Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American podcast. I'm your host, carrie Ann Alright. It's been a little while since I've done a solo episode and I am so excited to spend some one-on-one time with you, with no guests. Believe me, i enjoy having my guests It's great, but sometimes it's good if we just go on, chill out and just talk one-on-one.

Speaker 1: 0:28

See, so this is the seven months in our 2023 already. Can you believe it? I mean where the year gone? And so since the start of the year, i've been just putting out a lot of content, and we kicked off the year with a listener takeover series with Kimoi, who is an avid listener and supporter of Carry On Friends. The interview went so long we just had to make our part too right. So Kimoi asked questions from her perspective as a listener and a supporter. So, in addition to the audio-only episodes, there are episodes where Kimoi is on screen and that's on YouTube, so you can check it out on YouTube as well. So I had a lot of fun recording that episode. So let me know what you thought of that episode. Did you learn anything new? And I'd love to hear your feedback.

Speaker 1: 1:25

So what else did we have in 2023? Oh, yes, we had Ingrid return. She came back and she was telling a story catching up on the last time she was on the podcast and she keeps it real as it goes about in business And some really hard lessons that she had to learn, and I think that was such a good thing for us to hear, as someone who we can see is successful. But yet there are challenges, and she's shared how we can deal with challenges and not let them completely get us down. They might like to buckle a little bit, but get back up on our feet. And then we've had a couple episodes with Kisha, the teacher, where she's been really teaching us about our finances. I love talking to Kisha, just like our Balah energy, and it's been really good, as we have been really focused on the finance in America and other world. If it's not inflation, it's this, it's that. And so having the real, real talk conversation because it was very important to have a real talk conversation I'll talk about just saving money, but to acknowledge that some people right now in a situation where saving money seemed impossible, so we wanted to talk about that and how we can try to get to a place where we can maybe start with. You know, whatever the amount you want to start, just start and let us be consistent.

Speaker 1: 2:47

We covered a bunch of other episodes. Anthony, oh my goodness, i love Anthony's cold episode. It was just so fascinating to, you know, have him go out on tour and I just looked at all the stuff of him enjoying himself on Instagram promoting his EP while working a full-time job at Amazon, and that was a really fun episode. What was your favorite episode so far in seven months into the year? Right, let me know what you like about them, what you want us to do more of. So thank you again for listening.

Speaker 1: 3:21

What else is going on? All right, some milestones. So I haven't talked about this a lot, but 2023 is 10 years since I launched CarryOnFriendscom, which started out as a blog, and then, a couple years later, in 2015, i started the podcast. So 10 years for Carry On Friends, the platform, and eight years for the podcast. And really Grateful That's the word I'm looking for. Grateful because there are times I've wanted to quit, pack it up and go about my business, because too much stress is too much, expenses, too much of too much, and you're just tired. But almost always and if Mikaela was here as my witness. She would say almost always when I've been in those moods to say you know, i'm done, i'm tired, i'm gonna pack it up.

Speaker 1: 4:17

One of you listeners in the audience tag me in something by Instagram. I haven't been on Twitter much, but at me in a tweet or something about what an episode has meant or how it's helped them, or even send me an email, send me a DM or something, and so I am just so grateful that you listen and you know, as you are moved and inspired to tell me how an episode has encouraged you and I never know if that act of telling me that is also encouraging me to move forward. So I really, really thank you for that. So I'm gonna say it all the time Thank you, yes you, for listening or watching if you're doing both, or one or the other Right. Thank you for listening, to carry on friends, for supporting the podcast all of these years, you know. Thank you for telling your friends and your family and continue to tell your friends and your family and other people that would value the show and share their favorite episode, and I'm looking forward to creating new shows. I was super excited last year when I did the voice note stories. So I'm excited about creating some new content, so be on the lookout for that.

Speaker 1: 5:34

And the other thing that I haven't loaded much but you know, talk about it enough is I've been putting episodes on YouTube and not all the episodes on YouTube will have the video of me and the guest on it. There will be one or two because, as Wally Power worked for the edit video, edit audio, but a couple of them will actually have the live video And for the rest of them we just have the static image with the audio. But some of you have told me that you like that because when you go walking and you're listening to the podcast, it is something that you know. It's helpful. You, mom in Florida, yes, you is whom you're talking. She know who I'm talking.

Speaker 1: 6:15

So, again, this is what I love about doing the podcast. I have my relationship with my listeners, who become friends, and so I can Shout them out on the podcast without calling the name and they'll know who I'm talking about. So thank you so much for giving me that privilege to be in community with you, because, after all carry on, friends, cof, we're all a community of friends, boom, bang. So I would love for you to tell me what more you want from carry on friends, what you want from carry and and Let's see what we're going to do put to propel the next. You know people ambitious answer the next 20 years, the next year. Let's live in the moment. So next year, the next two year, and then we can figure out how we're gonna push this stratosphere to five.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I'm ten, but I would love to hear if there's anything you want, want to hear, want to experience, so it may not have to be content. You want to do events. You want to do something in person. You know I'm really big on audience feedback. Most people have known that. A good amount of you may have been part of my audience Listener feedback and survey, which I probably should do one for this year, but we'll see how that goes, all right. So stay tuned or send me email, hello at carry on friends, and let me know and use the methods as you usually use. Also, you know a lot of you use Instagram to send me messages, so I'll be Listening, looking out for you and your feedback.

Speaker 1: 7:47

All right, what else has been happening in 2023? Milan, should the new online store shop that carry on friendscom? people, please support the online store. A big enough for it for me, just go support the show, see my unapologetically Jamaican. And then there's Caribbean culture, american life, which everybody loves, and There's some other new designs. So please tell your friend and your family, check out the website, get your favorite merch some new ones as well and support the team, please. And tanks, tanks, tanks. And As I wrap up because this is a solar episode, i usually don't do too long of a solar episode I just want to say that a lot of us are going through things at any given moment and It's always easy to feel like you are alone in those experiences, and one of the things that's always been important to me, even when it's been difficult, is to give an insight.

Speaker 1: 8:47

You know so some people may be tired of me talking about my father passing, but I know for a fact there are people who have experienced loss, and they did that quietly, And so to just share a little bit of that experience with my loss or, you know, going through something at work or just just having the conversations, i know it. It's helpful for other people to hear, because a lot of times when you're going through something, you feel like you're the only one experiencing that, and you are Usually not alone. So if you need help, reach out. If it's not something I personally can help, i Can ask other people. I've done that as well, because I don't.

Speaker 1: 9:29

I'm not Mrs Fix it. I don't know everything, but I will do my best to help you get the resources that you need. All right, so again, i just want to say thank you to everybody who Listening and supporting. If you've just discovered, carry on friends. Thank God you discover, carry on friends. Welcome to the community of friends. If you've always been around rocking with me and carry on friends, you're done Noo with a walk from far and I just love that. You're still on this journey with me. I appreciate you and, as I love to say at the end of every episode walk good. I