Transcript: Episode 1

Megan Mitchell


Terri:
What does it mean to make it big? Having money, fame, worldwide acclaim, climbing the corporate ladder, or crushing it in your business? One thing's for sure, there isn't just one way to do it. Welcome to "Making It Big in 30 Minutes," a podcast for, by, and about the Emerson Community. You're about to meet Emersonian who's making it. Making a living, making a difference, and sometimes making it up as they go along. As far as we're concerned, if you're making something, you've made it. Big time. I'm your host in Emerson Alumni, Terri Trespicio and we've got 30 minutes. Let's get started.

Terri:
It's really hard not to fall in love with Megan Mitchell. She is charming personified. A 2014 Emerson grad with a degree in broadcast journalism, Megan got an on air job so fast it'd make your head spin. She started out in Bismarck, North Dakota, but has since become a very familiar face on Channel 5, Cincinnati's NBC affiliate. Meghan has also already racked up a list of at least a half a dozen regional broadcasting awards, including best TV news reporter by the NDBA, but it's not because she's a pretty face who's good on TV. It's because of the way in which she approaches the work of reporting. She was the first journalist to break the standing rock reservations opposition to the Dakota access pipeline, sparking international outcry.

Terri:
Megan also happens to be gay, which maybe in this day and age doesn't seem like breaking news, but look, coming out to your inner circle is one thing, but being a public figure and a face in the media is another. By all accounts, this woman's made it, but making it isn't just about being on TV. Because while she may be sweet, Megan is unflinching in her advocacy. She sees it as her job to ensure that people who are often ignored get their voices heard. I give you Megan Mitchell on Making It in Broadcast Journalism. You have one of those jobs, Megan, that everyone knows what it is.

Megan Mitchell:
Yes.

Terri:
But when you say like, "Oh, I'm a news anchor." We just immediately know, whereas a lot of people are like, "Let me explain what I do."

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly.

Terri:
Now, here's a good exercise. I just think it's fun. How would you explain your job to an alien? If an alien landed on the planet and said, "What is this job you have?"

Megan Mitchell:
I would say, in a specific area or city, there are things that go on that affect people's lives, and I'm the one that tells an audience, tells a mass amount of people, and informs them of things that could affect their day to day, or could affect their families.

Terri:
Because everyone would answer that a little differently. Like someone else might've said, "My job is to get my hair and makeup done, and sit at a desk, and have a camera pointed on me, and I talk to the camera." What's interesting about your answer is that you immediately went to the community and you said, "Things happen in an area, and then I'm the one to tell people about it." I think we lose track of what the role of media is. We think of media now as the people who tell us what to think, but the way you just answered that question tells me that maybe you don't think that way

Megan Mitchell:
You've got MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and they can often get muddled with what local news is, or even national news to an extent, network news, which still can be maybe a little bit biased to some viewers. In general, local news tends to have to be unbiased, or at least not have any type of partisan spin on it. We only have a certain amount of people that we really can't divide anyone. We really can't excommunicate an entire part of our audience by very liberal or being very conservative. We stay more in the middle.

Terri:
Local news is its own beast. It's not the same as reporting to the whole world where you're synthesizing opinions about the whole world. Local news, I feel like, is one of those things that would never become uninteresting to the people who live in an area.

Megan Mitchell:
If you think about even the way that the internet is going. I remember my first visit to Emerson when I was probably a senior in high school at this point. My mom and I were sitting there, and they were like, "Journalism is not dead." I remember looking at my mom and being like, "Wait, is journalism dead anyway?" Because of the internet, you think about the ways that maybe national or international news can get picked up really quickly, and maybe people aren't watching TV as much as they used to, but Lester Holt, speak of that man. I was going to say the devil, but I can't call Lester Holt the devil.

Terri:
He's so not a devil though.

Megan Mitchell:
He's not. He's not in Cincinnati talking with the city commissioner here. I am.

Terri:
Right, exactly.

Megan Mitchell:
There has to be someone in all of these small cities providing some type of information, and that's why local news will never die. People need to know what's happening because people live here.

Terri:
When you go into school to be like, "I'm going to be a broadcast journalist." Lots of jobs are in demand, but this is a particularly competitive job, which is why it's impressive that you would get the job right out of the gate. You graduated Emerson in 2014?

