Podcast: Season 2; Episode 9: Christina Madsen with Natural State Media

00:00.00

tejones

Hello everyone, welcome to the weekly podcast by Conway scene. I am your host Todd Jones and today I’m delighted to have my friend Christina Madson or Munoz. I don’t know which 1 you prefer to go by either 1 Yeah on the podcast and.

 

00:11.91

Christina

Either 1 But.

 

00:18.41

tejones

You may remember Christina when she was on channel 7 for many years or when she was the vice president of Pr At University of Central Arkansas or you just may remember her from all the commercials that she’s done in the last few years and she’s very involved in the conway community.

 

00:28.30

Christina

Yes.

 

00:35.29

tejones

And she has a new thing and I brought her on to talk about Christina Welcome to the podcast.

 

00:39.99

Christina

Thank you very much, very excited to be here.

 

00:43.86

tejones

Well I think maybe you might be the most popular person we’ve had so far and no, no disrespect to the other candidates or at least, the biggest visibility. Whatever so you used to be at channel 7 and then you are at Uca for a while.

 

00:53.49

Christina

The fifth I have. Yes.

01:03.70

tejones

And now you’re not at Uca so tell us what you’ve been up to.

 

01:05.17

Christina

Sure and you know it’s so crazy because I came here as a reporter went to channel seven where we’re gonna live here 2 years tops because we weren’t from here my husband and I are from South Dakota we came from minnesota just thought we’d get closer to family and boy Arkansas has a way of pulling you in that was nineteen years ago which is. So hard to believe. So yes I loved channel 7 was there 11 years total anchored with Scott Inman for 9 never thought I would leave I thought I would be a broadcast for the rest of my life and then I had kids and I remember all these people saying kids are gonna change you in your career mission I said no no no no I’m so focused on my career. It’ll never have an impact and I was completely wrong. And when they were babies. It wasn’t bad I got to be home in the mornings. But when Sydney was turning 5 and and gonna be gone 8 to 3 and I’m gone one thirty to ten thirty I realized I would never see her so I was looking for that normal quote unquote schedule. Very thankful for uca. What an incredible team there, thankful for Tom Courtway he was the president at the time that brought me there. Um, loved it. Loved the normal life loved getting to take my girls to dance class at night and things that they were into however and I remember when I was a journalist thinking that president. Of a university that sounds like a cush. Really good job and good salaried everything and now that I’ve been on the inside I said they could make a million dollars a year and it would not be enough for what that job entails. You think about all the administrative tasks. Let alone There’s an event every night every day every weekend some start at midnight because it’s college. And I mean the constant nature I was still not seeing my kids and I left the broadcast industry to see my kids and it became this realization that I can do this when they’re gone and when they’re out of the house. But right now I feel called to be a mom called to be more present with them so it was their four and a half years and at the end of that I started my own Pr marketing firm my business partners Michelle Pugh she was the ad rep with Eric Robin Isaac who Uca worked with for their advertising and I was the client she was the ad rep. We realized we worked really well together. we did the new logo for ucawedidthenewcampaign. We worked up till midnight probably every night and so she had left previously and then later started her own business and then when I was ready I joined her basically in business that’s kind of a third of my income if you will because. Had also done commercials so I actually come from the musical theater professional world did that in Minneapolis for 4 years prior to broadcasting and that’s when I started commercial work then because most full-time performers don’t make a ton of money on the on the show the gig that they’re in they hopefully will make money as a side hustle on commercials and things like that.

 

03:46.38

Christina

So I had always done commercials when I was in the news. I could not do them in Arkansas that was the only agreement stipulation I had to do them outside the state. So for you know, 19 years I had done commercials I upped that and so picked up some more commercials and then I had joined a skin Caroline Redan in fields gosh. It’s now been 10 years and simply had bad skin and so that helped me out. I started selling it just to make enough to pay for it truthfully had no idea that it would grow the way it would and then that would be basically my third stream of income. So those 3 streams of income became my income but it allowed me to branch out and my my. Daughters take seven classes a week at the dance studio and I’m now teaching at that dance studio because I’m there anyway. I teach 2 ballet 1 point and two tap classes a week at Red Curtain theater in downtown conway. Yes.

 

04:33.58

tejones

Red Curtain theater and you’re not the only one I know who’s involved in that. I know Savannah. What is your last name kirking. Yeah, I used to know her when I would go to Starbucks at Oak Street and i’m.

 

04:40.70

Christina

Has kirked offer.

 

04:50.48

tejones

Ah, I still know a lot of the people from uber there when I would go there. Savannah’s one of them. Um, and then I watched her start a beauty salon I guess I don’t know if she’s still doing that. But anyway so that that has you guys have done some amazing stuff the last few years and and you did the wizard of oz this year

 

04:58.73

Christina

Yes.

