Crafting Stories That Matter.

Throughout my career as a communication strategist I have developed compelling brand strategies that are translated into a story of a brand or product in film, print, digital media and content.

And though communication is about telling impactful stories, I haven’t approached it using a creative writing approach – thinking about plot ARCs, and story types.

From another aspect, I have been excited to formulate my opinions, points of view and ideas about topics of interest outside of brands and marketing. And, I’ve needed to express myself (values, beliefs, motivations) and my ideas in a succinct way in order to have other people understand me through this lens.

I have noticed that it’s helpful and more powerful to craft these arguments in a well structured way. Which is why I completed the short course “Storytelling for Leaders: How to Craft Stories That Matter” offered by Keith Yamashita, Founder of SYPartners on Skillshare. The course has taught me how to tell compelling stories about myself but also about an idea I wish to put out into the world, and later to demonstrate the results of that idea.

Below is the final course assignment.

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Transformation Street

This is a story of me. My name is Brenda and I am learning the craft of storytelling, and structuring my thinking. This will help me pivot from building compelling brand stories, to transforming people, teams and organizations.

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Helping Others Regulate their Nervous System for Better Team Outcomes and Wellbeing.

Understanding and regulating our nervous system –  specifically our peripheral nervous system – helps us feel safe, connected and in flow, even when things around us are stressful and chaotic and our tendency might be for fight, flight, freeze or fawn.

And, understanding these implications in leadership can have profound effects on our ability to design and set up cohesive and accomplished teams.

Our Autonomic Nervous System

Our autonomic nervous system is one part of our peripheral nervous system, i.e., every part of our nervous system that isn’t the brain and spinal cord. The autonomic system is responsible for our involuntary actions; the automatic functions of our body that we need to survive. By controlling the sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric systems, the autonomic nervous system shapes our experiences and how we show up in the world when we are faced with outside stressors.

The human body has evolved to deal with stress by either giving us a boost of energy (to run from the tiger) or conserving our energy (to stay where we are and play dead). And it’s ok to be in those states when needed, in order to survive and deal with the immediate stress at hand. During times of stress or overwhelm we will most often shut down and seek safety as the body goes into survival mode. But, in this mode, we are limited in our ability to think clearly and be creative and fully in tune with what is possible. It also limits our ability to interact, socialize and connect with others.

Ideally, in order to meet the moment, we should be in a ventral state. This is one state of the nervous system’s parasympathetic responses and when we are in this ventral state we feel connected to others, we feel calm, joyful, energized and curious. In this regulated state, we can be resilient and resourced, and we can harness our creativity and ability to solve problems with clarity.

How Leaders Can Show Up and Guide Others into a Ventral State

Research by Sociologist Tracy Brower published in Forbes shows that leaders have a disproportionate impact on their colleagues’ mental health. In fact, for almost 70% of people, their manager has more impact on their mental health than their therapist or doctor, and their impact is equal to that of a partner. So, leaders have a critical role to play in contributing to the positive mental health of their colleagues (as well as their own – remember to put your oxygen mask on first!)

Helping others find safety in their nervous system (or what Deb Dana refers to as ‘befriending’ the nervous system) starts with having an awareness of our own nervous system, and then how our own actions and words may affect others. Beyond that, we should think about how the tasks or projects our teams are working on might be affecting them. Yet finally, no matter how much we manage our colleagues’ external environment (including being aware of our own impact on others), we can’t control their internal state. This is why helping them understand and manage their own response is crucial, allowing them to take ownership of their response by supporting and acknowledging their situation and helping them find their way back to safety. 

The diagram below is a graphical depiction of this process. Ultimately, each person’s response to external stimuli is framed in their own nervous system state.

When we learn the language of our nervous systems it helps us identify the feelings and sensations we are having and how they affect the way we show up in the world. And as leaders, it helps to be aware of how our teams and colleagues are reacting or responding to what’s happening around them and how they are coping with daily stressors.

Our nervous system state is dynamic as we take on and adapt to new activities and projects, whether we are in stretch or stress mode for each project, and depending on what is going on personally in the background. This is why it is important to gauge our team’s nervous system state at the start of a project, or even at the start of a working day and to continually check in throughout the project or day.

Enable, Coach, Support, and Reset Framework

From my observations over the years, I have developed a broad model (figure 2 below) that we can use as leaders to help us show up in interactions depending on our colleagues’ own nervous system capacity and their level of experience.

We can facilitate and guide them back to safety just by asking them – and ourselves – a question. What do you need right now to feel safe in your nervous system?

Figure 2

The Steps

1. Gauge: What is the nervous system state of individuals in my team?
2. Implement: Depending on their nervous system state and their level of competence we can:
   • Unlearn and/or Reset: Even highly experienced people may slip into an unregulated nervous system. Maybe they have picked up some bad habits (haven’t we all!) that they can unlearn. Perhaps something is going on in their personal life that is adding some stress, or many other issues. We can guide them through some breathwork or movement exercises or even help them take a break to reset their system and get back into safety.
   • Support: New joiners on the team, who have a nervous system in survival mode and are feeling stressed or overwhelmed need support. They will need extra encouragement and support, technical advice and training where needed. This is where the role of a mentor can be usually very helpful.
   • Coach: New team members who have a regulated nervous system will be open to training and development as they continue their growth and contribution.
   • Enable: When a team member feels the right level of challenge in their project, and they are in nervous system regulation, then we can get out of their way and empower them to bring out the best in themselves and those around them.
3. Check-in & Repeat: Our nervous systems are very sensitive to what is happening in our life. And these days our stressors are greater than ever before. This is why we need to check in and notice our own and our team’s responses as we move throughout the day and make sure we are feeling safe and connected, and if not, take the necessary measures to help get back into safety.

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Sources:

1. “Autonomic Nervous System,” Myclevelandclinic.org
2. “Befriending your nervous system,” Deb Dana
3. “Polyvagal Theory and Its Clinical Potential: An Overview,” US National Library of Medicine
4. “The 3 States Of Anxiety In The Nervous System,” therapyinanutshell.com

Medical Disclaimer – Not Medical or Professional Advice. 

The content of this paper is not to be considered medical advice for any reason, and nothing herein is intended to provide or act as a substitute for medical or mental health treatment.

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You Can Do Hard Things.

On December 18th, Argentina beat France to claim the glory of being crowned World Cup champions in what may have been the finest final played in history. The mental and emotional stamina on display that night, both teams seemed beyond human. Messi, laughing even when under pressure, was the epitome of experience, mental strength, grace and good sportsmanship. Watching the game with my family was memorable and one could draw analogies for life beyond the pitch.

Earlier that day, I had my own great accomplishment. I didn’t win the football world cup, but I proved to myself on that day, that I could do hard things by transforming my thinking.

You might think that growing up the child of immigrants in Sydney, with the odds stacked against me, nevertheless finding my way into some of Australia’s leading creative agencies, working alongside some of Australia’s top talent, then moving across continents and setting up a new life in the Middle East, and being a mother to 3 kids, that I’d know a thing or two about transformation by now, right?

Wrong.

I would say that my conscientiousness, diligence and curiosity has helped me plan a course and follow it (together with lots of luck, fate, synchronicity and a few detours along the way), but these attributes alone aren’t transformative. No, transformation requires something else. Something simple yet extraordinary. Transformation is not linear, it explodes everything we know about ourselves and the rules we’ve relied upon to steer through life. It forces one to dig deeper. Transformation comes after a baptism of sorts.

On that day, we took our two sons for what was supposed to be a nice, easy bike ride in the Dubai desert, on the Al Qudra cycle track. When we arrived, since our 11 year old daughter wasn’t with us, my husband suggested we try a new track (Layan usually becomes tired after a few KM’s). I piped up without much thought “yeah why not” – I’m keen on a little adventure.

Perhaps I should have pondered that question a bit longer!

Because what was supposed to be a short bike ride turned into a ‘spontaneous’ 49km bike ride in the middle of the Dubai desert. It might seem like a small trip for cycling enthusiasts, but for leisure riders like us, it was a substantial challenge.

The ride started out nice and smooth and fun. And so we pushed on. But, without checking a map before hand, nor having researched the area, about 1 hour (and 12km’s) into the ride things started to get a little serious, and I began to feel out of my comfort zone. Though we could have turned back, we didn’t realize how much track lay ahead of us, so we decided to push on, we’re not quitters!

But pretty soon, my ‘mommy mind’ clicked into gear, and I started to feel the pangs of responsibility for my two sons – though their teenage bravado was faring much better than my own panic.

I imagined I was in a film, I kept remembering one of the characters from the animation film Madagascar being “parched” when their plane crashed-landed in the desert – except our desert was for real! I feared I’d be a news headline “unprepared family airlifted to safety, mum in critical condition.” My mind played all sorts of tricks on me!

The idea of being in uncharted territory, needing to use my instinct, harnessing every ounce of energy in my body, it felt like a matter of survival! Perhaps believing that we would die in the desert was a bit dramatic, and this wasn’t the Empty Quarter, but my ‘mommy mind’ starting to think about plan B and C in case we needed an ambulance if someone cramped up!

My husband tried to reassure me, but it was only when we reached a rest area 21km into the ride and we surveyed a map, and identified some emergency numbers, that I felt I had a handle on the situation. Only then was I able to think straight – that the task was difficult but not deadly!

Thereafter, when the boys were complaining that they couldn’t possibly go on, or when we needed to cycle up hill, I remained focused on the next kilometer we needed to cycle – until we passed another sign racking up the mileage.

It was like that for another 24 tough kilometers.

When we reached the final 4km’s, and I realized we were going to make it without serious injury, a sense of relief overtook me. And amazement.

This was the first time I had put my body through physical endurance like that. Short bursts at the gym are not the same. I’ve trekked through caves and forests in Malaysia – but we had a hotel guide and never with the kids, and never over long distances.

Finally, we glided back into the bicycle assembly area, and the three and a half hour journey was over. To my amazement, we had done it! Those nagging teens of mine did it! We made it back safely. No cramps. No dehydration.

On the drive back home – exhausted, quiet – it dawned on me that I had the capacity to do hard things! That I could be resilient. That I could push myself out of my comfort zone – and that was my greatest discovery. For years, ‘pushing past my comfort zone’ meant growth, expansion, excitement, newness, it meant ‘more.’ That’s how the motivation gurus put it.

But on that day, pushing past my comfort zone felt more visceral than that.

I realized that pushing beyond our comfort zone, is not only to be in a state of seeking more – but simply to realize that we already have what it takes to survive and even to thrive, that we are capable of using our innate abilities to design things, to create things, to problem solve and to keep going. That’s the transformation.

That was my transformation.

Live consciously,

Brenda.

The Business of busy-ness.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on all those who fought and died for our rights to a balanced life (Source: FastCompany.com) because after a few quick calculations my conclusion is that many of us are not living the balanced life they fought so hard to achieve.

Whilst their efforts were not in vain, modern society needs more growth to reach a point where we ‘work to live’ not the other way around. Below is a breakdown of a typical working year for most people employed in large corporations*. For all our talk about work/life balance, has anyone done the math? Because things don’t look very balanced to me.

A year in the life of an average corporate employee.

For all our talk about work/life balance, has anyone done the math? Because things don’t look very balanced to me.

We may have advanced from working 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week (wait, what? did they work in advertising? ahem!) but it is not near the equitable distribution of time we need to be mentally and emotionally healthy and creatively contributing to the world at large, beyond only our contribution to the corporate bottom line and our own bank accounts.

