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of black journalists which is how we really came to know each other and that sort of thing more and more through nabj and every week i always say people should join nabj even if you're not a journalist so welcome thank you so much so for having me oh you know your brand bria brown live i just love what what that is so explain bria brown live and how that all came about yeah so um it started out in college to be completely honest with you um i just wanted to pretty much create my own lane and i knew in order to do that i had to kind of stand out um and at first it started as you know forever be that's what people knew me by was my twitter name on uh social media at the time around campus um so then that evolved into bria brown live and that was just basically showcasing my life my aspirations my journey all in a live you know stance um so yeah that's how it started and then that evolved into bria brown enterprises um which is again like you said a portfolio of businesses where i produce electronic press kits for people i'm also in the process of starting to do websites website development social media marketing social media consulting strategy all of that because i see it every day so why not help those and especially help you know our community do that and give back to them as well so yeah that's how it started out i love it i love it so just so that you know bria is very driven she is very passionate about a lot of things she's passionate about detroit she's a detroit storyteller and one of the things about bread just letting and let you tell a little bit about how grim you are because the communications field is very competitive not everyone graduates from college and gets a job in media i mean sometimes it takes years sometimes people never really get in media they just say oh you know forget it i'm just going to get a corporate job but bria explain to them your journey into your first i guess you say your first couple of media jobs and the the sacrifice that you made really the sacrifices you made in order to do do those things yeah so i started uh in college i went to oakland university go grizzlies and um i started a uh well let's start all the way back i'll give you a brief synopsis of that okay in high school i was the first high school student to intern at wxyz channel 7 and that kind of gave me my first uh foot into the media world into the news business and all that and i was thrilled i was excited like you said i was driven i was hungry every year after that in college i decided to get an internship in my field um so the first one was at the university communication and marketing at oakland university there i dealt with a lot of things of doing press releases helping with the website development as far as the copy editing for the website and because of that internship my old boss i guess you could say recommended me for my internship at the american heart association under under the communications director so there i was able to see kind of like the other side with pr and putting on events for the american heart association that's when twitter was kind of getting the buzz so starting you know um what do they even call them now starting like chats on twitter like how we're having live yeah twitter chats and how we're having this live conversation you would have a conversation with an expert in whatever field specifically for a stroke and heart health um so that i was really driven because i didn't stop um and that led me to actually changing my entire senior year at oakland university to go online full time move to lansing get an apartment up there and yeah get an apartment up there and do an internship at home tv um people know how much you were paid i was not paid right i was not paid because i want people to understand that i was not an intern in media typically you're not paid no nonprofits typically maybe they might give you a stipend but more or less like nah not really because they feel that what you're paying is really getting and gaining that experience writing practically says copy learning how to use equipment um i'm going to explain no no you're fine but internships now they do pay you which is a good thing um yeah most that i know of um even the internship that we had at cbs they paid the interns there so that was a good thing but i was in school um i had five classes if i'm not mistaken and i was working almost 40 hours a week at the internship so it was a lot of sacrifices that went into that but definitely because of the tribe that i have i was able to make those sacrifices so um it was a lot but it was definitely worth it um and then right after that i was able to get my first job which was in print um it wasn't the job that i wanted i will be honest and say that but it was the job that i needed because it provided me with the foundations and fundamentals of journalism um so after that job i was there for maybe two and a half years if i'm not mistaken um and then i leaped out and just went for tv and um i went for a flint market which is a big deal especially when you haven't had any um as much broadcast background as i had however because i was going into digital it was okay because that's kind of the next step after print you know if you work in print you can honestly work in digital and if you work in broadcast you can work in digital as well so i got my job in uh flint at nbc25 and fox 66 as a digital pro a digital content producer and then after that moved on to cbs detroit and came back home wow so it's like a full circle so just let you know she is still a a uh a person that is relatively young i guess you would say 30. i said yeah i'm well she started in high school right she worked in a major market working at a major station abc affiliate when she said wxyz she was working at abc affiliate in high school so he had the print the journalism she made the sacrifice she was still interning when she did the other television internship she was taking five classes and doing all of that moving to lansing which from from where she was from detroit is about two hours away i mean so when you want something yeah you go everywhere yes you'll make it happen you'll make it happen and so what drives bria is really the passion to tell stories so kind of tell us a little bit about the stories that you want to bring to the world or the stories that you'd like to reveal or stories that you have told that have made a difference absolutely um i think one in particular that has changed my life was a story that i did i traveled to new york it was one of my internships where i asked them if i could take their equipment with me to new york to do a documentary on the youth over guns march in this organization marched over the brooklyn bridge basically discussing uh guns and why you know it is not um okay for the community just to be okay with guns and youth um and how it's killing you know the youth and it was it was a life-changing experience only because there were a lot of mistakes that i made that on that trip um but i fully funded it myself um i i bought my ticket i paid for my own hotel the only thing that was required of me was that you know i made it good enough for that for it to be aired on television um this was an internship that i did at um the orion neighborhood television so they it kind of intertwined and mingled with um home tv as well i got both of those internships at the same time but i decided to go to lansing first um so then i came back home afterward and did that internship but that story really sparked me because i found out about it through um am joy on msnbc you hear those kids just be so passionate about gun violence and why it's not acceptable and why the youth really need to step up like this is our time i felt compelled i felt that i had to tell that story um well i got in touch with them i got interviews from the congressman there i got interviews from the organizer organizers it was it was great it is still on my website now yes on the home i saw that down there at the bottom so one of the things that you said that you were that did the internship and in the lansing area but then also in oregon like where you had to learn the equipment i guess you would say is a whole nother thing so you've got this writing background the journalism background all these things too mind you you have to do under pressure under deadline under uh little supervision and uh what do you do you google your way through you just ask for people for help i mean it's just like well your equipment bigger now in that instance um i let you know people i let uh the interviewers know like hey can you carry my equipment while i'm interviewing you like you won't see it in the shot but we can't walk across this stage and i'm carrying this backpack and the mic and the in the camera you got to help me somehow um so everyone there in new york they were very sweet um but like you said like you have to know the equipment and that was one of the things one of the major mistakes that i did make was i was moving so fast that i put the um the microphone into the wrong port in the camera so right sound so i did not have very good sound um but it worked in some instances because you got the sound from the atmosphere so you could hear people protesting and i was close enough to some of the uh interviewers where i just put like closed caption on the bottom so that you could see what they were saying so you got to improvise under pressure um there was definitely a learning experience for sure yes well you had good b-roll and you can work with that this reminds me of a time when i got certified um through our cable company to to use their equipment and take their equipment out like you did and so i was in a workshop on social media and i set it all up and i said all you guys have to do is just follow me with the camera whatever but just like you do the right chord for the sound so the whole thing was shot but it was just shot as b-roll because all i had to voice over it was yes and that was the thing i had to voice over certain things and you know audio makes or breaks yeah it really does if you have really bad audio there people are going to cringe and you know it'll it'll distract them from what they're really looking you know the story that they're trying to hear so yeah and i always tell people that that people will tolerate bad footage or video pictures but they will not tolerate bad sounds that's very true you have to have the sound right because you can figure something else out so listen so we are live on linkedin bria and we see a few people over here we see kimberly porter dr kimberly porter is there she says hello and then also too we see some people over at periscope we just want to say hello to them but we are really talking about how to really tell your story and how people can pitch you if you are a um a speaker or an author so say dr kimberly porter she wants to tell her story to the media what is the best way that or the tools that they need to have in order to pitch you to send a story idea to you well first and foremost you have to do your research um so you must know that the station that i worked i work at is it's a different station it's not your typical uh abc or your typical fox or your typical nbc here in detroit so that means we are more community based we are more community led um so you have to understand what my beat is and know what we actually put out for our audience so how will our audience you know what what information are they going to gain from you why is it why is this story relevant what is this going to do for the community if you're pitching me something that is happening in the state other stations can cover that and while that's great i want to understand why you pitched it to me why did you want it at cbs because here you know these are our values this is what we focus on so like i said you have to do your research make sure that what you are sending to me i can actually use is it different um is it not the same typical story um i don't want to sound rude when i say this but some people can get very lazy and pitch you the same thing um as far as like if you are putting something on social media are you gonna put the same caption under instagram are you gonna put the same caption under facebook under twitter those are all different media platforms and they all serve different purposes so you should not put out the same caption that you're going to put you know for um your paper yeah so that that's one thing that i have optimized personalized pitches and personal pitches are only going to be personalized what you said when you know the person when you run the research when you've followed them on twitter or looked at what stories they've written they you have a byline by all the content that you produce on your station so look hit the little blue button look at all the stories you've written and see if that if what you want to pitch is very similar to the style of what her beat is like you said like i have so many great relationships with people because they've reached out and if they reach out to my personal email they will say hey i'm not sure if this is the correct email for cbs pitches but can you provide me that if this is here's the information if it's not like i said provide me that information um so yeah it's definitely been a learning experience for me as well because i'm used to being at it like i said a typical news station and our station is a little bit different so i've kind of had to learn you know as well like the people that are pitching to me also so and speaking of being different as well so covet has made things different so about the time where you had to do the story well basically you're like you've got to do it alone so sometimes you would have some people that will do certain things for you because you've got two man crew or three man crew but it's now it's just you so tell us about how how that's been different and uh you told me about a story before that you had to do had to do it solo but you were like both sides oh and i know what it was you set it up you set the camera up in one way and you had to run and do this and mm-hmm yeah i mean even for this job is different because i'm literally i don't know if you all can see it but i'm just behind two screens all day um so what has come from that is more more emails so how it looks different in covet is my attention span is running like this so if you don't grab my attention super quick i'm i'm not going to catch it you know what i mean like you have to make sure that in your subject line you know yes you're saying like media inquiry you know community based story local uh local organization gives back to um kids for holidays you know something like that i'm literally thinking off of the top of my head but like you said you're taking a nanosecond uh through your email and what's going to make your attention first and so just so that people know in order to get out there get known you're pitching the media do not make long pitches no not make long pictures it looks like it is over 300 words probably not it that will be better but what i'm saying is that do the research let her know why you want to see this particular story on cbs absolutely and it makes it a little bit harder too because sometimes i have to reach out to uh publicist and say like hey can you provide me a picture hey can you tell me a little bit more about this hey can i have the uh social media for this person like this is work that you should be providing to me because it's kind of a negative it gives a negative vibe like well why am i doing this like i'm you know like that's that's not my job my job is to tell the story your job is to pitch it to me but you're supposed to pitch it correctly um so yeah that that's been difficult as well but i mean it's also been a learning experience like i've said where i can actually tell you know the person hey this is what i do this is what i need from you so in the future let's make sure you send all that to me and i will get it up as quickly as i can so yeah that is good so tell us about the type of information so say someone like uh dr kimberly i think she has like a story she has like a long uh article i think that she wants to really pitch do should she pitch the story the article that she's written or would you rather have re how do you say give the the the bullet points and then you write it or would you like to store it whole or would you like it in a press kit and so we can kind of talk about press kits too as well what they're purple honestly um i mean it it's a little bit of both and it depends on the story um so when i say to people less is not always more when it comes to pitching um because i need that valuable information so absolutely do the bullet points when i open an email i do not want to have to scroll so far to where i'm like overwhelmed with content you know what i mean so definitely the who the what the where the why um did i say when who what where when why yes okay uh i was just making sure i covered all my pieces um make sure you have photos included like i said make sure you have links um give a brief summary maybe not even five sentences if you can't tell me in in less than a paragraph what what this is about you might want to go back to the drawing board right now i'm i'm trying to be super real and super um gravity is transparent you know like it's it's a i see a lot of information all day every day so it's like you know don't don't send so much in the in the pitch but if you provide me with the necessary things that i need like i said the links the pictures because this is the digital world yeah you need engaging photos don't just sit on the logo photos yes don't just send me a logo and um you know send me photos that can actually help the story enhance the story um if you're sending a um b-roll shot if you're sending a headshot send other photos that can accompany the story we usually only use headshots when someone has been named as like a vice president if they've been you know given a promotion xyz but if this is something about you know our organization you should have photos of the community you know you giving back to the community if you don't that's the first thing that you need um even if you send me videos i can usually use those or usually put those embed them into the story and as far as you said like press kits press kits i call them the resume for your brand there you go i love that they're literally the resume for your brand when you go through a job interview what do you do you give them your resume to tell you everything tell them everything about you and what you've done thus far it's the same thing with your electronic press kit it should have everything in their photos background information bio um why this is important um social media who can i go in contact with it should have all of that in one stop so oh my goodness make it like what i call make it so idiot-proof so that whoever has it will have no questions i don't have to ask any stupid questions what do you prove i love them is this happening that that's good oh i said that all the time is it idiot-proof because i'm telling you there will be someone back there that says well what about no no there's nothing you have to ask there's nothing real in there that's something that i can link back to you i always call it the circle of digital you always want to keep somebody um more interested in your story than clicking on something else so if i keep giving them information that they can link to um if i give them for more information click here and it's your epk then once you click to your epk please make sure that it's hyperlinked because then people can go to your website they can go to your social media they can go to your podcast yes that's literally it's a circle of digital and then you never know what type of relationship that might form or what type of business that might form for you so if people want to get in touch with you to do epk we call it electronic press kit we're in a squirrel so you do need one it is a resume for your brand according to product how do they get that and where do they go so they can go to my website which is bria brown enterprises.com that's bria with an i uh brown enterprises.com you can either go to the actual epk by bbe page or you can go to the contact page but both of those have all the information that you need on there oh cool i love it i love it so that is one of the main tools that you have it just makes you stand out from the rest when you actually have those professional tools and then the websites so the websites that you do for people because if someone's going to pitch you for a story one of the first things you're going to do is probably check them out and then you look at their website and so because you've been seeing these websites that were looking a little shaky uh you're now getting into the part where you put their weapons i thought i was done with learning things but i'm forever excluding um so i'm definitely learning how to do web development i'm learning how to literally start from an idea and work out every kink to it's it's so much even to coding and it's it's just a world of knowledge um and it's something that i definitely think will be handy um in the future for brie brown enterprises because i cannot only offer you an epk but then all your branding is the same because then they can go to your website unless they're done with your website then they can go to your social media then you like i said it's the circle of digital so yeah yeah i call that the ready set go speak system so i have the membership community that really sends people through the different different phases so the ready phase just really understanding your brand what is that about so what i would just say be a brown i know what her brain is about she sat still with herself and understand what her brain is what it is how she wants to present to the world the set phase is really just more or less like really pulling together all of the the materials the the writing the websites all the things you're setting you're making sure that so by the time you get to the go phase when you're actually out there pitching you have all your materials if they say i need a bio i need a photo i need a video you got it okay you don't want to scramble and then when it says ready set go speak now you're out there you're actually doing your messaging you're doing your your sound bites you're you're actually continually going on platforms and places and that sort of thing so it's just like but the the bulk of the time is really in that ready in the set phase because you're understand what it is that you want to communicate and then pulling the materials together a part of a website that you're going to be doing is really the writing which you probably did for the epk anyway so i could see how that goes hand in hand but a big a big piece to that too is before you even do any of that you have to know your why yes you want to know your story because if it doesn't make sense to you trust me it's not going to make sense to your audience it's not going to make sense to people that you're trying to pitch it's not going to make sense to um any anybody really um so you definitely have to know your story and that's something that's like i said constantly evolving for me even now um working on my own brand and realizing that prior to now because my website while it's up it's under construction um realizing that when i launched it it was all about me yes it would be around enterprises but it was all about me i was the focal point but now um after like i've said been doing research been doing so many things and just really seeing things with my own job now i'm pushing forth i'm your personal digital producer i love it everyone has a story here's mine you know i've done i've worked in every part of the newsroom that you can think of so therefore i know what the new stations are looking for i know what digital producers are looking for i know what you need when you want to pitch something to a news station let me help you authentically tell your story do you know what your story is if you don't know what your story is you got to figure it out because that that's the foundation your story is your foundation that is it so the last question so this this was titled how to be a disruptive storyteller from her viewpoint point i guess you would say how can someone because it's such a noisy world i mean like we got especially now yeah we have a clubhouse now we have instagram we've got instagram video you've got snapchat twitter facebook i mean it's just like so much and then continual there's blogging there's video blogging there's periscope there's just so much so how can someone be a disruptive storyteller and break through the noise so that they are heard and seen and get out there well first and foremost you should not be focused on the likes i think that's where people okay um you definitely have to focus on your story and people can tell uh originality and they can tell authenticity from being fake don't try and be somebody else when you're telling your story or when you're making this persona on social media be yourself um even with reporters there is um i know everyone knows like a reporter voice yeah you don't have to watch it like okay yeah like don't try and be rhonda walker although she is amazing she's a wonderful influence be yourself tell your own story um like i said do not focus on the likes someone sees it trust me just because they're not liking it doesn't mean that they don't see it and a lot of times too um even for me i know that i've i've found out that i've made the most impact on social media