Second Act Success Podcast
Season 1 -Episode #22 MTV Producer/Host to Boutique Owner with Katina Turner |
Guest: Katina Turner
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Katina Turner: My advice to people who are like, I wanna jump into something new. I wanna try something new. Absolutely. 100%. I would always recommend. We have one turn in this world. Go for it. Just jump in. What's the worst thing that can happen?

[00:00:13] Shannon: Are you at a crossroads in your career or in life? Well, don't worry because life's next chapter is waiting. This is the Second Act Success Podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell.

I'm a television producer, turned boy mom, turned business owner, podcaster, and career coach. If you are looking to start a new career or begin a fresh chapter in life, then get ready to be inspired with stories of women who have done just that. We will share advice and offer steps you can take to help figure out what your true calling in life really is.

It is time to shine. So let's turn the page and get started.

Welcome to Second Act Success.[00:01:00]

Welcome back my friend today, my guest. Is Katina Turner. Katina and I worked together many years ago at MTV. She was a producer for the iconic series House of Style, which was known for blending, the worlds of models and musicians for the channel. She shares hilarious stories of celebrity encounters as well as her experience hosting some on-camera fashion segments for the show. Katina second act occurred when she left the lights of New York city and moved to North Carolina with her husband. She has since spent years as a business owner, running various apothecaries and boutiques bringing her big city fashion style to small town Asheville. This is my friend Katina Turner, and her Second Act Success story.

[00:01:48] Shannon Russell: Katina. It's so great to have you,

[00:01:50] Katina Turner: Shannon, it's so great to see you. Thank you so much.

[00:01:54] Shannon Russell: Absolutely. We worked together. What, like 20 years ago at this point, I don't

[00:01:58] Katina Turner: About 20 years [00:02:00] ago. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:01] Shannon Russell: So long ago at MTV. I've gone on to do a bunch of different things and you've gone on to do so much. I can't wait to hear all about what you've been up to, but let's start, with your journey, from college. And after that, how did you kind of break into the real world? Should we say.

[00:02:16] Katina Turner: It's funny when I was younger, when MTV first came out, my brother and I who's five years younger than me, we were watching MTV and there was a video on by The Tubes and the song was, she's a beauty. And I don't know if you remember this video, you were probably too young, but it was very sexually charged. In today's terms, it would be so tame. But back then it was like, whoa, like, I can't believe we're seeing this on television. My dad happened to come downstairs and see us watching it. And he was like, no, MTV, you guys are banned. You may not watch this channel anymore. And at that moment I was like, oh no, my friend. I'm gonna work there someday. And. I will never forget that. I sort of set my sights on that and I didn't know how I was gonna get there. I didn't even know what [00:03:00] MTV was. Like, all I saw were videos and I had no idea if there were jobs, but I was like, I'm gonna do that. Fast forward, many, many years later, I go to, school in upstate New York, didn't know what I wanted to do. I somehow got myself into, um, a media, class. And I had this great professor who happened to have some kind of contact at MTV he was such a great teacher to me, and I just felt like the luckiest person in the world that I went to this school chose this media class, just because it was like, I don't know, media seems easy. There's no math involved, so I'll take it. Ended up, with him, doing, our first television station at the college. And I was one of the hosts and one of the producers and I said, I would love to try for an internship at MTV. And he said, oh my gosh, the most coveted internship at this school, like, you're never gonna get it. , all of my classmates, we were all [00:04:00] applying for it. A friend led me some money to buy a D K N Y suit that I got at Macy's in New York and I went and had my little interview and I got the internship and I can't tell you how happy I was. It was a little bit of, oh my gosh. A middle finger to my dad. Because you said, I couldn't watch this channel. And I was like, I'm gonna work here. You know, I'm from this like lower middle class family on Long Island that, you know, everybody that I knew just kind of didn't do much and so I just felt like I was on top of the world. Gratefully I did my internship my very last semester at school. When I was done and, and as you know, they tend to hire interns if they're good, because it's like easy, they already know kind of the place. And, and as an entry level job, it's just easy to take those interns and make them employees. I was answering phones for Dave Sirulnik, who was the President of MTV News and Kurt Loder at the same time, which was a [00:05:00] trip.

