April 3, 2024 • 29 mins
Dive into the intricacies of our lives in this episode as we explore how our careers have been shaped by personal experiences. From high school hallways to life off the beaten path, we reflect on how our quest for purpose and stability led us down unexpected roads.
But this isn't just about careers; it's a tribute to the people who supported us along the way. Meet our younger selves and the people who played a pivotal role in our journeys. From immigrant backgrounds fostering entrepreneurial spirits to parents who encouraged risk-taking, their influence is deeply ingrained in our professional identities.
Join hosts Kristelle and Jace as they share personal stories that have molded them into the professionals and individuals they are today.
A Siarza Production
Hosted by Kristelle Siarza Moon & Jace Downey
Executive Producer: Kristelle Siarza Moon
Producer: Jace Downey
Video/Editing: Justin Otsuka
Watch episodes at siarza.com/siarza-podcast
Follow us on FB, IG, TT, YT and TW @siarzatheagency
Follow Kristelle @kristellesiarza
www.misskristelle.com
Follow Jace @jacedowneyofficial
www.jacedowney.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jace (00:00):
One time my mom and I were traveling All of a sudden,
she's just like I figured youout and she was like you are a
collector of stories.
Uh-huh, she's like you've beenliving your life and going about
and doing all these differentexperiences.
She says you're a collector ofstories and I was like you did
just figure me out.
I was like I've never thoughtabout that.
Kristelle (00:20):
We've decided that today's episode is directed.
It's always directed by Justin,but he is also cinematographer,
script writer, producer,showrunner and all of the things
of today's episode, includingpicking our topic today.
Script writer.
Script writer.
Jace (00:39):
Has he been scripting you this whole time and I'm having
to come up with random shit.
Kristelle (00:43):
Oh, you didn't know that he's been writing my memoir
this whole time and I'm havingto come up with random shit.
Oh, you didn't know that he'sbeen writing my memoir this
whole time.
Oh, interesting.
Justin came up with a reallygreat idea and we asked him what
do you think the people want tohear, Justin?
What do you think everybodywants to listen to?
And he's like well, we shouldprobably talk about how you all
(01:06):
chose your careers.
It's like, oh, Is he maybeasking a pivot change for work,
Like looking for different ideasof what he could possibly do?
But he said you know, it wouldbe really cool to hear why you
guys chose your careers.
So it's career day at theoffice.
Jace (01:23):
Hooray, and bring your daughter to work day for me,
which is every day cool to hearwhy you guys chose your careers.
So it's career day at theoffice.
Hooray, and bring your daughterto work day for me, which is
every day your dog tur, dog tur.
Kristelle (01:30):
Oh, that's a good one .
Yeah, okay, so we have a very.
So, for those that haven'tlistened to the whole episode
series or to the whole series ofstory success and stuff, and
they might have missed theepisode about how we actually
went, we were at the same highschool of each other.
We weren't like besties no um,but we went to la cueva high
school, which is awesome, so atla cueva and I know that we went
(01:51):
through this like sequenceepisode once we did our our
third episode and it is calledour stories.
Jace (01:58):
Our stories.
Kristelle (01:58):
You can find it on youtube or carzacom so this is
kind of like the reboot, right,we just filmed the episode of
the Rees, right and so.
But, interestingly enough, howdid you pick the career that you
have now?
Or did you originally set youreyes on that?
Because mine is a little bit ofa story too.
We kind of talked about it inepisode three.
But, like what was yourinspiration of being a
(02:18):
storyteller?
Because that's what I consideryou.
Jace (02:21):
Interesting Because I was going to say, like my
inspiration for this career wasI like to have four walls and a
roof around me.
I like to eat every day.
That's important to me.
No, this wasn't.
This was not my chosen career.
This was not the path I soughtout.
I've been quite a wanderer, ifyou will Even like.
Yeah, I went to La Cueva, but Ialso went to two other high
(02:43):
schools.
That's wanderer, if you willeven like.
Yeah, I went to la quiva, but Ialso went to two other high
schools.
That's right, I went to threeelementary schools, two
universities.
Like I've kind of always been,uh, out exploring the world in
one way or another.
One time my mom and I weretraveling and all of a sudden
she's just like I figured youout.
I was like that's fantastic,please explain me to me.
Like I'd love to know.
Thanks, mom.
Yeah, I was like what is whatmean?
And she was like you are acollector of stories.
Kristelle (03:05):
Oh, she said that yeah.
Jace (03:06):
So it's interesting that you just said you're a story,
because she's like you've beenliving your life, because I'm
kind of the wild card of thefamily.
She's like you've been livingyour life and going about and
doing all these differentexperiences.
She says you're a collector ofstories and I was like, oh, that
(03:29):
kind of is the common theme,yeah, in my career.
So if I think, like when I waslike little baby, jace, like
what do you want to be when yougrow up?
Um, my first interest was likein animals.
Um, like whale free willy hadcome out, so my sister and I
were going to be whale trainers.
Um, I wanted to be a cowboy fora while.
Um, I wanted to be aveterinarian until I learned you
have to like deal with notfluffy animals, also like it's
not all puppies and kittens, andthen you also have to kill them
(03:51):
sometimes, and I was like wellthis isn't fun at all.
I'm out, and when I was youngerI did theater.
I directed theater from a verysmall age, even in middle school
.
Oh how adorable yeah, I was indrama and the show was coming up
for the semester or whatever,and I was like I want to direct
(04:12):
it.
And they were like oh, we don'treally do that.
The teacher directs it.
And I was like not anymore,bitch, I'm stepping in.
And I was like no, and theyasked my mom and she was like
let her do it, like supervise,like whatever, but why does
everybody have to be on stage?
And they were like that's areally good point.
And so I started doing theaterin like elementary school and
did that for years.
I had no idea oh yeah, if youwent to a show at La Cueva, I
(04:37):
probably directed it.
Kristelle (04:39):
Oh yeah, oh, my God, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So all the okay now.
It's all making sense now withall our mutual connections with
La Cueva.
Jace (04:45):
Okay, yeah, so yeah, and then I decided when I was like
in middle school I was like, oh,there's no money in theater,
Like that's not like a real job,and so I pivoted to film.
I got my first camera for my13th birthday, yeah, and started
just you know and nonsense andwhatnot and some of the friends
I had in high school.
So I went to two high schoolsmy freshman year and the crew I
(05:09):
ended up hanging out with at LaCueva were the goth kids.
Kristelle (05:14):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jace (05:16):
A person I met kind of adopted me.
I was like you can hang out withme and my friends, and I was
like, all right, and I walk inand I'm just like eyeliner
spikes on the leather jackets,you know the dyed black hair and
whatnot.
And then I'm just like they'relike let's be at school and
whatever, and so, but they wereall into film and so we would do
(05:38):
like weekend film festivals,yeah, like the 48 hour film
festivals.
We would do, oh, wow, and Istill did theater, but at 13, I
was like, oh, I'm going to be afilmmaker and like you know, an
artist and whatnot, and I wantedto direct eventually in film.
Kristelle (05:57):
I think that you do.
You have a natural leadership,project management quality about
you.
Now it's all like oh, thatmakes sense, right.
Yeah, but that's kind of theroles that you've played, even
with us at CR, is outside of thepodcast, right like that
totally makes sense so, yeah, um, and when I got into college, I
I told the story about gettingmy.
Jace (06:18):
My first job was with PBS and the executive producer there
, who was my mentor, was likeyou're going to be a producer.
Like you're not a director,you're a producer.
And I was like, how dare you?
Like I'm an artist and whatnot.
No, he was totally right.
I eventually did shift into moreof pre and post production and
it's crazy how people see yourpotential when you're like no,
(06:41):
you don't know me, yeah, andlike I got into documentary film
early on in college because Irealized, like I remember I
don't remember the name of theshort film is a short
documentary film that we saw andit impacted me so much, not
enough to remember the title,but I remember thinking like, oh
my gosh, film can be used as amedium for change.
(07:02):
Like you can actually impactthe world with media.
Oh yeah, and I'm like that'swhat I want to do.
That's so cool.
I want to create change in theworld through video.
Kristelle (07:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally makes sense.
Ooh, okay, so now I'm thinkingour thumbnail might not have to
be our La Cueva yearbook photos.
Oh man, yeah.
Jace (07:27):
Where you at mom dig that out.
Yeah, yeah, I have.
Oh, my god, I have some thatare so embarrassing.
So my mom is incredible.
And just let me be me good,uh-huh, yep, except I literally
maybe this.
Okay, I might allow this youjust turned like two shades of
pink right now because one of mysenior pictures this is an
outfit I wore in all seriousness.
So in one of our last episodesI talked about like I wore bell
(07:48):
bottoms and fringe vests.
I remember as a guy, sophomoreyear, at the charter school I
was at, which is now an MVD,just down the road actually.
Oh, shoot, I was sitting thereto get my registration or
something.
I was like, oh, I used to dogeometry in this class, but I
remember him saying like, oh, Iused to do geometry in this
class, but I remember him saying, like what costume are you
going to wear tomorrow?
And I'm like these aren'tcostumes, like this is style,
like whatever.
(08:09):
I was such a weirdo.
But one of my senior pictures Iam wearing a white blazer with
black pinstripes and a redfedora, like a fucking pimp.
Kristelle (08:20):
Oh, this is.
I think I remember this.
Jace (08:25):
You wouldn't have seen it.
It was like you know you gotthe book and like my mom has it.
But she gave it to me the otherday and I was like you just
gonna let me wear this like this.
Is you just gonna have me outin the world this way, fucking
carmen san diego and pimp jacket?
And she did, and she fuckingdid that jacket I wore for, uh,
our hollow for being marilynmanson, literally wore that in
all seriousness in my youngerdays.
Kristelle (08:45):
I'm not going to lie, I had a slight flashback.
I'm like, oh, that made a lotof sense, how she had a lot of
stuff in her cool.
Jace (08:53):
I do and I used to wear that, so maybe that'll be our
picture and I'm just likeglamour shot style in my pimp
coat.
Kristelle (09:00):
Oh my gosh, we have to do a glamour photo shoot one
of these days.
Poor Justine has to probablydeal with that, but that's okay.
No, like I actually thattotally makes sense.
And to me that's not likelaughable, like oh my God, what
a freak.
To me that's like, oh, that'sher personality.
It's like really fascinatinghow it's all like coming
together.
You know I'm a steadier ofpeople.
I love people watching.
(09:20):
I love people watching and soeven hearing this story I'm like
oh, that totally makes sense.
Jace (09:24):
And I love that girl and I really shifted.
I went into myself.
I started having like a lot ofself-loathing.
I went through a lot of mentalunwellness as we know.
We've talked about thatdepression and whatnot and all
of a sudden I wanted to beinvisible and all of that shut
down.
No more funky outfits, no morecool stuff.
(09:46):
I didn't want to be seen.
I didn't want anyone to know me.
I was living a double life atthat point and did not want to
be noticeable and it took meyears to get back to that.
And I look back at her just outin the world, being whoever,
saying whatever, wearingwhatever, and I'm like fuck,
yeah, yeah, hell yeah, be whoyou are out there.
Kristelle (10:07):
No fear.
Jace (10:08):
People made fun of me, whatever, and I just stood
strong, yeah, and that took gutsand that's a cool version of me
that.
I feel proud of.
Kristelle (10:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that younger version ofme was just out in the world not
giving a fuck Well, and I thinkthat plays a part in your
career and your career choicestoo.
Jace (10:25):
right, I mean, it's very unconventional well, and and the
fact that I've actually donemultiple careers.
This is my fourth career.
I'm 36 and I'm in my fourthcareer.
Kristelle (10:33):
Yeah, yeah yeah, I, I can't say that like working
backwards, right, like I can'tsay that CR is a has.
It's like multiple careers inone.
Yeah, right, because I thinkabout.
When I first started, you know,my reputation in town was
always the digital marketer, thedigital marketing person, the
social media guru, because of mywork with the Albuquerque
(10:56):
International Balloon Fiesta,helping them develop the digital
strategy.
And then, on top of that, beingone of the people that was
predominantly messaging andinteracting and finding sales
leads on Twitter when that wasstill a thing, and then even
really really just embracing myMySpace profile.
I swear to God, I learned how tocode because of MySpace,
(11:17):
homesteadcom and AsianAvenuecomand Friendster.
I was on Friendster.
I was always on social mediachannels like those social and
friendster.
I was on friendster.
Like, I was always on socialmedia channels.
But if you were to ask me, like, who was the person in your?
Like a celebrity or role modelor just a person that you would
always look up to to see whattype of career do you want to
have out of them?
Jace (11:37):
or what does?
Kristelle (11:37):
that look like you're gonna laugh.
Justin already started laughingabout this, but I said this
whole fucking episode is gonnabe about ryan seacrest people
are like what can we get blondetips frosted into our hair at
some point?
Jace (11:52):
can somebody do that please?
Kristelle (11:54):
1998 ryan seacrest frosted tips.
Oh.
Or 2009, ryan seacrest frostedtips.
Okay, or are we talking about2024?
Ryan seacrest, frosted tips.
Okay, or are we talking about2024?
Ryan Seacrest blonde.
Jace (12:08):
Various different versions , I got to learn more about Ryan
Seacrest is what I'm learning.
Kristelle (12:11):
So in.
I live in the Bay Area.
Some people realize this.
I grew up in the Bay Area andwe moved out here in 2001.
I used to watch this channel,the Fox affiliate channel two,
ktvu, every single day, everymorning show.
I loved morning shows when Iwas growing up.
I loved television.
Growing up, I loved radio.
Growing up, I loved the mediasince, like I was five, right I,
(12:33):
and like I thought about, like,I posted this meme about what
my schedule looked like in 1995and it was nickelodeon, right it
was nickelodeon televisionright, yeah regrets in the
morning, you know nick at night,like it was my favorite I love
nickat.
I love television.
I've loved it since a kid andit raised me in a lot of
different ways, because myparents were always working
right or my dad would not like.
(12:55):
He was not really like aninteractive let's go do
something together, or if it was, it was like thrifting.
But we enjoyed as a familywatching television together,
being entertained together.
And so back to KTVU.
Frank Somerville was one of themost important iconic
television anchors at that time.
And then he would have thislifestyle reporter what we call
(13:19):
nowadays a lifestyle reporter.
And there was this guy namedRyan Seacrest.
This was 1992, 1993.
As a kid I loved him.
He was like my first crush too.
I loved watching him on themorning shows on Channel 2.
And then he was also theevening DJ in San Francisco on
Z95.7.
So he was the drive-home DJ.
Jace (13:40):
Oh dang Start and end your day with Ryan Seacrest.
Oh, I loved it.
I loved him.
Kristelle (13:45):
I was obsessed with him and so he would be on the
radio show and he would do theevening drive and then so he got
his start on radio as well.
That was actually, I think hissecond market it was San
Francisco and so he would do theafternoon show Very
entertaining Days of NSYNC BSB.
Like he wasn't as popular asCarson Daly, if you think about
(14:09):
it during the time frame.
And Carson, we're TRL kids,right, we grew up on Total
Request Live on MTV.
Jace (14:14):
Yes, I didn't, but my sister did.
I was around, but that wasn'tmy jam.
Kristelle (14:18):
So here we are, ryan Seacrest, and then he was on the
Merv Griffin game show and heleft San Francisco to go to LA.
And then game show, and he leftSan Francisco to go to LA.
