Oct. 23, 2023

A Leap of Faith: From Sports Journalism to Elder Care with Ellen (Roberts) Belk

A Leap of Faith: From Sports Journalism to Elder Care with Ellen (Roberts) Belk
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Youtube Music podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Castro podcast player icon RSS Feed podcast player icon Youtube Music podcast player icon
Season 3

Ellen Belk’s career is a vivid embodiment of hustle and the art of the pivot. Ever imagined making an entire career U-turn? Ellen ventured from being a New York sports producer and reporter to establishing herself as a prominent senior healthcare expert. Her journey, spanning roles from an athlete to a writer, then a notable producer, and finally a healthcare advocate, paints a story of tenacity and transformation.

By diving into this inspiring story, listeners will journey through Ellen's dynamic evolution while gleaning invaluable insights into the shifting realm of senior healthcare. They'll also learn the art of mastering both personal and professional shifts with poise and purpose.


To discover more episodes or connect with us:


Chapters

00:02 - Career Journeys and Courage

11:30 - Journey From Internship to First Gig

20:07 - Taking Risks and Seizing Opportunities

25:31 - Sports Producer to Charlotte Market Transition

31:16 - Move Carolina to New York Sports

43:19 - Transition From Sports Journalism to Healthcare

51:18 - Transitioning to Healthcare

01:03:26 - The Pivot to Dementia Advocacy

01:13:12 - Community and Podcast Promotion

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:02.786 --> 00:00:10.570
Welcome to no Wrong Choices, the podcast that explores the career journeys of accomplished and inspiring people to uncover secrets of success.

00:00:10.570 --> 00:00:15.571
I'm Larry Samuel, soon to be joined by the other fellas, Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

00:00:15.571 --> 00:00:26.429
For those who might be joining us for the first time and for those who haven't done this yet, please support no Wrong Choices by following us on your podcasting platform of choice and by giving us a five star rating.

00:00:26.429 --> 00:00:38.185
We also encourage you to join the conversation by connecting with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X, by searching for no Wrong Choices, or by visiting our website at NoWrongChoicescom.

00:00:38.185 --> 00:00:45.761
This episode features the founder of Keep in Mind Inc and the creator of the Kim Academy, Ellen Belk Tushar.

00:00:45.761 --> 00:00:49.710
Once again, you have set us up with a great conversation.

00:00:49.710 --> 00:00:52.860
Therefore, why don't you set up this conversation, Alright?

00:00:52.881 --> 00:01:40.968
so I've had the opportunity to know Ellen in both her careers and both of her lives, so our relationship goes back many decades at this point and I've known her since we worked together at FAN and when she was at FAN she was a top flight producer, one of the best people I've known, and it takes a lot of courage to A walk from the market she was in initially when she was in a smaller market in North Carolina, to come to New York and not know a lot of people and to not only when they say, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere to really become one of the more respected sports producers in New York and then to say all of a sudden, I'm going to leave that profession behind, I'm going to make an absolute 180 and I'm going to go into healthcare, go into senior healthcare, senior, go into elder care.

00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:49.384
And that was a change that a lot of us in the business looked at each other and raised the eyebrow and said she's got to be crazy, this is not going to work.

00:01:49.384 --> 00:01:53.102
But I'll tell you she made it happen and the story behind it.

00:01:53.102 --> 00:01:56.992
It's inspiring because it took courage to do that.

00:01:56.992 --> 00:02:03.527
We took a lot about courage on this podcast that sometimes you have to kind of and I never want to say I'm guilty of it.

00:02:03.527 --> 00:02:07.590
I'm guilty of it myself when I say you never want to leap before you look.

00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:13.808
This is one of those cases where you leapt before you look and that's part of the story for Ellen Belk in this case.

00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:14.822
Yeah, I think we're.

00:02:14.822 --> 00:02:17.689
I think this is a special episode for us because it's different.

00:02:17.689 --> 00:02:23.948
You know, usually we're chronicling someone's life where they reach a pinnacle of a career and it takes their whole life's journey to get there.

00:02:23.948 --> 00:02:27.750
And here we have Ellen, who it's really the tale of two careers, right.

00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:37.707
She reaches the pinnacle at WFAN as an incredible producer and then literally walks away from it, and we really haven't delved into that as a program.

00:02:37.707 --> 00:02:50.072
So no Wrong Choices is about to dive into something that we haven't talked about before, which is when it's time to make a change and it's time to do the 180, like you said, t, and it does take a lot of courage.

00:02:50.072 --> 00:03:04.032
So I'm excited to talk to her and I'm as interested in the health part of her career as I am in the WFAN part of her career, because they're equally important and sometimes you never know what's going to fulfill you until you actually get out there and do it.

00:03:04.032 --> 00:03:05.705
I'm excited to hear her journey.

00:03:06.040 --> 00:03:09.768
I completely agree, and with that here is Ellen Belk.

00:03:09.768 --> 00:03:11.646
Ellen, thank you so much for joining us.

00:03:11.646 --> 00:03:13.305
Hey, thanks a lot, guys.

00:03:13.305 --> 00:03:14.942
Thanks for having me OK.

00:03:14.961 --> 00:03:16.608
So, guys, full disclosure here.

00:03:16.608 --> 00:03:21.972
I have known Ellen for a long time, and actually in a previous life than what she does now.

00:03:21.972 --> 00:03:26.490
I actually had the opportunity to work with her for a number of years at WFAN.

00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:37.292
When I started, my career was underway and I got to meet Ellen and we became very, very good friends and when she made her career change, I was blown away by how courageous she was.

00:03:37.292 --> 00:03:43.788
But, ellen, before we get into that portion of the show, ellen, why don't you give us the elevator pitch as to what you're doing these days?

00:03:45.140 --> 00:03:53.805
Well, the mission statement for the Kim Academy is we are elevating the global dementia IQ one student at a time.

00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:59.569
So I am in my 22nd year of dementia care expertise.

00:03:59.569 --> 00:04:21.130
Quite frankly, most of that time, prior to me starting my consulting company in 2011, was in senior living operations, and so at one point I was the national director of memory care operations for a country-wide across the USA company had over 100 buildings in their portfolio.

00:04:21.130 --> 00:05:01.952
So I have that background, but I really now, in my consulting work through Keep in Mind, I specialize in holistic dementia care solutions, and when you hear me say that term, holistic, it is more of how can we non-pharma first take care of those that we serve, whether we're family members or professional care providers, those who are living with dementia in a non-pharma way first as first lines of defense, and so my clients tend to be senior living providers, sometimes product developers who are trying to break into the elder care and or dementia care space.

00:05:01.952 --> 00:05:09.988
So it's kind of a little bit of a I run the gamut, but anyone who's touched by dementia is could clearly be a client of Ellen Belks.

00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:14.209
So I mean, obviously, like I said, this is not where you started.

00:05:14.209 --> 00:05:16.685
This is where you ended up.

00:05:16.685 --> 00:05:20.444
So I'll ask so was this?

00:05:20.444 --> 00:05:26.629
I mean, I don't think this is where you wanted to end up, but this is where you have, or maybe it is where you wanted to end up.

00:05:26.629 --> 00:05:30.286
So I want to go back a little bit to the beginning with you and talk about.

00:05:30.286 --> 00:05:31.370
You are an athlete.

00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:35.084
You were a great, you were a very good athlete.

00:05:35.084 --> 00:05:39.814
When you were young, was the notion of being in team sports?

00:05:39.814 --> 00:05:43.447
How, being in journalism, was that the goal when you were younger?

00:05:43.829 --> 00:05:46.201
Yeah, yeah, I always knew.

00:05:46.201 --> 00:05:47.586
I mean like I was a writer.

00:05:47.586 --> 00:05:55.122
I was writing poems and short stories as a grade school student and not because my teachers were telling me to do it, I was.

00:05:55.122 --> 00:05:56.726
I was just a creative writer.

00:05:56.726 --> 00:05:57.922
I'm a.

00:05:57.922 --> 00:05:59.668
You know, I clearly have the gift of gab.

00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:02.812
Miss Meagher's, my third grade teacher, put me in the cloakroom.

00:06:02.812 --> 00:06:06.447
For those of you are from the Midwest, you know what the cloakroom was.

00:06:06.447 --> 00:06:11.100
So I'm sitting in the cloakroom on the third day of third grade because I was too chatty, cathy.

00:06:11.100 --> 00:06:17.627
So I had that, I had the knack of gab, I had the knack of creative writing and I did.

00:06:17.627 --> 00:06:25.209
And my sister, my older sister, was in kind of a journalism major, so I knew what the word was as I was growing up.

00:06:25.209 --> 00:06:26.846
But then also I got.

00:06:26.966 --> 00:06:35.632
I was also the fifth grade girl that you know was on the eighth grade basketball team, freshman, starting on the, on the on the varsity team in high school.

00:06:35.632 --> 00:06:43.240
I was six feet tall and you know, and you guys, I, I, I tell people this in Mrs Andre I was taller than my.

00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:45.565
I think I said it was either kindergarten or first.

00:06:45.565 --> 00:06:47.329
I think Mrs Andre was my first grade teacher.

00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:48.351
I was taller than her.

00:06:48.351 --> 00:06:51.790
So I was a tall kid, came from a very athletic family.

00:06:51.939 --> 00:06:58.985
So yeah, I, I, I think I thought journalism, whatever I thought that meant I continued to write for the school papers.

00:06:58.985 --> 00:07:03.884
So I kept the writing always kind of was consistent as I was growing up, going through high school and into college.

00:07:03.884 --> 00:07:12.728
But it was in college where I really got the opportunity to work at the campus college radio station and that's and of course you write, you write to do that.

00:07:12.728 --> 00:07:14.004
So I was able to marry.

00:07:14.004 --> 00:07:24.668
At that time I realized like okay, this is a thing I get, I can talk and write and let's see where this takes me, and so that's kind of how I got the entree at that time into that.

00:07:25.130 --> 00:07:28.067
Okay, so before we go any further, the cloakroom is that like timeout?

00:07:29.081 --> 00:07:29.963
Like what are we?

00:07:29.963 --> 00:07:30.425
Thank you.

00:07:30.466 --> 00:07:31.908
I was going to ask that too.

00:07:31.928 --> 00:07:32.350
What is that?

00:07:33.562 --> 00:07:41.810
Well, think of a child, think of a third grade classroom where, back in the day, where all your desks are facing the front and the chalkboards at the front, the cloakroom was that little space.

00:07:41.810 --> 00:07:49.627
Again, I grew up in Wisconsin that where it's like, where it's like winter nine months out of the year, and that space off to the side that you can egg.

00:07:49.627 --> 00:07:53.206
There was like two entrances to it and you hung your boots and your backpacks and whatever.

00:07:53.206 --> 00:07:57.915
Yeah, ellen, ellen was told, little mini Ellen, who was probably taller than Miss.

00:07:58.317 --> 00:08:01.461
I was probably taller than Miss Meagher's, actually as well, but she did.

00:08:01.461 --> 00:08:09.708
I was third day of school and she made me in front of everybody Ellen, live your desk into the cloakroom, yeah, and the rest of the day I had to.

00:08:09.708 --> 00:08:09.829
I had.

00:08:09.829 --> 00:08:10.814
I could hear her cause.

00:08:10.814 --> 00:08:16.704
I could see through the little door that they had, but I was separated from my classmates so I wouldn't disrupt anybody.

00:08:17.406 --> 00:08:17.887
That's great.

00:08:17.887 --> 00:08:21.848
So so, education wise, you said you had the gift of the gab.

00:08:21.848 --> 00:08:23.211
You were a great writer, right?

00:08:23.211 --> 00:08:28.211
So this is something maybe journalism, maybe sports journalism, because you have that ilk.

00:08:28.211 --> 00:08:33.592
You had nothing on your mind about getting into any kind of health related field, correct?

00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:35.225
No, no, never crossed my mind.

00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:38.424
So was it so?

00:08:38.424 --> 00:08:44.120
Sports maybe the dream, and if that doesn't work out, I'm going to go into maybe journalism or something like that.

00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:45.868
Or were you not thinking along those lines?

00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.546
You know, really truthfully, I kind of I was.

00:08:48.546 --> 00:08:50.070
I'm a kid, that, and a gal.

00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:53.427
To this day it's truthfully over 50 and I'm still flying by the seat of my pants.

00:08:53.427 --> 00:08:55.245
I'm not I, you know.

00:08:55.245 --> 00:08:58.080
But at that, as I was maturing, like again, I had opportunity.

00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:02.091
As I said, I was a freshman starter on the, on the varsity basketball team in high school.

00:09:02.091 --> 00:09:03.365
I played at a good high school.

00:09:03.365 --> 00:09:09.493
My senior year I ended up transferring to even a better high school because I, it, just, it just worked out for me.

00:09:09.493 --> 00:09:13.931
It was a better fit at the, at the, you know, the popular Catholic school in downtown Milwaukee.

