IRL Awe: Made Messy on Purpose.

This is going to be imperfect. Good.

I’m an outside cat. I’ve tried on one too many occasions to sit at an agency desk and failed miserably. I LOVE being outside; it’s the roots of the roots of why I pull up to any client brief - HOT. The gas tank is always getting topped up.

So, I’m starting a sporadic series, “IRL Awe”, which is NOT a “Ta da” trend report. I won’t give it a sticky name and tell you it’s everywhere.

It’s going to be messy; it’s going to be a peek into my insight kitchen - and say what it does on the SubStack soup can tin.

The stuff that makes my brain dance.

And, just as important, hopefully yours.

Culture work, insight gathering, SHOULD be non-linear and preferably consumed outside [your algorithms, lived experience, and comfort zone].

EVERYDAY.

The gig is not normal, the off switch - in two decades of doing this work, I have rarely reached for it.

I get paid for bespoke strategic WONDER.

But the process to wow, now that, that I can share here….

Make no mistake, this makes me deeply uncomfortable.

I grew up in chaos both in terms of my physical home and how my parents showed up = don’t worry, I’m working through that in therapy; it won’t be here, but it probably explains why I thrive and always arrive POLISHED.

My Brighton living room looks like this - always.

The sublime book, “Perfection” by Vincenzo Latronico, talked about “Factory resetting” your home, and I felt deeply seen.

But I’m growing in real-time.

I recently forgot my “speaker clothes” when running for a 6 am train and showed up like this to Futures Friends x LDN.

It was hands down the most liberating thing in the end.

And you like it messier, you weirdo.

A post from a changing room in Japan was a hit on LinkedIn.

So it’s time to shake off a bit of that Perfection.

In ALWAYS showing you just the adult version [Podcasts weekly, events all the time] you never get to see inside my messy playground.

And I play a lot - outside.

I’m a dopamine junky, and I’m guessing, if you’ve read this far. You are too.

Every trend, strategist or researcher I know is - we THRIVE on party facts we can never share at parties because we’d NEVER let anyone else speak.

But then we’d never learn something new = a missed dopamine hit.

But for last two decades, I’ve [mostly] hosted a solo signal party for one.

51,834 pictures are just one way I capture all I see.

It does get seen, but only when it’s “polished”

= I bring out the “ta da” insights for clients, and they live across the 25+ categories I’ve worked on but that’s no fun [and it’s NDA’d to within an inch of its insight].

So it’s time to show you the messy.

There is a reason for all of this.

Three women, in real-time, have been altering my brain pathways.

I’m forever grateful.

Matilda Lucy, Zoe Scaman and Jasmine Bina are all wonderful brain dance partners who are all deeply encouraging me to show the messiness of me.

“The outside different you see every day” - Zoe

“The growth garden you ACTUALLY want to build” - Matilda

“Write from your heart, not your head” - Jasmine

[Plus full props to Jasmine’s June Exposure Therapy session on “Awe” for the series spark].

So here is where I’m going to play more in the sandbox.

First up next week will be….

I hope you’ll join.

Yes, you.