If you’re new here, this is The Digest, a bimonthly selection of articles, podcasts, books or other that I have found compelling, clever or even entertaining. The Digest starts with an intro which today is long-ish. Enjoy!

Hey friend. 

How are you feeling today? I’m not just asking to emulate Elmo’s tweet. Really, how are you doing?

I’ve had some sleep issues lately. I woke up at 2.40am thinking it was morning, looked at my alarm clock dumbfounded, and rolled around in bed for a few minutes before falling back asleep. The thought that I awoke with? Not a good one. 

Before I tell you, I want to remind you that I live in Switzerland. 

Deep breaths. Here it goes: the thought that was on the tip of my brain as I stirred to consciousness… what if ‘we’ get another four years of Trump?

Bearing in mind that I DO NOT watch the news, but I watch late-night shows. Potato, potato? My anxiety spike is worrying, as is the state of things right now. 

Walking back from brunch the other day, my eyes caught an unexpected sight. A badly drawn swastika was staring at me, at eye level, on an innocuous lamppost. It looked like someone had used a skinny ballpoint or similar and drawn it a few times for effect, so much so that I did a double take. I couldn’t be seeing the real thing, surely? Sadly, it is unmistakable. 

My instinct said: “Cover it up!” But there was nothing in my pockets that could enable me to cover its nasty message. Unprepared as I was, I walked past, only to find another one fifty metres further up the street. This time, the crappy drawing had been crossed by a rightfully disapproving passerby who, unlike me, had a big blue marker in their pockets. Good for them.

Next thought: this is bad. And it feels too close for comfort in this quiet corner of the world. I added to my to-do list: 

• Buy a large marker and stick it in my handbag.

I’ve felt all kinds of frustrations this past month, Nazi signs-induced and otherwise. 

Work has been hard. I mean HARD. I had several people cancel their contracts just as we were due to start the work. It felt like doors were repeatedly being slammed in my face. FUN! The trend reveals that would-be clients feel the same regardless of where they are in the world. They take a step forward and then jump a good couple of steps back. I can’t blame them.  

One thing I felt good about was this newsletter and where it is hosted, Substack. I thought of it as a place where non-professional writers like myself explore business topics as well as share personal essays, where long-form content is both expected and appreciated.

I made the move from Mailchimp this time last year. Writer Ryan Broderick (who joined the platform in 2020) summed up my feelings when he called Substack an “oasis”. 

Sadly, I’ve come to understand the limitations of the previously neutral publishing space, as it is slowly being turned into a social media platform. 

This may be news to you, but Substack has a Nazi and white supremacy problem. Articles in the Atlantic, the New York Times, and the Guardian have reported on the situation, as well as the lax efforts to fix the issue and tepid statements from one of the co-CEOs. 

Hanna Raskin, journalist and publisher of the Food Section, an award-winning publication covering food and drink across the American South, chose to leave the platform, as did others like Casey Newton from Platformer. She rightfully reminded me that “social media platforms don’t belong to their users”. 

“We didn’t ask Substack to solve racism,” Newton, from Platformer, wrote in his post explaining why he was leaving. “We asked it to give us an easy, low-drama place to do business, and to commit to not funding and accelerating the growth of hate movements. Ultimately we did not get either.”

“If Substack the company fails to remain a neutral party, as it seems like is the case with the recent rounds of decision-making, that association becomes a liability,” wrote Ernie Smith on Tedium. 

Bloomberg opines that “for Substack, the social media-fication of its service is a way to try to create a business that feels more like the kind of internet company that gets truly huge. It’d like to become a destination in and of itself.

When companies take money from venture capitalists, they implicitly agree to pursue this swing-for-the-fences business model. In Substack’s case, this decision sowed the seeds of the current controversy.”

Here’s the thing. These are not ‘normal’ times. 

Podcaster Bridget Tod of There are no girls on the Internet landed the point saying that “One thing that the OG nazis were really good at was propaganda, packaging their beliefs in a way so that the average person would agree with them. This feels like it's giving them [meaning nazis 2.0]  just another avenue to do that.”

It’s hard to share the internet, and even the streets, with people who wish to eliminate entire classes of human beings.

All that to say, I’ll be setting up the Mettā View elsewhere. 

You, my loyal subscriber, don’t have to do anything; you’ll still receive the Mettā View directly in your inbox (actually, if you have Gmail, it may get lost in a subfolder somewhere; I’ll message you about that).

As to whether I will continue to read those writers I admire on Substack, I guess I will be where they choose to be, at least for the time being. 

Lastly, on a hopeful note, something great is being cooked up by the folks at Metalabel. Their Collaboration Cookbook is a great example of the power of getting together to share great stuff on the internet or IRL. The cookbook won’t tell you how to make the best onion soup (why did my mind go to this, I don’t know) but how to build an online community, for example. For a quick intro to what Metalabel stands for, hop over here.

Thank you, as always, for reading me. I never take it for granted, and I really appreciate you and your time. 

Have a good one. Oh, and be well!

For various views on the Substack Nazi problem, I direct you to these articles. 

Substack Has a Nazi Problem by Jonathan M. Katz.

The letter sent to Substack’s CEO’s by 200+ writers: ‘Substackers Against Nazis.’

The follow up by Jacob Stern, also in the Atlantic. 

Substack Says It Will Not Ban Nazis or Extremist Speech in the New York Times. 

Mashable’s ‘Why are people leaving Substack.’

Hanna Raskin’s ‘Why I’m Leaving Substack’ in Slate.

Leading Tech Journalists Quits Substack in the Guardian.

Bloomberg’s newsletter on newsletters exposing Substack’s business model problem.

Business Insider argues this is all about money, not speech.

Casey Newton of Platformer explains his decision to leave Substack. 

The opinion piece from the Washington Post asking how far should we be willing to go to censor the Nazis.

Overheard on the Tim Ferriss Show

“Don’t try to get it right, keep it true.” (Who said it, I’ve forgotten…)

Looking Around

On a call with my website host provider, I was given this article to read, which alleges that hackers have figured out a way into your Gmail without needing your password, all that through third-party cookies. Read it. You need to know.

If you are in New York and fancy a mindful-led musical experience, check out the new concerts hosted at Carnegie Hall for the next couple of months. 

Emilia Petrarca, ex-NY Magazine’s editor at The Cut and now at Shop Rat on Substack, launched a Repair Month-themed series of newsletters and articles, calling on us to share our best and favourite menders worldwide to compile a “best of” list so we better look after our wares. A beautiful endeavour. Discover here. 

Got a lot on your mind? Try putting it all on paper: that’s what people call a brain dump. I don’t love the term, but I find it a supportive daily practice. More about it here. 

Addicted to your phone? Find out what happens when author Rikh Sammader, a self-confessed addict, tries to put down his iPhone for a fortnight. Read here.

Do you work too much? Do you wonder why we do so much? This article tries to analyse the root of our work-obsessed society (clue: it may be Calvin’s fault), how we could move towards a post-work society and why we are not good at play. Lots to consider, especially for me, living in the city of Calvin. Read about it here. 

Looking In

Your brain is working against you. Or rather, your biology is. We’re wired for … rest! Don’t believe me; read about why it’s so hard to exercise (especially in January) at Time.com.

Out of the Clouds has suffered from multiple cancelled interviews, damaged files, and a few other glitches, so I’m crossing all my fingers that I’ll get back to my fortnightly new releases. In any case, I’ve got a great new episode to tell you about - that’s if you’re not yet a subscriber (on that note, subscribe, please!).

Sridevi Kalidindi CBE talks to me about proactive mental health care, investing in employee wellbeing and finding joy within oneself. The senior consultant psychiatrist and leadership and executive coach discusses her award-winning teamwork for NHS England and the importance of proactive mental health care before we chat about her startup KLIP Global. She hopes to bring big corporate companies to lean on her data-driven and science-backed wellbeing service to help their employees thrive, or as she calls it, live their genius. Discover here.

Other than that… Want to meditate with me? I’m on Insight Timer, yes. Now offering live classes starting this coming Sunday. Free for everyone (download the app and get an account to get yourself started), and for the subscribers of Insight Plus, get a load of my first meditation course, Loving Kindness 101. 

Hey friend, 

In this last stretch before the end of the year and the upcoming holidays, I have been avidly reading in my little spare time. There is a lot going on in the world — and a lot is worrying about the world. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of searching for light (even IRL). It’s been dark and grey here in Geneva, as it always is at this time of the year (that’s why we go skiing, FYI). 

I’m offering you my top selects from the last few weeks since I skipped The Digest the other week in favour of a Looking Forward post. 

On my reading list, this week is a short history of the F word.

And on my gift list… Well, there’s a story I’d like to tell you first. 

I am very fond of Debbie Millman, the highly respected podcaster and teacher, who I discovered through her first interview with Tim Ferriss, called ‘How to Design a Life’, which aired in 2017. My flight was touching down in Frankfurt in the very early hours of a cold winter morning when I started to listen to the two-hour-plus episode. I was in transit coming back from a month off work, the longest holiday I’ve allowed myself in my adult life. It wasn’t just for fun; it was a survival choice: I was fighting burnout. To do that, I literally went to the other side of the world — that day, I was coming back from a visit Down Under. 

This touching conversation between the two podcast hosts (and the earlier interview on Millman’s own podcast) was transformative in many ways. Perhaps it is also one of the several remarkable interviews that moved me to give podcasting a go myself.  

One idea, in particular, struck me, the one of the 10-year essay, an exercise Millman used to give her Masters students at the NYC School of Visual Arts. Here’s where that came from. 

In 2005, Debbie took a class herself at the School of Visual Arts with the great Milton Glaser, who passed away not long ago. One of the exercises in his class was writing an essay exploring what life could look like five years into the future and taking into account everything you hoped it could be. Debbie dedicated herself to this assignment, and everything she wrote came true. 

Magic? Perhaps. Or maybe clarity can help us move towards what we want to see happen in our lives. 

I could tell this was an exercise for me. So I earmarked the time stamp of the interview, and I wrote my own dream-future essay after I got home later that day. 

I found it so inspiring that I regularly use it as an exercise for my coaching clients. It’s one of several tools that I find helps us project into the future. I believe it helps us shape our lives, if only we dare to look at what we truly want for ourselves.

This winter, Ms Millman is offering us a gift — she has created a card deck called the Remarkable Life Deck, made up of exercises to help us go beyond our day-to-day, dreaming our way towards the realisation of our remarkable lives.

I’m five years into my 10-year projection, and there’s still a lot that I’m waiting to see happen. In any case, thanks to her - and that great conversation, I’m paving the metaphorical way for my own remarkable life. 

You can discover the card deck here. 

Listen to the clip from the Tim Ferriss interview and follow the prompt here. 

Last April, I was delighted to be part of the TED crowd in Vancouver and surprised when we were prompted to sing along to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9’s Ode to Joy. Not your usual conference stuff. 

I was right at the back of the theatre and gave it a proper go, being an ex-singer and all. The reason we were singing? We were being directed by English conductor and musical director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Benjamin Zander - and he was trying to prove a point. 

If you’ve never heard of Zander, wait for it, and start by watching his earlier talk for TED. Then if you fall in love with him like a million others did (and me), try his wonderful book The Art of Possibility, co-written with his wife Rosamund Stone Zander (best experienced in audio because narrated by the couple and punctuated with music throughout).  

Zander started us off by exploring the difference between "positive thinking" and "possibility" and yes, that’s what led us to the celebratory chorus of ‘an Die Freude’ in the original German. 

TED just published the talk, it’s quite magical, funny, and could possibly leave a lasting mark on your soul, as it did on mine. You can watch it online or on the TED Talks Daily here. 

Thanks as always for reading me, I so appreciate it. Don’t be a stranger; drop me a line and tell me what’s on your reading list (or gift list) this December. 

Have a good one, 

Quote

‘If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don't compromise, and don't waste time.’

Debbie Millman

Looking Around

Good news: 

Yeah, we need some of that. Scientists have identified the hormone that causes morning sickness in pregnant women, and a cure is underway.

Did you know that Taylor Swift has inspired a Harvard course? 

This recent NYT op-ed explores the systematic fracking of human beings for our attention and makes a case for attention education. I must say I agree. FYI, Mindfulness meditation is a form of attention education; read about it in Dr Amishi Jha’s book Peak Mind. 

With hybrid work, our cities are no longer contained within the boundaries we think: discover the rise of the Meta city. 

Looking Out

Skills to see you through a Zombie apocalypse. Yep, it has something to do with coaching. I’m grateful to have read this, courtesy of the Akimbo alumni network.

“Know who you are, now relax and meet people where they are.” That’s the advice from Carla Harris, a Wall Street veteran in conversation with Adam Grant. A fabulous, dynamic and inspiring woman. To pass on to young graduates everywhere. Listen here.

The high stakes of low quality, an opinion piece by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. 

Melinda Gates wants to change the face of venture capital. It's about time, too. 

The evolution of the creator and influencer economy. 

How can you tell who cares about their jobs or assignments? Not their displays of enthusiasm, as explained in this HBR article. Don’t assume introverts aren’t passionate.

Looking In

TikTok is all excited about silent walking. If you always have music, podcasts or people in your ears, read this to get a snapshot of the benefits of a silent walk. 

‘Flâner’ is a very French word which isn’t easily translated but you can think of it as a leisurely walk. But Axios explores in this piece why ‘flâner’ aka a wandering around instead of walking with a goal in mind, may be beneficial for us. Hint? More happiness, less anxiety, and make you feel more connected to a greater purpose, studies suggest. 

‘Allons donc flâner un peu.’

Lastly, and importantly, my good friend Bridgitte Dempsey Klein, a beauty entrepreneur and founder of the French natural skincare brand Yanne Wellness, speaks to me about innovative skincare, bottling up the goodness of the sea and connecting to her roots in my latest podcast interview on Out of the Clouds. 

We cover her journey from the London School of Economics and an initial trajectory in international relations to retail instead, and then beauty PR and communication, landing her at Lancôme. Later, she recounts how, in a super pivot, she set up a bespoke fur business in Paris, inspired by her maternal grandmother. 

Her French mother’s influence has also been a major factor, with Bridgitte naming Yanne Wellness after her. We spend plenty of time discussing the natural skincare brand, with Bridgitte also sharing the stories of the several key moments that culminated in the pitch for this new venture that combines innovative skincare with food supplement systems.

My favourite way that Bridgitte describes her mission? Bottling up the goodness of the sea to bring vitality and glowing skin to Yanne’s clientele. 

This is a warm, inspiring and generous interview from an innovative entrepreneur. Visit the link in my bio for the episode. Happy listening!

Dear oh dear. Has Thanksgiving been and gone already?

Did I mistakenly sleep for a week?

I’m asking because according to various outlets that started to hit my inbox with ‘store-wide Black Friday sale’ offers, Black Friday was… yesterday?

Anyway, I had the pleasure of hopping over to London this week to celebrate my wonderful client Pippa Small, OBE, who marked her 30 years in business with a beautiful event in London. The setting was spectacular, so was the jewellery, and so was the company.

The designer chose the historic Leighton House, today an art museum, previously the home-studio of the leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton. The evening featured a panel discussion hosted by Stephanie Phair, OBE herself, and Farfetch Group President, with guests and long-time brand partners Shoshanna Stewart, president of Turquoise Mountain, and Ana Maria Sierra, of Moda Elan.

For good measure, watch Shoshanna Stewart’s TEDxTalk at the London Business School: you’ll become a fan just like I have. 

I felt awe at hearing these women talk about the work they do, the lives they touch, and the plans they have for the future. Awe has been in short supply these past few weeks. 

An enthusiast at heart, I let myself revel in that joyous energy for a few hours, comforted by the knowledge that my coaching and consulting skills are being put to good use when my work supports such women. Dare I say that together we are making the world just a bit better and brighter. 

On that note, The Digest will be short and to the point. I’ve got big plans for the weekend (read: work) and will leave you to enjoy and/or ponder on what I’ve collected for you this week. 

As always, thank you for reading me. Don’t be a stranger, drop me a line if any of the below resonates with you. 

Much love, 

Quote

“Buy less. Choose well. Make it last” - Vivienne Westwood.

Looking Around

Good news: I’ll be putting one of these in The Digest in every edition, because we need good news right now. This week, yeay for the Parkinson patient able to walk after a device implant by CHUV doctors in Lausanne. 

Sort of hilarious. If you think another pandemic is around the corner, maybe this fitness-bed is for you. 

Apparently, November is the right time for New Year’s resolutions. According to Tiktokers of course.

We all need a good laugh. This bland influencer portrayal really worked for me. 

Looking Out

Online hate as a marketing tool and flash apology sales via Vogue Business. 

Hot take by Amy Odell on US Vogue’s controversial piece about Lauren Sanchez, the future Ms Bezos.

TikTok is the new Google. 

Bad news (for travellers) good news (for the environment): the future of travel could mean carbon passports. Call me crazy but I love it. 

Gen Z isn’t impressed with their boozy parents. They are apparently the sober generation.

Still Gen Z, apparently shaking up workplace communication. Cheers to that. 

Young ones, if you enjoy remote work, apparently you’re unlikely to be a CEO in the future.

Looking In

A bloody great podcast on the ‘goopification of self-care’.

Heading into the holidays, here’s another great podcast, one I regularly listen to called Being Well, this time by father and son psychologists Rick and Forrest Hanson. Titled ‘A holiday survival guide’ the conversation steers clear from cliches to a moving and powerful exchange to help us all cope through stressful situations. Look out for Forrest’s line on ‘the weaponisation of gratitude.’ A must listen. 

If you’re new here, welcome to The Digest, a bimonthly selection of articles, podcasts, books or other that I have found compelling, clever or even entertaining. The Digest starts with an intro which today is short-ish. 

YOUR TABS TELL YOUR STORY 

A couple of days ago, my very new MacBook Pro pinged me to tell me the device was running out of memory. Moments before, the machine had started to make a weird if very subtle buzzing sound. A quick glance at the number of apps open confirmed I was overwhelming the operating system. I closed whatever I ‘could’ (I enjoy having multiple apps open and use my slick keyboard shortcuts to move around them).

Not enough, it seemed. By the time I looked at all the tabs I’d minimised in a corner of my left screen (I’m a double screen kind of woman), I felt bad.

Poor computer. What am I doing to you?

Many windows had been waiting to get a look at (or look into) for a week or more. If you were to peer at the open tabs on my main browser (Firefox), I’d tell you to also look at my secondary browser (Safari) or have fun with the crazy number of tabs open on my phone (private search on Safari).

Once you’d had a thorough tour, you’d have a pretty clear portrait of who I am and even who I’d like to be.

In reading an article aptly titled Stop, Before You Close This Tab (or Any Others) …(with the sub-head, ‘Think of your browser like an ongoing autobiography. Why would you ever delete it?’), I pondered upon why it’s so hard for me to close any of these virtual windows. 

Each feels like an ongoing chapter, I realised. No wonder I find it so difficult to even turn my computer off, choosing instead to put it to ‘sleep’ with all the tabs alive, available, if dormant. 

Once every few days, I like to go around the tabs on my laptop browser and see if I actually need to have them up, distracting me, when I occasionally peak up from where I’m supposed to focus my attention. Closing them feels like a purge, a fresh start.

How much of our browser habits reflect the contents of our brains, I came to wonder?

When I think about it, I guess Mettā View’s Digest was born from a desire to share what populated my browser (and by that extent, my brain). You know, those articles you mean to read, podcasts you don’t have time to listen to, news stories that capture your heart and shopping carts you’re unsure about, that all feel like they are truly worth your time and consideration. 

This newsletter’s Digest section serves as a justification for indulging in reading and watching and listening to them all (the good tabs). I no longer need to make time for this later, because I am committed to telling you about it, so these open windows no longer stay neglected. At least not for long.

To help you complete whatever impression you may have of me, Anne V, who writes here weekly, I’ve decided to share with you a snapshot of the activity on some of my four Apple products - a glimpse into my soul. Also, it’s a one-time invitation to judge me… have fun! 

A lemon orzo recipe, a new gallery for jewellery lovers, a neuroscientist researching mettā practice, strength coaching assessment, an online retreat with Jack Kornfield and Trudie Goodman, Varley loungewear, Acne Studios sweatpants (there’s a theme here), Julie Granger’s platform The Studio Paris (a tab I never close), Suzanne Garrett’s Recallers (same), the house I’d like to buy in Tuscany (same), my next YTT (same, need to sign up), Choose Love, Soda bread (for this weekend), Ottolenghi zucchini soup (tonight’s starter), saving a tree, Section 4 course on positioning and the complete manager, a TED talk, new glassware?, fine champagne research, another online course, JazzNoJazz programm, Genuine community, Mission Magazine, Gennaro Avalone art, the Artisan Collab, my latest podcast episode, Acast podcast monetising marketplace, the London Writer’s Salon community page, plus LinkedIn, and Substack.  

Now I’ve shown you mine, I’d love to know about yours! What is one tab you never close? Go on, tell me! 

As always, thank you for reading me, I appreciate it. Have a good one!

Much love, 

Quote

It’s impossible to please everyone. The question is whether you’re disappointing the right people.– Adam Grant

Looking Around

If you’re worried about toxic personalities, truth shading and the sociopaths among us, Arthur Brooks paints a portrait of the ‘dark triads’, and puts forward thoughts for a better world — ethical hygiene. 
Another article, this time in HBR, frames how to deal with manipulators at work. I’d love to say it’s not a problem but I wish I’d read both of these about 10 years ago. Enjoy! 

When you read the word “consultant”, what image comes to mind? Well, I’m thinking about changing my company name (AVM Consulting) after watching the latest instalment of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, on giant consulting firm McKinsey. Funny (because he’s always funny) and frightening at the same time. 

Despite appearances, it’s not all bad news in the world. Completely unrelated to anything I normally write about, here’s some positive developments for a new (and cheap) malaria vaccine. Hurrah! 

New sustainable Swiss timepiece maker ID Genève has found an investor in Leo DiCaprio. I’ve been watching their development for a year or so, and yes, their motto is appealing: conviction on your wrist. As it stands, this blue number with the pink dial would look good on my wrist. 

New report called ‘Sustainable Future for Travel’ by Intrepid, the world’s largest B-Corp-certified travel company, in partnership with trend-forecasting agency The Future Laboratory, predicts the extinction of travel due to climate change, unless action is taken now. Let’s say you enjoy your far away holidays — are you ready to act now so you (or your children) can enjoy them in the future? 

Share

Looking Out

Artifact, the news aggregator platform launched in January by Mike Krueger and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom have added a new feature letting users now share posts (not just links) into the platform, a move that positions it against Threads and Twitter-X. It’s early days, but I like it. 

How much would you pay to avoid ads on social media? Yes, that’s right, Instagram and TikTok are basically the new Netflix. So how much is too much? Welcome to the era of paid social.

If you'd like to better understand brand storytelling and worldbuilding, look no further than the Sociology of Business newsletter. As I was just writing last week, we connect through stories. 

Don’t think the story isn’t the selling point. It sets context, and context frames your understanding of a company, a person, a product — even creating emotional attachment. 

As the writer says: ‘Modern brand stories are vibrations that become strong enough for the culture to hear.’
Amen 

Looking In

Please don't think badly of me, but I tend to watch my face on Zoom. I like to know my hair’s not all over the place (sometimes it is), that there isn’t a big piece of parsley in my teeth (it happens too often). And while I feel bad about it (vanity isn’t attractive) I realise that it serves a purpose: reassurance. 

An excellent article in Dazed in Confused posits that ‘we were never supposed to see our faces that much,’ making the point that ‘the more we alter our appearances digitally, the more dissonance it creates when we look in the mirror.’ It tracks with my experience, but then again I am a middle-aged woman, my face tells many stories in the mirror every day, not all of which I’m happy about. 

The article adds that ‘Social media has shifted focus to prioritise our visual qualities above all else (the algorithm prefers selfies, after all).’ 

As my friend, yoga teacher extraordinaire Diana Rilov, suggested to me not long ago, we should all look inwards and try to work on our ‘spiritual selfie’ instead.  

On balanced partnerships, considered designs and Feldspar’s commitment to heritage crafts

I’ve got a new episode of Out of the Clouds to share, this time interviewing Cath and Jeremy Brown, the couple behind the beloved UK design brand Feldspar Studio. If you haven’t heard, the studio is known for its useful (though they like to call them ‘wonky’) everyday objects, made properly by the careful hands of master craftspeople in their two workshops in England.

With the goal of continuing to make things by hand, the Feldspar duo offer a fresh approach to old materials, creating designs to outlive the owner — true objects for life. I supported them early on as a consultant while they built up the brand, and it was a treat to connect with them again. 

In our interview, the couple tells me about their early careers (which were in very different fields), how they met (a very romantic story) and explain that they left London for Devon on a whim not long after Cath got pregnant with their first son. Soon after that relocation they got their hand into ceramics by chance and, not much after, they decided to turn their creative experiment into a bona fide company. 

As business and marriage partners, the pair also reveals how they balance their skill sets — splitting the work between themselves but ultimately making all their decisions together. Jeremy and Cath also talk about the importance of regularly reevaluating their lifestyle as the company grows, so that they stay true to their priorities, which include spending time with each other and with their kids, writing (for Cath) and making new things (Jeremy).

Check out this joyful and insightful conversation with an inspiring entrepreneurial duo. Happy listening!

If you’re new here, welcome to The Digest, a bimonthly selection of articles, podcasts, books or other that I have found compelling, important or entertaining. The Digest starts with an intro which today is longform. 

I disconnected from TV news after I left New York City seven years ago. The banner alert of breaking news always unnerved me. Also, I’d worked my way through enough stress in the previous few years, so I  unconsciously decided to remove distressing news flash from my life and consume my news in a less triggering fashion. Turns out, when something’s really important, you’ll find out about it eventually. 

Nowadays, I listen to the foreign press review on an Italian radio channel every morning. High-quality journalism is relayed by reporters who read the news, fluent in multiple languages, and they translate the important stories, conveying the point of view of news outlets across the globe. I feel smug about being sufficiently fluent in Italian to understand it all. But these last few days, the highlights of the global round-up weren’t sufficient. I broke my news fast to take stock of the current crisis, though I turned to the Guardian instead of CNN. 

I was never a news addict, but I grew up in a household where my dad had his ear glued to his beloved shortwave radio, a gift from my older brother. He’d lived in Israel (a long story for another day). As soon as a sign of conflict emerged in the Middle East, he’d be listening to Israeli stations in Hebrew, leaving the family in a state of alert despite the fact we didn’t understand a word of what was going on. 

My non-Jewish father and many of his Israeli friends were from a sadly special generation. Their perspective on conflict was tainted by their life experience and the fact they’d all been alive during the Second World War, though some were children then. More than most, his old ‘crew’ - they were undoubtedly misfits at some point in their mid-twenties when they met in Tel Aviv - always sought peace. They’d seen, heard, and lost enough. I can’t say that in their youth, they’d have chosen nonviolence for conflict resolution, but by the end of their lives, what I felt in their presence was a deep respect for human life. 

On a week like this one, I miss my dad and I miss his perspective, and his wisdom. I can’t help but wonder what he would say about the horror of the conflict currently unfolding. 

As I sat to write this Digest, for a moment I thought of bypassing this topic because it’s not very ‘digestible’. I am overwhelmed and in tears over the excruciating images and reports of the violence on display. 

My two grown-up half-nieces and their families live in Tel Aviv. I’ve not visited Israel in years, and it was on the cards for this autumn so I could meet our family’s youngest member, Adam, who was born four months ago.  

I don’t feel like I know enough to offer my own perspective, I feel frozen and small, as in ‘who in the name of god am I to even dare write about this’? 

Perhaps the only thing I can offer is my thoughts and prayers to all victims reeling from the violence. 

And remember the wisdom of my father and his friends and their wish for peace.

ON A VERY DIFFERENT NOTE, I GAVE MY CAT COVID, ALLEGEDLY 

I was going to start by telling you a silly story, as an intro, not talk about war. It’s about how I got COVID for the first time. And I’m going to go ahead and tell you that story to balance out the fact that perhaps the above has made you feel concerned or emotional. 

After five days away in London and Paris, I got home feeling tired. Oh no, I hope I’m not getting sick, I thought to myself. 

That night, the dog Nandi woke me up at 1am, seemingly in pain over his paw (we removed the last digit of a little toe, an unhealed fracture). After trying to calm him down without success, I gave him some morphine (he hates it and foams at the mouth, ugh), and we went to bed with the thought: must call the vet tomorrow. 

The following day, still not feeling great, I turned to Kellan, my beautiful fawn British Shorthair cat, and noticed he looked funny. Ugh! His right eye was tight shut and he was dripping with tears, as if someone had used him for target practice with a toy spray gun. Unable to open his eye, I faced his third eyelid, which I didn’t know was a thing (again ugh). Okay, I called the at-home emergency vet. 

Turns out Kellan had an eye ulcer (!?) and required treatment 10 times a day (not kidding) for a week. To find out about the ulcer (possibly due to a fight with his sister), we had to drip what looked like Aperol oil on his eye, which turned his orange eye a thick car paint green. Bionic cat…  the stuff dripped on his fur, revealing the oval shape of the ulcer. Delightful.

After a shot of something and eye drops, he was secured with a cone. Poor kitten. All he was missing was an eye patch. 

Okay, fine, I am becoming a decent veterinary nurse. But I myself was getting sicker, coughing and sneezing. The next day, I ‘finally’ tested positive with COVID. My first time!

We had another vet appointment in the books to remove the dog’s stitches. Nandi emerged, finally cone-free, his back leg shaved twice due to the operation, and his bandage-free paw looked like he had a peg leg. He skipped around, happy and a little bit out of balance.  

The next day, despite navel-gazing and feeling sorry for myself (I had to cancel a trip to Paris for fashion week), I noticed that the last standing member of our family, Lalah, was looking poorly herself. I hadn’t picked up on her less-than-feisty gait, given that both her mates were walking around with cones, which had appropriately freaked her out. She’d spent a few days holed up in my office, avoiding her sick siblings. 

When I picked her up, and she let me, I read this as a sign of ill health. She felt too hot, as one does when running a fever, so the next morning I called my vet, begrudgingly. We joked that they should give me a membership of some kind. I don’t enjoy going, at all, despite the fact my vet is a dashing silver fox who rolls his r’s charmingly thanks to his Sicilian upbringing.

Turns out, he wasn’t in, so I drove to another vet practice, having announced my own ill state. I showed up appropriately masked, handed over my precious cargo and waited in the parking lot, as one does. 

He knocked on the window of my car and, beneath his own mask, muttered to me: 

‘Well, it looks like you have given your cat COVID. Maybe. ’ 

WTF???

I heard back in 2021 that some cats and dogs were diagnosed with COVID in Hong Kong, but nothing since then. 

I was polite and still concerned about Lalah. But $360 later, driving home, the stupidity of this semi-declaration finally got to me. 

All we knew was that she had some kind of respiratory infection. It could be a cold. It could be anything. She wasn’t tested. Yet the vet has chosen to give me distressing news with absolutely no regard to how that would make me feel. 

I gave my cat COVID. Bollocks! 

The good news, however, is that, having been given an anti-inflammatory injection, Lalah came home swinging as if this episode had been a blip on her health radar. Proof? When I handed her a small piece of dried chicken as we walked into the apartment, she threw her right paw at me, trying to catch it (I’m clearly not distributing treats fast enough), almost taking out my finger in excitement. Back to her old self then, a mini-furry Captain Hook. 

The three of them together would make a cute furry pirate: peg leg, eye-shut, claws out. 

Instead of thinking of this series of illnesses and injuries as bad luck, which I could have, I chose to take it as a sign the universe was telling me to stay home and lie down (on my balcony). 

I wasn’t in Paris for fashion week, and at least I escaped the bed bugs. And given the clemency of the current Indian summer we’re experiencing in Geneva, I emerged from all this with a light tan and convinced as much as ever to stay away from distressing news as much as possible.

Thanks as always for reading me; I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy this week’s Digest (with quite a lot of fashion stuff this week), and I’d love to hear from you about where you find the most interesting podcasts and articles. I’d like to widen my outlook; drop a comment in the chat or reach out to me directly here.  

Have a good one. 

Much love, 

LOOKING AROUND

Quote

“ Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” —Albert Einstein

WHO NEEDS A DOSE OF HUMILITY?

This week, I’m hosting my first salon, Le Trente, a low-key in-person format in my own sitting room. Essentially I have a big living room, so I decided to put it to use. I’ve had to postpone three times, so I’m hoping all will go well between now and Saturday. 

I’ve made myself the presenter and tester for the first event, to use the evening as a test so it’s smooth going when I have my first guest presenters next month. 

The topic I chose is The Story of You. In my presentation, I’ll make the case for why we need to learn to talk about ourselves, whether it’s our working achievements, our aspirations or our passions, to help us better connect with each other. 

As I was putting the finishing touches to the draft, I came across this article by Arthur C Brooks in the Atlantic. He makes the case for why learning humility is a trait that will make us better leaders, and more attractive partners and how learning from our weaknesses, rather than our strengths is a helpful tool in life. 

Okay. I hear the argument, which he makes with an analogy to the Matrix’s blue pills and red pills. The red pill of truth vs the blue pill of the perfect status quo where we don’t see ourselves as who we really are. 

BUT… 

I’m not sure everyone needs more humility. I wonder if this piece is more geared towards the American man, not so much the European woman.

In writing about my experience with how we talk about ourselves (and though I am only starting to explore the topic in depth), I think that women, in general, could do with that red pill of truth. Instead of humility, I think it will reveal how amazing and wondrous they are, though rarely coming close to acknowledging their talents, potential and even their accomplishments. 

Learning to talk about ourselves comprehensively to connect with others can have the desired effect of coming into contact with the truth. And what a revelation that can be.

I’ll offer my thoughts on how to tell the Story of You next week in Looking Forward. Meanwhile, you can read the Atlantic piece here.

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LOOKING OUT

FASHION SOLUTIONS 

This week was my birthday; I am blessed with that great birth date that is 10/10. For some reason, I’ve bought myself an insane amount of gits, it’s like I’m unstoppable. Some of the gifts in question were new clothes (and a pair of shoes). I feel good (I look fabulous) and I feel bad (did I REALLY need the new stuff - it’s to be debated, more on that another time).

Two of my new items were from the new collection at Mother of Pearl, the pioneering traceable and sustainable UK-based brand (thanks to Net-a-porter).

So I feel a bit less bad for those. We all, however, need to consider how we make our fashion choices and what our consumption means for our environment and ourselves.

Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that Amy Powney, creative director of MoP was on stage over the summer for an invite-only TED conference called TED Countdown.

Her talk on how we need to fix fashion and protect the planet is now live on TED.com, and it’s a must-watch if you want to know what is really going on inside your wardrobes. Watch Amy Powney's TED Talk here.

SELF-PROMOTION FIXES

Have you heard of Fixable yet? A new TED podcast with power partners Anne Morris and Frances Frei, the first a leadership coach, the other a professor at Harvard Business School. 

Like anything else, not every episode is my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed this latest one with comedian Chris Duffy. Like me (and maybe you?), he feels very uncomfortable posting on social media and has been made aware that a lack of active presence online could be costing him opportunities. 

The episode is like a live (though edited, I guess) coaching and consulting session, which leaves Chris (and the hosts) thinking differently about how to put themselves out there. Listen here. 

