Konstantina strikes a deal with John to continue the conversation and segue into a Part II that digs into John’s advocacy of the feminine:)! 

John’s rational for  the strength in a more egalitarian society was first written about in a 2010 blogpost  about the Big Shift . To quote John, “ Women are affected by the longer term changes that are transforming this environment.“ 

Our conversation continues on to discuss the connectivity which has created compression as well as expansion within:

1. School systems which John says are crushing the female archetype.
   

2. Our agreement upon fear based social interaction.
   

3. Female fear and intercompetetiveness - and where that stems from
   

4. Over millennia, the survival of our species has blossomed under collaboration
   

5. The Silicone Valley has emerged as a society that relies upon collaboration; sharing , learning, innovation and interaction- welcoming diversity and equality in the teamwork. ( though some back and forth over female equality in that same space) 
   

6. VENTURE CAMP and Konstantina’s  reality show experience with a digital  society.
   

7. How does building a trust based culture override a fear based society and culture.  John says that it evolves within ‘impact’ groups structured of three to fifteen individuals  where the focus is on opportunity- not threat. ( threat expands fear)
   

8. Center for the Edge was a forward thinking endeavor, building upon action and impact.

Being that the Silicone Valley is notoriously male centric in its energy and culture, John’s perspective was both unexpected and  highly validating. 

https://www.johnhagel.com/

READING

THE JOURNEY BEYOND FEAR, JOHN HAGEL
TECHNICAL REVOLUTIONS AND FINANCIAL CAPITAL , CARLOTTA PEREZ
MINDSET, CAROL DWECK
THE CHALICE AND THE BLADE, RAINE EISLER
THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP, RAINE EISLER
THE MEANING OF WIFE, ANNE KINGSTON

BLOG
EDGE PERSPECTIVES : ON THE EDGE OF A NEW DECADE 2010

Good Morning  to you on July the 5th. I wanted to introduce my guest to you, a man who has been a thought leader of the Silicon Valley and some of the most important think tanks there are. John Hagel is the retired co-chairman for Deloitte Center for the Edge. He has nearly 40 years of experience as a management consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He has served as senior vice president of strategy at Atari, Inc., and is the founder of two Silicon Valley startups. He is the author of "The Power of Pull" & "Net Gain"; "Net Worth"; "Out of the Box" and "The Only Sustainable Edge"  and five more books, his most current  and perhaps relevant to the fast paced world we  inhabit is "The Journey Beyond Fear," which was  published in 2021. 

John holds an assortment of degrees which encompass a  B.A. from Wesleyan University, a B.Phil from Oxford University and a J.D. and MBA from Harvard University. The  impressive diversity of John’s  interdependent interests and expertise tie together his ability to stand as a  futurist  and trusted advisor in both the  digital and entrepreneurial space. To that point, he is credited with coining the term ‘infomediary,’ which seems to tie in beautifully with the theme of his SXSW presentation in March.

https://www.johnhagel.com/

John Hagel III's Books:
The Journey Beyond Fear
The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends On Productive Friction And Dynamic Specialization
Out of The Box: Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow Through Web Services
Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules
Net Gain: Expanding Markets through Virtual Communities

I’m so pleased to introduce a friend and colleague from the masculine side of the tracks in the fashion industry – Nick Sullivan, editor at ESQUIRE magazine. Nick was born in England (which he’ll fill in here), so his sartorial roots are profoundly deep. Not sure if as deep as a man from Florence or Milan, but pretty deep :). Perhaps Nick can walk us through a brief history as to “why” this indelibly deep attachment of masculine sartorialism between Naples, Florence and Milan and their Anglo counterparts? 

I also wanted to dive into Nick’s tenure in the industry because he’s so well entrenched and LOVED :).

The most powerful changes he’s seen. The things he wished would have changed more. His best/wildest and most wonderful experiences (drum roll) for which in memoriam, he still pinches himself. Nick’s personal perspective on the Anglo (colonialist) history of sartorialism. The Italian uber talent for it and how men represent their masculinity through fashion tropes that are sociologically and culturally biased; usually subconsciously. 

What does that say about our comfort in fashion and/or fashion as self-expression? And racism in the business is still notorious. Truth? Sexual abuse? 

Men’s clothing dates less and is made to last and be passed down for generations. How can the women’s side of the industry learn from “le cote masculin?”

Nick has shared his own personal guide to HIS Milan, and I’ll add that in the show notes with his permission because it’s amazing :).

As well as, for those watching on YOUTUBE a special treat and peek at Nick’s wonderful collection and obsession: a couple of spectacular examples of English military uniforms. Just because the memoir SPARE, by Harry, Duke of Sussex and a royal military man, is on everyone’s lips right now.  As well as the funeral of the longest reigning monarch in English history recently passed with weeks-long displays of gorgeous ‘eye candy’ uniformed regalia.

George Lois is at the forefront of the 1960’s evolution of modern day advertising; the MOMA icon of Madison Avenue. Listen to his son Luke Lois in conversation about the inimitable legacy his father left behind.

An Audacious Blend of Image and Word...

A fury to communicate...

I'm so pleased that Luke Lois, the son of the Madison Avenue legend George Lois could join me today. Sadly, George recently passed away in November, but few can say they have lived life so fully that they have left a legacy to inspire behind them as he did.

George Lois transformed our point of view  with images and language in an unmatched body of work that epitomized the words, "Thinking critically and seeking truth are acts of rebellion.”

And let me share a  few words from the AD Awards Hall of Fame, to which George was inducted in 1978.

“A new species of advertising art was becoming discernible. It was strikingly graphic and visually “alive.” It was entirely different from what had gone before. A creative upheaval was gathering force. This new expressiveness was structured as a work method in 1948 when William Bernbach founded Doyle Dane Bernbach. In his new agency, an art director and a copywriter worked as a creative pair. The idea of using artist-writer teams as the prime source of advertising was positively revolutionary. From this union the New Advertising was born. Madison Avenue would never be the same.” 

I’ve collected a few of my favorite images, because for those of you that do not know, in the ten years between 1962 and 1972 George Lois created ninety-two iconic covers for Esquire Magazine of which thirty-one have a permanent home at MOMA in New York.  I want to have Luke share his overview as with those of us who didn't live through the heyday of the sixties, seventies and eighties and who might need a contextual refresher for why these images were so iconic,  provocative,  groundbreaking, and radical in their day. 

1968: the magazine cover of Mohammed Ali as San Sebastien pierced by arrows is one of the most famous in American history. As Oliver Munday  for The Atlantic wrote,  it ” manages to confront race, religion and the Vietnam War in a single conceptual image that is as Brutal as it is Brilliant.”

And just let me prefix the images with a few more words, 

“If one were to choose a single word to characterize the Lois approach, it would be “simplify.” In a milieu where fools and frauds do run ideas up flagpoles to see if someone salutes, where clients are understandably conservative and admen are predictably cautious, where committees reign and lawyers restrain, the heathen from Kingsbridge has been infusing such alien qualities as clarity, intelligence and taste into American advertising.”

There’s a Japanese word which is also a concept and that is KINTSUGI.
(Sidenote: I speak four languages and find it fascinating that each language will have words that you just can't translate exactly because the concept or act is so important to that culture… like snow is to Eskimos. Most societies don't need ten words for snow, right?  

Getting back to KINTSUGI - And here is the WIKIPEDIA explanation:

"Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum; the method is similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."

Not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally highlighted ... a kind of physical expression of the spirit of mushin. Mushin is often literally translated as "no mind," but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment, of non-attachment, of equanimity amid changing conditions. ...The vicissitude over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject. This is a poignant truth or aesthetic of existence that has been known in Japan as mono no aware, a compassionate sensitivity, or identification with, [things] outside oneself.

So we get back to the idea that wellness is wholeness within ourselves and that the things that create the fractures and breaks - even to our spirit - are part of our beauty and wholeness. Because there is no perfection, there is a journey that winds through our lives and takes us all over the place in a journey that we could never plan on. And the miracle that sometimes life takes us off of a high cliff or into a deep abyss of dark water,  a  green, flower-filled meadow at the end of a mountain valley, or a sun-kissed beach. 

That’s the philosophy for the day. Now  I want to take you into the conversation about how do we best nourish and feed this ‘meat suit’ as one guy calls it, we inhabit while we’re here in the journey of earthly life. 

Donna was born outside of Sydney, Australia. As a very small child, her dad took her away from her mother to live on a farm with a stepmother and three step-siblings who were older. She was fed and housed. That was it. 

Without saying more, Donna’s torturous childhood was a combination of horrible abuse from her male siblings, her stepmother and sister, and extreme bullying at school because of the limitations she had; a little girl enduring Forest Gump-like braces on her little legs until she was ten. 

But thankfully she lived on a horse farm and her love of horses and riding abilities brought her close to competing for Australia in the Olympics at the age of sixteen.

My guest today on BOLDLY FEMININE is DEEPA MEHTA, an Indo-Canadian filmmaker whose film WATER was selected for Best Foreign  Film by the Academy Awards in 2007. Her films are each unique in their exploration of social references from forced marriages, to homosexuality, misogyny and layers upon layers within those topics. She was also selected by Salman Rushdie, who was kind enough to introduce us in 2018, to direct the film version of his novel, Midnight’s Children. 

Here we delve into her origins in film, her cultural and societal influences and why the medium of film was her calling to communicate upon issues she wanted to elevate to a global audience.

DEEPA MEHTA BIOGRAPHY

Deepa Mehta is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work is internationally renowned. Her emotionally resonating, award-winning films have played every major film festival, and been sold and distributed around the globe. Her films include the Elemental Trilogy: Earth, Fire, and the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Water; Bollywood/Hollywood, Heaven on Earth and the epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’s three-time Booker Prize winning novel; Anatomy of Violence, and most recently the award-winning Funny Boy, which was nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards and won for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. The film also picked up Best Picture and Best Supporting Performance Female at the 2021 Leo Awards. For the small screen, Mehta shot the pilot and second episode for the Netflix Original series, Leila, and is the Creative Executive Producer for the show. She also directed The Manager, the pilot episode of Little America for Apple TV as well as the episode Bear Down for Showtime’s critically acclaimed series Yellowjackets. Mehta is currently working as the Writer and Director of Propagate Content’s feature film Burnt Sugar, based on Avni Doshi’s award-winning novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

What can be done?

Private company leadership needs to increase the number of entry-level jobs based on a skills assessment, vs. certification (see above: fetishization of elite colleges). Develop relationships with local public institutions, including two-year schools, that charge modest tuition: That's where you'll find those deemed unremarkable with the potential to become remarkable determine their path.

“University leadership and faculty should aim to help young people find their greatness. Part of that charge is to instill grit, perspective, a sense of curiosity/innovation, citizenship, and a comity of man. They should lead by example.” - Scott Galloway

CHOOSING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO IS THE KEY with a king size serving of INDOMITABLE DETERMINATION. In other words – NO MATTER WHAT HITS YOU, THE CHARACTERISTIC THAT DRIVES YOU TO GET UP AND KEEP GOING is what champions are made of.

The magic formula is: vision, determination, and passion.

This I believe is what Platform Seven is about – and Ricky Blair doesn’t profess to be a guru but yes, perhaps your mentor. He will have your back as you figure out your path with an education program focused on real-world needs and demands. Can Platform Seven/aka Ricky Blair be said to be the secret sauce? To have found his calling as a mentor? The entrepreneurial road is unique but Ricky has already traversed and succeeded at it when truly few are fortunate to have anyone be part of that open road supported by altruistic support. It’s very human to need to be connected as we saw with COVID. A lot of young people get lost as they disconnect from the ‘nest’ and suddenly find themselves navigating, “Who am I, where am I going and what is it all for?” At seventeen or eighteen. The suicide rates and dropout rates of college kids show just how insurmountable that can feel and be. Top that off with a mountain of debt to last you well into adulthood and for which you don’t even know if you’ll be successful enough to repay.

It’s literally a killer. 

So Ricky… let’s start with your story, because that inspired the rest leading up to where we are, and you are, with this young, innovative and disruptive ‘educational’ career/life path model.

Platform Seven says, “We are the alternative and will give you an education for the real world.”

KONSTANTINA SHARES  HER PERSONAL HEALTH CARE REGIMEN

Near and dear to my daily routine are my self care habits, and that’s what I wanted to share.

Fashion is an important form of self expression and self care: my way of expressing “me myself and I.”

Nutrition. I don't abuse any substances and eat clean, natural, healthy foods,. I believe that self harm and addictions are buried in childhood and the level of dysfunction in our core families and what we’ve grown up with.

Self care is learning to take care of your self, because life will throw you road blocks and even atomic bombs that can destroy us if we allow then to, but if you have given your self the tools to reconstruct ourselves form the harm to rebuild our brain to support the function of our minds and our mind drives and controls everything we do.

We are born with trauma. Inherited and acquired trauma affect our well being physiologically as well as emotionally and mentally.

DR CAROLINE. LEAF, NEUROSCIENTIST has a system she's implemented on her app, NEUROCYCLE which gives you the tools to rebuild your brain with mental exercises. Its a game changer. thank god for her 38 years of study and work and how she has distilled that into a teachable tool, which I use daily to keep myself on track.

Nicole La Pere, THE HOLISTIC PSYCHOLOGIST, gives you an autodidactic system you can use with daily posts to identify your patterns and behaviors, because until you do, you are on a hampster wheel With your mental well being.

Do try and find a good cognitively trained therapist, one who has specialized in trauma and personality disorders. There are a lot of free treatment centers that are excellent, believe it or not, so hunt one down in your area if that something you think you need and cant afford.

Breathwork. Breathwork literally sends self soothing chemicals into the brain that travel all the way down the vagus nerve into the digestive system. This is what Navy Seals use to stay calm in the death or survival mode. This is why digestive issues so often/ almost always, are companions to emotional and mental issues.

Breathwork - Regulate the Nervous System with Your Body’s Natural Resource

Breathwork, otherwise known as the sanskrit term ‘Pranayama’ literally translates as breath control, and we should think of it simply as that. While its origins come from Eastern yogic practices like yoga and Buddhism, by now, it’s very likely you, or your friend, or your friend's friend has tried some form of breath-work to much acclaim. That’s because the breath is arguably the most vital and effective (and free) tool essentially everyone has available to intervene on our body’s system. We breathe about 20,000 times per day, without giving it much thought, except when perhaps we become nervous, or tense, and the breath noticeably accelerates. That’s because breathing is directly tied to our emotions, stress response and feelings of relaxation. That means controlling our breath can help to control our emotions and immune system as well. There’s a sea of techniques available, but slowing your breathing down to 5-6 second inhales and exhales, (known as Resonance Breathing) actually helps regulate our emotions and the body’s ability to heal. Plus, you can do it at a dinner, at work or on transport without anyone noticing. Or, perhaps you have heard of Wim Hof or circular breathing, which is a repeated process of 15-30 fluid deep breaths in and out, then holding the breath out for 60 seconds on the exhale. This works the body’s adrenaline.

“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE.”

I had said I would introduce a Native American, or better said, indigenous co-host to you in my Boldly Feminine introduction. I would like to remind those listening that ninety percent of the ecological biodiversity of the planet is being safeguarded by the small, five percent of indigenous peoples that inhabit our planet. These include the tribes of the Savannah in Africa, such as the Masai, the Maori of Australia, the Inuit of Alaska, the Aymara of Peru, the Cabecar of the Amazon, the Asmat of New Guinea and many many more. In spite of their devotion to preserve the divergent species that co-habitate this small blue planet we all share - seventy percent of animal species have disappeared since 1970. The protective, respectful indigenous culture of foresight that coexists by planning seven generations into the future has been obliterated by consumerism, the consequences of destructive capitalism, mass consumption and  the normalization of immediate gratification.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you today Tanori, a wonderful human of the Yaqui tribe. The Yaqui are an UTO-AZTECAN speaking indigenous people, widespread in the americas but who  principally inhabit the western hemisphere of North America, from lower Canada to the farthest reaches of the Yucatan in Mexico.

The Pasqua Yaqui tribe based in Tucson, Arizona is the ONLY federally recognized Yaqui tribe in the United States though, as mentioned, their people are spread widely across a vast area of the American.

There was a period of armed conflict that began in 1533 that extended up until 1929 called the Yaqui Wars, fought between New Spain, its successor the Mexican state, and the indigenous Yaqui Indians. Over the course of nearly 400 (FOUR HUNDRED) years, massacre after massacre was brought repeatedly against the Yaqui by either the Spanish or the Mexicans in an attempt that failed at complete genocide, but forced the deportation of Yaquis into slavery as far as the last reaches of the Yucatan peninsula.

As you can tell with Tanori, the Yaqui are historically a very tall people in stature. Due to their physical strength, they were relentless in the defense of their land, peoples and customs for century upon century and to this day have settlements high in the Sonoran mountains of Mexico, virtually unvisited by outsiders where they keep to themselves. These factors have been instrumental in preserving their language, customs and culture over hundreds of years to the present day.

I’m going to have Tanori join in now and it’s very helpful that he has studied his culture as part of his university education. I also wanted to invite him speak of his experiences being a Yaqui born on lands that his ancestors inhabited and governed for millennia, but to which he actually, today, has no rights. I had questions about passports, laws, governance, law enforcement, tribal mores, American norms and so many factors that affected him personally as well as disaffected him socially.

So as per my podcast with Jane Elliott, the diversity educator par none, let’s re-iterate the golden rule: “Race is a concept and species is a fact.“ We as a human species all began our journey to populate the planet from the southernmost tip of Africa, almost two million years ago, and today have all been mostly subjugated to white man’s rule across the planet.

Konstantina has Cameron Silver, the owner of Decades, as her guest. Cameron was at the forefront and still today holds his place as a world leader in pre-owned vintage and neo-vintage. Cameron’s relationship with some of the world’s most prestigious fashion houses, as well as a list of the “who’s who” in Hollywood and beyond, has lasted for...decades. The circle of fashion and couture has been managed in Cameron’s hands by following the footprint of over 100 years of fashion history, it’s curated by him in building in statement pieces and wardrobes for both an elite and aware wide, global, modern-day consumer.

 The tagline for decades says: “It’s chic to repeat,” but we can also add that it’s the epitome and bedrock of sustainability. Individuality is style and vintage offers that idiosyncratic ability to define oneself outside of a box -- beautifully.

The conversation covers racism in the fashion industry, sustainability, artisanry, craftsmanship, style, fashion (which are not the same), the brand origins that many companies would like to bury, as well as the future and economics inherent to the business of fashion.

I am Konstantina Mahlia a lifestyle creator, artist, author, designer and speaker for whom it is my honor to introduce to you today, JANE ELLIOTT. Jane’s lifetime of anti-racism activism began as an elementary school educator who responded to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr with a call to action. She did this in 1968, by enacting a classroom exercise based upon one created by Adolf Hitler in the Second World War. Jane’s adaptation- not adoption- of this horrific, genocidal experiment was to expose the nature of arbitrary discrimination and racism. The exercise, titled Blue Eyes/ Brown Eyes exposed the participant’s beliefs that some humans saw their fellow humans as inferior or superior solely based upon the arbitrary color of their eyes. The participants were eight-year-olds. Jane’s exercise has since been taught to, replayed and inspired millions around the world. Now in her late eighties, Jane continues to lead by her indomitable dedication and unquenchable passion for social justice. Her brutal honesty is a high bar that continues to be an unrelenting challenge to us all. We can choose to live a life with leadership, integrity, empathy and compassion as she has unequivocally modeled for all members of the human species through her life’s work.

Konstantina offers a brief overview of the inspiration and context to BOLDLY FEMININE. The conversations and topics are going to be varied with surprising and interesting overlay that will illuminate social issues, the need for art and beauty and how its necessary to  take the reins and be our own change agents.