The most perfect pitch email I’ve ever received: a breakdown of what she did right
Bracing myself, I open my email. And there they are: rows and rows and rows of unread messages, with subject lines like,
TRACK
NEW MUSIC!
MADE IN CHELSEA – MUSIC?
BAND FROM THE SOUTH
NEW MUSIC FOR TV
It was 2013 and I’d spent a few years doing the sexiest-seeming job I’d ever had: choosing music for big TV shows and movies.
I say “sexiest-seeming” because it was honestly a lot of me sitting around in my underwear on my bedroom floor, surrounded by scraps of paper, feeling stressed out, and making suggestions to directors who then, half the time, went with one of their own choices anyway.
But TELLING people “I choose music for big TV shows and movies” definitely elicited the kind of impressed response that made it feel worth it.
A downside of the job was my email inbox. By 2013, bands were already learning that one of the only ways to make money as a musician was through getting your music “synched,” as they call it. As someone who loves new music, you’d think I wouldn’t have been so bummed out by getting sent so much of it. The problem?
The same problem that EVERYONE being pitched — whether it’s for a music supervisor or a big deal podcast host or a journalist or publication editor — has:
What some of the most annoying people in my life have taught me
As he starts talking, my heart sinks. I’d chosen him specifically because I thought he was different from the others. And yet… here he is, doing the same thing they all do.
I’ve been going to a boxing gym on and off for a few years, but I only started taking it seriously this spring. To be clear: I have zero interest in ever boxing anyone’s face. But after a life coach I’d worked with suggested that I find a way to express some, shall we say, negative emotions I was experiencing — in a way that wouldn’t damage any of my relationships — I got back into classes.
I’m now going two to three times a week, and I fugging LOVE it. I have a running joke that boxing classes are my new girlfriend. When I’m in them, my internal monologue is usually THIS IS THE BESSSSSSSSST I WANT TO BE HERE FOREVVVVVVVVERRRRRR (I mean, those times when it’s not “wait! Was it jab-cross-left hook-right uppercut? Or jab-cross-right uppercut-left hook?” — I have horrible short-term memory for the sequences). When I’m not in a class, I am counting the hours until the next one, or feeling excitement when I see it on my calendar. When I’m rolling my wraps back up after a class, I think, “Soon, you’ll be back on my hands, under my gloves!!!!” This week, I was out of town in a different city. Driving around, I saw the sign for a (different) boxing gym and my heart LEAPT, in the way that only reminders of a crush can inspire.
I love everything about the boxing classes. Except for the Bro’s At The Boxing Gym…
My friend had a good idea for when you’re in a dark place (CW: suicidal ideation)
This is a blog about a time I experienced suicidal ideation — where you know you’re most likely not going to kill yourself, but you wish you could — and my friend came up with a way for me to tell her what was going on, without having to directly tell her.
Working with people virtually? Here’s how to stop disliking them
In my 20s, I had this roommate I couldn’t STAND. She and I just seemed to be cut from a different cloth, and I found everything about her irritating. Most annoyingly, she’d NEVER buy the toilet roll!! It got to the point where I would roll my eyes every time I heard her come home.…
The addiction I can’t shake. And the great CANADA LEE.
I stopped taking recreational drugs in my mid-twenties. I found them fun, but I didn’t like that it took me so long to recover. I don’t drink booze very often these days; I do enjoy it (I am Russian *and* British), but I don’t enjoy the three days of being so tired I want to…
The most ridiculous public thing I’ve ever done (My story for the Good Life Project podcast)
A few years ago, a conference I was going to asked us to pitch an “inspiring story.” I thought, What the heck have I ever done that’s inspiring…??? But then I thought, Oh, I guess there is that one thing, that I barely talk about because whatever, but I suppose someone might think of that…
How To Tell Great Stories — the MOST important thing you need to know!
If you want to be good at telling stories, there’s ONE thing you need to know above all else, and it’s what I talk about in this video.
Also, I dress up as Rocky, a hacky Parisian tourist and as everyone in The Graduate. So if you’d like to see (no exaggeration) the MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO I’VE EVER MADE , you’re in luck! Click on the play button here or read the transcript below!
Telling your origin/“why” story? Here’s a break-down of how to do it.
“It also does one more thing,” I trailed off, making a face — because I knew this could go one of two ways. “What?” she asked. “Well, it means they’re probably going to picture you naked. Which I actually don’t think is such a bad thing.” Before I’d even finished the sentence, she burst into…
Writing a talk or presentation? Ask yourself this essential question
Sitting at my desk, I heard a knock and looked up with tears in my eyes. Opening the door and catching sight of my face, my girlfriend’s eyebrows furrowed, “Are you ok?? What’s wrong?”
I motioned to my computer. “I just listened to Pradeepa’s story again. It’s so beautiful!”
When my client Pradeepa Narayanaswamy got in touch with me, she’d just seen an 8 minute talk I’d done at World Domination Summit.
I’ve been invited to do a TEDx Talk, she said. I know my story is powerful and I want to inspire people, but I have a lot of stories and content in my head. I’m a bit stuck.
This is kind of like catnip for me — helping people figure out what their message is and which of their myriad of stories they should tell onstage is literally my favourite work to do — so of course I jumped at the chance. And I knew exactly the first thing we needed to do:
Before we even wrote the talk, I asked Pradeepa the question I always start with (that you should, too). The question is:
What are your…
I’m a slow reader, but I RACED through this book
Every time I walked past my bookshelf, I’d try and shield my eyes from it. When I didn’t, it was hard to ignore: bright yellow and red spine, perfectly uncreased. It felt like the book was laughing at me. Why d’you even bother buying me? Why am I even taking up space in your house?…
