Why We Started the Health: It's Personal Podcast
As we enter our second season, and our second year, of the Health: It’s Personal podcast, we wanted to share a bit of background about how we formed the HIP team and what our goals are as we move forward. For new listeners or those who have been with us since the beginning, and everyone who has joined the HIP family along the way, we hope this provides some new insight and connection.
In the Beginning…
It all started with Kate Shively as she began to think about all the resources she wished she had as a young parent and single mom. Though life had given its own lessons along the way and helped her feel more prepared to tackle things for her teenage son, Max, she knew she didn’t want others to have to walk that same path without a guide of their own.
Over the years, Kate had done a ton of research on all things related to health and parenting, trying her best to come up with great resources to help her or her own kids. This was very much trial and error, and she spent countless hours trying to set her family up for success in every way possible. She then began to think, what if she had a place where all these great resources, insights, and perspectives were collected together? What if someone else had done all that hard work and research to bring those resources to her? It would have been a tremendous boost to her own health and well-being. So, she set out to create such a space for other parents, caregivers, teens, and young adults.
The next step was for Kate to talk to as many people as possible, seeing what such a resource would look like. She settled on creating online courses for teens and young adults first and foremost, with optional companion courses for parents and caregivers that perfectly compliment the primary courses. That way, all sides of the parenting conversation were covered with each individual need and perspective considered.
Forming the HIP Team
Continuing on this path to creating these courses, Kate reached out to her amazing and talented daughter, McKenna, and her long-time teacher colleague, Sean Tingle, to join the team in helping to make these courses the best they possibly could be. More voices, more perspectives, and more ideas are always a great thing, but especially in a big undertaking such as this!
After even more research as a team, they all discovered that many of the online courses available for teens, young adults, parents, and caregivers covered great content, but the delivery of these courses left much to be desired. Many people just weren’t connecting with the content, even though the content was well-researched and helpful. It was also a challenge to think of ways to re-invent the wheel, even though they knew it had to be done.
During these conversations, they found much inspiration in MasterClass, and they began to model these courses after that engaging formula. They also wanted to add peer voices to these courses, reaching out to teens and young adults who might be interested in helping deliver the content and offer a more contemporaneous view on these topics for the younger folks who would be taking them. In addition to this, they of course also wanted to bring in a ton of great experts on these topics, such as doctors, nutritionists, therapists, and more.
Connecting with Others
Along the way, Kate, McKenna and Sean all decided that connecting with an audience prior to launching the courses would be a great idea. This also provided them with many opportunities to really get to know many of the individuals they’d eventually like to invite onto the team to work on these resources, as well as the voices of those who could use these resources. A plan began to form - what about a podcast? There are many great health-related podcasts out there already, but they saw this as an opportunity to bring in these diverse and unique perspectives to really learn from them all.
As a result, the HIP team went hard to work in creating the podcast, setting up a schedule and format, deciding on which topics to cover and when, and reaching out to potential guests. They received overwhelming support right off the bat, which was extremely encouraging - and then the pandemic hit. This put a huge pause on all the work they were doing, and they scrambled to still get it all done. It was at this time that they began to shift focus over to the Health: It’s Personal podcast as its primary goal until things settled down enough to jump back into course design and release.
Thankfully, the podcast became a space that far exceeded their expectations, allowing them to connect with new lifelong friends who have continued to stay in touch and collaborate with the HIP team. They already have so many amazing connections to reflect on and be thankful for. They also plan to work with many of these individuals on those future courses, and they’re so excited to share those with the world when they’re ready.
The best part of being a member of the HIP Team has allowed Kate, McKenna, and Sean to each have their own voices and perspectives equally heard and represented throughout the podcast. Each member of the team brings their best ideas to the table, and all ideas are carefully considered. They all have plenty of opportunities to bring up topics and potential guests that are of personal interest or importance to them, and each idea only makes the overall show more amazing.
Most importantly, this podcast has given them an opportunity to really dive into these topics and engage in these conversations. Often, when an episode is finished, they realize that it was just as much for them as it was for the listeners. This allows the HIP team to really dig into these topics and get to the heart of the matter every time, searching for that practical wisdom everyone could use a little more of in their lives. Above all else, they also try to make these difficult conversations a little easier to have with those we care most about.
Being Part of the HIP Family
As we continue this journey in the new year, we are pleased to share that we’re so excited to be back. We've loved all the feedback we've received on our episodes and topics, as well as all the incredible connections we've made with our listeners so far. We can't wait to see our community grow, so please help us spread the word! If you haven’t already, please consider following us on Instagram and Twitter, joining us on Pinterest, connecting with us on LinkedIn, subscribing to our podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows, joining our email list to get regular updates, and supporting us on Patreon. If you ever feel like sharing our work with others, please consider that as well - it would be greatly appreciated, and it only helps our community, and our content, grow stronger.
Also, if you haven’t checked out our season 2 trailer yet, you can check it out below!