ITP - 87: 3 Year Anniversary — Podcast Growth and Reflections

Jacqueline: Hey folks, welcome to the International Teacher Podcast. I'm JP Mint and we are celebrating our third year anniversary. So the boys decided I should do the intro. I should learn how to do the intro. Hopefully you guys are not tuning out thinking, where’s Kent the cat guy and where’s Greg the single guy?

Jacqueline: But we have them both here today. Hi guys.

Greg: Hey, JP Mint.

Kent: Hey JP, how you doing?

Jacqueline: Good intro.

Jacqueline: Thank you. My first one—I was so nervous. I studied in the mirror 7,000 times just to make sure it was true.

Greg: Still clear in between WhatsApp messages?

Jacqueline: Yeah, exactly.

Greg: Well, you know—happy third anniversary, everyone.

Kent: Happy third anniversary.

Greg: Yeah, it was three years ago today that Matt Judd said to me, “Hey Greg, let’s do a podcast.” And that was right around the same time Kent was like, “Hey, I think we should look at podcasting equipment,” right?

Greg: And then a little bit after that, Kent came along and Matt sort of faded away. But Kent came along and saved us. And for the next two years we were doing that.

Greg: And then JP, you came along—and after interviewing twice with us, you became one of our co-hosts, which is fantastic. I love it.

Jacqueline: I still want to know—if I hadn’t been listening to Making the Grade, would I have had that formal invitation?

Jacqueline: Because as it turns out, I got invited in another podcast and I was like, wait—is this still accurate? Because you recorded it in June. I heard nothing of an invitation until September when I was listening to it.

Greg: We had already decided on you joining us without telling you, so we just broke the news to you a little bit later.

Greg: So anyway, listeners, I tell you what—we’ve had a great time. We’re up to probably 85 episodes coming up. We have probably at least another five, so we’re approaching about 90 episodes as we’re recording this.

Jacqueline: Countdown to 100.

Greg: Countdown to 100. And all of our listeners—my mom, right?

Kent: Your two moms make up 50% of our audience, so thank you—kudos to them.

Greg: You know what, I invited her to come on the show tonight, Kent. I invited her to join us.

Kent: What did she say?

Greg: She’s not feeling well.

Kent: Well, maybe she’ll come on another time.

Greg: Yeah, that’s true.

Greg: But you know what—we’ve had so many great interviews, right? I love it. We’ve had interviews with teachers all along the way across hundreds of countries. We have 120 countries represented from our listeners.

Greg: We’ve got a website that’s been going well. We’ve linked JP’s blog with our website. We’ve been talking with educators going global. What else comes to mind from the last three years?

Jacqueline: This year we’ve got a Facebook group so people can join and kind of see behind-the-scenes photos of the recording process.

Greg: Oh—speaking of which, photo time everybody. It’s selfie time.

Greg: So listeners, we have to do this every once in a while. Kent’s got balloons, I’ve got balloons. I don’t know—this whole animation thing.

Jacqueline: Did you get the picture?

Greg: Yeah, I did.

Jacqueline: Greg wasn’t ready.

Greg: Greg wasn’t ready. He still looks the same.

Greg: So we have about 60 fans in the Facebook group—including myself. I include myself in there because I’m a big fan of ITP.

Greg: Feel free to join that group. There’s a little bit of a gatekeeping method just to keep the spam bots out, so people can easily join.

Greg: Don’t be daunted when you’re asked what your favorite episode is—that’s usually left blank for some reason.

Jacqueline: Actually, I think Kent added like 40 anonymous members to that Facebook group and I added like 25 more, so there’s probably only like three real people in the group.

Greg: I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone, but I’d like to throw out a couple of my favorite episodes from just the last year—as long as we’re celebrating.

Jacqueline: Please do.

Greg: So one of the episodes I was not on, which is one of my favorites this year, is Sharon the Guide Hog.

Greg: Shout out to Sharon.

Kent: Shout out to Sharon the Guide Hog.

Greg: I love that episode. I think she hit on something that everyone who travels the world won’t admit, but they do—it’s the power struggles with other tourists and guides.

Greg: Everyone does it, and she’s just the first one to admit it.

Kent: That was a fun episode.

Jacqueline: Yeah, Sharon is so well-traveled that she’s definitely a mentor for me in her travels and her longevity in certain schools. She encouraged me to stay a little bit longer and put down deeper roots.

Greg: One more shoutout—help me remember, JP Mint—your friend who went through multiple revolutions.

Jacqueline: Debbie.

Greg: Debbie, yes. She was in Myanmar and now Nigeria.

Jacqueline: Yeah, Debbie is in Nigeria now.

Greg: I loved that episode because she talks about real struggles—there can be stress in the moment—but there’s also a level of pride in being there and witnessing history firsthand.

Greg: International teachers go through rough periods, but they look back with wisdom and growth from those experiences.

Jacqueline: And the camaraderie that we feel as international teachers when we go through struggles together—that really solidifies relationships.

Jacqueline: I still chat with Debbie almost weekly.

Greg: So those are a couple of my favorites. Honestly, it’s impossible to pick—there are so many great episodes.

Greg: I get one too then. This goes back to a conversation I had about two days ago with my mom. I was on video trying to get her to join us for an episode, but she wasn’t feeling well. She told me she had been in bed all day—like nine hours—and all she did was listen to the International Teacher Podcast.

