Brad Marley

I am not a journalist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night take a few journalism classes in college.

And if there’s one thing I learned (besides don’t bury the lead) it was that the journalist should never become the story. It ruins credibility and undermines the publication.

Even though we have entered an era where celebrity is within everyone’s reach, I still believe that journalists have to abide by this rule. Otherwise, it can be difficult to view them as impartial observers.

A few days ago, Mashable, a popular site for social media news, fired their editor-in-chief Ben Parr, so Parr took to his own site to write his swan song to his fans, expressing his deep gratitude to Mashable for allowing him to write for their site. Complete with the obligatory Steve Jobs reference, Parr wrote that he will take his talents to a spot that is still to be determined, but he has been inspired beyond belief.

That’s all well and good for Mr. Parr, and I do hope he lands on his feet, but he is a journalist, first and foremost. And to take time to write a piece on the heels of some controversy surrounding the timing of his firing, plants him firmly in the story, not on the outside, as journalistic ethics require. Rather than letting it blow over, he purposely addressed it, knowing full well that it would become a hot topic in the social mediasphere.

What Ben Parr had was a job, and some people lose those jobs, whether it’s because they weren’t the right fit, or they got caught sleeping with the boss’s wife.

But it happens.

Reporters lose and switch jobs all the time, but they don’t announce their departures in grand fashion. One day, their byline shows up under a new banner, and you think to yourself Huh, I didn’t know Andrea Johnson now writes for Daily Cabinetry and you move on. Bringing attention to yourself merely embroils you in the story.

Like I mentioned above, we live in a society where most of us will experience some level of our 15 minutes of fame, whether we like it or not. Some for good reasons. Some for sketchy reasons. It’s how we handle the fame that shows who we are.

As a journalist, your level of fame should be decided by others, while  you sit back and let them judge. To push the needle one way or another is bad form.

Just like the stories you write about others, let us judge for ourselves how to digest the information.

When you try to become the story, you lose credibility.

Image courtesy of spotreporting.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the National Football League confirmed yesterday that Nickelback will, indeed, perform at halftime of the Detroit Lions’ annual Thanksgiving game this year.

I couldn’t be happier.

Not because I like Nickelback. Can’t stand them, actually.

But if a league as powerful as the NFL allowed itself to be swayed because of a petition signed by 50,000 people for the sole reason that they plum don’t like the band, that would set a dangerous precedent, wouldn’t it?

Sure, now it’s just Nickelback. But who’s to say that we don’t abuse this new-found power?

The web and social media have the power to advance righteous causes. Just ask the people in Egypt who rose up and did something about their situation.

Switching the halftime musical act at a football games isn’t one of them.

Sometimes, in life, you have to deal with stuff you don’t like. This is one of those times, even though this has about as much effect on our lives as how many touchdown passes Matthew Stafford throws.

Let’s just deal.

(Besides, who watches the halftime show, anyway?)

*This post originally ran in September of 2009. I wanted to run it again because I think it’s still relevant and it’s one of my favorite posts.*

When you become a parent, your life becomes exponentially more exciting.

Take me and my wife, for example.

The highlight of our day is watching Dexter after we put our daughter to bed. (We don’t want her exposed to the F word at such an early age.) And watching a show that makes you feel sympathy for a serial killer can cause your brain to go to places it shouldn’t, like where Dexter can teach public relations practitioners to be better at, well, their practice.

Rule #1: Adhere to ‘The Code’. The code of ethics, of course. Just like Dexter has a specific code he follows when choosing his victims, we must follow an ethical code when we go about our day-to-day business. You don’t want to be one of those professionals who thinks nobody will notice if they, I don’t know, misrepresent themselves for one little story. Bad things will happen, man. Bad things.

Rule #2: Pay attention to the spatter. When Dexter tests the blood spatter pattern caused by a candlestick being forced into a victim’s head, the result is a nonsensical pattern that only makes sense to a trained professional. When you’re crafting an e-mail pitch for a large swath of journalists, make sure there is a method to your madness. The results of a mail merge catastrophe can be deadly, and nobody wants to clean up that mess.

Rule #3: Be meticulous. When Dexter kills one of his victims, he makes sure his “kill room” is covered from floor to ceiling in plastic so none of the evidence leaks out, and he can, essentially, take the room with him when he disposes of the body.  In public relations, nothing is worse than being a sloppy professional. Spell check will only get you so far. Even if it’s something as simple as an e-mail to your colleague about a meeting, take the time to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Our words are what make us successful. Don’t disregard them.

Rule #4: Begin a relationship. One way to throw off the scent, if you’re a serial killer, is to have a public relationship, since we all know that’s like at the opposite end of the psychopath spectrum. Same goes in PR. Kind of. While we do write strategy, create campaigns and brainstorm possibilities, coverage is the name of the game. So, striking up relationships with reporters is a no-brainer. Without them, we don’t have a career, so it’s imperative that we deliver what we promise. The quickest way to burning that relationship bridge is if they view you as unreliable. Take the time to nurture it, then add water on a regular basis and watch it grow.

Rule #5: Don’t allow yourself to get caught. This is the most important rule of all — for both serial killers and PR practitioners – and it ties in with Rule #1. The account manager who thinks it’s okay to pay people to write positive reviews for his or her client’s product and post them on-line, or the account supervisor who gathers a stable of Tweeters to draft favorable “tweets” about his client, will always be caught. Yes, there is a time and a place for new tactics, but take a minute to think about what you’re doing before you do it. If the majority says it goes against some societal or professional norm, it probably does.

I’ve been talking and thinking about storytelling a lot lately, and I realize, now,  that storytelling drives the public relations profession.

Without interesting people and background stories, we don’t have a product to sell. And when we don’t have a product to sell, we don’t have jobs.  You can talk until you are blue in the face about metrics and campaigns. But if we don’t work our tails off to find the stories that our audience will want to listen to, we won’t be long for this profession.

This is why, I believe, we can learn a lot from Ben Folds.

While most good music is a form of storytelling, his songs are, literally (at least they seem to be), stories about people and events that are set to music. It’s no wonder so many of his songs contain the name of a person in the title: he’s telling you their story.

[Editor's note: One of my favorite Ben Folds' songs is called "Not The Same." As Folds put it, it's about one of his friends who climbed a tree while tripping on acid, stayed in the tree the entire night, then came down the next morning a born again Christian. Now that, my friends, is storytelling.]

He is at his best, however, when he sings stories that captures the essence of two of humankind’s most perplexing disciplines: love and relationships.

The song that perfectly encapsulates this skill is “The Luckiest.”

My wife and I danced to this song at our wedding, and for good reason: it tells the story of somebody who is so madly in love with another, they can hardly believe how lucky they are to have met their perfect other.

Throughout the song, the narrator shares thoughts that express the depths to which he will go to express his love, using the death of an older married couple — “and his wife, she stayed, for a couple of days and passed away, in her sleep” — to explain just how much he cares for the person to which he is singing this song.

And in those lyrics, Folds manages to write the words that leave thousands of listeners nodding their heads in agreement, thinking, Yes. That is love. You’ve nailed it.

In connecting with so many people through a four-minute-song, he not only tugs at the heartstrings, but he strikes a chord that reverberates in all of us; a note of longing that all of us were born with.

As humans, finding love and passion is ingrained in all of us, and if we find or see or hear something that stirs up those those two ideas, we are bound by the laws of nature to pursue.

When we tell a story, we’re looking for a nexus that will force our audience to stand up and take notice. Investigate further. Share with their friends.

We don’t look to artificial means to tell our stories. We must put in the work to find the stories behind the products. Those stories that cause you, the storyteller, to sit up and take notice.

When we find them, we must tell them.

Those are the stories that will reverberate in all of us.

For all of its faults and petty arguments and useless knowledge, the Internet has provided us with an incredible opportunity to meet people who are doing awesome things.

The woman I interviewed for today’s version of “The Five and One” is one of those people.

Her name is Megan Gebhart. She is the blogger behind 52 Cups, one girl’s year-long experiment with caffeine and conversation, one of the coolest blogs I’ve come across lately.

I think we, as humans who aspire to be successful, are programmed to go to college, get a comfortable job, get married, create a legacy, and die. And when you read it like that, it’s sort of depressing.

Megan is not following that agenda, which is why I was drawn to her quest in the first place. As you’ll read below, she’s not content with being comfortable.

I’m thrilled she took time out of her coffee-drinking and conversation-ing to answer six of my questions.

Brad: So, first of all, where did you get the idea for ’52 Cups’?

Megan: Two years ago, out of the blue, I received an email from a kid named Brett. He was also a Michigan State student and had heard I was interested in entrepreneurship. He wanted to get together for coffee to see if there was a way we could help each other out with our respective projects. I said yes, never expecting that result of the meeting would be an incredible friendship that would really influence my college experience.

One day I was thinking about the impact that initial cup of coffee and thought, if one new connection could change my life, what would a year of new connections do? I figured there was only one way to find out decided to launch the yearlong experiment.

After the recent passing of Steve Jobs, a lot of the coverage (especially blogs) focused less on the technology he created, and more on the words he shared with the 2005 Stanford graduating class: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Not to say your idea is foolish, but what you’re doing seems to fall under this idea that you are trying to discover your passion, than settle for a desk job. Am I wrong in operating under this assumption?

I think that’s a pretty great assumption. I often use the term naive when I talk about the start of the project. I really jumped into it headfirst without taking a lot of time to consider the details, which, under the right circumstances, can be a great approach. I was so excited about the idea of 52 Cups I couldn’t wait to get started and I had a sense that if I worked hard to create good content the project would fall into place. I also wasn’t expecting the project to lead me to a job–my plan was to do what everyone expected me to do and get a fancy corporate job.

After 52 conversations though, I’ve definitely adopted the “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” mentality. I’ve talked to so many people that have followed their passion and found careers they truly love. It’s not easy to chase your passion, but it is worth it. I first listened to Steve’s commencement address seven months ago and I like the “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” quote; however, the line that really stuck with me was:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living some else’s life.

Because of 52 Cups I feel comfortable chasing my passions instead of seeking the comforts of a 9-5 job.

The list of people who you’ve had coffee with is pretty eclectic. You’ve talked to everyone from the head coach of Michigan State’s basketball team, to the co-founder of Apple Computer. How do you decide who to talk to?

A quarter of the Cups were people that I knew of through Twitter, Michigan State or just being fans of their work (like Wozniak and author Seth Godin). The rest of the Cups were recommendations from friends. I was doing a lot of traveling so I would ask close friends if they could suggest someone that might be interested in meeting me for the project.

According to my math, you have three cups worth of conversation left. What will you do after the last cup?

The answer to this question is a little tricky. I’ve got a few ideas/opportunities that will allow me to continue traveling, writing, and meeting new people–it’s just a matter of sorting out the details. Fortunately, I’ve still got a little time and am really excited about what this next year will bring.

Has this project lived up to your expectations? In other words, have you gotten out of it what you anticipated?

Absolutely. In fact, it’s exceeded my expectations. I can’t imagine what my life would be like had I not done this project–the friendships created, memories made, and lessons learned have profoundly changed my perspective and helped prepare me for a career I’m really excited about.

When you set an ambitious goal that you’re really enthusiastic about–and push through the good time and bad–you often get more than you anticipate because pursuing something you love opens doors you didn’t know existed.It’s an addicting experience, I’m already trying to figure out what I can do for my next big project!

Finally, the random question: If you could hand-pick a job right now, what would it be?

I think Ellen Degeneres has a pretty great job–she gets to meet people, share interesting stories and have a lot of fun in the process. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past year with 52 Cups and I’ve never been happier.

***

Mad thanks go out to Megan for participating in the interview.

You can read all of the Five and One interviews here.