Let Go and Haul: hard things, relatable things
Week 28, 2018 – Brooklyn / Upstate NY
Journey: where we’re at
Gah this week was hard. Shipping good software is hard. Estimating work and time is hard. Getting in front of potential issues is hard. Deadlines are hard. This week reminded me a lot of this video Ian made:
When my students at Cornell last year were in the thick of their product woes right before semester deadline, I sent them this video to remind them that the reason they were feeling like the work was hard is because it *is* hard. Making things is hard and it doesn’t get easier the more you do it, it just gets different.
Journal: what I learned this week
On the topic of hard things, this week I was reminded of the power of simply acknowledging when something is hard and nothing more.
I’m constantly trying to improve things. Myself, my life, the systems around me, my work etc etc. When I do something well I’m immediately picking it apart to think of what I could have done better. When people around me complain that things aren’t going the way they want, I feel compelled to try and help them make it better – especially if I’m in a position of responsibility or they’re coming to me for help. But sometimes, we can’t fix things. Sometimes, we shouldn’t be the one fixing things. Sometimes, shit is just hard and the only thing you can do is acknowledge it is hard.
Someone close to me is going through something hard right now. There’s not much I can do about it which is a downer. I’ve found myself just acknowledging how hard the situation is. The amazing thing is, there’s so much power in simply doing that. Sometimes, we just need the solidarity of “yes, this is hard.”
In lighter topics, I ended up playing Pitch Deck last night. When this was suggested it had me like…
First of all, I strongly dislike organized fun. Strongly. What is organized fun? Fun that requires reading rules before you start having it. I mean seriously, who invented that? Board games are the worst sort of organized fun in my opinion, and I pretty much do anything in my power to remove myself from the situation the minute someone is like “Ohhhhh let’s play a game!”. (I know some of you love them and are probably like who is this monster I subscribed to emails from? It’s nothing personal. Board games are just very divisive. Like cats. In fact, I’m pretty sure that hell is a room full of boardgames and cats). Anyway, you can imagine my excitement at not only a game but one that requires me to pitch a company. That is kinda the last thing I want to be doing on a Saturday night.
But, the game needed four players and I didn’t want to spoil the fun for my three friends who wanted to play. So, with an extra-large whisky in hand, I begrudgingly joined.
It was actually pretty fun. I think I didn’t hate it because it’s more like improvising, which is something my brain likes.
I also ended up winning (!) with the pitches “Grindr for things your mom won’t do for you anymore” and “Diva cup for fireplaces”. The other funded ideas were “Netflix for the apocalypse” and “Fox News for the vaginal region” which had us in tears laughing LMAO 😂Thanks friends for making me play your game I guess it was actually pretty ok I admit I had fun and would do it again *looks at the floor* #TIL
After, I realized that in both cases, I made my idea relatable for the investor. The first time it was with a “user” anecdote of a real tweet I’d recently seen, and the second time it was by focusing on a real problem in the investor’s personal life. Of course, this now had me thinking about the TRASH pitch. Oh boy. So there was this month last winter when it just wasn’t clicking and I couldn’t figure out why. I was so frustrated because when I talked to potential customers they got it right away, but for some reason when I talked to investors, I didn’t get the same reaction. Luckily, we had Betaworks to help, and during a rigorous week of pitching 2x a day for a week during Visioncamp, I was getting helpful feedback that a) investors didn’t necessarily know anything about the online video habits of Millennials, and b) they also might not know that editing video is hard. I needed to make that relatable. It was like finally someone clicked on a light in my very dark, frustrated brain and after that the pitch started working. Make it relatable folks.
Sidebar: “something relatable” was one of the top categories for popular Vines. Like this one, omg I love this one:
Jams: what I’m into
This Leonce mix is absolute fire. You could put this on for pretty much any event and it will do exactly what a good mix is supposed to do. I’m so glad the Fader seems to be making mixes again. I missed these.
The Sorority is a new group out of Toronto. This album is raw and exciting. Hearing a new group of women emcees is dope af. Shout out to my sister Monika for this one!