“If somebody is sitting there working till 2:00 a.m. with you, helping to write a little code, and says ‘Wow, that is a cool one,’ those words mean a lot to you and they deserve something. So I gave each of those five [early Apple employees] a large amount of stock, probably a million dollars in that day. And that was an early day for a million dollars.”
- Steve Wozniak, “Founders at Work” by Jessica Livingston
At most coffees or lunches since I’ve left my job, I see that combo eager/tentative look on people’s faces, as they inquire into my reasons for leaving Skillshare. It’s like I’m a piñata full of pent-up gossip or hurt feelings and all they have to do to enjoy the sweet contents is tap me lightly with a probing question; “So…what happened?”
I hate to disappoint, but I’m still singing Skillshare’s praises. I ain’t this guy.
Sure, I’ve got memories of harsh feedback and failed efforts emblazoned in my mind. And while it’s exactly those sore spots that have inspired me to create a peer mentor community and set of resources for early stage startup employees (more on that soon!), they’re not what define my post-Skillshare state of mind.
Every day, in moments of reflection, in networking conversations, I’m aware of how lucky I am to have Skillshare lineage. For all the sunshiny moments and stormy debates, Skillshare’s mine and I’m theirs. You’ll always be able to Google old articles like this one, where I’m quoted as the face of our community and spokesperson for our mission. And I’ll always have a meaty Skillshare section on my resume that will inform how others view my startup grit and qualifications. We help define each other.
Which is why I agonized over how to say goodbye in a respectful, meaningful, and forward-looking way. And although I couldn’t have predicted how Skillshare would send me on my way, I can now say it was pretty exemplary. Our individual approaches were mutually beneficial – we both knew that if I land well, that’s a win for Skillshare, too.
Here are some tips for employees and companies – startup or not – about how to graciously say goodbye to each other when the employee gives notice or there’s a mutual agreement that it’s time for the employee to go. This is *not* a replacement for a formal Exit Process (companies, you should have a detailed list of what to do when you let go of employees or when they quit), just a guideline for the “how” of it all.
Employees: How to Say Goodbye
Company: How to Say Goodbye
There’s a right way to say goodbye…and there’s definitely a not right way.
I can tell you from the past month post-Skillshare that the way we said goodbye has paid off. I’ve encouraged friends of friends to apply for jobs at Skillshare that I know they’d be a fit for, and I’ve had potential clients tell me they’ve heard great things about me from my former colleagues. It feels awesome to have your old teammates trek to Gowanus for your birthday party, meet up with you for a multi-glass-of-wine dinner, and smile when they run into you at the local coffee shop. So, if you’re walking around with a pit in your stomach about badmouthing your former boss when you know you made some of your own missteps along the way, or you regret saying goodbye the way you did…either fix it or do it better next time. It pays.
[Originally posted on TheCommunityManager.com]
A little over 2 weeks ago, I said goodbye to the Skillshare team. I’ll tell that story next, but this one’s about another community I had to bid adieu at the same time: the Skillshare teachers and students.
In fact, they had to part ways, too. One of the last things I did before I left Skillshare was officially retire the Master Teacher program I had started, nurtured, and grown with the help of our community team over the course of the past 2 years.
Over time, Skillshare has evolved and expanded the definition of what a class can be. We launched as a local marketplace and are now a global, online learning platform. We’ve also rethought and improved what teacher success looks like and how the best teachers can build and maintain their reputations on Skillshare. Our Master Teacher program no longer represented the full scope of our community and classes.
Knowing that Skillshare would continue to explore different ways to promote and connect its best teachers in its new landscape, I emailed each of our Master Teachers personally to let them know we would all have to move on. I was anxious about the responses I might receive – this wasn’t good news! But I was shocked. The overwhelming reaction from this group of committed Skillshare community members was supportive, understanding, and hopeful.
As one former Master Teacher said, “Thanks for the heads up! Keep me posted on the evolutions.”
So how’d I do it? Here are my tips for kindly and successfully closing down a community.
1. Ask Yourself Why
Start with these questions:
Whatever the reason…have one. Your answers to the above questions will clarify the outcome you’re hoping for and help you plan.
2. Draft a Plan
Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT wing it. Like any good PR expert would, answer all of the what ifs, plan for all possible realities.
Follow up your Whys, with these questions. If you can answer them, you’ll be well-prepared.
Also, think about all of the questions your community members might have for you and answer them *before* you talk to them! They might ask:
3. Do It In Advance
Give your community members time to react, ask questions, and prepare for what’s next. If you run a blogging platform and are doing a site redesign that will eliminate all previous blog comments, is there enough time for your bloggers to notify their followers and export the old content they want to save?
