Uniting Hearts: A Decade of Hope, Support, and Volunteerism

As I sit back and reflect on Heart to Heart with Anna in the year 2023, I want you to celebrate with me, Anna Jaworski, as we mark a milestone of connection and growth within the congenital heart defect community. From the early days on Voice America to our move to Blog Talk Radio and beyond, we've weathered sponsorship storms and emerged stronger, bringing hope and vital information to those touched by CHD. Join me for an intimate retrospective on our top episodes of the past year, recognizing stories that have resonated and sparked conversations, powered by the voices that have made this journey unforgettable.

Stepping into the future, I'm excited to open the doors to compassionate individuals eager to make a difference. Your unique skills can shine in various volunteer roles, from scripting heartfelt narratives to amplifying our reach on social media. Our collective efforts support Hearts Unite the Globe, ensuring that no one walks their CHD path alone. I have a particular fondness for LinkedIn as a hub of engagement—let it be the place where you step forward to join our passionate mission. Together, we will continue to be a beacon of light, wrapping the CHD community in a blanket of support and ensuring that every heart feels heard and valued.

Top 5 2023 Heart to Heart with Anna Episodes:

Link to #5 Navigating the Journey of Parenting Children with Autism and Congenital Heart Defects: A Heartfelt Conversation and Advocacy with two fantastic heart moms — Melanie Letzer and Kelly Blumenthal. https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/12993576

An Unseen Threat: The Cody Watkins Story of Heart Failure and Recovery https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/13210321

Link to #4 Myocardial Bridging and Boots Knighton https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/12585318

Link to #3 Heart Mom and Heart Daughter on Being a Mom https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/12765679

Link to #2 Cardiac Chronicles and Community Connections: Leigh Kamping-Carder’s Story https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/12988991

Link to #1 LGBTQ+ and the CHD Community https://www.buzzsprout.com/62761/11968012

Transcript

Anna Jaworski: 0:00

It always seems to be like I'm looking towards the future, and that's a good thing to be planning and looking toward the future. But I think it's good at the year end to take a moment to stop and say wait a minute, what did I do last year?

Anna Jaworski: 0:22

Greetings friends and happy new year. This is Anna Jaworski, the host of "Heart to Heart with Anna wishing you a happy new year in 2024. I decided to start with a solo episode this year and I thought it would be fun to do a recap of 2023 and talk about the episodes to come in 2024. I'd also love to get some feedback from you, so stay tuned for ways in which you can be part of the program.

Home.Tonight.Forever.: 0:51

I rarely talk about the making of this program or statistics.

Anna Jaworski: 0:56

When I first started "Heart to Heart with Anna back in 2013, back in 2013, the term 'podcast' was not widely used. A producer from Voice America, Josh Bernstein, called me after he found my website and my blog. He said he felt I could reach more people with an internet radio show and his team would help me get started. He told me to put together a season of shows which would be 13 episodes, and he wanted me to include the topics, who my guests would be, and a format for the show. He said he would present this to his general manager, Brandy, and they would decide whether or not they wanted me to host a program. With help from my dear friend, Mary Black, we did it. After Josh presented it to Brandy, he came back with the exciting news that Voice America did indeed want to be the host for this program.

Anna Jaworski: 1:53

Now, naively, since he called me, I thought Voice America was going to pay me, but that was not the case. Josh told me that the radio show would help me sell more Baby Hearts Press books and he said his company would also help me find a sponsor. When I found out how much money it was going to cost to produce the Internet radio show, I was surprised. The amount was everything I had in my Baby Hearts Press checking account, except for $75. That meant I would only have $75 in my account, but I would have a team of people working with me and they said they'd help me find a sponsor. So I thought the most important thing was for me to be able to reach more people than ever before and to provide information like I had in my books, but in a whole new format. My husband, Frank, and I decided that we should give it a try. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago. Sadly, Voice America did not find a sponsor for me and I didn't make enough money with book sales to afford another season with them. I had to leave them after the first season. But I learned so much from working with them that I was able to move my program to BlogT alkR adio. That meant learning how to do everything that my team had been doing. Luckily, my friend Callie Rickard stepped up to help. She was brilliant and came up with a new logo for the podcast and she helped me with promoting the program. And then Hearts Unite the Globe (or HUG), the nonprofit that I work with, saw the value of what I was doing to help the congenital heart defect community, and they took over the production costs for the podcast. So how are we doing? It's embarrassing to admit this, but if it hadn't been for Podcast Movement, I might not be able to easily answer that question.

