Podcast appearances and mentions of megan gray

Megan Gray shares about her upbringing, when she choose to follow Christ and how Christ impacted her life and the life of her family today. To be part of an Online Bible Study, go to http://newlife.church/Bible Email us any questions or thoughts you have and/or share your story with us at thirdchair@newlife.church. Hear her story on one of these platforms: Apple: https://apple.co/4e0qL0v Spotify: https://bit.ly/3AHIsDV Amazon: https://bit.ly/4dVQVlh

Megan Gray shares about her upbringing, when she choose to follow Christ and how Christ impacted her life and the life of her family today. To be part of an Online Bible Study, go to http://newlife.church/Bible Email us any questions or thoughts you have and/or share your story with us at thirdchair@newlife.church. Hear her story on one of these platforms: Apple: https://apple.co/4e0qL0v Spotify: https://bit.ly/3AHIsDV Amazon: https://bit.ly/4dVQVlh

In this episode, Matt talks to Chief Nursing Officer Megan Gray about strokes. Listeners will learn about recognizing the warning signs of strokes, the significance of swift action, and how to respond in the event of a stroke.

The “Voice of Costume” is the first podcast created between working costume designers sharing stories, inspiration, struggles, and insights into the creative career of costume design. Listen in on this fun, one-on-one conversation between Megan Gray and Catherine Baumgardner about Megan's latest project as the Costume Designer on the FX show "Murder at the End of the World". She shares the lessons of filming in Iceland weather and the creativity used within a restricted color palette.  Megan shares what she learned from large productions like Matrix Resurrections and DC's Birds Of Prey.  Megan Gray on IG meganbowmangray.com PLEASE leave a 5 STAR REVIEW to help get the Voices of these Costume Designers into the world! Voice of Costume IG - Comment and let us know what you thought of the episode!

In this message, Megan Gray Hering shares her insights on the importance of community during life's turbulent times. "Learning to Surf" isn't just about navigating the rough waters of life; it's about understanding how our connections with others provide the strength and balance we need to keep afloat. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thetabletx/support

For this episode, we're re-releasing a story from 2013 called Tough Crowd, about a stand-up comic competing with a speed-date event—based on a true story! Performed by Alejandro Kolleeny, Annemarie Cullen, Devin O'Neill, Megan Gray, Noel Dineen, Maddy Mako, Matt Shafeek, Shacottha Fields, Louis Kornfeld, and Elana Fishbein. Written by Louis Kornfeld, inspired by storyteller Adam Wade. We're taking a break right now, and we'll be back in May with all new stories. But in the meantime, we're featuring stories from the past that you may not have heard. Find The Truth at thetruthpodcast.com and @thetruthfiction on Twitter and Instagram.

Welcome to Tulia Christian Fellowship podcast.Connect with us and let us pray with you at https://www.tcf.church/connect Find out more at https://www.tcf.churchText to give by texting the amount you would like to give to 208-4404Sign up for text updates by text "TCFINFO" to 24587

The Federal Trade Commission is suing data analytics firm Kochava, alleging the company sold sensitive geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices. The FTC argues that the data could reveal users’ visits to sensitive places, like abortion providers or addiction recovery centers. It’s the latest step in FTC Chair Lina Khan’s mission to increase government oversight of companies that traffic in consumer data. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams recently spoke with Megan Gray, founder and CEO of GrayMatters Law & Policy to discuss the significance of this case.

The Federal Trade Commission is suing data analytics firm Kochava, alleging the company sold sensitive geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices. The FTC argues that the data could reveal users’ visits to sensitive places, like abortion providers or addiction recovery centers. It’s the latest step in FTC Chair Lina Khan’s mission to increase government oversight of companies that traffic in consumer data. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams recently spoke with Megan Gray, founder and CEO of GrayMatters Law & Policy to discuss the significance of this case.

Welcome back to the New Mom Boss Podcast! My guest, Dr. Megan Gray, is joining me to talk all about phasing out of your postpartum maternity leave. Not only did she experience postpartum struggles firsthand, but she also brings the valuable perspective of a practicing OB/GYN.   In our conversation, Dr. Gray shares about her fourth-trimester experience, the gaps in her education/training regarding the fourth trimester, and her advice to new moms returning to work postpartum.  Some big takeaways are: Today's doctors receive very little training on holistic postpartum care for women.  Your needs, goals, and plans will change in the different seasons of motherhood. Growth happens in the hard seasons if you allow it.  Take a listen and learn more by reading the show notes! https://www.newmomboss.com/blog/121   Join the waitlist for the Prepping For Postpartum Workshop! https://www.newmomboss.com/pfp-waitlist Work with me 1:1! https://www.newmomboss.com/guidance  Follow me on social media! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newmomboss/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newmomboss Guest Resources: Dr. Gray's Website: https://forgottentrimester.com/ Dr. Gray's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forgottentrimester/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF12UIk5xS0_pmj7LJW972A

Ro Rovito returns as the guest co-host for this episode & we opine about sequels that we enjoy more then the original. Rick gets repetitive as we discuss Scream 4, Hatchet 2, Aliens & Friday The 13th 4! We also get into The Joker's appearance in Exorcist 3, a boyhood crush on Judie Aronson, how James Cameron pitched Alien$, how sequels should continue until the characters end up in Manhattan or space & how wonderful Megan Gray from Magnet theater is plus a lot more! Please subscribe, review & give us that 5 star boop! 

Listen to the things that are bringing Joshua and Brittney some geeky joy!Things We Mentioned:  Megan Gray Art - Art, Artist, Paint (megangrayartistry.com) There is another Megan Gray artist online, but this is the one we're talking about!Megan Gray Octopus Art Etsy LinkPlein air Merriam Webster DefinitionSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art WebsiteCozy Grove Game Website (currently only available through digital download)Animal Crossing: New Horizons WebsiteFind us at:Podcast Website: https://swordsstarships.buzzsprout.comInstagram: Brittney and Joshua (@swordsnstarships) • Instagram photos and videosEmail: Starships@coosbaylibrary.orgOur Library's Facebook Page: Coos Bay Public Library | FacebookCoos Bay Public Library's Instagram: CoosBayLibrary (@coosbaylibrary) • Instagram photos and videos

Competition enforcement authorities all over the world are bringing cases and enforcing new rules against Google, and as different jurisdictions impose widely different penalties and restrictions, it's debatable whether those remedies have had the desired effects. So what are the best ways to address the perceived abuses of Google's dominance? Co-hosts Melissa Maxman and Alicia Downey get the answers from Megan Gray, the former General Counsel of one of Google's leading competitors, DuckDuckGo. Listen to this episode to learn more about the challenges that governments face in trying to address the competition and privacy issues raised by Google's dominance among search engines. Related Links: UK Competition and Markets Authority, “Online platforms and digital advertising,” Market Study Final Report (July 1, 2020) Commission Decision of 18.7.2018 relating to a proceeding under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (the Treaty) and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement (AT.40099 – Google Android) U.S. et al. v. Google LLC, Amended Complaint (Jan. 15, 2021) State of Colorado et al. v. Google LLC, Revised Partially Redacted Complaint (Jan. 4, 2021) Hosted by: Melissa Maxman, Partner, Cohen & Gresser LLP, and Alicia Downey, Downey Law LLC

Learn about the six-year integrated plastic surgery residency program at Albany Medical Center, in Albany, New York, with Dr. Deepa Bhat and Dr. Megan Gray. Recorded in July 2021.

UVA Law professor Danielle K. Citron; Megan Gray of Gray Matters Law & Policy; and Rachel Levinson-Waldman of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty & National Security Program discuss issues of democracy and technology in privacy. The event was sponsored by the LawTech Center, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and Law, Innovation, Security & Technology. (University of Virginia School of Law, Oct. 14, 2021)

Gopher Soccer stars Megan Gray, Kenna Buisman, and Megan Plaschko join us to talk about what they can learn from tough losses in Big Ten play, how playing multiple positions impacts their abilities on the field, how players are thinking about the extra year of eligibility from COVID, unsung freshmen in training, and some trivia about their very accomplished coaches!

Megan Gray convinces us of the true nature of small towns and conspiracy theories with “All The Way to the Top.” In episode 666 something is afoot in Murdoch, Indiana. More of Megan at @graymegan on Twitter, and @graymegangray on Instagram. Made Up Talk Show theme by Dan Reitz www.danreitz.com Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

EPISODE 77 | Dr. Megan Gray is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist with over 15 years of experience, as well as a mom of two littles and wife. She was a scholar athlete in gymnastics and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Gray received her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and then completed her Ob/Gyn residency training at Orlando Health in Orlando, Florida. She has cared for thousands of women and delivered well over a thousand babies in her career so far, but it wasn't until she went through the postpartum experience herself that she really understood what was lacking in maternal care. While on maternity leave, with her first child she was inspired by her own experience to write Amazon bestselling The Forgotten Trimester: Navigating Self-Care After Birth. Dr. Gray is the co-creator of Postpartum U, a postpartum preparation group coaching program. She's passionate about improving the experience of the fourth trimester through educating, encouraging, and empowering moms about their health and wellness after birth. In the episode, Dr. Gray shares why new moms struggle more during the postpartum period now than they did many years ago, many of the unexpected challenges they face, how any new mom can make the “fourth trimester” more bearable...and more! Enjoy!! EPISODE WEBPAGE: thehealthinvestment.com/77 P.S. – If you're liking The Health Investment Podcast, be sure to hit “subscribe/follow” so that you never miss an episode

Matt talks to Gopher Soccer star Megan Gray following her breakout performance as a holding midfielder in Minnesota's return to the field after more than a year between games. They discuss when she knew she'd be playing her new position, staying motivated during COVID, and how the team talked about kneeling for the anthem and making their voices heard.

