Ravenna man makes a move to Kearney Chamber marketing

That’s the advice of Rylee Mills, co-founder of the Make a Move Podcast, a Ravenna-produced podcast featuring individuals who explain how they achieved their dreams.

His partner in the venture is Kirk Zeller, also of Ravenna. Zeller is a global entrepreneur and the writer and producer of the movie “My Corona,” which was filmed in Ravenna during the pandemic and released last summer.

“If you have a dream or passion, but you’re stuck in a 9-5 job, you don’t have to quit or cash in your savings,” Mills said. “You can take a few hours here and there and hone your craft. Don’t just sit there and daydream. Take some action and move.”

Mills speaks from experience. He’s the new marketing director for the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce. He’s a co-founder of Mills Farms Nebraska, a local business that makes signs, home decor, firepits and hitch covers. He has a wife and a son, too.

But he still finds time to produce the podcast, which has averaged between 300 and 400 followers each month. He and Zeller both interview guests and serve as co-hosts. Mills handles production and runs the website.

Make a Move Podcast has featured leaders like Nebraska’s Economic Development Director Tony Goins, Invest Nebraska’s CEO Dan Hoffman and Dr. Jacobsen, founder of Click Family Healthcare in Kearney.

It profiled Shane Farritor, a Ravenna native and a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who worked on the Mars Exploration Rover and has launched a surgical robotics technology venture.

Mills interviewed Ricky Simmons, a member of the 1984 Orange Bowl-winning Nebraska Cornhuskers and later an Atlanta Falcon. He played football simply to get drug money, Mills said. “That path led him to jail. Now he speaks to high school and college kids about leading clean lives,” he added.

The podcast, launched in late 2021, was the brainchild of Mills, then executive director of the Ravenna Chamber of Commerce, and Zeller, a chamber board member. The two were chatting after a chamber board meeting about a revitalization grant the board had received.

“We were just kicking around the idea of a little reality TV show called Ravenna Makes a Move,” Mills said. One thought led to another, and the Make A Move Podcast was born.

Production began last fall at Ravenna’s Silicon Prairie Center. Some 30 episodes were posted at 5 a.m. every Wednesday between early November and late May. It’s now on summer hiatus but will resume Sept. 7.

Every episode begins with a song, “Make A Move,” recorded by Mills’ cousin Luke Mills, who owns Mills Custom Floors in Kearney and plays in a band on weekends. “He embodies the theme of this podcast,” Mills said.

For the first two episodes, Zeller and Mills talked about their backgrounds, just “nitty-gritty stuff,” Mills said.

“Guests have to have some tie to Nebraska, but we don’t necessarily require that. We focus on the Midwest,” he said.

“People think if something doesn’t happen on the East or West coast, it’s not important, but they’re wrong. You don’t have to leave Nebraska to do something significant,” he added.

After each interview, Mills collects what he calls “a massive amount of data” for the podcast. He invites interviewees to provide some photos and videos so the programs are “more than just three or four guys sitting around talking,” he said.

He also uploads three or four 10-minute videos to YouTube and Facebook to provide brief previews of the upcoming episode. “We try to aim for podcasts of 30-45 minutes. People won’t watch podcasts much longer than that,” he said.

The time required to produce each podcast varies. “I do as many as I can in my free time, but sometimes I get behind in getting videos out, so I have some kids from UNK helping us,” he said.

The second season premiere Sept. 7 will feature Preston Hillier, a Lincoln-born actor who has appeared in “Magnum P.I.,” “The Walking Dead,” ”Interrogation” and more.

“Is this fun? Oh my gosh,” Mills said, his face lighting up. Mills played “guitars, drums, all that stuff” in a band in high school and made YouTube videos to promote the group. “I guess I’ve always had a marketing ability,” he said.