spark360 Behind The Scenes: Rodney Anderson

Dallas mortgage banker Rodney Anderson has a great story to tell about his attempts to help raise credit scores for millions of Americans. He’s proposed his own Congressional bill, the Medical Debt Relief Act, and he’s done what he felt he had to do to get lobbyists’ attention and garner support for his efforts. He and his assistants are getting a personal civics lesson in how Washington works – or in some cases, doesn’t work.

It’s a story of economics, politics, power and how all of it impacts any American who tries to borrow money to buy a house or refinance an existing loan, but can’t because of a years-old medical debt collection that somehow slipped through the cracks.

But when I asked Rodney if any news organizations had covered his story, he told me that only one local TV news crew had filed a piece. USA Today has interviewed him, but that’s about it for major national media outlets.

So with our Anderson story, spark360 expands its storytelling repertoire to include issues reporting. We’ve already staked out our territory as a way for small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs to get their message out about how they are impacting their various industry segments. But now we’re offering up our news-style Social Business Television treatment and unique web-based distribution model – branded online video channels and social media – to open the door to a new set of stories. Depending on the kind of story and whether or not it meets spark360 parameters, we can also help an advocate for a certain cause illustrate a potential solution to a problem.

Rodney’s story certainly has business-related elements to it, but it’s not really about his specific mortgage origination firm. In fact, he requested that the focus not be on Supreme Lending. It’s about an issue – credit reporting – that’s affecting a lot of Americans. In many ways, it took me back to my TV journalism days with CNBC and CNN; finding compelling stories and the people who can best tell them.

I’m also including some behind-the-scenes photos of our spark360 crew shooting video in Rodney’s offices in North Dallas. You get some idea of how we are able to bring you professionally-shot stories and how we interact with the people and businesses we profile on spark360.tv. More photos and some videos are also coming for future blog posts, as we work to expand the types of exclusive content you’ll find here on spark360.

In the meantime, check out Rodney’s story and let us know what you think about his cause, or whether you’ve run into the same credit obstacles he’s trying to fix. I wasn’t kidding when I called this story, “Mr. Anderson Goes To Washington” in our spark360 video profile. It might compel you to get involved with making a positive difference somewhere.

- Renay San Miguel