00:09:13.931 --> 00:09:18.792
So, and and I, so I did obviously get a D one scholarship.

00:09:18.792 --> 00:09:27.279
I first started at Illinois State and then I ended up my career at Marquette University, which is where I actually had wanted to go all along, because I'm a girl from Milwaukee.

00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:33.846
You know, I was an Alma Gweyer, you know, you know, disciple my dad used to quote him at the dinner table.

00:09:33.846 --> 00:09:35.701
So, yeah, and it was.

00:09:35.701 --> 00:09:41.068
So sports, sports was what got me through Because I was I, I, you know paid for my education.

00:09:41.068 --> 00:09:43.787
My parents thanked me well into my forties for that.

00:09:43.787 --> 00:09:48.871
But, yeah, but, but again, along the way it was really.

00:09:48.871 --> 00:09:50.798
It was really, larry.

00:09:50.957 --> 00:10:01.528
When I got my internship at the Milwaukee Brewers my junior year, that's when I realized that, huh, like there, wow, there's, you can actually work in sports.

00:10:01.528 --> 00:10:02.068
You know what I mean.

00:10:02.068 --> 00:10:05.008
Like the writing, was I going to be a newspaper writer?

00:10:05.008 --> 00:10:06.403
Maybe?

00:10:06.403 --> 00:10:08.249
Was I going to find a way to make that?

00:10:08.249 --> 00:10:09.261
Yeah, but it really.

00:10:09.261 --> 00:10:15.042
I was just so ensconced in playing basketball and just trying to, you know, you know, win and it really.

00:10:15.042 --> 00:10:22.567
Sports really my, my athleticism and my participation on the team, obviously in college was really drove, a lot of things.

00:10:22.567 --> 00:10:27.884
It took, it's very time consuming, even in the off season, you know you're you're playing six days a week, you know so.

00:10:27.884 --> 00:10:33.648
But yeah, it was when I got on that scholar, excuse me, when I got the opportunity to intern at the Brewers.

00:10:33.648 --> 00:10:34.841
That's when I started to.

00:10:34.841 --> 00:10:43.121
That's when I networked, I got, you know, next, started networking with guys at ESPN, started freelancing for them, abc, golf, so that's when.

00:10:43.121 --> 00:10:46.410
That's when I probably made the mental pivot.

00:10:46.410 --> 00:10:48.706
Let's see where this takes me, you know.

00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.404
So start with that, ben, how did you get the internship?

00:10:51.404 --> 00:10:53.711
Was that something through Marquette University?

00:10:53.711 --> 00:10:55.277
Talk about that and how that came about.

00:10:55.780 --> 00:10:57.265
Yeah, yeah, I had a teacher.

00:10:57.265 --> 00:11:07.268
I hate myself for always forgetting her name, but she was a teacher, one of my, in my again, I remember I transferred back home to Milwaukee so it would have been my junior year and it was my redshirt year.

00:11:07.268 --> 00:11:09.317
So I took five years to get through.

00:11:09.317 --> 00:11:10.581
I have four years of playing.

00:11:10.581 --> 00:11:22.102
I played two years at Illinois State and then I transferred back home to Milwaukee and I redshirted my junior year and I did not travel with the team when they were on the road, so that gave.

00:11:22.102 --> 00:11:23.265
So I had some downtime.

00:11:23.265 --> 00:11:27.380
I did a little side job house on the side but then I had two more years.

00:11:27.380 --> 00:11:29.769
I graduated in five years from college, if you will.

00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:51.591
But so in that junior year, this particular teacher, she made the comment to us on the, literally on the first day of class you know it was a media writing class, as a matter of fact as well and she was like listen, if you want to get into the media, if you want a job in this, that and the other, and you think you're going to be rich, you better get used to eating a lot of macaroni and cheese.

00:11:51.591 --> 00:11:54.822
I mean, and first of all, I love macaroni and cheese.

00:11:54.822 --> 00:11:56.225
What kid at 20 deserts.

00:11:56.245 --> 00:11:56.967
What's wrong with that?

00:11:56.967 --> 00:11:57.890
That's fantastic.

00:11:59.341 --> 00:11:59.822
I was like.

00:11:59.822 --> 00:12:01.626
I was like you're like that's a bad thing.

00:12:01.626 --> 00:12:03.130
I'm sorry, what's the downside of this?

00:12:03.130 --> 00:12:06.505
But I knew that she meant that that way.

00:12:06.505 --> 00:12:13.734
I mean, she was hardcore and I found that to be very refreshing actually, but it also did not deter me.

00:12:13.734 --> 00:12:24.774
And so I and she and I don't know if I was a favorite student she obviously know I played for the team, the women's basketball team, and she was the one that introduced me to the.

00:12:25.155 --> 00:12:33.751
She's the one that was kind of siphoning through internship opportunities at that time and she pulled me aside after class and told me had you, had you thought about doing an internship?

00:12:33.751 --> 00:12:38.791
This is this just came in from the Milwaukee Brewers and and that's kind of how it went.

00:12:38.791 --> 00:12:40.696
And so I was accepted.

00:12:40.696 --> 00:12:43.668
I ended up sticking that out there for two years.

00:12:43.668 --> 00:12:48.969
I did that for both my, my registered year, and I ended up finding a way to get that done the next year as well.

00:12:48.969 --> 00:13:04.490
So it really worked out well for me and and I'll let you guys in on a little secret back in those days this would have been like 88, 89, you know, 1988 or nine 1988 or 89.

00:13:04.510 --> 00:13:05.974
Yeah, that would have been really cool.

00:13:07.857 --> 00:13:08.960
That's a good point, very good point.

00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:32.614
Uh, my, uh, my job, my responsibility at that very first time was that I I was responsible for making the batting practice, warm up tape, and when I say tape, I mean the cassette tape that went into the tape recorder up the tape, we went into the tape recorder up in the press box when the guys came out to you know, do their batting practice before a game.

00:13:32.934 --> 00:13:34.059
That was my responsibility.

00:13:35.121 --> 00:13:36.645
I wasn't, actually I don't believe it.

00:13:36.745 --> 00:13:38.149
I don't believe it, but you were a DJ.

00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:46.013
Are you sitting in your dorm room like hitting, play and record, like on one track or the next?

00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:48.962
Oh my gosh.

00:13:48.962 --> 00:13:52.957
No, the good news is I actually got to use the Milwaukee brewer equipment.

00:13:52.957 --> 00:13:58.461
So no, they had a little mini studio up in the up in the up in the press box and I'm saying press box, it was.

00:13:58.461 --> 00:14:02.960
They had offices up there behind you know, behind where you Kerrin, everybody was.

00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.871
Yeah, there was an actual office area and I was able to use their equipment.

00:14:08.135 --> 00:14:08.616
That's great.

00:14:08.657 --> 00:14:18.467
So one of your primary responsibilities was to create the the batting practice, if I heard that correctly mixtape for all of the different players.

00:14:18.467 --> 00:14:23.842
Now we want to keep going on the journey, but but we also can't let that go.

00:14:23.842 --> 00:14:29.734
So, from what I remember, some of the players on that team were Paul Molotow.

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.043
Robin Yant.

00:14:31.104 --> 00:14:35.888
Yeah, I don't know if Jim Gantner's right, but that's in my head he had he might have been on that team.

00:14:35.908 --> 00:14:37.635
Yeah, oh yeah, tabby was there.

00:14:37.635 --> 00:14:43.403
By the way, jim Gantner's daughter went out to be a very good basketball player at the first high school I went to.

00:14:43.403 --> 00:14:45.351
She became a little local stud herself.

00:14:45.351 --> 00:14:46.899
But anyway, yeah no those are all the names.

00:14:46.899 --> 00:14:48.744
You're right, Larry, that's those are all correct.

00:14:49.325 --> 00:14:55.374
So with those people on the squad and I don't know how, how many people in our audience are going to remember those folks.

00:14:55.374 --> 00:15:03.904
But anyway, thinking about those players, do you have any great mixtape stories like random songs that were requested, that were just totally out there?

00:15:03.904 --> 00:15:07.736
That would make people laugh 89 huh, yeah, yeah.

00:15:08.118 --> 00:15:09.864
That is exactly what was Robin Yant's song.

00:15:09.864 --> 00:15:11.128
What was Robin Yant's song?

00:15:12.051 --> 00:15:14.077
See I, I you're putting me on the spot.

00:15:14.077 --> 00:15:16.664
I literally have no recollection, but I will tell you.

00:15:16.664 --> 00:15:18.129
So I can't remember, was it?

00:15:18.129 --> 00:15:19.351
You know, tupac Shakur?

00:15:19.351 --> 00:15:21.508
If that was even I'm not, I'm not sure.

00:15:21.528 --> 00:15:23.796
No way Robin Yant is listening to Tupac Shakur.

00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:26.082
No, but was it?

00:15:26.082 --> 00:15:26.543
Was it?

00:15:26.543 --> 00:15:26.985
You know?

00:15:26.985 --> 00:15:28.710
Whoever?

00:15:28.710 --> 00:15:34.447
Whatever, billy, I don't, I don't remember who anybody's was, but what I did, what I will tell you.

00:15:34.447 --> 00:15:36.092
I like I don't even know.

00:15:36.092 --> 00:15:37.558
I don't even know how they did it.

00:15:37.558 --> 00:15:40.486
Before I got there, I don't know if this had ever been done.

00:15:40.486 --> 00:15:41.448
I didn't ask it.

00:15:41.448 --> 00:15:42.351
I don't remember, or do I?

00:15:42.351 --> 00:15:44.264
I just know I was assigned that task.

00:15:44.264 --> 00:15:46.730
So I just like, go down onto the field Again.

00:15:46.769 --> 00:15:59.446
I was there in not only on game days, but to I was there during the week too, do another stuff for the, for the brewers, and that I would just go down in the field and ask the guys like hey Robin, hey Paul, what's your I'm?

00:15:59.446 --> 00:16:00.451
This is who I am.

00:16:00.451 --> 00:16:02.419
I'm the new intern, this is what I'm responsible for.

00:16:02.419 --> 00:16:03.643
What song do you want to hear?

00:16:03.643 --> 00:16:08.341
And I kind of remember my boss at the time being like huh, that was she.

00:16:08.341 --> 00:16:10.610
I think she thought I was just going to pick stuff.

00:16:10.610 --> 00:16:17.879
I took it upon my I don't know if that's what she wanted me to do, but I took it upon myself to go down and ask them what do you want?

00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:19.664
And that's, that's how.

00:16:20.027 --> 00:16:22.374
I mean I, you know, there you go, that's what happened.

00:16:22.374 --> 00:16:22.634
So that.

00:16:22.855 --> 00:16:40.975
So I've apologized to sure I absolutely cannot remember what Robin Yeung's batting breakfast warmup was, if you had any, if you had anywhere with all, you would have kept those tapes and now sold them for like tons of money, Like, hey, this is, this is how I'm trying to give you, trying to try to help you make money here.

00:16:40.975 --> 00:16:45.809
For God's sake, always a side hustle, always a side hustle.

00:16:45.809 --> 00:16:52.389
So, so from that, from that, from that internship, so how did that then catapult you into your first gig?

00:16:53.660 --> 00:16:56.490
Well, interesting, like I said, I bounced around a lot.

00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:57.956
I, as you all know you.

00:16:57.956 --> 00:17:02.214
You think there came a point where it's like I think I might be able to get on air like this.

00:17:02.214 --> 00:17:05.165
I think that's the next phase of what happened.

00:17:05.165 --> 00:17:06.290
Can I get on air?

00:17:06.290 --> 00:17:06.692
Can I?

00:17:06.692 --> 00:17:08.660
Can I, you know, do updates, whatever?

00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:14.660
But I remember what happened, what really happened then, before I even pursued on air work in radio.

00:17:15.663 --> 00:17:21.845
But I I sprelanced for ESPN for quite a while and I just did some odd jobs Just after I got out of college.

00:17:21.845 --> 00:17:28.570
I just was, I was a hustler, so I waitress, you know, for a while I knew that I wanted to pursue something in sports.

00:17:28.570 --> 00:17:30.660
At this point still hadn't completely landed on what it was.

00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:46.624
But through my time at at the Brewers I absolutely started networking with the different producers, sunday Night Baseball Producers guy by the name of Fred back in the day and I and every time they came to Milwaukee, every time they came to Chicago, I was only 70, you know, 70 miles away.

00:17:46.624 --> 00:17:50.258
So I, whether they were at the Cubs or the White Sox, they called on me.

00:17:50.258 --> 00:17:50.720
I hopped in a car.

00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:53.910
I think I made 75 bucks a game.

00:17:53.910 --> 00:17:54.372
I mean it was.

00:17:54.372 --> 00:17:56.819
It cost me more to do everything, but whatever.

00:17:56.819 --> 00:18:01.414
So, and then from that I got again the word.