And then, all of a sudden,there's this little show,
sophomore year of La Cueva,called American Idol and I was
like oh my god, it's RyanSeacrest.
I've been watching him since Iwas a kid.
I really loved him.
I found out he was at Capricorn.
(14:40):
I found out that he's like 25years, almost 30 years, older
again.
Jace (14:43):
I'm stupid obsessed with ryan seacrest did you have a
poster on your wall?
Oh yeah, I think I did.
Okay, I'm like that's theultimate a picture, not a poster
, but like a full-on picture andplease
Kristelle (14:52):
ryan seacrest, I need to meet you like if you are
when you are watching, whenyou're watching, not if but when
you are a huge inspiration inmy career and that's the end of
the stalker, look at the camera,okay.
So like ryan seacrest gets onAmerican Idol with his other
co-hosts and we're like, whoeven fucking remembers that guy?
Right?
And then I saw I was like, ohmy God, this is great.
And then, over the years Ifollowed his career, he's a full
(15:14):
on Capricorn, just like me.
Okay, dedicated, driven,totally motivated.
And I said to myself like Iwant to be in media, just like
him.
So, of course, I don't want to,I want to.
I don't want to host like a gameshow, but he went into like
being an executive producercoming up with other
entrepreneurial projects likethe kardashians.
(15:35):
He took over one of the iconicnew year's eve specials dick
clark's rock and roll new year'seve.
Like I, have followed hiscareer.
He's created philanthropic arm,which is the radio, the radio
stations at various differentchildren's hospitals.
He's from georgia.
He loves football.
I'm like I'm not gonna marrythis guy but I pretty much like
I I emulated a lot of my careerafter him, just being very
(15:56):
entrepreneurial, being dedicated, um, being very focused on the
media, telling people stories,having conversations with folks
like I have loved ryan seacrestfrom the get-go so you always
encourage us to sing in theoffice.
Jace (16:09):
So yeah, there you go.
Kristelle (16:12):
We have a karaoke machine, hello, right here.
So, um, ryan Seacrest hasalways been a big inspiration of
mine.
And but how did it start withmy career?
Yeah, career choices.
I wanted to always be in media,I didn't know.
I wanted to be a business owner, but I want.
I actually went to school forjournalism because I wanted to
be a storyteller and even inhigh school I was in speech and
debate.
I was in anything comms relatedspeech and debate, quill and
(16:34):
scroll newspaper.
I wasn't in yearbook right,because I learned a lot of the
graphic design in newspaper.
I remember even when I was inthe fifth grade I created my own
radio show for a music activityand everybody was like that was
pretty damn good.
Jace (16:49):
I did the same thing.
Whenever it'd be like you haveto have a project, new makeup,
whatever it is, I would alwayswrite a little play, yeah, yeah.
Kristelle (16:55):
Like you think about the things that bring you life
and bring you joy.
Right, and it was the cassette.
I swear to God like this isgoing to sound ridiculous, but
it's true.
Seven o'clock at night youwould have like the programming
on the radio and I would recordwith on a cassette tape the
shows at my favorite songs, etc.
Like in the fourth or fifthgrade loved it, yeah but it was
(17:17):
the recording, it was theediting.
Like back then, editing was likerecord, play, stop, pause, and
you had to hit it like, justright, just right were we
talking about this like that?
Jace (17:25):
this generation will not know love because they will not
have made a mixed tape and theeffort that went.
That wasn't just like Spotifyplaylist.
I'm choosing these.
Nah bitch, you had to wait foryour favorite song to come on
the radio Hit record as soon asit came on.
Don't get the DJ, though.
You had to time it just right,you a dj on either end of it.
I preferred ryan seacrest onmine, but that's well sure if
(17:46):
that's the dj.
And then you'd have to waituntil the next song you wanted
on there came on and do the samething like that.
Kristelle (17:54):
Those are the days, love, oh my god.
I remember like when I wasreally interested in somebody, I
made them like a mix, a cd, andburned yeah, from napster, okay
, limewire, yeah, justin'sreally relating to this one too.
You just just wrote, youcreated your own CD, yep, and
then you wrote down the songswith a Sharpie.
Jace (18:11):
Yeah, I still have my CD book.
My sister sent me a meme thatwas like you think texting and
driving is bad, you should belike.
Here's me going through my 120CD book in the car to pick out
the next song.
Kristelle (18:24):
Yeah, and we appreciate anybody listening to
the show on their favoritepodcast channel, but here I am
going like there's probablysomebody on Spotify.
That's like God, those kidswill never know what it's like
with a life without Spotify.
Yeah, and then there's alsoprobably another listener that's
listening to.
That's like I always wonderedhow they burned those CDs back
in the day.
Jace (18:42):
Illegally is how we did it .
Kristelle (18:45):
It was not legal so would we be where we're at now
if it wasn't for those crazyRyan?
Jace (18:51):
Seacrest?
I would not, none of us.
How weird is that, justin?
We have our jobs because ofRyan Seacrest.
You ever think about that?
No, we have to send him a thankyou.
Kristelle (19:02):
note the episode is titled Ryan Seacrest.
There you go, please contact usSponsor this show with honor
with Ryan.
So would any of us be where weare if it wasn't for the little
director in us, right?
The little director in us, thelittle producer in us, the
little nerd for radio the littlenerd for TV.
Like would we be where we areat if it wasn't for those little
(19:24):
micro stories?
Jace (19:26):
I don't think so, and I got to give it up to my mom.
I remember because I did a mocktrial for a short bit in high
school oh my god, that explainsso much and I really I was like
I really fucking love this and Ilike, totally, I like the
instructor to be like settledown.
Kristelle (19:42):
Like you have demolished the competition, you
have, like you got to settledown oh, I have to talk my
speech in big days, okay, yeah,I wish I would have done that.
Jace (19:48):
I didn't.
Kristelle (19:49):
I didn't oh, you've been phenomenal.
Jace (19:50):
I would love that but at the time you have to keep in
mind I know this is the biggestsurprise of my career being on
camera or on stage, that was mynightmare.
I was behind the camera foryears.
My whole career is behind thecamera and even in theater I was
on stage, I think twice.
Uh, I like I didn't want to bein front of people, so speech
and debate was not my jam at thetime.
(20:11):
That would have been horrifying, yeah, uh.
But I do remember really likingmock trial and thinking like I
might, maybe I might want to dolaw school instead of film
school, which my mom got veryexcited about, uh, and then I,
you know, I sat with it andthought about it and I remember
feeling really stressed out onemorning I don't know why.
I'm like I have to tell herright now.
I gotta like break it to herright now.
I went into her room.
(20:31):
She was still in her bed andI'm like mom, I gotta talk to
you and you know, whatever it'slike.
Kristelle (20:36):
How old are you in this?
Jace (20:38):
senior, junior, senior, high school, 17, 18, and I'm
like you know, I've thoughtabout it and I think I want to
stick.
I want to do documentary film,I want to stick with it.
And I remember her saying likeanything you want to do, honey,
you'll do.
Like I have no doubt you canaccomplish anything you want.
(21:00):
And, realistically, being adirector as a woman is very
uncommon and it was at the time,yeah, very uncommon to have a
woman as a director and she kindof broke down like going into a
male-dominated industry she wasin as well you have to study
harder, work harder you.
(21:20):
You can't ever fail.
Like they look for every reasonto say no to you like, you will
be going against the grain, wow, and if you want to do that,
I've got you like I'm gonna behere with you.
So she was like fantastic,here's the reality.
And she was right.
She was absolutely right.
It was hard back in the day,like now I think it's shifted
(21:43):
quite a lot, oh yeah, um, but itwas.
I did.
I had to make sure I couldcarry the exact same amount of
gear, uh, any any slight failing.
Somebody was waiting to go.
I told you you can't do this.
And so, and then when I wantedto shift and like I started my,
my own business, my firstbusiness as a production company
, and she was right there withme, I, I was leaving the comfort
(22:06):
of a steady job and all of thethings, and she was like do it,
go for it.
Even when I was going to go toEurope for the, we were in a
backpack through Europe duringcollege and I told her and she
was like a month, you're goingto be there a month, you might
want two months.
Like she's like good, get outin the world, go do it girl, go
do it.
Yeah.
And then when I shifted and Iwas like, hey, mom, I feel a
calling, like it won't leave mealone.
(22:27):
I really think I'm supposed totell my story on camera and be
honest about addiction and allof the things, and.
But I want to like talk.
You know it could potentiallyimpact you guys and whatnot.
I'm going to be like I'm goingto tell it all, like I'm about
to go and share my story and, um, we talked about the potential
risks that would go into tospeaking in such a stigmatized
(22:50):
area she's so fucking cool andshe's she is.
She's so fucking cool and she'sjust like, if you're gonna do
something like, go into it withopen eyes, right.
And so we talked through the,the, the harm that might come to
me as a result of of sharing mystory and whatnot, and the jobs
I may not get the people whomay not want me in their lives
as a result of it, all of that.
And then I was like I hear youand if it potentially could help
(23:14):
anyone, I got to do it.
Kristelle (23:15):
That's so cool.
Jace (23:16):
And she was like then do it Like every at any pivot I've
made, or when I'm like I'm goingto be a nomad and live in a
forest.
Great Like she's been soencouraging for me to be the
wild card of the family.
Kristelle (23:29):
That's great To live outside of the prescribed life?
Jace (23:33):
Yeah, and when I fall, I've never gotten an.
I told you.
So I don't think I mean we hadone tough conversation of like,
uh, uh, like my life has notresulted in financial abundance
from my choices and fromshifting and starting over, and
you know, choosing altruisticcareers and you're like oh yeah,
wait here, I bought shoes.
Or like this yeah no, this wasyears before that.
(23:55):
Yeah, that was the only timewhere she was just like these
are the consequences of yourchoices, kind of yeah.
But my mom created anenvironment where that little
girl could wear her pimp jacketand tell the boys I'm going to
be here, I'm going to do thisand tell teachers yeah, it's not
been done before, but I'm goingto do it anyway.
And now I'm like a force in theworld to cause trouble.
(24:15):
I'm just causing problems allover the place in the world and
that's my mom's doing.
Kristelle (24:23):
Good trouble cause trouble.
Just, I'm just causing problemsall over the place in the world
and that's my mom's doing goodtrouble.
Yeah, trouble for sure.
My mom and my dad have been abig part of my career too um, my
dad actually.
So my parents are immigrants,right, um, but they met here in
the United States, which wasawesome, and so my dad was
actually wanting.
He was in school for variousdifferent things.
He was a, he was on a visa,student visa, but one of the
things I do remember my daddoing very intently was actually
journalism.
(24:44):
School English is verypredominant in the Philippines,
so it's not that immigrant sortof like oh, he learned English
from reading.
No, no, my dad was very wellversed, very smart, very
intelligent, very inquisitive,very strategic.
He has a strategic mind.
He's always thinking ahead, andsometimes it's like a lack of
focus because he's alwaysthinking ahead right, in a good
(25:04):
way, and so my dad is also theentrepreneur and the wild idea
guy which guess where I got thatfrom?
Right.
And so my dad is just reallyfunny, because I a lot of the
reasons why my dad was just agood journalist.
If you haven't heard my dad's, Itry not to cry whenever I think
about it.
If you haven't heard my dad'srehearsal dinner speech, it was
(25:26):
like he's an incredible publicspeaker and an incredible writer
.
Everything else is like, oh, wegotta work on that, a little
bit Like conflict resolution.
Gotta work on that with my dad,but that's okay, right.
Like my dad is an incrediblespeech writer and like he
fucking crushed my rehearsaldinner speech because it was
from the heart and it was my dad.
So I learned a lot about mypublic speaking skills from my
(25:48):
dad.
I learned a lot about mystorytelling skills from my dad.
I learned about the managementside of things and how to like
run a family for my mom, how torun a business for my mom.
My mom is still at the samecompany that she worked for 35
years, for 30 years.
She's still with them, right,and I learned a lot of that from
my mom.
And my mom said to me I toldher there's like two or three
(26:10):
people and I've talked aboutthis before on the show there's
two or three people that I toldthat I felt like I needed to
have their approval beforestarting CR as a social digital
one, being my mentor who passedaway, the second being my mom.
And I said to my mom mom, Ithink it's time, like I think
it's time for me to open up myown business.
And she goes I knew you werealways going to.
I knew you were always going to.
Jace (26:30):
I was just wondering when my mom says that stuff to me too
.
Yeah, I always knew, I alwaysknew you'd do this, yeah, yeah
and.
Kristelle (26:35):
I'll never forget it too, and she goes, but don't
tell your dad right now.
Yeah, yeah, and I'll neverforget it too, and she goes, but
don't tell your dad right now.
Jace (26:41):
Love that Support you Don't tell dad.
Kristelle (26:43):
Yeah, yeah, don't tell dad.
But then when dad you know, ofcourse you know the company the
identity of the company alsobecame the identity of my dad
and my mom, which is reallyincredible, where they almost
put the logo of CR as thefencing decor on their house.
Jace (26:55):
Adorable.
That's pride right there yeah.
Kristelle (26:57):
So I will say and while I didn't expect us To have
this turn of like, yeah we.
You know we're talking aboutOur careers.
We always have to think aboutthe people that helped us get
there.
It's very clear that ourfamilies Did too.
Jace (27:08):
Well, and something that was Really interesting to me,
when I was speaking at thatLeadership conference for For
the youths, for the high schoolstudents, I school students, I
the the folks speaking before mewere accountants.
Uh, it actually was aninteresting talk.
Kristelle (27:21):
I know right away you're thinking.
But they were cool, they madeit hip.
I knew you crushed it, but youmust have crushed it.
Jace (27:27):
I sat down I was like, oh, I'm going after the CPAs, okay,
let's roll.
No, but they made it reallyinteresting.
But they were talking about thedifferent paths to get the
school and you know, thedifferent degrees to get it and
whatnot.
And so when I about marketing,towards the end, like when we
were talking about careers inmarketing, I said I didn't go to
school for this, this was notmy initial career.
Like I came up through theseother ways and the look on their
(27:47):
face was like wait, what?
Because we give kids this idea.
I think it's the dumbest thingto ask kids what do you want to
be when you grow up?
Like that's such a stupid thingthat we ask children.
Kristelle (27:57):
We're also trying to figure it out.
Jace (27:58):
We're trying to bring them into our level instead of
meeting them at theirs, I think.
But we get this idea that, likethere's going to be the thing
you do when you grow up, andthat wasn't the case for me.
I remember when I wasconsidering closing my
production company and leavingthat industry, just leaving that
career entirely.
I was really stressed out aboutit and I remember talking to a
(28:19):
stranger and I was saying, likethis is what I've always done,
it's what I always thought Iwould do.
And he just said, and you didit, what's next?
And I was like shit, you'reright.
He's like, you didn't fail, youdid it.
Kristelle (28:32):
Yeah.
Jace (28:42):
And now, if you're done with it, we look at, like what
did you want to be?
When you were like I didn't seeany of this stuff coming.
I never would have thought Iwould want to be on stage or on
camera.
I didn't think that I would usemy own life and experience to
to help other people.
Yeah, uh, I certainly.
I used to hate marketing.
I used to think it was thedevil.
I was very anti-marketing neverwould have expected, uh, that I
would work in marketing.
(29:02):
So like hell yeah, younger meout there doing your thing and
being wild and whatnot and thesupport I received all along the
way.
But now I'm in this space whereI'm like what is like what's
next, like there's always, I'mlike there's no end.
Yep, right, even in a, and it'svery exciting.
Kristelle (29:21):
Very exciting for sure.
Thanks again for joining us fortoday's episode of Stories,
Success and Stuff.
I'm Crystal Sierras-Moon.
This is Jace.
Thanks for subscribing to us onyour favorite social media
channel, your favorite podcaststreaming platform, watching us
on YouTube as well, or followingus at Sierrascom.
We look forward to seeing youon our next episode of stories,
success and stuff.
One time my mom and I were traveling All of a sudden,
she's just like I figured youout and she was like you are a
collector of stories.
Uh-huh, she's like you've beenliving your life and going about
and doing all these differentexperiences.
She says you're a collector ofstories and I was like you did
just figure me out.
I was like I've never thoughtabout that.
Kristelle (00:20):
We've decided that today's episode is directed.
It's always directed by Justin,but he is also cinematographer,
script writer, producer,showrunner and all of the things
of today's episode, includingpicking our topic today.
Script writer.
Script writer.
Jace (00:39):
Has he been scripting you this whole time and I'm having
to come up with random shit.
Kristelle (00:43):
Oh, you didn't know that he's been writing my memoir
this whole time and I'm havingto come up with random shit.
Oh, you didn't know that he'sbeen writing my memoir this
whole time.
Oh, interesting.
Justin came up with a reallygreat idea and we asked him what
do you think the people want tohear, Justin?
What do you think everybodywants to listen to?
And he's like well, we shouldprobably talk about how you all
(01:06):
chose your careers.
It's like, oh, Is he maybeasking a pivot change for work,
Like looking for different ideasof what he could possibly do?
But he said you know, it wouldbe really cool to hear why you
guys chose your careers.
So it's career day at theoffice.
Jace (01:23):
Hooray, and bring your daughter to work day for me,
which is every day cool to hearwhy you guys chose your careers.
So it's career day at theoffice.
Hooray, and bring your daughterto work day for me, which is
every day your dog tur, dog tur.
Kristelle (01:30):
Oh, that's a good one .
Yeah, okay, so we have a very.
So, for those that haven'tlistened to the whole episode
series or to the whole series ofstory success and stuff, and
they might have missed theepisode about how we actually
went, we were at the same highschool of each other.
We weren't like besties no um,but we went to la cueva high
school, which is awesome, so atla cueva and I know that we went
(01:51):
through this like sequenceepisode once we did our our
third episode and it is calledour stories.
Jace (01:58):
Our stories.
Kristelle (01:58):
You can find it on youtube or carzacom so this is
kind of like the reboot, right,we just filmed the episode of
the Rees, right and so.
But, interestingly enough, howdid you pick the career that you
have now?
Or did you originally set youreyes on that?
Because mine is a little bit ofa story too.
We kind of talked about it inepisode three.
But, like what was yourinspiration of being a
(02:18):
storyteller?
Because that's what I consideryou.
Jace (02:21):
Interesting Because I was going to say, like my
inspiration for this career wasI like to have four walls and a
roof around me.
I like to eat every day.
That's important to me.
No, this wasn't.
This was not my chosen career.
This was not the path I soughtout.
I've been quite a wanderer, ifyou will Even like.
Yeah, I went to La Cueva, but Ialso went to two other high
(02:43):
schools.
That's wanderer, if you willeven like.
Yeah, I went to la quiva, but Ialso went to two other high
schools.
That's right, I went to threeelementary schools, two
universities.
Like I've kind of always been,uh, out exploring the world in
one way or another.
One time my mom and I weretraveling and all of a sudden
she's just like I figured youout.
I was like that's fantastic,please explain me to me.
Like I'd love to know.
Thanks, mom.
Yeah, I was like what is whatmean?
And she was like you are acollector of stories.
Kristelle (03:05):
Oh, she said that yeah.
Jace (03:06):
So it's interesting that you just said you're a story,
because she's like you've beenliving your life, because I'm
kind of the wild card of thefamily.
She's like you've been livingyour life and going about and
doing all these differentexperiences.
She says you're a collector ofstories and I was like, oh, that
(03:29):
kind of is the common theme,yeah, in my career.
So if I think, like when I waslike little baby, jace, like
what do you want to be when yougrow up?
Um, my first interest was likein animals.
Um, like whale free willy hadcome out, so my sister and I
were going to be whale trainers.
Um, I wanted to be a cowboy fora while.
Um, I wanted to be aveterinarian until I learned you
have to like deal with notfluffy animals, also like it's
not all puppies and kittens, andthen you also have to kill them
(03:51):
sometimes, and I was like wellthis isn't fun at all.
I'm out, and when I was youngerI did theater.
I directed theater from a verysmall age, even in middle school
.
Oh how adorable yeah, I was indrama and the show was coming up
for the semester or whatever,and I was like I want to direct
(04:12):
it.
And they were like oh, we don'treally do that.
The teacher directs it.
And I was like not anymore,bitch, I'm stepping in.
And I was like no, and theyasked my mom and she was like
let her do it, like supervise,like whatever, but why does
everybody have to be on stage?
And they were like that's areally good point.
And so I started doing theaterin like elementary school and
did that for years.
I had no idea oh yeah, if youwent to a show at La Cueva, I
(04:37):
probably directed it.
Kristelle (04:39):
Oh yeah, oh, my God, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So all the okay now.
It's all making sense now withall our mutual connections with
La Cueva.
Jace (04:45):
Okay, yeah, so yeah, and then I decided when I was like
in middle school I was like, oh,there's no money in theater,
Like that's not like a real job,and so I pivoted to film.
I got my first camera for my13th birthday, yeah, and started
just you know and nonsense andwhatnot and some of the friends
I had in high school.
So I went to two high schoolsmy freshman year and the crew I
(05:09):
ended up hanging out with at LaCueva were the goth kids.
Kristelle (05:14):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jace (05:16):
A person I met kind of adopted me.
I was like you can hang out withme and my friends, and I was
like, all right, and I walk inand I'm just like eyeliner
spikes on the leather jackets,you know the dyed black hair and
whatnot.
And then I'm just like they'relike let's be at school and
whatever, and so, but they wereall into film and so we would do
(05:38):
like weekend film festivals,yeah, like the 48 hour film
festivals.
We would do, oh, wow, and Istill did theater, but at 13, I
was like, oh, I'm going to be afilmmaker and like you know, an
artist and whatnot, and I wantedto direct eventually in film.
Kristelle (05:57):
I think that you do.
You have a natural leadership,project management quality about
you.
Now it's all like oh, thatmakes sense, right.
Yeah, but that's kind of theroles that you've played, even
with us at CR, is outside of thepodcast, right like that
totally makes sense so, yeah, um, and when I got into college, I
I told the story about gettingmy.
Jace (06:18):
My first job was with PBS and the executive producer there
, who was my mentor, was likeyou're going to be a producer.
Like you're not a director,you're a producer.
And I was like, how dare you?
Like I'm an artist and whatnot.
No, he was totally right.
I eventually did shift into moreof pre and post production and
it's crazy how people see yourpotential when you're like no,
(06:41):
you don't know me, yeah, andlike I got into documentary film
early on in college because Irealized, like I remember I
don't remember the name of theshort film is a short
documentary film that we saw andit impacted me so much, not
enough to remember the title,but I remember thinking like, oh
my gosh, film can be used as amedium for change.
(07:02):
Like you can actually impactthe world with media.
Oh yeah, and I'm like that'swhat I want to do.
That's so cool.
I want to create change in theworld through video.
Kristelle (07:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally makes sense.
Ooh, okay, so now I'm thinkingour thumbnail might not have to
be our La Cueva yearbook photos.
Oh man, yeah.
Jace (07:27):
Where you at mom dig that out.
Yeah, yeah, I have.
Oh, my god, I have some thatare so embarrassing.
So my mom is incredible.
And just let me be me good,uh-huh, yep, except I literally
maybe this.
Okay, I might allow this youjust turned like two shades of
pink right now because one of mysenior pictures this is an
outfit I wore in all seriousness.
So in one of our last episodesI talked about like I wore bell
(07:48):
bottoms and fringe vests.
I remember as a guy, sophomoreyear, at the charter school I
was at, which is now an MVD,just down the road actually.
Oh, shoot, I was sitting thereto get my registration or
something.
I was like, oh, I used to dogeometry in this class, but I
remember him saying like, oh, Iused to do geometry in this
class, but I remember him saying, like what costume are you
going to wear tomorrow?
And I'm like these aren'tcostumes, like this is style,
like whatever.
(08:09):
I was such a weirdo.
But one of my senior pictures Iam wearing a white blazer with
black pinstripes and a redfedora, like a fucking pimp.
Kristelle (08:20):
Oh, this is.
I think I remember this.
Jace (08:25):
You wouldn't have seen it.
It was like you know you gotthe book and like my mom has it.
But she gave it to me the otherday and I was like you just
gonna let me wear this like this.
Is you just gonna have me outin the world this way, fucking
carmen san diego and pimp jacket?
And she did, and she fuckingdid that jacket I wore for, uh,
our hollow for being marilynmanson, literally wore that in
all seriousness in my youngerdays.
Kristelle (08:45):
I'm not going to lie, I had a slight flashback.
I'm like, oh, that made a lotof sense, how she had a lot of
stuff in her cool.
Jace (08:53):
I do and I used to wear that, so maybe that'll be our
picture and I'm just likeglamour shot style in my pimp
coat.
Kristelle (09:00):
Oh my gosh, we have to do a glamour photo shoot one
of these days.
Poor Justine has to probablydeal with that, but that's okay.
No, like I actually thattotally makes sense.
And to me that's not likelaughable, like oh my God, what
a freak.
To me that's like, oh, that'sher personality.
It's like really fascinatinghow it's all like coming
together.
You know I'm a steadier ofpeople.
I love people watching.
(09:20):
I love people watching and soeven hearing this story I'm like
oh, that totally makes sense.
Jace (09:24):
And I love that girl and I really shifted.
I went into myself.
I started having like a lot ofself-loathing.
I went through a lot of mentalunwellness as we know.
We've talked about thatdepression and whatnot and all
of a sudden I wanted to beinvisible and all of that shut
down.
No more funky outfits, no morecool stuff.
(09:46):
I didn't want to be seen.
I didn't want anyone to know me.
I was living a double life atthat point and did not want to
be noticeable and it took meyears to get back to that.
And I look back at her just outin the world, being whoever,
saying whatever, wearingwhatever, and I'm like fuck,
yeah, yeah, hell yeah, be whoyou are out there.
Kristelle (10:07):
No fear.
Jace (10:08):
People made fun of me, whatever, and I just stood
strong, yeah, and that took gutsand that's a cool version of me
that.
I feel proud of.
Kristelle (10:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that younger version ofme was just out in the world not
giving a fuck Well, and I thinkthat plays a part in your
career and your career choicestoo.
Jace (10:25):
right, I mean, it's very unconventional well, and and the
fact that I've actually donemultiple careers.
This is my fourth career.
I'm 36 and I'm in my fourthcareer.
Kristelle (10:33):
Yeah, yeah yeah, I, I can't say that like working
backwards, right, like I can'tsay that CR is a has.
It's like multiple careers inone.
Yeah, right, because I thinkabout.
When I first started, you know,my reputation in town was
always the digital marketer, thedigital marketing person, the
social media guru, because of mywork with the Albuquerque
(10:56):
International Balloon Fiesta,helping them develop the digital
strategy.
And then, on top of that, beingone of the people that was
predominantly messaging andinteracting and finding sales
leads on Twitter when that wasstill a thing, and then even
really really just embracing myMySpace profile.
I swear to God, I learned how tocode because of MySpace,
(11:17):
homesteadcom and AsianAvenuecomand Friendster.
I was on Friendster.
I was always on social mediachannels like those social and
friendster.
I was on friendster.
Like, I was always on socialmedia channels.
But if you were to ask me, like, who was the person in your?
Like a celebrity or role modelor just a person that you would
always look up to to see whattype of career do you want to
have out of them?
Jace (11:37):
or what does?
Kristelle (11:37):
that look like you're gonna laugh.
Justin already started laughingabout this, but I said this
whole fucking episode is gonnabe about ryan seacrest people
are like what can we get blondetips frosted into our hair at
some point?
Jace (11:52):
can somebody do that please?
Kristelle (11:54):
1998 ryan seacrest frosted tips.
Oh.
Or 2009, ryan seacrest frostedtips.
Okay, or are we talking about2024?
Ryan seacrest, frosted tips.
Okay, or are we talking about2024?
Ryan Seacrest blonde.
Jace (12:08):
Various different versions , I got to learn more about Ryan
Seacrest is what I'm learning.
Kristelle (12:11):
So in.
I live in the Bay Area.
Some people realize this.
I grew up in the Bay Area andwe moved out here in 2001.
I used to watch this channel,the Fox affiliate channel two,
ktvu, every single day, everymorning show.
I loved morning shows when Iwas growing up.
I loved television.
Growing up, I loved radio.
Growing up, I loved the mediasince, like I was five, right I,
(12:33):
and like I thought about, like,I posted this meme about what
my schedule looked like in 1995and it was nickelodeon, right it
was nickelodeon televisionright, yeah regrets in the
morning, you know nick at night,like it was my favorite I love
nickat.
I love television.
I've loved it since a kid andit raised me in a lot of
different ways, because myparents were always working
right or my dad would not like.
(12:55):
He was not really like aninteractive let's go do
something together, or if it was, it was like thrifting.
But we enjoyed as a familywatching television together,
being entertained together.
And so back to KTVU.
Frank Somerville was one of themost important iconic
television anchors at that time.
And then he would have thislifestyle reporter what we call
(13:19):
nowadays a lifestyle reporter.
And there was this guy namedRyan Seacrest.
This was 1992, 1993.
As a kid I loved him.
He was like my first crush too.
I loved watching him on themorning shows on Channel 2.
And then he was also theevening DJ in San Francisco on
Z95.7.
So he was the drive-home DJ.
Jace (13:40):
Oh dang Start and end your day with Ryan Seacrest.
Oh, I loved it.
I loved him.
Kristelle (13:45):
I was obsessed with him and so he would be on the
radio show and he would do theevening drive and then so he got
his start on radio as well.
That was actually, I think hissecond market it was San
Francisco and so he would do theafternoon show Very
entertaining Days of NSYNC BSB.
Like he wasn't as popular asCarson Daly, if you think about
(14:09):
it during the time frame.
And Carson, we're TRL kids,right, we grew up on Total
Request Live on MTV.
Jace (14:14):
Yes, I didn't, but my sister did.
I was around, but that wasn'tmy jam.
Kristelle (14:18):
So here we are, ryan Seacrest, and then he was on the
Merv Griffin game show and heleft San Francisco to go to LA.
And then game show, and he leftSan Francisco to go to LA.
And then, all of a sudden,there's this little show,
sophomore year of La Cueva,called American Idol and I was
like oh my god, it's RyanSeacrest.
I've been watching him since Iwas a kid.
I really loved him.
I found out he was at Capricorn.
(14:40):
I found out that he's like 25years, almost 30 years, older
again.
Jace (14:43):
I'm stupid obsessed with ryan seacrest did you have a
poster on your wall?
Oh yeah, I think I did.
Okay, I'm like that's theultimate a picture, not a poster
, but like a full-on picture andplease
Kristelle (14:52):
ryan seacrest, I need to meet you like if you are
when you are watching, whenyou're watching, not if but when
you are a huge inspiration inmy career and that's the end of
the stalker, look at the camera,okay.
So like ryan seacrest gets onAmerican Idol with his other
co-hosts and we're like, whoeven fucking remembers that guy?
Right?
And then I saw I was like, ohmy God, this is great.
And then, over the years Ifollowed his career, he's a full
(15:14):
on Capricorn, just like me.
Okay, dedicated, driven,totally motivated.
And I said to myself like Iwant to be in media, just like
him.
So, of course, I don't want to,I want to.
I don't want to host like a gameshow, but he went into like
being an executive producercoming up with other
entrepreneurial projects likethe kardashians.
(15:35):
He took over one of the iconicnew year's eve specials dick
clark's rock and roll new year'seve.
Like I, have followed hiscareer.
He's created philanthropic arm,which is the radio, the radio
stations at various differentchildren's hospitals.
He's from georgia.
He loves football.
I'm like I'm not gonna marrythis guy but I pretty much like
I I emulated a lot of my careerafter him, just being very
(15:56):
entrepreneurial, being dedicated, um, being very focused on the
media, telling people stories,having conversations with folks
like I have loved ryan seacrestfrom the get-go so you always
encourage us to sing in theoffice.
Jace (16:09):
So yeah, there you go.
Kristelle (16:12):
We have a karaoke machine, hello, right here.
So, um, ryan Seacrest hasalways been a big inspiration of
mine.
And but how did it start withmy career?
Yeah, career choices.
I wanted to always be in media,I didn't know.
I wanted to be a business owner, but I want.
I actually went to school forjournalism because I wanted to
be a storyteller and even inhigh school I was in speech and
debate.
I was in anything comms relatedspeech and debate, quill and
(16:34):
scroll newspaper.
I wasn't in yearbook right,because I learned a lot of the
graphic design in newspaper.
I remember even when I was inthe fifth grade I created my own
radio show for a music activityand everybody was like that was
pretty damn good.
Jace (16:49):
I did the same thing.
Whenever it'd be like you haveto have a project, new makeup,
whatever it is, I would alwayswrite a little play, yeah, yeah.
Kristelle (16:55):
Like you think about the things that bring you life
and bring you joy.
Right, and it was the cassette.
I swear to God like this isgoing to sound ridiculous, but
it's true.
Seven o'clock at night youwould have like the programming
on the radio and I would recordwith on a cassette tape the
shows at my favorite songs, etc.
Like in the fourth or fifthgrade loved it, yeah but it was
(17:17):
the recording, it was theediting.
Like back then, editing was likerecord, play, stop, pause, and
you had to hit it like, justright, just right were we
talking about this like that?
Jace (17:25):
this generation will not know love because they will not
have made a mixed tape and theeffort that went.
That wasn't just like Spotifyplaylist.
I'm choosing these.
Nah bitch, you had to wait foryour favorite song to come on
the radio Hit record as soon asit came on.
Don't get the DJ, though.
You had to time it just right,you a dj on either end of it.
I preferred ryan seacrest onmine, but that's well sure if
(17:46):
that's the dj.
And then you'd have to waituntil the next song you wanted
on there came on and do the samething like that.
Kristelle (17:54):
Those are the days, love, oh my god.
I remember like when I wasreally interested in somebody, I
made them like a mix, a cd, andburned yeah, from napster, okay
, limewire, yeah, justin'sreally relating to this one too.
You just just wrote, youcreated your own CD, yep, and
then you wrote down the songswith a Sharpie.
Jace (18:11):
Yeah, I still have my CD book.
My sister sent me a meme thatwas like you think texting and
driving is bad, you should belike.
Here's me going through my 120CD book in the car to pick out
the next song.
Kristelle (18:24):
Yeah, and we appreciate anybody listening to
the show on their favoritepodcast channel, but here I am
going like there's probablysomebody on Spotify.
That's like God, those kidswill never know what it's like
with a life without Spotify.
Yeah, and then there's alsoprobably another listener that's
listening to.
That's like I always wonderedhow they burned those CDs back
in the day.
Jace (18:42):
Illegally is how we did it .
Kristelle (18:45):
It was not legal so would we be where we're at now
if it wasn't for those crazyRyan?
Jace (18:51):
Seacrest?
I would not, none of us.
How weird is that, justin?
We have our jobs because ofRyan Seacrest.
You ever think about that?
No, we have to send him a thankyou.
Kristelle (19:02):
note the episode is titled Ryan Seacrest.
There you go, please contact usSponsor this show with honor
with Ryan.
So would any of us be where weare if it wasn't for the little
director in us, right?
The little director in us, thelittle producer in us, the
little nerd for radio the littlenerd for TV.
Like would we be where we areat if it wasn't for those little
(19:24):
micro stories?
Jace (19:26):
I don't think so, and I got to give it up to my mom.
I remember because I did a mocktrial for a short bit in high
school oh my god, that explainsso much and I really I was like
I really fucking love this and Ilike, totally, I like the
instructor to be like settledown.
Kristelle (19:42):
Like you have demolished the competition, you
have, like you got to settledown oh, I have to talk my
speech in big days, okay, yeah,I wish I would have done that.
Jace (19:48):
I didn't.
Kristelle (19:49):
I didn't oh, you've been phenomenal.
Jace (19:50):
I would love that but at the time you have to keep in
mind I know this is the biggestsurprise of my career being on
camera or on stage, that was mynightmare.
I was behind the camera foryears.
My whole career is behind thecamera and even in theater I was
on stage, I think twice.
Uh, I like I didn't want to bein front of people, so speech
and debate was not my jam at thetime.
(20:11):
That would have been horrifying, yeah, uh.
But I do remember really likingmock trial and thinking like I
might, maybe I might want to dolaw school instead of film
school, which my mom got veryexcited about, uh, and then I,
you know, I sat with it andthought about it and I remember
feeling really stressed out onemorning I don't know why.
I'm like I have to tell herright now.
I gotta like break it to herright now.
I went into her room.
(20:31):
She was still in her bed andI'm like mom, I gotta talk to
you and you know, whatever it'slike.
Kristelle (20:36):
How old are you in this?
Jace (20:38):
senior, junior, senior, high school, 17, 18, and I'm
like you know, I've thoughtabout it and I think I want to
stick.
I want to do documentary film,I want to stick with it.
And I remember her saying likeanything you want to do, honey,
you'll do.
Like I have no doubt you canaccomplish anything you want.
(21:00):
And, realistically, being adirector as a woman is very
uncommon and it was at the time,yeah, very uncommon to have a
woman as a director and she kindof broke down like going into a
male-dominated industry she wasin as well you have to study
harder, work harder you.
(21:20):
You can't ever fail.
Like they look for every reasonto say no to you like, you will
be going against the grain, wow, and if you want to do that,
I've got you like I'm gonna behere with you.
So she was like fantastic,here's the reality.
And she was right.
She was absolutely right.
It was hard back in the day,like now I think it's shifted
(21:43):
quite a lot, oh yeah, um, but itwas.
I did.
I had to make sure I couldcarry the exact same amount of
gear, uh, any any slight failing.
Somebody was waiting to go.
I told you you can't do this.
And so, and then when I wantedto shift and like I started my,
my own business, my firstbusiness as a production company
, and she was right there withme, I, I was leaving the comfort
(22:06):
of a steady job and all of thethings, and she was like do it,
go for it.
Even when I was going to go toEurope for the, we were in a
backpack through Europe duringcollege and I told her and she
was like a month, you're goingto be there a month, you might
want two months.
Like she's like good, get outin the world, go do it girl, go
do it.
Yeah.
And then when I shifted and Iwas like, hey, mom, I feel a
calling, like it won't leave mealone.
(22:27):
I really think I'm supposed totell my story on camera and be
honest about addiction and allof the things, and.
But I want to like talk.
You know it could potentiallyimpact you guys and whatnot.
I'm going to be like I'm goingto tell it all, like I'm about
to go and share my story and, um, we talked about the potential
risks that would go into tospeaking in such a stigmatized
(22:50):
area she's so fucking cool andshe's she is.
She's so fucking cool and she'sjust like, if you're gonna do
something like, go into it withopen eyes, right.
And so we talked through the,the, the harm that might come to
me as a result of of sharing mystory and whatnot, and the jobs
I may not get the people whomay not want me in their lives
as a result of it, all of that.
And then I was like I hear youand if it potentially could help
(23:14):
anyone, I got to do it.
Kristelle (23:15):
That's so cool.
Jace (23:16):
And she was like then do it Like every at any pivot I've
made, or when I'm like I'm goingto be a nomad and live in a
forest.
Great Like she's been soencouraging for me to be the
wild card of the family.
Kristelle (23:29):
That's great To live outside of the prescribed life?
Jace (23:33):
Yeah, and when I fall, I've never gotten an.
I told you.
So I don't think I mean we hadone tough conversation of like,
uh, uh, like my life has notresulted in financial abundance
from my choices and fromshifting and starting over, and
you know, choosing altruisticcareers and you're like oh yeah,
wait here, I bought shoes.
Or like this yeah no, this wasyears before that.
(23:55):
Yeah, that was the only timewhere she was just like these
are the consequences of yourchoices, kind of yeah.
But my mom created anenvironment where that little
girl could wear her pimp jacketand tell the boys I'm going to
be here, I'm going to do thisand tell teachers yeah, it's not
been done before, but I'm goingto do it anyway.
And now I'm like a force in theworld to cause trouble.
(24:15):
I'm just causing problems allover the place in the world and
that's my mom's doing.
Kristelle (24:23):
Good trouble cause trouble.
Just, I'm just causing problemsall over the place in the world
and that's my mom's doing goodtrouble.
Yeah, trouble for sure.
My mom and my dad have been abig part of my career too um, my
dad actually.
So my parents are immigrants,right, um, but they met here in
the United States, which wasawesome, and so my dad was
actually wanting.
He was in school for variousdifferent things.
He was a, he was on a visa,student visa, but one of the
things I do remember my daddoing very intently was actually
journalism.
(24:44):
School English is verypredominant in the Philippines,
so it's not that immigrant sortof like oh, he learned English
from reading.
No, no, my dad was very wellversed, very smart, very
intelligent, very inquisitive,very strategic.
He has a strategic mind.
He's always thinking ahead, andsometimes it's like a lack of
focus because he's alwaysthinking ahead right, in a good
(25:04):
way, and so my dad is also theentrepreneur and the wild idea
guy which guess where I got thatfrom?
Right.
And so my dad is just reallyfunny, because I a lot of the
reasons why my dad was just agood journalist.
If you haven't heard my dad's, Itry not to cry whenever I think
about it.
If you haven't heard my dad'srehearsal dinner speech, it was
(25:26):
like he's an incredible publicspeaker and an incredible writer
.
Everything else is like, oh, wegotta work on that, a little
bit Like conflict resolution.
Gotta work on that with my dad,but that's okay, right.
Like my dad is an incrediblespeech writer and like he
fucking crushed my rehearsaldinner speech because it was
from the heart and it was my dad.
So I learned a lot about mypublic speaking skills from my
(25:48):
dad.
I learned a lot about mystorytelling skills from my dad.
I learned about the managementside of things and how to like
run a family for my mom, how torun a business for my mom.
My mom is still at the samecompany that she worked for 35
years, for 30 years.
She's still with them, right,and I learned a lot of that from
my mom.
And my mom said to me I toldher there's like two or three
(26:10):
people and I've talked aboutthis before on the show there's
two or three people that I toldthat I felt like I needed to
have their approval beforestarting CR as a social digital
one, being my mentor who passedaway, the second being my mom.
And I said to my mom mom, Ithink it's time, like I think
it's time for me to open up myown business.
And she goes I knew you werealways going to.
I knew you were always going to.
Jace (26:30):
I was just wondering when my mom says that stuff to me too
.
Yeah, I always knew, I alwaysknew you'd do this, yeah, yeah
and.
Kristelle (26:35):
I'll never forget it too, and she goes, but don't
tell your dad right now.
Yeah, yeah, and I'll neverforget it too, and she goes, but
don't tell your dad right now.
Jace (26:41):
Love that Support you Don't tell dad.
Kristelle (26:43):
Yeah, yeah, don't tell dad.
But then when dad you know, ofcourse you know the company the
identity of the company alsobecame the identity of my dad
and my mom, which is reallyincredible, where they almost
put the logo of CR as thefencing decor on their house.
Jace (26:55):
Adorable.
That's pride right there yeah.
Kristelle (26:57):
So I will say and while I didn't expect us To have
this turn of like, yeah we.
You know we're talking aboutOur careers.
We always have to think aboutthe people that helped us get
there.
It's very clear that ourfamilies Did too.
Jace (27:08):
Well, and something that was Really interesting to me,
when I was speaking at thatLeadership conference for For
the youths, for the high schoolstudents, I school students, I
the the folks speaking before mewere accountants.
Uh, it actually was aninteresting talk.
Kristelle (27:21):
I know right away you're thinking.
But they were cool, they madeit hip.
I knew you crushed it, but youmust have crushed it.
Jace (27:27):
I sat down I was like, oh, I'm going after the CPAs, okay,
let's roll.
No, but they made it reallyinteresting.
But they were talking about thedifferent paths to get the
school and you know, thedifferent degrees to get it and
whatnot.
And so when I about marketing,towards the end, like when we
were talking about careers inmarketing, I said I didn't go to
school for this, this was notmy initial career.
Like I came up through theseother ways and the look on their
(27:47):
face was like wait, what?
Because we give kids this idea.
I think it's the dumbest thingto ask kids what do you want to
be when you grow up?
Like that's such a stupid thingthat we ask children.
Kristelle (27:57):
We're also trying to figure it out.
Jace (27:58):
We're trying to bring them into our level instead of
meeting them at theirs, I think.
But we get this idea that, likethere's going to be the thing
you do when you grow up, andthat wasn't the case for me.
I remember when I wasconsidering closing my
production company and leavingthat industry, just leaving that
career entirely.
I was really stressed out aboutit and I remember talking to a
(28:19):
stranger and I was saying, likethis is what I've always done,
it's what I always thought Iwould do.
And he just said, and you didit, what's next?
And I was like shit, you'reright.
He's like, you didn't fail, youdid it.
Kristelle (28:32):
Yeah.
Jace (28:42):
And now, if you're done with it, we look at, like what
did you want to be?
When you were like I didn't seeany of this stuff coming.
I never would have thought Iwould want to be on stage or on
camera.
I didn't think that I would usemy own life and experience to
to help other people.
Yeah, uh, I certainly.
I used to hate marketing.
I used to think it was thedevil.
I was very anti-marketing neverwould have expected, uh, that I
would work in marketing.
(29:02):
So like hell yeah, younger meout there doing your thing and
being wild and whatnot and thesupport I received all along the
way.
But now I'm in this space whereI'm like what is like what's
next, like there's always, I'mlike there's no end.
Yep, right, even in a, and it'svery exciting.
Kristelle (29:21):
Very exciting for sure.
Thanks again for joining us fortoday's episode of Stories,
Success and Stuff.
I'm Crystal Sierras-Moon.
This is Jace.
Thanks for subscribing to us onyour favorite social media
channel, your favorite podcaststreaming platform, watching us
on YouTube as well, or followingus at Sierrascom.
We look forward to seeing youon our next episode of stories,
success and stuff.
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