Journey Reflections: Checking In with Each Other

Podcast Check-In: Lessons From 35 Episodes, Balancing Travel, Work & What’s Next

Brittany and Josh check in on how the We Should Move Here Travels podcast is going at episode 35, reflecting on what travel and having an audience have taught them, how the show has strengthened their relationship while adding new challenges, and how they’re balancing independence and connection. They discuss the podcast as a passion project that isn’t making money yet, plans to take flexible part-time jobs, and the possibility of applying for grants or sponsorships despite how that could change the content. They share lessons learned—doing hard things together, shifting focus away from followers, becoming more adaptable while traveling, and realizing no place is perfect—along with practical takeaways like packing lighter, finding flight deals, and choosing local bed-and-breakfasts to support communities. They preview upcoming episodes, including their top five dream travel destinations.

00:00 Podcast Check In

00:42 Travel And Audience Lessons

02:05 Relationship Balance Challenges

04:42 Passion Project Reality

05:57 Money And Part Time Work

07:35 Portugal Hype And New Places

09:44 Changing The Podcast Format

13:34 Big Lessons From Episode 35

15:40 Home Vs Living Abroad

20:19 Visas School And Wedding Plans

22:42 Travel Skills Packing And Deals

25:43 Whats Next And Wrap Up

@WSMHtravels

Transcript

brit 0:11

Hello and welcome to the We Should Move Here Travels podcast. My name is Brittany.

josh 0:17

I'm Josh

brit 0:17

and we are your hosts. Today we are gonna do a quick check-in of how the pod's going, how we're both feeling about it, and maybe things that we wanna change or things that we've learned. We're just gonna talk today.

josh 0:31

Yeah. You know, kinda like a podcast.

brit 0:38

Yeah.

josh 0:39

Oh man. How do you think the pod is going?

brit 0:42

I think that traveling the world has been such a gift and. We have learned so much we have also not learned enough in the same sentence, I think, because everywhere we go, we learn new things and I just wanna keep learning.

josh 1:01

Mm-hmm.

brit 1:02

You know, I wanna keep growing, I wanna keep exploring. I just wanna keep, keep doing it.

josh 1:08

Mm-hmm.

brit 1:09

How do you feel.

josh 1:11

I feel good. I was gonna ask, is that more travel that's teaching you or the pod or both?

brit 1:19

I think both.

josh 1:20

Mm-hmm.

brit 1:21

Like traveling the world is always gonna teach you. Right. But the pod as well. I've never done anything like with an audience. Mm. I mean, I guess I have, I've done like plays and stuff like that, but this is just very different. It's social media and sometimes things on social media can feel really uneasy.

josh 1:44

Mm-hmm.

brit 1:44

I'm sure everybody can relate to that. And it feels almost like dystopian in some ways that this is our reality right now. I think both of them are teaching me so much. What about you?

josh 1:59

Yeah, I'm. I agree with the traveling bit and the podcast bit teaching us so much.

brit 2:05

Yeah,

josh 2:05

it is such a unique balance of our relationship of getting work done, of still being connected with each other that is sometimes extremely easy, and then other times a little more difficult because of. Constantly working on this podcast. And so just evolving in our relationship that way

brit 2:32

mm-hmm.

josh 2:33

Is something that the pod teaches us.

brit 2:35

Yeah, I agree. I think that the pod has really strengthened our relationship in some ways. Mm-hmm. And in others it's, it's thrown some challenges in

josh 2:44

for sure

brit 2:45

that we've never experienced before.

josh 2:47

Right.

brit 2:48

we're learning a balance between like our own independence and how we need to do things on our own. Hence why I'm going to Portugal by myself. Mm-hmm. so we're, we're finding that balance between, you know, that independence and also that connection with each other. So I feel like it's different for everyone and it's hard to find a balance when you're working together.

josh 3:17

Mm-hmm.

brit 3:18

but I also think that it's been really special and it's taught us a lot about our relationship, so

josh 3:24

And just. Taught each other so much more about ourselves and all of these new experiences we've had just in six, seven months.

brit 3:33

Yeah.

josh 3:34

I think we're really fortunate that we've been able to choose to do as much traveling as we have and have all those new experiences because maybe in a more common relationship it might take several more years to have those new or different experiences.

brit 3:54

Yeah.

josh 3:54

Just in my opinion, but who knows that could be complete different because we don't have kids. And that's definitely a new experience with new challenges every single day.

brit 4:04

Yeah.

josh 4:04

So someone listening could be like, um, try having a kid Yeah. In your twenties or thirties, and tell me it's not a new challenge.