Join Dr. Carolyn Moyers as she chats with Dr. Megan Gray. Dr. Gray is an OBGYN, wife, mom of 2 and author of The Forgotten Trimester. Dr. Gray is a board certified Ob/Gyn with over 10 years of experience. She became passionate about improving women's care during the fourth trimester after having her son. After experiencing postpartum first hand, Dr. Gray realized that this important time of a woman's life does not get the attention it deserves. While on maternity leave, she wrote a book “The Forgotten Trimester: Navigating Self-Care after Birth” to educate women about self-care during the postpartum period.  @forgottentrimester https://www.forgottentrimester.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/skywomen/message

Dr. Megan Gray is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist with over 10 years of experience. She received her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and then completed her Ob/Gyn residency training at Orlando Health in Orlando, Florida. She has delivered over a thousand babies in her career so far, but it wasn’t until she went through the postpartum experience herself that she really understood what was lacking in maternal care. While on maternity leave, with her first child she was inspired by her own experience to write Amazon bestselling “The Forgotten Trimester: Navigating Self-Care After Birth”, which can be found at https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Trimester-Navigating-Self-Care-After-ebook/dp/B07G3DC2TX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+forgotten+trimester&qid=1603220615&sr=8-1. She has since started an Instagram page and YouTube channel to help educate women on the changes that occur during the postpartum period/fourth trimester. Dr. Gray can be found at www.forgottentrimester.com, and on Instagram @theforgottentrimester   Today, Dr. Gray joins us to discuss what the forgotten trimester is, and how self care can look after birth. We dive into the importance of asking for help, SLEEPING, body expectations postpartum, breastfeeding, and understanding postpartum mental health.    Dr. Hammerstedt and her lifestyle coaching team can be found at www.wholisthealth.com and @wholisthealth on Facebook and Instagram as well as the public Facebook group Curate Your Health. Wholist helps high performing women and men lose weight for the last time, with an innovative food and mindset coaching program to blueprint YOUR optimal body and mind, with real food, real work, real results… and no products or BS. Come curate YOUR sustainable health future, and personal and professional dynasty.

Rev. Megan Gray joins us today to discuss her new business and the FIRO-B assessment. We enjoy catching up, discovering that Garrett is a 10 on the Enneagram, and Jon's determined efforts to cast himself as a cross between Jim Halpert and Ron Swanson. Will it work? Found out... on this episode of Logos(ish)! If you'd like to learn more about Megan's work, check out the links below:https://inspireandrespond.com/ https://www.facebook.com/inspireandrespond https://www.instagram.com/inspirerespond/ https://twitter.com/inspirerespond

if you don't know her already, let me introduce you to my dear friend megan gray. if you feel like you've had to make tough decisions lately, or have been feeling the pull within your heart to make hard decisions...this episode is for you. if you've wanted to let go of things so you can be a better human, full of potential, a more aligned soul, and allow others the same growth and potential -- this episode is for you. megan is not just an artist, she is a mother and a friend, a connector of souls, a lover of becoming and understanding life deeper. listen as she talks about leaving instagram, her art journey...suggestions for school, what she gives up, and so much more. enjoy!watch the youtube version HERELINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:megan's websitemegan's blogsign up for megan's email listLEAVE ME FEEDBACK: - what should i talk about next?  let me know in the comments below. - did you enjoy this episode?  if so, leave me a review!CONNECT WITH ME:katrinaberg.cominstagram @katrina.bergemail: k@katrinaberg.comjoin my SWE

Megan breaks down her processes in light work and energy healing. Megan is able to help others through her beautiful gift which she has been doing professionally for 12 years.

In this episode of the Your Birth Network Podcast, we chat with Dr. Megan Gray. Dr. Gray is the author of Forgotten Trimester and has a desire to prepare new moms for the 4th trimester. After her induction and cesarean section Dr. Gray wrote a pamphlet to prepare her patients which became her book and blog 'Forgotten Trimester'. You will a real-life look at the 4th trimester, and what it truly means to indulge in self-care.   Connect with Dr. Gray! https://forgottentrimester.com/blog-posts-2/page/2/ https://www.instagram.com/forgottentrimester/ https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Trimester-Navigating-Self-Care-After/dp/0986370290/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=forgotten+trimester&qid=1583551273&sr=8-2 

Improv shows are known for taking audience suggestions in order to inspire the performance but what makes a good suggestion and do we really need them anyway? Hear from Megan Gray of The Magnet Theatre in New York, Nottingham improviser Jack Cross and improviser and marketer Shari Hazlett from New YorkSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-improv-chronicle-podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Louie Pearlman) We talked to a surprisingly progressive Gaddafi and a hard partying Annette about Walt Disney's weird obsession with her. https://www.louiepearlman.com/ Kick the Jukebox https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyandron/joey-and-ron-a-new-sixties-bubblegum-rock-musical?ref=user_menu For more Megan Gray: https://magnettheater.com/show/53585/ https://twitter.com/graymegan For more Jarret Berenstein: https://jarretberenstein.com https://www.youtube.com/jarretberenstein https://twitter.com/justjarret

 We are back in the studio after being out of town for the past couple weeks and we brought back plenty of stories. We talk about Mykie and Fredy's experience in Mexico at the crazy strip club, getting robbed by the cops and much much more. We also have special guest Megan Gray. Do you like monster movies? Well she is the one that knows everything about how those monsters are put together. She also knows what goes into putting Metal bands masks together. Check it out!!   As always we get into the topic of recent releases and rumored movies and tv shows. We tell a few new fail stories and we get into another major round of "Movie in a Jar" where we on the spot pitch another incredible movie idea. We are proud members of the Inner Circle Podcast Network. If you like our podcast you will love any podcast in our inner circle family. To check out us or any of the other shows visit innercirclepn.com and subscribe on social media @innercirclepn Check out our new sponsor Ohfishl Clothing. Takes at all your favorite clothing and streetwear in a whole new independent design. Affordable prices and just great a great product. check them out at ohfishl.com and use promo code "Hollywood" for 25% off your first purchase.  If you want to discuss anything with us about something you heard on this episode or have a story you want to share please visit Kyrie.fm/failinghollywood  Follow us on Instagram: @failinghollywood Facebook: @failinghollywoodpodcast Twitter: @failinghollywoo Email us: failinghollywoodpodcast@gmail.com And call us with and fail stories or questions or thoughts : (818) 928-5279 If you are listening to us please rate us and review us, any feedback really helps.

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Chris Bell) Why did Gloria Vanderbilt marry some donk when she could have married Howard Hughes? And how many jobs did Maya Angelou have in her life? We get into all of that and more on this week's ep. For more Megan Gray: https://magnettheater.com/show/53585/ https://twitter.com/graymegan For more Chris Bell: https://magnettheater.com/show/53585/ For more Jarret Berenstein: https://jarretberenstein.com https://www.youtube.com/jarretberenstein https://twitter.com/justjarret

(ft comedians Federico Garduño & Megan Gray) Who were the inspirations for all of the Peanuts gang? And how did Mario Puzo go about researching all his mafia books? We get to the bottom of all that and more on this week's ep! For more Federico Garduño: The Year of the Week podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/year-of-the-week/id1454963640 For more Megan Gray: https://magnettheater.com/show/53585/ https://twitter.com/graymegan For more Jarret Berenstein: https://jarretberenstein.com https://www.youtube.com/jarretberenstein https://twitter.com/justjarret

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Jonathan B. Lerner) We got to the bottom of Chaucer's early nicknames and Jim Jones' journey to being a cult leader and more! For more Megan Gray: https://twitter.com/graymegan https://magnettheater.com/show/53334/ For more Jonathan B. Lerner: https://radiofreebrooklyn.com/show/the-next-best-thing/ For more Jarret Berenstein: https://jarretberenstein.com https://www.youtube.com/jarretberenstein https://twitter.com/justjarret

Using my 22yrs experience of life to help you guys with your dilemmas

Hey Guys! Welcome to my podcast. I’m Megan (Meg) for those who don’t know me already. Today I had my mother (Rachel) as a guest on the podcast. We spoke about Love Island, Maura and going out drinking as a girl. Find myself @meggrayx and my mother @ladygraymakeupartist on Instagram and let us know what you thought

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Evan Altshuler) When our country first formed there was one key question every new citizen had on their mind: where's the beef. Check out Megan Gray: https://magnettheater.com/show/53171/ https://twitter.com/graymegan Check out Evan Altshuler: https://twitter.com/evanalt Check out Jarret Berenstein: https://jarretberenstein.com https://www.youtube.com/jarretberenstein https://twitter.com/justjarret

It's Tuesday and ... Megan Gray is this month's guest! Megan is the former Artistic Director of the Magnet Theater, a writer, performer, and native New Yorker. She has performed with Second City aboard the NCL Gem and was a member of Magnet's longest-running resident team "Junior Varsity." She can be seen in such notable shows as "The Armando Diaz Experience" and "The Cast." Megan also produces and hosts the monthly all-women and non-binary improv show "Hearts & Stars." In addition to teaching Level One, Level Four: Busy Town and electives, Megan has taught improvisation at C.W. Post University, Brookdale Community College, Fairfield University, Columbia Business School and festivals and companies around the country. She has studied improv at the Magnet and the UCB Theatre with Armando Diaz, Kevin Dorff, Christina Gausas, Dave Pasquesi, TJ Jagodowski, Jean Villepique, Joe Bill, Dave Razowsky, and many others. Megan graduated with a degree in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has written for MTV2 and Comedy Central online. She has appeared on "Broad City," "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Show With David Letterman." In her spare time, she travels the world performing improv with Magnet Theater's Touring Company and teaches yoga. In conclusion, you're all doing great.

(ft comedians Megan Gray, Chris Ferry, Dede Tabak, & Brian Patchett) Our first ever reunion show in honor of our 100th episode! Hoo boy, did we have fun both before and after this show getting turnt at St Francis' bar. You have-a to hear it to-a believe it! jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

We check in with Gopher Soccer Head Coach Stefanie Golan before Minnesota takes on Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament Championship. We talk about Big Ten Award Winners April Bockin, Molly Fiedler, and Patricia Ward as well as "Equal Time Soccer All Stars" Athena Kuehn, Nikki Albrecht, Emily Heslin, and Megan Gray.

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Melissa Ulloa) If you've ever wondered why science fiction is so RANDOM or why a Hungarian noble woman would want to murder over 650 and people, then this is the episode for you. jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Peter McNerney) One of these people is really tired of hearing about how they killed the lord and savior. The other one is on the run from massive gambling debts. Listen to find out which is which! jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

Megan Gray (Artistic Director at Magnet Theater) joins us in the studio to talk about "The Freshmen" by The Verve Pipe. The song came to Megan when her boyfriend Louis gave her a mixtape just before she embarked on a foreign exchange trip way back during her freshman year of high school. You know what that means – we GOTTA talk about mixtapes!

Megan Gray (Artistic Director at Magnet Theater) joins us in the studio to talk about "The Freshmen" by The Verve Pipe. The song came to Megan when her boyfriend Louis gave her a mixtape just before she embarked on a foreign exchange trip way back during her freshman year of high school. You know what that means – we GOTTA talk about mixtapes!

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Chris Ferry) An interview with the original bad girl of Hollywood and a surprisingly sympathetic habitual torturer! Secrets are revealed, people. Get into it. jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

(ft comedians Megan Gray & Austin Sanders) Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, everybody knows that the United Fruit Company paid American politicians to stage a coup in Guatemala! (I think those are the lyrics, right?) jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

(ft comedians Megan Gray and Mike Cabellon) Did you know that Alan Rickman and Napoleon were both famous for parties for which there are no records at all? Thankfully, I got them in the studio to dish all the hot goss. jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

It's Tuesday and... Caitlin Steitzer is our guest! Caitlin Steitzer is originally from Seattle, WA and brings over a decade of improv experience to the Magnet Theater. She has been fortunate enough to perform all over New York, as well as in exotic towns like Detroit, Phoenix, Rochester, Seattle, and Prague, Czech Republic. She feels incredibly lucky to have studied with such amazing people as (in alphabetical order by last name) Rick Andrews, Russ Armstrong, Armando Diaz, Megan Gray, Ed Herbstman, Louis Kornfeld, Alex Marino, Peter McNerney, Lennon Parham, David Razowsky, Ari Voukydis, and Zach Woods. When not performing at the Magnet she is shaping bright young minds as a social worker for an after school arts program in Sunset Park. She loves improv, meaningful conversations with friends, riding bikes, dancing to Ke$ha songs, thinking about social work, and reading magazine articles, but improv most of all.

(ft comedians Megan Gray and Rebecca Robles) I finally stepped away from the host mic for an ep and let someone else do the question-making. Friend of the show Megan Gray hosts this epic conversation between Albert Einstein and Genghis Khan (played by me). Enjoy! jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

Today's episode is with improviser and artistic director of the Magnet Theater in NYC, Megan Gray! She's been performing for over a decade and has so many experiences for you to learn from. Jason and Megan have a great talk about what goes in to being the artistic director, her time performing on a cruise ship, how being entertaining is better than trying to be clever, immersing yourself in an improv community, and the importance of diversity in improv. Find more online: MagnetTheater.com, ThereItIsPod.com Twitter: @magnettheater, @graymegan, @thereitispod, @jasonfarrjokes Facebook: @magnettheater, @thereitispod

(ft comedians Megan Gray and Kevin Cobbs) Maybe my new fav ep! Sigmund Freud and Julius Caesar join Jarret in the studio this week to discuss daddy issues and early Roman stick ball. jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

(ft comedians Megan Gray and Sam Rogal) Robert Ripley & Jackie Kennedy join Jarret in the studio to discuss personal tragedies and other peculiarities you can either believe or not. jarretberenstein.com @justjarret

On this week’s episode, Brian and Lauren discuss their favorite moments and guests that have appeared on the show during Season One of StudioPress FM. In this 25-minute episode Brian Gardner and Lauren Mancke discuss: Their favorite episodes of Season One The most downloaded shows Most memorable guests and topics What they’re looking forward to in Season Two Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Follow Brian on Twitter Follow Lauren on Twitter The Transcript The Season One Recap of StudioPress FM Voiceover: Rainmaker FM. StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, Brian and I discuss our favorite moments of Season One of StudioPress FM. Brian Gardner: Hey, everyone. Welcome to StudioPress FM. I am your host, Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress. Today, on this very last season episode for Season One, I am joined, as usual, with Lauren Mancke, vice president of StudioPress, mom of one, soon to be three. Looking forward to just wrapping up Season One. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. Thank you for joining us again this week. We’re closing out Season One and we will be doing this week a little different. We have no guests. It’s just Brian and I talking about some of our favorite moments on the podcast so far. Brian Gardner: Typically we like to go somewhat scripted, where we prepare questions for those that we’re talking to, but Lauren and I, this morning, we’re going to just completely wing it. We have just some general idea of what we want to talk about for this closing episode. It won’t be long. It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 episodes already. I know that for you it might feel a little bit longer because you started editing the first handful of them or first half of them and then we turned that over because you have more important things to be doing, but can you believe, 16 already? Lauren Mancke: No. It’s really flown by. Brian Gardner: I remember when I did No Sidebar, it seemed like it took just forever to edit the shows. I wasn’t structured when I set it up and it felt like it was hard to find ideas and guests and things like that. I’m almost forcing us to close the season down because we have a lot of stuff we have to do before the end of the year, but I don’t want to, because I’ve been having so much fun. It’s been great talking to the members of the community. When I sit down and try to think of who do we want to talk to next or what series we want to have, I’m loaded with all of this, these ideas, these people. There are so many people. I want to do two episodes a week, which of course isn’t realistic. There’s just so many people to talk to and so many topics to cover. For me, it’s been fun so far. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. We’ve already got some great people lined up for next season, so it’ll be good to take a little bit of time off and get that all organized and lined up for next January. Brian Gardner: I almost feel like we have a legit show here, where we actually follow a format and we have a good audience. We get at least a few thousand listens on every show, if not more. I don’t know. I feel really good about what we’ve done. It’s our first full-time gig together, doing the podcast thing. What do you think so far? Have you felt like this has been a successful journey? Lauren Mancke: Yeah. I’ve really been happy with who we’ve gotten a chance to talk to and hearing everyone’s story. It’s really cool how so many people have that same sort of, they were doing something else and they found WordPress and then they built this whole thing. It’s great to hear everyone’s different take on that journey. Brian Gardner: The good thing about WordPress and the cool fascinating thing I find is that even though we have generally that same story, we all come from just much different backgrounds. We also are in the middle of just different types of expertise, where some people come in as designers, some people come in as marketers, some people come in with a technical or programming background. You’ve got a designer who was sitting at a bored day job and then you’ve got like a technical guy who was working for the man and wanted to do his own thing. There are so many different levels of skillset and just expertise that’s being represented within the WordPress space. It’s fun to watch just how many people from how many different avenues of life are coming together in this whole open source project. Lauren Mancke: For sure. So many different types of personalities, too. It’s not just the same type of person. You’d think all these WordPress people would be maybe slightly nerdy or whatever, but it’s not true at all. It’s so many different types of people, and they’re all really cool. Brian Gardner: Yeah. Even within the short spurt we did here at the end with the designers, even the designers that we talked to like Bill Kenney at Focus Lab and Jason Schullermega and Megan Gray, even within just one segment of that audience, you’ve got people with different personalities and flavors. Bill works and owns a creative agency and Megan’s by herself and Jason’s doing a startup. Yes, there’s a lot of resonating stories, but even within a certain sub-niche of the WordPress designer ecosystem, there’s just so many types of different people represented. That wasn’t boring because everyone brought something unique to the conversation. Hopefully, designers and people who don’t design and do other things even were able to pick up something from that as well. Lauren Mancke: In WordPress, I think, when you mentioned the guests specifically, it makes me remember all the different things that make each one of those people unique. You got Bill, who is very, very good at being efficient and I love that about him. He has so many ways of doing that and that’s his focus. He can tell other people about that. Then you got Jason, who is; he’s just a family guy. That’s his passion and you can see that with everything he does and everything he talks about. Those are just fun and unique things that everyone who works on WordPress, they can be their own person and tailor their job and their company around those skillsets that they have. The Most Downloaded Shows Brian Gardner: You know one of the things I think for me that I found for me interesting as a metrics guy and somebody who looks into that kind of thing? There were certain episodes that I thought would have been more popular than others and vice versa. When I would go in and see the analytics and the number of downloads and so on for each one, there were a few that surprised me where I was like, “Okay, this one’s probably not going to do as well, maybe because of the audience. It isn’t such a widespread thing or an ‘interesting topic.'” Then those were the ones that got the most distribution and those that were shared the most. It’s funny how you can draw up a game plan. Nine times out of 10, things go the way you want, but then once in a while you get that one where I’m like, “Wow. That was the one I almost didn’t even suggest doing and it was the one that was in the top three or whatnot of most listened to shows.” That just goes to show, you never know. Lauren Mancke: What were some of the more popular shows that we had this season? Brian Gardner: You’re going to make me look that up, so I’m going to make you talk while I go look that up. Lauren Mancke: You know, we can edit this, so we can break for a second. Brian Gardner: I know. All right, so I was able to pull up the analytics. Sadly enough, three of the bottom four episodes were the first three, which were my story, your story, and the redesign of StudioPress. I don’t know if that’s an indicator of the fact that it was new, and not as many ears were on the show, or if people were just don’t find that interesting. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. Let’s go with the first. Brian Gardner: I’m going to go with that one. Top to bottom, I’m just going to spitball these out here quickly. A Beginner’s Guide to SEO That Works is the number one show. We did that with Rebecca Gill at Web Savvy. I had a feeling that that one … SEO is a topic that a lot of people want to talk about. Lauren Mancke: I thought that was a very informative episode. Lots of good nuggets on that one. Brian Gardner: Yeah. I actually took the show notes to that and the transcript, and wrote up my own little iteration of that. I think I talked about this back then, that I was going to try that a couple of times with these and try to use that from a curation standpoint, a re-purposing content, and so I pulled some of the best things that Rebecca had to say and wrote a blog post about that, and tried to rank for, I think it was a Beginner’s Guide to SEO or something like that. I think last time I checked, that was on page three of Google, so it kind of sort of working. Yeah, there was definitely a lot of stuff that came out of that that was good. Number two, and this does not surprise me just because I know that Matt and some of the folks at Automattic were helping with the distribution of this, and that was the show we did, How and Why It’s Okay to Make Money with WordPress, which of course we just talked about just all of the different types of people within WordPress, so that makes sense because that would appeal to everybody. The next one was How to Scale a Freelance Business. That, I believe, was the one that we did with Bill Erickson. Then How to Build an Online Education Business, now this is the one I was referring to earlier that I didn’t think was going to strike a chord as much, just because it seemed a little bit more of kind of a sliver segment specific to doing an online education because that’s not what we’re all in the deal here for. We did that with Tonya Mork. That was a good one. Great information. She’s got a ton of knowledge. She’s worked 20, 30 years in her field, so she has a ton of expertise that she brings to the table, so that was one a little bit surprising. The How to Sustain a Profitable Creative Agency came next. The Importance of Entrepreneurial Mental Health with Cory Miller. That was probably my favorite episode that we recorded just because it kind of dove a little bit more into just the personal touchy-feely stuff, which I’m a huge fan of. Again, a lot of these were within 1% to 2% of downloads, so it’s not like certain episodes crushed other episodes, but that’s a quick recap. Then of course you and I, and our whole stories, are down there at the bottom, pulling up the caboose. Lauren Mancke: Nobody cares about us. I’m just kidding. Brian Gardner: Which is why we have guests on the show. Lauren Mancke: Yes, exactly. Brian Gardner: Because they’re the ones people will want to listen to. Their Favorite Episodes of Season One Lauren Mancke: I think the Cory Miller episode was very good as far as the content. I think all three of us were tearing up on that one. Brian Gardner: Yeah. I wish I would have seen Cory’s talk at WordCamp Denver just because, and I’m sure it’s on WordPress.tv, but that is something that I think without a doubt every single person who listens to the show struggles with in some regard. Some better than others. I’ve had my seasons of even within the last six years, after we merged the company, of really struggling, especially early on. This was before we brought in the mid-level management and brought in people like you, who came in and really helped do a lot of the stuff that I do. I remember, I think it was within the first year, we came together as partners in Boulder. I had a meltdown and I was like, “Look, guys, I’m just completely fried.” I remember Brian Clark said to me … He says, “Just take the next month and a half off. Do nothing.” I was like, “What?” Like, “No, I m a creative. I can’t do nothing.” It’s one of those things where it creeps in and life gets in the way and clients get in the way. Hard work and stuff like that do pay off, but the whole entrepreneurial mental health thing is something that I think far too many people don’t discuss or don’t have an … It doesn’t even have to be talked about across the internet via a podcast. You got to have a couple of people in your life who even if it’s a Skype call … I know Cory a lot of times has tweeted things out saying, “Hey, I just got a message from a friend and it meant the world.” Just things off radar, offline. Just check in with the people, whether they are people who you work for, who work for you, or people like Jason, who are just peers within the community. That stuff matters, so I’m glad we had a chance to talk about that. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. I think when you’re working on the internet, it’s easy to get lost in that. You’re connected to everyone, but you’re also connected to no one if you’re just in your own little bubble and you’re not really able to sit down and talk with people face to face or, like you said, even on a Skype chat or something like that, so it’s an important issue. Brian Gardner: All right, so let’s talk about some of the other episodes. I’m just going to look down and just see. I know we talked, as I mentioned earlier, Brian and Jennifer, husband and wife team. They own their own agency and we talked a lot about … You weren’t on that episode because I think you had mom duty that day, but that was a good episode because it talked about work and family balance, which is in a way relevant to the mental health thing, where as creatives and those who do stuff online, we have access to the internet 24/7, and so it is difficult at times to balance work and home life. I struggle with it sometimes. There are times where I literally have to just shut my laptop and tell Shelly, “Do not let me open this because I need to go play catch with Zach because that’s important, because I don’t want him growing up thinking the computer is more important than him and so on.” For you even, you’re a mom and have two more on the way, and all of that. I mean, what’s that going to look like for you next year? Lauren Mancke: Well, I thought that episode would have been good for me to be on because I ran a creative agency with my husband, so I know a little bit about that. I even notice my son isn’t even two and a half yet and he’s already … He’ll come in and sit at my desk and say, “I’m working. I got to get on a conference call.” He picks up. He puts on the headphones and he pretends that he’s on a conference call. I’m like, “I don’t know that I want that to be my legacy with my son.” So spending more time with family is definitely a priority. Brian Gardner: Yeah. Going back to Jason and the episode that we had with Tim, that was the one thing, over the last few years, of things that I see online that I get envious about, is the ability that some people have to do that and make that so important. By all means, I don’t shun my family. Shelly is at home all day long, so we get to talk to each other. I’m home at 3:00 o’clock when Zach comes home, so we do have our time together, but Jason, of anybody I’ve ever seen online, puts more importance on his family, his wife, especially his daughter. I can’t imagine the bond that they’re going to have throughout their life because of how much importance he placed on the balance of work versus time with them. It’s fun and sometimes, like I said, I get envious of the fact that people are able to do that, maybe not so much as I wish I could, but yeah, it’s important too to balance that out because relationships, marriages, mother-daughters, father-sons, those types of things, in my eyes, big picture, matter way more than what we do for our jobs. Anyway, that’s the kind of thing that I think just everybody needs to hear, that it is important to balance work and life. All right, so another one of my favorite episodes was when we had Shay Bocks on and talked about food blogging. That also is something that I thought would have been a little bit more less heard because of the fact that it was very niche-specific. I think it resonated with a lot of people because people took things that she said out of the food blogging discussion we were having and those are the things that could have been easily applied to any other niches. So I think even thought it was a food blogging episode, a lot of the stuff that Shay talked about, things that we discussed, could have certainly been used across the sphere. Food blogging to me is interesting because it’s one of the … It sort of came out after real estate, which is sort of not really been that big a thing anymore, but the food blogging industry has exploded. You know, Will, your husband likes to cook and you like to take photography and you’ve done a couple of food-oriented themes on StudioPress. I can’t believe how popular that still is and how many people still … Foodie has regained number one status on theme sales on StudioPress. With the exception of two, maybe three months over the last almost two and a half years now, it’s been number one every single month. Shay and I talk probably at least once a month just about stuff in general and she’s always like, “I’m waiting for the ship to sink.” I’m like, “Don’t.” I’m like, “Embrace the fact that …” Shay has done something of a big lesson for all of us. If you do something that works, instead of trying to replicate that somewhere else, really hone in on that. She’s really crafted her business around the idea of food blogging and she re-branded her company, called Feast Design Company. How more relevant of a brand name than to work within the niche? That is also something I think has been fascinating for me to see, is people within our community really identify where they belong and then really attack at that point. Lauren Mancke: Shay is also just a great person. It’s really great to see her succeed and all of her success. She’s just a wonderful, wonderful human being. I think too, also, food blogging, people … We’ve talked about focus on family. I mean, that’s a trend. People are spending more time, I think, focused on their family and eating and community and all of that, so I don’t see food blogging going anywhere any time soon. Brian Gardner: Yeah. People always eat. There’s always going to be the internet and the will to make money. For people, not so much Shay, but the people who use Shay’s themes per se, that’s the dream, right? Living the dream, we talked about that with Jason, is to take your passion, something … In this case it’s something that you do at home, so you could literally be hanging out with your kids and working at the same time, and even having them help. I recently redesigned a website called Simple as That Blog with Rebecca Cooper. She’s got to a really, really big website. She’s got four kids and she’s a great photographer. She does a lot of her DIY craft and recipe type of things with her kids. She uses them as props. They get dressed up and they do things. For her, it’s a really creative way to do that work-family balance thing because she includes her kids with her work, and so therefore there’s no … I don’t know. Just disconnect between the two, and so I think food blogging is just another example of where that can be done. All right, so the episode that I actually wasn’t sure we would be able to do, mainly because I know Matt sometimes is a little bit slow on email as he should be … I’m sure he gets thousands of emails a day and from probably people way more important than me. I reached out to Matt Mullenweg to talk about WordPress and making money. He wrote back within like a day or two. I was very surprised and very pleased that he was very open to talking to us about that. It was a great episode. We talked almost an hour, I think, on that one, and probably could have kept going. The premise of that show was very obviously how to make and that it’s okay to make money with WordPress open source community. We did a couple of episodes on that. Also I remember we did one with Carrie Dils. With Matt, we talked about just the WordPress ecosystem and different ways that we can make money with WordPress, that it’s okay to make money with WordPress, and the fact that he even endorses the fact that it’s okay to make money with WordPress because I think at this point, the community as a whole has identified that WordPress is a business in a sense. Even though there’s a free version of it, even though it’s an open source piece of software, there’s a full blown ecosystem, as we talked at the beginning of the show, just all the different ways that people use WordPress and can offer WordPress as a business, either as a service or like what we do with commoditized type things with selling themes and plug-ins and so on. It was fun to talk to the guy, right? The guy who founded all of it. I was a little bit star struck, as I always am every time I talk to him. It’s a little bit difficult to … I don’t know. Feel like we were pulling our weight in that conversation, but what did you think about that show? Lauren Mancke: Oh, we’re totally BFFs now, so it’s all good. Brian Gardner: You guys on HipChat or Slack together? You just ping each other with ideas and whatnot. I like to think of Matt as like the mini Richard Branson because he’s always … At this point in his life, he’s probably got tons of money and he’s out travelling around. He’s out in Bali or in Antarctica. I forget that he’s probably 30-something now or late 20s or whatever, but to me he’s always going to be a kid. I don’t know. The whole thing is a great story. Just imagine how many people, their lives have been changed by what he’s done. Mine, yours, everybody who listens to the show, everyone in our company. It’s kind of crazy if you think about that. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. I think he’s around my age, but yeah, he’s definitely prolific and I too am a little envious of his schedule. He gets to go everywhere and do all sorts of fun, cool things. Brian Gardner: Again, I think that goes back to the point of, if you have some crazy idea, sometimes you just need to execute it. Like, what if he never decided to fork b2 back in the day. We all have that question in our life. What if I never left my job or what if I never asked people if they would buy a WordPress theme or any of that stuff? I think the moral of the story here is that sometimes you do need to take that risk and just do that thing, as George Costanza did in Seinfeld back in the day. Do the opposite, right? Because if what you’re doing isn’t working, maybe the opposite will. That was a great episode, by the way. Lauren Mancke: I always get tuna on toast. Brian Gardner: Ah, there you go. Seinfeld, one of the best shows ever, if not the best show ever. What They re Looking Forward to in Season Two Brian Gardner: All right, so moving forward, we are going to take break here. We ran that through our guy in charge of the podcast network and said, “Hey, we’ve got a lot of things we’re working on.” We will not be discussing any of those here on the show because they’re just fun, internal projects that will make a big splash and a big difference next year to everyone listening to the show. What are the types of things you want to do as we probably open back up in January of next year, after the holidays? Who are the types of people we want to have? Anything specific you want to see happen? Lauren Mancke: Well, I know we have Dan from Dribbble lined up, Dan Cederholm. I’m excited about that one. He actually came up to the Northbound office a few years ago when ConvergeSE was going on. That’s a conference in Columbia, where I live. It was great to meet him and Rich, and spend time with him. It’ll be fun to have him on the show. Brian Gardner: Now one of the things I want to do and throw out there is, we would love to hear from you guys, those who are listening to the show. At the bottom of the show notes, we’re going to put mine and Lauren’s Twitter handle. If you have any ideas or suggestions or people, if you want to nominate people, we are definitely open to hearing from the community. I know you and I are both creatives and designers, and so we err a little bit more on the side of that, in terms of show. I do want to make sure that we don’t forget our nerdy friends who are developers and programmers, and bring those types of people in as well, and talk to them because I’m sure they have a ton of wisdom to share with our audience. I’m trying to think of who else I would want to have on the show. I know that we have a little Google doc where we keep track. I want to get outside a little bit of just the general WordPress space and just find some really big entrepreneur type people who happen to use WordPress, but it’s not their business. I know people like Paul Jarvis is a guy that I want to bring on the show, possibly Jeff Goins. From my perspective, those are a few of the people that I plan to hit up. Maybe we’ll see if we can get a guy like Chris Brogan on just to talk some sense into us all and whatnot. We’ll have to think about that over the coming weeks, who else we want to have on the show. Lauren Mancke: Yeah. We’d love to hear from the audience, of suggestions. That’s a great idea, Brian. Brian Gardner: Hit us up on Twitter, @laurenmancke or @bgardner. We’ll put the link in the show notes. Even if you don’t even have a suggestion for the show and just want to say, “Hi. Thanks for putting together the podcast,” we would love to hear some of that feedback as well, good or bad. Let us know. We will wrap the show up. This is our 17th episode, I believe, which still amazes me. Sorry for those who really like the show and want to hear next week. We won’t be here because that will be Thanksgiving week. Actually, you know what? This will air the day before Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, people will be out shopping. No one wants to listen to us anyway. December is really a time for that family and stuff that we talked about. We will be back in January of 2017 with Season Two of StudioPress FM. On behalf of Lauren and I and all of us within our company who touch the StudioPress brand, we thank you very much for your support as customers, as listeners and those who spread the gospel of StudioPress. Thank you very much and we will talk to you next year.

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Megan Gray, a passionate — probably one of the most passionate — freelance graphic designers I know. She lives on the edge of a canyon in Orange County, California, where she runs her business, House of Grays. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! In this 34-minute episode Brian Gardner, Lauren Mancke, and Megan Gray discuss: Starting House of Grays in Orange County, CA Designing for the people Keeping focused among distraction Experience gained while working in a traditional agency The onboarding process of custom projects Creative outlets beyond the 9 to 5 Following your own path instead of looking to others Filtering out the noise Listen to StudioPress FM below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Visit House of Grays House of Grays’ Work House of Grays’ Blog Follow House of Grays on Twitter Follow House of Grays on Instagram The Transcript How to Stay Creative in a Distracted World Voiceover: Rainmaker FM. StudioPress FM is designed to help creative entrepreneurs build the foundation of a powerful digital business. Tune in weekly as StudioPress founder Brian Gardner and VP of StudioPress Lauren Mancke share their expertise on web design, strategy, and building an online platform. Lauren Mancke: On this week’s episode, Brian and I are joined by Megan Gray to discuss being a creative entrepreneur in a distracted and often chaotic world. Brian Gardner: Hey everyone. Welcome to StudioPress FM. I am your host Brian Gardner. I am joined, as always, with my co-host, the vice president of StudioPress, Lauren Mancke. Lauren Mancke: Thank you for joining us again this week as we continue with another episode in our series of talking to members of the design community. Starting House of Grays in Orange County, CA Brian Gardner: Today we are joined by Megan Gray who is a passionate, probably one of the most passionate, freelance graphic designers I know. She lives literally on the edge of a canyon in Orange County, California where she runs her business House of Grays. Megan, it’s a huge pleasure to have you on the show. Welcome to StudioPress FM. Megan Gray: Thank you. I am so happy to be here. Brian Gardner: All right. Let’s talk about Megan Gray. Taken verbatim from your website, you live on the edge of a canyon which is primarily literal in your life but I’m guessing there’s some figurative relevance here. Also, why I knew you’d be a great fit to talk about being a creative entrepreneur in a distracted world. Let’s start at the beginning and go through the early years of your life all the way back from diapers, all the way to where you are now in the OC. How did all of this happen? Megan Gray: First, I had never thought about the metaphor of how I live on the edge of a canyon. So thank you for that. Yeah, so I guess I won’t go all the way back to diapers because that will bore everybody but I will say that I had always thought of myself as a writer and that was what I did by trade for quite a while. I worked as an editor and writer for newspapers in the DC area. I always felt like I wanted to be a designer, have a creative profession but I felt, maybe an inferiority complex, but I felt like that was something that was always out of my reach or that was better than me because I couldn’t draw, and I thought that that was what it took to be a creative professional or be an artist. If I look back from where I sit today and I look back at all the things I was interested in or the fact that I was using Photoshop to make flyers for things in college or that I would spend hours customizing my SmugMug website for my friend’s photos with HTML and CSS. I look back and I see that’s where I was heading but I remember at the time that felt like something cool people did and I wasn’t one of them. I just kind of chugged along doing the writing and editing thing until at some point the publisher of one of the newspapers got a temper tantrum and fired the whole design team. Overnight I had to learn InDesign and layout two papers and get them to the press on time. That’s kind of when I felt like I had been beaten into the gang. I was ready to go. From then on it was all design for me. Then we moved to California for my husband’s job. He works at Blizzard Entertainment, which is a pretty well known video game company. That really opened up a whole new world for me in design and creativity and moving to California because of the community here and just the design style. Yeah, a lot of different cool companies to work for here locally. That’s the journey. Designing For the People Lauren Mancke: I can relate a little bit to the traditional arts thing because I felt the same way. I’m not a great painter or drawer so when I was looking at a major I was nervous about doing just traditional graphic arts because you have to take all those classes. I can relate to that a bit. Your website says, you have a tag line on the about page that says, “Design for the people”. What is it about people that pulls you in? Megan Gray: I guess it’s just when somebody is doing what they love. It doesn’t matter if it’s an electrical company or jewelry making or just another creative. It’s just so compelling to me and it’s almost contagious when you work around people that are passionate about what they do. It shows up in the way that they are always there. They’re always responsive. They have ideas. They’re dedicated. They’re just excited about it. That’s irresistible to me in the sense that … I don’t care what their style is, I don’t care what their industry is, I just want to partner with them in their success and bring whatever I can to the table to help them get further faster. That is something that took me a while to realize but I used to care more about their aesthetic style or even the industry or the budget. But, now I’m just so excited to work with people who love what they do. Brian Gardner: Does that get you into any problems? Perfect segue into just the idea of being kind of crazy and chaotic and schedules and so forth. The fact that you like people and working with people, does that enable you to possibly take on projects you shouldn’t that might not be a good fit just because immediately you’re like, “Yes, people. I want to take it.” Or are you able to filter through and say, “I love people, but I need to take on certain types of projects so I don’t kill myself trying to take on everything?” Megan Gray: Totally. I see what you’re saying. For me, part of what I love about those people is that they tend to be respectful of my craft, which always includes them having some sort of mindset about that good work isn’t free or cheap, and that they also have some degree of success. I guess the short answer would be that it doesn’t really create any problems because I think when you really feel sure that you know what you love and the type of work that you want to do, it makes it really clear for me when it’s not the right work or not the right person. So I have no problem anymore passing on the projects that I know aren’t right for me. The people who are really passionate and show up and do this work and love what they do, they tend to get projects done on time, they pay quickly or early, and it just seems to be a more pointed, focused process from start to finish for me. Brian Gardner: Yeah, we talked to Bill Erickson a little while back just about the process of his leads and how he generates leads and the filtering process. He says the contact page, there’s sort of a questionnaire type of page, if you ask enough questions, you can siphon out the people who will admit by filling out certain things that they’re not the right fit. What is your screening process on the front end before you even get to a point where you would talk to them? Is that set up in a way where, maybe it’s by budget or something that will kind of trim out those that aren’t the right fit without even having to correspond with them? Megan Gray: Yeah, I think somewhat differently than Bill Erickson. People know more of what they want when they look for a designer. I think developers, people are a little less educated on what makes a good developer or an expert developer. They’re just happy to find one. You probably have to do a little bit more qualifying of the leads. Whereas, when you get to my site, if you don’t like peach or pastels or anything that’s a little different, you’re already not going to contact me. There’s some trimming that already happens before I even get to people. Having a drop down default in the budget, I often get people who are like, “Is that your minimum? Because I can’t …” Then I know where they’re at with budget. People who are wary that I even ask for a budget like I’m a shady mechanic, I know we’re off to a bad start. Then a lot of times I can tell if people are just going down the Genesis Developers list and copy and pasting a form letter. Or they say, “I’m looking for someone who doesn’t like just the pretty things” and I’m like, “Why are you contacting me? Like, did you look at I can tell if people are interested in hiring me specifically and when they are, it goes great. When they are not, it can still go great, but a lot of the times I’m not really what they’re looking for and I help them find that out. Brian Gardner: Yeah, Lauren did a great job when we redesigned StudioPress and updated the Genesis Developers page by showcasing a select amount, I think it was four, of the latest portfolio shots of each developer. That is also sort of our way to help in that process of filtering through people. People can just scan the visuals really quickly and say, “Ah, peach and pastel. I love beachy stuff. I’m going to check her out.” Then you know it’s an alignment already built in. Megan Gray: I totally get that. I agree with that design. I think also, I have noticed that has happened less, like the form letters, and I don’t know exactly where that comes from, but I do think there’s more of a quick visual cue now to see, “Ah, that’s not for me” or, “I love that.” Keeping Focused Among Distraction Brian Gardner: Okay, people; husband, kids, two kids now. How is the balancing work and family thing going on? I know that just recently you ended up … This was a question I was going to ask you later but it’s a good time now. You had recently cultivated your own office space, which is out of house, and all of that. I kind of wink at you here, because I follow you on social media and all that, and I can see the ups and downs as they come along with where you’re going with this. How is balancing work/life for you going right now? Megan Gray: It’s really challenging. I won’t sugarcoat it. Having two kids is more than twice as difficult for balancing it all for me right now. But, I do think that I’m able to compartmentalize it. Just like if it’s not kids, it’s something else that people have outside of their work life where drawing those boundaries and just kind of … It sounds defeated, but it’s not lowering my expectations so that I’m not the person who has no kids or no family life and I can just work at all hours as long as I want whenever I want. In that way, it has helped me be more focused about the time that I am working instead of just meandering through my day. Speaking of my studio space, when I’m there I notice that there are people who can move just at their own creative slower pace. Then there are those of us who have to pick up kids at 4 or some other commitment and we’re very heads down and focused on our work. For me, it’s just helped me be more organized. When I’m not, it’s very difficult to manage. The office space, one of the reasons definitely, I sought that out was because I needed a little bit of a clearer boundary between my home life and my work life. Also, I think that when you work for yourself, by yourself, it’s really good to get out there. My space, in particular, is a mix of other types of creatives. It’s not all designers. At the moment, I think I’m the only designer. More photographers and event planners and sign artists because Laguna Beach is a great community for that. We’ve got guys who make surf boards from agave by hand in the back. Lots of interesting things. I find that there are days where I just need to get out and be around other people making things and doing things. Sometimes somebody will say, “Hey, I need a logo to paint on this surf board” and then I’m right there. Or I need somebody to print business cards and it’s sort of a cooperative that way. Then there are days where I definitely need to stay at home and not go around all the energy and be really productive. It’s nice to have more options. Lauren Mancke: I’m a bit jealous, because I really miss my old office space. It comes up a lot, it seems like, lately on these podcasts. I have planned for my new office. There’s a new coworking place in my town, too, that just opened up that looks pretty cool. It’s their second location so I might be hitting that up more frequently. Megan Gray: Yeah, coworking is nice when you can just drop in on the days that you need to get out of your head and then retreat when you need to get back in your head. I found that coworking in some cases here, there’s a couple choices in Orange County, but I worry about my productivity where it’s a really social element. In the studio that’s over by Laguna Beach I have my own actual office instead of a drop-in desk. That’s been huge for me. Brian Gardner: All right, let’s take a quick break here for an advertisement because at StudioPress FM that is how we roll. If you are a digital business looking to elevate your brand, Infinity Pro, a recently released theme by me, was made just for you. It’s an elegant, responsive way to introduce your online presence. With all the options we’ve packed into Infinity Pro to customize your customer’s experience, it’s also one of the most flexible StudioPress themed releases to date. Did we mention it’s compatible with WooCommerce? Find Infinity Pro, along with more than 50 other great themes, at StudioPress.com/themes. Experience Gained While Working in a Traditional Agency Brian Gardner: All right. Let’s turn back the clock a few years and discuss your tenure at 10up. For those who don’t know, 10up is a brilliant WordPress high-end agency led by Jake Goldman, a friend of mine and friend of Megan’s. They do high-end client’s work such as Microsoft, Google, Entertainment Weekly, to name a few. As an independent creative, how did you end up in a situation where you’re working for the man? Megan Gray: The man Jake Goldman? Brian Gardner: Yes. Megan Gray: Jake actually, I think, discovered me on Twitter, if I remember correctly, and reached out to me. I hadn’t been seeking out an opportunity like that, but I was immediately interested when we discussed things. I thought, “Take a shot, level up my skills, learn from some really great engineers” and that’s pretty much what happened. I started there as a project manager, which I think that became clear pretty quickly that that was not the best fit for me. I moved into a design role and worked on some of the internal products that they were developing at the time. That’s how I found myself there and it was a great experience. Brian Gardner: What did you learn while you were there? I had been following you and we had known each other before you went to 10up and I was actually a little bit shocked because, first of all, there’s creatives who need to work. In other words, they’re the breadwinner of their family and they have to just make decisions that sometimes aren’t necessarily what I think they would love to do. This was one of those cases where I was like, “I don’t think Megan has to take on a full-time job in order to live and eat and all of that.” I was somewhat confused, almost, in a sense because I was like, “She seems like such an open creative.” I was curious behind the rationale as to why you would have taken that. I think we’ve had a few people on this show who have also done that too, where you get to a point where you’re kind of done, and Lauren, we’ve talked about this before even with you in your own agency, that you get to a point where sometimes you’re just so tired trying to generate business and sometimes it’s just easier, or maybe your family situation warrants it, where you need something more stable and whatnot, so you make that call. For you, it just didn’t seem like that was the case. Megan Gray: It wasn’t the case that I was forced into looking for a stable thing. It certainly helped and I benefited from it, but for me the drive was, and this is maybe a little crazy, but when something scares the crap out of me, I make myself do it. For me, at the time, where I was in my career, 10up was the gold standard of tough agency gigs to get into in this space. I did not feel like I was up to the challenge so I made myself do it. When I got in there I was very intimidated, because then and now I think some of the best people in the business work there and they were good at their jobs. I was coming from a place of being a freelancer who just didn’t have that agency experience or tons of experience in general. I got good quickly. I guess what I learned from there is just how to be a smarter designer and consider things more from an engineering perspective. When I got there I was making pretty things. I think that after leaving there I made smarter things and I made better decisions and I thought about the whole picture of web design and product development more than I did before. I made some great friendships and people I trust who I still call on today and say, “Hey, this is an idea I have. Is it crazy?” They’re still some of the people I lean on constantly. Lauren Mancke: I think, for me, choosing to leave the agency that I had built was a big decision because it was not really the stress of generating leads. It was almost like there were too many leads coming my way. It was hard to turn everything down to make time. I knew I wanted to start a family. I couldn’t spend 80 hours a week working. What are some things in your current situation that cause you stress? Are there any things that get in the way of your productivity that you’ve been able to work out a way around those things? Megan Gray: I think what we touched on before, the family thing, with two kids that I really want to build my life around, the idea that I can be there for them when they need me at school or when they’re sick or when they’re having a bad day. That’s been a big challenge. Also just, I would say I’m my own challenge. When I get burnout or I feel uninspired or just not into it in the moment, trying to reinvigorate that creative energy that I have. Other challenges of just life stuff honestly. Life in southern California makes inner things chaotic and challenging. Taking that time away in my studio and just kind of re-centering and reflecting on what I’m doing has really helped me maintain that focus. Brian Gardner: Yeah, hanging out at Disneyland every other week also does that. Although I haven’t seen you post pictures of that lately. Megan Gray: Yeah, I don’t really do the Disneyland thing anymore. It’s a little too much for me. A little too much. Brian Gardner: That’s not too far from where you’re at, right? That’s in Anaheim. Megan Gray: Yeah, it’s like 20 or 30 minutes. We used to have that annual pass and then it was just like, “Hey, I don’t think we’re having fun here anymore. It’s super overwhelming to come every week. Why do we keep forcing ourselves to do this?” The Onboarding Process of Custom Projects Lauren Mancke: What is the typical process you have for bringing a new client on board? You touched on it a little bit earlier about some of the things, they’ve already seen your work, they like what you do. Is there any other criteria that you specifically look for when you’re talking to a person about a potential project that’s the right fit for you? Megan Gray: Yeah, I tend to now book a couple months out and it’s usually a pretty big red flag when somebody cannot wait at all. We just talk a little bit about money and timeline and the standard housekeeping things. I really whittled down the number of email exchanges I go through before I either close the deal or move on. One of the ways I’ve done that is just a really simple pricing PDF that I have that goes over simple packages that I offer, the prices for everything and the process and what it does and does not include. That’s been a friendly little barrier to entry to working with me. Then, when I bring them on board, I know it’s really popular to automate a lot of that process now, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that because I really like the personal connection. I like doing things similar but differently a little bit every time. So I just kind of walk them through and onboard everyone just a little bit differently because no two projects are the same. Yeah, and it’s pretty clear process of designing and building out everything from there. Brian Gardner: Speaking of projects, are there any in particular that stand out to you as being Megan’s favorite projects and whatnot? Megan Gray: I didn’t prepare for that. You know, I don’t think so at the moment. I’m just doing a little bit of everything. One of the projects I did earlier this year was for a pop-up dinner company that had services. Their first pop-up dinner was actually in Lima, Peru and I got to be involved in the logo, the branding, the messaging. I actually threw up a quick site with a Café Pro theme for that. Then we actually had videography, photography. That was a really fun and meaningful project for me, although it had a smaller reach. It was really hands on, a big collaboration with different creatives and videographers. That was just called Salt. That’s in my portfolio. That was an exciting one for me and it has a little video with it. Brian Gardner: What is your favorite element of design? You just talked about how some of them you’ve done multiple elements of the whole process. Is logo your favorite part? Is overall site design your favorite part? What part of design in general do you think is the thing that brings the most joy to your life? Megan Gray: Right now it’s actually just the strategy and the messaging, with the copy writing, so it’s kind of going back to my roots as a writer. That’s something I’m actually helping WP Site Care with right now is just re-strategizing or re-branding their messaging, all their on boarding materials, the customer messages. Everything that is less the production design and actual visual design and more of the whole brand experience and all the little touch points from social media to just all the interactions that they have with the customer, which is new for me to be really, really engaged with that. Creative Outlets Beyond the 9 to 5 Lauren Mancke: So outside of designing, if you’re anything like me, I have a Halloween costume problem. Basically, I just spend way too much time creating costumes and it’s just really something I enjoy. I just like to do things outside of my regular medium which is digital. Designing things that are interior design or designing labels for my hot sauce or stuff like that really, really brings me a lot of fun, enjoyment, just to do a design for myself. Is there any other types of design that you like to work on? Megan Gray: I do a lot of those little personal projects that you were kind of describing as well. Nothing as cool as that mini Hamilton costume that you shared. It’s just little things where … I definitely am into interior design and everything in my house being my way. Brian Gardner: Not Ron’s way. Your way. Megan Gray: My way. Little things like I put a blend of essential oils for my kids when I was gone and I printed labels and made a whole packaging thing for them. I guess that’s not something that normal people do, now that I think about it, but it’s something I enjoy. Lauren Mancke: The Hamilton costume really everybody is impressed because that photo is so good. My friend is a photographer. Everyone is impressed I think with the photo more than the costume. Megan Gray: No, I don’t think so. I was interested in the gold buttons. Lauren Mancke: Those were just brads on white duct tape. Not super time-consuming. I think we did it in under an hour. Megan Gray: I think it’s the idea that’s impressive. The brads and the duct tape instead of buttons. Just the creativity. But, the photo is great too. Lauren Mancke: The kid has really long hair, so that makes it too, I think. Megan Gray: It’s perfection. Brian Gardner: All right, so outside of being creative, I know even when we’re not being creative we’re still being creative, because that’s just sort of our human nature. What are the things, Megan, and I want to hear from Lauren too on this one. Megan, what are the things outside of even being creative when you’re not being creative that you do to pass the time? I like to run. Even in that, I find creativity but I don’t exercise creativity in that. I just, I run. What are the things you do that are completely creatively agnostic that take up your time or just help you decompress and get your mind off things and whatnot? Megan Gray: Yeah, I’ve recently gotten into podcasts and I just consume them like crazy. They just give me all sorts of ideas and weirdly make me a better writer to listen to. Then I’ve gotten into yoga, which, I used to laugh at people who did yoga, but I really like it now. I find that, this is probably not the answer you’re expecting, but I find that when other people like to do creative things … Like at my son’s school people DIY a lot of cool stuff. They’re making an adventure playground. I feel like I just want to do accountant, data entry stuff because I feel like I use up every bit of creativity I have at work. I feel like I want the antithesis of that when I have down time. I guess I do like to consume other people’s creative work, but when it comes to DIY or anything like that I feel totally tapped out. It’s easy to be creative digitally, because you can easily undo or reproduce or replicate things. When I go to DIY something I’m like, “Ugh, command Z”. I have to start over. Lauren Mancke: Undo that glue. Megan Gray: Yeah, undo that. “I want a copy of this, so I’m just going to keep cloning it. No? I have to make more myself? Huh.” It’s just interesting, because I found that I tend to like to enjoy other people’s creativity in my downtime, but as far as making things like crafty Lauren I just, I don t know, I don’t have it. I don t have it. Lauren Mancke: I think I’m crafty to a certain extent of, that it’s something that s not … takes patience. Like painting or anything for me that has to be very meticulous, I don’t have the patience for that. If it can be something done quickly, duct tape, you know, add duct tape to a sweater, I got that. If I had to sew that, that would take too much time. Megan Gray: Yeah, I hear you. Following Your Own Path Instead of Looking to Others Brian Gardner: All right. What else does Megan Gray stand for, outside of design, being a mom and a wife, and all that kind of stuff? What else would you be defined as, in terms of leaving a legacy? What are the things in your life, when you find time and can fit them into a crazy and chaotic schedule, that you want to be known as? Megan Gray: I like to sort of be a champion for the little guy to the extent that I can. Part of my tagline, “Design for the people,” that’s kind of what that’s about as well, which is that I have never had the interest that other designers have to work on something that everyone will touch. That doesn’t inspire to me or call to me to be a big name or work for big names. I’ve always really liked to work for the small businesses and the people trying to make it. I really like to reach out and share or be vulnerable with something, like whether it’s a postpartum experience or a growing up a certain way experience. I like to write and speak to those people. Not that I think I’m so impactful that I can help thousands, but I always believe if I can help one person make a leg up in their business or one person who is struggling with something postpartum or one person who thinks that they don’t deserve to be a designer, then to me that is something I’m really interested in. It really drives why I work independently so that I can do that. Lauren Mancke: What advice would you give, because you’ve touched on this a little bit just a second ago and before in the podcast, about when you’re a young creative that insecurity that you feel? What advice could you give any young creatives out there listening right now? Megan Gray: I think they key is to just go in the direction of what you love. That might not always be the popular thing or the thing that everyone else is doing. But, if you start early doing what you love and you just keep at it, you’re going to be the best person who does that thing. You are going to be happier than the people who are doing whatever is trendy or popular or lucrative at the moment. I think it’s really easy to get distracted by someone else’s podcast or someone else’s e-course or someone else’s new theme or product. I think if those things interest you or speak to you, yes, chase them. If you just feel like you need to keep up with what everyone else is doing to stay relevant, I just think no. Do what you love if you have the position to do so. Just be who you are and that will always, I think, win out and catch up with … You would be your biggest success. Filtering Out The Noise Megan Gray: To expand on that I guess just a little, to maybe keep it going is, I struggle. I think we all struggle. Anyone sitting here on a podcast in a position to offer advice, even those people, we don’t know. I don’t think anyone has it figured out. I think there’s so much noise now with social media and constantly seeing what everyone is doing or one-tenth of what they’re doing, like their good spots. I think it’s really hard to, on the one hand, consume what other people are creating to inspire yourself, and then also to block out the noise and filter it to be like, “That’s great, but this is who I am, and this is what I am doing and that is enough.” It’s a real challenge to pay attention but filter out the noise. Brian Gardner: Yeah, I guess where I was going with that is, in my life, when I came up for the idea for this show, kind of a chaotic world, I think of people who are getting on a train or a bus or driving in traffic and doing what the world sees as being busy and chaotic. In my mind, I work from home and I get into my office, sit in my chair, like at 6am and do some things. I spend a lot of time online in my chair doing stuff. I’m not necessarily busy externally. In other words, I don’t have things to do and errands to do and all that kind of stuff. Thankfully, Shelly can take care of a lot of that stuff. In my head I am very busy by way of things you mentioned, things, people you see online, the noise, the emulating that I want to do when I see something on Dribble from guys like Bill. That is, in it’s own sense, a way of being mentally busy where … This leads into my next question which is who are the people that you look up to and the ones that … When I ask that question to myself I’m like, “Well, who do I look up to? It’s the people who I wish I could emulate.” People who I want to rip off and in fun and tongue in cheek say, “I love that design. I’m going to steal it.” Who are the people in the creative space, they don’t have to necessarily be designers, they could be musicians or whatever, that bring to you a breath of fresh creative air and some inspiration and things that help bring you down from the business rather than add to it? Megan Gray: Yeah, a designer specifically that I’ve just always admired is Jesse BC or Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain. He used to be 31Three and I think he’s with Shopify now. I’ve always loved how he is just so absolutely masterful with his craft. His designs are how I found him. I always thought, “Wow, that’s a real designer. That’s real stuff.” Back when I was just doing whatever. Then I met him at Circles Conference and I was just blown away by how quiet and reserved and humbled he was. I introduced myself, and then awkwardly like I am, I said, “Oh, I don’t mean to keep you” and he’s like, “No, talk to me about what you’re doing, what you’re working on.” I was like, “What? What is this?” I’ve always just loved how he’s not particularly self-promoting. He’s not particularly out there trying to be the biggest and the best. He’s just quietly, comfortably kicking all kinds of ass in this way that feels really genuine and authentic to me. Then on a more of a business perspective and somebody who is doing what they do, I still continue to think of Jake Goldman, former boss at 10up, as one of my mentors who I still reach out to who is somebody who just does not care what other people think of him. Or he does, but it does not influence his decisions. He is just everyday, everyday he is the same person. He is consistent and true to himself. That is really inspiring to me because I struggle with that. A lot of us struggle with that. Those are two people that I think I can look to when I need a little inspiration or a fresh take. Lauren Mancke: That’s some really good advice. We’re really happy you were able to come on the show today, Megan. Thank you so much for all of the wisdom you’ve imparted. Do you have any other words for our listeners? Megan Gray: I don’t. I think the closing is just to block out the noise and keep doing you and it will get you wherever you’re trying to go, I think. Brian Gardner: There we go. Words from Megan Gray. Everybody at StudioPress FM. Thank you so much for listening. In the show notes, on the show page, we have all kinds of great links to Megan so you can follow her, you can look at her work. If you’re looking for someone to design something for you and you don’t mind pastels and beaches, then check out Megan’s portfolio. Megan Gray: Thank you so much. Brian Gardner: Until next week. Thanks again for listening.

What's the secret to freelancing success? Deliver. Good. Shit. Let's be honest, Megan Gray's work deserves more than that paltry summary, but there many freelancers who forget the foundation of a sustainable business. They often get lost in how to create bigger profits, rather than putting out respectable work. Some time has passed since I've harped on the five-hundred dollar website being delivered by the consultant, and not based on the client's budget. That is to say, if you want to have a real career, you can't treat “building websites” like a part-time gig. Something on the side that nets a few hundos every month, just for you to spend it on margaritas. Not that there's anything wrong with margaritas. What's more badass than sipping on a margarita? Owning the margarita machine, or hell, the bar! In today's episode, Megan's going to teach you how she bought the bar and works from the beach. Megan Gray on being a freelancer for hire I remember a time where they said you needed to be great at one thing in order to be successful. Who are they anyway? I never do know … Are we moving back to being solutionists? You could argue you never moved away from offering an all encompassing service, and that might be true, but I bet many of you cut the fat and focused on being great developers, great marketers, or great designers at some point over the last few years. It just made sense. You could market yourself easier, tell the pitch in an elevator, and create squeeze pages like a boss. Creating a nice little package to offer to customers at an affordable price. I know I did. Here's the thing, I've started to notice a trend with clients — they want more. They want to spend more, get better service, and grow their business leveraging new technology. In the years after the financial collapse, folks tightened both their wallets and their willingness to invest in new ventures. Now, I see more of a trend to move faster, be more agile with their web and marketing, and hire a team to do it for them. But they want it all, not just a piece of it. Moving (back) from specialist to solutionist Here's the deal, you might listen to our podcast today and think Megan is a specialist. She does great design, and that's “it.” Au contraire! While she might be handing off more advanced development pieces, social media management, and ad buys, she certainly designs with that in mind. If you need her to pull the pieces of that puzzle together for you, she's perfectly capable of putting the teams in place to get it done. That's the role of a great solutionist. What keeps the business on autopilot? We said it before, she designs great work with a portfolio to back it up. To the point where she doesn't worry about a pipeline or devising schemes to find new clients. They find her. House of Gray's focuses on providing value, delivering work with integrity sewn in, and the clients come-a-knocking. It takes time, don't think it happens overnight, but investing in this now — for your own business — pays off in the long run. The links Megan Gray on Twitter House of Grays website ★ Support this podcast ★

What’s the secret to freelancing success? Deliver. Good. Shit. Let’s be honest, Megan Gray’s work deserves more than that paltry summary, but there many freelancers who forget the foundation of a sustainable business. They often get lost in how to create bigger profits, rather than putting out respectable work. Some time has passed since I’ve harped on the five-hundred dollar website being delivered by the consultant, and not based on the client’s budget. That is to say, if you want to have a real career, you can’t treat “building websites” like a part-time gig. Something on the side that nets a few hundos every month, just for you to spend it on margaritas. Not that there’s anything wrong with margaritas. What’s more badass than sipping on a margarita? Owning the margarita machine, or hell, the bar! In today’s episode, Megan’s going to teach you how she bought the bar and works from the beach. (more…)

This week’s podcast is with Megan Gray whose website is DaysWithTheGrays.com. Megan is a photographer, painter and homeschooling mother living in NJ. She and her family have chosen to be car free! It is interesting how that choice has improved her ability to lessen distractions and stay focused on her painting and family. Show notes are here.

Speakers: Pastor Rusty, Kurt Gray, Megan Gray, and Logan Robb.

March 10, 2014. One question regarding orphan works is the role public and private registries might play in any orphan works solution. The most obvious of these registries, the Copyright Office's own registration and recordation system, provides a wealth of copyright information but has limitations based on both technological requirements and the fact that registration and recordation is not mandatory in the United States. There are other registries that have ownership information, and there has been some suggestion that the Office should investigate enhancing interoperability between the Office system and private rights registries. The Office discussed the role registration and recordation may play in helping to more effectively mitigate the orphan works problem. Speakers included Karyn Temple Claggett, Catherine Rowland, Robert Kasunik, Michael Capobianco, Megan Gray, Eric Harbeson, Douglas Hill, Brad Holland, Roy Kaufman, Patrick McCormack, Alex McGehee, Eugene Mopsik, Nancy Prager, Colin Rushing, Frederic Schroeder, Matthew Schruers, Jeff Sedlik and Nancy Wolff. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6317

Magnet Theater Artistic Director Megan Gray, in conversation with her boyfriend of 16 years, Louis Kornfeld.  They talk about extremely personal intimate details regarding their deepest fears.  Or maybe it’s more about teaching, performing and learning improv, building communities, and creating connections.  The only way to find out is to give it a listen. Subscribe […] The post #6: Megan Gray appeared first on Magnet Theater.

Earlier this year, Jimmy had the chance to sit down and talk with Megan Gray, Rick Andrews and Louis Kornfeld - three improvisers from the Magnet Theater Co. in New York who were in town for the Chicago Improv Festival. They discussed the similarities and differences between Chicago and New York improv and then put those methods to the test in a great set of scenes.

In our continuing effort to share great ideas about improvisation, the Q & A series proudly posts this live conversation with Susan Messing and Christina Gausas.  Megan Gray was our host, and the audience at Magnet Theater provided the questions.  This is NSFW because Susan uses the F word a lot.  So put on your […] The post Q&A Series – Listen to Messing And Gausas appeared first on Magnet Theater.