Behind the Mic With Host Christine Dobbyn '20

Christine Dobbyn:

Today on Owl Have You Know.

Christine Dobbyn:

I started talking about wanting to be a reporter when I was about 10 years old. I joke that I was always the kid in class that got the minus, who knows when to talk and when to keep quiet, so that's a good start.

Christine Dobbyn:

I have a perspective on the world that not everybody has because of the very good things that happen to people in their lives and the very bad things that have happened. I feel like now it's made me an incredibly empathetic person, no matter where my work takes me.

Scott Gale:

All right, I'm here with Christine Dobbyn, co-host of the Owl Have You Know podcast. I'm Scott Gale, I sit on the Rice Business Alumni Association Board, and thrilled to be here hosting kind of a behind the mic episode, taking over this episode and flipping the script on Christine, giving her an opportunity to come in and share a bit more about herself. Christine, welcome-

Christine Dobbyn:

Thank you.

Scott Gale:

... to your own show. Thanks for having me and giving me the opportunity to flip the script here. So we just want to just jump in, and I'd love to understand a bit more about kind of what are the some of the things that you're working on and spending your time on today, to kind of what does a day in the life look like for Christine today?

Christine Dobbyn:

Well, right now it depends on the day I guess, there's really no typical day. I've shared my story with a lot of people, but I came to Rice Business as a career pivoter, and I had about a 20-year television journalism career. And since then have moved into more of the business side of storytelling is what I like to call it, so working with various clients and helping them tell their story. And it's been a bit of a wild ride, I've really just tried to open the door to opportunities that came to me and have found myself working with various industries, have clients in aerospace, energy, medicine, education, real estate, and have also worked in a variety of capacities, it's all communications related and storytelling related. So it has been quite a journey.

Christine Dobbyn:

And I've said, I've been doing this full-time for about a year and a half. And given my experiences, I feel like I've learned 10 years of information because there's been so much coming at me. But it's been a wonderful experience and allowed me to see maybe what are my biggest strengths, what are my biggest challenges, where do I have areas to grow and learn, and what I just flat out love to do, and maybe some things I don't enjoy as much and either want to move away from that, or perhaps delegate that to someone else to do.

Scott Gale:

Do you feel like there's kind of a step-change in terms of kind of coming out of the pandemic a little bit in terms of just the mentality of the organizations that you're interfacing with and some of their underpinning rationale and reasons for why they're communicating and how they're communicating?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. I think that the pandemic taught us the importance of communication, whether that's external or internal. Every company had to relay their message of... They were affected in some way, whatever their product or service is externally, and they had to convey that to their customers. And then internally, a lot of employees had so many questions about what they were doing to protect them. Now, you're dealing with hybrid work environments, and are they going back to the office, are they not? And so I believe that the role of communications was magnified in many ways by the pandemic, and people maybe have a better understanding of the importance of it.

Scott Gale:

Very cool. So it kind of feels a little bit kind of right place, right time.

Christine Dobbyn:

Yes, definitely.

Scott Gale:

That's awesome. I'd love to kind of understand, I mean, you mentioned kind of a career heading into your Rice Business experience in broadcast journalism. Can you take us back a little bit to sort of... I call it sort of like a spark moment. When did you know that you wanted to go into broadcast journalism?

And can you tell us a little bit of kind of that origin story?

Christine Dobbyn:

I don't remember an exact moment or event in my life, and at times, I've even wondered why did I want to pursue it because I didn't know no one in my family, friends who was really any kind of journalist. My grandmother had a love for writing, and they were the World War II greatest generation. And they didn't get the opportunities that maybe they could have had if it weren't for the war, but she always talked about how she would've been a journalist if she could have done that, but she wrote poetry and wrote different things. So, I think some of my love for that, I inherited from her.

Christine Dobbyn:

I started talking about wanting to be a reporter when I was about 10 years old, and I don't know why. I joke that I was always the kid in class that got the minus who knows when to talk and when to keep quiet, so that's a good start. But it really is sort of this package of a lot of things that I enjoy, history, politics, current events, meeting people, I have a huge curiosity about every topic you can imagine. And so you roll all of that in, and I also like storytelling, and so that's how you kind of gather it all and get to that point.

Christine Dobbyn:

In high school and college, I had a lot of those roles, newspaper editor, yearbook editor, any kind of communications type role where I was the one that gathered the information and got to tell the story or

share the news, that was always an opportunity that I was looking for. So, went ahead and pursued that in college, and then ended up throughout my career working at three different stations.

Christine Dobbyn:

I think I have a perspective on the world that not everybody has because of the very good things that happen to people in their lives and the very bad things that have happened to people in the darkest day of their life. And I appreciate those opportunities because I feel like now it's made me an incredibly empathetic person, no matter where my work takes me.

Scott Gale:

Just such a exciting background and experience, I think that... One of the kind of questions that I have is, I would sort of argue that kind of the average person doesn't maybe appreciate sort of the front-end work that goes into good storytelling, you sort of know it when you see it kind of thing. So my question is sort of around kind of the process and maybe kind of double click into kind of what does it take in your view and in your experience to kind of pull together a good story? What are some of the components of that? And when do you know that's working, and when do you know that it's maybe not working and kind of time to put it in the discard pile and move on?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. And I think that's one of the biggest things people are maybe surprised about when they hear what it's like to be a reporter, and this could be a print reporter, a television reporter, a variety of ways. I think people think that we sit around and get our hair and makeup done, and then someone hands us a script at five o'clock. And I would say, I tell young students in college when they ask about the profession, I say, "You have to really want it in order to put the work in." I mean, the salaries are not great and they're not getting any better. It's long hours, it's holidays, nights, weekends, you really have to be all in and really want to do it in order to pursue it.

Christine Dobbyn:

Over the course of my career, the workload did increase with... When I came on, social media did not exist, so we had social media, more web expectations. So, you're really sort of a print TV journalist, and then you're also feeding the beast to post things to social media. But the way our day would start was usually with an editorial meeting, there were two a day, so depending on your shift, where everyone would talk about what's going on today. Sometimes those are scheduled events, sometimes breaking news, what are current topics out there that are trending? And you were expected to bring usually three story ideas to the meeting and make your pitches. And those pitches could come in a variety of ways, keeping contacts and sources, and staying in touch with them, whether it's police, an attorney you know, someone at the state House, bringing those ideas.

Christine Dobbyn:

Sometimes I would get an idea just driving down the street and I would see something interesting, so my eyes were always open. Any kind of a social event I was at, I was listening what's the conversation, what are people talking about, what's important in their lives. And then it's really, you hit the ground running. You have maybe three to four hours to turn the story, you're working the phones, you're trying to set up interviews, you're gleaning anything you can from the internet, any kind of information you can get. And then you're really driving all over the city trying to gather your interviews and shoot video and get the pictures that are going to match your story.

Scott Gale:

And you kind of mentioned this blend of skill and luck. I mean, you've been recognized at some of the highest levels for some of the stories that you've told. Could you share maybe a specific example of sort of where those things kind of came together and maybe one that you felt like was the story and like didn't really hit or one that was maybe unexpectedly kind of took a life of its own?

Christine Dobbyn:

About a little more than a decade ago, I had been in Houston a few years and I have had a bit of a fascination always with the Cold War, Germany, the Berlin Wall. I'm not sure why, I just am really fascinated by that story. And living in Houston, you're exposed to the connections with the Bushes and James Baker and their role in the Cold War, and the end of the Cold War. And I always liked to dive into longer-form storytelling. I mean, your typical news story is maybe a minute and 30 seconds. I really like a 30-minute show, and that's really rare to get to do in local news.

Christine Dobbyn:

And I had this idea of putting together some kind of anniversary show for the Berlin Wall. And so I had this idea of trying to put together something where we explained just sort of the Houston connection, and then also went to Germany to tell the story there. And at the time, we were traveling a lot, for local news, definitely, they had some budget to do these types of specials. And I went to my news director and I pitched the idea, and he said, "If you get Bush, I'll let you do it." And I was like, "Oh, okay. So, no problem."

Christine Dobbyn:

So, I started working, I called his press secretary and had a lunch with him and kind of told them what I was trying to do, and also went through James Baker's secretary. They liked the idea, they said, "Okay, we'll consider it," and I approached them in February and the anniversary wasn't until November. But time was ticking, didn't hear anything, continued my persistence, would check in with them every so often. Eventually, Baker's press secretary called and said, "Secretary Baker has agreed to do an interview with your special." I still hadn't heard anyone from the Bush camp. And we shot that at Rice, at the Baker Institute, and he was amazing, the way he can explain what happened during that time, how it all unfolded, and his role in it.

Christine Dobbyn:

And one of the things I learned was the relationship between Bush and Baker. I really think it was a once in a lifetime, once in a generation, maybe one of the best presidential-Secretary of State relationship we'll ever see. And the way they were able to get so much done was because of the trust they had, which dates way back to their time in Texas together. And so at the very end, I said to Secretary Baker, "I said, Mr. Secretary, have you been pleased with the way this interview has gone?" And he said yes. And I said, "Okay, would you put a bug in President Bush's ear that I'm trying to get an interview with him to complete this project?" And he said, "Okay, I'll do that." And the next day Bush's press secretary called me and said, "We'll do it."

Christine Dobbyn:

It was a spur-of-the-moment idea I had that maybe the way in isn't through all the press people and the handlers because their job is to kind of manage the schedule, screen all the interviews. But go through

the person who is the most connected to him, and if he liked the direction of the story and my interview positioning, then maybe he could convince President Bush to do it.

Christine Dobbyn:

So, then we ended up doing that, went to Germany, President Bush and Mrs. Bush both traveled for a recognition ceremony. And I believe it was one of the last international trips that Bushes took together, if not the last, because their health was still pretty good at that point, but you know. So what an honor to be there, and I think my biggest takeaway was... The recognition ceremony, it was Cole, Gorbachev, and Bush, and the German people and their appreciation for America's role and both Bush and Baker. I mean, I was crying at the end of the ceremony and a lot of the... There were people out there holding signs, and I had to ask them what the signs said because it was in German. But a lot of them would have been born maybe after the wall fell, or were very young when it fell, so they had this appreciation, the next generation understood the role that America had. I get choked up just thinking about it, but that was just an amazing career experience, but also an amazing personal experience for me to see all of that firsthand. Yeah.

Scott Gale:

What a special cool kind of starting with just kind of a spark and just having it snowball into just this great sort of the right story at the right time, with sort of just the right people there to sort of tell it. Thank you for sharing a really cool just kind of detail of kind of how that unfolded, I love it. Could we talk a little bit, obviously, Owl Have You Know is a podcast focused on the Rice Business community at large. And so can you share a bit about your experience heading into Rice Business, what was kind of the drive and interest, and share a bit about then kind of how that experience has pointed you in the direction in the things that you're working on today?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. I had been exposed to Rice, of course, through reporting, through living in Houston, and was very aware of its reputation. I remember covering a story, it was in Shell Auditorium in McNair Hall, at some point, I can't remember when I was reporting, and I was on the night shift, and it was one of those... A lot of time we dip in and out of something, we'd go in, we get some video, we'd get a couple of interviews and we leave. And I don't even remember what the topic was, but I was so engrossed in it. I was like, "I don't want to leave," we had to move on to another story.

Christine Dobbyn:

And I just kind of remember thinking at that point, I'm going to go to school here one day. I don't know why, but I just felt like I had more to learn, and there was maybe an element in my brain I haven't fully discovered, maybe more of the business side. And so I remember that, and then kind of looked at the program from time to time. And then when I started feeling like it was time to move on from news, and I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to land, I felt like, one, I knew I needed to sort of hone my business chops, just coming from a journalism background. And also, I think when you're transitioning, sometimes having this big maybe platform, if you want to call it that. And also I've called the Rice IMBA class of 2020 my tribe because I needed a new tribe to connect to. For me, it was a great move, it was a great kind of segue to the next phase in my career.

Christine Dobbyn:

And it was challenging for me academically, I've always loved school, but I was so focused on journalism and undergrad, I hadn't taken any... I didn't even step into the business school at Ball State University where I did my undergrad. So, I felt intimidated just walking in, and a lot of my classmates are just exposed to lot of the things we were talking about in class on a daily basis, and I had been in courtrooms and at crime scenes. So it was definitely brand-new territory, but I loved the challenge and grew so much from... I mean, the professors are excellent, Rice assists you and helping you even with tutoring and things when you need that extra help. And then my classmates were there, not just as supporters, but what I learned from them. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, it exceeded my expectations.

Scott Gale:

Did you come into the experience with, as you mentioned, kind of with a pivoting mentality? You kind of had this idea that, hey, maybe I've done what I wanted to do in kind of broadcast journalism. Can you share a bit about how that pivot has kind of unfolded? Is where you're at today sort of post-graduation, where you had kind of seen, or what were some of the kind of steers along the way?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. When I first decided to do the program, so most of the time in television news you work under contract, and most of those contracts, if you're on air, you're either three years, five years. I was on, I think, a three-year contract, and I had looked ahead and I knew that contract was ending, it was sort of in the middle of the program. And so the first year of the program, I was juggling both, and I think I used all my vacation that year just to go to school. So, it was hard because you didn't really get any break, you're doing both. But I knew at the end of that, I was going to just go ahead and leave, and I had prepared for that financially and wanted to focus on school the second year.

Christine Dobbyn:

And one of the great things about it, it enabled me... I completely leaned into everything at Rice. I went to all the mixers of the networking, some of the speakers, I just tried to absorb it all. The typical executive program, you can't do that as much because it's on weekends and you're working, and it was important for me to try and maximize my experience. And you also have full reign of choices of all the electives through the full-time professional and executive programs. So I took classes across all three programs and met students in the other programs. And one of the great things about that, for example, the full-time program, I was on teams with a generation younger than me. And I thought this is really important for me to understand kind of how they think, how they work because I could be managing them in a role looking ahead if not working with them as my peer, even. So, I loved it because I was able to expose myself and kind of see how they work, and work together.

Christine Dobbyn:

When I decided to leave my job, I decided to start my own LLC, and that would enable me to maybe do some freelance work on the side and have a little bit of income. So, I started Dobbyn Digital Media and did a little bit of work. It was enough, not too much that I was still able to focus on my studies, and wasn't sure where I was going to take that. And as I approached graduation, the pandemic hit and I had a few leads for some contract work and they all dried up within a month. And it was a very scary time as I had left my full-time job, was about to graduate, and was not seeing any traction.

Christine Dobbyn:

And then within a few months, I had a lead that developed from a Rice Business professor to work on the COVID vaccine trials and help with media and marketing. So, I can honestly say probably three- quarters of the work I have today is all from the Rice Business network, maybe our cohort, maybe a professor, or maybe someone within the community. But I think back to if I wouldn't have gone through the program and kind of told people, here's my background, here's what I'm trying to do, and they got to know me, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today.

Scott Gale:

I've got kind of a question because in your role as co-host of the Owl Have You Know podcast, you have this opportunity to get to know and hear the stories kind of firsthand of kind of the Rice Business community. Through that experience, are there some things that you've sort of, when I ask like enhanced kind of your perspective on the Rice Business community or changed your mind about the Rice Business community on certain things, a few takeaways from your time as host?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. I've really enjoyed being host and have met so many people, some recent graduates, some from 20 years ago. So, it's interesting to hear them talk about how the program's evolved because Rice Business is still a young program compared to a lot of others around, and the variety of professions in which they are in, some of them who have been career in a specific area, others who have pivoted like myself two or three times. And that's the best part is getting to know them, getting to know their stories, seeing if we know any of the same people.

Christine Dobbyn:

One common thread is everyone just talks about how the program was just such an important part of their life in shaping where they are today, they all talk about the network and the people and the professors, and so that's common. The impact it's had on their life, it's the same again and again. So that just speaks to the power of the program and the impact that it has, but that each person takes that and sort of finesses it and moves forward in a different way, and that allows them to kind of go on the path in which they planned, or in some cases they completely didn't plan.

Christine Dobbyn:

I've talked to a couple of guests and I think they went into program thinking they would continue on their current path, and they met a few students in their cohort and came up with a business idea and founded a company, and went in a completely different direction. So it's really cool the way it opens minds and then gives everyone these additional opportunities and takes them in a direction that they never thought they might go in.

Scott Gale:

I like it. It's like this crossroads where there's just so many different opportunities and perspectives that are brought and like you're saying, like the opportunity to come in with a particular background and then to go and now spending time with totally different entities, organizations, people, and getting just kind of that exposure and experience. Kind of a question of in terms of incoming potential alum or potential students, or folks that are thinking about the program, are there things that from just an advice standpoint or things that you've seen in terms of what people should consider as they come into the program or consider the program to take advantage of it?

Christine Dobbyn:

I think making sure it's the right time in your life and career because it is true for two years you really have to be completely all in and study like you've probably never studied before, and taking on that financial obligation as well. So I think making sure it's just the right time. But I don't know that I've met anyone who regretted it, and there are some people who were, oh, definitely, I'm doing this, and others they were a little bit on the fence, but I think just getting into that mindset. And for me, it was the perfect time to be in that mindset, I don't know if a few years earlier, I could have focused in on that because I still had one foot in journalism or maybe two feet, and then I was just ready to step away and focus on something else.

Christine Dobbyn:

And I think you find a mixture, even in the people that I've interviewed, career pivoters or those who are maybe on the way to the C-suite or moving up within their own company. And one of the things that I've given a little bit of feedback on is I do think the executive program, in particular, the demographic I guess, or the psychographic of the student has changed a lot in the time of the program. You still have people coming from a traditional kind of corporate role and maybe even their company wants them to get the MBA to move them up into management. I think there will be more of my kind of people who are coming from one career using the program as an opportunity to move in a different direction. And then I love Rice's commitment to veterans, we had, I think, nine veterans in our cohort, and some of them were even retiring from the military after 20 years and moving in a different direction. And so I think we'll see more of that as the whole idea of staying in one career your whole life has sort of evolved over time.

Scott Gale:

Well, and particularly in your case, storytelling transcends sectors and jobs, and it's important to kind of across. I guess sort of a curiosity that I have is just kind of what are sort of some of those components of storytelling? As different organizations and people are coming in and you're having those conversations, what are some of the things that you're looking for in that?

Christine Dobbyn:

You brought up a good point because when I first decided to kind of make this move, there's a little bit of a joke in media that you're moving to the dark side if you go into PR, anything on the other side. And I think early in my career I would've said, you're selling out because as journalists you're supposed to be true seekers and stand up for the little guy, and if you go to the other side, maybe you're not doing that. And I've had some real, I guess, epiphanies along the way. And I think one of them is I thought the storytelling aspect maybe would have a different meaning. And while the intent is different, I mean, journalism, the intent is to inform, you're not trying to sell a product, you're trying to maybe stir the pot a little bit and affect change in a lot of ways, and for a lot of stories.

Christine Dobbyn:

Whereas, storytelling for a business you're ultimately trying to enhance the brand, increase the knowledge, help people understand the product or a lot of elements surrounding whatever the product or service is. But as I've gotten my MBA and really sat down and talked with even founders, CEOs, you understand that the reason a business started was to solve a problem. And the people at the core of that are very passionate about whatever that product or service is and that's why they started it. And so

there's still passion there, it's just different. There is the goal of a profit at the end, but that doesn't really lessen the story or the impact or the importance, and so that's been one of my realizations.

Christine Dobbyn:

And when I have talked with some of my clients and I see and understand why they're doing what they're doing, and I think that's an important thing is the why. The why always matters, whether it's journalism or a storytelling for a business, that's at the core of everything. And then I think the second key is really articulating that to whoever your audience is, whether that's viewers for a newscast or a particular audience of customers that you're trying to reach. Helping them understand the product or the service, why they need that, why it matters in their life and kind of wrap it all up with the bow, and bringing some of that emotion into the story as well.

Scott Gale:

Kind of driving a bit more authenticity and kind of relatability to a product or an experience or something that's kind of being offered.

Christine Dobbyn:

Thing is, with business-type storytelling there's more intent and you do have to be very careful, there's more legal reviews. We have legal reviews in journalism, but this is a different level when you're dealing with companies. You really have to be careful about the messaging and be very specific about it. But I think that once you kind of drill down into all of that and get through all the mess, you can find ways to help them make it resonate. And I think that's where my journalism background can really help because I do feel like, especially with a lot of big corporations, people just kind of glaze over.

Christine Dobbyn:

And then as I've gotten to know some of my clients, and I understand what they're really doing, and I think to myself, "Well, this isn't at all what is being sort of portrayed or what people are understanding, a lot of misunderstanding," so just trying to help enhance that story. And there's so many other ways to do that today, so many different platforms where you don't just have to go through mainstream media. You can have a lot more control over your story now using your own platforms, and that's been a big change in overall media.

Scott Gale:

It's amazing. Christine, this has been a fantastic conversation. Like you said, I feel like we could spend another hour digging up. I've got all these other kind of questions that I want to dig into, but I'm mindful of the time. So, Christine, where can people find you? How can they get in touch if they're interested in the things that you're working on, or just want to connect and hear more from you one on one, what's the best way for people to track you down?

Christine Dobbyn:

Definitely. I would say probably LinkedIn, I find LinkedIn to be a great platform and I have Christine Dobbyn, and then I also have Dobbyn Digital Media message and connect. And I've even met and connected with a lot of different people that have led to different business relationships that you never imagined, so that's always a great platform.

Scott Gale:

Very cool. We'll make sure and include those links and things in the show notes so that people can track you down. A big shout-out and thank you to the Digital Wildcatters for allowing us to use their space here and appreciate their support, and encourage people to check out the Owl Have You Know podcast, in the middle of season two and exciting things ahead for sure. And yeah, Christine, thanks again for taking the time, it's been a blast.

Christine Dobbyn:

Thank you, it's been great.

David Droogleever:

This has been, Owl Have You Know, thanks for listening. You can find links and more information about our guests, hosts, and announcements on our website business.rice.edu. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you find your favorite podcast and leave us a comment while you're at it, and let us know what you think. Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business, and is sponsored by the Rice Business Alumni Board. The hosts of Owl Have You Know are myself David Droogleever and Christine Dobbyn.