Mikaela Hunt

10/05/2026

I thought I was walking into a contract negotiation.

Eight years at the station. Almost twenty in television news. A Top 35 market and a career I had built on purpose. High “Q” scores and lots of ideas on how to bring meaning to the evolving TV news experience in my pocket.

Instead I found out my contract would not be renewed.

An HR lead who was as confused as I was walked me out through Master Control. That’s the room where every signal leaves the building, where a station decides what the audience sees. But the signal to me that day: we don’t want anyone to see you in this moment.

I had walked through Master Control a thousand times. That day I was trying not to cry as I walked out of it.

The job ending was hard. What took longer was everything attached to it.

There was a non-compete that turned out to not be legally valid 90 days later. My husband still worked there. We had two small kids and no interest in leaving the city we had chosen to call home.

For years, when someone asked what I did, I had the answer ready before they finished asking. “I’m a journalist, a producer, an anchor, a reporter.”

And then I did not.

I have been asking a version of that question ever since. Not only of myself. Of executives. Of people who just got promoted. Of people who have built something real and still get quiet when a stranger asks what they do.

Most of us borrow our answer from a title on a business card. That works right up until the card changes.

I’ve been working on something recently to help others- and from that project, I’m revisiting this question: if your title disappeared tomorrow, could you explain what you do without it?

Would love to hear it in the space below ⬇️

09/27/2026

Back in the saddle with Mindy Drayer! No horses but a lot of pet inspiration 😉 Come out and see us starting at 1p 🐶

She’s baaaaaaaack!!!! Boots is off today so Mikaela Hunt is co-hosting! And, we’re taking the show on the road.
We’ll be at Coffman Park in Dublin for the annual pet fair!

Come on out and say hi!

We’ll be live on 98.9 FM The Answer from 2-5pm!

09/24/2026

Ever had a really busy week with light sleep and constant rain when thunder comes out of nowhere at 11p & sounds like explosions in the sky? Yeah, me neither 😆

09/13/2026

Just discovered this morning on my phone 🤔 I didn’t add it- Apple did. An area for “Hidden” apps. As a mom of teens, but also a believer in the ability to have personal privacy as an adult, is this a bit shady?

09/11/2026

25 years ago: I was asleep. Having worked what we call “night side” in TV news producing the 10 p.m newscast the night before. I had just come off a year on the road as a fraternal leadership consultant, and was living back at home to get financially on my feet while working my first paying TV job. In the bedroom I had grown up in, the phone rang. Beautiful sunshine streaming through the skylight onto my trundle bed.

It was my dad on the phone- who told me I needed to turn on the TV because something strange was happening. I turned on the Today Show and watched and listened, stunned, as Katie Couric explained what she was seeing in NYC. I honestly can’t remember if I saw the second plane fly into the South Tower or not. Something tells me I did because my dad hadn’t told me it was two planes- but my memory has closed off that moment a bit. Understandably.

I quickly called our assignment desk at WAND-TV to see how I could help. Our assistant news director picked up the phone and didn’t know how it would impact any of us yet and just said… yeah, come on in. The phones were ringing off the hook at the station.

We had a newsroom meeting once most of us were in. My one-day-would-be husband who wasn’t working that day but came in from the golf course sat across from me in a somber newsroom as our staff met to figure out how to cover this immense tragedy from home.

I would spend the day taking the hourly and half-hour feeds from the network. The tape decks were right next to my desk. Watching the destruction over and over and over again. Sending reporters out as gas station lines streamed out of lots and down streets. Later that evening, once the newscast I produced was over- I would pick both Marcus and my now longtime friend (and at the time my night side reporter) up from a vigil being held at a local university.

When you work in news you are witness to history in a different way. But as citizens, we are important witnesses too. We must be a witness to grief.

Then. And now.

May it bring all of us a greater sense of humanity every day and courage in the hardest moments.

♥️🇺🇸♥️

09/07/2026

This is us- before we spilled the tea vs. after!

💣 Late communication isn't a strategy problem; it's damage control. 🛑

That was just one of the hard truths we shared at the Ohio Government Innovation conference this week.

Our Deputy CIO and I called our session "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Modernization That Works," and we kept it 100% real. No gatekeeping, no fluff.

These were the takeaways that anyone in government, corporate, and nonprofit can tap into:

1️⃣ Put People First: Tech and policy don't work unless the people impacted are involved from the start of an initiative.
2️⃣ Raise Your Hand: If something is amiss, silence is not the way to
handle it. Call it out early.
3️⃣ Message Frequency: If you wait until the project is done to talk about it, you aren't communicating; you're basically apologizing.

The best moment wasn’t on stage, though. It was afterwards- having colleagues from Cleveland to Cincinnati come find us to ask for advice on their "ugly" projects.

That’s what happens when you drop the ego and share the real playbook. Thanks to Rachael Collins for being the perfect partner for this lively conversation.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful Labor Day!

09/04/2026

08/30/2026

Give me ALL your 8th Grade Washington DC trip tips!! Our youngest will be going in about a month and a half and I want to hear what you did to make sure your kids were set up for success. Or the things you wish you would have done looking back. Thank you in advance 🇺🇸