Podcasts about jamie it

Recorded June 15, 2023 We're back LIVE from the InfoComm show floor before the show floor is open with our thoughts on Day 1, trends we're seeing, products of interest, and noting that simply everything is on the network these days.   Alternate show titles: Everybody's big to Jamie It's about switch protection Cool, but unnecessary Using AI as a brand to sell it    

In this podcast, Anna is with Jamie Blanco. Jamie Blanco is an award-winning news producer, actor, and podcast host who spent years realizing her father's dream of completing his book of hope for cancer patients.  Her Father Jimmy Blanco fought the world's deadliest brain cancer without mainstream medicine. Using a holistic mind, body, soul approach he lived eight incredible years when doctors had only given him three months to live.  Today Jamie has completed the book her father began and packed it with current research and powerful interviews with experts in many fields with the goal of bringing hope to the hopeless.    They also talked about:  04:12 How Jamie's father forged his own path for longevity 16:50 The importance of support structure  19:13 The hurdles Jamie encountered while finishing the book  26:41 What does freedom mean to Jamie?   Quotes:   “You have to sort of find your tribe. Positive supporters and people who are going to nourish that and help you, encourage you, but also give you their expertise. And then keep you a lot and keep you going. The support from the right people is important.” -Anna   “It's about giving yourself the power and the permission to get in a more positive space and to surround yourself with better people. And it doesn't even always have to come from people. It's things too.” -Jamie    “The end of our lives is not a fun experience all of the time, and our bodies are made to not be here forever, and that's okay. But it's about finding those tools with coping with that. And seeing them for what they are, instead of letting yourself be pulled down” -Jamie   “No one has the right to tell you to go home and die. You are your own best self-advocate. Miracles are real, even if they are messy sometimes, and it's about fighting for yourself and loving yourself and ultimately finding peace within yourself too. Because I think that this life is meant for learning and loving and it's finite. So let's do the best that we can with it.” -Jamie   “It's a leap, but you've gotta have that courage. You've gotta free yourself from fear because there's so much that can be accomplished when you free yourself from fear.” -Jamie   “Fear stands for forgetting everything and running or facing everything and rising.” -Anna   “Freeing myself from that fear that was limiting me is what I think allows people to connect with each other. Imagine if we weren't afraid of each other; Imagine the connections we would make; Imagine how peaceful the world would be if we didn't just live dictated by fear.” -Jamie   Check out Jamie Blanco's social media accounts:  https://www.hopeforthehopelessbook.com/  https://www.facebook.com/hopeforthehopelessbook  https://www.instagram.com/hopeforthehopelessbook/    Check out Jamie Blanco's book: https://linktr.ee/hopeforthehopelessbook  www.hopeforthehopelessbook.com  www.hopeforthehopelessbook.com/resources    Join Jamie's virtual book signing on January 27th, 12pm (EST) on Instagram LIVE.   Do you want to be a speaker/guest on my podcast? Book a call here: https://calendly.com/annadavidson/interview ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GET THIS FREE EBOOK: Manifesting with Visualisation: http://bit.ly/3q46nDr 5 Steps To Make More Money From Home by Selling Professionally On Amazon: https://bit.ly/3A6uCq1   Check these out:  Amazon Profits Accelerator (Free 3-Day Webinar): https://bit.ly/34e9cJh Amazon 101 Academy: https://bit.ly/3gvJO6l Amazon 101 Academy-Self Study: https://bit.ly/3n53DUS Make Sh*t Happen Membership: https://bit.ly/37MtCdg   Join Tribe My Facebook Group Your Freedom Project https://www.facebook.com/groups/YourFreedomProject2020/    Visit My Website Here: https://theannadavidson.com/   You can also reach Anna on her socials: Instagram - @theannadavidson Facebook - Anna Davidson YouTube - @theannadavidson

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Jamie Kuttenkuler, an Eating Disorder Recovery Coach. Get to know Jamie: It is such an incredible honor to be serving as a recovered eating disorder recovery coach. While I was in my own recovery journey, I started to feel called to give back to others struggling with disordered eating. Yoga, breathwork, and other mindfulness practices were key to my full recovery, so I decided to start there. I quit my corporate job in IT to teach yoga and practice Reiki energy healing full time. This felt great for several years, but something was still missing. So, I accepted a job to work as a Psychology Technician and Holistic Healer at a residential eating disorder treatment facility. I loved the work but still felt that I had more to offer, so I enrolled in Carolyn Costin's Eating Disorder Coaching program. This training program closed the gaps in my knowledge and gave me the confidence to start coaching on my own. Today, my clients appreciate how I integrate my recovery experiences, mindfulness training, and coaching services to offer holistic, well-rounded support. When I'm not working with clients, you can find me practicing yoga, enjoying one of the many ocean-related activities that Maui offers, or snuggling with my mini-Schnauzer Madchen (0:22) Jamie's story (07:50) Discovering strength and purpose through struggle (09:42) Support and resources for recovery (12:28) The importance of feeling safe (13:28) Experiences and mindset that led to eating disorder behaviors (14:49) Recognizing and changing subconscious thoughts and internal dialogue (18:20) Tools for mindset and behavior change (20:23) Mindfulness: what it is and how to apply it (23:15) How to be more proficient at mindfulness (26:10) Overcoming perfectionism and the benefits of failure (28:40) Mind-body connection (32:15) What would you say to your younger self? (36:40) Importance of community and finding someone you relate to (38:38) Where to start (40:30) How to connect with Jamie Connect with Jamie: www.jamiekuttenkuleryoga.com Instagram: @jamie_eating_disorder_coach and @jamiekuttenkuleryoga --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rewiringhealth/support

Jamie Grayson is the first male guest to be featured on Dear FoundHer, and it's easy to see why the exception was made for him! Jamie is exceptional. Shortly after starting as a product demonstrator and personal shopper in New York City's buybuyBaby store, customers began emailing the store to ask for him by name. In March, 2010, New York Magazine named him the city's best baby-gear expert, and soon he was doing 50 engagements a year as one of the most well-respected experts in the baby gear and child safety space. Jamie spent every spare moment researching his products and newfound industry because he believed his customers, and later his audience, deserved the most honest and helpful information to make their decisions. Thanks to this “human first” philosophy, Jamie's millions of followers remain just as devoted to him, even as his brand continues to evolve. He's shed his “BabyGuy” moniker, yet he remains as passionately dedicated as ever to helping parents make decisions about the best gear for their children with his reviews and events. As his social media platforms expand to include activism, business advice, pop culture, and theater, his approach remains the same: a business is essentially a community of friends. On this episode of Dear FoundHer, hear Jamie discuss the dangers of having a business plan, the pros and cons of social media, and how no one really knows what they're doing. Quotes • “I was the only man working with all of these doulas and taking childbirth classes. I really loved being around all this really cool, strong female energy.” 9:12-9:26 | Jamie) • “I realized that with support, education and just a little bit of empathy as a human, you can make a drastic difference.”(19:56-20:05 | Jamie) • “Knowing your worth and what to charge is one of the hardest things about this whole space. (22:54-23:00 | Jamie) • “It is impossible to do everything by yourself.” (32:16-32:19 | Jamie) • “That's in our mission statement on my site: Human being first, business second.” (35:47-35:50 | Jamie) • “This influencer culture we live in, I don't love. When people call me an influencer, I hate it.”(48:25-48:31 | Jamie) Connect with Jamie Grayson: Instagram | http://www.instagram.com/thejamiegrayson TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@thejamiegrayson Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Dear FoundHer on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! You can now work with Lindsay 1:1 to build the community for your personal brand or company through the same method she used to grow and scale her business. Fill out the form here and set up a FREE 30-minute consultation. You can also: • Take Lindsay's FREE 7-Day Social Media Challenge • 5 Tips and Tools to Set Up Your Business • Follow Lindsay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaypinchuk Use code FoundHer for 50% off your first month with both HiveCast and Fireside Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Three days with VO industry experts + networking with peers? Sign us up! Anne gets the inside scoop on what's in store for eVOcation 2022 with co-founders Jamie Muffett and Carin Gilfry. The three chat industry advice for newcomers + seasoned voice artists, what to expect at the conference, paying it forward, and how important it is to make education a lifelong journey! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am so excited to be here with amazing talents and founders of the popular eVOcation Conference, which is devoted to the business of voiceover, Jamie Muffett and Carin Gilfry. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. Carin: Thanks for having us. We're so excited to be here. Jamie: Yeah. Thanks, Anne. Anne: I am so excited to talk to you guys about all things, eVOcation, business voiceover, because I think you guys are such an amazing team. Like you've been together for a number of years, I'm gonna say at least that I've known about -- Carin: Yeah. Anne: -- doing wonderful things for the voiceover community and supporting communities on Facebook with a wonderful conference that you're now having once or twice a year, I'm not sure. Um, we'll talk about that. . Carin: We're not really sure either, because I feel like as soon as we started this conference, then we had a global pandemic, and -- Anne: Yeah, right? Oh my gosh. Carin: So now we're like, so what, what are we doing? Jamie: Yeah. Anne: Well, so before we get to talking about eVOcation, I'd like my BOSS listeners to find out a little bit about you guys. So if you guys wouldn't mind introducing yourselves tell the BOSSes a little bit about how you got into voiceover and then ultimately how you two met and started creating these wonderful community resources. Jamie. Jamie: Carin, do you want to go -- oh. Jamie: Too polite. Carin: We're, we're just so polite. Anne: You guys are so polite to each other. That's why I let you do that. . Jamie: All right. Well, I'm gonna take the lead . I started voiceover in 2009 in the UK and knowing that I was gonna move to the US. So I sort of had this plan that was gonna sort of be a job that I could start in the UK and then try transition over. Um, only really had confidence in it because I had sort of recording knowledge. I was in the sort of studio world in the music industry. And so I knew how to record my voice. And I knew I was going to America where apparently they like English guy voices. So that's, that's all I had really coming in . I started in the UK and then we moved over ,and then I sort of continued on and gradually moved away from music into voiceover. That sort of happened actually fairly quickly. Yeah, I do a whole different array of genres of voiceover, anything that requires British guy really that I'll throw my hat in the ring. And yeah, we connected, when was that? Probably, I don't know, like 2018? Carin: 2017 maybe. Jamie: Oh, maybe earlier. Oh, right. Yeah. Maybe 2017. Carin: 'Cause I feel like it was around when Mahalia was born, my daughter, and she was born in 2017. Jamie: Yeah. And it was actually -- Carin: Sometime around there. Jamie: -- Tim Friedlander I think that introduced us, I think. Carin: I think so. Jamie: Because Tim shot me a message and was like, oh, you know, there's this lady in New York who's got this huge Facebook group for New York voice actors? I was like, no . And so we connected that way and yeah, we just sort of got on well. And I've obviously got my podcast VO School, and she had her community, and we were talking and we was like, there's nothing really in New York aside from Carin's regular classes and things like that. There was nothing big in New York, which seemed crazy . So that was sort of the sort of burgeoning discussion that eventually resulted in VOcation. Anne: A-ha. Carin? Carin: I was a theater kid. My dad's an opera singer. My parents are both performers, and really in my family, there are two options. You either become a teacher or a performer. And a teacher is really a kind of performer anyway . Anne: True. Carin: And so I ended up going to school for opera. And then after being in the opera industry for a while, I, it just, it was so stressful. It's like being an opera singer is like being like an Olympic gymnast or something, or like a professional ballet dancer where you just have to be on top of your game all the time. And if you are even a little bit below what is considered absolute pro, then you're just like, you don't exist. So it was so stressful. And I had a friend who was narrating audio books, I thought, oh, that would be a great thing to do. I can use my voice. I can use my acting abilities. And so I got into voiceover that way. What I didn't know, and this is part of the reason why we founded VOcation also is like all the other skills that you have to know in order to be a successful voice talent. You have to learn how to record yourself and edit yourself and negotiate your own contract. And you have to learn how to direct market and set up a website and make sure that your online casting profiles are set up in a way that meets all the algorithmic things that you need to meet on those sites. There's just so much, and I love every single part of it. The more I found that I could take the reins of my own career, the happier I was. Because in so many parts of the performance industry, the entertainment industry, if you're a performer, you're kind of like waiting for gatekeepers to open doors for you. And in voiceover, yeah. I find that it's not that way. You can really build your own career the way that you wanna do it, and you don't have to wait for an agent or a manager or for winning a competition. You don't have to wait for any of those things. You just kind of jump in and go. Anne: Amen. . Carin: Yeah. And it's, and it's awesome. Anne: That's one of the parts that I love about it as well. It's so refreshing to meet with a couple of people who probably love the business aspect of voiceover, as much as the creative and performance -- Carin: I love it so much. Anne: -- aspect. And I love how you said it just, it becomes, it's your own. This is something that you can direct your own business. And it's one of the reasons why I kind of diverged into three different brands myself, because I wanted to follow each passion and have that as part of my business. And I think that, honestly, there's so many people that, it's so necessary, the business aspect of it, because I'm always saying that you can have the greatest voice in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if nobody knows about it. And so -- Carin: Exactly. Anne: -- there's gotta be that aspect that you are being able to market yourself and create the business that you want in order to be successful in, hey, I gotta help pay the bills. That's for sure. Carin: Yeah. Anne: So. Carin: The other thing that, what I love about voiceover is that there are so many ways to make a career. And like, I know that you, Anne, and I have totally different approaches to how we find work. Like, you are amazing at direct marketing. And you're great at marketing yourself and branding yourself. And you just said, you have three different brands. And I don't do any of that. I started on online casting sites. And I just love to audition. And I audition all day long. And I think both approaches are valid and both approaches can result in similar outcomes. And you know, now I work with agents and managers too, and I love that part of it too. But I think Christian Lance who's, if you don't know Christian Lance, he's like -- Anne: I do. Carin: He's, yeah, he's a great voice talent. He said voice actors are kind of like drivers where like, if you say you're a driver, are you a race car driver, or are you an Uber driver or are you a truck driver or are you like, what kind of driver are you? It's the same with voiceover. There are just so many different ways to be a voice actor. Anne: Yeah. Carin: And that's why at VOcation, we bring a lot, lot of different people in to give you a lot of different approaches to doing the business of voiceover. And you take what works for you and you can toss out what doesn't work for you. So I like that. Anne: I do too. I love it. Jamie, your thoughts? Jamie: I agree. Anne: One of those things that's so funny because at conferences, when you're given choices about what classes to take, there are always the performance classes and then there are like the business classes. I've noticed year after year, people are always going for those performance classes, yet what they really need is the business aspect to it. So I can completely appreciate and love the whole concept of a conference just about the business of voiceover. And you guys have really did something successful. So talk to us a little bit about the evolution of the conference and how you guys came to be, and, and that first year, what was it like? Jamie: Well, we didn't want to just put on another conference that already existed, because what's the point in that? You know, I know things are a little different now post-COVID or well, we're in COVID still, but at the time there were a whole bunch of conferences that, although in different locations, which is most important for a lot of people in terms of access. The offering was kind of similar, you know? I mean, you'd go to one conference and the similar kind of speakers. So we wanted to do something a bit different. And like you said, a lot of conferences, people are so drawn to the performance type classes and panels and things like that. The -- they're like the sort of fast food . Anne: Yeah, right? The candy. Jamie: Yeah. The candy. Anne: Yeah, the candy. Jamie: And we are like, we're like the broccoli. Anne: Yes, exactly. Oh my God. Carin: We're totally the broccoli. Anne: yeah. I love it. Jamie: But if you go to a conference and or you go to a restaurant and it's like a salad bar, like you're gonna indulge in the salad like that you're not even gonna worry about all the other stuff. So that's, that's what we are. We're the salad bar. Anne: The salad bar. Jamie: Yeah. Anne: But I love broccoli. I'm just saying. Jamie: Yeah, I do too actually, Anne: See, there we go. Jamie: I dunno why people hate it. Carin: Delicious. Anne: There we go. So we love broccoli. So therefore we love the whole -- Jamie: Yeah, that's the big takeaway from this. Anne: There you go. We love broccoli . Jamie: So yeah. We're broccoli. Anne: Jamie: Shall I expand on that? Anne: Yes. Expand on what was the first year like, and did you have it, I think you had an in-person conference, right? The first year? Jamie: Yes. We did Symphony Space on the upper west side in New York. You know, the other thing we wanted to do is we wanted to hold it in the city. Like not in an airport like 10 miles outside of town. And that, you know, brings its own challenges. You know, you're having to bring stuff in and shepherd people around, put them where they need to go. Carin: And it's a lot more expensive. Anne: Oh, I was just gonna say, I can't imagine the cost of having it in the city. Carin: Yeah. Renting space in New York is a whole thing. It's and actually Symphony Space is wonderful because they cater to a lot of nonprofits and I mean, we're, we're not a nonprofit, but they cater to a lot of like, you know, smaller groups, and renting a theater was much better for us than renting an event space. Event spaces are just crazy in New York. Yeah. We love Symphony Space. Jamie: Yeah. And we were sort of feeling it out as we went really. It was our first big event that we put on. And, um, for both of us, we, neither of us had been to a voiceover conference before. We'd been to conferences, but not voiceover. So we didn't really have something to compare it to, but it was such a fulfilling weekend. And, you know, we think based on the feedback, everyone had a at time. So yeah, it was, it was really good. We had a whole array of business classes and panels that some were very genre based. Some were, you know, marketing, some were more businessy like tax and stuff like that, and negotiation and things like that. So there's still a huge amount of scope even within this sort of limited niche conference spare to explore lots of different avenues. Like you said, there's just so much, there's so much to it. So every year, maybe not thematically, but we'll dive into different aspects. And, you know, because like Carin said, there is no definitive one path through this industry. So you really have to sort of present, uh, many of the options as possible to people. And then they draw out what is appropriate to them and what sort of fits in their career. Anne: What I love about that is because there is no one clear path or right path to get into it, your conference is offering all of the options, and people that are just kind of finding their way in this industry, I think that's such an important resource for them to understand. Number one, as you both are saying, there's more than one path into success in voiceover, and having a resource that allows people to see all the different options, I think, is truly a wonderful thing. And I wish, you know, when I had gotten into voiceover back in the day, and I'm like, I'm old, there wasn't -- Carin: You're not that old. Anne: Well, probably older than I'd like to admit these days, but it's one of those things where there wasn't groups, there wasn't online groups. There were physical groups, but when you were just getting into voiceover, it was hard to find them. And so this has kind of evolved over the years. And I just love the fact that you guys have provided a resource solely dedicated to business, 'cause I'm a business geek. I'm fully so very excited that you guys are gonna be continuing this and, and this year, even you're having a, a virtual conference and I think an in-person conference, is that correct? Carin: We are. Anne: Cool. Carin: Finally after three years, we're now gonna do a VOcation in person again in New York at Symphony Space in September -- Anne: Nice. Carin: -- of 2022. And our virtual conference eVOcation is gonna be in June. And we're so excited that you're joining us, Anne. Anne: Yes. Thank you. I'm honored and very excited to take part in this for the first year for the virtual conference. I'm excited. Now, Carin, you moved from New York -- Carin: I did. Anne: -- to my neck of the woods, and I, and I'm originally from New York state myself and New Jersey. So now that you are in California, do you miss New York? Do you miss your peeps in New York? . Carin: I miss it so much. Oh my gosh. We left at the very beginning of the pandemic. Anne: Yeah. Carin: It was so crazy in New York at the very start. Anne: Yes, oh, I know. Carin: You know, we have two little kids and being in our little 800 square foot apartment with one bathroom and a potty training toddler and a baby and no backyard was like just impossible . So we bought a house sight unseen and moved to Southern California, and this sounds really dumb. And I feel like maybe this is a bit of hyperbole, but it, I felt almost like, like a refugee. Like we left without saying goodbye to anyone. Anne: Yeah, right. Carin: Because we couldn't see anyone, and we just kind of bought a house and packed up our stuff and left within a few weeks, and we were not planning on it. And so for the first like year that were here in California, I love it. My family's close by, the weather's beautiful. The kids absolutely love it. But if I would see a picture of the New York skyline -- Anne: Oh I know . Carin: -- I just would burst into tears. Anne: Yeah. Carin: I just, I miss it so much. And what I miss about it most is the community of people that we built there. Anne: Yeah. Carin: Because voice actors of NYC, we were doing two or three in-person events a month with like 50 to 100 people every event. And they were almost all donation based. So, you know, a teacher would come, and people would just pay what they could. And then the teacher would take the whole donation amount except for the space rental. And you know, we got to know each other, like we would eat each other's cooking when we had a potluck, and we knew each other's family, and we met each other's spouses. And it was just such a beautiful, wonderful community. And I'm so excited to do VOcation in New York and to see my New York family again, 'cause I just, I miss them all so much. Anne: I definitely miss New York. There's something about New York that I don't know. I love California. Don't get me wrong. And I'm probably not gonna move back to New York or New Jersey, but I have family back there. So there's really just something magical about it. And I love how you had a community. It reminds me of, you know, one of the reasons when I moved out west, I started the VO Peeps because I wanted a community because I didn't know people, and I wanted to meet people and just start a community out here. So I get that community. I think that's something so important when you are first starting out in this business. It's important to have a sense of community because people helping people in like minded industry, I think it's wonderful that you have a, a group, and that group is also online. And I can really see the sense of family there. You guys take such good care. I'm in a lot of groups, and you guys really take care of your members. And I really admire that about both of you. And you're both really giving people. I noticed that this year there's like a trillion scholarships for the conference. I mean, talk to us a little bit about your scholarships for the conference. Jamie: Well, yeah, it started originally at the very first event when Joe from Voice Actor Websites gave up his speaker fee to a ticket for the following year for someone, and he said, oh, just donate it to someone next year. I don't -- you don't need to pay me, which I thought was really a sweet thing. And then we mentioned that, and then quite organically people started offering, well, I'll pay for a ticket for someone. And then someone else saw that they did that. Then it just sort of snowballed. And then last year I think we had 15 scholarships that we gave out. And then this year we've had 27. Anne: That's amazing. Jamie: So 27 people, yeah, are getting to go to the conference that maybe they probably otherwise wouldn't have gotten to go to. So, you know. Anne: So then let me ask you, because I've also offered scholarships through VO Peeps, and that's not a small thing. There's a lot of work. I mean, I love to be a provider of scholarships if I can, but there's also some work. And I think you guys, in order to just even offer the scholarships, what is the criteria for the scholarship? And then you have to judge, and that's always tough. Carin: So we had 87 people apply for scholarships this year, and Jamie and I read through every single application. And it's just an online form. And you talk a little bit about your journey and voiceover, why you think you would be a good candidate for the scholarship, how you plan to give back to the community, if you get the scholarship, and then anything else we should know. And I have to say it was such a tough decision, and we awarded scholarships based on so many different things. People who had real financial need and seemed like real go-geters. People who've had like a really bad couple of years. People who just filled out their application so well and seemed like just amazing candidates who are just gonna take the next step into voiceover and have great success. It was just a real mix of all of those things. And we came up with 27 people that we agreed on took a little while, but. Jamie: Yeah, we had a whole process that we had to go through to get to that point. Anne: I had a score sheet. And I love that you based it on financial need. And I, I really am a big proponent of offering scholarships to help people that really need it. And even if, like you said, if they've had a couple of tough years and judging that those entries are so difficult. I actually would have a different judging panel every year, which I never disclosed, but it became work for people. And I'm so grateful for the people that helped in the judging of that all because it is a lot of work. And, and I thought for myself, for me to just judge, it was tough without having someone else have a -- Carin: Yeah. Anne: -- another objective view. So I would always get a team of people who would volunteer their time to judge. And so I love, love, love that you guys are doing scholarships and just, it warms my heart, it really does because I haven't had, uh, VO Peeps scholarship in, in the last year because I've kind of gotten on board with some other scholarships. And so I still once a year, try to give out scholarships for VO Peeps, for people that have a financial need. So kudos to you for that. So let's talk about your lineup this year. Who do you got coming? Yeah. And what sort of topics are you gonna be talking about? Carin: Well, we have a lot of great people. Maria Pendolino of course is a rockstar. She's coming back. Anne: She is. Carin: Anne: Total rockstar. Carin: She's gonna give a talk called Non-broadcast Genre is the Foundation of Your House. Anne: oh, nice. Carin: Which is great. Anne: Love it. Love it. Jamie: I feel that's up your street, Anne . Carin: Yeah. I'm gonna be, uh, interviewing Mark Guss about the agent client relationship. Mark Guss of course is a manager at ACM talent, but he's been an, an agent as well. Amazing guy. We have a panel on all of the freelancer websites, including Fiverr and Upwork and -- Anne: Okay. Carin: -- what they mean for our industry. And is there a way to use them ethically? Anne: Sure. Love it. Carin: We have a -- yeah. We have a working pros panel. What else do we have, Jamie? Jamie: I think you should have prepped people that you were gonna say the Fiver word, 'cause if someone's driving while they're listening to this, they'll probably just crash their car. Carin: Yeah, that panel is called We Don't Talk About Fiverr, No, No. Anne: But we do, but we should. Jamie: We should. Anne: I think we should. Carin: We don't talk about Fiverr. Anne: I'm kinda on board with that. I think there's too many people that aren't talking about it. Carin: Yeah. Anne: And there's too many people that don't talk about other things like synthetic voices. And I think that that's important. Carin: Yeah. Anne: Because how do we prepare ourselves for that -- Carin: Exactly. Anne: -- influence in our industry? So, I mean, you can't ignore Fiverr. It's there. Jamie: Yeah. Anne: And other assorted, you know, maybe freelance communities that are maybe not desirable in some people's eyes. I think like you said, Carin, there's multiple paths. Carin: Exactly. Anne: And I am not here to judge. To be honest. I mean, we run our own businesses. I think that there's principles that we should all maybe try to strive for and knowing your worth, which is I think at the top of the list, I think that that's definitely something that you have to understand, but then we all run our own businesses. Carin: I think so much of knowing your worth just comes from an education. Anne: Yeah. Agreed. Carin: When I started, I didn't even know that there were agents that were sending people out for auditions. Like, I didn't know there was a union that I was supposed to join. I didn't know anything. All I knew is that I did a Google search and I found these online casting sites, and they were offering $100 for only a 30-second commercial? That's like, so little time. Right? I just had no idea Anne: I get it. Carin: I had no idea what the rates were. Anne: So totally get that. Carin: Yeah. And that's how people start. They go on Fiverr because that's like the thing to do if you're a freelancer, and they don't know about the GVAA rate guide. Anne: Right. Carin: They don't know that you're supposed to be getting higher rates. And I think when you know, then you charge more. Anne: Yeah. Carin: So I think is a huge part of it. Anne: Yeah. Carin: And we can't fault people for not knowing what the industry standards are. The only thing we can do is educate, you know, lovingly guide them to charge more if they can. Anne: I agree. I got on the pay-to-plays back when they were first starting and they worked for me. But before the pay-to-plays, there was freelancer.com. And I don't even know if it was called that, but that was, if you wanna talk about people who underbid in order to get a job, the earliest freelancer was people would go post their jobs, and the person that bid the lowest won. And I was on that. I'm not saying that could be considered the Fiverr of today maybe. Carin: Yeah. Anne: But I didn't know. Carin: Right, exactly. Anne: And again, it was, I didn't have the education. There weren't the online communities like there were, and I found out and I learned thankfully, you know, that I was worth and I was worthy of charging a fair rate. And ultimately I evolved into the mindset, know your worth. And I think as influencers with the podcast that we are putting out there as a resource, with the conferences, eVOcation, I think that it's wonderful that we are putting out resources to educate people about knowing their worth. And that's all we can do really . Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's only part is part of the offering as well. So you may hear discussions about Fiverr and Freelancer and what have you. And, and then you learn about some of the other avenues, direct marketing. And then you determine where your journey, where your path lies. That's sort of the, the beauty of this, this industry. And you know, with some of the online discussions, particularly not to make this all about Fiverr, but with some of the online discussions, you, you even mention that, and you're immediately pounced upon, you know? Anne: Oh, I know. Jamie: There is no discussion -- Anne: Yeah, yeah. Jamie: -- why it's bad, et cetera. But the other thing is that for me, I think if you've been in the industry for five plus years, you don't know what it's like to start in 2022. The landscape is different now to how it was five plus years ago. So we really should have those discussions to educate us who are more established as to what the lay of the land is in a sort of earlier phase. So yeah, we got a whole bunch of stuff. We got casting panels, rates and usage. Anne: Wow. Jamie: You're teaching the email marketing class, and social media, we've got Natalie. Carin: Yeah. Natalie Natus. She's so great. Jamie: Yeah. Carin: She's an audiobook narrator who has like just kind of exploded on TikTok and -- Anne: Fantastic. Carin: -- very funny and wonderful. So she's talking about social media, all good stuff. Jamie: And we've got Voice Actor Websites' crew talking all about how to optimize your website and separately, how to work your SEO because they're two sides of the same coin, but you can't have one without the other, if you really wanna, you know, your website to work. So yeah. There's other stuff too, but we won't go through everything. . Anne: Well, it sounds like a fantastic lineup. And what are those dates? Jamie: eVOcation is June 10th, 11th and 12th. Carin: Yes. Anne: Got it. Jamie: Three days. Anne: Your in-person one, you're kind of scoping out for the fall, is that correct? Carin: We have the dates actually, September 10th and 11th. Anne: Fantastic. Carin: In New York city. And I'm pretty sure tickets are gonna go on sale in July for that one. So keep an eye out, and we actually have another kind of secret thing that we'll announce at the conference as well about something coming up in 2023. Anne: Awesome. Jamie: Yeah. Carin: We won't tell you here, but it's a fun secret. Jamie: It's just a tease. Carin: This is just a tease. Anne: I love secret things. Carin: Yes. Anne: All right. Jamie: Tease from the broccoli. Anne: I'm so excited BOSSes. Really, this is a conference I think everybody should go to this conference. Everybody in voiceover should go to this conference. Jamie: I agree. Anne: It's just, yeah. Such a wonderful resource for the community. Thank you, guys, so much for doing this, for your generosity. You guys are just amazing for being such a support in the community. I really appreciate that. I see it all the time. You guys are just so wonderfully supportive and that is a wonderful thing. So my last question would be, if you guys had one tip to give to the BOSSes about being successful in their voiceover career, what would that be? Carin: I would say my best tip is find the thing that works well for you and works well for your brain and lean in to that. So if you find that you absolutely love direct marketing, lean into that and do it to the best of your ability. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, of course, but really, really put focus and attention and love into that. If you find that you love auditioning, put your focus and attention and love into that and find the thing that makes you love voiceover and makes you love going to work every day and lean into that thing. And that will help you to love your job and be successful. Anne: Awesome. Jamie: Yeah. And I've been thinking a lot lately, well, the last of year or so about how I interpret specs, and I've sort tried to change my approach to it. Rather than trying to twist myself into a pretzel to be the person that I think they want me to be, I use them as just ingredients into the soup of my brain that is trying to interpret what this project is. And then I give them my natural, authentic interpretation of that and the most real thing that I can offer, rather than getting too hung up the adjectives and the references and things like that. So I know that's not to do with business, but it's just something I've been thinking about a lot lately. And I saw an immediate uptick in bookings as a result of changing that mindset. Anne: Awesome. That's awesome. No, I think that's amazing. Thank you, guys. If anybody wants to get in touch, if the BOSSes wanna get in touch with you, how can they get in touch with you guys individually? And also what again is that URL for the conference, should they want to buy tickets? Carin: Yes. If you want to buy tickets for the conference, you can go to VOcationconference.com, and I am @CarinGilfry at -- on all the socials. Jamie: And I am Jamie Muffett on Instagram and all that jazz. And you can find my website, JamieMuffettVO.com. Anne: Thank you so much. And again guys, eVOcation tickets are on sale. Go get them, very important, BOSSes. I'd like to give a great big shout-out to our sponsor. ipDTL. You too can connect and network like BOSSes like we are today. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye. Carin: Bye. Thank you. Jamie: Thank you. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

We all have limitless potential. We were born blank slates, ready to have all sorts of new experiences and create our lives. But as we go on our individual journeys, we find that our thoughts, beliefs and programming can limit us. Society, well-meaning friends, rivals — all manner of things create limiting beliefs that hold us back from being what we could become. Thus, the first step toward reaching your highest potential is to break down these barriers and focus your mind on the limitless.  In the first episode of The Limitless Podcast, we lay down the three types of limits that hinder your potential. We share examples of how they manifest and what you can do to break free from them. We also introduce the goal and the idea behind the podcast — to create limitless beliefs in our listeners and help you create the life and business of your dreams. Through this episode, you'll learn that you have the power to define yourself and your endless potential. If you want to learn how to break free from limiting narratives and ditch the hustle, this episode is for you! Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode: Learn the three types of limits that prevent you from reaching your highest potential. Find out how you can break free from the limits that have gotten stuck in your mind and are standing in the way of your thriving.  Discover how you can turn your mindset towards the limitless.  Resources Book a Sprint or become a Sprint Member at Content Planning Sprints! Sign up for Jamie's 3 Steps to 30 Days of Content FREE MINI-COURSE today!  Connect with Jamie on Instagram, @jamieratermann, and Twitter, @jamieratermann Connect with Jamie on Linkedin: Jamie Ratermann Episode Highlights [01:55] Starting The Limitless Podcast Jamie is a holistic business coach who helps clients reach their milestones through brand building and social media marketing. It's nearly impossible to reach tangible outcomes without uncovering the intangible block of limiting beliefs. We all have unlimited potential, but getting there may require some hardship. It's challenging to work through self-imposed limits and limits imposed by others. The idea behind the podcast is to help replace limiting beliefs with limitless beliefs. [03:41] #1: Societal Limits These are the limits that tell us how women and men should behave. Society says that women must be humble and put others first, while male strength is being an emotionless provider. Some things people found to be virtues in the past do not apply today. We consciously or unconsciously subscribe to stereotypes that don't feel good to us. We get to change these limits in our current world. [05:09] Stereotypes on Selling Many female clients find trouble with selling.  There's a preconceived notion that men are the best at closing sales because sales are supposed to be manipulative. Manipulativeness isn't necessarily masculine, and selling can be “feminine.” Sales can be about relationships and community instead. [06:36] How to Break Free from Societal Limits It can be hard to break free from societal limits because society imprinted them on us. To work through these limits, we must understand that we define ourselves — no one else. We have the power to redefine the rules and standards society has set in the past. We get to be the new example and definition of what it means to be a powerful woman. [07:52] #2: Relationship Limits These are the limits imposed by the people surrounding you. The biggest influences on you are the five closest people to you. The creations and people we have around us create what we want for the future. It becomes easy to stay where you are and not take risks because of the status quo. [09:49] When People Set a Limit Against You Tune in to the full episode to hear Jamie's experience of getting no support in pursuing her younger self's dream! When people cast doubt on what your dreams are, it means they would never do it themselves. Jamie: "When someone close to you sets a limit against you, it's not that they think you can't do it — it's simply that they would never do it. So they would never do it; they don't want someone who's close to them to do it." They may think they're preventing you from suffering. Alternatively, they might feel more comfortable if you stay the same. [12:10] How to Counteract Relationship-Imposed Limits Awareness and kindness can counteract this limit. You're capable of whatever you set your mind to. You will get strengthened by finding a community that will support you. It's normal for friction to develop with your relationships when trying to do something new. You can be the new example for the people who told you not to take a risk. A strong belief in yourself is a must before you share the change you want to make with other people. [14:56] #3: Self-Imposed Limits These are limits we don't realize subconsciously or put on ourselves.   It's the most difficult to overcome because we tend to go back to what's comfortable. The surprising reality: all limits are self-imposed. Jamie: "All limits are self-imposed. We get to decide how much weight relationships and societal limits have an effect on us." [16:06] Overcome Self-Imposed Limits; Create Limitless Beliefs The podcast is about overcoming self-imposed limits, flipping them, and making them limitless. A growth mindset, strategy, physical and mental health, growth, and love allow us to break free from self-imposed limits. The true act of being limitless for Jamie is creating the podcast. It took her more than five years to finally do it because of the limiting narrative she told herself. We don't need to reach a predetermined version of ourselves before allowing ourselves to follow our heart's desires. The notion of “being ready” is undefinable. Jamie: “It's the fallacy of being accomplished that prevents us from accomplishing all that we've ever wanted.” [20:17] Content Planning Sprints Jamie leads workshops in the Content Planning Sprints. The program contains content strategy and involves community building. It is a two-and-a-half-hour workshop that can help you create content worthy of sharing. Content Planning Sprints are typically on Wednesdays at 10 am or 2 pm EST. Enjoyed this Podcast on Creating Limitless Belief in Ourselves? If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and help us spread the word by sharing it! Leave a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning in to this podcast, we'd appreciate it if you wrote us a review. You can also share it to help others break free from their limits, expand, and share their voice. Have any questions or want to leave a suggestion? Don't hesitate to send me a DM on Instagram or contact me on my website. Also, you can connect with me on Twitter, @jamieratermann, and Linkedin: Jamie Ratermann. Thanks for listening! Stay tuned on my website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.

Building a meaningful business while living your best life and traveling the world is not easy. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin tells the story of social entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamie Bianchini, who biked through over 80 countries around the world for eight years with a friend calling themselves the ‘Peace Pedalers.' Jamie's motto “Live big, give big” has had an enormous impact in communities from Asia to Latin America where he's helped build schools, start transportation projects and bring clean water to areas in need. Listen now and learn how this adventurer's entrepreneurial spirit found its spark in his love for humanity. Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life.  JUMP STRAIGHT INTO: (01:20) - Jamie's story and the ups & downs of entrepreneurial life - “You can build a business around the lifestyle that you want to have. That's what I aspired to do, and that's still what I do to this day.” (05:44) - Traveling the world while trying to build a business - “I worked at a youth hostel in Switzerland that I modeled my business plan after which won Best Business Plan at USC.” (08:27) - Working to make Peace Pedalers a reality - “It was taking the tandem bicycle with an empty seat on the back of it and inviting total strangers to come on. That gesture of friendship and connection is the essence of Peace Pedalers.” (14:59) - Jamie's life-changing realization of wanting to help people - “Magical things happen when we don't just focus on ourselves, but we try to infuse some level of intention, contribution, and purpose in our lives above and beyond just achieving.” (18:53) - Getting the drive to keep going - “I pulled a two-peso note from my wallet, and somebody had written on the bill by hand a message in Spanish, ‘If love is your biggest weakness, you are the strongest person in the world.'” (22:18) - What's next for Jamie - “It's everybody's responsibility to pick our head up and see what we can do to help someone who's part of the human family who might not be as fortunate as us.” (24:50) - On Profit & Purpose: Jamie's new project in the social venture arena - “We help anybody who's purpose-driven or wants to be purpose-driven and make it easier for them to become even more impactful in their communities.” EPISODE RESOURCES: Connect with Jamie on https://twitter.com/JamieRBianchini (Twitter) and at https://jamiebianchini.com/ (Jamiebianchini.com) Learn more about Jamie's latest organization https://profitpurpose.org/ (Profit & Purpose) Watch Jamie's Tedx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqnME0OQQ7A (Live Big, Give Big: Infinite possibilities powered by compassion) See Jamie's https://www.peacepedalers.com/route.html (original route for Peace Pedalers)  Read Jamie's book: https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Built-Two-Billion-Compassion/dp/0996137203/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=a+bicycle+built+for+2&qid=1617900852&sr=8-8 (A Bicycle Built for Two Billion)  Thank you for listening! Follow https://www.beforeithappened.com/ (Before IT Happened) on https://www.instagram.com/beforeithappenedshow/ (Instagram) and https://twitter.com/TheBIHShow (Twitter), and don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts!  Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and https://www.studiopodsf.com/ (StudioPod Media) with additional editing and sound design by https://nodalab.com/ (Nodalab). The Executive Producer is Katie Sunku Wood and all episodes are written by Jack Buehrer.

