Burning Bridges Podcast
Welcome to Burning Bridges — a podcast rooted in real stories of adversity, resilience, and transformation.
Through raw, unfiltered conversations, we dive into the moments that define us — the rock bottoms, the breaking points, and the sparks that ignite healing.
These are the journeys of people who’ve felt stuck, lost, or shattered... and found their way back to themselves.
Here, we believe in the power of storytelling — not just to inspire, but to connect, to heal, and to remind us that we’re never alone in what we face.
Burning Bridges Podcast
Full Volume: Ep 1
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This is Full Volume, where Renee & Taimana get loud
In our first episode, we talk about our first year on Burning Bridges Podcast. - the guests we've had, the challenges we've faced, and everything in between.
Pull up, give us your topic, and get our honest take - we might get loud about it next time.
Turn it up. Full volume? Yeah, full volume. This is full volume where Renee and Time Mana get loud.
SPEAKER_04Hello, can you top it and get out honesty? Welcome to full volume.
SPEAKER_00Welcome.
SPEAKER_04It's our first episode for this.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04And we are going into our second year of our Burning Bridges podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So this one is closing out our first year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And talking about all things that are personal to us. I guess what we go through, our thoughts.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. We're going to do this every second for every fortnight. Yeah. Opposite to our guest episodes. Yeah. In between. In between, yeah. So these episodes will go for 30 minutes. Yeah. We're timing it. Less editing.
SPEAKER_01Less editing. And I mean, how much, how long do you really want to listen to us talk shit?
SPEAKER_04Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Who knows?
SPEAKER_04Well, we're not talking shit. We're talking real stuff.
SPEAKER_01We are. We are. We are.
SPEAKER_04And well, this episode we want to go through our past year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, pretty much. I dropped our um melody short this morning of mashup, whatever you want to call it. Yep, our mashup of all of our guests for the year, which was pretty cool to look back and see. Hey hun, like the people that we've met, the people that have touched us, the stories that we've heard, it was it was pretty cool for me to actually do that short up and look back and see.
SPEAKER_04And yeah. We've done a lot. Yeah, we have.
SPEAKER_01For two people who have never done anything like this, don't have any media training or anything to do with cameras or lighting or sound or anything. We've pretty much, I wouldn't say we winged it. We've been, we studied, we learned, we trial and error.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we went before we launched it, we so we launched 16th of August 2025. And we've done a good 12 months of research, buying the equipment, everything that we needed. Before then. Yeah, before that. And to get good mics, quality mics, good, decent cameras within our budget. Uh, yeah, and our setting for our studio, our curtains, you know, like we we've we had a lot of thought into how we wanted to do it, yeah. Yeah, definitely to launching it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. There was a lot of background work beforehand, and even then, you think you're prepared, and then you're not prepared. Like there's always something that's come up, right? It's it's been one hell of a journey.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's been been rough, it's been tough. We've had a a fair few miss hiccups, mishaps with our editing, audio, sound, yeah. Like there was an episode that we had done. I won't name the episode, but we went the recording was like for five hours. And then on top of that, the camera shots was in slow motion, and then the audio.
SPEAKER_01It was like a setting.
SPEAKER_04The audio was something too, right? And so I manually, yeah, it didn't line up, so I had to man manually line it up because we use Premiere Pro for our editing program, and I had to manually line it up and then play around with uh um the speed to get it right, yeah, and then I've got it right, but it wasn't right because you go a minute or two minutes into it and it's out of sequence again. Yeah, so I'm having to readjust that, man. And that was a headache with no experience of what would you like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no experience, no uni degrees, no nothing, no going into any type of long-winded training. It we've pretty much learnt from experience.
SPEAKER_04From just doing it, yeah, from doing it and troubleshooting, yep, using Google, using Chat GPT to help us get through it. And then like, because we drop those episodes every fortnight, and then it's like, yeah, we're having to edit it ourselves because we don't want a less cost. We don't have the money to go pay for editors. That's right. But we need to suck our editors, they're terrible. We need to hire real editors.
