Inside the Media Mind of Kimanze Constable: Freelancer

Christine Blake: Welcome to Inside the Media Minds. We are your co-hosts Christine Blake

Madison Farabaugh: And Madison Farabaugh.

Christine Blake: This show features in-depth interviews with tech reporters who share everything from their biggest pet peeves to their favorite stories. From our studio here at W2 Communications, let's go inside the Media Minds.

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Inside the Media Minds. Today, Madison and I sit down with Kimanzi Constable. He is an author of four books and a freelance writer whose articles have been published in Business Insider, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Success Magazine, NBC, Christine BlakeS, FOX and 80 other publications and magazines. He's a global traveler and digital nomad that has been to more than 89 countries and counting.

So it's a really really fun interview. We left very inspired. Kimanzi writes for the Power Hours series on Business Insider, and he interviews successful entrepreneurs and leaders, actors, people of all different types of companies, and he shared with us some trends that really stand out to him among all these people. And it was really inspirational to hear about what these people do to be successful in their lives. So we loved hearing about that. Madison, what were some of your takeaways?

Madison Farabaugh: Yeah, well, of course, we asked Kimanzi kind of what he's seeing from a freelancer perspective in terms of AI, how that's impacting the media landscape, and it was very interesting to hear him talk about how the power of individual perspectives and storytelling is going to become all the more valuable, just as AI does take over some of those more surface-level stories or the ones that don't require as much reporting or fact-checking,. So really those how-to stories, things like that, might be more and more something that AI will cover. But he really dove into what's valuable to him, what he feels is going to be most valuable for journalism in the future, as AI does take over more.

Christine Blake: Yeah, we also learned about his advice for PR practitioners, how he prepares for these interviews that he does, and some of his travel advice. So I hope you all enjoy this episode.

Christine Blake: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Inside the Media Minds. We have a very special guest today, Kimanzi Constable, freelancer for a number of different publications, as we talked about. But Kimanzi, thanks for joining us today. We'd love to start with just a quick overview of your background and how you got into journalism and where you are today.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, it's kind of an interesting journey because I became an entrepreneur at 19, and I actually had a trucking company. So that's probably not what, yeah, but while I was on the truck every day and managing my employees and this and that, I discovered podcasts. So this would have been like in 2010, and so I'm listening to these podcasts, kind of new to what podcasts were, and I found this one called Smart Passive Income, and it was by a man named Pat Flynn, and he's talking about how you make money on the internet. And I came from a blue collar background, so hearing making money on the internet, it just sounded like a scam.

Kimanzi Constable: So, but I listened anyways. I'm like, okay, maybe there's something this guy kind of sounds like he knows what he's talking about. And so listening to him over the year, while I'm operating my trucking company, I decided, hey, I have knowledge that I could turn into maybe some products that I sell on the internet. So I took his freebie, I created a guide, and lo and behold, people actually bought it. Like, and I was shocked.

Kimanzi Constable: And so from there, what I realized was I wanted to do this online business thing, so I set up the website, I set up all the offers, and nobody bought them. And when nobody bought them. That's what got me into writing because I realized something fundamental about business, and that's if I'm going to sell anything on the internet, I need an audience. I need people that know who I am and know about my brand to follow me, and since I didn't have an audience, I figured the quickest way to build an audience was to borrow somebody else's audience. Meaning, I add value to their audience, and then a few of those people come and check me out.

Kimanzi Constable: So back then, in 2011, it was guest posting on blogs. Do you guys remember blogs? Blogs back in the day, and I did that, and I was, I guest posted on 100 of them in 2012, and it brought my first 5,000 email subscribers. Well, once I saw the success of blogs, I thought, well, they have great audiences and they're engaged, but why don't I go bigger? Why don't I go to Entrepreneur.com, the Huff Post, Inc. Magazine? Like, if I can pitch these bloggers, I should be able to pitch these media outlets. And my assumption was correct. So in 20, at the end of 2012, I started pitching these media outlets, saying, "Hey, I could write an article about this about entrepreneurship." Most ignored me. Some said okay, and then a few said we'll give you a shot. And in 2000, beginning 2013, that's when I started writing for these outlets. And then from there to here, to make a long story short, it's been a lot of learning because I don't I don't have a background in journalism. I didn't even go to college. I have a GED. I was a high school dropout. So for me, it was, it's been, my education has been in the experience from then till now. Just learning along the way, breaking eggs, having editors break my heart, hurt my feelings, teach me,and now I'm able to write for a lot of these pretty cool outlets.