Jamie Michelson is President and CEO of SMZ Advertising, a Detroit-based agency that started in 1929, producing and distributing jeweler artwork ad kits. These ad packages, delivered as a monthly subscription service, provided graphics to promote and showcase jewelry and were used in catalogs and newspaper advertisements.  Early advertising, Jamie says, “was much more informational” than today. As advertising evolved, information had to be packaged with some entertainment and hooks to get people's attention. The agency adapted and grew through that transitional period. Today, at 92 years old, the still independent, family-owned full-service agency focuses on communications, planning and strategy, research, design, advertising heavily, retail, events, mobile, social, and “moving our clients' businesses forward.” Jamie says, “All that history doesn't mean we know everything. It teaches you to question everything.” He then describes his agency as “a team of around 40 people” . . . with “new ideas, new media, new ways of communicating” – “quietly making noise with purpose” – to keep the focus on the client. Initially, Jamie wanted no part of his family's business. A few internships changed his mind. Today two of his sisters run groups of accounts in the agency. Jamie's third sister, the fourth sibling, went to law school and serves as a federal judge.  In this interview, Jamie discusses in depth the mindsets, tools, attitudes, and strategies SMZ has used to survive so many years and how an agency changes as it is passed down through the generations. Jamie says the first generation, the founders, the creators, tend to stay involved. The second generation had to wrest control from the founders. The transition from second to third generation has been much smoother. The long-term plan is to keep the agency going as a legacy business. Jamie says the agency business can be all-consuming. He has found it important to take time from day-to-day client servicing “to think about the future, the visioning, the structure, the governance, all that.” A second tip he offers is that companies need to codify and write down their values. Driving out to his employees' homes to deliver packages of information made Jamie aware of some of his employees' beastly commutes. He says his intention going forward is to be flexible . . . in a number of ways. That flexibility has probably contributed greatly to his agency's “long life.” Jamie can be reached on his agency's website at: smz.com, where visitors can find the agency's blog, and Jamie's Generation Excellence podcast, which explores generational family businesses. SMZ Advertising is also on all of the social platforms. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Jamie Michelson. He is the President and CEO of SMZ Advertising based in Troy, Michigan. Welcome to the podcast, Jamie. JAMIE: Thank you for having me, Rob. I'm really looking forward to our conversation. ROB: It's exciting to have you here. Why don't you start us off with an introduction to SMZ? Tell us about the firm and any key metrics, any key focuses, key verticals. Go for it.  JAMIE: People like to talk about the elevator pitch; our agency is located on the first floor of the building, so it's more of a “walk in the door” pitch. I guess I would start with very few things survive 92 years, let alone biologically or in business. It's something to remember, something to know. At SMZ Advertising, we're proud of that length of time of operation. I'm proud of our long-term and enduring relationships with our clients. But it's kind of like all that history doesn't mean we know everything. It teaches you to question everything. We say we remain an independent, family-owned, creatively driven, full-service – and we like to go, “accent on the full” – agency doing work in communications, planning and strategy, research, design, advertising (heavily), retail, events, mobile, social, and more. We're a team of around 40 people, moving our clients' businesses and then ours forward. New ideas, new media, new ways of communicating. Our theme for our agency, if you will, our own headline, is what we call “quietly making noise with purpose.” There's a tension between quiet and noise. Really, it's about the spotlight shining on our clients and being humble about ourselves and very focused on them. ROB: How does that propagate out to a client campaign? Does that echo into their campaigns, where there's a “speak softly and carry a big stick” mentality in that as well? Or do they get to be a little bit more boisterous? JAMIE: There's all these books out there about filtering through the noise, avoid the noise, ignore the noise. Yet we are trying to make appropriate levels of noise, and strategic noise. I feel that our approach to it – and this goes back to roots – I'm part of a third generation of a family business where there's a strong belief in likeability. You do business with brands you like and people you like. And it's not namby-pamby likeability; it's not love or “lovemarks,” but it's just that someone likes you and they might buy what you're selling. So, we want people to really like the work we're doing and the brand and the business. Especially with so much choice and so much competition. ROB: We don't normally jump so quicky to the origin story here, but 92 years is a little bit of something. We are talking about quite a long time ago. We are talking about a Great Depression era business. What is the background here? Was it always something we would call an ad agency, or was it even something different in that regard? JAMIE: It's a great question. It's a pretty neat story. Clearly, the world doesn't look like it did in 1929. We're faster and global and colorful and we know a lot more. But the origin was a gentleman who was my grandfather and a partner. When you talk to newer agencies, oftentimes it's a partnership. A couple people have a dream, a vision. One's a business guy, one's an artist or creative. Their early work was what we would today call ad kits. It was the artwork for jewelers. Jewelry stores, jewelry retailers around North America. There was no digital way to distribute that. There wasn't even FedEx to deliver it. It wasn't even Slicks, for those who go back to those in the early print/design ways. It was packages that were sent with art that became print, catalogue, even newspaper, and that got them into some jewelers as retailers and the roots of a retail agency. This is a Detroit-based company. It was actually, weirdly, software as a service. It was subscription as a service. These people were buying this package each month so they could promote and showcase jewelry. And along came layaway and credit and these innovations in retail and business that they were a part of, and then moving that into outdoor and radio and the whole explosion of media. ROB: Wow. Thinking about that, how are you distributing what goes into outdoor advertising on potentially a distributed basis? It's more about a package and a solution than it is about hours and the hour trap. JAMIE: They talked about getting that package out, because it was very calendar-driven, time-driven. Sleeping around the agency on cots and stuff to make the deadlines. Again, what's old is new. But the idea that in the earlier roots of advertising, stuff was much more informational, and then you started to get into the beginning of having to package that information with some entertainment, some other hooks to get people to pay attention to it. It was really an agency that followed that journey. I think what it says is – as you talk about COVID years and difficult times the agency's gone through, there's certainly some level of resilience in the company that starts in 1929, hits the Great Depression, the stock market crash, world wars, other follow-on wars – there were pandemics, even, in that 90-some years. You don't assume, “We're going to make it because we've been there,” but there's something woven into – with brands, we talk about DNA a lot. I think because we're from Detroit and it's Motown and whatever, we talk about soul. There's something in the soul of this agency and its people. It's hard to describe and find, but it makes us proud of what we did and charging forward. ROB: When in your upbringing did you become distinctly aware of the business and what it was? I don't know if you knew it as something your grandfather was involved in, or your dad. When did you start to figure out what it was? JAMIE: Agency people, we have this role of you do business with who you do business with. If you have a product, you have a service, you support that. Whether they did some work for Pepsi-Cola bottlers or a potato chip company or a restaurant brand, you're using those clients' products. One of the cornerstone accounts of the agency in my childhood years was Big Boy Restaurants in what would've been their heyday. There were a lot of Sunday night family dinners at the Big Boy, even to the point of my father and his partner, who are the second generation, owning a Big Boy restaurant. I'd get to be back in the kitchen as a high schooler and experience it close-hand. But with that, I was not running into this business. I grew up around it at the kitchen table and that dinner table at restaurants. “Okay, my grandfather did it, my father did it.” When you're a teenager, typical is rebellion. You're going to do the other thing. I wasn't disinterested, because I understood – I went and studied finance; I was going to be an investment banker, the whole Wall Street thing. I'm still passionate about business. But I didn't really want things to do with this business until I experienced it firsthand with some internships and through college years and different parts of the business. Back to that soul thing. It's definitely in my blood. It's just absorption. [laughs] So I worked since college at basically three different agencies, independent agencies for the most part. Never client side. A little bit, one weird little thing. But my whole career. That's what I know, and I'm still fired up about it. ROB: Did you have siblings that also looked to get involved, did get involved, chose to actually rebel? What is that dynamic? JAMIE: I have three sisters, so we have four children in the third generation. Two of my sisters are involved in the business, run groups of accounts, and have been very involved with the agency and each had their own path or track into it. And then my third sister, the fourth sibling, went to law school and to a law firm and is a federal judge. That's what's fun. We refer to her as the black sheep. ROB: [laughs] The woman who is a federal judge. JAMIE: [laughs] Exactly. ROB: That sketchy business, right? JAMIE: Yeah. She's good counsel to the agency because she's sure learned to ask probing and challenging questions. ROB: I think there's probably an interesting season here. It's interesting that you chose to spend some time getting experience in other businesses. Clearly, the agency had to change. The whole firm went in and out of the golden age of advertising, the kind of Mad Men. How has the firm navigated these shifts of adding services, keeping a sense of identity – that balance of not getting overwhelmed with the shiny and becoming a social media influencer agency exclusively, but also not being mired in – you're not just broadcasting car dealerships, either. JAMIE: I think about that all the time, the path. They talk about sins of omission/commission, those things you didn't do or you passed on those things you did do. We talk a lot about those decisions we made or moves we made where you do them and then you go, “We should've done this sooner” versus “Why did we do this at all?” The things that we've done were good moves for the most part. Not a lot of giant blowout mistakes, disasters. I remember stringing phone line to plug into a computer to go through modem sounds, to be on AOL, to have earliest of site stuff. Our URL is SMZ.com, so to have a three-letter URL says you were in it early. But not necessarily going on all things digital. A lot of it has been your clients take you, smoothly or kicking and screaming, into some of these new spaces and areas, or you do it the same way with them. I think we've been open-minded all the time to experiment and try. It's always changing, like you said, and there's going to be that next new thing. Don't get so enamored with the shiny, but don't get to the “This is how we do it” or “It was better then” or “God, I wish it would slow down and not change.” I refer to myself – you gave my formal title, CEO/President or whatever. I talk about being Chief Agitator. I've got to keep the place and myself shaken up a little bit so that we don't rest and settle. ROB: Was SMZ a longer name at one point? JAMIE: The original company was Simons Michelson Company, SM Co. Simons Michelson Zieve for the gentleman, son-in-law of one of the founders, my father's partner, second gen. And then that got shortened to SMZ, I think for the poor person who had to answer the phone at the front desk all the time, saying that over and over and over again. [laughs] ROB: What did that transition of you coming into the business – you had some experience from other places; I guess your dad was in charge. What did that transition of generations look like? JAMIE: The transition from the first generation – and I'm a big student and have a podcast I do called Generation Excellence where I'm focused on other generational businesses and the follow-ons, G2, G3, G4. Not just because HBO does Succession and it's super dramatic, but it's a fertile area. The first generation, they're the founders, the creators. Those two guys worked, and that's what they did. They didn't really retire. They kept involved. The second gen had to wrest control from them a little bit. You're talking about guys now in their seventies, eighties, whatever it was. The transition from second gen to this third generation was much smoother. I give my father, Jim Michelson, incredible credit because it is a very hard thing to be in that command chair, be the president, running an agency, and then give away both authority and responsibility and not backtrack. Not jump back in, try to fix stuff if you don't like how it is. You're giving up control and letting others go make those mistakes you talked about, make those new moves. He did that and really set a model for me that I have memorized. As we figure out whatever's next after me – because that's the plan, the infinite game, keep this going as a legacy business – to be able to do that that same way. ROB: I interned once upon a time at Chick-fil-A corporate. I was there under the Truett Cathy regime. Truett was there for forever, and then his son Dan comes in, and the window for Dan was much shorter. They've transitioned off to the third generation now. It seemed much faster. He seemed very happy to transition it sooner than maybe he did. I don't know if you've looked at what they did and what they're thinking. JAMIE: It's a multiparty thing. And then you've got the people who work for the agency, and they're watching how this goes. You have the clients. It adds a layer on top of any other business when you add this family dynamic to it. We do have now as a company a formal written policy that next generation family members need to have some successful work experience outside the business, because it is really nice to be able to do what you do not just as a son/daughter of someone who created a business, but on your own merits. Make your own way. ROB: It's funny you bring up Succession. I didn't think about it as you talked about having these four siblings – JAMIE: It is much less dramatic within our walls and halls. ROB: But also interesting because you have three siblings. Presumably at least some of you have kids. We're on video; I can see a picture behind you of a couple of fresh faces. JAMIE: Yeah, a couple of young adult daughters working out there in the business world in both geography of where they want to be, areas they want to be in – my one daughter works out in Portland, Oregon. She's been five years at Nike. She's an engineer. She's very much involved in sourcing, manufacturing product at scale. So different than what a more boutique agency does where everything is bespoke and one-offs and ideas that you can't touch. For a lot of businesses, a lot of our clients are marketing the invisible. My other daughter is a business consultant, so more in our space at one of the consulting firms as she finishes business school this year. They're making their way. Again, grew up around it at the dinner table, and they know some things. It's really helpful to have that perspective of what they're going through. Use of social media, use of digital tools, how they communicate, remote work – every bit of those things as a mini focus group, really. ROB: Do you even have maybe some nieces or nephews that are also in that leadership pool for the next generation? JAMIE: Yeah, what they call the “cousins' consortium” in family business land. The next oldest would be my nephew, who's 20. He's in film school. Very talented creative. I think looking to go more out West and be involved in the movie business. It's still a bit of a journey for him to even join us. So, we have some things to figure out in our transitioning future, which is one of the things that excites me about the coming years of the business part of the business. ROB: Yeah, absolutely. You've done some transition, you'll see some transition. When you think about your history with SMZ, what are some things you think about as lessons you might tell on to the next generation about maybe what you'd do differently or what they should think about? JAMIE: We meet probably not regularly – you know that old expression, work on the business/in the business. The agency business can be all-consuming. Your list of things to do can be so filled with serving your clients, and you have to work to take that time to think about the future, the visioning, the structure, the governance, all that. We try to take some time to do that. In a recent meeting, I had a quote up on the screen from Tallulah Bankhead, an old Hollywood actress. She said, “If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.” The definite advice I'd give or the thing I've learned is, businesses that are longstanding like ours and legacy, when they started out, there wasn't all this content and advice for startups and podcasts and videos. They were just running a business through the Depression and then going on. The agency definitely had values, and they are woven into the place. It took us a long time. It was really only recently that we codified those values in writing, where they're on the wall, where they're on a sheet, where you share them with everybody at the agency and use that more as how we operate, how we hire, how we put that in front of our clients. That's not a new idea, that businesses are based on their values, and that as good marketers, you don't just pick the same six buzzword values that every business has. But to do that work, to have them be really true to who you are – you mentioned Chick-fil-A. They're a business that I think their values and their approach – and somewhat controversial sometimes – are so much a part of how they operate and who they are. ROB: Is there anything in particular that's happened – you could argue that for some portion of the firm, the values were intrinsic. A lot of firms starting from scratch, the values may be absent. You've seen this need to move the values from intrinsic to explicit. What do you think may have changed in your time there and your time in business – is that a necessity now? Has something changed? Or is it just a better way that we understand now to make them more explicit? JAMIE: Many of us in business have had the good fortune to go to seminars, webinars, conferences. You go to those and there's a moment, something hot for a moment, you come back, you bring it up all charged up, and then it fades off.  But I did, a few years ago, attend – Family Business has a conference called Transitions. They do it once or twice a year. You're immersed for a few days with other – these are not all marketing firms. These are just businesses that have that test of time thing to them. The title of their thing was “Values-Based Businesses Are Valuable Businesses.” Example after example was brought up of how these different businesses had used what was true to the values that they were all about to help them not just operate, but grow – whether it was Bigelow Tea, down to the detail of the person whose name is on the teabag inside the box that packaged your product. Kind of like some of the car manufacturers where there's someone who signs the engine, or one of the parts inside, or the steelworkers sign the last beam highest up. Just to be much more explicit about it. ROB: Sure. JAMIE: You see people react well to it and be involved in that process. ROB: Yeah, that involvement in the process is so key for ownership, for carrying forward. Earlier, you talked about remote distributed work. How has that played into SMZ at this point? How do you think it plays into SMZ moving forward? October 2021, some folks are never going back to the office. Some people are already back in the office full-time. How are you thinking about that dynamic right now? JAMIE: It's certainly front, middle, back of mind a lot of the time. I'll start with our feeling that our physical office we've always felt is a competitive advantage. It's a great box. It's colorful, it's alive, it's well-designed, it's functional. We like being there. We like working with clients being there. Great. At the same time, we've had some creative people who have worked remotely for 15, 20, 30 years and interacting with people at the agency. We've had others who have had all kinds of different flexible schedules and been accommodating that and learning from that. So at least for us, it wasn't a full 180 or whatever, like maybe for many other businesses. We're so open right now to the idea of how this is going to work, listening to our people, and using it to hire and fill new positions – which we're able to do. It's hard, but hybrid – my next car will probably be a hybrid. We talk about hybrid a lot in other categories and stuff that mashes together. One of the things that was eye-opening to me was one day I took some packages and delivered them, driveway deliveries, to almost the entire employee list. My wife helped map it out on a map thing. A few of the people I got to, that commute for them, the most outlying spots, the time that they get back if they can have a few of those days where they're not having to come into the office and can work from home – that's life-changing. So, we're going to embrace it. We went back mid-July to three days in, two days remote, everybody in on Wednesdays, and we had to revert back a little bit to an all-optional in the office mode. So, there's always somebody in each day, but it's small groups. ROB: It seems like the most important thing is to have an intentionality about it. Some of that's going to be aligned to the culture and the place where you are. It seems to me that somebody around Detroit can work virtual for anyone, but they've chosen to be there. I think there's an extent to which if you're in digital marketing, if you're in Detroit, you've chosen to be there. JAMIE: Correct. ROB: So, giving people more reasons to be there and to enjoy why they're there is meaningful and life-giving. JAMIE: I'm glad you brought up Detroit. We're a proud Detroit-based business. That's our roots, physically in the city for 50-some years in operation. A bunch of clients that are Detroit downtown-based, or the whole city. We love our region. Nationally or internationally, it gets some press reviews that aren't fair and accurate. It's a great place to live and work. So, there's that spirit that people have here about our hometown, and we want to have people from here work here and be connected to here. At the same time, this place is still a community that makes a lot of stuff. Manufactures and builds. Those operations, you can't do that from your kitchen table. You've got to go to those buildings and warehouses. It's still 30% of people that have this luxury of remote or this tech work, and everybody else has to go to the hospital, go to the school, go to the manufacturing facility, go to the supermarket, do those jobs. That's going on around us. We're part of that. We'll figure it out. The biggest part for me is – we're having this meeting right now. It's virtual. If it were physically in the conference room with a couple clients and you were in there with them, Rob, I might just walk by – our place is a lot of an aquarium. It's got a lot of glass boxes. [laughs] You can see in most everywhere. Pretty transparent. You see these meetings going on and you can stick your head in and say hi, and you can see clients and you can see people. That's the biggest miss for me, those little, quick – you just don't know those things are going on. Not to disrupt them or interrupt them, but just to wave. Just to see that that meeting's going on. It's actually uplifting. You see those meetings going on and go, “They don't need me in there. They're doing great in there.” [laughs]  ROB: It's meaningful for you, it's meaningful for them. It's meaningful for the client. I don't know if there's going to be a client situation – JAMIE: Clients love getting away and going to the agency. We've got a dog running around or somebody's dog running around. It's just a different environment. ROB: It's going to be hard for them to get on a plane to go to an agency. At some scale, yes, but mostly no.  JAMIE: It's taking a while. It's really productions or major things that our people are getting on a plane or those people where, again, you have to be somewhere, versus it would be nice to be there. ROB: Jamie, when you think about what's coming up next for SMZ and for the marketing landscape that you're in the middle of, what are you excited about? What's next? JAMIE: We talk about that history and we use that number 92. What got us driven a little bit more a year and a half ago was we embraced a program called EOS, if you're familiar with it. Entrepreneurial Operating System. We used that. That 100-year milestone is a pretty neat concept/sound. What are we going to smell like, look like, feel like when we get there? I'm really excited about being this smart, steady, scrappy, creative – still creative; I think ideas still matter – growing agency, celebrating that in the right way. Not just “We made it” and it's a moment, but that whole year should be something, and that should be a stepping stone to what's next. So that excites me. I mentioned before, mapping out, going to visit people who work for the agency. That's what we do for clients. We ask them that question all the time. “Where are you trying to go? What are you trying to be? How do we get there?” We don't always do it as well for ourselves as marketing firms. So doing that work and doing that visioning. And when you do that and you have goals and you write it down and say how you're going to get there, you tend to not only get there, you tend to get there faster and even a little better. The other thing that excites me is I was really caught up or hung up with the trend – and it was real, and we faced it. Clients were in-housing a lot of stuff. This whole great reshuffle of everything that's going on from where ships are to where chips are to where people are is upsetting that, too, for in-house operations. I think it's going to yield opportunity for, as your podcast is for, marketing leadership and marketing firms of all shapes and sizes. They're like, “I can't get the people to do this,” so now they've got to go back to outsourcing and finding folks to help. We'll certainly going to be there and do that. I hope I'm right on that. ROB: That's definitely a tricky wave. Sometimes it's even very client-specific. I'm usually in Atlanta, and to an extent, the fabled Coca-Cola company is perpetually on one end of the pendulum or the other on in-house, out-of-house. Certainly, macro trends also impact that. JAMIE: Yeah, there's that whole thing of get closer to the data. I get that. But when you said growing up around agencies, or my sense of it, that concept of being – we talk about being partnerships or even beyond a partnership with clients, stakeholders and very involved, but still objective outsiders at the same time. That combination can be powerful for client operations. We think we age well with the client relationships. We learn more and we get better. ROB: Jamie, you mentioned a little bit earlier on the digital real estate, but when people want to find you and find SMZ, where should they go to find you? JAMIE: It starts with smz.com, which is our website. That also houses our blog and the podcast I do called Generation Excellence, which is for those who are really interested in that very niche-y space of generational family businesses. And then SMZ Advertising is on all of the social platforms, sharing stories of our people, our clients, our work, a little thought leadership, little bit of our fun and things that we do to stay connected, which is a big effort right now inside of work and outside of work. I guess that would probably be about it. I welcome anyone who wants to reach out to me via the email address on the site, or call me. I'm open to talk about this business. I'm very fortunate to steward a unique and special place, and I want to put my energies against it being successful, but I love helping others. ROB: Definitely. Congratulations on being 92 going on 100 as a firm. That is exciting. JAMIE: For those who can't see me, the firm's 92. I'm a little bit younger than that. ROB: [laughs] Yeah. We'll see what a 100-year-old SMZ looks like. We'll look forward to that. Jamie, I wish you and the team the best. Thank you for coming on the podcast. JAMIE: I thank you for having me on this. I like that you blend the individual story and the business story, because they are intertwined and interconnected. ROB: In this kind of firm, absolutely. They're inseparable. JAMIE: Yep. Thanks, Rob. ROB: Thanks, Jamie. Be well. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Is it a good thing? How does it shape what you do, in business and in everyday life? How does it color our view on everyday encounters with friends and colleagues? Listen now to find out Joey and Jamie’s take on competition, as well as intriguing (and related) detours that include a nerve-racking solo trek, the greatness of Maradona and basketball superstars. As ever, if you like the episode, please share and review.   Talking Points Introduction, “You don’t know if it’s a good episode or not.” (01:05) Taking quizzes (08:00) Are you a c-word (18:30) The c-word in business (19:14) The c-word in sports (28:15) The c-word as a virtue (33:45) Tips and Tricks (39:00) On the topic of “copying” (41:00) Last minute tips (46:07) Competition across industries, for global domination (47:37) Conclusion (51:10)   Quotes “The thing is as well, [competition] elevated the product. It made us make the product 10 times better.” - Joey “In business, you don't have an option. You have to be competitive in business. Otherwise, you’ll lose. If you lose then you haven't got the business.” - Joey “Understand your industry's competitive landscape—where do you fit in and how do all your competitors relate to one another. Don't get too obsessed with what your competitors are doing, that's a big one.” - Joey “What have I just done? I’ve taken too many risks there. I could easily have slipped, fallen all the way down--There were sheep bones beside me from where sheep had fallen and there were just bones left!” - Jamie “It made us innovate in a way that we weren't thinking of innovating at the time. You can only see that now, I suppose. We couldn't see it back then.” - Jamie “[Celebrities] all looked at each other in goals. I need to do something like that.” - Jamie   Useful Links Main Platforms Viddyoze Website Viddyoze App Films By Viddyoze The Viddyoze Story | How We Built An 8-Figure Bootstrapped Software Enterprise Viddyoze Presents 'Fade To Black' | From Broke To $30 Million | Joey's Story Social Media Viddyoze Facebook Viddyoze Instagram Joey Xoto Instagram Viddyoze LinkedIn Joey Xoto LinkedIn Jamie Garside LinkedIn David Chamberlain LinkedIn

