- Coming up, we are level setting, having honest conversations and clear expectations.

- I'm - Here - To make people angry, to make them a little uncomfortable, but also feel good to carve their own path in the kitchen.

And I was racing with the best drivers of Mexico and the first couple years were probably the most difficult years of my life, but that really was in my mind the foundation for, for everything that I have I've been able to accomplish.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multifamily investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by Fe o Dr.

Stacey McClain, facial plastic surgeon, high five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School and Girls Strong empowerment Apparel.

Her - Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Today we are talking level setting where honest conversations can transform it all.

Awakening the soul of our stories.

Come for the stories, save for the heart where every journey you might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

Whitney's here to - Share your dream.

It's the show you I watching the Whitney Reynolds show Straight.

Be Careful Home - Show Sports announcer turned advocate.

Now she's helping people in similar fields meet Annemarie Anderson.

Annemarie Anderson is an author, speaker, and award-winning broadcaster who for years spent time reporting on the thrilling highs and heartbreaking lows of sports teams.

With a passion for storytelling.

She has brought the triumphs and tribulation of athletes to life for millions.

Yet now Annmarie is turning the spotlight in work as she opens up about her own private scorecard.

Welcome to the show.

- I'm so excited to be here.

- You know we have been talking about courage, but you wrote a book on this.

- Yeah.

- Basically telling people to go for it.

But you have done this in your own life.

- Yes, exactly.

And it isn't just like telling people to go for it.

It's how do you go for it?

Because I feel like so many of us have these big dreams and big ideas, but how do we get from here to there?

- Right.

- And so I wanted to break it down and the first thing you have to do when you break it down is figure out what's been in your way.

What, what's the barrier that's been stopping you?

- A lot of your book has this backwards thinking because audacity sometimes is one of these words that we think can be bad.

- Yep.

- But I love the way you frame it up.

- The definition of it is the willingness to take bold risks.

- Hmm.

- Audacity or living audaciously requires three components in my mind.

The first thing is just that mindset.

Right?

The audacious mindset that you're gonna do this, you're gonna take some risks.

And audacity is a mindset that really is about optimism.

And it's not that things are gonna work out the way you want them to, but that you'll survive however they work out.

- Wow.

How did you get to that point?

Because I love what you're saying and I would consider myself a very optimistic person.

But it takes work.

It takes daily work.

- Exactly.

'cause the second component is action.

'cause you can sit on the couch being optimistic all day long and absolutely nothing's gonna happen until you take an action or a behavior.

- It's interesting though 'cause as we were looking at your book and going through the different chapters, I think so many people feel your stories and it might not be their exact path, but they feel what you're saying.

What do you hope that the reader really takes away?

- They often think that I was born audacious.

I'm shy, I'm an introvert.

That is not the way it is.

I manage to look at the four barriers, fear, time, money, and you're inner critic.

See the role they were playing in my lives and instead of push them away, brought them closer to me and used my fear, made friends with it and used it to drive me forward.

- Ooh.

Made friends with your fear.

- Make friends with fear and recalibrate your relationship with rejection.

Those are two huge keys.

- How do you recalibrate?

- I think a lot of us, when we hear no, it's a period at the end of the sentence.

And I trained myself literally to hear no as a comma followed by not yet or next, maybe not yet for this opportunity, but I'll get later or maybe next.

And the only way I was able to do that, and it sounds crazy, is I sought out opportunities in which I would get rejected.

I applied for bigger jobs in which I rejected to kind of not have that muscle because I wanted to get desensitized to - It.

Oh that is powerful.

There is a lot of power in that sentence.

We're all living these different lies.

But how did you do the juggle of career and balancing three kids?

- Well, nobody does it well, right?

Nobody does it.

Well I remember when I was having kids and I would ask people in the business, how do I do it?

And they say, you just do.

And now when people ask me, it's you just do.

But there is something in the book when time is a barrier called the urgency fallacy.

We think these things that are urgent are somehow important and they're not.

And so it's about deciding what's important and what's urgent.

And the way that you do this is things that are urgent are reactionary.

