Episode 10: Affirmations and Priorities — An interview with entrepreneur Maureen Isern

In this episode of Lean the F*ck Out, we talk with Maureen Isern, founder of Moped Productions. The three women talk about the struggle of taking work one day at a time, celebrating accomplishments, affirming progress, and making our businesses our priority.

Maureen Isern

Maureen Isern, MOPED Founder, Director and Executive Producer, has been creating digital, development and social impact content throughout the radical transformation of online content over the last 15 years. As a founding Segment Producer at Viacom’s digital college network, mtvU, she developed and produced episodic and short-form content, and later functioned as Lead Editor for sales and development reels for MTV360 and the launch of MTV Scratch. She co-produced and edited the documentary 18 in ’08 to mobilize youth voter turnout, as well as Owen & Mzee, The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, about a real-life hippo and tortoise friendship. She also produced and edited some of the first digital and long-form content for XO Group’s largest properties, The Knot, The Nest and The Bump. She produced the pitch reel and development tape that got Hudsun Media’s Pregnant in Heels series green lit for two seasons on Bravo as the first reality show to heavily feature In Vitro Fertilization‎ (IVF). Since MOPED’s start in 2007, Mo has developed and produced broadcast, digital and key audience content for Bravo, Discovery, TrueX Media, Sony, PBS, iMentor, Theatre Communications Group, American Cancer Society, DeWitt Stern Group, Edelman Public Relations, Fenton, The Nation of Artists, the CDC, the US State Department, the New York State Department of Education, Union Theological Seminary, UCSF, USF and Sutter Health hospitals, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation among others. Original episodic content, short films and comedy for social impact are in development and production during her spare time. Mo started off as a a studio production assistant before working as an associate producer, bureau reporter, and later field reporter and weekend anchor at WCTV 6 in Thomasville, GA and Tallahassee, FL. She relocated to New York City in 2002 and later expanded MOPED to San Francisco and Los Angeles where she currently resides with her daughter, and occasionally, works as an actor. She earned her BA in Communication from Florida State University where she currently serves on the College of Communication & Information Leadership Board, and earned her minor in Broadcast Journalism from Florida A&M University.