Start here: The original Chip Six
A simple 3-minute speech at an awards banquet prompted me to start this Substack as an extension of my new career, teaching journalism at SMU.
The advice I’m about to share - I call my Chip Six - came to mind over several years of speaking at universities across the country, mostly in journalism classes. The ideas that make up the Chip Six became repeated mantras with lots of examples to back up each one. But it wasn’t until April 10, 2025, that I hurriedly put all the ideas down on paper. In fact, I wrote these down together for the first time, moments before I was to go on stage to accept the Mayborn Medallion, from the University of North Texas’ Mayborn School of Journalism, for outstanding service to journalism education and to their school.
I needed to put together some short acceptance remarks - about 2 minutes. I don’t like to write speeches, and I’m lousy at memorizing or reading from a speech script. But I do know my subject matter, and I think I’m quite good at extemporaneous speaking. Thankfully, the six short phrases (each deliberately consisting of three words) were easy to write, and easy to expand in a short speech.
The speech video is posted below, but here is the Chip Six in text:
Just Show Up
This is the most important advice I’ve ever given to student journalists. It’s the foundation of all the other advice I given. Showing up is the basics of learning how to become a successful journalist. You have to show up to class, at least to get a passing grade. Everything else is a choice. Do you show up for a 4pm special guest speaker visiting your school? Do you show up to produce student media? Will you show up on a weekend or an evening, when you’re tired or when your friends want to go out and have fun, to cover a potential story? When you show up to practice doing the job you want to do, you’re showing up for your team, but most important, you’re showing up for yourself.
Move Your Feet
“News never happens in the newsroom, goes an old phrase. The author is unknown, but my suspicion is this was first said by an exasperated editor or news director, whose staff just presented a bunch of uninspiring story pitches on a day in which there’s no breaking news to fill the void.
Journalism is an act of doing. The most important acts occur with your friend. You can learn a lot about a topic from a search engine, from social media, from phone calls or Zooms, and from AI. You can also learn of lot of inaccurate stuff from these powerful sources. But the best way to get an impactful story is to get to the story yourself. See what happened for yourself, then interview people who saw it happen for themselves.
Get the Reps
As I said above, journalism is an act of doing. Each time you write a story for print or digital or tell it for TV, that’s a rep. You might get only 3 reps in your classes or 5 more reps if you volunteer some for on-campus student media. That’s not enough. There’s no magic number for reps, but each one you do will help you see your own skills improvement from your previous work. Even if there’s magic no number, here's a guideline: ten reps is better than five; 25 reps is better than ten; 50 reps is better than 25. In my experience, anyone who has gotten more than 25 reps of anything they produce, along with feedback for each rep, has a good shot of competing for an entry-level job.
Things Change Fast
If you’re just starting out in anything - a new youth sports team or dance group, or a new career - you feel like an outsider. You fear you’ll always be last in line, and you’ll never move up. That’s never the case. I remember in my first local TV job - in Austin in 1987 - I felt like everyone else had been there forever (they hadn’t) and that everyone else would stay forever (they didn’t). People are always on the move. Businesses change. Teams change. Change is constant. If you find a place to “move in”, I guarantee the “move up” will come sooner than you think. Do your best job to make a great first impression, and your opportunities for growth will come.
Expect the Best
This goes along with #4. Have faith in what you do, and have faith in others. Expect the best from your day ahead. Expect the best from the people you meet in the world. Expect the best from people you need to help you move in or move up - that reference on your resume, for sure, but even the hiring manager who will make the decision to hire you or someone else. Most people are helpful. Most people are kind. Most people will give you feedback or a connection. But remember, most people are BUSY. Be patient with your requests. Give people time.
I use the words “pleasantly persistent” as a means to guide your actions in reaching out to people. If you send an email to connect with someone new, and you’re asking a favor of that new connection, give that other person a week or two to respond. If, after a bit of time has passed, you’ve not gotten a response, write back with a pleasant note that begins with “I know you must be terribly busy, but when you have a free moment, would you please <review/connect/reply> ….. ? It would help me greatly.” Be persistent, absolutely, but be super pleasant at the same time.
Help Others Up
Karma’s real. What you get for yourself, give it back to others coming behind you. It makes you feel better. It gets you better connected in your network. It can even get you new connections that can one day help you get connected to a job. Serve others, even as you work to advance yourself. The earlier you see serving as an opportunity, the sooner you can realize the benefits for yourself. The longer you do this, the more the good karma comes back to you.
THAT’S the Pick Six, as I originally wrote it down on April 10 in Denton. I’ll talk more about some of these as I work on this site.
Now, here’s the original Chip Six video, and thank you to UNT journalism professor Dorothy Bland for expert handheld recording of my short speech. Thank you to Dean James Mueller, assistant Mandy Outlaw, and faculty friends Brittany McElroy and Steven Ackermann for their support in bringing me back to campus to receive this award. I love visiting UNT and the students who work so hard there to put themselves into positions for exciting careers.