Meet Jeffrey Diamond

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeffrey Diamond. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jeffrey with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I am a very disciplined, hardworking, and focused individual. As the author of the Ethan Benson thriller series, it’s critical to remain dedicated to writing, and I developed this strong work ethic from a very young age. As a kid, I was an avid reader, and still am, and enjoyed the rigors of going to school. I did my homework, rarely missed class, and enjoyed learning. This carried on when I got to college at Lehigh University, where I studied American intellectual history, and learned how to do research, how to write, and above all, how to think. Upon graduation, I entered the field of television journalism and worked for decades as a producer, writer, and director, mostly for the ABC News Magazine, 20/20.

Journalism is a demanding profession, and to succeed, I needed to produce my stories at a breakneck speed in order to meet my deadlines. A solid work ethic was critical, and the drive to succeed and get to the truth came deep down from within me. It was nurtured growing up as a kid and going to college, and as a professional, I built upon the skills I learned early in my life in order to succeed.

Today, I am a novelist and have written six Ethan Benson thrillers based on my life as a journalist. Being an author requires enormous discipline and dedication, and for me, that work ethic has been honed throughout my career. I continue to draw upon my work ethic as I enter my mid-seventies and continue to write about my life experiences and my career.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I have had a long and interesting career telling stories about life, it’s complexities, it’s wonders, and it’s problems. I spent close to forty years as an award-winning television news producer, writer, and director. I won six Emmy Awards, two DuPont Columbia Awards, two CINE Golden Eagle Awards, a Peabody Award, and countless others while working at ABC News with short stints at NBC News, FOX News, and Martha Stewart Living. I was lucky enough to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the business: Peter Jennings, Charles Gibson, Jane Pauley, Stone Phillips, Deborah Roberts, Barbara Walters, and of course, Martha Stewart.

My success over the years working in television news was based on that work ethic we’ve already talked about and on striving to master each and every job in production on my way from the bottom to the top of the business. I worked as a desk assistant, a researcher, a production associate, an associate producer, a producer, a senior producer, a senior broadcast producer, an executive producer, and the creator and showrunner of Dateline NBC, where I managed a staff of hundreds of people.

And it was during this long career, at each of these networks, and with all these people, doing all of these different jobs, that I learned the art of storytelling by producing hundreds of stories about social issues, about big movie stars, breaking news events, celebrity interviews, right and wrong, consumer fraud, political corruption, and many, many crime stories which are now the foundation for my career as a novelist.

I have written six Ethan Benson Thrillers. Four have been published: Live to Air, Live to Tape, Live to the Network, and All Cameras Live. They are available at my author website, jeffreyldiamond.com, and at all the major online bookstores. My fifth novel, Full Live Rehearsal, will be published next spring, and I am currently working on a sixth manuscript tentatively titled, Live to the A-Camera.

My books are all fast-paced, hard-hitting crime novels about the people I worked with, the stories I produced, and the killers I interviewed. So my books have a real life, gritty feel to them, partly based on the way I write, and partly on the real life nature of the subject matter.

My hero, Ethan Benson, as you might’ve already guessed, is a television news producer, writer, and director, who’s life and career is loosely modeled on my own life and career. So there’s an authenticity to what he does, who he is, and the stories he investigates in all of my books.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

This is a very difficult question to answer. For me, during my life journey, I would have to say my three most important life lessons have been learning how to process information, how to simplify complex and muddled subject matter, and how to convey meaning to what I have learned through the written word. That’s what writers do. That’s what storytellers do.

Mastering these three skills take time and dedication. It’s a learning process that, for me, has changed and grown and developed throughout my life and that continues to change and grow and develop as I get older and wiser. It takes hard work, determination, trial and error, and dedication, and if I can offer any advice to people who are just getting started, in any facet of life, it would be to never give up, to never get disillusioned, and to continue to move forward, no matter what obstacles you might have to overcome.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

This is another difficult question to answer.

Many people have contributed to my life’s work and to the success I have experienced: my family, my teachers, my coworkers, my role models, my heroes, and the dozens of mentors I have had through my life.

But I don’t believe you can learn or be taught the true meaning of success. If you want it bad enough, you have to go out and get it. You have to work hard, make mistakes, learn from your mistakes, master whatever you’re doing, and then reach deep down within yourself to achieve whatever goals you set for yourself. That’s what I did. And that’s what I continue to do today.

Contact Info:

• Website: jeffreyldiamond,com
• Instagram: officialjeffreyldiamond
• Facebook: Jeffrey L. Diamond
• Other: Threads:officialjeffreyldiamond

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