Christine Blake: That's amazing. I love that story because you didn't really set out trying to do journalism, but you just kind of proactively got into it. And I love how you just kept pitching yourself, didn't give up on it, and now you've been doing it as a career. It's amazing.

Madison Farabaugh: Yeah, that that is awesome to hear. So, what publications do you write for most frequently these days, and how does your writing style kind of vary between them all?

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, most of what I do these days is on Inc.com. It's on it's on Business Insider, which I think we'll talk about. It's on CNET. It's on Essence. It's on a whole bunch of travel publications. I'm writing a lot of travel content, and most the style really varies depending on what the outlet wants. You know, some outlets just want story-based content, so those tend to be the easiest articles. Some articles want reported articles, which means research and sources and experts, and then some outlets want profiles, so it's always interviewing and writing about people, and those tend to be the hardest articles to do.

Madison Farabaugh: And do you have a favorite, I guess, type of story that you get to compile yourself, or any topics that you're particularly fond of?

Kimanzi Constable: I like success stories. I like, and when I say success, I don't mean like you had to make eight figures or anything like that. I'm talking about you know the stay-at-home mom that figured it out how to use AI and now is doing you know some kind of cool business, or the person that's built an incredibly successful business, or the person that's moved to another country. I just like profiling success. Those tend to be my favorite types of articles.

Christine Blake: Yeah, I like those too, and I'd love to dig into into that column that you do for Business Insider Power Hours. What was the inspiration for that column? Just tell us a little bit about it.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, so for clarity, I write Power Hours articles, but the column is Business Insider's, meaning they own the column. I just want to make that clear, and they always ask me to make that clear. But I was the first one; I was number one ever to do it. And what happened was, was I, people pitch me stories all the time. I put out these call callouts on LinkedIn, and people pitch me stories. And I happened to have like over a year ago, I happened to have some CEOs of some companies like, hey, you should write about our day in our lives. And I pitch it to my editor and say, hey, we should, maybe we could do these CEO days in in life. And the first few we did them, publish them, and they were incredibly popular. And then Business Insider came back and said, hey, we want to make this a formal series called Power Hours. It wasn't called that back then. We want to put a graphic behind it, put a page behind it, but then also open it up to their internal reporters and you know other freelancers. So really, it was I guess luck that had happened that way.

Christine Blake: That's awesome. How, and you've, I mean you've had CEOs all different types of businesses, like fitness businesses, United Airlines. You know, number of different a different report or people that you've interviewed. What has been a couple that have stood out to you?

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, it's been a lot of CEOs, actors, leaders, and kind of everything in between. I'd say probably the like three that stuck out were one I just did this weekend was Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, Walter White himself, which was surreal to interview him, and it was it stuck out because he was so funny, like he's legitimately hilarious in real life. Like I was laughing the whole time. He's cracking jokes and they're funny, and his personality is you know just like magnetic, so that one definitely stuck out. Stood out. Daymond John from Shark Tank stood out because he was concise. Like he gave you everything that you needed while being concise. And as you all probably know, when you're doing interviews with people sometimes people can ramble, so and and it makes it hard to kind of coalesce all that information into an article that's less than 1000 words. So David John was concise. Mark Cuban, he was just interesting because he does everything in his power to never have a meeting ever, and he does most of everything through email, and he's getting like 1000 emails a day, right?

Christine Blake: Goals.

Kimanzi Constable: So that was interesting. And then I think the last one, just to keep it diverse, was Lauren Bostick from the Skinny Confidential podcast. So she's built the Skinny Confidential, but she's also interviewed all of the major celebrities. You know, been podcasting for 10 year, over 10 years, and has built a great brand. And she also was, but also her her her she's not a huge technology person. So obviously uses technology, but in her home life and with her family, just trying to keep the technology away.

