work is more fun when you you let yourself fail

the daily taryn

a daily writing project about everything and maybe also nothing

january 16th, 2019

I TOLD YOU I'D DO TWO TODAY.

I'm down in LA for a meeting that I had earlier today. I walked up to the receptionist, said my name and who I was here to see, waited in the lobby for a hot minute, then was walked to a board room with snacks and water and coffee and everything I could ask for. I talked for 2 hours and shook hands with the nice people and got settled in my uber and laughed. I remembered how little me never thought I'd be in meetings. Like, it cracks me up to think of me at age 11, thinking there's no chance in hell I'd ever be in a "business meeting." I don't know why either — I must've thought that only CEO's and big wigs went to meetings — not your average, run-of-the-mill employee.

I like meetings. They're fun and collaborative and useful. After mine, I ubered to my friend Stephen's (wrabel) writing session to work remotely. I've been to countless of his sessions but have never stayed from start to finish.

It. was. fascinating. Watching people make a song is my new hobby. In this session, they listened to some music and joked around and got to know each other. The producers started playing around with some noises and sticking with some and booting others. The writers started singing wordless melodies to the beats, then basically picked a topic. "This song feels like a 'fuck you, I'm happy' kinda song." From there, a song was made. Picking words and laughing and clapping and "YES THAT'S PERFECT' and "wait i liked the other hook better" and "omg that bass line!" and all the instruments and buttons and level checks and bad ideas and good ideas and "ready for vocals?" and tada, a song.

It was so inspiring — seeing people do something creative together out loud. My meetings aren't like that. Most people in "business world" don't want to look stupid. They only speak when they know the answer. They stay silent when they don't. They ask questions when they sound good and answer them to look good. This songwriting process was so different. In this session, there was no ego. They were throwing out ideas left and right — openly trying to make something cool and meaningful together. I sat there, half working and half listening, thinking about how envious I was of this work environment.

Then, I remembered what Taryn two nights ago wrote. You can create your future, sis. You don't have to change careers to bring collaborative, magic meetings to life. Take what you learned and bring it into your life.

In my next brainstorm-style meeting, I'm going to share the story of this songwriting session, and I'll ask if people are up for joining me in leaving their ego at the door.

I don't know — it was just a fun day watching other people be completely in their element and learning not too be stubborn to learn from it all. Got home, had some great dinner with some lovely LA friends, and now I'm sitting in a face mask drinking a green juice at 11:43pm. Peak los angeles? I think so.

Talk tomorrow,
Your friend,
Taryn

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