TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 272 – An Interview with Teri Weinberg
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer,
Angela [00:00:05] and I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together,
Angela [00:00:08] and we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now, we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast, just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week, we will dive deep into the world of The Office; with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
audio cue [00:00:26] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:00:27] Hello!
Angela [00:00:27] Well, hi there.
Jenna [00:00:28] Lady, you look lovely today.
Angela [00:00:30] Thank you. I got this sweater at Marshall's. I love Marshalls.
Jenna [00:00:35] Marshall's is great.
Angela [00:00:36] I know. You know how they'll do sweaters? This is not an ad for Marshalls, just so you guys know. But one of the things I like, is how they'll group sweaters and stuff in color palettes. So it's like, "Oh, I want a turquoise sweater." Marshall's is gonna have a little row of them.
Jenna [00:00:52] Well, this is also not an ad for Quince, but I'm wearing some new Quince jeans and I love them.
Angela [00:00:57] Well they're cute.
Jenna [00:00:58] They're wide leg, like, super wide leg and then they puddle at the bottom. I think this is the style. I saw the cool mom at my kids' school wearing jeans like this and I thought, "I need to take note."
Angela [00:01:12] This is a real thing, you guys. It doesn't matter how old you are, there's always a mom (or a dad, or whatever) that's the cool hip person, coworker, whatever. That everyone secretly is clocking their outfits.
Jenna [00:01:25] Well, she always looks so good.
Angela [00:01:26] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:01:27] But, like, effortlessly?
Angela [00:01:30] I know! I know the type.
Jenna [00:01:31] She doesn't look like she's trying hard.
Angela [00:01:34] I know exactly what you're talking about.
Jenna [00:01:36] Veronique, I'm talking about you. I'll just say it. Veronique, I eye your style at the pick up and drop off. Alright, well listen: we have a really fun show today, but we're gonna kick things off with something a little new. In our last Friday chit chat, we asked you all to send in chit chat topic ideas.
Angela [00:01:57] Yes. We put a folder up on the Office Ladies website. We went through them. They are so good.
Jenna [00:02:02] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:02:03] And we're gonna start sprinkling them into our shows.
Jenna [00:02:05] Yes. We picked one for today and we asked Cassi to reach out and see if this person would be willing to send in an audio clip and they did.
Angela [00:02:15] Let's hear it.
Anna Claire [00:02:17] Hey Jenna and Angela, this is Anna Claire. I was just wondering how often that y'all get to see each other outside of work. I know that y'all work together, so you see each other then but how often do y'all get best friend time? My best friend just moved back to Texas. She's about one hour and forty five minutes away, but that's a bunch better than it used to be. She was fourteen hours away, for a while. I'm loving getting to see her once or twice a month now, but I was just wondering. We Marco Polo every day, but we can't see each other all the time because we have little kids to plan with too. Thanks so much. Have a great day.
Jenna [00:02:49] Well, thank you, Anna.
Angela [00:02:51] I know. You know what? I love when we get to hang out outside of work. It really feeds my soul. We definitely talk every day 'cause we work together.
Jenna [00:03:03] Yeah.
Angela [00:03:04] But we also both make a real effort to leave each other - You know we love a long rambly voice memo. We've talked about this. We leave each other a long rambly voice memo that is just like a BFF chat. So I know what your day is, every day. And I love that.
Jenna [00:03:22] Yeah, I mean we see each other once a week (when we're working) but I'm not sure, like in answer to Anna's question, I'm not sure if we see each other more than once or twice a month; BFF only.
Angela [00:03:37] And we try, we have active conversations. We're like, "Okay, let's do a BFF hangout where we don't talk work, we go for a hike, we go for a walk." One of my favorite things, honestly, is just when we get together and sit on one of our back porches.
Jenna [00:03:50] Yes. And I also want to add something else, because I know there's a little bit of distance between you and your best friend, Anna. Whenever Angela and I go places (or even from home) we also sometimes send videos. Angela, you started this. I can't remember what job one of us had, out of town. I'd been gone a few days and you said, "Will you please send me a video of your room? Send me a video of the outside of your building. Send me a video of the street you're living on. I need a visual. When I'm listening to your voice messages, I need to imagine where you are. Show me the chair you sit in. Show me your kitchen."
Angela [00:04:29] I do. I need it. I need to know where you are in the world.
Jenna [00:04:32] That's what you say. "I need to know where you are in the world."
Angela [00:04:35] Yeah. It makes, I don't know... I feel more relaxed when I see where you are. This is something I do with our kids. When I travel for work, I give them a video tour of wherever I'm staying, our little different things from a set I might be filming on, so they know my world. Now my kids do it. It just brings me such joy. You know, Isabel took a trip with her friend. I mean, with her friend's family, for a weekend away. And she sent me a little video, "Mom, this is our cabin." So I do love that.
Jenna [00:05:09] I do that with my kids, too. But what's funny, Angela, is a lot of times you'll make the video for your kids and you'll be talking to them in the video and then you just send it to me. You're like, "Here's where I am."
Angela [00:05:21] I know, I'm like, "I made one video." I've done that a lot, too. I've sent you videos that I've made for my mom. So I'm like, "Mom, look!"
Jenna [00:05:27] Yes.
Angela [00:05:27] "This room has this lovely lamp." And I'm like, "Jenna, you get the same video."
Jenna [00:05:32] Exactly.
Angela [00:05:32] So Anna Claire, we got real chatty (as BFFs do) but we're always connected.
Jenna [00:05:37] Well, we're gonna try to do more of these. So if you wanna submit a chit chat idea for Office Ladies, you can find a folder at officeladies.com.
Angela [00:05:45] Oh, and we also want to share that one of our goals for the new year is to put more stuff on the Office Ladies YouTube channel.
Jenna [00:05:53] I'm very proud of us for even launching this. We talked about that Office Ladies YouTube channel for how many years now?
Angela [00:05:59] Years.
Jenna [00:06:00] Five years? Four years?
Angela [00:06:02] We still haven't done quite a lot with it. But this is our goal. We're gonna start with animated clips of the podcast that Cartuna Radio made for us years ago
Jenna [00:06:10] . Yeah, you might remember they were up on the Comedy Central YouTube for a long time, but now you're gonna be able to find them on the Office Ladies YouTube. They are, like, 10 mini episodes. They're about 10 minutes long. They animated parts of us doing the podcast. They're really funny and fun, and they're gonna start to drop every Sunday. The first one's already up, so you can go and watch it. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Angela [00:06:38] I can't believe we're even saying that.
Jenna [00:06:40] I know! And next year we hope to have more fun content on our channel. I'm really excited.
Angela [00:06:46] Me too! Alright, well, let's talk about what we're doing today. We have a very special guest. We are so happy this day is finally here. You have heard us mention the name Teri Weinberg on the podcast. She was the only female non-writing executive producer on The Office. She was with us from the very beginning, helping the U.S. version of The Office go from its development stages, to casting, to finally getting on the air. And then, of course, she was with us all the way till the very end. She later became the NBC Entertainment Executive Vice President and launched her own production company, Yellowbrick Road.
