We recently connected with Karl Nelson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Karl thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

It was 2015. I was living at home in Baltimore with my family. This was about two years after I had graduated from college, and I was full of ambition. I knew that journalism was my second love, next to basketball, and I was determined to continue pursuing my career as a journalist and media professional. Nothing was going to get in my way.

I was working at my alma mater The Park School of Baltimore, Wide Angle Youth Media, WBAL-TV, and growing my interview series, all at the same time. I was working hard and spreading myself thin. But I knew that I would eventually have to take a major leap of faith in order to pursue my passion and niche for storytelling on a much larger scale with hopes of truly finding my identity in this creative space.

Let’s fast forward to the summer of 2015. I was at a crossroads. I could either stay in my hometown where I was comfortable and potentially accept a new position as a Technical Writer at Lockheed Martin, or I could take perhaps the biggest risk of my life and move to New York City to pursue opportunities in the biggest media hub on the planet. So, that’s what I did.

With a spirit full of entrepreneurship, purpose and ambition, I took that leap. I moved to NYC in October 2015 and never looked back. Those first 10 months were rough, but what I’ll never forget is how I approached each one of those days. I kept a great attitude, remained optimistic in my pursuit, shared my story with those I encountered, and spoke to God every day.

My faith did not waver, and by August 2016 I experienced my first breakthrough in NY. I took an opportunity as a Digital Reporter for a news company based in Manhattan. I learned a lot about myself during that period. I was writing 6-8 stories a day in a fast-paced newsroom environment, and that’s also where I had my TV debut reporting on some of the biggest topics I wrote about.

To make a long story short, taking that risk back in 2015 and uprooting my life and career to move to the Big Apple was the greatest decision I could have made. New York is where I learned about who I did and did not want to be as a creative. It’s where my relationships in the media space grew. It’s where my Intern Media interview series blossomed into an LLC. It’s where I created long lasting media projects under the umbrella of my company. It’s where my passion for people and storytelling was able to thrive, ultimately bringing me to where I am today as a journalist and professional.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My passion for journalism developed when I was in high school writing for my school’s Postscript. My writing really started to take off between my sophomore and junior year. By that time, there was no doubt in my mind that I would study journalism in college.

In fact, I remember when I was working a summer job on my college campus back in August 2012. I was sitting there thinking about my future because I was entering into my senior year of college. Well, that’s when I came up with the idea that I wanted to create a platform that would enable me to exercise my skills, interests, and passions from a journalistic standpoint. So, I created a platform called Intern Media, the same name I gave my LLC in 2019.

By October 2014, my older cousin Lori Nelson Lee, who also works in the media space, reached out to me about covering her husband Tracey Lee’s album release party. She saw that I was creating journalistic content and pursuing a career in that field, so she thought it would be the perfect marriage. She was right. The weekend of Howard University’s Homecoming, I covered two events that were hosted by Lori and Tracey in Washington, DC. While covering those events, I had the opportunity to interview Tracey Lee (Billboard Top 100 artist), Young Guru (Grammy Award-Winning Record Producer), DJ Blinks (Decades of DJ experience), and DJ Shakim (Internationally Renowned DJ).

That’s when it clicked for me. At that very moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in the media space. I wanted to get people’s stories out there, and not just the successful part of their stories. As a journalist, I wanted to be able to pull the curtain back and reveal the adversity, success, setbacks, and comebacks of a person’s life and career journey.

Fast forward to 2019, I turned my interview series into an actual company — a digital media company that would produce media projects, provide media services to clients, and create community outreach initiatives.

Well, we’re now entering into 2023, and I’m hosting the ‘Journey’ series, which I released to the public in 2020 as a revamped version of my interview series. Since 2018, I’ve published three documentaries that highlight the lives and careers of two prominent figures in my hometown of Baltimore. My father and I are releasing our Like Father Like Son Podcast, which is a spin-off of the online show we created during the pandemic. My company is providing social media, production, branding and other services to several clients. We’re also gearing up for more opportunities to give back to the community, which was sparked by Thanksgiving and Christmas community initiatives that I created back in 2017.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic was a ‘Pivot’ period for many of us. In my case, I had to postpone the release of my third documentary and my new interview series due to the pandemic.

That was tough because of how important my work is to me, the amount of time and money that goes into it, and the people’s stories that are featured in my work. However, I believe in being solution based, not problem based. So, my team and I, just like many others, had to pivot.

As we continued post production for the interview series and documentary series, I created a limited series, At Home w/ Intern Media, in order to have live video conversations with entrepreneurs, influencers, and creatives to see how they were each pivoting during those unprecedented times.

Inspired by The Last Dance Documentary, which came out in April 2020, my pops and I decided to create an online show, Like Father Like Son, in order to engage with a community of people about Michael Jordan and those championship Chicago Bulls teams. We didn’t know if it would turn into a permanent situation, at the time, but it did.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Back when I first moved to New York in October 2015 to pursue opportunities in the media industry, I hadn’t planned it all the way out yet. I didn’t have a full-time job waiting for me. I didn’t know exactly what my living situation was going to be. I really uprooted my life and career in Baltimore and followed my heart by choice. I knew that was the best time for me to take that type of quantum leap because I wasn’t married and didn’t have any children. So, in my mind, it was either now or never.

Thank God for people like my wife Aubree, who was my girlfriend at the time, and for people like my cousins Alicia and Darrin, who I was subletting with at the time. Individuals like them and my close family back at home as well as close friends in NY helped make it more possible for me to take that leap, becoming a small fish in a very big pond.

I thank God for giving me the strength and resilience to push through the challenges of those first 10 months of me being in NY. When I got that call in August 2016 that I had landed a full-time job as a Digital Reporter for a news company in Manhattan, I still remember the feeling like it was yesterday. I called my wife, and then I called my parents and siblings. I remember the raw emotions that I let out on those phone calls. In that moment, it was like God was telling me that the leap of faith I took in October 2015 was well worth the discomfort, stress, uncertainty and the wait.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karlnelsonmedia/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-nelson-ii-00929956/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsFTqlq8dlRCV4RrJreQXzg
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/kpnelson2/?next=%2F https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHv30H2QMmts7pc87IFThbw https://www.tiktok.com/@theirjourneys?_t=8YcTWr0Frzi&_r=1 https://www.tiktok.com/@likefatherlikesonshow?_t=8YcUuLPwzGw&_r=1