Patrick Cadigan: 0:00

Welcome. This is the Postsecondary Transition pod...well, actually, no, it's not. This is the Postsecondary Transition Conversation. We focus on the ins and outs and everything in between of the transition process for families of students with disabilities, I am one of the hosts. My name is Patrick Cadigan. I am a public school transition coordinator. As always, I have a co-host, and who would that be?

Meghan Smallwood: 0:26

I am Meghan Smallwood, and I am a public school transition coordinator as well.

Patrick Cadigan: 0:30

So there is a little bit of a change. Meghan and I talked offline. It was actually a fairly quick discussion, but no big like meeting or anything needed to be had. A little bit of background. I consume my news through podcasts. So I have a whole list of podcasts in my feed, and some of them have to do with the medium of podcasting as it is, and in one of the discussions, it was mentioned that having the word podcast in your title is actually a detriment to your visibility and SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Did a little bit of research. I would be lying if I told you that I understood it, but I believed what I was reading and what I was hearing. So called Meghan said, "Hey, this is a thing." And Meghan was like, "really?" And I was like, "yeah." And then it was like, "Do you want to change the name?" And she was like, "Sure." And I was like,"hey, what do you think of this?" And she was like,"great." So here we are.

Meghan Smallwood: 1:44

And it really went down that way. But I was actually super surprised, because I feel like podcast is that like key word that everyone searches when they're looking for a topic or some kind of discussion about something? So it just surprised me to hear that that would actually hinder things. But I think the fact that we chose conversation really aligns with what we do. We have conversations. We're just recording them for you all to hear, so that you have the you know, insight into what's going on in our mind.

Patrick Cadigan: 2:15

And what's cool is that as we are transitioning into 2026 we are in season four, as the school year is nearing its end, that would mean that by next year, of course, we're at season five. That's crazy. It is crazy. We have built up a very nice library of discussions around transition. I mean, Meghan, what have we talked about? We talked about...

Meghan Smallwood: 2:41

What hadn't we talked about, I think, is the question.

Patrick Cadigan: 2:43

Yeah, like, okay, so we've done parent interviews. We've have talked...

Meghan Smallwood: 2:48

We've done info sessions just on DDA, DORS, guardianship, alternatives to guardianship. SSI, functional life skills...

Patrick Cadigan: 3:01

We have...

Meghan Smallwood: 3:02

...timelines.

Patrick Cadigan: 3:03

We have met people outside of our circle and...

Meghan Smallwood: 3:06

That's always fun.

Patrick Cadigan: 3:07

...talked with them. And so there, there really has been a lot, and it has been a lot of fun. Speaking for myself, I've learned a lot, and it's nice to be able to apply it practically. Because again, remember when we first started this journey, I was a special educator and Meghan was the transition coordinator. Now we're both transition coordinators. I'm only what in my second year, I still marvel at the fact that I really don't know anything, even though I know probably more than some people. But I am continuously learning, learning my students, learning the process. There's always something going on.

Meghan Smallwood: 3:52

Well and it's ever changing. So I mean, I'm what 9 / 10, years into the world, the transition, and I learn every day. But I think the cool thing is, when we regroup to have a conversation, you know, a topic really comes easily to us, because I think to what I've been discussing with families or co workers at that time, and I'm like, "Oh, this is something that's, you know, fresh of mine, that's really being discussed now we would need to bring this forward to our audience." And I love when people approach us and they're like, Oh, I've listened to you. I'd love to come and chat with you. And I'm like, absolutely we would love to hear from you, because I feel like the more that we can expand, the better for everybody.

Patrick Cadigan: 4:34

The part that I love; there's no ego here. There is no ego whatsoever...

Meghan Smallwood: 4:38

No.

Patrick Cadigan: 4:39

People, people will reach out, and they'll be like, would love to talk to you. And I'm great, you know, this is Patrick, and they're like, Oh, actually, we, we're not, we're not interested in you. We, we want to talk to Meghan. And I'm like, I can make that happen. So, so...

Meghan Smallwood: 4:57

It's just you never, and you never know. Who it is like, sometimes it'll be the most random people, but I love it. I forget. There was one scenario where after a full conversation with someone, they're like, wait a minute, you're that, Meghan, I listen to you, and I was like, Oh, well, thank you. So it's just always nice. And again, we always say we'd love to hear what's on your mind. You know, if you have a story to tell. If you want to share your journey, even if it's not at the 21st year yet, if it's your journey to that point, we want to hear it. If you have a question that's burning on your mind, or you've heard from other people, we're happy to discuss it. I mean, we love those kinds of things, and like Patrick said, we've really reached out of our inner circle and has expanded to many different corners of the country and world, which is awesome.

Patrick Cadigan: 5:46

Playing off of that. One of the things that Meghan and I were discussing offline recently was our podcast provider, our host provider, does a nice job of providing us with stats and numbers of the you know, the number of downloads that have happened for a particular episode, in some cases, the location, and there really has been a lot of different places. Now, of course, most of it is local, local to us, and that is to be expected. But every once in a while, we get surprised by something, and so I text Meghan and said, "Well, we can add a new country to our discussion location." We have, apparently, we have some listeners in Finland. And so let me think we're UK, Finland, Canada, Belgium, think we have one in Belgium. We had Russia. We had China. So anyway, that's just...

Meghan Smallwood: 6:49

Yeah.

Patrick Cadigan: 6:49

...it's always interesting to see those and to see the what conversations, because you never know. There's no way to know if it was found by accident, if they were just kind of curious, or, you know...

Meghan Smallwood: 7:01

Or someone did a search for a certain keyword, like, maybe they were looking at social security, and that popped up, and they were like, huh, let's, let's see what they have to say.

Patrick Cadigan: 7:11

Again, playing off of that, that was something that had happened we had a couple years back, we hosted Meredith Gregoire-Cope, who is also a transition coordinator with us in the county where we work, and all of a sudden her, our discussion with her, started seeing a lot of traction, like unusually high numbers of downloads. And I thought, "Oh, I wonder what's going on." And after a couple of days of back and forth with Meghan. Meghan figured it out that it was Meredith had done a presentation for a group in a different state, if I remember correctly, yes?

Meghan Smallwood: 7:50

Yeah, the people that we collaborate with for our students with 4h had gone to, I believe it was Georgia, for a conference, and we're sharing information, including, you know, Meredith's perspective. And all of a sudden, Meredith became this celebrity, because everyone was curious about who this person was. So that was neat to see.

Patrick Cadigan: 8:09

Yeah, and then, of course, we did a, I did a Google search of her name, and sure enough, the third hit on Meredith's name was our discussion with her. So then that started to make more sense. It doesn't always work out that way, but it is cool when you when you figure that...

Meghan Smallwood: 8:24

Yeah, you go down that rabbit hole to figure it out. And I know we shared it recently on Facebook, but we had an exciting milestone, which we were very looking forward to. You want to share?

Patrick Cadigan: 8:37

We have a podcast host, a host provider, and part of those stats was, of course, the number of downloads and, a little bit of background, this is not a boast; this is a celebration, most podcasts, because you have to remember that Meghan and I, we in we thought about the idea of having a podcast, but it still took one almost an entire year, because we really did a lot of research into it to figure out, not only the what it takes to do a podcast in specific, but what helps keep a podcast live, what makes it thrive, what keeps it going. But then we had to learn a lot about audience and expectation and what we wanted to communicate and who was our audience, all this stuff. In that research process, we found that most podcasts do not make it past seven episodes. As of this recording, we are up to, I think, like 93 or 94 we have been blessed with a community that has helped support us with additional episodes when we are unable to record. But as far as our recording episodes, yeah, we're like, up to like 90,93, 94 and. And again, seven, and we're already the 94 fantastic. Good work, Meghan.

Meghan Smallwood: 10:05

Meghan, I know I was like, Whoa, we've made it, you know. And he told me those numbers, and I have to give props to Patrick. He is the one who makes sure that we keep it going on our consistent routine. He's the one who's like, Hey, we got to get something out. And I'm like, if we got to find the time. But you know, props to Patrick for making it. You know, happen, because there's been busy times in our life.

Patrick Cadigan: 10:32

Yeah, and again, that's another shout out to the community that has helped support us along that way too. Meghan and I post routinely every two weeks. But, man, there are podcasters that we know that are posting every week, and it's a lot. In fact, one of the podcasters who helped us out, Dr. Katie Healy, she does the Daily Disability Podcast every day, every day she posts. I'm like, I just, I don't know how she does it. So two weeks for us, and it's like, you know, there's a lot to it. But yeah, every two weeks, 90,93, 94 episodes, 5000 downloads. I'd say that's pretty cool.

Meghan Smallwood: 11:20

I agree. I was very excited to see that. So next is 10, right? We're going for

Patrick Cadigan: 11:25

I think so. I think so. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I think we're going to get to that 10,000 faster than we did the 5000.

Meghan Smallwood: 11:34

Yeah, well, if we keep the conversations going with the hot topics, and I think, you know, we've got a lineup of people we still want to have on our show. I think that will really help as well.

Patrick Cadigan: 11:45

Yeah, and just locally speaking, yeah, Meghan and I have, Meghan first, and then I kind of joined up later on transition commission in our area, constant conversation around the transition topic. There are parents on this panel, there are providers on this panel, there are working professionals on this panel. There's just this constant flow of ideas and and discussions and things like that. And you know, we're always our ears are always open.

Meghan Smallwood: 12:13

Yep, exactly. And we're always like in the back of our head as we're talking to someone, they would be a great one to have a conversation with.

Patrick Cadigan: 12:21

Yeah, yeah, and...

Meghan Smallwood: 12:22

So...

Patrick Cadigan: 12:22

...needless to say, we do have more that's coming. We do have conversations that, given the current climate, given the current political climate, there is a lot of questions and concerns in our community around funding, around supports. There is a system, essentially a system in place, and that system is changing, and it really has scared a lot of people. No one really knows what's happening yet. So......we're we're just kind of, we're just kind of sitting back and we're waiting. But the point that I was making is that there are conversations that we've had in the past, and we probably could update, and we've been talking about that, you know, just to have a fresh conversation, a fresh perspective, a fresh look at things.

Meghan Smallwood: 13:20

Yes.

Patrick Cadigan: 13:20

And so we're looking forward to that, but we've also had a chance to catch up with people in outside agencies and just fascinating conversations and meet people and the things that they do.

Meghan Smallwood: 13:33

And you bring up a good point, some of the conversations we had five years ago. I mean, it's been five years, things things have changed, things have updated, and policies have changed. So yeah, we can definitely revisit some of those past conversations.

Patrick Cadigan: 13:46

And we fully intend to, but so...

Meghan Smallwood: 13:49

Stay tuned.

Patrick Cadigan: 13:50

Yes, definitely stay tuned. So...

Meghan Smallwood: 13:52

So thank you.

Patrick Cadigan: 13:56

Yeah. So yes, this is a thank you for sticking with us, for the for the...

Meghan Smallwood: 14:03

This long.

Patrick Cadigan: 14:04

Yeah, for this long, the downloads, the listens, the feedback. One thing that I did want to throw out two things, as we continue to move forward and as we continue to move closer to our 5th year. If you go to our podcast website, www.P2Transition.com; P, number two, transition.com and you click on any one of our episodes, there is actually a link at the very top that says, Send Us A Text.

Meghan Smallwood: 14:41

Yeah.

Patrick Cadigan: 14:42

We would love listener feedback. We really appreciate it when we hear from our listeners, when we hear from families, when we hear from providers who listen to the show and have things to say, and that is a great way to talk with us. Another great thing to do. For us is to please go to your podcast platform of choice, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, music, any one of those, and please leave us a review. It really helps with our visibility and getting the word out and having those conversations.

Meghan Smallwood: 15:18

Yes, well said.

Patrick Cadigan: 15:21

There we go. 5000 that's a good one.

Meghan Smallwood: 15:24

Yes, agree.

Patrick Cadigan: 15:26

All right, then. So we are looking forward to coming back and having even more conversations. Thank you so much for joining us. And we'll...

Meghan Smallwood: 15:32

Thank you everybody for staying, staying with us as long.

Patrick Cadigan: 15:37

Staying with us for this long, and we will talk with you soon.

Meghan Smallwood: 15:47

So don't forget that, you can find our discussions everywhere; Apple, Spotify, YouTube, music and others. So hit that follow button and you won't miss out. Please, if you haven't already done so, consider leaving a review, preferably a 5-star one. It helps you spread the word and helps us, because we know you're listening. Links to the information from our conversations are always in our show notes. Our YouTube channel contains curated videos that revolve around transition, including playlists for guardianship, alternatives to guardianship, ABLE accounts and more to come. And then finally, check out our website, www.postsecondarytransition.com full of information and links to more resources. Thanks again. So much for your time spent with us, and we look forward to talking again with you soon.