Priya David Clemens is a national news journalist, producer, and entrepreneur, and the founder of Keepsake Studios, a company dedicated to capturing and preserving family legacies. In this episode, she and Kara talk about the power of storytelling, the evolution of journalism, and what it means to choose family first while pursuing a demanding career. Priya shares her journey from anchoring at NBC and CBS to creating a business rooted in connection, ancestry, and legacy, and how uncovering our family stories can change how we see ourselves. This is a thoughtful conversation about purpose, identity, and the stories that make us who we are. Whether you’re passionate about storytelling, navigating a career transition, or curious about preserving your own family history, this episode is for you.
“The fact that we are here now means we get to ascribe meaning to our lives. We get to say, ‘Here is what matters.’ We get to say, ‘No, this time is everything I have, and everything matters right now.’”
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to The Powerful Ladies
00:22 Meet Priya David Clemens
01:01 Priya's Early Life and Career Beginnings
03:23 The Evolution of Journalism
08:12 Diversity in Journalism
09:54 Priya's Journey with NBC and CBS
16:21 The Importance of Family Stories
19:31 Keepsake Studios: Preserving Family Legacies
30:37 The Value of Family and Friendship
32:38 The Power of Connections
34:24 Leveraging Social Media for Networking
35:47 The Six Degrees of Separation
37:39 Personal Backstory and Influences
41:06 Empowering Women and Building Confidence
42:54 The Importance of Taking Action
48:53 Facing Challenges and Building Resilience
52:39 Celebrating Achievements and Supporting Each Other
56:53 Final Thoughts and How to Connect
341 - Priya David Clemens
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[00:00:00]
Kara: Welcome to The Powerful Ladies, I'm Kara Duffy. The stories of our lives, of our families, of the legacy our relatives have left behind is often far more interesting than any movie you could imagine. When we dive into our ancestry, it is such a profound change in how we see and know ourselves. Today's guest, Priya David Clemens is a producer, national news journalist, and entrepreneur whose latest endeavor Keepsake Studios is capturing and preserving your family legacy.
Kara: In this episode, we dive into her journey as a journalist working for NBC and CBS, how she keeps choosing family first in a professional life and career, and making it work and what it means to tell the story of your family.
Kara: Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Priya: Thank you so much, Kara. It's a pleasure to be here.
Kara: Let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and you know, just a few of the [00:01:00] things that you're up to right now.
Priya: My name is Priya Clemens. Uh, although really my husband insists I use my maiden name, which was David. So I'm Priya David Clemens, and I say that because he feels like I built a lot of like brand awareness, personal brand awareness, um, with that name because for so many years I was a national broadcast news journalist, and I traveled all over the nation, all over the world, telling some of the biggest stories of our times to the biggest audiences out there. And so he insists that I keep the David in there. Um, and I insisted that I take Clemens because I always loved feeling like we were all part of one family unit that was growing something new together. And it's interesting because in many ways that reflects how I've seen my life. There's this really strong part of me that cares about my career and my work, and there's this equally strong part of me that has been about like very [00:02:00] intentionally creating family, building that family, spending time with that family. And just like everybody else, those two things come into conflict. And I am working, uh, every day to see how I can bring them together. And my latest venture that I'm just starting out on in many ways is bringing together what is so important to me in my heart about family and the meaning that is held there, the value that is held there, uplifting families and my professional work of telling stories.
Priya: So I'm super excited to share all of that with you soon.
Kara: We were introduced by the incredible Kara Sammons. How did you and Kara meet?
Priya: I'm so lucky to have Kara in my life. Another Kara. Um, all good, all good things seem to come from Kara. No. Um, but this one, um, Kara and I have known each other since we were kids. Our mothers actually set up a carpool together for us to go to kindergarten, and we learned that recently because we lived around the block from each other. We always thought we'd known each other since we were [00:03:00] three, and we have been saying that for many decades since. And recently we found out that no, we've only known each other since we were five. And we feel like this tremendous like earthquake in our friendship. What it was two less years than we thought. So we're super excited about celebrating when we get to 50 years of friendship, which is coming up in another few years.
Kara: I love that. You know, there's so much evolution has happened in the world of journalism from when you've started to even what journalism today and so much of it has been under attack.
Kara: The whole concept of fake news is a recent concept. Mm-hmm. Um, I wanna start with what drove you to want to be a journalist and tell these stories that are out there in the world every day?
Priya: Mm-hmm. It really started from my love of reading and writing. I was on my elementary school newspaper in fourth grade because I just always loved it and I [00:04:00] like people and I like talking to people.
Priya: And in fifth grade I was made the editor of my elementary school paper, which was a big deal because we went to sixth grade and it wasn't a sixth grader that was doing it, it was a fifth grader. Right? So I had a little taste of power early on and loved it. Uh, and then, um, and so I just always enjoyed that process of being able to share.
Priya: Other people's thoughts, my thoughts in the opinion columns, uh, the practice and art of writing and taking complex ideas and distilling them into something that other people could understand clearly. We moved. We, I grew up internationally. I was at international schools most of my life, so we were in Brussels at that point.
Priya: And then we moved to London. I was there for seventh and eighth grade, uh, which is an amazing place to be as a young person, really getting a chance to experience some freedom and a new culture, a new place, uh, with a tube to take you where you wanted to go, and not always needing to rely on your parents for rides.
Priya: So that was a really interesting experience. But I wanna move to the American school in London. They [00:05:00] didn't have a middle school newspaper, and so I remember very clearly this day. Seventh grade, all class meeting, leading this sort of revolution where I had the other kids chanting that we all needed to like be able to share our voice to tell our stories.
Priya: And so I'm sure the teachers were like, sure, start a newspaper. That sounds cool. Um, it wasn't quite the rebel act that I thought it was. Uh, but we started a newspaper then. And then in high school I started watching more TV and like watching the way that journalists are portrayed very like Law and Order where they're all like yelling at the victim as she's coming down the steps of the courthouse.
Priya: And I was like, oh God, I don't wanna do that. That sounds awful. Like I don't wanna be in the, in somebody's face when they're having like their worst moment or their worst day. And so I sort of took a little bit of a step back from it and I looked into, um, anthropology and documentary making for a while.
