Stardust Global Ventures

I have to be upfront here, this started as a comment reply to a post and has ended up an open letter to Shelly Palmer. As most of us like reading letters, I decided to go ahead and share it with you.

I read and listen to MediaBytes by Shelly Palmer. Last weekend Shelly wrote a compelling post called, “What If Your Dream Job Doesn’t Exist Anymore?” It was so compelling I actually started to comment, something I don’t do often anywhere, but as I thought about what he was saying I realized I had a lot to say. Shelly probably wouldn’t appreciate a comment longer than his post so I decided instead to write my own post to better consider what I thought about his article.

What if your dream job doesn’t exist anymore?

Let’s think about this…If the old dream jobs don’t exist, maybe we need to carve our own dream space. In new media, or as Jeff Pulver calls it, NOW media, we each have the ability to create a new niche, a new role for those of us still early to the game. Maybe we won’t be as ‘rich’ as the old media ideals led us to believe we could be, but we can make a fantastic life, make our own way, and do things differently. In other words, we can impact our future.

Shelly said: ‘You can’t go from 34 year-old, female, third-string, foreign language, cable news reporter to NYC-based talk show host. In fact, you probably can’t get there at all. Not because of personal talent, but because the job doesn’t exist. There is no locally produced talk show that is looking to hire a host. That’s not how talk shows work.’
[note: the 34 yr. old woman is not me.]

I agree, Shelly, that’s not how OLD media works. But don’t tell me I don’t have the ability to do what I want, simply tell me how to create a different path. Who wants to go the way of a dinosaur about to be extinct anyway? Not I. Maybe instead of being so put off by someone who has a dream, you could have explained that in old media it’s not possible, and here’s how to do it today. You’re going to have to maybe alter the dream because old media is about to die. You had a real opportunity to help. It’s too bad you didn’t.

I can only imagine what Shelly would have told someone like me, a MIDDLE aged woman, who’s kind of average and doesn’t live anywhere close to a metro hub, if he heard what I’m about to say. But here it is, I interview people in technology showing the human side of them. I have done it with a lot of people and I LIKE it. Now, I want to exist in my own space, make a little money, and do what I LOVE which is talk to people in the biz who are paving new roads, creating new tools, doing cool things and show how they’re just like the rest of us. They have a dream.

So what’s my dream? It’s what I mentioned above. My dream is to do what I’m doing and make money doing it, something I don’t do today. Make money I mean.  But how can I do that? I don’t have a background in business, I don’t have a broadcast history either. I only know I happen to have a knack for providing other people enough comfort to talk about themselves and their passion without feeling a need to qualify it. I believe that matters. It matters for a variety of reasons and I’ll talk a little bit about that.

Why do we want to hear from the people who are making things happen?

I think there are many reasons why those at the top of the tech world are appealing to us. We like the tools they bring us, we like the visionary and their ability to create something where before there was nothing. We like the shiny and new ‘stuff’ that enters our world because someone was  smart enough to develop something, or teach us something – maybe shine a light on something we hadn’t yet considered. Those people are beyond smart and yet they offer hope to us. Those technology wizards come out of left field and all of a sudden the world changes. We want to be like that, or be close to that. We are enamored of it.

Still with me?

I am more than that. I dream about it. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night thinking about technology. Seriously, I do. Now, I’m not arrogant enough to believe I’m ever going to invent something. I won’t. I am an intelligent enough woman who lives in parallel to a bunch of people changing the world. My friends and network do that. Really.

What I think I can do better than almost anyone I have known is create comfort. But how do I monetize that? I’m not sure. I think my best bet is to give people in need of a platform, the place to talk where they can feel a bit of that ease and know they are valued. That goes a long way to their opening up and presenting their best foot forward.

Something I have noticed, we all notice it, people tend to clam up when being interviewed. They tend to feel really uncomfortable with the spotlight shining on them. I simply provide a way for them to talk about things they love in a way that is non-threatening.

Alright, Shelly Palmer, teach me how to make it HERE, not THERE.

Don’t give up on success in media today. Don’t give up on those of us who don’t fit the ‘old’ media stereotype, or live in the old media world. I believe today, right now, I have a chance, something I did NOT have in your old media world, to do something spectacular and create my own niche. I don’t need a course in digital literacy. I need a course in how to do exactly what I want and support myself doing it. Who knows, maybe I’m writing the course as I do it. Before telling someone it’s not possible, look to the future a little bit by looking at the past. All sorts of things are possible today that 5 years ago were not. Step out of the mold and listen to me. Hear what I’m saying. Help me to make it possible, but if you can’t, don’t rain on my parade, or anyone else’s because hope is all some of us have right now.

Shelly, I admire you. I think you’ve really done a lot of things people find value in. You’ve made it, and have a life most people would view as inspiring. You’re doing something to help others today. You’ve thought hard about how to change over to the digital world and because of your history you have some special tools to help make the transition. Some skills do port over.

I would love to hear what you have to say about the value proposition of small being the new big, and whether you can see past old media enough to understand there truly is a place for small time success in new media. I believe it’s in the definition of success. And yes, I do know the woman who started this conversation was talking about being rich. Rich can mean so very many things. My rich is probably not at all what you view it as.

Technorati Tags: Shelly Palmer, MediaBytes, Sheryl Breuker, Hope, New Media, Now Media, Broadcasting