In this new episode of Out of the Clouds, I am delighted to share my interview with Wesley Faulkner. Wesley is a first-generation American, public speaker, and podcaster, and he currently works as a Head of Community at SingleStore, and much more.

A tech enthusiast since his teens, Wesley first trained as an electrical and computer engineer (despite growing up without owning a personal computer himself). He shares with me the arc of his multipronged career, from hardware to software, and how being an early adopter of Twitter led him to social media management and later to ‘dev rel’ (or developer relations), and how he managed it despite a late diagnosis of ADHD and dyslexia - and why he is now an advocate for workplace inclusion for neurodiverse populations.

A very passionate, in-depth and honest conversation. Happy listening!

I am both a communications person and someone interested in what is happening in the world. I'm also a person who has occasionally moved on abruptly from friendships (not proudly may I add) and who was sadly once blocked and ghosted by someone who I cared about greatly, marking the end of what was a meaningful relationship.

So, of course, I felt compelled to write a short post to highlight this powerful piece by Jonathan Li, political journalist and commentator who’s written for the Guardian and the Washington Post among others.

I am thrilled to be hosting our second collective coaching session this Friday 22 April at 5 pm CET (11 am EST).

If you weren’t able to attend last time and would like to see the recording, well, I’m blushing behind my computer, I must admit that I forgot to press the record button on Zoom. Oops!

For this session, I chose the topics of Resisting vs Allowing, or how we better manage stresses and frustrations, whether personal or professional, and yes, it’s linked to this week’s Looking Forward post.

Serendipity. Such an exciting word. Only days ago, I saw a first email from TED to recommend this talk by Susan Cain, from 2019, called ‘The hidden power of sad songs and rainy days.’ The ex-lawyer, turned writer looked familiar (she should be, I love her earlier talk on introverts!) And then I got an email from Brené Brown who said she’d interviewed her, and then Tim Ferriss. By the third notice, I decided to watch the talk (saving me time, 20 min vs 2h commitment) and boy was that a well spent 20 minutes.

Do yourself a favour, listen, watch and read anything with Susan Cain, so you too can explore how experiencing both the beauty and the sorrow in life can be our greatest superpower and how melancholy makes us whole.

I both love to talk, and I’m a bit shy. But you wouldn’t know that from listening to my interview with Dr Andrea Wojnicki on the Talk about Talk podcast. Andrea was working with a couple of clients on their personal brand (which she likes to explain is not scary, it's just ‘what people say when you are not in the room’) when the subject of style came up. My own dress style has had its moments, some great, some less than, so it felt like a topic worth exploring. My tip: don’t dress for the job you want, dress for who you want to be and how you want to feel, in the job you want.

In the latest Out of the Clouds episode, I speak with consultant and experience design specialist Jenny Sauer-Klein.

Jenny is passionate about how we get together as groups and how we learn, and she regularly consults for organisations like Google, Airbnb, and Dropbox. She is a wonderful facilitator who has spent her life creating lasting experiences for many different audiences and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. She's also been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, and Inc., as well as Tim Ferriss’ book “Tools of Titans”.

Together we dig into the principles that have made her title program - Scaling Intimacy, which I took last year - so powerful and how it helps people make a crowd of 100 people feel like a gathering of 10. She also offers guidance as to how we can create safe containers for our events and how she and her team brought inclusivity to the forefront of her Scaling Intimacy program.

And you do need it!

Another connection to the concept of tone! In this episode of the Dan Harris podcast, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaulGilbert(psychologist text: Dr Paul Gilbert) OBE, a professor of psychology at the University of Derby, founder and president of The Compassionate Mind Foundation, the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy, talks about how wisdom and courage are the keys to cultivating compassion.

My latest guest on the podcast is known as the impresario of vintage couture and owner of Decades Inc, Cameron Silver (@cameronsilver).

Cameron and I were introduced to each other while he was pursuing a pair of neon pink flat lace-ups (I think this was 2006) and our wonderful common friend Melissa made the connection. Months later I was off to LA to visit Mel, and Cameron invited me to a whirlwind evening around Melrose and Beverly Hills. I’ve been a fan of his ever since.

In this interview, I have the privilege of asking Cameron about his beginnings in retail, his early career as an actor and singer, and he regales me with stories starting with his Annie Hall look (age 10).. An eloquent guest, Cameron is more than comfortable in front of a camera and microphone - and after all, he already has a Bravo show under his belt. He relays to me some pretty big truths about how to make fashion more sustainable (wear the same pieces over and over again!), how he is the United Nations of fashion, before sharing with a lot of honesty the very dark moments he went through over the pandemic, culminating with the death of his father, Jack B. Silver.

A wonderful, touching and very funny interview (I did try to cut down on the laughs but he had me in stitches). Enjoy!

There was some talk last week of how less exciting the turnout would be for this edition of London Fashion Week with several of the biggest names, especially Burberry, not presenting their collection on schedule this season. Without them, international buyers and press have been known to skip London to go straight to Milan and Paris.

But if we were worried about lack of impact, I’m glad to see womenswear designer Roksanda Ilincic stepping up boldly into the limelight. The designer presented a daring collection while also launching the first NFT, designed in collaboration with Institute of Digital Fashion, to be sold during London Fashion Week (and in sterling, not crypto!) at the end of her catwalk show. She (her team rather) did well to dress a couple of FROWS (of front rows) worth of influencers and friends of the brand. It looked good on social and felt great (to me), between the colour and the relaxed glamour on show, despite what I assume to be the grey February surroundings.

Lastly, let’s point out that experimenting comes at a cost and Ilincic partnered with ClearPay, one of the main sponsors of the collection. I'm guessing putting all of this together wasn't cheap (or easy) for an independent label like Roksanda. Another reason to cheer!

I remember the days when I used to run to H&M for something new. Anything, really. I’ve had some seriously bad outfits over the years, particularly as I discovered, along with the rest of the world, the (sometimes silly) options afforded to us by fast fashion. This wasn’t a lasting love affair. I became pretty disgruntled with the way most of my favourite clothes would fall apart, with the occasional exception of course (I’m talking about you, a-line green leather skirt), when I could exclaim to someone paying me a compliment: “This? Oh, I’ve had it for ages, and it’s from …”
These days, I’m pretty posh in my shopping choices, and with a sensitive skin (I can’t bare anything itchy) natural fabrics are my go-to and I’m aware of the privilege.
So this article by Jess Cartner-Morley at the Guardian felt like an important one to read, for several reasons. She explains that the whole “new look” for spring is the “forever wardrobe”. But it doesn’t come at all price-points and as she points out rightfully, “we cannot shop our way to sustainability, but neither can we make an industry that employs one in eight of the world’s workforce disappear overnight.”