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Tell Us Your Story
Welcome to Tell Us Your Story, the podcast that tells the diverse stories of businesses, leaders, and influence. Our mission is to ignite inspiration, foster education, and bring our community together. Join us as we unravel the path to achievement, discovering how these remarkable businesses and leaders navigated obstacles, conquered hardships, and transformed failures into success. Their stories will leave you reinvigorated and inspired with invaluable leadership insights and equipped with practical advice to overcome the challenges on your journey towards success.
Tell Us Your Story
Breaking Free: From Silence to Storytelling with Jamie Perez
Jamie Perez's storytelling journey takes us from the quiet streets of Sacramento to television newsrooms in the Midwest and ultimately back to California as a thriving entrepreneur. Her path exemplifies the transformative power of authentic stories—both in business and in personal reinvention.
Despite growing up in an emotionally unavailable household with a father with narcissistic personality disorder, Jamie channeled her innate drive into academic excellence. This same determination would later fuel her entrepreneurial success when life threw devastating curveballs her way. Jamie's career in broadcast journalism took her from Los Angeles to Iowa and Wisconsin, where she honed her storytelling craft while facing the harsh realities of the news industry—low pay, constant relocation, and the emotional toll of covering primarily negative stories.
When a non-compete clause destroyed her attempt to transition careers, Jamie found herself at a crossroads. Rather than giving up, she secretly launched her own video storytelling business while working at a nonprofit. Within a year of being legally free to promote her services, she achieved remarkable success, hitting six figures by helping businesses and nonprofits connect emotionally with their audiences.
What makes Jamie's approach to storytelling exceptional is her unwavering focus on the "why" rather than the "what." As she explains, "People are going to forget all those facts, but they will never forget the emotion and how you made them feel." This philosophy has become the cornerstone of her business, creating videos that serve as powerful, enduring marketing assets for her clients.
After leaving an abusive relationship and returning to California, Jamie now navigates another rebuilding phase with the same determination that has carried her through previous challenges. Her willingness to share her story while still in progress—not just in retrospect from the mountaintop—offers a rare glimpse into authentic resilience in action.
Ready to transform how your business connects with customers? Discover how emotional storytelling can elevate your brand by visiting Beyond Words Production or reaching out to Jamie directly to create content that makes people truly care about your mission.
In this week's episode, we sat down with Jamie Perez. She's a storyteller, videographer and owner at Beyond Words Production and she just had an absolutely amazing and inspiring story. She has always been driven and you're going to hear that throughout her entire story and what she tells us. She's faced challenges and she's a fighter and she's risen up from the lowest lows to the highest highs and had to do it all over again.
Speaker 2:I was just truly inspired by her story and it's so diverse. She goes from living in different states and making these big decisions to move out on her own and figure out her career, and all of that on just the personal side. But then she talks about her business, which is storytelling, and storytelling is what we do, and to have a conversation about somebody who, or with somebody who really understands and cares so deeply about storytelling and why you tell a story and what a story is about, I think is really cool. So the things that she does for businesses as well was something that I'm excited for the listeners to hear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited as well, and I loved her emotional intelligence and understanding the storytelling and how to connect with people, and so I really, really think that people are going to enjoy this episode. So sit back, relax and enjoy this episode of Tell Us your Story.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Tell Us your Story. Join us as we step into the arena with business owners, leaders and influencers. Hear their stories as they navigate challenges, opportunities and victories on their journey to success. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, it is not the critic who counts, but the man or woman who is actually in the arena.
Speaker 3:I grew up in South Sacramento in the Greenhaven Pocket neighborhood Single family home, Grew up with both of my parents. I have one older brother and we lived there. I still live there Our entire lives. We never moved.
Speaker 1:And so how old is your brother and how old are you?
Speaker 3:I am 31. He is 33.
Speaker 1:Okay. So really close, and has he obviously moved out? Probably yes. Okay, so tell us a little bit about your early childhood. Were you an active?
Speaker 3:child. Were you a quiet child? I was very quiet and very shy. Obviously, I'm not as shy and coy anymore. But yeah, I mean, I think my family was just like that. They're quiet to themselves Grew up traditional boomers as my parents. So both me and my brother kind of turned out to be the same way. Were you close, you and your brother? My brother has not talked to me since the day I was born.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:It's the sibling rivalry and I don't think he ever got over me being born.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:To this day.
Speaker 2:Your entire upbringing my entire life. Here I was thinking oh my brother's like less than two years old. We were like best friends growing up.
Speaker 3:No, none of that. So it was really you on your own. Yeah, we were pretty individual and we just were very opposite. I mean, we grew up in the same household and we experienced a lot of the same traumas in the household that we grew up in, but I think it had very different effects on how each of us turned out to be. So even to this day, we're just. We're so different Like you would never expect that we grew up in the same household.
Speaker 2:And what did your parents do for a living?
Speaker 3:My mom was an accountant her entire life, so she I don't know her official job title, but she did accounting for the County of Sacramento, worked her way up, is now retired. She's been retired for like 10 years now and then my dad always had different jobs working for the state, like at one point he was at the DMV and then he had some other sort of office job. I didn't really get much information from him about his career ever. I just know that he worked in an office for the state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:And so then, growing up, as we go through your elementary school and into middle school, were you a good student or were you a student that didn't like school at all? What kind of frame it for us of what kind of child you were.
Speaker 3:I was always a good student. I always had a 4.0 straight A's my entire life. Like school was never an issue for me. But I was definitely the quiet kid like do do as you're told, do all the homework on time every time, kind of thing. And yeah, school is school's never really been an issue for me. I always wanted to get good grades and that wasn't because of external or like parental influence. That was just. That was just me. I wanted to do well.
Speaker 1:And so you'd mentioned trauma. So was that in the early years or is that later?
