IAM333- Podcast Hosts Uncensored and Online with Their One-of-a-kind Brand

Jesse Reynolds is a Canadian actor, host and stand-up comedian; Jenna Mo is a scholarship-winning athlete and radio personality. Together they hosted a major market morning show in Ottawa, Ontario for nearly 4 years with a specialty in celebrity gossip, local news, unusual headlines and informative research studies. Now, they're uncensored and online with their one-of-a-kind brand! You're guaranteed a hilarious rundown of the week’s most bizarre news, personal stories, interesting guests and whatever else they feel like talking about because it’s their podcast and they do what they want. Some may say it’s a mess, but really they’re just perfectly imperfect… It’s Jesse and Jenna’s Messy Podcast!

• CEO Hack: Trying out new things and being adaptable
• CEO Nugget: Don't be afraid of failure
• CEO Defined: Turn passion into something different, making own decisions, not waiting for permission and working with people you love

Website: https://www.messypodcast.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/jesseandjenna/about/?ref=page_internal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesseandjmo/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:30

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have two very special guests on the show today I have Jesse and Jenna's messy podcast. Jen and Jesse, it's awesome to have you guys on the show.

Jenna Mo 0:41

Oh, thank you so much for asking us to do that. Yeah, this

Gresham Harkless 0:46

Yes. I'm super excited to have you guys. You guys are doing some awesome things. And I want to just read a little bit more about you guys so people can learn a little bit more about you. And Jessie Reynolds is a Canadian actor, host,, and stand-up comedian. Jenna Mo is a scholarship-winning athlete and radio personality. Together they hosted a major market Morning Show in Ottawa, Ontario for nearly four years, with a specialty in celebrity gossip, local news, unusual headlines, and formative research studies.

Now they've uncensored and online with their one-of-a-kind brand. You are guaranteed a hilarious rundown of the week's most bizarre news, personal stories, interesting guests, and whatever they feel like talking about because it's their podcast, and they do what they like. Some may say is a mess. But really, they're just perfectly imperfect as Jesse and Jenna's messy podcast. Yeah. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Jenna Mo 1:41

Oh, for sure. I think we can all really learn from each other because podcasting is it's a bit of a new adventure, especially for former radio professionals. You know, it's a lot different. And I think it's a, everyone's learning as we go kind of kind of.

Jesse Reynolds 1:57

Yeah and you know, what, Gresh if any of those CEOs are single, so

Gresham Harkless 2:02

Okay, definitely let it you know, so you guys just told everybody. So I wanted to hear like, how did you guys link up? And were you guys always on the radio together? How did you start this podcast? Tell me a little bit more about that.

Jenna Mo 2:13

We have a really, really interesting story. I started on radio in Ottawa, about five and a half years ago, I had my own show by myself in the mid-day. And then our station decided to throw a contest and it was called jumps greatest Gig. And it was a contest to find a morning show host. And that is when my life ended. And Jesse was

Jesse Reynolds 2:34

(Laughing) and mind began.

Jenna Mo 2:36

Yeah, and you know, he won the contest. And, you can tell the rest of it, because it just everything changed very quickly.

Jesse Reynolds 2:44

It did. And you know, what's interesting about that is after I won that talent search, Jenna was sort of the host at the station at the time that had to call me to let me know I got through to each round. And at the time, there were no plans for her to switch to the morning show. So it was kind of what's the word Kismet? Yeah, we ended up together because we didn't think it was going to happen. But after hosting the morning show for about a year, there were some other personality changes and the hosts left the show. And I said to our producers, and our PDS I said give me Jenna, me and Jenna, one of the best shows ever. And finally, after begging and pleading, they listened. And they put us on mornings together and kind of the rest is history. Really.

Jenna Mo 3:22

Yeah. And you know, we had a good run at it, and Canadian radio is a bit different from the US, I think, we were, unfortunately, like go due to automation, syndication, it was actually an American syndicated show that kind of took our place in the morning. But that was when we decided, you know, it's not often that you find a host that you can automatically connect usually chemistry is the one thing that you have to work on. Yeah, we didn't have that. Like we had immediate chemistry, we had to work on everything else.

So when our jobs were done together on air, we went, we don't want this relationship to end. What can we do? And that was when our producer John reached out to us and said, Why not a podcast? And that's what we did. And you know, it's changed a lot. It started off as we almost formatted it like a radio show in an hour. And we realize that's not what podcasting is. It doesn't have to be that quick. You have time to talk, you have time to converse, time to dig a little bit deeper into what it may be, and also be unfiltered at the same time. So it's kind of evolved a lot over the past. I don't know how many months now.

Jesse Reynolds 4:31

Eight months, we've been doing this? Yeah, and you can Good point. One of the things that I realized in doing this is how different podcasting and radio are. A lot of people think they're the same they're not at all, as Jenna just said, we can talk about sex and swear Gresh

Gresham Harkless 4:45

Exactly, exactly. And it's hard a little bit harder to do that on the radio, but it's great to kind of hear how you guys were brought together by the universe so to speak. And now you guys are getting you know making history and everything. So I guess Can you tell us a little bit more about what we can expect to hear on your podcast and what you feel it's kind of like your secret sauce and what sets you guys apart?

Jenna Mo 5:02

So our podcast now it, we were doing three times a week, but now we've changed it a little bit to twice a week, we have an episode that comes out Wednesday. And that's when we reach out to interesting people, interesting, engaging, and we've had a range of guests. We've had, you know, a fully transgendered woman on our show. We've also had Sally Jessy Raphael, you know, the famous talk show host from the 80s and 90s. And we just want to look for engaging content, things that will interest you, regardless of what the topic may be.

Jesse Reynolds 5:34

Yeah, it's not always who has something they want to promote. But for instance, one of the guests we have coming up is a funeral director. So we'll dig into, you know, what that's like, and sort of those interesting conversations that a lot of people are maybe afraid to have, like with the transgender woman, gentleman, and, you know, we ask the tough questions that are, you know, traditionally taboo to ask, we're not afraid to go there. The wind helps with that. Yeah.

Jenna Mo 5:57

Then on Fridays, we have an episode where we go over kind of the dumb moments of the internet, where we find something, whether it be a study or a story out of Florida, or whatever it may be. And we'll talk about that. And we'll do our Friday episodes. We call it WTF Friday, kind of just What did you just see on the internet?

Jesse Reynolds 6:18

When you ask about our secret sauce, one of the things that I love about us is that we almost sort of have gender-swapped roles. I used to joke about that on our show because Jen is a collegiate athlete. I'm a theater student, I'm also an openly gay host. So I always always joked that I was the girl on the show, and Jenna was the dude. And that dynamic really worked for us. And I think people responded to that.

Gresham Harkless 6:38

Yeah, I think it definitely helps out when it's something other than the quote-unquote norm, you know, where you're hearing all the same thing. So it helps you kind of break through and I love that you guys have taken you know, like, you talked about it in the very beginning, like podcasts is something that is not a completely new platform, but it's something that's constantly evolving. So you can kind of make it into what you want it to be rather than it has to be whatever it should be, by whoever's rules that don't really matter, I guess.

Jenna Mo 7:02

And if you do look at our reviews online, a lot of them say, and they're all good, except for one.

Jesse Reynolds 7:07

Yeah, my stars baby.

Gresham Harkless 7:12

That person must not have had vino.

Jenna Mo 7:14

Yeah, no, they just, they also didn't like Britney Spears, or they love Britney Spears. We talked about Britney Spears.

Jesse Reynolds 7:20

Yes, we love Britney on this show. We love her.

Gresham Harkless 7:24

Yes, yeah, I don't want any bad stars myself. So I appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you guys for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an Apple book or a habit that you have. But it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Jenna Mo 7:40

I think we're still trying to figure out are hacks. But I think that's what is great about it is we aren't scared to try things and realize that they're not working and switch gears. For example, one thing that we like to do a lot to help market it because we don't have the money to be able to go out and pay for advertising and what it may be. So what we've done is take it upon ourselves. So when we record our podcasts we recorded on video, and then at the end of the episode, one of us will take it home, we'll look at the video.

And we'll cut anywhere from 15-second to two-minute clips. And we'll add some audiovisuals and stuff like that. And we'll post those on social media. And we use those almost as a teaser, almost like a preview of what you're going to get. And those seem to be working really well for us. But we also made some mistakes with those. We used to have them posted three minutes long and those weren't getting as many hits. So we go okay, let's try something different. And I think that's really important when you are entering this podcasting world you're trying to succeed. One way in any industry is don't be afraid to try things and they don't work.

Jesse Reynolds 8:41

Yeah, be adaptable, be adaptable, and also the power of the tease now. And that's one thing that comes from radio that still applies to podcasts because like Jenna said, when we shortened up the clips, and we left them on sort of a cliffhanger, we noticed our numbers spike on the actual podcast because it made people want to go from the clip they saw on Facebook and actually download the podcast whereas when it was three or four minutes, they kind of got their fix and now I'm on something else. So yeah, the tease is huge.

Gresham Harkless 9:05

Yeah, that makes perfect sense especially because podcasting is a big community and and growing community especially when get an opportunity to hear you know why people started their podcasts, just like we're doing now is definitely a great thing that happened. Now I want to ask you guys what I call a CEO nugget and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice if you can happen to a time machine what would you tell your younger business self?

Jesse Reynolds 9:26

Hmm, well, first of all, you said nugget, you know it is legally gonna mean something different.

Jenna Mo 9:33

I don't know if we have one together. But I've always said this. And even when on the show, I said you got to risk it to get the biscuit. You know, don't again, don't be afraid of failure, and you will fail and some of the greatest people in the world have failed many, many times. I think it's about what you do with that failure.

Jesse Reynolds 9:52

Absolutely. I mean, you see those viral stories going around Madonna was sharing how many rejections she got from record labels before she made it. Maybe a bad example nowadays. Like even the most successful people out there failed many times before they succeeded. So you just got to get back on the horse, which in this business, it's hard to do. Because you're shot down, you're knocked down so often and rejection is the name of the game. But if you proceed, and persevere, you'll get there.

Jenna Mo 10:19

Yeah

Gresham Harkless 10:20

Absolutely. What kind of drives you guys say, to keep going, you know, when you do have the ups and downs?

Jenna Mo 10:25

For me personally, it's passion. I absolutely love what I do. And I absolutely love working with Jesse. So at the end of the day, if an episode doesn't have the numbers that we thought it would I also like don't don't like to look at numbers too often. Because it does mess with me mentally. But at the end of the day, if it's not working, or if you get a note from someone saying you suck, I just remember one, I still get to do something I love. And I get to work with someone that I chose to work with

Jesse Reynolds 10:56

Checks in the mail Jenna. Keep going as the vino, let's be honest.

Gresham Harkless 11:02

Whatever works, right?

Jesse Reynolds 11:04

It is whatever works. But also those moments where in between, you'll get a message from a mom like we just recently did. We don't advertise our podcast to children. But one of the most awesome messages we got last week was a mom saying her little boy who was old was the agenda for way too young. And he was like put on Jessie and Jenna. That's my favorite story, Jessie and Jenna. And to get moments like that are comments like that, not necessarily that children are listening to us, but that moms appreciate us enough to put us on in the car, or, you know, you realize the impact that you do have in people's lives. Because sometimes when you're in the studio, you don't see your audience, you don't know who's listening. So that feedback really keeps me going.

Gresham Harkless 11:42

Yeah, and especially probably just like, they say, on social media, there are those people called lurkers that are listening and engaging, but you didn't really know about them. But to hear and get stories and feedback, like that probably definitely helps out a lot. So that's always great to hear. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So what does being a CEO mean to you guys,

Jenna Mo 12:05

To me being a CEO is I'm going back to passion every time it is that taking what you love in your life, and being able to make it into something that you never thought you could make it into. A CEO is also entering what you think might be a great idea and not being afraid to turn around to something totally different. And also CEO is you are making your own decisions, which's a great thing because you don't have anyone telling you what to do. But it's also a scary thing. Because at the end of the day, the decisions you make can directly affect you, and only you at that time. Or if you do have employees, they can affect your employees. So you know, being a CEO is being responsible, being daring, and also being passionate,

Jesse Reynolds 12:56

And not waiting for permission. I think that's the problem a lot of people wait for permission to do something and CEOs get out there and make it happen whether or not someone's giving them a platform to do it. That's what happened with this podcast. That's what our producer John did with a website, he runs called Blaster radio.com. That's where our podcast is hosted. And real CEOs get out there. And they start their projects, and they don't wait to be told it's okay to do it.

Gresham Harkless 13:19

Absolutely. And they don't wait to be told they don't wait. They're not waiting to be waiting for the perfect time either. Because a lot of times that time never comes. So I appreciate you guys for doing that and encouraging people to do that as well, too. So I wanted to pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course our best they can get a hold of you subscribe to your podcast and find out about all the phenomenal things you guys are doing.

Jenna Mo 13:43

I just hope that listeners understand that. You know, and you've probably talked to many CEOs and many entrepreneurs out there and everyone has a similar story. I was down to my last 50 cents. I thought my life was ending, I thought I was going to be homeless, this and that. But you know how things turn and everything comes down to timing. So even though times are really rough at one point, remember that timing is always on your side. And the right opportunities will happen at the right time. It's unfortunate that we live in a world of immediacy now, especially under younger people like millennials, who expect everything to happen right away. Well, that's not how things happen. Rome wasn't built in a night to be cliche.

So you know, even though you have this amazing, incredible idea that you truly believe in, you've tried so hard to make it to create it, whether that's getting financing or whatever it may be. Even if every door is shut on you. There will always be a crack open in one of those doors. So don't ever give up sounds super cheesy or true but don't because you know and follow your gut your gut will tell you if you're on the right track or not.

Jesse Reynolds 14:50

It's true. And to that point, if you Google a list of celebrities that made it over the age of 40 You will be shocked at how long that list is Morgan Freeman's on that list. I mean, I could go on and I blew me away the amount of people that got their big break after the age of 40, which traditionally you don't think is going to happen. Even look at successful people like Ellen DeGeneres when her sit.com got canceled because she came out as gay. Everyone thought that was it. We're never gonna hear from her again. Now she's got the biggest talk show on TV. So don't give up. I think that's a great message.

Jenna Mo 15:19

Yeah. And ask for where you can find our podcasts, really anywhere that you find your podcasts, we're on everything we're on Apple podcasts. Sorry, we're on Spotify. We're on Stitcher. You can also find us at messypodcast.com and we are online on Facebook.

Jesse Reynolds 15:20

It's Jesse&Jenna's messy podcast on Facebook. I got it. The vino is kicking in Gresh

Jenna Mo 15:47

It is no worries.

Jesse Reynolds 15:51

And on Instagram, we're at Jesse&Jmo and messypodcast.com

Gresham Harkless 15:59

Awesome awesome awesome and just in case anybody might be drinking any vino, listen to this. We'll also have those links in the show notes as well. So I appreciate both of you guys and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:09

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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