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN CREATIVE DIRECTORS?

If you are anywhere near the fashion world, the new appointment of a male replacement to Sarah Burton at the helm of McQueen (after 13 years there) has sent some shock waves because one clever person created a collage of the creative directors of Kering Group brands. Shock. All white men. 

Oops. The visual gives weight to the reality. Many outlets have written on the topic. I love Lauren Invik’s ‘Fashion Matters’ newsletter at the Financial Times. As it turns out, it’s not just the creative direction positions that seem to escape women… You can read her take here. 

THE BALLET FLAT IS BACK 

I know I share Atlantic stories regularly, and if you’re not yet a subscriber, I want to assure you I’m not working on an affiliate deal with the publisher. It’s just good writing. 

Twenty years ago, I bought into the ballet flat trend. They were cute, nude-coloured and made by a brand affiliated with dance. I felt very ‘authentic’ for someone who’d always loved the idea of ballet. After twisting my ankles twice, I learned my lesson. No more unstructured shoes for me. However, the ballet flat is everywhere right now and I’m so amused to read someone else’s take on why the young generation should learn from our mistakes.  

Meanwhile, in collab-land, Reformation has joined forces with the New York City Ballet to create a delicious capsule collection inspired and modelled by their ballerinas. I totally put my name down for one of the skirts. Not as dangerous, one hopes, as the ballet shoes. Discover here.  

‘Cette semaine a été rock’n’roll!’  

Some thoughts are worth keeping in their original language, but roughly translated, September’s been a rollercoaster. 

After a rocky and rolly few days, I’m bumping along, quite literally, as I zoom towards Paris on the Eurostar typing this.  

You know that you are where you need to be when things flow smoothly.  

Bewildering synchronicities and connections popped up during the three days I enjoyed in the British capital. I was on time for 95% of my appointments (miracle!). Now, let’s see if Paris holds as much magic. At least, there will be French fries, and that’s already enchanting.

In this week’s Digest, I put a particular emphasis on communication, content quality and social media. 

How have things been for you? Have you also had some big rolling ups and rocky downs these past few days? Drop me a line and let me know. 

You’ll notice that the timing of these emails is going to change to fortnightly in the coming weeks to accommodate projects and some travel. As ever, my aim with The Digest is to share the stories and articles that have inspired me. I'll never crowd your inbox and that's a promise.

Thanks as always for reading me, I really appreciate it. Have a good one. 

Much love, 

LOOKING OUT

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“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." — Peter F. Drucker.

1. EMAIL ME, PLEASE!

The new Slack redesign is causing some frustrations at the Atlantic HQ and thanks to the platform’s revamp: office work seems to be more like social media than office work. 

Social media exhausts our attention and, dare I say, our self-esteem, so the last thing we need is for Slack to turn into Facebook. But, oh, wait, it’s just happened. What to do next? 

While I believe that work and life must coexist (not be in separate boxes per se), I find my hair raises on my neck when work starts to trickle through on text or WhatsApp.

Personally, I want my business communication to remain in my inbox (or on Zoom - Slack TBC). 

Text messages are for F&F (read fun and friends). 

Of course, WhatsApp has built Business chats and communities, which I didn’t mind until I got some weird message from someone impersonating a McKinsey recruiter last night. I archive, block and delete actively to keep my feed clean. 

Callie Holtermann explores the topic in the NYT, as she questions how no mode of communication seems to be immune from work. How do you feel about this?

Read here.

2. THE BEST WRITING AROUND

What I write about is not for everyone. However, I apply myself in these digital pages, whether in The Digest or the long-form Looking Forward posts. Why is that? Because sharing is caring. 

I’ve noticed lately that as a reader, many articles (in print, newsletter or other) fail to keep me focused for a whole paragraph, let alone an entire piece. My eyes glaze over, and I skip and skip and regularly don’t even reach the conclusion.

At first, I blamed myself (lazy reader, me?). Then I blamed my lifestyle (and yours, you know, the attention economy, too much content out there, etc). But then, I landed on THE BEST article on New York Fashion Week in the Shop Rat newsletter.  

Ping, the metaphorical penny dropped.

Good quality writing keeps me reading.

Good quality anything keeps me wanting more.

Good quality turns me into a PR machine for other people’s prose. 

Over lunch the other day, my journalist friend (the one who refuses to be on social media) and I pondered on the subject. We agreed that the Financial Times is fantastic at the moment (grown up and not preachy), and I told her about my new Substack crushes (there are more than one).

She wasn’t sure what Substack was, but with many former editors (and other voices like yours truly) carving out their niches on the platform, I hoped to convince her (and you too) that it’s worth exploring. I feel like these folks really do care.

You may not feel much excitement around the fashion weeks, but if you fancy a dip into that world, trust former New York Magazine’s editor Emilia Petrarca to take you on a fantastic trip to the runway.

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3. LURKING GHOST-WATCHERS OR THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL

This great piece in (Substack’s) Embedded explores how we have turned less social, and more media. Four people today invited me to their ‘broadcast channels.’

In this environment, writer Kate Lindsay reports on our changing behaviours, noting that we are all lurking on each other’s feeds, the modern billboards of the personal brand.

Given that ad campaigns invade our personal digital spaces, it is no wonder we end up consuming each other’s stories as a form of media strategy.

As the author points out: “Apps began prioritizing algorithms and discovery and ways of increasing views that de-emphasized direct connection, putting us all in the same place while somehow tearing us further apart.” 

I barely post anymore, so I recognise myself as a ‘lurker’.  

I often feel discouraged from posting. The slickness of the campaigns that sandwich posts in my feed is a deterrent. 

It’s a shame. At heart, I think of Instagram as a modern photo album, a personal space (despite my account being public). But for many, IG is a business space. I don’t think the two can be reconciled. 

It’s time for me to start printing my pictures. 

Read about it here. 

4: POLYWORK, MYSPACE, AND THE SINGLE PAGE WEBSITE

How we communicate who we are and what we do is top of mind for me. That’s why my clients, whether corporate or individuals, come to me for support. 

The evolution of online spaces where we can put out our work is one that I feel is most exciting.

Polywork’s announcement of their new personal website service (available with a paid upgrade) feels timely. This challenger to LinkedIn, best suited for multihyphenates, is making an interesting move. Check out their personal website offering here. 

Mashable makes a similar point in this article about  ‘bringing back Myspace’. 

Sometimes, simple is best. A single page sounds pretty good. Wish I’d thought of that before redesigning my website.

3. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME MANAGEMENT

I’ve been known to be too optimistic about how much I can achieve in a day. 

I was built like that and can’t remember a time when I didn’t over-plan.

This leads me to live a very active life, but the downside is I stress out because I am regularly a bit late, not quite done on time, or not consistent with my plans. These are unpleasant states that I’d like to leave behind. 

I’m learning that there are ways to manage our time biases. Who knew?

Discover the task completion bias, the ‘planning fallacy’ and how to manage these to get on top of your own time to escape that ‘I don’t have enough time’ feeling.’

I’m feeling the difference already. I think you’ll thank me for this one. Read here.

LOOKING IN

5. CAN I BECOME A MORNING PERSON?

I thought getting a dog would make me more of a morning person. But writing has made me more of a morning person than the dog, who I lovingly call ‘sleeping beauty’.

The two combined have turned me away from my beloved snooze-fest mornings. I wish I’d made that change a decade ago. It’s radically improved my life.

Can we change how we feel in the first hour of the day? Unless you get a dog, best to start by exploring a few of the best tactics here.

6. RAHSHAANA GREEN ON HUMAN-ING, THE POWER OF AGENCY AND CBRT (COMPASSION-BASED RESILIENCE TRAINING)

I have a new episode of Out of the Clouds, with a guest who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting through the Nalanda Institute in Contemplative Science. Rahshaana Green, MBA, PMP, RYT is the institute’s Director of Equity and Contemplative Psychotherapy as well as a yoga and meditation teacher and business consultant with expertise in Business Development, Marketing, and Strategy in Healthcare and Science.

Rahshaana tells me about her curious nature as a young child, her love of books and her overachiever tendencies. Combining her passion for science and business skills, she tells me how she chose a BA in Biophysical Chemistry from Dartmouth College and then an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, which led her to a 15+ year career in Marketing and Business Development for medical device and life science companies.

Life also throws some curveballs. In Rahshaana’s case, this meant an accident that directed her towards yoga — Forrest Yoga specifically. Able to heal herself through this practice, she tells me why she chose to become certified as a teacher, something that, with the support of a fantastic manager for her day job, she could do in parallel with her career.

Rahshaana’s personal study in meditation, mindfulness and compassion practices helped expand her growth, and she explains what brought her to the Nalanda Institute and the programs she teaches in Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT). It’s a fascinating field of study which she thinks we could all benefit from because, as we can probably all attest, ‘human-ing’ is hard. We finish the conversation with some thoughts on becoming more intimate with our bodies, learning to be more resilient when faced with discomfort and how to access ultimate intelligence. 

A profound and inspiring conversation. Happy listening!

And in short: 

Continue the exploration of the ‘girl’ syndrome.

On that note, TikTok is coming for your wallet.

Are you a Late Bloomer? I certainly am one, and this podcast made me feel pretty good about it. 

The to-do list gets some love.

Do’s: 

If you’re in London in the coming weeks, do go discover Unstruck Melody at the V&A Museum. A collaboration between artist Nirbai (Nep) Singh Sidhu and Without Shape Without Form’s Deep K Kailey who I interviewed recently. 

Don'ts: 

Bother with the weird men and the Roman Empire thing. Or, if you do, read this.

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I googled ‘how to delete my Twitter account’ shortly before the blue bird turned into X. It was time. The future ‘everything app’ isn’t for me, but like many (perhaps you), I am watching the trainwreck. I admit that this recent spat was particularly entertaining. 

Shortly after, I went back for more, this time typing: how to delete my Facebook account. Honestly, they don’t make it easy to quit these platforms. I’d left the big F dormant for the sake of old friendships. It was time, though. Delete, delete. 

I couldn’t be off all platforms for long. I’m too curious. Yet I’m spending virtually no time on any of them. So do I feel satisfied with my smaller social media presence? 

Well, I was annoyed to abandon my @annvi handle, but I felt smug, you know, and hey, I got a new one, I’m on Bluesky. I don’t get it yet. Give me a minute and I’ll report back. Or if you’re on it, can you look me up? I need help, please. 

When I check my social media folder (my iPhone mirrors my neat desktop), it’s looking, well, sparse. Messaging apps don’t count as social, so I’m left with IG (Threads, which seems to be dying a slow death, is still not available in Europe) and Bluesky. I’m never on TikTok except that apparently I should be because now, like YouTube, TikTok is turning into a search engine. 

I think that only a single one of my friends has no social media presence. But she does have a LinkedIn account. For she cares about being in contact with others in her business (she’s a journalist with a wide network, she may recognise herself in these lines - hey friend!). 

Like her, the only network I engage with several times weekly, if not daily, is LinkedIn. When Bloomberg wrote that 'sorry, LinkedIn is cool now' I laughed. Is Bloomberg an arbiter of cool ? But then I paused. I think they may be right.

Meanwhile, I’m all in on Substack, and I’m not the only one. And I like Artifact but I’m not sure anyone else does. Join me?

Where are you spending your time online these days? Drop me a line and let me know. 

This week’s digest compiles articles I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks. I hope you’ll find them enlightening, entertaining, or both!

Thanks as always for reading me, I appreciate it.

Until next time, have a good one.

Much love, 

LOOKING OUT

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‘I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.’

Oscar Wilde

1. HYBRID WORK BLAMED FOR QUIET QUITTING

Remote workers’ connection to company mission and purpose is at a record low, according to a recent Gallup survey reported on by news site Axios. The survey investigates: does physical distance create psychological distance? Is that what’s behind all the quiet quitting? 

I wonder: could it be that managers and executives have not been trained to communicate company mission and vision to remote workers because, like everyone else, they’ve just learned as they could, on the go? 

Is it possible that these skills should be taught and cultivated and that companies haven’t invested in the training necessary to make that possible? I’ve managed teams and worked remotely for years, it takes effort and dedication to build remote workforce engagement. 

Read more about it in this article, and drop me a line to share your thoughts.

2: WELCOME TO THE CLUB 

The cool folks at Metalabel, who I regularly report on, have just announced their new release. Continuing their exploration of online/offline peer and community collaboration for greater impact, the Lonely Writers Club is ‘a space where interested people can transform their writing practices, collaborate with others, and create writing labels with people who share similar interests and visions.’

I think I need to join… Read more about it here. 

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3: EMAIL IS THE NEW MAGAZINE 

I remember my early days in the press office at Christian Louboutin in London. Don’t go imagining something glamorous, it was a dingy, leaky basement in Knightsbridge.

Back then, the print press was flourishing, brand new titles were launching constantly. I remember attending the InStyle launch, Glamour, Grazia, the excitement behind Another Magazine, and later the Gentlewoman.

Digital has slowly killed the print business, which itself suffered from too much advertising-focused content, so there are fewer and fewer quality print titles around. BUT there are plenty of great writers and stylists making their mark outside of traditional publishing. As the New York Times reports, the new magazine is a newsletter. Read about it here.

(ps. My fave style newsletter is by far Leandra Medine’s Cereal Aisle)

4: WORDS OF THE DAY 

The act of paying more attention to your device instead of your partner, colleague, or friends has a word. Phubbed. It’s good. It’s easier to tackle a problem when we have a word for it.

Personally, I have a vivid memory of being phubbed. At work! Ugh. Some colleagues would not only pick up their phones and ignore the conversation happening at the meeting table, but they were mean-girl-style bitching about the people they didn’t like on the team. 

Naively, I only picked up the phubbing bit - someone had to point out the bigger problem - which led me to ban phones from my team’s weekly meetings. Are you being phubbed? Or are you a major phubber? Psychology Today calls it ‘relationship mould.’ Read about it here.

In other news, I have a tendency to be a big nexter. I know, it’s a lot of new words today. Nexting stands for our difficulty in being in the moment because of our brain's natural tendency to focus on a yet-to-be-realised future. Like when you are chewing a piece of food and thinking about what you’ll have next? Does that resonate? 

Mindfulness tools are a good antidote to that. Read about it here.

LOOKING IN

5: YOU WANT WHAT YOU WANT…

This New York Times guest essay argues that being a ‘good person’ is overrated and explores the joy in being bad and challenging the so-called “shame industrial complex” - when shame is both commodified and weaponised by a society that is increasingly estranged from real life. A very enjoyable read. To my point earlier this week in Looking Forward, I believe that desire is a compass. 

6: SCREEN APNEA IS A THING 

I was trapped in the dark. Blinds down, chained to my screen, finally dealing with a non-urgent pile of admin I’d left untouched since forever. I chose to get into it in the middle of a mother of a heatwave. 

I worked intensely to get it over with. I even used all my best keyboard shortcuts, zipping through the files. 

At one point, I noticed: oops. I forgot to breathe. 

Have you ever done that? 

When I was younger, I thought I was bad at breathing, assuming other people out there knew how to do better than survive on shallow sips of air. 

Turns out, I’m not bad. We all are. 

I’ve discovered a concept called ‘email or screen apnea’. 

Sounds familiar? 

As soon as I noticed I was experiencing  ‘admin apnea’, I focused on my breath. Damn. Even editing this, I notice I’ve done it again! Breathe. 

Thanks to my mindfulness and yoga practice, I know that when we observe the breath, it starts to change. It naturally becomes deeper. I used my skills, tried to relax and let go of the tension with each out breath. Unclench. What an experience.

Stress (including the pressure we put on ourselves) naturally triggers the body to respond to the threat it is experiencing. Admin isn’t technically life-threatening. And yet, staring at our screens triggers all sorts of stress responses. 

Lengthening the breath tells our nervous system we are okay. I managed to remember to breathe for the following days. And I’m done! I did it all. But phew. It’s a daily battle. See, meditation can be the key to managing workplace stress. If we only remember to breathe.

Read about it here and discover more about email apnea from Linda Stone, who coined the term here.

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7: ETIENNE SALBORN ON FOSTERING INNOVATION, FREESPONSIBILITY AND BUILDING SELF-ORGANISED COMMUNITIES

I’ve got a new episode on Out of the Clouds, and how this interview came about has a bit of a story. 

My guest, the changemaker Etienne Salborn, like me attended the TED conference in Vancouver earlier this year. I had the pleasure to meet Etienne over dinner one night — though, with me fighting tonsillitis and our positions at opposite ends of the table, we didn’t have much chance to speak! Luckily we kept in touch, and what a treat it was to be able to not only talk with, but interview him!

Now to introduce him properly: Etienne is the co-founder of SINA, (the Social Innovation Academy), a talent campus in Uganda. He serves as a lecturer for social entrepreneurship at the Management Center Innsbruck and the ESCP Business School, resource person for the Asian Productivity Organization, and facilitator for the ChangemakerXchange. His expertise and leadership have earned him recognition as an “AACSB Influential Leader 2021” and he was named an Innovation Ecosystem Builder Fellow by MIT D-lab in 2018.

The Berlin-born social entrepreneur has had quite the life journey since taking off for Uganda at age 18 for a volunteering community service (an option to eschew the German military service). In our conversation, he tells me about how he set up his first and then second non-profit organisations after he found his life’s mission: to support the empowerment of marginalised youth in rural Uganda. 

We talk about the three pillars of the SINA program, how the community that lives and works together facilitates conflict and feedback within its flat structure, the concept of self-organised ‘freesponsibility’ and more in this unique interview.

Click here to listen. Enjoy!

And in short: 

Caitlin Moran makes the case for taking more pictures of ourselves. I feel like she’s talking directly to me. Eek. 

Do we live in a simulation? 

A tsunami of AI Spam 

I’m not going away to the beach any time soon but if I could, I’d go back to Betroun. 

Do we need to be concerned about girl dinners?

Do’s and Don’ts:

Do read: Unreasonable Hospitality, the Success Myth, Drive, Real Life or in fiction Big Swiss, and Lessons in Chemistry

Don’t read: Rest (get the Blinks instead)

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While working in New York City, I was introduced to ‘Summer Fridays’, a program many companies offered their staff around the city, encouraging them to leave work at lunchtime every Friday from July to the end of August. This was meant to help us residents flee the city towards the beach before traffic gridlocked us in place in our cars. 

My workload felt sadly incompatible with this practice. I don’t remember enjoying a single summer Friday for the three years I lived stateside. I did, however, have a European holiday allowance, so don’t feel too sorry for me.

In my new role as a solopreneur, I try to make more room for building in ‘breathers’ in my week. I’ve not taken a half day off just yet since lately, as luck would have it, much of my time has been consumed with addressing an injury sustained by my Cavapoo puppy, Nandi. What looked like a small cut that wasn’t healing properly turned out to be a fracture. We would have never guessed from seeing him jump and play: he certainly wasn’t in pain, but X-rays don’t lie. My (our) summer will look very different thanks to that. No swimming for him, eight weeks in a cast. Yikes. 

Bummed out after the vet appointment, I looked at the mountain of work on my to-do list, feeling a sense of overwhelm. So I did the most reasonable thing I could think of: I left it all there for the night. 

Instead, I treated myself to an online yoga class with Smart Flow teacher Annie Carpenter, whose 9am in Auckland, California, is my 6pm. After class and a swift shower, I joined friends for an aperitif I had previously cancelled. 

I enjoyed a few glasses of a fragrant white wine, watching over Nandi like a mamma hawk (he was getting his cast today), and went home feeling much better for having spent the evening looking after myself instead of looking after my work.

It’s a tough choice and one that I don’t make often. Of course, the items on my to-do list are still here, glaring at me from an opened tab on my screen. 

But I’ve got better tools now, better than in my earlier career, like this one: to-do lists are there to help us prioritise what is most important, whether daily, hourly, or moment-by-moment. We absolutely do not need to cross everything off (phew, because you know, that never happens) or even need to attempt to. With that in mind, I’ve rejigged my day’s and week’s priorities, holding a clear intention of continuously doing my best, both for my clients and for myself. Not putting one above the other, but side by side. 

I am off to the vet’s again, but it’s okay. I am grateful we can afford the care and that he will get well looked after, even if it creates some complications on my end. 

We can’t always see our plans through, whether they be to leave the office early, soak in the sun, or finish editing that podcast episode, newsletter, or whatever has piled up on our desktops. But somehow, we can choose to remember to celebrate summer in a small way, at least once in a while, and leave the to-do list behind. 

Meanwhile, I’ve prepared a short and sweet digest for you below; I hope you get to enjoy it somewhere comfortable. As always, thank you for reading me; I really appreciate it!

Until next time, have a good one.

Much love, 

LOOKING AROUND

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“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.” - John Steinbeck

THE ANTI-AI CAMPAIGN

If you’ve been one of those people prompting ChatGPT to explore its possibilities, you may have seen it conjure photorealistic images with your text prompts that your imagination couldn’t fathom. Nikon, the Japanese company behind some of the best cameras, has launched a stunning campaign to show us Earth’s ‘Natural Intelligence.’ Playing with written prompts as you’d do with generative AI, layered over incredibly beautiful images, Nikon makes a case for just how wonderful nature is and how perhaps, we could turn to look at it more often than our screens. 

Watch the video here.

LOOKING OUT

HAVE WE REACHED THE END OF AN ERA?

Following the news of the Twitter-clone Threads app being released in North America yesterday, this thoughtful article in the Verge questions the role and the future of social media in our lives. Could it be that the constant search for monetisation (I see you, Instagram subscriptions), turning connection into entertainment, engagement into scrolling has turned us against the platforms that once promised to have us all feel connected? After all, what we seek isn’t ‘a thing’; we all seek the feeling of being where we should be. 

The writer candidly writes that he misses the places that felt like everyone was there,  putting into words a feeling that I hadn’t understood before myself. 

One of my favourite moments on Twitter, for example, was watching the football World Cup with the live commentary of the late Hilary Alexander, fashion editor for the Daily Telegraph. I have rarely had a better time. It certainly felt like everyone was there, in a good way. 

For some reason, I don’t have good memories of Facebook, I’d just like a replacement for Twitter for real news, alerts, and events, and I’m happy to keep Instagram as my public photo album. 

What will happen with Threads? Let’s see. As of this morning, the platform was rolled out in over 100 countries (sadly not Switzerland) and had garnered 10 million sign ups within seven hours of its launch. Apparently, Twitter’s menacing to sue Meta over it (they certainly need the money).

With Twitter being a mess and everything else being not quite right, ex-Twitter employees have built Spill. Currently in beta, by invite-only on iOS, the new platform claims to offer visual conversations at the speed of culture. From what I read, it seems they are going about it by targeting under-represented communities, people whose content can make or break a platform. Watch this space and read about it here.

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LOOKING IN

ANAIS SAEGESSER ON REGENERATIVE LEADERSHIP, ACTING FROM CONNECTION AND SCALING FOR GOOD

In this latest interview for Out of the Clouds, I had the pleasure to reach out and interview a peer from my study time at the Nalanda Institute in Contemplative Science. (Who says we can’t make wonderful connections on Zoom?)

Anaïs Sägesser, a fellow Swiss, wears many complimentary hats: she is an impact-driven educational entrepreneur, a learning designer and the co-creator of pioneering and impactful programs focused on entrepreneurship, regenerative leadership development and personal growth. Anaïs is a self-confessed seeker and a fellow lifelong learner. She holds a doctorate from the University of St Gallen, currently serves as an expert for Innosuisse and was recently elected as a member of the scientific advisory board for transdisciplinarity at the Swiss Academies of Sciences.

With all that said, she also is a certified yoga teacher and she offers guided mindfulness and compassion practices in English and German on Insight Timer. Broadly speaking, Anaïs is dedicated to societal transformation through personal transformation, social equity, and systems change.

In our conversation, we cover a lot: from her lessons at business school to comparative religious and Islamic studies, to landing herself a job in management consulting, and then finding her way to follow her own purpose. She tells me about Climate-KIC, where she served as Swiss director and co-lead, then co-founded Scaling4Good, a non-profit aiming to connect impact initiatives with institutions to amplify climate response project growth. 

Since Anaïs and I are both coaches and mindfulness and yoga teachers, I ask her how she found her path to meditation, why coaching and how this supports entrepreneurs. 

Anaïs writes regularly on values and leadership and offers her thoughts about the disconnection between individual and collectively held values, our search for meaning and purpose and how she believes we all have this innate desire to do something good. 

We close with Anaïs’ favourite tips to connect with nature, culminating with the question:

Who are you that I am also, and who am I that you are too?

A deep and insightful interview with a remarkable changemaker. Happy listening!

ON FASHION AS WELLNESS, GETTING DRESSED AND SELF-CARE  

Martha Beck, PhD, sociologist, author, and master coach (whose Wayfinder Life Coach Training I certified with), has developed a theory she calls the Change Cycle, which is set up in four steps (it’s squares actually, more on that another time). I remember vividly reading that between squares two and three (from dreaming and scheming to making things happen in the real world), her clients would suddenly report the desire to make drastic changes to their looks, whether they had a radical hair colour or cut change, or changed their wardrobes completely. 

Well, I must be hovering between these squares two and three because nothing in my closet feels right, and for once, it’s not because I can’t fit into my clothes! I also just got a new haircut and have been contemplating a ‘my little pony’ sort of bold colour play. 

Most of us can’t afford to simply ditch the contents of our closets when we are in transition and purchase a brand-new wardrobe. What to do? 

Enter stylist Allison Bernstein interviewed on the Who What Where podcast with Hillary Kerr. The LA and NYC-based stylist believes that fashion is a form of wellness and that getting dressed is a version of self-care. I think fashion and clothes choices can affirm or limit our own sense of identity. Not just because of how they look but also in expressing something about the fibres, the materials and the brands they are made of. No wonder why we may feel a need to change. Like a snake leaving its old skin behind, when we feel a shift in our own sense of identity, we may need to express it outwardly to the world through our clothes, accessories, hair and make-up. 

Martha Beck would agree with her, I think, and even my younger self (think seven years old) would, as I remembered the other day, feel terribly unhappy and inauthentic when I was being dressed by my mother ‘against my will’ (read I didn’t like that dress, it’s not like I was trying to go to school butt naked).

Bernstein shares practical tips to help us clean out our closets, reclaim what works and help us find our authentic style. I’m halfway through my wardrobe purge, and thanks to her advice, I’m feeling great about it and hopeful that I understand what works for me. Now I have my keywords: practical, textured, soft (natural) and feminine. 

Given what we know about the impact of fast fashion on the environment, when I look at something I may purchase, I now ask myself this: is this a forever item? If the answer is no, I let it go. 

Listen to the podcast here and find out more about Allison here. 

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CAN WE FIND PEACE WITH AN APP?

Can we? Whether you think of peace as mindfulness or a happy state where anxiety has been left behind, and we are neither preoccupied with future plans nor brewing over the past, do we need an app to achieve it? 

Writer Michael Owen makes a poignant case against our phones being the right vehicles for meditation and mindfulness. After all, just gazing at my iPhone 📲 I immediately think of a hundred things I should be doing. Personally, I’m not against them, but that’s because I love nothing more than putting my phone on silent mode. 

In any case, he makes a good point. To read the full story, you may have to create an account with the Atlantic; discover it here. 

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Last week, I regretted not living in the USA, a rare occurrence, may I add. I wasn’t jealous of the eerie Blade Runner-style orange skies over New York and the rest of the East Coast, but rather wishing I could use this new app that lets you rent private swimming pools by the hour. Also works for pickleball (which I’m yet to try to play), tennis and yards. Smart people! With the temperatures rising, pool sharing sounds just the ticket, please make this happen in Europe ASAP. 

Meanwhile, geeky that I am, I’m trialling a new email service called Superhuman, which apparently is the fastest email experience ever. Several peers tell me it’s their new absolute favourite thing. I’ll report back on that next week. 

I’ll be away next week but will report back in a few days. In the meantime, thank you as always for reading me, I really appreciate it. 

Have a good one, 

Much love, 

LOOKING AROUND

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‘When we buy things, we buy stories.

Stories are information, content, fan fiction, myths and sagas. 

Stories also transform how we see and value things, and how this changes our economy and society: 

Who is the hero? Whose story is it? Who gets to tell it?’ 

Ana Andjelic in her Substack newsletter, the Sociology of Business. 

LOOKING OUT

CAN AI END THE BIAS IN RECRUITMENT, WOMEN’S MIDLIFE STRESS AND OBAMA’S NEW NETFLIX SHOW

An AI-powered option has landed to help the fashion industry with its recruitment issues. Dweet promises to remove bias from the process, as well as cut the fees (to 15% with options to discount for multiple hires) and on top of that, promises hires within three to eight days (vs the 30 to 90 days hire time, which I can tell you is a bane for managers and HR alike). While the platform aims to present fresh candidates through AI algorithms, will the brands and HR be as open-minded as the machine? And that’s without considering which datasets have been entered into the algorithm. Currently, Dweet is splitting the work between tech and human (70/30, the human servicing the needs of client and talent), hoping to augment the platform’s automation in the future. With their algorithm discounting gender, social presence, and physical appearance to focus on skills only, I am left feeling both hopeful and sceptical. We certainly need a more diverse workforce, everywhere. Read more about it here. 

Across the pond, Netflix has just released a new show with Barack Obama. Called ‘Working: What we do all day.’ The slick trailer tells me how work is one of the forces that connects us. I may give it a go. However, I need to remind myself that while there are global trends when it comes to work, Europe is a significantly different place than the US. Read about it here. 

Meanwhile, in the UK, Lorraine Candy, ex-EIC of Elle UK and the Sunday Times Style magazine, talks about her new book What’s Wrong With Me?: 101 Things Midlife Women Need to Know. She shares how perimenopause unravelled her in her forties, how her window of tolerance was greatly reduced, finding herself completely overwhelmed with stress that was previously manageable. This is a particularly relevant topic for me because several close friends have developed severe anxiety recently, and M Powder founder (a menopause supplement) Rebekah Brown talked to me about it eloquently in our podcast interview last year. We all need to know about this because everyone has a woman in midlife in their life: whether you are her or they are your friend, your family member, your boss, or your peer.  Read about it here.

RH’S MISSION LEADS TO IMPACTFUL BRAND POSITIONING 

Have you ever heard of RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware? I remember coming across it when I was looking for small furnishings for my NYC apartment, a decade ago. I found a couple of nice bits, which were substantial enough to have made it back to Switzerland with me. The brand, however, left me unimpressed. 

But the company’s new mission, and trajectory, have me rather mesmerised. RH has embraced a vision that merges architectural history and hospitality, and it is about to open its first ‘destination’ in the UK. And what a destination! Aynho Park, the Grade I-listed 73-acre estate in Oxfordshire, was the setting for a couple of epic birthday and wedding parties that I was lucky to attend. 

As Wallpaper explains, RH’s new lease of life comes thanks to their retail visionary CEO, Gary Friedman, and his strategy of ‘showcasing design within an unexpected architectural framework, positioning RH as a place- and tastemaker for the modern age.’

RH could have stayed a furniture supplier for upmarket Americans, but it’s now setting its sights internationally with ‘galleries’ opening in London, Paris, Milan, Madrid and more. 

As Friedman said in his speech on opening night: 'Our strategy is quite simple, and that is we do what we love, with people that we love, for people that love what we do. What we believe in deeply, is that by chasing our hopes and dreams, we hopefully inspire others to chase theirs, and by fighting fearlessly for what we believe in, we hopefully encourage others to do the same.'

Discover more here (worth a look for the fabulous pictures of the glorious Aynho Park).

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STORYTELLING, FROM BRAND TO SELF

I’m a huge fan of Ana Andjelic’s work, and her latest publication on Substack, ‘The origin story’ left me in no doubt that I needed to share it with you. 

Her case is clear: everything we own, every brand, from your toothpaste to our sneakers, to our choice of car or paper, is telling a story, about the brand itself and about who we are. 

To ease us into the topic, Andjelic chose the ESPRIT tote bag, known as an heirloom and was (in the 1980s, when it was launched) a status symbol. It wasn’t big in my little slice of countryside, but I get it. Over here, it was Bensimon sneakers and preppy brands, whose names I’m desperately trying to remember… oh the 80s are a long time ago. 

We buy stories with each purchase, whether consciously or not, and, in turn, we shape culture and society with the choices we make. Read more here.

DOES THE SELF NEED A NARRATIVE ARC?

Do you ever ask yourself the question: who am I? I remember having to write a short essay on it last year, the third part of a written test to get credits after my 50h yoga training with legendary teacher Annie Carpenter. So I loved nothing more than to turn the tables on her when I interviewed her on my podcast Out of the Clouds and asked her: who is Annie? She really did deliver the goods when she answered me, as she does ask herself the question often. She is really worth a listen.

The New York Times leans into this concept, or question, with a Big Ideas series, called Who Do You Think You Are? and the answers come from academics, musicians and artists, and I invite you to read their take on what this means, to even question who we are. The latest I read was by Simon Critchley, a philosophy professor and author, and in his essay, he goes beyond the original question to go: is the self a story? 

Before sharing: 

‘We are the stories we tell about ourselves — and the better the story, the better the self that tells it.’

I will revisit this theme later in the month, so consider this, if you want, as a form of homework! Read about it here. 

LOOKING IN

WHOLE BODY MENTAL HEALTH 

I am halfway through the unedited version of an episode of On Being podcast, where host Krista Tippett engages in a conversation with British psychologist Kimberley Wilson. Her field of practice is called whole-body mental health, an emerging speciality that examines the relationship between body functions and mental states. Having started to follow her on LinkedIn, I devoured the few articles she has posted, and I can’t wait to put my hands on her books, Unprocessed: How the food we eat is fueling our mental health crisis, and Future-Proof Your Brain. She also has a few podcasts under her belt, as well as regular TV appearances in the UK. 

Listen here. 

WHATSAPP GROUP CHATS ANXIETY AND INTERMITTENT NEWS FASTING 

Archive. That’s the first thing I do when someone adds me to a large WhatsApp group because, you may know this about me already, I hate to be disturbed by my notifications. I was very much a ‘door closed’ manager, and this is reflected on my phone. I do my best work when undisturbed (the cats and dog are proving to be distractions more than disturbances), so I close the digital door to keep my sanity and only open it when I deem it appropriate. 

While the new features coming to WhatsApp, like group chat and communities (including upcoming one-way broadcasts ‘a la newsletter’), are certainly practical, they are nonetheless a source of anxiety whether or not you dare turn your phone (or notifications) off for a period of time. If that stresses you out and you feel you can’t ever keep up, you’re not alone. And it’s normal! The Independent explores the topic and shares tactics to help deal with group message pressure.

Read more about it here. 

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Now that’s out of the way, very much unlike last week, I’ve got a juicy bunch of topics to share with you, which you’ll find compiled below in The Digest. Hopefully, this will energise you as it did me. 

Mind you, today I have to send my best wishes to all those currently trapped in the waves of smoke travelling from Quebec to the East coast of the US and Canada, due to unmanageable wildfires, as well as those fleeing the devastation caused by the collapsed dam in Ukraine. While the sky is blue here, in my little clean corner of the world, I can’t help but remember how interconnected we all are. And gosh, if that leaves you with an ‘end of the world’ kind of aftertaste, fret not, there’s plenty to distract you below if these news stories are making your heart race. 

As always, thanks so much for reading me, I never take it for granted. Drop me a line and let me know what captured your attention and have a good one.

Until next time. 

Much love, 

LOOKING AROUND

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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. - Isaac Asimov (via Dense Discovery)

THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS

A good book

The New One Minute Manager: a short little book with some great (and updated concepts) for collaborative management and team empowerment, which I heard about in Will Guidara’s book Unreasonable Hospitality. Highly recommended.

Something new

The Polyvagal Card Deck: I heard of Deb Dana, a clinician, consultant, author and speaker specializing in complex trauma, thanks to the fabulous coach Tara Mohr. Dana’s work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma in our lives. I’m just starting to read her book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices, and her card deck, ‘Practices for calm and change’ is just the ticket. You can tell, I’m enthusiastic, I’ve just bought a few extras for my friends.

A good tip - Sell the piano 

Are you finding it hard to ‘sell’ yourself, or your services? Hard to find perspective to make a convincing pitch? Imagine that instead of putting yourself forward, you are selling a piano. That’s right, a piano!

What simple, concrete steps would you take if you were selling a black lackered upright Yamaha? A nice enough way to gain perspective, lose the nerves and find some new angles to make that pitch (courtesy of master coach Terry Demeo).

PS. I actually have a piano to sell, in case anyone’s interested… 🎹

A podcast episode

Author Emma Gannon talks about her latest book ‘The Success Myth’ with cool girl podcaster and ex-Radio One DJ Annie Macmanus. If you’ve ever felt unfulfilled and trapped by external goals and sensed you need to re-orient or pivot to find your own way to success, this book may be for you.

And while some people say the Great Resignation is over, rethinking goals along the lines of personal success may yet bring some more changes to our workplaces (and it’s about time if you ask me). So listen to Emma openly share her story of successes and burnout with a good dose of perspective and wisdom. Fun fact, I recently read that she, too, has trained with Martha Beck to become a coach. Small (online) world. Her newsletter, the Hyphen, is also worth a regular read. 

A newsletter

I can’t get enough of Dense Discovery. I may have said it before, but I’ll say it again. Curated by editor Kai Brach of OffscreenMag, it’s great for design-friendly, eco-conscious and tech enthusiasts. Worth the $22 yearly subscription. 

IRL

I’m weighing whether or not I want to attend TED Tech, their first dedicated tech event, in London this September, hosted by Chris Anderson and Helen Walters. They just released a first look at their program. Pondering on. 

If you are coming near Geneva this year, I’m excited to tell you about a salon series I’m launching later this month. Called ‘Le Trente’, these salons are designed to introduce new people, projects and ideas in a happy place, under my roof (literally, in my ‘salon’) with the view of bringing together a curious, conscious and connected community. Message to get on the list. More on this to come soon.

LOOKING OUT

APPLE Vision Pro ghosts AI talk

to embrace a direction far from where Google and Microsoft are investing their money right now. It’s an interesting and smart move that makes the news of the headset surpass the current metaverse conversation. Plus, unlike other headsets out there, the tool is being presented as an alternative (or addition) to your laptop, and it does let you see what happens in the world around you. What struck me? How strongly Apple is leaning into the use of the Vision Pro for work, the brilliant move that is to present it to developers first so native apps become the pull for the early adopters when the product launches to market in the US in early 2024. I’m very much looking forward to testing it soon. Read more about it here. 

FOOD’S THE NEW LUXURY & BOOMERS TAKE OVER TIKTOK

According to Vogue Business, the TikTok puppy generation, aka those born not so long ago, are fascinated with food, healthy treats and wellness drinks, and that’s something very new. I’m thinking: hold on, haven’t we seen this before? Avocado toast, anyone? When wasn’t food one of the best content to share? However, I note that some interesting partnerships have emerged between food brands and fashion or jewellery. Whether you’re launching a book, working in finance, or are, like me, working across fashion and accessories, it’s always good to remember to connect with other humans through what we care about. Ahh, food. Read about it here. 

Also of interest, who sells things now on TikTok is not necessarily who you think. Check out the new (old) generation of TikTokers, boomers rocking everyone’s world and becoming paid influencers in their own right. 

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF AI 

Last week was all about AI. Was it just for me, or is your newsfeed also packed with stories about it?

Here are a few interesting nuggets for you on this topic:

While AI can help us in tricky moments of our lives (a friend uses Chat GPT to send legal-sounding letters ‘sans emotions’ to her ex-husband, clever and effective!) and amuse us (many comedians have given it a go to write their comedy bits, and it sounds as flat as one would imagine), it also can be intolerant, dangerous, and spread biases that affect people’s lives, perhaps even near you. You see, it’s all about the datasets entered into the system, which will dictate the choices made by the AI. That’s something that we all need to become very, very invested in. Read this meaningful and important piece about Big Tech and digital colonialism in Wired. 

From Paulette Perhach for the NYT, would you trust Generative AI with your financial planning?

Meanwhile, some lazy lawyer used ChatGPT to supplement his case research giving him several cases and relevant precedents which were all hallucinated by the language model. EEK! The court judge wasn’t too pleased by the resulting argument. This is (I believe) the first ruling that AI-generated content presented in court needs to be declared and checked before being presented. I mean…

Meanwhile, some lazy lawyer used ChatGPT to supplement his case research giving him several cases and relevant precedents which were all hallucinated by the language model. EEK! The court judge wasn’t too pleased by the resulting argument. This is (I believe) the first ruling that AI-generated content presented in court needs to be declared and checked before being presented. I mean…

For a deeper look into how AI is infiltrating our lives, the NYT has put together a selection of podcasts to help you dive in. I heartily recommend MIT Technology Review’s ‘In Machines We Trust’ by fellow TEDster Jennifer Strong. 

The other day I used a new tool to record a podcast intro powered by AI. It was offering me a simultaneous transcription of my recording, and I couldn’t help but giggle upon seeing the transcription of my full name: it renamed me ‘and moody Tyler’ (not Anne or even Ann…I am ‘and’) I feel both concerned by my elocution and thrilled because I might have just found my alter ego. Expect to hear about And Moody Tyler again soon. Thanks, Descript!

Lastly, the nice people at the same company, Descript, just shared an important ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office declared any work that has been developed collaboratively with Generative AI is not protected by copyright laws and can be freely copied. Time to rethink your potential use of ChatGPT, no? Read about it here.

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GEMMA COLAO ON THE WONDERS OF CBD AND THE SPACE BETWEEN SOUND AND SILENCE

I’m so happy to share with you my latest interview for Out of the Clouds, with Gemma Colao, the creative director and co-founder of OTO Wellbeing. 

Gemma had a successful career in fashion as a knitwear designer before she first discovered the power of CBD whilst she was struggling in the fast-paced industry to manage her own anxiety and hormonal acne. She became a CBD expert, fascinated by the efficacy of the cannabinoid on her system, after it sorted her sleep issues and lessened her anxiety. She and her husband James embarked on a journey to set up the first online CBD dispensary in California, where they were living. When they returned to the UK, the low quality of local CBD offerings sparked their idea for a new opportunity — and that’s when OTO was born.

Gemma answers my many questions about CBD while enlightening me on OTO’s many offerings, from sleep drops to skincare to seltzers and their newest bitters (to be added to cocktails and soft drinks alike). She also reveals that spa treatments are next (which I can’t wait to try).

We also talk about mindful rituals, balance, how and why we love journaling (different reasons, great benefits all around), and Gemma gives me a tip: how fitting breathing exercises in the shower is just the ticket for the creative entrepreneur and mom of two. 

An engaging and rich conversation with an exciting entrepreneur. Happy listening! 

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EMBRACING SLOW TRAVEL

Do you remember the days of the pandemic lockdowns when we saw nature take over in unlikely places, the skies bluer than ever? Didn’t you also think: oh wow, we really need to pay attention; look at how beautiful the world is when we let it breathe a bit. Perhaps we could travel less, after this is all over? Well, I’m not sure any of us are sticking with our good intentions, but instead of no travel, how about travelling better? Staying closer to home more often and embracing the train instead of the planes? If this feels like something you’d want to explore, this piece from Condé Nast Traveller is probably a good starting point. 

And with that, check out this new website called Select Green Hotels which offers a listing of sustainable European properties. It can come in handy if you haven’t booked your holidays yet.

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This feels relevant in more ways than one. First, I’m just finishing the book From Strength to Strength by Harvard Prof Arthur Brooks, also a columnist for The Atlantic, in which he explores how to create a fulfilling life past career peak (understood to happen between 25 to 40) and find meaning and relevance in the second half of life. 

Then I reflected that many women (an assumption, but let me know if you think I’m wrong) felt empowered at the sight of the powerful sexy-dynamo that was Turner, a woman who emerged from a violent marriage stronger, sharper and brighter, her energy impossible to forget. Quite the heroine. I didn’t realise just how much she had touched me until I stopped to consider it. May she rest in peace. 

In other news, do you know what I love? When a brand emails me to ask if I want to opt out of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day emails. Yes please!!!! As a childless woman who has lost both her parents, I must say, the flurry of marketing ploys leading up to both commercial events leaves me cold. In the age of personalisation, brands and marketers really can do better than to click ‘send all’ without regard to personal preferences. Also, to the companies that do reach out, congrats, you just earned credit from me (bravo Anya Hindmarch). 

Meanwhile, feminism made some barefoot steps forward earlier this week, with both Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence breaking a sacred (if silly and patriarchal) dress code rule.

As Vogue reported: “Footwear has been a bone of contention at Cannes for years, with festival organizers endorsing a de facto rule that women must wear heels at all public events.” 

Despite this, Lawrence showed up looking extraordinary in a red Dior Couture dress which she paired with black flip flops (outrage!), and Blanchett took off her stilettos to stand barefoot at a press event while she was presenting French-Iranian star Zahra Amir Ebrahimi with a breakthrough artist award. A stab at anyone who stands against women’s rights. 🎉 Bravo to both women (and their few predecessors who dared stand flat-footed against the festival’s organisers). I’d personally like to see a reverse dress code rule in another festival somewhere in the world, mandating all men to wear heels. That ought to be fun. What do you think?

As always, thank you for reading me; I never take it for granted. Wishing you a good rest of the week, 

Until next time. 

Much love, 

LOOKING AROUND

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“Humans aren’t a resource. They are the point.” - Seth Godin

MEANINGFUL PURSUITS

Seth Godin is back with a new book called The Song of Significance, which I first found out about because he came onto the Tim Ferriss Show to talk about it last week. And then he emailed me about it (not personally, but you get the gist). The book is going to take the ‘next up’ position on my reading list, despite the growing pile of titles next to my desk (with a few more arriving today, yikes). Godin believes that work no longer… works. And he’d like to help make things better for everyone. Given my interest in the future of work, conscious communication etc, it feels like a fit.

Listen to their conversation about collaboration, meaning and leadership here. The clever marketer has even created a bundle, which includes five copies of the book with 25 booklets, to help us spread the ideas within our own organisations. Given that I personally enjoy spreading the love and shipping books to friends all around the place, it sounds like a genius idea. More on this soon. Discover the book here.

THE BARCELONA PROJECT

Or how Instagram is jumping onto the text-based Twitter replacement bandwagon. And it could actually work.

If you’re like me, you left Facebook a long time ago, and you still keep an eye on Twitter because some people are good at it and you like to follow the news (it’s still where I would go look in case of emergency, for example). But we’ve all noticed that Twitter sucks, and not in the way it used to. Personally, I’m ready to delete my account. But it will leave a hole, and none of the decentralised options like Mastodon have felt remotely exciting to me. I’m lazy. Don’t ask me to do anything too complicated, like choose a server, choose what app to use, etc. 

Now what if Instagram introduced a text-based de-centralised messaging tool to its roster, mimicking Twitter but that could connect to Mastodon-like servers? Would you use it? It seems that it’s on the cards, according to this leaked source. Personally (and I’m surprising myself), I really like the idea. While IG has felt like a giant ad scroll at times, it’s still nice not to start from scratch somewhere else again. Watch this space; the new project code-name Barcelona could be out as early as the end of June. Read about it here.

THE PRICE OF GOLD

Last week, I achieved a personal milestone, and I really, really wanted to buy myself something pretty. You know, something that sparkles, to mark the occasion. And I couldn’t quite get myself to make the purchase. Oh, I have found a lovely rose gold and diamond bracelet, but I cannot reconcile myself to buying ‘regular’ gold again. Why? 

I’ve talked about sustainable and ethically sourced jewellery in this column before after my client Pippa Small shared not just her own quest for clean gold but the source of her mission. I can’t ‘unknow’ what I now know. But where do we go to find something sourced consciously? In her Substack newsletter, It‘s not Sustainable, Tiffanie Darke doesn’t shy away from reminding us what the cost of mining gold looks like, but on the heels of that, she suggests a new platform where we can shop guilt-free (or freer), called La Maison Couture. The Positive Luxury website isn’t great at first glance, but this platform excels at curating the right selection of brands, ones that are changing the face of the industry. I’ll be spending some time browsing the 91 pages of fine jewellery this weekend. Read about it here, and check out the website here.

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MARTHA STEWART AND THE AGE DEFIANCE ERA

If you haven’t yet seen eighty-year-old Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated, you must be living under a rock. But I’d love to hear from you (and yes, that means get in touch, please) as to whether you are shocked or happy, to see a carefully retouched (allegedly not, but I have my doubts) elder on the cover of a magazine that is known to objectify young women. 

Some want to wage war on ageing; others don’t understand why this is even a thing (we don’t see eighty-year-old men in speedos on any covers unless I’ve missed it?). Feel free to drop in your comment, and let’s debate. Read about it here.

DESIGNING THE FUTURE OF WORK 

Excellent podcast between HBR’s The Anxious Achiever, with Morra Aarons-Mel,  and the host of Brave New Work, and founder of The Ready,  Aaron Dignan. 

Expect to hear an engaged discussion about adaptivity and control, leadership and collaboration, transformation and the power of coaching. Listen here.

LOOKING IN

ON THE MYSTICAL POWER OF CATS 

T Magazine editor-in-chief Hanya Yanagihara penned a wonderful travel piece on how she went on a journey to the ‘cattiest’ of places in Japan, the island of Aoshima (one of 11 cat islands to be found in the country!). She explores the history of the beloved felines and writes about their place in folklore, Shintoism and how apparently, cats domesticated themselves. A beautiful read. 

GRACE NOTES: CONSIDERING EULOGIES FOR THE LIVING

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Andrea Driessen, an author and marketer who specialises in helping entrepreneurs name, trademark and craft their messaging. Andrea is also one of the organisers of TEDxSeattle where she recently presented a beautiful talk. To her surprise, it went rather viral, garnering nearly two million views on TED’s platform to date. Her topic was delicate, however: she makes a case for grace notes, or the art of writing living eulogies to those we love, offering gratitude in the now instead of offering words of love and appreciation after we are gone. Inspiring. Watch here. 

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It’s been a couple of decades since my last visit, and despite the apparition of the giant futuristic sail that is the W Hotel, Barcelona remains to my untrained eyes, relatively unchanged. 

What did surprise me, though, in the narrow winding streets of Barri Gòtic (the gothic quarter) and El Raval, down to Barceloneta, is how the city has a beat. Almost like multiple soundtracks, every square has its own busker; every store or restaurant delivers its musical selections in a surprisingly touching cacophony. It should have annoyed me, but it didn’t. Dare I say that the Spanish have good taste, albeit eclectic, in their soundtracks? In any case, it’s been a moment since I’ve left a city with my hearing positively tickled. Cheers to multi sensorial experiences. 

This trip to Barcelona came right on the heels of a leisurely visit to Milan for a conference that had me relatively bored, despite being IRL. Luckily for me during the slow journey by train between Geneva and the Lombard capital, I devoured a new book, one which I’m likely to talk about again and again. More on that below. As such, today’s digest comes in a slightly different form. I hope you enjoy! 

As always, thank you so much for reading me, I really appreciate it. Have a good one. 

Until next week, 

Much love, 

LOOKING OUT

Quote: (pick your favourite)

‘Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters. To do something with intentionality means to do it thoughtfully, with clear purpose and an eye on the desired result.’

or 

‘If you explain the why along with the what, you’ll be surprised how many of these impossible ideas your team can bring to life.’

― Will Guidara 

UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY HAD ME HOOKED

Have you ever heard of a dream weaver? Not a dream catcher, no, I’m not talking home trinkets, I am referring to a unique position, one created by the team of uber-famous New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park (also known as EMP for short) as part of their unreasonable (and exceptional) approach to hospitality.

I came upon the book title (kind of a catchy one too) in the 400-strong WhatsApp thread of women who, like me, attended TED earlier this Spring. As I’ve shared here before, the check-in itself for the conference felt like a reveal: so personal, smooth and delightful. Someone chirped: “I bet they (TED) read Unreasonable Hospitality.” That comment didn’t fall on deaf ears. I promptly bought the book, so impressed I was with my experience. 

I know a thing or two about how to put together an event. You may not remember this about me, but there was a time when I was a global head of communications at Christian Louboutin and at that point in my career, I caught up with the rest of the fashion industry and organised several press trips. The goal was all about experience, storytelling, and creating something exceptional, around… a factory visit. Don’t laugh, I do find factories, shoe factories in Italy in particular, quite mesmerising. Let’s just say though that the press, as a group, and the Brits and the Americans in particular, were a tough bunch to look after. Some would say for good reason, they were (some still are) sent off right, left and centre by their editors, raking in the miles and wasting sleep, more than occasionally writing about what I can only assume were uninspiring collections and products. I get it. There are worst jobs however.

