More Than Four Minutes: The Michael Mackie Interview

The Michael Mackie Interview

Michael Mackie is an Aries with a Pisces rising. (IYKYK.) Growing up as a proud Midwesterner, he knew he always knew he wanted to be in TV.
Or on TV.
Or watching TV.
(He’s not picky.)

Mackie garnered his degree in broadcasting from the University of Iowa to prove to the world he was not only educated, but well-versed in sitcoms, game shows, and all-things Oprah. With minors in French and acting, he ultimately hopes to write, produce, direct, and star in a straight-to-digital project in Quebec.

By complete accident and happenstance, Mackie began interviewing a litany of Emmy-, Academy-, and Grammy-award winners. What started as a hobby, quickly became his own unexpected claim to fame. His motto? “You name the celebrity and I’ve probably interviewed them. Twice.”

A prolific travel writer by trade, Mackie has been a member of the prestigious Society of American Travel Writers and even hosted a Midwest-based travel show, Get Lost! His humorous new book “You Have Four Minutes” was just released in September. It chronicles his three decades as an entertainment reporter and features interviews with nearly a dozen Academy Award winners.

“My parents never could comprehend how I earned my keep stringing words together for the universe to appreciate,” he says. “Frankly, that makes three of us. But I feel like it’s what I was put on this earth to do. I was born to spend no more than five minutes in a room chatting up a celebrity and then somehow cobble brilliance together. Whether you read it or watch it—welp, that’s up to you.”

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-Transcript-

Brad Burrow (00:01):
Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Hello and welcome to the In A World With Real Media podcast. I’m your host, Brad Burrow, and today we have a new special friend that I’ve gotten to know here in the, probably the last, I don’t know, three or four months. Michael Mackie. He is an author, a journalist, a business coach, connector, LinkedIn guru, helps with clothing choices, a little bit of everything. So we’re really excited to have him on the podcast and we’ve been working together on the Casey Studio podcast a little bit. Yeah, it’s been great, which has been really cool and gotten to know you, and it’s like you got to be on the podcast and it’s got a new book out, which we’re going to talk about here. I’m going to hold this up. Carly, if you can bring that up. It is. You have four minutes. How many cameras? So many cameras. Camera. Camera there, Carly. Yeah, so we’re going to talk about all those things, but I’m really excited to have you on Michael.

Michael Mackie (01:25):
Thanks for having me.

Brad Burrow (01:26):
You have quite a history in Kansas City and I’ve seen some stuff that you put out on LinkedIn and it’s like all of a sudden thousands of people are liking it and all this stuff is really amazing.

Michael Mackie (01:41):
LinkedIn has kind of become my ipso facto. I don’t know how when or why I got to be so good on LinkedIn, but it’s really become sort of my claim to fame and it out of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I have my largest following on LinkedIn of all places. So it’s really been fun to sort of showcase the who, what, when, where of Michael Mackie on LinkedIn and more importantly, teach other people sort of how to gravitate towards that particular social media outlet and succeed.

Brad Burrow (02:13):
I think LinkedIn is amazing. We’ve been in business since 97, and the sales process used to be like if you wanted to find somebody, I mean you had to go through it was almost impossible. You can find anybody now.

Michael Mackie (02:25):
LinkedIn has become it. It is the great connector because if you need or want something, the people who make the decision, the people who have the money are on LinkedIn. So that’s kind of your first stomping, stomping ground, if you will.

Brad Burrow (02:43):
Right. So I want to talk a little bit about that. I want to get into some of the, I don’t want to share all of your secrets, but I want to get some tips for our audience on things to do on LinkedIn, but we’ll get to that later.

Michael Mackie (02:54):
Okay.

Brad Burrow (02:55):
Where did you grow up?

Michael Mackie (02:56):
I’m from Des Moines originally. So I’m a tried and true central Iowan proud Handballs. If you are familiar with Central Iowa, then you will know what handballs are. That is ma Jam. That’s my aunties.

Brad Burrow (03:09):
I don’t know what that is.

Michael Mackie (03:10):
It’s like a meatball, but with ground ham.

(03:15):
And it’s weird because it’s very central Iowa specific. The base of it is where you put crackers or bread to hold it together. Well, Iowa handballs are held together with gram crackers. Oh, so good. I love gram crackers too. So if you see a recipe for handballs, and it doesn’t specifically say Iowa handballs, it’s a lie. It is a falsehood. It is a travesty. Do not use it. I’m very specific about my Iowa handballs and my aunties make them to perfection for Christmas, new Year’s, Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition. So maybe that’s the title of your next book, handballs.

Brad Burrow (03:56):
I would buy it. Yeah, exactly. So you grew up in Des Moines, and how did you end up in Kansas

Michael Mackie (04:01):
City? I worked at a tv. I went to the University of Iowa where I got my degree in broadcasting. And then shockingly enough, I actually got Calin Clark. Right. What? Caitlyn Clark? Yes. Well, she went to Dowling and I went to Dowling. We’re practically BFFs. I mean, let’s call it what it’s, I figured that was the case. I know me and Kaylin, she’s C squared. I’m m squared, so there you go. So I got my degree in broadcasting, and then shockingly enough, I actually went into my field of study and I got a job at the TV station that I grew up watching. It was KCCI. So KCCI was sort of, I know this sounds weird, but it was the powerhouse CBS affiliate in the country right there in central Iowa. And it was a station that I had grown up watching. And so I was surrounded by all these people that I had literally watched from birth all the way up through junior high high school. And so there I am in the same newsroom with them, and I felt like a very young fish out of water. So let’s put it that way.

Brad Burrow (05:02):
So were you kind of awestruck being around all of the personalities and all

Michael Mackie (05:05):
That? Totally. I’m going to drop some names if you’re from that particular market. Kevin Cooney, Connie McBurney. I mean, the list goes on and on. So it was a great place to not know what I didn’t know, and everybody sort of nurtured me and led me by the hand. So after seven years there, I landed at a TV station. I kind of got a promotion, landed at a TV station in Orlando, which was the sister station. And then I came to a sister station here in Kansas City. So Orlando, how long were you there? 10 minutes. Not very long. Yeah, just a couple of winters. So it was fun. It was enough to, it was a lovely place to land in the winter.

Brad Burrow (05:41):
Were you happy to come back to the Midwest after that or?

Michael Mackie (05:43):
I have a Midwest boy, but I’m going to be honest, I think when I retire, I’m going to move back to Orlando. I have an affinity, an affection, not touristy. Orlando, not Disney, Orlando. I want to be downtown ish.

