{"id":5805,"date":"2013-08-02T03:37:28","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T15:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=5805"},"modified":"2025-03-31T05:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T16:39:21","slug":"the-session-78-the-elevator-pitch-be-your-damn-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2013\/08\/02\/the-session-78-the-elevator-pitch-be-your-damn-self\/","title":{"rendered":"The Session #78 \u2014 The elevator pitch: Be Your Damn Self"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>Preamble for beginners:<\/strong>1<\/sup><\/a><\/a> The Session<\/em> is a long-running monthly collaborative blog-thing<\/em><\/a><\/a> wherein diverse people muse over a certain predetermined topic. Despite reading a possibly-unhealthy amount of beer-related writings,2<\/sup><\/a><\/a> I’ve never joined in before, but was moved to do so when invited \/ challenged by James Davidson<\/a><\/a> (of Beer Bar Band<\/em><\/a><\/a>), to make a pithy (i.e., short<\/em>)\u00a0‘elevator pitch’ for better beer<\/a><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The four word version of my answer came to me immediately, but I’m entitled to a somewhat-roomier 250, so I might as well use them. I’m looking forward to seeing what else people come up with today, but for what it’s worth, here’s me:<\/span><\/p>\n

Be Your Damn Self<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

It all comes down to that.3<\/sup><\/a><\/a> And it doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re in the elevator talking to a consumer, producer, commentator, or \u2014 let\u2019s face it \u2014 yourself.<\/p>\n

Drink<\/strong> what you like, how you like.4<\/sup><\/a><\/a> Be open to new things, but an informed and tested preference is unimpeachable \u2014 and you should assert it. Don\u2019t be cowed by fashion or peer pressure or the tragic one-way-street of \u2018brand loyalty\u2019. Sensory experiences occur privately in the brain; cherish that, and leave others to their weird decisions while you enjoy yours.<\/p>\n

Brew<\/strong> what you like, how you like. If you\u2019re worrying about what \u201cleading breweries\u201d are doing, you aren\u2019t one and likely won\u2019t become one. Doing anything<\/em> well will steadily stoke demand for exactly that thing. Don\u2019t mislead your customers about who you are or how you operate \u2014 there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with any particular scale or business model, but there\u2019s a lot<\/em> wrong with bullshit.<\/p>\n

Say<\/strong> what you believe, with your own slant. Objectivity\u2019s basically unattainable, and little fun anyway. Be up front about your biases, nail your colours, and speak truth \u2014 whether brutal, rhapsodic, ramblingly personal, or partisan. Every unique and genuine voice is valuable signal in the ongoing conversation. Inauthenticity is noise pollution.<\/p>\n

Know thyself<\/em>, as our friend5<\/sup><\/a><\/a> Socrates (probably) said. A little more honesty \u2014 internally and externally \u2014 will get us a long way.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1:<\/strong> Including myself. \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/a>2:<\/strong> Seriously, you should see my Feedly<\/a>. Which is, by the way, proving very handy since the demise of Google Reader. Actually, you probably should<\/em> see my Feedly. I must do a round-up for Beerpeople I Like To Read, one day. There’s buckets<\/em> of good stuff out there. \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/a>3:<\/strong> In just 1.6% of the allocated time! \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/a>4:<\/strong> Just be moderate \u2014 in moderation.a<\/sup><\/a><\/a> \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/a>\u2014 a:<\/strong> Which apparently isn’t<\/em> Oscar Wilde \u2014 and he’s also<\/em> wrongly cited for the “Be yourself, everyone else is taken” which could nicely sum up my (unusually brief) ramble, here. (Though he does have a somewhat-similar “Most people are other people” in De Profundis<\/em>, apparently.) \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/a>5:<\/strong> He’s in the Bruces’ Philosophers Song<\/a> twice<\/em>; surely he counts as a friend. \u00a0\u2191<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preamble for beginners:1 The Session is a long-running monthly collaborative blog-thing wherein diverse people muse over a certain predetermined topic. Despite reading a possibly-unhealthy amount of beer-related writings,2 I’ve never joined in before, but was moved to do so when invited \/ challenged by James Davidson (of Beer Bar Band), to make a pithy (i.e., … Continue reading The Session #78 \u2014 The elevator pitch: Be Your Damn Self<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blahblah","category-session"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":906,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/10\/beer-101-tasting-session\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":0},"title":"Beer 101 Tasting Session","author":"Phil","date":"October 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"George (the gifter of the original Diary) organised a little tasting session at his house for a few friends of ours, with me playing the Informative Nerd. I'll be the first to admit that I made them all run a bit of a marathon, but we hit most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer 101 tasting session empties","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-101-1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16440,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2015\/03\/25\/a-session-beer-session-this-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":1},"title":"A session beer session, this Saturday","author":"Phil","date":"March 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend, I'm off down to Christchurch for the Great Kiwi Beer Festival; my third annual visit for what has proved to be a bloody marvellous day in the park with ten thousand of your closest strangers \u2014 with a distinct sideline of embarrassing Bogan Dadmusic. It's probably too late,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Session beer session planning","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Session-session-planning.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Session-session-planning.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Session-session-planning.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Session-session-planning.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27588,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/05\/06\/the-session-147-invite\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":2},"title":"A break from the real \u2014 your invitation to The Session #147","author":"Phil","date":"May 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hosting the May 2025 edition of The Session, and I'd like to take us out of the 'real world' for a moment to share the beers and pubs in art and fiction that have grabbed our attention, whether they were sublime, surprising, moving, amusing, somehow significant, or symbolic of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Session"","block_context":{"text":"The Session","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/session\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kroyer-Interior-of-a-Tavern.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kroyer-Interior-of-a-Tavern.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kroyer-Interior-of-a-Tavern.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kroyer-Interior-of-a-Tavern.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kroyer-Interior-of-a-Tavern.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3492,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/21\/liberty-taranaki-session-beer\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":3},"title":"Liberty ‘Taranaki Session Beer’","author":"Phil","date":"June 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just like anything worth doing is worth doing well -- a hat-trick of great big black beers, all three of which are weird and wonderful in their own ways, just to pick an example entirely at random -- so too is any pattern worth keeping at all equally worth smashing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Liberty 'Taranaki Session Beer'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-Taranaki-Session-Beer-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26945,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/04\/26\/the-session-146-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":4},"title":"Interesting singles in your area \u2014 and other thoughts on ‘value’","author":"Phil","date":"April 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For the April edition of The Session, we're asked where we find the greatest value in beer. I think overall I want choice, because I believe in context and the many moods of beer \u2014 in a given moment, I might be anywhere on spectrum from risk aversion to adventurousness,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "From the front line"","block_context":{"text":"From the front line","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/bartending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Orphan-shelf.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27987,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2025\/06\/01\/the-session-147-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":5805,"position":5},"title":"Beer and pubs in art and fiction \u2014 a roundup of The Session #147","author":"Phil","date":"June 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Session is a long-running and recently-rebooted series in which bloggers (and posters of other kinds) collectively contemplate a given prompt and respond however it moves them. For the May 2025 edition, I invited folks to think about the beer and pubs in art and fiction (broadly defined) that captured\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/William-Hogarth-Beer-Street-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/William-Hogarth-Beer-Street-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/William-Hogarth-Beer-Street-detail.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/William-Hogarth-Beer-Street-detail.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/William-Hogarth-Beer-Street-detail.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5805"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26607,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5805\/revisions\/26607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}