Friend Forward

Between financial stress and the many other ongoing demands on our time and energy in this modern world, the issue of burnout is real. It’s not about being lazy or not being invested, it’s simply about not having anything left to give. With no capacity left to nurture our friendships, burning is affecting our relationships and ironically, it’s community and support that we need to buffer ourselves...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   In today's episode we address a listener’s issue, where she is finding it tough to meet like-minded women and make new friends and is starting to feel a little hopeless about the whole situation.  She enjoys socializing and she’s confident in talking to new people, but she...

You’re sitting alone in the living room, phone in hand, mouth hanging open, suspended in total disbelief - you just got off a call with a friend and what started as a seemingly normal conversation took a turn when she surprised you by sharing that you rubbed her the wrong way recently with something you said at a dinner. Despite trying your best to stay composed, you two somehow slipped into an ex...

This episode is a little different for the Friend Forward podcast, as our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson shares a personal story of her own, relating to a struggle she has recently gone through in one of her own friendships.    In the five or six years that Danielle has been building this platform, she has rarely shared much about herself and her personal life, but wh...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   While I've never blocked a friend, I've certainly unfriended a friend in an emotionally impulsive state. It was so regrettable, and I often hear women talk about being on both sides of similar scenarios, when a friend withdraws without explanation. Today's episode responds to a...

If you had it your way, you’d be open to grabbing coffee or drinks with anyone who asks and, because of that attitude, you’ve probably developed a pretty broad social network. However, this attitude may also leave you feeling overwhelmed, overextended, and confused about who to give your precious time. So, as we bring in the new year, you may be wanting to put some thought into figuring out exactl...

A lot of us have friendships that we just accept will stay as surface-level relationships, or perhaps we talk ourselves out of taking the next steps to explore if there might be capacity for something deeper to evolve after all. Today, on the Friend Forward podcast, our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson shares three tactical strategies that you can use to be more intentional about...

Welcome to “Girl Problems”, a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.  Today’s question comes from a listener whose relationship with her best friend of 7 years has recently grown distant and, after several failed attempts to cultivate more connection, is feeling like her efforts to maintain the relationship are becoming a little onesided. Our lis...

There are many resolutions that we tend to make as we enter the new year and when it comes to friendship, we might commit to making more time for friends or making new friends altogether. But what about making things right with friends? If there’s a friend in your life to whom you owe an apology, then this is the episode for you. Join our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson as she o...

It happened last week when you reached out to a new-ish friend, and she never got back to you. It also happened last month with a friend who went off on a coffee date with a mutual friend but didn’t extend an invitation to you. And it happened last night when you had a moment of vulnerability with someone, and she didn’t respond in the way that you were hoping.   These are all examples of rej...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   Today's episode addresses a listener’s question regarding a situation where she tried to speak to her friend about an issue that had hurt her, and was met with defensiveness and accusations of being “over-sensitive”, leading her to ask, how are you supposed to respond when a fr...

Our resident friendship expert, Danielle Bayard Jackson, first met Taryn Delanie Smith at a launch party that Bumble hosted for its new App, Bumble For Friends, earlier this year in New York City. Taryn Delanie Smith has over a million followers on TikTok and is a former Miss New York, taking the crown in 2022. She is known online for being kind, intelligent and gracious, and she lived up to all o...

You’re in the middle of a late-night social media scroll, and you notice that your feed is showing you video after video of women doing things with their friends – picnics, target runs, book clubs – and on nearly every video, you find yourself tagging your bestie, sending her ideas of activities, despite knowing deep down that they’ll likely never materialise.   You’ve been long-distance frie...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   Today's episode addresses a listener’s question regarding a situation where her best friend has moved to a new house on the other side of town and is yet to invite her over to visit. The listener feels hurt, and is speculating about her friend’s motives, and is also questioning...

You’re working out at the gym when you realise you’ve been coming solo for the last few weeks as your usual gym buddy has been MIA. It’s not like her, so on your way to the parking lot, you give her a call but she doesn’t answer… Also unlike her. And that’s when it hits you – you remember that she mentioned having a depressive episode last winter, but that was before you were friends. And if she’s...

You’re looking through your calendar to figure out a date to spend time with an old friend and as you search for some availability, you realise two things – one, that we’re only a few weeks out from a new year, and two, that you’re putting in a lot of effort to maintain a friendship that you’re convinced you’ve outgrown. But, she’s all you know. As we head into the new year, how can you be more in...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   Today's episode addresses a listener’s question about how to navigate a friendship breakup with someone she works with and therefore will have to continue to see every day. Tune in as our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson offers her words of wisdom on the matte...

You get a message and your heart sinks - “I’m going to do It, I’m going to ask him for a divorce”, it says. You knew your friend and her husband have been having trouble, but you didn’t know it would end up this way, and now you’re wondering how best to show up for her. Data shows that 50% of marriages end in divorce, often happening around the 8-year mark, and the process can take anywhere from 3...

Lately, you’ve been feeling uneasy about one of the friendships in your life, and the time has come for you to talk it out with your friend. You’re aware that the conversation could lead to either a friendship break, or a complete friendship breakup and so in preparation for your conversation, you’ve searched for tips and advice online, and the resounding advice is to just go for it and speak your...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   Today's episode addresses a listener’s question about how to keep your distance with an ex-friend, while not letting your friendship break-up affect your other friendships within your shared circle.  Tune in as our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson offers...

You’re at a dinner and everyone’s having a lovely time, but you can’t help but notice that for the last 35 minutes the conversation has centred around everyone’s kids, and maybe that’d be okay if you had children too, but you don’t, and you don’t plan to anytime soon.    Here on the Friend Forward Podcast, we’ve discussed infertility and how to support friends who are on challenging jour...

Extroverts thrive on having lots of people in their social network, and there’s research that points to the benefits of having a large, expansive network, such as being happier, healthier and even getting better sleep.   However, there are also some surprising downsides to being an extrovert too, and in this episode of the Friend Forward Podcast, our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard...

Welcome to "Girl Problems" a bi-weekly segment from the Friend Forward podcast, coming to you every other Tuesday.   Today's episode addresses a listener’s question about what is a reasonable expectation of a friend when it comes to the issue of time and how, when time is limited, can friendships be maintained. Tune in as our resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson offers her helpf...

When a tragedy strikes in a way that hits really close to home, it can be physically, emotionally and psychologically devastating, and sometimes this pain is exacerbated by a lack of care and understanding from the people we love the most. For many minorities, we know the feeling well when we have a certain identity that’s not shared with the majority, which means that we can sometimes find oursel...

There’s the engagement party, the bachelorette party, the wedding shower and then the big day itself - so many celebrations to mark a women’s transition into partnership, and when someone makes this change, they often struggle to keep their friendships intact during the process.    Last week, on the Friend Forward Podcast, we explored some of the causes of tension that can arise between...