From broadcast pioneer to independent producer, Jannelle So-Perkins uplifts untold stories of resilience
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Show Notes:
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Jannelle So-Perkins, CEO & Executive Producer at Jannelle So Productions, Inc., about her mission to spotlight immigrant stories and create meaningful representation in media. From launching the longest-running Filipino talk show outside the Philippines to producing hundreds of interviews, Jannelle shares her passion for uplifting voices often left behind by mainstream outlets.
About Jannelle So-Perkins
Jannelle So is a Filipino-American media pioneer, having created, hosted and produced America’s first and only locally-produced daily talk show for Filipinos. The show that aired on KSCITV-LA18 in Southern California and was syndicated in Hawaii on KIKU-TV, ran for 9 years under her leadership.
About Jannelle So Productions
SO Jannelle TV is a magazine talk show highlighting stories of immigration and representation, aiming to entertain and inspire the Filipino American and Global Filipino audience, hosted by Jannelle So, one of the 100 Most Influential Filipinas in the U.S. (Filipina Women’s Network). The show features stories of Filipino immigrants; personality profiles, community events and trends that highlight a variety of aspects of the Filipino lifestyle in North America.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Janelle, so Perkins on the line and she is. CEO and executive producer over at Janelle.
So Perkins, Inc. And this particular interview is part of our Mission Matters Milken Global conference series where we’re interviewing top guests and and attendees and experts that attended the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. And my guest today is Janelle, so Perkins.
So Janelle, welcome to the show. Hey, Adam, thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here. All right, so first thing, first, definitely like to talk about the Milken conference just a little bit. you were at the conference this year, is that right? Yes, my third year and ooh, third year. So we got a veteran.
We’re tied. This is my third year and looking forward to year four already. So, so tell me more, like what keeps you coming back Exactly. So I, First I am, well, I guess I covered different stories as well, so I mm-hmm am in the space of a Filipino, Filipino American, Asian communities and a good friend of mine who happens to be somebody in the Milken Institute organization.
His office is in Singapore, but he used to be ambassador of the Asian Development Bank to the Philippines. But he’s American. And so shout out to Curtis chin who started inviting me actually three years ago to this conference. We were both guests on a I guess it was a CNN Philippines news program at that time.
And while waiting in the waiting room for Zoom. That’s when we got acquainted and they told me about the global conference, and that was the, year that I first attended. And it’s, just amazing, you know, the coming together of people wanting to make the world a better place. I am specifically interested in, work-life balance, especially for women.
Mm-hmm. Parenting issues, immigration issues, as well as. Representation, which is what I do as well, where I provide through. So Janelle, so productions I provide platform for stories of immigration and representation. Hmm. tell a little bit more about that side of things. So about your production company, what, gave you the inspiration to start that and really to cover those type of stories?
Yeah, you know what, long before social media and this was many years ago, 2000, and I’m actually an immigrant myself, so that’s my lived experience. But in 2003 was when I moved to the States in 2006, I got the opportunity, I was hired by a local state here in Southern California to start and produce and host a daily talk show for and about Filipinos in the us.
Oh, wow. And so I, yeah, I, I did that. I like to trace my journey as it’s different. So it, started with immigration and then it became a profession for me to highlight these stories. And so, because there was no social media at that time I was kind of like the social media where, you know, I uplift stories and voices of Filipino immigrants and Asian immigrants.
And that was a daily talk show and it was eventually syndicated in Hawaii. Eventually it became the largest running Filipino talk show outside of the Philippines. But I took a break in 20 14. And I took a break. And then in 2017 was when I started my own production because as you know content is king and it’s ours, right?
if we’re hired by someone, we get to do, we get to execute somebody else’s vision. But when we do it ourselves, we are able to execute our own vision, which to me sounded more appealing. And really it’s more fulfilling. What draws you to telling these type of stories? Why do you think it’s so important tell them and to and for representation?
Like, tell, a little bit more about that. You know what? Great question, and thank you for asking me that. We, are in an age where everyone wants to talk about mainstream America. Everyone wants to talk about network tv, and everyone wants to get there, right? Mm-hmm. But there are nuggets of, of, wonderful, inspiring stories that get left behind that don’t get picked up by these mainstream outlets.
and I’m trying to stand in that gap. There are stories, for instance there’s an immigrant from the Philippines. He was a professor, a young professor in the national university in the Philippines. He came here took his chances, and wanted to stay. Unfortunately, he made a decision to overstay which opened him up to exploitation.
He was hired as a caregiver, was made to sleep on a dog bed all that stuff. But it didn’t stop him. He was so resilient. He looked for another job. So he escaped that situation. Looked for another job, found himself in the jewelry district in downtown la first as a. Custodians. So cleaning the floors with, like scraps of metal and stuff used for jewelry making.
Mm-hmm. Which he then used to design his own stuff. Wow. And then eventually the owner took notice and eventually, you know, he became one of the personal jewelry designers of Liz Taylor. Wow. And that’s how he got his citizenship. He was actually yeah, the Dame Liz Taylor and his and her team helped him get his legals.
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s stories like that, that mainstream doesn’t cover that, right. Or Yeah. This, you know, wonderful perform like accomplished performer from the Philippines as. Who moved here got tired of the showbiz life, being a life on the spotlight. In the spotlight. He moved here and became a truck driver.
