From Intern to Producer of The Jerry Springer Show in One Season

Reena [00:00:00] I feel like as an entrepreneur, I have such limited time and if I have a creative idea, I just have to either put it on the calendar or act on it immediately.

Reena I'm a risk-taker, but at the same time, it's like if I don't do it right now, it's not gonna happen.

LuRae Welcome to And Then I Did This. Prepare to be inspired as we celebrate the unique journeys of individuals who've had the courage to break free and live life on their own terms. Their lives prove that you truly can be free to live your best and most authentic life.

Reena Let's get to it

LuRae Welcome to the show.

LuRae Today, I have a special guest. Rena Friedman Watts is a former television and reality TV producer best known for her early work on The Jerry Springer Show, where she advanced from an intern to producer in a single season. She is now a podcast host, media coach, storyteller, and the creator of the Better Call Daddy podcast.

LuRae Rena, welcome to the show.

Reena Thank you so [00:01:00] much. I love your voice. You definitely could have done radio. That was so soothing and exciting to hear at the same time.

LuRae Oh, so good. So good. Thank you. I'll take the compliment. Thank you. Oh my gosh, it's so fun to have you. T- talk about your background and how you got into what you're doing and where you started, because you have such an interesting story.

Reena Thank you. Yeah, so I'm the host of the Better Call Daddy show, and my dad is literally who I call every day, and I just felt like he has such good wisdom for me, and so my initial idea is that I kinda wanted to share that with the world. But what's so interesting is that a lot of other people have wisdom and legacy to offer as well, and so it became like this father-daughter legacy project , Like, something in my 40s that I can do with my dad to build legacy one day at a time and include people that have come into my path and

[00:02:00] that God is bringing me and get wisdom from them and share my dad's wisdom with them at the same time.

LuRae So good. So good. We can all use wisdom. trust me, with, with the, what, what we're all walking through in life and what we start out with and whether we have even someone that we can really get advice from, especially being with, with your dad.

LuRae That is such a great legacy, way to capture the way it started, it sounds like, the way it started, and now has expanded out to so many other people and capturing wisdom. Yeah.

Reena Just even alongside that, I got my start of my career being an intern for The Jerry Springer Show. That always catches people's attention, Yeah. So I had worked for an NPR station in college. I went to Purdue, loved working in radio. Had a interview at WGN in Chicago, which was amazing. Like, found that opportunity from the alumni office on campus. [00:03:00] Drove up from Purdue to Chicago, interviewed there, did not get the job. And, Or, I don't know, maybe they didn't have one open at the time, I like to tell myself.

Reena but while I was up there on that interview, I saw on the same courtyard that Jerry Springer was looking for interns. So it was, like, immediate pivot, and I called my dad and I was like, "Well, what do you think of me working at The Jerry Springer Show?" And I had even interviewed for another opportunity in New York.

Reena It was, like, a production assistant job for, like, a financial show. And my dad was like, "Dude, Jerry's cool." Like, he was, like, encouraging of that. So I walked over to NBC Tower, got ahold of the intern coordinator. He asked me if I could start a couple weeks later. It was crazy. So it was kind of unexpected, but also, like, the beginning of, just keeping your eyes open to what else presents itself.

LuRae Exactly. 'Cause the path we think we're going down, I mean, I always write about this and talk about this, like divine intervention, I b- I have a friend who's like a, [00:04:00] a h- I mean, really amazing assistant to people looking for jobs, on the, on LinkedIn. And i- it's like if, if the door is closed or the, the, there's a no, it's divine intervention.

LuRae You were probably being saved from something that would've been a, a horrible experience. So just take it in stride and keep going.

Reena And I literally just didn't even realize, what a huge opportunity I had just walked into. Although I was like, "I want my own office in NBC Tower, and I will do whatever it takes to get it."

Reena So I was willing to work 100-hour weeks. I was willing to sleep on the floor. I was willing to work 14 days straight. I was willing to work around the clock, and I was a bit insane. Like,

LuRae So how did you... What was that experience like? What was the path to... Because obviously, that doesn't just happen by chance, that you, go in as an intern and then wind up [00:05:00] in the role you were in.

Reena yeah, I definitely, was a sponge. So I was paying attention to the people on the phone, what were th- what were they saying to the guests to get them to come. I was paying attention to their energy level. I was paying attention to the people that got promoted. and I worked for a producer that other people were scared to work for.

Reena so it started where I was an intern, and I had petty cash, and I was taking the guests out and befriending them and learning my way around the city right alongside them. I'm like, "This is freaking insane." I'm like, "This is the best opportunity ever." Like, I was a small-town girl from Kentucky and wanted to be a big city girl fast, you know what I mean?

