Muse

Unlocking Potential #12: Q&A With Mariah Haberman

Garth Beyer

Mariah Haberman EAA

Welcome back to another Q&A with a remarkable marketer as part of the Unlocking Potential series. I heard about a woman named Mariah Haberman when I first moved to Madison, I found out she worked at the PR agency I hope to work at, and then I got to see her speak not too long ago. (Post about impressions and link to her presentation here.)

Mariah has drive, excitement, and more passion that I thought one person could have. It will be clear as you read on. Without further ado, welcome Mariah.

Q: What motivates you to get out of your bed in the morning?

Mariah: Caffeine! And lots of it! I am so not a morning person so the fact that I make it into work before 10 a.m. is a miracle in itself. That said, I can honestly say I have never dreaded a day of work. Getting to discover Wisconsin is a cool gig but I think working alongside amazing and talented people is just the best thing ever. (Also: Free Sprecher root beer :D)

Q: What business would you say you’re in and how did you get there? What’s your story?

Mariah: I have a weird hybrid role: I’m both a television/radio host and a PR and social media marketer.

I always dreamt of working in television. In fact, I can recall writing my sixth grade career report for Mrs. Herbers about my aspirations of becoming a news anchor. In college though, I threw those dreams out the window after coming to the conclusion that a television career in Wisconsin during a recession was a ridiculous dream to have.

So I picked public relations. And upon graduating from UW-Oshkosh, I threw a few suitcases in my tiny ’02 Corolla and with my shiny, new diploma in tow, I made the trek to Chicago. There, I worked as a temporary assistant at an entertainment PR firm. Next, I decided to freelance back in the Madison area and then I worked at a wonderful marketing agency in town.

Meanwhile, I spent three years competing for the title of Miss Wisconsin. That endeavor really reignited my desire to pursue television. So, I reached out to the one contact I had at Discover Mediaworks and asked if, by any chance, they’d ever consider letting me guest host an episode or two. After several months of back-and-forth, the crew finally invited me to come in for an interview and audition. Apparently, they saw something in me, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Q: What are four life lessons you’ve learned from following your muse?

1) Make things happen for you.

2) Be nice to people.

3) Own up when you’ve messed up.

4) Never take yourself or your work too seriously.

Q: You’re constantly putting yourself out there. How have you dealt with fear – be it of rejection or failure or even success?

Mariah: I hate to quote the most buzzed about kid flick of all time, but when it comes to being in front of crowds, you really have to just let it go. I’ll get nervous from time to time during the preparation of a big shoot or speaking engagement, but once I am on stage, or those cameras are rolling, I don’t even let myself go to that place of self-doubt. You’ve really gotta own it and believe in yourself, and when you make mistakes, you assess and move on.

So much of the television business I think is listening to your own gut. You are going to get people who absolutely adore you and your work. And the opposite of those people are Internet trolls :). I take it all with a grain of salt—both the compliments and the critiques.

Q: What do you do to continue growing in your field? Are there a few special practices or habits you think people reading may benefit from doing too?

Mariah: The idea of being stagnant or out of the loop as both a host and marketer downright scares me. I am constantly trying to learn and get better at my craft whether it be through improv classes or online marketing research—you name it. Regardless of how long you’ve been in the biz, learning is essential.

The beauty of working in the agency world is that you’re surrounded by folks who specialize in all sorts of things that you may not necessarily be an expert in. But making an effort to understand their work inherently makes you better at your own.

Q: What has been a major highlight of your work?

Mariah: A viewer reached out to me on Facebook the other day to tell me that he and his daughter make it a weekly tradition to sit down every Saturday morning and watch Discover Wisconsin together. Hearing things like that – from people who make our show a part of their lives – is the kind of stuff that sticks with me.

Q: What is one characteristic you’ve noticed every successful marketer has? Better yet, what the heck does it take to become a remarkable PR pro or marketer?

Mariah: Great marketers want to learn; they are asking questions. They are paying attention not only to what other brands are doing out there, but more importantly, they’re noticing what people care about, why they do the things they do, buy the things they buy, and hang out with the people they hang out with. I think a marketer has to be easily fascinated by and curious about the world around him or her—and I’d say the same thing applies to great TV/radio hosts.

