Latest / She Said It Out Loud with Emma Young / Fishing Influencer, Chief of Staff and Safari Enthusiast Kasey Janousek

Transcript

Fishing Influencer, Chief of Staff and Safari Enthusiast Kasey Janousek · She Said It Out Loud with Emma Young

0:00
SPEAKER_00: You're listening to She Said It Out Loud, where real women share real stories without sugarcoating a theme.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Emma Young, and I'll bring you on filtered conversations with ambitious women who faced challenges, made bold moves, and learned a lot along the way.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: You'll get real takeaways, honest lessons, and stories that you're gonna relate to.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Righto, let's get started.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Hey there and welcome to the podcast.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host Emma Young and this is She Said It Out Loud.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is sponsored by Matsos Brewery in Broom.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful that they have come on board to sponsor my podcast.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have friends and family visiting Broome, especially this dry season, you must take them to Matsos Brewery.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Your best bet is to go onto their socials page to see what their most current specials are and to also see what's happening on their Sunday night jam sessions.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Today's episode features Casey Janisek.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Casey is my American sister Molly.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: It's her sister-in-law.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Molly's husband, Wiley.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: His sister is Casey.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Now you're probably thinking, gosh, that's a mouthful.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: When I was recently in Los Angeles, I had to get Casey onto the podcast.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: She's going through a bit of a transition in her life right now, and it really did remind me of myself.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, she has some amazing stories from going currently as a chief of staff.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: She then has this side passion, which is fishing.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: And she is busying herself with trying to become a fishing influencer.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: That's right, you heard right.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So she is in a unique niche, so to speak.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, you know what?
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a conversation.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's chat about what you're up to.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
1:32
unknown: All right.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Casey, and welcome to the podcast.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Molly, who I would have interviewed, my American sister, her husband is called Wiley, and he has a sister.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And his sister happens to be Casey, who is sitting opposite me today.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm really excited to have Casey here on the podcast because she does some pretty incredible things.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And I think she really is a true inspiration for women out there that are wanting to just follow their dreams, follow their passions, and really commit to things that bring them joy.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Probably wondering, what even is that?
2:03
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna let Casey introduce herself.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So welcome to the podcast, Casey.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Emma.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: I feel so privileged to be here.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm so pumped.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Tell my listeners about yourself.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: So I am 33 years old.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm born and raised in Los Angeles.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: I work as a chief of staff at a tech company.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: I've worked there about 10 years.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: I had this trip last year to South Africa that kind of changed my life in a variety of different ways, which I think we're gonna talk about today.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: It has set me on a completely different life course that I'm still navigating, but feeling excited about and inspired about.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's awesome.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: And anybody that's listened to my interviews, they're like, I don't know how Emma finds these women, where they have like either a light bulb moment, a life-changing moment.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people already know my own story.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited for people to know about these.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive into that bit though, I want to know more about this chief of staff jobs.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: This sounds to me very stressful being chief of staff of a tech company.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does that involve?
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: Every day is different on the job.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: So I support one of our VPs.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: Technically, it's in the solutions engineering organization, which if you're familiar with tech, great, you get it.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: If not, I won't go into the details of it.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: But it is something where I get pushed to my limits of like creative problem solving every day.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: And so every day is a little bit different.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: I have different tasks that I take on regularly.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, some days it's working with our HR partner to figure out how we can help attrition risk.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: So making sure that people are happy at the company and they stay rather than leave to a competitor.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Other days it's uh packing up uh recognition awards, making sure that everyone feels satisfied in their job.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Other days it's making a presentation for our VP.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: And so it's something that I kind of just fell into.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: I was identified as an individual who was like, I have high growth potential.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: And so the company poured resources into me and I took advantage of that and kind of just kept taking on more until I realized, oh, I'm in this really lucrative role in the company where I'm not personally a people manager, but I'm a director.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: And so I get to be in the room when the decisions are made and I get to help kind of create the strategy behind the decisions that we make.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to be the face of the decision, which is kind of a space that I'm comfortable in.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, I know a lot of stuff that's going on and I get to help direct those decisions.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: So I I enjoy it.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Is it a highly competitive position to get?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Or is this something that you've got to work your way up in?
4:29
SPEAKER_01: Typically, you work your way up in it.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: So you're building trust with executives and with your managers to make sure that they see you as their right hand person.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: And I never really knew it was a job until I was doing it.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: It's not something that I set out to do.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: I I grew from a project manager into a program manager into a chief of staff.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: And again, I I kind of had people identify these qualities in me, saying, Oh, you're good at this, you should take on this task, or oh, you're good at this, you should lead this project.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: And eventually it turned into, oh, you're good at this, you should do this job.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: And so I've been doing it.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: I said I've been at my t at my company about nine years.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: Well um, I've been doing the chief of staff job specifically for about the past five years.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: That's really cool.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And I bet you, I mean, I guess your boss is obviously really impressed with your work ethic because it seems like, and lots of people would agree with me, I tend to naturally gravitate towards really ambitious women.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's not to say that women that aren't ambitious, I don't have anything to do with.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: It's just I really get energy from women that are just having their fingers in all sorts of pies doing all sorts of things.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And so leading on from that, I see that you do like influences where there's writing on Substack.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, Substack, I just went to a workshop in New York and I actually had to quickly chat GPT it when I was sitting in the crowd.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what is a Substack?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we've got it in Australia.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: I've never heard about it until I actually come on this trip.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: For listeners out there in Australia where you're like, yep, I've got no idea too, Emma.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Substack is it's like an online publishing platform that allows creators to send newsletters directly to, I guess, people that pay.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Some have a paywall, some don't.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: So your thing though is like making fishing and cooking videos, but especially from a fishing element.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how does a girl from LA all of a sudden turn into a fishing influencer?
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: And fishing, I mean like literally like the fish, catching fish.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is a big leap.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: I alluded to a trip to South Africa.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: I have been going regularly for the past almost two years now.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Every few months, I will book a trip from LA to South Africa.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: And I, after my first trip there, just really fell in love with safari.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: And being outside and being amongst wildlife and animals.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: And I was 32 at the time of my first trip.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: And I was just amazed by the fact that at 32 years old, this was something I was experiencing in my life for the very first time, which is hard to say as someone who grew up in LA and is kind of exposed to a lot all at once.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: Safari was this new untouched thing I had never experienced.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: And I first of all fell in love with it and then fell in love with like this version of myself that was in love with it.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: And after multiple trips to South Africa, I kind of started making friends.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: I got into this local community in this town called Hood Sprite that borders Kruger National Park.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: So you just started talking to people randomly?
7:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: It was staying at this lodge and making friends with them and then making friends with their friends and creating this network of people.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of them like to fish.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: They like to do this for fun.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: And I have this hilarious photo of myself at four years old fishing for the first time.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: And I say fishing with quotations because I think I saw the worm and started crying.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: I was very put off by it.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: But then in South Africa, started bass fishing specifically.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: And it has just been, again, this complete disconnect from like my chief of staff work and what I do professionally.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, yeah.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: To I am now on a lake in a boat or on the shore of a lake, casting a line, and my mind just goes blank and I can just experience true bliss.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: It is something, once again, at 33 years old, I had never experienced this before.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: I just fell in love with it.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: I fell in love with a feeling.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: I fell in love with the feeling of picking out a lure and rigging it up and casting and experimenting and not knowing is this cast going to bring in a fish or not?
8:11
SPEAKER_01: And then the feeling of hooking in a fish.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: And this is all catch and release.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: So I'm releasing the fish.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: But it has become just this joy completely out of left field for me that I have truly fallen in love with.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: I have thought to myself, you know, I'm solo traveling to South Africa.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm I've met friends where I can go fishing with them.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Why not share this with other people?
