March 2018 * CoveyClub

Issue 2

March 2018

A letter from editor Lesley Jane Seymour

The Humbling Truth About Starting Over at 60
Sometimes you just have to laugh.
At yourself.

A few months ago, I decided to imitate entrepreneur, vlogger, public speaker and Internet superstar Gary Vaynerchuk’s video releases. For months, I’d watched this over-caffeinated dude in a dirty t-shirt strut around his driveway exhorting his followers to reach for their dreams. I loved the way he spoke directly and authentically into the camera. There was no studio lighting, no hair or makeup person trying to make him look perfect. There was just his message.

To me, Vaynerchuk’s videos are the apotheosis of modern Internet communications: raw, unpolished, real. They are also the total opposite of the careful, studied media world in which I grew up–where not a hair is out of place. Since I’ve always been an early adopter, and now am a full-fledged entrepreneur, I decided to try his approach myself.

At that point, I was six months late producing the beta version of Covey and I was becoming increasingly anxious that my potential members–some of whom had signed up way back in February 2015—would start to feel I had left them dangling. I was dying to reach out and communicate. And one day, I just knew it was V-Day (as in Video). That Thursday, I was headed to New York City for an event, which meant I had dressed nicely and was wearing mascara. (So, yes, although Gary Vaynerchuk’s authenticity spoke to me, his dirty t-shirt did not.) I had 10 minutes before I needed to leave for the train, so I walked out into my yard, held up my phone and pressed record.

Three minutes later I tried to post the vlog but noticed that, while I could hear myself perfectly, the only thing I could see was a bright orange wall. I looked around my yard: no orange wall there. Did I push the wrong button and download an orange filter? (Pushing a button that blows up the world—or just everything on your phone—is the chronic fear of those of us like me who were born on the wrong side of the Digital Divide.) I Googled “orange filter on iPhone” but found no answers. I Facetimed my daughter at college. “Can you see me?” I asked. “No, Mother,” Lake said huffily. “I’m running to class but all I see is orange.”

Where was that corporate IT guy when you needed him? Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this entrepreneurial life after all. Maybe. This. Was. Just. Too. Hard.

Panic constricted my chest as I realized that instead of coming home after the event and chugging through my list of To Dos, I would now have to spend the afternoon at the Apple store fixing whatever was wrong with my phone. Experience has taught me that nothing in tech takes just a few minutes to fix, so I knew that this meant the whole day would be shot. I despised this fend-for-yourself world the Millennials had invented. I would start looking for a new corporate job—with an IT department!—immediately.

But wait. What train was I taking again? Since I no longer commuted into the city on a set schedule, I no longer had the train departure times memorized. To stop myself from constantly checking the Metro-North app, I’d come up with an ingenious solution: I’d write out the time of the train I was taking each morning on a sticky and paste it right onto the phone.

The note said I was catching the 8:58.

The bright orange note.

That I’d placed over the camera eye.

Geez. I’d gone from sharing the podium with First Lady Michelle Obama at a big More event to becoming a techno-idiot. I posted the video anyway, blank orange wall and all, hoping you all would laugh with me instead of at me.

But I want points for at least trying!

Share your own humbling moments with tech on the CoveyClub Facebook page by clicking HERE.

Say what?

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”

Melinda Gates

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CONTRIBUTORS

Carmindy Bowyer

Carmindy Bowyer

Carmindy is a world-renowned makeup artist with over 25 years of experience. She is best known, perhaps, as the resident beauty expert on TLC’s What Not To Wear, where she appeared for 10 years.  At her beauty blog Carmindy.com, she keeps women like us up to date on beauty trends.

Laura Munson

Laura Munson

Laura Munson is the New York Times, and international, best-selling author of This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness (Putnam) and the founder of the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats and Haven Foundation. Laura believes everyone has a story to tell–even if you write it for yourself.

Darren Jessop

Darren Jessop

Darren is the co-founder and Managing Director of Brand and Design Agency Six. Darren and Lesley’s paths crossed when Lesley spotted the work Six had done on several projects, notably for lifestyle magazine Kinfolk. Darren and his fabulous team (Danielle, Laura, Emily) created the CoveyClub site.