[00:05:00] Shannon Russell: I bet. Oh, how exciting?

[00:05:02] Katina Turner: Oh my gosh, some of the calls I received, I wish I had kept notes. That's my big regret. And for anybody out there, like one of my big pieces of advice is just keep notes, write down your stories, take those pictures. If nothing else, just to remind you of all the cool people and things that you did met talk to got advice from whatever.

[00:05:25] Shannon Russell: Did you have musicians call? I feel like Kurt would've had, yeah.

[00:05:28] Katina Turner: All the time. And it's like, oh, it's Dave Grohl on the phone. Oh, Kurt, Dave's on the phone. Like, you know, just

[00:05:34] Shannon Russell: Oh my God. Yeah.

[00:05:35] Katina Turner: crazy, crazy stuff. And, So I'm sitting there answering phones in my little cubicle and, Alisa Bellettini who was the executive producer creator and producer of House of Style, came by and she liked the way I looked, which was a big thing for her cuz she was in fashion and asked me what I was doing. And I said, I'm an intern. And she asked me to come work for her and [00:06:00] be her assistant. I about died a second time because my whole life, my dad was in fashion he worked for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and he was in charge of the men's floor. And I remember this is gonna date me so much, but Phil Donahue used to have a morning show. And my dad was on Phil Donahue talking about men's trends. My mother worked for Estee Lauder. Makeup was always home. Skincare, always came home. My dad always talked about clothes. So fashion and beauty were just sort of part of the conversation my whole life. And when the executive producer of House of Style, which I had watched before I worked there, asked me to come interview and be her assistant afterwards, I thought I'd made it like the, it was everything I'd ever wanted in my life.

[00:06:49] Shannon Russell: You were always, and you still are so stylish, you are so put together. so Was that it, she just liked the way you were dressed that day, the way your hair was that day?

[00:06:58] Katina Turner: Yep. At MTV [00:07:00] at that time. We were all really young and silly and crazy. And at sometimes that was good, but there were times when you had to be professional. And I think she saw some professionalism in me and also a little bit of style. She was both very, very professional and very serious, and very stylish. So I think it was just a moment in time, you know,

[00:07:22] Shannon Russell: Lucky moments.

[00:07:23] Katina Turner: she just plucked me out of that desk and put me in another desk.

[00:07:27] Shannon Russell: How was House of Style? It's come back at different times. I worked on the remake of it and I wanna say it was like 2013. They were trying to bring it back and it didn't really take off. It's always been around so classic MTV. Can you tell us how it was in the very beginning when you were a part of it?

[00:07:43] Katina Turner: Well, when I was a part of it, Cindy Crawford was still the host. And that was incredible. I mean, it was the time of supermodels. It was Naomi and Christie and Cindy and Linda and the hair stylists and the makeup artists who were celebrities, Kevin Aucoin and Orbe and [00:08:00] Garin. And the fashion shows like Todd Oldham and Isaac Mizrahi Anna Sui. It was the height of fashion in the world. In my opinion, it was everything. It was the music. Oh, I get chills now, just thinking about that time and, and all the great things I got to see and do. It was hard work but it was, the most amazing time. We got to interview and do fun things with so many artists, actors. We took John Stewart backstage with Kate Moss at a fashion show. That was hilarious, we went shoe shopping with Sheryl Crow. Because House of Style was such a small little production and we went through a lot in that time, we've all remained fairly close and, and that's really nice.

[00:08:43] Shannon Russell: Right. Cuz you can talk about those moments. And just reminisce kind of like we are today for such a special time and don't you wish it was still around?

[00:08:51] Katina Turner: I wish it was still around. I don't watch the channel. I have not turned it on. I can't even tell you how many years. It's so different. We were just running through the halls. Like [00:09:00] we were kids in charge of multimillion dollar productions and getting it done and figuring it out. And it was magic.

[00:09:07] Shannon Russell: Best years ever. It was right before smaller production companies started coming about and it was easier to outsource. In my opinion, that was the downfall of the comradery that we all had other production companies that didn't know our style as much were creating the content. And there was just a disconnect.

[00:09:25] Katina Turner: I totally agree. It felt like, oh, this is, this is the end. This is not going to be the way it used to be.

