CYLS 125: How Hurricane Katrina and A New York Hustle led to a Flourishing Career in Journalism with Selena Hill
Summary: About our Guest: Selena Hill is an award-winning entrepreneur-journalist with a passion for social justice and women empowerment. She currently works as the Digital Editor for Black Enterprise Magazine and she is a host of Let Your Voice Be Heard (https://lyvbh.com/), an award-winning radio program on 90.3FM, the Voice of Harlem. Her resume includes previously working at NV Magazine, being a TV Correspondent Assistant Producer for What’s Eating Harlem, serving as a Special Elections Reporter covering the 2012 U.S. Election, reporting current events for Russell Simmons’ globalgrind.com, and freelancing for New York Amsterdam News. In 2016 and 2017, Selena was honored with New York Association of Black Journalists Award for Best Blog Commentary Critic. Episode Summary Selena found her path as a journalist when she visited New Orleans in 2006 and 2007 after Hurricane Katrina. Seeing the conditions of the Lower Ninth Ward, she wanted to become a “voice for the voiceless.” She describes having to work long, grueling hours as an intern and what she took away from the situation. She relays failing a job interview with CNN, and then going back years later and acing the interview. Selena pinpoints the defining moments in her life that helped her throughout her career. In remembering past interviews with guests on Let Your Voice Be Heard, Selena describes one experience in which she learned a valuable lesson about being a radio host and another experience that resulted in the radio program winning an award. Insight from this episode: Strategies for becoming an award-winning journalist. Secrets to selling yourself and continuing to move forward and upward in life. How to balance life obligations. How to stay motivated. Strategies for goal-setting and ensuring personal growth each year. Strategies for standing out from others, particularly for women and people of color. How to handle “nay-sayers.” Quotes from the show: “If you don’t sell yourself, especially in our social media era that we live in, it’s basically like you don’t exist.” – Selena Hill, Episode 125 “Visibility means so much. And not only is it, you know, self-serving, but you can really impact and influence and inspire other people’s lives. Like by being transparent and vulnerable and talking about your own struggle and your own journey.” – Selena Hill, Episode 125 “I think it’s important to be very cognizant and strategic about how you are branding yourself online. Because if you’re going to exist online, but you’re not putting any thought behind it, then you’re probably doing yourself a disservice by just putting up anything that you happen to be thinking.“ – Selena Hill, Episode 125 “Every struggle comes with a purpose. Like, there’s purpose in pain.” – Selena Hill, Episode 125 “Find a way or make one.” – Kevin Y. Brown, Episode 125 “It’s your responsibility to continue to move forward. And at the end of the day, you have to create your life.” – Kevin Y. Brown, Episode 125 Resources Mentioned: TweetDeck – Selena Hill Hootsuite – Selena Hill Google Docs – Selena Hill Facebook Live – Selena Hill Favorite Book: The Bible Favorite Quote: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” – The Bible 3 keys to Create Your Best Life: Identify your authenticity and be your real self. Stay true to who you are and don’t let anyone push you off it. Be patient and humble. Stay Connected: Create Your Life Series: https://www.facebook.com/cylseries/ https://www.instagram.com/cylseries/ Kevin: www.kevinybrown.com www.instagram.com/kevinybrown www.twitter.com/kevinybrown www.facebook.com/kevbrown001 Selena Hill: www.instagram.com/msselenahill twitter.com/MsSelenaHill www.facebook.com/selena.hill Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on itunes, google play, stitcher and www.createyourlifeseries.com/podcast Have your podcast edited, mixed and mastered by the experts: www.podcastlaundry.com
