Andy James & Piero J. Pata on Five Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Career in the Music Industry
…We think the most important ideas to spread are equality, kindness, and understanding. If everyone were more equal, it might help reduce the conflicts and turmoil we’re seeing today. We know perfect equality isn’t possible — people have different luck and abilities, and that affects everything — but a bit more balance could ease the wars and political strife we’re facing, like what’s happening with Israel. Kindness, peace, and tranquility are also crucial, but they’re hard to achieve when everyone is stuck on their own side, whether it’s far left or far right. If more people could meet in the middle, we’d all be happier. We consider ourselves centrists, trying to see both sides, but it’s difficult. We know we can’t solve the world’s problems — none of us can; it’s way above our pay grade. So we focus on singing, performing, and helping people find a sense of tranquility and calm. It would be great if the world could settle down, and we believe it will because nothing lasts forever. Everything works out in the end…
I had the pleasure of talking with Andy James and Piero J. Pata.
Andy James, an Australian-born jazz vocalist and dancer, has made a name for herself in the world of music, blending the classic sounds of swing with modern jazz sensibilities. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, James’s career reflects a deep commitment to both the preservation and innovation of jazz, enriched by her early roots in dance and a life devoted to artistic expression.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, James grew up in a household where music and dance were integral parts of daily life. Her father’s passion for Flamenco and her mother’s love of jazz profoundly influenced her, fostering a rich environment for creativity from an early age. James began her artistic journey in dance, excelling in Flamenco, a path that led her to study in Spain and perform alongside Flamenco legends such as Antonio Canales and Paco de Lucia. Despite her success in the dance world, the pull of jazz — a genre her mother adored — eventually led her to pursue a career as a vocalist.
James’s debut album, Caravan (2018), marked her entrance into the jazz scene with a clear homage to the swing era of the 1930s to 1950s. The album, characterized by its authentic interpretation of jazz standards, drew inspiration from iconic singers like Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, and Ella Fitzgerald. With a voice that combines smoky elegance with soulful intensity, James brought a fresh perspective to classics like Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” and The Beatles’ “Blackbird.” The album’s success highlighted her ability to connect with the emotional core of each song, offering both reverence for the past and a personal, contemporary twist.
Following Caravan, James released two more albums in 2019 — Shared Lives and Blue — both recorded at the famed Capitol Studios in Hollywood. These albums solidified her reputation as a significant talent in the jazz world. Shared Lives stood out for its collaborative spirit, featuring Grammy Award-winning pianist and arranger Bill Cunliffe as her musical director. James’s meticulous approach to music production, coupled with her distinctive vocal style, continued to captivate audiences and critics alike.
In 2021, James expanded her repertoire with the release of Tu Amor, followed by a collaboration with acclaimed bassist John Patitucci on An Evening with Andy James and John Patitucci. These projects underscored her willingness to experiment with different genres and sounds, further establishing her as an artist unafraid to push the boundaries of jazz.
Throughout her career, James has collaborated with some of the most respected musicians in the industry, including drummers Marcus Gilmore and Nate Smith, saxophonist Chris Potter, and percussionist Alex Acuña has allowed her to explore new musical territories, blending her jazz roots with other genres like Flamenco and Latin music. These collaborations have not only refined her sound but have also positioned her as a versatile and innovative artist in the contemporary jazz landscape.
Her latest project, Rhythm in New York, is a testament to her ongoing evolution as a musician. The album, featuring contributions from a range of musical virtuosos, exemplifies her dedication to blending diverse styles into a cohesive and innovative whole. It reflects her continuous pursuit of artistic growth and her commitment to challenging the boundaries of what jazz can be.
Piero J. Pata is an Italian-Australian musician and performing arts professional known for his foundational role in Le Coq Records and his extensive career in ballet and flamenco. As the founder of Le Coq Records, Pata has significantly impacted the jazz and flamenco music scenes, contributing to a wide range of musical projects alongside his wife and collaborator, Andy James. Pata’s journey in the arts began at a remarkably young age, setting the stage for a lifetime dedicated to the intersection of music and dance.
