We recently connected with Rich Maloof and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Rich, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
At some point I recognized that playing it safe is the bigger risk. When I’ve pursued the sure thing, or committed to something just because it promised stability, I’ve been fairly miserable. So that’s risky, because I don’t get over it, and the next thing you know I’m shut down or getting an ulcer or saying mean things to the cat. I’ve also realized that regret, the kind that really stings for a long time, tends to stem from opportunities I didn’t pursue or create rather than from things I tried that didn’t work out.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Thanks a lot for asking and for the chance to participate. I’ve been self-employed for the better part of 25 years, always in and around New York City. My early background is as a writer and musician. My first big job was as editor in chief of Guitar magazine, after which I went independent. Developing content for Microsoft’s MSN platform really cracked things open and led to work with clients in a range of sectors — healthcare, philanthropy, cybersecurity, regulation — plus I had a handful of modest book deals.
The lion’s share of my work now is with the Senate Presidents’ Forum, which is a non-profit that programs educational sessions for state legislators. Without putting pen to paper, I’m calling on the same skill set of researching a topic and sharing knowledge in a way that will engage people. I love the work, and I can sleep at night because we’re contributing to smarter public policy.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The qualities that have propelled me most are probably curiosity, empathy, and a willingness to buck convention. That goes for writing and event-programming as much as for my social life and playing music. Maybe prioritizing those qualities can help someone wired the same way I am. Staying curious gives you endless fuel to explore new ideas, and it’s the antidote to boredom. Empathy is at the root of listening, humility, and collaboration — all necessary to get anything meaningful done. The last bit is about trusting that your individual voice will resonate with other people. No one would mistake me for an iconoclast but I have found that originality is a magnet. And, big bonus, it attracts other original thinkers.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
You can do both. Go all in on a core understanding of what you do best, and build out from there. There’s a useful career exercise that goes like this: Figure out what you do well and give language to it. Whittle it down, down, down until you have a concise phrase, like the logline a screenwriter would use to pitch a script. Killer shark unleashes chaos on beach community. For me, it was Distill complex ideas into engaging content for a defined audience.
You can diversify based on a definition like that because you haven’t limited what you excel at to a narrow application. It’s great for marketing yourself and helps solidify your strengths in your own mind. That clarity begets confidence.
Contact Info:
- Website: richmaloof.com
- Instagram: richmaloof
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmaloof/
Image Credits
Liz Zenobi Photography Long Story Short LLC