Jenna [00:07:23] Yes, Teri went on to serve as executive producer of the critically acclaimed and award-winning television show "Ugly Betty," as well as the Golden Globe nominated "The Tudors." Her producing credits go on and on, but she is also a keynote speaker. She conducts workshops and she's often on panels about her years of experience. She recently had a TED Talk. The title was "Aging Into Power."
Angela [00:07:50] Yeah.
Jenna [00:07:52] Oh, by the way, she's also a triathlete. She's basically a force of nature. But most of all, Teri is supportive and she is uplifting, and we are so excited to finally have her on Office Ladies to share about her time on The Office and so much more. There's really nothing she can't do. She also does advocacy work.
Angela [00:08:13] She is a Board of Trustee member for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Teri has such a heart for people, and we can't wait for you to hear this conversation. So why don't we take a break and when we come back, buckle in for some words of wisdom and a truly uplifting conversation about work and life with the amazing Teri Weinberg.
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Jenna [00:08:43] Hello there, Teri Weinberg.
Teri [00:08:46] Hello, you two beautiful people.
Jenna [00:08:48] How are you?
Teri [00:08:49] I'm fantastic.
Jenna [00:08:51] We're so excited to have you here.
Angela [00:08:53] So excited.
Teri [00:08:53] I'm thrilled to be looking at your faces.
Angela [00:08:56] When I rounded the corner and saw you and you hugged me, I think we hugged for five minutes. Like, we had such a hug. Then when I saw you see Jenna, I was just like, "Wow, I'm so thankful." I'm just sitting in some gratitude to be sitting across the table from two women that I really admire.
Teri [00:09:15] I just got all kinds of little goosebumps. Yeah. It's interesting when you think about it, 'cause I thought a lot about you guys... Well, I think about you all the time, but coming into the podcast, I just started reminiscing about when you guys said, "Is there anything you want to talk about?" And I was really thinking about the very beginning of this whole thing.
Angela [00:09:35] Yeah.
Teri [00:09:37] And that little teeny tiny show that should have never seen the light of day.
Jenna [00:09:42] Why do you say it should never have seen the light of day? 'Cause we were just up against too much?
Teri [00:09:47] You know, we were originally sold to FX.
Jenna [00:09:52] We were?
Teri [00:09:53] To Kevin Riley. That was where The Office was. When Kevin left FX to come to NBC, he brought The Office with him.
Jenna [00:10:03] This is already something I didn't know before.
Teri [00:10:05] Oh, you guys don't even understand. I have all of the -
Angela [00:10:08] Give it to us, Teri.
Teri [00:10:08] I know where all the bodies are buried.
Jenna [00:10:09] Well this is true, because you started from the very beginning, before any of us were cast, before even Greg Daniels was attached. You were trying to get this show off the ground.
Teri [00:10:18] Ben showed me the original that Ricky and Steven had done and said, "Look at this and tell me what you think." And I said, "This is brilliant. We should stay as far away from this as possible. So we don't f it up," you know. I just fell in love with it. It took us time to get Greg's attention. Greg had it. I'm sure he's talked to you guys about it, but he didn't look at it for about three or four weeks until, finally, Ben called Ari and said, "Get Greg to look at this because he's gonna fall in love with it." And then Greg finally watched it and said, "Please tell me nobody else has said 'yes' to this. I have to do this." And so it was a real process. But beyond that, truth is that Jeff Zucker did not like the show.
Angela [00:11:03] Yeah, that we all knew. That that trickled down even to us.
Teri [00:11:06] Yeah. And to this day, I will say to Kevin Riley, "If not for you, we would not be here" because he fought and fought and fought for this show. And when we did the pilot, we only got picked up for five episodes. If you guys remember that, we had a six episode first season.
Jenna [00:11:22] I do.
Angela [00:11:22] Yeah.
Teri [00:11:23] We aired in March and we were done in the middle of April. Then when we got picked up for the second season, we still only got six episodes. But we told the world it was 13.
Jenna [00:11:37] We did?
Teri [00:11:38] We did.
Jenna [00:11:39] Oh.
Teri [00:11:40] Yeah. Because, you know, we didn't we wanted people to to stay with us and not think, "Oh, so here's five more little measly episodes."
Angela [00:11:49] So the the official press announcement said we were gonna -
Teri [00:11:51] Said that we were gonna come back for thirteen. But we were only really given six.
Angela [00:11:55] Oh wow.
Jenna [00:11:55] And you know what's so funny about that? Nowadays, if you announced that you had a six episode show on streaming, people would be all over it. There would be no stigma to only having six or only having twelve.
Teri [00:12:11] Yeah. This was the business of getting twenty two episodes a season, where we ended up doing twenty six, twenty eight.
Angela [00:12:17] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:12:18] Hour longs, bonus episodes, you know? We really kind of redefined the half hour situational comedy, I think, in so many ways.
Angela [00:12:27] Alright, well I'm already just like, I am so into this conversation. I am so here for it. So we usually ask our guests, how did you get your job on The Office? So can you journey back with us and tell everyone how you came to be part of the project?
Teri [00:12:45] Yes. So I worked for a company called Reveille, it's the production company who produced The Office. Ben Silverman, who was my boss, used to run the international television department at William Morris. He started this production company, and he was the guy that was bringing in the formats from around the world: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," "Weakest Link," all of those big unscripted shows.
Angela [00:13:07] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:13:09] He had the rights to The Office and also to Ugly Betty and to a show called "Coupling," which was the first show that we produced. It was multicam comedy. I'll never forget, because none of us knew how to produce. Ben was an agent. I was an agent, had agency experience, but nobody had ever produced a minute of television. I had a master class. I learned by doing it. I would just sit in the corner and watch people and listen and learn and make notes and I just learned on the job. So when we were doing Coupling, then I started to figure it out. The next thing that we were going to be working on was The Office.
[00:13:52] At the same time, Ben was building a big international business at the company and "Biggest Loser" was on the air and that became a billion dollar juggernaut. The more I was in rooms with him, the more I said, "You don't need to be here. I can build your scripted television." I kind of pushed him out of the business of scripted TV and just became a part of Coupling, The Office, Ugly Betty, The Tutors. Everything that we produced. I ran the scripted division at Reveille. I did the job of a hundred people and it was one.
Jenna [00:14:29] Well, Teri, you're the person that I remember being on set all the time. You're the person I remember from my audition. You're the person I remember from the pilot. You're the face. So that tracks for me. You were always there. Can you describe, what is your job? Because executive producer or producer, it's not the writing part of the show. But what exactly do you do?
Teri [00:14:55] My parents used to ask me that for nine or ten years.
Angela [00:14:58] That's such a parent thing to ask, by the way.
Teri [00:15:00] "What do you do?"
Angela [00:15:01] What exactly is your job?
Teri [00:15:03] The job of an executive producer can be as big or as small as the executive producer makes it. For me, I always want people to know that I'm an added value to a project. So the experience that I bring is developing scripts, hiring whomever, whenever: the writer, the directors, the casting, being a part of the whole development of said project. For me it was always really important to create a really open collaborative relationship with the show runner. Because you always want them to know that they're gonna focus on the creative part of the show, and it's my job to focus on the business of the business. With The Office, Greg and I were at the hip. He knew that I would go fight any battle for him and love it. I would deal with the network, I would deal with the studio. Cause you know Greg, he's just one giant piece of love. He doesn't want conflict, ever.
