Thoughts on creative strategy, ocean advocacy, using business as a force for good & other rad adventures.
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What is it about blindspots ? Why are they so hard to see ?! I'm talking about the metaphorical ones, the things that tend to trip you up on the regular, the situations you end up in again and again - that normally can be tracked back to a single sucky decision you made (and continue to make).
I've got a pretty serious blindspot when it comes to business development. And this last month put a solid spotlight on it (which I'm actually pretty grateful for, in hindsight).
It was in her early days of being sponsored by Patagonia - and she was finding herself more and more frustrated by how much work she was putting in for the brand and how little she was being compensated. She felt like she was doing so much yet none of it was being noticed. She said she'd slipped into thinking that perhaps, if she just kept working harder and harder, someone would notice, validate her work and then she might just get paid what she deserved. So she kept pushing. She kept doing more.
I think our alarm went off at about 5.20am - which, in the middle of the winter, in the middle of the mountains feels like the middle of the night. We’d excitedly packed our gear the night before, so we stumbled sleepily down the stairs and de-iced the windscreen whilst trying not to get distracted by the incredible star-filled sky above us.
"The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease."
Ha - as I write this, there are (no joke) tears in my eyes. I've never taken my work or the travel & community that is connected to it for granted, but holy smokes, this last few months have made me realise just how damn lucky I am. And how much I miss it.
Like - really miss it.
A few weeks back I uncovered a pretty colossal screw up. One that was entirely my fault. And one that had a substantial impact on something I care deeply about.
Sometimes I hear something on a podcast or read a line in a book and find myself having to go back to it again and again. A collection of words that resonate with me so deeply that I realise I need to invest some time to explore more. To look under the surface and really try and understand the concept, embody it, experience it so I can start to integrate it.
And it happened last week. In the midst of a week that looked somewhat like a dark comedy, and whilst dealing with multiple layers of bullshit.
I was driving somewhere and plugged into a podcast, half listening, half zoning out thinking about other stuff when this one sentence just jumped out at me. It was like something inside me heard it and woke me up.
Disclaimer : I wrote this in two parts. The first half whilst I was in the midst of the mess. In a pretty dark space. And the second half when things had kinda fallen into place, and I suddenly felt like perhaps there was a path emerging.
Part of me wanted to scrap everything I’d written and come at it with a fresh perspective - but that wouldn’t have honoured the journey. And if it wasn’t for the wrangling over the last few days I would never have arrived at this point. So screw it - you can see both sides. The ugly and the wise.
Never before have our daily routines been so stripped back. The conditions remaining the same pretty much every day. We’re not racing out the door to go to work. We’re not stacked with face to face meetings. We’re not trying to squeeze in dinners with friends, social gatherings or missions to the gym.
We literally wake up every morning with a blank slate. A whole day ahead of us to design in the way that works best for us.
I’ve been wanting to write about this issue for a long time. Something happened to me yesterday that acted as a catalyst, the perfect reminder that these words needed to be written and that this is a conversation I’m eager to dive into.
Failure. Yeah I know, it comes up a lot when we talk about entrepreneurship right ? It’s become yet another buzzword and almost a rite of passage for anyone in the start up world.
But I don’t want to talk about the lessons we learn from failure, or the value in it. I want to talk about the reality of it. The messiness, the isolation and the impact it can have.
Sometimes the perfect storm will arrive. At the very moment when you think you can’t handle it. With a force that feels like it might sweep you up and make you disappear.
Sometimes the challenge feels so immense that you question whether you can face it. Every single element that could fall apart has fallen apart and now it’s on you.
Today I had a bunch of meetings to go to so I figured I’d use my driving time productively and listen to the latest episode of The Spaceship Earth. It’s a phenomenal podcast by Dan Burgess - creative strategist, co-designer, nature connector & all round epic human being. I was lucky enough to work with Dan last year on an awesome event in SF called Ocean Hack, and he’s been a fellow Wavemaker at our events in Portugal - so listening to his podcast always feels like such a joy.
His interview today was with Will Skeaping, former creative strategist in the ad industry, who quit his job six months ago to work full time with Extinction Rebellion. He’s one of the four co-editors of This is not a drill - The XR Handbook.
I just got back from a 10 day trip to a crazy little island called Mustique in the Caribbean. We were running a pilot for the Ambassadors for the Planet curriculum and shooting a bunch of content for the island about their amazing sustainability initiatives. 100% dream work.
And yet here I am feeling kinda flat.
I’m packing for a trip. Tomorrow morning I leave for a ten day work trip to the Caribbean. We’re running a pilot for the environmental education program I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s a project I have poured blood, sweat & tears into. Something that (I really hope) has the potential to make a dent - a way to engage kids in the environmental issues we’re facing with optimism & curiosity. I haven’t seen the finished print workbook yet - it’s being couriered to the airport tomorrow morning in London so I can grab them before I get on my next flight.
We might never fit in. We will always be the ones with cuts & bruises. Both literal & metaphorical. The ones with wet hair & sunburnt noses. The ones who couldn’t care less about the car, the house, the holidays. The ones who never wear make up & barely brush their hair. The ones who will say it how it is, even if it makes everyone uncomfortable. Who throw the rule book out the window whilst feeling a sense of absolute relief and pure terror at the same time.
I’ve got to admit it. I’ve never been good with rules.
