How To Get On The TODAY Show & TV - Barbara Majeski

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story. The show that goes way beyond the story. Barbara Majeski, what's up, girl?

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hi, so good to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

So great to see you face to face. We don't get a lot of that over on Clubhouse.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

No, you get to see my red dress avatar, which I'll never be able to change out of, but here we go.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

It it works. Barbara in the red dress. I remember my one of my first experiences of you is hearing you say that. And I thought, what a great identifier for people to, you know, you're sifting around because it's all audio.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

There's like a sea of people. And I was like, you need to find me. I was, I remember I'm Barbara in the red dress. Like the, you know, I just knew very quickly, because just from being in there, how lost in the sauce. So yeah. And now if I change out of that dress, no one can find me. So I'm like, forget it. Forget it. Done.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

I mix it up a little bit. I try to put like some sort of bright, bright background and some sort of podcast-esque type of uh image there. So that uh, but I never I never reference my image. I should probably start doing that. I never think about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I always think it doesn't hurt if you're like, you know, Sebastian and the headphones or something. I do think it helps, especially new people when they come into Clubhouse, figure out where you're at on the stage because that gray ring, a lot of people have that, you know, just by they made it part of their profile picture. So it becomes very like you finally kind of give up, and so you get to know people's um voices. So I change every once in a while if I'm already on the stage and I've already been up there for a little bit, and I'm like, ah, let me jazzy it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah, absolutely. I I had someone create turn me into a Simpson. So I posted the Simpson one for a little while. It's less than pleasurable. I don't look anything like a Simpson. Um, but uh that was that was fun for a little while, mixing things up. How long have you been involved with the uh Breakfast with Champions community? I'm the new guy.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

So I wandered in, well, I wandered into Clubhouse very serendipitously like everyone else in the middle of the pandemic. And you know, Breakfast with Champions was just the largest room. I started just kind of wandering in there because, you know, motivation, inspiration, and they kept pulling me up. So once they started pulling me up and they would mod me very quickly. So I found like, oh, once they modded me, like made me a moderator for anybody that doesn't know Clubhouse, like you just your profile goes to the top of the screen. Yeah. Um, I was kind of like, oh, well, they want me to stay. So psychologically it was very smart because when they would pull me up and make me a moderator, I was like, well, I can't leave now. So and I sat and listened and then would contribute when I felt I had something of value to say. And I think because I'm in television, I knew to speak in sound bites and keep my message succinct. So the rest is history. And now I'm a big fan of Breakfast with Champions and I'm honored to be part of their um, their their team as they move forward.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, I'm excited to be in the mix uh too. I'm again, I'm the new guy there, I've been active for about eight weeks now, or maybe seven. But Glenn came to me before the pandemic, it was January of last year as a podcast pitch, as a guest for the show. And I didn't know who Glenn was, and then I had him on the show, and then the pandemic hits, and then Breakfast with Champions, and then I just had some epiphany a couple months back. I'm like, maybe I'll jump in there, and same thing happened. Glenn brought me up. I haven't figured out the moderator special sauce, but we're getting there. And uh, but I have been able to contribute to the conversation, really meet some incredible people uh within that community, as you know. I just absolutely adore Glenn Lundy and everything he's got going on. So the power of community, but you know, inspiration, motivation, and education. Who the hell doesn't want to start the day with that every single day? So good good stuff over there on Clubhouse. So I've heard several variations of your story through Clubhouse. Speaking of Breakfast with Champions, and it always uh it it's it's always very clear uh that uh your your story has has well, I think all of our stories have brought us to where we're at right now, but a lot of really cool things have happened um because of your story. And there's been some some some some very, very painful points of your story too, where it wasn't always so bright and shiny and exciting um as at least it appears to be today. So I like to tell people's story on this show. So let's just back up to the beginning of the story. I want the whole meat and potatoes here, Babs. So walk us through for for context where the story really began and what brought you to where you're at right now.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Well, it's interesting because I'm in my 40s, so this could be a very long story.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