Angela [00:16:03] No.
Teri [00:16:04] So I always said, "Just bring it so you don't have to think about it." You're doing all these things and you're wearing a million hats. So every day that you wake up as an EP, it can be a whole different deal than the day before or the day after.
Jenna [00:16:21] Like, if the network read a script and they were iffy on a storyline, but Greg really wanted it, he'd be like, "Teri, go tell the network."
Angela [00:16:30] "Go fight for it."
Teri [00:16:31] Yes.
Jenna [00:16:32] Or if he had an idea for a director, you might call that director's agent or that director directly and really try to massage that and help that happen.
Teri [00:16:41] Correct. So you really act as a partner. The only thing I didn't do, and I would be in the writer's room at times, I just didn't put pen to paper.
Jenna [00:16:49] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:16:50] So you can do any and all things that are asked of you. I can edit, I do casting, I work on wardrobe, all the things that you're trying to sort of fill a gap; if it helps your writing staff and especially your show runner to just focus on creating the work and the creative work.
Angela [00:17:11] Well, I have to ask you, then. Is there a battle you had to take on, that you remember, that's like a vivid battle that Greg was like, "Go get that." Can you share with us?
Teri [00:17:23] Well, yes, but it'll be an unexpected anecdote.
Angela [00:17:28] Okay.
Teri [00:17:28] So as you know, I went to NBC in 2007.
Angela [00:17:34] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:17:34] And ran prime time there. So I became the executive who was overseeing The Office that I was the executive producer of.
Angela [00:17:43] Oh no!
Jenna [00:17:43] So did you have to fight with yourself? Would you give yourself a note and Greg would say, "Go tell yourself 'no?'"
Teri [00:17:49] So, no and so yes. There was a little schizophrenia. But when we made the decision to have The Office come on after the Super Bowl,
Angela [00:17:58] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:18:00] Ben and I said, "We want to give The Office this space." Then Jeff Zucker, who was our boss, said, "Okay, but you have to make it feel..."
Angela [00:18:10] Special.
[00:18:11] "And big and special because we're gonna have a hundred million people watching."
Angela [00:18:15] Yeah, for those of you guys listening (I'm sure you know this because now there's whole bingo games about Super Bowl ads, so many people are watching the Super Bowl), to get that time slot, right after, is a big, big deal.
Teri [00:18:29] Oh, it's like winning the lottery. Think about it. How many shows are vying for that position every single year? So, clearly, Ben and I wanted to put The Office there because its the baby. So I had the conversation with Greg and said, "We really need to do a big, crazy cold open," because if we only have people for three minutes, we want them to say, "I've never seen this show before, I have to stay and watch it." So Greg (and I love you so much, Greg, if you're listening) pitched some not great ideas.
Angela [00:19:04] They weren't big enough or flashy enough?
Teri [00:19:06] Right. Jeff Zucker said, "We need movie stars. We have to have movie stars in the first three minutes." I said, "We don't have movie stars on the show. It doesn't work like that." So I went to Greg and I said, "So here's the fight that's happening at the network. Jeff wants movie stars. I said we don't do movie stars. Put this in your hat, think about it, and see how we can somehow work them into this cold open." And I don't know if you guys remember it, but it was kind of the movie within the movie. Jessica Alba.
Angela [00:19:40] Yes.
Teri [00:19:41] Jack Black.
Angela [00:19:42] Cloris Leachman
Teri [00:19:42] They were being watched on the computer by the people in the office. So it was a way to have them in it, but not break the wall that we had worked so hard to create. To not have celebrities on our show. So that was probably the biggest kind of spirited conversation that I had to have with Greg. So I was in the middle of two really difficult, huge money battles.
Jenna [00:20:11] Yeah. And two very opinionated people with strikingly different visions for what this episode would be.
Teri [00:20:18] Light years, valleys worth of opinions.
Angela [00:20:22] My gosh, you must be so good at just navigating tricky situations. I kind of feel like I need to do the Amazing Race with you. Jenna and I've always said we might be a team, but it might be Teri.
Jenna [00:20:39] Oh, you would do better with Teri. For sure.
Angela [00:20:41] [laughing]
Jenna [00:20:42] Also because there's so many physical challenges on Amazing Race that Teri would crush it.
Angela [00:20:48] I know, triathlete.
Teri [00:20:52] I mean, surfer. Multiple triathlete.
Angela [00:20:54] Multiple!
Teri [00:20:55] Yeah. I think because I came up as a female executive and then also as a producer back in the 2000's, we had to work 10 times as hard to be seen and heard in a room.
Jenna [00:21:09] Yeah, you did.
Teri [00:21:10] It was a really difficult environment to have to be in. Because I would be the one woman in a room of 50 men, 40 men, 20 men, 30 men who try to make you feel like you don't belong in there. I think that there was just this thing that switched in my head and said, "I have the experience, I have the success. Talk to my hardware, on my mantle. Don't tell me I don't belong here, that I didn't earn this. And also, I belong here. So you can treat me any way that you want. But I'm still gonna have my opinions. I'm still gonna have the fierce way in which I do business," and then people start to get that message. And they treat you differently. It especially happened to me when I was at NBC, because people call you names that you can't even imagine in your wildest dreams.
Jenna [00:22:05] Behind your back?
Teri [00:22:06] No, to your face.
Jenna [00:22:07] What?
Angela [00:22:07] Oh my gosh.
Teri [00:22:10] "You're so stupid." "You have no idea what you're talking about." "You're ****" You do not belong in that job."
Angela [00:22:14] To your face?
Teri [00:22:16] Oh of course. Yes, of course. I shall not name names.
Jenna [00:22:20] We have a different podcast. It's called "Office Ladies: Burn It to the Ground." We're gonna start it in about ten years. Can we have you back? Because on that podcast, we name all the names. It's when we burn it to the ground, Teri.
Teri [00:22:32] You guys don't even know.
Jenna [00:22:33] Oh, I can't wait to have you on that one.
Teri [00:22:35] I have so many closets that are stuffed with people.
Angela [00:22:38] Oh my god.
Teri [00:22:44] But seriously, you know. You've been women in an industry and that's just kind of where your fierceness comes from. You get used to having to the shoulders have to be a little bit taller. You have to walk into the room in a certain way because people feel that presence.
Jenna [00:22:59] Well, Here's something that I'm thinking about right now is that the three of us sitting in this room. I know how hard all of us worked on this show, on The Office. I also believe that none of us are profit participants on the show.
Teri [00:23:14] That is true.
Jenna [00:23:15] And so there are a lot of men who worked just as hard as we did, who are profit participants,
Teri [00:23:21] Or not as hard as we did.
Jenna [00:23:23] Also correct. Also very correct. You know, what that means is that when all these big sales happen to the streamers and this show that has lived on for years and years and years... We do not participate in the profit of that.
Angela [00:23:38] We don't make money.
Jenna [00:23:39] Yeah.
Teri [00:23:39] Yes.
Jenna [00:23:40] And neither do you. Because we don't have a percentage of the show.
Teri [00:23:46] Well, I will attest that you are not profit participants, nor am I. That doesn't mean that you worked any less hard than anybody else who is a participant. It's just part of the way that the deals are made early on. I worked for a company, so the company was the participant. Also it's how people choose to include you in that participation over time. I would rather be giving and share in the participation, some not so much. But the way I came away with it, because I never wanted to be bitter about those experiences.
Jenna [00:24:22] Same.
Teri [00:24:23] I look at it as, "This is something that I experienced. Now how can I take that and turn that into something that is good for me?" Or how can I capitalize off of that? You're doing this podcast for six years.
Jenna [00:24:35] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:24:36] You're the queens of your queendom. You're using this opportunity to do a business that you love, to talk about a show that you love, and also you're business women.
Angela [00:24:45] Yeah.
Teri [00:24:46] So you're using that to your advantage of what you'll never do again. We talked about time management and all those things. Live your life the way you've earned it. And you're having fun doing it.
Jenna [00:24:56] Yeah.
Teri [00:24:57] So I always try to find the, You guys know, I'm positive. I always wanna try to find the good out of the things that can wreck a human.
Angela [00:25:04] Yeah.
Teri [00:25:05] But at the end of the day, it's still business and there's so much more to our lives than that.
Angela [00:25:12] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:25:12] And we're gonna get ****** over. I can't count the amount of times, but then I've also used those opportunities to enrich myself in other ways.
Jenna [00:25:23] Were there any women who are profit participants on The Office?
Teri [00:25:26] No.
Jenna [00:25:27] I didn't think so. There weren't enough women in the room.
Teri [00:25:32] If you're talking about both producorial and then the cast, I was the only one female producer.
Jenna [00:25:38] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:25:39] So no. That's a hard no.
Jenna [00:25:44] Sorry, I just had to get on my little soapbox there for a hot sec.
Teri [00:25:49] I'm here for it. Because I'm here to protect it. That's another thing that a producer does. You protect your chicks with your life. I mean, I would kill for you guys.
Angela [00:26:00] I felt that too. I really did.
Jenna [00:26:03] I wish you could see the look in Teri's, when she said that. She means it.
Angela [00:26:06] I really felt that. I felt that from the very beginning. One of the things we wanted to talk to you about was the audition process. Because you were in the room. I remember looking right at you and you smiled at me and I was so nervous.
Teri [00:26:22] And so cute.
Angela [00:26:22] Oh, you're so sweet.
Teri [00:26:26] That's why I named you "button."
Angela [00:26:28] I know. You said I was so tiny. Cute as a button and tiny. Then I called you "snap."
Teri [00:26:32] Yes, sir. To this day.
Jenna [00:26:35] Why Snap?
Angela [00:26:36] Because I said, "She's not even a button. She's just a little snap."
Teri [00:26:41] I'm just a little snap. Yeah.
Jenna [00:26:44] I love this!
Teri [00:26:45] The audition process was probably one of the most glorious times of my life. Because we auditioned, l think, like nobody else did. Coming in, reading the words, doing the improv. I mean, I was in pain for 10 hours a day from laughter.
Angela [00:27:04] And you saw everyone.
Teri [00:27:06] We saw everyone, everyone. From the second I laid eyes on you, you were Pam. I used to say, when we would talk about these different actors (especially for Pam), I said nobody flatlines a line like Jenna. I always I remember that, to this second. You flatline it. That look that you could just be straight in something, that was so hard to do.
Angela [00:27:37] The amount of emotion Jenna can convey in her eyes, especially in the scenes with Pam and Michael, I have loved rewatching. 'Cause I wasn't in those scenes, so I wasn't watching her in that moment. It's what you can do with your eyes, lady, it's incredible. It should win a Emmy, your eyes.
Jenna [00:27:54] It was so fun.
Teri [00:27:58] I mean I was behind the camera on all of your talking heads, all of your scenes, all of your pairings, all of your everything that you guys did. For years and years and years. It was such a gift for me. There was not a day that went by, that I didn't wake up in gratitude and say, "What are we doing?"
Angela [00:28:14] Yeah.
Teri [00:28:15] "This is crazy fun and magic, with this group of people who love the work so much. And each other and it will never happen again." That kind of chemistry, that kind of energy will never ever be replicated. So seeing you guys during that audition process, it was hard too because there weren't any talking heads on television yet. The rhythm was so much different, which is why we did produced auditions when we did screen tests. Because if we would have gone into the network and you guys would have done a scene, they would have said,"You people are crazy. We will never make this show." So just the whole rhythm of it, the hard pauses...
Angela [00:29:02] That is something that I think is really amazing and such great foresight on how to sell the show. But a lot of times, when you audition and you make it to that final stage: where you go in front of a room of fifty network execs, you go into like a little theater, like a mini theater. You do your scene, as an actor, in front of this room of people and it's like doing a little mini scene at a play. But for The Office, you guys filmed it, produced it and played it for the network so they could see what the show would look and feel like. I just think that's so smart.
Jenna [00:29:42] I'm curious, after we shot the pilot and we were waiting to hear if we were gonna get picked up, how close did we come to not getting picked up? Because from my perspective, that phone call came twenty four hours before you announced it in New York.
Teri [00:30:01] That's exactly right.
Angela [00:30:03] So they were deciding up until the last minute?
Teri [00:30:05] Yes.
Angela [00:30:05] Wow.
Teri [00:30:08] We got the pickup contingent on being able to produce the episodes for under a million dollars.
Jenna [00:30:16] And is that hard to do?
[00:30:17] [there is a pause, Teri gives Jenna a look, they all start laughing]
Teri [00:30:22] I think a knife just came out of my eyeball.
Angela [00:30:25] Teri did a whiplash look to Jenna.
Teri [00:30:29] Yeah. I mean typically a sitcom is four million, three and a half, two and a half.
Jenna [00:30:34] Per episode?
Teri [00:30:36] Yes.
Jenna [00:30:36] Oh wow.
Teri [00:30:38] I think at that time we were at a 1.5 million five or 1.4 million, and we had to take four hundred thousand dollars off of a budget that was this big. I'm making a teeny tiny circle. It was a tiny budget, as half hours went.
Jenna [00:30:58] Is that why all the episodes in the first season happen in the bullpen and in the office? Like, there's no -
Teri [00:31:03] Ding ding ding ding ding.
Jenna [00:31:04] There's no locations.
Teri [00:31:06] Zip. We couldn't afford to leave. Everything had to be contained, because it costs money to go out.
Angela [00:31:12] Yeah.
Teri [00:31:13] Costs money to move cameras, costs money for transportation. It costs money for all those things that you know you need to do when you leave the space.
Jenna [00:31:22] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:31:22] And so Ben was gallivanting all over the world with his friend who had just done a big movie with Brad Pitt. He was on a studio private plane, I don't know, Warner Brothers or Sony or something. I think he was somewhere where the middle of the night for me was morning for him.
Angela [00:31:43] On a plane with Brad Pitt and some other famous dude.
Teri [00:31:47] Doing all the premieres around the world.