Somebody texts, they email you, they ask you to sign a permission slip, you know, whatever it is.

They say they want dinner.

Yeah.

Okay.

You'll feed them always.

Maybe not at this moment though because you have to carve out time for what's important.

And you'll know things are important because maybe there's no impending deadline.

But it will move you closer to your values, visions, goals and where you wanna be.

If you don't carve out time for important, urgent never ends.

And that's what we do, right, is we say, when I get through all this, then then I'm gonna write the book, then I'm gonna plan this.

And even if it's self-care for you as a mother, 'cause it's a brutal job with terrible pay, right?

Being a mom.

No off days.

- No off days.

- If your important is some self-care for you, then you need to find an hour.

And it doesn't need to be continuous hour.

I don't have a continuous hour.

- Right.

- To do that work.

So for me it was four 15 minute blocks a day.

I wrote half of this book on the bathroom floor with the door locked.

Right.

With kids outside being like, mom, I'm hungry.

I'd be like, same.

- Yeah.

- And then in 15 minutes I would go out and cook for them.

Wow.

Because otherwise urgent was gonna overtake.

- I feel like you are someone we need to have back on and remind us of this.

'cause you really are speaking so many truths of, you know, so often we see that everybody just has it together and we think, okay, they arrived like this.

Right.

And you're really breaking it down that it took like step by step.

And I love what you just said about the 15 minutes riding it on the bathroom floor.

That is super authentic sister.

It's what - Happens.

- Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

Ladies, welcome to the show.

- Thank you for having me.

So excited to be here.

- We've been talking about level setting and I have to tell you, your new cookbook, breaking the Rules.

I wanna know how are you breaking the rules and leveling up?

- I'm a rule breaker so, okay.

- I can't tell.

In - Italian cooking there's a lot of so-called traditions and there are a lot of Italians that get very angry about that.

I'm here to make people angry, to make them a little uncomfortable but also feel good to carve their own path in the kitchen.

So that's what the book's all about - Really like carving your own path to the kitchen.

Give us a little bit of your history to wanting to be this rule breaker.

Be on your own.

- So a lot of people know me either from social media, on food network, on Bravo cooking for people.

But really I got my start in Michelin Stard kitchens.

I spent over a decade in the Bay Area really honing my craft, learning the technique and learning a lot of those so-called rules of Italian cooking.

And now that I know them all, all I wanna do is teach people how to break them.

- I teach them how to break them.

You know, you were saying this earlier before we started rolling that this is one of your signature dishes, but it took you seven years to Perfect.

- I went deep down the rabbit hole on focaccia and so I've probably known for two things.

I say pasta, I'm the pasta guy.

- Yes.

- But also my focaccia.

- I - Love it has become a viral sensation.

And so one my most prized possessions in this book is the recipe for the focaccia.

And I've summed up about seven years worth of knowledge into two pages, turn it into what was like a four day process.

- Okay.

- Into a very simple one and a half, two day process to make a beautiful focaccia like this.

And I like to break the rules so I kind of go a little savory and sweet.

I put blackberries and honey - And sweet.

Well there - Is in my focaccia - So much going on here.

I mean we got a little bit of like savory and sweet all around us.

So tell us the chips - Puffed pasta chips.

So these are TTOs, this is something I just launched last year and they're available nationwide.

You could find them online, you can find 'em in grocery stores.

- And even in the sky you said they are - And even in the sky.

- Yep.

On airplanes.

- On your favorite airline.

And so what they are are a combination of my two favorite food groups, pasta and nachos.

Two things that probably should never be together, but we're here to break the rules.

- How did you develop something like that?

- You know, it was a happy accident at the end of the day.

What started as leftover?

Overcooked pasta turned into the world's first plant-based chicharone made of semolina and water.

- Wow.

You know, so often I'll be in the grocery store and I'm like, how did someone think of that?

So yours was a happy accident.

- It was a happy accident.

My mind gets a little crazy at times.

But you know, that's what the book's all about.

It's being comfortable and not having to follow those so-called recipes or rules.

