Reality Reels & Milwaukee Feels (Hour 1)

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Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay, this is Night Light with Pete Chwabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who wants planted evidence so he could make a citizen's arrest.

Pete Schwabba.

You know, he would do

that, wouldn't he?

He's so Pete.

It's so Pete.

Welcome to the weekend and another great night light tonight.

Live from the City Deck in Green Bay is producer Conrad and my name is Aaron Coreno, filling in for Pete Schwabba along with my good friend and

Station manager of WMDX, our sister station in Madison, Catherine Lake.

How are you?

And that's where we are sitting in Madison.

Can you believe it?

The power of technology.

The power of technology.

We got people everywhere.

We can do this show everywhere.

Conrad,

how are you doing, man?

I'm doing fantastic.

I would love to be there because as I've been watching and listening to Pete's show over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a trend here.

What?

People are coming up to the window.

Oh.

of the studios at WGBW in Green Bay, and they're waving to Pete.

Yeah.

I think we have to get a Polaroid and start taking pictures of everybody.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Like, what if Jordan Love is just randomly walking down the street, and then we get a picture of him and we can add him to the wall?

So this is on you, Conrad.

You got to make this happen.

They do this.

They did this with this.

Street Station WGN in Chicago for a long time was on Michigan Avenue.

Now it's condos and they're at the 18th floor of Wacker Drive.

But they had a microphone outside the window.

So when they had people come by, like Steve Cochran would have them open the show for him.

But that'd be fun.

Just a person on the street.

Oh, there you are.

OK, stand right there.

Could be dangerous

though.

That's why you have a dump button.

That's why I have a button that tells people you're not on the air anymore.

Well, it's so great to be here.

I love feeling it for Pete.

You know, Pete said, hey, you want to do the show, I'm going to be taking a couple of days off.

I said, well, I'd like to do the show live with Conrad up in Green Bay.

But this is fine.

Yeah.

And then Pete's like, well.

I'm going to be off another day.

I'm like, well, I can only commit to one.

Yeah.

We're going to do the Friday night show because I feel like there's less damage that can be done as we head into the weekend.

Really?

Who's

listening?

The phone

lines are open 855-752-4842.

That's 855-752-CIVIC.

And you can watch on StreamYard.

We're on Facebook.

You

can find

us on X in Blue Sky.

And you can always text us and text into the show tonight.

through the free Civic Media app.

If you don't have that app yet, get it downloaded on your smart devices.

You can listen on demand anytime to this show and all of the other great content, wherever you are, whether it's the bonfire with friends at home, anytime, anywhere.

This would be a nice night for a bonfire.

It's going to get down into the 60s, I think.

I know.

It's going to be beautiful.

I can't wait.

I don't know if I can.

I can wait a little bit.

Not

ready

for fall?

I'm trying to preserve what's left of summer because

After all of these years, years, I still feel that anxiety when I start seeing the back to school messaging.

Oh my gosh, anxiety, not excitement.

Oh, not excitement whatsoever.

I still feel excited.

I want to take my kid back to school shopping.

I love the fall for that.

You are one of those.

Yeah, I'm one of

those.

Let's talk to somebody though who's a little bit.

less removed from the school.

Conrad, do you get the heebie-jeebies like I do when you get ready to go back to school or no?

Yeah, I'm when you're

thinking back to school.

I'm about two and a half years out from college now.

And every, every time summer ends, I'm like, oh, I got to go to class again.

Wait, no, I don't.

Yeah.

So it's, it's a little, yeah, like, like you said, I have a little anxiety towards it, but I got to get used to not being in college anymore.

You guys are smart people.

You should never have anxiety.

My goodness.

I bet you were great in school, Conrad.

Have you had the dreams about it yet, though, where you wake up and you didn't finish the test or

the homework?

You can't find the rope.

You've had those.

Those inadequacy dreams.

Wait till you have the ones that are about the radio.

Once you get a professional life going after 10 years or so, those high school ones are going to be replaced by, oh, I can't turn the mic on.

There's too many people in my studio.

Where are the CDs?