My team and I had a quest, or a mission, to create surprise and delight for them. On more than one occasion we succeeded, generally because we leaned into empathy heavily. You see we really tried to put ourselves in the shoes of our guests, not so much to anticipate their needs (though yes, that’s important too) but rather to create this ineffable feeling, the one that comes with thoughtfulness, and not because we wanted to get something out of them (namely an article) but because, at the risk of repeating myself, we were being thoughtful. We were trying to shine a light on the artisans, the skills, the product but also the local food, culture, and its people. Sigh. It was some of the most complicated yet exciting things I’ve had the pleasure to work on. It’s not often that as a business person, a head of comms, that you get to create this kind of immersive and memorable experience.

Now I gather that they (TED) have indeed read the book and were like me immensely inspired by Unreasonable Hospitality. The story is beautifully told by author and entrepreneur Will Guidara, who recounts his experience in hospitality and restaurant management, since his teenage years. A crescendo is felt throughout, which culminates when Will shares the process that took Eleven Madison Park, first a decent high-end brasserie, to the coveted spot that is the number one restaurant in the world. 

The clincher, in case you wonder, isn’t just the exceptional quality of the food, but how Will, and his partner, chef Daniel Humm, unleashed creativity beyond the kitchen and into the rest of the restaurant, empathetic and tuned into both staff and clientele. Their success became a paradigm-changing dining experience that transformed the industry as a whole. 

The main protagonists, Will and Daniel, as related by the former, come across as personable, talented, perfection-obsessed humans who make lots of mistakes on their way to the top. Yes, that makes them very relatable. I simply couldn’t put the book down1 for the almost four hours of my journey home on that Sunday. The author, who is no longer involved with EMP, was signed to Simon Sinek’s Optimism Press, and the famous speaker has this to say about Will: 

“Most people think of hospitality as something they do. Will thinks about service as an act of service—about how his actions make people feel. And he recognized that if he wanted his frontline teams to obsess about how they made their customers feel, he had to obsess about how he made his employees feel. The two cannot be separated: great service cannot exist without great leadership.”

It’s not just a feel-good story, spoiler alert, this ends in a hospitality divorce (see, it would really make a great TV show), and yet it’s inspiring, in a ‘I want to take action now I’ve read this’ kind of way. Of course, I had took a detour while reading to check out Eleven Madison Park’s IG, which looks wonderful, as I hoped it would. Though it’s been knocked off the 50 Best list, I’d quite like to visit one of these days.

Until I take that trip to NYC, I can’t wait to sit down at my desk on Monday, and start to ponder how I can bring some Unreasonable Hospitality into my life and work. Watch this space.

Discover the book here. 

Will gave a TEDx talk about the secret ingredients to great hospitality, which you can watch here. 

Simon Sinek interviewed him on his podcast too. Listen here. 

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LOOKING AROUND  (new) 

I absolutely adored this interview of Wired co-founder and most fascinating human Kevin Kelly, by his fan, Tim Ferriss. I’m keen to check out his latest book too, called Excellent Advice for Living. Kelly offers a handful of examples over the course of the interview, and I may have to listen to it again, to let it permeate. I’m a fan too I guess.

In other news, I love fonts. If you don’t love them, you will read this with a smirk, thinking I’ve gone crazy. But if you are font-obsessed too, you will thank me after you discover the quest undertaken by former Apple designer Jony Ives to perfect his new company typeface. Read about it here.

Completely unrelated and perhaps not at all useful, but full of magic, discover a short list of the fifty most beautiful small towns in the world, according to Condé Nast Traveller. Good for the soul, if your soul aspires for slow living and/or for a holiday. Discover here.

My father’s first wife, Rebecca, told me once, with a twinkle in her eye, that despite being near eighty years old, she felt like a teenager inside. She was quite an exceptional woman, who had enlisted herself to support a women’s NGO at 75. I reflected the other day that I feel (and likely behave like someone) at least ten years younger than the age showing on my passport. So this article about subjective age and how we feel younger as we get older is on my reading list for the weekend. Apparently, that’s actually a good thing for our health. Read here. 

In my first ever coaching training, I came to have a conversation with my shoulders. I wasn’t high and yes, it was during the pandemic, but it was a shockingly direct and perhaps life-changing exchange.

Later I heard about other techniques that delve further into the body, and I’ve been meaning to try SE, short for Somatic Experiencing, for a while now., even contemplating traveling to Zürich to train with the founder of this body-first therapy, Dr Levine. So this other piece is on my list as well: ‘Want to Fix Your Mind? Let Your Body Talk.’

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I’m excited to tell you that I hosted a private screening of the documentary ‘Fashion Reimagined’ last night for a select few. If you don’t know what it’s about, it’s the sustainability quest undertaken by a young independent British designer at the helm of the brand Mother of Pearl. After writing about it here when it premiered during London Fashion Week and I missed it, I felt a bit annoyed that I wouldn't have a chance to see it for a while. Powered by my curiosity, I went back to the film’s webpage, and low and behold, there was a button at the top that read: host a screening. And ta-dah! Here we are. 

I’m delighted to report back that the reception for the film was excellent. Many of my guests came and asked whether the film was available for streaming (not yet that I know of) and could they also perhaps host their own screening (a couple of parents wanted to share this with their teenagers, hoping that it would curb their Shein or fast fashion shopping addiction). It was great to plant the seed of change, kickstart a conversation, pull together a diverse group and make new connections. 

My recommendation, if you come across the documentary, go watch it, or if you fancy doing what I did, contact MetFilm and host your own screening (and let me know what you think of the film). Why not get involved, right? 

If you wonder what I’m hoping to do with this event, well, I’d say I am hoping to start a small community here, of people interested in conversations about sustainability, the future of work, and conscious entrepreneurship: all ideas worth spreading. Yes, that’s a hint at TED, because last night I gave a short talk to my Toastmasters group, a version of last week’s Looking 

Forward post called Notes from TED. Indeed, I’m inspired to invite, explore, listen, and talk, not just about the stuff I’m passionate about, but also the things that may be concerning to us, like AI, Chat GPT making your work redundant, web3, and sure, the climate crisis. 

Lastly, I have five spots for new individual coaching clients starting 1 June 2023. If you’re feeling stuck, perhaps between work and personal aspirations, that elusive work/life balance, you’re not the only one. And I’m happy to tell you that I’m in the business of making magic happen! So if that’s you, don’t be shy, and get in touch. 

So with that said, I’ve got a short and punchy weekly digest for you, I hope you enjoy it. Drop me a line if you have any thoughts or recommendations you’d like to include in next week’s edition. 

As always, thank you for reading me; I don’t take this for granted. And have a good one. 

Much love, 

Anne

LOOKING OUT

‘If you really want something you can figure out how to make it happen’. - Cher

BEZOS’ BILLIONS AND A PULITZER PRIZE

I’m not into long titles despite being into long-form writing. I’m not sure I won you over with the above, but stick with me: you have to check out this piece in the New York Times Magazine Money issue by data journalist Mona Chalabi. In it, she illustrates in the most insightful animated scroll the billions of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, because, let’s face it, the numbers are so huge, it’s hard to wrap our heads around. It’s particularly fun on mobile, FYI. And don’t think it’s just me who loves this piece; Ms Chalabi just won a Pulitzer prize for it! Congratulations to her! Discover here. Thank me later!

ANOTHER ORANGE BRAND 

But that one is very much the opposite of Hermès. Have you heard of TEMU yet? Their tagline is so appealing: shop like a billionaire.

If you can’t quite picture it, imagine what would happen if Amazon and TikTok had a baby, a glorified gaming version of a shopping platform - via an app, of course. New York Magazine reports on the newcomer and wonders if Temu is the future of buying things…

Is it? Well, I was hoping we’d make a case against fast fashion; it seems we’re not there yet. Can someone please make a circular version of this ASAP? Watch their campaign here or read about them here.

YOUR DATA VS ChatGPT

I love Wired magazine. I’m even a subscriber. And I love GDPR, though it (and my conscience) forbid me to send my large database my first email newsletter, making this a significantly small community in comparison. I digress. Privacy, data, opting in. All important things to discuss!

What do we do with our data when these new large language models have all this information about each of us at their … fingertips? Here’s a fun question: what do we call an AI’s fingers? Anyway, here’s some good news, courtesy of the nice folks at Wired: given that ChatGPT may know personal details about you, (and if it doesn’t, they believe it could make things up, so not a great alternative), they report how data regulators have put pressure on Open AI to introduce a Personal Data Removal Request Form, allowing lucky Europeans (and Japanese) to have their information removed from Open AI’s systems. 

I’m not sure whether ChatGPT has info about me, I’m scared of going out looking for it, but I will, bravely and will also report back. Meanwhile, read the full article here. 

In case you’re not very caught up on ChatGPT, I suggest you have a look at the recent TED talk given by Open AI cofounder Greg Brockman, followed by his interview with Chris Anderson. Watch here. 

Meanwhile, I’m kind of excited to try and use Google Docs’ new AI functionalities. Watch this video for a sense of what it could do for you too.

Looking In

AN AWESOME LIFE HACK

I’m not sure how you feel at the moment, but I know that I’ve had my ups and downs, maybe as I readjust post-pandemic. While in Vancouver attending an event, I occasionally felt a sense of isolation, despite being surrounded by a large and friendly crowd. This may sound weird, but I gather I am far from the only person that felt this way. After I wrote my last newsletter, which tracks my journey from imposter syndrome to finding my footing and my confidence, I came across this great opinion piece in the Guardian by a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. And let me tell you that in light of that piece, I want to edit mine to include some of his findings. 

It so happens that one of the things that can instantly take us out of our small self, imposter syndrome or a general feeling of isolation is a sense of awe.

Author and professor Dacher Keltner studied this with colleagues and noted that when we experience awe, it creates a feeling of being part of a greater whole. Suddenly, perhaps unexpectedly, we reconnect to the world and the people around us.

In his words:

“Feelings of awe shift attention away from the self toward what is around you – to being, in the words of Jane Goodall, ‘amazed at things outside the self’.

[…]

Awe reveals that we are not separate from others, but interdependent.”

It doesn’t take much, just stepping outside in nature, watching a beautiful sunset, and reading pieces of poetry or music; these are just some of the means for us to find awe in daily life. Sometimes, we can even find awe in the smallest things: a tiny spring flower can do it for me, when I really look at it.

Indeed, we are not separate from others. And we can all do with cultivating awe to remember how interconnected we truly are. Read here. 

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I’m back after a short break, only partially self-imposed. There was Easter, pressing deadlines and a trip to Canada, plus I also got ill while away (tonsillitis, not COVID… still no fun). And now I’m fresh(ish) back at my desk and excited to report back from attending my first TED conference, THE TED, in person. More on that in a couple of days in Looking Forward. 

Today, I’m pulling together a small selection of articles that captured my attention in the past few weeks. I hope you find something to inspire or excite you in this week’s Digest. 

Thanks as always for reading me, and have a good one. 

Much love, 

Anne

LOOKING OUT

‘Experience is what you get while looking for something else.’ - Federico Fellini

MILANO RADIATING 

It so happens that TED and Salone del Mobile, the extraordinary Italian art fair, coincide. My trip to Canada prevented me from going out and drooling on the products, artists and installations (not to speak of the parties), but the FT has done a decent round-up that got me tingling with excitement, despite the fact that clearly, I’ve missed it all. Never mind, I’ll be in Milan next week for something else, and perhaps I’ll find some vestige of the presentations somewhere around the Brera district. Read more here 

ANOTHER NEW SOCIAL NETWORK, OR TWO (OR THREE…)

If you thought we’d stop talking about Twitter already, unfortunately, that’s not the case. First, because of the blue tick saga (blue ticks are also coming to Gmail, which is sort of weird and then again not), then the Substack drama. If you didn’t know about it, I’ll spare you the details, we’re talking about childlike silliness from the current owner. 

However, with many people jumping the imploding social media ship, there is a big gap in the market for text-based, news-worthy social networks (note the distinction between media and network). So you probably want to read up about the two decentralised platforms backed by Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder), Nostr and Bluesky, and how Substack, the platform I’m currently working with, has launched its own Twitter-like platform, called Notes. Oh, and look up Lemon8, if you can in your region, the BiteDance, TikTok-owned Pinterest meets Instagram meets Canva iteration. I’m actually excited about that one. Read more about it here. 

Clearly, there is room for improvement on the current leading platforms, hence the plethora of newcomers vying for a piece of the conversation (and the market). 

Meanwhile, it was great to hear Shou Chew, TikTok CEO, at TED. If you’d like to hear his thoughts on the algorithm, parental controls, etc. listen to his conversation with Chris Anderson here.

THE OLD SH*T DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE

Now as an email title, the above is likely to grab your attention. It certainly did mine, and I always enjoy Yancey Strickler’s newsletter, the Ideaspace. The co-founder and ex-CEO of Kickstarter, father of Bentoism, now at Metalabel, is part of a movement changing how artists, writers, and thinkers collaborate to produce and release work together. Creators get fairly paid and supported by pulling together in this way, which, if you haven’t read about it before, is not a new idea, but certainly an appealing option away from the subscription models offered by the Spotifys of the world. 

In any case, people are taking note, hence the name of the post, which was literally (word used in context) by a record executive talking to Yancey. Because as many creators and their publishers have noticed, indeed, ‘this shit doesn’t work anymore’.

Discover the post here. 

On that note, Metalabel has just released its fourth ‘Quality Drop 04: Everything is a Self Portrait’.

Quality Drops, as I read in the email (I needed the reminder), are ‘creative releases made by collaborating artists, cultural producers, and meta labels. Each Quality Drop is handpicked and supported by Metalabel as an embodiment of creative collaboration’.

In this case, we are talking about two creators, Francis Kanai, a Japan-based photographer, and Malaya Malandro, an LA-based poet and artist, who are exploring the idea of self and other, each with their medium. The result is a 300-page book, with only 200 first editions available, and 50 through Metalabel, alongside digital vignettes.

Look up their work, and see for yourself. Personally, I found the theme, the work and the release compelling, so much so that I am one of the new collectors of this quality release. Ha!

Read more about it here. 

REMEMBERING MARY QUANT, BEYOND THE MINI-SKIRT

Being a mid-1970s baby born in Switzerland, not London, Mary Quant wasn’t a name I became familiar with until I reached the British capital and started my career in fashion. Also, I haven’t been the biggest fan of the mini-skirt over the years; maybe that’s why I discovered so much in this article from Vogue, remembering the late designer’s contribution to fashion, culture, and the business of fashion.

Her drive, as Sarah Mower writes, to make her clothes part of a total look led the designer to work with Vidal Sassoon on hair, later launching her own make-up and creating a whole new category of products, legwear, due to the short hems of her skirts and pinafore dresses. I wish I’d known her; she sounded quite extraordinary and a woman who listened to what her customers wanted (and who was her own customer, I guess).

Read the full story here. 

TELFAR, PRICING INNOVATION AND TASTE ECONOMICS

I’m a big fan of Ana Andjelic and her newsletter, The Sociology of Fashion, and this week, her thought-provoking analysis of US brand Telfar is really worth reading. The brand has innovated by spinning on its head the wholesale price model. A style drops at wholesale price, and the price rises every second until the product is sold out. And then the price reached becomes the price of the item forever. So the quicker you buy, the lower the price for everyone purchasing the item at that moment. It’s quite the business coup, and what a treat for fans (and the brand has legions of them), who get to participate in the evolution of the brand, whose motto is: Not for you, but for everyone.

Read here.

Looking In

THE QUIET CATASTROPHE BREWING IN OUR SOCIAL LIVES

This is an article in my reading list, or I rather my listening list, as it’s available in audio format as well. Writer Sheila Liming explores the loneliness crisis in her recently published book ‘Hanging Out: the Radical Power of Killing Time’. 

Having returned from TED, I can admit that at times, despite being surrounded by people, I also felt pangs of loneliness myself, and I don’t believe this issue is restricted to North America. 

I can’t remember who I heard say recently that we had ‘innovated ourselves into isolation’ (was it Prof Galloway?) when you consider the chats, dating apps, food delivery and Netflix and chill culture. We’re missing ‘third spaces’ to meet and hang, I also heard, so anyway, this feels like an important thing; whether you feel the lonely feeling occasionally or not, someone near you certainly does.

Read more about it here. 

Right on the heels of this article, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has released a worrying alert about what he now refers to as a loneliness epidemic. How Europe and the rest of the world is faring, I’m not sure. But why not lean on the suggested tactics to make sure we don’t get to that stage?

DEEP KAILEY ON SIMRAN AND BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ART, MENTAL HEALTH AND SPIRITUALITY

Have you noticed how LinkedIn has become a grown-up platform where you can actually read things that matter and, generally, though not always, interest you? 

Well, there I was, minding my own business and responding to a message with their built-in chat, when I cast my eyes across a newsletter by UK PR agency Zetteler, a design-focused company that had done some work with previous clients of mine. Nestled among the many designers and artists they were presenting, I found a familiar name. Deep Kailey was a fashion editor for Vogue India, based out of London, and later the fashion director for Tatler while I was working at Christian Louboutin as head of PR and general manager. I crossed her path only occasionally, but I always found something pleasant about her, call it a girl crush or a good feeling (as I admitted to her right at the start of our conversation). 

But when I read up about her current project, it felt like I needed to get in touch and invite her on the podcast, my best excuse to have a long and in-depth conversation about her new career.

Deep is a Sikh, and for many years she has been a devoted practitioner of Simran, a technique of focusing the mind on a two-syllable mantra, which, unlike the meditation I practice (mindfulness, mettā, kundalini), is meant to help eradicate thoughts. For the past three years, Deep has been working with a team of volunteers on an exhibition that bridges the gap between art, spirituality and mental health, called Without Shape Without Form. The now-travelling exhibition is meant to transcend cultural, social and racial barriers and explores this through Sikh teachings, bringing them into a contemporary context. 

Listen here.