Madison Farabaugh: This just sounds like a dream column to have, honestly, to be able to talk to this many people from different backgrounds, different stories, and hearing how they all kind of powered through, made success in their own lane. So that's just awesome to hear, and kind of, I'd be curious, sticking with the CEO theme, but also that entrepreneur theme, as I'm sure you've you've chatted with a bunch in both of these groups, what are some of the most notable trends that you see between these folks when you are interviewing them? Are there any traits that are common, whether that's in their daily routines or just some of their personality traits that you've noticed that have really driven them to success?

Kimanzi Constable: I think most of what you see with most of them is that they're they're structured in their days and how their days are going to be. I'd say probably the overall theme is they control their day; they don't let their day control them. Ooh, I just thought that on the spot. We need to put that somewhere. The the boundaries that they have on their days are so strong and the non-negotiables that they have. And I mean, a lot of them are high-powered CEOs, right? So they run the show, so they can do that. But still, they-it's easy when you are the leader to have people wanting so many things from you, and they they balance being able to be there for their people while also making sure they maintain what they need, so I mean a lot of their days are the same. They wake up early in the morning. Most of them have coffee. They catch up on the news and whatever is going on. I I don't think I've talked to any of them that didn't work out. All of them work out, you know, and most likely in the morning. And then from there it varies. Some like to remote work. Some like to be in the office every single day, and while they're there, it's just pretty much meetings all day. They don't really take formal lunch breaks. Like they'll they try to use that time to go meet with teams or have meetings and things like that. And then when they're home, they're trying to power down and be away from technology as much as as as they can. Some companies you can't avoid that, but and just be there for their families. But to me, what stands out is how how well they hold their boundaries. And I know for me as an entrepreneur, and I'm I don't know about for you two, Madison and Christine, how you are with boundaries. But when you have clients, right? When you have team members, when you have just all the external noise, it's hard to keep boundaries.

Christine Blake: Yeah, well, I'm inspired. I'm going to go control my day after this. Outside of that column and you know that interesting topic, what are some of the other hot topics that you've been writing about recently, or interested in writing about.

Kimanzi Constable: I I'm I have a love for travel and digital nomadism, so that's always where my interests are going to go. And we happen to be in a time where a record number of Americans are moving out of the U.S. and moving to other places. But I think just humans in general are just kind of moving around. So I think it's interesting to see how humans are setting up their life in so many different places and the unknowns and navigating all that. I find that incredibly interesting.

Kimanzi Constable: I think AI is interesting. I am not an AI user at all. I I personally believe it's going to destroy humanity at some point. So I think it's interesting how people have embraced AI so much and have given away their you know critical thinking to AI, and then this whole idea of the AI companies say it's moving too fast, we need to slow it down. But is that truth or is that just marketing? And then our job's gonna be laid off, and jobs are coming back. It's just it's kind of a weird time with AI.

Madison Farabaugh: For sure. And that's that's something we've talked to most of our guests I'd say in the past you know year or two, Christine, most of them have some sort of opinion on AI, whether whether it is you know far on the positive side, far on the negative side, and that's always one of the questions we love to ask about, just to hear everybody's opinion on it. Because everyone brings up great points. So I would love to kind of throw a question back to you there. In terms of, I guess, the media landscape as you are freelancing, do you have any observations on how the writing, journalism, freelancing industry has been impacted by AI? Whether it's supporting the field, inhibiting the field, or honestly, any other media trends that you're kind of noticing now with all of these changes.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, I see now most outlets, at least the ones that I've dealt with, have no AI to write articles policy. So ideate, sure, but actually write the articles, no, but that's now. I I I do a lot of corporate consulting, so I understand how corporations work and think. And all these media outlets are owned by big corporations. At some point, they are going to cross the line, and they're going to have AI do the things that it can do. So, like, I know outlets. There's a few outlets out there now that are testing having just a small team of writers, and then have AI put together a lot of the heavy lifting for articles that are reported, right? Articles that are about topics, articles that are "How To." That's the kind of stuff that AI can do, and I I see it slowly moving more into our space, which I think is why stories are going to be far more valuable now and going forward. That's what I see.