00:18:01.435 --> 00:18:05.605
I just started hustling and I started doing, you know, the ABC Gulf.

00:18:05.605 --> 00:18:19.846
In fact, one of the cool things that happened is I got to be on that team when Tiger, his first professional, you know appearance, was at the Milwaukee GMO, the Greater Milwaukee Open, and I was part of the ABC team.

00:18:19.846 --> 00:18:21.651
We late, we come in about a week early.

00:18:21.651 --> 00:18:22.982
We laid and I lived there.

00:18:22.982 --> 00:18:24.147
So I was working.

00:18:24.167 --> 00:18:31.490
You know I was hanging around, but I actually by that time I was at the radio station called WISN.

00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:38.267
It was a second in command behind the WTMJ was like the flagship of the brewers, the bucks.

00:18:38.267 --> 00:18:50.818
I had worked there for a couple of years as well, but by this time so actually I'm kind of lying I was already into my career a little bit when that ABC thing happened, because I did have to take off from work at WISN where I was at afternoon.

00:18:50.818 --> 00:18:55.681
I was a board up, I was the producer of the afternoon drive time sports talk show there, and so I was now.

00:18:55.681 --> 00:19:01.000
I was kind of I was producing and getting, I was doing some on air work, I was filling in for traffic.

00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:10.207
I was doing the Marquette Women's color commentating at WISN and at that at that we came in for, you know, the GMO.

00:19:10.207 --> 00:19:14.980
I got opportunity to do that, my station supported that, and so it was just.

00:19:14.980 --> 00:19:18.391
I was kind of dipping my toe in a bunch of little pots at that point in my career.

00:19:18.740 --> 00:19:27.827
Ellen, I don't want to gloss over this part of your story because it's important, you know, because I could hear people out there saying, oh great, you got this job, and you got that job and you got that job, like how right.

00:19:27.907 --> 00:19:34.093
So I mean this is a story about your journey and chasing your dreams, but people are trying to follow in your path.

00:19:34.093 --> 00:19:35.900
So is it relationships?

00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:37.603
I mean you talked about the gift of the gab.

00:19:37.603 --> 00:19:49.678
I mean you're talking about I met so and so and then I got that job and I met so, and so I mean you're obviously a good person to work with because people are around you and they're trying to work with you and make make things.

00:19:49.678 --> 00:19:52.519
They know you're reliable, they know you're good at what you do.

00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:54.340
So is it all just relationships?

00:19:54.340 --> 00:19:56.064
At that point you said you were hustling.

00:19:56.064 --> 00:19:56.965
What does hustling mean?

00:19:56.965 --> 00:19:58.429
Are you, are you cold calling?

00:19:58.429 --> 00:20:03.027
Are you looking at lists of opportunities Like, how does that work?

00:20:03.708 --> 00:20:05.230
Well, the that's.

00:20:05.230 --> 00:20:06.093
That's really great.

00:20:06.093 --> 00:20:07.423
That's a that's a great question.

00:20:07.423 --> 00:20:17.839
I I, when I was like I said just just to start, go back to the brewery thing Again, no one told me to go down and start talking to the guys, but I did and so I started.

00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:20.007
I'm not afraid to do stuff like that.

00:20:20.007 --> 00:20:22.856
You know, I'm also even in my basketball playing.

00:20:23.479 --> 00:20:25.627
I was the girl I grew up out in the burbs.

00:20:25.627 --> 00:20:29.222
I didn't grow up in the inner city of Milwaukee, I grew up out in the burbs.

00:20:29.222 --> 00:20:41.650
I was going to a Catholic high school but I would go into the inner city and I would play basketball and the playgrounds with both men and women that were not my peers or neighbors in my neighborhood, because I wanted to get better.

00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:52.012
In fact, true story on that, my head, the head coach at that senior the high school that I went to, my senior year, where we won state and all that he had said you always have to play to get better.

00:20:52.012 --> 00:20:54.040
You have to play with people who are better than you.

00:20:54.040 --> 00:20:55.944
He encouraged us to play with guys.

00:20:55.944 --> 00:20:58.111
And this is, I don't know if this is all pre.

00:20:58.111 --> 00:21:01.031
You know everybody getting weird about being told what to do.

00:21:01.031 --> 00:21:02.862
That coach was like you guys want to do something.

00:21:02.862 --> 00:21:05.978
You got to play with the, the fellas go, you know, play in the playgrounds.

00:21:05.978 --> 00:21:06.660
And I did that.

00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:17.354
I took I took him at his word so fast forward that mentality of I'm not afraid to be an outsider, I'm not afraid to try stuff that might be against the norm.

00:21:17.354 --> 00:21:18.396
That so.

00:21:18.396 --> 00:21:31.487
So to answer your question, when I got the opportunity to, the reason I got the opportunity is because, for even being up involved with ESPN Saturday Night Baseball, the brewers called me and said hey, espn is coming to town, blarty Blart, can you be here?

00:21:31.487 --> 00:21:35.038
I got there and even in that opportunity I may.

00:21:35.038 --> 00:21:39.549
I went into the truck, I talked to the Kairon guys, I introduced myself.

00:21:39.549 --> 00:21:48.971
So I and also just as another sidebar Larry, you have to remember that I and I I was a standout athlete in that market as well.

00:21:48.971 --> 00:21:51.005
So people followed my journey.

00:21:51.145 --> 00:21:54.679
I was a very unique person that had played basketball for.

00:21:54.679 --> 00:21:59.971
I started as a freshman I told you, freshman sophomore junior at a high school further outside of Milwaukee.

00:21:59.971 --> 00:22:05.578
For various reasons there was coaching issues I then transferred my senior year to Pius.

00:22:05.578 --> 00:22:07.124
That got a lot of attention.

00:22:07.124 --> 00:22:16.093
Interestingly, at that time People followed me as a while I was at Pius, you know, I replaced a girl that had been an outstanding.

00:22:16.093 --> 00:22:21.740
She was a six foot five girl that had been an icon at that, that Catholic high school in downtown Milwaukee.

00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:23.782
She went on to play at Norder Dame.

00:22:23.782 --> 00:22:45.338
I came in and behind her and played and we won state and I went on to play, not at Norder Dame, but so I was kind of on the radar and, and so when I, when these other opportunities came up, how did I get to the radio station, how people kind of knew who I was because of my sports background in Milwaukee, if you can believe it, and so so there's a little bit of that.

00:22:45.358 --> 00:22:47.326
There was some cache with some of these things.

00:22:47.326 --> 00:22:58.604
But to get, have ESPN keep calling me back to have these these little hustling opportunities, yeah, I made a point to shake hands, let you know, make a presence, and I did follow up.

00:22:58.604 --> 00:22:59.867
I followed up with Fred.

00:22:59.867 --> 00:23:03.180
I sent Fred the producer Christmas cards at Christmas.

00:23:03.180 --> 00:23:15.442
You know, I when I got opportunities, when I got my first full-time job, seriously making three dollars and 50 cents an hour as a board op, six days a week at a jazz station, that's where I landed at first.

00:23:15.522 --> 00:23:21.638
I was there for got to start somewhere driving my little dots and you know, all the way out there, no benefits.

00:23:21.638 --> 00:23:23.260
I told him about that.

00:23:23.260 --> 00:23:24.482
I said I, this is what I'm.

00:23:24.482 --> 00:23:28.689
So I did keep in touch with people and even then they were still keeping.

00:23:28.689 --> 00:23:32.820
They were still, you know, calling me when they came to the market or even in the nearby market.

00:23:32.820 --> 00:23:49.179
So I I just made I never had a fear of Kind of just sticking my nose into stuff and I wanted to learn I there was times actually I don't think I ever shared this to sharp eyes, even know this there actually was a time that I thought I wanted to be a chiron operator.

00:23:49.298 --> 00:23:51.662
I thought that was a cool, a cool gig.

00:23:51.662 --> 00:23:52.142
I like I.

00:23:52.142 --> 00:23:57.229
When I sat in the truck in like the off, like during the baseball games, I started doing this for bucks as well.

00:23:57.229 --> 00:24:04.923
I got some opportunities over at the box I'm arena again just being a little runner doing things for the guys that were coming in from other teams.

00:24:04.923 --> 00:24:11.151
But I would sit in the truck in the off time before they told me, hey, go do this, and then I get out of the truck and I go run and do it.

00:24:11.151 --> 00:24:13.397
But I like that chiron.

00:24:13.397 --> 00:24:15.422
I actually kind of thought that was an opportunity.

00:24:15.422 --> 00:24:19.990
But again radio just kept sucking me and I got my career really exploded through radio.

00:24:20.454 --> 00:24:27.846
Wow, that's a that, that, that's a whirlwind that you just described and you know, as you are going through that, you know.

00:24:27.846 --> 00:24:37.909
Part of what I started to think about, which I didn't know before, is the fact that you were you were a known quantity, so to speak, within the area where people knew your story.

00:24:37.909 --> 00:24:41.295
You know, maybe you, they were creating some opportunities for you along the way.

00:24:41.615 --> 00:24:46.246
You're a big fish yeah, you were a big fish in a small pond, but that's exactly where I'm headed.

00:24:46.246 --> 00:24:52.663
So eventually you take the leap and you wind up in larger markets.

00:24:52.663 --> 00:24:54.445
I know you wind up in new york.

00:24:54.445 --> 00:25:13.307
I don't recall if there was an intermediate step, but you know how difficult was it for you and how scary was it for you to to step out of that world where you were comfortable, you were known, you were Respected by your reputation and by your story, to take that leap into something new and bigger.

00:25:14.056 --> 00:25:15.597
Well, you know again.

00:25:15.597 --> 00:25:31.246
So this is so cool to go for me to go down memory lane, because, yeah, I did end up leaving milwaukee, which at the time I want to say I want to say it was about a size thirty three, thirty four market and I, the thing that propelled me, I had a good gig.

00:25:31.246 --> 00:25:35.862
I was a, I was a Afternoon drive time sports talk show producer.

00:25:35.862 --> 00:25:39.067
I was doing the color commentary for the market women.

00:25:39.067 --> 00:25:42.221
You know, during the season obviously they only did the home game.

00:25:42.221 --> 00:25:43.124
So was it like it was?

00:25:43.124 --> 00:25:47.819
I didn't travel for that at that point, but but I had a problem.

00:25:47.819 --> 00:25:49.942
There was a, there was a and I was doing fill in.

00:25:49.942 --> 00:25:51.707
My voice was on the air.

00:25:51.707 --> 00:25:55.519
I was doing fill in traffic as well, for you know I'm, when I say traffic, I mean like that.

00:25:55.519 --> 00:26:02.661
You know there's a, there's an accident on i-94 actual traffic reports, you try exactly with it when there was a live person doing that.

00:26:02.661 --> 00:26:05.647
I'm listening to the scanners and I'm just so that all happened.

00:26:06.115 --> 00:26:06.875
There came a point.

00:26:06.875 --> 00:26:17.939
I was there about three years and I and I, the guy, the producer, the guy who hosted the show, he would talk to me, he would talk to me and he called me.

00:26:17.939 --> 00:26:19.682
You know, bunny, so you talk to me on the air.

00:26:19.682 --> 00:26:23.409
I had a nickname and but I couldn't answer him back on air.

00:26:23.409 --> 00:26:30.709
So I would like push the little thing and I speak into his headphones and then he would like regurgitate to the audience what I said.

00:26:30.709 --> 00:26:33.857
And I gotta tell you guys, it just bugged me.

00:26:33.857 --> 00:26:35.039
It and he was.

00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:36.201
He was great to me.

00:26:36.201 --> 00:26:36.902
It was not.

00:26:36.902 --> 00:26:40.306
It was my working relationship with that, with Homer was his name?

00:26:40.306 --> 00:26:41.047
Was Steve the Homer?

00:26:41.047 --> 00:26:41.907
True, he was.

00:26:41.907 --> 00:26:45.876
It was great, but it just made no sense to me when I what.

00:26:45.876 --> 00:26:47.701
Why I couldn't respond back on air.

00:26:47.760 --> 00:26:50.968
So I did go to the, the program director at one point.

00:26:50.968 --> 00:26:55.901
I was like I said, I was here a couple, two, three years, but I finally was starting to get bugged by.

00:26:55.901 --> 00:26:58.244
I'm getting older, I'm realizing that.

00:26:58.244 --> 00:26:59.486
You know I am.

00:26:59.486 --> 00:27:00.867
I got some value here.

00:27:00.867 --> 00:27:02.349
Let's just have some fun with this.

00:27:02.349 --> 00:27:07.104
I'm not a co-host, but when you ask me a certain question, let me please answer it on air.

00:27:07.124 --> 00:27:18.060
But the program director was having none of it and, interestingly enough and this kind of becomes a trend throughout my career and even into my life now I thought me, screw you guys, I'm gonna.

00:27:18.060 --> 00:27:18.541
I'm gonna.

