Welcome to Edition #78 of Did You Know? (DYK), the weekly newsletter by Gorick Ng, Harvard career adviser and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules, where we deconstruct the untold story of how someone (or something) became successful—and what you can do to follow in their footsteps.
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Did You Know? You need to stay top of mind!
→ Read time: 6 min
Your success story this week
Did you know? Thanks to 30 years of self-promotion, the song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey streams 1 million+ times daily each holiday season.
You hear it in department stores, on the radio, and on social media.
(You may even be one of the 853 people who are so scarred by the song that they’ve signed a petition to make it stop playing.)
I’m talking about the song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.
Whether you love the song or hate it, Mariah Carey makes $2 million in royalties each and every year because people just can’t stop playing it.
How did a single song become “the most successful Christmas song of all time”?
It’s time to go back 30 years—to 1994.
Carey, already a two-time Grammy Award winner, had gotten her 8th Grammy nomination. But at the 36th Grammy Awards that March, she went home empty-handed.
So when her record label suggested releasing a Christmas album, Carey paused.
Few artists did new, big Christmas songs. The unspoken rule was that singers only did Christmas songs “later in their lives”—and Carey wasn’t ready to accept that the peak of her career was already behind her.
But Carey, a self-described “very festive person”, was willing to give it a shot. So, in the middle of August, Carey filled the studio with Christmas decor to get her into the holiday mood and immediately realized: "I love this.”
Knowing that the odds were against her, Carey didn’t want this song to be your average Christmas jingle. She had strict criteria.
On the one hand, she knew the song had to have her trademark “love and romance” vibe (which led to her famous “money note”). On the other hand, she also wanted to make sure she included the “most Christmassy chord” so listeners could relate it back to a familiar song like “White Christmas.”
(Sound familiar? We’ve talked about this strategy before in our story on author Celeste Ng. It’s called MAYA.)
Just two months later, Carey released the song in October 1994—and managed to reach #12 on the Billboard charts for Adult Contemporary music. According to critics, it was “impressive for a Christmas song,” but was “a bit low for Carey in this period.”
Let’s pause here for a second.
Imagine you just finished a big project and it did just okay. What would you do next?
Would you…
- …feel bad about how you didn’t reach your goals,
- …move on to another project and hope it does better, or
- …continue sharing your work until it finds its audience?
Many people—and indeed musical artists—take path (A) or (B). But Carey—with her gut telling her that the song had more potential than the world’s first impressions of it—took path (C) and kept promoting… and promoting… and promoting her song.
First, she kept singing the same song for literally 30 years. Whereas many artists retire their old songs to make room for their new ones, Carey sang the song not just when she went on tour in 1994, but also in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002-2003, 2006, 2015, 2019 (and counting).
Second, each time she had a TV special, she—you guessed it—sang the song again, whether it was on ABC, ESPN, NBC, or elsewhere.
And third, since 2019 (so for 5 years and counting), Carey has released a fun video at midnight of November 1st—literally a minute after Halloween—announcing that “it’s tiiiiime” to get festive (and listen to her song, of course).
Fast forward to today, and Carey is the only artist who can boast about having a song jump consistently (and predictably) to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 5 years in a row (2019-2023)—25 years after its release—making her $2M USD every year from listens alone.
What does this mean for you? The next time you create something you’re proud of but don’t quite get the fanfare you were hoping for, remember Carey—who shared it with the world not just once, but all the time.
Your career strategy this week
Did you know? It’s time…
… to stay top of mind!
Mariah Carey did it—and you can too, even if you’re not a musical artist.
How? Try this:
1. Stay in touch with people through email, text, or calls (if not in person)
- E.g., “Hi [name]! You crossed my mind the other day when I was [looking / thinking] back to ______ and so I hope you don’t mind me reaching out. How are things going with [work / personal life detail]? PS: Inspired by our [work / time / ______] together at ______, I just [released / published / dropped] this and thought you might find it neat!”
2. Keep your mentors up-to-date on what you’re up to (and what’s next)
- E.g., “Hi [name], I noticed you recently ______—congratulations! I wanted to share with you that, since we last spoke about ______, I have ______ and ______! Thank you for all of your help and support over the past while— ______ especially made a difference for me. I wouldn’t be here without you!”
3. Remind your manager what you are up to (and what you’ve done)
- E.g., “Hi [name]—I just wanted to share a brief update on ______. Since we last chatted about ______, I’ve been able to ______ and ______. This means that ______, ______, and ______. I’m [excited / looking forward to / enjoying] ______ and being part of this process! Please let me know if you have any questions—I’m happy to share more if you’re interested.”
And, if you did something great, continue to share it with the world!.
Maybe you’re sick of talking about it (and maybe the people closest to you are sick of it, too, but you don’t know that unless they tell you). But more likely than not, the vast majority of the world doesn’t yet know that your amazing work exists. So, if you don’t keep talking about it, you’re leaving out most of the world!
In the case of Mariah Carey, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has been streamed an estimated 1.8 billion times to date. But with 8 billion and counting people in the world, this number is still just a fraction of who’s out there—so she still has a long road ahead!
I know it because I’ve experienced it: When I wrote The Unspoken Rules, publishing veterans told me that the minute I stopped talking about my work would be the minute that people would forget that it ever existed. I’ve tried to act on this advice ever since—though it definitely hasn’t been easy!
For example, the scripts above were inspired by my HOW TO SAY IT flashcard series for professional communication, which was funded through Kickstarter this past spring. So…
- If you got a deck and have a success story or testimonial you’re open to sharing, I’d love to hear it: Please email me flashcards@gorick.com!
- If you want to give feedback about the deck, consider taking a few moments to fill out my survey here: https://forms.gorick.com/howtosayit
- If you missed the campaign, consider joining the waitlist here to be the first to know when the cards launch again: https://forms.gorick.com/waitlist
Stay top of mind!
Gorick
You may also like:
> What Taylor Swift can teach us about making (literal!) career moves
> What Ed Sheeran can teach us about joining forces with others
> What Spotify’s No. 1 artist can teach us about distributing your work
Sources:
- signed a petition
- “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
- makes $2 million in royalties
- “the most successful Christmas song of all time”
- two-time Grammy Award winner
- Carey paused
- Few artists did new, big Christmas songs
- “later in their lives”
- “very festive person”
- "I love this.”
- “love and romance”
- “money note”
- “most Christmassy chord”
- Just two months later
- #12 on the Billboard charts
- “impressive for a Christmas song”
- when she went on tour
- TV special
- “it’s tiiiiime”
- Billboard Hot 100 for 5 years in a row
- making her $2M USD
