Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / Pretty Smart with Danielle Robay + Peter Rosenberg
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Big Things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
- 0:10Speaker 2: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
- 0:14Speaker 2: and I have conversations that put a new spin on
- 0:17Speaker 2: pretty This is pretty smart. So when I thought about
- 0:23Speaker 2: the very first episode of pretty Smart, I thought about
- 0:27Speaker 2: wanting to feel comfortable because usually I'm on the other
- 0:31Speaker 2: side of an interview. So I called up the best
- 0:34Speaker 2: interviewer I know, Peter Rosenberg, host radio and TV personality
- 0:39Speaker 2: sometimes moonlights as a DJ, all around funny guy. I
- 0:42Speaker 2: call him the millennial Howard Stern. We'll see if he
- 0:45Speaker 2: takes that. Peter, you constantly challenge me. You are so
- 0:49Speaker 2: pretty smart. You make me change my perspective on things,
- 0:53Speaker 2: and I'm really excited to get into a conversation with you.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Thank you for doing this with me.
- 0:58Speaker 3: Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you for the
- 1:01Speaker 3: lovely introduction. I don't even know if I'm technically a millennium,
- 1:05Speaker 3: like I'm right on the line, I'm very.
- 1:06Speaker 2: Very close and you're a baby boomer.
- 1:10Speaker 1: No, isn't it, jen X.
- 1:11Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 1:12Speaker 1: I think I'm between X and millennial.
- 1:14Speaker 3: I think millennials supposed to be You were younger than
- 1:17Speaker 3: eighteen at the change of the millennium and I was
- 1:21Speaker 3: twenty one at the change.
- 1:22Speaker 1: Of the millennium.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Were you born before seventy seven?
- 1:26Speaker 1: No, I'm seventy nine.
- 1:27Speaker 2: Then you're a millennial. Really yep, welcome to the club.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Thank you. This is exciting news. I didn't even know
- 1:32Speaker 1: I was getting this today.
- 1:33Speaker 3: But anyways, that is a lovely introduction, and I'm honored
- 1:35Speaker 3: to do this and I'm excited to get to ask
- 1:39Speaker 3: you things that even being your friend, I mean, I
- 1:41Speaker 3: know the answer to.
- 1:41Speaker 2: Hopefully we can do this again and I can ask
- 1:43Speaker 2: you all the.
- 1:43Speaker 3: Questions, all right, But for today, I will ask you
- 1:46Speaker 3: the questions. And let's start off for people who are
- 1:50Speaker 3: just getting familiar with you, and maybe they have seen
- 1:53Speaker 3: you on social media or they've seen you pop up
- 1:56Speaker 3: on one of the many outlets that you do hosting work.
- 2:00Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about where you're from. I know,
- 2:04Speaker 3: I know you're from Chicago generally, but where you're from
- 2:07Speaker 3: in Chicago and how you ended up wanting to pursue
- 2:11Speaker 3: this dream of broadcast journalism.
- 2:14Speaker 2: So I feel very proud to be from Chicago. It
- 2:17Speaker 2: was a really amazing place to grow up. I feel
- 2:20Speaker 2: like when people ask me, are you going home? I
- 2:23Speaker 2: still think of Chicago. I don't really think of LA.
- 2:25Speaker 2: It feels like home to me, but I always wanted
- 2:28Speaker 2: to live in LA. Like growing up, I would watch
- 2:31Speaker 2: hours and hours and hours of TV, and I watched
- 2:35Speaker 2: everything like I watched Saved by the Bell and Gilmour
- 2:38Speaker 2: Girls and Sopranos and Family Matters, like literally anything that
- 2:42Speaker 2: was on TV. I would watch and my dad would
- 2:44Speaker 2: yell at me because my parents are really into education,
- 2:48Speaker 2: and they'd be like, you're wasting your brain. What are
- 2:49Speaker 2: you doing watching all this TV? And now he calls
- 2:53Speaker 2: me and he's like, I'm sorry I yelled at you.
- 2:54Speaker 2: You were just doing research. I didn't know. So I
- 2:57Speaker 2: feel like I was always on a path to entertainment
- 3:00Speaker 2: and live in LA. But when I went to college
- 3:03Speaker 2: in Madison, I started doing internships at the local news
- 3:06Speaker 2: stations and I fell in love with it. I loved
- 3:09Speaker 2: the storytelling. I did not love carrying those hundred pound
- 3:13Speaker 2: I think I weigh one hundred pounds in college, Like
- 3:15Speaker 2: the cameras weigh as much as me, and we'd be
- 3:17Speaker 2: in the snow and the like it was freezing in Madison,
- 3:20Speaker 2: just trying to get one shot for hours, and I
- 3:23Speaker 2: realized I didn't want to do local news at that point,
- 3:26Speaker 2: but I really wanted to tell people's stories. So I
- 3:29Speaker 2: booked a one way ticket to LA, moved into a garage,
- 3:33Speaker 2: and the rest was kind of history. I never looked back.
- 3:37Speaker 3: What was it that made you realize you didn't want
- 3:40Speaker 3: to do local news? Like, what specifically about that experience
- 3:43Speaker 3: made you think, you know, I want to do broadcasting,
- 3:45Speaker 3: but I don't want to do that form of broadcasting.
- 3:48Speaker 2: I've never been asked that, if I'm being honest, I
- 3:52Speaker 2: wanted to tell different stories. And the Internet was becoming
- 3:56Speaker 2: a thing like do you remember all those Britney Spears
- 3:59Speaker 2: fans that would on YouTube? And that was, yeah, that
- 4:03Speaker 2: you were one of them. That was the Internet for
- 4:05Speaker 2: a minute, But right after that it exploded into something else,
- 4:09Speaker 2: and I kind of felt like that was happening. I
- 4:12Speaker 2: wanted to be part of that explosion because the freedom
- 4:15Speaker 2: to talk to different people, tell different stories, have more
- 4:18Speaker 2: autonomy felt really enticing. And so when I moved to
- 4:22Speaker 2: LA after I started doing Red Carpets, I worked at
- 4:26Speaker 2: a place called Clever TV, which was a YouTube channel
- 4:29Speaker 2: that was always like one of the ten YouTube, ten
- 4:31Speaker 2: top YouTube channels, and that's where I learned the Internet,
- 4:35Speaker 2: and so it was it was cool I got to
- 4:36Speaker 2: do different things.
- 4:37Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really neat because you got to taste sort
- 4:39Speaker 3: of the classic medium of television, because like the red
- 4:42Speaker 3: carpet is like a pretty traditional television kind of thing,
- 4:46Speaker 3: and then mix it with doing a YouTube channel. How
- 4:48Speaker 3: did you You kind of just threw and yeah, I
- 4:50Speaker 3: started doing red carpets, But like, how did you start
- 4:53Speaker 3: doing red carpets?
- 4:54Speaker 1: Who are you doing them for? How did you get
- 4:55Speaker 1: the opportunity?
- 4:57Speaker 2: Well, when I moved into the garage, no one would
- 4:59Speaker 2: answer my calls. I don't think it's because they didn't
- 5:01Speaker 2: know I was living in a garage, but I still like,
- 5:03Speaker 2: I didn't have a reel. Really, I only had like
- 5:06Speaker 2: a reel from college. So I knew I needed to
- 5:08Speaker 2: get practice and I needed footage. So I would just
- 5:12Speaker 2: cold call people, cold email people. No one would answer me,
- 5:16Speaker 2: and I started googling people's addresses and I had no money.
- 5:20Speaker 2: I had the two thousand dollars and I remember setting
- 5:22Speaker 2: a budget aside of like five hundred dollars to send
- 5:25Speaker 2: people cookies boxes of cookies, and I would put my
- 5:28Speaker 2: email address at the end of it. And so most
- 5:31Speaker 2: of the time people would email me and say like,
- 5:33Speaker 2: I don't know who thanks standing out for these cookies.
- 5:35Speaker 2: We don't have a position available. And I was like,
- 5:39Speaker 2: that's cool, you know, just keep me in mind if
- 5:41Speaker 2: someone falls out last minute. But now I had their
- 5:44Speaker 2: email address.
- 5:45Speaker 3: Exactly, and now you have a little back and forth
- 5:47Speaker 3: like when they see your email pop up again in
- 5:49Speaker 3: three months, even if they don't remember who you are,
- 5:52Speaker 3: they see that they already engaged with you. Then they
- 5:54Speaker 3: look at it and are like, oh, yeah, the cookie
- 5:56Speaker 3: girl exactly.
- 5:57Speaker 2: I was the cookie girl literally and it worked because
- 6:01Speaker 2: one day somebody dropped out and an online outlet called
- 6:05Speaker 2: me and said, can you be in Beverly Hills in
- 6:07Speaker 2: ninety minutes? And I said yes. I didn't even blink.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Did my first red carpet. Simon Cowle gave me an exclusive,
- 6:15Speaker 2: which I owe him so much. He doesn't even know
- 6:17Speaker 2: that because he got me my first gig. They started
- 6:19Speaker 2: calling me back because of that, and I would work
- 6:22Speaker 2: for free. They didn't pay me, but I needed footage
- 6:25Speaker 2: and it allowed me to build a reel, and then
- 6:27Speaker 2: I had all those email addresses and would send people
- 6:30Speaker 2: my reel over and over again.
- 6:31Speaker 3: Were you nervous to show up and just do a
- 6:34Speaker 3: red carpet when you hadn't done anything like that prior?
- 6:38Speaker 2: I think when you're young, you have this blind naivete
- 6:41Speaker 2: like I would watch Juliana Ransick or Kat Sadler and think, like,
- 6:46Speaker 2: I can do that, And so I didn't realize that
- 6:49Speaker 2: I couldn't do that, Like I definitely couldn't do that
- 6:52Speaker 2: to the level they were doing it, but in my
- 6:53Speaker 2: head I could, which was a blessing in disguise because
- 6:58Speaker 2: you just kind of go for it and then by
- 7:00Speaker 2: doing you get better hopefully.
- 7:02Speaker 3: Well, I've realized recently as i've been like looking back
- 7:06Speaker 3: at my life and thinking about mistakes I've made, things
- 7:10Speaker 3: I'd like to do better. And one of the consistent
- 7:14Speaker 3: mistakes that I've made throughout my career and I still
- 7:16Speaker 3: make it is saying things that I regret and like,
- 7:19Speaker 3: I don't mean necessarily something that like you have to
- 7:22Speaker 3: apologize for saying something off color. I mean, I'm sure
- 7:26Speaker 3: I've done that too, but I mean, you know, a
- 7:28Speaker 3: critique that was too harsh, you know, describing someone in
- 7:32Speaker 3: a way that wasn't kind, giving an opinion that was
- 7:35Speaker 3: just incredibly brash. You know, I showed up in New
- 7:38Speaker 3: York and I was just so brash with my opinions.
- 7:40Speaker 3: And I say all of this not to just make
- 7:43Speaker 3: everything about me another great trade of mine, but because
- 7:48Speaker 3: that thing you just spoke about. In order to be
- 7:51Speaker 3: the person who has a chance to make it, you
- 7:54Speaker 3: have to have a sort of unrealistic view of yourself.
- 7:59Speaker 3: If you you don't believe that it whatever twenty something
- 8:04Speaker 3: year old age that you're at, if you don't believe
- 8:07Speaker 3: that you're capable of doing it as well as Ryan
- 8:10Speaker 3: Seacrest and Juan Ransick, you're never going to get the
- 8:14Speaker 3: opportunity to even come close. So it's a catch twenty
- 8:17Speaker 3: two and you really do. It's kind of amazing hearing
- 8:20Speaker 3: you say that that you just sort of showed up
- 8:22Speaker 3: and like, I can do this, Because to me, that's
- 8:25Speaker 3: the sign of someone who can eventually make it, Because
- 8:28Speaker 3: you have to believe you're good enough to be in
- 8:31Speaker 3: the game, even if at that time when you look
- 8:33Speaker 3: back at it, you're like, I wasn't really good enough
- 8:35Speaker 3: to be in the game.
- 8:36Speaker 2: It's so funny you say that, because one, it makes
- 8:39Speaker 2: me feel better hearing that you felt the same way,
- 8:42Speaker 2: because I always want to be self aware and try
- 8:44Speaker 2: and like live outside my ego. But there is a
- 8:46Speaker 2: little ego in that right, like you have to have
- 8:48Speaker 2: a little bit. And then secondly, I interviewed Kevin Hart
- 8:52Speaker 2: once and I asked him did you know this was
- 8:55Speaker 2: going to happen? Like, did you know that you were
- 8:57Speaker 2: going to do this? And he said no, I had
- 9:00Speaker 2: no idea. I was a shoe salesman in Philadelphia. I
- 9:02Speaker 2: had no idea. And I did not believe him. I
- 9:06Speaker 2: thought it was a nice, humble answer. I did not
- 9:09Speaker 2: believe him, because anybody who goes after something passionate and
- 9:14Speaker 2: difficult has to have some sort of a belief.
- 9:18Speaker 3: Especially if you're Kevin Hart, who for so long got
- 9:21Speaker 3: laughed out of rooms. People didn't think he was good enough,
- 9:24Speaker 3: funny enough. They made fun of him for being short,
- 9:26Speaker 3: like he had so many things working against him that
- 9:30Speaker 3: maybe he didn't think he'd ever become an industry but
- 9:34Speaker 3: he had to have a certain level of just like
- 9:37Speaker 3: I'm good at this. I know I make people feel good,
- 9:40Speaker 3: and I know what I can do. But yeah, you're right,
- 9:42Speaker 3: it is. It's one of the funny things about this business.
- 9:46Speaker 3: And as a result, people can come off as sort
- 9:48Speaker 3: of obnoxious and make mistakes and it doesn't mean they're
- 9:51Speaker 3: bad people or arrogant in general, but that they think
- 9:55Speaker 3: I'm cable.
- 9:56Speaker 1: I mean I used to watch MTV.
- 9:58Speaker 3: I remember this is one of my favorites is I
- 10:00Speaker 3: used to watch MTV and there was a guy on
- 10:03Speaker 3: TV and I would just think, like man to Actually
- 10:06Speaker 3: two people I would see and be like, why did
- 10:07Speaker 3: they even have this job?
- 10:09Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 10:10Speaker 3: Those two people are Carson Dally, who I don't know
- 10:15Speaker 3: in real life, but we have like a very friendly
- 10:18Speaker 3: mutual admiration Instagram relationship which started with him which was
- 10:22Speaker 3: completely random, Like I didn't know that he'd been following me.
- 10:25Speaker 1: I didn't know he was so checked into hip hop stuff.
- 10:28Speaker 3: But Carson Dally is just that diverse, which is what
- 10:31Speaker 3: makes him awesome and capable of doing the things that
- 10:33Speaker 3: he does right. The other person I used to hate
- 10:36Speaker 3: on was Cipha Sounds, who's now been my co host
- 10:39Speaker 3: for the over a decade, and I would be like,
- 10:41Speaker 3: why this.
- 10:41Speaker 1: Guy not me?
- 10:43Speaker 3: And it, Yeah, it can have its negative attributes, because
- 10:46Speaker 3: you can also get caught up thinking no one else
- 10:48Speaker 3: deserves it more than you do. But I really do
- 10:51Speaker 3: think for anyone who's listening who has an interest in broadcasting,
- 10:56Speaker 3: if you don't have a belief that you're capable of
- 10:59Speaker 3: doing what kind of the people you see are doing.
- 11:02Speaker 3: If you don't have that belief, you probably don't belong
- 11:05Speaker 3: and you have a really tough time.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Now.
- 11:08Speaker 3: A healthy dose of reality of like I need work
- 11:11Speaker 3: that also helps because there are people who just show up,
- 11:13Speaker 3: Like especially with the Internet. I mean, if you get
- 11:17Speaker 3: one hundred thousand views on a video, what you're good?
- 11:21Speaker 1: Hand me the mic?
- 11:23Speaker 3: And I have seen people get handed the mic and
- 11:26Speaker 3: you're like, well, you were not ready to be handed
- 11:29Speaker 3: the mic. So you have to do the work and
- 11:30Speaker 3: you have to prepare yourself. But a healthy dose of belief,
- 11:33Speaker 3: I think is super important. You've done a ton of
- 11:36Speaker 3: interviews at this point, hundreds, maybe thousands. What's the most
- 11:41Speaker 3: effort you've had to put in to securing an interview?
- 11:45Speaker 3: And what did you do?
- 11:47Speaker 2: Ooh, the most effort to secure an interview? I do
- 11:50Speaker 2: a lot of crazy things to get things done, like
- 11:53Speaker 2: not just cookies. I really believe in the cold message,
- 11:56Speaker 2: cold email. I'm trying to think about even.
- 11:59Speaker 1: If it's just the amount of effort or times that you.
- 12:01Speaker 2: Tried, you know what I did. I used to This
- 12:04Speaker 2: is so embarrassing. I just remembered this. When I moved
- 12:07Speaker 2: to LA, I made business cards with my headshot.