[00:09:31] Shannon Russell: Things have changed, but, still some of my best friends are. MTV people from back in the day too, which I think is such a Testament to all that we all went through all the crazy stories, all the traveling, you'll never recreate it. You know, it was just so special.

Did house of style ever do any spring breaks? I think they did.

[00:09:48] Katina Turner: We did do some spring breaks went down to Jamaica, there was one particular spring break. We were doing a fashion show. We had kind of done this spinoff called Fashionably Loud, where we would have like a [00:10:00] runway and bands. It was just like the final melding of models and music. Like you always knew back in the day models, always date musicians, Stephanie Seymour, Axel rose, Helena Christenson, Michael Hutchinson. But this was it on stage on TV. We did something with Coolio and I'm backstage. And this point I'm, I'm acting as a stylist and Coolio brings his jeans to me and he says, I need you to spit crease these. And I was like, I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what that means, spit crease. He's like you spit on them and then you iron them. And I was like, Uhhuh.

[00:10:34] Shannon Russell: I've never heard of that.

[00:10:35] Katina Turner: was like spit crease. These and I was like, I guess that's like, if you don't have starch, you spit on them.

[00:10:40] Shannon Russell: So funny.

[00:10:41] Katina Turner: Here's a funny story. My Alisa Bellettini says we're gonna find tons of spring break models to put in these amazing bathing suits that we have and walk the runway. We do casting calls and casting calls, we didn't find the greatest talent. no future supermodels were found in Jamaica. And [00:11:00] so my boss is like, well, Strap a bikini on and like you're going out there. And I was like, oh my gosh. I had been like indulging in everything. Jamaica had to offer bathing suit and walk the runway. It was awesome. And unforgettable, but, one of the funniest things about it is many, many, many years later, my husband is now a politician. He used to work for MTV and now he's a politician and somebody dug up that video of me on the runway to try to use against him as he was campaigning his first time. And, and, uh, yeah, Brian's like what? I have a hot wife. What what's, what's the problem. This is not gonna hurt me.

[00:11:39] Shannon Russell: right. And this is her job she had to go on or the show wouldn't have

[00:11:43] Katina Turner: The show wouldn't have gone on anyway. It's a fun thing to have to show my daughter.

[00:11:46] Shannon Russell: You're sitting here styling Coolio and whoever else backstage, and then they're like, you gotta get out there in a bikini.

[00:11:52] Katina Turner: I am genuinely a very insecure person. So at first I was like, no, and then there was something in me that said, oh, just [00:12:00] do it. Who's gonna see this in 20 years. People saw it in 20 years. But, I think that was the beginning of me saying like, just jump, just take some risks, just take a leap, stop being such a

[00:12:11] Shannon Russell: And you rocked it, you looked great. The fact that you did that is so amazing. And that's so you

[00:12:16] Katina Turner: if Alisa Bellettini said jump. I would've said how high, she had such a level of taste that was so far above , then anybody I'd ever met that if she said it was okay, I was like, it's okay. I'll do it.

[00:12:31] Shannon Russell: or Any favorite celebrities, favorite models or, or rock stars that you got to work with?

[00:12:35] Katina Turner: We had Cindy as a host and then we had Daisy Fuentes as a host. And then we had Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow and they were the it models of the time. I mean, they were. Everywhere covers of Vogue and Bazaar. We ended up going to, The Bitter End Yacht Club in the Virgin islands, we just had the best time swimming and having fun. One of those times where really [00:13:00] special things happened in production that you'll never forget. Those shows those moments in your life when you're just like, I will never. Forget this time. After that we had Rebecca Romaine Stamos at the time and she was a blast and that was the crew and the group that we really connected with.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me at MTV was I was in my thirties, which I thought was very, very old and very mature. We had just come back from spring break in Cancun, which was the most disgusting experience of my life. And I said to myself, then if I ever have a child, they will never go to Cancun or Senior Frogs for spring break ever.

I mean, you know,

[00:13:38] Shannon Russell: oh, I know. And I went my senior year of college and how did my parents, let me go? I said it then. And then to be a quasi adult producing there, I mean, the things mm-hmm, carrying a camera through a crowd of people. You and I could trade stories all day about the, ridiculous things that we did

[00:13:57] Katina Turner: Went down, came back and [00:14:00] I, was with an intern who was still in college. I'm looking at tapes with her and I'm asking her to find the moment where this girl takes her top off in this crowd. And I'm sitting there going, oh my God, is this what I'm doing? Like, I'm sitting here with this young girl looking for a moment where another girl who's probably drunk

[00:14:22] Shannon Russell: of course

[00:14:22] Katina Turner: is taking her top off. And I wanna put that on television. I was like, this is not, I don't like this anymore. When we did House of Style, we did fashion and beauty, and that was legitimate. It was great. When we did news, it was amazing. I felt good about it. I felt strong about it when it came to wet t-shirt contests. I was done.

[00:14:42] Shannon Russell: That's exactly. When things changed for me. I just had that same epiphany of like, I can't do this anymore. you know, it started going more to the reality TV kind of route, rather than the music documentary. Let's get to know these artists kind of programming.

[00:14:54] Shannon: So what came next for you?

[00:14:56] Katina Turner: MTV built this beautiful studio that overlooked times square there was, [00:15:00] TRL total request live in the studio. Carson Daly was the host. House of style would do segments, on TRL fashion segments, interview people. And because our hosts at the time, I think it was probably Rebecca at the time was far too busy to kind of like jump down to the studio and do a quick half hour fashion segment. My boss said, you're gonna kind of be the on air TRL fashion expert, which I. Beyond thrilled to do. That was my first taste of sort of being on camera. We had interviewed Tommy Hilfiger and he asked me to walk in one of his fashion shows, which I got to do. And then I was in a picture in Women's Wear Daily of me like, who am I? And I got to interview, mark Wallberg, when he was kind of coming out of his Marky mark stage and they said, please do not ask him about the Calvin Klein ads. Do not ask him about the underwear, which of course I had to do because we were live on television and what's he gonna do? so [00:16:00] I did. And that was fun. It was a really interesting time and that was sort of my first taste of being on air. And I'd kind of come up with a little bit of a reel of on air, segments that I had done. I had an agent in New York, I'd got an agent and he said, it's time to go to LA and, do pilot season. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to LA and I'm gonna be a host of something. We moved to LA in 1999. And Brian in production did really well out in LA and I was going on auditions and hated every minute of it

[00:16:35] Shannon Russell: really

[00:16:36] Katina Turner: I'm going on auditions, which is basically multiple times a day where people say no to you, whether they say no to your face or no to your agent, it's like every day I'm driving, I'm sweating. I'm waiting tables. And I'm hearing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ugh. It was the worst. It was the worst, but I did it.

[00:16:56] Shannon Russell: You decide that you're gonna put a plug on auditioning[00:17:00]

[00:17:00] Katina Turner: And then there was a big internet boom of online programming. I was hosting some fashion segments on there. so that brought us back to New York, where I did some more work for MTV and until about 2004. And then we decided, now we're finally done. And then we moved to North Carolina.

[00:17:18] Shannon Russell: What brought you to North Carolina?

[00:17:20] Katina Turner: Brian, grew up here. His family had a family business in North Carolina and Asheville was a beautiful place. We were both sort of done with production. We felt like we had done everything we wanted to do. His dad was getting ready to retire and we thought, you know, this could be nice. We'll live in a, a beautiful town and we'll be able to travel and I'll figure out something to do. the advantage I think I have about being able to change and morph is that also my husband, Brian has changed and morph. He went from an MTV production person, and then he worked in a, his family business, which is a parachute manufacturing company. Then he went to go work for the university [00:18:00] system where he found out how the university system is being stripped of funds. And he said, I'm gonna dig into this. And it turns out that it comes from the state legislature. So he decided to become a politician and make change. Now. He's in his fourth term as a Democrat, as a representative from North Carolina. He's incredibly successful and hopefully he's gonna run for higher office and you can change your life and you can change your path no matter how old you are. You can start in one place and end up in another place and it all informs the next step. And as long as you learn and grow and take information from the prior step, you'll be successful in however you define success.

[00:18:43] Shannon Russell: It's different for everyone. You gotta look inside to figure out where you're going. I guess what your future holds.