Megan Mitchell:
Yep.

Terri:
Okay. It's not that long ago. Not only did you get the job and now have, obviously your career has been growing, and now you're a reporter, but you're also a news anchor, but you've also won awards. It's one thing to get the job, but another to rack up awards. The 2017 Excellence in Local Broadcasting Award, The Best TV News Reporter by the NDBA. What do you attribute that to?

Megan Mitchell:
Because I went into the business, I went into Emerson being like, "I want to be a journalist, a national journalist. I want to be a network news anchor."

Terri:
You thought that in the beginning.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. I still think eventually down the line, who knows what will happen, but I did not realize how much I would like the journey as much as I had, and how much I would fall in love with what we just talked about, which was local news. Also what I mentioned previously, which was the community itself. When I think about all of those awards that I just got, it was because of people that I knew in the community that were like, "Hey, I've something to tell you." It wasn't like they were calling every news station or sending out a press release. It was like, "Hey Megan, we're friends." I wouldn't even consider them a contact. Specifically, I think about the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was a huge story of North Dakota.

Terri:
Yes, I want to ask about that.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. In that specific instance, I had just been with a native American reporter because I told my news director one day, I was like, "No one's covering these reservations. I have friends that are down there. Can I just be the one to do it?" He's like, "Well, we haven't had a native American reporter in years." I was like, "Well, can I just do it once a week?" He was like, "Sure, whatever." It was covering the good things about the reservation. Obviously, reservations don't have a lot of resources, and therefore have some really tough statistics against them, but there are so many people in the communities that are doing good things. I was like, "Let's highlight that."

Megan Mitchell:
I actually took a minority reporting class at Emerson in which you really have to weigh whether or not covering the bad issues for these communities is doing good for them in the long run, as opposed to covering the good stuff. Once I started covering the people that were doing good in their community, I think that I created a trust with them. That other reporters that just came in for one day did a bad story on them and left, didn't create [crosstalk 00:07:25]. Then I was the first person, Steve Sittingbear, he was the press PIO for the Standing Rock Reservation. He just called me and he was like, "We're against this pipeline." I'm like, "What? It's already going through." He's like, "Not on our watch." That's how this entire movement started and subsequently awards followed. It was literally just because of connections that I made.

Terri:
A few things, let's unpack this. No one was going in to report regularly on the native American community there. Except a few times, "Oh look, something bad happened." We sweep in. It would be like having a friend who sweeps in, hangs out with you for a day, goes and gossips behind your back, and never comes back. Leaves you with the bill.

Megan Mitchell:
That's the best metaphor I've ever heard, and it's exactly how I felt as a reporter. I think that, especially the PR people, because it was their jobs to see it that way, felt like. When I created this relationship with them, they were like, "Oh, you're a true friend."

Terri:
Well see, yes. I was going to say, your news instinct, look, a person who sniffs out news, their job is to report on news, good or bad, if they sniff it out. What we forget is, whatever we digest on TV, someone had to go get it, and there are human relationships there. Rather than going in and saying, "Hey, let me see what dirt you guys were up to so I can go sling it on TV and make everyone hate you." Your instinct was, is anyone going and reporting regularly to build the relationship so we can talk about all the things that are happening?

Megan Mitchell:
I think if you were to look at it from the other side, there were so many reporters at my station who, if they would be covering Bismarck as a community, which a very predominantly white community, they cover every aspect of the community. The good things that are happening.

Terri:
They get the full picture.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. When something bad happens on the city council there, yes, they'll cover it, but 90% of the news that they covered was good news. Why wasn't 90% of the coverage on the reservation that too?

Terri:
When you're there regularly saying, "Hey, what's going on?" There becomes a relationship of trust, but also, you get to see more. It reminds me of that very famous TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie. You know that one, the danger of single story.

Megan Mitchell:
That's exactly it, Terri. That's how I felt. I feel like it was almost one of those things where you have the idea in your head, like, "I know this concept, that you shouldn't do this." Then you just saw it play out in real time of like, oh, there are real consequences to sharing a single story of these people, because not only does the Bismark community, the North Dakota white, essentially, population and see them as the other, but they see themselves as bad people, and their kids are watching the news and they see, oh, well this is what my destiny is.

