‘‘The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate something that’s already up there.’’
─JACK TROUT AND AL RIES.
In 2014 I walked into one of the top radio stations in Ghana. I had been listening to a character who intrigued me. To me, Television is fun, radio is homey, yet the media is never great until the individual with a pen is a better medium and a Simon without a demon. So, as many are naturally drawn to a great voice that makes your listening ear sticky itchy, I look out for the stuff a journalist is made of. That, to me, is proper content enough in the making, all else is an additive. Umaru Sanda Amadu works with City 97.3 FM , an Accra-based radio station that gets you informed with relevant news always through English as their pipe of communication, though they uniquely lace their conversation with an indigenous touch.
It was exciting to see this journo walk up to me. ‘‘I was going to hear what I have been waiting for’’ I said to myself. But I lied. My mind blew off, but I was fine, anyway. He told me ‘Point Blank’, denotatively as the name of his program on the radio is. ‘‘Patrick, there’s no seat in the newsroom’’ This is just after media school. And I was hoping to breathe journalism and all the mannerism linked to it. That was the height of passion I had, sealed under intense pressure. And anyone who curiously draws near to sense the content I was made of would have gotten an instant bleach. But who cares? I guess it is the same height of passion that every graduate walks out the gate of their university ready to lick the world. But sadly, your mouth is filled with grits.
“The essence of strategy is, with a weaker army, always to have more force at a crucial point than the enemy.’’
‘‘War is a business of positions.’’
─NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
IT’S NOT MY CALLING!
Twice have I heard these words, not in passing, but tailor-made.
I had forged a good relationship with a corporate mc who was now a bosom friend. Kafui Dey had moulded a reputation for MCing events and best at it. A radio station was started by a company soon to have a resilient stand-in entertainment already, the EIB network. But that was not a meal I allowed to whet my journalistic appetite; the key I was seeking to own, tangibly, is a personality that would open my eyes to the new career path my fingers craved for. This is because I believed that if anyone wants to learn, institutions are only visible demarcations, persons are the real deal. I walked into Star Fm to see this new friend. I hoped for a smooth process right from the start. It is not easy to meet someone like that. I have plied that road before, and I had a rough bumpy ride at the end. Looking back at those moments, depression could have given me a cold suggestion. I am lukewarm, swinging in the thoughts of my past events. But I tried again this time round.
I had to finish what I had started, rejection and obstacles notwithstanding.
The program of this media geek started from 6:00 -10:00, a morning show to feed all listeners with the best breakfast. So I was fast to catch up. I was listening to the show as I prepared to have a great time. My time of arrival was near a close of his program. Soon, I was at the reception, ready to be engaged with the usual questions I am bombarded with when I tried such moves. Surprisingly, before I could answer the second question, he shot himself into the room like a bullet. He took over the conversation, which seemed like a drill. I was getting tired already with the lady because I had no answers to her questions. No arrangements. No! I have just walked in with a teaspoonful of faith. Formality was out of my clues. ‘‘I was here to see you,’’ I whispered. He smiled and said ‘‘I’m here, what’s the plan?’’ Fact of the matter is, I had come all the way to tell him, ‘I think like what you do, can I be in your sphere?’’ He asked, ‘‘what can you do?’’ I spoke a lot. As to whether I answered the question, I doubt. Before I could finish up my fluffy explanation almost like thesis on ‘‘A MILLION REASONS WHY I MUST GET A JOB OFFER.’’, he uttered, ‘‘Go to school.’’ I stood looking at him for fleeting seconds. He realized It was taking a while to digest those words.
THAT WASN’T AN ISOLATED CASE
‘Hold the Frontpage’, I want to be on it’ by Ed Ceaser paints a predictably bleak picture for journalism students graduating this summer.
‘…. almost every week I have received program an email from some poor sap wanting to know how to break into the business.’’ And what advice can such poor sap expect to receive from Mr. Ceasar?
‘‘Today, you’ll need luck, flair an alternate source of income, endless patience, an optimistic disposition, sharp elbow, a place to live London.’’
Charming.
The article then goes on to interview five or six people who have had the luck, flair, patience, trust fund, and London pad necessary to get a job on the Mirror, Daily Mail, Telegraph, etc. And what advice can they give?
‘Many graduates turn up on work experience and refuse to leave. It worked for me’’, says one.
Ceaser gets one thing right: he realizes journalism is changing. The advice he has sought, however, is for an era in the industry heading towards the grave.
He is stuck in the mindset that to have any career worth having in journalism it has to be working on a national newspaper or big broadcaster, and it has to be earned through unpaid work, desperate pleas to those already inside, a lot of luck, and presumable some sexual favors too.
But he completely misses or ignores. Two large elephants stuffed in the room. One is steady of legacy publishing organizations- they have further to sink, and a job with them offers no more security than being a freelance. And the second is the opportunity created by news of publishing and new platforms.
It seems Ceasar hasn’t even thought about it.
The very concept that the next generation of journalists might take control of their careers, become the chess player, and instead of the chess piece seems alien to him; then the ‘poor saps’ might see opportunity where he only sees despair.
So, then the advice is: If you’re just starting in journalism ignore his advice. While you’re at it, don’t spend hours squeezing the desperation out of a desperate email to that sub on a national newspaper you chatted to briefly at some conference somewhere. And don’t think you should give up just because you’re poor don’t live in a big city or because Ed Ceasar says you should.
Instead, do this:
Start looking for the exciting new opportunities presented by the wonderful digital age we are in.
Ask how you can combine the passions and skills you have with demand in the market.
Or better still, commit to learning some new skills. Teach yourself how to film and edit simple videos, and how to make basic audio slideshows so you can do as much
Lookup for what you’re made of, you are about to add up. It is only by knowing your composition that you will realize where you are going, how far you are going, how to get there, and when. The list of endless questionnaires will blow your expectation cover off. And now, you’re almost naked and vulnerable to what you love doing. What’s next? Now you do the talking and let me take a break sipping on this juice. That long stretch of discovery never knocks on your imagination until you have taken the pain to write down this whole map. Before we slip into the chatty chunk side of this conversation, let us look at who a new millennium expert is. An expert according to the Oxford learners dictionary is a person with special knowledge, skill, or training in somethingng.
This expert knowledge or skill in a particular subject, activity, or job is referred to as your expertise. Say, professional/scientific/technical, etc expertise. All set and clear for who an expert is, let’s now put a focus on the full picture, who an expert in the new age of information and technology is. The above is the definition of an expert, or the expertise if you find yourself to have that expert knowledge. Let’s switch up a bit. In rethinking expertise in the new age this is different. Here are a few modern approaches to achieving ‘expertise’ that you can leverage. If you eat books, you might have been graced with Nick Williams who says that an expert is someone who knows more than 80 percent of the ever-growing population out there about a specific thing. If you should go up this page you will come to the definition of an expert which cast a light on specialty, as in a person with a special…..This cuts out every bit of difficulty that might be inherent in the process of getting a skill or body of knowledge on a subject. Nick argues that all you’ve got to do is subscribe to the top three blogs in the area, and then head to Amazon and buy two or three of the best-selling books on the subject. Study all thoroughly, and then take what you learned and start creating with an it-for example, by starting a blog. Don’t position yourself as an expert, but start asking questions and let others join your learning journey. Be generous. After a while, you can offer a free course in your subject, maybe at a local college, and produce a free eBook available on your website. With these in place- believe it or not- you can be in a position to start offering a paid service. As I am writing this book, I had whisked out of a management meeting where my boss explained a slim fluffy version of who a professional is. A distorted version is rendered as an excellent view of what you must know, but truly you are seeing a tampered figure. But that’s the trend trailing with such a message of anachronism, almost fighting with a prevailing instance and principle. But that’s not all. You see, it’s not about knowing all there is to know, but about asking the right questions.
Consider this as well; another approach to gaining expertise, inspired by Chris Guillebeau. Take $100 and spend it taking as many experts in your particular field out for coffee as you can. That’s probably 10-15 people. Tell them you want to be like them one day and rinse them for how they got where they are. If you’re business-folk, find out how they run their business. If they are writers, find out their technique. People are always happy to talk about this sort of stuff. For a $100 investment, you’ll have taken more than a dozen one-on-one workshops with the best people in the field. Take this knowledge, follow the other steps from the previous approach.
Last on digging to find the approach is one in the lines of Dane Maxwell, and it suggests thinking differently about what type of expert we are. Our 20th-century approach to expertise posits that you have to be an expert in something specific. Say, an expert in an audio slideshow. But that’s very limiting. If no one needs an audio slideshow today, you’re out of work. What if, instead, you become an expert in identifying and solving problems, and you do it by assembling more specific experts around a common goal. Then argues Maxwell, the world is your oyster. You could compare this person to a movie producer. He or she identifies a problem ( ‘Greek-inspired blockbuster are going to be huge next summer, but our studio doesn’t have one’’) and then takes the initiative to solve it ( ‘Let’s produce one’’); they do this by assembling a party of experts: first the screenwriter, then a director, then the cast and so on. Each of those people is an expert in their field, but they need an expert problem-solver to drive the project forward.
Be that kind of expert today and you could be anything.
All three of these approaches have one thing in common: they all involve action- doing something. They don’t involve studying, or taking exams, or getting letters after your name. As Neils Bohr famously once said ‘‘An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field’’. You only make all those mistakes by getting active with it, doing it. The bag of the personality of the new millennium expert has the two illustrations in the fleeting minority who can become experts at what they do through those routes. That duly considered, the third instance, denoting how taking up such a status will mean you can be anything, is the extent and run you should make as a new millennium expert, and not defined by a certificate. You can just flip your character and gain any skill, knowledge, or training, no matter the purported complexities are widely known and obvious headaches that surround such a topic, subject, skill, or knowledge or course.
Eeyra O Brands LLC 