4. Be Honest
Be incredibly straightforward and honest. Be empathetic. Don’t overpromise. As a gesture of respect and mutual bummed-out-ness, tell your community why you’re making the decision you are – if you went through the steps above, you should feel pretty solid about the plan you’ve laid out and your community will hopefully see the logic, too.
Check out Uber’s exceptional communication about an experiment they were running with taxis in SF. While the topic of the announcement isn’t closing down a group, their human tone is good inspiration.
5. Be Thankful
Let your community members know how much you appreciate their time, effort, and contributions. Without them, you would have learned less about your business along the way. They deserve an official thanks!
This is what I said in my update email: “First, let me say a HUGE thank you for all of the effort and love you’ve put into teaching – you’ve helped make Skillshare what it is, and we’ve learned so much from working with you thus far!” And I meant it.
6. Set Aside Time to Talk
Be ready to answer questions about the logistics and impact of your community closing up shop. Have answers prepared – know how people can grab their data, if possible, and where they can communicate with each other moving forward. Also, be ready to have less tactical conversations. Some of your community members will want to thank you in person or vent their frustration, and listening goes a long way.
I set up “office hours” and spent much of that time reminiscing with our Master Teachers! These were nostalgic conversations, less rooted in next steps and more in getting used to the idea of change.
7. Offer Alternatives and Next Steps
They loved your brand yesterday, and they’ll still respect you the morning after if you follow the advice above. Find a more relevant way for your community members to engage with your company next. Give them a way to connect with each other, if you’re removing the forum where they used to convene. If you’ve held valuable data of theirs, try to find a way to give it to them.
I created a Google Doc where the Master Teachers could drop their contact info and notes about what they would/n’t like to be contacted about by other MTs. I reminded them that they could connect with our Education Team to learn more about teaching online classes and evolving with us.
These folks stuck with you and your work up until now, so if you respectfully involve them in a transition which directly affects them and offer them meaningful next steps, it’s likely that they’ll still spread the good word about their experience with your brand. As one of our earliest teachers said in his response to learning about the end of the Master Teacher program, “Thanks for changing my life (and thereby, helping to change all the lives I’ve changed).”
Just like we rarely see stories about companies that have failed, we rarely talk about communities that reach the end of their roads. There’s much to learn from both, so let’s help each other out and share!
10 Tips for Getting What You Want
I first made this presentation on getting what you want at the ReBoot Workshop, which was my first unconference ever and a really inspiring event with ambitious and creative people. The audience was made up of freelancers, entrpreneurs, and other non-9-5-ers. The main takeaway of my presentation: it’s in YOUR hands. Enjoy!
In prep for knocking out my first blog post in eons, I just read a great piece on how to deliver killer blog content that asked me to raise my right hand and swear swear swear that I would never ever write an “I’m sorry for not posting on my blog forever” post. So, instead of writing the self-indulgent post I originally had in mind (“I’m soooo busy!” “I haven’t come up with any brilliant ideas lately.”), I’m spitting out 3 reasons why I’m going to stop blogging altogether…and you should, too.
1. Stop Talking. Do.
Danyaneering is NOT about sitting back and an passively watching opportunities go by. Get out and learn things, then act on your new knowledge and use it to improve your companies, your neighborhoods, whole industries. Don’t just talk about what you believe in or are passionate about. I did it all wrong when I wrote an absurdly long post about what the world would be like if women ran it. I’m incredibly determined about women, in particular, bucking the status quo and taking the reigns, and one piece of advice I gave in the post was for women to collaborate more; I should have taken action and brought together powerful, female mentors and ambitious, eager women like myself. I did the right thing when I wrote about how to tell your story and then actually taught a class on the topic (to over 25 students now!). That particular combo – topic teaser + class – was inspired by Mike K’s incredibly rich post (and subsequent class) on how to launch your startup idea for less than $5K.
2. People and Gnats Have Similar Attention Spans.
Maybe attention spans are a myth altogether, but I agree with the sentiment that “[they] used to be robust; now they are stunted.” I come across, valuable, fascinating, witty content every single day on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, whether I’m queuing up tweets for Skillshare or I’m taking a break from work and am trying to learn something new and different from the many, many insightful people on the Interwebs. There’s something perfectly satisfying about the instant gratification that comes from bite-sized nuggets of wisdom and intrigue. We’ve all got tons to share, though not everything fits neatly on a blog. I want to tweet out photos of outfits I’m wearing and like, and I’m going to use Facebook to post on the wall for the the locals’ group I started for friends in my Brooklyn neighborhood. No need to bog down people with more text than they need (or want) to see!
3. Stop Being Self-Indulgent.
Stop hiding behind your computer screen and actually engage. First, be humble. I do believe – deeply – that we’ve each got something of value to share with each other, whether knowledge or a skill or a funny tidbit, but why not stop and think for once before putting out content? I’m not advocating waiting for the “perfect” idea, since that’ll never come, but it might actually be worth stewing on a topic before putting it out there and hoping that people will trudge through a 500+ word essay.
Second, we do enough gchatting with the people sitting right next to us at work; instead of staying seated in your ergonomically correct rolly chair and writing another post and hoping others will get value from it, go to a meetup or a class to connect with people on a topic that you’re curious about or even an expert in. If you must remain virtual, retweet interesting links and comment intelligently and emotionally on sites or posts that inspire/anger/educate you.
So, I’m going to stop blogging and start writing. I’m going to spend most of my time interacting with others and learning by doing, so that when I DO write, I’ll hopefully deliver something substantive and valuable. I plan to up my engagement and contributions via Twitter and Facebook, in particular, by sharing stuff I like. And I’m going to start adding my two cents to articles I read if I’ve got questions or extra insight that doesn’t necessarily require an entire blog post of my own. Sure, my tweets might get lost amidst the zillions that go out every day and it might take another season change for me to come up with a disruptive, unique, brief blog post, but I’ve got a plan. I’m aiming to post every 4-6 weeks at most, which’ll force me to be more creative, focused, and timeless. Calendar invites are going out to me, myself, and I to ensure I actually put pen to paper in a meaningful way once and a while. In the meantime, I’m actually going to try to reach people on a regular basis – online and IRL – with accessible, actionable, digestible info.
I read a Harvard Business Review article a few months ago about “the future CEO,” whom the magazine hypothesized would embody many qualities typically associated with women, such as good listening skills, multitasking, and empathy. Somehow, I’ve managed to grow up in a personal world where women do run the show, despite the completely unrepresentative nature of my experience out in the “real world.” My mom not only runs her consulting company, but she also founded it; I worked at Teach For America, a truly transformational organization, which was founded by Wendy Kopp (who has four kids, by the way!); and I’m positive that one of my best girl friends will be the US Ambassador to India someday.
So, when I read that that the brains at Haaaaaahvahd thought that the people running our country now and moving forward, whether male or female, should take a note from we ladies, and I then stumbled upon Sheryl Sandberg’s (Facebook COO) charge to graduating Barnard women to “run the world,” I started to imagine what the world might actually look like if we had more Dana Trumps around than The Donalds. This post is a rough collection of my imaginings and the musings and predictions of women whom I know and whose opinions I greatly value (I’ll use “LG,” in particular, to credit my friend, Lindsey Grossman, who leads teams at a major communications consultancy, where she provided some word-for-word gems!).
More Collaboration
I brought up this concept to a successful female friend who graduated from business school with straight As and is now on the founding team of a startup, and she told me that her boss (a woman) had actually said in passing that she hated other women CEOs, since they were bitchy and unsupportive. To be totally frank, the first thing that came to mind: ugh, if most CEOs and startup founders and government leaders were women, we’d just be one big PMS-y, bitchy, catty, backstabbing world and we’d just screw it up. Nope, I’m not kidding. After I got rid of the pit in my stomach from guilt about thinking that, I tore apart that thinking and sought out evidence to the contrary.
When the environmental conditions are right, i.e., heavily female networks, women can be amazingly supportive of each other and promote each other in really positive ways. If more women ran things, I bet there would also be more organizations, informal networks, and mentors focused on ensuring women in middle management or early in their careers have the skills and confidence to enter the highest levels of leadership: C-suite, the Senate, board rooms, pitch rooms (LG). Just look at Sharp Skirts, a knowledge network focused on helping women build smart businesses. Carla, its founder, generously responded to me with excitement when I pinged her to share my idea for this blog, and I love her attitude about this topic, as evidenced in the Sharp Skirts mantra: “No Pink. No Platitudes. Just Success for Smart Women.”
Less GroupThink
I’m talking about true diversity of opinion and more ideas. Think about what happens to a team any time someone brings in a new, creative point of view to the brainstorming session. We’ve all seen it. New perspectives allow businesses and governments to re-think the old ways and things that keep us up at night (LG). With mostly men at the table, although there may be many differences among them, there’s one, grand, shared privilege: being part of the majority when it comes to leadership, and that informs men’s decision-making and confidence.
More ideas would be explored, tested, and implemented if women had more of a leadership presence. Statistics show that women often lack the same levels of confidence that men have to go out and make something happen, but with more women in visible leadership roles, other women with an idea, with something to say, will pour all their passion into a dream, take a risk, and diversify the pool (LG).
When you see the word, “expert,” whom do you picture? When you go to a conference or watch a panel discussion on TV, who are the thought leaders? Right now, I imagine many of you are thinking of lots of white dudes – I’ve got no problem with interesting, innovative, smart men, but when women can’t relate to the people our society reveres as experts and leaders, that’s a situation that needs solving. With fewer role models to aspire to emulate than young men, I feel like there’s a potential ceiling on how far I can go OR like it’ll just be really damn hard to become the leader I want to be because it hasn’t been done enough before.
Men, Check Your Ego at the Door (sorry, Freud!)
Women tend to run smaller business, which allows them to better negotiate their personal lives and generating income. These companies are very different than the types typically dominated by male leadership. Women also tend to receive a lot of financing from smaller sources (i.e., friends and family, bank loans) than they do from larger scale investment opportunities (i.e., venture capital). When it comes to investing their own money, women typically like to help grow businesses, whereas men like to go after more explosive portfolios. For instance, a man might be more likely to invest in a portfolio of 10 companies in which 9 could fail and 1 might (might!) be the next Facebook. Women might tend to invest in a portfolio where no single company will get an insane ROI, but in which each will be moderately successful and profitable.
While there’s certainly an argument here for being risky and going with your gut, it’s clear to me, at least, that there’s a lot more ego involved in men’s investment decisions and leadership styles. Women tend to have really different goals in business than men, which promotes some of the stereotypes out there that are perceived as negative, but I think there’s so much value in humility and balance, since they allow us to recognize our faults…and not be afraid to ask for help and to improve.
Research shows that women feel they need to be 100% prepared to do something, i.e., starting a company, while men only need to be about 20% sure to dive right in. A friend who works with female entrepreneurs told me that there’s a lot of timidity in the process for women, BUT, when they find networks of other people (especially women) who are doing similar things and can provide advice (such as, “no, you’re not crazy!”), they fight the desire to be overprepared and just DO it. This tells me that women’s lack of ego protects us from making reckless decisions, but we can still rock it when we feel confident.
What needs to happen now:
While women can sometimes be each other’s worst enemies (I mean, who do you think invented the term “frenemy”?) and there are studies about negative behaviors that women currently exhibit in a heavily male workplace, this behavior is all a choice. Whether you’ve gotta call on your best friend or you have an actual board of directors who exists to ensure you’re holding yourself accountable to your principles, women, just keep doing what any good leader would do: work hard and work TOGETHER. We need to continue being thoughtful, but also take what feel like great risks and leaps in a world where we have few CEO role models – let’s go with our gut, which tells us that we, too, can be up there in the C-Suite.
The OpEd Project revealed the fact that when a group of men and women is asked “what are you an expert in?,” men raise their hands with examples significantly more than women, but when the same group is asked, “what are you a resource in?,” everyone has something to share. I want to grow up (yes, I’m still doing that!) in a world where women leaders make a conscious effort to share their insights, the lessons of their journeys, their skills and resources. And I’m not even talking about limiting this knowledge-sharing to women. A friend and I have begun to envision and dream and drool over a professional women’s network that will become the professional development hub for EVERY person who aspires to be successful. From Hillary Clinton to the CEO of Xerox to the founder of Flickr to the COO of Facebook (all fabulously intelligent, forward-thinking, successful women!), we can ALL learn a thing or two.
I think we’re on the right track, I do. I have so many strong female role models in my life, and I’m not alone. But will women simply strive to level the playing field, or will we bring a revolution to the way business and governments are run because of the unique skills and teamwork we offer? Will we support each other in the process or tear each other apart? I don’t pretend to have the solution, but I’m saying “screw it, I’m giving it a shot” and seeing what happens…and that’s what all women need to do, because I want my daughters to laugh when they read this outdated, unbelievable blog post from an antiquated time.
What do YOU think the world would look like if women ran it? What will YOU do to empower yourself or the women in your life (men, I’m talking to you, too!)?
Special thanks to Lindsey Grossman and Lauren Abele, who put precious time and mental energy into sharing their insights with me.
You know when you sit down for a job interview and the dreaded, inevitable conversation starter – a deceivingly simple and friendly one, at that – is, “So, tell me about yourself”? And you know how you blurt out a response that’s part job history, part personal hobbies, mostly ramble? Or, what about when you finally decide/resign yourself/get up the courage to create an online dating profile, and then you stare at your screen in total intimidation and fear for a few minutes because you can’t possibly perfect an online representation of yourself in a few pithy paragraphs and untrue-to-life photos?
I know it’s not easy for most people to talk themselves up – it feels like bragging, it’s too personal, it feels like it should be easier than it is…but it just isn’t. Honestly, I feel pretty damn comfortable talking about my professional trajectory, my personal interests, and pretty much have no filter, in general, but I’m also an admittedly stereotypical oldest child with a blog called “Danyaneering.” Even still, I’ve spent my fair share of time obsessing over how to succinctly summarize the most humbly impressive and logical narrative I can for a job or grad school interview or how to find the right balance between hot/cute, smart/fun, mature/spontaneous (and the list goes on) for an online dating profile (such an over-analysis trap!).
My story is still unfolding, but as a high-performing Danyaneer-er, former Teach For America recruiter, one-time business school applicant, and forever evolving and curious individual, I’ve come to some pretty solid conclusions about how to craft a narrative that’s appealing and productive.
NEXT STEPS FOR NEW YORKERS: For those of you in NYC, sign up to attend to my Skillshare class, “So, Tell Me About Yourself: how to craft and share your story,” on Sun., May 15, at 4 PM. I’d love to see you there!
This is a class that’s great for high school students applying to college, professionals figuring out how to make sense of a career switch, friends who’ve been saying they want to try online dating (and have been saying so for months but just don’t seem to be getting around to starting…), or a grandparent who’s interested in writing a life history for posterity’s sake but doesn’t know where to begin.
NEXT STEPS FOR NON-NEW YORKERS: For non-New Yorkers, I’ll be sure to share notes post-class! Would be much appreciated if you’d share the link to the class with your friends in the area, though 
ALL: If you’ve got a great spiel down OR you have a tricky life history that you’d like help brainstorming about, please share! If you’d like, I’ll even use your example in my class!
A few months ago, after saying to myself, “Hmm, what’s a startup? Working for one would be fun!,” I found my way to the smart & forward-thinking Phil Michaelson of KartMe.com via the fabulous & sharp Arlyn Davich of PayPerks.com. Phil gave me the unique opportunity to help him with the launch of his new site, KeepRecipes.com. After a couple months of being the chief member and community manager, which entails strategic brainstorming, blogging, tweeting, interviewing food bloggers, and cooking & eating delectable goodies made from recipes on the site, I’m excited that today has finally arrived!
KeepRecipes for Recovery, a 21-recipe digital cookbook of Japan-inspired dishes created by the phenomenal chefs below (see pic), is up for sale – donate a minimum of $10 (we’ve already gotten a donation of $500, though…no pressure!) and you get these recipes for yourself. Check out the full story via Mashable (article just posted today!).
Here’s a little more info about what it means to donate to Japan by buying the KeepRecipes for Recovery cookbook:
Your gift will go to the American Red Cross in support of disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.
Your support will enable the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support, and other assistance to victims of the disaster. On those rare occasions when donations exceed American Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters.
With more than 530,000 citizens relocated, 73,000 homes destroyed, and a death toll that now tops 11,000, the estimate for reconstruction is expected to top $300 billion and take over five years.
Do some good and get full by donating to KeepRecipes for Recovery today! Follow @KeepRecipes on Twitter to stay up-to-date on informative and fun updates, too!
I Googled “26 years old” and one of the very first links returned was an Onion article entitled, “26-Year-Old To See Every Asshole He Ever Went to High School With On Night Before Thanksgiving.” The very next result: “26-Year-Old Unmarried Cosmo Girl Worries About Becoming a Cougar.” Well, phewf. The worst that can happen to me after I turn 26 this May is that I have a whole lot of unwanted social interactions and feel insecure and lonely, right?
I’m so over the quarter-life crisis (sorry, John Mayer) and right smack in the middle of the 26-year hump. 25 was totally anti-climactic for me. I had already been living by myself in the LES for a year, had just gotten promoted to a manager-level position, and despite having just gotten braces for the second time a few weeks before my 25th birthday, I looked hot in my mini American Apparel black spandex dress due to the fact that I hadn’t eaten for days because of my sore teeth. I was feeling pretty damn good all around, to be honest. For me and many of my friends, 25 meant changing age brackets on surveys, balancing hard work and play (but still living out both), promotions and raises, and the passionate beginnings of true love (or relationships lasting more than 2 months). 26, in contrast, is giving me pause. It means not hiding behind the “I’m too young to know better” excuse, but also not having it all figured out either. Awk.
Hustle
By this point, lots of us have enough experience and skill to do more than simply execute and are no longer limited by the dreaded “3-4 years of experience” prereq for many of the jobs we feel entitled to. There’s also the breed of 26-yr-old that has spent a few years committed to TFA, Peace Corps, or some other intense effort that accelerates maturity and personal responsibility. For some, hefty bonuses, emails from corporate recruiters, grad school opportunities, or independent ventures are the reality now. To others, though, it seems like everyone else is doing better – making more money, managing more people, having more of a say.
Once upon a time, I was going to go into editing & publishing for a travel mag or work in the music industry. Then I joined staff at TFA and was only going to do that for a year before moving on to PR. When I fell in love with my job and colleagues, I stayed at TFA for 4 years. Last year around this time, I was sure I’d be in business school next year, and now I’m helping to launch a startup (www.keeprecipes.com) and am convinced that the NY tech and innovation community is the one for me. Many of my “By the Time I’m 25″ promises have come and gone, for better or for worse, but I can tell you that I’m wholeheartedly embracing the uncertainty, the shift in priorities, the steep learning curve, and the potential I know I have to do more and better.
Lurve
If I read “I love to go out, but I also enjoy a night in” on one more dating profile, I might scream. And yet…I get it. At 22, I was working damn hard but also going to Freestyle Mondays in the LES every Monday night at Midnight and considered Thurs. the start of my 3-day weekend. Since I know my family members and the college student interns whom I manage read this, I won’t get too detailed, but I was also pretty open to “meeting” new people. Now, though, I relish sunny Sat. mornings when I can get up whenever I want (or, more honestly, at 10 or 10:30 AM when my 26-year-old body wakes me up, no matter how much I’d love to sleep off my hangover from just a few glasses of wine), read the New Yorker or HBR that I didn’t have time to skim over the week, and cook up some shakshouka. Alone!
I actually enjoy staying home and catching up on my Netflix or Hulu queues every few Friday nights and I’m readily willing to admit that I sometimes need alone time, but I’m also starting to get a little impatient for my NYC male counterparts to turn 29 (didn”t you know? that’s the earliest they’ll put a relationship ahead of 90-hr work weeks and 3 or 4 roommates). To me, 26 means being mature enough to value commitment, but not yet ready to leave behind my to-the-bone work ethic, 4 AM Sat. night dance parties, and the occasional one-night stand.
Some 26-year-olds are married and already thinking about babies. Others are single and loving it (and also probably secretly wishing they had someone to share their knowledge, financial success, and time with). Now is the time when we’ll start seeing differences between ourselves and our peers, and we’ll just have to figure out what’s right.
And Everything Else
So, if we know enough to start profitable companies, teach others, and wait at least a few dates before going home together, but we still feel like we have lots to prove and aren’t all (*ahem* boys) ready to close the door on playing the field, personally and professionally, then what’s next?
I say:
Oh, and the fourth result that came up when I Googled “26 years old” was an article about a 26-year-old becoming the Managing Editor of The New Yorker. Natch.
Music is me – couldn’t live without it.
I could say “Ladysmith Black Mambazo” before I could put a sentence together, grew up thinking that every kid knew how to change a record and that everyone’s parents had bookshelves filled with more records than books (ok, just one particular bookshelf…), took every music culture class in college and thought about creating an Ethnomusicology major (Wash U only had it for grad students) until I realized I didn’t want to sit around all day transcribing, interned at and still volunteer for Afropop Worldwide (www.afropop.org), and always prefer listening to music rather than the news as I get ready for work in the morning.
As a whole bunch of you know, I send out semi-regular music updates. I’m thinking that it’s still worthwhile to send the email blasts, since I love getting year-in-review film recommendation lists and other such gifts from friends in my inbox and I selfishly love the feedback and recommendations I often get in response to my blasts…BUT, I also want these recommendations to live on and be accessible beyond the quick messages I send, so I’m going to add them to the “tunes” page on my blog, too. Check out the page for an archive of past blasts…
Would love to know what you think – email blast AND blog? Just one or the other? Couldn’t care less either way and just want to boogie down? All comments encouraged.
