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🎙️ EPISODE 44 — "Entering In"
Featuring Krissy Buck, Chair of Digital Wichita

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This episode is sponsored by Vu Events! Jovana Vu and her team make events feel like actual events — corporate gatherings, milestone celebrations, weddings, and everything in between. Find them at vueventplanning.com or @vueventplanning on socials.

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AI isn't coming. It's already here — and it's entering in whether you're ready or not.

Jen and Rachel are live at WSU Tech's NCAT Campus with their friend of nine years, Krissy Buck — Chair of Digital Wichita and Director of the ShockStarter program at WSU Tech. What started as a conversation about AI-powered marketing turned into something bigger: a story about showing up, building community, and what it actually looks like to bring emerging technology to the middle of the country without leaving anyone behind.

Also: tabs. So many tabs.

🚀 DIGITAL DAY 2026 — June 18 & 19 | Wichita, KS
Mission Control: AI-Powered Marketing for the Modern Brand

This year isn't about why you should use AI. It's about how — with actionable steps you can implement the moment you leave NCAT. Speakers include Luis Rodriguez, Angie Callen, Mike Allton, Brian Piper, Dennis Yu, Jeff Sieh, Scott Simson, Mandy McEwen, and Michael King.

Day 1 (June 18): Full day summit at WSU Tech's NCAT Campus
Day 2 (June 19): Hands-on AI Agent Workshop with Dennis Yu at Groover Labs — limited to 100 seats!

🎟️ Get tickets at digitalwichita.com

📖 Want to prep before you go? Read the Digital Day Dispatch newsletter on LinkedIn every Thursday — we're breaking down each speaker and what they're covering.

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IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Krissy's origin story — from nervous attendee to Chair of Digital Wichita
→ What ShockStarter is and why it matters for Wichita's future
→ Why Social Media Day had to become Digital Day
→ How to start small with AI (SpongeBob's resume is involved)
→ The tabs open situation that got completely out of hand
→ The wedding party reveal that connects all the dots

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FIND KRISSY:
TikTok: @MidwestCottageKS
LinkedIn: Krissy Buck
Digital Wichita: @digitalwichita

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BEFORE YOU GO:
🛍️ Merch is live — Uncorked and Slightly Unhinged & Messy is My Polished (10% of profits go to Ballet Wichita 🩰)
📲 Subscribe on Spotify & YouTube
💜 Thank you to our sponsor Vu Events — vueventplanning.com

So THIS happened. 🥂

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No guest. Just Jen and Rachel, a bottle of rosé, some very big news, and the return of one of the OG segments.

Episode 43 has a lot going on: Jen paid off her student loans (HALLELUJAH). The Trend Decoder made its triumphant comeback. The whole Cole family had a Music Man moment. And Rachel officially became a Swifty — live on air. Reputation precedes her, indeed.

📱 TREND DECODER IS BACK

Listener Tracy requested the comeback and we delivered. Jen reads each trend cold, Rachel guesses what it means, and then we riff. Rachel has zero prep. That is the whole point.

Trend #1 — “Hallelujah”: Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance spawned this wholesome gratitude trend — list things you love, add “hallelujah.” We made our own list on air. Top entries: paid off my student loans, cold pillow at bedtime, perfectly poured glass of wine, and chicken wings landing in ranch. (Rachel’s contribution. No notes.)

Trend #2 — “My Top 5 Horror Stories”: Not actual horror films — people list real-life fears and everyday icks that feel like a horror movie. Rachel’s guesses went immediately to being eaten alive and trapped underground cannibalism. She got there eventually. Two points out of three.

Trend #3 — The NYT Taylor Swift Interview: The New York Times Magazine named Taylor one of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters. In a 30-minute video interview, she talked songwriting, rant bridges, and how Reputation didn’t land until 6–7 years later — specifically calling out “...Ready For It?” Which, not coincidentally, is tonight’s Hits Different song.

🎉 THE BIG PERSONAL WIN

Jen paid off her undergraduate student loans today. First thing this morning. After nearly 20 years. She sat with it for a minute. We all should.

