Greg Trimmer, a Lansing Community College student, shares his inspiring journey into the world of media and entertainment in this episode of LCC Connect. After initially pursuing a path as a youth pastor, he realized that it was not his true calling, leading him to take a break from school and eventually return to LCC to find his passion. Now, he is set to launch his own podcast, "Front Row, Backstage," where he aims to highlight the hard work of individuals i.n the entertainment industry. Greg reflects on the supportive community at LCC and the pivotal moments that helped him discover his purpose in media. Listeners can look forward to engaging conversations and insights from various guests in his upcoming show, showcasing the vibrant connections within the industry.

Related Podcast: Front Row, Backstage

Since then, we've expanded to offer more than 25 podcasts, all of which are hosted by members of Lansing Community College or community activists.

I'm Bedelian, the general manager of LCC Connect, and on this episode of behind the Connection, we feature a conversation with an LCC student who literally walked through the front door of our studios.

And then he told me he was interested in creating a podcast.

Greg Trimmer is his name and his show revolves around his passion for all things media and entertainment.

The podcast is called Front Row Backstage, and it premieres on LCC Connect Tuesday, January 28th.

And now it's time to delve behind the scenes and find out what's happening behind the connection.

Why exactly did you decide to start your college career here at Lansing Community College?

That's not supposed to be a funny question.

No, for me, it's a little bit interesting.

So when I was getting done with high school, I thought for sure that my purpose was to become a youth pastor.

Okay.

Okay.

And man, was I wrong.

So did you start down that path?

Yes.

Okay.

I spent a year at Great Lakes Christian College.

Uh huh.

After that year, man, did I find out that that plan was wrong.

Why exactly did you find out that it was wrong?

It just was not like a life in that world.

I just wasn't made for it.

It wasn't.

It just wasn't.

Like, I was so sure coming out of high school that this was the passion that was going to take me through the rest of my life.

And after a year at college, I just realized it just wasn't.

I don't have a major answer as to why it just didn't feel right.

It just didn't feel right.

It just wasn't like, you know, when you're doing something and you just feel complete and utter peace that that's exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

I'm still working on that, but sure, yeah, right.

Like, no, yeah, I do know where you're going with this.

I just didn't.

As if.

It's as if it's.

It was the opposite of that.

For the entire year I was at that.

It just didn't.

It didn't fit.

Yes.

Yeah.

What I understand you're trying to say is just basically there's times where you get into a place like, I will say that where I'm here, you know, being here at lcc Connect.

It feels like a good fit.

These are things that I have interest in.

They're things I do well and I enjoy it.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

And so you weren't getting that vibe from there?

No.

And so after that, I took a year off of school and just kind of floundered.

I didn't feel a purpose.

I didn't know a purpose.

I was just working dumb, random part time jobs.

Yeah.

At restaurants and stuff that I just.

It just wasn't like I was just floundering.

I didn't have a purpose.

I didn't know what I was doing with my Life.

It's community college.

Let's call it inexpensive.

Inexpensive.

Cheap is a bad word.

Cheap is a bad word.

It's a bad word because I feel like, I mean.

Cause I also attended Lansing Community College and I do feel like it's got a good educational system.

Yeah.

Like LCC is, in my opinion, even from friends I've talked to out of state, is probably the best community college in this country.

That's awesome to know.

Inexpensive is the better word.

And I buy any.

Cheap has a bad.

I'm not trying to prop up lcc.

I'm just saying.

I mean, my experience was good here.

Cheap tends to have a bad connotation.

But inexpensive, inexpensive.

And I came here because it was inexpensive.

And I just had this feeling.

I'm like, all right, I can't just keep floundering like this.

I have to do something.

I had no idea what I was doing.

I just came here and started taking basic classes.

And I got here and I spent a semester here and I had no passion or care whatsoever because I didn't know what I was doing.

I had no purpose for being here.

And I failed every single class that I took.

Oh, really?

That semester?

Really?

I am sorry to hear that.

