I Do This for a Living
A show that asks how we can give as much time and energy to the things that matter as we do to the things that pay. I Do This for a Living is hosted by Serenity Bohon - sarcoma survivor, writer, and day jobbist, forever starstruck by anyone who finds meaning at work and in life.
Follow serenitybohon.substack.com for the newsletter.
Visit serenitybohon.com/guest to be on the show.
I Do This for a Living
Don’t Let Anyone Say You Can’t with Jodie O’Brien
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
It's Episode 25! Serenity invites journalist and podcast host Jodie O'Brien to celebrate 25 episodes of I Do This For a Living. Jodie teaches us that journalism is more than a skill; it is a worldview. She is a proud graduate of the Mizzou School of Journalism, the oldest journalism school in the country and part of the University of Missouri (Mizzou Rah!). Today, Jodie hosts two podcasts, Influential Women and 39/94. The latter features residents of the northwest corridor of Missouri where Jodie lives and works. Jodie is passionate about local news and featuring the amazing stories we can all find in our friends and neighbors next door.
Chapters
4:11 Jodie's Professional Journey
14:05 Journalism is a worldview
24:44 Make it local
44:41 Dream Roles and Aspirations
45:53 Advice to Our Younger Selves
47:28 Finding Authenticity
50:43 Make it short and simple!
53:05 It Worked for Me
Links
The 39/94 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-39-94/id1840534384
The 39/94 Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cw/The3994
Influential Women podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/influential-women-podcast/id1850947661
This episode is sponsored by H34Contracting.com
For the beaded designs Serenity’s wearing today: https://www.instagram.com/createinthemargins/
I Do This For a Living is independently produced.
Welcome to I Do This for a Living, a show that asks how we can spend as much time and energy on the things that matter as we do on the things that pay. Sometimes the things that matter pay, and we'll talk about that too. I'm your host, Serenity Bohan. This is my 25th episode, which is a big freaking deal because the way I talked myself into doing this is I only promised myself six episodes, a six-episode first season. So I'm very proud of getting to the 25th episode. And to celebrate with me, I invited Jodi O'Brien. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, professional journalist. She has two podcasts of her own. And I thought it would be delightful to put her on the other side of the microphone, talk to her about her gigs, but also get to kind of bounce off of her how it's going over here. And I do this for a living. And it was super fun to do that. And I'm so grateful to her. So we'll get into that in a minute. I wanted to share my new. If you are watching on video, you'll see my new very beautiful beaded bracelets that I purchased from a friend this weekend. She has a company called Create in the Margins. I will put a link to her Instagram. They're so beautiful. A couple years ago, I did a professional color analysis because I was trying to know myself better and was surprised to find out that I'm a spring. And I hardly know how to be a spring. It's difficult for me. It's not what I thought I was. You're supposed to wear like medium Easter egg colors. I'm getting used to it. Anyway, um, so I got two beaded bracelets in my spring colors, and I love them so much. They're my new um happy place, and so I wanted to share that. And link to her company. Today's episode is sponsored by h34contracting.com, delivering exceptional quality and craftsmanship in and near Casper, Wyoming. They specialize in residential remodels. And if you talk to Jason, the owner, tell him you heard about it on I Do This For a Living. I really want him to know how grateful we are for his sponsorship. Okay, episode 25
We're 25!
SPEAKER_01coming at ya. Hi, Jodi. Welcome to my show. Serenity. Hi. Thanks for having me. It is a huge honor. As I told you, I go by vibes here. And I woke up one morning. I'm like, I'm about to do my 25th episode. Who am I gonna have celebrate with me? And it was you. I wanted Jodi.
SPEAKER_0025 is a big deal. Thank you. I'm so proud of you. I told you when I pitched your idea to you, I was like, you would be great. And you were like, well, I've kind of thought about it, but and I thought she doesn't know how great she is. I mean, you're an author, first of all. And so I just knew it was gonna be a perfect fit for you.
SPEAKER_01Did you? My husband was the same way. Michael was so supportive. He's like, you have no idea. You're gonna excel, you can do this. And I was terrified, so terrified. No. Um I knew it was gonna be good. So congratulations. Thank you, and thank you for celebrating with me today. Absolutely. Um, I will explain to the audience one reason I wanted you here is because you are highly experienced yourself in this job of podcast host. And so we're gonna talk about that. But I want you to introduce yourself to the I Do This for a Living audience. I don't know how well you know the show, but I know you know it a little, and I know you know me. So how would you introduce yourself to my people?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, to your peeps. I think I would just say, well, from a professional standpoint, I'm an interviewer. Um, that's what I do. I do it with a couple shows and I do it just in my own business. And then I would say personally, I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, I'm a friend. You know, I'm a reality TV junkie. Like, I don't know what to tell you.
Jodie O'Brien's Professional Journey
SPEAKER_00Like, life is busy. Life is busy.
SPEAKER_01Well, the reality TV takes up a lot of time. Are you a trader's watcher? Yes. I haven't watched that one yet, but one of the um Instagram women that I love to watch, she's a she's on it this season. Is she from Overland Park? I don't think so. I think she's from the Chicago area. Her name's Morgan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. I'm gonna have to look that up. We've watched the first episode, and Lee and I love that show. Like we love that show. And one of the ladies is from Overland Park, so I really want to look her up because she is not in my corridor, the 39 North. Is it 3994? What am I? 39 North 94 West corridor for my podcast, but I still want to have her on because I think Traders is awesome.
