Ever find yourself switching on the Southern charm with a hearty "y'all," or are you more inclined to greet the crowd with a casual "folks"? As we reassemble, all six of us, we laugh and squabble over the quirks of language, before delving into the surreal world where the sound of our own voices resonates back at us from our podcast. The conversation takes a sharp turn into personal territory as we exchange tales from the frontline of commercials, radio, and those chance meetings with listeners who remind us just how far our words travel.
Life, they say, is what happens while you're busy making podcasts, and boy, does it keep us on our toes. Through breakups, career shifts, and new cities, we've learned to lean on the recording not just as a creative outlet but as an anchor and a testament to our enduring friendship. We muse over the delicate balance of life and podcasting, teasing our upcoming retreat and our collective decision to chase the magic of quality conversations over the quantity of episodes, all while fostering an irreplaceable camaraderie behind the mic.
We're keeping the lines open for your input, eager to blend your stories with ours as we continue to celebrate the joy of creation and the pride of our collective journey.
Grab a warm drink and join us- we saved a seat for you. Don't forget to stay updated with Spill the TEA by following us on Facebook at Women Gathering and Growing with TEA or on Instagram at Grow with TEA.
Ever find yourself switching on the Southern charm with a hearty "y'all," or are you more inclined to greet the crowd with a casual "folks"? As we reassemble, all six of us, we laugh and squabble over the quirks of language, before delving into the surreal world where the sound of our own voices resonates back at us from our podcast. The conversation takes a sharp turn into personal territory as we exchange tales from the frontline of commercials, radio, and those chance meetings with listeners who remind us just how far our words travel.
Life, they say, is what happens while you're busy making podcasts, and boy, does it keep us on our toes. Through breakups, career shifts, and new cities, we've learned to lean on the recording not just as a creative outlet but as an anchor and a testament to our enduring friendship. We muse over the delicate balance of life and podcasting, teasing our upcoming retreat and our collective decision to chase the magic of quality conversations over the quantity of episodes, all while fostering an irreplaceable camaraderie behind the mic.
We're keeping the lines open for your input, eager to blend your stories with ours as we continue to celebrate the joy of creation and the pride of our collective journey.
Grab a warm drink and join us- we saved a seat for you. Don't forget to stay updated with Spill the TEA by following us on Facebook at Women Gathering and Growing with TEA or on Instagram at Grow with TEA.
Alright, I don't know why else since I did this, welcome back to Spell the Tea. It has been sometimes, since we have all been together, but I'm happy to say that all six of us are here and we've been chatting for a while and are going to talk about podcasting, I guess, today. So I'm going to just throw it out to y'all and when I want to start with some questions, I can get started.
Jodie:Podcast about podcasts.
Mary:It sounds like a Seinfeld episode, right.
Jodie:A show about nothing.
Mary:A show about nothing, a podcast about something.
Tracy:That's awesome. Let's just start with what it's like to be on a podcast. Folks, I'm going to start listen awkwardly whenever I'm saying guys or ladies, I'm trying to stop genderizing my language and it's awkward and I'm apologizing in advance. I'm trying out, folks right now.
Laura:Folks.
Kerri:I use folks in written communication a lot.
Mary:I use rad jazz cats. I might be to get a wordy.
Tracy:Mary, I love you, just trying to quit saying use guys.
Mary:Use. Maybe you could just say use.
Kerri:I think I use y'all too, y'all.
Laura:What do?
Tracy:y'all feel like you can get away with y'all. I saw really really odd saying it.
Laura:Same.
Kerri:Why is it that I can get away with it?
Tracy:Because you have like that soothing voice and I have a nasally voice, so y'all, my voice sounds irritating even to me and it's my voice. You have like a buttery voice, all right. Anyway, what's it like to podcast? That is a good place to start. It's really odd to hear your own voice coming out of the speakers. It's actually disconcerting at first.
Kerri:Yeah, I have to share it a little bit about that. This week I had to, for work, record a commercial and so I had to go to the radio station to record it and I honestly like said, hey, do you think anybody else would want to do this? Like someone else might want to do the commercial, that might be a real good confidence booster for someone. My boss was like I don't think anyone's like dying to record a commercial. So I was like all right.
Kerri:But anyway I went and I go meet with the person at the radio station. He's like, all right, you know you have it. I said, well, we can record a couple of times, right, like it doesn't have to, you can splice stuff together, right, like I'm asking him, and he's like, oh yeah, it'll be fine. So I read my you know 30 second spot or this commercial. He plays it back, he goes. I think it sounds good and I just went okay and walked out.