Take, take amatriciana for example.

- Yes.

- A classic Roman pasta dish known for the tomatoes, cheese, Guan, chale and chili flake.

- Getting hungry right now as we're talking and all this is in front of us, - I like to switch it up and I do it in a summer salad.

So all of those same flavors, all those same ingredients, you don't need the pasta.

You could have this any day of the week.

So it's healthier too.

It's he, well I mean there's talk about healthy, there's always room for dessert.

Always.

We'll get to the cookies, we'll get to the cookies.

But yeah, so like that, that's kind of like where my mind goes is take the familiar but present it to you in a new way.

- Love that.

Okay, so keep us going.

What do we have here?

I heard you made these first thing this morning for the show.

- First thing this morning.

And like, you know, I'm the kind of person that takes something simple like a cookie, but really goes deep down into all those different dials that you could turn.

Brown butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, butter.

Kind of like playing around with all of those things.

Finding my favorite parts of all the other recipes you might find on the internet or in other books.

And distilling it down into my own version.

So that's what I have in here.

I have two of my favorite cookie recipes in the world.

This is what I think is the best chocolate chip cookie.

- You're giving away your secrets or do you just wanna take others with you?

- I want to take people on this food journey with - Me.

I love that.

You know, our tagline here on the show is your story matters.

And you're taking that extreme whenever you're like, even the cookie ingredients matter.

- Every little detail matters.

And I think that's something my mom taught me early on when it comes to food.

She's my inspiration for cooking food keeps me connected with her.

And I think so many other people have that same connection.

Whether they lost someone, a loved one, a family member, someone closer, important to them in life.

And food has that power to evoke those memories to create new memories.

And so, you know there, there's a huge part of the book that's dedicated to her as well.

My mom's marinara recipes in there.

Okay.

And that's like a classic - One classic.

- It took a long time to figure out how she did it.

And you think it's maybe the type of olive oil or the type of tomatoes.

It's more so the way that she treated the onions and garlic that make it unlike any other marinara you'll ever have.

- You really have me on the edge of my seat here.

Now.

I'm not a chef per se, I have trouble following directions.

But you broke 'em down for us.

- So that that was my idea is like I didn't want this to be a book just for chefs, it's for home cooks, it's for beginners.

But there's also so many kind of what I call chef it up moments down in the blurb of the corners of the pages that are four chefs.

For those people like that want to get the extra gold star.

Oh yeah.

And kind of level up the cooking.

Okay.

Doing something a little different outside of the norm.

Breaking the rules.

- I'm learning so much about your story and everything that goes into your delicious recipes.

Thank you so much for coming back.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks everybody for tuning in.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I love learning about your story and growing up in Mexico, what was it like when you got this news that NASCAR might be interested in you?

It - Is, it's, it is been a long journey, right?

It is.

It is not as simple as, okay Dar send me, go over there.

Like, I wish it were like that, but it doesn't.

You just have to grind and you have to grind a lot.

Eventually I was able to make it into the, into the best racing series in Mexico nationally.

And it happens to be NASCAR Mexico series and, and I was racing with the best drivers of Mexico and, and I was very young then.

Right when I was in that series, I was only 18 years old and I didn't have any connections or any money or anything.

I didn't speak English neither.

So I was kind of like scared to come over here because my family was already broke from, from trying to support me to, to make it into NASCAR Mexico.

So it was a, it was a quite a bit of a long journey.

And then eventually I, my father pushed me into trying to do something in the United States and I came over here and the first couple years were probably the most difficult years of my life.

But that really was in my mind, the foundation for, for everything that I have, I've been able to accomplish.

It's not easy.

I, I almost felt like I had to do like two careers because I started my career in Mexico.

I made it to the top and then I had to go back to the bottom and start all over again in the United States.

- Well, and going all the way to the top.

Let's talk about your 2016 win.

- That was definitely special.

I felt like it's been a long time since then.

That was, you know, my first championship and the very first time that a non-American was able to, to accomplish that, which that was very special.

