We’re excited to introduce you to Heather McGinley and Laura Koo, co-founders of Thirsty: the Podcast, which covers love, life, and a second chance. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather and Laura below.

Hi Heather and Laura, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

We were longtime friends who had lost touch, but like many, stayed connected via social media. One day, Laura noticed that Heather posted an Instagram photo of Sunday morning coffee in a brand new kitchen. Laura sent Heather a DM asking if she’d finally renovated her World War II era kitchen, but Heather responded with “Nope. Just gettin’ a divorce. Hello from my divorce apartment! How have you been?”

It turned out Laura had recently gotten divorced herself, and the two of us quickly reconnected over our shared experience. Nothing brings people together like the total breakdown of your entire life. Heather and Laura were messaging every day from that point on, commiserating over dating apps, and then, from a lot of ill-fated early dates, “Thirsty: the Podcast” was born. We found so much support from being able to talk to each other about our experiences that we wanted to bring that sense of community to others, while providing a lot of laughs along the way (admittedly at our own expense).

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We chose the name “Thirsty” as a cheeky nod to dating. However, we also selected this title because sometimes life leaves you wanting more, and life after divorce brings that truth into greater focus. We knew if we felt that push to heal, evolve, and find “more”, there must be other women out there who felt the same way.

The podcast started out pretty simply, just the two of us sharing our dumpster fire dating stories (names changed to protect the not-so-innocent), but as we started to heal, the focus evolved along with us. We went from sharing the flavor of the week to covering topics like the power of female friendships, building healthy romantic relationships, and how to make your next chapter your best chapter.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Ironically, we met because we were both writers for a national wedding website while we were in the process of getting married to our (now) ex-husbands. The writers for that website had formed a tightknit community, and really, those strong connections were the inspiration for why community is at the heart of what we are accomplishing with “Thirsty: the Podcast”.

In the early months after divorce, we both thought the most important thing we needed to fix were our love lives. It turns out the biggest gift of divorce has actually been the community of divorced women we’ve found, who are all working to inspire and support each other.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Learning to date after divorce is challenging, and many rush to replace their former partner. If TikTok is any indication, there’s no shortage of dating coaches offering advice like “dating is a numbers game.” Today, we fully reject that notion, but this was an idea from our early days of dating that we both had to unlearn.

People often feel they need to go on as many first dates as they can fit into a weekend, but we’ve found that dating is less about the numbers and more of a reflection of where we’re at on our own healing journeys.

Our personal dating evolutions are on full display for any Thirsty listener who’s been with us since the beginning. Even though we are different people, we learned many of the same lessons. For each of us, our dating goals shifted from seeking attention and validation to attracting real, meaningful love. When dating becomes just one piece of the puzzle, that’s when your next chapter can begin in earnest.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thirstythepodcast.com
• Instagram: @thirstythepodcast
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thirstythepodcast
• Other: TikTok: @thirstythepodcast