You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
Cheryl and Eileen explore different topics around the limited time we have on this earth to create a fully layered life. Because...You Only Go Once!
You Only Go Once (Y.O.G.O.)
From Skydiving to Foster Care: The Robyn Nance Story
Immerse in a heartwarming conversation with Robyn Nance, co-founder of Teen and Kid Closet and your favorite anchor on Good Morning Northwest. Take a journey with us through Robyn's inspiring life, from her adrenaline-filled adventures to her dedication to supporting foster children. Hear her unique insights on embracing criticism, making wise relationship decisions, and the profound influence her parents had on her life.
This episode offers a close look at Teen and Kid Closet, an organization that started from a single spark of inspiration and grew into a mission to provide foster children with much-needed clothing. Uncover the challenges and triumphs as we explore how Robyn and her friend turned a small idea into a thriving initiative. Robyn's personal experiences, from skydiving escapades to life-altering lessons learned through mistakes, promise to inspire and uplift you.
Add an extra layer of depth to your understanding of the media industry with our discussion about Robyn's transition from teaching to television. Hear her insights on the importance of leadership in the newsroom, how TV shows can distort the reality of the media environment, and her impactful role in nurturing the next generation of media leaders. Wrap up with a poignant story Robyn covered during the pandemic peak, a tale that remains etched in her memory. Join us for a riveting episode that promises laughter, tears, and life-altering wisdom. It's an episode you wish you'd heard sooner!
Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to you. Only Go Once, otherwise known as Yogo. I am joined by my wonderful, wonderful co-host, Eileen Grimes, and we're here today with a fantastic guest. Eileen, kick us off.
Eileen Grimes:Today we have Robyn Nance, who is an anchor on Good Morning Northwest, on KXLY4 News. Now she's lived in Spokane for 26 years and for about 15 of those years Robin reported on children in foster care in desperate need of homes in a weekly feature called Wednesday's Child. In doing these stories, she was inspired to co-found Teen In Kid Closet in 2007, which caters to children and youth in need, providing them with fashionable, good quality clothing and accessories for free. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Robin a little bit and going to the open house for Teen In Kid Closet, and you're such a wonderful and inspirational person and just full of this life and really being intentional with being here, and I'm so grateful that you said yes to coming on with us and talking with us today.
Robyn Nance:That's so kind of you. No, it's a pleasure. I'm excited about being here and getting to visit with both of you.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah. So, Robyn, as you were doing Wednesday's Child, what was it that really spoke to you about wanting to do more? That piece was definitely already something that was putting this out there for people to see and really understand the need of the support in the foster care area, but then to even take it a step further. What was that for you? That you found this space to do that?
Robyn Nance:I am so fortunate to be able to be in a position where, when I was moved by something, to actually take action and put it out into the world, as you say. So I started doing those stories and have kind of a history with love for children in crisis and children in care. But by doing the stories I met some really amazing people, the children themselves. Each one of them had something so special within them and not just the herd and the trauma, but they were resilient, yeah, but that there was something more and something that they needed. And I feel like I was fortunate enough to meet a lot of wonderful foster parents and social workers and doing one of the stories I was doing.
Robyn Nance:It wasn't about a child specific. It was more about the need for foster parents in smaller rural communities. A lot of times, if a kid goes into care in a small community, if there aren't foster homes, they move to a bigger community and they again start over with new teachers, new classmates, away from friends. Any kind of connection they had was gone, and so not only did they have the trauma of losing their parents to the system and all of that stuff, then they lose everything out. So the story was really about recruiting foster parents and getting them in smaller communities. During that I met this amazing two women who were just amazing and they were recruiting. They were one of them specifically, had been a foster parent for years and had dozens and dozens of kids over 100 kids, I think in her home at the time and in and out not all at once obviously.
Robyn Nance:And we just hit it off and after the story aired we connected and said, hey, there's got to be other things people can do. Not everybody is in a position to have a child in their home, obviously, but there are ways that people can support those kids. So what are some of those ways? So we were waiting for coffee and chatting. Actually, before we met we'd had a plan to get together and write the night or something.
Robyn Nance:Before we were to meet, abc News did a story about this girl in Florida who started this boutique for teenagers in foster care. In this I think it was like Fort Lauderdale or some some really ritzy community and she had like amazing little store and it had like fancy, fancy designer things and it was all specifically for teenage girls in foster care. And I was just mind blown Like what an amazing thing. So, meeting my friend, linda Rogers, we met for coffee and I said, wow, I just saw this amazing story. She goes oh my gosh, I saw it too. And that was really the jump off, like somebody else's wonderful idea in a different community, that we said maybe this is it, maybe this is the way we can get the community to rally around these kids. Something simple, it's clothing. Yeah, while it seems simple, it's really a much bigger deal.
Eileen Grimes:Absolutely, and I've been there. There's it's not just clothing at this point right. There's there's so much more and when you really think about the full holistic needs of these kids, you know, and in foster care, like it's not just clothes, that's not the only thing that people need, and there's just it's such a wonderful thing to be able to have seen someone else do this in a different space and then be able to actually share that within our community. I just it's so wonderful.
Robyn Nance:What was great, because we reached out to the people who run that. We reached out. It was called T-Posit, so we reached out immediately and like, how did you do this? How you know what kind of things did you do? And they were helpful, but it was totally different community, totally different thing. And we wanted to serve boys too. It was really important for us to it's not just the girls while I guess girls in fashion are a thing. We really wanted to serve every child.
Robyn Nance:We started really small. Our goal was teenage kids in foster care in Spokane County, not knowing where the numbers were going to be. So we really had a little bitty donated space. It was near Chief Gary Park and it was very small. We had it was almost like two real closets where they had pocket doors that slid. Only about one could fit in there at a time and if a kid wanted needed to pry and close, you literally left them in there. You shut the door. So we did grown and grown, because the mission has evolved and changed. You know we started again. Really, we initially said we're going to serve kids 12 to 18. Then we were getting calls from a school that said hey, I have a child who is not a foster kid, but who's living with their biological parents, and they've been wearing the same clothes for four days. They need help. Can you help them?
Robyn Nance:Well, I said let me go to the board and of course they're like well, how do you say no to that? You can't. Then I had somebody with another organization, safety Net, call and say well, can you serve kids who are over the age of 18, who are aging out of the foster care system? Well, how do you say no to that?
Cheryl Cantafio:They obviously need help.
Robyn Nance:But just to start with, we had to have parameters because we just couldn't say we're going to serve everybody. And so the mission has grown and changed and we again started with teenagers. In fact, we were teen closet initially and then, about six or seven years ago, another organization that had grown with us. They started a couple of years after us but they were called the clothing perk and they served newborns to 12, 13. And they just didn't have the infrastructure to continue. So we were supporting them and helping them kind of keep going, and then they finally were just collapsing. So we were asked multiple times to take them over and finally, when they were like we are shutting our doors, we cannot continue, we couldn't let that go. These families need as much support as possible on these kids. It's not their fault, they're in the situation. So it's been changed and became teen and kid closet in, I guess, 2017.
Eileen Grimes:So, robin, I think it's so amazing that you were able to start it. There's times when people see a need but don't really know where to go next. Have you always had that sort of like? I'm not totally sure, but I'm going to figure it out, or I think that some people that would be helpful maybe to even hear what are some of the next steps. Once I recognize that there's maybe a problem or something that I'm interested in doing something about. How do I figure out how to kind of take the next step? I know you seem to just be able to do this. Have you ever reflected on what that might look like or how you sort of find the next things and putting in things into action?
Robyn Nance:Yeah, it's funny because Linda and I have talked repeatedly like if we knew what we were doing, would we have done what we did, because we were really very naive in all of it. We were great at people, but we're great at organizing Although I suppose maybe we were better at organizing than we thought but we didn't look up how do you start a nonprofit? We started asking people and just saying we're doing this, this is going to happen, and with, fortunately, being on TV has a lot of perks in that people want to help, people know about things, or the name recognition or whatever was very helpful. So I understand that that worked as a big benefit for us. But I think what we did first, though, we really found out that there was nothing like this already, because we did not want to duplicate services that were already. If there was another organization doing that, why wouldn't you just join them and help make it better or continue the good work they're already doing? But there was nothing like this. So for us it was really brand new.
Robyn Nance:So, like I said, we were pretty naive in it. We just said we're going to do it and it's going to be great, and then all the pieces going oh nuts, we have to make money, we have to pay for things, we have to have lights on and heat in the building and we need a board of directors. And, oh gosh, to raise money you have to be a 501c3, a charitable nonprofit within the eyes of the IRS and the business community, oh gosh. So we started actually under the umbrella of a different organization before getting our own nonprofit. So we had help along the way.
Robyn Nance:But as far as I suppose I've always been like there's a need, let's go get it. No-transcript, thank goodness, though. I look back at all the kids we've helped and there are times I'm exhausted and I'm thinking I just can't Go to another meeting, make another phone call. I just, you know, I'm also a full-time employee and I'm, you know, in a mom and yeah, so it's. You know it's a lot of work but definitely worth it. But don't go. I wouldn't go about it the way we did. Don't go in blind.
Eileen Grimes:I mean, that's kind of how this podcast has been going so far. So I, I don't know.
Robyn Nance:Sometimes you do just have to jump in though, right, yeah, you do.
Cheryl Cantafio:Yeah, yeah. You know I would imagine, robin, that Say what you want, but fashion is not even fashion. But just having the right piece of clothing, or just even a special piece of clothing, an Investment piece, something like that, that just says this makes me feel good, has a radical impact on people. I'm gonna switch gears a little bit and ask if anybody has had a Radical impact on your life. And what did that look like?
Robyn Nance:Wow, that is a great question. There's so many people throughout life that affect you in any Particular way, good or bad. Radical impact. Yes, and I feel like you know it's a very Standard my mom and my dad. Those are the people who frame us. Mm-hmm, my dad was very resourceful and my mom was just an incredible role model. She was a stay-at-home mom until we were all in school and then then she went to work and then she decided that it wasn't enough, that she was going. She didn't have a college degree, so she just go get her degree. When mom three, three kids my siblings and I were born within three, like three kids in three years. And well, okay, you know, yeah, he does kids. All three were in college at the same time. She went to college at the same time.
Robyn Nance:Oh, so yeah, it's, she's incredible and then so she gets this degree and it was very hard because she worked full-time and then she would go back there. She lived in the St Louis area and they had a college during the weekends, so she would work five. I'd go to school on the weekends. I mean, she was just so impressive and of course she got amazing grades and Got her accounting degree and then went to work as an IT specialist and worked her way up in a company. I think she got her job when she was, you know, in her late 40s or, you know, probably late 40s or early 50s, and thinking no one's gonna hire me. You know, I'm terrified of putting myself out there and then, just worked yourself up, came a VP of her company just oh my gosh.
Robyn Nance:Good for her. I mean, really she's amazing. So I think about she's probably made the most like radical impact on me. You know I've had you go the other way too, or you've had somebody who has impacted you so negatively that you question so many things and you don't give that person all this credence, but at the same time it made you know it made a really big impact. To be honest with you, I was really overweight when I was in my early 20s like it's, like I'll be and my first TV job. You know it's not very a kind business when you know Be or whatever.
Robyn Nance:And I did have a general manager at my station. Basically, uh told me I was too fat to do the job, so immediately I went home and ate a pizza, a whole piece. Um sent me kind of the other way. So for part of my Hangups, my weird hangups and things, that's always in the back of my head as much as I look down, what a ridiculous thing, what a horrible thing to do to somebody you know. But, and that was, you know that was early 90s, really early 90s, and you know you can get away with that kind of stuff. Then, right, right, awesome, now you could easily Um, but it but a radical thing that was so impactful that it will never leave the back of my head.
Eileen Grimes:No. Words are so, so impactful. It doesn't have to be Something that someone did I mean, it is something that he did to you but also just a few words Can change your life and one way or another.
Robyn Nance:Yeah great, you know, I kind of can look back and you know kind of laugh like, well, you know, showed you whatever, but but it's still there. But I'd much rather think of the good things that the positive people who gave me gave me nudges along the way.
Eileen Grimes:That's way more fun, yeah of course yeah, and even thinking I for me, I love looking at leaders and thinking I won't do that.
Robyn Nance:Hmm, yes, something I will never, ever, ever do.
Cheryl Cantafio:Yes, for sure. I think it's kind that you've exhibited grace towards that individual, because in in my head there's less than kindness there, but yeah.
Robyn Nance:And the crazy thing is I even approached him and said okay, at that time, dirt, I was dirt, poor as a, you know, early reporter, just making no money, um, deferring student loans so that I could have a car to get back and forth to work. You know, you do all this struggling and piecing things together. And I went to him and asked Could the station, could you, help pay for a gym membership Like I?
Cheryl Cantafio:had done. He was like nah. Nope.
Robyn Nance:I can do it. It's like awful, okay, it was something that was. Then this is found.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, yes, correct, yeah, and I'm glad the, the body, the positivity thing has has come around. It's like, no, that's not. There is not just one type of beauty. Everyone is beautiful and I just I'm so Grateful to see that me too, and it's.
Robyn Nance:you know, there's still a lot of it out there. There's still worse, sure, but it's. It is so much more accepting and so much less of A deterrent for people in like my job and stuff, thank goodness yeah with that.
Eileen Grimes:You know, um, we see things that kind of radically change us or or people that have really impacted us, but we can Difference in our own lives, um, by doing things that might be a little impulsive, or Fun or crazy, if you will. What is the most impulsive thing that you have done and how did it go Well, um, Do so many impulsive things anymore now at my age.
Robyn Nance:Sure, I enjoy my feet on the ground a lot more. I enjoy just like I don't want to get hurt. But I will say, when I was in my early 20s I was way more adventurous. Um, first job in tv, uh, it was back in Quincy, illinois, and we had the world free fall convention there every summer. So random, a tiny little town, maybe 40 000 people. They would have the world free fall convention. People come from all over the world to just skydive, skydive and break, would do all these formations in the air and and it's like a week long or 10 day long thing. They had a tent city all over the airport and took over the whole time. So fun.
Robyn Nance:So I was out there covering it, obviously, and I went out there and I'm, you know, shooting my own video, doing my own reporting, and I go out there just to like, hey, they're setting up, they're getting ready to do it. And I literally, uh, one of the people grabbed me was just like, hey, you want to go up, you want to jump out of a plane? I'm like, uh, no, and they're like, yeah, you know, and signing up, I literally jumped tandem. So I was hooked to somebody else. Oh my gosh, Hang on it. I didn't even like. I had shoes I had to take off because they were going to fall off somewhere above, you know.
Robyn Nance:So I, in the same weekend, I went skydiving and I bungee, jumped off of a tower and I haven't. Yeah, it's uh, I don't need to do it ever, do it again either one. It was just so Impulsive and spontaneous that it's not, that's not really me. I'm not really a person like that. So for me, I really felt like, oh, this is, this is gonna be so great. But I was terrified and, yeah, that, that's that. That was my pinnacle, and everything else has been way more calm.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, I mean even now, a day, you know I'm I'm reaching my 40s and um, there are things that I'm like that might take me like a week to recover from. So it's real, it's a real thing, right, it's. It's not as easy to just be like I'm gonna bungee jump, but it's fine the next day.
Robyn Nance:No, and I tell you what bungee jumping was almost worse than skydiving, because you can see the ground, and it was terrifying.
Eileen Grimes:That was one that never interested me, because I was like it's basically like a whiplash.
Robyn Nance:I mean, you're just yeah, you just you're a rag doll, yeah, but yeah, I did zip line a bunch of years ago. Um, I did zip line over like a jungle in like port of iard are somewhere like that, and Was incredible the whole time as you're climbing up and looking out and looking over these things and thinking, how is that really? And I'm just gonna take a chance, you know, oh, I hope everything turns out. Okay, you know crazy.
Eileen Grimes:Wow, the zip lines are great. I do, I have to say, at least I just I feel a little Maybe it's the the one little string, but I feel a little bit more In control.
Robyn Nance:I don't know if that's the right word, but Crap you on pretty good and you're on this harness and everything feels good. And and for us in port of iard there was the guides were going over first. So I was like, okay, they're going over, they're hanging upside down, they made it, we'll be fine, right Yep.
Eileen Grimes:They proved it. Yeah, you hope it's still. Oh my goodness, that is terrifying. So you didn't even know you're going into this skydiving thing. I'm actually really fascinated and I didn't know that was a thing, so I'm gonna have to look into this whole.
Robyn Nance:Refall yeah yeah, and then I should say the following year or the next year there was a death. So I mean that that was not the same year that I did it. I believe that was a year or two later. And then then then it's like oh yeah, you know, things happen, accidents happen, and yeah, I mean you could walk across the street, accidents happen on the you know, every day. But but that's like Attempting fate so much by that.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, yeah, I don't have interest. Yeah, really.
Robyn Nance:I'm good and he's, that's he's. He's wanted to do that for a couple years and I just Ah, you know, I try, I I'm. You're an adult, you can make your decisions, but hear my thoughts on it, and it don't be in a 22 year old young man. It's like Whatever mom says right over his head don't. Yeah, they're out the other.
Eileen Grimes:So you know, speaking of sort of our younger years and doing the, I think we talked a little bit about this, just in terms of where you were in your 20s and the part of your career. But what advice would you have given to your younger self? Maybe not necessarily change anything, but just to what would you have wanted to tell her? That might have been helpful.
Robyn Nance:Well, there are a few things I would tell her and I think the number one thing I would say is get out of my way, get out of my own way. I might know I had these stories about these impulse things. That's not really my personality. I have been scared, especially younger, like I did not have. It's funny, you see, people who are extroverted. Oftentimes I'm an extrovert but I also have all these fears and hangups and lack a lot of self-confidence. And, as strange as that might seem, when I was in my early career I was so afraid of criticism and of embarrassment and stuff. When I look now, I think I should have embraced every bit of constructive criticism. We had a consultant who came to our station. I was terrified to talk. I was like I avoided him at all costs. Now I'm like, oh my gosh, please, feedback, feedback, feedback, please get in the phone. And I wish I had done that early. I would have been a lot sooner and I would not have been as complacent as I was.
Robyn Nance:I stayed in my first job for five years at a really small station. It was quite dysfunctional and I mean I learned so much, but it was a tough job. So I would have just said, yeah, just get over yourself. And then I think, too, another piece of advice would be don't tie your happiness to another person. Specifically, and I felt like I had to be in a relationship and I felt like I had to try to make this person a better person or whatever. I stayed in a marriage for 25 years. That wasn't great because I kept thinking it's gonna be better. I'm going to help, I'm going to improve this situation and this make this person's life better and this person's going to make me better.
Robyn Nance:And that was just a ton of the same. It just it wasn't. I would just say that's, don't do that you know, but you know, and of course you know, as you are in a partnership to you know work on things together but you can't fix all the things yourself. I'm not sure.
Eileen Grimes:Oh man.
Robyn Nance:That's all I got.
Eileen Grimes:You're speaking. No, that I mean wise, wise, wise, wise, wise words. And it's so hard, and especially if you're one, to have to care and have deep empathy for other human beings and obviously you do. You know, with, I mean, even with the work that you do. There is so much there, and finding your side of the street and knowing which one's yours is really difficult and hard to do when you feel other people's emotions and you want to, and you want to make the world a better place too, right, so like, of course, you're going to want to try to do that with your partner, but it's not necessarily always the best and most healthy way and it is hard to figure out when you know what that line is.
Robyn Nance:And I I'm no therapist, though I certainly don't even answer, but I think you know when we ignore the red flags too. You know when my relationship there was tons of red flags, I just didn't, I refused to consider. So I mean, we live and we learn. We live and we learn.
Eileen Grimes:Well, in hindsight it's 2020.
Robyn Nance:Exactly that's a fact. That is a fact.
Eileen Grimes:And some of it too, at least for me. You know barely knowing who you are when you know in your 20s or whatever it is. Then, when you start finding out who you're, you're like oh yeah, hmm, maybe I won't stand for these things, or you know whatever just really understanding who you are as a person makes a difference in all of that too.
Robyn Nance:So yeah, yeah, and advice, I think, would be just to don't be in such a hurry. I think that was my thing too, like I, just I, you know, always wanted to be married and be a mom. I wanted kids so badly, Instead of like, why would you hurt? You know, there's tons of time and I actually love that. Now about today's generation, I feel like they are taking their time, they're not rushing into all you know, marriage and babies. And now now, now, now, you know, I think that's a really good thing. We are not the same person at 19 as we are at 25 and 28, 30. And, you know, you just hope you make a good choice and you are in a relationship where you grow together and you can, you know you, mature together in the same kind of direction. Because, yeah, it's a snow hurry, slow down, right.
Eileen Grimes:And I feel sure of this. So I have my two little kids and I remember as a child too, it was like I just want to be a grown up or I just want to be a teenager. Always me too and I'm like, please, no, just enjoy this, be a kid enjoy that.
Cheryl Cantafio:We're your happy two-two, harry, you know, just be happy.
Robyn Nance:Yeah, yeah, don't worry about doing your taxes, that's right later.
Cheryl Cantafio:Don't rush to get that first email, because it's all over after that Just saying yeah, yep.
Robyn Nance:Yep, yeah, I don't. You guys with the little kids and even navigating cell phones and that stuff, I didn't. My kids were, you know, kind of. I guess they were like probably middle school, high school, when they that was really coming to. Now it's so prevalent. I don't envy you. Yep, yeah, yeah, all of it.
Eileen Grimes:It's just yeah, oh and yeah, and just seeing all of the the studies coming out in terms of the effect on mental health, especially from the social media standpoint, and there's just so many different platforms and different things, and yeah, it's just, it's a lot, it's a whole lot to try to navigate, so I just try to get mine outside as much as possible. Good, yeah, do it. Yeah, we're actually just writing scooters before this, so I know well. So it's so funny. Robin, I follow you obviously on on Twitter and Instagram also, and so I love. It was Friday last week and I think it was you and someone else that were like I didn't realize the snow was coming.
Robyn Nance:Oh, oh oh, we watch our cars. Yeah, that was it. I Did know I paid attention to the weather, but I was like you know what I'm doing it anyway. What's that?
Eileen Grimes:So getting so much snow on that Friday and now we're like, oh, the roads are clear, we can go out and enjoy the sidewalks and the streets, and it's just. I mean, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that there was a ton of snow, so trying to enjoy the spring weather coming.
Robyn Nance:Mm-hmm, and now I can't wait for the street sweepers to make their way through my dog. I was like I'm gonna fall with all this gravel out here, all this sand from the snow, but Yep, all right.
Eileen Grimes:It's coming. It is definitely is. I'm seeing my. Well, I'm a gardener, so I have my. I'm starting to see some of the things coming up, and that makes me very excited and very happy.
Cheryl Cantafio:Um, yeah, love it. Robin. Did you always know you wanted to be in the reporting? Did you know that you wanted to be in journalism?
Robyn Nance:No, I know, I actually went to school to be a teacher. I have it, actually have a in education. And as I was at a small liberal arts college in Illinois and while I was there we had to take different classes into different fields obviously liberal arts, that's what you do. And well, I was asked to be in a video that these other, that these TV students were doing, they hate. Can you be in our music video? I'm like you're shooting a music video for class and this, of course, in the World of MTV, was like Ever you guys are getting credits for this. I bet our table. Yeah, great.
Robyn Nance:So I took a TV class and we tour to the local TV station and we just like learn the ins and outs. And I was so hooked so I ended up double majoring, and, yeah, in education and in communications, as we didn't have a journalism school and so, yeah, so I just kind of got the bug and I Was student teaching. So I didn't internship at a TV station, but I was student teaching also. So I kind of had both of these things try and then trying to figure out when. When I did it, I was like I got offered a job in the station I was interning in and then I got offered a TV teaching job. Oh my gosh, that was like the hardest decision ever. So I I Really, really really thought about it and talked to a million people about what I should do and I thought, you know what? I think it would be easier to jump back into teaching versus jumping back into TV. I'm gonna try the TV thing for a little bit. They don't like it. I have this degree and I have certificates in two states. I, I will do that. And then, oh yeah, I just got into To work into the station and it just took off. I learned every job I could possibly do. I did everything but sports at my first station. I did weather cameras, I, I wrote, I edited, I, you know, just did everything. And I hung out there when I wasn't, you know, I didn't need to be there. I just, I was just fascinated by the whole broadcasting thing and yeah, then it just took off.
Robyn Nance:And now I think I had, when my kids were in elementary school, I would go and try to volunteer in their class, and my daughter specifically, she had ADHD and she was, she had the inattentive form, so she was more like a wallflower. You never knew she was even. She would just blend into the background, but she couldn't Focus here, really really hard time focusing. So it was volunteering in her class and I remember I think maybe first or second grade, and the teacher said, okay, I'm gonna work with this group, the rest of you guys go pick a book and then sit down. And as the kids were walking around, they were, you know, can't find a book. And so then I was like, okay, you guys get a book and go sit down.
Robyn Nance:And then my daughter was one of there's like three kids and they're just like wandering around and I was like I'm not teaching. Oh, my gosh, granted, it was my own kid. But Okay, I said you know what, I'll just work one-on-one with the kid or I will, you know, make copies for you or cut out things or something. But I just felt like my patience had just it was a lot different. So God bless them so much.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, I mean, yeah, amazing, I don't even, I don't even know. They're just, especially with the younger kids, like I am in awe, I'm like just one of my daughters in kindergarten.
Robyn Nance:Teachers God, I think of the middle school teachers. What angels they are.
Eileen Grimes:Oh, wow, truly, Truly, definitely so with as we were talking about in sort of 90s and things like that, with how TV media sort of used to be, do you find it to be now a supportive place for those kind of up and coming? And, you know, what kind of role do you take in terms of supporting the new and or younger generation in coming up in this area? What does that look like for you? Because that's one of the things, sharon, I talk about is sort of like how do we help, encourage and support, train the next generation of leaders, the next generation of folks coming in? And just would love to see what does that look like in that space.
Robyn Nance:Well, I can speak only specifically for my newsroom that I'm in right now. I mean another one, another station here in town. When I first moved to town but the shop I'm in right now, kxoi may have been kind of blown away that. So when I first started at this market, this was really like a well, it is a medium sized market and it was a place where you had to really have experience somewhere else. Then you come here. You kind of, you know, cut your teeth somewhere else, then you come here and then a lot of people move on or you choose to stay. You know either thing.
Robyn Nance:Now we're hiring kids straight out of college and that small market experience very few have. I mean, we do have some people who have experience, but it's rare. Right now. I know we're having. We're looking at a girl who's still in college right now. As soon as she graduates, you know we're trying to get her to come here and it's just it's mind blowing. It's mind blowing. So when they come here they are so green yeah, out of them are and need still a lot of work while they may be, you know, very eager and all that stuff. You know there's a lot to learn, especially, you know when you're not from a specific market or you don't know the town. There's a lot to learn just even in the town and how the town and the city operates and the feel of you know the neighborhoods and all this stuff.
Robyn Nance:I try to be really open to helping people, especially, especially the young women. I think, had I not had a couple of mentors myself, you know, it just makes it so much more difficult and, being of this age, that I am the older I'm really probably one of the oldest people in the newsroom and I think that they I hope they look to me like, ok, I can go to her, I want, I want to have that open, you know, facade, that I am here and I am, I'm really ready and willing to help. I hope that that they feel that, without being judged or any of that stuff, because I understand what it's like when you're starting out and you just want to do a great job and you are embarrassed about some feedback and things like that. I get that. So I feel like I try to be delicate to a point, but also not coddle, so and that's that's kind of an interesting point, a part to be in, but I just hope that they know that they can come to me, and I try to do that.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, it's certainly a tough space and that's interesting. I think I've heard from a couple people I talked to Tara Rosenblum, who works out in New York, and so you know similar kind of situation where she's like you don't, you don't just come out of school and get a job here, like that's not how it works. So it's just, it's just fascinating to kind of think through what that looks like and I mean we even see it. So you know, one of during our full time jobs, you know, within sort of an IT space. You know we see a lot of contracting opportunities that we work with folks, but like in trying to bring in new people when you don't have as many of those entry level jobs, it's like, well, how do we get the next generation to be the managers, to be the next people that are in charge, when we have sort of these structures? It's just, it's just an interesting sort of problem and trying to be as encouraging and supportive as possible and the ways that we can, and you know, work around or through that.
Robyn Nance:So I think like we're really lucky. We have a news director who is, I feel like she was like a born teacher, like a born leader she's, she's really, and somebody who just gets her hands dirty. So I think, a really great example. So I hope also like that that filters down, like we see what, you know what kind of leadership she brings to to our newsroom and you know, gosh, if she's willing to make these phone calls and write these stories and do all this stuff, gosh, we all should be doing that and more. And then the next person down. You know, you just hope that that that filter down, and I think it does. But but the leadership, I, I feel like I'm in a really great spot.
Cheryl Cantafio:It's so important to see that from from leadership, to be able to say, like you know, I'm human, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and you know I'll get as involved because the story is important and the people are important. You know, it's kind of a mix out there, right? You have some people that are just like I made it Ha ha, yeah. And then there are others that are like I made it, like here's how I did it, come with me and I love that your organization is the latter and that's really.
Cheryl Cantafio:That's really encouraging to hear. I've been, I've been watching, so I got a free subscription from a certain phone computer company and they have a show on called the Morning Show and it looks pretty cutthroat. So it's really interesting to hear. It's actually very comforting to hear that you know your newsroom and your station is very welcoming and inclusive, because you often think I would almost think like watching some of those shows it's almost like how would you, why would you even want to do that job? It's so funny.
Robyn Nance:We're all watching it too and we think like I wonder if the big market, you know, like the big markets are like that, you know is this at all realistic, like what? What if that is realistic Because it's nothing for us.
Cheryl Cantafio:Yeah, and I get right, it could be over the top, it could be like you know, it could be pure fiction, but I've been watching it with such interest because I think, oh dear, this is really wow, and you know the, you know there's that whole thing around, you know, having the fresh face come in and that other person being very deprecating, and it's just a fascinating watch. So it's fascinating to me that you're watching it too, because yeah, yeah, it's good.
Robyn Nance:It's good drama. It's fun, though. It is fun because we do look at that like gosh, you know, I wonder if, like how many producers they have and how many you know staff of this. And, oh my gosh, I would love for somebody to do my makeup and drive me to work and, you know, do my. Yeah, we got none of that. Not that good.
Eileen Grimes:Do you? Do you watch it? So I've. So I've talked to like doctors and things who have watched like Grey's Anatomy or things like that, and they're like that is, that is not how it works, that is, that is not how you put your gloves on, or that right, do you see any of that with the show?
Robyn Nance:Oh gosh, yeah, I'm trying to think of what I have watching, that I've been like, oh, oh, come on, I can't think of anything specifically, right now, but there have been.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, no, I've watched stuff before. I don't even. I'm sure there's been like it, things I'm like no one get. Nobody does that Right.
Cheryl Cantafio:I like the ones where they show people typing and I'm like nobody types that fast, like that's not possible, and you're not hitting keys. What are you doing? So it is, it's fun, it's a fun thing to say. Robin, throughout your career in this, is there one story that sticks out to you as your favorite?
Robyn Nance:Oh, wow, that's so good. I've actually yeah, gosh, I've had so many, especially because I've done. I did Wednesday's child for so many years, so many kids, but I will. My favorite story that I ever did, I believe, was during the height of the pandemic. I was allowed to go into the ICU. No one had been allowed in, like they were not allowing TVs, in cameras, in reporters, nothing. And it was.
Robyn Nance:I think it was September of 21, maybe when, when you know, the pandemic had been going for so long and people were starting to get so frustrated and starting to take things out on our healthcare providers, who were in there, just in and dated day in, day out. So they finally the hospital, sacred Heart, finally said we will allow one station, one reporter, one camera in here to tell the story. So I was so honored to be that person, so a photographer and I went in. They let us spend hours in there, and they picked a couple of nurses and said these people are comfortable to talk on camera. However, if you want to talk to anybody else who's willing to talk to you, you want to talk to anybody else who's willing to talk to you as long as you're not getting in their way, but they are willing to talk to you. You can. So we were there just like a middle of the week morning. We were there for a few hours and it was incredible, the people who were like dying of COVID, who were, you know, they had with like the hazmat gear, like full PPE. They, you know, we watched them change in and out, going in and out of rooms. They had like special air filtration in some of the rooms. They had all these people on ventilators and they had to like turn their bodies over, roll their bodies, and it took a whole team of people.
Robyn Nance:Anyway, that, to me, was the most impactful and the story that will live with me forever, because these people were working so hard to save lives and people on the outside were berating them, basically saying you know fake news, they're not this and you know, and they're in there having to call people's families on Zoom because these people were not they, their families weren't allowed to say goodbye to them in their room, so they were having to zoom in so their families could say goodbye to it. It was just heart wrenching and the nurses were so honest and so open and so raw. It was to me amazing and the story itself. You know, I was nominated for an Emmy at one Murrow award, so it I mean, it wasn't me, it was the story, it was the people who are telling it, and yeah, that forever will be so impactful to me, and it did.
Robyn Nance:From that, though, it did allow conversation for others hospitals elsewhere to start allowing all sorts, and so that part of the problem is, if you don't see what's happening you, it's not real to you. If you don't talk to the people who it's impacting, it's not real to you. And I I unfortunately I have to do a follow up. Like, can we still talk to those same nurses like this, many years later in hospitals? Like, no, you know, no, thanks, although I did reach out to one of the nurses who I think would, would be willing to do it. I think it would be really great to come back and be like okay, here's where you were on this date and here's what you said. Now, fast forward. You know I had one. There was one nurse who was fairly new and said if I had known this is the way it was going to be, I don't think I would be doing this job. What was horrible?
Eileen Grimes:because here she is saving lives and trying to save lives every, every day and oh my goodness, yeah, I mean so my son, and not that it's the same, but my son had a student teacher in his classroom that year because he was in kindergarten. It was just like this is not what I had gone into teach, or like you know, how would you ever have known that? Have seen that coming Like it's just. I can't even imagine. I can't imagine. And isn't it crazy to think that we did that?
Robyn Nance:We did that, as you know, day in, day out. Us as a community. It's just still kind of mind blowing.
Cheryl Cantafio:What a weird time. What a weird time to be alive it is. You know One thing goodness you could share that too.
Robyn Nance:It's pretty long, but it's inside the ICU and it's on YouTube and inside the ICU it got views all over the country, all over the world, and it was wow, yeah, just wow.
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, okay, so we have. Just I know we're cutting it close to the end here. My goodness, we could probably talk for so much longer. It went fast, right, yeah, so you know our last question that we asked, and I know you listened to a couple episodes, right, and from the sounds of it, you already kind of have this. This is happening, mentality and mindset, as you did with the, the Teening Kid closet, where it was like I don't know how we're doing it, but this is happening. Yeah, do you have anything that's sort of next for you or do you want you know, are you looking for anything with Teening Kid closet? Is there anything that Robin is working on that you are determined and bound to see happen within your life coming up?
Robyn Nance:You know, I have some things. I've always wanted to travel and I have really put that on the back burner. I just I just haven't, because I have kids and I have expenses and, to me, money was always a thing that held that up. So I've been trying to tuck a little away so that I could finally start doing some things. And my sister, who is a freaking she's a kick-ass chemist and she travels yeah, she's impressive and she travels the world and so I've been jealous of her.
Robyn Nance:So she actually just messaged me yesterday and said hey, I'm going to Germany in April. You wanna come? And I said and normally I would a million times have been like, oh, that sounds amazing, but I can't, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. And I said, yeah, I'm gonna go Good. And then I looked at prices, up tickets and nearly fell over, but I said get it out. So I think I'm just going to start saying yes to more things that are for me. I've taken care of my kids are not older and I'm still doing stuff for them, but I have focused so much on them and their things and I think I'm gonna finally start just saying, okay, I'm gonna do some stuff for me, and this is kind of like my first one. I'm really excited about it, so oh, my goodness, amazing, that's wonderful. I'll say that it. I hope it actually happens.
Eileen Grimes:Definitely. Cheryl and I were actually talking recently about going to see the German castles, so if you do that, you'll have to report back Please let us know. I will.
Robyn Nance:I totally will. I'll put that on our list. Been a bunch of times before and she said well, where do you want to go? I said, anywhere, I don't care Anywhere so castles on our list.
Cheryl Cantafio:They have some amazing castles there, at least that I've seen on pictures. One of these days I'm gonna get there. It's a fascination point for me. I'm like, ooh, I would really like to go see that. So, yes, well, I hope you have a great time. I think that's great. I hope it happens.
Robyn Nance:I do, because most of my trips are like back to Missouri. I'm almost there, sure, yeah, back to Missouri, yes, yes so it's funny, that was my.
Eileen Grimes:so we lived in Colorado when I was younger and like that was summer vacation because we had there were you know, I'm one of six kids and like we would drive in the van from Colorado to Illinois and Missouri. Like that was summer vacation for us and I love, I actually loved it, but yeah, so for me I was like I kind of wanna try some new places as an adult.
Robyn Nance:That's where I've been to in our kids. That's what we, that's all there. Summer vacations, we never did any other really. You know, and my kids same thing, same as you like how to have amazing memories of being with their cousins and family. So it was great, but also it's like okay, you have other parts of the world.
Cheryl Cantafio:Right, what else is out there?
Eileen Grimes:Yeah, yeah, no, I was just gonna say so, robin. So if people are looking for you one, how do they find about teen kid closet, if there's any way that they can support, and or if they're looking for you just to learn more, see what kind of stuff you're doing, where can they find you?
Robyn Nance:Yep, I am on Facebook and Twitter and I'm not great on Instagram, but I have an account, so you can find me just Robin Nance, and most of the stuff I think is Robin Nance. Kxoi Teenage kid closet. It's such a great organization and we always need volunteers. We always need donors. We have a really, really fun fundraiser coming up called Bourbon Bacon and Brews, and that is in June, on the 17th. It's gonna be great. It's our second annual. Last year's was super fun. This year's is gonna be even better. You can find information about all of that on Facebook or on our website, which is teen kid closetorg. Please join us. It's so fun. Oh, early bird pricing goes until the end of March. Then it goes up in early April. Ooh, good to know. Okay, it's gonna be soon. Yep, I need my ticket. I've had two weeks before, so don't wait Awesome.
Cheryl Cantafio:So fun, so fun. Robin, it was such a pleasure meeting you and it sounds like you have a very fulfilling life and I hope you continue that quest. Go to Germany. Don't say I hope it happens, you're gonna go, go, go, you know.
Robyn Nance:Thank you so much. Thank you for doing this podcast. It really is so fun to hear from all kinds of different people doing all kinds of really cool things, and it's very inspirational, so thank you for getting this going.
Cheryl Cantafio:That's so sweet. Thank you so much On behalf of my co-host, Eileen Grimes. Thanks everyone for listening and we'll catch you next time on Yogo Bye.
