Office Ladies - An Interview with Teri Weinberg

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

This week on Office Ladies 6.0, Jenna and Angela sit down with “The Office” Producer Teri Weinberg! Teri shares how she helped get “The Office” made even before Greg Daniels was involved. She also discusses what a producer does in the entertainment industry, her TED Talk “Aging into Power” as well as being a triathlete and surfer. The ladies also answer some fan questions about quality BFF time and what Office character's business idea they would invest in. Enjoy!  Check out Teri’s TED Talk “Aging into Power”  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok 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

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello. Well, hi there.

Lady, you look lovely today. Thank you. I got this sweater at Marshalls. I love marshals. Marshal's is great. I know. You know how they'll do like sweaters. This is not an ad for Marshalls, just so you guys know. But one of the things I like is how they'll group sweaters and stuff in color palettes. So it's like, oh, I want a turquoise sweater. Marshals is going to have a little row of them. Well, this is also not an ad for Quince, but I'm wearing some new quince jeans and I love them. Well, they're cute. They're wide leg, like super wide leg. and then they puddle at the bottom. I think this is the style. I saw the cool mom at my kid's school wearing jeans like this, and I thought I need to take note. This is a real thing, you guys. It doesn't matter how old you are.

There's always a mom or like a dad or whatever that's like the cool hip person, co-worker, whatever. Yeah. That everyone secretly is like clocking their outfits. Well, she always looks so good. Mm-hmm. But like effortlessly. I know. I know the type.

She doesn't look like she's trying hard. I know exactly what you're talking about. Veronique, I'm talking about you. I'll just say it. Veronique, I eye your style at the pickup and drop off. All right. Well, listen, we have a really fun show today, but we're going to kick things off with something a little new.

In our last Friday chit-chat, we asked you all to send in chit-chat topic ideas. Yes. We put a folder up on the office. Office Ladies' website. We went through them. They are so good. And we're going to start sprinkling them into our shows. Yes. We picked one for today. And we asked Cassie to reach out and see if this person would be willing to send in an audio clip. And they did. Let's hear it. Hey, Jen and Angela. This is Anna Claire. I was just wondering how often that y'all get to see each other outside of work. I know that y'all

work together, so you see each other then. But how often do you all get best friend time? My best friend just moved back to Texas She's about one hour and 45 minutes away But that's a bunch better than it used to be She was 14 hours away for a while I'm loving getting to see her once or twice a month now But I was just wondering We mark a polo every day

But we can't see each other all the time Because we have little kids to plan with too Thanks so much, have a great day Well thank you Anna I know You know what I love when we get to hang out outside of work It really feeds my soul.

And we definitely talk every day because we work together. Yeah. But we also both make a real effort to leave each other. You know, you guys, we love a long rambly voice memo. We've talked about this. We leave each other a long rambly voice memo that is just like BFF chat. Yeah. So I know what your day is every day.

And I love that. Yeah. I mean, we see each other once a week. Mm-hmm. when we're working. But I'm not sure, like, an answer to Anna's question, I'm not sure if we see each other more than once or twice a month, BFF only. Right. And we try. We have active conversations. We're like, okay, let's do a BFF hangout. Right. Where we don't talk work. We go for a hike. We go for a walk. One of my favorite things, honestly, is just when we get together and sit on one of

our back porches. Yes. And I also want to add something else because I know there's a little bit of distance between you and your best friend, Anna, which is whenever Angela and I go places, or even from home, we also sometimes send videos. Angela, you started this. I can't remember what job one of us had out of town. And I'd been gone a few days and you said, will you please send me a video of your room? Send me a video of the outside of your building. Send me a video of the street you're living on. I need a visual. When I'm listening to your voice messages, I need to imagine where you are. Show me the chair you sit in.

Yeah. Show me your kitchen. I do. I need to know where you are in the world. That's what you say. I need to know where you are in the world. Yeah. And it makes, I don't know, I feel more relaxed when I see where you are.

This is something I do with our kids. You know, when I travel for work, I give them a video tour of wherever I'm staying, are little different things from a set I might be filming on. So they know my world. and now my kids do it. And it just brings me such joy. You know, Isabel took a trip with her friend. It was like a, I mean, with her friend's family, you know, for a weekend away.

And she sent me a little video, Mom, this is our cabin. And yeah. So I do love that. I do that with my kids too. But what's funny, Angela, is a lot of times you'll make the video for your kids and you'll be talking to them in the video. And then you just send it to me. You're like, here's where I am. I know.

I'm like, I've made one video. I've done that a lot, too. I've sent new videos I've made from my mom. So I'm like, Mom, look. Yes, this room has this lovely lamp. I'm like, Jenna, you get the same video. Exactly. So Anna Claire, we got real chatty as BFFs do, but we're always connected.

Well, we're going to try to do more of these. So if you want to submit a chit-chat idea for Office Ladies, you can find a folder at officelady's.com. Oh, and we also want to share that one of our goals for the new year, you guys, is to put more stuff on our Office Ladies YouTube channel. I'm very proud of us for even launching this. We talked about that Office Ladies YouTube channel for how many years now? Five years, years? Years. Four years? We still haven't done quite a lot with it, but this is our goal. We're going to start with animated clips of the podcast that Cartooner Radio made for us years ago.

Yeah, you might remember they were up on the Comedy Central YouTube for a long time, but now you're going to be able to find them on the Office Ladies YouTube. They are, like 10 mini episodes. They're about 10 minutes long. They animated parts of us doing the podcast. They're really funny and fun. And they're going to start to drop every Sunday. The first one's already up so you can go and watch it. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. I can't believe we're even saying that. I know. And next year, we hope to have more fun content on our channel. I'm really excited. Me too. All right. Well, let's talk about what we're doing today. We have a very special guest. We are so happy this day is finally here. You have heard us mention the name

Terry Weinberg on the podcast. She was the only female non-writing executive producer on the office. She was with us from the very beginning, helping the U.S. version of the office go from its development stages to casting to finally getting on the air. And then, of course, she was with us all the way to the very end. She later became the NBC Entertainment Executive Vice President and launched her own production company, Yellow Brick Road. Yes, Terry went on to serve as executive producer of the critically acclaimed an award-winning television show Ugly Betty, as well as the Golden Globe nominated The Tudors. Her producing credits go on and on, but she is also a keynote speaker.

She conducts workshops, and she's often on panels about her years of experience. She recently had a TED talk. The title was, aging into power. Yeah. Oh, by the way, she's also a triathlete. She's basically a force of nature. But most of all, Terry is supportive and she is uplifting. And we are so excited to finally have her on office ladies to share about her time on the office and so much more. There's really nothing she can't do. She also does advocacy work. She is a board of trustee member for the leukemia and lymphoma society. Terry has such a heart for people. And we can't wait for you to hear this conversation. So why don't we take a break? And when we come back, buckle in for some words of wisdom and a truly uplifting conversation about work and life

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Hello there, Terry Weinberg. Hello, you two beautiful people. How are you? I'm fantastic. We're so excited to have you here. I'm so excited. I'm thrilled to be looking at your faces. When I rounded the corner and saw you and you hugged me, I think we hugged for five minutes. We had such a hug. And then when I saw you see, Jenna, I was just like, wow, I'm so thankful. I'm just sitting in some gratitude to be sitting across the table from two women that I really admire. I just got all kinds of little goosebumps. Yeah, it's interesting when you think about, because I thought a lot about you guys.

I think about you all the time, but coming into, you know, the podcast, I just started reminiscing about when you guys said, you know, is there anything you want to talk about? And I was really thinking about the very beginning of this whole thing. Yeah. And that little teeny tiny show that should have never seen the light of day. Why do you say it should never have seen the light of day? Because we were just up against too much? You know, there were, you know, because we were originally sold to FX. We were?

To Kevin Riley. That was where the office was. And when Kevin left FX to come to NBC, he brought. the office with him. This is already something I didn't know before. Oh, you guys don't even understand. I have all of the, I know where all the bodies are buried. Well, this is true because you started from the very beginning before any of us were cast,

before even Gray Daniels was attached. You were trying to get this show off the ground. Ben showed me the original that Ricky and Stephen had done and said, look at this and tell me what you think. And I said, this is brilliant. We should stay as far away from this as possible. so we don't F it up, you know, and I just fell in love with it. And, you know, it took us time to get Greg's attention. Greg had it. I'm sure he's talked to you guys about it, but he didn't look at it for about three or four weeks until, you know, we finally called Ben called Ari and said, get Greg to look at this because he's going to fall in love with it. And then Greg finally watched it and said, please tell me nobody else has said yes to this. I have to do this. And so it was a real process. But beyond that, You know, truth is, Jeff Zucker did not like the show.

Yeah, that we all knew. That trickled down even to us. And to this day, I will say to Kevin Riley, if not for you, we would not be here because he fought and fought and fought and fought for this show. And when we did the pilot, we only got picked up for five episodes. If you guys remember that, we had a six episode first season. I do. Yeah.

We aired in March, and we were done in middle of April. And then when we got picked up for the second season, we still only got six episodes. But we told the world it was 13. We did? We did. Oh. Yeah. Because, you know, we wanted people to stay with us and not think, oh, you know, so here's five more little measly episodes.

So the official like sort of press announcement said we were going to come back for 13. But we were only really given six. Oh, wow. And you know what's so funny about that is like nowadays, if you announce that you had like a six episode show on streaming, people would be all over it. Yeah. They didn't, there would be no stigma to only having six or only having 12. Yeah. This was the business of getting 22 episodes a season where we ended up doing 26, 28, hour longs, bonus episodes.

You know, we really kind of redefined the half hour situational comedy, I think. in so many ways. All right. Well, I'm already just like, I am so into this conversation. I am so here for it. So we usually ask our guests, how did you get your job on the office? So can you journey back with us and tell everyone how you came to be part of the project? Yes.

So I worked for a company called Revely. It's a production company who produced the office. Ben Silverman, who was my boss, used to run the international television department at William Morris. He started this production company, and he was the guy that was bringing in the formats from around the world who wants to be a millionaire, weakest link, all of those big unscripted shows. And he had the rights to the office and also to Ugly Betty and to a show called Coupling, which was the first show that we produced. It was Multicam Comedy. And I'll never forget because none of us knew how to produce. Ben was an agent. I was an agent, had agency

experience, but nobody had ever produced a minute of television. And so I had a master class. I mean, I learned by doing it. I would just sit in the corner and watch people and listen and learn and make notes. And I just learned on the job. And so when we were doing coupling, then I started to figure it out. And the next thing that we were going to be working on was the office. At the same time, Ben was building a big international business at the company, and biggest loser was on the air. And that became a billion-dollar juggernaut. And the more I was in rooms with him, the more I said, you don't need to be here. I can build your scripted television. And so I kind of pushed him out of the business of scripted TV and just became a part of, you know, coupling the office,

ugly Betty, the tutors, everything that we produced. And so I ran the scripted division at Revely. I did the job of 100 people and it was one. Well, Terry, you're the person that I remember being on set all the time. You're the person I remember from my audition. You're the person I remember from the pilot. You're the face. And so that tracks for me. You were always there. Can you describe like, what is your job? Because executive producer or producer, like, it's very, it's not the writing part of the show. Yeah. But what exactly do you do?

It's, my parents used to ask me that for, you know, nine or ten years. That's such a parent thing to ask, by the way. What do you do? What exactly is your job? The job of an executive producer can be as bigger as small as the executive producer makes it. And for me, I always want people to know that I'm an added value to a project. So the experience that I bring is developing scripts, hiring whomever, whenever, the writer, the directors, the casting, being a part of that whole

development of said project. And for me, it was always really important to create a really open, collaborative relationship with the showrunner. Because you always want them to know that they're going to focus on the creative and part of the show. And it's my job to focus on the business of the business. And so with the office, Greg and I were at the hip. You know, he knew that I would go fight any battle for him and love it. I would deal with the network. I would deal with the studio. Because, you know, Greg, he's just one giant piece of love. He doesn't want conflict ever. No. You know, and so I always said, just bring it so you don't have to think about it. You're doing all these things and you're wearing a million hats. So every day that you wake up as an

it can be a whole different deal than the day before or the day after. So like if the network read a script and they were iffy on a storyline, but Greg really wanted it, he'd be like, Terry, go tell the network. Go fight for it. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Or if he had an idea for a director, you might call that director's agent or that director directly and really try to massage that and help that happen. Correct. So you really act as a partner. The only thing I do is, didn't do, and I would be in the writer's room at times, I just didn't put pen to paper. So you can do any and all things that are asked of you.

I can edit. You know, I do casting. I do, I work on wardrobe, all the things that you're trying to sort of fill a gap if it helps your writing staff and especially your showrunner to just focus on the work, the creative work. Well, I have to ask you then. Is there a battle you had to take on that you remember that's like a vivid battle that Greg was like, go get that? Can you share with us? Well, yes, but it'll be an unexpected anecdote.

Okay. So as you know, I went to NBC in 2007 and ran primetime there. So I became the executive who was overseeing the office that I was the executive producer of. Oh, no. So did you have to fight with yourself? Would you give yourself a note? And Greg would say, go tell yourself, no. So, no.

And so, yes, there was, you know, a little schizophrenia. But when we were, when we made the decision to have the office come on after the Super Bowl. Mm-hmm. So Ben and I said, we want to give the office this space. And then Jeff Zucker, who was our boss, said, okay, but you have to make it feel big and this and special. because we're going to have 100 million people watching. Yeah, for those of you guys listening, I'm sure you know this because, you know, now there's like a whole like bingo games about Super Bowl ads.

That's so many people are watching the Super Bowl. So to get that time slot right after is a big, big deal. Oh, it's like winning the lottery. Yeah. Think about it. How many shows are vying for that position every single year? And so clearly Ben and I wanted to put the office there because, you know, the baby. And so I had the conversation with Greg and said, we really need to do a big, crazy cold open because if we only have people for, you know, three minutes, we want them to say, I've never seen this show before. I have to stay and watch it.

And so Greg, and I love you so much, Greg, if you're listening, he pitched some not great ideas. Not they weren't big enough and flashy enough? Right. And Jeff Zucker said, we need movie stars. We have to have. movie stars in the first three minutes. And I said, we don't have movie stars on the show. It doesn't work like that. And so I went to Greg and I said, so here's the fight that's happening at the network. You know, Jeff wants movie stars. I said, we don't do movie stars. Put this in your hat. Think about it and see how we can somehow work them into this cold open. And I don't know if you guys remember it. But it was kind of the movie within the movie, Jessica Alba. Yes.

Jack Black, people were, so it was being watched on the computer by people in the office. And so it was a way to have them in it, but not break the wall that we had worked so hard to create to not have celebrities on our show. So that was probably the biggest kind of spirited conversation that I had to have with Greg. And then also on the other side of it. So that was, I was in the middle of two really very difficult, huge money battles. Yeah, and two very opinionated people with strikingly different visions for what this episode would be. And light years, valleys worth of opinions. My gosh, you must be so good at just navigating tricky situations.

Like, I kind of feel like I need to do the amazing race with you. Jill and I've always said we might be a team, but it might be Terry. Oh, you would do better with Terry. Also, because there are so many physical challenges on Amazing Race that Terry would crush it. I know. Triathlet. I mean, surfer. Surfer.

I know. Multiple. Yeah, I mean, I think because I came up as a female executive and then also, you know, as a producer back in the 2000s, we had to work 10 times as hard to be seen and heard in a room. Yeah, you did. It was a really difficult environment to have to be in, because I would be the one woman in a room of 50 men, 40 men, 20 men, 30 men, who try to make you feel like you don't belong in there. You know, and I think that there was just this thing that switched in my head and said, I have the experience, I have the success. Talk to my hardware on my mantle. Don't tell me I don't belong here. I didn't earn this. And also,

I belong here. So you can treat me any way that you want. But I'm still going to have my opinions. I'm still going to have, you know, the fierce way in which I do business, you know, and then people start to get that message and they treat you differently. And it especially happened to me when I was at NBC because people call you names that you can't even imagine in your wildest dreams. Behind your back? No, to your face.

What? To your face. Oh, yeah. You're so stupid. You have no idea what you're talking about. You do not belong in that job. To your face. I disagree with you.

Oh, of course, yes. Of course. I shall not name names, but. We have a different podcast. It's called Office Ladies Burn It to the Ground. We're going to start it in about 10 years. Can we have you back? Because on that podcast, we name all the names.

Oh, yes. It's when we burn it to the ground, Terry. Oh, you guys don't even know. Oh, I can't wait to have you on that one. You don't even know. I have so many closets that are stuffed with people. Oh, my God. Okay. But seriously, it's, you know, you've been women in an industry. And, you know, that's just kind of where your fierceness comes from. Because you get used to having to, the shoulders have to be a little bit taller. You have to walk into the room in a certain way because people feel that presence.

