She calls herself Sammy Eh, the "keeper of chaos" and sometimes she calls her listeners "Simpletons." She surely means no harm by it; the sobriquet only comes from the title of her show, Keep It Simple, Sammy.
The daily podcast just celebrated its first month live and on the air and it has been a great kickoff to 2022 for its host: the 32-year-old “East-Coast-born, Alberta-raised” mom of five and first responder. In her first episode, Episode 0.5: The One with the Intro, titled just like a Friends episode, she admits to both having a twisted sense of humour and wearing her heart on her sleeve.
Both of those qualities are hopeful signs for someone who’s dealing with a recent diagnosis of PTSD, anxiety, and depression, such as she is. In talking with her therapist, she discovered the importance of talking and getting things out instead of keeping them bottled up.
“I felt literally like I was going to explode. I had always hemmed and hawed about making a podcast. I think it was just such the perfect outlet that I went to,” she continued. “On New Year's Eve, we did vision boards, and mine was to find my passion because being a mom, an employee, and a partner, I felt I had nothing outside of that.”
She has definitely found her passion with this “feel good, truth hurts” podcast. Keep It Simple, Sammy is a no holds barred show that gets many of its topics from the host’s daily life with her household of five active kids and no shortage of issues to fill out another daily episode. Shows typically range from 15 to 25 minutes in length and, true to Sammy’s mission of mental health, there’s a heaping boost of positive energy with themed days like Motivational Monday and Thankful Thursday.
She even gets her family involved as co-hosts on occasion. She credits one of her kids for doing the technological groundwork to set up the show in the first place. Some of her guests bring their own big issues to talk about, like a breast cancer survivor who has been in remission for a year-and-a-half. The guest thanked her for offering her the chance to tell her story. Having a place to open up was good for her, and Sammy said there are many others with their own secret struggles who have expressed interest in taking their turns at the mic, giving the host another reason to smile.
“I just feel like I'm already making a difference, which in turn is helping me heal slowly.”
Finding her passion … check. Establishing a creative outlet for dealing with psychological and emotional issues … check. Involving loved ones in a community outreach effort of sorts … check. Keep It Simple, Sammy is keeping it real and keeping its chin up while it does so.
It seems to have struck a nerve with a lot of podcast listeners. Within its first two weeks, it broke through the top 100 ranking in Canada for personal journals, placing 90th.
“There's a lot of things I feel in my life that a lot of other people can relate with. It feels great for me when I can sit down, write down things. If something negative had happened that day, I'll come home, I'll write down what happened, and then I podcast about it. It helps me get things off my chest, and it feels so good,” she added.
“So many people are responding so positively to it that it's motivating me to keep going and try harder and harder, and keep producing the episodes because it's helping me, and it's quickly become an outlet to help other people.”
You can listen to the daily episodes of the Keep It Simple, Sammy podcast on spreaker.com. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and JioSaavn.