And then from there, that didn't give.

You that same vibe though.

Like you're like, man, this isn't a good fit for me either.

It wasn't necessarily that.

It was just that, like, I recognized that that semester here at LCC was really just like I was just jumping into it before I had any, like plans to move to the future.

I didn't have any trajectory.

I just jumped back into school because I was tired of floundering in the way that I was.

Right after that I was on academic probation and I just didn't come back.

And I took the next almost four years off after that.

I knew my purpose was in media and entertainment.

What was the click there?

So I spent that time probably a year here in Lansing and then two years in Battle Creek and then came back to Lansing and was here for another year of that, four years.

So I've been doing media and entertainment stuff here and there since high school.

Yeah, I was in theater in high school, but there are also some shows when I wasn't in the show that I was doing tech for the shows.

Behind backstage, behind the scenes.

So I knew I've been doing that stuff off and on.

Did you maintain that part of your life in that four years you took the break between lcc?

Yes, I ended up at a church in Meadow Creek called Woodland Church.

And I got connected with two people there, Thane Asaro, and I can't remember Morgan's last name, but also with him.

And they taught me how to use a light board, they taught me how to program lights.

I started learning more sound stuff there.

So really, these two were instrumental in helping you to get to the point of realizing that this is kind of the direction you wanted to go.

So the very exact pivotal moment is I was sitting down and it was my first ever time Morgan was on vacation.

Okay.

And it was my first ever time programming the lighting show for that Sunday from beginning to end, all on my fruition.

I decided it based on what I felt from the songs that were being played and stuff.

Like, it was my first time programming it all by myself from beginning to end and designing the entire thing.

And I found myself sitting there about an hour into it and I just had this overwhelming feeling.

It was that feeling I was talking about earlier.

It was just this overwhelming feeling of this is what you're supposed to be doing.

This is it.

Now, did the fact that you were doing that in a faith based situation, did that feel like that added to that?

I mean, to an extent.

I mean, my beliefs aside, like, it was simply just a.

It simply just was what I was supposed to be doing, right?

I mean, to an extent, yes.

But, like, I just knew, like it was just this overwhelming feeling.

And from there things just grew and grew and grew.

And then.

And this is what brought me back to Lansing.

I got a call one day from a friend named Cameron Spies.

He said, hey, I go to this church in Holt and I am on the, like, staff there.

He was the young adults director.

Okay.

And he was like, we really need somebody to run sound this Sunday.

We don't have anybody to do it, they'll probably pay you to come out.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm game.

And he's like, all right, cool.

Rehearsals in 30 minutes.

And I'm like, all right.

So I hop in the.

I didn't have a vehicle at the time.

I borrowed my uncle's truck.

I hop in the truck and I drive to Holt, and I go to this rehearsal.

And they had me come out two other times after that where they paid me over the next couple months.

And on the third time at the Thursday night rehearsal, a guy named Blake, he's like, all right, when are you gonna make the switch over here permanently?

And I was like, I don't know.

I'm, you know, here.

I have this life here with this church in Battle Creek.

And he's like, well, I need somebody that can come on.

He's like, it would be an unpaid position, but I need somebody that can come on and be in charge of our sound team and help develop it more.

So I just sat and I thought and thought and thought and thought over and over.

And I made the decision to step out on a limb and do that.

And that was great for a little while, but.

May I ask a question real quick?

So were you getting paid for the gig in Battle Creek then or not?

Okay.

Okay.

All right, go ahead.

No.

And so I.

Okay.

And since we are at LCC, a lot of folks don't know what the DMACC program is.

Digital media, Audio and Cinema.

And so, I mean, things have since developed and I've changed to choosing to be.

When I transferred to university to be a double major.

And some of the DMACC classes don't transfer anymore.

So things have changed since then.

And now I'm technically in my theater major era.

Oh, okay.

Is what I'm calling it.

But what it really boils down to is I had a long journey at high school, after high school, before I found my purpose.

I'm 29 and I'm still in college.

