“People rarely give their best answers when a microphone is shoved in their face; they give their best answers when they forget they are being recorded.”
I had the pleasure of talking with Haley Draznin, whose career has been shaped by a recurring question: What becomes possible when we give people the time and space to really talk?
Long before she was producing breaking news at CNN or building a podcast studio in Miami Beach, Draznin was a curious kid in suburban New Jersey, the youngest of three siblings and six years behind the nearest one. She remembers following her older brother and sister around, absorbing whatever they were interested in. She made collages from magazines, scrapbooked, and developed an appetite for history, movies, sports, and current events. But some of the stories that stayed with her longest came from much closer to home.
Draznin was especially close to her grandparents, and their stories gave her an early fascination with love, memory, and the lives that came before her. Her mother’s parents shared the kind of sweeping, enduring love story that felt almost like The Notebook film come to life. Her father’s parents were Holocaust survivors, and she felt a deep pull to understand not only what they had endured, but who they had been before, during, and after it.
She describes herself as an “old soul,” someone drawn to earlier generations through culture and music — and to the idea that a single person’s memories can bring an entire moment in history to life. Looking back, the instinct that would eventually carry her into journalism was already there: listen closely, ask one more question, and uncover the human story tucked inside the larger one.
At Emory University, that curiosity found a profession. An early internship at SiriusXM Radio in New York put her around programs involving figures including Barbara Walters and Deepak Chopra. Later, studying in Atlanta gave her proximity to CNN, where an internship exposed her to breaking news, investigations, documentaries, and the machinery behind live television. What attracted her was not simply the pace. She says she came to see news as “a public service.”
Public service can become very literal when the newsroom itself becomes the news.
In 2019, while producing CNN Newsroom from the network’s New York office, Draznin was working live and communicating with the anchor when employees were told there was a bomb threat and the bureau had to evacuate. A bomb squad was outside. The journalists covering the event were simultaneously inside it.
“Not only was my personal safety at risk, but we were at the center of the story itself,” she recalls. CNN’s coverage received an Emmy nomination, a professional milestone attached to an experience she remembers primarily as frightening and surreal. Her years in news also put her on desks covering presidential politics, school shootings, international bomb threats, the aftermath of the Brexit vote from London, and the death of Anthony Bourdain.
For someone trained in institutions built around urgency, leaving one required a different kind of nerve. During COVID, while pregnant with her son, Draznin left CNN and started her own podcast production company. She had spent years learning how to find stories inside fast-moving events. Now she had to discover whether those same instincts had value without a major network behind her.
“So much of my identity was tied to working for a major, traditional media outlet,” she says. Eventually, she realized she wanted something more independent. The transition was intimidating. She wondered how much credibility belonged to her skills and how much belonged to the institution printed on her résumé.
The answer became clearer as her business grew. Beginning in 2021, companies hired Draznin to develop and produce podcasts, from initial concepts and editorial direction through technical production, distribution, sponsorships, and post-production. Over time, she noticed a recurring problem. Clients wanted sophisticated video, audio, social clips, editing, and creative support, but the process was fragmented.
The Chat Room grew out of that gap.
Draznin designed the Miami Beach studio less like a conventional production facility than a living room. The distinction matters to her. She believes the physical space surrounding a conversation, including the lighting, furniture, seating distance, colors, and cameras, can affect how comfortably a guest speaks. “People rarely give their best answers when a microphone is shoved in their face,” she says. “They give their best answers when they forget they are being recorded.”
There is a revealing tension in that idea. Draznin’s career was built in environments where nothing could be left to chance. Journalism taught her to “dot your i’s and cross your t’s.” Production requires technical control. Entrepreneurship demands attention to revenue, cash flow, sales, retention, and the unglamorous mechanics of keeping a physical business alive. Yet the product she is ultimately trying to create depends on making all that machinery disappear.
That has also required Draznin to become something she never primarily considered herself: a business operator. “By trade, I am a creative journalist,” she says. Bringing clients through the door and balancing creative work with financial realities has been among the hardest parts of building The Chat Room. After years of interviewing other people about what they were building, she is now confronting those pressures herself.
The media have changed around her too. A podcast episode may last an hour, but discovery increasingly happens in a few seconds of video scrolling past on a phone. Draznin now thinks in terms of both the conversation and the ecosystem around it: full episodes, short clips, YouTube, newsletters, blogs, and other ways a single exchange can travel.
Through all of that change, her underlying interest sounds much the same as it did when she was listening to family stories as a child. She still wants people to open up. She still believes listening can be useful. And after years of sitting behind the machinery that delivers other people’s voices to an audience, Draznin is building a room where, ideally, people can forget about the machinery altogether.
Yitzi: Haley, it’s so nice to meet you. Before we dive in and talk about your amazing work, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood, how you grew up, and particularly the seeds and the genesis of all the amazing creativity that has come since then?
Haley: Nice to meet you as well. Thank you for the thoughtful question.
I am a naturally curious person. I grew up as the youngest of three siblings in a New Jersey suburb, and I was always following around my siblings, learning and growing from being around them. They’re both eight and six years older than me. I was constantly surrounded by a lot of family and friends — a really big family.
I was always interested and curious about history, movies, sports, and current events, and being creative in that respect. I remember constantly putting together collages and scrapbooking from magazines, expressing my creativity and thoughts at a young age.
I was very close with my grandparents. My mother’s parents shared a love story like out of The Notebook movie. My father’s parents were Holocaust survivors, so I was always very interested in hearing more about their stories and how they grew up. Also, my mother’s sister passed away at a young age. I would say I’m an old soul; I really connected with hearing stories of the past from the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and so on. That’s a little bit about me, my background, and my natural curiosity.
Yitzi: Amazing. Please tell us the story of how you became an Emmy-nominated CNN producer.
Haley: Sure. I was studying journalism in college. I had an internship in New York City during my freshman year at SiriusXM Radio, where I worked closely with figures like Barbara Walters and Deepak Chopra, producing their radio shows. I thought it was really fun and decided to major in journalism.
I went to Emory University in Atlanta, where CNN is headquartered. I had an opportunity to intern there while in college, and I was exposed to the frontlines of the news of the day: breaking news, investigative reporting, documentary news, and a lot of storytelling.
My first few year at CNN were thrilling and exciting. Experiencing that while still in college, seeing the exposure to how grand the world is, and viewing news as a public service was always something that attracted me to storytelling.
Yitzi: Please tell us about the amazing work that you’re doing now. Tell us about The Chat Room, the story of how it started, and what you’re doing.
Haley: As my personal life has evolved, my career has evolved professionally as well. During COVID, I left CNN. At the time, I was pregnant with my son, and I started my own podcast production company where businesses would hire me to conceptualize and produce shows for them. I handled everything from concept development, editorial, and technical production to distribution and sponsorships for a handful of shows, including publicly traded companies. That spanned from 2021 to the present day.
Over the last six to twelve months, I saw a white space for an aesthetic video podcast studio that would feel like a homey living room environment — not sterile or conference-like, but a safe space where people feel comfortable recording conversations. Podcasting is a conversation-driven format, and you want people to feel like they are in a home living room. Many podcast studios today have a more urban design, whereas this space is made to feel more elevated.
We offer full-service capabilities so someone can simply show up and record. We have premium recording equipment, video, audio, soundproofing, and controlled lighting with multiple camera angles. This makes it straightforward to show up and walk away with raw files, or clients can use our post-production services, where my production company handles all the editing and editorial work.
You don’t necessarily have to host a full show; it can also be used for podcast-style clips, which resonate heavily across social media today. Podcast clips are just as important, if not more important, than the full podcast itself. People often lack the bandwidth to listen to an entire episode, so they discover content through short clips shared across different platforms.
It has been fascinating to see how rapidly the space has evolved. In the five years since launching my production company to opening the studio, trends have shifted significantly. What resonates today are 30- to 45-second clips that feel branded and stylized to the host, keeping the content educational, thoughtful, and relatable to the listener.
Yitzi: You probably have some amazing stories from your career, and I’m sure this is difficult to single out. Can you share with our readers two stories that stand out in your mind from your professional life?
Haley: Back in 2019, I was part of the CNN New York office that had to evacuate after receiving a bomb threat. We were live on the air — I was producing the CNN Newsroom, in the ear of the anchor on air — when we were told that a bomb squad was on standby right outside our office. There was an active threat, and we had to evacuate while live on air in real time.
Not only was my personal safety at risk, but we were at the center of the story itself, which was quite frightening. We ultimately received an Emmy nomination for our coverage of that event, which was wild. That was definitely something I won’t ever forget. Suspicious devices had been mailed to the White House, the Clintons, and the Obamas, and the CNN New York bureau had to evacuate after receiving a similar package.