Jamie Lee is a stand-up comedian, actor, and established television writer/producer whom Elle Magazine recently named one of the top comedians to watch. In December 2016, Lee released her debut book Weddiculous (Harper Collins), which quickly rose to #1 on Bustle.com's list of best wedding books. The book was adapted as an upcoming series, The Wedding Coach, for Netflix hosted and Executive Produced by Jamie. It premiered on April 7th, 2021. Jamie starred as Ali Reissen, the female lead in the second season of the Judd Apatow-produced HBO series CRASHING, opposite Pete Holmes. Jamie wrote and starred in “The Viewing Party” episode of CRASHING, which was directed by Judd Apatow and honored by the New York Times in their piece on The Best TV Episodes of 2019. In addition to being one of the core cast members of MTV's hit show “Girl Code,” Lee has appeared on “Conan,” “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” “Last Call with Carson Daly,” “Chelsea Lately” and “@Midnight.” Big Takeaways When it came to planning her own wedding, and the day of, Jamie's favorite parts were in the little pieces in the in-betweens. Like a walk to get iced coffee, and moments of lightness spontaneity that helped her snap out of the dreamlike flow of the day. Find people that make you feel calm, and cared for to surround you on your big day. It can be very stressful, and having people around that want to help and do so with ease can make all the difference. Jamie's experience with her wedding planner (who was essentially a Venue Coordinator) was not super positive. Ultimately the planner did not ease the duties and stresses of the day in the way that would have actually been helpful. Do not just suffer through a bad planner! You are allowed to say no thank you and move on to someone new. Love your wedding planner! Questions from our live audience of Zoom Watchers Myriah: What do I do with my dress after the wedding? - Everyone recommended donating! Especially since she has already worn it twice and isn't going to wear it again. Alex: How can we celebrate our engagement if our wedding is quite a ways down the road, and we haven't started planning? - Enjoy each other. Take that slow time. You don't have to do anything yet. Just enjoy that new title. You can also spread out your fun special events. The showers, and parties, etc. Gabrielle: After our elopement, can we put our registry on the announcements/reception invitation? The reception will be small and intimate later. - Jamie said she wouldn't even think twice about it, if she got invited to the reception, but not the wedding. People want to give gifts. You can share your wedding website that would have the registry on it, too. Links We Referenced Weddiculous - Jamie Lee's Book (https://www.amazon.com/Weddiculous-Unfiltered-Guide-Being-Bride/dp/0062455605) Kleinfeld Bridal (https://www.kleinfeldbridal.com/) Spear Travel Group (https://speartravelgroup.com/) The Big Wedding Planning Master Class (https://www.thebigweddingplanningmasterclass.com/) Quotes “I don't like how people minimize wedding stress.” - Jamie “On the Wedding Coach, I kind of made up for all my lost time as a bad bridesmaid, by being the superstar bridesmaid and really just getting everything done that needed to get done.” - Jamie “It's a really important reminder, if you feel like your relationship incurring damage because of the wedding, the thing that's supposed to celebrate the relationship, then what is happening? What is it all for?” - Jamie The Big Wedding Planning Podcast is... * Hosted and produced by Christy Matthews and Michelle Martinez. * Edited by Veronica Gruba. * Music by Steph Altman of Mophonics. * On Instagram @thebigweddingplanningpodcast and be sure to use #planthatwedding when posting, so you can get our attention! * Inviting you to become part of our Facebook Group! Join us and our amazing members. Just search for The Big Wedding Planning Podcast Community on Facebook. * Easy to get in touch with. Email us at thebigweddingplanningpodcast@gmail.com or Call and leave a message at 415-723-1625 and you might hear your voice on an episode * On Patreon. Become a member and with as little as $5 per month, you get bonuse episodes, special newsletters and Zoom Cocktail Hours with Christy & Michelle! Our Partners (https://www.thebigweddingplanningpodcast.com/partners) Special Deals for Listeners - TBWPP Enthusiastically Approved! Wedfuly (https://wedfuly.com/bigwedding/) FlowerMoxie (https://flowermoxie.com/pages/the-big-wedding-podcast) The Flashdance (https://www.theflashdance.com/virtual-party-the-big-wedding-planning-podcast) Cactus Collective (https://www.cactus-collective.com/the-big-wedding-planning-podcast/) Unboring Officiant (https://www.unboringofficiant.com/bigwedding/) Special Guest: Jamie Lee.

Todd: OK. Jamie, we're going to talk about movies.Jamie: OK. Great!Todd: What is your favorite movie?Jamie: My favorite movie is kind of a heavy movie. It's a called Sophie's Choice with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a movie, it's set in World War II. Meryl Streep plays a Polish woman who has come to America and she's met a man, Kevin Kline. Who has a series of problems of his own, mostly psychological which she is not 100 percent aware of and she does a bunch of scenes where she thinks of the past and the very difficult decision she had while during the war living in Poland. She had to decide between two children which one would be murdered by the Nazis and which one wouldn't. It's an ethical delimma that she faced at that time. She made and immediate decision on and it affected her the rest of her life.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a fantastic movie. Not the story in itself, of course the story was brilliant but the acting, the fact that she speaks Polish, she speaks German, she speaks English with a Polish accent which is amazing. A writer who is actually a narrator to the movie as well, his character is great. Kevin Kline's basically a psycho character. He is a little bit deranged in itself is pretty neat. All in all, the characters, the plot line, the movie it's fanatasic.Todd: OK. Great. Sophie's Choice.Jamie: Sophie's Choice. I think it actually won an academy award in 1985 or '84.Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot.Jamie: My pleasure

Todd: OK. Jamie, we're going to talk about movies.Jamie: OK. Great!Todd: What is your favorite movie?Jamie: My favorite movie is kind of a heavy movie. It's a called Sophie's Choice with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a movie, it's set in World War II. Meryl Streep plays a Polish woman who has come to America and she's met a man, Kevin Kline. Who has a series of problems of his own, mostly psychological which she is not 100 percent aware of and she does a bunch of scenes where she thinks of the past and the very difficult decision she had while during the war living in Poland. She had to decide between two children which one would be murdered by the Nazis and which one wouldn't. It's an ethical delimma that she faced at that time. She made and immediate decision on and it affected her the rest of her life.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a fantastic movie. Not the story in itself, of course the story was brilliant but the acting, the fact that she speaks Polish, she speaks German, she speaks English with a Polish accent which is amazing. A writer who is actually a narrator to the movie as well, his character is great. Kevin Kline's basically a psycho character. He is a little bit deranged in itself is pretty neat. All in all, the characters, the plot line, the movie it's fanatasic.Todd: OK. Great. Sophie's Choice.Jamie: Sophie's Choice. I think it actually won an academy award in 1985 or '84.Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot.Jamie: My pleasure

