What Pitbull teaches us about being earnest

Mr Worldwide, Mr 305, Mr Actually Quite Deep Though

Last week, I delivered a talk about Pitbull to a room of hundreds of people.

I went on stage after a monk who went on a 4-year retreat from 2005-2009, meaning he went in when the iPhone didn’t exist, and came out to a completely different world.

(I LOVE speaking on stage, so if you’re looking for an enigmatic speaker who delivers memorable and useful talks…HELLO IT ME. I can talk about enthusiasm, messaging, personality-led business, and so much more — feel free to drop me a line.)

Of course, let’s call a spade a spade — it’s insane that I’m going straight after that. It’s especially insane that I’m going straight after that with a talk about Pitbull. But proceed we must, so proceed I did.

The reason I was giving this talk, anyhow, was because I was sharing the importance of being earnest. Not the Oscar Wilde book, but the deeply vulnerable act of being keen about something that really matters to you: zeal with sincerity, no matter what.

So how does Mr Worldwide fit into this? Well, our generation’s Shakespeare — if Shakespeare was obsessed with big booties, historians can you confirm — is incredibly earnest.

First up, the man’s a walking Pinterest board/LinkedIn post. This motivational masterclass is evident in his lyrics: ‘everyday above ground is a great day / remember that’, ‘live life, don’t let life live you’, ‘Took my life from negative to a positive / I just want y’all to know that’. It’s evident in his interviews, like when he told Greg James on Radio 1 Breakfast that ‘the best room to be in is the room for improvement’. It’s in his social media posts, but not in a cringe girlboss kind of way — he lives and breathes them, and goddamnit if they don’t make you wanna live and breathe them too.

Plus, if you’ve seen him on tour, you’ll have seen how, after every single song — when the music’s finished, the flames have stopped, the light show has ceased — he just stands there, like the emoji surveying his (suited and baldcapped) empire. He is so profoundly grateful to be doing what he does, and it seems like he takes a moment to remind himself of this every time he performs a song.

Another thing he does on every tour date is includes a 5-10 minute segment about the schools he builds in Miami, to help kids who are underprivileged. He talks about the teacher who changed Young Pit’s life when she saw something in him that no-one else did, and gave him purpose and direction. He’s built something like 13 schools and helped something like 10,000 kids, with a 100% graduation rate. All of this he tells you, very genuinely, with an accompanying slideshow, at the back end of 1 hour+ where you’ve been singing about shots and threesomes. Honestly, it’s heart-warming.

And earnest.

SO EARNEST.

So, this is your end-of-week reminder to Be More Pit: to be more sincere. To be more unapologetic about how you feel and what’s important. To know that it’s ok to have things that matter.

Dalé.

P.s. the event I spoke at was Confidence Live, organised by the wonderful Kirsty Hulse. I would highly recommend it!