LuRae Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Reena I was like, "Oh, Jerry goes to Mario Tricoci? I wanna go to Mario Tricoci." You know what I mean? Like, I wanna get facials. I wanna get my hair done there, So it was... I was 21 years old. But also, one thing that I really learned, and I feel like this was a bit of a key to booking guests, [00:06:00] once, once I got the opportunity to get on the phone and start, like, calling back people who were calling into the show, it was like, if you share stuff, then they'll share stuff.

Reena If you make them your friend, they will come for you. And I feel like some of the most successful people at the show were like that They were willing to sell their soul too. Well,

LuRae and it, and it's, I mean, it's... I think it's honestly you were loving... It wasn't even necessarily you selling your soul. You loved what you were doing, and you liked the experience, you liked the people you found.

LuRae Because we all want to connect with people, and there are ways... And I say we, we all wanna connect in a way that if on your path, getting someone on the show, so it's connecting on that human level. It's that, that saying. People f- they'll remember how you made them feel. They w- may not remember the details of the words you said, but if they felt welcome, they felt...

LuRae I'm getting goosebumps, angel wings. Yeah, it's like, if they feel like you're really [00:07:00] interested and you're putting your best self out, they'll match you where you're at.

Reena It's so true. It's, it's really crazy. Like, I got letters after the show of people, like, thanking me for letting them say something that they couldn't say at home.

Reena I saved those. I loved that, even though sometimes what they wanted to say was destroying other people's lives, but they didn't have the courage to do it back home. And sometimes they wanted to confront people that they might not have been able to do at home, Things like that, yeah.

LuRae So it's like you think about that profound level, that's being real.

LuRae Like, it, it, I, th- I... It makes me think of the contrast of, like, AI being so, like, is it real? Is it Memorex? b- the scam things where people are, you know, g- whatever, using people's voices and... But when you're really dealing with person-to-person, heart-to-heart, like, per- it, there's nothing that can replace [00:08:00] that.

LuRae So talk a little bit about how you even decided to go into kind of the path that you took, even in school. Like, what was the influence around that? Yeah.

Reena Oh, boy. Yeah, so I, I went to a youth performing arts school, and I used to love to sing. I used to love to sing in the shower. I used to love to sing in choir, but it, when it came to solo performing, I didn't love that as much, to be perfectly honest.

Reena I would get nervous. I did not necessarily feel like I was made for the stage and that that lit me up. But I d- music, like, definitely moves my soul, and I love being a part of, like, an ensemble or- group performing. So I got a singing scholarship to college, and I enjoyed being a part of a choir, but realized I liked the production side of it and, like, being a part of a group more than, like, making that my main [00:09:00] focus.

Reena So I ended up actually being a double major because the school that gave me the scholarship, one of their best programs too was sports medicine, and I was kind of into, like, trying to be in shape and, r- rehabilitating injuries and that kind of thing. So I double majored in vocal music and sports medicine, and then I met a guy with a friend who was in sports med at Purdue, and he was like, "If you actually wanna work in sports medicine, you should be at a Big Ten school."

Reena And I, I was influenced by him a- and what he was telling me, and he connected me to his, counselor at the school. And I had done well academically at the smaller college, but I was partying too much and needing to make a pivot.

LuRae Fair enough. Fair enough.

Reena Yeah, so combination of factors, but then I switched to Purdue, and organic chemistry was [00:10:00] not for me.

Reena I- it was my first C, and even getting tutored, I was like, "Man, I earned that C," But I don't think this is the direction I wanted, want to go. It was a combination of organic chemistry and s- stat 301, where they threw me in with, like, engineering stat folks. That... I was just like, "Nope." So, but they had, like I was telling you earlier, the radio station on campus, and I loved that medium.

Reena I was there, in the time where it was right before automation, and so I got to be a little bit creative, where I could, like, throw on records or throw in CDs and help program some of the station. And the lady who ran the station on campus, her name was Betty, I forgot her last name, but she ran it, and I loved her and was inspired by her.

Reena And she gave me, like, creative freedom to kind of edit the NPR newswire and tell the story in the way I wanted to tell it, and she helped me make air check tapes and applied [00:11:00] at a bunch of different stations. And so I was working all kinds of shifts, the shifts nobody wanted, like the 5:00 AM shift or, the weekend shifts, and making a little bit of money, but also getting creative.

Reena So I'd be singing in the booth and, like, dropping in music under me and just telling news stories in a funny way, and people started calling in. And I mean That was crazy. I, I feel like then I was like, "Oh, wow," like, "Maybe I could do this. I like this." And so that kind of, I feel like, got me a bit into the production side of things And then in college I interned for a news station and became friends with the guy that ran the audio board at WLFI in, in West Lafayette, and I got to work on some local commercials.

