I once met with a talent manager who represented a lot of commercial radio hosts, they very kindly met with me because I was curious to learn more about what they do and see if it made any sense for me. They said - or if not "said", at least strongly intimated - that it would only be possible for them to represent someone like me if I could articulate my personal brand in just a handful of words. If Adriano Zumbo is "the dessert assassin", then Tim, what does that make you? What's your personal brand? I couldn't answer the question. She paid for coffee, that was great.Even the dictionary definition of amateur describes one as "a person who engages in a pursuit on an unpaid rather than a professional basis" - we tend to think of an amateur as someone who is 'not good enough' at something to get paid. I once heard Laura Jean say that the word actually comes from the French word "amateur", which means "one who loves" i.e. someone who pursues something because they love it, and not because they may or may not get paid. Since hearing that, I've proudly self-identified as an amateur musician. Backstage at Jimmy Fallon, we got to meet The Roots very briefly. We were at 30 Rock to do a rehearsal day for SNL, mostly camera blocking. Lachlan, our sound engineer, was meant to take a selfie of me, and him, and Questlove, but later when he showed me the photo he'd accidentally cropped me out of it. He apologised and said it was because he was overcome by the moment - I completely understood and forgave him instantly. At the end of the day, we bumped into the Roots again out on the pavement in front of 30 Rock and they recognised us and were very kind. SNL went well, I played the most famous toy xylophone melody in pop music history.I developed an allergy to social media a while ago which makes it hard to be the world-beating content creator that I was of course born to be. But the flip side is that I'm reading books again. It helps me a lot, to stay curious and stay open, and keep learning at all times. Like you maybe, I spend more time than I used to thinking about the end of the world, climate change, the attention economy, wealth inequality, loneliness etc. I worry that we live in a time where bad systems seem inevitable, people are clouded by apathy & fatalism. I think a fair bit about how community, connection, joy & specifically art/music, can help with all this. I don't really know exactly how, or what I'm personally meant to do about it, but I'm trying to figure it out right now.Here is my email address: timothyryanshiel@gmail.com