We asked some very talented folks to tell us about the most innovative thing they’ve done in their career.

Vittoria Woodill

While working as a traffic reporter at CBS Philadelphia, I was eager to introduce something new and exciting to local news. My passion for lifestyle content had been clear for a while—my blog Polished for Pennies had gained national attention and evolved into a fashion and lifestyle web series sold to Scripps Network, which owned Food Network and HGTV at the time. So, when I joined CBS3, I was determined to bring cable-quality content that aligned with my passions and was genuinely fun to watch. Who doesn’t want to have fun at work? Read more>>

Lesley Pinckney

While serving as the GM of Essence.com (2007-2011), it was clear that despite a growing interest in brands supporting Black-owned media companies like Essence, it wasn’t matched with spending. Often, a lack of culturally relevant assets prevented media buys. Despite the church and state editorial process at Time Inc., I secured an exception to allow our editorial video team to create branded content. We built paid content franchises with some of our biggest clients several months before any other publishers like the NYT, Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst, even began their studios. Read more>>

Nicole Johnny

Maybe not innovative in the belief but rather in practice, but something that has always grounded me in my decisions on whether to proceed has been asking myself “Would I regret not trying?” If I had the feeling that I would regret something, then it meant that I should either strongly consider doing it or take action and do it. One of those instances was Native pageantry, I didn’t grow up competing in pageantry to be a cultural ambassador. Rather, I was always a spectator but one year, I decided to try pageantry and did I win? Not exactly, but I took the lessons I learned from the first attempt and tried again and this time won. But how does that tie into my career? Read more>>