Born and raised in a culturally rich environment, Pata’s early exposure to the performing arts came through his mother, a ballet enthusiast who encouraged his participation in the art form from a young age. Pata’s immersion in the world of ballet eventually led to a professional career, where he performed with prestigious companies such as the Australian Ballet, the Royal Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre. His ballet career was marked by rigorous training and performances that honed his artistic discipline and stage presence.
Despite his deep roots in ballet, Pata’s artistic journey took a significant turn when he encountered the world of flamenco. His late but passionate embrace of flamenco was facilitated by his extensive connections within the dance community, allowing him to integrate into the flamenco scene with relative ease. His transition from ballet to flamenco was not merely a shift in dance styles but also a deeper exploration of the cultural and rhythmic complexities that flamenco embodies. This newfound passion would later become a central theme in his collaborative projects with Andy James.
Pata’s musical talents were evident early on, particularly in his proficiency with the piano, which he began playing at the age of four under the mentorship of Isador Goodman. Goodman, a renowned pianist known for his collaborations with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, played a pivotal role in shaping Pata’s musical foundation. This classical training provided Pata with a strong technical base, which he would later draw upon in his work as a composer and music producer.
In the realm of music production, Pata is associated with both Le Coq Records and Pata Productions LLC. Le Coq Records, which he founded, has been instrumental in bringing together a diverse array of artists and producing music that blends jazz with flamenco influences. Under his leadership, the label has released several albums that showcase this unique fusion, including collaborative works with Grammy Award-winning artists. Pata’s approach to music production is deeply collaborative, often involving the input and expertise of top musicians such as John Coward, John Patitucci, and John Beasley, all of whom have played roles in bringing Pata’s musical visions to life.
One of the defining aspects of Pata’s career is his creative partnership with Andy James, a jazz singer and flamenco dancer with whom he shares both a professional and personal bond. The couple’s collaborations are marked by a dynamic exchange of ideas, with Pata often composing and arranging melodies that James later adapts and refines. Their joint efforts have resulted in numerous original compositions, such as “Time To Think” and “Just In Time,” which reflect the synergy between Pata’s instrumental expertise and James’ vocal prowess.
The couple’s work is characterized by a deep respect for the traditions of both jazz and flamenco, as well as a commitment to innovation within these genres. Their music often features complex rhythmic structures and improvisational elements, blending the spontaneity of jazz with the disciplined passion of flamenco. This hybrid style has garnered them a dedicated following, particularly among audiences who appreciate the nuanced interplay between different musical traditions.
In addition to his work with Le Coq Records, Pata and James have produced a number of yet-to-be-released albums, recorded in various locations including Nashville and Rome. These projects, which involve collaborations with prominent jazz musicians, reflect Pata’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of genre and style. The couple’s performances, which often incorporate both music and dance, are a testament to their versatility and their ability to engage audiences across different artistic mediums.
Yitzi: Andy and Piero, it’s such a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin stories. Andy, we’ll start with you. Can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Andy: I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, to a flamenco-loving father and a jazz-singing mother. That’s easy. I started taking flamenco lessons when I was a little girl, and before that, I started singing with my mother when I was just a baby. I just love singing with my mother. So I had a normal childhood, just went to school in Melbourne, Australia. Then I went to study in Spain when I got older, studied flamenco, and then I moved to Spain and studied flamenco for quite a few years and performed around Europe, dancing flamenco. And then I decided that an ice pack and a heat pad were not for me anymore. I went back to my first love, which is singing.
Yitzi: How about you, Piero? Can you share with us your origin story?
Piero: Well, my origin story… I suppose I had a ballet-mad mother, absolutely crazy about ballet. So, I had to do it. There was no option not to. I grew up picking up my sister, who had started it, and I thought, “Well, this is good. There are women in the class. I’m there.” So I went in and took a lot of classes. I ended up joining the Australian Ballet originally, then moved on to guest with the Royal Ballet and later with the American Ballet Theatre. Then I met Andy during a rehearsal for an opera called Carmen, and from that point on, I fully dove into flamenco. I was a late bloomer in flamenco, but I had the experience and knew a lot of people, so they kind of let me in. I didn’t have to go through a 10-year audition, you know how it goes. I was able to step straight in.
