Heidi Goitia Reveals the Hardest Part of Being a Working Mom

Heidi Goitia shares her inspiring journey through the media industry, balancing motherhood, resilience, and faith. She discusses her career ups and downs, the importance of self-care, mentoring young talent, and her perspectives on social media and grief.

Key Topics
Heidi's background and career in media
Balancing motherhood and a media career
Resilience and multiple career comebacks
The role of faith and outdoor activities in coping
Mentoring young journalists and industry shifts
Social media's impact and managing negativity
Handling grief and personal loss
Future projects and passions

Sound  Bites
"Tell your wife, I said, thank you for her input."
"I just go back to my faith. That has been huge for me."
"Until you're in my shoes, just maybe be quiet."

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Scott's Website: scottleeseconsulting.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome back to the next episode. Mike Lindstrom, Scott Lees, my man. What's your story? Next episode. Heidi. You ready for this one? Goodie. It's a very special name. Go ahead. She's gonna be able to tell you. Good year. People mess up this name a lot. She'll tell you because she's on television. Heidi and I have been friends for quite some time. It's just really fun for me to bring Heidi and friends like this from TV, where they get to sit on the other side and we get to put them on the hot seats. So she's usually the one that's put me on the hot seats. It's gracious to have her come on. So Heidi, thank you so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Thanks for having me. It's so fun to be here, you guys.

SPEAKER_04 0:35

And we always start off the same questions. To be fair, you don't have any questions in advance, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

Even though we know each other. We don't know each other today.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, I was hoping to get a little sneak peek, but nope.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

But we have we do give you a freebie though. What's your story? So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, where you're at, how'd you get to where you're at, and we'll get into uh your TV life and how you became I would call you an influencer, even though you're a a TV person, local celebrity, I would call you. Um but want to hear the story first.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

All right. Well, I'm an Arizona girl.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

Third generation, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Third generation Arizona native, which is bananas, right? You just don't hear that. So grew up in Flagstaff, um which now I'm like, oh, that was pretty great. You know, at the time when you grew up in a small town, you're like, what is that, you know? Um so grew up in Flagstaff, came down to Phoenix when I was 27. So I've been down here um tw a little over 20 years because I had done what there was to do in TV up there. You know, went to NAU, um, graduated with a broadcasting degree degree, got hired on graduation day at the small station up there at K N A Z, um worked there for four years during that time, got married, had a couple babies. I mean, life was like hap, life was lifing, right? Um, came down here, and then I took six years off from TV and just was a mom, had another baby, and then I I realized uh the you know, once you're in news, I say it's like a drug. So, you know, you the it was it was time to go back. So I went back and started as an associate producer um and worked my way up to an anchor in in about five years back in TV. And so I've been doing Phoenix TV ever since.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

And then most recently, only it's coming up on two years, and I know that because we were on TV together, and it was awesome you were able to bring us on and talk about our uh something near and dared to us, ambassador of compassion. So I can't believe that's been two years.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I know.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

So tell us a little about that part. That's a new chapter.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

That's a new chapter. So um, you know, my my story is is unique in in several ways, but I've left the business three times and have been welcomed back, and I'm so incredibly grateful for that. And this is one of those times. So I had stepped away um from TV to spend a couple my my son's last couple years at home, you know, when when he your baby gets ready to leave, you realize how quickly time is moving. Um, so I did PR for a couple years, and then Sonora and Living, there was an opening that came up, and these just don't happen very often, right? So I knew I had to go for it, and I did. Um, and I got it, and that was two years ago in Mars, March of 2024. And they did an all about Heidi show, and they said, What's a charity that you really want to support and let people know about? And I thought Mike and Ambassador of Compassion was a no-brainer for me because it's we're so grateful for that.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

But I gotta ask you that before Scott jumps in because I gotta get my personal stuff out of the way. When you got the call that you knew you were gonna get it, how did that happen? Was it an email? Was it a letter? Who called you? Tell us about when you knew you got Snor and Living, how'd that happen?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So I knew I got it when Anita, who is the general manager uh at K and XV at ABC 15, called me. And you know, because uh a lifestyle show, a magazine show is very different than news. So you have to put on your host hat, you're and not so much your journalist hat. So you can't you're working with clients, not the general public or not politicians or people that you can, you know, ask whatever you want. It's it's it's definitely got a different feel to it. And so when she called and she said, you know, I want you to understand that this is it's gonna be different than what you've been doing. You're not out asking, you know, really strong heated questions like this is to help these folks grow their business and get their message out there. So when she called, I thought, I got it. Like this is it, this is a good thing. I love it. That's great. I love it. I love the hours are fantastic. I mean, anybody in news will tell you that the hours are one of the hardest parts of it, especially if you're a mom. Um, I was getting up at 2 30 in the morning for a decade, um, raising my babies as a single mom. So that's the part of my story that I guess I kind of skipped over is that um I got divorced and was raising three kids um in from 2012 on by myself. So you know, it was it was a really tough day while going to work at 2 30 in the morning. While going to work at 2 30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

And getting off at what time?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

About well, I would do the noon show. So I'd be done 12 30, 12 45, and then come home, try to squeeze in a nap and exercise if I was lucky, and then go pick up the kids at three. So I had friends who would take my kids in the morning. Yeah. And I was the pickup mom. Um and then do the after school stuff, the homework, the dinner, the sports, and all of that. And try to hang in there until eight or eight thirty and and lock it down and get up to the stuff.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

That's tough when you're when your kid has like a seven p.m. game and you don't get home till nine thirty, ten, and you have to be at work at two thirty in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yes, the older they were getting, the later they're at.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

And so uh, you know, I have people who'd be like, Yeah, we'd look over at the in the basketball game and your eyes were closed, and you know, because I'm just you're just hanging on for dear life, right? You're just trying to survive um at that point. But you know, you do what you have to do, and when you get dealt a different hand, you just play the cards that you're dealt, and that's what I had been dealt. So um it all worked out, and the kids, you know, they got themselves up in the morning, they got themselves ready, and yeah, it was a good lesson for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

In a lot of ways, I think it helps the kids mature faster. Yeah, they have to do a lot more things for themselves. I was a little bit spoiled. I had Sicilian grandmother, Sicilian mother, they they did a lot for me. I got to college and I'm like, what's laundry? You know, not good. In hindsight. My kids, I'm a single dad and have been for years now, so my kids are pretty independent. You know, sometimes they wake up before me and they're like cooking eggs and bacon and stuff, and I'm like Yeah. I'm at it. Can I get some of that?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, you're like, yeah, but I mean I would call and text and just make sure everything was good and and it was always good. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Well, I l we love Mike and I both love like a good comeback story, good underdog kind of story and inversely and stuff like that. I th I was listening to you talk about um how you've left the business a few times. Each of those could be viewed as like a comeback and a return and a bounce back. And I I wonder I never talked to somebody who's left an industry so many times and gone back to it so many times. Usually you leave with like a bad taste in your mouth or a negative kind of experience, but that wasn't the case for you. But how do you keep getting back on the horse again after stepping after stepping away so many times?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Well, I I don't know what else I would do. I don't know what else I'm good at. I've never like given anything else a real shot. The first time I left the business, um I had done about a little over four years in Flagstaff and I had had two babies and I was missing the bedtime, the story time, the bathtime, and and I just thought, you know, there are people who will say they don't believe in regret. Well, I do, and I didn't want to get to the later years of my life and regret missing that time with my kids. So my husband at the time was making more money and got a job down here in Phoenix. And so I left. And I will never forget when I resigned, the general manager at that station, she said, Well, that's fine, but you're committing career suicide. Oh said that to me.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

And I just is the type of comeback story, and then I'm like, I'm petty enough that I will remember that forever. Well, and here I am, and you're still talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And I just remember that was such a gut punch because I thought, oh my gosh. So I'm literally choosing my kids or my career. Like that's the choice. And I think for a lot of women and men too, that is often the choice. And I just remember thinking, okay, well, again, if I'm going to regret one or the other, I will regret this not being with my kids. I will regret that more because you don't get this time back. So, like I said, I I stepped away, was at home for six years, had my third baby. And then I could kind of feel my marriage not heading in the direction it needed to, or that I wanted it to. And my youngest was in preschool, and so it's like, why am I a stay-at-home mom? You know, it's costing me$500 a week to send him to schools. Um, I that's when I went back and and I had to start at the bot, you know, I was an associate producer, which is basically a writer. Um, after being an anchor in Flagstaff, again, small market, flight staff about as small as they get.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

You go back to the bottom of the totem pole. Yeah, and just work up.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

And I just remember every opportunity I was given, I said yes. Do you want to, you know, we know you have on-air experience. Do you want to report Saturday nights? There was a weekend reporter on maternity leave. I said yes. Do you want to start booking segments? Yes. Do you want to do this? Yes, I do. Because I knew that moving across the country, as a lot of journalists have to do to advance their career, that was not going to be an option for me. You just, I wasn't making the money to justify that in having my husband at the time leave his job, which was, you know, much more lucrative. So, um, and again, I could feel the fracture in our marriage. So went back and just worked my way up. Um, I was anchoring and doing traffic and on the on the morning show, and then the pandemic hit. And there were a lot of talent, there was a lot of anchors, a lot of reporters, and and not a lot of airtime. Uh, we had started simulcasting, and so um I was I was relieved of my duties, you know. However, I had a contract that protected me financially. So what an opportunity through what time?

SPEAKER_04 10:22

Like through 20 or 21?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

How I mean when were you I was financially taken care of for 14 months. So in sept in September of 2020, um, I still had 11 months in my contract.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

So And we had no idea where the world was going at that point. So the fact that you had some certainty was is positive. A lot of people did not.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Huge. I mean, to be able to go, oh, you know, and again, this was at the time when I had been raising kids on my own and getting up at those crazy hours. So when you reframe it to think, what am I gonna do with this? Instead of why, why me? Why is this happening to me? It it quickly became, what's the opportunity here? You know, and and it was time to spend with my son who was at home. And my daughter had to come back home from school in in Nashville because of the pandemic. Um just a little bit of reframing turned it from something so heartbreaking to okay, this is gonna be okay. This is gonna be an opportunity for me to pause for a little bit and rethink what do I want things to look like? Because I had just been on this train for so many years going and answering questions.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

I remember, I don't know if you remember this or not, but when I was doing a lot of the when I would come onto the show as a guest, it was always about relationship expert, which is always funny to me because at that time I was big the book came out.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And I was booking you on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

So I hear I'm the Dan Lear and I are the relationship experts, and I'm like, okay, yeah, put it on the lower third, sounds good. Even though I had been business coaching, that was like a fraction of my business. Right. But it but it was sexy. People are like, hey, Mike, can you come and talk about dating and Valentine's Day and all this stuff? Yeah. I mean, I I remember Channel 15, they brought me in as a stand-in co-host one time. Yeah. Three times. Like, hey, can you co-host? I'm like, nah, let's try it out.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Because I just I was good at that topic. Yeah. And I remembered there was a time when I came up to you. Anytime I was after, a lot of times guests don't know the people, they just come and go. I'd always hang out, like in the little cubbies where you guys and I asked her, I go, Why are you not on air? Because I didn't know her story.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

And I remember her looking at me like, that's a good question. Like I could see in her eye there was like the story behind there.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Give me some time.

SPEAKER_04 12:38

Yeah, correct. But I never do you remember that conversation? Vaguely. Okay, I because I remember walking out of there thinking, I've always thought that every time I saw you, smart knows the business, used to have on-air experience. I knew that intelligence, good looking, all the things that you're like, why is she not on air? This doesn't make any sense to me. So that when I saw the ascent happening right in front of my face, I was so punked. And but then also to see you when two years ago in this in order living, which I've been on that show many, many times with Terry O and I've plenty of the old hosts and hostesses that were on there dating back to 08, 09. Yeah, I still have some of those clips. Some of the folks are not there anymore, obviously. So that to me, I'm like, that's perfect. Yeah. Right? The schedule, it's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Well, and that's why you just, you know, I have I just rely so much on my faith. So after after that year was up when I couldn't work, um, and I started doing some freelance for ABC 15. Um, and this is the third step away. They offered me a full-time contract. And I go, no. Thank you, but no, thank you. And I was like, what are you doing? But again, that's when Jason, my youngest, he had two years left of high school. And I had already shipped two kids across the country, and I was like, Again, I've got to choose my kid. I need to be, you know, it was a general assignment reporter position, so the hours are 8 a.m. to maybe 7 p.m. And I was missing dinner with him, and and I just thought, I cannot do this. And so I stepped away again. And I just, you know, how many, how many, you know, opportunities am I gonna get? By the grace of God, you know, here I am back doing doing what I want to do. And I just think that's a testament to just trust your gut, you know, and that's what I always tell my kids, and and I had to take some of my own advice on the run and just well successful people have a bunch of things in common.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

First of all, is pulling yourself back up by the bootstraps and being resilient. Second is turning a negative into an opportunity, which I just heard you uh talk about. Right. And the third one is being willing to do whatever. Yeah, whatever it takes, and not saying no to something that is like, oh, I did that five years ago, that's beneath me now, or whatever. It's like, nope, I'm just gonna do whatever it takes and I know I'll kind of get there. But at some point you reach this this level where saying yes to everything becomes untenable. It's not possible. And you have to learn now how to say no to protect your time and your energy, and depending on what business you're in, like maximize your kind of ROI.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

How do you filter things now through this lens of okay, there's opportunity here, but I only have a fixed amount of time in my day to my life or life, yeah. To figure out what do I actually want to do?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

You know, I I I look at it as what's I mean, what's the gain, what's the cost of it? You know, like if I can give a little bit of time to an organization and it benefits them in a big way, or if I can help them spread their message, then I'm gonna do that. If it's something long term that I feel like I just I never want to overpromise and underdeliver. So I will always look at at that equation and be sure that whatever I say yes to is something that I can say yes to and give it the time and energy it deserves without draining myself too much. So it's a it's a constant, you know, looking at at that balance.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Yeah. So okay, go back to the empty nester thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Yeah, and now you're doing this gig, which is awesome. Now, what what are you doing outside? Like, what are your passion projects? What are you doing outside of the camera?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

And because the I I'm not there yet, you know, my kids are not there, a junior and freshman, so I'm on my path like he is. And I often think of that, like, what the hell am I gonna do? Right. What am I gonna do? I mean, I love my work, I love my passion, but there's gonna be that extra time where you're sitting around doing what? And I'm curious to hear what you're doing. The doing what part, that's the part scary. Me too.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Well, and I I think it might be different for me because you know, I've I had people say, Oh my gosh, you're gonna be so sad when they're gone. And I'm thinking, do you know how hard this has been? I mean, it's been beautiful and great, but being a single mom, a single parent, Scott, to your point, yeah, is really hard. So I'm allowing myself some time to just I mean, I had my daughter when I was 24. Wow. I was married and pregnant at 23, had her at 24, Ryan at 26, Jason at 28. So for the first time in my adult life, I can focus a little bit on me. I get to choose myself now. Um that said, I'm not very good at sitting still. So I do a lot of mentoring. I'm mentoring the broadcasting students at GCU. Oh, that's great. Which I love. I think the industry, I mean, when you look at the shifts in the industry and you see younger talent getting hired right out of college at bigger stations, bigger markets. I want to make sure they're ready for that. I don't want them to get in there and, you know, burn out or or make big mistakes on air that are not forgivable mistakes. Um I'm mentoring them. I coach talent with Talent Boulevard. So I'm trying to breathe back into the industry that has given so much to me and has welcomed me back so many times. Um, and then I'm just just focusing on me a little bit. I'm doing a lot of hiking, a lot of reading, um and nurturing areas of my life that I didn't always have time to nurture. So it's very selfish. It sounds very selfish when as I say it out loud, but you know, for two decades, you've been pretty selfless your whole life.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Yeah so it'd be a little selfish at this change.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

It sounds selfish. I think it sounds like self-preservation. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

And restoration. Yeah. But that's not the that's just not a paradigm you're used to, though. That's the p that's the single parent guilt, maybe though. She's still calling it selfishness. Yeah. Like you haven't fully embraced it's actually not selfish anymore.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

I don't think it is at all.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

I know.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

That's what you should have been doing a lot. But it's hard like it's horrid.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

It's it is horrid though. I can't sit still either. I feel guilty and beat myself up to sit and read.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

I'll be like, shouldn't I be doing something? What would I do to earn this reading time?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Or when the sun is still up, I'm like, well, the sun is still up, I should be up doing something. Yeah. Right? You know, so in the summertime I get a little antsy, but um, but yeah, it's just it's you know, it's still a relatively new time, a new chapter for me, but um it's great. You're gonna love it. You're gonna find things.

SPEAKER_04 19:03

I know, I know I will. I I I think everything does happen in times where you have time to think about it, and that's why God puts you on the planet in in these different junctures, or I call we call them chapters, chapters of your life. So I'm not at that chapter yet, but I get to watch people from afar that have that chapter and you model it. You kind of listen, you watch, even though you're not getting direct coaching. I am getting direct coaching because I'm watching you and I'm watching my friends go through it or my mentors. And no one ever has to say, Mike, this is how it's gonna go down. You just watch it, you watch how it happens, and you listen to people like you, and hopefully that's the way it plays out. So I have a question though about so you're mentoring, which I love that too. I'm working with a lot of young professionals the last year, outside of being a parent, and I love it because they're 22 to 28 and they don't have a lot of clue about things that we grew up with in the industry. We talk about this, right? How to shake a hand, how to get a business card, how to get a phone number, very fundamental things that we might laugh at, but truthfully, that's that's a need. Social media. Yeah. Where do you sit on this? I knew it's a love hate, but you have a belief about it, you're on it. Yeah. I mean, I know you kind of have to be being in the media. Where is your take on it? Is it love hate? Is are you on it all the time? Do you think it's a tool? Like, what's your belief about social media? And then how do you translate that to the younger folks that you mentor?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

It's a tool. It's a tool that if it becomes something that is impacting you negatively, you put that tool away for a little bit and you don't use it. And I think you just have to have a a really healthy mindset on it. Um, and I set limits on on you know, my Instagram will say you're gonna reach your daily limit in five minutes.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

You do that for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Absolutely. Wow, absolutely I do. Um, otherwise, man, how might you can scroll and before you know it, 30 minutes or more has gone by, you know? So I think it's a tool. I think it's to be taken with a grain of salt. I think social media I won't say I have a love-hate with it, but it does give people a platform to say things to you when you're in the public eye or about you.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

And you're just like, okay, you know, so you just I I kind of try to keep a safe distance from it. And I tell that's what I tell the broadcasting students, like use it, use it as a tool to do your job. And then kind of leave it there. Don't take it too seriously, don't make it any more important than it needs to be in what you do. Um, you're there to tell stories, you're t you're there to tell you know, truths um when it's when it's a journalistic story. So it is it is a tool.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Does the negativity ever get to you? Or how do you react to how do you react?

SPEAKER_04 21:34

How do you react to like negativity and trolls? Haters, people make comments about your hair or your body or whatever. Oh Jerry Pania talked about that. She said, Oh, people didn't like my eyelash the way it looked, or the way I looked in a certain outfit. She had a certain take on that. Like, how about you?

SPEAKER_00 21:47

I I will never forget. I had a a viewer once message me and he said, My wife says that your dress is too short. And I thought, Okay, well, there's a couple things here, and I Messaged him, I said, tell your wife. I said, Thank you for her input. And then he responded later. He goes, I am in so much trouble with her. And I thought, Well, yeah. Because what your wife tells you over coffee in the morning was probably meant to stay. Not for the world. It was not for you to message me on Instagram and tell me that my dress was too short or whatever it was. You know, so it's just, I just kind of laugh at it because at my house on my wall is the man in the arena speech. Right? And that to me, I'm like, say all you want. It's fine. You have a right to your opinion until you're in my shoes, getting up at the hour, you know, if I would look tired or or or you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

They don't know what's going on, what you're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

And so it's like until you are in that position, or until you allow yourself to mentally put yourself in that position, just maybe be quiet, you know, because it's it all comes down to who's the one, who's the man in the arena doing the work. You know, so I just kind of look at it like you have your opinion. That's fine. I know whose opinions matter to me. I know, you know, who who I value.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

Um, I've known her for so long, and I I got asked this question based off what I just felt. Do you ever get fired up? Like what did tell me the last time you got fired up? Uh it could be your kids, it could be something, but it got you because I've never seen that beside you. Tell me, tell me what's got you fired up in the last place. Like most recently.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

I don't know. I mean, I really just try oh gosh, I'm I'm sure there's something. Um, I mean, I get fired up about stuff that's going on in the world. Sure, we all do. Um, but you know, I really just I think I have uh more of an evening. I've just been through some stuff, you know, like losing my sister. My mom had also and you just get to the point where you're like, you know, is this really a big deal? Is this worth getting fired up over? Because there are so many bigger issues out there, like when my mom was sick and I was going through all that, and I'm like, so I think a lot of things relatively in my life don't feel as big or so hard because I've been through some big and hard things, you know. So my perspective is maybe a little bit different. I I know I get fired up. If you asked my boyfriend or my kids, they would be like, Well, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Well, you you brought up some sensitive things that I know I know because I'm your friend about your mother and your sister. And I I have to ask you a little bit of question about grief. My son, Colt, who's uh freshman, um, just this past week, it's I don't know if I'm gonna say it's local news per se, but uh the young gal that was the lead in the act uh the play eighth grade um died in her sleep. She we don't even know to this day what happened. She had a flu, she did nothing. She was on the stage 10 days prior, eight days prior, doing the lead in Mary Poppins, and then the next week she's not even in the play. So Prince of Peace Church did a big honorarium for her, and it's it's really been devastating for her Colt because this is the first time as a 14-year-old that he's had someone in his life. How do you how do you talk about that? Because I I I gotta be honest with you, how do you I Monica and Ellis sit there and go, he's in his room and he's going through grief. Like, yeah, I don't know what to say. I've always said there's no script for it.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

There's no script for it.

SPEAKER_04 25:14

And there I know I know the five stages, and I went through stuff when I lost my aunt to can't, she had breast cancer at 41. I lost my sister when she was 50. My grandparents all died within a week apart. I've done through a lot of death. I've done five um obituary, you know, when you're on the stage five times by the time you're 40, which I don't wish upon anybody. So I I've dealt with it. Yeah, uh, but I deal with it very differently. So how do you teach coaching and reconcile that? Because that's who you are, it's part of your story.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

It's part of my story.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

And that's a thing that uh I know is a big thing for you in your life. When you and I sat and had coffee and you talked, you reminded me about that part of your life. But how do you that's a big part of the rebound? There's really no script, right? I mean, how do grief is a big thing, but you empower it with you get empowered with it somehow.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah, you get empowered with it because you know, I mean, I think for me too, I just I go back to my faith. I mean, that has been huge for me. And and there are things that we may not understand until our time also comes, you know, like and then you just it just takes it takes so much time. And I, you know, with your like that's that's a that's a tricky situation. But I use, you know, grief kind of like I've used everything else, and not like why me? Why did my mom have to get Alzheimer's? Why? But what am I supposed to do with this? Like, and I again when you reframe it like that, you realize well, I can help other people who have gone through this. And I have had people message me on social media. Again, it's a tool.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

You know, what did you see in your mom? How did you know something was wrong? Um, you know, what were the first things that your family did to to help her to get her treatment, or you know, whatever, whatever their questions are, is allowing yourself to be um somebody that they can come to with those questions and and maybe make the process a little bit easier for people who are coming through it after you. And you know, losing my sister, I mean, she it was very sudden. We weren't expecting to lose her. So kind of the same situation where she just didn't wake up one morning, and I just I just have to trust his plan that for whatever reason that was her time, you know.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Yeah. You you hike a lot.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

I hike, that's yes.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Yeah, so how does that the faith spiritual part of you, or is it just purely a physical thing?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Do you blend the two and I absolutely blend the two?

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

I you know, uh growing up in Flagstaff, like we were just outside a lot. Like nature is is my medicine. So if there's a day or two where I'm not outside walking or hiking, man, I it's like I feel it's like a poison in my body. I've just got to move and I've getting out in nature is so therapeutic for me. And that's I do talk to God a lot during that time. And you know, I'll listen to a podcast for half the hike and then I'll turn it off, and I just have to process my thoughts and try to feel what he's telling me, and I listen to my gut. And if I find that I've I'm more rooted in that, I'm a better mom, I'm a better person, and I have just maybe a better understanding of my world and my circumstance. But and it helps you frame things too. Like when I look back at losing Hillary, my sister, um, I'm grateful. It was a merciful, I mean, she wasn't well. So I I shouldn't say that it was sudden and we weren't expecting it. She wasn't well. And so for her her to pass in that way, I thought, gosh, what a what a gift that is to her, rather than my mom who was sick for 14 years, and we watched her diminish, you know, so I mean, Alzheimer's is really is really hard. So I've had opposite experiences.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

I think it's great that you know don't fill the hiking time and the outdoor time with noise all the time. Yeah. I've been reading about this a lot actually. We used to you've ever heard the story of how you have your best ideas like in the shower or whatever, right? When you're just thinking. We actually we as a society, we've like shut off all these times where we have these alone moments with our thoughts. Like you drive in the car, what do you do? You put the radio on or you call somebody or you listen to a podcast. You go for a run or a hike, listen to music, listen to a podcast or whatever. And very rarely will you leave the house, leave your phone away and not fill the quiet with noise. So if you stay with that and allow those silent times and spaces, all sorts of conversations start to happen. Whether it's a conversation with God, with yourself, you're you're wrestling with a decision, clarity comes, you have an idea about business. You know, if you're like me, you like can't find something and you're like, Oh there it is. I know where it is. I left it over there out of nowhere. It's like two weeks ago. I was trying to think of this thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Or do you ever get like a feeling you're like, what something's bothering me? What is it? I whether it's something you saw or heard, and then I'll go hike walking or hiking, and I'm then I'm like, okay, that's what it was. What am I gonna do about that? Yeah. It's a big problem solving time for me, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah. Well, I think it's really I think it's really critical that you don't just listen to podcasts or listen to music the whole time, but you actually just be with your thoughts. Yeah. And allow yourself to process that way.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

I can't read a lot about this. Yeah, how much time do you limit yourself on social media since you brought that up?

SPEAKER_00 30:22

One hour on Instagram, which is, I mean, per day, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 30:25

It's a lot for just for just one platform.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah. And then the others, you know, Facebook, I'm not on it a ton. Um, TikTok, that's what'll get me. That's where I have to be more mindful. I should probably set a timer on TikTok. Um, and just, you know, I learn a lot from social media too. That's why I say it's a tool. I mean, I get a lot of recipes and I learned a lot about obviously Alzheimer's and and brain health and what can I do as the daughter of a woman who had it. And, you know, so I it is a tool for me to to learn a lot, but man, it's it's it can get it's a slippery slope, right? You can just find yourself spending way too much time.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

So one of the best things, by the way, for dementia and Alzheimer's, which you probably already know, but is the sauna.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

That it's like correlated with like a 60% reduction in Alzheimer's uh in your life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah. It's it's exciting to see all the studies coming out on on things that we can all be doing.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

So I I gotta ask you what as a journalist in general, what you whether it's what you're doing currently with the magazine, that's a different angle versus what you're doing before. But yeah, I've we've told everybody, we told Scott this, Yeta, Carrie, same thing. You have to have the ability to get give number one, get someone comfortable quickly, get rapport, and then uh get to them to open up and talk about it. Do you have any tricks or questions or things when somebody comes in? You got you know, like we asked Scott, like usually he's he's like you guys when you're in the morning show, you got so much time, 30 seconds in between.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah, we're running a gun.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Yeah, like what are some of the things that you do to get me comfortable in the chair or get me to open up? What are what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 32:02

We're gonna talk about how is your drive in? Gosh, isn't construction happening everywhere? You know, this weather's nuts, and do you have you know, my daughter's out of state and she's dealing, you know, she's a now, you know, whatever it is regular conversation. Regular conversation, like, hey, I'm just Heidi, you're just Mike, you're just Scott. We're just gonna have a little chat in a minute about something that you know, you know, it's your business, it's your whatever, your charity. Once you just get people talking person to person, you know, then they kind of go, Okay, I'm just talking to my new friend Heidi, you know, and that's to me, that's what I try to do because they do come in. And when you come into a a studio and this isn't your thing, and you've got the lights and we've got three cameras and we've got our crew, and they just go, Oh gosh, you know, and they kind of get freaked out. I'm like, ignore it all. Yeah, we're just right here, we're just gonna have this conversation, all good, and then then we'll start talking about oh my gosh, I love your shoes, or you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

Well, give me a weird story. Yetta came on. I can't say the name because I sworn to secrecy. We were a very, very, very famous actor that everybody would know. The least favorite interview.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Oh, I heard that interview. I also know.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

And I'm on the secret.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Because she and I anchored together.

SPEAKER_04 33:14

And this man said, I'm giving clues. This man says, Yeta, what kind of name is Yetta? Yeah. Right out of the gates. So that's just weird to me. But what what give me a weird one? Like it could be someone in random, you don't have to name the name, you can leave it off the record, but a weird interview or something that was just what in the hell's going on here? You got a good one?

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Oh my gosh. Um there was there was a man. Sorry, it's another man. I'm not man-bound.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Yeah, I'm not sure. I believe it. All the stories are bad. I'll take it. They're all dead.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Oh, and he came in and was like, here's how we're gonna do this. And I just remember thinking, what the hell we are? Like, even if it wasn't gonna happen that way anyway, that approach to me, I was like, no, because you don't go into somebody's home, you know, and the studio feels like my home, and start dictating what's for dinner. You know, so I was just like, huh. Okay, you know, and I just thought, well, actually, this is how we're gonna do it. I feel like I did eventually win him over, but I also think that that kind of behavior is just fear and insecurity and just trying to control what he couldn't control initially. So other than that, I don't I don't know if I have any other good stories, but some I just remember him because it was so like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

What about what about an interview that's just like kind of drab where the person is just like oh god, where you feel like you have to put paddles on their chest to God having to wake this person up? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Do you have like a go-to question that will like shock somebody into that's the tricky part about what I do now is they get to kind of dictate the questions. So, um, you know, because it's a magazine show, so they they're paying most of the time to be on there, so they kind of get to dictate the conversation. But if I ask it in a way that they're not really expecting, um that'll that'll get them sometimes. But you know, I always tell people this is your chance to to sell your business, this is your elevator pitch. So you know, you want to make it appealing and exciting.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Put people to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

I mean, there are, I mean, you know, God bless doctors and financial accountants and all that, but those are the ones that sometimes I'm like, okay, how are we gonna make this sexy? Yeah. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 35:24

I mean, I w that's where I met. Well, my wife is law school. Monica happened to be media trained because she went into media, but she paid to get media trained.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:32

Most of our friends from law school never been media trained, and they were great attorneys, make great money, just like my accountant clients, my CFOs that you know have their own accounting firms. But that's a whole different monster. You can be great at what you do as soon as you step off camera and do be great and be notable in the community. But when you come in this domain, it's not easy for some people.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

It's not. And again, the nerves, the fear, the uncertainty, that all just sort of starts to layer on. And you know, I'm like, I know you're more fun than this. I wish I could be like, Can I get you a glass of wine?

SPEAKER_03 36:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

They need two cocktails.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Exactly. What's your your pick poison and then like let me loosen you up and then we'll, you know, have a really fun conversation about taxes or whatever it is, you know. But I think people just get a little nervous and you know, so have you ever had the uh this is a random question.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

I just thought of this because it's happened to me a couple of times. And I I don't remember who I was with at the moment. Like I can't say it was like Javier or Scott or whatever. But when you're in the interview, like you're here and I'm here, and you're asking I'm asking you a question, and you're in your head so badly, like you're really not present, and you start to get like nervous and like oh I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know what's going on here. It's almost like you're in your own world and it's it's quiet out here, but you get in your head. Have you ever had one of those?

SPEAKER_00 36:54

One hundred yes. Like as an interviewer, aren't my bosses watching this too?

SPEAKER_04 36:59

So how do you I I've had that before it's what you call it. It's like I don't usually get nervous in front of the camera, but I get so caught up in the moment where you get present with oh my god, there's so many people watching, or whatever. How do you deal with that?

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Yeah, so I mean, yeah, I mean, I'll just like they're talking and I'm hearing their words, but I'm like not really thinking about what they're saying or and it doesn't happen often, or I've you know, again, we all we're all coming in from a lot going on in our lives. Um, yeah, it's it's really uncomfortable, you know. I'll just look at my notes and I'll just I'll just wing it. I don't know. You know, I don't know if I have a go-to, but and then sports we call it yips, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

The yips, the yips, it's like you're overthinking it and you're nervous and you shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

That would maybe apply. I just think you're just you know, I almost think we're just overstimulated with stuff that we're just like, what's next? I don't even know, you know, what the what the next question is supposed to be. Wait, what if you're gonna do that?

SPEAKER_04 37:55

We probably have I did have it actually. It was with Patrick. Patrick, who's owns the studio, he's our partner in Crimeath Nectar Flow. And Patrick and I know each other so well. We had already done like four or five interviews. He was here, I was there, Scott was there, and it and we know each other, yeah, but he was getting so deep about AI and remember he was talking about the pro the company, and I had this like 10-second like, oh crap, I don't even know what he's talking about right now. Where am I where am I going with this? Hope Scott's got a good question coming up because I know Scott Patrick way too well, and that's gonna be a dumb question. I was in my head, I wasn't even listening to him. Yeah, and I could actually probably go back to the tape and go, that's it right there. I remember that exact moment.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

It does make it far easier when there's two people and you can play off each other. That's yes, right. And you have that luxury with Terry.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Yeah, we don't I do when we when we work together, but we're like here, there, everywhere. So, you know, she and I make it a point to, you know, go out and and grab a glass of wine on the regular just so we can connect person to person and catch up. But you know, we're the dynamic of our show, everything is taped, and so we're not always in the studio together. But that does make a huge difference when you're like, I hope Terry pick is asking the next question because you know, yeah, I have no idea what to ask. And you'll you'll see a lot of people have kind of like a crutch when they'll go, Oh, I love that. Okay, you know, that's great. It's a tell. It's a tell. It's yeah, it's a you're just trying to buy yourself.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

And when you when you work with somebody enough, you start to to pick up on it. Like I could pick up on Mike when he's like about to glitch out real quick. Okay, I can I can step up.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I'll step in and say yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

I want to ask, I'm gonna ask you some rapid fires, but before I do, I know you're a reader.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

I am a reader.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

What are some of the things that you've been reading? Well, you got any books lately that you've been uh that you could tell us about? Any good ones, go-tos?

SPEAKER_00 39:41

I don't know if I have any go-to's. Um right now I'm reading a book called Hear One Moment, and it's about this um this woman, she's on a plane, and she goes up and down the plane and tells people the age and manner that they're gonna die.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

This is a real thing? Well, this is the novel. Okay, yeah, so they actually do have this, though. There's like a death app now that Oh my gosh, I don't even want to hear about it. I don't want to hear about it.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

You know, and so it just kind of makes you think like, do you want to know? Would you want to know? No.

SPEAKER_04 40:15

No way. Hell no. No. No, I mean it's 50-50, by the way. I saw the stats on this. 50% do, 50% don't.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

I thought it would be way higher in our favor. Like, I don't want to know that. I don't know at all.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

I and people ask me, like, are you gonna get tested for that Alzheimer's gene? I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

No way.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

No, I don't need I'm doing I'm controlling what I can control.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

This one's the next 20 years worrying about me and that's gonna happen. Psychosomatic. Oh gosh. I can't.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

So I remember the novels. I, you know, I don't read a lot of um work-related stuff. It's really a an escape for me just to sit in the what is your favorite book all time? Uh The Help, probably, The Nightingale. I like stories. I mean, they they're both similar in the sense that it's somebody standing up for another group of people. Like that that's now that like I look at the two books, you know, the night and gale was written during you know, set in World War II, and the help was during the civil rights movement here in the United States, where somebody just took a stand for for a group who was maybe not being heard.

SPEAKER_04 41:17

I love it. All right, so you can jump in any any point. We always come up with new ones. So if you watch previous episodes, you know, you're not gonna get a cheat. Uh, I think I know the answer to this one, but let's try anyway. Sun or snow?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

She lives in Arizona, but she grew up in Flat.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

That's why I asked this once.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

You know, after um I oh, that's a tough one. Wow, you're I would have to say sun.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Really?

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Yeah, I mean, I love the snow, and ask me this in July, and I'll say snow just because the summers here are so brutal, but um I'm gonna say snow.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Yeah, I think this is an easier one than mountains or ocean.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Mountains.

SPEAKER_04 41:51

For sure. 100%, okay. Early mornings or late nights. Mornings. No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

No, I yeah, I fall asleep at nine o'clock.

SPEAKER_04 41:59

All right, here we go. You ready for this, somebody? Give it to her. We texting your phone calls.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Depends, but most I I like a phone call.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

Bro, if I call this guy right now and on his cell phone, the cell phone says, Hey, this is Scott, do us both a favor. Just go ahead and send me a text. I don't check my voicemails. Yeah. That's his voicemail. Voicemail.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

That's your voicemail. That's amazing.

unknown 42:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

I find phone call to be much more demanding. Like I I my schedule is wrecked like most people. So Michael just called me out of the blue. I'm like, okay, I have seven hours straight of work calls right now. Can you just text me and I can get back to you and give you whatever answer you can do?

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Here's the thing about a phone call, you don't have to answer.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

I do.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

So you listen to him. No, I don't. I read the transcript a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 42:47

But he I get my message across. I got my message across. With him, it's usually on the fly step, but usually.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Mike and Heidi are stuck in 1995.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

That's a URG college. He's uh word you use to describe yourself.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Resilient.

SPEAKER_04 43:09

Great word. That's a good one. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Resilient.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

One habit that you're trying to break.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Um what happened? I'm trying to break. I would say social media. I I I I do think even the time that I'm spending is is too much.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

Yeah. Did you hear TikTok struggling right now? You saw the text I say? Defined struggling. Well, the last two weeks, everything that's gone on with the change of ownership that's been broken, that the uploads aren't working, like all this transition that's happening because it's now American now. Did you see this? No. Yeah, I sent you a text this morning about it. It's literally going through this transition.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Better read that text, he's gonna call you.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

As of January 26th, we're gonna debrief on it.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

But I wasn't on the pain right there.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

She's like, You need to read the text, otherwise we're gonna call you if trying to talk to you about it.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

But I wasn't bummed when I read this. I'm like, you know, I'm not a big fake you. We've been on TikTok because we kind of have to be. Okay. But I don't do the death scroll and I'm not on it. I was a late comer to it, but I think you're right. I mean, how And certain limitations is powerful.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Yeah. I mean, I think boundaries in every part of your life is important. So that's definitely one for me that I need to tell you.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

All right. So what do you tell us? We always leave with prop you up. What are you working on? Give you some flowers on. What do you what do you tell us about? What's next for you?

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Big projects. We are looking at the show. Uh, we're talking about some um fun segment additions to the to your point when I'm hiking. I think a great idea is for the show. Like, let's do a segment on this or let's call and get this person on. And um, so we're you know, just making the show continu I mean, 25 years it's been on the air, so keeping that relevant. Um, I hope to start teaching at maybe GCU in the fall, um, breathing back, you know, into these kids who are, you know, getting like an adjunct professor, like part-time. Yeah, yeah, as an adjunct. Um I think that's the next logical step after after mentoring.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Um, you know, I serve on the Emmy board, so doing some more of that and and traveling. I mean, speaking of being an empty nester, this is the first time um that I'm able to make sure your passport's current. Yeah, is yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Um, people I go through that.

SPEAKER_04 45:05

You too. You already go a few weeks. Trust me, I get it. We're our kids, we're going to Italy in the April, and Monica's like, you know, the kids' passports, we gotta be updated pictures because kids Yeah, they grew up at six months. Yeah, I think I didn't even know that. Um for guests that don't know what the the sh the channel, the show, what time.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Sonoran Living on ABC 15. We're on at nine o'clock Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Monday through Friday. It's still it's a lot of TV, but not as much as you used to do.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

I mean, it feels back.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Yeah, I feel like feel it.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

I can I feel like I I have my life back. I'm sleeping. Like I feel like I'm a healthier person of myself.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

I can see when she walked in. Heidi, thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. We got to do this again. I I we've told our local guests that we have fun with. We'd like to have you like come back.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Maybe you can go, maybe you can go on her show.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Yeah, well, I have been on her show.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

I know.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

I can't talk about the podcast. We talk about podcasts or ambassadors of compassion. But Scott and I could come on and talk a podcast. We'll think about it. Yeah, we'll have to see you again. Tell uh Terry, I said hello.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

I will. I will.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

All right, that's another one episode. Oh my goodness, Scott. It's good. Thanks for uh coming on, and uh we're looking forward to have everybody listening. ABC 15, Sonor and Living. Heidi, thanks for coming on, and uh that's a wrap. Mike Lindstrom, Scott Lees, what's your story?