It’s announcement time! Samara and I are relaunching our podcast, Suger + Ink as the 30’ish podcast. It’s about that time right now where we are madly trying to pre-record some episodes and get everything set up to go. But before I go into all of that, let me tell you a little bit about the inspiration behind the 30’ish and why I think you’re going to love it.
What is 30’ish podcast?
What do you do when you’re 30’ish and things look a little different to what you thought they would? When I was a kid, I remember my parents seeming so ‘adulty’. I assumed my life would look the same. Husband, family, business, house, big Christmases with lots of presents. I thought by thirty I would have it all figured out. At thirty I would BE an actual real live adult. But maybe not. It turns out my teenage-self had another thing coming. 30, 35 if we’re going full disclosure, is something else.
I have not arrived, nor made it. Nor does my life LOOK a certain way. Not that there’s anything wrong with my version of thirty. It’s different, that’s all. But I don’t know about you, I had plans for my thirties when I was younger that don’t look like things do now. The plan has been abandoned (long ago) and things are chugging along in whole other direction. Half of that is as a kid you have no idea what you’re talking about and then the rest is life surprising you. In a good way!
So, let’s talk about that.
To be clear, the plan isn’t to lament the paths our lives have taken or the dreams that we have allowed to go by the wayside. I mean, how do you stay upbeat when the world’s politicians have pretty much gone crazy and you’re not sure that decent people exist outside of those ‘faith restored’ stories on the internet? I’m not sure, but I feel like it has something to do with wine, good people, doing something you love and talking about it all on the internet. Haha.
What it comes down to is that Samara and I have created pretty great lives and we want to share them with you. The ups and the downs of adulting, working, maintaining relationships and generally having a life. Told casually, in a conversation that gets real about what being an Australian 30-something woman in 2018 actually looks like. Through things like current events and day-to-day story-telling. This reimagined show is something that combines all the best of what the previous seasons of the Suger + Ink podcast was, brought into the present.
30’ish: a podcast about two 30-somethings living their best life
At this stage, we’ll launch the 30’ish podcast welcome episode and episode 01 on the 1st October. After that episodes will follow weekly for ten weeks with all going to plan and that will be season one. So, if that’s something you are into you can follow us now on Anchor (a new’ish podcast platform) in the app or via the website here. Then, after the 1st of October, we should show up on iTunes, SoundCloud, GooglePlay and all those places you can listen to podcasts.
Plus, just as with Suger + Ink, I will be putting podcast episodes on my YouTube channel where you can WATCH all the shenanigans happen. Which, given I have plans to drink way more wine while this one is being recorded, could be anything! Haha. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes it helps to put a face to the voice with this sort of thing. Don’t you think? Look for the 30’ish podcast playlist for all the episodes in the one place.
Follow 30’ish Podcast on Instagram (that’s new!), Facebook or via the Suger + Ink blog where all the show notes will appear.
There were 10 episodes in this season. Samara and I are pretty proud of that. In the past, we’ve certainly tapered off and lost our mojo just when it looked like we were hitting our stride. Frustrating as that is, we both have busy lives, and coordinating two busy women for up to three hours every week or two is hard work. Not to mention the time it takes to edit, upload and promote each episode.
Blah blah, you know how it is, right? Haha. But all that aside, this year we had a plan. During June/July Samara is super busy with the CEO Sleepout with her work at Vinnies. This year we had recorded all ten episodes leading up to this busy time for her, with a plan to start recording again in early August.
I can’t believe how much time flies!
It’s almost time to start up again. It’s crazy how fast this year is going by. It may have taken me a while to edit and upload the final episodes but we made it! Things changed; Samara got married this year, we talked about the baby thing and I tackled the bigger vision for my business. It was 100% hustle, and we made it.
Because I requested we add video this year, we tried to film at least two episodes at a time, aiming to talk at least once a week. This didn’t always go to plan, but in the months leading up to May, we made it work and managed some great content. If I do say so myself. We covered off on life, love, and a whole heaping helping of social media stuff.
Since Samara moved on from her blog to a photography side-hustle business, it didn’t make much sense to talk about clothes anymore. Though, I’ve been known to show off my Rebel Soul Collective shirts on occasion. Haha. We’re not sure where we will take it during season four, but I’m excited to find out.
I hope you’ll join us!
Check out past episodes on YouTube, Soundcloud and iTunes. I think you’ll love it!
It’s been a while now, years since I’ve talked frankly about where we were at in regards to having kids of our own. Not sure if you’re curious, but when Samara and I sat down to record a podcast episode about relationships this week, things ended up here. People in our lives know things have changed but I hadn’t really spoken about it online. Then Samara asked…
What’s the deal with you guys having a baby?