- Do you race and you feel like you're doing it for your home country too?

- For sure.

That's one of the reasons, the main reason why I do this is because I love it.

Right.

I love competition and I'm, I'm, I'm addicted to it And I'm obsessed with it.

With having said also for me it's very important.

I'm very proud of where I came from and what I have to go through to be able to get here.

I always tell people that in my mind, part of my journey is to try to make the path to NASCAR a little bit more wide, a little bit more clear for the future generations.

Not just drivers, but mechanics engineers pick crew members coming from Mexico and Latin America.

And the reason of that is because I, I tell people this all the time.

If if every driver coming up is gonna have is gonna have it as difficult as I had it, most likely they're not gonna make it.

Because life really put me in so many different situations growing up that made me, it's almost like life was preparing me for this.

But not, not every kid has had this rough past to be able to make it.

So that's why I felt like part of my journey is not just to win race and championships.

Yes that's a priority, but also to, to be able to open the path a little bit more.

- I can just tell you're one of those people that wants to go full speed ahead.

No pun intended.

You said you're addicted to it.

What happens when one day you wanna retire?

Have you even thought about that?

- I haven't thought about it because it's still maybe 10 years on the road.

Yeah.

Or a little bit more.

But the day that that happens, I'm sure I'm gonna find something else.

I'm not the kind of person that, to be honest, I hate the world.

Retirement.

I, I relate retirement, the world retirement with, okay, I'm not gonna do anything anymore.

And, and I can't do that.

I believe that if I slow down, my mind is gonna slow down and I feel like I have to get going maybe in a little bit of slower pace.

Either in business or with my, maybe with my children one day or with something.

I just am a very active person and I'm not okay shutting down.

I just can't do - That.

Oh, you are definitely pedal to the medal.

Yeah.

But it's not all just racing for you.

You also have this heart to give back, which is one of the reasons I admire you so much.

Tell us, where does your heart for giving back come from?

- I hope I, I read this a long time ago and it kind of stuck with me.

Like God has put me in the position to give instead of in the position I have to wait to receive.

You know, I love to help animals.

I love to help my community.

I love to give people encouragement and give people direction.

Like whatever it is that you want to do and you're passionate about, you have to push for that.

- Mm.

- And if it's something that nobody has done in the past, if you believe in it and you're passionate about it, go for it.

But you have to be disciplined, you have to be persistent and you have to go for it.

Heart.

- Okay, last question for you.

US citizenship 2024, what was that moment like?

- It was very special.

It was a little bit shocking to be honest because I never thought that that day was gonna happen.

This is my new home, right?

Like I I, I love Mexico, I love my country.

I, I'm, I, I will be forever extremely proud of carrying the flag of my country.

And, and just to say that I was born and raised in Mexico, for me, that's not the world.

Without being said, this is the country that has given me all these opportunities and this is the country that has taken my life to the next level.

Just very excited for, for, for that opportunity.

I love it.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having - From understudy to leading lady meet a Broadway superstar that is sharing her advice to getting to the main stage.

- I definitely am like a born and bred theater person.

Like came outta the womb wanting to do this, which has carried me through a lot.

I think that's really important.

- A powerhouse performer whose voice has captivated audiences across the nation for decades.

She's played everything from Alphabet and Wicked and now is currently on tour for Broadway.

In the show, Kimberly Akimbo, we caught up with her in Chicago and learned more about her climb from understudy to leading lady.

She shares her behind the scenes viewpoint of leveling up.

- So there's so many paths to this, but honestly the thing that has saved me in the 12 years that I've been doing this professionally is having a sense of humor.

Nothing is gonna go your way every single time.

It is just impossible.

And I am really able to step back and laugh at myself and laugh at the business.

And that has kept me really, really sane so far.

So tell me, what was it like growing up with such creatives?

My parents are creatives through and through.

My mom was an actress, she's a music teacher now, piano teacher.

My dad is a talent agent in la.

That's how we met Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

'cause we brought my cousins who are from Chicago to meet him.

And honestly they really instilled in me instead of my dad having me be like a Hollywood child actor.

