How/where are you celebrating your birthday and with whom? “I’m going on a bike ride with some entertainment reporters and likely a run with others. Surrounded by the press as it should be. I’ve been quarantined at home in L.A., but running and biking a ton (with appropriate parameters, and with reporters and colleagues from past and present).”
How did you get your start in your career? “I’ve had a lot of starts -- turning points and always by accident. Entertainment publicity vet Howard Bragman gave me a start in Hollywood by taking a cold call from me, taking me to breakfast and then closing breakfast by ‘borrowing’ my phone, sending himself an email, thanking himself for breakfast and saying ‘my resume is forthcoming.’ I got home, saw he had sent it, sent my CV and he hired me an hour later. The next day, he emailed advice that should be glued to my door: ‘The cold call works.’
My last boss took a cold call from me once to twice a month for over 18 months, met me at a coffee shop and hired me without a formal interview. He was starting 48 hours later, unbeknownst to me, running comms for a major media corporation, and took the coffee finally knowing he’d need someone. Forty-eight hours after he started, he called back and off we went.
My D.C. stint started when I cold-called the advance staff (four times) on a certain senior Obama staffer’s book tour until they called me back. That’s how the advance world started for me.
There is a pattern. I’m a lunatic, but persistence pays off. Sometimes. This strategy is far less successful in my personal life.”
What’s an interesting book/article you’re reading during coronavirus social distancing? And why? “I read an insane amount -- around two books a week during the pandemic. The best I’ve read in five years is John Dickerson’s ‘The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency,’ which I’m almost through with. John’s ability to intersect business/organizations, leadership, politics, history and the presidency, his reporting style, and his writing ability put him in a largely unmatched class and every page of this book is stellar.”
What’s a trend going on in the U.S. or abroad that doesn’t get enough attention? “Income inequality, and, more specifically, the ongoing student loan crisis in this country. It shouldn’t be this difficult for people to achieve a college education wherever they desire if they put in the work to get in. It’s complex but requires attention and affects many other areas of policy as well.”
How’s the Trump presidency going? “I respectfully decline comment. But I point you on background to two other books I’ve enjoyed during the pandemic -- Jon Karl’s ‘Front Row at the Trump Show,’ and Phil Rucker and Carol Leoning’s ‘A Very Stable Genius.’”
What’s a fun fact that people in Washington might not know about you? “I’ve run nine marathons; 10 would have been in New York this November. Alas.”
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July 12, 2020 at 08:15PM
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BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Brandon Shaw, Hollywood corporate comms executive and Obama alum - Politico
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