Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is going to be a longer one part of
Speaker 1: the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
Speaker 1: take their days from great to awesome and any advice
Speaker 1: they might have for the rest of us. So today
Speaker 1: I am delighted to welcome Lisa Camuso Miller to the show.
Speaker 1: Lisa is a longtime communications expert who also hosts the
Speaker 1: Friday Reporter podcast. Lisa, Welcome to the.
Speaker 2: Show, Laura, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to have you here. So, Lisa, why don't
Speaker 1: you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 2: So I've been in Washington, d C now for twenty
Speaker 2: four years, which would surprise my younger self because I
Speaker 2: swore I would be here for two. But I have
Speaker 2: been now in the communications space for a long time.
Speaker 2: I spent time working in the federal government, I spent
Speaker 2: time working in politics, and I'm lucky enough now to
Speaker 2: be working as a consultant in the private sector. So
Speaker 2: a lot of times what happens is companies and corporations
Speaker 2: and special interests will come to Washington, d C. And
Speaker 2: want to advance their issue amongst legislators and policymakers and
Speaker 2: so anywhere else in the world we call it public relations.
Speaker 2: But in Washington, d C. Because we're not actually trying
Speaker 2: to influence consumers, we're trying to influence legislators and lawmakers
Speaker 2: and regulators, we call it public affairs. And so I've
Speaker 2: been in that space now for twenty four years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've had, you know, your career, Like you know,
Speaker 1: when I first came across you years ago, you were
Speaker 1: doing things like spokes You were being a spokesperson for
Speaker 1: various people and officials. What does that actually mean for
Speaker 1: people who are wondering, You know, we hear like somebody's
Speaker 1: spokesperson said this, what is involved in that job?
Speaker 2: Oh? Boy, Well, it's involved a lot since I got started.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times the spokesperson ends up being
Speaker 2: you know, when you elect someone to an office, or
Speaker 2: you have someone that is the CEO of an organization,
Speaker 2: they'll have a spokesperson to be an extension of their
Speaker 2: own voice. So if in fact, you can't get the
Speaker 2: voice of the actual person that it is, whether it's
Speaker 2: an elected official, a governor, a senator, a member of Congress,
Speaker 2: they would get the voice of the spokesperson. So the
Speaker 2: spokesperson typically is the person that will speak on a
Speaker 2: variety of different issues, but it's always reflective of the
Speaker 2: voice and the opinions of the person that you're working for.
Speaker 2: So there are plenty of spokespeople for big corporations that
Speaker 2: talk about the way that the issues and the products
Speaker 2: or whatever it is they're trying to move are affecting
Speaker 2: people's lives. That's the job of a spokesperson, and that
Speaker 2: can be it can be a really super rewarding job
Speaker 2: because if you believe in the person that you're working for,
Speaker 2: you get to advance their issues and their causes in
Speaker 2: a way that maybe you might not otherwise have an
Speaker 2: opportunity to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know the communications field in general.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've heard it said it's often about telling stories, right,
Speaker 1: that we're trying to communicate our opinions and our ideas
Speaker 1: through stories in general. Is that how you would think
Speaker 1: of it?
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, it starts from a very very very
Speaker 2: early age, right. We love to know stories and we
Speaker 2: love to know why it is that a big issue
Speaker 2: matters for us. What is interesting to me about storytelling
Speaker 2: is that it actually makes it more palatable for people
Speaker 2: to understand why the issue and why it is they
Speaker 2: should care about it. And so storytelling to me also
Speaker 2: really makes us better communicators, because not only we're trying
Speaker 2: to we could tell you lots of facts, and we
Speaker 2: could tell you lots of reasons why you should care
Speaker 2: about a particular thing, But until you can figure out
Speaker 2: how to internalize it and me understand why it means
Speaker 2: something to you, it really is difficult to conceptual and
Speaker 2: maybe is something that maybe isn't even perhaps interesting enough
Speaker 2: for you to want to learn more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, we have a lot of people
Speaker 1: listening to this. It's like, well, I would like to,
Speaker 1: you know, raise my profile or be known more for something.
Speaker 1: And I've heard that part of this is about storytelling
Speaker 1: or something like that. But how can people think about
Speaker 1: this and come up with ways to tell stories that
Speaker 1: are authentic that don't feel like, you know, we just
Speaker 1: made something up in order to put it out there.
Speaker 2: Oh, that is the greatest question, Laura, Thank you for
Speaker 2: asking it. I think to me, authenticity is key to
Speaker 2: really landing any message you want to communicate, finding something
Speaker 2: that you truly believe in finding something that you truly
Speaker 2: care about and then sharing it in a way that
Speaker 2: is uniquely yours. The one thing that I find when
Speaker 2: I consult, because I do a lot of consulting now
Speaker 2: for people that are trying to build their brand, the
Speaker 2: one thing I try to emphasize more than anything else
Speaker 2: is that you yourself have your own unique story. Lot of
Speaker 2: times we'll look around and say, oh, I probably shouldn't
Speaker 2: do a podcast because Laura has a podcast, or I
Speaker 2: probably shouldn't do a blog post about this because someone
Speaker 2: else wrote about it. The truth of it is is
Speaker 2: that there are so many people in your unique universe
Speaker 2: that care about your specific thought about an issue that
Speaker 2: you should always feel good sharing it because there's space
Speaker 2: for all of us to have points of view and thoughts.
Speaker 2: But the thing that makes it authentic is sharing it
Speaker 2: in a way that's uniquely special to you and your
Speaker 2: own point of view, because people naturally want to listen
Speaker 2: to those stories even more because it's something that is
Speaker 2: specific and unique to your own experience and perhaps is
Speaker 2: one that you didn't realize really would be special and
Speaker 2: important for someone else to hear.
Speaker 1: So how can you go back and sort of mine
Speaker 1: your past and mine your thoughts for the stories that
Speaker 1: might you know, resonate with other people.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, I mean, you know, for me, a lot
Speaker 2: is journaling. I spend a lot of time just sort
Speaker 2: of writing in my own journal. I mean I never
Speaker 2: go back and read it a lot of times. It's
Speaker 2: just sort of formulating thoughts and getting ideas together for myself.
Speaker 2: And in that alone, I think helps me understand sort
Speaker 2: of how I feel about a specific issue. So if
Speaker 2: I care about education, if I've decided that I'm worried
Speaker 2: about my kids education, I'll spend some time writing what
Speaker 2: it is and why it is. It's passionate to me.
Speaker 2: It's making me alive, it's waking me up, it's making
Speaker 2: me want to know more about it. I'll also spend
Speaker 2: time socializing, whether it's getting a cup of coffee with
Speaker 2: a neighbor or a friend and asking them how they
Speaker 2: feel about it. Sometimes having those conversations, not only writing
Speaker 2: your own unique thoughts, but then hearing how others feel
Speaker 2: about it can help you really distill that thought a
Speaker 2: little bit more and understand better about how you feel
Speaker 2: about it. The more conversations I have with others about
Speaker 2: how they feel. The more I tune into how I
Speaker 2: care about and why I care about an issue, and
Speaker 2: then I can tell the story in a way that's
Speaker 2: unique to me, in the words that I feel like
Speaker 2: are the ones that make the most sense.
Speaker 1: And since you've had such a varied career and in
Speaker 1: communications and talking about different issues and seeing different people
Speaker 1: trying to advance their stories, I wonder if there's an
Speaker 1: example you can give of somewhere where you know smart
Speaker 1: communication really made a difference in how something was perceived
Speaker 1: or in what happened afterwards.
Speaker 2: Boy, I've seen a lot of bad examples.
