The Mettā View weaves together stories, lessons, and reflections from the varied areas of my work—business development, conscious communication, coaching, mindfulness, and strategy—while offering a mindful lens that invites new perspectives and insights. It’s a gift from my heart-mind to you, dear reader. May it bring you inspiration and invite moments of reflection and connection. About me? Formerly a business fashion executive for Christian Louboutin, I'm now an entrepreneur, mindfulness coach, podcaster & writer. Weekly I share the Mettā View, but you can also find me on Out of the Clouds, a podcast at the crossroad between business and mindfulness. For meditation offering, head over to Insight Timer.
📰 The Digest: Finding inspiration in today’s crazy world
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WELCOME TO THE METTĀ VIEW The Mettā View weaves together stories, lessons, and reflections from the varied areas of my work—business development, conscious communication, coaching, mindfulness, and strategy—while offering a mindful lens that invites new perspectives and insights. It’s a gift from my heart-mind to you, dear reader. May it bring you inspiration and invite moments of reflection and connection. ✨ 📰 The Digest: Finding inspiration in today’s crazy world As a friend reminded me the other day, there is no escaping the news, even when one blocks their notifications as regularly as I do. There is always a sneaky moment when a headline will catch me unaware. Krista Tippett, of the On Being Project, called the act of shielding ourselves from the incessant onslaught of breaking news a spiritual discipline for being alive in this time. She explains further that “this is not to be confused with disengagement or passivity. It may be an essential tool for sanity, and a key to discerning and sustaining a sense of agency for the time ahead.” I can’t quite stick my head in the sand, although a winter beach getaway would be delightful right about now. Here in my little corner of Switzerland, in what we call ‘la Genève internationale,’ many are reeling from the recent cuts in US aid funding. My home is quite literally surrounded by NGO’s, and the United Nations (which I visited for the first time in December) is only a 20 minute stroll away. As far as we may physically from one another, we are all connected, for better, and clearly too, for worse. Mind you, my days have been full of the dreaded busy-ness, distracting as it is. Since my last email, I’ve put the final touches to the rebrand of AVM Consulting, while I also redesigning and replatforming Out of the Clouds. More on this next week. In exciting news, I’m delighted to be hosting a workshop with the Career Women’s Forum in Geneva on March 4th, on the topic of The Story of You, or the Art of Connection. If you are a woman, and local, and/or in town, I’d love to see you there. The event is at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, details and tickets are available here. Right on the heels of that event, I’ll be joining my friends from Important Conversations who are hosting a panel talk at Soho House Berlin for International Women’s Day. The conversation aims to explore the power of female allyship in business and beyond, and to give attendees practical tools for connecting and expanding their circles. I’ll have the honour of speaking alongside panelists Tabitha Swanson and Sharmain Lovegrove. The talk is for Soho House members and their guests, but Anna Su and Melinda have some extra guestlist spots available for non-members - reach out to them via DM here if you’d like to join us. I also recently had the pleasure of being interviewed on the Awfully Quiet Podcast, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Listen to the interview here. My latest guest for Out of the Clouds had me so excited about our conversation that I want to tell you about it right here, up top, in prime newsletter real estate, instead of burying the episode at the end of the email, as I regularly do. Sari Azout is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Sublime.App, which she calls ‘the personal management tool of her dreams.’ This one’s a long one, but I’ll be publishing a [Shortcast] next week if you can’t face 1h45min of Sari and Anne. If you like ideas and want to be inspired by a visionary internet entrepreneur, I suggest you give it a try. Listen here. With all that said, let me leave you with an hopeful quote. We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.
— Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
Wishing you a lovely Sunday, until next time. Much love, Looking aroundCulture and things in the zeitgeist, or things I read that make me happy Meta has an AI for brain-reading, yes, that’s right, brain reading. The plan is text by just thinking. My typing skills may be a thing of the past, though the technology isn’t quite ready to leave the lab, as the MIT Technology Review reports. The nice folks at Metalabel, which I’ve written about before, have brought out a new podcast, the New Creative Era, to help us imagine how artists and creators could join their ranks and start releasing with Metalabel. I’m excited to explore. One of my splendid clients has recently brought out a new children’s book. The Love Inside was inspired by Jessica’s personal struggle with self-care, as well as her conversations with her children. When she asked her two oldest children how they show themselves love, they had NO clue! They could tell her all about being kind and polite to others but could not articulate how they love themselves. It became her goal to write a book that showed them how. A couple of months ago I earmarked this essay/recording from Prof G (actually written by someone else, a guest post), called ‘People are the new brands.’ I’m not sure how strongly I’ve ever felt about brands, but I do care about people. A compelling reflection as to why podcasters and creators are yielding the power they do. Similarly, but behind paywall, I am interested in the topic of content distribution in an era where brands need to worry ever more about how they distribute news to their audience. How does one own the narrative when the algorithm owns us? On this note, the Mettā View’s new home is almost up and ready, my thinking is: let’s not continue to rely on the apps. Currently considering creating a Circle community, and in the future, my own app. Bold, me? Yes! Have you ever seen this project called Wealth, shown to scale, a brainchild of software developer Matt Korostoff. ? If not, give it a try, it’s simply staggering Looking outFashion, retail, design, digital and consumer communication trends If you are, or know, a woman entrepreneur in her 40’s and 50’s, the nice people at Noon would love to gather some insights. As part of NOON's ‘what next?’ agenda we are doing a big survey of what it's like to be a midlife female (aka Queenager) entrepreneur – whether you are one currently, have been or want to be. Details here It's not often I suggest a podcast in this section, but Tim Ferriss's latest interview with Seth Godin is steeped in such goodness, it's more masterclass than conversation. Full disclosure: I've already listened to it twice, and I'm not stopping there. Particularly recommended if strategy isn't your strong suit. Listen here. Looking inConscious work, mindful leadership and personal development, podcasts or book recommendations On my long-read list, the Atlantic’s exploration titled The Anti-Social Century- Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. The premise? It’s changing not just personalities and politics, but even people’s relationship to reality. Is brain rot real? The Guardian explores the topic, and guess what, the technology isn’t as bad as some say. If, like me, you need a little bit more Italy in your life, try a passeggiata, if the weather will allow.
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The Mettā View
The Mettā View weaves together stories, lessons, and reflections from the varied areas of my work—business development, conscious communication, coaching, mindfulness, and strategy—while offering a mindful lens that invites new perspectives and insights. It’s a gift from my heart-mind to you, dear reader. May it bring you inspiration and invite moments of reflection and connection. About me? Formerly a business fashion executive for Christian Louboutin, I'm now an entrepreneur, mindfulness coach, podcaster & writer. Weekly I share the Mettā View, but you can also find me on Out of the Clouds, a podcast at the crossroad between business and mindfulness. For meditation offering, head over to Insight Timer.