1. First of all, just let everyone know who you are and what you do!

My name is Dani Rosenberg. I’m a writer, producer, and performer in Los Angeles. I’ve been working with Philip DeFranco for seven years now. I helped him develop SourceFed, and now I’m helping him develop his upcoming Independent News Network.

2. Do you have any long term/short term goals?

Short term: pinning down our journalists. We’re already knee deep in programming, and when you combine that with the right on-camera talent it makes this beautiful jelly that is pure magic. I’ve also been in my final classes of a Screenwriting program since August. I graduate in May, and will be focusing on writing professionally for television and film for my long term career goals.

3. What’s the best advice you’ve received, and what makes it so significant?

There will always be someone better than you, and worse than you, in your career goals. You can’t compare yourself to others. You really have to focus on what you’re specifically doing. It’s so helpful because it narrows your field of focus. Also, it helps you see what you have to offer as an individual, versus how you stack up to the thousands of other people who also want to do what you do. I struggle with it, but I try not to compare.

4. Do you have any sort of ritual to help you stay productive and fresh?I’m a super task-oriented person, so I’m usually pretty eager for an avalanche of work to be plopped on me. What helps me maintain my stamina is treating my home life the same way. I’ve got apps on apps to check off boxes 24/7. I workout in the morning on weekdays to get my blood flowing. I go on hikes on the weekend to clear my head. If I’m getting too wound up / my productivity is affected, I go visit my therapist. I’ve had the same one for 6 years, and at this point I only go like twice a year, when there’s clearly something specific to address. My emotional and mental health directly affects my physical health, and I need all three to kill it at my job/relationships, so I try to keep them in working order, as consistently as possible.

5. What has been your most memorable experience/moment from working on Philip Defranco’s news network?

The livestreams were always the most fun/the hardest work. Specifically the 2012 election livestream was just months of everyone working late nights to build out the show and its ancillary content. By the time it was election night everyone was ready to blow off steam and just double down on the energy of the evening. It was five hours long, everyone killed it, and we 100% had booze flowing. It was also near the end of year one of that channel and we were riding the high of having launched something that really, really worked.

6. If ​you ​had ​the ​ability ​to ​go ​back ​in ​time, ​what ​advice ​would ​you ​give ​to ​your​ younger ​self?

Chill out and enjoy yourself. Whatever place you’re at in your life (where you live, where you work, your surroundings), it’s gonna change. It’ll shift 10 times over. Enjoy wherever you’re at and don’t feel trapped by any of it. You’re not in a cage, you’re on a moving walkway.

7. What aspect of your job do you like the most?

Well, #1 — I work with really fantastic, smart, hilarious people. They make the job great. Beyond that, development is the most fun part. It’s exciting and all built around the potential of what’s to come. It’s a long, thoughtful process that comes together slowly and then all at once.

8. What aspect of your job do you dislike the most?

Trying to make the fantastical vision in someone else’s brain come to life with the reality of what is possible. The whole “making magic happen” part of production. It’s like pure ecstasy to actually pull it off, but there’s so many times when you’re just slamming your head against the wall going “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!”

9. What led you to working where you are now?

I started working for him as a PA in 2011 (when there were 4 of us), and six months in we started building SourceFed. I rode that wave until it ended last March, and went back to school to finish up my screenwriting program. Last summer before classes started I hit up Phil to basically be like “I’m going back to school, but I’m planning to freelance part time, so if you want help developing the new network, I’ll give you first dibs.” He was on-board right away.

10. What are you the most excited about for the future of the company?

He’s got a lot of people actively listening to him daily, from a pretty panoramic spread of backgrounds, and I think we all feel the responsibility to take his philosophy on news and expand it. There’s a lot going on that has so much more to it than just what can fit on a 15 minute PDS covering multiple stories. There’s also so much more conversation to be had, from different perspectives, and that’s what we’re hoping to encourage: civil, informed discourse. Cooling off hot heads.

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