Gentry
"Perspectives"
April, 2008 |
Skinny Jeans
One of Silicon Valley's most high-profile executives takes a
creative turn.
Skinny jeans, skinny
jeans, you’re still hanging ‘round
In the back of my closet and that’s bringin’ me down
This morning, I woke up, and made me a vow
Skinny jeans, gonna get back, into you somehow
I can't stop singing Skinny Jeans. It's the
title cut from the CD Skinny Songs, the latest venture
from Heidi Roizen, one of Silicon Valley's best-known power players.
But Roizen is more than an investor in her latest
startup. The co-founder of software company T/Maker, former head of
worldwide developer relations at Apple, and managing director of Mobius
Venture Capital is also, as it turns out, a songwriter. She penned every
word of the ten songs on this motivational CD, which she describes as
"chick empowerment music" for all of us who want to get thin and fit.
And there are a lot of us out there -- 50 million
people take the annual pledge to lose weight, according to the Food and
Drug Administration -- including Roizen, whose candor about her quest to
fit into her skinny jeans is no small part of her charm. How many people
do you know who would go on the Martha Stewart Show, as Roizen
did, and tell the world about the morning she stepped onto her bathroom
scale and realized she weighed more than her husband?
If Skinny Songs is as successful as I
think it's going to be, that sincerity and openness go a long way to
explaining why. In these songs, she says what we're all thinking -- and
saying to our girlfriends -- as we wage the battle of the bulge. She
speaks for every one of us with songs like Use It To Lose It,
Think I'll Go To Saks, and -- one of my personal favorites -- Who
The Hell Is That?
About six months back, I took one helluva trip
had a swank vacation on a big cruise ship
but later all my friends sent their photos to me
and I sure didn’t like, what I had to see
(and I said)
who the hell is that? ‘Cause it sure ain’t me!
how’d I get so fat? It’s a shame to see
something’s gone wrong with the photo quality
who the hell is that, cause it sure ain’t me
Sound familiar?
Roizen often used music as inspiration -- during the dot-com bust, on
her way to yet another difficult meeting, she'd turn up Pink's "18
Wheeler" -- Hey, hey, girl, are you ready for today, You got your
shield and sword, 'Cause it's time to play the games. She was more
than halfway to her goal weight after working with Woodside trainers
Jerzy and Aniela Gregorek, but, like most of us, she is always looking
for more motivation.
Yet when she went looking for music that would empower and motivate
women to lose weight and stay in shape, she couldn't find it. There were
workout compilations, meditation music, the Rocky theme done in 57
different formats, and hiphop that was good music but was all about
playas and soulja boys. The one or two songs about dieting that she
found were sad, depressing, or came off like jokes.
"It was shocking to me that as much of a medium of expression as
music is," says Roizen, "that you would think the topic of losing weight
and getting in shape would be something somebody had covered musically."
Like the savvy businessperson she's always been, she looked at the $50
billion weight loss industry and a recording industry with unit sales of
1.4 billion and saw an opportunity. "And that put me on the path. It was
one of those classic things. You want something and you can't find it
and so you decide to go make it."
Roizen wrote more than 40 songs, mining her own struggle for stories
about shopping for Dolce and Gabbana, cheatin' with eatin', and getting
rid of excess baggage and back into a size 8. She adhered to her
conviction that entrepreneurs are best working on products they
themselves would buy. "So I thought, well, what am I looking for? What
kind of music, if I heard it while driving in my car or on my iPod as I
was walking, would make me want to stay on my diet or actually drive to
the gym instead of to Starbucks? So that's where I came from," she says.
"Oh, and the songs had to be interesting and funny and upbeat and tell a
story or people aren't going to listen to them."
But this was no "mid-life crisis vanity karaoke project," which
Roizen admits was the reaction some people had when they first heard she
was considering life as a lyricist. From the beginning, she asked the
question, "Is this personal gratification or a real business?" One of
the first things she did was to convince two music industry heavyweights
to sign on -- George Daly, CEO of About Records, and David Malloy, a
Nashville producer and songwriter with more than 40 Number One hits from
artists like Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Rosanne Cash.
Daly and Malloy weren't sure about the project -- chick songs from a
venture capitalist about losing weight? But they showed the lyrics to
their wives and they were sure it was a good idea. So the two men
gambled on the venture along with Roizen, contributing their names,
elbow grease and expertise in return for a stake in the venture. "That's
part of it being a credible project," says Roizen. "Don't fool yourself
about it: if you can't talk professionals into doing it, it's probably
not a very good idea."
They started with a crash course in lyrics for Roizen and then Malloy
went to work writing the music, finding the artists and laying down the
tracks. The result is well-produced, well-orchestrated, hit-quality
music with something for everyone looking for weight loss inspiration --
country western, pop, and hip hop. They're clever songs that tell all
the familiar weight loss stories of wish fulfillment and screw-ups and
before and after photos with a full serving of a sense of humor.
They're mini mental boosts that stick with you throughout the day when
the bagels start talking to you from the bin at Whole Foods or you're
tempted to detour through the drive-through. They make you feel like
you're not alone -- which a lot of research says is just what the doctor
ordered for successful weight loss.
So, is this Roizen's next start-up or just a one-time gig? Who knows,
she says. If Skinny Songs is a success, she's got more to
say musically. And there's already a website stocked with t-shirts she
designed to keep herself motivated -- Martha Stewart's favorite says "Do
Not Feed." I prefer "Objects in the Mirror Will Get Thinner Than They
Appear" -- printed in reverse so when you look at yourself in the mirror
at the gym, you'll get a shot of inspiration. And they're all in black,
of course -- is there any question that Roizen knows what she's doing
when it comes to marketing to women who want to lose weight?
In fact, this venture feels like a return to her entrepreneurial
roots. "I'm getting a lot of email from entrepreneurs who have creative
products for weight loss and fitness that involve some element of
technology," she says. "And when you really think about it, there isn't
a brand out there today that stands for, for lack of a better word, the
everyday woman who wants help, whether that help is community,
accountability, education or some other form of support." So it might be
music or microprocessors, but it will be something Heidi Roizen would
buy for herself. And that means the rest of us will probably want it,
too. In the meantime, pick up Skinny Songs, and sing along
to "Thin!" It will save you from any chocolate chip cookies in the
vicinity. Honest. You can't get those lyrics out of your head.
Skinny Songs is available on Amazon.com or for download
at iTunes. Heidi's tees are available at
www.skinnysongs.com. |
