Latest / She Said It Out Loud with Emma Young / SURPRISE MONDAY DROP! Executive Producer and Youngest of the Miller sisters, Rebecca Miller!
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: You're listening to She Said It Out Loud, where real women share real stories without sugarcoating a thing.
- 0:06SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Emma Young, and I'll bring you on filtered conversations with ambitious women who faced challenges, made bold moves, and learned a lot along the way.
- 0:16SPEAKER_00: You'll get real takeaways, honest lessons, and stories that you're gonna relate to.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: Righto, let's get started.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: Hey there and welcome to the podcast.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: This is She Said It Out Loud, and I'm your host, Emma Young.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Matso's Brewery in Broome.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: It is an absolute iconic destination.
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: If you're a Broom local, you already know what I'm talking about.
- 0:38SPEAKER_00: But if you've never come to Broome before and you're planning on visiting this dry season, check out their socials page, Matsos Brewery in Broom, and you'll be able to see what specials they currently have on.
- 0:48SPEAKER_00: And now this episode features the youngest of the Miller girls.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: So it only made sense for me to interview all three Miller Girls when I was recently in Los Angeles, which was only last week.
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: The Miller Girls are a family, or part of a family, I should say, that I lived with when I was on Student Exchange.
- 1:05SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to the most recent episodes, you would have already heard me tell this story.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: However, if you're just tuning in today, the Miller Girls are Abby, Molly, and Rebecca.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: And Rebecca is the youngest one, and this is her episode.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: Rebecca is a producer of reality TV shows.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: She is a mum of two energetic boys.
- 1:24SPEAKER_00: She's also a wife.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: She is an absolute powerhouse woman.
- 1:29SPEAKER_00: As in, she has a lot of things on her plate.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: And in today's episode, we talk about all things.
- 1:34SPEAKER_00: What it's like to be a producer in Los Angeles, in what is usually a typically male-dominated profession.
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: And not only that, we talk about home births, which is not really something that's quite that common in Australia, but we talk about how she had that experience for herself.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: And we also talk about what it's like living and breathing and working in Los Angeles.
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: Keep on listening.
- 1:56SPEAKER_00: Here is our conversation.
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: Hello, Rebecca, and welcome to the podcast.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: I would have, like I always do, banged on about how good you are in the intro, and I would have explained who you are because people are probably thinking, how does Emma know all these Americans?
- 2:11SPEAKER_00: But it's because you are the youngest out of the Miller Girls.
- 2:14SPEAKER_00: So welcome Rebecca to the podcast.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: Hi, thanks for having me.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to be here.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: What an honor it is to be here.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: I know.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: I should put VIP status.
- 2:22SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right, that's right.
- 2:24SPEAKER_00: When I was an exchange student, just to give a little bit of context for people, I went over there 15 and turned 16 in April.
- 2:31SPEAKER_00: That time you were 12.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
- 2:33SPEAKER_00: So I think were you 11 and then turning 12?
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: 12, turning 13.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 2:37SPEAKER_00: I want you to tell my listeners a little bit about yourself.
- 2:40SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 2:40SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone.
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: My name is Rebecca, obviously.
- 2:43SPEAKER_01: I'm an executive producer showrunner.
- 2:46SPEAKER_01: I live in Los Angeles.
- 2:47SPEAKER_01: I have a husband, a dear husband of almost 10 years this summer.
- 2:50SPEAKER_01: That's complete.
- 2:51SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very quick.
- 2:52SPEAKER_01: And I have two beautiful little boys, um, five and eight.
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I when I'm not working, I'm doing projects at my house.
- 3:00SPEAKER_01: I play a lot of tennis, do a lot of flowers for people.
- 3:02SPEAKER_01: We can get into that too.
- 3:04SPEAKER_01: But yeah, my life is motherhood, is making TV.
- 3:08SPEAKER_01: And when I'm not making TV, we're doing house projects.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: We just spent the whole weekend moving dirt in our backyard.
- 3:13SPEAKER_01: My poor husband.
- 3:14SPEAKER_01: So we're always up on to the next thing.
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: Always keeping busy.
- 3:18SPEAKER_01: We're very busy.
- 3:20SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think about it, I'm like, gosh, my life is so boring.
- 3:22SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty we don't really have a whole lot going on, and that's the complete opposite.
- 3:26SPEAKER_01: There's always something happening in our house.
- 3:28SPEAKER_00: So I think it's not until you take a moment to actually go, hang on a minute.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: I do fill the spaces of my entire life with doing something.
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: Either for our family, for other people, for our sons in particular, or just managing what it is to run a TV show.
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: So there's always stuff happening.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: Can I just say, and for those that are listening, I went to her younger son's birthday party last week.
- 3:50SPEAKER_00: This party was the party of dreams.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: If I have any events that I'm ever gonna run in LA, I I reckon the first person I'm gonna go to, I know you're not an events person, but I think this is the organization level of your personality.
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: But it was at this country club and it was incredible.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: There was like a buffet of food, there was fancy like serviettes on the table, there was amazing flower arrangements that Rebecca had done herself.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: It was the stuff of dreams.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to let you know that that you didn't think that that was incredible.
- 4:17SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: Going on to what you actually do for a living, because to me this is so far out there.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: It sounds fun, but it sounds stressful.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: You are a producer.
- 4:28SPEAKER_00: I am.
- 4:29SPEAKER_00: And will we say of mainly reality TV shows?
- 4:31SPEAKER_01: Of reality TV.
- 4:32SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 4:33SPEAKER_01: So producer.
- 4:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's my niche.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: And primarily in recent years, it's been competition shows.
- 4:38SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've done the whole gamut over the course of my career.
- 4:41SPEAKER_01: I've been in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years now.
- 4:44SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 4:44SPEAKER_01: And I came right after school.
- 4:46SPEAKER_01: So I was living in Omaha, Nebraska, which is the largest community in Nebraska.
- 4:50SPEAKER_01: I was going to the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which is also where my sister and Molly went to school.
- 4:54SPEAKER_01: I was studying business marketing and I hit a point and I had a multiple experiences throughout the course of my time in Nebraska.
- 5:00SPEAKER_01: I loved my childhood.
- 5:02SPEAKER_01: People talk about 90s nostalgia.
- 5:04SPEAKER_01: Now it's like, how can I be a 90s mom?
- 5:06SPEAKER_01: And we're going back to the 90s.
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: And like the 90s in the Midwest, while you were there, was like prime time.
- 5:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 5:11SPEAKER_01: It was like riding bikes till the streetlights came on.
- 5:13SPEAKER_01: I would jump in my bike.
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: I would ride down the two blocks to our local community pool, swim all day with my best friend Jordan, and then make it home for the street lights.
- 5:21SPEAKER_01: It was great.
- 5:22SPEAKER_01: We had so much autonomy.
- 5:23SPEAKER_01: We were complete latchkey kids.
- 5:25SPEAKER_01: Our parents were busy working their careers.
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: They had four children, five at times, right?
- 5:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 5:30SPEAKER_01: And um, and and it was a really busy household.
- 5:33SPEAKER_01: And it was so great.
- 5:34SPEAKER_01: But I had moments during that time where I was like, there has to be something more for me.
- 5:39SPEAKER_01: This isn't all of it.
- 5:40SPEAKER_01: So when I was in college, like the first gateway during college was I moved to Orlando.
- 5:45SPEAKER_01: I got an internship of Walt Disney World.
- 5:46SPEAKER_01: I was a lifeguard down there and I was a marketing intern.
- 5:49SPEAKER_01: And that was like the gateway for me to understand that there was more that you could do, right?
- 5:54SPEAKER_01: I I got in a car and I moved down to Orlando with my dad.
- 5:57SPEAKER_01: I lived in in Orlando for seven months.
- 5:59SPEAKER_01: I went to marketing meetings.
- 6:01SPEAKER_01: I learned so much.
- 6:02SPEAKER_01: Like some of the stuff that I learned 20 years ago, they're now implementing at Disney Today.
- 6:06SPEAKER_01: My husband is a Disney Imagineer, and so they're starting to talk about those things now, 20 years later.
- 6:12SPEAKER_01: So I learned a lot.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of like the gateway into okay, there is more to life than than Omaha and you can do this.
- 6:18SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 6:19SPEAKER_01: I didn't know exactly what that was gonna be because I went to school for business and I was really involved on campus.
- 6:24SPEAKER_01: I was a sorority girl.
- 6:26SPEAKER_01: I would plan homecoming.
- 6:28SPEAKER_01: I was in a sorority in college, yeah.
- 6:29SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
- 6:30SPEAKER_01: And I planned homecoming.
- 6:31SPEAKER_01: My sister Molly was up for homecoming at our university and I helped plan it.
- 6:34SPEAKER_01: And so I went to Orlando.
- 6:35SPEAKER_01: I come back.
- 6:36SPEAKER_01: I had multiple jobs when I was in college.
- 6:38SPEAKER_01: One was at a law firm and with big important people, and I was the face of the firm.
- 6:43SPEAKER_01: And so it was really like the first gateway into like this is how you be in a room with important people, i.e., Warren Buffett would come into our firm.
- 6:50SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 6:51SPEAKER_01: And here had this is how you need to be forward-facing and represent yourself and be a great communicator and be kind and open.
- 6:57SPEAKER_01: And you're the face of it, right?
- 6:59SPEAKER_01: For my particular job.
- 7:00SPEAKER_01: I was also working at a brewery in downtown Omaha called The Upstream.
- 7:04SPEAKER_01: And a producer came in from New York City.
- 7:06SPEAKER_01: He was visiting Omaha with his then partner, now wife, and we got to talking.
- 7:11SPEAKER_01: I was like, What do you do?
- 7:12SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, I'm a producer for ABC News.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wait a minute, you can just move to New York and be a producer for ABC News.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: I was like, tell me more about it.
- 7:19SPEAKER_01: And so we had a really lengthy conversation.
- 7:21SPEAKER_01: By the end of it, he told me to move to New York.
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: He gave me his business card and said, if you ever move out here, tell me.
- 7:26SPEAKER_01: And his wife's name is Bridget.
- 7:28SPEAKER_01: She's from Omaha.
- 7:29SPEAKER_01: He's like, we will help you.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: So I had that in my mind.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: That was like the first, like, so I can just move to New York and be a producer.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: So I knew I wanted to leave Omaha eventually.
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: I was studying school for business.
- 7:38SPEAKER_01: What was I gonna do?
- 7:39SPEAKER_01: Like marketing grade.
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: I could have stayed in Omaha.
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: I could have worked at these big companies.
- 7:43SPEAKER_01: A lot of business takes place in Omaha, but I knew that wasn't the right fit for me.
- 7:47SPEAKER_01: So I was wavering between do I move to Los Angeles where I have two sisters at this time?
- 7:51SPEAKER_01: Do I move to New York?
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: And I was at work at the law firm and I had this like vivid memory, like vision of you are moving to Los Angeles and you're going to work at e Entertainment.
- 8:01SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: And that was they we call it manifestation now.
- 8:04SPEAKER_01: But that was the theme that hit me.
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: And this is back in the earlier 2000s.
- 8:08SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, okay, that's it.
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: It just kept coming back to me.
- 8:12SPEAKER_01: This thought just kept coming back through.
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: And so I called both my sisters and I was like, Abby, I'm moving to LA.
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Right, I'll help you find a roommate.
- 8:19SPEAKER_01: Molly, I'm moving to LA.
- 8:20SPEAKER_01: Great.
- 8:21SPEAKER_01: You can live with me until you find a roommate, until you find your place.
- 8:24SPEAKER_01: I had no job.
- 8:24SPEAKER_01: So this is straight after school.
- 8:26SPEAKER_01: Got in my car, packed up my stuff, visited with my parents for a couple days, and then I headed out west.
- 8:31SPEAKER_01: Drove the 17 hours straight from my parents' house to Los Angeles.
- 8:35SPEAKER_01: How old were you at this point?
- 8:36SPEAKER_01: I was I just turned 23.
- 8:38SPEAKER_01: It was a month after I turned 23.
- 8:40SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 8:40SPEAKER_01: I pulled into LA and I'm from a small town in Nebraska.
- 8:43SPEAKER_01: We don't know how to drive in Los Angeles at the very top, right?
- 8:46SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 8:46SPEAKER_01: And so I pulled in.
- 8:48SPEAKER_01: They're waiting for me at my sister Molly's apartment was Molly, a friend of ours from college and our good childhood friend Hillary Swanson, who you know very well.
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: And so I pulled up and that was the start of it.
- 8:57SPEAKER_01: That was the start of my life in LA.
- 8:59SPEAKER_01: And so I had was living with Molly for a couple weeks and still remember I had that idea of like, oh, I'm gonna work at E Entertainment.
- 9:06SPEAKER_01: At the time, Hillary was working for E.
- 9:08SPEAKER_01: Her then boyfriend, now husband, Brian, had an opening in his department.
- 9:12SPEAKER_01: He took my resume and I had years of experience.
- 9:14SPEAKER_01: I interned at Disney, I worked at a law firm all for four years of college.
- 9:19SPEAKER_01: I had a lot of jobs under my belt and like professional setting jobs, right?
- 9:23SPEAKER_01: And so he took my resume and he gave it to a woman in his department and said, Hey, interview this girl.
- 9:29SPEAKER_01: You don't have to hire her.
- 9:30SPEAKER_01: Or maybe he said, interview this girl and hire her, and they'll give me some brownie points with my girlfriend Hillary.
- 9:35SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 9:36SPEAKER_01: But instead, um I interviewed with her, I got the job.
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: To this day, she's one of my dearest friends.
- 9:41SPEAKER_01: Her name's Christy Lemire.
- 9:42SPEAKER_01: And so I was uh, like I said, I moved to Los Angeles weeks later.
- 9:46SPEAKER_01: It was maybe within the first month of living in LA, and I got my job at E.
- 9:49SPEAKER_01: So I was there for six months as a like attempt position, and then I became full-time.
- 9:54SPEAKER_01: So you talk about like how is it that you get the start?
- 9:57SPEAKER_01: What is it that you learn?
- 9:58SPEAKER_01: I have a business background, right?
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: Marketing background.
- 10:01SPEAKER_01: So this is television.
- 10:02SPEAKER_01: So the department that I landed in was international operations.
- 10:06SPEAKER_01: And at that time, it was uh 2008.
- 10:09SPEAKER_01: It was a booming network at the time.
- 10:11SPEAKER_01: Great parties, a lot of fun, a lot of hot people, you know, that work there.
- 10:16SPEAKER_01: It was all the red carpet stuff, all the live events.
- 10:19SPEAKER_01: Like it was a really fun place to work in your early, in your early 20s.
- 10:23SPEAKER_01: It was fantastic.
- 10:24SPEAKER_01: But I was in international operations, which meant I took shows that we had on E the Style Network and G4, which is a gaming network.
- 10:32SPEAKER_01: They're all gone now at this point.
- 10:34SPEAKER_01: But we took our programming and we aired it internationally, which meant we would work with our international scheduling department and figure out what shows needed to be subtitled or dubbed in different languages depending on where they were airing.
- 10:46SPEAKER_01: It was a really great crash course because I learned what the rules and regulations are.
- 10:51SPEAKER_01: What you guys can see in Australia is different from what you can see in the States.
- 10:54SPEAKER_01: What you can see in Italy, I mean, it was like we could show nudity in Italy, and but every country is different.
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: At that time, there was a company that offered up classes for uh learning how to cut TV shows on Avid or Final Cut and Photoshop.
