New media company strives to inspire and empower others

Carey Pena left her high-profile anchor job on 3TV to start her own company, Inspired Media 360. After years of covering crime and other hard news, she now works to inspire people through the stories IM360 covers, the shows and content her company creates, and the many events and charity efforts she emcees and volunteers for. She strives to cover stories that inspire and empower others, and shines light on and gives back to many charities and worthy causes. She officially launched a new studio in Phoenix 2/22, called the Center for Positive Media.

What is Inspired Media 360?

Pena: “It is a media company that was built out of my deep love for journalism.”

Pena was an anchor at 3TV for many years, and graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

She said she wanted to tell “the story behind the story.” Or what happens next. For example, she would go to breaking news stories, and interview people during tragedies, fires, floods, and terrorism attacks.

“What was intriguing to me was what happens next. When we go through things, how do we recalibrate? How do we go on in life? I was always motivated by that part of the story,” she said.

As a result, she started podcasts that began telling inspirational stories about how people move on after the fact.

She recalled one story where a family’s 4-year-old child died, and the parents immediately signed up to donate the child’s organs. In doing so, they saved a small child’s life in Minnesota, and Pena was invited to share the story of the two families meeting.

She said when that story went online, it went viral, leading her to study data on how people connect online. She studied stories about people sharing inspiration, love, triumph, community connection.

With her substantial social media following, Pena asked herself “How do I use this for the greater good?”

With that, her mission to inspire people with news began to take shape.

For more information visit inspiredmedia360.com