Alysse Bryson and Mark Wright worked together in the television industry and are now working together again at WORKP2P, the parent company of the “BEATS WORKING” podcast.
In this episode, Mark explains why he left the TV industry, what he hopes to accomplish as host of the new podcast, and why he says, “this is the best job I’ve ever had.”
Alysse talks about her career in newspapers, magazines, and television that developed her superpowers that include solving business problems and launching new ideas. She also explains how she created “The Sober Curator” website during the pandemic to give people in recovery a place to be inspired.
Resources from the episode:
- The Sober Curator is a resource for those seeking content related to recovery or a zero-proof lifestyle, proving that being sober is never boring! Connect with The Sober Curator online – scroll to the bottom of the home page to see the epic list of social sites that you can follow!
- Get in touch with Alysse by emailing her at alysse@workp2p.com or messaging her on LinkedIn.
- You can get to know more about Mark by visiting his website, https://markwright.com/
- Learn more about BEATS WORKING and our mission to redeem work here.
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Speakers: Alysse Bryson and Mark Wright
MARK WRIGHT 00:00
This is the BEATS WORKING Show. We are on a mission to redeem work. The word, the place, and the way. I’m your host, Mark Wright. Join us at winning the game of work.
MARK WRIGHT 00:15
Welcome to the show. On today’s episode, a really fun conversation with my friend Alysse Bryson. So, Alysse and I both worked together in television at KING 5, and now we’re both working together on this podcast. Alysse is VP of community development at WORKP2P. That’s the company founded by Dan Rogers that produces this podcast, and as you heard in the intro, we are all on a mission to redeem work. So, it’s been a little over a year since I left television as an anchor at KING 5, and a lot of people have asked why I left. So, we talk about that in the episode today, but we also talk about why everyone at WORK P2P is so excited for this new chapter in our careers. This literally is a dream job for all of us. And near the end of the podcast, it sounds like we wrap things up, but I forgot a few things ha-ha, so keep listening if you would, to the very end, and, uh, I just had a few things that I thought you should know about. So, thank you and enjoy.
ALYSSE BRYSON 01:16
Do you know, Mark, the first time you ever talked to me, do you know? You were on the, the third floor of the KING 5 building?
MARK WRIGHT 01:25
The old one or the new one?
ALYSSE BRYSON 01:26
The new one, okay. You were, um, you were maybe cleaning out your coffee mug or doing something with dishes, and I walked by, and you said, you said, hey, hi, my name’s Mark, I think you’re new here. I don’t, I don’t remember seeing you before, and I yeah, and I introduced myself, told you my name, and then the next time I saw you, you were hi Alysse, and I was like, oh! TV handsome remembers my name. How is that possible? Yeah, that I, that was, it made a memory for me because I have not been a person that’s, I don’t have a great memory and I’m sometimes bad with names, but the fact that like, I was like, I’m just this peon from the sales department and he wanted to know who I was, he knew I was new, he remembered my name and I was like, I’m really, I’m really glad I work here.
MARK WRIGHT 02:19
Wow. Yeah. That’s a nice, that’s what a great, I’m glad I, I’m glad it was, I was nice to you.
ALYSSE BRYSON 02:24
You were totally nice to me.
MARK WRIGHT 02:25
You know why I was on the third floor though?
ALYSSE BRYSON 02:28
I don’t because you wanted to get away from the second floor?
MARK WRIGHT 02:33
No, no. For. For reference for, for listeners, uh, second floor newsroom, uh, creative services. That’s on one part of the building. The other part of the building we have, uh, administration, whatnot. Third floor is what we call the revenue-generating floor of the building sales department.
ALYSSE BRYSON 02:53
The fun floor, that’s what it’s called. The fun floor.
MARK WRIGHT 02:55
The fun floor. But I was, I would always go up to the third floor because uh, there was hot water on demand and I would grind my coffee in the coffee grinder, put it in the one cup filter holder, and then run upstairs and pour hot water through it. So, I was up there as I normally would do before the five o’clock show, you know, make some great coffee.
ALYSSE BRYSON 03:15
Did they not give you hot water on the second floor? The newsroom doesn’t get hot water cause you’re in hot water. What’s that about?
MARK WRIGHT 03:22
There was a, there was an automatic coffee machine, but it was, it just was really awful, terrible coffee.
ALYSSE BRYSON 03:29
Now, I have to tell you, I remember that coffee machine and I remember it was like unlimited and it could make lattes and do all these things.
MARK WRIGHT 03:36
Oh yeah.
ALYSSE BRYSON 03:37
I didn’t sleep the first 30 days I worked there, I was drinking coffee, like it was like going out of style.
MARK WRIGHT 03:43
Because it was free.
ALYSSE BRYSON 03:44
Because it was free. I love free stuff, Mark. I do.
MARK WRIGHT 03:46
Which I thought that was cool because I hadn’t, I don’t think, well, did I work in. I don’t know that we ever had free coffee like that in other stations, but that was, we should probably tell people what, what we’re talking about, why we’re talking about the old days. If they’re just, uh, tuning in.
ALYSSE BRYSON 04:03
Oh, right. Cause there’s new days because we’re still, we still fast forward cause that was like still six or seven years ago and, and we’re still working together, but somewhere totally different.
MARK WRIGHT 4:12
Okay. Let’s back up. This is Alysse Bryson, I’m Mark Wright. We worked together, in television back in the day, and we are now once again working together with the BEATS WORKING podcast. And uh, I joined the team at the first of the year, and you joined the team, what, mid-last year? Middle of last year?
ALYSSE BRYSON 04:31
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Is this where I get to say I’m your boss, because that’s my favorite part of this story.
MARK WRIGHT 04:35
Ha-ha-ha. You…whatever you wanna do, boss.
ALYSSE BRYSON
Yes!
MARK WRIGHT 04:43
Yeah, I’ve never had, I’ve never had a stranger boss in my life, but I’ve never had more fun working, working in my life we put it that way.
ALYSSE BRYSON 04:50
That tracks. That tracks.
MARK WRIGHT 04:52
Let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s hit the rewind button a little bit. I want to know, uh, and for people listening, Alysse. You, uh, kind of grew up in the sales world, and you were also at, was it Seattle Met magazine?
ALYSSE BRYSON 05:04
I was.
MARK WRIGHT 05:05
And you, uh, I guess your superpower is, is connecting people and publications and causes because what was your job at KING 5 too?
ALYSSE BRYSON 05:15
I was the director of, uh, business development, um, market development. I had to say business development cause when I would tell people I’m the director of market development, what they would hear is I was the director of marketing and I do like to consider myself a creative person, but director of marketing, I am not. Um, the real title that I loved the most at KING 5 was the one I worked the hardest to get, and that was the director of fun.
MARK WRIGHT 05:44
Which was no, uh, small thing. Every, you know, there was a, a cubicle decorating contest every holiday, and I think you guys won every year. If I’m not mistaken.
ALYSSE BRYSON 05:56
I love any reason for a theme, any reason for a theme party, a theme, costume theme, decorations, sign me up.
MARK WRIGHT 06:03
What, uh, specifically though, what does that job title mean?
ALYSSE BRYSON 06:07
You know, it’s, it’s funny, it was a, a director of market development and before that, when I was at Seattle Met magazine, I was a publisher, I was director of sales, I’ve been an account executive. Um, so I’ve had an opportunity to have titles where you say the title account executive, and people are like, ooh, that’s just a fancy name for a salesperson, right? But when you start saying things like publisher or director of market development, people are like, what does that mean? Right. Um, so, and now my title is vice president of community development, which I think if you know me, you know that I love community, I love developing community, I love bringing people together, I love bringing causes together. Um, I love to, I love storytelling. Uh uh, but I typically have been on the money side of content creation media places. So, at KING 5 at Seattle Met, at the Seattle Times. I have traditionally, up until this point, always been in the sales advertising sponsorship side of the business.
MARK WRIGHT 07:11
Yeah. How, how did you get, um, I’m curious from KING 5 to um, uh, WORKP2P. Our current, uh, company, which was founded by Dan Rogers, um, the parent company is Point to Point Transportation. It’s an event shipping company. So, when large companies, like tech companies want to send stuff to a big conference, Point to Point Transportation is, is the shipping expert that a lot of big companies rely on. So that, that company’s been going for about 20 years and Dan has spun off this, this new division to, to redeem work and I’m curious when, at what point last year did Dan come to you and say, hey, I’ve got this idea, and I want you to come.
ALYSSE BRYSON 07:56
Ah, you know what’s awesome about that story is he didn’t, he didn’t. Um, so I have known Dan Dan’s been in my life for 13, 14 years. Um, met him in a different circle, um, and at that time I was at the magazine and he just fell into my life at a pretty instrumental part. Um, I’m very open about being a person in long-term recovery, um, from alcohol and drugs. I don’t shy away from that and, um, and uh, when I met Dan, I was three or four years sober. So, my career, that was right when my career was kind of starting to take off because well, because I was sober, and I was actually showing up to work. It’s funny how that happens.
MARK WRIGHT 08:39
Uh, funny how that happens.
ALYSSE BRYSON 08:40
Yeah and I started doing what I said I was gonna do. It’s really interesting what happens when you combine those two things. Um, but so he was pretty instrumental in my personal life of getting me kind of on the right trajectory, right? So, he’s just been this person in my life where if I needed to bounce things off of, he was, uh, a trusted mentor, if you will, that I could call and bounce things off of. So, um, towards the end of the pandemic, a little over a year ago, I reached out to him for, um, I started a pandemic baby, the Sober Curator.
MARK WRIGHT 09:14
Uh, on your hat.
ALYSSE BRYSON 09:15
It’s on my hat. Here watching on the video, and that is, it’s a project that I started during the pandemic when we all, everybody else was off baking banana bread, right? And doing TikTok dances. I was building a website, um, and putting together an online community of sober curators across the country in Canada and Mexico that were curating and creating original content, lifestyle content for the recovery community because as a person in long-term recovery, I was looking for content that I could not find. There’s lots of content out there that is targeted at people in early recovery that are, you know, how to go to your first wedding sober, or how to date sober, or how to get your first 90 day sober, whatever it is. But like as someone like me who’s got, you know, over 15 years, um, I don’t need to that kind of content, but I want a different kind of content. So long story short, when I couldn’t find it, I was like, I’m crazy enough to make it. So, I built this thing, and I took it about as far as I could do on my little, tiny shoestring budget, and so, I went to Dan, and I was like, you are really good at taking small companies and making them global companies. Maybe you could he help me figure this thing out. So, we started working together and throughout that process he was like, Alysse, you’re not gonna get clarity or a vision on this project because what I’m sensing is you don’t have clarity and vision for yourself, for, for you. And I was like, what do you mean? My personal life or my professional life? And he was like, no offense Alysse, but uh, I don’t wanna ruin it for you. You only have the one life, and I have thought a lot about that statement since then, and he’s right. And once I put down the bottle and really came into my full self as the career passionate person that I am, I would always say when I was at the magazine, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle, right? Because I just love what I do. I want to love what I do. I’ve raised my son, telling him, if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life, but I’ve always done it in a very corporate setting, right? So
MARK WRIGHT 11:32
As, as most of us have.
ALYSSE BRYSON 11:34
As most of us have. So, so then I, I started working with him on a vision statement and got some clarity on that, and then he, he had me do this thing called an impact filter and he was like, why don’t you, why don’t you create the job that you wanna have? Don’t worry about money, don’t worry about titles, don’t worry about where you’re gonna do it. Just go make up your dream job. And I was like, okay. That’s weird, but, sure.
MARK WRIGHT 11:59
So let me, let me stop you for a quick second, Alysse. So, when he said you need clarity that, that, that means you didn’t know exactly what it was that you were called to do, that you wanted to do. Is that right?
ALYSSE BRYSON 12:12
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.
MARK WRIGHT 12:13
Okay.
ALYSSE BRYSON 12:14
And so, I, I took this form. He loves an Excel spreadsheet, man, that guy and an excel spreadsheet. And, uh, I took this form, and I filled it out to the best of my ability, and you know, at first I just put on there everything that I think I’m good at, right? And I didn’t put on any of the stuff that I don’t like doing cause who wants to do that stuff, right? But then there was an area to like, how am I gonna measure my success? So, I, I filled that out and I went back a week later, and I’m a great presenter. I can present. You give me an opportunity to present a PowerPoint deck and that’s where I can shine. And uh, so I presented to him my, this is my pretend job, and he was like, this is awesome. When do you wanna start? And I was like, oh, you know somebody that has a job just like this, this is like a unicorn job, and he was like, yeah, I’ll hire you to do that job, and I was just like, uh,
MARK WRIGHT 13:09
Wow! That’s a, that’s a, that’s. That’s eye-opening right there.
ALYSSE BRYSON 13:14
Yeah.
MARK WRIGHT 13:14
Who gets to do that?
ALYSSE BRYSON 13:15
Who gets to do that? Who gets to write their own job? And then I was like, Dan, I don’t wanna ruin it for you, but you work in a warehouse in Kent, buddy.
MARK WRIGHT 13:22
Ha-ha-ha Like the railroad tracks right outside the door.
ALYSSE BRYSON 13:26
Exactly, and I don’t know if you noticed, but like I’m kind of a big deal, right? I’m a high-rise downtown Seattle girl, right? Um, and we had a good laugh over that and then he started to talk to me about what he’s been working on for decades, but definitely, he also got a time of reflection. We all got a time of reflection during the pandemic and, um, and he is really trying to take his existing company and make, make the 2.0 version of where it’s going next, and he wants to redeem work, the word, the place and the way, and we talked a lot about what that could look like and what my role could be in that. And, and I’m a multiplier. I build communities. I, I have a big vivid imagination and um, and basically he set it up that there was no way for me to say no.
MARK WRIGHT 14:19
So, you called me. Um, it must have been late summer, right? Of last year. Um, because part of, of Dan’s vision, is also personal development as well as business development, and in the personal development realm, there’s a, a training program that, that he and you have developed called Intentional Sidekick. It’s basically teaching people how to be intentional with their thinking and, and planning so that they can actually get done what they want to get done in their life. So, you said, hey, we’re testing out this new curriculum. We, we need about 35 people. We’d love if you could come and, and be one of our guinea pigs and I signed up, went through the nine-week course, and by the end of the nine weeks I was just like, I was like, holy cow, I’ve, I’ve never been intentional about this sort of planning in my life about anything, whether it’s relationships or money or, or work, and it was a huge eye-opener for me, and at the end of that nine week period, we all kinda looked at each other and, and I’ll let you take this story, story from there.
ALYSSE BRYSON 15:27
Well, I’ll just rewind a little teeny tiny bit cause it was right around week three maybe, maybe week four, but we had all met at a fundraiser, so not course related, but for something else, and you walked in, and you just had this pep in your step and this glow about you, and you were like, Alysse, this course is going to change my life, and I was like, oh, he has no idea. He has no idea and I, uh, I remember calling Dan after that, that, that breakfast luncheon, I think it was a luncheon, and I said, you know, we’re building this thing and you don’t really, really wanna be the face of it and I don’t really, really wanna be the face of it, and quite honestly, if we’re gonna redeem work, we’re gonna need a lot of faces, a lot of faces, and we happen to have one in, in our course right now in our beta group, who is a very familiar face around the Pacific Northwest that is known for telling amazing stories, and, uh, I think, I think, I think we might be able to talk him into joining our team.
MARK WRIGHT 16:39
And so, for, uh, just for some background, um, it was probably in January of last year I was invited not to work in television ha-ha-ha anymore.
ALYSSE BRYSON 16:52
Is that, is that how we say it? Is that what we’re calling it?
MARK WRIGHT 16:54
Yeah, there’s a, there’s a term that that television people use, it’s called unrenewed, if you get unrenewed. So, you know, we obviously work on a contract basis and, um, they, they can come to you at any point near the end of the contract and just say, hey, we’re not gonna renew your contract. So, I’m not gonna spend a lot of time talking about that. I mean, I think the fact that the company has been sold or is in the process of being sold to a hedge fund, we’ll tell you kind of what their priorities were, and I’ll just leave it at that. So, and, and I’ll tell you, you and I at least know each other well enough that when I was, earlier in my career, when something like this would happen, the, the natural inclination is to completely freak out, and, you know, I had, it happened when I was in Spokane. I had a almost two-year-old son at the time, our first, uh, child. And, and I got, I got, uh, the, the rug pulled out from under me during a contract negotiation and they offered me the morning show again and I just thought about it, and I thought, you know, that’s not a growth opportunity, but so here I am, it’s out like October I’m on a ladder painting my house on the south hill of Spokane, this little tiny house that Jamie and I lived in, and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I was literally freaking out, and then the phone rang and a news director in Salt Lake City said, hey, we, we, uh, we’re familiar with your work and we’d like you to come down. So long story short, we ended up going down to Salt Lake City for four and a half years and got to see the Olympics down there and then, uh, came back up to Seattle in 2003, worked for the Fox affiliate for um, I think eight years, and then moved over to KING 5. So, if there’s any advice I could give to younger people, ha-ha, and now I’m sounding old, right? I’d like to give some advi, to give some advice.
ALYSSE BRYSON 18:36
You said younger people, so is that, are you not talking to me anymore? I just need to check I don’t know. I don’t know.
MARK WRIGHT 18:40
You’re younger than I am, so take it, take it for what it’s worth. But when, I’ll tell you to, to, to of, to an instance when I have had the rug pulled out from under me, from a professional standpoint, it has always led to something better, always. So, what I learned, fairly early on, it was, and it’s hard not to freak out when your source of income is taken away. So, I just, I saw that that invitation not to work, uh, as a TV anchor anymore, um, as, as an opportunity and, uh, so I, I was in the mortgage industry for a while last year, because I had kind of planned for the inevitability of that, uh, uninvitation, ha-ha. Um, but the timing was just not right, you know, interest rates started going up. Um, and I was in mortgages for about four months and then, and I was with her wonderful, wonderful company, CrossCountry Mortgage and Julie Johnson, her team there is just fantastic. She was a, an amazing mentor but the reality was you guys came to me and, and offered me this job that sounded just, frankly, too good to be true. And, um, but I had a good enough feeling because I’d spent enough time with you all. I had a good enough, uh, feeling for, you know, your character and Dan’s character, and, and I took a jump. I took a leap and, uh, late last year, you guys offered me the position of podcast host and, uh, and gonna be doing some, leading some seminars as well and, and I said yes, and, and here we are. Here we are with the, the podcast up and running.
ALYSSE BRYSON 20:20
It’s running. It’s a real thing, you know, uh, is it too soon to start making the BEATS WORKING jokes? BEATS WORKING.
MARK WRIGHT 20:28
The BEATS WORKING.
ALYSSE BRYSON 20:29
BEATS WORKING.
MARK WRIGHT 20:30
And the, the background to that is that, you know, Dan started saying that a long, long time ago, I think in the nineties when he loved work, and he said that there were some work experiences that he would’ve paid the company to, to get those, those work experiences. I think, I think though, for people listening, if they didn’t listen already to the, the first episode with Dan, the idea of redeeming work, when people ask you what, what does it mean to redeem work and what, what really are we trying to do with this podcast and with all of the other things that we’re doing.
ALYSSE BRYSON 21:00
Yeah, and you know, I now have a bunch of different things swirling around my head. Um, when I left the magazine, I was there for close to a decade and, uh, and I, I took some time off. Uh, I’d had a series of unfortunate events. I had had emergency heart surgery, not exactly a heart attack, but it was almost a heart attack at the age of 40. Um, that did require putting a stint in. My son was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, our dog died. Like everything that could have gone wrong did. So, I was like, and I, I had become a full-blown workaholic. I had become a full-blown workaholic. Um, because there is a thing of loving something too much, too hard, right? So, I needed to do a reset, and that was really scary because my whole identity was wrapped up in that job, in that position. And at first, I thought, well, now is my opportunity my child is grown, I could go anywhere. Uh, I could work for the big magazines, I could go to LA, I could go to New York, and so, I did. I went and took some interviews and, and, but then I realized, by, if I were to take a job at another market, not only would I have to leave the Pacific Northwest, which I love, like, I love it here. It’s beautiful. I love the seasons. My parents live here, you know?
MARK WRIGHT 22:14
And you grew up here, where was it? Centralia?
ALYSSE BRYSON 22:15
I grew up here. Centralia. They, my parents are you know, married for 50 years, still live in my childhood home and I couldn’t imagine living somewhere else and quite honestly, with a gal like me who moves throughout the world, largely because of my network, I could not like networking is, is work, and like to go to a new city and start all over again, building out a new network, I don’t know that’s a, a younger person’s game, or at least it was not one I was super excited about. Um, so I, I flailed a little bit, but then, um, but then the right opportunity came along at King, and I was perfectly, perfectly happy to be there I gotta do all the things that I love working with great and talented people. Um, but the, um, the one overarching thing that uh, it always kind of nagged at me throughout my career, um, was I, um, you know, I mentioned that I’m sober. I didn’t get sober till I was 30. I entered the workforce at, you know, 18, 19. I dropped outta college, um, in large part due to lifestyle choices, and then I was a very young single mom, and so, I’ve always had this monkey on my back of I’m not good enough as everybody else in these corporate settings, because I don’t have, I don’t have a college degree, I don’t have a university degree, I don’t have a master’s in anything. I don’t have any certificates hanging on my wall. Apparently, rehab is not a good enough certificate to, to hang on a wall. Weird, I don’t know, but um, and so, uh, I just wanna do a little foreshadow, I know that, um, I’ve already listened to a couple of the episodes that you’ve recorded for this podcast, and I was listening to, uh, Jeff Kaas, and he was talking about that he went and got a college degree and it was a big deal because his dad had not had one. So, it was a really big deal spent all this time, spent all this money, and then what he learned was that uh, everything he learned there, he was not actually applicable once he got into the workplace at the first six months were really transformative and I have to tell you when I heard that, that little monkey on my back that said, you’re less than because you don’t have this degree like a lot of other people that you roll with have it fell off a little bit more and it’s not completely gone. It may never be completely gone, but if we’re gonna redeem work, Mark, we have to talk about it in all ways, in all implications, and um, and so I’m just, I’ve always loved working, I’m a good worker bee. Um, and I love working for companies that I think are doing great things, and what is not lost on me though is you and I are taking this leap of faith together. Publicly, right? Which we,
MARK WRIGHT 25:06
And we should say also your friend Libby and our friend, my friend.
ALYSSE BRYSON 25:10
Oh, li Libby. Yep. Libby’s with us too. You know, I just, uh,
MARK WRIGHT 25:14
You two were together at the magazine, and then together at KING. She was our community relations manager there, and, uh, fantastic human being.
ALYSSE BRYSON 25:22
Well, and Dan made a lot of amazing, uh, offer offers in, in the offer to work for him but he made a and he made a lot of promises that so far I have watched him keep but one of the things that really stood out to me is, Alysse, we’re only gonna work with the people we wanna work with, right? Life’s too short. Why would we work with people we don’t like? And I was like, hell yeah. I’m in, I like lots of people this is gonna be fun, right? But, and, and, and I, I hope that we see success and help other people find what they’re looking for in, in the redeeming of work, but what’s not lost on me, Mark, is with all this intentionality that I’ve been now consuming for the last eight months, nine months long enough to grow a baby, right? Is there’s gonna, and with being in a startup mode, for lack of a better word, there’s gonna be a lot of failures too, and that, you know, I love to win, I love success. I do, I do I love closing deals, all those things, but if I really look back at the biggest moments of my life that pushed me forward the most, it was, it was always the failures, right?
MARK WRIGHT 26:28
Yeah. You’ll learn way more, way more than, than from your successes. I’ve, you know, gone back to, I gra, you know, went to Pullman and the Murrow College in Pullman and, and have spoken for years to the students there, and, you know, and I tell them that every time I go, you know, pay attention to your failures. Don’t make the same mistake twice if you can help it and, and, and just ask yourself, what is this failure telling me about what I should be doing in life that I’m not doing right now, and for me, like, you know, I was, I was failing in college, uh, in the business school and, and literally had to get reinstated to the university twice and on the second time, I almost didn’t get back in but that’s when I changed my major because I realized I had been doing what I thought I should do and not what I loved doing, and I love to write, and my mom ha-ha will tell you that from the time I was about two, I was saying, watch me, watch me but then when I was in TV, I could just tell her what channel to watch. So, it all, it all worked out. My mom was my biggest fan up, uh, on the farm in Ferndale and uh, but yeah, I think, I think what’s exciting about this period in both of our careers, Alysse, is that, um, you know, uh, Dan is making a big bet and he’s making a big investment, and you and I, uh, are, are in the same, you know, taking the same leap of faith, and I’ll tell you, it’s the most exciting opportunity that I’ve ever had. Um, just when I think about what we are able to do on a daily basis in terms of creating what we want, um, focusing on what we want. Um, and it’s, it’s so much more positive than what I was doing for years as a journalist. I, I think that was really important work, but this, this has a feeling unlike anything I’ve ever done in, in broadcasting in terms of like, you know, you talk about Jeff Kaas and, and you know, the, the purpose of the podcast is to showcase people who are proving you can be honorable in the workplace and still make a lot of money, and I, I, I remember, I remember watching Jim Sinegal, the co-founder of Costco, speak at the Democratic National Convention. I can’t remember what, which one it was, but it was a number of years ago but Jim Senegal stood up there and gave a speech to the, to the convention, and the basic gist of the speech was Costco was a company founded on the idea that if you treated your people right first, the, the business success would follow, the money would follow and, and he and Costco and other companies like that are proof that it, you can treat people well, and make a lot of money at the same time, and I think there’s a huge disconnect between a lot of big companies in America right now that you have to be either pinching your pennies and squeezing every ounce of revenue out of the model, or you’re, or, or, or you’re just gonna be nice to people and you’re gonna be out of business in a couple of years and I just think that there’s a big disconnect and that’s, that’s what I think is most exciting about this podcast and the work that we’re trying to do in, I know Dan doesn’t like the you know the, the term business consulting, but we we’re sidekicking businesses, we’re helping businesses and organizations go from, from this level to a much higher level, and, and it’s super exciting because it’s not an either or, it’s not an either or proposition. You can, you can treat people the right way and really honor and respect them and help them and love them and help them grow in the work environment, and they will turn around and work as hard as you can imagine to make that company a success. That’s what I think is most exciting about this.
ALYSSE BRYSON 30:12
Oh, and that couldn’t be, more true when I’m, when I’m excited about something I can’t, like, it’s all I wanna do, you know? And, and I think a lot about, you know, Dan says, I care more about where my money goes than where it comes from. Like he pours value into his people. And, um, I’ve tried to take on that model in my own life, and while I may not have deep pockets of resources to pour onto people, what I do have is skill and time I can spend with people, whether it’s any of my sober curators that are working on their brand or their podcast, or whatever project they’re working on or you know, I’m a new house ho homeowner I bought, after being in the pandemic and being shoved in an apartment for two years with two dogs and a and a 20 something-year-old, I was like, I need a house, and so, but now did you know that when you buy a house, like you’re responsible for like the gutters and the yard? Like um, so I’ve been hiring people to do that, and you know, I’ve been paying them more than probably what the job is, because I wanna take really good care of them and you know, I have this new landscaper guy, and man, he is going above and beyond. Just cause I paid him a little extra. I don’t know. I’m just being, you know, I’m just trying to pour into that relationship. Um, I don’t know if that’s a great example, but I just, I wanna work differently. You and I have had the luxury at working for some incredible companies, incredible brands. I have no, I don’t have any complaints about my resume there there’s some, there’s some great stories and there’s some, there’s some not-so-great stories, but, but after the pandemic and having time to reflect, I wanna have some intention around the back half of my career when I, when I set out to retire, I wanna feel really good about what I’ve done and be able to look back and be like, I helped change lives and in these different ways.
MARK WRIGHT 32:11
Yeah, and I think a lot of companies say that their employees are their most valuable resource, but when you really look at how a lot of employees are being treated, um you know, I don’t think that, I don’t think that bears out, but I, I think there’s also, on the, on the other side of the equation, we have a, a young population of workers in America who are really trying to assert their rights and their needs and their aspirations, and, and there’s a shortage of labor in this country, and, and there’s a real struggle going on right now from, from both sides of, of the spectrum, and I think it’s a really interesting time to, to be on a mission to redeem work because I, I don’t think there’s any doubt that work is broken in, in some way, in a lot of different, different companies. Uh, before we go too much farther, I want to, I want to ask you more about this Sober Curator. I’ve had a chance to check out the blog, the, the website. It’s, it’s fantastic and the fact that you built that by yourself during the pandemic, um, I especially like the non-alcoholic beer review. You, you’ve got a guy that’s reviewed about a hundred non-alcoholic beers and his top recommendation is spot on. I can’t remember the name of the, off the top of my head, but, but tell me about why that was so important to you um, when, when it came to, you know, your creative focus and effort, it took a lot of work to, to, to do that, and it’s a wonderful site today. That’s a resource for thousands of people.
ALYSSE BRYSON 33:44
Yes, I, you know, I’ve lived lifestyle content for nearly two decades working at KING 5 and working at the magazine, right? So, I, I know lifestyle content. Um, so I was just looking for something through the lens of recovery and not finding it. So, I found a couple of people that were crazy enough to be like, that’s a good idea, I’ll, I’ll help you. Um, and then, um, and it’s interesting that I started it and then sought Dan’s advice later, but he, he often says, Alysse, if you just focus on being utterly fantastic and being in community with people, that the universe is a pull system, not push. You don’t have to push it onto anybody, if they, people that like it, well, it’ll resonate with them. So, I didn’t go out hunting for sober curators, they just came to me, you know, um, they came to the project, they sought that what I was doing and, and like, and like the resident and a beer nerd, he was like, uh, this is what I wanna write on your website, and he has done over a hundred NA beer reviews. So, did you even know that there were that many options, or did you just think it was just all O’Douls, because it’s a…
MARK WRIGHT 34:51
No, I, I knew that there were way more than that because I’ve, I’ve been a, a sort of a, a, I can’t even think of a connoisseur, there we go, a connoisseur of, of non-alcoholic beers. Yeah, the, the traditional non-alcoholic, uh, brands, uh, really left a lot to be desired, and there are some brands now that you can, you can almost not even tell the difference. It’s just some fantastic products.
ALYSSE BRYSON 35:14
Yeah. And you know, they’re not for everybody and that’s why it’s just not just a mocktail site, right? We do book reviews, movie reviews, podcast reviews, merchandise, highlight people, sober travel, all the things. Um, we, you know, we get about 10,000 people to the website a month, which, when I compare that number to websites I’ve worked on in my, in my normal, my day job, career, that’s a pretty small number, right? It’s a pretty small number, but then, when I think about putting 10,000 people in a room, I’m like,
MARK WRIGHT 35:47
Yeah, that’s a lot.
ALYSSE BRYSON 35:48
That’s decent, right? But I didn’t have, you know, when I was at KING 5 at the magazine, I had a lot of resources. People that built the website, people that did the graphics, people that did the writing, people that did the editing. Um, I had to teach myself how to do all those things. So, YouTube University is a great place to go for cheap. Um, but yeah, it’s been super fun. Um, and I still don’t necessarily know exactly what that project is supposed to be, but, um, it’s brought community together, I’ve made some lifelong friends and it’s just been, um, it’s been fun to build something that gets people excited um for a variety of reasons.
MARK WRIGHT 36:34
And so, when it comes to BEATS WORKING, I just want to encourage, uh, those of you listening, if you want to, uh, engage on this topic of redeeming work, if you want to suggest maybe, hey, you should, you guys should look at this company that’s really treating its people right and doing a great job with delivering a, a service or a product, um, you can email me at mark@beatsworking.show and also, you know, I mentioned we do have some, some business consulting that, that is part of the, the model and also personal development curriculum. So, you know, when, when we say we’re trying to redeem work, it’s actually just trying to reach people and we are not, you know, I’m speaking from just my experience. Dan is an expert at this, we are with Dan to try to help the world understand what he would love to see in terms of, of changes in the workplace and if, if you’re one of those enlightened employers, um, you know, reach out to us, we’d love to connect with you and, and learn from you because I think the coolest thing about this podcast is that we are all learning together, um, how to, how to show up in the workplace in, in, in a more honorable way, and I won’t go too far into, you know, what, you know, what our working conditions are at, at, uh, WORKP2P. Um,
ALYSSE BRYSON 37:53
Besides awesome.
MARK WRIGHT 37:54
This, this, this new company yet, I mean, I don’t want to go too far down into it, but it’s, it’s a four day work week and there are many, many, many other, uh, you know, perks and incentives and structural designs of the company that make it an absolute joy to, uh, to, to work in this, uh, for this, this organization, it’s amazing.
ALYSSE BRYSON 38:17
I do think it’s an exciting time to talk about work and what work’s gonna look like, right? We’ve got, we’ve got Gen Z that is entering the workforce in full force, right? Um, we’re coming off of a pandemic. Um, technology is jumping by leaps and bounds, I mean, we could have a whole episode talking about AI and how that is going to change the media landscape in, in so many different ways. Uh, the upsides and the downsides, right? We’re, we live in a world where it’s, it’s fragmented, it’s distracting, it’s swipe mentality. Um, some people wanna go back to the workplace, some people don’t wanna go back to the workplace. It’s, everything’s in disarray. Um, and, and you can either look at, look at that, and panic, right? Or you can look at it as an opportunity to rebuild.
MARK WRIGHT 39:09
Yeah. Yeah, very true. Um, so we’ve got some exciting episodes coming up. We’ve got brain scientist, John Medina, who is, uh, has written a book called Brain Rules for Work and, uh, just a super brilliant guy. Um, we’ve got Dr. Jeff Spencer, one of the top uh, you know, coaches in the world, performance coaches in the world. Um, so with each of these episodes, the goal really is just to bring this idea of redeeming work and, uh, and showcase that idea by talking with a lot of different people. We have a generational, uh, communications expert, Anna Liotta, and, uh, Anna has written books on the topic and spoken on the topic of how generations talk to each other and how important that is in the workplace, because there’s a big disconnect between gray herd people like me and Gen Z-ers in the workplace and, uh, so yeah, we’ve had a lot of really great episodes coming up and uh, I just hope that, uh, those of you at home, um, will feel free to engage with us, uh, share what you know with us, um, and, and just come on this journey with us. It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
ALYSSE BRYSON 40:17
Well, and, and you know, we’re also going to be doing, um, we’re going to have consultants, um, that weigh in on the episodes and listen for the gold that we’re mining for as we learn together, we’re going to do Sidekick Sessions with our internal people, talking about the, the nuggets of truth that we hear in all these stories that you’ll be telling with all these people, and, uh, if you know me at all, then you know that there’s gonna be events and parties in the future because, you know, you can take the girl out of the party, but you just can’t take the party out of the girl.
MARK WRIGHT 40:50
Ha-ha-ha you and Libby have, have organized some amazing events and, uh, I think that’s gonna be super fun when we, when we get those up and running, but I just wanna say, Alysse, it’s a joy to work with you every day and it’s so much fun and it literally does not feel like work in this podcast. It’s just an absolute joy, uh, to, to be a part of and, uh, I pinch myself every day when I get up and I just can’t believe that this is happening, but, um, more great things to come for sure.
ALYSSE BRYSON 41:20
BEATS WORKING.
MARK WRIGHT 41:21
I knew you were gonna say that. I’m glad, I’m glad at the beginning you didn’t say, uh, like some awful story. Do you, do you know what you said to me the first time you met me? Ha-ha-ha.
ALYSSE BRYSON 41:32
You said, what the hell are, are you doing here?
MARK WRIGHT 41:34
I, I’ve heard, I’ve heard, but I’ll tell you though, I, I decided a long time ago that when, and I remember what it was like to, to run into quote unquote famous TV people way back in the day when I was, uh,
ALYSSE BRYSON 41:48
Before you became one uh huh,
MARK WRIGHT 41:49
A little reporter in Spokane. I remember how that felt, and I remember, I remember just deciding at some point that I wanted to make every single interaction with people a good one because people will talk about it either way, if it’s a bad experience, they will tell everyone for the rest of their lives. It’s if it, if you make it a great experience and you stop and you talk with them and you, you take a genuine interest in them, it’s just, it’s just the way the world should work and you know, get to know the name of the janitors and talk with them and get to know about their families. There’s no downside to just taking a basic interest in the people around you and I that it wasn’t like I was trying to be, you know, something exceptional, I was just trying to be superhuman, you know about, about the workplace.
ALYSSE BRYSON 42:38
Intentional, you were being intentional. That’s you being intentional in the workplace, and that’s, that’s what that looks like, and, and you know, it doesn’t take a lot to make somebody’s day and I, I, I remember that moment, I’ll always remember that moment and, and I know that you’ve had that moment with other people. I can remember there was one Halloween where a group of a whole group of people dressed up as vegetables and pretended to be, um, your farm. I mean, if that’s not an ode to adoration, I don’t know what is.
MARK WRIGHT 43:08
So, these were, these were fellow KING 5 employees, and they, they came to me, and they said, hey, would you mind if we dressed up as workers on, on Wright Brothers Farm, which is the farm that my brothers and I have up in, up in Ferndale. That’s, I guess we could talk about that another time. Uh, I grew up working for my uncles raising organic vegetables, but that was so fun they dressed up like Wright Brothers Farm employees.
ALYSSE BRYSON 43:30
So cute. Um, when we have that conversation about the farm, can you give me a heads-up so I can put on my overalls? Because you know, I need,
MARK WRIGHT 43:39
Oh, I forgot.
ALYSSE BRYSON 43:40
Reason for an outfit. Any reason for an outfit.
MARK WRIGHT 43:42
That’s one thing that I’ve gotten to know about you, Alysse, is that you generally have, um, an, an outfit for every occasion, including, I don’t even know what you call ’em, but you remember when you’re, like, grandfather would put on the one piece jumpsuit with the little buckle in the middle, and then like you could drive a motor home with that thing on, I don’t even know what those are called, but you have one of those.
ALYSSE BRYSON 44:03
Coveralls, which I am, uh, uh, I think on the office they’ve been dubbed as the, uh, gas station chic. I really took this whole warehouse vibe to a new level. I was like, if I’m gonna work at a warehouse now, I’m gonna really make it count for something, so.
MARK WRIGHT 44:18
Oh, I, I have to tell you, and you knew this the first day that I, I showed up at the office. I grew up right next to the railroad tracks in Ferndale and, uh, oh, by the way, there’s a, there’s some reference to this on my website, which, uh, is markwright.com, uh, which is just launching now. Um, but yeah, railroad tracks right next to the house and this is on one side of the property where, uh, it was an old gas station back in the day on old 99, so before I five was there. Old 99 was how you got from Canada all the way down to Mexico and the railroad tracks were right across the street. But anyway, my childhood home was right there, and literally, the first night that we are in the, in the house, I was born in Buren and then kindergarten moved up, up to Ferndale but uh, uh, you know, when the first train went by in the middle of the night, it shook the entire house. Just, I thought it was an earthquake or something, and ooh, it’s a, and it was the train, but then over the years, we would blink the lights on and off uh, and we knew certain conductors, you know, as they would go by and so my first day at work, when the train went by, I was like, oh, that feels so good.
ALYSSE BRYSON 45:28
You were, you were like, shh.
MARK WRIGHT 45:30
Is that weird?
ALYSSE BRYSON 45:31
Everybody? I need a moment. I just need a moment.
MARK WRIGHT 45:32
I need a moment.
ALYSSE BRYSON 45:33
When we all paused…
MARK WRIGHT 45:33
It’s a train.
ALYSSE BRYSON 45:34
Paused in silence so you could listen to the train go by. Yep, that happened.
MARK WRIGHT 45:38
Uh, well, this certainly does BEATS WORKING Alysse, uh, hears to more amazing, uh, days, weeks, and months ahead, and, uh, thank you for all that you bring to this team, and, uh, we should probably give a shout out to the rest of the team, don’t you think?
ALYSSE BRYSON 45:53
I love our team. It’s super fun. Yes! shout out to the big boss, Dan Rogers. Shout out to Libby Sundgren she’s, she keeps the glue, she keeps it all together. Shout out to Tamar Medford, she’s the producer, she’s the website builder, she answers my calls late at night when I’m crying or laughing at some stupid idea. Elan Gratrix, uh, is, uh, the queen of Canva and can make a meme on command like, I’ve never seen anyone that could make memes faster. So, it’s uh, so far it’s a super, super great crew.
MARK WRIGHT 46:28
Yeah, good stuff. Alright, we’ll see you soon! Okay, I forgot a couple of things, Alysse is no longer on, on the call here. Before we wrap things up, I just wanted to say a few things that I thought were important to this discussion today and the first is, I’m a big believer that your calling in life can take several different paths. So, going back to when I was in college, flunking out, changed my major to broadcasting, I had immediate confirmation that it was the right decision. Everything changed. Doors just flew open. I got a scholarship for tuition. Uh, I got jobs, career advancement. The timing was perfect. I met people just at the right time and it didn’t feel like work. For 35 years in broadcasting, it was so rewarding and so enjoyable that I’ll tell you, it did not feel like work for 35 years. And I also have to say that the people that I worked with in television are some of the most amazing people in the world. Um, you know, before I got into broadcasting, people were like, oh, be careful this is a really cutthroat industry and people will stab you in the back, and I, I never had that happen to me in my entire career. We spend more time with our coworkers in broadcasting than we do with our families in that business, and all of us make the same sacrifices. You know, I mean, if you’re working the evening show, you’re not at home with your families at night. If you’re working the morning show, you’re not with your families in the morning when everybody’s having breakfast and getting off to school or work. So, I have a huge amount of respect for people who are still in the broadcast industry, it is not an easy way to make a living, and I’ll also tell you that when I left TV a little over a year ago, it took about three months for me to, to really decompress because what I thought was a normal amount of stress for a job was actually an inordinate amount of stress. For the job. I mean, multiple time deadlines every day, there’s enormous pressure to perform, you know, flawlessly on the air. And also, there’s just a constant uncertainty in television about the security of your job. Maybe you get a new boss, maybe they’re gonna go in a new direction, they don’t think you’re the person for the job. Um, and that is always in the back of your mind every day that you go to work, and I know that’s the way it is in a lot of industries, but in broadcasting, other people arbitrarily decide your value and your worth and they can end your job at at any time. So, what felt like a normal amount of stress was actually a lot of stress and after about three months of decompressing last year, it really started just to feel good again in terms of feeling calm and rested, and you know, the other thing that I had just taken for granted, I mean, the schedule is that, uh, you know, I was anchoring the evening news, which meant five nights out of the week I wasn’t at home with my family, and now that my wife and I are empty nesters, I, I just can’t tell you how good it feels, you know, seven nights a week to sit across the dinner table for my wife and, and just, uh, enjoy each other’s company and talk about our day and that’s something that you just can’t do when you’re anchoring the evening news in, in broadcasting, and you know that sacrifice is something that people in broadcasting just put up with, just have to, um, so to wrap things up, I don’t know that everything happens for a reason, but here’s what I do know, and this latest chapter in my career, I think is, is evidence of this. If you set your intentions right, if you just try to do the right thing, the reward is that amazing people come into your life, and that’s what’s happened in this chapter of my career. Dan Rogers is, uh, an amazing entrepreneur, he’s one of the most generous, smart, um, you know, people that I’ve ever met, and he has created this team of people dedicated to making work honorable for everyone. So that’s where we are. Super grateful that you tuned in to the podcast this week and, uh, grateful that you’re here. I guarantee that every week that we gather, all we’re trying to do is just learn how we can become better human beings, how we can become better in the workplace, and how we can inspire the people around us. So, thank you so much for being here, and I’ll see you next week.
MARK WRIGHT 50:50
I’m Mark Wright. Thanks for listening to BEATS WORKING part of the WORKP2P family. New episodes drop every Monday, and if you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Special thanks to show producer and web editor Tamar Medford. In the coming weeks, you’ll hear from our Contributor’s Corner and Sidekick Sessions. Join us next week for another episode of BEATS WORKING. Where we are winning the game of work.
