Transcript

Jake Follis · OK SO: Say More

0:00
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, I think, because it's different for everybody.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Like, there could be someone on stage who's very animated and loud, and but that seems authentic coming from them.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, that's who they really are, so it's authentic.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: But there could be someone else who gets on stage and does that same thing.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, that's not who they are.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: They're trying way too hard.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: We can tell.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:18
SPEAKER_03: I mean.
0:30
SPEAKER_04: Welcome to OK So Say More.
0:33
SPEAKER_07: This podcast is a co-production of Public Radio Tulsa and the ongoing Okesto Tulsa live storytelling series.
0:41
SPEAKER_04: Each episode we talk to storytellers from throughout our community about what they do and about how and why they do it.
0:48
SPEAKER_07: We also share recordings of our storytellers as captured live on stage at our various Okesto Tulsa events.
0:56
SPEAKER_04: I'm your co-host, Michelle Bias.
0:58
SPEAKER_07: And I'm your other co-host, Matthew Weatherby.
1:01
SPEAKER_04: Today our guest on OK So Say More is Jake Follett.
1:05
SPEAKER_04: Well, welcome to OK So Say More, Jake Follett.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: Congrats on this awesome new podcast.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being here, Jake.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
1:14
SPEAKER_07: Jake's an OKSO storytelling veteran.
1:17
SPEAKER_07: I would classify him as a veteran, would you not, Michelle?
1:20
SPEAKER_07: No, I would.
1:21
SPEAKER_07: How many grand slams have you been in?
1:24
SPEAKER_01: I think I've been in five.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: I think I've qualified for six in a row.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, one of those I missed because I was sick at the time.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I think I think it's I've qualified for six in a row.
1:34
SPEAKER_07: And that's gotta be a record, not by just a few, but by probably a lot.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: You can't get rid of me.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: Just keep trying.
1:42
SPEAKER_04: He's been telling stories since the IDL stage.
1:44
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
1:45
SPEAKER_07: So my first memories of Jake, the very first Story Slam I ever attended, Jake was there, uh, told a story, and Jake, you're one of the reasons that I continued to do it.
1:56
SPEAKER_07: Oh wow.
1:57
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:57
SPEAKER_07: Absolutely.
1:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:59
SPEAKER_04: Tell us about that, Matthew.
2:00
SPEAKER_07: You told us the other night, but well, oh by the way, Jake's the guest, but give me a minute give me a minute or two.
2:07
SPEAKER_07: Go for it.
2:08
SPEAKER_07: That night, uh, I'd never been to a story slam, told a story.
2:11
SPEAKER_07: Jake and I tied for first place.
2:14
SPEAKER_07: So Jake and I both qualified for the Grand Slam on the same night.
2:19
SPEAKER_07: But after that experience, after the Grand Slam, I was pretty much done.
2:24
SPEAKER_07: I thought, well, I've got maybe one or two stories in my life.
2:27
SPEAKER_07: But uh I guess it's time to retire, but I'll keep coming to Story Slams.
2:31
SPEAKER_07: Jake came, sat down beside me and my wife, and said, When are you going to tell a story again?
2:36
SPEAKER_07: And I said, I don't have any more.
2:38
SPEAKER_07: And he said, Oh, yes, you do.
2:41
SPEAKER_07: You just need to think about it a little bit.
2:43
SPEAKER_07: And he inspired me to get back into it.
2:46
SPEAKER_04: I love that.
2:46
SPEAKER_04: Did you know that, Jake?
2:48
SPEAKER_01: No, I have no memory of that whatsoever.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: But uh that does so I mean, I do think that everybody has all these stories.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: I've heard people say to me before, and you're one of them now that I that you mentioned that is you know, how do you tell so many stories?
3:04
SPEAKER_01: I I don't have that many stories, and everybody has I mean, most all of my stories are just very small moments that I've made into a story, and people don't realize I think to look for that small moment.
3:16
SPEAKER_07: Right.
3:17
SPEAKER_07: It doesn't have to be f five bank robberies.
3:19
SPEAKER_07: Exactly.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: They want this big, huge, crazy situation.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I have those in my life.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: When I hear those stories, I'm like, wow, I don't have a story like that.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: But I've got a million little ones, so I think we all do.
3:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're such a crowd favorite too, because you tell these potent stories that everyone can relate to because your stories are built on family and fatherhood and these, like you're talking about, these moments that most people don't realize they can build or craft a five, six minute story around.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I also I enjoy that.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: I think I love the big crazy stories too, but I also really love the stories that really I can relate to.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: And so I enjoy telling those.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: I think I hope that somebody out there is like, oh yeah, something like that happened to me.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: So Right.
4:05
SPEAKER_04: What what's your process in crafting your story?
4:08
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what everybody else's is, so I don't know if I'm weird or if this is what everybody does.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you're weird.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's weird.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: I put a lot of time into word for word.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: And there's an example of that in this story too that we're gonna talk about where I switched just a phrase and I just put a lot of time into getting that phrase right.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know if it pays off or not.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think sometimes it does, but to me it pays off.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: So I just think of those small moments and I think of everything surrounding them, and a lot of my stories you might have noticed take place in a very short period of time.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, one story was you know, me running the 100-yard dash.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the whole story took place in the amount of time it took me to run that 100-yard dash.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I I just try to fill that time with backstory or whatever.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: So I think of the backstory, I think of what got me to that point, and then I think of each little word or phrase and how it's gonna make the most impact in that moment.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: So I it takes me a while.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: I can't just get up.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: Some I know some people can just get up and wing it, and it's this hilarious, awesome, great story, and I I can't do that.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: I can't do that either.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: No, I have to put a lot of time into it.
5:20
SPEAKER_07: So for those that have not listened to the Okay So Say More podcast before, we are going to play one of Jake's stories very shortly.
5:29
SPEAKER_07: It's a wonderful story, and then we're gonna talk about it a little bit more after we play it.
5:34
SPEAKER_07: But back to your style and your topics, here's another reason why you're one of my favorites.
5:40
SPEAKER_07: You tell stories from adolescence.
5:42
SPEAKER_07: I usually call those junior high stories, and if you're a little older than me, excuse me, a little younger than me, you call that a middle school story.
5:52
SPEAKER_07: And that's the time of my life that I remember every detail of every awkward moment.
5:58
SPEAKER_07: And you have told a few of those, and it inspired me to think back at that time of my life, and I've told a couple of stories from that time of my life too.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love those stories.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: I just think so much crazy stuff happens during that time in life, and I think that's where too I was, I mean, all of mine, as you guys have heard, are just about how I didn't feel like I fit in.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: I was always trying to find my place.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: I think that's kind of everybody's story, but just trying to figure out where I fit.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: It's not sports, it's not what you know, what is it?
6:32
SPEAKER_01: It's you know, um, not popular, not good at this, not you know, just feeling like all this not a rapper.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Not a rapper.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, I was I you know, I I think I was pretty good at that, but just no no outlet for it.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, just I think so much happens during that time, and it's fun to look back on that and see how you felt at that time, and it's now you can look back and maybe it's humorous or it shaped you in some way.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I I love telling those.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: And and it's during that time that I think I realized that I liked telling stories, but I what was I gonna do with that at that time?
7:09
SPEAKER_01: So it's just kind of it all connects, I think.
7:12
SPEAKER_07: What what brought you to the very first story slam?
7:14
SPEAKER_07: How did you even discover okay so?
7:17
SPEAKER_01: I had been listening to um some podcasts and I had heard about the moth, and so I'd heard that style of storytelling, and then I had heard a guy who was training on how to tell a good story, and I thought, oh, that's really interesting.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: I really like this, and I wish I could tell one of these stories in a story slam.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: So I just looked it up, is the moth in Tulsa, and it was like the story slam that came up was okay so.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of surprised.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh, well, that's cool that we have our own thing here, and it's at the ideal ballroom, and so I'll go check it out one time just to see if it's what I think it might be.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: And so I went there for the first time and just kind of sat and met a couple people that we were all at tables.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: You remember that?
8:05
SPEAKER_01: And everybody was sitting, so you're forced to.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty introverted, and so that was kind of awkward for me.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh no, I gotta sit at a table with other people I don't know because I was by myself.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: And uh, but I met Josh Baker, who, you know, was very involved at the time, even then.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: And so um I just sat back and listened, and immediately I I thought, oh, I I'd I want to be on that stage.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: And so the next month is when I told my first story.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:28
SPEAKER_04: Do you remember the first story you told?
8:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember the first one.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: I remember my first time I won, which was the George Foreman grill story.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: And and that was, you know, a couple months later.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't know how many stories I told before that.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: And so then when I won, it was like, oh my goodness, the endorphins were, you know, it's it's that whole you always hear, you know, stand-up comedians talk about, you know, how there's just this rush and they love being on stage.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I felt.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And I I thought, oh, this is cool.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: I I really like doing this.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: And so that's how I came about it.
8:58
SPEAKER_04: You're one of our storytellers, because you've been in the Grand Slam six times, that you say uh you don't care if you win the Grand Slam because as long as you don't win, you can continue getting on the stage and telling stories.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it would be a bummer not to be able to, I think.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: But I the longer I go, the more competitive I think I get.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: So it I in my internally, so there there's this part of me that for sure wants to do well and at least get in the top three.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what my goal always is.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: And so I I love telling every month, but at the same time, you know, it's like, I do want to win.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: So who knows?
9:38
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
9:39
SPEAKER_07: I think it might be a good time to go ahead and play Jake's story.
9:43
SPEAKER_07: Let's do it.
9:44
SPEAKER_07: Well, there's a category of story that I call the family story, and stories that are shared generally between family members that recall some sort of family lore.
9:54
SPEAKER_07: And one of my favorites, and I think a lot of families have a story like this, is the day you were born story.
10:01
SPEAKER_07: My mom has a day I was born story.
10:04
SPEAKER_07: And I don't know.
10:05
SPEAKER_07: So uh this might be uh Jake's uh daughter the day she was born story, but stories of parenthood are always crowd favorites from our stage.
10:16
SPEAKER_07: Jake Follis has told them before, always great.
10:20
SPEAKER_07: And this was one he told at the Okay So Monthly Slam, August of 2026.
10:26
SPEAKER_07: Enjoy this story of parenthood, and we'll talk more about it when it's over.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: I thought I could.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: I thought I could, I thought I could.
10:35
SPEAKER_01: As I read those uh closing words to the little engine that could.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: I closed the book and I gave my daughter a hug.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: I know she thinks it's childish for me to uh read her this story.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: It is the eve of her 13th birthday.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: But it's a tradition that started in our house on the eve of her birth in 2013.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: Back then I read that book to her while she was still in the womb.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: And it was uh something that a practice that my wife and I had started, and uh I read that book to her, and with uh my wife being uh 35 weeks pregnant and five weeks left to go, I felt so ready to be a dad.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: But then I read a book to her about a small train who overcame insur unsurmountable odds through hard work and perseverance and Taylor thought it applied to her right then in that moment.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: The next day I got a phone call that proved just how uh not ready I was.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: I was at a meeting and I heard my wife's voice say, uh, my water broke, I'm driving myself to the hospital, meet me there.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: So I left the meeting I was at.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: I was 40 minutes away from Bartlesville where we were living at the time, but it took me longer than 40 minutes to get there.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: My gas tank was on empty, and I had to stop and get gas.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ready.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: When I got to my wife Christy's hospital room there at the hospital in Bartlesville, I was told that she was going to need to be transported by ambulance to St.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: John's here in Tulsa because Bartlesville doesn't have a NICU, and Taylor was about to be born premature.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: A different hospital.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Doctors and nurses that I haven't met yet.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh I wasn't ready.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: My wife calmly told me to go back to our apartment in Bartlesville and pack a bag.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I did.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't even packed a bag yet.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ready.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: When I got to the hospital room here at St.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: John's, we it was in the morning still, and we just we waited and we waited late into the night.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: And as I sat there waiting, I thought about how Taylor's room wasn't finished yet.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: I thought about how I hadn't put the crib together yet.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: I thought about how I hadn't baby proofed the apartment yet.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ready.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: Then it came time for Taylor to be born late that night, 11 30 at night, and uh the delivery room sprang into action, and and when the doctor walked in, she looked at me in the corner and she said, Dad, sit in that chair.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: I don't have time to deal with you right now.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: And she was right.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ready.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: My daughter was born, and a couple hours later my wife asked for the bag that I had packed, and and I gave it to her, and she opened it, and it was just full of my things.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: I wrongly assumed that the hospital provides everything for her.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't ready.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: She was poked and prodded.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: She needed oxygen and uh uh phototherapy lights, and there were good days and bad days.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: And I was not ready.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: We brought her home finally after three weeks.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: But now there were no professionals around and and nothing she was hooked up to, and and I was supposed to be the one that was making sure she was breathing and fed and everything, and man, I was not ready.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: So I closed the book and I hug my daughter, and and she walks into her into her room.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: I know the next morning she's gonna come out a teenager.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: And as I'm holding that book, I wonder how long can I keep this up?