Priya: And then when it really came down [00:06:00] to it, I got my first jobs in television. I worked at a baby TV station in Santa Barbara right out of college. And, uh, we were just starting a newscast. So at the age of 23, I was hiring news talent, hiring our anchors and our reporters, our newsroom director. I was building the set and creating those visuals and graphics and putting shows together every night.
Priya: So it was all very new and exciting and something you can do when you're starting at a small place. I realized through that process how much I just still love the storytelling and that most of what was being done day to day was not hollering at victims as they're coming down the courthouse steps.
Priya: Much of what was being done is really thoughtfully engaging with the community and sharing the stories of things that are happening around us every day. So I did go on to grad school at USC and from there, um, learned not a whole lot more about journalism because I've been practicing already for a couple of years as a producer.
Priya: But I did, you know, I think [00:07:00] grad school and some of these opportunities are great for networking. And so because I was at USC for grad school, NBC Network News came calling and they were looking for some people to put into a new training program, honestly for, um, bringing more diversity into their ranks, which I know is kind of a dirty word these days, but it was very, very helpful to me at the time as a person who had no connection in the broadcast news world would've had no idea how to get into it.
Priya: To know that NBC was also saying our ranks are not reflective of the community that we are working on serving and so we would like to bring in the more voices that understand different perspectives, diverse perspectives for me that the women of color. Um, and so I felt like it was a very, very beneficial tool at the time to be able to get into a place that I might not have gotten into otherwise.
Priya: Couldn't have gotten in there just on my beautiful looks, um, the color of my skin. Um, I had to have had the chops and the experience and the [00:08:00] knowledge, but it gave me an, an inroad. I feel like I just went on a soapbox for a little. Sorry about that. No,
Kara: no, that's fabulous.
Priya: But, um, there's a, yeah, please.
Kara: There's a couple things I'd love to go back to. So, kind of working in backwards order. You know, I, I see such a change in the diversity of journalists today that I never saw growing up. Um. You know, I, I think it's also really interesting. I grew up on the, in the northeast where journalism from DC to Boston is very serious. It's very focused. You only ever see people basically, as much as we can see each other right now on the screen. Yeah. And moving to California, I always laugh at the different perspectives of how news anchors in particular, and weather people especially are shown on the West coast. I'm like, wait, we're seeing people's legs, like what is happening? And they're, it's like such a dramatic difference of like how journalists show up across the us. Um, but the diversity [00:09:00] element is so incredible. Like the fact that there is a woman of color who's doing meet the press today and the fact that, um, when you look around what a lot of stations independent or the big, um, three, five now are doing, I see the difference of their, their DEI efforts. And for anyone who's ever tried to even hire in a corporate space, you know, the value of like going to find it mm-hmm. Versus it being a metric number. Like when you actually go and find these incredible people who are, who are waiting to be discovered, given an opportunity, it's never about not being good enough.
Kara: It's about you weren't in the circle to be seen.
Priya: Yeah.
Kara: Yeah. That's very true. So props to NBC for taking those steps to go find the talent that they needed.
Priya: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, and you see that with, when I went in to NBC, I spent a year as a news associate, which there were [00:10:00] six of us. And we rotated through various departments, three months at a time. Many corporations have these sorts of training programs. And so I spent three months with Tom Brokaw learning nightly news. And that process I spent three months at Dateline, um, understanding how more intense documentary style stories are told,
Kara: learning how to catch a predator. Yes,
Priya: that's right. Um, it was a very different sort of storytelling, super important on its own. Um, and then three months with Brian Williams before he ever went to NBC Network News, when he was still at M-S-N-B-C and three months, I wanted to be on air. And so they sent me for three months to Birmingham, Alabama to be a local reporter for them, uh, at their owned and operated station there. And then after that, I had an opportunity to, uh, audition for a spot to be what was called one of the campaign embeds, um, or the kids on the bus, as we were often called, which used to be the boys on the bus. But, um, it morphed into kids because [00:11:00] there were several of us who were quite young, who were hired to be embedded in presidential campaigns. And so I covered Dick Gephardt for six months. He was a Democratic candidate, um, who had done very well in a previous candidacy, but flamed out quite early on this one. So I was with him for six months. Traveling in the press pool, sitting with him on Midwest Airlines, bumping out to Iowa to go to every single little town hall there and talk to everyone we could before the caucuses. And then he didn't make it. And I was switched at that point to the Republican side. And I traveled with Dick Cheney in Air Force two for the next six months until they won the reelection there. And so that was a completely different experience. But I mentioned that because in my cohort at the time was another kid who wasn't known at all at the time, um, who had, who had come in through the same audition process and he was covering Reverend Al Sharpton's campaign for president, if you remember that considered kind of a smaller campaign at the time. But the kid earned his [00:12:00] chops and he is now, he was just named to the Evening Network news spot for NBC. His name is Tom Llamas. Yeah. We all knew him as Tommy. And so again, like those opportunities mm-hmm. Just to say, may not have been there. Now that was not a specifically a diversity training program or anything like that. There was a mix of, um, ethnicities who were part of that. Um, but there were these moments and opportunities where people came in the door and were groomed and trained over the years. I've often thought about it because Tommy took a different path than I did. So after the campaigns are over, basically when your candidate was done, you were usually out.
Priya: I was lucky and they put me on a new candidate. Um, but Tommy, after that, we both had this option. Tommy could go to Miami to work for the NBC station there, and I could go to DC to work for the NBC station there. And he chose the NBC route to stay with them. I did not. I decided that I, I was ready to like venture out a little bit.
Priya: I didn't wanna like be [00:13:00] continually tied to the mothership. And so I took a job with a station in San Francisco, KTVU, channel two. And um, I was with them for three years and then kind of got my legs and came back as a full network correspondent to CVS. But you know. That, that like sliding doors, which way would you have gone? What would you have done? Um, I eventually ended up leaving network news altogether because of this, uh, desire that I had to get married and have kids because it's very, very difficult to do it, I think, especially as a woman in the network news world. Um, but Tommy has thrived and flourished and is now, you know, named to that position very well deserved because of everything he's done over the years.
