Today we’d like to introduce you to Lizi Bronson.
Hi Lizi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in Michigan and was part of a very large family with lots of aunt, uncles, and cousins. My cousins were my best friends to me growing up and we loved making silly movies together. My favorite part of the process was always piecing everything together at the end and I realized that video editing was something I wanted to pursue as a career because of how much I enjoyed it.
I moved to San Diego in 2005 with my mom and shortly after in 2008 moved up to Los Angeles to attend the Los Angeles Film School. At the time, it was an intensive one year program where we would be hands on doing every part of film making and later focusing mainly on what you wanted to major and minor in. While living in LA had its challenges, this was one of the most fun years of my life. Our entire class was around 30-40 people so we all became very close by the end of our year together. I actually met my husband, Kyle, the first day of class! I majored in editing but while there I also fell in love with doing sound design and chose that as my minor.
After graduating, I moved back to San Diego and began working for a local TV and Radio broadcast company where I was a sound editor. I worked there for a few years, got married in 2012, lived in LA for a few years, and then moved back to San Diego.
For a few years I was working as a Project Manager and then in 2016 our first daughter, Sloane, was born. My focus on work shifted and I was able to work part time from home. Then in August of 2019 we had our second daughter, Charlie. In October of 2019, one month away from her third birthday, Sloane was diagnosed with autism. Going through the process of an autism diagnosis and setting up all the services we wanted to get started for her all while having a newborn was a stressful time. Luckily, we were able to get multiple services started for her pretty quickly but then Covid hit just a few months later. Navigating all of these different things in life really made my sound/editing career take a backseat in my priorities during this time of life.
Then in 2023 everything changed when I connected online with two of my now best friends over a shared love for early 2000’s reality tv. It was Mother’s Day weekend and I was cruising Reddit threads on the subreddit for the tv show, The Hills, when I came across a post titled, “Does anyone want to start a podcast?” My cohost, Candace, had put this question out there to see if anyone would want to start a show to discuss reality tv shows, but starting with Laguna Beach and The Hills. I am not usually one to reply to anything on websites like this but I knew I had to say something. I left her a comment saying I’d love to be involved and that I also was a video/sound editor and would love to take on that aspect of it. Her and I had an instant connection and we quickly found our third cohost, Adrienne, who we both fell instantly connected with. Somehow everything aligned perfectly to all of us taking on different roles, figuring out how to publish a podcast, and launching our show just a few months after starting! None of us knew what this really entailed but we successfully put it all together and in just two years have gained a good following for the show. We have interviewed multiple cast members and producers from Laguna Beach and The Hills and are still going strong! Since starting this I have now begun editing two other podcasts that are local to San Diego. I feel so lucky to have been able to start my career back up doing what I love and only feel like things will get better from here.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have definitely been some bumps in the road and a lot of the process has been a learning curve. Candace, Adrienne, and I have never actually met in person because I am in San Diego, Candace is in Ohio, and Adrienne is in Canada. Living in different time zones and working around each other’s schedules was a challenge at first. Candace is a trooper and usually doesn’t start recording until 10:00 PM her time since she is on east coast time.
Once we started conducting interviews, we faced challenges with our guests and making sure the process is smooth for them. We had one guest where halfway through the interview something happened and we didn’t know the program we use had stopped recording. The entire second half of the interview was gone with no way to recover it. Luckily, the guest ended up being gracious enough to come back for a second interview with us to answer those questions again. That was a very stressful situation and after that I figured out how to always have backup audio and video running while recording. You never know what might happen with tech issues!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a podcast editor, I take the finished video and audio and polish them up by enhancing the sound quality, taking out any unwanted words like “um”, taking out any content that might not be relevant for the listeners, and overall just make it enjoyable to watch or listen to. Video is a bit different because I have to edit around who is talking and use any visuals that might be necessary to each episode. When we record video episodes for Millennial TeaV I always add in clips from the episode we are talking about. It takes longer to put them together but it’s really fun.
I’m proud to be involved in starting a podcast from the ground up and having to figure out the entire process with just myself and my cohosts. I think we’ve made something really great and the way we work with each other is so unique and special.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
For Millennial TeaV, we have a big goal to record together in person. We are really hoping to do that within the next year. We definitely want to continue to grow our amount of listeners we have and are hoping to get more guests from reality tv to interview.
For myself personally, I would love to continue to add more shows to my roster of podcasts I am currently editing. I’d also love to be able to stretch my skills to learn new editing techniques and be involved with other story tellers.
Pricing:
- I currently charge $150 to $200 per episode, depending on the details and length.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/millennialteav
- Instagram: @MillennialTeaV
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/MillennialTeaV/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MillennialTeaVPodcast
- Email: lizilovescake@gmail.com
Image Credits
Frankie Grieshaber (family photos)
