Valerie's Variety Pod

episode 47 season 1

Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast with your host me Valerie Moss and today is our 1st Birthday Episode 47, yes Valerie’s Variety Podcast just turned one. This episode will reflect back on this last year and what we’ve been through together and some of our favourites. Enjoy the episode.

Why a Podcast?

When I decided to start a podcast I needed an outlet, I’m always on the go and require purposeful stimulation in my life constantly. If you ask my husband he’d say his ‘busy wife’. If I’m not sorting through and straightening up my closet or Londons I’m planning a dinner party or planning a night out with friends. I quilt, I sew, I scrapbook, clean, take care of myself… etc.. I like to be engaged and living a life of purpose. With my job as a project manager I’m in a world of change my corporate life is also full of pivots and turns – which matches my personality greatly.

Where was I before?

Previously, I ran a quilting business out of my home, I blogged as a career and had quite an extensive following but when I sold my business and moved back into the corporate world my blogging dwindled as it was quilting focussed and I no longer fed this online blog. Fast forward several years, I’m a mom now of a 7 year old daughter London, I’m back in the corporate world and still looking for a platform to influence and share my life experience. I chose podcasting. Learning how to talk into a microphone, then edit what I said and edit what I said – add loops and details was all part of the fun. And did you know the older you get you need to continuously learn to stimulate your brain so it stays strong – this was also a deliberate strategy.

Try something new today and see how much it helps you – plus you’ll have a stronger purpose. My Soki (Karate Leader) once said, you have to work that pose longer and it’s really hard BUT you’ll be stronger for it. You have to work hard at something until it’s easy – this resonated with me.

Valerie’s Variety Podcast – the Name!

When I came up with the name I knew I wanted it to be a ‘variety’ show but I wasn’t sure of what to call it. Almost every-time I say Valerie’s Variety Podcast I hear a kazoo in the background and can almost see a circus act. There’s a few pods out there with the word variety in the name so I know I’m not alone in the idea of a random show, a show that’s non specific not just one genre or subject matter that gets discussed each and every week.

Then I got show music produced and written by Jason Schell for my show – I was humbled and honoured and I love it TASCAM 40! This name TASCAM 40 I chose for it because Jason didn’t give it a name lol TASCAM is the type of recording device he used and this was his 40th production within it – so TASCAM 40 it is!

In Episode 3 , Haunted Dean House I told the story about where we got married at the Deane House in Historic Fort Calgary. I love sharing my personal stories with you and providing background. This Deane House holds a special spot in my life, it is haunted, someone was murdered!

Episode 5 , Intruder in Mount Pleasant was a difficult episode to talk about, we were robbed and came upon him in our garage – this was a horrible experience and unfortunately one I won’t soon forget. London every once in a while discuss’ the Robber and even recently had a dream of a robber breaking into our home and shooting us with poisonous darts…Yes this is still very real to us. They never caught him…

Some of my favourite episodes were the interview ones, there will be more on the horizon. Is there anyone you’d like me to interview? Someone’s wife or husband – someone’s daughter or son? Maybe an old Boss that was your favourite? Wouldn’t this be fun to send me, Valerie Moss to go interview someone and get the ‘story’ that you’ve been wanting to know for many years?

As a side note: There’s an app called “Somebody” app that people can put a request into and some random stranger will deliver the message for you – in person. Pretty neat hey? It goes like this…so you want to tell a special someone that you love them, they live in another city, you live here – instead of sending flowers or a text or a call, you get the “somebody” app to find this person and deliver the news to them – a random stranger, would you do this?

I digress, back to my interviews, with my step sister Janice in Episode 6, Broadcasting for Corrections, my Dad Michael in Episode 8 Expatriate in Qatar, Born in Calgary, my soon to be step brother in law Darrin in Episode 7, Interview with a Warden, Jen owner of Thrifty Princess Consignment store in Episode 13 and Jason Schnell my music man – these were by far the most fun, I was relatively new at podcasting and producing this was fun for me and the guests were great! Also being interviewed and auditioning for a couple of shows gave me a different perspective. Favourite line from one of my guests? ” I would like to sit and talk to Jesus…”

All the episodes I’ve done reviewing a restaurant or two or many, this will be a staple on this show moving forward as I love to dine in a good place with good people – enjoying the ambiance, music and company plus when the food is great – you can bet an episode will blossom from it. I still love the story of humanity in Episode 26 Review: Ten, 5 & Humanity that I witnessed at the second cup on 17 avenue SW – the workers were kind to the sleeping man with his orange rock.

Episode 12, Q & A Between Mom and 6yo will be a good keeper for a long time, sharing this moment with my daughter – question and answer style. If you want your child to be on the show and have questions you’d like to ask or have me ask I’d love to – what a keepsake. Interview kids is very fun, takes us back to having a good imagination not a made up one. Best part of this episode is ‘plactic cheese’.

When I got into investigating Calgary, I found a couple of articles from the 1970’s that piqued my curiosity. Why the 70’s because I was born in the 70’s so I thought this would be a good place to start. These two stories hook-line-sinker – I was interested.

The first one being about two missing girls – still not solved almost 40 years later . Interestingly, this is by far the most popular show by hundreds of downloads that I produced. I almost think the people who tuned in to listen, read and review this episode and show notes just might know something. Why so much interest around this case. Obviously because it’s still COLD and obviously the people listening want to know more, maybe I find the person and assist in solving this case. We will see…this story isn’t finished yet. Need a refresh Episode 18, Calgary Cold Case 1976 Patsy McQueen & Ava Dvorak.

The Rookie cop who was killed too soon on the job, The Shelever case in Episode 24, Calgary History: William (Bill) Shelever 1977 I wanted to tell this narrative a bit different so I reached out the podcasting community and asked for some voice work for all of the people who were part of the story – this turned out to be my second most popular episode. Under the circumstances of the story, it’s nice to push the details of the story out there to ensure people remember this amazing man Mr. Shelever and how important the Calgary Police Service is in our lives and our city.

Two Minute Tuesday segments were an evolution of not being able to dedicate the amount of time for journaling and production – but instead of not producing an episode, I just produced a short episode, these are random topics about Calgary. I hope you leave with an impression you didn’t have before.

Mental Health Podcast Challenge – winner! I am a big believer in we all have a story and who we are today is because of this story we have lived and continue to go through. This history defines us and builds our character. We have good and bad times in our life – we all process and appreciate things differently. How we systemize these moments in our lives creates our persona. When we look in the mirror we want what’s best – like most people. Sometimes we require help from our peers, colleagues, friends, family and possibly professionals like doctors to steer us in the right direction or back on track. If we allow life to eat us up it will. Lean on someone when you need help – we all need help and most of us are helpful people!

I’m working on a few things to better Valerie’s Variety Podcast and one is a designated studio space. My space is on the main floor where we live, it works great for journalling, sewing, quilting, scrapbooking but for voice work and editing it’s not conducive. My husband (the idea man) puts ideas in my mind and then I run with it – it starts to consume me and the project ensues. Planning my new space which started with a possible shipping container getting delivered into my back yard…this is very pricey albeit an excellent idea I think this needs to be back burnered for now.

I’m designing my spare bedroom, looking into acoustic panels, graffiti art, maybe a new desk or reconditioned table, lighting, new headphones (through a mass drop idea) and more… so I’ll keep you posted on this new development in the Valerie’s Variety Podcast world.

I’m working on a tagline for my show, most amazing shows have tagline so I’m pondering a few, do you like WhatEVER WHENever? ValERies VAR-I-et-Y and others. Since you’ve been listening to my show….do you have a tagline word suggestion that you think will suite me?

…a weekly show about my life in Calgary, reVIEWs and interVIEWs my daily VIEWS

Some upcoming topics will be:

Valerie Segments: Who are these ladies and why is there so few of us…or is there?
Baby Blues Series:Where I’m stripping down being a new mom, reading from my journal…full disclosure.
More two Minutes Tuesday: Bringing Calgary Closer
Investigating Calgary...most notably the two girls Ava and Patsy…what happened to you two?
ReViews: Have a place, person or thing you want me to review…reach out to me
InterViews: Ready to meet some new people?
DailyViews: my daily musings

Thanks for hanging with me on Tuesdays it means a lot! Valerie’s Variety Podcast continues to push me to develop myself and these stories – adding the experiential backgrounds brings more story to you – this to will continue.

Looking for feedback if you have something to share with me please let me know valerie@valeriemoss.ca

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

episode 46 season 1

Welcome back to another episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast, this is a follow up to a previous show, episode 35 Mental Health Podcast Challenge where I told an intimate story about how we all suffer from Mental Health at one time or another in our lives. For those of you who are new to my show, I thought I’d share this episode again, plus it’s a good reminder to be a little extra patient, call a friend that you haven’t heard from for sometime be a little better of a person.

The person who put the request out back in January is an acquaintance in my Calgary Podcasting community, his name is River – great name hey? He lost his sister to suicide recently and since this change of life moment he’s been a huge advocate of mental health in our community (and abroad I’m sure).

Insert episode here…What did you think of this? Mental Heath Podcast Challenge – Accepted! They chose me and I received a little kit by a local company called Stresscase (great name hey) containing all sorts of lovely items:

Golden Milk: It’s a powder you mix with your favourite “milk” coconut oil, MCT oils, or butter, heat and simmer…ingredients are Tumeric, Ginger, Pepper & Cinnamon – I have’t tried this yet but it’s supposed to reduce inflammation, support brain and joint health and calm digest issues…oh it’s a deep mustard colour – stunning
Loving Bath Bomb: self explanatory however, it’s a flat disc style about the size of a hockey puck!
Rose Quartz Meditation Crystals: to reduce anxiety with a little note of step by step instructions about how to calm your mind. These little gems are soft sided, when they touch each other it’s a beautiful ‘tap’ sound
Barefoot venus, Gingerly Green Tea Cleanser: packed with skin loving extracts of White Pine Bark, green Tea, Ginseng, Bearberry and Licorice.

Thank you StressCase for this lovely kit. Plus it was hand delivered to my home! Check out the StressCase Story – it’s so amazing, a Mother-Daughter Team came up with this. Check out my blog for all of the pictures of my goodies. Thank you to River and his team for choosing my blog/podcast amongst the entries. I had to reflect on this challenge but having a voice and platform to share my story, will hopefully encourage you to share yours. To me, a stranger, to your friend, to your colleague, if you need to share your story and get it off your chest, do that- it’s healing. You know what else is a great outlet, write your future self a letter. I used this method/outlet a lot growing up to get my feeling off my mind and stored securely in my journal…when I had my daughter I used journalling as my psychologist…except I did the writing with pen.

Talk to you next Tuesday

Valerie Moss

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Happy Birthday Valerie’s Variety Pod – e47s1