Kara: And I feel like there's, um, I see more people in the NBC. Programming than I see in the others currently who seem to have a very normal approach to interviewing people. Hmm. Because some newscasters or journalists, they get into this like [00:14:00] very dramatic dark voice and I'm like, like we are not Batman guys.
Kara: Like
Priya: Right.
Kara: We don't need you to scare us more than we already are. And I think about him and, uh, Halle Jackson. Mm-hmm. There's and so many opportunities now in like the new streaming side of things. Where it feels like they are people that you would be happy to have a dinner with and have a really ing conversation with, and they're able to be serious, but not, add to the doom. And then they also will smile on camera, God forbid that news journalists are smiling ever today. And so, like to see people have like more of a human range of expressions versus, turn on the journalistic voice and, you know, we have to be serious for the next 35 minutes. And you're like, yes. And like,
Priya: yeah. Well, you know, I think that really comes from the legacy of where television news was for so many years. You know, you would turn it on, you had 30 minutes, maybe an hour of news every day. Right? [00:15:00] You're thinking, I'm thinking like through the seventies, through the eighties, before we went to cable news, before we went to the proliferation of what we're seeing these days. Yeah. And the number of channels and outlets and ways you can get news. And so there was this, and there was also a feeling that you were part of the fourth estate. You were doing very important work for the people. And then with the amount of time you had, you'd basically do like serious news. Serious news, serious news, and one tiny little kicker at the end where you could smile. And there was a person who was assigned to that feature story. And we are definitely seeing a shift in how people present, how they are on camera, what authority really means, and that you can be a smiling person and not have authority be undercut. Mm-hmm. And that is where the number of voices that have come through with the many cable channels, and then obviously with the, um, social media channels mm-hmm. Where people can get news in so many different ways from so many different kinds of people. Uh, traditional network news really has like, had to work to shift and adapt. And, you know, really, I [00:16:00] think everyone feels that traditional network news is never gonna go back to where it was. Mm-hmm. So trying to find its new footing, its new audience, where they belong, what the place is for them, um, is something that is an ongoing struggle and story., But yeah, we don't all have to be an anchor voice and an anchor suits and, you know, being super serious all the time. Yeah.
Kara: The other thing that you mentioned that I thought was like, I, I started to see myself in our and why we love the storytelling component so much. Uh, and that was two key words, which was documentaries and anthropology. I love anthropology. I, I love the true stories like I am such a non-fiction person. I support Mountain Film Festival, the oldest documentary film festival in the us. There's so many stories that we're not telling on a regular basis because the news cycle has become so narrow, especially when we look at like what's on the nightly news option. And there, like, what [00:17:00] allows me to have hope in whatever's going on in the world is who I meet on this podcast. And knowing that there are so many incredible things happening on a day-to-day basis that are not seeing the light of day. Mm-hmm. My love for anthropology like, kind of even goes back to like loving Indiana Jones, but there's
Priya: you and me both. Yeah. Yes.
Kara: But I, I love seeing the taking where we can find the patterns and like the, almost the economic studies of people and cultures and how we can use that to make a difference and create opportunities and, and really change and, and craft the world that we're in today. And I see that documentaries can often jumpstart that for people. And I've had the pleasure of sitting in the room when a new documentary is being shared and the whole audience mm-hmm. Hundreds of people are transformed in 90 minutes. Mm-hmm. And we know this happens [00:18:00] in, you know, fictional storytelling. Mm-hmm. But it, to me, it's so much more powerful when it's something real with real people and real things happening. 'Cause it changes how you go out into your community in a completely different way.
Priya: Mm-hmm.
Kara: What is your relationship with anthropology and documentaries and how does that change your storytelling perspective?
Priya: Yeah. So I'll start with one piece where you said you are more of a nonfiction, uh, person naturally. I grew up very engaged by fiction. I was the bookworm. I would read, read, read, read, read all the time. I wouldn't do my other work and I would instead like, focus on my book and when it was done, then I would get around to whatever I was supposed to be doing. And that all changed when I had kids because I literally would be like, I don't wanna change a diaper. I want to read my book. I don't want to make breakfast. And I was like, okay, this, this is not, I have to pick one right now. I will pick the, you know, keeping my [00:19:00] child alive over my fiction. So I set fiction aside. Honestly, my kids are now 13 and 14, and I am just now in the last couple years coming back to bringing some fiction into my life because it's like I get so obsessive about it.
Priya: Mm-hmm. Um, but in the last. Dozen, dozen years, then I have had to, I've replaced it with nonfiction and I found that like love of it. And now I find myself not just for books, but also for television when I do turn it on, finding those documentaries more. Um, and what I feel is that, so let me just talk for a second about the venture that I'm moving into because it'll, it'll tie in here. So I'm starting a venture, called Keepsake Studios. Keepsake Studios, the point of it is to make these gorgeous personal documentaries for families that celebrate their life and their legacy. And I actually started down this path many years ago, about 10 years ago when I started and ran my first production company. Um, what I found very quickly was that a [00:20:00] corporation asked me to do their legacy story and then corporation after corporation business after business kept coming around. And I ended up being really a corporate services creator of beautiful craft videos, but for the corporate world, uh, rather than the personal world.
Priya: And so this time around, I'm happy to take on some corporate clients, but I'm really trying to focus on getting families, the stories that I think are so important to them. And I think a lot of this is because of that love that I have for. Um, thinking about our place in the world, when I think about anthropology, it is the study of humans, the study of being in this space, being on this tiny little rock, in this huge universe, in this tiny little moment of time, in this enormous expansive time. And you can think of all of that and think, wow, our lives are meaningless. Like, we're such tiny little dots we're like nothing. And I actually had struggled with that for many years. Like, what is the [00:21:00] point of anything if we're like, you know, just gone in a flash? And then I've, I've realized over time
Priya: that that is what makes it matter. The fact that we are here now, we get to ascribe meaning to our lives. Now we get to say, here is what matter. We get to say like, no, this time is everything I have and everything matters right now. And so what do we do with our lives? What do we do with our energy? How do we bring ourselves forward into the world so that we can live with the most full experience and expression of being this human in this space and time that we can? And so I, when I think about that love of family and the desire to really rest in the knowledge of being here now and taking that, it has led me to say, I want families to have an opportunity to capture these moments that matter so much to them. And so. The documenting of a family's life story, which we're really looking at it through the lens generally of one person of life. What was [00:22:00] Grandpa's life? Who were they before that we just knew them as grandpa. Um, what experiences did they have? How did that shape their thinking, their life? And then of course, shaped future generations because all of that just trickles down to who you become in your family life. Who are your parents? What was their mentality? How does that shape who you are? How do you think? And one of the beautiful things I really learned, because we don't do this so much in our culture, and I I say culture meaning western culture, right? We, indigenous cultures do it a lot more. Um, other cultures in the world have a lot more of a oral tradition of hearing the family stories and of recognizing what people have been through. And then what I've learned through the research into this space, um, there's a guy named Bruce Baylor, who, who talks about this beautifully. And a book called Life is in the Transition. He talks about the value of learning those stories, your family stories and the resilience that that brings to you. And he said, there are three stories. There's the upward story, the American story generally. Like we had nothing and then we got [00:23:00] everything. You know, we worked our way up or we had everything and then we lost it all. And he said the most valuable stories to build resilience are oscillating stories. They're the like, yes, we had good times and then we had some tough times, and then we had some good times again. And then this was a harder time that we had to work our way out of it. Knowing those ups and downs brings so much value to the kids and grandkids, that is an inheritance that's really beyond wealth. That you can learn the skills to fish, to, you know, to grow in the future from all of those lessons that you've learned. Plus, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you a minute to get in here for a second, but the other piece that I think is so valuable to me is that we have all of these elements that are scattered. We have photos, we have some home movies, we have some stories. We have all these physical artifacts, and all of that is going to die essentially with that person when they die because nobody knows who the faces are and the photo albums when you get to the next generation, unless you [00:24:00] find a way to capture that. And so what I've really looked at doing is saying, let's take all of those photos, let's curate them. Let's create a digital library for you that's tagged with all of the people so you know who they are in the future. Plus, let's take the stories that are in physical humans right now that they have to tell the most important family lore, plus those home videos, digitize everything and then put it into a beautiful package that like people actually wanna watch your grandkids actually wanna watch. So we are doing it with like a lot of humor and fun and heart and art. Like these are really beautifully curated cinematic heirlooms. Um, but what's funny about it is that like, it's not actually about the filmmaking or the documentary side to me. I mean, I love it, but I've, that's, I've been a visual storyteller all my life. But the film is really the vehicle, the purpose is to have families capture these stories for their own, um, truly inheritance going forward. Mm-hmm. And so that, that's not lost to time. That really kills me. The idea that it's all lost at time and we won't have [00:25:00] it going forward unless we capture it.
Kara: Well, and, and so much of our ancestry and history is, I mean, you, you see the power when a celebrity gets to be on know your roots or who do you think you are? Yes. And their whole self-perception can adjust when they realize, oh, that's why so and so was abandoned, or that's why they moved to the US or that's why they moved somewhere else. And all the, the nuances of who we are as a person
Priya: mm-hmm.
Kara: Is the stuff that goes away. Because of course our brains are like, you know, grandpa is this thing and grandma is this thing. Yeah. Meanwhile, they're huge, complex rollercoasters of people just like the rest of us are. And when you. You see the patterns when the full truth of a family history is not shared and how they repeat over and over again and any, I think anything we can do to like put light on the authentic story and the whole story, [00:26:00] it can only be beneficial for everyone's self perspective and mental health, let alone like just how lovely to. Have something of high quality to keep coming back to, like, I imagine the families that you're working with, like everyone's gonna wanna have a chapter to tell their own story now at this point.
Priya: Yeah. It is just, it's so beautiful and it's beautiful for the kids who are like, I never even knew that about my parents. Right. Yeah. They've lived with them for 50 years. 'cause most of the clients are, you know, gen X. Mm-hmm. Um, and maybe early boomers, but generally it's like a family member who wants to do it for their parent for a milestone birthday. Mm-hmm. Or a really significant wedding anniversary. Um, and some people, just because they know it's time, like we don't, time is precious. And if we don't take the opportunity, sometimes it can be lost. And so it does tend to be the kids though, who are, who are saying, Hey, we'd like to, to do this. What they get out of it. The [00:27:00] recognition of like, oh my gosh, this is who this person really is beyond just being my, my mom or my dad. And there are stories we don't tell often, right? Like, I don't, how much do my kids know about my professional world or my broadcast life? You know, we're not, I'm not talking to them regularly about, like, I went to Malawi, Africa, did stories on Madonna's adoption to her kids. I interviewed Warren Buffet or Kobe Bryant, or you know, actually Kobe Bryant they know and they wanna know all about that one.
Kara: Yeah. I'm sure they're actually like, and who's Madonna?
Priya: Right? Right. It's such a different time.
Kara: Yeah.
Priya: Yeah. So.
Kara: No, I think that's such a beautiful way to use all these parts of you that have gotten to this place. I can hear the overlaps of the, the journalism and the storytelling and the production and the family values and, you know, how does it shift for you being able to put the spotlight on other people versus being someone who's been in the spotlight?
Priya: Yeah, um, I've been on a different sides of this production coin, [00:28:00] right? Mm-hmm. So I've been a, I've been a broadcast journalist, so I've been in front of the camera telling other people's stories generally, right? Um, I have also been a producer, so I've been on the flip side where I'm putting it all together and figuring out what pieces I need, and then I've been a spokesperson for five years. I, uh, was at the Golden Gate Bridge and I was their spokesperson telling the stories of the bridge and the history of it. So I've been on like many pieces of this, and what I find is that I am always, honestly, so much more comfortable being the person who's asking the questions than the one who's answering them. So I would much rather be you, Kara, right now than be me in this place. Um, because it just, I dunno, I'm fascinated by people and what they have to say. So and I think. Really when I think back of like, where did this all come from? Yes, my family was important to me growing up. Um, and yes, I like talking to people, but there was this one story I did when I was at CBS News as a network [00:29:00] correspondent, and I went to Texas and did a story about a gentleman, a young man who was being given the Purple Heart Award, posthumously he had died, uh, serving in Iraq. And I went and met with his family and we captured his story from his parents and they told me about him. And we went through their photo albums and we went through the pictures of him from when he was a baby through high school, his sports, his loves, um, his interests, and, and just sort of capturing all of those elements that I was able to then put into the story that I delivered from the White House lawn. Um. I just, there was something that changed in me during that interview that made me realize that like the place I wanna be is at the kitchen table talking to people intimately about the stories that matter most to them. And so, while I have done these huge, enormous stories for huge, enormous audiences, I now want to [00:30:00] do very meaningful, very critical, very important stories for small audiences.
