podcast because I often hear from people that I've known in previous careers, in previous worlds and previous life parts and life phases, and they'll say, Oh, yeah, I heard your podcast. That was really good, and it completely surprised me. So don't be surprised when you send it to somebody that they may have even already heard it because they listen to us. And again, too, although our resources are from our world, from what Brett and I have experienced, oftentimes these topics are good for anybody of any age.

Right, exactly. Yes, for sure. Yes, we have a specific age group in mind, but we've actually revised that over the past couple of years that we're trying to be much more friendly to any age group because we looked at who we were talking to in the top as we were talking about, and we're looking at going, well, 25-year-old to a 55-year-old could relate to what we're talking about. We bring that to the table every time we're talking to a guest expert, is that how relatable is it to pretty much everybody in the family? It's that important to us. But bottom line, thank you for being a loyal listener for the last year, two years, three years. Have you been there from the beginning?

Thanks for listening to our rambling conversation today.

Exactly. Unscripted. If we had video on, you'd look at us like, Wow, yeah, they really are unscripted. But it's fun.

I didn't write any questions for this one.

Right, exactly. But we appreciate you as a listener, whether it's been five years or one episode. Thank you very much, and thank you for finding us. Again, you'll find everything you need at lookingforwardourway. Com. We look forward to bringing you our next episode.

Absolutely, and happy holidays. Happy New Year to everyone..