Brad Burrow (05:56):
Yeah, yeah. It’s a neat area. We used to do all the video content for Cincinnati Reds, and they were over by the Tampa area. And man, we just love being down there. You’d be down there for a month or so and shoot content. It was really

Michael Mackie (06:11):
Fun. Years from now when I retired, it’s me in Orlando,

Brad Burrow (06:14):
So I

Michael Mackie (06:14):
Decided

Brad Burrow (06:15):
Pretty cool. So then you come to Kansas City and get a job at a station here,

Michael Mackie (06:19):
Come to Kansas City. I did promotion. I was at the UPN affiliate of all things. So back in the day, a lot of stations were duopoly and they still are, but this station, it was KMPC, it was Channel nine, the big powerhouse, and then the UPN affiliate, KCWE, which is still a thing, but just not UPN specific. So I would toggle between the two stations kind of doing promotion, whatever. And then one day out, literally out of the ether, the assignment editor, she was like, Ugh, somebody’s sick. You’ll read more in the book. But she literally said somebody was sick. I don’t remember one of the reporters who was supposed to fly to New York and interview of all people, Freddie Prince Jr.

Brad Burrow (07:09):
No kidding.

Michael Mackie (07:10):
For a junket. And she goes, he’s sick, he can’t go. So you have a flight in four hours if you want it. So I went not knowing anything about junkets or what that entailed, and that was Freddie Prince Jr. Was my very first celebrity interview out of the gate here in Kansas City. Wow, amazing.

Brad Burrow (07:28):
I know. Were you scared

Michael Mackie (07:30):
To death? To death? Only because I didn’t know anybody and I watched, I basically learned on the spot as everybody was sort of meandering around me, how to act, what to do, all the things like that. And I think it was the third day, this is early on in the book, but I think on my third day at the station, Donnie and Marie showed up to promote their, they had a brand new talk show that only lasted a couple seasons, but for whatever, I don’t know, I can’t make this up, but for whatever reason, their show was number one in Kansas City. And so the powers that be thought, well, Donnie and Marie are number one with a bullet. We should bring them in and then have all the advertisers meet them and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I, on my third day on the job, got picked or pegged to be their handler.

Brad Burrow (08:28):
Oh, is that

Michael Mackie (08:29):
Right? So literally they were like, whatever Donnie and Marie needs, you were to get it for them.

Brad Burrow (08:34):
So one of the things I was wanting to ask you about, what market was that in? Was that in Kansas City?

Michael Mackie (08:39):
Donnie Marie was here, yeah. It was my third day on the job in Kansas City. And it was third day on the job. Third day on the job, you will cater to Donnie Marie’s every whim, full stop. So there they were, and I never left their sides. I think they were sick of me by end, I created a small rift in the timespace continuum when we were shooting promos with Donnie Marie at the very end of the day. And you could tell they were tired and they were tired of being jazz hands, spirit fingers, and they were shooting the Donnie Marie coming up at three on Channel nine. Donnie Marie coming up tomorrow on Channel nine, those type of promos. And I was watching Marie, she was starting to slump a little bit. She was tired and she was, and no one else really noticed it, but I could tell that she was slowly deflating like a balloon. And then I hear in my ear, Marie, it needs to sit up straight. And I don’t know how what or why I did this, but I went, Marie perky boobs up. Did you really?

Brad Burrow (09:47):
That’s hilarious.

Michael Mackie (09:49):
And Marie got the memo right away and she was back to business and everything. So let’s just say my third day was almost my last day because

Brad Burrow (10:02):
So did you

Michael Mackie (10:02):
Get I got spanked. I got spanked pretty hard, but we got through it. And you, she perked up. She perked Marie perky boobies up. She got the memo.

Brad Burrow (10:12):
Yeah. That’s hilarious. Did she do anything, say anything after that?

Michael Mackie (10:16):
She chuckled.

Brad Burrow (10:18):
She thought it was funny

Michael Mackie (10:18):
Then. Yeah, she did. She got the memo.

Brad Burrow (10:20):
Yeah,

Michael Mackie (10:20):
She’s Marie Osmond. She’s

Brad Burrow (10:22):
Professional. What are you worried about then?

Michael Mackie (10:23):
I wasn’t, but my boss and my boss’s boss, oh, they let me have it. Wow.

Brad Burrow (10:29):
Don’t do that again, huh?

Michael Mackie (10:31):
So that elicits a whole chapter in the book, my running with not my run in my interaction. It was a very peaceful, polite interaction.

Brad Burrow (10:38):
So when did you transition? You were kind of behind the scenes a lot. You kind of transitioned to where you’re more kind of a on-camera personality mean? Did that just happen naturally?

Michael Mackie (10:48):
Yeah, incrementally. Every once in a while I would get some bigger stars and I would do some satellite junkets. And it all sort of came down to one day, again, because my life works a mysterious way, somebody called in sick and they said,

Brad Burrow (11:08):
That seems to be a recurring theme.

Michael Mackie (11:10):
I know I’m always like the sloppy seconds, but it’s worked. It’s worked for me, Cameron Diaz. And so I quickly slapped my face on, I did a satellite interview with Cameron Diaz, and she had just been nominated that day for a Golden Globe for I think something, I can’t remember. Anyway, whatever movie it was, she had just been nominated that day. So I started the interview with Cameron before we even get started, let’s do your Golden Globe dance. And we did a little butter churn and a dance move. And that particular little segment ended up leading entertainment tonight. So when a of people saw that again the next

Brad Burrow (11:56):
Week. So that just kind of came to you and said, let’s do this.

Michael Mackie (11:58):
And then the next week was that really opened a lot of doors. And the next week it was like a-list palooza. It was Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller. I mean, the list went on and on. So that really, once I had a really a-list star under my belt, then the gravy train started.

Brad Burrow (12:15):
One of the things that I think that I’ve noticed about you is that you’re fearless. You don’t care about asking somebody a question or getting not in their face in a negative way, but some people are timid to, oh, I don’t know if I should do this, but you go right in.

Michael Mackie (12:31):
The only thing I don’t do is when a publicist specifically says, don’t ask about such and such or so. And so I forbid it. And I go, okay, well at least that that’s my, it’s off limits. That’s my off limits thing. And I remember I interviewed Taylor Kinney, he had just started dating Lady Gaga and the publicist, I heard the publicist tell the reporter before me, do not ask anything about Lady Gaga or I will yank that microphone off you. And the guy was like, I think I got it. And literally his first question was, so what’s Lady Gaga? That publicist walked in, yanked the microphone off him, told him to get out, and Taylor was just sitting there going, was super awkward. And then they put me in the chair and they gave me this reporter’s four minutes. So I actually had an eight minute interview. That’s the name of the book. You have four minutes because you only get four minutes. I only would get four minutes with each celebrity, except in the case of Taylor Kenny where I got eight minutes. Lucky me.

