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Business Voices is the Juneau Chamber of Commerce podcast focused on the people, ideas, and decisions shaping Juneau’s economy.
Each episode features thoughtful conversations with local business owners, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who are working to build a stronger, more diverse, and more resilient business community.
This show reflects the Chamber’s larger mission: to support entrepreneurship, encourage responsible and sustainable development, improve the business climate, and help make Juneau a better place to work, live, shop, and invest.
Business Voices is a forum for insight, leadership, and shared perspective, connecting the people who care about Juneau’s economic future and the quality of life that makes this community worth building.
Welcome to Business Voices Juno, the podcast of the Juno Chamber of Commerce hosted by executive director Becca Parks. From entrepreneurship and leadership to growth, resilience, and innovation, this podcast shines a light on the businesses and voices helping define Juno's economic future.
Speaker 2:Alright. And we are here again. I'm so excited to welcome this week's guest, Dumas, to the show and excited that we have a professional podcaster with us this time. I might just hand the mic over. How are you today, Lisa?
Speaker 3:I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for asking me to be on with you for this conversation, Becca.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And, you know, like the the intro said, we're here to meet different business leaders in the community. And chatting a little bit before we started, you just have a great past leading up to your work in Juno right now. Can you tell us about that podcasting start and your radio start?
Speaker 3:Yes. I think because Cliff and I have our Juno Media Center here, there is quite a journey that led us here. And I would have to start to what started me in radio in the first place. I went to a broadcasting college when I was living in Alberta, Canada. So I was born in Vancouver, Canada, and my parents moved us to the next province over when I was in junior high.
Speaker 3:A little traumatic, that move. But just through as many opportunities happen through meeting people, I heard about this private broadcasting college where you had to audition and be accepted. And I didn't really know where life was going to take me, but that felt right and the whole process felt right. And it was a wonderful experience, I took to it right away. And the main professor of the college, he ran it like a radio station.
Speaker 3:So you wrote the commercials, you wrote the news, you did the reporting, and you had different shifts where maybe one week you'd be an announcer and one week you'd be in the newsroom and one week you'd be a copywriter. And I did I just took to it. And I love music. I love music of all genres, so I was attracted to it. And I love talking to new people.
Speaker 3:And I actually graduated early and landed a first opportunity in a very small town in Alberta called Rosetown. Actually, very small town in Saskatchewan, the next province over called Rosetown, Saskatchewan. And that comes up later, a little foreshadowing, because when I do finally end up meeting Cliff within this career of radio, his family was from that small town in Saskatchewan. I mean, 3,000 people, the largest building was a grain elevator. What were the chances that that happened?
Speaker 2:Fits with every stereotype I have of Saskatchewan in my head. So thank you.
Speaker 3:Flat as far as the eye can see. But again, I loved it because similarly to Juneau, there's that immediate sense of community when you're in a smaller place. Now that was much smaller, and I had friends who said, how could you do that because I was moving from a larger city. And for me, it just never affected me. I love the idea of starting in a small radio station where I did everything from answer the phones to again report on town council, write commercials, read commercials, and do hosting itself.
Speaker 3:So that didn't last long. At that time in my very early twenties, women were just coming up in radio as more than the giggle girl on the morning show. And managers were realizing, oh, you know, we have female listeners. Maybe it would be a good idea to have some women on the air in other dayparts that were actually saying something. And I was focusing on news at the time.
Speaker 3:So I was fortunate in the right place, right time. I had a news director driving through town, heard me on the radio, called me, hired me to my next larger city. And then eventually, program director out of Toronto, Canada found me. So this is maybe three years later, was still very young. And flew me out, interviewed me, and hired me to work there.
Speaker 3:And that's really where the journey to this opportunity owning the Juno Media Center started because that's where I met Cliff. I was started on the weekends and evenings and in a radio station control room back then, we don't have one here. But if your boss wanted to call you, the telephone had a strobe light on it. So as an announcer, if the strobe light was going on, you might be in trouble. So I was working one Saturday afternoon, the strobe light phone went off, I answered it, and I heard this booming voice for anyone who listens to the KINY radio station in the morning, you've heard it.
