Jason Derusha

Dishing with Stephanie's Dish

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TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:

Stephanie [00:00:15]:

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's dish, the podcast where we talk to people that are obsessed with food. And, Jason Derusha, I don't know how you feel about being introduced as being obsessed with food. I probably should start with that you're a very professional broadcaster first.

Jason Derusha [00:00:32]:

I'm pretty obsessed, though, so I think it works. I think it works.

Stephanie [00:00:36]:

Jason is the host of Drive Time with Derusha from 3 to 6 on WCCO Radio. And you may have known him from making the leap from being a TV news anchor to a broadcaster over in the audio space. You and I are are friendly. We, see each other at things and we chat and you've been super helpful for me in my freelance journey. But I just really wanted to chat with you about, like, how's it going? Most people, I think, see the idea of being on, like, the evening news and then going to AM radio as a step back. But I thought it was super fascinating for you, and I'd just love to see how it's going.

Jason Derusha [00:01:18]:

Well, thank you, and I appreciate you asking me. It is, I I had to get over my own sort of mental block as to whether or not this was a step back. And, also, like, is that even a relevant question? Like, who cares if it's a step back? Right? But, all of these things are sort of wrapped up in, oh, gosh. It just goes back to, like, when you're a kid. Right? Like, what was your vision of yourself? Is it okay to stop and say, like, I think I've achieved what I need to achieve? And that that sort of I don't know. It was an emotional decision for me because very much my identity was wrapped up in being the TV news guy.

Stephanie [00:02:03]:

Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:02:04]:

And probably for my 1st year at WCCO Radio, when I would do events, I would I would, still, like, sort of struggle with how do I introduce myself. And even stuff like talking to my my, kids about you know, as an alum of Marquette University, when I was the morning news anchor, like, there was some prestige with that. When you are the afternoon radio talk show host on AM radio, It's just a little different for a younger generation. I will say this. Releasing yourself from sort of the burden of your own self expectations is incredibly liberating. And doing something because you wanna grow and you wanna challenge yourself and you want to be sort of okay at something and then get better, oh my gosh. Like, it has been so invigorating for me. I'm so glad I did it.

Stephanie [00:03:07]:

It's such a weird thing too because I came from radio and did then go to TV.

Jason Derusha [00:03:14]:

Yeah.

Stephanie [00:03:14]:

And and people act like TV is like the holy grail, but yet you've been doing something for 15 years over here. And the mediums are both broadcast, but the way you interact with people is super different.

Jason Derusha [00:03:28]:

Yes. Yeah. I've found you know, morning news and talk radio have a little more in common than when I was on the nighttime news. I remember when I was the Good Question reporter in the 10 o'clock news at WCCO TV. When I went to the morning show, all of a sudden, there was this much more personal intimate connection with the audience. And doing talk radio is like next level of that. Where on television, like, people got little glimpses into my life. And on radio, you know, all last week, and we're recording this in early September, but when when I was at the Minnesota State Fair, people were coming up to me wishing me good luck at dropping off my oldest at NYU because they knew this weekend I was going to New York to drop off my oldest.

Jason Derusha [00:04:17]:

Like, they just have that relationship with you, which is really fun. I mean, I think I've always had, maybe more of a personal relationship with the audience and, like, the traditional, you know, stand on mount anchor desk and deliver the sermon sort of TV news anchor that's never really been me. But it's just different when you have 3 hours to talk to people. You know?

Stephanie [00:04:39]:

One thing that's really struck me as a talk radio fan, and I have been for, I don't know, my whole life really from the time that my dad made me listen to WCCO in the 5th grade on the drive to school. I'm very impressed with how you handle this time that we're in where politics is so polarizing and people are just so feeling their feels all the time and really need to share those feelings with you. I just was noticing on, posts that you did that someone was mad that you weren't at the state fair on Labor Day and it's like, wow. People. But, also, I love the way that you you let people have their opinions, but you also don't let them abuse you, and I think there's a difference.

Jason Derusha [00:05:26]:

Yeah. Yeah. It's tricky. I mean, in TV news, I spent 25 years trying to get the audience to trust me. And part of that is, especially in morning news, you wanna be liked. Not that you shy away from asking tough questions, but you wanna do it in a likable way. That's what the audience wants. And here in in the talk space, it's it's hard.