Jennifer:I wish they were probably a whole 10 minutes, but you didn't get to cure it.
Kerri:Yeah, he played it for me, because I think it sounds good and I said okay, and I was just like I'm not going to nitpick my voice.
Jennifer:I'm just.
Kerri:Oh, yep, Did you have? I probably could have, Like I know I could have sat there and been like this. Maybe could use a little more inflection here or I could have, you know, sounded more excited there. But I just was like no, I said it as much in those tones, and whatever is I could, and it's good enough, do not tear yourself apart Is enough. And he said it was good. He wasn't like oh let's do this again.
Mary:You know, carrie, that reminds me when I first started my job and Livingston County. They signed me up for leadership Livingston and part of that was to go to the radio station and conduct an interview. I was being interviewed about my job that I had just started and I had no idea what I was doing. I was a wreck. I have no idea how it went. I never listened to it because I had no interest. I think I was like flushed with hives and I'm certain my voice was shaking because I don't know. I didn't. I didn't know my job enough to be able to be interviewed and tell them what it was. It's ridiculous.
Kerri:Oh, that would be scary. I mean, when I went I obviously I had a script, I just read it. Yeah.
Mary:Yeah, I had. No I perhaps they gave me the questions ahead of time, so it's possible I was able to, like pre do that, but I don't know. I just remember it being a terrible experience, totally different than podcasting.
Tracy:Yeah, how did you feel when you first heard yourself, though? Is it hard at first to I know. For me it was hard to hear myself at first.
Jennifer:I think I have the opposite experience from these guys in that. So I did like radio broadcasting in college, so I was kind of used to this and you know the whole like singing in the band and all that stuff Right. What I wasn't used to was the comfortability level I have in talking to you guys and then somebody telling me something they heard on the podcast, to me, face to face, and I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Like people are, you're listening and you're remembering. Now you're talking to me and now I feel weird, right. Like I was like, oh, I don't, what did I say? And now I'm like, oh, I don't think it would change how I talk to you guys. I think it would still be very natural and I would just say the things. But I was like I don't know, not imagining, even though we know people are listening, I was not imagining I would ever like really have someone come up to me and talk to me about something specific and it freaked me out. I was like I gotta go.
Kerri:That is a little weird. I was gonna say Jen. I also in high school took radio TV broadcasting, so I wasn't surprised to hear my voice.
Jennifer:Yeah.
Mary:I would say I was hesitant to listen, but then it wasn't bad. I had no strong reaction either way. I noticed some things that I'm like oh, I didn't know I did that, said things that way, or you know that? Laugh like that. I find that I'm clearly stifling my laugh. Just so it won't, you know, blow out eardrums.
Jodie:You have a great laugh, Mary.
Laura:It's like a contagious laugh yeah.
Mary:It's very I don't know. I don't know what the term is, I'll have to think about that, but I'm like, oh, I'm stifling. That's clearly what's happening there.
Tracy:It's like holding back a sneeze. Let it go. It does more damage.
Mary:Yeah, you're friends here Mary. It will adjust the volume right for the listener.
Tracy:It does it equalizes it.
Kerri:There is something to be said, though, for what Jen was talking about. When someone comes up to you and they've listened, you do kind of have this moment where you're like, oh man, what did I say? Uh-huh, what did?
Tracy:I say it's funny because I can't remember. I don't remember.
Kerri:I listened to her other times and I'm like good, I'm glad they heard that.
Jennifer:Well, and in the beginning too, like I was, I would faithfully listen to the recording before it got sent out right, I would, because we were getting it released to us before it got posted live and I would listen to it and I would be like, oh my gosh, that's great. And then after a while, I just didn't have time to do that, and so I was listening to it afterward and I remember, too, thinking like, oh my God, I hope everything's okay with this. That I said, and I would be a little more nervous because I didn't listen to it first, and then there were times I didn't get to listen to it at all, so I really didn't know if I said something dumb, you know, or not dumb, you know, like just I don't know.
Tracy:You're incredible.
Mary:Yes, tracy, you were saying that there a lot of times you don't even remember what you said. And then you're listening to the recording. I'm the same way. I don't remember much of the conversation and I laugh out loud at us. And then, as I'm laughing out loud, I come up with the same joke that I used.
Tracy:You're just that funny. I am so predictable.
Jennifer:Your brain is like. You know what would go good here.
Kerri:Seriously, a pocket on the front of my sweater.
Jennifer:That'll be a tagline. Mary's jokes are the pocket on the front of our sweaters.