00:27:18.541 --> 00:27:19.743
I'm gonna give my notice.

00:27:19.743 --> 00:27:21.247
I had a little bit of a plan.

00:27:21.247 --> 00:27:22.169
There's more to that story.

00:27:22.169 --> 00:27:24.637
I did go to Atlanta.

00:27:24.637 --> 00:27:26.240
I did before I gave my notice.

00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:28.123
I did go to a trip to Atlanta.

00:27:28.123 --> 00:27:29.986
This would have been about ninety.

00:27:29.986 --> 00:27:33.369
It was before the Olympics, but the Olympics were coming in ninety six.

00:27:33.369 --> 00:27:41.124
So it was probably late ninety five, early ninety six that I went to Atlanta I it was a bigger market.

00:27:41.124 --> 00:27:43.246
I brought resumes with me.

00:27:43.246 --> 00:27:44.827
I literally went to see.

00:27:44.827 --> 00:27:50.925
I thought I could just walk into CNN and hand out resumes to people, which is exactly what I tried to do.

00:27:52.717 --> 00:28:05.010
That didn't, that didn't really work out for me, but it was also in that three at the office is right now they did not do that but but I did realize in that moment they already were starting to ramp up for the Olympics.

00:28:05.010 --> 00:28:09.163
And when I came back home and I thought about it, I did talk.

00:28:09.163 --> 00:28:11.606
I did talk to some people who I trusted at the time.

00:28:11.606 --> 00:28:20.509
They're like, man, that's gonna, if you're gonna try to move without a job, that is gonna be a hard market that everything's gonna soar, they're gonna inflate, you know, if you don't have a gig.

00:28:20.509 --> 00:28:28.429
So I did what I did was I did lean back into market at that point and I asked them do we have any alumni in Charlotte?

00:28:28.429 --> 00:28:34.344
Because I pulled out the NBA blue book guys and I, because I had access to all that, I was doing some.

00:28:34.344 --> 00:28:35.266
I was going to.

00:28:35.266 --> 00:28:39.356
The other thing that was happening while I was at this radio station Is they were sending me to the.

00:28:39.356 --> 00:28:43.083
I was going to the box, I was going back to the brewers, I was getting sound bites for them.

00:28:43.083 --> 00:28:43.903
So I was.

00:28:43.903 --> 00:28:50.820
I had a lot of little things, everything, but actually being on air Full, you know, in the capacity that I talked about when I could just answer people.

00:28:50.820 --> 00:28:53.365
So they sure enough days.

00:28:53.444 --> 00:28:54.666
I kind of did my research.

00:28:54.666 --> 00:29:04.365
There was an equivalent Wbt it's called, here in Charlotte and which is where I live in this outskirts of that now, and I guys, I literally gave my notice.

00:29:04.365 --> 00:29:11.916
I came to Charlotte without a some money in my hand and I I told I did call ahead.

00:29:11.916 --> 00:29:20.525
I did call ahead to the Wbt in Charlotte, told them I was moving to the market, sent my resume, told them that this is what I had been doing.

00:29:20.525 --> 00:29:25.388
So they did know that I and they did ask me to get when I got settled to come in for an interview.

00:29:25.388 --> 00:29:26.390
I did all that.

00:29:26.390 --> 00:29:29.112
They offered me an overnight board up position.

00:29:29.112 --> 00:29:32.777
I took it just because I thought let me get my foot in the door.

00:29:32.777 --> 00:29:51.290
I never had to do the overnight board up position because michelle to foyer, who had been out the afternoon drive time person with the again the main, the mail, doing the sports talk show, she left the Charlotte market to go to wherever, I guess I don't new york cbs, I don't remember where she went.

00:29:51.530 --> 00:29:56.616
This was 96, late 96, june, you know, halfway through 96 at this point.

00:29:56.616 --> 00:30:02.281
And I they called me back cuz I also had a demo tape at that point that I submitted to them as well.

00:30:02.281 --> 00:30:09.788
And there you go, I literally replicated my life from the walkie again afternoon drive time sports talk show host.

00:30:09.788 --> 00:30:14.296
Excuse me to producer for the talk show, but he let me on the air.

00:30:14.296 --> 00:30:17.880
We, I became his sidekick and then I you know the horn excuse me.

00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:25.528
The panthers kind of became the franchise opened up here and we were back off to the races and so I was covering sports.

00:30:25.528 --> 00:30:28.951
I was in the locker rooms, I was getting sound bites, but I was on air as well.

00:30:29.496 --> 00:30:31.323
How long we win the charlotte market for.

00:30:32.237 --> 00:30:35.326
Dude, I was there for literally almost 13 months, to the day.

00:30:36.015 --> 00:30:36.276
Alright.

00:30:36.276 --> 00:30:37.616
So what point?

00:30:37.616 --> 00:30:42.623
During the 13 months, did you say to yourself I want to move to a bigger market, in that being new york, or did you even?

00:30:42.623 --> 00:30:43.443
Or did that even?

00:30:43.443 --> 00:30:45.204
And your mind at any point?

00:30:45.405 --> 00:30:46.227
absolutely didn't.

00:30:46.227 --> 00:30:48.848
I was loving my life in the carolinas.

00:30:48.848 --> 00:30:56.501
The reason I got I came to new york Was because the afternoon drive time sports talk show host I was working for was a fellow.

00:30:56.501 --> 00:30:57.983
He was a former new york citizen.

00:30:57.983 --> 00:30:59.766
He benette gardener web.

00:30:59.766 --> 00:31:02.710
He gardener web is that, that's not that he was.

00:31:02.710 --> 00:31:03.911
Anyway, he's a basketball guy.

00:31:03.911 --> 00:31:08.159
He came to the carolinas gardener web is down here, but he had been involved.

00:31:08.159 --> 00:31:08.859
He's a new yorker.

00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:12.663
See what he spoke talk, look like a new yorker, is they say in the south.

00:31:12.663 --> 00:31:13.865
You could, and I did too.

00:31:13.865 --> 00:31:15.967
I I didn't speak like a new yorker, but you could.

00:31:15.967 --> 00:31:19.390
The southerners know when infiltrators come to the marketplace.

00:31:19.390 --> 00:31:24.519
He was from new york, I was from wisconsin, but he would always have on.

00:31:24.519 --> 00:31:29.647
Remember, we did not have a baseball team, there was no baseball team here and so he always had us.

00:31:29.647 --> 00:31:30.950
He had sweeney murty.

00:31:30.950 --> 00:31:40.404
We had sweeney murty on during the baseball season on the regular who came on and talked about the Yankees, and that is how.

00:31:40.404 --> 00:31:41.145
So I got sweet.

00:31:41.145 --> 00:31:44.348
Then all of a sudden, through that I started getting mike brian on the air.

00:31:44.348 --> 00:31:54.726
We literally were the carolinas, but because this was a new yorker doing sports talk and there's a lot of there's a lot of northerners and people from other places that have emigrated, if you will, to the carolinas.

00:31:55.086 --> 00:31:57.990
So it worked, it really worked, and it was along.

00:31:57.990 --> 00:31:58.651
That time.

00:31:58.651 --> 00:32:00.376
That's we need one day.

00:32:00.376 --> 00:32:13.171
When he, when he caught, when I was calling to get him on, a sweetie murty was at wfa and at that time told me he was leaving and he was going to wip in philadelphia and he said, hey l, you should apply for this job.

00:32:13.171 --> 00:32:15.178
You, they're gonna be looking for somebody.

00:32:15.178 --> 00:32:17.342
It never occurred I would have.

00:32:17.342 --> 00:32:19.345
I would have continued to stay doing what I was doing.

00:32:19.345 --> 00:32:21.648
It was sweetie that put that bug in my head.

00:32:22.195 --> 00:32:22.476
Alright.

00:32:22.476 --> 00:32:27.825
So just so everyone knows we need murty was for many years for thirty years he was.

00:32:27.825 --> 00:32:37.041
He was the beat reporter for the Yankee, for the new york Yankees, for wfa in new york, was a colleague of mine and ellens, and now actually is over at mlb network.

00:32:37.041 --> 00:32:42.409
So if you ever wonder who's we need murty is, or if you have a mlb network, he is actually one of their big.

00:32:42.409 --> 00:32:47.859
He's actually one of their big Baseball baseball contributors now for mlb network.

00:32:47.859 --> 00:32:53.307
So is a long time guy in the in the industry, good guy, one of the really good guys out there.

00:32:53.307 --> 00:32:57.039
So now the story has to be how do?

00:32:57.039 --> 00:32:59.505
Who was it that got you into new york?

00:32:59.505 --> 00:32:59.705
Cuz?

00:32:59.705 --> 00:33:00.647
I know this is a good story.

00:33:02.478 --> 00:33:05.682
So he puts that bug in my ear and I think, alright, well, what do I got?

00:33:05.682 --> 00:33:06.724
I'm single, I got.

00:33:06.724 --> 00:33:07.747
What do I got to lose?

00:33:07.747 --> 00:33:16.008
I do submit the resume and as I wait for that along the time, also remember I told you that brenny was really.

00:33:16.028 --> 00:33:22.845
Would Mike brian excuse me, my brain for the new york mix at the time, play by, play he, we were playing.

00:33:22.845 --> 00:33:27.557
They would come down and play the hornets and at one particular I was, he was on the air.

00:33:27.557 --> 00:33:29.961
He would always come on when they were in town from his hotel.

00:33:29.961 --> 00:33:32.846
And on this one day I said, hey, I'm coming, I'm coming to the game tonight.

00:33:32.846 --> 00:33:34.228
I'll stop by and see you.

00:33:34.228 --> 00:33:35.470
I've never met my brain.

00:33:35.470 --> 00:33:55.249
And I go to press row at the at the charlotte coliseum at that time and I I see that I see the place where the guys from the other team are gonna be sitting, court side, and I walk up to this very handsome black gentleman who happens to, I now know, be well clad frazier, and I say to him hey, have you, do you know who mike brian is?

00:33:55.249 --> 00:33:56.029
Is he around?

00:33:56.029 --> 00:34:09.610
That became the running joke for like ever that ellen belk had the audacity to ask the one of the greatest you know, icons and be a history who might bring, was like my brain never let me live that down.

00:34:10.597 --> 00:34:21.702
As a basketball player yourself, you have no idea who one of the great players of all time hey, I was no, I was zoned in on glenn rivers come on back rivers is my guy.

00:34:22.061 --> 00:34:24.485
I didn't have any, but yeah, anyway, so well.

00:34:24.485 --> 00:34:27.228
And so what it really was is is greeny I can.

00:34:27.228 --> 00:34:33.320
I did the same thing with bring as I have done in years past sent him christmas cards, same with you know, sweetie I.

00:34:33.320 --> 00:34:39.389
I definitely networked in the old school ways of literally writing something on a card and putting it in the mail.

00:34:39.389 --> 00:34:41.635
You know one of those ways, so old school.

00:34:41.635 --> 00:34:48.947
So, yeah, it went and sure enough, I got the call and I really always knew that bring it, bring it did call me and tell me we did talk on the phone.

00:34:48.947 --> 00:34:51.590
He said I'm gonna put in a good word for you, kid, and whatever.

00:34:51.590 --> 00:34:52.576
And that's how I.

00:34:52.576 --> 00:34:57.983
So I think, between both sweetie and bring I, that's how I probably got the foot in the door.

00:34:58.704 --> 00:35:03.851
But when I got so yeah, mark, turn off the program director at you know, w f a n called me.

00:35:03.851 --> 00:35:05.016
They flew me up.

00:35:05.016 --> 00:35:19.902
I flew up there for literally I was going in and out in a day and I came into this coffee in a story studios and I had this interview and while I, before you knew it, about a couple months later I was packing up a movie truck and move into new york.

00:35:19.902 --> 00:35:21.405
That's fast.

00:35:21.405 --> 00:35:22.927
That's was ninety seven.

00:35:22.927 --> 00:35:25.170
Ninety seven is when I landed.

00:35:25.514 --> 00:35:30.862
It's a pretty good foot in the door I gotta tell you, so you hired by them.

00:35:30.862 --> 00:35:31.804
What are they hire you to do?

00:35:31.804 --> 00:35:33.025
What is your responsibilities?

00:35:33.025 --> 00:35:36.670
How did you ease into the new york city way of life?

00:35:38.657 --> 00:35:39.438
Is there an ease?

00:35:39.778 --> 00:35:42.923
yeah, I yeah yeah I was for the midnight.

00:35:42.923 --> 00:35:44.987
My shift was second shift for the midnight.

00:35:44.987 --> 00:35:48.016
New york was overwhelming For like a hot minute.

00:35:48.016 --> 00:35:49.918
I was a fish to water to share.

00:35:49.918 --> 00:35:51.378
Even you have to be.

00:35:51.378 --> 00:35:53.780
Before I knew it, my whole entire wardrobe was black.

