Hosts Angela O’Pry and Julia Vergara celebrate Access Answers’ 20th episode by re-introducing themselves and telling the story behind the podcast.

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Episode 20: About Access Answers with Angela O’Pry and Julia Vergara

Julia:

Welcome to Access Answers. As always, I’m your host, Julia Vergara with Angela O’Pry. And we are on our 20th episode of this podcast. How does that make you feel, Angela?

Angela:

Woo-hoo. Very excited. This was your first big project whenever you started. So that means you’ve almost been here for two years.

Julia:

I know it’s coming up.

Angela:

Yes. Time certainly flies.

Julia:

Especially in the pandemic.

Angela:

Oh gosh. Yes. So normally at this part of the episode, I would be introducing who our speaker is, and recently at the CURT Conference, we had a conversation with Eddie and Tyler Campbell who run a great podcast, The Construction Brothers. Had a lot of good brainstorming, wine, whiskey may or may not have been involved in our creative marketing conversations. And for the first time in 20 months, I had the thought, wow, the audience has never seen our face. They have no idea who we are. We’ve not really properly even introduced ourselves. So, what better time than our 20th episode to take a moment for pause, press the reset button, and kind of make some changes.

One of those changes is also from the data about our listening time. So we will try to keep our episodes succinct and short and bite sized. Just like we all like our content these days.

Julia:

Yep. Short and sweet.

Angela:

Just like TikTok. Although they just came out and said, now they’re doing 10-minute videos.

Julia:

10?

Angela:

10 minute videos on TikTok now. So, we’ll see how well that goes over.

Julia:

All right. So Angela, who are you? So, as we’ve already said, I’ve known Angela for about two years, but y’all don’t know her.

Angela:

Yeah, right. So, I lead the marketing department here at Access Sciences. So oversee strategy, events, website, social media, anything marketing related is something I like to talk about all day. And then two years ago we said, “Hey, we really need a writer. We need to ramp up our content.” And, here comes Julia straight out of Baylor. And it’s been a great ride ever since.

Julia:

Yep. It has been. So as Angela said, I joined in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, which was kind of crazy and hectic, but yeah, I am the content writer at Access Sciences. I work with our subject matter experts to bring you all things information management – intelligent information management, I should say.

Angela:

Yeah. Not dumb information management.

Julia:

Nope. Stay tuned for a fun video.

Angela:

Yes. Can’t reveal too much. So kind of in our recent conversations that we’ve had, we were just really analyzing as part of this step back and moment for pause. Why do we even do the podcast? This was something that I wanted to do whenever Julia started, and she did a great job, putting everything together and getting the ball rolling and getting us to hear where we are 20 episodes in, but why do we even do the podcast? What’s the point of this? And what I’ve realized is that we in marketing are tasked with, our challenge is really getting to understand so that we can be the face of the company. We can represent our brand authentically and genuinely. And what that entails is getting to know our team, our team members that are all over the nation, all over the world, getting to know our clients, who are they? Why do they choose Access Sciences for work? Why do they choose Access Sciences for partnership?

And that’s really the point of this podcast is to bring the audience with us on this journey of getting to know our team members and their expertise. What are they doing every day? What challenges are they solving? We’ve interviewed several clients on previous podcast episodes, getting to understand their industries and what they see every day. The questions that we ask really come from a genuine place. I promise we’re not scripted. We don’t have an agenda.

Julia:

We’re just very curious people.

Angela:

Yes, truly. I mean, it sounds so basic, but really, the questions come from a genuine, authentic place of curiosity of tell me what you’re working on right now. Tell me who you are as a person and what motivates you. And we’ve had a lot of great conversations along the way in 20 months.

Julia:

And some of my favorite topics aren’t really even business related. It’s a pet bunny or an acting hobby or International Women’s Day. Those are the things that, those little things that come up that are super interesting to me. And just getting to connect with our employees and clients on that level.

Angela:

Absolutely. You know, and like Jeff Moore with his gardening, and this is really a platform for, for others to share their passions. And Shermaine was passionate about ethical computing and coding. So, what a fascinating way to give others a platform through our podcast.

Julia:

Mm-hmm. And that way when people listen and they decide to work with us, they pretty much already know the gist of who our employees are. They’re pretty cool people.

Angela:

Yes, they are cool people, fascinating. I think every time now I’ve said, this is the most fascinating employee, just the bar keeps getting higher and higher as we go.

Julia:

Right.

Angela:

And you know, during the pandemic, when we started this, we’re all searching for a way to find that human element in everything that we do, and to find that way of connecting with others, and learning something new about each other. What I’ve personally found in the virtual meetings that we have, is a lot of times they’re straight to business. We have an agenda, you have a dedicated time slot, and you kind of get in and get out versus the, “Water cooler talk” or coming in and out of a meeting, walking in to the lobby to the elevator together, “Hey, how was your weekend?” Some of that small talk just gets trimmed from virtual meetings. So, this has been a great way for us to build connection with people all over the world.

Julia:

Yeah. I completely agree. And it lets us have conversations with our team members who are in Louisiana or Oregon, all over the place.

Angela:

Yes. And even with Dave Foley, whenever he was in Wyoming at Jackson Hole, podcasting live from his house there.

Julia:

With a much better view of what I have in Dallas.

Angela:

Yeah. As I look out here in Houston, I just see Houston traffic. So, what I wouldn’t give to in Jackson Hole right now.

Angela:

So I think kind of going forward our plan is to continue to bring you relevant content. You can hear from our team members, get to know them a little bit, but also get to know your peers, our clients, or other people in our network, get to hear from them what their challenges are, and hopefully we can just continue to make connections, and bring answers, Access Answers. That’s what we’re here for.

Julia:

Yeah. I can’t wait to see where we are in the next 20 episodes.

Angela:

I know me too. Maybe we’ll do video podcasting at some point between now and then.

Julia:

Oh, that means I actually have to do my hair and makeup.

Angela:

Yes. I know. Or you could not, we could just share with everyone what it’s like to be authentic working from home.

Julia:

I’d rather not.

Angela:

I don’t blame you. I don’t blame.

Julia:

Yes. When we get the videos on, we can show off our pups.

Angela:

Yes. That’s been a huge point of conversation too. The animals.

Julia:

Yep.

Angela:

In all of our episodes, Olivia would love her moment.

Julia:

Pretty much every episode.

Angela:

Yeah. That’s true. And even if you don’t hear the collar shaking in the background or the barking, some of that gets edited out.

Julia:

Some. They try to sneak in there.

Angela:

Yes. We need to give them their moment to shine. Great. Well, stay tuned for more content. And we have Glen’s podcast. Glenn Hilford is our next guest talking all things AI, demystifying AI for business leaders.

Julia:

And if you want to connect with Angela and I, we’re on LinkedIn, so connect.