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Will I still be reading her this book when she's a senior in high school and she's spending her birthday evening with her friends instead of her parents?
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Will I still read her this book over FaceTime when she's at some faraway university?
15:19
SPEAKER_01: Will I still read her this book one day when she's putting her own child to sleep at night?
15:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm not ready.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: But then I look down at the book in my hands.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: I think I can.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: I think I can.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: I think I can.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
15:43
SPEAKER_04: I love that story.
15:44
SPEAKER_07: I love that story too.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
15:46
SPEAKER_07: You know what strikes me about that story is how you use tempo and silence.
15:52
SPEAKER_07: Obviously, you've spent time writing it, but I think some storytellers think they need to occupy every spot of silence with words, and you really don't have to.
16:02
SPEAKER_07: And I think Jake's a master of that.
16:03
SPEAKER_04: He is, he he reads the room really well.
16:06
SPEAKER_04: You know, there were so many times in that story where what you said was funny, but but it took, you know, seconds before we all realized, oh, that was so funny about packing the bag for yourself, right?
16:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: A lot of that just happens on stage for me.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: So like the big laugh after she opens the bag and it's just my stuff.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: I didn't I mean, when I tell that story, when we tell stories to our friends or family, the birth story of my daughter is one that we've told over and over again, and that is the funny part of that story is that I packed the bag wrong and I packed it just for me.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: But there's a big difference between telling a story to your friends and family and telling it on the stage.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: It's two different ways to tell the story.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, well, this is the funny part.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: People I hope think it's as funny as my friends and family do, but also they know me, so that's even funnier that I did that.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: So people in the crowd might not know how it might not be that funny to them.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: But in that moment, I realized that people were kind of starting to laugh, and so it was one of those moments where in the moment I realized, oh, I can pause here and drag this out a little bit and let people kind of catch on.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: And when I went back and listened to it and watched it, I thought, oh, that that was that went really well right there in that moment.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: I was happy about that because I that wasn't something I necessarily planned, it just kind of felt like the right thing to do.
17:35
SPEAKER_04: Let's talk about this turniphrase that you use.
17:38
SPEAKER_04: Uh the I think I can, I'm not ready.
17:41
SPEAKER_04: How did you come up with that?
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, that was I had mentioned that earlier, is that I'm not ready or I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready over and over again.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: I I've never really done that in a story before.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: This was a little bit of a um an experiment.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: I I noticed that.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, i I had never done that before.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: That night I thought is a good time for me to experiment with this.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: Just I thought that the theme for that night, I was kind of stretching it a little bit with my story, and so I thought it'll be a good time for me to experiment with something that I haven't done before, but I think it'll be fun.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: And so I thought of doing using that re uh reoccurring phrase, but originally and for most of the time that I was practicing it, the phrase was I wasn't prepared.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: So I used that phrase over and over and as it was I wasn't prepared, I wasn't prepared, and then at the end it was I'm not prepared.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: And that's how it was gonna be until just I think it was the day before finally I felt really awkward about every time I said that phrase as I was going through it in my head or practicing it out loud, I felt like that was an awkward phrase for me to say.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: Then I just thought of the phrase I wasn't ready, and I thought that sounded more like me.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Like that's something that I would say.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I would normally say I wasn't prepared.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: It seems so minor, and even now as I say it, I think that probably didn't make any difference in it.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it did.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: But to me it did.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: It just felt way more natural.
19:05
SPEAKER_04: I think it's the rhythm of it.
19:06
SPEAKER_04: Maybe I was listening to your story even before we've started recording today, and I was thinking, if I saw that story laid out on a piece of paper, it's very poetic, right?
19:17
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: Like I could see the spaces and then I'm not ready, and then the spaces that go into it.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: So I think what you're doing is something that not many of our storytellers are doing.