Terri:
What happened? The people there you had a relationship with, and then they said, "Hey, guess what?" Now they're going to come to you with a scoop. What happened there?

Megan Mitchell:
Then the Army Corps of Engineers was deciding a big part of this pipeline. It would either be a yes or no as to whether or not it would go under the Missouri River, and that is their main water source for the tribe. They actually went on a tour with the Army Corps of Engineers. We were the only news station that got video of that tour and had the people showing them where this was an issue, and how they felt about it. That was the first main story. It was just me saying, "Hey, there's an issue that's happening right here." Then they called me a couple of weeks later and they're like, "You know what? We're going to start rallying a couple people in the community to write signs and do a protest about this to show the Dakota Energy Commission."

Megan Mitchell:
Then it was one month later and they're like, "We're going to actually have an entire ride that where we use our horses and things that are a part of our history as a way to showcase our opposition to this. They did this ride with all these incredible horses going down the path all the way to the river. There were just these amazing ways that they were grassroots rallying. Then a few months later, it just started picking up because people online started seeing the ways that they were really rallying against this pipeline, and then celebrity were tweeting it out.

Terri:
Wow. Then what happened?

Megan Mitchell:
It's sad because it was right in the middle of the 2016 election. Donald Trump had just been elected—

Terri:
Oh god, if anything's going to kill your resolve ...

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly. There was nothing that could be done because the Army Corps basically said, "Yes, this is allowed to go through this river." Then that was it.

Terri:
Unfortunately.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. It was built.

Terri:
They had your ear. They knew that they could talk to you and that you wouldn't go in there just to grab a lousy story and leave.

Megan Mitchell:
No, because I had already [crosstalk 00:11:56] that relationship.

Terri:
Yeah. You went in and were able to give the right kind of attention to a community that could benefit from that attention.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. I hope I could.

Terri:
That's really something to be so proud of.

Megan Mitchell:
I appreciate that, Terri.

Terri:
Is there anything in doing this work over the past, say five years, whatever, that has changed the way you see what the work is, but also what your own work might be in the future?

Megan Mitchell:
It's so interesting because I think the day to day of it is definitely different than I thought.

Terri:
Wait, how? How so? Because you have to get up at two in the morning?

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. Yes, definitely. I was not expecting that. I knew I wanted to do morning reporting and morning anchoring, but—

Terri:
You didn't think about what that meant.

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly. Until it happens. You're like, "Oh, now I have to go to bed at 6:00 PM every night." It's just a different life.

Terri:
Is that for real? Do you really do that?

Megan Mitchell:
I attempt to go to bed at 6:00 pm. It usually happens around eight, hopefully.

Terri:
Literally eight, you're in bed. You're up at three.

Megan Mitchell:
I'm my mom, which I never ... She goes to bed at six every night.

Terri:
You're up at the crack and you're doing morning news. This is what you always wanted to do. There's a day to day, and there's a vision part. Because when you're a student, you think of it one way, now you're living it. When you see the things that you love about this work, and what you might want to do more of or less of, what is exciting to you, and what still is hard?

Megan Mitchell:
I think the things that are exciting to me are the potential people that I'm able to connect with and meet through it. I think the best part about the job that I have right now is the fact that I've created such a great relationship, like in Cincinnati, with the LGBTQ community, and I really feel like I'm making a difference in that specific area of reporting. I feel like the connections that I've been able to make have just been, I just didn't think about that when I was at Emerson. I just thought, "Oh, you are on air. You do ..." Then it's like, no, you literally create—

Terri:
Two dimensional.

Megan Mitchell:
Yes. You create this network of people, and stories, and contacts. It just all plays into it. I also, this is a totally different direction I'm going with your question, but I'm just going to do it.

Terri:
That's okay, go with it.

Megan Mitchell:
I did not realize how much the stories would affect me, and I didn't realize how long it would take for me to understand that. The first few years on the job, I'd have a bad day, and then I realized, oh, it's because something bad happened and you had to be there on someone's worst day of their life. Then I'd be at the zoo and there'd be people there being like, "Thank you so much for reporting on this." Then I would get home and be like, "Wow, I had such a fun day." I'm like, "Oh, because guess what? You covered a great story where people were happy with what you were doing and were happy with the work that you had.