Teri [00:31:48] And here I am in my underwear, in the middle of the night, sitting in my bed. I have spreadsheets all over my bed, the budget everywhere. I'm trying to figure out how to get four hundred thousand dollars out of this budget so that we can get picked up for five more episodes. We finally got there. But it was literally the day before we got you guys on a plane to go to New York.
Jenna [00:32:11] Well, actually...
Teri [00:32:12] Did we go? I don't even remember.
Jenna [00:32:14] We got ourselves on a plane because NBC said they wouldn't pay for it. So the four of us were all self traveling. Then I don't know who (Teri, maybe it was you) but after we got back, someone made a stink and said, "I can't believe you made those actors pay their own way to the NBC upfronts announcement" and we all got reimbursed. Oh, someone's raising her hand.
Teri [00:32:40] Yeah. That was infuriating.
Jenna [00:32:41] Yeah.
Teri [00:32:42] Yeah. They didn't pay for any of us.
Jenna [00:32:44] You found that out.
Angela [00:32:45] Brian and I flew ourselves out, too. After that year, NBC would fly us out.
Jenna [00:32:51] Yeah.
Angela [00:32:52] That's all you.
Teri [00:32:53] Jenna, I just thought about that one after party.
Jenna [00:32:56] Where I broke my back?
Teri [00:33:00] Oh my god. That was insane.
Jenna [00:33:02] That was insane. Can I tell a story? I think NBC was really worried I was gonna sue because it was their party?
Teri [00:33:09] Of course they were.
Jenna [00:33:10] Right. And I didn't. I didn't even... I don't know. They put me up at the Ritz Carlton because that's where they had put me, even though I'd asked to stay in Soho. I just wanna say, I requested a cheaper hotel. But they're like, "No, everybody has to stay at this one hotel. We need to keep you together."
Angela [00:33:25] But then you couldn't physically move anyways.
Jenna [00:33:25] But I couldn't physically move for two weeks. So they paid my hotel bill as I convalesced.
Angela [00:33:30] And mine.
Jenna [00:33:31] And Angela's, so she could be with me. Then I slowly recovered and I got ready to start the new season. Ben Silverman took me out. This could be on Burn It To the Ground. It's not totally horrible or anything, but it's just a story. He took me out to dinner to sushi because he said, "Hey, I just want to make sure you're feeling okay. You're up for the new season. And we got you this gift to say that we're just so sorry for the hardship." And it was this beautiful watch. It was beautiful. I was like, "Oh my God, how expensive is this watch? This watch must be so expensive." I keep it in a safe. All these years I've coveted it.
Teri [00:34:09] Oh my God, was it an Oceanaut?
Jenna [00:34:11] [screaming] Oh my God! It was an Oceanaut! It was an Oceanaut!
Teri [00:34:15] Are you kidding me?
Jenna [00:34:15] No, I am not kidding you. I Googled it and it's worth, like, a hundred bucks.
Teri [00:34:20] $68.
Jenna [00:34:21] I thought it was worth thousands, thousands of dollars! I was trying to get it insured because I thought, "It's time. I should have done this years ago."
Angela [00:34:30] Wait, do you have one too?
Teri [00:34:32] I have one too. I actually think that Oceanaut may have sent them to us.
Angela [00:34:37] So he didn't pay for it.
Jenna [00:34:38] So they were just in a closet at Revelie and he just grabbed it and he didn't even buy it for me?! Ben Silverman! Ben Silverman, you cheap bastard. How dare you? You owe me a luxury watch, Ben Silverman.
Angela [00:34:55] She's been keeping it in a safe.
Teri [00:34:56] You owe Jenna a luxury watch. I mean, we love you, Oceanaut, but you know...
Angela [00:35:01] Yeah. She's been keeping the Oceanaut in a safe for a decade.
Jenna [00:35:04] I've been keeping my $70 watch in a safe! For 15 years!
Teri [00:35:08] I think you might want to pull it out and maybe give it some wear.
Jenna [00:35:11] I wear it, but I honestly like sometimes I don't wear it 'cause I'm like, "I don't want someone to mug me."
Teri [00:35:17] Nobody's mugging you, baby.
Jenna [00:35:21] Amazing.
Teri [00:35:22] That is so funny. I'm dying about that.
Jenna [00:35:28] Well, Teri, one of the things about you, as a producer, was that I felt really seen as both an artist and a human. That was a unique thing that you brought to your producing. I know that it's something that you continue to do.
Angela [00:35:43] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:35:44] I want to pivot for a second because I want to talk about some of the ways that you really work to encourage other women, especially in this business.
Teri [00:35:54] Yeah.
Jenna [00:35:55] I was looking to get into producing. I reached out to you. I had this script and I said, "How do I develop this? How do I get this off the ground?" You mentored me. Could you talk to the people out there who might be listening, who might be interested in wanting to work as a storyteller in the entertainment industry? What advice do you have? Because I know you have some that will be very valuable.
Teri [00:36:16] Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of these little pearls that I can drop. One thing that I always say is that what we do is really hard. It's a hard industry to be in and so you better love what you do. You have to start with something that you're passionate about. Because you can smell when somebody is just trying to do something that they don't really care about. I can feel that. You can also feel that at the end of the day, if and when that work gets made. So I think it's an insane amount of tenacity. My job is to get a 'yes.' Until I get that 'yes,' I'm gonna do whatever I have to do to get that 'yes.' And to use the experience and the knowledge that I have, but also you have to be willing to put yourself out there and annoy the **** out of people.
Jenna [00:37:00] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:37:01] So that they see you in front of them. Because we're in a big business and people remember what was in front of them in the last moment. And if Teri keeps calling and trying to get a piece of talent or try to sell something... I always say, "If I call one more time, they're gonna put me in jail and have me arrested, but I end up getting my show made." So I think it's tenacity, an amazing amount of discipline, because it takes a long time sometimes to get things made. I've had things in development for five, six, seven years sometimes. Produce what you love and always go back to the place of "why am I telling this story? Why am I telling it now? And who's gonna care or what life is it gonna affect?" So for me, it's really important that I know I'm putting something out in the world that can maybe affect one person's life. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them see a community of people that you don't normally get to see, relationships that aren't obvious. That's the work, that's the joy for me: using the platform that I have to get stories out there that might not have had that opportunity to be produced.
Jenna [00:38:16] That's very much what you told me at our lunch. Right there.
Teri [00:38:18] Yeah, it's my heart and my guts.
Angela [00:38:21] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:38:22] Then you have to have the courage to just count on both of those things and not let anybody push that around. You have to be willing to say 'no' when somebody says, "I want to buy your show, but I know you're selling a drama, but we really want it to be a half hour comedy." You have to be willing to say, "No, I'm not willing to do that just to have a show on the air."
Angela [00:38:42] Right. Yeah.
Teri [00:38:43] You know, so knowing and and creating the boundaries of protecting the work and having the courage to say 'no' if it doesn't feel right instead of just saying 'yes' because you're getting a sale.
Jenna [00:38:54] I should say I did end up selling that show.
Teri [00:38:57] You did?
Jenna [00:38:57] To Warner Brothers. It just didn't go anywhere. But I did get the sale and I was excited.
Teri [00:39:03] That's a big deal.