It takes 42 seconds to do a google search on the side effects of being overworked, which yields 1,230,000,000 results. You don’t need to be an empath to understand the impact on health, relationships and creativity from work/life imbalance.

Many of you reading may be thinking “do something you love and you won’t ever have to work a day in your life.” Certainly, I think this notion can work for a certain period in one’s life, or for a certain project but not as a long term way of life and certainly not if we wish to divide our focus equally between different pursuits. And considering we are working and living longer, it makes sense to have a well-balanced distribution of time across our professional and personal life.

Wise thinkers have pointed out that we join the cult of busy because we are running away from something else. Socrates warned us to “beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

http://bit.ly/2VhHrrZ

Certainly, we are required to work hard to achieve all the good things we wish to achieve in life but the point I am trying to make is that we should get to a point where people do what they love and have time to spend with family, friends and creative hobbies. It shouldn’t be a trade-off and people shouldn’t be indirectly penalised for living with this intent.

The New York Times Magazine recently published an article titled “Wealthy, Successful and Miserable,” which showed that once a person provides financially for themselves and family, additional salary and benefits don’t reliably contribute to job satisfaction rather, factors like ‘whether your job provides the ability to control your time’ become more important.

In my case, I love what I do and where I do it. My workplace is relatively understanding that I have a young family and generally accommodate my dynamic schedule. But the effects of not being more balanced certainly have started to show up in other areas of my life.

Reassessing outdated notions of Work/Life balance.

If you work for an organisation or you are currently a manager who is at all interested in staff retention, great performance, building a great company culture, you will have to get better at adapting to the idea that people don’t compartmentalise their life and sometimes there is spillage across professional/personal life. With that, we need a more accurate and balanced definition of what constitutes work/life balance and how to integrate both areas together.

For example, it no longer makes sense that we have inflexible check-in and clock-off timing inherited from bygone eras that fit around the company but not employee life schedules. This may be difficult for some old-world managers to accept.

There may be days when your staff member needs to work from home. But if you’re a micro-manager who keeps count of how many kitchen breaks your staff take, this might take some getting used to.

Paradigms are shifting and it is necessary that we start to question some of the old structures that have held up our economy for decades.

Work/life balance is a recognition that sometimes we do get out of balance but this can be rectified at a later time. But corporations need to be flexible and adaptive in order for staff to do this. For example, a member of staff may wish to take additional annual leave to participate in a marathon overseas and this could be accrued annual leave from all the additional time in-lieu working late nights rather than taken as leave-without-pay.

A New Dawn

Paradigms are shifting and it is necessary that we start to question some of the old structures that have held up our economy for decades. And one of the main pillars of the old structure has been corporations which push the view that we need to be achieving our KPI’s and sticking to the bottom line without consideration for employee welfare. Corporate success looks like hitting profit and growth targets and achieving management objectives, not how often staff get home to see their kids before bedtime or how many weekend conference calls their executives take. More advanced corporations have begun to examine their company culture and values, and that’s a good start.

But I say there is still more that we can do if we walk down the path of authenticity and consciousness. If we allow people to show their true nature, empower them to self-manage and work in ways that fit around their life, then businesses can be unifying clusters that unite people to fulfill a common aim, and in that way be of service to their employees and humanity at large.

This is not a socialist dream, on the contrary, I am talking about companies like Patagonia and Nadaam who live the ideals they espouse. We can start by questioning what type of company we want to work for, what start-up we want to build, and who we want to buy from, and raise these questions with our teams. Of course, we would need to hire the right people to start with.

Business needs to follow the path of authenticity and consciousness.

Do the math for yourself and let me know what it looks like for you. Change starts from raising awareness and starting conversations about what good can look like.

Live consciously,

Brenda.

Cover Photo by Jessica Lewis from Pexels.

*This is based on 25 annual leave days and does not include sick leave. Outside of maternity leave, in my 15+ year working career, I have only used my total annual sick leave once when I needed a medical procedure, have you?

Great Leaders Ask Questions.