Hmm. And was happy doing that. It’s just, a lot of these stories that are, to me really raw, really authentic, but also inspiring and encouraging. But like I said, there’s, only so many outlets and they usually just pick up the same stories with different perspectives. Mm. And these are the stories that get left behind.
And, I’m hoping to highlight those. That’s amazing. What kind of advice would you give to other content creators out there, like other individuals that are thinking about doing something and, you know, they just kind of haven’t quite gotten there, gotten around to it yet, but what, kind of things would you tell them?
It’s funny you ask that because I do feel like sometimes I still haven’t gotten my footing yet. Whatcha talking about, I’m looking at your website now. It’s amazing. You have an amazing catalog of interviews and content. Great brand. Amazing. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. And, and really we should talk offline and see, maybe we can collaborate some more, but I do, my advice is to really just get out there and focus on what speaks to you, because that’s mm-hmm.
That’s what you’ll be passionate about. So because I’m an immigrant, that’s my experience. I am passionate about the immigrant experience, especially now with what’s going on, not to be political or anything. Mm-hmm. But there’s just a lot of nuances around it. A lot of these human lives. And these are human stories of survival and surviving the way they know how.
There’s a lot that that’s goes into it as well, and I want to highlight that. So my advice is really just to find out what speaks to you the most and just keep telling the story. Keep telling the story because everyone loves a good story, right? Especially stories of resilience and stories of.
Success. Success is not, is never overnight. So when you talk about stories of success of people, how they struggled and how they eventually succeeded, these are the kinds of things that I think are good for us, are good for the humanity, especially during this time when all we see are just it’s stories that are either sensationalized stories that are.
Really sad stories that are scary, that scare us, Yeah, yeah. I see that. And in terms of, obviously you’ve done, how many interviews have you done now? ’cause I see a ton of them. You’ve been doing this for a long time. Roughly how, how many interviews would you say you’ve done roughly just roughly.
Oh my gosh, I’ve forgotten count. When I was doing my old show because a daily show, it was show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Monday to Friday, I would interview at least one guest a day, and I never took a break. During the holidays, I would show up. I don’t know. That’s what, seven, nine and a half. Eight and a half years.
Wow. Wow. So you’re thousands of episodes in I love it. Yes. This is great. Yes, I love that. And the reason I ask that question too is because, you know, you’ve been doing this for years and it takes time to build a catalog, but it’s amazing to be able to look back and to highlight those stories and. Really all those people that you’ve interviewed, and especially you’re doing immigrant stories I mean, you become part of their legacy, but they also become part of yours.
And that, brain trust. At one, point in time, we didn’t have the ability to tell our own stories, right? Yes. And other people wrote our history for us. So the reason I bring this out is because for other content creators out there, like get in the game, like make something, do something.
You don’t have to have a, beautifully curated platform like Janelle’s. Her, her, when you go to her website, you’ll see it. It’s amazing. And you can see that she’s been a lot of work and effort was put into that. But on my end, when I started, Janelle, just so you know mm-hmm. I started on my cell phone and I didn’t even edit episodes.
My first 300 episodes where you can’t even call it a show, just call it recorded conversations. Adam upload it. But we built it and I love, yeah, we built a platform though from that and an audience, and that was our start. And everybody’s gotta start somewhere. So I like to encourage other content creators out there that if you have a goal, if you have a dream, like go out there and make that content.
You don’t have to. To like look at Janelle and be like, oh, it has to be like that. Or, look at me if you think my content’s gonna say, oh, why Adam can do it. But I, no way. 300 episodes not even edited at all. Janelle, no music, nothing. And so if I can do it, you can do it. Right. And then I was also gonna say, Adam, I, no topic is taboo.
Yeah. No topic is taboo. I remember years ago when I was doing the show, my old show with the daily one I talked about domestic violence and mm-hmm. Years later years later, there’s this woman and I had just, I was taking my break at that time. She sent me an email out of the blue and said something about how she was a victim of domestic violence.
Mm-hmm. And she was, you know, at the end of her ropes. She didn’t know what to do. She was the one day after one beating incident, she was black and blue. The, the house was dim. Apparently she turned on the tv which she was always watching. But that particular day I was talking about domestic violence and.
I put a number on the screen for like a helpline, right? And she, recorded the number. A few days later, she found the courage to call the number. She got out, she got out of her abuser. She went back to school. When she emailed me, she already a CPA and yeah, living a, thriving life.
Remarried to a wonderful man and she wanted to reach out to tell me that, how. that one show changed your life really. Mm. And it’s things like that. And, and this is also another advice for content creators. Just, just do, like I said, because you don’t know whose lives you’re affecting.
Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Well, Janelle, I’ll tell you, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today and learning more about your background and you know, what, drives and motivates you. That being said, if somebody’s watching or listening to this, and if they wanna follow up and learn more and connect with you and your team and to follow your platform and your content, of course, how do they do that?
Yes. So a website. Thank you so much for your kind words about the website on Triple W dot janelle. so.com, so janelle.com. S-O-J-A-N-N-E-L-L e.com, COM, and also on Instagram at so janelle tv, so S-O-J-A-N-N-E-L-L-E TV like television. Fantastic from everybody listening to this.
Just so you know, we’ll put the links in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Janelle, thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you so much, Adam. I, I wish you more success. Good luck with everything.