Andy: That’s the general story, but I’d always played piano. I did classical piano when I was young — never jazz, but classical — which comes in very handy when we’re writing songs. I look at Andy, she gives me melodies and lyrics, and then I fill them out and pass them to our arrangers like John Coward, John Patitucci, and John Beasley. We have quite a few arrangers.
Piero: We even did an original album in Nashville that we haven’t released yet. We got five Grammy Award-winning writers to write for Andy, but it hasn’t come out. To be honest, we have six albums ready to drop, but what are we going to do? We can’t release them all at once, so we’re slowly going through them. Because of our experience with flamenco for many years, we met all the jazz guys — Chick Corea was always around with Paco de Lucía and everyone. Andy and I used to go to clubs and jam with Chick, Paco, and all the others. There was a club called Cafe Madrid.
Andy: Watching them get all the jazz guys into trouble — too much fun when they were away from home, as you can imagine. We met so many of them. John McLaughlin would come in, and whoever was working with Paco at the time would join in. But mainly, we had our group, which included a singer named Montse Cortés. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Montse, but she’s a very well-known flamenco singer. I danced with many famous people over there — Antonio Canales, Rafael Amargo, countless others. As you do, right? We’ve had so many experiences, which will come in handy when we tour Spain in October. We’re doing a gig at Villa Mondragone in Frascati for the Nobel Prize winners, so we’re really looking forward to that. There will be a lot of government ministers, personalities, and even the Prime Minister. I might get to meet Sophia Loren. It could be fun. That’s on the 24th of October in this big villa-castle. It’s a lovely backdrop, a bit like Versailles — just a poor man’s Versailles.
Yitzi: That’s great. You probably have so many amazing stories between the both of you. Can you share with our readers one or two of your favorite memories from your professional career?
Andy: I think my favorite memory was dancing with Antonio Canales. He really started a whole new style in Spain for flamenco. He made flamenco popular all over the world, and dancing with him was such a riot. He was so funny, always joking around. It was absolutely incredible fun. We had so much fun, I can’t even remember it all.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake you made when you were first starting out and the lesson you learned from it?
Andy: When I was young, dancing in Melbourne, Australia, I was always in a terrible hurry. I wanted to do everything yesterday. My mother used to say I was like a whirling dervish — she didn’t mince words. Anyway, I was getting dressed for a show, and I got out on stage, dancing around, and all the musicians were sort of making these gestures — the guitar players especially. I was thinking, “What are they doing? Why are they doing that? What am I doing wrong?” I was really green and innocent back then. Turns out I had a bra stuck to the back of my shawl, and every time I moved, they were trying to catch it. It was kind of funny. The lesson I learned from that? Take your time with things. Look in the mirror before you go out. Trust someone to tell you if something’s off. Relax. My mother was right.
Piero: Yeah, the thing is, it’s a fine balance between being in too much of a hurry and being too slack. You want to be thorough, but not too intense about it, because that can also backfire.
Yitzi: How about you, Piero? Can you share a story about a humorous mistake and the lesson you learned from it?
Piero: Oh, I suppose one time when I was performing in a ballet called Don Quixote — I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, it’s a Spanish ballet — just as I jumped out to do my solo, I felt my tights unravel at the back. So there was an enormous hole in my derriere. What do you do in that situation? Do you just go for it, or do you run off stage? I kept thinking, and all the girls backstage were saying, “Go and do it, do it, do it.” So I did it. The audience clapped more than they ever had before because they got to see a bit more of me than they expected! The tights unraveled all the way down.
The other lesson I learned is about getting up quickly when you fall. If you do a big jump and crash on the ground — whether in flamenco, ballet, or even singing — you have to get up quickly and make it look like it was part of the act. That was always tricky, trying to make it look cool, like you meant to do it.
I used to be able to get up quickly. Now, I’m often afraid that if I fall over while singing, I’ll just have to lie there and go, ugh, because I might not be able to get up as fast.
Once, we were doing a gig at a club called Vibrato, Herb Alpert’s place in Beverly Glen, LA. One of our players — I don’t know if you remember Bill Cunliffe, the pianist and arranger — started to fall asleep on the keys. Andy had to give him a nudge. We had two pianists, John Coward and Bill Cunliffe. John plays with Brian Blade, and they were swapping between the piano and B3. So Bill, already half asleep, gets up, trips off stage, falls down, but then gets up quickly, sneaks back to the piano, and pretends it never happened. These things happen all the time, don’t they?
Yitzi: You have so much impressive work, and you mentioned one of your upcoming gigs. Is there anything else you’re working on that you’d like to share with our readers?
Andy: We’re working on a flamenco album. We recorded one of the songs for it in Rome. It’s called Happy People, an original song. We wrote all the songs based on our experiences in Spain and working with a lot of jazz musicians we met there. We recorded ten songs in total. We did it at Alexander Platt’s Jazz Club in Rome and even shot a video there. Eugenio Roubaix, a friend and fan, gave us the club for the shoot. The guys had a blast — they were playing bartenders during the shoot, really hamming it up, and John Beasley was an absolute standout as a bartender.
You’ve got to see this video. It’s hysterical. Our percussionist had a big cigar, James Genus was clowning around — there was just a lot of fun energy in that video. We actually did two videos. One was for an original song that Piero and I wrote called Let’s Talk of Love from the album Let Me See Your Heart. The other one was for a song called Photograph from the same album, which we filmed at a winery in Montalcino, just before the Jazz Festival. We did a wine and jazz festival at a big castle in Montalcino, and I thought, “Well, we’ve got to do a video.” So, we shot that lovely old ballad there, which is my favorite song on the album.
Yitzi: And why is it your favorite song?
Andy: Because my mother used to play it when I was a little girl — Sarah Vaughan’s version. It’s a sublime version. I’ve been totally hooked on that song ever since. It’s a lovely song. That song’s had 124,000 downloads in the last two weeks. It’s cool. And everyone says, “Don’t do covers.”
Yitzi: I’d love to hear more about how you met. You seem like such a fascinating couple.
Piero: Well, we met during a rehearsal. There was a movie called Strictly Ballroom. Do you remember that movie, Strictly Ballroom? It was a ballroom dancing movie with some flamenco in it. It only cost them, I think, 18 million to make, but it earned nearly 200 million at the box office here in America. So it was a bit of a hit. None of the dancers got paid much, but the movie made a lot of money. There was a guy named Antonio Vargas who was doing the flamenco section.
We didn’t know each other, but we both knew him. And then we met in rehearsals. That’s how we originally met. I was eyeing her during the class we were taking, and I kept looking at her, thinking, “Yeah.” She probably kept thinking, “Who’s this guy bothering me?” But things changed as time went on.
Andy: I honestly thought you were going out with someone else, one of the other dancers.
Piero: No, she was pretending. She was pretending because she had two boyfriends on the other side, and she was trying to make them jealous with me. It happens, you know?
Yitzi: How old were you when you met?
Piero: Well, Andy’s a lot younger than me. So I was sort of, you know, cradle-snatching because I’m 15 years older than Andy. I feel a bit guilty about that, but it doesn’t matter.
Andy: We met a while back. Yeah, it’s been like 24 years.
Yitzi: That’s amazing. And you’ve been together all that time?
Andy: Yes, yes, it’s been fun.
Piero: We have our ups and downs like everyone does, especially when we’re fighting over lyrics. She thinks I’m too corny with my lyrics and too lovey-dovey. And she wants to roughen them up, you know, make them a little bit more today instead of being romantic, you know?
Andy: Well, that’s why I wrote that song “Let’s Talk of Love,” about how love can ruin you or whatever. We had a few fights about that line, didn’t we?
Piero: Oh, well. Anyway, if you listen to that song, “Let’s Talk of Love,” you’ll hear those love lines, you know? That’s good. Plenty of fight went into that.
Yitzi: Both of you must be very fit. You must have great health. Can you share with the readers the self-care routines you follow to help your body, mind, and heart?
Andy: Practice. I do a lot of exercise. I’m very up and down. Positive thinking is key.
Piero: She can come out and dance and just sort of walk around and look elegant. I, on the other hand, really have to put in the effort. So I guess I do a lot more exercise.
Andy: You do a lot more than me. I couldn’t possibly do what you do.
