Think You’re Doing It All Wrong? It’s By Design
The social media sales machine is always running. Tell us we have a problem, promise to fix it, charge a fee. Rinse and repeat.
When I left TV at the end of 2017 to start over professionally I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had spent 16 years working for other people. They told me what to do each day and how to do it. Yes, I had my own style and was constantly generating my own story ideas but I knew what I had to do each day. We had shows at noon, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00, not to even mention the hours of morning show coverage each day. And those shows needed content.
I also understood the general path to growth and success. You started small and worked your way up. My first job was at the NBC station in Rhinelander, WI. Never heard of it? Neither had I before seeing the posting for a sports reporter opening and then sending off my VHS highlight reel (it was 2002, after all). I made almost no money. We’re talking $16k with no overtime pay (and, oh, did I work overtime). But I knew it was part of the process. I needed actual on-air experience to learn and grow and position myself for the next job.
Within two and a half years of graduating from college I got a big break. I was heading to Boston. The number six market in the country (at the time, I think it’s nine now). I would be working as a sports reporter at a regional cable network. I was still making barely enough to survive, but I would now be covering some of the biggest sports teams in the country. From there I landed in San Francisco, this time as the weekend sports anchor, and that propelled me to New York City and the number one station in the number one market in the country.
It took a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of sacrifice, and quite a bit of luck. But the entire journey was mapped out for me before I even took my first job. And at each job I was always thinking about my next move. I had the blueprint and I was very good at using it. When you give me some guidance and a stationary target, you had better believe I will hit it. Or at least come close.
Sixteen years later I was heading out of TV and into the vast unknown. I had some major trauma issues from the business I was leaving and the thought of working for someone else gave me intense anxiety. I knew I needed to do something on my own. But while that made sense in my own head I quickly realized this time there would be no blueprint. No guide to even help me figure out how to start. For many people that is exciting. But I am a rule follower through and through. I need guidance to get the creative juices flowing. I need to know I am heading in the right direction.
But now I was going nowhere. And as someone used to progress and success it left me feeling inadequate and hopeless as I constantly questioned my worth. I knew I had potential I just had no idea how to realize any of it.
