Last March, we debuted our flagship podcast, Cover Charge, and we’ve published 10 episodes so far with business owners, creators, and entrepreneurs who represent the culture of Austin.
The common thread for these interviews is openness and practical takeaways that our listeners can use in their business and creative pursuits.
Hosted by 3rd & Lamar co-founder Nick Schenck, Cover Charge is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or Stitcher. For past episodes, click here.
Below are a few of our favorite soundbites.
David Blue Garcia – Filmmaker
UT grad David Blue Garcia spoke to us last May after his feature film, Tejano, debuted on HBO streaming. The film received critical acclaim, but Garcia said that the film had yet to open any new doors.
Then in August, Deadline announced that Legendary Pictures tabbed Garcia to direct the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film.
This excerpt is Garcia talking about his filmmaking dream (before it became a reality).
“We all have dreams of making something, and then Hollywood calls and they ask what’s next? And then you’re off. You’re off to the races having a career, but that didn’t really happen. Not to say it’s a bad thing. But it has opened the doors in the sense that I’ve had a lot of people in Hollywood see it.
“I have a lot of managers and agents who know me now, and it’s sort of opened the door. I have my foot in the door, you know. This one very cynical manager in L.A. watched the film, or maybe he didn’t watch the whole thing, but he called it ‘Tay Jonno,’ by the way. It was this Jewish guy saying, ‘Ah, Tay Jonno, you know, I don’t know if it’s really your calling card film. Maybe it’s a stepping stone to a stepping stone.’ That’s what he told me.”
-Garcia on Cover Charge podcast
Scott McElroy – Executive Coach/Therapist
Refreshing honesty is a big cliche, but there’s no other way to describe our conversation with Scott McElroy, an Austin-based executive coach who also helps men heal past trauma in their lives.
He shared a story about how his previous business failed, what the fallout was, and how he discovered the root cause after self-reflection.
“I think the hardest lesson I learned was that I’m already good enough. Because even looking back, I was really just trying to prove to myself and everybody around me that I was worth keeping, that I was good enough, that I was smart enough, that like the way that my father had abandoned me, or the way that my bios had abandoned me, that they fucked up.”
-McElroy on Cover Charge podcast
Rachel Musquiz – Owner, Curcuma
Imagine working for years to achieve your dream job only to realize once you got it that it made you miserable. That’s the story of Rachel Musquiz, owner of Austin-based food truck and natural foods brand Curcuma.
She scored a job at Vanity Fair in New York, left for Italy two years later, and then moved to Austin in 2016 and bought a food truck on South 1st for $13,000.
“There was a good amount of time that I really enjoyed (working at Vanity Fair), but as I continued to work and I think it’s like career development. Okay. Once I went from freelance to full-time, and then it was like wanting to get a promotion, and I got a promotion, and then that’s kind of when I realized that I’m like, ‘This is never gonna fulfill me.’
“Like I can work so hard, and it wasn’t the place, it was me. I just realized that there were things that I just love to do, like be in the kitchen and work with my hands and be outside and not be sitting at a desk all day. It just wasn’t a good fit for me in that way.”
-Musquiz on Cover Charge podcast
Shayda Torabi – Co-Founder & CEO, RESTART CBD
Budding entrepreneur Shayda Torabi opened a CBD dispensary in North Austin. An early WPEngine employee, Torabi discovered the therapeutic benefits of CBD after getting hit as a pedestrian in Downtown Austin many years ago.
With plenty of grey areas in Texas’ CBD laws, Torabi has experienced paranoia and anxiety since opening her retail location. Frequent appearances by cops only added to her trepidation, she explained on our podcast.
“Our location is right next to a Thundercloud Subs. And so everybody likes subs.
“And I remember we kind of moved in, we had settled in and we started seeing these cop cars show up and you’re just like, ‘Oh. Oh my gosh, they’re here for me. Oh my gosh. They’re coming. Today’s the day like, Oh, Oh no, the laws changed and I missed it,’ and like something’s happened.
“And I remember existing in that fear for a couple of weeks and having conversations with my parents just being like, they might not be coming for us, but there might be a day that they do. Like what does that look like? And I just remember our parents being like, ‘We’ll get to that day when it happens. Until then, like you keep going.’”
-Torabi on Cover Charge podcast