Well, here's something that I'm thinking about right now is the three of us sit in this room. And I know how hard all of us worked on this show, on the office. I also believe that none of us are profit participants on the show. That is true. And so there are a lot of men who worked just as hard as we did, who are profit participants. Or not as hard as we did. Also correct. Also very correct.

You know, what that means is that when all these big sales happen to the streamers and this show that has lived on for years and years and years, we do not participate in the profit of that. We don't make money. Yeah, yeah. Yes. And neither do you. And because I do not.

We don't have a percentage of the show. Well, I will attest that you are not profit participants, nor am I. And that doesn't mean that you worked any less hard than anybody else who is a participant. And it's just part of the way that the deals are made early on. I worked for a company, so the company was the participant. And also, it's how people choose to include you. in that participation over time. I would rather be giving and share in the participation,

some not so much, but the way I came away with it, because I never wanted to be bitter about those experiences. Same. You know, I look at it as, okay, this is something that I experienced. Now, how can I take that and turn that into something that is good for me?

Or how can I capitalize off of that? You're doing this podcast for six years. You're the queens of your queendom. You know, so you're using, this opportunity to do a business that you love, to talk about a show that you love, and also your business women. Yeah. So you're using that to your advantage of what you'll never do again.

And we talked about time management and all those things, live your life the way you've earned it, and you're having fun doing it. Yeah. So I always try to find that, you guys know, I'm positive. You know, I always want to try to find the good out of the things that can wreck a human. Yeah. You know, but at the end of the day, it's still business. and there's so much more to our lives than that.

And we're going to get over. And that's, you know, I can't count the amount of times. But then I've also used those opportunities to enrich myself in other ways. Were there any women who are profit participants on the office? No. I didn't think so. Because there aren't a, I mean, if you're talking about, you know, both producerial and then the cast, I was the only female producer.

So, no. No. That's a hard no. That's a hard no. Sorry, I just had to get on my little soapbox there for a hot sec. I'm here for it. I am here for it because I'm here to protect it. Yeah.

That's another thing that a producer does. You protect your chicks with your life. I mean, I would kill for you guys. I felt that too. I really did. I wish you could see the look in Terry's eye when she said that. She means it. I really felt that. I felt that from the very beginning. And one of the things we wanted to talk to you about was the audition process. Because you were in the room. I remember looking right at you, and you smiled at me, and I was so nervous. And so cute. You're so cute. And you said that I was. That's why I named you button.

I know. You said I was so cute as a button. I was just cute as a button and tiny. And then I called you Snap. Yes. To this day. To this day. Why snap? Because I said she's just, she's not even a button. She's a snap. I'm just a little snap. She's just a little snap. Yeah. I love this. The audition process was probably one of the most glorious times of my life. Because we auditioned, I think like nobody else did. You know, coming in, reading the words, doing the improv. I mean, I was in pain for 10 hours a day of laughter. You know, it was the, we saw everyone, everyone, from the second I laid eyes on you, you were Pam. Oh, thank you.

The second you said, deep, they're there again. That's real. I used to say, when we would talk about these different actors, especially for Pam, I said, nobody flatlines a line like Jenna. I always, I remember that to the second. She's a, you flatline it. That look that you could just be straight in something that. is so hard to do. The amount of emotion Jenna can convey in her eyes, especially in the scenes with Pam and

Michael, I have loved rewatching because I wasn't in those scenes. So I wasn't watching her in that moment. And it is what you can do with your eyes, lady. It's incredible. It should want to Emmy. It was so fun. Yeah. I mean, I was behind camera on all of your talking heads, on all of your scenes, on all of your

pairings on all of your everything that you guys did for years and years and years. And it was such a gift for me. There was not a day that went by that I didn't, I didn't wake up in gratitude and say, what are we doing? This is crazy fun and magic with this group of people who love the work so much and each other. And it will never happen again. That kind of chemistry, that kind of energy will never, ever be replicated. And so seeing you guys during that audition process, it was hard too because there weren't any talking heads really yet on television. And the rhythm was so much different, which is why we did, you know, produced auditions, but we did screen tests. Because if we would have gone into the network and you guys would have done a scene,

they would have said, you people are crazy. We will never make this show. So, just the whole rhythms of it, the hard pauses. That is something that I think is really amazing and such great, I mean, smart foresight on how to sell the show. But a lot of times when you audition and you make it to that final stage where you go in front of a room of 50 network execs, you kind of go into like a little theater, like a mini theater, and you do your scene as an actor in front of this room of people. and it's like doing a little mini-scene at like a play, like a play. In the theater. But for the office, you guys filmed it, produced it, and played it for the network so they could see what the show would look and feel like.

And I just think that's so smart. I'm curious, after we shot the pilot and we were waiting to hear if we were going to get picked up, how close did we come to not getting picked up? Because from my perspective, that phone call came. like 24 hours before you announced it in New York. That's exactly right. So they were deciding up until the last minute? Yes.

Wow. And we got the pickup contingent on being able to produce the episodes for under a million dollars. And is that hard to do? So it was not... Terry just... Terry just like... I think a knife just came out of my eyeball. And Terry did like a whiplash look to Jenna, like, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah. I mean, typically a sitcom is $4 million, three and a half, two and a half. Per episode. Yes. Oh, wow. And I think at that time, we were at a million five, million four. And we had to take $400,000 off of a budget that was this bit. I'm making a teeny tiny circle.

It was a tiny budget as half hours went. Is that why all the episodes in the first season happen in the bullpen and in the office? Like there's no... Ding, ding, ding, ding. There's no locations. Zip, we couldn't afford to leave. Everything had to be contained because it costs money to go out. Yeah.

Costs money to move cameras. It costs money for transportation. It costs money for all those things that you know you need to do when you leave the space. And so Ben was gallivanting all over the world with his friend who had just done a big movie with Brad Pitt. He was on a studio private plane. I don't know, Warner Brothers or Sony or something. And I think he was in, he was somewhere where it was in the middle of the night for me was morning for him. On a plane with Brad Pitt.

On a plane and doing all the premieres around the world. And here I am in my underwear, in the middle of the night, sitting in my night, sitting in bed. I have spreadsheets all over my bed, the budget everywhere, and I'm trying to figure out how to get $400,000 out of this budget so that we can get picked up for five more episodes. And we finally got there. But it was literally the day before we got you guys on a plane to go to New York. Well, actually, did we go? I don't even remember. We got ourselves on a plane because NBC said they wouldn't pay for it. Yeah, that's right. The four of us were all. That's right. Like self-traveling.

Yeah. And then I don't know who. Terry, maybe it was you. But after we got back, someone made a stink and said, I can't believe you made those actors pay their own way to the NBC up front's announcement. And we all got reimbursed. Oh, someone's raising her hand. Yeah.

Yeah, that was infuriating. Yeah, because they didn't pay for any of us. Brian and I flew ourselves out too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. After that year, NBC would fly us out. Yeah. But that's all you.

God, Jen, I just thought about that one after party. Where I broke my back at Fudacan. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. That was insane. That was insane.

Mm-hmm. Can I tell a story, though, that I think NBC was, like, really worried I was going to sue because it was their party. Of course they were. Right? And I didn't. I didn't even, I don't know. They put me up at the Ritz Carlton because that's where they had put me.

Even though I'd asked to stay in Soho, I just want to say I'd requested a cheaper hotel, but they're like, no, everybody has to stay at this one hotel we need to keep you together. But then you couldn't physically move. But I couldn't physically move for two weeks. So they paid my hotel bill as I convales and mine and Angela's so she could be with me. And then I like slowly recovered and I got ready to start the new season and Ben Silverman took me out. This could be on office ladies burn it to ground. It's not totally horrible or anything, but it's just, you know, a story. He took me out to dinner to sushi because he said, hey, I just want to make sure you're feeling okay, you're up for the new season, and we got you this gift

to say that we're just so sorry for the hardship. And it was this beautiful watch. It was beautiful. I was like, oh my God, how expensive is this watch? This watch must be so expensive. I keep it in a safe. All these years I've coveted it. Oh, my God. Was it an oceanaut? And oh my God, it was an ocean. It was an ocean. Are you kidding me? No, I am not kidding you. And I googled it, and it's worth like a hundred bucks. I thought it was worth thousands, thousands of dollars. I was trying to get it insured because I thought it's time I should have done this years ago. Do you have one too?

I have one too. And I actually think that Oceonaut may have sent them to us. So he didn't even pay for it. So they were just in a closet at Revely and he just grabbed it and he didn't even buy it for me. Ben Silverman. Ben Silverman, you cheap bastard. How dare you? You owe me a luxury watch, Ben Silverman.

He does. Benjamin, you owe Jenna a luxury watch. I mean, we love you, Oceonaut, but you know. She's been keeping the Oceionaut in a safe for a decade. I'm keeping my $70 watch in a safe for 15 years. Maybe give it some wear. I wear it. But honestly, like, sometimes I don't wear it because I'm like, I don't want someone to mug me.

Nobody's mugging you, baby. No, no. I don't even watch. Amazing. That is so funny, Jenna. I'm dying about that. That is amazing, actually. Well, Terry, one of the things about you as a producer was that I felt really seen as both an artist and a human.

That was a unique thing that you brought to your producing. And I know that it's something that you continue to do. And I want to pivot for a second because I want to talk about some of the ways that you're you really work to encourage other women, especially in this business. I was looking to get into producing. I reached out to you. I had this script, and I said, how do I develop this? How do I get this off the ground? You mentored me. Yeah. Could you talk to the people out there who might be listening, who might be interested in wanting to work as a storyteller in the entertainment industry. What advice do you have? Because I know you have some that will be very valuable.

Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of these little pearls that I can drop. But one thing that I always say is that, you know, what we do is really hard. You know, it's a hard industry to be in. And so you better love what you do. You know, you have to start with something that you're passionate about. Because you can smell when somebody is just trying to do something that they don't really care about. And I can feel that. And you can also feel that at the end of the day when that if and when that work gets made. And so I think it's an insane amount of tenacity. I mean, my job is to get a yes. And until I get that yes, I'm going to do whatever I have to get that yes. And to use the experience and the knowledge that I have, but also you have to be willing to put yourself out there and annoy the shit out of people so that they see you in front of them. You know, because we're in a big business. And people remember sort of what was in front of them in the last moment. And if Terry keeps calling and trying to get a piece of talent or try to sell something, you know, I always say, if I call one more time, they're going to put me in jail, have me arrested, but I end up getting my show made.

So I think it's tenacity, an amazing amount of discipline, because it takes a long time sometimes to get things made. And, you know, I've had things in development for five, six, seven years sometimes. And produce what you love. And always go back to the place of, why am I telling this story? Why am I telling it now? and who's going to care or what life is it going to affect. So for me, it's really important that I know I'm putting something out in the world that can maybe affect one person's life. Make them laugh.

Make them cry. Make him see a community of people that you don't normally get to see. Relationships that aren't obvious. And that's the work. That's the joy for me is using the platform that I have to get stories out there that might not have had that opportunity. to be produced. That's very much what you told me at our lunch. Yeah. Right there. Yeah, it's my heart, my guts.

Yeah. And then you have to have the courage to just count on both of those things and not let anybody push that around. And you have to be willing to say, no, when somebody says, I want to buy your show, but I know you're selling a drama, but we really want it to be a half-hour comedy. You have to be willing to say, no, I'm not willing to do that just to have a show on the air. Right. Yeah.

You know, so knowing and creating the boundaries of protecting the work and having the courage to say no, if it doesn't feel right, instead of just saying yes, because you're getting a sale. I should say I did end up selling that show. You did? To Warner Brothers. It just didn't go anywhere. But I did get the sale, and I was excited. That's a big deal. Yeah.

And I sold a comedy as well that, again, they didn't end up getting made, but I felt like I got it done. I got it done, and I'm proud of that, and that was very much due to your coaching throughout that process. But also, you did it. I did it. You used the tools that you learned, and you got it done. And now you have that experience, so the next time you do it, you know what you need to do to get that thing made. Yeah. I didn't get paid for it, though, when I sold it.

Join the club. I know. That's something that I think people don't know, like, until it gets made, like my writer got paid. You know, the showrunner I had attached, they got paid to write the pilot. People do not understand how unsung non-writing producers are because you can develop something for years and not get paid for it until it sells. And most people can't afford to do that, which is why there's not a lot of us. But because I'm at a place in my career and I've gone to studios and said, I need to get paid to develop this. I should get paid to develop it because it's going to get better because of what I'm going to bring to the project.

especially if a studio comes to me and says we have this great project will you come produce it if I love it and I align with it yes if you pay me yes so it's really hard to make a living as a producer I sold two shows

but I wrote them I pitched it and I wrote them I wrote the pilot so I did get paid and neither of them got made one came sort of close but I think what I needed was after I wrote the pilot and got paid for the pilot, I needed someone to help me get it to that next place

because what I didn't understand really was sort of the politics of how then your pilot goes from being bought, written, goes through all the network notes, and then the people that bought my show then left the network, and my show just got shelved. Yeah. So it's so wonderful, Terry, that you just show up for people, And over the years, Jen and I have both gotten texts from you, like, here, if you ever need anything, and you mean it. That's the other thing. It's like how you read Jenna's script and immediately got back to her. It's something I really admire about you. You're not talk. If you say you're going to do something, you do it. And I think that was a great thing that we saw you do all the time on the show that I definitely took with me. You know, integrity is really important to me. I mean, first of all, I love.

of you guys, I'll do anything for you. But I think it's really important. I need to wake up with myself in the morning and know that I've done good things and I've tried to help people. And I don't have an ego about, I think there's room for all kinds of people to do what we do, especially women. And if we can help each other, why wouldn't we? I'm not competitive with other women. I want, there's room for all of us. Yeah. So I think it's really important that I become that vessel for some people to be able to help them so that we can continue on with generations of women doing the work. And you're so doing that. You're a keynote speaker now. You did a TED talk, which was amazing. Jenna and I both watched it. It's titled Aging Into Power, which I appreciated

that first word. Can you tell us about that, how that came about? Yes. There was a gentleman who was putting together this series called Bold and Provocative Ideas That Can Save the World. That was the theme behind this particular TED Talk. And he called me up and said, I came to one of your keynotes or I was on a panel or something. Have you ever thought about doing a TED Talk? And without even thinking about it, I said, yes. I never thought about doing a TED Talk. I just said, yes. And he said, I'm doing a series called Bold and provocative ideas that can change the world. And I said, I'm not sure what my bold and provocative idea is, but I'll figure it out because I'm going to do this. And I don't know who was talking

at that time because it was one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life. I mean, I've stood in front of theaters and people and, you know, talked about shows and everything that I do behind the camera, I don't talk about my life. very much. And I'm pretty sacred about my personal life and things that I have gone through as an executive and as a human. And I thought, maybe it's time for me to step out and share my story so that maybe my story, now my personal story, will help other women. And what I hear so much is, I don't know, I'm not good enough. I don't know. I don't have the experience. I don't know. I think I'm too old to do that. I can't do that. I'm not strong enough. And I just got so tired of hearing

that. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to talk about the things that I've experienced and some of the hardships that I've had. And that feels comfortable for me because it's my life and I've lived it. And kind of the rest is history. And so I wanted people to know that what I've done in my life. I mean, I'm 65, you guys. I did this TED talk. I did this TED talk. 21 days before I turn in 65. Unreal to me. When I say that, it just feels like I'm talking about somebody else because I feel like I'm 30 years old.

And there are so many women in their 40s that are younger than all of us that say, I can't start something new now. Are you insane? I mean, I'm going to start something new until I can't breathe. You know, we always have an opportunity to do something new. I mean, look at the empire you guys are creating. recognize people recognize Jenna and Angela so it was really an exercise for me to come out of from behind the camera to share my story and everything that I talked about just sort of came out

I wrote it but I also just spoke from my heart Okay, Terry, it is time for the call sheet questions. I'm going to go first. There are five. Okay, number one. What was your first entertainment job? I was a floater assistant at ICM. Oh, what's a floater assistant? You do not have a permanent assignment. You only, you're called in when an assistant is sick or on vacation, and you just literally sit down in a seat and you work for the agent. for the day or the week or wherever you're needed. So you go wherever they tell you to go. And it was a temp job. Oh, okay. All right, I've got the next one.

Do you speak any other languages? Well, a poikido. I strive to speak better Spanish because one of my most favorite places on Earth is El Salvador, which is where I surf a lot. So a little Spanish, some Hebrew. I think that's probably it. Well, this leads very well into the next question. It does.

And maybe you'll expand on this. What's a place you've been to that you absolutely loved? El Salvador. Yeah. Yes. I've been going there for the past 10 years now. My best friend in the world has introduced me to it because that's where I've been going to surf camps and also to her wellness retreats.

and I just fell in love with the country, and she's since moved there. Pixia, Sia, I see you, and it was a dream that she had for 10 years, and she's an incredible surfer, but she's also in the wellness industry, and she would take people outside their comfort zone. So we've been to Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and that's where I kind of learned, that's where I learned how to surf, that's where I first cliff dived, that's where I did my first Ice bath, did all these things that I didn't think I would do in my life. I'm sorry, what is a cliff dive? So you go on a cliff and you jump off into a...

You just jump off the cliff. Yes, you do. Hmm. Yeah. And I'm afraid of heights. Yeah, I am too. And I recently, I was there three weeks ago. And not only did I jump off the cliff, but I jumped twice.

Nice. I zip lined. And I ziplined for the first time. And that was terrifying, but I did it. Because you have to step off that ledge and you're like, And then if you kind of do one of those lookdowns and you realize that you're thousands of feet in the air, yeah. Do we need a lady's trip to a wellness retreat in El Salvador? Yes, you do, because it will change your life.

So you'll send us a link? Yes, I will. I surfed for the first time, I think, in 2018 on her retreat, and I was scared to death. And now it's just so liberating. I want to point out that 2018 is when you started surfing. so you were over the age of 50. I was 55. Okay.

I was 56 because I did my first triathlon when I was 55. Wow. See? This is what I'm saying. And also, you guys, I did not know how to swim. What? I did not know how to swim. When you signed up to be in a triathlon?

So I had to be taught how to swim and then get in that ocean and swim a mile. Wow, Terry. So the first triathlon I did was in Kona, Hawaii. and it took me an hour to go a mile. In the water. In the water. I mean, it was exhausting. Yeah, it is.

My manager, Naomi, sometimes there'll be like a project or a job opportunity or something, and it'll seem very daunting to me for whatever reason, either creatively or logistically, but yet there's a reason I want to do it. And she'll say, Jenna, you don't have to figure out all the details before you say yes. Say yes. And then you will rise to the occasion and be ready when it's. time. So just say yes and you'll get yourself there. Hello, Naomi. Yeah. That is the best advice and she's right. You can't, you don't have to have it all figured out. Say yes and then you determine what

feels good for you. Question number four. What do you like to do on the weekends? Surf. Sensing a theme. You know, I'm writing a lot, you guys, because I'm writing a book. Yeah, we wanted to ask you about that. Can you tell us about your upcoming book? Yeah, I think, you know, I started writing a book proposal the day after the writer's strike happened because I'd wanted to write for a long time, and I never had the time to do it because I was busy helping everybody else write their things or do their, you know, develop their projects. And so I just sat down and just started blathering things and wrote a book proposal and got myself a literary agent. She took it out to some publishers, which it's out there right now

and I don't like it anymore. So because I've grown... Wait, you don't like your book proposal? I don't like it. Is it fiction or nonfiction? It's my life. It's nonfiction. Oh, memoir.

It's memoir. But it also has practical guides in it. Here's how I navigated this thing. Yeah, yeah. So what... Here's how you can step into your power. So what now? It's out in the world at publishers.

I'm going to pull it back. You're going to pull it back. I'm going to have the courage to say, thank you if you have read this or if it's sitting on your desk, please take it off. Because I have grown so much, even in the last two years. My voice is different. What I want to talk about is different.

And so I'm just rewriting it from page one. My God, I love you, Terry. Terry, this is what I love about you. It's kind of what you said before about how, like, if you put a project out there and then it doesn't end up feeling right, don't be afraid to just, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because we grow. We change so much. Yeah. You know, and I figured if I'm going to put myself out into the world and if there's a teaching component to the book, I've done so many more speaking kinds of things. And I've been exposed to so many more women and people in different industries that I don't just talk about entertainment. You know, I can talk to C-suite women. I did a huge conversation with women who are on Capitol Hill. You know, I'm not in politics, but the connection was storytelling. Yeah.

You know, so there's so many things that I can do and talk about now that I want to put in there. So I just said, fuck it, I'm just going to write the book. Yeah. Not write a proposal. I'm just going to write a book. I'll put the book out there. And if I don't get a publisher, I'll self-publish.

That's what I did with my acting book, Terry. I wrote the book, an actor's life. And it's a combination of memoir and then also advice for aspiring actors. Take it or leave it. You know, it's just my story. has a different one. That's right. But I ended up writing it, and it got published by a small publishing house, a family-run

business in Texas. But I wrote it on spec, as they say. You know, I didn't have an advance, but I wrote it from the heart. And what I liked about that is I had also taken out a proposal to big publishers, and they wanted me to tweak it. They said, well, this is great, but can you also talk about what it's like to be a mom in Hollywood? Can you also talk about stories from the office?

Can you tell us about that? Can you tell us about, like, and I said, that's not what this book is. That's a great book. That sounds wonderful. That's not the book I'm looking to write. So I just wrote it myself. And it was great. That's full circle to, you can't be, don't be afraid to, if you're putting a project out there, you know, to have somebody to say, oh, we love this.

But we would like you to make these changes to it. Or you must cast this certain person or do those things within our industry that, don't feel good, and you're at a point in your life where you can say no. Yeah. And have the confidence to say no and feel good about it. And also you're recognizing that you're still, even at 65, learning who you are, what your voice is and what you want to share, you're still having discovery. So that's great.

I mean, that's just the beauty of as we age. You know, you kind of get smacked over the head with this wisdom of, oh, wait, I knew that. oh, I can actually, I can do that, too. You know, so it's just we put limitations on ourselves, and that's the only reason why we don't do certain things because we convince ourselves that we can't do it. We can do whatever we put our minds to. We sure as hell can.

All right. Next question. What's your favorite midnight snack? Chocolate. Any way I can get it. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate? Dark. Purest as it can be.

It has to be kind of overstate. 70%, almost 80, because then it's too, to, what's the word, when it doesn't have a real chocolatey taste. It's too bitter. So I like to have a little bit of sweetness, but I want it to be as pure chocolate as possible. You like a little sea salt on that? Love sea salt. Do you keep it in the fridge?

A freezer. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, freezer chocolate bars. I actually brought you guys chocolate truffles. Did you really? You did? You did?

I can't wait. Amazing. Oh, gosh. Well, those were our call sheet questions, but before we go, we have our office question of the week. This is our first time trying it. You're our first guest for our office question of the week, Terry. I love this.

I'll be your guinea pig. Mm-hmm. So we went through our office mailbag. We found a question we liked. Cassie reached out and got an audio clip from the person who wrote in. So let's hear our very first office question of the week. Hi, Angela, Cassie, Jenna, and Sam. First, a huge thank you for the shout-out in the All About Angela Martin episode.

It was my son that was relieved that Angela Kinsey isn't to quote-unquote be in real life. He was thrilled to hear you mention it. His name is Liam. Hi, Liam here. Thank you for the shout-out. So the question I would love to hear the group talk about is, would you rather? If you had to pick an investment to put your own money into, would you rather invest in Jan's Serenity by Jan or Ryan's woof and why and Cassie I know you don't like being forced into a binary and

I agree that no one should be so feel free to pick some other investment opportunity thanks all love you so much bye how amazing is that little Liam oh my gosh that is the sweetest and her accent is she where is she from is that Canada she is from Calgary yeah Yeah. Lisa, thank you so much for writing in and then leaving us that lovely message. And oh, my gosh, Liam. All right. So what do we think? Yeah. Terry, are you investing in Jan's Serenity by Jan or Ryan's Wolf? Yeah. I have to say, it's Serenity by Jan. I mean, I love a nice candle. I love a nice romantic atmosphere. I also like to have a candle on my desk. You know, when I'm working. I'm not sure about Jan's sense. The actual sense of the candles, but I would lean towards the more ethereal kind of business. What about you guys?

Well, I like what you're saying. Woman-led business, you know, I think she could be very successful, especially nowadays where she could get her candles out on all of the socials, on Etsy maybe. Can you imagine Jan on TikTok? Oh, that would have been fantastic. Fantastic. But ultimately, I think I could get roped into investing in woof.com because I like the idea of it. I like the idea of consolidating all of my information. I don't know. I'm going to say

if only allowed to invest in those two things, I would probably put my $1,000 behind woof.com. Sam, Cassie, do you guys want to weigh in? I'm going to go with Ryan's, but you have to get out early because his do make money. Pyramid schemes work if you're one of the first investors. Oh, it was a pyramid scheme? Wolf.com is when everything went off and sounded off. No, but it's a pyramid scheme. So if you get in early, you just make money. Oh. It's super illegal, but for my personal investment, Ryan's, you just got to get out early.

Okay. Okay. That's very astute. I appreciate Lisa saying that I don't have to pick either because for me, if I can choose anybody to invest in on the show, I would invest in Dwight's bed and breakfast. I think I'd make the most money because he is difficult to work with, but he is the most successful business person, I think, on the show. That's fair. I'm going Serenity by Jan. And I'll tell you why. Right now, if someone calls me, my watch rings, my laptop rings, I don't need multiple things buzzing me, okay? Stop buzzing me everywhere all the time. And that's what Wolf is. You get like an alert on everything.

And I already have that. Well, now you do. But if you notice, you and I went on a creative instinct, and Jenna went on, oh, this is a money. This is an investment. Because Woof is going to end up being a billion dollar company, and we're going to be schlepping candles on Etsy. I know.

So I did go a little shrewd, I would say. You went tech. We went like. experience. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We went softy.

Yeah. So I... You know what? Maybe we'd end up having a goop candle that everyone talks about. Maybe Jan would make the vagina candle. She might. Is the vagina candle? The goop vagina candle?

The goop vagina candle. Gwyneth Paltrow made a candle that is scented like her vagina. Sherry just fell back. There is not a chance. It sold out. Yeah. She smelled a candle. I guess they...

I don't know the story exactly. This is the lore, right? That they presented her with a candle, and they said, what do you think it smells like? And she said, my vagina. And so that's what they put on the candle, and it sold out. And so I'm saying that Jan and all of her amazingness would probably sell a candle called my vagina.

She might. We could be moneymakers, Terry. The vagina candle. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's right. I mean, I know there was a candle called vagina. I'm just trying to figure out who would think that their vagina smelled like a candle. Other people would want to have in their room.

Yeah, here's an article. Why is Gwyneth Peltro selling a candle that smells like her vagina? Gwyneth made a candle called This Smells Like My Vigina for her website Goop. She sure did. Mm-hmm. Anyway, I'm just saying, Jan, I see you in this. moment. By the way, it's $67. Yeah. Right now. It's not inexpensive, Gwyneth's vagina candle. Wow. Okay. See what I learned today? Mm-hmm. Look, we learned something new,

Terry. Right? See? Check it off your look. I think I know what I'm getting you for Christmas. Oh, boy. I got that going for me. Well, Terry, this was a lot of fun. Thank you so much. It was so my pleasure. I love seeing you guys. I love seeing you too. Thanks for all the words of wisdom and having our back all these years. Still do. Still do.

Love you. Love you. Love you. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbicoe. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertry by Creed Bratton.