Unstoppable in Our 50’s: Leanne Morgan’s Secrets to Finding Success (and Laughs) in Midlife

Jen: All right. We are back here at the For the Love Podcast. Hi, Amy Hardin, everybody. 

Amy: Good morning.

Jen: Thank you for continuing to come here. At any moment you could be like, “I just don’t. This is just a lot.” 

Amy: I would say that, but I would still show up. 

Jen: Oh, God, that’s so true. You have that Methodist, industrious work ethic, Protestant. So Protestant. 

Amy: Yes and loyal. 

Jen: Oh and that. Regardless, you are here on the show and we’ve released media with your face on it, and I just need the people to know that that is not normal for you.  

Amy: I went to Barton Springs Pool last night, by myself, and I just floated around and watched the bats during the free hour from 9 to 10.

Jen: Oh, my gosh, you did that at 9:00 at night last night. 

Amy: That’s when I go.

Jen: Barton Springs, if you’re not from here, is this natural spring. It’s freezing. It’s freezing 365 days a year. 

Amy: It’s a pool.

Jen: That’s really what it is. 

Amy: It’s a giant pool. 

Jen: Yes. It’s like an iconic spot here in Austin and historically has been, the pool of choice for all our city’s hippies and college students. 

Amy: And now high school students. 

Jen: Okay. Right. Well, my point that I’m getting at is that I took the kids there, of course, when they were little. You’ve just got to get the hell out of the house, and we did everything that Austin had to offer for a decade. We went to Barton Springs and I’m going to say Sydney was probably in the fourth or fifth grade. You go in a little, very janky place where you can change clothes if you need to and come right on out. She needed to go in there for some adjustments and that is when she saw, for the first time in her life…

Amy: An old lady naked body. 

Jen: That’s it. A fully naked elderly lady who had no interest in grooming. 

Amy: Okay. 

Jen: She talks about it to this day, and she’s 24 years old. 

Amy: It’s still a magical place. There still are boobies and it smells of weed. It’s perfect.

Jen: It’s perfect. 

Amy: Anyway, that’s how I deal with the hullabaloo of…

Jen: Your face on the internet. 

Amy: Marketing. 

Jen: Marketing. Okay. We kind of lost the plot but we have the absolute hilarious Leanne Morgan on today. She’s hilarious. She kills!

Amy: What in the World? 

Jen: That is literally the name of her book. 

Amy: That was unintentional.

Jen: Yeah. That was a real deep cut you just did accidentally and I’m impressed to tell you the truth. Anyway, she is so much fun and you are going to absolutely love this interview because she’s just delightful. But before we get to that. Let’s do a little, segment we like to call “Bless and Release.” 

There are just some things that we’re like “Hmm. At this juncture, at my middle age, I am not interested in this anymore. I bless it and I release it into the world.

Our “Bless and Release” idea today is the whole concept and experience of FOMO or fear of missing out. I want you to start with this because I want to hear what you have to say. I’m going to jump in, too. 

Amy: Listen, the greatest day was when someone invented the joy of missing out. 

Jen: Yeah. It’s like you felt seen. 

Amy: Yes.  I don’t have FOMO. I understand that feeling and sometimes I’ll get it, but it’s rare. For example, if Brad is with our people and I’m not there. But typically for all of my life, I have that feeling for my home when I do go somewhere. 

Jen: You miss your own home when you’re gone and you just wish you were back in it. 

Amy: Yeah I’m so sad I’m missing out on that. I feel that when I’m in a crowded room chit-chatting, wondering if I could go hide in the bathroom yet again and thinking, “If only I could be home.” 

Jen: Yeah, it’s so true. Second only to that walking-through-the-door moment, which is like cold water on a hot day, is canceled plans. It’s thrilling. I am thrilled. “So sorry. I’m not going to be able to do it today” and I’m like, “bloop.” I don’t even care what it is. It could be something I wanted to do but I don’t have to and I could just be not doing it. Mine is also located in this way I have in the world that I did not actually know I do this, but Jenny told me years ago, and I didn’t even realize this was my deal. I guess wherever I am is the place I want to be. Does this make sense? When I’m at a thing, I’m glad to be at that thing when I’m out of town. I’m glad to be doing the thing, that’s the place I want to be. So I just don’t have the gear where I’m wishing I was somewhere else. 

