How to honor your employer with your side hustle
How to honor your employer with your side hustle, what AI means for human connection and podcasting, and how to “show your work” when you create any content at work as a means of demonstrating trustworthiness.
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[0:00:05.4] JR: Hey friend, welcome to the Mere Christians Podcast, I’m Jordan Raynor. How does the gospel influence the work of mere Christians, those of us who aren’t pastors or religious professionals but who work as artists, marketers, and boat builders? That’s the question we explore every week and today, I’m posing it to the one and only Letisha Bereola.
She’s a former news anchor in Jacksonville Florida, who won the best anchor award from the Association of Broadcast Journalists in 2020. Today, she’s the founder and CEO of Paradigm Media Group, where her team produces and manages podcasts for personalities and brands.
Letisha and I recently sat down to talk about how to honor your employer with your side hustle, what AI means for human connection and podcasting, and why and how you can show your work when you create any type of content, even if it’s just an email at work as a means of demonstrating your trustworthiness.
I think you guys are going to really enjoy this conversation with my friend, Letisha Bereola.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:01:18.2] JR: Letisha, welcome to the podcast.
[0:01:21.3] LB: Hi Jordan, thanks so much for having me.
[0:01:23.0] JR: Long-time listener, first-time caller.
[0:01:25.4] LB: Yes.
[0:01:28.5] JR: I always love to ask, any favorite episodes? Because I know you’ve listened to a lot of them.
[0:01:32.3] LB: Yeah and I mean, I’m just going to have to put it out there, it’s maybe not the last one but the one you put out two weeks ago, the bringing back Tim Keller. The Tim Keller episode.
[0:01:42.8] JR: Yeah, oh man.
[0:01:43.4] LB: Because I really, that day was looking - I was going over articles and I was looking - I wanted to connect with Tim Keller again and when I saw that you dropped it, I think it was the evening, it was like a random time.
[0:01:56.4] JR: Yeah, it was like a few hours after they announced that he had died, yeah.
[0:01:59.7] LB: Yes, and it just hit my phone and I know your relationship and your admiration for him and I was like, “Oh, this is the one.” So that is just fresh in my memory, I listened to it before bed and I really appreciated that one, for sure.
[0:02:13.0] JR: It was special, and you know the back story of that episode better than most because you remember my – your Christian’s community but that was special. Right after I dropped it, went and walked around the neighborhood and listened to it myself. It was a great way to remember him and grieve over Tim, it was pretty special.
By the way, this morning, I found the greatest video ever that I just had to put out there to our audience. There is a video somewhere, and hopefully our editors will find it and put it in the show notes, of Tim Keller in a car, riding around New York City, singing the music man, and it is pure gold.
Oh my gosh, I don’t know. The YouTube algorithm got me, showed it to me this morning, I was like, “Thank you Lord for this gift to the universe, it’s gold.” Hey, so you spent 11 years working as this award-winning news anchor. I feel like I remember as a kid wanting to be a news anchor. Like I thought that was the coolest job.
[0:03:14.1] LB: Really?
[0:03:14.9] JR: Yeah, was that true for you?
[0:03:17.4] LB: No, but when I think about when the idea first planted in my head because I get asked this a lot, “Did you always want to be this?” I say no. However, do you remember back when MTV was a dominant, you know, the music videos, it would be on before school and I remember the VJs. Remember VJs?
[0:03:36.8] JR: Yes.
[0:03:38.9] LB: They were like the coolest – I don’t know what it even stands for but they were like the cool, hip, interviewing artist and tossing to videos and I remember, her name was Lala, was one of the main VJs and I remember making like, I guess it’s a vision board, I was in middle school or elementary school and I was like, “VJ Lala” and I’m like, you know what? That was my first understanding of what it was to be like on TV and talking about cool stuff and like just being yourself. So maybe in a sense, yes, but it wasn’t quite news anchor.
[0:04:09.8] JR: Yeah, that’s amazing. I remember as a kid, oh, this is going to date me. My grandparents took me to Morrison’s, do you remember Morrison’s? It’s like terrible buffet restaurant.
[0:04:23.2] LB: Oh, no, I don’t know.
[0:04:24.3] JR: It’s like Piccadilly kind of – it was like the precursor, it’s like slightly nice than Golden Crown, I don't know. We’re at Morrison’s and our local news anchor from Fox 13, Kelly Ring, was there and I don't know, I was like seven but I already had like a crush on Kelly Ring and I’m like, “Yeah, I want to work next to Kelly Ring when I get older.” But I don’t think any kid grows up like wanting to be a news anchor. They don’t even know what a news anchor is. My kids are like, “What are you talking about?”
[0:04:51.6] LB: Yes.
[0:04:51.6] JR: What the heck is an anchor, like on a boat?
[0:04:54.3] LB: Yeah, it’s somebody on TV to them that is really dressed up and doing cool stuff, really.
[0:05:00.7] JR: That’s right. So, what about broadcast journalism was appealing to you? As a believer, when did you look at this like, “Man, this is a way that I could serve God and His purposes in the world?”
[0:05:11.1] LB: So this came – it actually didn’t start with news anchoring. In college, I went to Florida A&M and I actually went to TCC, the community college first and I was going to transfer to Florida A&M and during that time, my friend and I, my best friend in college, we were just kind of bored.
We were bored, like the college life, the parties - all that just didn’t really fascinate us. We were Christian, we knew there was more to life. We wanted to have interesting conversations, we wanted to spark something cool. So we were like, “What if we start a TV show?” We just had the idea. “Let’s start a TV show.”
So we did, we started something called College Remixed. We weren’t in broadcast or TV journalism, anything at the time and we essentially had auditions and got hosts. We recruited editors and a producer team and we ended up basically producing a TV show that would air on FSUs and FEMUs pubic channels.
[0:06:06.3] JR: This is amazing. Wait, hang on a second, what year was this?
[0:06:09.4] LB: Oh my gosh, this was probably 2004-ish?
[0:06:14.2] JR: So I was in Tallahassee.
[0:06:16.2] LB: Yes.
[0:06:15.9] JR: I just got in Tallahassee at Florida State, yeah.
[0:06:18.5] LB: Yes, and I didn’t go to Florida, we didn’t go to Florida State. We were FEMU kids but we went over to Florida State and said to their media department and said, “Hey, we have a TV show, will you air it?” I’m sure they aired it like six AM or whatever, but they did.
But that was my taste of like, “Woah, you mean, we can get people together, have an idea, do some production and like put, I guess, content or put stories out into the world that aligned with just whatever we want to talk about?” I was like, “This is media?” And so from there, I knew the path. I needed to understand media. And in Tallahassee, you have - FSU has communications degree.
But FEMU had broadcast journalism, which is like there’s studio and the editing and it was like a full-on production, right? They do live TV there. So I’m like, “Yeah, I guess I got to do broadcast journalism in order to do this work.” It really wasn’t ever, “I want to be a news person.” It was, “I want to produce work that could change the world, to spark conversations.” So that’s kind of how I got into it.
[0:07:23.2] JR: I love it, I love that so much. It is so addicting, getting that – I don't know, just that first experience of creating something and seeing it on the news or even if it’s local Tallahassee TV or a book in the world or whatever, because we’re made in the image of the creator God, right? But this is just in our DNA.
[0:07:42.0] LB: Let me tell you. I had a moment once I got to FEMU and one of the classes was a documentary class, documentary class and that was my favorite out of all of it because we could pitch an idea, what we wanted to do a dock on, and go produce it. So this is so telling when you think about what I’m doing now but my pitch was, “I want to do a documentary on happiness. I want to study happiness and everyone’s different version of it.” Of course, I had my version of it but I figured, that’s something good I could do, right?
So we did this dock, it’s called Happy, and I remember sitting with people and just being able to ask them a question and sparking what I thought was a new thought, like a new way to see the world or something I’ve never heard before, and I love the interaction between me asking a question and that sparking revelation. And so that interview kind of relationship, I really, really loved.
[0:08:39.5] JR: I love that. So for more than a decade, your job was to read and report. A lot of tragic stuff, right? I mean, local news, yeah, there’s a lot of good news but there’s also a lot of dark news. I’m curious how that frequent, I don't know, just reminder of the brokenness of this world. How did that shape your relationship with God for that decade you were sitting in the anchor chair?
[0:09:07.6] LB: Yeah. This is a question, Jordan, I’m still working through. Now, for all context, I left 2021, October 2021 so not even two years out. So I’m still thinking back on the experiences because you’re right. I mean, pretty much every day, I was talking about the most tragic, the worst part of society, right?
The news, and I love good newsies but you guys know, at least on the local level, a lot of it is like, “Okay, what was kind of the craziest, worst thing that happened today that we think people should know about?”
[0:09:42.8] JR: Florida man stories. You’re in Jacksonville, come on.
[0:09:47.1] LB: Yes, so it was car crashes, it was fires, it was deaths, it was shootings, all of it, right? So having to reconcile, “I’m a good news girl. I’m here to spread the good news.” And so, when my path put me and what I felt was a really dark place. I really struggled with that for many, many years and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around ort of how God used me in that space, but here’s what I do know.
I know that people could tell that there was something about me and the way that I told these stories that felt like empathy, that felt like a human, that felt like someone who cared, that felt like light to them. And so what I think I take from that is that God used me in a dark place to bring some light. I was a morning anchor for the last three years. So I was the first person you saw on FOX and CBS, saying “Good morning.”
So even though I had like 10 seconds to give you a smile before I went and told you something kind of crazy, I really savored that. And then when I did tell you something crazy, I tried to tell it with my heart. And so I hope, my hope is that over time or as people got to know me, they say, “Oh, she’s a Christian” like, “Oh, she loves God, maybe that’s what I saw every day on the news.”
[0:11:13.5] JR: Did you ever hear somebody connect those dots? And to be clear, you know my heart, even if they didn’t, you’d being salt and light is intrinsically valuable to God. But I am curious, if anyone ever connected the dots, either a viewer or somebody on staff at the station, and if so, what did that conversation sound like?
[0:11:31.2] LB: I get a lot of “aha’s” where people were out, especially now when I have a lot of freedom to post and say whatever I want, right? A lot of viewers are going, “Ah, I knew it.” You know, they’re usually Christians, right? Where they’re like, “I knew it, I knew you were, amen sister” They give me a lot of support, but I think when I was in the game, the feedback that I got was that they knew I was different.
They knew that I cared, they knew, and even in my goodbye speech, that what I said, they gave me like three minutes to say goodbye and I told them that every death or every tragedy, a tiny piece of me was with them, right? I prayed for their kids, I prayed for their healing, like I was in the trenches with them, and I got to tell them that when I said goodbye but I also told them, I was celebrating with you.
I was praising God with you when there was healing or when you overcame the impossible, like there was a slither of hope that in that commercial break, I was like, “Thank you, God” you know what I mean? So I was rejoicing with people, I was sad with people and I think they really knew that.
[0:12:38.4] JR: Yeah, you were rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn and I do think people can feel that. But even if they couldn’t, that’s what we’re called to do, born with those who are born, weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice and so, that active obedience brought your heavenly father great pleasure, right?
[0:12:57.6] LB: Yeah.
[0:12:58.6] JR: It’s funny, I watched a couple of your newscasts in preparation for this, I did watch your goodbye.
[0:13:02.0] LB: Stop.
[0:13:03.0] JR: Yeah, yeah, my team like, dug up your goodbye speech, which I loved, I thought it was really beautiful. It’s clear that the joy of the Lord shaped how you told stories on the news. I’m curious if your faith had any role in shaping which stories you and the team chose to tell in the first place. Is there any influence there?
[0:13:28.5] LB: Yeah, so it takes me back to the editorial room, right? Every day at 9:30, we sat at the big large conference table and we went around and we made our pitches, and essentially, the news director –
[0:13:37.3] JR: Yeah, yeah, how does this work? I’ve never been in a local news, how does this work? I don’t think most people understand this.
[0:13:42.6] LB: Yeah, so every single day, usually it’s around 9:30, we sit around in the editorial room and we go over it, what happened the day before and then it’s time for pitch time, and this time, depending on the station you work at, it could be quite stressful because you have to get on that board. You have to get your slot, you got to get in there at noon, one, two, like you have to sort of pass the test.
And so there is something called the lead story that everyone was kind of competing for and the lead story is when you tune in at 5:00, the music comes on, it’s like, “What’s the big story of the day?” and most reporters wanted the big story of the day. So we’d go around and we would talk about what we thought was the big story of the day, we would discuss it, go on the board. If not, you never want to be the last person still sitting in there with the news directory trying to figure out your story.
But my strategy, honestly, after a couple of years of having the lead story and yeah, I get it, okay, usually lead story was something pretty tragic but then I realized like, “Ooh, the 5:30 slot, or that 5:55 slot” that it wasn’t as hard news. I started to angle my pitches to those slots, which are usually a little bit softer, which is maybe what a nonprofit is doing or maybe a story of hope. So I would actually look for those stories and over time as I became a veteran journalist, I didn’t always get those stories.
They would still put me on the lead story but I at least knew that I did my part and said, “Well look, this is what else is going on in the community. Like, I can make this a good story” and I could usually sell it and I could usually get on it unless they pulled me.
[0:15:21.4] JR: I love that. No, it’s really good, it’s being light in a dark place. It’s like, “Hey, yeah, there is all this darkness but there’s also good, there’s also hope and we’re going to choose to tell those stories too” right?
[0:15:31.1] LB: Yes, yes.
[0:15:33.1] JR: Yeah, you recently left the local news desk, let’s call it two years-ish ago. How did you come to that decision, what did that look like?
[0:15:42.2] LB: So, I just started to feel in my spirit that the time was coming up and that’s the best way to describe it. I could feel that something was next but I did not think it was going to be another news job. After a year and a half, probably, and a lot of people were having this thought, this is around 2020, the great resignation. People were starting to rethink work and I was one of those people, and so I just started to think about what else I could do and entrepreneurship really felt like the next step for me, and so I was quite burned out at the time.
I was a journalist at 2020 and I just had a baby in February 2020. So we were going through a lot those couple of years and so I was like, “You know what? I need a break, I’m going to start my own business.” So I stepped out of news that was kind of a big deal. I mean, I had a contract, they were gracious enough to let me out of the contract. I was successful, I was well-liked, like nothing was wrong, right? But I could feel the calling for something next.
[0:16:48.4] JR: Is that what was wrong though is the fact that it was easy? Did that make you ironically uncomfortable, like you felt like you had to push a little bit more?
[0:17:00.8] LB: Yeah, and actually, that’s the reason why and we’ll talk about this but I started a podcast in 2019, before all of these feeling of burnout and ready to go because I was bored. I was like, “You know what? I have got to find a way to put at least a tiny bit of my vision of how media should be into the world.” So I started a podcast on my own.
I asked for permission, of course, they let me do it. I was one of the probably first because I remember, some of the local journalism blogs writing about it. Look, we found two anchors in the country doing a podcast and knows a big deal, and at the time, it was just like, “I want to start having conversations that talk about life, that talk about how we got through stuff that are empowering and enlightening.”
So, I can tell you that boredom and that itch started a while before and I satisfied it with the podcast but then once the pandemic and all of this started happening, I’m like, “You know what? No, I actually need to take this out in full force.” So I started with coaching, I took some classes and learned how to be a coach and I got 60-plus hours of coaching for free and charging a little bit of money. Coaching was an amazing transition from news into entrepreneurship.
And then in 2023, early 2023, God was, I really felt Him saying, “Okay, time’s up, you know? I let you have a break, I let you do some good but your anointing, your calling, my dear, is in media. I have created you specifically to use your voice, to use your skills in this arena and it’s time to come back” and so I was like, “Okay God, what does that look like?” It was kind of general.
So I was like, “Maybe I’m a media coach” you know? I mean, it only took about a week for me to get clarity and I was like, “Wow, where I start with this is going to be in the medium that I’ve always loved and that I indulge in the most” that I mean, I go to audio conference just solo just because I loved the medium and I’m like, “Oh, this is where I should start” and so right away, I had a great response, right now is a hot time to start a podcast.
I’m like, “All right God, here we go, we’re going to build this media business and we’re going to start with podcasting.” And so here I am.
[0:19:20.7] JR: Here you are and this is what you’re doing today with Paradigm Media. You guys are helping brands launch and manage podcasts, correct?
[0:19:27.1] LB: Yes, and I have to tell you the story behind the name Paradigm. I was – this is back in college. I remember, I think it was like a humanities class and I remember the professor’s talking about the great paradigm shifters of our world, right? And so he was going through Caesar and all these different great people and he said, “Jesus” I’m like, “Wait” and I never heard him say Jesus before, right?
Like he’s not talking about Jesus in humanities but he said, Jesus was one of those paradigm shifters and I wrote down paradigm and this is around the time where we were doing our TV production, right?
[0:20:02.9] JR: Yeah.
[0:20:04.3] LB: And I was like, “This is it, I want to do paradigm-shifting work and I think it’s in media.” So I’m bringing that dream back from back in college when there’s no responsibilities and the dream hit me around media and what a paradigm shifter is and I don’t know, 18 years later, here I am.
[0:20:24.5] JR: I love it so much, that’s so good. I love those seeds that God plants way, way early in our stories that blossom later on. Hey, I want to go back to something that you breeze past as like, “Oh, no big deal” but I think actually is a big deal. When you were still at the news station and you were thinking about launching this podcast, you asked for permission to do that, you said, “I asked for permission of course” and I don’t think there’s an of course there.
I think a lot of believers are starting side hustles without consulting their employer and this is something I‘m really passionate about, right? Because Ephesians 6, all throughout scripture, Colossians 3, tells us that we are called to serve our employers, even employers we don’t like, even employers we might hate with the ministry of excellence. So talk about how you thought about that and how your faith compelled you to be open and transparent with your employer even as you were thinking about leaving.
[0:21:16.9] LB: Yeah. Here’s the thing, it’s like in order to do any endeavor while you’re still working, you have to have as much freedom as you can, and if you’re always having this like, “Oh, my boss, what if he finds out?” - having that conflict around starting something in secret, I knew inherently that that was going to keep me from really enjoying it, really having ownership of it, right?
So I knew the very first thing I needed to do is say, “Hey, this is what I want to do” and I told her the reasons why. I was probably a little more, I don’t know, softer in my pitch where I said, “I would just like to have something for myself, you know what I mean?” and she was like, “Yeah, I get it. Okay.” And we came to terms, which were very loose. It was just like, “Yeah, don’t talk about anything crazy, you can’t sell anything” you know?
But she knew the kind of employee I was and could trust that I could go on a microphone and do my own show, essentially. So yeah, I had to get that permission because I didn’t want this to be a secret. I wanted to be known and I sort of wanted their blessing as I went to do this.
[0:22:29.9] JR: Yeah, and I’m just thinking of Paul’s words in Titus 2. He is talking to employees and he’s saying, “Hey, don’t steal from employers. Show that you can be “fully trusted” so that in every way, you’ll make the teaching about God our savior attractive” right? I think that applies here. I think being open about and transparent about the things we’re doing outside the four walls of that nine-to-five, yeah, I think that shows that we can be fully trusted.
It serves the employer and to your point, it also serves you well because you can engage in that side hustle with a lot more freedom, right?
[0:23:08.9] LB: Yes, and I think that even I think a lot of people are basically afraid they’re going to say no and I have the biggest reason for them to say no, right? Essentially –
[0:23:17.7] JR: A hundred percent, your personality.
[0:23:19.4] LB: Yes, they own my likeness, they owned my name, and so you can’t just go out and create new content, and so they still said yes, and because they knew it was something that was important to me, they knew that my job would be – like of course, it’s going to be my first priority. It sort of like, “Sure, here comes some employee that I care about, that’s doing a great job that wants to do a side project.”
“She’s telling me it won’t interfere with her work and I trust her word, go ahead and do it.” So I think you’d be surprised. If you’re thinking your boss is just going to be like, “No” you just, you know, just try it and be honest and I think the favor of the Lord will be on you in that situation too.
[0:23:56.9] JR: That’s a good word. By the way, I love the name of the podcast you started, Audacity.
[0:24:03.3] LB: Oh, yeah.
[0:24:04.2] JR: It’s one of my favorite words. I think that’s part of what we as Christ’s followers should be known as in this world, audacious. Do you agree? Why did you choose this term?
[0:24:12.0] LB: Oh my goodness, so you have to think, 2019-ish I was thinking about what life could be like outside of those four walls of a newsroom, and part of the podcast project at the time was like, “Ooh, I want to talk to other people about how they are being audacious in their lives.” And so at the time, honestly Jordan, I was almost a student. I was being a little selfish with - I was like, “This would be great content.”
But I really want to hear how people cultivated the audacity to go after the vision, God’s vision in their heart. I will tell you, I did talk to some unbelievers and I talked to some believers, and with the unbelievers who were really doing amazing things in the world, what I got from that was like, “Man, they have all these audacity to go out and just create these companies and you know, just start a business here and do this.”
It’s like, “Why don’t I feel audacious in the calling of my life?” So, my faith grew as I talked to Christians, who just grew my faith, and unbelievers, who just trusted their own intellect and their own sort of path and they were out here doing great things. It kind of made me feel like, “Okay, if anybody on this earth should feel emboldened and empowered to shape the world, it should be me because God lives in me and I’m His daughter and this is all His anyway” right? So it was just an incredible experience and that’s why I named it Audacity.
[0:25:48.2] JR: Yes. I mean, this is Ephesians, what is it? 3:20 that God has – that in Him, who is able to do measurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within as we can’t do more than what we ask or imagine, but the Holy Spirit through us can. We have the creator, God living inside of us. Why aren’t more Christians taking bigger audacious swings?
Sorry, I’m up on my soapbox but man, this gets me fired up and ready to go and it is a shame when we look around and it’s nonbelievers who have everything to lose, who are taking the biggest swings oftentimes. That’s saddening.
[0:26:27.4] LB: Well, and I want to say Jordan, you are probably one of the first voices that helped me make that connection as well, right? So and you talk a lot about this. So you have to think, I grew up in the late 90s and I was an on-fire-for-God Christian. So this is back when like Hillsong and Brownsville revival and all of these things were happening in my world and I was sold out, right?
Praying before lunch, during lunch, like we had a group of on-fire-for-God Christians but I say this because my foundation was amazing, right? I tasted and saw the Lord was good but I didn’t get a whole lot of guidance on how to then go out into the world outside of ministry and carry this out. So part of that, it really created on one hand, I had this amazing foundation that is still with me today of knowing God as a teenager.
But on the other hand, I didn’t really know how to use that in my career. I mean, there were times where I’m like, “Well, God, am I supposed to be in a pulpit? Am I supposed to go to seminary school?” Like I remember applying for different jobs within the church and I just – it never felt like a good fit but then someone like you came along and I started to get this along the way.
God was teaching me but you were able to really lay out like, “No, you can be – you’re supposed – you’re called to be excellent in your work” like that’s part of being a Christian in the world and working. It just really freed me from the conflict of like, “Okay God, am I supposed to be doing this for Christians?” you know what I mean? Even with my coaching business, I’m like, “Okay, I should probably do this for Christians only” you know what I mean? Because that’s just what’s in my heart and he’s like, “Well, no daughter. Just be you.”
[0:28:19.5] JR: Just do it, just do the work.
[0:28:21.2] LB: “You love Me and it will show and help people” and so you’ve just helped me reconcile what it means to be in love with God but also want to be excellent and really make an impact on the world.
[0:28:33.3] JR: Oh man, I appreciate you saying that. That is high praise and trust me, it’s a whole team of people behind me who are helping me deliver that content in the world and listen, I love that you want to work with Christians and non-Christians alike and help them along. I am curious though, and you’re at the beginning of this venture, the beginning of this journey, how are you thinking differently about the creation of audio content?
Not necessarily the content itself, right? But the way that a podcast is done and launched and managed and guest relations and all of the things, how do you think you’re thinking about that differently because you are a child of God?
[0:29:13.0] LB: Such a good question. Okay, first I think what comes to mind is I don’t really hear a lot of podcasters or people in the business of podcasting really talk about the power of the human voice. I believe that God has given us a voice and that voice and what we choose to do with it when we sort of align with the purpose around using our voice, I think we can do more than any other skill.
[0:29:39.3] JR: Yes.
[0:29:40.3] LB: Honestly, any other skill. I think I look at language and my voice and other people’s voices. Remember, I’m a newscaster so I use my voice a lot and I understood this intangible, like you can’t touch it. There’s this connection that happens when someone uses their voice in the way God purpose for them to, right? Time accelerates, work accelerates, He is able to do so much when we align our voice with His purpose.
So first, and I tell people that even if they’re not believers, I tell them, “Listen, you have an instrument, right? And that instrument is your voice. If we get a microphone and put it in front of your voice and I believe you have something good to say to bring good to the world, I just believe that that will be blessed.” So I say that.
[0:30:28.5] JR: That’s a flyer answer. It’s a great answer.
[0:30:29.5] LB: Right? So that’s my first thing and I think separately, I just think that it goes along with that point but there’s just no other medium out there where the connection is so strong. So if you have an audience, and most people I work with already have an audience, and you’re not talking to them in this way, I feel like you’re at a disadvantage and that there’ll be a time where you’ll just sort of be left out of the conversation.
Brands and organizations will have a podcast arm. I think it just that know and trust factor, they don’t have to look at you, they can go on their walks, they can be in their beds, they plug in their earphones or their earpods and they can hear you, their friend in their head, their companion, talk to them about something valuable, I think that is really special. I think people in the podcast business know that and are trying to figure out a way to really communicate that to the world because it’s kind of tricky.
It's like, “What do you mean?” you know what I mean? It’s kind of like warm and fuzzy but it’s true.
[0:31:33.7] JR: No, but it’s deeply human and I think as the world becomes less and less human, I think that’s the risk, right? We’re having this conversation of May 2023, where every other headline is about AI. I think podcasting is going to become even more important. I don’t know if I’ve ever said this on this show, I think I have but I didn’t want to launch this show. I don’t consume podcasts, I could count on one hand the total number of podcasts I’ve listened to front to back.
But I became totally convinced that this was a means of creating intimacy with guests, with listeners, and a way to make this conversation about how the gospel shapes the work of mere Christians more human, where it’s so abstract it can feel so theoretical on the page I think audio makes it three dimensional and concrete. Does that make sense?
[0:32:32.2] LB: Yeah, I didn’t even – I have thought about it but when you think about the rise of AI, you are right. I think this is also sort of a spiritual perspective is that over time, I think man, humans are going to be craving more and more human connection than a God connection because we’re going to get further and further away from it, right? People who hold on to that human element of their work where there’s face-to-face conversations, where there’s your voice off the cuff or maybe reading something, whatever.
But it’s like the more human connection that we can hold on to, I think I mean, three years from now, two years from now, right? Will set you apart like nothing else. Really, your human voice will and I don’t know, they are doing weird things with voices now where you can literally – right?
[0:33:20.8] JR: Oh, I saw a demo the other day with my voice. It was pretty incredible, yeah but you can tell.
[0:33:25.2] LB: See? So there’s that, you can tell.
[0:33:27.0] JR: You can tell the difference, yeah. AI avatar Jordan Raynor can’t make off-the-cuff Taylor Swift Easter eggs mid-podcast conversation, okay?
[0:33:34.5] LB: Not going to happen.
[0:33:35.3] JR: Not going to happen. Here’s something that I think will be interesting for you to be thinking about, for us to be thinking about. The blessing of podcasting is that anyone with a cellphone or a laptop could say whatever they want, whenever they want, but that’s also the curse. Because most podcasters don’t adhere to the strict disciplines of your former vocation of a traditional journalist from producing content, which is a big deal at this moment.
When Christ-followers should always have a deep commitment to truth and where culturally our commitment to truth is eroding faster and faster. So I am curious, from your perspective, what can our listeners who create any type of content, whether it’s a podcast or a document at work or a book or even just social media posts, what can we learn from the legacy of traditional journalism about how to vet information for truth before we put out new content in the world?
[0:34:28.6] LB: Wow. Well, you know journalism doesn’t have the best reputation now. I feel like it’s getting worse every day and it was really frustrating as a journalist, and local journalism is a little different. It’s not quite like you’re talking heads on the networks. Most of these guys in your local cities are out there actually talking to sources, they’re getting them on camera saying the things that they are reporting them to say.
So I think on a local level, and what you can take from that is, get as close to your source as possible, especially on the day of ChatGPT and all the other things, right? Where you can just ask it questions and it just regurgitates information to you. I would say if you could pick up a phone and call someone or if you can send an email even to a team to confirm information to maybe get a quote from them, to get back to that human interaction.
To get that human touch to whatever you’re creating especially if it involves another person or an event, just the fact that you touch base with someone regarding that topic is going to set you apart like I mean, a million years because you are doing some reporting and oh man, you’re really digging into my news background now, part of what we called our reporting they teach us to do process reporting.
So instead of saying, “Today, the mayor signed a declaration to build a new school.” Instead, they teach you to say, “I started this morning and I reached out to the mayor’s office. I didn’t get his mayor but I did get his assistant, who told me, she talked to the mayor just 20 minutes ago and this is what she told her, quote.”
[0:36:09.2] JR: Interesting.
[0:36:10.1] LB: We show you the process behind how we got the information and that builds trust and credibility, because you’re not just – you’re giving them the process or and a lot of times, it was, “I knocked on the door, no one was there. So I sat outside their home for about 30 minutes, someone drove by. I asked the neighbor.” So, just hint them hearing the work you put into getting people this content can make a big difference.
[0:36:36.4] JR: Yeah, but it’s showing your work. It’s like the old map test of showing like, “Here’s how I got here” right? It’s the same thing applied to distributing information and I do think that makes whatever content Christians are putting out into the world whether it’s explicitly evangelical or not just credible makes us trustworthy, right? It makes us feel more trustworthy, right?
[0:36:59.6] LB: Absolutely. Try that and you’re right, it can apply to really any industry, especially with the rise of AI, where people can get answers, right? If you start talking even in meetings or if you – wherever you can show your work, you’re right. I think that in itself creates credibility.
[0:37:17.9] JR: I love that so much, this is really good advice. Hey Letisha, three questions we wrap up every episode with. Number one, which books do you find yourself recommending or gifting most frequently to others?
[0:37:29.3] LB: All right, this one I actually got from your podcast because I think you interviewed him, Skye Jethani.
[0:37:35.8] JR: Oh man, Skye is a good friend. He’s amazing.
[0:37:37.9] LB: Right, his book, With, changed me. Changed me, right? Talking about under, over, from, and for. I will say, The Creator in You, Jordan Raynor is a great book to gift to families and I think, finally, I’m looking at my bookshelf. I think the last one I will say is, Believe Bigger, and that is by Marshawn Evans Daniels. She not only has a book but a devotional that I mean, talk about audacity, I mean, she is just building you up the entire book. So that would be my other one.
[0:38:08.7] JR: I love it, those are great titles. Hey, who do you want to hear on the show?
[0:38:12.9] LB: I was thinking about this as well and you know, I think it will be cool to get some more media sort of heads right in this world and someone that I actually admire and he is a family friend of ours, his name is Detavio Samuels, and he is the CEO of REVOLT and REVOLT is Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy.
[0:38:38.4] JR: Yeah.
[0:38:39.2] LB: But that’s his media arm of his billion-dollar empire, and Detavio is a Christian and he is working on one of the biggest mountains of media and it’s secular media.
[0:38:53.4] JR: Detavio is always welcome, that would be an amazing interview. So send a text, send an email, and he is welcome anytime.
[0:39:02.1] LB: You got it, Jordan.
[0:39:03.9] JR: Anytime. Hey Letisha, what’s one thing from our conversation you want to reiterate to our listeners before we sign off?
[0:39:10.4] LB: Let’s go back to the human voice, if you feel called to use your voice, whether that be in your workplace, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a microphone, but if you feel that God has given you something to say, I want you to know that there is an immense amount of grace in your voice and that God will do more than your two hands, more than your imagination, more than your intellect can do if you align your voice with what God’s put you to say when you start doing that.
I want you to see how He works on your behalf and there’s time, again, if you look in the word how he talks about the words we use and how we speak, I think that all goes into alignment with how powerful your voice is. I hope you take that to heart and start thinking about, “Well, what has God called me to say?” Whether it’s on a mic or just in everyday conversations or at work.
[0:40:09.7] JR: Yeah Letisha, it reminds me of this quote from Mark Batterson’s book, Please, Sorry, Thanks, I just pulled up. He said this quote, “The Doppler Effect” which I wasn’t familiar with, “The Doppler Effect tells us that the universe is still expanding.” In other words, the words God spoke in the beginning, see Genesis one, are still creating galaxies at the outer edge of the universe.
The universe is God’s way of saying, “Look at what I can do with four words.” Everything we see was once said and the point Mark is making in this is the power of words, is the power of voice and here, he is not talking about the human voice. He is talking about the voice of God, the Father. But His image is in you and I, and thus, our words have great power, power for destruction, but also the power to build up and the power to shape this world to make it more like the eternal kingdom of God. Amen, Letisha?
[0:41:06.6] LB: Amen, thank you for that.
[0:41:08.4] JR: Hey, I want to commend you for the extraordinary work you do for the glory of God and the good of others, for spending so many years being salt and light in the darkness of news and for helping others today be salt and light via their own media channels. Guys, if you want to connect with Letisha, you can do so at paradigmmediagroup.co. Where you at on Instagram or where are you most active on social, Letisha?
[0:41:33.3] LB: Yeah, I would say Instagram is my name, Letisha Bereola, and if you’re not into Instagram, I’m also really active on LinkedIn. I’m starting to love that platform, by the way.
[0:41:44.4] JR: Me too, it’s one of the few platforms I do love. Hey Letisha, thanks for hanging out with us today.
[0:41:48.7] LB: Thank you, Jordan.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:41:51.3] JR: Hey, who do you guys want to hear on the podcast next? Let me know at jordanraynor.com/contact. Thank you, guys, so much for tuning in this week, I’ll see you next time.
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