Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
From Cleveland Roots To Global Roads: Stephanie Nunley On Travel, Band Life, And Building Business Careers
What if a single decision—book the ticket, join the band, raise your hand—could tilt your life toward courage and curiosity? That’s the energy running through our conversation with Stephanie Nunley, Senior Director of Admissions and Recruitment Strategy at Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management, who brings world travel, Division I band grit, and people-first admissions wisdom to the table.
We kick off with vivid travel stories that double as life lessons: a five-city sprint through India, a Celtic tour of Dublin and Edinburgh (yes, Steelers flags in Ireland), and a mind-bending Alaska summer where the sun never sets. Each trip rewired routines and sharpened resourcefulness—qualities that power real careers. From there, we dive into the discipline behind Bowling Green’s D1 band: Hell Week heat, rapid-fire halftime shows, and the camaraderie that teaches timing, resilience, and attention to detail. It’s performance training that translates seamlessly to leadership, product launches, and public speaking.
Then we open the hood on admissions strategy at Weatherhead. Stephanie shares how she blends data with empathy, recruiting locally across Ohio and Pennsylvania while engaging global talent for specialized master’s programs in finance, accountancy, supply chain management, and business analytics. The big lesson for applicants: clarity of purpose wins. Tell a real story, show your impact, and engage—because people don’t want to be talked at; they want to be part of something. We even swap notes on crowd work, from comedy clubs to Zoom rooms, and why participation turns passive listeners into invested collaborators.
There’s a dash of paranormal chills—a night in a haunted prison—and a warm, practical challenge to close: try one new thing every year
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is, as always, your host, Mike Bono. I have a great guest for us today, but first and foremost, we do need to mention uh the brand new sponsor that we did just get for the Ride Home Rants podcast, and that is Webb Western. Western apparel made for the man who likes to or woman who likes to work on the land, who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty, and has a no BS attitude. I am wearing their new uh Western arrow hat. The arrow reminds you to be a straight shooter. Uh, so if you like to work on the land, hunting, fishing, or even golfing, they did just get into uh the golf scene too as well. Uh this is for you. Go to webwestern.com, use the promo code Mike Bono and save yourself 10%. Once again, Webwestern, no BS company, not afraid of hard work. Promo code Mike Bono, save yourself 10%. But my guest today comes to us from Cleveland, Ohio. Uh, she works at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserves University, and that is Stephanie Nunley joins the show. Stephanie, thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER_01:How's it going? Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00:It's going. I know we've we've had to reschedule this uh uh uh once or twice because uh the wonderful COVID still rears its head for me. I am still recovering from that, so I'm glad we were able to get this put together for you and get you on the show. We're excited to have you here.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely happy to be here, and I just want to say you look great, sound great, and looks like you're recovering well. And the hat is awesome. I love the arrow. So thank you. Call out to them.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Uh, we appreciate it. We're happy to have them on here uh with the show and to be a part of this uh for us too. But you know, not only with working at Casey, you know, you're you're quite the traveler for both work and you know leisure. So tell us a little bit of some of the places that you've you've traveled to during your time um with work and even just any personal travel.
SPEAKER_01:Oh gosh, yeah. So um I love to travel. Like that's one of my things is to see more of this world. I think that we should all travel if we can, um, even if it's just around the corner. But this last year, specifically uh for work, I got to go to India, uh, which is actually pretty cool. Was in India for 10 days, visited five cities. Um, but I've also traveled this year to Ireland. Um, we went to me and a friend of mine, it's so nice. Went to Ireland, Scotland, and um, and then London too. So we we hit London. So all three cities. Uh we stopped in Edinburgh, and then we also went to Dublin. So kind of a island tour, if you will. It was it was really cool. Um, but you know, most of the time for work, I'm traveling usually to like Chicago or New York, Atlanta, like places here more locally, East Coast primarily. But sometimes I do get to go to cool places like India or um, I think earlier in the year at the very beginning, I went to um Mexico and Peru uh for work, which was really cool. I got to use some of my Spanish skills, some of some of my um uh, you know, that ridiculous degree in uh Spanish and ethnic studies that I have came in handy. Um like all these years later, who knew um that I would actually be using that, but definitely came in handy. Um but I love to travel everywhere. I've been to Spain, I've been to most of the islands in the Caribbean. Um, one of my favorite trips uh over the past five years, probably now, um, was to Alaska. I think Alaska is awesome. Yeah, we went to three cities in Alaska. We went to Anchorage, and then we uh went to Fairbanks, which is really cool. Um, and then we drove up to Barrow, which if you haven't, do you know about Barrow, Alaska?