I’ve never coped well with environments that have conditions of entry or specific guidelines that must be followed. I sucked at working for the government - I had a seemingly epic job (creating environmental awareness campaigns) but when it came down to it, I felt like I was being asked to jump through hoops for the sake of jumping through hoops. So much red tape. So many meetings. A dress code. Specific working hours that needed to be adhered to regardless as to whether or not you’d actually done the work or not.
And so here I am writing this after what I could only describe as a day of wrangling. When I say wrangling, what I mean is one of those days that makes you feel exhausted, where everything just feels a bit harder than it probably needs to, and when every task on your list suddenly feels heavier and more urgent than normal.
So it was perfect timing for an email to show up in my inbox from a designer whose words resonated with me so deeply :
You can love what you're doing and be so.fucking.over.it at the same time.
We just spent an hour and a half looking at all the work I'm doing from a fresh perspective. We realised how easily I get excited about stuff and how that excitement seems to generate more ideas which turns into this runaway train of rad work. Ha ha. Yes, it's rad, but please note, I also said 'runaway'.
And so, with the help of someone super smart (and who, importantly, is not currently a passenger on this runaway train), I've been able to step back and see the tweaks that need to happen. I'm able to realise what needs attention, and where strong foundations need to be built.
There's a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that I love :
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
And for me, it's always a reminder of when I'm in the right room. Because the conversation is exciting. The kinds of conversations that go deep and ask big questions of you. The kinds of conversations that can go on for hours but feel like minutes. And most importantly, the kinds of conversations that inspire action.
There are days when I feel like my alter-ego should just be called Rocky because I swear if you tell me I can’t do something, I’ll do whatever it takes to show you I can. Now don’t get me wrong, I love that side of me, but it can get me into some serious trouble.
t’s one of the only guarantees you’ll ever get in business: Not everyone will love your work. But you know what? That’s totally ok.
But what’s not ok is when the fear of people judging you stops you moving forward.
I was racing to the beach to fit a surf in between two clients. I pulled on my wetsuit and ran down to the water's edge as fast as my legs could take me. I paddled out, in a pretty frantic, over-excited manner and could feel my adrenaline & heart rate rising by the time I got out the back.
I spent the next 15 minutes zipping around, trying to pick off good waves, but somehow missing a whole bunch, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the rest. I looked around…. I remember thinking… ‘ahhhhh what am I doing ?? I need to get some waves… I’m running out of time !! ‘
A friend paddled out, and I said to her ‘Oh man, I’ve got that over-excited need-to-catch-a-wave feeling going on’. She laughed ‘So you haven’t caught one yet huh ?’. Haha, she knew exactly how I felt.
What the hell am I doing up here? Everything down there is so secure and comforting. I feel like I don’t belong anywhere… maybe I’ll just be floating up here forever ?! There are so many options and so many possibilities that trying to make a decision on which way to go feels insanely overwhelming. Am I the only one up here freaking out? Does everyone else have their shit together except me ??
Ahhh even writing that makes my heart beat a little faster…. and not in a good way. As entrepreneurs, we go through different stages. There are times when everything is flowing and synchronised and rad. And then there are these panicky, oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing moments.
And so right now, the thing I want to write about is this - Doing work that matters. Playing an active role in the world and the issues that we're facing.
For me that always starts with recognising our privilege. Sometimes this happens through a conversation, through travel or simply through a new perspective on the world, whether that comes to you through a documentary you watch on tv, an interview you read or simply a quiet moment of reflection.
Take some time to see what is actually happening in the world right now. To see how damn lucky you are. How unbelievably fortunate you are. How your 'problems' in life, really don't rank on a global scale of problems that the majority of the population are dealing with.
There’s a term used in the tech world called ‘Vanity Metrics’ and unfortunately, way too many of us become totally focused/obsessed with the wrong stats. Vanity Metrics are those things that make us look good and sometimes feel good, but that has no real meaning when it comes to your business growth.
I can totally put my hand up and say I lost my integrity for a while. When I was running festivals, my business was projecting this image of such an awesome lifestyle, but the reality looked very very different.
In a world that is filled with opinions of what your business should be doing, and how you should be showing up, it’s easy to lose track of who you really are and end up not being totally authentic.
Gulp. You have no idea how badly I needed to hear this story. And, since hearing it, I’ve shared it with a number of friends, who’ve said ‘Yikes. I needed to hear this.’
But to me, in that moment, I made another promise to myself. I never want my business to go in that direction. I never want to treat people in a way that makes them feel small or unimportant. Sure, sometimes it’s hard to reply to every email or respond to every FB message, but holy smokes, it’s worth it.
These people are your potential customers & clients. They’ve taken the time to connect with you. They deserve to feel important because they are important.
Sure, some people will make a decision based purely on price or specific features, but the majority of our choices are actually based on feeling, not reason. Interesting huh?
But how does knowing that help us as business owners? Because if we can grasp the concept that people don’t buy facts, they buy feelings, then we understand the importance of sharing more of who we are and what we believe.
I was telling her about something that I’d seen unfold on LinkedIn today. The outing of someone as a BS artist. And let me tell you, it felt fucking amazing to see it happen.
Why ? Because I’ve had a hunch about this dude for a long long time. He fits into a very specific (and unfortunately growing) category of wealthy white dudes who suddenly see the opportunity to grow their ego/status by pivoting to become ‘environmentalists’. I put that word in speech marks, because they’re not environmentalists at all. Not even close.