Mary:I know I was talking about it early but it's probably not in this recording. But my mom does voice the text on her phone and she doesn't correct it because she doesn't know how to and she calls it her. Kangaroo pouch is the pocket sewn on the front and it came out in text as kangaroo pole chair.
Tracy:That sounds like a specialized chair for people with small arms.
Jennifer:I can't even imagine why those words go together.
Mary:Kangaroo pole chair. I saved the tag, I did a screenshot of it. So yeah, kangaroo pouches or, in other languages, kangaroo pole chairs.
Tracy:I love it when I don't love it when I auto correct, but afterwards it's funny.
Mary:Yeah, after the embarrassment.
Laura:I love now that you can edit something you sent. How fun is that. Yes, that's the way better. Oh my gosh, that feature is amazing.
Mary:Oh, I see what you mean. I was trying to process what you said, so you can. I don't think I've ever tried that.
Laura:Yeah, the phone now, like you can. If they didn't open it yet, you can quickly edit it and resend it.
Tracy:Yeah, it's an unsend feature.
Mary:Is that an iPhone feature? Your broker?
Kerri:Aaron did it to us. I use it sometimes. Yeah, I think it's on iPhone. If you send, you can and you realize like there's a typo, you can click on the message and it'll bring up a thing and you can say edit, but they can't have read it. If they've read it, then you can't edit it.
Mary:Okay, I'll have to practice. I don't have an iPhone of a galaxy, so perhaps it's a new area text, but do you have an?
Tracy:iPhone. I have an iPhone. When I text Laura, I can do it. When I text you, I can't. You think it's iPhone to iPhone.
Mary:Iphone to iPhone Okay, all right. So that's why I had no idea what you're talking about.
Tracy:Okay, but you can do it in Messenger. You can unsend in Messenger. I did it earlier. When I sent it, I sent your bridge.
Mary:I did that too in our podcast Messenger. I kept auto correcting something and I'm like what's it doing? Anyway, unsent it several times.
Tracy:What's it like to podcast with your friends?
Jodie:It's like hanging out Just talking about what we talk about.
Mary:Yeah, I feel like that too, jodi. It's the gathering and just having conversations that we would in person, and it just so happens that we're recording it.
Jodie:Right, it's the gathering and the growing.
Kerri:I went to, though, where there's some vulnerability in all of us talking, and so there are moments when you know you're saying something and then you're like, crap, this is going out into the world. Do I rain this in or do I just let it all out? Because it's who I am and it's the truth and right.
Tracy:Oh yeah, there's been times when it's gotten emotional. You're like crying because it's your friends and then you're like, oh my God, it's going to be recorded. You're trying to quit.
Mary:I think that it's not video recording.
Jodie:It's like oh, you know right, like what we do.
Jennifer:I think that's where the value is because, well, first of all, I wouldn't do this if it wasn't with you guys, right, like I mean, I know, like the, the origin story of all of this obviously is the way that it happened. Right, like it wouldn't have happened without you know, us being us in the book, being the book and all of those things, right, but like, also, no one in my other circles has ever approached me about doing a podcast. Right, but like I don't know. I think about some of the people out there that do like podcasts on their own or professionally and I just think, like man, I would never, I would just not, I wouldn't do it right, Like, I think there's something about that comfortability in talking with this specific group that makes it something that is of value.
Tracy:I agree. I think we're unique.
Kerri:Well, there's six of us. I don't know. Do you guys know, if you listen to podcasts, any podcast that has six people talking?
Tracy:No, I was thinking about that weirdly, karen, earlier, and like Howard Stern, always has like what, three people or four. Sometimes he's got a fourth person there, but it's basically just him and his friend Robin. That's not even a podcast, it's a radio show. But then I was thinking of, oh, kirsten Bell's husband, what's his name? Jack Shepard. So yeah, mr Bell he was going back to, but I think this is two people too, so I guess no.
Jennifer:I do know Usually only two hosts and then a guest, right yeah.
Kerri:Well, I listen to, we Can Do Hard Things and that's often the three, glennon, abby and Amanda, and then they often have on a guest, so sometimes four. I think that I was trying to think my son listens to some financial podcast Lex, somebody, I can't remember his last name, anyway, I think on his I don't know there's another one, I just call it the geek squad because it's like these three or four guys talking about all of these like investments, but I think there's four of them and they sometimes have on a guest, so that might be the next largest one I know.
Tracy:I also think it feels like you're sitting at one of our kitchen table. Very authentic.
Jennifer:Because this is what it would be like.
Kerri:Yeah, I think early on I got a lot of feedback from a few well, a few people, so I guess that's not a lot of feedback. I got some feedback from people who said it feels like I'm sitting with my girlfriends and that's why they like to listen.
Tracy:Yeah, I love that. I love that too.
Mary:Yeah, and I think that's where we came up with the phrase we'll save a seat for you, or something like that. Yeah, pull up a chair, or something like that, because I certainly feel that.
Tracy:We've been kind of on a hate us this winter. Resting is like the season, right. So our next question was what do you do to keep from burning out, keep the from burning out, from podcasting, or what have we done?
Jennifer:Well, I think, like all things and I'm just going to speak from my own perspective I think, like all things in life, that has to be like balance right. For me, my life got a turned a little sideways recently. In the last year and you know, for people that are new or need the catch up you know I moved out of my house and split from my 26 year relationship. My kids are grown now, so that's a whole change. But, like, I also got a new job and I moved to a new city and all this craziness, I think anytime, I always describe to people the idea of your life being like a dartboard and you're the center and all the concentric circles are things that pressures people, whatever pushing in on you, right, and the things that are closest to are the things that are going to take the most of your attention and the things that are on the outside edges are going to fall away to some degree. And I think for me it just became hard for me to juggle all the things that I was juggling all at once, and this return at this point is a great natural place for me to pick this back up, because some of that stuff has calmed down right, I've done the transitions to, through some of those things and can now, like, really give this my focus and attention that it deserves, instead of like half heartedly, you know, showing up with what I felt like I was doing, even if it didn't come across that way. That's what it felt, like it was going to be the outcome, or even was the outcome some of the time.
Jennifer:So I think, like all things in life, you know you got to keep balance, you got to be aware of, you know what your energy can, output, can be, what it can go to. That being said, you know I think we've sometimes we've we've some of us anyway have kind of said this is sort of like going, like a therapeutic thing for us too, right. So also, you know, I missed that aspect. I missed the ability to have conversation and stuff that uplifts me and people that I know support and love me and stuff like that. So it's like just just keeping a balance is important, like all the other things you know and being honest with yourself about, like what you're capable of, you know can be fluid.
Tracy:I'm sorry.
Mary:What Jen said, like how your priorities change, allowing it to be fluid and ebbs and flows, and, to allow some grace, I know it got challenging to keep up the weekly schedule on top of planning of the retreat, and as the retreat got closer it took up more time, and so that's where I felt most imbalance. Let's say that. But, like Jen says, being able to gather with friends, the therapeutic side of it, of having deep conversations and connecting with other women, you know you, my women, at a deeper level, just bonds us even more. And so that's so. There's, you know, the healing part of getting together. But certainly it was challenging to manage the and doing the retreat for the first time was just a big lift.
Tracy:So, yeah, definitely, I think for me, recognizing that I'm okay with, like, flying by the seat of my pants, but when I'm more mindful, there's a better product and I'd rather put out Well, really good things than 34 half ass things. So, but then I look back at the end of the year stats from last year I'm like, oh my gosh, we, we did a lot of flip and podcast.
Tracy:Yeah we really did. We were game busters, all of which I'm super proud of. But again, I think this year, moving into, you know, the next 12 months of being intentional and having 12 solid release dates and 12 solid topics, is going to be. I'm excited to see where that goes.
Jodie:So for me, it's just connecting with all of you on a regular basis because we don't live right next door to each other, and so this is a great way to see some of my best friends on a regular basis. And also, honestly, the reason I start I start I agreed to do this is because this was Tracy's dream. She wrote this amazing book and I know how much fun we all had doing tea together all those years and and I wanted to support my friend.
Tracy:So that's super sweet, trin, but you're getting more out of it now than just supporting Tracy, right?
Jodie:Oh, absolutely Like I said, I mean being able to hang out with some of the greatest people I've ever known on a regular basis. It's uplifting, it's. You know, I could have a bad day and then see all your smiling faces and be like, okay, I'm going to forget about my bad day for an hour and talk to my friends and laugh and reminisce and it's just a beautiful connection that we all continue to have and I love that.
Tracy:Well, I think you kind of led into what you get out of it. But you're why, why do you come back to this table with these people, this podcast?
Kerri:I think for me, one of the things that I enjoy the most is connecting with people who are listening, and I know we've spoke about Vivian before Huge shout out.
Kerri:We're alive and well, vivian. I just think it's amazing that we get the opportunity to share our stories and you know that's the premise of kind of what brought us all together to begin with. And I know we think we're just having conversations, but I do know that sometimes some of our conversations are having an impact on people and I think that's really important. And you know, even if we do something that changes one person's perspective or next decision or the way they view something, I think it makes a difference. So there's that. And then the other part is the marketing. So I had been working on that some too, and I really do enjoy doing it. Sometimes where I get burnout is that it doesn't seem like it goes anywhere, so that gets frustrating for me, but that's just the way that you know social media is. There isn't anything I can do about that, but I do enjoy creating. You know the stuff that we put out, so I just have to find joy in the creation of it and not worry about the when it goes.
