A transcript of this podcast is provided below. This transcript was generated with the assistance of AI and may contain transcription errors.
Cynthia
00:12 – 01:04
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of No Title Needed, coming to you from the beautiful Feinstein’s Cabaret at the Hotel Car Michael in Carmel, Indiana, USA. And I’m Cynthia Collins. And I’m Scott Aspen. Okay, what are we? We are your co-hus. We are. today we have an excellent guest. Yes. One you know, Scott. Yes, we go very far. For almost your entire life. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Long time. Yes. Lisa Hall. Lisa, thank you for being here with us. Thank you. I know. I’m having a great, well, you had to travel up from Nashville, Indiana. Indiana. Right. Uh, this morning. So thank you. Um, okay. So you do a few things. I do. Right. Right. Yeah. Many as I can. Okay. You stay busy. Um, you, you are, and I don’t know your official title of the, the Christmas market down in Nashville. Right. What are you?
Lisa
01:04 – 01:06
I kind of founded that market.
Cynthia
01:07 – 01:07
So you’re the founder?
Lisa
01:07 – 01:08
Yes.
Cynthia
01:08 – 01:13
And you still absolutely would run the whole shebang?
Lisa
01:13 – 01:21
Uh, I do. Okay. Until somebody comes to me and says, Hey, I’ll take that over. Right. But that hasn’t happened yet, Miss Cindy. Oh, fuck.
Cynthia
01:22 – 01:34
Not yet. Oh, and then. And then you also, you’re very involved in documentaries and the Heartland Film Festival. All right. Well, you did have a doc.
Lisa
01:35 – 01:36
Yes. That was where I got my start.
Cynthia
01:36 – 01:38
Yes. Addix Wake.
Lisa
01:38 – 01:38
Uh-huh.
Cynthia
01:39 – 01:47
Okay. And that’s about the, because I saw it. It was quite a few years ago though. But it’s the opioid, well, is it the opioid problem down there in Brunken?
Lisa
01:47 – 01:47
Yes.
Cynthia
01:48 – 02:02
Opioid and meth, among other things. Right. And it was very, very well done. – Thank you. – Okay, so let’s go back. – Yes. – Let’s go back a few years and shall we? – Yeah. – It all started.
Scott
02:02 – 02:02
Make us learn.
Cynthia
02:02 – 02:04
How do you know?
Scott
02:05 – 02:15
Oh, well, I think her son, Sam, and I were in first grade together. I think it was the first time we had shared a classroom. So, you know.
Lisa
02:16 – 02:17
That’s a long time ago, Sam.
Scott
02:17 – 02:25
Very, very long time. See that probably 23, 24 years.
Lisa
02:25 – 02:28
Oh yes. – Yeah. – Yeah, anyway. – Yeah.
Cynthia
02:28 – 02:35
And did, okay, so that’s this connection. And. – And we went to Heritage, which meant we are pretty tight-nitched
Scott
02:35 – 02:37
all the way through. – There you go. – Yes, there you go.
Lisa
02:37 – 02:39
They graduated. Did you swim together?
Scott
02:39 – 02:42
No. But we taught swim lessons.
Lisa
02:43 – 02:45
Yes, you did. – Yeah. – In my backyard?
Scott
02:45 – 02:50
Yep, we used to, me and my mom used to go over there in the summers and she would teach And I play.
Lisa
02:51 – 03:01
And she kept saying, Samuel, you have such a natural stroke. You have such a natural swimmer’s poise. And– Yeah, no problem. He chose other sports.
Scott
03:02 – 03:05
Yeah. Which he was very good at. Sam was an entrell athlete.
Lisa
03:05 – 03:06
He was a very good athlete.
Scott
03:07 – 03:08
Both of her boys, actually.
Lisa
03:09 – 03:17
So he lives in Big Nashville. And I live in Little Nashville. Oh, I didn’t know. No idea. Big Nashville, Little Nashville. Yes.
Cynthia
03:17 – 03:29
OK. So where’s the Christmas market? Little Nashville, oh, where I am. Okay, so, okay, let me say, okay, so we’re gonna go back. Are you from Indiana?
Lisa
03:30 – 04:52
Yes, from there. Born and raised in Anderson, which is Madison County. Oh, okay. Grew up there, went to IU after graduation, was going to live anywhere but Indiana, And lo and behold, I moved to Indianapolis, got my first job out of college, and then met my husband, and I’ve been here ever since. – What made you go down to Brown County then? – We had purchased a cabin in 2008 down there as a family, and it was, economy was not very good, and so we bought this cabin out of kind of a unfortunate situation for the owners. And we, as a family, tore the roof off. We did all the demolition ourselves. – That’s what– – Had big dumpsters and you know, with two guys and then they always had their friends with us wherever we went. And so I had a bunch of teenagers tearing roof off and you know, so we did the demolition and then rebuilt it and we loved it. It was such an escape ’cause my voice did do a lot of athletics. So we would kinda go down there and they both played baseball, were both pitchers. So we called it the bullpen. And it’s kind of where we went, you know, for a night or two. No, we sold it when we moved down there officially. Yeah, yeah.
Cynthia
04:52 – 04:58
I bet you got some, ’cause you tell them, sounds like you really completely renovated. I mean, talk about a flip.
Lisa
04:59 – 05:00
Yes, yes.
Cynthia
05:00 – 05:00
Flipping a house.
Lisa
05:01 – 05:16
We did, and it was really fun. And we employed, do you remember Mr. Burns? – Oh yeah, yes. So he helped us with the construction. Once we did the demolition, we needed someone who knew what they were doing to rebuild it.
Cynthia
05:16 – 05:18
Is that a guy to do hair discon? – Yeah, hair discon.
Lisa
05:18 – 05:37
His kids were there as well. So it was a great experience as a family. We never had wifi, we had no TV. We just had a lot of football going on in the front yard, a lot of dirt bikes being ridden and air gun shots being fired. And it’s just a good place to have voice who had a lot of energy.
Cynthia
05:37 – 05:39
That’s true, they can run around all over the place.
Lisa
05:39 – 05:39
Yes.
Cynthia
05:40 – 06:05
The reason, because we’re kicking off Thanksgiving, this is Thanksgiving week. – Yes, yes. – Oh my gosh, yum, yum, yum. But it kicks off the holidays, and the Christmas holidays, and you are in charge, let’s talk about it real quick, you are in charge of that Christmas market. – I am. – And how did you even get hornswaggled into that, or, for lack of a better word, roped into it, or? – Hornswaggle.
Speaker 4
06:05 – 06:06
I like the hornswaggle.
Lisa
06:07 – 06:09
Hornswaggle. I’m gonna borrow that. That’s one I’ve never had.
Speaker 4
06:09 – 06:12
It hurts. – Cindy, I like it.
Lisa
06:12 – 08:53
Well, when we moved down there full-time in 2017, I was finishing my second year of a master’s program. When my nest emptied, I went back to school, got a master’s. And so when I would need a study break, ’cause I’d been writing and researching and reading all day, like heavy stuff, I would sit in front of my TV and turn on the Hallmark channel. And every Hallmark movie has their own Christmas event, right? And I’m like, we look like a Hallmark town. We need a Christmas event. And I was really learning a lot about our community. And when you’re a tourism dependent, you have to continually evolve with events to bring people back. They have to have a reason to return. But all that to say, I just really wanted to see a winter event past the leaves coming down because right now, you know, towards Thanksgiving and then September and October are just so packed full of people. And we don’t want them to go away because our little shops need that foot traffic and they need the business. So as I was sitting there kind of refreshing my brain or not, thinking we need a Christmas event, you know, it took me the year I wanted to start it. Unfortunately, we had that thing called a pandemic. And so people weren’t too interested. And so we waited till 21, still had hand sanitizers at everybody’s booth. You know, some people were masked. But that was the year we kicked it off. And I found the money to do it. And we say, you know, I tell people, please don’t have caramel in mind when you come down because this is a Brown County, Chris Kindle, Brown County style. And it’s very cozy and warm and inviting. And we have such a rich arts culture in Brown County with history that is incredible. And so the first year I wanted our own artisans to be able to earn some revenue back because of COVID. Many of them had not been able to do their shows and festivals and whatnot. So it was designed kind of for them. And then you had to kind of figure out if you liked being outside in December with your paintings. And some did and some didn’t. So as we kind of grew, different kinds of artists and vendors would come in. So we’re in Coach Light Square, which is between our visitor center and our sweet teas, the country heritage winery, all the way back to Casa del Sol, which is our Mexican restaurant. And so the market sits in between there. And then this year we’re gonna spill onto Washington, which is a parallel street. So we were able to add about seven or eight more vendors this year.
Speaker 4
08:53 – 08:53
Excellent.
Lisa
08:54 – 08:56
We have to take a break. Don’t mention to interrupt you.
Cynthia
08:56 – 10:09
We have to take a break for one of our sponsors, an artist. Yay. Thank you so much for Andy Sorrell. And here he is. We’ll be right back with Lisa Hall. Hey everyone, welcome back to No Title Needed with our guest Lisa Hall. And before the break, we were talking about the Christmas market you do down there. I was expanding and you co-founded it, not a co-founder, you founded it. And it sounds like a wonderful Christmas market down there. Because it’s so lovely down there and all the artisans that are there really give them a chance to show off their work, right?
Speaker 4
10:09 – 10:10
I mean, hello.
Cynthia
10:10 – 10:17
You know that. So how what, you know, and it’s does it open the day after Thanksgiving?
Lisa
10:17 – 10:43
No, no, it’s always the first full weekend of December. So this year that falls on Saturday the sixth and Sunday the seventh It’s two days And so it’s always that first Saturday and Sunday and December and this is year five for us So I feel like you know, we’re we’re turning a corner in terms of kind of becoming a better boiled machine Right, we’re learning but you know, we learned something new every year and expand and expanding
Scott
10:43 – 10:45
I like that it’s earlier too.
Lisa
10:45 – 10:47
It kind of sets the mood, gets around in the Christmas spirit.
Scott
10:48 – 10:59
That’s very fun. Shop early. Yeah. Shop early. That’s early. Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes it takes, you know, hearing Christmas music for two weeks to get in the spirit. And, you know, this really kicks off early. That’s nice.
Lisa
10:59 – 11:22
Yes, it is nice. And it’s gives my store owners and restaurateurs a break after October before, you know, the crowd in December. And so they kind of have November to recuperate. And then we, you know, then we’re full again, which is awesome. It’s amazing. And I, I love what it’s done economically for the, the community. And I had a feeling it would. So it’s like it.
Cynthia
11:22 – 11:41
Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. So let’s move into the whole filmmaking thing and Heartland Film Festival and the documentary you were involved in. And yes. And how did you even find any interest in getting involved in anything like that? You know, in being involved in a documentary.
Lisa
11:41 – 11:48
And it– – About where you live. – Yes. – In the town. – Right, and so that, oh my God, I had such a story.
Cynthia
11:49 – 11:50
That– – We have to–
Lisa
11:50 – 18:25
That came to me, I think very divinely in 2019, and I had just finished that master’s program. I was, and everybody could say, “What are you gonna do? “What are you gonna do? “What are you gonna do?” I’m like, “I don’t know, I don’t know.” I just feel like it will come to me. And I had posted, this is the power of social media, because I’d put a post on my page about some young men who had passed away very close together. And my friend Amy Pazak had said, “Oh my gosh, same thing just happened here in Carmel.” And she said, “Could I call you?” And so we exchanged on messaging. I didn’t know Amy. I knew some of her family. But we had about a two-hour conversation, and she says, “Do you feel like there are stories to tell. And after I finished my masters, I was trying to get more ingrained in the community. So I started serving women in incarceration. And I love that. I would hear their stories and wow, you know, there was a profound Sunday when I was there where I had heard a story and I thought, man, in a vulnerable dark moment in my own life, I am one decision away from sitting in green and white stripes. And when I left there with that thought, and then Amy had said, “Do you think there are stories to tell?” And I’m like, “We have to tell these stories. We’re not getting better as a nation, as a state, as a county.” And so I said, “What do I need to do?” And she came down and we called, she goes, “You need a director.” I said, “How do I find one?” And she said, “Well, I know a really good one.” She mentioned Michael Hussain’s name and Michael and and I went to IU together. I said, I know him. So we call him up in my family room and we have another meeting and he comes down and I said, you need to tell me what the budget is. You know, and the fun thing is for, and Scotty knows this because for all my time at Heritage, I raised a lot of money. I’d been raising money for various things for the last 25 years. So when Michael presented a budget to me, I wasn’t daunted by fundraising. I’ve been doing it for a lot of things that I felt strongly about up until that point. And so the way we went, and it took us two and a half years to film four stories in the county. We followed, you know, four families for two and a half years, and it took me that long to secure the funding. Even we paused for about four months during COVID because we couldn’t film anywhere. What you know, the blessing in that is that many recovery organizations, Indiana Recovery Network, they were on hold with programming because of COVID and they had grant money so that they had to use up. So when I needed to get over the finish line, there they were. And they were all very, you know, gracious about wanting to be a part of the stories we were telling. And so we finished in January of 21, went into post-production. So Michael and my editor then, you know, were crafting the story to get to Heartland in October of 21. So while they were doing that, I put myself in a class that was offered once a week online where there were 210 independent filmmakers from all over the world. It was fascinating. And I just sit in the shadows because I knew nothing about, okay, so you have a film, how do you distribute it? And I learned from Keith Awkwot, who is just the master of film distribution, and he has a platform called Show and Tell. And so I just sat and absorbed everything Keith had to offer for about eight or nine months. And so when the film was ready, we went to Heartland. And being a first-time filmmaker, I had no street cred whatsoever, right? So you have to go get your laurels. And that’s not why I made the film, though. It wasn’t as important to me, but I knew I needed to do it. So we entered a handful of festivals, and we did really well. We had best documentary at Louisville and Indie, what they call Indie Spirit Award in Sedona and lots of, you know, awards along the way. So I thought, okay, we’re done with that. So the real dream was to get inside of communities. In our state, one has starred in Indiana, and we did. In late 22, communities would call up, how do we screen the film? We’d go, I say we like, I have a big team. Me, myself and I would go and I’m just so tired of me, myself and I, so. – That’s good, confident. – Yeah, a little boring after a while, but I would go into these communities, we’d screen the film, they would have arranged some people that could speak into a panel discussion and then we’d start having these vibrant discussions all over the state. It was so exciting to see what Michael and I had hoped the film would do that it was doing. It was shining light on the issue in the state of Indiana and that’s when we can start healing as counties. And so as we were in these counties, we had outcries for other versions of the film. We had an outcry for something for students. Now that’s an interesting journey. So can you make it Michael and I look at each other? Sure, we can do that. So I had a couple of corporate sponsors that once I got the film, you know, first film done, they came alongside of me to do that educational film. That was Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Central Indiana Community Foundation. So they helped me get that educational film done. All new footage, nine five minute segments. We created a learning guide to go with that film. The other outcry, so that was launched in ’24. And then just this last January, we finished our law enforcement first responder film. Another segment of this whole issue who deal with so much in terms of mental health and addiction. And, and so we wanted to let them know we, we see you, you know, we see the work you’re doing and how hard it is. So I have a three 12 minute ish segment film for law enforcement first responders that It really shows through that whole judicial side of things what it requires for our incarcerated to be kept during their first sobriety stop, you know, what that looks like and are we doing enough things to really stabilize them while people are in incarceration? It’s just such a great opportunity to put the right foot forward while they’re on their recovery journey.
Cynthia
18:25 – 18:35
Have you seen what? I mean, I think that’s a lot. What have you seen? How has it helped?
Lisa
18:38 – 20:48
Oh, you know, I get goosebumps sometimes when people will come up because in that process of three films, we also were picked up by PBS for a national broadcast. So we’ve been on 92% of 341 public television stations across the nation. So I’m at conferences all over the country for mental health and addiction, and I’ll have people come pull a chair beside me and say, “I just wanted to share with you. My husband and I watched that film, and he handed me his phone at the end of it and said that he was ready for help.” And so I don’t know if I’ll ever know, you know, what lives have been touched, but I have a lot of testimonials that say, um, because I had four very distinct goals in making these films and I kept those goals the same in each, each, uh, version of the film. One was to create a larger swath of emotional awareness because it’s that, well, that’s them. That’s them and no addiction has come home to all of us. So it is not just them, it’s us. and we needed to change that understanding and that language to breed compassion. That second goal was debunking the silo mentality. And this is where I’m seeing things change. This is where I really thank God for this film because it was, the film was a clarion call to communities to say, “We cannot operate like this anymore. We have to link arms to fight back and regain our communities back and the health of our communities back. Big government is not going to fix this issue. They could help fund a few things up until recently and- >>It’s local. You have to do it. >>It’s local. And I’ve had senators tell me that. And then we wanted to showcase that recovery does happen. You know, we hear about so much of the losses and that’s what’s in the headlines and it should be because it’s devastating to communities. But we wanted to show that we, you know, hope is still there and recovery does happen. And so we showcase in each film folks who have gone on to really use their lives to serve others in the issue and their leading vibrant lives past addiction.
Cynthia
20:49 – 20:53
Well, good. I’m so sorry we have to wrap it up. Because what you’re doing is fantastic and it’s great.
Speaker 4
20:53 – 20:56
So congratulations, bravo.
Cynthia
20:56 – 21:06
Thank you. You’re doing a Christmas market. Yay! But then which is, yeah, it helping artists like yourself. Actually, she go down there and pitch a tent. I’ll do that.
Lisa
21:07 – 21:12
And, um, yeah. This year. Maybe next, maybe the next year.
Cynthia
21:12 – 21:36
And then, um, and then of course you’re, yes, you’re helping spread the word about helping in the addicts and getting people into recovery. And, you know, so do yourself a favor and look up the addicts week. It’s very good. And, and, you know, if you have, know anyone who needs help, um, this documentary is really, um, a helping hand, I think. But Lisa Hall, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us.
Lisa
21:36 – 21:39
What a privilege. Oh my gosh. It was our pleasure. It was too, right? Yeah.
Cynthia
21:39 – 21:48
And first thing, happy Thanksgiving everyone, and eat as much as you want. Yes. Because that’s– And then come down and enjoy the market.
Lisa
21:48 – 21:49
That’s right, because that’s what it’s about,
Cynthia
21:50 – 22:22
and also being thankful every day for what you do have. And thank you for joining us for another episode of No Title Needed here at Feinstein’s Cabaret, and coming over for the holidays. They have some great stuff going on here. Oh, yeah. Great entertainment for the holidays going on here at Feinstein’s. almost every night. So thank you so much. And I am Cynthia Collins. And I am still Scott Osboys. God, love you. Thank you. Love you too. Thank you. Now it’s public. All right. Thanks so much and happy Thanksgiving.