1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Gene Deyoe, Jillian Post, and Jeanine Bryant (Ignite Lincoln) - September 6th, 9:00pm

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Gene Deyoe, Jillian Post, and Jeanine Bryant (Ignite LincolnAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You know, every now and then we get to bring special programming. And last night we introduced you to an event and some of the young people that were speaking at it. Tonight, we get to do that again. Tell some stories. Again, the beauty of what we do on a night by night, day by day basis, is to tell stories. And Lincoln has some amazing stories. Some amazing people doing amazing things.

And we take this opportunity tonight to tell the stories. Of course, I'm DP. 402, 464-5, Sarderhaman, text line, Hondo, Lincoln Hotline, if you need to be a part of what we're doing, you can hit us on the text line, you can watch, you can't everything, Sarderhaman video, stream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Allo Channel 951, give you every opportunity you can, and of course, the Ticket FM app.

If you're hearing us now, you're certainly on the stream, and we will kick over to the brick and mortar once the Royals game ends, but all of this tonight is about Ignite Lincoln. and September 14th, Recurco Theater, it's going to be an exceptional event. And if you don't have tickets, again, we will provide you all the information and opportunity to get those tickets throughout the course of this hour.

So my first introduction, Gene, if you can lean in here and let's get him into this thing. Come on, get close. Let's pull that microphone. There we go. Pull that microphone. You go side to side really well. We can switch it back and forth as we go.

Yeah, yeah, we'll make it. We'll make it. Let folks know who you are. Okay, my name's Gene Dale. And I am the selection, the speaker selection committee chair and have the privilege of helping select the speakers for this Ignite Lincoln. I've got, you know, two Collique and Miles Morrissey are on the committee, and it's been a pleasure. I've been with Ignite. I actually went to the first Ignite.

Ignite 1. Got to see Jay Wilkinson speak, Tom Cassidy, former police chief. There was a glass blower, a guy that made movies, and it fascinated me. And I've been going ever since. I actually got to speak myself and Ignite Six, and I got to share my passion for running in Lincoln for all the wonderful running venues and the great running community that we're all involved with. And then since then, I've just continued to be involved because it just is a great

event, you get to hear so many different things like these two that are with us today have a story to share. And this year, we're going to get to hear 12 stories about people's passions. And that's just gives me a kick. And I also like the fact that we get to support five charities and raise money for them on top of the speakers sharing their passion, five minutes with 20 slides. Gene, let them know who the five, those five nonprofits are and kind of what they're doing and how the process works. Sure, sure. They're visionary youth, you know, for disadvantaged youth, Lincoln Literacy to help people read from all walks of life. We can do this. So we feed the kids, you know, in terms of giving kids an opportunity to have food over the weekend. Voices of hope.

for people that have been victims of sexual assault or domestic violence and helping them work through that. And then the Echo Collective, you know, which are businesses, you know, helping underprivileged people, you know, get up on their feet. So we got five wonderful finalists. And then what we do is the nonprofits get 144 seconds to tell their story. up there in front of the audience. And then at the end, the audience votes for number one, number two, number three, number four, number five. So the person that gets the most votes or the nonprofit that gets the most votes gets the most

votes gets the most money, then the second gets half of that money, third gets half of that money. But we give the money to all five. And it's just the audience decides who gets the most. It's really fun. The Rococo Theater is the location September 14, 7 o'clock. I'm going to ask Janine to introduce herself and let them folks know who she is. Sure.

Yeah. Hi. My name is Janine Bryant, and I'm excited. I was selected to be one of the speakers for this year. So, you know, they limit us to five minutes. And so I'm hoping that I can, you know, get my whole speech in in five minutes. But this year, I'm going to be speaking. about something I'm passionate about, which is older adults, sometimes referred to as seniors,

and their stuff. And my speech is entitled, Your Kids Don't Want Your Stuff, and that's OK. And my message is all about significance and legacy and how none of that is really tied to your stuff, these collections that the baby boomers want to pass down to their children or their grandchildren. And, you know, these young people, they don't want the stuff, right? And there's, I work with seniors. I own a business here in Lincoln called Changing Spaces SRS and we help seniors who are downsizing. And so I work every week with people who are caught in this tension of too much stuff and no one to give it to. And what does that mean? And, and, you know, the older generation is left feeling like, don't you love me? Don't you want my stuff? And, you know, how are

idea of stuff and love and significance gets all wrapped up together. So that's what I'm going to be talking about. There's a lot to unwrap there. And we will over the course of the hour. 100% will. Jillian, let them know who you are. So my name is Jillian Post. And I'm a long time Lincolnite, but I've lived lots of different places. And I have lots of pieces of paper. So I have a cosmetology degree. I have a U and I, a bachelor's degree from U.N.L. I have a master's degree from Creighton and I have a master's degree from a college in California called Claremont Lincoln. So what might be back to Lincoln? Well, my mother, she's 90 and there was this stream of very anxious texts from my two sisters who still live in Nebraska. And it

ended up, I ended up moving back to Lincoln, or back to actually to Syracuse, which is where I'm from, and transferred a job. I was the director of religious education for a Unitarian Universalist Church, and then just transfer that to Omaha. So then I commuted to Omaha. And boy, the rest of the story is long with so many details. And certainly COVID is in there somewhere because it it really interrupted my career change. So the reason I wanted to speak at Ignite Lincoln is because I think that there's not enough people who really understand how exciting and yet challenging the aging process is. I'm not a sham to say.

I'm 62 and I'm still working. And I reinvented myself again. and went back into hair because I couldn't find the work I wanted to do. I did some projects, some facilitation projects and conflict resolution projects and interfaith projects, but nothing that kept me going. So back into a private studio and my father was an entrepreneur, a hardworking, hardware, floor covering man for 44 years. and I think that entrepreneurial spirit came with me.

So back in a private studio and loving it. Got moved back to Lincoln finally. So still taking care of my mom. So the million dollar question for you is with all of that paper from all of those places, who do you root for when they play each other? What's home to you? Like you're a sports fan. you understand, like, is this a Creighton thing, an Omaha thing, a Husker thing?

Remember when I came in, I told you about the Bob Devante, the Bob Devani decanter? Okay. So I was 10 and 71 and 11 and 72, and Oklahoma used to play Nebraska on Thanksgiving. It was a tradition that was deeply embedded in families. So I don't know. UNL is still my alma mater. My roots alma mater.

So, yeah, that's pretty easy to choose. Now, where were you? You said you moved back to Nebraska. Where were you? Well, I had a significant other that is still living out there. He isn't just a friend now. Decided he didn't want to come back from Omaha.

And he's a musician. He played with Preston Love and lots of Omaha musicians. And So we moved just outside of NYC, about 20 miles south of the airport, Newark. So south Plainfield, tiny. You know, all of the townships are connected out there. So you don't really, you don't really feel like you're in a small town. You kind of feel like you're in this conglomeration of places.

But, you know, I mean, I did lots of volunteer work, and I went to symposiums and conferences at Columbia University. and volunteered for many different organizations and got involved in interfaith, working, volunteering, and presenting and moderating panels for the International Center for Ethno-Religious Mediation. I assume. So. If you can say that, you can speak at Ignitling. Just getting that out. Just getting that out on call.

Yeah. Or writing it, typing it. Yeah, that qualifies you. Times in the paper. That absolutely works. We understand that, Gene. I was literally going to ask, Gene, how do you go through the process? How many people applied to speak?

And what was the process? Like, how do you make that decision on who gets to speak at your event? That's a good question. We go through, we call for speakers, you know, to get people to put in their video, their synopsis, you know, what they want to accomplish. And then, you know, to make the final selections, number one, we don't want everyone to be a motivational speaker. You know, you want, you want diversity, you know, whether someone's talking about a glass blowing or whether they're a musician and then talking about cutting vinyl records. You want a diversity. So you look at the applicants and number one, you get quality.

And then number two, you go to see, okay, how can we have a good cross section of Lincolnites to speak? And that's where, you know, Tup Kaleek and Miles Morrissey and myself got together and decided, you know, on the 12. We actually, we originally only going to have 11, but there were 12 great speakers. Then I sent mine in and you had to go to 12. You were number one. I said my name you went okay one more for the sake of things so it's a fun process and every year

it's a little bit different type of speaker but then it all comes together you know at the at the event itself and that's what's so fun you know they get out and and we make a big deal about you know the MC this year

who's going to be Matt Spitsen is going to have the audience stand up and give each speaker a standing ovation before their speech. Before their speech. We want the speakers pumped up. We want them energized and ready to go. So, yeah, it's been a fun process and been fun kind of navigating through the process of once they get selected, then they've got the shock of, oh, 20 slides and only five minutes, right, Gillian? And then, you know, where they have to just cut to the nub and then going through and getting all that done and getting them, you know, to the, we have a practice session on Sunday where the speakers get to come in and do a dry run, a walk through with the Rococo the day before so they know the venue.

And then, you know, September 14th, it's just going to be fun to see all 12 of them get up there. Janine, you have the writer's spirit and it comes across and how you present who you are and what you do. For you, what's the cause? What makes you put finger to the laptop pad to pet? Oh, well, I was an English major. I, you know, Jillian talked about all her pieces of paper that she has. I have a master's in English and Great Plains Studies, which my dad always said, what the heck are you going to do with that, right?

And that's, I grew up in North Dakota. That's what brought me to Lincoln is they have an interdisciplinary program at UNL, Great Plain study. And so. Harrison, did you have any idea? No. That's part of the beauty of the stories, because one, we can all be here in Lincoln and have the same basic existence, but they all come from different stories and different trials

and tribulations. So you said, this is why you. in Lincoln. There had to be more than that, though. There had to be something about Lincoln that resonated with you and landed. What is it about Lincoln? If somebody had asked you, write me, give me the elevated picture on why anybody would want to live in Lincoln, Nebraska. I think it's the perfect size city. I grew up in a small town out on the farm in North Dakota, and our closest big city was Fargo, and that's 100,000 people. And to me, that was a big city, you know, and so boy, Lincoln is more than twice that. And so to me, Lincoln was,

That was coming to the big city. And now I've come to realize it's really the perfect size city because it's, you know, everyone always says it's a big small town. It's big enough where you can have some, you know, anonymity. But it's small enough where there's connections. You can easily find connections wherever you go, which is nice. And it's been a great place to live. I have two kids.

It's been a great place to raise my kids. They can go to public school. I don't worry about it. It's been a great place to build a business. And so I'm Midwest, Midwest a girl. So I love living in Lincoln. What is it, I mean, through all of this, there are people that help you get here. I have a buddy that likes to speak on whether we all stand on somebody's shoulders.

Who is that for you? I grew up. I had the privilege of growing up around a lot of old people, I always say, and I say that with a great amount of love. I was, it was just me and my brother, and we lived two miles from one set of grandparents and a mile and a half from the other set of grandparents. And so they were like a second and third set of parents to us. And we also had a great aunt and uncle who were also right there with us. And so at any and every holiday, it was me and my brother and like eight to 10 old people right there. And we were always kind of the focus, the center of attention. And we love that. And so I grew up around seniors

and also growing up in a small town, you go to church on Sunday, you go down in the church basement after church services and have coffee with who is it it's a bunch of old people and my dad is you know mr extrovert and he just loves having conversations and so we would sit down there for what seemed like hours thinking oh dad is it time to leave yet but we were surrounded by these old folks having conversations and so i learned from a young age to really be comfortable around um senior citizens and to appreciate them and to love listening to their stories and that is what i was able to parlay into a career, you know, and I also loved organizing. And so you put organizing and seniors together. And that's what I do today. I help folks who are moving out of a home they've lived in

for decades and they're downsizing. And so I really stand on the shoulders of all of my grandparents and my great-aunt and uncle who really helped raise me. Jillian, for you, whose shoulders do you? Well, I just want to first say that I think I might need your services. Several times moved, yes. No, I'm talking about the downside. It's going on with my own mother right now. It's very difficult and challenging. She's losing control of everything, so she's happy about it.

Yeah, and that's hard, absolutely. So whose shoulders do I stand on? I honestly can't tell you. I can't tell you. Who do I look up to? My father, who is gone? And professors through the years. but you know nobody in my family or background has a tremendous amount of education so I broke

barriers that I had to break myself I remember the first time I wanted to go to UNL and I was married at the time and my then partner husband said no and I said watch me but I didn't know how to drive a stick. So he was in the car business and he told me that if I was going to go to UNL and needed to learn how to drive the Ford Fiesta we had at the time, which is basically a car made out of foil. So I learned how to drive it. And I remember driving on campus over a railroad track with my force speed and a terribly

hard clutch to maneuver. And I was just scared to death. And to think about some of the things I've done since then. Like I was married to a Palestinian for a while, Palestinian-American for a while, and I went to Jordan. And that experience was, there's so many stories in there. I can't even begin to cover them. I'm stunned because I know that before the next couple of

weeks around, I'm going to hear some of those stories. I'm going to find you to hear some of those stories. They need to be told. Let me just name one. So there are traditional methods of conflict resolution. And by that I mean, you know, no formal mediation, no law enforcement involved, no mediators involved. There are traditional forms that I got to see. see because we were in a car accident and we were in Amman, Jordan. And my then husband got hand on the back of the head with a tire iron and had to go get 13 stitches. And we had to go to a police station, which was an empty desk with a pile of empty pieces of paper. And that's about it.

And it all unfolded in the living room till about midnight that night. And there's too many more details to go into it. But non-traditional family-oriented conflict resolution was so interesting to watch. The stories that need to be told. It just need a vehicle. It just need the vehicle. We're here. Ignite Lincoln hour and we'll take a break when we come back.

I want to get into a little bit more of the detail of why these particular stories need to be told. We'll ask Gene about some of the other presenters and speakers and then get details on how you can be a part of this, where to get tickets, how to get them, and the details of the event. September 14 on Cocoa Theater. We'll be right back here on the ticket.