SPEAKER_01It's I tell you what though, it's like when you've learned something from the ground up, you really appreciate everything, like within running any type of business, but in a podcast. And so now it's so funny because we look at like TV ads or we look at things and we're like, damn, that's that's pretty fucking good editing, you know. How long did that wow, that must have this? And I know that everyone's like, oh, there's all AI and everything, but we really we really wanted to have our touch on things, and so it was important for us to do it ourselves. And yeah, we're still we're still doing it ourselves, but it's it's a learning curve, it's a it's a lot, so yeah.
SPEAKER_04Even now for our next episode, we're having dramas with our editing program, it things aren't matching up, so that's a headache, and we've only got a week to fix it and try and work that through that.
SPEAKER_01But I mean, how many times have we been on on that cusp of we got to get this done so many times in between our full-time jobs, in between running a household and the kids and the grandkids and you know, doing family stuff and things for me and you and we're planning a wedding, and it's like it's it's a lot, it has been a lot. And for us to we self-fund it, we don't get paid to do this. This is no sponsors, we've got no sponsors.
SPEAKER_04But if you want to sponsor us, DM us please. Just put that below and make things a lot smoother for us, but also right, like I would love to get to a stage where we are sponsored um by certain brands, and that way we can. I want to get like some top-notch guests, you know, like high profile guests that probably you wouldn't expect to get, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, out of the box, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we did we did have the opportunity to get one. I won't name the person. We we we could have got them, but we don't have the money to pay our guests for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And we get it, it's people's time, especially when they're at a certain level. And for us, it's because we don't make any money from it, we really have done this because we want people to not feel alone. We want, we want to, we want to share stories, right? And we want to, is somebody out there to go, man, they went through that. So, you know, I can make it. So for us, we really want to do it for the out of the goodness of our hearts, but then we understand that people still have to also make a living and people have their own charges and fees and all of that sort of thing. So, yeah, there is there are a few people out there that we could have got that we just can't afford.
SPEAKER_04And I'd I'd love to get to that stage where we are able to pay, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100% whether they're famous or not, like you'd like for their time, yeah, and and for their energy, they come into our space, and you know, the stories that we've heard and the stuff that we've heard off camera too from people, it's just the these guests are coming and pouring their hearts out to the world, pretty much, and we so appreciate all of that. It's just been such a great space for us to learn and to really appreciate life, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And it's been healing for me too hearing and having these guests sit with us and share their deepest, darkest moments in their lives and even having breakdowns in front of us, and that's really hard to we're getting I'm getting better at it, yeah, as in how to hold that space for them and just let that process happen without interjecting or even making about yourself trying to relate. Yeah, because I think a lot of us try to relate too much, but you gotta make it about them, and it's their it's it's a very, you know, vulnerable um moment that they're having, and you can't take that focus off them and try and relate to share a story about yourself that's quite similar, yeah. Because then you'll you're misrepresenting what's their story, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think that's what was important for us to not be like that, like we're here to just let you talk, let it flow. I think obviously every now and then we we chuck in our two cents and what we think, and yeah, this and that, and have a laugh and have a cry and stuff. And I think this opportunity here now for us is for people to really hear us and what we feel and what we think and and be our raw true self to people. So this is why we started this because we wanted this is a new thing, and yeah, so you get to know more about us, yeah.
SPEAKER_04We love to interact with news more, and I think that's the main thing. I want to interact with our audience more and um our listeners, and that we've done 26 episodes, there was one that so we actually do Fortnitely, but there was one Fortnite we missed because our editing program wasn't working, it was just hard. We were in a thing, yeah, and then we end up getting back on track, yeah. As long as we keep pushing forward, yeah. So out of our 12 months, we miss one fortnight episode, yeah.
