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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

Krugman, On The Web

Garth Beyer

Krugman does it again. His latest post, The Good Web, is why I always visit his blog.

Sorting out the wonkish for you, here are some of my favorite bits.

“What I want to talk about instead is the effect of the Internet on the quality of reporting, which I believe has been overwhelmingly positive.” Which goes back to my latest post about citizen journalism.

On the pre-internet era, “in fact, there was a sort of bias against having reporters with too much expertise, on the grounds that they wouldn’t be able to relate to the readership.”

More on citizen journalism, “The point is that real journalists, as opposed to the idealized picture of the way things used to be, benefit from the ability of knowledgeable non-journalists to get their knowledge out there, fast.”

“newspapers now have a much better idea of what their readers actually care about.” Can this help the industry? Maybe with its transition to the digital platform, but I still believe, like print books, Newspapers will become a thing of the gift shop.

And while Krugman refers to useful economic analysis, stating, “these are the good old days,” I can’t help but think the same about journalism in its entirety.

A New Point Of View

Garth Beyer

“This reporter’s point of view was now data for my own work on our shifting cultural expectations and technology.”  –  Sherry Turkle

Reporting doesn’t need to be done first hand. In fact, a lot of great reporting has been done by using reports from dozens of other reporters.

It’s information alchemy in my mind.

Popeye’s Error

Garth Beyer

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Sadly, Popeye is becoming less popular. It’s hard to come by someone younger than 20 who thinks of Popeye when I say, “I yam what I yam!”

While the fading memory of Popeye as a character is saddening, what’s worse is the decumbent understanding of Popeye’s Error.

It’s easy to figure that Spinach profit was long and prosperous after Popeye hit the television. What few ask though: why Spinach?

Why couldn’t Popeye eat nails, or grit, or gunpowder?

In 1870, the German chemist Erich von Wolf tested the amount of iron within spinach and in his reporting, he incorrectly placed a decimal point so that it read that there is 35 milligrams of iron in Spinach rather than 3.5. As a result of the high amount of iron in spinach, Popeye was given it to become strong and mighty – a true sailor.

This fact – Popeye’s Error – is one we must continue to remember. Success takes critical inquiry and the story of Popeye is the outlier, the rare case when making a measurable error leads to something remarkable.

It hurts to fail. It hurts worse to fail and have others succeed by feeding off your failure.

 

Stay Positive & Unless It’s Intentional (in that case, I think we should talk)

Garth E. Beyer

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“All The President’s Men”: A Journalist’s Review

Garth Beyer

The question was brought up whether anyone in class had any previous knowledge about the Watergate scandal. I’ve heard about it, in middle school we glided over it in history class, it gets referenced from time to time, but I couldn’t give you an actual summary about it.

I thought I would gain further background knowledge on the subject by watching the film “All the President’s Men” (1976), but, being blunt, I was disappointed. I thought that watching this movie would lead to a better understanding of what actually happened with the Watergate scandal, thus instilling me with an emotional reaction that I could use next time the scandal was referenced or brought up in conversation. In turn, and in playing increasingly close attention to the movie, I learned more about journalism than I did about the actual scandal.

To ease into what I learned, take for instance the immediacy that the reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward took in writing notes as soon as a conversation with someone ended. In fact, and if they could, they did their best to pull out notebooks during a conversation. While it’s not unexpected, I do recall reading a passage in our text “Telling True Stories” which hinted at being careful as to when you pull the notebook out and how you want to make the person you are interviewing think that it is not even there. As a side note of my journalism geekyness, I mimicked the reporter’s immediacy to writing the story after getting their notes, in writing this paper.

On a similar note (pun intended), there were a few interesting tactics which I noticed that Bernstein and Woodward used to acquire information. After all, there is no note taking if there is no information to write down. The first technique was quite obviously; get the person to like you. In one scene Bernstein had complimented and connected with a girl who in turn gave him some leads to follow. A second strategy was patience. During one phone conversation Woodward simply remained silent while the person on the other end would continuously add on to her story after a few moments of hearing no response from Woodward. She had felt obligated to continue talking. The last tactic I noticed was the infamous guilt trip. In a couple of scenes you found Woodward saying something similar to “we don’t want you to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable.” As a result, the person does what she was asked.

While on the subject of communication, there was a scene in which Woodward was speaking to someone who only knew Spanish. I feel there is an even greater need to know multiple languages in journalism. While there are plenty more translators, it’s a common understanding that people are more friendly and open to you when you attempt to speak to them in their language, when they feel that you are part of their culture and not an outsider.

Something that I feel that the majority of people underestimate about those in journalism is the level of critical thinking, philosophy, and reason in communication that the vocation requires. Woodward and Bernstein took an entirely different execution of good cop, bad cop in their interrogations. They had played off of each other to get the information they required to get answers or confirmations. As you likely noticed, there is an incredible amount of guess-work in reporting, but guesswork is perfectly fine when you can get confirmations. In order to get those confirmations, what do you have to do? Yes, you have to be persistent, but you must have an in-depth knowledge of how a person’s brain works.

All in all, the movie “All the President’s Men” clearly had the intention to divulge the lifestyle of a Journalist at the time, much more than communicating information of the Watergate scandal. The movie felt nothing like a documentary. To top this response off, here are a couple of my favorite lines.

“If you got’m by their balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

“How do you keep going with something you don’t believe in?

You just have to start over again.”