When you understand why people do the things they do, the ideations, strategizing and executing for brands comes a whole heck of a lot more naturally. (It’s still a tough gig, don’t get me wrong!)

Q: Would you tell us about a time you almost gave up and what you did instead?

Mariah: Interestingly enough, I actually have to tell myself to let go of things more often. (Noticing a theme here?) I get invested too easily. I love to dream big and I think the upshot of dreaming big is that you tend to bite off more than you can chew. So while “giving up” often has a negative connotation, I really have to continue to remind myself the importance of walking away from the stuff I can’t or shouldn’t fix.

Q: How do you try to live your life? Do you have a life motto or a particular quote you stand by?

Mariah: Nah. No life quotes really. I just try to live life to the fullest…you know, find the silver lining in even the crappiest of days!

Q: What is a dream you have or a project you want to create that you haven’t had the time for?

Mariah: Sooooo many. I want to write my own book(s). Open a wine bar. Learn French. And piano. And how to cook (better). And more time for travel would be lovely!

Q: Where can people find you and your work? (Shameless self-promotion here!)

Mariah: Why, you can watch “my work” every weekend on your TV screens (or laptops or tablets or smartphones)! Broadcast guide here: www.bobber.discoverwisconsin.com/broadcast …and because social media is my thang, I’m pretty easy to find on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram 🙂

 

Stay Positive & Curiously Alive

Unlocking Potential #9: Q&A With Matt Haze

Unlocking Potential #9: Q&A With Matt Haze

Garth Beyer

Matt HazeThis particular Q&A is with non-other than Matt Haze, the man behind the @30RockTree Twitter account. He’s an entertainer and excessively active on Twitter and Facebook.

Matt has lived on both coasts while working on his career in entertainment and currently resides in NYC.

He’s a radio geek and late night show fanatic, but also a go-getter, mover, and shaker, which makes him perfect for a segment on my Unlocking Potential series.

Welcome the one-and-only, Matt Haze.

Q: Read your Twitter bio. Check. Looked around on your website. Check. Tell us about your real, authentic self in a few sentences, something the Internet hasn’t told us. Who is Matt Haze, really?

I’m just a guy observing things in the world and hoping to share what I see through comedy.  There’s so many thoughts that run through my head that if they don’t get out, I really think I will explode!

Q: What does a day in the life of Matt Haze look like?

There is never one exact day, really.  Which in a way is bad because real creativity comes from habits.  I’m a loyal Seth Godin fan and I know that persistent shipping of content every day is what gets you out there.  For years I’ve wanted to build a daily routine, but it’s tough.  Some days, I start really early to do a radio or TV thing.  Some days, I sleep in because I was hosting an event until the wee hours of the morning the night before.  Some days, I’m on the road to get to another gig.  But I honestly love it that way.

Q: What’s your muse, you art, your purpose? (Was it hard to discover this?)

To make people laugh like they’ve never seen or heard something before. I’ve always had an idea what it is I do, but it’s always been tough to put into words.  A few weeks ago, my buddy Sammy Simpson and I had a catch up coffee.  This is the exact topic we talked about.  He’s a really smart guy and he helped me to formulate that into words.

Q: What has been the toughest decision you had to make? How did you decide what to do?

There’s two that come to mind.  First, when I left my full time radio gig in Akron, Ohio in 2005.  Part of me knew I wasn’t going to stay there and it was time to do something different.  My last day was a mess because part of me was really thinking that this was a mistake.  Looking back, it was a good thing I left for many reasons.  It was the start of a crazy new journey and chapter.  Secondly, when I decided to go back east and leave Los Angeles.  Part of me felt like I failed at LA.  When, in reality, it wasn’t for me.  It was a good learning experience and I’m glad I did it.

Q: What is success to you?

This has been something I’ve been struggling with the last year.  For many, they look at what I’ve done and think “oh he’s successful!  He’s done stuff!”  But I grew up in the old school media world.  There’s still part of me that feels I need to be validated by some higher being (boss or company) to feel “successful.”  But as the landscape has changed in the last 10 years, I also know that’s total bullshit.  Success is doing projects that are meaningful for me.  If I’ve made someone happy or succeeded a client’s expectations, I’d call that a success.

Q: What are three essential habits for success?

Oh I am HORRIBLE for habits.  But here’s three things I do every day that I know help me grow.