8:30
SPEAKER_01: So this is where me starting to post about it has really come into play, where I want to see if I can kind of create this niche of women who maybe have never fished before.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Because it is typically a male-dominated hobby.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: And being a woman who has been recently divorced, who's exploring these different sides of myself, being able to try something new, fall in love with it, and show people like there's more to life in our routines, I think can be eye-opening.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, definitely.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Just watching your face and listening to your voice.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, you are quite passionate on this.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's exciting that you've discovered a hobby that people might think, oh, it's just fishing.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Like actually, as you're talking, I'm like, okay, I can see how that would happen.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: The picking out of the lure and all that sort of stuff.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I think because I'm naturally impatient, and this is even before I started getting really bad at doom scrolling, and then my attention span has been affected by it.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: I just can't see how sitting in a boat or on a riverbank waiting for a fish, like, ugh, get on this line already.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: But for you, when you're talking about it, it seems like you go into this whole other space.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Where it's it's bringing you this release of clearly endorphins, and you're just like, this is the best thing ever.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: It is a flow seat.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Is the best way for me to describe it.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: It's like the world around me pauses because in my job, it is constant go, go, go.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: An email comes in, a Slack message, which is like our internal messaging platform comes in, and I'm in constant meetings and I can barely catch my breath.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: And then when I'm out fishing, there's nothing that I can focus on other than my direct surroundings.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: It's like mindfulness 101, where I am forced to lock in on what's around me.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at the water, I'm looking at my line.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: And I am naturally a very impatient person as well.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad you say that because that's me through and through.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: But there's this feeling that I've been able to lock into of just being blank in my brain.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: That is like something I've never felt truly.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: It felt like for 33 years of my life, I was just thinking.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: And then when I'm fishing, I don't, I'm still thinking, but I'm not thinking at the pace or the rate that is required of me just to like survive in my daily life.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go into details about your divorce, but you said that you're recently divorced.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I guess you're finding yourself now at a stage.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're still very young.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: How are you navigating this like new sense of life?
10:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:51
SPEAKER_01: I think it was the catalyst for my divorce, to be honest.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: I I had a very amicable divorce with my ex-husband.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: We had been together for 10 years, married for three years.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: I really only recently, towards the end of our marriage, started to realize, oh my gosh, I do not know who I am.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm I've had this loss of identity.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: This is really scary for me.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm in a place where I can have kids or continue on in this marriage without exploring these sides of me.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: It's something that after many loving conversations with my ex-husband, we realize, like, okay, we're kind of growing in these different directions.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: So with some trepidation, obviously it's a scary thing getting divorced.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: And then I won't go into all the emotional details of it, but having the ability to push outside of my comfort zone and to try new things and to figure out what do I like, what do I not like?
11:43
SPEAKER_01: I really feel like I'm kind of doing this for the first time in my adult life.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: And there's something really freeing about it.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: There's something scary about it.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: But I find that I haven't found something that has truly made me uncomfortable yet.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: And so with that positive reinforcement, I just think to myself, well, why not keep pushing?
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Why not keep trying and see what's out there?
12:00
SPEAKER_01: Because if you asked me a year ago if I would fall in love with fishing, I would laugh at you.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: So it's a perfect example of something where if I keep testing these boundaries and trying new things, I'm not hitting any walls yet.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'll never hit a wall.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: But how cool and how lucky am I that I get to do this?
12:17
SPEAKER_01: Because there could have been a world in which I never got to experiment in these things.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: And I I have this loss of identity that I carry with me for the rest of my life.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: So it's the the silver lining, I would say, to a sad emotional divorce is this realization of, well, I'm starting at ground zero.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Let me see what I actually like as a human.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for sharing that.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of friends that have gone through divorce, but a lot of them similar at that age.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everyone knows that my other job is I'm a celebrant.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: So I'm obviously celebrating marriage.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that I'm not an advocate for divorce because I am a divorce person myself and I've happily remarried.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: But I do think that there is, I'm not saying this on every woman's behalf, but I do think that for those women that do get married quite early, like in their early 20s or even their mid-20s, and then they get to that 32, 33 year age, I do think there is something that happens where women have this thing where they're like, not is this all or is this how my life's gonna be forever, but there is this, who even am I?
13:20
SPEAKER_00: I need to check in with myself and check in with my identity and and maybe come to realize that maybe I do need to explore things differently.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for sharing that because I, yeah, like I said, I've got a lot of friends in my circle that have done the exact same thing.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And they have not been lucky to have amicable divorces.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: It's been quite nasty and, you know, not pleasant at all.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really happy for you that that yours has been amicable.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Your mum and dad to say that they are next level intelligent, successful, I can't even think of any more words because your mum is an Emmy award-winning writer and your dad is an actual rocket scientist.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, I just think that I can't not put a smile on my face because you know, you always there's always jokes like, oh, what did you know, what do your parents do are they a rocket scientist?
14:07
SPEAKER_00: You literally were that daughter that was like, Yeah, my dad actually is a rocket scientist.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: As you're growing up though, those two things are huge.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Did you feel growing up pressure to be just as successful?
14:18
SPEAKER_01: I think in my childhood, I didn't realize that this was special.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: I realized that my mom, being a writer and a history major uh in college and getting a master's in history, she could help me with my English and history homework, and my dad could help me with my math and science homework.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: So that was the cool thing.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until I went to college and I grew up a little bit and understood what is college, what are college classes, what does my degree lead to, what are jobs after college that I thought it was pretty remarkable what my parents did.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: It didn't hit me until I was older.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: I think for that reason, as a child, I didn't feel the pressure.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: I think that there's a level of pressure that is not super in your face about their success, which is they did such a remarkable job in their careers, and that translated into how they raised my brother and I in this really special way.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: And we're so close because of that.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: And we had the ability to go on family vacations and they had the ability to take time away from work and spend time with us.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the sort of pressure that I feel of creating that for my future family.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that makes sense.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: But in terms of a career, their skills are so intricately fine-tuned to it's like their personal skills translated perfectly into the jobs that they did.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: And their jobs were such a reflection of the people that they were that I almost didn't feel the pressure as an adult because I didn't find that in my own career.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: When I talk about being a chief of staff, I'm good at it.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: It's not like I chased a passion per se.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: I felt like my mom absolutely chased a passion.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: She will tell you that she fell into it.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: That's not the case.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: It was a it was a series of very skilled decisions.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: And then my dad has worked at the same company his entire career.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: So he got his PhD in chemistry and has worked at this company ever since.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: And he's retired about seven times and gotten back to work, which is a very funny inside joke in my family.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: But they clearly were doing jobs that they themselves loved and like carved out this perfect niche to do.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: And I think putting that pressure on myself would be unfair.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot has changed, honestly, in career choices for my generation versus theirs.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: I also feel like I'm on the precipice of do I want to continue being a chief of staff and working in tech and figuring out I love safari, I love fishing.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Is there a world in which I can kind of merge this into a future career and take a completely different path?
16:39
SPEAKER_01: There's the unspoken pressure of how do I create the life that they created for my brother and I for my future family.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: But in terms of finding a career and really loving it, I haven't felt that pressure.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: And they've never put that pressure on me, which has been pretty amazing and speaks volumes to their parenting style.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Touching on that, you guys are super close.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Really close.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've got any friends or people in my own sphere of influence that are as close as what you are to your parents.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a great thing.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: I honestly think it's a great thing.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: What makes you think that you guys are so close, or what how are you so close with your parents?
17:13
SPEAKER_01: My parents instilled it in a really young age with my brother and I we are your parents, but you and Wiley are a team.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that was very cool.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Just this is your friend, this is your buddy.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: He and I ended up going to the same college together because when I visited him, I fell in love with it.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: And so those were the years where we got to create a friendship outside of, oh, this is my brother that I grew up with.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: It's like we got to choose to hang out, we got to choose to merge friend groups and go out to parties together.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: And then we live 10 minutes from each other and now as adults.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's something that my parents created and that I mean, you know, Wiley, you know he's such a lovable guy.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: Like he's probably never had an enemy in his life.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it's having that his sense of humor, his sense of support, his sense of love throughout my life.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't I want to hang out with him all the time?
18:06
SPEAKER_01: I think also back to the divorce, going through that, it's been such a recentering of getting time with them individually that I wouldn't necessarily have had.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: And so my parents have opened their door and said, you come over whenever.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: And this turned into us watching Jeopardy together most nights.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: That's just me.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: My dad cooks me dinner.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: He opens the door, he's like, get cozy on the couch, we turn it on.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: I go home after it ends.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: I think it's having these like little rituals together too that I'm finding extra special as I go through this season of change in my life.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: And just having them as a resource and them as a support, both my parents and Wiley, and now Molly and my nieces.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's this community that I was appreciative for, but I think now more so have realized like this is something that I need.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: Like I need this to get through my day-to-day, and it's such a gift to have.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, you couldn't have said that any better.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I think it's such a humbling experience to watch somebody taught with such admiration, like for their parents.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: I feel like, I don't know, it seems to be an average where somebody either really gets along with their mum, but they either don't get along with their dad, or vice versa.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Rare is it that you can have such a really close relationship with both sets of parents.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think that you're right, especially going through a divorce, you need your parents to support you, to not judge you, to not ask you questions where you could potentially get upset.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Bruce and Corby, your parents, they have obviously really thought about the way that they were going to handle this situation and they've just taken your needs in a hundred percent.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, that's kudos to them.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: 10 out of 10 parenting right there.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: No, 100%.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: And I they've they've set such good examples as parents.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: And for the first time in all of our lives, I'm going through something that they've never been through.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: And I think like the quote is what do people say?
19:59
SPEAKER_01: Your parents are living their life for the first time too.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: So be easy on them.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: And this is the like perfect example of how they are living their lives for the first time.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: They've never had a daughter go through a divorce.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: I've never gone through a divorce.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: And having just this unconditional love and support.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: And look, sometimes someone says the wrong thing and it gets messy, but we can communicate through it and we know at the end of the day, it's out of a place of love and it's out of a place of caring for each other and concern, whatever it may be, that I think really has brought us closer together.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And I guess that's why you and Wiley also have such a he's your big brother.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: And a close relationship with him, which is really special as well.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a favorite memory, you know, so far?
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, you're only, did you just turn 33?
20:42
SPEAKER_01: February.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: So you're fresh 33.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a favorite memory in your life?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go with a recent one.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: And it is, I talked about South Africa and how it's become this really magical place for me.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: Safari has become just this really, really exciting thing.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: And you're on a game drive and you turn a corner and you don't know what you're gonna see.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's nothing, and then that anticipation grows, and then sometimes you get the coolest wildlife sighting of your life.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: My favorite memory so far, I think, in life and having to do with safari is seeing my first pangolin, which you might not know what a pangolin is, and that's okay.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: They're very rare.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm thinking these things, these things are cool.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: They kind of look like artichokes on legs.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: So they it's a mammal.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: They're found in Africa, they're found in Asia.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: They're the most trafficked mammal in the world.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, why is that?
21:33
SPEAKER_01: It's believed uh in some Eastern medicine that their scales help with male virility.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: Their scales are made of keratin, so just like our hair and our nails.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: Similar issue with a rhino horn and why rhinos are poached.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: But penguins are exceptionally rare for that reason.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: And they are just hard to find in the wild.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: They have great kind of defense structures.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: When I saw my first penguin, I just about lost my mind.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I guess.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: I was very quiet.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: But just kind of some tears streaming down my face.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: And I think I had this moment of the world is so small and I am so small in the world.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: But somehow the universe has brought me into this moment where I get to look at this animal that as an American, I've gotten to see two now in my life, which is incredibly lucky.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: But you talk to a lot of South Africans, and most have never seen one in their entire life.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: So I get to be privileged enough where I get to fly from LA to South Africa, go on safari for as many times as I've had and see a pangle in here.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: And because what was it doing?
22:31
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of cruising around, looking for ants.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: It's so sweet.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm picturing it like parked up because I get that they are so rare.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm picturing it like hiding with its beaded little eyes in a bush.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And then you just it just pops out and you're like, oh my gosh.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: No, it was it was just cruising around looking for ants.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: They eat ants, they don't have a jaw, they just have like a long tongue similar to an anteater.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: I think it was my aha moment of you are a speck of dust in the universe, but you have been privileged enough to be in this moment in this time, and your life has led you here to this moment.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: And it was just, it was magical.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: Like it gives me goosebumps to talk about.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: So I can see how pumped you are.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: I have to ask, how do we even get to South Africa from LA?
23:14
SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is a mission.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: Because I have my massage lady, Lee, shout out to Lee.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: She I see her all the time for my back.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: She is South African.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: And she talks about going to South Africa like it is literally on the other side of the world.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: In my head, I picture on the map that it's not that far.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: But for you, it's a chance.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: How are you getting there?
23:32
SPEAKER_01: So I have fine-tuned my flight path.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: LA to Heathrow is about a 10-hour flight.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: And then Heathrow to Johannesburg is about an 11-hour flight.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I will camp out in Johannesburg for a little bit, but in order for me to get to the bush, basically to go on Safari to this town, Hood Sprite that I mentioned, once I'm in Johannesburg, it's another hour flight to get there.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: So with layovers included, it's about 30 or 35 hours total of travel.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Are you staying overnight in Heathrow?
