Lori’s WAYMAKER — John Lee Hooker – Legendary Bluesman (Aug. 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001)

Long before I understood that I was being mentored, John Lee Hooker taught me one of the most important lessons of my career: find the soul before you tell the story.  I was young and working in radio/music industry when I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend time around John. I wasn’t interested only in John Lee Hooker, the legendary bluesman the world knew. I wanted to understand the man before he walked on stage—what he noticed, what mattered to him, what made him laugh, what lived underneath the performance.

That experience changed the way I would approach people for the rest of my career.  John taught me that the most powerful story is rarely the obvious one. The résumé, the title, the accomplishments and the public persona may tell you what someone has done. They don’t necessarily tell you who they are.

You have to listen longer. Look closer. Be curious enough to go beyond the expected questions. And above all, you have to see the human being standing in front of you.

Years later, I would carry that lesson into television, media, marketing, business and the C-suite without even realizing how deeply John had shaped me.  Before the strategy, find the story.  Before the story, find the human.  And before everything else, find the soul.

John Lee Hooker was my first mentor.  And I didn’t know it yet.