Anna Jaworski: 3:47

Thanks to Podcast Movement, the biggest podcast conference in North America and maybe in the world, I learned I had a podcast, and not an internet radio show. I also learned the importance of keeping statistics on how my podcast was doing. And it was at Podcast Movement that I met the creators of Buzzsprout and Spreaker, the two platforms I used to distribute my podcast. Buzzsprout does an amazing job of helping podcasters keep track of their statistics and they even send a year-e nd recap, so I thought I'd use the information I have from Buzzsprout and Spreaker behind-the-scenes share some information with you, my loyal listeners. So Heard to Heart with Anna released 39 episodes in 2023. And that's always our goal. We want three seasons' worth of programming a year. One season is 13 weeks or 13 episodes, so three seasons equals 39 episodes. Last year we decided to do a monthly podcast, except for during Heart Month. We produced a brand new episode every day in February to celebrate Heart Month and to bring awareness to the number one birth defect-- congenital heart defects. This resulted in Heart to heart with Anna being in the top 50% of all Buzzsprout podcasts. What an honor. Thank you for listening to our program via Buzzsprout and the different platforms that Buzzsprout sends our podcast out to. So where are people listening? Well, Buzzsprout informed us that our number one city is Houston, Texas, followed by New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Nashville, Tennessee, and then, surprisingly, Frankfurt, Germany, is our number four city, and then the fifth one is Livingston, Tennessee. Buzzsprout labeled our program a Jet Setter because in 2023, Heart to Heart with Anna was listened to in 47 countries. Our top five countries were-- let's start at the bottom: number five was Germany, number four was Saudi Arabia, number three Australia, number two Canada and, not surprisingly, number one the United States of America.

Anna Jaworski: 6:08

I'm always curious about which episodes resonate with my listeners. Based on feedback and Facebook polls, I periodically change my podcast format. Instead of having theme s for each season of podcasting, I regularly change things up So here are the top five episodes for 2023. We had a tie for fifth place. One episode was 'Navigating the Journey of Parenting Children with Autism and Congenital Heart Defects-A Heartfelt Conversation and Advocacy' with two fantastic heart moms, Melanie Letzer and Kelly Blumenthal. They talked about some of the challenges they faced in ensuring that their neurologically and cardiac- challenged children received the care and attention they deserved. The other show that tied for fifth place was 'An Unseen Threat to Cody Watkins--A Story of Heart Failure and Recovery,' where bodybuilder and personal trainer Cody Watkins shared his story about discovering he had a congenital heart defect after he almost died from a ruptured heart valve and how he took control of his health and is sharing his story to help others in the CHD community and beyond.

Anna Jaworski: 7:24

Our number four episode was 'Myocardial Bridging and Boots Knighton.' Boots Knighton taught us all about a very rare condition called 'myocardial bridging,' which is a congenital heart defect she didn't discover she had until the condition almost took her life. I feel very blessed to actually have had a chance to meet Boots in person at the 2023 Podcast Movement conference in Denver, Colorado, in August 2023. 'Heart Mom and Heart Daughter on being a Mom,' came in third in 2023. That episode featured Patty Hansen, a friend I've known for over 25 years, and her daughter, Meg Didier, a vivacious young lady and a CHD advocate. Patty actually wrote for one of my books that I published with Baby Hearts Press called "The Heart of a Mother, so it was lovely to catch up with Patty and it was delightful to talk to her daughter, meg Didier. I also had a fantastic opportunity in 2023 to meet Meg Didier in person at the Eighth World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery in Washington DC. In fact, I had a chance to hear Meg's presentation at the conference.