Speaker 1: I guess there's that too.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, And I only say that because I
Speaker 2: feel like reflecting on the poor and not well executed
Speaker 2: examples make you better when the time comes to really
Speaker 2: do it right. The one thing I say, Laura, to
Speaker 2: just about anybody is that, especially at a time when
Speaker 2: you are asked to speak up about an issue that's
Speaker 2: passionate or an issue that is personal, you have to
Speaker 2: lead with emotion and you have to leave with your
Speaker 2: with your own sort of feeling about the issue. So
Speaker 2: if you're advocating on behalf of an organization, you have
Speaker 2: to lead with why it matters to you. You can
Speaker 2: start in with all the facts. We have a million
Speaker 2: dollars and this is why it matters. Well, that sort
Speaker 2: of falls on deaf years. People tend to lean in
Speaker 2: and listen more in a communication, regardless of what it
Speaker 2: is you're trying to convey if you make that personal connection.
Speaker 2: So if you're advocating on behalf of the animal the
Speaker 2: animal welfare community in your local town, you talk about
Speaker 2: how you're a dog owner and how you love your dogs,
Speaker 2: and you know, in a house full of teenagers, nobody's
Speaker 2: more happy to see me come home than my two dogs.
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm here today to advocate on behalf
Speaker 2: of this wonderful organization that does great things for our
Speaker 2: pets and pets in our community. It's an example of
Speaker 2: you've seen it before and you'll see it now. I
Speaker 2: tend to tell people after they've had a conversation with
Speaker 2: me that you'll consume news and people's way of sharing
Speaker 2: information a little differently. But it's because the people that
Speaker 2: share and make that connection, that person connection with you,
Speaker 2: even if they're not sitting in the same room, they're
Speaker 2: the ones you're going to lean in and listen to
Speaker 2: just a little bit more, because now you feel as
Speaker 2: if you've been let in on a secret. Why it
Speaker 2: does you care about it?
Speaker 1: Excellent? Well, We're going to take a quick ad break
Speaker 1: and then I will be back with more from Lisa
Speaker 1: Camusa Miller. Well, I am back talking with Lisa Camusa Miller,
Speaker 1: who is a communications expert. She's been working in public
Speaker 1: affairs for many, many years. She hosts the Friday Reporter podcast. So, Lisa,
Speaker 1: I got to know you years ago when you kept
Speaker 1: track of your time for a week for a book
Speaker 1: I wrote called I Know How She Does It, and
Speaker 1: some of my listeners may have read it, but I
Speaker 1: talked about how professional women who are also raising children
Speaker 1: spent their time and Lisa kept a time log for it.
Speaker 1: And one thing I noted and I wrote about in
Speaker 1: the book is that you seem to have quite a
Speaker 1: coffee habit, Like there were all these coffees all over
Speaker 1: your schedule, But it isn't that you are addicted to caffeine.
Speaker 1: What was going on there in your schedule?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think we find that in most
Speaker 2: of our life we like to carve out time to
Speaker 2: connect with others. Not everybody does My husband is the opposite.
Speaker 2: He would prefer to never have coffee with anyone. He's very,
Speaker 2: very much prefers to keep his time personal. I like
Speaker 2: to socialize in a way that feels warm, that feels comfortable,
Speaker 2: that feels a way that we can connect, and there's
Speaker 2: no better way. Maybe it's not just in Washington, but
Speaker 2: I do think in Washington, DC, we have a pretty
Speaker 2: good habit of getting out and visiting with people over coffee.
Speaker 2: Because it's about a forty five minute interaction, you can
Speaker 2: learn more about the person. For me, specifically, I was
Speaker 2: trying to get to know journalists and communications in my space.
Speaker 2: I was trying to get better at my job, really
Speaker 2: understand how better to pitch a story, how better to
Speaker 2: interact with a newspaper that cares about a specific issue
Speaker 2: or a journalist that's in a specific way. And so
Speaker 2: catching someone for coffee is a quick and easy way
Speaker 2: to not only get your caffeine when you have little
Speaker 2: kids and even adult kids, but also too it's a nice, warm,
Speaker 2: cozy way to just visit with someone and understand them
Speaker 2: a little bit better. And for me, it always seemed
Speaker 2: to make me better at the way that I did
Speaker 2: my job and did the work that I was doing
Speaker 2: here in town.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a way to connect to get to know
Speaker 1: more people in person where that's possible. And you even
Speaker 1: had a suggestion, you know, as one of the things
Speaker 1: that people often think is this trade off is like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: moms can't do happy hours, right, Like, you're not going
Speaker 1: to go out and do you know, the boozing around
Speaker 1: and the socializing, no time for networking, with no time
Speaker 1: for that with you know, especially as you're working with
Speaker 1: people in the upper echelons of business and government and
Speaker 1: many of whom are maybe male in a little bit
Speaker 1: more old school or whatever it is. But you would
Speaker 1: you would meet people for a drink at like four
Speaker 1: thirty pm. Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I used to call it wine o'clock. My kids were
Speaker 2: really little, and I would really everybody in this town
Speaker 2: and probably lots of other places would really love to
Speaker 2: get together, would love to get together for a for
Speaker 2: a drink before heading home for the day. And I
Speaker 2: didn't have time to do that. I mean, I had
Speaker 2: to be home when the kids got home, so I
Speaker 2: was always trying to be you know, back to my
Speaker 2: house and ready by five thirty six o'clock with dinner
Speaker 2: ready and everything to go. So we would meet or
Speaker 2: an early we would call them source meetings or wine
Speaker 2: o'clock if you will, because you know, after a certain
Speaker 2: point in the day, there's no time for coffee, right,
Speaker 2: everybody's got a wine. You got to you gotta wind up,
Speaker 2: and then you have to wind down, and so we'd
Speaker 2: meet for an early glass of wine and do really
Speaker 2: the same thing. I mean, it was really just an
Speaker 2: opportunity to connect with with colleagues and friends, but also
Speaker 2: give me an opportunity to be home in time for
Speaker 2: the kids to get home from practice, have dinner as
Speaker 2: a family, and then you know, wind down and get
Speaker 2: ready to get everybody off to bed and start our
Speaker 2: next day.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that, just so you know, instead of
Speaker 1: saying like, well, I just can't do that because I
Speaker 1: have to be home, as you know, somebody who wants
Speaker 1: to see my kids in the evening, you found a
Speaker 1: way to make it work. And probably there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are excited to meet you to
Speaker 1: get out of work a little bit early, like no, no,
Speaker 1: I have to leave by four thirty today and I'm
Speaker 1: meeting up with Lisa.
Speaker 2: And there are plenty of people that aren't drinking. I mean,
Speaker 2: lots of us have given up drinking too. So like
Speaker 2: now it's like a fro Yo meetup, or it's a
Speaker 2: fro Yo or it's meet up for French fries and
Speaker 2: so like it's it really doesn't matter what the vehicle is,
Speaker 2: they all really are the same sort of social connection
Speaker 2: forty five minutes because it's not a long time. You
Speaker 2: have to be on your way, but you give your
Speaker 2: time and enjoy it. Right, it's an enjoyable it's a
Speaker 2: social interaction, but it's one where you can sit and
Speaker 2: have a little something to visit over and then get
Speaker 2: on with the rest of what you have to be doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I wonder if you've seen a difference and
Speaker 1: sort of in person socialization and building networking, you know,
Speaker 1: ones network that way over the past few years, because
Speaker 1: you know, when I saw this on your time Loge,
Speaker 1: obviously this is like twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, it was
Speaker 1: it was a long time before the pandemic. And I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, this is not either or it's great to
Speaker 1: socialize in person. There's also ways we can connect virtually.
Speaker 1: I mean, we are doing right now, But I wonder
Speaker 1: if you've seen any sort of change in this kind
Speaker 1: of post pandemic.
Speaker 2: Oh, no question about it. First off, true confession. I
Speaker 2: no longer get up at five o'clock in the morning
Speaker 2: to work out. That pandemic killed that for me, So
Speaker 2: I'm more of a do it over lunch kind of girl,
Speaker 2: you know, Laura. The one thing I'll say is that
Speaker 2: I think people are finding it more difficult to maybe
Speaker 2: get to a specific place. So I do actually schedule calls,
Speaker 2: I schedule zooms. I'll schedule really regardless of whether it's
Speaker 2: in person. In fact, it's why I started my podcast
Speaker 2: because I wasn't getting the opportunity to visit with journalists
Speaker 2: anymore over coffee because they had to be at their
Speaker 2: desk or they had to be on location. But they
Speaker 2: could pull aside for thirty minutes to have a quick
Speaker 2: conversation with me over a podcast, conversation about why it
Speaker 2: is and how it is they do their work. So
Speaker 2: actually it ended up being the catalyst for my own podcasts.
Speaker 1: Fascinating. Well, let's talk a little bit about morning routines,
Speaker 1: because again, when I interviewed you the first time, you
Speaker 1: were waking up at five am in order to go
Speaker 1: do CrossFit before reporting to the office. Now, I will
Speaker 1: tell you I've never done that, so I'm impressed you
Speaker 1: were doing it at one point in your life. But
Speaker 1: I'm curious what your mornings look like now.
Speaker 2: They're a little slower, which is cool for me. I
Speaker 2: actually have taken a little more time in the morning
Speaker 2: to do a little bit of journaling. I do a
Speaker 2: little time sort of. I read less news lately because
Speaker 2: it feels a little heavy, So I consume at least
Speaker 2: one or two small moments of what's going on in
Speaker 2: the day, and then I'll spend some time journaling. And
Speaker 2: I actually have started to at least two or three
Speaker 2: times a week. I have tried to schedule a workout
Speaker 2: for nine thirty or eleven o'clock, and I'll schedule it
Speaker 2: as if I'm a consultant, and I'm lucky enough that
Speaker 2: way that i can be wherever I need to be
Speaker 2: for client and client work. So I actually try to
Speaker 2: schedule time in the early morning for that workout. So
Speaker 2: nine to thirty is like my favorite time to work
Speaker 2: out because I've had a little coffee, I've reflected on
Speaker 2: all the things i have to do, I've gotten all
Speaker 2: the early deadlines out of the way. I'll go get
Speaker 2: a one hour workout, I'll come back and get a
Speaker 2: quick shower, and I'll be back on my day and
Speaker 2: I'll be back at my desk until six o'clock. And
Speaker 2: I also, here's a big secret. I like to call
Speaker 2: it MMH on my calendar. It stands for my mental
Speaker 2: health because it gives me just one hour a day
Speaker 2: for me that I can step away and go get
Speaker 2: a little fitness in and then come back and get
Speaker 2: started with all the rest of the things that have
Speaker 2: to happen.
Speaker 1: Now, that's fascinating that you choose nine thirty or eleven o'clock.
Speaker 1: Those are like the two times of day that I
Speaker 1: would actually never choose. And that's because I tend to
Speaker 1: do a lot of my writing in the morning, and
Speaker 1: I try to go for as long as I can
Speaker 1: before pulling myself away. And so I've learned, like not
Speaker 1: to schedule eleven am dentist appointments or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I try to do my workout. It's more like two
Speaker 1: thirty three o'clock in the afternoon, which is when my
Speaker 1: brain has kind of drifted southward. It's not doing anything
Speaker 1: else at that point. So I'm curious, are you more
Speaker 1: of like an aft are you able to focus more
Speaker 1: on the afternoon, or is it more that people are
Speaker 1: willing to go back and forth and chat in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and so that's time you want to protect?
Speaker 2: Why why is that the afternoon around three, between three
Speaker 2: and four o'clock is when I come alive. My writing
Speaker 2: happens in the afternoon, no question, It's always been that way.
Speaker 2: In fact, I could sit at my desk until eight
Speaker 2: o'clock at night, not because I prefer to be locked
Speaker 2: in my desk, but my productivity level goes way up
Speaker 2: after about three o'clock for whatever reason. And so that's
Speaker 2: when my writing really happens, is late in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: So in the morning, I feel like I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of calls, and there's a lot of confusion.
Speaker 2: I can never write in the morning. Always ends up
Speaker 2: being in the afternoon for me.
Speaker 1: So that's so interesting because then you're not naturally like
Speaker 1: a morning person. No, it sounds like not at all.
Speaker 1: And so when you were you had this schedule, when
Speaker 1: I studied your schedule, that you would go to bed
Speaker 1: precisely at ten PM to wake up at five am
Speaker 1: for your exercise. Is that just more a function of
Speaker 1: having an in the office job and having young kids,
Speaker 1: then that was a schedule.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, there's no The kids would get
Speaker 2: up and they'd be I'd have to take them to school,
Speaker 2: and so I had to be up and ready and
Speaker 2: out the door and I would drop them at eight
Speaker 2: and then i'd be on my way downtown. So there
Speaker 2: was no time in the morning. And now it's really shifted,
Speaker 2: so I do sometimes i get to the office at
Speaker 2: eleven because I've had a quick workout, I've had a
Speaker 2: quick shower, and I'm on my way to the office
Speaker 2: that i have to be at. But then I'm willing
Speaker 2: to stay a little later because everybody drives around here,
Speaker 2: so everybody gets themselves to wherever they need to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's interesting to hear how schedules change over
Speaker 1: the course of a life and how people make things fit.
Speaker 1: We'll just take one more quick ad break and I'll
Speaker 1: be back with Lisa for more. Well, so we've talked
Speaker 1: a little bit with Lisa Camussa Miller about her life
Speaker 1: and evolving schedules. She's worked in public affairs for a
Speaker 1: great many years, all right, So we were not waking
Speaker 1: up so early anymore. We're maybe having an ex you know,
Speaker 1: a workout in the morning. We're getting at the desk
Speaker 1: and then working till six or so, you know, cranking
Speaker 1: away on stuff. What do your evenings look like?
Speaker 2: My evenings are pretty chill. I mean, I really I
Speaker 2: do like to cook, so at the end of the
Speaker 2: day nowadays, it's a little bit less of a full
Speaker 2: blown meal. We tend to cook on Sundays. We'll make
Speaker 2: a little bit of everything, a little bit of rice,
Speaker 2: little bit of potatoes, all of the things, and then
Speaker 2: the elements of a meal are in the fridge. For us,
Speaker 2: it's because my kids will come home from practice and
Speaker 2: my husband will come home from work, and everyone will
Speaker 2: assemble there whatever it is they want, and then we'll
Speaker 2: end up accumulating all of our things at the kitchen
Speaker 2: counter or the you know, the island in the kitchen,
Speaker 2: and we'll visit for a short bit and then it's
Speaker 2: probably about half an hour to an hour of something
Speaker 2: to watch. I mean, I'm always I'm always working on something.
Speaker 2: I love pop culture. I've always loved pop culture, so
Speaker 2: I've always got a show that I've got cooking in
Speaker 2: the background, and then I'm still, though, Laura, I'm still
Speaker 2: hard and fast into bed and closing my eyes around
Speaker 2: ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: And that's because you like having a bedtime. Is that
Speaker 1: something that really works well with your life.
Speaker 2: It's because at my age, I've prioritized sleep over anything else.
Speaker 2: I think that getting a great night's sleep is absolutely
Speaker 2: probably the biggest priority for me because it just sets
Speaker 2: me up for another great day the following.
Speaker 1: And I like the idea of mindfully consuming pop culture.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I remember from talking with you,
Speaker 1: for I know how she does it is that you
Speaker 1: would make a point of watching whatever was hot because
Speaker 1: you thought you might be having a conversation about it
Speaker 1: as you're meeting all these different random people and trying
Speaker 1: to build a network and all your coffees and wine o'
Speaker 1: clocks early happy hours with people that they might ask
Speaker 1: you about House of Cards or whatever it was in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen and you would need to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Is that how you think about pop culture to a degree?
