Wannabe PR pros who have seen Sarah Evans featured on countless media outlets, including Forbes, MSNBC and ABC News, may assume that their road to the top will be likewise paved with TV appearances and red-carpet soirées. The truth, however, is that Evans’ journey as owner and partner of the luxury hospitality PR firm J Public Relations, founded by college friend Jamie Lynn Sigler (no, not the actress), hasn’t comes without lots of hard work.

It’s been worth it, though, and after launching the company’s New York division in 2009 in her late 20s, JPR now has more than 70 clients on five continents. Evans may not get much sleep these days (“We’re doing conference calls starting at 6 a.m. sometimes and ending at 11 p.m.”), but she can certainly savor the fruits of her labor. JPR has seen a 50 percent year-over-year revenue increase in each of the five years of Evans’ tenure with the top-ranking firm — proof that the publicist is a pretty badass businesswoman, too.

Name: Sarah Evans
Position: Owner/partner at J Public Relations
Resume: Moved to San Diego after college and started interning at a local PR firm while waiting tables. Landed her first full-time PR gig at Allison and Partners before relocating to New York in 2003 to take a job with Hawkins International, where she worked for six years. In 2009, she launched the New York division of J Public Relations.
Birthdate: February 22, 1979
Hometown: Fredericksburg, Virginia
Education: BS, political science, East Carolina University
Marital status: Married
Media mentor: Katie Couric: “She’s reinvented herself for decades and she’s continued to stay relevant.”
Best career advice received: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”
Guilty pleasure: Bravo TV
Last book read: The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
Twitter handle: @jrpublicity

What inspired you to start your own PR firm at age 29?
My business partner is my best friend from college, and she had started J Public Relations in San Diego when she was 25 in 2005. I was in New York working in luxury travel PR, so we were doing very similar things on different coasts, and we talked and said, ‘You know what, we could do this together, and why not start J Public Relations in New York City?’ So I took the leap of faith and left my amazing job and started JPR here in New York out of my apartment.

What was the most difficult part of establishing the New York division of JPR? And what advice do you have for others who are considering starting their own firm?
I think the most difficult part in the beginning was that I’m a people person. I’m an extrovert, very social, so starting it by myself in my apartment and not having anyone around me, at least physically, was very difficult. And I think for others starting out, [it helps to put] yourself in an environment where you can survive, like renting a shared office space. I was going back and forth to California a lot, so that was really great for me. I think also having a clear path of what makes you excited and what makes you tick [is important]. For us, hospitality and luxury lifestyle [brands] are something we’re very passionate about personally, so it’s easier to do professionally because when we talk about it we know a lot about it. It makes us light up. And, truly, relationships are what make the world go round. It’s really about these relationships that we’ve sustained individually that have helped us create this company that we have today.

“I think [building relationships] is really organic, and I think social media has made it easier than ever.”

Networking is something we all know is important, but some people are still unsure how to do it effectively. What are your tips?

I think [building relationships] is really organic, and I think social media has made it easier than ever. Whether you have a love-hate relationship with Facebook or Instagram or what have you, now with people that you don’t talk to all the time you can still feel like you know what’s going on in their lives. You’re able to see a snapshot of who they are on social media. And whether it’s commenting on a post or just shooting them a quick note to say ‘I’m thinking of you’ or ‘I saw a photo of your adorable child on Facebook,’ engaging with them personally really holds that professional connection. It has to be very organic. Networking events are great, but that’s not where I’ve met my deepest and true relationships. It’s through working with people, really understanding who they are, reading their stories and understanding what they write about — and then traveling with them and understanding what they love to eat, and maybe what they dislike.

Many people look at publicists and think PR is such a glamorous field. What’s the biggest misconception about PR?
It’s definitely not all glitz and glamour, that’s for sure. I was actually just in a meeting and I was talking with somebody about JPR and how we got to where we are today. There’s been lots of blood, sweat and tears involved. And I think that in PR, it’s all about the hustle. You have to have that hustle; you have to have that drive.

Many of the qualities that I think make a successful PR person are innate; they can’t be learned. It’s drive; it’s charisma; it’s intuition. It’s intuitively understanding what a client wants and what a client needs, and then intuitively understanding the media and their reaction to that. So it’s all of these qualities that really make up a great PR person that, coupled with knowledge and understanding of the industry and writing, as well as what we do, which is hospitality.

“Many of the qualities that I think make a successful PR person are innate; they can’t be learned. It’s drive; it’s charisma; it’s intuition.”

So how do you balance your personal and professional lives?
I think that’s so important because a happy boss means happy employees, so it’s huge that Jamie and I continue to be happy personally. And for me, I have a 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter who’s my world, so I try to get home at the same time every day, and I will block out a couple hours when I get home — that’s my time with her. And then after she goes to sleep, I work. And I work really hard during the week, but I try as much as possible to have my weekends be my time with my husband, my daughter and my dog. It’s a constant work in progress, let’s be honest. But I try hard, and I know how important that balance is to my well-being and ultimately the well-being of the company.

JPR has more than 20,000 Twitter followers and has been recognized for its social media efforts. What’s your advice for other firms?
First, you have to have dedicated resources for social media. Social media can’t be just an afterthought and lumped into everything that you’re doing. I think it really has to be a dedicated team that’s paying attention to it and cultivating it. It has to be conversational, and it has to be a reflection of who you are. I think our social media [Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn], if you looked at it over the last five years, has really evolved, and it’s really grown up with us as a brand. But it’s organic. I think if you go on our social media pages, you get an idea of who we are as a company and who we are as people. And I think that’s important, that there’s that connection. And the other thing is, don’t take your brand too seriously, so if you’re a company, you’re not just pushing out content. You’re engaging with people and making sure that content is really meaningful. People can only hear that there’s a package or a special so many times. It’s really about, if you’re a New York hotel, for example, talking about what’s happening in New York and becoming a resource for who you are and who your audience is.

Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Follow her at @AndreaWillWrite

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Andrea Werbel, Founder and Managing Director of PR Firm Parasol?

Community cookbooks have been around forever, so the notion of crowdsourcing home recipes really predates the rise of social media. But employing Twitter to help collect recipes, share cooking advice, and galvanize a community around a shared love of food? That’s certainly a new venture, and one that freelancer Merrill Stubbs and former New York Times Magazine food editor Amanda Hesser worked hard to create. Their popular online recipe community, Food52, recently finished their contest for the best home made recipes, the winners of which will be published in the first Food52 cookbook to be released in 2011 (the curation of cookbook No. 2 is underway).

The two met while researching for The Essential New York Times Cookbook, which Hesser edited, and will be released in late October. “We don’t want to be yet another site that insists on dumbing down recipes to make them “quick” and “easy” — so we won’t,” states the site. Here, Hesser talks about why the duo decided to start Food52, how they built a community around the site, and the advent of Foodpickle, the first real-time food Q&A.

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How did you get the idea for a crowdsourced cookbook, and why did you choose to execute the project this way?

The idea came from a project that Merrill and I worked on together, The Essential New York Times Cookbook, which is coming out this month. In doing the research for that book, we essentially crowdsourced some of the recipes we were testing. We asked New York Times readers what were some of their favorite recipes and got an incredible response — it became this invaluable thread throughout the book. It set the foundation of what recipes we were going to test, and the recommendations were really reliable and great. We also noticed that a lot of recipes that had resonated with readers over the decades at The New York Times tended to come from home cooks, not from chefs. There were obviously many terrific chef recipes that were recommended, but there was something about a recipe by home cooks that really resonated with other home cooks and readers. We just felt like there was something there, and we were really interested in applying the concepts of crowdsourcing and curation online. While there are many food sites and many good ones, we felt that what was lacking was the voice of the people — the celebration of the people who may not be professionals in the food world, but they know a lot about food, they’re incredibly passionate, [and] they have information to share. There wasn’t a whole lot of curation going on. We feel like that’s really important, particularly with recipes, and that’s why we started the site focusing just on recipes. Now we’re starting to branch out into other things.

“While there are many food sites and many good ones, we felt that what was lacking was the voice of the people — the celebration of the people.”

You’ve had a lot of experience writing about food. What did you apply from your previous media experience to form your approach to compiling this cookbook?

Part of my job when I was food editor of the Times and also when I was a reporter was to point [out] which direction trends were heading and essentially curate what was out there. What we felt like we could lend to a crowdsourcing site was that people could send in their recipes and we could use our experience as food editors and trained cooks and writers to tease out the recipes that really had original ideas in them, that seemed particularly promising, and then let the crowd take the curation process from there by voting on which recipes should win.

What is one thing that surprised you about the contributions and feedback that you got from the crowd?

We were heartened to find that there were not only great cooks out there, but ambitious cooks who weren’t daunted by recipes that have multiple steps. I was really impressed by how many people have new ideas week after week, and they really have adventurous palates and just really know their way around a kitchen. I guess we expected people would have certain areas that they would gravitate towards. And surely that has happened — there are the bakers out there who any time we have a dessert or baking theme, they leap on it. But there are a whole slew of cooks who are just willing to and also really want to create new dishes no matter what the theme is every week. That’s the best thing because it actually says something culturally, which is that Americans have reached a point — and I say Americans, just because the large majority of our community members are Americans — have reached a point in their comfort with food that they really have great conviction and are totally at ease in the kitchen experimenting and are not afraid to put their ideas out there in the public realm, which is a really big step forward.