- 12:10Speaker 4: On them and like a real estate agent business card,
- 12:14Speaker 4: literally and they had different photos on each side. Like
- 12:17Speaker 4: it was really indulgent, but I wanted people to remember
- 12:20Speaker 4: me and every red card, but I was on. After
- 12:22Speaker 4: I spoke to the celebrity, the actor, the musician, I'd
- 12:25Speaker 4: hand them my business card.
- 12:27Speaker 1: I didn't know, how did that play out for you?
- 12:30Speaker 2: Well? Interesting because I don't really know. I don't think
- 12:33Speaker 2: I understood how things worked. I handed them the business card,
- 12:36Speaker 2: thinking like maybe if I asked them really good questions
- 12:39Speaker 2: and they feel connected, that they'll reach out to me
- 12:42Speaker 2: and then I can do a sit down interview. Because
- 12:44Speaker 2: when I moved to LA, all I wanted to do
- 12:46Speaker 2: was interview people, and I thought the road to that
- 12:49Speaker 2: were red carpets and building an online presence and right
- 12:54Speaker 2: and business cards.
- 12:55Speaker 1: I end up instead with you just getting random, inappropriate
- 12:59Speaker 1: mess from people that you didn't want to get messages
- 13:02Speaker 1: from or maybe you did want to get a message
- 13:04Speaker 1: from them professionally, and instead it was like ten thirty,
- 13:08Speaker 1: wya can.
- 13:11Speaker 2: You meet at my hotel lobby? There were a few
- 13:13Speaker 2: of those, but also a good learning experience. You know,
- 13:16Speaker 2: you got to figure out how to navigate that. But honestly,
- 13:19Speaker 2: some people were really really kind, like some of the
- 13:22Speaker 2: video at the cameramen and I say men because they
- 13:26Speaker 2: were men, but it should be camera people and editors.
- 13:29Speaker 2: I would trade them like lunch and promise them some laughs,
- 13:32Speaker 2: and they would shoot sit down interviews with me with
- 13:35Speaker 2: these actors that I don't know why they agreed, they
- 13:38Speaker 2: were so kind and they came for an hour and
- 13:40Speaker 2: I would do sit down interviews with them and put
- 13:43Speaker 2: them on YouTube. Like people were really generous with me.
- 13:47Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest lessons is like ask
- 13:49Speaker 2: and you shall receive, because if you don't ask, nothing
- 13:52Speaker 2: ever happens.
- 13:52Speaker 3: As time went on, did you continue to fall more
- 13:55Speaker 3: in love with interviewing did you like it less Did
- 13:58Speaker 3: you think I like inter viewing the actors, but I'd
- 14:01Speaker 3: like to talk to other people as well. How did
- 14:04Speaker 3: you find the experience of sort of the la Entertainment
- 14:07Speaker 3: interview World.
- 14:09Speaker 2: At first, it was really exciting because I was so
- 14:12Speaker 2: happy to be there and I really wanted to get better.
- 14:15Speaker 2: I want Somebody told me, like, you just want to
- 14:17Speaker 2: get paid to get your reps in at the beginning,
- 14:20Speaker 2: and I wasn't even really getting paid, but I was
- 14:22Speaker 2: just happy to get the reps in. And then when
- 14:25Speaker 2: I started working at Entertainment Tonight Online, I started having
- 14:30Speaker 2: a crisis of conscience because I realized that the type
- 14:35Speaker 2: of reporter, the type of interviewer I wanted to be,
- 14:39Speaker 2: was somebody who always came from a place of kindness.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I always ask questions to this day with kindness at
- 14:47Speaker 2: the forefront, and you can't always do that at some
- 14:51Speaker 2: of these entertainment outlets. And it's no knock on them,
- 14:54Speaker 2: it's just it's not how the machine works. And so
- 14:58Speaker 2: it kind of evolved, and eventually I did a morning
- 15:01Speaker 2: show in Chicago, which was a gift because I got
- 15:04Speaker 2: to do hard news. I got to do I got
- 15:07Speaker 2: to be live for two hours every day. They let
- 15:09Speaker 2: me produce and write so many packages. I did stuff
- 15:12Speaker 2: on gun violence and voting, and I realized that I
- 15:17Speaker 2: wanted to mix pop culture and politics which I think
- 15:20Speaker 2: that's probably why we bonded initially, is you have that
- 15:23Speaker 2: same love. It's like they go so hand in hand
- 15:26Speaker 2: even though they seem like opposites.
- 15:28Speaker 3: And also I would correct, I would personally correct whoever
- 15:32Speaker 3: gave you the advice of getting getting paid for reps.
- 15:35Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. It's just get reps.
- 15:37Speaker 3: You know. That's that's actually something And it may be
- 15:40Speaker 3: an old school philosophy, but it's probably not one.
- 15:42Speaker 1: I'm going to give up me too.
- 15:44Speaker 3: Young person who wants to get reps and you give
- 15:47Speaker 3: them an opportunity and then they're like, yo, so what's
- 15:49Speaker 3: up with the money. I'm like, all right, get out, no.
- 15:51Speaker 2: Reps, get out same like I mean, I.
- 15:54Speaker 3: Literally say get out. But I'll be like, well, this
- 15:55Speaker 3: is how this is going to work. You're either just
- 15:57Speaker 3: gonna do it or you're not. But the idea of
- 16:00Speaker 3: like you show up and you think you get paid
- 16:02Speaker 3: to entertain who wants to see you entertain?
- 16:05Speaker 1: Who wants to hear you say anything?
- 16:07Speaker 2: Truly? And also not only not get paid. I've paid
- 16:10Speaker 2: to work so many times, particularly when I was young,
- 16:13Speaker 2: because I felt like it was an investment in myself,
- 16:15Speaker 2: Like I paid for hair and makeup. I paid to
- 16:19Speaker 2: get there with either bus money or gas money or
- 16:22Speaker 2: parking Like I've spent a lot of money trying to work.
- 16:27Speaker 3: I am just now. I'm forty one, and I am
- 16:31Speaker 3: just now, like, oh not fine. Maybe I'm exaggerating a
- 16:34Speaker 3: little bit, but it didn't. It took until my mid
- 16:37Speaker 3: thirties for me to get like comfortable with having a
- 16:41Speaker 3: car service set for you and like that stuff gets
- 16:43Speaker 3: taken care of if you're hired. Everything for me for
- 16:47Speaker 3: the first ten to fifteen years of my career was
- 16:51Speaker 3: jumping in my very average, low end car and driving
- 16:55Speaker 3: to where I was going and being the most overly prepared.
- 17:00Speaker 3: The amount of redundancy in my audio equipment, Like I
- 17:04Speaker 3: have a mini displayer with a microphone, but I also
- 17:06Speaker 3: have a tape recorder. I also have extra batteries. I
- 17:07Speaker 3: also have an extra plug. I also have a camera,
- 17:09Speaker 3: so if the audio doesn't work, I can just get
- 17:11Speaker 3: video use that audio if I like and listen. This
- 17:15Speaker 3: isn't some sort of I used to walk uphill both
- 17:18Speaker 3: ways when I went to school in the in a
- 17:21Speaker 3: two feet of snow. But we will see and and
- 17:25Speaker 3: and by the way, we've seen this play out already,
- 17:27Speaker 3: Like I believe that it's already been proven out to
- 17:30Speaker 3: be true when we saw the emergence of I'm not
- 17:34Speaker 3: even being that guy. But seriously, I can't remember what
- 17:37Speaker 3: it's called anymore. What was the name of the social
- 17:41Speaker 3: media app with the really short.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Clips, TikTok?
- 17:45Speaker 1: But the first one that was super short five second come?
- 17:48Speaker 2: Oh, oh my god, uh.
- 17:50Speaker 3: Vine Vine, which took us thirty seconds to remember the
- 17:54Speaker 3: name of the medium.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Okay, that time happened.
- 17:59Speaker 3: And there are peace people who turns it into real money,
- 18:01Speaker 3: and there are people who turns it into especially further
- 18:04Speaker 3: social media money. But if you were to play a
- 18:07Speaker 3: game called let's name all the Vine stars who turned
- 18:13Speaker 3: into mainstream media stars, you wouldn't do very well. You
- 18:19Speaker 3: might think of some people who did well on other
- 18:21Speaker 3: social media outlets, and props and kudos to them for
- 18:24Speaker 3: figuring it out.
- 18:25Speaker 1: But I say that to say.
- 18:27Speaker 3: Everyone thinks, when they have that moment, that this is
- 18:29Speaker 3: it and now everything's just going to open up for you.
- 18:33Speaker 3: You're all good now. And the traditional ideas of work
- 18:37Speaker 3: ethic and just sticking around a place and blinding it
- 18:40Speaker 3: out and being a good person who people want to
- 18:43Speaker 3: be around. I just don't think that part's ever going
- 18:46Speaker 3: to go away.
