he's chasing dreams hitting seams.
she's chasing dreams talking sports.
We’ve blogged and vlogged a lot about Matt’s journey. I wanted to give a little blog update about my journey to my dreams. While in Arizona, I worked Cubs Spring Training and ASU basketball games. I worked the gates, the batters eye and other stadium jobs. When this opportunity came along, I thought to myself, “well, this isn’t really helping me in journalism, but it’s sports and will make some money. Might as well.” I had so much fun. And more importantly, I made connections. Connections I would have probably never made if I didn’t take the job. I talked (and got a business card) with a guy who owns an online media company in Chicago. He assured me I was on the right track and to let him know if I ever needed a job in Chicago. Anyone I talked to I told them about this blog and made sure they got the correct website address. During the month of March, I had more people visiting my website in Arizona than Tennessee (according to Weebly analytics). That’s awesome! Just because I shamelessly plugged my blog. (And you thought I was annoying on Facebook.) My job hunt in Tulsa has been guided by Thad who I worked with while at the Progress-Index. Thad is the President of eType Services which is the company who is in charge of the Progress-Index websites. eType has clients in the Tulsa area, so when I left the newspapers, he told me to let him know if we ended up in Tulsa. As soon as I found out we were going to Tulsa, I emailed him, and asked for advice/any contacts he had. He actually gave me a call yesterday to let me know of a couple of people I needed to get in touch with that seemed interested. I also had another guy, Kevin, who works within Moser Community Media which is the company that owns the Progress-Index, reach out to me and offer any help he can since he lived in Oklahoma for several years.
During media day for the Tulsa Drillers, Matt mentioned me and this blog to the Tulsa Drillers beat writer for the Tulsa World (daily newspaper), and he told Matt for me to reach out to him. We’ve set up a meeting next week, and he said said he would answer any questions and help anyway he could. I’m saying all of this to encourage professionals but especially people in journalism to always, always, always be a good worker no matter where you are/what you’re doing, reach out to people you worked with and talk to people in your field everywhere you go. In no way was I a perfect reporter at Progress-Index, but I always made sure to work super hard, be friendly, have conversations, ask questions, be different, on and on, and now because of those things, I have people sticking their necks out for me, truly wanting to help. That’s a good feeling. Especially in a place like Tulsa where personally I have no connections. Same thing when I was graduating from Lipscomb, I had several people I interned with asking around for me. Nothing worked out for me at that time. But those people told me to keep in touch, and let them know if they can help in the future. And you best believe I’m taking them up on that one day. I even reached out to a couple of them to see if they had any connections in Tulsa. A wise Lipscomb journalism professor once said, “It’s not what you know. It’s not even who you know. But it’s who knows you.” Networking is so key, and you’ll meet some pretty awesome people along the way. Now not everyone will be willingly to help you, and that’s okay. But in my experience, most will. You just have to ask. And if I’m lucky to be successful enough where a young professional wants advice and help, I will most definitely help just like successful professionals are doing for me and will continue to do in this business. You also have to be willing to take risks…to make connections and also to build your resume. A big risk I took was interning with the Nashville Predators. The only thing I could tell you about hockey was where the goalie was. With the help of other interns and the people I was around, I learned the game and went from Game Night Intern to Communications Intern, and it was one of the best experiences in my life so far. Then obviously, moving to a state I’d never been to, 16 hours away from my family and friends, by myself wasn’t ideal, but I learned SO much, had so much fun and made connections that are helping me now. (Not to mention met great people and friends and found our pup.) Meanwhile, I’m going to visit each newspaper, media company and radio station in this area in person over the next couple of weeks because I feel I sell myself pretty well. A big part of this business is about using connections but also knocking down doors yourself or at least knocking on those doors. (PS: I am not saying this “advice” is true for everyone’s career paths. I’m just speaking from my experiences. Be You. Dream. Do. Proverbs 16:9)
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Matt & Jesica BeatyWelcome in to dreams and seams! A tell-all blog about our career dreams and path to reaching those dreams with some commentary about sports and life plus some videos too. "Strive for the impossible because it makes the possible seem effortless." -Matt Beaty Categories
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