Steve and Brian run the website Alive in Baghdad, a foundation dedicated to getting video cameras in the hands of Iraqis, and allowing those Iraqis to tell Iraq’s story. It is a novel idea in a world that presumes to intelligently cover news from thousands of miles away, often in front of a condescending, scenic backdrop.

What began with a trip to Baghdad, during which Brian endeavored to help bring the Iraqi public’s message to the US, has now developed into a global phenomenon, spurring Alive In projects in Mexico and beyond. Now, hundreds of thousands of people watch the videos shot by Iraqis on the ground in Iraq, but the cost has been both financially, and personally great; people close to the site have died, and financially, the site will not much longer survive.

Steve recognizes the obvious Catch-22 in charging for news, and for that the site will always be free. But donations are required and currently, the duo struggles to inspires its viewers to donate to the site. Brian says, obviously somewhat annoyed with apathy, “Just admit what it is you want to support,” be it a website,
political party, or other cause. We will not charge, Steve says, “because the information deserves to be seen, and it will be seen.”

With just the support of just a fraction of its viewers, the website will thrive, and one gets the sense that Steve and Brian will do whatever it takes.

In a rare personal plea from this writer: give them money! They truly deserve it. www.aliveinbaghdad.org.

Anne Jaeger loves to garden, but it took a life-threatening illness to force her to truly pursue her passion.

Anne was working as a television reporter when she was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma, a rare form of lymphatic cancer. Facing possible death, Anne decided she could not live with regret inside of her and, with the support of her employer, began to do the work she always dreamed of. Changes in management left her facing possible unemployment, but Anne would not be deterred. She picked up her show, and her sponsor, and took them to a different network. Instead of unemployment, she now faced a primetime Saturday night television show, hosted mostly from her own garden.

Recently 49, and glad to have made it, Anne is a correspondent for Smart Gardening, a PBS gardening show broadcast around the nation. A beautiful woman, who at one point lost her hair and faced a very uncertain future, Anne now does what she has always wanted to do, and glows with excitement when talking about it.

To arrive at this point, the most difficult step, she says, is overcoming fear. “Fear keeps us in some pretty tight boxes,” she says, suggesting that younger people find a job that satisfies them. “Have fun,” she says, “Take time to enjoy life.” It is a good reminder to anyone stuck in a rut; life is too short to be lived in a rut.

Keeping our promise in yesterday’s post, we will not be posting entries of interviews we conduct until we can include video with it too. But that doesn’t mean we can’t post interviews about Pursue the Passion, right? Here is an interview we did with Seattle’s Northwest Afternoon. There was even an audience there.

Doug Irving, freelance producer, director and cinematographer extraordinaire, has been working in the world of video for the last decade. What advice has he gleaned from ten years?

“Live life and enjoy it,” Doug says, “But always be ready for the next chapter.”

And Doug knows something about turning a new chapter. After six years in a staff position, as director of photography for a Seattle television station, Doug left the security of biweekly paychecks, and struck out on his own. He has spent the last four years freelancing, and in the process has learned that when working alone, he is a business owner and a photographer simultaneously.

“Be in touch with your money,” says Doug, when asked for advice to help others hoping to get into a freelance job.

He notes that boring words, like 401(k), really do offer advantages if they are used efficiently. Married with two children, Doug happily accepts the challenges of his independent life, offering mentoring advice to others hoping to follow his path.

“Ask questions,” Doug says, “People love to give information, but you need to be willing to acknowledge what you don’t know.”

A Side Note: Doug was a cameraman during our appearance on Seattle’s hit TV Show, Northwest Afternoon. After the show, with our RV parked right under the Space Needle, we decided to do impromptu interviews. Doug had proclaimed his passion for the camera earlier, so we interviewed him for ten minutes in the RV. It was our first interview that we conducted without prescheduling something. The success of this interview prompted us to schedule whole days of on the spot interviews for the second leg of the tour.

It was time for Anita Malik to do a gut check. After another meeting with her newspaper employer in which her ideas were shook off a shoulder, Anita sat at her desk and looked at her gifts.

She had three college degrees, including the masters in journalism she had gone back to get at USC, along with finance and information technology degrees she had received at Arizona State. She had a desire to write about the stuff that she wanted to write about, but her thoughtful ideas were being neglected at meetings like the one that transpired a few moments ago.

Anita looked at her heritage. As an Indian-American woman, Anita had grown up in a gap between the Eastern Asian culture and American understanding. She began to think about that gap, and how she could bridge it.

Soon thereafter, the idea for East West Magazine was born. Anita decided that she would create an Asian-American magazine that tackles controversial issues while also discussing the newest beauty trends…but all in her own style.

She created a website to see if there was a market for her idea. While still working at her newspaper employer, she wrote content that addressed her needs and others like her. She began to watch as her site began to gain popularity. After getting a substantial amount of visitors to her site, she decided that it was time to transition her words to print.

Today East West Magazine thrives in a time where print media struggles. Anita continues to get recognition for her passion in publishing, recently named to Folio’s 40 list.

What I took away:

If you look at your gifts and gaps in the marketplace, you can find your niche and create something profitable and useful to people previously suffering from that gap.

When Andrew Hasbun decided to try to make it big in the world of television news, he left Los Angeles and moved to Medford, Oregon. Although this seems counter-intuitive, it is in fact the route followed by nearly all who commit their lives to the news.

After Medford, Andrew found himself in Jackson, Mississippi, and was there as a reporter during hurricane Katrina. If ever he saw reporting the news as his passion, this was the time. The night before the worst of the storm, as everyone was evacuating, Andrew was reporting from one of the many Red Cross relief centers with 15,000 of the poorest Katrina evacuees. The concrete floor had no cots, blankets or pillows. An impassioned plea by the county sheriff, broadcast live during Andrew’s report, yielded thousands upon thousands of immediate donations and volunteers.

Andrew sees passion as a fundamental part of being a reporter, for Phoenix Fox 10 news, because of the sheer volume of sacrifice required to excel in the world of media. Humility is another essential element that allows a reporter to listen and learn from more experienced colleagues. Although the viewing public sees a meticulously refined broadcast, the process leading to that refinement is gritty and overwhelming. Andrew stresses the importance of teamwork in the newsroom. Even though anchors and reporters are physically communicating the news, they are only able to do so when relying on the tireless work of countless others.

With the loud engine roar and blades rapidly revolving, a helicopter lands at a school assembly full of awestruck first graders. A man in a captain suit cuts the engine and hops out of the cockpit to wave to the crowd. The school erupts in excitement.

Amongst the crowd there is a young first grader who would take this moment and hold on to the memory forever. That first grader was Bruce Haffner.

Bruce Haffner joined KTVK 3TV in 1984 and is currently a pilot/reporter who covers stories from a helicopter for the Good Morning Arizona and Good Evening Arizona TV shows. He took me up in the air for my first ever helicopter ride as we circled the greater Phoenix area looking for stories to cover.

Bruce’s journey to become the pilot in the cockpit came after he discovered his true passion. As an Arizona State broadcast journalism student he was assigned a project to cover an interesting, wacky story of his choice. He and his friends decided to do a story on the sport of Frisbee.

Attending a Frisbee tournament on the ASU campus, Bruce and his friends found a fifty-five year old man with long, stringy gray hair who had a love for the sport. His name was Willie.

One of the students haphazardly handed Bruce a camera and asked him to start filming. As Bruce looked through the lens at Willie tossing a frisbee, he looked into his future. He had discovered his passion at first sight. He knew right then that he had to become a photographer.

Upon graduation Bruce started to film rock videos with friends and pitch to TV shows for air time. Over the next two years he accumulated photography skills, but certainly not wealth.

“I probably made about $400 in those two years,” Bruce told me as we flew in the direction of the reported traffic accident at 101- South and Thomas Road. “That’s when I got sick of having no money and took a real job at Fox 10.”

At the Fox 10 news station in Phoenix Bruce got his first experience as a paid photographer. He learned the ins and outs of the news industry before joining the KTVK 3TV film crew. It was there that he started to rekindle the helicopter memory he had as a first grader.

Bruce was originally laughed at when he requested that he wanted to learn how to fly the News Chopper and report. First, he had no experience flying. Second, he had no experience reporting. Management put the idea on the backburner, but two people came in to mentor Bruce in a special way.

The helicopter pilot and reporter for News3, who had transformed himself into somewhat of a local celebrity, came to Bruce and told him that he heard he wanted to fly. He offered Bruce the opportunity to join him in the air as the photographer who would hang out the open door and grab the shots for live stories. Bruce jumped at the chance, and began to learn how to fly and photograph from one of the best in the industry.

Bruce’s other mentor was his wife Lisa Haffner, who currently runs her own show with “Your Life A to Z.” She taught him how to report, saying that the only thing you could actually report on was “what you see, and what you know.” Bruce would take this advice with him as he was suddenly asked to assume the role of pilot/reporter.

Since being asked to take over the cockpit, Bruce has combined his passions for photography, flying, reporting, and people in a unique way. He has a lifestyle he is happy with, and his work is something that he is passionate about.

What could be better than flying around town as the sun sets and sun rises, flying around to each reported accident or following a high speed chase?

What I took away:

There were a couple things that I took away from my early morning helicopter with Bruce. Out of the story you just read, I learned about the importance of mentors. I saw that all of Bruce’s prior experiences helped him be not only a helicopter pilot/news reporter, but that his photography background helps him position his helicopter so his current photographer and helicopter protégé Jim can get the money shots.

What I did not mention in Bruce’s story was his passion for people. He makes sure that all of his stories connect with people in some way. When he reports to a traffic accident, he makes sure to not only get the shot of the accident, but also a shot of the traffic jam so people can avoid it. When we were in the air Bruce made sure to incorporate the photos of his recent vacation to Mexico so viewers who had never been there could be a part of the experience. I think this is important for me to remember as we proceed with booking interviews and reporting on their stories, and for you. If your work is not connecting with people, then maybe its time to take a step back and get back to the basics.

Growing up, Chris always knew that he wanted to work in the news business, despite both of his parents being doctors. At a young age he dreamed of being a reporter on camera and before he graduated college he got his first taste of the business through an internship at NBC for the Today Show.

Read the full interview »