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The one thing that stuck out from all of my reading was this:

“Most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us…have jobs that are too small for our spirit.” When a dream is truly great, it benefits everyone. Your job is to help people see what those benefits are…People see before and after pictures, and they want the ‘after.’ But if you live your dream, practice integrity, and achieve a degree of success, people will see what the dream has done for you and that will make them want it too…When that happens, your dream becomes bigger than you or your team.”

Our callings are much bigger than we think. It’s our job to make others see how high our dreams place on the scale.

By: Naiquan Greene

BNW: Oh that’s great, seems pretty seamless.

MG:  Well, not quite. I ended up not getting a job for another 9 months so I stayed in advertising for a total of 15 months.

BNW: When you made the switch to TV, did you end up at Ha! or somewhere else?

MG: I did end up at Ha!, they actually had originally called me for a research job at Nickelodeon which I didn’t get, but I was so intrigued by the prospect of working in television that I kept in touch with them and when the next job opened up, which was at Ha!, they hired me.

BNW:  So how do you go from working in research at Ha! to now being the president of Comedy Central?  That seems like a big jump!

MG:  Well I mean it’s been 20 years!  I worked in research for the first 10 years of my career, I worked at Ha! and Comedy Central then got a job at MTV for 4 years where I worked my way up to Vice President of Research.  So in the first 10 years of my career I worked at a research company, an ad agency, and two different television networks.  I worked myself up to a pretty high level and research is a great way for you to get to know a lot of different people in the company and a lot of different aspects of the business.

BNW: So once you are at the VP level, how do you determine what’s next?

MG:  From there it was about working with people that were mentors to me and understanding how I could grow in the business. In 1996 when Doug Herzog, who is a mentor of mine, and Aileen Katz who is a friend and was a colleague of mine over at MTV, went to Comedy Central, they gave me an opportunity to move from Research into Programming. They had worked with me closely enough to know what my skill set was and thought I could handle it. That was a big move 10 years into my career. It wasn’t like I was 25 and doing that, I was 32!

BNW: We talk about networking a lot on the site, how do you think networking has played into your career path thus far?

MG:  Networking is important. It’s about building relationships with people and letting them see what your capabilities are, how smart you are and how much of a hard worker you are. Whether it’s doing an internship and keeping in touch with the person you worked for, or with the other interns in your group who might be in the position to tell you about a job or just doing information interviews for when a job comes up. You have to build strong relationships.

BNW:  20 years into your career, what do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started working?

MG:  That one of the most important factors in looking for a job is liking the people you are going to work for and work with. That can’t be underestimated. That potentially, you could be happy doing anything if you are working with the right people.

BNW: Looking back now, what was the best part of being in your early 20’s?

MG:  I loved making a paycheck and being able to pay my bills and being able to make all those choices for myself. It was hard, because it was the first time that I was living without financial assistance from my parents or otherwise, but I loved the independence of it.

BNW:  What is the best part of where you are today, 20 years after college?

MG: I love being part of a family both in my real family, and being part of a family at work with people who I have built relationships with over 15 and 20 years who are almost as much of a family to me as my real family. I love being able to run a network and being able to nurture other people and help guide them along, the same way I do with my kids. I still have my independence, but I am part of a larger unit because I have a family.

BNW: In your opinion are you currently living your dream, although you are not in advertising because you let that dream go?

MG:  I don’t think that was a dream of mine, I just thought that it was something that would be fun. I think there are a lot of kids who are in college or who just graduated who are just like me, in that I didn’t have a dream. I didn’t look out in front of me, and said wow I would be so happy if I could do X, that is my dream. I didn’t have a dream. I didn’t really know what career path to take, what would be fun what would be interesting, there was a moment where I was 6 months into advertising where I thought this is not what I thought it would be.

BNW:  Did it not make you nervous that you didn’t have a dream that you were working towards?

MG: No, I had a job, which I knew would take me to another job, it didn’t make me nervous, because if you only have one specific thing that you are working towards and you never get there, that could be crushing. But to know that if you do a good job and you enjoy what you are doing, your future will eventually get mapped out for you. You and I talked about this before, but nobody should look too far ahead of themselves, because then you are not really focusing on and enjoying where you are right now.

BNW:  If there is a kid who says dog gone it, I want to be the president of a network one day, what are some things they could be doing right now to prepare?

MG: They should be doing internships, they should be following the business, but they should also be doing a good job at whatever it is that they are doing now.  Whether they’re in school right now or at a job, they should be doing the best job they can, because that will help with their next step. They will get recommendations from that, they will meet other people through that and will build relationships through that.

If you missed part I of the interview you can catch up on it: HERE

I think I already mentioned that I absolutely love Valentine’s Day! I had no plans for today besides work, but still woke up really happy and smiley. I was even EARLY for work today (go me). I am going to spend my day working and then seeing a movie called War Horse with a friend. In honor of Valentine’s Day I thought I would share one of my favorite Valentines Day Songs!

But Now What: When you first graduated from college what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?

Michele Ganeless: I thought I wanted to be in advertising coming out of college. I had a liberal arts degree, I had no real experience, but it seemed like it would be a fun place to work.

BNW: Was your first job out of college in advertising?

MG: No, I didn’t get a job in advertising.  My first was in market research, which I was told could lead me into advertising.

BNW: For those who don’t know, what is market research?

MG: Market Research is understanding consumer behavior through questionnaires,  focus groups and analyzing data about shopping habits and intent to buy. The firm I worked for did a lot of work with Consumer Products.

BNW: Was your first job out of school what you expected it to be?

MG: You know, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never even heard of Market Research before, but they posted a job on campus, and so I interviewed for it and it was the only job offer I got, so I took it.

BNW:  I am sure a lot of our readers can relate to that! How long did you end up staying in that position?

MG: I ended up working there for 2 years.

BNW: That seems like a long time, what made you decide to move on?

MG: Well, I was working in Chicago where I had gone to college and I wanted to move back to New York where I was from. I liked what I was doing and I thought it was interesting, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever.

BNW: Did you know what you wanted to do once you got back to New York?

MG:  At that point, I still wanted to get into advertising, but my leaving there was driven by a move back to New York. I did end up getting a job in advertising in research at an advertising agency.

BNW: Oh my, that’s the big time, now you’re living the dream, right?

MG: Well that’s what I thought, but  6 months in, I was very disillusioned because, the experience and the environment wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. Maybe it was just that one job, but it was just different.

BNW: So now what?

MG: You know that job was one of dozens of resumes I sent out. My boss in Chicago had given me a copy of the American Marketing Association directory for New York and anybody who had research in their title I sent them a resume. One of the other resumes that I sent out, somebody at MTV Networks had held on to and that’s how I got my first job in television. They needed somebody to do research at a channel called “Ha!” which was the precursor to Comedy Central.

BNW: Did you have mentors along the way when you helped you make the transition from job to job?

MG: Once in TV I had mentors, but making those first series of moves I wouldn’t say that I had anybody who mentored me. The people I worked for in Chicago were very helpful in terms of my move to new York and helping me find a couple of head hunters and helping me find people to write to in New York, but then once I was back in New York it happened pretty quickly because MTV Network called me like 6 months after I had been at my advertising job.

Check back tomorrow to find out what happened once Michele got the call from MTV!

The Band:

Killing it on the Keys:

Sweat Band Swag:

Sweet Costume:

Yacht Rock: PYT cover