My Time, My Life

My guest today is Lydia Fenet, one of New York’s most dynamic and compelling businesswomen and personalities. As the founder and CEO of the Lydia Fenet Agency, Lydia represents best in class charity auctioneers. Before founding her agency, she spent more than two decades at the famed Christie’s auction house, serving as its Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships. During her time there, she became the world’s leading charity auctioneer and single-handedly raised over a billion dollars for more than 800 organizations around the world, standing alongside Bruce Springsteen, Hugh Jackman, Elton John, Matt Damon, and Jerry Seinfeld for some of the auctions she raised money for.Lydia is also the creator and host of the podcast, Claim Your Confidence, in collaboration with Rockefeller Center, launched after the success of her book of the same name. Her other best selling book is The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You, which was optioned by Netflix in 2022 for a series that will be produced by Chernin Entertainment starring Kiernan Shipka as the lead.In addition to auctioneering, podcasting, and writing, Lydia travels the globe and speaks with companies, helping them to unleash their sales potential and public speaking capabilities. She also recently hosted her first Claim Your Confidence retreat.Photo courtesy of Lydia FenetConnect with Lydia hereFollow Trinette's instagram: trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website: https://trinettefaint.com/My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Steve Shenbaum, a classically trained actor and comedian and Founder & President of Game On Nation, a communications, leadership, and team building firm based in Bradenton, Florida. For over 27 years, Steve and his team have worked with some of the country’s most recognizable athletes, colleges and professional sports teams - including NASCAR, the LA Lakers, NY Yankees, and more -  Fortune 50 companies, government, and military leaders, and he is an industry expert in presentation, public speaking, teambuilding, and communication skills training. In his past career as an actor, Steve was featured in “American Pie 2”, “EDTV”, “Space Jam”, “The Third Wheel” (with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), “Will & Grace”, “Married with Children”, “Beverly Hills 90210”, and more than one-hundred national commercials. Steve graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Performance Studies and also trained at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. Connect with Steve hereFollow Trinette's insta at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.com

My guest today is Natalie Van Doren, a writer/director and assistant director in film and television, in Los Angeles. Natalie has directed multiple network episodes of the Nickelodeon show, Side Hustle, and That Girl Lay Lay for Nickelodeon and Netflix, with famed producer Will Packer.After graduating from Colorado State University, Natalie moved to LA and began her career in the entertainment business as an assistant at ICM Talent Agency. While there, she worked with Francis Ford Coppola, Baz Luhrmann, Luc Besson, and others. Soon after, she was accepted into the prestigious Directors Guild of America Training Program. While in the program, Natalie produced and directed her first short film, The SharkTank Redemption, a parody of The Shawshank Redemption, which was purchased by HBO and aired on HBO and Cinemax for 6 years. Natalie has since gone on to direct the second unit of CSI Miami, was the DGA trainee on on Ocean’s 11, and was the assistant director, CSI, The West Wing, ER, and many more productions. She also recently finished a graphic novel, Infinite, which she wrote with her brother, writer Doug Van Doren.Learn more about Natalie on her website, natalievandoren.com, and connect with her there.Visit Trinette's website, trinettefaint.comFollow Trinette's insta: trinette.faint

My guest today is Amira Lerario, a Lifestyle and Fitness Model who began her career at the age of 55.  Amira is also a creative writer, having recently completed her bachelor’s degree that she started in the 90s, a former running coach and personal fitness trainer,  and has published articles about her life as a mother of four, world marathon runner, and part-time employee.Amira spent over 10 years as a running coach and she’s trained many runners from beginners to intermediate, to advanced. A competitive marathon runner herself, she has run over 30 marathons around the world. In 2017 she completed all 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors, which included London, Boston, New York, Berlin, Chicago, and Tokyo. In 2021 Amira qualified for the Abbott World Marathon Age Group World Championships which was held in London 2022. She qualified again for the World Championships in Chicago in 2023, and she will run the World Championships for a 3rd time in Sydney, Australia in the fall of this year. Amira  writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and in 2023, she wrote her first short and feature-length screenplay. Born and raised in the northwest of England, Amira permanently moved to the US in 1992 after meeting her husband the previous year while working at a summer camp in Lenox, MA.Connect with Amira via instagram at Amira_jane07Follow Trinette's instagram: trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.com

My guest today is Richard Cartwright, a television and film photographer veteran. Richard began his career in New York in 1967, before becoming a Navy photographer in Vietnam in 1968, then a fashion photographer in Boston, before moving to Los Angeles, where he would launch his long standing career in the entertainment business as a set photographer. Richard has shot countless tv shows and films ranging from Wedding Crashers, to Scandal, to How To Get Away With Murder, to Grey’s Anatomy, to Hidalgo, and many more. He’s also created iconic images of Tina Turner, Robert Downey Jr, and Cate Blanchett, and countless others. He’s worked in the business for well over forty years and also practices landscape, street, architecture, and still life photography. You can view his work on his website richardcartwrightphotography.com.Follow Trinette on insta at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Stephanie Katherine Grant starred for 10 seasons as Emmy Mirsky on ABC’s long-running hit comedy, The Goldbergs. She has been awarded Young Artist and Young Entertainer Awards for her work on the show. She can also be seen in standout roles on STARZ'S Survivor's Remorse and Criminal Minds. In addition to her TV work, Stephanie Katherine starred in the Cannes hit, Max Rose, playing the granddaughter of the legendary Jerry Lewis.Stephanie Katherine is also an accomplished director/writer and co-founder of HarisGrant Productions, alongside Michael Grant. HarisGrant’s latest film, Kepley, starring Emmy-nominee Elizabeth Mitchell and Aaron Stanford, has screened at renowned festivals around the world. For her work on Kepley, Stephanie Katherine Grant and Michael Grant were awarded Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Best Film at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. Other HarisGrant films have played in acclaimed festivals, such as Cannes, Calgary, Flickers’ Rhode Island, and LA Shorts. The production house has also directed and produced numerous fashion campaigns, including for brands Brandy Melville and J. Lindeberg.Photo courtesy of Stephanie Katherine GrantFollow Trinette's instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Maria J. Avila, a Pulitzer-prize-winning photojournalist based in San Francisco, California. Originally from Los Angeles, Maria was a member of the Rocky Mountain News photo staff awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News covering the wildfires. In her 25-plus-year career as a photographer and editor, she has specialized in documentary, news, editorial, and food photography. She has been on staff at the San Jose Mercury News, the Detroit Free Press, the San Antonio Express-News, and the aforementioned Rocky Mountain News.Maria is a polyglot, speaking multiple languages, and now documents work performed by government workers in the San Francisco Bay Area.You can view Maria's work and connect with her hereFollow Trinette's instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website at trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is Herb Ankrom, an Emmy award winning seasoned film and television Executive Producer, who has worked in the entertainment industry for twenty years. Herb began his career in Los Angeles in 1995 working as a production assistant on the popular sitcom, Rosanne, starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman. After Rosanne, he shifted to film and worked several years in production roles on films like Batman and Robin, Cruel Intentions and The Bourne Identity.In 2002 he was hired to produce on a pilot for ABC, which became Extreme Makeover Home Edition, that he produced for five seasons, garnering the show two Emmys and five Emmy nominations.Following Extreme Makeover, Herb became Director of Development for a production company and went on to help develop and produce shows such as NBC’s School Pride, and ABC’s True Beauty, seasons one and two.More recently, Herb worked as Co-Executive Producer on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and New Jersey, Cyrus vs. Cyrus, and Southern Charm: NOLA. He also was Executive Producer on the Lionsgate film, Open Water 3: Cage Dive and has several scripted projects in development. Most recently, he Co-Executive Produced Netflix’s Million Dollar Beach House and Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey. Currently he is Executive Producing Serving the Hamptons season 2 for Discovery+Herb splits his time between California and Florida and can be reached via LinkedIn.Follow Trinette's instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

On this episode of My Time, My Life, my special guest is playwright and landscape photographer Curt Strickland. Curt is also a political and cultural essayist, expressing his views on topical issues of the day. When Curt isn’t writing, he’s practicing landscape photography, born out of his previous career as a former owner of Great American Art, one of the largest commercial art corporations in the United States.Curt believes that all art forms should serve to heal, inspire, provoke, challenge and offer hope – but most of all to connect and remind us of our common humanity. He believes in the power of words and their power to ignite change and inspire, and to be used as a tool to ‘fight the power.’In 2020, Curt received a double lung transplant, an event that had profound effects on both his writing and his life. This experience is the basis of a new play called Double Lung that he is currently developing. Curt is finishing up his 5th play in a ten play opus on America, with each play set in a different decade.Curt honed his craft at Lesley University, in Cambridge, MA, where he recently earned a masters degree in playwriting.Contact Curt at curt@curtsview.comRead Curt's essays on his site curtsview.comRead Curt's plays hereView Curt's photography hereFollow Trinette's instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website at trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

My guest today is Kate de Brito, a journalist and editor in Australia for three decades. Kate has worked for some of the country’s biggest publications, both in print and magazines. She began her career as a newspaper reporter for the Daily Telegraph - Sydney’s biggest tabloid newspaper, and later became editor-in-chief of the women’s website Mamamia and editor-in-chief of Australia’s number 1 news site, news.com.au. More recently she was Executive Director of Flash, an Australian news streaming service.She has a degree in counseling and passion for self-growth, that she explores on her podcast How to be Happy. Kate is married with two adult daughters and has a dog named Tilly and lives in Sydney, Australia.Kate can be reached via LinkedIn.Follow Trinette on instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website at trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

