Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Life Lessons from The Little Mermaid with Jodi Benson

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

On today’s episode, Sharon sits down with the voice of a generation: Jodi Benson, the performer who voiced Disney’s Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Jodi was new to show business when she was cast as the voice of Ariel, and it wasn’t considered a “career maker” job; animated films in the 1980s weren’t wildly popular blockbusters like they are now. The Little Mermaid ushered in a new era of success for Disney, and for Jodi. Join us to hear about her journey, and learn which song was almost cut from the film! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friend. Welcome. So fun to have you here today. I am chatting with somebody who definitely, whether she knows it or not, impacted my childhood. She was the voice of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie. Her name is Jodie Benson. And I'm really excited to share this conversation with you. So let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. I'm very pleased to be chatting with Jodi Benson today. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, well, I was talking to my sister about this upcoming interview and she was like, I saw The Little Mermaid six times in the theater. So I would love to hear, first of all, take us back to the beginning.

How did you even get started? Because it wasn't like you just waltzed in one day and you're like, hey, I'd like to be Ariel. You had a lot of experience before landing this role. So I'd love to hear more about your background. Well, I grew up in Illinois and a kid that just loved to sing and be part of anything I could be a part of as far as theater goes. So I was probably eight years old, I guess, when I told my mom, I really want to pursue singing, dancing, and acting. And I want to make a living at this.

I don't want to be famous. I don't want to be rich. I just want to do what I love and be able to pay the bills. So I don't know where that came from because I hadn't seen a Broadway show or anything like that, but that was really my heart's desire. So I just grabbed any kind of opportunity I could in Illinois and then went to college. And that's really where I had my first chance to have voice lessons and dance classes and experiences like that. Left in the middle of school to work professionally, made my way to New York, I was 19.

Got my equity card, started doing a national tour of a show, and just kind of started doing it and just fell in love with the whole aspect of musical theater. So I was starring in a Broadway show called Smile with Howard Ashman and Marvin Hamlisch. And my leading character, Doria, had a song that was written for her named Disneyland, a beautiful song called Disneyland. And the show tragically closed really early after some horrible New York Times reviews, but such a great experience of four years going through that show, creating

the role and doing all of our backers auditions and our producers auditions and out of town tryouts. It was just a great experience. And by that point, towards the end of that incredible time, Howard started working on The Little Mermaid with Disney. So I think when the show closed, Howard felt sorry for us girls that had all lost their jobs. And so he graciously invited a handful of us to audition for The Little Mermaid animated feature film, but more just as a consolation prize, like, hey, why don't you just go to this audition and have something to look forward to? So it was really just like, hey, let's see what this is all about. But never in a million years thinking that I would even be considered because I'd never done any voiceover before. I'd never been behind a microphone like

that before. Didn't not know what I was doing at all. So I went to the audition and had a lot of fun and just walked out and said, Hey, that was a great experience. Start auditioning for Broadway and for theater again. And about a year later, getting a call from my agent saying you booked Ariel. I'm like, I don't even know what an Ariel is. I don't even know what you're talking about. And what is an Ariel? I'm like, what is that? And she's like, remember this movie and this and that? And I thought, oh, okay. Well, I had mentioned to a couple of friends, they were wondering, why are you flying back and forth between New York and LA? And I told them, and they're like, oh, gee, you're not in the movie.

I'm like, no, no, it's a voiceover. It's animated. I'm like, oh oh yeah maybe you'll get a really good job next time so it was not a good job back then in the 80s to book voiceover animation it was kind of what you did as your career was tanking I think and so I kind of stopped telling people what I was doing in my family and friends and just thought well I'm going to do this little project. It's going to disappear and no one will ever know because Disney's not going to announce who the voices are. It'll be like it was back with Walt at the original Snow White Sleeping Beauty Cinderella, where the only way you pretty much figure out who is who is if you have a VHS and you freeze frame it and you start to put together the running credits at the end, which nobody did. You just watch a movie and the credits people would leave and that's that.

