Mosheh Oinounou on True News

Mosheh Oinounou is an Emmy, Murrow, and Webby Award-winning Executive Producer. He worked in traditional news for quite some time. He was actually the youngest ever executive producer of the CBS Evening News in 2018 and 2019, where he led more than 150 people and covered everything from the war on Isis to natural disasters to mass shootings to presidential interviews. It seemed as though Mosheh was heading in the traditional media place where he was becoming a rock star and working on his craft and earning a title, something he had dreamt about when he was a little kid. And then some things changed. He went in a completely different direction. And so, this conversation is going to be about identity, it’s going to be about entrepreneurship, and it’s going to be about the future of our media and the way we consume information. He currently is the President of both Mo Digital and Mo News, where they provide a variety of outlets for us to digest content. One of the places where he plays a lot is on Instagram, where they share stories in the stories side of Instagram. They constantly are sharing interesting information and trying to give a true experience, a trustworthy experience, in a landscape where many of us have lost our faith in the news. Mo also has a wonderful newsletter, he’s a great follow on social media, and I think anywhere that our media is going and trending towards in the future generations, Mo is going to be there delivering us the news. One thing to bring up before we get into today’s conversation: we do talk about politics in today’s conversation, I share some of my questions and hesitancies, and I do want to make it clear that I will be voting in the election and I think it’s something that all of us should take seriously and we talk about that in today’s conversation. And whoever you decide to vote for, hopefully you take advantage of that democratic right.

Mosheh had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“It’s an incredible challenge to try to fit the world into 20 minutes each night at 6:00 pm” (6:45).

“I wanted some semblance of control over what I did” (8:05).

“It was my identity [at the time]. Who am I if I’m not the CBS Executive Producer?” (8:55).

“Running the evening news was the most stressful, least happy, I’d ever been” (9:15).

“My career was my relationship for most of my 20s and my 30s” (14:45).

“I had imposter syndrome very quickly as I tried to do my own thing” (18:20).

“It took me a while post-CBS to navigate the wilderness and figure out what value I bring, what I learned, and why I, as Mosheh, even independent of an organization, brought value to various companies and clients” (19:05).

“I’m in a unique situation because I’m the owner, the General Manager, the coach, and the player” (20:00).

“I like being the player because I’m the owner” (20:30).

“One of my frustrations was our lack of transparency with the consumer” (28:10).

“Projecting that you’re human is so incredibly important” (30:40).

“The only profession mentioned in the Bill of Rights here in this country is the press” (32:30).

“Some people in the media have sort of gotten high on their own power” (33:15).

“We try to be transparent about our biases” (37:50).

“I want to present the news to you like a friend talking to you at lunch” (40:45).

“[I’m] using the data to inform what I’m doing, not necessarily as a bible so to speak, but more of like a modern bible; let’s interpret it as opposed to using it in a declarative way” (46:50).

“As humans, we struggle dealing with crises that aren’t acute” (50:40).

“If we take for granted what we have, when we lose it it’s hard to get back” (54:50).

“You want to feel more engaged in the process? Get more engaged in the process” (56:40).

“You’re only able to digest a certain amount of information” (1:01:20).

Additionally, you can find the Mo News website here where you can also find access to them on all platforms (YouTube, Newsletter, Podcast, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram).

Thank you so much to Mosheh for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.