Meet Kelly DeVries | Podcast host, producer and editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelly DeVries and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelly, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Both of us, Kelly DeVries and Jenna Swanson grew up with a love for art. In fact, we met at one of our first jobs as graphic designers at a firm in Chicago. We became roommates to save on money. Years later, after Kelly had long since moved to Colorado and both of us had kids, we reconnected on our love for true crime and dark humor. We decided to take on the challenge of creating a podcast together and ODFM was born.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
For podcasting, my skills are entirely self taught. I have always had a proclivity for technology and I believe my background in graphic and web design helped immensely with learning the software. My co-host Jenna and I are hoping our podcast catches on more so it could eventually become a paid career. We’re still pretty new and have a lot to learn, but we’re excited to share our special brand of humor with the world. We’ve gone through some cyber-bullying which was very eye-opening. Though we’d always heard about it, neither of us knew how bad it is, so it gave us a new appreciation for what kids and teens go through. For them, though, they’re still kids and don’t have the maybe the maturity or are fearful to ask for help so we can’t imagine how much worse it is for cyber-bullied children and teens.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would love to show them my little town, Wellington, north of Fort Collins, visit my boutique, Thistle in downtown Wellington. One of my favorite night spots in Fort Collins is Social and everyone needs to see Pinball Jones.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
In college, I had a professor, Jeffrey Conger, that believed in me and helped me excel my artistic skills. A lot of the peers I went to college with had funds to back them up on their graphic design projects, but I was putting myself through college so I couldn’t spend the amount of money others were to make their projects great. Jeffrey taught me that though I had to push a little harder and create more by hand, I could create items that were just as good as all the others. He came to see me a couple of years ago at my boutique I own to see how I had translated my design skills into a shop. So, along with podcasting, I’ve surrounded all of my work with design and art of some kind.

For podcasting, being invited to be a part of the Darkcast Network has helped keep my passion for podcasting alive. They’re super supportive and it’s so great to have others to bounce ideas off of and get editing questions answered instead of going it alone.

Website: odfmpodcast.com

Instagram: instagram.com/odfmpodcast

Linkedin: odfmpodcast

Twitter: odfmpodcast

Facebook: odfmpodcast

Youtube: odfmpodcast

Other: For my boutique, thistlewellington.com