He was like, you can love theater and you can love acting, but you are going to soccer practice and you are going to be a kid.

You have your whole life to be an actor if you wish.

But I'm not gonna step in that.

And I'm so thrilled that he was like that - From National Tours, Emily continues to shape the stage with performances that are as bold as they are heartfelt.

Whether she's bringing humor, heartbreak, or raw humanity to the role.

One thing's clear when Emily Cook steps on stage, you're not just watching a character, you're witnessing a force.

You know, I went to the play and I was sitting there because I didn't know what to expect with your character.

- Yes, absolutely.

That is a great way to describe it.

You never know what she's gonna be up to.

It could be good, it could be bad.

And it's really fun to play when you play somebody that confident.

You really can't help but be like, you know, I gotta like harness that for myself.

So.

- Well and the underlying story brought up, so conversations on the way home with my daughter because we were talking about rare diseases.

Yes.

Alcoholism, boundaries.

- Yes.

- All those things.

The play really generated some big conversations.

- I love hearing that, especially 'cause you said you have a young daughter.

I think that those are the themes that are so important because they are so uniquely human and things that we wanna push under the rug and not face, but are so important and so like intertwined in our stories.

And so I love that she had questions about that and that's really, that's really amazing.

If they walk away knowing that whatever they want to do is limitless and being themselves is most important in getting those adventures and that hiding anything that they think is not worthy or good is wrong.

And I hope that they see that and I hope they don't commit check fraud, but that their dreams are more like going to Disney World.

Like Kim's a little - Different.

- Yeah, a little different.

- Yeah.

I love it.

Well thank you so much for coming on.

- Thank you Whitney.

- The play, Kimberly Akimbo is currently in Chicago until the 22nd.

Before we go, we wanted to leave you with a woman who is reclaiming her voice and her moves, leveling everything up and claiming her story.

Hey, I'm Dina.

Meet Dina Rizzo, whose decade old hip hop video unexpectedly resurfaced online and went viral.

- The video that actually went viral was a video that I shot about 25 years ago.

So that video was how to kind of bring hip hop into your studio only for teachers.

So that's what that goal was for that video when we first started with it.

So about 15 years ago, I was teaching at a convention and somebody came up and they flipped their phone around.

They said, is this you?

I said, yeah.

They said, you might wanna take a look at this.

And so I flipped it around.

I just knew, oh my goodness, I'm afraid to do this.

So I went on YouTube and I saw all the horrible things that people were saying and for me that was like, I don't get, wait a minute, this video is 25 years old now.

This, these people got my video and posted it on YouTube and called it, this is Hip Hop.

And that is where it all started changing for me.

That is where everything that I knew of who I was went everywhere.

I'll never forget what these people said, you know, they don't know me.

And so, you know, that journey down that part of my life was, I was always afraid no matter where I went on a professional level, that there would be people looking me up and saying, oh, it's that girl from the video.

Well, there's this wonderful girl named Taylor Tarantino in California.

She emailed me and after I read her email, I thought, this girl, this girl cares about what I'm, what I'm doing.

She wants to be a part of this.

She wants to be a part of helping me take this back.

And so we just remade the beginning of the first video where it says, hi, I'm Dina, which is kind of like the catch phrase for everybody.

And so we had a blast doing it.

That's what it is.

It's owning and owning and owning it.

So the more I was able to laugh at myself, the better it got.

You know, it was like, I would've been doing this the whole time.

If I could have just got rid of my what pride or whatever and faced it, you know?

But I wasn't ready for that.

I feel so honored and blessed to have been able to meet you, to be on the show and be able to share my story.

It means a lot.

So I thank you for that peace.

I'm - Out, up, up and beyond.

Today's guest remind us that growth starts at the edge of our comfort zone.

Remember, your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multi-family investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by fmo, Dr.

Stacey McLean, facial Plastic Surgeon, high Five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong empowerment apparel.

- Want to stay connected to all things.

Whitney Reynolds will follow us on social media and you'll get exclusive content and updates from the show.

All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

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