Carolyn Casey '87, founder of Project 351, is joined in conversation fellow alum and Project 351 volunteer, Jamie Hoag '98. They speak about Carolyn's career leading up to the founding of Project 351 and the many ways that the Holy Cross community has lifted her up and supported her along the way. Carolyn's journey exhibits the incredible difference that one person can have in making the world a better place. Interview originally recorded on September 25, 2020. Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, all interviews in season 2 are recorded remotely. --- Carolyn: How can service be a unifier and remind us that we have more in common than what makes us different. Maura: Welcome to Mission-Driven, where we speak with alumni who are leveraging their Holy Cross education to make a meaningful difference in the world around them. I'm your host Maura Sweeney from the class of 2007, director of alumni career development at Holy Cross. I'm delighted to welcome to today's show. Maura: This episode features a conversation with Carolyn Casey from the class of 1987. Carolyn is a native of Taunton, Massachusetts and hails from a Holy Cross family with her three siblings and father all attending Holy Cross. After studying as an English major, Carolyn began work as a hostess before launching her decades-long career blending government and service for others. Her career was launched on a political campaign leading to a role as the director of national affairs in the early years at City Year and a 20-plus year career running corporate social responsibility for Timberland. Maura: Today, Carolyn turns her focus closer to home running Project 351, a youth service nonprofit she founded that engages eighth-graders in service from all 351 cities and towns across the state of Massachusetts. She is joined in conversation by fellow alum, Jamie Hoag from the class of 1998. They speak about Carolyn's time on the Hill and the way that service fueled her successful career afterward. Carolyn's journey exhibits the incredible difference that one person can make in making the world a better place. Jamie: Hi, Carolyn, this is Jamie. Carolyn: Hi Jamie. This is Carolyn. Jamie: How are you? Carolyn: I'm doing great. So happy to be with you. Jamie: Where are we chatting? Where are you chatting from? Carolyn: Well, I'm happily in the backyard of our family's house in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Jamie: Very nice. I'm in Watertown where I've been held up if you will, since March, but I'll say behind me, you can see other, others won't on the podcast, but a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and in a place of honor behind me. Carolyn: On a historic day. The first woman to lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. Jamie: Very historic, very historic. She earned it, that is for sure. I thought I'd start. We'll get into more about your time at Holy Cross and what you've done since, but I want to hear a little bit about where you grew up and I know you grew up in Taunton. As you know, I grew up in Fall River- Carolyn: Yes. Jamie: ...and I'm interested to see how did growing up in Taunton or how did Taunton influence who you are today? Carolyn: Appreciate that question. First of all, clear year from Fall River, because you say Taunton the way we say it in Taunton. And there's a very strong kinship between Fall River and Taunton and New Bedford. One of the things that links those communities is a heritage of the blue collar ethic, and a passion for family, and for faith and community. And so when I think about Taunton and 28 Briar Drive, where I grew up with my three siblings, all Holy Cross alum and my dad, Holy Cross alum, and my mom, not a Holy Cross alum, but she didn't have a choice. Jamie: By association. Carolyn: It was all men when she was growing up, so she went to the Newton College of the Sacred Heart, which is now part of BC. But Taunton was formative in many ways, and I think one of the first things I think about is my dad who was an educator, lifelong educator after graduating from Holy Cross. He was a coach and he was a teacher, and then he ultimately became a school superintendent. Carolyn: But for us, for the Casey kids, we were really fortunate that we grew up in an environment, our mom had been a teacher. And so education as a gateway to discovery, and to journey, and to wonder, and to edification of your values and how you make your way in this world, it's very much part of our ethos, but not... People used to think, because my dad was a superintendent that like he'd lord over us to do homework, or we had to get honor roll. Carolyn: It wasn't like that at all. It was very much just a culture of learning. So it felt very integrated into both our schoolwork, but also how our family lived our lives. We weren't tremendously financially blessed, so our outings were lots of times to things like Plymouth Rock and Battleship Cove, and the Museum of Fine Arts and things like that. And so just a rich and deep appreciation for how every opportunity and every individual is an opportunity for growth, and for education, and for deeply understanding the human condition. Carolyn: That was certainly formative. And then both of my parents, great faith. My mom is 83, still goes to mass every day and the church and our faith being very central to the values that defined us, but also the way in which we are responsible as human beings in this world, which is we are our brothers and sisters keeper. So both for Kizzy, Joe and Mike, my siblings, but also the broader community. That was most definitely a guiding principle. Carolyn: And then the final thing, and I feel like I'm saying three very typical things, which is like- Jamie: No, no. Carolyn: ... education, and faith, and community, but in Taunton, I was... Happily will say I'm 54 years old and my Taunton girls are still core to my everyday life. Those friendships forged at E Pole Elementary School, or in the girl Scouts, or brownies are still defining for me. What my friends taught me and what Taunton as a community taught me was the importance of loyalty and the importance of devotion through times that are easy and difficult. Carolyn: Taunton as a city, I know you can relate Fall River, Taunton had glory days as a silver manufacturing and the last 50, 60, 70 years have been challenging years for Taunton. Jamie: Sure. Carolyn: But there's something about that, there's something about struggle and triumph, and struggle again, and then triumph again, and there's that resilience. And again, that sense that if we all pull together, we can achieve extraordinary things. Jamie: I think there's a certain work ethic and communities like Taunton and Fall River, New Bedford, that if you grew up in that environment, you're influenced by it. And I think no matter what you do, where you go, that has a special place in your heart, in your soul, if you will, to... It's also not more work ethic, but it's also to appreciate people who work hard, and work hard and to raise families on very little and are loyal to community, as you said. Jamie: You mentioned that you grew up in a Holy Cross family with your dad, obviously, and then the three brothers also went to Holy Cross. Did you have any choice in deciding what college to go to or was Holy Cross a given? Carolyn: I did actually, I was the controversial one. Because she would kill me if I let the record go on- Jamie: Kathleen too, your sister Carolyn: The oldest sister, yeah. Kathleen is class of '84, Joe, class of '85 and Mike, class '90. I just want to give a, a shout out to them, my best friends and heroes, and to all their classmates, which I think is one of the things about Holy Cross that we know so well is that the friendships that just go on, and on, and on. And so all of those classes, '84, '85 and '90, and of course my class, the great class of '87 are just filled with the most extraordinary people. So I send all of them love. Carolyn: But yes, so most definitely I did. I was the third, I was the second daughter. Kathleen was at Holy Cross premed, Joe was there as well together. And my father who had been visiting Holy Cross since the mid '40s as a student was sort of burning out on Holy Cross and was strongly encouraging me to go anywhere, but Holy Cross. And I don't know if that- Jamie: Why was that, if I may jump in? Carolyn: I don't know if he was thinking, and my mom, actually, my mom wanted me to go to an all-girls school and I got into Mount Holyoke and almost a full ride and for our family, that was a really big deal. Anyone who knows me that would not have been a successful endeavor. I don't know. I don't know if my father... Parents are wise and maybe he was thinking it was important for me to step out of my sibling shadow or... I'm not really sure what motivated it. Carolyn: But ultimately I ended up at Holy Cross and with his blessing and my mom's blessing, or the tuition check would not have been written. And then I was really lucky because I was the one Casey who went to school with all of my siblings. When I was a freshman, my sister was a senior, Joe as a junior. When I was a sophomore, Joe was a senior, when I was junior, I was there by myself. And then when I was a senior, Mike was a freshman. Jamie: Wow. What an amazing opportunity to be able to share that with your siblings? Carolyn: Yeah, it was very special and I feel really lucky because my dad's license plate is HC52. And when he passed away, that was the only thing I wanted. So now my car has HC52. And I love it because there are still HC52-ers who will come up to me. They're like, "Is that Bill Casey's car?" "Well, not his car, but his license plate." It just goes to show they're everywhere. Jamie: They're everywhere, we're everywhere, and that's a good thing. We like that as a kid. It's certainly a community. What was your first experiences Holy Cross like? Especially growing up, I would say is growing up as someone from Fall River, going to Durfee Public school, Holy Cross in some ways at the time was a foreign place to me, because there are a lot of people went to this academy and private schools, is what I'm trying to say. Jamie: And it was just a different culture for me. And did you have that, what I would argue is maybe a mild culture shock when you went to Holy Cross? Carolyn: The one thing I felt lucky about is I had... and I don't know if it's... Maybe comfort for me was wasn't an important part of going to Holy Cross, but my dad had been president of the alumni association and chairman of his class. So when we were growing up, we were up there like every weekend and we'd sometimes sit in Hogan and be bored and complain because we weren't with our friends in Taunton. But I had a really very strong sense of place there and a very... I knew where everything was. Carolyn: Not in a overly confident way that I was superior in any way, but I just knew my way around. And then of course, because my sister and brother went there, I started visiting my sister when she was a freshman. So I was like 15 and I was a sophomore and I would go up for weekends and stay with my sister. So I got a little bit of that experience too, like the classroom experience, going to Hogan, going to Kimball, going to keg parties in Hanselman... Jamie: ... I'm not going to ask for the stories there. I'm sure there are some. That's for a different podcast. Carolyn: Exactly. Especially given my current constituents of eighth-graders that I will not tell those on the record, but. My earliest days of Holy Cross, they are... I'll say one thing about my earliest days is that they foretold my four years because I hit the jackpot with the friends that I met very early on. So down the hall from me were the two Leannes- Leanne Kearney and Leanne Martin. Carolyn: And I was just texting with my whole Holy Cross circle right before I got on this. They are still... Just like my Taunton friends, still in my life every day, and still my teachers and my cheerleaders, and I hope I'm the same for them. But for me it started first with those friendships and sort of the rituals that I think so many people know from Holy Cross, which are 10:00 PM mass on Sunday and meeting at the hand in front of the library before you go down to Kimball, and just rich conversations. Carolyn: It sounds idealic, and when I look back, it feels idealic because we were in a different space in time than young people going to college. Now we definitely thank goodness didn't have the social media, but there was a lot of... It was obviously prior to 2001 prior to the global challenges we're facing now. We definitely incubated in a way on Mount St. James. And that because we weren't venturing out, that just made the bonds of friendship even deeper and I think more transformative. Carolyn: Those are the things I remember, and I also remember, the intimidation for me was the classroom because I have to work hard on my academics. That's where I felt, as you were talking that sort of a little bit of, will I fit in, in the classroom? But I think you know, I was an English major and I felt like talk about an abundance of blessings of professors and classes and conversations. Jamie: Yeah, I think when you learn as much outside the classroom, as you do inside the classroom, I find that at Holy Cross. And I think that's something that's stayed consistent, which I think is a good thing across generations. Question for you, where did you live your freshman year? Carolyn: Freshman year I lived in Carlin. Jamie: Oh, Carlin. Wow. That was an upper class residence hall when I was there. They let the first years live there. Carolyn: They let all freshmen in and I lived over the bridge, so we had the window over the bridge. So when the classes changed, you got to see everybody. And then I went to Wheeler for two years and then Caro Street, my senior year much later. Jamie: What floor on Wheeler did you live on? Carolyn: Fifth floor. Oh goodness. My friends are going to be like, "She can't remember." I think it was second floor, sophomore year, fifth floor, junior, and then Caro street, which was a health department abomination. That house was like, we were all jammed in there and yeah. That's another thing that we'll just keep off the record. Jamie: That's another podcast, as I said. Carolyn: Those safety protocols were probably not adhered to. Jamie: I was a Wheeler three guy for two years, my freshman year, my sophomore year. And it was an experience living in Wheeler, that's for sure. Carolyn: Wheeler Beach. Jamie: But I loved it. Carolyn: Right? Jamie: Wheeler Beach. Wheeler Beach. And- Carolyn: Those were the days. Jamie: I still am, as you've mentioned, it's amazing how those bonds can last throughout the years, the bonds you make. And blow do you know when you first drive up to up the up Mount St. James, how it's going to change your life, but- Carolyn: And that's one of the things I remember meeting you the first time I met you. All you have to hear is Holy Cross and I'm like, "I know I'm going to love him." It just comes with that built-in comfort level and excitement. Jamie: Exactly right. Obviously, beyond the classroom, what type of extra extracurricular activities were you involved in when you were at Holy Cross? Carolyn: I wish I could say a ton, but... Because of my focus on academics, that took a lot of my time, but I was work study and I also did student government. And I worked at the library, which I loved. For me, I worked in the... Oh, I can't remember the name of the room, but it's where you had a sign out so that- Jamie: Oh sure. Carolyn: I can't remember what they called it. Jamie: The reserve room, but I don't that- Carolyn: The reserve room, that's right. That was where I was, so that's where I spent a lot of my time, was in the reserve room. And I love that because you got to see everybody, so it was social, and I also got to do homework. But our crew, we were very enthusiastic sports fans. We loved all the sports. A lot of our friends played football, hockey, basketball, baseball. That was a big part of our time. Carolyn: So road trips , stole my father's car once. That was a mistake. I went to William and Mary, and then of course somebody is like, "Hey, I saw your car in Virginia." So I was given up, that wasn't... I got to remember HC52. Jamie: That HC52 license plate does not come in handy. Carolyn: Yes, that's when it doesn't... "darn It, I thought I'd get away with that," but no, I didn't. I also did internships, which I always, when I talk to prospective students and I think everybody knows this now, it's again, not novel advice, but that was enormously helpful for me. I was an English major and when I was at Holy Cross, I wanted to go into sports marketing, and so I did marketing internships, and those were extraordinarily helpful for me. Carolyn: I didn't end up going into marketing, but those skills helped me in my current job Jamie: Where did you intern? Do you- Carolyn: I interned at a hospital, St. Elizabeth. Jamie: St. Elizabeth? Carolyn: Is that right? Jamie: Yeah, it's there. Yeah, it's still there. That's good. That's good. Carolyn: Was great. They were very kind to me. Jamie: What was your favorite class at Holy Cross? Carolyn: Oh, goodness- Jamie: If you can pick one, it's a hard question. It's like saying, who's your favorite sibling? I don't want you to answer that question, but- Carolyn: I know, all of them. One of the things that I'm known for is my terrible memory, but I know the class, I'm not going to remember the professor. But the class was a seminar on Martin Luther King and it was incredible. It was maybe 15 people in the class and it was probably my best class for sure. Jamie: What made it incredible? Carolyn: Well, I love the size of it and it was the students. No disrespect to the professor. Obviously I can't remember his name, which is terrible, but the students in the class, it was... I was an English major, so it was a bunch of students I didn't know and they were from different grade levels as well. For me, the diversity of opinion in that class was very rich because there wasn't a tremendous... when I was at Holy Cross, it wasn't tremendously diverse. Carolyn: That was a class where there was a lot of diversity in many ways, and including racial and ideological, and lived experiences. And so for me, it was more of an awakening as opposed to other classes. And I loved all of my English classes because I love literature, I love to write, but just in terms of getting me to think in new ways, that class was formative. And Dr. King is such an abiding figure in my life in terms of his philosophy and his teachings, and it really started there at Holy Cross in that class. Jamie: That's powerful. That's a great. I want to fast forward a little bit now and start talking about your post Holy Cross life, if you will. Carolyn: Sure. Jamie: Obviously we want to talk a lot about Project 351, which you're the founder and executive director of. But give us a little snapshot of what your first few years were after Holy Cross. I know you had some interesting jobs pre Project 351, so tell us a little bit about them. Carolyn: My first job right out of Holy Cross was I was a hostess at a restaurant because I couldn't make the cut as a waitress, so that goes to show. But I was- Jamie: Because your warm, charming personality, they wanted you to do the hostess. Carolyn: Yes. Well, they gave me one shot as a waitress and I dropped a tray of drinks on a bald man's head and I was, I was redistributed back to the hostess stand. Jamie: At least you don't have to wipe off his hair- Carolyn: No... Jamie: ... just wipe his head off, it's easy. Carolyn: Of course I started crying right away. But I was liberated by another Holy Cross grad. My cousin Maura Donlan from West Roxbury, also class of '87 who is like my sister. We're the same age, and she was working for Governor Dukakis, his presidential campaign in New Hampshire in the field. I went up for a weekend of canvassing and I'd never really done anything quite like that. It was one of these, they had me at hello. It was completely transformative. Carolyn: And I came home and my parents for some reason were in Europe or something, which would be rare. And I told them I wanted to quit my very important hostess job and move to New Hampshire and worked for Mike Dukakis. And thankfully they said, yes. That was the beginning of the path of service that I've been on ever since around public service and around mission-based organizations or campaigns. Carolyn: But I was really fortunate, I worked up in New Hampshire, and I was like 22 or whatever and I was the deputy to the state director, Charlie Baker. Not governor Baker, but the other Charlie Baker. Jamie: No, very well. Dewey Square Group Charlie Baker, yeah. Carolyn: Dewey Square Group. And his dad, Charlie Baker was a professor at Holy Cross. Jamie: Exactly right. French professor, I think. Carolyn: Yeah. French in like movies. Did he do something on movies too? Jamie: Yeah. No, Charlie is a wonderful person. Carolyn: Yes. You know how lucky I was to work for him and John Geezer, who you probably know well. Jamie: Sure. Carolyn: And so I got to work for Charlie all the way through the general election, and that was just in his philosophy was, everywhere I go, you go. And so I'd be in the room with Jesse Jackson and the negotiations. And I was for the nomination, and down in Atlanta, and I just did my best to soak it all up, and to be as... I remember thinking that then, as I was in the job was around trying to... I wasn't a political animal, so I didn't really have great scale on the politics side. Carolyn: And so my focus was on being kind and responsive. I just wanted to, how can I help as many people and try to prove myself that way, because I wasn't going to be the policy work. And from that ended up... Of course governor lost and I went to... So I moved to D.C. and I worked for the democratic Senate campaign committee, and that's a whole bunch of wild and crazy stories about... Not wild and crazy, but in that I can't believe that I had this job at age 23 where I was doing at the time, it was their major funding program. Carolyn: So I set up weekends that donors would go to with like eight or nine senators and their spouses. And then it would be me on the plane with like George Mitchell and- Jamie: Wow. Carolyn: Wyche Fowler, and John Kerry and they listen to me. I was giving them a brief and the this and the that, and we would do a weekend of like policy retreats. That was incredibly inspirational, informative and real insight on how relational politics works. Jamie: And I would take away two things just to jump in here for a second. One, this path that you were sent on, that you started down, began through your relationship with Maura Donlan, your cousin, but also a fellow Holy Cross Crusader. And so it's again the power of the Holy Cross network to open up opportunities for the students or recent grads. But I would say something, I just want you to comment on one thing too, is you said something that caught my attention that... You said you don't have the political skills necessarily that are... you don't have the political experience, but you said you wanted to focus on being kind and responsive. Jamie: And I would argue with you and say that those are extremely important political skills, especially in our day and age. I think being kind and responsive to people's needs are two skills that a lot of people in politics lack today. Not to go off in a different direction with this discussion, but I would just say that I think you're a perfectly suited for politics because of those two skills of being both kind and responsive to people. And so I just wanted to make that point. Carolyn: Right back at you because you're a model of that. When I think about Holy Cross throughout my life and my professional and personal life, one of the things about if it's... there's sort of a built-in confidence if it's a Holy Cross person asking you to do something, inviting you just have a... For me, I'm more likely to take that leap of faith because it's somebody who I... There's that bond, and that trust, and that sense of shared values. Jamie: Sure. I just want to talk briefly before we get to the important work that you're doing at Project 351, and I want to hear all about it obviously. You worked in Timberland for a little while and did social responsibility? Carolyn: Corporate social responsibility, yeah. Jamie: How was that? How was working in the private sector? Carolyn: It was incredible. One thing I'd say, that there's sort of one theme from my career path would be that I was really very lucky in that I worked for a lot of visionaries, and so people who were very bold about the kind of either organization or world that they wanted to build, and would be sort of relentless in pursuit. And not relentless in like a criminal way or mean way, but in terms of relentless about galvanizing the resources to enable that vision. Carolyn: After I left D.C., I worked at city year for eight years, and the co-founders Michael Brown and Alan Khazei who had this bold vision of building a national service movement and started with 50 young people in Boston. And today, millions of young people have served through AmeriCorps, which- Jamie: Amazing. Carolyn: ... City Year the model for. And through city Year, while I was at City Year. And I was there in the early days, so people who do nonprofit work who might be listening to this know that in the nonprofit sector, you often have like 12 jobs and a lot of them don't relate. And so I was... President Clinton was the president at the time and I was responsible for media, our national convention fundraising, the Clinton relationship and managing the Timberland partnership and new site development. It was like this crazy mosaic of things. Carolyn: And from the relationship managing the partnership with Timberland, Jeff Swartz was the CEO of Timberland, invited me to come to work for him and to help direct corporate social responsibility. Jeff is a person that I always I wanted him to speak at Holy Cross, because his leadership is driven by faith, his deep faith as a Jewish person. And he grew over the time that I worked for him a comfort level and talking about that in the business space, which was fairly rare at the time. Carolyn: But he was also incredibly visionary, and bold and courageous around pushing the edge of the envelope around the role and the responsibility of the private sector as a catalyst for social justice. This is like 25 years ago and there... I still see things now from companies and they regard them as breakthroughs, I'm like, "Jeff was..." I don't mean this in a dismissive way at all- Jamie: No, no. Carolyn: ... but Jeff was doing this like 30 years ago. If you worked at Timberland, you had 40 hours of paid time for volunteerism, a full week to donate to community. And the entire business model and operating systems were built around the notion that commerce and justice are inextricably linked. And so when we're thinking about manufacturing our boots, where we're manufacturing them? How are we giving back to those workers in that community? What materials are we using to make sure we're not despoiling the planet? Carolyn: How can those boots be a lever for change through a consumer point of sale that invites them to come serve with us? Jamie: Wow. Carolyn: So it was this very creative time to be able to work for somebody like that, who, when you would have like crazy ideas, he wouldn't say they were crazy. He'd say, "Yeah. Let's try it." Jamie: That's a sign of a good leader. Carolyn: Yes. My time there, many, many, many gifts, including my relationship with Jeff, who is a teacher and a mentor and like a brother to me. But the other thing that came out of my time there was a friendship with Congressman John Lewis, which transformative. I love how Jon Meacham talks about John Lewis as a saint, as an American saint. I'd never heard of him referred to him that way, but Jon Meacham puts him within the context of faith, and holiness, and- Jamie: The beloved community. Carolyn: And the beloved community. And that John Lewis' ability to endure what he endured throughout his life, including 45 arrests, and a fractured skull, and multiple beatings, and humiliations that no human should ever have to endure was a deep faith in God. Jamie: And after all that, still having a faith in people too. After all those experiences that he suffered through, to still have faith and hope in the human spirit, it was remarkable. Have you read Jon Meacham's new book about- Carolyn: I'm reading it right now. Jamie: I finished it last week. What a powerful... I was in tears. At some part of the book, I was laughing, at other parts and I just think it's such a powerful life. I had the opportunity to meet him once, John Lewis, once when I was waiting for an elevator on Capitol Hill and the elevator was for members of Congress only. But he said, "Oh, come on, ride with me. You can ride with me." He asked me where I was from, who I worked for, Jim McGovern at the time. And he was just the nicest man. The only thing is he got off the elevator before I did. Carolyn: Oh no. Jamie: I still had two floors to go and other members of Congress got on and they were looking at me like- Carolyn: They were like, "Who's this guy?" Jamie: ... why are you on our elevator? I said, John Lewis let us to be on. John Lewis let me on, and they believed it. They didn't second guess me, because I guess it was a typical practice of John Lewis to invite people on the members-only elevator. Carolyn: Yeah. He was pied-piper for sure. But learned so much from him and just... Such perspective that any sort of hardship or challenge that I would ever face either personally or professionally, whatever, I would always draw on his, keep the faith, keep moving. I remember one time I was going through really hard time personally and I was talking to him and he said to me... I said, "What do you do when you feel like there's hate coming at you?" And he said, "You go at hate with love, and then more love, and then more love, and then more love." Carolyn: And I was like, "Okay, I got it." Jamie: Yeah. And those were certainly not just words to him. That's the way lived- Carolyn: No. Jamie: ... words in action, so to speak. Well, it's remarkable that you got to know him. We'll have to talk more about that at some point, because I think he's one of my heroes, and I think he should be one of everyone's heroes because of the life he led. But I want to move on here too and- Carolyn: Sure. Jamie: ... I have a question about your gap year. Carolyn: Yes, the gap year. Jamie: Gap year, it wasn't a... People think of gap years typically is years right after high school, between high school and college or maybe the year after college. But your gap year was a few years after, after having some work experience. Right? So tell us a little bit what you did. I think some of the stories are remarkable from what I've heard already, but why you took the gap year. Carolyn: It was after my Timberland tenure and I decided to drive across the country from California to Savannah, Georgia and do service in civil rights history. My motivation for doing it was, I'd been on this durable wheel, whatever that is, hamster wheel, for about two decades and working. Working for Jeff was amazing, but it was 24/7 and then City Year was the same way because we were trying to build City Year, the institution, and it was just sort of non-stop. Carolyn: And, and then I know you know my sister-in-law who's class of '90 was killed- Neilie Casey, who's another love and incredibly important person in my life. She was killed on September 11th, and that experience, and that tragedy, and the emotion. And so I was really burnt, I was really fried. And I had been doing commerce and justice and service with Timberland and at a global level, and so traveling to South Africa, and Prague, and Italy and all across the United States with John Lewis doing service, and it was amazing. Carolyn: But I wanted to get back to the essence of service, so without the corporate funding behind me, which was great to have a budget actually going into community and really do one-on-one with people who were on the frontline of some of our country's most critical issues. And so these are all people who no one would know their name. They were running a domestic violence shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, or working on native American health in Chinle, Arizona. Carolyn: I did four days with a bunch of Vietnam vets, building a home after Katrina, it was still in the aftermath of Katrina in Mississippi. Serving the City Year core members in LA, which was incredible, but also very depressing because these children had nowhere near the educational resources that they needed to learn and to succeed. And this was pre smartphone. I think we had cell phones or blackberries or something. Jamie: Flip phones. Carolyn: Yeah. And so I was able to... It was quiet and there was only one time where my sister, thank goodness came out early on in my journey because she's a surgeon and extraordinary. She came with me to Chinle, Arizona because we... My service partner there was the John Hopkins Center for Native American Health. And she was very interested in it from her perspective and she knew that I needed her. Carolyn: So she came out and we did that and we did the Grand Canyon. So, that was also a bonus. But that trip, it was incredible on so many levels. The opportunity to serve and be humbled by the example of people who are truly, people talk about this all the time, like unsung heroes and this. These are the truest unsung heroes who are working day in and out to feed families or provide compassion for seniors or protect women from domestic violence and to bear witness. Carolyn: Billy Shore, who's one of my heroes and mentors who's the founder of Share Our Strength. Billy always talks about the importance of bearing witness, and to bear witness and to listen and learn and to just be quiet. To be in a space of reflection. And then I get in my car and then I would drive like 10 hours or whatever. Going through Western Texas was scary because I lost my cell and you had like for eight hours, no gas station. Carolyn: They're like, "Fill up here or you're not going to make it." And so you just have that quiet to sit and reflect. That's where the spark for Project 351 started to come, but it was... And not to sound overly hokey or, I don't know, silly in any way, sentimental in any way. But just for me was just this deep sense of gratitude for this country and just how diverse... Now even more, now it's polarized. Carolyn: Then it was diverse and not so polarized. Now it's diverse and so polarized. But I remember every interaction was a lesson in humility and a lesson in grace, and that these people from every background you could imagine who were doing things driven only by devotion to cause greater than self, and that the character of the American people. And I remember just... Certainly, our family was very blessed and changed by the extraordinary, and Holy Cross being one of the most extraordinary sources of love and comfort and care after 9/11. Carolyn: And how important it is to access that through memory when we are in times like this, that feels so divisive, that what this country stands for is not what we're witnessing on the television. Jamie: There are people out there doing God's work, if you will, and doing it quietly, but doing it so well and making a difference in people's lives. One life at a time. But you multiply that in the aggregate and there are a lot of lives being touched out there by a lot of people. And so including you, I would argue, I would say, without a doubt- Carolyn: With your help, Jamie. With your help. Jamie: Well, let's transition I know to Project 351, because obviously, that is close to my heart. Obviously, a part of your heart, this is your heart. Tell us a little bit about Project 351. And I want to hear its origin story, if you will, as they say in superhero movies these days. The origin story of Project 351. Carolyn: I want to make sure, because I'll forget is to say upfront one, how grateful I am to Holy Cross the institution, the civic space because of you, Jamie and Elizabeth Rice and so many wonderful people at Holy Cross. Holy Cross is a little bit of Project 351 West because we have our educator advisory group meetings there, we have alumni summits there and I love it. I love every time I can bring my alum on campus and tell them that they all should go to Holy Cross. Carolyn: But I always tell them, "We are very intentional about everything we do at Project 351." So we convene in places of meaning, and that Holy Cross is devoted to developing men and women for others. And so that's why we meet there. Because we can meet anywhere in Worcester, but we meet there because of that ethos. Jamie: It's our honor to have you there for sure. Carolyn: Then the broader gratitude to all of the Holy Cross alums specifically and the class of 1987, my best friends, Jen White, and Julie Foley, and so many friends who have... Frannie and Danny and everybody who have believed in Project 351 and encouraged, and have volunteered. I just feel really lucky shout out also to Ellie and Michael Hall, our other family members, Jamie: The San Francisco wing of Project- Carolyn: Yes, of Holy Cross. Exactly. The origin story is, it's one of these things where the path is so unclear what the origin story is, it's sort of one. But the way I always think of it is that, and I think most people probably would have a similar is that, Project 351 is a mosaic and every one of those beautiful cuts of glass is a gift that someone has given me along the way. Whether it's John Lewis whose passion for the beloved community and insistence on leading with love. Carolyn: If Jeff Swartz who's courage and bold vision around creating cross sector collaboration and social change. Michael and Alan and my partner at Project 351, and my third brother, Charlie Rose, from City Year whose fierce belief in young people as a catalyst for transformative change. And then there's a million pieces of glass that I picked up all over Mount St. James. So those are the lessons of faith, and those are the lessons of partnership, and respect, and inquiry and reflection. Carolyn: The philosophy around Project 351 comes from all of those lessons, but the reality of Project 351 comes from, it was the first Baker Patrick contest. Right? I think, the first one? Jamie: Yeah, 2010. Carolyn: 2010, yes. And there were two other candidates, right? Jill, Stein? Jamie: Jill Stein, yeah, yeah. Carolyn: And I'm forgetting the independent. So there were four candidates running in a state small like Massachusetts and governor Patrick and Charlie Baker, and Charlie Baker, I'd known, he was a friend of mine for, at that point like, I don't know, 15 years. And that campaign was, you'll recall because you were probably in the middle of it. It was an unkind campaign, shall we say? Carolyn: And I remember thinking as someone who just loves Massachusetts and loves the quaintness of it that we're so small and thinking, wow, this division, first of all, we have four candidates, and then it's a race that's divisive. It's kind of mean, which felt not that things are like hunky dory in Massachusetts politics, but it felt a little bit out of kilter. And I remember thinking like, well, how do you bring the state together again after a time like this? I'm thinking, well, through service and through young people. Carolyn: We're small enough to do it. You're not an eighth-grader from each one of the 351 cities and towns, but we're big enough where it feels bold. Where it's like, how the heck are you going to get one eighth-grader from every city and town? That prompted me. It was really around, how can service be a unifier and remind us that we have more in common than what makes us different? Governor Patrick would always talk about turning towards one another, not against one another. Carolyn: And and I didn't know him. I'm a Democrat, but I had never engaged with him. I supported him, but I didn't know him. And a mutual friend of ours, David O'Brien- Jamie: Exactly. There you go. Carolyn: ... was the head of his campaign inaugural and reached out to me. And he said, "You're like my service community person and the governor wants to focus on service and community. Any thoughts?" And I was like, "Well, actually, yeah. I have this concept paper called Project 351." And I sent it over and they presented it with options to the governor and the governor said, "I want to do this." It's not that exciting, but that's- Jamie: Wow. No, it's powerful. Carolyn: That's how it happened. But it was conceived as a one-day event. This happened very quickly. It was end of November, the inaugural was middle of January and I started calling superintendents in the first week of December saying, "How you don't know me, but we would like an eighth-grade unsung hero from your school district." And they're like, "We're about to go on Christmas break and you can call us back in January." Carolyn: And as it is in all things, there's always one person. And so Tom Scott who's executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents said yes, I was calling the first yes. And because of Tom and a lot of amazing people, we were able to assemble, you were probably there, a class of celebratory event called Project 351 that was really, and nothing to do with me, everything to do with Governor Patrick and the young people. Carolyn: But it was a celebration of Dr. King and it was these young people, literally from 351 cities and towns, including Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard, and Provincetown, and North Adams. Those young people getting up at 4:00 in the morning to get on a bus to get... And it's so amazing because the bus, not only the bus routes, but the bus captains from that first go are still the same today. Jamie: They're still involved today. Wow. Carolyn: Yep. Jamie: That speaks to the organization. Carolyn: And it speaks to how amazing educators are too. Right? Jamie: Yeah. Absolutely. Carolyn: But we figured out then how the heck to get young people in and out safely and programmatically, in and out in one day. And then the day itself was highly programmatic, celebration of Dr. King, transformational service across Boston, reflection and celebration at the end of the day. And the cool thing about Project 351 that you know and that everyone who's listening is welcome to come is, in the morning, you can't hear a sound, they're petrified. Carolyn: They're eighth grade, 12 years old or 13 years old. They're the only person from their town. They were selected, you don't apply, and so you are a quiet leader, so by nature, you're quiet. And they come into Faneuil Hall in the morning and you could hear a pin drop until Charlie gets them going on the building. And at the end of the day, they have found their voice, they have found their tribe. Carolyn: Some of them have found the love of their life, they think and their best friends. And the noise at the end of the day is like the symphony of service and idealism and it's at like fever pitch. It's so- Jamie: That is so true. That is so true. I've noticed that before. It's more than just the fact that they're early in the morning. I think the nerves are real in the morning, but they've become such a community by the course of the day that it is just wonderful to see. And they see their personalities come out, their spirits come out, and it's just really heartwarming to see. Carolyn: And to make sure for all the listeners, the kind listeners if you're still listening is, the very important role that Jamie has played as champion, and advisor, and friend. And also is the chairperson of the selection committee, our most highest award at Project 351, which is a $20,000 scholarship named after Myra Kraft, who those at Holy Cross know there's a deep relationship between Myra Hiatt Kraft's family, and Holy Cross. Right? Jamie: Absolutely. Carolyn: So all roads lead to Holy Cross. Jamie: Yeah. The wings of the library are the Hiatt wings- Carolyn: The Hiatt wings. Jamie: ... named after her family. So you have this launch day then you also have a reunion day. So tell us about reunion day. Carolyn: Well, the one thing I'll tell you about the first original launch day is that at the end of the day... How do we go from a one-day event to a program? At the end of the day, the young people were standing up, and a lot of them were crying. It was very, very emotional. A lot of the educators were crying and the young people kept standing up. And the governor who you know better than me is magical with young people. Carolyn: So he was in this community discussion and a beautiful discussion. And they would stand up and say, "No one's ever called me a leader before," and all these things. But a number of them set up and they said, "Okay, so now what? You called me to serve, and now what?" The governor was on a microphone and I was way in the back of the room. He's like, "Where's Carolyn?" On microphone. I'm like, "I'm here." Carolyn: And he said, "This keeps going, right?" And I was like, "I don't know." I'm like, "Yeah, I guess." Then that night, we created a Facebook page and that's how we started. Every bit of advice I ever gave to her nonprofit when I was at Timberland like do a market scan, build a board, raise the money, do a strategy, blah, blah, blah. No. Jamie: No? Carolyn: All of that went right out the door. I was building programs under me. And sometimes I feel like we never caught up, but from that moment. But so fast forward now, we're 10 years old, a decade. And now we are a youth-led movement for social change. There are 3,753 eighth-graders have embraced the obligation to serve through Project 351. And it's awe call it the ambassador journey, so it's a 12-month ambassador journey. Carolyn: And they're still selected, can't apply. Still unsung hero, quiet leader. And it is a year of developing their courage, and their compassion, and their capabilities to lead change. And we do that in very intentional ways through milestones throughout the year that are both enrichment-based, and also hands-on civic leadership and service leadership. I can talk about those, but I don't want to go on too long. Jamie: I think, I'm curious to hear from you what your thoughts are and what inspires these young leaders? What inspires them to serve at such a young age especially? Carolyn: One of my probably overused words when it comes to Project 351, there are two probably remarkable and extraordinary, because I run out of words for our young people and they are both... they're remarkable and extraordinary. And I think anybody listening who has children, nieces, nephews know that young people have innate goodness and hopefully for as long as possible, no judgment. And so bias or prejudice, we all know that that's taught, right? And so- Jamie: Yeah absolutely. Carolyn: And they are unfortunately increasingly sophisticated because of the world that we live in, but there's also when we were intentional about picking eighth-graders, because again, wanted them to be sort of young enough to feel as if this was an honor, that spending time with the governor. Now it's not Governor Patrick, it's Governor Baker. That felt like a big deal, not a cynical response to that, but that they're old enough as eighth-graders to be able to grow into the role of change agent and to understand nuances around the issues of hunger and the intersectionality between race and homelessness. Carolyn: What motivates them is probably motivates you and me, Jamie, is that injustice, and lack of opportunity, and a planet that's burning, and the gap in educational opportunities. Our young people are so motivated by the challenges of other young people. That is causes deep pain for them, in their reflections when they write, when they learn about... One of our partners is the only youth-led youth homeless shelter in the state, why to, Y2Y, you might know them. Jamie: Yeah, I do. Carolyn: And just that reality that there's a youth homeless shelter for our young people, they have to reflect and process that. But the other thing that's really important is, it's one person from every city and town, and so you know Fall River and I know Taunton, right? Jamie: Yeah. Carolyn: We know Brockton, you think about these rural communities. We are blessed in the state where we have communities of extraordinary wealth and we have communities of extraordinary poverty. And so our young people are from those communities, so we've young people who have parents who have extraordinary wealth and young people who... We've had young people who are homeless. Carolyn: We have one young woman who stood up at the end of last year's launch day and said, crying because she said, "I've never been..." How the day made her feel so special and that she and her mom had slept in a car the night before because they had no place to go. Right now we're preparing, potentially with the help of Jim McGovern to kick off our efforts on hunger for our next service campaign. So many of our young people are going to be serving food pantries that serve their family. Carolyn: I remember distinctly, one of my young women writing in her reflections after service about, it was one of her proudest moments. She brought her grandmother shopping. She put in air quotes at the food pantry, and he said, "And my grandmother was taking cans off the shelf that I had placed the day before- Jamie: Wow. Carolyn: ... from the donations I had collected." And she said, "And it made me so proud that- Jamie: Wow. Carolyn: ... I was helping my grandma, but I was also helping all these other families." Jamie: Wow, how powerful? For eighth-graders. It's amazing. Carolyn: It is amazing. And then the other is that on the other end of the spectrum, you have these young people who know that they're from families of good fortune, but have such sensitivity and then struggle. Every year on launch day, you may recall this, that we always have a couple of young people who stand up and have a tremendous sense of guilt- Jamie: Yes. Carolyn: ... because their family has resources. Governor Patrick would always say... and he was always so compassionate and he would always go right over to the young person and put his hand on their shoulder and say, "I hear you. I hear you and I understand what you're saying, but it's a good thing that you're blessed. It's a good thing that you're blessed. But your reaction shouldn't be guilt, your reaction should be generosity, engagement, compassion. And that's what you're doing right now." Carolyn: He had four classes of ambassadors every year, it was an experience at that because there was always one young person who would say, "I was at Cradles to Crayons, we ran out of socks and this morning going from my bed to the shower, I stepped over like 100 pairs of socks and I feel so guilty that I don't respect my socks." So it's that awakening and empowering across all demographics and backgrounds and life experiences. That's what Dr. King tells us, right? Everybody can be great. Right? Jamie: Exactly right. Everyone can learn from each other, learn from each other lived experiences and share your lived experiences with one another. That's one of the many powerful things about Project 351, and that exposure that these young men and women get. One question I would have, I always might have ask you this. These students, the young men and women, these young leaders are facing a lot of challenges in their lives. Jamie: Whether it be hunger or whether it be what's going on in the world, how have those changed over the past 10 years since the Project 351 was first founded? Have their lives gotten more complicated or have things stayed the same? I'm just curious about their lived experience, because you're keeping up with the world through their eyes, and you're helping them deal with the, not the outside world, it's the real world, I don't know how to describe it, but. And how has that affected Project 351 and these young, remarkable men and women? Carolyn: There has been a stark change in the last four years of what our young people are dealing with, and right now is very intense. Mental health challenges for young people, especially at this age group, so middle school are spiking. They're spiking and then COVID has made it worse. Social isolation, the fact that they aren't able to be with their friends and socialize. But we have had in the last, really the last three years, a lot of very deep and painful conversations around identity. Carolyn: Either because of their race, or gender, or gender identity, or who they love, and those young people feeling under attack and how that affects them and their self-confidence and self self-worth. The last probably six months have been... I will say there is a difference between our ambassadors in eighth grade and then our alumni leadership council, which you know is our governance body and they are the mentors to the eighth-graders. Carolyn: We put our eighth-graders for 12 months, they're 45 teams, geographically diverse to build those relationships that we talked about across all metrics of demographics. And those are named after service heroes, so John Lewis, Malala, Mandela, we have a Governor Patrick team, a Governor... Team, Devin McCourty team. So people who we consider service heroes and those are led by a high school alum, who's trained to be a mentor and team leader for 12 months. Carolyn: Our high school and college alumni are very... there's activism and it's across the political spectrum and across the causes right now that are very dominant, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, so within our community. Of course, it's a microcosm of the world and a microcosm of Massachusetts. We have those perspectives and work to... What we are trying to do is trying to model and teach how to respect... how to have empathy, first of all, and respect for the dignity of all. Carolyn: And how to be an active and engaged listener where you may not leave a conversation condensed, but that you have been respectful and maybe you've learned something. It might not be enough to convince you in another direction, but the idea... So we're doing work on that now, how can we be more directive and deliberative around teaching collaborative leadership models and skill around communication. Carolyn: So civic dialogue, how do you do that in an authentic way, but in a way that respects the opinions of all? Jamie: That's so important. And you've mentioned this word a couple of times, empathy, teaching them empathy. To put themselves into other people's shoes and understand that we all come to the table with our own backgrounds, and our own perspectives, and how to listen and learn. Doesn't mean sacrificing and giving up what you believe in, but it actually, I think you grow in your own understanding of your own beliefs by listening to others and learning from others. Carolyn: Absolutely. Jamie: And I think that's a powerful thing. And Project 351 represents that because it was started by a Democratic governor and now very much supported by the current governor, Charlie Baker, who's a big supporter- Carolyn: Huge. Jamie: ... and he's always at launch day. Carolyn: Lauren. Jamie: And first lady Lauren is a force. It's one example how they can... I know you've made that point before that it's a bipartisan organization in that way that it started by Democrat and has continued and supported by a Republican. I think- Carolyn: I think ... sorry. Jamie: No, no. Go ahead. Carolyn: No, I was going to say, I think one of the things that feels just more and more important to starting Project 351, part of it is, it's marveled at the fact that if you just deeply believe in young people and are consistent in that messaging, where it's like I always tell... We have a very small team, but I always tell our team, I'm like, "I want Project 351 to be the source of affirmation only, like we believe you can do it," and constant, every day. Carolyn: And because then they believe it and they do, but you need to... One, you need the affirmation, two, they need the platform, then they need the tools, and then they need the microphone. Right? Jamie: Yeah. Carolyn: So their voice. That combination is also important right now, which is to say, because one of the things I fear is this just escalating violence as we get closer to the election, it terrifies me. I'm 54 years old, so I being the young person at this time, how terrified they must be or scared maybe. So how do we model and teach, create that form, create that affirmation, give them the tools and the platform, hand them the microphone, but in a way that is about, like you said, empathy, that is about inclusion. That's about deescalation around these issues that are polarizing, so that they can... Carolyn: And that's one of the things, I just did the end of week email to them. And I was closing it by saying that these are challenging times, but we have the opportunity to demonstrate when we serve and when we lead with compassion, that love wins and that you can unite through empathy and compassion. And how proud I am of them for continuing to do that work during these challenging times. And that adults are paying attention to them, those eighth-graders and those high school students. Jamie: That's right. Well, I have to say, one thing that being involved in this organization has given me is hope. Hope in the future, not only because of the young leaders and obviously definitely because of them, but also because of you and because of the people who are involved in the Project 351 family. People who show up just to volunteer for one of the events or serve as a bus captains who are just there. The adults in the room, so to speak, who are inspired and are inspiring is what I would say. Jamie: I think they also serve as an example, and in this day and age, I think we all could use a little hope. So thank you, Carolyn, appreciate it very much. Tell people how they can learn more about Project 351. Carolyn: Sure. You're the best. Before I do that, I want to just make sure one group that I didn't recognize, which is so important, because it's full circle coming back to my dad and mom is Project 351 would be impossible without our educators. Jamie: Yes. Carolyn: And I know that so many graduates of Holy Cross are either teachers or in the education field. Little shout out to my friend, Danielle who's an educator and others out there who are educators, and especially now with COVID what those professionals have been managing and experiencing and doing what they can to ensure that children are educated during this time remote or otherwise. Carolyn: I would be remiss if I didn't, because ours is a school-based model, partnering with schools to build social and emotional learning skills. And we're very outcomes-based, which is a little more wonky to get into, but an important part of what we're trying to do is trying to be a solution provider for school districts who are looking to build character, education, civic, engagement, social, and emotional learning and to build unity around diverse communities. Carolyn: And so I just want to make sure I appreciate all the educators and certainly my parents who were educators and extraordinary teachers and my siblings who aren't educators, but teach me every day still. Jamie: Thank you. Carolyn: Oh, how can they find out. You can come visit Project 351. We are www.project351.org and we welcome... Obviously with COVID, we're doing everything virtual, we're sort of... but one thing in terms of hope, you would think that the environment our young people are in and COVID, social distancing, and our engagement, our service impact has gone up. Jamie: Really? Carolyn: We're doing 9/11 tribute service which honors and remembers through service our largest in history. Our spring service with like 514 projects. Young people are looking to make a difference, they're looking for meaning, they're looking for connection. They want to be part of building the beloved community and creating opportunity for their neighbors. And if you want to be a part, we're a .org. Normally we have volunteer opportunities on launch day and reunion, and hopefully we'll get back to that in 2021. Carolyn: We're always grateful if anybody wants to support us financially because we're a small organization, but we leverage every dollar because we have this extraordinary volunteer army across the state. And so, grateful for the time, grateful to Maura for inviting me to be part of this, and to you, Jamie who's somebody that we hold up at Project 351 as leader, and friend, and role model and you made this so easy. I was so nervous and... Jamie: I really appreciate all you do, and I appreciate who you are, and I appreciate all your contributions. It really is comforting to know that there are people like you out there and there's a future generation who we're putting a lot on their shoulders to be sure, but I think they can carry it. I think they can carry it. And it gives me comfort to hear that, but thank you. This has been a lovely conversation. Carolyn: Thank you, and thank you to... If anyone listening, we just say thank you for sharing time with Jamie and me. Jamie: Thank you. Maura: That's our show. I hope you enjoyed hearing about just one of the many ways that Holy Cross alumni have been inspired by the mission to be people for and with others. A special thanks to today's guests and everyone at Holy Cross who has contributed to making this podcast a reality. If you or someone you know would like to be featured on this podcast, then please send us an email at alumnicareers@holycross.edu. If you like what you hear, then please leave us a review. This podcast is brought to you by the Office of Alumni Relations at the College of the Holy cross. You can subscribe for future episodes wherever you find your podcasts. I'm your host Maura Sweeney and this is Mission-Driven. In the words of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, now go forth and set the world on fire. Theme music composed by Scott Holmes, courtesy of freemusicarchive.org.