 

05:05.16

Christina

Yes, yes, both my girls were in it and I was labeled Munchkin Mama because I took care of all the little munchkins and helped them learn their dances and it has been so much fun. Very unfortunate with covid because that was clearly one of the first things that went away.

05:09.56

tejones

And.

 

05:22.79

Christina

And it took a long time to come back but I’m very thankful that we’re back. We’re up and running we’re doing the sound of music this summer and I’m doing choreography for that. So it’s just been so much fun that it really is just a passion part of what I do.

 

05:28.43

tejones

Oh wow. Yeah, so you’ve been busy and you can can you talk a little bit about what you and Michelle do with the the you says the pr firms at the appropriate way of.

 

05:42.30

Christina

Yes, yes, Pr Marketing um the crazy thing is I know that people think we’re probably small because it is just the 2 of us and that’s very intentional managing people is not super fun I’m sure anybody you’ve ever interviewed or talked to that’s the hardest part of any job any gay. And we have no desire to um, the 2 of us love doing the work. So a standard agency you have representatives and you know you have people selling you have people designing you have people doing all the other things and there can be a lack of communication that gets dropped because the client is not talking to the creator. The client is talking to. Somebody in between and it’s kind of like the telephone game. Anytime you have more than 1 person transferring information, communication can be dropped so we literally are the people doing the work and we are the people talking to the client and so we have some in the medical field. We have. Um, gosh in the mortgage industry. We have some. It’s just kind of all over the place and all of it has been word of mouth. We laugh so hard because we always tell our clients to have a good website and we don’t even have a website and some people think that’s so bizarre and we just go. We haven’t needed it. We haven’t had to do anything to get our name out there besides do great work and then it’s word of mouth and so it hasn’t made sense for us to do that and we just kind of quietly do good work for our clients. 1 of the things that I think I bring to the table. Maybe the most is. Ah, the news journalism background when I get on Facebook and do an interview with somebody most people think we’re doing news and I’m no longer on the news and it really has been eight years which is hard to believe and I promise you I’d say an average of once a week I run into someone that says. I watch you every night and it just makes me giggle and I I don’t want to be rude and I don’t want to make them feel bad. But unless you have a camera in my house. You are not watching me every night. I haven’t been on and I think doing the commercials kind of confuses people. Your brain sees me. I’m still out there and that’s a good thing. Um. They also say psychologically speaking when you see something so long. You think you still see it even when you don’t Beth Hunt and I don’t look alike so it’s not a confusion of that I just think people liked us. They liked watching us. They think they still see us so when people see me interview a client on Facebook they really do think it’s news. Segment or part of a new segment and I kind of bring that journalistic or respect that being on the news brings to our clients and our clients have very much enjoyed that.

 

08:06.19

tejones

Yeah, and you you did one recently with the float spas that Was called and I watched that and I actually told a friend about it and I think she’s been using them so and it says very very doing very well for her so and I’m thinking hm because you know, um.

 

08:10.25

Christina

Yes, yes, floats Five nine

 

08:19.14

Christina

Yay! Thank you.

 

08:25.80

tejones

Have my own issues but she had had a neck surgery and I think it was helping her out and I’m glad that it’s helping her out and I may try it one day as well. But um, let’s turn our attention to natural state Update which is your newest project. You’ve got.

 

08:29.50

Christina

Um, good Yes, you definitely should. Okay, yes.

 

08:44.15

tejones

4 episodes out tell us when you decided to create a Natural Sate Update.

 

08:50.68

Christina

It’s so funny because when we think about it. We think that we have been talking about this for years long before covid and I think covid put the brakes on everything and so it has just taken a long time to kind of get it up and running and bring it to fruition and lots of different things came to mind 1 was still being recognized and so I still get together with Jason Peterson and Scott Inman and when we would get together ah or post a photo with us. We had 1 with Ned Perme and ally was still there and mad people went crazy. Oh we love seeing you guys love seeing guys. So there’s still a long term. Love. Some of these former broadcasters in Arkansas so that was one and then um I am I am a fan of news I am not anti-news I am not you know, giving them a hard time in any way. But I believe they have a lot of handcuffs. What I call restraints local news. They have to be on to five six and ten and yet the new cycle is now 24 hours so that makes it really hard because they also have to be posting on all the digital platforms and trying to keep everybody informed, a really good news. Story is gonna get a minute and a half a really bad news. Story is gonna get a minute and a half there’s these constraints that they have built into the system because.

 

09:46.71

tejones

Okay.

 

10:03.93

Christina

That’s how it was back then now with all the digital and everything moving so quickly. Um I just feel like they have some handcuffs with regard to telling stories and the other thing is that for me the transition from journalism to Pr and I so believe that every Pr person should be should do journalism and every journalist should do Pr. Because you learn so much about what’s going on, how business actually runs and works and in journalism if I’m totally honest I felt like we were almost constantly trying to not promote a business. Because you want that business to buy an ad you don’t want to give them kind of that free airtime because it kind of takes away the value of an ad and so I understand but I would like if a business did something great. We would talk about something and almost bury their name. I mean almost not even try to laud them too much then. Into pr marketing and when you really start to learn and talk to businesses and see behind the scenes and learn the troubles that they face not only covid, but in general they really are the backbone of our community these businesses that without them. Nothing runs, nothing happens. We don’t eat. We don’t shop. We don’t do anything.

 

10:57.81

tejones

That.

 

11:11.50

Christina

And so why not help these businesses in any way possible. So Natural State Update is really a melding or joining of both those concepts so we are going to do fantastic wonderful stories. Not necessarily good news. But good stories because I believe it’s important and I am so passionate about informing the public. 1 example is suicide. You know media generally speaking doesn’t cover suicide and the reason behind that was because it was like bomb threats in the 80 s you didn’t want to copycat. You didn’t want to give someone an idea. Well now the research has shown. That’s not happening. The idea is there. We need to be talking about this when I talk to moms of children who have committed suicide. They say gosh I didn’t even know that this happened and then when it happens they hear from all these people that are in this quote unquote club and why do people think it doesn’t happen. Because the media forms what we think and how we think and what we believe so if the media is not talking about this. We just think it’s not happening and that’s not true and we could be getting help to people that need the help mental illness is something just so mental and emotional illness. So passionate about and so to be talking about these important subjects. But then at the same time every business has a story to tell every business. It’s not just selling something to tell us about the business, tell us about what you do and how you do it and things like that so that they could actually purchase time in the natural state. Update that’s kind of a bit of the revenue platform. And if they’re not they could even sponsor one of the stories that we did so that happened this week with Mamie’s poppy plates. If you have infant child loss which is incredibly devastating and more common than people know or talk about that. You get these plates and it’s got the name and the footprints of the child that was lost and.

 

12:53.68

tejones

Hit.

 

12:57.19

Christina

We had Katherine Yancey do that story one of the former reporters in this market and agency five ah one became a sponsor for that story and so then I promoted agency 501 and some people would say isn’t that a competitor of yours and I laugh because ad agencies are not nearly as competitive as I think as people think because also most. We’ll only do one client per industry because you don’t ever want to be competing against yourself so they’re one of those agencies and I’m friends with the owner that they said hey we can’t take this client because we already have 1 in the industry and they would hand them off to us and so forth and we do the same thing so we’re there’s so much camaraderie around that so they sponsored this story.

 

13:28.73

tejones

Um, and if.

 

13:35.80

Christina

So that it could be on the platform which helps us pay for the resources to produce all these stories.

 

13:40.15

tejones

Yeah, so when did you launch your first one I mean all this came I mean you said this has really been something that you’ve been thinking about for years and I assume that you and Scott and Jason and Anne are the core.

 

13:48.20

Christina

And see.

 

13:56.43

tejones

That started this and when did you guys finally say Okay, we’re doing it.

 

13:58.15

Christina

Yes, April fourth oh my goodness that date became just you know everything to me because everything was leading up to that as I worked for it. It was really at the beginning of the year when we decided to move forward and then you just got to take all the steps you know I knew we needed a logo and I contacted Michelle Sanders she was our.

 

14:10.63

tejones

That.

 

14:16.46

Christina

Ah, a graphic designer at Uca when I was there and I said she had just had a baby literally and other would be willing to do this. She said of course and so we got that going then we need a website. I got to get the domain and had to get the name from the secretary of state and so all those steps were taking place. And I laugh when I when I look at Scott Inman Jason Petersen and Jansen um, because truthfully these were friends that I said I’m really passionate about this I would love to be have you be a part of it and I’m not gonna be able to pay you a penny What do you think? of course they all went sure because. They were friends. They liked the idea and for Scott Inman for example, like he wants to stay in his lane which is now a financial but he’s a financial advisor and he doesn’t he stopped doing commercials and he stopped doing other things because he didn’t want to confuse the public perception of who he is and what he does. Fine then you can be our financial expert and so he gets to air the videos that he does for gen wealth financial which is the company he works for but again it was my way of including these people that were recognizable and I thought that people would really like and Jason Peterson gets to do he always says. He wants to do a story that will walk away thinking that was worth my time and his first story that he did and you can go back and watch this was that everybody thinks the first school shooting in Arkansas was Jonesboro and it was not. It was 1980, 17 years earlier in Stamps Arkansas

 

15:27.50

tejones

Um, yeah.

 

15:41.88

tejones

Yes, we do.

15:42.16

Christina

Ooh we’ve got a storm going on sorry my dogs are jumping at the lightning and thunder um, and there was a sixteen year old that was being bullied. He walked in, shot and killed the bully and that man spent only 4 years in prison, got out and suffered from mental illness. The rest of his life.

 

15:51.45

tejones

Um, there are may.

 

16:01.13

Christina

He passed away in 2020 and that is why his brother is now speaking out. His brother is a pastor and a state police officer deputy and he wants to talk about bullying and talk about these issues and go into schools and talk about what maybe could have been done to help this situation all these years ago and again. So just.

 

16:10.34

tejones

In the head.

 

16:20.71

Christina

Fascinating stories. That’s what Jason Peterson really brings to the table and then Anne Jansen has been fantastic because yes we were competitors. We worked at different stations but we’ve been friends for all these years and when I shared this with her. She just got so excited. She even bought a tripod and a mic.

 

16:27.10

tejones

A.

 

16:37.92

Christina

So that she could go be doing these stories because she was going to Bentonville and that story’s going to air in the next one and she was just so excited about doing this and it’s just so cool to kind of see that because I also had talked to jaancey sheets and she wants to do some at some point Matt Mosler and she wants to do some. He wants to do some at some point because he would really cover more of that South Arkansas angle since he’s in time bluff.

 

16:48.94

tejones

That.

 

16:57.14

Christina

And so it’s just been so much fun, reaching out to all these formers and because most of us are still passionate about informing the public and telling good stories. Good quality stories and nobody has the ability to do that anymore and so that’s what we’re back doing.

 

17:09.60

tejones

Yeah, I’m excited about the first episode of most of it. I caught Jason’s story and I was like I did not know that because I remember when the jonesborough thing happened I was it was yeah I was I was very aware of that one and.

 

17:13.79

Christina

Um, oh.

 

17:24.60

Christina

Yes.

 

17:27.94

tejones

You know and you actually just kind of answered the next question in passing so you know who when and how did you decide who would help and you did that and who are some of the familiar faces and I know you mentioned missy and you mentioned some other people that I didn’t really know. But. So you kind of played them all out there I Guess who all would be helping. Um, um.

 

17:45.72

Christina

You know what’s crazy is when I started this I made a list and I think we are at 26 people that had been in the news prior and are still in this area but no longer in news doing other things.

 

17:57.19

tejones

In.

 

18:00.90

Christina

And my intent is to reach out to everyone now again when I ask them to write a story I would like to pay them and so we had to build the revenue platform first because there was none in in the beginning. We just getting started there so that I will reach out to these people that have left the news to say are you interested in doing a story maybe like once a month or whatever it is and that’

 

18:07.92

tejones

Right.

 

18:16.40

tejones

Yeah.

 

18:20.27

Christina

Kind of takes a lot of the workload off me. I’ve been shooting, editing and all the stories so far and I don’t mind paying someone else to do it. But again we didn’t have a revenue platform. So since I love doing it I love editing like I was never that into shooting but I loved editing and so it’s really been fun like when Jason will send me her an.

 

18:27.88

tejones

Right.

 

18:38.64

Christina

Send me their track, their audio track and their story and I just have to sit down and edit it because the time that it takes to write it. They’re doing that part. I love it. I mean I really do love that side of it. It just became a little too much at first. So there was a great story in Saline County and I know that Jordan Howington is in Saline County she just left t hv she’s kind of been a a mentee mentor relationship for me for years and so I was excited when she left actually because she has a daughter and she wanted to do things like cheer competitions and I understand what that’s like and you can’t when you work Saturday news.

 

19:09.30

tejones

Right? what.

 

19:14.60

Christina

So I reached out to her and I said this is inslineen County. This is your you’re you know your backyard would you be interested in doing it. She said sure and there’s this card trading shop. It’s kind of like the baseball cards when you were young and you were trading these cards and they opened up a shop. He kind of went up to his attic and got all the cards that he had opened up a shop. And these 1213 year old boys mostly are coming in buying cards. They could be on video games. They could be on digital and here they are face-to-face trading cards and somebody bought one the other day just a month or so ago it was $85000 value the card. It just blows my mind. So she was like sure so we met up at Sle County and she shot the standup. She wrote the story and we got to put that out there as well. So it’s really like anybody whose former journalists used to tell stories like this where we’re reaching out to all of them to say hey do you want to do some stories.

 

20:04.70

tejones

Yeah, and I remember when she left and she said I’m still gonna be telling stories because she went to work for a nonprofit that needed a storyteller and I thought what a great job for her. We used to watch her and Tracy bean every Saturday morning you know? yeah.

 

20:15.22

Christina

Yes, oh yes.

 

20:22.31

tejones

And um I met Tracy one Saturday and she was just as nice and sweet in person as she was on TV so if she happened to be listening to Tracy she probably would remember me but I caught you in Target and I always say.

 

20:27.13

Christina

Absolutely.

 

20:34.42

Christina

Ah, yeah.

 

20:41.80

tejones

About Steve Sullivan and Pat Bradley I say this and I bet both of them act like every time they meet you. They act like you were their long lost friend. I mean they both of them and and I’m like they don’t know me from Adam but they just acted like.

 

20:49.47

Christina

Oh mom.

 

20:57.62

tejones

And so I’ve I ran into both really nice folks and would love to Pb is so much fun I’d love to hang out with him but okay Paul is that was the guy when I was growing up.

21:03.89

Christina

Oh yes, he is and sully sully learned from the best because sully learned from polials and oh he was the greatest and I got to work with him. You know, just a couple years before he died. But.

 

21:16.25

tejones

Ah.

 

21:20.61

Christina

He taught us the importance because you you slowly get more recognized as a reporter you have just kind of the really fan favorites and then as you start anchoring, you get more and more recognize so it was ah it was it was progressive but when I would go somewhere with Paul Eels wow not even close I mean because he was the rock star. You know you know nobody cared who was with him. It was him and I mean him telling you he would be late to every live shot every story everything we have to do because he wouldn’t just say. Thank you thank you? Hi he would shake your hand and ask you how you are and ask you about your family and talk to you and it was so great for all of us that got to kind of learn from him. The importance of really spending time and like you said making that person feel like they were your best friend.

 

22:00.40

tejones

The thing about Paul and I remember when I was growing up. Not only did he do the sports on channel 7 probably the biggest most watched Tv but he was also the voice of the hawks and you got to remember in the 80’s and 90 s and.

 

22:07.15

Christina

Um, yes, that’s all you have.

 

22:19.13

tejones

We have every game of football. Yeah exactly I remember my memory of football games back then half of them were easily listening to Paul es calling the games now you now you watch every single game and on tv and there are times that you watch you go boy I wish I was.

 

22:28.65

Christina

Oh I leveled right.

 

22:38.32

Christina

Yes.

 

22:38.39

tejones

Listening to Chuck Barrett now have to deal with this so in in the radio guys and they seen it’s not really a thing in the past but you don’t because football especially college football ball is on Tv so much now you don’t you know’t you don’t listen to them as much but those guys are underreciated and.

 

22:52.75

Christina

Exactly.

 

22:58.31

tejones

Chuck Barret 1 of the best guy I knew and when I lived in Fort Worth who called the TCU horn frogs. Ah right now I’m drawing Brian Estridge. That guy is really good and he usually wins awards. So and i’ would listen to it.

 

23:06.79

Christina

Me.

 

23:14.62

tejones

Their game sometimes with him and I was in that vein I I’d read, listen to Brian and listen to these guys you know, but those guys are underappreciated and so but there’s still a room for radio for sports events. So anyway we could go on and on about that. Ah.

 

23:18.16

Christina

Right.

 

23:26.26

Christina

Oh absolutely Oh yes.

 

23:33.46

tejones

And your first episode when you’ve already alluded to this Jason talked about this bully this the story and stamps what do you want people to know about bullying.

 

23:37.77

Christina

Um.

 

23:43.40

Christina

Wow um I think times have changed so much that it used to be a very quiet thing that people would deal with very quietly there was embarrassment. There were all these different issues and I believe the suicide. Concerns are connected and there are people that feel alone and cut down and sometimes bullying doesn’t have to be what we envision from the Christmas story and a kid being mean and hitting people in it. It can be very subtle. It can be cutting down people and once I had kids.

 

24:14.80

tejones

Um, yeah.

 

24:19.49

Christina

And I remember my oldest daughter was in third grade. The first time somebody made fun of her eyebrows so we are chilean we’re from Chile we have this cultural look and we have big eyebrows and for somebody to say something to her in third grade. Um, it just made me realize.

 

24:23.54

tejones

Then.

 

24:38.59

Christina

It’s constant out there. So we as parents have to be teaching our kids How to cope with it because we can’t hope it goes away. It’s always there but at the same time making sure our kids don’t do that to others as well as learning how to cope when others will because they believe it will happen to everybody make fun of them or cut them down.

 

24:44.73

tejones

Have.

 

24:57.67

Christina

And this is where I just think we in general need to be talking more about the hard stuff. The bad stuff. The stuff that is very difficult because that’s what leads to emotional and mental illness and um, some of that. Is is talked about I believe but the the dad that we interviewed for the suicide story and it was his 18 year old that committed suicide in greenbryer and the way he put it was nobody puts puts a picture of the steak they burned on Facebook. You know that one went to the dog but they show a picture of the beautifully perfectly cooked steak and it’s creating this if I’m not perfect I can’t post it and that’s what our kids are growing up with and that’s I think social media. There’s a lot of great things about social media. But I think it has also created that. Have to look perfect because I’m not perfect and don’t feel perfect and I’m cutting down and I mean then you got covid on top of it and suicide rates going through the roof so. There’s just so many concerns and then I get real personal because my you know and I’ve shared this publicly many times but we lost my dad to cancer. Sixteen years ago now and I just believe my sisters and I believe my mom never grieved my mom never went through that process and she even you know she came from the generation where only crazy people go to therapists and that’s not the case.

 

26:19.61

tejones

And.

 

26:22.80

Christina

And she wouldn’t go and we tried to take her to grief counseling. She like snuck out the back through the bathroom I mean she just wouldn’t wouldn’t process wouldn’t get help she actually then was kind of dating a guy five years later and he died suddenly of a heart attack and it made her cycle down again and she is now only gosh she turns 73 next week and she’ is in a full-time alzheimer’s facility and has no idea who any of us are and it is incredibly young and is so incredibly sad and I just believe that if we are supposed to do crossword puzzles and whatnot to keep our brains healthy that having an unhealthy brain whether it’s emotional or mental or just. Lack of counseling, lack of diagnosis, lack of medication, lack of help that our brains can really be detrimental to ourselves. We have got to be healthier out there whether it’s young or old and so when I’ve experienced all these different things. It just made me go. We need to be talking more about these things. So maybe. Maybe the shooting down the street isn’t as important as talking about suicide awareness or bullying or these just topics that are so important to me that I don’t think news is is given the opportunity again. It’s not a knock against them. They are being asked to do more with less. Less photographers, less resources budgets have been cut. It’s a completely different industry today than it was years ago and it’s going to continue to evolve. You’ve got corporate involvement. You’ve got to shoot, edit, write oh and all the digital platforms. So there’s not really time to dig and time to do good stories or time to drive to Stamp, Arkansas which is what Jason and I did to tell this story about bullying because we think it’s so important he needs to be going into schools like this brother of the shooter of Arkansas’s first school shooter.

 

27:57.93

tejones

And.

 

28:10.74

Christina

Because he is so passionate about it and he goes into schools to talk about what we can do and how we can prevent bullying and what needs to be done for the mental health of our students.

 

28:19.19

tejones

Yeah, well you said it really? Well I can’t really add anything to that. Just no, it’s that’s that’s something you can capture and in video and audio that you know you can’t always catch them in text and writing So um.

 

28:25.13

Christina

The passion overflows sometimes, sorry.

 

28:34.29

Christina

Um, yes.

 

28:38.89

tejones

So well, you’ve alluded to a lot of it. But you know, can you tell us a little bit more about some of the upcoming episodes and maybe some of the people who are gonna be reporting.

 

28:47.23

Christina

Yes, I’m very excited for one of my next ones because I got to sit down with Tommy Norman, north little rock police officer. A lot of people probably know him. He has over two million followers on his Facebook page and is just remarkable because.

 

28:55.17

tejones

Oh yeah.

 

29:04.81

Christina

He’ll say he’s just a police officer. Well clearly he’s much more than that in the community involvement that he’s done and he lost his daughter Alyssa to drug overdose back in November and you know one of Alissa’s favorite places to go is the purple cow and the purple cow is one of our clients.

 

29:11.26

tejones

Ah, yeah.

 

29:19.20

tejones

Yes.

 

29:23.28

Christina

And so we worked together with them and with Tommy I knew Tommy from working in the news and we made sure that they had purple shakes at Alyssa’s service because it meant so much to the family. It’s going to choke me. I ‘m just talking about it. So this is one of those examples of.

 

29:34.82

tejones

You know.

 

29:39.62

Christina

Telling a great story through Tommy and then he actually went through a heart attack recently. So now he’s talking about his own health issues and preventative care there. But also to kind of applaud and uphold this business purple cow which is family owned locally. There are 5 franchises but they’re all here in Arkansas.

 

29:41.72

tejones

And.

 

29:57.10

Christina

Um, again, kind of giving Purple Cow an opportunity to say a way to get you because nobody knows what they did. I’m the one that did all that and we didn’t do it for credit. We didn’t do it for public appearance at all, but yet they did something right and they didn’t have to do that and so now this this. Combining of journalism and Pr that I’m doing we will briefly talk to purple cow about why they did that and what it meant to them and tommy had asked everybody to have a purple shake in honor of Alyssa and we were getting posts and messages and emails from people that saying I don’t have a purple cow where I live what can I do and so. They have allowed them to buy shakes that will be given away to people in Arkansas in Alyssa’s name so I mean just this cool thing that a lot of people don’t know about a lot of people don’t know these stories or how any of that kind of works and comes together. So Anne Jansen has got another story coming up. About a great thing going on in the Bentonville area and so that will be coming up as well and then Jason Petersen did a story on foster kids and that and this has a big part of his heart because his wife Mary Carol started the call in Arkansas which is children in Arkansas love for a lifetime and placing Foster kids and adoptive kids in christian homes is the concept and so they’ve always been very passionate about fostering and it’s the story of this kid that you know could have been one of the statistics he was 18 and still in the foster care system. So what happens is you age out eventually. And instead of getting bitter and upset about his background and in and out of homes. He took advantage of all of the opportunities that you can get as a foster kid that has aged out of the system. He will be graduating from Harding and he owns his own home. He owns his own car. He has done so great and is one of these kids that could have been a statistic. And just let the system you know turn against him. So just one of these powerful great stories that we have coming up. Um and then like I said I just know so many reporters that I always mentioned that we could go to so many you know we’ve got Liz Massey’s in Cabot and like I said Matt Mullers in Pine Bluff ah Drew Brent is another one that he used to work at channel 7 behind the scenes with sully in sports and then he did some news. He’s in Russellville and he would say that Russellville doesn’t get covered a lot by Fort Smith stations that’s too far but it doesn’t get covered by little rock stations as that’s too far. And he’s got some great stories there going on and he will have a story in our next episode as well and I’ve actually used him as an editor for some of these stories as well and so that’s the other thing is pulling in people from all different walks of life that could maybe help or contribute or be a part of this just because we’re passionate about good storytelling.

 

32:38.35

tejones

Wow you got me fired up um to watch all these I’ve I’ve caught most of the first one now I want to go back and I think I saw some of the one ah that Jordan did at least I saw that it was out um because I’m from um, you know I’ll follow her Facebook page as well.

 

32:42.44

Christina

Ah, this.

 

32:50.68

Christina

Um, yeah.

 

32:57.45

tejones

So let’s talk about this is where we want to wrap it up here. Let’s talk about where people can catch these episodes and how they can find them.

 

33:01.74

Christina

Yes, very good. So when we first started doing this. We decided Facebook live is our main means of getting it out to the public and that’s because in our marketing Pr that has worked very well for us. We record everything in advance because you never want a client to not look good or say something correct. Everything is recorded but it goes out live. We use the service to do that and that is because the algorithm right now on Facebook is the most friendly to a live post. You get the opportunity to view it at the time but of course then you can watch it later. So we knew we wanted that. However, Facebook is its own business Facebook is its own entity I’ve been in Facebook jail before I can’t invite friends to my page right now because I’ve done it too much so it can do whatever it wants I mean I don’t have to like it it’s its own business and it wants to make money. So if you put a link out there like if we had a website and just put out the link. Think it’s less than 2% of your followers are going to see that because Facebook pushes it down and they have the right to do it. I’m not angry about it. They have the right to do that. It’s just not super profitable for any business. That’s just trying to get a website out if they see a website. They know that’s probably a promotion and they want you to buy hits and likes and things like that. So I get it.

 

33:53.26

tejones

That.

 

34:11.80

Christina

So we do have a website http://naturalstateuptake.com it is the most basic simple website you could ever come up with because that’s not the intent I want people to be able to see the stories and and watch them as they go. But It’s not super fancy. Not a lot of bells and whistles literally just the stories. But that way you can go there if we get kicked off Facebook if something happens to Facebook we have the website and in order to have those videos on the website you have to have a Youtube channel and so we have a natural state. Update Youtube channel you could simply subscribe to that and watch all the stories there. So. It’s very conducive to what you want.

 

34:35.55

tejones

And.

 

34:45.28

Christina

Once they air I put the episodes in their entirety on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin and then each day following the episode each story by itself gets posted and I also put those on Linkedin Instagram and Twitter and Tiktok I use Tiktok for marketing now too. And it’s been actually interesting. A lot of likes have come from Tiktok of people watching them and I always say for the complete episode go to http://naturalstateupate.com because it only gives 3 minutes of each video that I’m putting on there. So it’s very conducive to you. That’s another one of these things that I think is restraints or handcuffs for news. 5 6 and 10 5 6 and 10 well guess what a lot of people are busy at 11 and 10 or sleeping and they don’t they’re not able to watch it but they also don’t want to put all their content on digital platforms because it takes away from the on-air platform while I understand that we are only digital.

 

35:35.35

tejones

And that.

 

35:37.10

Christina

And so I had a friend told me the other day that they hadn’t been able to watch the episode yet. So when they were cooking in the kitchen with their daughter that night they put the episode by the you know smart TV, put it up on the Tv and had it playing while they were cooking dinner and even if it was a few days later. You know they’re still seeing the stories and getting the information so taking away that five six and 10 element that the news has because it’s digital. So if I said something today that you want to go check it out. You can go to http://naturalsateupate.com and go find that story whether it’s the suicide awareness or the first school shooter because they’re interesting stories. So it’s evergreen people can go see those stories at any time I do include a what I call headlines at the beginning of every episode because if you are only watching us, especially when we become streaming and and an app and bigger and I want to be on all podcasts at some point and we have big dreams. Um I want you to still feel informed. But.

 

36:09.78

tejones

Sir.

 

36:29.58

Christina

I’ve really changed on what I think is informative and we use the word impactful impactful to our cans and I’m not saying people don’t care about crime. We all want to live in a safe neighborhood but I’m not convinced that the shooting down the street or the shooting in southwest Little Rock or anything of those are that important to your day-to-day life. And so we’re not doing that and to be honest, a big reason why they cover crime is it’s easy. You’ve got scanners blaring in the background shooting on the street. Go pick up a camera go cover. It. It’s easy. It’s a kind of a filler honestly when when 4 30 shut down. That’s more impactful to me because I drive 5 4 30 almost every day. I find that information needed or a business down the street that is a new restaurant. Let’s see I eat every day so knowing that a new business is coming is more important to me as a mom of 2 kids that’s running around and really busy than a shooting that doesn’t really impact my family at all.

 

37:10.64

tejones

A.

 

37:23.30

Christina

So we’re trying to bring some information. Another element I haven’t even mentioned was the entertainment one Amanda Harton at Reynolds who I worked with at UCA. Not only does she get to promote the Reynolds performances but when she does all that she needs to know what else is coming because you don’t want to schedule something at the same time. Something else is coming so I knew she would know all those so she puts together.

37:29.49

tejones

And then.

 

37:42.82

Christina

Ah, monthly lineups of here’s what’s coming because I’ve heard people so often see something on Facebook and go huh if I had known that was coming I would have gone but there’s work on behalf of the consumer you have to go to the website you have to go find it so instead of making the consumers go find it. We’re putting all the entertainment or a lot of the entertainment options happening in Arkansas to help the consumer know about what’s going on so I keep rambling but yes natural stateupate dot com.

 

38:06.57

tejones

Yeah, well, we’ll put all that in if I can find all your social media links I’ll definitely put in show notes and get that on there.

 

38:12.86

Christina

Yes, and on social media. My intent was I had a public page christina munoz and I was going to just turn that into Natural State Update because it already has about 3000 followers or something like that Facebook has not allowed that so sorry those are my dogs. Somebody obviously just came to the door. I apologize this is because I work from home. This is what you get so um wow that’s Dexter and Tigo yes, hey it’s okay and they’re freaked out by the storm anyway. So I apologize um, but I forgot I was even talking because the dogs weren’t running up.

 

38:30.70

tejones

Ah, yeah.

 

38:42.90

tejones

Shit.

 

38:48.44

tejones

That’s sorry we were just talking about where people can find naturals.

 

38:48.71

Christina

Oh yes, so I have a new Facebook page natural state update is the Facebook Page it looks like mostly everything is on the Kristina Munoz page because that’s where we started so we started a new one but it will be streamed on both so I’m not losing any followers I’m just hoping to create. More followers on the natural state update to textter come here someone you got a package and they go crazy. That’s right and we just deal with it. Ah.

 

39:09.58

tejones

Um, part of working at home is dogs in thunderstorms. So I totally get that. Yeah hey Christina thanks you coming on and talking about this I’m super excited about ah the natural state. Update. And looking forward to more stories.

 

39:29.76

Christina

Thank you so much for having me on. I Very much appreciate it and I’ll put this on all the platforms too. So people can listen to it and hopefully follow you. Thank you too.

 

39:37.37

tejones

All right, have a great day.