- 18:48Speaker 2: You know, when you said that you have all that equipment,
- 18:50Speaker 2: it reminded me. I did an event one time, I
- 18:53Speaker 2: think it was the MTV Movie Awards and the outlet
- 18:57Speaker 2: I was working for screwed up the scheduling and the
- 19:00Speaker 2: cameraman never showed, and I was like, I'll shoot it.
- 19:03Speaker 2: I would have the camera and I knew how to shoot,
- 19:07Speaker 2: so I set it up, shot myself and ended up
- 19:10Speaker 2: editing the tape. And I remember thinking, like, you have
- 19:13Speaker 2: you can't just like go be a host. You have
- 19:15Speaker 2: to know how to do everything. It's how it works,
- 19:17Speaker 2: It's how bad do you want it?
- 19:19Speaker 3: You're just there. That's the other thing that I think
- 19:21Speaker 3: really comes up a lot. What do you want to do? Uh?
- 19:24Speaker 1: You know, I do a little of this, I do
- 19:25Speaker 1: a little of that. I do a little I'm like,
- 19:26Speaker 1: what do you do? You know? Like? And I guess
- 19:30Speaker 1: I'll ask you that question, what do you do? Like?
- 19:33Speaker 3: What is what is Danielle Robe's thing that you would
- 19:37Speaker 3: say is really in you that you're meant to do?
- 19:40Speaker 2: I think that I'm able to ask people questions without
- 19:45Speaker 2: any judgment and create a really comfortable space for people
- 19:49Speaker 2: to open up and feel seen in a way that
- 19:54Speaker 2: other people probably can. But I think that's my thing.
- 19:57Speaker 1: Let's remove the in a way other people probably Well,
- 20:00Speaker 1: it's true.
- 20:01Speaker 2: It's not like I'm the only person who can make
- 20:02Speaker 2: people feel seen, you know, but I do think that.
- 20:06Speaker 3: That's I'm the one who allows people to be seen.
- 20:09Speaker 3: But that just speaks to humility in general that you
- 20:11Speaker 3: wouldn't even give yourself that. But so in other words,
- 20:15Speaker 3: though the looking back, if someone were to ask twenty
- 20:18Speaker 3: one year old to you, what do you do?
- 20:20Speaker 1: The answer is really I interview. Really, well, that's what
- 20:23Speaker 1: I do.
- 20:24Speaker 2: I mean I would stand on red carpets and I
- 20:26Speaker 2: would ask people about feminism, and like you know, I
- 20:30Speaker 2: would ask people things that you probably shouldn't ask on
- 20:33Speaker 2: red carpets, And now I get to do that in
- 20:36Speaker 2: an interview series. So I think it was kind of
- 20:39Speaker 2: all leading up to that.
- 20:40Speaker 3: And it's so perfect too, because you know, that's why
- 20:44Speaker 3: pretty Smart and what you're doing with it is such
- 20:46Speaker 3: a perfect fit because you have the opportunity to pick
- 20:49Speaker 3: people that make sense that you want to ask questions to,
- 20:52Speaker 3: who you already know can engage in these kinds of conversations.
- 20:56Speaker 3: So I guess we should get to the pretty smart
- 20:58Speaker 3: of it all.
- 21:00Speaker 2: What's your what's your pretty? What's your adjective? You're pretty?
- 21:03Speaker 2: What like? If we were to name your.
- 21:05Speaker 1: Episode smart, I wouldn't go past that.
- 21:08Speaker 2: You're pretty funny too, I'm pretty funny. Yeah.
- 21:11Speaker 3: No, I'll give myself more than that. I believe i'm funny.
- 21:15Speaker 3: I'm pretty smart.
- 21:16Speaker 2: No, pretty is not a diminutive.
- 21:19Speaker 3: I feel like, well, it depends how you're looking at it.
- 21:21Speaker 3: In your case, it's not it's pretty smart. It plays
- 21:23Speaker 3: on multiple things. In the case with me, one version
- 21:27Speaker 3: of pretty is out the window immediately, so pretty ends
- 21:31Speaker 3: up turning into kind of not true.
- 21:33Speaker 2: Not true at all. You know, when I named it,
- 21:35Speaker 2: part of it was that it was irreverend. I heard
- 21:37Speaker 2: Amy Schumer say that people would say, well, you know,
- 21:39Speaker 2: she's pretty funny for a woman, and I was like,
- 21:42Speaker 2: there's a spin on that. You know.
- 21:44Speaker 3: Was that the origins of you thinking of pretty smart?
- 21:48Speaker 3: Or did it start somewhere else?
- 21:50Speaker 2: It's actually started when I was doing the morning show
- 21:52Speaker 2: in Chicago. I read a book called Beauty Sick, and
- 21:55Speaker 2: doctor Renee Engellen wrote it it's a book that changed
- 21:58Speaker 2: my life. She's stills off with a stat by Esquire
- 22:02Speaker 2: and she says fifty four percent of women would rather
- 22:04Speaker 2: be hit by a car than considered fat. And when
- 22:06Speaker 2: I read that, my heart sunk, because when I was
- 22:10Speaker 2: in high school, I would ask, well, how fast is
- 22:12Speaker 2: the car going? And that's kind of hard for me
- 22:14Speaker 2: to say out loud because it feels.
- 22:16Speaker 1: A joke to some degree. I mean mostly, No, it.
- 22:19Speaker 2: Wasn't a joke. I don't think I had a healthy
- 22:21Speaker 2: relationship with food or body image. And I think to
- 22:25Speaker 2: be a woman in America, to be honest, is that, like,
- 22:30Speaker 2: find a woman who has a really healthy perception of
- 22:34Speaker 2: their own body, their own self, their own weight, doesn't
- 22:37Speaker 2: have a weird relationship with food in any way, and
- 22:40Speaker 2: like I will give you a million dollars that I
- 22:42Speaker 2: don't have.
- 22:44Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's when I go through the list of
- 22:47Speaker 3: people that I'm really close to in my life, it's
- 22:49Speaker 3: a very tough one.
- 22:51Speaker 2: And it's not excluding men either.
- 22:53Speaker 3: I think there's a high percentage of men too. Yeah,
- 22:56Speaker 3: very higher than you think. But you can think of some.
- 23:00Speaker 3: But it's tough, but it really is. It really is
- 23:03Speaker 3: true and Obviously that's not surprising when you look about this,
- 23:07Speaker 3: when you look at around and see the images that
- 23:09Speaker 3: are put out there for people.
- 23:10Speaker 2: I'm so glad you mentioned that because I kept thinking
- 23:12Speaker 2: as I was reading this book, it's a value issue.
- 23:15Speaker 2: It's that we place so much value on pretty for
- 23:18Speaker 2: women in America. And then I started asking people, who's
- 23:22Speaker 2: the prettiest woman you know? So for you, who pops.
- 23:24Speaker 1: Into your mind the prettiest person that I know?
- 23:26Speaker 2: Prettiest woman?
- 23:27Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean my girlfriend.
- 23:30Speaker 2: Oh, good answer.
- 23:32Speaker 3: Prior to giving the good answer of the person that
- 23:35Speaker 3: you're obviously with, I would say the most consistent person
- 23:39Speaker 3: I've said over my whole life.
- 23:40Speaker 1: Yeah, I probably would have said Halle Berry.
- 23:43Speaker 2: So also a good answer. But you're the first person
- 23:47Speaker 2: to actually name the first person I've spoken to to
- 23:50Speaker 2: name a celebrity, because everybody I spoke to would be
- 23:54Speaker 2: like my mom, my sister, my girlfriend. No one would
- 23:58Speaker 2: name like well known people. And I kept thinking about
- 24:02Speaker 2: how the prettiest women in my life were all of
- 24:05Speaker 2: these things. They weren't perfect. They had bumps and bruises,
- 24:08Speaker 2: and that's what made them so pretty. They were pretty
- 24:10Speaker 2: bold and pretty strong, pretty witty, pretty smart, and so
- 24:14Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to go create the show
- 24:16Speaker 2: I've always wanted to create and interview people who are
- 24:20Speaker 2: the kind of pretty that matters. So each episode is
- 24:23Speaker 2: going to feature somebody who is all of those things.
- 24:26Speaker 2: Pretty determined, pretty ambitious, pretty funny, And we're going to
- 24:30Speaker 2: take the word pretty and.
- 24:31Speaker 3: Spin it so pretty does not have the connotation that
- 24:36Speaker 3: for example, I just used it for, which is Halle Berry,
- 24:38Speaker 3: who's just objectively pretty.
- 24:40Speaker 2: She is, but you know she's actually she's pretty soulful too.
- 24:43Speaker 3: Well, no, no, how's Hallie's pretty complicated and right and
- 24:50Speaker 3: smart and interesting, and she's a lot.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Halle's a lot.