SPEAKER_00:I've heard it. My my wife and I have always said we wanted to visit Alaska. Um that's one of the places on our uh bucket list of places to visit is Alaska. So we've looked up a lot. Plus, we're uh we're I don't want to say we're weirdos, but we're weirdos. Uh we we like all the paranormal stuff. So we we watch about like the Alaskan triangle and stuff that like happens there. So that I believe that was one of the places that was in in that Alaskan triangle that we've we've seen. So yeah, I've definitely heard of it, but oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Alaska is awesome. Um, and paranormal stuff is so cool. We haven't talked about that.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we'll definitely talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:Right, definitely. Um, no, yeah, Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost, like I guess they want to call it a city, but it's more of like a little town. Um, and there's nothing there. There's just like the northernmost city uh in the US. There's like uh a little, I don't want to say a village, but there's like natives who live there. Um, we got to see polar bears, like it was insane. Um it's completely permafrosted over, like nothing can grow up there. Uh the what the time that we wound up going, which if you're thinking about going ever bucketless, I would say there's two times of a year, but we I've always gone during the solstice, the summer solstice. Okay. So you get 24 hours of daylight. So it's kind of trippy.
SPEAKER_00:Like that would mess me up a lot. Like it it messes me up when we have daylight savings when it gets darker earlier or stays lighter later. Like it just I'm a very routine person and it just screws my whole routine up. But yeah, like 24 hours of light would absolutely mess with me.
SPEAKER_01:24 hours of light. And it and seriously, the sun never sets. You have to have blackout curtains for everything, uh to sleep and everything, but it's it's super cool because you get to see like uh one of the last places that I think in the US or a few places that are like really untouched. They call it the last frontier, um, because there's like so much land out there. We got to like go to the Nally National Park and there's hiking, but there's also bears everywhere. So there's this like sense of of like threat and like scaredness. Um, really, really cool. I think Alaska is probably one of my favorite trips uh that I've had. And and so strange because like like not international, it's just like here in the US. But there's like millions of gyms here in the US that you know, being a world traveler, you like forget to even go to one of the being in the US citizen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, I I've traveled all over pretty much the East Coast with comedy um and doing that. So like I get it visiting different places, and it's just like you just like, wow, that's here, and I didn't have to leave the country to to to see this place, and it's awesome. Um, but like Alaska feels like it would be like, okay, I'm I'm in a completely different world, and it's still part of the US. You know what I mean? Like that that's one thing that always uh blows my mind with with that too, as well. But you mentioned you went to Ireland. Um, that is that is a thousand percent on my wife and I's bucket list. My wife is full Irish, and she's always said she wants to visit the motherland, and I'm full Italian. I told her, like, as long as we can go to Italy, like if we go over there, like we can. But the problem with us is we won't want to come back from either of those. Is that that's that's probably honestly why we haven't even really discussed visiting the their um, but what was it like in Ireland?
SPEAKER_01:It was amazing, and it like you said, it was tough coming home. Like, I really I mean we we did three cities, so we had to kind of break it up, but we wanted to hit all of the like key like landmark places. So, of course, we went to see the clips of Moher. We saw the you know, the um, we went to Trinity Cathedral, we did the whiskey tour. So, of course, we had to drink the whiskey. Absolutely. Um we went to Jameson's, uh, we also went to go see what did we see? It was the um um the Giants Causeway. Have you heard about this?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I have, yep.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, so we went to go see the Giants Causeway, had a million people telling us the story about it, and I thought it was just a really, really cool um place. It was nice, but also still very like metropolitan. So there were like lots of things to do, a little bit touristy, a little bit gimmicky. But one of the really cool things is I get off the plane. I'm a Clevelander through and through, right? And I'm there with my friend, I get off the plane and and we land and we take in our lift or whatever we're doing to get to our uh Airbnb. And all of a sudden I see these freaking Steelers flags everywhere. And I'm like, what the hell? Why don't why what didn't the did the Steelers just come and take over? And sure enough, I were running into people, we're talking to people on the street and just interacting, and like, oh, this person's from Pittsburgh. Oh, there's another person decked out in Steelers gear. They were having like a huge, a huge uh game there, and so there was a huge amount of tours that had come, they pretty much took over all of Dublin, which I think was insane. I'm like, that's I can't get away from them as a cleaner than this.
SPEAKER_00:The Steelers they did play in Ireland this year, and uh the Rooneys who own the Steelers are actually dual citizens with Ireland and uh in the US and in Pittsburgh and everything like that. So, yeah, like there is a big Steelers presence in Ireland, and they're huge Steelers fans over there because of the because of the Roonies uh who own the team.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely, definitely. They I was like that's so crazy, but it was really cool. It was really cool to have like some people from right here in like my neck of the woods, you know, over there at the same time as us. It was it was really awesome to see um how like close we're related and how much culture like we kind of share with that part of the world as Americans.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, and you know, being from Cleveland, uh as a Pittsburgh fan, I won't hold that against you. Um, but you know, you you talked a little bit about being a lifelong Clevelander, you know, you still live there now. Um so I mean I've I've done hundreds of shows up in Cleveland, but for some of the listeners out there who haven't, what are some of your favorite places to go up in Cleveland and you know, and what people need to do to experience Cleveland as it is?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man. Okay, I think for me, when I used to live downtown, so I I've lived in many parts of Cleveland too over my life. Um the best places for me would be downtown. I love downtown. Um, I think 4th Street, all the cool pubs over there, Hilarities, um, some of the that stuff over there is just really awesome. If I was visiting Cleveland, I would definitely say you need to go take a walk downtown, hit up 4th Street, um, see all of the cool stuff, eat somewhere over there. I think the food in Cleveland is something that I really enjoy. Um, being able to just have a small enough city that you can walk around everywhere and get everywhere you need to go is awesome. Um, I'd also say the flats. I mean, the flats have gotten a bad name, but they're definitely coming back now. Um really cool. I go down there all the time. Yeah, again, lots of good food scene, but lots of different people um to interact with and mingle with. It's kind of my favorite. And then I would be derelict if I did not mention mention Little Italy. Um, I actually live right over here by Coventry. So I get to like live almost in Little Italy and get to enjoy all of the like really cool stuff that happens there. I think don't come to Cleveland in the winter. Like, I don't say that to people. No. Oh, wait until summer. There's so many like festivals and like really cool things to do um in the summer, but winter is is is is for the birds.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know what it is like with these bookers that I that I talk to. They're just like, hey, it's like the middle of December. You want to go to Cleveland? Um, it's just like, I mean, no, but yeah, like I'm not I'm not in the position to be turning down shows in my home state. Uh but yeah, like yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Is there a lot of traffic down? I mean, I downtown is a little bustling like almost all the time, but like I feel like it gets a little dead in the winter.