Speaker 2: I think, so, you know, it's a little bit different
Speaker 2: now because there are so When we spoke way back
Speaker 2: when it was a little more curated. There were fewer
Speaker 2: channels and fewer opportunities to find those streaming opportunities. Now
Speaker 2: there's so much, so I've taken to watching what I'm
Speaker 2: interested in, but I am always I am always listening
Speaker 2: and reading and consuming something that is popular, not only
Speaker 2: out of my own curiosity, but also too because it
Speaker 2: is it's a conversation starter. There's nothing harder than walking
Speaker 2: into a room. I've come to find this too, there's
Speaker 2: nothing harder than walking into a room and saying what
Speaker 2: do you do? Because it's like here's and then here's
Speaker 2: the report out what I do. So I've tried to
Speaker 2: be a little more thoughtful about asking a question what's
Speaker 2: the most exciting thing you've done this week? Or how
Speaker 2: is your you know, not how was your weekend, but
Speaker 2: what was the one thing that you most enjoyed doing
Speaker 2: this weekend? And that also so can turn into what
Speaker 2: are you watching these days? Because I'm also keeping a
Speaker 2: list in my phone of what other people have said
Speaker 2: was worth watching because it's sometimes really fun and also
Speaker 2: in a heavy, heavy news environment with so much news
Speaker 2: happening all the time, it's also a really nice way
Speaker 2: to step away because not only do I spend about
Speaker 2: forty five minutes to an hour watching something before bed.
Speaker 2: I'm also pretty careful about making sure that I have
Speaker 2: about twenty to thirty minutes to read before I close
Speaker 2: my eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, actually asking for book recommendations or
Speaker 1: TV recommendations or movie recommendations can be a great way
Speaker 1: to turn something that if it's a networking event you're
Speaker 1: realizing it's not quite getting you what you were hoping
Speaker 1: out of it. At least you can leave with a
Speaker 1: recommendation for something because you sure ask people about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, it's not a total waste of time. So Lisa,
Speaker 1: I always ask people what have you done recently to
Speaker 1: take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 2: I there are so many things that you can do
Speaker 2: to take a day and go from great to awesome.
Speaker 2: But I would say the one thing that I am
Speaker 2: more mindfully doing is I am promising myself to get
Speaker 2: out into nature, whether it's just a short walk in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood, whether it's taking my two not so well
Speaker 2: behaved dogs for a walk around the block, but getting outside,
Speaker 2: leaving my phone behind, no watch, no nothing like making
Speaker 2: sure everything is left behind and just stepping away from
Speaker 2: the chaos of the day. Something about that makes my
Speaker 2: central nervous system chill out. It makes me feel like
Speaker 2: I've seen the cherry blossoms. I have seen something else
Speaker 2: outside of the four walls of my office and my
Speaker 2: computer screen, and it just makes it improves my own
Speaker 2: point of view just so much that that, to me
Speaker 2: is something that I am promising myself that I'll do
Speaker 2: every day, is get outside into nature, and it makes
Speaker 2: my day pretty great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what are you looking forward to right now?
Speaker 2: I'm getting ready to take a trip to the West
Speaker 2: Coast with my seventeen year old daughter. We're going to
Speaker 2: see my cousin, who I have not seen in several years,
Speaker 2: and we are just we have no itinerary. We don't
Speaker 2: really have a lot of things we're planning to do.
Speaker 2: We're just going to get up and get out of Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. And see another part of the country.
Speaker 1: Sounds exciting, sounds like a lot of fun. Well, Lisa,
Speaker 1: where can people find you?
Speaker 2: I have a website. It's Friday Reporter dot com and
Speaker 2: it shows just about a little bit of everything. It's
Speaker 2: got an opportunity for you to see a little more
Speaker 2: about my podcast about the work that I do here
Speaker 2: in Washington, d C. I do a lot of reputation
Speaker 2: work now, Laura, So I'm giving people a lot of
Speaker 2: counsel about how to build their brand, how to understand,
Speaker 2: how to be part of the community that they're in
Speaker 2: in a thoughtful way. And so Friday Reporter dot com
Speaker 2: is where they can probably find out the most about
Speaker 2: what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, Lisa, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback
Speaker 1: on this or any other episode, you can always reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. And in
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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