Many of today’s organisations and even our personal modes of thinking are based on an achievement orientation, meritocracy and sense of competitiveness.

When viewed on a continuum, these attributes certainly helped propel modern society from a feudal, hierarchical state and bring about huge advancements in innovation and accountability, and improved levels of equality.

But these traits have masked society’s unconsciousness in certain areas. For example, this kind of thinking is more likely to lead to a siloed mentality, the notion that for one person to be right another needs to be wrong, people are put in boxes – humans are ‘resources’ to be ‘managed’ in this model, we busy ourselves building plans and blueprints for things that may not necessarily add value only to meet budgets and excel spreadsheets with fictitious forecasts.

And where you have unconsciousness, you have Ego.

Ego finds its home in unconsciousness.

One of the main aims of ego is to look good – intelligent, clever, in control, funny, productive – in front of others. In this mode, leaders find it paramount to have answers, they have been trained to provide direction to their teams, and direction means providing solutions and having a plan in order to look competent.

Emerging Leadership

On the other hand, emerging modes of thinking require mental strength, empathy and self-esteem to allow ourselves to feel vulnerable and open to collaboration.

Leadership in this new mode is about creating space for others to contribute and collaborate. It is having the confidence to recognise that you may not always have the best answer.

The best leaders I have worked with focus on questions, not answers.

By asking the right questions, strong leaders facilitate dialogue which contributes to a creative solution. Having a questioning mindset is recognition that the germ of your great idea, when combined with other ideas can sprout into something much more powerful.

Questions empower others to raise their true voice. Rather than feeling stuck in a silo, people feel heard and valued, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction.

Asking questions opens up space for the team to have a sense of ownership of the process and this ensures that people are motivated to contribute and work together to develop the right solutions.

Leadership is about having the generosity of spirit and confidence of character to work together and not always needing to be the star of the show.

Depending on your category, here are some ways you can facilitate a team discussion by framing questions in the following manner:

How might we think about this from a product design point of view?

What inconvenience can we remove for our customer?

What can we borrow from (insert another category than the one you usually work in)?

What if we turned back the clock and redesigned our customer experience?

I wonder what would happen if we transformed our thinking about this from a communication to a customer service approach?

I hope this post has helped you begin to transform the way you, your team and your organisation view leadership.

Have a purposeful day!

Brenda.

Understanding Culture

Many brands are using anthropologists to help them identify and understand the forces and themes impacting their customers’ lives and mindsets. And one of the main areas of observation for an anthropologist is culture. Understanding culture helps brands predict and capitalize on upcoming trends.

I personally have an interest in culture especially when I hear it bandied around often without an understanding of what it is, what makes up culture, how it is created and what influences it.

So this post is my attempt to understand culture and how brands can be part of it.

What is Culture?

Culture is fundamentally about meaning and expression. It is how and where we derive our meaning from the world and people around us.

Societies function via written and unwritten ‘rules’ that people ascribe to willingly or unwillingly. The rules that we follow without noticing, and the rules that some people break willingly. This is culture.

But these rules are constantly changing and evolving, in fact, most of the time, we don’t notice them until they are broken. For example, the act of ‘gathering people to eat’ is draped with cultural meaning – otherwise, the pictures below are just people having lunch. But a family lunch, team lunch and quiet romantic getaway are draped with different traditions, meaning and emotional attachments - this is culture.

What meaning do you derive from these images?

Artists, Musicians, Comedians, Journalists often bring to light or challenge culture in their work. They make observations and statements about culture in their music or writing.

How can we get better at Cultural Understanding and Culture Spotting?

In order to understand culture and cultural meaning, we need to investigate the meaning behind certain rituals and phenomena.

As we observe and become curious about events around us, we should be asking: what does this symbolise? why is this important? what is changing? where are we going?

Can you think of some cultural rules that have recently been broken in MENA? Here are a few:

• The resurgence of artistic expression? What does this mean about how people are expressing themselves?
• Women driving in KSA? What does this mean about the way society is changing?
• Cinema in KSA? What does this mean about entertainment in the region?