00:35:54.402 --> 00:36:03.570
I speak everything I own was black, you know clothes, and I was speaking faster and I never really lost that, but I was a fish to water.

00:36:03.570 --> 00:36:05.715
I didn't realize that that I had.

00:36:05.715 --> 00:36:15.827
I it was meant to be, quite frankly, but for the midnight, so so now you're a big fish in a or a bigger pond, yeah, did you feel like a big fish?

00:36:15.907 --> 00:36:17.748
did you know still have that confidence?

00:36:17.748 --> 00:36:23.159
Or were you kind of like, hey, you know what, I gotta Shift gears here a little bit pivot why had swagger?

00:36:23.259 --> 00:36:24.501
cuz, listen, I'm at this point.

00:36:24.501 --> 00:36:27.125
I'm like twenty eight is seven, twenty eight years old.

00:36:27.125 --> 00:36:36.536
I had some swagger I am, by the way, I want to also say I tried out for the W, the charlotte WNBA women's franchise, when I still live before.

00:36:36.536 --> 00:36:38.820
So I did not make the team.

00:36:38.820 --> 00:36:40.762
That was a night again ninety six.

00:36:40.762 --> 00:36:55.625
I did not make the team but again, I remember I was at the flagship station for the hornets here in the charlotte market and they offered me the opportunity to do color on WBT radio for the charlotte sting women's basketball team.

00:36:56.264 --> 00:37:05.695
I had that opportunity on the table at simultaneously as I was interviewing for the position at WFAN and I, I, literally I.

00:37:05.695 --> 00:37:11.318
It was a tough one because I had no, no, had never dreamt of being in the new york market.

00:37:11.318 --> 00:37:17.389
But then there I had the thought like yeah, I'm like wow, this is too good to pass up.

00:37:17.389 --> 00:37:20.389
So when I got there I did kind of come with some swagger.

00:37:20.389 --> 00:37:23.005
I did now know people and I had NBA.

00:37:23.005 --> 00:37:26.606
I knew people at the Bucks, I knew people at the Hornets.

00:37:26.606 --> 00:37:27.869
You know what I mean.

00:37:27.869 --> 00:37:30.226
So it wasn't like I had never done anything.

00:37:30.487 --> 00:37:32.927
I just I mean it's just not an environment for the meek.

00:37:32.927 --> 00:37:35.527
I mean you really do have to assert yourself.

00:37:35.619 --> 00:37:43.291
I want to interject for one second, so you have the opportunity to be the analyst on radio or TV.

00:37:43.291 --> 00:37:43.610
Which did you?

00:37:43.630 --> 00:37:44.532
say it would have been radio.

00:37:44.552 --> 00:38:03.628
Yeah, radio On radio for the WNBA team, which is a locked in on air position in theoretically a meaningful spot, but you chose to go to New York instead, into a much, I would think, riskier set of circumstances.

00:38:03.628 --> 00:38:05.065
Why did you make that choice?

00:38:05.065 --> 00:38:06.409
You know it.

00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:11.923
To be honest with you.

00:38:11.923 --> 00:38:17.447
Well, it was not like I was salty because I didn't make the team, but I got to be honest with you.

00:38:17.447 --> 00:38:20.927
It wasn't the, you know, it was experimental.

00:38:20.927 --> 00:38:26.766
It wasn't like it was going to be game changing dollars for me, not saying that WFAN.

00:38:26.766 --> 00:38:29.961
You know I didn't make a million dollars when I walked in the door there either.

00:38:29.961 --> 00:38:31.588
None of us did.

00:38:32.242 --> 00:38:44.585
But I guess, really truthfully, larry, it was probably just this is the unknown which was more appealing to me, quite frankly, the fact that there is more sports, there is more opportunity.

00:38:44.585 --> 00:38:48.523
You know, I ended up and I ended up getting when I got to New York.

00:38:48.523 --> 00:38:52.666
So, yes, I did the WFAN and I was there for over three years.

00:38:52.666 --> 00:38:54.706
But I also got published there.

00:38:54.706 --> 00:38:58.083
I did freelance writing, always the hustler guys, always the hustler.

00:38:58.083 --> 00:39:00.849
So I got published in New York Life Magazine.

00:39:00.849 --> 00:39:06.326
I was doing, I did, I wanted it to, I just wanted it all.

00:39:06.326 --> 00:39:09.945
I guess Now, once, I have the flavor of all this and I realized that there was options.

00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:14.364
That's why I say I was kind of a fish to water in New York, because I always there was.

00:39:14.364 --> 00:39:17.545
If you don't look it, listen what is the saying?

00:39:17.545 --> 00:39:19.507
If you can't make it here, you can't make it anywhere.

00:39:19.507 --> 00:39:32.226
If I was going to go there, I was going to make this work, because and it really it was hard, especially when I was in between jobs, and again you're just living on a wing in a prayer and trying to get back in.

00:39:32.226 --> 00:39:36.746
But I was going to make it work and I really liked New York.

00:39:36.746 --> 00:39:38.567
Quickly, I really liked New York.

00:39:38.567 --> 00:39:39.764
I was not afraid of New York.

00:39:39.764 --> 00:39:42.507
But back to Larry, to Shay's point.

00:39:42.507 --> 00:39:44.606
I did love going home to the beach.

00:39:44.606 --> 00:39:46.568
I had the best of both worlds.

00:39:46.568 --> 00:39:47.463
I slept.

00:39:47.463 --> 00:39:50.545
When I opened my window in my apartment, I could hear the ocean.

00:39:50.545 --> 00:39:57.010
When I got on the Long Island Railroad and got off at Penn Station, I loved that too.

00:39:57.010 --> 00:39:59.646
So it kind of just really worked for me.

00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:08.679
Let's talk about some of your responsibilities when you were over at the fan, because it wasn't simply sitting in the studio cold-colling guests, because you did have other responsibilities.

00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:14.266
You were out in the field and I know that was part of the real joy of your time over at FAN.

00:40:14.266 --> 00:40:20.907
So what else, aside from just being in the studio from six to midnight, did you do, because that's really where you began to shine.

00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:22.402
Yeah, I was the.

00:40:22.402 --> 00:40:24.489
So the first opportunity.

00:40:24.489 --> 00:40:30.030
I can't remember what came first, but I was also the Sunday Giants Game Day producer.

00:40:30.030 --> 00:40:36.125
So when Bob Papa was on the air, I'm in his headset hey, 10 seconds to commercial this read this spot.

00:40:36.125 --> 00:40:37.905
So I did get that opportunity.

00:40:37.905 --> 00:40:39.182
Was it year one?

00:40:39.182 --> 00:40:42.047
I don't remember, but it certainly was by year two.

00:40:42.047 --> 00:40:45.248
So I was the Game Day Studio producer for the New York Giants.

00:40:45.248 --> 00:40:55.090
Along with that then I also became the Monday night coaches show producer, for ultimately it happened for both the Giants and the Jets.

00:40:55.090 --> 00:41:00.362
So the Giants, if you can remember, back in those days we were at that steak joint which was on the first.

00:41:00.362 --> 00:41:02.961
The first year I did it the New York Giants.

00:41:02.961 --> 00:41:14.311
We were in the first floor, if I'm not mistaken, of the whatever steakhouse that was in where Grant was, where Chris yeah, where we're 9-11, we're in the World Trade Center.

00:41:14.311 --> 00:41:18.563
We ended up going to the New York, or maybe that was first.

00:41:18.563 --> 00:41:22.628
I think we did the New York Sport Club, new York Sport Club might have been first actually.

00:41:22.820 --> 00:41:23.914
I don't even know if that existed.

00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:32.121
I think that was the first location, because I think I only did because I remember I had to call the limos, get the limos there for the guys, any of the guests.

00:41:32.121 --> 00:41:37.583
I got the players from Jason Sehorn to Tiki, whatever I was that.

00:41:37.583 --> 00:41:45.842
So I was the Giants Game excuse me, game Day producer and the Monday night coaches show, which was fossil back in those days Along the way.

00:41:45.842 --> 00:41:51.371
Then the Jets their coaches show is at the Garden City Hotel out on Long Island.

00:41:51.371 --> 00:41:52.905
Well, hello, of course I'm.

00:41:52.905 --> 00:41:54.143
You know he gives me.

00:41:54.202 --> 00:42:02.548
I got that task as well, and the way they work that out I don't even know how this that's up to the program people, but every other week is how that works.

00:42:02.548 --> 00:42:04.527
So I was every Monday I was somewhere.

00:42:04.527 --> 00:42:11.362
I was either in the city doing the Giants or the following week in the out in Long Island doing the Jets, and I did so.

00:42:11.362 --> 00:42:15.686
I had that opportunity to do that as well, and so that's the kind of stuff.

00:42:15.686 --> 00:42:21.248
Now, again, I'm getting to know the players more and, of course, making sure I'm.

00:42:21.248 --> 00:42:29.969
You know, when I at some point I started to get to know front office people and you know it just, it did help grow my network and just expand.

00:42:29.969 --> 00:42:32.427
Expand the Ellen energy, if you will.

00:42:33.282 --> 00:42:34.123
All right.

00:42:34.123 --> 00:42:41.983
So another piece of disclosure here is that I left WFAN in 1999, all right, and Ellen was still there.

00:42:41.983 --> 00:42:43.523
What year did you what?

00:42:43.523 --> 00:42:45.139
Let's, let's jump ahead a little bit.

00:42:45.139 --> 00:42:46.485
What year did you leave FAN?

00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:48.545
It would have been once again.

00:42:48.545 --> 00:43:03.726
Once again, when I was slighted, when I didn't get the Giants beat reporter, I told you everything I've already done and Billy, the person, the former football player, billy Taylor, had been the Giants beat reporter and goes up to camp and all that.

00:43:03.726 --> 00:43:10.630
And when he left to go to another radio station, I did, I've it was of course I was a lot to get that.

00:43:10.630 --> 00:43:12.606
The guys all knew me, the team knew me.

00:43:12.606 --> 00:43:19.423
I didn't get it, and so I again, once again, in Ellen's style, I left the.

00:43:19.423 --> 00:43:22.907
I left, I felt, when you feel disrespected at levels like that.

00:43:22.907 --> 00:43:27.228
I don't know what it was, but I thought, no, this is BS, I have earned this right.

00:43:27.228 --> 00:43:31.661
So I left, and so I would have left to Char, I will tell you this by.

00:43:32.143 --> 00:43:44.108
It would have been sometime in 99, but I again got picked up at Iyada Internet Radio, and so I was not unemployed terribly long, but I was unemployed a little, several months probably.

00:43:44.108 --> 00:43:45.463
What year was that?

00:43:45.463 --> 00:43:48.807
Roughly End of 99, because by 2000,.

00:43:48.807 --> 00:43:51.047
By 2000 we were on the air at Iyada.

00:43:51.780 --> 00:43:52.001
All right.

00:43:52.001 --> 00:44:10.346
So I had a gig at a place called WLIV and I was a sports producer there and I actually had to build out a small reporting staff, and one of the people that I had that I actually was able to hire was my good friend, Ellen at that time Ellen Roberts to cover the Jets because she was out on the island.

00:44:10.346 --> 00:44:11.384
It made perfect sense.

00:44:11.384 --> 00:44:18.847
Now I don't know if anyone's ever seen the 30 for 30 documentary, the Two Bills with Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, either of you.

00:44:19.579 --> 00:44:22.387
I probably protested it because I didn't like the subject.

00:44:22.387 --> 00:44:26.530
Yeah, same here, nonetheless, nonetheless, there was an actual.

00:44:26.619 --> 00:44:47.126
There's a scene in the documentary where Ellen is in class with Bill Belichick while he's with the Jets during a defensive a defensive, let's say, tape session where you can see Ellen in the classroom, and there's one where they're on the field as well, where they're going through the drills for all the reporters.

00:44:47.527 --> 00:44:49.143
It's pretty cool, sounds horrible.

00:44:50.523 --> 00:44:51.929
That was awesome.

00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:57.146
As a native buffalo-ty in, it sounds absolutely positively horrible.

00:44:57.460 --> 00:45:03.148
Well, I'm so glad you can keep a clear head and, even all these years later, good to see that you don't carry a grudge, larry.

00:45:07.088 --> 00:45:07.309
All right.

00:45:07.309 --> 00:45:09.114
So, elle, let's talk about the big change.

00:45:09.114 --> 00:45:10.260
Let's talk about the big change, right?

00:45:10.260 --> 00:45:14.521
So you've been kicking ass in sports journalism in New York.

00:45:14.521 --> 00:45:18.003
You've been moving up the rank, you've been moving up the ladder, you've been moving up the rank.

00:45:18.003 --> 00:45:23.867
But then and I'll tell everybody, the big thing happens in New York 9-11.

00:45:23.867 --> 00:45:25.572
That was a big moment for you.

00:45:25.572 --> 00:45:26.657
What happens then?

00:45:26.978 --> 00:45:31.927
It was as I as the just to rewind just two seconds is I at that point.

00:45:31.927 --> 00:45:35.722
Now I was on air at Eata internet radio.

00:45:35.722 --> 00:45:39.719
For those people, that was almost the precursor you would listen through your computer.

00:45:39.719 --> 00:45:56.722
It was the precursor to what now ultimately became serious xm, you know, satellite radio, but we had this dot-com upstart that I was a part of, and a gentleman by the name of don la greca and I did a show from nine to midnight the Christmas Eve.

00:45:56.722 --> 00:45:58.025
That would have been.

00:45:58.025 --> 00:46:00.300
It would have been cutting.

00:46:00.300 --> 00:46:00.983
We were only got.

00:46:00.983 --> 00:46:05.579
It barely was a year, and Christmas Eve of 2000 we were told this is your last show.

00:46:05.579 --> 00:46:11.543
It was we were the first round of people to get booted out as the Dot-com era was crashing around us.

00:46:12.125 --> 00:46:19.168
So but they still paid me out, I still did work, I was still hustling, I was still writing, I was getting that got a lot of speaking engagements.

00:46:19.168 --> 00:46:28.730
At that point, as you can imagine, I was a chick who in sports, you know, and I and people I was getting, I was asked to speak here and at this Kiwanis thing and stuff like that.

00:46:28.730 --> 00:46:30.530
Everybody wanted behind the.

00:46:30.530 --> 00:46:35.121
You know seen baseball Stuff about you know sports and being a woman in sports.

00:46:35.121 --> 00:46:40.565
So I was able to still kind of cobble together, but I was technically unemployed in my mind.

00:46:40.565 --> 00:46:46.000
I had all these side things going, but nothing solid, nothing full-time With benefits or anything.

00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:52.041
When 9-11 happened, and so I had been, you know, that had been about six months.

00:46:52.041 --> 00:47:03.905
I, for the first three months I was still collecting the dot-com money, but then that stopped and for another couple, three, four months it was just Ellen Bell cussing hard and living off of her savings and it was 9-11.

00:47:03.905 --> 00:47:05.715
When I realized I sat there, it was.

00:47:05.715 --> 00:47:06.056
It was.

00:47:06.056 --> 00:47:17.172
It was as, of course, as a citizen of all of us, if we were all citizens of the state, everyone was impacted in a certain way and it was kind of that was, I thought to my side, an aha moment.

00:47:17.172 --> 00:47:29.534
Like you know, damn, I, I've I never expected to be in New York and, by God I was hosting a show in New York and I I've had this great experience, this great five-year journey Of or how many.

00:47:29.695 --> 00:47:43.054
Every years it felt longer, but, however, I did things that I never dreamed I would be able to do and I just thought it was time I need to go back to home base and I'm not sure I'm gonna stay in this market.

00:47:43.054 --> 00:47:47.224
It mean in this market meaning in the in the sports industry and and what the click?

00:47:47.224 --> 00:47:50.860
What the clincher was for me is I Again, I kind of packed up.

00:47:50.860 --> 00:47:52.266
I had that took a longer.

00:47:52.266 --> 00:47:54.574
You know I things that didn't happen like overnight.

00:47:54.574 --> 00:47:55.960
I had to get things organized.

00:47:55.960 --> 00:47:56.782
What's gonna happen?

00:47:58.315 --> 00:48:10.635
But when I was doing my research back in Milwaukee because I've been God of the market now for many years Y'all the same freakin people, that's that program FYI true story in the year 2023.

00:48:10.635 --> 00:48:20.005
That program director who wouldn't let me on the air, which is why I left WISM to begin with he's still the program director at that radio station.

00:48:20.005 --> 00:48:20.768
Can you believe that?

00:48:20.768 --> 00:48:39.865
So when I left New York and came back to Milwaukee to kind of regroup and recalibrate, I knew pretty quickly that I was gonna pivot, because the same players Were literally in the same positions in all the different areas of different radio stations and I thought you know what, not for nothing, I'm better than all you people.

00:48:39.905 --> 00:48:42.114
I'm not going backwards, I'm going forward.

00:48:42.114 --> 00:48:43.514
So that was kind of my mindset.

00:48:43.514 --> 00:48:50.635
So I I specifically took a beat and I thought, listen, I'm published, I can speak, I can craft a story.

00:48:50.635 --> 00:48:54.445
I've broken stories and tense situations.

00:48:54.445 --> 00:48:56.268
You know, I've interviewed people.

00:48:56.268 --> 00:48:57.572
I'm not afraid of people.

00:48:57.572 --> 00:48:58.699
I think I can be.

00:48:58.699 --> 00:49:03.574
As this is what is in my head, I would be a great spokesperson for, like a hospital network.

00:49:03.735 --> 00:49:06.822
You know, I didn't even know what I was thinking, but I will tell you this.

00:49:06.822 --> 00:49:09.487
For some reason call it divine intervention.

00:49:09.487 --> 00:49:15.606
Possibly I had the forethought of thinking I need to be in health care.

00:49:15.606 --> 00:49:17.757
I it just Literally.

00:49:17.757 --> 00:49:18.800
It could have actually been.

00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:20.385
I had no connection to health care.

00:49:20.385 --> 00:49:22.655
I had no one in my family that worked in health care.

00:49:22.655 --> 00:49:25.255
I had never really dealt with health care.

00:49:25.255 --> 00:49:28.965
Half of my career I didn't have health care and radio.

00:49:28.965 --> 00:49:36.349
So for some, for some reason, it just came to me that this is a this is a more solid industry.

00:49:36.349 --> 00:49:38.181
People need care.

00:49:38.181 --> 00:49:41.574
So maybe that you won't get your show won't get canceled if you will.

00:49:41.574 --> 00:49:42.217
You know what I mean.

00:49:42.217 --> 00:49:48.994
So I kind of made, I made the conscious effort to pursue, use my skills and talents and try to pursue that avenue.

00:49:49.735 --> 00:50:01.224
So it was thinking about health care as a market of opportunity that was stable, that had Obviously a lot of growth potential, as crazy as that sound.

00:50:01.224 --> 00:50:14.835
So you you looked at it as a Person trying to market their skills towards an area that seemed like an area of opportunity versus a Passion pulling you in that direction.

00:50:16.579 --> 00:50:17.141
That's correct.

00:50:17.141 --> 00:50:18.686
Yeah, that is correct, that is correct.

00:50:19.235 --> 00:50:28.358
So once you identified that as an area that you wanted to pursue, you know what steps did you take to Create a presence for yourself.

00:50:28.717 --> 00:50:43.844
I literally I'm sending resumes out to every ain't, I'm going into the looking up where jobs happening and interestingly enough, I probably figured out pretty quickly, they don't put like Hospital spokesperson in the want ads, like that wasn't a thing.

00:50:43.844 --> 00:50:47.775
So I I started anything that had to do with even writing.

00:50:47.775 --> 00:50:50.684
I probably started interviewing for some public relations type stuff.

00:50:50.684 --> 00:50:56.255
Again, I'm and, but I'm thinking I made it in New York people, I can make it anywhere.

00:50:56.255 --> 00:51:02.239
I mean, that's what the cockiness of me, that competitive, I don't sit on the sideline kind of gal, that's kind of.

00:51:02.239 --> 00:51:03.163
What was, though, that?

00:51:03.525 --> 00:51:10.090
that was the blood you know pursing through my veins, but I will, yeah, and like with sports, you knew everything about sports.

00:51:10.090 --> 00:51:11.675
You know nothing about health care.

00:51:11.675 --> 00:51:13.782
Like, how are you making yourself?

00:51:15.076 --> 00:51:18.297
Yeah, yeah well To your point.

00:51:18.297 --> 00:51:24.175
I probably didn't think that angle out well, because every resume I set out it made sense.

00:51:24.175 --> 00:51:25.601
It made sense in my head.

00:51:25.601 --> 00:51:34.902
Giants game day producer, wfan, number one sports talk chase in New York, you know, beat reporter it, you do be, you do great at a hospital.

00:51:34.922 --> 00:51:36.567
Have it had health care in 20 years?

00:51:41.514 --> 00:51:41.936
Perfect.

00:51:41.936 --> 00:51:46.675
I kept you know, I kept thinking I can craft a message.

00:51:46.675 --> 00:51:49.822
You guys have a, a breakdown in the in the ER lab.

00:51:49.822 --> 00:51:51.567
Let Ellen Belkitt on air and talk about it.

00:51:51.567 --> 00:51:52.378
You know I just.

00:51:52.458 --> 00:51:53.422
It made perfect sense.

00:51:53.422 --> 00:52:00.969
I had Del Harris of the New York Lakers on speed dial.

00:52:00.969 --> 00:52:01.769
Come on, people.

00:52:01.769 --> 00:52:13.135
People know me and they so, that being said, though it yes, of course, probably not my brightest and not the brightest bulb moment in the pack, but what ended up happening is, I figured, okay, this isn't working.

00:52:13.135 --> 00:52:26.735
I was getting, interestingly enough, I interviewed with the cancer centers, treatment centers of America, for a media position in that, in that and that, and cancer center Treatment centers of America I don't know if they still exist, but that was a thing back in the day and I would have had to move to Illinois.

00:52:26.735 --> 00:52:27.416
I mean it was.

00:52:27.416 --> 00:52:29.422
I got down to the final two or three candidates.

00:52:29.422 --> 00:52:41.862
But I will tell you, it became very quickly obvious to me I the last couple interviews I had, when the guy sitting across from me was like the vice president of whatever, and he just kept asking me to tell him more about Bill Parcells.

00:52:41.862 --> 00:52:42.945
And what kind of guy was he?

00:52:43.005 --> 00:52:43.206
like.

00:52:43.206 --> 00:52:43.947
And what was it?

00:52:43.947 --> 00:52:46.313
I thought horrible person, horrible I.

00:52:48.925 --> 00:52:51.494
Thought to myself I'm not gonna freakin get this job.

00:52:51.494 --> 00:52:54.327
These people just wanted to meet the girl that sent this resume.

00:52:54.327 --> 00:52:56.394
You know, that's it too right.

00:52:56.596 --> 00:53:04.804
You hit the nail that the other resume is a WFA and essentially resume, right, I mean there's nothing else related on the conversation piece.

00:53:06.615 --> 00:53:09.264
So I took the first, literally, literally.

00:53:09.264 --> 00:53:11.130
So this goes on for several months.

00:53:11.130 --> 00:53:20.594
I, six months earlier, I'm, you know, covering the game when Stan Jeff, jeff Van Gundy was hanging on the leg of Alonzo morning.

00:53:20.594 --> 00:53:25.746
And Six months later I walk into a skilled nursing home.

00:53:25.746 --> 00:53:31.311
They I saw a want ad for $11 an hour for an activity assistant.

00:53:31.311 --> 00:53:39.880
Didn't know what any of that meant, but I knew it was healthcare and so I go in there, I'm, I'm literally hired on the spot.

00:53:39.880 --> 00:53:43.168
That should have been the first key that, wow, this, this, how hard could this be?

00:53:43.168 --> 00:53:44.920
I mean, how desperate are you people?

00:53:44.920 --> 00:53:50.264
But but, but, exactly but I got the gig I had.

00:53:50.463 --> 00:54:03.007
I didn't know how to spell the word Alzheimer's, didn't know other than you know, having spent time with my grandfather when he lived in a nursing home and my mom, you know, would take me and I candy striped for like to get some good points to go to college, whatever.

00:54:03.007 --> 00:54:04.222
But I was not.

00:54:04.222 --> 00:54:14.260
Uh, again, I, you've already heard my life story, so I wasn't like I was hanging out at the blue light special cafe Waiting for the senior citizens to walk in.

00:54:14.260 --> 00:54:18.469
So the I but I, but, but the way I looked at it and I was very conscious.

00:54:18.469 --> 00:54:28.865
I knew this was going to be culture shock, but ellen belk, you know, thought if I just get my freaking foot in the door, I will figure this out.

00:54:28.865 --> 00:54:33.088
And that really, I swear to god, I literally talked to myself that way, like I don't care.

00:54:33.088 --> 00:54:34.255
This is 11 bucks an hour.

00:54:34.255 --> 00:54:35.157
This is that.

00:54:35.157 --> 00:54:37.121
This is a place that delivers healthcare.

00:54:37.121 --> 00:54:38.505
I'll figure it out.

00:54:38.505 --> 00:54:39.807
This isn't my last stop.

00:54:39.807 --> 00:54:45.347
This is my starting point and that's really the mentality that I went in to that particular position with.

00:54:45.934 --> 00:54:47.599
You've now got your foot in the industry.

00:54:47.599 --> 00:54:48.320
How was?

00:54:48.320 --> 00:54:49.884
How did people take to your style?

00:54:49.884 --> 00:54:51.728
Obviously, you're super high energy, right?