- 11:07SPEAKER_01: And so E paid for me to take these courses.
- 11:10SPEAKER_01: And so that was like a next step for me.
- 11:12SPEAKER_01: So I learned how to edit a TV show with these courses.
- 11:14SPEAKER_01: It was only like four to six sessions for these courses, but it was still like the beginning steps of this is how you edit a TV show.
- 11:21SPEAKER_01: Two years later, I met this woman, her name is Erin Zell.
- 11:23SPEAKER_01: She's a showrunner and she was hiring producers for a new show for the Style Network.
- 11:28SPEAKER_01: So she was sitting next to me and hiring production assistants for her show.
- 11:32SPEAKER_01: And at this time, I was already a coordinator.
- 11:34SPEAKER_01: I took the step up from a production assistant, but she liked me and she heard me talk to the editors on the phone.
- 11:40SPEAKER_01: And so she pulled me aside and she was like, Hey, can we go get a cup of coffee?
- 11:43SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I want you to work for me.
- 11:44SPEAKER_01: Stop what you're doing.
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: Because at that point I was really unsatisfied.
- 11:47SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm working in international operations, I'm learning a lot, but what am I gonna do with this?
- 11:52SPEAKER_01: And so she's like, here's the caveat.
- 11:55SPEAKER_01: You can keep your health insurance, you can keep the same payment that you're getting, but when the show's done, you're a freelance producer now.
- 12:01SPEAKER_01: And she's like, trust me, it's great, you'll love it, and then just do it.
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: And so I thought about it for like 30 minutes, honestly.
- 12:08SPEAKER_01: I was like, Yeah, let's do it.
- 12:09SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 12:09SPEAKER_01: So I became a freelance producer.
- 12:11SPEAKER_01: So I worked with her for a couple of years.
- 12:12SPEAKER_01: I got into, I mean, it was all reality TV.
- 12:15SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of like for style-related shows, which I absolutely loved, and then Docu Follows, a lot of competition.
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: And little by little, I've just been climbing my way up this ladder of being a reality TV producer.
- 12:29SPEAKER_00: And so, like, what sorts of shows?
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna know these shows?
- 12:32SPEAKER_01: What do you guys have?
- 12:33SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what you have on your I heard about I'm sure you did the the Barbie one.
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a more recent show, but yeah.
- 12:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've done a lot of competition as of late.
- 12:42SPEAKER_01: The latest one being Do you guys have The Bachelor franchise in Yeah.
- 12:46SPEAKER_01: You did The Bachelor?
- 12:47SPEAKER_01: No, I did a spin-off show for The Bachelor called Bachelor Mansion Takeovers for HGTV, and now it's and it's also airing on HBO Max, where we took this iconic house, The Bachelor Mansion, which they've been hosting the franchise for the last 20 years and we renovated it.
- 13:02SPEAKER_01: And we used fellow contestants from the franchise and they renovated the show and it was a competition, and the final person who the last man standing won$100,000.
- 13:11SPEAKER_01: So that's one of them.
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: When the Barbie movie came out a couple years ago, we took a real house in Southern California and we transformed it into a Barbie dream house.
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: And like for someone to live in?
- 13:22SPEAKER_01: No, the whole intent wasn't for anyone to live in it.
- 13:24SPEAKER_01: It was for Barbie super fans to come and experience a day in a real-life Barbie dream house.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 13:29SPEAKER_01: We partnered with Mattel, worked very closely with Mattel.
- 13:32SPEAKER_01: That was a huge partnership for us.
- 13:33SPEAKER_01: I was an executive producer on that show.
- 13:35SPEAKER_01: And a lot of work because you have to make sure that you are respecting the brand.
- 13:40SPEAKER_01: It's a huge IP.
- 13:41SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of, you know, feedback came into play, but it was such a fun show.
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: It sounds like a fun show.
- 13:47SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 13:48SPEAKER_01: And it we also partnered with the Barbie movie.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: So we figured out ways, or I so my team found ways to incorporate Ryan Gosling into the show.
- 13:56SPEAKER_01: So we had Margot Robbie announce the winner of that show.
- 13:59SPEAKER_01: It was very cool.
- 14:00SPEAKER_00: So this seems like a dream job.
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: It's great.
- 14:03SPEAKER_00: I think the thing that I want to know a little bit more about, though, is the freelance side of things.
- 14:07SPEAKER_00: So that means obviously you've got an agent.
- 14:09SPEAKER_00: I do.
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: Do they call you up and be like, hey, Rebecca, there's this awesome show.
- 14:13SPEAKER_00: I reckon you need to go for it.
- 14:15SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you apply to become a producer on the show?
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 14:18SPEAKER_01: So the beginning years, it's all about word of mouth.
- 14:20SPEAKER_01: It's what what shows have you done?
- 14:22SPEAKER_01: What were the relationships you made?
- 14:24SPEAKER_01: Making solid relationships is extremely important.
- 14:27SPEAKER_01: And then finding the right people that's going to propel you to the next level.
- 14:30SPEAKER_01: And I've fortunately had a lot of women in my court that have done that for me.
- 14:34SPEAKER_01: And therefore I've been able to do that for a lot of women as well, which is something that I really take a lot of pride in.
- 14:40SPEAKER_01: But then you get to a certain level where an agent comes into play.
- 14:43SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, like, especially for reality TV, agents aren't necessarily needed, but they have my agent's fantastic and he's done a lot for me over the years.
- 14:53SPEAKER_01: So it's an interesting.
- 14:55SPEAKER_01: Do you want to know how you get an agent and how that goes about?
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: I wanna I wanna know, like I'm just picturing in my head that producers themselves, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: For reality TV shows in America, I'm thinking it's a very male-dominated space.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 15:10SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 15:10SPEAKER_00: And so then how do you stand out?
- 15:12SPEAKER_00: That's the million-dollar question.
- 15:14SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 15:15SPEAKER_01: You can't be too and this is something that I've been struggling with forever.
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: And, you know, now I'm uh finally at this this spot where I'm I've been an executive producer for the last four years.
- 15:24SPEAKER_01: I've been a showrunner as well.
- 15:26SPEAKER_01: It's hard because you you're completely set to a different standard than what your male counterparts are.
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: Really?
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: So like I can't be the person that goes in and tells the jokes about farts, you know.
- 15:36SPEAKER_01: That can't be the role that I play.
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: And I mean, there's over the course of the years, there's a story I just think that you're gonna find interesting.
- 15:43SPEAKER_01: When I was a junior producer, when I was a field producer, so there's different levels.
- 15:46SPEAKER_01: There's production assistant, there's go to a field producer, then you become a producer, and then a senior producer, then a co-executive producer, and then an executive producer.
- 15:54SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of different tiers that you have to climb.
- 15:56SPEAKER_01: And some people's are expedited and some people's take some time.
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: And there's also a lot of people that are like, forget that.
- 16:01SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing that role.
- 16:02SPEAKER_01: I don't want to have any part of that.
- 16:04SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, a lot of women that I work with, mothers as well, like they don't want to do it.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: It's a lot to be in this role, right?
- 16:11SPEAKER_01: And they're like, I would rather have a better home life and not have to take on what it is to run a show as well.
- 16:16SPEAKER_01: And so they decide not to do it.
- 16:17SPEAKER_01: And it's really unfortunate because we're missing out on having a lot of really great female showrunners.
- 16:23SPEAKER_01: But it is, it's a male-dominated uh world.
- 16:26SPEAKER_01: I'll also say, like, it's been really great for women too.
- 16:29SPEAKER_01: On my recent shows, I've talked to some women who have said to me, I have to be one of the guys in order for them to like me and to climb up in this business.
- 16:36SPEAKER_01: And I completely disagree.
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: I've never been one of the guys.
- 16:39SPEAKER_01: I've always played maybe the feminine card at times, you know, like sometimes you maybe had to be a little bit flirty for certain stuff.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: But I've always had this same I don't know, I just don't subscribe to it.