19:28
SPEAKER_04: And even Matthew and I were talking uh the this weekend about the fact that you are a master at tempo.
19:37
SPEAKER_07: Yes.
19:37
SPEAKER_07: Thank you.
19:38
SPEAKER_07: That would be my word.
19:39
SPEAKER_07: I don't know the mature word.
19:40
SPEAKER_04: But also at taking the themes and kind of blowing them out.
19:45
SPEAKER_04: Right.
19:46
SPEAKER_04: Because he took second with let's get it on.
19:49
SPEAKER_04: And with a theme like that, I mean everybody knows what our stories were probably about.
19:55
SPEAKER_07: And he placed with this one.
19:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and he comes up with a little engine that could and a story about his daughter's birth.
20:01
SPEAKER_04: So I love that Jake is always exampling the place where we do not have to make the story be exactly what the theme is.
20:09
SPEAKER_04: Right.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that night was also kind of an experiment, and you guys would know this about me too.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: A lot of my stories are just maybe funny, or I tried to put a little more heart into the butt.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Last couple stories I've told, I've tried to put a little more heart into them.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: And so this was one where I thought, okay, I'm gonna maybe tug on some heart strings a little bit more than I normally would.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: And also, um, I wanted to do that in this story because you mentioned, Matthew, about the stories of people's birth.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: That's a kind of a popular story to tell.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: And I had received some advice, I'd heard it on a podcast, about don't tell a birth story.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has those you think it's way more interesting than the crowd is gonna think it is, because it's just everybody's got kind of the same birth story.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: So I had always kind of lived by that.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm never gonna tell this story on the stage because the advice I'd been, you know, don't tell it, it's not gonna do well.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: But I always on the other hand, I always kind of wanted to tell it.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: So that was another reason why that was an experiment that night.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm gonna try it.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: But if I'm gonna try it, then I want to try it in a way that's not just I'm gonna tell the funny story about how I didn't pack the bag.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: So I had to figure out a way to put heart behind it, which was the reading of the book and how I was feeling during the birth story.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: So that's just kind of how I shaped that one.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: I I tried to tell the story but with a little meaning behind it, and maybe uh thank you for saying poetic, because I I don't get poetry at all.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: I wish I I've tried or I had a goal to try to I've read books on poetry for the past couple years to try to really grasp it, and I can't wrap my head around it.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: So for you to say that was poetic, I thank you.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: That makes me feel good.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Maybe something's sinking in.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: But um but yeah, I wonder.
21:56
SPEAKER_04: I think you might be better at it than what you think, and it's probably about just the way you're Laying it out on paper.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: I I was yeah, that was new for me to do it that way and and to use that phrase.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I just I tweaked that phrase at the very last second to try to make it sound more natural, and then it was all an experiment for me, and I liked how it turned out.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: And so I was I was happy about that.
22:18
SPEAKER_07: There's an another story, by the way, uh listeners.
22:22
SPEAKER_07: More of Jake's stories are out there on our YouTube channel.
22:26
SPEAKER_07: Facebook and Facebook.
22:28
SPEAKER_07: And look this one up if you have a chance.
22:30
SPEAKER_07: But Jake uh one evening told a story, again, adolescence, my favorite topic, but Jake was a band nerd.
22:38
SPEAKER_07: I was a band nerd.
22:42
SPEAKER_07: I was listening to every word of this story.
22:44
SPEAKER_07: And uh, we won't go through the whole story, but it was about you desperately, desperately wanting to be a drummer.
22:51
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
22:51
SPEAKER_07: When you were in uh junior high.
22:54
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
22:54
SPEAKER_07: And then lo and behold, what happens with your daughter?
22:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was stuck with the French horn immediately going into band, and uh just was not excited about that at all.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: Didn't even know it's not as sexy as drums are.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: No, not gonna get you a girlfriend, not you know, not cool, I don't know anything about it.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: And so I was stuck with that, and that was a real bummer to me because I really wanted to play the drums.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: So year after year I was stuck with this French horn.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Then my family moved in seventh grade to a new town, and to try to reinvent myself, I told the band director, I'm a drummer, uh, and he knew already, because the other band director had called him that I played the French horn, and so I was still stuck with the French horn, and I played that for the rest of my time.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: So that story was a really fun one to tell, and I liked it, and I was really happy with it.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Um but then I don't know how long it was, not too long after I told that story.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: My daughter at that time was in fifth grade and trying out for the band, and we get a letter in the mail one day that says she's a drummer, she made percussion.
24:05
SPEAKER_04: So living out your dreams.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: So I was on one hand really excited because I knew now I was gonna be able to live vicariously through her, and like that was gonna be cool.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, I was like really jealous that she just was able to waltz in and be a percussionist, and that was my dream that she's gonna get to live out.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: So it was just it's been kind of funny over the years now as she's been a part of it, and I've been able to see from her standpoint what it's like to be a percussionist.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: Is she still in band?
24:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: And she she loves and is doing great.
24:36
SPEAKER_04: She hasn't switched to French horn.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: No, not interested in that at all.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: I don't blame her.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: No, French horn is great.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't make fun of French horn players.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: They're awesome.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: It's a great instrument.
24:45
SPEAKER_07: Aaron Powell So Jake is a a pastor uh up in Owasso.
24:50
SPEAKER_07: And tell me if I'm uh mischaracterizing it, because I think I looked it up here.
24:55
SPEAKER_07: I did.
24:56
SPEAKER_07: You're a care you're a care pastor.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, so the church I'm at has m multiple ministers on staff, so my specific role is pastoral care.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: So I kind of oversee all of the uh like counseling or pastoral counseling, um hospital visits, funerals, all that stuff.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: All the exciting stuff.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, all that type of ministries.
25:17
SPEAKER_07: How long have you been doing it and what brought you to you haven't always been in Oklahoma, have you?
25:22
SPEAKER_01: No.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, since I graduated from college, I've been in ministry my whole life.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: Um so I've been in Virginia and Ohio and now here in Oklahoma.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: So just moving from ministry to ministry, but I've been here for well, at the church I'm at now for over twelve years.
25:38
SPEAKER_04: If you've been in ministry since college, like how old were you when you knew you wanted to take that path?
25:44
SPEAKER_01: A senior in high school um is when I made that decision to to go to school to go into ministry, and so uh my older brother is also a minister.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: Um he lives in Wisconsin, and so yeah, he and I both chose that career path.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I went to college.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: Um it's where uh in Cincinnati, it's where I met my wife, and um I you know from there I was different roles in ministry in the different churches I was in, but yeah, here in here in Oklahoma, the pastoral care is the role that I'm in.
26:17
SPEAKER_04: You're one of our storytellers we never worry about.
26:19
SPEAKER_04: That's for sure.
26:20
SPEAKER_04: Like we never worry about what kind of story Jake is coming with, or if we need to make sure he works with three coaches, like solid every single time.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: Um I try to be.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: If I like I said, there's been nights too where I don't put my name in if I don't feel like I I'm just really not comfortable.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: If I'm I have to be very prepared to be comfortable on a stage, whether it's I'm doing a wedding or a funeral or preaching a sermon or telling a story.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: If I'm if I'm not comfortable, I get anxious and nervous, and uh you everybody can tell.
26:53
SPEAKER_04: How do those stages inform each other?
26:55
SPEAKER_04: Like from say the church stage to the storytelling stage?
27:00
SPEAKER_07: They're drinking less in church.
27:02
SPEAKER_07: I'll bet I'll bet.
27:04
SPEAKER_07: Maybe.
27:05
SPEAKER_07: I don't know.
27:06
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
27:06
SPEAKER_04: There's wine somewhere.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming that's great.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, man, I don't that's a great question.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: How do they inform each other?
27:15
SPEAKER_01: Um in a lot of ways, I think they're very it sounds weird.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: I think they're very similar in so many ways.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I want people to, I don't know, hear hear the truth in some way from what I'm saying.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know, I just I just feel like it's very similar.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: If I'm up there talking and trying to get some sort of point across or some sort of message across, I want to do it in the best way that I can.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I you know, I'm sure I don't do that well all the time, but I just I think that's the best way to convey that important message that you have is just to do it the best way you can.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: So whether it's you know, at a wedding or a funeral or preaching a sermon or at okay so, it's like I just want whatever message it is, even if it's just something small or just to make someone feel good, because it you get to laugh for a second.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: Like I just want to do that in the best best way you can and in the most honest in the most honest way.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Genuine.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: In the most genuine yeah, genuine that's a good genuine, authentic way.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: You deliver it that way every time.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I I don't want it to be a show on any of those situations in any of those stages.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: I want it to feel very authentic.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: And I know, you know, I I watch a lot of comedians and get a lot of you know, insight from seeing what they do.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: And I like a variety of those guys, comedians or preachers or you know, and so it's like everybody's got their own style, and I don't always respond to people who do it like I do.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I I like people who do it other ways, but I think everybody can authentically doing it in the way that their fits their own.
28:55
SPEAKER_04: I think that's one of the beautiful things about your stories.
28:58
SPEAKER_04: Um you don't perform them.
29:01
SPEAKER_04: So many people get on our stage and they think that it's a performance, and it's not, right?
29:07
SPEAKER_04: I mean, the art of storytelling is to make it sound like you're having a conversation with someone.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: And they're it's interesting, I think, because it's different for everybody.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: Like there could be someone on stage who's very animated and loud, and but that seems authentic coming from them.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, that's who they really are, so it's authentic.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: But there could be someone else who gets on stage and does that same thing, and I'm like, that's not who they are.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: They're trying way too hard.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: We can tell.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and so if I tried to do that on stage, people be like, what's the same thing?
29:38
SPEAKER_01: What is Jake doing to that?
29:40
SPEAKER_01: You and you would have been able to tell that from the start, like from the first time you met me, that that's not who I am.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just glad that people have responded to that.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Because I didn't know.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: I mean, when I first came to OKSo, I thought, well, I know what I'm gonna be like, and I don't know what people are gonna respond to that.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: I hope it's I hope they like it, and then I feel like they did, and so that made me feel good.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's awesome about OKSO too.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: I think people respond well to authenticity, and that makes me happy because you know, that might not be that way everywhere.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
30:12
SPEAKER_04: So you're a Cincinnati guy.
30:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:14
SPEAKER_07: Are we gonna I've read that on every uh every Jake Follis bio is the same thing?
30:20
SPEAKER_07: I haven't changed the bio.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: No, that photo is uh over 12 years old, my headshot.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: It's my favorite headshot.
30:28
SPEAKER_07: Well that's how to s that's how to stay looking young in photos, is to use old photos.
30:33
SPEAKER_04: Matthew has uh sent us fake bios before with fake AI pictures.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: I um after the fact thought I should have done that with this year's Grand Slam um headshot because I should have put my prom picture or my homecoming dance because I have that and it would have fit well with my story because it was about the homecoming dance.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh, I that would have been great to put the homecoming dance photo in as my headshot.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Since I'm already using one that's 12 years old, why not use one that's 30 years old, you know?
31:04
SPEAKER_04: So but yeah, Cincinnati.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: All right.
31:07
SPEAKER_06: Is that where you're from?
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's where I went to college and then later lived for another four years, and my wife's whole family is from there.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: So we're we just I feel like that's where I'm from in a lot of ways.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm from I grew up in Illinois and Iowa, but didn't have spent a lot of time in Cincinnati.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, just really made a big connection with the city there and fell in love with the Chile and the Bengals.
31:32
SPEAKER_07: And so Michelle thought they were called the Bengals.
31:35
SPEAKER_07: Listen.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: I love the Bengals.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: Um I loved the Like an Egyptian.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: I loved the Bengals before I loved the Bengals.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I think I did too.
31:42
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
31:43
SPEAKER_04: So I didn't even know how to pronounce the Bengals.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: When when Walk Like an Egyptian comes on, I crank it up.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, the that music video was probably formative in my junior high years.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: Or actually elementary probably elementary years now, but awesome.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: All girl band singing an amazing song.
32:01
SPEAKER_04: I styled my hair like her.
32:02
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: I love that song.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: My daughter knows that I've I've always tried to educate her on what good music is, my opinion.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: And so, like if if you're at a trivia night that's about 80s music, she can answer all the questions at 14 years old, and I'm just so proud.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: We were playing a game with the family, extended family, over this past Christmas, and one of the trivia questions for the whole you know, table, there was a everybody had a chance to answer it, and it was what was Jenny's phone number in the Tommy 2500.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and everybody at the table, all ages, no one could answer it, which was shocking to me, first of all.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: But everybody's like, nobody knows this.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Taylor, answer this.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, 8675309.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: And everybody's like, How do you know that?
32:55
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, that was my most proud of it.
32:57
SPEAKER_04: You did your job.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: I was more proud of that than her becoming a percussionist.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: I was like, she knows 8675.
33:03
SPEAKER_07: She was very, my job is done here.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, yes.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: The the I love we try to go to a Bingles game every year when we're back in Cincinnati.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: We've got already got our tickets for this New Year's Eve, so we have we have a blast with the Bingles for sure.
33:19
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
33:20
SPEAKER_07: This uh we're gonna wrap it up, Jake.
33:22
SPEAKER_07: But before we let you leave the microphone, we have something we do on this podcast called Okay So Point Blank.
33:31
SPEAKER_07: Oh boy.
33:32
SPEAKER_07: These are just gonna be really quick questions, really quick answers.
33:36
SPEAKER_07: All right.
33:36
SPEAKER_07: Michelle's gonna do it.
33:37
SPEAKER_04: I love asking you this question.
33:39
SPEAKER_04: What turns you on creatively?
33:42
SPEAKER_04: It's supposed to be quick.
33:43
SPEAKER_04: You thought I was going somewhere else.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: I was scared for a second.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: A well-written song.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: A well-written song.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: Good answer.
33:52
SPEAKER_04: Great.
33:52
SPEAKER_04: A smell that takes you back to childhood.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: That would be a church basement.
34:00
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
34:01
SPEAKER_04: So many places we could go without one.
34:05
SPEAKER_04: What profession other than the one you have would you attempt if you could?
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: Author.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: Just straight up authority.
34:14
SPEAKER_04: Good answer.
34:15
SPEAKER_04: Least favorite word.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: I can't say that.
34:18
SPEAKER_04: Favorite curse word?
34:21
SPEAKER_01: We can bleep it, Jay.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't trust you.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Um my least favorite phrase, I have a lot of those.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: I know, right?
34:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't I do not like that phrase.
34:36
SPEAKER_04: I know, right?
34:36
SPEAKER_01: I know, right?
34:38
SPEAKER_01: That's my least favorite phrase.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: But there's probably a lot more of those.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: Um, especially with the lingo of my daughter generation.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: This needs to be, yeah.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: This is where I, yeah.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: My favorite I still don't know my favorite word.
34:53
SPEAKER_07: I hate I hate the phrase at the end of the day.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's using that phrase now.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: Aren't they?
34:59
SPEAKER_01: It's I I feel like it's 20 years old.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: No, I I feel like I hear it all the time right now.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: I made a comment to my wife about it the other day.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: I was like, why does everybody say at the end of the day constantly?
35:09
SPEAKER_04: Matthew and I have started saying lo and behold.
35:12
SPEAKER_04: I like that.
35:13
SPEAKER_04: I don't know where that comes from, but he said it today.
35:16
SPEAKER_04: And then on the last podcast, we said it twice.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: I think that's awesome.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: I think we should all start saying that.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
35:22
SPEAKER_04: I want to drag it out like lo and behold.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: Lo and behold.
35:27
SPEAKER_07: Well, at the end of the day, we've got to wrap this podcast up.
35:31
SPEAKER_07: Jake, thank you so much for being here.
35:33
SPEAKER_07: You've been a great guest.
35:34
SPEAKER_07: Thank you guys.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to more stories.
35:36
SPEAKER_04: So say more has enjoyed having you.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: It's been awesome being here.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: My first ever podcast.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: This I couldn't imagine it being any better than this.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: This is great.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: You did great.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
35:47
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.com.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: This OKSTO Stay More podcast is co-hosted by Michelle Baeas and Matthew Weatherby, and it's recorded and edited by Matthew Weatherby with editorial and production help from me, Scott Gregory, at PublicRadio Tulsa.
36:49
SPEAKER_02: You can contact this podcast by visiting OkStotulsta.com and then clicking on Connect with Us, and you can learn more about the station and find more episodes of this free on-demand podcast at publicRadiotulsa.org.
37:04
SPEAKER_02: We hope listening to this podcast has inspired you to attend an OkSo Tulsa event and maybe even tell a story yourself.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: Again, to learn more about how to do that, it's OKSoTulsa.com.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to OKSO Say More, Be Well, Be Heard, and Be Receptive.