Two e-mails came in the other day from a couple of colleagues and good friends who had applied for funding to develop a public television pilot, and the word came down that each had made the semi-finals. Once the four semi-finalists have produced their pilots, a panel of judges will pick one to keep funding to produce for PBS.

These two colleagues and friends of mine are "radio" people. That's right, their bread and butter is in audio storytelling but for this competition, they pitched a television series. This may seem odd, but they have a successful track record of their ideas seeing the light of day. Five years ago, I didn't know Al Letson but he applied to compete in an open contest through public radio to develop a new program.  I was on the selection committee that chose him and another contestant as winners out of nearly 1,500 entries.  Al's show now airs on over 100 public radio stations. My other friend, Farai Chideya, is the former host of a public radio news program that no longer exists.  She has a long media history and believes that radio still holds power to deliver stories and information.

Farai and Al have built their own personal brands through something I find fundamental in career development: they strongly (but not arrogantly) believe in their ideas, own their ideas (quite literally) and also know that building out their brands takes a high degree of risk. Al is a performance artist with a family to support. He's always going to New York to act or perform one-man shows. Farai, as I type, is in Guatemala because she wanted to learn Spanish and thought in-country immersion would be best. Al and Farai keep building their reputations through a conviction that telling the stories of others is their key to success.

Sounds pretty good eh?  They have positioned themselves well and made smart decision along the way.  I can tell you that the main reason they are succeeding (no, this story is not over) is that they know what they are good at doing and are pursuing it.  We all have to multi-task, but like Farai and Al and yours truly, all that we do can be defined quite easily. Al? Performance artist and radio host. Farai? Multimedia Journalist, blogger and future CEO.  Me?  Mentor, connector, project leader.

What's your three word description?

doug@knowledgewebb.net

*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog