Hold the Door
A weekly podcast about how underrepresented folks are surviving and thriving in the entertainment industry. Stay connected on Instagram @holdthedoorpod.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the host and guests alone.
Hold the Door
Work-Life Balance with Alexis Bellamy
This week, Alexis Bellamy joins the podcast to discuss work-life balance. We talk about what it looks like to build a life worth balancing when work is a top priority for you, and how that "balance" may not always be 50/50, especially when your job requires irregular work hours.
If you want to keep up with Alexis, you can check out WDTN News 2.
Make sure to subscribe to Hold the Door on your favorite listening platform. You can also get updates on guests, episode releases, and more by following the show on Instagram @holdthedoorpod.
Camille: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests alone.
Alexis: waking up at one, maybe even earlier, trying to find what I can present to the people this morning. What is important, what matters, what's relevant right now? What's gonna change someone's day? You know, 'cause we are the first thing that you see.
We're the first thing you hear. So it needs to be relevant. It needs to be timely, and it needs to matter.
Camille: Hello, welcome to Hold the Door. I'm happy you're here. This week, Alexis Bellamy joins the podcast to discuss work life balance. We talk about what it looks like to build a life worth balancing when work is a top priority for you, and how that quote unquote balance may not always be 50 50, especially when your job requires irregular work hours. Hope you enjoy.
Alexis began her journey into broadcast journalism as an anchor at Old Dominion University's student run television newscast, ODU TV News - go Monarchs - as well as participating in countless media and journalism organizations. She then went on to earn a highly coveted internship with NBC affiliate, WAVY 10 in Norfolk, Virginia. Alexis graduated from Old Dominion University with a BS degree in communications.
Alexis started her career at WETM 18 News in Elmira, New York. As a weekend anchor/ producer and weekday reporter, she moved to Monroe, Louisiana and worked for KNOE/KAQY as an evening anchor and producer for two and a half years.
During her time in Monroe, she created a limited series called ArcLamiss Unsolved that highlighted high profile cold cases in the region. Alexis is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists .
Originally from the Tidewater area of Virginia, Alexis spent most of her years in Northern Virginia. When she isn't anchoring or reporting, alexis loves trying new restaurants, watching musicals, enjoying foreign films, and her newest hobby kickboxing.
Camille: welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.
Alexis: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
Camille: Of course. I'm so excited for you to be here.
I'm very excited about this topic because I think it's so relevant and relatable, literally at any stage of life, honestly. So, um, I'm excited to hear what you have to say and the way that I always start the podcast is just learning, like how did you get your start in the industry and was entertainment always the plan?
Alexis: I started, I think my very first introduction to, it was a little bit earlier than Old Dominion University. I went to Richard Bland Community College, also down in Southern Virginia. And while I was taking my general courses there I kind of dipped my toe into the waters there. Two totally different heads, but, I started with radio a little bit.
Mm-hmm. And just how I liked the difference. I started noticing the difference between. Um, radio broadcast and TV broadcast. And while I, of course didn't, you know, dabble too much in radio, I knew enough to know, okay, this is different. This is, you know, has its differences from tv. But I think I'd, you know, like to try tv.
But I also, I really appreciated it as a, as a medium to getting information out there. You're always listening to the radio. I mean, at least during that time you were always listening to the radio. Now there's so many different outputs and stuff. But that's where I think I'd started a little bit at the very beginning of my college career.
And it was, and it was radio and I haven't gone back again. I just still appreciate radio. I wish I would've stayed a little bit longer to learn a little bit more about it, but after that I just really just dive straight into broadcast.
Camille: So speaking of that whole world, can you give us the elevator pitch of the idea ideal career trajectory for a news anchor?
Alexis: Sure. Again, I'll, I'll break this down the best I can. So, I guess, how do I explain this? The market is broken down into around 210 DMAs, which stands for designated market areas.
When I was coming up in the ranks, it was understood that, you know, straight outta college, young journalists like myself would start, you know, super low, get as good as you can and work your way up. Um, my first station at WETM at News in Elmira, New York was I think 1 76. Um, I stayed there for a few months.
The standard contract is two years. I did not do two and a half years there. Spent like maybe six months there. Six months later I was at Monroe Louisiana did my whole two and a half years, and they were like 80. So you see the jump in the whole point is just continue to move upward. Actually, I'll re I'll rephrase that.
The whole point is to find somewhere where you are comfortable enough to work, live and grow in the community that you can present the news, the information, the things that people need to know, that is relevant to the people who live there. And if you can do that at a station that is number 90 or you know, if you like living in Anchorage, Alaska and you're fine with being at, you know, 200, that's great.
I, again, was brought up as like, you know, keep going up, up, up, up. So I went from a 76 or to like 80, and then Richmond, Virginia, which I recently left in April was 54 I think. So now I'm, you know, trying to go anywhere up from 54 is ideal for me.
Camille: And. First of all, that's really cool also to have the context of you kind of have to be of the people to give the news that
Alexis: yeah, you have to know exactly what is going on in the areas in which you live, and that is, that is just as easy or just as difficult as you'd like to make it.
As much as you are going to invest in the community in which you live and learn about the people, the industry, what's important to this group of people. What's, you know, what do people do to stay alive here? I recently did an interview with Green Bay, Wisconsin, and it was, it was interesting.
Like for example, I'll use them. Football is all that matters. Like football runs the world there because, you know, they have the, the Packers and that, you know, that's their industry. It employs people, you know, dairy farms. That's kind of, that's the kind of thing. So agriculture, so if I was going to go there, I probably would spend some time reading up on the history of dairy farms agricultural schools I probably would have to learn a little bit about football, I guess, 'cause that would be in the news. But, so it's stuff like that. And in Richmond, oh my gosh, that was just a, it's real city life. So all, it's totally different no matter where you go.
But the one thing that stays the same is really making sure that you are learning about the community no matter what, what's around
Camille: it. Yeah, I actually kind of love that. And just to clarify, so the market size relates to the population, right? So that like a top one would be like LA or New
York?
Alexis: New
York is number one.
Okay. So that's, and I guess that's a really good indicator. New York is number one and I believe Anchorage, Alaska is like 210. It was like in the 200s, so, you know, and then where I was was 54 Richmond, Virginia. Mm-hmm. And yeah, that's just, that's a good indicator I think. Okay. Yeah. 154 and like 200.
So, and then LA is of course top 10, DC is top 10 Chicago, big cities like that, so. And of course the, the higher the DMA is, the more competitive is to get in your foot, in the door in those things. Totally. And those places, excuse me. Makes sense.
Camille: And then before we get into like actual like work-life balance, just so we can kind of have the context around how this would look in the news world, what would be like a regular day in the life of a news anchor?
Alexis: So my, my job, I was a reporter at my previous station, my station, when I was in Louisiana. I was a anchor slash reporter. So I'll take you through what my life was like when I was reporting in Richmond, Virginia. So I actually am lucky enough to say that I was blessed enough to be able to work in all three of the different shifts that we had to offer at that station.
I'll say, I think the one that I liked the most, the one that I think I grew the most on was mornings. So that shift is from 2:30 AM to 11:30 AM So what that looked like for me,
Camille: basically nighttime.
Alexis: Yeah. And. There's three different shifts and I'll, I'll talk about those later. But the one I most recently came from was morning, So that's me going to sleep around 4, 5, 6.
Oh my gosh, sometimes seven or eight if I could just not sleep, waking up at one, maybe even earlier, trying to find what I can present to the people this morning. What is important, what matters, what's relevant right now? What's gonna change someone's day? You know, 'cause we are the first thing that you see.
We're the first thing you hear. So it needs to be relevant. It needs to be timely, and it needs to matter. It needs to be impacting to somebody. And so I would get up, I'll, you know, spend time looking at that and if there's breaking news, I could wake up and, you know, they could tell me, Hey, actually we don't know what your, what you were planning to pitch, but we just got, um, you just heard over the scanners that there's a double homicide over somewhere on the south side.
So you get in, grab your stuff and just head over there. That's how it would work sometimes. And then on days that weren't necessarily like that, it's like, okay you know, the mayor is going to be speaking on the new metal detectors that are going in elementary schools. We're gonna have you go to the press conference later this afternoon and you'll be fronting that this morning.
Or, hey, do a follow up piece to the park ranger who got shot on Bell Isle the other weekend.
Hmm. Um,
so stuff like that is essentially what we were looking for. And it's different looking in the mornings versus being a day side reporter. A day side is someone who literally works during the day, that's 9:30 to 6:30.
And those stories have to be a little bit more thought through, a little bit more collected, a little bit heavier 'cause you will have all day to do those. You'll have time to go out and talk to people. You'll have time to go out and gather information.
Mm-hmm.
Camille: It's like more of a package.
Alexis: It is. And that's actually what you would be collecting is literally a package of information, multiple pieces of sound from members of the community or officials in the community about the story that you are telling, the story that you are reporting. Whereas in the mornings that's not the case.
'cause no one's talking to me at 4:00 AM or 5:00 AM which is when my first hit is right. Going back to my mornings, clock in 2:30. My first hit is 4:59. I have a tease. And then it's five o'clock, 5:30 6:00, 6:30, you know, a little break in at 6:55 short break. And then nine o'clock, 9:30 you record it as live package for the noon, which is like a, a look live, you know?
Mm-hmm. Of what I covered this morning. And then, and then that's it. I shouldn't even say that's it. And then you are doing your web piece, you're putting that same story that you just told on the air all morning on online. And that's when you can really expand. That's when you can literally tell some of the, some more of the information that you didn't get to say during your ideally 30 seconds or maybe 40 seconds of when you were actually, you know, up there presenting the news 'cause that's about how long you have. No one wants to be really listening to something for two minutes.
Camille: Wow.
Alexis: The news is quick, you know? Continuously move through. Give me the information I need. How will affect me, impact me, and why do I care?
And that's another thing I'll say.
Something I actually have to learn is, okay, I have this story that matters to people here in Henrico. Okay. Why do people in Hanover or Richmond or Chesterfield or Luisa care about what's happening here? That's something I had to invest a lot of my time in.
It's being able to identify a story, why it matters here, and what is the bigger picture of this story. And I think that is just something that makes you a better journalist in the end. And, and I really, I liked being able to do that, look at a story and figure out how it impacts the people that don't just live in the immediate area.
Camille: And honestly I'm like, this sounds like it's making you a better person because it'll make you kind of naturally like more considerate and compassionate and just like aware of the people in the world around you. Yeah. Especially in the community you're literally living in.
Alexis: I'm not the same reporter, I'm not the same person, I'm not the same journalist that I was when I started at that station.
In what, October of 2021. I've grown in ways that I didn't even, I couldn't even see coming. Yeah. You know
Camille: So you had the morning, a lot of the morning shifts, and then there's the daytime shift, which I'm assuming is like the coveted shift.
Alexis: It is because you're definitely more of a person in that shift. You have more a semblance of a life. You know, you can, but I'll say had give and takes, like, you know, when are you gonna go to the doctor on a day side shift? I know if I wanted to get off, I could put my day, I could go put my hair down, I could go to the doctor's office.
You know, communication wasn't the same 'cause I'd be ready to call and sit on the phone with my friends and they're like, girl, I'm literally at work right now. Yeah. I'm like, oh, okay. Well that's fine. I mean, my day is all the way over and they're like, right. Cannot talk. So, yes. But Dayside was, I think more coveted because it's the more normal hours shift.
Yeah, yeah. It's
easier to have that work-life balance.
It is. There was another shift. It's Nightside. So that's 2:30 PM to 11:30 PM. And the night side shift covers, you know, the 11 o'clock show, which was the only show usually you were on in the nightside capacity. And then there's weekends. You can be on weekend, but that's also more of like a dayside shift on the weekends.
It's like 10 to seven. I think it was, and again, I don't think I said this, but all stations are different. This is just my experience with my station, in Richmond. And I'm sure once you get up probably to like DC or you know, New York, who knows, they may do things a little bit different, their shifts may look different, but most of them I do believe kind of, you know, mirror that same structure.
Camille: Yeah, that makes sense. I think that's like a good baseline to have for information 'cause I know this is new to me, so
Alexis: It is. And I didn't realize until like talking to my mom and they were asking questions and I'm like, my gosh, no, blah, blah blah. And they were like, well we really don't know except for what we see on like being Mary Jane and The Morning Show and Yeah.
And some of those shows. And I was like, oh yeah, you're right.
Camille: Nice. Okay, now we're gonna get into it okay, good. It's like we weren't already, yeah. So Dolly Parton once said, "don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life." So how would you kind of describe your personal approach to maintaining a balance at this stage in your life?
Alexis: Right now, I think since I know what I want, I know the things that, you know, I'm after are a little bit more well defined. I'll just give you a little bit of background. While I was at my previous station, the station before it, and even the station in New York, I was in a committed long-term relationship.
And then I was engaged and I had to end that in like late August. So for me. It was, I want, I don't wanna say easy 'cause it did come with a little bit of turbulence, but I was able to kind of mesh the two. I was kind of able to integrate the two very early on because, you know, like that was my one constant and my relationship outside of my jobs, was very easy to mesh into my life.
I had a lot of, believe it or not, and this may not be the case for everyone, but it wasn't very hard for me to I, it was an equal balance, I'll say. I don't feel like I was ever working too much and not going out enough. I'd never felt like, okay, I've been on four vacations this year and I've missed this many shows.
And I feel like that because I had the opportunity to start this journey with, you know, someone who kind of helped me with that. And then it started turning into making friends at work which also helped because they were on the same shifts or different shifts.
And then I think I'll say more recently at my previous station, I was, you know, you find people whose interests, whose hobbies are aligned with yours. I had, just a few friends, um, who colleagues turn friends, I'd say, who really helped me with that balance.
One of them was on the same shift that I was. So it was easy for, you know, us to be like, okay, you wanna go to get lunch? Do you wanna go to brunch? You know, it wasn't nearly as difficult because at least you had one. If you had, I feel like if you at least have someone in your corner who is doing the same thing, running that same journey with you, everything else will fall into place.
That work-life balance will just really, just you can just take your foot off the gas, but trying to make it happen, it will just, if that makes sense.
Camille: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that does, that does make sense. They're having a similar experience to you. It does. It's kind of like a natural alignment,
Alexis: right?
Yeah. And not to say that you can't make friends with people who are outside of the journalism world. So now that I'm really thinking about it for the first time, I don't think I had very many close companions who weren't in the same field as I was. And that's something I would, I would like to change at my next station, I think. I'm not sure how, but yeah, I would, I would like to. Yeah. But for the most part, it wasn't too difficult. Long story, long answer short, it was not widely difficult to maintain that work-life balance because the people I wanted to have that friendship and build that community with were trying to do the same thing just on a different schedule or on the same schedule, so it helped a lot.
Camille: Yeah. And I think i'm sure their like values were aligned where they can understand your career is important to you because it's important to me too. Mm-hmm. And then like we are being flexible with our schedules because we have to. And so I think that don't have a choice is sometimes like a really nice natural.
Mm-hmm. Where like, I feel like that's where conflict comes in when the values are mismatched.
Alexis: Exactly.
And again, it's, we all understood I can't make time for you because when you get off, I'm going to bed. Right. Or I've been up since 2:30 AM you know, sometimes I may not want to meet up with you at six, even if it is on a Friday.
And that's another part I guess. I don't mean to be jumping the gun here, but keeping your schedule is something totally different. You know, and that did also I think impact work-life balance because where I did have time, did I always want to go out and do something or man, do I want to sit here and veg out in the bed all day because I can, 'cause I've been running around.
Camille: Totally. And how was the adjustment when you started doing the morning shifts, because I imagine that, you know, part of your career, it's like you're learning and you're, you know, getting experience and whatever, but I'm assuming most of that training was happening at kind of normal work and school hours.
Yeah. And then once you kind of get into this space where you're like, okay, I'm on the job and I'm at these , new strange hours, was there a moment where you're like, okay, actually I really need to prioritize, working out at this time? Or like, if I am gonna schedule a dentist appointment, it needs to be at noon, otherwise I'm asleep in the chair.
And kind of did your values adjust when you had to get that new schedule or that was also natural?
Alexis: I think that was actually pretty natural because even though I'm not sure I would want to do this at my next station, I got the opportunity to work through all three, but I all three different schedules, all three different shifts rather.
But I was in each shift long enough to be able to reprioritize, reorganize, my work-life balance. On mornings, I would say scheduling was more of a conflict than identifying a good work-life balance, because even though I was doing mornings, there would be opportunities which I would always appreciate to fill in, anchor to be on the desk.
And that could mean you know, anchoring on a Saturday evening, evening on a night side shift, and then having to, you know, recalibrate my body for Sunday so I could get up at 2:30 AM on Monday. Mm. So those were the, so those were the kind of shifts that that I was working with. And luckily they didn't impact too much of my work-life balance, when I was going from dayside to Nightside or mornings. What I will say is all three of those shifts ask for something different from you. While you were still reporting, you're still a journalist, i'm not, I, there's, I'm not sure I would necessarily, let's say, pitch a story in the morning that I would pitch for days.
You know, or the story that I wanna pitch for dayside may not necessarily work for mornings. So I say one of my biggest challenges was navigating how to best, you know, apply what I've learned when I was training to this new shift. And then, you know, six months later I could be thrown back into the shift that I did when I first got here two years ago.
Camille: Yeah
Camille: And I'm curious also with that need to be part of the community and understand the community.
How does that factor into your time outside of work? Because you kind of have to, or I would imagine you need to participate in some of the activities and be at the grocery store with people and just kind of see what's going on and how they're living their lives. So that is, is that something you like purposefully worked in or it was like, I'll get enough just by living my life and how does that look?
Alexis: Nope. That had to be purposeful and I, I will honestly say Camille, I don't think I realized that until it was like almost too late that I can't make my connection with this community something that I'm doing in my off time. I wanted to go to NABJ meetings. I wanted to you know, the sitting in on council meetings, all of these things that to the outside may look like an extension of work.
And it may be, but I need to, I maybe I need to be sitting at this board meeting, at the school board meeting to get a better understanding of why they are in the long term, deciding to bring in trailers to the property, learning trailers, or add metal detectors to the school. Um, it's a lot of things that you can't do during your normal 2:30 AM or 11 to 11:30 AM shift, or 9:30 AM shift to 6:30 PM because you're, you're working then.
So yeah, you do have to take the time outside to, you know, to better understand the community, to understand the stories that you're pitching and. And again, I'll just say that's something I know to take with me to my, my next station. Like, okay, if this meeting's here on Friday, there goes my weekend, I'm going to sit in here. And I, you know, you may be sitting there and you may see someone from work who is actually working the story, and they'd be like, oh, what are you doing here?
Well, even though I'm not working this, I may not plan on pitching this. This is something that will help me strengthen my relationship with this community. Maybe next time this will help me understand why this protest or whatever is happening is such a big deal.
And of course, that's not the only way you join the Facebook groups. You, you know, just talk to people when you're out. Sometimes people will just look at you and be like, I know you. Oh, you blah, blah, blah. Oh, and then they'll just start talking to you. They'll just start, you know, sharing information.
And that's only one way, that's only one path. And, but another path is really being a part of the community. And that's something you really had to try. I'm not saying I, I, I wasn't, you know, the best at it, but I wish I would've just gone harder at that because that helps you become a stronger reporter, a stronger journalist.
Totally.
Camille: And a stronger community member.
Alexis: Yeah. For where you live. Yeah. And you have to be there for two years.
It's at least, right? So this isn't like, oh, I've done, I've been here for six months. This isn't it for me. I'm ready to go. That's not how this works. So you do have to make sure that you are invested and you want to grow and learn in the community that you're working and reporting in.
Yeah. Which is something else I have to now take into account since we're talking about it.
Camille: So how do you I mean, I'm sure you're going, you go through like job interviews and stuff when you're looking at new stations, but how do you look at the community and figure out like, can I invest here?
Is it worth me building a personal life here and not just coming here for work, knowing that it's gonna be probably like two plus years?
Alexis: I'd say identifying the demographic is a big thing and I, I almost hate that it is, but that is important. For me, I'd like to be, you know, somewhere where I can see some resemblance of myself and the people who I'm representing and who I'm storytelling to.
Mm-hmm. Another thing I guess is proximity. How close am I to, like, if I wasn't gonna go somewhere that's a major city, how close am I to a major city that maybe does have some of the things that I'm looking for? And I, I think I will say proximity to home. Is it a flight or a car ride? Can I get there by train? Some of the factors that also matter to me are. How many people stay there? Like mm-hmm. You know, is this a, a hometown? Is this a towny place?
Or you know, do you guys get a lot of people coming, you know, in and out. A lot of people that are only here for kind of like a military ish town, which again, I don't have an issue. 'cause that's where I've Yeah, you grew up in that. Exactly. We both grew up in that. Exactly. So, so those are, did that answer it, Camille?
But those are the things that I'm, I'm thinking about.
Camille: Yeah.
I think that makes sense because I do think, you know, when anyone is trying to relocate, those are some of the things that they think about. But I, or at least when you don't have kids, I don't know that you pay as much attention to the community itself.
Exactly. And it's just like, what's my paycheck gonna look like? Am I gonna have a nice house? You know, kind of like the more really basic logistics and I think mm-hmm. And, and you know, I think vibe is probably what people would be like. Oh, like I didn't really, yeah. Feel comfortable there. But I think, you know, knowing that you're gonna have to be in the community in a real way, you have to, it's like another level.
Yeah.
Alexis: And I'll add to that. I'll say
Camille: And I guess if the community will accept you, I feel like that's kind of part of
Alexis: it is. And that's exactly where I was gonna say my final point to that was going to be like in my wildest dream, do I feel like I could settle here? Is this a place that I feel like I could make myself a permanent fixture in if I wanted to?
And again, that's maybe a little bit difficult to do 'cause you can't base your life, your next move, your position, especially in this business where, you know, most people, some people are moving every like me, I've moved every two and a half to three years. And that is a big one, is being able to see, can I picture myself living here?
Let's say I fell in love with this job. They wanna promote me to, you know, morning anchor on the weekends. Could I re-sign and live here for a total of five more years? What if I fall in love here? So I hate to say you kind of have to day daydream a little bit.
Camille: Yeah. Which actually that's nice.
Alexis: You think so?
Camille: Yeah. I don't I don't know that I do that, and I feel like that is a good thing to do and I mm-hmm. Because I, I think for me, I'm like, oh, it's nice here. And I might not be thinking like, past, you know, yeah. A year, past the lease basically.
Mm-hmm.
So I think that's,
Alexis: that was a really well way of putting it past the lease.
Yeah. Yeah, because anything could happen. Anything could happen. So it goes both ways.
That was a good question. I hope I answered it well,
Camille: thank you. No, I think you did. And actually, now that I'm thinking about it, because we both have this military upbringing. Mm-hmm. I am wondering, like me thinking out loud processing this, I'm like, I wonder if I don't think past the lease because we didn't really have a choice where we were gonna live.
Alexis: Hello?
Camille: And it was like, go, go there and maybe find a place that you feel comfortable, but it's still gonna be in this area. And if you can't find a place that you feel comfortable, like, sorry, you're gonna be there for however long we tell you, and then you can move. But like, you basically have to figure it out.
So I think the. I wasn't like trained. In the daydreaming and the like. You figure out the best you can and you're looking for the good school system mm-hmm. And all of that. Mm-hmm. But I think there's a level of "this is just how it is" and that really was revolving almost solely around work.
Alexis: Yeah. And to, to both of our, um, I'm not trying to alienate any viewers who may just be only children or have small families, but to both of our credit, like we weren't, I was, I was not by myself. I had the luxury of, you know, true running to my sister, my little sister. You know, I have my, my little brother here.
I was never truly, man, I'm in this town by myself. It's
Right. Nope.
All seven of us are, are going. So, I don't know. So daydreaming does matter. And I guess that does also help me impact it or, um, envision it. Because while I'm like, yeah, I, I think I could do this here. Can I do this by myself here? As opposed to having mm-hmm.
Living in the military with our families and things. So,
Camille: yeah.
Camille: And for now, in this like stage of your career and life and process where you're decided to kind of like do a break after this last session, or not session, but contract.
Yeah.
Contract.
And then, and you're now in the midst of a job search.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Camille: How are you prioritizing like your personal
Alexis: I am picky. Okay. I'm so picky with the. With the acknowledgement, with the thought that, you know, I'm gonna make my next move as close to perfect as I can get. Because if I can help it, I would like to, you know, not have to pick up and move after, you know, my two and a half years or three years there, which is what I was hoping for my previous station.
But again, you know, like the old saying goes, tell God your plans and you know, he'll tell you, he'll laugh. Yeah. And he'll exactly, he'll laugh. Which is exactly what happened. I thought I was going to, you know, get another job opportunity. I didn't, I thought I was gonna get married. I didn't. And you know, it's really just a reaction to that.
And now that's just helped me. Like I know exactly what I'm looking for. Um, I don't know where it's gonna be, but I could write it down if I wanted to. I can write down, I want a newsroom full of senior journalists who can help form me, mold me, continue to mold me actually 'cause again, I feel like I've really grown and in my confidence from my previous station, but.
Camille: Right.
Alexis: I'm still looking to develop, I'm still looking to, um, to get to that next step is it's like Big J journalism. So we have like little J journalism, big J journalism, I'd say, like right in the middle. And I'm trying to get to my Big J and that's one of my big things is can I go to somewhere with people who can continue to build on what I already have?
And that's non-negotiable. Can I go somewhere where I can see growth? If I'm gonna start as a reporter, that's fine, but is there room for me to become, you know, weekend anchor, and the reporter during the week.
So I will just say what I want is more clear cut now because I've seen what I've had and how I wanna grow and develop it. So it's easy for me to point to what I do want now and how I plan to get it. I will say
Camille: Yeah, no, that totally makes sense.
Camille: What tips do you have for folks who are struggling to find a balance between work and other non-work priorities?
Alexis: Center yourself. Put yourself at the center of whatever it is you're trying to do and see what comes to you when it comes to your work-life balance.
If you feel like right now I'm not going as hard as I need to be, you're probably right. And then you probably need to go out a little bit less. You probably do need to, you know, read this book. Like you really have to tune things you really, really do.
You won't lie to yourself. You know yourself, and be open to what you are seeing around you, because sometimes you don't even have to rely on yourself to figure out if your work life balance is equal. It'll be the things happening in the universe around you. Like if I was to become weekend anchor, I'd be reporting three days a week, and if I'm reporting three days a week and in pitch meetings, I'm noticing that, hmm, now my stories aren't getting selected. You know, they're not like, "Ooh, Alexis, we like that, run with that." And so like, "Ooh, nice. We'll do this instead." That's the universe telling you right there, that your work-life balance is off, or that you aren't going as hard in work as you, as you should be.
Or if you're like, Hey, um, you know, families like you have not been, you know, coming home nearly as often. It's like, wow, I've missed two birthdays, a Christmas or a graduation and reunion. You know, your little niece is like, who is that again? That's also the universe. Oh no, that's also the, that one hurts, but that's also the universe telling you something.
So I will say, while you center yourself, don't make it all about yourself. Be open to what the universe is trying to tell you what the people, the environment around you is trying to tell you. That's what I will say. Trust yourself. You may not be going as hard as you think you are, and if you are, you will see that in the reflection of exactly what you do.
Camille: Mm, yeah. That's good.
Camille: Okay, and final question that I'm asking everyone this season, if you were currently in kindergarten, what would you bring in for show and tell?
Alexis: So this is my mic flag that Oh, cool. Like on my stick mic. So just like yours. So yeah.
Camille: Also. For the listener. A mic flag is that little box that goes on the mic that,
Alexis: yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, so it's a square cube, four sides. That way, no matter how I'm holding it, you can see where I am, what station I work for, and you're not supposed to really do this, but when I was leaving my station, I'm like, I, I'm taking this like I can say this scratch is from when I dropped it, when I was running down that hill, or this is from when I nicked it from when I, you know, was swinging around 'cause I was so bored, you know, between airtime.
But I would say this and I just hold it here and it's symbolic to me. Yeah, totally. And even if, again, I guess I would have to, maybe this isn't the best for a kindergarten, but it's like a, this to me, it's like a, something I can touch and reflect on the memories that I had while I was literally like holding it up to my face while I was trying to work.
Totally. And this will change. Like I'll get another one of these on my next station. Yeah. And I guess that's why I took it, because they're not gonna be the same. So I would say my mic flag.
Camille: I love that.
Alexis: Yeah.
Camille: That was a perfect perfect show and tell, I think. Was it? Was it okay? Yeah. I love it.
Alexis: That's what it would be. My mic flag.
Camille: And it's so specific to your work too. I'm like, nobody has that.
Alexis: Exactly.
Camille: I love that.
Camille: Well, Alexis, thank you so much for joining and sharing your experience really, and just talking about, I, I really feel like work life balance is so hard because it's just constantly changing. Like you're in a different part of life, your work is changing, whatever. And so it's always recalibrating like, okay, what is it now? What is it now? So I think this is so helpful to talk about and just hear how things are going, especially in the news world where the shift times are even just
Alexis: things change all the time. Mm-hmm. All the time. Like the one sure thing that will always change is change. Yeah. Like of course in news, but I think in, in all things, it just happens in, in real time. I think in news.
Camille: Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much and I appreciate you being here, and I'm excited for everyone to hear.
Alexis: Thank you for having me.
Camille: Of course.
Thanks for listening to my conversation with Alexis. Since the recording of this episode, Alexis has started her next role as a digital Anchor at WDTN News 2, a TV station in Dayton Ohio where she’ll be at the helm of their soon-to-launch live digital news platform. If you want to keep up with her, you can find her social media accounts in the show notes.
Please subscribe to the show anywhere you get your podcasts and leave a review to let me know what you think. You can also get updates on guests, episode releases, and more by following the show on Instagram @holdthedoorpod.
I'll be back next week with an episode exploring mentorship. See you then.