Megan Mitchell:
When people are like, "Oh, I don't take it home with me." Which I truly would have said, Terri, I would have said the first four-ish, years of my job, I would have said, "Oh, I don't take it home with me. I can just brush it off." Then I had to really realize how much hearing people's stories on either the best day of their lives or the worst days of their lives can affect me when I go home at the end of the day.

Terri:
It's not true then, that to be a reporter, you just have to be dead inside. You're not.

Megan Mitchell:
I am not.

Terri:
It's too early for you to be dead inside. I would think the opposite. I would think that you'd start out like, "Oh my god." My assumption, wrong and ignorant as it may be, is that you would start and be like, "Oh my god, that's so great." Take it all in. Then a few years in, you'd be like, "Man, I'm dead inside. I don't care anymore." I don't know. Everyone does a different thing to cope with what they hear. Yeah, I can't imagine that being there when someone has lost their kid, or something horrible, that you don't take that in a little.

Megan Mitchell:
I know, and honestly, it took me a long time to really reflect on that. Because I just wouldn't make the connection of me being sad and having it be because someone had asked me to get off their property. Not that I'm hounding people's property, but like today I was at a potential ... okay. It ended up not being anything, but I'll take you through it. There was someone who showed a potential weapon to two other students at a high school, in a backpack. It ended up being a BB Gun, but the school was like, "Please get off our property." I understand that, but I was actually reporting on the fact that the school did the right thing, because within an hour, the guy was in custody, the incident was under control, lock down was uplifted. It's interesting to me that it could be something like that, which you'd be like, "Wow, the school did a really great job." But the school's really mad at me for being there. I understand because they don't want any type of press like that, but ...

Terri:
No one wants bad press. Sometimes as the media, you are their friend, because you're there to shine the light of attention on something they want you to see. A lot of times they are chasing media off their property, out of their institutions because they either fear you, or they have this ... A lot of people do, have a hate and distrust of media because they think that that's the gossipy friend. Because literally you're there to go, "What's happening here? Because I'm about to tell everyone." I would think that would be upsetting when you're somewhere and they see you not as Megan Mitchell, but as you're Channel 5. Get out.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah, it is so true.

Terri:
How do you deal with that?

Megan Mitchell:
I'm someone who doesn't like being yelled at. I know that's something that I have to work on, and I'm working on it, people.

Terri:
Wait, what do you mean? Who likes being yelled at? No one.

Megan Mitchell:
I agree. Except my photographer was like, "Well, you better get used to it." I'm like, "I'm still not, after 27 years."

Terri:
When you were way back in the day, not that long ago, at Emerson saying, "Hey, this is what I want to do." Were the things that you worried about then, about pursuing this career, the same things that bother you now?

Megan Mitchell:
Interesting. I think the biggest thing, especially being that I really found my family at Emerson, my people in life ended up being the people that I met my freshman and sophomore year and just stuck with. I think my biggest concern at Emerson was the fact that they were all moving to New York or LA. Shout out to all my Emerson alum out there who moved out there, and then I had to move to Bismark, North Dakota. That was the biggest struggle that I had to face was that I had finally found my people in life, and especially being gay, I had felt like, "Oh my god, are these the only people who will accept me?" Which I know is not true and I know is false, but when you first find those people that do accept you, you're like, "Oh my god, I never want to leave you ever." I was sad to have to leave them and see them all hanging out like total FOMO.

Terri:
That part, the community part.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah, was really the most difficult part for me. I think it continues to be, just because I still love them and I still talk to them.

Terri:
Talk to me about being out on the air. Talk to me about either when the decision was made or was it never a decision? It just was what it was.

Megan Mitchell:
I've been out since I was 18. This is years before I actually got on air in North Dakota. When you go on TV, then you have to make a proclamation.

Terri:
Do you? I don't know if you do anymore.

Megan Mitchell:
I don't know. Also, it was pretty clear in my bios I always write ... I'm not going to write, "I'm a lesbian." I do write, "I'm a member of the National LGBTQ Journalists Association, which—

Terri:
We'll see where you go. That's the way to say it.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah, exactly. I feel like there's pretty clear indicators there. I think some people overlook it because I get messages from men who continue to be like, "You have a boyfriend?" I'm like, "No."

Terri:
Of course, I'm going to assume that, that happens all the time.