- 24:53Speaker 2: But knowing you, that's why you said her too, because
- 24:56Speaker 2: if she was just pretty and vapid, you wouldn't have
- 24:58Speaker 2: thought about her.
- 25:00Speaker 3: That's probably, But that's I have a weird thing for
- 25:03Speaker 3: being into people because of their whole story.
- 25:06Speaker 2: It's not weird. That's everybody.
- 25:09Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 25:10Speaker 3: I mean, I always think about this in terms of
- 25:11Speaker 3: athletes a lot. Like people root for athletes because they're good.
- 25:15Speaker 3: I root for athletes sometimes because they're good, but sometimes
- 25:19Speaker 3: because I want them to win.
- 25:20Speaker 2: I disagree with you. I think we buy into people's stories.
- 25:24Speaker 1: We do not everyone does.
- 25:27Speaker 2: Like name an athlete that you think that people do
- 25:29Speaker 2: that about.
- 25:30Speaker 3: I think, Jordan, I think people story. Yeah, they I
- 25:34Speaker 3: guess you're right. They add the story to make you
- 25:36Speaker 3: feel good. I'm not saying most people don't, but I'm
- 25:38Speaker 3: saying I also wouldn't write that office saying oh, everyone
- 25:41Speaker 3: does that.
- 25:41Speaker 1: Everyone cares about people's stories. Like No, A lot of
- 25:44Speaker 1: people who root for sports.
- 25:45Speaker 3: They root for you because you wear a laundry that's
- 25:47Speaker 3: the color they like, and if you're not doing good job,
- 25:49Speaker 3: they want you trade it immediately. And then there are
- 25:51Speaker 3: other people who are like, I know he's not doing
- 25:54Speaker 3: well right now, but like, I'm committed.
- 25:56Speaker 1: To this person and I want them to succeed.
- 25:58Speaker 3: But that group does exist, and it's one of the
- 26:01Speaker 3: reasons athletes can often get frustrated with fans. So I
- 26:06Speaker 3: say that to say there are a lot of people
- 26:08Speaker 3: who would identify with wanting to see the whole package.
- 26:11Speaker 2: Interesting.
- 26:12Speaker 1: Listen, I think you're right.
- 26:13Speaker 3: I think most I think good people like people because
- 26:15Speaker 3: of their stories. So when you say who's pretty to them,
- 26:19Speaker 3: they don't just think of the prettiest supermodel they've ever seen.
- 26:22Speaker 3: They think of someone who's close to them or someone
- 26:24Speaker 3: who has meaning. I think that's a really interesting point,
- 26:27Speaker 3: as opposed to as being like, well, Heidi Klumb, not
- 26:29Speaker 3: that Heidi Clumb's not super interesting, because she is actually,
- 26:32Speaker 3: but you get the point.
- 26:32Speaker 1: Or Cindy Crawford or Brad Pitt.
- 26:35Speaker 3: They're going to think of someone who probably has something else,
- 26:38Speaker 3: some other connection to them. But I think that's for
- 26:41Speaker 3: good people. I don't think everybody's good. I think everybody
- 26:45Speaker 3: has good I don't think everybody's good.
- 26:48Speaker 2: See, I think everybody's good, But I think whatever we
- 26:52Speaker 2: don't get to I want to ask you something else.
- 26:53Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about why you are obsessed with stories?
- 26:56Speaker 2: Because you and I are both really obsessed with stories.
- 26:59Speaker 3: No, I never thought about why I'm obsessed with stories.
- 27:02Speaker 3: I just relate to people for whatever reason. I see
- 27:07Speaker 3: something in them that I go I feel like people
- 27:10Speaker 3: are judging this person unfairly.
- 27:12Speaker 1: I'd like to see what else is there interesting?
- 27:15Speaker 2: I've never thought about it that way.
- 27:17Speaker 1: Well, everything that I'm into requires defending well.
- 27:21Speaker 2: I think one of the things that makes you such
- 27:23Speaker 2: an interesting interviewer and personality is that you're very comfortable
- 27:27Speaker 2: with confrontation. And I don't know if it's because you're
- 27:30Speaker 2: very practiced at it, but you have no qualms about
- 27:33Speaker 2: pushing up against an idea a person. It's something that
- 27:37Speaker 2: most people are not as comfortable with. You're okay being
- 27:39Speaker 2: a naysayer.
- 27:40Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate you saying that it's not true, because
- 27:45Speaker 3: I am uncomfortable.
- 27:46Speaker 1: I don't like things to go that way.
- 27:49Speaker 3: I would love for interviews to just always be like
- 27:51Speaker 3: an awesome, fun back and forth. But you know, sometimes
- 27:55Speaker 3: there's a moment when you just say no that you
- 27:58Speaker 3: cannot say that we're gonna have a an argument here.
- 28:01Speaker 3: No now. I don't always, though, and there are times
- 28:04Speaker 3: when if the art, if the person's big enough, and
- 28:06Speaker 3: you have relationships that were required to get the interview,
- 28:09Speaker 3: where you have to be like, oh man, how do
- 28:11Speaker 3: I navigate this disagreement kindly, in like really delicately so
- 28:16Speaker 3: they don't rush off? And I have all kinds of
- 28:19Speaker 3: other drama to deal with as a result of that.
- 28:21Speaker 3: I know the nice answer would be like, I'm Walter Cronkite,
- 28:25Speaker 3: and the second I hear wrong, I stop it in
- 28:27Speaker 3: its tracks because I am here to have America hear
- 28:30Speaker 3: the truth. But sometimes you go, oh, I got to
- 28:33Speaker 3: think about the manager. I gotta think about this, I
- 28:34Speaker 3: gotta think about and let me. Sometimes I think, hey,
- 28:39Speaker 3: can I help you give a better answer to that
- 28:41Speaker 3: question because what you just said sucks. Let's walk through
- 28:44Speaker 3: this together. And you know, sometimes that's what you try
- 28:47Speaker 3: to do. But I appreciate that you think I do
- 28:51Speaker 3: that because I don't think it's easy, and I think
- 28:53Speaker 3: if you do it too much, you're an asshole.
- 28:56Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to walk the line. It's the heart
- 29:00Speaker 2: and the hustle.
- 29:01Speaker 3: Yeah, because if you're a gotcha guy in interviews who's
- 29:04Speaker 3: waiting for the moment to be like what you say
- 29:07Speaker 3: gotcha like, there are a lot of people who do
- 29:09Speaker 3: that and are very successful. And I don't respect that either,
- 29:13Speaker 3: and I don't I don't appreciate that either. And that's
- 29:15Speaker 3: something I like about what you do and why I
- 29:17Speaker 3: think pretty smart will be cool. I can't imagine while
- 29:20Speaker 3: the goal is to have thoughtful dialogue, I can't imagine
- 29:23Speaker 3: the goal is to like catch people in something they
- 29:26Speaker 3: wish they didn't say.
- 29:27Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. The goal is twofold. It's so back
- 29:31Speaker 2: to stories like this is one of the goals I'm
- 29:34Speaker 2: obsessed with stories because I'm obsessed with why I feel. Like,
- 29:38Speaker 2: you know, I went through like a little bit of
- 29:39Speaker 2: a depression last year, and no person could make me
- 29:43Speaker 2: feel better. The only thing that made me feel better
- 29:46Speaker 2: was listening to people's stories and podcasts and reading of
- 29:49Speaker 2: people's stories and books. And I really believe like when
- 29:52Speaker 2: we listen to other people's stories, a kernel of truth
- 29:55Speaker 2: exists within ourselfs. And so my goal is a to
- 30:00Speaker 2: bring out incredible, moving, interesting, inspiring stories and also have
- 30:06Speaker 2: some thematic episodes like I'm doing in a few weeks.
- 30:09Speaker 2: I'm doing You'll like this a whole history of Women
- 30:12Speaker 2: in Hip Hop episode, and we're talking to female MC's
- 30:15Speaker 2: and talking about topics that impact culture and talk about
- 30:19Speaker 2: what works for us and what we can work to change.
- 30:21Speaker 3: That is awesome And I won't say lofty goal, but like,
- 30:26Speaker 3: that's a good, real expectation to have for yourself.
- 30:28Speaker 1: Are you nervous to launch the podcast?
- 30:30Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty nervous. I'm usually the one asking the questions,
- 30:34Speaker 2: and it's because I think I'm innately curious, but also
- 30:38Speaker 2: because I don't like answering them as much. So this
- 30:41Speaker 2: is really taking me out of my comfort zone. My
- 30:45Speaker 2: promise is that it will be incredibly candid and real,
- 30:48Speaker 2: So I cannot be an exception to that. I have
- 30:52Speaker 2: to show up as that every week.
- 30:53Speaker 3: So do you just mean that because it's not exclusively
- 30:57Speaker 3: you asking questions.
- 30:57Speaker 1: It's conversation.
- 30:59Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, opposed.
- 31:01Speaker 3: To like, hey, what are you doing with this? What
- 31:02Speaker 3: are your thoughts on blank? It's a here's a question,
- 31:05Speaker 3: now let's go back and forth.
- 31:06Speaker 2: Exactly.
- 31:07Speaker 1: It's a different sort of animal.
- 31:09Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to show up as yourself to make
- 31:11Speaker 2: other people comfortable to show up as theirselves. I think you.
- 31:14Speaker 3: Had some relationship with the late great Larry King. What
- 31:17Speaker 3: can you say about Larry King?
- 31:19Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the best. I Actually, before he passed away,
- 31:23Speaker 2: he signed the microphone that I'm using for my at
- 31:25Speaker 2: home setup. I bought like an old school mic that
- 31:29Speaker 2: he used to use, and I had him sign it.
- 31:30Speaker 2: So I hope that he would kind of put a
- 31:33Speaker 2: stamp of approval on this. But I used to have
- 31:35Speaker 2: breakfast at Larry and it was sort of an outer
- 31:38Speaker 2: body experience at first, because I studied him, like I
- 31:42Speaker 2: watched hours and hours of Barbara Walters and Larry King
- 31:47Speaker 2: and Bob Costas, and I just would think and look
- 31:50Speaker 2: at how they moved their hands and the way they
- 31:52Speaker 2: asked a question and rewind and think about why they
- 31:55Speaker 2: asked a question that way. And So to be with
- 31:58Speaker 2: him in conversation and hear him telling me stories about
- 32:00Speaker 2: interviews was wild because in my head I knew the
- 32:04Speaker 2: interview he was talking about. I was like, oh, you
- 32:05Speaker 2: were wearing a blue shirt that day, Like I knew
- 32:07Speaker 2: what he was talking about, and to hear it in
- 32:09Speaker 2: real time was cool.
- 32:10Speaker 1: How did this relationship come to be?
- 32:12Speaker 2: So he has breakfast at uh or. He used to
- 32:15Speaker 2: have breakfast at a bunch of different delis in Beverly Hills.
- 32:19Speaker 2: Every day. He had this group of friends from growing
- 32:23Speaker 2: up in Florida and some people from New York. And
- 32:26Speaker 2: every single day he would have breakfasts and he would
- 32:29Speaker 2: usually have cheerios and blueberries.
- 32:31Speaker 1: What I only knew that he went to Nate Nowles,
- 32:32Speaker 1: but he went to multiple places.
- 32:34Speaker 2: So like Tuesday would be Nate Nows and Thursday would
- 32:37Speaker 2: be Nate Nows, and then like Wednesday would be a
- 32:39Speaker 2: different spot. He had a whole schedule, okay, and he
- 32:42Speaker 2: had this group of people and friends. It was like
- 32:45Speaker 2: a bunch of old Jewish guys. Sometimes women would be there,
- 32:49Speaker 2: like a cousin or something, and I was like, oh
- 32:52Speaker 2: my god, this is like what I grew up around.
- 32:54Speaker 3: You know.
- 32:55Speaker 2: It was so fun and I didn't really have that
- 32:57Speaker 2: in La. I didn't know anybody. And I would go
- 32:59Speaker 2: and he would. He was obsessed with youth. He loved
- 33:02Speaker 2: having youthful energy, and so he would stare at you
- 33:04Speaker 2: and ask you a hundred questions, like some questions about
- 33:08Speaker 2: what you ate for breakfast, and then some questions deep enough,
- 33:11Speaker 2: like you know, what do you think of the world,
- 33:13Speaker 2: and how do we cure hunger? And he just he
- 33:16Speaker 2: was the single most curious person I'd ever met.
- 33:19Speaker 1: And he just like where you introduced to him? Like
- 33:22Speaker 1: how did he end up taking to you?
- 33:24Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 33:24Speaker 2: I was introduced to him by a friend and it
- 33:26Speaker 2: was actually for my birthday one year, and it was
- 33:30Speaker 2: such an amazing gift, and it was supposed to be
- 33:32Speaker 2: a one off breakfast and then there was no way
- 33:35Speaker 2: I was letting that be a one off. I was like,
- 33:37Speaker 2: I have to come back, so I would go more often.
- 33:41Speaker 3: Which, by the way, is such an interesting insight to
- 33:43Speaker 3: the valuable the value of get of knowing people and
- 33:46Speaker 3: having relationships, you know, and having connections to people, and
- 33:50Speaker 3: getting to meet people because you never know who that
- 33:52Speaker 3: person is close with and which is ultimately for better
- 33:56Speaker 3: or for worse, a part of our game as well.
- 33:59Speaker 3: I mean, I've never got in anything from sent to
- 34:02Speaker 3: the point you made earlier. I've never gotten a job
- 34:05Speaker 3: from sending.
- 34:05Speaker 2: In a tape ever, me neither never.
- 34:08Speaker 3: Never even really had a meaningful dialogue as a result
- 34:12Speaker 3: of just sending off a resume in an air check.
- 34:14Speaker 2: You know what's funny though, When I worked at ET Online,
- 34:16Speaker 2: I would go in after hours when no one was there,
- 34:19Speaker 2: and they had this incredible backlog of interviews, like they
- 34:23Speaker 2: had just hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours twenty
- 34:27Speaker 2: thirty years of interviews archived, and I would go and
- 34:30Speaker 2: just watch them. And there was this one interview with
- 34:32Speaker 2: j Loo that I always remember. She said that when
- 34:35Speaker 2: she booked her first role for Selena, that was like
- 34:37Speaker 2: her first big movie role. She did like twelve auditions
- 34:41Speaker 2: and her manager called her and was like, Wow, you
- 34:44Speaker 2: finally got it. But you always take the long road,
- 34:47Speaker 2: like it never just comes easy to you, nothing ever
- 34:49Speaker 2: just falls in your lap and we look at Jaylo,
- 34:51Speaker 2: we think everything fell in her lap, right like it
- 34:53Speaker 2: just seems like it all appeared. And I so identified
- 34:56Speaker 2: with that. I never have just like gotten a job,
- 35:00Speaker 2: no one ever, just like you know, and it, Yeah,
- 35:03Speaker 2: you have to work so hard for it. It's so funny,
- 35:04Speaker 2: but it makes it worthwhile.
- 35:06Speaker 3: It's so funny. I never really thought about that. But
- 35:09Speaker 3: you know, all of my jobs were years in the making. Yes,
- 35:13Speaker 3: ESPN would probably be the one that came easiest, but
- 35:16Speaker 3: even that, I'd obviously already been working for a very
- 35:19Speaker 3: long time. And once my agents made the introduction, we
- 35:22Speaker 3: played a game of them bringing me in to do
- 35:24Speaker 3: random things.
- 35:26Speaker 1: That lasted almost six months. Six months, come in and.
- 35:31Speaker 3: Do this weekend, jump on this show, come with this
- 35:34Speaker 3: person and listen. After a couple months, I got to
- 35:37Speaker 3: the point of being like, Okay, they're going to use
- 35:38Speaker 3: me for something here. They're not going to just keep
- 35:40Speaker 3: having me back for no reason. But it took time,
- 35:43Speaker 3: and like I said, that was the easiest one. But
- 35:45Speaker 3: to your point, it takes a long time and some
- 35:48Speaker 3: people and the hard part about it taking a long
- 35:50Speaker 3: time is for some people it happens overnight and it
- 35:54Speaker 3: can be frustrating. You know, we're all human beings, especially
- 35:58Speaker 3: with social media. When you go on social media and
- 36:01Speaker 3: you're comparing your insides to other people's outsides, it's a
- 36:05Speaker 3: very complicated place to be. So people are putting up
- 36:08Speaker 3: the image of like, look how easy my life is.
- 36:11Speaker 3: Everything I auditioned for I get, and you're scrolling like
- 36:14Speaker 3: I'm in my underwear. I hate myself. No one writes
- 36:17Speaker 3: me back, my mom doesn't even call me. And it
- 36:19Speaker 3: can be a really challenging dynamic, you know, to get through,
- 36:23Speaker 3: but that's not real.
- 36:25Speaker 1: You're not seeing what people are really going through.
- 36:27Speaker 2: So knowing me, because you knew I had kind of
- 36:30Speaker 2: a tough year and a half previous to this, I
- 36:33Speaker 2: wasn't my happiest. When you looked at my social media,
- 36:37Speaker 2: you probably were like, this bitch.
- 36:39Speaker 1: Is a liar, liar, But I did the same thing.
- 36:44Speaker 3: My ex wife and I broke up. I went off
- 36:46Speaker 3: social for six months, came back on social, was still
- 36:49Speaker 3: in horrible shape, and I just made a social media
- 36:53Speaker 3: that covered up all the misery and deep pain I
- 36:56Speaker 3: was going through. And it's like, here's me doing an interview,
- 36:59Speaker 3: here's me doing that, And the truth is I did
- 37:02Speaker 3: it to protect myself, but I also hate it because
- 37:06Speaker 3: it's so dishonest.
- 37:08Speaker 2: Disconnected system. I agree with you, but I also don't
- 37:11Speaker 2: think that the place to process pain is social media.
- 37:14Speaker 2: If that's not for you, that's not where I'm comfortable
- 37:16Speaker 2: processing it. So I didn't want to show up on
- 37:19Speaker 2: stories crying. I'd rather show up in a moment where
- 37:22Speaker 2: I wasn't.
- 37:23Speaker 3: Not only do I agree with you, but I find
- 37:25Speaker 3: wanting to share it interesting.
- 37:27Speaker 1: It's not for me. I don't understand it.
- 37:29Speaker 3: I get it when people do it and it's like
- 37:31Speaker 3: something silly or you know, not that deep. But if
- 37:35Speaker 3: you're going through deep, deep pain, the idea of being
- 37:38Speaker 3: like I want to share this with everyone naturally, without
- 37:41Speaker 3: having to push yourself to be like this would be good.
- 37:43Speaker 1: I want to help other people.
- 37:45Speaker 3: Yeah, you know when I use the D word on
- 37:47Speaker 3: the radio when I first started, when I eventually started
- 37:50Speaker 3: saying divorce, it was just because I wanted to, Okay,
- 37:53Speaker 3: I have to accept this and live authentically again. Right
- 37:56Speaker 3: in the immediacy of it. I had no obligation to people.
- 38:00Speaker 3: I don't know your obligations to take care of yourself.
- 38:03Speaker 3: And then once you're at a point of being Okay,
- 38:05Speaker 3: all right, well, now I want to be authentically me
- 38:07Speaker 3: and let people see what's going on here.
- 38:09Speaker 1: But even in that, I'm not going to be like
- 38:11Speaker 1: throwback Thursday.
- 38:12Speaker 3: Here's a picture of me weeping faced out on my
- 38:15Speaker 3: kitchen floor, like I'm gonna do.
- 38:19Speaker 1: All right.
- 38:21Speaker 3: Here, I want to ask. I know reading is super
- 38:23Speaker 3: important to you. Yeah, I love posting about the books
- 38:27Speaker 3: that are on your nightstand.
- 38:28Speaker 2: You say that with a little bit of judgment, but
- 38:30Speaker 2: we'll let that slide.
- 38:31Speaker 1: Not a little bit strong judgment.
- 38:34Speaker 3: I'm I'm hating because it takes me two years to
- 38:38Speaker 3: finish a book, but I don't.
- 38:40Speaker 2: Always finish them. But whatever, keep going.
- 38:42Speaker 3: What's a book that really affected you, really maybe affected
- 38:45Speaker 3: your perspective on life, something that you think like everyone
- 38:48Speaker 3: should should pick up.
- 38:49Speaker 2: Okay, my favorite book of all time is Tale of
- 38:51Speaker 2: Two Cities. I am a hopeless romantic and I love
- 38:54Speaker 2: that book. A book that shifted my perspective. I love
- 38:58Speaker 2: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I love Freakonomics before bed. I
- 39:02Speaker 2: oftentimes listen to What I Know for Sure by Oprah
- 39:06Speaker 2: on Audible. I love her voice and I love her wisdom.
- 39:09Speaker 2: I wish everyone could see your face right now. There's
- 39:11Speaker 2: so much judgment.
- 39:13Speaker 1: Your judgment, I mean slight judgment.
- 39:15Speaker 2: Blake Door g alert.
- 39:16Speaker 3: All right now, I'm going to steal from you and
- 39:19Speaker 3: do my favorite thing that you do in interviews, which
- 39:22Speaker 3: is yours Q, your pretty smart question, where you literally
- 39:26Speaker 3: have a deck of note cards and pick a question
- 39:29Speaker 3: at random and have to answer it.
- 39:30Speaker 1: Now.
- 39:31Speaker 3: I'm in New York, you're in Los Angeles. I don't
- 39:33Speaker 3: have the deck of cards, but you have the questions
- 39:35Speaker 3: randomly in front of you. So I want you to
- 39:37Speaker 3: pick a random question like you would with one of
- 39:39Speaker 3: your guests, and let's ask Danielle the question. Okay, thank you,
- 39:45Speaker 3: just like randomly, Yeah, randomly scroll and grab and grab one.
- 39:48Speaker 2: Okay. Do plants thrive or die in your care? Unfortunately?
- 39:55Speaker 2: They die? They died. I die. I actually killed succulents.
- 39:58Speaker 2: I think I could kill it cactus. It's so embarrassing.
- 40:02Speaker 1: Did do you feel a judgment by this?
- 40:05Speaker 2: Like?
- 40:05Speaker 1: Is there a little bit of self judgment?
- 40:07Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 40:07Speaker 2: There is. I have sort of a judgment of myself
- 40:11Speaker 2: in general of maybe not being a great homemaker per se.
- 40:17Speaker 2: I just don't enjoy, like I don't love decorating a space.
- 40:21Speaker 2: I don't love taking care of plants, and so I'm not.
- 40:25Speaker 2: So you know, you're not really good at things you
- 40:27Speaker 2: don't like doing.
- 40:28Speaker 1: Also, don't have any pets.
- 40:30Speaker 2: On purpose, like I can't handle that, which I mean
- 40:34Speaker 2: you have Bear.
- 40:34Speaker 3: I like Bear, but was feed into some sort of
- 40:36Speaker 3: deep fear you won't be able to take care of
- 40:39Speaker 3: another human band.
- 40:41Speaker 2: Yeah, actually my chest like sort of I felt something
- 40:45Speaker 2: when you said that.
- 40:46Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I can understand how this line of
- 40:50Speaker 3: thought could make you.
- 40:50Speaker 1: Feel that way.
- 40:51Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I really. It's funny because a guest
- 40:54Speaker 2: that I interview that's coming up said this, but I've
- 40:57Speaker 2: always wanted a really big career and a big life
- 41:00Speaker 2: and a big, loving family, and one of my greatest
- 41:03Speaker 2: fears is that you cannot have that all. I think
- 41:07Speaker 2: Ruth Bader Ginsburg said you can have it all, but
- 41:08Speaker 2: not all at once. My fear in the future is
- 41:10Speaker 2: trying to figure that out.
- 41:11Speaker 1: I guess that's really interesting. I never thought about.
- 41:15Speaker 2: That, and that's because you're a dude.
- 41:17Speaker 3: You know. I've really wanted to have a family for
- 41:19Speaker 3: a while, and obviously that plan changed, and I often think,
- 41:25Speaker 3: am I ever going to have one because I want
- 41:27Speaker 3: one badly, And then I'm like, I've lived this life
- 41:30Speaker 3: that's so unique relative to everyone else I know in
- 41:34Speaker 3: my friends and family, but they all have this wonderful family.
- 41:38Speaker 1: Will I ever get to have that? Also?
- 41:40Speaker 2: Can I ask you one question about that? What's your
- 41:42Speaker 2: relationship with faith? And I don't mean religiously, I mean
- 41:46Speaker 2: like faith that things will work out.
- 41:49Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty good, it's solid. Everything I've ever accomplished
- 41:53Speaker 3: was based on that. You know, it is based on no,
- 41:55Speaker 3: I'm going to do that. And you know, my friend Chauncey,
- 41:58Speaker 3: who's one of my smartest and most thoughtful, introspective friends.
- 42:02Speaker 3: He's literally a philosophy professor at Dickinson University. Yeah, Nazi
- 42:06Speaker 3: always describes that his people would ask him about what
- 42:09Speaker 3: I was doing and he'd say, oh, Peter's going to
- 42:12Speaker 3: be on Hot ninety seven, and they'd be like what, yeah, okay,
- 42:16Speaker 3: and He's like, no, he is. And that was sort
- 42:19Speaker 3: of I had that faith. I had some people around
- 42:21Speaker 3: me who, because of my faith, had that faith, and
- 42:23Speaker 3: maybe just because of who they were. The divorce sort
- 42:26Speaker 3: of shook a little bit about faith, just in the
- 42:29Speaker 3: sense of, like, if I do this that and the
- 42:31Speaker 3: next things will return to normal. However, I still have
- 42:35Speaker 3: faith that things will end up right. It's just sometimes
- 42:39Speaker 3: the thing that you think is supposed to happen, isn't it.
