Brogan Garrit-Smith writes for PodcastingToday Why the Middle Matters: What Two Years of Podcasting Taught Me About the Journey, Not the Destination.
For most of my life, I was running. Sprinting, actually. Head down, chest tight, eyes locked on an imaginary finish line of success, purpose, meaning, and ‘THERE’. From the outside looking in, I thought everyone else had already arrived, and I was just late.
Then one day, I stopped running and realised something painfully beautiful. Not one person was ‘THERE’, they hadn’t crossed the finish line or cracked the code of arrival. That realisation became the seed for the Getting There Podcast.
The premise of the podcast was rooted in my own experience of believing in a fixed point of success. A moment where I would finally exhale because I had “made it.” When I finally paused and spoke to people, entrepreneurs, experts, survivors, creators, leaders, I realised something we’re all terrified to admit: You never arrive, and you were never supposed to.
Over 200 episodes we’ve recorded over the past two years, I began to see a pattern in the conversations. People who looked like they were miles ahead still felt like they were in the messy middle. People who I admired, respected, and even idolised, still woke up wondering if they were enough. I learnt that everyone was navigating their own uncertainty, fear, self-doubt, and ‘not quite there yet’.
Every guest I’ve ever interviewed told me, in their own way, the same thing: ‘The moment you reach one goal, a new one appears.’ I’ve learned that’s a part of being human, we were born to move, grow, stretch, stumble, rebuild, and become. And that becoming happens in the middle, not at the end.
Through these conversations, I’ve come to realise that as a society, we’ve become disconnected from the very things that create fulfilment: time, effort, patience, resilience.
I often refer to my ‘Amazon Culture’ analogy on Getting There. I use this to describe how we want instant clarity, purpose, results, or transformation and expect our lives to unfold with the speed of our screens.
But anyone who has built something meaningful, has taken far longer than you think. They sat and sweated in the middle, while questioning everything that challenges them on this journey.
In an everyday world we might refer to this as ‘the grind’, but my guests have referred to it as the loneliness, the doubt, the almost-giving-up. A private chapter nobody sees but everybody has.
But also very excitingly, it’s the character development in your storybook. Where resilience is built and identity is shaped.
As I come to celebrate two years of Getting There conversations, I’ve realised that the people we admire aren’t extraordinary because they reached somewhere extraordinary. It’s because they stayed in the middle longer than most people were willing to.
In the beginning, I thought the Getting There podcast would be about success stories and uncovering how people finally got ‘THERE’. But if the last two years of Getting There have taught me anything, it’s that the journey is the point. Who you become on the way matters far more than the place you think you’re trying to reach. And the middle, your messy, beautiful, chaotic, deeply human middle, is where the real magic happens.
As I mark two years of conversations, I’m reminded that this podcast was never about the finish line and it was about creating space for the honest, unfinished parts of all of us. Every guest has shown me that the middle isn’t something to escape, it’s where growth takes root and identity takes shape. I’m proud to still be here, learning alongside every listener, and I’m excited to see where this journey leads next.
I came to realise we’re always in the messy middle because we never arrive and understanding life is imperfect, is what it’s all about! For now, I’m more than happy to sit in the messy middle a little longer, because Getting There was always the point.
Brogan Garrit-Smith is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, podcast host, mother, and a girl just trying to get there. Having lived through life’s highs, lows, and everything in between, she brings hilarious anecdotes, thought-provoking stories, and raw honesty to her podcast Getting There. Together with guests she dives into the messy, meaningful journey of growth, purpose, and figuring it all out.