Priya: Mm-hmm. These are not movies, although you're gonna love it and you're gonna wanna share it with everyone because it's so well done and it's so awesome and you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, my grandpa was like this. Um, but the, the purpose of it is truly and a family archive. It's a little gem that they can have and hold onto for generations to come to know about their history and their ancestors. But there's something about the intimacy of that space and sharing those stories that is really important to me and I have found as a core value.
Kara: Well, and as we're talking about the lineage and the history and the storytelling from a family perspective, I'm realizing, through DNA, we can find who we're biologically related to. Yeah. But what's missing so often is also the friendships. You know, we can't trace those. And sometimes, you know, you and I both know that friendships can be [00:31:00] more powerful than family relationships. So let's make me wanna ask ancestry.com to add friend links.
Priya: That's right.
Kara: Like, like how there must be so many stories of people who don't even know that their friends with ancestors, who their ancestors were friends with.
Priya: Yep.
Kara: Um, just based on, you know how we know anthropology and the world works. There's
Priya: That's right.
Kara: It's a big place, but we overlap a whole lot more than we think we do.
Priya: Yeah, we could start by trusting that out with the boomers on Facebook. Now I'm on Facebook, even though I'm like on the, on the tail end of that. Right. I'm not like a boomer, but I definitely was there for the Facebook revolution. Yeah. When, when it all got going, when I was young. And I feel like there are so many in my generation and above who are on Facebook, we just need like a Facebook ancestry mashup, you know, to figure out who those people are and make those connections because that data is there. A lot of the data's there now.
Kara: So much of it. And, and often when I'm working with a, um, a [00:32:00] client, 'cause I'm also a business coach consultant, we will do this project called the Community Map. We'll, I'll have them make a spreadsheet and each column is like a different moment in their life. Who did you know from that business?
Kara: Who did you know, in that school, in that neighborhood, through your, you know, kids elementary who like you start looking at all your contacts Because there's a number I've heard that people today who are active professionals have. Around 3000 contacts. And when you think about starting a business, especially a service based business mm-hmm. We don't need 3000 clients in year one.
Priya: Right.
Kara: We usually need 10 or 50. And so we, we have so many more people in our grasp than we think we do. And when people start, you know, looking at who they know and who they've interacted with you, you start remembering the stories and what happened. And we don't realize how many people we have access to. 'Cause another favorite game of mine is the six [00:33:00] degrees of separation. I believe you can talk to anyone in this world that you want to, you've done it already, so the fact that you're like, oh, who's in your Rolodex? Like, I have weird people in this phone of mine. Like, it's like so random from like professional athletes to, oh, you need a magician for your party. Sure. I have one of those too. And like, there's so many random connections that we have. Some of which occur as more glamorous other people than not, but mm-hmm. You know, when you look at everyone that you've met and gotten to interact with, you have such a bounty of, of just possibilities and not just each of their stories, but, and how they can be a contribution to what you're creating.
Priya: Mm-hmm. And so, Kara, what do you say to someone when they're like, I've got these six, you know, I've got six trates of separation. You're, you're telling them that and they're like, great, I wanna talk to your magician friends. Like, how do you, what do you about, how do you tell people think about that and to talk with others about that?
Kara: [00:34:00] You know, I, I tell all of my clients that if there's someone that I know that they wanna talk to, ask me, and if I think it's appropriate, I'll just introduce you. Text, email, have meet you both for coffee, lunch, like. I, I'm not a gatekeeper of the people I know because I am much more protective of who's allowed in. So once you're allowed in, I'm not worried about you messing up my other people and connections. Um, another technique I think people don't use is we're not using LinkedIn or Instagram, these social media platforms enough.
Kara: Mm-hmm. A really simple LinkedIn technique is, if you wanna talk to this, like Sarah Blakely, the CEO of, Spanx.
Priya: Spanx, yeah.
Kara: You know, mixing up all of our undergarments, but like, go on to LinkedIn and connect with as many people at Spanx as you can and then don't go asking to talk to Sarah talk, go pick the next closest executive. Because when they look at you and they're like, who's this person? Like, oh wait, they know everyone at [00:35:00] Spanx.
Priya: That's right.
Kara: You might not know any of them, but they've all said yes to accept you so you look safe, you don't look like a crazy person, and suddenly there's a way in because they assume you're familiar because of these other relationships you may or may not have outside of this social media platform.
Kara: Um .
Priya: That I just have to say quick, like slow clap for that, Kara. That is like an impressive next level Jedi trick. Nice work. Yeah.
Kara: Well it it's true. It's like
Priya: technique. Technique, I'll call it technique. Yeah.
Kara: Technique. Yeah, yeah,
Priya: yeah.
Kara: Be because you know, any relationship professional, it, it's the same as dating. So you can't just cold reach out to, you can, sometimes it works, sometimes the universe has your back on some random outreaches, but more than likely you want it to be hot to warm. And so if you start working your six degrees of separation and moving one step closer each time. It's, it moves fast if you are authentic and have integrity, and [00:36:00] you're giving as much as you're getting from these moments. Um, every time I have someone, like on the podcast, like I know someone who knows Prince William and I know someone else who, um, is one degree away from Richard Branson and like, I'm, I'm tracking these in my head, partly because one of my trademarks is a ridiculous and extraordinary life. And it goes into that ridiculous side, like, who can I have dinner with that I never would've thought was possible just by showing up and being a yes. And so kind of tracking some of these six degrees of separation is so fun because like I'm one degree away from Adele. Like there's stupid, like we don't realize how close we are to people that we admire and or are famous because I also know from working with many. Famous, especially on the athlete side, they're not, you don't wanna have dinner with them. They're, they're, mm-hmm. They're less interesting than who your neighbor might be sometimes.