I feel like we've all, in our respective professions, especially if you're listening right now and you work in the service industry, because I was a server for a long time.

And I'm from Plymouth, Wisconsin, and I worked at a restaurant, a steakhouse, but I bartend from time to time.

And I'd have dreams that I couldn't keep up.

The tables, I was being sat,

the drinks

were overflowing, the food was coming out, they're screaming my name, I couldn't get it done anyway.

Yeah.

And you're a bit of a perfectionist, probably, like I am.

So that's the anxiety right there is just not getting it right.

My

shoes are lined up outside of the door of my home.

So you can tell me.

We've got a great show tonight.

Let's get to some of our guests tonight.

Coming up at 6.35 is a dear friend in...

such a fan of the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

His name is Jay Matt.

He's a Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator.

I've known Jay Matt for years.

He's doing radio.

He has mastered social media and helps others grow their social media following.

He is also a mental health advocate.

So we're going to be talking with him coming up at 635 and then it is a bar band.

Friday night Terry bar who you just heard on with Maggie earlier is going to be joining the show a little bit later at 7 35 talking about the latest artists in

music all throughout Wisconsin, and she's just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the local music scene.

She's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to broadcasting, too.

She's on all of our stations at one time or another.

She does news for us.

She does those wonderful slices of Wisconsin.

I just can't wait to chat with her about music.

That's a passion of hers.

She's on Max Inc Radio, too.

She is on our station here in Madison every Saturday night.

We were joking before we got on the show today.

We're like, what has Terry not accomplished in her career?

Has she been to the moon?

Yeah, I think she probably

is.

She an astronaut?

I think she has.

Okay,

all right.

Again, the phone lines open 855-752-4842.

Producer Conrad will take your calls, text in through the Civic Media app.

We've got to get to tonight's question of

the night.

Oh, that's right.

Pete always does a question.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

All right, so your question of the night tonight and text this in through the civic media app We're talking about reality TV because Conrad was asking me in preparation for filling in for Pete tonight He's like what shows you're watching what movies you're watching Pete's asking me that too My response is I don't watch a lot of movies and I'm terrible I'm actually probably the worst person to fill in on the show because I don't watch a lot of movies But I love reality TV.

Oh, you do.

I love reality TV short

It's quick.

It can disassociate from the work day and all

the

stressful stuff.

And

so

I'm a huge fan of one particular show.

I'm going to get into that in a minute.

But tonight's question of the night is what is your all time favorite reality TV show current past streaming over the air?

What is it?

Text that in and we're going to read some of these.

I can guarantee you.

We're going to be going back into the archives when we look at the text coming in on this question.

Oh, no doubt.

My favorite reality TV show of all time is one that I'm finally catching up on because life gets busy.

Yes.

I've always loved Big Brother.

You did.

Oh, that's funny.

And that's the makeup after real world, right?

Big Brother is real world world.

Yeah, I mean, it's on its 27th season and Julie Chen Moonves is truly fabulous.

the host to the show.

I mean,

she is integral to the show.

But I've always wanted to be on the show.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot of work.

You've got to really put together a package that impresses those producers.

I've always wanted to be on Big Brother because I always wonder, would I be the first person out?

Or

the

second person out of the house.

I don't think I ever watched Big Brother.

Is it the same concept of a survivor without all the physical

beats?

Sort of.

I mean, there's challenges.

You can earn the power of veto.

It's evolved as the show has moved on.

Sure.

But ultimately, you want to be the final two people in the house at the very end of the season.

About 90 days, you're in this house.

It's a huge house and

they have a yard.

There's

cameras watching you everywhere from when you're getting ready for the day, the bathroom.

I mean, there's no privacy in this house.

And then they have the live stream, much like our stream yard, there's no privacy.

You can see everything in the studio.

But I just think it's been, it's fun seeing what happens when you bring a bunch of strangers into a room and you see how they all engage and then how the division starts to form.

I find it to be fun.

What about you?

Are they more actors in these things, do you think?

No.

Actor wannabes?

No.

I mean, I wanted to do Survivor.

I wanted to do Survivor.

I was working out at the time.

And it was so long ago, my goodness.

When did that start?

20 years ago, at least?

I think Richard Hatch was the first winner,

right?

Yes, he was.

Yes.

And he was so manipulative and so brilliant at it.

He set the tone for, oh, you have to lie.

Well, of course you have to lie.

You weren't going to say naked and afraid.

I thought maybe that would be the

other thing you did.

Yeah, set that up too.

Producer Conrad, what about you, a reality TV show?

What you got for us, man?

Well, I mean, as many know, I'm a huge sports fan.

So I love watching hard knocks every single season that they produce.

It's they do a different team every year.

And it's also they do preseason for a team.

They do, you know, in the midseason and even in the offseason.

It's it's so fun to watch how.

football teams operate during those times.

That's where they follow the teams around.

Yep.

They did that last year for the New York Jets, right?

Yes.

And they followed Aaron Rodgers and everybody else, right?

Yep.

So our own Mike Clemens might have been on this show without knowing it, right?

On the background or something.

They haven't done a Packers one yet.

And I'm still

hoping that they will do that.

OK.

Next year.

But

hopefully if Jordan if Jordan's listening.

And he happens to walk by the window at the WGPW studio.

Maybe that's how we, maybe this is how we get it started.

Is his hand better yet, by the way?

He's practicing.

He's practicing.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Anyway, we'll get to some sports coming up a little bit later in the show.

So we want to break down some of the, the, the really big things happening, especially with the, the Brewers and Packers.

But, uh, today is.

James Corden's 47th birthday.

I love James.

I'm so sorry I had to leave the country and go home and give up his show.

It was a good show.

It was

a really carpool karaoke.

It was the

funniest thing ever.

Brilliant.

Who he got to do that with.

I mean, he must have lived every dream he's ever had with who he got to sing with.

It's pretty awesome stuff.

Kristen Wiig 52 today.

Only 52?

Yeah.

Oh,

I guess I did.

Yeah, okay.

Favorite Kristen Wiig movie?

It's just, oh my god, when she was sick and she had to have a mint in

Bridesmaid's

page.

No, as a matter of fact, I need a snack.

Just hilarious.

It's also National Eat A Peach Day.

It is World Plant Day.

I'm not a plant daddy.

I don't have plants all

over the home.

I can't handle it.

Really?

I can't keep them alive.

Oh, no.

It's

not my thing.

Yeah, I got a little green thumb.

Not on the inside, the ground.

I like pots.

I can

do

pots anytime.

And I had a peach today.

I'm just saying.

Therapeutic to plant, too.

Yes.

Gardening and

all

that.

Oh, yeah.

It's a National Bao Day.

I think I said that right.

What

the heck is

that?

The, um, the, the, the dumplings.

Oh, those are so, right?

Yeah.

They say that right?

Am I saying that right?

I don't

know if you're, I don't know if you're saying it right, but I know what you mean now.

And those are fantastic.

How do you spell Bao?

BAO?

BAO.

Okay.

So it's a Japanese thing or what is it?

Chinese, I believe.

Chinese.

Anyway.

Okay,

I don't know who comes up.

There's the steam buns rather.

Sorry steam to the steam buns.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I clearly haven't had enough of them either.

I don't know who comes up with these national days.

I read these on the airs from time to time.

I'm like, who comes up with that stuff?

I cannot imagine somebody who needs a hobby.

Apparently.

Question of the night.

Once again, what is your all time favorite reality TV show current past streaming or over the air?

We're going to read those texts and get to your responses here coming up as we go throughout the night tonight.

Big Friday show planned J Matt Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator joining us at 6 35.

And of course later tonight at 7 35 Terry bar for another bar band.

Friday.

You've done this before, haven't you, Aaron?

You're good at this.

You're ready to take the show over.

You've

read the script here.

Heck with Pete.

Phone line open 855-752-4842.

It is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba, Aaron Coreno, filling in with Catherine Lake.

We'll catch you here in just a moment.

Just a

moment.

It's the Civic Media Radio

Network.

