Dr. Pete Introduces His Producer and Lifelong Friend, Leigh Castelli

Tune in to On Air With Dr. Pete for a very special episode! 

Today, Dr. Pete pulls back the curtain and introduces his lifelong friend and the talented producer of the podcast, Leigh Castelli. With a background spanning a decade in television production and a thriving photography business in Sunny San Diego, Leigh’s journey is as unique as it is interesting. 

Despite being 3,000 miles apart and managing their own busy careers, the opportunity to collaborate on a podcast brought them together, and in June 2024, On Air With Dr. Pete was born. Since then, they’ve produced over 50 episodes, sharing their unique history, the highs and lows of their podcasting journey, and the power of friendship and perseverance.

Join them for an intimate look at what it takes to create, connect, and grow in the world of podcasting!

Learn more about Leigh Castelli here: 

https://leighcastelli.com

https://leighcastelliphotography.com

Transcript

Cold Open And Tech Chaos

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome back to On Air with Dr. Pete. I'm your host, Dr. Pete Econamo, and today the producer's here.

unknown 0:23

Hi everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And we're already uh just laughing, and I just told her we just have to click record because Wiley, why do we have to click record?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Because we're a little, you know, technologic challenged here, and and sometimes we go live, sometimes we record, sometimes we have no audio, sometimes, you know, we're just rolling with it today because we just want it to come live today.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

What did you say before? Uh we're just doing whatever we could do.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

We're doing the best that we can.

Best We Can Vs Performance Mindset

SPEAKER_01 0:46

We're doing the best we can.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

That's like don't you feel that we're doing the best that we can every single day?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

No, because um because in the world of performance, the best is never good enough, actually.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Listen, these these days I'm taking the best that I can do.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

That sounded like a mother thing to say. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that or not, but you know. I just said it, so it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I'm a mother, so I can say that I'm going to do the best that I can do.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

And you're doing a great job. I'm reading all these other things here. So Riverside.fm live with Peter Econamo, and then some other thing. There's three other do you have those links on the on your side? Like, is there like a right side panel or no?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Well, now I'm the guest and not the producer, so I have zero control. You are in the driver's seat.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I don't want to be in the driver's seat. I present as if I want to be everyone around me thinks I want to be in the driver's seat, and it's the last seat I want to be in.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I know the true you, but I also am the producer, so I like to be behind the scenes. I don't want to be on camera.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

You know that this and this was our idea. This was our idea last night, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Well, yes, because we needed something to air today. We had three guests that were recording today. You had a very busy day for the show, but we had nothing to actually air. So hopefully this is coming to you live on Halloween.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Well, hopefully, we'll see how that goes. But there's the thing we you're the producer, Lee Costelli, and we've known each other for how long?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Well, we can date ourselves right now, really.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

We can. Let's.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Because we have been best friends for 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So we're gonna let you guys peek behind the curtain a little bit as to how this all came about. So I was talking to Lee, and so Lee, Lee, I I could do your PR, but so your care your your initial career, so you were producer at Harpo. Is that where you first started after school?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

No, remember. I was at Banyan in Philly with a wedding story and a makeover story.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

And then to heart Oh, I knew that. I knew that. When I was saying Harpo, I was saying Banyan in my head. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yes, Banyan first.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, Banyan first for how many years?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Three.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

And West Virginia University for school.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Oh gosh, for one year. Come on. But you went to bring it up. The Mountaineers. Minus my dearest friends, Amy and Frank and Lauren. Like, do we have to bring up the Mountaineers?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

But by the way, you would have had those friends if it weren't for West Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, so just for the record, I guess it was a freehold contingency that went to West Virginia recorded. That's true. My least favorite school.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah. So only for a short while. And then I wound up at Westchester in Pennsylvania, which is how I got to Banyan in Philly.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

In Philly. And then uh oh, seriously, producer? Shut that off.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

It was for you. You just called me right before we started.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

What was that ding? That was a text message.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yes, it was a text because I had the phone on when you called me.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Oh, don't blame that on me.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

All right, well, here we are.

Early Career: Banyan To Harpo

SPEAKER_01 3:30

All right, and so and then go to Harpo. How many 12 years, 14, 15? How many?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

No, it was 10 years total. I was at Harpo for seven years.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, so I was at seven years, you know, working with the best in the biz, which you know I absolutely loved. The chaos of television and everything that I learned there, and it was like the you know, best time of my life.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

But I won't ask you your least favorite guest, but I'll ask you your favorite guest.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

That's not fair. I just I loved them all. Okay, I loved them all, but one of my like very most favorite guests would be Paul Simon.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

But that's just because of your family, though.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

No, I just love Paul Simon.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Who's your second favorite?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And he was so great. And he did the lyrics for our you know, our last season. He just he was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah. Who's your second favorite thing?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

But I had a lot of favorite guests. I mean, I just loved working on that show, and it was a huge part of my life.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

So you all so listeners need to know. So this, so then, and one of the things that Lee did was like one of her last uh well, if this was your last, but when Oprah and Gail drove across country, Lee was one of the producers on that project. Was that what was that the last season?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I was actually a production assistant on that time because it was my early portion of my career. So in 2006, and I did make that track from California to New York with my awesome team.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Jack and Brian and Ray and Alex. We were you know all in the car together, and we just had the best time. We made it from California to New York, but that was in 2006 before I actually You were a PA then. I was a PA then, so I got to book the hotels and get the food and run around and do all the fun things, but I loved every second of it.

Favorite Guests And Oprah Era

SPEAKER_01 4:58

So you accept me and all of my flaws because we've known each other for 40 years, which means you mean your memory? Exactly. You know that. I I get I always get in the ballpark. I get somewhere in there. I get somewhere around.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Somewhere in there. It was the early part of my career there, so I was a PA at that time.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

And then I was able, I was a plus one. We won't go into the details of that, but I got to go to Hawaii with Oprah like as a thank you for one of those. Was that a special season?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

No, that was just an amazing thing that she did for the staff, which she was kind of always doing for us. So it was really an incredible, incredible time of my life. It was absolute chaos to be there. But yeah, she treated us really, really well.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

She flew like, was it four planes? This is my memory. I think she charted four planes.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I don't remember exactly how many planes because we had a travel department that did everything, but it was the whole staff, and we just had the best time.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

The whole staff, and if you're married, it was your whole family. And if you weren't married, it was a plus one. And so I was a plus one, not your plus one.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I was a plus one. You weren't a plus one, but you were there, thank God. Because I, you know, I love having you every step of the way in my life. We had fun. We can do lots of things together, but that was very fun things that we got to do together.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

So then this whole podcast thing happens, and Lee watches my career from like whatever this is from the back, and I'm like, hey, and so amazing like photography career. You have to check out her socials, like really beautiful pictures to the point where I flew her out to come do my brother's wedding. Uh, because A, it would be special to have her there, but B, like she just does such amazing pictures, and still to this day, my sister-in-law talks about those pictures.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

My full full-time job. That's my my number one, you know. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Your number one job is a mother. That is a really that that's the hardest job.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

That is the hardest job. But I do have two high schoolers now, so it has allowed me to kind of flourish my career. Yes. And photography has always been my passion. So once we left Chicago and we moved to California, obviously we're you know thousands of miles apart.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I was able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

And and working for you is just an add as added bonus because I just we didn't get there yet, but so yeah, the working for me part is stupid because so she has this production background, she has very artistic eye. Uh, because even in like sixth and seventh grade, we grew up, we're old, and so there weren't like smartphones or the cameras in the way that they were, but Lee always had a camera in her hand. Like and thank goodness they didn't have the technology that we have today. Because we would have you have boxes of pictures, but could you imagine some of the stuff that we did that would be well it wasn't online, thank god.

Road Trip Production And Early Roles

SPEAKER_00 7:24

You know, it wasn't online. So I have hard drives and boxes of pictures and yearbooks, and you know, you and I did we were on the decorating committee together, if you remember, because I always loved documenting everything, and and I was always the one with the camera in my hand. So it is perfectly fitting that I wound up doing this for my full-time career. But you know, when we were growing up, luckily it wasn't on social media, but I can surely share a few photos in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Well, I and I'm not even mad at them. I don't care. I look, I'm I have so many awkward stages and I'm proud of each one of them.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Well, we all did. I mean, that's part of growing up, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

It is part of growing up. That's part of it. But kids don't know how to be awkward anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Like be awkward, our kids have totally skipped the awkward stage.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, it's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

But luckily, you know, we do have photos from back then.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

So I had the When East Me Swest podcast, and I had like this person that I was just um like freelancing to do some kind of PR stuff, and I like called Lee and I was like, hey, and I was just talking her through this like process, and she like started to like go down this dive, and she's like, What are you doing? Like, who are you paying? What is this? Like, this article's stupid, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

And she just I never said that. Well, I will always tell you, very honestly.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Well, yeah, so that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Like we have that friendship, that's our connection, of course. You know, just from my dearest one of my dearest friends. So of course, very honestly. I would not say it's stupid.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Well, I did. You you you said something like a little bit more political, and I was like, Yeah, I know. Like I just well, because you just talk in certain like sometimes you just talk around it. Like you would be very direct, but you try to be too nice. And I mean, I think that's the California you now.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Gosh. We're not like that. I've never heard that I'm ever too nice. I feel like my whole life I have heard the the quite you know direct opposite of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

No, your girlfriends in California absolutely will call you nice. Now your sister and your mother might call you differently, but that's we're not talking about them.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

We're not gonna get into family drama. You you are family, so you know all of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

We're not we're not going into that. So so then I was, you know, we're looking through some of the stuff, and I and I in my head, I was like, I'm gonna give this guy 12 months. I don't know where. I just pulled that arbitrary number, like 12 months. What can he like do? And it was nothing, you know, just from whatever. Like, honestly, I'm not mad at saying that because I I think it was a couple articles and things here and there, but it was also like I had to do all the work. It would be like, here's an article, but answer these questions, which I was like, I don't have time to do that because I'm writing papers, I'm doing research, I'm running a practice. Like, and Lee understood that, and so she was like, I'll just do this for you. And I was like, No, like look, I'm paying this guy, I might as well just pay you. And it's not a lot of money for the record. I will say that. I'm the first one to say that. I'll say that on the I also did not want to accept anything.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

She did not want to accept my best friend.

Lifelong Creativity And Photography

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Correct. But I had a I took them out of money I was paying him and just gave it to you instead of him, which again it's just silly, but it's because it's not enough still to this day.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And then work for you for free, and you know this.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

That's beautiful. And so then that's what Honor Dr.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Pete came out because and that was June 2024, so it it has been over a year now that we've collaborating together.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Did you remember that or did you look that up?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Our 51st episode.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

We have 51 episodes?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yes, we do. Well, minus the ones that you recorded today. So we'll count those later.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, who cares? No, that's really amazing. All right, I had no idea. So, yeah, so when we're like because I don't know what PR is anymore in a way, right? Like back in the day, PR was like you'd go, I don't even know what. I you would do like a branding something, you'd go on a talk show. I mean, I'm not going on a talk, you know. And and because of your connections, we were like, let's just try this. And then all of a sudden we just did this podcast. Um, and so I wanted to say this because you are a producer at heart, you know, you're a producer in your brain. And what I've seen is like you had to learn all of this. Like you've you produce TV, but you've never produced pot podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Well, podcast production is a completely different thing. The idea is still there that you have to, you know, think of show topics and find guests and interview people and and come up with great content. So that is all the same as you know, production in television or any other medium.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

But podcast production is different. Uh, you know, we've had some ups and downs with it. We're we're still we're still kind of learning as we go, and I think that that's the fun is that we have that relationship where it's not like you did something terrible, you're fired. We're we're working together, you know, and it's it's a new challenge every day, but it's been a long time.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, it's uh it's a new challenge. And every b guest that's been on has always said how amazing Lee is. And so if you were a guest, uh, you know, you know that you got to meet her because Lee screens every guest. So she finds guests, she screens guests, and that's all this like old school production in her.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Part of production that I always loved, and I always loved working behind the scenes. And I feel like for you, because you are so busy, like we're all busy, but you're you're another level of busy. You know, it requires a lot of time. So there's no way that you would be able to. I know you communicate with a lot of our guests, which is amazing, and they all love you, and you have that relationship with them, but it's really, you know, it's it's a different thing to have to kind of book the guests and find them and then figure out what we're going to discuss on the show because conversations take different turns and you know, we always have something in mind. And I feel like with the show, we've done really good having a variety of guests on to talk about different inspirational topics and ways to motivate and stay mindful and you know, everything that we'd love to promote on the show, but it's not always that easy to find in a guest that can speak quickly in a 20 to 25 minute period for a podcast. And so it it sometimes has its challenges, but it's also been great, and we've met some really amazing people, and like we've worked really hard to by we you mean you, just for the record. I'm still gonna say we because it is your show. I will it is on air with Dr. Pete. It's not on air with Lee.

From PR Frustrations To DIY

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Well, it should be, but we I will be the first to say that there's no there's no we in any of the research, and so that's the shot out just to put production. I mean, it's so important to what goes into. And by the way, like when you listen just for listeners, when you listen to the to real podcasts, uh, because we're this is a fake, fake, fake podcast. Um, that I mean, there's like 10 people that are involved in it. Like, because they'll they'll usually like listen, like I was just listening to oh, I didn't talk to you about this. Have you listened? Uh Monica Lewinsky has a podcast called Reclaiming. Oh, yes. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

You know, and and at the end of it, you know, Molly Cyrus and Cindy Crawford and all these.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

I mean, obviously, that's connection, so you're going to have all of that. A hundred percent full team.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

A full team. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

You know, any of the amazing podcasts that you that you see or you watch or you listen or you follow, you know that they have a full team behind them. And I I do kind of like to say I am a one woman.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

You are a one woman show.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

My photography business is the same thing. I'm the only person that does all of it. And and for this, like, I don't have a team. So, you know, we do have people that help us obviously upload and get things you know going online. But yeah, I am a one-woman show, so we just kind of we just make it work. If we had a full team, like imagine that. Imagine.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So wonder if you're listening and want to and want to produce this because we love I love well, dying for sex, which of course we had Nikki Boyer, which again, of course, Lee's idea because Lee worked with Nikki and I got to meet Nikki because Lee worked with Nikki because we were friends.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

We had a long, you know, very long history with Nikki, but the reason that we brought Nikki on the show is because you and I both loved dying for sex, and then when we realized it was Nikki, it was like, oh my gosh, we know Nikki.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

We know Nikki.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, we know Nikki. So we go way back, and and from the early, you know, Banyan Philly days, it was really cool to kind of bring her back on to the show and reconnect. You with her, because if you remember at that time, I also tried to get you on the show that we were working on. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

I were auditioned always intertwined.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Always, yeah. You know, and that I still laugh about how my camera shut out during that recording.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yes, of course. Again, see, this we just kind of roll with it. There's always something.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

I don't know if that ever got made it to the final cut, though.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

I think that it did.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

I hope so because that was hysterical.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

I think that it did.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

And I like to model that like we're flawed, you know. Like I I think the fact that we're one man, like I'm I was just signing documents and like I don't write like literally as you text me saying we have to go, I was like signing my life away because they're great in the middle of all these jobs and sessions, and uh yeah, well, you know, we had a very busy schedule today, so we were trying to cram this in.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

I knew that it was gonna be, you know, a little bit uh chaotic with your schedule, but that's what it is. And and and we are this is how we roll. So I feel like for people listening at home, it's okay. We're perfectly normal. This is normal life. It's just that you and I are both really busy and we're on different time zones, and you know, it's it could be challenging.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Let people know how the time zone works with us.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Well, I mean, it's hard. Obviously, it's I'm in California and and you're not. So I'm even just talking on the phone. You were finally coming up for air last night. You're like, I'm ready to talk. You're texting me. We're rapid fire. And I'm and I'm at my son's football game.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

So well, that's the best place to do it anyway, though.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

I mean, because well, unless you have uh any white wine in the Yeti, is that like No, I'm not one of those moms.

Building The Podcast And Process

SPEAKER_00 16:18

I know a lot of those moms, but I could not function if I was one of those moms.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

You can't function. Yeah, you gottao you have too many jobs and you stay very focused on your well-being. She's up early for her morning run with her girls, girls like girlfriends.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

We semi-dressed up for Halloween, but I said we're scary enough just as like scary moms.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Five on the board and running, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

No makeup, hats on, hairs a mess. Yeah. We're scary enough.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

I I don't think it's that scary, but yeah. Yeah, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Well, I was you have taught me a lot over the years to really try to take a step back and just like calm my brain and you know, try to focus on myself. Of course, we're all really busy, so that's not always the easiest thing, but that's what I love about your show is that it's like a constant theme, is that we're always making sure people are really doing their best to take care of themselves.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

And I love that that you find people for that because it's really like we just had Shireen on Dr. Rizvey and we've recorded, and so that'll be airing. And it was so radical acceptance. It's like whatever you're dealing with, you will be suffering. And so we're like we're sort of modeling that. That was what we were texting about last night of like, let's model that this these 51 episodes has been suffering.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Maybe for you, it's not been suffering for me. I've actually loved every bit of it, but no, that can't be true.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

That's baloney. You can't you've not loved every bit of it.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Because if I didn't, honestly, I'm too busy to still do it to be.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

You're telling me you love when you and I are like 11 o'clock. What time's it?

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Like we're like forgetting which time we're yes, because that's why we have Apple iPhones and we go to the world clock and we just figure it out. What time is it in Australia? We are gonna figure it out. But if I didn't love it, and if I didn't love you as much as I do, I to be honest, wouldn't do it because I do have other full-time jobs and it is a lot, it's a lot to take on. But I do love this podcast and I believe in this podcast, which is why I will always be your number one cheerleader. Because I do feel like you're serving a purpose and there is a mission behind it, whether or not we see it on those late nights and those you know, crazy calls and text messages, I do believe that there is a greater purpose here.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

It was really cool to have Lee on. I think I want to do that again, uh, just so you guys get to see sort of behind the scenes of what it takes to do this or not do this. Um, but uh as always, you know, thanks to Lee Costelli and her production and photography and just the artistic mind that she brings, you know, to this show on air with Dr. Pete. There are teams of people in other podcasts, and we are both just one people shows. So uh appreciate you tuning in. You know, we need you to kind of keep it up there, give us ideas of topics, and you know, keep like, follow, and share at all the things at official Dr. Pete. And thanks for tuning in to that episode. Please tune in next week. But until then, spread a little kindness. Stay well,