24:00
SPEAKER_01: No.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: I will typically have a four-hour layover.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: I'm privileged enough that I have flown with British Airways enough times that I get lounge access, so I get to take a shower at Heathrow, which is a game changer.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: I bet.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a trek.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: It's a trek to get there.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, are you always going to the same South African sport, the same town?
24:16
SPEAKER_00: You're going anywhere else?
24:18
SPEAKER_01: No, which is it is because it is the gateway to Safari land, essentially.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: I have spent some time in Cape Town.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: I've spent some time in the Cape Winelands.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: There are so many places, not only in South Africa, but around Africa, that I am absolutely dying to go to.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: And it's like I got I just gotta But fishing is always a must.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: You go and fishing is a must.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Next on the bucket list is gorilla trekking in Rwanda.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: I would love to do that.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: You are wild.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: That is that sounds to me insane.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's something called the iron ore train that is basically an iron ore cargo train that is shipping iron ore across the desert along in Mauritania.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: And you basically hop on in the middle of the desert.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: It's technically illegal to ride.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: You have to like wear a mask so you're not inhaling it, and then you hop off.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: That is But what's the benefit of riding on an iron ore train?
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Adventure.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking come to where I live, and six hours south is Port Headland, and they do iron ore.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and you could potentially ask them to ride on the iron train.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: You ride on the train.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you're gonna see much.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: No.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're gonna be allowed to do that.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: No.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Gosh, that's funny.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Um so anytime you're gonna come to Australia, we have some creepy crawlies.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: I would love to.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the saltwater crocs, right?
25:35
SPEAKER_01: I feel like my entire algorithm is pointing me to you gotta get to Australia, you gotta see the snakes, you gotta see the crocs, you gotta see the sharks, the spiders.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh geez, we have all of those things.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all these creepy crawlies really used to freak me out, and then South Africa has kind of changed me into this this fascination.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: I do this thing where it's called rapid fire questions.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: So you're not meant to think too hard.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
25:57
SPEAKER_00: We haven't really gone too much over these.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna put them out there.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: If there was something that you could, this is gonna be your first question.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: If there's something that you could tell Junior Casey, like I'm thinking in her early teens, Casey, not little girl Casey, like teenager Casey.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: If there was anything that you could tell her, sort of for the future, is there any advice that you would give her?
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Dream beggar.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Like don't don't worry about fitting the mold.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: Make your own life, make your own mold, don't care what other people think.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: You just nailed that.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I I normally give people a heads up so that you don't give they don't say something that's gonna get them cancelled.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just living on the edge right now, and you just nail that to him.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: That's a great answer because I feel like as women, it's so hard to do that.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: We know we always say it, and as we get older, I mean, I think it was for me only in the last couple of years.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: So as soon as I turn 40 in the last, I'm 44 in the last couple of years.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know what?
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And I keep saying it, I'm too old for this, I'm too old to care what people think.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: And in saying that, there are moments where I still do.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's nice to say it, but really deep down, there's always that little tiny glimmer of me where I'm like, oh man, I hope she doesn't think I'm being nasty, or I hope she doesn't think I'm this or whatever.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: For you to just say that off the top of your head is brilliant.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay if I was to get three of your friends, and I do ask this question a lot, but I love the answers because they're always so different.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: If I was to say, right, Casey's friends, let's all hang out.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Give me three words to describe you.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: What do you think they're gonna say?
27:27
SPEAKER_01: I have to sound like I'm not tooting my own horn.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: No, that's okay.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Toot it, we're here for that.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: I would say funny is the first one.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: I am probably the least funny in my family.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Again, we have my mom like cracks jokes for a living.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: My brother is just so naturally funny and hilarious.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: He is.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: I think people would say I'm funny.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm well-timed.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: Organized.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I I feel like being chief of staff, you kind of have to be.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: And then to plan a trip to South Africa, you have to be organized.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: Especially with flight prices these days, man.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: It is it's a schlep.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: But I would say organized.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: Third one, empathetic.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yes.