brit 4:12

No, thank you.

josh 4:13

No. Not the kind of new experiences I'm looking for. New experience I want is a different spice on a fish or a pasta or a different coastline to see a new hike. Something like that. Those are the kinds of experiences I want right now. Um,

brit 4:31

yeah, same. We're on the same page for that.

josh 4:36

That's good. So the podcast has taught us those things.

brit 4:40

yeah.

josh 4:42

As far as logistically how the podcast is going for what we set out to do and kind of what I had in mind for our first year of a podcast, I think we've done great. The ceiling of what we wanna do is, you know. Do some episodes and it just blow up and people want to sponsor us or pay us for the podcast. All that stuff has not happened. We're still extremely small. We're not getting paid to do this. We're doing it out of our own pockets and we're do it 'cause we're passionate about it.

brit 5:16

Absolutely. This is, this is a passion project.

josh 5:20

Mm-hmm.

brit 5:20

And that's kind of how I've been looking at it for the past couple of. Months. Yeah, I would say, it feels like a passion project versus work. Sometimes it does feel like work, especially when we are like on crunch time trying to get an episode out and we're lollygagging and procrastinating and that's on both of us. but. When that feels like work, I think we just get it done and then we get back into a routine and it starts to feel more like a passion project again.

josh 5:56

Yeah.

brit 5:57

I think though, because we're not getting paid, we obviously like gotta talk about like finances. Mm-hmm. I think you shared how we came to be able to do this. Yeah. In a previous episode and. we've been talking a lot about like how we wanna keep the podcast going. Mm-hmm. And I think it's really time for both of us to start making some money. So we're both gonna try and get some part-time jobs coming up here and, Things that we can control and be flexible on. So we can still go travel and we can still do the things that we wanna do, but work a couple days a week as well when we're home. that just makes sense to do it like that.

josh 6:42

And again, we're extremely fortunate to be in the position that we are.

brit 6:46

Yeah.

josh 6:47

I. To be in a stable place where we have a home and we don't have to worry about, uh, rent fluctuating stuff like that.

brit 6:58

Yeah,

josh 6:59

you have a degree which gives you the opportunity to go into lots of places and get a job Pretty decently paying. Me, I feel like I can do lots of different things if we wanted to just keep on running on savings for a while, we could, but for us wanting to stretch that out as far as we can.

brit 7:19

Yeah,

josh 7:20

getting part-time jobs so we can stretch our runway and keep doing this as a passion project and who knows, maybe at some point make. Some money out of it would be great. Maybe work with some people. Meet some people.

brit 7:34

Yeah.

josh 7:35

I, I think the passion project portion of this podcast is when I feel most like in a flow state when I come into a recording. And I'm just ready to talk about like a trip.

brit 7:51

Oh my God. Me too. Mm-hmm. I love that.

josh 7:53

Mm-hmm.

brit 7:53

Especially when it's like a trip that we loved or we're so excited about going on. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm so excited about Portugal, like I can't stop thinking about it. I was researching last night, like foodie spots that we need to go to. Yep. And I'm just, oh, I'm so excited.

josh 8:09

Yeah. Had to watch all those tiktoks. I'm. I'm excited for us to go on this next one, but we gotta, we gotta save some of that for, uh, in the next couple weeks when we have a Portugal episode.

brit 8:22

Yeah, we have I think, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 more episodes until we get to our pre Portugal episode.

josh 8:29

Mm-hmm.

brit 8:30

So we got quite a ways, but I'm still so excited. Okay.

josh 8:34

it definitely has made me wanna go to a lot more places that I haven't thought about.

brit 8:41

Hmm. Like, where?

josh 8:43

Like South America is definitely a place I wanna go, and it's just not a place until the podcast that I really gave a ton of thought.

brit 8:56

Yeah.

josh 8:57

I mean, I, I definitely had, I was like, oh, I could go there, but starting this podcast, I'm like, oh yeah.

brit 9:02

Where would you wanna go in South America,

josh 9:04

Columbia, for sure.

brit 9:06

Yeah. I think for me I'm a bit naive when it comes to, travel in South America, I guess, and I would say I'm a bit ignorant on it because I don't have enough knowledge about. Traveling to South America. But I think there's definitely spots that are safe and there are spots that are unsafe just like anywhere.

josh 9:30

Yeah.

brit 9:30

so I think we would just have to do a lot of research, but I'm totally open to it.

josh 9:34

Yeah. I, I think we can go lots of places and explore and, be happy, be safe doing it, and maybe potentially move to a new place in the future.

