Jeff Ornstein 0:02

Hi everyone, and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness. Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy. We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead. So the best is yet to come. Today's guest is Ina Rodriguez O'Rourke, producer, sag after actor, and mindfulness coach, who has built a career at the intersection of storytelling, healing, and entrepreneurship. From acting in film and television to co-creating women-led vertical thriller content through Celtic Clover, she brings both creative depth and real-world business experience to her next chapter in entertainment. Ina, I'm delighted to have you today.

Ena O’Rourke 0:57

Oh, thank you. I'm doing wonderfully. That was a beautiful introduction. Thank you for that. Happy to be here.

Jeff Ornstein 1:04

You're very welcome. Well, the cross-pollination of your life's experiences and your professional and entrepreneurial endeavors really lend themselves to the creation of a thoughtful actor or producer or writer because it goes to authenticity and depth of character. So tell us a little bit how you started acting, which I understand was in your 20s, and you actually moved to the big H to Hollywood to do that. How'd that go?

Ena O’Rourke 1:33

It was so much fun. Oh my gosh. I regard that still as one of the highlights of my life, just because it was so mysterious and the future was bright and the smell of LA was so very different from where I had come from, which was Alabama. I grew up. Yeah. I grew up on the coast of Alabama on Fairhote, on Mobile Bay in Fairhote. And I had been acting, and I'd lived some portion of my life prior to that in California, in the Bay Area, all of that. My dad was in the Navy and then he was in the hotel world. I saw that on your website as well. Well, and so he wound up being VP of the Hyatt Regency in Houston. And so he just did a lot of traveling. We ended up by the time I was in the fourth grade in Alabama, and I enjoyed that geography, but absolutely knew I wanted to be an actor. From the time I was very small, I was interviewing trees with tape recorders. I was playing, you know, that kind of thing. I was doing commercials in the bathroom mirror for every bottle of shampoo and every bar of soap. I don't know. Some people are just born knowing because they feel it. So that's what I was doing. And then I started the drama club in high school. And then I won a scholarship to go to college at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. And I was headed for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. When one day the boyfriend at the time brought home a newspaper that had a role in it for the lead in a horror film that was being shot in Alabama. And I auditioned and I got the role. And so from there, having met that crew, networked, and realized that was something I wanted to do was to move to LA. Even starting to talk about Alabama brings out a little bit of the southern accent. But that eventually started the journey. And I was in Alabama about, I guess, a year and a half after that, was contacted by the producer of that first film who lived in LA and worked for a team called Burred Productions. And they got back in touch and they said, Hey, we're coming back out there. Would you be in this particular show? It was a show that I decided I didn't want to be a part of, but that I did want to be in the crew. So I became their location scout. And then I met the man that I would eventually marry, who was the producer, or actually the producer and director, on that set, and moved out to LA, got an agent right away, started working, auditioning, and that's how I got there. And it became a whole new chapter, right? And it was fabulous. I went with, I literally, and it's the it's that that crazy story of going with my Labrador retriever and two suitcases, and then moving in with a special effects director, whom I had met on the set. And the only thing he had in his house at that time, and it was sight unseen, so I was slept on a blow-up mattress, and on every single wall in his home were horror posters, because that's what he primarily did horror films. I opened the refrigerator, and the first thing I saw, welcome to California, was two jars of blood, a head, and some hands.

Jeff Ornstein 5:08

Well, how do you do?

Ena O’Rourke 5:10

I know, right? He was a Roger Corman fanatic, and so that's where he had done a lot of work as well.

Jeff Ornstein 5:17

Well, that is a great introduction to the industry. I mean, you jumped in with both feet. You definitely struck me as that in a person in our pre pre-interviewed little chat. So you did that, you did some horror, which is, of course, I think everybody does their horror phase. I had a my film Nightmare was a horror. And then you took time off and you started family. Which for guests on our podcast, that's not so unusual, because there is this idea of next act, which follows something that preceded it. So how is your family doing? You can't move on without talking about them a little.