I was also working around the clock during Trump’s first nomination. That was a challenging moment for many, and it was fascinating to see how the country responded during a presidential election like that.
I was on the news desk for various other breaking news stories at CNN, including school shootings, bomb threats in Paris and elsewhere, and the aftermath of the Brexit vote while working out of the London bureau. I was also on the news desk when Anthony Bourdain passed away, who was a prominent figure culturally and within the CNN family.
More recently, with the launch of my production company and studio, a ton of high-profile folks have come in and out looking for production support. It has been great to offer my services and meet so many people.
At the core of why I do what I do, I am a journalist by trade driven by human-interest storytelling. That is why working in news resonated with me, and why podcasting is such a good fit. It is long-form storytelling that allows people to reveal truths and have deep, honest conversations. That goes back to being a naturally curious person. Meeting new people, hearing their stories, perspectives, and thoughts on what shapes society, and viewing this work as a public service helps people learn, engage, and connect.
Yitzi: Beautiful. There’s a saying that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake that you made when you were first starting and the lesson that you took away from it?
Haley: As a journalist, you always have to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, and I learned that in college where a lot of growing up happens. I had to learn how to balance my social life and my education.
I didn’t do so well in one class, and that made me realize I could do much better. It propelled me to become a workhorse, to continue storytelling and working hard. While nothing overly specific comes to mind immediately, that experience shaped my work ethic.
Yitzi: There’s a related idea that “no” is not rejection, but redirection. Do you have a story about where you got “no” to an opportunity, but that led to an even better opportunity?
Haley: During my time at CNN, so much of my identity was tied to working for a major, traditional media outlet. I was proud to work there. At a certain point, I kept trying to grow within the organization, but there reached a stage where there wasn’t anything further for me to do there. I craved something more independent.
That realization led me to entrepreneurship and helped me recognize that I could take those skill sets and build something of my own. It’s a scary transition because you are leaving a behemoth organization to do things independently, wondering how you will maintain your credibility. Deciding to leave a major media group to start my own boutique media company propelled me forward. It was intimidating and perhaps not what I envisioned initially, but it has turned out to be a tremendous blessing.
Yitzi: What’s been the most challenging project or role you’ve taken on so far, and why?
Haley: Currently, I have to flex a lot of different muscles because I am running a brick-and-mortar studio as a local business. The sales aspect — bringing clients through the door who feel comfortable recording at The Chat Room — is a new challenge. I want the space to speak for itself without having to hard-sell it, but managing business metrics is a reality. Balancing creative work and final deliverables with client acquisition and retention has been my biggest challenge.
Revenue is exciting, but cash flow is the reality of running a business when you have to think with a business-first mindset. By trade, I am a creative journalist. Working on the business side has been the most demanding part. Spending ten years interviewing others about what they build, and now building something myself, has been one of the biggest founder lessons I’ve experienced.
Yitzi: Let’s talk a bit more about the studio. Why is a podcast better when done in a studio rather than over Zoom, like we’re doing? What are the advantages of being in person?
Haley: There is distinct value in both recording at home and investing in a studio environment; there is room for both.
A studio makes things easier because you can simply show up for the conversation knowing you will look and sound great, without dealing with the technical stress that comes with home setups. Beyond that, there is the professionalism, credibility, and confidence that a dedicated recording environment fosters.
Being in a thoughtfully designed physical environment elevates the experience. The furniture, lighting, seating distance, color palette, and camera setup all positively influence how people show up in conversation.
Yitzi: From your experience, what are some inside tips on creating an effective and compelling podcast?
Haley: Going off-script is essential. Authenticity is key — people look for relatability, intimacy, and a personal feel. You want to hook your listener with personal anecdotes and stories that allow them to picture themselves in that situation.
That applies across educational topics, thought leadership, business content, and health and wellness. You want to position the conversation so listeners relate and feel as if they are part of the dialogue.
The informality of a podcast is also vital. It should sound like two friends catching up over coffee rather than overly stiff or serious. There is no fun in taking yourself too seriously.
Yitzi: Nowadays, virtually every company is making a podcast as part of their branding strategy. Why should a company consider having their own branded podcast? What is the advantage versus other forms of branding and marketing?
Haley: Many brands are allocating podcast production into their overall marketing budgets because that is how modern consumers connect with products and services.
