Elen Lewis interviews Sam Webb, a new 26er who’s just turned 26.
What’s your day job?
I’m the copywriter at onefinestay.com helping build the world’s first unhotel. As the boss says, ‘if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.’
What are your private passions?
I’ve always tried to balance bookish instincts with active, outdoor pursuits – in summer months that means slack-lining (actually balancing between two trees on a bouncy-wobbly line), and standing on my head in yoga classes when it’s wet and cold outside. Oh, and I’m vehemently an all-weather cyclist.
What do people get wrong about you?
People tend to think I’m a hippie (probably something to do with the yoga classes) but my asanas are not in pursuit of inner balance – in fact one of my favourite topics of conversation is the Orientalism and hypocrisy of lots of yoga in the West. That probably makes me a hippiecrit.
What are you most looking forward to about belonging to 26?
I’m looking for more mentorship than can be gleaned from books and blogs. And meeting other people obsessed with words and branding, of course.
How would you describe what you do (in 26 words)
I agonise over placing exactly the right words in exactly the right order, with a little helping hand from Pressure and Hope and an imagined audience
How does your copywriting work influence your own work and vice versa?
As I’ve learned and shaped onefinestay’s brand voice, I’ve become more and more confident in my own, too. Getting regular critiques is immensely useful, and a bit of praise from a real audience does wonders.
What’s the best thing so far about being 26-years-old?
The double-barrelled impetus that I’ve felt at the start of this new year, and my next quarter-century. So far, I’ve been getting it done. And that’s always good.
What are you working on now?
At onefinestay I’m hiring an apprentice wordsmith to join our young-but-ambitious team of writers (if you know someone good, please put them in touch). At home I’m working with a couple of friends to launch a campaign across London under the pseudonym @chalkists. Watch this space.
Tell us a secret.
I can’t keep them, but you’d never know.