Piero: I used to do a lot more, but now it’s more stationary. If I do an hour a day, I’m happy. Andy used to do 12 hours a day — every day for years — rehearsals, classes, you name it. At least 12 hours. And then she’d come home at night and do an hour of stomach exercises and two hours on the bike after all that. I was always amazed. I couldn’t do it.
Andy: You know, he lifts weights. He lifts heavy weights, and I lift these little, easy weights. One day I was in the gym lifting these small weights, and this guy comes along with one finger and just pulls it up.
Piero: Well, I’ve been thinking about how we’ve been incorporating a lot of flamenco rhythms into jazz lately. We’re trying to continue where Chick Corea left off with his Spanish Heart Band. Now that he’s passed away, unfortunately, no one’s really doing that. So our next record, after the one we released called Happy People, is going to focus on that — maybe even more flamenco than what Chick was doing. It’s going to be all about those rhythms.
Do you know much about flamenco rhythms?
Yitzi: I don’t know much, you know. The little that I’ve seen in movies has always fascinated me, and I’ve always felt it’s a shame it’s not more popular because it seems so…
Piero and Andy: We had to sit down with John Coward and teach him the rules and how it all works because a lot of Western musicians get completely thrown off by flamenco. They don’t know what’s going on at all. Even Chick Corea and Paco de Lucía found it challenging — no one could follow it. But teaching them was fun, and they’ve all improved a lot.
On our recent tour, we performed three flamenco-jazz numbers. We were in Europe for six weeks, visiting different places, and it was amazing to see how the public responded. At a jazz festival in Brno, just outside Prague, the crowd really loved it. We also did a couple of flamenco tunes where I made a bit of a comeback and danced with Andy in the middle of a couple of tunes. The audience loved it — it was something different from the regular jazz gigs they usually see.
Alex Acuña and Minu Cinelu are incredible percussionists. When you put them together, it’s magic. They both played with Weather Report, so they’re really great. Andy brought them together for the first time — they’ve played with Sting and many others, and Alex even played with Elvis. We brought them together for a jazz festival just outside the Coliseum, where they built a special stage for the event. We added Marcus Gilmore, who used to play drums with Chick Corea in the Spanish Heart Band. The three of them really captured the flamenco vibe, and we all joined in. The other musicians were a bit lost at first, not knowing what was happening, but it was fun, and everyone seemed happy.
We also did a recording session in Rome for more of the flamenco album that’s coming out next March. We recorded six original songs that Andy and I wrote, with John Coward arranging them. We paired Minu and Alex Acuña again, but this time without a drummer — just a lot of percussion.
Andy brought in three horn players who had never played together before. Rick Margitza, who used to play with Miles Davis, is a wonderful tenor player. Then there’s Dave Binney, an LA guy, and John Ellis, an amazing bass clarinet player — probably the best of them. He’s an emotional player. It was their first time playing together, and they were quite thrilled. That was fun too.
We tend to do that a lot. We immigrated to America in 2014, started up in jazz again, created the label, and began hiring musicians. We often hire musicians who have never worked together before because, as foreigners, we don’t know their histories or who likes whom. So it just works, you know.
We’ve also had a big relationship with John Patitucci for quite a while. He’s on both of these new albums, and he’s always fun to work with. He’s written four or five songs for Andy, including “Daydream,” “City of Me,” and “El Ritmo.” “El Ritmo” has a flamenco-ish vibe. I could have danced to it all night.
Yitzi: So this is our signature question. You’ve both been blessed with a lot of success. I’d like to ask each of you — Andy and Piero — can you share with our readers five things you need to create a highly successful career as a music artist?
Andy:
- You need to have confidence.
- Humility, definitely.
- Tenacity.
- Luck — especially who you know, whether they like you, whether they put you in the right place, or if you just don’t get a chance.
- You need to be very amicable.
- And patient.
- I think getting over your fears is a big thing. You can get very nervous. I was always nervous, but you just have to get out there and make yourself do it.
- And a big work ethic. A lot of artists get very ill before they go on stage. Even Barbra Streisand would get very ill before performing. I find that challenging.
- And insecurity when you go on stage, because you never know what you look like or whether you look okay. I bet you’re insecure too. I’m always insecure when I do anything.
