As a Minnesotan, I was born loving Herb Brooks’s famous “miracle” speech. There isn’t anyone, even this kid, who can deliver the speech that he did. However, “Rizzo” made this speech his own. In the same light, when I look at the current journalism environment, I am always looking for ways to compete with traditional journalists by making these stories my own. I ask two questions:

1) How has this story been told?
2) How have I told similar stories?

Then, I do the opposite. These two questions have been very powerful tools for me. The first question is your competitive advantage in a given market. This defines the work that you can do that no one else can. The second question is your area for growth. I consider this the “wouldn’t it be cool if…” philosophy.

For example, “wouldn’t it be cool if a 4-year-old kid could imitate Herb Brooks on YouTube and become a viral sensation?” Yeah, I think that’d be pretty cool.

Individual journalists should think like publicly traded companies (I know… stay with me). If you’re not learning and growing, then you’re losing your marketability. No one wants to invest in last year’s Turbo-Man.

Most of my projects have been inspired by other journalists’ work. When I started college, I really wanted to produce a video piece similar to Lou Raguse’s “Road Trip (2004).” As a result, I started learning Final Cut Pro and similar video editing tools. Similarly, when I produced Times of Recession, I was first inspired by Ohio University’s Soul of Athens project (2007). So I always ask one more question:

3) Who’s telling this story better than I am?

There are a lot of innovative journalists out there who are doing really great stuff. There’s nothing more humbling and motivating than watching some of the finest in online multimedia. When I see great journalism, I study these pieces and learn from them. Then, I try to figure out how they’re made. That’s the fun part.

Lastly, here’s my “hit list.” These are works that are so amazing that they make me want to learn.

1) Choosing a President
2) Crisis of Credit
3) Charity Water
4) Times of Crisis
5) Auto-Tune the News (just because)