I was a TV news reporter for many years. I grew up doing that job and it shaped who I am as a professional. I worked alongside some of the most talented photographers in the industry while documenting the complex and extraordinary aspects of everyday life. Sure, we covered our fair share of crime, courts, politics and disasters. But there was also wiggle room for creative storytelling along the way. Those were the spaces I enjoyed most. This work involved solving problems under constant, extreme deadline pressure. It’s how I learned to convert stress into vigor; how I gained the ability to write with directness, efficiency and clarity.

From a practical standpoint, all those years working under constant deadline pressure taught me how to convert stress into creativity. I learned to write for the masses with directness and clarity. All of this has a huge influence on my work in the music business today.