Personal Branding Interview Dan Patterson - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Dan Patterson - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Dan Patterson, who is a Digital Platform Manager for ABC News Radio, and develops the digital policy and content strategy for ABC News Radio. In this interview, Dan talks about how he got his job, why hes invested his time in radio, what he believes the future of media is, his most interesting interview, and how his personal and professional life clashes. How did you get your job at ABC News? Ive worked relentlessly for years to legitimize both my work and the social web as a medium. Hard work and the associated sacrifices are often over-looked by todays social media experts. This is not to say Im the most talented or hardest working person youll ever meet. Im far from it. However, for years long before social media was main stream I stayed in on Friday and Saturday night to edit audio, code PHP, and send email. I also thing its very important to acknowledge and thank people for their time especially if theyve helped you in some way. Often a simple expressing hey dude, thanks for coming on the show/thanks for connecting me to so-and-so/thanks for the coffee meeting goes a long way. Ive been in broadcasting for my entire adult life. My grandfather is a HAM radio operator so in some ways radio runs in the family. But I began both broadcasting (content creation) and platform building (administrative) at the same time. I attended the great radio program at Black Hills State University a tiny school in the mountains and studied under radio legend Dave Diamond. Diamond encouraged ethical ambition and taught me a lot about the arts of speaking in public and on air, managing people, and building platforms, and completing long-term goals. After a post-college stint working (and failing) in the music industry in California I returned to BHSU in 2004 to complete my political science degree. During that time mid-2004 I began a radio show and podcast with a good friend. Together Doc and I built the Creepy Sleepy show a politically-independent podcast. Over the next few years the show built a small but loyal following. In 2006 I covered the South Dakota ban on abortion. My reporting on the abortion issue lead to a job with Ellen Ratner and the Talk Radio News Service. There I concurrently covered the United Nations and 2008 Presidential Campaign, and built digital platforms. That lead to my current gig at ABC News. Here I occasionally conduct interviews with technology and political thought leaders and am in charge of building the digital platform for ABC News Radio. There are so many different types of media now. Youve invested your time in radio and blogging. Why were you drawn to these? Ha! Well, the easy answer is to say that I like everyone in the media industry am a narcissist. Look, Im a strong believer that people human beings are inherently curious, inherently social, and inherently lazy. By that I mean that people want the path of least resistance between people, other people, and information. Im draw to the ideas behind what, why, and how people connect. To that end, Im draw to the media platforms people humans use to communicate with each other. What is your prediction for the future of media. Will it just be a giant mashup? Thats a difficult question to answer. Most journalists and pundits love hearing themselves talk but hate making predictions. Truth is, no one knows and anyone who claims to know is not to be trusted. But we do enjoy speculative hyperbole so Ill bite. First, I encourage you to check out a video from 2004 called EPIC 2014. The video walks through a brief evolution of the web up to 2004, then speculates on the next years. Whats shocking about EPIC 2014 is how very accurate the video is. Another great film is the recent documentary We Live in Public. WLiP documents the escapades of Dot Com pioneer Josh Harris and various proto-lifestreaming experiments he conducted on himself and others. A overarching theme in EPIC, We Live in Public, and technology in general is the juxtaposition between the power of the social web and the pithy ways in which its used. While Im happy to ramble about my opinions on Facebook or Google or Twitter or how the public uses the social web, that stuff is far more like celebrity gossip snack food. Its fun but not too relevant in the big picture. Im far more interested in questions of Why and How than Who. Who is the most interesting person youve interviewed? Why? This is a tough question to answer. While Im low on the journalist totem pole at ABC (trust me every journalist pays their dues for a long time; Im paying mine) I have the luxury to be able to interview whomever seems interesting ans is willing to come on camera. In this role Ive had great conversations with tech leaders like Jason Calicanis, Lawrence Lessig, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Independently Ive interviewed Willie Nelson (great guy) a few times, Chuck D is a really down-to-earth guy, a few congressmen and senators, and various musicians. Musicans for the most part are the worst. Many are utterly dull but equally self-involved (the analogues between musicians and social media people are staggering but Ill refrain from ranting). On the campaign I was able to briefly interview every major presidential candidate. The best interviews, however, are with people youve never heard from. Every year I interview several dozen policy leaders at the UN and thats always a blast. While reporting from Darfur I along with a group of talk radio hosts interviewed president Salva Kiir. That was fascinating. We also traveled far in to Darfur and purchased slaves. The UN frowns (maybe for good reason) on this practice. They argue that it provides profit-motive to continue the abduction of women and children. I dont necessarily disagree, but this particular moment provided the opportunity to talk at length with oppressed women and children. These discussions with marginalized (and who are we kidding: marginalization is euphemistic language for raped, beaten, stabbed and otherwise abused) people took deep seen in me and helped me understand the importance of strong and indelible journalism. But a lot of meeting cool people, traveling to interesting places, and building useful digital platforms comes down to luck. Ive worked hard, sure, but Ive also caught a lot of lucky breaks. As does everyone in my position. Im really happy that Ive been able to meet myt idols and advisories alike. But no one exists in a bubble and I do my best to thank the people in my life who have made some of these experiences possible. My advice to both media industry veterans and n00bs alike is to a) be a good person, b) do the right thing, c) be tenacious but fair, say thank you on a regular basis, but e) dont take shit from fools. Aside from media and politics, you talk about zombies. Do you find that your personal interests get in the way of your professional ones at all? Best. Question. Ever. Really! So Ive written a bit about zombies and what attracts me to the medium on my website. With a few friends Im building a modular geo-local, real-time social game called Zombie Doom. We wont launch for a few months but when we do we hope to introduce a few unique and fun ideas to both the social gaming space and the zombie afficianado space. The lurching, undead, Romero-esque Zombie is a very modern phenomenon. Pre-Romero there are very few cultural instances of what wed today call a Zombie. Post-Romero the meme took strong and undeniable root in pop culture. I think the reasoning is fairly simple. People feel overwhelmed and want an escape. A lot of people are attracted to the idea of were society to collapse, I am strong. I would survive. I think that at least in the Western, hyper-busy, media-saturated paradigm the Zombie is a material expression for very real but very abstract fears. Zombies as an idea are inevitable. Dan Patterson is a correspondent and content manager. He currently works as the Digital Platform Manager for ABC News Radio, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He spends his time helping people and companies manage information on the internet. He covered the United Nations since 2007, was on much of the 2008 presidential campaign, and reported from the Darfur humanitarian crisis. He currently develops the digital policy and content strategy for ABC News Radio. Occasionally he is sent places to ask questions and conduct interviews. His emphasis is in the convergence of analogue and digital technology. He speaks at conferences and events about media, politics, and emerging technology.