What This Year Taught Me About Being a Better Husband

A Pause at the End of the Year

It's officially the end of the year, and whether you're listening to this on the day it comes out December 30th, 2025, or you're catching it later, I just wanna invite you to slow down for a moment and reflect on the year you've just lived. That's really what this episode is about.

Taking a minute to pause and to notice how far you've come. This time of year naturally asks us to slow down to quiet things a bit, to be with family, to build memories even when things feel full or complicated. Some of you are closing out deadlines at work. Some of you are traveling or just getting home.

Some of you might be right in the middle of it all, and I want you to know I'm right there with you. For me, it's been an honor to do this podcast, to hear from you, to learn about your situations, to understand where you're struggling, and to hear how this podcast has landed in your marriage and your life.

It's been a long, meaningful year, an amazing year in many ways, and I'm ready to take one long, deep breath. My energy is slowing down too. I've poured a lot into this podcast and into the men I work with, and that's been a gift. It really has. And at the same time, it feels important for me to take a moment to rest and recover as well.

So this episode is gonna be a little bit different. I'm not here to teach or push today. Instead, I wanna reflect. I wanna share what this year has been like, what we've covered, the impact I've seen, and what this work has meant to me personally and professionally. I'll also talk a little bit about what's coming in 2026 for better husband and how you can be a part of what's ahead if it feels right for you.

So wherever you are right now, I invite you to take a deep breath with me and settle in for a simple fireside conversation. So stick with me for this better husband for Fireside chat

Why I Chose to Focus on Marriage

Welcome to Better Husband, the podcast that helps you answer the question, how can I be a better husband? I'm Angelo Santiago, a men's marriage and relationship coach, and every week I bring you practical insights to help you strengthen your marriage and become the best husband you can be.

Now, as I mentioned in the intro, this year has been incredible. At the end of 2024, I made the decision to rebrand my podcast from We Are the Men to Better Husband, and that choice came from something very personal. In We Are the Men I talked about a lot. Fatherhood, relationships, work and purpose, emotional availability, integrity, physical and spiritual growth.

And all of it matters. All of it still does, but when I looked honestly at my own life, the place where I had seen the most change, the most growth, the biggest challenges was in my marriage.

That's where I've had to work the hardest. That's where I've been stretched the most. And it's also where I've seen the biggest upgrade in how I show up as a man, a father, and a husband. So I decided to double down there. For myself first, to keep learning, to keep growing, and then to support other men who were in that same place.

With the rebrand at the end of 2024, 2025 became the first full year of Better Husband, and over the course of this year, I've published 50 episodes. What's been really meaningful to see is that every episode has reached more people than the one before it.

And you've been a huge part of that. I'm deeply grateful for your time, your attention, and your willingness to listen and engage with this work. To give you a sense of growth, in January of 2025, there were just over 1600 downloads that month. By November there were over 12,500. By the end of this year, we'll be close to 10 times what we started with, and that's all been organic.

There's been no paid advertising, no chasing trends. I stepped away from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all of it. Because the conversations I wanted to have are nuanced. They're deep, they're challenging, and they require men who are willing to slow down, listen, reflect, and actually do the work.

Podcasting has given me a space to do that, and you've shown up for it. I also wanna acknowledge the women who are listening, I know you're here, too. Many of you are asking, how do I help my husband? And I'm grateful you're here listening and caring in the way that you are.

So whether this is the first episode you've ever listened to or you've been with me since the early days of my podcasting journey, I want you to know this. I'm here for you. I'm always available to hear about what's working, what's not, and how we can continue to strengthen marriages and families together.

This work matters, and I don't take your presence lightly.

A Fellow Traveler, Not Finished

I also wanna share this clearly. My own marriage has continued to grow and change through this work. I'm not here as a guru. I'm not pretending I have it all figured out. Everything I share on this podcast is rooted in my own experience. Some of it comes from things I've worked through in the past, and some of it comes from situations I'm still working through right now.

There are episodes where I'm talking about something that's happening in my own life, and I'm sharing it because it's real, because I know I'm not the only one navigating it. And I wanna take a moment to thank my wife, Julie, for sticking with me, for supporting me, for loving me, for seeing me as I continue to challenge myself to become a better husband, not just for our marriage, but so I can help other men do the same.

This work has been a gift. It's been a blessing and it truly feels like a calling. If you've been listening for a while, you know, I've gone through a lot of different chapters in my life. I started out as a mechanical engineer trying to build things and create solutions to help people in their day-to-day lives.

I left that path and became a firefighter, eventually promoting to fire captain where I was supporting people on some of the worst days of their lives. And eventually I stepped away from that too. Because I needed to focus on my own life, on becoming a better father, a better husband, and on learning how to help others do the same.

This year has felt like both a closing of a chapter and the beginning of a new one with the launch of Better Husband Academy. Launching the academy allowed me to shift away from traveling constantly and leading retreats for larger organizations all over the world, and instead root myself more deeply at home with my family.

It gave me the ability to create something meaningful from home, to be more present, to have more control over my schedule and to actually live the life I care about, not just work toward it. When I launched Better Husband Academy at the beginning of the summer, I was honestly blown away by the support.

A solid group of men said yes right away. They showed up, they engaged, and their feedback helped shape and improve the program as it grew. What it also showed me very clearly is that this work, works. Some of those men chose to go deeper through one-on-one coaching, and the ones who really committed, the ones who showed up to office hours, took the action seriously and did the reflections have experienced real change.

Their lives are shifting. Their wives are noticing the effort. They're still facing challenges just like me and just like you, but they're choosing not to shut down, not to fight back, not to give up. They're learning how to open their hearts and move forward. That's filled me with a deep sense of gratitude and also a strong awareness of the responsibility we carry as men in our marriages. How we show up matters and how I show up for the men who trust me with this work matters deeply to me.

There's also been hard moments. I've worked with men whose marriages didn't make it, and that's been painful for them and for me because I care and I want to help. But one truth, I continue to come back to both for them and for myself, is this, we can't control outcomes.

We can only control how we show up, how we love, how we take responsibility, how we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. That doesn't guarantee a specific result, but it does change us. Even for the men whose marriages didn't survive their darkest seasons, they still grew, they still evolved, and they still challenged themselves, and I'm incredibly proud of the work they did.

They are better men because of it. This is why this work matters to me more than numbers, more than downloads, more than how many men sign up, even though I'm grateful for all of that. At the end of the day, this is about people's lives, and I hold that responsibility with a lot of care. I hope you can feel the sincerity behind this work and how much it means to me to be a part of it with you

What I’m Hearing From You

I also wanna take a moment to say thank you to those of you who have taken the time to rate and review this podcast or leave a comment. That might seem like a small thing, but it's made a real difference. It's helped this podcast grow, and more importantly, it's helped me understand how this work is landing in your real lives.

Reading your reviews has honestly been one of the most fulfilling parts of doing this podcast. Over this past year the show has reached listeners in over 50 countries and there are now thousands of you tuning in regularly. On Apple and Spotify combined, there are over a hundred reviews and they've stayed consistently at five stars.

But what matters to me isn't the rating, it's the words. I wanna share just a few things you've written because they capture exactly why this work matters. One listener share that each episode helps him understand both his wife and himself better, and that it's shown him things he thought he could fix on his own but couldn't.

Another said that there was an episode that described him to a T like I'd been watching his life, and that it helped him finally see a pattern that had been damaging his marriage for years. He said that that awareness felt like a turning point. One man shared that he's been married for over 20 years and already has a good marriage, but that these episodes have given him tools to make it even better and that his wife deserves the effort.

Another listener said that every episode feels like it speaks directly to what he's going through, and that hearing these conversations helps him feel less alone, like there are other men walking through the same struggles.

Those messages are a gift to me.

I've also heard from wives who are listening, women who wanna reach their husbands, who care deeply about their marriages and who are trying to understand how to support the men they love.

Knowing that this podcast has become a bridge for some of those conversations has been incredibly meaningful. I do plan to create an episode specifically for the women who are listening. And if that's you, I genuinely love to hear from you. What you're struggling with, what you wish your husband understood, and how I can create something that would actually be helpful.

And men, if you're listening and you're in a place where you can have those conversations with your wife, and she has questions, I'm open to that too.

Why You’re Not Alone in This

One of the biggest things I've come to understand from both the men inside Better Husband Academy and from the messages I received is how deeply many of us believe we're alone in our own struggles.

We try to figure things out on our own. We carry it alone. We assume no one else is dealing with the same patterns, tension, the same confusion, and a lot of times we don't think anyone really cares that we're struggling. That's the belief I'm most committed to breaking down because it's not true.

When I watch men inside the Academy, especially during our group office hours and they start sharing their stories, something changes for them. They hear pieces of themselves in other men's experiences. They realize they're not the only ones shutting down, not the only ones feeling lost, not the only ones trying to figure out how to show a better without knowing how.

That moment of recognition, that's where the real work begins. I've experienced that firsthand in my own life too, and I want you to hear this clearly. You are not alone. There are other men listening to this podcast who are wrestling with the same thing you are. And if you're ever looking for a place to do this work together, to be seen, to be challenged, and to not carry it all by yourself, that's what Better Husband Academy is here for.

What’s Coming Next for Better Husband

Okay. With that said, I wanna look ahead to 2026 for a moment. If you listened to last week's episode, that one was about you, about reflecting on what you want for yourself as a husband and for your marriage in the year ahead. This is just a brief look at where I'm headed with better husband.

First, the podcast will continue. I'm committed to it. I wanna keep improving the quality of these episodes, getting your feedback and continuing to share tools, perspectives and challenges that actually help you show up better in your marriage. And if there's ever something you feel is missing, a topic you'd wish I'd cover a question you're wrestling with, I want to hear from you. Your feedback has shaped this podcast more than you probably realize.

This year I've also started creating some video content on YouTube. Shorter videos, usually six to 10 minutes that cover similar themes to the podcast just in a more direct face-to-face way.

I've already published a few and I'm excited about where that's going. If this podcast has been helpful for you and you've ever wondered how you could support the work I'm doing. Subscribing to the YouTube channel is one of the simplest ways to do that. You can go to youtube.com/@angelosantiagocoach, or just search for @angelosantiagocoach on YouTube. The channel is also linked in the show notes. You can check out the videos, leave a comment, and engage there.

The goal with YouTube isn't to replace the podcast is to reach men who may never listen to podcasts at all. Men who are searching for help, clarity or direction, and might stumble across this work in a different way.

I'm not interested in chasing short form trends or going back to social media platforms that don't fit how I teach or connect. YouTube feels like a good middle ground for me. A place where I can slow things down, speak directly, and stay aligned with the heart of this work.

Looking ahead to 2026, I also want to continue growing and refining better Husband Academy. Improving it.

Making it more supportive, creating more opportunities for men to connect with each other and not feel so alone in this process. What that looks like exactly will continue to evolve. I'm listening closely to what the men actually need, not just what sounds good on paper. So if you have thoughts, ideas, or feedback, whether it's about the Podcast, Academy or anything else, please, again, I'd love to hear from you. If you're on my email list, you'll see opportunities to share that, and if not, you can always reach out to me directly.

My intention moving into 2026 is simple. Keep doing this work with integrity, care, and consistency, and keep offering what genuinely serves you and your marriage.

One Simple Commitment This Week

Before we close, I wanna slow this down and give you something simple to take with you this week. First, take a long, deep breath. Seriously. Pause for a moment and breathe. Then give yourself some credit for the work you've done so far. And if this is the very first episode you've listened to, give yourself credit for that too.

Showing up matters, making the decision to listen matters. Acknowledge the man you want to become, and also the man you've been up to this point. Give yourself some grace for the struggles you've been through, the mistakes you've made, the pain you've caused. We've all been there. I've been there too. That doesn't mean avoiding responsibility.

Take ownership where you've fallen short, but don't let shame weigh you down. Let awareness lead you forward, not into self punishment. Then make a simple commitment. That you're going to stick with this, that you're going to prioritize this work, that you're going to keep focusing on becoming a better husband, one small step at a time, because small efforts compound, and this is where that change starts.

Keep Showing Up

Here's what I want you to remember. This work is ongoing. There's no finish line, no moment where you suddenly arrive and never struggle again. But the work works if you work it. Showing up consistently matters more than doing everything perfectly, and connection grows through steady effort over time.

You're not late, you're not behind, and you're not alone in this. So as we wrap up, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your messages, your reviews, your ideas, your honesty, your vulnerability, and your willingness to share your struggles with me. I truly hold that close to my heart.

I want you to know that I'm praying for you and for your marriages. I'm grateful for your support, and I'm grateful that we're walking this path together. Keep showing up. Keep taking the next right step forward. Lean in, open up. Stay with the work 'cause I am in this too. So thank you for being here.

I hope you had a meaningful 2025 and I wish you a grounded intentional start to 2026. You're listening to Better Husband. I'm Angelo Santiago and I'll see you next year.