📘 Joel and the terrible, no good, very bad first impression
“Hey everyone I’m Joel. First of all, Cincinnati isn’t that bad.”
I was nervous.
This was my first time speaking to the entire company as the new Executive Editor of The Dad. An extremely senior salesperson spoke just before me about a big deal they just closed with Kroger, headquartered in Cincinnati.
“Picture me and Denise, in HIGH HEELS, walking down the street in CINCINNATI OHIO. Hahahahaha…”
I was like:
Hold up. Do they think people in Cincinnati don’t wear high heels? WTF.
She continued with the unprompted Cincinnati roast sesh. It went on for a while. The company laughed along heartily.
When it was my turn to speak I walked to the front of the room.
“Hey everyone I’m Joel. First of all, Cincinnati isn’t that bad.”
Salesperson in the front row, “Um, yes it is, I was there.”
“Alrighty… so anyway, I’m from Cincinnati and I’m excited to be here…”
Off to a great start.
I introduced myself and my background. Readers of this substack are quite familiar with all of this, as it’s been the topic for the past several months. And if you’ve read even one post here, you understand what that journey has meant to me, especially in that moment. I was in front of a media company, leading a new brand in their portfolio. Only weeks ago I was in that tail end of my extremely corporate career, CRAVING something more creatively fulfilling. Wishing for this moment in the form of a mantra I wrote over and over.
Jill Smokler was running the presentation deck from the front of the room right where I was standing. When I talked about the serendipitous opportunity I had to work with Scary Mommy and how thankful I was to Jill for giving me that chance, I started to become overwhelmed with emotion. My voice cracked.
“Working with Jill changed my life and helped me get this role, which I can honestly say is my dream job,” I managed to say from within an emotional fog.
“So this is the guy we have leading our mostly comedy brand? The guy who called out a senior salesperson at the start of his presentation for dissing his podunk town and then teared up when talking about his first freelance job? Okay then… This outta be interesting.”
Alright cool so that’s me. Looking forward to working with you all. Let’s talk about The Dad…
Right off the bat I introduced The Dad voice via "Brand taglines we considered…”
This is what modern fatherhood looks like.
We make the stuff you share with other dads.
Entertainment for guys with kids.
Tell dad jokes; don’t be the dad joke.
Not just a mom site with the pronouns switched.
And then one more that I won’t say here because it was just a jab at a competitor dad brand. It was meant to be a joke that might get some laughs. But it got… NOTHING. Crickets. I looked over at our senior leadership team, one of whom I’d later find owned equity in the competitor brand. Their faces were like…
I wrapped with the plan: The Dad would launch on November 1.
I handed the microphone back to my boss, Paul (COO), and I noticed my hands were shaking from nerves. Paul was probably second guessing ALL of his hiring decisions.
I walked to the back feeling like that was one of the worst presentations I’ve ever given.
Paul tried to lighten the mood in the room. “Just want you all to know that Joel actually isn’t THAT old he just has prematurely gray hair!” He was right, it got laughs. “Thanks Paul!” I yelled from the back.
“We’ll all be seeing more of Joel here in the office. He’ll be here every week while we get The Dad started.”
Nick and Ben looked at me and said “What? Did you know about that?”
I had NO idea. I said “Nope. Laura is gonna divorce me.”
So apparently I’d be traveling to NYC more often. I’d be seeing lots of more frequent flier miles and also lots of high heels. Finally.