brit 9:44

Mm-hmm.

josh 9:45

would that being said, are there any things that you want to change moving forward with the podcast?

brit 9:50

I've thought about, doing biweekly episodes, but I don't think we're there yet.

josh 9:55

Mm-hmm.

brit 9:55

I think we can continue weekly episodes and come back to it.

josh 9:59

Mm-hmm.

brit 10:00

if it becomes too much with like part-time jobs and all of that, then we'll probably switch to biweekly. But it just depends. It's kind of up in the air.

josh 10:11

Right.

brit 10:12

what about you?

josh 10:12

Yeah, I am pretty happy where things are, like we just said, we, we work on, and I struggle with the timeline aspects sometimes and 'cause I'm very type B and it's like, oh, it'll get done when it gets done and that always doesn't work. Yeah. In a, well, it doesn't always work in a non-stressful manner. I'm type B until it's, you procrastinate far enough and then we're both stressed out and it doesn't help anyone. Um, so things would change would be me changing, uh, you know, kind of blur the lines between type A and type B. But yeah, I agree that we can continue weekly podcasts. No problem. I think this podcast, because it's a passion project, we can continually evolve the podcast to what we wanna talk about. Maybe what other people want to hear.

brit 11:12

Yeah,

josh 11:13

and I mean, we've seen some. Increase in listeners on some episodes versus others as far as what we consider a good amount of listeners on an episode. So maybe just seeing what the people want and going with that. I think for. What I would wanna change for the podcast or just our lives would be to travel as much as possible. And you know, just being able to do that freely. Can't do that. There are life things that we have to care about. We got our cats that we gotta care about. We got a house. Yeah,

brit 11:50

we got

josh 11:51

the bills to pay. Like everyone.

brit 11:53

And you know, I think there are grants and things that we could. Apply for,

josh 12:01

mm-hmm.

brit 12:01

To help sustain this podcast as well. So I think we're at the point where, you know, this is episode 35 and we have enough content out there for people to, or companies or whoever, For someone to look at our stuff and be like, well, this is good content, or this is bad content, right? So mm-hmm. We have enough out there, I think, to be able to start applying for those things. So I think we just do it. We just apply for some and see where it takes us.

josh 12:35

I think there's always positions or companies wanting people to go places and try things. Mm-hmm. With our time freedom that we have, we might fit into some of those that other people might not be able to, so,

brit 12:51

yeah. Yeah. It definitely could be, an adjustment because if we're, you know, working for sponsorships

josh 13:00

mm-hmm.

brit 13:01

It's gonna change how we do the pod maybe, or how we talk about the places that we go to or how we create the reels or tiktoks or whatever, on social media. Mm-hmm. So I think it would change a lot, but I also think like we're open to that. So, yeah.

josh 13:20

I think as long as we continue to get to travel and explore that fits what we want,

brit 13:26

that's what we need. That's

josh 13:28

what we need.

brit 13:29

We need it. Nice.

josh 13:31

I crave it. what have you learned so far? In the 35 episodes.

brit 13:38

Oh my gosh. I can't believe we're on episode 35. That's so wild to me.

josh 13:43

Mm-hmm.

brit 13:44

I've learned quite a few things. I've learned that we can do hard things. And sometimes this podcast is hard. Sometimes the adventures that we take is hard. sometimes just life is hard, right? But we can do hard things and I think we're better at doing those hard things together I've also learned that it really isn't about the followers for me or the listeners. In the beginning I was really focused on, how many likes are we gonna get, how many listeners are we getting? I was like really determined to get a lot of listeners and they kept getting let down because we're still babies, we're still new, and not everybody is listening. Right. Which is totally fine. And I think for me at this point, looking at it as a passion project. Has shifted my mindset of like, This isn't something that we have to do, but something that we want to do.

josh 14:52

Mm-hmm.

brit 14:53

So it really is like our passion in our lives. another thing I've learned is. Being flexible and adaptable is so important when you're traveling. it's okay if your flight gets delayed, you're gonna be fine. You're in an airport, nothing bad is gonna happen. Try and sleep it off. You're not gonna but try. Um, yeah. I never used to be. An adaptable person, but I feel like I've grown a lot in that sense. So

josh 15:35

I think traveling does that a lot as well.

brit 15:36

Yeah.

josh 15:37

Mm-hmm.

brit 15:37

Yeah. What about for you? What have you learned?