Kimanzi Constable: So whether it's a personal story, I was told a story, you're telling somebody else's story, or a profile, that's where I see is going to be incredibly valuable. And we see this manifesting with all these publications now that are creating influencers type story based verticals. Like the Inc. column that I write right now was introduced earlier this year, and it's a first person story based column. That's what it's about. They want your stories, your experience. Forbes just launched the Forbes Creator Network, where they are syndicating like podcasts like yours. They're syndicating it on Forbes or YouTube channels or influencer content that you post on social media, so that it blurs the line. So it's like a, I guess, like a Substack, if you will, right with Forbes. But a lot of these media outlets are going the multimedia direction and the storytelling direction, because in the age of AI, it's going to be hard to know what's real and what's not. But a person telling their story is always going to have value, and it might be even more valuable.

Christine Blake: That's a really great perspective, and I imagine too, like you're interviewing these people, and you're able to take that interview and translate it into a story and tell that to the audience. And AI can do a lot, but it can't do that the same way that a human and that you can do that. So I can certainly see that as a big differentiator.

Kimanzi Constable: I think so.

Kimanzi Constable: I think it's the the governance piece of AI. Like, how are they responsibly introducing it to companies and to media outlets and to your own life? Like, how are because I can't tell you, my mom my mom is Kenyan. That's why my name is Kimanzi. My mom is Kenyan, and she's been in the United States like you know my whole life, of course. But she sends me these things. She's like, "Is this real or AI?" And it's something with like 22 fingers on one hand, and I'm like, "Mom, that's that's AI." But I feel like those generations, it's going to be it's going to be very hard. So I feel like the the governance conversation is not happening, and I don't know that it can happen with who owns the media list. I don't know that it really can have that conversation happen.

Christine Blake: People want to read that? You know, people want to read that versus just AI words.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, here's how to do this. Okay. I could just prompt it myself.

Christine Blake: Are there any conversations related to AI right now that aren't happening that that should be?

Madison Farabaugh: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. We've we've of course we always monitor LinkedIn too, and it's it's always funny seeing who calls out, you know, the grammar, whatever type of grammar structure it is, or different punctuation. It's just funny. It's funny what people can catch nowadays. So I think the education part is there, but to your point, the governance and kind of making that more widespread is definitely something we're hearing a lot of in terms of what we need more of. And kind of outside of AI, are there any other topics that you're looking to cover in 2027 or anything? Any projects that you're looking forward to working on?

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, just I'm always looking for the best stories. That's kind of where my lane is going to be. So the the best stories and the most interesting people to profile because I do believe that's where this is going at least for freelancers and contributors. So I'm always looking for the best, most interesting, most unique, most relatable stories that are out there. I mean, I'll still cover the things that I cover about business because I have a couple businesses, success stories, things like that, but I think stories are going to be such a huge part of this that I'm always going to be on the hunt for those, especially in 2027.

Christine Blake: And I'm curious, you know, you talk about some of the interviews that you're doing, the columns that you write. How do you prepare for those? Do you do a lot of research? Do you select what guest guests you want? What is your process for that?

Kimanzi Constable: Well, at this point, I'm trying to get the biggest names that I can get because I have some big names. It's you know kind of a little bit. It's easier to get richer once you're already rich, if that makes sense, right? So if I didn't have any of these names, it'd be hard to approach Delta or whoever. But so I'm always trying to get the biggest names that I can get, but a lot of these interviews are pretty standard. It's it's just a day in their life and maybe a little bit of information about their company. So I could do this with my eyes closed as far as those go. But the other stories, so the regular entrepreneur, the success stories, the parenting, hell, travel, those I would do some research and fact checking to make sure that the information is accurate, because I can't. For as many stories as I've published, I probably have had to kill, you know, an equal amount because the claims cannot be verified or or exaggerated or things like that.

Christine Blake: Yeah. So we actually have a couple listener questions that we'd love to ask you as well. The first one: so we recently saw your LinkedIn post about PR pitches that you receive. I'm sure you receive a lot. Do you have any advice for PR practitioners or people reaching out, offering a resource to you?

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, I think you have to know who you're pitching and the type of things that they cover. I I am somebody who uses cold outreach. I love it. I think it's the most amazing thing in the world for my businesses. I think it's incredible because you can literally create opportunities out of nothing. But with certain opportunities, it has to be customized towards the person that you're pitching. Like so, like I get a lot of political pitches, political this, you know, this candidate did that, and I won't, I won't touch that with the 10 foot pole, like not at all. I've had crazy experiences. I wrote an article about micro retirement, about how Gen Z is micro retiring, and I got death threats on LinkedIn, like public death threats, about Gen Z micro retiring. So could I couldn't imagine what would happen if I wrote about politics. So I get so many pitches that are not related to that, or like power hours, for example. I'm always looking for Power Hours pitches. Interesting CEOs, founders, creative entrepreneurs. It doesn't have to be somebody famous. That's not it at all. And a lot of these pitches, Power Hours is about a day in the life of somebody. That's exactly what it is, right? And I've put that out there. And the pitches that I get, it's like this person's an expert in this, and they could offer their expertise on on climbing a mountain, on dealing with AI, and on you know taking out the trash, right? It's like all these these points about what they could talk about, and I'm like, you missed it. This is not about any of this. So I think the best thing you can do, the best thing you can do, is know who you're pitching and know the types of things that they cover, and pitch something that is similar. So if I'm writing at Business Insider and profiling stories, you pitch a story, right? I'm not pitching. I'm not doing any expertise or expert sources for Business Insider. If I'm writing an article for Inc. that is the expert sources, right? The expert stories, the the experts that I will include in articles. That's different, right? So it's knowing. I think if you are more accurate about who you're pitching and what they cover, you're going to get a lot more yeses than you do. And if you're going to use AI, you can't take it out of the box because I can tell those AI-generated pitches like a mile away. They all look the same. It's like this person is great, great, great. Here are some things, practical things that they cover. And then AI tends to be hypey, like it adds like a lot of hypey vernacular. Like they're stupendous when they climb a mountain, and they're you know like it's just that. So if you are going to use AI, edit it. Just edit it.

Christine Blake: You know that's when we interview all these journalists that we have, that's the common thread that we hear from everyone about pitching, right? It's understand who you're talking to. Don't use AI. You know, be human. Talk about you know why the story is interesting, so that aligns very well.

Madison Farabaugh: Yeah, I think a lot of times too, it's it's sometimes that balance, at least for PR, where it's you can't you can't force the talking points into the story that the reporter or journalist is working on. Like sometimes it is truly about building that relationship and being an asset to them versus versus always on the other end of really trying to get, I think you can get talking points through, you know, in many other ways. But sometimes related to the column that you're working on, it's more important to get that purpose across. So, yep, that all definitely makes sense. And we also saw from some of your bios, Kimanzi, that you've written a few books. So we would love to hear just what what those were on, what the inspiration behind them was. If there's any plans to write any books in the future, would love to just hear more about that.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, I've written books that are pretty much about what the everyday working person goes through. So, like the first book is the Tales of the Everyday Working Man and Woman, and really, to talk about the blue collar life. The second one was, Are You Living or Existing? So we can go through life and do a lot of things, but are we really living our life? Like, and and what are we living for? And I find that I was I was living to work, not working to live, and I had to reverse that. And so I feel that's where a lot of people are. The third one, my favorite, or I don't know if I say it's my favorite. They're all like they're they're like my my children. Is called Stop Chasing Influencers, and I think that book was written in 2015, but I think it's even more relevant now than it was back then because so many people think that they're gonna connect with an influencer, work for them for free, and then they're going to get the Oprah effect, and you know they're just going to get showered with all these things. And you'll be working for free for a long time, and then just by the nature of what I do with freelance journalism, I can't tell you how many people lie. Like on the internet, they claim this, claim that, and then when you go to verification, I can't tell you how much of it is a lie, and how much how many stories I've had to kill, you know, over the years. It's been it's been a lot. And the fourth book's not published yet, but it's called Seven Choices You'll Regret at the End of Your Life.

Christine Blake: Okay, wow, these are awesome. Yeah, I want to check some of these out.

Kimanzi Constable: I do want to write more books. I want to write 10 books, so I've been slacking the last couple years. So I got six more to go.