  1. I consume content. I’m always looking at links, stories, videos, whatever people are talking about.  I may not watch the big TV shows people are talking about, but I know what they are.  You have to have an idea what is going on out there to be able to create content that relates.
  2. I interact on social.  If I didn’t interact with people, they wouldn’t share my content or help me get a gig.  Social is a two way street.  You have to treat it that way for it to fully work.
  3. I network.  It goes with number two, but I make an effort to reach out 2-3 times a year with my top influencers to remind them I’m out there and see how I can help them.  When I sold real estate for two minutes, I was taught that most people only have space in their brain for 1-2 names of agents.  You want to be one or two of those.  No matter what you do, I feel this is true.  Being top of mind is KEY.  And that takes effort, communication and talking to people to make happen.

Q: What was holding you back from being a remarkable entertainer?

MYSELF.  I am my own worst enemy.  My closest friends hear my private thoughts about how I feel about my work.  I’ll get a call about an amazing opportunity and I’ll instantly start to doubt myself.  “Oh someone must have made a mistake.”  I think we all suffer from this.

Q: If you got to go back ten years, but could only take with you one piece of knowledge that you know now, what would it be?

Trust your gut.  Just do it.

Q: What are a few life lessons you want readers to take away from this?

The biggest one is to not be afraid to take a chance.  There are people who will come out of the woodwork to help you achieve whatever it is you want if you’re authentic.  If what you’re doing is true to your purpose and soul, people will help you.  Keep going.

Q: Where can people find your art?

Shameless plug: matthaze.com

 

Stay Positive & Seriously, Trust Your Gut

 

Where To Find Your Muse

Where To Find Your Muse

Garth Beyer

Find Your Muse, Stay In Your Flow

The feeling of boredom comes to every linchpin, artist, and entrepreneur from time to time. The reason is quite clear: actions have become easy, challenges are few and far between, and there is less need of a growing skill.

As a result, the impresario seeks out larger challenges that require focus, additional connections, and an incessant need to learn new skills to accomplish the goal.

But once the artist sets down that path, she realizes she has set too lofty of a goal, too large of an expectation of herself, too tough of a challenge, so she returns to the start of this post, desiring a calmer path, a quieter challenge, an easier goal.

As Peter Turchi writes, it’s a cycle of satisfaction and frustration. To find our muse we must find the flow between the anxiety of a difficult practice and the boredom of an easy task.

The real problem isn’t doing what it takes to stay within your flow, your muse; it’s noticing when you’re outside of it, when a task is too easy or a challenge too large. Both of which are slippery slopes that lead to failure and resentment.

 

Stay Positive & Be Aware Of Your Flow

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Grow Instead Of Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

Garth Beyer

What makes you feel a sense of self? Rather, what makes you not question what makes you feel a sense of self? What is it you do that you never regret taking the time to do? What are you okay with failing at?

Is it okay with you to prioritize some other activity over what you’ve just responded with?

We have to take our joy, our pleasure, our passion seriously. We can’t let perfection stand in the way of creating our muse. We can’t let critics steer us on a different path with only their voice. Most importantly, we can’t let ourselves be sold short… by ourselves.

If you’re concerned about time, you’re wrong about what you’re passionate about. The theory of relativity isn’t just something Einstein scientifically proclaimed, it’s something he felt while he worked. Time is relative for everyone, but nearly non-existent when we’re doing what we love.

It needs noting time can become irrelevant when you do many different things, not just one.

The important actions to take are the ones we feel we should, not the ones we think we want. It’s rare, but now and then I feel I should pull out a canvas and my paints to create an ugly piece of art. I do, I lose track of time, and I know nothing will come from my painting endeavors, but in that moment I did what I felt I should do, not sit back in the recliner and play video games, what I think I wanted.

Are you okay with blowing off what you feel you should do? Does it not bug you when you do? Are you ignoring it how you feel when you do, using what you think you should do as an escape from the feeling of what you feel you should do?

So many are. We need to stop.

 

Stay Positive & Sure, Seek Giants Out, But First Become One

 

Can You Do It Better

Garth Beyer

Of course you can, there is always room for improvement. But, I’ll admit, you will get to that point when you don’t want to put in the effort. Maybe it’s because you won’t get acknowledged for your effort, you don’t get paid enough, or you’re stretching the expectations of your job further than your boss may want you to.

I am in full support of finding and executing more ways to do what you have to do better. When you get to that point where you don’t want to (or do not have the freedom to) do any better, that’s when you stay just ahead of the game and work on your muse.

You don’t need to quit your job to fulfill your goals as an artist. Nor do you need to work your way all the way to the top of your current job to be able to support yourself as an artist.

If 4 is the best. Put 3 toward your job and 1 toward your muse. You don’t need a 4-0 or 0-4 ratio.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Tell Me There’s No Way… You Can Do Better Than That

Garth E. Beyer

28 Lessons To Living The Successful Life Through Personal-Achievement Principles

Garth Beyer

Yes it’s a mouthful but it is the best description that I can give to the following 28 lessons. Enjoy.

 

1. Better results does not make a better plan. A better plan makes better results.

2. Happiness is meant to be designed. You create it, you sculpt it, you make it.

3. Discipline: without it there is no bridge from your goal to your accomplishments.

4. Success is sending yourself an invitation to grow, develop, move up, build more, create more, invest more, innovate more and raise above mediocrity.

5. Life works like a magnet, the more you put forth to your goals, the closer you get to the results you want, the harder you work at your dreams, the more force in which they pull you toward them, it gets easier. It always gets easier.

6. Learning is the beginning. Everything else will fall into place itself.

7. Things only change when you do.

8. There really are no destinations, only points in which you change direction again.

9. Be influenced by the successful. Peer pressure is necessary as long as it pushes us further toward our real potential.

10. Be influential. Peer pressure is necessary as long as it pushes someone further toward their real potential.

11. Remove “easy”, “simple”, and “effortless from your vocabulary. Also never make something a piece of cake, have it all or take nothing.

12. Try. Only when you don’t try, do you fail.

13. Answer this question, very clearly. What is the purpose of life?

14. Lead a tribe of as much inspired if not more willing people than yourself. Create an unbeatable alliance with others.

15. Create a new faith, a new religion, a new belief and call it “The YourName Faith/Religion”. This is the only way to destroy any limitations.

16. A good person runs a mile. A great person runs an extra mile. Only a legend keeps running long after the first, second, third, ninth mile. Always do more, always.

17. Make every part of your character visible.

18. Be Human.

19. Self-initiative, Self-resilience, Self-motivation, Self-assurance, Self-inspiration, Self-control, Self-discipline, Self-growth, everything begins with yourself. Want to be successful? Work on you harder than you work on your job.

20. Pursue an interest that makes you feel alive. Nothing radiates more positively to others than a personal keen interest in something, something you pour your passion into, something that if upon waking up at 2 am and asked what your muse is, you answer with it.

22. Combine accurate and imaginative thinking to create your art.

23. You won’t last without good health.

24. Not to mention exercise is the absolute greatest habit you can create to stimulate the positive senses.

25. Living in the moment is derived from the collection of experience you have had controlling, focusing and centering your attention on the positive, on the material that will help you produce results you care about and on the search for what you can learn from every moment.

26. Everything remarkable was the result of overcoming adversity. If you come face-to-face with adversity or even sometimes get defeated, you are on the right path. Nothing worthy comes easy.

27. Visualization doesn’t need to be done all at once. Visualization is something that is meant to be anointed to all the various positive thoughts that float through your mind every day.

28. Care

 

Stay Positive & Live The Successful Life

Garth E. Beyer

The Difference Between Good And Great

Garth Beyer

The difference between a good factory worker and a great one is small.

If a factory worker is just good enough, then they are average, it’s expected. If a factory worker is great, they are still just good enough…or fired. Factory workers don’t get paid to be remarkable to invent a new way to do their work better or quicker. Nor do they get noticed when they are great, they are only ever viewed as good enough.

The difference between a good artist and a great one is incomparable.

A list of the top 100 vocal artists or even the top 1,000 don’t get there for being good enough, they get there by being great, by diving into their creative muse and ignoring constant prods to be average, obedient, disciplined and held back. They become great only by finding ways to do their work better and quicker, to be remarkable and to give their passion everything they have.

Now when you compare a good factory worker to a good artist, the artist is hands-down the better choice.

 

Stay Positive & What’s The Difference Between You And Them?

Garth E. Beyer