[00:18:48] Katina Turner: In Asheville, I decided to bring a little bit of New York here in that I, I kind of went back to my fashion and beauty roots and opened an apothecary Turner and company [00:19:00] Apothecary. Because of MTV I had made a lot of, friends in the beauty industry. So I called them up and, and we had amazing success with this little apothecary in Asheville with brands that you couldn't get anywhere near here, like Kiehl's and Laura Mercier, big, big brands that you could only get in major cities. And we had them in our little town of Asheville the problem is there was a very small group of people in Asheville that really wanted that kind of thing or knew about it, or cared about it because at that time, it wasn't a very cosmopolitan city. It was a small North Carolina town. I learned a lot. I'd never owned a business. I'd never had to deal with taxes, Secretary of State, all kinds of ordering bookkeeping, any of those things. I was a television producer. I worked for a company and all of those sort of things were just taken care of. And I focused on my job and this was me now building something out of nothing. It worked for a while and then I got pregnant and I said, you know what? I'm gonna focus on being [00:20:00] pregnant and having a baby. And so I closed down the store I wanna concentrate on my daughter and I realized quickly after that, that I am not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom. didn't work for me. I need to be working. I need to be busy. And as much as I wanted to be that mom that made her own baby food and went to all the play dates and the music classes and all of those things. It just wasn't in my DNA and I was feeling sad. I didn't want her to, as a baby feel that sadness. So I decided to kind of go back to work.

I opened another store with a partner, , and it was also a beauty apothecary in a slightly different neighborhood. And now I had a partner, so I felt like I could balance, I could be home a little more and not work all the time.

[00:20:48] Shannon Russell: You had the product contacts and the startup must have been easier.

[00:20:52] Katina Turner: exactly. And, and my business partner had a similar business in Charlotte, North Carolina. So it was like sort of fusing these two [00:21:00] beauty, stores in one. That worked for a while. And then I decided not only am I person that, that can't, Stay at home. I'm also a person that can't have a business partner. There are things you learn about yourself and you have to, sometimes it's trial by fire. And I thought we would be great partners because we were good friends and it turns out that we are not.

So we dissolved the partnership and I decided to once again, move to a different location in town and open an apothecary, but also a hair salon. Here's where the advice comes in. There's a lot of things you can learn on the go. There's a lot of things you can just, figure out. But when it comes to something specific, like running a hair salon and not being someone who was a hair stylist where you hadn't already worked in the industry and know the conversations, the nuts and bolts, like how things work. It is very difficult to run a company on your own when [00:22:00] you don't know the business. I knew how to be in fashion. I knew how to be in beauty. I had that kind of experience, on a macro level, but in the micro level of working with hair stylists who are in the trenches, who work with clients all the time, I didn't have that experience. Maybe I should have gone to school to be a hair stylist, just so I could understand what they go through, but I just threw myself into it. And there are pluses and minuses to that. I learned so much about managing. A staff about running a business, a big business. I mean, we had at some point 15 employees and it was just me running it. I had no help. It was just me, hiring, firing, dealing with clients, purchasing, receiving, accounting, all of it. I don't regret that time, but it was really challenging. It was really challenging.

[00:22:58] Shannon Russell: And meanwhile, you're like [00:23:00] balancing it all.

[00:23:01] Katina Turner: I'm balancing it all. And, and you know, the reason why I wanted to open a hair salon was because again, Asheville's a beautiful community, but I wanted to bring a little bit of something different to Asheville. And I, I, I saw the market changing at this time. People were moving in from big cities. They wanted a higher touch service. And I wanted to bring that to Asheville. And I thought, well, with a hair salon, we'll have more traffic. It will be more fun and exciting. I can manage this. I did live New Year's Eve in Times Square. Surely I can run a hair salon. Oh, my friend, that is very different. The two things you cannot compare.

[00:23:39] Shannon Russell: Uh,

[00:23:40] Katina Turner: So, my advice to people who are like, I wanna jump into something new. I wanna try something new. Absolutely. 100%. I would always recommend. We have one turn in this world. Go for it. Just jump in. What's the worst thing that can happen and nothing bad happened running the salon, but I found that it wasn't for me and I wish I'd had more [00:24:00] experience.

[00:24:00] Shannon Russell: It just didn't feel right, but it was a great learning opportunity.

[00:24:04] Katina Turner: I learned a lot about managing people and balancing time, dealing with clients, I learned a lot about myself and how I relate to people. It helped me grow. But ultimately it was time to shut it down and thankfully I shut it down. Right before the pandemic hit in February of 2020,

[00:24:23] Shannon Russell: Wow.

[00:24:24] Katina Turner: and then pandemic comes

Unbeknownst to me. Great timing, the glutton for punishment that I am, I'm like, let's open something else. I can't sit idle for a minute. So how about we open a yoga studio and clothing boutique? So this is where we are chapter 75.5.

[00:24:42] Shannon Russell: Did you take the time that we were all forced to take over COVID to kind of flush this out and plan? Or when did you start getting the wheels moving

[00:24:50] Katina Turner: Absolutely not.

[00:24:52] Shannon Russell: no, you just went for it.

[00:24:53] Katina Turner: Nope. Just went for it. Just went for it. I think sometimes if you plan too much, if you talk to too many people, [00:25:00] if you research too much, you get discouraged there's so many people in your ears saying, well, what about this? Did you think about this? What if this fails? There's a lot of naysayers out there and sometimes you just have to go, I'm gonna go full speed ahead and figure it out as I go and I'll make some mistakes, but I will learn from, that's the way I grow. That's what I did. And yes, we've made plenty of mistakes, but man, I wouldn't give it up for a hot second.

[00:25:26] Shannon Russell: Mistakes can be fun. You are learning from them and you're learning what not to do next time. You've already opened a business, close a business. Now you know what to take from that, for this new journey. What made you decide on yoga?

[00:25:38] Katina Turner: When I was running the salon, I met a woman who had just moved from Boston to Asheville, her daughter, and my daughter were in the same grade. I met her at like a parent night at school. We went out to dinner after with some friends and she said, I'm a trained hairdresser. I'm not doing that anymore. And I'm kind of bored. And I said, oh my gosh, you are who I need. I [00:26:00] need a manager in my salon that can translate what I need to the hairdressers, to the staff. And you were a hairdresser. So you have that talk, you have that information. So it was a great, great serendipitous thing. but she was also a yoga instructor too. As we became friends, as she worked with me, we learned more about each other. And, as the salon was kind of closing down, she was my person that I told everything to. And she said, Hey, I've always wanted to go back to yoga, I've always wanted to have my own yoga studio. And I said, well, what, can I do? She said, well, what about beauty and fashion? Remember back to the days where you loved fashion and that was your passion? And I said, oh my gosh, you're right. Let's go back to that.

It's called Further Yoga and Boutique. One of our sort of mantras is love you further, love yourself, further love the way you are further love the way you move, the way you act, just love your yourself further. She teaches yoga in the morning and then we have the boutique and it's [00:27:00] been fantastic. This is the thing that feels the most genuine to me. The most like me. I've never been a retailer, really. I don't know how to run a clothing store, but I'm learning and I love it. I've built our own website. j taken these opportunities that were presented to me and tried to learn and make the best of them and have fun.

[00:27:23] Shannon Russell: you're reaching out to designers to find the products that you need for the clothing, for the boutique?

[00:27:28] Katina Turner: Yep. We reached out to designers and showrooms, just like I did at MTV back in the day when we used to borrow clothes from designers and showrooms, and it's like going. Back in time and calling these showrooms and talking to these showroom girls. It's funny how the industry has changed since the nineties, when showroom girls and designers were gods and goddesses, and they were not kind to anyone, now it is lovely. And the people that work in these businesses are lovely and want to help and grow. I don't know if that's just the time that we're [00:28:00] in or the pandemic has made everybody just a little kinder, but it has been so vastly different and so much fun.

[00:28:06] Shannon Russell: So you really get to bring your fashion, your taste into the business. Now

[00:28:10] Katina Turner: And it's interesting because I was born in New York. I've lived in New York, most of my life And now I'm in the south, which is a very different, community, but there's so many people, again, moving from different cities, and just being yourself and bringing your own sense of style and loving it and living it makes people excited. They will say, I could never wear that. And then you put them in it and you style them and you say, yeah, you can and you're look great. And you're confident and you don't have to be in the same box. You've always been all your life.

[00:28:40] Shannon Russell: You're bringing your experience kind of as a stylist, helping dress the women of Asheville who come into your boutique.

[00:28:46] Katina Turner: I've learned so much about Southern culture and how to be a Southern girl. It's incredible. And I am so grateful that I took all the risks and chances and moved and picked up and did all these things that I've done all these [00:29:00] years. Because I've learned so much and I've met so many people that are so scared to, to make a change. And I understand it, but I feel for them because I think God, there's so much out there. And if you'll just let go and try something, you may fail. You may have little fails, but in those little fails, like truly, it sounds so trite but You learn and you succeed and fun. life can be really fun and exciting. If you step out of the box and try something new,

[00:29:29] Shannon Russell: Especially as we get older, we feel more confident to try those things and you kind of say, okay, I've already done everything that I've wanted to do. Let's try something new and see what happens. It's kind of like a game in a sense. Don't you think?

[00:29:40] Katina Turner: It it's a game and we can all play it and try on a different hat, try on a different dress, do something new. But I have to say, it's funny. I was, listening to one of your other podcasts. And one of my pieces of advice is never burn bridges. This is a small world. It is an incredibly small world. One of your other, guests [00:30:00] said that like never burn bridges. You never know who you're gonna run into. It's so true. And as you get older, be kind, be generous, be true, be honest. You never know when you're gonna run into that person or their daughter or their son or their girlfriend or husband or whatever, somewhere down the road, be open to meeting new people and be good.

[00:30:20] Shannon Russell: You're reaching out to contacts that you knew 20, 25 years ago saying, Hey, I worked with you back at MTV. Can I talk to you about clothing for my boutique today? How cool

[00:30:31] Katina Turner: Right. I reconnected with a friend, Cameron Silver who many, many years ago when I moved to LA and I was helping a friend who was a stylist. Cameron was just starting his business as a luxury consignment, curator. Cameron's now owned a store called Decades in Los Angeles for years. I called him up. We reconnected now Cameron and I have been traveling all over the country together. We have some of his pieces in our store. He and my husband are great friends. Like [00:31:00] this is someone I knew in 1999. But we reconnected and now we're great friends and doing things together and that's important. I didn't know then who he would become. He didn't know who I would become, but we were friends and we made a connection. That's something that I feel is so important is to be genuine friends with people. Versus trying to, see where a friendship can take them and fast track manipulate a situation. That will fail every single time, it will fail every time. If you make genuine connections and genuine friendships with people, it will benefit you both in the future.

[00:31:35] Shannon Russell: I totally agree. Even with this podcast, reaching out to you and other people that I've known throughout the years and having them say, yeah, I wanna come have this conversation with you, I think is so special. If I. Did something to offend you 20 years ago. You're not gonna wanna chat with me today.

[00:31:51] Katina Turner: I'm I'm perfect. I was riding high.

[00:31:56] Shannon Russell: Never. I adored you and I still adore you. I [00:32:00] just love that you can kind of pick up with people that you have relationships with and have these really nice heart to heart conversations and learn from them, cuz you're right. If I open a boutique tomorrow, guess who I'm calling, I'm calling you

[00:32:11] Katina Turner: It's a testament to you, that you get all of these friends of yours, these old friends, these connections that you maybe haven't talked to in a million years, that still are so excited for you and excited for your success and excited for your next venture. And that's a testament to the kind of person you are. And that's, that's who I'm trying to encourage my daughter to be who I want my friends to be. Those are the kind of friends I want.

[00:32:32] Shannon Russell: Yeah. You just wanna be your best self life is fun.

You take care of the clothing boutique side of the business business partner does the yoga side of the business. How is that relationship going?

[00:32:42] Katina Turner: Karen, my business partner is like this little tiny rockstar yoga instructor. She's awesome. That's her wheelhouse, but when it comes to the boutique, I definitely steer it, but I love that she enjoys it so much and that we're starting to do so many things together. We're only one [00:33:00] year into our boutique, really? We are both learning at the same time. how to run a boutique and how to run, this kind of business. And it's exciting to do it with someone you genuinely like and love, and who's interested in learning and we can have conversations about our clients and, how we wanna bring the best to our people and how we're gonna manage certain situations. Whereas in the past I thought I was not a person that could have a partner. I understand now I'm a person who just needs the right partner and I have the right partner now. So it's great. And we've got a lot of fun things on the horizon. We've gotten a lot of interesting inquiries lately, so we're excited for whatever the next chapter is gonna be.

[00:33:41] Shannon Russell: I'm excited to see how it continues to grow.

[00:33:46] Katina Turner: Me too.

[00:33:46] Shannon Russell: How many times do you look back and kind of realize that you're using your production skills or your styling skills in your business today? Is that happening a lot? I can see a lot of similar.

[00:33:56] Katina Turner: it is happening a lot. I think the way I run my life is like [00:34:00] how I ran a production. There's a call sheet. There's a plan. There's a spreadsheet, which is now a Google sheet. I think I call back on production so much the fact that I can work hard for hours and hours and hours on my feet running stuff, doing multiple tasks. It happens at a boutique is certainly not as intense as a production, but it does. I'm so grateful for my production background that taught me how to run an event, how to run a, anything,

[00:34:26] Shannon Russell: There's your next chapter. You can be an event planner. I need start planning.

[00:34:30] Katina Turner: oh, hell no,

[00:34:33] Shannon Russell: been there, done that. You've done that so many times.

[00:34:36] Shannon: Alright. It's time for our Five Fast Qs of the Week. Here we go!

[00:34:41] Shannon Russell: Name one thing that these different chapters in your life have taught you.

[00:34:45] Katina Turner: Never burn bridges, never burn bridges, be kind to everyone. The other thing is, take notes, write it down. You're gonna forget. You're gonna forget just for your own, memory banks, write stuff down journal, because you're gonna wanna share this with your kids or your [00:35:00] husband or your partner or whoever.

[00:35:02] Shannon Russell: I agree. Would you recommend taking a leap into a big life change to your best friend?

[00:35:06] Katina Turner: Absolutely. I would absolutely recommend making a big life change to my best friend. And I've done it many times, few have taken my advice, but they should.

[00:35:15] Shannon Russell: They should. What is one piece of advice that you can give someone trying to start a second act right now?

[00:35:21] Katina Turner: My piece of advice for someone thinking about a second act is to do some research, but not too much do enough to be proficient, but not enough that it's gonna discourage you.

[00:35:32] Shannon Russell: What does the next chapter in life look like for you?

[00:35:35] Katina Turner: The next chapter in my life will be to fine tune our business model and hopefully expand it into other markets. We're in the process of doing that now. And it's very exciting.

[00:35:46] Shannon Russell: Where can our audience connect with you?

[00:35:47] Katina Turner: You can connect with us on our website at loveyoufurther.com on Instagram and Facebook @ furtheryogaandboutique.

[00:35:56] Shannon Russell: Katina, this has been such a lovely conversation and I [00:36:00] love everything that you've evolved and become since our production days at MTV way back when, thank you for chatting with me. I really appreciate it.

[00:36:08] Katina Turner: thank you so much. I'm honored to be on your podcast and I am in awe of you. I'm bowing, bowing down.

[00:36:14] Shannon Russell: Aw, thank you right back at you. Really? Thank you so much.

[00:36:18] Shannon: Katina has been through some ups and downs over her vast career. But what really stood out to me over this conversation is how, even though she was closing a business and opening a new one, closing a business and opening a new one, she never viewed it as a failure. But rather as an opportunity to learn and to grow. She kept going, trying new business ventures until she truly found one that suited her. This is a lesson for us all to really take to heart. Because it's easy to go out and start a business. It's easy to take a leap into a new venture. But these might not work out the first time. It's important to plan, to learn, to really get to know yourself so that you can [00:37:00] find something that fits you. It's okay to fail the first time. But you have to keep going. There's something out there. That's perfect for all of us. And we are on a journey to find what that is. Thank you for joining us on this walk down memory lane. It was so special for me to be able to connect with my old colleague and friend Katina Turner. And I hope you were able to gather some gems of advice from hearing Katina's story. Don't forget to check out the beautiful line of products that she offers on her boutiques website loveyoufurther.com.

Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to Second Act Success. To view show notes from this episode, recommend to guests with a great story, and learn more about us. Visit secondactsuccess.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. So you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean [00:38:00] so much. Thank you again for listening. I am Shannon Russell, and this is Second Act Success.