We started a travel podcast because we wanted to continue a conversation. We were in Peru, at the end of a six-month backpacking trip in South America, and we began thinking of ways that we could keep travel alive in our lives, while sharing our experiences with other people. When we started that trip, we were burnt out, exhausted, and just looking for an escape from the lives we had been living at home. Five and a half months later we felt alive, excited, but not ready to go back to the lives we had been living.

Travel had reminded us of what it felt like to be in control of our lives. It had reminded us that life wasn’t a burden, but something that could be enjoyed deeply. This was a lesson we had learned once before, but it didn’t stick.

Three years earlier we had gone backpacking for six months. It was just after we had graduated college, and we hadn’t entered the workforce yet. Traveling Europe, Asia, and Australia, we had the time of our lives. We spent time thinking about our goals for the future. We had countless deep and engaging conversations and made a ton of new friends.

Then we went back home. We found jobs. Just whatever we could get. And slowly the fun and excitement drifted out of our lives.

Instead of talking to friends about our goals, dreams, and values, we were having conversations about the weather, sports, and watching reality TV. We got bogged down, lost our sense of enjoyment in life, and eventually escaped on an adventure to South America.

Five and a half months after we started, we were in Peru, and we didn’t want our trip to end. We didn’t want to slip back into the lives we were living before our trip.

So we decided that we weren’t going to let ourselves slip out of the travel mindset. We were going to keep a sense of adventure alive. We were going to keep having the deep conversations you grow accustomed to while you are traveling, and not slip into the shallow conversation you grow accustomed to when you work nine to five.

We decided to start a travel podcast.

I had been a big fan of podcasts, but whenever I searched for something about long-term travel I came back empty handed.

At the time language learning podcast dominated the travel podcast section on iTunes. The podcast where people talk deeply and openly about the impact of travel just didn’t exist.

So we decided to start a travel podcast.

We recorded our first two episodes on an iPhone at our hostel in Lima, Peru. They sucked, but it was fun. We made a plan; when we got back to Canada, we would get the equipment and start a show. And that is what we did.

We got back to Canada, got the equipment we needed and we recorded our first few episodes, and got our show on iTunes!

You can hear the nerves in our voices those first few episodes. We were scared. Who were we to be starting a podcast? We weren’t experts. We had traveled for 12 months, but we had met people who had gone for much much longer.

So we felt nervous when we put it out. We felt scared about what our friends, acquaintances, and former co-workers would think when they heard our opinions.

But, then nothing happened. Nothing changed. All of our fears about what people would think of us creating a podcast never materialized.

People started listening. Not people we knew. Basically, no one we knew listened. Just people on the internet. People who found us, and had been searching for the same conversations that we had been searching for. Before starting, we had felt this massive resistance to jumping out on our own and starting a travel podcast, but once we did, we realized that all the things we feared at the start were ludicrous.

Now, two years later, thousands of people are listening to us talk about travel every month.  We’ve been able to connect with amazing guests, and become friends with listeners of the show.

This podcast has been our adventure for the last two years. It has kept the excitement we experienced traveling alive for us. And it has inspired others to go out, travel and live out their own adventures.

The lesson that we’ve learned from starting our show is a bit cliche –  it’s obvious, but so few people actually do it. The lesson is to do what you want. Don’t let the “who am I?” voice in your head tear down your dreams. When you start doing what you want to do and stop resigning yourself to the idea that life must be a burden, then you’ll quickly find yourself enjoying life a hell of a lot more.