🎻 THE MUSIC MAN — A WEEKEND IN TWO ACTS

Tim’s favorite musical came to Broadway in Wichita. Friday night: Jen and Tim went, then debriefed over cocktails at Goldfinch. Saturday: Tim’s mom Brenda, Jen’s sons Nick and Nathan, and Tim’s son Riley and his girlfriend Hailey all went together — followed by a family dinner at Sabor (get the salmon). Nathan is the theater kid fresh off a Broadway trip to NYC. Nicholas plays trumpet in band. The Music Man was made for this exact family moment.

Shoutout to our local loves: Broadway in Wichita, Goldfinch, and Sabor.

🎵 HITS DIFFERENT: “...Ready For It?” — Taylor Swift

From Reputation (2017). Assigned to Rachel. Timed perfectly with the NYT interview drop.

Rachel’s take: queen energy, the bass drop kills, and it should be licensed to EDM shows with laser lights immediately. She is filing this under party songs that hit. Also: she officially declared herself a Swifty. We knew this would happen.

Jen’s take: hype song since day one. Volume all the way up. Not six or seven years — since the beginning.

📣 BEFORE YOU GO

• Request a Hits Different song — drop it in our comments or DMs!
• Merch is live: Uncorked and Slightly Unhinged & Messy is My Polished (10% to Ballet Wichita 🩰)
• New merch dropping this summer — we have an inkling.
• Next episode: Krissy Buck, Chair of Digital Wichita, joining us live from WSU Tech’s NCAT campus for everything Digital Day 2026.

Follow + subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.

🥂 And we’ll see you next time

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Episode 42 is a just-us episode — and honestly? Those are some of our favorites. Road trips, boutique hotels, anniversary adventures, Record Store Day, and Taylor Swift's "Elizabeth Taylor." Also Easy Cheese. There's a whole Easy Cheese moment. Just go with it.

🎲 This or That: Travel & Adventure Edition

Travel and adventure themed this week — and the conversations went exactly where you'd expect (and several places you wouldn't).

🚗 Road Trip Rituals & The Magic of Going Somewhere

Jen has been on the road two weekends in a row — Oklahoma City and then Kansas City for her and Tim's second anniversary. There's something about being in a car, she said, that makes everything feel more honest.

Rachel also reminded us all of the legendary Unwritten rain window moment from the girls' trip to see Hannah. If you know, you know. 🌧️

🍺 Brewery Hopping as a Love Language
A thing Jen forgot to mention during road trip rituals — and then immediately remembered:

Tim and I always, always stop at breweries on our road trips. If it's a lunch stop, it's a brewery with food. If it's a bathroom stop, we're finding a brewery on the way.

🏨 The Aida Hotel, Kansas City — A Full Gush

Jen booked a one-bedroom suite at the Aida Hotel in Kansas City's arts district (just around the corner from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, home of the famous giant shuttlecocks — more on that in a moment).

The Aida also has a sister hotel called the Truitt. Both are highly, highly Jen-approved.

🏸 The Shuttlecock Situation (It's Fine, It's Fine)

So. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is famous for its giant badminton shuttlecock sculptures on the lawn.

Jen mentioned them. Rachel did not know that shuttlecock was the actual name for the birdie in badminton. A brief but enthusiastic vocabulary lesson followed. Several things were said that cannot be unsaid.

🎶 Hits Different: "Elizabeth Taylor" — Taylor Swift

This week's song: "Elizabeth Taylor" from Taylor Swift's Life of a Showgirl album, chosen by Jen in honor of the Record Store Day release.

💿 Record Store Day Victory

Mills Records in Kansas City is known for over-ordering Taylor Swift releases on Record Store Day. Jen has now successfully scored two vinyl records there:

• Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (several years ago)
• Elizabeth Taylor — the special Record Store Day single (this weekend ✅)

📣 Before You Go

• Got a Taylor Swift song you want Rachel to react to? Send it our way 🎶
• Thinking about Kansas City? The Aida Hotel. You're welcome.
• Want to be a guest on the pod? We're always open — reach out!
• Merch is live — Uncorked and Slightly Unhinged & Messy is My Polished (10% of profits go to Ballet Wichita 🩰)

And as always...

🏸 Shuttlecocks are real and they are hilarious

🥂 Cheers to the chaos

💖 And we'll see you next time

So THIS happened.

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