An Uncluttered Life

Back in 2006, we were watching our life fall apart. We were just two years into our marriage, and we knew it wouldn’t last. We worked crazy hours, traveled a lot for business, and then spent our free time trying to buy our way out of the discomfort we felt at home. There were fights - serious ones and stupid ones, and we even went to see a marriage counselor once, but we mostly just watched the relationship crumble in front of our eyes. Warren went to work at 6 a.m.and came home at 5. I went to work at 8 and came home at 7. Between dinner and evening checks on email, we had little time for each other or anything else in our lives. We gained weight. We spent too much money. We were incredibly busy but at the same time bored out of our minds. If you looked at our gray colonial house with the black shutters and red door on a quiet suburban street, you’d have thought we had it all together. But it was all a fancy book cover on a story that was heading for an unhappy ending. In today’s episode, you'll learn how w

In today’s episode, you'll learn the first key steps of creating your own portable business, long before you start worrying that your savings will run out. Back in 2011 we sat in a pub in Scotland, more than six months into our journey around the world. I remember telling you I didn't want this to end - ever. Right about that time the bartender set down our beers and said something like, “There’s more where that came from!” He knew where his next beer was coming from, but we didn't. We were at a crossroads, wondering how to finance the lifestyle of our dreams. Our savings wouldn’t last forever, and taking a conventional job would mean giving up the life we'd worked so hard to create. That day, at the pub in Scotland, we decided to start our own business, even though we had no idea what it would look like.

The beginning of any dream is filled with excitement and a vision of all that is possible. The further you move into the planning process the more chances there are for fear and life experiences to derail your dream from becoming a reality. It takes focus and a great deal of work to keep moving forward.  When we first talked to Alison Cornford-Matheson and Andrew Matheson back in October 2013 on episode #30, they were planning for a big life change. The two of them wanted to buy an RV and slow travel around Europe with their two cats, running their popular website, Cheeseweb.eu, from the road. The goal was to save a ton of money, get rid of their possessions, buy a motorhome, and begin traveling in 2016. This week we catch up with these 2 intrepid dreamers to see how their planning is going and discover what changes have shifted their timeframe. Find out as they reveal the joys and challenges of getting close to realizing your biggest dreams.

In last week's episode we discussed how learning your personality type, and that of your partner, can improve your relationship. By gaining insight into your natural tendencies you can discover how you like to process information as well as the best way to engage with the ones you love. Over the last week we have taken the Myers-Briggs test ourselves and this week we're finding out what it all means. Is our marriage doomed? Are there strategies we can use to manage our differences? Join us to find out.

Have you ever taken a personality test? Many of us do it for fun, or because your office sends you to a workshop for team building or leadership training. But what about using this information to improve your relationship? Today we're going to talk about the definitive personality profile test, Myers-Briggs, with an expert who can show us how to use the test to improve your love life. Our guest, Jessica Butts, is a psychotherapist, coach, radio show host, and speaker who helps people figure out who they are so they can be in better relationships. Find out more at Jessica's website, where you can take a free test via a short video series that explains what it all means.

What is it like to embark on a new passion in your chosen career? How does it feel to write a sex scene? What compels someone to write about romance and discovery for women over 40?  These are the questions we discuss this week as the turn the tables on Betsy and put her on the other side of the microphone. With the release of her first romance novel, Wild Rose, this week we're getting a sneak peek behind the scenes of what motivated her to start writing in this new direction.

How do you go after the impossible? How do you even get started?  These are the questions we're tackling this week, and we know something about it. At one time we thought it would be impossible to save our marriage, travel around the world, or live in another country. However, we've successfully done all three and continue to reach for bigger and bigger experiences in our lives together. Listen in as we discuss going after the impossible with our guest, Leigh Shulman, and provide practical advice to making the impossible possible.

Every big accomplishment in our lives has included the support and help of others. This has been true as we planned our trip around the world as well as in our author business. Getting help makes a big goal possible. Today we're discussing this key secret to achieving big goals in life and in business and how it has helped us expand what was possible. Reaching for something is always easier when you have someone to help you along the way.

Do you throw away food? Is your refrigerator a living lab experiment? On today's episode, we talk about the problems with food waste that affect not only your health and budget, but the world at large. You already know that we live our lives with more experiences than possessions, carefully evaluating what we bring into our lives. Food is no exception. Since we stopped stockpiling and started eating fresh, we've lost a combined 85 pounds / 38 kilos! Be sure to listen all the way to the end to find out our secret tip for not overeating or wasting food in a restaurant...brilliant in it's simplicity. We are joined today by Dana Frasz, the Founder and Director of Food Shift.  Food Shift's mission is to honor the value of people and our environment by ensuring all good food is eaten, not wasted. From New York to California Dana has been working on this issue for over a decade and we're delighted to chat with her about how food waste is affecting all of us.

