Building Resilience Through Media Production

Education & Career Empowerment

Navigating challenges and building resilience are crucial for success in today’s fast-paced digital world. Learn how former YEBO youth participant and staff member Jadyn Nguyen leveraged his role as a podcast producer to grow his sense of self-determination.

Early mock-up of podcast cover design

Jadyn and Nick Villalobos

Alejandro Fuentes

2,994 Minutes

By December 2022, I tracked 2,994 minutes of work time on the Superhero Mindset podcast, which translates to roughly 50 hours of editing, feedback cycles, and mastering.

The Superhero Mindset is now fully released. I did not know that it would take almost two years to complete and share my podcast.

In the beginning of the project, I gathered all of my interviews and storyboarded the six episodes with YEBO’s Chief Plug, Cory. Most of the editing process for the Superhero Mindset was done by the Chief Plug. This posed an unforeseen obstacle because that made me dependent on him for the project’s progress to continue.

My biggest challenge was not knowing how to edit the podcast on my own. I was complacent and accepted that maybe it meant that I needed to take the creation process with grace.

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I see now that skill acquisition takes time and intentional practice.

Jadyn’s Grandmother

Routine & Process

At this point in the production process for the Superhero Mindset, I was experiencing turbulence. Twenty-year old me pictured this journey to be straightforward, but at 21 I see now that skills acquisition takes time and intentional practice. In this case, learning how to edit the Superhero Mindset only became easier when I began using a project plan template shared to me by YEBO’S Amplifier, Cristina Chacon.

Using the project plan template gave me clear guardrails for how I should be tackling each little task the project asked of me. With the project plan I could visualize editing through five episodes as five separate tasks, and not one lump sum headache of an assignment.

My work routine with the podcast looked like taking the editing process one episode at a time.

The 2020 version of me had no clue how I could think of an idea and turn it into a fully produced podcast. However, the 2023 version of me CAN NOW for sure walk you through my process for producing a podcast.

“Simple and deep” is something we often repeat as a motto here at YEBO. I took that motto and applied it to my learning and work process. “Simple and deep” relieved me from the overwhelming feeling of not being able to finish the Superhero Mindset in a quick and timely manner.

After two years, from idea to finished product, I’m proud to say that I stayed committed to the project and finished it all of the way through.

That’s the power of self-determination – finishing what you start.

I wonder, what other projects I will visualize and complete in the future?

Dr. Janiece Mackey and Jadyn

Audio files of the Superhero Mindset

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I’m proud to say that I stayed committed to the project and finished it all the way through.