Tell them what you want
It makes for a more constructive and curious conversation.
It helps to have an agenda. I used to go into meetings with potential clients, former co-workers, or friends-of-friends with a loose approach. Let’s talk about Three Point Four Media, I’ll give ‘em the pitch. I still do that—Always Be Closing, etc—but I’m now more upfront about why we’re talking and what we would both like out of the meeting. Sometimes it’s a broad and simple looking to expand Three Point Four’s network, other times it’s we want to work with you.
I had coffee with a former client this week and as soon as I mentioned that I was curious about how he went about finding new business in his old position at a large global agency—and how we might get involved in those types of projects—he busted out the iPad and started sketching out ideas, potential targets, and the kind of clients he thinks would love the services Three Point Four offers. Rather than sit around and give him the elevator pitch between pleasantries, baseball scores, and heat wave small talk I told him what I was curious about and he was immediately engaged (and we still had time to talk local politics). We already have plans to meet again.
Having an agenda and asking people for specifics isn’t grubby or desperate. It’s a constructive and transparent use of everyone’s time—and you can still talk about the box scores or local political gossip. Onto the links.
An article
I’ve often wondered how and when everyone got so jacked. Was it a post-pandemic thing? Do people just not eat bread or drink gin? Which is why I was thrilled to read this GQ feature that explored this phenomenon: Why is everyone on steroids now?
He rattled off some of the drugs he tried during his career with such familiarity, they sounded like underground hardcore bands. Anavar, D-Bol, NPP. At times, depending on the compound, he was shooting every day, a thousand-plus milligrams per week. And he grew muscle, lots of it—and he also grew paranoid, and felt extremely lethargic outside the gym. And yet: “The second you touch a weight, you’re a god. I was gaining 20, 40 pounds on my bench press every two to three weeks. It was madness.”
I’ll stick with my regimen of getting slower every year but still enjoying the pursuit of endurance sports (while complaining to Noah on Slack about getting slower).
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Some press
Noah talked to the aptly-named Journalism Crossroads at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute about what we’ve built at Three Point Four Media, how we got here, and how to make a living in the constantly shifting media landscape.
Thirty years ago, companies like Airbnb and Gillette Razors would never have started a magazine; they would have just bought ads. Now, they have their own content arms. It’s a form of marketing, but when it’s done well, the marketing touch is a bit lighter.
Go read the whole thing. He’s very smart, Noah. I often tell clients I’m the dancing bear who acts as Three Point Four’s mascot while Noah is the brains behind the operation—it’s a good partnership.
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A video
I fell down another Jacques Pépin YouTube hole this week. There was sadly just one season of his PBS show with the late Julia Child that you can pay for on Prime or just watch for free on random YouTube accounts that have archived it, like the salmon video embedded above. Modern cooking shows are so much more accessible—Alison Roman’s recipes are approachable, affordable, and can be tweaked easily on the fly—than a lot of 90s cooking TV, which feels impractical and borderline impossible. I love watching Julia and Jacques cook, but no one is going to (a) buy a whole salmon and then (b) filet it following the instructions of Jacques Pépin on PBS. Very soothing to watch though, highly recommend.
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A wedding ceremony
While Noah was steering the ship for the first two weeks of June I was gallivanting around Ireland before a friend got married in Dublin. I officiated the wedding and when I got back an old editor asked “what was your approach?” I hesitated for a second and said, “you know, I treated it like a magazine article or client work—I reported it out, asked the couple questions, had martinis with my friend and her mom, and then used that—along with my own relationship and history with the couple—to inform the ceremony.” It was a success. Turns out asking the right questions, doing the research, dedicating yourself to the project, and meeting the deadline leads to successful and rewarding work.
What I’m saying here is that Three Point Four is available for weddings.
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A recommendation
Noah wrote about Three Point Four’s favorite running shoe—the Saucony Endorphin Speed 2—for friend of the newsletter Kyle Chayka’s wonderful newsletter,
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A run
I love running on vacation. It’s a great way to explore a new place and also shake off the rust from a few pints of Guinness. Most of the runs I did in Ireland were like “go three kilometers until you hit a pub, then take a left on Oldcastle Road—that’ll loop you back to the hotel.” I encountered a lot of seemingly happy sheep and friendly cows.
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Stay cool out there, folks. We’ll see you in a couple weeks