Good on her. I grilled her on newly married life. It’s only fair. Haha. And as the episode progressed I realised I’d shared a lot of the things I had been considering writing about here for a while. I just hadn’t found the space. Or time, let’s face it. So this week, while the episode sat uploaded and waiting to go live, I decided I’d write an introduction to it for the blog. And here I am.
When I started this blog in 2009, we had just started trying for a baby. Smugly, like the little jerk I was, I fell pregnant quickly without any issue. Soon after we experienced our first miscarriage. I wrote my heart out in those years as I worked my way through the wanting. Jealousy was the hardest part, the overwhelming sadness that somehow was always combined with anger and frustration. This blog was the home for most of it. I rarely spoke outside of my close circle about it, but on the blog, I felt free to share it all.
The hardest thing for me was that part of me felt I deserved a baby because I wanted one. That others were taking my chances, and it was my turn. I know that makes me sound spoiled and more than a little entitled. But I’d never been denied what I wanted before. It was humiliating and humbling in a lot of ways. I learned a lot about myself and who I am. My path, this path, has given me self-awareness and I’ll always be grateful for that.
But, as an adult woman have a baby had been pushed to the top of my list. I was unable to tick that box. somewhere along the line, I took some time to work out if it was something I wanted. Or was it just something I felt I had to do or should be doing. Where did I sit on the idea of doing what was necessary to bring a child into our home?
In the end, I changed my mind. The wanting was gone and my life spread out ahead of me.
Our lives. And together we found a life that I had chosen, carved out and negotiated with my Kelvin. A life where I set my own hours, choose my own path based on my wants or needs and change my mind again if I like. Best of all, even during busy times, I can fit in an afternoon nap. Simple examples. Perhaps now you think I’m selfish. Maybe I am. But do you see what I mean? My life, it’s created; A life built on choices and change.
That’s why at the ripe old age of 35 I’m shutting the baby shop. Which, funnily enough, as you’ll see in this episode, people tell me still gives me PLENTY of time to change my mind. Haha. But for now, I don’t think I will. And that’s the update, team. Some of you have been here since those early days in 2009 and I felt, especially if I was releasing this podcast, that you were entitled to this catch-up. From me to you.
So yeah, watch (yes, it’s a thing, get on board) the episode below or on youTube. Not into the whole video thing? The episode is live now on iTunes and Soundcloud under Suger + Ink.
That’s a ballsy title, right? Digital Marketing for an International Charity 101. Rather pompous but stay with me. Did you know that Samara, the other half of my podcast team, is a digital marketer? She is, and a big one. She works in Digital Marketing for an international charity, St Vinnies. That’s Saint Vincent De Paul to the rest of the world, haha.
In this episode, I interview Samara about her job. Stretching my interview muscles because I feel like hearing the experience of women is so important to what I’m trying to do here with this blog. We started talking and the episode ended up almost 40 minutes long and I loved every single minute of it.
I was impressed AND I needed to know more.
In her role, Samara works with the state managers and oversees the social for their Facebook and their CEO Sleepout event. Things like, how did she get there and what ‘qualifications’ did it take. What does she do day to day, and how much hands-on and planning stuff does she do.
And then most importantly, how does she deliver on the brand voice WHEN people can be dicks. By brand voice, I mean those few words that make a brand a living breathing thing. When it’s generosity, how can you be generous in the face of not that? As a charity who is involved heavily in supporting refugees, people can push your buttons.
I end up losing my mind over that a bit, haha.
My biggest thing was TELL ME HOW YOU DO THAT. How, can I do that? And how can I bring that to my business? Watch the episode here. We started recording our conversations over Skype and making it available on my Youtube channel. This episode was too good not to share, it’s easily my personal favourite we’ve ever done.
Business nerd, you know how it is. Haha.
And here we go. Pull up a comfortable spot, probably a beverage, and enjoy the newest episode. Not that into videos? It’s still available on iTunes and SoundCloud. Get the podcast into you. Did I mention I’m really proud of this episode? I did, didn’t I. Haha. My bad.
Questions? Let us know. I’ll drag Samara over here to answer all the digital marketing questions you can throw at her. If you have a question or topic you want us to cover on the podcast, leave it below. No topic gets left behind.
If you think blogs are great at changing your ideas about body image wait until you hear these killer body image podcasts! They are going to go head to head with that little voice of yours and kick its ass. Are you ready for that?
Let’s just say that I was a bit of a podcast newbie. I’d downloaded a few after a blog conference once but couldn’t really get into the format. It’s not my fault, I doze off when someone reads me a story. It’s a throwback thing, I’m sure. Since starting my very own podcast SUGER + INK last year with Samara of Blonde Ink, I’ve delved into the world of podcasts.
And the short version? Now, I love podcasts.
I love listening to them when I’m driving and when I’m chilling in my spa (which I do a rather lot). After a while, I went looking for women in far off spaces of the interwebs who are changing the way we think about our bodies. Plus size women preferably, but I was open to any and all sources.
What I did find was a slew (such a strange word) of interesting, exciting body-positive conversations to change your mind. It is these voices, these conversations that will change your mind, reprogram you, into thinking differently. Trust me on that. It’s changed my mind over and over again.
I started following Sarah during my last Confident You challenge after someone shared one of her quote images with me on Instagram. I’m glad I did because I’m loving her podcast too. Let Sarah talk to you about your body, the relationship to it and how you can support those around you.
I’m pretty new to this podcast but I’m loving it. It’s like, a super professional, lots of great guests, super awesome podcast. I love that we can talk about our relationship with food here and it feels safe and without judgement.
I don’t know about you, but I believe that most of us have some sort of distorted or disordered relationship with food. “They” programmed us that way. This podcast may be focused on eating disorder recovery, but for me, it’s helped me start to change my mind about my relationship with food and my body in general.
Ahhh bustle, it started on Facebook and now it’s here. I love this idea and while I’m only a couple of episodes into this podcast (I think it only has about ten episodes at the time of writing this) I’m loving it. Fun, professionally done (derrrr) and I can imagine they are going to access to some CRAZY COOL guests.
And of course, I’m loving mine! We return from our extended summer break on Monday and I can’t wait to get into the year. Last year we did topics of the week, but this season we hope to address more newsworthy items, things that come across our path in terms of our experience as plus size women and, for me mostly, the things that make us angry and a little bit ranty. Haha. So, tune in, I’d love to have you guys there too. The SoundCloud player is in my sidebar if you ever just want to listen from here.
And that’s my list!
Are you listening to a body image podcast that you love? Make sure you give it a shout out (name or link) in the comments, and I’ll check it out.
Oh heeey team, it’s been a while since I let you know about new episodes of our podcast, Suger + Ink. We’ve been pottering along now and racked up 11 episodes, not including our short and sweet intro episode. And can I tell you, we have learned A LOT. A lot. A loooooot.
Did I say, a lot?
Since we started, I’ve upgraded my microphone and placed it in an Ikea box for better sound. Thanks Vanessa for THAT tip, what a legend. Samara has been trialing new and exciting editing stuff and all in all, we are proud of what we are doing. It’s exciting starting something new like this. I don’t know if you’ve gone out on a ledge recently and tried something new, but I highly recommend it.
Our latest releases are around the Embrace movie (I wrote about my experience here). We discuss the movie, being body positive and I get a little ranty about such things. Sometimes I hear the tracks back and I just shake my head and laugh. Yup, apparently I sound like that. Yup, apparently that’s what I think when it comes down to it.
I have a lot of opinions, apparently. Did I mention a lot?
Interested in checking out the podcast? We are available on iTunes and Soundcloud and episodes are up weekly on our website. We’ve banked a few episodes over the past week or two and I can’t wait for them to hit the channel. Keep an eye out for updates team.
Hey team, I’d love to introduce something COOL I’ve been working on behind the scenes… The Suger + Ink podcast. I’ve teamed up with the super fun Samara from Blonde Ink on this and we cannot wait to launch our iTunes assault on the airwaves (assault may actually be correct, we’re new at this) on August 1st!
Why a podcast? HOW?
Samara is a big podcast listener. Me? Not so much. But Samara identified pretty early on that one thing that was missing from the podcast world was one about plus size women. So when something is missing why not create it for yourself, right? And after Samara emailed me floating the idea, then some back and forth, that was exactly what we did. Go us.
SUGER + INK is a podcast for plus size women.
The ones who want to see more plus size women in magazines, on TV, everywhere. For women who want to hear and discuss love, laughter, shopping, relationships, cooking, style and everything in between. We want to hang out and chat just like we would if we were catching up over wine on a Friday night.
This podcast is for you!
Join us each week as we talk about a range of topics from the F-word (which I’m afraid already came up in our introduction episode, whoop), to fabulous places we like to shop, exercise as a plus size babe, love and more. No topic is off limits. You’ll hear from two curvy ladies with real opinions about living life plus size.
And that’s my news for today! How cool is that? I can’t wait to get this little project up and running but for now, we have set up a website where you can subscribe for updates, or stay tuned. I’ll let you know when we are live on August 1st on all the socials.
Will we see you there? Are you a podcast listener?