Megan Mitchell:
I think when I was in North Dakota, it was just a really interesting place to do it in because I had been so overtly accepted at Emerson, they were like, "Oh, you are right at home. You're in Boston, you're at Emerson." Then I was literally in the middle of North Dakota where I could get,

Terri:
I don't know how they are there with ... how were you received?

Megan Mitchell:
You can get fired for being gay.

Terri:
Really?

Megan Mitchell:
At that point, you couldn't get married there. There was just a lot of things. Truthfully, Gallup did a poll and it basically ended up being that North Dakota, out of every state, was not necessarily the most homophobic, but there was just the least percentage of gay people there, or LGBTQ people.

Terri:
Least percentage of LGBTQ, or least percentage of people who say they're LGBTQ?

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly.

Terri:
They're just not coming out because it's not safe place to do it.

Megan Mitchell:
Finally, the Pulse Nightclub shooting happened, and for anyone I didn't make it clear to you already, because it wasn't like I was saying, "I'm gay, I'm gay." On air. It was more just, if you go to my social media, you'll understand.

Terri:
You would see it.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. I made like a full post where I really talked about, "Hey, in case you didn't already know, I'm gay. Yes, I'm on air, and yes, I wasn't sure if anybody knew this or whatever." I feel like a lot of times hate crimes, homophobia can happen because you don't see that person as a human. I was just like, "You've hopefully known and loved me for the last couple of years here in North Dakota, but I'm someone who you thought was different." You know what I mean?

Terri:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Megan Mitchell:
I'm that person that you thought was not like you, even though you've related to me for the last couple years. I don't know if that ever ended up making a difference in anyone's life, but hopefully it did. I believe in the power of representation, so then when I got to Cincinnati, I just like went full out gay. I was like, "I'm here, I'm queer. Get used to it."

Terri:
How. What do you mean? Meaning when you apply for the job, they know kind of thing?

Megan Mitchell:
Yep. That's right. I actually was told the president of my station in my interview. I'm like, "By the way, this is the deal."

Terri:
Really?

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. He actually asked—

Terri:
It's none of his business.

Megan Mitchell:
Oh, it's none of his business.

Terri:
What did he say?

Megan Mitchell:
He goes, "The biggest thing that I ask everyone that comes here is I want to know, what's the toughest thing you struggled with?" For me, it was coming to terms with my sexuality, but mostly my relationship with my parents with my sexuality. I was like, "It's very personal." He goes, "I want to know it, if you're willing to share." I was like, "Okay, I'm gay." My parents had a really hard time accepting that, and they're okay at this point, but it took quite a while.

Terri:
How did that go over in the interview? What a personal, interesting, personal discussion, and it great opportunity to know if this person is someone you could work with.

Megan Mitchell:
Absolutely.

Terri:
This whole idea we talked about of being a news reporter, someone who's unbiased, local news, here's what happened, like me or not, I'm here to tell the story. Is there a thing where, and this is people who identify as straight, or cis, they don't have the struggle, because they just do what they do. Is there always that feeling that you're going to filter it through more of an advocacy lens, or is there any thought about how that affects your role?

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah, absolutely. Even as a woman comes into ... there's just certain things that I have felt the struggle with in my life, but I have this theory, and I actually thought of this theory when I was a senior ... junior, senior in college. It is that when we say we want everyone to have the same airtime, or we want to make sure that both sides are balanced and fair, you think about who's holding the power. Big corporations, or government leaders. If those voices already have a platform, their PR team or whoever already has their voice out there.

Megan Mitchell:
In my view of journalism, you could say it's advocacy journalism, but I am telling both sides of the story. I would say that the smaller voice would need more amplifying to be balanced. I don't think of advocacy journalism necessarily as a bad thing. I think of it as amplifying marginalized voices that need the same amount of power. You're trying to give these people the same amount of power as people who do have big PR teams, or do have—

Terri:
Yeah, and it's not fair. They're not equal.

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly.

Terri:
It's not equal and equal. We need to pump this up really loud to even come close to being heard.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah. That was one of the things, just talking about specifically Emerson College and how I came to this conclusion. I took these classes in the liberal arts section of my coursework that were so eye-opening, and radical, and just made me understand the world and see the power structures and hierarchies in a totally different ways. There were these very structured classes about journalism where ... or even media in general, where you're seeing, oh, this is how the power structure works at a media company. To have like this dichotomy of fighting against each other of trying to take down the man, but also trying to work for the man.

