LOVE + RELO started as a little experiment.
"What if I went "live" from my office and just talked to the camera about relocation stuff?"
"Would anybody watch? Would anybody talk back? Would anybody care?"
I was pleasantly surprised when people, out of curiousity about this new novelty, did watch...
And then they talked back! And then they joined and made it a real show.
And then Covid hit, and people really started to care about the show.
I was on my first break from the show, during the second week in March 2020, when Covid-19 broke out in the US. I was at a conference in Chicago and Covid went from a punchline to a gut punch that week. That week all of sports was cancelled, and then the rest of the world followed suit. We were all reeling and stuck at home, with no contact with our friends, searching for information and comfort.
That's when LOVE + RELO went from just messing around, to connecting people and giving them a sense of community. People started connecting and coping.
As the global mobility industry ground to a halt, our friends lost their jobs. But then they started networking, and learning, and retooling all on the show. We learned about Black Lives Matter, we learned that we need to be an ally to women in the workplace, we learned how to network in the new normal and how to work from home. We moved from surviving to thriving, and looking towards the horizon for the Return Of The Relos. We learned to give freely to charities and to one another. We raised money and we raised awareness. We became better.
And so as we enter our second year and approach our 300th episode, we too here at the show are raising the bar. We have built a small but mighty team of volunteers, who believe in our crazy mission, and to whom I am eternally grateful.
Janet Turner, you are the soul of LOVE + RELO, you're love inspires me. Thank you.
Stacy Hough, you are the glue of LOVE + RELO. I'm amazed at how you take our crazy and make sense of it.
Tim Quirk, you are the swiss army knife of LOVE + RELO. You always figure it out and make it work.
And to the beautiful community who supports us each day, I hope that one day I can give you as much as you give me. Thanks for taking the time to tune in. Your comments, questions and likes mean the world!
- Ben
Ben Cross, Host