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Andy: Welcome to Meadows on the Mic, Student Highlight Edition. This is a new series highlighting students from Professor Chris Coates Creative Production for Communication course, who have produced the Hello Hilltop podcast series as an assignment for this class. Each episode features an alum or friend of the Meadow School who has made notable professional strides and is ready to share their best career advice with listeners. These interviews are researched and produced by these students, and we're happy to feature their talents on our show.  On this episode, CCPA student Samantha Field interviewed advertising alum Gina Farmer. Farmer is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, mother of two, and current law student. They discussed Farmer's diverse career as a business owner and pilot, all while balancing motherhood and continuing to chase her dreams. Let's listen in.

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Samantha: Hello, I'm Samantha Field, a public relations major at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. Welcome to Hello, Hilltop! Today, I'm interviewing Gina Farmer, a personal property appraisal specializing in jewelry with gem facets appraisal, entrepreneur, current student at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, philanthropist, mother of two sons, and overall boss. She graduated ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science Advertising Marketing degree and continues to actively mentor college and high school students at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and Parrish Episcopal School. Welcome, Gina Farmer!

Samantha: Hello, Gina Farmer. Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. How are you doing today?

Gina: I'm so happy to be here with you today.

Samantha: I'll start off by asking, how would you describe your childhood growing up in Plano, Texas? And did you always love Texas and knew you wanted to stay here?

Gina: You know, I moved to Dallas in 7th grade. Prior to that, I was born in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. So all of my extended family is in Minnesota, and my mom and I moved here to Plano in 1992, and it's been home ever since. I would definitely say that I am a native Texan only because the Minnesota blood that runs through my veins is still really cold, and I can't stand cold weather. So I'm very happy to be a Texan, although not born, I'm happy to have gotten here as soon as I can.

Samantha: Great is a definitely born or not born, but you're a native. Yeah. What were your hobbies as a little girl? Were you always artistically inclined and interested in the gemstone business?

Gina: That's a great question. I know that as a little girl, I was an avid rock collector. And one of my hobbies was finding rocks and using them in my polishing tumbler and polishing set. And I had probably the biggest rock collection of any of my friends. And I really liked tumbling them and polishing them and then taking them to my grandfather's shed and having him drill holes through some of the rocks and making them into kind of makeshift pendants, if you will. But that was just kind of a hobby for me. I never saw it really as a career choice. I've seen my gemology degree and my gemology jewelry practice as kind of my retirement job. It's kind of my passion project as opposed to something that I initially sought out out of undergrad and said, this is what I wanna do when I grow up.

Samantha: So, before kind of to redirect that you've done many things in your whole career, what did you go into ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ wanting to do?

Gina: So, you know, I think that as undergrad students, we initially as high school graduates go in with an idea of what we want to be when we grow up, right? Whether you're influenced by your parents or a career fair person at your high school or even a counselor. For me, I wanted to be a Genetic Engineer. And so I attended ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ as a pre-med student. And I was pre-med all the way through my sophomore year. And at the end of it, I just did some self-reflection. And even though I had 4.0, I was like, you know what? I'm not happy. I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this because this is what my parents wanted me to do. I'm going to transition and do something that I think is a lot more fun and maybe incorporate some of my creative spirit. And so I switched over to the Meadow School. However, throughout high school and college, I had been working as a paralegal in the legal industry for a law firm. And while initially I never thought that I would go to law school or that that's something that I wanted to pursue, it was my time in my undergrad at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ that when I took a step back from my paralegal job and did a PR and communications internship, that it wasn't until I took that internship that I realized actually how much I really enjoyed law. And so that was subsequently what led me to apply to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Law School out of undergrad and getting accepted. But I didn't initially go to law school. That journey got delayed 22 years. After graduating from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, I immediately went into my entrepreneurial spirit mode and started my first business doing invitations and stationery, doing a lot of premier bar bat mitzvahs and weddings in the Dallas area for four or five years. And then I sold that and wanted to conquer one of my biggest fears in life, which was flying.  And I'm like, well, what's the better way to figure, you know, to conquer that.

Samantha: So how old were you at this point?

Gina: I sold my first business when I was 24.

Samantha: Wow.

Gina: And then decided to go to jet school and become a jet pilot. So, I did that for two years.

Samantha: You did that here in Dallas?

Gina: I did. Dallas and Florida. I did a lot of my training out of Florida for my commercial multi-engine instrument rating.

Samantha: Did you want to go like a pilot?

Gina: I totally thought. That's what I thought. That dream was pretty short-lived though, because I got a real taste of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination in the aviation industry.

Samantha: Really?

Gina: Yeah.

Samantha: Not, I mean, not surprising at all. I feel like there's sexual harassment everywhere.

Gina: There's only about, well, at the time, and it may be higher now, but it was about 12 or 15% of pilots were women. And the male pilots unfortunately made it very known and it was, you know, the female pilots were not raising into be a captain as quickly as a lieutenant captain. And there was a lot of sexual harassment and a lot of cheating going on between male pilots and female pilots. So it was just a mess and it was a toxic environment that I didn't really care to be a part of. But I did conquer that fear of flying.

Samantha: That's amazing. Wow. So, do you ever still fly?

Gina: I haven't flown since my oldest son was about a year old. So, it's been about 16 years.

Samantha: And then your boys are both in high school now.

Gina: Yes. They're junior and sophomores in high school.

Samantha: So, when you reflect on your college years, we kind of just touched on this, but what would be three words you would use to describe your experience, specifically at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½?

Gina: I think that my time at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, it was fast, right? It went by a lot faster than I initially thought that it would. Dynamic because I went in with an idea of what I wanted to do and then did a complete 180. So being flexible and going with the flow, like what you really want to do versus what you should do or what your parents wanted you to do. And then really, you know, I think that it was just it was an opportunity for emotional and physical growth. Like that just putting that growth mindset and instilling it within my core values was I can attribute to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½.

Gina: And how did the experience shape your current worldview? Do you think you were exposed to a lot of diverse thoughts or is there particular classes that really made an impact on you?

Samantha: I wouldn't say that it shaped my career thoughts or even my political thoughts or anything like that. It definitely stretched my comfort zone and my ability to think outside the box. I think that goes with that kind of that growth mindset but there's two classes that really stuck out to me outside of you know all of my biology and organic chem classes that I really enjoyed when I was a biology major and that would probably be Mass Media Communications and Law. I took that as a senior and that really kind of kick started my fire for my desire to apply to law school particularly because it bridged with my Communications degree in Meadows so I thought that was super cool and I mean I'm a lot older than you but you know the internet was still fairly new when I was at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and so really being in on the forefront the groundbreaking arena of mass media and mass media technology particularly pertains to communications and law that was being regulated and formulated at the time that was kind of a pivotal point as well as his name was Professor Cal Jenner and he was a political science teacher and and he really kind of forced us to think outside of the the regimented structure of politics and incorporate more of a global view.

Gina: That's amazing. How did being so active on campus and involved? I saw you were with Advertising Club, CIO, American Advertising Federation enhance your professional and personal dreams? Do you feel like that's carried on with you to now?

Samantha: Yeah, those were all really great opportunities to develop peer relationships as well as relationships with the professor on a more intimate level that I then, you know, leveraged and parlayed into professional letters of recommendation. And I, you know, I had coffee and lunch with a couple of my advertising research professors several years after graduation when I started the Hair Bar and we looked at using one of my companies as a model to build an advertising campaign around. And while that didn't come to fruition, just the opportunity bounced feedback back off of undergraduates and work with the professors outside of academia but more in a professional setting was really cool.

I think one of the more noteworthy and meaningful organizations that I was involved with, though, that kind of really re-emphasizes my moral and ethical standards is when I was on the Honor Council and was responsible for reviewing, you know, honor code violations and things like that.

Samantha: Do you feel like that's kind of carried into you eventually going to law school as you are now at the Honor Council?

Gina: Absolutely!

Samantha: What kind of things would you have to deal with?

Gina: We would review accusations of academic dishonesty and unfortunately there were, you know, multiple offenses where that particular student had to get an honor code violation stamped on their transcript which limited their ability to apply for maybe the job that they wanted to do or to go to grad school or apply to law school or anything.

Samantha: It's like investigative law.

Gina: Yeah, it really is.

Samantha: So as a postgrad from ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, what inspired you to go to law school after being a physical health trainer, working with planes and getting your degree in gemology. And to further the question, how many businesses have you started and sold?

Gina: I'm on my fourth business in four different industries. I had the Imitation to Stationary Company, then I had two dry salons called the Hair Bar that are still open here in the Metroplex, then I started the Dodo, which is the first safe-to-eat raw cookie dough company. And that I had several locations for that and sold all of them and now I'm now I've got my my jewelry appraisal business but really my initial desire to go to law school kind of the recurring theme of my desire to go back and kind of close that circle when you're when you're an entrepreneur and you're a CEO And you're you're building and selling businesses there's a lot of lawyers that come into your life whether it's you know a contract lawyer or a Real Estate lawyer, or whatever it is, you're constantly paying legal fees and constantly paying lawyers to do work that I could do myself. And usually, I can do it faster and cheaper than what they're able to get it done and Nobody cares more about your case or nobody cares more about your issue than you do, right? So, getting lawyers to be invested in what I needed Was always very tricky because there they have a lot of other clients. So, I just I'm I wanted to go back to law school whether I practice law or not is still to be determined But I wanted to go back to law school really to have the the knowledge to be able to represent myself not have to pay life to other lawyers legal

Samantha: Must be outrageous.

Gina: Yeah, yeah it can be there's a lot of lawyers in town that charge $900 an hour. Which you know depending upon their experience level maybe worth it and a lot of people would say it's not worth it. So, it's my my constant desire to have internal and external growth and be better, and no more where knowledge is power.

Samantha: How do, going off of your businesses and things like that, what is the process of something that's an idea and you think it's a good idea and then is there a certain person you talk to or bounce ideas off of and how long does it take to really launch a business?

Gina: I guess, here comes a lawyer answer for you. That depends. It depends on a lot of different variables, but I guess it depends on how well thought out your business plan is, right? That's the first key, is putting together, putting your thoughts on paper, doing your research in the market, figuring out who your competitors are, what you can bring to the market that is differentiating yourself from your competitors, what kind of value add you can bring to your service or your good to entice the customers to come visit you and pay you as opposed to somebody else. And the way to get that done, for me, the majority of my initiatives were all self-taught. I mean, I started businesses in four different industries not knowing anything about them, including restaurants, salons, retail, and it takes a lot of initiative to do the research on your own, but I also, when I couldn't find the answer or wasn't comfortable in the answer that I found, I accumulated a group of individuals that I trusted and they were kind of my board, right? They were my executive board that I would bounce ideas off of and never be afraid to ask questions, right? Even if you think they're a silly question or a stupid question, they're not. And so, finding people that were more experienced and that were smarter than I was to be able to give me the answer to the question that I needed was key to success and not being afraid to ask for help. 

Samantha: Thank you. After having two children, what fueled you to attend law school? I feel like we kind of already touched on this. And is there a specific sector of law that you're interested in going into?

Gina: You know, my boys aren't both interested in going to law school and whether or not they practice law or not, it's kind of been a mandate in my household that they have to get some sort of postgraduate education. So get an MBA or go to law school or med school, whatever. And so I really wanted to be a role model for them to show them that, look, mom is 45 years old and she's still going to school. She's still getting degrees. She's got two master's degrees, an undergraduate degree. She can fly jets. Look at all these things that I'm continuing to teach myself. Even though I'm in my 40s, it doesn't mean that we stop learning. It doesn't mean we stop growing. So that was the first thing that I wanted to show them that never give up on your dream. Even if it gets delayed, never give up on your dream. You can still have it. As far as which kind of law I want to practice, kind of like undergrad, where you go in and you're like, I'm going to be a business person. And then you end up with an engineering degree. Right now, I'm just eliminating things that I don't like.

Samantha: Is there something specific that you've come across where like that is not me at all?

Gina: Yes, I don't want to be a tax lawyer. I don't want to be a family lawyer and I don't want to be a criminal lawyer. Those have already been crossed off the list.  And right now we're just kind of, it's kind of like a nice pair. You go to the shoe store, right? And you're like, well, I'll try that on and see how that fits. Or, ooh, that's not cute. That's kind of what I'm doing right now with internships and externships, figuring out where I feel comfortable.

Samantha: Do you have a specific internship right now?

Gina: Yeah, right now I'm working for a securities law firm, doing securities regulation with banking and the SEC.

Samantha: Are you able to like connect that with liquidating assets and gemology and things that.

Gina: I'm not no, I am not but the most natural progression organic progression for like kind of bridging my, my background would either be aviation law or estate law. So because I work with estate lawyers that are liquidating their people people that have died their estates and trying to figure out what things are worse so they can pay the taxes on them. That would be the most natural progression but I work with probate lawyers every day and while I have immense respect for the for the profession, I don't know if that's the right fit for me.

Samantha: Okay, so with being a beautiful woman in law school and then in piloting school and things like that, have you had to overcome any sexism or discrimination based on your physical appearance? I know you kind of shared already about that but if you feel comfortable going more into that.

Gina: Yeah, of course. I think that you know it's innate. Everybody judges a book by its cover. Even though we're taught at a very young age, don't don't judge a book by its cover, right? I've been subjected to constant misjudging based on the way that I look. You know, I'm kind of a stereotype. I've got blonde hair and I'm pretty and I'm tall and whatever and so people automatically assume that I'm not that smart. I always try and look at the optimistic side of things and put a positive spin on it and it's like, you know what? You may may underestimate me but I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna prove you wrong and I use that kind of misjudgment and that mischaracterization whether it's of my values or my appearance and my what I have to offer as fuel to motivate me to do better to show them that they're wrong.

Samantha: Do you feel like it's better to vocalize that off the bat or just show people?

Gina: I think I mean, easily prove the wrong. Just tell them all the things you've started. I the event that fails, then I'll bring up pedigree, right? Then I'll be like, you don't know who you're talking to. Let me let me show you what you're missing out on but that doesn't happen very often.

Samantha: Okay, good. You have two boys, so how has motherhood affected your aspirations and creative focus?

Gina: I think that really, I think I just want to be a positive role model for them, right? And as a mom, it's a fine balance of allowing them the autonomy to figure out who they are and what makes them special and what they want out of life and modeling for them the way that what they should also want. And so, I do that through my action, both words, but also demonstrating to them the right way to do things, what not to do, inspiring them and cultivating their own aspirations and motivations within them. But I think that the biggest challenge of this generation is that there is so much independence at such a young age because you're the generation of being raised by social media, right? So, you have this unfiltered access to whatever information you want it. So, kids are growing up a lot faster and they're not needing that parental input as much as previous generations. It's, it's important, at least for me and my children, to have open and honest conversations about what they may be reading or seeing or hearing versus the way that the world really is and how, you know, everybody because this generation is like: “Oh, I don't have to work and I can make a million dollars a year by posting on Instagram.” That is very attractive and that looks very like anybody can do it. But in the reality of things, it's only again, it's only the top one percent that are able to to make that much money, do whatever it is that they're doing through social media. And so it's constantly modeling that you still in order to be successful, you still have to put in the hard work. You still have to do start at the bottom and work your way to the top. You don't just land there and expect to stay there. You'll be pushed out by somebody else.

Samantha: I mean, you're an amazing example of that, just sort of hearing all the things that you've done. But I don't have children yet. Do you think it's better to give like in future generations, give access to all this information and then have open conversations about it or as a mother, you know, some people are just like: “No phones. I'm going to limit my child's screen time.” What's the best way? Because I think it's only getting, quote unquote, worse.

Gina: Yeah, I agree with you. It is. It is getting worse. And I think that they're definitely everybody's parenting style is different, right? So that's a personal choice. I can only say what I did. And I am I'm very much an advocate for free thinking. And so, and knowledge is power, right? The more we can learn, the better, better prepared we're going to be within limits, though. There's got to be some guardrails that are put in place. So for me, my kids, you know, they weren't allowed to be on Instagram or Facebook or Snapchat or any of that until I think they were 12 years old.

They had cell phones when they were seven, but that's because we're a divorced family and I needed to be able to get in contact with them. But the the guardrails that are in place now with limiting software and timers and things like that, I think are extremely important because of the developing brain of these young kids, like they don't need to be flooded with all of this information and all of this this opportunity at such a young age. They still need to be kids.  They still need to go outside and play and get their hands dirty and get scrapes on their knees. They don't need to be just, you know, in their rooms playing video games or scrolling on Instagram. So it's a fine balance. And there's a lot of parents who are a lot more extreme one way or the other. And I think it really comes down to personal choice. But what we'll find in the next 20 years is whose method was best, right? And I think that will come from the productivity levels of this upcoming generation. 

Samantha: Thank you for sharing that, because it's always interesting to hear. So, in a research report article published on PR Newswire on January 23rd of this year, with statistics provided by NC Solutions, they shared that Gen Z's interest in the sober-curious movement increased 53% from 2023 to 2024.

So, in preparing for this interview, I saw on your Instagram that you've not drinking alcohol since late October of 2016. If you feel comfortable sharing with your experience, especially as a health trainer, how's the decision affected your lifestyle?

Gina: I am a product of an alcoholic family, so alcoholism runs very very strong in my family and unfortunately it runs strong on both sides of my kid’s dad's family as well. So, I had a predisposition to alcoholism and I knew that growing up, so I didn't drink at all really until my mid-20s. When I found myself in a toxic marriage, I used alcohol as a coping mechanism as a way to escape from the pain, escape from the feelings of you know inadequacy or abandonment or whatever trauma it was that was was fueling in my marriage. Alcohol was was my reason, right? It was my way that I could survive. When I made the decision to stop drinking, it not only was life-changing, it was life-saving and again it all goes back to that that proper role modeling for my children that you know I don't have, I'm not anti-alcohol. I think that you know I don't, I'm not one of these people that is sober that is refuses to go to a bar or won't go to a happy hour because people will be drinking. I don't have any problem being around people that drink. Yeah, and in fact it just it doesn't bother me. I do though enjoy helping others become sober because one of the biggest fears of being an alcoholic or an addict is that how am I gonna survive without it, right? How am I going to be able to cope? How am I gonna be a normal? How am I gonna feel normal? Are people gonna still think that I'm cool? Are they gonna still enjoy being around me if I'm not drinking? Those are some of the biggest fears that keep people in the vicious cycle of addiction and I wish I could say that it's just simply you know putting down the drink and walking away from it. It's not. It's a daily commitment of something that you have to commit to yourself. I'm not gonna drink today. It's just 24 hours and tomorrow is another day, right? And those days start to add up and then you've got in my case you know eight plus years of sobriety. I'm very open and honest and transparent about my experience because I know that my journey can help maybe resonate with someone who's suffering in silence and as an undergraduate you know drinking is rampant. Been drinking especially across college campuses.

Samantha: It's completely normal so anyone who's listening, I think especially it can it can feel really overwhelming or there is such a pressure to drink and fit into the normal college experience. It can be hard to draw those lines, so…

Gina: Right! So, and I think that the sober movement or these dry January's and sober September's and things like that are really great starting point, right? It's kind of like it's normalizing. It's okay not to drink. You know my older son, he's more of your typical teenager with the experimentation and my younger son he's more of you know adverse to it and so we have two totally different opposite teenagers, but both are having very similar experiences and that's normal.

You know it's like my younger son is going to the same parties that my older son is but he's choosing not to drink and he's having just as much fun as my older son is that is choosing to drink and I'm not advocating for underage drinking at all. I just also and know that it's gonna happen regardless…

Samantha: Reality transparent conversations.

Gina: Absolutely and that's what we want in our household is that we want to have these conversations. If you like for instance my younger my older son got roofie one night at a party and that was incredibly scary not only as a parent but as as a child. At a high school party? At a high school party. Wow. And so kind of you know dealing with that yeah and figuring out okay well you know you know this is a safe space I'm so glad that you told us because I can't help you if I don't know what's going on. So having those dialogues with with so many parents are afraid to have with their child is extremely important to building that trust.

Samantha: Thank you for sharing that! So what are the biggest life lessons you've learned to this point? We've kind of covered a lot of life lessons, but if there's anything specific.

Gina: I think that some of my biggest key takeaways that Mary Kay Ash was one of my biggest mentors as she was like a grandmother to me, and I learned so much not only from her personally but from her books and her teachings and her philosophy and life and I just idolized her because she was everything you know she was breaking glass ceilings at such a as a woman in the 60s and 70s when women weren't in industry let alone CEOs of their company and one of the biggest little tidbits that she gave me and it's been well published and and talked about is: “Fake it till you make it”. You know, if you don't if you don't know something the other person doesn't have to know that you fake it like you know it until you do know it. Similarly, like you know don't don't be afraid to if somebody tells you no don't don't be afraid to go and find a yes because that just because somebody tells you no doesn't mean that that is the absolute there's always another way to get the information or to get the solution that you're looking for just you've got to work a little bit harder and a little bit smarter to find it.

Samantha: Okay, thank you! Those are really good life lessons if you were to tell yourself something at 20 years old what would you say?

Gina: Slow down, you've got your whole world ahead of you, and when you're in your 20s you're you're just you're wanting to get to the end destination as fast as possible and check off as many boxes as possible before you buy a house get married start a start a family or you know get promoted to a sea level or whatever it is that your aspirational goals are. Just slow down! Take it one step at a time and don't forget to give yourself grace if it doesn't work out the exact way that you wanted it to work out, you know, i was supposed to go to law school right out of undergrad and I didn't and here I’m 22 years later getting that dream finally accomplished.

Samantha: That's amazing re-route. Well, thank you so much Mrs. Farmer and I really appreciate your time and your wisdom and you just sharing all your stories. Thank you so much!

Gina: My pleasure. I look forward to it again!

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Samantha: Now thank you to you, our audience, for listening. Don't forget to catch our other podcasts on SoundCloud, iTunes, and more. Make sure to follow on social by visiting our Facebook and Instagram accounts at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Hello, Hilltop! You can find behind the scenes information and upcoming podcasts. Until next time, we'll see you on the Hilltop.

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Andy: Thank you for tuning in to Meadows on the Mic Student Highlight Edition, and a big thank you to Samantha Field for sharing her interview with Gina Farmer. For more information on both advertising and public affairs programs at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Meadows, go to smu.edu/Meadows. You can hear more student produced content by visiting Hello, Hilltop! on SoundCloud. Thanks for tuning in!