Ena O’Rourke 5:53

Thank you for asking. My daughter is about to cross the country from San Diego, where she had just graduated from SDSU, and she is with her best friend from kindergarten, traveling to Salem, Massachusetts. She will be starting new life. So I'm super excited. She became an artist, and that's part of the journey that we always had an art room in the house with all different media. So anytime she felt anxious or whatever, she'd just go to the art studio and she worked it all out. And then my son lives here, just north of Denver, and was the greatest joy of my life on set with me and my producing partner and the whole crew. He was crew on the vertical that we shot last year in November, and we launched about one month ago.

Jeff Ornstein 6:43

Fantastic on that too. Before we leave your daughter, did she choose Salem due to its rich history of witchery and sorcery, or is it just happened to be you know it, you know that's what she did.

Ena O’Rourke 6:56

Yes, yes, and I highly encouraged it.

Jeff Ornstein 7:00

That's it, yeah. Okay, so I want to talk about your vertical entrepreneurial ship endeavors. So this is part of Celtic Clover. Do I get that right? Yes, yes, okay, and yet there are subsections, but what you were super pumped about was the vertical women-oriented production. You tell your story better than I can.

Ena O’Rourke 7:25

Well, you know what? We are the very first vertical for the state of Colorado, and we are one of the first globally to be with the union SAG. And that is a huge source of pride for us because last summer, my business partner and myself, whom you have interviewed, Shannon K. Dunn, she and I had similar, we met, and it was just we loved each other from the moment we met. And we've been together for three years working as co-producers. And we saw that there was, I'm pretty sure, don't quote me, but it's about $11 billion industry that had arisen in China in 23 and 24. So in 25, we were looking at the numbers at people who were bringing this over to the US. And I said, you know what? My husband now is in high-tech sales, and we've been together for eight years. And just watching how the apps worked in the US in 25 is when we started seeing Netflix and Fox starting to adopt this. And the thing that we loved about it the most was when you get to be a certain age, for women, especially in the industry, it just becomes imperative that you make your own work. And for someone who has done a lot of resiliency training, I was hitting my edge too. And it was like, God dang it, we're just gonna make our own stuff. Art resilient as hell, but come on, we want to work. And we started the vertical idea, sort of fleshing it out. And then we thought, oh my God, we have all of these incredibly fabulously talented SAG actors and non-union actors that we've worked many shoots with here in the state of Colorado. And we both traveled, we go everywhere around the United States to shoot, but we wanted to work with our friends on set and we wanted them to make the kind of money through the actual union that would get them their insurance. These things became very important to us. So that primarily that and working with my son again were a real true impetus. Those reasons I just laid out.

Jeff Ornstein 9:34

Yeah. Well, so you were an actress, adventurer, and a mom. Where did you get all this business, savvy? I mean, you clearly know your way around how to get a business up and running and how to organize. That's pretty impressive.

Ena O’Rourke 9:50

I'm gonna tell you that even when I moved to Colorado and I opened my yoga studio, and then I became a yoga therapist, and then I became an IRES facilitator, which is a form of trauma, to your studies in trauma and applying that in certain practices, everything that I have done has been learning on the job. And because I needed to learn it at the time. So any of the studies in trauma amelioration and practices, and all of this was because one of my children had some neuro issues. And we needed to work through it, and we figured it out through the actual practices themselves, but they became so motivating. It became so motivating for me to share this with my clients as well. And anytime I needed to do something, I had to figure out how am I going to freaking afford it? What is the capital outlay? What is the ROI? I mean, these are basic questions, and then you start filling in the blanks. And extremely lucky to have a very organized mind. I don't know where I am, north, south, east, or west, because but I do have other skills with organization. And one of them is team building. And so one of the things I've learned through all of this is if I don't know, I will go out and find somebody that does know, and then I'll open up my brain and I will learn it. Or bring them in and see if they'll work for cheap at first. So a good negotiator.

Jeff Ornstein 11:21

Well, you and I studied in the same handbook.

Ena O’Rourke 11:24

That's it. And I just got to tell you, I just have always believed that what you want is waiting for you. So you just have to take the first step. You have to make the action in that direction and be somewhat resilient, which is where these practices come in, to all the no's that that will occur.

Jeff Ornstein 11:43

Right. Well, I got to share with you that these are common themes that we hear about from some of our guests because our listeners are saying, Oh, I'm 40, I'm 45, I'm 50, and I'm thinking about doing this. I've always wanted to, but how do I get out of my shell? Or how do I address my family obligations, my financial obligations, my geographical challenges, whatever? And they hear it from people. We had a guest who said, There are no roles written for me. And someone said to her, Write your own role. And she did, and she had success. And just like you said, so fearlessly, you got to learn it. You go out and you learn it, or you find someone to teach it to you. And you have to be able to say to yourself, I can do this. I mean, the I can do it part is very important. And that's exactly in your spirit. It's coming through loud and clear. And the listeners will get it. So that's important because it's possible, it's out there if you're willing to open up your mind and say, you know what, it might falter a little bit, but I can do it. Ina did it, right?

Ena O’Rourke 12:46

Yeah. I can throw this in there with all of the deep experience yoga retreats and teaching people in trauma. And I worked with the VA for three and a half years and veterans. I've worked with the Alzheimer's Association. And these organizations, really, what it boils down to, especially what one of my specialties is PTSD, is noticing in yourself, what is my belief about this actually? And more specifically, what is my limiting belief? And that takes some contemplation or prayer or just quiet walk in the woods or whatever your thing is. It'll get you there. But to know you have to dig into what are my beliefs about my doing this? For the producer stuff, I'll be very vulnerable and share with you that I had some moments where I thought, I don't know if I can produce. And I dug down deep in my practices and I realized my prior husband was a producer. And for some reason I had let him wear that hat. And I had to claim that hat. And now that's just my personal story about the final push. And then it opened up. Once you do that, once you excavate a belief and you realize I actually don't believe that anymore, wow, the ideas start flowing in.

Jeff Ornstein 13:58

Right. Liberating. Well, I have to jump around a little bit because I don't want to run out. I got so many questions. Part of Kell J Clover is woman-led thriller content. Okay. So share a little bit about the thriller content. I'm dying to know.

Ena O’Rourke 14:16

So our story is about an ex-husband who led a triple life. And we loved the title because you've always heard double life. And we've also heard so many different stories, Shannon and I, of women who have realized, and men, let's not just say women, anybody who have realized after breaking up with someone that there was a secret life going on. And we wanted to sort of flesh that out and use that as the premise of the story. So that's what we did. Then when we started hiring people, we also began to realize that we love, well, we didn't realize it then. We already knew we love women. Love women. And so women have a completely different way of managing. And I'm an entrepreneur, Shannon's an entrepreneur. Many of the we are bringing on set, we've got a full one again for the series. There is what I would say as a collaborative effort with women who are, and this, I don't want this because fathers are fabulous too. Mothers have this way of like getting ideas out of kids and saying, okay, how would you do it? And encouraging that. And in the business world, some of that falls away. And I love it that with women, it's so integrated into how we manage and run businesses as well. So that once we'd already experienced it, we thought, let's bring this to set, let's just keep highlighting the fact that women do a really brilliant job. And they do it, I think, almost more primarily from the heart, and still super organized, right? Get things done. So this is the reason for those choices.

Jeff Ornstein 15:59

Right. Well, I gotta tell you, it's so funny how I was just thinking, I was on a long drive and my mind was wandering, and I was thinking about how different men are than women. It's amazing. I mean, we're so different. And I gotta tell you, women came out on the top in terms of multitasking, in terms of being able to focus without distraction and make mature, well-resonating decisions, whereas men were much more spontaneous and on the spot. And I mean, they were just so different. And sort of everything you just said was how I was with the camp I was putting women in. And so I think it'd be great for all women business because they're all kind of cut from the same cloth, it's a pe it seems, and they've got great organizational, mature approaches to getting things done.

Ena O’Rourke 16:51

And thank you, by the way, on behalf of I literally of women who identify as women and everybody else who identifies as woman, thank you.

Jeff Ornstein 17:00

And this is me having a conversation with myself. This wasn't me having a long conversation with my good friend. I mean, I'm like talking to myself, but this is these are the decisions I came to. So I also wanted to touch base quickly on the fact that acting requires a lot of vulnerability, a lot of soul searching, assuming to assume, get into the character, and your yoga business and mindfulness, wellness, that too is based upon a centered, holistic mindset, and they're so interconnected. Do you think that's kind of those things are playing into the whole culmination as to where you are now and where you're going to be going in the next couple of years?

Ena O’Rourke 17:40

I can't see how it wouldn't really.

Jeff Ornstein 17:42

Right.

Ena O’Rourke 17:42

Um what I mean, if you know acting is so in your DNA, and then also for me, yoga, I've been doing it since my mother taught it to me when I was five, has also been in the DNA. And having been raised in the South, you know there's a church on every corner, and religion is such a part of that upbringing. And I'm not gonna say that I really am in love with all of the churches that I've visited and been a part of, but I can say that I never lost my faith. And the faith itself comes through in anything you decide, any religion or spiritual practice, once you tap into that faith, there is most definitely a resilience. And that's the word I continue to use through this podcast because connection and resilience and relationship are the drivers for me and my business, for my partner, I think, for everyone, really and truly. And once you find that spot in your heart that says, this is what I want to do, finding the belief that you can do it, having the faith that every obstacle is okay. It's okay. Right. And just keep moving forward. I think that's what I've gotten from combining these two career paths and more than that, life approaches.

Jeff Ornstein 19:02

Okay, so now we're getting to the point where you're sort of reinventing yourself, which is a little bit about what next acts becore of next act, either the culmination of skills and talents and experiences or the jumping ship to something, a passion that you've never really acted upon. But you said, I have a quote here that said, coming back later in life is can actually be a leg up. And I don't want to just put words in your mouth, but like, did you have a particular thought in mind when you said that? Like, was there some leg up that really stuck in your craw that made you think that way?

Ena O’Rourke 19:34

I'm gonna give you my first gut answer to that. And I think you've got to have some real heartbreaks. And in order to be an artist of any kind, I think that you must see yourself in the way you behave in the face of those heartbreaks and understand that your behaviors are really a reflection of your own soul, spirit, personality, life goals. That you're seeing yourself in all of that. And the more you've lived, the more you've seen of yourself. And then that whole sort of pattern recognition that's neurologic, it just bolsters choices.

Jeff Ornstein 20:18

Right, right. Well, you know what? That I think will resonate with a lot of our listeners because people, it's very easy to say, I'm just too old to start something new. Whereas quite conversely, with all of your experiences, kind of the older you get, the more able you'll be able to be to make the right decisions or to find the right uh catalyst to get you going, to move, and you're gonna do it more expeditiously because of everything that's happened to you under your belt. Crises and joys on both sides, which you mentioned earlier. Of course, we're over time. That's my nature. Because you're a talker, I'm a talker. Okay, so here you are, you've got this triple threat thing going here with your best friend. Seems like you're obviously very passionate about it. It comes across, and you very clearly can articulate why you're doing what you're doing, why the choices you're making, how much that is exciting for you. But the way things are unfolding right now, what do you think? What kind of legacy do you want to build through your work at the end of the day for your son and your daughter or your current husband to say, gosh, that Ina, she just did it.

Ena O’Rourke 21:26

I think you just said it. Honestly, it's I'm not here for the accolades or the awards. I might have been when I was younger. Now that's out of the way.

Jeff Ornstein 21:35

Right.

Ena O’Rourke 21:36

This is about legacy. That was the word. This is about handing something off to my son, who is a fourth-generation filmmaker now. His father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. And uh my daughter's an artist. And if it works out, I would love to have her be a part of this. But leaving the story, leaving the art on whatever device it's showing up on. And for the messaging to be clear, our messaging specifically, with these this program we're doing the first and second series for, women win. And it's more than that, but it's our little tasty morsel for this one. The legacy still is for me that art lays on the page and that somehow or another my family can take over at some point.

Jeff Ornstein 22:28

Wonderful. Ina, I have to wrap this up. I am broadcasting today from Boston. So I might take a drive up to Salem and look through the artist galleries. If I happen to see an old work in there, I'll make an immediate bit.

Ena O’Rourke 22:44

You are so kind. I've really enjoyed this. And congratulations on the podcast and all your choices too.

Jeff Ornstein 22:51

Thank you. Thank you. And I think you're gonna be an inspiration to a lot of people.

Ena O’Rourke 22:55

Oh, thank you, Joe. Appreciate that.

Jeff Ornstein 22:58

All right. Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nextact podcast.com. Keep chasing your next act. The best is yet to come.