Anna Jaworski: 8:42

Our number two episode for 2023 was 'Cardiac Chronicles and Community Connections- Leigh Kamping- Carder's Story.' Leigh Kamping- Carder is a journalist and she has a wonderful newsletter called "The Heart Dialogues. I'm always delighted to talk to other writers and I love talking with accomplished heart warriors, so I'm very happy that many of you had a chance to listen to that episode. And now for the number one episode of 2023, and that distinction goes to LGBTQ Plus and the CHD community, featuring Dr Jake Kleinmahan. Dr. Kleinmahan was so great about talking to us about how he became a pediatric cardiologist and the many challenges he faced as a gay man wanting to enter that field. He also talked to us about the many challenges that heart warriors face in getting the care they need if they are part of the LGBTQ+ community and ways they can advocate for themselves. Wow, what a diverse array of programs to be in the top five episodes of 2023. From autism to adults discovering their CHDs much later in life after surviving near- catastrophic experiences, to meeting heart warriors and their mothers, and talking to a doctor in the field of pediatric cardiology.

Anna Jaworski: 10:07

We really did cover a lot of different topics, didn't we? What program did you like best in 2023? I would love to hear from you. Is there another topic you'd like me to address in 2024 that hasn't been covered in our 10 years of programming? If so, please let me know on The Heart to Heart with Anna Facebook page or our Instagram page. Would you like to be a guest on the program? You can also let me know that on Facebook or Instagram, or just head on over to our page on the Heart Unite the Globe website at www. heartshunitetheglobe. com and fill out our guest form under the Get Involved tab.

Anna Jaworski: 10:49

Did you know that Heart to Heart with Anna has Patrons? We do. We participate in Patreon, which is a program that allows sponsors to contribute a monthly amount to help defray the cost of programming. There are expenses involved with putting together a podcast. It really helps when patrons donate to the podcast. It allows me to hire other people to help me with the podcast, and that gives me more time to find new guests, create scripts for the program, and to continue learning about podcasting. Thanks for being part of "Heart to Heart with Anna. Thanks to you, our podcast had over 19,000 hits in 2023, and 2023 was a landmark year for us because it was in 2023 that our podcast reached over a quarter of a million hits overall.

Anna Jaworski: 11:39

Fr om the bottom of my heart, I cannot thank you enough for being part of my life and for giving me a greater purpose-- that of bringing awareness to the number one birth defect-- congenital heart defects. I'm looking forward to this new year and our upcoming program. We'll be learning more about functional medicine in an interview with returning guests, Dr. Valerie Chavez and Ryan Hunter. We'll be meeting authors of books for this CHD community and we'll be learning more about specific congenital heart defects and some of the other conditions that can present themselves thanks to the unique challenges of growing up with a congenital heart defect. If you have a topic you'd like addressed or you'd like to be a guest on the program, don't forget to check out our website, www. heartshunitetheglobe. com, and send us a note. Thanks again for listening.

Anna Jaworski: 12:27

I hope you enjoyed this recap and a behind-the-scenes bit of information about "Heart to Heart with Anna. It's always fun for me to take some time to reflect on accomplishments that I've had. I don't know about you, but I seem to spend an awful lot of time planning for the next episode that's coming up, planning for the next event I have to go to. It always seems to be like I'm looking towards the future, and that's a good thing-- to be planning and looking toward t"he future. But I think it's good at the year end to take a moment to stop and say, wait a minute, what did I do last year?

Baby Hearts Press: 13:06

Anna Jaworski has written several books to empower the congenital heart defect, or CHD, community. These books can be found at amazon. com or at her website, www. babyheartspress. com. Her best seller is "The Heart of a Mother, an anthology of stories written by women for women in the CHD community. Anna's other books my Brother Needs an Operation, the Heart of a Father and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome a handbook for parents will help you understand that you are not alone. Visit babyheartspresscom to find out more.

Hearts Unite the Globe: 13:46

You are listening to Heart to Heart with Anna. If you have a question or comment that you would like to address on our show, please send an email to Anna Jaworski at Anna at hearttoheartwithannacom. That's Anna at hearttoheartwithannacom. Now back to "Heart to Heart with Anna.

Anna Jaworski: 14:05

It was really helpful that Buzzsprout sent me some statistical information because then it was easy for me to go on to the Spreaker website as well to get more data so I could compile this comprehensive recap of 2023. I'm really curious to see what episode some of you felt was your favorite, and I also really want to know what you want to hear in the future. I'll be honest with you when we hit that 10-year anniversary, I wondered if maybe I had done what I intended to do with "Heart to Heart with Anna and it was time for me to just help other people with their podcasts. Some of you may know this. I am also the executive producer of three other podcasts--Ber eaved But Still Me" with host Michael Lieben and producer Nancy Gentian Guerrero Socorizón.

