The Voices for Voices Podcast Episode 40 with Guest, Fox News Radio Journalist, Ryan Schmeltz
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deductible today's guest joining us is Fox News Radio White House
and Capitol Hill correspondent based in Washington D.C
please join me in welcoming to the show Ryan schmelz thank you for joining us
absolutely Justin thanks for having me on yeah absolutely and digging in
a little bit more into your story in in your past very relevant to
for you to share your story and Voice once again and share and as you've
mentioned if you can touch one person's life help them prevent a situation or get them the help that they need then it
is well worth it so thank you for being willing and being brave to talk
about some you know some tough topics oh absolutely I really appreciate the opportunity and I think it's an
important conversation to be having so a really big kudos to you for doing this you're welcome so let's jump
right into it I think sometimes Society for
whatever reason thinks of the term or the term sexual abuse as oh well it
only implies to females it only implies to women but that's not the case it can
happen to men and women not just one and not just the others so I think it's
important for you to you know talk through your story what you went through
how you were able to overcome and share and then we can move into the
the Browning family and that topic and then we can end on a
really positive note of what you're up to now and those dreams and aspirations which it seems to be your
your you're hitting some of those dreams right now trying to yeah totally great um
well I guess you know where could we start you know I think that you brought up an important point where I
think there was this stigma and I think this is really starting to die down quite a lot where you know I remember
I would slowly open up to people about this when I was growing up and one girl, I did say that to you know say like well
I didn't know that men could get raped, and I thought that was you know kind of
telling when I heard that now in the years since then we've had a lot of national news stories that have come out
you know you have the Penn State Scandal, and you have the Boy Scout Standalone also you know incidents with the
Catholic Church where you've seen a lot of men go through sexual abuse and these cases were widely publicized, so I think
that stigma has really started to die down a lot now I think it can be challenging for a lot of men to open up
and talk about that and that certainly was the case for me initially because I think it's it not only is it traumatic
to talk about but it's also very awkward to talk about you know how do you just bring up sexual abuse to somebody in a
normal conversation and it's very hard we without it either dampening the tone or darkening the tone and really you
know bringing the mood down a little bit so I think those are some of the challenges that come when it comes to
men trying to express themselves and get the treatment they need yeah; I couldn't agree more and that uh
being traumatized for different reasons than what you have that
trauma it doesn't one hundred go away it sticks with you and might come out
at certain times and certain Behavior so being able to overcome as much as you can I think
is it I don't know those were like fantastic but to be able to do that it
takes a lot of work it's not something that you know you have a sprained ankle and the ankle heels, and you can see
that progress when it's something's happening consistently still in in the mind like
okay like this is still here but I want to continue to now and
instead of sharing what happened you're sharing what happened and you're
providing a voice as you mentioned to be able to either
stand up and talk to somebody about it and it's not all bad and I know from my experience with just therapy in
general sometimes people hear the word therapy and they're like oh you go to therapy it's like well I'm actually just
really, I mean the simplifier really just talking to somebody and sharing and
sharing experiences what's happening and then the therapist you know
depending on how we're moving they jump in and guide the conversation, or they affirm or try to
steering in a different direction so that's I think important do you want to share
a little bit about what you went through all right so mine started when I
was really young and I would say and I'm not talking about child young I would say pre-teen kind of going through
puberty so puberty age was when it really started for me and of course that's already a very weird time in any
you know young person's life because you know they're starting to experience you know sexual feelings for
the first time in their life they're starting to just really to have a lot of changes with their bodies and I'm
trying to explain this without being awkward yeah but you know so you're already going for the through this confusing
time and the person who was that you know my abuser was going through a similar situation it was somebody who
was you know just a couple months older than me I believe they're around a year older than me and you know it started
off very small you know it starts off with you know them touching themselves
while you know you're watching a movie in the room, and you just think none of it but then it gradually gets worse to
them asking you to touch them you know that this person you know I guess some
of the early stuff was you know he was making me watch pornography with him and then ultimately that led to some
more touching and some very uncomfortable situations and this went on for a very long time you know I
lost count of how many times I had to go through this with this person and
then ultimately you know I think I got fed up I started confiding to a couple
different people and ultimately my parents started to find out about it
then they eventually had enough and took matters into their own hands and that's kind of how we got the
situation over with but you know there were a lot of uncomfortable times I mean you know when you have to sit there and
and talk to your pediatrician and give them every single detail about what happened because you have to tell them
everything so they can tell you how to proceed from there you know you have to get an AIDS test you've got to get uh
different type of testing to make sure you're okay and that nothing you know is wrong with you and then it just all that
kind of bundles up and then obviously it's you know well now what after this and I think it can take a long time for
me it did I mean there's still times still things that I am getting over when it comes to this, and I think that's
that's the hard part but I think just acknowledging the problem and acknowledging that this is something that you need to work on is the big step
for me and it sounds like you were being support supported
when the time came to share about the situations and what was what was
occurring so that that is I guess one positive to the situation that
your parents weren't your pediatrician did they weren't brushing you off like okay you know he's just he's just saying
things and I think that's good, and I think people need to
see that there are supportive people supportive parents out there doctors
that are in will support what's going on it is I mean it's awkward and some a
lot of things I talk about mental health related are awkward and it's kind of just managing the situation and
talking through it and but knowing that things are still like they are and
like they were and really just trying to get through best they can to have that support system is big uh
you touch on maybe just the support system that you've had kind of throughout your life from your
your family with just different situations of when you need to talk to somebody you could turn to
them oh yeah well, I I've got a big family I would say about fifty or so cousins you know I've got a godmother
I'm very close with I've got different cousins I'm close with and it's type of family we're out
of Carroll County Maryland it's a very rural part of Maryland and you know
it's kind of that town where there aren't a lot of Secrets and when it comes to my family, they kind of embody
that where you know we were the type of family where you did something wrong, and you showed up at the next family function somehow
every single person knew about it, and you just had to bite the bullet and take the humiliation from everybody else and that's kind of
the situation that that that that I'm in as and there could be some positives to that obviously a lot of positives
because you know I feel like I can confide in a lot of my family members maybe not the exact same topic with
every single person but I've found that there's a lot of people in my family I'm willing to talk to and able to talk to
about things that are very uncomfortable I think for a lot of people to talk to and very awkward for a lot of people to
talk about and fortunately I have a family where that's not the case where these conversations aren't awkward
they're normal and we've normalized them as a family and we're able to share with each other and we hey we've been through
a lot as a family so it's we kind of have to be that way we lost two cousins to overdoses in the last you
know decade or so I mean two of them very recent you know we've lost a lot of people along the way so
having that tight-knit support system is kind of necessary for us and fortunately I'm able to benefit from
that for our listeners for our viewers if they or somebody they know is going
through a similar situation regarded I mean any type of abuse you know we're
talking about sexual abuse with just abuse in general is not healthy and
and illegal and many other things would you say that that first step that you
may recommend to somebody who's going through it is confiding with their
parents like that would be maybe a first step or what would you maybe say if you
trust your parents enough they should always be your first Avenue I think you know they're the ones who care
the most about you especially if you're in a loving home and your parents want what's best for you, they're going to take the right steps necessary to get
the job done now you know if you don't if you don't feel comfortable with your parents, I think you just have to find
that person and it can't be a friend right a friend can well maybe sometimes
they can but like you know for me in middle school if I can find it to a friend about the this, I don't think they're going to really know the right
Avenue to take you know they could maybe spill this or leak this to a guidance counselor or something, but you know I
think you need to find an authority figure and somebody who's in a situation where they might be able to at least
figure out what the right thing to do is you know a guidance counselor is obviously a go-to in schools that's
that's an easy person to confide to the conversations are confidential but if there's something that really needs
to be addressed they know the exact Avenues to go through in order to address that I think coaches can be
great avenues for young people to reach out to you know Boy Scout masters are people some I've got a
very close relationship with my scoutmaster still to this day and you know if I was ever going through a situation like that again I know he'd be
the person to do the right thing so somebody with that type of authority figure who could probably point you in
the right direction I think that's the first step in terms of finding out a way to get this out get this away from
you and move on the right way thing and we also have viewers and listeners
that are college age even potentially some high school students and
parents I would think maybe one of the one of the questions might be how is that
impacted if at all your career your career path your career choice of being
able to share that just knowing how social media is that something that
has helped or hindered you know where you're at and you know
somebody's afraid like oh my gosh not only is so-and-so going to find out and then
it and then if it goes public and then I'm going to be affected maybe
negatively for a job interview if I'm Googled or
social media can you maybe walk through that process a little bit I no it's kind of hard to say you know I never I never
really went into this and said that if I talk about you know my abuse history that it's going to impact my job
prospects one day I don't think that's something I really have to worry about, but you know I think in terms of what I
chose to do as a career you know there was one point, I wanted to be a high school guidance counselor so I could help kids who were going through what I
was going through but then ultimately, I felt like my talents were better suited in in an industry that involves writing
and that's also something I love to do so that's kind of how I ended up doing this, but you know when you're a
journalist and you're a Storyteller you get a lot of opportunities to share those stories and to talk to people and
and bring their stories to life and hopefully that story can you know do it my what I'm trying to do which is
just impact one person and make them feel just a little bit better about themselves you know I ain't trying to
I'm not going into this thinking that I'm going to be some famous like you know motivational speaker one day but
it's just about getting to that one person, and I think you know in journalism in writing whether it's
through TV radio print you know you have a lot of opportunities to do that where you can just reach that one person by
either sharing somebody else's story or sharing your own I'm glad you talked about some of the
mechanics behind media with which is writing the that might not be looked at
as like oh I love to write but was that something that you it just became natural to you when you were going
through your studies in school and you're getting good grades or you just like sharing the story
regardless of the grades or how did that manifest itself right I think I figured
out pretty quickly I wasn't a math or science guy so, so I think writing was definitely probably one of my better
strong suits in school it was one of those few things where you know I could yeah, I think it was sixth grade when I
figured this out that I think this was probably up my up my wall was because you know I we sat down one day and you
had to write about a situation where you felt better about yourself or something like that and I wrote about like my
cousin's dog it was like a very simple story, and you know the teacher kind of said like hey you're you were the top
two in this class in terms like my what I liked the most and I was like okay well it's good to know because you know
I'm struggling in math and science right now so yeah, it's nice to hear that I'm actually doing something right and then obviously I was big into history so in
history in many ways is a story you know it's the story of reality and what we've been through as a society in
a world so those two topics kind of were where the journalism side came
into I had a love for writing, and I had a love for history and I really kind of picked up that love for writing I would
say it was really senior year of high school of high school where I had an English teacher who was very awesome
in terms of just you know making the class fun and giving us writing assignments that that tested our skills
and put us to the test and then I was also in creative writing at the time, and I had a field day with that class almost
every day so I think those classes were really big Inspirations for me wanting to write
yeah, and I think that's great that you even
during school you were still getting that that support of you know you're really good at this you're doing
well and at that point like you mentioned where some other areas weren't as
good or not doing it as well and the grades and just having that I think is
helpful for even a teacher or a counselor or anybody even a parent when
they're you know parenting with their children helping steer we can't always just be
like negative and be like oh well you're doing this wrong and this wrong's like oh well you're ever really good at this
and that was what you were able to grab onto was there was there a project
that stands out that you just going through your college
Years at Ole Miss in journalism where we were like yeah
this is this is awesome this is oh yeah you love what you're going to be doing and what you want to get into oh
it was my first TV class where we were actually you know kind of assigned to go out and actually do news stories and you
know it wasn't like we were doing one every day, but it was kind of like the this this teacher would talk you through the process this professor would talk
you through the process you know this is how a story works this is how it's structured and now you know this is what
you need to do to go out and do it and then after I did a couple, I was like okay well this is
I can't wait so I'm doing my next one and it became kind of a habit from there and it got me really motivated I was
already pretty motivated when I was in school just because I was happy to be there but after that I was like okay I
think I figured out what I want to do and then that came it came internship time started applying for different TV
stations and ended up Landing my first internship in in Memphis and that was kind of a blast, so you know I think the
first TV class you take in school and you kind of figure out this is what you want to do and if not, you know that's
how people end up in PR they take those TV classes they don't like doing it and then they go in the pr route if they're in the journalism school but for me I
kind of was addicted to TV very quickly wow yeah what let's maybe shift topics and
then we'll return to the career and where you're at over the past couple years and where you're at today so you
did mention your family is very close and you've been through a lot even recently but especially when you were
your earlier years yeah and you imagine having you know being
in rural in the rural area where everybody kind of knows everybody in a
sense was there a time in a situation where uh
that garnered national attention for maybe not the best of reasons and
and how that impacted you personally and then with the
sexual obesity you had went through a how those two things kind of came together like whether that made you
stronger or whether you know so well yeah it wasn't long after the sexual
abuse kind of it was starting to fade out and I was kind of moving on from that's when the Browning family
tragedy happened that for the viewers here and listeners is when uh
there was a young man by the name of Nick Browning, and he had it was a very loving family a family we were very
close with the author John was our scout master he was best friends with my parents and so was his wife Tammy who
was my mom's best friend she was considered I consider her a mother a second mother to me especially outside
of my home and then they had two other Sons named Greg and Ben Browning who were easily some of the best friends
I've ever had you know Greg was best friends without a doubt drop dead best friend with my brother and then Ben
and was like another younger brother to me and Nick was the oldest Nick Browning was the oldest he was two weeks away
from his 16th birthday when he decided to, he was at a friend's house it was
a big group of friends I would say like four or five guys and Nick kind of tells the guys I'm gonna go back and I'm
gonna steal my dad's car and we're gonna go joyriding tonight and so Nick
goes back and instead of stealing the car he takes his father's gun, and he shoots all four of his family members
while they're sleeping and obviously this made national headlines it was traumatizing for
everybody in our community I think you know growing up in Cockeysville it's a very diverse Community
I didn't grow up in Carroll County that's where my mom's side of the family lives, so Cockeysville was a pretty diverse Community we have rural
folks a little bit of urban Suburban it's really a diverse Community but the browning’s were very popular
amongst everybody I think everyone really loved them and you know obviously with John being you know the
scout master Tammy was heavily involved in PTA it was really hard to find someone who wasn't impacted by that and
and I think it broke a lot of our hearts and also shocked a lot of us too that something like this could actually
happen I yeah that I've never been through
something like that it just sounds like a very a tough time to
go through and then I guess there was a time where the national media was
out at was at your school and then you came out and I don't remember
seeing a lot of national cameras showing up to when all that was going on you know you'd see a couple articles here
and there and see it get mentioned but yeah, I mean the day after the news broke and you know Nick was identified as a
suspect and the family was identified as the victims I mean we had cameras everywhere outside the school and
and you know I now that I am a recorder and I've been in that situation where I've got to cover a story like
that I would say that you know they were they're fairly respectful you know I talked to a couple of them, and you know
they used the nice soundbite I had about Miss Browning saying that she was you know like a second mother to me and
and you know they didn't you know sensationalize it I felt like a lot of the reporting was very based on the
facts they let Nick's legal team speak for him and you know it but it
was just it was crazy and then of course when the funeral was going on we had a report that the Westboro Baptist Church
was going to be protesting outside the funeral and fortunately you know
I believe the church took some actions to make sure that you know they weren't allowed onto the property and then the
TV cameras didn't really give them any attention either when all that was going on so yeah, I mean that was my
first exposure to the news industry and it was definitely not my choice no not
at all when you when you did speak with the media was sharing your voice about the family
was that your thought when you did that just trying to find maybe a
thread where it's like okay there's an opportunity where I can share
positives about the family and especially you mentioned that she his
mother was like a second mother to you and to share that did you
feel that was that one of the reasons why you went over there, or I don't know it's kind of just I was walking
across the street and there happened to be cameras there okay and I said yes
but I think one thing that was not one thing I do remember that kind of gave me it was it was a moment I really
needed you know it was at the funeral I was a complete train wreck during the whole thing and one of the speakers who was speaking on behalf of the family
kind of mentions though there was this phenomenal young man who said some very nice things about Tammy Browning on the
news the other day and that really meant a lot and I thought that was like oh yeah, I needed to hear that so yeah
you have moments like that and then you know the Middle School actually opened up
a garden to memo to memorialize the family you know couple months later and
my brother ended up being on the news for that as well as one of our good friends differ who was also very
close with Greg and Ben and you know it was nice to see a positive you
know outlook for the family when you know because Nick was going through court cases, so he was ending up in the
news every once in a while, up until ultimately his sentencing so to have a
break and we could actually talk about the family and see the family being talked about in a positive way you
know those were moments that that were great yeah looking at some of your past
interviews you mentioned if you got a call from Nick that you would
you would take his call and that's kind of that journal journalist side uh
of your mind as well as you forgave him at some point yeah
can you maybe walk through that faith and how that was helpful in what you
we’re going through and maybe help change your outlook uh
yeah, I mean forgiving Nick was probably it might be the hardest thing I ever had to do
you know it was something that when I got involved with young life and I
got involved with my faith a little bit more and that that kind of really helped the healing process a lot of them were
very quick to forgive him and I felt that that was going to take a little bit more time for me and
ultimately you know I forget what exactly it was I think it was just one
of those moments where you hear like a really good sermon, and I guess the Young Life program they kind of do that
when they send you to Camp, they give you like this little send-off at the end where you're supposed to have this Epiphany and all that and I guess I
kind of did where I just said you know what I'm never gonna get over this I mean you never will but I'm never
going to be able to move forward if I don't forgive Nick and I don't know what in forgiveness
entails other than just at the time it was just saying it and saying and being able to say it I think really did
lift a lot of weight off the shoulders and I needed to do it
I had I was I was hesitant obviously and I think there's maybe some days
I still am and Nick's now apparently into writing I I've done some research
on what he's been up to he does a lot of writing I think he's actually won some awards and I've read some stuff
about you know where he explains what he did and based off the writing you know he doesn't make any excuses
he's aware of what he the sins he's committed now I don't know if he's genuine or
not I'm not quite sure you know I think I'd have to see him I'd say I'd have to see him in person for myself
to make that judgment to see if he's truly you know changed and true see if he's worthy of forgiveness you know
ultimately that's not going to be my decision that's going to be between him and God, but you know I've made my
decision to forgive him I'm very happy I did and yeah like I said it's it was it was very hard to do yeah, I mean I
really commend you on that I've been I think there's relationships or things that I haven't
forgave the people many years passed and so to be able to do that I'm sure
he'll provide a little bit of peace to your mind that it's still always going to be there that you're able to
move forward the given the circumstances so you've done
a lot of I guess after Ole Miss and your internship you've done a lot of
traveling with your work is that something that you plan to do and were
there any relationships the sniffy and others that that you have that we're
like no Ryan like you can't go to this city or the state I'm just
wondering if there was any of those push and pull because I received some of that with my now wife when I move away
for a job to Houston versus being here in Ohio and she's like I'm
you know I'm not moving down here and so you know making those decisions of like what's the most important
so you may walk through just that process of maybe it's the industry and moving
up and getting to where he needed to be okay it's definitely a duping industry especially the first couple years
you know you kind of in many ways you have to take your foot in the door job and you kind of got to do whatever
it takes and I think I've got the more interesting due paying resume because
I probably have done almost everything you could do in this industry from doing you know just reporting to weather to
for being a photographer to producing my own stuff being a news anchor
doing sports and doing highlights every once in a while, so I feel like I I've been exposed to quite a lot that this
industry has to offer, and you know it stations go through a lot you know their short staffed
pay is not very good right off the bat and it you know you sometimes you're
not living in the place you want to live in you know I've spent a lot of time away from family in this industry uh
unfortunately, we lost my two cousins and lost an uncle while I was living very far away and wasn't making enough
money to be able to make emergency trips home so you know I always thought I I'd have no issues you know living far away
and that was kind of something I learned very quickly it's not as easy to do in the real world
compared to College it's easy to do because you get those long breaks right, so you get to go home for
you know a couple weeks or a couple months in many cases too but that wasn't the case in the media industry and that
can be it can be tough on your mental health especially when you're working odd hours you know you're not
you know you're working weekends you know you're probably not making great money and it
that can really be draining on you plus it's already just a stressful industry in general from you know just
what's expected of you as a journalist but also some of the stuff you see you see a lot of people go through a lot of
bad situations and you see you know your community and sometimes on fire and
that and that's hard to see and you see a lot of people suffering so those things can all add up and I think that's
the real challenge when you first get into news and then obviously you have people who doubt you and you have people who
criticize you a lot and the criticism a lot of time is needed you know you need to be coached you need to be told how to
get better but yeah there's a difference between criticism and a toxic work environment which some people can
experience and of course there's a lot of people in America who experience that with their employers, and you know again
there's people who would doubt you and not think you're able to go to this this next job or that next job and
some of it is you know there it's honest feedback and that's fair but other times it's you know they're wrong and you
gotta prove them wrong that that's I I'm glad the way you walked through that
process that yeah, I mean there's going to be people that are giving constructive criticism and then there's
going to people that are just taking a whole new level and that whole proving wrong if it's something that you're
passionate about and you like doing it's a kind of a goal like okay well I'm
gonna achieve that goal I'm gonna get to that point at some length of time and to have
those Milestones kind of personally and professionally in in
really taking that positive and I mean consider negative I'm just thinking with it
social media being how it is it being just so easy to share negative feedback
that is like oh we should have did this and I don't know you're taking the stand on this side and you're on the left and
you're on the right and you're all these different areas it's like okay well some of that may be me and other you know
some of it's the story right you're going through situations and meeting people at maybe some of the
worst times that they've been through or trying to get information out
so the public or the community is well informed, and I think that has
social media been part of that for you do you look at comments or how much do you get into
that get a troll every once in a while, at least in my situation I think I got one actually this week based off a
question asked at the White House Press briefing but I mean I think my last employer they had a really good point
where they said to us like look these accounts are trying to elicit emotion out of you, they're trying to
elicit you know a response from you just don't acknowledge them it's that simple you
know especially when it's an account that has doesn't have a real name the person doesn't have a profile picture and
it makes no sense so why would you get into a fight with somebody when it very well could just be a fake person you
know so you're always going to get that when it comes to social media, but you know there's a lot of reporters out
there who have really benefited from social media been able to build a following outside of themselves and
obviously, I've utilized it to talk about some of the stuff we're talking about here today, so you know everything's got
its pros and cons I think just as long as you're smart about it and know how to use it the right way and don't let it
consume your life with negativity you can use it right now that sounds like you got a good balance of knowing when to
your do your thing and then when to kind of step back and let it just go now of
course there is another aspect to it where social media is just giving us one more thing we have to do as journalists because it's so in many ways it's
very vital to our news products you know it's how you get people to the website site you get people to watch the
newscast so there's another negative there was just one more thing we have to worry about so that's unfortunate right
yeah, you complete a story submit it and then it's another set of steps another, and it might not be it might not be the
hardest thing but it's just something additional another two or three things that have to do that yeah can wear
over time so the position you're at now
you're in Washington DC you're on Fox News Radio you're able to
I guess be that continue that jack of all trades of when you need to go
in certain environments and ask questions hot topics people are fire fired up how do you
think your past and your experience has helped give you the
experience to where you're at now with some of the divisive things that are going on in the world in the United
States some of those experiences that you you've been through and you've kind of
built a little bit of Tolerance and know when to when to do what you need to do and when
to take a step back I would say I've always tried to be as professional as possible with every job I do and this
one's no different I mean it's the big leagues you're in Congress you're dealing with some of the most powerful people in the world whether it's the
president of the United States or different members of the House and Senate you know I try to be as professional as possible
I have a code of ethics when it comes to being a journalist, I like to be fair I like to be balanced
and I like to, but I feel like I have an obligation
to do this the right way you know I think journalism is though it's protected in the United States
Constitution for a reason and I don't think that that designation has ever fallen short on my mindset when it comes
to being a journalist to your respect but this is you know a dream come true for me I think that's one of the easiest
Parts is that I'm just motivated to be here just because it's so awesome to be here obviously you know Fox News played
a big role in getting my interest in politics when I was in college because we had it on a decent
amount in school because of Shepard Smith you know a famous Ole Miss alumni he was working at the network back then
I believe I had like class right before his one show came to an end during the
day so I watched a lot of Shepard Smith and then you know I was and I never I didn't I didn't know if I was ever gonna
be able to handle being a political reporter I thought like politics were complicated and this was something that
kids who are law school bound are the only ones who can talk about this stuff and the kids who are the
valedictorians are the only ones who can talk about this stuff, but you know if you just put the work in, you're willing
to learn and you have that interest you know I think politics should be for everyone I think everyone should be
involved in the political process I think everyone should research their leaders see what they're doing see what issues matter to them the most and I
think that as a as a journalist your job is to simplify this stuff for people and
I think that we that type of opportunity is kind of one that people don't really
consider as much yeah and I think to your point of liking to tell the story and liking to
write that's what you're what you're doing is you're taking a set of facts and circumstances experiences you're
putting that together so it's instead of it being easy to follow easy
understand for a professor or an instructor now you're doing that for
many different stakeholders you're doing it for Grandma I was
watching at home you know it's kind of how you have to look at it yeah you don't have to get into Super
specific details I'm just wondering from a like an interview process of
were there multiple interviews did you have to submit a portfolio
did you have to do an audition I'm just wondering for people that are going
through journalism classes and they're continuing that way of okay I'm hearing my maybe
some of my friends in business and other Industries are like okay well I gotta get my resume and I gotta get my
portfolio and is it is it similar in the industry the resume but then you also
have you have a demo tape, and some people call it a resume real which is like pretty much your
best highlights is a way to put it you put some stuff of you on air you put some of your full stories in there and
you kind of try to sell yourself to a potential employer so that's kind of how
the process works and that's probably the biggest part of any job interview process is if you have a
good reel you know you're probably going to get a call back and that's kind of everything else kind of Falls after that
but you know the resume rule is very first that's how you get the potential employers attention and then
how you interview after that how you mesh with the employer and the potential employees that you're going to
be working with I think that all comes second but it's the resume rule it's all that is the big thing in news
yeah, and it's showing what you've done so they're you know there's things you've learned and processes and
that's great but the end of the day the employer wants to see what your final your product what how you go through the
process and again some of the stories and different angles that that you've covered so they can get an idea
of you know what what's Ryan going to be like when he's on air how's he going
to share is he articulate and those are might be more things that are more important to your industry I would
think of being you know in that storytelling of being able to tell the story, but have it be understandable uh
to Grandma at home and being on the radio there's not that visual component
in that yeah, the radio is a different world it
definitely is you know a lot of the stories are shorter they're a lot more to the point but then also at
Fox, we have a really strong podcast a group here so that's kind of given me an opportunity to talk to people about
issues that matter and kind of have a longer form of discussion about it so
you know we've got one coming out this weekend it's going to be on the IRS more people in poor areas getting
audited than people who are wealthy and so I think that that's good yeah, it's a
shocker to a lot of people and it's also a concern to a lot of people so to be able to bring attention to that uh
subject and get somebody who knows a lot about it we actually got somebody from Ole Miss to talk about it believe it or
not totally an accident I didn't have anything to do with that but to be able to talk about those
issues and have a long-formal way of doing so I think is really a
great opportunity yeah now one of the things that you are able
to do is something that not a lot of people ever get the experience in their
whole life of being able to travel with the president of the United States what is what was just the ex-what’s
the experience like when do you find out is it a last minute like where you come in
you know this morning and you find out like okay I'm gonna I'm traveling for this particular thing and here's
when all the arrangements and all that or how's that yes so in the white house we have a pool rotation so pretty
much it's one reporter who's assigned to like travel with the president and they're supposed to report back a lot of
the details to all the other pool reporters who are there you send back the video feed if you're in TV I I'll
I'll send back the audio feed onto a system so that the reporters at the White House can get that from all the
different Radio Networks so we have a schedule that's released ahead of time and it kind of tells us you know who's
traveling when or what Network's going to be traveling so the network will assign a person to do that and then
on the day you know obviously the first time I did it was surreal and sometimes it still is kind of surreal to
be traveling with the president of the United States but then again there's also the mindset you get into where
I've got a job to do right I've got to do it that all you think about is getting the job done and then you kind
of have to take a step back wait a minute I just forgot I'm traveling with the president I'm like okay this is cool yeah
but I've been trying to find that balance of trying to just take it in and enjoy it rather than just get too
caught up in the job and all that obviously you know my first job my first mindset is to get the
job done because that's what my Network's paying me to do and what my Network's counting on me to do but then after that I think there are still
plenty of times when I could test to take a step back like man, I'm at the White House this is awesome absolutely
so what was it like the first time that you were in the Press briefing room being called on by the press
secretary obviously you're prepared with your questions you're going through your process like you always do but just
maybe that moment was that a little bit different when they said Fox yeah, the first time, I had a seat in
there you know I had a question ready to go I wasn't
like you know raising my hand after every question to see what was going to happen, I was kind of like okay she probably won't call me
today it's my first day you know just get the information and we'll go from there and cover you know
what whatever happens in the briefing and then she calls on me and I think like it was like the first time I had
raised my hand and I was just like what and then she goes yeah like
and I think you can even see it on my Instagram she the Kareem Jean-Pierre the press secretary kind of gives like a nod like yeah, she's calling you
well here we go and just started talking kind of tunnel vision from there you're
asking the question and yeah it was pretty cool and then
you realize that of course every single thing at those briefings is recorded So you almost have to keep a straight face the entire
time you're in that room okay because yeah if you make a funny face there's a chance that it might be on camera so
that's something to keep in mind wow and one thing you also get to do
is I saw a post where you're outside the White House and Maureen one is
landing and it's super windy what is that like maybe the first time
of like oh my gosh like there's it's more to it just than just a helicopter I guess it's a simple well the first
time I saw Marine One take off it was the day I got my credential to go into the White House and get
clearance to go in the White House and Jared Halpern who's our you know chief White House correspondent on the
radio side here it's kind of like okay well we're here now there's gonna be a takeoff in 30 minutes you want to go
watch it I was like of course I want to go watch it so we you know they gather the whole press, and they send them into the into the South lawn which
is right by the Rose Garden and the president will either come out from the Oval Office or come up from the I
guess the main entrance to the White House there and the Press Will shout questions you might take them he might not but he
ultimately boards Marine one and then you know my co-worker just kind of looks at me
because you might want to have your feet set, he's like this is going to be powerful yeah and that helicopter people don't
realize how strong that helicopter is until you're just a couple feet away from it when it's taking off because that wind will blow, and it is it is a
massive Force there and I mean I've seen stools go flying and you know trees
are brushing like crazy it's like your sport coat will turn into a parachute it's intense and it's also
extremely cool and after it was over I kind of asked a couple people like does it get old after a while and then someone's one guy nods yes and another
guy goes I don't know I've been here over a decade it's still pretty cool to me oh that's awesome and that that
really plays into you know you're at your dream job and you maybe just you
touched a lot on and the job itself but being able to look back like okay
this many years ago I was in I was in school at Ole Miss and
and this is you know that where you're looking at some maybe those naysayers or some of the people that and
they're like okay like I'm doing what I was meant to do, and it makes me
feel extra good and I don't say actually good but oh yeah just being able to have
that hurdle and be like you know I don't have to worry about this little thing this topic it's always going to come
back to this moment when I was 15 a couple days after you know the browning’s
were murdered where we had our first Scout meeting post no longer having John Browning as
our scout master you know losing two Scouts who are probably the most loved kids in the Scout Troop and then
also a mom who is very you know involved with the troop as well and you know sitting at the end funny
thing about this whole thing my term as senior patrol leader AKA like
the main Scout was just starting oh okay, so this was my first meeting as
senior patrol leader and I'm a train wreck and I'm like how what like we're
I'm supposed to be a in a leadership role right now like I don't know how this is gonna work
and we also had a new scout master, and his name was Jim Rafferty he's got a book out he talks about leading the
Scout Troop it's called Leader by accident you gotta check it out it's awesome and you know first thing he did when
he saw me was we gave each other a hug and he I don't know it's just right there and then we knew we had the right guy you
know we knew this was our scout master and we knew we had a true leader here, but you know I remember sitting at
the front of this entrance and greeting every single mom every single Scout that walked in you know a lot of hugs a
lot of tears and we just kind of all sat around this circle we had a grief counts couple grief counselors there
I mean it was just the most heartbreaking scene you can see just everyone just devastated
I was a wreck a lot of people were wrecks and we kind of shared some strong
we tried to share memories good ones and they kind of eventually let the parents go upstairs and they would
figure out what was going to happen to the troop from there on out and you have all the kids together and we're just all
kind of talking and trying to remember the good times with Greg and Ben and I think you know in
that moment we were wondering what the heck was going to happen to the troop then we thought we it might die off you know but
but I think pretty quickly especially when we sat down there all together, we're like
oh this ain't gonna happen we're making this work it's going to be hard
you know we're going to be frustrated we're going to be we're still we're going to be grieving we're all going to be traumatized but we're going to make
this troop stronger and we're going to pull through this together we don't know what it's going to take what it's going to evolve but you know I
think the first thing we do is that as long as we had each other, and we did it with love we were going to make it work and you
know I owe my life to those kids I owe my life to those parents who refuse to let our troop die and refuse
to let me get lost because there were times, I hit rock bottom um
and I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to graduate high school go to college all that I was so just
you know bummed out on the right now and I was still traumatized from what happened to me when I was being
sexually abused as a pre-teen now to losing my friends as a teenager
and happen to be in this somewhat of a leadership position
you know I don't know if I made a difference in that troop making it, I give a lot of the credit to Jim
Rafferty and a lot of the kids who were who were underneath who you know were Scouts with me and of course a lot of
the other parents who stepped to stepped up to the plate too so you know that's I can always think
back to that moment and think back to then and what we were going through then
and to be in a situation where I'm I think I'm a happy person I've still got a lot of problems and I'm still a very
messed up person in terms of I make a lot of mistakes I'm a sinner you know I'll be working on trying to be perfect
for the rest of my life and I will always fall short, but I have a reason to
be motivated and the fact that I get to live a happy life I think right now and be in a position like this one I think
is a victory and of course you know you probably heard this saying it takes a village well I think yeah this is a
strong example of if you have a support system and people who care about one another there is a lot you can
accomplish wow that's so that's so powerful and really, you're yeah you transcended time
you hit rock bottom and to be where and have
the opportunity that you have is I think an inspiration to a lot of
people because I mean myself included making mistakes and just craziness like
okay I just gotta work through it but to know that they're
foreign life in a sense does continue and you
can follow your passion what you love to do and work towards that and that there
will be some dark days but there are also going to be days where he said like
you're relatively happy and to be a happy person in any day and
age especially now is it says it says a lot and I just want to thank you for your time
for sharing so in depth and detail and covering everything from being the
sexual abusing at a young age to you know where you're at today I think is I
it's just gotta it's awesome to me to see some someone else to be able to make
that that leap and jump and to do it in stride you're not boastful
about it you just you do like I said you do your job and if your job is like however the president United States and
travel in air force one then you're gonna do it but you're gonna have that Tunnel Vision on what your what
your job is and you take some of those sites and those experiences and
and that yeah just has to be a good feeling a great feeling so yeah, I
just want to thank you for your time today we'll grab a couple pictures
afterwards I just have an outro to do but yeah thanks so much Ryan for
for sharing so much and congratulations on the successes that you've had and where you're at and being
in in that position it's yeah, it's got to be awesome feeling I know I really
appreciate it Justin this was this was very rewarding and thank you so much for letting me on and letting me
share because I you know I like the opportunity to do so I think there's hopefully something here that somebody
can learn I don't know how many people are going to reach with this and how many people I can impact but obviously yeah, I'm just trying to make that one
person a little bit a little bit more comfortable with themselves and if that's if sitting down and doing this interview does that then I think we got
ourselves a winner I think so too wow that's a good note to end on so I want
to not only thank Ryan for his time today I want to thank our viewers our listeners for spending time with us
today on a bonus episode of the Voices for Voices podcast until next time I am
Justin Alan Hayes and I hope you have a great day and be a voice for you or somebody in need
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
thank you
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