How to Make Transformational Marketing Campaigns with Chelsey Bowers
August 8, 2024
Curious about the cutting-edge tactics driving success in marketing today? Join us as we sit down with Chelsey Bowers, a powerhouse in the marketing world. With a career spanning over two decades, Chelsey has tackled everything from owning a talent agency in Nashville to leading marketing efforts for prominent brands. We delve into her innovative approach to problem-solving, her recent ventures into VR marketing, and how team dynamics can spark groundbreaking ideas.
We also uncover the intricate game of measuring ROI in higher education marketing. Chelsea opens up about the real-world challenges of gauging success through metrics like click-through rates and landing page visits. Listen to her share game-changing strategies that have revolutionized student engagement, such as VR videos and direct mail pieces with VR goggles. Discover why setting realistic goals and fostering teamwork amidst the pressures of marketing campaigns is crucial to achieving significant results.
But that’s not all—get a taste of local culture as we share dining gems in Madison and Monona, recount the rollercoaster journey of Chelsey’s band Honey Shot, and discuss our favorite psychological thrillers. Plus, enjoy a lively round of “Two Truths and a Lie” with Chelsey, revealing surprising facets of her life and career. This episode is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by marketing, creativity, and the vibrant experiences that shape us.
Topics in this episode:
- (00:03:19) Who is Chelsey Bowers?
- (00:07:51) Making enjoyable content.
- (00:09:50) KPI.
- (00:10:59) Measuring ROI in marketing campaigns.
- (00:20:19) Favorite local restaurants.
- (00:26:56) Chicken and Whaaaaaaat?
- (00:31:32) Honeyshot and the thrills of live performances.
- (00:34:39) Opening for Jimmy Buffet.
- (00:49:01) Literary preferences and psychological thrillers.
- (00:58:59) The creative process.
- (01:06:08) Navigating creative marketing challenges.
- (01:06:57) You are not your audience.
- (01:21:50) Two truths and a lie.
Transcript
Ryan Freng:
Hello and welcome back to the let’s Backflip show Happy hour.
Ryan Freng:
I’m Ryan Freng, co-creative director and co-founder here at Backflip. What are we? Backflip Creative Marketing, Backflip Integrated Marketing, Strategic Partner, Mark, whatever, I don’t know. You understand who we are if you’re at this point anyway. And today is episode 91 with our good friend, Chelsea Bowers, who we like to talk about.
Ryan Freng:
Like, what does it take to do interesting things at your business or with marketing? And, honestly, it takes a lot of knowledge but a little bit of crazy. Like you have to be a little bit crazy to choose to market in a way that might move the needle, that might catch somebody’s attention, because there’s a lot of noise out there, there’s a lot of marketing, there’s a lot of blah work that doesn’t move the needle. So you need a little bit of both a little bit of that expertise and depth, but a little bit of both a little bit of that expertise and depth but a little bit of crazy. That’s our favorite type of client and that’s exactly what Chelsea is and brings to the table. So this is a fun one. We always love hanging and working with Chelsea. So, without further ado, this is episode 91 with Chelsea Bowers.
Ryan Freng:
Hello and welcome back to the let’s Backflip show Happy hour. I’m Ryan, one of the creative directors here at Backflip, and joining me as always is my good pal John Shoemaker. How’s it going, dude? Other co-creative director. That’s what I should have said.
John Shoemaker:
How’s it going? It’s great, it’s going great. There’s a lot of things we could have said.
Ryan Freng:
I love it. Master of all the string instruments behind him, I think.
John Shoemaker:
The coolest thing about it is that when I play them all at once it’s like a heavenly sound to the ears.
Ryan Freng:
It makes me think you’re going to have a giant rig with all these guitars and you’ll probably need a bow to strum them and, uh, some kind of mechanical thing to to do the, the fingerings. But it makes me think of the. There’s this picture that I don’t know why it keeps coming up in my feed of a dude in a bicycle. It’s like an asian dude and he’s got this huge it’s like 50 phones or 100 phones or something and and he’s playing Pokemon Go like 100 different instances of it or something crazy.
Ryan Freng:
That’s what it makes me think of.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah well, and when I play them, all these instruments, on a bicycle, it’s even more impressive.
Ryan Freng:
I love it. All right. Well, we’re going to get to it. We’re going to bring in our guests today. We’re not going to wait because I don’t want to wait. I want to hang with our guests. Welcome to the show, Chelsea Bowers. Hello, we need a soundboard with applause. How’s it going, Chelsea?
Chelsey Bowers:
Good, how’s it going for you guys?
Ryan Freng:
It’s great. We started getting into stuff before and I was like I have follow-up questions, but I’m not going to ask them because I want to get them on here, because I could go down so many rabbit holes. I feel like that’s part of our relationship is like Totally Following each other through rabbit holes, absolutely. So I’ve got this great bio for you. Do you mind if I read it?
Chelsey Bowers:
Go ahead.
Ryan Freng:
And then we’ll get your introduction from your own mouth. So you’re the senior advertising and creative manager at Madison College and has been savvy marketing professional for over 20 years, including owning operating a talent agency in Nashville and serving as marketing and communications director for Ward Brought Music and Cost Cutters. Chelsea completed her bachelor’s degree in marketing, MBA in project management from Lakeland University of Wisconsin and an additional MBA in digital marketing from Rutgers Business School. Been with Madison College for nearly 14 years and in that time she’s been an integral part of referendum, accreditation and strategic planning efforts, serving as combined charitable campaign, chair of the Grow South Madison marketing campaign, which funded the Goodwin South Campus and driven strategy and creative success for several successful campaigns. Oh, that’s a mouthful, but you’ve had a.
Ryan Freng:
You’ve had a storied career yes, it’s been a lot of fun but a lot of fun yeah, so that’s that’s kind of your cv, like who are you, who are you and what do you do? Give me like the third grade explanation.
Chelsey Bowers:
I’m a quirky, creative being that loves to do hard work. I love to solve problems and I love to have fun doing it. You know I love to work with great partners and, you know, collaborate and have a lot of fun getting a lot of cool projects down the pike. You know I love to think big picture and you know see where we could be in a year or where we could be in two or three years. So you know I love those. If you’re looking for that big picture thinker, I’m your girl. If you’re looking for those details, that’s that I’m ADHD girl. So you know the big planning I can do. I need a little assistance with those details. So that’s really who I am.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, the different skill sets are so helpful and it’s been so fun working with you because I feel there’s some kindred spirits in the way that you creative and the way that you think and ideate and stuff like that. So it’s been for us, for for me, it’s been a blast to work with you on projects because, like, we get to come up with crazy ideas but then we develop them into something that we can actually produce, which is really cool yes, absolutely.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, you know, I was just writing the creative brief for the vr project the other day, um, and so you know, this virtual reality project that we have going for, it’s a. We’re creating a series of videos for those listening in and their VR videos. And, you know, even trying to explain this to my new boss, keisha, at Madison College, you know I’m like I had to. I had to wrap my head around the creative brief first to like be able to see her, you like allow her to see the vision for this um in full scope, because, you know, if I just handed her that script, I think she’d be like you know, girl, are you smoking the left-handed cigarette?
Chelsey Bowers:
because, like this, this is some crazy stuff, right, um, so I I really just wanted to make sure that it was in a good place and, um, you know that that I could really explain our vision for that, right, because it is hijinks and it is, you know, this, immersive, really fun, you know, crazy experience. To give you know prospective students, you know, like an idea of what Madison College is and to have us thought of as thought leaders, right, you know, I mean, like, you know, that’s an this is going to be an innovative experience, um, and so for them to have, you know, this crazy, cool experience. You know I can’t say enough about how much I love partnering with you guys.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, I really can’t, you know yeah I, I appreciate the fact that you love, you know, working with me. I I’m grateful for that because, um, I think you guys are absolutely geniuses, um, and creative geniuses as well as professional geniuses in your realms, um, and it’s one of the greatest joys of my life is working with you guys. Um, truly, I, you know, I I remember seeing a video when we were watching the addies and I saw your name and I was like we’re working with them next, um, and and it’s been a great partnership ever since well, thank you, ryan.
Chelsey Bowers:
Uh disappeared ryan’s like I’m out mic drop it’s true, I couldn’t.
Ryan Freng:
I couldn’t handle the praise.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, uh, I was out yeah, ryan, you’re so bashful he had to go for a minute so he could cry.
John Shoemaker:
And when wife me, yeah, I mean it’s, it’s fun. When we uh, um, you know, like um, but really like I think what ryan was saying before about kindred spirits, like we just want to make things that are enjoyable, you know, and like we’ve always like approached things that way and I think when we, you know, when we met you, and we find people who are like, okay, I get what you’re saying and get what you’re, you know, going after is just like we don’t want to make yet another blob, you know, business, corporate video, you know, and like when, when we find people who are like, yes, you know, let’s do something interesting, do something awesome, or zarshtik, you know, like, yeah, then it’s fun, you know. And then, and then, like you got to convince the other people, I’m like I know this seems absolutely insane, but just go with us well, and you know that’s why the brief is important, right, because, like you can show the roi, you can show how we’re gonna.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know that’s why the brief is important, right, because, like you can show the ROI, you can show how we’re going to. You know, target these audiences and what this is going to be used for. And and so you know, that’s what I, you know, like Ryan, going back to what you were talking about earlier, you know, like, with what do you do? Um, every day is a new day. You know, you got to trust your crazy, like.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, how can we really truly meet the needs, you know, of our prospective students that are out there and really, you know, have it, have us be seen, as you know, not just inside the box thinkers, right, and I mean, you guys are perfect partners for staying outside that box. I mean, I don’t think that there’s a project that I, that we’ve done together, where I’ve said, you know, here are your parameters, you know, unless it had to be for certain things, like you know, even with the financial aid thing, right, I mean, like we totally stepped outside that box and, you know, made a video in reverse, um, so you know, I think all along. You know the goal is to you know how can we get this information out there in a meaningful way. But still, you know I don’t want to put any parameters on you guys because you know you do your best work when you’re full-tail bogey on the creative.
Ryan Freng:
You know, and, and I love that- um, one thing you said there uh, that made me think too. That’s, that’s difficult, especially being a creative, but it seems like it’s something you probably deal with regularly is like roi. Um, which is interesting when you’re talking to somebody about video and, like you know, we’re we’re selling a lot of video or video products, and it’s interesting because part of it is like, well, I just need a video. Unless we’re working with a marketer or a marketing team, then they understand that there’s going to be some KPI, key performance indicator. There’s something that is going to happen when we do this video. Key performance indicator, there’s something that is going to happen when we do this video. What is that thing?
Ryan Freng:
So, for you, looking at kind of a lot of the projects that we work on, are there like very specific ROI data points or KPIs, or is it more general? You know, like, how do you measure? Kind of a giant question. How do you measure like brand equity, right, being in the market and being known and being seen and being talked about, and then how do you measure click-throughs, like how much is that?
Chelsey Bowers:
So great question and very loaded question. So I’m going to try to pull that one apart a little bit, unpack that one. But, like you know, so one of the greatest, you know, one of the things that we look at on a regular basis is our click-through rate, our ratio for that. That’s a big ROI indicator because of those who have seen it, how many are actually engaged with it to take further steps right, the tough thing about being a college is a lot of students will ponder that a lot. You know they will. You know you can go to some of our web pages and a student has come back a hundred times before they actually take that next step. You know it’s not something that they do lightly. It’s something that a lot of times you know they really mull over and procrastinate on before they get to the place where they actually take that initiative. So that’s why click-through rate is a big thing for us, because we can see they click through on that video or they click through on that ad and we know that they’re engaged. And then we can look at landing page visits you know from, you know from unique visitors, to know how many has that landing page increased and you know new prospective students taking a look at it.
Chelsey Bowers:
But from an ROI perspective, on video, it’s really about like, how big picture you know, like we know, the cost of the videos and how do we think we’re going to, you know, get that return on our investment. That’s ROI right. And so where are we positioning this and how are we driving this video to really, you know, make an impact and to really pay for itself? And so, for you know, for us we did you know plenty of meetings internally about how we’re going to use these VR videos to really make that ROI pay off. And so we’re looking at our career quiz and we’re going to do that.
Chelsey Bowers:
Are those little snippets that we’re going to do to tease people, are going to drive them to the, to the YouTube channel for, or the YouTube videos, right? We’re just looking at different ways that we can make sure that you know, we’re getting that big payoff in those CTRs from the videos themselves. And you know, and we’re also looking at, you know, doing a direct mail piece with the VR goggles, the cardboard ones where you slip your phone in, so that they can have that experience right from their own home. There’s a lot of different ways that we’re looking at making sure that we have the ROI on this. So it varies by project, right, but you do have to take a look at that because you don’t want to just throw a lot of money out the window. You want that money to work hard for you.
Ryan Freng:
And sorry I keep dropping. I think I had a Wi-Fi issue but I hardwired in so I should be back, so I caught the end of that. What’s the TLDR? They’re kind of hard and fast ROI, clicks, form fills, things like that and have you done it enough? That it’s like, yeah, we’re going to try to see, we want to see a 20 increase or something like. How do you quantify that?
Chelsey Bowers:
20 in academia is a really, really big goal. Um, you know that’s, that’s a really big leap for us. Um, but we do, we do set kpis, you know we do set. You know, um, measurable. You know we what, we want this to be measurable. We also look at that smart acronym, right, um, you know so. We want it specific be measurable. We also look at that SMART acronym, right, you know so. We want it specific, we want it measurable.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know all of that. And then you know it depends on the project. You know to be able to move something, you know like two or three percent, you know in our realm is pretty significant. You know that’s a pretty good increase. You know of students increase. You know of students. So you know when we’re looking at something like this, you know, with the VR, you know videos we’re looking at. You know really promoting our foundation five we call it programs, and you know that’s our IT. You know technology, trades, liberal arts, transfer. You know business, and then health and health, nursing and health sciences and nursing. So when we’re looking at those, you know when we put this out into the world, you know, are we seeing a higher click-through rate? Are we seeing, you know, more visits to those landing pages? Are we seeing, you know, more people requesting for more information? Are we seeing more apply clicks, you know? Are we seeing more completed applies from those programs? Those are all you know. Set indicators for us, as we, you know, as we progress and assess the success of this.
Ryan Freng:
It sounds like a lot to keep in your head. I mean, obviously you want to write some of that down, but like does it ever feel overwhelming?
John Shoemaker:
Well, and that’s why I created.
Chelsey Bowers:
Brief as Good. You know, I think, maybe because it’s, you know, a part of the personality of me, but I like the. I like the chaos, I like the overwhelming, I like the, you know, like I. I think that you know chaos can be a good thing and you know stress can be a good thing. You know, I have a favorite saying pressure makes diamonds right. So I just, I think that sometimes, sometimes, you know, you come out of something even better for it. You’ve learned, you’ve grown, you know, you know what to not to do next time, um, all of those things. So it’s stressful and sure I, you know I’m not gonna, you know, say that it’s not. But um, if you got a great team, you know and I’m looking to you guys too when I say that um, as well as internally, you know, if you’ve got’ve got a lot of great players at the table, then you carry the load and you get the hard work done and you get to see really cool payoffs.
Ryan Freng:
I forgot to do this in the beginning. This is a happy hour. I don’t know if you have, if you grabbed anything, I always start a little NA and then kind of see if the person we’re talking to is drinking and then I’ll grab a drink. But I got this great, uh, lagunitas, hoppy, refresher, sparkling water. It’s like super yummy. I think we got it from costco. Um, it’s great, it’s. You know, it’s an na, it’s a sparkling, but it’s got hops in it and highly recommend it so that’s. That’s what I’ve got.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yeah, did you grab something. I have a bubbly. Are you able to drink? Yeah, okay, you know nothing. Quite as happy yet, but it’s still really tasty.
Ryan Freng:
I love it. Yeah, there’s never any pressure here to drink, just always opportunity, and that’s what I like to say yeah, I appreciate that.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, what about you, john? I’m glad I didn’t go wild, because man I would be, I’d be out here all by myself now. I, uh, I went that route as well. So I here’s what I did. So amanda’s been getting these a lot. Amanda, my wife, oh, and drip, um, it’s like it’s five calorie.
Ryan Freng:
You know it’s, it’s not like a little bit of flavor.
John Shoemaker:
Nothing, but like the flavoring. What kind is it? I don’t know? It doesn’t say there, I don’t know, you don’t want me to read that all day. Um, anyway, that. And then I, I put there’s this uh, it’s, the brand is Jake’s strong ginger.
John Shoemaker:
So there’s this like ginger um juice that you can get. I think we get it at Woodman’s anyway. That’s a pretty cool. I discovered this like uh at probably Lent last year, whenever I was like giving it but um gives like a nice little way to uh kind of make like a N-Ames. It has a little bit of a little bit of bite to it or whatever, so like.
Chelsey Bowers:
I like it. Yeah, I gotta look into that.
John Shoemaker:
I like.
Chelsey Bowers:
I love ginger in drinks. I used to not like it but like all of a sudden recently. It’s just like. I like the bite of it, so I gotta check that out.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, jake’s Strong Ginger Drink or Juice or whatever is what it’s called. Yeah, what’s?
Ryan Freng:
the Dark and Stormy. That’s one of our favorites since we went on into the Caribbean. It’s rum and ginger beer, so super kind of fun, sweet little bite.
John Shoemaker:
Highly recommend it next time you’re going to have a little alcohol to that ginger yeah. Yeah, and that’s I do like that. That’s quite good. This is like it’s.
Ryan Freng:
The ginger drink is not sweet, it’s just all the Jake Strong ginger is not sweet, it’s just like ginger.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, I mean it’s as sweet as you might attribute ginger to being, but like it’s, tastes like ginger, you know, like when you eat the little strip on the side of your sushi meal or whatever you know yeah.
Chelsey Bowers:
So you guys ever um go get over to the mint mark in Madison.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, I’ve only been there once, so they have this little this little you know concoction that they create from scratch.
Chelsey Bowers:
That’s like a ginger, um, and some other juices, uh, like lemon juices in there and some other things, and they and they mix that with whatever your mixer is, um, and it is one of my favorite things, so you got to try that.
Ryan Freng:
It’s really good is that the one that they have on tap yep yeah yeah, I think we had one of those when we were there. Yeah, do you? Do you get to go out much in madison. Do you like to go out to eat?
Chelsey Bowers:
um, I get out, you know, here and there, um, you know, I mean, a lot of weekends are already taken up for me, you know, um, because because of gigging, so, um, I get out when I can, you know, like go out during the week, sometimes go out during the week, sometimes go out during the weekend, sometimes.
Ryan Freng:
So you know, but love to support local businesses and you know, love to get out when we can yeah, what’s uh, just because you said midmark and I I love that place what’s like your favorite uh place to go to, maybe favorite place like and it’s okay if you’re like I love to go to the I don’t know red robin for comfort food. But I also want to hear, like like a fun local madison place too, like if it’s like a new place you’ve discovered, or something you know I love, um lazy elf um, they’ve, they’ve been, they’ve been oh yeah they’ve been.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know they’re like family, they’re like family away from family for us, um, and you know they have great food and like just it’s just great people there and um, I’ve known them for years so um always love to give them love, um. And then you know, like locally here, because I live in monona um, so you know there’s a, there’s a new, there’s a new Italian restaurant that took over for um, for um Angelo’s. That was in Monona Um, and I can’t think of the name of it right now, but you guys got to try it. It is absolutely the best Italian food I’ve ever, ever, ever had. Um, it is so good. Let’s see Um and Fratellis Fratellis. That’s it. Yes, it is. Let’s see Fratellis Fratellis that’s it.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yes, it is, I mean, really good Italian food and then, you know, for your, you know, just hanging out in the sun and stuff. There’s also Waypoint and Breakwater around this area. That’s fun to get to, you know, just to hang outside and enjoy yourself and maybe listen to some live music, you know. So those are some of the places, some of the fun stomping grounds. What about you guys?
Ryan Freng:
those are some of the places, some of the fun stomping grounds. What about you guys? Yeah, oh, wasn’t ready for that to come back. I’m like typing out notes. I love it. I like to get people’s recommendations and then try to try to follow them. What about you, john? I’m gonna finish typing my notes okay.
John Shoemaker:
So man do I love like a good meal and good restaurant, I love eating and stuff, but my life in the last several years has not like lended itself to that. You know, the amazing places we go are like when we’re like out of town on a shoot or something thing, um, so I I’m positive, I would love any of the recommendations that people ever get like locally, but I don’t get to go much though. The one that’s been on my radar a little bit more recently, um, I’ve only been there once, even though I’ve lived near it for 13 years. Um, but our friends, uh, aaron and Heather Ryan knows them uh have gone there recently and they’re like, oh, we got to all go together.
John Shoemaker:
The hilltop, um, just just North of us here, like I’m, I’m over on the far West side, uh, and it’s just this little supper club on the top of the hill on the far West side, uh, and it’s just this little supper club on the top of the hill, um, but it’s just, I mean it’s that, it’s that great classic Wisconsin supper club type. You know, environment, like the lighting is super dim, maybe on the edge of two.
Chelsey Bowers:
I love that yeah.
John Shoemaker:
And you know it’s just a night, like they do a great fish fry. They do, you know, the perfect classic. You know Wisconsin, uh, um, oh, why can’t I think of the name. You know, you know the drink, old-fashioned, yeah, like just the um, and I’m I’m sure I don’t remember when we were there last time, but I’m guessing they’re probably the type of place that has, you know, a prime rib that’s been slow cooking for the past 10 years.
John Shoemaker:
You know, like we just like yeah, yeah, so, yeah, that’s, that’s an enjoyable place. The challenge in our life is to not just hit fast food when we’re running from one thing to the next thing. That’s what tends to happen a lot. One more, and I’ll make this one a little bit shorter explanation. But Spring Garden in Mount Horeb is a funny, quirky kind of place. It’s run by all one family. Oh, my goodness, it’s terrible. I can’t remember where they’re from. They’re from Israel, I think. Remember where they’re from. They’re from, like israel, I think. Um, and I think the place looks like it used to be a pizza hut, but it’s like not anymore and that it’s been.
Ryan Freng:
Oh sorry, um, uh like it’s calling like it’s like a hut, you know like, and I’m not being snarky- but like, yeah the building, sorry the building. Like look at the building and you’re like this I’m not being snarky, but like yeah, the building sorry, the building like.
Chelsey Bowers:
Look at the building and you’re like this doesn’t fit.
John Shoemaker:
And then it’s named spring garden, which I think then it was. Uh, and I’m also trying to remember because I never paid attention to it until recently when we started going there, so I don’t remember what used to be there, but I think it must have. I think it was a chinese restaurant, like, and then I think they just kept the name and, like completely changed it. You know, like you know, painted the inside or whatever.
John Shoemaker:
So just like, anyway, that’s like one of our favorite like uh, sunday brunch spots, you know. Or just stop in and get like skillets and mickey mouse pancakes and breakfast and whatever and um, the staff, this family that runs the place, are like super nice and you know, we just we’ve kind of gotten to know them and like enjoy that environment too. So that’s the best side. There’s your, there’s your uh, out of the box, you know.
Ryan Freng:
West side did you say? Did you say it’s like americana or like american food, not america?
John Shoemaker:
it’s like a off-brand perkins or I mean, yes, it’s, you know, like a diner, just a family, family-run place that you know has a huge menu, like you can get a lot of stuff, but it’s just a nice little. You know, I love the breakfast food.
Ryan Freng:
So get like a good chicken and waffle. I haven’t had one of those.
Chelsey Bowers:
I’ve never had that.
Ryan Freng:
I feel like next time I see it, I’m going to get it. It sounds amazing. I even follow. Next time I see it, I’m going to get it. It sounds amazing. I even follow a guy who does food recipes and he’s like here’s how to do your chicken and waffle, your healthy chicken and waffle.
Chelsey Bowers:
I see it on the menu and I think I’ve got to try that sometime, but it never wins. It never wins on the breakfast decision 100% agree.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, I had a uh up in Duluth one time Duluth grill, which unfortunately changed. I don’t even know if they’re still open. Um, they, they don’t. They’re not open for dinner anymore. If they are still open, they just became an only lunch spot. But they used to have an item on the menu and I would get there like once a year when we go for this camping trip called chicken and what. That’s what. That’s what it was said on the menu I had such good advertising right there I don’t know if I can repeat it as good.
John Shoemaker:
That was great. Yeah, chicken, and what? Yeah, how’s that?
Ryan Freng:
spelled on the menu Lots of A’s.
John Shoemaker:
What Lots of A’s.
Ryan Freng:
Question mark at the end.
John Shoemaker:
Question mark at the end. Yeah, but it was a pancake, not a waffle, with fried chicken on top of it with like goat cheese and then like a, um, reduced, caramelized, like a syrup, uh, like maple syrup with like some.
Chelsey Bowers:
Never oh was so good, yeah wow, I see why they said what it was, not with a waffle that mix of sweet and savory, like that can be really good.
Ryan Freng:
That’s why I’m really interested in chicken and waffles. Never had it, though. Where were we?
Chelsey Bowers:
sweet and salty can be awesome.
Ryan Freng:
We were just at yesterday a men’s group that I have Dairy. It’s that place in Monona on Cottage Grove by 51. Oh, Dairyland. I wanted to say Dairy Bar, but I’m like it’s not Nick, he’s Dairy Bar. Dairyland yeah, that’s fun, they’ve got good food.
Chelsey Bowers:
And Cottage Cafe for breakfast.
Ryan Freng:
Over there is killer I don’t like one of the best places, cafe see. This is why I want to have this conversation cottage cafe is more um, let’s see.
Ryan Freng:
So my food choice. Um, we love heritage. Uh, we’ve never been there, you know, chef, damn box. We’ve never been there and not had just the most amazing food. Um, heritage is only trumped by my favorite spot up in minnesota. It’s in minneapolis, it’s a place called uh, femas. We’ve been there many times over, like the last four years. We got to know the maitre d. Uh, we got like the, you know a triple star treatment or whatever, and the food is is like out of this world.
Ryan Freng:
So, um, that’s not here, but heritage is here and we try to make you know when there’s a special occasion, like a anniversary or something, what is the food at heritage? Um, I’m gonna pull it up because I am terrible at this. Like, we always get like super fancy versions of everything, so, like, we’ll have. Like, we had like a lamb pate. Um, we’ve had burger ish things, we’ve had pasta ish things. Um, so it’s like, it’s like high cuisine. My wife, if she was here, she’d be like you’re an idiot. Um, it’s her favorite spot, it’s our favorite spot here and we’re going to go in there on thursday I think restaurant week, like after a pontoon ride.
Ryan Freng:
Um, nice, yeah, I don’t know what they. Let’s see old world ambience, one block off benison’s capital city, wisconsin’s finest ingredients be global inspiration, culinary excellence and excellently crafted cocktails. So, yeah, great drinks, amazing drinks. Uh, locally sourced meats and stuff. Um, I think he works with, like fisher farms and local farmers to get the meat and do all the things, and so it’s kind of fun, like you can pay a lot of money and get it prepared really well at Heritage or you could just buy it direct and prepare yourself. But, yeah, great drinks, great food. When we go there, we try to get something new. We just pick. Like it doesn’t even come down to what we like. It’s like these are two new things we haven’t had, let’s get those and we’ll split them. Like it’s like these are two new things we haven’t had, let’s get those and we’ll split them, and it’s always an amazing experience. So, yeah, I highly recommend it and gotta love those kind of places yeah, where you can just trust everything.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, food, yeah. But all right, I want to get back on track to chelsea. You had mentioned um gigging, so if you didn’t have enough, uh, enough to do already. You’re also the lead woman in a band and like you kick ass at it too. You were playing some music the other day for us and we’re like, holy crap, this is legit because you know, everyone’s kind of like yeah, I’m in a band or whatever, but like you’re in a band and you’re good and your band is good well, thank you so tell me more about that.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yeah, that uh. Yeah, I got a project called honey shot. Um, that’s been around for nearly 18 years now. Um, and we perform all around um, you know the midwest and uh do a lot of corporate things. You know a lot of um festival type things. Um, also do some local clubs. You know always want to give. You know, keep giving back to those that gave to us when we were first starting out. You know, um, that’s, that’s super important for us. So, um, yeah, just you know love, love, singing it’s it’s um honey shot is. You know, when we named ourselves, we were kind of like talking about like you know what are those? You know sweet hits, you know. When we named ourselves, we were kind of like talking about like you know what are those, you know sweet hits, you know what are?
Chelsey Bowers:
those sweet hits that everybody loves. Um, and we knew that it. We wanted to be a band that was, you know, not just you know rock, and not just pop and not just funk, but, like you know, the best of all those worlds. Um, and like you know, those danceable hits that everybody, just you know, know, can pretty much sing every word to, and just have a lot of fun with us. Um, and so that’s what we are, we. You know, we’re everything from, like the seventies on up to current music.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, a little bit of everything. If you don’t like the song, give it probably three minutes and it’ll change. So, um, have a lot of fun. Um, have some fantastic bandmates. Um, and you know we’ve been through a lot together, um, some crazy stories together, and, um, and you know, just have a lot of fun doing the music. Um, you know, I, I, I joke, and um, you know, people ask me you know what, like why are you still doing the band thing? You know, isn’t that stressful, and I’m like, like if I didn’t do the band thing, I might be a serial killer, you know, yeah it’s a joke.
Chelsey Bowers:
Obviously it’s a joke, but you know like it’s. It’s that great release. You know you guys can relate. You’re both, you know, in the music too. So, um, I think it’s just a wonderful release and it also just fills your soul. You know in ways that nothing else can. So, um, you know it is, you know, a stressor, um, when you’re learning things and when you’re, you know having to get things down, but it’s also just the best soul filler that I know. Yeah.
John Shoemaker:
And the uh, the other aspect of it, you know, is doing the performance too. I don’t think I’ve ever done the stuff that you’ve done on the scale that you have, but for anyone who has done any performance, the sort of high or the excitement that can’t be beat when you get the audience feedback on something that went really well, I can, I can see that being super fun yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, um, some of the ones that really stand out, like you know, uh, when I was with otapo emy, we all opened up for jimmy buffett um, and that was just, you know, crazy, crazy, cool, crazy, cool, um, and you know, talk about, you know, like I mean parrot heads are crazy anyway, um, and you know we were totally doing their style of music and having a lot of fun with them, and that was just um.
Chelsey Bowers:
I was actually in boston when we found out that this opportunity came up and I had to find a flight back, and so it was just this crazy, you know series of events to even get there, um, but then you know, the payoff was, you know just one of those crazy insane moments that you can’t really you know the payoff was, you know just one of those crazy insane moments that you can’t really, you know you’ll never be able to duplicate.
Chelsey Bowers:
And you know I also, you know, when I was a recording artist in Nashville, I was the first person to open up at the Wild Horse Saloon the day that they opened the doors. You know I was the headline act and there was a crowd around the corner, like around the block, like two blocks. There was a crowd around the corner, like around the block, like two blocks, and when I got done with the performance, I went into the bathroom and when I came out there was a line to the outside for, like my autograph and I was like what you know it just it was surreal. And those moments are, you know, like they’ll stay in your brain forever. You know, and you know absolutely, there’s no better high in the world than being on a stage with a crowd. You know, and, and you know me and my bandmates were talking last night about, you know, those moments when you don’t have a crowd right, cause you know, if you’re a band, you know you’ve had those moments.
Chelsey Bowers:
And there was a time when we were doing some hoity, toity, corporate thing and it was, you know, there was probably like a thousand doctors and dentists in the room, um, and we were background. They all had their back to us and they were just, you know, doing their own thing. And finally I said, you know what, guys, we got done with the song and I said, everybody, turn your back to the audience and don’t do a thing until I, you know, say anything. And so we turned our back to the audience and the entire room went from like hustle, bustle, loud, to slowly quiet, quiet, quiet, until you could hear a pin drop. And I finally turned back around and I said hey guys, we’re here to give you a great show. Please give us the respect of listening, thank you.
John Shoemaker:
And went into the next song.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, and from that moment on, the dance floor was full and, like at the end of the night, I had so many people come up to me and just say that they had mad respect for me doing that, you know, um, and it was just, it was. It was the moment that changed the tide for us, um, and, you know, really made that show really fun and we had, you know, hundreds of people on the dance floor for the rest of the night.
Ryan Freng:
Um, you know, but it it takes a, it takes a different mindset to do something like that too, because you never know if you’re gonna, you know, take somebody off yeah, and putting yourself out there in such a way like, obviously, performing yep and you practice a lot and so you’re super comfortable, but you never know what could happen and, like you know, I feel like those difficult moments, those awkward moments, embarrassing moments, like you said, um harden you into diamond, but in a good way, not like so you’re inflexible, but it’s like, yeah, so you, you’ve gone through awkwardness, you’ve gone through difficulty, you put yourself out there, you put your emotions out there and you survive, yeah absolutely.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, have you have you always sung now or is you know, like from as long as you can remember, like obviously you’ve got to be talented if you’re still doing it. You know, after 14 years with this one band, like I don’t know what a bands last like three months 18, sorry, excuse me. Uh, 14 years at Madison college, Is that right? And 18?
Chelsey Bowers:
years. Okay, yep, you got it, yep.
Ryan Freng:
Um, but you know, like what is, what is a band? How long does a band usually last? Like three weeks a month a year. Like you know, they’re pretty ephemeral. But to be with one group consistently for 18 years, you know and you you also work with other groups as well like you’ve obviously got to be very good at a skill you’ve developed. Like what did you have you always sung? Did you sing growing up? Like what’s what? What about that?
Chelsey Bowers:
um, yeah, I drove my mom nuts. I mean, that’s just the honest to god’s truth. I was that kid who, like um, you know I’d have other friends over and we would create um like a day full of shows and oh, that’s awesome and so it would be like you know, we’re gonna do you know this soapbox and then we’re gonna do these commercials in between.
Chelsey Bowers:
And then we’re gonna, you know we’re going to do you know this soapbox and then we’re going to do these commercials in between, and then we’re going to do you know this play about this, and then, like, and it was you know like, I plan out the entire day for us, and then, you know, my mom would have to sit down and watch the entire performance, you know um, and bless her. Bless her for you know um. You know being open to that because she’s, she’s not a music person. She doesn’t like um. She would have never, ever, have um like a radio on in the house or any play, any music um. So she’s, you know she wants the music off, she wants quiet and she just had the wrong child, um, she wanted a special daughter and she got her just in a different way and when I and when I was 11, we went down to um you.
Chelsey Bowers:
We lived right on the water and there was a resort right next to us and so I always made friends with all the you know resort kids every week and we’d, you know, have a bunch of fun together and we went into the lodge you know, the bar, restaurant area, and there was a band playing and you know they were doing.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, like all that polka music, right, you live in the Midwest when you’ve got a polka band. And so I went up and asked them to play like Roll Out the Barrel, and In Heaven there Is no Beer or something you know, because I love those songs. And this sweet lady she said you know, do you want to sing them? And I was like what? And she’s you know, do you know him? You want to sing them?
Chelsey Bowers:
and I’m like sure, and so um, she handed me the mic and uh man that thing’s been welded in my hand ever since I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the entire you know concept of it. You know, um it was, and they hired me for 50 bucks a week um to go to gigs with them and just sing like four or five songs and um, that’s where it was born. I, I couldn’t, I couldn’t think of a life without it.
Ryan Freng:
That’s awesome. And it takes like it takes like a certain, certain type of person to be able to get up on stage. You know like that vulnerability again. How old did you say you were 11. Dude, that’s awesome. I can’t even imagine.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yeah, and you know it’s funny that you say that, Cause, like you know, it’s funny that you say that because, like you know my husband, he’s an awesome singer, like he’s got a great voice and you know, like, if you give him Clint Black on the radio, like while he’s in the shower, you know he will, he will nail that no-transcript.
Ryan Freng:
You know, be in your home and feel comfortable about it I’ve thought about karaoke too and, like you, either have to just be talented, super talented and know a lot of stuff, like you, or I feel like you have to like prep karaoke, like I don’t know songs well enough, that like I need to prep some songs and be like, okay, these are my karaoke songs, because if I got up there with other songs you know, even though you get the words you know, like that’s inevitably going to happen unless I practice.
Chelsey Bowers:
I don’t know. I mean, you know you get the little. They don’t do the like the bouncing ball anymore, but they do, you know, like shadow in the words for you so that you can go along with it. Um, you know. So it’s not like you know, you don’t have the words provided to like follow along. So if you know the song relatively well, you can, you know, do a pretty good job of it. You know, I don’t. I, I think it’s on ryan. I think we you, me and john need to go to a karaoke night and just have some fun.
Ryan Freng:
I feel like john’s a pro like.
John Shoemaker:
I feel like you and your wife have done that before, so we have there, there’s a, there’s the art to karaoke, though that I, you know I’m I’m not clearly in that crowd all the time because there are songs where I’m like, okay, I know I can do this one, I know it’s in my range, it’s gonna sound good, and then you do it and you’re like that song is not that interesting, like in this setting yeah it’s not a fun, like party song or something, and then somebody else gets up who’s just like drunk and can’t sing at all and people are like loving it and just going insane and you’re like, okay, because it’s a fun anthemic song that they can get back.
John Shoemaker:
Yep, yeah like okay, I just need to pick better songs.
Chelsey Bowers:
So yeah, that’s true. I mean, but that’s true like with band life, with anything in the music world, right, I mean, like you know, like for us with honey shot, like part of the part of the formula for us is it’s it had to be a top 10, you know it’s gotta have a great tempo or be slow. You know it can’t be like those mid tempos. They just die. They just die on the odds of you getting all those folks back. You know it’s tougher and tougher as the night progresses. So you know you can’t have anything that’s in the mid-tempo creative area. You know it’s really got to be like about those fun pleasing songs.
John Shoemaker:
Yeah, my best, though, I think, was we were at this friend’s wedding. It was a very small wedding and they were kind of doing their own thing throughout, so like they actually had karaoke at their, but they didn’t really have a dance. Oh fun, it was like a small. We were in like a lodge or something. It was like a small lodge and they had karaoke and people were doing stuff and it was fun and there was a little bit of dancing happening. And then I told amanda, I was like mandy, you got to come up, we got to do this one and we did a whole new world and that one that was a hit, that was a oh, that’s awesome, oh, so, that’s fantastic yeah I could see you guys doing like never-ending story too.
Ryan Freng:
I feel like I did. I think I did a whole new world with like my sister one time in karaoke and it went well, but it was weird because it was my sister, like we were. It was like when we were younger and you know I was I was singing and she was probably cantering or something.
Ryan Freng:
so we were like in the thick of it and I’ll go do some, go do some Disney or whatever. It’s like all right, this is really weird, cause it’s probably stuff too that we you know sing it at home, like you put the music on the Disney and it’s singing at home Like right. Looking back, it’s pretty awkward.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, one of the funniest things that ever happened like with honey shot was, uh, we did a buddy of mine his wedding, you know, with and, and they’re a great couple. I mean, they’re super fun, like big drinkers, lots of party people at the house, you know, and, um, we did it at, um, a place called over the vine, so it’s a huge, huge place, you know, like lots of people, um, and his wife told me that, like at home, he sings um, let it go, I frozen. And so during our break I put that song on a game in the mic and I mean it was one of those moments that never to be duplicated. Like he was, you know, he, he was singing it in the whole place, god singing it with him.
Chelsey Bowers:
And it was just, you know, this epic moment for him and it was just so fun, I mean, and you know, if you can do that, that’s just you know, that’s just that’s like.
Ryan Freng:
And then that that moment is so movie worthy. Like you know, it’s those, those moments in your, in your life where you might step out and do something a little uncomfortable. So, like I’m always trying to do that, like my wife’s like, hey, do you want to go do this thing? I’m like, nope, I’m an introvert, I want to sit and read and not talk to people. But it’s always like, yes, I will do that thing. Or some of these MC gigs that I get to do. I’m like, yeah, I would love to be in the crowd, but also I do like performing. So, even though everything in the introvert in me is like, no, don’t do it, don’t go up on stage, I’m like, all right, I’ll go up on stage and I’ll spend a few weeks writing jokes and doing video and, like you know all that stuff, and it’s always fantastic.
Chelsey Bowers:
But then the next one comes up and I’m like, oh my gosh my husband hates me because, like, if there’s anything like publicly, I just love it. You know, like I just gravitate toward it and, you know, can’t wait to do it. And he, you know, like him giving you know like a presentation to his team, you know he just gets, you know, anxious and sweaty palms and all that stuff and he’s like, how do you do that? You know, and I get it.
Ryan Freng:
So I give you a lot of credit, ryan, for like stepping outside of that box, because you know, if you’re introverts, a lot of that stuff can be really, you know, really challenging and really stressful for you well, it’s weird too, because I feel like it’s more, it’s more mental than anything else, like because as soon as I’m doing it, I’m like this is energizing, I love it, but it’s just like thinking about it or like all right there’s another thing on the calendar where I have to leave my home, like, or if, if, like, instead of going to our friend’s house like, hey, can we just have them over here and then we can chill here, and it’s like introverts.
Ryan Freng:
Delight is what it is.
Chelsey Bowers:
So I’m considered an introverted extrovert, which is an interesting um.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know like I took that, that that study and um, it was really interesting because you know I would have considered myself an extrovert um, but I really do love hanging out with me too. Like I can, I can stay at home and be really happy and read a book or, you know, get into like you know, I guzzle on some television, you know a good series and you know be completely fine hanging out with me and the dogs and you know, just enjoy that too so um.
Ryan Freng:
I found that to be a really interesting um assessment well, we probably need like a healthy balance of both, right you, you know whatever that is, and some of us tend towards the other, and we’ve done several of those kind of psychological tests and things for better working and whatnot. And you know, one of the ideas is like what energizes you, right, and so for me.
Ryan Freng:
What energizes me is like to be by myself, to be working on a project, to to be organizing, to be reading something like that. Um, I do enjoy going out, I do enjoy being on stage, I do enjoy all that, but it’s not what I think about when I’m like how do I need to recharge or how do I need to uh, you know, relax, and so I think that makes me, uh, an extroverted introvert. I recharge by being introverted, but when I’m out and I’m doing it, let’s go.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yep, nice. So you mentioned reading Any really good book that you’d recommend.
John Shoemaker:
I don’t know.
Ryan Freng:
I read a lot of random stuff. So right now I have one or two fantasy books that I’m reading. I like some high fantasy, a little bit of sci-fi, some Horace and Scott Card, but then I also have a book group so we do some faith or family or be a better person type stuff. Right now we’re reading this book, coddling of the american mind, which is great, which is like seeing some trends in philosophies that aren’t great and kind of identifying them and talking about them. So that’s a fun book. It’s kind of popular right now even though it’s a five year old book. Um, do you like, let’s see? Do you like fiction? Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
Chelsey Bowers:
uh, definitely gravitate towards fiction. Um, I’ve been trying to read elton john’s book for, like you know, a year now and, um, I always gravitate back towards um fiction and I, um, I, I’m actually my guilty pleasure is, you know, pretty intense books.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, like intense, like romance or like no, god no um or like game of thrones um, like a series where, like the woman is like, um, probably the, the lead character as like an fbi agent or you know, or like a private private investigator, and um, they’re chasing after serial killers and um, you know the the craziness of the lambs, or something, or ish yeah yeah yeah and um, you know those like I just, I just got through like an eight book series, um, uh, and it was just for rudels I mean it was really like.
Chelsey Bowers:
I was like why do you read these at night when you’re going to bed? You’re just stupid because you know and you’re laying there going what’s gonna happen to her next, you know. I mean it’s just uh, you know, um, but it’s just so good and I just I don’t even know how I got into it, but um, yeah, just really really good good, good read.
Ryan Freng:
So it’s kind of like fbi thrillers is kind of what you like it’s.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, they’re mainly not like necessarily fbi, but like private private investigator okay, and then? They come from like a pretty you know um rough past. You know, like the usually the the lead heroine is um comes from like a place of you know um, um not not having a good childhood, not having a good you know um. So you know she’s really kind of that ship on her shoulder. She’s got to prove something not necessarily chip on her shoulder, but definitely wants to write the wrongs of the world.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know what I mean Um definitely wants to be that, you know, avenger and make things right with the world. And I definitely gravitate towards that personality in the books and you know she did Usually. It’s just you know that character is the pinnacle and then the series kind of revolves around these different things. You know, as she puts one away, then all of a sudden there’s another one and it just kind of continues on. And so you know it’s really good, good, really interesting but really is.
Ryan Freng:
Is there some like psychological thriller to it as well? Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, for sure, yeah, no, that that sounds interesting. What’s the book?
Chelsey Bowers:
um, it’s. I’m trying to look it up right now um on my recent um you’re like I’m just kidding, I don’t read books well, you know what? It’s funny because you go through them so fast. I mean at least.
Chelsey Bowers:
I have you know that I was just, I was just on a roll and just didn’t even care. I just went into the next one and the next one and the next one, um, so, um, oh, tr, reagan, tr. Yeah, tr. Reagan is her name in her series. Is is going to be, you know, along that vein, um, and I can’t tell you what the series was it she does. These series is where, like you know, the first book’s called outrage, the next one’s called wrath, the next one’s called, you know, and they’re just like these. You know, um, and the series that I read, um included, like the books, were like evil never dies, almost dead, um, that week I think was one of them in the series um you know.
Chelsey Bowers:
So it’s just all these. You know they kind of go in in line with each other and you just got to start with one of the first ones in the series, and just so good so good, all right, I’m gonna write that down too and I’m gonna try one of those.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, yeah, I, I enjoy and and it’s funny, it’s like we were talking about last night or yesterday or whatever, like the firm, the pelican brief, like all these john grisham books from the 90s that were made into movies, and I was like I don’t know why, but I like loved those and it’s you know, it’s maybe like the intrigue and the thriller kind of aspect of it. Maybe it’s like the comeuppance like somebody. Usually there’s a comeuppance that happens. Um, well, it’s like the comeuppance like somebody. Usually there’s a comeuppance that happens.
Chelsey Bowers:
It’s really fun. Well, it’s usually the taking down of a bad conglomerate. You know, like it’s usually the big bad actually gets theirs in the end. You know, and it’s, and it’s the the. You know, um, what did I read? Stephen King said it. Um, you know, when they said what’s the? You know what’s the magic potion for your books?
John Shoemaker:
potion for your books, um, he said the first step in any great book is that the innocent must suffer and I.
Chelsey Bowers:
I just I’ve never forgotten that, because if you look at any great storyline, the innocent must suffer first, and then it’s. You know either wrath or vengeance, or you know retribution, or you know like you know. I mean, look at john wick series. You know that’s they they killed his dog man yeah I’ll let the craziness begin those are funny too.
Ryan Freng:
I’ve seen all four of them. I saw the last one on a plane and I was like I don’t remember what they’re about, except the first one.
Chelsey Bowers:
There they steal his dog, that’s all I remember, exactly no, they killed it.
Ryan Freng:
They didn’t steal it, they killed it well, see there, I don’t remember that detail.
Chelsey Bowers:
I’m like keanu is just like he has a gun that doesn’t run out of bullets right it’s fine, exactly, yeah don’t ever try to do the math on bullets and shows oh yeah, somebody did a math of like how many people he killed.
Ryan Freng:
You’re like, oh my gosh, that’s, that’s kind of crazy. Um, it’s insane. I read it’s funny, like tropes and stuff. I read a lot of fantasy, uh, high fantasy too, and like Brandon Sanderson, um, and he doesn’t do it, but but other authors do, and I see it repeated over and it’s like funny, it’s like why, why is that? Like something that people respond to and it’s the idea of like the hero or heroine whose parents have died, they’re raised by an aunt or an uncle or family member and Peter Parker.
Ryan Freng:
You know well. You got Peter Parker, you’ve got Mark Hamill, you’ve got what’s his face? Luke Skywalker. Harry Potter One of my favorite authors does a children’s series and it’s hilarious. It’s Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. Basically, librarians are evil and they rule the world. That’s funny. And the Smedry family. They all have powers, but they’re like micro powers or like silly powers. Alcatraz will break things when he’s trying to fix them. His grandfather will arrive late to everything, so even his death. If you try to stab him, you’ll miss him because he arrives late to his death. So it’s like clever things like that. But he’s another one whose parents have died you know, it’s like this weird thing.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know you get cultural, cultural things that happen, uh, that lead us into these tropes find out the truth behind the writer sometimes and stuff like you know, like, look at walt disney. Walt disney in a terrible relationship with this. All the walt disney’s your stepmother, or you know. If there’s not even a even a mother in the picture at all, you know, like little mermaid, there’s not a mother in the picture at all a lot of them you know the mother’s just absent, or if she is there, she’s the.
Ryan Freng:
You know she’s the evil one, so it’s it’s interesting like that yeah, well, I was thinking about that too, talking to a friend yesterday about a project, a creative project First time he’s done some video and thinking like he’s kind of drawing like stick storyboards and I was like let’s also think about the camera movement and how the camera moves and how the camera communicates things. So it’s different in that it’s not necessarily like a specific reflection of somebody’s history, but it’s a tool that shows, you know, somebody’s perspective. So let’s make the camera a little more handheld and a little more off key and like a little bit more edge shots and things as opposed to more typical framing to show some of the characters, anxiety and like as soon as I said that, you know, his eyes lit up and he’s like oh yeah, that’s, oh yeah, you know, like that’s really cool we all respond to this and we all respond to those tropes and, uh, the thriller there’s.
Ryan Freng:
There’s something to that construction. You know, you’re you’re expecting a meal and you’re given that meal and there’s some treats along the way that you enjoy. But it’s part of that expectation and fulfillment in that trope. That, I think, I feel like, is what we respond to, and so if you can hit that and keep doing it, you can keep writing or creating things forever absolutely.
Ryan Freng:
I love that yeah, which kind of is like kind of what we’re doing, you know, to some degree is like how do we do the things that we love or enjoy, or how do we put that into pieces meaningful way that really resonates with the audience, you know that’s the, that’s the big question to answer on.
Chelsey Bowers:
Every single thing that we do is like you know, yeah, we want the cool factor, but it also has to resonate with that audience and you know it’s got to be beyond cool factor and you know, like that’s the magic, that’s, that’s, if you can get that, you’re doing something yeah, what so that cool factor?
Ryan Freng:
you know the imagination, like what is, what is a process that you think that you enter into to help you come up with these ideas or to help help you be creative, to flex your creative?
Chelsey Bowers:
you know muscle um, you know, there’s a pretty crazy hamster in my wheel already, in my head. So, um, there’s a lot of a lot of internal, a lot of internal, you know, like fun happening already. And then, you know, you just align yourself with great partners and great teammates, um, so you can do some cool brainstorming, right, right, I mean, like I remember the, the first parts of the of the VR project were just us getting into a room and going, you know, like, okay, you know, we don’t, we want to do this. What does this look like? You know, and just really throwing some stuff out there and going, oh, I like that and that might not work. You know, yeah, I like that.
Chelsey Bowers:
We’re still doing that with some of this, right, you know, because when you’re looking at higher education, it’s kind of a different realm than you know, like if you’re just, you know, a corporate company, right. So you know some things that might work for corporate wouldn’t work for higher ed. So you know, it’s still finding those lines and those balances between like, yes, we want to make this cool, fun, exciting. We also know that there’s some things that probably shouldn’t you’t necessarily touch on. So it’s, I think it’s a great question. It’s just a really different process. How long have we been really fine-tuning this A year?
Ryan Freng:
Right.
Chelsey Bowers:
And we could have pulled the pin on this earlier. But would it have been right and would it have been as good as it’s going to be? Because, john, when I looked at that script that you sent, we are, I mean, like it’s looking awesome. There’s a lot you know, this is yeah.
John Shoemaker:
One of the other things that we try to do, that we’re trying to think about instead of coming. This is a hard thing to do in business organization. Commercial marketing is the inclination, especially for people getting started in the industry. This this would be good for anyone who’s watching, who’s like oh well, you know what are the things to learn? Your mind initially wants to go to okay, what are the, what are the key takeaways that are, what are the key words that we need to give people and what are the programs? That, in the case of the college, what are the programs and what are their features? But that’s not how you connect with an, with a human being.
John Shoemaker:
It’s instead it’s like what are the fun stories that are going around in the world right now? I just saw this movie, I just read this book, I just saw this play, whatever it is and then start kind of playing around with those ideas and connecting to some popular themes right now, what’s going on in the world? What are people dealing with? What are young people concerned about, anxious about being relevant, and then writing something from that angle and then saying, okay, well, how can we set this then in the setting of the business organization, whatever it is that I’m working on? So, yeah, that’s where you know.
John Shoemaker:
Sometimes I think back. We talk to people about this all the time, about what should I study and whatever. So sometimes I think back to how I don’t know how much of my college you know that I’m using, but studying the stories and famous films and film history and stuff like that actually does come up more than I probably think about or realize, because I probably could have learned the technical aspects of just how to put it together pretty quick. You can do that through some youtube videos and stuff and a two-year degree at uh at madison college.
John Shoemaker:
As well, yeah, exactly well you know, I’m just making the case for whether, because you could, you could learn the technical aspects, maybe even shorter, or try to on your own, but going whether you’re going to Madison College for a two-year degree or whether you’re going to UW for a four-year degree or whatever getting around people and diving a little bit deeper into the material and learning the things. And diving a little bit deeper into the material and learning the things. My kids are all middle school age right now. So we’re right in that hot spot of like, well, what am I going to use this for? And learning the stuff that you don’t know. What you’re going to use it for is going to come back around later eventually. For is going to come back around later eventually.
John Shoemaker:
This is the counterpoint to a lot of the what we often encourage people with, uh in our work, because people ask us well, what do I need to study in our industry? And we’re like I think you just need to start working. I think you need to start getting experience and working with teams and understand apprenticeship. So that’s, that’s a different side of it. But yeah, back to the main point of just the stories and what connects with people. It’s never the. I’m like what? It doesn’t matter the detail. People will ask well, do you guys have experience in health care? I’m like i’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I know human beings, I know how to speak to an individual person and that’s how you connect with somebody. And then it’s like, okay, what are the details of the thing? I’ll just fill in the details later and you can make it creative and make it tightly woven in in some fun, creative ways. But that’s not the, that’s not the main basis of what it is. That you, how you connect to somebody as a viewer.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, that that interesting when you say you know, especially like the healthcare idea. Like somebody, the healthcare company comes to you and says we want to do some marketing to these people and in the healthcare industry, what’s your experience in the healthcare industry? And it’s like, well, you have the experience of the healthcare industry. We’ll lean on that expertise. We have the expertise of video making and storytelling and engaging and making shareable things. Like that’s what you need help with. Like you already, you’re already an expert at the health stuff, so we can work together to figure that out.
Ryan Freng:
Um, which is interesting because, depending on the type of personality you’re working with, like you’re such a creative person that our first conversations are often many steps down the line, further than most people’s first conversations. Uh, just because of the understanding, uh, with marketing, with creative, with communication, with storytelling, uh, and in in this hypothetical example as well, sometimes you’ll have somebody who kind of doesn’t even know what they want or how they want it, but they’re like, well, we need, you know, we need video, and even before we think about story, it’s kind of that simon cynic. Well, why, why are we doing this? Like, let’s, let’s start back there.
Chelsey Bowers:
We’ll always get them back to video if it’s appropriate, um but and and another thing I find interesting about, like you know a lot of folks, um, you know, when they’re looking at projects. Or you know, like even you know a lot of folks, um, you know when they’re looking at projects. Or you know, like even you know, no matter who we’re working with, right, like a lot of our internal clients, a lot of you know in the past, um, just a lot of the marketing projects. A fatal mistake that people make is to assume that they are their audience, and there’s a famous quote you are not your audience, um, and audience um, and. And that that one I have to like use again and again and I have to use it on myself too.
Chelsey Bowers:
Right, because I can think you know one thing about our audience at madison college, but you know that’s where it’s super important and you know to do that research to find out. You know what they’re thinking, what they want. You know, ryan you talked about like you know their concerns that’s something that we always address in our focus groups is like you know what are your concerns and what are your drivers.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know, what motivates you and what you know. What do you consider to be those barriers to those motivations? You know you’ve got to be able to answer those questions when you’re looking at creating pieces for them. You know that’s what they want to look at and if you could do it in really cool, fun ways then all the better. You know, right, but you know, so many times you know we’ll hear from you know a person who is, you know, a dean in a program or something. Well, I haven’t seen our ads. Good, yay, you’re not our audience, so I’m glad that you haven’t seen them. That means that our advertising is going where it’s supposed to be going, you know, and so that’s a. You know, that’s a. Really, that’s another thing. That’s kind of a common misconception in marketing.
Ryan Freng:
I feel like that’s a hard nut to crack too, because, you know, even thinking of ourselves, like these are things that we enjoy and we need to market ourselves. But we’re, you know, we’re probably adjacent to our types of client, right, Because we can produce our own marketing and creative content. So we’re thinking of people who can’t produce their own creative, marketing and content, but they are business owners. We are business owners, so to some extent we can think like, okay, we are, you know, there is some overlap, but like you’re saying, not as much, not as much as we often think, and yeah, you have our health, our hypothetical healthcare person who’s like, yeah, I don’t, I don’t quite understand this.
Ryan Freng:
And it’s like, well, the people you’re targeting will love it though, you know, and it’s hard. It’s like, well, how do we know? Well, we got to try, we got to test it, we got to do it and then re, uh, reset, redo, more, more, try some more, kind of do some testing. Like it’s really hard when it’s just like one video as opposed to multiple, or like our relationship. You know, we’ve, we’ve done some videos this way and this way and it’s like, okay, people responded in this way, let’s try pivot a little bit more in this direction. Let’s add a little bit more of this in, and that’s that’s why it’s been so awesome for us to to work with you, because we’ve had the opportunity to grow together this creative, so that it’s more successful with each iteration I do try to remind, remind people like you know, doctors don’t go home and only watch gray’s anatomy.
John Shoemaker:
And you know lawyers don’t go home and only watch gray’s anatomy. And you know lawyers don’t go home and you know, only read the palace and breathe and what it’s like.
Chelsey Bowers:
Yeah, like yeah, I mean think about that video that we did for um, um, oh, help me out guys, we’ve done a few medical admin specialist.
Chelsey Bowers:
you know that was a really, um, groundbreaking decision for us because we really, you know like usually the traits were related to the, to the, you know, to college in general and like their bigger dreams, right, um, but with that one we’re like you want to work from home and you love Fido. You know you love your dog and you know you, just, you want, you want the comfort of your own home and you love. You know you love medical dramas and law shows and you know it was really about their really intimate personal desires.
Chelsey Bowers:
It wasn’t, it didn’t even have anything to do with really like their program. Right, we, we just talked to their pro, the program leads and they said what was a common thread among the students? And we went let’s, let’s do this. And that was incredibly successful for us. Incredibly successful for us because it’s really about those traits, that really about those students who want to go into that program. And if you can, if you can hit that, you know, if you can hit that magic spot, that’s awesome yeah, identifying what your target wants or likes or thinks and incorporating that yeah.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, you know part of it too is uh, it’s interesting. I don’t know if other fields have this, but certainly in the creative field, um, when we’re working really long on a project, there’s the idea of like, kill the baby, like at some point you just have to stop. Like you just have to stop and be done and move on. But same thing too with creative. Like it it can be brutal and so, like we always try to tell the creatives like, hey, you know, don’t get too caught up on any given idea, because you know the next day it might be thrown out the door and that’s likely a good thing. And that’s hard to hear when you’re creative and you’re doing stuff on your own because you’re like well, I do it and it’s the best that I did, and so if you don’t like it, you don’t like me.
Ryan Freng:
You know it’s like that kind of modern philosophy as well, but as creatives, you know it’s kind of the was a creativity ink really resonated with John and and recommended to all of us, and there’s that idea of kind of solution-oriented creative development. So somebody comes up and does some creative and instead of saying no, that’s not the direction I want, you can kind of say, like, how about we try to move towards this? Like here’s the problems that I see. We don’t have enough of this, it’s not doing enough of this, and you know you do that well, we’ve. We’ve done that several times with the nursing script as well. We have a new version of that. That’s that’s really great. And when talking with the team, we’re like yeah, it doesn’t really matter how many times we have to rewrite this thing until we get it to a place that it feels good to everyone, like it’s going to be successful, uh, for everyone. So that’s, that’s something we try to encourage our young creatives on too.
John Shoemaker:
If you haven’t read that’s a tough one. If you haven’t read creativity inc, I highly recommend it. Uh, I will. It’s uh. People have compared it like, if you’ve heard of the book good to great, a lot of people have read that one. Like that’s what this is for the creative industry, and one of the examples that stands out in my mind is the movie the Incredibles. Have you seen the movie the Incredibles? It’s super fun.
Chelsey Bowers:
I’m a cartoon junkie. If it’s been a cartoon, I’ve likely seen it.
John Shoemaker:
yes, Okay, it’s super fun. You know superhero family and stuff. Seen it? Yes, okay, it’s uh super fun. You know superhero family and stuff. And there’s a scene where the, the, the dad, is yelling at the mom. They’re in an argument and they’re kind of yelling at each other, but and in the focus group stuff, they were like, they’re like I don’t like this scene. It’s too, you know, like it feels too aggressive, like it’s just, it’s really like uncomfortable with this big, huge guy, you know, yelling back at his wife.
John Shoemaker:
And but they were applying, applying this tool of like, because the suggestion initially was like we need to cut this scene. And the writer was like writer, director, whoever was like I just, I don’t know, but like, let me try something and get back to you and we’ll take a look. And they went back into it, watched the next screening and they’re like oh, it feels a lot better, this is really working. You know what’d you do Like, did you rewrite it or whatever. And they’re like, oh, it feels a lot better, this is really working. You know what you do like, did you rewrite it, whatever. And they’re like, he’s like he didn’t change a line of dialogue.
John Shoemaker:
They made her because she’s elastigirl during this argument they made her like stretch and get taller and bigger when she’s when she’s yelling back so that the two visually match each other and as the viewer it suddenly becomes less uncomfortable than the big guy with a very small skinny wife. So they’re like.
Chelsey Bowers:
The dynamics balanced out illustrating.
John Shoemaker:
Illustrating the point that, like, identifying a problem is is fine and good to do, but when you’re doing like a focus group, you don’t. The focus group doesn’t need to suggest the solutions. I mean, they can suggest solutions but they don’t need to dictate the solution. They just need to say there’s a problem here and then the way pixar handles it is like they let the director writer like okay, you have to address the problem. You don’t necessarily have to do what people were suggesting, but it does have to like fix some way. And it was kind of a cool way to unlock some creative like problem solving. Um, because sometimes it’s like yes, there is a problem, it exists, but there’s probably lots of ways to tackle it.
Chelsey Bowers:
You know different ways yeah, I love that and and it’s very similar, I mean like, to what we’re doing right now with um, you know the the more to your story video, right, I mean, like you know I, I gave you the feedback that we got internally and just, you know, went, how can we address that? And then, john, you came back with you know um, some great thoughts on how we could address that. And you know I, I love that relationship of like, hey guys, you know we have some things over here. You know what do you recommend? And then, like you know, you do you, let’s figure out something that’ll work to like make that seem, you know a little less. You know um, you know I, I think in a, in a part of it it was just, you know how it could be perceived by others is maybe just a little bit, you know, whimsical. Or you know um, you know just not how it needed to be.
Chelsey Bowers:
And we can address that easy yeah, I didn’t want to say that yeah, no 100. I can talk to you guys that way, frankly you know right, yeah um, and and, and you know, I, I wouldn’t say that was somebody. I didn’t know you know I wouldn’t say that was somebody who didn’t have that relationship, um, because that could be taken, you know, as a negative and it wasn’t meant that way, it was just like. You know, you can have a mentos too, you know? Like those?
Ryan Freng:
kind of things we can’t, yeah, yeah we can’t, we can’t get there yeah, I, I like to try things too and see how they go.
Ryan Freng:
And like, especially when somebody comes back with some feedback like that, I was like, yeah, we can definitely do more on that. Like for me, I was generally just trying to think of schedule and how many we have and all this stuff, but I’m like, since we got that feedback from you guys, the client, I was like that gives us a little bit of leeway to basically punch it up, you know, explore some additional ideas and and work it, continue to work that problem essentially. Yeah, so that was pretty great. Yeah, and that’s what we try to encourage all of our clients to do right out of the gate. We’re like, okay, here’s how creative is going to go. You know, it’s going to be very dynamic, very back and forth. We want your feedback. You have an expertise that we do not. We have an expertise that you do not.
Ryan Freng:
So, in order to share your opinions, uh and feedback, do it in a descriptive descriptive as opposed to prescriptive way.
Ryan Freng:
Um, and you know, maybe like a graphic would be a good example where it’s like oh, we need a, we need a duck in there, we need the duck out of there.
Ryan Freng:
And it’s like, well, you could say it feels awkward where the duck is, or it feels awkward that there’s a duck there, right, and as soon as you change that language, then that really just helps the creative, helps the designer. The editor then see it more of as a problem, of a problem that somebody has, versus a creative choice, which a creative choice you’d be like well, I have a different creative opinion, you know a different creative choice, but somebody’s pointing out a problem in that way. From that perspective it’s it’s easier to receive, it’s easier to discuss. It also separates it kind of from, uh, your ego, your personality, whatever, and it’s like okay, this thing right here, like come up with some options to make it work better, like, all, right, we can come up with some options, you know it. Just it seems to work better and that’s. That was one of the big takeaways we got from that book.
Chelsey Bowers:
So highly recommend it yeah, definitely gonna read that.
Ryan Freng:
That’s really cool yeah, I, I uh was just kind of monologuing there, a little bit like you do in inibles, but we got to wrap this show up and I feel like for the good ones like this, like we’re just getting into it and like I want to, I just want to hang. So hopefully we can get it, get it in person and we’ll hang. We’ll just do this and we’ll just shoot the shit for a couple hours.
Chelsey Bowers:
Um, I’ve noticed that that’s a habit too, like when I’m in the studio. We could just, you know, go down rabbit holes and have great conversations, and I truly, truly appreciate that and value that about you guys. You’re more than just business partners, you know. This has been a really great relationship and I appreciate you guys a lot.
Ryan Freng:
Thank you. The feeling is absolutely mutual. It’s uh, it’s a blast getting to do what we get to do together and with you.
Chelsey Bowers:
It is a blast, you know.
Ryan Freng:
More importantly, I keep, I keep not able, not being able to go to your gigs, um, but I want you to pitch a gig, um, and then then we’ve got one more game, so is there a gig you’d like people to go to?
Chelsey Bowers:
we can, we can throw up uh, august 19th at christie’s landing um, it’s, that’ll be a fun one. It’s, um, it’s the end of the summer bash that they have, and, uh, there’s going to be two bands there. We’re going to be from 3 to 6 30, and then um fringe field will be taking the stage from 7 to 10, so, um, going to be a really fun time august 19th, 3 to 6 30 yep and christy’s landing yep hey, I’m actually putting this in my calendar.
Ryan Freng:
Uh, what kind of vibe is it like? Can kids come?
Chelsey Bowers:
oh yeah, it’s. It’s um completely family friendly. Um, you know, the whole family’s welcome. They have a like a, a huge sand area for volleyball. You know they have boats come there because it’s right on the lake, so it’s, you know, they got a tiki bar outside and then they have a band outside and it’s just completely nothing but good vibes, tank tops and flip flops.
Ryan Freng:
You’ve said so many things that are my favorite things.
Chelsey Bowers:
I love it. That’s completely. That’s completely what Christie’s Landing is. All things I love it.
Ryan Freng:
That’s completely what Christie’s Landing is all about. I love it. There we go. We’ll post that too. There’s Honey Shot. You can check them out on Facebook, follow, like, subscribe, do all the things we do have one more game as we wrap up here.
Ryan Freng:
We didn’t prep you for this, though, but I hope you’re ready. If you’re not, I you’re not. I can vamp, or john can vamp, but it’s time, or I guess I should have said it’s time for it’s time for two juice and a lie. All right, so, luke, can you put us all up on the screen? We’re gonna play a game called two juice and a lie, where you tell us three things about yourself, and one of them is a lie, and we got to try to guess which one is the lie. So you want to trick us. You want to trick anyone, uh, who you might know, who’s watching, um, and anyone who guesses. If you guess correctly, you can win some swag. We’ll send you some coasters and some sunglasses and some fun things that we have, and if we win, uh, we will just get more swag. It’s gonna be impossible, just you know, because they’re gonna be outrageous, so many stories.
John Shoemaker:
I’ve heard a few that anyone would be like, oh, that’s gotta be the lie, and then it’s gonna be like that’s true.
Ryan Freng:
So just yeah, everyone who is yeah that’s why I think in facebook I said like, buckle up, this is gonna be a wild one so am I to give you guys the two truths of the lie yeah, yep, you tell us the three things about yourself. So if you need a second to write anything or think about a let’s see.
Chelsey Bowers:
I had a music video on CMT. I’m a black belt in karate. And let me think of the other one here. I owned a recording studio in Nashville. I think we could play this game.
John Shoemaker:
I own a recording studio in Nashville. Oh, I think we could play this game like 10 times with Chelsea and she would have not get any right, yeah.
Ryan Freng:
All right, we’d like to process these out loud too, so if you’re at home you can throw a guess into the chat there. I think max was on at some point. Max may or may not know some of these. I feel like I know some of these. We didn’t even get into any cruise ship stories or anything funny.
John Shoemaker:
Not yet. Well, it’s only so. That’s like what I’m bringing into it, just like literally anything she says could have been like something that.
Ryan Freng:
Okay, let’s see. So if you listened into the bio, you know a little something about Nashville we know Nashville is a place. I see If you saw, if you saw our post yesterday or the day before you know something about her martial arts prowess I don’t we’ve.
Chelsey Bowers:
These are good ones.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, john, just like I don’t pay attention to that stuff. Uh, and you know that she’s in a band, everyone knows that she’s in a band and, you know, sang with many different groups, so but but music video on cmt.
John Shoemaker:
I know, yeah, what are you? What are you feeling? I, I know, I mean, I feel like I wouldn’t want a fighter, but I don’t know if I don’t know if it’s because of an official black belt or not.
Ryan Freng:
Wow, wait, do you think maybe she has like an unofficial black belt? Yeah, yeah, like her husband’s like. Yeah, you can kick my ass. Here’s. Here’s a black belt like she got. Uh yeah, you can kick my ass.
John Shoemaker:
Here’s a black belt Like she got yeah, she got kicked out for, you know, for being she’s like one of the bad guys in Karate Kid or something.
Chelsey Bowers:
I love that. That’s great. So I got kicked out of the black belt class. That’s fantastic.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, you’re too badass.
John Shoemaker:
You guys, that’s fantastic okay, let’s see, I don’t there’s actually. If you lose, you have to break one of those guitars on stream ouch there’s one eye that’s already partially broken that some of these little one of those ukuleles is legit and the other ones are just like the kids just like drag it around and stomp on it and whatever.
Ryan Freng:
That’s awesome okay, man, before before you guess, there’s a couple viewers. So chelsea told us three things about herself. One she uh, and one of them’s a lie has a music video that was on cmt at black belt and karate and owned a recording studio in nashville. So you can guess at home and john’s gonna tell us his answer. Are you thinking?
John Shoemaker:
I’m still thinking and I’m chewing, but um, oh, we have a guess.
Ryan Freng:
We have a guy, luke, who’s managing the stream. He says Nashville. He thinks Nashville’s a lie.
John Shoemaker:
Okay, I even feel like I’ve heard some of these stories, but I can’t remember the details. Um, I really, I mean I want to say the black belt and karate one, but I don’t feel like. I feel like I probably just don’t know that detail, cause I could guess any, I mean any of it’s feasible Final answer there was so much going on in Nashville and I heard some of these stories. I don’t remember all the all of them. Music video on CMT is is believable to me because I was going to say this earlier and I forgot. It’s always fascinating to me when there’s like people that you meet or you know and they’re just. You know they’re working in Madison, wisconsin, at the college, you know doing marketing, but you don’t know that these people are secretly badasses.
John Shoemaker:
Headlined the opening of a new big club in Nashville and had a big line for autographs. It’s always cool to find out that stuff. There’s stars among us. Okay, I don’t know, i’m’m off my game today. I’m just going black belt. Black belt is the lie. She’s got, she’s got a. She’s got a green belt. What’s the?
Ryan Freng:
all, right now I’m gonna go through mine. So you own an agency, uh, you own and operate a talent agency in Nashville, so I feel like that might be recording as well, because you would want to record talent and showcase them. I know you have a black belt in karate because I feel like I’ve heard that several times that was in our marketing from yesterday or the day before. So I know you have a black belt in karate, karate marketing from yesterday or the day before. So I know you have a black belt in karate, karate, uh.
Ryan Freng:
So I, against my desire, like I want the music video on cmt to be true, but maybe it’s like mtv, maybe you did a smart lie. Um, it feels like that one’s true as well, but I know number two is true and I feel like number three is true. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna guess number one, yeah, and emily pearson. Uh, pearson was asking is it a talent agency versus recording? Yes, but that’s what I’m wondering, like was a recording there? So that’s what I’m going with. So I’m I’m saying one. John said two, luke said three.
John Shoemaker:
I Luke said three. I’ll stick to it now. I’d like to give it without extra information.
Chelsey Bowers:
So Luke wins. I gave you guys kind of a smart lie. It’s a talent agency, but it’s not the other piece. It’s not the other component. We actually had a third-party vendor that we used for the recording studio, so we partnered with that, you know, with that company. But we didn’t have that in-house.
Ryan Freng:
So yeah, luke’s won two weeks in a row, so I’ll just oh, I, I, yeah, I did this last week, so, luke, you can just have that there. You go, chuck that over to him and emily do we are we giving.
John Shoemaker:
Uh, it was, it wasn’t a solid. It wasn’t like a solid. You know who wants to be a millionaire answer like is that your final answer?
Chelsey Bowers:
but she was on to it, she, yeah yeah, she, she deciphered between the two, which is yep, that’s what I was trying to do is like get one. That was sort of close.
Ryan Freng:
But not quite you know. So you had a music video on cmt. That’s pretty rad I’m glad that’s true.
Chelsey Bowers:
I wanted it to be true yeah, and actually um, jerry durkin, um who did the um thunder rolls video for garth brooks, um was the videographer on the set, um, and he completely volunteered um his efforts and he had a camera that was like insane cost I mean it was like 150 000 camera at the time and and um he, we made it rain downtown nashville because the the original song that I did was called downpour, um, and so we had um fire crew that came and volunteered their time to make it rain downtown nashville, um to make it look like, know, as I’m sitting perched in the window, the rain’s pouring outside, you know kind of thing. And um, so it was, it was a, it was a heck of a cool fun, um experience and um, and then it was, it was amazing to get airplay for it too, dude, that’s cool.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, it was really cool. Was that you were singing for that? Uh, yeah, it was the original song that I sang um you know and recorded and then we did the video to that dude. That’s amazing. Can we find that online anywhere?
Chelsey Bowers:
um boy, I mean I don’t have it up on apple or anything. I think I have it on a couple different. Uh, it’s called downpour, so you could probably do a search and see if you can find it. It’s on a couple different platforms, but it’s not on apple cool, I’m gonna look it up.
Ryan Freng:
I’m gonna sleuth this afternoon. I’m gonna try to take down the big organization as well while I’m at it. Because of my hardened past, you know, all right, I like that. Well, that’s what we got for today. Thanks, chelsea for coming on and hanging out with us.
Chelsey Bowers:
Oh, thank you, thank you so much, you so much, you guys. I appreciate it. This was a lot of fun.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, Don’t forget, the guys check out honey shot. Uh, Facebookcom slash honey shot and I have it in my calendar now too. So I’ll tell the wife like hey, we got to go to this thing.
Ryan Freng:
She’ll be, she’ll be super game. Um, that, what else? I got some captions over here. This is a podcast, so subscribe, like hit the bell. Wherever you are, do the thing. You know we’re on all the services. Um, let us know, uh, who else you want to bring us to bring on. Uh, we just bring on, like random cool people that we interact with on a daily basis, but if there’s other people you’d like us to bring on, connect us, we’d love to have them. So that’s what we got. Anything else, sean?
John Shoemaker:
don’t fight chelsea. She don’t have a black belt in karate in the martial arts.
Ryan Freng:
That’s right you’re, you’re gonna get broken. So thanks for coming on.
Chelsey Bowers:
Thank, oh god, I do have to share with you guys what one really funny story. My very first class um it was with um dale kirby. He’s black, he’s a olympian black belt, um he was in nashville at the time.
Chelsey Bowers:
And so, um, he was trading, you know, getting headshots and stuff for for the actual classes, um, and when he started the class with me, um, I was being a ham and I was wax on, wax off and doing all this silly stuff, um, and my husband, um whispered in his ear and, and you know, like said something to him and all of a sudden he grabbed me and like shoved me up against the wall and he’s like you are, you are alone, you’re in an alley and somebody is about to take advantage you in every way. What are you going to do? Like? He knew how to manage me in a way that like made it real, you know, um, not that you could do that with every single person right, because, like that would probably be a trigger for a lot of people and not work.
Chelsey Bowers:
But for me, like he, when he let go I was like sensei um, and then, you know, just took it all really seriously and he, you know, he could. He could literally, like when I was being a hammer, a goof, like just touch one muscle and drop me to my knees, I mean, and I was like I want to learn that. That’s pretty cool.
Ryan Freng:
Those are good things to know and that was like the start of your journey yes yeah, dude, that’s.
Chelsey Bowers:
I want to learn that yeah, yeah it’s, it’s pretty cool don’t mess around on sat with chelsea.
John Shoemaker:
She’ll just come up behind you and just you know vulcan death trap.
Ryan Freng:
Yeah, hope I love it. No, all right, thanks everyone for coming that’s what we got. Yeah, we’ll see you next time.
Chelsey Bowers:
Let’s see have a great weekend you too as well.
Ryan Freng:
See ya bye.
