👂👂👂 You can listen to this email here: We Must Have Art Jack Nicholson.mp3 --- There are three major moments in film history that I LOVE. They are POWER. The first is Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. He turns to face the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm in Moria. And he commands, from deep within his soul..."You shall not pass!" It's probably the most iconic moment from all three of the films. The second is a simple, polysyllabic utterance from Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, but...
23 days ago • 2 min read
I'm the adult child of an alcoholic. I posted about this on LinkedIn this morning, because something interesting is happening on that platform which I find a little worrying and bizarre. It seems everyone is a coach now - everyone can coach you out of burnout, to be more confident, to stop being a perfectionist, etc, etc. I'm seeing it a lot, and I'm kind of confounded by it. As an adult child of an alcoholic, this is what I've had to work through: Fear Anxiety Abandonment issues Compulsive...
26 days ago • 3 min read
(TL;DR - Listen to this email here: We Must Have Art Madonna.mp3) Last Friday I sent out an email with the exact same subject line as today's: We must have art. That email got the highest open rate of all my emails this year. So, that's information for me. That's data. And, as a business owner, I love data. Data is power. So, today, you get the same subject line - because I want to see if this is something that resonates with people - this idea of art. And the notion that we MUST have it....
29 days ago • 3 min read
I hosted a confidence workshop online recently. And I was nervous. I always am when I have to host training sessions online. The nerves don't make me break out in a sweat. My voice doesn't shake. I don't get butterflies in my stomach. Instead, I get a deep sense of dread. It usually starts the day before the workshop. After lunch, the DREAD starts rearing its head. This is typically how it develops over 24 hours: 'Urgh, I don't feel good. Urgh, why don't I feel good? Urgh, I don't want to do...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
When I was a kid, I would become OBSESSED with certain performances. And I'd watch them on repeat. Some of these were: Michael Jackson's music videos (I had all of them on VHS) Shirley MacLaine's rendition of I'm Still Here in Postcards From the Edge (still one of my all-time favourite films) And all of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson's scenes in Terms of Endearments (my favourite film of all time) I realised as I entered my teenage years that I wanted to be a performer. I didn't want to...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
In nineteen hundred and ninety-five, Patti LaBelle sang for Frank Sinatra. It was part of a tribute show that was put together for him. Sinatra was eighty and the show included performances by people like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Eydie Gorme and Paula Abdul. All talented, and brilliant in their own way. And then Patti LaBelle arrived onstage. She transformed that room into something that can only be described as divine. She was divine. She was lcked into something bigger than everything...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
I just spoke to a woman who said that she did some presentation training once (as a participant), and when the training was over, she was worse in front of an audience than she had been when she started. So she hasn't presented again. In 27 YEARS. Then last week, she got up in front of a group of women (including me), and she spoke about her life, delivered her message, and got back on the audience-facing horse. She did this, because she doesn't work in corporate anymore where audience-facing...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Not a soft, cuddly toy lioness. Not a woman whipping her hair about to smash the patriarchy kind of lioness. This is not a metaphor. I'm face to face with a real-life, breathing, fully-grown lioness. Behind her is a second lioness. And behind me is a third. And they are hunting. What is the one thing I need so that I can enjoy this moment that I've worked hard to find, and leave the situation with my life, and theirs, intact? Have a think on that - we'll come back to it. Every year, I go home...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Last week I was asked to understudy Helen Lederer (pictured centre). If you've never had the absolute JOY, PLEASURE AND LIFE-AFFIRMING YESNESS OF AB FAB IN YOUR LIFE......then I'm sorry for you. Get on that shit today. It will change your life. Helen is a British comedy icon and worked with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, as well as Dawn French and Ruby Wax in the female-led genius tv show Absolutely Fabulous. And I was asked to understudy her last week. Am I terrified? YesWill I be...
3 months ago • 2 min read