Jenna [00:39:05] Yeah. And I sold a comedy as well. Again, they didn't end up getting made, but I felt like I got it done.
Teri [00:39:11] You got it done.
Jenna [00:39:12] I got it done and I'm proud of that. That was very much due to your coaching throughout that process.
Teri [00:39:18] But also you did it. You used the tools that you learned and you got it done. And now you have that experience. So the next time you do it, you know what you need to do to get that thing made.
Jenna [00:39:29] I didn't get paid for it though when I sold it.
Teri [00:39:32] Join the club.
Jenna [00:39:32] That's something that I think people don't know. Like, until it gets made... My writer got paid, the show runner I had attached, they got paid to write the pilot.
Teri [00:39:42] People do not understand how unsung non writing producers are, because you can develop something for years and not get paid for it until it sells.
Angela [00:39:51] Yeah.
Teri [00:39:52] And most people can't afford to do that. Which is why there's not a lot of us. But because I'm at a place in my career and I've gone to studios and said, "I need to get paid to develop this. I should get paid to develop it because it's gonna get better because of what I'm gonna bring to the project." Especially if a studio comes to me and says, "We have this great project, will you come produce it?" If I love it and I align with it, yes. If you pay me, yes. So it's really hard to make a living as a producer.
Angela [00:40:27] I sold two shows, but I wrote them. I pitched and I wrote them.
Teri [00:40:32] Show off.
Angela [00:40:32] I wrote the pilot, so I did get paid. Neither of them got made. One came sort of close, but I think what I needed after I wrote the pilot and got paid for the pilot, I needed someone to help me get it to that next place. Cause what I didn't understand, really, was the politics of how then your pilot goes from being bought, written, goes through all the network notes, and then the people that bought my show then left the network and my show just got shelved. So it's so wonderful, Teri, that you just show up for people. Over the years Jenna and I have both gotten texts from you like, "Here if you ever need anything," and you mean it. That's the other thing. It's like how you read Jenna's script and immediately got back to her. It's something I really admire about you. You're not talk. If you say you're gonna do something, you do it. I think that was a great thing that we saw you do all the time on the show. That I definitely took with me.
Teri [00:41:35] Integrity is really important to me. First of all, I love you guys, I'll do anything for you. But I think it's really important... I need to wake up with myself in the morning and know that I've done good things and I've tried to help people. I don't have an ego about it. I think there's room for all kinds of people to do what we do, especially women. If we can help each other, why wouldn't we? I'm not competitive with other women. There's room for all of us. So I think it's really important that I become that vessel for some people; to be able to help them so that we can continue on with generations of women doing the work.
Angela [00:42:15] And you're so doing that. You're a keynote speaker now. You did a TED talk, which was amazing. Jenna and I both watched it. It's titled "Aging into Power," which I appreciated that first word. Can you tell us about that? How that came about?
Teri [00:42:30] Yes. There was a gentleman who was putting together this series called "Bold and Provocative Ideas That Can Save the World. That was the theme behind this particular TED Talk. He called me up and said, "I came to one of your keynotes" or I was on a panel or something. "Have you ever thought about doing a TED talk?" And without even thinking about it, I said, "Yes." I never thought about doing a TED Talk. I just said 'yes.' He said, "I'm doing a series called 'Bold and Provocative Ideas That Can Change the World.'" And I said, "I'm not sure what my bold and provocative idea is. But I'll figure it out because I'm gonna do this." And I don't know who was talking, at that time, because it was one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life. I mean, I've stood in front of theaters of people and talked about shows and everything that I do behind the camera.
[00:43:34] I don't talk about my life very much. I'm pretty sacred about my personal life and things that I have gone through, as an executive and as a human. I thought that maybe it was time for me to step out and share my story so that maybe my story, now my personal story, will help other women. What I hear so much is, "I don't know, I'm not good enough. I don't know. I don't have the experience. I don't know. I'm think I'm too old to do that. I can't do that. I'm not strong enough." I just got so tired of hearing that. I thought, "You know what? I'm gonna talk about the things that I've experienced and some of the hardships that I've had." That feels comfortable for me because it's my life and I've lived it. The rest is history. I wanted people to know that what I've done in my life... I mean, I'm sixty-five, you guys. I did this TED talk 21 days before I turned sixty five.
Angela [00:44:36] Which is unreal to me.
Teri [00:44:37] When I say that, it just feels like I'm talking about somebody else because I feel like I'm 30 years old. There are so many women in their forties, that are younger than all of us, that say, "I can't start something new now." Are you insane? I'm gonna start something new until I can't breathe. We always have an opportunity to do something new. I mean, look at the empire you guys are creating. Recognize people, recognize Jenna and Angela. So it was really an exercise for me to come out from behind the camera to share my story. Everything that I talked about just sort of came out. I wrote it, but I also just spoke from my heart.
audio cue [00:45:25] [musical sting]
Angela [00:45:36] Okay, Teri, it is time for the call sheet questions. I'm gonna go first. There are five. Okay. Number one, what was your first entertainment job?
Teri [00:45:47] I was a floater assistant at ICM.
Jenna [00:45:49] Oh, what's a floater assistant?
Teri [00:45:51] You do not have a permanent assignment. You're called in when an assistant is sick or on vacation and you just literally sit down in a seat and you work for the agent for the day, or the week or wherever you're needed. So you go wherever they tell you to go. And It was a temp job.
Angela [00:46:10] Oh, okay.
Jenna [00:46:11] Alright, I've got the next one. Do you speak any other languages?
Teri [00:46:16] Well, un poquito. I strive to speak better Spanish because one of my most favorite places on earth is El Salvador, which is where I surf a lot. So a little Spanish, some Hebrew. I think that's probably it.
Jenna [00:46:34] Well this leads very well into the next question.
Angela [00:46:38] It does, and maybe you'll expand on this. What's a place you've been to that you absolutely loved?
Teri [00:46:45] El Salvador.
Angela [00:46:46] Yeah.
Teri [00:46:47] Yes. I've been going there for the past ten years now. My best friend in the world introduced me to it because that's where I've been going to surf camps and also to her wellness retreats. I just fell in love with the country and she's since moved there. Pixiacia, I see you. It was a dream that she had for ten years, and she's an incredible surfer, but she's also in the wellness industry and she would take people outside their comfort zone. So we've been to Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and that's where I learned how to surf. That's where I first cliff dived. That's where I did my first ice bath. All these things that I didn't think I would do in my life.
Jenna [00:47:31] I'm sorry, what is a cliff dive? Is it what it sounds like?
Teri [00:47:33] So you go on a flip and you jump off into the water.
Jenna [00:47:37] You just jump off the cliff?
Teri [00:47:40] Yes, you do. Yeah. And I'm afraid of heights.
Angela [00:47:42] Yeah, I am too.
Teri [00:47:45] I was there three weeks ago and not only did I jump off the cliff, but I jumped twice.
Jenna [00:47:50] Nice.
Angela [00:47:51] I zip lined.
Teri [00:47:52] And I zip lined, for the first time.
Angela [00:47:54] And that was terrifying, but I did it. 'Cause you have to step off that ledge.
Teri [00:47:58] Then if you kinda do one of those look downs and you realize that you're thousands of feet in the air.