Brad Burrow (13:44):
So do you prepare for those things? I mean, what kind of preparation goes into an interview like that?

Michael Mackie (13:51):
I do a deep dive. A deep dive. Because I want to find things like, yes, you have to ask about their movie or their TV show or their new record, whatever. It’s

Brad Burrow (14:01):
Fine. They’re telling you what they want to talk about then.

Michael Mackie (14:04):
But I don’t want to ask a question they’ve been asked a hundred times. Yes, I’ll ask about their movie or whatever. But I also want to ask about if I read something like They have a love of Velv Vita Cheese, I want to find out why Velv Vita, why not Swiss? Why not? Things like that. So fun fact, that is Dolly Parton’s favorite cheese. And she is the one celebrity who I have not have yet to interview. And I think that’s going to be my opening question out of the gate is so Velv Vita, is it in your fridge? And when was the last time you had it? I know she’s a fan. We

Brad Burrow (14:39):
Need to make that happen.

Michael Mackie (14:41):
Yes, Dolly, if you’re watching this, and I know that you probably are. Come on.

Brad Burrow (14:45):
Yes, let’s go. Let’s go. Get on here, get on here. So what made you think I wanted write a book?

Michael Mackie (14:53):
It’s called a Global Pandemic. I was so bored because I was a writer and let’s just say I had a lot of free time on my hands in 2020. And so I just sort of roughed out what the book would sort of look like. I have all their seats, I have all the interviews,

(15:12):
And I just started, this is kind of an interesting book. And then one by one, when I was done, when I was done, I started sending out, Hey, this is a great book. You should buy it. Blah, blah, blah. I’m not kidding. Between 2020 and 2021, I think I was owe for 30. I would no sooner send out a solicitation and I would get a rejection letter back like, no, we don’t. Who are you? So I just put it on ice and I thought, okay, not the right time to unleash this book into the ether. And then came about a year ago, I got a travel show on PBS. It was called Get Lost, and it was Is

Brad Burrow (15:58):
That the local?

Michael Mackie (15:59):
Yeah,

Brad Burrow (15:59):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (15:59):
And it was a show that I had created from scratch and made it all the way through.

Brad Burrow (16:04):
So you wrote the show?

Michael Mackie (16:04):
Yeah, I made it all the way through the Green Light process into production. So I can honestly say that I took a show from, that’s an accomplishment. I know from Paper to pilot to that show propelled me back into the spotlight just enough that publishing houses were calling me. And they were like, do you have your own show? And you know me. I’m like, doesn’t everyone? And so that was sort of the catalyst that publishing houses that didn’t want anything to do with me suddenly that I had a tv, my own TV show that Get Lost got me this book, which has its own chapter in the book as well.

Brad Burrow (16:46):
Awesome. How’s it going with the book?

Michael Mackie (16:49):
Oh, it’s huge. It’s epic. I am more proud of this than I think anything I’ve ever done Full stop. Because it’s a really good celebrity slice of life. It’s all the celebs that I’ve interviewed, including, I don’t want to drop names, but 11 academies. Wow. List, 11 Academy Award winners. But there’s a lot of Michael Mackie centric stuff in there. I thought I was done with the book. And the editor and the publisher were like, listen, you had a major stroke at age 40 and nearly keeled over dead. Where’s that chapter? You are in recovery from alcoholism. Where’s that chapter? So a lot of the more heartfelt stuff went into the book. So again, if I do nothing else, this book will, I will always have this book to hang my hat.

Brad Burrow (17:38):
So how did you feel about that when they said, we want to put these things into the book? I mean, I personally think that adversity is something that when we go through it and we come out on the other side as something that’s a gift that we can share with other people and tell ’em how we’ve done that.

Michael Mackie (17:55):
I am not going to lie, I was a little hesitant at first. And then I thought, okay, I see where you’re going. If the book is just about celebrities, it could be kind of a snooze fest a little bit. So I needed to pepper some life experiences in there. And those are by far my favorite chapters. And those are the chapters that really seem to resonate with readers who I know somebody who survived a stroke or I am in recovery from alcoholism or the list goes on and on. And I write about after I had my stroke, that when I recovered, I vowed that for one year I was not going to say no to anything. No matter what was asked of me, I was going to say yes, it was my year of yes. And that that year of yes has turned into what, 15 years of, yes. And because I quickly learned that I was just sort of phoning in, I was just sort of going through the motions of life and I would be like midlife crisis. And so just saying yes, because saying no gets you nowhere, has sort of revolutionized my life.

Brad Burrow (19:03):
So you think the stroke kind of changed your perspective on everything for it, like a wake up call for you in some way?

Michael Mackie (19:08):
Oh yeah. When your brain explodes and you nearly die, I had a right cerebral infarction, which for people in the medical field is kind of a medium-sized stroke. And it about took me out, it took a hot minute to recover. I lost my speech, I lost kind of the left side of my body. So recovery was a little daunting. But you know what? I’m back. I’m better than ever. And once that recovery, when I put the wheels in motion, my friends were like, okay, now what? And I go, well, I’m not going to say I tell you what, I’m not going to say no to anything that you guys asked providing that it’s not going to get me arrested. And then it was just like game on. My friends were like, Hey Mackey, do you want to go skydiving? And I was like, no. Yes. They were like, we’re going to go whitewater rafting next weekend. Do you want come? No, I don’t. Yes. So I lived that year after my stroke, after my brain nearly exploded or my brain did explode. I had the best year of my life.

Brad Burrow (20:09):
Where were you when that happened? Do you remember what happened?

Michael Mackie (20:12):
I do.

Brad Burrow (20:13):
Dunno if you want to talk about that, but I’m really curious as to, I didn’t even know about any of this until I started researching. And like I said, we haven’t known each other that long, but I’m like, oh my gosh.

Michael Mackie (20:25):
I was visiting a friend in St. Louis and I was in a hotel room and I woke up that morning and I distinctly remember just feeling like I had the flu. Just everything was getting increasingly more difficult to do and a raging headache. And my stomach was nauseous, and I just remember making coffee took forever and taking a shower was, and so I was going to go back.

Brad Burrow (20:47):
Do you think it had already happened

Michael Mackie (20:49):
Then? It was happening. It was sort of ramping up. And I remember I was going to go back to bed because that’s how craptastic I felt. And I had this whole day of fun planned and I was so mad that I had woken up with what I thought was the flu. And I remember I grabbed my computer and I was working on my computer and I was so mad because my computer wasn’t working. And I was like, what? This literally was just working right before I went to bed. Well, it’s not that my computer wasn’t working, it’s that I wasn’t working.