Priya: Mm-hmm.
Kara: Not all of them. [00:37:00] There are many who are incredible, but I, there's a lot of people who get a lot of attention that you can only talk to for five minutes versus five hours, but I prefer the five hour people.
Priya: So when I'm listening to you, I like can tell that you are in your zone of genius. This is like where you live and where you light up and where your heart is. And so I would love to know like, where did that come from for you? Where did you start learning some of those lessons? How did these values of connection, of empowering others come from in your life? And I, you know, we, I'm curious about your backstory. Your parents, what were they like?
Kara: Uh, well, um, we moved a lot, so I was constantly meeting new people and having to like find my place in new spaces. I also realized, um, starting this podcast a couple years ago that my heroes when I was a kid were all fictional female entrepreneurs who were way too young to have the jobs. They had, [00:38:00] like Nancy Drew Babysitters Club, gem in the holograms. Like to me it was like, of course you can be 16 and have a business and travel the world, like duh. And then I got older and I was like, that is actually very weird. Um, that is not reality. Um, but like I started having businesses at nine 'cause I was reading about these other people who were so, it never crossed my mind that that would be strange behavior. Mm-hmm. Um, I've always been obsessed with creative people taking on their own creative path in life. I used to have, you know. People and power couples like past it on my closet door in high school that I'm using them as a north star. I don't really know where that's going. I've always been very future building, creating.
Priya: Mm-hmm.
Kara: Um, I never thought I would work for other companies. I was a, my MBA is in entrepreneurship and when I did work in the corporate spaces, I was working in fashion, [00:39:00] streetwear, skateboarding. I got to travel the world. I got to work with, again, people that I'm like, I, in theory, I have no business being at this table, but actually I have all the business being at this table. And it gave me exposure to like seeing behind the curtain in a way that empowered me to realize a lot of these leaders have no idea what they're doing. A lot of these people who are experts
Priya: Yeah.
Kara: Have an expertise that's like one inches, not like. You know, we can't fill a room 'cause they're so focused in their area. And it empowered me to go, oh, this whole other world that I would say the average person thinks accessible is actually so close. So why are we not like breaking down every barrier and door to. Be the one who we want to read the story about. Versus consuming everyone else's stories. And then when I moved from Germany to California, I was [00:40:00] really missing my group of people there. I had really found my people I was working for puma Aidas is based in the same small village. Uh, so on paper you had all these people who were very similar from all over the world. We were all, uh, driven type A, like creative, but analytical could create things from nothing.
Kara: Knew how to get things done, also knew how to have a lot of fun at the same time.
CLIP: Yeah.
Kara: And it, like, we were also very young. Like I remember going to Asia on some work trips and we'd be in these fancy hotels. We would be looking like we belonged in college 'cause we're all in jeans and t-shirts and who knows what else. And we're sitting next to all these people in suits and I'm like. They have no idea that we are running hundreds of millions of dollars for these companies because no one would respect us based on what we look like. Yeah. And it was just, there were a lot of these moments that were very empowering. That based on the, I think [00:41:00] perspective I was born with, I saw them as leapfrog moments of what's possible. , And so when I came here and I missed that group of people and I was hungry for that, I started inviting women to host what we were calling the One Day of Giving. That's how powerful Lady started. All women I know want to give back more, have more social time, uh, be connected. And so we'd ask them to host something, have people donate. It could be dinner at your house, like you could organize something bigger and we'd pull the money and give it to women organizations in the world. And I would call women and they would say, love this idea, but I'm not powerful. Mm. And I was losing my mind 'cause I was like, no, I've already knighted you like
Priya: mm-hmm.
Kara: You don't get to choose. Yeah. It's already been chosen for you.
Priya: Yeah.
Kara: And it was shocking to me seeing that so many women believe that we're not powerful until we've, like, we're cooked essentially. Yeah. We're not powerful to we Oprah or Taylor Swift. Or Amal Clooney. And it's like, [00:42:00] guys, like we are underestimating our capabilities and the impact we're having right now. And so this whole, both on the, the business side of coaching and then also in this space, it's all about giving people permission to take their power now and not wait. And like we tolerate so much nonsense on a daily basis that's making our story less interesting to us, let alone other people. So how can I help people be empowered and share their stories and inspire others? Just play, like play the different game. We don't need to play the game that we're told we have access to. We don't have to. . So what do you want? Like why are we waiting? Let's go now. I don't care about the dishes and the laundry that like we can hire someone to do that. Let it go. But this breaking free of what we've accepted versus what we have access to mm-hmm. [00:43:00] Is where I spend most of my time thinking.
Priya: I have so many things I wanna say, like, we need a day to talk, we just need to like go find a cabin and sit and talk. Um, but one thing that comes to mind first is a quote that has really been mo motivating me lately. And it was actually someone else's original, but it was added to by this woman named Grace Hopper. And she was a rear admiral in the Navy and she was one of the first people, not just women, but first people to start building the basics for computers. Yeah. Like she is the reason we have the computer system that we have today. Very few people know about her and she is just such a batty, like, I just love this woman. And she said, um, adding on to another quote, um, ships in the harbor are safe, but that's not what ships are for. Sail out to see and do new things. Mm-hmm. And it came to me, that [00:44:00] particular quote, three times in a week.
Priya: Once, um, I think in, you know, a magazine I was flipping through once in a fortune cookie, and then once my brother and I were having breakfast together and he had some sort of a pop top drink and it was on the bottom of the bottle cap. And I'm like, that has spoken to me, me every time. Right. Three times.
Priya: Three times I got that. And it's just been like, I'm, I'm owning that so much because that is the feeling that when you, there are so many options to have a safe life. Mm-hmm. There really are like, you can find a safe job and a safe family or a safe, you know, and you want, you want safety. You don't necessarily want to like constantly feel like you don't have a base of safety. I'm not saying that, but at this point in the venture that I'm in, I feel like, okay, I'm, I'm in harbor. I'm provisioning my ship and we're getting ready to set sail. And there are times you need to come into harbor. You need to like reset yourself to, to build yourself back up, to fix the [00:45:00] mass, to, you know, take in the provisions that you need to keep going or to come back and trade on shore.
Priya: I don't know, I don't know where the metaphor goes, how far we go to that metaphor, but that concept of being able to let go of safety and move into uncertainty, and feeling like it's okay and even if it's tough out there, it's gonna be okay. And that, that is where the adventures are to be found.
Priya: That is where the joy and the fulfillment of your life, in many ways is gonna be found. And it feels like that message that you have to tell people like. Go on. Like come on, just go ahead and start, girl. Like get it out there and recognize that you have that power. And I do think there's something really special.
Priya: I feel like we had some mirror opportunities in our early, in our twenties. Mm-hmm. You know, where you're in these places that you have always thought that people who are going to be in those positions know so much and are so powerful. Yes. And then suddenly you're talking to those people, or you're stepping into it yourself and you're recognizing that you [00:46:00] have the same smarts, you have the same ability.
Priya: They may have more experience, they may have started out with more money, but that doesn't mean you can't get there.
Kara: Mm-hmm.
Priya: And so it really does take down the veil of what's possible and make you realize that you can get wherever you need to go in life, wherever you want to go. It's really is about setting your desire for where you would like to be next.
Priya: And having some intentionality around that. Mm-hmm. About what the life is you wanna create and then building the plan to, to step into that. Um, so I so appreciate everything you're doing and that you're saying and, and that you're working towards with women. Because honestly, this is an issue for all of us.
Priya: The fact that we feel powerless so often, and. Some of that is systemic. I do not wanna deny that. There is certainly, you know, one of the issues that is really near and dear to my heart is the issue of venture capital investing. Yes. And when you look at investments for women, we are at 2% of all venture capital investing for women-led companies.
Priya: That number has dropped in recent years. Um, but it was at 2% for ages. [00:47:00] And the rest of the venture capital, you know, is either going a little bit to co-led teams, women and men, or really like more than 80% of it is going to male only founding teams. Mm-hmm. And then when you step back and look at the ecosystem, well only 5% of all new businesses that are started or started by women alone.
Priya: So there are systemic issues there, but we also don't need to buy into all of that because there's so much opportunity if we're willing to step into it. And to find ways to like break our patterns.
Kara: There's so much. And, and the, the female founded businesses who are given venture capital have a four x return versus all of their male competitors.
Priya: That's right.
Kara: And um, there's a documentary that's been going around called Show Her the Money.
Priya: I just was involved in that here in Sacramento. I love that helped Catherine Ga Gray together here. Yeah. Yeah.
Kara: So good. So good. So, um, but I'm watching that documentary and I'm also watching like how people are spending their money and I'm like, okay, second step, we need to give women money and then we need every female founder to [00:48:00] have. Coaches and to have things because I'm sitting here sweating in my seat, being like, I would not buy that. Don't do that. No.
Priya: How I would spend it. Right. Poor choice. Poor choice. But yeah. But all of that, the education and then some of it's like you don't know until you know. Right. So founders often your first venture is not the thing that necessarily takes off.
Priya: You try, you learn, you iterate, you keep going, you adjust as time goes on. But all of that takes a certain amount of confidence to know that you can, and also a certain amount of capital, whether it's resource, capital, really financial capital, you have to have something built in the bank a little bit as you go forward with these things to be able to take on those risks. It's not, you know, it's not easy otherwise. 'cause we do have like kids and dishes and like all of that other stuff. Mm-hmm. That's still, they're calling for you.
Kara: And, and even I would say, um. Like bravery, capital, because yes, there are so many moments as an entrepreneur where it [00:49:00] does not make sense. You cannot make the spreadsheet make logical sense based on what you know you need to do and you just have to do it. And when people talk about faking it to and making it, I'm like, we don't pretend that we have skills capability, but we fake how brave we're feeling. In those moments sometimes because. I'm sure the first time that you were on camera you were like, oh no. Okay. Just jump.
Priya: That's right. That's exactly right. Okay, so I'll tell you two stories. One is about that first time I was on camera live. I've done, I had done some others, but the first time I had a live shot, I was in Birmingham, Alabama at that, it wasn't a tiny station, Birmingham's Market 40, it's a big market. Markets go all the way to like 200 and something, you know.
Priya: Um, but for NBC, it was a small station. So I'm on that, I'm on that, uh, rotation. I'm doing my very first live shot as a reporter. They put me on like the Friday noon show to do a story about preparing your garden for the winter, the really hard hitting news here, right? [00:50:00] And so I go in, I interview this gardener.
Priya: We put together a story that's gonna run in between my on-camera live and my outro live. And somewhere in that, I say, now, if you're a vegetable garden, you should be making sure, blah, blah, blah. I meant gardener, but I said garden. And I finally get through the whole thing and I'm so overwhelmed. There's so much like, you know, adrenaline that is rushing to my head that all that happens.
Priya: The minute the camera turns off, I literally like fall to the ground with the microphone still in my hand because I was so like, overcome. And then all I wanted was a burger. Like my brain was just, I think eat, eat, eat. So I didn't do it right. I didn't do it cleanly. I'm sure it wasn't a great story, but I, and I was super scared, but I did it right.
Priya: I, I got through that moment. . And then story number two is fast forwarding, many years later, I've gone through being a network news correspondent, local news anchor, network news correspondent, come back to San Francisco. [00:51:00] Started my own production company. 'Cause I didn't wanna travel like crazy once I had the kids. Sold it. Successful exit in Silicon Valley terms. You know, I didn't make a ton, but I made some money off of it and then went to the Golden Gate Bridge to be their spokesperson, which was like a calm, stable job while my kids were little, uh, for several years.
Priya: And then news came calling. I went back into news. So I'm at this point working for, um, the PBS affiliate in San Francisco, anchoring a California news and politics show for them. And my friend, not even a close friend, I'd say acquaintance, her name is Heather Knight. She was a long time reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, our hometown newspaper.
Priya: So Heather and I knew each other, other a little bit, and she got a promotion, got a new job, um, to be the New York Times correspondent for San Francisco. It's a big step, right? Going from your local paper to the national paper and such a national paper of record going to New York Times. And I talked to her and said, you know, I called her.
Priya: [00:52:00] Congratulations. So excited for you. What are we doing? You know, is there a party? What's happening? And she was like, oh no. You know, there's nothing like that. And it took me back to when I went to CBS as a correspondent, and I was so excited about doing it. And I got there and my hiring manager didn't even know I'd been hired.
Priya: They didn't have an office for me. They didn't have a computer. When they finally found an office, it was in like some little, it felt like a closet. There was no window. And I was working and working all the time. There was no like celebrating or feting. It was just like, here you are, you do the thing. I didn't feel powerful.
Priya: I didn't feel big. I just felt like I had just been slotted into this thing and it had been a dream for a really long time. So Heather, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna throw you a thing because this is not the way this should happen. And I did it with women only because it felt like that's who I wanted supporting Heather in this moment.
Priya: And we, I gathered, um, about 40 women who are all very powerful journalists in San Francisco and Northern California. And I [00:53:00] had them all bring a quote to put on a board to give to Heather at the end of the night. And what was so incredible to me was that one of the quotes on there said, do it messy, do it scared. And then my name Priya Clemens as the person. So somebody came in and quoted me from an interview I had done with Seismic Sisters that they had seen. That truly is much of my mantra, like, do it messy, do it scared, it's that bravery. You know, capital that you were mentioning that we need to have in order to step into these moments.
Priya: And even that like. First gathering. Um, it ended up being lovely. The restaurant donated their, I mean, it was like this beautiful, high end, gorgeous, incredible night. All of the women were like, can we keep doing this? We wanna keep putting things together for people, but celebrating women, empowering women yourself, feeling scared, doing it, messy doing it anyway.
Priya: All of these pieces come together to build a powerful life. I think, I think that's what I'm trying to say, is that like, you have to act for yourself and you have to act for [00:54:00] your community to feel powerful, to feel like that, uh, you are having impact and agency in this world.
Kara: Well, it's a great segue to our, the question we always ask, which is, where do you put yourself on the powerful lady scale?
Kara: Mm-hmm. Um, we have zero as average everyday human, and 10 as the most powerful lady you can imagine. Where would you rank yourself today and on an average day?
Priya: I do think I'm more powerful than the average human. I think that I have built that over time, um, both in the confidence for myself and the bias towards action.
Priya: And in my Rolodex over time. Um, I am not where I want to be, so I'm on the path to, towards becoming a more powerful person and stepping into, uh, my own. Hmm. I don't wanna just repeat power again, but stepping into confidence, stepping into movement forward towards the goals that I have set for [00:55:00] myself, um, and towards recognizing the moments in which I don't step forward.
Priya: I think that that has also been important for me to not just excuse those away and say, oh, well, you know. I couldn't work out today because I had the kid was sick or because, um, or I didn't speak up when this person said something because, well, that wasn't the right moment. All right, well then what is the right moment?
Priya: If that's your excuse, where are you going to take it? And how are you going to step forward? And I love the quote that everything you want in life is on the other side of a hard conversation because it's so true. There's so many things we shy away from, um, because we're worried about what could come from it.
Priya: And yet we know that we're never going to grow unless we're able to go and face that dragon, slay that dragon and keep moving. And the confidence comes in, like going into the battlefield. And even if you don't splay that dragon the first time, did you live, did, did you die? Did the thing you [00:56:00] tried, did, did you actually die from it?
Priya: No, you didn't die. You're still alive. Alright, let's go try that again. Maybe we get some better tools. Maybe we get some resources before we go out there and we get a sword. We're not going out there bare handed next time to slay that dragon. The, the work of trying is where the confidence is built is where the power is built.
Priya: Mm-hmm. You don't feel confident and then take action. You take action and you build confidence and power through the taking of action. Where do I sit on the scale? I mean, I feel like, um, it's a little bit of a gim to be like, I'm a five, I'm right in the middle. But let me say that I'm like, um, from where I am to where I wanna be, I feel like I'm sorted in this like four or five, moving to six is where I'm sort of like moving towards.
Kara: Perfect. Mm-hmm. Um, this is also a connected, powerful community that likes to contribute and, uh, pay things forward. What is on your wishlist to-do list, manifest list that you wanna put up to this group? How [00:57:00] can we help?
Priya: Thank you. I appreciate that. I am looking for families to serve. I really want to help families capture their stories. So for the people who have been out there thinking, man, I have a great family story. My mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, whoever it is, um, contact me and let me see if we can help you put, bring that story to life and capture it. I am also open to legacy corporate stories as long as there is a personal element in there and there's a personal story that goes along with that, which for most of us, whoever starts the business then runs it. There are reasons that we do it that are personal, that, you know, get you going. Yeah.
Kara: Well, it has been such a pleasure to speak to you today. As you said earlier, we could talk for weeks. So, um, I look forward to getting to know you better. Um, but for everybody who is a yes to you, their family has to record with you. They just wanna be in your circle. How can they find, follow and support you?
Priya: I'd say LinkedIn is the easiest. Priya David Clemens, uh, C-L-E-M-E-N-S. [00:58:00] Um, although Priya is maybe the one I should be spelling, P-R-I-Y-A, David Clemens. And our website will be up next week. Keepsake studios.com. We have the most fun trailer and this beautiful little love story that's like four and a half minutes long that you're gonna have so much fun. So when you need just like a little mental break after next week, go online and check that out. 'cause it's gonna be just like, it'll bring a smile to your day.
Kara: I love that. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be a guest to me and powerful ladies, and share your story. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you,
Priya: Kara. Truly, this has been, the highlight of my day and I didn't know what to expect when I was coming on, and I just feel like I've met a new friend and champion and I'm so grateful for this conversation. It's really touched my heart. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe. Leave us a review or share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com. We can find all the links To connect with today's guest show [00:59:00] notes, discover like episodes, enjoy bonus content and more.
Speaker 2: We'll be back next week with a brand new episode and new amazing guest. Make sure you're following us on Instagram or Substack at Powerful ladies. To get the first preview of next week's episode, you can find me and all my socials @karaduffy.com. This is a Powerful Ladies production produced by Jordan Duffy and Amanda Kass.
Speaker 2: Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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