Speaker 3:And he was like, Monroe. That was my radio name. This is Cliff Dumas, and I'm just driving on this beautiful day, and I wanna welcome you to town. You sound amazing. And I was just really flattered.
Speaker 3:And he's such a mentor to so many people in this industry. That's how we first met per se. And then worked together for a couple of years before we were more than working together. But that is how I first met Cliff. We worked together at the same radio station in Toronto for several years.
Speaker 2:Ash, just a good reminder for those of us that are in management positions, how influential those first meetings, those first touches are.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, he certainly wasn't my manager, we were colleagues. But he was somebody who took the opportunity to reach out to somebody who was new, welcome them to town, and give them some positive feedback. And yeah, I was very green. So that meant a lot to me from somebody that was more experienced than I was at the time.
Speaker 2:And then so you went the full gamut. You went super small town to Toronto eventually.
Speaker 3:7,000,000 people. What brought you to The States? When let's see. So after Cliff and I had been married, so that's a kind of a fast forward. Let's just say that we fell in love and we got married.
Speaker 3:We have him next week, so we'll fill in the gaps. That's right. We'll see what he remembers. You could give him a test based on this conversation. But, you know, he really had gone as far as one could go as a morning host in Canada.
Speaker 3:And radio can be tumultuous. And we were in the age, as we are still in the age, where large companies are coming in and buying up radio stations. And as a talent as a talent when it comes to Cliff, who's very passionate at that time about the country music industry. He is Canada's only Country Music Association award winner. He is in the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3:He wrote the Canadian Country Music Awards for thirty years. I mean, he was just very entrenched in that industry. And so there was a thought that that radio station was going to be sold and flipped. And so he was proactive as he always is, and we started to look in The States. And we got hired together to do a morning show together in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Speaker 3:It's a big move. We have been adventurous. We have a high tolerance for risk. Let's just say that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it was an adventure and it was a nice time in our relationship to do that. And it was an interesting experience. I loved Santa Fe and it was a place where we welcomed our daughter. We just didn't live there long. It was a culture shock for us.
Speaker 3:It was wonderful to work together in that way. But that is the time of my life where I started to step away from radio. It started to feel not as fun within that pregnancy. And just what ended up moving me eventually into where I spend some of my time now, which is yoga therapy and somatic work, is at that time in my life, I was starting to notice something that I was dealing with pretty regularly was what we would call now anxiety or disordered panic. So that was definitely creeping into my experience and affecting my life at work because it's a very public job.
Speaker 3:At times, you're taking the stage and you're on microphones and really, that would just I would be abnormally nervous, I feel. I would really have that sense of panic and a real sense of doom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've read and listened to a lot of Dan Harris. And I think there's some of that similar messaging from him. And then can you tell me a little bit about yoga therapy and somatics versus just yoga?
Speaker 3:Yes. Because of feeling that onset of what I found out eventually was anxiety. Our path took us from New Mexico and then back to Canada when we had our daughter because that's where our families were. But then San Diego, California came calling. So Cliff did a morning show in San Diego when we had a little girl, Gracie, and I had heard that yoga was helpful for anxiety.
Speaker 3:It wasn't really anything that had been in my life but it was listen, California, San Diego, right? It's true, it's everywhere. Green juice and yoga mats. And so you didn't have to look far to find a yoga studio. And I feel really fortunate that I found one that was authentic and compassionate.
Speaker 3:And what I understand happened because I had an incredible experience and afterwards felt more calm than I had ever remembered feeling, is that when we're moving our bodies, I think everybody knows who's listening, when you go for a walk, your head clears. When we move our bodies, a lot happens in our bodies that can calm our nervous systems and give us some feel good chemicals. And it starts to regulate our breath. And so our brain gets these signals that, Oh, okay, I guess we're safe enough that we can settle our mind. And then I learned a lot through that journey.