But it's not about where you start.

No, it's about where you end up.

And it's about living out your purpose.

And that has always been something that is so important to me.

So LCC just has helped me in so many ways find my purpose.

I mean, guys like, you know, he only taught me for two semesters, and he probably doesn't realize this, but guys like Steve Simonson taught me so much.

Jeff Hamlin.

Yeah, a lot of great instructors in.

The DMACC program and just made me take something that I already knew was my purpose and passion and just increase that even more.

And then moving over to the theater program in that side of my passions in media and entertainment, like, got people like Andy Kalis and Paige Dunkle and Blake Bowen that just are so good at taking the talents and passions that we have as students and harnessing that and developing that.

Like these, these people from the theater program and from the DMACC program, to me, they feel like more than professors because they're there.

This is just a community college and they're there putting in effort hours on end to like, train and hone the passions that we have.

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty awesome.

And it sounds like you found at least a good fit here at Lansing Community College.

It seems like the place for you to be.

So it sounds like you're looking to go to a different university at some point.

Yes, once I'm done here, I'm going to be transferring to university.

Not exactly sure which ones yet, haven't decided.

Probably the top of my list right now is Western.

And going back a little bit to what you were saying, I mean, obviously, you know, by now you were not like an unusual person to be at Lansing Community College at the age of 29, myself, I actually got my degree at Michigan State first and then actually came here in my 30s and got a second degree.

So I went in reverse because I got my associate's second.

So there's nothing weird about that at all.

So you talked a little bit earlier about your ambitions.

You know, that you had a lot of ambitions beyond here.

What are you looking at?

What are you hoping to do career wise?

I.

I have a lot of things that I wanna do throughout my career.

This is part of the reason that I'm doing a double major, because the media and entertainment industry is getting split up into so many different degrees now that the more you wanna do, the more you have to take more classes and have more than one major to combine things together the way you want.

And I have.

I have this list of things that I want to do.

I would love to work in movies at some point.

I would love to work on a big concert tour for some sort of band or artist.

I would love to be a sound engineer in a recording studio.

I'd love to work in theaters in.

Chicago or New York, essentially.

You have a lot of different things to do that you'd love to do.

Which means, honestly, I think if you got to any one of them, you probably would find your place to be.

So, yeah, that's great.

But that's why I'm.

Like I said, that's part of why I'm double majoring, because I want to make sure that I'm getting the training I need to do any of the things that I have passions to achieve.

It makes sense.

Makes sense.

So I'm going to explain the podcast Power Up a little bit to folks, just because a lot of people wouldn't really know what this is, but we do this thing called the podcast Power up here at Lansing Community College.

And essentially what it is, it's our call out to students to say, hey, if you want to build a podcast, you can do that here at LCC Connect.

And you.

Even though, I mean, we still consider you a Power up contestant, you kind of, like, got to it before we even announced this third one that we did, actually.

You walked through the front door.

Yeah.

Because of Jereny.

Yeah, it was Jereny.

I was sitting there one day, and we should.

Jereny Robinson is the assistant operations and editing production here at EL Associate Connect.

So I was sitting upstairs with Cruz Villarreal.

Okay.

Which you'll get to hear a little bit about once my podcast gets going and we start releasing some of these shows.

He's already shown up on a couple of the other podcasts, so people, you.

Guys might know him.

Anybody listens to LCC Connect, they are definitely, probably familiar with him.

But go ahead, go ahead.

So I was sitting talking to Cruz, and I was just talking to Cruz during this summer semester, and Jereny walks by and he's talking to Cruz for a minute, and I just started asking him what he does here.

And he mentioned that LCC Connect was looking for students to do podcasts.

And it just sparked in my head because I'd had, like, a shred of this idea for this podcast for years, but I just didn't.

I didn't know exactly how to get started, how to go about it, how to, like, build a listener base, anything like that.

And then this opportunity came along, and it just allowed me to start to think about it a lot more and put together and formulate real ideas and plans, and here we are.

What do you feel like the experience has been so far?

I think it's been amazing.

The facilities are amazing, you guys, the staff are great, and helping me learn how to do this and how to build this, and it's been great so far.

Awesome.

We're Glad to have you on board.

Now, the other question that I really want to ask you is.

So you've had this notion in your brain, you built it, and now you're starting to get some momentum here.

What are you hoping listeners take away from it?

I just hope not only that they hear my passion for these things, but that I can introduce them to some people that work their butts off in this industry and have been doing some amazing things in this industry and that they're not necessarily going to get exposed to if they're not a part of certain communities.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, a lot of the folks that you do the behind.

It takes a lot of people, is where I'm going with this, to make a lot of stuff happen.

Even what we do here at LCC Connect, we're pretty much, you know, just a couple of guys.

But there are other folks behind the scenes that a lot of the times people don't know about that help us out as well.

So.

Yeah, that's very cool.

So before we depart, I do want to ask you, if you're not at school, you're not working, you're not studying.

What are you doing with that?

Free time, man.

A lot of things.

I'm a huge nerd.

So what kind of nerdom?

I mean, D and D magic board games.

All right.

I am huge into Ren Faires.

So you guys.

Anybody who's into dd's gotta love a Ren Faire.

So you guys will actually.

I am one of those geeks.

Yeah.

So you guys will actually hear.

Get to hear from a few different people that I've had the pleasure of becoming really close with in the Ren faire community.

Why don't we bounce on that real quick?

Who should we expect to hear on your show?

The Druid drummer is a big one.

He's like, becoming one of my best friends, honestly.

We're going to have Cloverbeard and crew, going to have Plethora eventually.

I'm hoping to have the side quest guys come on, which is Robin and Nathan run that.

And it is a.

I'm going to call it an improv troupe that does stuff at Ren Faires.

They'll go to different ren faires and.

Do, like, improv comedy kind of a thing.

Kind of.

They're more like they transform themselves and other friends that they have that will come with them into NPC characters and they create quests that people can go on at the fairs.

Speaking of improv comedy, Arrow Gribble, it's still in the works as of the Day we're recording this, but you're looking to have one of our other podcast Power up folks on your show.

And he does troll in the midden.

Yeah, I was actually on that show.

I don't think it's released yet, but I did record with him.

It was a very interesting show.

He's hilarious, but he's having fun with it.

That's what's important.

But, yeah, so you get to hear from all those people, especially Colin.

Colin is.

Colin's actually going to be on twice.

He's the druid drummer.

So that's going to be really cool.

Very cool.

Well, Greg, I want to say it's awesome to have you on board.

And again, I will mention that it's front row backstage.

It'll be on LCC Connect coming up Tuesday, January 28th.

You're doing a great job and I'm glad to have you on board.

So thanks being a part of it.

Yeah.

Thank you so much, Danelian, for having this space here at LCC and allowing us to create.

You bet.

All right, we're about ready to depart, but before we do, we gotta do the rando question of the day.

I can't tell you what it is because, honestly, I don't know.

Are you ready for this?

All right, here we go.

What would you do on a free afternoon in the middle of the week?

Wow, you got an.

Actually fairly easy one, I think.

Free afternoon in the middle of the week.

Middle of the week, I guess.

It's a Wednesday.

It's a Wednesday, man.

I don't even know if I know what a free afternoon in the middle of the week is.

So what would you do with that time?

Probably just be playing video games or sleeping in.

I don't really know.

It's hard to think about because I don't get many free afternoons in the middle of the week.

Well, next time you get one, you know what you're doing.

Playing a video game.

So EDM music, you are into.

Yes.

So I have a friend that's into, like, sad boy style edm.

It's like.

And that's a genuine music style.

That's what it's called.

I don't know if that's the technical term for the genre, but it's a commonly used term amongst EDM fans.

Sad boy.

Yes, sad boy edm.

That doesn't really inspire me to listen to it.

This is LCC Connect Voices, Vibes, Vision.