josh 15:40

Depends the topic as far as the podcast and the potential of living in a different country or living just somewhere else. I think there are so many things that I have seen in other places that I just constantly think, oh man, I wish, I wish we had that. Mm-hmm. Like I, I want that in a community. I want that in a place. And I've also seen a lot in the United States where people are constantly working just out of the goodness of their hearts to improve their community. Improve the society around them. Try to make things better for other people.

brit 16:23

Yeah.

josh 16:24

that's something that you often see in other countries as well. And it's like the, I think the good, the goodness is here to, to make a lot of those things happen.

brit 16:35

Hmm.

josh 16:36

just whether or not some of the things that we look for, like, you know, universal healthcare or public transportation or, universal schooling.

brit 16:45

Yeah.

josh 16:45

Lots of that stuff, whether that'll happen in our lifetime, who knows?

brit 16:49

I hear you saying that there's like a push and pull for, seeing the good here

josh 16:55

mm-hmm.

brit 16:55

Where we're at.

josh 16:56

Yeah.

brit 16:57

it would make sense that being away from home and looking at all of the, the good in other places and wanting that to be where you live. it would, it makes sense that you would start noticing those things.

josh 17:11

Mm-hmm.

brit 17:11

And those people in our community.

josh 17:14

when you're in other countries and you see those things you want, and then you come here and you look, you're like, why don't we have those things? And you look around and there are people who are trying to make those a reality.

brit 17:24

Mm-hmm.

josh 17:25

that have that hope that that could happen. And that's inspiring. And it makes me feel like, you know, the United States could be, Wisconsin still could be the place that we live forever. It could. It could. I still wanna visit every single country I can. And if we happen to come across a place that we're like, oh, this is. This is it. It would take shifts in universal timelines to make United States or Wisconsin, anything like this. Then I might be like, oh, this is a place. But just like you being adaptable. I can, I can see ourselves just purely adapting and of course being happy in Wisconsin. We got family, we got friends. There's a lot of great things about Wisconsin and I think I've learned that no place is perfect.

brit 18:23

Yeah,

josh 18:23

just depends what you want. And there are some things that I would like to have in other places. And there's, it's difficult, but there's nothing to say that we could, couldn't live in a different country and then move back or, mm-hmm. For a little bit of time living in a different country and move back. Something like that.

brit 18:43

Yeah. Which is very much a possibility.

josh 18:45

Mm-hmm.

brit 18:47

I think that we are, again, in a very privileged position where if we found a country where we would want to do that and the Visa requirements would work out, we would be able to do that.

josh 19:02

Mm-hmm.

brit 19:02

Right. I think if we don't, we might look back and regret it.

josh 19:07

Hmm.

brit 19:08

So that's one of my fears is like, I don't want to be 80 on my porch in Wisconsin being like, I wish I would've lived somewhere else in my life and never have done it. You know? Yeah. Like I don't, I don't wanna think that.

josh 19:27

Yeah.

brit 19:27

So. I think that's what kind of pushed us to do this pod in the first place.

josh 19:33

Mm-hmm.

brit 19:34

we've talked a lot about getting older and. What we want out of our lives and the conversation has always came back to traveling.

josh 19:46

Mm-hmm.

brit 19:48

So that's what sparked this pod. And if this turns into like us living somewhere for a year or whatever and then coming back, like we could maybe make that a possibility.

josh 20:03

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:05

And I think. In some ways I'm like feeling pushed that we should.

josh 20:08

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:09

Because that would make sense.

josh 20:11

Yeah.

brit 20:12

And if we lived somewhere, like say in Europe, we could easily travel to so many freaking countries.

josh 20:18

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:18

From there.

josh 20:19

yeah, it's definitely something I've looked into quite a bit with the aspect of visas I've. Thought about, you know, continuing education in Europe. and that's something that Visas could definitely do for us is give us the opportunity to live in Europe or live somewhere in Europe for past the typical 90 days.

brit 20:43

Yeah.

josh 20:44

And so that would be an easy way to do it, or not easy, but that would be. A way to do it that wouldn't be as difficult as moving there full-time right away.

brit 20:54

Would I be able to come with you, say like you went back to school? Mm-hmm. Because I don't think I'm ready to go back. I don't think I want to.

josh 21:01

Yeah. Spousal exemptions. Mm-hmm. Yep. Or family, but,

brit 21:06

so we have to be married for that,

josh 21:09

There, there are ways to do it without being legally married, wherever you come from.

brit 21:14

Mm.

josh 21:14

Because not every type of marriage is legally recognized in that place.

brit 21:19

Yeah.

