Awards
You can’t depend on external validation for your self-worth — but it’s nice when it happens. This one is the Social Impact Award from PR Newswire, which we earned for our Narrative Podcasts training program in 2022. Our graduates got hired at top companies including the ACLU, Headspace, Stitcher, OBB Media, and the New York Times.
How do you get doctors to take a job in a place only reachable by boat or seaplane? Especially when you have no media budget?
Write click-worthy emails highlighting the excitement of working on a true frontier.
Best Online Marketing to Physicians, HealthLeaders Media
They call radio the “theater of the mind,” and with the expert guidance and collaboration of sound engineer Andre Bergeron, my script personifying a can of Tab became the winning entry in this nationwide radio advertising show. Listen here.
Student competition winner
What does a distance running award have to do with branding, copywriting, or podcasting? Success comes from some of the same things: the discipline of practicing whether or not you feel like it. The power of community. A continuous learning mindset. And yes, a bit of talent. (Are you a runner or cyclist as well? You can find me here on Strava.)
Masters winner, Avenue of the Giants marathon
I grew up in a conservative household, so when my parents found out about this essay contest my sophomore year of college that offered cash prizes, they hurried to sign me up. All we had to do was read this two-volume, 1,300 page autobiography!
I’ve moved quite a bit leftward politically since, but this essay contest got me practicing two key skills that remain relevant today: critical judgment in a sea of information, and finding a unique spin to put on things. (They still have a picture of my awkward mulleted self with the former prime minister and the other winners (all grad students) in this gallery).