You aren’t born knowing how to be a good lover. And even if your parents do give the sex talk, they won’t go that far (thank goodness). Learning to enjoy sex with a partner is far more about open and honest communication between two people. It requires insights into what you each like and being comfortable exploring together. Today we're diving into the world of sexual aides (aka sex toys) and their role in helping to create and foster open communication. We're going behind the scenes to learn how those toys begin life with the help of a founder of one company who is striving to create pleasure aides for the masses. Our guest today is Brian Kreiger, an engineer with a background in consumer product development. He is one of the founders of Minna Life, a startup from San Francisco that is dedicated to creating beautiful and approachable sexual health and wellness products. You can find out more at MinnaLife.com.

We are celebrating celebrating 2 big milestones this week. First 100 episodes. Can you believe it?  Almost 2 years ago we decided to sit down and chat with people that are living interesting lives and share it with you. Through this process we've grown to love the show and are amazed that we've reached triple digits. In this show we share our plans for the future and what we're looking forward to. Also this week we're celebrating one year in Spain. We arrived here in February of 2014 and have been loving the new experience. In this week's show we're sharing how our life has changed, what we love most about living in another country, as well as the challenges we've faced. This is a fun show about celebrating the life we're creating here in Spain as well as a big milestone for this podcast. Thank you for coming along.

We've had some bad relationships. Friends who turned out to not support our decisions. People who always focused on the negative aspects of life. Those who simply refused to show an interest in others.  Over the last few years we've become quite adept at removing these influences from our personal lives. In today's episode we're talking about the challenge of toxic relationships and how to eliminate them to free up the space to live a happier life. Warren reveals the results of his recent Facebook friend purge and you get to hear the feedback (the good and the bad). We are honored to be joined this week by Andrea Syrtash. Andrea is a relationship expert, on-air personality and author of five books including, "He's Just Not Your Type (And That's a Good Thing)" and "Cheat On Your Husband (With Your Husband)" She's the on-air host of love & relationship videos for AOL, NBC ivillage and Yahoo!, and co-hosts "Life Story Project" for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada).

One year ago we bought a house here in southern Spain (check out the episode). Since then we've immersed ourselves in the language and community, enjoying getting to know this beautiful part of the world. Today we’re sharing a first-timer’s look at our life in Spain. Our good friend Debb dropped in for a visit, and we’re going to talk about expectations, open hearts, and diving into new experiences. And since it’s totally unscripted, you might learn a secret or two about us!

Over the last year we've been watching a love story unfold between two lost loves. We enjoyed it so much we decided to dedicate this episode to telling the story of Anong and Cesar, which was 42 years in the making. Pretend right now that you’re at our house in Spain, gathered around the dining room table. The music is low in the background, the fire in the corner stove is keeping the chill off, and we’ve all had a glass of wine or two. It’s a cozy night, and we’re sharing with you one of the greatest love stories we've ever heard. It all started with a picture we took in January 2011.

This week Betsy's busy putting the final draft together of her new book, Wild Rose, so things are a bit crazy at Casa Talbot. It's been a year since we bought our casita in this tiny village in southern Spain so we're taking the chance to reshare one of our most popular episodes to date.  Episode #56 comes to you from sunny Andalucia, Spain and was the first episode we recorded from the studio of our Spanish home. We share what it's like to buy a house in Spain. From why we did it to how we did it and the joys and mishaps that happened along the way, find out why we came to Spain to house sit and ended up buying a house of our own.

Learn what we thought the day after we made the big decision to leave our jobs and travel the world. Like most big decisions, it didn't come with a book of instructions, and we'll explain what worked for us in keeping ourselves sane, motivated, and on track...and also to keep making big decisions. (It gets easier!) You'll also learn how our "lab experiment" lifestyle contributes to our confidence in making these big decisions as well as how sexy it is to be teammates!

We'd love to tell you how awesome we are, that we reach every single goal we set, and that we pretty much float on rainbows all the time. Sadly, we can't do that. Sometimes we miss the mark, and today's show is all about what we do when that happens to keep the momentum going (or not!) Plus we'll recap the year-end process we use to plan for a great new year and reveal some of our insecurities and concerns going into a new year.

Grief is so often a quiet, lonely process. We don’t talk about it, and we’re often expected to get over it in private, in a pretty quick timeframe. In today's episode we're talking about what happens when grief is shared publicly. We're diving into the power of writing as a tool to overcome loss. We share our own stories of loss and how we made it through and the public and private ways we all handle loss. We're joined today by Tré Miller-Rodríguez, the author of Splitting the Difference: A Heart-Shaped Memoir, a powerful view into the death of her 40-year-old husband who died of a sudden heart attack beside her. This book is one that pulls at your heartstrings and finds you surprised by the candid nature of her writing.

In this week's show we're providing background and personal stories from one of the most popular posts we've ever shared. To celebrate her 44th birthday this month Betsy wrote an article titled "44 Things Every Woman My Age Knows (or Will After Reading This)". In it she shares her wisdom learned over the years in her funny and engaging style. This episode we're diving into some of our favorites from the list to talk about the origin and allow Betsy to divulge more of how she learned these lessons.

We just completed a week-long digital fast - no Internet, no computers, no connectivity. It was a chance for us to disconnect from the devices that seem to rule our lives and reconnect with what we love most - each other. In this week's episode we share why we did it, the challenges we faced (it turns out it's hard for us to disconnect) and what we gained from the experience.