Executive Interviews

In 2007 and 2008 I interviewed several top executives in the eLearning industry for a publication called Evoke News. The approach integrated industry talk with personal conversation to let the audience become more familiar with the person wearing the suit. A selection of favorite interviews is reserved here for posterity.

The interviews provide rare glimpses into these top executive’s lives, examining their hobbies, what they do while on vacation and what motivates them to excel. I’ve been told that people who worked closely with my subjects learned more about them from the interview they had on their own in years!

I began with the top CEO’s in the industry, Frank Russell of GeoLearning and Jim Riley of Learn.com. It was an amazing opportunity to connect with high-level overachievers and enjoy a practical, unpretentious chat.

The biographical approach presented a great public relations opportunity and no one seemed to understand this better than John Ambrose of Skillsoft. With a background in mass communications himself, John’s responses to some of my inquiries were brilliant.

I was very excited to interview Lee Pryor of Flying Fish Creative Services after having read his book The Savvy Entrepreneur. Lee later consulted with me to create a new name for his company and I came up with Portico Learning Solutions. Using the improved brand Lee has been leading the company to new horizons.

My favorite interview is perhaps with Jeremy Tillman of TrainUp.com. Jeremy has tremendous energy and a wonderful sense of humor. I found his family commitment especially inspiring. For more information or to LISTEN to these interviews CLICK HERE. You can also use the player below.

Special thanks to LIZ ANAH for the music.

Volunteering

Maybe it’s cliché but I get a lot of satisfaction from helping others, particularly doing what I can to develop high school and college students. I do not pretend to be the smartest guy in the room but I do have a few skills I can try to pass along to the next generation.

When returning to school for more journalism training I really enjoyed sharing some of my life experience with my younger classmates. I would prod them to expand beyond their current capabilities and encourage them to get comfortable outside of their shell, whether it meant finding that unique camera angle or approaching complete strangers for an interview. Maybe my young protégés didn’t entirely realize what was happening, but I learned that I really enjoy working with bright young minds.

So I started tutoring English as second language students to develop their writing skills and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It’s an incredible opportunity to show motivated pupils how to organize their thoughts and see what they produce! I learn from them as much as I hope to be teaching.

A school teacher recently approached me to judge this year’s DECA competition in Santa Clara, and I jumped at the opportunity. (Check out http://www.deca.org/ and http://www.californiadeca.org/index.asp?page=9005 for info.) It was a ton of fun and frankly quite inspirational. The kids are alright, so to speak.

The experience reminded me of my last judging opportunity for the Brandon Hall Awards. That was cool! E-learning is a cutting-edge field that demands respect, both from the scholastic and corporate training fronts, and it was amazing to see the various ways companies exploit the intersection of technology and education to train their employees.

Obama, Schwarzenegger Agree on Health Care

Check out this great letter from Barack Obama, who praises chiropractors and promises to include chiropractic care in America's new health care plan. Also, be sure to read this amazing article about how strongly Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses chiropractic!

I made this video from a recent interview with Dr. Karri Cardinal of Cardinal Chiropractic in San Francisco, who answers the question "Why do you think that Barack Obama and even Arnold Schwarzenegger view Chiropractic treatment to be an important part of their health care system?"


Obama, Schwarzenegger Agree on Health Care from Karri Cardinal on Vimeo.

Visit www.drcardinal.com to find this and more cool stuff about chiropractic and health care. While there be sure to register for the newsletter, and every two weeks you will receive a customized health bulletin to address your personal health interests.

Brief Professional History

When I was about 10 years old I got my first camera, and I have been recording my experiences ever since. In high school I took photography and journalism classes, and wrote short stories for school creative publications.

Eager to embrace the more technical side of my personality, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve through the delayed-entry program on the second day of my senior year. They taught me to repair communications equipment and with that knowledge I got a job fixing photocopiers. But my creative side could not be contained, and within a few years I made a deep dive into professional photography.

During the day I would take medium-format portraits of families, babies, and business people. At night I supplemented that experience with college courses, and on the weekends I shot weddings and special events. Before long I found myself in Hollywood, doing public relations photographic services for clients like Disney, Magic Mountain, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and Universal Studios, among others.

Sometimes it was necessary to make ends meet between jobs, so I would work in a variety of part-time sales positions. I’ve done just about every kind of sales you could imagine, from door-to-door to telemarketing. Scarcely can I remember a time when I wasn’t working multiple jobs while simultaneously attending school.

All of this experience gave me the confidence to take on my first marketing account, and in the midst of the dot-com collapse I led a small-business startup with zero capital to a six-figure generator in its first year. A major part of my marketing package was a monthly newsletter I wrote and distributed, and once I started writing professionally I found it hard to stop. I went back to school and became the News Editor for the student paper, and President of the Journalism Club.

These experiences led to more work in marketing and public relations, where for the last several years I have been servicing accounts like Hewlett Packard, General Physics, SimuLearn and GeoMetrix Data Systems. Meanwhile, I had been shooting professional video of weddings, concerts, and sporting events for nearly a decade. As Web 2.0 developed, my interests coalesced into this innovative concept of video journalism.

New technologies allow a single professional like myself to capture quality video from anywhere at any time, edit it into a professional package, and disperse the footage via the internet to reach an audience faster than ever before. One person can now create a quality product to have a significant impact at a relatively low cost. My particular talent is an ability to adapt and interact within any environment and attain the best footage possible, then assemble it into a compelling narrative that captures and holds audience attention.

I have recently partnered with SonicVison to offer clients more options and superior quality. Additionally armed with a network of internet and video production professionals I am producing better work than ever before.