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Does that surprise you? I can’t say that myself (says the girl who is toiling away at her first book, 'The Path to Connection’), but I’m excited to explore this further. After all, what’s the point of being here if not to connect? 

That said, I hope you enjoy this week’s edition, and feel free to drop me a line, say hi, or tell me what you’ve enjoyed. 

Have a good one, 

Much love 

Anne 

LOOKING OUT

“Kindness is one thing you can’t give away. It always comes back.” —George Skolsky

A LIFE WORTH WANTING 

‘Nothing matters more than feeling connected.’ 

That’s not just a simple declarative sentence; it’s the result of an 18-month exchange with 25 ‘everyday people’ in the UK, people also called the ‘persuadables’ - a term meant to indicate that this group (also known as the Conflicted-Future-Fearers) sit in the middle on climate, and doesn’t know what to do with themselves on this topic. 

This was introduced to me in The Drum via an opinion piece by the co-founder of Purpose Disruptors, Lisa Merrick-Lawless and Ally Kingston, who presented extracts from their citizen report, Good Life 2030. The ex-advertising execs are addressing the ‘architects of desire,’ marketers and advertisers at large who are responsible for overconsumption in our modern societies (their focus is mostly Europe and US-based). 

As an ex-head of communications and wholesale director, I’ve done my fair share of peddling luxury goods to unwilling audiences, doing my very best to make those red-soled shoes as covetable as possible, so I feel the authors are talking to me (perhaps to you too). 

Their suggestion is sound, especially given their research: they are inviting the industry to change the narrative, rethink what we are selling, and create a new story, one that shows a more coherent ‘good life,’ not just about more, more, more, but about inner and outer connection. Honestly - just what I needed to read today. Discover here. 

TRUE LUXURY IS HUMAN CONNECTION

I offer you another opinion piece, this time written by Daniel Langer, the executive professor of luxury strategy and pricing at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and CEO of the brand strategy firm ‘Equité’. After several disappointing experiences, with luxury service brands and retailers alike, the esteemed professor establishes the essential foundation currently missing from so many luxury brands: human connection. Product has been the focus of everyone’s attention, for good reason: in luxury, the quality and provenance of the product should be a given. But meanwhile, there is a general lack of intention when it comes to looking after customers. And connection is a key factor. Whether you are a luxury consumer or not, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s high-quality interactions that keep you coming back to your favourite restaurant, airline, or retailer. It’s not just the product: this gentleman makes a good point. Read more here. 

A FORMULA FOR STAND-OUT INTRODUCTIONS

If you’re like me, and a few friends of mine, introducing yourself and what you do isn’t the easiest thing to do unless you have a simple one-word job like ‘lawyer’ or ‘accountant’. So oftentimes, we skirt away from introducing our work for the good reason that we stumble across our words and fail to make much of a (positive) impression. 

Well, if you’d like a tried and tested practice, give this Fast Company article a go. Discover how to present your ‘what’, your ‘now what’ and your ‘so what’. Read it, and follow the advice, even if you think you’re a pro: it’s worth it.

WATCHES AND WONDER, MOON EDITION?

This week is like fashion week for watches, and it takes place in my little corner of the world. Geneva is filled to the brim with journalists, buyers and timepiece aficionados. I’m not that bothered by the whole thing, yet I will go to explore the newness at the weekend; after all it’s all craftsmanship and high quality, made in Switzerland, let’s not be rude. 

I wonder when we’ll see a watch developed for moon time; now I’ve read this enjoyable piece about how time could be calculated on our satellite planet once it’s regularly inhabited. Until now, there wasn’t much reason to try and establish ‘moon time’, seeing that astronauts just hopped on, planted a flag and left. But if you fancy contemplating moon time zones, read more at Wired.com

Looking In

THE BENEFITS OF SPRING CLEANING

I love a good tidy. Not just when procrastination takes hold of me (though that happens too), and yes, very few things make me as happy as sitting at my desk with a cup of tea while the floor and surfaces around me are gleaming, post polish. With two cats in the house, a decent amount of time weekly is spent trying to make their lost hair vanish (the dog doesn’t shed, that was a calculated move). While I love my wireless hoover, I’m getting to the point that I’m contemplating investing in a Roomba, because, well, my desire to have my house clean and my professional priorities can clash. 

All that said, during times when I feel upset, or confused, whatever the reason, I indulge in tidying, over what could seem like more important or urgent tasks. Because I understand that it provides me with a soothing sense of control, the immediate impact of the housework shows in my environment, and it allows me to come back and a fresh perspective. 

As Spring has sprung, at least here in the Northern hemisphere, many of us feel the need to mop, wipe, get rid of and put away, a metaphorical reset in a way. As this article in Vogue explains, many more benefits can arise from a good clean (and generally keeping a tidy home). Read more about it here.

THE MEMBERSHIP CLUB, GYM EDITION

Wellness trends, as previously established, are something I rather enjoy discovering (reading about mostly, though I do occasionally dip my toe in the actual experience). I was interested to read about the rise of super exclusive, Application-Only Gym Memberships via the NYT. Is this something we need, and why? Well, given the lack of connection in the gyms I have frequented, I can see why the social club aspect is something that could give your workouts a different dimension. A bit crazy (especially the prices) but not all bad (the intentions). Read more here. 

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I’m reconnecting with that purpose in today’s edition. Each article below is selected because either someone I know needs to read/listen to it, or I do. 

I hope you enjoy it! 

Also, this week’s digest was partly curated through the use of the new personalised news feed app Artifact, the brainchild of Instagram’s founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. It’s now widely available for users of iOS as well as Android. While so far it seems to be leaning on US publishers’ content, I can easily admit that I’ve felt very engaged with the selection that came out of my personal preferences recorded so far by the app. Intuitive and easy to use, if I let myself I could scroll and read for hours so I’d happily recommend it to anyone who wants to curate their newsfeed and is not bothered by trying an RSS provider like Feedly. 

That’s all for today! Thanks as always for reading me, I really appreciate it and have a good one, 

Much love, 

LOOKING OUT

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your entire life.” - Chris K. Germer

THE STORYTELLING AI TOOL YOU DO NEED 

This week, I’m trying out an AI-powered platform that is supposed to be the solution for all of us who need to put together decks and presentations, whether on PowerPoint or Keynote. It’s pretty buggy on iPad, but I’ll give it a go on my laptop later. I fancy myself a decent deck-maker, but I’m still happy with any tool that can cut the work in half or more for me. With pre-loaded templates, whether you are fundraising or preparing your visual portfolio, have a go at it by clicking on this link or read more about it here. 

THE FIRST NET-ZERO CARBON SNEAKER IS ABOUT TO DROP

And I was going to write about it but best you get the details from Vogue Business: the science behind this is complex, and I’m no expert. What I will say is that it’s exciting to see the brand responsible for this super sustainable footwear, Allbird, be honest about the fact that while they seek to reduce the problem of carbon emissions with their new products and by making their formula open-source, they also still seek some growth. Honesty is refreshing. Do we like the shoes? Hard to tell from the pictures at this point. 

Lastly, they may be good at making sustainable sneakers, but they have a way to go to communicate about their launch. If you click through to their EU site, the product isn’t featured on the homepage. That’s a big miss if you ask me. Read more about it here.

A USEFUL SKILL TO CULTIVATE 

A couple of close friends of mine are reassessing their careers, either looking for new positions or considering a pivot, out of their industry. I thought this would be a great article for anyone looking towards personal development for the sake of their career.

To be transparent, I read this article a couple of days ago and I must say that this former Google VP’s perspective on self-awareness stayed with me, so much so that I think it partly inspired this week’s upcoming essay for Looking Forward (stay tuned, it will be out on Saturday). So at the end of the day, for the last two days, I asked myself: what did I do well, did I make any mistakes? What can I do better tomorrow? And things percolated. 

Useful stuff. Read here. 

THE ARTICLE I WILL BE READING AT THE WEEKEND

Many moons ago, I had the pleasure of meeting writer Lauren Collins after she was commissioned to pen a long-form article on Christian Louboutin for the New Yorker. The result was a cherished and subtle piece that was followed by a lively Q&A between the designer and the author at the New Yorker Festival. Good times.

Collins has come out with a new fashion story for the magazine, this time on Balenciaga designer Demna. If you’re not much of a reader, you can listen to the audio, but I warn you, it’s a lengthy 1h20min. Like I said above, a good weekend read. If you’re into fashion, and good writing and want a subtle glimpse behind the scenes of this huge luxury house, that’s the piece for you. Personally, I’m already looking forward to it. 

Discover here. 

Looking In

WHAT CAN MAKE A HAPPY LIFE? 

The secret is out. Thanks to the recently published results from the longest study (eighty years) on what can make a happy life.

The answer? The quality of our relationships! And those make for more than a happy life. They are also a key factor in keeping us healthy and also seem to support more financial success. 

Here’s a short recap of the key points from the study, thanks to Psychology Today. I’ll point out that for men in particular, the quality of your relationships at age 47 is a crucial predictor of how you’ll adjust to the stress of ageing in years to come. 

The study also found that the quality of men’s relationships at age 47 predicted how they would adjust to the stress of aging decades later. Read more here.

ON THE MERITS OF WALKING 

I’ve always enjoyed walking but until last July, I had no real idea how much it could benefit me if I chose this as an activity, five days a week, for 30 uninterrupted minutes. This was one of the three pillars kindly imposed by my fantastic nutritionist, thanks to whom I dropped a nice 13kgs. So when I came across this NYT newsletter that highlights the many merits of walking, I felt it was my duty to share it with you. At times, I still struggle with the 30 minutes, because, well, my puppy likes to sniff around, and I have chores, and so do you, so you get it. But take it from me, introduce this in your life, and you’ll thank me, or Marion (the nutritionist), and the NYT. Read more here. 

THE NEAR AND FAR ENEMIES OF FIERCE COMPASSION 

I’m not as regular with my podcasts as I used to be. Probably because instead of podcasts, I’m now on the receiving end of audio lectures. This year I am finishing a course on Compassion with the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, and our guest lecturer, Chris Germer, was just interviewed in this two-part episode by Brené Brown. 

Germer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and co-developer (with Kristin Neff, PhD) of the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program that has been taught to over 200,000 people worldwide. He also wrote The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and co-authored (also with Neff) the professional text Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program and The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. He teaches the MSC Teacher Trainer and leads MSC intensives and workshops around the world, as well as lecturing part-time on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. 

Expect a layered, honest and profound conversation that covers Germer’s big mindfulness a-ha moment, his expertise on self-compassion (and what fierce self-compassion is), fear, how to move through emotions, as well as what are the near, often hard-to-pinpoint enemies of compassion. Here are the links for Part 1 and Part 2. Enjoy!

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I meant to send this Weekly Digest a few days ago, but I have felt uncharacteristically exhausted and unmotivated for days. 

I keep on sighing as if I’d lost a parent or a lover, but as it happens, I received a shot of a three-month dose of a hormone-suppressing treatment just over two weeks ago, and man, these side effects are no joke. My doctor’s assistant wasn’t looking too happy about administering this injection. She didn’t like the quality of the medication (too thick) and the needle (too large), being unfamiliar with the product, which is part of a fertility protocol. I had to reassure her that everything was okay (and it was, she was very delicate indeed). 

The reason for this hormone-blasting treatment is that my uterus is a bit crowded and we need to make some room there, without surgery. At the moment, I have a couple of large fibroids, so my doctor means to dry up these dough-like balls as much as possible before they pump me full of oestrogen and progesterone in a few weeks (which will make them big again). Yes, you’re probably guessing that I’m hoping to make a nice nest for a baby to settle in there later this Spring. 

So I’m experiencing side effects, and they are affecting my work because it’s affecting my mood, a lot. Thank god I write and meditate daily, so I can keep track of the evolution, but it’s no picnic.

I wasn’t at all expecting to be writing about this, but then again, it’s possible that my email schedule may become erratic due to my almost literal hormonal ups and downs. So why not be upfront? 

After all, I bang on about creating mindful spaces and the future of work… Since writing this newsletter is both a labour of love and part of my job, this topic is finding its place, if a little unexpectedly, in my Weekly Digest, 

My life evolves not just with my hormones and the seasons (real and fashionable) but also with the evolution of my pet fur family. 

Nandi, the puppy, is now a teenager with tantrums and raging hormones. Suddenly, working from home has become more annoying, just as I had delightfully reorganised my office! 

But as I was reflecting with my latest guest on the podcast, Kamil Tyebally of Early Spring NYC, the benefits of having a dog do outweigh the inconveniences. Something that bears remembering when he starts barking out of nowhere. 

Meanwhile, I am grateful to speak cat fluently, and thankful for my generally quieter and low-key feline flatmates. I just wish I could curl up on the sofa and go for a nap just now. Perhaps after this email!

Thanks as always for reading me, I appreciate it! 

Have a good one.

Much love,

LOOKING OUT

“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” — Charlotte Brontë

FASHIONTAINMENT OR THE ART OF MAKING CLOTHES - DEBATE 

Paris Fashion week has seen some things recently. First, Pharell Williams was appointed as replacement to the late Virgil Abloh at the head of Louis Vuitton Homme, and the controversy is charged: how dare they? Putting a celebrity in the place of a designer! Shocking! It’s all about communication now (read: all about money!). 

Yet, while I see their point, I’d like to point out that Pharrell is a fantastic creative who knows how to pull the right people together. Just take a look at his top 30 greatest musical hits, according to the Guardian. Someone capable of producing Milkshake, Happy and Hot in Here will certainly have an interesting point of view when it comes to fashionable self-expression. Personally, I’m curious to see what he will present in June. 

Meanwhile, womenswear brand Coperni tried to create another viral moment by using a robot dog on their catwalk to help their model undress, before handing her her jacket again. Oops. That will not beat the spray-on dress from last season and the robot dog is kind of scary. Or is it just me? 

Far from the celebrity-heavy tones, at Balenciaga, recovering from the scandal, designer Demna (who lost his last name a while back), offered this thoughtful message to the crowd that came to his show:  “Fashion to me can no longer be seen as entertainment but rather as the art of making clothes.” 

Three houses, three points of view. Something for everyone, I guess.

BUSINESS ATTIRE vs TONE OF VOICE 

Your tone of voice, whether oral or written, is like your dress sense: it says a lot about who you are to those you communicate with. 

On this topic, Forbes contributing editor Tracy Brower explains how we can communicate at work most effectively when we think of our communication style as one would a business casual wardrobe: one in which you’re not showing up in your sweatpants, but neither are you in a three-piece suit. Read more here. 

YOUTUBE TURNS ITS SIGHTS ON PODCASTERS

Just this morning, I was reading how creators and influencers are worried about the transformation of our social media consumption habits. With platforms and our behaviours both in constant flux, their work (and, to a large extent, the work of brands, publishers, and those wanting to engage with audiences online) continues to multiply because of the perceived need to be on all platforms in case something goes wrong with one of them. 

To a lesser extent, the same is true for podcasters, whether that is a corporate effort or an individual one. I was interested to read how Youtube is repositioning podcasts to focus on the audio only via their Music App. The value for podcast publishers is enormous due to the search function and reach of the platform. Smart move. Read more here. 

EYE-TRACKING ADS AND THE ATTENTION ECONOMY 

Marketers are testing new metrics, namely attention units or AU, as they devise new ways to capture audiences, going for quantity over quality. Does that sound like news to you? We are, after all, in the attention economy nowadays.

Enter Adelaide, an eye-tracking media solution that runs probabilities and trains its own algorithm based on data from vendors, scoring environments and placements for marketers to invest their dollars somewhere consumers are likely to see the ads. Note we are no longer tracking engagement beyond ‘seeing.’ Another metric I discovered is video completion rate. I get it, I always race to close pop up videos that show up unwanted on my feed. But reading this makes me feel like this is a race to the bottom. Or maybe it’s just me? You can read more about it here.

Looking In

ENGINEERING SERENDIPITY WITH KAMIL TYEBALLY

I’ve have quite the imaginative Out of the Clouds guest to share with you today. Kamil Tyebally is the founder of Early Spring NYC, a company that works at the crossroads between events, culture, connection and marketing to create immersive brand events.

His is an unusual story, and Kamil openly shares with me how he moved around from Singapore to Myanmar to Thailand in his teens and discovered that life experience could match academic performance. Creative from a young age, Kamil pursued photojournalism, which took him to many more places around the globe. Eventually, he landed in marketing and business development, and he became fixated on the immersive experiential events company Fake Love. After some years there, Kamil founded Early Spring. 

Kamil is passionate in his discussions about his work, firmly believing that creating value beyond transactions and sparking authentic moments of connection at his events is the top priority. Early Spring was launched just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — representing both a challenge and a blessing in disguise — but has always had the objective (and the tagline) of ‘engineering serendipity’.

A wide-ranging and fascinating interview with a thoughtful entrepreneur. Happy listening! 

ANXIOUS STATES AND THE INNER ALMOND

I love Martha Beck. Martha, in case you don’t know, is a wonderful coach, writer, and a sociologist who trained for her PhD at Harvard. I certified as a coach with her Wayfinder Life Coaching Training last year. 

First and foremost, I love her because she is one of these rare writers who knows how to break down complicated concepts into simple terms, making them so accessible, but with a good dose of her very quirky humour. 

Martha shared on her podcast that she is working on a new book about anxiety, something she has been suffering from on and off for years. She recently wrote a wonderful blog post about this topic where she goes over tactics to relax the amygdala - the ancient part of the brain that runs the show when we enter panic mode. She has found a new name for it, too. She calls it the Inner Almond, or creature-self. If you’re wondering how to manage anxiety, I recommend this short read. Enjoy! 

THE MAGIC OF REM SLEEP 

I’m a pretty sound sleeper, but I occasionally have intense dreams, which I’ve generally thought of as a disturbance rather than a gift until I read this article! I’m late to the game, having not (YET!) read Matthew Walker’s book ‘Why we sleep’, but thankfully, I now appreciate a little more the massive importance of this yet little-understood part of our human resting experience. Worth a thorough read! Discover here. 