(21:19):
So in my head, I’m just tap, tap, tap, tap. And this is all that was happening, this hand just, and I was like, well, that’s weird. Oh my gosh, my arm’s asleep. And it was the strangest thing and I got up. So your left side was already not working? It was starting to, it was really tingly, but it was kind of dead arm. And so I remember I got up and I took a step and I of course ate the floor because my left side, left leg went out and I need you to make this mental picture. I still to this day don’t know why this happened, but I hopped on my good leg up to the mirror and I don’t know why, but I tried to say my ABCs and in my head I was saying A, B, C, D, E, FJHI was saying in my head, I was saying my ABCs as fast as I could, all I heard out of my mouth was. And so I thought, holy crap, I’m having a stroke. So

Brad Burrow (22:25):
You realized at that moment that you were having a stroke.

Michael Mackie (22:27):
And so I called 9 1 1 and they were very nice, but they couldn’t understand me. And they said, sir, because I was, they go, we get it. We understand that you’re having a medical emergency. The ambulance has already been dispatched, but here’s the deal. We know you’re at a hotel, we don’t know what room you’re in, so you have to get to the lobby. Well, by this point, the stroke is really starting to sort of take me out of commission. It is like I am wafting through reality. I’m starting to fade in and out of lucidity. And I just remember I said, I am not going to die in this hotel room. I am going to get to the lobby if it’s the last thing I do. And so again, hopped on my good leg down to the lobby, I could hear the ambulance and I thought, okay, just get to the lobby, get to the lobby, get to the, and I made a visual. I saw the ambulance pull in, and I don’t remember anything after that. I don’t remember what I remember. The next thing I know is they took me to, it was an old folks hospital, which was right around the corner. Total serendipity, total God, God wink.

Brad Burrow (23:43):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (23:45):
And all this hospital ever dealt with were heart attacks and strokes. And so right away they deduced that I was having a stroke and they gave me this TPA, it was a clot busting drug, which back 15 years ago was kind of a novelty. And they didn’t even wait. I just sort of vaguely the emergency room doctor, nurse or whatever. And she just took that syringe. She didn’t even wait. She just plunged it right into my gut. And that clot broke up within 0.04 seconds. I mean, I was still couldn’t talk, but at least at my, that saved your life. That totally saved my life. And this clot busting drug has a propensity. So when you do have a stroke, if you can get it within 30 minutes, 45 minutes, usually under an hour, it will often turn the stroke, whatever the stroke has caused. Yeah, we’ll usually dial that back. And that was exactly what happened. After about 72 hours, I was able to very, it took a little effort, but I was able to raise my arm and my speech was coming back. And so

Brad Burrow (24:55):
Yeah,

Michael Mackie (24:56):
If I had gone to bed or back to bed, which was my plan, I felt so crappy I would be dead. Wow.

Brad Burrow (25:02):
Unbelievable.

Michael Mackie (25:03):
By the grace of God, go I,

Brad Burrow (25:05):
Did you stay in St. Louis for a while? I mean,

Michael Mackie (25:08):
No. My friends came and got me and then I started doing nominal rehab. I mean, after about a week I was better. And after two weeks I was the only odd thing that really, and I write about this in the book, the only odd thing that sort of took me out was for the first, I would say three months until my brain rewired or whatever, I could not control my emotions. And it was all over the board. Things that were nominally funny, I would laugh hysterical at or I would have these crying jags for no reason or I would rage and I’m not a rager.

(25:50):
And the neurologist was like, I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s going to take about three months for this because it hit sort of near my emotional cortex or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know the exact verbiage. But yeah, that was a huge, that caused me a lot of angst because I could not grasp what was going on. I couldn’t control my emotions. And sure enough, three months it just like a light switch. I swear to God on day 91, he was not kidding. And do they know why it happened?

Brad Burrow (26:22):
So it wasn’t related to anything like food or anything. I know you mentioned not eating refined sugar for a year. Sugar is my downfall, by

Michael Mackie (26:33):
The way. Same. It’s still my downfall. No, a majority of people who have small or medium sized strokes have no medical history, family history, drug use, it just happens.

Brad Burrow (26:48):
We probably all need to have one of those shots around.

Michael Mackie (26:50):
Right? Yeah. Keep ’em

Brad Burrow (26:51):
Handy. Yeah.

Michael Mackie (26:52):
Now it’s pretty commonplace. But back then it was a novelty. And I was lucky that I was at an old folks hospital. That’s unbelievable. I mean,

Brad Burrow (27:00):
Just the idea of that and that had to be a God thing, man.

Michael Mackie (27:03):
It was definitely, yeah. So again, that was a giant chapter in the book, and that’s also the one that chapter is called A stroke is no Joke. And for some reason that really resonates with people because when you have a life or death experience that really sort of wakes you up, that was it for me for sure.

Brad Burrow (27:26):
I had once, not a stroke, but I had COVID and I was in the hospital for 30 days. I do that. Yeah, that was back in 21, I believe it was. But you get in and I had what was called the Delta variant, which attacks your lungs. And so in my lung capacity was cut. Well, in about a week it was so low that I had to go into the hospital and I ended up coming through it, but the doctor had one doctor tell me I had less than a 50% chance of making it. And that was at Advent. I just had the CEO of Advent on the podcast, and we talked about this, but it came through a lot of people praying for me. A lot of things happened that pulled me through. But you’re sitting in the hospital and you’re like, okay, what am I? This could be it. What am I doing? Yeah, exactly. So it does tend to kind of change your perspective and it’s like, okay, I need to focus on the important things.

Michael Mackie (28:23):
How long did it take you to recover?

Brad Burrow (28:25):
Well, I was in the hospital 30 days and literally, and people are watching the podcast, I’ve heard this story before, but I literally couldn’t walk from my hospital bed to the bathroom in my room without completely losing my breath. So it took me that long for my lungs to get rehabilitated enough to where I could leave the hospital with oxygen. But probably after I left the hospital, probably another six weeks before I could really breathe.

Michael Mackie (28:53):
Right. Scary stuff.

Brad Burrow (28:54):
Yeah. Yeah. It was scary. But I made it through and I think kind of like you, it’s like the perspective that came from that. I wouldn’t have had any other way you going through. That’s probably changed the way you think about a lot of things. Oh percent,

Michael Mackie (29:11):
A hundred percent.