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: I don't subscribe that like you have to be one of the guys in order to work because that just isn't what's happened to me.
- 16:55SPEAKER_01: I will tell the story about working, I worked with this crew guide for years on different projects, and he used to call me bossy.
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: And it drove me fucking crazy, can I cuss?
- 17:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it drove me fucking crazy.
- 17:06SPEAKER_01: I hated it so much.
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: And I was in my late 20s probably at the time, and super naive and a very insecure.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't gonna say to this guy, hey, stop it.
- 17:18SPEAKER_01: Or if I did say stop it, it just escalated it, right?
- 17:21SPEAKER_01: But it drove me crazy and he was on multiple sets with me because we were both within the same world of executive producers that were bringing us on.
- 17:28SPEAKER_01: I was on the producing side and he was on the crew side.
- 17:30SPEAKER_01: A couple years ago, I ran into him on a set.
- 17:32SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 17:33SPEAKER_01: He came on as a day player, which means they come in for one day, they do their job, they're not invested on the project.
- 17:40SPEAKER_01: It's like they come in and they either shoot a camera or they record audio and then they're out, right?
- 17:45SPEAKER_01: He's not fully on the team.
- 17:47SPEAKER_01: And he came in, he goes, Hey girl, what are you doing?
- 17:49SPEAKER_01: Have you been on this run this whole time?
- 17:51SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yeah, I'm a executive producer on it.
- 17:53SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Oh shit.
- 17:54SPEAKER_01: And it was so fulfilling for this guy for years that call me bossy to now see me on a set again in in probably six, seven, eight years, and for me to be the boss on the set.
- 18:06SPEAKER_01: It felt so rewarding.
- 18:08SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, that story is not rare.
- 18:11SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of stories like that and a lot of things that women have to go, you know, go through.
- 18:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: That's good.
- 18:16SPEAKER_00: In that moment, you're like, mm-hmm This is I am.
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: I'm executive producer.
- 18:20SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:20SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:20SPEAKER_00: So that's how that goes.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: That's right.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: So welcome to my set.
- 18:24SPEAKER_01: I need you to do this job.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: Or not my set, but welcome to the show.
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: You need to do your job.
- 18:28SPEAKER_01: And I'll see you later.
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: I have a friend that really despises that word, and she says it all the time.
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: And she's like, let's use the word assertive.
- 18:37SPEAKER_00: Let's use she tries to think of other words, but bossy, it's like it makes her skin crawl.
- 18:43SPEAKER_00: But I I think the thing that probably I get more annoyed at is I've never heard a man be called bossy.
- 18:48SPEAKER_00: No, a thousand percent no.
- 18:49SPEAKER_00: Never.
- 18:50SPEAKER_00: No.
- 18:50SPEAKER_00: So they can they could truly you be that word.
- 18:52SPEAKER_00: They could be incredibly assertive, they could be rude about it, but no one's ever gonna go, geez, that guy, he's bossy.
- 18:58SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
- 18:59SPEAKER_00: No, no.
- 18:59SPEAKER_01: He's he's strong and he makes great choices on the fly.
- 19:03SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 19:05SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 19:05SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a completely doubled standard for us, and I felt that a lot, but okay.
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: So you've got this incredible job, but like you said at the start, you're a mum.
- 19:15SPEAKER_00: You're a mum to two young boys who are super cute.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: I want to know like, how do you find a healthy balance between this insane job that requires a lot of attention and a lot of your commitment?
- 19:25SPEAKER_00: And I mean, anybody that knows you knows that when you commit to something, you do it properly, you don't do a half-assed.
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: But then how do you find this balance between mum duties?
- 19:33SPEAKER_01: I know I I don't subscribe to that word because there's no balance.
- 19:36SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 19:37SPEAKER_01: It's not possible.
- 19:38SPEAKER_01: When you're on a project, so for me, and for instance, because I'm able to see a project from the very beginning to the end of it, that's a nine-month, 10-month project for me.
- 19:47SPEAKER_01: A lot of times that's not the case.
- 19:48SPEAKER_01: Within our business, we have uh people that work in the field, production, or post-production, and they don't oversee.
- 19:53SPEAKER_01: It doesn't marry the two.
- 19:54SPEAKER_01: So some people will be on a project for seven, eight weeks.
- 19:57SPEAKER_01: Other people in post-production will be on it for a couple months.
- 19:59SPEAKER_01: The teams that I work with don't have the ability to see the full scope of it.
- 20:03SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 20:03SPEAKER_01: So they're really grinding and going from project to project, which is what I did for years and years until I became a mom.
- 20:08SPEAKER_01: Now I'm on a project for nine months.
- 20:10SPEAKER_01: So when I'm in those nine months, I'll go on location.
- 20:13SPEAKER_01: I made a rule when I became a mom for the first time.
- 20:16SPEAKER_01: And we can talk about what it was like to get pregnant in this industry because it's been, it's been an interesting journey for me and it's been a difficult journey that I've had to navigate.
- 20:24SPEAKER_01: And now I've been helping uh friends of mine recently had a friend call me and said, Okay, I she texted me and she's like, I have a really important question for you.
- 20:32SPEAKER_01: Can you please find the time?
- 20:34SPEAKER_01: And I got on with her and she told me that she was pregnant and she was up for this show and she was struggling with it.
- 20:38SPEAKER_01: And she was like, How do I navigate this?
- 20:40SPEAKER_01: Because it is something that you have to navigate, unfortunately.
- 20:43SPEAKER_01: As a producer and a mom and marrying those, and this was her first baby.
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: And so I've had a lot of friends that have come to me to ask, how am I supposed to do this thing?
- 20:50SPEAKER_01: I've been this person for years.
- 20:51SPEAKER_01: I've been a producer for years, and now I'm marrying these two worlds and I don't know how to what to say, right?
- 20:56SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, things have changed a lot since I first became a mom, which was in 2017.
- 21:01SPEAKER_01: But there's still a lot of setbacks and a lot of opinions about mothers.
- 21:05SPEAKER_01: The rule I made after I became a mom was that I'm I'm not leaving Los Angeles.
- 21:09SPEAKER_01: When I first started in this industry, you learned everything.
- 21:12SPEAKER_01: You would go out into the field, production, you would film a show, and you would come back and you would edit the show.
- 21:18SPEAKER_01: You were producer producing the episodes for the editors, and you had a full scope, you were able to see it over the full scope.
- 21:25SPEAKER_01: That was in the earlier 2014, for instance.
- 21:28SPEAKER_01: And then everything changed.
- 21:29SPEAKER_01: Budgets became smaller, schedules became tighter, and people don't have the flexibility and freedom to do that anymore.
- 21:35SPEAKER_01: So it's changed.
- 21:37SPEAKER_01: So I knew that I had the ability once I became a mom that if I wanted to stick around in post production for a while or only take shows in Los Angeles, I was able to do that.
- 21:45SPEAKER_01: And the only reason I made that choice is because of the struggles that I went through at the very top of my pregnancy with my oldest son, Leo.
- 21:52SPEAKER_01: I had shows that weren't offered to me.
- 21:54SPEAKER_01: I was very transparent and said, Hey, I'm pregnant.
- 21:58SPEAKER_01: And then they came back and said, Oh, the network.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: Changed their mind.
- 22:01SPEAKER_01: At that time, the network wasn't weighing in on whether or not I was hired.
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: The network weighs in now.
- 22:06SPEAKER_01: They have to approve me for shows.
- 22:08SPEAKER_01: But at that time, they weren't weighing in.
- 22:09SPEAKER_01: So I was losing out on shows for being transparent that I was a mother.
- 22:13SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 22:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:14SPEAKER_01: After that experience on a show, I was directing a show when I was nine months pregnant with my first.
- 22:20SPEAKER_01: I was so beat down at the end of that, so pregnant, so over it.