Jenna [00:48:04] Do we need a ladies trip to a wellness retreat in El Salvador?
Teri [00:48:10] Yes, you do, because it will change your life.
Jenna [00:48:14] So you'll send us a link?
Teri [00:48:15] Yes, I will. I surfed for the first time, I think in 2018, on her retreat and I was scared to death. And now it's just so liberating.
Jenna [00:48:25] I want to point out that 2018 is when you started surfing, so you were over the age of fifty.
Teri [00:48:30] I was 56, 'cause I did my first triathlon when I was 55.
Jenna [00:48:37] Wow. See? This is what I'm saying.
Teri [00:48:39] Also, you guys, I did not know how to swim.
Angela [00:48:41] What?!!
Jenna [00:48:44] When you signed up to be in a triathlon?
Teri [00:48:47] Yes. So I had to be taught how to swim and then get in that ocean and swim a mile.
Angela [00:48:53] Wow, Teri.
Teri [00:48:54] So the first triathlon I did was in Kona, Hawaii, and it took me an hour to go a mile.
Jenna [00:49:00] In the water?
Teri [00:49:00] In the water. I mean, it was exhausting.
Angela [00:49:04] Yeah, it is.
Jenna [00:49:04] My manager Naomi, sometimes there'll be a project, or a job opportunity or something, and it'll seem very daunting to me. For whatever reason (either creatively or logistically), but yet there's a reason I want to do it. And she'll say, "Jenna, you don't have to figure out all the details before you say 'yes.' Say 'yes,' and then you will rise to the occasion and be ready when it's time. So just say 'yes' and you'll get yourself there."
Teri [00:49:29] Hello, Naomi.
Angela [00:49:32] Yeah.
Teri [00:49:32] That is the best advice, and she's right. You don't have to have it all figured out. Say 'yes' and then you determine what feels good for you.
Jenna [00:49:42] Question number four. What do you like to do on the weekends?
Teri [00:49:46] Surf.
Jenna [00:49:48] I'm sensing a theme.
Teri [00:49:52] I'm writing a lot, you guys, 'cause I'm writing a book.
Angela [00:49:55] Yeah, we wanted to ask you about that. Can you tell us about your upcoming book?
Teri [00:49:58] Yeah, I started writing a book proposal the day after the writer's strike happened. Because I'd wanted to write, for a long time, and I never had the time to do it because I was busy helping everybody else write their things or develop their projects. So I just sat down and just started blathering things and wrote a book proposal and got myself a literary agent. She took it out to some publishers. It's out there right now, and I don't like it anymore. Because I've grown.
Jenna [00:50:30] Wait, you don't like your book proposal?
Teri [00:50:31] I don't like it.
Jenna [00:50:32] Is it fiction or nonfiction?
Teri [00:50:33] It's my life. It's nonfiction.
Jenna [00:50:35] Oh, memoir?
Teri [00:50:36] It's memoir. But it also has practical guides in it. Like, "Here's how I navigated this thing. Here's how you can step into your power.
Angela [00:50:45] So what now? It's out in the world at the publishers.
Teri [00:50:48] I'm gonna pull it back. I'm gonna have the courage to say, "Thank you, if you have read this. Or if it's sitting on your desk, please take it off." Because I have grown so much, even in the last two years. My voice is different.
Angela [00:51:04] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:51:05] What I wanna talk about is different. So I'm just rewriting it from page one.
Jenna [00:51:11] My God, I love you, Teri. Teri, this is what I love about you.
Teri [00:51:14] I love you.
Jenna [00:51:14] It's kind of what you said before, about how if you put a project out there and then it doesn't end up feeling right, don't be afraid to just...
Teri [00:51:24] Yeah.
Angela [00:51:24] Yeah.
Teri [00:51:25] Because we grow, we change so much. I figured if I'm gonna put myself out into the world and if there's a teaching component to the book, I've done so many more speaking kinds of things and I've been exposed to so many more women and different people in different industries. I don't just talk about entertainment. I can talk to C suite women. I did a huge conversation with women who are on Capitol Hill. I'm not in politics, but the connection was storytelling. There's so many things that I can do and talk about now that I wanna put in there. So I just said, "**** it, I'm just gonna write the book." Not write a proposal. I'm just gonna write a book. I'll put the book out there and if I don't get a publisher, I'll self publish self publish.
Jenna [00:52:13] That's what I did with my acting book, Teri. I wrote the book, "An Actor's Life" and it's a combination of memoir and then also advice for aspiring actors. Take it or leave it. You know, it's just my story. Everybody has a different one. But I ended up writing it and it and it got published by a small publishing house, a family-run business in Texas. But I wrote it on spec, as they say. I didn't have an advance, but I wrote it from the heart. What I liked about that is that I had also taken out a proposal to big publishers, and they wanted me to tweak it. They said, "Well, this is great, but can you also talk about what it's like to be a mom in Hollywood? Can you also talk about stories from The Office? Can you tell us about it?" I said, "That's not what this book is." That's a great book. That sounds wonderful. That's not the book I'm looking to write. So I just wrote it myself, and it was great.
Teri [00:53:05] That's full circle to "don't be afraid." If you're putting a project out there, don't be afraid to have somebody say, "Oh, we love this, but we would like you to make these changes to it." Or "you must cast this certain person" or do those things within our industry that don't feel good.
Jenna [00:53:24] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:53:25] And you're at a point in your life where you can say 'no' and have the confidence to say 'no' and feel good about it.
Angela [00:53:31] Also you're recognizing that you're still, even at sixty five, learning who you are and what your voice is and what you want to share. You're still having discovery. So that's great.
Teri [00:53:45] That's just the beauty of as we age, you kind of get smacked over the head with this wisdom of, "Oh wait, oh I knew that. Oh, I can actually I can do that, too." We put limitations on ourselves and that's the only reason why we don't do certain things, because we convince ourselves that we can't do it.
Jenna [00:54:03] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:54:03] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:54:04] We can do whatever we put our minds to.
Angela [00:54:06] We sure as hell can. Alright, next question. What's your favorite midnight snack?
Teri [00:54:11] Chocolate. Any way I can get it.
Jenna [00:54:15] Dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate?
Teri [00:54:17] Dark. Pure as it can be. Has to be kind of over seventy percent, almost eighty, because then it's too... What's the word? When it's doesn't have a real chocolatey taste. It's too bitter.
Jenna [00:54:31] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:54:31] So I like to have a little bit of sweetness, but I want it to be as pure chocolate as possible.
Jenna [00:54:35] Yeah. You like a little sea salt on that?
Teri [00:54:38] Yes. Love sea salt.
Angela [00:54:38] Do you keep it in the fridge?
Teri [00:54:41] Yeah. Freezer.
Angela [00:54:41] That's what I'm talking about.
Teri [00:54:43] Yeah, freezer chocolate bars. I actually brought you guys chocolate truffles.
Angela [00:54:47] Did you really?
Teri [00:54:48] That you can put it in your freezer.
Angela [00:54:50] I can't wait.
Jenna [00:54:51] Amazing.
Angela [00:54:52] Oh my gosh.
