Try @ TXST

Giselle Kowalski:
So hi everybody. My name is Giselle Kowalski and I'm the podcast producer here at Texas State's Division of Marketing and Communications. And you guys are all watching and listening to Try at Texas State Mass Comm Edition.
I'm joined by a moderator and a very beloved professor of mine, Dale Blasingame. And we have three Mass Comm alum with us. If you guys could all go through the line and tell me your name, what you guys studied at Texas State, and what you're doing now?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah. I'm Hailey Aaron. I was an advertising major at Texas State, and now I'm assistant media planner at RPA.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
Hi, my name is Ezekiel Ramirez. I also go by Zeke. I studied electronic media and now I'm a multimedia journalist or a news reporter for English.

Jonathan Campbell:
Hello, my name is Jonathan Campbell. I studied digital media innovation and I'm currently a data analyst for 2K.

Allison Ralston:
Hi, my name is Allison Ralston. I studied public relations and Mass Communication in undergrad, and then I also was part of SJMC's grad program where I studied Mass Communication and I now work in media relations.

Giselle Kowalski:
So my first question, and it can go to any of one of you who wants to answer it, how did you pinpoint what you wanted to do? And what at Texas State, whether it was a class or a club or a professor helped lead you toward that job that you have now?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah. Well, I can start. So I had no idea what I wanted to do all the way up until I was here. I transferred here after getting my associate's degree and I was in marketing originally just because I needed a degree. I was like, "Let me just get this done and I'll figure it out."
But then I failed my marketing math class and that was terrible. I was like, "Oh, no, what am I going to do now?" And I went to my advisor and I was basically like, "How can I still graduate on time because I just need a degree?" And she was like, "Well, advertising has the same." I could transfer easily.
So I started with that and then I was in Dale Blasingame's class and I saw all the fun things that you could do with media tools. And then I was in Clay Craig's Advertising 101, and he really just showed me all the fun things that you can do with advertising. And that advertising is really a mix of creative thinking and strategic thinking, which is what was right for me. So it was great.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
I can go next. I was one of those people that I knew since I was 10 years old that I wanted to be a news reporter. When I was a kid I used to wake up every morning seeing the news reporters on TV, doing the news, all the different segments. It used to always just, it was just very really entertaining to me and I just wanted to do that ever since I was a little kid.
And while my time here, I had great professors, Dr. Kaley, Dino, they were really big mentors in my life that really pushed me to believe in myself and say that I can become a reporter straight out of college, even though the competition was super high. I'm from San Antonio, and so the markets over there are a lot bigger than most places.
And so it was really intimidating, but they assured me that I can do this and I can follow my dream and achieve it. And fortunately, I'm very blessed to be in the position I am today.

Jonathan Campbell:
Sure. Did I know what I wanted to do when I first started? No, I didn't. I was originally an electrical engineering major, then I switched over to Mass Comm when I realized I was really good at writing. The time I started, DMI had just started about two or three years prior or before. So I decided, I was like, "Okay, I'm good at writing, I'm good at coding. This kind of merges the two in an interesting way." And I took it from there.
Dale Blasingame's been a great professor. He was a great professor for me. And also Jon Zmikly as well. Being a part of the Innovation Club as well, it helped a lot. Got me really in line with just the technical aspect of what this degree can give. And because of that, it led me to some amazing heights.

Allison Ralston:
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I started college. I really just knew that I wanted to work with people and I knew that I wanted to help people in any way that I could. But I'm not a doctor, you know what I mean?
So I was introduced to Mass Communications through my advisor as well and just kind of naturally fell into the public relations route. And liked it so much, I came back for a second degree.
And how I got my job today actually was through another student in my graduate cohort. So she was working for the company that I now work for. They were hiring for an intern. So I was able to start that role while I was in grad school, and then I went full-time with them once I finished my degree.

Giselle Kowalski:
So that kind of brings me to my question, each of you has such a different way of getting here. Did you guys choose that path? Were you very integral in picking how you got there? Or did it just kind of happen to you?

Allison Ralston:
I'll jump in there. I think it kind of just happened. However, I know I put in the hard work to get there, if that makes sense. But I very much follow a networking path. I very much see who I can meet, who I need to know, what I need to do to get from point A to point B, and who can help me get there. And how can I help other people on my path to do that too.
So while, yes, a great example is I didn't even know that the agency I worked for existed until I was talking to another student in my cohort and learned about what she was doing for this agency. But at the same time, I had already built that connection with her. We were already working really closely together as students, and we both had a background working for Texas State, and so it kind of naturally aligned.

Jonathan Campbell:
I would have to piggyback off of that and say networking is very important, even while you're in college. If you have an inclination towards a career path that you want to take, try it while you're here. Go into internships, ask around. You have an alumni of people, us included, that you can go and talk to either on LinkedIn, social media outlets, and that can truly help you with just making that decision or even seeing if you want to do it if you're unclear.
As far as where we're at now, I feel like each and every one of us has had some type of questioning whenever we were in college, but that questioning is integral part of being the college experience. So it's something that everybody has to go through. But to lean on the people that have done it already, we can help you a lot as well.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you right now, I work in the Bryan College Station area, and I never would've thought I'd ever end up in that city, to be completely real. I was unfortunate. I wasn't one of those students that had all the time in the world where I could dedicate every single moment to networking and internships and stuff. I had to take care of my family, I had to work, I had to pay for my own school.
So I didn't really start actually getting internships until my senior here, my last two semesters of college. But fortunately, I was able to get an internship at News 4 in San Antonio and then this other station, KSAT 12 in San Antonio, and those really helped me out a lot.
Another thing that helped me was professors. But I think the biggest thing that really made a difference was putting myself out there and putting myself in uncomfortable situations or out of my comfort zone was the biggest game changer.
And pushing yourself despite not having the time, not having anything, I was out there calling people. "Hey, I don't need to get paid for this, but I just want to come shadow a reporter. I want to come talk to somebody." I want to get my foot in the door so that they can see that you're actually trying.
I think that's the biggest decider is actually showing someone your passion and your heart that you have for whatever you want to do. And I feel like if you put yourself and you actually give everything you have into something you want to do, other people will see that as well.

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, kind of to piggyback off of that for sure, so my junior year I ended up in advertising kind of just by chance, but I found it and I really loved it and was connecting with the material and everything. And then my senior year I was like, "I don't have any internship or I haven't really done it." I've only been working and everything, which don't discount transferable skills. But anyway.
So I was like, "I need some advertising experience." And that's when I found the National Student Advertising Competition here, and that really changed everything for me. I learned so much. And so really, like Zeke was saying, it's about putting yourself in those positions for other people to help you and really putting yourself out there.

Dale Blasingame:
Hailey just casually mentioned, she was part of the NSAC team. They won the freaking national championship. So beat all the schools you've heard of your entire lives. So congratulations on that.

Hailey Aaron:
Thank you.

Dale Blasingame:
Yeah, you can applaud.

Hailey Aaron:
Thank you. Thank you.

Dale Blasingame:
What lessons or techniques did you learn here that have helped you in your current careers?

Allison Ralston:
I think for me it's networking, connecting with people. In media relations, I am emailing people like Zeke all day long, constantly reaching out to them. And so understanding other media professional's roles was really crucial for my job today.
And I learned a lot of that in college because obviously when you're in classes like this, you're meeting people who, yes, they're all in SJMC, but you're all doing something a little bit differently. So that was really important for my career today.

Jonathan Campbell:
I would have to say an integral part of what I do now with, it's even more so on the technical side. You still have to learn how to communicate with a lot of different types of people. And that's pretty much in any type of field that you go into, whether you're speaking to a product team, a data team, engineering team, media team, it all comes out.
You have to be able to speak in such a way that your thoughts are understood and they're communicated to where it's very clear to what you're saying. So that's something I learned during college because I had a hard time with that. But it really, the way I, excuse me, I'm having a hard time now. The way I communicate myself in a professional setting, it started here at Texas State.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
I think the biggest thing that I did while I was here at Texas State was treat every single thing I did like I was working for a real news station. And delivering like I was in a professional career.
I think the biggest eye-opener for me was when I started in my career as a news reporter. I remember, I think the first month, I don't know when I started doing it, I remember getting home and I remember having this feeling like I worked my whole life for this since I was 10 years old. This is what I wanted. I just thought it would feel different. I thought that you would have, I don't know, an explosion behind you or rainbows coming in everywhere, but there was nothing. There was no, oh, my gosh moment.
And it wasn't until that I realized the reason why I don't have this feeling of, oh, you're a reporter now, Zeke, is because I've been a reporter while I was here at Texas State. I was doing the exact same thing I'm doing now. I was getting interviews, I was reaching out to people, getting doors slammed on my face. People telling me to leave them alone.
All these things was happening exactly while I was in college, it was the exact same thing. I just didn't have that fancy title of professional news reporter for a TV station. So treating everything you do here like it's the freaking Super Bowl. Doing every single thing 100%. Not turning it in for a grade on Canvas, but actually giving your all as if you were working for a professional organization or company.

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, I'm just going to piggyback off that again. But yeah, exactly. I think the biggest skill I gained here was confidence in my skills that I have for the field. Because I put myself out there, I'm just going to be talking about NSAC this whole time, sorry.
But I put myself out there. I got on this competition team or any field that you're in, but I was proving to myself that I could do it really. Just again, putting yourself in those situations. And I just saw like, "Oh, my gosh, I can advertise. What?" And so the confidence for sure.

Dale Blasingame:
And what's something that's happened since you've been in the professional world that you weren't prepared for? Jonathan, why don't you go first? Because I already know your story.

Jonathan Campbell:
Okay. All right. All right. Well, right out of college, I had gotten a... Well, not necessarily right out of college, let me slow down. It was about six months after I graduated. I got my first job. So it took six months. I wasn't expecting it to take that long. I thought I got a degree, I'm going to get a job. Shouldn't be that hard.
I got a job as a software engineer at Dell Technologies. It was really cool. I enjoyed it. I met Michael Dell, worked on AI for Dell.com, some really cool, interesting stuff. Then two years after, two and a half years, they laid me off. I wasn't ready for it. I had no clue what I was going to do. I was nervous, scared. I mean a paycheck that was coming every single two weeks had stopped. Rent was due. I was freaking out.
And that's just the truth. It took me one full year to find another job and I had technical skills that came from a big company. I have a degree. I had pictures with Michael Dell. I won some awards in college and out of college. Things were great, but it still took a long time for me to find a job.
But the one thing that I noticed was being on social media, it could be a blessing or a curse. I was on there and I was making sure that my feed was very, very positive. I was staying positive throughout it.
I was networking as much as I could. I didn't give up. It's like I graduated college again looking for another job. So that's one thing I was not ready for to get laid off, right? No one teaches you how to find a job, right? Everyone teaches you the skills to have one.
So that's very important that exercise those skills now while you're in college, not only just trying to find a job, but learning how to deal with rejection. That's a big thing too, in the professional world. But being able to bounce back was amazing.
When I got that call from 2K and they were like, "Yeah, we want you." I went through three or four interviews, it was tough. And I was pulling from knowledge that I learned at Texas State, even in this role. Learning about how to, there's data analytics that we were doing on Twitter feeds whenever I was in school.
And that data analytics I used in my interview process. And I spoke on that. And it was three or four years after I graduated. So the things that you do now very much, even if you might not think you need them now or later, you might be able to pull from them in the future.
And now I work for 2K. I mean, it's one of the best jobs I've ever worked in my life. I mean, I get to work on video games that it's the coolest thing ever, guys. I'm accredited in 2K, like NBA. What else? Borderlands 4. I don't know if any of y'all play video games. Okay, great. I see some hands.
But then also I meet some people that I work with that actually graduated from Texas State as well, and we could speak on, and from Mass Communications as well. So I'll let you know about them later. But it's a lot of things that you're not necessarily prepared for that you have to learn how to adapt.
And that's, oh, my gosh, that's a great talking point. Adaptability in college is huge, whether you're switching different majors or even just deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life, it's a big deal. You have to adapt to those emotions, adapt to those feelings, adapt to upper level management or a professor treating you a different way. You have to learn how to always push forward and have that tenacity.
So if there was one thing I was not ready for, it was to get laid off and then not have a job for a year. That was not fun. I was leaning on the alumni network at Texas State, my friends that I made whenever I was at Texas State. And then also just people that I met in LinkedIn as well.
So leverage your network, leverage your followers on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or not Twitter. I'm sorry, X. So I'm old. But yeah, so long answer. But I would say just adaptability is very important.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, I'm going to move forward because I think that was a great way to answer that. I haven't heard that story, so thanks for sharing that.
Speaking on adaptability, we're kind of switching gears a little bit. But, Zeke, I feel like since you're the most recent grad, how did you deal with adapting to the 9:00 to 5:00 life?
We all go to Texas State. We know that it's a really small community where you literally can walk to your next door neighbor and ask them for some butter if you need some. Or you move to a big city, now you're in Bryan. How do you go from knowing everyone in your network to knowing no one and having to start anew?

Ezekiel Ramirez:
In the beginning, I'll tell you, it was hard. It was really hard. I used to go, at the beginning when I started doing stories, I used to go home in my apartment and I was there stressing out because I had to remind myself how fast-paced this business really is.
How in college you have this much time, two weeks to do a story. And you're like, "Okay, I'm going to go to Marco's Pizza and get some food." And then you ain't got to worry about it tonight. But over there it's like you have five hours to finish your stuff.
It was very difficult to get people to trust me and to let them know that I'm not here to cause any problems. I'm just here to tell y'all stories. Especially with our style of reporting in my news station, we're considered neighborhood reporters, which means we prioritize the people's voice versus an official voice.
But that also means I have to get the normal citizen walking by, taking out the trash to talk to me. And I don't know if y'all know, but not a lot of people I know would want a camera in their face to just do a quick interview about something. And that's normally the case. It's a lot of me door knocking. It's a lot of me trying to get people to trust me.
But now, after so much time, like I told you in the beginning, it was hard, but you keep going. You keep coming back. Even when people turn their back on you, you keep coming and they'll see that. They'll see you're not going anywhere. It's like, "Despite the way you treat me, I have a job to do."
And so yes, it was difficult to start from a rock bottom again with nothing, no connections, nobody. I didn't know a single person in the area I was in. Now I have people's personal phone numbers that I can call up at any time. I have people that I can depend on and people that trust me.
And so it's a mutual thing. It goes back to what I said, if you show people that you're willing to do the effort, do the work, and the extra effort to put yourself out there, other people will start to notice and they will come to you.

Dale Blasingame:
And, Hailey, you just graduated as well, and you've been on the job, what, two weeks now? Three?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, it's just a month. So yeah. What, what?

Dale Blasingame:
What have you learned so far?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, thank you.

Dale Blasingame:
What have you learned so far?

Hailey Aaron:
I've learned, well, I've learned that it can be a lot obviously. I'm still kind of picking everything up, figuring out how my team kind of works in their own way. It's not just about the agency that you work for, but it'll be about the client that you get assigned to. So if you're in advertising, pay attention to that.
But yeah, I feel like I haven't... I don't know. I've learned that it can be difficult, but I'm still just figuring it out. And I didn't learn too many new skills other than I learned in NSAC. So you should join.

Dale Blasingame:
So in this class, we talk about AI a lot, and I'm curious how AI has impacted affected your jobs, good or bad. And, Allison, why don't we start with you on the PR side?

