I was elected to lead, not to read

There have been and will be a ton of people who will step into managing positions. I myself have done this recently, as the station manager of KFKX, but this has not been the only time that I have been considered the head honcho of a group of people. I mean in High School I was the football captain and was involved student government, I was an example, I would like to believe.

I have always been a leader by example. I am not saying that I have always been successful, just saying that is how I do it. Really when I think about the job that I am doing I always think of what I can do to make myself and the people around me better.

Over my Christmas break I was at home and got to enjoy being with my family and seeing friends, but and I know that this is going to sound so stereotypical little boy of me, but I really was glad to see my dad. So many things come to mind when I think about dad, but while at home we had a really good conversation that must have lasted about 5 hours. We had just played racquetball, he killed me. After racquetball however, he took me out to lunch, so we hit a Subway to get some grub. Once we had our meal we got to talking; you know father son time. Anyway, my dad has been a school superintendent in Center, Colorado for the better part of 14 years and there does not seem to be any signs of that changing anytime soon.

I asked him what he does to manage all of those people. Now, the words that he told me next I am going to remember forever. My old man told me that he surrounds himself with good managers, good people, then he leads them.

At first I thought well you manage all of those people. He kinda sounded like Jesus when he told me "I show them the way." I know my dad is not the reincarnated son of God, but damn is he noble. I got to ponder that for the whole break and still do, but this is my rendition of leadership now.

If I can show the people that work with me that working with me will lead them to new heights then that is what it is all about. Not just making sure that a person gets a project done, but inspire them to do more. This may very well be a chain reaction or domino effect; if I do things inspired then perhaps others will be inspired by me and others by them and so on. I am not claiming that I am going to change the world or every person that comes into contact with me like Captain Planet, or maybe that was a bad example. You get the gist though right?

It's not about managing, because that can just ensure that everything will be the same. You have to lead and inspire, because once someone has caught the inspiration bug there is no telling where or how far they will go.

The Mad Media World

I have been very busy as of late. This week I have been spending a lot of my time inside the friendly, demanding and I guess I would say ultimately productive confines of The Gray Center the media building on the Hastings College campus.

I was named the Station Manager for 90.1 KFKX in August this year. I have had bumps to go through, but all of the hard work that I have been doing this semester with my staff has really paid off so far. We are doing News Updates twice a week, We are now Podcasting all of our shows on itunes, a new website is in construction and we have even done a community service project. The goals that i have set for the station, be a window for campus and the community, and increase listener-ship, are a definite reality now.

I am also a part of HC Media as a whole however, and it is just about the end of the semester which means it is time for some changes in leadership. Now, KFKX's leadership is not changing this semester, because I still have another year of school, and people are pleased with my performance so far, but the other mediums will be changing. The Collegian is going to have a new editor, HCTV6 a new executive producer and hcworldnews is getting its own new webmaster.

All of these people are my peers, the people who are stepping down, and the people replacing those people. I find this to be a very interesting period of change. As I am going to become the senior leader within the media all of a sudden. OK, not all of a sudden like it was unexpected, but I didn't realize that this was going to happen until today. Just in August I was the new guy, I was learning how to become a Station Manager. Literally, I was learning how to manage about 30 people who are in some way involved with the station, and at the same time recruit new people and get my goals accomplished. So what I am saying is that I looked at how the other leaders carried themselves and manged their own staffs, I was the newbie. Now I am the example, the old oak tree if you will.

I am excited to see how I can help my peers in there new jobs and molding their particular mediums. I think I will feel like a father watching his children grow up, learning all of the things that I just recently did and seeing them become their own leader. I will be there to help, but at the same time I will be there to observe and not ever interfere with any sort of progress.

Soon it will be time for me to leave, well not soon, but in do time I will be gone and the next kid that inspires to be the KFKX Station Manager will be called up from the minors to the show and so goes the cycle.

I would like to

There are things that I would like to do. I would like to graduate from college. I would like to be happy. I would like to know how things work.

I have been thinking lately about what I will do with the college education that I will have in just a year and a half. What will I do? I certainly don't intend on wasting it, is there a way to waste an education other than choosing to do nothing with it? I don't think so.

How I want to use my education:
I want to hear stories. Not just campfire stories, but life stories. I am extremely interested in human beings and what makes them tick. This is not biological, and I am not looking to find drama queens. With my education, Media Production, Journalism, Design and so on, I want to be able to tell other people's story's. My great plan so far is to find a company or entrepreneur that is willing to spend a little money on me, and ask them to pay for my journey's. Remember, I want to tell people's story's. I will find people anywhere in the world. My intention is to spend a month with a single person, listen to them, ask them questions, see how they handle their lives. I want to show the world how it is to be Joe from Pennsylvania or Jenny the mill worker or Tim the first time home buyer. I want to tell stories.

I will bring all of this together by creating a website that has their stories, remember this will be one story a month roughly, and I will update it while I am with the person. I intend there to be audio as well as video and text and pictures, but the material things are not the focus.

From what I have learned here, I understand that the message is the focus, and my focus here will be their stories.

My update

It has been a while since my last blog. I am now the Station Manager of 90.1 KFKX the Hastings College radio station, I am a college junior ready for anything.

I am constantly busy with the new job, but i remain excited anyhow about what the station can do for the campus and community. I am however, ready for this semester to begin winding down, soi can see friends and family for the holidays.

I will try and keep up to date last week was super busy for me, because of the Artist Lecture Series here at Hastings College, for which I set up a press conference, made audio packages and even wrote my first column for the campus newspaper, The Collegian. If you want to check that stuff out go to www.hcworldnews.com.

The grind it out days

Here I am in Hastings again, I really made the most of break in my mind seeing everyone that I could and just relax.
Being back in Hastings however means once again that it is business time baby. I have plenty of cool things to continue working on in HC media and baseball is in full swing, by the way I had a game doubleheader yesterday in Iowa against Iowa Western Community College, went 4 for 5 with a 2 doubles 2 singles and a pair of walks. We won both games, and I needed a day like that.

Anyway, I had my radio show Tuesday night, that went well I will be uploading the Podcast soon so look for that on itunes under HC media Podcasts. I also created a YouTube Channel for KFKX the Hastings College radio station, so once I load some videos on there be sure to check that out and join our channel it's called KFKX, pretty simple ay?