Christine Blake: I love your energy. It's so great, amazing. We need to check some of these books out. Also, we know that you are a big traveler. You've mentioned that a couple times so far. What is one of the the favorite countries that you visited?

Kimanzi Constable: Oh man, Thailand is number one. That's where I live now. I live in Bangkok, Thailand, so that's my number one. I I love this city. I think it's it's an incredible city. If I wasn't living here, I'd be living in Tokyo, Japan. But Japan, just as a country, I think is so underrated. I like Paris, France. I almost moved to Paris before I moved here, and people. I feel like Parisians are misunderstood. Like you hear so many negative things, but like that's my energy. It's almost like New York energy, but with the with the European vibe. So I like that. I like New York City. I think it's one of the best cities in the world. You can. I mean, it's the world city, right? Like it's where the UN is. It's where all cultures come to meet. And then I'd probably say the last one is probably like Barcelona, Spain. Just chill Spanish vibes.

Christine Blake: I love it. Great choices.

Madison Farabaugh: Yeah.

Christine Blake: Where are you headed next anywhere cool? Are you going to visit next?

Kimanzi Constable: Well, for the rest of this year, I have a trip to Vietnam. I've been to 89 countries, but I've never been to Vietnam. Surprisingly. So I'm looking forward to experiencing that. And then Seoul, South Korea, which I've been many times, but I'm going there for one purpose, and that's to get Chipotle. They just opened the first Chipotle in Asia in Seoul, and I I haven't been. I've been outside the United States for 18 months now, so I'm going just for Chipotle.

Madison Farabaugh: That's worthy of a story too.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, that's gonna be the story. Yeah be the story.

Madison Farabaugh: Great.

Kimanzi Constable: And the lines are insane. Two hours for Chipotle.

Christine Blake: No way.

Kimanzi Constable: Yeah, but we it's just not here in Asia.

Christine Blake: I have like five Chipotles within like a 10 miles radius.

Kimanzi Constable: Oh, I'm so jealous! I'm so jealous.

Christine Blake: Yeah, sorry.

Kimanzi Constable: I'm so jealous.

Christine Blake: Oh, that's so great. Well, it's been it's been so much fun talking to you. Do you have anything coming up that you'd like to chat about besides your six books and your other travels?

Kimanzi Constable: No, I mean I love what I do. I love writing. When my when I was little kid, my grandfather used to give my brother and I books, and for Christmas, and we're like, "What is this?" Like, I want a transformer or whatever. But when I was 10, I read one of the books, and it was called The Charm School, and it was about Russian KGB agents that were trained by American POWs to be Americans to infiltrate America, and this book like blew my mind like Russia and Moscow and spies. And then what made it worse was at the end, American intelligence knew about it and they said they were going to rescue all these POWs. So one of them, one of the colonels, got rescued and they're flying over the helicopter, and they're like, "What's the plan? They're like, "Are we going to put sleeping gas on the Russian agents, and we're going to rescue the POWs?" So they did that, and as they're flying away, the CIA officer tells them that it was nerve gas, and they killed everybody. And as a 10-year-old, I am like, my mind is blown. Like I short-circuited, but that experience made me want to write. Like it made me want to tell stories in that way and have other people feel what I felt. So the thing that I'm excited about is to continue to tell people's stories. And if you are have an underrepresented story, if you have something that you just need to get out there to the world that helps people. If you're an interesting CEO and and kind of everything in between, I'm I'm excited to to tell more people's stories, and my inbox is always open for that. So, PR pros, regular people listening to this, whoever, just you know, send me a pitch.

Christine Blake: Excellent, that's fantastic. Well, Kimanzi, it's been fantastic talking to you this morning. We have a lot of inspiration. We're going to continue following your stories and everything that you're up to. We're big fans of you now. So, yeah, thanks for talking to us this morning.

Kimanzi Constable: Thanks for having me.

Christine Blake: Thank you for listening to today's episode of Inside the Media Minds. To learn more about our podcast and to hear from some of our past guests, please visit us at w2.com.com.

Madison Farabaugh: You can also subscribe anywhere podcasts are found.