From the moment she dropped out of Loyola University the mid-1990’s, Zena Burns has worked to establish herself as a leader in the male-dominated worlds of media, entertainment and technology.
Now, the Dowagiac resident is looking to use some of her knowledge and connections in those industries to provide guidance and perspective to young women with similar aspirations.
This month, Burns launched a new podcast, My 23-Year-Old Self: True Stories From the Come Up to have conversations with successful women in media, entertainment, and technology about advice they’d give their younger selves when they were coming up in their careers.
Burns said the inspiration for the series came as she – now in her 40s – reflects on advice she would want her younger self to know.
“Coming up, there were so many things I wish I’d known,” said Burns, who got her first job in the industry at 23 years old. “Especially navigating these fields that still aren’t predominately female-led. … It’s really intended not only to give young women in these fields advice, but really to give anyone in business advice about how to navigate some common challenges while hearing some amazing women talk about their own experiences professionally as well.”
The journey
Living in Chicago in the mid-1990’s, Burns dropped out of the honors program at Loyola University to take a publicist position at The Smashing Pumpkins-owned record label, Scratchie Records.
Burns moved to New York City in 1999 to become Entertainment Director and Managing Editor at Teen People, where she began rubbing elbows with big names – and future big names – in the entertainment industry.
“I gave Katy Perry her first piece of national press,” Burns said. “It was a really, really fascinating time.”
From there, Burns was recruited to work for Clear Channel Radio, and help them transform the radio stations into the digital brands now known as iHeartMedia and iHeartRadio.
In 2015, Burns moved back to the Chicago area and founded a business development company Moxie Coalition with a desire to do her own thing in the industry.
In 2018, she joined Moxie client Futuri Media as Senior Vice President of Content and Special Projects. Futuri is a provider of cloud-based audience engagement and sales intelligence software for media companies.
Giving back
At each of her stops, Burns said she often had discussions with female colleagues about challenges while moving up the ladder in male-dominated industries.
This is what sparked the idea for My 23-Year-Old Self.
“Part of the reason I wanted to start this podcast is because we are obviously in a time where so many people are working remotely,” Burns said. “Young people don’t have as much opportunity now to just catch people in the office and have conversations in the hallways or duck into someone’s office when they need some advice about how to handle a certain situation.”
Burns said it’s not always easy to initiate a conversation over Slack or email, so she wanted to create a digital space for them to happen.
“I think it’s really important that younger generations still have an outlet to get that type of mentoring, to get that type of advice,” Burns said. “Also, I think that it’s really important for people who have achieved a certain measure of success to give back and to help share some wisdom. No one got to where they are now by themselves.”
When word of her podcast got around, Burns said people in the entertainment industry started reaching out to tell her they wish they had a resource like this when they were young.
Industry executives, thought leaders and celebrities she’s never met also have inquired about wanting to share their stories on the podcast, which has two episodes live as of April 27.
“Part of the reason I think I’ve gotten such a tremendous response from people is because they want to give back,” said Burns, adding the podcast will feature male allies as well. “They want to share that knowledge.”
Burns interviewed Radio Hall of Fame inductee Ellen K for her first interview, and last Friday released a conversation with April Carty-Sipp, an executive for the National Association of Broadcasters. The latter episode was recorded live at the NAB convention in Las Vegas.
“What we’ve already started to talk about in some of the episodes are not just tales of people’s journeys, but really specific and actionable advice,” said Burns, who also owns the 1870 House short-term rental in Dowagiac, has taken over organization of the city’s summer concert series was honored as a 2022 Moody on the Market Bold Woman of the Year.
It was for Moody she shared a piece of advice stemming from a conversation she once had with Prince:
“Prince called me wanting to talk about the music business. Much of the hour we talked that day was him sort of yelling at me about various things happening in the business that he didn’t like. At one point, I voiced an opinion, and he got quiet and then said, sternly, ‘Zena, we’re gonna need to hold hands and pray.’ But you know what? I listened to his side of things, stood my ground where I felt strongly, and by the end of that conversation, he was jokingly asking if I had office space for him. That reminded me that confidence is important, even if disagreeing with the greatest artist of all time!”
My 23-Year-Old Self: True Stories From the Come Up is available on most streaming platforms. Find more at my23yearoldself.com.
