Loida Caseras - Strategic Account Manager at the Houston Chronicle, Ad 2 Liason

Loida Caseras joins the Admigos to discuss her lengthy career in Journalism, as well as her connection to Ad 2 and AAF-Houston.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thank you. Hold on Amigo's Welcome to the ad to
Houston Podcasts, a podcast for young professionals in the marketing
and advertising industry here in Houston who are learning to
navigate in their early careers. I kind of went off
script there, but you know what, We're gonna keep going anyway.

(00:24):
I'm here with today with Loyda casadis.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
We're doing good? And right across the room we have Jacob.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hey, how's it going man, it's been a long time. Good.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, Hi Jacob.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hey, Lloyda, it's nice to meet you.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It was nice to meet you too.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So for all of those who are just tuning in
today in this episode, Loyda is our new at AF
Houston liaison for at TO Houston. So basically what that
means is that with every new decision, or not every
decisions really with we get guidance on every decision that
we make for the better, for the for the betterness

(01:02):
of the club. I don't even think betterness is a work,
but we're just going to go with it. But for
everything that comes with the club, there's a lot that
needs to be said, discussed and also coordinated with AF
and Luda is here to help us in doing a
lot of these actions, and you know, with her years
of experiencing the club and her background, it really made
it a really good fit initially. And we're going to
talk a lot about that as well, and if anything, actually,

(01:24):
why don't we get into it right now, so later
can you tell us a little bit about how you
got involved with af before that and that too.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
So I was a freshman at the University of Houston
and so it was a second semester. I don't know
why I remember that so clearly, but it was a
second semester of my freshman year because I think that's
when I really started kind of getting serious about selling advertising.
And I was selling advertising for the Daily Cougar, which
was at the time it was called now it's the Cougar,

(01:53):
but back then it was a daily paper five days
a week. Yeah, And so I was working there and
my ad manager handed me a postcard back when you know,
everything was in print because we didn't have the internet
back then. And believe it or not, she handed me
an actual printed postcard and it was an invitation to
an ad to happy Hour and then used to be

(02:15):
called thirsty back then, Thursday, I'm thirsty and yeah, very clever.
So she said, hey, I get these postcards for this group.
It's an advertising group for thirty two and under or
thirty one and under. I forget what it was at
the time, and she said, you know, maybe you'll be
interested in checking it out. It's a good networking opportunity.

(02:36):
She never went to any of them, but she told
me about it, which is kind of funny, how you
know that kind of happened sometimes, And so I said, yeah, sure,
And I was very adventurous and not scared to go
places by myself, right, And so I went by myself.
I didn't even take a friend or anything. No wingman
went there and went to the first happy hour which

(02:57):
is now Beers and Peers, right, and had a great
time and met a really great group of people. So
that's how I learned all about AD two, what ADD
two was about. And of course back then we called AAF,
the Houston Ad Federation, so it was called HAF back then. Yeah,
so I never really was very active in HAF, but

(03:19):
I did go to the luncheons at least, you know,
anytime that I could. Once I started working at the
Chronicle and so I was, you know, pretty active. I
mean I was very active in AD two, which I
guess I can get into that I was. I actually
ended up being active in AD two for thirteen years
because I was so young when I started. I mean

(03:39):
that was my freshman year. I was like nineteen oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it was around my nineteenth birthday.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, so you got the full experience.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah. No, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
There was no collegiate clubs or anything like that. It
was just like.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
There was talk of it. Yeah, because we had advertising
classes at u of H at the time. It was
different from the program was different from what it is now.
You either were a journalism major, a radio television major,
or communication disorders major, I believe, and that was it.
And then if you were a journalism major, you took

(04:11):
PR classes, or you took advertising classes, or you took
journalism newswriting classes. So those three kind of fell under
the journalism okay, And so I was a journalism major,
but I was taking advertising classes, which were all eight
ad agency related and that's where I think student conference

(04:33):
conversations kind of started coming up. I started kind of
hearing about them. But I was selling advertising for the
Daily Cougar so really early in my career, already knew
I wanted to be on the newspaper on the sales side,
I mean possibly magazine. I didn't know at the time
which way I was going to go, but yeah, so
that's how I got involved in AD.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Two and a nice And actually I can kind of
relate as well. Back when I was in U of H,
I did an internship with the Daily Cougar as well.
There I transitioned. I realized I was actually doing sales
as well direct sales, and I was kind of like
duggling between. And then eventually I transitioned to joining the
the a of the University of Houston KLi chapter and

(05:12):
then that's kind of the rest is history from there.
But that's really cool to see how it all progressed
just from that postcard, which I look, you kind of
want to do postcards again now and now that I
hear that, because you know, that personal element or that
personal touch kind of brings a lot of nostalgia back
to a lot of that was offered in the past. Yeah,
and I also nowadays everything so digital, maybe some physicality

(05:34):
in some cases like that would be you know, a separator.
But aside from that though. I mean, with everything that
you've done so far, can you tell us a bit
about your experiences in those early days, like any lessons
you learned, mentors you've gained, anything that you know really
stuck to you that led you to where you are
now and your current profession.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, so I definitely, you know, kind of going back
to the add to an AAF question and how it
how it affected my career, because I really feel that
it did. I saw early on the importance of networking
and the I'm so glad that I walked into that

(06:14):
ad to happy hour that day because when I went there,
I met Justin Smith, who was a art director, creative director.
You know, he's creative at the Houstory Chronicle, right, so
he was a member of that too, And I also
met Dwight Dalphitt and who owned Dwight.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Dedlphitt Designer, Design Group.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Design Group exactly, and he I believe at the time
he was already ear Liaison And it's so funny because
he was in his thirties. So so yeah, so Justin
Smith and I are still friends this many years later.
He's retired now from the Houston Chronicle, but back then,
you know, he was on the marketing team at the
History Chronicle, and it's kind of a cool story. I

(06:56):
met him, you know. I would see him at all
the happy hours at the program because we used to
do a happy hour once a month at a program
meeting once a month. And at some point in there,
I was working on an ad campaign project for my
ad campaigns Classic of eight and I needed to do
a media mix. So my assignment was to do a

(07:17):
media mix, you know, like how much TV, how much Billboard,
how much you know, radio, whatever it is. Yeah, that
was part of my assignment. And he tells me, well,
why don't you just come to the Chronicle. We'll just
plug it all in and we'll give you a media mix.
And I'm like, what are you talking about because I
didn't know, you know, and he's like, yeah, come see
Rick Gilbert at the Chronicle. And so he gets to
be an appointment with this guy named Rick Gilbert who

(07:38):
was a research channelist at the Chronicle. And I go
there and I told him, you know, he agreed to
see me, and I told him what I was doing,
and he was like, oh, yeah, no problem. So he
helps me with my project and I'm standing there or
sitting there inside of his cubicle, and I look over
and I see a map of Saint Petersburg, Florida on
his cubicle wall and it says Saint Pete Times. And

(08:00):
I said, oh, the Saint Petersburg Times, and he's like, yeah,
that's where I worked before the History Chronicle. And I said, oh, really,
I said, I have an application for an internship there
sitting on my desk at work, which was the daily
Cougar work, and he said really. And so then he
just like, you have to apply to this internship program.
It's the best internship program in the nation, and goes

(08:21):
on about it, which I didn't know they had been
hiring interns. It's nineteen fifty five. They were the first
newspaper to start newspaper internship internship programs. And it was
a paid internship that summer, nice in Saint Petersburg, Florida,
Like why not? So it was just so funny how
that moment, I mean, that was such a butterfly effect,
and that had I not met Justin, had ad to,
I wouldn't have met Gilbert at the East Chronicle. I

(08:45):
wouldn't have applied for that internship at the Saint Pete
Times that summer and I got hired at the Saint
Peak Times that summer. So yeah, so even though I
was already selling advertising at the Daily Cougar and I
kind of was getting good feel for okay, this is
what I love. That really cemented that decision by doing

(09:06):
you know, I moved to Florida for the summer. I
did the internship. Well, I got accepted. I interviewed and
I got accepted, So that part of the story. And yeah,
so that was all tied back to AD too, I
mean seriously, so yeah, it's incredible. And then you know,
being active with the newspaper at school. I think that
that is if your school has either an AAF student

(09:31):
conference program, if your school has a newspaper, a magazine,
a yearbook. Still some still do. If there's some type
of experience that you can get while you're in school,
get that experience, it really makes a difference in your life.
And internships, internships, internships. I can't say enough about internships.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
That's really just like one of the ways to get
into your next big time role, even like getting involved,
whether it's a student organization or something that's outside like
an AD too. I mean, recently, we've been taking on
some students who are from af you of H to
come participate in our board meetings and learn from us
so that they can apply it into their own practices,
whether they're doing running events internally and things like that.

(10:11):
Or one agreement that we actually do have with our
current programs chair Victoria, she's the current president of a
FE of H, and the agreement that I did with her,
with every sponsorship that she secures, a portion of that
goes to a fund specifically for af you of H
students to participate in the student conference.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Oh that's great, so at.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Least in the way that it kind of adds more
to it. The more that you're involved, the more you
can give back to your community, the more you get
back to your roots, and everything kind of just works
a little bit more effectively to give everybody that experience.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
No, absolutely, everything works together, everything is connected. All of
us are connected in some way.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Or another, so absolutely, like indirectly second connections that that
just brings a lot of LinkedIn mumbo jumbo.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, No, absolutely, and you know, and then also something
I didn't mention in the thirteen years that I was
active with ad DO, I did serve as education chair
and Diversity Chair, I remember, and so I was I
was responsible for Shadow Day. Yes, our Shadow Day was
really cool because students from all these different universities in

(11:13):
Texas came to Houston that day and we matched them
up with a professional to shadow for the day. And
it was also fundraiser.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Do we still have a Shadow Day? Is that a thing?

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I have used to be a thing, But like again,
as time progressed, some things just kind of you know, dissolved,
But we're trying to bring it back. I think, like
in our case, with how we're developing and we're kind
of getting more people involved in the club, there's more
opportunities to bring these type of programs I think right now,
like our calendar for this year has been really stacked

(11:43):
with just key events like beers with peers for community
building opportunities, and at the same time, we have headline
events that are like our Pickaball, our Pickaball events, our
golf events, and our cookoffs. So hopefully as we coordinate
more and effectively build out a structure to allow us
to manage and even integrate these like remember how we
had corporate Cupid or in this case, Shadow Shadow Tuesdays

(12:07):
or sorry, Shadowy shadow Day Shadow yeh, I thought it
was a shadowes.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Just one day, just the one day.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Well yeah, I mean, if anything, I really am keen
to bringing that back, and a lot of I've I
recall Cooper Our our one of our program shares as well,
express interest in bringing that too. It's just a matter
of like, Okay, how do we position it again for
this time and age, because I'm sure with shadow Days
people we need to either find a time in a
place to have all these people coordinating and you know,

(12:38):
accommodating for students here and there.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
It is it takes a lot of coordination. Absolutely, I
agree with that.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
I'd kind of like to know a little bit more
about your internship. Was it in Florida the same Petersburg?
How was that experience?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
That was a really great experience. I mean, starting with
moving to Florida for the summer, that was just amazing.
I didn't live on the beach though on fortunately, like
a couple of my my colleagues that were here from
other schools. What was really cool were one of the
cool parts was that we were from all over the

(13:12):
United States. So there was a girl from Washington state
that was in my department on a guy from Illinois.
Outside of Chicago, there was another guy from Kansas who
I had coincidentally met. It was just really weird to
you know, like we're talking about being connections. I coincidentally
met him that spring at a conference called SINBAM. So

(13:35):
when I was in when I worked for the for
the Daily Cougar, I was in an organization and once
again the importance of organizations called SINBAM, which is college
newspaper business advertising Managers, and so I was a student
ad manager of The Daily Cougar. I got to go
to this conference a couple of times different cities around
the United States, and I was that spring. I was

(13:55):
one in San Antonio and we were doing something with
T shirts from different newspapers. I forget what it was,
but this guy was also looking for a Saint Pete
T shirt because he was going to intern at the
Saint Pete Times that summer. And I was like, wait
a minute, I'm interning at the Saint Pete Times. It's
the craziest thing. His name was Jay and he was
from Kansas. For KU. I always remember that because he

(14:17):
would do the cheer on the street in san Antonio
out afterwards, partying.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Are you still connected with him?

Speaker 1 (14:23):
No?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I was connected with him for a really long time
because I went to the Chronicle for a couple of
years and then I left and went back to the
University of Houston as the advertising manager of the staff
member of the University Houston's Student Publications department, which the
newspaper and the yearbook fell under that, and he did
the same thing. Isn't that weird? Yeah, he left the

(14:44):
Kansas newspaper whatever was in Kansas City newspaper, whatever that
would be. And there's a Kansas city, right whatever, I
think the main city because Kansas is a state, but
whatever the city is in Kansas, the main capital. He
left that newspaper and went and became the admin because
he had worked for his colleges paper. It was just
the funniest thing. So we stayed in touch, but that

(15:05):
was like, you know, short lived me. After that, I
kind of lost touch. You would think that with today's
day and age of Facebook and LinkedIn, I would have
connected some of these people, but kind of lost touch.
And I kind of I'm sorry about that now because
I look at their pictures and I'm like, ah, I
don't know whatever happened to that person, but anyway, I'm aggressive.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
The beautiful thing about social media is you can always reconnect.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Now I can look for them, right. But asking about
the internship, it was a great experience. That internship in
particular gave me an opportunity to transfer around to different
departments within I was on the classified advertising side of it,
and even within classified, so automotive advertising fell under classified.
So I was on the automotive team for a week.
I was in the national recruitment which was like employment

(15:50):
advertising for national like where people run ads for positions
in other parts of the United States. And the woman
who worked in the national ad tising department, Mary Jane Toro,
and I are still friends nice and we exchanged letters
very often, but now we've got you know, we've gotten
to the point where we exchange birthday gifts to Christmas

(16:11):
Gibson anyway, so we've been friends for over thirty years.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Really cool.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's the directions you make.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, especially with just like how close you can build
those ties. I still need to invite my board members
to come visit me in my apartment at least to
treat them for like a nice meal or something.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
That would be nice. Yeah, we should do that a lot.
Back in add two days, we would just get together
at each other's houses. Yeah, we would like, oh, come over,
let's have a game night or watch a game or something.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
I feel like that that aspect of it has been
missing from my run as president.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
But you know what, you were president during COVID too,
so it makes a big difference.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, I wasn't really the president of at TU during COVID,
but I was still a Yeah, I was the you
of age president and WeDo had that problem.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
We don't have the COVID times.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, that changed a lot of things
and kind of slowed down our visit with each other.
So yeah, that would be really cool to do to
start getting together.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Lloyda. You you have self written, as we determined before
we started recording, you of self written, self published, I
should say, some short stories and various novels. Can you
tell us about like the writing process that went into those,
and can you also tell us about some of the
things that you've written.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, sure, so so I have. I always like to
say I sell advertising by day and I write by night.
Writing has always been a passion of mine. When I
started working at the Daily Cougar. The day that I
went into the open house to go work for the
Daily and not too I wanted to write for the
Daily Cougar. That was another butterfly effect. I walked into
an open house and none of the students were there,

(17:44):
and we're all in class, but they had all their
stacks laid out, and I went in and I'm like
looking around, I'm like, where are they? And then this
woman walks in and she was the advertising manager of
the staff member, and she recruited me to start selling advertising.
So I ended up going into cell advertising and that's
kind of the rest of my history of life. But

(18:04):
I always loved writing, and I was like, oh, I
wish i'd you know, I really wish I'd written for
The Daily Cougar. So I've always written on the side,
you know, because I've always had this dream of becoming
a published author. So twenty something years ago, while Seth's
twenty is my son's twenty, I started a novel and

(18:25):
it's called Broken Cousins. And I, you know, would write
and then you know, put it away, and then write
and put it away, and then I edited and then
at some point I even hired somebody to edit it
for me. A girl that I had been toored actually
at you of H who was in the sales program
there through their School of Business.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, pressure there.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well she was awesome because she was she worked in
the writing program or whatever they have there. It's actually
a department where they help she would edit thesis and rightsation.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, they were. It's in like the it's a department. Yeah,
it's a department where they basically just for peer review
of work and they give you feedback and it helps
you get a name.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah and no. And she was a paid position, so
she was helping. Like major stuff going on to my
novel was nothing to her. It was a dissertation about
something else.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
It's probably the most fun things that she had, yeah,
probably refreshing.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, So it was cool. So she edited for me,
and then I still sat on it and I wanted
to start writing another novel that is actually the one
I'm working on right now. Yeah, and that one's like major,
like I could see it published, like it just something
tells me it could be a published book. Nice, But
I felt like I had to put that first novel
to bed, like I couldn't move on if I didn't

(19:45):
do something with it right. So I found out about
Kendall Vella through a woman who I write with. Well,
she's kind of like a writer partner, writing mentor named
Mary Beck from Nebraska, actually from the Central Nebraska Writing Group,
and I met her online and we've actually never met
in person, but we're friends. And I go to the
Central I attend two meetings on average of the Central

(20:09):
Nebraska Writing Group online every month. Nice, and so that's
my writing group. And Mary Beck told me about Amazon
had started. I think it was fairly new at the
time this appropriate. They have this thing called Kendall Vella
and you can actually self publish in a series format,
kind of like the old serial format that like Mark
Twain and people used to use back in the day.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Are we talking like chapter by chapter?

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah. So I wish I'd known as much as I
know now back then, because all my chapters are I mean,
it's my total chapter per per episode. And now I've
learned now that I'm working on something on the side
that it's really better and I should have listened to
Maryback's video on YouTube before that it's better to kind

(20:54):
of make them shorter and so like at six hundred
words or so six hundred seven underwards. So anyway, unfortunately
I didn't do that. So I have this big ass
novel excuse my language, and I know I can say
that novel on on there. It's called Broken Cousins Shameful
plug but in those chapters are long, and it is

(21:14):
about three cousins and their mothers and that those relationships
that are sometimes difficult and then not just with their
mothers but with each other because of skeletons in the
closet and things like that. So anyway, yeah, it's it's
pretty much like a family saga. So that's that's that one.
And then I've also published a couple of essays. So

(21:36):
I have an essay on a website called Literary Mama.
It's about writing mothers. It's you know, four and about
and by writing mothers. And I had something published there,
and then I also wrote I submitted something to NPR
called This I Believe, and they had this whole This
Side Believe series and they would that they would play,

(21:59):
so they didn't accept me at the national level of
in PR, but some cities decided to do like their
own local people, so they sent my essay to Houston
Public Media and use some public media. Then calls me
and I was just like, oh my god. It was
like so excited.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
That's really cool.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
And yes, the guy from his media calls me, Paul,
he's now retired and says, hey, I got your essay
from in PR and we're doing a local spin on
this and we'd love to record your essay. Wow. So
I have one out on Media's page. It's still there.
It's still a lot.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Did you get it recorded or did they have somebody else?

Speaker 2 (22:36):
No, I actually got to go into the radio station
and and read my essay. Yes, and then it was
on the radio and online.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think our podcast also goes on the radio too,
So it.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Does on what station's KPRC at five am. Well, what
Ray will do is he has his ad Speaks Houston
Pots that goes on Kate parric nine to fifty. And
what he'll do is sometimes for episode content, he'll cut
some Admigos episodes up, yeah and put them up like

(23:09):
I think he'll do do half a one and the
other half of another and he'll put those out there sometimes.
So we've had some things on the radio.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Very cool. I've been on kpf T before I have
to give them a plug. There's a group, a literary
group here in Houston called which is Our Words Are
Our Word, Latino writers having their say, and it is
led by the fearless liberal traf Tony Diaz, writer extraordinary,

(23:38):
I mean, just the biggest cheerleader. He has been one
of my biggest cheerleaders in my writing career. And I've
been on his radio show. I've read when they used
to do their writing, are their readings they'd bring in,
let's say, a big author, and I've did opening opening
acts for some of the writers. So yeah, he's he's
been awesome that that's kind of part of my writing

(23:59):
as well. And being on the radio kind of mine
fifteen minutes of fame.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, it's always cool in the radio.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
If anything, it really kind of puts a shine to
how you focus a lot on your passion after hours,
obviously in this case, and like the same can be
said with like, you know, being a part of this
club or being involved in one or the other. But
I think like the next segment of the question was
just you've been involved with the Houston Chronicles for many
years and worked various departments and positions. Could you tell

(24:29):
us a little bit about how it's like working with
Houston during your early career and how you transitioned to
what it is now, Like you know, with the rise
of new technology being in place, different shifting media positions
that you know people want to have their content on.
I mean, is there any fun things to share from
that perspective.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Well, one thing I always say about right working for
the Houston Chronicle is that it is extremely satisfying and
it is very rewarding, even though I selling advertising and
I'm not a writer, even though I'm not a journalist.
Knowing that I'm supporting journalism and that I am supporting
free speech is extremely rewarding. And I feel like people that,

(25:13):
you know, not throwing shade on anybody who leave. But
it's not for everyone obviously, and you know it shouldn't be.
I mean, it's you have to be a you know,
you have to have a specific personality and stomach for
sales first of all, and you have to, Yeah, you
have to be a salesperson to sell. But I think
that sometimes people go into it and they're just selling

(25:34):
and they're just looking at it for the money, which
is great. Sales has been very good. It's you know,
paid my mortgage and put my kids to college. But
it has to be bigger than that. It has to
be you have to go to work and really believe
in what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
And when I know, you have to have a certain
amount of integrity.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Exactly exactly, knowing that you're working for a good newspaper
that you believe in that is as ethics and covers
the news. And there was an editor that said once
and he was actually quoting some of the else but
it's a famous quote. But I believe that we're there
to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and because

(26:12):
we're writing about hard things and we're uncovering hard facts sometimes.
And so you know, if you see some of those
movies about things that have happened in history and stories
that have had to be uncovered by certain groups and organizations,
you know, things that have to be covered that they
did wrong. You have to you have to do that
so that the people, you know, people have to know.

(26:33):
And so knowing that I'm a part of that, even
though I'm selling advertising, i am because when you sell advertising,
you are the backbone in a lot of ways. Yes,
the journalists are there. I believe the journalists in US together.
I mean, they are writing. If they didn't write, I
wouldn't have anything to sell. But if I didn't sell,
they wouldn't have any pages to write in. Whether it's

(26:53):
printed pages or online pages.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
It becomes a mutually beneficial relation where writero yeah exactly.
And I mean in the sense like that's just how
business works, in the sense where you know there are space,
there are pages that need to be published, people need
to pay to publicate those pages, or vice versa, like
like having ads on social media. Sorry, not on social media,
but like on the web page and all those fun things.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, print, yeah exactly, yeah, and you know, and so
I'm helping advertisers first of all, of course, that's my
first responsibility, is to make sure that I'm selling them
something that's going to be beneficial for them and that
they're going to get an ROI that should be my
first responsibility. But my other responsibility is to actually know
you know that we're publishing a newspaper online like I said,

(27:36):
or in print, and to know that people still go
out every day and pick up their newspaper off the
front yard or at their gas station or corner gas
station to know that they turn on their computer every
day and read online and that I had something to
do with that, and that I supported that.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I remember like every time when I go to HGB,
I would always see the Houston Chronicles newspaper stack and
I was just like, oh, I need to look at this,
and then I would read. I would read the parts
that would interest me the most, because like when I
was a kid, I was always encouraged to read the
news paper to know what's over, what's happening around me.
So current events, it's very local events, I think is
important too. And you know, even with a lot of

(28:15):
these type of things being the case, you know, with
integrity and what you feel it holds value to you.
I think the next question kind of ties into that too.
So when you're not writing or you're you know, back
at home, like what do you feel like is the
most important thing in your life so far? I mean,
do you spend more time with your family or do
you feel like at least with that progression, I mean,

(28:36):
how do you try to balance between your hobbies and
your interests?

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Flexibility? Really, I mean there are so many times that
you know, I want to go do something that I
want to do and then duty calls and I'm like,
oh no, we have to do this, you know, and
it has to get done today. So really just having
a flexible outlook. But I'm really big on using a
date planner. I'm still old school Franklin Covey day planner.

(29:03):
And I always laugh when people go, don't you use
your phone? Of course I use my phone. Of course
I use Outlook, but they all help each other out.
I mean, if I have a meeting with someone and
the meeting reschedules, my Outlook on my phone is going
to let me know that my calendar changed, right of course,
But I am still paper write it down, check it off.
And so every single day I have a to do

(29:26):
list for work, and then below it, I have a
to do list for home, even if it's my fun
things that I want to do that I just oh,
I don't want to forget that I wanted to do that,
or I want to write about that, Like right now,
I have this amazing story that I need to write
that's actually a true story. And then I also have
a collage artist. Now, oh cool, Oh yes, it's kind
of funny to say that. Yes, Chassity yes, exactly. So

(29:49):
it's funny to a couple of years ago I started
doing collage art and I absolutely fell in love with it,
and it's really I've really progressed in it. And I
actually participated in a show over at the Harding Nantce
Studios called pretty Darn Small and did small art, a
little small collages for my fours and I did I
collaged on match boxes as well, like the little boxes

(30:12):
that opened. So I collaged on the outside and I
collage on the inside as well. You'll have to see pictures. Yeah, yeah,
but anyway, so yeah, it is sometimes I know, I
know I do too much. I know this because why
I don't. But I do take the time to sit
down and watch I'm reading, I'm watching Designated Survivor right
now on Netflix. You know. I take the time to Okay,

(30:34):
let's sit down and watch no more than two shows,
you know, don't binge watch them are one show, you know,
depending on what I have to do, you know. So
there are nights that are my nights for collaging. There
are nights that are my nights for writing, writing group,
collage group. And now I've added in add two at
AHF events as well. So yeah. Yeah, it's just really

(30:56):
just you know, making the time and juggling things around. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
And I think especially when it comes to planning your
schedule as well as I get to do this, those
are really important things to have in place. I think
that type of degree of separation between like okay importance
to you two then your other commitments is important as well.
I mean personally lately, I've actually been developing like a
notion board where I have like think to do for

(31:20):
my clients, things that I have for personal stuff, and
then things that I volunteer for here and there, like
in this case, this in this organization, and I always
try to stay on top and you know we I
think also having our channels in place, like with Slack,
like we're always able to help each other. I remember,
like I actually like when I texted you, hey, we

(31:41):
have the episode or Jacob sais we have the episode
with Loai that's set up right, I was like, oh,
oh no, and we just met her.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
At it was funny is Cameron had already confirmed confirmed?

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Right, So that.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
I replied, yeah, Cameron confirmed, but I'm flexible. Yeah, but
I'm flexible. I looked at my calendar and I said
I don't think I have anything you know that we
can hang out of town orything. Yeah, so as flexible
either way, whether it was going to be a day
or another day. But yeah, you know, you have to
be flexible. I think I had to tell you no
for something recently because something you.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Know, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a family.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, some personal family things came up. And I have
at some point I sometimes have to say no to
something I really want to do because something has to
get to take care.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Of absolutely, and I mean we always respect that. I
mean when I've been or since I've been involved, I
always try to tell my board is that, you know,
if there's something that's conflicting personal that you know, just
didn't happen to be on your radar, I mean, you're fine.
We're always able to spot you and just kind of
fill you and once the conversation's done and we can
keep moving forward from there.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
So lloyda. And in my research when I was coming
up with these questions for you, I was doing some
research on your LinkedIn and I came across something that
was very interesting to me was you're you're this founder
of something called the Little Little Libraries and laundromats. Yeah,
I would love to know more about that. That sounds
so interesting to me.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, so that was actually so I love the History Chronicle.
I'll say that, love the History Ronical. But I also
love public media and I love MPR thinking y'all got
that earlier. I loved listening to, you know, when I'm driving,
I loved listening to public radio. And so they have
something called driveway moments, like when you get somewhere and
you haven't finished the story and the stories. So it

(33:19):
was a story about Milwaukee and the City of Milwaukee
kind of like you know, the government, like city government,
and they had started this project where they were installing
little free libraries inside of laundromats, or we call them
Hearing Texas Wash teias and I'll watch it Teias, and
so I was just intrigued. I was like, wait what.

(33:42):
So I finished listening to the segment, and I love
literacy and I love children. At one point I thought
I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. That's another story.
And I went inside the building. It was at work.
I parked and I finished listening, and then I went
inside and I google were there little libraries and launder

(34:02):
maats here in Houston, and there weren't. I did find
something called something like Laundromat League, but they were in
other states. And I also found an article a Kingwood
there's a woman with a laundermat up there who had
her husband builder a library and that looks like a
Washington dryer. Okay, yeah, and then and it's a little

(34:25):
free library. So I was literally about to email Laundermeat
League to see about opening a chapter in Houston in
Texas because they didn't want anything, and I thought, wait
a minute, I already have a personal little free library.
So I have an old Houston chronicle rack. I live
on a corner a lot, so there's a sidewalk that

(34:46):
runs alongside my house, and at the very corner of
my house, I have an old history chronicle rack, you know,
like a that you opened the little door and there's
a shelf where the newspapers used to go.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
You have in your home.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, outside on the corner, on the sidewalk. Yeah, it's
a little free library outside on the corner and people
walk by, and I love to watch parents stop with
their children and open it and take books out and
leave books, and.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
You know, yeah, it's really cool.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
So thank you. So it's through the Little Free Library organization.
So it's a charter sign and it's a number, and
it's on their map, the worldwide map. So I thought,
wait a minute, I already have that. I really have
a you know a relationship with them. Everything's a relationship.
And I was like, I'm just gonna call I'm just
gonna email them and ask them what about my idea?

(35:34):
So I emailed them the idea. I told them I
heard this about, you know, Milwaukee. Yeah, what if I
set up little libraries inside of washingt Aias and give
them little little free library charter sign so then they're
on yours. Does it have to be like a cool
little house or can it just be a bookcase? And
they replied, no, it could just be a bookcase. And

(35:55):
as long as you're buying a library charter sign, there's
no rule. And yes, So I saved an email just
for legal purposes. It was cool for them to, you know,
for me to do that, because I called my it's
not a nonprofit organization, it.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Is a community outreach pricing.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
So with my two kids who were in high school
at the time, I started a little Libraries Laudermeats, And
I say I started with them because if it hadn't
been for them helping me put bookcases together, and you know,
and then that first friend that sent me at thirty
five dollars donation, you know. So I started buying bookcases,
and I started getting the little free library charter signs
that do cost money as well, and I set up

(36:33):
these little free libraries in Laundermets just around my house. Yes,
it's gonna have to be convenient to me. So yeah,
I have two inactive locations. One I think closed completely
I have to accept the fact. And the other one
I haven't been able to get a hold of the
new owner. So if you're hearing you listening to this
new owner of king La Laundry, King, I need to

(36:55):
talk to you. But seriously, I have five locations. I
have two right close to my house. I live in
the near north side, so two are off of Irvington.
One is off a cavalcad in Irvington, the other ones
in Lyndall North off on Melbourne Street. And then I
have three in the East tex Jensen neighborhood, which is
I consider a food desert and a book desert, and

(37:18):
it is an underprivileged neighborhood very close to my house.
When you live inside the city, I mean you have
those you know, you're you're like border to border with
the neighborhoods that are more challenged, and that neighborhood. The
reason I chose it also is because I sit on
the board of the Westcott Cemetery Association, which is for
the we are. I don't know why the world always

(37:41):
escapes my brain, but anyway, basically it's the It is
the historic McDaniel Street Cemetery in the East tex Jencent neighborhood,
and it is we're I want to say renovating, but
renovating is for a building. I don't know why. I
can't think of the word right now. And Sarah, the president,
hears me, here's this, She's going to be like what,

(38:02):
But you know, basically beautifying it and making it a
beautiful green space for the community. We're not going to
bury people there anymore. It is a historic cemetery and
it's right next to a laundromat. That's where libraries is,
and then I have another one around the corner. And
so I really believe in that neighborhood because I grew
up in that neighborhood.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
I was a little girl.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
My father had a barbershop on the corner of Jensen
Drive and Biddington, and so I just really believe that
neighborhood that it can improve and that we can improve it.
And right now, and I know I'm going too long,
but I have to say this, I feel very very
strongly about books being banned.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
In the schools yeapening these days.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
It is. It is huge. And so one of my
call outs on LinkedIn recently, and I didn't care if
it was went against what some people believe politically about that,
I said, hey, y'all, I said, I can't do this alone.
I'm one person, right, join me, join me in my
in my endeavor. And let's find schools in districts where

(39:09):
books are being banned, specifically, I think elementary schools and
middle schools, and let's set up little free libraries inside
of laundromats adjacent to these schools, closest to these schools
and have books. But if everybody just did their part,
we could all do it together. And so that that's
kind of where I want to go with the little
libraries and lonomats. I want to cover the districts that

(39:31):
are banning books. That is a very Katie.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
It's a fantastic idea, and that's a very admirable position
as well. I really do. I really think, especially with
what's going on like here in Houston or even in Florida,
it's really ridiculous, and a lot of the times it
can just be you know, it snowballs, and hopefully it
just doesn't get it doesn't escalate to anything more ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
In my absolutely one of my most stuff, A lot
of our friends pointed out I was a liberal Trafficanta too,
and I said, I sure am, because liberal Trafficanta Tony
da As he took books to Arizona after books on
Hispanic history and literature and band in Arizona.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
And so that's how that whole libertal like exactly started.
He took a caravan out there and they took Arizona,
you know, very symbolic. And so one of my friends,
I think it was Brian Barras, said, oh, yeah, you're
a liberal tragante to watch it, that is, I like,

(40:28):
I sure am, I am. I am taking books to
children and in places where kids don't have access to books,
and I don't follow the exact rule. Leave a book,
take a book. It's like take the books, take the
books home. You know, parents don't have times to take
kids to the libraries. And a lot of these schools
in HISD are closing their libraries. That's the other thing

(40:50):
that's going on. They're closing their libraries and the schools
and the elementary schools are maybe middle schools, I'm not sure,
so don't hote me on that one. But they're closing
the libraries and making them like detention centers or learning
centers or something else. Yeah and yeah, and they fire librarians.
So that's another you know, we may not be banning
books in HISD yet, but we're banning libraries in a way.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
We're basically restricting kids privilege to learn in a sense
from like outside of the classroom. And it kind of
just makes it more.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
It's ironic too, because it's based it's based off the
statement we'll think of the children. Yeah, and then you
you end up going the completely opposite way to the extreme,
and now you're just taking all the books away. Like
you know, I understand books have different age groups, as
as all media does, but you know, yeah, you don't
have to be so extreme about it.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
So the other thing is I have friends that work
at CHISD have not given me a list of those
schools that have closed their libraries. So if somebody wants
to secretly like send me a list of where libraries
are being closed in HISD, that is another route that
I would like to go in opening little libraries around right,

(42:01):
finding a friend who lives near that elementary school or
middle school, and hey, let's set up a little library.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, because I think that's a that's a great way
to impact the local community. I mean, the same could
be said with what we do here in a in
that to Houston, we try to set up a community
for professionals who, you know, either just graduated here in
the city of Houston looking for a career path in
this industry here, or those who just recently moved to
Houston and are trying to understand the scape of it all.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
So absolutely, if.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Anything, like each each organization has its goals and its
impact in their respective fields. In this case, like with
little libraries, it's really in a sense a community effort
and locally, despite the whole regard of like it takes
an hour to go from one side of Houston to
the other You're always actively looking to find somebody who

(42:49):
can help cover those bases. It really makes it big impact.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
And that's why I'm excited to be, you know, bringing
it back around to maybe the liaison or advisor or
add two. That is why I'm so excited to work
with you all because i love mentoring students. I've been
mentoring students for a really long time. I started through
Project Grad and through the UH Sales program, then informally
but just on my own, I'm looking for mentees. So

(43:15):
I've just you know, mentored a girl to graduate from
you of ahed downtown. So you know, I can't mentor
the world. But if anybody needs a mentor in advertising,
you know, in advertising and is you know, I think
newspaper advertising people still kind of don't think about that first.
And so if you want to know more about it,

(43:35):
reach out to me and just ask me questions. I'm
happy to talk to anybody that wants to know.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
That's a call out for Loudo's LinkedIn. If you ever
want to send her a direct message, by all means,
go for it.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, for either setting up a little library, you need
some mentoring, advice, want to know about historic cemeteries. I
want to know how to self publish on kindlevella. I
think we've got them all.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Covered, right.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Man.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
You know you've obviously done a whole lot, and you're
continuing to do a ton. Looking into the next few years,
like what's what does the future look like for you? Exactly?
Like what's what's the next goals? Or do you have
any next goal?

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Last?

Speaker 3 (44:17):
I mean, I know you have a lot of ambitions
going on now, but.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
I have always I set five year goals and ten
year goals all the time, and they move and they change.
I just finished raising two kids, so that was my
number one goal.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
For a long time.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Yeah. Well, I have to say something because I think
it's important about the AD to HAF, I mean AAF
and not missing, not thinking that you missed your window
of opportunity. Remember I said, never think you missed your
window opportunity, right, Because I was really active in AD
two from the age and I don't care to say
my age I'm proud of. I'm proud because I'm alive

(44:51):
from I was active from nineteen age nineteen to age
thirty two. I had my daughter when I was thirty
one years ago, and I said, oh, I'm too busy,
you know. Now I've got a baby, and so I
aged out of AD two and never got active with
AAF Inston. I would go to the luncheons because I

(45:13):
worked with the Chronicle, we had membership. I could go,
but that was it. I didn't try to sit on
the board. I didn't try to volunteer for anything, nothing
like that at all. And so the years went by,
and I had Seth when I was thirty four, and
then you know, the next twenty years were spent raising
two people, you know, to human beings and making sure
they were good people. And they went out and they

(45:34):
did something in the in their life, you know, which
I'm very proud of both of them and how well
they've they've done in their life. So my daughter graduated
last year and my son will be a junior. He
leaves tomorrow. Yeah, he leaves tomorrow back to college. So
he goes to Long Island University in Brooklyn, and so
he has to leave and anyway, so I've been in

(45:55):
the middle of that. I'm you know, obviously not quite
through yet, but he's on will on his way. There's
a college left. And my daughter as well, you know,
she's an adult now, and so I thought, you know,
oh I never got active in AAF, Like, why would
AAF let me back in? They'd say, you know, twenty
years you didn't do anything. Yeah, but you know what, No,
that's crazy to think that way. People always, especially nonprofit organizations,

(46:19):
you know, professional organizations, they always need a helping hand.
Don't ever think that your window of opportunities closed and
that you can't be And here I am now. I
mean it's crazy. I'm on the AAF board, y'all. Twenty
year absence, you know, twenty three year absence and then
doing something that I absolutely love, which is working with
y'all and with AD two Houston, and I'm just really excited,

(46:42):
you know about that opportunity. But so again, that's that's
what I'm doing right now. But I didn't think that
I was ever going to do it. My five year
goals right now, well, my ten year goal is actually
I can retire in ten years.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Oh that's exciting.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yes, I turned fifty five on in February, I'll be
turning fifty five and then the countdown will start. So
ten years from February exactly, I can actually retire and
I'm not going to be one of those crazy people
that works till they're seventy. Sorry, people that work till seventy.
I didn't mean that. I just mean I know some

(47:16):
people just love work and that is your passion and
you can't stop working. I have worked quite long enough,
and I have so many other things that I am
passionate about, and I continue to be passionate obviously about
what I do for a living, but I want to
do something else. So Number one goal right now is
that I need to know that I make sure I

(47:39):
know there's no guarantees that I am going to be
healthy enough when I when I retire, because I know
of so many people that retire and unfortunately something happens
and they get kill or this or that. So Number
one is to make sure that I'm healthy enough to
be able to hike. You know, there's one of your

(47:59):
So yeah, so that's my number one goal. The other,
you know, is continue working on my writing because what
I would like, I love to do is for me
to create another novel, well not another novel, but another
career as a writer. Okay, so if I could, you know,
start another career as a writer, I'm not going to

(48:19):
be a person going to retire and not do anything.
And I want to do things like travel to Europe
and live in a different country for three months at
a time and right while I'm doing that, So that
those are my goals right now.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
That's really awesome, very very nomadic.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yeah, yeah, I know. I had somebody tell me, well,
where are you going to live when you come home.
I'm like, I'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
They can sponsor me, exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
And my daughter, no pressure. She wants to become a doctor,
and when she becomes a doctor, she can have a
little mother in law, you know, apartment for me.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I just need a tiny home, that's all.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
But you know, some people THEYD get like an RV
and then they just they live on the road. Yeah,
they just drive from place to place.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
That's actually another idea. There's something called Sisters on the Fly.
Oh really, and they have these they have really cool
vintage trailers.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
So I have talked about buying it. I think I
just would be nervous driving around pulling a trailer. I
don't know that I could do it. I'm not that
great of a driver.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Right.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Well, you got ten years of the practice.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Right, I have to start practicing. I think I should
just need to buy it now, so you have to
see anyway. So, yeah, those are just some of my goals,
five year, ten year goals.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
That's incredible, incredible, And then I think at least just
to end the segment from here, because really we've gained
so much wonderful insights from you in terms of like
how you started where you are now, to the things
that you do on the side, and even your future goals.
I mean, aside from that, though, is there any good
advice in this episode that you didn't have the chat

(49:53):
to spotlight before we you know, proceed to the end
credits and all that fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
No, I think we pretty much covered it. You know.
I told y'all to do internships if you're young, to
be active to meet people. The only way that you
can network and meet people is to get out. So
come to the beers with peers, meet others. And we
had so much fun at this last one. Yeah, first day,
I had a blast. It felt so it felt like

(50:20):
riding a bike, like I was right back at it,
you know, So I loved it, and you know that's
really I encourage people meeting people and learning about people
and ask people questions when you meet them, learn about them,
and you never know what you're going to learn about someone.
But for young people, that's like my biggest advice is
to do that, just to get out and meet people

(50:43):
and you.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Know, make make you friends.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Network. I mean, like the story that I told y'all
about talking to Justin about Rick Gilbert about that turning
into the internship at the same times. And then I
also interned at the History Chronicle the following summer. So
I did two internships. One was when I was twenty
one and the other one was when I was twenty two.
And then after that second internship with the Houston Chronicle,
I got hired like I was a December graduate. I

(51:09):
got hired right out of college, like I graduated and
they had a job waiting for me.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
And yeah, I mean, if anything, nowadays, it's always that
struggle with that students might have when it comes to
just right after college getting that full time job, time opportunity.
It's like it's a privilege, I would say nowadays, So
it is.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
A privilege, but you're not going to get You're not
going to find out if there's an opportunity if you're
just sitting at home, that's true, yeah, or just partying.
I mean I love partying. Yeah, wrong, I partied hard
when I was young. I'm just saying I partied hard.
But I partied a lot of times with that too.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Right. Well, if anything, I think that's really just a
wonderful way to put it into a wonderful boat. It's like,
you know, stay active, stay involved, me new people, and
hopefully from there, you know, depending on what you get
out of it, there's a lot. It comes with the
network in.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Your network, right, and step up and volunteer, yes, just yeah,
don't just go to the happy hours.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Don't just go to the happy Yes, volunteer for something.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Volunteer and get to know people.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Absolutely, and even just a volunteering even adds to your portfolio,
to your resonate.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yeah, absolutely, and it feels good. It does, it does,
It really does.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
And sometimes you never know, you might make some really
cool work and you can spotlighting in your portfolio and
it just really adds a lot to it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Perfect, Well, Lloyda, this has been an incredible episode. We've
learned a whole lot and thank you. I enjoyed having
you on a whole lot. I'm sure Alex has enjoyed
you being on as.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Well, so you know, thank you for having me. I
really enjoyed it too, And I think this is I've
been on kpft's radio show, but I don't think I've
ever done a podcast, So this is my thing for podcast. See,
there's always as many things as I've done, I've never
done a podcast that, So there you go.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Can you can add it to the long list of achievements.
Thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
They add to Houston and meos podcast is produced at
Radio Lounge. Add to Houston is a collaborative collective of
young communications professionals age thirty two one nunder. We're looking
to make a difference in the industry. If you would
like to becoming at migo, join us at ad the
Number two Houston dot com. You can also follow us
on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at add the Number two Houston.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Thank you for listening.