Also: it turns out sexual harassment and dead bodies weren’t my cup of tea. Go figure.

So I traded in my news camera for a bus ticket to New Orleans to pursue another dream: of telling stories (and helping others tell stories) that wouldn’t disappear.

I landed a gig as the editor-in-chief of a community newspaper, where I got to meet people from all different viewpoints and walks of life.

I got to hear their stories, and help bring them to life in print.

As I launched social media accounts for the organization, I began to realize the true power of social media as a tool to amplify a message and reach bigger audiences.

This was 2009 – the very early days of social media.

There weren’t a lot of rules or competition yet. We were all just making it up as we went.
With every like, comment, and repost, I felt like I was doing something that really mattered: connecting to people and connecting people to each other.

I started hanging out with local entrepreneurs I met on Twitter (I swear it wasn’t weird back then, not many of us were using the platform at that time).

As I saw all of the amazing things that these people were building, I thought, “maybe I can do this too. Maybe I can build my very own social media consultancy.”