Two Friends Walk Into A Podcast And Accidentally Go International

A single text turned into 70 episodes, a coast-to-coast map of new friends, and a global community we never saw coming. We close out season one with open hearts and full notebooks: the origin story, the surprises, and the bold shift that sets up what comes next.  Growth surprised us. We expected midlife women to make up the core audience because those are our stories, yet the download map and messages told another tale. Young listeners arrived, men tuned in, families played segments on road trips, and whole vet clinics became unofficial street teams. We list the cities that lit us up, and speak to what made that reach possible: consistent publishing, honest conversation, and a tone that mixes humor with care. For creators, this is a reminder that specificity attracts; when you speak plainly about your life, you don’t shrink your audience, you signal authenticity that travels.  

Chapters

• 0:07 Season One Wrap And Thanks
• 0:46 How The Show Started
• 1:38 Growth To States And Countries
• 2:49 New Cities And Listener Shoutouts
• 4:31 Season Two: Video And Format Shift
• 5:12 Carrie’s Move And Remote Plans
• 7:00 Gratitude For Partners And Team
• 9:16 Dreams, Influences, And Merch Plans
• 12:50 Social Channels And Season Two Tease

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Welcome to the Dysfunction Junkies Podcast. That's a wrap. It's the end of season one. With gratitude, your host, Chrissy and Carrie.

SPEAKER_02: 0:22

Wow, thank you, DJ Nick. Season one. That's a wrap, baby. I'm Carrie. And I'm Chrissy. Wow. I just can't say it enough. I am just so, so thankful for this past year. I am so thankful for you, Chrissy, you DJ Nick, Farm Boy Jim for support that all of this happened.

SPEAKER_03: 0:44

What do you got to say, Chrissy? It all started. I found the text. I knew I still had it. We had finally connected. We had tried for a couple months to get together to talk about just life. Yes. To catch up. And in saying that, jokingly, we talked about, oh, we should write books or whatever. That sounds like a lot of work. And it isn't. Well, this was fun. I sitting alone writing a book is this you get to do together. Yeah. Way more fun. But it was June 2nd, 2024. I looked it up. Yep. And I have the text where we're like, look, maybe we can make something out of this. I think we might want to think about it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26

So yeah, you said, like, I'm really, I'm really into I'll do this. I I'm being serious. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. Yeah. And here we are.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34

So 70 episodes later and ending our first season. Incredible.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39

It's it is incredible. And just very thankful for both of us being on the same page at the same time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:47

Yes. And I'm so grateful that we have had not only listeners from our areas, but we went national, 32 states. Like that blew my mind. But the countries, I can't say it enough when these different countries started popping up. All the different countries. So 12 different countries.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08

12 different countries. And yeah, it's it's fantastic. That this type of entertainment allows us to reach people all over.

SPEAKER_02: 2:17

Yep. And you know, we thought originally our demographic was gonna be, you know, women in their late 40s, 50s, early 60s, because that's you know, what we're talking about things that we're all relating to. But we found that we have such a diverse listenership that it's not just the women that are listening, it's the men, it's the young guys, it's the older guys, it's the young women, it's the families. I mean, it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 2:45

It is, yes, and I love all of that.

SPEAKER_02: 2:48

Yes, absolutely. Chrissy always keeps track of all of our new cities. So what we're over 200 cities now.

SPEAKER_03: 2:54

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think 206.

SPEAKER_02: 2:57

Yes. So what do we got? What's our new cities?

SPEAKER_03: 2:59

We had uh quite an impressive list this last time from the last time we recapped. So Twinsburg, Ohio, yay, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Oh uh, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Very good. This one across the pond. Yes, Poplar Tower, Hamlets, yes, UK. Yes. And we have quite a bit of listeners there. Apparently. Lots of downloads in a short period of time. So thank you. Yes. Lisbon, Ohio, which is over close to that.

SPEAKER_02: 3:33

I that's where my vet is. Oh, good. So I think I got the whole vet clinic there listening. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03: 3:40

Swickley. Oh Swickley. Swickley. This is like a Worcester thing. Yeah. You have to say it appropriately. Swickley. Swickley, Pennsylvania. And two newest ones was Roanoke, Virginia. Oh. And Cape Coral, Florida. Ah, Cape Coral, Florida.

SPEAKER_02: 3:59

Okay. All right. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_03: 4:01

It's a very good list.

SPEAKER_02: 4:02

Very good list.

SPEAKER_03: 4:03

And we're excited to see what our list will look like next month.

