Career Pivots, Emmy Wins & Telling Wild Stories That Stick
In this powerful guest appearance on the INsights & Straight Talk Podcast, I open up about the real behind-the-scenes journey that brought me into a 25+ year career in unscripted television, documentary storytelling, and creative leadership.
If you're navigating your own professional pivots, chasing creative clarity, or trying to sell yourself in a saturated media landscape, this conversation is for you.
The reel gives a glimpse into how one unexpected family emergency—and a faxed job offer from a friend over drinks—led to a complete reinvention of my life, my career path, and ultimately my identity as a producer, storyteller, and Emmy-winning creative.
What You’ll Hear in This Podcast:
How I transitioned from creative staffing and marketing into television production at Discovery Channel and National Geographic
The real story behind my leap of faith—from a high-paying job in Chicago to a midnight editing shift in DC
Why being both left-brained and right-brained helped me thrive in the creative industry
My philosophy on career pivots: why you’re not starting over—you’re building range
The origin story of my Thinkific course, How to Sell Yourself Like a TV Show
The mindset shifts that help me stay creatively inspired and relevant—even after decades in a competitive industry
Keywords That Matter (and Why This Reel Will Resonate):
This isn’t just another interview. This is an unfiltered conversation about:
Breaking into the film and TV industry without a straight path
Creative leadership for women who don’t want to play small
How to use personal storytelling to build authority, not just aesthetics
What it takes to stay relevant in a changing media landscape
Why Gen Z is crushing it—and what Gen X can learn from them
The power of curiosity in a long creative career
What Makes This Episode Special
We also talk about the joy (and chaos) of producing award-winning wildlife docs like Secrets of the Whales, Penguin Town, and Inside the Mind of a Cat—plus what it really feels like to win a Primetime Emmy… and then get upstaged by your husband watching the NFL RedZone channel.
We laugh, we get real, and we dig into the behind-the-scenes of building content that sticks—with stories that shift how people see the world.