So it was not something that was ever going to be part of my life. It was really just this one job and then go back to New York and that's that. Well, obviously things changed. So a few months before the film was released and they were starting to show all of the wonderful screenings with press and publicity and critics. in a difficult situation, whereas our feature animation department was off of the lot and had moved off of the lot and onto Flower Street in Glendale, Burbank area. And it was a huge transition for the company. And there had not been a princess fairy tale movie since Sleeping Beauty in 1961, I think it was. So this was something very unique and very different. And then with that publicity that started to become very excited about this film. And then I get the call saying, can you go on press tour? We're going to send you to 22 cities in 20 days. And I'm like, why? I mean, I don't understand. I thought I was just going to disappear. And they said, no, no, we're going about this a different way. So literally, over the course of a couple, three weeks, my life just kind of took this huge turn. And it was announced and I was connected to this character into this movie, which was amazing.

character into this movie, which was amazing. So it really took my life into a whole different direction in a very short period of time. So by the time the film came out in November of 89, starting right after during that Christmas holiday, it was crazy. It was just crazy. And then it just took off in a whole different direction. And here we are. I've been with the company 35 years and we're still talking about it and still working. And I'm very, very grateful. That is really fascinating. And I love hearing those kinds of stories that sort of are unexpected. You know what I mean? It made me laugh when you were like, what is an aerial? And also that it took a year where during that year, had you just forgotten about it? Did they have callbacks? Were they like come back and read again or sing again? Was it just literally sort of a drop from the blue a year later?

So during that year, I completely forgot about it. It was basically going to the initial audition. And then this whole year had gone by and I just moved on with life. I was just doing my theater, working, just doing life. When I got the call, there were not really callbacks per se. when I got the call, there were not really callbacks per se. I think I may have gone in one more time to do a couple little things from what I can remember. But it was really just this long gap of time that just sort of disappeared that I didn't really think about it at all. And just a big, big, big surprise. Wow. Yeah, I can imagine that that would be a huge surprise. And then really to take your

career in a very different direction. And it's also interesting that you mentioned that at the time in the 1980s, that it wasn't this prestigious thing to be the voice of an animated character, the way it is now, where we have all kinds of celebrity voices of characters, where it's like, oh, I got to see that. Chris Rock is voicing that guy in that movie. But that was not the case in the 1980s. That is super interesting. I'm also curious, how long did it take to actually do all of the voiceover work? And did you do all of it in Los Angeles?

I know people are very curious about the behind the scenes. Can you give us a little bit of the behind the scenes of how that all worked? Yes, absolutely. So all of my work was done in Los Angeles. So I was based in New York at the time with Fly Back and Forth. based in New York at the time, would fly back and forth. So over the course of a two and a half year period, because we are the last fully drawn, fully hand-painted animated feature film. So when you look at all of the bubbles, let's say, under the sea,

all of the bubbles are hand-drawn. So we are the final picture for the Walt Disney Studios that is that classic hand-drawn. So we are the final picture for the Walt Disney Studios that is that classic hand-drawn, which is really amazing, very, very incredible. So over the two and a half years, I worked about 14 days in the studio, give or take. And that would be from the beginning. And again, the animation would come after the voice recording sessions. So my lead animator, Glenn Keane, and my second lead animator is Mark Henn. So Glenn would be in all of the sessions that I would be recording. And he's sketching.

And of course, he's got his little tape recorder Walkman running. And then he would go back and start to sketch after a day of recording. So he'll tell you that the whole character does not come alive until the voice happens. So they had these pencil sketches to begin the process with, but she changed a lot over the course of the beginning pencil sketches to where she is today. And those changes happened because of the voice session. So, yeah, so my days were pretty much about 14 days, give or take, over the course of those two and a half years. Two and a half years.

Oh, my goodness. That's a long-term commitment. And I know you've been with Disney for a long time now. So obviously it was a commitment you ended up happy that you made, but that is a long-term commitment to a project of being willing to go back and forth to Los Angeles. And I know you weren't working every day of the two and a half years, but talk about delayed gratification, Jodi. That is delayed gratification. Yes, absolutely. A lot of delayed gratification. And again, just because so much

time had gone by, it wasn't really first and foremost in my mind by any means. And really, until just those weeks before, no one was really going to know about it. And so I did not have this thought of like, oh, I'm working on this project that's going to change my life. It wasn't that way at all for me. It was like, I'm doing this job and this is great. It's going to be lots and lots of fun. No one's ever going to know. And I'm just going to have the time of my life, you know? So it wasn't, it really wasn't until that, that phone call that came saying, Hey, can you go ahead and start hitting this tour and let's promote this film. Let's put it out there. That's kind of when I got this idea of thinking,

this is something different, definitely something different's going on. Yeah. You're so right. This is, first, of course, I've watched every Disney movie multiple times, but this is really one of the first times that I remember associating a star's name with the character that they voiced and your name being sort of a household name attached to the project. You're right. If you asked me to name who voiced Sleeping Beauty, maybe I could pick it out of a multiple choice quiz, but I probably couldn't name it off the top of my head. So what were you thinking when they were like, can you go on a 22-city tour to promote The Little Mermaid? Where you're like, say what now? That was not part of the plan.

What were you thinking when they asked you to do that? Yes, when I got the call from Disney saying, hey, would you hit this press tour? I just thought, I don't have any idea what you're talking about. What is that? What do I do? Oh my goodness.

It was a little bit overwhelming for sure to think, okay, I'm now going to be traveling around the US and representing not only our film, but our company. And I had wonderful people on the PR team who gave me a crash course with interviews and how to handle press, giving me all the appropriate answers. And just so that I knew the logistics of our film and I had the facts right, so that I could speak like I knew what I was talking about, as opposed to going, oh, no, I'm sorry. I don't know the answer to that. But you mentioned in your book

about one of the higher ups at Disney, I believe it was Jeffrey Katzenberg, who wanted to cut one of the most iconic songs of all time from The Little Mermaid. The show would not be the same without it. And I wonder if you could tell us about that story. Yes, it's pretty crazy to think that part of your world was possibly going to be cut that day. But it was one of our screenings and Jeffrey was there and it was a screening with a group of kids and families, as well as press and publicity people and media. And there was a little, I think it was like a little three or four-year-old boy sitting right in front of him who had dropped his popcorn bucket. And so he proceeded to pick up every

single kernel and put it back into the bucket during the world. So whereas some kids would just leave it, but he was like, I'm going to clean up my mess. And so after I think pretty much Jeffrey thought, okay, the song is boring. The song is boring. It doesn't pull the attention of, of little ones. And so Jeffrey presented that to, to Howard and to Ron and John, our directors, and of course to Alan as the composer, and the whole team saying, I think we need to take a look at this. And it was Glenn Keane who stepped up. And of course, Howard was like, no, there's no way we can cut this song. This is the I want song. If we don't have this song for

Ariel, then people aren't going to fall in love with her and then root for her throughout the entire film as she's reaching to be part of something bigger than herself. And she is looking for this adventure outside of her comfort zone and she's dreaming big and we've got to have that. Otherwise, there's just no reason for us to be rooting for her. So yeah, Howard really, of course, was very strong about those feelings. And then Glenn said, let me touch up a few things here. Let me add a couple of moments with Sebastian at the beginning and in the middle and in the end that will just maybe tie in some of these issues that you're thinking about for the little ones.

So Glenn did that and they ran it again through screenings. And of course, it was a great success. And it was just the popcorn child. a great success. And it was just the popcorn child. That is wild to think that it was one child with an accident, accidentally knocking over their popcorn that could have really radically altered the show, the success of the show. And it's such a great point too, that Ariel needs to demonstrate to the audience that she is deeply yearning for something. And without that deep yearning, you as the audience don't want her to achieve it. She needs to be deeply yearning to be something, be removed from her current life. Otherwise, you're like, you're a mermaid,

live underwater. I love that. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together, we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind-the-scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It's Steve Carell in the studio! It is my girl in the studio. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments.

So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. You talk in your book, too, about something called the big reach, the dream that is so huge that it seems almost unattainable. And that is definitely true of Ariel. But I wonder if you

could touch on how that might have been true in your own life, too. Yes, absolutely. I think growing up in a kind of a smaller town, a smaller city outside of the Chicago area, and again, not having had this exposure to professional theater or to Broadway, it just seemed absurd for me as a child to be dreaming about something that wasn't possible. And I know it made no sense whatsoever why I had that inkling or why I had that feeling about I've got to at least try. I just have to give this a go and see what happens. So it definitely was a big reach. It was definitely a big reach for me to pursue a scholarship with the university. There were so many things going against me at that time, so many barriers, so many walls, so many shut doors. And I just kind of kept pushing forward. Again, this seemingly unobtainable, kind of ridiculous to have this kind of a big dream. And then going to New York at 18, 19, I guess it was 19 with, you know, $100 and a sofa to sleep on. And I'm going to

go for this. I mean, I look back and I think, what in the world? I mean, none of that made absolutely any sense whatsoever. None of it's logical or sensible or practical, but it was something that I had to do because I was going to explode if I didn't just give it a go. And I didn't want to have those regrets later on thinking, gee, I wonder what if, and could that have been, and what would have happened? I didn't want to have any of that.

I didn't want to have any of those regrets. And as a mom to two young adults now, I know for my husband, Ray, and I, we have poured into our kids this concept of, you know what? You have to go for it. You have to jump out into your dream. You have to verbalize it. You got to write it down. You got to throw it out there. You got to cast your net wide because what do you have to lose? You get a no. Okay. So you get a no, but what if you get a yes and then you didn't try for it, then you're going

to have that regret. And that's the big thing. Neither my husband nor myself wanted to have to walk into regret later on. And I, and I certainly don't want our kids to have to walk into regret later on. And I certainly don't want our kids to have to experience regret. But when you are afraid, go ahead and jump. Just give it a go. And so that's kind of our feeling about this big reach or my idea about why the heck I did what I did when I was a kid. There wasn't really anybody telling me to go for it. It was an internal thing. So that's the fine line of the reach. You can share that and pour into somebody to say,

hey, think about this. You've got absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. But yes, it's risky. Yes, it's messy. Yes, it's scary. But that's part of the joy of it. That's part of the process of it. Doing things half scared is quite exhilarating. Writing this book is way out of my comfort zone. I never wanted to write a book, ever. It was never on my radar. And when the publisher came to me, I said, no, no,

no, absolutely not. A million no's. And after two or three times of coming back to saying, hey, what if, you know, I'm not doing a memoir, I'm not doing an autobiography, that is not me, I am not comfortable with that whatsoever. Then after the third time, then saying, well, what if you just shared a few stories behind the scenes? And what if one person read this book and felt a little bit encouraged? Would it be worth it? And I thought, yeah, I'll do it for that. I'll do it for that one person that might pick up the book and might say, hey, I'm kind of scared about this, but I don't know, maybe I'll just jump in and give it a try. What have I got to lose?

So I thought if one person could be encouraged in that way, it would be worth it. But this whole process with this book is doing something very uncomfortable, very scary, and not in my zone whatsoever. But doing something scared can still be something rewarding to know, you know what? I wrote this book while I was scared. I wrote this book while I was uncomfortable and I had to get outside of my little comfort zone. And I learned something about myself. I can do things when I'm afraid. And about a month later, it was my brother who's an author. And he said, again, Jodi, if there's just one person, would you go through this hard time for one person to just maybe get one little piece of information from one of your 24 or 25 little story snippets that you share from your life? Wouldn't you be willing to pass that on to somebody else to help make their journey just a teeny bit easier? Yeah, I would. I would.

Yep. One of the things I noticed in your book is you talk about how much you enjoy auditioning. And of course, auditions are terrifying to a lot of people. But in many ways, people who are not involved in theater or they don't need to audition for something, still have the same sense of stepping out and trying something new. It feels like you're auditioning on social media, you're auditioning for a new job, or you're auditioning to put yourself out there on a dating site to meet somebody. In many ways, we all have similar audition butterflies in our own lives. And I noticed that you talk about enjoying auditions. But one of the things that I think is true of many people, it's not so much that they're afraid to fail, like, okay, I didn't get the part, you know, stings a little bit,

but I'm going to be okay. It's not so much that they're afraid to fail, it's that they're afraid to have other people see them fail. Other people judge them for their failure. And as somebody who enjoys auditions, I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit. What advice would you have for somebody who is afraid for other people to see them fail? It's really strange. I don't know why I have always loved to audition. I think early on in my career, very early on, I learned quickly that all I could do is walk into a room, be my true self, do my best, try to be real, authentic, vulnerable, and not be perfect, and then walk out the door and let it go and not relive it. That would be

the key. And I had some wonderful people that would pour into me about that. Because once you walk out the door, that whole beating yourself up process and tearing yourself apart has absolutely no fruit whatsoever. And it's not going to change your three or five minutes in the room whatsoever. There's nothing you can do about that. They're done. You can't get them back.

So I think I had to learn early on, you might get one yes out of a hundred no's. So you've got nothing to lose. Go out there, do my best for that day and let it go. And that's pretty much where my faith kind of kicked in because for me, I just felt like I wasn't the person that was in control. I can't control the room. I can't control the casting. I can't control anything. I can do my best and that's it. So why am I going to rip myself to shreds afterwards? Sometimes the jobs that I would get, my auditions were horrible, but they saw something in me or maybe I laughed at myself and they saw some ability to take humor into it, not take myself too seriously. And then there's auditions when you go in and you kill it and you just feel like, oh my gosh,

you're absolutely perfect for it. I felt so good. And you don't get it. So that's where you realize you're just not in control. You're not in control of that. And I think that that can translate to all aspects of life. I really do. And again, in any way, shape and form, putting ourselves out there can be scary. But if we can find the joy in it, I just think it makes the whole experience so much more positive. So then you come into adding compare and compete. So compare and compete, which we know all about now, having brought social media into our lives, which of course is a love-hate relationship, I think, for most people. So we have this whole concept in social media of compare and compete that is dangerous, toxic, debilitating, and we have to have that out of there. That has to be removed. There's not another human who is me. I'm the only Jodi. I'm the only Jodi Benson. So why in the world

am I going to look to the left and to the right and start to compare and compete with the other person standing to either side of me who is not Jodi Benson? It's like, why would I do that? I'm going to start comparing and competing with a whole nother human identity person. I mean, it makes no sense. And again, there we go. It brings absolutely nothing positive. It brings no good fruit. It just starts to be part of the deterioration of breaking things down, of feeling less than. And all of that spiral

is just completely immobilizing. It's just, there's nothing positive about it at all. Now, cheering one another on, building one another up, hyping one another up, that brings great fruit. And I think building other people up helps us to realize that we're not all that. I don't think more of myself than who I am. I'm grateful. I'm thankful. I've got strengths. I've got weaknesses. I have some talents. I have some gifts. And my hope is to use them to their fullest potential. And I have a lot of things I can't do, but I want to build up the people around me. I want to hype them up. I want them to know that they are beautifully made. They're unique. They have gifts. They have talents. They are loved. There's a plan. There's purpose for their life.

And as I do that, it brings joy to my life. But compare and compete makes me feel less than as a person. And then does it really make us feel positive about the other people? I don't think so. I think it starts to fester and kind of go, oh, thinking negative thoughts about that other person. Well, look at that. And why did they get that? And I didn't get that. And so it's like a lose-lose situation. Nobody wins. Nobody wins. I love that.

I love what you have to say about that, that when you're helping others to hype them up, as they say in theater circles, or you're just offering encouragement to other people, that not only does that benefit them, but it also benefits you. Comparing and competing with other people not only doesn't help anybody else in your community, but it also certainly is not good for your own mental health. It doesn't make you better at whatever goal you're pursuing. It doesn't add anything to your life, but encouraging others not only helps them, but it adds to your own life. Yes, absolutely. I completely agree.

When we build someone up, we reap the benefit of that joy. When we are serving others, we reap that benefit. When we are deeming one another more important than ourselves, we reap the benefit. So it's really kind of surprising. It's like when you're going through a hard time and you're walking through a really dark place, it's very easy to be self-absorbed at that moment. and medically, emotionally, spiritually, physically, when you're in your darkest and you were to turn your thought to somebody else, either send a text, a quick phone call, drop off something at the front door, write a little note, whatever that might be, I find myself, I benefit from that action. I benefit from that action. And in my darkest times, I feel the joy from that.

All right. I wonder if you could give a little piece of advice for all of the theater auditioners out there, all of the people who are listening to this, who are huge fans of yours and who maybe want to make it on Broadway or in a school play or whatever it is, what piece of advice would you offer them? Goodness, that's a really good question. The very, very first thing that I like to talk to the young people about is, to talk to the young people about is why, why are you doing this? Why are you in this industry? Why are you in pursuit of this? Because that's really important, the why. Because if it's to be famous, if it's to be rich, if it's to gain followers, if it's to be in the public eye, then I would stop and say, hmm, you need to take a deeper look at that. That is not really, those are not really great reasons to pursue this industry. First of all, it's incredibly unstable.

to pursue this industry. First of all, it's incredibly unstable. It is not necessarily financially sound. It is not consistent. It is challenging for personal life as far as relationships go and parenting. So that's my first question I always ask is why? and parenting. So that's my first question I always ask is why? Then you have to have natural talent. That's another big thing. Young people can say, I really want to be in musical theater. That'd be great. Let me hear you sing. How about dancing? How about acting? And you don't necessarily see the natural giftedness because you cannot teach someone how to naturally sing. This is my opinion. And maybe some people disagree. That's totally fine. I feel that you are born with the gift of song. If someone is tone deaf, can they learn to sing? Maybe, but it's really quite challenging. You need to have a natural giftedness to be able to sing, I think, and to dance and to act. Then you can build upon that through your training, through classwork. You can strengthen

it. You can improve it. You can grow it, build on that. That's amazing. There's got to be a natural giftedness there. So the hope would be that there's a natural gift within the student and their desire and their why is, I just want to share this gift. I just want to share this gift. I just want to put it out there. I just want to give it a go. I think those are the reasons. For me, it was, I have this gift.

I feel this need to share it. And if I don't share it, I feel like I'm going to bust. And there's nothing else that I really feel passionate about. And if there's that natural gift set, then I would tell that student, go for it. Absolutely go for it because it's that sweet circle. So you have three circles, right? So you have your natural gift. You have a circle of passion of what you would like to do. And then you have your circle of how you make a living. And the sweet spot is when those three circles meet and you've got that wonderful sweet spot. That's what every person needs to find

and everybody's got it, but it has to be all three. So I could say, I want to be a scientist who discovers the cure for pediatric cancers. Okay. I'm passionate about that. I could make a living on that. Yeah, I bet I could. I bet I could make a sustainable type of living, but I have absolutely no natural gifted talent whatsoever in science. natural gifted talent whatsoever in science. I mean, it's just all Greek to me. But my passion is, oh, I'm so passionate about that. I really, really want to do that. But what does that bring? Discontent. See, the pure satisfaction comes when I'm standing on stage or I'm standing behind a microphone and I'm singing, I'm reading a line, I'm doing dialogue of an animated series, there's a moment and I'm not doing it for anybody. I'm not doing it for applause. I'm not doing it for a paycheck. I'm doing it all by myself. And I'm doing it because I love it, but I'm in my sweet spot. And when you're in your

sweet spot, it takes you to a place of joy and fulfillment that is indescribable. And I can stand on a stage and I start and I'll get lost in a song and I'll have an audience, I can have 18,000 people at Hollywood Bowl. And I'm not doing it for the applause of those 18,000. Yes, I want to connect to them. I want them to feel the song. I want them to feel something through the lyric and something through the music, but I don't need their approval or I don't need to please them and make them want to clap. That's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because it's more of a connection, an emotional connection. But when I'm in that moment and I'm in my sweet spot, I will walk off the stage and say, that's what I was created to do.

It's finding it. And that's, again, there goes the compare and compete. We can't want somebody else's natural set of gifts. You know, people will say to me all the time, oh, I wish I could sing. Oh, I wish I could do what you do. And I look at them and I go, I wish I could do what you do. But guess what? I can't.

And you can. How beautiful is that? That's what you were created to do. You're a surgeon. You change people's lives every day in the OR. That's amazing. You give people back their limbs. You give them the ability to walk again.

Oh my gosh, what a gift. And they'll look at me going, I'm tone deaf. I can't sing. Gosh, I wish I could sing. And they'll look at me going, I'm tone deaf. I can't sing. Gosh, I wish I could sing. And I'm thinking, you have no clue how you are impacting people's lives with your gift set. So when I work with kids, I think especially in the industry, it is a compare and compete probably right now more than ever because of social media showing that the entertainment industry is maybe glamorous and exciting and it's all of this and it's so amazing. It's so this, but really it may not be the right path for that student.

Yeah, I've joked many times that you can get better at something. You can take voice lessons and get better. But if you were not born with any talent, you are never going to be Mariah Carey. It's just that's not how it works. So I know sometimes, though, it's really hard to hear or conceive of this idea that you don't have the talent that you really wish you did have. idea that you don't have the talent that you really wish you did have. And some of it, I think it's really wise to learn to appreciate what gifts you do have. I am not a talented singer. And yes, I am one of those people who is like, I wish I could be good at singing, but I'm just not. And I think the sooner we can accept our gifts for what they are and exploit those gifts to their fullest potential and accept

what our gifts are not. I think we would find ourselves perhaps in a more fulfilled or mentally happy place. I mean, that whole element of how to be content exactly where we are and to be able to count our blessings, to be able to look at our cup half full instead of half empty. I know that can be challenging for a lot of people. My temperament is naturally a person who looks at a cup half full. That's just kind of how I was born. So it's very easy for me to do that. But for a lot of people, it's a real struggle and they have to work really hard at it to be able to try to, like you say, focus on the positives and really start to write them down and list all of the gifts and talents that you do have. And then to try to embark upon those to find out, gee, what would that be like for me? I mean, if you think about for your life,

being able to spend your day doing what you love and being able to pay your bills, it doesn't get any sweeter than that. But statistically, I think it's a crazy, like 80 or 90% of people that are earning a living are not happy with what they're doing. They're not enjoying the way that they're making a living. Well, Jodi, your book is going to be available on September 13th. And where can people find you online? Yes, September 13th, our day. Tyndale Publishing has created a pretty simple website.

It's called partofmyworldbook.com, partofmyworldbook.com. And that's pretty much where you can go and you can pretty much order it anywhere, you know, through Amazon, through Books A Million, Barnes & Noble. And we have a little thing going on right now, kind of a fun little competition where people who have pre-ordered it from March until September 13th enter to win a free trip to Walt Disney World where I will meet them there and we will ride the little mermaid attraction together. We'll have lunch together. We'll hang out. We'll spend the day together at Magic Kingdom, which will be tons and tons of fun. So yeah, I think if people would like to grab it, that's the easiest way to do it. Partofmyworldbook.com. Thank you so much for your time. This was a delightful conversation. I really enjoyed

getting to chat with you. And I think a lot of what you have to say is going to resonate, not just for people who are in the theater world, not just Disney fans, but just people who are living here on planet Earth. So thank you so much, Jodi. Well, thank you so much, Sharon, for having me. I really, really appreciate it. You're so kind and you're just really gracious to have given me some of your precious time today. I really appreciate it.

And thanks to all of your listeners and appreciate your time. Thanks, Jodi. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review?

Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time.