SPEAKER_02: 4:06

In next year. DJ Nick, you look like you want to add something there. Oh. You were creeping over Chrissy's shoulder. I thought you had something you wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

I just wanted to get closer.

SPEAKER_02: 4:14

He just wants to snuggle. Get a room. Oh, wait. No, don't get a room because I'd be upstairs. I'd be down here by myself. Uh oh. Yeah, it's been a great year. So we just can't thank everyone enough. And we're really looking forward to to season two. There's some changes on the horizon. Should we should we breach that now a little bit, Chrissy? Um what's what's happening? Chrissy's giving me the evil eye. Yes, go ahead. Season two. Yes. So season two, we've been talking about starting to do videos and doing video recordings. So we're not just going to be coming to audio but video. And we've been dragging our feet about it, but I'm kind of doing something that's forcing us to go to the next level. Yeah, you are. I'm moving.

SPEAKER_03: 5:02

I I go. Carry go.

SPEAKER_02: 5:06

That's the most unenthusiastic carry go of the whole show so far. Well, as you all know, my mom passed away this past year. And the whole reason why we moved to Ohio was to take care of my parents, and they both passed away. And then recently, if you've read my blog, My Horse Passed Away. So there's really our time here in Ohio is done. And so we are going to be moving to Utah. So dysfunction junkies is going to continue. We are still committed. We're going to be coming at you, but we need to change how we do things here a little bit because our in-person together might be limited. But thanks for technology. There's Zoom, there's all kinds of ways that we can still do this. So Yeah, the pandemic trained us on how to do this. So for those of you that have been wanting to see us live and love whenever we post little video clips and things like that when we are recording to see our reactions, to see this, you know, unfold. And you're going to be definitely getting a more unedited version because we will be doing this on video. Uh, so that's going to be coming up in season two.

SPEAKER_03: 6:12

When is my time in Ohio gonna be done?

SPEAKER_02: 6:14

I don't know. Why don't you just move me with me? I've offered.

SPEAKER_03: 6:17

I've told you. You said Utah's warm. Yes. I don't want warm all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 6:23

Okay, well, you can move like an hour north of me and there'll be snow.

SPEAKER_03: 6:29

And there'll be nobody around, and I'll be out in the wilderness by myself.

SPEAKER_02: 6:33

We're in you're out in the wilderness now, you're in the country.

SPEAKER_03: 6:36

No, no, it's just I'm in a development. I can't help there's country outside of my development. Yeah, you can move with me. We could just take the whole show. I'm not ready. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 6:54

Alrighty. So, what else do we have to be thankful for our season? I I do want to give a shout out. We we've been working with a marketing company, and although we've had our trials and tribulations, like any relationship, they've done an outstanding job on our website. So, instant webmakers, thank you so much to Ben and his crew for everything you've done for us this past year and creating our fabulous website. So thanks, guys. Thank you. And I still think it's interesting that Ben has the same name as the guy who designs the costumes.

SPEAKER_03: 7:22

Who made the costumes as a costume creator? Yeah. Ben Cooper. What else you got on your thankful list, Chris? Oh, I'm just gonna thank you because you seem to always know how to prompt me. It's a gift that you have that and you you really know what to say that's gonna pretty much hopefully bring out the next best line out of my mouth. So I'm thankful uh for you uh for that reason and many others. Oh, thank you. And um, you know, I I didn't write it down, but I gotta throw a thank you, a shout out. We haven't talked about her in a long time. Fingers. Fingers, yes. So uh I gotta search my soul and mind to come up with some more fun because I did torture her quite a bit. So I I'm sure I'll have more. So we need to have her on. We need to have her on.

SPEAKER_02: 8:12

And well, now that we're gonna have to step up with technology, we might have more guest appearances. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 8:19

So fingers would probably have to be one of the first, uh, just because she's been so kind and letting us talk about how much I beat her up and everything. So um, and then uh we we did say thank you to Farm Boy Jim, right? Yes, yes, yes. And uh uh thank you, thank you, thank you, DJ Nick, who does all of our editing. I sat with him for a few minutes while just to sort of appreciate what he does. And it I I do appreciate what he does because it is, it was it's tedious, yeah, and he's picked this up without any prior experience, and I think he's been doing a bang up job.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

Absolutely, and and he I'm still not gonna quit my day job. I'm not that good at it.

SPEAKER_02: 8:59

So well, yeah. We're all trying to quit our day jobs though, Nick. So you can aspire.

SPEAKER_03: 9:05

Yeah, you can aspire. We'll see where we go. We would love to be able to go to that point where we could start considering quitting day jobs, but Oh, that would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_02: 9:14

I know, wouldn't it be though? I know. I was watching. Do you watch Dancing with the Stars at all? No.

unknown: 9:19

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02: 9:21

I love that show. Love that show.