28:07
SPEAKER_01: I think I've said in the past that I think my empathy is a blessing and a curse.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: It's a blessing because I am able to feel for other people in the situations that they're going through, even if I myself haven't experienced that.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: And so if I am in traffic and someone cuts me off, my first reaction is like, oh my God, what a jerk.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: It is they might be rushing to say goodbye to a family member that's dying in the hospital.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it's a blessing to have like that kind of care generally for people around you and understanding.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: But a curse sometimes, and like I can allow people to walk all over me because of that.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen a lot, and I can't even say that it's happened recently, but it can sometimes get in the way of you supporting yourself and putting yourself first.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: So it's a balance.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: And then last one, what is something that you wish for for women in general in their lives?
28:56
SPEAKER_01: It's very timely to my own experience, but not settling.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: I think it goes back to dreaming bigger and breaking the mold.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: Don't feel like you have to follow a timeline for X, Y, Z reason.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: We have all this pressure on us as women to perform certain ways, to have and fit the expectations of what society has put on us, to have kids by a certain age, because we literally have a biological clock ticking.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's really hard to ignore those pressures, but putting yourself first within that and having the under the understanding of fulfilling your needs and your dreams first is the most important thing.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: I don't think any of us want to sit back and look at our lives when we're on our deathbed and say, oh my God, I didn't do this or I didn't chase this dream, or I took this path because someone told me to and I didn't listen to my own heart.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: I think that has become such a fear of mine that it is something that I'm now choosing to really live my life with don't be selfish, don't be disrespectful, but put your needs first and put your dreams first because you have one life and you're the only person that gets the answer to it.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: And so I would tell women all over the world to find, yeah, find that thing that they love and go chase it with everything that they've got.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Like we as women, we bust our butts.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: Like we chase things, we get things done.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Like that is just innate to who we are.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: And I think if you put that energy towards the things that you want to get out of life, like you can do whatever you want.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: You can shoot for anything and score.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: So oh my gosh.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: That is so American too.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Shoot for anything and score.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Because that's like dripping in American, but I love it.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: And what a fantastic answer.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Again, just off the cuff, but don't settle.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: At the end of every episode, I always do a shout out.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: As in, I get my guests to do a shout-out to a fellow woman.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, for you, it could be several women because you've got some pretty impressive ones in your life.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone that you want to give a shout-out to?
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Just to give them a platform where it's like, this person has inspired me.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: They're I'm gonna do four.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do four shout-outs.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: One, my mom, which it sounds like you'll you'll be hearing from her shortly.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Just the epitome of an inspiration, and someone that I look to for guidance.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: And again, just being a cool, badass woman.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: She is someone that I am just so impressed by every single day.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: My sister-in-law Molly would be the second one.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: We love Molly.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: We love Molly.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: Her tenacity at work, her leadership amongst her friends and her family, and people just aspire to be like her, the love and support that she gives people, and then how she is as a mom.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like when I think about having kids one day, I look at Molly and I'm like, yep, this is the mold.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: This is she is I'm learning so much from her every single day.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: And then my two little women that I'll shout out, Juniper and Felix, my nieces, cute, Molly and Miley's daughters, they are so inspiring to me because I learned so much through them.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Juni is like the cutest blabbermouth and just talks about everything and has taught me as an adult to go back to having an imagination and a curiosity for things.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: And Felix can't talk yet, but I know once she does, she will be doing the same.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: But the way that she just cruises around and explores and isn't really scared of anything.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, the fact that she's really showing her personality already is pretty cool.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna be pretty remarkable.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: So those are my four shout-outs.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Those are my inspiring crew of ladies.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: You've been an absolute dream guest.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: I reckon, well, not I reckon, I know that there are gonna be women, and there's possibly some men that will be listening to this that will be like, holy shit, that person is incredible.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: As in Casey is living, living a dream, chasing her goals, becoming a fishing influencer.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Just even though I still can't, I can't get the image out of my mind of your face when you're talking about fishing.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: The passion levels are next level.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: I just love it.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to say thank you once again for coming on to the podcast.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, and I appreciate you.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to She Said It Out Loud.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: If you took something away from today's episode, I would love to hear from you.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Don't find me on Instagram at officially EmmaYoung.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: And hit follows when new episodes planned straight in your feed.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: See you next time for more real and honest stories from legendary women.