For this project, you really wove social media strategy into the way you collected the recipes. Can you tell us a little bit about Foodpickle and how it helps promote engagement for your project?

FoodPickle grew out of two things, really. One was that as food editors and writers, we are constantly being asked food questions by friends, family, strangers. Because no matter what level cook you are, everyone has food questions. The thing that is unique about food and cooking questions are that they tend to need fast responses because you’re in the grocery store trying to make a decision about an ingredient, or you’re at the stove and something’s not looking quite right and you need someone to ask. So this is something that we thought a lot about over the years, and additionally in the past year in writing Food52, we just discovered that anytime someone on the site had a cooking question, people tended to leap in and respond quickly, thoroughly, and knowledgeably.

And additionally, just through my own experience with Twitter when I was working on The Essential New York Times Cookbook, if I had questions like where to place a recipe in the book, which chapter should it go in, how should it be categorized, what is the source of some kind of ingredient, people answered instantly and they were happy and generous, they wanted to share their knowledge and also they wanted to help you resolve your issue. Watching these things happen and having the available technology of social sites like Twitter, we felt like it was a natural progression: create a place on the site where people could ask questions, integrate it with Twitter so people could ask questions from Twitter, and people who know a lot about food could follow our Twitter feed.

The other thing that we built into that was that it was social, so that if you ask a question it gets broadcast out to Twitter, if you respond it gets broadcast to Facebook; additionally we built in a reward system. Every week we name the “Best Food Pickler,” and that’s a subjective decision based on the quality of responses, how active you’ve been, the spirit of generosity, incredibly engaging answers, etc. And that person gets this really nice prize from Viking. We’re trying to build a community and have people rewarded for great participation.

Food52 has a second book in the pipeline. What are you trying to do differently with this one?

For the first Food52 cookbook, we ended the contest in June, and [the book] will come out in the spring. The second contest just started in September, and we polled our community because we go to them for any big decisions, and said, “What do you think? What should we do for the next book?” It was really fascinating because there were some people who thought we should do a specific theme, but very few people actually did. We had said perhaps we could do a regional cookbook, or we could do holidays. The overwhelming majority wanted us to keep it the same system because they liked the surprise, they didn’t know what was coming week to week, they liked that it was seasonal. The only thing that we changed actually is that last year we would run two themes per week, and this year we’re running one, so we’re going to do more wild card winners. People can upload any recipe to the site at any time, and we just keep an eye on them in the background and test them when we see ones that are good, and then we name a wild card winner. The idea behind that was simply for it to be fun so that people could be surprised and awarded when they didn’t necessarily expect to be.

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to break into food-related media?

I think that it would be a great idea to work at a food website because you would learn a lot about everything from the editorial to the technical. You would be left with a sense of how online media works, and then potentially come up with your own idea for a startup. I think it’s best to just dive in. Tons of people have blogs, and we encourage that as well, but just getting on the ground experience in a food website is the way to go.

Amanda and Merrill’s Tips for Aspiring Food Writers
1. Learn to cook so you understand the medium.
2. When you eat out, always go to a different place, and try as many dishes as possible, especially ones outside your comfort zone.
3. Write a blog (not an original tip, but must be said) .
4. Work in the food business — on a farm, in a shop, as a waitress, as a cook, on a fishing boat. Personal experience is invaluable.
5. Eat some more.

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NEXT >> Turn Food Blogging into a Full-Fledged Career

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Jessica Roy is a freelance writer and the community manager at social media startup Context Optional.

If you are a fan of hip-hop, chances are you can’t escape Elliott Wilson, the self-dubbed “GOAT of Hip-Hop Journalism.” Even if you don’t get his constant barrage of tweets, retweets, posts and re-posts directly on your Twitter and Instagram feeds, they likely find their way there if you are a consumer of hip-hop content. “People used to be like ‘How do you do your job if you’re on Twitter all day?’ Being on Twitter all day is my job because the lifeline of the culture runs through Twitter; it runs through social media,” Wilson said.

The 43-year-old has worked in the field of hip-hop journalism for 20 years and his storied career includes time spent at The Source and a prominent role as XXL‘s editor-in-chief, among other magazine positions. He also has television and radio experience and has co-authored a couple of books. Now social media has kicked Wilson’s career and overall presence into overdrive. Tireless self-branding has raised his profile and the profiles of the brands he built, including Rap Radar, a hip-hop website, and CRWN, a live interview series with hip-hop’s latest and greatest. Wilson juggles these responsibilities with hosting duties for his show “The Truth” on Jay Z’s Life+Time’s YouTube Channel and his work on a forthcoming print project called HRDCVR, a collaboration with his wife Danyel Smith (2013-14 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, former editor of Billboard and former editor-in-chief of VIBE) — all while tweeting and posting, of course.

“Now the pace is even more strenuous than it probably ever was. I like the challenge of proving that I can still adapt to that and still be at the forefront,” he said about covering hip-hop in the social media age.

Here, Wilson discusses how he leads the conversation about hip-hop on social media.

Can you describe the evolution of your relationship with Twitter and other social media platforms?
I really think my relationship with social media is definitely the key to the success of my website Rap Radar, the resurgence of my career and [responsible for] putting me [at] the forefront of the culture. I joined [Twitter] in summer ’08. And in the early days of Twitter, I just remember a lot of it was galvanized around the President Obama campaign and the Democratic Convention, and the Democratic debates. It would be me and Danyel, Questlove and just… a small group on there talking about politics and… just having the excitement around this whole energy that Obama was bringing.

And then I launched my site Rap Radar in March 2009. And around that same time is when a lot of people in hip-hop started joining Twitter and it started becoming more and more part of our culture. What helped us a lot with Rap Radar was that we were kind of at the forefront because I had already begun to establish myself on Twitter.

“My relationship with social media is definitely the key to the success of my website Rap Radar, the resurgence of my career and [responsible for] putting me [at] the forefront of the culture.”

And at Rap Radar, we would screengrab tweets and make news posts about them. We started documenting [hip-hop] culture and using Twitter as that platform. A lot of traffic started coming to Rap Radar from our Twitter feed and from Facebook. I started to realize if I could try to become really dominant on this social media platform, I could bring the audience to Rap Radar. And that’s kind of what’s happened since ’09.

You’re a prolific curator of tweets. What merits a retweet or a re-post from you and how do you select them?

Obviously, this is a 24/7 world. Anybody at any time can say something, reveal a song, or show a picture. So you want to be on top of it, but you really can’t be on top of the Internet 24/7. So I… created a list of 100 people who I rely on, who I trust. A mix of artists, media professionals that are my peers, industry people. People I felt like were doing, to my knowledge, social media well. They had some insight and some opinions that I respected, even if I disagreed. I would get up first thing in the morning, go back and look at my feed based on those people and I would just start retweeting what happened in the night. If I sent a tweet at 11:30, 11:45 [p.m.] I would go in reverse order and I would retweet things that happened eight hours ago or five hours ago and so my timeline was deceptively looking like I never slept. And then I started becoming known for it, and then I started realizing that… the artists and everybody has the power to express themselves, but no one was really housing the conversation in one place. So I started doing that and my timeline documents [hip-hop] culture in one way that Rap Radar may not.

And now with Instagram, I’ve done it in a very similar way [as Twitter] where I’m just… trying to make sure that I don’t miss anything, and cover up the moments when at the end of the day I have to get some sleep.

What are the elements that make up your social media persona?
Well, I think my social media persona is also an extension of my character. I have a decorated history; I’ve been in this business for over 20 years. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m very boisterous. So I just kind of play that up and I kind of put it all out there and use it to promote and market my companies or promote and market artists that I feel deserve that, for no compensation. It’s just what I feel is good for the culture. Or I may have something I’m doing with the artist and I want the artist to get some notoriety.

“I want hip-hop culture to be respected and acknowledged as the dominant force of pop culture, which I think it is.”

When an artist puts out an album… I’ll retweet their iTunes link and try to encourage people to buy music because I think it benefits the culture overall. But, in terms of me, I think I do a good job of showing who I am — the same way I did with the XXL editorials I used to do — and my real personality. I’m really competitive, I really want to win, I really want to be a celebrated entrepreneur, I want to be an authority of our culture, and I want to prove that nobody has as much passion about it or drive as I do. So I share that but then I also welcome other voices and other points of view. Because as big as I’d like to be, I don’t think I’m bigger than the culture itself or bigger than anybody in this profession or the business itself. I want hip-hop culture to be respected and acknowledged as the dominant force of pop culture, which I think it is.

Have you ever been surprised at all by social media?
When something happens, we all just kind of galvanize around it. I think it’s killed the press release. We still get press releases, but now, pretty much, everything’s going to be first put out there through social media — mostly through Twitter. As a journalist, I’m just continually astounded by the power of that. At any time, something can happen. And given the situation I’m in, people expect me to know whether something’s true or not or have some insight on it. So I have to accept the challenge of that. I interviewed [Lil’ Wayne] for my CRWN series last week and I was telling him that it was a year ago at South by Southwest, where he had the hospital seizure situation and TMZ had pronounced him dead or said he was on his deathbed. It was crazy because there was an event called FADER FORT out there at South by Southwest… and I was [backstage] with Pharrell and Solange Knowles and we’re all hearing this terrible rumor about Lil’ Wayne, and they’re looking at me like ‘Do you know if he’s alive?’ because I need to know as a journalist, right? So I think that that’s the power of it. I think that it forces you to do your job and be on top of things and, almost like a doctor, you’re always on call. There’s a big challenge because information comes out at any hour from any place. And a lot of times artists are empowered to share their content themselves. You just have to be adaptable and passionate to have that drive to keep up with it because it’s super fast-paced.

What was that process that went into selecting Myspace to host the CRWN series?

Myspace is trying to redefine itself and they have created some really good content that I think gets overlooked because they’re still dealing with the shadow of… what the company used to be. And I think that CRWN’s exposure helps showcase that they are creating a lot of great original content and approaching business in a different way. It’s a very unique partnership to have WatchLOUD and Myspace with CRWN.

“I think that [social media] forces you to do your job and be on top of things and, almost like a doctor, you’re always on call. You just have to be adaptable and passionate to have that drive to keep up with it.”

I would say CRWN is like the cover story brought to life in front of the people, in front of the fans, in front of the world — it’s this really honest hour-long dialogue that really captures where the artist is. And former hip-hop journalists like Ben [Meadows-Ingram, director of content at Myspace] and Joseph [Patel, vice president of content at Myspace] get that.

So what do you foresee in CRWN’s future?
The bread and butter of it is to embrace the biggest artists in hip-hop, especially the new generation of stars. But I also want to go with Justin Timberlake or Justin Bieber or Beyoncé or Rihanna — artists that are of interest to me. I think artists today kind of marginalize media because they do so much of it. As a journalist, I have to do everything I can to make my content and my interviews stand out. And I do that by being selective about who I sit down with. But there [are] a lot of great artists, like… the artists I mentioned and also Nicki Minaj and Kanye West and Eminem — artists I haven’t really sat down with in a really long time or never at all. So there are endless possibilities. And I think that Lil’ Wayne was a great success and it sort of brings [CRWN] to another level.

You know what’s great about CRWN, too? It’s scary to be an entrepreneur. It’s scary to create new stuff and a lot of times you’re met with some skepticism, or a lot of skepticism, about it, but… I knew it was special because everyone loves it. It’s hard to find somebody that doesn’t like it or respect it. I think that I never created a brand in my 20 years of doing this that has had so much positive reception to it from out the gate. And it continues to grow.

Elliott Wilson’s Tips for Winning at Social Media Branding:

1. Be natural. “It has to be organic. You have to find your voice. You have to be fearless… even if you are private. You have to have confidence in expressing yourself. Be sincere and honest.”

2. Log off sometimes. “You don’t need to be on [social media] 24 hours a day, [especially] if you’re not in the right mood or you’re not in the right headspace. There [are] times when even I have to unplug for an hour or two… because [social media is] not really inspiring me.”

3. Join the community. “Respect other people’s voices. Be of the people and talk with the people. Don’t talk at them. Engage with them. And by being open to doing that, you develop a comfort in it, and I think that that’s really the key.”

Janday Wilson is a storyteller based in the greater New York City area. You can find more of her work at jandaywilson.com.

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NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Launch an Inspirational Photography Campaign, Eunique Jones Gibson?

Sarah Lewis’ nonfiction debut The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery is a keen interrogation of some of the most inexplicable aspects of the human experience: the pursuit of mastery, creativity, innovation and the surprising advantages that can come from failure. Lewis’ lifelong fascination with how people “become” turns universal in The Rise as she explores the sometimes-precarious beginnings that can lead to a phoenixlike rise through the stories of a staggering range of subjects, including explorers, scientists, choreographers, entrepreneurs and many others. Her book engages intellectually and inspires wonder, giving equal weight to both scientific and artistic inquiry.

Soon to receive her PhD in art history from Yale University, Lewis is currently a faculty member in the MFA program at Yale’s School of Art, has held curatorial positions at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art and has served on President Barack Obama’s Arts Policy Committee. She is nearing the completion of yet another ambitious book project born from her PhD dissertation: an examination of the “fabrication and mythology of race,” which she will finish during her Du Bois research fellowship at Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Here, Lewis shares with Mediabistro the details of her writing process for The Rise.

For The Rise, you chose to write about very enigmatic material. Was there a moment when you felt overwhelmed by the immensity of the task? If so, how did you pull through it?
Well, there was no period in which I didn’t feel the immensity of the topic I chose to write about, and I deliberately said ‘no’ to a number of things to give myself enough room to grow in the way I needed to in order to write. There was a moment when I was writing about the topic of surrender and how it is that people derive strength from it, whether it’s Arctic explorer Ben Saunders or others [who refuse to give up]. Somehow, relaxing in the face of difficulty, they were able to tap into the inner resources that they needed to discern which way to go next. And it took me a long time to understand that idea, in part because it is enigmatic. It is the paradox about life. We have physical evidence and we know that trees are strong[er] when they’re supple and they actually blow with the wind as opposed to cracking and bending over, but there are very few examples of this in sentient life and how we live as human beings.

So when I came to the point where I needed to write about surrender, I realized that I had to surrender myself as an author — in order to be able to digest this — to what I felt I was being called to say and write about. The surrendering process also meant coping with a lot of grief and letting go of a lot of things I felt were holding me back. So there were personal journeys I had to go on in order to free up enough psychic room to be able to write about this difficult topic.

You mentioned you had experienced six months of sheer terror before you actually dove into writing The Rise. What spurred you to really start the process?
That six-month period came after I received the contract. I wrote the proposal — it was fairly extensive. I had a clear roadmap in my mind of what I thought I wanted to do. Oftentimes, I think what’s marketable right now or fashionable are books that sort of teach you how to do things — how to overcome failure. And I realized in that six-month period, I had no ambition to write a how-to book. I wanted to write a more soulful, probing investigation.

“I had no ambition to write a how-to book. I wanted to write a more soulful, probing investigation.”

And the terror came in when I realized that I was going to have to go to some depths, and heights as well, that I hadn’t fully anticipated when I set out to do it. I had decided to write a book that was on a topic that really hasn’t been touched fully before. And I placed a lot of trust in the fact that if I felt called to write about a topic, then I must have somewhere within me the inner resources to be able to do it to the best of my ability. I realized that it was completely blue sky. The exhilaration that got me through it was in feeling that there was really nothing better than writing about the capacity of the human spirit, so what was I afraid of?

Can you describe the process of shaping The Rise and placing the chapters in order before publication?
I wrote the chapters as they came to me. And the first four chapters weren’t written in order, but they were the earlier chapters that I wrote. The reordering happened because I looked at the different chapters and could just feel that the rhythm that I initially put them in was off, based on what I was sort of hearing was right for the book. I had this process when I wrote where I would walk by the Hudson River near where I lived [in New York], and I would meditate and kind of get into the rhythm of the flow of that river. And something about it helped me hear the flow of what the sentence structure and the chapters needed to be. It was mystical.

Why did you specifically select The Archer’s Paradox to begin The Rise?

I love that decision. And it was actually there that way from the start. When I went to watch those women archers at Columbia’s Baker Athletics Complex that was the day that I really understood why I was writing what I was writing. I think it’s a mistake to lead by talking about failure when people want to talk about the topic of the book. Really, [the book] is looking at ultimately how it is that we achieve anything new, anything great and how it is that we see mastery instead of just success. And I love the image of seeing that with these women; women who were hitting the bull’s-eye, perhaps, but then hitting an 8 and knowing that they had just hit a 10. What does it mean to sort of outdo yourself constantly and/or see that you are better than you were a second ago? What does that journey of mastery look like? And how is it that tenacity can come from a near win? Those are all things that I loved seeing in them.

I also chose them because it was harder to find stories of women whose rise began or was spurred on by some difficulty. And I think that’s in part due to the fact that it’s only in the past few decades that women have been expected to be successful and therefore have felt comfortable talking about the full arc of what it took to get us where we are.

What was the hardest story or section you had to leave out of The Rise and why?
I interviewed [Dr.] Ellen Langer, who is a professor at Harvard in psychology. She pioneered work on the mind-body connection before the term ‘mindfulness’ was even a term — she coined the term. She’s remarkable and has produced, and is [constantly] producing, some path-breaking work. I interviewed her for the chapter about the grit of the arts; the last full chapter in the book. And she’s since become a friend. And I had to leave much of what I gleaned from that interview out of the chapter… and it was difficult to do.

“Really, [the book] is looking at ultimately how it is that we achieve anything new, anything great and how it is that we see mastery instead of just success.”

But what she had to say and the insights that she gave me weren’t quite right for the story that I was teasing out as it related to Samuel Morse’s life; how he was nimble enough — and mindful enough, really — to shift from painting for 26 years to inventing the telegraph. Ellen Langer was revealing something else, also about herself, in these interviews that frankly deserve their own chapters, their own book.

At a recent talk at The Aspen Institute, you said that in writing The Rise you felt yourself becoming the person you didn’t think you could become. Who is that person you became?
I mentioned that comment as it relates to critique. I think the person I am now is very different in terms of how much stock I put into how people see me. I don’t mean to say that I don’t care what people think about me. You’re on the planet, you’re alive, you care about your relationships with people. It’s just to say that I now value what I think about myself just as much. And that shift, I think, means the world for anyone who creates, because once your roots are deep it doesn’t matter how strong the winds are, in a sense. It’s kind of deepened my own roots about my own sense of myself. I think that really has been the biggest gift.

Sarah Lewis on harnessing the power of the imagination:

1. Get exposed. “Put yourself in a position where you’re letting yourself be exposed to, not just the arts, but really anything that allows you to feel wonder. Let yourself explore.”

2. Embrace the element of surprise. “When you’re young, you never know what’s going to grip you. But once you get hit with that moment of wonder, you know exactly why you’re here [and] what you’re meant to do in this life, and will spend the rest of your life pursuing it.”

3. Recognize that an experience is not one-size-fits-all. “That moment of wonder is so unique for everyone. For me, I was watching some choreography by Pina Bausch, and I was just moved to the point where I didn’t even have the words. And I realized that I wanted to have my book talk about the capacity of the human spirit in a way that somehow her dance did.”

Janday Wilson is a storyteller based in the greater New York City area. You can find more of her work at jandaywilson.com.

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NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Write A New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller, Isabel Wilkerson?

The next time it takes you 10 minutes to find an electrical outlet at Starbucks and you almost miss a deadline, or the next time you endlessly grill a source to get that one short gem of a quote, remember this: Someone else would love to be in your shoes. According to a survey from CreativeLive, 40 percent of Americans want the creative career you have.

The online education network found that 36 percent of employed American adults want to quit their current jobs in search of something more creative, and 55 percent of them would leave their corporate jobs for the self-employed life if they could live off it. The report includes data from more than 2,100 adults and was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Creative Live.

The report found that millennials (the 18-to-34 crowd) are most likely to go after careers that allow them to make a positive social impact. Thirty-one percent of millennials with jobs say that working with creative people is important to them, and 35 percent report that having a job that makes a positive social impact is very important to them (only 19 percent of those over 35 say that’s a priority). The study also found that 24 percent of millennials that hold jobs are twice as likely as people ages 45 to 64 to take online classes to improve their careers. Chase Jarvis, co-founder and CEO of CreativeLive, says this indicates a rising cultural trend in skill-based learning among younger workers. There is “jarring evidence of a massive — and growing — creativity crisis,” he adds.

While simply switching into a creative industry, or doing so as a self-employed professional, may not solve the problem, the notion of taking “the plunge” is quite appealing to many. For others, simply being in a creative environment — even if their job isn’t in an artsy field — would probably be enough to satisfy them.

“Everyone is inherently creative, but very few people in traditional employment tracks are empowered to put their creativity to use every day,” Jarvis says. “Americans are faced with an unstable economy, rampant unemployment and [are] stuck in jobs focused more on tasks than ideas. So, they are increasingly turning to the one thing they know to be true: their creative passion.”

Secret to Success: Make the Shift

Joel Keller, a New Jersey-based freelance writer and co-founder of Antenna Free TV, understands the struggle that makes so many people flock to creativity.

“You get tired of working in an office after a while. The bureaucracy, the meetings, the office politics… it gets to you,” says Keller, who got his start in the information technology field before he followed his creative dreams and became a writer.

“Even though I heavily concentrated on math and science in school, I always wrote on the side,” recalls Keller. He worked in the IT industry for about a decade and learned the writing business on the side by penning essays and op-eds. By 2006, he was published regularly, and had a growing blogging gig. That same year, he took a leave of absence from his job at IBM and worked full-time as a freelancer. “I did well enough that I left the IT world for good the next year,” Keller says.

“Time-management skills are a must if you’re looking at an alternative career such as being self-employed.”

Making the change was easier because he was single. However, Keller adds, “Even those with families can explore what a creative career might be like; my brother’s doing it and he’s got five kids!”

Time-management skills are a must if you’re looking at an alternative career such as being self-employed. “A creative career may never be feasible for you full-time,” says Keller. “It just depends on your situation and if you can tolerate a couple of years of reduced pay while you build your business.” Keller admits he funded his first year of freelancing with savings.

You do not have to have a stockpile of funds to get started, but having one certainly takes some pressure off. When I knew I wanted to work for myself as a writer, I worked a part-time editing gig at night and ran my business during the days. Make sure to understand what it will take to make your creative dream a reality, as many people cannot just quit their day jobs and begin a career as a social media specialist, web developer or newspaper reporter.

Secret to Success: Vary Your Sources of Income
Jodi Helmer, a writer based in North Carolina, says that building a financial cushion certainly eases the transition.

“Even if you’ve lined up assignments, it can take a while to get paid. You need to be able to pay the bills while the freelance checks trickle in,” she says. “If you can take on assignments while you’re still employed, it’s a good way to develop relationships and build a freelance portfolio___ and help plump up your savings account.”

A lot of writers have found that the key to sustaining their careers is to hone their writing skills in a variety of practices. Although I started as a reporter for a newspaper, I built my business around copywriting because it was more lucrative and enabled me to work in all industries. That gave me enough money to later take on writing books and magazine articles. Now, I write just about everything!

After Helmer got rolling as a full-time writer, she didn’t want to limit herself to only writing for one medium or industry, so she offers courses to mentor aspiring writers, speaks at industry events and has published books. These are all other ways to leverage her editorial skills and ensure a constant flow of income from various sources, which in turn helps her continue writing for markets that pay more sporadically. “Having diversified income streams is the same as having a diversified investment portfolio; it helps you weather blips in the market,” says Helmer.

The varied work has given Helmer the opportunity to fulfill her dream of becoming an author. She’s penned a local travel guide and books on the environment.

“A lot of writers have found that the key to sustaining their careers is to hone their writing skills in a variety of practices.”

“It’s also nice to juggle a long-term project with some of the quick turnaround work I do as a journalist,” Helmer says. The mentoring work allows her to share her passion and encourage others. “There are a lot of people who want to be writers but believe it’s not a viable career option, she says. Mentoring and teaching allows me to dispel misconceptions about creative careers like writing___ and show writers what it takes to be successful. Not all writers are broke and surviving on ramen noodles!”

When Helmer began freelancing, her mentor described freelancing as a three-legged stool. She said there would be assignments you take for love, assignments you take for money and gigs that complement the other work you are doing. In order to have a balanced and sustainable career, all three legs need to be equal.

So Helmer offers a reality check: “If you take on too many passion projects, you’ll be broke. If you take on too many soul-draining, high-paying gigs, you won’t love your work. And if you’re so busy teaching or making coffee that you’re not writing, you’re not really nurturing a writing career.”

Secret to success: Work for it

Keller says it’s easy to covet the lifestyle of a freelancer who is making a living off her talent. You may see something about a person in a technical career who thrives using his or her creativity and want that job, or you may want to sit in a writing studio all day and churn out novels. In theory.

“Who doesn’t want to work out of a studio or office with a view of the mountains or a big city’s skyline? Who wants to keep grinding away at an office job when they can move to a farm in the woods for some peace?” Keller remarks. “I think people want to do creative careers because they have a fantasy that it means they can kick back and work the hours they want.”

Of course, there are great aspects to working in a creative field, but working more creatively — for yourself or a company — doesn’t mean it’s easy. Keller says that not knowing how much money you’ll make in a week, month or year, as well as all the hustling that comes with growing a business, can be tough for someone who is self-employed. Those who jump into a creative field — say from an elementary school teacher to a news reporter — may also be challenged in learning a completely new field.

This is why it helps to have a mentor, take a course, or connect with others in the field. Attend a networking event or go online to communities such FreelanceSuccess.com that can help you gauge what it takes to follow your dream and get ideas.

Secret to Success: Build a Brand

Can anyone have a more creative career? Sure — even people in noncreative careers have to use their creative side. They don’t have to leave their day jobs to engage in a creative activity either. Working in a creative field, though, doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed happiness.

The fact is not everyone can be successful being self-employed because not everyone excels at managing the financial, marketing, legal and client relations aspects of running a business. You have to be willing to learn at least some of these skills if you plan on making a living off your talent and being your own boss.

“When you’re not working for someone else, you are your own brand. That means you must cultivate a positive reputation through proven results.”

Dawn Papandrea, a writer from Staten Island, says that being self-employed means you always have homework, so to speak. “Between deadlines, you need to market yourself and pitch for new assignments to ensure that you have a steady flow of work,” she says. “Sometimes, you’ll be inundated, and other times you’ll be slow. It’s important to manage your time well, and be willing to make up some extra hours if you hope to take some time off. You also need to be diligent about bookkeeping, invoicing and other money matters.”

While there are some not-so-glamorous aspects of jumping into self-employment or transitioning into a more creative career, it may be worth pursuing if you feel that strongly about it. Just remember that you’re building a brand if you go the self-employed route. When you’re not working for someone else, you are your own brand. That means you must cultivate a positive reputation through proven results. You have to have a foundation. And in today’s nation of freelancers, it also means that you have to stand out to start a business — and stay in one.

“You have to want it badly enough to find the time to get to work,” Jarvis says. “Spend your nights and weekends writing every story you’ve ever wanted to tell — be it something you’ve lived or something you’ve imagined. The only way to fail is to never start.”

Jarvis advises that people who are spending their nights and weekends writing yet can’t make the transition to their ideal career should share their work and collaborate with others. Find a mentor, or send out a query to pitch that essay you’ve been pining over. “Things don’t make things happen, people do,” he says. “Find your tribe, listen to their feedback and learn by iterating.”

Kristen Fischer is the author of When Talent Isn’t Enough: Business Basics for the Creatively Inclined (Career Press, 2013).

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NEXT >> Crafting Your Ongoing Education as a Writer

Andrea Werbel’s story started like those of so many other Americans studying in Paris… and ended with her running her own top-tier, hospitality-focused PR firm in Manhattan.

Before landing back in her hometown of Manhattan, Werbel spent time as marketing director at the legendary French culinary school Le Cordon Bleu and a period managing PR at one of the best-known hotels in sunny Beverly Hills before stepping out on her own and founding Parasol, one of New York’s leading luxury hospitality firms.

Here, Werbel tells us how a love of all things French turned into a job translating with top media outlets in Paris, a stint on the Today show and an offer of bigger things in London — one she turned down.

In short, we think you’ll agree the “how” in Werbel’s story is every bit as fascinating as the “what.”

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Name: Andrea Werbel
Position: Founder and managing director of Parasol
Resume: Began working as a researcher for Time Inc. and NBC in Paris before moving into publicity at Columbia Tri-Star Pictures and working as marketing director for Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute. Returned to the United States after 10 years in Paris to work as the PR director at The Peninsula Beverly Hills before returning to her hometown in New York City to launch her own brand marketing and PR firm, Parasol, which specializes in the luxury lifestyle and hospitality industry.
Hometown: New York City
Education: University of Colorado Boulder
Media mentors: Sandra Fathi, founder of technology specialty firm Affect Strategies. “Sandra is super-savvy, she’s grown her business quickly and her client and media relations skills are great. I admire so much of what she’s done as a solo female business owner.” Also: Terry Rooney, founder of financial PR firm Rooney & Associates. “When I wanted to try something outside of hospitality, I worked for a short while at a firm specializing in investor relations, where Rooney was head of the financial division. He reinforced for me the importance of building media relationships, and he was a great mentor in that respect.
Guilty pleasure: Buying lots of very beautiful shoes
Last book read: Selling to the New Elite by Jim Taylor
Twitter handle: @Parasol
What career route led you to the PR/marketing industry?
I initially wanted to work in broadcast news journalism, either in front of the camera or behind it as a producer. I started my career in Paris. I fell in love with the city while studying French film and literature in college, and I wanted to see if I could live there and get a job for six months. Little did I know it would turn into 10 years!

I was ready to do whatever it took, so I went to the French-American Chamber of Commerce, bought a directory of U.S. companies with operations in Paris, and sent handwritten letters and resumes to each of them. I landed a research position working with top journalists at Time Inc. thanks to a combination of tenacity and being in the right place at the right time.

And how did you land the job that really jump-started your career?
The American expatriate journalist community is very tight-knit, and through it I was fortunate enough to meet Ted Albert, who was at the time the bureau chief of NBC news in Paris. I basically begged Ted for a job. I told him I would take his garbage out with a smile — I just wanted to be in the newsroom. One day he called me and said, ‘You are so tenacious; you have what it takes,’ while hiring me for one of two bilingual research positions. I later had a fantastic opportunity to work on the Today show during its on-site coverage of the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

“Our business is dissecting media, and I can’t stress the importance of consuming that media enough.”

Do you now second-guess any of the decisions you made during the first phase of your career?
NBC eventually told me ‘We’re closing our Paris bureau and we’d like to offer you a job in our London office,’ which I turned down because London wasn’t as cool then as it is now. In hindsight, I probably should have taken that job, but I followed my passion to continue to live in Paris instead.

I landed, miraculously, in the publicity department at Columbia Tri-Star Pictures in Paris, promoting American films in France. This was my first foray into publicity. It was an invaluable opportunity because, as I now say, my graduate school was a live playground in Paris.

One thing led to another, and I ended up finding a position with Andre Cointreau, heir to the Cointreau liquor family, who had recently purchased the famous culinary school Le Cordon Bleu. He hired me as his marketing director overseeing his Paris and London schools.

I will be forever grateful to Mr. Cointreau because he put a lot of trust in me; the only limitations I had were my own. I ended up introducing an entire summer abroad program where American hospitality students could receive a portion of their culinary credits at LCB. It still exists today and proved to be an extremely valuable way to expand their market and increase their annual student base.

What brought you back to the States?
I almost had a relationship with Paris, and right around the time that I was falling out of love with that city I got two opportunities in the States. One would have brought me back into journalism with Fox News in New York, but I took a position as the PR director at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, which expanded my experience in the public relations and hospitality industry.

And what inspired you to go independent and start your own business?
My company found me in a sense. A former boss had been teaching at the Cornell PR School and invited me to talk to his class about hotel PR before encouraging me to explore opening up my own company. I’ve always been adventurous, so I thought: if it fails, I could just get a job somewhere else.

“I deliberately didn’t call it the Andrea Werbel PR and Marketing Agency because it’s not about me. It’s about our clients.”

I deliberately didn’t call it the Andrea Werbel PR and Marketing Agency because it’s not about me. It’s about our clients. I called it Parasol because it’s a French word that means umbrella — and under our umbrella of integrated services, we help companies grow.

Like many communications pros, you started in journalism. What do you think of the relationship between the two disciplines?

The purpose of both professions is to tell a story. At Parasol, we wear two hats: the hats of marketers working for a client and the hats of the journalists we work with, who are always hunting for a story. The difference? Media relations is more proactive. You always need to think like a journalist and understand their calling, and every pitch that goes out of my agency is tailored to the specific media outlet.

[Client Phulay Bay’s placement in The New York Times‘ “52 Places to Go in 2014” story] took months and months of hand-placed story crafting, and part of that process involves determining what would make the story fit with that particular outlet.

Do you have a specific example of this principle in action?

In one case, a client wanted to promote a new afternoon hotel tea menu, but there’s really no news there. So I went back to this client and said, ‘Why don’t we look at the behavior behind the story?’ We identified a trend: there were more men conducting afternoon tea, which is no longer reserved for ladies who lunch. So my pitch to the Sunday styles section of a local newspaper was “Men do Tea,” and was essentially a great piece of describing how more and more men are conducting business over tea.

This is the kind of out-of-box thinking that I encourage my employees to explore and cannot underscore enough.

What is your day-to-day like, and have your responsibilities changed in the digital age?

I’m old school: I like to pick up the phone and talk to people, and I like handwritten notes and good manners. I value relationships. Some agency bosses just tell employees to ‘Sit at your desk and work,’ while I say we need to score one-to-one meetings with journalists whenever possible.

“Some agency bosses just tell employees to ‘Sit at your desk and work,’ while I say we need to score one-to-one meetings with journalists whenever possible.”

I almost relate it to dating: a relationship is not a text or an email. You need to go out there and meet these contacts on behalf of your client and your agency because the experience is so much more valuable in the long run, particularly with the type of media we seek to secure for our clients. That coverage often doesn’t take place with a press release and email.

Of course, as captain of the ship, I also have the unfortunate responsibility of saying ‘OK, you did great; now how can we do better?’

What advice do you have for prospective employees or young people trying to break into the communications field like you did?
Our business is dissecting media, and I can’t stress the importance of consuming that media enough. Being savvy at media relations requires years spent reading about the industry in which you work. It also develops your ‘nose for news.’ It’s something I value very much.

If you’re working in hospitality, and you’re not reading the travel section of The New York Times on a weekly basis, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. I don’t require everyone to read the Times cover to cover, but I personally scan five newspapers every day. The habit trains your eye to not just understand what a given journalist is working on but also to understand what’s going on in the industry at large. I don’t know how many people take the time to do that today.

What makes a job applicant stand out to you?

Evidence that they understand the media landscape and that they can harness that knowledge. From a distance, Conde Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure may simply look like two travel magazines — but to a media relations specialist they’re completely different in terms of their editorial approaches. An appreciation of those nuances is crucial.

Strategy alone can be very boring and creativity alone can be very sloppy, but when you have a fine combination of the two, it’s brilliant.

Patrick Coffee is the editor of PRNewser and AgencySpy. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickCoffee.

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NEXT >> 12 Tips on Fixing Your Brand’s Bad Reputation

If your dream job involves climbing trees 11 stories high and rappelling down waterfalls, you’ll be inspired by Darley Newman, whose profession as a TV host and producer has enabled her to do both these things and more. Newman’s approach to travel is unique: by exploring landscapes on horseback and connecting personally with locals, she reveals hidden corners of the world and advises her audience on how to recreate these experiences in their travels. She’s currently producing three shows: Travels with Darley at AOL On Originals, Travel Like the Locals with Darley on ulive, a Scripps network site, and Equitrekking, her ongoing series that broadcasts on PBS in 82 countries. When she’s not filming or planning her next global adventure, Newman writes for travel pubs and keeps up her website. You may have seen this smart, spirited traveler on your TV screen, so now here’s a backstage glimpse at her “daily grind” — if you can call it that!

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Name: Darley Newman
Position: TV host, writer, producer and entrepreneur
Resume: Host, producer and creator of the Emmy-winning PBS series Equitrekking, which debuted in New Mexico in 2006 and nationally in 2007. Author of the series’ companion travel book, Equitrekking: Travel Adventures on Horseback, published by Chronicle Books in 2008. Recently launched two Web series: Travels with Darley on AOL On Originals and Travel Like the Locals with Darley on ulive.
Birthday: December 21
Hometown: Washington, D.C., but grew up in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Education: The George Washington University
Marital status: Married
Media mentor: Susan Zirinsky, senior executive producer for 48 Hours
Best career advice received: “You’re always going to have to work hard to be a success, even when you’ve ‘made it.'”
Last book read: On the Trail of Genghis Khan by Tim Cope
Twitter handle: @darleynewman

What led you into broadcasting work — and to focus on travel?
I’ve always been a creative type of person. I made movies when I was a kid and made everyone in the neighborhood be in them. I actually went into electronic media at George Washington University in D.C. I worked as a camera person for a summer in South Carolina and for a radio news service doing reporting, so I was kind of doing all things media. I just found that [broadcasting] was a really neat medium to work in and explore because I was always meeting new people and doing something interesting.

And I love traveling. In high school, I studied abroad for a summer in Spain and lived with a family and attempted to learn Spanish. That trip was just so amazing, and it opened my eyes to just how much of the world I didn’t know about. Not only learning a new language, but growing in confidence; everything was eye-opening. After that trip, I just really wanted to see as much of the world as I could.

Do you have a defining moment in your early career when things really got rolling, a big break?
Really, getting our show on PBS and airing nationally was probably a huge turning point. It started because I had what I thought was a great idea, which is “Equitrekking,” or seeing the world with the locals on horseback and getting to these beautiful natural places. I hadn’t really produced an entire show by myself, so I wasn’t sure what to do. But I really searched for an outlet that I thought I could work with and would actually take something from us starting out, and that was a small niche network that’s not even around anymore called Horse TV.

“My dream was I just wanted to get one episode to air nationally, and we started producing more [until] we actually had a series.”

We went to them and they said, “If you can get sponsors, we’ll air it.” So I actually sought out sponsors and was able to get them to do this pilot episode. Then I took that episode and also went to the local PBS station and did a test run, and grew it from there. So it wasn’t like I just started out and it happened all at once; it was step by step. My dream was I just wanted to get one episode to air nationally, and we started producing more [until] we actually had a series.

In your Web series, you connect with locals to find destinations off the beaten path. How does the process work?
It’s really interesting, from doing this over the years, I have a network of fellow travelers. A lot of them are actually writers that travel all the time, some of them are retired and this is what they do, and some people work a 9-to-5 job but always make time to travel. So I do a lot of networking and talking with people through social media, but also through traditional means and through friends, to find these great places to go and then pinpoint locals to work with.

For instance, I’ve been writing a column for Practical Horseman Magazine for the past five years, and my editor there had gone to Botswana. She’d done all these really awesome safaris, and she introduced me to some of the different places she’d been, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, we have to do that trip!” So we filmed two episodes in Botswana and actually went to some places she [hadn’t gone] as well.

What does your work day look like?
Obviously when we’re traveling it’s so hectic because the days are packed. We’re basically filming as long as daylight exists, which when we went to Iceland was a problem because it was during the summer, so it was light 24 hours a day!

For instance, a half-hour episode is usually five days of filming. And then there [are] travel days interspersed or at the beginning or end of that, and depending on how much jet lag we have to deal with, a lot of times we’ll cover a whole state or various parts of a country.

“When we finish filming, we’re reviewing where we’ve filmed and trying to figure out if we need to change anything up to complete the story — because like any show, we’re trying to tell really good stories.”

When we finish filming, we’re off and reviewing where we’ve filmed, and trying to figure out where else we want to go and if we need to change anything up to complete the story — because like any show, we’re trying to tell really good stories. So that’s part of it.

At home, I write. I run various websites, Equitrekking.com is one, and I do writing for a bunch of other publications. Every day is totally different, and that makes it exciting.

Can you tell me about a time when filming got exceptionally hectic?
We were filming in Hawaii, and we had a series of natural disasters that we had to deal with. I was in my first earthquake when we were staying in this house [in Hilo] that was basically made of all screens. And then we had a few more days of filming and a hurricane was coming in. We had to pretty much change our entire schedule. So we ended up leaving that part of the island and going early to Waimea and trying to figure out what to film there. Then we were on a ranch [in Waimea] and there was a wildfire on the neighboring ranch. Another day, we were in the Valley of Kings, which is one of the lowest points on the Big Island, and there was a tsunami warning. We were like, we cannot win on the Big Island! It turned out to be amazing in the end, but it was kind of comical because I felt like everywhere we turned, nature was against us.

So which are your favorite places to visit?
I really liked Jordan. We went and explored the Bedouin Desert and Petra, which is a dream travel destination. And the people we met there were so genuine and welcoming. I actually rode with the Bedouin in the Wadi Rum desert and had an amazing experience.

I loved Turkey, I’ve been back to Cappadocia, we’ve filmed there twice actually, and that’s another place where we just met these amazing local people. One guy in particular who was an expert on history took us around to underground cities. We rode to these small villages that not a lot of tourists visit.

And I love Ireland just because it’s so beautiful and diverse, and it’s accessible, and the people are so nice. That’s definitely a common element to a lot of those places that we really like: we meet these amazing people.

“Pursue something that you love, something you want to spend time on, because you really do have to immerse yourself in what you’re doing to be a success.”

We definitely luck out, but I think people around the world are open to sharing their culture and who they are, and they do take pride in where they live and their history and background. So, if as a traveler, you’re open to learning about those things, I think you’ll find that locals are generally open to sharing that with you.

What’s the scariest thing that’s happened to you on your travels?
I was charged by an elephant — it had me questioning my entire career! We were in the Okavango Delta, which is the largest inland delta in the world. It’s a great place to explore because there’s so much wildlife; it’s pristine and beautiful and very exotic. We were riding horses, which is a good way to travel, because you can go from island to island, pass through water, and really get into the interior part of these places where there are no trails.

We happened upon this one island where there was an elephant who didn’t want us there. He was eating jackal berries or something, and I guess he didn’t want us to get near his stash. So we were crossing over, we were kind of parallel to him, and I was like, ‘I think he’s coming towards us!’ And sure enough, he charged us, but it was a mock charge.

Our guide had said whatever you do, do what I do. And he knew it was a mock charge, so we basically had a standoff for about 15 seconds until the elephant backed off. I was shaking almost to death, and my horse was shaking too, but I had an amazing mount that had been in that situation before, which was lucky, so I was glad I had chosen that horse. It was really close, I mean, like 10 yards or something. It was close!

Is there any advice you’d give to aspiring travel journalists or TV producers?
Take aspects of whatever you do that you really have a passion for, then the work that you produce is going to be something that other people will be drawn to. Just pursue something that you love, something you want to spend time on, because you really do have to immerse yourself, and your life, in what you’re doing to be a success.

Also, working hard, going after what you want and not taking ‘no’ for an answer is so important. It is a big world and there are lots of new opportunities nowadays, and different ways you can get there. You don’t necessarily have to take the traditional route anymore, and I think that is something that everybody should be aware of. If you’re creative, you can find a way to make what you want to do a success, or at least give it a great try.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Get a Travel Channel Show Reviewing Fast Food, Daymon “Daym” Patterson?

In January, I decided this would be my year of professional enrichment. My freelance life was going well, but at times, it felt too cyclical. You could say I’d finally slipped out of a multi-year freelance honeymoon phase to stare down the reality of the daily grind.

I had to remind myself: if I’d wanted a daily grind, I wouldn’t have become a freelancer in the first place. And worse, all of those wonderful long-term goals I’d set were completely unaddressed. What about that book I wanted to write? And the community involvement I craved? And then there was my outdated Facebook page, garnering zero traffic and collecting digital dust.

As you may know, every day as a freelance writer feels like a sprint. If I even let up for one second, I imagine, everything will collapse around me. I won’t get paid. I’ll be late on rent. I’ll have to sit down and have “the talk” with my daughter’s daycare provider and we’ll eat nothing but potatoes for a week straight. These are the fears that trivialize the outdated website and unwritten book.

But early this year, despite the daily grind, I managed to start carving out time to address these enrichment opportunities and design my “ongoing education” as a writer. There are three activities, in my opinion, that you can implement immediately to open doors and fill voids: community engagement, passion projects and keeping your social media presence updated.

Real-life community engagement

Despite the cost-effectiveness and speed of digital communication, I am a believer in the unique value of face-to-face interaction, especially for freelancers and other small business owners. Not only does community involvement fill up your internal social meter, it also brands you as a writer among other professionals.

About two months ago, I joined a coworking group, The Creative Foundry, located in a historic building in my small city. The benefit over the first few days was purely aesthetic: peering out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that face the main drag was certainly more interesting than my home office view of my neighboring apartment.

“Not only does community involvement fill up your internal social meter, it also brands you as a writer among other professionals.”

After a couple of weeks, though, I started making connections. The barista at the coffee shop started recognizing me. I met other coworkers. One quiet morning, when only the owner of the facility and I were there, he made a joke that sparked nearly a half hour of conversation about politics and religion. He introduced me to a young woman who was starting a networking group for small-business creatives. One cocktail hour and two coffee meetings later, I’ve befriended a stable of interesting people — interior designers, a branding expert, a small-business lawyer and other writers — all who inspire me and serve as resources down the line for the growth of my business.

If you’re interested in coworking, try searching “coworking” or “shared work space,” followed by your city. In addition, there’s a global coworking movement called Jelly, which is a less formal meet-up of local freelancers at spaces of their choosing.

Of course, there are other ways to connect. If you need feedback, start a writers’ group or join an existing one. If you need job leads, find (or create) a networking group for creatives. Other outlets, like church, volunteer work, political involvement or nightlife may address any of those needs as well. Just make sure it’s something you’re genuinely interested in, or it will be tough to find the energy to commit.

Finally, when it comes to getting out there in the real world, the key is persistence. Great relationships don’t happen overnight. First you have to show up and then you have to keep showing up, often dozens of times, before you see the return on your investment.

Passion projects

A passion project is something creative you do primarily out of love and, often, it’s something you’re not getting paid for. If you’re like me and have a hard time justifying doing any kind of work for free, opt for a project that you may eventually be able to sell. However, your primary goal should be creative expression rather than income because the commercialization of it can often take away some of the joy.

Here’s an example: A couple of years ago, my sister, who lives 500 miles away from me, lamented over email how her rigorous work schedule and long commute left little room for creativity at the end of the day. We decided to do writing prompts over email for a few days to escape reality and have fun with words.

We ended up with stories and prose poems about a guy who hates his artificial hand, a suicidal man on the run and a conundrum involving acid-spiked orange juice. These weren’t topics that would have grown organically in either of our minds, and they weren’t even distantly related to the work we did on a daily basis (I was writing for parenting blogs and tending to my newborn; she was working as an administrative assistant for a private equity firm).

“Stretching my creative muscles not only hones my writing skills, but it reminds me of the spark that started this whole thing in the first place.”

I mention this example because the content we produced was completely unsalable: there was no way either of us could rationally benefit from this writing in our professional lives. But just opening the floodgates of creative possibilities enriched our daily work. One prompt only took about 15 minutes of my time, but the energy derived from it fueled my blogging and made everything seem more colorful.

If you don’t have a creativity-starved sister who lives 500 miles away to hold you accountable, here are some other ideas for passion projects:

__? A dream journal or photo journal

__? A complementary artistic hobby, like sculpture or knitting

__? Blogging about your favorite hobby

__? Outlining an idea for a book

__? Writing a musical composition

__? Daily haikus

__? Letters to old, new or imaginary friends

Another way to generate ideas for passion projects is to think about the creative activities you pursued as a child, before you were swayed by the promise of a crisp paycheck. My favorites were short-story writing and film editing. Because I don’t have the gadgetry and the time to pursue the film thing, I’m currently jumping back into fiction, and I’ve created a small writers__? critique group to help hold me accountable. Stretching my creative muscles not only hones my writing skills, but it reminds me of the spark that started this whole thing in the first place. Unlike my day-to-day writing, fiction deeply rejuvenates me and restores my intrigue with the world.

Social media

For me, social media has been an invaluable tool for landing freelance gigs, connecting with my audience and seeking out experts for interviews. My social media skills have evolved by intuition: over time, I’ve learned that more likes mean more exposure and writing status updates with a positive spin induces more likes. I’ve learned not to get abrasive with others, for both professional and personal reasons. Basically, all rules that apply in person should apply online. Conduct yourself with integrity, be witty and interesting, and don’t solicit or spam the people who love and admire you.

If you’re also a little baffled on how to maximize your social media experience, pick one outlet to focus on, rather than trying to be omnipresent. So between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and the various blogging platforms — which do you choose? It depends on your existing social media presence, and how you prefer to use each site. Facebook is my hybrid personal and professional social network. My Facebook friends are a mix of people I’ve met over the last 10 years, and I often use it to spread the word about my own writing, but also to share random links from around the Web (and pictures of my family).

“All rules that apply in person should apply online. Conduct yourself with integrity, be witty and interesting, and don’t solicit or spam the people who love and admire you.”

Although I mix business with personal life, it is often advantageous to set up a Facebook page separate from your personal profile. The most obvious difference is the structure and analytics of a business page: there are worlds of data at your fingertips regarding your geographic visibility, who’s reading what, the popularity of other business pages and more. Unlike a personal profile, you can promote your Facebook page with a preset budget. You also have room on a professional page to include a broader array of details about your business. To build an audience for a new page, you can use Facebook to invite your existing connections and email contacts to like your page.

Unlike my hybrid personal and professional profile on Facebook, my Twitter is strictly professional and it’s the main social site I’m focusing my energy on at the moment. I like Twitter because it’s easy to tailor my newsfeed to my particular interests and career goals by following other freelancers and organizations. Those that I follow offer up links that help me generate story ideas, address problems I face as a freelancer, and keep me up to date on the industry in short snippets.

My intention this year is to tweet at least once a day to keep my byline out there — a small, manageable goal. I’m also in the constant process of finding helpful and interesting users or organizations to follow. For example, @WhoPaysWriters and various news sites like @Reuters and @WomensMediaCntr keep me updated on industry news and issues important to me. I also follow publications I hope to write for in the future, like @Salon.

Google+ is especially relevant for writers with its Authorship function, which links the content you write to your Google+ profile (sign up at plus.google.com/authorship). On LinkedIn, consider joining a group designed for writers like LinkEds & Writers.

If you really don’t know where to start, try taking a class on the subject of your desired social media site here on Mediabistro.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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NEXT >> Balancing Your Freelance Life with Your Personal Life

The fourth season of weekly interview series In Depth with Graham Bensinger is in full swing. Among this season’s guests: Terrell Owens, the athlete who helped launch the reputation of the 27-year-old host many years prior.

Bensinger started doing an Internet radio talk show from his bedroom while in the 8th grade. But it was his 2005 ESPN interview with Owens that put him on the map; the football player’s controversial remarks made international headlines and led to the athlete being suspended for the rest of the NFL season by the Philadelphia Eagles.

From his St. Louis headquarters, where the sports reporter can be found between traveling to various interview assignments, Bensinger spoke to Mediabistro about the Owens bookend chats and much more. This season, for the first time, In Depth is being shown not only on domestic cable and sports networks, but also on traditional TV stations. The program now employs a full-time staff of 11 and continues to simultaneously air on Yahoo Sports and in many international territories via several international broadcast partners, including Rogers TV in Canada.

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You started off the 2014 Terrell Owens interview with an apology. Why did you begin the conversation that way?
Other than very brief instances in passing, I had not had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Owens during the eight years since the first interview. I wanted to do it in part because I know sometimes people will say one thing in private and then another thing publicly. So I wanted to say to him that I was doing this in the public forum so the viewers of our series could understand why I was apologizing.

The interview that I did with Owens in 2005, in part, provided me with the incentive to create this In Depth series. I created the show myself, signed on all the early interview subjects and sponsors myself, and so on. The purpose behind that was so I could have the opportunity to have a platform where I had complete editorial control. Because whether it [was] the three and a half years I worked for ESPN or the time I worked for NBC Sports after that, I ultimately didn’t have editorial control. And I think the most notable example of that is the 2005 Terrell interview.

“There are instances where you know going into it that you are going to cover sensitive subject matter. And how that’s navigated is something I pay close attention to.”

I sat down with him for an hour-long conversation. We covered everything from his grandmother having Alzheimer’s to encounters growing up to the controversial topics. Those controversial topics made up five minutes of the interview and were all that aired on Sports Center. And I can fully understand from a news perspective why that was. There’s limited time, and that was the most newsworthy content.

But I also understand from T.O.’s perspective, he’s thinking – ‘Crap! I did an hour-long interview with this kid, and for what? Just so I can get some extra headlines?’ And so I felt like I owed him an apology for putting him in a situation where I was interviewing him for a platform [on which] I did not have the ability to fully and adequately profile him.

Another notable interview you’ve done for Season 4 was with Kobe Bryant. How do you land such high-profile guests?
I started putting this series together in March 2009. It took about a year and a half to get it assembled; we launched in September 2010. And as the audience size and distribution of the series has slowly grown, it has without a doubt made it easier to get access to high-level athletes. But it’s still definitely a process. Kobe probably took two years.

It’s also easier to get access to these guys if you’re asking for five, 10, 15 minutes. If you need an hour and a half, two hours or a couple of days, there’s so much more involved in requesting the time. If we’re going to do it, we want to have the best chance to do it right, so I really avoid jumping at the opportunities for 10 or 15 minutes. I’ll always hold off and keep the dialogue going until the athlete and their people feel comfortable to give us an extended amount of time.

For this fourth season, I was really lucky to be able to hire away Jim Rome’s long-time talent producer, Jason Stewart. [He] came over after 15 years with Rome. His relationships are obviously extensive. And although the budget is still really small, we’ve been able to carve out some money to send Jason all over to book the best guests. He’s gone on our behalf to Wimbledon, the Kentucky Derby, Floyd Mayweather’s fight, the Daytona 500, and on and on. He’s constantly traveling and his guest-booking help has kind of enabled me to lessen my day-to-day involvement.

“Coming to the interview as prepared as you can possibly be will separate you from 99.9 percent of the other people out there.”

How do you handle some of your tougher interviews?
There are instances where you know going into it that you are going to cover sensitive subject matter. And how that’s navigated is something I pay close attention to. You want to be fair to the person and how it’s presented, so there’s a fine line there. The Kobe interview, for example, was the first time he opened up about his sexual assault charges. We spoke at length with Ray Lewis about him being charged with the murders of two people a decade ago. We went to New Zealand for the first interview with Tiger Woods’ ex-caddie, Steve Wilson, after Wilson was fired by Tiger. Emotions were running high for that one. Going into these situations, I’m always cognizant of the need to tell the story with the figure’s sensitivity in mind.

What have been some of your favorite interviews so far?
I always really enjoy it when we do an international episode because of the varying cultures and the backgrounds of the athletes — whether it’s going to China to talk to Yao Ming or Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines. Those are all exciting interviews.

I also did one in the Hollywood Hills with Jim Brown at his home. He’s arguably the greatest football player of all time, one of the most socially significant athletes of the past century. This is a guy who retired at the peak of his playing career to pursue acting, helping pave the way for black action stars. He’s created hundreds of black-owned businesses through his foundation. The type of people Brown called friends back in the day were Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Hugh Hefner, Richard Pryor, Jack Nicholson, Frank Sinatra, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Jr. So the stories he has are just unbelievable. He’s also somebody who’s very quick to tell you if you ask a dumb question.

You’ve also interviewed O.J. Simpson several times. How did those opportunities come about?
The first time I interviewed O.J., I was a junior in high school. Right from the start, I made a point of going out to events and meeting players [and] publishers. With O.J., it involved Jim Brown. I would use the proceeds of advertising on my Internet radio show to fund trips. [One time] I went to Washington D.C. to interview Brown, and while I was there I met somebody who was also an agent for Simpson.

I proceeded to call that guy twice a week for a year and a half. And finally one day, I was told that O.J. was scheduled to do an autograph signing in St. Louis, and if I could be there at a certain time, this person would make it happen. And at the last minute, I decided to bring a little hand-held video camera. And lo and behold, a week after the interview, Good Morning America flew me out to talk to Diane Sawyer about [it].

And then a couple of years later, I think because Simpson appreciated how I handled myself post-interview, he [gave] me access really whenever I wanted. Now, looking back on those interviews, I think I admittedly did a very lame job when it comes to asking the difficult questions. If I had another chance to talk to him today, there is a lot I would now ask.

Graham Bensinger’s Keys to Success as an Interviewer:

1. Follow your passion. “I feel very lucky to have found something I was passionate about at an early age. It didn’t even dawn on me at first that [interviewing sports figures] could be a career. It was more of a hobby in high school and just grew from there.”

2. Emulate your idols. In Bensinger’s case, two key influences were fellow St. Louis natives Bob Costas and Joe Buck. “Bob Costas wrote my recommendation letter when I went to Syracuse University, which is his alma mater. Both he and Buck have been very kind to me and obviously I have tremendous respect for both of their abilities and talents.”

3. Do your research. “Between [me] and the producers, we probably do about 100 hours of research for each In Depth guest. Coming to the interview as prepared as you can possibly be will separate you from 99.9 percent of the other people out there.”

Richard Horgan is the co-editor of FishbowlNY.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jay Mohr, Comedian and Fox Sports Radio Host?

Last fall, John Newlin relocated from San Carlos, Calif., to Manhattan to watch over Livingly Media’s two-year-old New York office. He left behind the business development, finance, engineering and editorial team at Zimbio.com to preside over an East Coast staff that now slightly exceeds that of the company’s West Coast operations.

At the new offices, sales and marketing staff work alongside editorial teams for the company’s two other highly trafficked Web destinations — fashion design site StyleBistro and interior-design site Lonny. The married father of two young children has made his new home in Brooklyn, where his wife — an executive at IBM — works from home.

Newlin jokes that since he neither runs a hedge fund nor works in the legal field, he cannot afford to live in Manhattan proper. During a recent telephone conversation with Mediabistro, the recently transplanted executive talked about overseeing a content network that attracts more than 30 million unique visitors each month.

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Name: John Newlin
Position: VP of content, Livingly Media
Resume: After a few years in LA doing miscellaneous freelance writing, he migrated north to San Francisco and got a job at Imagine Media (now Future Networks). Worked with a Wired editor on what would become Business 2.0, as well as helped launch a pair of major Web networks. Joined Livingly Media (then Zimbio, Inc.) in March of 2008 as its first editor.
Birthdate: September 26
Hometown: San Francisco
Education: BA in English from Lake Forest College
Marital status: Married
Media mentor: Art Cooper
Best career advice received: “Work smart, not hard. But also work hard.”
Guilty pleasure: XBox One
Last book read: The Next 100 Years by George Friedman
Twitter handle: @Newlin4141

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Why did you decide to relocate?
A couple of things. I think bi-coastal management of teams is something that we all underestimate the difficulty of. Despite all the technology we have and how connected we are, with editors you kind of have to be in the same room with them. So I came out here to be closer to the two youngest editorial teams and to try and export some of our California sensibility.

I also very recently moved into a new content role, from editor-in-chief to VP of content, [which] has me doing more outbound content promotion as well as content development. Coming up with awesome new features and seeing those through, and building out partnerships for our extensive photo archive, and so on.

How did you get started in content creation?
After going to college in the Chicago area, I moved to Los Angeles and sold a pilot script to Comedy Central. That did not work out, as the vast majority of pilots tend to do. I spent a couple of years in LA doing freelance writing and then, as the Internet started building up steam, I packed up for San Francisco and got a job with Imagine Media (now Future Networks USA).

I started working on what was later to become Business 2.0 with a former Wired editor. We also worked on a print magazine about the Internet called Net, but the plans for that publication were eventually shelved. It was a time when Red Herring was big. I stuck around Imagine and launched a couple of Web networks for them, IGN and Game Radar.

“This has been an active conversation for the past two years — how to harness the power of these [social] networks. And for us, it’s still pretty much all Facebook.”

IGN was of course sold to Fox in 2005, while Daily Radar was slightly ahead of its time. It had shareability all over it and would have done really well today. I went from there to doing freelance writing for Maxim, Men’s Journal and that crowd of titles, as well as consulted to try and help companies with the difficult challenge of syncing up their print titles with the Web. I joined Livingly Media in March 2008.

How does Livingly tap into social media effectively — and which platform do you use most?
This has been an active conversation for the past two years — how to harness the power of these networks. And for us, it’s still pretty much all Facebook. We have a pretty good relationship with them; [the Facebook] office is in a neighboring California city.

We launched personality quizzes [on Zimbio] in mid-January. From a pop psychology point of view, these quizzes answer the question, “Who am I, really?” If someone takes the “What Star Wars Character Are You?” and gets Han Solo, they think, of course, I’m a space cowboy. And you share that because this is what you’ve been telling people for years — you’re just as cool as Han Solo. So there’s that ego thing. You’re getting the results of the quiz and you’re saying, “Yes! Check it out.” There’s also, I think, a prime kitsch factor to it.

Is part of the appeal of these quizzes the fact that there are no really “bad” or uncool matches?
It depends how you define cool. When we did a J.R. Tolkien character quiz, we found that those who got wizards were way more likely to share their results than those who got, say, hobbits. So there is that to it, but of course, not everyone can be Han Solo. The writing of the quiz has to be done by someone who is very, very familiar with the particular TV show or film franchise.

I get this question a lot about the quizzes — “Are these things real or do you just make them up?” I’m never really sure how to answer. They’re as real as you want them to be and, yes, we make them up. I just heard that Jason Alexander took our Seinfeld quiz and got the Soup Nazi as his answer.

The traffic we started getting for these quizzes was truly unprecedented. And it still is to a large extent. I think we tapped into something at the right time, backed by a robust tech platform. This wave is going to crash eventually. It’s not going to keep growing. However, it’s still, for now, very big.

“The traffic we started getting for these quizzes was truly unprecedented. I think we tapped into something at the right time, backed by a robust tech platform.”

Livingly also has an enormous photo archive (more than 10 million assets). How do you use them across your sites?
It started out on Zimbio. We basically knew that we needed to build a lot of topic pages and we knew that we couldn’t do it manually. So we created some smart technology that builds these photo albums using meta-data and struck our first photo partnership with Getty Images. Most people buy Getty images à la carte. We buy them all.

Anything that an in-house Getty photographer shoots automatically ports to Livingly’s system. And our system will then read the data attached to the photos and put them in the appropriate, separate containers. We use the vast majority of what Getty sends us, showcasing the entertainment and fashion ones mainly. On Zimbio, we also highlight sports and current events.

What we’ve noticed with the massive breadth and depth of the photo archive is that older assets will sometimes suddenly start getting tons and tons of traffic. We built a proprietary real-time analytics tool and because we have this long tail, we will often be the only site that has a lot of photos of a particular B-level celebrity or individual. We will score on Justin Bieber and that kind of thing also, of course, but it’s really these other tiers of photos that are paying off for us.

Are there any plans for a fourth Livingly website?
We’re definitely launching a couple more sites, yes. We’re not sure which one will come next, but it will happen sometime later [in 2014]. It will be in the lifestyles category. Right now, we’re also redesigning Lonny. It was one of the first so-called “digital shelter” sites, offering PDFs of print publications. We’ve since moved away from that format of replicating magazine pages. Because of mobile, we’ve decided to change direction and build the next thing in this shelter category. On mobile phones, Lonny is hard to read. The new Lonny will launch this spring.

Richard Horgan is the editor of FishbowlNY.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Bonnie Fuller, Editor-In-Chief of HollywoodLife.com?