Speaker 3:I don't well, I guess it was always. There was always trauma. So it was just a very emotionally abusive and emotionally unavailable household. My dad has narcissistic personality disorder, so the abuse that comes from that and I don't think as a kid I didn't know what that was. I actually didn't even know what that was until a couple of years ago, what that meant and what that entailed. So there was just a lot of isolation as a kid and having to tap into my own emotions because I couldn't get that from my parents. The emotional availability wasn't there and whatever was there was very harmful. So that trauma had very different impacts on how me and my brother turned out.
Speaker 1:And so you said you didn't know what it was until a couple of years ago. So as you were growing up, did you recognize that it was traumatic, or did you think you were close?
Speaker 3:to your parents or different from I didn't know anything else, right? Because as a kid it's like your parents in your house, that's your world, like you don't really know what you don't know. I knew that I felt other kids had better relationships with their families. I was always envious at how their parents treated them, or maybe their lack of consequences for certain things, consequences for certain things and I. But I didn't really like think about it until I got, like maybe to high school age, when you really start to develop that cognitive recognition of like oh wow, like there is way other, there's so many other ways that you can treat a child and like so yeah, it was. I didn't, I didn't realize what was happening. I always knew I was sad, but I didn't know that there was any other way that you could feel like that was just my, it was just normal.
Speaker 1:Wow, and so you're. You're a good student. You like school. Outside of school, do you do sports, or do you have other activities that you do?
Speaker 3:At the time. Yeah, I played soccer, but that was about it. I really wasn't athletic or I didn't really have any hobbies. I was. I was such a focused kid Like I was just very into school.
Speaker 1:Interesting, and so then, as you went into high school, did that carry with you? Just continue to focus on school delinquent when it comes to academics.
Speaker 3:I was delinquent in other ways and like trying to act out in rebellion of my household. You know, when kids don't get the love and attention they need at home, they seek that elsewhere through really unhealthy means. So I was doing all of the bad things in high school, but my grades never faltered because of it, which is not usual, because usually when kids take a steer in the wrong direction, their grades are impacted. That was never the case with me, like I still always did really well in school just because I wanted to.
Speaker 1:So I asked you a couple of questions here. So acting out means a lot of different things to different people. So I've had friends like, yeah, I was such a horrible kid and I was like, well, what did you do? Like I talked back to my mom I said, well, that's a lot different than going out and coming in at 3 am in the morning. So what kind of acting out? Where's the line? What can you share was acting out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean underage drinking, underage drugs. I mean drugs are illegal no matter what age you are. But a lot of that having boyfriends that were far older than me completely like not appropriate for that age type of thing. Sneaking out partying, lying about everywhere that I was and just getting involved with all the wrong people and all the wrong things.
Speaker 1:And so then, how did you maintain? So you maintained your academics, so you were, you balancing that, or what was balancing it?
Speaker 3:I would find ways to act out in school. Like I said, like academics never was difficult for me, I never really had to try, so it was just like okay, get this done, now I can go do what I really wanted to do, which was go and party. Like I just got that the, the half two stuff done, I just got it done really quick and then it left all this time for me to go and okay, now I can go ditch and go do something I'm not supposed to do, because I've already taken care of the grades. My mom can't yell at me for that, because that's. My only responsibility right now is do well in school, and I'm already doing that.
Speaker 2:Oh, did you know that you were doing it purposely or like? Were you it sounds like searching for kind of the attention and things that made you feel a certain way that you weren't getting like in the moment? You knew it wasn't like a hindsight thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I knew the whole time. I don't think that I took accountability for it at the time because I was just like everyone's wrong except me, like I wanted what I wanted, just selfish and focused on like how can I make myself have the dopamine release that normal people have in their households when they get that sense of love? But because I would go home and I felt nothing. I needed to find ways to get that within me as a kid, because I'm like I didn't know how, what, like that amount of happiness felt like Right.
Speaker 3:So you talk about drugs and like drugs brought that to me like obviously momentarily and synthetically, but that's why I did that is because I felt happier than I had ever felt in my life when I did that and I didn't know how I could possibly get that any other way.
Speaker 2:So that's what happened, and was that making it better or worse with your parents, I assume?
Speaker 3:if you're acting out, probably worse, definitely worse, definitely worse, but I still believe, even now, looking hindsight, like even if I hadn't done that, I still wouldn't have been receiving what I needed to receive, even if I had been the best student in the world, like it doesn't change how they behaved towards me and my brother. I did what I did in response, and irresponsibly, but I can, I only was responsible for my behavior is not theirs right and I can't change their behaviors.
Speaker 3:They're adults, they think they're right, they're in charge of me and they're going to do what they're going to do and you said your brother, if you're comfortable, I don't you know.
Speaker 2:Speaking of you, said he what you were opposite. So was he behaving in the same way or did he have just a totally different reaction to it?
Speaker 3:he acted out as well not nearly to the extent that I did, though like he definitely got in trouble and then would kind of stop. I got in trouble and kept going or or found sneakier ways to do it. A little bit of a different response.
Speaker 2:Just curious. It's always interesting when you grow up. Like you said, same household, same environment, but you can have two completely different ways about you. Yep, Just curious.
Speaker 1:And so, as you're going through high school and you have these, totally just so you know, there's a whole population of people like me who struggled in school, that are like how did you just have this gift come so easy to you? And it like frustrated, frustrated me. So as you have that path that's so easy for you, and then you're struggling in all the other areas. Did you have a dream or a target of what you wanted to do after school?
Speaker 3:At the time? No, I didn't. I had no idea what drove me, what I was passionate about. Like all I knew was I just wanted school to be over. Like I hated school. I was good at it, but I hated it. I felt like it was boring, it was a waste of my time. Like this is just how I felt when I was in it. Like I wanted to get out in the real world and be an adult and be responsible for all my own my own life.
Speaker 1:And so, when you graduated high school, what? What was the next step for you then?
Speaker 3:So I went to Sac City College because there were a lot of kids in my high school that were going to like Stanford or all these all these four-year universities that I just didn't know what I wanted to do. So I'm like there's I don't really see the point in applying for all of these like super prestigious, very expensive schools when I'm like I don't even know what I'm gonna do. Like how do I know where I want to go, how do I know what I want to focus in if I just I had no direction? So at the time I had a boyfriend. I dated him from sophomore year in high school to sophomore year in college and he was staying here. So that definitely influenced my decision to just stay and figure it out too.
Speaker 1:And so a couple things. I'm surprised on so struggling at home, acting out, but you didn't leave right when you had the chance at 18. And you're still there now. So does this come full circle? Or are we parents good to now? We're going to get through that conversation.
Speaker 3:There's a lot more layers to that story, okay, so how long did you stay? Sac City? So I was there for three years doing my general ed before I moved to Los Angeles, where I went to Cal State Northridge.
Speaker 1:Okay, so big move and boyfriends done at that time. So you're going on your own completely.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And what was that transition like?
Speaker 3:I was so excited because that was like, finally my opportunity to move out Right Like. I think one of the another, one of the reasons that I didn't move out right away, like right as soon as I turned 18, was because I didn't have the means to do it. I didn't have a job, like you know. How am I going to move out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't have a job Like you know how am I going to move out as much as I wanted to, but going to school in LA like I was staying in the dorms, my parents, fortunately, were paying for my education there. So I was bright eyed and bushy tailed about LA. I had never been. I had heard all of these dreams and fantasies about oh, if you want to make it big, go to LA, right. And so I was really excited to go. It was my first time being out of the house. I got to be in a big city, in LA, on my own for the first time.
Speaker 1:And are you still doing the drugs and the alcohol At the time?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think I still partied, but it wasn't like detrimental to my health.
Speaker 1:It was more normal.
Speaker 3:It was more just recreational, standard college student type of thing. High school was probably where I was the worst about it.
Speaker 1:Got it, and so was that a hard transition. That's a lifestyle Right. Was that a hard transition out of it?
Speaker 3:I think I had enough hard lessons in high school from that lifestyle that I eventually just tapered off on my own that I didn't want to hang out with these people anymore, after being hurt in too many different situations that I naturally stepped away from it.
Speaker 1:That's good. I mean, there's a thousand, there's millions of stories where it goes the other way, and obviously I still don't know the rest of your story, but at least you got away from that piece of it. So tell us about those years. Did you graduate? Okay? And so how long were you in LA before you graduated?
Speaker 2:Two years, two years. And what? Were you going to school for Broadcast journalism. Okay, so that was when. Had that like piqued your interest? Or is that all of a sudden became like your goal or your next move as you got to SoCo?
Speaker 3:So when I was going to City College, they still want you to pick a major, but you are a lot more flexible to change it while you're doing your general ed. So when I sat down with a counselor I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I told her that and she's like well, what do you like to do? I said, well, I write poetry, which is how I. That was a coping mechanism that I had as a kid. I always wrote poems that nobody ever saw, but it was my therapist. So I told her I was like I like to write poems, but I don't want to make a career out of that. She's like OK, well, you like writing, so let's put you in journalism classes.
Speaker 3:There's writing involved, there's emotions, there's storytelling, a lot of the things. Spectrum of journalism from print, radio, broadcast, magazine. And I fell in love with broadcast. And I got internships at KCRA and Good Day Sacramento and I just fell in love with the whole thing. So I decided to just kind of go that route and then I moved to LA to finish the degree in that.
Speaker 1:So that became your why, that was your passion and your route. And then I moved to LA to finish the degree in that, so that became your why, that was your passion and your destination. And what was the ultimate goal in that field? Where did you see yourself or what did you want to accomplish?
Speaker 3:My ultimate goal was to end up on the Today Show as a general assignment reporter and I truly believe that I could have gotten there if I had stuck with it, but there were too many things along the journey that I was like I don't think this was feasible and sustainable for the lifestyle that I wanted, or that my priorities shifted as I got older, that that was no longer suitable to what I wanted in my life.
Speaker 1:So you graduate college, you have your degree, and then where does that take you? Do you stay in LA or you move back up?
Speaker 3:Nope. So I applied for 80 jobs during my last six months of college and one station responded to me and that was an ABC station in Sioux City, iowa. So I moved from LA to Sioux City, iowa as a general assignment reporter or an MMJ multimedia journalist and I was in Iowa for two years being an MMJ, a producer and an anchor.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:So in my mind, when I hear all of that, you're multimillionaire at this point, right my. The salary they offered me was $22,000 a year.
Speaker 1:Wow, and so it's. It's the, the way I think a lot of people romanticize being on TV and the celebrity and the personality, but then the pay that goes along with it isn't there, and then I would imagine it's a massive culture shock going from LA to Iowa. And so tell us a little bit about that. Did it take you a little bit of time to transition just from the different culture?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I think growing up in California I was extremely naive because I had never been anywhere else, it was just California. So you know we've got amazing weather, super diverse. There's so much stuff to do. Iowa is not that. So I guess going there I didn't expect that much of a change. Just being naive I'm like oh, everywhere must be like this.
Speaker 3:No, it was. It was really really hard and it was a lot of learning for me, just because that was the first time that I was moving somewhere entirely, entirely different on my own, paying my own way for everything. You know, I'm not in school anymore. I don't have access to like unlimited friends and opportunities like that. Like you know, you really got to be on your own and then doing that in a place that is so drastically different than how I grew up gave me a very thick skin, because I just dealt with so many things and I had to confront myself on a lot of like internal battles that I was facing, like the battle of loneliness, being out there in the middle of nowhere, having no friends, no family, nothing to do and having no money. Like it was hard.
Speaker 2:It was very isolating.
Speaker 3:So but I made a really good friend group in the newsroom and we kind of just trauma bonded over our experiences because everybody moves there from big cities to get their start in TV news. So I had made friends that were from Dallas, Philly, San Diego, like they're all moving to these small cities. So, we all related to each other on the struggles we were all facing together.
Speaker 2:So tell us about the job. What were, what were you doing in kind of those first? Well, I guess you were there for two years. So what was it like? Were you on camera? Were you doing, you know, different than what you expected, or was it what you expected? What was the job like it was?
Speaker 3:exactly as I expected, cause I mean, in college, they do prepare you. They're like, if you, if you are not able to do everything on your own from start to finish of a story, you will not get hired, and that is absolutely true. Like you can't just be the person on camera, you better know how to do everything, you better know how to work that camera, how to fix that camera, how to edit, how to shoot, how to write, how to be ad lib. Like you have to know how to do everything. So the term I mentioned to you earlier, mmj multimedia journalist that means you're doing everything from start to finish. You're finding your story ideas, you're filming, you're editing, you're setting up the interviews, you're going on camera, you're writing up the story for the web station, all on deadline every day, and then breaking news happens and everything gets thrown out the door and you got to be quick and think on your feet.
Speaker 3:So that was the main job that I did, but I also filled in at the anchor desk as well and I filled in as a producer, which means that you are writing the entire show from start to finish, the entire 30 minutes. You have to know how to fill that. You have to know how to time the show. You have to know how to react and respond live on air when breaking news happens, how to pull in video, how to pull in reporters Like it's multitasking on steroids, so it's. It was that for two years, and then I moved to Madison, wisconsin, where I got a job at a CBS station there, essentially doing the same thing but less. So I wasn't anchoring anymore and I wasn't producing. I was just focused on being a reporter.
Speaker 1:And why did you take that job? Was it like a step step up?
Speaker 3:Yes, so in the news world like you start out in a really small market and then you work your way up to bigger and bigger cities. So I actually didn't even apply for that job. I had applied to their sister station in Washington and I didn't want that job. But the news director there recommended me to the station in Madison, Wisconsin, who was looking for a reporter. And so I interviewed there and I really liked the station, so I took that job In lieu of the one that I actually applied for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's just hearing you out. You're going from LA to Iowa and you're starting all over with no friends. Again, everything starts over from scratch. Yes, and so did that give you pause? Or you just knew that was the path? Like, this is the way you pay your dues and this is what you're going to do.
Speaker 3:That part essentially. Yeah, I knew that and I think that after after uprooting my life enough times that I knew that as I got older, that wasn't going to be sustainable. When I'm in young and in my twenties that's really exciting Cause I get to experience all these new things and go to all these new places. But you know it gets expensive, more and more expensive. As you get more and more stuff. It gets harder to do that. As you get older, it gets harder to make friends and go out and be adventurous and all the things. So eventually that is one of the reasons why I left news was because I didn't want to have to keep doing that every two to three years, which is a reality. It's part of paying your dues if you want to do that and you want to get to the top the market, whatever you consider the top to be, and I didn't want to do that anymore.
Speaker 1:And so was there any sense of like you're a celebrity, you're on the news so people recognize you. Are you experiencing that? Or like you're going out to dinner and people know you and how did you handle that? Or is it something to handle? I just don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was some of that. I mean especially like locally, like people anywhere else are not going to recognize me right From being on the news in Wisconsin. Nobody here is going to recognize me for that but there it was.
Speaker 3:I think the anchors got it more because they were the main face of the news. The reporters just are on air for two minutes, versus the anchors are on for the whole 30. So I wasn't an anchor. I didn't really want all of that. To be honest, I didn't get into news because I wanted the fame. I loved the platform of storytelling. I loved getting to do something new and different every single day and it was exciting. So it's just part of the job. I guess you do get recognized, which is cool. I guess it's an ego boost for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I would imagine some people they leverage that to whether it's going to clubs and being the celebrity there or going, you know, being on a stage and judging dinners or whatever the case may be. I'm sure there's. It opens opportunities because people know who you are and some people you didn't take it, but I would imagine some people took advantage of that.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wouldn't even say that I was one of the more like notable personalities either, because I wasn't like I wasn't like a main reporter, just because I didn't get like the most airtime, if that makes sense. Like the people that got more airtime, they would be recognized more, they would be asked to go do more things. And the other thing was like I looked really young. I still look really young.
Speaker 2:It was really hard.
Speaker 3:It was actually very hard for me to get a job because of how young I looked and there was even a news station that I applied for. Before I took the job in Madison, I applied for a job in Charlotte and they straight up told me that they couldn't give me the job because I didn't look believable. I looked like I was too young to be giving such serious news on crime and politics and they're like we need somebody who looks believable. I mean, essentially it's a little bit of a discrimination, but at the same time, like this is a very visual industry, like so I get it like if I saw me on tv, you know what I mean. Like it's like you look like a kid trying to give the news like I get it.
Speaker 2:I get it. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about the storytelling. So you said you would get to pick your story. Like what part of that? If it wasn't for the recognition and you know, maybe like being on camera you don't but what part of like the story, what part of that did you like in the actual reporting or things like that?
Speaker 3:There's a lot of things that I liked about it For me personally. I grew up a shy kid and you can't be shy when you're a reporter and you're trying to dig for information, right? So I think personally it just really helped me break out of my shell. It helped me have people skills. It helped me have social skills. It helped me learn how to turn really awkward networking situations like turn it around and pick the conversation back up, which is a really great skill to have helped me with public speaking, which, again, a really valuable skill to have.
Speaker 3:But in terms of like the storytelling and what it did outside of me, I just loved how people would respond and open up when they saw their story air and the reaction that they would get because of it.
Speaker 3:So, for example, if there was a house fire and I would have to go cover the house fire and instead of turning it into just some negative crime-related story, I would find a way to turn it into okay, here's how the community can help and I would link it to their GoFundMe page and I would watch their GoFundMe skyrocket after the story aired. Being able to help people like that and then seeing their reaction and their gratitude for something like that. I really saw the impact of what telling a story and making people care about something can do for other people, and how it brings people together, how it creates connection, it creates empathy and not every news story has to be all bad and you can turn it into making it beneficial for everybody, and now you just made the community like better because of it. So that's what I really liked about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's similar to the podcast. Obviously, we hear a lot of stories and we talk all the time about the aftermath of people getting to know something about you that they didn't know, or somebody saying, oh, I listened to that episode, it really helped me, like all of that is more for everybody else. You know, we get we listen to stories for ourselves, but also anybody listening to the podcast, so it was that part was even more gratifying, you know so.
Speaker 3:I can.
Speaker 2:I can see it so in your, in your storytelling cause I I know that it weaves into, obviously, what you do now, which we'll to, but what were some of those things that you realized? Like, how did you make people care about what you were reporting on, or taking that story and finding a way to make it resonate? What were some of the things that you did, or what are your thoughts there?
Speaker 3:So this is actually something that I still teach people today about storytelling that it's not about what you do or what happened.
Speaker 3:It's about the why, and I think it takes a good interviewer to frame the story in that way, Because if you have someone who's not good at asking the right questions, your story is going to be reflective of that.
Speaker 3:So take the house fire story, for example instead of just focusing on the who, what, when, where and why the facts of the story, I would instead make it focusing on the who, what, when, where and why the facts of the story. I would instead make it about, like, the emotional reaction of the family who just suffered this and like really display what they lost, what this house meant to them, what their future looks like now, what they really need from the community. Focusing it on the emotional stuff. It resonates a lot deeper and makes that story a lot more memorable than just focusing on what time this happened, what neighborhood this was in, Like. People are going to forget all those facts, but they will never forget the emotion and how you made them feel. So that's something that I integrate into what I do now with storytelling and I teach people, like, when you're doing videos. Don't focus on this stuff. That's stuff that can be read in text on the website. Don't focus your valuable video time on that and make people feel.
Speaker 2:That's good, and you have passion when you talk about it. I know you can tell which I love because it means that you really which is true, and that's how you also get people to when you care about something and what you're speaking about, it's already going to be a lot better. Yeah, I something, and what you're speaking about, it's already going to be, you know, a lot better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I say if you believe, you make other people believe. Exactly.
Speaker 1:How long were you in Madison?
Speaker 3:Seven years.
Speaker 1:Seven years oh wow, that's a stretch. And so I would take it, you grew in from what you initially went to, or did you stay in that role? As a just I say just, but because that's where you came in as a reporter.
Speaker 3:So reporters have two-year contracts. So that's what I originally signed on for right. I had two years in Iowa, Then I was planning two years in Wisconsin. I was planning on moving away, but then COVID happened and nobody was hiring. It was on a hiring freeze and you can't go anywhere anyways. So I re-signed another contract for another two years because of COVID.
Speaker 1:And that was 2020, 2021? Okay, so another two-year contract. Okay, so that comes and goes and you're in love there.
Speaker 3:No, well, that's so. I left a year before that second two-year contract was over. So I left in September of 2021. And I left for a number of reasons. One, the pay right. The pay was not great. And then I again was tired of having the idea of having to uproot my life every two to three years. I was like I don't think I want to do that again.
Speaker 3:And the fact that I wanted to only cover good news stories all the time. You see how passionate I am talking about this sort of stuff and obviously the news is not filled with heartfelt, compassionate stories. So I guess I grew a little bit jaded of crime, politics, breaking news that's not what I wanted to do. And I did pitch to my news station like look, I will. I will continue with my contract but, like I need, I want to be assigned a beat that I'm good at and I want to be like the good news reporter, like capitalize on what you know I'm really good at. Like there's other reporters in this newsroom that love crime, they love covering politics, like capitalize on what we're all good at. But they didn't because we just didn't have enough staff to cover the general day to day stuff. So my good news stories were always pushed to the back burner and I was just. I found myself more and more covering things that I didn't care about and I didn't want to cover, so I eventually decided to leave.
Speaker 3:I got offered a job to lead this startup. They are based in North Carolina, I believe that they have stations or headquarters all over the country and it's basically a community blog slash newsletter. It's basically an email that goes out to people and remember, this is like 2021, right, so we're just coming out of COVID. So it's basically a startup that was trying to help local businesses and community events grow post-COVID. So it was an email newsletter that went out that let you know of all of these new businesses that you could go support, some family-friendly, fun activities you could go do. So they hired me to start this in Madison and grow their email list there. Two days into me working there, I got a threatening email from the attorney at the news station that I had left, saying that if I didn't quit my job, they were going to sue me, citing a non-compete. And I'm like this is not a competitor of yours, like this is not even news. And I'm not. It was just not like any of those things.
Speaker 3:And unfortunately this type of thing happens all the time when people, when reporters, leave news stations, especially if they stay in the market that they're previously worked in. So I ignored the email and usually they go away. They did not go away. A week later the attorney emailed me again, very hostile, and threatened me again. Like how dare you ignore me? I am not going to be ignored and if you don't quit your job, I am not going to be ignored and if you don't quit your job, I'm going to sue you.
Speaker 3:So I took it to the CEO of the company that I was now working for and he was like, is this about a non-compete? And I said yeah. And he's like, let me just talk to them. We have hired reporters in the other markets that we have established ourselves in and it's never been a problem. Like we are not in competition with them, and once we explain to them what it is we do, we've never had a problem keeping them. So I was like, okay, cool, it's in your hands now.
Speaker 3:So I'm working there for about a month and I get on a zoom call with the ceo to give me an update on the situation, and hr is on the call. Oh, and basically long story short. So the ceo was like they were really hostile towards us and we offered them a free partnership and free advertising things that you would do, that you wouldn't do if you were truly in competition with somebody. And they said that they did not care and that if we did not fire you today, that they're going to come after both of us. And he's like I don't think they're right to do this and I don't think they have any legs to stand on in court, but you're too new of an employee for us to fight the legal battle.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So I lost my job. I had like $2,000 total in savings. I lost my health insurance, I lost everything. Obviously that was very traumatic for me because I gave up the career that I thought I was going to be in forever to come to this job, only to lose it after a month because I didn't have enough money to fight it in court. Wow, any job anywhere else. Because I mean essentially they told the contract says, which you know non-competes are not enforceable here in California for a reason, but they are in Wisconsin and basically a lot of some terms of the contract say that you cannot use any of the skill sets that you used as a reporter for anyone else until the legal terms of this contract is over, which were valid for a year after the day that.
Speaker 3:I quit, so it had not been a year yet. Obviously it had been a month. So personally, I don't think that it's right to tell somebody that you cannot use your skill sets to go get a job somewhere.
Speaker 3:I think that is too general and it should not be enforceable. But that's just. You know, that's my non-legal opinion. So I reached out to a man who I met while I was working in news and he owned restaurants in a nonprofit. And I told him what happened because I knew he was very well connected and I'm like is there anything that you can help me with? I need a job. I can't afford to go one paycheck without being paid, one paycheck without being paid. And so he actually, very gracefully, created a position at his nonprofit for a video storyteller to help his nonprofit grow. So I did that in secret. I said don't tell anybody I'm working here, don't feature me on the website, just keep me low key. Because I was so afraid that the news station was going to find out anything that I was doing and would try and take it away from me.
Speaker 3:Because if they would try and take that away from me the email community, blog thing I'm like they're going to take away anything that I'm doing to try to whatever. So I did that and the partner that I was with at the time was an entrepreneur and he kind of planted the seed in my head that, like you know, you don't have to do this for somebody else and you can start your own business. There is a demand for, like video storytelling. You can do this for yourself. So I started an LLC in Wisconsin while I was still working as a video producer or video storyteller for the nonprofit. So I had the stable income from the nonprofit and was able to build my business on the side and for the nonprofit. So I had the stable income from the nonprofit and was able to build my business on the side. And for the first year that I was doing that, any networking events I went to to try to promote and grow my business, I would have to tell people like please don't tell anybody that I'm doing this Like which?
Speaker 2:is horrible.
Speaker 3:It's horrible because that's exactly the opposite of what you want to do when you're starting a business, you want people, and I just I couldn't.
Speaker 3:Though I had. I was like please don't tell anybody I'm doing this, do not give me credit when you post this on social media. Like it was terrible, right, but I had to. So after the year was up, I was finally legally free from any of the terms of these contracts. So now I could have a website, now I could have a portfolio, and I was saving all my stuff for the year until I could finally launch and it just my business exploded Like it was. It was so successful. People knew me from the news, so I had the leverage of being the personality that people recognize. And then just all the networking that I had done up until that point started to pay off after a year's work of doing that.
Speaker 3:So I hit six figures my first year in business, which was amazing right Starting out like every entrepreneur, like strives to have that and like as someone who never planned to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:That was really cool and then it only grew from there and what stories were you telling? So, both for the nonprofit and for yourself? What were these just individuals that you met? Were these businesses? What were the stories?
Speaker 3:So the same clientele that I have today businesses and nonprofits telling their stories and making people care about them. These are stories that don't focus on the product or service right. It's not about what you do. It's about why you do it and making people care about you, no matter what you're selling.
Speaker 2:No matter what you're selling no matter what you're doing, very nice. And that year that you were taking, essentially meeting people on the deal, yeah, what for those? We do a lot, you know, we're part of a lot of networking groups and different things. So for those that are growing their business, what were some of those things that you did to build up all of those, you know, the clientele over that year that helped you kind of get to the point where you could you, you know explode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean just going to networking events, doing lunch and learns, just passing your business cards out like candy, making people know who you are so that even in rooms that you're not in people start to talk about you, and it's just the exposure. So I would. I would start to do like presentations at lunch and learns. I would start to lead workshops and partner with different organizations. I would start to do like presentations at Lunch and Learns. I would start to lead workshops and partner with different organizations.
Speaker 3:I would go to like entrepreneurial hubs and partner with them to do group info sessions about here's how you can tell your business story, like anything that I could do to gain exposure right. And then, obviously, the back end, like the business side of things. I would post my own video tip of the month that you could follow me for video inspiration, business storytelling ideas. So I was just getting my name out there and just being the face and the voice so that anytime you think of video or storytelling, I want you to think of me. And it worked like it was really effective. So it was just, yeah, some of the things I still do, those things today, today.
Speaker 2:And were you happy at that time? When you look back and like business is going well, you left the industry, you're on your own, would you say you were happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think once that I got the bug of the entrepreneurial life and how good it felt to be your own boss. It's hard but it's so rewarding. I once I felt the benefits of those rewards, I was like I am never going to work for anyone ever again.
Speaker 2:This is great.
Speaker 3:I'm like I don't see how anyone would want to work for anyone ever again after that. But you know it took falling down to experience that like I would have never become an entrepreneur had that news station not tried to screw me over, you know know. So it's like it was a blessing in disguise. I didn't know it at the time. All I knew was pain and how much it hurt that they could do that to me when I was nothing but good to them. But you know it showed their true colors and then I got to show mine.
Speaker 1:So and so you're successful. The business is going well and you, you decide to move.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:Or what happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the partner that I had, the entrepreneur, so we were together for four years he was very abusive to me and I don't think that I realized what this type of relationship that I was in until I started to like Google some of the things that were happening. It got so bad to the point where I was literally Googling some of the ways he would react to me, because I'm like I always knew there was something off about his reactions and his behaviors. I'm like this is not normal. There is no way that a regular like emotionally competent person can act like this, and so that was the first time that I really learned what narcissistic personality disorder was and narcissistic abuse was. So he had I won't I will spare you the details, but it was not good and I almost felt like an imposter because in my business I was going around promoting peace and love and positivity and empathy and going out into the world and promoting all these things, but behind closed doors. I was experiencing everything but that, and it made me feel like an imposter. Like how can I possibly go out and tell people that don't put up with this and be strong and be independent and be inspirational and promote love and all of this and then at home, accept everything that is not that.
Speaker 3:So it eventually got to the point where I I knew I had to leave and together we had been talking about you know our future and like we had both eventually wanted to leave Wisconsin, and so I knew that when I broke up with him that I was like I think this is it's, this is my time to go. I had spent seven years there being from California, like I wanted. I missed the diversity, I missed the good weather, I missed the mountains and I just wanted. I knew I wanted to have at least some of that again and I wasn't going to find that in Wisconsin. So, yeah, I decided to leave and come back home.
Speaker 1:Well, that wasn't the to find that in Wisconsin.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I decided to leave and come back home. Well, that wasn't the first choice, but I knew that. I knew that my entire life was about to implode. We had just bought a house together six months before breaking up. We had two dogs. I had two cars Like we. We shared a lot assets and I knew that when I left him, I knew I was walking into a storm Like.
Speaker 3:But although I lost a lot leaving that relationship, I knew that staying in it would have cost me so much more. So, even though I knew my life was about to explode, I just I watched my mom growing up stay in a relationship that was just like this and I always told myself that I would never end up like that. And so, reflecting on my own relationship, I knew that if I stayed, I was going to be the spitting image of my mom's life and I knew I couldn't do that to myself and on behalf of women everywhere who are too scared to leave. I knew I had to. I could not do what I was doing for one more day. So I wanted to move other places. I was researching other cities and I knew that, as hard as it is to build a business I'm not going to have income for at least a year. And as much as I didn't want to move back into the very home that broke me to begin with, I knew that at least coming back there, I wouldn't have to pay rent. To pay rent, I would have a roof over my head and I could restart because I knew how much money I was about to lose.
Speaker 3:I lost transparency. I lost about 40 grand trying to move back here and then have been living on my savings for the past year that I've been here and it's almost completely wiped me out. But I still have faith that it will come back to me, because you can always make more money, but you can never make more time. And I knew that I was just losing so much of my time by staying in the wrong situation. And it was true to me and my business to do what I did and to build the resiliency and be driven by what my heart was telling me, because that's what I tell other people to do.
Speaker 3:And now I have to practice what I preach as hard as it was. So I've been in California now for a year, the home that I'm in my mom. I am very close with my mom. I basically my dad is just a ghost in the house. My brother still doesn't talk to me, so that's never been a thing. But yeah, I honestly think that if I didn't have the stability of the house stability of the house that I'm in now, like I would have I would have ran out of money by now.
Speaker 1:So, and so you, when you come back home, do you? Are you bringing the business with you and you're like I'm going to do what I'm doing in Wisconsin, I'm going to do this in California.
Speaker 3:The same thing yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so it's been a year now, so I would imagine it was incredibly emotional to make that transition and get home. So how long of a break did you take before he's like, okay, I'm going to start to work?
Speaker 3:I didn't.
Speaker 1:So no break.
Speaker 3:I didn't. It was almost a way to distract myself from what I was feeling inside. I mean, it's not like I compressed it and ignored it, like I was definitely dealing with it behind the scenes, but like I knew I needed to get the ball rolling and try to get an income as quickly as possible, because I did not want to be in this house and I know that in order to get out of this house, I need consistent cash flow. And as an entrepreneur, when you're when you want to move into a place, you have to prove stable income.
Speaker 3:And it was hard for me to get the house in Wisconsin because we were both entrepreneurs who had our businesses for less than three years, so we had to jump through so many hoops to try and prove stable income there and I knew I was going to face the same challenges here. So I was like I have to get this ball rolling, I have to get the income and it's just been incredibly hard to build a business in California for so many reasons. But it's like you know, I came back dealing with the personal emotional heartbreak and trying to start my personal life over, but also trying to start my professional life over. So it was a lot. It was a lot for me to do this and I was still. I would burn myself out, honestly, going from networking events and networking events. I would go to five or six events a day and as an introvert.
Speaker 3:That sucks.
Speaker 2:Like that was terrible.
Speaker 3:It was a lot and it was. I was exhausted. I would cry in between networking events, like I would drive from one event to another, cry in my car like release what I needed to and then wipe the tears, go inside, put the face on, hand out my business cards, get my business done, go on to the next Cause I was like I can't. I'm. This situation is not going to be the reason that I fail and I. I just I couldn't stand the idea of of falling and staying down. There's something to be said about you know giving yourself the emotional space and time to heal. But I wanted to be said about you know giving yourself the emotional space and time to heal.
Speaker 3:But I wanted to do that while I was building my business, because I've always just been. I need to be successful. It's been that way when I was a kid, trying to get good grades, that nobody else was influencing that except for me, just because I wanted it. And it's the same thing with this. I want this. Nobody else is putting pressure on me to do this. My mom doesn't care that I'm not making any money. She knows how hard I work. She's not pressuring me to get out of the house. Nobody is pressuring me except for me, because I want to be.
Speaker 3:I want to be my own version of success and I want to be inspiring for people and I want to show women who are afraid to leave those situations that you can and you will get back up. So stories from their scars, not their wounds. But I believe that by me sharing this with listeners, sometimes it's really good to hear from people who aren't at the top yet, who are still struggling, who are still pushing through every day, because that is sometimes more relatable to people who are in the trenches, who maybe can't see themselves at the top of the mountain yet that these people are sometimes speaking from. But they maybe just need that inspiration from somebody who's maybe just one or two steps ahead of where they are to keep going, and that the ball will roll if you just keep going every single day. So that's why I really just want to tell people, I want to inspire people to tell their stories whenever they are ready to do so.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, you're incredibly driven and inspirational. How can we help you with your business? Tell the viewers we talked about your storytelling On the business side of it. How can we help your business? What are you looking for? What do you do? How can we help?
Speaker 3:So my elevator pitch is I'm a videographer and I do heartfelt and emotional storytelling for businesses and nonprofits. That's one side. I also do storytelling, consulting right. So maybe people don't have the budget for video production, but they still want to learn how to tell their story better on social media, through their email newsletters, whatever mode that they choose. Like I can help you tell your story better Because, as you guys know, telling your story is how you connect to people, it's how you remember them, it's how you relate to them and no matter what you're doing I don't care what industry you're in, everybody has stories to tell and hopefully by me sharing this story, my story, with you, it drives home the point that, like, I hope you know me better now.
Speaker 3:I hope that you see me better now and that it makes me more credible to be doing the video work that I'm doing the emotional storytelling, because it takes an emotional person to understand and be empathetic enough to hear someone else's story. Take that, do it well enough so that you make complete strangers feel the same way. So just putting me in in touch with businesses that want to tell their story, that either the video production they want me to do that side, or they just want to learn from me.
Speaker 2:That would be really helpful or more speaking opportunities like this hopefully, I would love to do more of this and and what are those? As far as the video, so, are these you put you you know talk with? Are you interviewing business owners? Are you, you know, shooting in their business? Are they putting this on their website? How are they? How are your clients kind of using it? What has been? Where are you seeing like success from these videos?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say the most common use for them is putting them on their website. This is a marketing material that has a long shelf life because your why never changes. It's not, it's not just a social media post that you post one time and you're done with it Like that's not. That's not the point of what my videos are for. So websites they send them an email newsletters. A lot of people will put them into QR codes and put them on their business cards or all their marketing materials. They'll play them at workshops. They'll play them at fundraising events. Nonprofits will use them to apply for grants to win over the judge's hearts, or they'll play at fundraising events like galas and stuff like you need video to show at that. These videos are supposed to be used over and over and over again and get as many eyes as possible on them to make people care about you and your why. So that's probably like some of the main things that people use them for.
Speaker 2:But I get videos now of you know, instead of just a regular message, I get videos from businesses or whoever it might be, and one it could catch you off guard. It's a little bit different. And then two. Connecting with it is just, you know, some people connect with what they read. A lot of people connect with what they hear and see and can feel from somebody's story. So I am a little bit of a nerd about storytelling, so whenever I hear you talk, I'm like, oh my gosh, so nice to hear somebody else talk Like you appreciate the story.
Speaker 2:It's not just you know, and most people are like Natasha, you're crazy, like go do your podcast. So I always love listening, so it's really cool what you do and I think a lot of businesses could absolutely gain from doing something like that. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely gain from doing something like that. So, thank you, yeah, absolutely, and the podcast will go out. We're in networking groups so we'll share your story and how people can leverage you. And, aside from the business, you've been home a year, you've left Wisconsin. You left, you know, very challenging and emotional relationships. So how are you? How are things going for you?
Speaker 3:Good, I think you know, I think just growing up in the house that I grew up in, and spending a lot of time alone with my own emotions and like self self healing almost like with the poetry when I was younger and I've always been really good at like picking myself back up, right it's the reason that I'm still here today.
Speaker 3:Like I've been able to pick myself back up right it's the reason that I'm still here today. Like I've been able to pick myself back up in horrible situations and very isolating situations, like because I've had to Like there's definitely like when I was younger, I definitely had moments where I just didn't want to live anymore. I was hoping that every next breath that I took would be my last, but I know that I love life too much. I know just through hearing other people's success stories. I know what good there is in the world and I know what good there is to be have. I know what's possible to achieve, and so that has helped lift me up out of some of the most depressive states that I've been in. But now I am really good at a lot of positive self-healing. So in high school it was not positive self-healing right, it was very temporary and toxic things that I was doing.
Speaker 3:So I've been in therapy for a year. I've been doing yoga, I've been meditating, I've been doing hiking, I've been, I sing and I dance too, so I really tap into the hobbies that feed and fuel my soul and my spirit, things that lift me up. A lot of these things are things that I do alone, still like they're not all social events. But as an introvert like, I heal and recharge by being alone and doing things that make my heart sing, like and I have to have that time to do that and that's definitely what's kept me going.
Speaker 3:But most importantly, I think I mean mindset.
Speaker 3:Your mind is the vehicle that will drive you anywhere you want to go in life and I truly believe in the power of your mind, like it can be a very dark place or it can be a very healing place.
Speaker 3:It just depends on your outlook, your perspective, what you're feeding your body like literally feeding your body, but also like spiritually feeding your body.
Speaker 3:So I just do a lot of things that are positive to lift myself up, because I want to be inspiring for somebody someday and the position that I'm in right now may not be the inspirational story that I want to end with. But I believe so deeply in what I'm doing and I believe so deeply in the power of my voice and the power of my story and the influence that I know that I can have that, even though things have not gone super well the last year, like I feel like I still show up with a sense of confidence in what I'm doing to the top one day and I share my story now because I want everyone to be a part of this and be like when I'm, when I'm at the top, like you guys will all see, like you guys are all going to be a part of this journey and you guys will watch that transformation happen so that, hopefully, by seeing me in the trenches now and like still being inspired, like you'll be even more inspired to do the same when you finally watch me get there.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're rooting for you already, thank you. So it is inspiring and I took a note here about something that you said about sharing your story in the moment and not just in hindsight. We talk to a lot of people on the podcast and it often is you're reflecting on what was happening or what got you there, and those are all stories that are helpful to people who haven't been through it. But there is something to be said about sharing it when maybe it's not at the perfect spot. That is just as helpful, if not more helpful. So I think it's a great time to tell your story. So we appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been an incredible hour and incredible story. So I just want to say thank you for coming and sharing your story, and I think you are an inspiration to people and I think people will be incredibly inspired to hear your story and where you're at and not only rooting for you. I know you're going to be successful your success, whatever that looks like, and looking forward to watching and seeing. So thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you guys for giving me the platform. I appreciate it.