- 42:42Speaker 3: You know, my relationship with faith is still pretty good.
- 42:45Speaker 3: Plus the George Michael song Faith.
- 42:47Speaker 2: Amazing Future Man, that's another one that everyone has to
- 42:50Speaker 2: listen to.
- 42:51Speaker 3: All right, So, last question I have for you, smartest
- 42:54Speaker 3: decision you've ever made?
- 42:56Speaker 2: The first thing that comes up for me is that
- 42:58Speaker 2: I always take the road lest ti traveled. My mom
- 43:01Speaker 2: always says like, I don't know why you always have to.
- 43:04Speaker 2: You make things so hard for yourself. Maybe that's true.
- 43:07Speaker 2: I just don't know any other way. I've moved like
- 43:10Speaker 2: eight times. I constantly leap without a net. I've quit
- 43:14Speaker 2: jobs without other jobs like I just I think I
- 43:18Speaker 2: always do the thing that scares me.
- 43:20Speaker 1: So your smartest decision is making bold decisions.
- 43:24Speaker 2: Sounds really dumb when you put it that way, but.
- 43:26Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess, Oh it doesn't sound dumb.
- 43:28Speaker 2: Thanks for making me sound pretty stupid.
- 43:31Speaker 1: I mean, can't that be part of pretty smart?
- 43:34Speaker 2: Yeah? It is. I mean we can't. We can't all
- 43:37Speaker 2: be smart all the time.
- 43:38Speaker 3: Pretty small, pretty smart and you one can be pretty
- 43:41Speaker 3: smart and pretty dumb. But no, I didn't. I didn't
- 43:43Speaker 3: think about it that way at all. I just thought
- 43:45Speaker 3: it was interesting, that's all.
- 43:46Speaker 1: I think.
- 43:46Speaker 2: Smartest decision was moving to LA. If we're gonna yeah,
- 43:49Speaker 2: I think moving.
- 43:49Speaker 1: To LA is that just because you love sugarfish?
- 43:51Speaker 2: How do you know I love sugar Oh? Because I
- 43:53Speaker 2: eat it?
- 43:54Speaker 3: No?
- 43:55Speaker 1: I mean just you live in LA.
- 43:57Speaker 2: Yeah, I do love sugar fish. That's so.
- 44:00Speaker 3: No.
- 44:00Speaker 2: I think my whole life opened up here when I moved.
- 44:03Speaker 2: I did not have one I did not know one
- 44:05Speaker 2: single person here, like, not one, not a family member,
- 44:08Speaker 2: not a friend, And it was really cool. I got
- 44:11Speaker 2: to create my own life.
- 44:15Speaker 1: You're very very smart. You're more than pretty smart.
- 44:17Speaker 2: You're very smart, pretty dorky, and pretty dumb, according to
- 44:20Speaker 2: you after this interview.
- 44:22Speaker 3: Narky I would have said before and pretty judgmental about
- 44:25Speaker 3: my love of wrestling, but also pretty driven and generally interested, aware, smart, etc.
- 44:34Speaker 1: I'm excited for your podcast venture. May it reach many people,
- 44:38Speaker 1: and may you make more money doing it than I
- 44:41Speaker 1: ever have doing podcasts.
- 44:42Speaker 2: Thank you, Rabbi Rosenberg.
- 44:44Speaker 1: I've never gotten that, and I prefer not to again.
- 44:50Speaker 2: Okay, So we have a few questions left from Instagram
- 44:53Speaker 2: that I want to get to and someone asked the
- 44:55Speaker 2: major key for you to be successful? For me, it's
- 44:59Speaker 2: moving my body. I got a sweat every single day.
- 45:01Speaker 2: The best career advice you've received, I think, don't do it.
- 45:06Speaker 2: I would call people for advice and I get a
- 45:09Speaker 2: lot of people saying, you know, this is a really
- 45:12Speaker 2: hard path, or there is no path. If you're interested
- 45:15Speaker 2: in anything else, to do that. And I think that
- 45:18Speaker 2: was the best advice because if you are interested in
- 45:20Speaker 2: anything else, if you're going to give up, you're gonna
- 45:23Speaker 2: give up at that point. So when they said don't
- 45:25Speaker 2: do it, I did it anyway, and I think that
- 45:27Speaker 2: was the most helpful, honestly. The other piece of advice
- 45:30Speaker 2: that I really loved is from a man named Steve,
- 45:34Speaker 2: who has been a person who has guided my life
- 45:37Speaker 2: more than anybody else. And he said to me, you
- 45:40Speaker 2: just have to make good decisions every single day, because
- 45:43Speaker 2: I used to say I don't know what the five
- 45:44Speaker 2: year plan looks like, I don't know what I want
- 45:46Speaker 2: in ten years, and he would say, just make good
- 45:49Speaker 2: decisions every single day and hopefully they amount to something.
- 45:54Speaker 2: The biggest lesson I've learned so far. I think patience,
- 45:59Speaker 2: I used to try and four things, and I'm trying
- 46:01Speaker 2: to learn to have some more faith. You know, Peter
- 46:03Speaker 2: talked about faith. I think he's better at it than
- 46:05Speaker 2: I am. Trying to have more of it and trying
- 46:08Speaker 2: to let things flow, not force it as much. Three
- 46:11Speaker 2: things about you that I couldn't find on the internet. Hmm,
- 46:16Speaker 2: that's funny. I don't know if you could tell from
- 46:18Speaker 2: my Instagram, but I'm a die hard Bulls fan. Second thing,
- 46:21Speaker 2: I'll had a lot of weird jobs. I used to
- 46:24Speaker 2: clean spin bikes and people's sweaty spin shoes at six
- 46:27Speaker 2: am in college before class. That was probably the grossest
- 46:30Speaker 2: job I've ever had. And I never say never. My
- 46:35Speaker 2: mom says it's bad luck. She says, if you say never,
- 46:37Speaker 2: then it happens. She can never say never. And I
- 46:40Speaker 2: used to kind of be a professional intern. I would
- 46:42Speaker 2: work for free all the time. And I remember I
- 46:44Speaker 2: got a really coveted internship at the NBC station in Madison,
- 46:48Speaker 2: Wisconsin in college. I called my dad. I was so
- 46:50Speaker 2: excited and I said I got the NBC internship, and
- 46:55Speaker 2: He's like, Danielle, call me when someone's paying you and
- 46:58Speaker 2: he hung up. I'll never forget that. What does your
- 47:02Speaker 2: mom know about you that you'd be embarrassed if she
- 47:04Speaker 2: told other people? I shovel food in my mouth like
- 47:08Speaker 2: I think sometimes. I like, if I'm eating salad, I
- 47:10Speaker 2: bring the salad to my mouth instead of bringing the
- 47:13Speaker 2: fork to my mouth. What is the quality you most
- 47:16Speaker 2: respect in another woman? Hmm, I'm gonna say self efficacy.
- 47:21Speaker 2: I think you cannot defeat someone who truly knows who
- 47:24Speaker 2: they are. And I learned that from Oprah. You really
- 47:27Speaker 2: got to know who you are. And that's why questions
- 47:29Speaker 2: are so important. The more questions we ask ourselves, the
- 47:32Speaker 2: more we know ourselves. What is your life motto or mantra?
- 47:36Speaker 2: If you have one, you know, there's two that I
- 47:38Speaker 2: always quote. The first one is those who don't believe
- 47:41Speaker 2: in magic will never find it, and that's from a
- 47:43Speaker 2: Roll Doll book. And the second one is something that
- 47:48Speaker 2: I wholeheartedly believe and try to live, which is service
- 47:51Speaker 2: is the rent that you pay for room on this Earth?
- 47:54Speaker 2: By Shirley Chisholm. All Right, that's it. That's a wrap
- 48:00Speaker 2: on the first episode. Second episode is up now too,
- 48:04Speaker 2: so I hope you kind of bingam. I'm so excited
- 48:07Speaker 2: to do this with you, and I promise to try
- 48:10Speaker 2: and earn your attention every single week. There are so
- 48:14Speaker 2: many great things out there, There's so many creative, smart,
- 48:17Speaker 2: interesting documentaries and shows and podcasts, and I think in
- 48:22Speaker 2: this attention economy, you gotta earn it. So I promise
- 48:26Speaker 2: to try and earn it from you every single week.
- 48:28Speaker 2: I'm going to put a ton into this, really really
- 48:31Speaker 2: excited to do this with you. So thank you for
- 48:33Speaker 2: tuning in, and today is a good day. To have
- 48:37Speaker 2: a good day. I'll see you next week.