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Despite the nice weather outside my window, I’ve felt terribly sluggish this week. Too much winter weather perhaps? Or maybe I need a break (I’m vaguely envious of all those parents on school holidays right now). 

However, I am delighted with the selection of articles I’ve put together for this week’s Digest. Each topic feels like a little world into itself, so I hope that you’ll enjoy it and that perhaps the below articles will open new doors for you, creatively or otherwise. 

As always, thank you for reading me, I really appreciate it, and have a good one. 

Much love,

LOOKING OUT

“Artists excel at creating worlds. They do this first for themselves and then, when they share their work, for others… World-building means creating everything — not only making things inside the world but also the surrounding world itself — the language, style, rules, and architecture.”

— Laurel Schwulst in “My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?”

EMAIL, NEWSLETTERS AND WHATSAPP

Would you give a brand or publisher your phone number to receive news? I’m not polling, but I’m curious… 

Fresh from having conducted an email communication workshop with a client, I was intrigued (and I hope you will be, too) when I learned that WhatsApp is building a newsletter feature. I had lots of opinions about this, because, as our group was reflecting on the other day, some channels feel more personal than others, namely email and text messages, WhatsApp or equivalent. 

That said, WhatsApp has launched communities not long ago, for larger groups, so for those out there developing these communities, the newsletter feature would probably be a godsend. 

In any case, given the battle against the algorithms on IG and grandma channel Meta/Facebook, there are some exciting possibilities laying ahead for brands, creators and publishers alike. Read more here.

THE SOFT POWER OF CROCHET 

You know how when you get interested in something — perhaps you want a new car, or a new pair of shoes, or whatever — and suddenly you see that thing you’re looking for everywhere? 

Well, having just interviewed Tal Zur, the co-founder of Iota Project, a brilliant lifestyle start-up based in Israel that chose crochet as the technology (or rather technique) to power social change (more on that further below), I was captivated by Grace Cook’s article at the Financial Times. In it she explores the way that crochet has gained a new place in fashion’s textile vocabulary, but also how many designers, from Anna October to Chloé’s Gabriella Hearst to Farm Rio, choose to use this technique because like Tal, they are supporting the women who crochet, whether in Mexico, Greece, Turkey or Ukraine. 

I was already ‘sold’ on crochet, but I feel an even stronger connection to the craft and the designers using it. Read more here. 

A CREEPY AI STORY

As a teenager, I had the luck of spending at least a week’s holiday with my older half-brother and his family. Apart from being a brilliant scientist (a professor and then head of the department of Neurophysiology at Geneva University), he also had a passion for science fiction and sci-fi comic books, a type of literature that never reached either of my parents. I greatly enjoyed poring over the pages with a cup of hot chocolate after skiing every evening. We’d also watch sci-fi — Michel is the one who introduced me to “2001: A Space Odyssey” (creeped me out) and Star Wars (“The Return of the Jedi” is still one of my favorite films ever). 

I never imagined that in 2023 reality would look so close to science-fiction. You know, like a crazy rich CEO looking to establish a colony on Mars, while building a social media megaphone for himself. 

Well, right on the heels of that, if you’ve not heard about the recent and very creepy conversation that happened between NYT writer Kevin Roose and the new Bing-powered artificial intelligence software, from OpenAI, well, it’s worth more than a cursory glance. After all, it’s not every day that a search engine declares its love for a human! Read here.

CAN YOUR SHIRT TURN INTO SOIL?

I’ve been composting my food leftovers for a few years. On the rare occasions that I don’t eat all my fruits and vegetables in time and I have to bin them, I feel much more guilt-free knowing that they will eventually turn into compost, and back into soil. Isn’t that freeing? 

Does this apply to clothes? Well it could, if your garments are made of natural fibers. But would it be safe for the environment? Thanks to an article on Forbes, I’ve just discovered that not all organic natural materials are made equal. 

Contributor Esha Chhabra explored this topic with Alex Crane, the founder of the namesake brand with a strong sustainable ethos who have recently brought out a 100% biodegradable shirt. Beyond the fibers, the company has invested in mineral dyes and softeners without any harmful chemicals that will not release any toxins into the earth at the end of their lifecycle, and buttons made from the seed of the Ivory Palm tree. So indeed, you could drop that shirt into a compost and it would turn to soil within a year.

Several elements of this interview are worth noting: 

The first point is that the brand is choosing this direction because they believe that asking people to consume less (something I’ve written about) is problematic: humans like to consume, acquire and collect. A reduction in consumption would require behavior change, which we all know is very difficult to achieve. This echoes the strategy of citizen fund Time for the Planet, that aims to reduce carbon footprint via financing high-impact innovation, without needing to resort to behavior change. 

The second aspect is simple, and when we compare things to food, the analogy goes much further than when we stick to garments: as Alex Crane said: ‘Organic food was a niche market until it wasn’t. Same with wellness products.’ He makes a strong point. 

So the only behavior that this brand is hoping for is to help move the needle and make us turn to organic, safe and biodegradable clothes. I must say, that’s a change I feel I can make. 

I only hope others are inspired and jump on that bandwagon. 

Read more here. 

Looking In 

Tal Zur on the language of crochet, trust and creating social impact through design

My latest guest on Out of the Clouds is Tal Zur, teacher at the Holon Institute of Technology and the co-founder of Iota Project, a Tel Aviv-based design and social enterprise start-up with a goal to create social impact through design. And their technology (or rather technique) powering the project is crochet.

I had the pleasure of seeing Tal and her company receive an award a few months ago, and I was moved to see her on stage with her then four-months-old baby Shira to accept the trophy. 

In our conversation, Tal tells me how she came to study industrial design, curatorship and patisserie (yes, indeed, a surprising combination) then how she chose to move away from working in fashion and a serendipitous connection with her co-founder, Shula Mozes, the one tobring her the idea of crochet as the basis for their social enterprise. 

From that first conversation, Tal tells me about taking up crochet herself while walking the trail of Camino de Santiago (known in English as the Way of St James), and how meditative and interesting the practice was for her. Later, things clicked into place when she visited Boston’s The Institute of Contemporary Art museum and saw a textile exhibition that sparked an idea. Shortly after, the Iota Project was born — without a business plan, without excel spreadsheets, but with great passion. 

I ask Tal about the products first, because, well, theirs are quite wonderful: swings, rugs, portable cushions and blankets with straps, for indoor and outdoor living. She tells me about why they choose to make their own yarn, the benefits of designing products with a tolerance for mistakes and taking inspiration from Greek grandmothers’ doilies for their rugs and blankets. 

Tal also highlights that crochet is like a design language. She compares it to music and how, by sharing crochet design drawings (not unlike sheet music), pieces can easily be made by women working remotely.  

We then discuss the importance of slow design, and how Iota Project aims to create sustainable social impact by being a platform for change, and putting the opportunity in our hands, the consumers, designers, architects or other companies that will purchase the product. 

We finish by talking about how Tal approaches her life as a mother (of three!) and being an entrepreneur, the importance of trust when working with women remotely, and how teaching in front of design students twice a week is a bubble that keeps her feeling creatively connected. 

A very inspiring interview with a compelling and fascinating woman. Enjoy!

Listen here 🎧 

A FITNESS CLASS TO RECONNECT (AND PERHAPS HAVE A LITTLE CRY)

I love a fitness trend, I can’t help myself. Perhaps it’s because I want to make up for the fact I’m not an athletic outdoorsy type? I’ve been sold on Barre for the past couple of years (especially Brooklyn Barre online with Julie Granger from the Studio Paris), I swear by Pilates (thanks to Glo.com) and, of course, am a devoted yogi. Over the years, I’ve tried a bunch of fad classes, various kinds of very hot yoga, though I was never one for a bootcamp: I’m not motivated by yelling and genuinely wonder why anyone else is. During the early days of the pandemic, I enjoyed trying out the kundalini-inspired workouts of The Class. 

Now I’m curious to try this new hyped class called Sanctum, which is hailed as so transformative that some of the practitioners have stopped going to therapy: a mix of chanting, aerobics and shaking, it’s meant to ‘allow people to shift to a high state of being.’ I hear that emotional strength is now part of the fitness lexicon, beyond the spa we want to find ourselves, a liberated sweaty mess on our mats. We certainly have a lot to deal with right now — everyone everywhere needs a good shake to release tension from our collectively exhausted nervous systems. 

While the Sunday Times Style calls Sanctum ‘cardiothoracic soul surgery,’ my friend Fiona Leahy, quoted in the piece, called it ‘Jane Fonda on acid.’ I know what I’ll be doing on my next trip to London. 

Read more about it here. 

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My frenetic pace didn’t get in the way of my general enjoyment though. Traffic was as bad as always and I was lucky that I came ahead of London Fashion Week. I fear the worst for the poor buyers and press teams alike, criss-crossing the city at a snail’s pace to attend shows, parties and presentations. 

Meanwhile, I’m settled on quarterly visits to the British capital, which still feels like home. Next up, Paris in a couple of weeks, and, lucky me, Zürich, to see Lizzo perform. I can’t wait. 

Thanks as always for reading me, I appreciate your time. And have a good one!

And now off we go with this week’s picks!

Much love,

LOOKING OUT

“Consumers don’t think how they feel. They don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say.” - David Ogilvy

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

On Saturday, my friend Michelle took me to see a film before a fancy dinner at a fancy new Chinese restaurant in Mayfair. I didn’t check out the film, I blindly trust my friend when it comes to any arty suggestions. And my, was I blown away. ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ is a high-profile documentary on artist and activist Nan Goldin’s fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid epidemic that took hold of the US after their company, Purdue, brought their drug Oxycontin to market.

But, the filmmaker Laura Poitras, who already has an Oscar under her belt, explores much more than the bringing to justice of the family. Blending the personal and political, it’s a deeply moving and intimate look at Nan Goldin’s upbringing, a family tragedy that set the artist to become the rebellious activist that she is. I was disturbed, I laughed, I cried, and the stories will stay with me for a long time. I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a strong contender for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars, and I’m crossing my fingers that it gets the top prize. It certainly deserves the biggest platform it can get. 

Read about it at Variety and see the trailer here.

MOTHER OF SUSTAINABILITY

Meanwhile, a new documentary called ‘Fashion Reimagined’ will kick off London Fashion Week. It follows the journey of a designer, Amy Pawney, and a brand, Mother of Pearl, in their journey to becoming a sustainable company. I’ve not seen it yet but editor Tiffanie Darke has, and you can read all about it in her Substack newsletter, ‘It’s Not Sustainable’. I can’t wait to see it—let’s hope it makes it to Swiss cinemas. Scratch that, I just requested to host a screening! Read more about it here and watch the trailer here.

RETHINKING PROBLEM SOLVING, ONE IDEA AT A TIME

Stanford professors, Perry Klebahn and Jeremy Utley, who have collectively shaped the minds of thousands of design and innovation students over the years, have co-written a new book, called ‘Ideaflow, The Only Business Metric that Matters’. In this Fast Company article, they share key insights to invite us to approach idea generation as THE problem solving skill that matters. Here’s what I love about it: they understand that innovation (and idea generation) is a practice that we can all get better at. And, that for innovation to flourish, we don’t need massive budgets. Instead they invite us to be scrappy, to listen to novices and consider desirability when we create a product. It’s not always about ‘how do we do this, how do we scale?’ but rather, ‘should we do this’? Clever and certainly immediately applicable. Read more here. 

HOW TO BUILD A CONVERSATION (IN CHAT GPT-3)

If you’ve only vaguely understood what Chat GPT-3 is about, but you have a niggling feeling you should be interested because there are applications for your own business (whether you’re in finance or publish a weekly blog), read this super fun and interesting post on Chain of Thought - Every - that shares the ins and outs of how to build a chatbot with GPT-3 (and why, aka the metrics behind its success). I’m not saying I won’t give it a try myself… Read here. 

Looking In 

SHHH: ON QUIETENING YOUR INNER CRITIC

We all have a survival instinct, and thank god we do. But, did you know that this same instinct is the source of that voice in your head which constantly tells you you’re not good enough? This inner narrator, the voice of self doubt, is also known sometimes as the ‘inner critic.’

Later this week, I will be exploring my relationship with ‘no’ (rejection, failure, doors closing, etc). Interestingly, this article for Goop by coach and author Tara Mohr (who I regularly wax lyrical about), is a great pre-work piece if you’re interested in tackling your own blockers around that topic. To learn how to silence your inner critic, read more here. 

ALWAYS ON, NEVER DONE—MOVING FROM WORK/LIFE BALANCE TO HARMONY

I’ve been procrastinating on finishing a long piece about busyness, productivity and work. Suffice to say, I need to approach it carefully because in researching the topics, I landed unwittingly into philosophical concepts and discovered new authors that really opened up the subjects for me. One such author is quoted in this new article from Psyche, philosophy professor: Byung-Chul Han, author of The Burnout Society (2010). The article explores the changing nature of work, and the post-COVID ‘feeling of ever-increasing levels of freedom at work that paradoxically provokes our sense of having ever-more responsibilities and a sense that work is endless: always on, never done.’

I’d been grabbed by the title: ‘How to craft a harmonious life’ before reading the article because ‘harmony’ has been my favorite word ever since I was a teenager (more on that another time). Also, because work/life balance is something I explore daily for myself, and with my clients, whether they be companies or individuals. 

So, I invite you to read ahead, and do as suggested. Forget the ideal work/life balance and explore harmony instead. Read more here. 

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Days have felt very full, overflowing one into the other. As Freddie, the Mettā View’s copy editor, was sharing on social media earlier, perhaps it’s the effect of this week’s full moon? If that’s the case, I’m ready for the waning moon’s invitation to slow down. 

Occasionally, time comes up as a topic for me. But this week, I was also influenced by my editing of the upcoming interview with Cécile Duranton, managing director of Time for the Planet, a unique fund created to support impactful innovation to decarbonise the atmosphere. However we may feel about the impending consequences of the climate crisis, she reminded me that Mother Earth is just doing what it’s supposed to be doing, she’s just being herself, given the circumstances, and we just need to stop with the moaning and jump on this opportunity to just do better by her. 

Meanwhile, I’m excited to hear that time is actually flexible. According to this NPR article, time is partially man-made, or at least man-managed, it does ebb and flow and slows down. And apparently, it’s also an illusion. Don’t believe me? Read (or listen to) the article. 

I’m off to London for a few days, but I will take a breath and try to reset myself - and the watch.

Thanks as always for reading me…

And now off we go with this week’s picks!

Much love,

LOOKING OUT

Time does not change us. It just unfolds us. Max Frisch

CLEANING OUT FASHION WEEK’S MESS

I can’t say that I ever asked myself how the fashion system that we inherited came about. That the system is broken is something I am well aware of. First, because of the frenetic rate of production of new collections, unsustainable for the designers and their teams; it’s also not suited to the changes we need to make as conscious consumers in order to reduce carbon emissions. Two articles this week touched on this idea: 

First, in Fast Company, journalist Elizabeth Segran wonders how we can get out of the mess of fast fashion and come back to quality garments made to last, and imagine a future without trends. 

Meanwhile, Vogue Business reports on the staggering changes applied by Copenhagen Fashion week to make not just the events and shows more sustainable but to apply strict guidelines for brands selected to participate in the event. CPHFW CEO Cecilie Thorsmark affirms that: “Our brands are not compromising on aesthetics or fabrics or creative expression. But, they’re living up to 18 minimum standards that cover the entire value chain and doing business in a more responsible way.” 

All the while proving that restrictions won’t stop great creatives from throwing a good show. If they can, really, everyone can. Read about it here.

SEX SELLS, BUT WILL IT SELL THIS LIPSTICK?

We all know the power of a great red lipstick. Don’t we? Whether you wear one or not, you’ve felt it, whether worn by Marilyn, your mother, your best friend or yourself. That power connotes a strong sense of sensuality, made more sexually obvious by make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench who just launched a new line of penis-shaped lipsticks. I can’t say that I’d want to pull one out of my purse, but I must say I love the idea nonetheless. Are you buying? Discover here.

FROM HOST TO HOTELIER 

My former boss, French designer Christian Louboutin, of red sole fame, developed a passion for Portugal many years ago. From an early property investment in a group of fisherman houses in Comporta, which he redesigned with his colourful and distinctive taste, he then found another house further South, in the quiet Melides, by a lagoon near the oceanfront. 

From hosting friends and family, he has now gone into business as a hotelier and just opened his first property, a thirteen-room hotel in Melides called Vermelho (meaning red in Portuguese, a chic nod to the Maison Louboutin and its red soles). As bold and bright as you’d expect, discover here. 

Looking In 

I’m delighted to be sharing with you a new interview on Out of the Clouds, this time my guest is Cécile Duranton, managing director of Time for the Planet - a trail-blazing non-profit citizen fund whose mission is to detect and finance the most impactful climate change innovations. 

Cécile shares with me how she found herself via her travels, very early on, having left her home in the South of France as early as 14, before going on internships in the UK and Vietnam when she was 18. The passionate traveller chose to study agronomy engineering and pursued this in Brazil, later in New Zealand, before turning to business development for French companies, working largely in South East Asia. She shares how she very much learned on the job, facing cultural and other barriers, and why she chose to learn new languages — to keep an open mind throughout and build strong relationships (and an international network) in doing so.  

Cécile then tells me all about Time for the Planet, including how she went from becoming an engaged part of the community to a trainer and then to a hire, all within a few months. We talk about the triangle of inaction, how and why the fund operates as a startup, why they pair innovators with entrepreneurs and how their communication went from dragging their performance, to now incentivising and generating shareholder pledges. 

A fascinating and motivating conversation. Happy listening! 

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