19 / Take a Risk

08/10/18 • 30 min

I'm baaaaack. Sorry for the hiatus, podcast listeners—play on for a brief update on where I've been.

Today I'm talking to Dawn Kissi, a one-two punch of a journalist with tons of experience at places like ABC News, Women's Wear Daily, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal, and the founder of Emerging Market Media, which publishes Emerging Market Views. Dawn has reported extensively on finance and markets, and she talks to me about how she started covering subjects that, for many of us, seem really intimidating. Dawn gives us the breakdown of how she made each of her career moves and how she decided to go to Columbia graduate school, plus she runs down how she started her business. I ask her how she deals when feeling so curious and inspired with a number of different projects you feel like you could lose focus (hi). Oh, and Dawn drops one of my favorite surprises ever—"This is a twist...I ended up in the Middle East."

Listen below, or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

This episode was produced by Erin McKinstry. Our music, from Blue Dot Sessions, is called The Zeppelin and Titter Snowbird. This interview was recorded with the help of Google Hangouts.

I'm baaaaack. Sorry for the hiatus, podcast listeners—play on for a brief update on where I've been.

Listen below, or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

This episode was produced by Erin McKinstry. Our music, from Blue Dot Sessions, is called The Zeppelin and Titter Snowbird. This interview was recorded with the help of Google Hangouts.

Previous Episode

18 / Ask for What You Want

When editor of FastCompany.com Anjali Khosla was in her late twenties, she was finishing up an MFA and contemplating starting another, this time in animation and film (she was really into making rudimentary stop-motion videos inspired by high-minded concepts like Gilgamesh). She happened to apply to the Studio 20 program at New York University, even though, she admits, she was never a big fan of the media. Inspired by the citizen journalism that was popping up around 2008 (and at the urging of her dad, who told her to check it out), Anjali ended up going.

During one class, the executive editor of the New York Daily News came to Anjali's class to give a talk. Even though she wasn't familiar with the Daily News, she got his card, studied what the paper was doing on social media, and wrote to him. This was before papers had social media editors, but Anjali pitched herself anyway—and they let her join the team as a consultant.

I asked Anjali if she was scared to put herself out there like that. It was nervous-making, yes, but she knew she had to get a job in journalism. Plus, "a little bit of fear can be pretty healthy if the fear is driven by yourself and not by other people," she told me. She worked at the Daily News full-time for six months while going to school because she wanted to be brought on permanently...and she was.

Anjali and I also talk in this episode about how important it is to keep learning at your job and to ask for the raise you want—don't lowball yourself, and don't unnecessarily justify it. Plus: Just how hard is it to get a journalism job if you don't have an "in"? Pretty hard—and that's why it's up to managers to go outside of referrals and read applications, especially if they want to diversify their offices. Listen below, or subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

This episode was produced by Erin McKinstry. Our music, from Blue Dot Sessions, is called The Zeppelin and Sunday Lights. This interview was recorded with the help of Google Hangouts.