00:00  Welcome to Diary of a Dreamer, where resilience unlocks your potential. I’m Tasha Eizinger, and each week I’ll bring you powerful stories and practical insights from my own experiences and inspiring guests. Whether you’re facing challenges or chasing dreams, this podcast is your go-to for motivation, building confidence, and practical tips for transforming obstacles into opportunities. Be sure to check out my website, TashaEizinger.com. 

00:34  Let’s dive into today’s episode and start turning your dreams into reality. Diary of a Dreamer is on the road in Valparaiso, Indiana. Look at the fancy studio. Thank you so much for… interviewing me having me here and then letting me interview you same thank you i loved interviewing love having you on love that we could do the collab um so I’m excited to be on yours i’ve loved some of your episodes some of the knowledge you’ve dropped some of the people like mary you’ve had it’s been great so i appreciate it and we’re wearing the same outfit because we’re in our 40s and we do not care yeah we do not care we’re not changing because we need to look different for the next video no no no it’s fine we’re adorable just as we are oh my today we are with Jenny Craig-Brown who we met through a mutual friend at a networking event yes and the moment i was introduced to you i was like we have to be friends yes 

01:35  You have this great personality and it’s genuine. Thank you. And you’re doing incredible things for our community. Thank you. Very impactful. All about the girls. You’re the founder of that event. I couldn’t go this year. I was very disappointed. That’s okay. So I want to go next year for sure. Yes, please. And the executive director. That’s such a good word, executive. Thank you. Executive director. I feel good about that word. Yeah. Of GreatNews.Life. Yes. So thank you for being on my podcast in your home. 

02:03  Thank you. Yeah, and we love this. This is exactly what our studio is built for. So we want to use it as much as we can and having this recording here will be even better. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, I love it. So it’s kind of fun because I already feel like I know you even more after our last interview. I know. We dove in. Yeah, but you may not. So I would love for you to share a little bit about how you got started. Was it all about the girls first? Great News.life? How did you get started in this world? Because I think… 

02:32  We can both agree. There’s so much negativity. We need more good. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. So Great News came first. I am from a little bit of everywhere. I grew up in La Porte, went to college a little bit in Lafayette and South Bend both. I went to Ivy Tech. And so I went to both cities for a while. And in South Bend. 

02:55  kind of met some really great staple humans in my life and then eventually started dating my now husband who lived about an hour just over an hour away so i really wanted to come out closer which brought me to my little baby town i live in now north judson and thus into the world of Valparaiso which is where Great News is kind of it’s home base so uh i was working for a print shop because that’s what i went to college for was graphic design and i came across 

03:23  the Great News sites um because i was looking for stuff to do because i was new to the area again i hadn’t lived in this area since i was a kid and i so i came across their sites uh and they have this we still to date have this piece called 10 fun things to do this weekend while being new in the area i thought oh what a great piece i’ll check this out i’ll try to find cool things um and that’s kind of how i learned about the company in the first place and then uh met a woman that worked for the company her name’s teresa and i 

03:53  kind of became friendly with her from a running group and we were talking one day and i had seen this insane job description that Chris had written i didn’t know at the time but he had written it himself and it was like come be a mini me like i need someone that’s kind of like me to do things like I do, but to help me along the way because I can’t do everything by myself. That’s a smart way to say I have high standards and expectations and they need to be met. Yes, yes. That’s a great way to say that. And I’m like reading this kind of shocked at this job description, but kind of you’re absolutely right is saying this and I’m going, but it’s so intriguing. And like challenge accepted. I can handle it. That’s totally how I felt. I maybe didn’t say that part. I was like, I think I would like this and I hope I could handle it. And I, so I just said, hey, do you. 

04:37  that this would be a good fit for me like now that you know me and she said actually yeah maybe it is so I applied got an interview at the time the company you know this is 12 years ago so almost 13 so at the time the company was a lot smaller so I met with the CEO’s wife Natalie and her right hand and then they were like you seem like a great fit so far would you like to meet with the CEO and I thought 

05:02  oh my gosh my first interview and I’m already meeting the ceo I’m so fancy and he’s probably so fancy and now we’re all fancy and so i went to the interview please tell me jeans and a t-shirt oh it was something similar yeah which i love that because in our head we build it up and then you’re like he was like wearing like um Chris Malman doesn’t wear a ton of jeans but something like yeah something like a polo not tucked in and like probably you know yeah pants that’s my kind of CEO definitely navy he doesn’t wear he’s not a color guy he always loves like black or navy those are his colors that’s what he wears 

05:32  and then everything always matches and he doesn’t have to worry. That’s smart. Yeah. So I meet him and you’re absolutely right. He’s like a regular person. And I’m like, oh, this guy’s a lot like me. And he talked fast and he moved fast and he kind of metaphored his conversations enough that I was like, ah, I get his communication style. And I remember just in that interview saying, he said, 

05:54  water cooler like I’m not the guy that has like the team that sits around the water cooler chit-chatting all day like does that bother you and I was like no I love it because I don’t do any of that like I’m here I’m gonna come in yeah I don’t like that like I want to come I want to do a really great job I want to get to my office turn on my Pandora my music something playing to distract me and just go and I just remember his wife going are you blushing and he was like no and I was like what well come to find out this is his exact process right like he comes to his office he turns on his TV and 

06:23  music at the same time to kind of drown out anything else that could come into that space and he just goes for it so I was like oh okay I get it we’re very similar humans yeah and he felt so validated you know that oh yeah and his wife was like you and I are gonna have to talk he was supposed to be weird I was trying to cancel that yeah I was trying to break him and yeah so it was just spot-on and so I called my mom and I was like mom I’m this might be a little nuts cuz I’m 

06:52  leaving the job I got with the degree I worked so hard for to do something that’s not in the same field whatsoever. This is media, which has a graphic designer usually, but it wouldn’t be me. It’s small too. Yeah, exactly. Just so small in comparison to this. And now I’m going to maybe take a job that I don’t technically know what I’m doing yet because this mini-me is all that’s been said and I just need a lot of help. But I have reiterated that it’s not a sales job. 

07:20  I’m not selling things. It’s a little outward facing and I’m helping this guy build this company. And she said, and I’m so nervous because I did the air quotes thing I’m supposed to do when I got a college degree and I’m using it. So shouldn’t I do that forever? And she said, well, if you don’t like it, you can always just go back. And I was like, so logical. Wow, mom. Yeah, I’m panicking. Like, what am I going to do? And she’s like, try it out and go back to graphic design if you don’t like it. And I’m like, you’re right. 

07:46  guess I could do that that sounds great thanks mom so I took the job so I started with Great News right away and then all about the girls came about a year or two in okay where we were sitting around and I had been helping Chris with the company and kind of growing within that role and taking on some leadership along the way and I would come back and I would meet people like when we met yeah and I was like oh my gosh you have to I met Tasha and she’s so great and she wrote her own kids books and she did it this way and I would just brag on these really incredible women that I was meeting in the community because I hadn’t 

08:19  i was still young and i hadn’t got to do a lot of this stuff i was 29 um and i hadn’t gotten to meet all these people and so i or by this time 30. so I’m doing this again in his office one day and he’s like wait how do we pause how do we grow this because you i love that you come to me all the time with all of these incredible women that you meet i think you should figure out a way to spread that to other people that need it too 

08:46  I love this man. He’s fantastic, yeah. Oh my goodness. I said, okay, well, let’s do that. And so we kind of start brainstorming, and I said, well, I think the best way is to bring people in person, because we know that’s so important, to a space where we can hear from these women. Let’s have them give us some advice or motivation, or let’s have them talk to us. So we did that, and it was literally, I picked some of these top women I had met. 

09:14  over the last couple years it was very hard to even narrow it down i think the first year we had way too many speakers like eight or nine or something it’s the first year so you don’t know what you’re doing yeah you have no clue you know like you’re just like I’m figuring it out and we did it and that’s what we did it’ll be done differently next year absolutely because our subject matter or our theme as we now call it was non-existent candidly uh and we had too many speakers but people still loved it like we did and we did it at the bar of a restaurant 

09:43  I loved this beginning. Yeah. It was the most humble beginnings. Yeah. Right? I think so. It’s like the equivalent of starting in your garage with a business or something. Right? Absolutely. And that’s how Chris started Great News was in the little loft above his garage. Yes. All the great things. And so it’s like he did that. And now we’re doing this because that same kind of beginning way and they liked it like 50 or 60 people showed up and we were like holy cow there’s people here Like they like it. I love it. It was free We were selling tickets, but we were really happy that people showed up to hear these women And then the feedback after was amazing. People really liked it. And so we took those lessons that we had learned, like not so many speakers, make it a little shorter, have a better theme because that’s such a broad, just come talk to us is not a thing. So instituted that theme in year two. And the first theme that we actually had in year two was Dear Me, Advice You Would Give to a Younger You. 

10:37  so that is why we also brought it back in 2025 as our you know our kind of 10-year plan is we’ve got this is it’s one of my favorite themes I love that theme I thought about it a lot when I saw it I was like that is so beautiful so it hits right like what are those things you would tell a younger you and what age is younger you I leave it open because I think that there are so many lives and so many different avenues that that could take 

11:04  and i like that i don’t want to give still to date 10 years later i don’t want to give anybody like a plan for this event i don’t want to tell them what to say or how to say it i want them to say it because how they take that theme how they kind of address it or absorb it is different for every woman and then that makes their speech theirs too right yeah so the whole thing with all about the girls is that we created an event where now 

11:30  Five speakers come on stage to tell their story based loosely around that theme for the year. I love that. And so they kind of come and get to deliver this address to all of these people. And we announce them on social media ahead of time. We kind of pump up the whole event. We get together to get to know each other even better. And. 

11:52  It worked. The first year was 50. Like I said, the second year was 125. We had 125 tickets. Wow. So we moved it to a venue. We sold tickets. I think they were 25 bucks or something like that. But we had a venue. And so we were like, okay, we can do this. And we had 125 seats and it sold out. Wow. And I was like, oh my gosh, we did it. And wait a minute. So many people have events and they’re like, oh, it’s a sold out event or show up because it’s going to be sold out. Tickets are going. 

12:20  you’re not throwing fluff around like it legit it was yeah we opened it for 125 seats and all of the tickets were sold that’s amazing and we were like oh my gosh i think people really like us so we keep building on it and as you know keep building and fixing and improving and um kind of adjusting what we did and we did that for several years now at second year 

12:42  200 people third year 300 people and that was what that room could fill um like the venue could fill 300 people so we were sold out for the next couple years at 300 and then the pandemic hit and we couldn’t do it anymore which is heartbreaking because there’s so much need for connection and we desperately needed it yeah so then what did you do that you do like online we no we we said it’s 

13:07  We’re going to push our June event to September because then everything will be fine. and of course as we know not true yeah exactly just the biggest one the entire world would shut down right so September’s drawing near and we know we can’t have the event so we decide um same thing we kind of came back to the drawing board how do we continue to deliver this in such a weird space right now so we that was September 16th 2020 was when we launched the podcast trying to give folks um a similar 

13:39  outlet to be motivated and inspired but without coming together in person as we would love um so we launched the podcast where we we highlight one woman per month in a longer kind of format what you just went through um and kind of said okay until we can have the event back we’ll do this yeah 

14:02  and then now we have both surprise so we’ve kept up yeah so the podcast is almost five years old and it is um doing fantastic we’ve got just over 60 guests and we’re uh kind of doing that space as well as having that annual event still and now we’ve also brought the event after post pandemic outside so it’s now um if you know the Valparaiso area there’s a little park down 

14:25  It’s not little, it’s pretty giant actually. But it’s a park downtown called Central Park Plaza and Urshel Pavilion. And the pavilion is now where we have the event. It can seat up to 500 people. And it’s the outdoor space. So we did that. 

14:40  of course, in 2021 to make everybody more comfortable being together. But we loved it so much we’ve kept it because it’s just beautiful and it’s just an incredible space. So we’ve now brought it outside and now we’re doing both every year. And it sounds peaceful. It is. It’s such a beautiful, peaceful space. Beautiful stories. We really push that kind of female empowerment vibe. We don’t want this to be something we say. We want it to be something we mirror. We need to be those people. So at the event, we are like… 

15:10  really pushing like say nice things to each other tell each other meet new women if there’s anybody that’s by themselves like go find a table of women like friend go come together because that’s what it’s all about and it’s not only women that attend men are more than welcome we want as many of them on our team as we can get that’s right and yeah so it’s just been a really cool we just hit 10 years 

15:32  in 2025 and here it’s amazing and i’ve also been really surprised as an adult woman how many women don’t know how to make a friend yeah and how many don’t have their kind of even a couple crew members yeah i don’t know how they’re surviving without it so like to create this space so that they can not only be around women but also be encouraged like go make a friend find the person who’s sitting alone 

15:59  that’s what we tell kids to do yep and we literally did that our opening our opening remarks and this year in 2025 were Tracy Brubaker did them as a former speaker and podcast guest she came back to do my opening remarks for me and she said I’m gonna ask some people to stand up and she went through it like if you’re a previous speaker stand up if you’re alum if you’ve been on the podcast if you’re a lifer like working for Great News stand up and then she said and if you 

16:25  come here tonight by yourself and she had them stand up oh and it was so sweet because then we can all go all right do they have friends are they they’re not alone at the table are they because we’re going to embrace them and it was so beautiful because there was three or four women that came by themselves one of them was a previous speaker who drove an hour and a half to come in 

16:47  Her friend couldn’t make it, so she just came by herself still. And she was like, I just knew I could walk into this room or this pavilion by myself and be accepted and be kind of part of the team. And she was. Safe space. It’s such a safe space. No mean girls. I don’t put up with it. I really have a strong rule against it here, but also within the event. We had a table one year. 

17:10  They had bought a whole table. So they’re a table sponsor. This is great for the event, great way to grow the event. And I heard them, or I heard later that they were talking bad about one of the speakers. Like, oh, she didn’t. They’ve never been invited back. I can’t have that. That goes against every single thing we are about. And so we just don’t. 

17:34  don’t play that it’s just like Great News is a exclusive if you don’t know Great News that life we’re exclusively positive online media we don’t touch any crime negativity either so like we’re definitely not gonna allow that in this space that’s all about building women up yeah so we don’t good for you it starts at the top yeah and it trickles down and you have to protect it yep 

17:55  By risking losing a little bit of money. Yeah, who cares because it’s poison Yeah, cuz then that ruins the whole of it does and I’d rather make less money. I mean the first Not eight years of all about the girls. We just we’re lucky for broke even we’re like, yeah And now we’re like, okay, we can start reinvesting now that we’re making a little back We can start reinvesting it into what we can do with the event and any programming that we can hopefully develop from right as to 

18:23  Right. No, you see the bigger picture and it’s just who you are. Yeah. I really love that part. And obviously, I work for a positive media company. I like my job. But the heart that I have for All About the Girls is something, yeah, all its own. I love it. My goodness, I love it. So yeah, I can’t wait to go. Yes, thanks. Yes, it’s June. I’m gonna mess it. I’m almost positive. So it’s the third Thursday of June third Thursday, and I believe that’s June 26 2026. No, I’m wrong. It’s June 25 2026. Yeah, perfect. That’s right. Awesome. She’s like, I was there when you announced it the first time, my friend. So we’ve now started announcing it at the end of that event so that people can market. 

19:07  And we’ve got, you know, there’s a couple other ladies groups in the region, too. So we want to make sure that we’re giving them their space as well to say, hey, here’s our day so that you don’t have your thing on my day and I don’t have my thing on your day. Let’s announce it as early as we can and work together to help that. work together because so many people operate from scarcity yes and they’re afraid of like well but there’s already a thing and there’s a this and it’s like no there’s Plenty of space for everyone. If we had a single, if we had one female empowerment event every day of the year, would it be bad? No. So let’s keep going. I love that. We just got to work together to make sure it works. Let’s not reinvent the wheel. We have a really wonderful group here. They reach out into Michiana as well. We call it NIWA. It’s Northwest Indiana Influential Women Association. 

20:03  And that group, they have an award ceremony that awards incredible women every year, but they also have a women’s conference. 

20:13  I don’t need to make a women’s conference. They have it. And it’s awesome, right? They’re doing a really great thing and it’s running really well. And I think this is their second or third year and it’s awesome. So I don’t want to do that. I want them to do that. They also just started a mentorship program where you can go get a mentor or if you want to be a mentor, you can do that too. Again, well, I’m going to let them do that. And then I’m going to try to do this event, which is different. It’s not, no one’s being awarded anything. This is more to give to the audience versus to give to the people. 

20:42  people on the stage. Well, and I love that because I think we need people who can find the gaps and not bash it. Like those women at the table are like, well, the speaker, blah, blah, blah. Well, you go do it then. Yeah. 

20:55  Yeah. If you can do it better, go ahead. I would love to see it. Right now. Here’s the microphone. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I would love to do that. I know. I know. It’s contradictory to what you’re trying to do. Exactly. Don’t do that. Yeah. No, we won’t. But in your head, you can imagine it. Yeah. And you’re like, I know that would be the thing. And that’s exactly it. It’s just seeing those folks and saying, okay, you’re not our people, but let’s go find all of them that are. And all of those ladies that need those groups. And exactly. I want this to be where you come to make friends and meet new people and follow up with them and network with them. 

21:24  like that’s the best part it is absolutely so I want to backtrack to GreatNews.Life yes I love that it’s about positive news because there’s plenty of negative we know it’s there it’s important to know that absolutely right so it literally is just positive news 

21:46  Like, people sharing stories, like, describe it to everybody. Sure, so you’re absolutely right. Like, I’ve been on the site, it’s wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so you’re absolutely right. It’s positive only online news. So we don’t have a print product because that makes things very expensive, and we do a lot. About 40% of our content is in-kind, meaning free. So it’s free to our, all of our content’s free to our readers. There’s never a limit. There’s never a pop-up ad that said you read your three articles for the month. It’s always free. I want to applaud you. 

22:14  Thank you. That’s so annoying when that happens. I hate it. I hate it. I’m like, I would love to read your newspaper, but I can’t because I’ve apparently read one, but I don’t remember reading one, but it’s telling me I did. So now I can’t read this one. It’s insane. So we have no kind of barrier to entry on the visibility side. And then what we do is we have under that Great News umbrella five networks. So we started with Valpo Life. 

22:37  Portage Life was next. LaPorte County Life came third. NWI Life, which has a Lake County focus, came next. And then just in 2024, we opened Michiana Life. So it’s a kind of St. Joe County, Southwestern Michigan, Elkhart County branch, if you will. And each of those are their own website and kind of associated social media networks. So each has their own Facebook and X and Instagram and all those things too. So they’re all our own kind of… 

23:05  positive only hyper local outlets for good news in the region yeah and it’s been kind of magical to be a part of and then we also I probably should mention so the in kind I mentioned the whole premise of our founder Chris moments his name he founded the company on the premise that good news is a thing we need and want and that the schools K through 12 have so much news and good things happening that no one’s talking about so to date 16 years later we do and we publish Anything a school K-12 sends us for free. So any press releases, any events, anything they do that they want to share, send it over. We’ll publish it. I love that. And then we also cover all of their things. So if you know us, if you don’t, you’ll probably start seeing us now because we’re talking about it. I’m excited. We go to sports. We cover high school sports, high school proms, graduations. 

24:03  theater productions art like we cover all of it and it’s all for free like i send the journalist he takes the pictures he writes the article and it’s all published on our sites and it’s all for done for free the schools no one they don’t pay us a dime um and then of course we’re supported by our marketing partners who get the same access we create and tell their good news stories um on a marketing level and that helps us support doing all of that in kind work for the school that’s such a smart business model so different from like the traditional media um that i can’t imagine it wasn’t scary when he started it I’m sure he’s like this is a new fangled idea here we go yeah and that was his whole premise when he started the company was i think good news will sell and he went to all the other local media companies out in northwest Indiana and they were like your door 

24:46  That’ll never work. No, thank you. And so the last one was the newspaper and they said, that’ll never work. You’re adorable. However, you seem smart. So when it fails, I’ll give you a job. And of course, as you can imagine, the chip on the shoulder happened immediately. And he was like, I’m just going to do it myself because that was the drive. Watch me. Yep. And he talks a ton about the drive that that gave him every single day, even in the start when it wasn’t going well. I’m not going to let that happen. Yeah. And I like the fact that this is very positive. 

25:16  GreatNews.Life is super positive. All About the Girls is positive. It’s okay to take negative things and let it drive you. Oh, absolutely. And be like, I’m going to prove it to them. Yes. Right? So I don’t want people to think it’s like head in the clouds, like everything’s perfect. Yeah. We always say, we emit sunshine and butterflies. We are the Disneyland of media. 

25:36  But it doesn’t always only take sunshine and butterflies to make that, right? Right. It takes some stress and some sweat and some, you know, hard-earned work. Four-letter word. Yeah. Oh my goodness. So many. Life. Four-letter word. Life. and we call ourselves lifers so we’re kind of this fun little cultivar but we really do love what we do and it is hard we’re always on we have a strong mentality of you know we are always policing anything negative on our sites or social media so we do have someone on not me thank God I’m long past those days but we have someone on this team from at least 8 a.m. to 

26:16  10 p.m. and it’s usually 7 to midnight or closer to always policing but we’re also putting out so much good stuff that we’ve created the standard that we don’t allow it makes me so happy yeah so do you think when you were younger you had told me your name was you know it’s obviously Jenny Craig yeah and you 

26:37  You said you were a chubby fifth grader and they were mean to you. And that makes me, like, I just want to hug fifth grade you. I know. So do you think, like, talk about that experience. It really makes me mad. But because I was a person who stood up to bullies for people. Oh, I love that. You’re a good person. Yeah, and you know what it’s like to have been bullied. It’s like you. You stop the mean girl. Absolutely. I will not tolerate it. When you have had that, you should. 

27:05  stand up for somebody else so it just makes me really mad for you but talk about that and then like how does that tie into what you’re doing now because the chip on the shoulder like you could have been like poor me and I’m just bitter and angry at everybody yeah and you’re turning around and doing a lot of good so thank you yeah um it was I think for me so Jenny Craig-Brown obviously I’m married 

27:26  But that’s an interesting tidbit if you think about it because I’m Jenny Craig-Brown I could have easily been Jenny Brown and the Jenny Craig would have gone away But I think and fifth grade Jenny would have said hell. Yeah, we’re getting rid of that immediately like I fifth grade Jenny would have been sad That I wanted to hyphenate for me 

27:46  It was rough. Jenny Craig, and if they’re too young to understand, look it up. Jenny Craig was a diet person that was huge. She was huge, yeah. Huge. Commercials. They don’t even have commercials nowadays, really. I know. Literally. You guys don’t even have to deal with commercials. The amount of TV commercials that this lady had were insane. Yes. And it just happened. I was born in 1983, aging myself, but it’s fine. 

28:12  Jenny Craig, the diet company, came out in 1985. So it was just some weird happenstance. And I was. I was like the chubby kid named Jenny Craig where you would get like roll call the first day. I was still trying to be me. So I was like, no, it’s not Jennifer. It’s Jenny. And they’re like, okay, got it. Jenny Craig. And then you’d hear snickers across the room. And then it’d be like, Jenny Craig needs Jenny Craig. And you’re like, I literally hate my life. But I think fifth grade Jenny just kind of took it, bared it. 

28:42  hated school maybe a little bit but kind of surrounded myself with people I did like and we moved forward and then as I got older I think especially in high school I started just kind of maybe like myself a little bit more and accept myself a little bit more and so I that’s probably high school late high school years is probably where I really started to embrace that yeah and just be like yeah you’re cute I don’t care so did they stop then oh no because you didn’t care 

29:08  Or they just kept doing it to see if they could get you to care? It definitely lessened. When I had a confidence behind me and stopped caring, sort of then everybody realized I didn’t care anymore. So there would still be a lot of comments. Exactly. It’s not as funny if you’re not getting a rise out of me. So there would be mentions of like, your name’s Johnny Craig. That must be rough. But not necessarily a ton of the teasing. Like that really went away probably 16 where it calmed down a ton. 

29:36  And then I think from there on out, I sort of, I did flip it. Now, most of my friends in my 20s and 30s, they didn’t just say, hey, Jenny. It’s like, oh, my friend Jenny Craig. Hey, Jenny Craig. Hey, Jenny Craig, I’m over here. Jenny Craig. Everything’s one, it became one word. Like, my name wasn’t Jenny anymore, it was Jenny Craig. That’s what you should hyphenate is the Jenny-Craig Brown. 

29:57  that would be awesome also because it’s interesting how many people don’t understand a hyphenated last name like they’ll be like um name for the ticket and i’ll be like Craig brown and they’ll be like so brown and I’m like no it’s Craig brown it’s hyphenated they’re like well i don’t see it in here under b and I’m like right because it’s a c and they’re like oh so Craig and I’m like yeah Craig and then they see Craig brown and like oh and you’re like okay i get it so yeah it’s been an interesting journey 

30:26  but it’s cool to say now like i came into kind of my confidence through time i came into myself a lot more um and i really realized like well no everyone remembers my name i need to use that to my benefit and so especially as i came into this role here it’s like of course I’m going to use Jenny Craig no one can forget it no and so then i would use it like in of course because my job 

30:48  eventually included sales I just started kept using it and embracing it so much more and it really was something where you kind of take what could it’s what you always say to do reframe your story and so I did and I think that was a really strong point for me and then of course when he got married I was like you know no one’s gonna never 

31:12  not call me Jenny Craig like everyone I’m Jenny Craig so I’m gonna hyphenate and now it turned into this its own little like now people call me JCB downtown Jenny Brown like I have all kinds of cool nicknames now because I hyphenated and so now some people call me Jenny Craig some people call me JCB and some people call me Jenny Craig-Brown and it’s still like that like hey Jenny Craig-Brown and you’re like I’m still a one namer I don’t it’s so long it’s so much effort but 

31:40  I love that. Oh my goodness. There was a question I was going to ask. Sorry, I just scrambled so far. I was like, yeah, it was rough, and let me tell you, the whole process. I know, there’s so many stories within stories in what you share. But I will say, when Mary, our mutual friend, Mary Cooper, wonderful realtor. Shout out, love her. We love her, we do. If you need a realtor, call her. She’s amazing. She really is genuinely a good human being. Yeah, she’s wonderful. And when she said, you need to meet my friend. 

32:09  Jenny Craig-Brown i was like Jenny Craig that’s fabulous yes see and i get that a lot more these days yes i was like i love her name i knew nothing else about you but I’m like I’m gonna remember that yes thank you see smart marketing reworked it i yeah and it’s so funny like i said that kind of dear me advice to a younger you i really it would probably be something around that name because like i said 

32:36  i i considered taking my middle name for a while but that was going to break my dad’s heart because he had thought of my name and i had thought about Jen or Jennifer but like Jennifer was my name when I was getting yelled at by my mom so yeah I want that and Jen was just it didn’t feel like you’re not a Jen no and so for me and it’s funny like people in our office will be like did that person just call you Jen and I’m like yeah they don’t know me very well they’re like that’s weird please have them not do that like they’re like you’re not Jen it’s not like offended for you I love it and then if you’re ever mad at me like okay Jen and I’m like oh sassy yeah earrings coming off 

33:12  gonna go yeah so it’s like it’s never been me but Jenny Craig was always me and I think it’s just that story and that what you take of it and I think it was kind of meant to be it gave me a really thick skin I got a lot of those hard things out of the way really early for me, and it definitely built me as a person. Well, and here again, you took it and have turned it into something positive where you’re looking out for other women. You’re celebrating other women. It would have been very easy to say, there’s a lot of mean, nasty people out there. Yeah. Right? Because there are. There are mean, nasty people, but you’re focusing on protecting the beautiful people. Yeah. Because we do need to protect each other and look out for each other. 

33:53  Absolutely and I think that is how it’s come out is like now I think through all about the girls what I do for a living just in general and probably who I am as a person like I am the person that always wants to help the one that’s not included or the one that might be bullied or the one that just needs a little leg up like I want to help them I want to build a crew of people that can kind of support one another through all about the girls like our alum group if you’ve been on the podcast or the event as a speaker I have a Facebook group we communicate 

34:23  regularly um we meet up a couple times a year just to try to let let’s build this crew of people like we’re all in this for the same thing obviously if i’ve had you on the podcast it’s because i think that you’re on this team right like you’re here for this mission and so why not build an army of those incredible people. I know. Yeah, I’ve told my daughters, I’m like, there’s always going to be bad people in the world. There always has been, always will be, and it takes all the other good people working together to keep it shifted towards good. That’s a great way to put it. So we all need to lock arms. Yeah. Doing our things. Because there’s going to be some… 

35:00  variances and there’s gonna be some people that aren’t so get the team together yeah yeah and let’s rally and fight for it in a good yeah absolutely and you’ve got to change the script like if we’re as a society in this negative mindset with all this bad stuff happening well then what better way to combat that than flipping the script and really focusing on the good right yeah when Chris started the company he always used to say when I started working here he would always say like if you want 

35:27  more stuff like the Boy Scouts to be Happening you have to put the Boy Scout on the front page. Yeah, and I think that’s very similar to Every day of our lives if we want to see the good more we have to focus on the good more Yeah, and kind of I’m not it’s the same thing like when I stopped hating my name and embraced it 

35:49  Everyone else stopped hating my name. Yeah. Well, let’s do that as humans in life. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I always say what you choose to focus on, you will see more of it. Yep. And there’s. There’s that thing with that. There’s a neighbor. Activating system. There you go. Yes. Yes. And that’s really what your brain is looking for. So if you’re looking for all the bad, you will always find it. You know, and here again, it’s we can’t dismiss that there are bad things that happen in the world. But. 

36:16  we’re all sitting around depressed in a ball because of all the bad we can’t keep fighting the good fight if you will right I just read something the other day and this is obviously not a doctor and I don’t I might not recall it exactly correct but that We should kill the come home and vent to your spouse thing or your bestie or whatever because what it does is as you’re spewing about your bad day, it’s reprogramming your brain to seek out those negative pathways versus not. And so if you instead say, yeah, it was a really rough day because of X, Y, and Z, however, and you try to flip to the other good things, then it’ll kind of almost bypass that negative stuff. It won’t focus on it, your brain. And so instead taking that positive. 

37:02  Similarly, I want to do that with me and my besties and me and my husband. Let’s not do that anymore then. We’re all going to need events. Exactly. Acknowledge it. Don’t give it as much time as the other stuff because it’s teaching your brain to do that, and we don’t want to teach your brain to do that. Let’s teach it to only focus on the positive if you can, and then run from emergencies or deal with an emergency when you need to, but let’s not have it consistently focus on it. I know, and so many things aren’t actually an emergency that people think are emergencies, and then it just becomes who they are. You’re always in this fight or flight response, bad for perimenopause. 

37:38  bad for our systems as women plus all of the other thing that comes with it it’s just not worth it it’s not and here again like it’s okay to acknowledge mm-hmm and accept it like I don’t do a lot of yoga but that is a yoga thing like okay I feel this I experience it whatever it’s there I feel the stretch and I’m breathing into it and then release it yeah like just get rid of it and I think when we are more positive optimists actually live longer too okay yeah look at us little old ladies someday together 

38:16  I want to be like a little feisty old lady oh my god yes I am a big fan of Golden Girls so I’m like okay who do I want to be yeah I know yeah but when we’re more positive like we can think of solutions we can think creatively because we’re not in the fight-or-flight survival brain where it’s just okay food and water and shelter like survival yeah we can come up with creative solutions well so I love what you’re doing thank you 

38:43  You’re welcome. Yes. It’s a fun, fun time. I’m lucky to be able to do it. Yeah. Well, and you chose to be courageous and take action on something that you weren’t sure if you could do it. Yeah, I had no idea. Like, amen for my mom, because that little nerdy piece of advice that was seemingly so obvious in the moment, I’m like, yeah, you’re right, duh. It wasn’t for me. It wasn’t in my brain, and it wasn’t a perspective I had, and it was so helpful. And yeah, it was like, okay, that made me be able to jump. 

39:12  That’s why we need people in our lives to help us kind of see sometimes the obvious because we get in our head and we’re like panicked. So you were like worried. Yep. Oh, so scared. Like, what am I considering doing? Was the last four years of my life worthless? What was I even thinking? You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, no, it’s actually great. And I used all of that. You know, I had graphic design degree and a web design degree. Web design degree. 

39:38  listen i couldn’t build you a website if you literally paid me um okay but the knowledge i had there yeah and like now i can talk to the tech team maybe eight percent better than i could because i had this background um they’re still hella smart way smarter than me but they have this i can kind of interface with them better and then the other side the graphic design i use it all the time because it’s such a big piece of marketing yeah and like the look of things really truly matters and so and especially with someone working for someone like Chris who doesn’t have that background um if it was up to Chris candidly we would have highlighter yellow branding because he thought it would be very visible like not like highway black lights yeah like he wanted like highway sign yellow not the orange the yellow 

40:23  yeah and I had to like talk about the let like first of all you want yellow and black that’s bumblebee it’s weird but also black and gold is fine I’m a boiler maker oh yeah that’s gold and that’s classy thank you right but I was like this isn’t we’re not branding like that’s not a bumblebee here we are like it doesn’t signify anything with media it really signifies like cones on the side of the road and so I think those sort it helps in that manner too well and marketing is like 

40:49  as you know. To get it right, get your logo right. I see it’s trademarked, I’ve learned that is quite a thing. Getting those little letters is important. We have a partner of ours. Hartman Global and they’re like trademark attorneys yeah goodness gracious again so smart they work with people from all over the world and making their product trademarked and so they helped us with all of that but yeah it’s so important and it’s scary as hell and I don’t know it I’m not doing that paperwork yes Because one little word changes the whole document. So yeah, I had an attorney do it for me as well. I’m like, I’m not registering my logo on my own. Exactly. But you found your people. And that’s what we did was like, let’s find the people that can make that happen. Yeah. And then we don’t have yellow logos because I stopped that. And then Domenica’s her name helped us with all of it. TM, TM. And it was fantastic. Yeah. I love it. So it sounds like you have great teams of people. Mm-hmm. 

41:49  We really do. The core team here at Great News is incredible. We’re small, but mighty. There’s 12 of us full-time. And we’re incredible. This group is amazing humans. I love it. They’re an incredible group of humans. And they’re all really here to serve the same mission. It’s just, let’s get the positive out there. But I also love that you are having high schoolers participating in this. 

42:16  absolutely which is so important because obviously we want adults rewriting their story right of like we can focus on positives and stuff but you can plant those seeds in high school kids Yes. We have about, I think, 26, 28 students right now. Basically, we want one from every high school in northern Indiana. So if you have a kiddo that, if we don’t have that school already, we would like one. So if you have a kiddo in high school that does like to write, we train them, we give them deadlines, we teach them along the way and give them input on their pieces, and then they write once a month. 

42:50  article for their school that’s all about their school they highlight a person like a teacher they talk about an event so they have parameters they follow and deadlines to hit and they get paid so it’s like this really cool paid internship where they get to be published before they even leave high school and get all of the background of like what our editors would tell our journalists my older child she’s a writer so I’m gonna remember that she’s in high school yes send her my way we would love to have her 

43:19  start her as a freshman we’ll teach her all the way through and then she’ll have tons of content published and she’ll have tons of training that’s amazing yeah it’s really fun I love that that piece of it and thank you for paying them yeah right like that’s so great that you’re not just having them do it for the experience yeah you know yeah this is content on our site it should be paid for and we want to pay them for it and again it’s just another added 

43:45  benefit for them like yeah we’re not they’re not getting rich off of these by any means but that it’s something that’s like here’s your work for your hard work and it teaches them that deadline system and training system and to take feedback and at the end of it you get paid which is a nice way to end that system right yes absolutely i love that so thinking about your story and your life i feel like you’re very good at pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself where does that come from 

44:15  It’s a great question. I think some of it is that little kid in me going, you know, those formative years were pretty rough. And so it’s like… suddenly some of that stuff becomes less scary because you’re not being you know bullied or any of those things it’s really just learning something or and trust me I’m the person that says when I made that decision to leave my graphic design job to come to this company I probably said no less than 50 times my stomach hurts I think I’m gonna barf but I still did it and I think that’s the thing is if we know in our gut that it’s the right decision sometimes we have to 

44:53  remind our bodies and do it anyway because I am never not scared even now 10 years after all about the girls the event so we’ve done I’ve done I’ve been on that stage in front of anywhere from 50 to 450 people and it just who cares it doesn’t scare me as much but I still get a stomachache two days before I have that stomachache until I’m getting off the stage at night maybe even a little later 

45:21  It’s just there. It’s just there. It’s a part of you. It’s going to happen. Right? It’s my nerves. That’s how my nerves present themselves. And I get that. But I know that, and I wouldn’t do it anyway. And so that’s kind of what I’ve learned. But I don’t know necessarily where it comes from, but I think some of those younger days probably helped me go, eh, we’ve seen worse. This is fine. Yeah, that’s true. And like the… 

45:42  The input you’ve had from those people, like my mom, to say, well, you can just go back. Well, I’ve got a support system of humans that are going to make sure I’m okay, right? It’s not just me. I can handle my own, and I have, but I also have this lovely kind of tribe around me that’s going to make sure I’m okay too. And those two help, I think, take those scary jumps. Yeah, and they’re not going to rub it in your face if it doesn’t work out. They’re going to be like, hey, you tried. Great job. Yes, yes, absolutely. And we need those people. Yeah, we do. And I also think when you do public speaking, 

46:11  to reframe it you know you’re ready if you don’t get the nerves you don’t have that cortisol excitement energy you are going to be flat and boring and that’s not who you are and i want exactly right it’s showtime it’s showtime i somebody just told me i don’t even remember where i heard this but it’s um excitement and and fear have the same feeling yeah so don’t say you’re scared 

46:36  say you’re excited yeah and then your body all decided it’s excited yeah because we can tell us what we want to be and we can kind of inform our bodies if it’s the same feeling if we feel very similar well then just say it’s exciting I love it so now I just try to talk myself I’m not scared I’m excited and I’ll just say it out loud like I’m gonna make me believe it 

46:58  I’m a big believer in like Spotify playlist. Yes. Pump yourself up. You’re like, yes. Dancing around. I’m excited. I’m so excited. Look at me. Oh my goodness. You probably watched Saved by the Bell too. I did. I’m so excited. Oh my gosh. What a throwback. Oh my goodness. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we definitely have to like hang out. 

47:19  in real life not podcasting life i love that at some point how can people get in touch with you yes what all do you have going on and coming up over the next six months yeah so obviously pay attention to um the june all about the girls listen to the podcast to meet some incredible people i’ve got women from 

47:40  all over northern Indiana i’ve even had previous lieutenant governor Suzanne crouch we’ve had a couple politics uh politicians come on that were statewide just really incredible women we don’t talk about politics uh don’t worry um we don’t do that yeah don’t sign off we talk about you know being awesome as a woman and in that field but we don’t talk to politics so don’t worry um so yeah check out all about the girls and Great News we’re always hiring lifers so if you ever if if what I’m talking about sounds fun please come work for us um and then you can find me on all of the social channels Jenny Craig-Brown it’s pretty easy to find because it’s you know 

48:18  I’m part of this company, so our faces are out there a lot. So you can definitely find me on Instagram. I’m on Instagram and Facebook a ton, TikTok a little bit too. Yeah, so connect with me, LinkedIn, of course. So connect with me, follow our sites, at least the site that’s closest to you. If you live in Michiana, go follow Michiana Life on social media. Go to the site, check it out, because we want… 

48:40  you to come to us for the good news yeah i love that absolutely love what you’re doing i think everybody should be your friend thank you i agree let’s make all the friends i know i love it that’s the best part of what we do well thank you for having me in your home on my podcast thank you a first yes it’s been so fun and yes and i think first for me too we’ve never done this collab either so thank you yay i appreciate it awesome thank you bye everybody 

49:13  Thank you for tuning into this episode of Diary of a Dreamer. I hope you found the stories and tips shared today to be a source of motivation and strength. Remember, every challenge you face is a chance to grow and move closer to your dreams. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with anyone who could use a boost of encouragement. Please check out my website, TashaEizinger.com.