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to Nightlight with Peach Shwaba statewide and live from the City of Atlantic Studios at WGBW in Green Bay, where producer Conrad is, and right here, live across State Street at the WMDX Studios here in Madison.

It's Aaron Coreno.

That is me filling in for Pete, along with Catherine Lake, who has graciously joined me.

So I'm not alone here.

Just

talking to yourself.

The building is empty now, and WMDX, Conrad, you're alone too in Green Bay, right?

Oh my gosh, technology, it's amazing.

You're never really alone though,

Conrad.

No, that's true.

We're

connected.

Yes.

We're connected through Striga.

Anyway, question of the night tonight, what is your all-time favorite reality TV show?

I'm encouraging you to text in through the Civic Media app.

Open up the app find any one of those first stations our new stock stations and and use that text button at the bottom of your screen and text it in what are you?

Loving are you a survivor fan?

I was a survivor fanatic fanatic for a long time.

I probably got through Remarkably ten seasons and there's been on for like 30 now hasn't it seasons.

I don't even know

it's crazy

Yeah, I used to watch it all the time and then I got into big brother.

So that's my show

shifted

the challenge

What's the challenge?

Well, it was originally known as road rules.

That

was MTV.

Do you know there were 36 seasons of that?

36 seasons.

I wonder how long some of these current shows will go, right?

Yeah, I can't imagine.

I can't imagine.

Text it in with the Civic Media app, your favorite reality TV show of all time.

We did get a text from Mark in Prairie Sack.

He says, have you ever seen the Pixar short bow?

referring to national body.

I don't think I still don't think I'm saying that right, but

I'm sure you are.

He said it was quite sweet.

Okay.

Well, anything by Pixar is sweet.

Thanks,

Mark.

Appreciate that text.

Anything by Pixar is great.

Our guests coming up a little bit later, 635.

We're going to be speaking with Jay Matt, who is a Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator.

He's also a champion for mental health advocacy.

So we're going to be speaking with Jay Matt at 635.

Really excited to talk to him.

He has built

a following on TikTok, over 150,000 followers.

And now he'll get into what he specifically showcases, but he's just brilliant.

He's one of those people who masters something brand new.

He sees something that's new and can master it.

And then he teaches other people

how to be

great content creators.

There's a secret to that.

So he's technologically advanced, right?

For that reason.

And he understands how to stitch and do all the things you do with the tic-tac, like my daughter.

Brilliant at it.

I don't have any of those skills.

Does she ever go to you and say, mom, you gotta do it like this?

I don't ask her.

I don't ask her and she doesn't offer it up.

She's very busy doing it by herself.

She has, yeah, she's brilliant.

So I get to, I start like.

I haven't had to create a lot of that stuff because I work here at Civic Media in a different capacity, I'm more behind the scenes.

But I will look, so my partner looks at me, he's like, how do you not know how to do that?

Is where I'm at?

And I've reached that point in my social media proficiency where I just...

I don't know how to do stuff anymore.

I

composed and that's it.

I did one TikTok that surprised me.

I just woke up and went right to the couch one Sunday morning and was just determined to just veg for a little bit.

And there was some audio.

I can't even remember what it was.

And so I did what they do.

Some people do.

You play somebody else's audio and you just react.

And so that's up there somewhere in the ether.

Just me blank face.

Reacting.

No makeup.

Just going, yeah.

What?

You're living.

You're just living.

Just living the, you know, it was very weird.

Conrad, what do they call that when you're watching mindless videos?

They call it, there's a term for

it.

Yeah, it's, it's doom-scrolling.

Doom-scrolling.

Well,

doom-scrolling, and I think it's called like, it's the kind of videos that are created that have no purpose of just people dancing or something like

that.

What are those called?

That's, I don't know.

I feel like there's a, there's a, it's like.

I don't know.

If you know what I'm talking about, text

it

in through the Civic Media app.

There's a certain term for these little like, they're like 10 to 15 second videos that people put together and they're just doing a dance or there's no point to watching them.

Well, that's what started during the pandemic, right?

People creating this stuff.

I'll be interested to talk with your jamad about the pandemic being the birth of incredible lots of content, right?

It

really was.

It really was.

So Jay Matt's coming up, and then a little bit later tonight, Terry Barr is joining us at 735 for a bar band Friday.

She's going to break down, she's breaking down all of the latest in the music scene, which is huge.

The

local music scene around the state is just

enormous.

Oh, it's extraordinarily creative here.

It's one of the reasons I really wanted to come back from Chicago.

Chicago's lovely, but this scene here in Madison in particular for me and Wisconsin in general as well, really creative people.

It's because winter.

That's why you're going to be home writing songs.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, we're looking forward to she introduces us to new music and that's the best part of it.

Yeah.

She's always on and thankfully we have a platform here at Civic Media where we are able to put artists on the radio and get their music and get their right,

you

know, get their message across.

So that's really exciting

stuff.

Pete and with Max Singh that Terry is also part of here in WMDX.

Maxing radio, great

stuff.

Maxing

radio.

Here on WMDX.

So a big show coming up tonight, welcoming again your text through the Civic Media app.

You want to call producer Conrad and join in on any of the conversations.

You could do that.

If you're on StreamYard right now, you can see the number at the bottom of your screen and Facebook or wherever you're watching from.

And you just give us a buzz at 855-752-4842.

Our question of the night once again,

What is your all-time favorite reality TV show current past streaming or over the air Conrad?

What was yours again?

Mine was Hard Knocks and it's any version

of Hard Knocks.

That's right.

Such a sports guy.

Such a sporty.

Such a sporty.

Well, we're going to talk sports also just after seven o'clock because this is a big weekend for the Milwaukee Brewers and not just because of the success they've had recently, but for something in particular that's coming up on Sunday.

And I want to talk about that.

and break that down a little bit more because it's an important day.

It's all on the way.

It's nightlife.

You care about sports.

Yeah.

Nightlight with Peach Wava, Aaron and Catherine filling in with producer Conrad across the Civic Media radio network.

night with Pete Schwabba.

My name is Aaron Correna filling in for Pete alongside me.

My friend and Pierre Catherine Lake, and if you're watching on stream yard right now, welcome.

We love to see you here from wherever you happen to be 8557524842 8557524842, which is civic.

case you need to see it on a phone.

It's 1995 or you can text in through the free civic media app.

Our question of the night tonight.

What is your all time favorite reality TV show current past streaming or over the air?

Conrad said hard knocks.

You Catherine said

survivor.

I said big brother on the stream yard comments.

Tony Zimmerman says the only reality show I watch is Love Island.

Love Island, don't know that one.

So many people like the ones, the sexy sexy.

I can't believe how many people like the matchup ones.

I like the competition one.

I do too.

He said his wife and him watch it because they want to decompress from the news and they really like the UK version because of the accent.

So I get the decompressing

from the news.

That's why

the show exists.

Yeah, yeah.

So.

Nancy from Madison also wrote in, she texted, this is an old one and only had one season looking for love, Bachelorettes in Alaska.

Okay, I'm in for that.

It was in 2002 five women from various cities come to Alaska to find a man They had dates and there were companions no competitions such as throwing frozen fish and eating some gross stuff like they did that on a Survival all the time at the end the women are in a wedding gown on an iceberg to see if the man they selected shows up It's cheesy, but it was really funny and good.

She thought it was right before bachelor again

Nothing is sexier than throwing a fish at my

nothing

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Wherever you are, wherever you are listening from, we are so excited to have Jay Matt, our guest tonight, our first guest tonight.

Jay Matt, a Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator, mental health advocate, a friend, a dear friend of mine who I've known for so many years.

Jay Matt, welcome to Nightlight.

How are you?

Pretty good.

Thanks for having me on your show.

What about you for reality TV?

Because I know you've got something for us.

Well, I'd go with either one, all the ones that have been mentioned are great, but I would go with the challenge on MTV.

Oh, the challenge.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

When did that start?

It had

to be

two

decades ago.

It's

been such

a long time.

Before the work, what's the number?