Greg: She said she could just sit there and listen to it like radio. I didn’t even realize it would autoplay one episode after another. So I asked her which ones she was listening to, and she said her favorite was the one about my friend who bicycles all over the world—he’s been to like 150 countries.

Greg: I said, “Oh, you mean Graydon?” He’s a friend of mine I taught with in Egypt. She loved that episode. She said she felt like she was there with him because he’s been to so many places.

Greg: So it’s kind of cool that even my mom can get entertainment out of it. She went all the way back to episode one and started listening again.

Kent: She didn’t mean to listen—she just didn’t know how to turn it off. It just kept going.

Greg: The autoplay button just kept it going.

Greg: JP, how about you? What are your favorite episodes?

Jacqueline: Oh my gosh. My favorites are the ones with my friends—just getting to reconnect with them. When they get to meet you guys and I get to watch that interaction happen, those are definitely my favorites right now.

Greg: Got it. There’s so many great ones.

Greg: And something new this year—we’ve been doing almost weekly episodes. I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it, but it’s been really special for our listeners who reach out and say how much they love the weekly uploads.

Kent: A lot of credit goes to JP Mint for keeping this project on track each week. Greg does a lot behind the scenes, but JP, you’ve been huge in making this happen.

Jacqueline: Well, big shoutout to Greg for working tirelessly every weekend to edit those episodes.

Greg: I don’t edit all of them.

Jacqueline: You do some editing. I jump in sometimes when the backlog gets big.

Kent: He’s busy with his other podcast, Just to Know You.

Greg: I want to plug Just to Know You for a second. We just interviewed a teacher who’s been overseas for 50 years. He’s retiring this month after spending 50 years in the same region as Kent and me.

Greg: It was really powerful to capture that level of experience and wisdom before he retires.

Kent: That’s what’s special about podcasts—it captures voices and stories that would otherwise disappear. People will be able to listen to these conversations for years to come.

Greg: We don’t know what to do without a guest.

Kent: Seriously.

Greg: Before we move on to some big things this year—like Greg’s book and JP’s website—what are your predictions or wishes for next year?

Greg: I think at some point you guys are going to convince me to go on video. Maybe after our 100th episode, we start doing video podcasts.

Kent: I would agree. It’s probably time we move toward video as well as audio.

Greg: I have a face for radio, though. You and JP can be on camera—I’ll just put up a “Where’s Waldo” image instead of me.

Jacqueline: No way. If we’re going video, we’re all going video.

Greg: It could open up a whole new audience—people who prefer watching instead of just listening.

Kent: The only problem is people might recognize us and not let us into certain countries.

Greg: They already know who we are.

Kent: That’s fair.

Greg: I’d also love to do a live stream with some Q&A. Since we have listeners all over the world, it would be fun to interact with them live.

Jacqueline: That would be amazing.

Greg: Maybe through Facebook or Riverside—we’ll figure it out.

Greg: All right, those are some predictions. Let’s talk about Greg’s book.

Greg: So let’s get into that a little bit—Greg’s book. This has been something kind of in the background for a while now. Do you want to give listeners a bit of an overview?

Greg: Yeah, so the book is something I’ve been working on for quite a while. It’s really about international teaching and the lifestyle around it—kind of a mix of stories, reflections, and practical advice. It’s not meant to be academic. It’s meant to be something that people can pick up and relate to.

Greg: A lot of it comes from experiences we’ve had, conversations we’ve had on this podcast, and just being in the field for so long. I wanted to capture that in a way that’s accessible.

Jacqueline: That’s exciting. I think there’s a real need for that—something that’s honest and not sugar-coated.

Greg: Exactly. There are a lot of highlight reels out there about international teaching, but not as much about the realities—the challenges, the transitions, the growth.

Kent: When is it coming out?

Greg: That’s the million-dollar question. Hopefully soon. It’s one of those things where you keep refining it, and at some point you just have to say, “Okay, it’s ready.”

Jacqueline: That’s every project ever.

Greg: Pretty much.

Greg: And JP, you’ve got your website going now. Do you want to talk about that a bit?

Jacqueline: Yeah, so the website is really just a place to bring everything together—blog posts, resources, reflections. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and it finally felt like the right moment.

Jacqueline: A lot of it ties into the conversations we have here, but it also gives me a space to go a bit deeper on certain topics.

Kent: And it’s a great resource for teachers who are either starting out or already in the field.

Jacqueline: That’s the goal—just to share experiences and hopefully help people navigate this world a little bit more easily.

Greg: It’s funny how all of this kind of connects—the podcast, the website, the book. It’s all part of the same conversation.

Jacqueline: Yeah, it really is.

Greg: And I think that’s what’s been so cool about the last three years. We started this as just an idea, and now it’s grown into something much bigger.

Kent: And it’s still growing.

Greg: Exactly.

Greg: All right, as we wrap this up, I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s been listening over the past three years. Whether you’ve been here from the beginning or you’ve just joined recently, we really appreciate it.

Jacqueline: Absolutely. It means a lot to us.

Kent: Yeah, thank you everyone.

Greg: And we’re looking forward to the next year, the next 10 episodes, the next 100 episodes—who knows where this goes.

Jacqueline: Countdown to 100.

Greg: Countdown to 100. We’ll see you there.

All: Thank you.