Reena There was this guy, Bob Rohrman, he's like, makes these crazy used car commercials. And there was one where he like [00:12:00] broke out of jail, and I had to like call 911 or something. But it was like I, I started enjoying those type of opportunities. So it was like, oh, I like creating commercials. I like, running the audio board.

Reena I like doing the chyrons. But I was like trying a bunch of different things to see what I liked and what I didn't like.

LuRae Yeah. See, that, I think, that, that is so needed, and so many people don't do that. I, I use the phrase of we get on the conveyor belt of life and s- and too many times people get influenced by the people who are guiding them or not guiding them or influencing them.

LuRae And so they start on a path, and then wind up getting married, having kids, get- g- getting a mortgage, and then, then look up and question, "What am I doing with my life? I don't even like what I'm doing," right? And then the pivot can become more difficult. Doesn't mean you can't do it, but it's so much better to test and try things the way you did [00:13:00] because, the scholarship got you in the door at school, helped pay for some of the initial steps.

LuRae And then you were in tune with yourself enough and friends around you influencing you. Like I, I'll say my service, I got influenced, I wanted to be a psych major, right?

Reena I t- I almost minored in that.

LuRae And then I had so... I got straight As and people were saying, my friends were like, "Everybody's a psych major.

LuRae Why would you wanna do that?" I did become f- I did go full circle and become a life coach when I was in New York City, literally in my like, like late 40s. but so I came full circle and did that. But I took consumer behavior then when I was in college because I thought, well, that's why people do what they do, why they buy what they buy.

LuRae So yeah, I became an, a great marketer obviously. Went, through, up through the ranks and became the VP of marketing and, I understood and was paid to learn how people start businesses. I was a segment manager for business

[00:14:00] startups. And so got $100,000. I put 100,000 in my budget to give to 10 deserving startups, one of them being adoption.com.

LuRae And their story- Ooh ... yeah, the coverage that I, I selected, we selected people in different markets, so we would give them coverage with- press, and then they got, their story got picked up by The Wall Street Journal, and then there were investors that came and they became one of the largest adoption sites, I think, online.

LuRae we're talking, like-

Reena I, like, wanna clap for you. That's so cool ...

LuRae but it's just, that, and then it became full circle when I had left New York and moved to the West Coast. Went to a networking event at, in Burbank put on by Entrepreneur Magazine and wound up with a golden ticket, and ultimately a quarter of a million in funding for a startup.

LuRae So you know, it, it be- it came full circle, me helping those businesses and then, me winding up with funding. But being true to ourselves is the biggest message, and I think that people can [00:15:00] take away from this, is stay true to yourself, because look at, you got in that intern role and you were in it to win it.

LuRae I mean, it sounds like it was just a great-

Reena It's so crazy because you're bringing up, like, full circle moments. I feel like I came up with this idea with my dad 'cause I was like, "Well, nobody can replicate the relationship with my dad." Like, that is unique. Like, AI can't do that. And I had stayed in touch with Jerry Springer's publicist for, over 20 years, and I had done hundreds of episodes and I was like, I've seen him on other podcasts.

Reena People know that I got my start there. They were sending me episodes of Jerry doing other people's podcast. One encouraged me to reach out. M- a shout-out to Mark Graben. He has a podcast called, what is it called? Something about mistakes, like, Your Greatest Mistake podcast or something like that. And he was like, [00:16:00] "Rena, you should have him on."

Reena And so I just, I got a yes, I got a no, I got a yes, I got a no, And what's interesting is Cale Lowry from 16 and Pregnant reached out to me and said, asked me if I would do, like, a impression swap with her, 'cause she was getting ready to launch a podcast, and she said 50,000 impressions for fi- 50,000 impressions.

Reena I'm like, "Well, she'll probably get that in a day." I was like, as, I was like, "As long as you don't care how long that takes me, let's do it." And so then I reached out to, Jerry's publicist and was like, "Hey, she's willing to promote me. I would love to do it for this episode. I know you've kinda given me a yes and a no, but you know, if you, if you want, like, the most eyeballs on the episode, like, the timing is now.

Reena Let's, let's do it." And then she was like, "I'll give you 20 minute, 20 minutes with him." I was like, "I'll take it." And then I, like, reached back to people who were on the show with me, and I was like, "If you could ask Jerry, anything, like, what would it be?" Like, and people that I worked with during that time to kind of bring Jerry even back to that time, So I [00:17:00] name dropped people in the episode to kind of make it Just unique to us where, he may have been on all these other interviews, but let me take you back to the time that we spent together You know? And I had burning questions that I wanted to ask him all of those years, but then also, like, "Hey, here's the people that were also there," and they also had questions, So I tried to include them and make it special, and it was, it was one of those moments, where I was like, "I don't know how I'm ever gonna top this." And it also felt like so from the universe. I was like, "Dude, this never happens," you know what I mean?

LuRae Destined. Yeah, destined to happen. That's why it's like I will, will say, people...

LuRae And I, I'd seen something someone wrote yesterday, and it was like, "Oh, I had a child, but I wish I would've had it sooner," and then this, "And I wish I would've had it sooner," and I said, "Don't wish your life to be so different from what it is, because there's a divine source that's guiding us." Like, I [00:18:00] had wanted to move to New York when I graduated from college, and I remember telling my mother, "I think I'm gonna move to New York.

LuRae I have a degree in advertising from the school of journalism, I'm gonna work for a magazine or, a, a, an ad agency." And her response was, "Oh, it's so far away." Like, I was on the West Coast. She's like, "Are you sure you wanna do that?" And literally met the girl's dad a month later, right?

LuRae And so didn't move then, but fast-forward, 25, 30 years later, and I s- I did make the move, and I was destined to do that. So whether we do it at the time we're initially called or we follow the path of life, we'll ultimately wind up doing those things that we're, I believe, that we're meant to do.

LuRae They will happen in divine timing. Yeah.

Reena I 100% can relate to that. I thought I wanted to move to New York, too. Like I said, I even interviewed at that other financial role, but Jerry ended up being really the perfect opportunity that has [00:19:00] been the gift that keeps on giving. So after I did that interview,Jerry passed not even, like, a year later, and I think it was, like, one of the last interviews with him.

Reena I had never aired the video portion of it. when I first started my podcast, I was audio only. And then some of the networks started reaching out to me. They wanted to make documentaries about him, and then I had an asset that they wanted. So that led to me getting to participate in HBO documentary Hollywood Demons.

Reena They did an episode called Jerry. I'm actually super excited, because they just got picked up for another episode- another season, and it's their biggest pickup yet. I don't know if I'll get to be a part of it, but just even knowing that, like, the episode I did, like, helped lead to that felt insane.

LuRae Surreal. Yeah, talk a little bit about that. Like, w- other doors that opened because you did that First [00:20:00] you did the thing, and then I did this. I did, I did the, the Jerry Springer internship. Yeah.

Reena There's been so much, like, having to recreate myself. Actually, I was thinking about the episode that you did with, Was it Julie?

LuRae Julie. Yeah, Mullins.

Reena Yeah. Yeah. The episode you did with Julie- Yeah ... and she was just talking about how wherever you go, there you are, right? Well, I have done a lot of moving around, and I think one of my biggest challenges has been, like- just recreating myself and figuring out who myself is in all of these places.

LuRae In all the roles, right. Right.

Reena In all the roles. Like, now I'm a mom of four, and how do you balance that? And, like, my husband's been kind of the stable force of, like, being able to keep the nine to five so that I can do all of these creative endeavors. if you only saw the room I was sitting in right now, like, we just moved, and I kept just my computer and my light and my setup here because we were setting [00:21:00] up internet at my other place, and I knew that I had this on the calendar.

Reena It's a little bit more echoey 'cause my- none of my furniture is in this room anymore. But I was like, Kevin, who introduced us, like, has never introduced me to anyone, and we had such a good connection, and I think that a lot of my success has been from keeping things on the calendar, trying to keep commitments.

Reena Look, things come up. Know who you can cancel with and who you can't. Know if an opportunity is just, in the moment, like, if the sky is opening up for a moment, or if you can reschedule with someone. Like, I had to cancel something last week, but I've been connected with this chick for seven years, so, like, I felt like she would reconnect with me.

Reena You and I, we're, like, new connections that seemed like, you know what I mean? Something I wanted to grow, so I try to keep that going. Also, a brand, like, that I've been connected to for a couple years now, like, wanted to do [00:22:00] a shoot with me, like, right around the time I was getting ready to get three kids into new schools.

Reena But I'm like, "Oh my God." they're flying from LA. they're bringing the creative director. They're bringing the cameraman. All I had to do was, like, get a tablecloth and prepare for the interview. I was like, "That seems doable." Like, I've interviewed 500 people. Even if I don't prepare for the interview, life has prepared me enough.

LuRae Exactly. Isn't that the truth? I mean, just having the f- I mean, that's how that entrepreneur experience happened for me. I happened to see it was a networking event. I just moved from the East Coast back to the West Coast. Thought this would be a nice way to go meet people. I wanna move to LA eventually anyway.

LuRae I'm, I mean, I'm in between LA and San Diego now, but,so it was one of those... Yeah, and then I kept getting emails that were like, "What are you gonna pitch? What are you gonna pitch?" And I was on that tech advisory board for a company in Lithuania, of all places. it was a social media micro-influencer company, and it was, like, we're talking back in 2018, 2017.[00:23:00]

LuRae And yeah, so it was one of those I'm in line making my pitch. Literally, I was in line to the pitch with 60 seconds to pitch, and then they were choosing 20 people from that to re-pitch again a second time. So I'm literally messaging the company in Lithuania and said, "I'm at this event. I can pitch for funding.

LuRae Like, which, how much should I ask for?" So we zeroed in on a quarter of a million, and so the initial pitch got me in the door, and then, and then someone else from the Barbado- from Barbados actually reached out to me in between that pitch and when this, this show was actually recorded in Burbank, and they were a blockchain company.

LuRae And so I thought, that... There was a lot of stuff, kind of questionable stuff happening with micro-influencers at the time, like people buying, buying followers, that kind of thing, which was not such a positive thing that I'm like, I'm not sure I wanna be pushing that as my pitch." So, so I [00:24:00] got ahold of one of the judges and I said, "Can I pitch a blockchain?"

LuRae company idea that I have." I'm like, "Yeah, that's up and coming." So I pivoted to blockchain. Couple guys from Poland, of all places, had... This is talk- about the universe lining things up. So they had reached out through LinkedIn wanting to grow their presence in the US market. And they said, "We think you could maybe help us."

LuRae well, sure. What, what do you got? And they were, like, an IT company. I said, "Don't come here with an I too, me too," because there are too many IT... I say too many. There were plenty IT companies. But I said, "What do you know about blockchain?" And so I sent them some documents, as I decided not to pursue the, the opportunity with the guy in Barbados.

LuRae I went for a month and met with local businesses and decided not to do it. and so sure enough, these two guys from Poland, they flew in on a red-eye into New York. I flew and met them. We held some meetup groups in New York City. I scheduled them you know, in different [00:25:00] parts of the city, and we pitched that concept.

LuRae It was a... I was doing large language model programmatic media buying ad fraud detection before AI was, w- before AI was a thing. And so, yeah, so we, w- I pitched that then for the final-

Reena Girl, you gotta break that down. What does that even mean?

LuRae Yeah. So it's basically, there are so many fake websites that people will put up to try, and they'll, they'll buy traffic to get-

Reena Oh, yes.

Reena Oh, yes ...

LuRae something like, So then people will go on, DS- demand side platforms. They'll go through, like, The Trade Desk or... 'Cause I worked, obviously, for WPP GroupM, and so we, we were the largest media buyers in the world. And so, Unilever was a client. I remember my first meeting I had was the, with the head of global analytics at, for GroupM, and he said, "Well, do you have the product?"

LuRae "I think Unilever might be interested in this." And I was like, it's a good idea. I'm te- we're testing the concept. We don't have it built yet,

[00:26:00] but I'll come back to you." And so, yeah, it's just, having that, as you said, like, things lining up if you follow the dots and just follow your passion.

LuRae I mean, it was the most fun, It was, like, flying back and forth then to Poland and, meeting with, pitching at the Web Summit in Portugal. Like, things, that just came together once I stepped out from that last ad exec role that I was, I was so burned out.

Reena Oh my God, yes. I can definitely relate to that.

Reena before I left my final nine to five, there was someone who we had hired to help us with putting on a, an event. I started putting on, like, small local meetup-type things like you were mentioning that you attended, and it's like 25 people, 35, 50, 75. But then, like Beyond 75, you kind of need a little bit assistance on, like, managing it and, like, once you start growing these events, like, what do I [00:27:00] need to start thinking about?

Reena So I reached out to this girl on LinkedIn, actually, like you were mentioning, and she was doing events for Gary Vee, and she was doing events, like 2,500 people And we hired her to help us. She didn't necessarily get along with the guy that I was working for, and then when I ended up leaving there, I, like, let her know, and then she was like, "I would love to hire you to help me with sponsorships."

Reena She was like, "I have a bunch of companies. I already have, like, a template." She was like, "Just start reaching out to people. Figure out what works and what doesn't work and, give me a call if you need me to close the deal." I was like, "Okay." So she, like, gave me a list of the people that she wanted, kind of the language to experiment with.

Reena She was available when I needed her, and I actually ended up booking some pretty big sponsors. And then I was like, oh, whoa. Like, I don't think everybody can do this. Like, maybe I should start helping other people do this. You

LuRae know what I mean? Exactly. Yes.

Reena So then I was like, [00:28:00] I help people with sponsorships too.

Reena You know what I mean? It's like you just try things, and then when you're able to do it or not do it, then you just add that to your LinkedIn as another service you provide.

LuRae Exactly. And, I mean, it's like you make it sound so easy, but there are n- there are natural skills that you have developed, that you were inherently good at, which obviously starting with the Jerry Springer Show, that was pretty good training ground, and then to go from that to other things would be a natural progression.

LuRae But because you were willing to try new things and willing to step out... I mean, like, me going to Barbados for a month, like, I'd never been to Barbados. I, I was meeting with local businesses and ad agencies with this gentleman who invited me. He was creating a s- smart coin company t- with using blockchain, and that's how I got into blockchain.

LuRae So I didn't know a thing about blockchain before he... And we were meeting on Skype back then. Like, [00:29:00] Zoom was-

Reena Oh, I've, I've done the Skype calls too. It's so funny, like, with the Gary Vee thing, I was like, I wanna meet this guy. Like, I wanna be a part of his media circuit. All I need to do is find a couple sponsors, and that will get me there.

Reena I'm, I'm gonna figure... I was like, "I don't care if I have to make 2,000 phone calls. I am going to that event." And I remember when I locked in the first sponsor, I was like, I'm just gonna repeat with that. Just work with that one. You know what I mean? So I was like, I got Spirit Airlines. My kids saw me literally jump from the floor to the couch.

Reena They were like, "What'd you just do?"

LuRae That is so great. I just saw Mel Robbins had Gary Vee on her show. Yeah.

Reena Oh, I gotta listen to that. Yeah. I love both of them. Yeah,

LuRae yeah. And so he had been an inspiration for her as well. And yeah.

Reena I love her show. She interviewed this lady who is, like, one of the oldest women to win, like, multiple records, and she said [00:30:00] something that has really stayed with me.

Reena She said, "You can't win the race looking backwards." She's like, "I've never seen anybody win the race," like, "continue to focus on the past." She's like, "Every day is a race." Oh, I just, I love that.

LuRae Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why I say that's why windshields are big and rear view mirrors are small, so we spend the majority of our time looking forward.

LuRae You need to get Gary Vee on your podcast.

Reena Oh, I would love that. That'd be insane. Yeah, but even just getting to meet him and some of the connections that I made from that event just lended to other events that I ended up doing in the future and other work that I ended up doing in the future. The relationships from taking risks propel me.

Reena Yeah.

LuRae So what, what advice... I know you would have some great advice for people who are sitting in a nine-to-five that they are so over and just don't know what to do next to get [00:31:00] their, themselves out of where they're at. What would you, what words of advice would you have for them?

Reena Well, I can tell you, I mean, my husband took a major Risk.

Reena He, I mean, he switched industries completely at 50. he had always wanted to work in aerospace, and he just started networking in that vertical. You know what I mean? So I think, we moved to this new area and, NASA's big out here, and space is huge out here, and he dreamed as a child.

Reena He, he didn't think that, He's an engineer, so I feel like those kind of skills transfer over, but there are so many specialties today and niche engineering roles that... So I'm like, apply to 20 jobs. call companies. Network with people that are doing what you want to do, and ask them how they got there.

Reena Like, if, if you hear a speaker that you love, tell them that you would love to learn more about what they just spoke about. If you listen to a podcast that [00:32:00] you love, share it. And I mean, so few people even share stuff. Reach out to the person that you felt inspired by. Try that. You'd be surprised. Like, people are happy to kinda talk about how they got to where they are.

Reena Instead of pick your brain, can you just go a little bit deeper into your story? I would love to know how you got there, I think is a good approach.

LuRae But see, that's a... It's like I think even if you... So that's great. With what? C- because your advice is solid, and it's taking bits and pieces of what you have done and applying it to a traditional work networking, kind of getting to know someone else to switch into a career.

LuRae I know you, you went from, say, the Jerry Springer Show, where you were, you were in a structured, more like, like pulling guests in, getting, getting the production, to getting everything done. Once you stepped out of that, though, like, you stepped into the, the, I would say the wild unknown. Like, how-

Reena Oh my God, I went [00:33:00] from my own office in NBC Tower and, like, a 401package to moving to LA and knowing no one and taking an executive assistant role to three seasoned producers.

Reena Like, I started all the way over, and that was so hard 'cause I didn't really realize, like, how big of an opportunity I had just landed. And I was so young. I was just like, "I'll just do that again." But it was really working my way back up You know? And luckily, I was able to work for some good people in LA that kind of saw the stars in my eyes and were, like, willing to, like, let me answer phones and apply to jobs on the side.

LuRae Oh, so good. So good.

Reena Yeah, so I don't even think that all people would go from being a producer to answering phones. No. Gosh, no. So some other advice- Yeah. I mean, I know my husband wouldn't want to go from being, a high-up engineer to an intern in a different area just to get his foot in the door.

Reena So if you're a seasoned [00:34:00] professional or mid-career and you're just like, "I am not happy where I'm at," I think networking and relationship building is your best bet. my husband even here was like, talking to his school, like he went to Berkeley, and found out that where we're living now, there isn't really, like, a Berkeley representative.

Reena So I think maybe even just making a small network and, like, finding people that are drivable that went to your college or, we found a bar here locally that was willing to let us do, like, a space meetup. y- "Hey, do you work in space? Does your spouse work in space? Do you have a friend that works in space?

Reena Come network and talk about space." You know what I mean? Like, if there isn't something that exists, try and make one. yeah.

LuRae Isn't that so true? Because, I mean, the more I see... like, we're so disconnected because of all of our technology and our gadgets and our devices and... But people, community, people are seeking and yearning for connection and getting together in [00:35:00] person with people.

LuRae So I think what you're saying around that... Talk a little bit around your podcast again and the kind of how you- your journey with that because you've had how many episodes? 500? I

Reena just celebrated 500, and what's so interesting about that is I've been asked to speak at, like, Podcast Row, at oil and gas events, where I interviewed people on the fly.

Reena There was no preparation for it, just people who came up to the booth and wanted to share their story. I love doing interviews like that. It's actually refreshing because I feel like I'm such a perfectionist now where I, like, listen to people's podcasts before I go on them or, I ask Claude or ChatGPT how their show melds with my show.

Reena I look at their LinkedIn. I overanalyze. I feel like in the beginning, I was just like, "Oh, somebody from college wants to tell me their life story? Cool. They were in my past. Come on down." [00:36:00] You know what I mean?

Reena So I think it's really refreshing to have a mix of preparation and then just completely on the fly. So for my fif- for my 500th episode, my husband and my son are taking jujitsu now. That's another thing that my husband's always wanted to do, and he is the oldest one in the bunch. He's, doing it.

Reena But I think it's great for him and my seven-year-old to learn something together. And, a lot of people out here in Aledo are super into sports. We're not necessarily that into sports, so this is a little community that we can join, and it's super welcoming, and they've only been in business for a year.

Reena So I was like, "Dude, how did you open this business? Only been in operation for a year. You've got over 100 clients. I wanna know your backstory." So I was like, "You're close to my husband, close to my son. I love what you're building." It just felt like a perfect fit. He's a dad, he's got a kid my age, he's a entrepreneur, he left working in the medical industry for [00:37:00] 10 years.

Reena I'm like, "Tell me all that."

LuRae Yes. So good. So good. There's so many people doing things that, they may, like I said, they may not have started where they began. And I mean, just as we're, ta- we mentioned, touched on Julie earlier in the show. I mean, it's like she and I met when she was living in LA, and I met her through another healer.

LuRae I had gone to,an event. It was like a, sound healing event, and then sure enough, before she left to go... this, this, this was actually, she left after COVID with a one-way ticket to Brazil. Or not, not to Brazil, but to Bali, and then wound up now, go- went to Brazil and now back to Bali on a one-way ticket, which is why we waited and did the, the episode after she had arrived and is, yeah, getting ready to host 10 women in a spiritual retreat.

LuRae I mean, and she was started out-

Reena That sounds amazing. I, I [00:38:00] need to sign up for one of those. And you were saying, like what advice would you give. Things that you want to accomplish, ask other people who are doing that. So even, I, I posted on Threads today, it's like I wanna learn guitar. I d- I'm paying for my daughter right now to take piano lessons, so I just put like a blanket statement out to the world and was like, "Hey, musicians."

Reena I'm like, "What technology are you using to better your craft or to expand your horizons?" And I got so many responses to that. I was like, "Ooh, awesome," 'cause there's so many new tools now. even how you learn piano or guitar can be easily improved from how it was taught years ago. So I'm like, "Hey, what tools are people using now?

Reena I really wanna..." And I had people that were musicians for 20 years, people that are dabbling. They shared so many new resources with me.

LuRae So good. So good. So good. Yeah. Every,things are, yeah, changing at light speed, so, [00:39:00] and, and options to do things easier and without as much t- toil and effort to, to find it.

LuRae Perplexity is my new best friend, for research purposes

Reena Oh, love that too. Yeah. Or if you're, like, if you're new to a new area, like I was just talking about earlier, like I had the guy who was setting up my AT&T today. He's like, "Born and raised here. Let me know if you need anything." I'm like, "Who do you use for a pest company?"

Reena He was like, "I gave this whole pest company their phones. You tell them you know me." You know what I mean? So it's who are your super connectors? You gotta know those people.

LuRae Absolutely. So if you were, looking back, talking to your younger self or someone who's out there, still figuring out where they're headed in life, like what words of advice would you give from the lessons you've learned?

Reena Yeah, the lesson that I have learned is, oh, I m- and this is why I have a podcast with my dad. In order for me to have [00:40:00] confidence is, keeping the people in my world who make me honestly feel confident, So I even started with, started my podcast with the college friend who thinks I'm great or with, or interviewing my grandma who I was super close with.