Brands that wish to be more culturally relevant could choose to follow either of two directions:

• How can we be part of the cultural conversation?
• How can we challenge cultural assumptions in a way that attracts people to our brand?

The main goal of producing brands and their branded content is to ensure they resonate with their audiences so that they connect with them and provide solutions to their life, making the brand more salient. Being culturally relevant helps achieve this goal.

Brenda.

Cover Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-group-of-men-wearing-assorted-scarves-holding-sticks-667200

Strong Brands ge​​​​t Angry.

Anger that is uncontained is a sign of not being present in the moment, and, therefore, being unable to manage our emotions . However, when used appropriately, anger can be harnessed to muster the courage to speak out against something we disagree with or to defend ourselves when being attacked.

I’m not espousing being angry at all times, nor lashing out at others, or hating on yourself, but if we use our intuition to recognise that a situation or person is causing us anger, then we can investigate what it is about that person/situation making us angry. If we are aware of what is making us angry, we can use that as a learning opportunity to uncover hidden feelings (guilt, grief, helplessness, disappointment, feeling trapped) or fears.

You can read more about anger and anger management from a psychological perspective on MentalHelp.net

My point is, understanding Anger or Tension helps recognise that an issue or misalignment exists, moves us to define a problem and seek a creative solution to it, and this practice applies as much to brands as to people.

What is Your Brand Angry about? 

From a communication or brand planning perspective, strong brands usually stand for something. They have a sense of purpose which creates a sense of community and common interest around the brand.

Another way I like to look at it, strong brands have identified an ‘enemy’ or something that makes them ‘angry’ and they address this with their product or service or communication campaign. For example:

Nike, ‘Just Do It,’ is against procrastination.

Ikea, ‘A better everyday life for the many people,’ is against hierarchy.

Patagonia, ‘If it’s broke, fix it! is against consumption that negatively impacts the earth.

Next time you’re thinking about your company purpose, or your next creative brief, start by thinking about answers to the following questions:

1. What is your brand angry about?
2. What problem does your brand find annoying that it aims to solve?
3. Who / What is your enemy? And how can you speak out against it?

By defining your purpose this way, you ensure that your brand is of value and service to your users and community by solving existing probelms. And ultimately, this is what defines a strong brand.

Live consciously,

Brenda.

Be UNrealistic.

Are you are realist? Do you pride yourself on being pragmatic? Or do you consider being realistic only for the faint hearted and risk averse?

My piece below is inspired by a post from Kate Megee that helped me get real about being realistic, and face some deeply ingrained ideas I have held for a long time.

Read through and see if any of it resonates with you.

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The Problem with Dreaming Big

People often tell us to “dream big”. In fact, I repeat this mantra to myself and my kids often, but then I get tough on myself for not doing just that!

This idea to “dream big” cannot happen if deeply ingrained in us is also the ‘sensibility’ to “be realistic.” We can’t beat ourselves up for not “dreaming big” when being “realistic” is actually ingrained in our subconscious from an early age, sometimes by well meaning adults. Many of us grow up in cultures / environments that train people (handicaps them!) to be “realistic,” but then celebrate those who “dream big.” Society often contradicts itself.

But, for people like me, before we are able to aspire to “think big”, perhaps first we should strip away the handicap of “thinking small”, that’s a BIG step change. It’s the notion of stripping back – reducing – rather than adding. Start by taking away some of the toxic thoughts already in there.

Before dreaming big, perhaps we should first strip away the handicap of playing small

Be Protective About What You Allow In

I’ve always thought achieving our ambitions was about instilling ‘confidence’ or developing a ‘can do’ attitude, and then I berate myself for not being able to do that. But  it’s not always about what you add in, it’s sometimes about what you keep out – not instilling a limited or “realistic” belief to begin with.

