It’s not breaking news that it’s a rough time in the media business (putting aside Barbie for just a moment). We’ve got labor strikes in Hollywood, a collapsing business model in broadcast and cable TV, and a worrisome pullback from a host of resident theater companies. So, I was happy to unexpectedly discover wildly diverse examples of media creativity and success springing from one unassuming family. Maybe I’d find a little guidance for others about how to foster careers in media?

The cast of characters here begins with Hamilton Clancy, the Producing Artistic Director of The Drilling Company, which aims to “produce, nurture, inspire and develop new, quality American plays by emerging dramatists” and which also presents the free and brilliantly named productions of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot on New York City’s Lower East Side. More than a few years ago I acted alongside Joe (as he is known to those of us with longstanding ties) in the Washington, DC theater community and have marveled at his innovative triumphs since (in acting as well as producing).

It turns out that Joe is just part of a triumvirate of media “moguls” in vastly different venues. Joe’s younger brother Dan is the CEO of Twitch, the Amazon-owned live streaming video platform that has expanded its content reach from gaming to dozens of other genres. Another of his younger brothers, Paul, is the President and CEO of Fred Rogers Productions, which likely needs no introduction. A point of clarity on nomenclature: Joe and Dan are Clancy’s, while Paul’s last name is Siefken. It was a family tragedy (the early and sudden death of Joe and Dan’s biological father) that brought their mother and adopted dad together and produced a creative enclave of 7 siblings. Yet as Paul pointed out, no one ever thought of any of their brothers or sisters as “half” anything.

My recent discussion with the Brothers Clancy/Siefken included not only a horde of great family stories – it comes with the Irish heritage territory – but some very illuminating thoughts about commonalities in their very diverse media career paths.

The brothers grew up in New Orleans, and as Dan points out, at a young age they didn’t fully appreciate the musical heritage that surrounded them. But the geographical influence was in the ether. Paul attended high school with Harry Connick, Jr. A friend of Dan and Joe’s told them about a classmate who was about to take his spot as the lead trumpet in band and orchestra. That kid was Wynton Marsalis. Another classmate became an opera singer at the Met. And after a local Walk for the Hungry attended by their family, Aaron Neville asked their dad for a ride home, happily supplied with kids in tow.

Not everybody can grow up in New Orleans, but the Clancy/Siefken household would have been a creative beehive anywhere. They described an atmosphere that would have made Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland proud: “Let’s put on a show!” was the ethos. Their late and beloved Aunt Margaret – herself a once-aspiring New York actress – was the full-of-life ringleader and all joined in on the creative playing. This continued into school musicals with Paul remembering the older boys ubiquitously “practicing their ‘ya-yas’” around the house.

“Storytelling” has become a media biz buzzword in recent years, but the Clancy/Siefkens were all over this decades ago. Their mom Mary Ethel would regale all with stories drawn from her classic Southern upbringing, and their grandfather Myron drew his unique brand of hard-to-diagram stories from a sturdy Midwestern rearing. The brothers took this love and omnipresence of storytelling in very different paths leading to their present destinations.

The brothers also made a point of noting the importance their parents placed on the debt we owe to the community around us. They met in the context of their political activism and were active in causes such as the Bread for the World. Even in a personal sense they were committed to a better world. Noting the segregated nature of New Orleans, and the heavily white schools their children attended, the parents for eight years belonged to a mostly black church as a means of connecting with that community also. As Joe explained it, “we all knew we needed to make the world a better place.”

Everyone’s media journey (like any other one) is extremely personal, but you can see some of the seeds of a career in creative enterprises. First, as the brothers’ diverse paths demonstrate in spades, creativity comes in many forms. For Joe that creativity was expressed through “finding bits of reality and bringing them to life” on film or stage, whether acting, producing or directing. Paul became a high school English teacher, seeking to inspire a love of literature in his students, and eventually wrote plays as well that gave him the confidence as a creative artist. Dan’s creative chops began far further afield as an engineer – including at NASA and Google - but he now oversees an infinitely creative environment at Twitch.

Dan also noted how different the approach to media success has been by the three brothers. Joe was the big planner, always wanting to be in the theater. Joe even avoided getting proficient as a juggler out of fear that he might be less motivated to stick with theater (theater pros will nod appreciatively at their profession being less secure than that of a juggler!). Paul’s journey has been a mix of planning and serendipity - from the organized sending out dozens of letters before landing a gig at the Cartoon Network to the happenstance of his Cartoon Network boss bringing him to PBS KIDS in part based on his playwriting. And Dan described his own path as almost entirely the opposite of long-term planning: “I just walked through the doors that were open.” What’s the ultimate lesson here? Maybe we should go back to the ancient Roman Seneca for his take: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”

Despite those varied paths, the familial sense of social responsibility has accompanied each of the brothers’ passages. It might be most obvious in Hamilton/Joe’s devotion to free Shakespeare, and Paul’s stewardship of the iconic Mister Rogers’ legacy. But it’s no less a part of Dan’s own commitment to spend time as the CEO hearing directly from Twitch streamers and their “Streaming Stories.” Amid so many trying business realities, we can all take some inspiration from those trying to enhance the world of creativity and inspiration.