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- “It Was Terrifying for Me”: Cartia Mallan and Ashton Wood on Why They Started a Podcast
“It Was Terrifying for Me”: Cartia Mallan and Ashton Wood on Why They Started a Podcast
@_commonchaos
Cartia Mallan and Ashton Wood have been best friends for seven years, and recently launched their new podcast Common Chaos, which has already shot to number 1 on the charts within 24 hours of releasing.
Here, they chat about their journey to starting a podcast, how they’ve managed to create a space on social media where they can authentically be themselves and how they’re working on their dream of gathering like-minded people into their community. Plus, they also play a rapid-fire round of ‘This or That’.
Ashton Wood:
Starting a podcast was a little terrifying for me. Unlike Cartia, I haven’t really done a lot of public speaking or anything apart from lots of chats to my Instagram followers, and YouTube vlogs. But, I do love storytelling and Cartia and I have always wanted to do a project together, so I just had to go for it.
I couldn’t pass this opportunity up — even though it’s in its very early stages. Cartia has encouraged me and always inspired me to step out of my comfort zone, and saying yes to starting a podcast together was no different.
Cartia and I are both in the social media space and it’s a world where there’s a lot of value placed on what you look like, what you wear, what you own and we discovered when we were thrown into it from a young age that we valued different things in life.
I think that’s where we connected so much — we weren’t obsessing over the latest Gucci bag, but we were learning how to meditate, bonding over affirmations and spirituality, and growing ourselves in different ways. That’s really where the name Common Chaos was born from.
We found that what we had in common was that our lives would constantly be in chaos, and together we were learning to calm it, to control it, and to really partner with it to grow ourselves and our mindsets.
Being authentically yourself to thousands of people can be really confronting, but as you grow and show who you truly are to everyone around you, the community that comes from that is really organic. Cartia and I have really tried to do that on our individual social media platforms, and it will be no different with Common Chaos.
It’s a space for us to talk about what’s really going on in our lives, mental health chats, spirituality, dating, tips for becoming your best self and everything in between. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about a project.
Cartia Mallan:
Ashton and I have been best friends for 7 years now, and we’ve been on some crazy and chaotic journeys with each other. We have gotten up to lots of hilarious and naughty situations that we both still laugh about today.
For years we have spoken about our dreams of working on a project together. I’ve personally always wanted to start a podcast as I’ve always loved speaking about things I’m passionate about, and I just knew that Ashton had to be my co-host. Everything is just so much more fun when we do it together.
We touch on this in the first episode but there have been moments in my life where I’ve just been like — ‘screw it’, I’m deep diving into my life, I’m going to take control of my fear and stepping out of my comfort zone. This has really been one of those moments where I’ve decided to just go for it.
It’s been honestly insane, we released the trailer episode, and a day later, we were already number 11 on the Apple charts — then we launched our first official episode and a day later, we were number 1 — I woke up to a text from my friend and DMs from our first podcast listeners who were like “YOU HIT NUMBER ONE!!!”
I truly couldn’t even comprehend it, I feel so grateful that we have been showered in so much love and support even at such early days.
Ashton and I are so grateful for the love and support from our individual communities, and combining them together has been incredible. Because we value so many of the same things in life we’ve found our followers are incredibly compatible — they’re passionate about mindfulness, spirituality, love a good giggle, and living life to the fullest.
Those are the main things Ashton and I wanted to bring to a podcast — a space where we can authentically share stories from our lives, what we’re going through, and hopefully exchange our hacks for calming the chaos in our lives.
This or That?
Salty or Sweet?
Cartia: Definitely sweet. I’m a sucker for cake & banana bread — it’s my weakness.
Ashton: I have the biggest sweet tooth ever as well, so definitely sweet.
London or LA?
Ashton: I’ve never been to London so I’d have to say LA!
Cartia: London all the way. I miss it a lot.
Matcha or coffee?
Ashton: If you had asked me 6 months ago it would be coffee but I’ve totally replaced coffee with my new love…MATCHA!
Cartia: Matcha, 100 per cent — I quit drinking coffee a few years ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made, which I know a lot of people would find crazy.
HIIT or yoga?
Ashton: I love the zen feeling you get at a yoga class, and how relaxing it is. So definitely yoga.
Cartia: Probably a HIIT class even though I love doing yoga. I just enjoy the rush of working out super hard and how amazing my mood and energy is lifted after.
Would you rather be in your comfort zone or out of it?
Cartia: 100 per cent out of it. Being confronted with challenges is where I’ve done the most growing in my life. I find this is where the magic happens.
Ashton: The cancer star sign in me says comfort but I know being out of my comfort zone is where I’m going to learn and grow the most. Plus when I’m old and wrinkly I’ll have plenty of time to be comfortabl.