SPEAKER_01That'd be so cool. Wouldn't that be cool? Okay. That's um on that's Jody's bucket list item or or yeah, you know, dream guest. I have so many dream guests here when I dream guests, Jody.
SPEAKER_00Technically, Taylor is in my corridor too. So that would be my pipe dream, of course. Now I have to show my my Taylor Swift cup with all the all the butterflies are albums. Taylor Swift albums. Well, when I land that interview, I'll have you on. We'll be on Riverside and you can just be in the like waiting room watching.
SPEAKER_01Please. Please, that will be the highlight of my life. Oh my goodness. And so many people in my life will be so jealous of me.
SPEAKER_00It's not gonna happen, but you know, you can dream. A girl can dream.
SPEAKER_01We can we must dream. We have high, high hopes for a living. That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Jodi, what do you actually do for a living? Tell us, you have so many jobs as far as I can tell.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I I basically just interview people. That's basically what I do. So the best way for me to describe it is aside from hosting two podcasts, creating, producing, distributing, funding, one of them. I also have this business where I interview people for content. So if you think about it, you know, before COVID, we didn't know about Zoom. We didn't know about video platforms like the one that we're on right now, it's called Riverside. High quality, these platforms. If you ask someone a question and they give you an answer, that's content. And everybody wants content. Content is king. And so right now I work for a couple of different companies. I kind of started out as a freelancer and it's really developed into my own business. It doesn't have a name, it's simply at jodieobrian.com. But basically, I have a few clients and I interview their clients who are founders, creators, uh, CEOs, entrepreneurs, all these really great authors, all kinds of great people for their LinkedIn. So each month we do an interview, and that interview is broken up into static posts and video posts. And then I have a client on the East Coast in Philly, um, and they have nonfiction authors as their clients. And that is my favorite. I love to interview the authors. And I get to do that for the production of a mini-movie. So you have to interview people before you can create a movie script to create a movie to give the author about their book. So I do that. I help them with their social posts, um, recording those for them. And then one of my favorite things to do is help with the National Publicity Summit. And that's where, you know, I take these authors through some training. I teach them like, what is the media looking for? How do you get booked on a podcast? How do you get booked on the Drew Barrymore show? How do you get booked for a newspaper article, a you know, magazine article? And so I teach them about news values and what producers are looking for, and I teach them how to pitch. And that's probably one of my favorite things. Everybody needs somebody to ask them something to elicit a response. And that's my business. So, Jody.
SPEAKER_01Yes. How did you get there? How did you get where you are today? I want to know like the intentional choices you made and the surprises that got you right where you were.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, it definitely was not intentional. And it feels like it was by accident almost. I mean, if you think about it, the way that the world has changed. Um, I don't know what choice I had, but I mean, I'll tell you about it. So broadcast news was a big deal in the 90s, right? And so I grew up as a little girl always wanting to be that journalist. And that really led me to go to the University of Missouri and Columbia, where I came from Rochester, New York. So, you know, 17 and a half hours away from home. I grew up in a small town, Hilton, New York. And people don't realize like there's a small town out in New York. It's not all the city. We lived in upstate. And so I traveled that long way, really just determined to get the best education that I could, and I did. And then going into the industry, you know, I worked in Kirksville alongside John Garlock, who is, you know, just a national treasure.
SPEAKER_01I know he needs to be on my show. I'm such a huge fan. He's yeah, fan of it. He waved at me the other day, like at the store. He drove by. I'm like, John Garlock knows who I am.
SPEAKER_00It's just like a big deal to me. He's, I know, he's um a precious soul. But anyway, and starting that first job, you know, you're very idealistic and I loved it. Loved it. But as I kind of moved through my career, it was very clear like television was not a place where you could easily have a family, right? It was a 5 and 6 p.m. show. How was I gonna cook dinner ever? Like, how was I gonna have children? Maybe I needed to do the morning show, you know, maybe that would work better. And so it was just always really difficult to figure that out. But but as many of us do, we get out of the industry and go into marketing and PR and then and fundraising, right? And then slowly it sucks you back in. They always say it sucks you back in. Move to St. Joe, raising babies. It comes to a point, somebody approaches me and says, you should apply for this job. We would love to have you. And so kind of got back into television again. Well, like long story short, you know, COVID happens and I'm anchoring the news from my bedroom upstairs for six weeks. Just like Kelly Rippa. Yes. And I realized like I am the only person in this, like at the time in the studio. Everything's covered in plastic, and I'm doing these interviews on Zoom. Like, this is insane. And so you kind of fast forward again to me going back into PR, marketing, doing whatever, you know, and and I figured out like this is the thing that I love the most is talking to people. And I do know how to ask a question. That's probably one of my only giftings. No, I'm just kidding, but I I mean, yeah. And so, so I was like, I don't know, there's like people looking for freelancers who do this on Zoom. And so I kind of got on a freelancing platform and started to look for those jobs. And that is how I got one of my longest standing clients that I have now, very consistent, work for every day. They discovered me on upwork because I started developing myself as a freelancer and a reliable freelancer. So my rating was like 100%. And so I started getting jobs and gigs, right? And when you do that, you develop a very easily develop a reputation. And then along comes some companies that need your your resources, you know, you. And so that's kind of how I landed here. Um the podcast thing I try to stay away from as long as possible. Because uh why? Why? Why do any of us stay away from it as long as possible? Because it's very scary. It's very scary. The news business has changed, you know, the news industry has changed. So if you think about it, like it's not this is as close as I can get to what my degree was in and my love, my first love. And so, yeah, I would love to interview people and not be on camera. I don't I wasn't ready to put myself back out there. But then, you know, things happen and you get opportunities. Another job opportunity came on Upwork where the the creators of influential women, that podcast asked me to host. And I was like, you just want me to host? Yeah, sure, that'd be fun, you know. And then um, you know, along comes the opportunity to do a local format, and reluctantly I jumped in. So that's kind of how I got here.
