Husband-and-wife group Ian and Tonya Fitzpatrick are founders and hosts of the World Footprints journey podcast. Although they’re now married and internet hosting a profitable podcast collectively, they virtually didn’t meet. When Tonya, a lawyer, first met Ian, she wasn’t all in favour of courting anybody. Ian’s cousin, who knew Tonya from school, tried to be a matchmaker for the pair, however he quickly realized it wasn’t going to be a simple match. 

After listening to that Ian was additionally a lawyer, Tonya’s response was, “Oh, hell no. I don’t need to meet him.” However she softened to the concept of connecting with him when she realized that, like her, Ian was from the Midwest (they had been residing in Washington, D.C., on the time). She explains, “I used to be actually on the lookout for folks with Midwest values.” 

Her subsequent query to Ian’s cousin can be the deciding issue. She requested, “Does he have a passport and are there stamps in it?” Since she had lately returned from residing overseas, it was essential to her that any potential suitor valued journey. “I wasn’t all in favour of battling with one other particular person, notably one other lawyer, about my view of the world,” she says. Happily, Ian had traveled internationally for college alternate packages, so she agreed to have dinner with him.

A shared love of journey between Ian and Tonya Fitzpatrick began the entire journey

“Basically our lives truly began off with journey,” says Tonya. Ian proposed to Tonya throughout a shock journey to Toronto. “I didn’t know the place we had been going till we bought to the airport and I noticed the airport code,” says Tonya Fitzpatrick. After checking into their lodge, they boarded a prop aircraft. “Simply in regards to the time I began to get somewhat bit nauseous due to this prop aircraft, one other aircraft comes by us in the wrong way carrying a banner that claims, ‘Marry me, Tonya. I coronary heart you.’” Their 2005 wedding ceremony was like their proposal—at a distant vacation spot—however this time it was within the tropical location of Bermuda. “We took a few of our closest household and pals to Bermuda for what was a reasonably extraordinary weekend,” says Ian.

An opportunity assembly with a life coach modified the course of their lives

Shortly thereafter, throughout a visit to San Francisco, Tonya and Ian met a life coach at a lodge cocktail hour who ended up altering their profession path. The life coach posed some questions that helped the couple outline their passions. “My two passions I had had been journey and horses. And we thought, ‘How can we kind a enterprise?’” explains Tonya. Since proudly owning horses can be an costly enterprise, they opted to create a journey company. “We began it [the travel agency] with the intention of constructing certain our purchasers had a transformative journey expertise,” says Tonya. 

Inside three years of proudly owning their journey company, Bronze World, their firm was on observe to earn 1 / 4 million {dollars}. Regardless of their monetary success, they determined to focus as a substitute on their journey podcast that they created in 2007, and so they closed their journey company in 2009. On the time it was too tough for them to run a podcast and journey company. “The fervour actually was for journey, not promoting journey,” says Ian. “The media aspect gave us an even bigger microphone, to share the issues that we needed to share in regards to the world and about journey,” says Tonya. Another excuse they closed the journey company is as a result of The White Home had supplied Tonya a job because the deputy assistant secretary for civil rights on the Division of Schooling.

Initially, their journey podcast was on a radio station as a journey discuss present known as, Touring On. They then rebranded in 2010, altering the identify to World Footprints and transferring to a digital platform. “World Footprints, I believe, has a extra impactful title and signifies the influence of the footprints we’re leaving all over the world, and the socially-conscious messages that we’re sharing,” says Tonya Fitzpatrick.

The transfer to podcasting from radio was difficult. It was “within the nascent phases of podcasting. We actually didn’t know what we had been doing,” Ian says. “On this house we knew that we needed to do one thing somewhat extra uplifting, somewhat extra insightful than, ‘The place’s the most effective seashore, The place’s the most affordable cruise?’ and the everyday form of vacation-oriented, value-oriented client primarily based journey exhibits.” 

The podcast additionally allowed them to have extra freedom over the kind of content material they produced. “They [the radio station] had been conservative, and we’re pushing socially-conscious dialogues. So there was somewhat little bit of a battle there,” says Tonya. Earlier than launching a podcast, they moved to a extra liberal radio station—however the station was then purchased by Dan Snyder, who switched gears to air principally sports-related content material.

The duo funds their podcast with their very own cash. “[The podcast] was bootstrapped by us… and though there’s extra income coming in, the enterprise mannequin has shifted considerably, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a ardour venture, even at this level in its evolution,” Ian explains. “The economics stay difficult for podcasting, and for media basically, and we’re not resistant to that. However we’re nonetheless right here, and we’re evolving and transferring ahead, which is all that we actually can do.”

They each nonetheless work as attorneys, however they’ve grown their podcast enterprise. “Now we have now a partnership with MSN.com,” Tonya says.

Inspiring folks to be remodeled by their travels

The primary focus of their podcast is on the “transformative energy of journey,” and their content material is geared towards conscientious vacationers. They intention to share untold tales whereas incorporating social justice. One in every of Tonya’s favourite podcasts is in regards to the Deaf Heritage Path in Martha’s Winery. “Even individuals who go to Martha’s Winery usually don’t know in regards to the Deaf Heritage Path and the background of the deaf neighborhood—the biggest deaf neighborhood within the nation [at one point in history], which was concentrated there,” she says.

Apart from sharing untold tales, they’ve had the chance to interview some well-known folks like Maya Angelou. There are “multi-dimensional elements about who we’re, and our journey, that we’re in a position to infuse into the podcast and fuse into the dialog that hopefully results in some attention-grabbing locations and a few attention-grabbing conversations with folks from all walks of life who prefer to share their journey [and] prefer to share their travels,” says Ian.

If you’re considering of beginning your personal podcast, these veterans shared some suggestions. “I’d counsel that they discover their voice and keep it up,” says Tonya. Generally folks “attempt to attraction to everyone, and you may’t do this.” Ian agrees and advises, “You simply should be your self and know who you might be.”

Photograph courtesy of Tonya Fitzpatrick.