Jenna [00:54:53] Well, those were our call sheet questions, but before we go, we have our Office question of the week. This is our first time trying it.
Angela [00:55:00] You're our first guest for our Office question of the week, Teri.
Teri [00:55:03] I love this. I'll be your guinea pig.
Jenna [00:55:05] So we went through our office mailbag, we found a question we liked. Cassi reached out and got an audio clip from the person who wrote in. So let's hear our very first Office question of the week.
Lisa [00:55:16] Hi Angela, Cassi, Jenna, and Sam. First, a huge thank you for the shout out in the "All About Angela Martin" episode. It was my son that was relieved that Angela Kinsey isn't a "B" in real life. He was thrilled to hear you mention it. His name is Liam.
Liam [00:55:32] Hi, Liam here. Thank you for the shout out.
Lisa [00:55:36] So the question I would love to hear the group talk about is: if you had to pick an investment to put your own money into, would you rather invest in Jan's "Serenity by Jan" or Ryan's "wolf?" And why? And Cassi, I know you don't like being forced into a binary, and I agree that no one should be. So feel free to pick some other investment opportunity. Thanks all. Love you so much.
Liam [00:56:05] Bye!
Jenna [00:56:08] How amazing is that, little Liam?
Angela [00:56:10] Oh my gosh, that is the sweetest.
Teri [00:56:15] And that accent. Where is she from? Is that Canada?
Angela [00:56:16] She is from Calgary.
Teri [00:56:17] "Aboot"
Angela [00:56:18] Yeah. Lisa, thank you so much for writing in and then leaving us that lovely message. Oh my gosh, Liam.
Jenna [00:56:26] Alright. So what do we think? Teri, are you investing in Jan's Serenity by Jan or Ryan's wolf?
Teri [00:56:33] I have to say it's Serenity by Jan. I mean, I love a nice candle. I love a nice romantic atmosphere. I also like to have a candle on my desk, when I'm working. I'm not sure about Jan's scents.
Jenna [00:56:52] Yeah.
Teri [00:56:52] But I would lean towards the more ethereal kind of business. What about you guys?
Jenna [00:57:00] Well, I like what you're saying. Woman led business, I think she could be very successful, especially nowadays where she could get her candles out on all of the socials.
Angela [00:57:12] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:57:12] On Etsy, maybe.
Angela [00:57:15] Can you imagine Jan on TikTok? That would have been fantastic.
Teri [00:57:19] Fantastic.
Jenna [00:57:20] But ultimately, I think I could get roped into investing in wolf.com because I like the idea of it. I like the idea of consolidating all of my information. I don't know. I'm gonna say if only allowed to invest in those two things, I would probably put my thousand dollars behind wolf.com.
Angela [00:57:43] Sam, Cassi, do you guys wanna weigh in?
Sam [00:57:46] I'm gonna go with Ryan's, but you have to get out early 'cause his do make money. Pyramid schemes work if you're one of the first investors.
Jenna [00:57:53] Oh. It was a pyramid scheme?
Angela [00:57:55] wolf.com is when everything went off and sounded off.
Teri [00:57:58] No, but it's a pyramid scheme. So if you get in early, you just make money and then get out.
Sam [00:58:04] It's it's super illegal, but for my personal investment: Ryan's, you just gotta get out early.
Angela [00:58:09] Okay.
Teri [00:58:10] That's very astute.
Cassi [00:58:12] I appreciate Lisa saying that I don't have to pick either. Because for me, if I can choose anybody to invest in on the show, I would invest in Dwight's bed and breakfast. I think I'd make the most money because he is difficult to work with, but he is the most successful business person, I think, on the show.
Angela [00:58:32] That's fair. I'm going Serenity by Jan and I'll tell you why. Right now, if someone calls me, my watch rings, my laptop rings, I don't need multiple things buzzing me, okay? Stop buzzing me everywhere, all the time. That's what Wolf is. You get an alert on everything.
Jenna [00:58:51] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:58:52] And I already have that.
Jenna [00:58:56] Well now you do!
Teri [00:58:57] But if you notice, you and I went on a creative instinct and Jenna went on, "Oh, this is a money thing. This is an investment."
Angela [00:59:05] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:59:06] Cause Wolf is gonna end up being a billion dollar company, and we're gonna be schlepping candles.
Angela [00:59:11] I know.
Teri [00:59:11] On Etsy.
Angela [00:59:12] I know.
Teri [00:59:12] So.
Angela [00:59:13] I did go a little shrewd.
Teri [00:59:15] Mm-hmm, I would say.
Angela [00:59:15] I would say you went tech, we went experience.
Jenna [00:59:20] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:59:21] Yeah.
Angela [00:59:21] Mm-hmm.
Teri [00:59:22] We went softie.
Angela [00:59:24] You know what? Maybe we'd end up having a goop candle that everyone talks about. Maybe Jan would make the vagina candle.
Jenna [00:59:32] She might.
Teri [01:00:00] [timidly] What is the vagina candle?
Jenna [01:00:01] The Goop vagina candle? Gwyneth Paltrow made a candle that is scented like her vagina.
Angela [01:00:01] Teri just fell backwards.
Teri [01:00:01] There is not a chance.
Jenna [01:00:01] Yeah. It sold out.
Angela [01:00:00] So I am saying that Jan, in all of her amazingness, would probably sell a candle called "My Vagina."
Jenna [01:00:07] She might.
Angela [01:00:08] We could be moneymakers, Teri.
Teri [01:00:11] [dazed] The vagina candle. Yeah.
Jenna [01:00:13] Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. I mean I know there was a candle called vagina.
Teri [01:00:18] I'm just trying to figure out who would think that their vagina smelled like a candle that other people would want to have in their room.
Jenna [01:00:31] Yeah, here's an article." Why is Gweneth Paltrow selling a candle that smells like her vagina?" Gwyneth made a candle called "This Smells Like My Vagina" for her website, Goop.
Teri [01:00:41] She sure did.
Angela [01:00:44] Anyway, I'm just saying, Jan, I see you in this moment.
Teri [01:00:49] By the way, it's sixty-seven dollars.
Jenna [01:00:52] Yeah. It's not inexpensive, Gwyneth's vagina candle.
Teri [01:00:57] Wow. Okay. See what I learned today?
Angela [01:01:00] Mm-hmm. Look, we learned something new, Teri.
Teri [01:01:03] Right? See?
Jenna [01:01:07] I think I know what I'm getting you for Christmas.
Teri [01:01:10] Oh boy. I got that going for me.
Jenna [01:01:12] Well, Teri, this was a lot of fun. Thank you so much.
Teri [01:01:15] It was so my pleasure. I love seeing you guys.
Angela [01:01:18] We love seeing you, too.
Teri [01:01:18] This was a blast.
Angela [01:01:19] Thanks for all the words of wisdom and having our back all these years.
Teri [01:01:23] I still do.
Angela [01:01:24] Still do.
Teri [01:01:25] Love you guys.
Angela [01:01:26] Love you!
Jenna [01:01:27] Love you!
audio cue [01:01:27] [outro music plays]
Jenna [01:01:34] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [01:01:36] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [01:01:41] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [01:01:49] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [01:01:52] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [01:01:55] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.