SPEAKER_01A couple things. First, let's see. Missouri. University of Missouri, Columbia. You came from Hilton, New York, Hilton, did you say? Yeah, yeah. So it so it's legit, I it's the oldest journalism school in the country, right? But is it still considered the best as well?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it really is. You know, when I was a senior in high school, I did the research before I even knew where the state of Missouri was. I thought Montana? What state and where is that? You know, when you're a New Yorker, you just know one state, let me tell you. And so, yeah, I did a US News and World Report, top colleges, and Syracuse
Journalism is a worldview
SPEAKER_00University and the University of Missouri were the top two. Well, Syracuse was in my backyard and I had just gone to summer college there and spent between my junior and senior year and got all great grades, right? So I thought that's a shoe, and I'll just go to Syracuse. Well, lo and behold, I didn't get an acceptance letter to Syracuse. Whoa. And I thought, what am I gonna do now? Okay, what's number two and three? I had applied to the top 10 broadcast schools. And some of them I got acceptance letters to, and some of them I didn't. And Missouri had a beautiful packet that they sent me, a beautiful campus packet. So we drove out there, and as soon as we got to campus, there were tulips blooming in April. And I thought, what is this? Where's the yellow brick road? Like it legit looked like I never even thought about this before, but that's what it looked like. It really looked like Oz to me because it was still snowing in New York. Oh, and so, like, that's really how I chose Mizzou, absolutely the number one in broadcast. Now you talk about print and the list was different. And I I went back and forth. Do I want to go for print or do I want to go for broadcast? And once we came out and visited, I mean, the Missouri method is amazing. And what I mean by that is you get in the studio like junior year, and it's your first job at KOMU, an NBC affiliate in Columbia. And so, yeah, I mean, you you that's your first job, then your second job is a higher market, usually. So gosh. Yeah. Did they try to sell you on the fact that Brad Pitt had gone there? No, but um, had I known that, no, yeah, I didn't know. And I didn't know about Cheryl Crow either. Um, but it just, you know, I can't say enough about it. Like I'm such a proud graduate. We have something called the Missouri Mafia. I don't know if you've heard about it. No. But if you're a Mizzou grad and you need a job, you will find a group of Mizzou, a Mizzou Mafia member at a station in this country. And it is no joke. The alumni network is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01Um, I want to know your early understanding of work that you got to have a job, et cetera. Were you quite a little girl when you were seeing the broadcasts journalists and thinking, I want that to be me, or and like your parents?
SPEAKER_00What was their deal? Yeah, there's a couple things there. First of all, when we talk about work, my dad taught me how to wash windows. And if it wasn't clean the first time, he was like, do it again. Hopefully, do it right the first time, you know what? Or just don't even do it at all. So that was oh wait, which is a great lesson to teach a perfectionist, right? So that was probably my first lesson of like hard work, work ethic. But when it comes to, you know, the industry, what would happen is I would be playing outside and my mom would be like, dinner's almost ready, and we would run in the house. And I had these news anchors that were, I feel like they just got off the air last year, and I'm 46. But I was a little girl and I ran in, and Don Alhart and Ginny Ryan were on the set, and I would watch them, and they were there every night. They were probably the most consistent people in my life at the time.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Right? Consistent voices in my living room. And then she would talk about how she had a family and her kids. And I was like, she's doing that, and she's a mom. Wow, that's cool. She's asking hard questions. She's in the field, but then she's on the set. Like, I love that. And that was probably my first um eye-opening to broadcast news. Had I known that 40 years later, this would be what we're living in. Anybody can be a news anchor. Anybody, like, what kind of degree did I pay for? Everything that I paid for, people can do for nothing. They can just do it well. That's a great question.
SPEAKER_01Would you tell someone who wants to go into journalism that they don't need the degree?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because we're talking, let's talk about journalism and then let's talk about being a YouTuber. Those are two very different things. Like Serenity, you can sit here today and you can interview me. And you're a great interviewer. And that takes a level of skill. But when you're talking about journalism, is Serenity gonna come to this podcast today? And is she gonna let us peek behind the curtain and show her bias? Can I get her bias out of her? Maybe. Maybe probably she's not a trained journalist, right? Yeah. Um, but also people don't understand that there are 10 news values, proximity, timeliness, um, what is current, relevance. And so I feel like, no, I think that journalists still to this day need to be trained. And I just had a conversation on my podcast about how important it is. You know, local is my my passion. Like John Garlock and I could have a discussion today. I don't know why he's not here, but he needs to be. Yeah, because it it changed, it's changed. And there is a level of trust there. When something big happens in Kirksville, Missouri, who do you want to hear from? John. He is the one who will bring you the story, he will bring it to you non-biasedly, he will bring you the facts, he will no stone stone will be unturned. Um, when we all worked for him in the newsroom, he's a guiding light for young journalists. And so, man, I mean, no, you need a degree to do what should be done the way that it should be done. I'm not saying that that's not a skill that we can teach. I mean, heck, I'm trying to teach it to people, you know? I'm trying to raise up community communicators. But yeah, there's some skills to it that you really you need to check yourself.
SPEAKER_01I've been thinking so much about this identity thing. When you say, I am a journalist, what does it mean to you? How does it matter in the world?
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm looking up a quote because it's really good. Um, Tom Brokaw said that the foundation of journalism is curiosity. So, you know, let's talk about that. You are curious, Serenity, and you're gonna ask the questions and you're gonna ask them well, and you're gonna probe, and it's gonna fulfill you and all of the things. And really, that's what the core of journalism is, is curiosity. But there are principles that can be applied that create trust between an audience and a journalist. And trust has been eroded, and it's been eroded for a reason. And I believe it's because, you know, we've shown our butts a little bit. I mean, why would anybody trust somebody who says, I'm a journalist, I'm gonna give you the news, and then they give you their biased opinion. It turns into commentary. And so I've had this discussion a lot. Like, there's a difference between news and commentary. And on the national level, that's a real big problem for people to decipher between. But that's a soapbox issue. Like I could go on and on about that.
SPEAKER_01You talked about this. So I'm celebrating my 25th episode with you. You just celebrated a year anniversary. But actually, uh yeah, and I want to talk about your podcasts in in great detail in a little bit. But and you talked about with um with a you were talking to a pretty close friend and you said to her, Do you know my polit my politics? Yeah. And she said, I think I could guess how you'd land on certain issues, but if you were straight ticket, no, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know. So even in your life, you kind of are able to come at with less bias, I think.
SPEAKER_00It's a it's it's not a career. It I mean, I think if anybody will tell will tell you that it's just their job, they wouldn't be telling you the truth. I mean, do you know John Garlock's affiliation? No. And and he's been in that community for over 40 years doing what he's doing. So it's a lifestyle. You talk about my local podcast. I have many politicians who want to come on in October and talk about the election in November. Well, I'm not having, thank you for reaching out, Mr. Democrat. Thank you for reaching out, Mr. Republican. But y'all need to get your opposition to sign on because you're in different races. So I need the person from your race and I need the person from your race. And if you can't get the person from your race, then you're not coming on, you know. I mean, I'm not gonna do, I'm not, I'm not gonna do that. Like it's just, it's part of who you are. And when you when you go to a school like Mizzou and it's drilled into you fundamentally, these values, it's a value system, it's a worldview. Right. Are you only listening to things you agree with so you can sit down and say, Yes, yes, yes, yes. I mean, I just feel like you have to know how to consume news, you know? And we're trying to teach our kids that we're trying to teach our kids about algorithms. Good God help us.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you'll look at your kid's phone and say, You gotta fix your algorithm.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But I mean, here's the other thing, like I talked about in that episode, go watch the 3994 episode if you want to. Um, it's on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple. Please subscribe. Become a Patreon. But basically put these links in the show notes. Please do. But you also have to know how to be a responsible communicator. And I really feel like we have lost that. You know, maybe not my colleagues from the J school, but there's some out there. They are not being responsible journalists, and that's why they've lost trust, and that's why the industry has changed. That's why there's no trust
Make it local
SPEAKER_00there. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna do a little section called Two Girls Plus Three Podcasts. Oh my gosh, stab us. Okay. You and me, the podcast hosts, Queens of America. No, so I want to answer some questions throughout this that I that I ask all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So I want to answer the question, what do you do for a living? Like I asked you. But I actually don't want to answer.
SPEAKER_00But can I ask you? Can I ask you a question?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you ask, and I'll see how I want to answer.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Serenity, what do you do for a living?
SPEAKER_01Well, Jody. I I'm struggling to answer that question because there's some there's something I do to pay the bills. But I have just started this podcast this year. I'm in episode 25. I'm also a writer, um, which has fallen by the wayside a little bit in the last couple years. But to me, that's what I do for a living. The artistic, creative, making stuff and putting it out in the world, that's really what I do for a living. What I do to pay the bills, I work in market research, pharmaceutical market research. I am on the project management side. So the goal of market research is to get consumers' opinions to help form advertising and things like that. And the consumers in the pharmaceutical industry are doctors and patients. So we interview doctors and people experiencing various conditions. And my job is mostly to schedule the interviews, make sure the interviews happen, keep the project on time and on budget. That's me. That's what I do.