josh 21:20

So as long as you can prove. In some sort of way that you've been together with your partner or you've lived together for a certain amount of time, they can recognize that and use a spousal exemption or a family member exemption to have you both come on this visa.

brit 21:39

Hmm. Yeah. Well, interesting.

josh 21:42

Mm-hmm.

brit 21:42

Well, we do have our wedding coming up in 2027, so

josh 21:48

Yes, there is that as well,

brit 21:50

which I have been obsessing about as well. So literally, so excited.

josh 21:57

Yeah,

brit 21:58

there might be some. Social media posts about it. I might like make some posts about our venue, about like what we choose to do about Minnesota, which is where it's gonna be. So we might do an episode about Minnesota as well. Mm-hmm. yeah, we might get some different content out there.

josh 22:19

Yeah. A travel lifestyle podcast.

brit 22:23

Yeah. I think we both have learned so much. It's hard to condense everything that we've learned into this one episode. It really is. it's hard to think of everything that we've learned too, but I, I know that we've learned things that we're not thinking about right now.

josh 22:42

I mean, we've, we've learned so much about just traveling as well.

brit 22:46

Yeah.

josh 22:47

Like I've thought in the past, like, I'm an efficient packer, I can pack efficiently and I still pack half my crap that I don't use.

brit 22:57

Honestly, same. I, I'm gonna do better on Portugal. I know I've said that before, but I am gonna do better and we're gonna be efficient. Efficiently packing things that I will wear, use things I will wear slash use. Usually it's my clothes. I'm such an over packer.

josh 23:19

I mean, that's what I am too. It's, oh, I just think, oh, I'm gonna wear so many shorts and so many pants. And the reality is. Is it's one or the other, and it's sometimes it's weather. You can't always predict the weather or what it's gonna feel like in a different country.

brit 23:39

Yeah.

josh 23:40

Like in New Zealand, when we went recently, it might have said it was 70 degrees, but because of the uv, how strong it was, it felt so much warmer.

brit 23:53

It was like 90.

josh 23:54

Yeah. Never. Never felt the need to wear pants. Only for the reason to protect yourself from getting burned.

brit 24:03

Yeah. Well, I think in Queenstown it was cooler.

josh 24:06

Right? And that's the other thing. It's like, oh, Queenstown, it says it's 70 in the shade. It feels like. 40.

brit 24:13

Yeah.

josh 24:14

And then you stand out in the sun for a couple minutes. As long as it's not windy, it's a hundred. Yeah,

brit 24:20

no, it's a wild difference there. I loved it there though.

josh 24:24

Mm-hmm.

brit 24:24

Anyways.

josh 24:25

But yeah, like you said, there are so many different things. Packing's one thing, still learning about finding flight deals is something that we've learned that everyone can. Use on, and we've talked about before, is planning around prices of flights and not planning around, already picked vacation times. Mm-hmm. If you, if you can do that, you're not always allowed to, but if you can find the cheap flights first and then

brit 24:50

yeah.

josh 24:51

Make sure you can get the time off. Doing bed and breakfasts in Ireland.

brit 24:55

Oh my gosh.

josh 24:57

Huge win. Huge

brit 24:58

bed and breakfast. That has been a thing that we've been on kind of a kick about. 'cause we did that on the East Coast trip. Mm-hmm. And then we did that in Ireland. It, feels like it's important for us to, help support local businesses when we travel.

josh 25:16

Mm-hmm.

brit 25:17

Like, we don't wanna shop at the big box stores when. We're traveling, not that there are any really in Ireland, we were really looking at how can we support the, the local business community Right. While we're there.

josh 25:34

Right.

brit 25:34

I think we're being more intentional about those things.

josh 25:37

Mm-hmm. That's something that we've learned from traveling is being more intentional as well.

brit 25:42

Yeah. so we are gonna be talking in the next couple episodes about, Other topics other than where we have been or where we're going. they might be a little bit different than our typical episodes. Hopefully we have fun with them.

josh 26:00

We will.

brit 26:02

Next episode we'll be talking about both of our top five dream travel destinations. So we're each gonna pick out our dream travel destinations. This won't involve where we want to live, but where we want to travel to.

josh 26:19

Yeah.

brit 26:19

Which sometimes is the same, sometimes is different. I guess we'll talk about it.

josh 26:24

Yeah.

brit 26:24

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube wsmhtravels

josh 26:33

You can listen to our podcasts on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. YouTube is where we have our video record version, including pictures and videos from our trip. Please continue to leave your comments and send us messages on what you liked from our trips and suggestions for future trips. We really appreciate it.

brit 26:50

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.