Piero: It’s such a fine balance between being too confident and being too nervous. I think Andy’s become more of a hybrid personality now. She sings, she does straight jazz, Latin, flamenco, and she even dances. It’s like a big show because there’s nothing she doesn’t do on stage. She can fill all those roles. And, of course, if I come in and ham it up, it kind of adds to it.
Andy: Oh, they love you.
Piero: I was always the biggest ham there ever was. One thing I’m good at is hamming it up. I don’t know if you remember the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He used to always say I was a tremendous ham. So that’s about as good as I’m getting, you know.
Yitzi: Each of you are people of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Piero and Andy: We think the most important ideas to spread are equality, kindness, and understanding. If everyone were more equal, it might help reduce the conflicts and turmoil we’re seeing today. We know perfect equality isn’t possible — people have different luck and abilities, and that affects everything — but a bit more balance could ease the wars and political strife we’re facing, like what’s happening with Israel. Kindness, peace, and tranquility are also crucial, but they’re hard to achieve when everyone is stuck on their own side, whether it’s far left or far right. If more people could meet in the middle, we’d all be happier. We consider ourselves centrists, trying to see both sides, but it’s difficult. We know we can’t solve the world’s problems — none of us can; it’s way above our pay grade. So we focus on singing, performing, and helping people find a sense of tranquility and calm. It would be great if the world could settle down, and we believe it will because nothing lasts forever. Everything works out in the end.
Yitzi: So how would you describe the unique niche of flamenco dance in contrast to other forms of dance? What’s special about flamenco?
Piero: The rhythms. By far, the most fascinating rhythms. You’ve got all these 12/8, 6/8 patterns — so many different rhythms. I’m always amazed at how Western musicians often struggle to understand it. They sometimes have to play in groups of three just to keep up because they don’t know where it’s going.
The guitarists have to learn the footwork too. They follow the feet. The good guitarists can see which foot is speeding up and which foot is leading at the breaks, so they learn to read each other’s movements. That’s unusual because there’s no conductor — just the dancers and the guitarists.
In flamenco, singing is the most important thing. The guitarist and the dancing are just adjuncts to the singer, who is the king.
Yitzi: How would you recommend for more young people to get interested in flamenco?
Piero: Start listening to it.
Andy: Yeah. Actually listen to it. That’s what we want to do. That’s the sort of thing we’re doing with the album that comes out after this one, Happy People, is that we want more people to listen to those Spanish flamenco rhythms in a more jazz-familiar way so that they can groove with it and move with it. And, you know, Andy still sings those numbers as a jazz singer, not as the flamenco singer, which is a very different way of singing. Because, you know, flamenco singers, they sort of sing very sharp above the note. Jazz singers sing slightly behind the note in a more in-tune way. You know, it’s a different technique completely, isn’t it?
Andy & Piero: Flamenco is something you start when you’re just a little baby, and Andy was lucky because she had flamenco from the time she was a little girl, but she’s more of a flamenco dancer and a jazz singer, which makes for a great combination. While we were busy putting on flamenco shows for years because that’s where the money was, Andy always missed singing jazz, so after we immigrated, we went back to jazz, and she’s been doing it again for the past eight years, working with some of the best musicians around, though she hasn’t yet had the chance to work with Herbie Hancock, which would be a real treat.
Yitzi: It’s been so delightful to meet you, and thank you for this amazing insight into the world of jazz and flamenco. It’s new to me. How can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they purchase tickets to see your performances? How can they buy your albums? How can they support you in any way?
Piero: On Andy’s website, they can purchase tickets through all the usual agencies. Just go to her site and buy tickets if you want. And if they want to listen to anything, just go to Spotify. She’s there and gets a good number of listeners each month. I think she’s at, what are you at now? About 134,000 monthly listeners, which is pretty good for a jazz singer — maybe not on the level of someone like Norah Jones, who gets millions, but still very respectable.
Yitzi: It’s been a true pleasure to meet you, and I wish you continued success and blessings. I hope we can do this again next year.
Andy: It’s been a pleasure to meet you too.
Piero: Thank you so much.
Andy James & Piero J Pata on Five Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Career in the Music was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.