Jason Derusha [00:05:56]:

It would be very easy if I were a left wing talk show host or a right wing talk show host, and then you just play the hits. You are essentially KDWB of political ideas. You play the top 40. You people know what you're gonna do, and you do it. And they like it. And people see in me what they want to see. So if they want to be mad at me and they are, Republicans and you're like you can make a line between Trump supporter I try to with Republican listeners. Like, look.

Jason Derusha [00:06:37]:

I am open to many Republican ideas. I'm not open to Donald Trump. Like, sorry. He's disqualified himself for me. That is not something I talk about a lot on the show because what's the point Other than making yourself feel, you know, good, I guess. I I I always think of my show as, like, the Thanksgiving table growing up where my uncle was, my uncle was a lawyer. He went to Madison. My grandfather was a hardcore Ronald Reagan Republican.

Jason Derusha [00:07:14]:

And everyone would duke it out, and everyone was welcome to join in. You're sort of expected to join in. And it was fine. Today, we've taken and I get it. Some of the issues we're talking about are very fundamental issues to different people. Right? It's it's a very white male sort of, privileged position to say, like, most of these issues for me are not life and death. But I also think it's not good for political discourse that we've turned everything into life or or death. And I don't I don't know that that what does that get us? Do we have better discussions? Do we have better participation? Do we have better policy because we've turned everything into a fundamental life and death, good or evil question? I I don't see a benefit to it.

Jason Derusha [00:08:06]:

So I try not to do that on my show.

Stephanie [00:08:09]:

I have noticed a change in you from when you first started broadcasting on the station, and I thought this was interesting because as a TV newsperson, you weren't supposed to have a lot of personality. You were supposed to be fairly impartial and just like a blank slate of

Jason Derusha [00:08:27]:

Yeah. The news for you. Star. Right? The news is the star, not me.

Stephanie [00:08:32]:

And I think it took you a little while to find your rhythm of how what to push, what buttons to push, how hard to push. And I'm really, pleasantly surprised and encouraged of the progress that you've made. I think you're just doing great.

Jason Derusha [00:08:48]:

It it's so nice, it's so nice of you to say that. I have had a tremendous coach at the radio station, and the thing I miss most about TV is the team. And I was more I don't know. I coworkers called me the CFO of our morning show. Mhmm. And that stood for chief feelings officer. My job was to sort of keep the trains on the track and make sure everyone felt heard and validated. And I didn't always tell people they were right, but they always were heard.

Jason Derusha [00:09:24]:

And so my job was to lift everybody else up. Well, in radio, it's just it's me and a producer. That's it. And we have a a brand manager who's, like, a program director of WCCO Radio, Brad Lane. And he's been tremendous, you know, and you can talk to any of my managers over the year. I've always have good relationship with managers, but I generally don't like to be told, what to do. Typical, media Broadcaster. Broadcaster.

Jason Derusha [00:09:55]:

Right? But in this case, like, I needed guidance. I needed coaching. I didn't really know how to do this. I I knew how to host, and I knew how to interview, but I didn't really know how to navigate talk radio today, which is different from talk radio 10 years ago. 10 years ago, if you could frame the issue well, people would call in. Today, people react to talk radio sort of like they do a a Facebook status update. They wanna know your take, and then they'll react.

Stephanie [00:10:24]:

Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:10:25]:

Well, that took me a lot of work because, you know, do people really wanna hear my take? Is my take valid? Do I you know, it's all of those issues. And even as someone who's always had sort of an outsized personality in town, I still had that doubt of, like, do I really do I know what I'm talking about? Why are people really and he the the way Brad phrases it is he's like, what is your show about? What is your show about? And a lot of people ask me that. What is your show about? Which is such a funny question because you and I both, like, grew up listening to talk radio. So, like, I grew up in Chicago. WGN talk radio was part of my life. And then there was an FM talk radio, the loop in Chicago. That was more comedians, a little more edgy, a little younger. And you're like, talk radio is about well, fundamentally, it's about whatever the host wants to talk about.

Jason Derusha [00:11:25]:

So, like, you know, your show that you do, what is your show about? Well, like, the subject matter is food, but, like, it's really about your lens, what you care about. And that seems so egotistical. You're like, oh, it's all about me? Yeah. But it kind of is. Right? That's kinda what it is. So I it took a while for me to learn that. It took honestly, I would say it took a year of doing it 5 days a week until I really got comfortable with it. And I still feel like I'm good, not great.

Jason Derusha [00:12:01]:

Whereas after 25 years of TV, not being arrogant, but I think I was great. Yeah. And so it's kind of fun to not be great at something and learn it. I've enjoyed that.

Stephanie [00:12:14]:

Yeah. And I think it's revealed a lot about you as a person, that is hard to tap into and to be vulnerable and to let people see that side. Particularly, you know, we're performing these shows in a really polarizing time and in a time where people just they go after you. I mean, the amount of personal attack that hosts receive on something as benign as a food show, it's real.

Jason Derusha [00:12:46]:

I'm surprised by it, to be honest. And I'm a very online person, so I shouldn't be surprised by it. But, what's happened, and certainly you get it from people listening to you, but the people who actually listen, get it for the most part. Like, there's some attack, but mostly the listeners I don't know. All during the fair, I have people coming up telling me that, like, they disagree with me politically, but they really like how I do my show, which that's the best. Yeah. But part of the challenge with the digital world and the social media world is, you know, like, I I said this to someone this morning. How much of my energy am I supposed to spend on someone who doesn't listen and never will listen? So all day, every day, both the Republicans and the Democrats run against the media right now.

Jason Derusha [00:13:41]:

The media is the media where's the media? Why doesn't the media say this? Why is this the headline? Why are you framing it this way? Media, media, media, media, which is sort of interesting considering, supposedly, no one cares about the media anymore, and no one lets no one reads, no one subscribes, no one so you're like, but but it's a great boogie, man. Right? Like, if you run against the media, you don't have to confront the fact that your candidate maybe sucks. Right? Like, it's my fault. And that's been a bit of a challenge for me to figure out, like, obviously, I want to convince people to give my show a chance, but I think most of the people who are engaging in sort of a negative way, are not convincible. Right? Like, they're not so how much of my energy am I supposed to spend on that? I don't know. It's a bit of a challenge.

Stephanie [00:14:34]:

Well and I do think they listen. I think that people love to have feelings and emotions. And if they're not sure where to have them or they are in a place in their life where they're lonely or they're othered or whatever the case may be, I think sometimes people tune in just to feel something because they feel empty inside.

Jason Derusha [00:14:59]:

Yeah. Yeah. And you get I don't know. Like, I always try to remember that there are and the same is true of callers or texters on radio. There are a lot more people who are listening, who are lurkers. Right? Like, that's what we would call them on Facebook or Twitter, the lurkers. So by modeling sort of reasonable, friendly, but passionate discussion, I think there's some benefit to that for the people who are observing and don't wanna jump into the mess.

Stephanie [00:15:34]:

Do you ever think about getting off Twitter? I know a lot of media personalities have.

Jason Derusha [00:15:39]:

I do. I do. But, mostly, I enjoy it. Like, mostly, I get positive interaction out of it. I've started to curate it a little more. Like, I mute a lot of people that you know, if I feel someone getting my blood pressure rising, I'll just mute them. It's okay. Like, they don't need, like, block.

Jason Derusha [00:15:58]:

I don't need to do that. But, like, I and people who I have a policy, if you call me or my family a name, you just get blocked. Like, there's no I don't need that. So I I do think about it. It is one of those things where you're like, the upside of something like Twitter acts. The upside is you get a lot of audience. I have, I don't know, 80,000 followers there. Certainly, most people don't see all of that stuff, and who knows how many are are relevant.

Jason Derusha [00:16:33]:

But, you know, a a normal tweet of mine might get seen might get, you know, 10, 20, 30000. Like, that's pretty good.

Stephanie [00:16:42]:

It's also so immediate when you're on the air. Like Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:16:45]:

You need. For show, it's amazing. Like, what I I never think about leaving. I think about and I have adjusted what I will post about, just because it's not really fruitful for the most part. And you think, like, is my voice needed on this topic? Not really. Like, so do I need to weigh in on a lot of political type things? Not really. So I I've sort of, cut down on that. But you're right.

Jason Derusha [00:17:15]:

Like, from a listening standpoint, from a breaking news standpoint, it's amazing. It's unparalleled, frankly.

Stephanie [00:17:22]:

Yeah. I would agree with that. You took a weight loss journey, and I think you lost £40 last I checked.

Jason Derusha [00:17:29]:

Yeah.

Stephanie [00:17:30]:

And you've always been someone in the food space. Did that feel conflicting for you to do the weight loss route and at the same time be championing and talking about all the food?

Jason Derusha [00:17:44]:

Yeah. I mean, people ask me all the time. They're like, how do you eat this much? I'm like, well, I'm, you know, I'm sharing. I'm taking bites or whatever. I do think about it. Right? I think the reason that I lost weight was so I could live, not so I could hide. And so I don't really feel conflicted about that. The truth is, though, could I have lost that weight by eating out 4 nights a week? Probably not.

Jason Derusha [00:18:13]:

Yeah. So it is a challenge of eating out. I certainly am a little more careful now in how I order. And the way we used to, you know, some of this, like, COVID has changed it, but a normal night for us back in the pre COVID days would be you go somewhere for drinks, go somewhere else for appetizers, go somewhere else for a main course, and go somewhere else for dessert and drinks. And thinking about that while I was on the weight loss journey, like, I was probably eating 4000 3 or 4000 calories a night just in that. Like, not lunch, not breakfast. And so that's not sustainable. But can I do that occasionally? Sure.

Jason Derusha [00:18:53]:

Yeah. Why not? So I I the biggest thing I was conflicted about is the weight loss journey that I took. You know, I've always been, like, sort of an organic whole foods farm to table type eater. But to lose weight, quickly and sustainably, it's difficult to do it on whole food. It just takes a lot longer. Now I was eating whole foods. It wasn't like a liquid diet or anything. But, like, it is success breeds success.

Jason Derusha [00:19:21]:

And when you start when you lose that £10 in 2 weeks, you're like, oh, I can do this and then do it. Like, for me, I needed that. Other people, you know, maybe you can lose £40 in 2 years and do it by eating more salads and be more careful. But, like, getting the protein you need and the nutrients and all of that, it's it's just difficult if you go on a severe calorie restriction diet. It's difficult.

Stephanie [00:19:45]:

It's interesting too. I think for what we're seeing in the media now, like, everyone not everyone, but a lot of people are on the weight loss drugs and taking the shots. Many people are talking about it, many people aren't. Some are talking privately. And as someone who's a bigger person, like I'm not obese, but I'm a size 12 or 14 usually. I think about like, can I manage my weight with a magic, like, pill and No? Do that? Like, that feels like it could be amazing. And then they're also finding that with the reduced inflammation, people are happier or less depressed Yeah. Or sex.

Stephanie [00:20:27]:

It's like, oh my gosh. Is this the miracle drug? But then at the same time, as people who champion the food space, can you make food the the devil in that situation and still talk about it? It's it's something I both my radio partner and I have talked about a lot.

Jason Derusha [00:20:46]:

It's tricky. Right? Like, I am cheering for small business. I'm cheering for creativity, for innovation. So I'm cheering for that. Food is and I love food. We love, eating out. We love the experience of it. But food is really I mean, food is the vessel for all this other stuff.

Jason Derusha [00:21:13]:

Right? So is it do I love, love, love the particular dish, or do I love the experience? So I think, like, you know, you and your radio partner, Stephanie and I, I think the 3 of us have sort of a similar approach as to what makes restaurants, fun and what makes eating out fun. And it's really it's more the social experience, the room, the way you feel, the people you're with. Like, yes, good food, technique, all of that matters, but the other stuff matters more. And so when I was losing weight, my wife and I, you know, we had to sort of radically reenvision what we're gonna do for fun. So because we knew, like, you know, what would we do on a Saturday if we had a day free? Like, go to a maybe go to a a tap room or maybe go to a bar. It's like we can't do that. So we're like, alright. Let's go for a hike or, you know, you're trying some different stuff.

Jason Derusha [00:22:17]:

It's interesting as you age too. Right? Like, it's I can't eat the way I did 10 years ago.

Stephanie [00:22:23]:

And, also, like, I became recently aware, which why it took so long, I don't know, of, like, that what I view as fun is always food related. It's always my go to thing, and I

Jason Derusha [00:22:36]:

don't Yeah.

Stephanie [00:22:37]:

I don't think about, like, oh, let's go have a bike ride. I think about let's go have a bike ride to this brewery or this orchard or it's like the destination, not the journey.

Jason Derusha [00:22:47]:

We're trying to, like you know, we went to a a show at the Guthrie a couple weeks ago. It's like, oh, and we loved it. And it's like, okay. Let's, like, let's remember to kind of, you know, Yeah. Sprinkle the other stuff into.

Stephanie [00:23:03]:

I want to, just thank you for some of the folks you've had on Derusha Eats. I was, thinking about Manny from Manny's,

Jason Derusha [00:23:11]:

Tortoise. Yeah.

Stephanie [00:23:13]:

25 years, Manny Gonzalez has been over there doing the work, and I was just really taken aback when he said he'd never been on the radio in 25 years. And I thought, well, good for you for having him on, and, wow, why did it take us so long? You just there's so many great voices out there and so much more to our food scene than the typical, you know, James Beard award winning chef. Right?

Jason Derusha [00:23:38]:

Yeah. Yeah. It that was a lesson I learned in my TV years of doing stories on restaurants. The audience resonated with, like, the neighborhood pizza place a lot more than the James Beard award type place. And, like, I don't know. I think about that often. Right? Like, people get more jazzed about mama's pizza in Saint Paul or Latah Latifs in

Stephanie [00:24:06]:

Plymouth. Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:24:07]:

Where they've got, like, the diamond it's sort of the diamond shaped cut. You know, people resonate with that more, and that makes sense. Right? Like, it's the reason The Cheesecake Factory back in the day was, like, the biggest restaurant opening of that year. Yeah. Because, people don't like feeling dumb. They don't like looking at menus where they don't know what the ingredients are, or they don't know how to say it. And neighborhood pizza places are awesome. Right? Like, they support the softball teams, and they support the youth, soccer teams.

Jason Derusha [00:24:44]:

And so I've always tried to give those guys a voice. It is it is a balance of, like, how do you keep it? So what really helps me is my producer, Dan Cook, does not care about restaurants at all. He doesn't care. He is mister meat and potatoes. He doesn't know anything that I'm talking about. And so when I do an interview where he's like, oh, that was really interesting. Like, he loved the Manny Gonzalez in the interview. And you're like, okay.

Jason Derusha [00:25:13]:

That's really what I'm trying to do. So I I do think about that a lot. Like, I definitely light up with the classics more. So, like, the Bilkoslag from Jack's

Stephanie [00:25:26]:

Game Fair. That was a great interview too.

Jason Derusha [00:25:28]:

Like, the though those ones, always sorta get me going. So it's something that I think about. Like, this month, we're gonna have, Murray's, Tim Murray, and we're gonna have JD Hoyt's. But we're also gonna have a case, Johnson who just, has this, you know, chicken tenders type Yep. Restaurant. So, like, I try to think, you know, can we have more women on? Can we have more people of color on? Do we have the classics who don't get the love on? Like, I'm always trying to think of that stuff.

Stephanie [00:26:08]:

You do

Jason Derusha [00:26:08]:

have the new new the new new new, I always get nervous about on broadcast. Because if you're reading my stuff in Minnesota Monthly, you opt in. If you're going to a new place, you know. Like, Jason may love it, and you may go on another day, and it might be a train wreck. And that's sort of buyer beware. If you go to a place in the 1st 2 or 3 months, that's gonna happen.

Stephanie [00:26:32]:

Do you feel like a food reviewer? I mean, that's your title technically in Minnesota Monthly, but I feel like you carved out this other seat for yourself.

Jason Derusha [00:26:41]:

Yeah. I always feel a little awkward considering myself a critic. I mean, it it's the easiest way for people to understand it, but I'm not doing as much reviewing anymore. And part of the problem with reviewing versus recommending is that to really critically review a place, you need to go 3 times.

Stephanie [00:27:05]:

Absolutely.

Jason Derusha [00:27:06]:

You just do. It's not fair to roast somebody. And I can write a review and do the old, you know, crap sandwich with, like, this was good. This was good. Oh, this needs a little work. This was good. And I feel okay doing that on one visit, But, you know, mostly people wanna know where to go and what to order. And so, because I don't have the budget to really adequately review, you gotta do what you can do.

Jason Derusha [00:27:38]:

So,

Stephanie [00:27:38]:

like, I company is gonna send you 10 times like they used to send Ruth Reichl at the New York Times.

Jason Derusha [00:27:44]:

So I just try to carve out my area. I think people know that I'm honest. I'm not gonna deceive them. I'm not gonna puff up a place that's not good. But if I never talk about a place, you probably know why.

Stephanie [00:27:58]:

Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:27:58]:

Like, I don't like it.

Stephanie [00:28:00]:

Yeah. And it doesn't help sometimes, I think, either to pounce on a place once everyone's identified that it's not great.

Jason Derusha [00:28:07]:

No. And there is I I think there is a space for, like, informed recommendation. Right? We have, like, the TikTok, Instagram world of, like, this is open. Whoo. Like, you have that. And that has its usefulness too. Like, people like to chase that. That's fun.

Jason Derusha [00:28:23]:

But I try to be like, alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you an informed recommendation. It's not quite a review. I don't know. I I I try I try. It's a it's a tricky thing. Right? Like, what does the audience want? Do people people always say they want critical reviews, but, like, just not about their favorite place. Yeah.

Jason Derusha [00:28:46]:

Exactly. People really want critical reviews. I I don't know.

Stephanie [00:28:51]:

I don't know. What's next for you? You've launched your substack. I've got 10 minutes left. And in that 10 minutes, I wanna know what's next and also the most embarrassing thing in your refrigerator.

Jason Derusha [00:29:07]:

So what's next? For for me, I am hoping to launch, like, a more unified brand. I have, like, all of these different things under my umbrella, and none of it looks the same. None of it has the same logo. Not you're like, what are we doing here? So I I like to unify things a little bit. You know, the Substack, you sort of inspired me to switch over to Substack from doing, like, a Mailchimp email I was doing. I've loved that outlet. So that's been really fun. You know, trying to figure out, like, Minnesota Monthly pays me to write.

Jason Derusha [00:29:47]:

Like, I gotta write for them. Like, I'm not saving it all for the newsletter. Like Yep. How do you make that work is something that I'm sort of working on. But I would like the other thing that I would like to launch, and I do release my restaurant interviews in podcast form. And over the next year, I I sort of wanna figure out, like, what is the right way to do that. Should I be you know, I experimented. I did an interview with Sameh Wadi where we taped it ahead of time instead of doing it live on the radio.

Jason Derusha [00:30:18]:

And so I spent 45 minutes with him asking questions, and so it was a longer podcast, and I think people like that. So trying to figure out, like, how do I do the radio? You know, I'm doing 3 hours of radio a day, so it doesn't leave as much free time as, you know, my family jokes that I work 3 hours, but you're like, well

Stephanie [00:30:38]:

An hour and a half of prep for every hour on the radio.

Jason Derusha [00:30:41]:

It takes a little bit of reading and planning and all of that. So that's you know, I I the the concrete plan is relaunch jason to russia.com. There's that website was built, like, 8 years ago. I'd like to freshen that up. So brand refresh, website refresh, those are the big plans for the next year. Try not to get fired during this political stretch. Don't get canceled. All of

Stephanie [00:31:10]:

those things. What's embarrassing that's in your fridge?

Jason Derusha [00:31:13]:

Oh, what is embarrassing that's in my fridge? There's currently a bottle of Kirkland, sparkling rose in my fridge.

Stephanie [00:31:23]:

But it is kinda good.

Jason Derusha [00:31:25]:

It's kinda good. I, you know, I mean, that's a little embarrassing.

Stephanie [00:31:30]:

That's funny.

Jason Derusha [00:31:31]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's probably that's probably the most embarrassing thing in there right now.

Stephanie [00:31:37]:

You know what else is kinda interesting about you? And I work for freelance myself. Mhmm. So I'm 1099 everywhere I work. And I see myself as my own company, my own brand. I also see you as seeing yourself like that, and that's interesting to me and a shift for you.

Jason Derusha [00:31:56]:

Yeah. At some point, that might be where it goes. I will say, like, as someone sort of new to the side hustle world, it's exhausting.

Stephanie [00:32:07]:

Yeah. It's really hard.

Jason Derusha [00:32:08]:

Like, you're pitching yourself all the time.

Stephanie [00:32:11]:

It's very hard.

Jason Derusha [00:32:13]:

And, you know, trying there's something to be said for, like, every 2 weeks. Like, the check comes. Yeah. The regular job. It's kinda nice. So when you're, you know, when you're pitching yourself a lot for a $1,000 here or for a trade out, like, oh,

Stephanie [00:32:36]:

okay. Free meal.

Jason Derusha [00:32:39]:

Yeah. You you know, I don't do a ton of that, but, like, it it does get exhausting. And then you have different you have different clients who have different needs. So, like, you know, one of the things I'm struggling with right now is there's a there's a restaurant owner who owns, I don't know, 5 or 6 different local restaurants. I love these restaurants. So he asked me about, like, doing influencing for him, doing a little digital campaign. And the trick is, like, at what point, like, if I'm getting if I'm getting paid, like, how many restaurants is that okay for? Like, do people start doubting my reviews? Does that or my recommendations? Like, how do you keep integrity in what you're doing, but also, like, keep the lights on so you can

Stephanie [00:33:30]:

do it? It's a it's a line, and I don't have the answer because I've struggled with it myself. All I can say is if you are approaching it with integrity, but I don't know. When someone sells an endorsement for you on the radio station, they're making $80 and, you know, you're making $5,000. Right. So

Jason Derusha [00:33:52]:

Right.

Stephanie [00:33:52]:

I I did an endorsement for Certix, which I know you've done. And people still I mean, people will associate me with Certix till the end of time.

Jason Derusha [00:34:01]:

Yeah. Yeah. And it's

Stephanie [00:34:03]:

great because I love the family and I that's why I did the project that I did because I really enjoy them as people and stewards of northeast. But, yeah, it does close doors, and, you know, was it worth it? I don't know.

Jason Derusha [00:34:16]:

Right. Yeah. It's a little tricky just trying to figure that out. And, like, if I were not writing for Minnesota Monthly, then I wouldn't even worry about it.

Stephanie [00:34:27]:

Yeah. It would be different for sure.

Jason Derusha [00:34:28]:

But, like, in the Minnesota Monthly thing is, opens a lot of doors for me. Right? When you say you're the food writer, I mean, how many food writers are there for regional magazines across the country? 15? 10? I know. There are not that many. So, like, so that's sort of a job where it's like it pays for itself. Like, who cares that I don't get paid that much for it? It opens so many doors. So but then if you're not gonna cash in on those doors opening, what are you doing? So, like, trying to figure it all of that stuff is I spend a lot of time thinking about that.

Stephanie [00:35:06]:

Me too.

Jason Derusha [00:35:07]:

Yeah. Just trying to keep integrity and also, like, make things worth your time.

Stephanie [00:35:14]:

And with that, as my free Zoom subscription is winding down

Jason Derusha [00:35:19]:

That's right. That's all that's all we're doing. How many free like, I edit my video on a free video editing? Yes, sir. We

Stephanie [00:35:28]:

have 3 minutes left to wrap it up.

Jason Derusha [00:35:32]:

That's right. I invoice using Google Sheets.

Stephanie [00:35:35]:

Yep. No. I I know.

Jason Derusha [00:35:36]:

My accounting is like my emails and try you know, it's all a train wreck.

Stephanie [00:35:41]:

Yes. It is. But it's been super fun to spend time with you and just to I wanted to just tell you you're doing a good job and Thank you. Tell you I've noticed that there's growth happening and that I think what you did took a lot of courage, and I've been a a fan. And I it's

Jason Derusha [00:35:58]:

fun listening. That means a lot, especially coming from you because I just respect kind of the way you have conducted your business and figured all of this out. And, I think both of us sort of follow what we think is fun and then hope the business type things sort of follow. Yeah. It's worked out okay, I think, for both of us.

Stephanie [00:36:19]:

So far so good.

Jason Derusha [00:36:20]:

We'll knock

Stephanie [00:36:21]:

on some wood that we're not both fired in

Jason Derusha [00:36:23]:

the middle of the day. That's right.

Stephanie [00:36:25]:

Alright. Thanks, Caitlin.

Jason Derusha [00:36:27]:

Thanks, Stephanie.

Stephanie [00:36:28]:

Okay. Where do you want people to follow you?

Jason Derusha [00:36:32]:

Instagram is good. Instagram or Facebook is probably the best way. Right? Like, they can get my my radio show podcast is everywhere, so we upload every segment and all of that. So those are probably the best.

Stephanie [00:36:46]:

Alright. Well, thanks for being on, and I really appreciate your time.

Jason Derusha [00:36:49]:

Thanks, Steph.

Stephanie [00:36:50]:

Okay. Bye bye.

Jason Derusha [00:36:51]:

See you.

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