Anna Jaworski: 15:00

our Spanish podcast, with hosts Marta Montero and Belén Blanton, and the CHC podcast, which has a variety of hosts and is so much fun to work with. It's a completely different podcast; the format is different and the team that I work with is totally different, and I wondered if maybe, after 10 years of "eart to heart with Anna podcasting, it was just time for me to kind of sit in the background. But I can't do it because too many of you filled out my form to be a guest on my show and I can't wait to get to know you better. So we will be continuing for at least another year of programming with "Heart to Heart with Anna, and I'm so excited about the upcoming programs. I will be looking to the future after this, but it was fun to recap with all of you today.

Anna Jaworski: 15:53

I hope you enjoyed this solo podcast. It's not too often that I am the only one talking on the show because I enjoy interviewing others so much, but I thought it would be kind of fun to start 2024 with a solo podcast. But even though I'm doing this alone right now in the recording studio, I want to hear from you. Don't make me feel alone in podcasting. Share your thoughts and feelings with me on Facebook or Instagram, or just go to my website and send me a note from there. We have a contactless link that you can use.

Home.Tonight.Forever.: 17:03

Home tonight forever.

Hearts Unite the Globe: 17:15

Heart to Heart with Anna is a presentation of Hearts Unite the Globe and is part of the Hu Podcast Network. Hearts Unite the Globe is a non-profit organization devoted to providing resources to the congenital heart defect community to uplift, empower and enrich the lives of our community members. If you would like access to free resources pertaining to the CHD community, please visit our website at wwwcongenitalheartdefectscom for information about CHD, the hospitals that treat children with CHD, summer camps for CHD survivors and much, much more.

Anna Jaworski: 17:50

Did you know that there are Hearts Unite the Globe volunteers who work with me to create "Heart to Heart with Anna? There are. There are people who help scriptwriting with . There are people who help me with producing the show. There are people who help me with transcripts, and that is something I'd really love more help with. We have members of the "Heart to Heart with Anna community who are deaf or hard of hearing or they're non-native English speakers, and having a transcript to follow along with the show can make a huge difference in their comprehension of what's being said. So if you are interested in learning how to edit a transcript or would like to help with the production side, let me know.

Anna Jaworski: 18:35

We also have a team of people who help with social media. It doesn't matter how good the program is if we don't have people to help spread the news about the show, then people won't find it, and we know that when you are living with a congenital heart defect, it really helps to know you're not alone. So social media team members are super important and we can never have too many people telling the world about our program and helping people find information about congeal t heart disease and to learn what it's like to grow up with th congeal to heart effect, or to be the parent of a child with a congeal to heart effect, or to be a professional working in the field of congeal to heart disease. We cover so many different topics and there are a lot of different people who need to know about it, but not everybody is going to go on the internet and search for eart to heart within, so I depend on my social media team to help me spread the news. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people helping through the last 10 years, but let's keep it going. Let's keep helping people in our community learn about the topics that are important to them.

Anna Jaworski: 19:49

So if you're interested in being a volunteer, you can go to the heartunitetheglobe. com website and there's a whole tab on being a volunteer where you can always reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram. I'm also very active on LinkedIn. In fact, of all my social media platforms, probably LinkedIn is my favorite right now, closely followed by Facebook, and it's where I spend a lot of time when I'm not working on the podcast or working on my books. So if you are interested in volunteering, please let me know. It would be so helpful to me to have even more people helping, people who can bring fresh ideas and people who can make this program even better than it already is. Okay, my friends, this has been so much fun. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day, have a great year and remember my friends, you are not alone.

Hearts Unite the Globe: 20:49

Thank you again for joining us this week. We hope you have become inspired and empowered to become an advocate for the congenital heart community. "Heart to Heart with Anna, with your host, Anna Jaworski, can be heard at any time, wherever you get your podcasts. A new episode is released every Tuesday from Noon Eastern Time.