Thursday Therapy – Mosher Media Podcast January 22, 2026

Thursday Therapy is a brief window of opportunity to call out challenges and issues and then turn it over to the Mosher Media Podcast audience to provide insight, feedback, ideas and solutions. Send in your biggest challenges and problems and see if we can crowd source the solution! dan@moshermedia.com

Video transcript:

Mosher Media podcast.
Welcome back to the Mosher Media podcast
and welcome to our new series we’re
going to call Thursday therapy. And of
course, for a lot of guys, there’s a
stigma about therapy. And let’s just put
it out there right now that mental
health challenges and struggling with
your mental health is normal and part of
the human experience. And if you know
someone who is struggling and and
frankly in this era in this world with
all that we’re faced with and the
challenges of the work that we do and
the things that we’re trying to
accomplish in life certainly at times
maintaining good mental health can be a
huge challenge. Maintaining good
physical health your spiritual
well-being all of it can certainly be
a challenge. Financial health every
aspect of it can be a challenge. But
what I want to do is call this segment
Thursday therapy. And I would like to
make an appeal to those out there who
are operating a small business, running
a business, doing the work that they
love, like me, doing something
that you’re passionate about and that
you would be doing, whether you need
the money or not. You just love what you
do and you love the industry that you’re
in. What I want to do is crowdsource
solutions to some of the challenges and
problems that we face. My email
dan@moshermedia.com
and I would love to hear from you. I
would love to hear from you as to why
you might watch or listen to this
podcast. What challenges are you facing?
And I believe that a good number of
members of our audience, people who
subscribe and follow and might watch and
listen, are in the creative field. They
probably own a business or they probably
work in broadcasting or media or
advertising. And even if you don’t, we
would love to hear from you. And I
really would like to put together a
collection of the biggest challenges
we’re facing in business. And of course,
if you’re a business owner, you wear a
lot of hats. You are HR. You are like
me, the salesperson. You’re the
marketing person. You probably also like
some IT and operations or whatever the
core product or service is that your
business is providing. You’re probably
good at it. And you’re probably good at
recruiting other people who are good at
it to work with you. And then at the
same time, you’re probably good at
finding clients that see the value in
what you and your team do. You go out
and you put it all together and you
somehow find a way to make a living. And
so in all of that, there are great
challenges and a lot of war stories and
we could probably learn a lot from our
audience. So what I want to do is throw
it out there that we want to hear from
you and we want to make the entire Moer
Media podcast, all of the different
series and programs that we do all about
offering a solution, maybe some
inspiration. I get a lot of ads on
social media on my Facebook or LinkedIn
for companies that will come in and sell
for me for a fee. They will show me how
to find new business, run my company, uh
get new clients on retainer. Those that
are in the creative services industry
probably know what I’m talking about
where you get these emails or these ads
on your feed that say, you know, we can
find you new clients,
get your clients to pay you a retainer
and buried, I believe, in these
discussions, in these podcasts, I’ve
probably given away uh anything I’ve
ever learned. And of course, it’s free.
And of course, you know what free advice
is worth? Maybe the insight and the tips
and tricks and things I’ve provided
since they’re free are worth just that.
That’s always a possibility. But I
couldn’t imagine running a business
model where I charge uh for the uh you
know telling people how to get new
business. The reality is that
information is already out there. The
hardest part is just doing it. The
motivation to keep it going. The
motivation to pick up the phone and call
people you don’t know about. That’s an
old school thing. The dialing for
dollars, the prospecting, the way you
used to do it when you were really
hungry for new business, when you had
the entrepreneurial spirit, that startup
energy that exists. And that’s not
always in a group of young people. Of
course, you always hear the stories of
folks that found themselves and made it
big later in life and spent their whole
life trying to figure out how to make a
business work. And I think there’s
the story of the fella that did Kentucky
Fried Chicken uh that that you know the
coming up with Colonel Sanders and the
KFC and the 11 herbs and spices
didn’t come to that entrepreneur until
he was in his 50s or 60s. That just
came to my mind. I’ll have to Google
that to see that if it’s if it’s true.
But I remember that being one of those
business cases where this person wasn’t
18 or 20 like Mark Zuckerberg uh
coming up with the idea for Facebook in
college. he was much later in life
came up with the idea for Kentucky Fried
Chicken. Uh but I want to know what’s
standing in the way of your success and
what do you see as the the biggest
obstacle to growing or scaling up or
taking it to the next level or maybe
even the biggest obstacle to just
keeping it in business. And I love the
stories also about those who have worked
for 20 or 30 years and might be doing it
just for the illusion of employment.
There is a thing where let’s say you
start a business when you’re 18 and
let’s say just as a hypothetical let’s
say you’re 51 you’ve been doing the same
thing 33 34 years and maybe 10 or 15
years ago you started I don’t know like
a simple IRA or some just a total
hypothetical not related to anyone that
I know and then that IRA did okay uh but
it’s not something you can touch or
withdraw from until you’re 62. Maybe you
have some other investments. Maybe you
own your house and you got this and some
other real estate or maybe another
business that you were involved in and
all of those things are going well, but
those aren’t liquid assets. You’re not
ready to go off to Florida and lay on
the beach for the rest of your life. And
if you love what you do, you don’t want
to do that anyway. But if you’re in a
situation where you’re in your 50s and
you really have to keep working, uh
maybe just again for the illusion of
employment, maybe because you would be
bored sitting at home. I know a lot of
retirees that are not retired and they
are in their 70s and they’re still doing
what they did their entire career and
they love it. And I one the other day I
said thought you were retired. It’s like
no I love what I’m doing. I’m just I’m
not I’m not sitting at home and and also
if you work your whole life there’s
nothing wrong with enjoying your
retirement and playing golf and doing
all of that. No dig on that crowd at
all. I will tell you that I have
operated Moer Media, this business, my
entire adult life. And I have now joked
that there’s such a gap on my resume
that perhaps now I’m unemployable. And
could you imagine if I I went into an
employer, a corporate media job, or
maybe a job in PR? I’m not even sure
what I would apply for, but there’s such
a gap on my resume. How do you explain?
Well, I haven’t had a job in 30 years. I
mean, I guess, you know, when I was 25,
I was bartending. That was a blast. You
know, when you’re early in your career
and you’re getting the business off the
ground, it’s not paying the bills or you
have all hopes and dreams, but you need
rent money. You bartend, you work
retail, you do whatever you need to do,
but I have a pretty tremendous gap on my
resume. And and I think that’s okay. And
I was talking with someone who I
deeply respect and admire. And this
person is retired. And this person does
so much in the community and at
his church and is a caregiver in his
family. Just an amazing person. And a
person this person worked for a very
large corporation and it’s a it’s a
company I’m very familiar with and a
company I have done some work for. And I
had been in their world headquarters,
very major US corporation. And I saw
him and I said, you know, we were
talking. I said, I could not imagine
badging in and badging out and and
working for a big corporation. I’m just
not I’m just not wired that way. It’s
just not my thing. and he very quickly
said, you know, I couldn’t imagine
operating a small business where I
didn’t have the financial resources or
the resources to do big things and how
restrictive or limiting that would be
facing the challenge of operating a
small business with, you know, the big
corporation has the large resources to
do big projects and to take on big ideas
and open new stores or do things and and
a small business might not. And boy, it
occurred to me, I hope I didn’t offend
him when I said this, that I couldn’t
badge in and work for a corporation
because he immediately said I couldn’t
run a small business without because I
wouldn’t have the resources to run a
business. And I that just struck me as
why would I say something like that? And
I might even cut up this clip and
send it to him because I never
apologize. It was just an exchange of
thoughts and ideas. I I am certain that
he knows how much I I respect and admire
because he was extremely successful and
the last thing you want to do as a this
happened probably 10 years ago as an
entrepreneur is offend somebody you have
respect for. So there’s that story
and I thought again about cutting up
this segment. And I knew I’d tell this
story and I thought maybe I’d I’d cut it
up and just send it to him as a as just
a not to be funny but just to say, “Hey,
you know, uh I respect and admire you
and now you get to hear it on on video.”
But speaking of cutting things up and
speaking of maybe learning new things,
later in life and kind of adjusting
with the times,
sometimes you need to do what the
interns suggest. And for several years
now, maybe maybe the past two years or
so, our students in our intern program
have suggested that all the programs we
do and the content need to be cut up and
put on Instagram for shorts or reals and
YouTube has shorts and everything is
much better in 60-second clips. And at
first I thought what they were trying to
say is that I talk too much and that
that I go on too long. And anyone who
listens to these podcasts knows that is
absolutely true.
So I started to think about why wouldn’t
I do what the interns are suggesting?
Why do I have to think in my mind that
my best adviserss need to be much older
than me? This is a mistake. You can
teach an old dog new tricks. And perhaps
it’s the next generation of rising stars
in the media business and those just
coming out of college that are the ones
that we should be listening to. So I did
start cutting up clips out of these
podcasts and putting them uh 9 by 16.
So here we go. Early in my career,
right, TV was 4 by 3, right? And I was
perfectly happy with, of course, the the
movies are widescreen and here we are on
a wide screen right now, right? Unless you’re watching this as a cut up
reel, then it’s a 9 by6 where the it’s
vertical. It’s the aspect ratio just
flips 90 degrees. I’m sure most
everybody in the audience understands
this concept, but many of the old school
videographers or television producers or
those in media are just like, “We’re not
doing this. We’re not.” Because it it
makes you think of taking video on a
phone. And I I’m sure you’re aware that
many in the professional video
production world were adamantly opposed
for a long time about anything shot on a
phone. very threatening if you’re making
your living shooting video
professionally on a 20 or $30,000 camera
and somebody comes along and does a nice
piece of video on a phone. This is
not good is is the general consensus in
the in the video production crowd. But
the reality is that we have to adjust
for the trends and the times and so many
viewers are consuming media while
holding their phone upright that if you
want your video to be seen, you have to
conform. you have to take the video and
adjust it for 9 by6 viewing. And so I
started doing it and I got to tell you I
was uh disappointed in the success I
should say because now I I have a
podcast like this where I talk for 15
minutes. I I try to keep it to 15
minutes so I could post it to LinkedIn.
And then I watch the analytics and
people drop off. But then I’m posting
these shorts and reels to uh Facebook
and YouTube as as 60-second clips of
just sound bites of the stories I’m
telling. And a video that got 50 views
on YouTube as the fulllength version
will get 5,000 views as a a short. And
so you know this works. listen to the
interns and listen to those advising
you. Even if you at first you think,
well, you know, I’ve been doing this 30
years. I know what I’m doing. This this
can’t possibly work because I didn’t
think about it or I didn’t think of it
or I didn’t know about it and all of
that. Um, you know, adjust with the
times and listen uh to the rising stars
around you because that they’re the next
generation and they’re going to take
this and run. Uh, one of the things that
when I throw out uh, hey, let’s look at
our biggest business challenges. One
thing I always hear is I can’t find
crew. I can’t find people. And in
smaller markets, like here we are in
Akran, Ohio, my hometown, what I think
is the greatest city on the planet. Uh,
the second greatest city on the planet’s
New York City. Love going out there.
That’s that’s a whole different
discussion for a different day. But I
stayed in my hometown partially because
of some great clients here, my family,
uh my parents, and um you know, great
place to uh raise kids and and uh the
cost of living here. The list goes on
and on, but not what we’re here to
discuss today. But what I hear is that
it’s difficult to find crew. And that
can be true in a smaller market. if I
operated a video production company in
Eerie, PA or De Moines, Iowa, uh name a
name any small market that you know
sometimes in in in a lot of fields uh
but in the creative field especially uh
folks tend to be attracted to New York
or LA or bigger markets Atlanta,
Chicago, so on and so forth and does
that make it harder to find qualified
talent in Akran Ohio? So, one solution
rather than gripe about it, if this is
Thursday therapy and I just come on here
and just unload everything that’s
bothering me, might be a better idea to
just talk about the solutions. And I’ve
talked about our student intern program
that we put into a nonprofit. We
actually created a nonprofit called
Akran Community Studios. And the idea is
that nonprofit organizations in the
Akran area can come in to this facility
that the nonprofit raises money to pay
for. Pay for the rent and the computers
and electricity and internet, everything
you need for students to produce
content. And there’s a place where uh in
a creative space, executive directors of
nonprofits or people doing great things
in the community can come in and work
closely with college students. And you
get two benefits here. Number one, our
college students get outside of the
college bubble portfolio material. So,
we have a college student wants to get
into media and they do a short film at
the at the campus. That’s wonderful. And
I’m sure they I know they I’ve watched
them. They all look great and they’re
doing great work. But what some
employers want to see are projects that
are produced outside of the independent
film student film world and things they
did in the community or things that have
maybe more of a corporate or marketing
sort of feel and doing a video to help
promote a nonprofit is a great way to do
that. And then of course the nonprofit
organization gets a video and they
rarely have funds to be doing video
content and sometimes they have somebody
internally helping but it’s it’s not a
good use of their resources. So, it’s
sort of a win-win. And also, I get a
chance in in working with these students
and bringing in everybody I know to
coach and mentor at this program. I get
a chance to see how we can coach and
mentor those who want to be in this
business to make them employable. So,
rather than say, well, you know, we
can’t find anybody. kids coming out of
blah blah blah all that kind of stuff.
What could you do in your business or
your industry to be mentoring, coaching,
training, fostering?
And the problem is that of course some
business owners feel like, well, I don’t
want to be doing a lot of free coaching
or free training because what if I’m
training an employee or a candidate or
an individual who’s this then just going
to go work for my competitor? I don’t
want to be spending my time to train my
competitors, future employee employees.
And it reminded me of my son wanted to
go to uh trucking school and there is a
great need for truckers, commercial
drivers right now in the United States.
This is a high demand sort of thing. And
I don’t know a lot about it. Uh but he
wanted to go he to this trucking school
that was a part of a trucking company.
And so he called me, he said, ‘Hey,
would you, you know, he’s 20 years old.
I love him. He’s a kid’s brilliant and
he could do anything he wanted, but he
didn’t have $7,000. And he called me, he
said, ‘ould you co-sign for the
financing for the training at the
trucking program? And I I thought for a
second, well, if it’s within the
trucking company, why wouldn’t they just
He’s got a clean driving record. I I let
him drive starting at age 15. Uh we have
the the company uh trailer, so he would
always drive our pickup truck or, you
know, with a trailer on the back, and he
got good at that. We’d go out to the
lake in the summertime and he got good
at backing the boat into the water and
where I’d be on the boat at the dock and
I’d hand him the key and he was good at
going up to the parking lot and getting
the truck and backing the trailer in.
And I remember when he was 16 doing
that. I thought he’d probably be a good
truck driver. Um, you know, takes a lot
of, you know, not everybody can be a
truck driver. Takes a lot of uh ability.
Uh, certainly, by the way, truck
drivers, best drivers on the road. Uh,
it’s the people in the cars that cause
accidents. just for the record. Anyway,
that part I do know about trucking, but
the trucking school was $7,000. And it
occurred to me, why wouldn’t the
trucking company cover that cost and
then just say, “Hey, we’re going to take
the cost of that out of your first
paycheck, and if you don’t stay with us,
uh we will just you’ll owe us the money
for the training.” And so, I couldn’t I
I didn’t know why that deal didn’t exist
for him or is that a thing? uh but why
can’t we be doing more to train those
who have an interest in whatever
industry we are in and I would love to
hear stories of companies private
employers who have taken the initiative
on training especially in the trades and
I don’t want to take away anything from
the trade schools and colleges certainly
doing an excellent job educating uh but
for for some candidates the cost uh is
prohibitive the the lifestyle situations
of paying for training while working
somewhere somewhere else and you know if
you’re not living at home if you’re the
housing and if you know we all know we
got to have food and shelter this is not
something new um but I through our
intern program love the idea of
providing a creative space for those who
want to learn and you say well why
couldn’t we just why does it have to be
a nonprofit why couldn’t you just do
this in your business would it be
possible at a construction company to
have an unpaid intern or a class of
people just learning. And I’m going to
tell you not to uh take away anything
from uh folks in HR or at the Ohio uh
Department of Workers Compensation. Very
important to have workers comp
insurance, of course. Uh and the lawyers
uh the HR lawyers, all those who worry
about liability to business. They do not
want anyone in your business working
that is not on the payroll. Now, if you
have a college student that is doing
their required 150 hours, which is what
a lot of colleges require, at least in
the media business. So, if a candidate
goes and works at the radio station or
the TV station, they’re really
shadowing. And those opportunities in
media typically are not paid uh because
of the tremendous number of students in
these programs and there just aren’t
really any job opportunities and the the
media business, radio, television, all
of it struggling to begin with to to pay
the people they have in some cases. Uh
so the internships are not paid uh
simply because of supply and demand or
any a number of issues and internships
are actually going away in media. And
I’m wondering if that’s the same in
other industries. You can’t have a
person at your business working or
shadowing or what have for a long period
of time, say a couple of weeks to do an
internship in the summer if they’re not
on the payroll or covered or workers
comp. the colleges will accept some of
the liability if you have somebody
that’s actually getting college credit.
Some of the lawyers that have advised me
and the HR professionals uh who who
advise me tell me that it’s okay to have
an unpaid intern shadowing or observing
uh even if they’re not on the payroll uh
because they are in college and the
colleges and that the college situation
helps to absorb or insulate your
business from that liability.
But I want to hear your thoughts and
challenges on all of this as we work
through, we’ll call it Thursday therapy.
Let’s crowdsource the solutions. Um,
let’s make Thursday therapy a place
where we can share our challenges. You
can share them anonymously. I’d love to
tell your stories or or share with the
audience things that we’re hearing from
around uh the country as far as what
entrepreneurs are facing. uh and not
just you know a shop like ours with you
know six or eight employees and a very
niche creative field of video production
and photography and uh animation and and
motion graphic design and corporate
video all of that stuff that we’re is
becoming is well it’s always been very
niche. Um but wouldn’t it be fun if we
could uh crowdsource solutions to uh the
problems that small business owners are
facing? I’d love to be doing that. And
Thursday therapy could be a place to set
up a problem. Let’s gripe about it, but
let’s come up with a solution. Let’s do
it together. My email danmodia.com
and I would love to be doing Thursday
therapy every Thursday talking about
what we can do to make the world a
better place to make our businesses
stronger and to support those who want
to come into the industries that we
love. It’s very important, I believe, to
support the next generation. Uh to see
those who uh want to aspire uh to be in
the industry that we’re passionate
about. Let’s pay it forward. Again,
dan@moerdia.com.
Send me an email. Love to hear your
thoughts. Thanks for watching.
Moer Media podcast.