SPEAKER_01We did, which is pretty good. It it's like you're you're very much a perfectionist, and you're very much, you know, you need to get this done, and and and I love that about you because I I find you you push me, and that's the drive for us. And what we've probably learned through all of that is you just gotta do it, right? You can't wait. There's never the right time to start. There's never the right time to do it, you just gotta try. And if you fail, it's you just gotta try again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's one of those things, oh man, like you know, just hearing your voice from the start, and you're like, I hate my voice, and then you're changing things about you because you don't like certain things, and then you're seeing yourself on camera, you're like, Oh man, I don't like how I say that, or I stutter into that word all the time, or my facials, or it's just so boom, boom, boom, boom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's been a lot, especially for us who aren't really out there with social media, or we're not there's I mean, when I first met you, you didn't even have you had Facebook, that was it. And we've had to create these new platforms because of our podcasts, but even that is just so strange to see yourself. I'm I'm very much too. I don't I like to be in the back of the room. I don't like to be out front. So all of this is just full on, but like I like I like I thought about like fuck it, just just do it, just try. That's what I've learned probably most about myself this year is just do it.
SPEAKER_04I remember saying a thing to you because you were going on about your voice, you don't like your voice. Yeah, and I said to you, when you talk, that's what everyone hears, that's what they know. So what's it matter? Like, who cares?
SPEAKER_01And then I'm like, is that what people hear? It's just hearing yourself, seeing yourself. It's and unless if you're used to it, yeah, it's it is a thing.
SPEAKER_04Oh man, like all these content creators and influencers or whatever, like you may not like certain influencers or content creators, but it takes a lot to put yourself out there. Yeah, yeah. It takes a lot, and we've we've experienced that ourselves, yeah, yeah, we have, and you just gotta like really get out of your comfort zone and just do it, and then yeah, you're not gonna like certain things about what you're putting out there and you go, No man, I look shocking, I look terrible. What am I doing? And then you try and change a little a few things about how you do it, and it's just learning and growing, and that's what we've been doing. Oh no, yeah. Okay, let's go to our episodes. What what's one of your highlights or one of the great episodes that's been a good memory for you?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I love a good yarn, and it was, I think one of them obviously was sitting down with Luke Brown. Because you know, you got people who are just storytellers, and God, that was a fun one. Yeah, that was a laugh, that one. Yeah, he's cool, he's cool, yeah.
SPEAKER_04He's good at telling stories, he's good the way he talks, and he's got a real good radio voice, like I said to him when he sat here. And I was I think he's gotten that a few times by different people. Yeah, so yeah, he's he's going to be. We've got like just going off track, we've got a men's event coming up on October 10th at Morrefield Community Hall that we are hosting called Off the Mic. Luke Brown is one of those guests I've asked to come and speak. Yeah. So because he's a great Yarna. Yeah. And he does his documentary called Going Pro for 2027 Australian Open in golf. And so he's got a great, yeah, great um story and still growing with that and doing his full-time training to make that. So yeah, man, massive raps to him. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Good fella, man, just good bloke, just just all-round top bloke. So that's the standout for me. But I mean, there has been a lot of episodes. I think of a very emotional one for me was obviously um the Bro Vicca. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That was Vicca Pacifica.
SPEAKER_01Hmm. Us movement. Someone, like, you know, we spoke about it to him, and he even said it looking so scary, but being so vulnerable on camera with us, like biggest love to him to do that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like to be that was one of my highlights because it was so emotional and for a very intimidating looking man, but yet so beautiful and humble with the biggest heart that's gone through a lot, and to sit down here and have a breakdown, that was when I was I really learned how to hold space for people. Yeah. That was, yeah, that was very emotional. And even editing the episode, I was crying on the editing of it too. Yeah, it's like you're going through it when they're here, and then you're going through it again through the editing, post-editing. Yeah, yeah. It was it was tough, but it was so oh man, that was cool. Yeah. Like in a good way, like, yeah. And we got that was one of our highest views that we've gotten on our social medias, especially our on our listening platforms. Um, yeah, that's our highest view on our listening platforms, Vickers.
SPEAKER_01And I want to go back to our very first episode, which was you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How do you feel about that episode?
SPEAKER_04Oh, well, you know, not knowing, I'm not a very good storyteller either, you know, and first time just even saying my story. Like if I was to redo it now, I'd do it a lot different.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, because of how you know how to speak on your story.