00:54:51.728 --> 00:54:52.655
I can?

00:54:52.655 --> 00:54:58.766
If anything has come out of this conversation, you are super high energy.

00:54:58.766 --> 00:55:01.456
So how did that?

00:55:01.456 --> 00:55:03.465
How did that go over with people in the industry?

00:55:03.465 --> 00:55:10.909
Before we go, before we go into that aha moment when you said this is my calling healthcare was very, very unwelcoming to me.

00:55:11.530 --> 00:55:12.735
One of my second or third jobs.

00:55:12.735 --> 00:55:15.061
I then became a director at an adult day.

00:55:15.061 --> 00:55:24.594
Let me just say that and and that's when that really hit me, because adult day services, where people elders come for the day so that their caregivers get respite and then they go home at the end of the day.

00:55:24.594 --> 00:55:26.594
I became a director there in like a hot minute.

00:55:26.594 --> 00:55:30.538
But the reason I bring that part up is because to share I.

00:55:30.778 --> 00:55:34.288
It was then that I realized, wow, there are actually people rooting against me.

00:55:34.288 --> 00:55:41.563
They I had a boss that you know she there were people that were criticizing that I didn't know anything like.

00:55:41.563 --> 00:55:42.505
Well, how did she get?

00:55:42.505 --> 00:55:43.788
How is she a director?

00:55:43.788 --> 00:55:45.980
She doesn't even know how to spell Alzheimer's.

00:55:46.041 --> 00:55:51.980
I was, but I was, but they also weren't Taking me under, they weren't Appreciative of this.

00:55:51.980 --> 00:55:55.534
Has yet another person that's in our industry now let's, let's help her then.

00:55:55.534 --> 00:56:09.500
So it was kind of a double-edged sword and and and let me just also say, and I am a woman, obviously, but as we, as you've learned about me now, most of my life I have been surrounded by men professionally in in sports.

00:56:09.500 --> 00:56:15.007
I Often was the lone female in many locker rooms that I covered in every market that I worked.

00:56:15.007 --> 00:56:19.791
So I had, and I clearly have, some more testosterone than the average gal herself.

00:56:20.293 --> 00:56:31.405
So I, I, this healthcare, and it kind of to this day remains but Eaps, especially back now in 2001, 2002, it is a very heavy female driven industry.

00:56:31.405 --> 00:56:34.000
So that was I.

00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:46.835
I didn't know how to play in the sandbox with girls because I was a Chick that wore sweatpants to jet stadium, jets camp and I, you know, hung out in the locker room with you know uh, kishan Johnson and, and you know, shot the, shot the crap around.

00:56:46.835 --> 00:56:49.380
We know I swore like a truck driver all of that.

00:56:49.380 --> 00:56:52.248
So I was, I fit it, I blended in that universe.

00:56:52.248 --> 00:56:57.447
I did not blend well in the in the female driven world of healthcare in those early days.

00:56:57.894 --> 00:56:58.896
So you had a lot to learn.

00:56:58.896 --> 00:57:01.001
Obviously, how did that happen?

00:57:01.001 --> 00:57:03.668
You're not getting shared with you know, nobody's there helping you.

00:57:03.668 --> 00:57:05.159
You're kind of what.

00:57:05.159 --> 00:57:11.875
I mean you have guidelines but you're kind of making it up as you go along, flying by the seat of your pants, like how do you educate yourself to get up to speed?

00:57:11.875 --> 00:57:16.266
I mean, it had to happen because you're you've been in the industry now for 20, countless years.

00:57:16.295 --> 00:57:21.807
Yeah, uh, all of the above, I will tell you it made no sense to anybody as it.

00:57:21.807 --> 00:57:25.945
You know, anyone listening to this story is like, oh my gosh, how, what is this transition?

00:57:25.945 --> 00:57:31.880
But I, you guys, I absolutely implored All of my investigative reporting skills.

00:57:31.880 --> 00:57:33.963
I listen, I didn't know all the I didn't.

00:57:33.963 --> 00:57:42.199
I had to research some of the players Before, you know, before I spoke to them, so I could sound like I mean, you can't just go into a locker, mr, talking to people.

00:57:42.199 --> 00:57:43.827
I had to know who I was talking to.

00:57:43.827 --> 00:57:51.608
There's research that has to go on Blue books that have to be read, you know, to find out which team is what and how this all works together in all these sports.

00:57:51.608 --> 00:57:52.297
I did that.

00:57:52.297 --> 00:57:55.523
I employed those same skill sets in senior living.

00:57:55.523 --> 00:57:57.068
Now, of course, the internet is a thing.

00:57:57.068 --> 00:57:58.675
I'm Researching things.

00:57:58.675 --> 00:58:04.849
I'm trying to figure out who the players are, where, where, who are, who are the great healthcare providers?

00:58:05.235 --> 00:58:10.802
I landed in this first job in senior in a place in a nursing home, but now healthcare is so broad.

00:58:10.802 --> 00:58:12.510
I could have gone into breast cancer stuff.

00:58:12.510 --> 00:58:13.534
I could have gone into a clinic.

00:58:13.534 --> 00:58:17.423
I just happened to get my very first job at a place where there were elders.

00:58:17.423 --> 00:58:19.248
But I started to.

00:58:19.248 --> 00:58:21.900
I started to kind of teach myself.

00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:27.641
But then, but then truthfully along the way, once again I got a male boss my set.

00:58:27.641 --> 00:58:35.978
My third boss was a male boss at a very large healthcare Contingency out of the home base, was out of Chicago, but I work.

00:58:35.978 --> 00:58:41.501
I got an opportunity to work at one of their Milwaukee based properties and he saw something in me.

00:58:41.501 --> 00:58:43.246
To this day I credit him.

00:58:43.246 --> 00:58:46.594
I take him when I brag about you know stuff online.

00:58:46.594 --> 00:58:53.161
I, this is the man that saw something unique in me and he, he invested in my success, you guys.

00:58:53.161 --> 00:58:55.327
He sent me to rush medical in Chicago.

00:58:55.327 --> 00:59:09.498
I got continuing it, you know, continuing education credits in all simers and dementia care, and that's that's when things really started to to change for me, because I realized this is my, this is my calling, this is this is that and that's where.

00:59:09.518 --> 00:59:11.307
Yeah, that's exactly what I was just gonna.

00:59:11.307 --> 00:59:17.715
At any point, are you saying to yourself I've made a huge mistake, I need to get back into sports, or did you find your calling?

00:59:17.715 --> 00:59:18.496
Is this like?

00:59:18.496 --> 00:59:21.706
All of a sudden, the light bulb goes off and wow, this is where I'm meant to be.

00:59:21.775 --> 00:59:23.996
Yeah, no, I had a, you know I have other.

00:59:23.996 --> 00:59:30.929
I have aha moments along the way, but yes, I realized that this big voice, I made good money.

00:59:30.929 --> 00:59:32.697
You know, I that dot com money I was.

00:59:32.697 --> 00:59:34.284
That was the most I'd made at that time.

00:59:34.284 --> 00:59:36.554
I made good money using this voice.

00:59:36.554 --> 00:59:39.804
I still make good money using this voice.

00:59:40.025 --> 00:59:42.538
I'm now Advocating for some.

00:59:42.538 --> 00:59:48.516
I'm advocating for people many of none of who will probably ever remember my name, and when I say I mean the residents.

00:59:48.516 --> 00:59:52.887
I now am an advocate for people who have cognitive decline.

00:59:52.887 --> 00:59:54.719
Even in all my consulting work.

00:59:54.719 --> 00:59:55.561
That's all I do.

00:59:55.561 --> 00:59:55.780
Now.

00:59:55.840 --> 01:00:03.235
I'm a, I'm a board certified dementia educator, certified dementia practitioner and I have whole, you know the holistic dementia expertise.

01:00:03.235 --> 01:00:08.728
Those are all the things that I've racked up now over the years and I continue to never forget.

01:00:08.728 --> 01:00:10.978
There was fun to interview Dennis Rodman.

01:00:10.978 --> 01:00:13.204
It was fun to, you know, know, michael Jordan.

01:00:13.204 --> 01:00:15.188
These are all fun and that's great.

01:00:15.188 --> 01:00:17.679
But now the I'm I.

01:00:17.679 --> 01:00:31.083
I can remember almost not every, not every single resident to a person, but I know the names, the stories of the people whose lives I touched when I worked in the local levels and then even when I got into the national, into national positions.

01:00:31.083 --> 01:00:39.458
I'm now leading people and trying to again infuse Ellen energy in them across the country, and, and, and it felt good.

01:00:39.458 --> 01:00:45.206
The voice continues to be my calling card, but now it is for something that's much grander than than what I'm.

01:00:45.206 --> 01:00:47.034
You know what I ever thought it was capable of?

01:00:47.556 --> 01:00:50.742
All right, so let's talk about how that plays into keep in mind.

01:00:50.742 --> 01:00:56.576
So what is, what exactly is keeping mine, and how does, how does your current journey now work into that?

01:00:56.655 --> 01:00:57.858
Well, it's my company.

01:00:57.858 --> 01:01:07.695
Hey, there came a point where there came a point where I guess that I authored, I authored the manual originally and that's now kind of the whole company got built about, built around that originally.

01:01:07.695 --> 01:01:18.047
So it's, you know, I have I actually I will say this I almost feel like I need to rebrand now because COVID has really dust.

01:01:18.047 --> 01:01:24.893
There's so many things that have changed in the healthcare system now, guys, and so I Specialized in dementia care training.

01:01:24.893 --> 01:01:27.684
So this, this manual, is an operational system.

01:01:27.684 --> 01:01:29.983
They know it's a play, it's literally a playbook.

01:01:30.043 --> 01:01:36.525
Again, I always weave in my sports background I speak sports even in my dementia to dementia care.

01:01:36.525 --> 01:01:38.128
You know, hey, it's a playbook.

01:01:38.128 --> 01:01:39.251
You were a team.

01:01:39.251 --> 01:01:41.516
It takes a team of people to care for people with dementia.

01:01:41.516 --> 01:01:46.204
You know, I always kind of that, I've always got that thread because that is still part of my personhood.

01:01:46.405 --> 01:01:50.056
I can't deny my athletic background and my, my love of sport.

01:01:50.056 --> 01:01:53.204
But I and I'm so that's another thing that makes me unique.

01:01:53.204 --> 01:01:58.693
It's no one in healthcare talks like that, because it's it's, they're very, they're very.

01:01:58.693 --> 01:01:59.969
There's a lot.

01:01:59.969 --> 01:02:04.527
I, I kind of live in the gray, you guys, I live in the gray area that's health.

01:02:04.527 --> 01:02:06.552
Healthcare can be very black and white.

01:02:06.552 --> 01:02:08.277
So I continue to be a unicorn.

01:02:08.277 --> 01:02:10.780
I'm a little bit if you can believe it at.

01:02:10.780 --> 01:02:12.958
This is a thing I can't believe.

01:02:12.998 --> 01:02:13.704
I'm about to say this.

01:02:13.704 --> 01:02:19.804
I am a a little bit of an influencer in the dementia care space because my voice is so unique.

01:02:19.804 --> 01:02:21.672
I'm not your, your norm.

01:02:21.672 --> 01:02:25.070
So how it plays into that is I've leveraged.

01:02:25.070 --> 01:02:35.188
I've leveraged all these you know relationships, I will and and I am an asset to, you know, to organizations that don't have a plan and they, you know.

01:02:35.289 --> 01:02:47.219
But one thing that is, like I said about cove it and what's deaf, decimated the healthcare the healthcare industry Doesn't, isn't well known in investing in the success of their employees.

01:02:47.219 --> 01:02:47.840
You know what I mean.

01:02:47.840 --> 01:02:49.824
That's, it's not, it's not an industry.

01:02:49.824 --> 01:02:54.494
They, they will burn and churn and I find that it is.

01:02:54.494 --> 01:02:55.976
It's almost alarming, actually.

01:02:55.976 --> 01:03:04.985
In fact it's actually gotten worse that that you know people, the fact that somebody sent me to rush medical and spent how much ever he spent.

01:03:05.226 --> 01:03:07.364
I had to do it over a course of six, six weeks.

01:03:07.364 --> 01:03:16.030
I'd go every weekend and for I walked away with 42 continuing education credits in a leadership and Dementia care units certification.

01:03:16.030 --> 01:03:16.751
I can't.

01:03:16.751 --> 01:03:18.235
Even I stayed in a hotel.

01:03:18.235 --> 01:03:25.518
I mean, I can't even imagine there's not a, there's not a healthcare provider alive right now that would do that in the climate that we're operating in right now.

01:03:26.045 --> 01:03:39.518
So I'm in a constant state of pivot, you guys, and that's why I had again, in the midst of all this, people are not spending the five figures that it come, you know, so that it takes to get Ellen's 360 system and Ellen's ongoing consulting.