SPEAKER_00:A little bit, yeah. It's not that bad. Um, traffic-wise, it's just like I'll leave where I am here near Columbus, Ohio. Um, and it's nice. It's not like bad weather, and then it's just like the closer I get to Cleveland, it's just it starts snowing more and more and more. And it's just like, oh, cool. We're just driving into a blizzard. Awesome. This should this should really help the crowds come out. And people do, you know, up from Cleveland, like, you know, what would shut the town I'm in down, the amount of snow. They're just like, yeah, it's cool. We're we're we're still out, everything's still open. There's no there's no levels like of emergencies. There's a foot of snow. Deal with it, you know what I mean? So, but it's it's always it's always been fun, you know, uh doing shows in Cleveland and being up that way uh when I can, and obviously visiting Johnny when I can, who's up that way.
SPEAKER_01:Well, see, he's even worse. He's over in Minner, so he's over in the snow belt. I mean, city in Cleveland is okay, but like out there, they're getting at feet of snow. Like, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I I tell him he was just like, Man, you gotta you gotta move up this way. I was like, eh, I don't think I do. Um, like I just nothing against Cleveland. I just couldn't live there. I just couldn't. I like snow. Uh I want snow two days a year, and that's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Um and after that, it can go away. Um and we didn't get that here this year. Obviously, it was like almost 70 degrees this year for Christmas, which is insane to think about for me.
SPEAKER_01:It was crazy. Did you get snow today?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we've we've had snow here a couple the uh past couple of days, but it's been so windy like nothing's really sticking, really. Um but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um compared to what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, compared to what they're calling for for the rest of the night here tonight and into tomorrow into New Year's Eve, which is when we're recording this by the time it airs, it'll be well past that. But um yeah, we're not looking forward to what what they're calling for for our New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_01:Uh they're singing like snowmageddon snow college or something, like they're talking crazy. So I'm hoping it won't be that with uh in college.
SPEAKER_00:I dealt with a uh a snowmageddon when I was uh you know in West Virginia, um, where I was really born and raised, you know, it was kind of in that snow belt, but like a foot and a half of snow fell in like an hour. Like power went out, like everything, and like administrators were coming around and being like, all right, anybody who can go home needs to go home. And they they they looked at me, they're like, You live like 20 minutes away, right? I'm like, Yeah, they're like, Go home. I was like, I can't. Like, what do you mean you can't? I was like, I I physically can't. They're like, Why? I was like, You see that truck that's halfway out of a spot? They're like, Yeah, I was like, that's mine. That's all the further I can get it to move. I'm not going anywhere, I'm safer here than risking travel uh to be at my parents. I'm I'm staying in a and it was a week without power.
SPEAKER_01:Those that's crazy. Those are the choices we make by living in Ohio. Um, but that's also one of the reasons why I love to travel, get out of here as much as I possibly can, especially in the winter, um, and see some other stuff because like the winters are you don't want to get trapped. Like getting trapped is terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Trapped is not fun. I mean, we made the most of it, obviously, uh, when you're in college, you know what I mean? It's not like you're there's nothing to do.
SPEAKER_01:Um trapped is different.
SPEAKER_00:True, it's a little different of a trapped, you know. And what blew my mind is we were one of the only fraternity houses that had hot water because we had because we were the only ones that had a gas hot water tank. So we were the only one like we were taking showers, I don't say not only to to get clean, but to just to get warm. Because we weren't smart enough in thinking at the time, like we should probably keep the door shut, keep all the heat in as much as we can. We were going in and out of the house, just letting the heat out, and it was just like we'll just take showers. Just it was strictly just to get warm. Um what was that?
SPEAKER_01:What fraternity were you in?
SPEAKER_00:Uh Delta Tall Delta.
SPEAKER_01:Delta Tall Delta, okay. Okay. I used to hang with a bunch of fraternity and sorority people when I was in um I used I went to Bowling Green for my undergrad. And um, I was kind of adopted by of my friend sorority. I wasn't in a sorority, but the sorority and fraternity brothers and sisters, really cool people. Um, and I guess I knew a lot of them and like all of the different fraternities was really cool.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah my wife, my wife makes fun of me to this day about being in a fraternity. You just mentioned yeah, she she rags on me constantly about she she calls it my sorority for one. Um and yeah, she just she just rags on me, and it's mainly because not a lot of people see it, but on the back of my arm I have my letters tattooed.
SPEAKER_01:Full tattoo of it on me.
SPEAKER_00:Um and she was like, so they they branded you like no, like it's not like what you see, like that's not what happens, and it's just fun banter back and forth. Uh, but you mentioned you went to Bowling Green. Um, obviously, with that, uh, what you said there with having that, you were also a part of the flagline in the band. Uh, you know, what was that experience like for you know for a division one band? You know, we we've talked a lot of division three people that have done stuff like that. What was division one like?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it was crazy. Um, it was a lot of work. Like we had um, so so what they do is we had like a hell week. Um, so we came to class, we came to campus two weeks before everybody else. Um, this was so that the band could learn like all of the charts. So we had to learn how to move on the field. Um, and then also learn all of the music and all of the routines. I didn't play music, I don't play any music. I was in the flag course. I always say, What do you play? And I play flag. So we had to still learn all the charts where we needed to go. Um fight song, all that kind of stuff to be ready for um opening day when the band actually started, when when the first, the first like kickoff game. Um beyond that, we had to sign up for a class. I don't think people know this, but you have to sign up for a class if you're in band. And it was like two hours a day, five days a week. So every day basically you're outside. Um, I always make this joke. We started in August, so we had Hell Week in August, and I get there, and it's 200 people on this open field out in Bowling Green, which is just a big cornfield anyway. Yeah. Um, and we're literally out there. And it's August in Ohio, so the hottest month of the year, like 90 degrees on a good day, every day. Um, and I'm just watching everyone around me. Most of the people in the band look more like you. You know, I'm I'm brown, so I get like the melanin boost. Um, and so I'm sitting there watching all of my like colleagues, and they're like, okay, day two, everybody's beat red, everybody's sunburnt, everybody's fallen out. And I'm just like, ha ha ha ha, it's not me. Oh no. By day four, I was just as bad as them, face looking like shoe leather. It was insane. Um but we are on the flag course, so we can't actually, we don't spend most of the time indoors like the rest of the band. They're like inside learning the sheet music and this, that, and the third. We're just outside twirling flags all day and tossing them in the air. So we're like just completely burnt up. By the time we had the first game, everybody was just like so, so like, don't touch me, don't touch me. It's gonna hurt so bad. Um, but it was fun. It was great. You when you're in a big group of people like that, like 200 plus people, you get to know a lot of the people who are with you. You're like in the same boat. You kind of feel that camaraderie of being on a team, like in a like you're one piece of it whole, and you kind of feel that sort of collectivism. I think is what they call it. And it was it was awesome. It was it was really cool. Um, some of my friends to this day were in, I was in bandwidth, and it was just like that's such a cool thing um to have that last forever. And then for Division I, we traveled with the team. Um, so sometimes like we would travel with the team, and then we would also get um, we had to learn new halftime shows like for every other game. So we would literally spend those two hours each day learning a new show and be ready to do it um live. And the year that the first year I was there, I was in the band for two years. The first year I was there, we actually made it to the Motor City Bowl. I say we did, but the same thing. But and so we wound up getting to to do the Motor City Bowl, which was also a cool experience because we you know went up to Detroit, had to like got to play on like a really big stadium, which was also pretty cool. Um, and being that I was at Bowling Green when we had this little tiny stadium, um, when we played bigger schools like Ohio State, they and they were supposed to come to us. We actually got to play when the um first energy fieldhouse or when the the stadium here was first opened. We actually got to play Ohio State here. So that was one of the really cool things is I got to tore my flag on at the Cleveland Browns Stadium um when we were playing, like in an actual game, which was kind of kind of awesome. So yeah, I loved being in the band. I still have a flag. I tell people that too, even though that was like so many years ago. Um, it is something that you never I didn't know when I picked up a flag and I was in high school that I was actually good at something like that. Like who knows that? Like, who's just walking around scrolling flags? But yeah, it was um really cool. And I I had a great time doing it. It was tough though, because it was a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, people give them a lot of a lot of flack for, you know, oh, you're just in the band, you know, and like, yeah, you're just this, you know. I mean, I I I play football through high school. Uh, I swam from the time I was eight all the way through my sophomore year of college. Um, so you know, it's I I get it to that aspect, is it is like another sport that people just don't really give it the credit it deserves. I do get like you said, you had your hell week for uh yours. Unfortunately, my sport is in the winter. Um so uh we had uh what we called J term, and it was January. Um so right after Christmas, you know, nobody's in shape anymore after Christmas break, especially me. I come from a very large Italian family where food is number one. Um and you when you were a freshman, you had to take a class, but all the winter sport athletes had to be back on campus for the entire month where there was no classes unless you were actually taking a January term class. And it was every day, you know, we were up 6 a.m. We were in the water swimming, and then we would swim for about an hour and a half, and then have enough time to shower, eat something real quick, then to class by eight o'clock till about nine, and then had a little bit of a lull for lunch, and then we were back in the weight room at 12, and then back in the water again by like 1:30 till like three all day in in all day in chlorine, and just the the first couple of days, like people were just like like I was huffing and puffing, like I'd never worked out or swam a day in my life. And uh, what's wrong with you? I was like, I coach, I'm a Pizan. Like, do you know how much food I ingested in the two weeks that we were off school with just my family just shoveling food for the holidays in my face? I was like, I'm just pressing up 400 pounds, like there's no chance I can do anything right now, and like it it's so I get that with you know having that camaraderie, and it really brings you together. There's still, you know, uh guys from the team that you know that I I keep in contact with, you know, and it's been oh boy, I don't even want to think about how many years since you know I swam back in the back in the early 2000s.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and you see, I I've completely glossed over the how many years it's been for me too. But yeah, it's it's you know, time passes, and um those things are things that sort of shaped you as a person then and they shape you as a person who you are now. So I think that's that's something you carry with you for the rest of life, like those experiences.