Amy: Yes, I understand that, and for a lot of things, I’m like that too. I can be present in the moment if I can find a person to talk to. In the past, if it’s been anything Jen Hatmaker-related. I’ve been to some book releases and stuff like that, but if I can find Jana King, I’m fine. 

Jen: I know what you’re saying and I feel like we have two tracks here. One of them is the FOMO thing and the other is introversion. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Jen: I can literally be the person in the room that’s the reason the room is there, and if I don’t have a person, I am freaking out. I cannot tell you how many times I have texted my event planner, whoever’s in charge of me at the thing and I’m like, “Is there any way that you could just come meet me outside room 412 and walk me all the way there?” I cannot bear to. I’m so anxious to be by myself and that’s being introverted. Susan Cain taught me that. 

Amy: Well, yes. You told me about it, and I said, “Oh, that would be so good for my introverted child.” And you said,” And also look in the mirror.” 

Jen: Oh, well, I mean, is it? Yeah. 

Amy: I loved it. It explained a lot. 

Jen: Oh my gosh, by the way, we’re just talking shorthand. We’re talking about Susan Cain’s book. It’s easily a decade old, right? Maybe even more. Quiet. And the sub is like The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. I don’t even remember why I read that because I always said… we’re in the weeds. I see that we’ve left FOMO, but it’s okay. It’s ancillary. I always said I was extroverted because I’m socially competent, and I thought that’s what that meant. 

Amy: Right? 

Jen: Social competence is extroversion. I just had gotten that wrong. For some reason, I read that book and I was like, “Oh my God. Textbook-like, textbook introvert,” which is so surprising. 

Amy: I also thought that dichotomy existed and socially competent meant you’re an extrovert. I knew I was an introvert, so I was like, “Well, I’m never speaking in front of anybody, ever.” I realize now that’s not it. I still felt like I was never going to speak in front of anybody, but here we are. 

Jen: I mean, here you are, ma’am and I know we’re just sitting here talking to each other casually into microphones, but people listen to this show.

Amy: That’s what I’ve heard. 

Jen: They listen. A bunch of them

Amy: Anyway. Neither one of us has FOMO. 

Jen: Okay, that’s just really the short of it is that neither one of us really has FOMO. I’m kind of glad it feels like a hard thing to have to feel. Before we pull Leanne in, let’s do one more segment today that I love called Rant or Rave.

Dealer’s choice. Maybe it’s a rant. Maybe it’s a rave and so I want you to start even though this is not your genre. It’s my genre. 

Amy: You don’t know me. Okay. 

Jen: Okay you’re right. You’re right. You know what, you do rabbit hole hard and this is maybe the biggest rabbit hole in the universe right now. Taylor Swift, specifically at NFL games with Travis. 

Amy: What is wrong with people?  

Jen: Sell me what you mean. 

Amy: They are so upset about this. It’s ridiculous. Listen. I have looked into the data. 

Jen: Okay. I believe that you have. I don’t really know what that means, but what kind of data are you referring to? 

Amy: The number of seconds that she appears on the screen during NFL games and the average is 49 seconds. 

Jen: In the whole four-hour game. 

Amy: Yes. Maybe it’s seven different times, but we have the attention span of crickets and it’s for one second, maybe two. I know that in our lifetime of seeing football on the screen, the number of seconds we have seen giant painted bellies. 

Jen: Okay. For example. Yes. Is a million seconds. 

Amy: A million seconds. That’s not the football game, but no one’s crying about it. Oh, there’s the kiss cams and there’s the cheerleaders. Yes, you could argue that all of that is closely related to the game, but if she’s in a Chiefs’ jersey and cheering for one of the teams, then that’s just another fan cam basically. 

Jen: I cannot agree more. Do we have to be mad about everything? Is that how life is? Is this what we have to be mad about? Taylor dating Travis Kelce and her going to Kansas City Chiefs games? This is your problem? This is what’s hard about your life? Go to counseling. Get a therapist. I reject the fury. 

Amy: Yes. 

Jen: You know, my family, we are massive Chiefs fans. 

Amy: By proximity, so am I. 

Jen: That’s right. 

Amy: Before all of this. 

Jen: Yeah. I mean, there’s no opt-out if you’re in our zip code. Even my brother, who couldn’t name a Taylor Swift song if you wrote him a check for $1 million to do so. That’s not his person. He’s not the demo for her. Even he is like, “Who cares?” He’s like, “You know what she’s done? Increased ticket sales, increased merch sales. Brought this younger female fan base into the NFL.” I mean, like, it’s a rising tide that lifts every boat in that dumb harbor.

Amy: Yes. 

Jen: It’s like our parents used to say, “I’ll give you something to cry about.” There is some real stuff to worry about. One of these days we’re all going to have to move out of Texas, because it’ll be too hot here, and we’re going to have to live in Minnesota or Idaho or whatever’s up there. But you know what isn’t, Taylor at a Chiefs game. 

Amy: 49 seconds.

Jen: Let her live!

Amy: Yeah. 

Jen: I just want to ask very quickly what your Taylor Swift knowledge base is, because when I said rabbit hole, I meant Taylor Swift. It’s an ecosystem. It is a universe. 

Amy: It’s extensive. 

Jen: Oh yeah, I knew it.

Amy: It started because 1989 is like one of our road trip albums, specifically with kid number two. I always listen to it with him. 

Jen: That was a good album. 

Amy: It was so good. It was fun and perfect for a road trip. Then, I sort of fell off the map a little bit, but came back around. I think that’s a Taylor lyric. I came back around for eras and then went…

Jen: Oh, you fell hard?

Amy: Yes. My friend had a watch party when the movie was released, and I am not kidding. You’re not going to believe this. 

Jen: Did you dress up? 

Amy: I went to Target and I bought sequined pants.

Jen: No you did not. 

Amy: One of my neighbors, who is a retired opera singer and has a closet that you would not believe, let me borrow a velvet cape. 

Jen: You will send me a picture of that before this hour is up and I will look at it with my eyes and decide if you’re lying. 

Amy: I don’t think I allowed anyone to take a picture. I also got to her house and I curled up in a chair. It’s not like I pranced around with everybody. 

Jen: Those sequined pants were wasted on you then. Those are for prancing. 

Amy: Well, I have been keeping clothes for 27 years so I will wear them again. 

Jen: That is so true. Please find a picture of you in those sequined pants. I’m not kidding. Somebody has it. Somebody at that party took pictures because that’s what normal people do when everyone’s dressed up, to remember it and document it. Please, I am begging you. I’m begging you. 

Amy: I’ll ask. Not everybody was dressed up, by the way. I just did this on my own. See, I told you you wouldn’t believe it. 

Jen: This is not your way. 

Amy: But sometimes it is. 

Jen: I like to see that and if you can find a picture for me, do I have your permission to put it on my social media when this episode comes out as evidence? 

Amy: No, but I would like to commend you for asking permission for something for the first time. 

Jen: That’s very true. I wrote a whole essay about Amy one time in some book. Which book was that? Do you remember? 

Amy: No

Jen: I don’t either. I didn’t even tell her. It was published like it was at Target. 

Amy: I think the text was like, you’re in chapters such and such. Sorry. 

Jen: I mean, I was sorry. Okay, you guys. Let’s get to it. Surely you guys are following Leanne Morgan. If you are not excited, go straight to Instagram and fix that. Follow her. Thank us later. She is a talented stand-up comic. She’s got a hilarious Netflix special out. She signed on to a sitcom on Netflix, which she said was one of her longtime dreams. 

Amy: A dream come true. 

Jen: She’s sitcom gold. 

Amy: A sitcom with Chuck Lorre. 

Jen: That’s right. Her natural ability to know humor and timing and be funny in an economy of words, which you have to use. It’s a wonder somebody hadn’t come found her yet. 

Amy: Her facial expressions alone. 

Jen: That’s so true. She also has a book coming out. It’s called What in the World? It’s very memoir. She talks about growing up as a butcher’s daughter in very rural Tennessee and working her way up, into the stand-up world to be where she is right now, which is super successful. She kind of broke a ceiling and defied a lot of odds. That is a hard business for women particularly. It’s male-centric, the comedy world, particularly stand-up comedy. So when a woman makes it to that level, we love to see it. So, we’re going to ask her about all of it. Her comeuppance. What she learned, what she loves, all of it. So you are going to love this conversation that Amy and I have with the wonderful Leanne Morgan.