Race around the race around the American race.

Before Amazing Race.

Way before Amazing Race.

1998.

98.

98.

Wow.

There we go.

Yeah, I like the ones that are competitions.

Well, we'll have to get a reality TV pool or something like that.

There was a big brother pool that Jay Matt, you and I were in that at one point, right?

That's true.

Yeah, I think we did pretty well in that.

I think I might have won.

All right.

Well, humble brag.

Jay Matt.

You are a Milwaukee-based lifestyle content creator with over 180,000 followers on TikTok and growing.

For context, how did you get into mastering this platform when it first came out?

I worked for a different radio station in Milwaukee at the time, and I had to explore where Gen Z was.

And at the time, TikTok was coming up.

sometime in 2018 and I got a good footing there and it was starting to take off for me.

I think I had 25,000 followers before the pandemic.

Pandemic

happens and accelerates.

Anybody else besides you was on top of it because I think 2020 is when it really exploded, right?

Yeah.

So,

GMAT, you and I were working for that different radio company simultaneously across the hall and I remember you coming into the studio one day and you said,

Are you on this yet?

I was like, I don't know about that.

And you really take it in and run with it.

Talk about the content you highlight and why that kind of content.

Yeah, I do the focus on the city of Milwaukee nut.

the entire county because that's just so much to cover.

It really started in the pandemic that there were so many restaurants and businesses that were still open but hard to get that awareness out there.

There was a lot of like takeout food and it was trying to put the spotlight back on small businesses to support them to help them stay open longer or

indefinitely theoretically I

know that's

a hard thing to ask but

you

know uh just trying to support local and as things started to go back to the new normal if you will um it I had gotten a nice footing and I got a bunch of followers and a large audience that liked that sort of content so I was able to stick with it evolve it over time and it it served a purpose and I still think it serves a purpose

One of the things I love about your content is that it is so hyper-local, but it's always positive.

Everything you post is positive.

It's helpful.

It introduces people to new... I've been introduced to new restaurants and things going on in the city of Milwaukee just from watching your social media.

You do a great job of that.

Do you get a lot of inquiries of people who want you to shoot content for them?

I do, several times a week.

So it's just trying to figure out how to balance it all.

Like, it's a great problem they have, don't get me wrong.

But at the end of the day, it's still, it is a full-time job that I do, social media coaching, but I also will create content that is branded and sponsored.

But I have to be careful how much I take on, because I only have so much capacity, but I also don't wanna oversaturate my channel with a bunch of paid ads, because that never looks good either.

Right.

I want to talk a little bit and just a little bit about how you help other people out because I think that is something that is just brilliant.

One, because you're bringing people together, but you were such a good, you've taught me so much about creating quick short form videos.

How did you get good at it?

Was it just trial and error?

We talked with, you know, Catherine mentioned that her daughter's on it and it's easy.

It's like second nature.

She's putting her 10,000 hours by now.

I can't.

Figure a lot of it out.

So how do you get good at it?

And is it as simple am I overthinking this or or what?

Uh, you're probably overthinking it, but also, uh, I've been in social media, whether it was 10% of my first ever job or now it's pretty much all of it for 18 years.

So over the years of using my space and Facebook, when it first came up and vine and all the things.

If there's a new platform out, I'm taking a look at it and seeing how it functions.

Blue Sky and threads are out there now as the newer ones and they're getting some traction, but it's not the same style attraction that TikTok had in 2018.

So it's just staying active everywhere and seeing where it's going to lead.

And I work with a bunch of different brands.

So I get to test out a bunch of different ways to make content and see how the algorithm and how the platforms and features all kind of exist and how they interact.

Let me ask you a question.

Did you mention I was zoning and looking at a text.

Did you mention reels on Facebook just now?

I did not mention reels on Facebook, but

I don't like them as much.

I don't like reels as much as TikTok.

How can that be?

Why would the reels be less quality than TikTok in my opinion?

Because

you're right on that assumption.

Instagram stole short-form video the way it's done from TikTok.

Facebook owns Instagram and Facebook then came to the table after Instagram got some success, so it's an iteration of an iteration of TikTok.

