Month: July 2016

On carrying on

I am proud that we at Technical.ly published this piece by my colleague Juliana Reyes and informed by honest conversation among our staff. It’s been an important last couple weeks for me.

On carrying on

In the wake of all this violence against Black men and women, how do a company and its employees cope? A look at how Technically Media is trying.

“On Wednesday, the morning after news broke that a police officer had shot a Black man named Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., our events coordinator Alexandria Leggett posted in #technically-POC, our private Slack group for people of color at the company.”

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Beat reporters: stop hanging out with other journalists and spend more time with your community

I say this fully admitting I’m an active, proud and lively member of the Pen and Pencil Club, a private journalist’s association and bar in my hometown Philadelphia.

Journalists, especially community and beat reporters, should spend a lot more time with their communities than with other in news media. For sure, you can get great professional development and important understanding from meeting with your colleagues. But count up the number of hours you spend with other reporters and compare it with your community in person: which one is the bigger number?

This was among my clearest points from a talk I gave at the third annual Entrepreneurial Journalism Educators Summit organized by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Below are my slides and some notes.

Continue reading Beat reporters: stop hanging out with other journalists and spend more time with your community

Here’s the data to put our country’s startup frenzy into context

Policymakers and economic development strategists are startup crazy — in pursuit of a silly goal. I know. I’ve spent most of the last decade reporting on young tech companies, exactly the slice of firm creation that has led much of the attention in this post-recession fixation.

Though I’ve taken various approaches at understanding what, if anything, is really different about this era’s of business creation, I recently found myself pulling together some data that I wanted to share.

Hype around startups — newly created businesses, particularly ones that are approaching new business models — has merit. But the concept isn’t as new and their impact isn’t yet as bold as you might hope — Millennials are on pace to be one of the least entrepreneurial generations on record.

Continue reading Here’s the data to put our country’s startup frenzy into context

A list of one thing I learned each day of June 2016

I wanted to get a sense of the kind of things I learn on any given day. So I spent the month of June writing down one specific thing I learned each day.

My goal was for them to be actionable and easily transferable, hoping to identify just how regularly I am learning such things. It was fun. Let me share, from reading, watching, talking and traveling — like to the Great Lakes last month, as depicted above.

I love the idea of learning meaningfully all the time. Here’s my latest check on myself.

Continue reading A list of one thing I learned each day of June 2016

Don’t be a big timer

Like many of you, I’m too aware of how trivial I am in the grand scheme of things. But stick with the same work long enough, and requests for your time can quickly outstrip the time you have to give. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how to offer what I can while protecting my time—without being a jerk about it.

Here’s how I’ve approached it:

  • First meetings: With exceptions, I try to avoid in-person first meetings, especially the dreaded “brain-pick” coffee chats that can eat up hours between time and travel. Instead, I suggest meeting at public events I’m already attending or scheduling a call.
  • Responding thoughtfully: I make an effort to respond to every email from a genuine person. Canned responses have helped me here, and I’m working to delegate even more.
  • Alternative solutions: I try to redirect requests by recommending others for speaking gigs or sharing prewritten responses to common asks.

The goal is to stay accessible but mindful—offering value without losing focus.