01:03:39.518 --> 01:03:43.387
So, once again, we pivot and I brought.

01:03:43.387 --> 01:03:43.789
That's how.

01:03:43.789 --> 01:03:55.324
That's how the creation of the Kim Academy Kim is the acronym for, keep in mind, the Kim Academy Online dementia education platform is has been launched and it is, it's evergreen and ever growing right now.

01:03:55.324 --> 01:03:57.978
So I'm because it can be at a lower price point.

01:03:57.978 --> 01:04:10.847
I'm on demand, I record stuff that is, so I'm not enough to fly to your community and be there in person, so that the return on investment is, yes, you're still gonna have to invest a little bit, but the price point is Significantly lower.

01:04:10.847 --> 01:04:17.798
I'm still speaking in my team, I'm still training with my teams, you know stuff, but and I'm still, it's still my manual.

01:04:17.798 --> 01:04:18.625
I'm just kind of deep.

01:04:18.625 --> 01:04:22.400
I'm kind of deconstructing the manual and doing online learning with it.

01:04:22.400 --> 01:04:23.626
Now, if that makes any sense, how?

01:04:23.739 --> 01:04:29.891
dire is the problem that we see now with an age in population, not just in the US but globally.

01:04:29.952 --> 01:04:42.617
How dire of a problem is this to give to answer that question to char boomers boomers, baby boomers but they like to be called boomers, by the way Started turning 65 at a clip of 10,000 boomers a day.

01:04:42.617 --> 01:04:46.291
Started turning 65 in the year 2011.

01:04:46.291 --> 01:04:47.554
So by 20.

01:04:47.554 --> 01:04:57.177
So in a mere three, seven years, by 2030, the 65, you know and over demo is projected to be at 74 million.

01:04:57.177 --> 01:04:58.199
That that's now.

01:04:58.199 --> 01:04:59.257
This is just in the you.

01:04:59.257 --> 01:05:00.545
In the United States that's.

01:05:00.545 --> 01:05:02.009
That will be 24.

01:05:02.009 --> 01:05:10.251
20% of our population will be in 20, 37 years from now, will be over, you know, will be of that 65 and over age group.

01:05:10.251 --> 01:05:14.119
The boomer, the boomers in America are not unique to America.

01:05:14.119 --> 01:05:28.538
That same statistic now, obviously, statistically, whether you know different China's got different, you know Population numbers, but that same dynamic is also happening from India to China, to America, to Brazil.

01:05:28.538 --> 01:05:34.204
That, that, that influx of older adults is here and ever growing.

01:05:34.485 --> 01:05:38.068
But culturally it is different in other parts of the world, right?

01:05:38.068 --> 01:05:45.365
I mean, I think in other parts of the world Don't they usually take the elder people back to to the home and take care of them, rather than put them in a place?

01:05:45.365 --> 01:05:51.358
I feel like in the United States were very Quick to I'm gonna put them in a home or I'm going to.

01:05:51.358 --> 01:05:53.905
You know, like it's a different cultural thing, isn't it?

01:05:53.985 --> 01:05:55.250
100% we like.

01:05:55.250 --> 01:05:56.231
We lag behind.

01:05:56.231 --> 01:06:01.594
It's especially Japan and China, australia, australia from a dementia perspective.

01:06:01.594 --> 01:06:06.188
These are some of the places that are that they build dementia Communities.

01:06:06.188 --> 01:06:15.125
And when I say communities, it's not like a lock them up, throw them away, it's like housing, where there's a grocery store in there and people with dementia are living and moving freely.

01:06:15.125 --> 01:06:16.956
Yes, it's secured and all that.

01:06:16.956 --> 01:06:17.318
I mean that.

01:06:17.318 --> 01:06:18.304
I could go on and on about that.

01:06:18.465 --> 01:06:44.684
But yes, to answer your question, the United States does lag behind, but I will tell you there's a seismic shift and and and this is one of the good things that came out of the pandemic these boomers, these boomers who tend to be remember the for the long time we had the greatest generation and or the silent generation living in senior housing, and these boomer children you know, I've got four boomers still, but I'm a Gen Xer, but I've got four older siblings and their boomers.

01:06:44.684 --> 01:06:50.318
They, these boomers, honey, they do not want what we're selling in America.

01:06:50.318 --> 01:06:55.677
They do not want to be locked up in four walls and a two-hots and a cot or whatever the saying would be.

01:06:55.677 --> 01:06:57.731
I mean so, they, they.

01:06:57.731 --> 01:07:01.782
So there's a lot of opportunity in health care in general, home health services.

01:07:01.782 --> 01:07:05.172
You know date dates at day programs, date.

01:07:05.172 --> 01:07:05.634
You know it's.

01:07:05.634 --> 01:07:07.257
It's exponentially expensive.

01:07:07.257 --> 01:07:14.030
You're looking at seven, eight, nine thousand dollars a month in these private playplaces and that's just on the front end.

01:07:14.030 --> 01:07:23.137
So the boomers do not want, they're not buying what we're selling, and so and and quite frankly that here's the sad part I, like I said this is my 22nd year.

01:07:23.137 --> 01:07:28.931
We've known this age wage was that wave was coming, this tsunami, silver tsunami as many call it.

01:07:28.931 --> 01:07:32.824
We've known for a decade that this was happening and this is an unfortunate thing.

01:07:32.925 --> 01:07:35.893
The senior housing market did not pivot and plan.

01:07:35.893 --> 01:07:39.764
You know everybody keeps again that saying kicking the can down the road.

01:07:39.764 --> 01:07:41.108
And here we are.

01:07:41.108 --> 01:07:49.798
So there's gonna be other opportunities, there's gonna be more growth and you're gonna start to see unique growth that isn't just the you must live here 24-7.

01:07:49.798 --> 01:07:50.746
There there's some.

01:07:50.746 --> 01:08:11.065
There is some fun innovation that's happening to keep people safer in their home, which is and or congregate living where you can come and go, apartments where you know apartment living where it's 55 and older, and then there is some, some staff on On site, but then they, they harness that energy with other ancillary services.

01:08:11.065 --> 01:08:15.876
They're gonna there's gonna be some peace-mealing, if you will to compete, these boomers happy for sure.

01:08:16.287 --> 01:08:20.663
Well, the very good news is that they have you on their side as an advocate.

01:08:20.663 --> 01:08:48.064
You know the, the fact that you've been able to to learn about yourself and and develop your communication skills and the way that you have and to then use those I don't want to say for good, because I'm sure the sports work that you were doing before was also very good, but to plug yourself into something so critically important for the, the the more important part of your career, let's say is really admirable.

01:08:48.064 --> 01:08:55.512
So you know, ellen, if people want to learn more about you and to learn more about the chem academy, where should they go and where should they look?

01:08:56.645 --> 01:09:02.850
Well, my website is keep in mind ink and ink is INC dot com.

01:09:02.850 --> 01:09:04.875
So keep in mind ink.

01:09:04.875 --> 01:09:10.730
And then the chem academy is it's got its own, it's its own platform and it's it's Kim K.

01:09:10.730 --> 01:09:12.936
I am Kim Academy dot.

01:09:12.936 --> 01:09:15.332
Keep in mind ink comm.

01:09:15.332 --> 01:09:18.020
So I appreciate you the opportunity of letting me get that out there.

01:09:18.020 --> 01:09:19.225
Come one, come all.

01:09:19.225 --> 01:09:22.996
We are elevating the global dementia IQ, one student at a time.

01:09:24.345 --> 01:09:24.887
Very good.

01:09:24.887 --> 01:09:29.569
Well again, alan, incredible work, important work.

01:09:29.569 --> 01:09:35.456
Thank you for giving us to shard, helping develop him for us over the years.

01:09:35.515 --> 01:09:36.819
I'm sure you played a role there.

01:09:38.386 --> 01:09:39.469
Well, that was hazard.

01:09:39.469 --> 01:09:41.234
I get hazard, pay for that guys.

01:09:51.105 --> 01:09:53.918
Thank you for joining this episode of no wrong choices.

01:09:54.300 --> 01:09:55.324
Thanks guys, it was my pleasure.

01:09:56.667 --> 01:10:04.506
So that was Ellen Belk who who provided us with a wonderful blueprint for the art of the pivot to Shar.

01:10:04.506 --> 01:10:06.212
Thank you for bringing her to us.

01:10:06.533 --> 01:10:14.654
I appreciate that and there are three words that come to mind after that interview, which were which are eye popping, surprising and inspiring in many ways.

01:10:14.654 --> 01:10:25.664
Right, so, eye popping and that you know how 9-11 really was such a turning point, for instance, and obviously was a turning point for this country, a turning point for so many of us.

01:10:25.664 --> 01:10:34.564
But it was a real turning point for her because she saw at that moment that, you know, maybe the career that she had chosen at that point was not really fulfilling.

01:10:34.564 --> 01:10:36.592
She needed fulfillment at that point.

01:10:36.592 --> 01:10:40.277
Surprising was how she went about it.

01:10:40.277 --> 01:10:41.801
Right was surprising what she just said.

01:10:41.823 --> 01:10:47.349
It I'll go home, I'm going to kind of start from square one again, but I'm going to be successful.

01:10:47.349 --> 01:10:51.217
And then inspiring because she became successful.

01:10:51.217 --> 01:11:16.851
She is successful in this endeavor and not only that, but she is an advocate on such a grand scale that she is brain, that she is raising the dementia IQ Globally in in many senses, that she has now become a real spokesperson for this Terrible, debilitating disease that so many of our, that so many millions of people are Afflicted with now, whether they be young or old, so to speak.

01:11:16.851 --> 01:11:26.398
And you know, it's important that we kind of Try and get our our try to get our minds around how, how big this problem could eventually be.

01:11:26.398 --> 01:11:37.350
And you know, it's important to have someone like an Ellen Belk out there Ringing the bell saying a real problem could be down the line, and then have someone like her say I think I have the solution as well.

01:11:37.532 --> 01:11:40.198
Yeah, so many inspiring parts to this story.

01:11:40.198 --> 01:11:40.278
T.

01:11:40.278 --> 01:11:44.662
You know I have to talk a little bit about.

01:11:44.662 --> 01:11:54.851
You know who she is as a person, though, and how playing sports gave her confidence when she was younger, and then getting the job with the Milwaukee Brewers gives her confidence to talk to people.

01:11:54.851 --> 01:12:00.606
The moxie seems to be like a common denominator throughout her whole life and T.

01:12:00.606 --> 01:12:12.145
We talked about courage at the beginning of this episode, and you know we talked about how there's nothing more courageous Then turning your back on success to try something new because you know you could do that.

01:12:12.145 --> 01:12:16.064
It takes a lot of courage for you to turn your back and say let me go do this now.

01:12:16.064 --> 01:12:17.412
And she did it for something.

01:12:17.412 --> 01:12:18.578
That's admirable.

01:12:18.578 --> 01:12:22.712
That's important, and I think it was that moxie.

01:12:22.712 --> 01:12:28.704
That kind of got her through Both things right and allowed her to be successful in both of these fields.

01:12:28.704 --> 01:12:30.269
So take something from that.

01:12:30.269 --> 01:12:38.860
Be confident in yourself and learn how to Make those tough choices and face that fear and in the end she's found her calling.

01:12:38.900 --> 01:12:43.193
Her calling wasn't to be, you know, a big-time athlete or a big-time sports producer.

01:12:43.613 --> 01:12:49.224
Her calling was to do this and you need to do as you said, larry, whatever it takes.

01:12:49.224 --> 01:13:04.980
You know, she took that job at the, the elder care center, and it was Certainly very different from the glamorous stuff that she was doing before, but she was willing to do whatever it took to Put herself into a new game and to care of that ball forward, so to speak.

01:13:04.980 --> 01:13:12.318
So just a great story About courage, putting yourself out there and, as I mentioned, leading into all of this the art of the pivot.

01:13:12.318 --> 01:13:17.277
So, ellen, thank you so much for joining this episode of no wrong choices.

01:13:17.277 --> 01:13:19.088
We also thank you for joining us.

01:13:19.328 --> 01:13:30.545
If this or another journey story inspired you to think of a friend who could be a great guest, please let us know by sending us a note via the contact page of no wrong choices Com, as I mentioned up the top.

01:13:30.545 --> 01:13:36.702
Please support us by following no wrong choices on your favorite podcasting platform, while giving us a five-star rating.

01:13:36.702 --> 01:13:47.997
And then, last but not At least, we encourage you to join the no wrong choices community by connecting with us on linkedin, facebook, instagram threads and X by searching for no wrong choices.

01:13:47.997 --> 01:13:50.685
On behalf of Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

01:13:50.685 --> 01:13:52.069
I'm Larry Samuels.

01:13:52.069 --> 01:13:56.925
Thank you again for joining us, and always remember there are no wrong choices on the road to success.

01:13:56.925 --> 01:13:59.793
We learn from every experience.