We really pleased to announce a new podcast that Tyler Breuer has been working on with Matt Warshaw of the Encyclopedia of Surfing, David Scales of Surf Splendor Podcasts and my brother Jamie It’s called the Sunday Joint. Think Car Talk meets Encyclopedia of Surf meets High Fidelity. A preview of the first episode is now streaming on WAX. On the premiere episode of the Sunday Joint with Tyler & Jamie Breuer, the boys dismantle, rearrange, and neatly place back on the shelf the 13 Biggest moments in Surf of the 21st century. Then it's on to the St. Christopher surf-themed medallion, which causes Tyler to question his fashion choices as a grommet, as he wore the medallion while also wearing Z-Cavariccis & a white turtleneck. The brothers finish off the episode with a round of "Stump my Bro!" Tyler asks Jamie one question related to Matt Warshaw's Sunday Joint newsletter. Jamies does the same to Tyler. Alcohol is involved. All this and more on the opening episode of the Sunday Joint, an Encyclopedia of Surfing podcast. Distributed by The Surf Splendor.www.eos.surf

Joe Fontenot: All right. We are recording. Okay. Jamie Dew. Jamie Dew: Yep. Joe: You are the president of the seminary. Jamie: Newly elected. Joe: New Orleans Seminary. Jamie: Two months ago. Joe: That's right. We're glad you're here. Jamie: Thank you. Joe: Glad to have you on the podcast. Jamie: Glad to be here. Joe: I wanted to ask you some questions, namely around why you're here. Jamie: Okay. Joe: You, born and raised in North Carolina. Jamie: Right. Joe: You were with Southeastern for a long time. Jamie: 19 years. Joe: 19, wow. I didn't know it was 19 years. Jamie: Yep, yep. Joe: Yeah. Jamie: As a student, then Ph.D. student, teacher, administrator. Yep. Joe: Right. So well into that world, both Southeastern seminary but also just North Carolina. And then you came to New Orleans. In a lot of ways, Louisiana is a typical Southern state. In a lot of ways. Broad blanket there. But New Orleans, culturally, yeah, it's kind of like this island. Jamie: Yeah. Joe: Culturally. And so what are some of the things that have surprised you since you've been here? Jamie: Oh, okay. Yeah. That's a great question. You're right, I was very surprised at how different the city of New Orleans is from the actual state. Jamie: And you know, it's funny. Throughout the search process, the search committee occasionally in some of those meetings, they would reference that or they'd say something about it. I didn't think too much about it. I was like oh, they keep saying New Orleans is not the South. But I didn't believe them. Joe: Everybody says their stuff's special. Jamie: Yeah. That's right. So that's kind of the normal thing. And then you get here and you realize oh wait, they were serious about that. This is just not the South, in so many different ways. I mean it doesn't have ... it's a very culturally diverse city. It's a very European city. And that becomes obvious pretty quickly when you ride around. Especially when you eat the food, because it's fantastic. Jamie: And everybody says oh, the food's amazing. And I thought yeah, okay, everybody says they got great barbecue and stuff like that. But my word. The food here's delicious. And so you do. You see the difference of this city than really anything else you're going to see in the South. And so people had said that kind of thing, I didn't really believe them. But getting here, I totally see that now. Jamie: Because you've got racial diversity, you've got cultural diversity, you've got economic diversity, you've got religious diversity here. It really is a melting pot of everything. The good, the bad, the hard, the easy. There's fun things. There's challenging things. And I think it comes together to really create a very unique sort of concoction of culture that I really have never experienced in any other city. Jamie: That really did surprise me, I'd have to say. And then I'd say ... I mention one other thing that surprised me. This is a very happy city. And that I totally didn't see coming. Not that I thought I was going to get down here and people were going to be sad or mad or anything. But I think it's easy for people, especially maybe the Southern Baptist Convention, they still tend to view the city with this post-Katrina lens. What they saw, very vividly- Joe: Blight. Jamie: In a sea of that brokenness ... yeah, was difficulty and strife and sorrow and struggle and all these things. And indeed, all that was real. All of that really did happen. But the city in so many different places has bounced back. And more importantly, it's pretty obvious that however difficult all that was, it didn't break the spirit of this city. Tara and I, we came down, it was for my last interview, some of my interviews were on different parts of the country. And some of my interviews were in different parts of this state. Jamie: And then the last interview was here in the city of New Orleans. We came down about a day and a half before the actual interview. This last interview was set up to meet my ... for them to meet my wife. But it was also set up to give us an opportunity to see the city. And they wanted us to have some time well before the actual interview for she and I just to walk around the city and be in the city. And see it and eat the food and check the culture and everything. Jamie: So the first morning, we got in late one night, first morning we got up it was breakfast time. We drove into the French Quarter, we went to the famous Café du Monde and we're sitting there eating our beignets and our café au laits. It's about 8:30 in the morning. Jamie: And they were sitting outside under this awning, watching the French Quarter. And this guy walks up with a trombone and he just starts playing the blues. And next thing you know a saxophone and then the next thing you know a trumpet, and then somebody with a bass drum and then somebody with a snare drum. Jamie: And the next thing you know, you've got this full band. Just sitting there playing. And they're having a fantastic time. Which was really cool. You certainly don't get that in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where we're from. Jamie: And but what really struck is as this sort of random impromptu band struck up a concert for the people there, of course they were collecting money and stuff like that. That was fine. I actually gave them some money. Joe: They make good money, by the way. Jamie: They do. And rightly so. It's genuinely entertaining and joyful. But as they started to play, there were all these street workers that were responsible for cleaning the streets and stuff like that and city maintenance people, and they're walking down the street with their little broom and their sweeper. Jamie: And they're sweeping up the cigarette butts that are on the street. And they're just dancing to the band and that impromptu struck up a concert there for us. And Tara and I, we looked at each other and we just thought wow. You never get anything like that in North Carolina. This is genuinely cool. Jamie: And that was a typifying example of a city that we found to be a very happy, joyful city. That's really neat. Joe: That's a great example. Because New Orleans is a city that's kind of like Las Vegas in a sense. People, they think of Las Vegas and they think of the strip. There's not much else you think about. But Las Vegas is a big place. It's got a lot of good things going for it that are very much nothing to do with the strip. And I think a lot of people, they think about New Orleans, they think about seedy Bourbon Street. Which was about two blocks from where you were. Parallel anyway. Joe: And so then they also think about parades and then seedy parades. And the interesting thing is, my in-laws came down recently and we went to a parade in Metairie. Which is a suburb area and it's a very family-oriented thing and they're like yeah, we had a lot of fun and all this kind of stuff. And it's like yeah. There's only 10% of them you need to stay away from. 90% of them are actually normal. Jamie: That's actually another surprise. Coming from a non-New Orleans background, you come into the city, Mardi Gras has the reputation I think throughout a lot of the South, and maybe our whole culture, of being the very very naughty thing that people do. Joe: Exactly. Jamie: You only do that if you're a certain kind of person. So your point, everybody here does Mardi Gras. And there's all sorts of family friendly ones. And so that's been a neat surprise as well. Joe: Yeah. Well, that's interesting. What have been some of the biggest adjustments? I know you haven't been here for a long time. But I feel like it's also very still fresh. Jamie: Yeah. Joe: You know? And so what have been some of the biggest adjustments you've had to make? Jamie: Well, some of them are I'd say professional and then some of them are cultural. So professionally I've never been a president. Joe: I want to come back to that in a minute. Okay, yeah, yeah. Jamie: I've never been a president and you learn that in some ways it's actually your call now and you have more authority to do what you feel like God's put in your heart to do. But you still have to lead in many of the same ways. Jamie: So for example, at my previous job I had to ... if I wanted to pull off initiative X in my role as the dean of the college at Southeastern, I had to win the support of other vice presidents and things like that, to help get them to pull the rope with me on those tasks. Jamie: Here I may not have to necessarily get anybody's approval in that way, but it would still ... it would be profoundly foolish of me to just lead with an iron fist and demand. You still have to win the support. Because even though maybe I have that authority vested in me, it still is going to function vastly better and create an environment with the ethos that I would want this place to have, if we're getting people to buy into it. Jamie: And so that's new. There's always adjustments on that type of thing. Then I would say culturally two things. One has to do with the weather and one has to do with traffic. Jamie: The weather here, everybody told us, and this kind of goes back to the surprise. Everybody's like dude, it's so stinking hot there. And I believed them and I was prepared, I was really really prepared to walk outside and melt. I actually have to say, in some ways I feel like North Carolina in the summertime is hotter. But it does not have the humidity. So for example you'd walk outside there in the heat and the scorching summers and the sun felt like it was genuinely cooking you in that moment and your body just starts pouring sweat as a result. Jamie: Here you don't necessarily feel like that. But you feel like you walk outside and the air gives you a hug. Yeah. Joe: That's the best euphemism for our humidity I've ever heard. Jamie: It seeps into your clothing and it wraps itself around you. And you're damp all the time. Joe: So come to New Orleans. Jamie: Yeah. I'm a blue jeans kind of guy, I'm wearing blue jeans right now. And blue jeans are like wearing a wool blanket, as it turns out, down here in New Orleans. And so you don't want to do that, as often as you can. Traffic is ... oh. Gosh, I'm 42 years old, I've had my driver's license since I was 16. I've got a lot of driving experience. I feel like a brand new kid in the car again. Joe: Yeah. Jamie: Just the traffic. The traffic patterns are different. This whole median, or what is it, neutral ground? Joe: The neutral ground. Jamie: Space and turning left across those where you'll have actually not one but two stoplights. And sometimes you can run those stoplights, evidently, and sometimes you can't. And your light may have just turned green, but you really don't want to just take off. You need to look and actually make sure nobody's blazing through there. Jamie: So I feel like I'm having to learn to drive again and I'm certainly questioning my blue jeans wardrobe that I tend to wear. And learning the ropes of what it means to be president. Joe: You know, this is funny because New Orleans, sometimes people say it is America's third world city. And yeah, you're like eh, yeah, I could see that. That's right. It's got all the laws but it doesn't really have the behavior. And I think probably the best spin for that is this is the greatest place to come and learn to do missions. Because you step outside of a normal culture, in many ways. You're so close to it. Joe: You drive 70 miles and you're in Baton Rouge, which is pretty normal in a lot of ways, city in the South. But it's the capital of our state. But in a lot of ways you're here, and it is just a very different cultural experience. Jamie: That's right. And I think that ... look, I'm genuinely grateful for all six of our seminaries. We're doing fantastic work. Joe: Absolutely. Jamie: It's a joy to have six that are strong. And I think that the theological diversity between the seminaries, and then also the diversity in specializations and niches that we each have, is ... I think that's genuinely valuable to the body of Christ and to the Southern Baptist Convention. Jamie: We need, with some 15 million Southern Baptists, we genuinely need six seminaries that have distinctions and differences. And I lament and grieve over the fact that often we fight over those things and we pit ourselves against these. Jamie: I'm not saying necessarily seminaries do that. But those types of trends happen in our midst and I think it's a blessing to us that we really are so distinct. One thing that I think New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College can do exceptionally well in theological education for Southern Baptists is we can give students a very unique cultural experience while they're doing theological education. Jamie: If you're going to go, for example, to be a missionary in say Europe or Afghanistan or anything else, now granted I'm not saying our culture here is like Afghanistan. It's not. But the skillset and the tool set you've got to have to do ministry here, if you can learn that tool set here, you can then employ that in any context. Jamie: And so I think that New Orleans gives a student the opportunity to ... a laboratory if you will, to constantly work on and thing through contextualization. Which is vital to the proclamation of the gospel. And I think that we have a real advantage there. Joe: I definitely agree. I think NAMB agrees too. Because New Orleans is really not a big place. Yet it's still one of their send cities. Jamie: That's right, that's right. Joe: We have NAMB representatives here and they talk about some of the things, and it really is true. Jamie: Yeah. And another thing within that. What I've said to students recently, look, the city in the context you have the laboratory itself, is remarkable for ministry preparation. But then also the faculty that we have here is really unique and distinct. The faculty here, you can say virtually every faculty member we have is knee deep involved in vocational ministry in local church context in this setting. And this is a setting where there's difficulty and challenge and you have to do contextualization. Jamie: And if you can do ministry here, you can do it anywhere. And this faculty is doing that ministry here. And so therefore they have, I think, firsthand experience in a very unique way that I just don't know a lot of seminaries have that opportunity. And so where better, and who better from, to learn how to do ministry than right here at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College. Joe: Let me ask you a question. Jamie: Okay. Joe: You mentioned something earlier and I wanted to go back to this, because I thought it was an interesting point. A lot of times when God is calling us to something, it's not always something that we recognize or we've done before or we can even compare to something else. Right? So a lot of times part of what's going on inside of us is we are deciphering God's calling. Is he really calling me to this or do I just want this? You know, how does that look. Joe: You have talked before about how God called you here. You've never been a president before, there's not really a lot of presidents of seminaries and this kind of thing, so the pool gets really small. You talk to people and kind of get a flavor of this. How did you know, really, that God was calling you here? Jamie: I could talk for hours about this. I got overwhelmed and bombarded from every angle and vantage point that a human being could possibly be spoken to, in terms of confirmation. Jamie: To start off with, I was not ... there were so many things about this that got my attention. And it got my attention in a way that, as it happened, I couldn't doubt that this was something that the Lord was doing. Jamie: So for example, I personally did not want to be a president of a seminary. I wondered from time to time when people asked me if I ever had aspirations to be a president, maybe something like a college or university at some point one day. Because I was a dean of college, I loved college life. It's funny that I ever even thought that, though, because looking back on it I actually don't know anything about universities. Jamie: So I don't know why, in my mind, I thought that would've been it. I know quite a bit about seminaries, though. But my passion was college and so I thought that. I saw ... oh, let's just be frank about it. The Southern Baptist Convention can be volatile a lot of times. There are often storms that are raging. And here I am taking the helm of a ship and sailing it into a storm. Jamie: That did not sound appealing to me at all. And in fact it still doesn't sound appealing to me. And so this has forced me to my knees and my prayer life has never been as vibrant as it has been in the last eight months. But I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to pursue it. I had friends encourage me to quote on quote put my name in for it. I refused to do it. They pressed me on it, I kept on saying no, absolutely not, I have no desire to do it. Jamie: And it had nothing to do with New Orleans itself that I didn't want to be here. It's just I didn't want to be a seminary president. And I wanted to stay right there in Wake Forest where I was. That's where my family is. Joe: It's your home. Jamie: That's right. It's 40 years. It's like home-home. I didn't move there and it become home. I mean that's where I grew up. And so I had no interest in doing it. And Bob Stewart on faculty here is the guy that was approaching me, saying, "Come on, man. Come on." And I was just like, "Bob, I'm not doing it. I can't do it." Jamie: And he says, "Man, don't you feel like maybe you need to open your hands and see if that's what the Lord would do?" And I said, "Look, Bob. If God did something and made it clear to me that I'm supposed to do this, obviously I'd have to pray about this. But that's the only way I could do it." Jamie: And he said, "Well, what would that look like? For you to think that this is God, not you." And I said, "Hmm. I don't know. Me putting my name in it and trying to get it." Look, if I had half of a spiritual life and I had gone that route, and it goes somewhere, I would have to wonder is this God or is this me. Did I do this or did he do this? And I said to him, "Listen. If I cannot pursue this, if God wants me to do this, he knows exactly where to find me. If the search committee knew who I was for some reason." Which they didn't at that time. Jamie: And they thought that I was somebody that has to be pursued, then I would obviously have to pray through it. And so that was in November of 2018. Just a couple ... oh gosh, almost about 10 months ago now. Jamie: And he said, "Okay." And we got up from the table and we left and November ended and I didn't hear anything. And December ended, I didn't hear anything. And January came, and by that point I'd heard it was something like January 8th was the deadline if you wanted to put your name in for consideration, if you wanted to do that. Put your name in and they might consider you or something. Jamie: January 8th came and went, I didn't put my name in. I went on with my life. I completely forgot about New Orleans, aside from the fact that I was praying for the next president every time I would think about it. Jamie: And on I think it was January 18th, 10 days after the date for submitting your stuff closed, I was preparing to go to England to defend the dissertation for that second degree I did. And I got an email from Frank Cox, the chair of the search committee. Jamie: And he introduced himself and he said someone gave us your name as someone to consider. Joe: Was it Bob? Jamie: It was Bob. Yeah. Joe: For our listeners, Bob's going to be on the podcast later in this season. Jamie: He's a faculty member here. He was my sub reader on my dissertation 10 years ago. And we've gotten to be friends since then. Jamie: Anyway. Frank emails me and I thought ... well, by that point they obviously had seen my resume and everything. And so sure enough, the committee had seen me and thought that I was someone they needed to talk to. I called Danny Aiken, who is my president that I served under there and a mentor to me, and I talked to Ryan Hutchinson. And I talked to Chuck Lawless and I talked to my pastor. Jamie: And I talked to my dad. And all of them really pressed me and said ... my dad of course did not want me to go. But he even said, and this got my attention, he even said, "Jamie, you have to fill out that questionnaire." And I thought doggone it. And Chuck Lawless aid, "Jamie, you'll be being disobedient if you don't do it." So I said, "Okay. Well, I guess I'll fill out the questionnaire." And surely I'll fill it out and I'll ... they'll move on, I won't be the guy. Jamie: Rewind a bit. In 2008, New Orleans actually, I don't want to say came after me, but came to me to talk to me about joining the faculty in 2008. And a long story short, it was not the moment in our life that we could move down. From a family perspective, it was not what it wanted to be. And I don't think she'd mind me telling you this. My wife was not crazy about moving down here, mostly because of moving away from family. Joe: Almost nobody who comes from any of that area is crazy about coming. I've never met anybody who is. My wife's same thing. She comes from Tennessee, which is a little bit further, east Tennessee. Jamie: And for her it was mostly family. Her family's there and everything. And so she did not want to do it. And looking back, I have no doubt in God's providence things turned out the way it was supposed to be. But let's just say since then I always have a fear that maybe my wife would not be open-handed with this. And when that ... I came home that afternoon and told her what had happened, and even she was like we have to see if this is what the Lord would have us do. Jamie: And I'm like why is everybody saying this to me? And at first I was like me? I mean I'm not a president. I had not been the guy that was an SBC mover and shaker. That's not who I am. I just didn't have those connections and nobody knew who I was. Jamie: In fact, I asked Frank Cox once. I said, "When this process started, did any of you even know who I was?" And he said, "Nope. We didn't." So anyway. I can keep telling the story, but bottom line is throughout the process I did fill out the questionnaire, I answered things in stone cold, honest, straight up fashion as I possibly could. I just knew that I would probably be off-putting to the committee and offensive. Jamie: And I got a phone call a couple weeks later that I was in the top four and they wanted to talk to me. And I went into my first interview in Denver, is where we were. I went into that meeting looking for a way to get out, because I just assumed that they were looking for something that I'm not. Jamie: And I had no interest in being anything other than what I felt like God made me to be and do. And I needed in that meeting to be stone cold honest with them about what I am and what I'm not. And I went in the meeting and the meeting took a drastic turn into candor and frankness immediately. And I was able to share here's who I am and here's who I'm not. And I'm not going to be the guy that's coming in here trying to strut New Orleans and suggest that we're better than everybody else. Jamie: I just have no interest in doing those types of things. But I want very badly, wherever I sit, whether I stay as a dean of the college, end up as the president of New Orleans, or go somewhere else, no matter what job I perform all I want to do with my life is train up a generation of servants. People that will serve the broken and be faithful to Christ. Jamie: And I began to talk about that. And I could tell something was happening in the room. But I didn't know if I was offending people or lighting a fire. I didn't know. By the end of the meeting I had a pretty clear sense that something just happened. And I don't know. I knew there were still four people in it at that moment. I was checking myself constantly to not be arrogant and think that it was mine, because I didn't necessarily think it was mine. Jamie: But in the back of my mind, at the same time- Joe: Something has shifted. Jamie: Something had shifted. And that was March 20th, 2019. And I got on the plane the next morning early early, like a 5:30 flight to fly back to Wake Forest. And I sobbed and I wept the entire flight home because in the back of my mind I kind of had this sense that I was going to be forced to let go of my beloved college at Southeastern. Jamie: I mean my heart and my soul was in that college. And it was impossible for me to imagine doing anything different. But there was this clear sense that the Lord was going to take that from me. And that's how I felt about it. This was mine, I loved it. And no, it's not yours, it's mine. And I'm going to give you something else and you're going to love it just as much. Jamie: And I didn't ... I had a hard time believing that, on that flight back. And I sobbed and sobbed and I came home that day and I said to Tara, my wife, I said, "I just am afraid that I'm going to end up in a job God calls me to, granted, that I'll never love as much as this one. And a people that I'll never be able to love as much as I have them." Jamie: And I don't know how else to explain it other than from that moment, March 21st, that morning when I sobbed all the way home, till the next month and a half as I continued through the interview process, the grieving of letting go of Southeastern lessened more and more every day. I still grieved, but less. Jamie: And simultaneously, as I ceased grieving as much in degrees by every day, vision and desire began to take root in my heart for New Orleans. I don't know how else to say it other than God began to put this people in my heart and in my mind. And I could not sleep at night. Jamie: My second interview, I showed up and Frank Cox picked me up that morning about 7:30 in the morning. He said, "How'd you sleep?" And I said, "Frank, I haven't slept in a month and a half." Because, I kid you not, every single night all I could dream about was New Orleans. Programs, degrees, people, graduates, recruits, fundraising, the whole gamut of it all. The Lord was just bombarding my heart and soul. Jamie: And now I sit here and as much as I loved the college at Southeastern and my students, it's impossible for me to imagine being back there now. And it's impossible for me to imagine not being right here right now. Joe: Had you ever been through anything like that before? Jamie: Not like that. This calling was very distinct. But I would say ... so I've been a Christian for 24 years. Not the oldest in Christ by any stretch, but certainly got some street cred. And when you walk with Christ, the nice thing about getting older in Jesus is that your life, you get more reps with him, day after day after day. And you've had more chances. It's not that you get smarter or better yourself. But over time you just had the opportunity to see him be faithful, again and again and again and again. Jamie: And it becomes, I think, easier in some ways, to believe that he just might do something here. And I had never had, in that 24 years, these are not everyday occurrences, right? These moments when God just grabs your heart and turns your head and your mind to something. Joe: For sure. Jamie: But I can point to four or five moments in those 24 years where I can say definitively God called me to it. I don't use that language of calling lightly. And I don't think we should. But I remember the night that I came to faith in Christ, June 16th, 1995. I knew that night, after coming out of the drugs and the alcohol and the womanizing and all that stuff and the brokenness and the arrests, I knew that he had just changed everything for me. Jamie: And I was so grateful and so overwhelmed and so overcome by the love of Christ that I knew not only that night that I was home in Christ, but I also knew that I would spend the rest of my life serving him. Whatever that meant. I didn't understand callings, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know that you could make a career out of being a preacher. I didn't know any of those things. Jamie: So I didn't know what that meant or looked like, but I knew I would spend the rest of my life serving Christ. And the Lord, for about eight months, just confirmed and confirmed and confirmed. Because I wanted to go in the military. I wanted to fly jets, that's what I wanted to do. I have vertigo, I could never fly jets. I'd pass out up there when I was doing turns. Joe: We have air shows here so you can go watch. Jamie: I know that God, knew that God, was calling me. I knew again years later when I went to go be the pastor of Stony Hill Baptist Church in 2004, in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Right at the beginning of my Ph.D. program there. Jamie: Very clear. I had a sense, the morning I handed in my resume. A friend of mine asked me, it was my eye doctor, my buddy Jay. He asked me for my resume and a tape. I dropped it off at his office, drove out to the church, and I drove up in the gravel parking lot of that church. Jamie: And I knew they had other people they were going to look at and interview. I knew that. And they were good candidates. It's not that I thought I was better. But I knew God had called me to the pastor of that church, and I pastored there for eight and a half years. I knew the day that I was asked to be the dean of the college at Southeastern that God was calling me to do that. And I know now, with everything in me, that God has called me to be here to do this. Jamie: And it does not make sense to me, in a lot of ways, because I'm probably very atypical as a president in lots and lots of ways. But I like to build stuff. I love to renovate stuff. Whether that's something physical like a house, we renovated our house in Wake Forest. Or it's a degree program or it's a college or a seminary. Jamie: I love taking something with good bones and developing it and flourishing it and renovating it and renewing and restoring. And I look at this place and I think holy moly, this place has got good bones. We could do so much cool stuff here. Joe: One thing, our office monitors all of the social media chatter and all of this kind of stuff. And we just on and on. And so we see all the comments everywhere. Joe: And as a reflection of what you just said, I think people are really excited that you're here. And I know you don't like a lot of me focused language, which we are liking this everything. But we haven't heard a single negative comment. Joe: We haven't had to hide anything or be like oh, that's in appropriate. You know? Jamie: Yeah. Joe: It hasn't been that at all. It's been a very fluid, happy transition. And it's been surprising, just because you just don't see that. I'm very thankful. Jamie: I'm very thankful for that. To be honest with you, that was one of the reasons I didn't want to be a president. I had no desire to lift my hand up and say me, I'll do it, put a target on my back. That sounds awful, to be honest with you. I'm not a perfect man, though. I'm grateful that it's been so well received. Maybe it's because I have the good fortune of being a normal human being prior to being an academic, or even being a pastor to be honest. Jamie: But I've made ... I know what I've done. I know what my mistakes have been. And I shouldn't be here. There's the bottom line, I shouldn't be here. I've done horrible things. Yet Christ has redeemed and restored. And so I would simply say I know I'm going to make my mistakes. I know I have made my mistakes. And some of this probably a bit of a honeymoon. Maybe there's an encouragement that I seem to be a rather normal guy. And I do feel like I'm a rather normal guy. Joe: You wore shorts the other day. I saw you. Jamie: I did, wore shorts. That's right. I ride down the road and my kids make funny sounds out of the car. But I make my mistakes, I know that I will. Jamie: And there'll be times I have to ask for forgiveness, or I have to correct something. But man, I tell you, I feel the magnitude of this responsibility. And this process and now this presidency has forced me to my knees in ways that really, gosh, it's been since I was a young, young, young man in Christ. Jamie: And that has been sweet. Joe: I think that's really a great testament to the picture, the bigger picture, of what's going on anyway. Like you described, you weren't looking for this. But God said this is what I want now and the transition just happened to, from our perspective, work really well. And so I feel like that all is the same story being told from different angles. Joe: I have another question for you. When we do things in life, whenever we go over and beyond, we're often driven by passion or a burden. When somebody, probably somebody famous, said I can tell you what you value, let me see your calendar and your bank account, that kind of thing, because that's where you're going to spend your time and your money is what you care about. Joe: So the question I have is you for that. What are the things that are burdening you specifically for NOBTS right now? What is your passion project, so to speak? Where is your effort pointed right now for NOBTS? Jamie: Yeah, great question. I would ... really two fronts is where my mind is constantly turning at this point. One has to do with big picture, 30,000 foot vision type of stuff that has to do with the ethos of the school. And then there's another set of questions that I'm always churning on that are very, very practical and strategic. Let me start with the ethos types of things. Jamie: I am struck. I'm like everybody else, to varying degrees. There was once a point in my life where it mattered to me very, very, very much that I be somebody intellectually and academically. You know? And so the press to publish and the press to do the degrees and all these things, there were lots of reasons I did that second Ph.D. But one of them was man, I just really wasn't satisfied yet academically. I wanted to keep driving. Jamie: And through way more things than I can talk about right here of how the Lord worked to break my heart of those things, maybe that's another podcast for another day. Joe: We could do that. Jamie: The Lord just broke me and humbled me and reminded me of who I am and who I come from. And I don't care about that anymore. I really don't care if I ever get to publish another book, to be honest with you. Jamie: I will and I'm scheduled to and I'm working on something. Joe: So if the publisher's listening… Jamie: Publishers, I'll get it to you, I promise. But I don't care. And I think it's become acutely aware for me that despite the fact that we're in a moment right now where people know my name, and even talk about me and maybe watch little videos about me or read articles about me or whatever else, here's the deal. Jamie: This world will forget my name. That's the bottom line. The day I die, the people that come to my funeral are going to sit there and cry for a minute. And then they're going to go eat some fried chicken and move on with their life. And there'll come a point where even my own descendants, probably two or three or, not two. But maybe three or four generations down, my own great great great grandchildren won't know who I am. That's family. Jamie: That's my reality. That's your reality. That's everybody's reality. So we should all remember that the fame for which we are laboring and striving for, the worship of our own name, that idol that we so often bow down to, is, as Ecclesiastes says, vanity of all vanities. I will be forgotten. And this school will one day be forgotten. And we should remember that. Now, the work that we do will not. The work that we do will last forever. Jamie: With that in mind, here's what I want this school to be about. I want us to be a people that first and foremost above everything else are servants. If I can be honest, I love being a Southern Baptist. There's no other denomination I would want to be a part of. There really isn't. There's so many good, wonderful things about us. But in our worst version of ourselves, we can peacock. We can strut and we can puff ourselves up, we can look, show off how big we are and how special we are. And it's all vain. We'll all be forgotten one day. Jamie: I want to train up a generation of people, I want to be a leader that, above everything else, just serve. And be willing, like Christ, to take the towel and the basin. Look, Paul says this. And we nerd out in Philippians 2 about the kenosis passage. Jesus emptying himself, he is God. It's one of these great Christological statements that Jesus is equal with God. Jamie: Yeah, I get it. That theological point is there. But that is not the point of that passage. The point of that passage is what Paul is saying about Jesus he says as an illustration to the point. You, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, that though he was God he humbled himself and became a servant. Jamie: In other words, you're supposed to do that. I'm supposed to do that. This is what his followers are supposed to do. I want to be a part of training up a generation that they care vastly more about advancing Christ and his kingdom and serving the broken and the lost in the name of Christ than they do about getting their own church or having their own Twitter account with lots and lots of followers, or fill in the blank of whatever it is. Jamie: That's first and foremost. Then I'd say two other things on the ethos front. Gospel proclamation. This is something New Orleans has been known for and has done well in its history. And doggone it, I don't want that to drop off. I want that to continue on and march on. We have to proclaim to those that are dying. Because they're perishing and they don't have life, even now as we speak. Not to mention what's to come. So gospel proclamation is vital and key. Jamie: And I see in that, man, in church planting and church revitalization and missions and evangelism and all of those things have to be essential to what we do. Jamie: And last of all, if we're going to do that, this is the part that strikes me, the Lord ... I've always know this. We always know this, right? But you know, the Bible tells us in the book of Psalms that unless the Lord builds a house those who build labor in vain. And Jesus says abide in me and I in you and you can bear much fruit, but apart from me you do nothing. Man, we are called to things vastly bigger than ourselves. And the Lord has burned that into my mind these last eight months throughout this process. Jamie: And certainly for me I can sit here and tell you the job in front of me, the job that the Lord just put in my hands, is so much bigger than me. If I'm going to do any of the things that God's called me to do, he always calls us to stuff bigger than ourselves, if we're going to do all the things that God's called us to do, man, we are going to have to walk on our knees every single day with Christ. Jamie: And he's going to have to show up. If he doesn't show up, then we're in a lot of trouble. As scary as that sounds, I think that that's the right place to be. So I want that, therefore. I want this to be a place where we walk with God more than we ever have. And that might sound oh of course this seminary president's going to say that. But those who've been to seminary will understand what I'm about to say, and maybe those who haven't maybe this will surprise you. Jamie: Seminaries can often be the place where people's spiritual walks dry up. They don't mean to and it's surprising. But it's because we get here and all of a sudden Christianity goes from being a very personal, spiritual thing to now a very intellectual, professional thing. Jamie: Yeah. We're doing it professionally now. And when that happens, we're ... that is a perfect recipe for disaster. And it's also a recipe to make us completely powerless to do the work that God's called us to do. Man, I hope that we can cultivate an environment here where our students have purity before God. Where our students have a prayer life that is vibrant and passionate and they're walking with him. Jamie: So those are ethos things I want to do. And then I would just say this very quickly. Structurally then some strategic things that I want us to be about. Leavell College we're going to expand and develop a lot. Enrollment strategy, and by enrollment we don't just mean recruiting and admissions. We mean things like advising students, helping them with financial aid. Doing all the things that actually help students through their enrollment process, from matriculation at the beginning to graduation at the very end. Jamie: Helping them to succeed. Because what we don't want is a generation of students coming, starting, and then fizzling out. We don't fulfill our mission when we do that. The students don't and we don't. We want students to get here and actually complete their programs and finish their programs. We want to increase the number that actually complete. Jamie: Then marketing and communications. I think that our story, this podcast, has been a great example of the kind of thing I think we have to do more of. In the sense that people have a mindset about what New Orleans is all about. Joe: Very much. Jamie: And I think you ... God's like you and I, we have to sit down and tell that story very differently because this is a cool place to be. And then last of all, denominational relationships. I want to ... I need to meet, my team needs to reengage, the denomination itself. Because if we're really going to be servants for Christ we've got to be... So anyway. Those are the things. All that right there. This is where my mind is 24/7 as I think about our wonderful institution.