My guest today is the Emmy-award winning producer and voice actor, Georgette Pierre.Georgette has been in the entertainment business for over a decade working in TV production at MTV, Nickelodeon (where she won an Emmy), at Netflix on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, with David Letterman, and she's worked on various award shows and commercials.Georgette served as the first sideline reporter for the inaugural 2018 NBA2K League, followed by a stint in Miami as a radio host for the Rickey Smiley Morning show on 99Jamz.Georgette is the creator and producer of the Black + Nuanced podcast, which centers the Black experience and the Black voice, dispelling the idea that Black people are monolithic, the relationship-themed web series “#DearGeorgette", and the interview series, “After Dark with Georgette Pierre”. She has bylines on various publications including Entertainment Weekly, VH1, MTV RapFix (now MTV Hip Hop), Blavity, and Killer Boombox.She recently wrapped hosting duties on Emerson College’s Alumni Association’s podcast, Making It Big in 30 Minutes, and is a creative producer consultant and voice actor through her company imprint, M.Y.S. Productions.When she’s not working, you can find Georgette excerpting her life on Twitter and Instagram. Her newsletter is entertaining too. Subscribe to “georgette’s musings” here.Follow Trinette on instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

Today's guest is award winning poet and senior director of customer marketing for Google Workspace, Tricia Davis-Muffett. Tricia’s poetry has appeared in countless literary journals and she was featured in the 2022 Best New Poets anthology.Tricia has been a senior marketing executive for over 25 years, and before joining Google she was the director of public sector marketing for AWS (Amazon Web Services) and was the VP of Marketing at Booz Allen.Tricia’s latest book of poetry, The Alchemy of Yeast and Tears, published earlier this year, is a collection of original poetry that explores the griefs and joys of motherhood and daughterhood as she navigated her mother’s death along with the challenge of raising children in a broken world.Tricia holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and is based in the Washington DC area, where she lives with her husband who practices environmental law.Tricia can be reached at info@patriciadavismuffett.comFollow Tricia on X @triciadm and on instagram @dmtriciaFollow Trinette on instagram at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

On the show today is Juliette Fassett, CEO of Happy Products, Inc. and creator of the ingenious tablet stand Flippy, designed by her husband optical scientist husband Bruce. Originally from upstate New York, Juliette has spent many years living outside of the United States, most notably teaching skiing in Japan and France. She's a consumer products entrepreneur and has developed businesses, products, and brands for over 30 years in the fashion, outdoor, pet and housewares categories. She has 3 patents and is an intellectual property activist with FairInventing.orgOn this episode Juliette discusses her harrowing experiences of having her Flippy IP stolen by the OnTel Corporation of Fairfield, NJ, and the emotional, financial, and mental toll this has had on her. She pulls back the curtain on the ugly unforeseen perils of creating a popular product and trying to prevent large, powerful corporations from replicating it without consent. Juliette's experience serves as a cautionary tale for any entrepreneurs needing to protect their IP.Juliette lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, rescued street dog Jojo, and rescued senior cat Will Feral. She also has an off-track American Thoroughbred named Granite.Note: The only legitimate channels to purchase Flippy are on her website, getflippy.com, and on Amazon.Juliette can be reached via LinkedIn.Follow Trinette's IG at trinette.faintVisit Trinette's website trinettefaint.comMy Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production

My guest today is Jana Panfilio. Jana spent nearly 30 years at Nike in various roles including communications, marketing and sustainability, with a focus on innovation, and administration at Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.Jana worked with best-in-class insights and creative agencies around the world to bring new brand experiences and marketing initiatives to life and was responsible for setting the creative direction across Nike’s global sustainability teams through translating sustainability challenges into innovation opportunities through compelling visual imagery and meaningful content.Jana also worked with Nike's design community to foster and celebrate sustainable best-practices. She led the global athlete insights research to inform Nike's employee engagement strategy and Move to Zero campaign. Her work informed and inspired audiences across Nike and the industry-at-large to shift mindset and behavior.She built a reputation of integrity and trust across all levels, functions, and geographies. By building strong relationships, Jana kept her finger on the pulse of Nike’s global employee community. Jana believes that sport has the power to unify us, and coupled with a shared common goal and powerful inspiration, we can accomplish anything together! She’s a passionate Nike brand advocate and champion of human potential.After retiring from Nike in 2019, Jana quickly learned that her alumni teammates where applying their Nike innovation mindset to new endeavors and continuing to have a positive impact around the world. In that spirit, Jana founded 6453, a Nike global alumni community, in late 2020.6453 ALUMNI is a nonprofit organization for former Nike employees and alumni sponsored athletes, created for the mutual benefit of their members. As an organization, their mission is to foster a vital, diverse and inclusive global community that embodies Nike’s ethos. Their vision is to leverage their connection and thought leadership to reimagine the future. Their purpose is to apply the values of sport and culture of innovation to amplify their collective impact.Visit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.comFollow Trinette on IG: trinette.faint

My special guest is author, nomad, and CEO of KML Collective, Kristin Lajeunesse. A former full-time nomad of nearly ten consecutive years—having visited all 50 states and 21 countries—while working from wherever there was wifi, Kristin is a traditionally published author, 2x business owner, and public speaker.Hailing from a small town in upstate New York, Kristin grew up riding horses competitively. She majored in Equestrian Studies during undergrad before shifting her focus and receiving a Master's degree in Marketing Communications from Emerson College. Today, Kristin is the CEO of KML Collective, a boutique copywriting studio specializing in website copy for purpose-driven businesses and organizations.When Kristin's not working, you can find her dining out at a vegan eatery, salsa dancing, or geeking out on the latest sci-fi action/adventure flick.Kristin discusses building her brand, transitioning her career, and her travels across the country, living out of a van, and eating at vegan restaurants, which is the subject of her book, Will Travel for Vegan Food.Visit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.comFollow Trinette on IG: trinette.faint

My guest today is Lynn Montagano, a contemporary romance author, podcaster and unapologetic football fan. Her latest release, The Keeper, is the first book in her new Royals and Legends series. The Keeper is a spicy sports romance with a twist. When Lynn isn't writing or recording her own weekly podcast, you can find her cheering loudly for her beloved New England Patriots. She lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband and three rescue cats. You can find her books at her website here.My Time, My Life is a Floor 51 Production.Visit Trinette's website: trinettefaint.comFollow Trinette on IG: trinette.faint

My guest today is Javier Ramiro Velazco, educator and founder of the 100% agave mezcal, Bixhidú (pronounced Bee-shee-do). Founded in 2017, Bixhidú is made in Oaxaca, Mexico and produces ten expressions of ancestral and artisanal mezcal in small premium batches. Before founding Bixhidú, Javier worked in the entertainment business in Los Angeles for nearly a decade and ultimately found his purpose in teaching to brown and black students, in the LA public school system, which he has been doing for twenty years now. I talk to Javier about how he found the confidence to take the risk to launch his mezcal brand, what his students teach him about entrepreneurship, and how he balances the two, his recommended mezcal cocktail, and how creating Bixhidú reconnected him with his Mexican culture and the challenges he tackled as he created his brand, and much more.You can learn more about Bixhidú on instagram at bixhidumezcal, and, if you're in Los Angeles, you can buy it at Flask in Highland Park and BarKeeper in Silverlake. It will soon be available for nationwide distribution.

On this episode of My Time, My Life, I interview Dr. Melissa Blanco Borelli, Associate Professor of of Theatre and the Director of the Dance Program at Northwestern University. We discuss topics ranging from her being a first generation immigrant, to her living abroad, to risk taking in her career, and her choice to not have children, and much more.Dr. Borelli is a critical dance studies scholar, choreographer, and cultural critic. She has been on faculty at MIT, University of Surrey (UK), Royal Holloway, University of London (UK) and the University of Maryland, College Park.As an interdisciplinary scholar, her research interests are broad. They include Blackness in Latin America, critical dance studies, performative writing, popular dance on screen, Black performance theory, (Black) feminist (auto)ethnography, historiography, archives, and the digital humanities.She is the author of She is Cuba: A Genealogy of the Mulata Body which won the Dance Studies Association’s De la Torre Bueno Prize® for best book in dance studies in 2016. She is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen (2014).Dr. Borelli is affiliated faculty in Performance Studies at Northwestern, she is a polyglot (6 languages), plays the piano, and loves to run.You can read more about Dr. Borelli here and find her books here.

On this episode of My Time, My Life, I talk about finding your voice and give the below examples on how to do so.Take a walk without your phone or take a scenic drive in silence.Meditate.Keep a journal. Think about how you spend your time outside of work. What do you like to do when you have free time, and how do you feel when doing those things?Think about the people you follow on social media and ask yourself what is it about them that you like or aspire to.Take an afternoon and write the story of your life.Answer someone you trust honestly when they ask how you are doing. Be in touch at trinettefaint.com or on IG at trinette.faintThanks for listening!

In this episode of My Time, My Life, I talk about exercising creativity within the confines of a day job, and offer some tips and tricks that I've learned over the years. You can read the corresponding essay to this episode here.As always, please connect with me via my website trinettefaint.com if you have any questions or if you just want to say hello. Thanks so much for listening!