Speaker 3:I was so interested in how did this help me feel so good that I just became a sponge reading, reading, reading and reading more of the science that was going on and reading a lot more about the nervous system. And how when you have that sense of feeling safe enough, that's when the mind can move away from living on the edge of your seat, always looking around for the next threat. Because really, our bodies are meant for survival. So when I had been in radio, constantly nervous, was always sending messages within that there was danger all around. So I had to really unwind that for a lot of years.
Speaker 3:So yoga, and I'm so grateful that my past started me there, it became a practice that I was devoted to just because it helped me in so many ways. It taught me about the nature of thoughts, how we're all having thoughts all the time, but that doesn't mean that they're true. And a lot of them can be habits, and a lot of them can be centered on an inner critic that is creating a sense of an unsafe feeling within. So I just learned a lot about that that was very soothing. And then I wanted to move more into helping other people.
Speaker 3:And yoga therapy is a way that gives you the scope practice where you can work privately with people. I feel very passionately about working with young people after they've had their first panic attack because that's what tips the challenge over into what we would call a disorder. Because when you have this episode, it is so scary. And it took me to the emergency room a couple of times because in my experience, what's happening from that physical perspective, it really does feel like you're going to die. You just can't imagine how quickly your heart is racing.
Speaker 3:You feel lightheaded, you feel like you'll pass out. You feel a prisoner of your body, and it's so scary. Then you think, well that could just happen anywhere. So in my case, that started to take over my life and it was hard for me to drive for a while, it was hard for me to leave the house, to wanna go out in public, go out and go to the movies. And this is what I mean when I had to find something.
Speaker 3:So finding yoga for me was a way of really saving myself and giving myself a life back. For me it happened to be yoga and there's a lot of baggage around that modality. But I just think that anything that forces you to be present because in this moment, it's usually okay. We're lucky enough that in this moment, we're safe enough. But for me it took a lot to learn to be very present centered.
Speaker 3:And yoga helped me. And then yoga therapy, just those long years of study helped me learn even more and helped me help others.
Speaker 2:And it's such a cool business skill to be able to take with you into different communities. You started that in San Diego, but now you're practicing here. And it sounds like you found a really great authentic studio. Can you tell us about finding Auk Bay Studio and working with them?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Since arriving in Juneau three years ago, I can't believe the amount of hats that I wear. And it's been interesting to get my head around because you learn in the business aspect of different schools that you go to to find your niche and to focus on that. And so that's what I thought I was doing. I was yoga therapist and then I was going to pursue my master's in counseling and then I would have both of those modalities and that's what I would do.
Speaker 3:That is happening. I mean that is happening behind the scenes to be honest. But when I moved here, just realized that if you're somebody who's willing to say yes, and if you're somebody who wants to be a part of your community and wants to be a helper, there are open arms waiting for you. And Cliff and I, we really did. And so, yes, I walked into Akbe Yoga thinking that, well, this is just a place where I'll be a student while I wear these other hats, like Glacier Valley Rotary, like being invited to be on the board of the symphony.
Speaker 3:And both of those things are working boards. They're like having other jobs, they create such a full life for me. I've had such wonderful experiences because of them. But the owner of Akh Bay Yoga, Lindsay Bloom, saw that my email address was Lisa@LisaDumasYoga. Not even thinking about that address, I've had it for so long.
Speaker 3:And so she reached out and took me for a tea and just offered me the opportunity to teach. And while it is one of the things that I do, it is just a couple of times a week a way that I can share the benefits of moving and breathing in community. And it still adds so much to my life. And there is an incredible community of people that attend Akbe Yoga. And so that has also offered a lot of richness to my life.
Speaker 3:And I feel very fortunate that I offer yoga retreats. And so people from that community have come with me to Mexico and Tuscany. And these are things that I want to stress I would have been so afraid to do before. I wouldn't get on airplanes. I've walked off of airplanes because I thought I'd have a panic attack.
Speaker 3:So it is actually incredibly important for me to keep stepping forward and joining a club even though I do not like talking in public. And in chamber and rotary, you have to talk in front of your club and tell them about yourself. I things, I still have that sense of nervousness within, but I just can't let it take over anymore. So I do very intentionally keep stepping into things and I'm married and partnered with the right person because here we are on this grand adventure here at the Juno Radio Center.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And what a great balance in everything, in work and life, and to have all those pieces kinda playing together. And there are so many pieces at play. So I do wanna talk about the music piece too because you're on the board of the Juno Symphony. Can you talk a little bit about your work with them and just your involvement in the music scene here in Juno?
Speaker 3:I was invited by a board member who I think even met me through yoga. And I hadn't attended much in the way of symphonic performances before, but I love musical theater. Cliff and I have been fortunate enough to travel to New York many times, and we just love live theater. So I knew I would love it. And we are so lucky to have the symphony that we do.
Speaker 3:Such talented musicians in town and the fact that we have also world class musicians that come from the Pacific Northwest to play with our world class musicians that are right here. So first of all, I was so impressed with the board and everything the board does to create that amazing resource in our community. And so, you name it. It'll be selling raffle tickets or helping to set up a lobby, making decisions together. It's a great community of people.
Speaker 3:Charlotte Truett, the executive director, is so passionate. So there's a real team of passionate people that are helping that symphony go, and I've been learning. I'm a newer board member, I've been on the board for a year and a half or so. But I'm just so impressed with what it takes to make an organization like that thrive, and I'm honored to be a part of it. Basically, I just say yes if I can when it comes to tasks for the board.
Speaker 2:And I'll say just as a resident of Juneau, I am so grateful for it. I had a similar path. I was in New York City before I moved here. And got to go to the Met and the symphony there and the ballet. And it's just amazing coming here.
Speaker 2:And not just seeing fully professional performances, but seeing something like the Juno Symphony where you're pulling from so much local talent and just supplementing that with guest artists from out of town. That sense of community and community pride is pretty special. And again, I just think about that. The arc of small town to big city and then back to small town and the different opportunities you get in those different places. Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna now go back to rotary since that's the other thing you said takes up a lot of your time. And I'm wondering if people listening probably some people that don't even know what rotary is and what they do.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We have four different rotary clubs in Juneau, which is I know. It's really amazing. And to be honest with you, I wasn't sure what rotary was. But the former owners here of the radio center, the Burns, they said that they really enjoyed their time with Glacier Valley Rotary, and they suggested that we join.
Speaker 3:So we were happy to do so. And right away, first of all, amazing people. People that are so engaged in what happens in this community. That's refreshing. They are plugged in, they're there to help if they need to.
Speaker 3:They're there to pick up the slack with resources. And so, my time in Rotary has brought me not only so many friendships, but it's helped me to give me context. We moved here, it's such a beautiful place. It's a few miles away from my home province. So right away, I felt completely at home because it's the same land, it's the same water.
Speaker 3:But it is the people. It's no secret that Cliff and I have had a challenging road creating what the Juneau Radio Center is right now. But fellow business people in this community that especially are a part of Rotary have been an amazing support system and filled with advice. And what I love about those clubs so what Rotary does on a community level is they fundraise basically, and they give back into the community. So we have our Rotary Parks.
Speaker 3:We have the shelter at Fish Creek, just to name a few things that they do. We do gifts for kids in the foster care system. We do food drives. You name it. We have a project almost every month.
Speaker 3:And then there's the international arm. So anytime you're a part of Rotary, the money that your dues are also going to this international arm, which is they have seven pillars. They're taking care of maternal health and they're making sure that girls around the world have education. They take care of clean water in different towns and helping families to garden. I, for the very first time, went to a district conference in Keton just about a month ago.