Allison Ralston:
Yeah, good question. So like I had mentioned my agency actually works with energy and tech clients. So basically every single one of the clients for my agency is either they're producing AI, they're using AI, or they are powering the data centers to power AI. So AI is something we talk about every single day at work.
I think really the biggest way that it's changed what I do is we have to learn more. It's kind of like I'm back in college because my agency is constantly putting on trainings and modules and things like that to make sure that we understand the latest technology so that we can best serve our clients.
And then the other thing too is learning how to use AI appropriately. I don't know if that's the best word, but using it responsibly and making sure that you're getting the best out of it. Because I'm sure as students, you all know, it can be a very dangerous tool to be using. So making sure that we're using it to the best of our abilities.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
Sure. Being a news reporter, we have a fine line when using AI because obviously just like being in college, writing a paper or anything, it'd be real easy to be like, "Write me a news story about this topic and here are the quotes and everything. Write it for me."
And that's the biggest thing that my directors and my managers have told us we cannot do. Although, but however, though we are utilizing AI to help us save time. Like I tell you, I'm a multimedia journalist. I don't have a photographer with me. It's me by myself. I film, I report, I edit, I do everything on my own. And I have a deadline every single day by 4:20 on the dot, and I cannot be late.
So any kind of way that we can save time at the end of the day, we have to do a digital article. We have AI use for that where we throw our broadcast script in and it turns it into a digital script for online. But obviously we don't just copy and paste. You still got to check it and everything. And there's actually a disclaimer at the bottom that says, "This was utilized and helped out by AI, but we also check over it, yada, yada, yada."
So AI, the thing is that they told us the world's changing. We have to learn to adapt with it. We can't shut it out. It's here. We can't ignore it, but let's try to use it to our best ability and use it as a resource rather than something that's looked in a negative way.

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah. So AI in media planning and advertising, there was actually someone who I met who ran a full AI media planning agency. And they just use AI to make their media plans. And which I don't know how everyone feels about it. It's kind of snowballing into a whole thing. But I'm not an AI expert either, so I'm not qualified to speak on that.
But in media planning specifically, I know we use it to automize and optimize a lot of things when in placements, mainly. Mainly with social media and everything. Recognizing this audience does this and so we're going to put it here. That's really how I use it in my job. But I know there are other agencies that use it a lot more and in different ways.

Jonathan Campbell:
At 2K, we use it for, well, pretty much almost everything, I'll be honest. But we're literally taught to not use it as a crutch. They said, "We didn't hire you to train in AI or even ask an AI a certain prompt to get you an answer." You use it for, they specifically said, "You have to make sure that you use it for a tool, not a crutch. If you use it for a crutch, then you're losing your intelligence." And so that's as much as I got to say about that.

Giselle Kowalski:
Well said. Jonathan, you actually touched on this a little bit earlier about social media kind of being like a whole and you had to really tailor your algorithm to be happy. All of us work with social media in some way or form. You're working in news, you're seeing PR every single day. How are you staying motivated, inspired, and positive right now? Deep question.

Allison Ralston:
A huge part of my job is reading the news, reading social media, staying up to date on world events. And it can feel extremely soul crushing every single day for a variety of reasons. I think really for me, it's knowing that I'm only reading these things from 9:00 to 5:00, and when I'm done with work, I don't want to know what else is going on. So giving myself set hours for that.
And then I think the other thing too is just reminding myself, I'm reading this for a job. I'm not trying to immerse myself in every single problem that's happening across the globe. I have to know what's going on for my job. So just kind of that constant reminder.

Jonathan Campbell:
I would have to say staying in the know enough to make informed decisions on what's going on in the world, but not letting it corrupt, I guess, corrupt your mind or make you feel a certain type of way. Once it starts making you feel different than a natural decorum that you have, then you really got to think, is this something that you really want to ingest?
So I would have to say just stay positive all the time. I mean, that's me. I try to stay positive. Obviously you see the world, you see the news, you know what's being reported. It's the real world, so we can't sugarcoat it.
Not saying just be blind optimism, blind just happiness. No. I'm just trying to say whenever there is a moment of clarity, a moment of happiness, to hold onto it and to focus on that because there's too much negative in the world.

Dale Blasingame:
Zeke, before you speak, I didn't mean to rhyme there. I worked in news for 10 years. There were many days, I used to live across the street from the station, which never live across the street from where you work. It sounds awesome. It's horrible. You're the first person they call in every time something's going on. Have you had any of those days yet where you just don't want to go to work in your short career so far?

Ezekiel Ramirez:
Yes. I have only been in news for almost a year and a half. And like I told you, because our style of reporting is a lot more character based, people based, I have to depend on people trusting me and talking to me. And a lot of times they don't want to. I've already been told called names, I've been stuff thrown at me, I've been spit on, a lot of things like this. It's horrible and it's horrible people.
And I think the only way that I stay motivated personally is I always have to remind myself why I started in the first place. I have this never dying feeling to keep that 10-year-old in me proud of himself. And I think about all the people that helped me get to the position I am today, my grandmother, my parents, my family, everyone that always believed in me and pushed me to be who I am today.
I always think of them and I always, every time I think about giving up or I'm just like, "I can't do this." It's like, "What would they do in that scenario?" A lot of people did a lot of things for me during my life to get me to this position, to help me go through college, to motivate me enough to become a news reporter.
And so I just really feel like you have to remember your why in your head and just keep going no matter what. I mean with news especially, you see a lot of horrible things. I've seen plenty of horrible things only being here, not even a year and a half. I mean, there's going to be a lot more horrible things that I'm going to experience. But I just think that it's those little moments when I'm having a bad day and somebody random in my county comes up to me is like, "Oh, my God, are you Zeke Ramirez?"
And I'm there sweaty, like, "Yeah, that's me. Yeah, what's up?" And in my head, I'm like, "What do you want? What did I do wrong this time? What are you going to say?" And they're like, "I just want to say I watch you every single day and I love your stories, and I think what you're doing is awesome. And I just want you to know you make my day every time you're on TV."
And I'm like, "Well, thank you. I didn't expect..." It's things like that. It's those little moments. And there's going to be a lot in any kind business, any kind organization, any kind of job. It's going to be usually three bad days versus one good day. But as long as you focus on the positive and as long as you push yourself and remind yourself, why am I doing this in the first place? I think we can take it one day at a time.

Dale Blasingame:
And, Hailey, you're still in the honeymoon phase, but how are you preparing yourselves for the inevitable ebbs and flows of the professional life?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, definitely. Well, I'll just speak kind of in the ad world in general. You see bad ads and you're like, "What are you doing back there?" And you just think of how I could have done it better or why would you do this? This is my favorite brand and now I can't buy these products or whatever it is.
And so that kind of is disheartening to see because it's like you have all this money and this cool brand and you just ruined it. But then I look at the good ads, it's all about just focusing on the positive. There's going to be negative no matter what, no matter where you go.
So you really just got to look towards the light or look at the good side. Maybe not, I don't know. Anyway, just look at the positive side basically. Yeah, don't go toward the light, but maybe look towards it.

Dale Blasingame:
So we have a room full of students here. What would be y'all's advice as they're moving on through not only their time here at Texas State, but as they're preparing to enter the professional world?

Allison Ralston:
I'll kick us off. I think my two biggest pieces of advice, our number one, network, as if you haven't heard enough of that today. That is the biggest takeaway. That will carry you into your first job, second, third, fourth, and so on and so forth, and will likely always be there for you.
My second piece of advice is to understand how your skills transfer. So everything you're doing, and I think everybody has touched on it too, no matter what it is, whether it's a club that is academic based or you're in Greek life or whatever you're doing, there is something that you're learning and there are skills that you have perfected that transfer into the professional world.
But it's your job to figure out how they transfer and how you can make yourself marketable off of that. Because obviously when you finish college, you have not had a full-time job. And a lot of the times you're competing for a position with people who have worked another job maybe one, two, three years at an entry-level role. Sorry. So you have to understand how to market yourself and where that difference is going to come in is pulling those transferable skills.

Jonathan Campbell:
Everything that she said. Seriously, that was amazing. Wow. She touched on every single thing. The only thing that I can add to that is just do not give up. And if you want to start something for yourself, start now. Don't wait at all. Just go for it.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
I think the biggest piece of advice I would give you is don't ever let one person, one moment, one thing stop you from doing what you want to do. In my life, there was a lot of people that told me I was never going to amount to anything. And when I told them I wanted to be a reporter, they laughed in my face and told me that I would never be able to do it, and now I'm on TV.
So I think that never allow someone to tell you what your future is. We all have the power. I feel like all of us have the ability to be great, and I feel like it's just a difference of how bad do you want it? Like I mentioned my whole time speaking, if you're out there and you're pushing yourself and you're giving it your all, it's like, "I can't do it."
Is it I can't do it? Or is it do I have to work a little harder to get it done? That was something I always told myself. And I told myself, I always have this personal thing where I say, "I will allow myself to quit when I do every single thing possible on the list to get it done and it doesn't work."
So it's like, "Did you do this? Yes. Okay. Did you do this? Okay. Yeah." Every single thing. If you go through an entire million things of a list and you still couldn't do it, okay, you can quit. But I guarantee you, you push yourself and you go further than you ever thought you can go. And that is the biggest thing. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't be something. If you want something, go get it, period.

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah. Hell yeah. But yeah, definitely what everyone said. And yeah, to piggyback kind of off of your answer, I would be in these talks and people would come and say and be like, "Just sell what's unique about you?" And I'd be like, "What? What does that even mean?"
And so I found out through my adventures and everything, that basically what they were saying and what I needed to hear at that time was find out your transferable skills. And what that is is your perspective. Your perspective is so strong, you don't even realize it, but that is how you're going to sell yourself.
The things that you've been through, the experiences you've had, the places you've been, all of that is you. That's made who you are today. And so that's how you have to pitch yourself. That's what's unique about you. It's there. You just got to find it.
And knowing your strengths and more importantly, your weaknesses. Knowing what you need to work on, but what you have to sell. So yeah, also one thing, if you believe that you can, and if you believe that you can't, you're right. So just believe in yourself and it'll happen.

Jonathan Campbell:
Yes, yes.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah. We should put all of these on a pillow. All of this is beautiful quotes. So with that, that's pretty much all of our questions, but I'm going to open it to you, all of y'all in the audience. Does anybody have a question for our four panelists up here? Not all at once. Yes, sir?

Speaker 7:
I have a question for [inaudible 00:35:20]. Basically, my question is in terms of building yourself, obviously you work so hard at 19-years-old. [inaudible 00:35:30]. You work on it every day. You work so hard, but sometimes times do really get tough. So as a 19-year-old, you say to yourself, "I guess since I'm working so hard and things still aren't going my way." What would you do with that?

Giselle Kowalski:
So he asked, he's 19 years old, and he's asking, how can you push past all of the troubles and tribulations that you're finding while building your clothing brand?

Jonathan Campbell:
Have you started?

Speaker 7:
Yeah.

Jonathan Campbell:
So you have a clothing brand already, right?

Speaker 7:
Yes.

Jonathan Campbell:
How big do you want it?

Speaker 7:
Pretty big.

Jonathan Campbell:
How big? Give me an example.

Speaker 7:
Like 2K.

Jonathan Campbell:
Like a 2K? That's video games.

Speaker 7:
I want to be at that level.

Jonathan Campbell:
At that level, yes. Okay. So know your industry very well. When I asked you just that question, I thought Nike, Under Armour, it could be Patagonia, anything. Then think 10 times higher than that and push for that. Don't give up at all. You're only 19. You're starting in college. You still have most likely until you're around 22, 23 until you've actually, you ended your college career.
But you've most likely started a whole entire clothing brand that has been through so many different areas. So I would say start a social media account for that business. Register it as an LLC. Get every single, even get every single social media outlet and create a page for it. Tell every single one of your friends.
And then just market it and do not give up. When things get hard, don't give up. Start wearing your own brand too. So just don't give up on yourself or your friends.

Dale Blasingame:
Yep. And I would add that you've already done the hardest part, which is getting started. For most people who want to do their own thing, getting started is by far the biggest hurdle to clear.
And so fighting through that imposter syndrome, which we could spend an entire session talking about that, but fighting through all that stuff. You've done the hard work. Now it's time to not do the easy stuff, but stay strong and keep going with it. Yeah.

Speaker 7:
Good luck.

Dale Blasingame:
Yeah.

Speaker 8:
For the reporter, how do you deal with burnout and work-life balance when you have to do stories every single day and you have to emotionally regulate yourself?

Dale Blasingame:
Yeah, I laughed. I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at your question. But, Zeke, tell us about the work-life balance in TV news.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
Well, honestly, like I told you at the beginning, it was really difficult. I mean, I really didn't understand. I mean, you think you know when you're here in college. You're like, "Oh, I know what's newsworthy, what's not." But you got to understand every single station, everybody's different.
What one person might say, "Oh, yeah, I want that story done." Somebody else can be like, "That is not newsworthy. I don't what you're thinking there." So the biggest thing is in the beginning for me, I used to go home and I tell you, I used to have to work on think about what am I going to do tomorrow?
Because they would be calling me at 3:00 PM, I'm not even done with the story of today. And they're like, "Hey, I'm just calling to see what you're doing tomorrow." And I'm like, "Oh, Victor, I'm just trying to get through today, man. I'm not even finished."
But right now to this point, the biggest thing I will tell you is use your time wisely. I know we hear that all the time, but use your time wisely. When you're at work, it is work. I know sometimes we like to go and we like to mess around. If you're like me, I'm a procrastinator. I will sit there and then I'll overthink a script. I'll sit there writing and I'm like, "This sounds terrible."
And then I'll send it off and he'll be like, "Oh, my gosh, great job, Zeke." I'm like, "It's all in your head." But I'm at a point right now where I use every single day, I work ahead. I work ahead and I'm calling people. If there's a story I'm thinking of doing for Wednesday, I calling on Monday. "Hey, I'm just giving you a heads-up. I'm planning on doing this Wednesday. Can we work something around?" But if they tell me, "I'm not available Wednesday," maybe we can work on something on Tuesday.
On weekends, I'm off on weekends. I don't touch work, don't touch work, I don't touch it. I don't think about it. I don't. If I get a notification. Now, obviously my boss calls me and says, "Hey, I need you to come in." Obviously that's different. But I'm talking about I don't sit there and I'm not like, "Oh, what am I going to do for the week? Blah, blah, blah."
When you're off, take that time, take it to refresh. I've literally had a week within this year and a half that I've been there that I had to go cover a story where a daughter shot her mother in their own home. And I had to go and cover that and knock on doors and ask people what they felt about it.
And then the next day I had to go and a mother drowned her two kids and I had to go ask people what they thought about it. You know how many people want to talk about that kind of stuff? Y'all know I don't have anybody out here who wants to talk about that. That kind of stuff can really weigh heavily on you.
Especially me, I'm away from my family. I don't have any of my brothers, my sister, nobody near me, and my girlfriend, nobody's with me. And so it's very overwhelming at some points. So when you have time off, rest, mentally take a break. Not just for your body, it's for your mind. Mentally take a break from all that.
But when you're at work, it's game time. It's the Super Bowl. Use your time wisely. Work ahead, plan ahead, reach out, any kind of thing you can do. Because that's going to make your daily work, everything is going to be so much smoother, I promise.

Dale Blasingame:
And the habits you're forming right now are what are going to carry you through. He just offered some really great advice of setting those boundaries. I never did for myself. I worked 16 hours this weekend when I was supposed to be off, and here I am old.
So the decisions you make now matter in terms of how you come across that in your professional career. Have any of the rest of y'all, Hailey's only been there a month, so you better not say you've experienced burnout? Allison, what about you?

Allison Ralston:
I mean, I think it goes in, it's very seasonal. So when things are really busy, like a Q4 push, yes, it gets to be a lot. But I completely agree, and there's going to be times where maybe you have to answer some calls or emails or what have you for clients later in the evening.
But my company is really great about encouraging rest from Friday when you log off to Monday when you log on. So I think also making sure that your coworkers are practicing that, that makes it a lot easier to practice that rest time.

Dale Blasingame:
Having very understanding friends and partners and family really matters too.

Allison Ralston:
Definitely.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yes, I saw your hand first.

Speaker 9:
[inaudible 00:42:18] in order to break into PR?

Allison Ralston:
Yeah, so she was kind of asking about as a PR major, how to create those networks to break into the PR industry. That's a really great question. I think talk to the people in your classes and talk to your professors, and that's a really great place to start. Learn what they did.
I'm pretty sure that every single professor in SJMC has had a professional work experience, which is really unique. A lot of professors across universities have focused on research, which is still incredible and very important. But as an undergraduate student, it's really important to have professors who understand the work you are going to be doing when you leave their classroom. So creating connections with professors like Dale, who genuinely care about what happens to you after you leave their class, will carry you on to grad school, to your first job, et cetera.
The other thing I would add to that is the jobs you have. So whether you're working for the marketing department at Texas State or you're working in the undergraduate admissions office, whatever it is, talk to those people. You don't study undergraduate admissions in college, so you might meet somebody who did study PR or comms, and you'll create a network that way.
And then finally, stay in touch. So don't lose touch with the people that have helped get you to where you are. Continue to be grateful for that connection and keep building on it.

Giselle Kowalski:
I would add also that this is Mass Comm week, so you can probably find all four of these panelists on LinkedIn. I would connect with them and I would message them if you're interested in hearing more about their particular journey. Yes, ma'am?

Speaker 10:
[inaudible 00:44:00]. I was wondering how do you communicate yourself with brands and allow them to trust you with a bigger brand?

Allison Ralston:
Yeah, so she's kind of asking about how I get brands or clients to trust that I can speak for them. Is that? Yeah, great question.
I'll be honest, because I work for an agency, the marketing department of my agency kind of does that when they sell to a client. But when we meet a client, we always let them know what our background is. So we let them know, I have X number of years working with energy clients. I've worked on a variety of campaigns from this to that to this.
It's really important to let them know what your background is and what your history is. And I think that that's a really great way to build trust. Also, the work you do for them. A lot of the times it's going to be a gamble when a client hires an agency if they don't know you. So making sure that the work you're producing is the highest level you can possibly have it, that's going to build trust with your client and you have to start there.

Dale Blasingame:
And obviously that carries over beyond PR as well. If you're working in social, learning the voice and learning your clients. Showing them that you're working in that. Same thing for advertising, where you're having to earn that trust as well because they're putting all of their faith, potentially their company in your hands. Have you felt any of that pressure yet in your very early career?

Hailey Aaron:
Yeah, I mean somewhat. It was, especially just through the NSAC process. I'm going to talk about it again, shocker. But I learned that just how important it is to stay aligned with the brand. You're the brand's voice at this point, so you have to know how they talk, what their personality is. If it's... Nevermind. But yeah, it's really important.
And to gain that trust and really show anyone. Especially if you're going to start locally and try and pitch yourself somewhere local, which I do recommend doing if you're into advertising. Just finding somewhere here like a local pie shop or something. Being like, "I can do this for you. I know that you do X, Y, and Z." And just showing them that you already understand them like that, they will take you seriously.

Allison Ralston:
I think we can also add on to say, you need to know going further. You need to know what the brand does. You need to know your client forwards and backwards before you start working with them. To the point where you should be able to answer a lot of questions that might pop up.
And then you can just go to confirm it with them. "Hey, I'm pretty sure X, Y, Z is the answer to this. Can you just confirm?" That will also build trust because they'll understand that you're putting in the work.

Giselle Kowalski:
Another thing is that you are at Texas State right now. You can sell yourself to different departments at Texas State as their PR person. Or you can play around and act as if that is your own job right now.
I worked for the philosophy department. I wasn't a philosophy major, but I had to learn back and forth what the philosophy department was all about and make a social media for them. You could do that and then pitch it as like, "I can be your social media person." And that starts you off in PR already. Just an idea.
We'll take two more questions so that y'all could actually come up and ask some questions. Yes, sir, in the front?

Speaker 11:
Yes. This is just kind of for anybody that's kind of there. Through mental blockage, how do you guys spark creativity?

Giselle Kowalski:
He asked, "How do you spark creativity through mental blockage?"

Dale Blasingame:
Not everyone.

Hailey Aaron:
I'm having it right now. For me personally, I would say just stepping away. If something's not working, I've been staring at something for too long, I really just have to stop looking at it for a second. And then coming back. Taking a break and it can be 15 minutes, it can be an hour, it could be I take a nap. But I just need to not look at it and then come back with a fresh set of eyes really helps me.

Jonathan Campbell:
For me, when it comes to creativity, I try to draw creativity from a totally different medium. If I'm writing and I'm having a blockage in writing, I'm going to step away, like she said. But I'll go to the museum, I'll start looking at paintings. I'll do different things, different forms of art to really think on a different level to get back to what I was working on, if it was writing or photography or something of that sort.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
I was just going to say that what I try to do with my reporting is I try to look at it through the viewer's perspective and I try to make it kind of different, kind of entertaining. Actually, on my LinkedIn actually, I have a three-minute video where I took all my most creative shots and I put them in the one whole reel.
Because what I'm trying to do is my grandmother gave me this advice. She told me, "Nobody in this world ever made a difference by being like everyone else." And she said, because I would always tell her, "Grandma, I feel like my reporting is just so bland. I feel like it's everybody else. Nobody would be able to tell me different from anybody else." And she'd be like, "You need to throw your personality in there.'.
And she goes, "I'm not saying every serious story, go and pop out of somewhere." She says, "But when you have the opportunity to, make it fun, show why you're a part of this company, of this organization, of this job. Show your passion, show your heart, show everything."
And the thing, and my coworkers laughing at me because actually I got this little nickname in my job now, they call me Mr. Creative because I'm always doing different random things that you would never expect. I think the biggest one I ever did was I did a story about, they were trying to raise prices, give you a fee if you leave your trash can out in the curb too long.
So what I did is was like I started my intro and I was like, "Oh, most people grab their trash can, they pull it back at the end of the day." And then I actually did a edit where it was me popping out of the trash can, where it was two of us there. And I'm like, "But a new fee might do this." Making it fun, making it where I'm editing it and I'm laughing at my own video.
And it's just having that passion and just showing it. Like those people that say, "If you work in a job that you love, you're never working a day in your life." Showing that passion, that love, and get excited about this kind of stuff. This is what you wanted to do. This is what you're dreaming of doing. And show that, show other people why you want to be here.

Dale Blasingame:
I will just add one more thing. I think this is a perfect place for AI literacy to come into play because when I'm struggling with how to explain something or how to illustrate something, whether it's in a lecture, in a talk, in office hours. Earlier today I got a comment from a student about a particularly tough lesson in my drone class.
He's like, "There's got to be a better way to explain this." And I agreed with him and I went to AI first and said, "Here's how I'm currently teaching it. Give me some ideas to think about this in a different way." And I will go back and look at that and try to figure out my own other way to do that.
So again, don't use that as a crutch where every time you're having to depend on AI. But in certain situations, in certain times, if it's called for, that's also a great opportunity to come up with responsible usage.

Allison Ralston:
Responsible use of AI.

Dale Blasingame:
Yeah. I think we had one question back here. Yes?

Speaker 12:
I know we obviously have opportunities like career fairs and needs like LinkedIn case for networking. But other than that, how did y'all personally network within our community and communities outside of the classroom?

Dale Blasingame:
The question was how did you build your network while you were in school?

Allison Ralston:
I know I've said this, but my peers and my professors. So I was always really curious to know what my professors did to get to the point that they were at. So in class, Dale would tell us about his background.
Jennifer Scharlach is a professor that I still keep in touch with a lot, and she worked in PR. So I would always ask about her specific jobs. How did you get the first job? How did you go from one to two? Who did you meet to get you from two to three?
And then peers. You're working on group projects. You know that other students, especially as you get further in your college journey, you're a junior, senior, people are applying to jobs, they're interviewing places. And you learn a lot about what's out there, whether it's San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston, through your peers and what they're doing.

Giselle Kowalski:
I worked with Allison and that's why I got her on this panel.

Allison Ralston:
That's a better way.

Giselle Kowalski:
So it goes to show you that it's like you can work with just about anybody on campus sometimes, and then they'll have a job that really interests you or they will hear of something and think of you. That's a lot of the way that a lot of my friends. And also I was in classes with Jonathan as well. So your alumni, your classes are really going to help you in that way as well.

Allison Ralston:
Even people that maybe you aren't friends with. There are people that I was simply just in classes with and maybe did one group project with, and we still keep up on LinkedIn. And they'll reach out if they see that there's a connection working at a job that they're applying for that I know, or so on and so forth. So then you can just keep building on that relationship.

Ezekiel Ramirez:
I was just going to add that when I was in college, my professors, obviously a lot of these professors have been in the business before, so they had connections themselves. They got me in touch with people. I work in Bryan College Station, but I actually had another job lined up. I was going to go work in Victoria, Texas, but they wanted me to do the exact same thing was doing, but for half basically of what I'm getting paid now.
And I was going to do it, but then it wasn't until they had that connection actually had told me, "Oh, there's an opening in Bryan College Station, so maybe you should try that one out." And not just that, but also these new stations, I would reach out to them and I would ask them, some people call it lying. I call it bending the truth.
I would tell them, "Hey, listen, I'm doing a project or something for school. I just want to talk to a reporter, get your perspective of what you do." And I mean, there was no project going on, it was a Saturday. I mean, nothing was happening, but they'd be like, "Oh, yeah, maybe you can come by."
And I'd go by and I would talk to somebody and then I'd get their card. And while I'm there, "Hey, oh, I'm sorry, I lost my place in the bathroom. And I ended up over here at the director's table and talking to the top bosses and stuff." And, "Hey, what do y'all do? Hey, what advice would you give me, a young kid wanting to do this?"
And they remember that kind of stuff. When you're a part of these kind of internships or anything, be a sponge, soak up all that knowledge, everything. I was doing things I never even thought I was ever going to be able to do.
I mean, I'm a reporter, but last Saturday or last Sunday, they needed a fill in for the weather, the meteorologist. So I did the weather and I never, ever would've thought myself doing the weather. And I probably sounded like a dork on TV, but I did it.
And so putting yourself out there in the connections, don't feel like, I know it feels like we're bothering these people's lives. And the thing is, everyone's busy. I understand that, but push yourself. Do it.
What's the words they're going to say? "No, I'm sorry. I don't have time right now." Okay, no worries. Find someone else. There's people out there that are willing to help. There are people out there that are willing to give their time to young students like us to help each other out because they want to see us succeed.

Giselle Kowalski:
So that is the time for all the questions that we have today, guys. But thank you so much for all coming to this panel, each of you. Thank you so, so, so much. We'll send you the link whenever this is live.
But yeah, you guys, I know this is class time. You guys can stay and ask some questions if you'd like. We have about 20 more minutes. But thank you for coming to this live recording of Try at Texas State.