3 .
All right , this is the walk and talk podcast , and I'm your host , carl Fiedini , still at the World Food Championship in Dallas , texas , and we're having a blast . I finally got to eat . I am thrilled because , guess what ? It has been a chef . It has been a long , stinking time , but I have been fed and I am happy , all right .
So what we have and I'm you know , jeff , by the way , I have been missing everything around here yeah , you just just like Brian Duff , mark Henry , everybody yeah , I did eat those kind of a . You know where it's worth it .
You heard what I said if you ask the close , you want to do this . Yeah , you to do that .
Yeah , I get it , I get it All right . So I mean , I don't know if you know this , but we have some , like some Texas royalty here . I'm just saying we have the miss rodeo Texas 2020 . 3 . Riley Johnson how ? Are you , I'm good . How are you all doing ?
And if I was any better at the U , yeah , but you know , but the Harry you know to me a little different .
How long have you been out here ?
Tuesday right . Yeah , when we have the debauchery happen on Tuesday yeah , you know so you real quick is this is kind of apropos to the whole where's bucky , where's yet ? Oh , he's right there . See that kid , see him . His name is Jacob . Real nice kid . His new name is bucky .
Okay , like after bucky's this know , like , like after he had all our equipment inside the , the express van and he had a .
He had a buck and we didn't get the equipment to . The next day was a whole whole thing and we've got a new name . So passing that how do you get involved in this rodeo , Texas ? I what that's really cool . Yes , how did you get into it ?
So I got involved . It was an . I attended the Houston rodeo the year that the miss rodeo Texas was Bobby Loran and I saw her and I was like I want to do that . And I grew up on the rodeo circuit . My father professionally steer wrestled for many years and brothers right , my brothers are just getting into their high school age . I'm the oldest of 4 .
But my dad rodeo on the CP are in UPRA circuits and there's not a ton of rodeo queens out there , so I didn't really see that .
But when I went to the Houston rodeo and saw the lady who is miss rodeo Texas , like I want to do that , and so literally on the way home from the rodeo I Google like the requirements to be miss rodeo Texas and I was like I could do that and so I signed myself up , got myself a coach , and then I was like , hey , mom and dad , I'm going to do this .
And they're like okay , all right , great .
I heard that one of the requirements is you had a wrestle , a dog , like you had a fight , like you had to fist fight . It is that true ?
I don't know where that would be at . No , I'm kidding .
So All right , what so you , now that you're miss rodeo Texas , right , miss rodeo Texas is what do you have to do on a circuit ? Right , you got to go around to stuff , right ?
I mean , I stay primarily within the Texas area , just because Texas is its own circuit , it's a rodeo circuit . It's one of the few states that is its own rodeo circuit and so I stay pretty busy all year long . It'd be nice to travel to other states just to get to see that . My fellow state Queens , but Texas keeps me very busy .
I have gotten to travel outside of state to Colorado and to Cheyenne , wyoming , nice . Other than that I stay in Texas . I love .
Colorado . Colorado is probably my second favorite state really was the first one for Florida . I'm very partial to Florida . I will tell you that where I grew up , in Florida . We had it was . It was a southern town , is the town of Davey .
You know where I'm talking about we didn't know each other growing up and we're like one or two people removed , so this place in David's a bird bird you're on .
Yeah , but John first on farm ground .
Yeah , and we , you know we always grew up with the . You know there's always rodeo is going on . There's really cool . I never thought that I would be involved in it , yeah , you know , but we used to go . Watch is really really cool . So you have some causes that you , that you kind of tell , talk about it .
So , as a rodeo queen , our job is just promote and advocate for the sport of rodeo and just kind of teach people about it .
You know , as a rodeo queen , in general , the way that we're dressed and we present ourselves and carry ourselves draws attention and so naturally if people approach you and just kind of want to learn about what it is that you do or why it is that you're dressed the way that you are , and so that's a good opportunity for us to just talk about it and being
here I'm obviously not in a traditional rodeo setting but I'm getting to talk about it and spread . You know what I get to do as Miss rodeo Texas personally . My platformer , like what I represent and preach throughout my year , is just advocating and highlighting individuals within the rodeo community who are exceptional .
So I highlight exceptional individuals being veterans , military personnel , disabled individuals , individuals with special needs and things like that .
Right . So that's amazing and that's awesome and it's you know , we need really we , as society speaking , we need more of that . You know , one of the things Jeff brings to the Walk and Talk media is his advocacy for mental health awareness . You know , we also advocate for farmers agriculture .
You know , believe it or not , in Florida , where we come from , where I grew up , we had a dairy farm on the corner . We had the orange groves right next door . I mean it was pretty rural .
Yeah , it was really cool , and you know to be , to come kind of this far in life and to kind of , you know , kind of go back and to be able to do something to help that community , you know , just by awareness .