SPEAKER_04I'm a better speaker with with it. Um, I think more so that you know, I went into a lot of stuff that doesn't really matter, really, but it meant a lot to me. Certain things meant a lot to me, you know. Um but yeah, I think um I'm a very emotional person, especially with things that have happened, whether it's trauma, whether it's like something loving too.
SPEAKER_01Um I was very proud of you though. Very proud of you for sharing your story. That was hard. I edited that episode, the first one.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, and there's more to come. There's been such a lot happened in my personal life and still to this day, currently, you know, um Yeah, we have been through a lot since I've met you. Yeah. And you've helped me through a lot of it, helped me and made me realise a lot of things for the good and um helped me be a stronger person. Like I went through a lot of my own growing before I met you, which is pretty much how we met through I believe we're on the same frequency. Yeah. When you meet people when you're at the same frequency, and big ups to me for getting up to that frequency. Good work, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01A lot of work done, and like you said, we've been through so much, but I like to remind people that we haven't been through the heartache, as in our relationship, it's been around us, right? Yeah, yeah, and personal. So I love the fact that with us, we've just gotten stronger and stronger.
SPEAKER_04And what I love about our relationship is we never argue, we never raise our voices, we never dare even to curse at each other, yeah, belittle each other or anything. Our relationship is so loving, and we've been together for a bit over four years, which is nothing in a long scheme of things, but it's still it seems like we've been together for ages, too. I know, but I love that about our relationship. We are so loving and we know how to communicate with each other on a healthy level. You know, we may not agree with certain things, but we have a discussion about it and meet each other on that, yeah, and respect each other, and that's that's a massive thing that I that I love about us. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Me too.
SPEAKER_04Okay, going back to our episodes, yes, um, yeah, where where are we with that?
SPEAKER_01Well, I I think did I ask you what your I mean you said your favorite was Vicca, but what what's your standout, obviously?
SPEAKER_04You know, there's there's a few things, it's hard to just narrow down to one, you know, like you said, Luke Brown, awesome storyteller, um, Vicar, very emotional, very heart feeling. That was awesome. Uh having uh my brother walks, Andrew Walker, it was great to have him share his story, a very global, well known, high profile athlete, former athlete. And you know, sharing stories that he's never shared in public before, that's a massive thing for me. That he is um able to do that here. Beautiful guy. Yeah, awesome fella. What other episodes were seeing? You know, Benny Harrington, you know, cool dude. Yeah. You know, good story. Another good storyteller. Another good storyteller. You know, a lot of them have been so great, you know, that we've had um, you know, we've been getting a lot of fighters, boxers, yeah, and they're cool people to to have, you know. Like, and it's good to get people that are used to media and talking. Yeah, we've noticed the difference with that. Um, yeah, but every every episode's has its own unique um what's the word?
SPEAKER_01Unique um positive well, unique flow to it, I think, uh, and energy. I mean, we we've had some really feel-good ones, and you know, we've had some ones that talk about their trauma, and you know business more in the ones. Yeah, what we wanted to do was we just didn't want to people were like, Oh, are you just gonna do your podcast about a certain topic, which is what we found a lot of podcasts do, but we didn't want to do that. We as in topic as a more only have certain type of people on or only talk about a certain type of thing, yeah. You know, but where we really wanted people to just share their story, whether it was a good or bad story, yeah, whether it was about business or personal. And I think because we kind of left it open to whatever, like you look at all the different people that we've had on. Yeah. You know, you got like Brian, the the um the lawyer from Marbo case, and you got, you know, people like that have been out of jail and people like, you know, say true god, yeah. You know, you got Sam, you got the girls, you know, you got Kayla, and you got Nikki who came and spoke about their business and their their struggles, and I think it's just it's great that we have all these different types of guests, and I'm I'm just excited to see what comes for our second year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, even in the start, when you know, um people would ask me, Oh, are you gonna like um direct it to islanders, Moldy? Yes, that's what I mean, yeah. And I'm like, no, like mental health doesn't discriminate. It's like all people. Yeah, why don't you narrow down just because I'm moldy, I'm not just moldy, I'm Aussie, I'm English, you know, like yeah, so yeah, I just wanna it happens to everyone, regardless what race, what religion, whatever you are, what walk in life you are, it doesn't stop. Yeah you know, it's um it can happen to anyone, and it does happen to anyone. My cousin in New Zealand, Tamanu, she said one of the things that she said was you can't get through life unscathed. You know, so something happens to everyone throughout their journey in life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's pretty true. But some happen earlier on, some happen later in life.
SPEAKER_04Some just keep happening. Yeah, it's been a great lot, 12 months. We've done a lot. We've gone places where we didn't even expect. We went to New Zealand for equoi. Um, we learned a lot there.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_04We got some awesome relationships with Fano there. Yep. So that I don't regret any of that. I loved it. It was cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, you gotta look at certain things that happen for a reason, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So yeah, we've done New Zealand, got to talk to a lot of people over there. Yeah, just even on the Hickory, just interviews, yeah, asking everyone um what healing means to them. That was our question. We're asking everyone, even when we got back, that was one of our questions. And then we also went down to Melbourne and we got to interview Brian, um, who was the lawyer for the Eddie Marbo case back in from 1982 to 1992. So it was that was another great episode I loved to have something that was a part of history for our indigenous people here in Australia, yeah, which was um a massive change for legislation for land rights. Um, and then we also got to speak to the Bro Sheamus down there. Um, yeah, so that was good. Like we've done two trips. We even went down the Gold Coast, took our equipment down there, yeah, done recording down there with Tahitta. Yep. Yeah, so we've like moved our equipment around and location.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't think we'll probably do that again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it's too much work.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot. Rather, just yeah, again, shout out to those production companies that like move and travel around and stuff like that. Obviously, they've got stuff.
SPEAKER_04If we've got a crew that has all the proper equipment for traveling, we're just taking our cameras, everything on the plane down to Melbourne, and yeah, just learning curves again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what to do, what not to do, just fly them to us.
SPEAKER_04Fly them to us a lot cheaper, but it you get to see a city and uh I loved it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, so a lot of yeah, a lot of things for us.
SPEAKER_04There's certain things when you you keep on saying in an episode, like you might start off every question with the same word, and you're like, man, I've got to stop doing that. Yeah, what was one of mine? I can't even remember now. They used to always do. Obviously, that was it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, obviously.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I used to always start with obviously blah blah blah. And I'm like, man, I'm gonna stop saying that. Even in the recordings, I'll go, obviously, uh no, I'll cut that out. Redo it. I know, and mine's so and so, and I even cut that and so out in the editing.
SPEAKER_01But look, we're not we're not perfect, okay? We're all learning.
SPEAKER_04You can't r you can't rush perfection, but I was rushed.
SPEAKER_01Please, here we go.
SPEAKER_04See, see what it's gonna do with it. That's the true me coming in.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_04All right, let's close this out. This um, yeah, we've been 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yep, 30 minutes, yep. So that's us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Great first chat, and I'm excited to do this with you. I'm happy to get feedback if anybody has anything in particular you want us to talk about.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, any topics, relationships, something you're going through. Um, yeah, whatever topic you think, let us know in the comments. And uh follow, like, subscribe, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and make us grow.
SPEAKER_04Please like that's our community we're trying to build, our brand we're building, everything. So um yeah, we um we love the people that have taken us in and supported us and follow us and subscribe to our YouTube channel, all that, because our full episodes you can watch on YouTube. And that's we're trying to really grow that, push that to a yeah, our YouTube channel. So jump on there, subscribe, and also try and interact with us, comment, whatever, you know, and we'll try and get back to you. Yeah, um, yeah, do that. Let's let's start pushing that, let's do that.
SPEAKER_00Let's do that.
SPEAKER_04All right. That's us. Awesome chat with you, my lovely wife to be.
SPEAKER_01Love this chat with you, my handsome.
SPEAKER_04Alright. Till in a fortnight, we'll be back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's us, burning bridget podcast. That's full volume with Renee and Tom and I've got a topic for us?
SPEAKER_01Drop it, and we might get loud about it next time.
SPEAKER_04Subscribe so you don't miss it. Same Tom, send MG.