Storytelling is her Super Power - meet Amy Chodroff | RR224

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's

Janice Porter: 00:00:02

edition of relationships rule. My guest this week is Amy Shaw

Janice Porter: 00:00:07

drauf. Welcome to the show, Amy.

Amy Chodoff: 00:00:09

Thank you, Janice for having me.

Janice Porter: 00:00:11

My pleasure. Amy is one of from what I

Janice Porter: 00:00:14

understand, because I don't live there, but one of the most

Janice Porter: 00:00:17

recognizable on air personalities and has the most

Janice Porter: 00:00:21

recognizable laugh in the Dallas Fort Worth area, one of

Amy Chodoff: 00:00:25

them at least

Janice Porter: 00:00:27

been an award winning radio host in North

Janice Porter: 00:00:29

Texas for 20 years. Wow. That's amazing. First, you were in

Janice Porter: 00:00:33

news, correct.

Amy Chodoff: 00:00:35

I was in news for a very long time. And then I made

Amy Chodoff: 00:00:37

the switch to being a show host to be a morning show host.

Janice Porter: 00:00:41

So you're the morning show host with your

Janice Porter: 00:00:43

partner, Dave, Dave, and Amy on 570, K, Li F

Amy Chodoff: 00:00:48

crime 70k. Ally up and down

Janice Porter: 00:00:51

in Dallas, okay. And I'm going to stop there for

Janice Porter: 00:00:55

a minute because I was thinking when I was going to be talking

Janice Porter: 00:00:59

to you, I'm going to interview a radio talk show host who does

Janice Porter: 00:01:04

nothing but ask questions of people that Oh, my goodness, how

Janice Porter: 00:01:09

am I going to do this? Because it's, it's like, I started to

Janice Porter: 00:01:14

have this vision of you on the radio show that you have a I

Janice Porter: 00:01:19

don't know what they call it in your business. But I know

Janice Porter: 00:01:21

there's like I picture a, a binder that the producer has,

Janice Porter: 00:01:27

and they're all segmented and into what you're doing any

Janice Porter: 00:01:30

segment of the show. And that you have, you have to keep a

Janice Porter: 00:01:33

strict timeframe on what you do. But you have some leeway as to

Janice Porter: 00:01:40

how you do it. Am I right or wrong?

Amy Chodoff: 00:01:42

Well, you're partly right, we do have strict time

Amy Chodoff: 00:01:46

restraints, some of our segments are shorter than others, they

Amy Chodoff: 00:01:50

can range from the new segment, which is four and a half to five

Amy Chodoff: 00:01:54

minutes to a talk segment, that may be three to eight minutes,

Amy Chodoff: 00:01:58

depending on where we are in the hour, we don't have a binder

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:02

from our producer, we do have, we do have a rundown from our

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:06

producer, which kind of has each segment listed out in which

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:10

stories we're going to do in each segment. But we really keep

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:13

everything in our computer in the program that we use in the

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:16

news program that we use. And that's what we follow as we move

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:20

through the morning. And that's all stuff that my co host and I

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:24

have found the night before, because we do a lot of research

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:28

the night before. And then we call it working it up for that

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:31

morning. So we can discuss it, we highlight the interesting

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:35

parts, we talked about it off the air. So we know maybe how to

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:40

start and how to get out of it segment, because that's very

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:43

important is how to start it. Because you want to make it

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:45

interesting for the listener. And then also you need to know

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:49

where you're going to get out of it as well. So you can move on

Amy Chodoff: 00:02:52

to the next segment.

Janice Porter: 00:02:53

So you know that I'm a LinkedIn trainer and I

Janice Porter: 00:02:56

talk about when I'm crafting a LinkedIn summary or about

Janice Porter: 00:03:02

section for a client, I always say you want to start with a

Janice Porter: 00:03:04

hook, and then write exactly what you're talking about. It is

Amy Chodoff: 00:03:08

exactly what we're talking about.

Janice Porter: 00:03:10

Although you would have a lot more experience

Janice Porter: 00:03:12

at it than I do. So I'm just fascinated because, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:03:16

I've listened to I listened to talk radio, I have open ears.

Janice Porter: 00:03:21

And now I listen to podcasts a lot of the time. And similar but

Janice Porter: 00:03:26

not the live feature, obviously. So before I get into your new

Janice Porter: 00:03:31

world, I just wanted to ask a few questions about are the

Janice Porter: 00:03:35

radio work world? So is it less stressful or more stressful

Janice Porter: 00:03:39

dealing with a partner and doing, you know, human interest

Janice Porter: 00:03:44

in as well as some news than doing all that news that you

Janice Porter: 00:03:48

did? You are a news anchor, right?

Amy Chodoff: 00:03:50

Yes, I like it better because we cover a lot

Amy Chodoff: 00:03:53

more topics and my co anchor and I get along really well. He's,

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:00

gosh, he's almost 20 years older than I am. And yet we have so

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:04

much fun and a lot in common. And we learn a lot from each

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:08

other. We don't always agree. Different perspectives, right?

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:12

Yeah, a lot of times we do agree, but sometimes we don't.

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:16

And other times, we listen to each other's perspective. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:20

then I may change my mind and say you know what, Dave, you

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:23

were right. I was wrong at the beginning. And then I have a you

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:27

know, a new, a new way of thinking about something that

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:29

we've been talking about. We have a lot of fun. We have a lot

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:32

of laughs We do a lot of, you know, horrible stories, because

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:35

there's just a lot of horrible news that's going on right now.

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:38

We do a lot of tough stories. But we do a lot of talkers. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:43

that stuff that people would be interested in and finding out

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:46

more information about and that's what we really love to do

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:50

because we get to sort of get into the the weeds so to speak

Amy Chodoff: 00:04:56

of some of those stories.

Janice Porter: 00:04:57

Can you give me an example of one of those

Janice Porter: 00:05:00

Stories. That was

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:01

an example of one of those stories I'm trying to

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:03

think from this morning. Unfortunately, a lot of times we

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:06

do so much stuff that when I get off the air, I don't even

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:09

remember what we did. Isn't that weird?

Janice Porter: 00:05:12

No. So that was tough to ask me that I

Janice Porter: 00:05:16

understood as

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:16

we do so many things. Let's just like I could

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:18

read the weather all day long. And then I asked my husband,

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:20

it's gonna rain today.

Janice Porter: 00:05:25

Brilliant. So Oh, my next question went out of my

Janice Porter: 00:05:32

head because Okay, so, Joe, do you have callers call in on your

Janice Porter: 00:05:37

show? No, we don't know. Okay. So you're on air the whole time.

Janice Porter: 00:05:42

Okay, so I do know, I read somewhere that your daughter

Janice Porter: 00:05:47

went into the family business?

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:50

Yes, yes. Reporter as well. Right. All right. Yes.

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:53

He's a political reporter for the CBS affiliate in Dallas. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:05:56

our younger daughter is now a sports anchor reporter in

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:01

Tucson, Arizona. This is her second job. So yes, she went in

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:04

the family business and our younger daughter wanted nothing

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:07

to do with it. And is a sophomore going to be a junior

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:10

at the University of Arizona and she's studying education. So she

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:13

doesn't want any part of the family business. But we need the

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:17

teacher. So it's Oh, yeah. And she is so good with the kids.

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:20

It's unbelievable. She's gonna be an awesome teacher.

Janice Porter: 00:06:23

That was my first life. I was a teacher. Oh, yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:06:26

Yeah, yeah. But I think it's important that we still have

Janice Porter: 00:06:29

good people going into teaching, but I love that your daughter is

Janice Porter: 00:06:32

and she she wanted sports, right? She was Oh,

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:35

yeah. No, yeah, she wanted sports. She went to

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:38

Syracuse to went to Newhouse School, just like my husband and

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:40

I did. And just has a passion for everything football. I mean,

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:45

all sports, but she loves football, both college and

Amy Chodoff: 00:06:48

professional.

Janice Porter: 00:06:50

Well, there's big space out there. I just saw Erin

Janice Porter: 00:06:52

Andrews just had a baby. Oh, yeah, I saw. Yeah. Okay, so you

Janice Porter: 00:07:00

are embarking or have just embarked on a new side gig, new

Janice Porter: 00:07:05

career, whatever you want to call it? I know that the radio

Janice Porter: 00:07:08

show probably takes up a lot of your time. I know. It's early

Janice Porter: 00:07:11

morning. But you said that you do research it as well, later in

Janice Porter: 00:07:15

the day? Correct. So yeah, we

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:16

do, I do. Usually around four or five o'clock, we

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:18

do our research, because that's when most of the stories that

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:22

would be pertinent for the next morning have cleared. I mean,

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:24

sometimes there's breaking news overnight. But usually by for

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:27

Friday, five o'clock, we can kind of figure out what we want

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:30

to do for the next morning. So that's the time that I spend

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:33

there. But both my kids are out of the house. So I really have

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:37

between 10am and four or 5pm, to do whatever I want. So I started

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:44

helping business owners and other clients get their stories

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:49

out and tell their stories, because I am a storyteller. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:53

that's what I've done on the radio for 35 years. And I'm

Amy Chodoff: 00:07:57

really a quick study at learning someone's business, and be able

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:02

to digest that information and then come up with their story,

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:06

the business owners story. There are so many stories, there are

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:09

customer stories, there are employees stories, and a lot of

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:14

people have trouble nailing that down. And that's what that's one

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:18

of the things that I'm here to do in addition to writing and

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:22

content creation.

Janice Porter: 00:08:24

So those things make me think of, okay, you're a

Janice Porter: 00:08:29

copywriter a copy for someone's having their website done and

Janice Porter: 00:08:34

grant the copy done. So that's where it fits in. Or maybe

Janice Porter: 00:08:37

they're, they need their, their, their LinkedIn profile written,

Janice Porter: 00:08:42

or they need their

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:43

bio written find website, or the about us section

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:47

for their website, or, you know, I do a lot of ghost writing for

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:51

some medical writing companies, where I would actually write the

Amy Chodoff: 00:08:56

doctors website, and the intense medical information. So I do

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:00

that

Janice Porter: 00:09:01

does not sound sexy to me.

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:04

I do writing for attorneys. So basically,

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:09

anything that has to be written, yeah, I can do.

Janice Porter: 00:09:12

So what's your favorite part of that? How did

Janice Porter: 00:09:15

you see like, because you could love writing and still not

Janice Porter: 00:09:18

wanting to do it as a business. So how did you see that it was

Janice Porter: 00:09:22

something that would excite you to do

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:24

well, I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge of crafting

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:27

something I enjoy getting something down on I would say on

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:31

the page, but I do it. I type on my computer and moving it

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:34

around. Yeah, it's like a puzzle to me. And it's fun, and I

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:40

especially love the bios, because I get to interview the

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:45

people first. That's a big thing for me. I don't just take your

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:48

resume or your LinkedIn profile and do it from that I actually

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:52

set up an appointment with you and interview you and I'm going

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:56

to ask you questions that you probably have never been asked

Amy Chodoff: 00:09:59

before because That's just me. And I'm very inquisitive. And I

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:03

love asking people things, and I'm gonna draw things out of

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:06

people, and then be able to craft their bio, and they just

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:10

come out wonderful. And I really, really enjoy that part

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:14

of it. I've been having a lot of fun with that.

Janice Porter: 00:10:15

Oh, that's good. That's good. Because I love

Janice Porter: 00:10:17

talking to people and pulling things out of them. And quite

Janice Porter: 00:10:21

often I hear people say to me, that was really intuitive. I,

Janice Porter: 00:10:26

how did you even think that, but see, I couldn't put it in

Janice Porter: 00:10:29

writing, I would just like to talk to them about it. That's

Janice Porter: 00:10:31

why I'd cast and not writing a book.

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:35

I don't know that I have a book in me. You know, I

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:38

really don't, especially a biography. I don't think so. But

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:41

I like I'm really good at writing and other people's

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:44

voices too. Like blogs, I can write in other people's tone of

Amy Chodoff: 00:10:49

voice. And that's hard to do.

Janice Porter: 00:10:52

It is very hard to do. Very hard to do, I have

Janice Porter: 00:10:55

to say. So wait, what was I gonna say?

Janice Porter: 00:11:06

Something you said made me go off. And then I have a voice. So

Janice Porter: 00:11:13

Amy, you talked about you didn't think you had a book in you. But

Janice Porter: 00:11:17

I bet with all the stories that you've heard over the years and

Janice Porter: 00:11:20

the the experiences that you've had being on the radio that was

Janice Porter: 00:11:26

and you and you have probably a great sense of humor. That's

Janice Porter: 00:11:29

what I'm sensing already from you that I bet you've got to

Janice Porter: 00:11:32

Virginia that even though

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:34

I have a few stories, my favorite story, can

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:37

I tell you my favorite story was when I was working in Orlando,

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:41

Florida, and I was the midday anchor for the am station. But I

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:45

did Morning News. And I was sort of the co host of the Country

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:48

Music Station. Before I went to do my midday news on the am

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:52

station. And there was a time we didn't have a permanent host. So

Amy Chodoff: 00:11:57

we would bring in all these country music stars. So I met

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:01

you name it. I've met them. I've done a show with them. I mean

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:04

from Brad Paisley to I don't even I can't even remember the

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:09

mall that I've co hosted with. So one of the big co hosts who

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:13

came in was Kenny Rogers. Yes. And he has since passed away,

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:18

obviously. But this was 20. I want to say it was 20 years ago.

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:24

And he came in and he's such a he was such a short man, because

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:28

I expected he was going to be much taller than he was. And it

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:31

was after he had had his plastic surgery. So of course, he looked

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:34

a lot different than he did before that time. And so we

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:39

hosted the show with him. And for some reason I asked him to

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:44

sing I'll Island in the Sky, you know, in the stream islands,

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:49

Islands in the Stream. Thank you that he sang with Dolly Parton.

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:54

And he wrote, yeah, and he's like, come sing with me. So I

Amy Chodoff: 00:12:59

start singing with him and forget the words. Okay, and I

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:04

was so bad.

Janice Porter: 00:13:08

That was putting you on the spot,

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:09

though. Wow. And then and then he signed, he was

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:12

promoting a book that he had at the time. And I still have the

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:15

book. And he signed it. And he said, Dear Amy always remember

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:20

our song, Kenny Rogers. And he signed it. And it was funny

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:25

because I was looking through some stuff a few weeks ago. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:28

I found it and it just reminded me of that memory. But that was

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:32

one of the fun stories of someone really famous that I met

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:35

and had a great interaction with.

Janice Porter: 00:13:37

So you've been around the country in different

Janice Porter: 00:13:40

markets, correct? Yeah. So how long have you been in Dallas?

Amy Chodoff: 00:13:45

20 years,

Janice Porter: 00:13:46

you've been there 20 years. Because I know here

Janice Porter: 00:13:48

there was, in fact, he just died actually was there was this disc

Janice Porter: 00:13:54

jockey who kind of was when I was a kid. And he you know,

Janice Porter: 00:13:58

we're moved his way all the way up. To set through all the ages,

Janice Porter: 00:14:07

I think he was the young DJ that introduced the Beatles when they

Janice Porter: 00:14:11

came to Vancouver. And that goes all the way through. And he was

Janice Porter: 00:14:15

a legend in his time, basically here. And there's not that many

Janice Porter: 00:14:21

that have a long career in one place and different stations and

Janice Porter: 00:14:26

whatever, as the markets have changed, but it's pretty special

Janice Porter: 00:14:30

to to 20 years in one one mark and I was

Amy Chodoff: 00:14:34

Yeah, that's really unusual these days. Yeah, there

Amy Chodoff: 00:14:37

are a lot of people on the other am station where I work at who

Amy Chodoff: 00:14:40

have been there 30 years 40 years. Time. Yeah, yeah. But

Amy Chodoff: 00:14:46

people move around a lot, especially in TV. And my husband

Amy Chodoff: 00:14:49

has been in TV here 20 years too. So that's rare.

Janice Porter: 00:14:52

Yeah. And well, they're not the kind of jobs

Janice Porter: 00:14:56

where you get like a month's notice either do you you're like

Janice Porter: 00:14:59

you're Here today gone tomorrow,

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:03

ultimately depends on your contract situation and

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:05

things like that.

Janice Porter: 00:15:07

So I'm being bit naive around that. So with your

Janice Porter: 00:15:09

storytelling, gift which, which is evident? What's your who's

Janice Porter: 00:15:17

your most wanted client? Who do you love to work with? What?

Janice Porter: 00:15:22

Like, is it an industry? Is it a? Is it male versus female? Is

Janice Porter: 00:15:27

it young versus old? Is it the lawyers and the doctors? Or is

Janice Porter: 00:15:30

it the creative people? Or do you, you know, do you have a

Janice Porter: 00:15:33

favorite?

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:34

It's, it's really I love working one on one with

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:37

people. And I love that moment that someone says to me, oh, my

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:41

gosh, how do you do that? How do you fit pull my story out of me

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:45

and figure that out, I'm too close to it. A lot of times,

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:48

you're just too close to your own story. So you can't see it.

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:51

It's staring you in the face. And you're just too close to it.

Amy Chodoff: 00:15:56

And it takes an outsider, someone like me to be able to

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:00

come in and talk to you and discuss with you and figure out

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:03

what your story should be. And then figure out what your

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:06

talking point should be, and how you should organize it all and

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:10

how you should put it on your website, how you should put it

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:12

on social media. And if you you know, are invited to do a radio

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:17

show or a TV show how you should sell yourself in that medium?

Janice Porter: 00:16:22

That's a good one. That's a really good one.

Janice Porter: 00:16:24

Because how is it different? So is it different on radio than

Janice Porter: 00:16:28

something that's in print, obviously, but it is, it is very

Janice Porter: 00:16:33

different meetings I talked about earlier, and said I'm

Janice Porter: 00:16:35

sorry, was it about not burying the lede as

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:39

well, it's that too. But in in radio, you may

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:41

have a three or four minute interview, and there's no video,

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:45

it's all audio. A lot of times when you call in to a radio

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:49

show, it's a different experience, because you have to

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:53

listen over the phone. And that's, that's hard for some

Amy Chodoff: 00:16:55

people to concentrate. versus being in studio, that's a

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:00

different experience to also being on television is a

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:03

different experience, you know, you need to know where to look

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:06

and, and you need to dress correctly. And you may have a

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:09

longer time to discuss topics on TV than you do on the radio. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:14

then in a podcast, something like this is so different than

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:18

radio, because it's so much more long form. And you can go into

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:22

much more detail than you can on the radio where you have to be

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:26

very brief and make your points quickly.

Janice Porter: 00:17:28

Mm hmm. So I've actually had a few people on my

Janice Porter: 00:17:33

podcast who talk about story in different ways. The thing today

Janice Porter: 00:17:40

seems to be not just so much telling your own stories, but

Janice Porter: 00:17:44

being able to tell stories as part of your content on social

Janice Porter: 00:17:48

media. Have you come across that? Do you work with people on

Janice Porter: 00:17:51

that at all?

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:52

Yeah, because you have customer stories, people

Amy Chodoff: 00:17:56

that interact with your product, your product, tells a story to

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:01

write, in many ways. And so you can develop a story around your

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:05

product, you have employees stories, and those are wonderful

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:09

stories of you know, why does someone work for you. A lot of

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:14

times, there's a backstory, on why someone works for you, or

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:18

how long they they've been there. The stories are really

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:21

endless that people can use. And once you create those stories,

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:26

maybe through the written or word or audio or video, then you

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:31

can cut those up and use them endlessly on your social media

Amy Chodoff: 00:18:36

and your various platforms.

Janice Porter: 00:18:39

Okay, so I'm just starting, I'm actually just

Janice Porter: 00:18:42

getting that because I finally have a rhythm with my email news

Janice Porter: 00:18:49

letter that I'm sending out to my list. And I'm trying very

Janice Porter: 00:18:53

hard to think of a story to put in each week. But it doesn't

Janice Porter: 00:18:58

come naturally to me. And so what advice would you have. So,

Janice Porter: 00:19:03

for example, I was so proud of myself because I was able to, to

Janice Porter: 00:19:08

take a story a couple of weeks ago, of an experience that I had

Janice Porter: 00:19:12

with my little granddaughter, where we took her down to the

Janice Porter: 00:19:16

park and she wanted to go to the swings in the slides. But on the

Janice Porter: 00:19:19

way there was this huge mound of sand in the parking lot while

Janice Porter: 00:19:24

she couldn't resist that because she loves to climb and play in

Janice Porter: 00:19:27

dirt and whatever and so beeline for the pile of sand off she was

Janice Porter: 00:19:32

for another 20 minutes playing there. And I liked and that

Janice Porter: 00:19:38

finally told that story and then likened it to a business piece

Janice Porter: 00:19:42

around being in the moment and going with the flow kind of

Janice Porter: 00:19:46

thing rather than just having to do what you set out to perfect,

Janice Porter: 00:19:49

but I don't do that often enough and like what what kind of

Janice Porter: 00:19:53

things do you have to open up in your mind to be able to do those

Janice Porter: 00:19:58

things? You know what I'm saying?

Amy Chodoff: 00:19:59

I think you need to To be open up to the fact that

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:02

and I always like to say that life for me is show prep. Okay,

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:06

I go about my everyday life. Yeah. And every, every

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:10

experience that I have, in the back of my mind, I think to

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:14

myself, is this a usable moment for me on the air? And you can

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:20

do a similar thing and say, Is this a usable moment for me? And

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:23

how can I connect it to something in my business and

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:26

turn it into a story? For my newsletter? Yeah, as we pass so

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:31

many stories, hundreds of stories every single day, and

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:34

you don't even know it, because you're intuitively not aware to

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:38

it. And once you start developing awareness to that,

Janice Porter: 00:20:43

I should write them down. When they write them

Janice Porter: 00:20:45

down, keep

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:45

a notebook with you write them down, like the

Amy Chodoff: 00:20:48

experience that you had with your granddaughter. I mean, that

Janice Porter: 00:20:50

is perfect. Yeah, that was probably I was pretty

Janice Porter: 00:20:53

proud of myself, because I need it. You know, it worked. And in

Janice Porter: 00:20:57

fact, I've had young man on my show, who saw it, who, that's

Janice Porter: 00:21:04

what he teaches people. And he and he critiqued me on it. And

Janice Porter: 00:21:07

it was great, because it was, it was a good example. And now I

Janice Porter: 00:21:11

just have to do those more often. But I use examples

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:14

all the time on our on our radio show of things that

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:17

happened to me throughout the day, and so does my co host,

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:19

whether it's at the grocery store, or picking up the kids or

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:23

whatever has happened over the years. And they turn out to be

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:27

the best bits, because a lot of people can relate to them

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:30

because they've had similar experiences.

Janice Porter: 00:21:33

Yeah. And it's but when they come to you

Janice Porter: 00:21:35

naturally, when you're on the air, that's, that's brilliant to

Janice Porter: 00:21:39

like, be able to draw from those things. And I suppose, is it

Janice Porter: 00:21:44

easier when you're working with a partner, or a harder because I

Janice Porter: 00:21:47

would imagine that would feed you would feed each other? I

Janice Porter: 00:21:50

think

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:51

it's easier because we feed off of each other. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:54

my partner and I have been working together for 11 years.

Amy Chodoff: 00:21:57

So we can kind of we know each other's cadences. And we know

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:02

when one of us can start talking. And the other one needs

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:04

to stop talking. And sometimes we talk over each other. But

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:07

that's a normal conversation. A lot of times people talk over

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:10

each other, right. So it's okay, I used to have we used to have

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:15

some people that would critique us and say, well, you're talking

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:18

over each other. But that's part of that's part of life and part

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:20

of our conversation. So I think that's natural. And I think it

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:25

makes us more real. And that's what we're all about is being

Amy Chodoff: 00:22:28

authentic.

Janice Porter: 00:22:29

I love that word. I'm totally that way. Exactly.

Janice Porter: 00:22:33

So speaking of being authentic, actually, I wanted to ask this

Janice Porter: 00:22:36

question, which I don't know if I have, I don't know if you can

Janice Porter: 00:22:39

answer this question or whether you would answer this question.

Janice Porter: 00:22:42

It's not even about you. It's about I thought about your

Janice Porter: 00:22:47

husband, you said is a political reporter. Correct? On a TV

Janice Porter: 00:22:54

channel, CBS, when you are reporting on a certain station,

Janice Porter: 00:23:01

whether it's radio or television, do you have to have

Janice Porter: 00:23:07

the same views as that station?

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:10

No, I mean, he went, he's a political reporter.

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:13

So to him, when people don't know, where he stands on an

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:18

issue, then he's done his job repairing. Okay, so he's middle

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:21

of the road, and he talks to both sides on it. Okay. And, you

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:25

know, he is very old school that way. And when I was doing news,

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:29

I'm old school that way to a little different now where I'm

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:33

more of a host, and I can give more of my opinions. But, you

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:37

know, it's sometimes they're, they they lean more

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:41

conservative, and sometimes they leave more democratic. You know,

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:44

it's just like anything else.

Janice Porter: 00:23:46

I was just curious, because, you know, we

Janice Porter: 00:23:48

know with the big, the big cable networks, like, you

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:53

know, with Fox and CNN and you know, where MSNBC

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:56

are coming from, but I think it's different at the local

Amy Chodoff: 00:23:59

level, due to local level isn't really like that.

Janice Porter: 00:24:03

Okay. Okay. Very cool. So what would you say? Is

Janice Porter: 00:24:08

your Can you think of the most exciting experience or life

Janice Porter: 00:24:15

changing experience you had on radio? Life changing?

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:20

Wow.

Janice Porter: 00:24:23

For someone you really had always wanted to

Janice Porter: 00:24:26

meet, and it happened or

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:28

see, I'm not a big, like, I don't stars don't.

Janice Porter: 00:24:32

I don't know. You're not starstruck.

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:34

I'm not starstruck. And I've interviewed so many

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:36

people. That's

Janice Porter: 00:24:37

why you're not starstruck. I like that.

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:39

I'm like Barbara Walters, and Diane Sawyer and

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:43

Dan Rather, and I make all those people I've interviewed and then

Amy Chodoff: 00:24:47

presidents I've interviewed Jimmy Carter, and

Janice Porter: 00:24:51

I'm trying to think so when you're doing those

Janice Porter: 00:24:55

interviews, you're going to tell me there was no sense of or a

Janice Porter: 00:25:00

Um,

Amy Chodoff: 00:25:00

maybe with maybe with Barbara Walters and Diane

Amy Chodoff: 00:25:04

Sawyer. Yes, they were new people. Yeah, exactly a little

Amy Chodoff: 00:25:08

bit of that. And maybe I'm a little nervous, you know, but I

Amy Chodoff: 00:25:12

always tried to have fun with it and do my research ahead of

Amy Chodoff: 00:25:15

time. So I know what I'm talking about.

Janice Porter: 00:25:17

Yeah, I remember back in, when my parents lived

Janice Porter: 00:25:23

in California, and they lived right in the heart of Beverly

Janice Porter: 00:25:28

Hills, and you couldn't go out on the street without somebody

Janice Porter: 00:25:32

that you recognize walking by. And I remember back in those

Janice Porter: 00:25:37

days being very cool about it and not being starstruck because

Janice Porter: 00:25:41

they're just people. They're just people just like, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:25:44

and, and to respect that of people. But there were the odd

Janice Porter: 00:25:49

there was the odd time when I go, Oh, my God, oh, my God,

Janice Porter: 00:25:51

there's John Travolta like, you know, back in the day when I was

Janice Porter: 00:25:54

very heart throbbing, or whatever. But you know what, I

Janice Porter: 00:26:00

get it. So that's wonderful that but to have interviewed some of

Janice Porter: 00:26:03

those people, though, that's pretty cool. Like, when you're

Janice Porter: 00:26:06

interviewing one of the best interviewers in the world, what

Janice Porter: 00:26:09

do you say to them? How do you why do you ask them?

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:12

Right? It's a little nerve wracking sometimes,

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:14

a lot of times they come on and they're promoting something.

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:16

They're promoting a show or they're promoting a book. I've

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:19

talked to Katie Couric, she was promoting her book, trying to

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:23

think of some of the other people that I've talked to who

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:26

are promoting books. One of the judge not Wynonna Judd. But

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:31

who's the who's the daughter? Isn't why No, nine?

Janice Porter: 00:26:35

Ashley? We're known as the older daughter.

Janice Porter: 00:26:38

Yeah.

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:39

Why? No, no. Yeah, I talked to her. I think I've

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:41

talked to Ashley too. And and a whole bunch of country stars. I

Amy Chodoff: 00:26:45

mean, yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:26:45

of course, from what you said, so fun. So if

Janice Porter: 00:26:50

someone's coming to work with you on their story. What would

Janice Porter: 00:26:59

you say? Like, do they need to bring it usually for their for

Janice Porter: 00:27:06

their, their website, or their book, the writing the beginning

Janice Porter: 00:27:12

of their book or something like that,

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:14

can be for the beginning of a book, it could be

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:18

they need, they need the pitch for their book, because they

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:21

don't know how to pitch it. It could be the story for your

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:26

website, because a lot of a lot of websites have the about us

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:29

section. And if you look through companies about us sections, a

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:32

lot of times their stories of how the company was created the

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:36

story of the founders, and almost picture essays, you know,

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:41

with pictures or maybe video and, you know, there's there's

Amy Chodoff: 00:27:45

so many different ways that you can do it.

Janice Porter: 00:27:51

So you like to play pickleball? I do. I wish

Janice Porter: 00:27:55

that it started before I wreck my knee because I think I would

Janice Porter: 00:27:59

love playing pickleball I

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:00

haven't played in a few weeks because it's been hot

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:03

and over 100 degrees here. And there's an inside court, but I

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:06

haven't gone yet. And we have an outside court in our

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:08

development. And also in their summer they play at like seven

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:12

in the morning and I'm on the radio so I can't play. Although

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:15

I did get the email today that they were it was raining this

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:18

morning. So the ladies, we have this group me chat. And the

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:22

ladies, we're going to play it at like four o'clock. So maybe I

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:25

can get out there at four and play a little but it's fun. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:28

I'm not are truly athletic person. And I honestly I do not

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:33

like to play tennis. But I'm a good ping pong player. And it's

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:38

a cross between ping pong, tennis and badminton. And so

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:44

I've just I've taken a liking to it. And it's a great social

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:47

activity. And I've met a non a lot of nice ladies and gents

Amy Chodoff: 00:28:50

playing. And it's been fun.

Janice Porter: 00:28:52

That's great. That's awesome. So I like to ask

Janice Porter: 00:28:56

my guests a couple of questions off the off of the topic. And

Janice Porter: 00:29:01

one of them is Do you mostly now? Are you a reader, a

Janice Porter: 00:29:05

listener? Or a viewer? So do you read books like real books? Do

Janice Porter: 00:29:10

you listen to books? Or podcasts? Or do you watch videos

Janice Porter: 00:29:14

mostly,

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:14

or to my I'm part of a book club in my

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:17

neighborhood. So I don't read as much as I used to read but I'm

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:20

part of the book club now. So I'm reading a book a month. So I

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:23

feel like I'm getting back into that. So that's good. I watch a

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:27

lot of Netflix. I don't watch regular TV. I only watch Netflix

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:34

or Amazon Prime or something like that. And I do not consume

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:40

podcasts. I'm really sort of quirky that way and I don't know

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:46

why. But I've never gotten into it and maybe it's because I'm on

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:50

the radio. You know when you've talked for four hours a day and

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:54

then you come home and a lot of times don't feel like talking

Amy Chodoff: 00:29:57

and that's hard for people to understand. But By talking and

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:00

listening on the radio, no, I don't right now, but I'm just

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:04

talking in general even, you know. Yeah, but I feel like it

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:07

takes too long to get to the point. And I'm so used to

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:11

getting to the point faster. Okay, that I think that's why

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:16

it's it bores me a little bit. Well, I

Janice Porter: 00:30:19

guess, you know, it's quite a fascinating field

Janice Porter: 00:30:22

because it's growing so quickly. I mean, it is it is, right. But

Janice Porter: 00:30:25

there's, there's real crime, there's stories, there's

Janice Porter: 00:30:30

interviews, there's so many different types of podcasts,

Janice Porter: 00:30:33

there's business, there's pleasure. And I've started

Janice Porter: 00:30:36

branching out a little bit and I'd been listening to while I

Janice Porter: 00:30:39

listened to a story on cereal, I think it was called One time a

Janice Porter: 00:30:44

couple years ago, that was fascinating was like an old

Janice Porter: 00:30:47

radio show with the sound effects. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:50

there are a lot of good show podcasts like that.

Amy Chodoff: 00:30:52

Yes, there are.

Janice Porter: 00:30:53

This was called S town. It was about a murder in

Janice Porter: 00:31:00

Alabama or Arkansas or somewhere. Border from New York,

Janice Porter: 00:31:04

had been found to come down and help solve this. And it was a

Janice Porter: 00:31:07

true story. But it was fascinating because the way it

Janice Porter: 00:31:10

was told it was really good. But then I've been listening to a

Janice Porter: 00:31:14

lot of celebrities doing podcasts now because I'm finding

Janice Porter: 00:31:18

that they are naturals at it. And there's a lot of them doing

Janice Porter: 00:31:22

them and the ones that listen to it some Julia Louie Dreyfus, Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:31:26

I

Amy Chodoff: 00:31:26

love her. Yeah, or you love her

Janice Porter: 00:31:28

podcast is called

Amy Chodoff: 00:31:30

wiser than me. I really need to start listening

Amy Chodoff: 00:31:33

to more

Janice Porter: 00:31:35

Clarion and she interviews women who are all

Janice Porter: 00:31:38

older and wiser than her. Oh, yeah. Pearl brunette Jane Fonda.

Janice Porter: 00:31:42

Oh, wow. Interesting people. Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, who

Janice Porter: 00:31:48

wrote the joy love all of these people. And her format's really

Janice Porter: 00:31:52

interesting, too. So if you ever want to Yeah, she's funny. So

Janice Porter: 00:31:56

fun, but she's got a potty mouth too. And then I've been

Janice Porter: 00:32:01

listening to one now called smartlace. Jason Bateman will

Janice Porter: 00:32:08

Oh, I love him. And Sean Hayes, and they I'm laughing in the

Janice Porter: 00:32:12

car. I'm laughing the entire time. So those are the kind I've

Janice Porter: 00:32:17

been listening to. And then, you know, there's just so many

Janice Porter: 00:32:20

options out there. So I just, I was curious. So being curious.

Janice Porter: 00:32:24

That's the other thing. And the last thing I want to ask you of

Janice Porter: 00:32:28

my curiosity, that's my favorite word, curiosity. So I like to

Janice Porter: 00:32:32

ask my, my guests. Do you think that curiosity is innate, or

Janice Porter: 00:32:38

learned? And then part two? What are you most curious about

Janice Porter: 00:32:42

today? I think that

Amy Chodoff: 00:32:45

there are some people that are more curious

Amy Chodoff: 00:32:47

than other people. But I think you probably can learn to be

Amy Chodoff: 00:32:51

more curious, just like you could learn to do anything. You

Amy Chodoff: 00:32:55

just have to be more open in your mind, to the experiences

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:00

that you have. I just have a natural curiosity. I'm I'm

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:05

fascinated by people's lives, I always have been fascinated by

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:08

people's lives, which is why I like to interview people. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:12

I'm weird. And I read obituaries to Aries too, because I love to

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:19

find out about people's lives. So I'll just read the

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:22

obituaries. I mean, it's it seems a little odd, but I enjoy

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:26

that. I enjoy reading about people's lives. And I love

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:30

biographies and autobiographies,

Janice Porter: 00:33:32

biographies. Yeah.

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:35

I really enjoy that. So when you've read that,

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:38

that sticks out. It's been a while since I've reading mostly

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:42

fiction in my reading group now, but oh, just of all the stars

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:48

I've read, you know, all the Dan rather's of the world, I've read

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:51

all those books. Okay. You know,

Janice Porter: 00:33:53

what do you reading in your book?

Amy Chodoff: 00:33:55

Right now we're off for the month, so nothing. So I

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:00

gotta look at the list and see what we're doing next month. I

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:03

haven't looked yet. Okay. But we've actually read a lot of

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:06

interesting things. And I'm, I'm terrible at remembering names,

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:09

names of books. But it's really stretched my my brain because

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:15

there are things that I never would read. And most of them I

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:20

have enjoyed there was one of them. I didn't enjoy, but most

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:23

of them I've really, really enjoyed. That's good.

Janice Porter: 00:34:25

Because otherwise, to me, that would be

Janice Porter: 00:34:27

a waste of time. I haven't been in Book Club for years, but I

Janice Porter: 00:34:30

can't read that fast anymore. I'm trying to scribble at

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:32

names for Pete remembering names of people and

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:34

remembering book names. I don't know why. Well, I'm reading

Janice Porter: 00:34:37

our friends book right now. Allah.

Amy Chodoff: 00:34:40

Oh, yeah. I just read her book. Yeah, I'm

Janice Porter: 00:34:42

just in the middle of it too. And so I'm

Janice Porter: 00:34:46

excited about that. So last words for my audience in terms

Janice Porter: 00:34:51

of storytelling, your one major piece of advice perhaps about

Janice Porter: 00:34:57

helping people write their stories and then also help can

Janice Porter: 00:35:00

they find you?

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:02

Well, everyone has a story. They just need to, you

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:05

know, find it and ask. And if you're trying to find your own

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:08

story. Sometimes it's good to ask a family member or friend

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:15

and say, Well, you know, what do you like about me your what do

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:19

you like about my business? Or what's different? How to why?

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:23

How is my business different than somebody else's business?

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:26

How does it stand out, because you're too close to it. But if

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:30

you have a friend, or a neighbor, or someone who's not

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:34

as close to it, try to figure that out. Oftentimes, you can

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:38

find your story. That's right there.

Janice Porter: 00:35:41

We also write, go ahead. When you see it from that

Janice Porter: 00:35:45

other person's perspective,

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:46

it's like people have trouble writing about

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:48

themselves. Like if someone says, you know, write a bio,

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:52

everyone freezes. I can't write a bio about myself. And that's

Amy Chodoff: 00:35:56

another good tip is talk to you, you know, a spouse or talk to

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:00

her friend and say, Well, how do you see me? And then write down

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:04

some ideas and then go from there?

Janice Porter: 00:36:07

Yeah, definitely. And sometimes I'm afraid to ask

Janice Porter: 00:36:10

somebody what they think. Yes, it's gonna be completely

Janice Porter: 00:36:14

different. But no, I'm just teasing. That's great. So thank

Janice Porter: 00:36:18

you. How can my client you, my audience, find you?

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:22

I'm on LinkedIn. Under my name, Amy, and I'll

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:27

spell it ch o DROF. F as in Frank, that's Shudra. That's how

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:32

it's pronounced. Yeah. That's the best way to reach out to me

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:36

on LinkedIn.

Janice Porter: 00:36:37

Perfect. And if they're in the Dallas Fort Worth

Janice Porter: 00:36:40

area, they're going to tune into radio 570 K, if Correct?

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:46

Yep. Or 96.3 FM HD two, or anyone can listen online

Amy Chodoff: 00:36:51

anywhere in the world at KLA f.com 5am to 9am Central Time.

Janice Porter: 00:36:56

Oh, wow. Yes, of course. The world has changed so

Janice Porter: 00:36:59

much.

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:00

And it's an it's DFW is Morning News with David

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:03

Amy.

Janice Porter: 00:37:03

Awesome. And you want to sign us off. I want to

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:07

sign us off. Well, thank you so much, Janice, for

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:11

having us. It's been such a pleasure. And so much fun. And

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:15

you're a delight and I wish I could interview you can can we

Amy Chodoff: 00:37:18

turn the tables here for a little bit?

Janice Porter: 00:37:20

Maybe next time? Maybe on another podcast. Okay,

Janice Porter: 00:37:25

sounds good. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. And

Janice Porter: 00:37:28

thanks to my audience for listening as usual, please check

Janice Porter: 00:37:33

Amy's LinkedIn profile out and see if she can help you with

Janice Porter: 00:37:37

your story. Remember to stay connected and be remembered