Speaker 3:So I got to really learn what Rotary is doing on a bigger scale because we can forget, right? When chamber, Rotary, we're right here, boots on the ground. And it's so much about organization and just what's happening at the next meeting. We can forget that there is a bigger play. And so it makes me feel really proud that this lunch that I get to go to every week and I get to learn from a new speaker in the community where my money is also going to is doing something, something, just something small in our own little way somewhere in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've heard like how much Rotary has helped people that are coming to Juneau, that have been involved in Rotary, other places just come and integrate. And it's a really cool thing to have when you're visiting another place, that you can be a visiting Rotarian in almost any community in the world and just plug into a network immediately.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There's some people who've been a part of Rotary for years and years. And whenever they visit, whenever they travel, they go to other Rotary clubs. I think that's wonderful. And we just said goodbye to an exchange student from Sardinia, Italy, who was with our club for the year, Gabriela.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell you, Becca, half of our club went to the airport to say goodbye to him. And they're you know, he's crying, we're all crying. He's got all of these moms and dads now he can always come back to. And Rotarians are many Rotarians that I know contemporaries are traveling around the world and visiting former exchange students that they bonded with. So that's also incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I've been pretty impressed.
Speaker 2:Alright. And now we are here. Mhmm. I know that the radio station has been a huge lift. You mentioned some of the challenges that you and Cliff had had.
Speaker 2:And I think when we get to talk to Cliff, we'll really dig into some of those. Yep.
Speaker 3:He was the one on the phone. I was the one in the background.
Speaker 2:But it sounds like you have done such an incredible job networking in Juno and really building up the community that I think radio is such a big part of. Can you talk a little bit about your experience in Juneau versus being involved in radio in other cities and towns?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. One of the reasons that we made the choice to think about ownership in Juneau is because the radio station does feel like one of the centers of this community. There's not that big television station and tons of channels. This is one of the heartbeats and we could see that radio matters. When we bring our announcers and our station band to a business, people come.
Speaker 3:And that means a lot to us. That's the point. A radio station in town needs to take it very seriously, supporting the community, not just businesses in the community, but make sure that you are a voice and informing the community. And we take that very, very seriously, as well as entertaining as well. So it has been you can't compare it, the experience of working in radio here to other places where you're just another place on the dial.
Speaker 3:When it comes to San Diego, there are dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of choices. And that's where you're just a number really. Then it's all about looking at spreadsheets and how much does this employee cost. It is very personal here. Cliff will tell you, this is like a family.
Speaker 3:The people that have worked at this radio center long before us have been through a lot, and we just care so much about each and every one of them. And we have a really close knit team, and it makes coming to work so special. If you come to our studios, there's three dogs and a baby, and we just love it. We just love it that way.
Speaker 2:I do. I like that we're trying to establish some relationships between the chamber dog and the radio dog. So Good. We're working on that.
Speaker 3:Well, just found out that you and I have a dog named Bowie.
Speaker 2:We do. And I think both named after David Bowie. Of course.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Was our it was Grace's sixteenth birthday present. But of course now, Bowie lives with us. I don't know why I thought it would be anything different than that.
Speaker 2:For so many people. I won't ever put myself under the spell that my son is gonna take care of the dog.
Speaker 3:I was under a spell.
Speaker 2:Do you have in your radio career,
Speaker 3:can you think back to a favorite story or a favorite podcast that you've done? When I worked in Toronto, one of my main jobs was interviewing the artist that would come in. Now talk about somebody who was at that time still pretty secretly battling this anxious body and mind, and who was a big fan of music. And so in Toronto, this station was called New Country for the City. And it was in the nineties, and I get it.
Speaker 3:We all have our different music preferences, but it was a pretty fun time for that genre. Faith Hill and Shania Twain and Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw and all of that. Those stars were huge and they all came into Toronto because we were the only country station that had ever really tried it in that big metropolitan city. And I would often be tasked with interviewing them.
Speaker 2:That makes me feel anxious.
Speaker 3:I know. And I I can't mean, I really think about that now. Really have to be proud of myself because I was huge fan of these people. And I still remember because Shania Twain was going to come live on my show because I did the midday show there. And I asked my management if they would please just let me be alone with her because I just couldn't handle having spectators to this interview.
Speaker 3:And everybody said, yep, no, you can have it. And then everyone came. Becca, everybody came. They completely lied to me. And so her management, her record label, every single one of my colleagues and my management, I think even a consultant and an owner were there observing me interview Shania Twain.
Speaker 3:So I guess if I could do that. Still succumb to a panic disorder, but those are some of the reasons that my nervous system was shredded, and I had to leave radio for a while. I was pretty young to be doing I was yeah. Called to do a lot of significant interviews, and I understand. Listen.
Speaker 3:We're all just people, But I those people were on a pedestal for me for sure. Some of the I I interviewed Tim McGraw. I interviewed Travis Tritt. There's a Canadian band called Blue Rodeo that's amazing. I got to interview him, and I remember he sat on the floor, so so did I.
Speaker 3:We sat on the floor with our microphones. So I think it's the conversations that I had with the artists that I hold most dear. And I don't get asked about them a lot now because of all of these other hats, because I've moved so deeply into working with clients with yoga therapy. So it's really nice actually to reminisce. Thank you for asking me about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so fun to hear about them too. And just think about those people that we admire so much as real people that are gonna come into an interview and wanna sit on the floor and have their own quirks that they bring. It also is somewhat anxiety inducing to think about those big names and being in a room with them. So I'm wondering with the little bit of time that we have left, when you're closing out something and you wanna leave on a calm note, what are your recommendations for that?
Speaker 3:I'll have you ask me that again. What do you mean closing out something?
Speaker 2:So if we're wrapping up, it was really fun chatting. And I know I want my anxiety to be nice and low, and you're a Yes. How do you help just calm somebody in a sort of quick setting? What tools can we use? Thank you for asking that.
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I would just say put both of your feet on the floor. Just feel your feet on the floor. And focus your mind on what it feels like to have your feet on the floor. I can see that you innately closed your eyes so you can feel that connection between your feet and the floor and feel your feet and your shoes or your socks and the sensation of your feet. It can be quite grounding to feel our body's connection with either what we're standing on or sitting on.
Speaker 3:Maybe you feel your body in this chair, feel how you're resting in this body. Maybe you let your shoulders and jaw relax a little bit. Eventually it's not easy for everyone and in fact for some people who struggle with anxiety, just asking them to take a deep breath can be anxiety inducing but if it's not, you can let the area around the abdomen relax and take a deeper breath in and out of the nose. And sometimes just a big conscious breath in and especially a long, long breath out. That exhale is connected to our ability to relax.
Speaker 3:Sometimes that can be just enough, but connecting with the senses, what you touch and hear and feel and taste and smell and see, so that you arrive right now in the present moment where it's a bit harder to worry about what might be coming next or what might go wrong.
Speaker 2:Well, that worked for me.
Speaker 3:It does change things. Mean, I can feel that. Yeah. Can feel the little shift in here. We should've done that before.
Speaker 2:We should've. Start all my interviews that way from now on. I've done
Speaker 3:that with the staff here just a couple of times. I need to do it a little bit more where it's like we start a meeting and we get really present centered. But it is nice to get present first. And I need to remind myself too, any little transition we take in the day or starting the day, if we can just give ourselves time to have a breath with ourselves and just feel our bodies. It's easy to go a whole day and not really feel what's really going on because it's the reality of life we live.
Speaker 3:There's so much to think about.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope we're leaving everybody who's been listening with a more present and peaceful day. And thank you for anyone who is just tuning in. That was a conversation with Lisa Dumas. I don't even know what title exactly to give you because you wear so many hats. But thank you so much for being on the Chambers podcast.
Speaker 2:And I hope we get to talk to you again soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Becca.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Business Voices Juno. Subscribe everywhere you listen to your favorite broadcast. Share the episode and learn more about the Juno Chamber of Commerce at junochamber.com.