Oh gosh, that's why.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they're just copying each other.

That's what you're really saying.

Pretty much.

For sure, for sure.

And it's not even like copying it.

Well, I would debatably say Instagram did a good job of copying it because it's successful, I would say.

But Facebook is just annoying with the real experience.

It's just not the high quality in it.

Look, and there's more and more fake stuff.

I'm hearing that Instagram is really being riddled with fake stuff.

Is that true?

You're finding that?

I mean, there's AI content, sure.

And I see plenty of it where it's entertainment based and it's not meant to be anything other than dry humor or entertainment where you see podcasts, but they are AI characters that are babies.

I'm on that side of the thing.

I find it amusing and entertaining.

I think when it's that sort of content, it is harmless.

theoretically, whereas if it's trying to impersonate or do a deep fake or claiming news, that's where it gets a little tricky and rocky.

I haven't fortunately seen a lot of that happen, but I'm sure that's what people assume when people hear fake content and AI

content.

Yeah.

Our guest tonight is Jay Mad.

He's a Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator, friend of mine going way back to when you used to live here in Madison.

And I've just loved watching you from afar.

Love what you've been able to do.

There's so many different facets to you that I want to get to some of those things when we come back from the break in a little bit.

But you're, I mentioned that you're really good at teaching and helping people.

You have, well, what one people can find you as it at J Matt MKE on sick talk.

That is correct.

I get that right.

J M A T T. Yeah.

And you have your own.

Social media I would call it meetup right once a month and talk more about that and what it means to help other content creators throughout southeastern Wisconsin and beyond

Yeah in 2017 I created an organization called hashtag MK the word hashtag and we met up to connect people that Create content on social media a lot of Instagrammers early on and it was an opportunity to create a

safe public space for people to meet that wanted to connect with other creators or social media marketers.

The first event we had four people, I loved it because the four people, including myself, that were there had great conversations for like two to three hours on social media related topics.

And that has since expanded and we still exist.

We're every second Thursday somewhere else in the city of Milwaukee.

And we just draw in content creators, influencers and other social media marketers.

free to attend.

It's all about just connecting people because it's hard to do content creation because a lot of it is teaching yourself and it's a lot easier if you can talk to somebody who's been doing it, whether it's for a while or just started a few months ago, it's just building community.

I've been to one of your hashtag MKE meetups and one, I love how you incorporate local businesses as places, you know, new businesses to host these events and some of the people

that I've met at your events are fascinating.

They're from all areas of life.

I mean, one guy was a racer.

I can't think of his name, but he was involved in like dirt bike racing or competitive racing.

There was a reporter from, I believe it was the Racine Journal Times who was at one.

And even Casey Cronus, is that, do I get that right?

Yep.

She's since gone to a different television station,

but yes.

Yeah.

So she was she was in Milwaukee for a while, but you really bring people together and you do an incredible job of it.

How has it transformed your life real quick?

We've got a couple of minutes to be able to take this knowledge.

You stepped away from full time employment at an established business and you went out on your own to be an entrepreneur.

How difficult was that?

I mean, it's still challenging.

It'll be challenging for the foreseeable future.

Being the sole source of where does your income come from is, it's a challenge no matter who's doing it and what your industry is in my opinion.

But it's very rewarding because I know there's just so many small businesses out there that need help on social media.

You can think of some of your favorite mom and pop shops and you would go to their social media and it just doesn't reflect

what you know them to be, whether it's a restaurant or a service in town that they just do a great job in the community, but are lacking on social media and I like helping those businesses.

Self-promotion is not easy.

There's an art to it.

Sure.

Fascinating.

It's fascinating and you've done such a great job of taking all that knowledge and turning it into your own business and your own brand.

We have a lot more to catch up with you, Jay Manon, including

some work that you do that impacts everybody, every one of us listening right now.

We're going to talk more about that next.

We are here with Jay Matt, the walkie-based lifestyle content creator.

It is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, Aaron Coreno and Catherine Lake filling in tonight as we kick off the weekend on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Thanks.

It's Aaron Correño filling in for Peach Waba and joining me here in the studios off State Street at our WMDX.

Uh, Newstalk Black Ship.

Here's Catherine.

We're the Black Ship Station Manager.

We are the big deal.

I'm glad to have you here.

It's nice to be able to talk with somebody producer Conrad behind the board live from the city deck in downtown Green Bay.

Glad to have you here as well.

855-752-CIVIC 855-752-4842.

Don't be shy.

You can always text us through the free Civic Media app with our question of the night tonight.

What is your all time favorite reality TV show current past?

streaming over the air.

We'll read off some more of those just after seven o'clock and also coming up after seven o'clock, 735 Terry Barr joining us for a bar band Friday night.

We're with J Matt right now in Milwaukee based lifestyle content creator, a friend of mine and a mental health advocate.

I'd like to get right into it.

Tell me more about

that and the challenge that you put out and more in the backstory as to why you feel it's important to help destigmatize mental health.

Yeah, I've been doing something called the 22 push-up challenge for a while currently on a break because I broke a rib, so little hard push-ups.

I got challenged in 2017 to participate and I did it for 22 days.

For those that don't know, the 22 push-up challenge exists to spread awareness of an older statistic of an average of 22 combat veterans that die by suicide each day.

Not a great statistic, it's a hard thing to talk about and hear about, really.

And it is something that I'm personally drawn to not as a veteran myself, but as somebody who has struggled with severe depression and suicidal ideation.

So I know the struggles that come with suicide.

I certainly don't know it from a veteran perspective, but nonetheless, it is a challenge to overcome.

And right now I'm good and I'm mentally healthy, but I've certainly had periods of time where I wasn't.

And I found this challenge to be an opportunity for me to confront it and have more ownership and control over the mental health conditions that I experience.

I think everybody's mental health is a snowflake.

It doesn't matter if it's a veteran kind of trauma or family trauma.

or a chemical imbalance.

They are all unique.

And your answers, it appears from what Aaron's saying, are good.

You're giving some people some peace somehow.

I'd like to hear more about that.

So the way I've been doing mental health advocacy is by participating daily.

And I've been doing it for

about nine years.

Once

I started, again, it's set up to be a 22-day thing, and I did it or have done it for nine-ish years.

I will get back into it when my rib is healed, but I'm currently on a break, and it's hard for me in the sense of I really do like being active with this.

relatively easy, I say, loosely challenged to be a part of, but it's that repetition, that consistency, because every day is a chance to interact with somebody new that may need that message.

And it's that continuation to show up hard to do with a physical injury, but that's the nature of what this challenge is.

Just being visible and just talking about it, just in the way you did in the last couple of minutes, makes the world.

of difference.

It

makes a world of difference.

I'm not going to get into my personal battles with mental health.

They were there.

It was very real, scary if I look back on it.

But knowing that there's people like you, Jay Matt, who are visible and who are comfortable sharing and talking about your personal battles and then also showing up and help another people out and raising awareness is just fantastic.

Keep keep that up and hopefully hopefully your rib heals quicker than

I've been close to getting back into it I'm like I don't want to rush it and like get another setback.

So I'm just trying to be patient

Is the challenge 22 push-ups, what is the actual challenge?

How does it work?

It's 22 push-ups a day for 22 days and each day you're supposed to nominate somebody new okay

And you've

done this challenge.

I mean, I've seen you do this challenge in the third ward.

You've done it in Brady Street.

You've done it from a Pfizer forum.

I think I helped film one of them for you at some point or another.

Just

about anywhere I'm about because, again, at the core of me, I'm a social media coach or a content creator.

I know that if I'm constantly in the same spot day after day, it gets boring.

So.

Part of that variety for me is being able to be in different locations and try different ways to do push-ups.

Before I broke my collarbone a year ago, I know it's super bad luck for me.

I was doing inverted push-ups where it was nearly handstand-esque push-ups because it catches the eye.

I

certainly don't do that

way anymore, but.

Give me the most exotic place.

You know, Milwaukee, the city of Milwaukee's.