Everyone was sure I’d end up at a newspaper, since I was a kid. I was always seeking out the big names for the scoop since I can remember. And all signs pointed to this ultimate professional destination. English awards, composition honors, years of editing the high school newspaper, doing interviews and writing articles.
Then in college, there was a shift from print to radio and TV, with an emphasis on advertising, interviewing and public relations. I wrote and broadcast a daily news shift on the campus radio station. I was a member of WICI (Women in Communications International).
Yep, I was joining the media, I was sure of it.
But those glasses...yikes.
I graduated from college, and employment opportunities for media grads were, well, scarce, to put it mildly. Administrative work turned into junior account management roles. Sales support functions transitioned into marketing communications development and management. The field made full use of my writing skills, creativity and project management talents and even shed light on areas I never anticipated before like tradeshow and event planning, webinar development and brand management.
Before you could bellow “CAREER MAKEOVER,” a long-lost writer, interviewer and news junkie was ready to bust through the thickened marketing track walls like John Hurt’s head in “Alien.” (Okay, admittedly a little more vivid than I intended, but you get the picture.)
It was time to make a change.
In May 2005, I did. After 13 years of marcom development and account management support, I rediscovered my passion and found myself on the pages of The Tampa Tribune. (You mean they want to pay me to read the paper and write about it? Daily?!) Sure, I had no by-line, but it was an opportunity to promote the wonderful work by the people I had been reading since I relocated to the Tampa Bay area back in ’92. I could mix with the writers, collaborate with the editors as well as their broadcast news counterparts at WFLA NewsChannel 8, attend daily news meetings and get an up-close view of the everyday chaos involved in producing a daily news product. I had fun on the job every day and found that perfect group of people who could identify with my sometimes bent sense of humor.
(Yeah, that's me as real-life Runaway Bride Jennifer Wilbanks for Halloween one year. See what I mean.)I had found nirvana.
And then Courtney Love showed up (metaphorically speaking).
Two years later, the paper felt the pangs firsthand of an industry struggling to stay afloat amid a cornucopia of online advertising opportunities, even competing with itself through its own Internet product, TBO.com.
I was let go.
Okay, not really.
Well, almost.
On what was to be my last day, I was offered a job in the advertising department to build the equivalent of articles – but for advertisers…advertorials. This writing role soon grew to include building editorial content for advertising sections. Now, I was not only interviewing business owners and restaurateurs but NFL superstars and local celebrities.
Soon I traded in my advertising copywriter hat for a skirt! Well, not literally speaking - those who know me know I'm all about the pants. But it was time for a new role in a new world I like to call skirt!
skirt! is an exciting national magazine that launched in Charleston, SC in 1994 and has been steadily branching out across the country ever since. The Tribune's parent company had purchased a franchise for skirt! for the local market (one of twenty nationwide!) and on April 1, 2008, Tampa Bay women everywhere heard a new fresh, sassy voice out in the local media arena unlike any other.
As editor and sole local writer for skirt!, I now had the opportunity to meet incredible women
and men (at least those willing to wear a skirt)
and introduce readers to wonderful organizations and businesses making a real difference in the community.
It was normal to be out and about networking with our readers and the business and community leaders in the area on a regular basis. (Above - Here I am with Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC News and my former skirt! manager Trisha Randall, and below, with Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa - very cool lady!)
Our one-year-anniversary approached as the April 2009 issue prepared to hit racks. And then the most unfortunate thing happened. The franchise owner decided to stop publishing skirt! as part of its cost-cutting measures, and my once bright, bold, colorful ride on the skirt! Tampa Bay magazine train came to a screeching halt.
I was asked if I'd be interested in continuing to write profiles part-time as a community writer for its online counterpart, www.tampabayskirt.com and this I do love, as I still get to meet interesting local folks and share their stories with our readers - now, they're just online. I'm taking the positive energy and light from my whole skirt! Magazine journey and carrying it forward to other ventures to come - whatever work, role or project it may be.
Whether building ad campaigns, writing feature articles or building Web site content – the same set of core values continues to follow me from one project to another: a creative passion, a collaborative nature and character. And whatever the work or task, I always approach it with a sense of humor, fun and inquisitiveness. I strive to work well with others, asking questions and seeking out those with the answers.
Most of all, I stay committed to a project from start to finish and to my promise to deliver excellence on time, with accuracy and accountability.
But without any John Hurt “Alien” busting-head references.
Unless the job calls for it, of course...
