Profile: Steve Hendershot [ Part 1 ]

This is our second entry for our new blog series! We will be highlighting all different kinds of business owners and entrepreneurs. I know I say it all the time, but collaboration and learning from one another is key in personal and professional growth.

Meet Steve Hendershot.

Steve is a very talented writer and musician.  As far as journalism, he covers all kinds of topics.  In the last six months, he’s written about the earthquake in Haiti, the possibility of bullet trains coming to America and trends in interior design– all for different publications.  Steve is also a regular writer to Crain’s Chicago Business where he writes about entrepreneurship.Click here to read a recent post related to blogging! And beginning a project ediing a 2010-11 season preview magazine about Michigan State’s basketball team.

As for music, Steve is part of an Americana group called The Spares. (Go to their website to hear a little bit of their music!) They are in the middle of recording a new CD, which is being released with a show at Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Square on Friday, August 20. You can follow The Spares on Facebook and Twitter!

What was the moment like when you decided to go out on your own as a freelance writer? What reservations did you have at the moment you jumped? Any regrets?

It was scary. Working independently was something I had wanted to do since pretty much the day I started working a regular day job, but it’s still a little terrifying to walk away from a guaranteed income. I had been writing freelance for the Tribune for about a year before I left, and it was going really well—I was doing everything at night or on my lunch break. But then, in summer 2006, Crain’s Chicago Business assigned me this big section on “the business of music” and it was way too big to do on the side, so I took the jump and quit.

I have absolutely no regrets, except that I didn’t do it earlier.

What does your day to day look like? Early phone calls, dashing around town, finding sources?

This is the tricky part of having a bunch of careers. I bounce back and forth from doing stuff for The Spares, being a journalist (which is its own balancing act because of all the different publications involved), and I’m also the director of music and the arts for a new church, Ethos. So, weekdays I do the office-based parts of all those jobs. And then concerts, practices, services, etc. happen at nights and on weekends, plus that’s when I do most of my actual writing. (I do research and interview people during the day, but I and I have trouble switching into a more creative mode if I don’t make a separate, distinct block of time for it.)

At worst, I’m up really late for a show or something, and then I’m supposed to interview someone on the east coast at 8am eastern/7 central. But there are also plenty of days where I can sleep in if I want to, so it balances out.

More on Steve tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Anyone you think would be perfect for this profile series? Let us know via Twitter or leave a comment!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 9:59 am and is filed under profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.