SPEAKER_00:It's funny because every four years my wife is just in awe. Like I watch the Olympics and I watch the swimming portion like I'm watching the Super Bowl. And like I I I cheer like I'm I'm like I'm watching a football game or hockey or anything else, and she's just like what how I was like, I I did it from the time I was eight through 20 until I was 20 when I had when I hurt my shoulder and I couldn't swim anymore. That's the only reason I stopped. And so yeah, I get it. So seeing that, like, do you get that watching games and like halftime shows if you if you get to see it? Like, oh hey, I used to do that, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, like um, I actually do go to homecoming at Bowling Green every now and then. Haven't didn't go last year, but like every couple years I'll go. Um, and they sometimes have like the alumni, there's an alumni band. I'm not I didn't join it, but watching them do the show is like great. Like, you know, you still the the teams are different, it's different people, they have different outfits now. But like watching the you know what kind of work went into like doing that sort of production and how you know that actually goes. So you do get this like a little sense of nostalgia. Um and you just always it's always like I said, it's something you could keep with you forever. But um, being in the stands, being in the crowd, watching other people do it, it's it still really moves me. It really makes me feel um accomplished, it makes me feel proud of the stuff that I got to do. And you know, it's like anything in life, you're passing the baton on to the next, or you're just watching someone who's doing it really, really well, uh, who's doing it better than you.
SPEAKER_00:And do you do you critique them like if you notice something like a dad?
SPEAKER_01:Like definitely. And and with with like flag core, you have to be in sync. So, oh the girl, she's like a millisecond off, her flag is not flying the same as the other people, or oh no, that tuba almost tripped. Like, you know, like it's just all these little weird things that you notice um about it, and so yeah, you you notice all the little nuances and things like that.
SPEAKER_00:I noticed like breathing techniques with with swimmers and watching like how they're they're breathing. Am I watching? I they just need air, like, no, they don't, like, trust me, they don't. Like, I was like, when I was in season, I could hold my breath for three minutes, like underwater. I could be underwater for three minutes and I'd be fine. Like, like he's looking, he's looking at who's next to him as he knows he's ahead of him, and he's looking at him how much further he needs to get to. Like, stop it, just breathe normally. Like just and she's she's just like, Why do you get so invested? I was like, I don't know. I'm a sports fan, one, and uh two. Uh I did it for uh over a decade. And it's it's just like, oh, he missed that turn, like you you you yeah, like it's it's just weird things, and she's like, How do you see that? Yeah, like it's just like I I I don't know, but I it it happens. It's just like with anybody in anything, you know what I mean? Like that that's done it forever. Like we we mentioned it um earlier talking about them being into paranormal stuff, and like when we watch the shows, like I've watched them so much that like I can hear things, and I was like, not gonna bring that up. Okay, cool. Um, and like so it's it it's weird the things you you you gravitate to and hang on to.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it is. It but so like with the paranormal stuff, have you gone out and done like uh no no?
SPEAKER_00:But I have a a friend of mine who actually was a boss of mine at one point in time, but him and his wife are real big into paranormal. They go to the um Ohio Reformatory all the time and and they investigate there and they keep like, you guys have to come out. I was like, Can you just like not ask us around the holidays? Like, I just like to busy time of year for my wife and I, like, we want to go. And they they ask us like every week, like, you have to come out. I was like, trust us, we absolutely want to do this, but uh one, we just don't have the time right now, and two, I don't know if we'll make it the entire night. Uh, because there's certain times like when we see stuff on just watching on TV, it's like, yeah, I'm not sleeping tonight. That well, that one, that one's gonna haunt me for for a while now. That one's gonna be in my nightmares now. You know, so being there live, I mean, it's it's a different experience. I have done I wouldn't call it a paranormal investigation, but uh the Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia, um very haunted location, um, shut down. But they have tours there where you can go in through the day, but they also, if you pay extra, there's a night tour where they basically lock you in the prison overnight. Oh I I made it halfway through the night, and I was like, they told you, like, okay, you can do as much as you want and as much as you physically can, but there will be a guard right outside the door. Like, if you want out, come beat on the door, tell them I'm done, I'm I'm out, I can't do this anymore, and they will let you out.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sorry, what did you hear? What did you hear?
SPEAKER_00:There was just so much, and like I I've I heard voices, I was with just uh a buddy of mine, and I turned I remember turning around at one point in time like, dude, don't don't be pulled on me. And he was a completely across the other side of the room that we were in, and I was like, So that wasn't you, okay, cool. Um, that's that's creepy, and like during the tour, even during the day, like they put you into like the cells, yeah, into into prisoner cells, and they'll shut the doors just to kind of get a feel like to get you the feel of like, okay, this is what these inmates went through, and this is what basically they looked at. And like as soon as the door shut, like I was just like, it felt like somebody was like right behind me, like standing by my ear and just oh wow. You could I like I I was like, can we go? And that was in the daytime that that stuff was happening, and like but at night it it it's a completely different. Like, I used to make fun of the shows all the time, like, what do you mean it's a different feel? Like, how does a room have a feel? And then yeah, I went into Moundsville in the day, and it there's a different vibe in there, and then I went in there at night and I was like, Yeah, I don't like I don't like this at all. I feel like there's just a million people in here, and it's me and my buddy, and that's it. So, like it's I I get it now, but like, yeah, that I we didn't really like go to investigate, we just kind of wanted to see if we could last all night. I put yeah, not a chance. It was like halfway through the night. I was like, Yep, done. Let's open the store because coming off the hinges because I'm getting out here one way or the other. So yeah, like I to to go and actually be looking for it and wanting it to happen. I yeah, I don't know how long I'd last.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't know many like looking for it either. And it's just yeah, it would I think it would freak me out the same as you a little bit. If something like really did pop off, I would be like, Oh crap, I can't I gotta leave. Yeah, I couldn't even do a whole night somewhere trapped. Yeah, not at all.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't know how I don't know how like some of these shows are just like, yeah, they're they're padlocking us in for the night and we can't get out till they come and let us like no, no, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. I need my reader, absolutely to be able to quickly.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I need I need a quick exit. I I need to know where it is at all times too. So yeah. Um yeah, getting back to it here though. Um, I want to talk about this because we've had uh other people from Case On, but you're at the Weathered School of Management at Case Western University. So what exactly does that position? What do you do there?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I am my title is Senior Director of Admissions and Recruitment Strategy. Um, what do I do? Everything that's related to that. Um basically, uh, my job is really to think about um where we recruit students, how we recruit students, and then actually go out and do those things, right? Okay. So I build down the strategy and we have a very small team now, but um ideally we would be, you know, I would manage a recruitment team and they would be going out to recruit in those areas. I work with our um uh upper level, I was used to be our associate dean, um, to come up with different strategies around recruitment, whether that's for different programs or different things like that. Um currently I oversee all of our full-time programs. So this would be our like one-year specialized master's programs in business. So they would be in areas like finance, accountancy, supply chain management, um, and um business analytics. Um, I've also worked in the MBA suite before. Um, so thinking about like working professionals who come into our pipeline. Um, but most of the students I work with now are either currently undergrads and now moving into their graduate program straight from undergrad, or they're thinking about retraining and coming back to school for a graduate degree. Um that's pretty much it. But I but because of that, I get to I get to travel and I get to really uh see a lot of the world. And I'm looking for students all over uh the world, really, but um a lot of times, mostly around Ohio and also Pennsylvania, uh, we really like to, you know, enrich and enlift our local population here. I think a lot of people see Case Western Reserve as this like citadel on a mountain or some sort of school that is unattainable. Um, I like to be the person that tells people no, it's not, and you can do it. Because has a man ever done it? Yes, then you can do it too. Um, if that's the way you want to go, right? Education's not for everyone. But I think that if you want to, and you're here in Cleveland or or like in Ohio, um, we're one of the top schools there. And so if you're looking to advance in business, and this is where I work in a business school. So I definitely uh tell students that um so I think part of my job is to be that encourager, right? To be that person who really uh tries to encourage people to aim higher, a little bit higher than what they thought they could do or what they thought they would be able to do. And so that's kind of the best part of my job is that I get to meet, not only do I get to travel and I get to, you know, come up with different strategies and things like that. Um I get to meet so many people. Um I do I interview students uh for our program. And so in a normal typical day of work, I may be talking to um Ankit from India or on a Zoom call and learning about his life and what he's hoping to achieve. Or I may be talking to Jesse from who's at Cleveland State right now and is looking to advance in a certain way. Um, or maybe I'm talking to um someone who uh family immigrated to the US and they're first generation and they, you know, been able to be successful in their undergrad and are looking to that for that next step. So it's like um getting to meet like so many people. I think you probably feel a little bit of that, like with the comedy scene, you travel around and you get to meet so many different people. Um, that's the best, the best part of my job is getting to meet so many different people who have so many stories. I tell people I have the best job in the world because I get to meet strangers for a living. And within 10 minutes of meeting them, they're telling me all of their goals, ambitions, and their like what they want to do with their lives. Um, just the way that the job is set up. So that is so promising to me, like when I when I'm listening and talking to people, um, to you know, really take that in and say, wow, this person has so much more figured out at this age than I did because when I was 20, 22, 24, 25, I was definitely not uh not like, oh my gosh, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to do this and I want to do that. That's the really cool part about my job is meeting with all of the potential students.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I did with the comedy. I I always say that the travel is the best and worst part of the job, you know, because you know, at the beginning, the first couple of years, you're you're taking all of these hot garbage shows, like it just anything to get stage time to get up on stage. And for me, I like literally was taking anything and any any for everything that they were throwing at me because I was so green and I had crippling stage right when I was when I first started doing comedy. Like I would pass out on stage, like I feel like I was gonna pass out uh like if I got in front of a room of people and that I didn't know uh at first a lot of booze uh getting on stage. Like I I would show up so early and just get some liquid courage in me, yeah, and you know, get up on stage and then be able to tell my jokes. And now I look forward to getting on stage. Um just the the repetition of doing hundreds and hundreds of shows and coming up on 14 years now and and of doing comedy.
SPEAKER_01:Um see, that's the good thing about comedy is like you could the booze could help. I can't get drunk and go meet people for my job. I mean, like, look at this crazy lady. Um, but I think I I I totally get that because it is um, you know, doing presentations and talking to big crowds of people, I sometimes have to do that too. And it it was not Something that came naturally, right? You it's just practice, practice, practice, and you get more comfortable at what you're saying and what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, I I mean, I I don't want to say I had a little bit of practice with it when I was at college because um I I do have a degree in broadcast and uh journalism and communications. So I announced every home football, baseball, basketball game, but it was on the radio. And I always say, you know, I have a good face for radio. You know, I can sit behind a microphone and you know, not in front of a room of people thousands of people might be listening. I have no idea. I have no idea, and I can't see their facial expressions. That that is the one thing that it's just like I can tell that one, you're not enjoying yourself, and two, you don't like anything I'm saying. And that used to bug me at first doing comedy. Now you were will become the entirety of my act if I if I notice that it on stage. It's just like, yep, nope, we're gonna point this out. You're the only one in here not having fun. Like, what's what's wrong with you? Let's talk about it. And the the crowd work. I never used to do crowd work for like the first five years I was on stage. I would not even engage the crowd.
SPEAKER_01:Now, like it's required, like you have to, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's I don't want to say it's required, but like comedians such as like Matt Reif and Nate Jackson who do mainly crowd work stuff, like have made it like to where if you're not doing it, like nobody really wants to come to your shows because right I crowds enjoy that now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's the it's the engagement piece, yeah. Um, it's one of the things that you know, there's so many similarities there. Um, I got my MBA um back in 2019, and through that coursework, just kind of like you would broadcast, I had to present, had to do presentations on different things all the time. So it I didn't know at the time, but it was prepping me for more of that in the job that I have now. Yeah, but you know, engaging the crowd is something that it pans out so much more than just speaking. No one wants to just be talked at, they want to be engaged. And so having that interaction, I even try to incorporate that into um like our online like video. When I'm talking to an online Zoom call with like 50 Indian students, how do you how do you kind of make that happen? Is you have to engage them, you have to have polls, you have to ask questions, you ask them to do stuff in the chat. People like to be sort of pointed out and call on people. People hate me because I'm like, I'm not a professor, but I like to call on students. So I get to call on you today. Tell me more about you, so and so, in the in the list of names, and um never fails that people do enjoy that. Yeah, um, I think we still, as a society and as a as a people are looking for that connection. And so sometimes when somebody just reaches out and says, Hey, you sitting there with a scowl on your face in my comedy show, like tell me more. And they loosen up.
SPEAKER_00:The one time I it was more recently, I mean, by recently, I mean it was it was coming up on two years ago now. Um worked with a company in Columbus, you know, and they were putting together prison shows. So I actually got to go to um North Central Correctional and perform for 400 inmates. And that's that's a nerve-wracking crowd work experience. Uh but so fun. One of the most rewarding shows. And you know, having all of them come up to us, all the comedians that were there, and being like, Well, we just got six more months apiece in here because you guys made us laugh for two hours, right? And you know, but seeing like the normal people and wanting to just like pounce and make fun of them and just make them part of your act, there was hesitation. And I think at first they could tell, like, okay, like they're they're not doing what they normally do, and like then that energy changes while you're there, and it's just like, you know what, the hell with it. Let's let's just see what happens. There, there's guards here, they can't bum rush the stage right now. We'll we'll be fine, and you know, and then you just start making fun of people and like they start laughing even more, and then then everyone else gets on. It's just it's infectious. Um, kind of like two other people that we've had on from Case Western that you work with, uh Cole Schneider and uh Steve. Uh I'm not gonna butcher his last name. He told me how to pronounce it and I already forget. Um Steve Shape. Steve Shape. Steve Shape. Uh, what's it like working with those two guys?
SPEAKER_01:Um, hilarious. Uh, I think Steve, I love Steve. He's like probably one of my favorites. He's we've worked together the longest, and I would say he's like a bottle of volume. So calm, so relaxed. Um, and I love it. I love it because he I'm crazy, and you should ask them how it is working with me. I'm the one who's like, hey, see, hey, hey, Cole. I'm like in their offices every day, um, asking them random questions. And and Cole is like one of the coolest people I know. Yeah, like he's so cool, chill, laid back, not no nonsense, um not overly animated, but not underly animated.
SPEAKER_00:He's just like been on the show a couple of uh like a couple of times. We love having him on every time he's on for sure. Um yeah, we we got to talk to him, and that that's the perfect way to describe him a bottle of value when I was thought like I yeah, that that's the perfect way to describe him. But Stephanie, I just I just realized how long we've been sitting here talking. We are running down near the end of the episode here, and I do have to get this segment in, otherwise, the wonderful manager of the podcast will kill me if I don't. But that is the fast fitty five. For the new listeners out there, uh, this is a rapid fire question error that have nothing to do with what we've been talking about for the better part of an hour here from the wonderful manager of the podcast, Johnny Fitty Falcone. And uh, like I said, they are kind of rapid fire, Stephanie, but you can elaborate if you feel like you need to. So if you are ready to get into the mind of Fitty, we can go ahead and get her all in. All right. Question number one which is better TVs that are mounted on the wall or TVs that are on a TV entertainment stand?
SPEAKER_01:Stand. Only because my TV is gigantic, and like it being on the wall will be weird. It's it's on the stand.
SPEAKER_00:I have one of the things.
SPEAKER_01:Sounds like all like holes in the wall. Like, who wants to repair that?
SPEAKER_00:I gotcha. Yeah. Alrighty. Question number two is September or May a better month?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I will go with I will go with September. May is kind of trash. Sorry, Tauruses out there. I'm just kidding. September is cool. I think it's winding down summer. You're getting into that nice, cool fall. The leaves aren't falling off yet. September.
SPEAKER_00:I'm with you on that one. Uh question number three. What is the best coffee shop you've ever visited?
SPEAKER_01:Um so it would be in Italy, unfortunately. When I went to Italy, I'm sorry, I wanted. But yeah, there was a little actually, no, I'll take that back. And this is even worse. It was in Spain. Um, I had lived in Spain for a year when I studied abroad in my undergrad, and I used to go to this little coffee shop um called um gradual what is it called? Cafe something or other. But it was so quaint and cool. I don't even think I ever drank drank coffee there, but it was just really nice.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. Question number four one word to describe Cool Ranch Doritos is fabulous. Yeah, it's a great one.
SPEAKER_01:Fabulous. They're like the best thing. Okay. Cheat code. If you have tuna salad and cool ranch Doritos, skip the crackers. Cool ranch Doritos and Tuna Salad are the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_00:All right. New life pack unlocked there. Last but not least, question number five is tic-tac-toe and overrated or underrated game.
SPEAKER_01:Totally overrated.
SPEAKER_00:Overrated, huh?
SPEAKER_01:Totally, totally.
SPEAKER_00:All right.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's unless there's shots. Wait, unless there's shots involved, then maybe everything's better when there's shots involved.
SPEAKER_00:Like it's not act like that's just a new thing.
SPEAKER_01:Tic-tac-toe is pretty trash. I don't I hate it. It's not good.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna something else is better.
SPEAKER_01:Checkers. That that I need more, I need more pieces.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that was the fast fanny five, and I feel like you took it a little easy on you, Stephanie, with those ones there. Um, but like I said, we're running down near the end of the episode. Give every guest this opportunity at the end of the episode. If there's anything you want to get out there, if it's whether it's for case, anything you have going on with your personal life, or even if it's just a good message that you want to get out there. I'm gonna give you about a minute, and the floor is yours.
SPEAKER_01:Sweet. So, only thing I have to say is get out, do more, uh, travel more if you can. That's my advice to the world. Um, see the world, meet new people. Uh, literally just met Mike today, and it's awesome and amazing to have this great conversation. Um, as far as school, if you want to go to school, definitely check out Case Plus Reserve for Business, business graduate programs if you're into that. Um, no pressure though, because you know, you can do anything that you put your mind to. You only get one life, and I think you all should live it to the fullest. Um, and you should try something new every year. That's what I was saying. At least one new thing every year you should add to your docket. Whether that's a skill, whether that's jumping off of a cliff, whether that's traveling to a new country, do all the things. Um, life is short, and so you should live it up while you can.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Uh, I love it when people have a good message to end the show. Uh, I'm all for helping people get what they need out there, but when they have just a good message, it it's the way I like to end the show. And with that being said, that is going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. I want to thank my guest again, Stephanie Nunley, for joining the show. A lot of fun to get to talk to you and get to learn a little bit more about you and Case Western and everything that goes along with that. And as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend. Tell a friend. If you didn't, tell them anyways, they might like it just because you didn't. That's gonna do it for me, and I will see y'all next week.
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