Likewise Podcast Founders, Samantha Blocher & Isa Wilder
Tell us a little about yourselves!
Sam: I love all things relating to fashion and social media. From a young age, dreamt of being a YouTuber and would make and edit videos with my friends. I later decided to go to Washington State University and major in apparel merchandising. My favorite form of social media today, though, is co-hosting the Likewise Podcast with Isa and posting to our shared Instagram account!
Isa: I was born and raised in the greater Seattle area and am about to graduate from Washington State University. I have always loved soccer - I played for fifteen years - and my family has season tickets to the Seattle Sounders, so anytime I am at home and there is a game, I always call dibs on a ticket! I am also a huge fan of personality types, especially the Enneagram (I’m a 3w4). A major part of my personality is going to concerts, and Sam and I just went to our first show together in early April. It was so fun and I really hope that there are more shows in the future for us!
What inspired you to start your podcast, Likewise?
We first had the idea to start a podcast in February 2020, but we weren’t completely serious about it at the time. A little backstory about our friendship: neither of us remembers when we first met or how we really started to become friends. We somehow fell into the pattern of running into each other in the hallways of our sorority house and accidentally talking for hours at a time about anything and everything. With our mutual love of talking about personality types and all our favorite music artists, we wanted to record our conversations so that we could listen back for our own enjoyment. Neither of us really listened to podcasts (Sam listened to a few and tried getting Isa to listen to her favorites for months), so we didn’t really know what to do or say or what to expect with the process. One day, we just decided to try it out because Sam had a mic in her room and we had some free time. It was an absolute disaster. There were so many pen clicks in the background audio and so many awkward silences... just an overall mess. We recorded that first “episode” but never aired it. Our first official episode came out in May, nearly three months later, when we had time to really think and plan ideas out. It’s a really fun outlet for us and we want people to feel like they are part of our conversation, not just listening to a conversation.
What is some advice you would give to your younger self?
Sam: When I think about which version of my younger self needs this advice the most, it would be 18-year-old me, during my freshman year of college. I would tell myself to not be so critical of myself, especially when it comes to my passions. I have always loved creating content and was always so insecure about the videos that I put on my Youtube channel. I have always been an on-and-off-again creator on Youtube and posted my videos privately out of embarrassment. I would tell myself to let go of what other people think of me and to post what I worked hard on because I loved the process of creating it. While I haven’t taken to posting on Youtube seriously, I think I have found the place where I am most comfortable on the internet with Likewise.
Isa: Honestly, for me, I think I'd offer the best advice to my 10-year-old self. I think ten is when I really started suffering from imposter syndrome and decided that I wasn’t capable of doing many of the things that wanted to do. I would tell her that she is so much more capable than she realizes and that it’s okay to not see the exact results she is looking for. One thing, in particular, is that I played soccer my whole life - from the time I was three to when I aged out at eighteen - age ten is when I could play competitively, but I was too scared and it held me back. Whether I would have actually gone somewhere with it or not, I wish I would have put in the work and done everything that I could have done to get as far as I could. Don’t let fear hold you back, put in the work and see how far you can go.
Ten years from now, where do you see yourselves?
We have been joking about sharing a home for about two years now, to be called the Likewise Home, of course. We have a shared Pinterest board and have spent some time exploring cities on Zillow. Of course, we both have our own dreams for our individual lives, but we’re twenty-one and twenty-two, so we have plenty of time to grow and change any plans we might think that we have right now. As for Likewise, we really hope to have a designated podcast studio (complete with a neon sign) and to potentially embark on business ventures together outside of Likewise. We hope that in the next ten years we can also go on some other podcasts as guests and make new friends through this outlet!
How can people best support Likewise?
Honestly, listening is the biggest thing. We do have an Instagram (@likewise_pod), but we are just so passionate about our stories and our friends’ stories that listening is what means the most to us. We release episodes every week on Thursdays on pretty much any and every streaming platform (we personally prefer to listen on Spotify, but some of our friends listen on Apple Podcasts)! □
Article Credits
Likewise’s Instagram: @likewise_pod
Isa’s Instagram: @isabela.wilder
Samantha’s Instagram: @thesamlouiseb