Welcome to the Paperlust Papercast, EP 01. This episodes topics include: how to address wedding invitations; when to send out wedding invitations (i.e. when to mail, when to send destination wedding invitations, when to send save the dates); how much do wedding invitations cost, and we’ll explain a bit about why pricing goes down as you buy more; some of the places you can buy wedding invitations; how much people spend on average; how to make them yourselves using different services, or doing it yourself, or getting a friend to design it; how to assemble them – a lot of wedding invitations come in suites where you can layer them or use liners and belly bands; what to write on wedding invitations – modern versus traditional, what you can’t leave out, and whose name goes first on wedding invitations; what size generally are wedding invitations and why you need to consider what size you need before you go big, and how to save money on wedding invitations. The second part of the podcast we talk about wedding invitation style, typical design styles. We’ll go through all the major source of designs that you’ll commonly see with wedding invitations. And then we’ll talk about trends in terms of colours, textures, and print types. We’ve got a special guest who’s going to talk about what’s hot and what’s not, and then also some tips on tying a look together – how to make sure that you have a consistent look, different complementary colours, and then as I talked about, how to combine elements using belly bands and other methods. Finally, a bit about us. Paperlust originally launched in 2015. We’re an online platform for events and wedding stationery. That includes wedding invitations, birthday invitations, bar and bat mitzvahs, birth announcements, thank you cards, on the day stationery such as place cards and menus, and welcome signs. We do a wide variety of print, which we’ll go into more depth in future podcast, but these include digital print, foil stamp, letterpress, white ink and more. Here is a highlight from this Episode’s show where we talk about addressing wedding invitations: JAMES: Alright, so the first thing I want to talk about is how to address wedding invitations. There’s two things here: there’s the envelopes themselves and the link between what’s written on the envelope and what’s on the invitation; and then also the wording that goes on the invitation. Things have changed so much in the last 10-20 years in terms of our society and how that then results in terms of who pays for what and the different types of family groups and how that converts into what you put on the invitation without upsetting everyone – traditionalists and wanting to do your own thing. There’s a bit of complexity to it. Jamie, I want to ask you because you’ve probably seen more wedding invitations than anyone on the planet. On the invites themselves, what’s the important thing to think about in terms of the first line in the invitation? What’s the first line say and what do people do these days in terms of what it says? JAMIE: It really depends on the couple and on the wedding. You have to decide do you want to put your parents’ names first? I think that’s the first thing. Or, normally people do ‘Together with families.’ I find it really depends on your design as well. I will put ‘Together with families’ on a minimal design because the less wording, the simpler and the more minimal your design will look.

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Jamie Wright This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Jamie Wright about his background and current projects that he is working on. Ruby Rogue interviewed Jamie on Episode 326 – check out that episode for more information. Chuck and Jamie discuss many topics, but one in particular is truly inspiring and that is Jamie’s impact within his community: teaching! Jamie is enthused to help students with designing games and helping them with programming. Check-out today’s episode to hear more!  In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 0:53 – Introduction. Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues is a past episode with Jamie as a guest. 1:50 – Chuck was at Microsoft Build. It’s interesting to see where all of this stuff comes out. Interesting to see where it will be in the next few years. 2:31 – There is a lot of room for improvement – Google Dispatch. It is their AI, which is insane. Compare that to last year, it’s leap and bounds different. 2:59 – Let’s talk about your story, Jamie. 3:10 – Jamie started programming in high school, which was offered through an introduction course. It was in Basic. His cousin who was a programmer, too, influenced him. Jamie took this course, and he made a tic-tac-toe game. Went he went to college he took computer science, and fell in love with it there. Jamie loves the idea of creating things from nothing to something. It is art to me. It’s pretty neat. It’s not like you are investing hundreds of thousands into a fashion line, it’s just your time into a computer. 4:48 – Chuck makes some comments. 4:57 – Jamie mentors children from 7 – 17 years old. Works with a program, which is worldwide. Jamie helps the kids build their own games. 5:29 – Chuck: That sounds like fun! 5:35 – Seeing a side of programming where there aren’t any deadlines. 5:45 – Chuck reflects on Jamie’s previous comment. 6:03 – Jamie: It’s fun to put all of that stuff aside and watch people tinker. And hearing all of the “Oh’s and Ah’s!” 6:22 – Chuck: How did you get into Ruby? 6:31 – Jamie: Code Mash (local). Leon, in 2006/2007, was doing a workshop for Ruby, and Jamie fell in love with it. He tinkered around with it in Rails, and he was hooked ever since. 7:25 – What got you excited about it? 7:36 – A.) You had to be on Windows B.) You needed Microsoft Tooling. Just the ease of opening up a terminal, and that there was less friction – it was just easy! Jamie continues to talk about the other reasons why he fell in love with Ruby. He also enjoys the community. For him it was a good decision and it is fun for me. The fun factor is still there for me. Jamie loves Ruby. 9:22 – Chuck: What have you done in Ruby? We talked about Chatbots earlier. 9:30 – Jamie’s first project was a To Do List app. He wanted to do a task list from just one sentence. Jamie created MORALE, and it did okay for a while. That was his first app in Ruby’s. As far as open source work, Jamie hasn’t done anything that hasn’t really taken off. He created LAZINESS. Listen to this timestamp for other of Jamie’s projects and creations that he has been apart of. 11:12 – Chuck to Jamie: What are you most proud of? 11:14 – Jamie: I am most proud of teaching. I have created workshops. I see the same excitement that I had about Ruby’s. 11:49 – Chuck: It’s interesting to see what people really care about. Something I did helped someone else and their future, which is really cool. 12:29 – I am playing with Elixir now, because of Ruby, among other projects. Other projects: Pomodoro’s App and integration. 14:49 – Jamie: “Elixir is awesome. I feel like it is a perfect language for Chatbots.” 15:31 – Chuck: We will have to dive into that a little more. 16:06 – Chuck: Do you have some picks for us? 16:09 – Advertisement: Chuck’s Get A Coder Job! Links: Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues Microsoft Build Ruby Chatbot Elixir Jamie Wright’s GitHub Jamie Wright’s Twitter Chuck’s Twitter Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Picks: Charles Disney Emoji Blitz Skitch – Evernote Jamie Book: Deep Work Go play paintball! 

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Jamie Wright This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Jamie Wright about his background and current projects that he is working on. Ruby Rogue interviewed Jamie on Episode 326 – check out that episode for more information. Chuck and Jamie discuss many topics, but one in particular is truly inspiring and that is Jamie’s impact within his community: teaching! Jamie is enthused to help students with designing games and helping them with programming. Check-out today’s episode to hear more!  In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 0:53 – Introduction. Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues is a past episode with Jamie as a guest. 1:50 – Chuck was at Microsoft Build. It’s interesting to see where all of this stuff comes out. Interesting to see where it will be in the next few years. 2:31 – There is a lot of room for improvement – Google Dispatch. It is their AI, which is insane. Compare that to last year, it’s leap and bounds different. 2:59 – Let’s talk about your story, Jamie. 3:10 – Jamie started programming in high school, which was offered through an introduction course. It was in Basic. His cousin who was a programmer, too, influenced him. Jamie took this course, and he made a tic-tac-toe game. Went he went to college he took computer science, and fell in love with it there. Jamie loves the idea of creating things from nothing to something. It is art to me. It’s pretty neat. It’s not like you are investing hundreds of thousands into a fashion line, it’s just your time into a computer. 4:48 – Chuck makes some comments. 4:57 – Jamie mentors children from 7 – 17 years old. Works with a program, which is worldwide. Jamie helps the kids build their own games. 5:29 – Chuck: That sounds like fun! 5:35 – Seeing a side of programming where there aren’t any deadlines. 5:45 – Chuck reflects on Jamie’s previous comment. 6:03 – Jamie: It’s fun to put all of that stuff aside and watch people tinker. And hearing all of the “Oh’s and Ah’s!” 6:22 – Chuck: How did you get into Ruby? 6:31 – Jamie: Code Mash (local). Leon, in 2006/2007, was doing a workshop for Ruby, and Jamie fell in love with it. He tinkered around with it in Rails, and he was hooked ever since. 7:25 – What got you excited about it? 7:36 – A.) You had to be on Windows B.) You needed Microsoft Tooling. Just the ease of opening up a terminal, and that there was less friction – it was just easy! Jamie continues to talk about the other reasons why he fell in love with Ruby. He also enjoys the community. For him it was a good decision and it is fun for me. The fun factor is still there for me. Jamie loves Ruby. 9:22 – Chuck: What have you done in Ruby? We talked about Chatbots earlier. 9:30 – Jamie’s first project was a To Do List app. He wanted to do a task list from just one sentence. Jamie created MORALE, and it did okay for a while. That was his first app in Ruby’s. As far as open source work, Jamie hasn’t done anything that hasn’t really taken off. He created LAZINESS. Listen to this timestamp for other of Jamie’s projects and creations that he has been apart of. 11:12 – Chuck to Jamie: What are you most proud of? 11:14 – Jamie: I am most proud of teaching. I have created workshops. I see the same excitement that I had about Ruby’s. 11:49 – Chuck: It’s interesting to see what people really care about. Something I did helped someone else and their future, which is really cool. 12:29 – I am playing with Elixir now, because of Ruby, among other projects. Other projects: Pomodoro’s App and integration. 14:49 – Jamie: “Elixir is awesome. I feel like it is a perfect language for Chatbots.” 15:31 – Chuck: We will have to dive into that a little more. 16:06 – Chuck: Do you have some picks for us? 16:09 – Advertisement: Chuck’s Get A Coder Job! Links: Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues Microsoft Build Ruby Chatbot Elixir Jamie Wright’s GitHub Jamie Wright’s Twitter Chuck’s Twitter Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Picks: Charles Disney Emoji Blitz Skitch – Evernote Jamie Book: Deep Work Go play paintball! 

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Jamie Wright This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Jamie Wright about his background and current projects that he is working on. Ruby Rogue interviewed Jamie on Episode 326 – check out that episode for more information. Chuck and Jamie discuss many topics, but one in particular is truly inspiring and that is Jamie’s impact within his community: teaching! Jamie is enthused to help students with designing games and helping them with programming. Check-out today’s episode to hear more!  In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 0:53 – Introduction. Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues is a past episode with Jamie as a guest. 1:50 – Chuck was at Microsoft Build. It’s interesting to see where all of this stuff comes out. Interesting to see where it will be in the next few years. 2:31 – There is a lot of room for improvement – Google Dispatch. It is their AI, which is insane. Compare that to last year, it’s leap and bounds different. 2:59 – Let’s talk about your story, Jamie. 3:10 – Jamie started programming in high school, which was offered through an introduction course. It was in Basic. His cousin who was a programmer, too, influenced him. Jamie took this course, and he made a tic-tac-toe game. Went he went to college he took computer science, and fell in love with it there. Jamie loves the idea of creating things from nothing to something. It is art to me. It’s pretty neat. It’s not like you are investing hundreds of thousands into a fashion line, it’s just your time into a computer. 4:48 – Chuck makes some comments. 4:57 – Jamie mentors children from 7 – 17 years old. Works with a program, which is worldwide. Jamie helps the kids build their own games. 5:29 – Chuck: That sounds like fun! 5:35 – Seeing a side of programming where there aren’t any deadlines. 5:45 – Chuck reflects on Jamie’s previous comment. 6:03 – Jamie: It’s fun to put all of that stuff aside and watch people tinker. And hearing all of the “Oh’s and Ah’s!” 6:22 – Chuck: How did you get into Ruby? 6:31 – Jamie: Code Mash (local). Leon, in 2006/2007, was doing a workshop for Ruby, and Jamie fell in love with it. He tinkered around with it in Rails, and he was hooked ever since. 7:25 – What got you excited about it? 7:36 – A.) You had to be on Windows B.) You needed Microsoft Tooling. Just the ease of opening up a terminal, and that there was less friction – it was just easy! Jamie continues to talk about the other reasons why he fell in love with Ruby. He also enjoys the community. For him it was a good decision and it is fun for me. The fun factor is still there for me. Jamie loves Ruby. 9:22 – Chuck: What have you done in Ruby? We talked about Chatbots earlier. 9:30 – Jamie’s first project was a To Do List app. He wanted to do a task list from just one sentence. Jamie created MORALE, and it did okay for a while. That was his first app in Ruby’s. As far as open source work, Jamie hasn’t done anything that hasn’t really taken off. He created LAZINESS. Listen to this timestamp for other of Jamie’s projects and creations that he has been apart of. 11:12 – Chuck to Jamie: What are you most proud of? 11:14 – Jamie: I am most proud of teaching. I have created workshops. I see the same excitement that I had about Ruby’s. 11:49 – Chuck: It’s interesting to see what people really care about. Something I did helped someone else and their future, which is really cool. 12:29 – I am playing with Elixir now, because of Ruby, among other projects. Other projects: Pomodoro’s App and integration. 14:49 – Jamie: “Elixir is awesome. I feel like it is a perfect language for Chatbots.” 15:31 – Chuck: We will have to dive into that a little more. 16:06 – Chuck: Do you have some picks for us? 16:09 – Advertisement: Chuck’s Get A Coder Job! Links: Episode 326 of Ruby Rogues Microsoft Build Ruby Chatbot Elixir Jamie Wright’s GitHub Jamie Wright’s Twitter Chuck’s Twitter Sponsors: Code Badges Get a Coder Job Picks: Charles Disney Emoji Blitz Skitch – Evernote Jamie Book: Deep Work Go play paintball! 

Jamie Schmid Jamie Schmid is a content enthusiast. She has been building websites since the late 1990s. Over that time, she has honed processes that result in websites that give both internal and external users rich, intuitive content experiences. Jamie and I talked about: her evolution from illustrator to website developer how Karen McGrane inspired her at DrupalCon 2013 her subsequent growth as a digital strategist, with a keen eye on content the importance of being proactive about addressing content concerns in the website-development process how good communication with all project stakeholders helps clarify content intent how starting the content phase of a project earlier results in better content structure the importance of assessing as early as possible your content "why" the difference between what clients think they need and the actual solution that's going to fix their problem how constantly asking "why?" can shorten up the development process how, when you design a website, you're really building two sites, the end-user site and an equally, if not more, important administrative interface how working with internal site users early in the process improves the final product how the discovery that large projects are more prone to chaos inspired her to study information architecture the information architecture of the WordPress CMS how an intuitive, well-designed administrative UX can reduce training needs what she has learned in her new role as a content creator her insight that content strategy is best when it's approached as an agile process her upcoming talk at WPCampus Jamie's Bio Jamie Schmid has a particular passion for creating excellent content experiences. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, she has been working as a WordPress freelancer and consultant since 2012, regularly taking sites from conception through a well-managed build process that encourages communication, planning, and smart use of content. She has a background in Information Architecture and Content Strategy and a big ol' enthusiasm for all things WordPress. Now living in Portland, OR, Jamie is a Community Evangelist for SiteLock, traveling the country and helping build awareness of website security best practices and solutions. Video Here's the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/tjgJ8vuH3qI Transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode Number 28 of the Content Strategy Interviews podcast. Larry: I'm really happy today to have with us Jamie Schmid. Jamie is a Portland based web developer and designer. She's active in the WordPress world. She works for SiteLock, the security, website security company, as an outreach evangelist. And I'll let Jamie tell you a little bit more about her background and what she's up to. Jamie: Thank you Larry. Thank you for having me. So, I describe myself as a content enthusiast, and that came about in a meandering sort of way, which I think is actually a great way for it to come about. But I started my career as an illustrator in the mid-, late-ish 2000s. And I thought that my whole life was just going to be illustration, and I was working at a toy company, when the role of website manager was added to my workload, and it was my first time using a CMS. Jamie: It was TYPO3 and X-Cart, and I had no idea at that point you could do such a thing with websites. My experience with Web development was building some HTML, handmade HTML websites in the late '90s, where I was literally calculating pixels, so that I could make, with streaming navigation, with image maps. So I had a much different idea of how websites worked, and then, 10 years later, it turns out, it was completely different. Jamie: But, in that world, I was often frustrated with the things that I was not able to do. There was a lot of going back and forth between the agency, and asking them to make some content edits,

Jamie Schmid Jamie Schmid is a content enthusiast. She has been building websites since the late 1990s. Over that time, she has honed processes that result in websites that give both internal and external users rich, intuitive content experiences. Jamie and I talked about: her evolution from illustrator to website developer how Karen McGrane inspired her at DrupalCon 2013 her subsequent growth as a digital strategist, with a keen eye on content the importance of being proactive about addressing content concerns in the website-development process how good communication with all project stakeholders helps clarify content intent how starting the content phase of a project earlier results in better content structure the importance of assessing as early as possible your content "why" the difference between what clients think they need and the actual solution that's going to fix their problem how constantly asking "why?" can shorten up the development process how, when you design a website, you're really building two sites, the end-user site and an equally, if not more, important administrative interface how working with internal site users early in the process improves the final product how the discovery that large projects are more prone to chaos inspired her to study information architecture the information architecture of the WordPress CMS how an intuitive, well-designed administrative UX can reduce training needs what she has learned in her new role as a content creator her insight that content strategy is best when it's approached as an agile process her upcoming talk at WPCampus Jamie's Bio Jamie Schmid has a particular passion for creating excellent content experiences. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, she has been working as a WordPress freelancer and consultant since 2012, regularly taking sites from conception through a well-managed build process that encourages communication, planning, and smart use of content. She has a background in Information Architecture and Content Strategy and a big ol' enthusiasm for all things WordPress. Now living in Portland, OR, Jamie is a Community Evangelist for SiteLock, traveling the country and helping build awareness of website security best practices and solutions. Video Here's the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/tjgJ8vuH3qI Transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode Number 28 of the Content Strategy Interviews podcast. Larry: I'm really happy today to have with us Jamie Schmid. Jamie is a Portland based web developer and designer. She's active in the WordPress world. She works for SiteLock, the security, website security company, as an outreach evangelist. And I'll let Jamie tell you a little bit more about her background and what she's up to. Jamie: Thank you Larry. Thank you for having me. So, I describe myself as a content enthusiast, and that came about in a meandering sort of way, which I think is actually a great way for it to come about. But I started my career as an illustrator in the mid-, late-ish 2000s. And I thought that my whole life was just going to be illustration, and I was working at a toy company, when the role of website manager was added to my workload, and it was my first time using a CMS. Jamie: It was TYPO3 and X-Cart, and I had no idea at that point you could do such a thing with websites. My experience with Web development was building some HTML, handmade HTML websites in the late '90s, where I was literally calculating pixels, so that I could make, with streaming navigation, with image maps. So I had a much different idea of how websites worked, and then, 10 years later, it turns out, it was completely different. Jamie: But, in that world, I was often frustrated with the things that I was not able to do. There was a lot of going back and forth between the agency, and asking them to make some content edits,

David: Why is it essential to claim your business online? How differently do customers interact with mobile compared with desktop and how are the most progressive businesses using mobile marketing in 2014? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Jamie Turner. Jamie welcome to DMR. Jamie: Glad to be here. I’m really flattered that you asked me to join in the conversation. David: Wonderful to have you. Well, Jamie Turner is an internationally recognized author and thought leader who’s helped the Coca Cola Company, AT&T, and CNN to tackle complex marketing issues. He’s also coauthor of Go Mobile which was the number 1, best selling mobile marketing book on Amazon. Jamie, I guess mobile marketing has gone from starting to happen in 2012 to absolutely essential in 2014? Jamie: It really has. We’re really in an era where people are using mobile more and more frequently to connect with the brands they love. In fact, I know you’re based out of the UK. I was born in London but in the United States, more than 50% of our time is spent on mobile devices. Now let me define that so that it doesn’t throw a curve ball to too many people. Mobile is defined as a smartphone or a tablet, but if you take those two things and put them together, more than 50% of the average person’s time in the United States is now spent on mobile devices as opposed to their desktop computer. It’s finally the year of mobile. It’s actually here, people have been talking about this is the year of mobile forever. We’re actually really doing it, and things are rocking and rolling on that front.