You're not in your 40s.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I am, I'm in my keeps keep keeping, I like being in my 40s. If I could stay here as long as possible, it'd be awesome. Um, but I will tell you it um, I'm a twin. So 40-something years ago, I was actually an only child for four minutes, and it was amazing. And then three years later, my parents had a second set of twins. And that's not uncommon in my family. Actually, my mother's a triplet, so it runs in our family. And what also runs in our family is a condition known as fragile X. And my younger brother, so I have a twin brother, Ben, and then younger twin brothers, and Steven in the set second set inherited Fragile X. And what that is, it's a genetically inherited form of neurological impairment. It's a lot like Down syndrome. It's just a chromosome is off or on. It depends on the way you look at it, you know, depends on on your on your tomato tomato, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yes, yes, yeah. So he's probably the only person in his right mind these days. But um, growing up, I was very attached to him and very protective of him. And when I learned at a very young age that he would always rely on others uh for his to be taken care of, he could never take care of himself. He doesn't have the motor skills, the aptitude, anything. So he has to rely on others. And for whatever reason, I just always found I was like, well, that will be me. And through adversity and setbacks and struggles, when I really didn't want to get out of the fetal position, when I just felt like the world was crashing in, I always reflected on what I was really put on this earth to do. And I was like, well, I've got to figure this out because I got to take care of Steven, because he can't take care of himself. So as crappy as things are right now, I gotta go. I gotta keep moving the feet forward and I gotta keep figuring it out. And it was when I was actually diagnosed with stage three cancer that I really had the utmost clarity of the gift that I was given through Stephen. And when so I was diagnosed with stage three cancer at 42 years old. And I had three young kids, and it was on the heels of my my husband at the time ending my marriage. So my husband ended the marriage, and I got diagnosed with cancer, and I was like, whoa.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

I was like, Yeah, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you enjoy the play, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Exactly. I'm like, can you go back to your chart and just review it? Because I ain't got time for cancer right now. I'm raising three kids and going through a divorce, and I ain't got I ain't got the time and the bandwidth for that. But um, you know, I had to go through 12 rounds of infusions of chemo. I was bumping up around maybe the eighth or ninth infusion, and I was like, oh, oh no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, it's not cancer that's gonna kill me. This chemo crap is gonna take me out. I had this moment of clarity. I was like, I'm not gonna make it. And this is, I couldn't believe it. I was like, this is where my story ends. This is it. So all the chapters in my book are ending right here. And I reflected on all the things I was proud of. And I realized, I was like, oh my God, I wanted to quit everything that I ever wanted to do. I put myself through college, I wanted to quit. I started a sales company in my 20s that I wanted to quit and ultimately scaled that to retire at 30. I launched a philanthropy initiative and was awarded a humanitarian award, like all these things. And I in the back of my mind, I was, I said to myself, I'm like, oh, I wanted to quit and not do any of that. I didn't never want to, I don't want to do any of it. But I always was like, if I don't do this, I can't take care of Stephen. And if I don't take care of Stephen, Steven's gonna be institutionalized. So whenever I bumped up against, like, I don't want to do this, it was like, well, that's nice that you don't want to do this, but you have to cover you, you've got to take care of your brother. And it helped me kind of persevere through adversity, setbacks, disappointment, frustration, all the negatives. Like I, and in that moment, I was like, well, thank God I was taking care of Stephen because he gave me rise to my greatest accomplishments, right? That it was in that moment of clarity that I realized that it was never me. It was never me taking care of Stephen. It was never me taking care of Stephen. It was always Steven who was taking care of me. See, Steven gave me the greatest gift anybody could be given, which was the gift of purpose. He gave me no backdoor, no quit, figure it out, get it done, and do whatever it takes. He gave me this whole gift of purpose. And when I realized, I'm like, I had been given the greatest gift that any of us are given in our lifetime. I made a vow, get me, get me out of this cancer. I got it. Like, I was like, okay, okay, okay, universe. Okay, I got, I got, I got it. I got I got it. Give me another shot and I'll never play small again. I will use my voice to not only advocate for Steven, but the Stevens of the world. And that's kind of where you're meeting me today, is just in the, you know, in the process of living out that vow and that um commitment to not only speaking for Steven, but the most vulnerable members of society. And my track is running in tandem with this television work that I'm doing. It's amplifying my profile, putting myself out on Clubhouse, don't put myself on the TikToks, doing all the things. So ultimately, I when I speak, I can speak from a voice of authority, expertise, celebrity, and have that cachet that um when Barbara speaks, people listen.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I love that. So you said made a deal with the universe, God, whatever you want to call it. Give me another shot, never playing small again. It's a pretty big, it's a pretty tall order to to to negotiate with. But in in that space, I think that you you probably gained a tremendous amount of clarity that number one, you you've got some power that the world needs that needs to be poured into the world, but at the same time, that that that reminder and your brother being there to to really fuel that entire process and be able to do something instead of being you know, to talk about victim or victor here. You you you definitely took the the victor stance and said, this is not, this circumstance is not going to dictate where I'm at and where I'm going on here. So I I I absolutely love that. And then that's turns you into the TV rock star that you are. Let's chat about that for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah. Yeah, sure. You know, I can really reflect on that time and realize that things weren't happening. Cancer didn't happen to me, it happened for me. Sure. And that I could recognize that we're all of massive potential. We all of every person and everyone has massive purpose. That purpose is not something that shows up under the holiday tree or your Hanukkah bush or whatever. It's just something that sometimes is really in your own experiences for good, bad, or indifferent. Experiences align us with the human experience and we can use them to serve others and become victors, or we can decide to crawl up in the fetal position, stay there and become victims. And um, you know, I just what you talked about, you what brought me to television was I in that moment. So obviously, this moment in my cancer treatments was very profound. And why I say it happened for me and not to me, is I realized even in that same moment that not only was I able to reflect on the things that I had done and was proud of my kids would remember me, I was also taking stock of the things that I hadn't done and all the things that I left out on the table. That all the things I never even, I just talked about, dreamed about, pined for, but never took a single initiative. And when I made that vow to the universe, I would never play small again. I would no longer allow the voices of fear, self-doubt, or the weight of other people's opinions, FOPO, fear of other people's opinions, dictate I was gonna navigate the universe. And being a woman of my word, which is one of my affirmations, I got to the other side of cancer and I was like, well, what does it mean to go big? And I was like, I want to go on TV. TV. I was like, TV is really like, I'm not an actress. I didn't need to go on the big, I'm not gonna go become an actress. I'm not an actress, I'm like the least phony person you'll ever meet. I literally can't be anyone but myself. I can't do impersonations. I just I am Babs. That's it. It's all you got. Okay, it's all you got, it's all you get. But I realized I was like, I always wanted to be on TV. I always wanted to be like Jill Martin on the Today Show. And I was like, all right, Babs, what do you want to go on TV? Put your money where your mouth is. And then I started to kind of reverse engineer how do you get on TV? You know, I was like, all right, I want to be on TV. How do you do that? And I was like, well, I guess you have to learn. And then how do you learn? Will you hire a coach to hire the media trainer? And I think when you put things out into the universe, the universe does conspire in your favor to help you. And when I say universe, it's just my way of just, you know, whether you believe in a God or a deity. I don't care. You know, I'm not, I'm not here to judge anyone. I just say the universe, just out of respect of like globally, we answer to some higher energy. I don't know. That's my and um so yeah, I um started taking, I was like, all right, I'll hired a media trainer. There's so much serendipity in this media trainer that I hired. It is bizarro. Um and so I hired a media trainer. I found her on Instagram. I found her on Instagram, and it took me like weeks to call her because I was like, oh my God, do people call other people off Instagram? Like, is this a thing now? Because remember, I'm not of this generation. Like, I I grew up without cell phones and you know, like dinner bells.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

I too made phone calls from a telephone attached to a wall with a cord, like some kind of animal. My daughter's like, really?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Even worse, we answered the phone and we didn't know who was on the other end.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Absolutely guys, you think dating's hard now.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Try calling and getting through dad's voice to see if the girl's home or not. Good luck with that.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Good luck. And it so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So Barbara come to the phone. No, no, click, actually, brothers.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Um, so yeah, so I have I'm of a different generation, but I did call the media trainer and I decided the answer is always no if you don't ask, right? So I was like, all right, call ya. And when I tell you there are so many stories and pun stories in this like experience, because what happened was on that call, she Googled me. Like, so the assistant answered the phone, or not her business partner. I'm sorry, her business partner Drew answers the phone. We start talking, she decides I sound pretty good, and then she hands the phone to Amy Rosenbloom, who had been in the TV industry for 152 years. She'll say that, not me. She was best friends with Joan Rivers. She was a producer at the Today Show, uh, put together Hoda with Kathy Lee, like has great, great stories and experience. Puts Amy Rose, the Amy Rosenbloom, on the phone. And she goes, Who are you? And I'm like, Barbara Majewski. She Googles me and she Googles me. And you know what comes up is all of my work for Operation Smile. And through that, what she can see is that I do public speaking. And she goes, You've done public speaking. I said, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because she asked what I had been doing for a decade. I said, I'm a I'm a stay-at-home mom and I want to go on TV. And she was like, I just kind of took a little beat, you know, and I was, she's like, Well, let me Google you because you sound good. She Googles me. And the serendipity in all of this is that um, you know, I talk a lot about giving and serving, living a life of service because Oprah Winfrey told me that. That's a whole nother story. We can talk about that later. Um, but I had launched this philanthropy initiative in the name of my brother. Like, I went on a humanitarian mission. I was like, these people need a voice. I took my all I've got is a voice. I like I'm just a big mouth with a lot of connections, a lot of friends, and great, like a good reputation. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna tap into my contacts and we're gonna raise some money. I'm gonna fund a mission. Like, what else am I? I only have a few kids to raise. And I did it because I thought of my brother Steven. I was like, well, what if this was Steven and he didn't have a sister? And what if who, you know, I've got to be that person. So it was all in this understanding that I was gifted of like, no, they need somebody to speak for them. Why don't you go raise some money and fund these surgeries? When I did that, and I did it in that vein of just using my, just doing the right thing, like just tapping my tapping my, I don't know, just doing them a thing. I ended up getting a humanitarian award. I didn't do that to get a humanitarian word, but I got it. And that humanitarian award put me on the red carpet with celebrities in newspapers, in magazines, uh, like really gave me a higher profile. And when Amy Googled me, that's what came up. And she goes, You're my person. Come in and meet me. The rest is history. My book, my first booking was the Today Show.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

So time out. So time out. So a media coach doesn't just prepare you for television, they get you booked on television too.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

So a media trainer can book you on TV if you've got the right media trainer, number one. Amy Rosenbloom is a very well-connected, very well-respected woman in the industry. However, she will not back you if she doesn't think you're TV worthy. Um, so it's a very, it's a, you get, you can get in the door, you can get some media training, but you've got to, you know, do the paces. You've got to be able to, you know, do, you've got to be able to perform on television. She's just not going to put her name behind you. Um, but yeah, a good media trainer is connected in the industry and will pick up the phone and say, you know, um, like this month I'm on uh the Today Show and I'm doing, I may be doing a segment on, oh my God, I'm forgetting the name of the show. But there's always Drew Barry more that's out there, and Tamron Hall and Insight Edition. They're all like, it's a small networking community. Um, Canon, Nick Cannon. So I might be on TV.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

I was just about to say Nick Cannon's on TV now. I mean, he's always been on TV. He's got his own show now.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah, so she's just connected. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

How about um how about um Kelly Rippa and Seacrest?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

I have not been able to get on that show, but I absolutely love it. I would love to. And you never know where I'm gonna.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

I'm obsessed with Seacrest, is why I mean I've studied him for a decade now. I mean, I literally contribute a lot of my onstage and on camera presence to being able to literally back in the day with TiVo on American Idol watch every single angle because he's the best. I mean, if you notice, the guy has I mean, he did high five, high-five a blind guy on Idol one time, but that's like the only time I've ever. You've never seen the guy miss a beat, you've never seen the guy miss a hit, and there's never been so there's a reason that I'd ask that. And I know that you're you're in the Northeast too, aren't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

I'm in New Jersey, New York, New Jersey. Yeah, that's interesting. You know, um, I've never gone on Ryan and Kelly, but it's on my um hit list for sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

And if that's something that's on your hit list or something you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

I mean, I want to meet Amy, is what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

She was like Amy, she would love me. DM me.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Oh, I'm doing it. I'm I'm 100% doing it. Yeah, it's on it's on the episode now. So uh I want to I definitely want to make that up. I haven't had much love for television. I was on a reality show on Fox a few years back, and that was the hardest $250 I've ever earned in my life. And reality television, me and 30 women, uh, it wasn't The Bachelor, uh, but uh it was a lot of work. I did it for the experience. I did it to be able to go to be able to film in a Fox studio in a Hollywood lot that Seacrest probably may have been in, just to get that like taste of what is next.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Put yourself out there. You either gonna win or you're gonna learn. And I have to dive into this because I feel very compelled to. As I think what holds people back is they're afraid of being embarrassed or they're afraid of putting like, and at the end of the day, embarrassment is just a self-imposed punishment. And the way you can remove yourself from being humiliated is take the story and own it. And I've been doing so much of that lately because I realize so many people are afraid to fall on their face. And guess what? You you are gonna fall on your face. You're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna humiliate yourself. Things are gonna go wrong. And the only person that that needs to take control of that narrative is you. I was in a meeting with my ex-husband's attorney, right? As we're going through the divorce, he hired celebrity attorneys. These guys were sharks. They were, I was like getting my arse handed to me in a million different ways on a million different days. And we had this one meeting, and we're all in this room, and I'm with my uh my one attorney. And because I hired a local woman because I was like, well, I don't know. This is I don't, I've never been through a divorce. My ex-husband had been through a few, so he was much more seasoned than Babs. And it, the the scene is going terribly. I'm getting my ass handed to me again. They're literally just moving me like, I don't know, a tissue paper in the wind. And I'm like dramatic, all dramatic. I'm like, I am done here. I'm like, whatever I did, I was like, and I'm gonna pack up my bed because I realized I was getting my ass handed to me and not it wasn't going well. So I want to be dramatic. I want to be dramatic. I'm gonna exit and I'm just gonna show everyone how I can't be fucked with. And uh so I get up and I fling my chanel bag, you know, over my per my arm because I'm so dramatic. And I walk right into a glass, the glass wall, right into the glass door, right? It just walks face first. When they do the movie about me, there's going to be but blood gushing. It was so loud. I thought I broke the door. In the movie, the glass might shatter. We don't know, wait for it. But it was so, they are literally like first they guess, and then they like snicker and laugh at me. And I am sweating, horrified. This was not the exit that I wanted. And I remember just getting in my car and being like, what the what the fuck just happened? Like right. Why I am such a I looked like such a tool bag, and I'm trying to not like. Like a tool bang and I look like a tool bang. Um, but nothing is better than taking your power back. I was like, you know what? I it was embarrassing, but it's like a story that I can tell. I'm like, I'm not gonna no, I'm gonna own the story, not you. I'm gonna own the story. I was getting my ass kicked, it was a slaughter, I sucked, I walked into a wall the whole nine yards. I was on TV last week with Hoda and Jenna, and they're like, hey, so I did a smokeless fire pit. And Hoda goes, um, so how does a smokeless fire pit work? And I knew this question was coming, but I knew I didn't have the answer. So I was trying to be funny and I was like, it's it's I tried to say the word so sorcery. It's sorcery. So sorcery, sorcery. I couldn't, and the word just came out sorcery, like like jersey.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Like my jersey just blew out my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

I was like, it's sorcery, and my kids heard it later. They were like, what the hell is sorcery? Sorcerer. I was like, sorry, and I can't. Anyway, in the end of it, I was like a little embarrassed in the moment. And then I was like, wait a second, I'm a human being and I'm putting myself on national television in my 40s and I'm doing it. I'm living the life. I am, and I am I so I screwed up on TV. You're gonna come at me. If people come at me, it's a reflection on them. Oh, what an idiot. She can't say the word sorcery or whatever. That's I'm gonna ask me. I'm a human being. I'm gonna screw up and I'm gonna make an ass. And I'm I'm like, I'm I'm wait a second. I'm living, I'm living my best life. And part of living my best life is putting myself out there. And sometimes when you put yourself out there, you make a fool out of yourself that you only make a fool out of yourself if that's the narrative that you tell yourself. But if you're just like, I'm a instead, you change the narrative and are like, uh, I'm just putting myself out there and I'm I'm okay with making mistakes. I'd rather make mistakes trying than not try at all. And then own them in my collective story of me. So when my kids go on national television and make an ass out of themselves or do something silly, I can be like, oh, I got you. Come sit down. Let me tell you the story of your great-great-grandmother and what it's like she is. So I love my, I love myself flawed in all. And I encourage people to not, you know, listen, the best part, you just shared one story about Ryan making, you know, messing up because he's relatively perfect in his space. But it does humanize him that he's not perfect. And that, you know what, he made a mistake. He tried to high-five a blind guy. And I think you have to always remember that. Like we're all, and and it's really the public that if anybody is like faulting for that, that's a reflection on other people's insecurities and not his. He's still showing up living it, living his best damn life. Bringing his own.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Right? Like, and I think it's important because people get jammed up and like, ooh, that, ooh, that's so embarrassing.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I'm like, is it I only in oh it show, I mean, it shows human, it shows you're human.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

I mean, I think that means there's nobody perfect. And I I'm look, I'm grateful for my mistakes because then I can use them to help my kids. You know, got you, I don't do everything perfect, but I put myself out there and I'm living and I get all the feels, get all the feels. I I get that feel of being humiliated, like, oh, that's that's a little embarrassing. Right. I get to pick myself up and keep going. And guess what? Hood and Jenna didn't uh we're not calling her back because she can't speak well. Yeah, I was booked 30 seconds later, like, we'll see you next month. I'm like, great, I'll see you later. Bye.

unknown 25:27

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah. So that just, I mean, the great lesson there is that what we what we can get inside of our head and think maybe off, it still works. It's it's a story we're telling ourselves too. And it's it's not as, you know, any type of creation, any type of talent that we're exerting. Barbara, so great to chat with you. Uh, thank you so much for your time. I know you're a busy girl. We're gonna have to have you come back to the show. And I know you and I are gonna make some moves. I we haven't figured it out yet, but I so appreciate your time. You're the best.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

And I appreciate you. And this was amazing. And trust me, there's many, many stories. Um, this won't be the last time our paths cross. So thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

The pleasure was mine. Thanks again, Babs.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

And until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.