SPEAKER_03: 9:23

They don't have real stars on there anymore, though. They ran out of people, didn't they? Is Corey Feldman on this next season? Yeah, he got booted off already. Jesus were able to dance like Michael Jackson.

SPEAKER_01: 9:36

He got booted off that quickly.

SPEAKER_02: 9:37

Yeah. There's only so much we can take of that. Well, Robert Irwin is on this season this season. Little little Robert Irwin, Steve Irwin's little boy. Oh, the crocodile. Oh, gosh. But my whole point of that is they have a lot of influencers on. And as I'm watching this show, I'm going, I want to be on this show. Chrissy, we need to make this podcast so big that I get asked to be on Dancing with the Stars.

SPEAKER_03: 10:10

Well, everybody has a dream. And I wanna I wanna help you realize your dream.

SPEAKER_02: 10:16

The way you said that sounded like keep dreaming. Well, no, no. I think it's well just star.

SPEAKER_03: 10:22

You're talking about a dream, anyhow. Stars. That's yeah, everybody starts out when you want to be a star, you gotta dream first. Yes. So, yes.

SPEAKER_02: 10:30

That's my goal. I'm gonna try and help you realize. Okay, we need to realize that goal. And you can figure out what reality TV or whatever show you want to be on. But if we get dancing with the stars, I'm it.

SPEAKER_03: 10:40

All right.

SPEAKER_02: 10:41

I do have one. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 10:43

And it's almost like a little bit of a plug for not a sponsor. I know what you're gonna say. I want to be on good mythical morning. I knew it. I knew it. Good mythical morning. I knew it. I love Rett and Link and what they have done with their brand. I am so jealous. Yes. And I do walk around Worcester with sometimes my Good Mythical more clear. People know the good morning. People do. So that makes me, I'm so happy they recognize it. Then I'm pissed. That they don't know us. Because they're like, so I do have to say to plug Good Mythical Morning wearing your crap, which I love. Love your stuff. I do try to put in helpless plugs for us at the same time. Oh, I do all the time. She she does that. Oh, all the time.

SPEAKER_01: 11:24

Last we were at a farmer's market.

SPEAKER_03: 11:26

Yeah, we went to the farmer's market here in Worcester, which was wonderful. I finally made it at the last day for this season, and we made it.

SPEAKER_01: 11:33

Yeah. And there was a lady there who's like, is that good mythical morning? She and then she's Chrissy segued real nicely into and she had her just on junkies t-shirt, which we need to start getting that.

SPEAKER_02: 11:43

We need to get a hoodie. We need to fit yes, we I thought about that this morning as it was freaking cold. It's getting cold. I need a beanie too. Yes, okay. Yeah, we need to figure out how to do merchandise from print to to post. So like we're gonna figure it out. Yeah, we gotta figure that out. If anyone has any ideas or marketing ideas on that, give us a shout out to us, please. Yeah, we need to get that going. Yeah, but yeah, oh, I'm always shamelessly plugging. Always like I take those magnets, I pop them up everywhere. I've gone back in and gotten them to people. Yeah. Tips of waitresses. Oh, here, and here's this.

SPEAKER_03: 12:16

You were a great waitress, but you'd be better if you listen to this. 15% or 20%. 15 to 20. You need to listen to it.

SPEAKER_02: 12:23

I'm I'm my range of tipping. Well, because we from being from Las Vegas, tipping is you know really a big thing. So we're we're usually good tippers, but mmm, you give us bad service, mmm, you're really not gonna get a good tip. Yeah, it's pretty much low end or super high end. There's not much gray in the middle with us. Well, I get it. I get it. But we want to thank everybody for a fabulous season. That is a wrap. We love all of you. Thank you so much. Be sure to check out our Facebook page, Dysfunction Junkies. We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we're on YouTube. Hopefully, I'm thinking we need to do TikTok, Chrissy. Okay. We need to do it. We need to take that leap.

SPEAKER_03: 13:01

So is that a dance? People on TikTok. No.

SPEAKER_02: 13:04

How do all those people can do that? I'm not. It will be. We need to, you, you. I will trip and fall right away. We need farm boy Jim because he always dances to our music. I need to get TikTok video of that.

SPEAKER_03: 13:19

He needs to do the intro, and Nick can do the exit with his dance. You guys need to impress us with your dance to our music.

SPEAKER_02: 13:27

So we got so much coming for season two. So we will be back with season two. Yes. Thank you, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye.