Spotlight TV with host Emily Zubi and Emmy Award Winning Laurie Jennings

and I have the amazing Lori Jennings with us today and we're going to hear about Lori how she got started she is a six-time Emmy awardwinning journalist uh she was our woman of the year this year uh she's a Miami woman of rock uh if you've been to any Charities you probably have seen her as MC she's president of Lori Jennings live and we welcome Lori Jennings welcome thank you congratulations on your own show this is very exciting it's a beautiful studio and it's wonderful that you get to enjoy friends of yours and colleagues every week well we're so happy the community newspapers uh has partnered with us because we were producing this and you know they've just I mean it's it's wonderful the whole team here is great and uh you see the warm welcome you get when you come in it's wonderful there's so many studios here this is such a gem in South Miami and I know we're going to have a great show we have good luck because I came off terrible traffic on the pal took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get here from Broward and I came off and the I got onto 72nd Street and all of a sudden into those cool descs and the beautiful trees and then all of a sudden this big peacock was right in the middle of the road and that's the best part of South Miami Miami Coconut Grove I lived in Coconut Grove forever and then right when we had our little babies we real my husband was working up in Broward and channel 10 moved up to Hollandale Beach Boulevard and I realized we cannot be doing all this back and forth and back and forth so we've been up there for about 10 years now and I just know maybe when the boys go off to college we're going to find a way to scoot back here to to the peacocks and the trees because I just but all of South Florida it's just so beautiful isn't it we wouldn't want to live anywhere else no absolutely not we have so much to talk about I know we can go in 20 million directions what's beautiful about Spotlight TV is that we really um let our uh audience get to know you a little bit of your story your why um you know you're such an accomplished uh Journal and I would love to hear how you know your why your passion how you got started and you know tell you know I don't think I've ever heard your your story I was a big actress and singer in High School Greenwich High School in Greenwich Connecticut it was like a college about a thousand kids per grade they put on huge Productions I was lucky enough to be the star of almost every major show people said forget College go off to Broadway but I was smart too and I really liked school I wanted to be at school and I loved writing and I loved everything so I thought I'm just not ready to go to New York City and pedal my Wares and pedal my 8 by10 everywhere quite yet I really just knew I wanted to go to a great school and up in New England of course you're surrounded by all the IV League schools and I knew I could get in so I thought I really need to do this so I went off to Cornell did a lot of theater but also I was a government major learning about current political systems and polyi kind of things and all of a sudden there was a big ad in the school newspaper with that microphone and it said come get trained to be a radio DJ or news news cter and I after all my years on stage I thought from high school I just knew I could do that so I went into the radio station and kind of like walking into this place and I just felt it I knew that I could do this and I learned how to write for radio and then Cornell had a great program in Washington DC I did my first TV internship and that sealed the deal and I walked in back then to W USA in Washington DC pizza boxes everywhere everyone was smoking it was loud and crazy most people would run for the hills Emily most people be like this is nuts I was I love the adrenaline I loved it and I thought this is for me and from then on I went to grad school got a masters in journalism started in Youngtown Ohio Cleveland Ohio Boston no take it back M Youngstown Cleveland Miami came to channel 7 and then um no Youngstown Cleveland Boston came to Miami Channel 7 went to New York with MSNBC and came back to Miami to be the main anchor at Channel 10 for 15 years and it it really just started with I just loved telling stories I loved being on stage but also on a just being able to be in the center of the action and know that I could hold an whole audience in the palm of my hand and carry their emotions and with my writing with my storytelling and I really just love here in our community as a main anchor that you are the face of that station and then I hope I'm still a face in the and a voice in our community and so people come to you and it feels really really really good when you make a few calls for someone that you have that influence and that you can make change and you can help people and help their lives and now I love helping people professionally like you I mean you just took on this show it's fantastic but others have come to me and said can you help me I'm going live on this show I'm being interviewed what can I do can you work with me I worked with a Young author in up in Fort Lauderdale she writes children's books but she's so afraid of being out in public and pushing her Wares pushing her books so we worked together and I brought it out in her and that feels great I love sharing my knowledge on camera with other people other professionals that's wonderful and you command you have such a presence about you I mean I'm looking at you and you know you're captivating me in your eyes and um and TV has changed a lot over the years so how do you stay relevant what what are some of the things that you do to you know keep on top of it and well my when covid happened and right after I when I stepped away from the news after 15 years at Channel 10 and I just knew I knew that I had generally done everything I really wanted to do in the news business I thought I would be doing it till I was old and gray but your kids need you your aging parents need you and reality just really hit and so I thought I'm blessed that I can step away from a full-time job so I'm going to enjoy my family my boys are identical twins so we're doing college applications right now and they're going to leave us next year together I'm going to be an empty nester within a second they're just gone so we really want to enjoy this time with them and they really appreciate it so I made the move to step away and start my own business ladies like you and I cannot we can't go from 110 miles an hour to five right so maybe now I'm going 80 miles an hour instead of 110 but I still enjoy all my projects all my charitable work and I mostly love working with local businesses either as their face and their voice in commercials and billboards and branding and also one-on-one I just love doing executive media training coming in and coaching kind of behind the scenes and helping people be their best on camera and I mentioned I mean that's when it clicked in because that happened and everyone's home and as you know I mean everybody's online and all of our charitable events wanted to go live they still wanted to do their events live so I did one for Chapman partnership and it went really well but there were glitches you know because you when you toss to your main speaker in Palm Beach County and she's saying hey hello is anybody there I can't hear anything you know and you that's really tough so I can tap dance with anything and that's the joy of news training and knowing how to go live but you really have to have a whole production team that is used to Sports Programming ideally they they're used to a football game or a basketball game where it's click click click click click and I mean you have to to go live live online like that it has to be so topnotch it's not even funny so um but I I appreciate that a lot of Charities tried it it is so much better to record as live you know and record it as is live and then edit those little things and get it on um but that was something fun where my skills really came in handy everything from Broward County Library asking me to host these live I would just talk I would just talk into a camera at home for an hour and take people's questions because people were lonely and people needed a voice and the library started that so I did that for them I started reading children's books on in my own home on a camera with my with my little ring light and I started feeding those to local hospitals within 48 hours I was in six hospitals and children's places like Chapman partnership and I was yes we love Chapman it's really such a special place for where homeless families not just targeted on adults but the whole family can stay as a unit and it is such a beautiful place so I felt so good that every lunchtime they would take a break and watch stories with Lori and that's still on YouTube that's still available I saw a one story where I was speaking in Spanish or Spanglish it was LA kukara and it was this cute book about this pretty little karacha a cockroach who becomes the butterfly or something it was really a fun book and that book has something like 20,000 views I mean a lot of them have a thousand views but 20,000 views so I guess people like to hear my Spanglish and my little pukara I would listen to you read read anything we were one of the first organizations to Pivot during uh Co and I'll never forget this we had our living room sway Denim and Diamonds and we had catered meals I mean you name it and we completely pivoted do online and what you're saying is absolutely true it was so much more work than a live event I didn't think it could be more work then but we had talent and it was for autism um for the Lotus children and it was uh it was so touching cuz we had the families there and it was just unbelievable and we had Talent we had people playing the guitar doing it was like a whole thing and everybody got dressed up we had bling rings and but to produce that live right oh it was we went live it was a lot of work and yeah there were glitches along the way and you're weding it without a doubt more than you know you really don't know how it looks going out online necessarily it's it's very nerve-wracking and it's there's that sense of dead air you as a longtime newswoman and producer I can't stand dead air even a beat you don't want that pause you want everything to flow really nicely I remember you're right being live for an event and I needed to show the gifts the the things that we were auctioning off and I realized they were about 50 feet over there well I can't so imagine I have to leave the camera if I'm going to go get and there will be nothing on the camera and no one had thought of that so I'm kind of like I'm clicking I hate clicking at people but I'm clicking at the couple ladies around I'm like huh bring bring bring and so finally they had to move this little table out of view right next to me so I could lift up and do my little Vana White thing and try to raise some money but things like that you just don't think about they had this beautiful table set up but there was no way to show it so you know everything changes when you go live and that is one thing that a huge value that I think I bring to a lot of companies and businesses because very few people can go live and can really tap dance we can all go on camera a little bit if if it's going to be edited later right but look what you're doing you're doing it live lady we are live you are great speaking of live okay I came in this morning and these beautiful Emy awards are on the table we got to talk about this because um what was it like the first time you know the first time that you these three see you see the beautiful black here and the way they're written and the way they're done in this gold and black I looked at my other two my other three at home are from Cleveland Ohio when I first started and was really doing a lot of reporting work out in the street and they are much simpler and just all gold a little smaller but just just a few wees so fun I didn't bring them all but it is fun these are even more Stellar looking the first time must have the first time I won one was for um there were two in Cleveland and I wonder which one was first but one was for child lures and it was a 10p part series we five reporters each did two parts and it was all about stopping children from being kidnapped or lured into a car lured away and it was so powerful it was the best special and it was it really just made an impact in Cleveland in the community and then the other one was for a much lighter topic it was Jacob's field and Cleveland is a big Sports town and when they built the new Jacobs Field for baseball I mean it was huge and I got to highlight and be with a dad and son who this was their bond you know this was their thing together and he was maybe 18 his dad was older and they just you know just watching the two of them that was my my part of a larger half hour special that was really powerful and that won our first emies so that it does it sets you apart we all know it can be a random system and sometimes you think the things that are going to win don't and vice versa but it's wonderful to feel um awarded after all your hard work because that that kind of reporting is is like having a baby I have to say you end up working on a project for8 nine 10 months and it's so different than Nightly News than daily reporting most reporters were all used to General assignment reporting and you have no idea that morning if you are going to be chasing down drug dealers on a some crazy story you know in a in a weird neighborhood or you're going to be interviewing the president or a secretary of state coming to Miami I mean you just you have to have your car packed for everything you have to have all kinds of different shoes different outfits because you just don't know when you walk in the door every morning what you're going to do and I liked that I like not knowing I like the adrenaline of figuring things out every day but you have a few hours to do a story and get it on the air this is clearly your purpose your passion I mean there's no doubt I mean that you do this and you do this with all your heart I mean I've seen everything that well you know a lot of things I'm such a fan and um what I love about it is exactly that enthusiasm and that passion and you know we were talking a little bit before uh going on air about just how much your heart is involved with all the things that you report on and the Charities you give back to and today obviously today we can't not talk about Israel and it is just horrific what is going on and it's affecting everyone and and our it's so hard to explain to Children my boys are so confused my boys are 17 and they're just seeing all of this on social media and uh you know to a point we're trying to live our lives and we get through these college applications and do things and they have so much work on them they're so stressed they have so much going on and they do a lot of charitable work during the week and then they're seeing this and they're literally wondering if they're going to be drafted into some type of World War II I mean this is what everyone's talking about on social media and all the kids are talking about the teenagers and it's really scary and you can't really tell them they won't be you know you can't really say you know you try to say you just stay informed and let's watch and let's feel I I saw United um University of Miami had a beautiful vigil last night our Global empowerment Mission Michael Capone in our community is doing tremendous work his people are already there and I did want to let people know that's a great place as a as a South Floridian if you'd like to give of your heart and your wallet Global empowerment Mission gem they are already on the ground they're on the ground in Ukraine they're there on the west coast of Florida when the hurricane happens I mean he has really developed an incredible International Network and then also I noticed that the Greater Miami Jewish Federation has an emergency Israeli fund going on right now so those are places you can actually give and feel like you're helping in some tangible way um other than that we have to stay we have to stay together and we have to be beautiful to each other and remind each other of our Humanity because this is this is insanity what's going on and it's such ugliness um but I I watched Nora odonnell on on social media last night telling the story of and she was there for CBS News there talking about a 24-year-old Brazilian girl who was one of 260 killed in that music festival and she said the the 24-year-old and her parents had just moved to Israel the mom doesn't know one yet and in order to have an official Israeli religious funeral she needed 10 people and she didn't know 10 people in Israel so she went on Facebook and asked for 10 people to come to this funeral and there were thousands wow what a story and I could just feel that's the kind of thing it's oh it's so hard to hold those emotions back when you're delivering the news and I could feel Norah wanted to cry but she kept moving as I would and you just have to hold it together um but o the emotion was incredible and as much as I wouldn't mind being in her position right now and being in the heart of this to bring those kind of stories to people I'm also very blessed that I get to be home and I'm not there you know and it's scary because news people used to be we used to have a shield around us you even at local news national news you always felt protected like nobody would shoot at a news person nobody would shoot at a news crew right but it has happened now and that's the sometimes that's an awful way um where people get attention and um the whole feeling has just shifted so much and when you're dealing with such a radical element and such an ugliness and evil you don't know what's happening so there is no safety anywhere but thank goodness for our journalists who have that dire need to be in the thick of it and they that need to share what's going on in the world firsthand and kudos to them because it is rough rough work very rough we have such a great Community I mean you talk about these organizations and I mean I know I I had to take a few days away from social media just because after seeing all the I mean I just my heart you know was broken and um I was talking to my son and you know and I thought about you know he's 27 what that generation has had to see between a world pandemic and then now all this and he just said you know it's very hard to know how to deal with the mental health aspect of this and and the kids and the children I can't even imagine you know having the smaller kids you know at home and being able to you having to explain because how how do you explain you just try to protect as much as possible let them know that the world you know that you're going to do everything you can to make the world a better place right it's and with the school shootings they witness and the pandemics you're right it's bad enough when it's right in our community and it is an awful shooting or something they hear about you know somewhere in our country then this is so far away and yet they sense that that that ugliness is pervasive and that there's a feeling and it's all you can do is keep hugging them and kissing them and telling them that they are safe and protect Ed and as much as we can and that we have to find again the beauty in this world and the humanity and keep coming together be beautifully said be beautifully said in you know in a difficult time talking about difficult times I'm sure that in this career um there have been challenges what how have you handled disappointments and you know as as you've worked and had a very successful career I'm sure you've had some challenges what are some of the ways that you deal with disappointment I think I mean the probably the most challenging part of my career was when I decided to leave the network and come back to South Florida to be a channel 10 I was pregnant with triplets naturally and a lot of people forget that they know I have these twin boys but see you didn't know that I did um and I was in New York City at the network got pregnant uh we had only been there a year my husband was here in Miami his business was doing well I was at the network it was our first year of marriage we waited about a year we tried to get pregnant and boom triplets and to me that was I mean that was God telling me you're not just meant to be a mom you're meant to be a mom like and I'm looking around in New York City and I'm trying to think how am I going to stroll three children through these streets and the mud and the and the snow and you know how New York gets so Mucky out there and I'm looking at our our apartment in the little tiny elevator that goes up and I'm thinking how is this going to happen and at the same time my best friend was leaving New York things were changing at the network Channel 10 called me and asked if I would come be their main anchor those jobs only come up once about every 15 years and it's funny that I stepped away after exactly 15 years there's just kind of a about a 15year turnover sometimes in a main anchor position and they asked me to come back to channel to Miami they said we know your husband's here would you please come back and I did and I'm so glad I did I right after I came back though the right after we announced on air with this huge bucket of diapers and we did a big party on air with Dwight Lauderdale and my whole staff at Channel 10 to announce that I was pregnant with triplets about a week or two later I lost them at just 19 and a half weeks and I'll never know why it just happened um but I was you know that was hard to share on air with everyone but I did and you people would always tell me when I spoke about my babies or my personal life my whole being changed my tone of voice changed and it is true it's not the anchor woman it's it's life and people were so wonderful and so supportive and the next time it felt like forever but seven months later we were blessed with these identical twin boys people say we'd never have identicals again there's no way it was just a fluke but we did so everything with my husband and I everything seems to split and sometimes split again because was all together in one sack very high risk when they're sharing a world you it's not like IVF where they have their own world so it was very high risk and that pregnancy all of a sudden at 24 weeks everything happened so they were it's an emergency C-section we were at South Miami Hospital few day they said if they survive 3 days if they survive 72 hours then we're going to need to move them to baptist because we can't keep babies under 2 PBS they were they were the size of this microphone exactly they were like this size they were 1 pound n 1 pound 12 O and I mean it was dicey it was really dicey and um after about a month in you'd think you'd be in some some safe territory one boy was doing okay the their boy all of a sudden had all kinds of problems I mean he was so swelled up and turning purple he had they couldn't get a blood pressure off of him oh W and they brought in a chaplain to give us a final prayer and they were they said there's nothing more we can do for him if he happens by the grace of God to make it through the night we're going to need to remove one lung I was like I just thought this doesn't happen this just doesn't happen and I just stayed all night long and I kept my hands on the incubator and I sang there was a singer in me I sang All Night Long the same all night long and um and the nurse who had been with Jake for 24 hours already she wouldn't go home she said I'm going to stay and I cannot leave him so she stayed another she worked 48 hours to be with my son and in the middle of the night um a heart specialist came in and he said I just gave your son an injection straight into his heart he said it's either going to kill him or it's going to get him through the night and it got him through the night and the next morning um this infectious diseases guy came I know I'm sorry no I'm I'm with he oh I didn't mean to tell this story but um he came and he and he gave put Jake on on an antibiotic he had never put a baby on before and he said I think this is going to do it and within 24 48 Hours Jake was a new baby he is six feet tall healthy as a rock nowor boys I mean thank you for keeping it I mean I can't thank you enough for sharing that story because um I did not know that and and um you know you keep it real and um you know and I look at them now and here they are getting ready to go to col but you know and and during that time like Dwight Lauderdale was the best I mean he would read every one of my scripts and have everything ready catch any mistakes so that if I needed to you know most nights I would go do the the five and six o'clock news I would race to baptist we ate dinner at Baptist every single night Saturdays and Sundays every single day for four and a half months and you just wait and wait and wait to try to get in to see your babies and and Dwight would have everything ready so that if all went well I could leave the hospital I had it timed down I could leave Baptist by 10:20 p.m. and be in my chair at 1 minute to 11: and I just read the news and then I was right back home and right back to the hospital the next day and if I couldn't get there if there were crises happening at the hospital I just gave a phone call and they said we got it and Dwight would just carry the show and the station was he is amazing amazing he's so wonderful and he I mean they just carried me through the whole thing and um they were so supportive and it's only that way and with my my amazing husband I mean I he would go at night off and I'd be in there all day I mean there was there's no other way to get through things like that and to still have a massive career so I was very very blessed to have their support through that and and during that time you just you just dig deep and you have faith like I knew Jake wasn't going to die I thought you know I've had such a blessed wonderful life I can accept that God that those three babies weren't made to meant to be here for whatever reason but God does not give you three babies when I didn't do anything to affect myself and then hand you Twins and take those too I there's no way he's not going to bring me five babies and take them all that's just not how that can't be so I just kept the faith and I kept praying and singing faith is so important I mean and and what I love about um Miami woman rock is that you know from Trish Bell to you know some You Know M Leo but all the women that are involved are um it's not about religion but it is about faith and they are you know Women of Faith and uh I know you know for me you know whatever every setback is worthy of a comeback and I've had my share but one of the things is you know faith is is the difference right if you believe it can change it will it is so faith and keeping a positive attitude and just lifting yourself up and looking for in Inspiration around you and in the world in that peacock I just saw and in a beautiful day and in PE wonderful people like Mar Lopez and Trish Bell these wonderful women in our community that we're so blessed to know and you are really truly I mean kudos to you Emily for bringing women together it can never it can never fail to bring women together to support each other and it's so important to do that because as women we get so busy with our families and our husbands and our parents and that sandwich generation and we forget to take care of ourselves and what if that was gone especially what if a husband passes before you and you haven't kept those female relationships going you suddenly don't have them it's so important to keep those female relationships going personal and professionally and you do a really great job of bringing very very influential effective inspiring women together but you focus on the inner woman not so much the profession you want it you want them to have a network but you really do a beautiful job of reminding us what's really important is that faith and now speaking of profession I can't go a couple blocks without seeing the Leon uh I went to the gym the other day and I'm pulling up and there you know right there beside me I feel like you're on the road with me so you know we have a few minutes tell us about what you're doing and I I'm I'm very big into Healthcare I always say rock your health Rock the world because it starts with that right and so you know that's one of our Motts and something that we've always lived by for the last 15 years so um tell me a little bit about what you're doing and and where do you see that going in the future I have a beautiful relationship with Leon health and the whole Leon family to visit their medical centers is incredible it is truly White Glove treatment and it's so nice to see how they handle their clients and mostly seniors and coming in and having your free cafesito and pastelito and having dominoes to play and having your dental care there I mean the medical centers are incredible my dad went there really yes and he loved it he loved it they want to go every day well that was the thing they don't want to leave I my dad was you know he was uh you know I lost him during Co but he was one of the and I'm like where are you going go I'm to go and he would go and hang out there and he goes you don't understand I'm helping out with the other people I said do they know that do they know yeah and those are the medical centers and then I represent Leon health and uh and the their Medicare program and even though I'm not old enough yet for Medicare it's really nice to kind of let people know as the newswoman in town the news source and a credible Source I love bringing my my professionalism to their brand and working together and it's been wonderful so that's been about um I don't know two and a half three years now and and that's the kind of relationship ship I like to have with local businesses so I can help lift them up and and they have hopefully my brand behind them as well so it's a beautiful thing and they are growing and it's open enrollment right now so you're going to see a lot of commercials that time between October and I think February or so is pretty busy so I hope you don't get tired of hearing my voice on the news and the funny thing is now I'm on every channel because these commercials run everywhere I'm on I'm on Spanish TV I've even been on a few Spanish commercials which is funny to me and um I get to say a few words in Spanish show that my Spanglish works and so you will you'll see a lot of me now people still think I'm on the news because they look up and see me everywhere so a lot of people still now say I watch you every morning I watch you every night oh I know you're you're Channel 10 I watch you and I just I just nod and say thank you so much much gracias well we're just wrapping up now so is there anything that you wish I had asked you that I didn't and you know that you want to share with us I would just say I I feel very very blessed to live in this community I absolutely love South Florida and I I hope um I hope people will always think to give me a call reach out to me on social media connect with me at Lori Jennings live that's the name of my company because that's me I'm live as we talked about it's you get to have me live so connect and I'll stay connected with you and maybe we can work together on some projects and whether they're live charitable events or a live corporate event and a live show that's really my passion thank you so much you've been here on Spotlight with Lori Jennings live and uh a real pillar in the community a real rock star a woman that I uh truly admire respect and have learned so much from so I can't thank you enough for being on and for sharing so much uh and and being open and and sharing all that you did we will see you next week on Spotlight TV thanks for joining us