Jennifer:Well, and you create some amazing things, carrie, like, I think I don't know how I'm not very social media savvy, I guess I will say so I'm not sure how you measure the success of that stuff, but I know that you know, some of the things that I've enjoyed the most have been, well, the cups that came from the quotes that were pulled from episodes, right, and so that was the thing. Seeing that content out there made it easy for me to share this product that we put together more some than others doing the work of that but it made it very easy to share something that I was proud of. And I guess I guess that's my reason that I keep coming back is because the things that really I have the most pride in in my life are tied to you guys. I mean, honestly, there's so many things that we've done that people maybe are aren't aware of. But I mean, like for people that were following enough to know about the retreat, you know, that was like that, was like the culmination of all of the experiences we've ever had together in this most amazing thing, that sometimes I still think about it and I'm like, oh, my God, we did that.
Jennifer:Like that, was that like what you know, and that's the thing I keep coming back, because I know that this team is unstoppable. We, you know, come up with an idea, we do it right and the motivation is some. Sometimes it's there like from the start, sometimes it's there halfway through, sometimes we realize it at the end, but we always get to where we're going to in a way that makes me proud to have been a part of it. So that's why I want to keep connecting and doing things with you guys, because I know at the end of it I will always be grateful for the experience but also proud of what we're putting out into the world. That's beautifully said, jen.
Jodie:That is beautiful. You know, there are so many times when we were doing the fundraisers and everything and you would say, oh, what are you doing this weekend? Oh, we've got this fundraiser, we're getting together and and I would just say it like it's this normal kind of thing and people would be like, oh my goodness, you're doing what you're raising money for what, like, like it was this unheard of thing. And so, yes, I understand what you're saying, that, yeah, we should be proud of what we did. We raised a lot of money over the years for some really meeting organizations. It was a beautiful thing, but for us it was just a Thursday, you know, yeah, yeah, what we do.
Tracy:Or when you can start a sentence with yeah, that time that I cast my bust with my friends.
Jodie:I'm so disappointed. I was the last one to go and the cast wasn't taking, so we would have had to start all over. But I was the last one and we had already been there for hours and hours and I'm like, no, that's okay, I really don't, so I never did one.
Tracy:Oh, my goodness, we have to get together and we cast Jody's boobs.
Kerri:Because I had the flu.
Mary:Oh well carry and Jody.
Jodie:Yep and.
Mary:I can I?
Jodie:take some table and pull up before that's acceptable.
Laura:Back in the day. It's going to say you should do it before and after bust Before breastfeeding.
Jodie:I'm going to look at my knees again. I still love what Laura said about my boobs look like two golf balls and tube socks.
Jennifer:Go accurate.
Mary:Tracy knows how to use some tape to tape them up, right.
Tracy:I'm going to go with the two person job when they're big, it takes more than two hands.
Laura:What are friends for Way to rub that in.
Kerri:We had to like it was evened out, Tracy had. Tracy had to look at my boobs for my photo.
Tracy:And my wife is. All of you guys, I in the last few weeks really have missed this, the laughing and just your faces, your beautiful faces. How do we even know what to talk about? Oh, we don't. I am doing small talk and then, in like the next breath, I shared that I do a podcast and I was like those two things seem like it. You know, checks the position, but I don't know what to talk about. Real stuff. You do like something you see in the news was thinking of how it's like popcorn.
Mary:As we are going individually through life, a topic comes up, something happens and we say that'd be a great topic to. To talk about something from the news. Or you read an article, tracy, or I have a topic, you have a time that I do. I'm interested in it because this just happened to me and it's the current trends and hospitality. I had a really odd experience this week, so now I need to know your experience.
Kerri:Let's talk about it.
Tracy:Are you going to hold on to it?
Laura:I can hold on to it.
Jodie:Are you going to?
Laura:let us in branch off from it.
Jodie:Older you're going to forget. You need to tell us now. It was so odd.
Mary:It was so odd that I brought it up at my staff meeting and we talked about it for probably a good half hour about the state of hospitality and specifically it was the rules of engagement with the restaurant.
Kerri:I love this. Let's, let's hold on to it, can we? Okay, okay. I think that we could have a full episode about it.
Tracy:Okay, all right, and we could have hospitality. Do you know Laura's?
Laura:got to have some great stories. I need to keep my job, though.
Mary:But well, I would like to call it, based on my experience, hostile Wait.
Laura:Hostilities, I still put valid Hostile.
Mary:Like in my head, it was going to roll out so much better.
Kerri:Hostility, hostility, hostility.
Mary:Hostility. Yes, thank you All right.
Tracy:Stay tuned for February's episode. I had a really weird experience at Red Lobster a couple of months ago. I'll have to share.
Laura:Awesome. I have experiences every day.
Jennifer:Yeah, I'm sure you're.
Mary:You might be able to like, when the story rolls out, you might be able to explain the why of the experience. And then the end of things like why did Mary Never mind? It was so odd.
Tracy:Tease, it was Mary.
Mary:Now I can't wait till February. I had to sign something.
Tracy:What? What? We could get in trouble if we talk about this. Did you sign an NDA? I did not. Okay.
Mary:It wasn't a result of an incident. It was an agreement To engage. I was like I'm not going to be able to do that Okay. We'll leave it at that.
Tracy:This is.
Kerri:He wasn't even there. What are you doing in that? What are you engaging? Where are you engaging?
Tracy:in the restaurant.
Laura:All I did was show up. I got invited to what did you show?
Mary:I showed my face. I was like I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. So that's how topics happen. That was a perfect example of Live in action.
Tracy:That's how it happens for us. Yeah, beautiful, we also come together once in a while and brainstorm, so there's a whole list of babies, if we ever get a chance, in case we were to run out of things to talk about.
Kerri:The listeners could offer ideas, and we have had that before. Yes, that's how we reviewed Barbie. We had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun. The stuff that I was putting out on social had a phone number. We no longer have the phone number because y'all didn't call us, so you're going to have to. Sounded like butter.
Tracy:Spicy butter. That was garlic butter With a little.
Jennifer:With a little spice thrown in.
Kerri:There was some pie in that We'll have to slide into our DMs. But to take that back a little, it was spicy because we really do want people to let us know what they like us to talk about. Get a hold of us Damn it.
Tracy:Reach out to us.
Mary:Some of you know my mom, I'm not Not. Does anybody out there?
Tracy:Some of us do our avid podcast listeners Outside of spill the tea, which I highly recommend you. Go back and listen to some of our old episodes. They are fantastic. What other podcasts do you listen to when we're not recording?
Jodie:First of all, I do not listen to our podcast because we were talking about our voices earlier. Yeah, I cannot stand my voice. I don't know how any of you are listening to it now, so my apologies to you. I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying. I'm not interested in that. I do listen to. Do you have you ever heard of Bailey sarien? Yeah, murder mystery makeup Mondays yeah, yep, she's amazing. She is amazing. She puts on her make First of all. She's gorgeous, and she puts on this makeup and she's she's gorgeous with makeup on and off and she talks about different murder mysteries while she's putting her makeup on.
Jodie:No, you can watch it, oh okay, you can watch it on YouTube or you can just listen to it as a podcast, but I love to watch it because the transformation she makes with the way she does her makeup oh my goodness, she's amazing.
Tracy:Does her makeup get like darker and more sinister with the scarier murders?
Jodie:Sometimes it is kind of dark and sinister, but it's it's always beautiful, she's just gorgeous. What was the name of it? Murder mystery Wait, makeup murder mystery Mondays. She records or puts out a podcast on. Is it every Monday, Jen? Yes, I haven't listened to all of them, but when I do listen to a podcast, she's my go-to.
Tracy:There's one that Scott and I listened to the last time. We took a long trip. I think it's called like how it's made or how it was made, but it's like the story of like how businesses started and evolved. So the last one we listened to was the story of Bert's Bees, and the lady that created Bert's Bees sounds like somebody we'd hang out with.
Mary:So who's reaching out to her to come on our podcast?
Kerri:Yeah, you know I'm thinking one of the first podcasts I, when I first started listening to podcasts, was this podcast called Reply All and Forest told me about it and it was basically people just calling in with like weird questions Like do you know why, how do squirrels find their nuts, how do they know where they've hit them? Like, how do they remember? Why do they go back? And then these people would like deep dive into this question and like explain why things are the way they are.
Tracy:So anyway, it was really. It's still an existence. That sounds really interesting.
Kerri:Yeah, so it's random yeah, so I don't know.
Jennifer:Also, how would you know like wouldn't they just be researching the answers to those things on the internet, and couldn't you just I? Don't know, that takes the pun out of it right.
Kerri:Yeah.
Jennifer:Maybe they're not good Googlers.
Kerri:Listening to like the story of, though, like how they figure out or found out and explored like these different things, is really interesting, it's cool, and it wasn't just things like that that you could look up Like. Sometimes they had to go on like a little covert operation to get a real answer about certain things.
Jodie:What did they do? Put like a GoPro on a squirrel.
Kerri:Well, no, but I think this is the podcast where there was this. I think this is the one. There were two that I was listening to early on. I can't remember what the other one was called, but one was definitely called Reply. All what got me hooked to podcasts was a story about a man who got a phone call From a solicitor and he kept getting it and he started talking to this person and getting to know him and he was, of course, in a foreign country and he knew he was running a scam and he ended up going to the foreign country checking down the guy. It was just this whole like oh my goodness, I can't believe this is happening. He's going to get killed.
Tracy:That's fun. I do have like holy cow, energy and unlimited resources.
Kerri:It was super interesting.
Mary:That would have hooked me too. Before she stopped recording additional podcasts, I always listened to Unlocking Us with Brene Brown. I was, you know, had a year long love affair with Brene and her podcast yeah.
Mary:Sometimes I listen to a podcast and a guest is on there and they have a podcast, so I end up going down this wormhole and right now what I'm listening is to why isn't everyone else doing this? I've listened to that before. What's really odd is a few of the episodes were like talking about Tantric sex, and I'm listening to it at work and it's weird, oh yeah.
Tracy:That's like very sweating.
Mary:Seriously, I feel like this is really weird. I'm in my cubicle or I'm doing a stair challenge, so that's a little less weird in the stairwell, but I'm like this is weird. They're talking about sex energy and channeling your pleasure energy, so that's been weird.
Jennifer:But I've been doing that on the stair stepper.
Kerri:I would not listen to that at work. Mary, I can't believe you listen to what they were.
Mary:I don't think I could. The episode is not called that, and so then they just start talking about it and I'm a very pragmatic listener. I'm like gotta listen to the whole thing, Gotta listen to it through. You know, like reading a book. Gotta finish this book. It's horrible, but I'm gonna read it because I started something. I was like finish it.
Tracy:Clean play club yes.
Kerri:I do not know, that issue I could do this Stop, don't care.
Mary:But I was listening to a different one, I think that had this woman on there and the woman said something about Brené Brown, I can't remember. It wasn't in a positive light and I thought, oh, I don't want to listen to her anymore. So I moved on. But I know I can't remember what it was. It wasn't super inflammatory but I just thought, oh, she's not my person.
Kerri:Mary is a heart and fast friend, her Renee.
Tracy:Renee, when you listen to this, just give Mary a call, not on our phone number. Slide into the DMs.
Mary:Atlas of my heart.
Laura:I hurt you.
Kerri:I hurt you. No, you know also we did try to marry me off to Abby Wambach.
Tracy:We did yes.
Kerri:She still has not slid into my DMs.
Tracy:Come on, you're a Western New.
Mary:York girl Well yeah. Yes, abby, we're doing a new retreat. If we keep saying it, we'll be close to Rochester.
Tracy:I mean, we promise not to make you feel weird about Gary.
Mary:Or anybody you can come under an alias name.
Laura:There you go, Wambach Abby.
Jennifer:Wabby bomb.
Tracy:Nobody will know.
Laura:I'll cover someone else too.
Tracy:Is Perry Cotter.
Laura:Perfect.
Mary:No, no, no. Okay, so I'm Gary mold and shoe Ew.
Tracy:Ew, your last name got gross.
Mary:I'm moldy shoe. I want Jodi to come as bumpy.
Jodie:No, I can do that. I think I have a T shirt that says that, that you do. I think you all did it when we did the volleyball the mud. Bumpy, no, yeah you said I was Because I was going to be Joey's girl. You're like no, no, we've got the perfect game for you no.
Jennifer:Yeah, no, no, no, yeah, I'm not going to be a bad podcast. The preimposed. It's also perfect for volleyball, right, yeah. So yeah, a rabbit hole, because I know we're supposed to be talking about the podcast that we listen to, which I highly recommend people in relationships look into. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Laura:But listening to at work? No, no, no, no look into Tondrax.
Jennifer:Look into Tondrax. Sex energy exchange through I may have sex at work, if you want to.
Kerri:No, no, no, no, no.
Jennifer:Back it up. Back it up, because I'm pretty sure, laura, that that would really really be odd at your place of employment. But you know Some people. I'll get some extra whipped cream on that, thank you.
Laura:Let's clear this table. No, no, no.
Jennifer:So, anyway, what I was gonna say is here's a fun fact about me In my spare time, when I don't want to use my brain, I like reading some muddy books, Some muddy books some muddy books and I found this series on Kindle. Or well, you know, whatever I got it on the Kindle, but you know I found this series that is an interesting take on the Neverland Chronicles. Yes, mm-hmm, and I was reading it at work, because I had to know her cell phone in the bathroom.
Jennifer:I don't know if this one should go out. No, no, no.
Jodie:I think all of us are gonna get fired.
Jennifer:Well, it was on my lunch break, so cover my CYA, cover your ass, mm-hmm.
Mary:Yeah, make sure nobody can come up behind you and read what you're doing Read like you're reading.
Laura:Oh, what kind of lecture are you having?
Jennifer:I'm doing research On consistency. Yeah, never mind.
Mary:Getting worse, sir.
Jennifer:Yes, yeah, not helping.
Tracy:Our last thing was if anybody had a success or learn about podcasting that they want to share. So success is something that we did that went really super well, that anybody should replicate and learn is something that bits you right in the ass that you should never do again. But you should tell your friends they don't do it either.
Kerri:Mm-hmm, my biggest panic ever was thinking I lost one of the recordings.
Tracy:Oh yeah, that's scary.
Kerri:And I had to tell you guys, like I can't. I don't know where it saved on my computer. I thought it did, but I can't find it. That's wrong. We lost our whole conversation, but then I found it. We did find it, but we did actually lose one.
Mary:We did lose one.
Tracy:The podcast.
Mary:that never was, yeah.
Tracy:Remember it was a topic I wasn't too thrilled with either. I wonder if I put that energy out into the world.
Mary:And I don't know. I don't even remember what it was at this point, wasn't it? But? We did never do it again.
Tracy:No, we didn't redo it.
Jodie:Wasn't it the one where we reviewed products? No, because that went out.
Tracy:Yeah, that's why everybody. I know has that super chopper.
Kerri:Actually, whatever it was, I remember thinking I really wanted to talk about that topic.
Mary:I was hoping it didn't go out. I thought we were doing like it was a great conversation yeah.
Kerri:That's my memory of it. Yeah, I don't remember what it was about now, but I do remember we had a really good conversation. We always have really good conversations.
Tracy:A huge success though. I mean, if you're looking to do a podcast, we love our hosting site Buzzsprout. They've been super easy to work with. They added AI so they write a transcript for us. They get us out to all the different platforms. So if you're looking for hosting site, buzzsprout is the bomb with AI companion. I love it. It's worth every penny.
Mary:How about with editing Tracy? Any learns with that or successes?
Tracy:I mean, there's been a learning curve, I think, letting go of perfectionism that I was struggling with early on. So now I pick up things that are like. If somebody says like. If somebody says like I just did, I'll take out the first one for the listener. I'm not as worried about the word.
Mary:I try to grab them if I hear them, and then I try to grab things that don't make sense I know in the beginning this has nothing to do with editing, so I'm changing it that we were looking at the metrics more often about our reach and things, but then we didn't worry about that as much.
Kerri:I look at it every time we publish an episode.
Laura:Oh, do you OK.
Kerri:Maybe they don't have access. Everyone doesn't have access to it. No, I look at it every time.
Tracy:I do too more of like a sociology experiment.
Laura:Yeah.
Kerri:I want to know how many people have listened, If people wait several days to listen or if they're all listening on the day we publish. I'm always looking at I love data like that. I think it's interesting, so I probably would too. I probably look at it every time we publish.
Tracy:I'll share the log in so anybody can look at it when they want to. It's fun. It's fun to see when somebody from another country listen. I always want to know what they thought. So here in another country DMs.
Kerri:LS.
Mary:We're super sweet, we're happy people who have to just Except with hot butter or whatever it was. Hot butter sounds.
Laura:Because, they had a message.
Kerri:So if you're not going to message me, you're going to get this tone. If you're not going to get this tone, I promise.
Jennifer:I'm going to popcorn.
Jodie:Which voice, do you want?
Kerri:All right, I think we spilled the tea. Do you want to tell us how are we making tea? I forgot about that part.
Tracy:DM us this week and tell us what you did in the last six weeks.
Jennifer:Yeah, Share your favorite learns, share your favorite quotes, share what you loved or what you want to hear more of too. And how would one DM us, Carrie?
Kerri:If you wanted to DM us, you would send us a direct message on our Facebook page Women Gathering and Growing with Tea, or you could send us a message on our Instagram page Grow with Tea. Either place, we would get them both.
Tracy:Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet Tea, sweet tea.