{"id":6581,"date":"2019-01-22T21:16:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T21:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/?p=6581"},"modified":"2021-03-03T23:43:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T15:43:25","slug":"how-resilience-has-sustained-me-for-20-years-as-a-morning-news-anchor-an-interview-with-deirdre-fitzpatrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/?p=6581","title":{"rendered":"001: How Resilience Has Sustained Me for 20+ Years as a Morning News Anchor &#8211; Deirdre Fitzpatrick"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.radiopublic.com\/e?if=inspiration-rising-WY5X55&amp;ge=s1!b61b0677b5303f187cfcb2e9ded99e8bb41bd984\" width=\"100%\" height=\"185\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-popups\"><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Deirdre Fitzpatrick<\/strong>\u00a0has been a morning news anchor for over 20 years at KCRA 3 NBC in Sacramento, California.\u00a0She is an Emmy award winning journalist in reporting, anchoring, and writing, and she\u00a0has covered the last 10 Olympic Games.\u00a0Deirdre is married and a mother of two, which she says is far more tiring than any endurance race. At the time of recording, she\u2019s run\u00a021 marathons, seven 50k ultra runs, and two Ironmans.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In This Episode, You Will Learn:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li>How she\u2019s developed a high level of resilience.<\/li>\r\n<li>What Olympic athletes inspire her with their level of resilience.<\/li>\r\n<li>How Deirdre handles being in the public eye at least five days a week.<\/li>\r\n<li>How she cares for herself.<\/li>\r\n<li>About hosting the Dying to Ask podcast.<\/li>\r\n<li>Her current read \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2EfyPMU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Create beautiful, engaging social media in 5 minutes a day &#8211;<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.riseupcreatives.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.RiseUpCreatives.com<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Connect with Deirdre Fitzpatrick:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/dying-to-ask\/id1423194474?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dying to Ask Podcast \u2013 iTunes<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/kcra-television\/dying-to-ask\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dying to Ask Podcast \u2013 Stitcher<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/dyingtoaskpodcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 podcast<\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/runreadsip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Deirdre<\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KCRADeirdre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Deirdre<\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kcrafitz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Deirdre<\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/news-team\/81f5a29e-b094-49d2-9664-320fed4d5969\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KCRA 3<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Don\u2019t Miss A Single Episode:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li><strong>Subscribe<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/launch-yourself-today\/id1448649388\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/42zIsXzjCibZt49xdCRvB4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/in-plain-sight\/launch-yourself-today\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Iqrp5q3bagph2t23malprd3dxvy?t=Launch_Yourself_Today\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Music<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Leave a quick review<\/strong>\u00a0on any of the podcast apps to tell people what you think about the show.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Take a screenshot of the podcast<\/strong> and post it on Instagram or Instagram Stories. Tag us <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/insporising\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"@insporising (opens in a new tab)\">@insporising<\/a>. We\u2019ll repost and give you a shoutout!<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 43px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 47px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"text-align: center;\">INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Deirdre thanks so much for joining us today.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David, I\u2019m thrilled to. Thanks for having me on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I love your bio. It starts out with just three short, simple sentences. I\u2019ve never actually read a bio like it. It just says, \u201c2:15 AM. I do it myself, which explains a lot. And coffee by the pot.\u201d It even rhymes, that\u2019s great. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was unintentional, I promise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are the questions that go along with those three answers?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, the questions are, \u201cWhat time do you get up?\u201d \u201cWho does your hair and make-up?\u201d And, \u201cHow do you work the weird hours that you work?\u201d Those are the three. That\u2019s the way that I\u2019ve lived for the better part of 20 years, now.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I cannot believe 2:15 AM. I thought myself going to bed at maybe 8:30 or 9 o\u2019clock because I want eight to nine hours sleep every night was tough. What time do you go to bed?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I go to bed anywhere from 8 to 9. I have two kids. I have a 13 year old and 9 year old. They have homework and this thing called common core that requires a lot of Googling on a parent\u2019s part. It\u2019s funny, over the years I thought the needs of my kids as they get older would get easier. What I\u2019ve really found is that their needs just change and they really need you to be engaged and interact in a coherent manner. My kids only know our life like this because Mommy has always left in the middle of the night. That also lets me come home at lunch time to be there in the afternoon. So, they don\u2019t know that some parents are around a lot more during those hours. They\u2019re pretty good about it and they know not to come in and wake me. They tuck me in at this point and that\u2019s kind of nice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>As one of the longest running morning news anchors in the nation, why do you keep doing this? It is a little like masochistic to get up at that early hour. Why has this kept you going?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I went to this shift kind of kicking and screaming. I ended up in Sacramento twenty-one years ago kind of by accident. I had no intention of ever staying here. I was going to come in for a year and a half and move on. I had other things I wanted to do. About two years in, the then vice president, a guy named Fred Young pulled me into a meeting and he said, \u201cI hear that you have turned down the weekday morning anchor job three times,\u201d and that was true. I said, \u201cYep, sure have.\u201d I was so young and I was very matter of fact. I said, \u201cOh yeah, absolutely.\u201d \u201cWhy? Why would you not want this job?\u201d And I said, \u201cOh, I have no interest in that job.\u201d I was just really honest with him, which has been the good thing and the bad thing about me as an employee over the years. I\u2019m pretty honest with you. I don\u2019t have the energy to try to keep up a charade.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, I just said, \u201cFred, I don\u2019t want to work those hours. Morning is not where the really good people go. They\u2019re always on nights or they\u2019re doing other things.\u201d I said, \u201cMornings are where beginners go.\u201d And then he said to me, \u201cMorning is where our business is going because people aren\u2019t going to stay up this late and our lifestyles are changing and if you trust me, it will be the best thing you ever did.\u201d And I thought he was crazy. I truly had turned this job down three times. It was almost like turning someone down to go to the homecoming dance, they just want to date you that much more. I just looked at him and I thought, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t have anything better going today.\u201d I said, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll do it.\u201d He walked out of that meeting and he looked at some of our managers here at KCRA where I work at NBC in Sacramento and he said, \u201cYup, she\u2019s doing it.\u201d And the funny thing is, he was 100% correct.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The very young me at that point, never would have guessed that was the direction to go. But it ended up being the best thing ever. Sometimes you have to go with your gut and you have to trust somebody who has your best interests at heart may see something in you. And he was right, because right around that time, especially on the West Coast, is when our lifestyles completely changed. Our commutes got longer. People got up earlier. People started discovering that you can be really productive in the morning if you get up. And you need to know something before you leave the house, so that\u2019s why morning news became really important.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For me personally, I was rewarded for that with an opportunity to go represent our company at the Olympics. I went off on this Olympic assignment representing Hearst Television, my company, for thirty stations and that was 20 years ago at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. And I have now gone to a ton of Olympics. It\u2019s actually carved out this unusual niche for me as a reporter that fulfilled some things just intellectually that I needed and maybe adrenaline-wise that I needed also. It allowed me to do really big things but still stay in a smaller place with a really sustainable life. In my industry, that\u2019s a very tough thing to do. I think it\u2019s a tough thing for a woman to do also because it\u2019s that whole concept of having it all. \u201cYeah, you can have it all. Just not right now.\u201d But it allowed me to do big things and still have a really nice life. So that\u2019s how I ended up here and that\u2019s why I stayed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I think about this concept of resilience and if I was talking to a mom of two boys, we could easily talk about resilience. If I was interviewing news anchor, we could talk about resilience. But now, I\u2019m trying to understand what would drive someone to run twenty-one marathons, seven 50K ultra runs and two Iron Man\u2019s. You\u2019ve done all three. That\u2019s not the totality of your life, but those are three big things in your life. How have you developed a level of resilience in your own life?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think part of it came while covering the Olympics. I found myself surrounded by people who do big things. I was telling the stories of people who had basically worked for a decade for one day. Because that\u2019s what the Olympics is, it\u2019s every four years and in most of the sports its one day, sometimes its 90 seconds. That\u2019s the whole totality of everything you\u2019ve worked for and it comes down to that one moment. So, when you\u2019re around people like that, you start to think that you can be like that too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I remember interviewing Michellie Jones, who was an Australian triathlete. She was represented bike-wise by a bike builder named Jim Phelps. I had gone and done this story with her and she was just this remarkable tri-athlete and incredibly positive person. I was single at the time and they invited me to thanksgiving and she happened to be staying with them. So, I went to thanksgiving and I sat there and had dinner and talked to her and found out what she did. The next thing I know, I\u2019m thinking, \u201cWhat if I could do that?\u201d And it turned out I could.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I can\u2019t win it. But I can still do it. So, it\u2019s the idea of, \u201cCan I hang in there?\u201d And, \u201cCan I suffer long enough to be able to get to that goal?\u201d And also forming a goal that\u2019s reasonable for you. Now, for me, winning an Iron Man, winning a triathlon, winning a marathon is very unlikely. But for me, to get to the start line is a victory. To get some training in is a victory. To get to the finish line is a victory. To not get injured is a victory. To feel my head clear of stress and to feel that calm that I get through doing some of these endurance sports, is a huge victory. And it makes me a better wife, a better mom, a better employee, a better friend, just a better person in general.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love the concept of putting yourself into what I call, \u201cThe voluntary suffer-fest.\u201d When you put yourself into a suffer-fest and you pull it off, it\u2019s awesome. And then when someone else puts you into a suffer-fest later or when life in general throws something at you, you can draw back to that time, dig deep and say, \u201cWell, I know that in September of 2013, I did Iron Man Tahoe and it was 26 degrees at the start. My fingers froze and I finished with 56 minutes to spare.\u201d You get to go back and it can help you take on other challenges later that aren\u2019t as easy in a different kind of way. It lets you draw into that strength you\u2019ve built. And obviously there is something a little wrong with me that I like these things. There is a little bit of an addiction there, but I think compared to the way I could be spending my time, it\u2019s not so bad.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I assume you ran in high school or something before this, but did you start competing at this level in terms of marathons after you started covering the Olympics?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I ran in high school for part of a semester and as a freshman I was very fast. Because of that I got put onto a relay team with senior girls. And when you\u2019re a freshman and you\u2019re hanging out with senior girls, its super uncomfortable. They were kind of rough on me, or at least that\u2019s the way my 14 year old brain looked at it. So, the week before the state championships, I quit. And because I lived 45 minutes away from my school, my parents were thrilled that they didn\u2019t have to figure out a way to get me home from school anymore. So, they didn\u2019t push me to stay in it. There was none of that in the Fitzpatrick house.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was my only experience with running in high school. Then actually I got into running more distances beyond just trying to stay in shape when I was in my first job, which was in Des Moines, Iowa. I did a public affairs show and I had interviewed somebody from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society about Team in Training, which was one of the first marathons training programs to raise fundraising money for a charity. It\u2019s really how all those fundraising programs got started. So, at the end of the interview, the people I was interviewing dared me to come run a marathon with them. So of course, I took the dare. Not serious at all. The camera went off and they said, \u201cOkay great, well we meet Saturday morning.\u201d I\u2019m thinking, \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u00a0\u201cOh, that was on camera.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, I really didn\u2019t think they meant it, but that ended up being the first marathon I ran. So, I actually did it. I remember the night before I ran, it was in Toronto and I was talking to my parents. My parents were not on board with it at all, they thought it was ridiculous. This is how encouragement was in my house, it\u2019s very Irish too, so don\u2019t take this the wrong way. But my father got on the phone and he said, \u201cYou know, people die doing these things.\u201d I had just finished fundraising all this money for leukemia, so I said, \u201cWell, some people may live because of the money I helped raise.\u201d He said, \u201cOkay, just call me when you\u2019re done.\u201d Ironically, many, many years later my father was diagnosed with leukemia and he did pass away from it. So, the irony was not lost. I went on to fundraise for leukemia and lymphoma for many years and they really do amazing work. It\u2019s funny how you look at these things that happen in your life years ago and they always come back, don\u2019t they? If you\u2019re smart enough, you see the lesson that came out of it and I certainly did after that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Wow, that\u2019s beautiful. Would you say that resilience is something that you\u2019ve set out to cultivate? Or is it just a bi-product of going through really challenging experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think it\u2019s both and I think it depends on the person. I think for me, resilience is part of the way I was raised. I\u2019m first generation American and my parents are both from Ireland. We moved around a lot when I was growing up. We moved back to Ireland at one point and back over to this country, so I changed schools a lot. When you have to start over at a new school, you learn to re-invent yourself and to change things about yourself that you didn\u2019t like at your last school. You learn how to make friends and you learn that when it\u2019s hard to make friends, to pretend that you don\u2019t care. You learn to roll with the punches really well. And then I went into an industry that is at times very competitive and challenging. It\u2019s certainly changed over that time also, but I think that you have to learn how to survive there as well. Especially as a woman.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think a lot of resilience is learned on the job for me, but it\u2019s also a choice as well. You have to decide, \u201cAm I going to let this beat me down? Or am I going to figure out how to find an opportunity in the challenge?\u201d You have to look at it in a positive way and find a way to get something out of the challenge. No matter what the problem is, I always try to look for the solution. I look for what I can control, rather than what can\u2019t I control. I\u2019m a great problem solver. It\u2019s probably why I\u2019ve done well in the Olympic assignments, because it\u2019s nothing but problems when you\u2019re covering the whole thing. You\u2019re constantly getting denied an interview or an event ran late or you can\u2019t get a cell signal somewhere. There\u2019s always something going wrong and that\u2019s the fun, figuring out how to pull it off. That\u2019s where being resilient means getting things done. So, for me, that\u2019s how I have always looked at that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You said, as a woman in your industry it can sometimes be uniquely challenging. We have a ton of female listeners, what are some of those unique challenges that you have been through that have caused you to draw upon that resilience?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love the journalism of what I do. I love the storytelling. I hate doing my hair and makeup, that\u2019s why it\u2019s the second line of my bio. I hate it. It\u2019s my least favorite part of the day but the reality is, if I don\u2019t do my make-up in a way that\u2019s not distracting, people aren\u2019t going to listen to me. They\u2019re not going to listen to what I\u2019m communicating. I would love to think that I could roll out of bed and I could roll onto a TV news set and for 4 hours. I would love to think that I could tell you all the stuff you need to know and you would just listen to me, but you wouldn\u2019t and I probably wouldn\u2019t either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I think you need contract negotiation help. Why are you still doing this? You\u2019ve been there 20 years and they can\u2019t afford someone to come in every morning for a few hundred bucks and make it happen?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am bringing you in. I think that would be really great. I think it\u2019s a challenging career because as a single person, if you\u2019re only worrying about yourself and working odd hours, it doesn\u2019t matter when it\u2019s just you. You can work your life around it. But when you start to introduce people into your life in adulthood, like a spouse and you try to nurture those relationships and then when you bring children into the mix, it becomes very complicated. And it\u2019s similar to somebody who maybe works an emergency room shift, whether you\u2019re a nurse or a doctor and you\u2019re doing that kind of work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are some jobs where it\u2019s just a little more challenging. The world doesn\u2019t revolve on getting up at 2:15 and being off at noon. It just doesn\u2019t. So, school meetings take place at 7 or 8 o\u2019clock at night, that\u2019s just one of those things. There is a very high burnout rate for a lot of people. That\u2019s why it\u2019s very unusual that I have stayed in this shift as long as I have. Truthfully, I fought to stay in this shift. Because for me as a parent, I\u2019ve discovered that for me and my family, this is actually quite perfect. And most days, its pretty good. Nine out of ten days, things are awesome. That tenth day is a bear, but everybody has those days no matter what the job is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You talked about some of the people that you\u2019ve met covering the Olympics. I can\u2019t even imagine that you\u2019ve covered ten Olympics. That really is incredible. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s funny about that is, I\u2019ve actually covered those Olympics with the same person. So, my partner is a guy named Mike, a photographer. We have actually gone to all ten of these Olympics together. And supposedly we are the longest running NBC Olympic photographer\/reporter team. But that\u2019s really the value of having a really good partner. We\u2019ve had some amazing adventures all over the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are some examples of incredible resilience in people that you can think of throughout those ten Olympics? We see the stories on TV, but you have a different perspective being right there watching them and interviewing them face to face. Who are some people that come to your mind as examples of resilience?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The obvious one that most people would say is Lindsey Vonn. Linsey Vonn is amazing. Lindsey Vonn is like the bionic woman. I don\u2019t know if there are any real body parts in those knees at this point. She\u2019s amazing, but here\u2019s what I\u2019d say about a big name like that; they have a lot people behind them. There is an army making sure that she gets to the mountain. And there is an army taking care of her and there is money, that makes it a lot easier. To me, the really resilient people are the ones who didn\u2019t make any money. Because the idea that you would give that much of your life up training for one day or for 90 seconds is crazy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Probably the most recent I example I can think of is the cross-country skiers from PyeongChang. The woman\u2019s team that won gold; Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall. That team had not won a medal at the Olympics in 42 years. And in forty-two years, not only did they win, they won by 0.19 seconds. They won gold after 42 years. So, to me that\u2019s not only resilience for those individuals who weren\u2019t even alive when the winning drought started, but who gets into a sport where the chances of you winning are slim to none when you are going up against the best in the world? I find stories like that incredibly rewarding. At the end of the day, they\u2019re not walking away from that as millionaires. They\u2019re not making the big money that Lindsey Vonn gets just to show up at the hill. To me, that\u2019s resilience because they have to figure out a way to support themselves while going to school and training to be the best that they can, without having all the advantages that so many other people get.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You said you have two kids, 13 and 10. How do you try to cultivate resilience in their life? My kids are 19 and 16, so I\u2019ve lived those years, they\u2019re really fun years and really challenging years.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, their fun until their not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How are you as a parent seeking to cultivate resilience in them?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s such a hard question these days. There\u2019s a little bit of a gap in-between my kids and your kids. But kids are very catered to these days. If you were fortunate enough to have two parents with good jobs and opportunity, it should make you work harder, but a lot of times it doesn\u2019t. It is probably the way that I was raised, but my greatest goal with my boys is to make sure they know that no one owes them anything. No one. My expectation is that they will work harder than other people. That they will work harder than they think that they ever could. That they\u2019ll have high expectations for themselves and within reason, I try to make sure that they know how to empower themselves. I\u2019ll give you an example, you probably remember this but you get the call from school, \u201cHey mom, I forgot my backpack.\u201d \u201cI forgot this homework.\u201d My kids know better than to call me at work, but they might call and say, \u201cMom, I forgot my assignment.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cMmhmm, yeah. That\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cLet me step out from in front of the camera and get that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, \u201cYou\u2019re not going to bring it, are you?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not. But I\u2019m pretty sure you won\u2019t forget it the next time. So, my suggestion to you is you go to your teacher and explain what happened. Be honest, explain what happened, offer a solution and then deal with whatever happens after that.\u201d I really believe in helping cater a work ethic and making sure that they understand that they have a lot of opportunity but they also have to have a lot of expectation. It\u2019s not just your parent\u2019s expectation, you have to have expectations of yourself. Because if you don\u2019t raise your own bar, then where are you going to go?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019ve got to be constantly raising your own bar. And you have to be able to reward yourself or to acknowledge what you did for yourself. Be proud of yourself. If you are always working for affirmation and you need someone to tell you that you did a good job, did you really do a good job because you are just waiting for them to say it? Chances are they don\u2019t even really mean it. So be proud of what you do, to me that\u2019s what\u2019s really important. I want my kids to be good people. I want them to be honest. I want them to work hard, to be appreciative. And to know that they should do for others as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It seems like that a quality of resilience is an internal motivation versus just the external motivation. If I\u2019m just doing something for the affirmation of others and I\u2019m only motivated externally, I\u2019m going to be less resilient to pull myself back up when I fall. Versus if my motivation is coming from within, the bar that I\u2019ve set for myself and the value of responsibility, the value of hard work, the value of my \u201cYes\u201d is a yes, my \u201cNo\u201d is a no, then that\u2019s coming from within me. It seems like then resilience is flowing more than if I\u2019m just trying to please a parent or a boss or somebody from the outside. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One hundred percent. I think that\u2019s very complicated for today\u2019s generation of younger people because of things like social media. It\u2019s very hard for them to see what\u2019s really real. Are you doing it and pulling it off because it\u2019s a great Instagram post? Or are you doing it and pulling it off because it\u2019s just the right thing to do? They have a different element of pressure than you and I did growing up. I feel for them but at the same time, I want them to do things for themselves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not always going to be around. Their dad is not going to always be around. They might not be surrounded by people who have their best interest. So, I want them to learn to find your own moral compass and know what they are comfortable with. At the end of every day, I ask myself, \u201cAm I good with the way the day went? What could I have done better? Was I kind enough? Was I patient enough?\u201d That\u2019s probably my biggest challenge, being patient enough. \u201cHow could I have done something better?\u201d And I look for little things because for me, that\u2019s what motivates me.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, I work with a lot of younger producers and I notice a lot of them are looking for some kind of interaction. So, when I go and sit with them and ask, \u201cWhat can I teach you? What do you want to know? What do you want to do? What\u2019s your goal?\u201d It\u2019s really interesting to hear what it is that they want to do. I suppose I do it in a bit of a parent mode now, but there\u2019s something really nice about saying, \u201cI\u2019m really good with the way I\u2019m doing life right now. It\u2019s making me happy. I feel fulfilled at the end of the day and I feel motivated to come back in the next day too,\u201d no matter what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Obviously physical resilience is a huge part of sports, but so is mental and emotional resilience. It may even be more important in some ways. You mentioned that we grew up in a different era, but how has the rise of social media impacted the way that you do your job? Especially as somebody who\u2019s in the public eye at least five days a week? How has social media impacted that? You\u2019ve experienced the rise of it and now the proliferation of it.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With all the technology and all the changes in my industry, the social media component is the biggest game changer. The best thing about my job when I started out 20-something years ago, was that at the end of your work day, it was the end of the day. I\u2019d written my story and it aired. \u00a0I had anchored my show and I had walked out the door. There was nothing else to do until the next day. That was really freeing. You didn\u2019t bring stuff home because it was done and either it worked or it didn\u2019t work. Now its 24\/7.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media has done some really great things in my business. It allows you to engage and have a conversation with your viewer in a different kind of way. Which is fantastic most of the time, but then there is the expectation that you\u2019ll be available 24\/7. The other interesting thing now is that social media is a ranked thing in my profession. For example, outside of my news director\u2019s office, there\u2019s a giant digital board and there are companies that rank television; they call them \u201cTelevision Talent\u201d, these television personalities and you are ranked by how high your engagement is. So, now there\u2019s this magical formula that nobody understands that says, \u201cThese are the most popular people. And at this very minute, this person is ranked number one out of all the people within a certain city.\u201d And there\u2019s a value that\u2019s now attached to that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was starting, people kind of had an idea of what they thought about you. But this was before the word authentic became a thing within marketing and media. There were a lot of people that I worked with that appeared a certain kind of way on TV and then you met them at the grocery store and you\u2019d think, \u201cWhoa, he\u2019s a salty dude.\u201d They would be a completely different kind of person. Social media has kind of stripped a lot of that away. Now everything is open for a lot of people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since I\u2019ve had a foot in both worlds, I have a comfort level of what I choose to share and what I choose to keep private. If you were to go onto one of my social media pages, you\u2019ll probably figure out that I love running, I love reading, I like my wine sometimes &#8211; by sometimes I mean on the weekend. I like to share that kind of thing, but I don\u2019t share a lot of my kids.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>And your dog.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And my dog. I have an old dog. I\u2019ll show the dog. But I made a decision on what my comfort level was and what I was willing to share. For me, that\u2019s worked. Other people share everything about themselves 24\/7. I\u2019ll tell you, on those ranking boards, that can work very well too. But that\u2019s a really tough way to do your job and I think it adds a whole lot of other pressures for people too. Sometimes I think it makes them post things in a very quick way. And you might see something and think, \u201cHmm, I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s really what she meant to say.\u201d Or, \u201cIs that really what you want to get out there?\u201d You have to have your own comfort level with what you\u2019re willing to share and this is true of any profession. It\u2019s weird to think about individuals being a brand, versus just the company that you work for or the product that you created. The concept of an individual as a brand is something that\u2019s a much more recent phenomenon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You said that you are expected on call 24\/7, is that an expectation that you sense from your company, the viewers or yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think it\u2019s probably all of the above. That said, I\u2019m pretty respectful of my family time. And I find that I personally need a break from that stuff, so when I go on vacation, its completely off. I try to do the social media stuff within my workday and then I try to pull back at home. I think mentally, you need to have some space when you get home. It\u2019s very difficult to be involved and engaged with your family if you are constantly talking to people on Instagram. It just is. So, I think you have to learn how to put parameters on your life in order to pay the right kind of attention to everything.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I\u2019m at work, I\u2019m at work. And I work hard when I\u2019m at work. I\u2019ll give you every minute when I\u2019m at work, and then some. The house always wins when it comes to work with me. When I\u2019m home, I am really conscious of being home. Am I successful all the time? Absolutely not, but I am trying to be more conscious. Now that my kids are 13 and 10, I\u2019m playing the numbers game. I\u2019m playing the, \u201cI have five more spring breaks with the older one.\u201d \u201cI have four more Christmases.\u201d We\u2019ve started paying attention to the numbers and I don\u2019t want to miss that because I was doing something else that I\u2019m not even going to remember in five years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How else do you care for yourself? Because not only the time that you get up in the morning but the adrenaline rush of all that you do, the travel, what does caring for yourself look like?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Staying healthy is my big thing. I\u2019m really conscious of trying to stay healthy, so I eat well and I exercise. I take care of myself. I take care of my brain. I read a lot. I work in television, I don\u2019t watch a lot of television. Nothing against Real Housewives fans or anything else, but it\u2019s not my thing right now. I find that I need twenty minutes of quiet to settle my brain, just escape a little bit to get everything right in my world. Maybe it\u2019s not what you need, but that\u2019s what I need. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m being selfish with that, I just know that that\u2019s what it takes right now for me to be a good wife and good mom. I\u2019ve learned that the hard way. I have hit the wall before.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A couple of years ago I was just like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can do this anymore.\u201d There were a lot of factors and the biggest one for me was I had to figure out to protect my sleep better. I needed to figure out a better way to organize certain things in my life, so I reached out to mentors. I\u2019ve had a couple of mentors in my career and what I\u2019ve found is not only do I need work mentors, I need some mom mentors too. I need life mentors. I want to know how do people do things because chances are, I can learn from that. I don\u2019t have to make the mistake to avoid making the mistake. So, I reached out to people to find out how they were doing things.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I found a couple of friends who were single moms and who were the best at trying to compartmentalize and organize and keep things going. I found out how they were doing things and I started do the very boring food prepping thing on Sunday nights. And what do you know? It works. You\u2019ll eat better that way too. I started trying to get super, ultra-organized and that\u2019s kind of how my family does things. They revolve around my schedule and I understand I respect that. They have to be quiet by 8 o\u2019clock so Mommy can sleep. They know that Mommy\u2019s not going to bring that homework if you forgot it. They know that stuff, so I try to make sure that they have everything that they need on the back end. And when we\u2019re on vacation, we have a week off, I take all the rules away. We stay up late. We don\u2019t plan things. We don\u2019t do any of that food prepping. We just go crazy. We do a lot of what probably people would probably consider more normal. But we relax the rules and that\u2019s how our family functions. And I think everyone has to figure that out for themselves. How do I do me in the best way possible? And what works for me is not necessarily going to work for you. But maybe something you\u2019re doing is going to work for me and I want to know that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are you reading recently that you would recommend?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I just read the best book. It\u2019s called <em>Where the Crawdads Sing<\/em>, it\u2019s by this woman named Delia Owens. Have you read this?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I have not.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is so good. It\u2019s number one on the <em>New York Times Bestsellers <\/em>list and it\u2019s about this girl who grew up in the marshes of North Carolina. She grows up basically on her own. So, the concept is about that isolation and how people grow up. It\u2019s actually about resilience, the whole thing we are talking about today. And Delia Owens she\u2019s a great story. She\u2019s 69 years old. She is a scientist and she\u2019s written about this topic in non-fiction for years. She had this idea of this fiction character in her brain for years. She took ten years to write this book and then it comes out and it is this wild bestseller. It\u2019s being turned into a movie. She\u2019s kind of this unlikely success story, which makes her that much more intriguing. It\u2019s wonderful. It\u2019s the most lyrically written book I\u2019ve read in years. Just beautiful.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>As if you don\u2019t have enough going on, you also are the host of your own podcast called <em><a href=\"http:\/\/podgallery.org\/dying-to-ask\/\">Dying to Ask<\/a><\/em>. I love the image too; your camera man is chasing after you with a microphone. When we listen, not if we listen, but when we listen to your podcast, what are some of the types of people that we\u2019ll meet?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all, I did the podcast because I wanted to try something new. Sometimes people struggle being in the same job for a long time. It\u2019s very unusual to do it. For me, I\u2019ve constantly needed is a new challenge and I have really embraced technology since it changed my industry. It\u2019s allowed me to do all kinds of other things. Whether it\u2019s for social media or through podcasting, it\u2019s allowed me to do something a little different, but it\u2019s still sort of familiar. I was intrigued<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by this idea of how do people pull things off.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have a million ideas in a day and when reporters and photographers go out to do a story together, they spend 8 hours together and that\u2019s all you do, you come up with ideas. You never do any of them, but you come up with all kinds of ideas of things you can invent or you can do. What I really wanted was to learn how people go from A to B and actually pull it off. What\u2019s the story of how do you did something? So that was kind of the premise behind the show. We\u2019ve looked for people that have done interesting things.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of our recent guests have included Rachel Hollis, the big motivational speaker right now. She\u2019s an amazing story. She uses social media and the very raw moments of social media to launch what\u2019s turned into a media empire. She\u2019s very deliberate in the way she talks to women and motivates them. This week we have a guy named JC Tenor, he\u2019s a member of the Texas Tenors and he was on <em>America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>. He tells the story of how on a whim he applied to the <em>America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em> with a couple of guys he met on a construction site 10 years ago. In one night, they went from two guys doing construction, singing on the side, to being this huge group that\u2019s now had remarkable success over 10 years. So those are the types of people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We kind of limit it to entrepreneurs, authors, influencers, public figures; people who maybe you\u2019ve heard of but you don\u2019t really know a whole lot about them. And for me the beauty is that you actually get to chat for a while. Most of my life revolves around a story that\u2019s probably no longer than a minute and a half or even closer to a minute and fifteen seconds. With the podcast I get to have a conversation for 30 minutes, which is awesome. That\u2019s when you really get to relax and talk to someone and really find out what they\u2019re all about. And then if you\u2019re somebody like me, you get to pick their brains so you can learn their little life hacks and maybe put it into your life too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It\u2019s called <em>Dying to Ask<\/em> and we\u2019ll make sure that we links to all the podcast apps where its available. I\u2019m sure iTunes is one of the most popular, so we\u2019ll make sure people listen. Deirdre, thank you so much for sharing your life lessons. I feel like you\u2019re such a generous person. That\u2019s just the feeling that I get by meeting you.\u00a0 You are generous by sharing your life and your wisdom and your thoughts on resilience. I really appreciate your generosity.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I appreciate hearing that. I have a little wooden sign on my desk and it says, \u201cWork Hard, Be Kind\u201d, those are my four words these days. So, if that came across to you, that absolutely thrills me. Thank you very much. I\u2019ve enjoyed chatting with you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\" \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Subscribe to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/insporising.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Launch Yourself Today<\/a>\u00a0podcast on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/launch-yourself-today\/id1448649388\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/42zIsXzjCibZt49xdCRvB4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/in-plain-sight\/launch-yourself-today\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Iqrp5q3bagph2t23malprd3dxvy?t=Launch_Yourself_Today\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Music.<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deirdre Fitzpatrick\u00a0has been a morning news anchor for over 20 years at KCRA 3 NBC in Sacramento, California.\u00a0She is an Emmy award winning journalist in reporting, anchoring, and writing, and she\u00a0has covered the last 10 Olympic Games.\u00a0Deirdre is married and a mother of two, which she says is far more tiring than any endurance race. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[73,75,72,71,74],"class_list":["post-6581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-news-anchor","tag-olympic-journalist","tag-perserverance","tag-resilience","tag-working-mom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insporising.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}