My past work has won many awards and been referenced by entities like the Project on Government Oversight and the Strategies for Ecology Education, Development, and Sustainability. I’ve helped companies large and small manage marketing and direct sales campaigns. It would be my pleasure to speak with you about your video, marketing and public relations needs. Just CLICK HERE to get in touch!

Photo by Joseph Amster

Jason, an actor?

Yes, it’s true. I recently did a bit of acting for a few Hewlett Packard training videos. Those who know me understand how I am far more comfortable behind a camera than in front of one. However, once I loosened up and got into my roles I realized that this wasn’t only something I could do, but something I really enjoyed!

It began with my background as a journalist. I met an HP project manager who thought I could play an interviewer on-camera. He was right. Immediately following my first screen test I was given a job. (If you want a good laugh, you can see that test here: http://hpbroadband.com/program.aspx?key=hprenewprogram2.)

I was so nervous during that first shoot I couldn’t feel my face, except for my right eye which seemed to twitch uncontrollably every time I tried to force a smile! But after doing a few skits I started to really get into it. In addition to an interviewer I got to play a lost hiker, a reverse-pickpocket victim (a la the Burger King commercial), and the Village People Indian. (Yuck! Nothing against Native Americans, but I had to sing and dance to YMCA – far from cool.) Maybe one of these days I will locate those links to show you.

Or maybe not.

Journalism Honors and Accolades

I want to start this post with a thought from the recent Presidential election. Though I disagreed with most of McCain’s message he had one otherwise overlooked idea that resonated with me.

McCain emphasized the importance of our community college system for continuing adult education. Since becoming a father at a young age I have attended many community college courses throughout the years, often to practice trade skills and enhance my career interests.

From photography to videography to journalism, there has always been a community college nearby with class hours convenient for a working adult and I am eternally grateful. By way of honoring my most recent Mass Communications instructors, below are a few of the awards I won while participating in their classes:

2008 JACC Broadcast Video Journalism – 2 Meritorious Awards: I submitted two video entries and won for each! My work while piloting the Video Journalism Class also helped the Express to win the General Excellence Award for both the paper and online version for the first time ever. This article mentions those 2 awards and other examples of excellent work by Las Positas College Students.

2008 LPC Express, Online Section Excellence, Video Journalism – Certificate of Recognition: How cool is this – Las Positas allowed me to finish the Video Journalism course for the first semester it was ever offered at the college, though I was the only student participating in the class! Many thanks to class instructor Jin Tsubota for his effort to instruct a new class with only one student.

2007 Walter Hecox Award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism: As News Editor for the Express in the fall of 2006 I wrote several investigative pieces, including a series on safety at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in it’s effort to attain new plutonium for nuclear experimentation, and a debate about parking on campus. I was honored to win this scholarship in the spring of 2007.

2007 JACC Opinion Story – Honorable Mention: I honestly don’t remember which article I submitted, whether it was the romp against Bill O’Reilly’s imaginary War on Christmas or the more serious piece against construction of new nuclear weapons. I do remember having enjoyed taking a stance on issues and conducting a lot of research to support the perspectives when writing most of the editorials for the paper that semester.

2006 JACC On-the-Spot News Writing – 3rd place: Maybe I would have placed higher if I had taken more time at the end of the contest to check my spelling? I don’t know but 3rd place out of about 30 contestants isn’t too shabby!

2006 LPC Express, Excellent Written Contribution – Certificates of Recognition: I was awarded the in-class honor twice that semester (on Sep. 1 and Oct. 27) for excellent written contribution to the paper.

"Iraq for Sale" and "When I Came Home"

(L-R) Will Thompson, Cynthia Ross, Dr. Teri Bengiveno, Jason Barr, and Nick Delatorre bring expertise to discussion of the documentary film "Iraq for Sale."

Photo by Alton Richardson

As President of the Journalism Club in the 2006 fall semester at Las Positas College I organized several activities, including a tour of the San Francisco Chronicle and award-winning activities on the campus. My favorite events were the documentary film screenings of Iraq for Sale, which takes a hard look at the use of contractors to facilitate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and When I Came Home, the portrayal of an Iraq War veteran struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and homelessness.

Having served in the U.S. Army Reserves after high school I feel a particular sense of duty toward our soldiers and veterans, which perhaps explains why these events were so important to me. I invested quite a bit of effort putting it all together, from contacting the filmmakers for promotional material, to securing the facilities and refreshments, to participating in an expert panel discussion immediately following the screenings.

For Iraq for Sale I invited participation of several companies mentioned in the film (Blackwater, Bechtel, CACI, etc.) and I read aloud statements of those who responded. I also represented the media perspective throughout the discussion. The panel included Dr. Teri Bengevino, a history professor, Cynthia Ross, a psychologist, Nick Delatorre, an Iraq war veteran, and my friend Will Thompson, who armed with his laptop found online answers to tough questions in real time.

This video features comments of faculty and students who came to the event:


Iraq for Sale - Screening Review from Jason Barr on Vimeo.

The event turned out so well we decided to do it again - this time we would use microphones for the panel experts to better capture audio for the video recording.

We held the When I Came Home screening on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War, and the discussion panel included Denver Mills of the Concord Veterans Administration, Political Science professor Paul Torres, Todd Stephan, a Veterans Education Benefits Specialist on campus, student and Army veteran Sarah Katz, and Dale Gunder, a homeless Vietnam veteran.

To see clips of the panel discussions, please CLICK HERE.

Many thanks to Melissa Korber, the director of the Las Positas College Mass Communications department, and to all the students of the Journalism Club.