Hey! You missed an episode Sam! Behind the Podcast

Sam missed an episode! Why?

Taking time to pause, reflect, and reset is just as important in life as it is in the garden 🌱

In this personal episode of White Strawberries, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast after nearly a year of consistent episodes. From humble beginnings (yes… five downloads and my mum falling asleep 😅) to growing a global audience, this episode dives into what’s working, what’s been surprisingly hard, and what’s coming next.

With the lead-up to Matariki, I’m stepping into a seasonal reset — reflecting on the past six months and intentionally designing the next phase of this podcast, my courses, and how I support you.

If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to build something from scratch — or you’re on your own journey of growth — this one’s for you.

🌱 What You’ll Discover

•  What I’ve learned after 45 podcast episodes 
•  Real podcast growth stats
•  The hidden complexity of email lists, websites, and automation 
•  Why I’m taking a month off and what I’m resetting 
•  The vision behind my Grounded gardening course 
•  I've reduced my grocery bill while eating high-quality food 
•  Why growing your own food is becoming more important than ever 
•  How you can shape future episodes through Q&A and voice messages 

🔗 References & Resources Mentioned

•  Grounded Course (coming soon) 
•  White Strawberries Podcast Website (in progress) 

🎧 Previous White Strawberries Episodes You Might Enjoy

🎧 Connect with me.

Transcript

White Strawberries Podcast Update and Reflections

[00:00:00] Hello beautiful people. I am really enjoying recording this podcast because as you know, I had last week off and um, it feels really nice to have had a week off. I'm not gonna lie, I went down to Nelson. I did some of the great taste a bike , and we were going past these apple orchards. And, uh, we stopped off at some really cool restaurants and we stayed in this bougie accommodation that had solar panels and it was just very refreshing and very lovely.

And for this month, uh, coming up and during May, what I'm gonna be doing is I'm gonna be doing a deep, reset on this podcast. And what I'm doing with White Strawberries is something that I like to do on the lead up to Matariki every year, which is, uh, the winter solstice in New Zealand, but is part of the Māori New Year and is a time for reflecting on the past and moving forward to the future.

And so what I thought would be really fun, and I really get a lot out of this when people sort of share behind the scenes of what's going on for them in their podcast, is I wanted to share with you what's going on, uh, for me and White Strawberries. Then next month I'm taking the month off to do this, to spend some time, uh, really reflecting on what I wanna do.

Um, something I really love to do in the garden, as you would've heard back in December, uh, with some goals and goal setting, but actually. In, in a much bigger way. I like to set six monthly goals, and how I do it is I do, the six warmer months of the year and the six quarter months of the year. And I have a lot of personal goals and I also have some, business goals.

And so I thought I would re reflect with you on some of the things that are on my mind. Some of the places that I'm heading and also what I ask from you. I've gotta say this year of putting out podcasts has been.

So much fun. Um, I laugh because there's no way my brain is gonna get Alzheimer's. Uh, we have Alzheimer's in our genes and so it's really [00:02:00] important that we keep our, for my family, uh, that we keep our brain moving and active. And learning. And that this year, I tell you, I formed so many new neuron pathways coming from, I mean, I'm a high school teacher, so I was a relatively tech savvy anyway, because you kind of have to keep a couple steps in front of teenagers.

Um, so you can imagine you have to keep on your toes. But AI had just come out when I , finished, teaching in the classroom and I went for a not-for-profit. And then I decided, actually, no, I wanna put my love and my passion to White Strawberries podcast. And so this is how we find each other now.

Um, but gosh, there's just been so much reflection for me around just how much I have learned you guys. Setting up an email list is no joke, okay? You can't just get a domain, which I do, and you can go and have a look at a very average website that I've been putting together, which I will outsource for your viewing pleasure and for my sanity, White Strawberries podcast.com.

Uh, and if you can't find that landing page, 'cause I'm still working on it, you'll be able to find the grounded course, which is then , slash grounded. Or slash resources, depending on what you wanna look for, but. You know, in order to set up like a simple for me to offer you a product, which I have a couple of resources on there, just free resources I wanna give you.

One is, one is a guide around planting trees to have fruit all year,

and I've also got another free resource on there and to try and get them to you. Via email to give you a PDF or an image via email is no joke because I can't just use Gmail. I can't just use even my business Gmail. I've gotta come up now with hello at White Strawberries podcast. And so that's another thing I've gotta go and get and subscribe to and bring it back over onto mailerlite which I'm using to then send out the email.

So it has been. Really fun, really challenging. Very good for my brain and super exciting, uh, that it is all coming out. So my goal, one of my goals is by the time I talk to you next, in four weeks, [00:04:00] I am super excited to have that website up and running, even if it just means I can say to you, Hey. This is what I'm talking about.

Uh, you can find this on this page, you know, and you can have some references. I'm aware that I'm not a visual podcast. I'm just an audio podcast. I hope that works for you. It really works for me. , one day I would love some more visuals. If you wanna see my face and wanna know who your. Are listening to, uh, you can go to White Strawberries podcast on Instagram or Facebook and you can see me there.

Um, obviously I've got a lot more footage on my phone of me going, oh, this is so cool. I wanna share this. Oh look, I'm saving seeds. I wanna share this. Or, how cute are my chickens right now? I wanna share this. Uh, and I've got a lot more on my phone than I actually do share. So there's something else that I would love to start outsourcing.

Um, so how is the podcast going? Let's talk about that. Are you interested? So I have been going now almost 12 months. Let me just bring up my statistics here. One of the funny things about it's though, the first podcast you put out, like literally it's your mom listening. You guys, it was it, you know, and my mom, and I may have shared this with you before, but said to me, I just love your voice. It's so easy to go to sleep too. And I was like, wow, you are not my, uh, target market.

Stop listening to me to go to sleep. And also, that's not a compliment. So mom, if that, if you are out there, you drop the ball on that one. Um, how many, how many episodes have I've done? I've done 45 episodes. And I know that 'cause I've numbered them, and I've been putting them out for almost a year because I've done a few throwbacks, how my downloads.

The downloads are really interesting. They start really low. , but they are exponentially getting bigger and bigger, uh, to the point now where, every week or so about 150 of you tune in, which. Many blessings to you is so cool. That is still less than the amount of students I would see as a high school teacher a week.

And my goal is to. I surpassed that. So if you [00:06:00] haven't already and would love to support the show, please can you leave me a comment? Actually, this brings me on to , my next topic, but I'll just say it here. Leave me a comment about what you want me to teach on, because I would love nothing more than more q and as.

 In fact, if you send me a voice. Message, um, on any of the platforms you find me on, I will play that voice message if it's a probes. You guys and I will answer your question on one of these podcasts. This is one of my goals for, this next six month call, uh, call season. And if you are listening from the, uh.

Northern hemisphere, you guys are all like hyping up and like super stoked about your cute little chick babies and you know, like planning dailies and all that stuff down here we are like going into hibernation, moving into our little beer cave. Just so you know, friendly reminder, you've got summer, we've got winter, and we are not jealous at all down here. Um, okay, so yeah, about 150 downloads a week now, which is pretty cool. I'm loving that. But what is cooler is that, you know, it would start at five and then it doubles every.

Three months or so. Please don't do the maths on that. That's 100% wrong. Maths. Uh, well, probably wrong maths unless I fluked it. Um, but now we're at about 150 downloads a week, which is really cool for me. Um, locations. Are you curious in that, so Alto and New Zealand represent of course, 75%, uh, mostly, um, Oceania, so.

That's down here. Uh, Asia 4%. Europe 4%. Africa, 2%, um, and North America, 15%. And a little handful of South Africans in there. Shout out South Africans in New Zealand. Uh, 35% are in Auckland. Please, mom, stop listening, uh, and skewing my stats. Uh, we've got a bunch from Canterbury Re, uh, Wellington, and then, and then it goes down.

Ooh. Wow. Nelson hasn't even made it on there. My [00:08:00] sister stopped listening. That's okay. I will survive. Um, what else can I tell you? What other updates do I have? Flick me a question if you wanna know. Um, oh, I know I'm putting a couple of courses together. The first one is called Grounded. Um, the landing page is an absolute mess.

Send me some feedback on it and be like, Sam whatcha are even talking about. What is even that landing page about? But the idea of grounded for me is I wanna take people that have dabbled in gardening before, but have not found their flow, have not found how it fits into their life, have maybe decided they don't wanna do it because they don't have a green thumb, quote unquote, or they just feel overwhelmed by the prospect.

 Or, you know, I've just moved onto a brand new bit of land and I'm like, right, I wanna do this properly from the beginning. So it's a four week course. There's lots of contact with me, um, over that time, and that's kind of what the grounded course is. And after the four week course, um, there'll be some more contact.

And I've got a couple of special people I wanna bring along. Um, for those of you that do go on the wait list, don't do it today though. 'cause you can't, that automation's not set up. Um, well you can do it, but you won't get an email, so do it. But you'll get an email next month. Um, and I've got a few kind of little extra, things I'm gonna try and get says the vet on there for a q and a session and just really pamper that, that group of people, because I know what it's like to look at books with a highlighter.

You know, there was about two years there where I was hapu, I was pregnant, and I just binged books. I would buy them, buy the good ones. And I would just highlight, highlight, highlight, take notes, take notes, take notes, and design my orchard. And if I'd had just one person in my life speaking into my life and going, Hey.

Don't worry about that. This is what you need to focus on, or this is the most important thing. This is where you start. This is first principles. My life would've been a lot easier. And self-learning is awesome. And if you're listening to the podcast to learn, um, there's amazing books out there, uh, which I highly recommend.