Now , yeah , sir , I know it's really cool , I enjoy it and speaking just like from a personal perspective , like when it comes to mental health and mental health awareness , like that is one thing that I will say .
Like the western industry probably just needs more education , especially people who are settled into like traditional values , because I know , like back whenever my dad was a kid , like that wasn't a thing , like you know . So just highlighting and creating awareness is a good thing .
Yeah , now you have to search for that , or it used to be kind of just be there , now you have to look for it and hope everybody else is looking for it too . Yes , sir , alright , so we're at a food competition . Yes , sir , right , and let's talk about food . What is your favorite ? It could be something you had at a restaurant , something from the .
You know me , mom , mom , you gave me the list earlier , so what you got ?
So my some of my I have like three favorite foods . My first one is homemade chicken and dumplings . But either I actually showed my dad how to make it the way I like it . So the way I like it is my favorite .
Was that right ?
And then sushi , love sushi , sushi and sashimi . And then homemade burgers . You can't be a homemade like girl on the back pork burger .
Did I hear something about chicken and dumplings ?
Well , first of all , you know , I'm checking each one of them boxes because I'm all about the dumplings , I'm all about the sushi and you know , obviously , you see , you see my waistline . I'm all about the burgers too . So when we're finished , jeff's going to show you . We did a photo . He actually made some chicken dumplings .
Stupid delicious . It's plant-based actually .
Oh , that's so cool 100% plant-based .
Very cool , I am .
Michelle .
Owens .
I am giving the what is it firewood and jambon ? No kidding . So very cool and we did a photo shoot on that , on that dish , Amazing , Amazing , and it correlated with the podcast episode two or three .
Yeah , that's cool .
So if you were going to choose grandma and a potato cheese , a street corn and a peanut chowder , this is my fourth year at the World Food Championships . If .
I had to pick like one to eat every day , I'd probably pick like sushi , just because you can mix it up and they're like one of my only things that I'll actually eat as leftovers , like it won't just go mold in the fridge , I'll actually eat it .
Would you see what she did ? Would you try ? And you see what ?
you did there , would you eat it for breakfast , though ? That's a true sushi kind of store .
Actually I probably would . Yeah , okay , there we go .
Some of them are really yummy I got you , I got you on that one .
You know , whatever you're eating , if you can't eat it for breakfast , you'll be happy with it . Get rid of it , but like a breakfast burger .
Yeah , you can't eat a breakfast burger , come on man , especially with an egg cracked on top .
Let me marry AOE yeah .
You're blocking on the side . You know , no matter how much that I consume and food , I always seem to save room for more . You know , true story , it's true .
It's the truest thing ever Not even sticks . It's true . You love the agriculture , to obviously check my livestock one two one technological Advancements are really helping push the agricultural Category up to the next level .
I Would really say that I feel like social media does a good job of that . The social media has a lot of like pros and cons , so it's kind of hard to advocate for social media .
But in the world of agriculture , I feel like social media does a really good job of reaching and networking other people who aren't involved in that industry and then also , like as a radio queen , our job is to talk about and advocate for not just radio but agriculture and livestock and where our food comes from you know I would I want to do with you .
I want to introduce you to a really good friend of mine . His name is Patrick Kelly and he he's got a podcast it . I Looked at what he was doing and kind of , you know , I've we do different things , but he was a . He was a I don't want to say mentor , no but I took a lot from what he was doing and I enjoyed it and it's in our in our show .
Yes so he's , he has a podcast called the produce industry Podcasts and it's all about farms and you know , fruit and veg and the house stuff grown and it's really cool . He's in Florida too , but obviously you know , yes , so I would love to set that up and I feel like it would be a great interview . And his following is like Stupid , ridiculously large .
Yeah , not as much as ours , though , because we're number one . He's like a hundred . I think it was like a number 57 the other day . Yeah we roll around with only , you know , only high-rolling podcast is here .
Okay , so I'm just saying Like young women that will look up to you , obviously . How does that ? Balance with , like you mentioned , social media and there's that pro and con . How do you Shut that ? And what would you tell the younger self or somebody who was it gonna be inspiring to you when they grow up ?
I would just say like , really and truly . I know it's hard and it's a mental battle , but really and truly , try not to compare yourself to those on social media Just because it really really does like . They have this , why can't I have that ? They look like this , why can't I look like that ?
So Everybody is .
But just gonna fight .
Maybe drawing on what they're doing or reaching out and being like , hey , what is it that you're doing to achieve this ? But not fully comparing yourself to them is is a really thing , is a thing that I've had to just kind of talk to myself about because I was In that cycle of comparing myself .
And then a column of social media like I have a personal connection because I've personally , like , self-harmed or committed suicide because of cyber bullying and because of social Negatives and the positive and seeing how much it has helped rodeo Queen and grow and how much it's helped the agriculture and rodeo industry and things Like that and how it can take a small
local business and spread it nationwide .
