Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brooks Warren. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Brooks thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I were starting over today, I would’ve been more bold in networking and pitching stories to different editors instead of just amassing all the clips I could. I also would’ve been more intentional with the internships I had. The lessons I learned working for the PG Sentinel have helped me so much but I wish I had pursued more while I was a student.

Brooks, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

1. I got into the sports media industry just by blogging about the Washington Wizards and writing general NBA content. Eventually, Kyle McFadden, my first editor, reached out to me about covering HS sports in the DMV area for his website, Maryland Sports Access. I did that for a year and some change covering HS and college sports, specifically basketball. When I left and branched out on my own, I covered more HS basketball for my blogsite, The Hop Media, and had the most fun of my life just going out to different games and meeting different athletes and coaches for the love of the game. I eventually got my first paid gig when I started interning for the PG/Montgomery Sentinel where I learned some valuable lessons about newspaper writing and the business of newspapers. I also covered women’s sports at the independently owned Towerlight which covers everything Towson University. After II graduated, I got my first “big boy job’ working as a digital news editor for SLAM Magazine, covering daily NBA news and writing features as well.

2. I think my ability to ease people and help disarm them during interviews sets me apart from other journalists. I care more about setting the record straight and telling the story through their eyes instead of depicting a certain narrative. I believe my heart and soul can be seen in any story I write.

3. I’m most proud of just persevering through long stints of job hunting, not giving up when I was told no, taking a gamble on myself with stories I wasn’t completely comfortable telling. As far as stories, I’m proud of the story I wrote about Taleah Dixon and her fight for social justice in 2020. I’m also proud of the first story I ever wrote for SLAM covering Melanie Page and her women’s basketball doc, Can’t Retire From This. The main thing I want your audience and any supporters to know about myself is that I care about the process and make sure that everything is conveyed correctly. That I care about an athlete’s story and telling it the right way just as much as anybody else is. I didn’t get into sports media for glory and fame, I just love sports and telling stories and interviewing people from all walks of life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is just doing the work and being trusted to tell something fun and compelling. We live in a world where athletes, artists, creators can create their own platform and have people ghost write them, But I think having a writer/journalist interview and challenge subjected about their answers or other motives is what helps get the full story out of anything. You won’t get the full answer sometimes coming from just one party; you gotta get everything.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

My advice for managing a team is to be transparent and over-communicate at times. Don’t worry about confrontation with another creative on your team because everyone on the team has an ego and vision of what they want their content to look like. At the end of the day, the vision only works when the business and creator work together and allow things to be changed, and it comes out the way it needs to be done. Just make sure you allow your team to have fun still and be passionate about the projects they work on, to many no’s, and corrections will take the fun and passion out of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookksiee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooks-warren/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Broookksss

Image Credits
Alvin Chatman for the second pic.