With the rise of platforms like TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X, audiences want behind-the-scenes founder stories explaining how a product or service came to be. It circles back to relatability — helping the consumer envision themselves using the product or service in a genuine way.
There is a clear distinction between traditional marketing campaigns and human-driven storytelling. Podcasting prioritizes the human-interest narrative first, which is what allows audiences to build a real connection.
Yitzi: This is our signature question. Haley, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success and have learned a great deal from your experiences. Looking back to the beginning, can you share five things you’ve learned over the years — perhaps the hard way — that someone starting out today can benefit from?
Haley: 1. You don’t have to know exactly what the business will become when you start.
I left a decade-long career in journalism and started my podcast production company during COVID while pregnant. I didn’t start with a perfectly mapped-out plan to eventually open a studio space. The business evolved because I paid attention to what clients needed. Founders put immense pressure on themselves to have a complete five-year plan. I focused on what I was good at and where the market demand was.
2. Build around the problem your potential customers are asking you to solve.
With my production company, I noticed a recurring challenge: clients wanted premium video podcasts and social clips to complement their audio conversations, but production was fragmented. They needed studios, crews, creative direction, editing, and distribution. The Chat Room became the physical answer to that problem. It wasn’t an idea conceived in isolation; it came directly from listening to client requests.
3. Your background can become your unfair advantage, even when you leave an industry.
Having spent over a decade in journalism, I understand what makes someone open up, what makes a story compelling, and how to identify strong hooks and sound bites. Today, I apply those exact instincts to executives and brands recording podcasts. Leaving traditional media did not mean leaving journalism behind; I simply adapted to modern consumption habits. Everything I learned about interviewing, storytelling, and creating a comfortable atmosphere shaped how I built The Chat Room.
4. Build for where the industry is going, not just where it is today.
I didn’t want The Chat Room to be just a room where someone sits behind a camera and microphone. It is a video-first studio designed for full content ecosystems. Through a single podcast conversation, a client can generate months of social clips, newsletter and blog transcripts, YouTube videos, and mini-series alongside standard audio distribution. I call this the “content flywheel” — an engine for multi-platform distribution.
5. The things that feel like minor details are often the final product.
People rarely give their best answers when a microphone is shoved in their face; they give their best answers when they forget they are being recorded. I designed The Chat Room around human behavior. When guests feel comfortable in a warm, welcoming environment, they speak more naturally, which elevates the quality of the content far beyond what a remote camera setup can achieve.
Yitzi: On a personal level, can you share some of the self-care routines you do to help your body, mind, and heart thrive?
Haley: First and foremost, I am a mother to a five-year-old and a three-year-old, which brings me immense joy every single day. I have a wonderfully supportive husband and partner who encourages me, and my family is my primary motivation. Having supportive parents, siblings, and a close-knit community of friends is invaluable.
For physical health and wellness, I am an active tennis and padel player. I enjoy going on walks with friends, living near the beach, and traveling — like a recent trip to the mountains in Wyoming for fresh air and a fresh perspective.
Practicing faith and patience is also vital. Patience is easier said than done, especially in an environment where we are bombarded with input, but taking time is essential. The studio came to fruition because I held a clear vision for it, recognized the need, and found the right window in my life between raising young children to bring it to reality.
Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Haley, because of your amazing work and the platform that you’ve built, you are a person of great influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Haley: People often come into the studio and act as their own harshest critics regarding how they look, sound, or are perceived. My hope is to give people the platform and confidence to share their unique voice and message with the world. Everyone deserves to be heard, and the people walking through our doors have meaningful stories to tell. Overcoming self-doubt to communicate effectively is half the battle.
Much like my early aspirations in journalism, I view this work as a public service where audiences can continuously learn, be educated, and connect through diverse voices.
Yitzi: Haley, how can our readers engage your services, visit The Chat Room, or support your work?
Haley: You do not need to be local to Miami or Miami Beach to work with us. We offer remote post-production services for podcasts and short-form video content globally.
If you are visiting Miami Beach, our space is called The Chat Room Studios, located on Lincoln Road. You can book sessions directly through our website or reach out via email at hello@thechatroomstudios.com.
Yitzi: Haley, it’s been an absolute joy to meet you. I wish you continued success, good health, and blessings. Let’s do this again next year.
Haley: Thank you so much for your time and the thoughtful questions. I really appreciate it.
Yitzi: It’s my pleasure.