Thank you for that because I know I could see the emotional pain in you and when you said that and it's really deep . But the problem I think in our society is that we don't talk enough about mental health and that's why it's such a big Advocate of it .
I think the more we tell our stories , the more we can actually touch somebody's life to realize and say , oh my god , look at her , she's a queen of the rodeo and she's talking about this and I think thank you so much for bringing it to the forefront . But moving forward with agriculture , I mean , I'm a voice before .
And we don't have rodeo , so he had about David . Somebody like I'm gonna fly . I want to see this I'm in Texas .
The big ones that really intruly just kind of put on the show and afterwards I have Because it's one of the most you know personal , but overall , like it's hard to pick a real Favorite because they're all captivating in their own way and they all stem from traditional values as a way .
These Female Right .
It's not like it's a sport where they train it's a .
It's a lifestyle , because that's what they do on the farm .
Yes , well , sometimes . So some people they do it traditional like they do . They might go out on the ranch and Everyday and then just go rodeo . But a lot of the people who put a lot of money and like what's went into it , they might not be out in the pasture but they're gonna be in the arena Practicing every day .
The rodeo industry has become so competitive that you really is you and your animal partner like your partner . You truly be like the top athletes .
So I look at that the same way . There's me and my Right because you know we have to . We have to be on our game . So , how does , how does ? How do we find you ? I know where you are right now , but how does everybody else find you ?
So you can find us on social media , on either Facebook or Instagram . You can type in miss rodeo Texas and our pages Will come up and we also have a miss rodeo Texas Facebook Like website web address . So if you just type in miss rodeo Texas , like in your Google search engine will pop up and you can learn more about what we do .
And then my two counterparts as well . So there's miss rodeo Texas , miss rodeo Texas teen and miss rodeo Texas princess . So we represent three different age groups . It's not just me , some state title , some , some states only have a miss , but we are lucky enough to have all three , so you can learn about my , my two girls as well .
My daughter would want to be that ? Yeah , not mine . Mine was always there . She doesn't want anyone looking at her . She's one of those that just wants to be in the background . She'll take .
I must be a mechanic . I'll be honest with you . Ooh , that'd be cool . Mine will take any sort of princess , whatever . Like she'll take the no . No , be like princess .
And there is a Miss Rodeo Florida so she could Is that right ?
Yes , I'd met her . Well , that's cool , all right .
Listen , wait what you have to get one of those hats that she has that she put on the counter Right there on the table Right . You have to see that Texas emblem .
Yeah , you want to hold it up , yeah .
Well , you can turn around and watch them . Look at it . It's got glitter and rhinestone on it . You need a hat like that , buddy .
I don't . I mean , you're here in Dallas .
I'm sure they've got plenty of hats . You could go pick yourself up one .
I have you know you're Well , you ain't lying . Wait , wait , wait wait , I'd rather get the buckle , yeah , well , yeah , those are pretty cool .
White hats , though , are getting harder and harder to find . People don't really make a lot of white hats , so they're kind of a hot commodity .
No , kidding really . Well , all right , I'll Amazon it and see if there's something there .
You know what I mean ? You're in the place where it's made , bro . Yeah , I'm saying , but they've probably got a store here .
They're going out of the Fort Worth .
Stockyards and you can find endless amounts . You can go pick . I am Dead out .
I am not lazy in life , but I don't want to go shopping . I'll just order it .
Most men don't want to go shopping . That's what I'm saying .
If you give me a credit card , I'll need you to pull out a I bet , yeah , no , yeah , get in line , get in line . There's a lot of that going on . So , anyway , I want the buckle , I really want the buckle .
I've got some hookups for that . Who can make you a custom one ?
Oh really , oh yeah , Can I get one with a lock and toggle ?
Yeah , my princess Peyton Robertson . Her dad professionally makes belt buckles , so he can make you one custom .
All right , so we're going to pull .
I got you . I have one , wait , wait , I've got the digits . I guess , you have .
Okay , yeah , all right , mr Producer , if you will . All right , riley Johnson , you are Super cool . I was going to .
I was , you know , yeah , super , super cool , and I wish you the best , and if there's anything we can do to help you promote yourself and promote agriculture and all the stuff that you hold dear for you , that you're working on , we'll stay in contact , let us know . Thank you very much . Thanks for being on the program .
Awesome , this is so cool . Thank you so much for having me . Thank you , riley .
Thank you so much what you called me Kylie , I did not . I did not . I didn't say Kylie at all . You want to Put it back ? Put it back . I said thank you kindly , oh kindly , man , I tell you what Good name . Now save my ass . You can go ahead and go . Look at that . Roll the tape , roll it , you're fired . Get out of here . No wait , don't go .
Good night .