Reena Like, when you're starting to push yourself in a new direction, make sure you call the people who believe in you and see you in the best light I would tell my younger self to maybe get rid of the toxicity around me quicker. Like, I feel like as an entrepreneur, I have such limited time and I, as a mom of four, like, if I have a creative idea, I just have to either put it on the calendar or act on it immediately.

Reena My husband's always surprised, like, how quickly I email someone, and it's honestly, it's a bit of r- I'm a risk-taker, but at the same time, it's like if I don't do it right now, it's not gonna happen. So I don't overthink, and if something doesn't feel good to me, I, I wanna [00:41:00] get it out, away from me quicker.

LuRae That's s- I mean, such good advice, and, and definitely the, that the, it, the branch off from the toxicity that I, that it made me think of also was d- don't ask people for advice who've never done what you're gonna do or what you're thinking about because everyone's got an opinion like a belly button.

Reena Oh, those naysayers'll drag you down, man. And, and I even feel like for people starting podcasts, that's the biggest thing. It's just, like, the self-doubt that creeps in. Just keep experimenting, keep finding people that are excited to collaborate with you. D- connect with people that want to do bigger things.

Reena That rubs off on you.

LuRae Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So any f- final words of advice you would have for people to live their best life?

Reena Yeah, I love that question. I think my final words of advice would be that life is super short, and I, I heard you say this in the last episode with

[00:42:00] Julie. you gotta focus on the now.

Reena Focus on the relationships that are currently in your inbox. and there, there's always gold in the inbox, so, like, revisit the people that keep presenting themself. Like, stop putting that off. pay attention to the people who pay attention to you. Really go deep with those people, and also, like, if you have thought about doing things, try it.

Reena Like, put it on the calendar.

LuRae Exactly. I mean, it makes me think of, I started bodyboarding last fall. my puppy wasn't able to... I say puppy, she's 13, but she acts like a puppy. s- but she had a compressed disc, and so we went to the beach, but I had to carry her. And as I sat there w- watching the ocean waves rolling in, I saw these people on boards, and I'm thinking, "I grew up on a lake in Minnesota."

LuRae So I'm like, "Why am I not out there doing something in the water?" And I literally came home, re- went on- online, and I [00:43:00] researched boards, fins, wetsuits, and I, I ordered everything and went. she was still getting her acupuncture and her laser therapy, but, couple ep- co- couple sessions of that and she was good, and I was then bodyboarding.

LuRae So yeah, just whatever strikes- Keep

Reena learning

LuRae Yeah.

Reena These are fancy- Keep, keep putting things on your calendar that you wanna try. I, I even put something on the calendar with my daughter tomorrow. It's just like, if you keep saying you want to do something, schedule it.

LuRae Oh, it's making me think, my daughter asked me yesterday, she said, "Mom, I know you know how to navigate w- boats," because I used to rent speedboats when they were younger, and we'd go out, and I had a kayak.

LuRae we'd go out. So we're, I mean, we're right on the ocean here, so that's my next thing, is to research where can I rent a boat, and we can go out and have a picnic and just go, go out on the ocean,

Reena I wanna do that. That sounds crazy and fun. Yeah. I just, I... as I see my kids getting older, I, I [00:44:00] just want to, like, entertain all of their ideas and have more experiences with them.

Reena I mean, we were upgrading our phones, and my daughter immediately got on and was, like, picking out what she thought I would like for the case, and I wanted to focus on that. And we were even talking about why she thought I would like that one, and then I was like, "Ask your brothers." And then I was like, "Tomorrow you wanna go, like, pick out some clothes for your brothers and surprise them with some new clothes?"

Reena Just those little things, before it- If you're gonna even be asking yourself why we're here, so you know. while people wanna hang out with you and while they're reaching out to you, schedule it.

LuRae Yes. Yeah. Don't wait. Don't wait. Live a life of no regrets. Yeah, what's that? don't, don't end life with your song still in you.

Reena Circle back with the people that have had ideas that you're like, "I might wanna do that." Actually try it.

LuRae Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much for all the, the inspiration, the [00:45:00] energy, the, the positivity, the encouragement. So good.

Reena Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I cannot wait to hear about Bali.

Reena we should, like, plan a retreat, or please keep me in mind for other ones that you hear about. That is definitely something that I want to experience. So if you know about retreats or creative outlets or musicians I should follow, will you send my way?

LuRae I will. I will. Thank you so much.

Reena That was awesome.

LuRae And that's a wrap on another episode of And Then I Did This, celebrating the lives of those who've walked away from the beaten path to pursue work and a life that nourishes their soul. If you're feeling inspired and ready to explore your own path to freedom, check out youcanbefree.life, where you'll find resources and support to help you break free and live life on your own terms.

LuRae See you next [00:46:00] time.