When people tell me (or have told me in the past – teachers, well meaning adults, work colleagues) to “be realistic” my heart sinks, I feel defeated, sad and sometimes frustrated. It’s a sort of unrealised potential. But I have never gone that one step further to think that perhaps they were being unrealistic! I believed their truth rather than fire up my own reality. These become the recurring stories we tell ourselves.

The Secret to Success is Setting Your Intention

Most successful people (the definition and parameters of success is another topic) are those who laid a plan and took a step.

I’ve always been happy for others who have been unrealistic and achieved their dreams, whilst I have been content to just sit on the sidelines, never quite getting ‘in the game’.

Perhaps they didn’t have self-limiting beliefs, or perhaps they weren’t self-conscious. Or maybe they did, but were able to quiet the noise in their head, whilst I listened to the voice in my head that told me to “be realistic.”

I should have instead made a plan.

I believe that there is abundance in the world, but we cannot tap into this and truly manifest it, if we are being “realistic”. In this way, being “realistic” becomes a block, a form of self-deception and code for staying comfortable, within the confines of current norms. It is an invitation to think small and stay within predefined boundaries that others have set for us.

The question is, what does ‘realistic’ look like? One person’s reality may be another person’s dream since people’s ‘realism’ is based on their own reality (perceived reality) and life experience. Nothing is actually realistic or unrealistic, it’s how you look at it that matters.

A New Definition of Reality

What happens if we look at ‘reality’ in a new way. That things don’t already exist in the world, they are born into reality. So we need to create our reality in order for it to exist. Therefore, everything is unrealistic when we don’t try becasue we must first create them into existence or they will always be unrealistic and out of reach.

Fears and doubts are a natural part of growth, but they become easier to deal with on a rational level as challenges to overcome, when our deeply held underlying belief is that anything can be realistic, anything is possible.

Let’s move ahead and think big and be UNrealistic.

If you’re alive then you’re already winning at life.

Do you realize how special you are?

“Every living thing is, from the cosmic perspective, incredibly lucky simply to be alive.

Most – 90 percent and more – of all the organisms that have ever lived have died without viable offspring, but not a single one of your ancestors, going back to the dawn of life on Earth, suffered that normal misfortune.

You spring from an unbroken line of winners going back millions of generations, and those winners were, in every generation, the luckiest of the lucky, one out of a thousand or even a million.

So however unlucky you may be on some occasion today, your presence on the planet testifies to the role luck has played in your past”.

Source: Daniel Dennett.

According to natural selection, we are perfect just the way we are, that’s how we’ve each made it here! Each of us carry within us a unique footprint and characteristics, and the world needs us all to express this uniqueness.

Luxury Design​ is now Organic.

Times have changed since gaudy accessories and gold foil symbolised luxury and wealth implied overspending on things that drained earth’s resources.

An increasing awareness around the impact of our consumption on the planet including our food supply has been accompanied by a rise in the organic and sustainable movements.

Identity design has also shifted in line with these trends.

No longer about overt bling, simplicity, muted tones, textured finishes and earthy or quirky graphics are the order of the day.

Evolved Luxury

Increasing global wealth has made luxury products and services more affordable and whilst those playing catch-up are still intrigued by glitz and glamour, new luxury has evolved to be more discreet.

The evolved luxury consumer is prepared to pay more for artisanal products and natural sources. They are willing to wait for months for unique handcrafted products in order to forgo heavy processing and drowning in a sea of sameness.

Society is moving away from conspicuous consumption and into conscious creation.

Imperfections are now prized as an indication of a products’ craftsmanship and personalisation, as is a willingness to pay more for brands that are not overly designed.

Conscious Creation

Perhaps the world needed to go through the long period of industrialization and unprecedented growth that we have seen in the last 100 years in order to reassess our values.

Next time you absolutely need to buy a new gadget or can’t live without the latest wireless headphones, ask yourself if the ones you have absolutely need replacing and reflect on the kind of world your choice will contribut to.

Let’s keep pushing to create the healthy planet we desire to live in.

Live consciously,

Brenda.