Communication is music.
It has a rhythm, a tone, a theme, variations, a flow, a build, a performance.
Like with music, practice is part of discovery, learning and refining.
I love being in the company of great conversationalists.
Most of my favorite composers are wonderful communicators.
They tell stories filled with colorful details. They share fresh and thought-provoking perspectives. They energize me through their engaging ways.
When I listen to people, I love and admire how they pepper their conversations with clues and tidbits about themselves and their accomplishments.
When someone artfully composes their conversation with details about their achievements they are doing me a favor.
Like many in the entertainment industry, I engage with dozens of people every day. I am not going to research them all. I’m not going to remember everything about them. I’m not going to actively track their accomplishments.
I sincerely appreciate being informed or reminded about the interesting, relevant and impressive details about someone, especially when its presentation is artfully rendered.
There are many ways to bring up films you have scored, awards you have won, people you have collaborated with. Some of those ways play well to some audiences and some to others.
Broadly speaking, conversations in show business have a more heightened, more colorful, more hyperbolic, more self-promoting, more hyped, more “Hollywood” flavor than in many other industries. Artists on both sides of the conversation in the entertainment industry typically communicate more colorfully than those in the accounting department
Like with performing music, it is important to know your audience. Speaking to Paul Thomas Anderson would be pitched differently than with Michael Bay.
Practice how to be someone that others in show business would WANT to talk with. Watch how successful people communicate about themselves.
Practice and practice and practice.
Don’t get caught up on fear of “bragging.” Bragging is just a description of a poor performance of a great idea.
The great idea is sharing key information about yourself in a beautiful manner that resonates.
Master communicating through words as beautifully, uniquely, professionally, nimbly and delightfully as you do through your music.