SPEAKER_00So you are a you are a podcast booker, basically, an interview booker.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of. The thing is, I subcontract to that. I'm just overseeing the podcast bookers.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's interesting because I never knew that you had an actual job. I always thought that you were like a full-time author because I always thought, I mean, how's this girl producing a book? Like, how's she writing and publishing a book? I had no idea that that was not your full-time gig. And you do such a great job with your marketing and your PR. Like your website's beautiful and your blog for years, really good. So I thought that's what you did for a living. Well, it is in my heart. Yeah, I feel yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that is the answer to that question. Uh, okay, let's go back to you. I want to talk about your two podcasts. I want people to know about them. I'm a listener. I love them. You do such a great job. You have two. Will you describe each of them and kind of how they came to be or how you came to be part of them?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kind of shared that with influential women. They just found me on a freelancing website called Upwork. Um, I had no idea the number of followers and now listeners that this podcast would have. I had no idea that she would be creating like YouTube shorts and sharing them all over LinkedIn. So it was interesting because when it happened, I was like, I didn't sign up for this. You know, it really like threw me out there. I thought it was just going to be another little gig where it was like not, you know, just a little YouTube-y thing. But basically, I get to interview the most influential people in the world and I've had some really great opportunities. Um, you mentioned the, you know, CEO of Magnolia Bakery, which, if you know Magnolia, we're not talking about Joanna Gaines. We're talking about like the New York City bakery. Um very cool. Um, there's been some others that just really surprised me and like an astronaut the other day. You know what I mean? Like, who gets to do this? It's amazing. And so that is the first one. The second one is a labor of love. That is my local podcast. I love the the premise of it. It's so great. 3994, right? Yeah, 39 north, 94 west. Um, those are the coordinates of this area. Thank you, ChatGPT, for naming my podcast. Oh. Um, yeah, that's a secret. But really, what happened was I was part of it. Yeah, no. I was part of this leadership class. No, no. I was part of this leadership class in Savannah. And what happened was they were all complaining to me about the local media. And I'm like, I don't know what you want me to do. Did you call corporate? I don't know what to tell you. And the more that I started thinking about that, I was like, you know, everybody else that I'm meeting throughout this leadership savannah cohort, we're going to the courthouse, we're going to the water plant, we're going to an orchard, we're going to a farm, we're going downtown, we're going to the health department. Everybody is serving in some way. Everyone wasn't just doing their job, they were serving their community, you know, over 40 hour a week jobs. Okay. And I was like, I'm sitting in my basement interviewing people. What am I doing for my community? Well, the only thing I know how to do is ask questions. And so I started ruminating on it and I didn't tell anybody for a really long time. And then I whispered it to somebody, the organizer of this said group, and she was like, you know, that could be our class project. Every year we have a class project. And I was like, okay. And so what they did was they threw a launch party for me last September. And there was like 50 people there, and it was wonderful. I cried. I cried. I thanked Lee. I have sponsors. I had people in the community who I said, this is what I'm thinking about doing. And I had one family in particular, local business owner, who said, We believe in you so much. We want to double our sponsorship. We want to double it. And I was like, What? So now I now I have to do this. Yeah. And and then another one came on and another one. So I think at this point I have six. And um that is an accountability for me. And so my podcast is basically kind of the heartbeat of this area. Savannah, Andrew County, Buchanan County, St. Joe, the entire 3994 corridor really, I would love to be, you know, my area because local matters. There's story serenity that if they, if people die, we won't ever hear them again. Like we need to hear these stories that people have to tell and the issues. Are we getting all of the news that we could be getting from our local stations and newspapers? Well, 180 local newspapers closed this year in the US. So they're being bought up by corporate entities, they're conglomerating together, they're shrinking newsrooms, there's not qualified people who work in them. There's issues that need to be discussed. There's also really fun people to talk to.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. Okay. I think I heard you say on the last episode with your friend the chef that Savannah is 5,000 the population. But you interviewed like a person who's trained people on the PGA tour, right? That was the 3994, right?
SPEAKER_00Podcast. He's fascinating. He lives in our town. And that's wild. Yeah. Serenity, there's really good people that live in your town. You just that's what I'm learning from you. Yeah. And like that's the thing. It's, you know, and I know you probably heard me say on that episode, like, there are other towns that have really cool people in them too. Like, what if this was replicable? You know? What if we could share with another community? Like, you can do this. Um, it doesn't take very much overhead to do something like this. And so it's been such a joy. I've interviewed over 60 people in a year. I can't believe that. Like, I've had the I've had the honor of talking to 60 of my neighbors, um, 50 episodes. We have over a million views across our platforms on Spotify and Apple and 14 audio platforms. Um, it has just been such an honor and really in service to my community. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I have a delightful um new thing in my feed because of your 3994 podcast. It is a woman who flings herself around stoplight poles in a leotard. It's happiness.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Happiness persona. There's an episode with Elizabeth. Um, you haven't seen it yet, obviously, but she's on my podcast. And guess what happened? No, that's how I learned who she is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Your podcast was like, yeah, she was, I thought she just magically appeared in your podcast. No, I heard her on your podcast and yeah, she's a comedian. Um, she's fascinating. She's fascinating. I talked to a magician. I mean, I what I gotta figure out is how I can get paid doing this. Because right. Sponsorships are just breaking even. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And it's it's a tough one. But here's the deal. I'm not gonna put out there a shoddy product. All right. I went to Mizzou, okay? We have a standard of excellence. Don't front. Don't front. It's gonna be a good product. And John Garlock would agree with me. It ain't gonna be a shoddy product. If you have to stay in the edit bay for three hours, you will stay in the edit bay for three hours. And so I started editing it all myself. And then now I've um farmed out for uh an editor. Thank you, Jesus. And um, it's just been so good. So yeah, we're breaking even. But you know what? With a million views, why wouldn't a business want to sign on? Totally. Like, why wouldn't you want your your name of your business to be, you know, put at the forefront of our episodes so that people can learn about it.
SPEAKER_01Have you always had a passion for that local side? Mm-hmm. Even when you were little, you were thinking, I want to tell what my neighbors are doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I never wanted to. It's funny, I never wanted to. Didn't want to be Oprah. No, and I never wanted to go to the Today show. I mean, when you know, you know this better than anybody. You know kids' community calendar, right? The people that were on, yeah. Oh my gosh, I was on kids' community calendar. Oh my gosh, did you see us on the news last night? Our football game was on the news. Did you see that play? Like that was magical to me.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00That was magical. That my town of 5,000 could be on the Rochester, New York news. We made the news. Did you see that we made the news? That was always really important to me. And when there was things happening in our community, like we had a serial killer, right? That was on the loose. We were we tuned into the news every night to get the information. Information and the dissemination of information is fundamental to society. It is fundamental to your mental health. It is fundamental to society. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In case you can't tell tell listeners, she's very passionate about what she does.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I thought for a while that's what I went for this show. People passionate about what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I totally thought for a minute that I was out of it. Like, and I think that's the thing that when you are called to something and that you when you know that you know that that's what you're supposed to be doing, don't let anybody tell you that you can't. Because I went across the country and attended school. And when I was in school, there were many, many beautiful ladies, girls that were gonna end up being in Dallas. They ended up in Dallas, right? But I knew that that's what I wanted to do. I knew that's what I could do. I knew that I had the potential to do that. And even when they said your voice is too whiny, your voice is way too whiny, Jody, to be a news anchor. I was like, well, if I don't try, I'll never know. And if I can't do this, if you say that I can't do broadcast, then I guess I'm going into print because I don't have a voice for radio. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, if you know in your heart what you were meant to do with your life, don't let anybody stop you.
SPEAKER_01I did, I did want to quote you because first of all, you were a big part of me starting this podcast. And I talked to you when I first was starting. And you talked to me a lot about, I want to say, the the service aspect of it and how we're here to serve, you know, to offer a gift to the listeners, you know, and to the people whose story we're telling. And something you I think you say a variation of this on each of your episodes, but it it's I think it varies. And you said the other day, keep showing up, keep believing in your potential, and keep creating spaces where others can thrive. And I wrote that down in my journal that night. That is so what I want to do here. I love that so much. And I love that that's your heart too. Okay, let's both answer some of my little fun questions, kind of. Jody, what is something you would do if you knew you couldn't fail?
SPEAKER_00I would probably um start this project. I would go into other communities. I would train community communicators to start podcasts, and I would teach them everything that there is to know from the nuts and the bolts to the beautiful storytelling. And I would launch them and I would mentor them and I would um help them to mentor the next town, and we would create a beautiful network of local podcasts.
SPEAKER_01So will you only you would only do that if you knew you couldn't fail? Because I think you're kind of on the track to try to do it anyway, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm waiting on a grant right now. Yeah. Waiting, yeah. You heard about it on my last podcast. I I I need don't need the grant to do it, but I think that would be a good boost. I think it would help. I think at this point, you know, is it gonna work if I go into a town and I teach somebody to do what I'm doing, but they don't make a dime? I don't know. Would everybody do this this, you know, format from their heart? I don't know. Maybe John Garlock would do it, but that's the problem, is like, so then how what is the formula for them to make money doing it? Like, or for us to be able to support them doing it, you know? So I think that's a question. But if I knew I couldn't fail, I would absolutely find a way to disseminate information in um communities for people in a new way. That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Mine's totally shallow. I would audition for something, and I would be an actress. I would either be in a movie so it could support me for like three years, or a commercial, like a national commercial, like the ATT girl. That is so much more fun than my idea. It's super fun. Super fun, super selfish, and then it lets me do whatever I want because I would make enough money in my little six-week like acting gig and then support me for the next like year or two. So that's what I would do if I couldn't fail. But I also really love the question that Elizabeth Gilbert asks in her book Big Magic. What would you do even if you knew that you might very well fail? And for me, I am doing those things. I think. I've been writing, I do this podcast. Those are all things that I could totally fail depending on your definition of success and failure. And I'm doing it anyway because it's that fun and I love it, and it's more right.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's totally the thing. Like you are doing it, and so am I. But it isn't easy to step out of your comfort zone, even though you want to do it and you're gonna do it even if you fail, kind of thing. It's not easy to pull the trigger because there's so much like doubt and imposter syndrome. And I know that this hasn't been easy for you to put yourself out there, but thank you for doing it. Because when I approached you and said you would be great, you were like, really? And I was like, Yes. Yeah. So I'm really, really glad you did.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. It was, it was, it was surprisingly hard. I just, it really surprised me how terrified I was. I was so, so terrified. And I really never got over that. I wrote a post about this, that I really never decided, oh, I can definitely do this. I just did it anyway. And so then it was like, I guess I'm doing it.
SPEAKER_00Well, and once you do, you finally pull the trigger and there's no looking back, and you like, okay, I finally got through one episode. You're like, Yeah, this is gonna be a lot of work. People think this is easy. Let me tell you that I have done this for a living, like interviewing people and talking to people like this for a living. This is not easy. This is a whole different animal. This is like the questions, the booking of the guest, the following up with the guests, the scheduling, the asking of the questions, the video, the audio, the lighting, the mic, the camera, the editing, the distribution, the promoting. Can we go on and on? The TikTok, the show notes, the links, the thumbnail. I mean, yeah, I mean you have a similar headshot for your thumbnail, by the way. Don't forget. We gotta take a picture, by the way, for social. Yeah, we have to. And that's the thing. Like, I don't like this stuff, the social part. But I'm like, well, if I don't do it, then people don't watch. And it's gonna work.
SPEAKER_01Okay, what do I do? Just am I posing here?
SPEAKER_00Maybe. Let's see. How can I do this? Oh, let me do this. Okay, ready smile. See?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I hope I didn't look down.
SPEAKER_00Now that was horizontal.
SPEAKER_01You gotta think about it. Do you post on TikTok? I've just barely started the TikTok thing.
SPEAKER_00So my editor will do all those shorts for me and then I will post the shorts. But you know, it costs money. You could do It yourself. It's a lot of work. You gotta know how to do the cap cut, which my kids know, which is the editing on the cap cut. I mean, oh my gosh, these kids are fast, they're so good, they're so fascinating at this stuff. We are not like it's a learning curve. Like I say, the TikTok, the Snapchat. I don't understand the Snapchat. So it's just it's a learning curve. I didn't want to do any of it. That's the thing. It's like once you you have a little seat and you're like, okay, if I do it, then I'm gonna have to do it. And I'm gonna have to learn a lot. And it's a learning curve. Yeah.
Dream Roles and Aspirations
SPEAKER_01Okay, another fun question. Get off of this social media stuff. What would you choose if you could play one on TV?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. I read that question.
SPEAKER_01You don't even know how to answer this, do you? Like, I wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I would want to be well, okay. Here's the deal. When I was little, I watched the Superman show, you know, Clark Kent and Lois Lane. I watched like that ABC series, and I wanted to be Lois Lane. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Isn't it called boring?
SPEAKER_01Why is the name of that better? Escaping me. Felicity right now, if she's listening, is dying because she'll know it cold, and I usually do too. Lois and Clark. Was it Lois and Clark?
SPEAKER_00No, because Lewis and Clark is the expedition. I know, but Lois, Lois and Clark. Oh, Lois and Clark. I think it was.
SPEAKER_01It might have been. We loved that show. It was so funny. Okay. Um, but oh, mine's easy, Doctor. Because I kind of wish I'd done that in real life. So I would totally play one on TV. So I could pretend. Okay. Um, if you bumped into yourself as a high school junior or senior and could drop
Advice to Our Younger Selves
SPEAKER_01a hint.
SPEAKER_00I have a junior. And you know what I say? Life is short. Call your friends. Go do the thing because this is the best time of your life.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's so good. Yeah. It's much better than mine. Mine's so practical. They don't take my advice, though. See, yeah, that's funny. Why don't they do that? What do they do instead?
SPEAKER_00They're teenagers. They ignore us. They do what they want to do.
unknownI know.
SPEAKER_01Um, I would say money. Pay attention to money because I did not, and I don't think I realized how big a part of life having enough money is. And so I would just say don't freaking go into debt because you'll just you need the freedom to be able to make choices. And just consider when you're thinking about what you like to do and what you love to do and what you don't want to do, um, that you gotta pay the bills. And so try to figure out what you like to do that might pay the bills. Yeah. So I would I would tell myself to think more a little more about money.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good one. But I do think like when, you know, what I would tell my 17-year-old is probably what I would have told myself. I think I also would have told myself to, you know, really have an open mind. Um, there's more than one way to look at things. I don't know if anybody told me that. I was in a pretty structured frame of mind back then. Same.
Finding Authenticity
SPEAKER_00You live and you learn. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh when do you feel most like yourself? Who you are, what you believe in, what you're doing are aligned.
SPEAKER_00Probably when I'm sitting in the studio, you know, just talking, talking to Bob Woolman. He's one of my sponsors. We had an interview the other day about his 55-year marriage. Like, oh my God. Like, don't you want to learn about that? I mean, that's the thing. I think I mentioned Tom Brokaw about being curious. Like, yeah, I'm just you're fervently curious. So that's when I'm most like myself, probably being in the studio. What about you?
SPEAKER_01I have to be, I'm gonna be super honest here. I have admired so much how many of my guests have answered this question that they're the most themselves around their friends and family. And I honestly feel like for me, even with my friends and family, I feel right now that I'm not sure that you you get the full serenity. I feel like I'm editing myself constantly, a little bit. So my I feel most myself right now. When I'm by myself. Yeah, that's all the facts probably can just live. So probably the journal gets pro The Journal doesn't even get the realest to me. I feel like I got so much going on in here. That um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so that's a really like think you you took that question a little differently than I would. The way that I would take the question if I was really listening to your question and like really digesting it, would probably be like when I'm home with my family, my kiddos, and watching reality TV with Lee. The problem is that the secret is I'm pretty crabby, right? Because I spend so much time. Yeah. And so when I'm decompressing, not only am I an introvert, but I am Lee's like everybody else gets the best of you. When you come home, you're crabby.
SPEAKER_01I've been told that as well. Sorry, Michael. I'm trying I've tried to do better in the last several years, but I've been told that as well. And I don't think, and it shouldn't be true. I was told that as a teenager. My mom told me, she said, I know that you leave this, you gripe at us all through breakfast. I'm not a morning person. And then you get to school and your teachers and peers love you, your shiny sunshine serenity. And we should get that, we should get that you as well. And I love that lesson. I really do. I really do think we should all work for our families to get the best of us. But but no, Jody, you did answer it accurately because what I said is who you are, what you believe, and what you're doing are all aligned. And I think while we might be our most relaxed with, you know, when we're sitting on the couch griping and watching reality TV, what it may not be playing in as much of what we believe. And what you believe has a lot of like service for others and things like that. So I think you answered it great.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. But I also called you menopausal. You didn't hear me say that a while ago, but I think we're probably perimenopausal, and that's why we're a little cranky and all the things.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. It's well, if I can believe my algorithm, that sure is going on right now. Your algorithm is telling you the
Make it short and simple!
SPEAKER_01truth. Yeah, my that's good. Maybe that should be the title of this episode. Your algorithm is telling you the truth. Okay. All right. No, no, that's not true, right? Because of what we talked about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That is not true. You have to curate because it's probably not telling you the truth. Okay. I want to ask you this. Is there anything you wish I had asked you?
SPEAKER_00Um, that's a good question. And you did not prep me for that because we're at the end of the interview and you're done asking questions. Is there anything that I wish you would have asked me? No. You did such a good job. You really did. A journalist just told me that. No, you really did. I mean, what else do you want me to talk about? Huh? Really good journalists.
SPEAKER_01I wanted you to tell me that that I'm doing a good job. Am I gonna do you sometimes I sometimes I I wanna quit a little bit. Like I don't because I love it. Yeah, but I'll get tired. Like the workday, for instance, today tried to kill me. Okay.
SPEAKER_00And so Yeah, let me give you some advice. All right. Are you ready? Here's my advice. These podcasts do not need to be an hour and a half long because nobody's gonna listen to me for an hour and a half. And so here's the deal: you don't have to be putting in an hour and a half of sweaty time sitting in your chair. You can do a 30-minute and cut your questions. I was gonna tell you, you have like 200 questions. All you need is like five or eight. So that's one way for you to do that. Why did I start giving you advice? Did you ask me for it?
SPEAKER_01Because that's why I brought you here today. Because I said, is there anything that you wish I had asked you? And then you said, What else am I gonna talk about? And I said, I want you to give me advice.
SPEAKER_00Advice, advice, advice. So that would be the only thing. You have a full-time job, for God's sakes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sorta. Okay, so this is the section. Um see if you see if you agree with my little pivot here. I've always done a section at the end called It Worked for Me. And what I'm finding is that I might be restricting people too much when I say helps you find more meaning in life, because I truly just want to know something that worked for them, anything in any way. Because the way I would answer that question now is
It Worked for Me
SPEAKER_01do something. Those two words that worked for me. I'm a very in my head, emotional, reflective thinker. And I have always wanted to think my way into my dreams, to wish my way into them, to journal my way into the perfect life. And the thing that works is to actually do something. And so this podcast, like I said, I never decided in my head and in my journal, oh yeah, I got this, but I did it anyway. I just did the actions and I turned on the microphone and I turned on Riverside, and then it was like, okay, I'm doing it. And that worked for me. And so I don't know if the question, what has brought you more meaning, would have led to that answer.
SPEAKER_00So there's the tip is do not ask a loaded two-prong question. Ask a very simple question and let them answer that question how they want. And then if you want to ask that one as a follow-up, the first question that you had is perfect. And I love your answer and congratulations again. 25, a lot of people don't make it this far. You know that. And so, congratulations. Ask Chat GPT tonight to give you some congratulatory messages, and you will feel so good. Just wait. Just wait. I mean, chat, they will give it to you. Um, but my answer is my answer from before. It was knowing exactly what I was meant to do, what I wanted to do, what brought me joy and just doing it. Just do it. It doesn't matter how many naysayers you have. It doesn't matter how much money you have, just go do it.
SPEAKER_01So good. Well, I'm so honored that you came. You were totally the right person for this episode. I'm thrilled to have you. I may want you again. And everyone, go listen to her shows. They're so good. So thank you for being here, Jody.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Serenity. You are a rock star, and I am so proud of you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.