7PS: Know when to zip it ๐Ÿค

7PS: Know when to zip it ๐Ÿค

Read time: 1 minute, 307 words. When Quincy Jones heard the final mix of “Billie Jean,” he had one concern. The intro was too long. Radio programmers were already complaining that listeners would change stations before the vocals came in. โ€‹Quincy pushed...
7PS: Capture the moment ๐ŸŽฅ

7PS: Capture the moment ๐ŸŽฅ

Read time: 1 minute, 370 words. In 2017, I traveled to Selma with Congressman John Lewis. Over breakfast at the hotel, I asked if I could record him reading a speech. โ€‹I had a vague idea then. Maybe an album about Selma. Nothing concrete. We found an empty ballroom. I...
7PS: You know enough to start ๐ŸŸข

7PS: You know enough to start ๐ŸŸข

Read time: 1 minute, 367 words. A man is brought into the emergency room after an accident. He is bleeding badly. A doctor rushes over and prepares to treat him. Before the doctor can begin, the man interrupts. “Wait,” he says.โ€‹”How did this happen...
7PS: My content audit ๐Ÿ“

7PS: My content audit ๐Ÿ“

Read time: 1 minute, 377 words. For most of my career, I rarely posted on social media. When I worked in finance, my employer discouraged it. That changed in June 2024, after I attended the Kit.com conference in Boise (and I no longer worked in banking). I learned...
7PS: Run through the tape ๐Ÿ

7PS: Run through the tape ๐Ÿ

Read time: 1 minute, 346 words. A veteran editor was finishing his final week at a newspaper. Decades of deadlines were behind him. โ€‹When the editor-in-chief asked him to oversee one last issue, he agreed, already half checked out. He skimmed instead of reading...
7PS: Turn the knob๐Ÿšช

7PS: Turn the knob๐Ÿšช

Read time: 1 minute, 300 words. โ€‹ A man stands in front of a locked door he’s been trying to open for months. He studies the hinges. He inspects the grain of the wood. He wonders who built it and why. He sketches diagrams. Reads manuals. Asks others what they...