We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeff Macolino. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeff below.

Jeff, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have battled depression throughout my life. After a particularly bad spell, I came to the realization, appropriately enough with a therapist, that if I continue to do the same thing over and over again that my life would not change for the better. I had a corporate job, and I was good at it. But it wore me down and I had turned into Ron Livingston’s character from Office Space – every day was the worst day of my life, and every day was worse than the day before. It was a vicious cycle, trying to kiss “the man’s” butt to succeed in the corporate world, even though whether I was a rock star or a below average employee, I saw little-to-no difference in what I got paid. And I had zero satisfaction about what I did on a daily basis.

I realized that I needed to find a career path that gave me satisfaction. One where I can pour myself into it, and put that above just getting the biggest paycheck possible. If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life.

I’ve always been a person who has ideas running through my head. And when I started writing these ideas out, I found more and more satisfaction as the story grew. I started The Jeff Macolino Podcast at the advice of some standup comedians who told me it would help me find my voice as a writer. I fell in love with talking to people, and many of these guests I now consider friends, and even better, several of them are working with me on other creative projects now.

And while I’m not yet a success story, I’ve started to make some money doing things that I love to do. I’ve had a couple big roles as an actor in feature films and I have plans to film a movie of my own in the next year.

Jeff, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

While it took me awhile to get into the entertainment industry, I’ve definitely spreading my wings across more and more things as I make more connections and continue to gain experience. The consistent cornerstone of what I’ve done has been The Jeff Macolino Podcast that launched in February 2021. I get the opportunity to meet people of all different backgrounds and areas of expertise and spend an hour or more talking to them. Many of these guests have turned into friends and/or partners in other projects that are coming down the road.

I also contribute to a website dedicated to covering Florida sports, FLTeams.com. I’ve had some great experiences with my alma mater USF, getting to cover games, interview coaches and players. I also met my buddy Jeremiah Hensley through that, and last year we launched a show called “Dads and Drinks Show” on YouTube. We’re working on making that even bigger and better in Season 2.

I have some moderate growth on the YouTube channel, where the lynchpin is “Drunk Jeff Eats” where I simply order new fast food items and eat and review them, while I may have had a few drinks. It’s fun, and frankly, it’s something I was doing without the cameras rolling, so why not turn it into content?

Through hard work, I’ve been able to land a couple of large roles in feature films that will be out in 2024, “Women Want Everything!” and “Haunted Happy Hour.” Both of these were great experiences where I met some wonderful people and gained valuable experience. As I move forward, I have several projects under development in film. Most of which I’m writing or co-writing and playing the lead role.

The thing that people come to me for is authenticity. I always want to tell the truth and I don’t feel the need to hide who I am or what I think. I have flaws, just like every single other human being out there. I don’t try to hide them. And I think the major sentiment I’ve received in anything I’ve done so far is that I make people feel comfortable because I don’t try to hide behind a façade like many people seeking the spotlight do. And that goes to speak for many of the sponsorships for the podcast I’ve accepted or declined – I don’t ever want to lose that sense of authenticity.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This might bother some people, but I had to unlearn the philosophy that I feel like inhabits most of our heads. When I started my corporate job at 23, my goal was to work for 40 years, then get to retire and enjoy the rest of my life. But when you step back and look at things you spend money on to distract you from the misery of how you spend the majority of your waking hours, you start to think differently.

I never intend to retire. I plan to do things that I enjoy, and make enough money to afford the necessities. If I can do that and I spend every day doing things that I enjoy, what reason would I ever have to retire? I learned to stop thinking inside the box and to find my passion.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the easiest thing is completely free and takes very little time. Like, subscribe, rate and review their content. Doesn’t even require that you watch/listen/read the content, though obviously if that’s free, that also would be a nice next step. I don’t expect my friends or family who never have listened to podcasts to start listening to mine. But I’d hope any that do give mine a fair shot.

And do yourself and aspiring creatives a favor and don’t just assume the more famous person provides better content. Look past the first page and into unknown authors, filmmakers, podcasts, etc. Unfortunately, creative aspects aren’t purely a meritocracy. People who start with more money or fame are going to have a major leg up in gaining an audience. That’s just the nature of social media and the landscape. Simply put, if you toss $100 into YouTube adverstising, you’ll get way more views and subscribers than you will if you don’t. That’s just the way the algorithm works.

But understand that some of the frills that come with bigger end content is because when you can afford to hire additional people instead of doing it all yourself, things can oftentimes be a little better.

And I definitely don’t mean that as discouragement to people who are wanting to get started who don’t have money or fame. It’s just going to take a lot more work, consistency and a willing to stick with it to get there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jeffmacolino.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saintjmac/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffmacolinopodcast/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaintJMac
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jeffmacolino

Image Credits
2 photos at Premiere (ones where I’m in the suit) – Photo credit to Richard Sloggett