- 22:25SPEAKER_01: I didn't even tell the production company that hired me then for that show that I was pregnant.
- 22:28SPEAKER_01: I just hid it.
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: And you can't hide, I'm five foot two for those listeners, for listeners, and I you can't hide a belly on a five foot two person.
- 22:35SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 22:36SPEAKER_01: So they knew I was pregnant.
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: I just didn't tell them I was pregnant.
- 22:38SPEAKER_01: Finally, I talked to the owner of the production company about it.
- 22:40SPEAKER_01: And then I said I have to be done.
- 22:42SPEAKER_01: Because, hey, guess what?
- 22:43SPEAKER_01: I'm pregnant.
- 22:44SPEAKER_01: He's like, Yeah, I know.
- 22:45SPEAKER_01: I know.
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: And I have to be done because I'm I'm literally going to be giving birth in like the next week.
- 22:50SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 22:50SPEAKER_01: He was great about it.
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: He had twins.
- 22:52SPEAKER_01: It was a whole fine deal.
- 22:53SPEAKER_01: But after that experience, I was like, I'm not going back into the field again.
- 22:57SPEAKER_01: Luckily, I was able to work in post-production.
- 23:00SPEAKER_01: And then I've only been doing shows that are LA based, with the exception of one show I did last year in North Carolina, and I left for seven weeks.
- 23:07SPEAKER_01: When I'm in a show, even if I'm shooting in Los Angeles, I'm full-time focused on that show.
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: So I'll come home, see my boys, or they're already in bed.
- 23:14SPEAKER_01: I'll see them the next morning, then I'm out the door again.
- 23:16SPEAKER_01: So there's not a balance.
- 23:18SPEAKER_01: So when I'm working on a project, my husband, he does it.
- 23:21SPEAKER_01: I will see them as much as I can.
- 23:22SPEAKER_01: After those seven weeks are done, I'll go into post-production at my house.
- 23:26SPEAKER_01: So my boys know what mom does.
- 23:28SPEAKER_01: They see me on an avid system editing shows for months on end.
- 23:33SPEAKER_01: My oldest will sit in my lap and watch the show with me and give notes and his feedback and thoughts because he knows he knows it now.
- 23:39SPEAKER_01: They're so ingrained in it.
- 23:40SPEAKER_01: From school, I make sure that I focus on them.
- 23:42SPEAKER_01: I give them a good 20 minutes of my time, and then mom has to get back to work.
- 23:46SPEAKER_01: I have an open door policy in my office, and they're welcome to come in at any point unless mom's on a call.
- 23:50SPEAKER_01: And they know that.
- 23:51SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 23:52SPEAKER_01: Um, and then always because I do have mom guilt and that's just who I am, and it comes with the territory.
- 23:57SPEAKER_01: Like I have been known to wrap a show, and the next day I take my kids to Disneyland for three days.
- 24:01SPEAKER_01: After that show, I got home.
- 24:03SPEAKER_01: A couple days later, a new puppy arrived at our door because that's the mom guilt manifesting itself into here's a dog.
- 24:09SPEAKER_01: Sorry, mom's been gone for the last seven weeks.
- 24:12SPEAKER_01: Here's here's our new puppy.
- 24:13SPEAKER_01: So I do stuff like that, but I don't I don't subscribe to balance because there's just none.
- 24:18SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 24:18SPEAKER_01: And then when I'm not on a project, I am very focused on them.
- 24:22SPEAKER_01: Like that's my job as I become a pseudo-stay-at-home mom.
- 24:26SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would never they have so much work cut out for them.
- 24:28SPEAKER_01: Like stay-at-home moms, I think are incredible.
- 24:31SPEAKER_01: I don't have that in me to do it.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: And I really value what they do do.
- 24:34SPEAKER_01: So I won't say that I, when I'm not working, I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I do fall into that role where it's mom's here, I'm doing the job, you know, whatever you need, and finding really specialized time to be with them.
- 24:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know.
- 24:46SPEAKER_00: I've been fortunate to meet women that I already know, but they've been transparent in their own journeys in how they got pregnant, IVF journeys, adoption journeys.
- 24:55SPEAKER_00: You also spoke about home births, which I and look, anybody that's listened to this in Australia that probably knows more about home births than I do, I just don't think it's that common.
- 25:04SPEAKER_00: You don't really ever hear of any women having home births.
- 25:08SPEAKER_00: There are women out there that definitely do, don't get me wrong, but it's just not as common as what it seems to be here.
- 25:13SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're happy to talk a little bit about that, I think some women might find it interesting.
- 25:17SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love talking about this, actually.
- 25:19SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite topics.
- 25:21SPEAKER_02: Okay.
- 25:21SPEAKER_01: So when I got pregnant in 2017, I watched this documentary called The Business of Being Born.
- 25:27SPEAKER_01: It was produced by Ricky Lake and it was about her own individual journey.
- 25:30SPEAKER_01: She had her baby on camera, and I watched it and it resonated with me.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: And I knew at that time that a hospital was not the place that I personally was gonna feel comfortable.
- 25:38SPEAKER_01: And again, like this is a choice, right?
- 25:40SPEAKER_01: And every woman needs to feel the they're the most comfortable they can possibly feel.
- 25:45SPEAKER_01: But I knew for me personally, I needed to be in a warm, dim room where I gotta be, make the choices for myself and didn't have someone telling me this is what we that had to be done.
- 25:55SPEAKER_01: So I had my first son out of a hospital, but in a birth center.
- 25:58SPEAKER_01: And that experience was great.
- 26:00SPEAKER_01: It was dramatic.
- 26:01SPEAKER_01: It was it was great, but there was drama with it.
- 26:03SPEAKER_01: As I think oftentimes there are first-time moms.
- 26:06SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what I was doing.
- 26:08SPEAKER_01: I had a midwives that I loved at this practice, but I also had midwives that I didn't really connect with that were at this practice.
- 26:14SPEAKER_01: When you go into labor at a birth center, you don't get to choose what midwife you have.
- 26:18SPEAKER_01: It's based off of who's on duty at that time.
- 26:21SPEAKER_01: Um when you go into labor and you come in.
- 26:24SPEAKER_01: So I went 41 weeks with my son.
- 26:27SPEAKER_01: There was no push to get him out.
- 26:29SPEAKER_01: It's very free-flowing in a way of like your baby's gonna know when he's gonna come.
- 26:34SPEAKER_01: And I I agree with that.
- 26:35SPEAKER_01: Like for me personally, I was like, great.
- 26:36SPEAKER_01: I went into labor right away.
- 26:38SPEAKER_01: I had a very quick active labor.
- 26:41SPEAKER_01: And my husband was texting with one of the midwives who was my favorite midwife, actually.
- 26:45SPEAKER_01: She was working at the time, and I showed up to the birth center.
- 26:50SPEAKER_01: My water broke on the 110 freeway, which is a big freeway in Los Angeles from where I was living to Pasadena.
- 26:56SPEAKER_01: I was in active labor.
- 26:58SPEAKER_01: I get to the birthing center and I was already six centimeters dilated.
- 27:01SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
- 27:01SPEAKER_01: This is with my first baby.
- 27:03SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
- 27:03SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 27:03SPEAKER_00: He was ready to go.
- 27:04SPEAKER_01: He was ready to go.
- 27:05SPEAKER_01: I get admitted, but with midwife, again, who I love, says to me, Hey, I'm actually off and now there's this new midwife on duty.
- 27:12SPEAKER_01: The whole energy in that room shifted completely.
- 27:15SPEAKER_01: Where I was like two hours later, hour later, I was dilated to to eight.
- 27:19SPEAKER_01: There was no way this kid was coming.
- 27:21SPEAKER_01: It was tense in there.
- 27:22SPEAKER_01: Her and I didn't really connect.
- 27:24SPEAKER_01: My doula and her had weird tension.
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: It was, it was interesting to say the least.
- 27:28SPEAKER_01: When you're in a birthing center out of hospital birth, you don't have drugs, right?
- 27:31SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 27:32SPEAKER_01: It's all natural.
- 27:33SPEAKER_01: I ended up pushing my son for four hours.
- 27:35SPEAKER_01: An hour three, my midwife, again, who I didn't really connect with, said to me, if you don't deliver within the next hour, I'm transferring you to an hospital.
- 27:44SPEAKER_01: That was the last thing I wanted to do.
- 27:45SPEAKER_01: And hospitals are not really kind to people who transfer.
- 27:49SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
- 27:50SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to do that.
- 27:51SPEAKER_01: Anyways, long story short, I was determined because I'm competitive and a determined person.
- 27:56SPEAKER_01: I was like, this kid's coming out.
- 27:57SPEAKER_01: He came out and I had a fourth degree tear because of it.
- 27:59SPEAKER_01: And she says to me, You have a fourth degree tear, there's no way I can suture this.
- 28:03SPEAKER_01: I'm not legally allowed to do this.
- 28:05SPEAKER_01: You need to transfer to the hospital.
- 28:06SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
- 28:07SPEAKER_01: So no, I'm not gonna transfer.
- 28:09SPEAKER_01: Please, is there any other option?
- 28:10SPEAKER_01: And so she called an obstetrician who's like a walking angel to me.
- 28:14SPEAKER_01: She left dinner with her six kids, came to the birth center and sutured me.
- 28:18SPEAKER_01: Well, the thing about birth centers is that you don't get to stay there.
- 28:21SPEAKER_01: You still go home.
- 28:22SPEAKER_01: Oh, whoa.
- 28:22SPEAKER_01: So after getting having a fourth degree tear, pushing for four hours, we drove home.
- 28:27SPEAKER_01: We put our baby in a car and we drove home.
- 28:29SPEAKER_01: On the same day.
- 28:29SPEAKER_01: On the same day.
- 28:30SPEAKER_00: Can I ask, and you can tell me to piss off, but why did you want to do this?
- 28:35SPEAKER_00: Because why did you want to go to a birthing center compared to a hospital?
- 28:39SPEAKER_00: Like I just want to know.
- 28:40SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
- 28:41SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 28:41SPEAKER_01: Because I don't feel like I felt safe in the community of the other midwives.
- 28:46SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 28:46SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 28:47SPEAKER_01: I loved them.
- 28:48SPEAKER_01: I love the facility.
- 28:49SPEAKER_01: I love the main midwife in charge, phenomenal.
- 28:51SPEAKER_01: They have all the skills to do a hospital wasn't for me unless I needed it to be, right?
- 28:56SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk about this because I think it's important to talk about my next birth because I think oftentimes women don't talk about how beautiful births can be.
- 29:03SPEAKER_01: And my next one was incredible.
- 29:04SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 29:05SPEAKER_01: So, long story short, we go home, we have to walk up two flights of stairs.
- 29:08SPEAKER_01: We were living in an apartment at the time, and I had healing issues after that for a long time.
- 29:13SPEAKER_01: So it took me a while to come back around, healed, went through some postpartum depression or anxiety.
- 29:18SPEAKER_01: I don't even know what the term would be, what I was dealing with, but I went through some postpartum stuff.
- 29:22SPEAKER_01: It was also an adjustment for my family and at my husband's family because we were the first of the children to have a child, right?
- 29:29SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 29:30SPEAKER_01: And so I think my perspective is like, oh, there was a transition for the families in order to go.
- 29:35SPEAKER_01: It came back around.
- 29:36SPEAKER_01: We wanted to have another baby.
- 29:37SPEAKER_01: We took some time.
- 29:38SPEAKER_01: It was like two and a half years, almost three years before we decided to have another kid.
- 29:42SPEAKER_01: I got pregnant with our second son and I wanted to do it again because I wanted that I wanted to have that healing experience.
- 29:48SPEAKER_01: I had the best delivery and labor, one that no one talks about and we should be talking about because labors and deliveries can be so beautiful.
- 29:56SPEAKER_01: I end up having at home birth for my second son.
- 29:59SPEAKER_01: Granted, my firstborn already did the work, right?
- 30:01SPEAKER_01: My body knew what it was doing.
- 30:03SPEAKER_01: You know, you're you have two children, you know how much different the second birth is.
- 30:06SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 30:06SPEAKER_01: But I had a team of the most incredible midwives.
- 30:09SPEAKER_01: This woman named Beth Cannon.
- 30:10SPEAKER_01: She, the moment I met her, I was like, Yeah, you're the person for me.
- 30:14SPEAKER_01: She is highly, highly trained.
- 30:17SPEAKER_01: She also trains midwives now, the attrition in Los Angeles named Dr.
- 30:21SPEAKER_01: Stu.
- 30:22SPEAKER_01: He's the guy who uh worked in hospital setting for 30 years, decided to now deliver out of hospital because he saw um in America a lot of deliveries are considered emergency when they're not.
- 30:33SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 30:34SPEAKER_01: And so he uh now delivers breach babies and twins at home.
- 30:39SPEAKER_02: Oh.
- 30:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 30:40SPEAKER_01: And so she studied with him for years.
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: I go through this whole thing with my with my new midwife and her team, all these incredible women, and I talked to her about my fears.
- 30:49SPEAKER_01: And they they're very much like in the home birth setting, it's you go in and you see your midwife and you sit and you talk to them for an hour.
- 30:55SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
- 30:56SPEAKER_01: So I felt very connected to these women.
- 30:58SPEAKER_01: I talked through all my fears with them.
- 31:00SPEAKER_01: And my my midwife Beth just looked at me with these big brown eyes and was like, all the things that you're saying that you're thinking are not gonna happen to you, and release it.
- 31:08SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, she gave me the freedom to say, Okay, you're right, none of this stuff's gonna happen to me.
- 31:13SPEAKER_01: And so for the next however many months of my pregnancy, had a completely different message.
- 31:18SPEAKER_01: I had a completely different perspective.
- 31:21SPEAKER_01: I went into labor with my second, my midwives walked in an hour later because of Los Angeles traffic, and my baby was born like 20 minutes later.
- 31:28SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 31:28SPEAKER_01: And I didn't even tell anyone I was pushing.
- 31:30SPEAKER_01: I was in water in his bedroom, in my son's bedroom.
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: I delivered him within two pushes.
- 31:36SPEAKER_01: I said, Can someone catch him?
- 31:37SPEAKER_01: My midwife's caught him, and then in enters my son, my oldest son was there, and my big sister Molly was there.
- 31:43SPEAKER_01: And so after everything was done, I ended the birth of my second kid in my bed with my new baby in my hands.
- 31:51SPEAKER_01: My husband and my big sis drink having a glass of wine.
- 31:54SPEAKER_01: And it was like the most healing experience I could have ever asked for.
- 31:59SPEAKER_01: I ended up going back to work three weeks after I gave birth.
- 32:01SPEAKER_01: I was working from home.
- 32:02SPEAKER_01: It was during the pandemic, okay.
- 32:04SPEAKER_01: Working from home.
- 32:04SPEAKER_01: I went back to work three weeks after he was born, which is nuts.
- 32:07SPEAKER_01: Nuts.
- 32:08SPEAKER_01: And I don't recommend it.
- 32:09SPEAKER_01: And there's some reasonings behind that.
- 32:11SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for sharing that.
- 32:12SPEAKER_00: I think that's really incredible that you went through that and the fact that your second birth was completely different to your first one, and that you did have this experience of it was healing.
- 32:20SPEAKER_00: Because I think that's important to kind of, I don't know, have that, like you said, no one really talks about the positives of birth.
- 32:27SPEAKER_00: Usually it's horror stories and it's horrific.
- 32:30SPEAKER_00: And if there's anybody that's listening that hasn't had a kid and they're like, oh my gosh, no, you've just explained it perfectly where you're like, no, it can be a thing where you experience it and it's joy and it's loving and it's something that that's gonna stick with you forever.
- 32:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 32:44SPEAKER_00: That moment.
- 32:44SPEAKER_00: You'll think back to this on, you know, your second son's 21st, and then even with your first son too, you'd be like, I remember that.
- 32:50SPEAKER_00: It feels like yesterday.
- 32:51SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 32:52SPEAKER_00: Okay, listen, I'm gonna I I want to know this before we do the rapid fire questions.
- 32:56SPEAKER_00: Okay, if it's- If you weren't doing what you're doing now as being a producer, what else would you be doing?
- 33:01SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that kind of floats your boat, takes your interest?
- 33:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would be I have multiple responses for this.
- 33:06SPEAKER_01: In another life, I was definitely a pop star.
- 33:09SPEAKER_01: I love to see, and I would have loved to do something like that.
- 33:11SPEAKER_01: Interior design.
- 33:12SPEAKER_01: I love interior design and I always have since I was a really young kid.
- 33:16SPEAKER_01: And I do a lot of design shows.
- 33:17SPEAKER_01: So it makes sense.
- 33:18SPEAKER_01: That's something that's of interest to me.
- 33:20SPEAKER_01: I also, when I'm not working, then my husband and I are doing renovations on our house.
- 33:24SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 33:24SPEAKER_01: And then I think also like, and this might be in the cards later on.
- 33:27SPEAKER_01: I would move to an island off of Seattle and I would have a flower farm and I would host events for women.
- 33:34SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's cool.
- 33:35SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's in the future.
- 33:37SPEAKER_01: That's a plan for mine in the future.
- 33:39SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
- 33:39SPEAKER_00: I mean, you are really good at arranging flowers and just seeming to know that that's what people would want.
- 33:44SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
- 33:45SPEAKER_01: I think it's just like housing events for women.
- 33:48SPEAKER_01: One thing that we didn't really talk about, but one thing that's really important to me is mothers within this industry because I know the struggles that I went through and the responses that I got from people when they found out I was pregnant.
- 33:58SPEAKER_01: And even for the longest time, I was not able to lead with the fact that I was a mom when I was getting hired for stuff.
- 34:04SPEAKER_01: It was something that I felt like I had to hide.
- 34:06SPEAKER_01: And in recent years, that's of no interest to me.
- 34:09SPEAKER_01: And I'm very forthcoming with it.
- 34:11SPEAKER_01: And I just don't care as much because I think as you get older, you just really stop caring, whatever people think.
- 34:16SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 34:16SPEAKER_00: I talk about this all the time.
- 34:18SPEAKER_00: Like if I could give my care factor to a 20-year-old and be like, see right now how I really don't give a fuck.
- 34:24SPEAKER_00: And that's me putting it bluntly.
- 34:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 34:26SPEAKER_00: I just want to give you a little bit of that.
- 34:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 34:28SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong though, there are moments where I still do care.
- 34:31SPEAKER_00: Doesn't percent.
- 34:31SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say that I'm I've I'm healed and that I've cured that caring about what other people think, but I do think it that comes with age.
- 34:39SPEAKER_00: I feel like this generation in particular, like my daughter's generation, everybody cares about what everybody thinks.
- 34:44SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 34:45SPEAKER_00: Even when you say, don't care, just be you.
- 34:47SPEAKER_00: Oh, you can't say that.
- 34:48SPEAKER_00: They're gonna care more.
- 34:48SPEAKER_00: No.
- 34:49SPEAKER_01: They're like, what?
- 34:49SPEAKER_01: No, get out of here.
- 34:51SPEAKER_01: It's learned experience.
- 34:52SPEAKER_01: Listen, I love what I do.
- 34:53SPEAKER_01: I really do.
- 34:54SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of fun with it.
- 34:54SPEAKER_01: We're not curing cancer or making TV and enjoyment that people are gonna, that people are gonna watch and enjoy.
- 34:59SPEAKER_01: It's gonna bring what we do makes other people or gives other people enjoyment.
- 35:05SPEAKER_01: So I'll say that, but like, is this the is this the thing for me?
- 35:08SPEAKER_01: No.
- 35:09SPEAKER_01: Am I proud of what I've accomplished?
- 35:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a thousand percent.
- 35:12SPEAKER_01: But like what I'm more proud of is the way that I've advocated for a lot of women that work for me or with me.
- 35:17SPEAKER_01: And so I think in I just have to keep even do more for that community, for the mothers, especially.
- 35:22SPEAKER_01: Women, yes, but also mothers.
- 35:24SPEAKER_01: I think we're just such a community of people that are forgotten.
- 35:26SPEAKER_01: And when we become a mom, they don't think that we're capable of doing our job.
- 35:30SPEAKER_01: And I'll be honest, like the best people that I hire are women and mothers, mothers in particular, because they're so efficient with their time.
- 35:36SPEAKER_01: They're so good, they're great communicators.
- 35:39SPEAKER_01: They just value their time so they get things done, but they're just I don't know.
- 35:43SPEAKER_01: I I I'll say like I became a better producer and I actually expanded my career once I became a mom.
- 35:49SPEAKER_00: Listen, thank you so much for sharing that.
- 35:51SPEAKER_00: On to rapid fire questions.
- 35:52SPEAKER_00: Give it to me.
- 35:53SPEAKER_00: This is what I do towards the end of the episode.
- 35:55SPEAKER_00: I would just want you to not even think about it.
- 35:56SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 35:57SPEAKER_00: First up, for you, this is what I want to know.
- 35:59SPEAKER_00: Where is the place that you feel most at home?
- 36:02SPEAKER_00: In the woods by water with my family.
- 36:04SPEAKER_00: Wow.
- 36:05SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 36:06SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 36:06SPEAKER_00: I wasn't I would have lost that bit.
- 36:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 36:08SPEAKER_01: Well, I got married in Yosemite, and I think that's where we'll ultimately end up.
- 36:12SPEAKER_01: We can't leave Los Angeles anytime soon.
- 36:14SPEAKER_01: My kids are in a grade school.
- 36:15SPEAKER_01: My husband is an imagineer at Disney.
- 36:17SPEAKER_01: We're not leaving, but eventually I'm gonna be in woods by water.
- 36:21SPEAKER_00: What is an imagineer?
- 36:22SPEAKER_00: You said it before.
- 36:23SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
- 36:23SPEAKER_01: So he, Adam, he oh man, this guy's just incredible.
- 36:26SPEAKER_01: I haven't talked about him enough, and I would love to, because there's the only reason why I get to do what I do is because of my husband.
- 36:32SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 36:32SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of times We love Adam.
- 36:34SPEAKER_01: We love Adam.
- 36:35SPEAKER_00: He is literally, I feel like he should have been an actor.
- 36:37SPEAKER_00: Or is he an actor?
- 36:38SPEAKER_00: He was.
- 36:38SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 36:39SPEAKER_00: He was, but he's also like he's so dramatic.
- 36:42SPEAKER_00: And but he's in the funniest and the best way.
- 36:44SPEAKER_00: Like every time I see him, he would be the funnest dad.
- 36:47SPEAKER_00: He is and just the you know, he's just always warm.
- 36:50SPEAKER_00: You I just can't imagine him having any enemies.
- 36:52SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 36:52SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't.
- 36:53SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 36:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 36:53SPEAKER_01: He's the better of us by far.
- 36:55SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I scored him.
- 36:56SPEAKER_01: There's some times where I'm like, how the hell are you married to me?
- 36:58SPEAKER_01: He's amazing, but he is imagin he's an imagineer at Disney, which means he is part of a team that makes the rides at Disneyland.
- 37:04SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 37:05SPEAKER_01: Disney World, Disney.
- 37:06SPEAKER_00: That's such a strange word.
- 37:08SPEAKER_01: Imagineer.
- 37:09SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like to me, it feels like we're gonna sit around and be in charge of an imagination committee.
- 37:13SPEAKER_01: Well, they do.
- 37:13SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a there's a large part, there's a large part of it where it's just like use your imagination, throw whatever at the wall, and let's see if it sticks.
- 37:20SPEAKER_01: No idea is a bad idea.
- 37:21SPEAKER_01: Their initial concept is like whatever you can dream up.
- 37:25SPEAKER_01: It's fascinating and he loves it.
- 37:27SPEAKER_01: He's so happy there.
- 37:28SPEAKER_01: He took a huge career shift in the last year, and now he's like so happy and fulfilled.
- 37:32SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I'm not gonna, there's no way I'm gonna take that away from him.
- 37:35SPEAKER_01: But he, you're like, you said he is the best dad, and there's a lot of parts of our marriage and our relationship where oftentimes it's like it.
- 37:42SPEAKER_01: I say the 50-50 parenting because by far, like he is full on heads down dad.
- 37:46SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that I'm oh, I have to train him to do this thing.
- 37:49SPEAKER_01: Like, no, he's phenomenal.
- 37:51SPEAKER_01: But there are times in our relationship, and I think in most relationships, it's like an 80-20.
- 37:56SPEAKER_01: Do you know Mel Robbins?
- 37:57SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 37:58SPEAKER_01: Okay, she's talking she talks about this.
- 37:59SPEAKER_01: It's 100% true.
- 38:01SPEAKER_01: No relationship at any time can be a full 50-50.
- 38:04SPEAKER_01: It is always an 80-20 where he'll say to me, Hey, I can't show up right now, not physically, but like I'm I'm exhausted.
- 38:12SPEAKER_01: I need to go have some time.
- 38:13SPEAKER_01: And then I'm 80% in, or vice versa.
- 38:16SPEAKER_01: When I'm on a show, he's 80% and I'm 20.
- 38:18SPEAKER_01: You know, and now that I'm gonna take some time off this summer to be with my kids, I'm the 80% parent.
- 38:23SPEAKER_01: So I think that there's something really to that.
- 38:25SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 38:26SPEAKER_00: Uh now if I Oh sorry, rapid.
- 38:27SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's okay.
- 38:28SPEAKER_00: That's it.
- 38:28SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that we talked about Adam because when you mentioned the word before, I was like, I have to come back to this because it's been bugging me.
- 38:34SPEAKER_00: If I was to get a group of Rebecca's friends together and I said, Right, you've only got three words, name them.
- 38:40SPEAKER_00: How would you describe Rebecca?
- 38:41SPEAKER_01: What do you think they're gonna come up with?
- 38:42SPEAKER_01: I text my good girlfriend this because she works with me and is a dear friend of mine, and she said, passionate, which is very true, uh creative and strong.
- 38:51SPEAKER_01: I would also hope that the women that I work with would say an advocate.
- 38:55SPEAKER_01: And I know I know that they would.
- 38:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 38:57SPEAKER_01: Because yeah, I've had I just had a on my last show, I had a woman who gave birth during the Renovar show, and I said, work until you want to and then go have your baby.
- 39:04SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people wouldn't do that.
- 39:06SPEAKER_01: Anyway, yeah.
- 39:07SPEAKER_00: Okay, awesome.
- 39:07SPEAKER_00: I agree on all of those.
- 39:09SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 39:09SPEAKER_00: Last one, something that you are truly grateful for.
- 39:12SPEAKER_01: My relationships with my siblings.
- 39:14SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
- 39:15SPEAKER_01: I know you've talked a lot about my siblings lately, and I think it's very, this is supposed to be rapid fire.
- 39:20SPEAKER_01: It's very rare for four, a family of four, for the siblings to get along and have the relationships that we do and with their partners.
- 39:26SPEAKER_01: I love my siblings' partners too.
- 39:28SPEAKER_01: So I'm very grateful for them.
- 39:29SPEAKER_01: And then of course, like, I'm grateful that my parents got to know my children because I always would had fears that that wasn't gonna happen.
- 39:36SPEAKER_01: I'm so so I'm so grateful for that, and then my in-laws as well.
- 39:39SPEAKER_01: But most importantly, like my husband and my two kids, like yeah, they make a world go around for me, you know.
- 39:44SPEAKER_01: Like I wanted them, and so I'm trying to show up for them as much as I can and be the best mom to them.
- 39:51SPEAKER_00: So nailed it.
- 39:52SPEAKER_00: Couldn't have said it better.
- 39:53SPEAKER_00: No rapid fire here.
- 39:54SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I love that.
- 39:56SPEAKER_00: Shout out.
- 39:56SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite.
- 39:57SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
- 39:58SPEAKER_00: Lots of people when I ask them this question, they think that there's a cap.
- 40:01SPEAKER_00: There is no cap on the number of people that you can give a shout out to.
- 40:04SPEAKER_00: But I just straight off the top of the head, I know that you are surrounded by some amazing women.
- 40:08SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is your platform to give a shout-out to those women that inspire you.
- 40:12SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna do two things.
- 40:14SPEAKER_01: Is that okay?
- 40:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 40:15SPEAKER_01: I know I've been talking a lot about like being an advocate for women and women helping me grow up in my career, etc.
- 40:20SPEAKER_01: So I want to shout out to all the women that helped me get to the point that I'm at.
- 40:23SPEAKER_01: Christy Lemire, Aaron Zell, Michelle Brando, Sarah Quick, Liz Brock, and Maggie Seltner.
- 40:30SPEAKER_01: And then I would say from the mother side, like parenting side, a thousand percent my midwife, Beth Cannon.
- 40:36SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't, incredible what she's doing for women across Los Angeles, the best.
- 40:40SPEAKER_01: And then there's two other women who you've met, Hannah and Kelty.
- 40:43SPEAKER_01: They were our wedding photographer, Molly is wedding photographer.
- 40:45SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, these two twin sisters, Hannah and Kelty, they have a uh company called Upbringing.
- 40:50SPEAKER_01: They're on at Upbringing on Instagram, but they really help um give scripts for mothers and like how can we not break down our children and how can we raise up spirited children and love them for who they are?
- 41:03SPEAKER_01: And I think they're doing really incredible stuff.
- 41:04SPEAKER_01: So I would say them.
- 41:05SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 41:06unknown: Yeah.
- 41:06SPEAKER_00: Nailed it.
- 41:07SPEAKER_00: That's all I got.
- 41:08SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 41:08SPEAKER_00: Probably your own sisters too.
- 41:10SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
- 41:13SPEAKER_00: Did they shout out for me?
- 41:14SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 41:14SPEAKER_01: Did they?
- 41:15SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's okay.
- 41:16SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
- 41:16SPEAKER_01: I did talk about voice civilians too.
- 41:18SPEAKER_01: A thousand percent.
- 41:19SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for my sisters.
- 41:20SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 41:20SPEAKER_01: They're the best.
- 41:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 41:21SPEAKER_01: And my brother.
- 41:22SPEAKER_01: We always forget about Zach, but he's so important.
- 41:24SPEAKER_01: He's the best of us.
- 41:25SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's a good time.
- 41:26SPEAKER_01: We'll see him soon.
- 41:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh that's great.
- 41:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 41:28SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, thanks so much for coming onto the podcast.
- 41:30SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
- 41:31SPEAKER_00: This is such a fun conversation.
- 41:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 41:38SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to She Said It Out Loud.
- 41:40SPEAKER_00: If you took something away from today's episode, I would love to hear from you.
- 41:44SPEAKER_00: Come find me on Instagram at officially Emma Young.
- 41:48SPEAKER_00: And hit follows so new episodes land straight in your feed.
- 41:52SPEAKER_00: See you next time for more real and honest stories from legendary women.