Conversing Cousins Podcast

Welcome to our first interview episode! We have our cousins, Kevin Dluzen, on to discuss his five-month trip to Asia. Kevin is a senior engineer with a startup satellite company out of San Francisco by day, and a travel enthusiast always!

You might be asking yourself how to save for such a long trip, do you plan the whole trip ahead of time, what do you do about your job, is traveling alone safe…he answers all of these questions and more!

 Find out which countries are his favorite, how to get around cheaply, and how to handle any language barriers while traveling.

This is part one of a two part episode. 

People Mentioned:

Kevin Dluzen

    Instagram: @kevindluzen

    Facebook: Kevin Dluzen

Hello Pumpkin!

It is FALL! Well…according to Starbucks it is with their pumpkin spice latte now available. If they are serving from their Fall drink menu, Fall has officially arrived!

It is finally September, and the air is getting crisper…at least in some parts of the country! Everyone can finally start decorating without their neighbors judging them! (Well they might be secretly judging, but we DON’T care!)

Find out what Caroline and Katelyn wait all year to do as soon as September comes, and discover what traditions they hold nearest their hearts!

Not sure how to start transitioning your wardrobe to incorporate the new season? Don’t worry, we consider that too! Discover what our fall staples are.

Did Katelyn convince Caroline to do another half marathon? Would you be interested in joining them if they went? We examine the perfect places to do a race this time of year.

Places Mentioned:
Edwards Apple Orchard: Poplar Grove, Illinois
Fear Fest: South Beloit, Illinois

We are all about positive thinking and surrounding yourself with positive people on this episode. When you look at your difficult life events with a positive mindset, good things will come your way!

Caroline discusses why she has chose to end some friendships from the lack of positivity. She believes you are who your friends are, just like you are what you eat. Your body feeds off positive vibes as well as negative, so keeping positivity around you is extremely important!

Kate explains how she uses visualization to keep positive, a trick she learned in her competitive diving days. Seeing yourself where you want to be and how you want your life to be can help make it happen!

Kate questions Caroline how she feels when men tell women to smile more, and how her opinion differs slightly. This brings them into discussing positivity in the workplace, and the kind of coworkers you want to work with.

Caroline reveals how one of her favorite bloggers gave her the bright idea to ONLY be positive (you are not allowed to complain) once a week! You will discover how much you actually complain in a day; whether it's about friends, family, coworkers, spouse...you name it, we all complain about it!

We challenge all of our listeners to take one day a week to only think positively, and feel free to use these hashtags #convocuzpositivity and #spreadpositivity to see how many of us try this!

People Mentioned:
Blogger- Brighton Keller from www.brightontheday.com and instagram: brightonkeller

The Conversing Cousins explain the importance of having a great routine!  Whether it is morning, evening, daily, weekly, or monthly routine…. it’s time for you to get one! 

Katelyn discusses how she is NOT a morning person, so she uses her evening routine to prepare her ready for the next day. Kate expresses how she got to be an organized person when she started playing sports from a young age. 

She also offers advice on using the “quiet time of night” to get work done when everyone else is sleeping. Kate discusses how to use a routine to find time in your schedule to workout, prioritize your health, and work on your hobbies.

Caroline lets everyone know how she’s dead to the world after 5 pm…. DON’T ask her to do anything after that! She examines how her morning routine sets her up for the rest of the day! She also discusses how she would go to bed at 8pm when she was in school and wake up at 4am to study…it works with some practice!

Caroline also dives into her weekly routine and the power of a DAILY PLANNER and how to use Sundays to plan for the whole week! 

 Items mentioned in podcast:

SIMPLIFIED PLANNER by Emily Ley

Bachelor Winter Games

What We’ve Learned from Podcasting…

First of all, if you are interested in starting a podcast…do it! There will never be a right time to start so you might as well make the right time NOW! And if you ask our podcasters, podcasting is way easier than starting a blog! So you might as well get to it!

Katelyn and Caroline have learned so much in the three months they have been podcasting together: about themselves, the podcast universe, the garage band app, navigating social media, and overcoming insecurities.

We also want to thank our listeners for joining us in our podcast journey! We couldn’t do this without you!

Let’s Talk about Road Trips 

Are you a flying family or a driving family? 

If you plan on taking a road trip in the near future this is an excellent episode to listen to for ideas on what to do while you are stuck in a car for hours!

Don’t allow those hours in the car to go to waste, get caught up on things you enjoy doing without even leaving your seat!

Also, join us while we reminisce about our favorite childhood car trip stories and let us know your stories!!

Process of Planning Your Next Vacation

Traveling can be extremely stressful, and planning can be even more! Let us help you figure out what is important to concentrate on when preparing for your next vacation.

 First, you need to decide who you are going with, and even more importantly, where you are going!!! Once you decide that, the rest will fall into place…well, kind of!

 Tune in to find out our tips and tricks to planning, what should be done months early and what you can decide just days before.

 We will also discuss some packing tips; whether you are packing for a two week trip or just two days…we got YOU!

 Heading into our third week of the Celery Juice Challenge we will give you a quick update on how we are feeling and the changes we have seen!

It is a HUGE week this week. It is Caroline’s big 3-0 and we give a quick recap of how our celery juice challenge is going so far. Do we feel any different? Are we feeling healthier? Find out! Kate discusses how she has been listening to the Medical Medium Podcast and what she has learned so far!

 Now onto the big topic this week…transitioning from college to the workforce. Whether you just got out of college or are heading into your senior year preparing for next year, we cover the important steps we think you should be taking to make yourself competitive.

 Discover how a job opportunity recently arose for Caroline on a commercial airline flight, and how Kate was only one class away from a Language Arts endorsement for teaching and decided not to pursue it. She discusses the importance of knowing yourself when taking college classes.

 We round up our five tips and tricks for getting hired for that dream job and if it doesn’t come right away what you can do in the meantime!

Travel Etiquette

Before getting to travel etiquette, Caroline and Katelyn examine how they feel on day 6/30 of their Celery Juice Challenge. Discover if they have found any benefits in the first week. It isn’t too late to begin the challenge with them if you haven’t already! 

Since we are in in prime travel season, it felt like the perfect opportunity to talk about travel etiquette…especially airplane travel etiquette. Katelyn and Caroline disclose the do’s and don’ts of airplane travel as well as some tips and tricks to making your flight even more enjoyable!

Discover Caroline’s number one pet peeve other travelers do, and why Katelyn always feels the need to bring food on a flight...even if it is Turkey Jerky.