“VARIETY” and social grace.

I went to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s event today.  It was “The Third State of the Entertainment Industry Conference”, and about 500 dignitaries and heavyweights were in the room.  Vin got an award –for his “Commitment to California”.  And I got to meet some interesting women, among them the publisher of VARIETY.  Michelle Sobrino-Stearns and I talked with Vin’s publicist Sybil Lindenbaum and Ilyanne Morden Kichaven, who’s the Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA.

Ilyanne told me I’d gotten great response from the class I’d taught about the importance of writing ‘thank you’ notes.  Every single of her ‘mentees’ wrote her a thank you for having me as the speaker.  I was very touched by that.

Then Michelle, whom I’d just met, and Ilyanne and Sybil and I got into a conversation about what’s involved in making people feel seen.  Michelle shared that there’s one VERY important celebrity attorney who never has his assistant change an appointment.  He does it himself.  On the phone.  Not by e-mail.  Not by text.  We all were impressed.

When I got home tonight, I decided I should reach out to let Michelle know how much I appreciated meeting her…I secretly hope maybe I could teach a course to HER staff, if she’d ever have a need.  For this letter, though, I just wanted to tell her that I’d enjoyed meeting her … and hope we can have another talk someday about the importance of social grace.