Um, the Koanga Institute amongst. Many others. In fact, that's something I wanna put on the White Strawberries [00:10:00] podcast, is just kind of who I do recommend, um, that you go and see. And also, I've interviewed some incredible people on this podcast, so, you know, always, always check them out and go back and listen to old podcasts if that's where you're at.

But yeah, for me, um, I learned a lot and I've been on this property for six years and I'm in a place now where there is fruit all year round. Where I have food in my garden all year round, where my groceries bill is under $200 a week. And I have single friends with no children who have a higher bill than that.

Um, and I eat bougie food. Okay. , my ceremonial cacao that I purchase is almost a hundred dollars a kg. I'm not a cheap woman to feed. I like organic. I like yummy. I like high quality food. I get only wild caught meats, et cetera. So bougie. I'm bougie with my food. That's the one thing I will say. Um, and with my skincare, the rest of that just chucks some old clothes with me and I'm right.

 So for me to have a bill under $200 a week is, is a big deal. And, and that is because of my beautiful space. Um. You know, I am a mom. I do still do some teaching, um, in the classroom. And so I, I am also busy. I'm also very extroverted, and so I have a full life.

Uh, and I would just love to pass on the wisdom that I've gained in the grounded course for people that want. Kind of what I've got, um, because I worked really hard to get here and there's definitely some corners I could have cut. Right. Uh, the second thing that I'm working on at the moment in terms of courses is I just wanna do like a really simple grass to garden bed.

Uh, course it's gonna be like. 27 bucks. It's gonna be like so, so cheap. And this basically half of the reason I'm doing this is because all the friends that come and ask me super simple questions about signing up a normal like garden bed, I wanna be like, babe, love this for you, please here. [00:12:00] Follow this course, uh, because you know, when you're having a cup of tea at a girlfriend's house and she goes, what should I do with this bed?

And I'm thinking, okay, I've got about a hundred things to tell you right now. Uh, they're really simple and straightforward, but you probably want some visuals and to like, take notes. You're gonna get your pen and paper up right now and take notes Or am I just gonna like, smile and be like, I dunno. Daily is, um, I can imagine that my friend wants a bit more dates and so that is a second course that I'm gonna put together over the next month and have that there.

Right. I just wanna give such a big, like, love to my OGs. If you have been with me, like, if you have been listening for a few months and some of you reach out to me, and it really is like the coolest part about this podcast, that, and having conversations with people that I just, I really wanna, like, chew their ear off, you know, is, is the coolest part about this podcast.

And I just feel really grateful to be able to be doing this. And I feel really grateful to have a job, uh, quote unquote, that , I feel like I'm put on this earth to do, if I'm quite honest. And I feel as though right now with gas prices like they are coming, uh, out of COVID a few years ago.

I think this planet, uh, the humans on this planet are shaken enough to recognize that we cannot continue to treat the planet the way we are, for our climate to treat us well. Firstly, and secondly, we can't be reliant on this huge

supermarket chains, these global (breath) companies. We, you know, it's really, really tricky for consumers to get to the bottom of actually what they're eating unless they're growing it themselves or getting it from friends. That's just honestly what I'm thinking. And I don't wanna be fearmongering. It's not about that I live very lightly and only wish, uh, thoughts of suffering on no one.

But, um, without being conspiracy themed or anything like that, just how amazing it is to go and get sun flowers out of my [00:14:00] garden. To eat sunflower seeds. For my children, uh, to be out there picking Fi Jo is right now picking figs right now. Lucy came in with a handful of White Strawberries yesterday and I just know what they're eating.

I know what I'm putting on my body and I feel very privileged. To be able to do that. And I know that many people don't have the skillset to do that, um, and haven't learned that perennial wisdom and , it hasn't been passed to them. And so I feel really grateful to be here. I'm really grateful you're listening.

Look, if you got to the end of this podcast, um. That's a really lovely thing. Thank you very much. If you haven't already, I would love for you to go onto your platform and rate this show. Like I said, leave a comment, leave a q and a, give me a voice message of a q and a, and I'm gonna put it on this podcast and you can call yourself whatever you want, okay?

I don't have to shout out your real name, and I certainly won't give anyone your home address or whatever. No one on this podcast is, uh, gonna send you an angry email. That was a really dumb question anyway. So be blessed everybody. Have a fantastic spring season. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, like I said, not jealous at all.

Uh, if you are on the Southern Hemisphere in Tuo Auckland, good luck over the next month in the garden. It is up. Busy time because we are fertilizing for next year. By fertilizing, I mean laying mulch and all that good stuff. We are getting our perennials, uh, ready to plant out over the winter in a lot of cases if we haven't been doing that already.

And, uh, we'll be saving seed for spring and we are making sure that our garden beds are full so that we can eat over the winter. Thank you so much for joining me. Have a great martini. And may your gardens be abundant in your Strawberries White.