Brad Burrow (29:12):
And wanting to help people and stuff like that. I think that’s not that you would choose to go through that, but there’s good, that can come from some of those things. Maybe

Michael Mackie (29:21):
People ask, do you have any long-term symptom and any long-term ramifications from the stroke? And yes, I have a very odd one. The stroke scrambled my name, face recognition skills,

Brad Burrow (29:37):
Is that right?

Michael Mackie (29:37):
Which is not very common, but not unheard of. A very famous actor. Brad Pitt also has the, he can’t register names and faces. So I quickly have learned to cover myself. So if I call you anything but Brad moving forward, it’s because I have absolutely no idea who you are.

Brad Burrow (30:03):
I don’t think you’re going to mistake me for Brad Pitt, just so you know. No,

Michael Mackie (30:07):
But it’s funny. I think the world should have to wear name tags. It’s that bad. So people are like Michael Hyde. I’m like, hi, sunshine Senator.

Brad Burrow (30:18):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (30:18):
Hey sister. If I don’t call you by your actual name, I have no, it doesn’t matter if we’ve met 15 times or twice or whether you’re my next door neighbor, it’s so blank. And it’s not like I would see you and be like, bill, Bob,

Brad Burrow (30:39):
Just nothing. It’s

Michael Mackie (30:39):
There somewhere. It’s nothing. It’s just like, hi,

Brad Burrow (30:42):
Senator. Do you think that area of your brain is what maybe

Michael Mackie (30:44):
Got damaged? It totally got scrambled, scribbled, whatever you want to call it.

Brad Burrow (30:49):
Can you rehabilitate something like that?

Michael Mackie (30:51):
I don’t think so. It we’re 15 years in and it’s worse. It’s worse than ever. And I was at a going away party with a bunch of people that I used to work with probably 20 years ago, and they were like, oh my god, Michael, and I was so good to see you. Nothing. I had absolutely, I got in my car and I was like, that was awkward.

Brad Burrow (31:14):
Yeah,

Michael Mackie (31:15):
There’s actually a name

Brad Burrow (31:15):
They probably didn’t even know

Michael Mackie (31:16):
There’s actually a name for it. There’s actually medical term for that and I can’t remember what it is. It’s like 94 consonants.

Brad Burrow (31:25):
Yeah. Yeah. Her brains are an interesting thing. We’re doing a project with, we’re just finished with Buddy Bianca, I don’t know if you remember him. He was one of the stars of the 85 World Series for the Royals.

Michael Mackie (31:36):
Oh yeah.

Brad Burrow (31:36):
Okay. And so he’s got a thing called zone motion. Lemme just tell you about it a little bit. But he has figured out that the front part of your brain will mess up the rest of your brain if you’re thinking too much. And so for hitters and sports people, muscle memory, when you train and you get that muscle memory down that’s saved in the middle, and then the back of your brain is what triggers your body. And when you get in the zone as the athletes say, I’m in the zone, the front part of your brain is not interrupting that, and everything works fine, but if you think too much or it’s like, what’s going to happen here? That all breaks down.

Michael Mackie (32:12):
That makes total

Brad Burrow (32:13):
Sense. Yeah.

Michael Mackie (32:14):
Yeah. Muscle memory.

Brad Burrow (32:15):
Yeah. So it’s really interesting, the brain, and we’ve kind of been diving into that here a little bit and understanding it at a deeper level. Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you, so I have a list of celebrities that you’ve worked with. Yes. You’ve interviewed, I wanted to just, not long stories, but just give me a little bit of

Michael Mackie (32:34):
Snippets. Spe. Yeah. Each one. So Oprah Winfrey, I’ve been on Oprah Winfrey’s show, but I’ve never interviewed her per se. I have stood next to her and I got to ask a question. It was when Couples Cheat, that was the topic.

Brad Burrow (32:51):
Oh,

Michael Mackie (32:51):
Wow. It was in nineties. It was when tabloid TV was at its zenith and Oprah’s like, does anybody have a question? And she was literally standing right next to me and I stood up and I was like, I do fully. I mean, I was so obnoxious. And I do remember I was wearing this Barney, this giant oversized purple jersey. Remember those were big in the early nineties, and I looked like a deranged Barney. And I thought for sure, because I was so obnoxious that that would get edited out of the show. Nope. So there’s a shot of me and Oprah. They loved it. Yeah, they loved it.

Brad Burrow (33:25):
Was that in Chicago or where? Yeah, so awesome. Jennifer Lopez.

Michael Mackie (33:30):
Oh, she’s probably my favorite.

Brad Burrow (33:31):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (33:32):
I love, love, love, love Jennifer Lopez, because I expected Diva. And when I interviewed her, she had the number one song in the country, the number two movie in the country. And she had just released a brand new album. So her shooting star had gone Supernova. And so I expected Diva and she could not have been nicer or kinder. I got Jenny from the block, used to have a little, now she’s got a lot,

Brad Burrow (33:58):
Instead

Michael Mackie (33:58):
Of Jennifer Lopez. And she had just opened up a restaurant called Madres in Pasadena. The wait list was like six months. Everybody wanted to get in. And I remember I said, Hey, at the very end I hear you have 30 seconds. I was like, Hey, JLo. I go, who does a boy have to know around here to get a good table at Madres? And she was like, well, that would be me. And I go, well, I’m coming to LA next week. Can I come see your restaurant? She was like, sure. Great. She hooked me up. No kidding. A table for six on a Saturday night. My friends did not believe it until we were physically sitting at Madres. And I had some sort of plantain shrimp dish. That’s really all I remember.

Brad Burrow (34:41):
Was it good? It was

Michael Mackie (34:42):
Good. But yeah, Jennifer Lopez is right up there. So it was Jennifer Aniston. Oh yeah.

Brad Burrow (34:46):
Tell me about Jennifer Anon

Michael Mackie (34:47):
Again. Another, I thought she was going to be a diva because she was at the height of her friend success. This was 2001 maybe?

Brad Burrow (34:55):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (34:56):
Jennifer Anon is Loverly.

Brad Burrow (35:00):
Who else? Tell me your favorite one.

Michael Mackie (35:03):
Well, Lindsey Wagner. Okay. Lindsey Wagner. Because I’m a boy of a certain age and I grew up watching the Bionic

Brad Burrow (35:09):
Woman. And you might want to tell everybody who that is. The

Michael Mackie (35:10):
Bionic woman.

Brad Burrow (35:11):
Yes.

Michael Mackie (35:16):
And I about lost my ever loving mind because I, Lindsay Wagner walked in and I sucked all the air out of the room. I literally clutched imaginary You like fanboy at that point? Yes. It was awful. And she was very ethereal. She was floating on air when she walked up and she was wearing this gian outfit that made her look even more mystical and magical. And I swear to God, she said, hi, I’m Lindsay Wagner, and I don’t know what happened. I think my tongue swelled to 50 times. Its normal size. And I was like, I’m not, nah. So bad. By the time we actually got to the interview portion, I had calmed down and then we got done with the interview and she said, I don’t know if you have time, but I need dropped off at. And she talked in this sort of tone. I need dropped off at the rental car place if you would mind dropping me off there. This is before Uber. This was like 2000. This is So she asked you to take her? Yes. And then on the way she goes,

Brad Burrow (36:24):
You didn’t say yes, did you?

Michael Mackie (36:25):
I did. I said, yes, Lindsay Wagner. And then she goes on the way. She goes, are there any, I’m sort of hungry. Are there any places to get a vegan or vegetarian meal? And I said, yes. Right here. We ended up having breakfast. Lindsay Wagner and I had breakfast. I nearly died. It’s in the book’s. Lindsay Wagner is my favorite chapter in the book. So there you go. Lindsay Wagner. Lindsay Wagner.

Brad Burrow (36:51):
That’s amazing. So what was the most craziest interview that you can remember?

Michael Mackie (36:57):
She wrote the Forward for the book, Cindy Wilson, of the B 50 twos. I spent the entire day with her in Athens, Georgia. Like eight hours, an eight hour interview. And if you know what a huge giant B 50 twos fan I am. I mean, who isn’t really?

Brad Burrow (37:15):
Yeah,

Michael Mackie (37:15):
Right. You would know that that will never be topped that day. Four 20 ha ha. April 20th.

Brad Burrow (37:25):
Yeah,

Michael Mackie (37:26):
4 20 20 18. Yes. Was the day that we’ll live in infamy. And then when the book was coming together, the publisher was like, you need a celebrity to write the forward. And I was like, and so I’ve never asked Cindy Wilson for anything ever. And I said, would you write the forward? And she did. And it is one of the best parts of the book. It just kicks off the book on a perfect, it’s amazing that she said

Brad Burrow (37:51):
Yes to that.

Michael Mackie (37:51):
Yes. So to you, Cindy, I say dead roof rusted.

Brad Burrow (37:57):
What was that day? I bet that was a fun day. Obviously it was

Michael Mackie (38:01):
A lot of fun. Once I stopped hyperventilating and simmer down, I very rarely fan girl anymore. Lindsay Wagner is a rare exception, and Cindy, it took me a good hour to just not be a babbling brook and not be a fan girl. And then we ended up, she took me to lunch. We ended up going back and sitting on her patio. It is just a magical day that day will never be topped. And she talks about it. She talks about it in the forward about what a great day we had about how about an hour in after I stopped being an idiot, that we just started being two friends who were just chatting about days gone by.

Brad Burrow (38:41):
Don’t you think that’s part of the deal with celebrities is they just want to be treated like normal people? I dunno, maybe I’m wrong on that. Oh,

Michael Mackie (38:48):
They do.

Brad Burrow (38:49):
But when you’re interviewing somebody, it’s like I’ve worked with quite a few celebrities too. I remember I did a TV spot with Josh Beckett who was a star pitcher for the Red Sox, and we were doing spots with him and had him for two hours. We had a green screen set up in a pitching cage down at Tampa Bay and had it all set up. And his agent was not great to work with, but Josh comes up to me, I introduced him and said, Hey, I’m Brad. I’m directing spot today. And he looks at me, he says, you’re not going to yell at me today, are you? I’m like, are you serious? I go, I want you to have a great time today.

Michael Mackie (39:30):
Why would somebody yell at him? I

Brad Burrow (39:32):
Don’t. Yeah. And so I got to know him. I spent time with him. I was like, I’d done research and hey, I know you’re from Houston. And we talked about that a little bit. And I’ve got him, I’ve got the camera right here, and he’s coming down and landing right in front of the camera as he’s pitching and we’re holding his leg and holding it there and doing stuff like that. And he’s like, whatever you need, man. It was like he just wanted to be treated. One of the guys,

Michael Mackie (39:57):
I did the same thing with Scott Spezio, the exact same thing. Scott Spezio wanted to talk about anything but baseball. So fortunately, I don’t know the sports ball like you do. So we talked about over dinner, we talked about anything but sports ball.

Brad Burrow (40:11):
And it’s really interesting. I think people just really want to just want to be normal facts. But I think a lot of the people, I’ve seen this too, or people get in the situation, they’re working with them and they’re like so uptight, man, that comes across and interviewing is a real skill.

Michael Mackie (40:30):
No, it is taken me a long time to get, and this is still weird for me to be on the other side for you to ask me questions because when you were talking about having COVID, I was like, I immediately slipped into reporter mode.

Brad Burrow (40:42):
Well, you can go into reporter mode, you can ask me questions if you want, but I just think that’s So what advice would you have? I mean, there’s a lot of people out there that, I mean the art of the interview, maybe that’s another book, but a lot of people don’t have that skillset. I see it all the time. My biggest takeaway is to shut

Michael Mackie (41:01):
Up, is to just shut up. The best interviews are where I ask two questions and they’re so polished and professional, they know exactly what to say and they have the perfect sound bites or whatever. Who’s awful, who you have to reign in comedians.

Brad Burrow (41:18):
Oh yeah.

Michael Mackie (41:18):
Comedians are the worst because they’ll try and squish 10 minutes of material into your four minute interview and it’s awful. And it’s like squirrel, something shiny.

Brad Burrow (41:30):
So

Michael Mackie (41:31):
Yeah.

Brad Burrow (41:31):
Yeah, yeah. So what techniques do you use to get them back on that? I mean, that’s a skillset set in itself. Oh, hey, get back

Michael Mackie (41:37):
Over here. Some of my worst interviews have been celebrities. Chris Catan, is that right? Chris Catan. I take that back. Chris Catan might be my worst interview ever.

Brad Burrow (41:47):
Saturday Night Live guy.

Michael Mackie (41:48):
Yeah.

Brad Burrow (41:48):
Yeah.

Michael Mackie (41:49):
I wrote about Tommy Lee Jones in the book because he was a horrific interview. But Chris, and you can find this interview on YouTube, it lives in infamy. I’m not sure. Chris was all there that day, allegedly, if you know what I’m saying. And he was rambly.

Brad Burrow (42:08):
He’s probably recovering from his mango skit, right? Wasn’t he Mango?

Michael Mackie (42:12):
He was mango. And here’s the weird thing, in the middle of the interview, inexplicably for no reason, he ate an apple in the middle of the interview and not just starts not funny like Mango, like when Mango or Mr. Pees, Mr. Pee eat the right, he just started chomping down. I was like, you had to bring that on set. You had to have that in your pocket. And he was sweaty and gross. And anyway, at the end of the interview, I still to this day, can’t believe I said this, but I was like, Chris, thank you so much for almost being here today.

Brad Burrow (42:51):
Did you say

Michael Mackie (42:51):
That? Yeah, it was awful.

Brad Burrow (42:53):
Oh my gosh. And Tommy Lee Jones. Huh?

Michael Mackie (42:56):
Tommy Lee Jones is a curmudgeon already to begin with, and he hates doing press and he hates doing publicity. And I was his first interview of the day for this movie called Rules of Engagement. I think it was like a 2000 film. And I was not asking yes, no questions. I was asking in depth, thoughtful, mindful questions. And I think he said two dozen words. I think he said like 18 words, maybe 19 if you

Brad Burrow (43:25):
Count. Not even usable probably. Huh?

Michael Mackie (43:27):
No, he said like 18 words. 19, if you count as two words. It was so bad. It was so bad that it was not usable. And I got lambasted for that

Brad Burrow (43:39):
Because what are you going to do about

Michael Mackie (43:40):
It? I know that the company, the movie studio was like, we flew you all the way to la. And I’m like, I don’t know what to tell you. He was rude.

Brad Burrow (43:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s interesting. Some people are really easy to work with. I’ve been pretty blessed with working Trace Atkins and guys like that. Ken Griffey Jr. I’ll tell you a quick Ken Griffey Jr story. So he was with the Reds, and so I remember the guys from The Reds said, okay, he’s always the last one we have a whole week where we’re shooting on camera stuff and getting him to do spots and little quick promos and stuff like that teleprompter there. And they’re like, okay, Ken Griffey Jr’s the last one. And last year he went off on us. We had just the worst thing. And I’m like, okay. So the night before I’m like, okay, I’m going to start studying. And I actually prayed about this, and then I’m like, what do I need to do? Well, I find out he’s a pilot. Oh, okay. So he’s a pilot. He’s got a boat and I have my pilot’s license. So the first thing I do when he walks in and I say, Hey, Mr. Griffey, how you doing? I’m Brad. I’m directing today. And I go, are you a pilot? And he goes, I am. I go, what kind of plane do you have? I had a Moonie, what was called a moonie. You have a moonie, huh? I go, yeah. I go, I’ve got about 400 hours. We talked for 45 minutes, and

Michael Mackie (45:09):
You instantly put him at ease.

Brad Burrow (45:11):
And so at the end of that, he’s like, and all the reds guys that were there last year that were like, oh my gosh. They’re like, the director from the Reds came up to me after. He said, how’d you do that? And I go, I just, you found common ground. Yeah, exactly. It seems so easy. But he’s like, what do you need me to do, Brad? Well, I just need you to read this teleprompter. I’m going to have you spin around on this turntable and hold your bat like this, all this stuff. And they were shocked. One funny little thing, his glove, he was so superstitious about his baseball glove that he had forgotten it. And he goes, somebody go get my glove, but do not put your hand in it. If you put your hand in it, I can’t use that glove

Michael Mackie (45:52):
Again.

Brad Burrow (45:53):
So they had to carry his glove up to him and he could put his hand into it, but nobody else could put their hand in his glove. He was

Michael Mackie (46:00):
Superstitious. Superstitious

Brad Burrow (46:01):
About. So just weird things like that. But

Michael Mackie (46:04):
Next time I interview Ken Groovy. I’m going to say, are you still superstitious like that? Exactly. That’s what I’m going to start with. But I think you’re, and then I’m going to ask him if he eats Velv Vita Cheese, all roses lead to Velv Vita in my world.

Brad Burrow (46:16):
That’s right. We need to get Dolly Parton on here.

Michael Mackie (46:19):
Let’s get Dolly.

Brad Burrow (46:20):
Yes,

Michael Mackie (46:21):
Dolly.

Brad Burrow (46:22):
That would be fun. She’s a pretty good interview too. I’ve seen her quite a few times on television. She looks like she’d be a fun interview.

Michael Mackie (46:29):
She’s at the zenith of the pinnacle of celebs that I have not interviewed.

Brad Burrow (46:32):
Yeah. Well that’s on the list now.

Michael Mackie (46:35):
Okay, good.

Brad Burrow (46:36):
So I think that a couple of tips, if you could just give people, I know we’ve done that a little bit, just give me a couple bullet list things that if we grabbed a little soundbite from this podcast and said three things that you need to do as an interviewer to do a good job of getting somebody to feel good, do a good job.

Michael Mackie (46:57):
Yes. Find the common ground. Find something to discuss their pilot’s license or whatever. Do your research, do your homework. Find out a question that is very relatable to them, but they might not have been asked 400,000 times over the course of their publicity run. And three, just be your best, authentic, genuine self because you’re already dealing with an ego on this side of the camera. You’re dealing with some ego. So you have to be your best, authentic, genuine self because that’ll put them at ease. If you’re all like bravado and swagger, celebrities are going to see right through that.

Brad Burrow (47:42):
But the authentic you is going to come through the right way,

Michael Mackie (47:45):
Right? Yeah, absolutely.

Brad Burrow (47:46):
Right, right. Alright, so let’s switch over to LinkedIn. I want to talk about LinkedIn in all transparency, Michael’s helping me with my LinkedIn.

Michael Mackie (47:56):
Yes,

Brad Burrow (47:56):
Very excited. I’m very excited about that. Tell me about what people should be doing on LinkedIn. If you were going to give us, here are some things that you need to be doing differently on LinkedIn and maybe they can hire you

Michael Mackie (48:09):
Too. Well, yeah, facts. Well, first of all, they need, it goes back to what I just said, it’s about being your best, authentic, genuine self on LinkedIn. So it’s kind of a rule of thumb that if you’re going to do posts on LinkedIn, you need to do something about Brad, something about Brad’s company. And then you need to have a very rando picture of your dog dressed up for Halloween. Your dog that is literally sitting at my feet right now. Yes,

Brad Burrow (48:39):
That’s Maggie by the way.

Michael Mackie (48:41):
Hi Maggie. Best dog ever. And then lather, rinse, repeat. So if you are a real estate agent and all you do is post listing after listing, after listing, people will just start scrolling through that and no one will care. So I always tell people, mix and match the post that you make. Do it once a week, twice a week, whatever feels good, as long as it’s good content, you can put it out into the universe and people will appreciate it. But again, you have to go in and physically other people’s posts and comment on them and it’s tit for tat. So that’s what I’ve learned over the,

Brad Burrow (49:19):
So that helps the algorithm apparently, is when you start doing more of that, it’s not just taking in the information but actually interacting with people.

Michael Mackie (49:27):
And two years ago, I had no idea what I was doing on LinkedIn and I worked for a while just doing people’s LinkedIn. And it was funny because at first I was like, well, this is very schizophrenic. I’m writing in different people’s voices all day long. Then a funny thing happened, I got to be really good at it. It’s kind of become a weird little side hustle for me. I like to do it. It’s been a lot of fun to see people, the growth or them get new businesses or new jobs or new fill in the blank. So yeah. What about ai?

Brad Burrow (50:02):
This

Michael Mackie (50:02):
Is something I thought. I have no opinion. No, I have zero opinion. I mean, I will use Chad GBT when necessary. I will say not one word of this book was written with

Brad Burrow (50:17):
Ai.

Michael Mackie (50:18):
Now this was all Michael back gay all the time. If I need to come up with a clever way to reword something in a post or something, I’ll eventually I’ll, every once in a while I’ll use Chad GPT. But I, no, I’m ambivalent about it. Otherwise

Brad Burrow (50:33):
I’ve been really, so we’re kind of diving into it a little bit. Our industry is

(50:38):
Going that way a lot. And I just want to be very knowledgeable about it. But there’s a new platform called Suno Suno, I’ve never heard of it. So you can put in lyrics and then it’ll write a song based on direction. I want a rhythm and blues feel with the heavy guitar and horns. And it’s pretty amazing the results. Now the thing about AI is you get what it thinks you want, but there’s some pretty amazing results. And for me, it’s like I even heard that one of the top songs, maybe on the Christian charts right now, is an AI song. And so that’s a crazy thing that’s happening. And I’m just curious, I know you’re in agency world now a little bit if you guys are looking at AI as well,

Michael Mackie (51:29):
The agency is by and large. I am not. It’s not. But now that I wanting to go look up that suno because I want to turn everything into an eighties dance remix on

Brad Burrow (51:38):
Of a sudden. Well, it’s easy to do

Michael Mackie (51:40):
Also. Do you know who turned me down? Who I did not get an interview with who I asked Amy Grant, really speaking of Christian singers, she was just here like three, four or five months ago and I reached out to her publisher or her publicity person, nothing. I got shot down by Amy Grant. Wow. Amy Grant,

Brad Burrow (52:02):
What?

Michael Mackie (52:03):
I dunno. I don’t know what I did to tick her off,

Brad Burrow (52:04):
But So what are the things that you’re doing? So you’re working for an agency now?

Michael Mackie (52:09):
I work for Square Peg branding and marketing, and they are marketing and branding. They have been lovely to work with Director of business development. It’s just been a super fun gig. I get to kiss babies and shake hands all day and hob and knob and yeah, it’s been an ideal job. So I’m working.

Brad Burrow (52:24):
And you’re also writing, right?

Michael Mackie (52:26):
Yes, I work, I’m the senior entertainment reporter for the Pitch, which is a great outlet for all my celeb interviews. And I would say probably the last third of the book is just one pitch interview after another. I mean, clearly I made it book friendly, but yeah.

Brad Burrow (52:42):
Is that how the connection to try to get Amy Grant, was that through the pitch?

Michael Mackie (52:47):
Yeah, I was like, Hey, do you want to be in the pitch? And it was crickets. Crickets from Amy Grant’s people

Brad Burrow (52:52):
Surprising. You think anybody in the music industry is going to want any publicity they can possibly get? I would think, but who knows what the thinking is. Alright, so tell me, how can somebody find you?

Michael Mackie (53:07):
Well, like I said, my biggest outlet is LinkedIn, but I mean, I have MichaelMackie.com. I’m pretty prolific on Facebook. I do like me some Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it. So yeah, I just dive in. And my book is available on Amazon, but you can also find here locally at the airport. It is at Made in kc. It is at rainy Day books. So Awesome.

Brad Burrow (53:31):
And you’re doing a book signing tomorrow, I believe.

Michael Mackie (53:33):
Is that right? It’s all about holiday book signing. So I am everywhere. Everything all at

Brad Burrow (53:38):
Once. Yeah. Busy time of the year.

Michael Mackie (53:40):
Facts.

Brad Burrow (53:41):
So the last thing we’re going to wrap up unless you have any questions for me. The last thing that I always do with everybody on the podcast, and I’ve had Joel Goldberg do this, the Joel Goldberg, he was just on a couple of weeks ago. I love me some. Joel Goldberg. He was awesome. But I have everybody do the movie voice. So in a world That’s right. So I’ll tell you the quick story behind that is that I was the voice of the Miami Heat for four years. And I did that because I got to know the director of the Heat Television Network and Ed Philia is his name still one of my good friends. So we’d play golf and I’d drive around and I’d say in a world. So he calls me one day and says, Hey, can you audition for the voice, for the walk-on for the heat? And I’m like, you’re kidding. And so I ended up getting it. So I was the voice. So that’s where the name in a World of Real Media came. So

Michael Mackie (54:36):
I thought it was I I did not know that. I thought it just came from movie trailers.

Brad Burrow (54:41):
Yeah, so it is a movie trailer thing. Yes. So I ask every guest to do their version of the movie trailer thing. So it’s in a world with real media, you’re going to be great at this

Michael Mackie (54:52):
In a world with real media. How was that? I feel pretty good. I feel like my third testicle dropped down there when I did that, so I don’t usually talk in that voice. That is fine. Usually have to get real close. I am not used to this voice though.

Brad Burrow (55:09):
Yes. Well, awesome. Michael, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really appreciate

Michael Mackie (55:13):
It. I wishing great. Thanks for having me.

Brad Burrow (55:15):
I appreciate it. And be sure to watch out for my LinkedIn profile because that’s going to be getting a lot

Michael Mackie (55:19):
Better, right? It’s going to be Jazz hands, spirit fingers here in about 10 minutes. Yeah. So yeah, forget following me. Go like and follow Brad on LinkedIn.

Brad Burrow (55:29):
Yeah, we’re all the places too. Instagram TikTok now, and I’m going to start posting stuff on my LinkedIn. I’m going to hold you to that. So like us, follow us, do all those things. Share this content. It’s really fun today. I really enjoyed it. This is a lot of fun. So we could probably keep going for a couple more hours, but we will not do that. Maybe we’ll do a second version of this at some point. So thanks for joining us and we’ll see you next time. This has been in a World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us. And be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode.