AUSTIN – I always like to pride myself as someone who can talk to everyone, but when it comes to professional settings (when it matters the most) I just can’t. Today was the day I break that.
We started our day at 6 a.m. after a long night of planning, hashing out plans and working on the pitch deck. After a dressing montage, a ham and cheese bagel and head on our way to the Austin Convention Center.
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We made good time and got into the center with no problem and immediately got in line after accidentally getting into the wrong line. In our defense, a lady did point to it saying that was where we had to go. You ask me, I think she was taking out the competition.
When the clock struck 8 a.m., we made our way in and got our badges. It was really surreal going in and getting my badge at an event like this.
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After grabbing the badges and a quick photo session, we headed out to our first event.
We started our day at 701 Congress for a Morning Mixer where we met a lot of creators all with the same goal. We were all so excited to get started, we all started talking in the lobby of the event before we even got started. We met filmmakers, documentarians, and critics (which we all just talked about Dune: Part Two). But above all else, we were just handing out cards Jacob had printed with a QR code connected to our podcast. Every chance I got, I always squeezed in “here’s my card!” It was the mantra for the day.
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From there, we went our separate ways to our speaker sessions. Jacob and Bailey went to a talk called “How to Authentically Unite Podcast Storytelling and Brands” and Isaiah went to a talk called “The State of Comedy with Universal Television’s Development Execs”. I went to a talk called “The Science & Craft of Storytelling: How to Make People Care”. This session featured an award-winning filmmaker named Cheryl Miller Houser of Creative Breed.
During her session, she touched on the ways to bring people into the story you want to share. She shared different ads from Apple, The Farmer’s Dog, and even Liquid Death. Each tells their kind of story but tugging at people’s emotions, whether it be happy or sad. I was brought to tears by one ad from the soap brand, Dove, and their Real Beauty Campaign. The campaign focused on tearing down toxic beauty standards and making an inclusive vision of beauty. The ad told the story of a young girl developing an eating disorder from the contact she was seeing on social media. All I could think about was all the women in my life. My girlfriend. My mom. My little sister. Wondering how they felt. Wondering when the last time was I told them they were beautiful. So if you have a special lady in your life, tell them they are beautiful. A very poignant revelation just in time for International Women’s Day.
After leaving the session, we all immediately met back up and rushed to the nearest food truck. I found a little corner in the center where we were able to hide from people. When you have been doing nothing but talking to people and being in crowds, your social battery runs low. We inhaled our food and had our debriefing.
It felt like a war room situation, us breaking down what we learned and how we could use it. It felt great, we had a new angle on how to beat this pitch into shape. We immediately wanted to get to work so we headed back to the car and drove back home but that was a mistake. You see, after walking and talking all day we all started to get drowsy. We all decided to go to our rooms and rest.
I don’t nap. Mainly because of my schedule and just the want to not waste time. When I tell you I slept like the dead, for those three hours, I was dead to the world. So were Bailey and Jacob. But it was Isaiah who stayed up and drafted a new pitch.
After waking up and eating dinner, Isaiah gave us the rundown which is what we needed to get into the late-night groove. We sent him to bed about an hour and a half ago and now we are working on the pitch deck again, readying ourselves for the next day’s events. Until then, I just wanted you to know, you are beautiful.