Mark Graham on Finding Meaningful Work in Digital Media

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Graham notes he works in entertainment and how his goal is to make things fun for his audience.  The challenge is to help his team filter through a crowded pop culture landscape to deliver relevant, enjoyable information they cannot find elsewhere. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What makes your work meaningful?

Mark Graham: Great question. I take a lot of pride in the work that I do, in the work that my team puts out, you know, I’m covering light and fluffy topics, you know, I’m not a journalist who’s traveling to Afghanistan and doing hard journalism. We’re doing things that are fun and that are diversions to people during their workday who maybe are a little bit bored and need something fun to sort of give them a little jolt of energy at the job, so in terms of meaningfulness, what I look to do with the content that I create personally and that our team produces, is to make sure things are really fun for people. 

I like it when we create pieces of content that my friends talk about, that, you know, strangers on the internet comment on, that people you don’t know share and discover and pass on to new people, that’s always been a real thrill and sort of the reason why I’m in the area that I’m in right now. That’s always been a passion of mine, you know, helping people sort of filter through a really crowded pop culture landscape, and sort of help people who have limited time, sort of figure out where they should spend their time or not spend their time. Those are the things that—They’re light and fluffy—I don’t know if I would attach a word like meaningful to it, I’m just more in a place where I like things to be fun and it’s okay to be a little bit frivolous, but also delivering information that people want and that people can’t get in other places. 

Mark Graham on Embracing a Corporate Career Path

In Chapter 9 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Are You Learning to Work Across a Corporate Organizational Culture?"  Graham shares how he has learned to embrace working at large corporations, starting with his first two jobs at Borders and General Motors and continuing on to VH1.  Corporate job experience teaches Graham how to manage more effectively across large, diverse teams. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to work across a corporate organizational structure?

Mark Graham: Most people hate corporations but I sort of love corporations, and I think part of it is just that’s sort of the way that I was—that I’ve been raised in my professional career. My first job out of college, I worked for Borders. Rest in peace, Borders. No longer exists as a company, but I did work for a big organization and sort of learned in the marketing—in a marketing role, sort of learned how different areas of organizations interface and how projects get green-lit and budgeted and accomplished and realized. 

From there, I went and I worked at General Motors, another huge corporation. And so I think—and Viacom, again, that’s another huge corporation. For whatever reason, I enjoy it. I like being able to touch lots of different areas of a business, to interface with different people who have different skill sets, different goals, different needs. 

Now I’m on the editorial side but I used to work on the marketing side of the business. I sort of understand how the numbers work and how to really integrate people and understand different goals of different teams within the organization, and be able to navigate that way. So I think just having grown up in corporate environments, I just sort of get it, and I like it, I understand—I sort of understand how things work within those spaces, and it’s something that I feel very comfortable in.

Mark Graham on Leading and Managing Digital Media Teams

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Do Leadership and Management Differ in What You Do?"  Graham talks about his continuing process developing leadership and management skills working in digital media.  This ranges from managing by helping team members get positive work outcomes in a timely fashion and leading by using motivational and confidence building techniques. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do leadership and management differ in what you do?

Mark Graham: I’m a relatively new manager. I’ve managed people in the past but it’s usually been teams of 3 or 4 people, and now I’m closer to the 10 person range and so it’s definitely been a learning experience to be able to communicate the goals that I have and the goals that I’m being handed down, and be able to transfer that information to specialized teams of people within an organization. So in terms of being a leader, things that I always try to do are—I’m a big fan of complimenting people on work that does well. 

In the web world, analytics are very easy to come by, you know exactly how many people read your story, you know exactly how many people commented on your story, you know exactly how many people shared the story, be it on Facebook or Twitter. And so really sort of throwing props, if you will, to people who have done stories that have resonated with people on our larger team, and really making sure when we have big team meetings that we give rounds of applause to people who’ve done the most popular stories of the week, and really be able to reassure them, you know, of the work they’re doing. 

And from a management perspective, that’s a little bit different, that’s more making sure the trains are running on time, making sure the people are getting their work done, and so there’s a little bit of—just sort of staying on top of things, that is definitely different than leadership, I see leadership as helping your team and helping build confidence in people about the work they’re doing and the work that our overall team is doing. Whereas management, at least to me, is just making sure that we’re getting the things done that we need to get done, and making sure that it gets done in a timely fashion.

Mark Graham on Growing into a New Manager Job Role

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Graham shares how he gets coaching support from his boss, VH1 editorial director Matt Muro, and Muro's boss, Dan Sacher, VH1 VP Media.  By meeting each week, they help Graham learn to manage, delegate, lead, and grow in his career. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Mark Graham: It’s simply an active part of what I’m doing. In my new role as a managing editor, I now have a team of people, and I’m learning how to effectively manage them, effectively lead them, to motivate and to grow and to help continue to build our work up. So sort of as a result of that, I’ve been leaning very heavily on both my boss, his name is Matt Muro, he’s our editorial director at VH1, as well as his boss, his name is Dan Sacher, he’s our vice president of digital media, both for VH1 as well as for Logo. 

I really look up to both of those individuals. I think they’ve done excellent work in their career and they’re both at places that ultimately I’d like to be at some point in my career. You know, I’d like to, you know, continue to grow and learn, and they’ve both been very valuable and very helpful to me into helping me recognize things that I’m good at and things that I need to continue to work and improve on in my professional career. So both of those guys I lean very heavily on, you know, we meet on a weekly basis to make sure our goals are being met, we’re on track with certain programs. 

You know, a lot of our content is sort of churned out on a day-to-day basis reacting to things that are happening in the news but we also have longer term plans and initiatives that we’re working on that take, you know, months and months and months to get an idea that, you know, grows ultimately into a product that you can execute on the web. So, you know, really staying in close contact with both of those guys has been very important to me and they’ve both shown incredible support to me through my couple of years in the organization, and are people like I said that I look up to and that I lean on for help and guidance, and sort of, you know, recognizing that you can’t do it all. 

And, you know, one thing that they’ve really been great at helping me realize and understand is, is learning how to effectively delegate responsibilities. And helping me sort of understand and prioritize which things I should be taking out on my own and which things that I can sort of help generate the seed of an idea and then step a little it back and check in on it from time to time rather than, you know, running the ball the whole way through. So that’s something that I’m continuing to learn and grow. 

Candidly, I’ll admit that that’s something that I’m not great at right now. I’ve sort of gotten to this point in my career by seeing projects through very personally and spending lots and lots of time at the office and now that I have the amount of responsibility that I do, I can no longer do that. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to balance my professional life and my personal life together in a way that makes sense, so really sort of learning how to hand off responsibilities and to also be able to solicit feedback from my peers and also people that work for me. Really being in close contact with them, understanding ways that I can help them better, ways that they can help me better too, and really sort of understanding that, and understanding the dynamics of how people work in an organization, that’s been very important and I think I continue to learn that.

Mark Graham on How Reflecting at Work Improves Job Performance

In Chapter 12 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  Working in digital media producing Internet content, Graham uses reflection to help his team grow and learn from its mistakes and successes.  Personally, Graham finds reflection valuable assessing achievements and reviewing how his personal relationships are growing over time. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Mark Graham: Reflection is certainly very important. One of the great things that I really love about producing content for the internet is that everything is very, very measurable. At the end of every month, I put together a report for our team to show our team’s performance over that month in terms of which stories were popular, which stories got shared a lot, which videos got viewed the most. You know, really helping sort of us learn from our successes and also taking a look at projects that we had high hopes for that maybe fell a little bit flatter than we had originally pegged them to. 

So reflection in that particular aspect is certainly very important to me on a professional level, understanding, learning from our mistakes, helping to continue to grow for the future using the analytical tools we have available to us to be able to help motivate the team, show them things that they did well, and like I said, things that we continue to learn on. 

And my personal life it’s very important as well, you know, opportunities like this to sort of look back over the last year of your career, things that you achieved, things that you hoped you’d achieve and maybe didn’t quite get there, I think that that’s very important as well and it’s—you know, as someone who is sort of is constantly chronicling in their life on the internet through blog posts and Twitter feeds, and Tumblr posts, and Facebook—things like that. It’s always fun for me to sort of go back every couple of months and sort of take stock of what’s happened in my life, be thankful, be appreciative for the blessings that I have, the friends that I have, the relationships that I’ve made, both personally and professionally, and you know, it’s really I think important to take time to savor that stuff. That’s not to say to dwell on it or spend extensive amounts of time looking back at the past but, you know, I’m a fan of nostalgia, and it’s always good to look back at successes you’ve had and things you’ve done well and use them as motivation for the future.

Mark Graham on How to Create Original Content for Established Brands

In Chapter 13 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Are You Learning to Create Original Content for an Established Media Brand?"  Graham talks about the roles audience research and advertiser relationships play into original content strategy and development at VH1. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to create original content for an established media brand?

Mark Graham: Well, when you’re creating content, the first thing you want to really sort of understand is, is who your audience is. Over the course of the last year and some change, VH1 has worked really closely with a market research organization, gone all over the country, found out what people like about VH1, what they don’t like about VH1, what they see VH1 as doing and what they see them as not doing. So sort of armed with that deeper level of information about who our customers are, we’ve been able to come up with content that’s not just for television. We have web-specific content that we’re looking to put together and break. Obviously, we like our convergent opportunities where we can deliver a consistent message through web, through social, through linear. But there’s also we realize that people do consume content, our audience does, through different means and different platforms and something that would work, say on the web, might not necessarily work on TV. 

Over the course of the last year, I worked closely with a couple of comedians here in Brooklyn on a web show that was sort of putting together the best viral video moments of the past week. That was a really interesting project and something that we, you know, experimented and tried out with specifically on the web, it did really well for us, we didn’t end up – we ended up doing 8 episodes of that which was a great learning experience for me. And so really I guess what we’re trying to do with original content for an established brand is really understand and be cognizant that, you know, just because we have a television channel that people have tuned into over the years, that’s not always necessarily gonna be the case, people’s taste are changing, and we really wanna make sure that we create content to reflect those changing tastes. And be able to put together packages that are interesting and fun and great for people to consume.

Erik Michielsen: How much exposure do you have on—to the business side and the whole advertising supported element of—

Mark Graham: Yeah. Obviously, without advertisers’ support, and without people tuning into our projects, we wouldn’t have projects to do. There’s our channel and then there’s our digital, and as we’re continuing to grow our digital, you know, one of the great ways to do that is to partner with advertisers who have goals that they wanna put together, and are also able to support digital programs for us, so I work really closely with our advertising sales team to understand which clients are looking to do specific things, if they have new campaigns coming out, if they have new brand messaging they’re interested in, how they’re looking to attach themselves to cool things like music, and celebrity, and interesting and fun ways that helps elevate their status with their customers, and also helps elevate ours, so, you know, working with advertisers is a great way for us to fund and support original content. And so really sort of helping to understand their goals, and what they’re looking to achieve, is a huge part of it. 

Before I landed at VH1, I was on the other side of this equation, I was—I worked in marketing on the client side, where we were working with agencies and media partners to promote our products, so I sort of have a good 360 understanding of the process now, which I think really helps us put together packages and frameworks for things that are going to be interesting for advertisers, and also interesting to our readers and consumers. Because it doesn’t matter if an advertiser loves something, if the audience is isn’t going to love it, you need to create content and create ideas and packages that are gonna work for both places, and that’s something that’s a huge focus of my job and of our organization, in really making sure that we create things that people read, and that advertisers like that continue to support future programs like that.

Mark Graham on Planning Digital Content Strategy Working in TV

In Chapter 14 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham "What Role Does Content Strategy Play in Your Work?"  Graham notes cable television remains the foundation of big media business, including his company VH1, and gets the majority of its audience and its advertising income from on-air programming.  He talks about working in strategic content planning and how the work is becoming progressively digital.  Graham offers examples of how media companies are packaging content for consumption across TV, mobile, desktop, laptop, and tablet platforms as consumer behavior trends mature into larger population segments.  From short-form music artist online video interviews to Spotify featured playlists to live streaming events over mobile, Graham paints a picture of the future of how digital media companies will evolve to meet its adapting consumer audience preferences. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What role does content strategy play in your work?

Mark Graham: It’s of a primary essence in everything that we do. And by that, what I mean by strategy is, VH1 is obviously as of right now a television network, primarily. That’s where advertisers pay us. That’s how we make our money. That’s where we have our largest viewership. But as the cable industry starts to change and evolve, VH1 is probably over the course of the next 5-10 years, will still be a TV station. Hopefully. But we’re also gonna be producing content for other devices in other places. Whether that be mobile, on your iPhone or your iPad, or streaming things on your laptop, people consume content differently based upon the device that they’re using to consume it. 

So when we’re putting together ideas for content, when talent is coming in, we discuss lots of different ways that we can package information for different types of audiences based upon how they’re gonna be consuming it. You know, sometimes it’s a print interview that will run a thousand words, that goes really in depth on certain matters with bands. Sometimes it’ll be little 30-second video clips that are, you know, really get to the point, really gets to the essence, something that’s newsy and timely and makes a good bite and something that’s funny and that people are gonna share. Sometimes it’s, you know, working with an artist catalog, you know, an established artist who’s come out with a new record taking a look back at their career and maybe putting together things like a Spotify playlist that showcases the ebbs and flow of their particular career and how they have sort of arrived at the point they’re at today. 

So we look at content not just in a very—we’re talking to this particular artist and it’s going to be an interview. As we’re developing the strategies for our interviews, we’re really cognizant of the ways we’re putting—we’re actually gonna package that and release that out to consumers at the end of the day.

Mark Graham on Doing Original News Reporting in a Digital Media Career

In Chapter 15 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Is News Reporting Becoming Increasingly Relevant in Your Career?"  Graham discusses his work covering the entertainment world and how working at VH1 gives him access to music and pop culture talent, which he is able to integrate into original news content.  This allows him and his team to enhance VH1 brand marketing and brand promotion.  He provides examples of interviewing Gym Class Heroes for VH1 Unplugged as well as doing interviews with Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5, and Rebecca Ferguson. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How is news reporting becoming increasingly relevant in your career?

Mark Graham: As everyone sort of knows there are literally thousands of websites, blogs, Twitter feeds, people and their Facebook pages, everyone is sort of a news source right now and disseminating. And the way that you can separate your coverage from other people’s coverage is to bring original reporting into the light, into the world. And so one of the advantages that we have at VH1 that a lot of other of our other competitors don’t necessarily have is the fact that we have access to talent, be they bands, musicians, actors, things of that importance, so because we have access to talent and because talent does drive a lot of conversation, you know, not only in terms of what people are interested in reading, but they’re also a disseminator of news sources. 

If you work together with a band, and put together an interview that you feel has met your objectives in terms of what information people are looking to get out, and also something that they are interested in promote—using to promote a project that they’re working on at the current time, that’s a really powerful way to get your story out past your normal core readership. So original reporting is super important and something that we have been focusing tons of time and effort on and something that I’ve personally been working really hard on building up my skills in that sort of arena over the course of—largely since the last time I did this last year, my Year 2 interview. 

This year I’ve interviewed a number of musicians, both sort of small, breaking artists as well as bigger names. You know, earlier this year, I got a chance to interview Lana Del Rey who is a new musician, that went really well. I talked to Maroon 5 at the Crosby Hotel last week, which was really great. I had sat down with Gym Class Heroes for a recent VH1 Unplugged Special, as well as some, you know, younger artists who people really haven’t heard of, there’s an artist named Rebecca Ferguson who is going to be our July and August You Oughta Know artist for VH1, and really sort of, you know, I’m sort of honing my skills in talking to these people about their work and their craft and what motivates them, and what drives them to create the art that they put out into the world, and the universe. And those are things that frankly a lot of other sites that we compete with don’t have that sort of access. 

And so being original and coming up with ideas to present content to them in a fun way, that they’re willing to play ball with, that we’re able to put together into fun interesting packages for people to consume largely in video online is hugely important and a major differentiator, and frankly, one of the only ways that we can get, that we can bring new readers into the fold. 

Mark Graham: How to Pitch and Execute a Music Marketing Campaign

In Chapter 16 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Have You Learned to Adapt When Things Have Not Worked Out as Planned?"  Graham notes the importance of timing, especially in the context of working across resources in a corporate media company.  By understanding timing, he learns not to get frustrated and to use perseverance to bring resources together to get a project off the ground.  He shares the story of a concept he came up with at VH1, "Song of the Summer", made initially as a trial, with Katy Perry accepting the award for her song "Last Friday Night", and the how we was able to transition the program into a six-figure plus marketing campaign concept adopted formally into VH1 programming. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielse: How have you learned to adapt when things have not worked out as planned?

Mark Graham: Things always work out as planned. No. Things don’t always work out as you plan them to. I think that more than anything else, at least for me, is learning not to get frustrated when things don’t necessarily work out. Sometimes you have great ideas and it’s just not the right time. The thing that I’m sort of learning the most about corporate life right now in this particular organization is the importance of timing. Really sort of having a keen understanding of different groups, where they’re at in certain processes, like for us to get big projects green-lit, which means that we can get budget and resources allocated to be able to tackle things, both from a staffing perspective, from a technology IT perspective, all the different pieces that you need to sort of coalesce to get a project off the ground. Timing is really, really important. 

And so making sure that, you know, I sort of keep a close eye on different people in our organization and keep in close contact with them to understand where they’re at in their timeframes, like for example, last summer I had an idea for a program called Song of the Summer, which would sort of track in a way that other places hadn’t done before, which song is the most popular song of that particular summertime, every summer has its song of the year, at barbecues, at parties, blasting out of car windows, and there are different places that track these things, there are your Billboards of the world, there are YouTubes of the world, there are Spotifys where people stream music, there are iTunes where people buy music. No one had really thought to put all of those pieces together into one sort of composite place. You know, different audiences consume music in different places and so there hadn’t really been a consensus of something like that and admittedly it’s sort of frivolous, but I think something that also people find interesting. 

So last year I put this idea together, we weren’t able to sell it but I did it anyway, I ran it through our entire summer, we ultimately ended up crowning Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night as the best song of last summer. We were able to get her to accept a trophy, do all this cool stuff, which was great, which ultimately became sort of our marketing materials, if you will, to be able to present this to an advertiser this year. And we were able to attach it to an advertiser this year, sell it for a nice 6-figure sales number and it became something that you know funded a lot of profit into our department. So, you know, last year, it didn’t—that particular project didn’t go my way but I sort of persevered, pushed through it, made sure during our couple of sales periods that, you know, our sales team knew that this idea existed, that we had proven success with it in the past and really sort of helping to frame it in a way for a certain couple of advertisers that we were really pushing it to in ways that made sense for them and their brand and really being able to come together. So things don’t always go your way but when you have an idea that you think is good, and that you can ultimately I think would resonate with people, understanding when to re-push things through, just because someone says no once doesn’t mean that that means no forever. So that’s sort of a way that I deal with things that—one example of something that didn’t go my way before, but ultimately ended up going the way and benefited our whole organization.

Mark Graham: How to Develop Passions In and Out of Work

In Chapter 17 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Are You Learning to Apply Your Passions in New Ways?"  Graham notes that he is fortunate to spend most of his professional life pursuing his passions in his personal life such as television, music, film, and books.  He notes that as he gets more experience, he learns to separate work time from "me time" and enjoy the personal experiences instead of constantly chronicling them.  In the office, Graham puts a short-term priority on learning video editing skills such as Final Cut Pro so he may be more engaged with the video production teams working at VH1. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to apply your passions in new ways?

Mark Graham: I’ve got a lot of different passions. I’m a pop culture fiend. I love movies. I love music. I love TV. I love reading. Fortunately I’m in a position where I spend most of my professional life actively pursuing passions that I have in my personal life, which is really cool. I think one of the things that I’ve learned over—particularly over the last year and so, is that you do need to make time to create a little barrier between things that you’re passionate about and things that you do professionally, and by that I mean every time I used to go to a concert for example, I would always take notes during concerts and always write about things like that and I’ve sort of learned to pick things that are going to work for work and things that are more just sort of for “me time” to lay back, kick back, you know, drink a couple of root beers, enjoy the experience rather than sort of constantly chronicling it. I’m sending out tweets and Instagrams and taking notes and things like that, so I’ve really tried to focus this year on making sure that I do allow some sort of personal time for me in that way. 

And so the ways that I’m trying to apply passions in a new direction, you know, one of the things that I’m really trying to focus on over the course of the next year and some change, I haven’t gotten started on this yet but it’s one of the things that’s on my list of things to do this summer, I like to start learning how to do video editing. I think that that’s a skill set that is very important to someone who’s in my particular space, if you’re—the more trades that you can sort of do, the more relevant and useful you are to an organization. And also ways that you can help give better feedback and direction to people that you are working with. So as I’m spending more time working with video, with people who are operating cameras, and people who are sitting in editing base, and editing on Final Cut. You know, helping to understand their language, and the way that they work and the ways that we can help create a good product, end-product for a consumer, helping them get to that place is something that I’d definitely like to spend more time learning and developing. 

What Copywriter Enjoys About His Work - Conrad Doucette

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, musician Conrad Doucette answers "What Do You Enjoy About Copywriting?"  Doucette finds his work as a copywriter rewarding in that it taps into both his left and right brain skills.  In terms of right-brain creative thinking, he finds creating something from a blank canvas stimulating and challenging.  In terms of left-brain logical thinking, Doucette enjoys the mathematical or scientific element of copywriting work that uses specific elements to convey a concept, idea or message inside set parameters or boundaries. 

Conrad Doucette is a Brooklyn musician and the drummer for Takka Takka, which released its 3rd studio album, AM Landscapes, in late 2012.  He has performed with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The National, Alina Simone, and many other leading acts.  When not performing music, Doucette is the communications and brand director at music licensing and publishing startup Jingle Punks.  Doucette earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan.

How to Find Work in Creative Writing and Music - Conrad Doucette

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, musician Conrad Doucette answers "How Are You Finding New Ways to Find Jobs That Blend Your Passions for Writing and Music?"  Doucette shares that he did not know what exactly he wanted to do but knew he would find it in New York City.  By putting himself in close proximity to inspiring individuals in digital media, creative writing and music, he meets people who share similar passions.  Doucette continues to do this as he moves into writing, copywriting, digital producer, branding and communications jobs.  Each gives him an opportunity not only to work with musicians but also with people who share many of the same goals. 

Conrad Doucette is a Brooklyn musician and the drummer for Takka Takka, which released its 3rd studio album, AM Landscapes, in late 2012.  He has performed with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The National, Alina Simone, and many other leading acts.  When not performing music, Doucette is the communications and brand director at music licensing and publishing startup Jingle Punks.  Doucette earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan.

Matt Ruby on How to Use Deadlines to Achieve Writing Goals

In Chapter 10 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage Your Time and Commitments?"  Ruby acknowledges he spends too much time responding to other people - for example using social media - that doing his own thing.  To be more productive, Ruby uses deadlines to achieve his writing and comedy performance goals. 

Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and manages a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University. 

Matt Ruby on How to Improve Comedy Writing Over Time

In Chapter 15 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "How Are You Improving How You Write Comedy?"  Ruby shares how he is improving how he writes by getting tighter or more precise in his words.  He adds he has developed a better filter for what is appropriate.  Additionally, he notes how he is able to take material in new directions, a development he calls going from "A to C" instead of "A to B." 

Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and manages a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you improving how you write comedy?

Matt Ruby: I think I’m getting tighter, like in the amount of words that I use, which helps, like the shortest distance between 2 points is a good idea in comedy or in any writing. I think also what do I wanna talk about knowing that. Sort of like knowing what to throw out or what’s just not gonna fit in with the other stuff that I do. You know, just sort of this filter of knowing what’s appropriate or not. I don’t know, when I was starting out, I think a lot of times, like, I would go from A to B with a punch line and I’m getting better at going from A to C, like A to B is just like: oh, yeah, yeah, that’s funny-ish and that’s exactly where people would expect it to go. Whereas A to C is like: oh, I thought it was going in that direction, but I didn’t realize it would go that far, or that twist or that thing. And kind of giving that extra spice or, you know, like a little bit more of like—to me that’s the difference between like a good joke and a great joke is like when it’s like: oh, there’s a little twist that you know you didn’t see coming and it was funny all along the way and then there’s something else on top of that that’s even better, and then that’s I think when you get something delightful.

Erik Michielsen: Could you give me an example of a couple of pieces in a routine that you might use, you know, A to B versus A to C?

Matt: Okay, so I have a joke about how girls will drop the boyfriend bomb on me, and how fast it comes, and so I’ll be like, you know, when I’m talking to a girl, I’ll be like, “Hey, how’re you doing?” And she’ll be like, “My boyfriend says I’m fine.” And that’s A to B, you know. Like that’s fine, it’s funny, it gets a laugh. And then, you know, what I’ve added on to that is like, “Okay, can I get a foot-long chicken teriyaki, please? It’s a really judgmental Quizno’s we got here.” That to me is the C, or the taking it and giving it a twist of like that one extra line that’s, okay, it was a perfectly fine joke, but now to me that’s a more interesting or intriguing, or another layer to it that as opposed to just like a quick in and out sort of like meat and potatoes joke.

Simon Sinek on How Parents Support Career Change Decision

In Chapter 1 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "Where Has Your Family Been Most Supportive in Your Career Development?"  Sinek talks about his time studying law in London and deciding to drop out of law school for a career in advertising.  He notes that while his parents did much to influence Sinek to stay in school, ultimately they gave him space to make his own decision and, once decided, supported him in that decision.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  Where has your family been most supportive in your career development?

Simon Sinek:  When I graduated college, I went to law school. And after not quite a year of law school, I realized that I didn’t wanna be a lawyer. And so I decided that I was gonna drop out of law school. And I never fought so much with my parents than during this time and to make it even worse, I was living in London, going to law school there, and so they—I didn’t see them everything was over the phone, and I remember my parents tried everything. They played good cop-bad cop. They tried bribing me. They tried saying, we’re your parents and you’re gonna do this. They tried being my friend like, look, just get your law degree, then you can do anything you want. I mean, every strategy that exists, they tried, right? They tried ganging up on me, they tried leaving me alone. I mean, everything. You name it.

And my dad came to—And at the time I wanted to go in to marketing. I wanted to go into—join the ad world, right? And my dad was in England on a business trip, at about the time that I had to re-enroll, and he sits down with me, and says, so? I remember it. We were sitting in our friend’s house, a mutual friend of his, we were sitting in their house in their living room. I remember this scene exactly. And he says to me, so? And I said, I didn’t re-enroll. And the first words out of his mouth were, right, let’s get you into advertising then.

My parents were 100% against me until the decision was made, then after that point they’re 100% supportive and never, ever, ever raised it ever again. They never said, wouldn’t it have been nice or I guess this was—they literally never mentioned it again. And so I have to say, my—I’ve been very lucky in my life which is my parents will give advice, my parents will give strong advice, my parents will try and push and move you know where they would like their children to go but ultimately, once the kids have made the decision they’re 100% supportive. And so I’ve been very lucky.

Simon Sinek on Finding Meaningful Work by Doing What Inspires You

In Chapter 6 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Sinek first starts by doing something specific each day.  For him it is "inspiring others to do what inspires them."  What gives his life meaning is when he is able to fulfill that cause or do the thing that drives and inspires him.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What makes your work meaningful?

Simon Sinek:  What makes my work meaningful is that I set out to do something specific, in other words, I wake up every single day to inspire people to do what inspires them, right? And I know why I got out of bed in the morning. What gives my life meaning is if I fulfill that cause. Every single one of us has a ‘why.’ Every single one of us has a reason to get out bed. We have something deep, deep inside us that is formed when we’re young, that drives us, that drives everything we do. And if you’re able to put it into words, then it’s actionable, right? And this is the thing that I discovered, this thing called the ‘why’ that can be put into words. And so I know why I wake up every day and so the meaning I get is if I actually do the thing that I know inspires and drives me. I mean that’s what meaning is, right? Is when your life has purpose, and the purpose I have is to inspire and so when I get to do that I’m good.

Simon Sinek on What It Means to Be a Leader

In Chapter 9 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Sinek notes being a leader means one thing and one thing only: you have followers.  He then shares how leaders create that following by articulating a vision, cause or purpose toward a future that does not yet exist.  He then puts this in perspective of his own leadership, helping his followers work toward waking up inspired to do what they love to do and achieve fulfillment by doing so.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Simon Sinek:  To be a leader means one thing and one thing only. It means you have followers. That’s it. You know? It’s not about learning your style of leadership and how to adjust your style to fit the situation at hand, that’s management, right? Leaders only have one thing, they have followers.  A follower is somebody who raises their hand and volunteers to go where you’re going. They raise their hand and volunteer to go in the direction that you’re pointing. And so to lead others, means that you have a clear vision of a world that does not yet exist, a world that could exist, and by articulating that cause, that vision, that purpose, over and over and over again, it inspires people who believe what you believe, who want to see that world built, to join, to go with you, to figure out ways, you know? And so for me in my work, what leadership means, is articulating this world in which the vast majority of us wake up every single day, inspired to go to work, and come home every single day fulfilled by the work that we do. That doesn’t mean we have to like every day, you know, but we can love every day. You don’t like your children every day but you love your children every day, right? And so the more I talk about this world that does not yet exist, because right now the world we live in, the vast majority of people, 90%-plus don’t love what they do, they may like it but they don’t love it. When I talk about this world, it inspires others who believe what I believe and want to see this world built, join up and figure out in their own way how to advance that vision, so it becomes real. My role is to continue to pound the pavement and put that vision out there.

Simon Sinek on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 10 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Simon notes it is getting easier to spot things he should avoid and then work around the obstacles while maintaining pursuit toward his end destination or goal.  As his life becomes more public, Sinek notes how it is harder to know who to trust and shares how he is working through this situation in his life.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Simon Sinek:  It’s getting easier to spot things that I should avoid. So for example, let’s imagine that we’re standing in the corner of a large room, and I give you a simple instruction, I want you to walk in a straight line to the other corner. Off you go. And without telling you, I put a chair in front of you. Well, you just walk around the chair on your way to that destination, right? And even though you just disobeyed my order, which is to walk in a straight line to that side. The point is the destination was more important than the route you took, right? Now if we reset and I give you the same situation, again, where we start in the corner of the room, and I say to you, I want you to walk in a straight line anywhere, you know, somewhere in this room, and you’re gonna look at me you go, well, where do you want me to go? I’m like, I don’t know, you’re smart, pick a direction. And you’ll pick a direction, you’ll walk in straight line. And without telling you I put a quick chair in front of you, quickly put a chair in front of you, and you come to a grinding halt. And I—you’ll turn to me and say, well, how can I—now where do you want me to go? You blocked it. In other words, when you know the destination, it’s very easy to make adjustments, right? And when you don’t know the destination, every obstacle, even though it’s the same obstacle, brings you to a grinding halt, or forces you to just make sudden corrections which, again, there’s no sense of direction. And so the thing that I’ve gotten much better at, is because I have a clear set, a sense of where I’m going, is I find it much easier to go around obstacles as they appear. Where you know a few years ago, they would have stopped me in my tracks.

Erik Michielsen:  What’s getting harder?

Simon Sinek:  What’s getting harder is—and I think this is for everybody as we grow older, it’s knowing who to trust. You know, we meet lots of people, and especially if you have a little bit of success in the world, it’s hard to know who to trust. Because I’ve had instances where people called me their friend, treated me like their friend, you know, they called me on weekends to see how I was doing, you know, and then when it came close—when we, you know, decided to do some work together and we look at a contract, and I made some, you know, we made some comments on the terms that we didn’t like and they went: Clearly we can’t work together.  And I never heard from them again. I was like, wait, I thought you’re my friend. You know? So it makes you cynical unfortunately, a couple of bad experiences makes you a little cynical. The hard part is, you know, you wanna trust everybody, you know? And so it’s—I’m learning. I’m learning that. That, I haven’t figured that one out completely, but I’m learning.