Terri:
Yes, that's hard, but that's the reality.

Megan Mitchell:
It's the reality.

Terri:
They'd be working for the man for a while.

Megan Mitchell:
Oh yes. It was actually the best thing ever, because I think there are ways to tow that line and also make a difference, because I have so much respect for small, small news outlets with one or two people working them, and these amazing radical viewpoints, but you don't have an audience to reach to. Working for, quote unquote, the man or these big companies where there are a lot of stringent rules, and or things that you can or can't say is actually a good thing, because there are ways where you can really amplify small voices to a mass audience, which I think is so important.

Terri:
So critical.

Megan Mitchell:
Yeah.

Terri:
One of the things, Megan, is you, and this is of course how I've met you, that we both sit on the Emerson Alumni Board, which means that ... We like to be there because it's fun to be at that bridge between people who are in school, and leaving school, and building careers, and people who went there and are looking to connect again, which is the reason for this podcast for cry out loud. There's a reason you chose to do that. There must be some connection for you of why you'd want to do that. What role does Emerson play in your life now that you're not there anymore?

Megan Mitchell:
I have had this epiphany in the last few months because my brother is applying to colleges right now. I realized for me how critical college was in making me not just the professional, but the person that I am, and how much I want that for other people. For me, my cause, and the thing that I will advocate to no end for is education, and specifically post high school, college, undergrad education. Because it really changed my life, and if there's any way that we can make that opportunity more accessible for people, for people of color, for people that come from communities where there's not a lot of resources, or not a great education system, I would love to be able to give that opportunity to everyone, because it changed my life.

Megan Mitchell:
It changed who I was, and I'm never going to forget that. I would never want to have that opportunity be taken away from someone else or not be given the chance because maybe they don't have the money, or maybe they don't have the ability to go there for a visit and fall in love with it in the way that I did when I was literally a sophomore in high school. I was a coo-coo person. I really was, I was like, "Emerson for life." When I was a sophomore, I was crazy.

Terri:
You're barely getting into high school. You're like, "I know where I want to go to college." Wow.

Megan Mitchell:
Exactly. I just felt like once I got to Emerson, I was like, "Oh my gosh. I'm going to just soak it all in, take in every advantage of everything because I've wanted to be here for so many years." Then both personally and professionally, I just allowed it to change me. It really did.

Terri:
Megan, what does it mean for you to, quote, make it? How will you know when you get there?

Megan Mitchell:
That's such a good question. I love the duality of the word, make it. I just think it's so brilliant because there is this concept of, "Oh, have you made it yet?" I think that, that can be rewarding for a lot of people, especially that outside external validation of feeling like, "Wow, I've really made it in my industry." I also feel like, as an Emerson student, or alumni now, you are crafting so much of your product, and your product doesn't have to be a film, it doesn't have to be a TV show.

Megan Mitchell:
For me, it's not even the news package I see on TV. It's the difference that I'm making and telling the stories that I do with the community. It's the people's lives that I'm impacting. That, to me, is making it. It's about lifting up people through the power of a story and media. I just think that, that's the most powerful thing. The fact that I'm the one that's being able to craft that ... I know this is a podcast, but I'm playing with my hands, crafting with my hands right now, because although I'm not making pottery, I just feel like it is such a hands-on experience of changing lives.

Terri:
Megan Mitchell, as far as we're concerned, you've made it. I feel like you have, and you're continuing to do it and making a difference in your community in a way that you lend a positive, open, and discerning ear to the events happening in Cincinnati. For anyone who is suspicious of media people being dead inside zombies, your heart is so big, we just love it.

Megan Mitchell:
Oh, I appreciate that, Terri.

Terri:
Thanks Megan.

Megan Mitchell:
Yes, of course. Go Emerson.

Terri:
Yay. "Making It Big in 30 Minutes" is a production of Emerson College bringing innovation to communication and the arts. Sponsored by the Emerson College Office of Alumni engagement and supported by the Alumni Board of Directors. Our theme music was written by Phantoms and Avocado Junkie. For more information about the Alumni Association, please visit emerson.edu/alumni, where you can also find bonus material from the show. I'm Terri Trespicio. Thanks for listening.