Not quite sure where the week went but I only found out on Friday that Monday was a Bank Holiday. Who knew?? And does it matter?
Covid hasn’t stopped me from networking or 1:1 meeting, which was my life pre-lockdown. You never knew who is going to be that one person for whom I can impact their life or who can impact mine. A while back I joined Lunch Club, an artificial intelligence-driven platform that makes personal introductions to relevant people. I was invited by a friend when they launched well over a year ago but didn’t pursue it because of the requirement to meet face to face and my general lack of time or willingness to leave my desk. It seemed a big ask for an unknown reward.
When lockdown happened, like so many other businesses, Lunch Club went virtual which made it far more palatable a proposition, and over the past 5 weeks, I’ve had five ‘lunches’ (without involving food or coffee), one of which led to an introduction with a venture capitalist who was happy to share my ‘pitch-deck’ with her investment network. Another virtual meeting with a well-respected venture capital company sprung out of that intro on Friday. It went well and I’ll know in a week whether they want to take the conversation to the next level. All very exciting! If you want to jump the very long Lunch Club waiting list, here’s my referral link.
The cooking continues
Last week it was banana bread. Then yesterday I made a massive pot of vegetarian chilli. Since my pescatarian partner moved in, I haven’t so much as looked at a roast chicken. I can’t say it’s a big deal although two weeks ago I had a sudden urge for some super crispy roast pork belly and decided to go for it, spending way too much at the expensive butchers in West Hampstead and then living on it for four days. I know I’m Jewish by birth but was raised on a steady diet of Oscar Mayer streaky bacon ever since I can remember, graduating to roast pork belly since it became a thing in London gastropubs.
Eating it on my own, while satisfying was nowhere near as gratifying as being amongst friends sharing a Sunday lunch in a wood-panelled pub. My body wasn’t so enamoured with it either, probably because it has now grown used to spinach and lentils and the occasional aubergine. I felt bloated and uncomfortable almost immediately after my lockdown meal. Not that it matters. When it comes to good food or wine, I’m of the camp that is completely OK about feeling crap the day after overindulging in either. You gotta live in the present.
All those Linkedin messages
I thought I wasn’t a group workshop type of person. I thought I didn’t have the patience for sitting around and listening to others talk about their problems or their business or whatever else people do in group workshops. A friend of mine, who loves group work, has been raving about its benefits for years but I never really got it. I tried 5 Rhythms dancing a couple of times and, although I liked the dancing part, when it came to sitting in a circle and holding hands with strangers, sharing our feelings, I was put right off. Mind you, I expect there will be far less hand-holding post-Covid and far more social distance dancing going on in the future.
Then last year I was accepted by the School of Social Entrepreneurs Fellowship programme to develop the Advantages of Age Business Academy and a couple a day each month, for 9 months, we would get together. The group became a solid unit and each session felt like one big group hug and I became a group workshop convert. Everyone was just so nice and supportive and encouraging.
It was on SSE that I discovered Action Learning Sets, which I thought I understood but realised I had never actually encountered. A way to resolve issues within organisations or by individuals within a small group setting, this very process-driven method based on reflection and collectively tackling challenges, was an eye-opener for me. It was group work but on a level I had never encountered before and I came away after each session feeling like another layer of my outer armour had been peeled off and I was seeing myself and others in a new way. I was hooked on ALS, so much so that in February, I embarked on three days of training to become an ALS facilitator, for which I’m now qualified to lead small groups. It’s another string to my bow but one I can’t do much with as I’m not sure how workable it is over Zoom, especially for a newbie facilitator like myself.
All of this is a roundabout way of getting to the point which is that after SSE and becoming an ALS facilitator, I decided at about 3 am last week to update my Linkedin profile to reflect my achievements. The next day I had a steady stream of messages, all the same, from mostly strangers on LinkedIn, congratulating me on graduating. If you’re one of the 8,151 people who received a message about something that occurred months ago, my apologies. Please don’t feel obligated to respond.
What I’ve watched/read/listened to this week
I listened to myself this week after recording a podcast with the wonderful Susan Flory for her show, The Big Middle. Maybe it’s lockdown but I thought I sounded a lot more like a nasal New Yorker than usual but I’ll let you be the judge of that.
I’m going to watch Gillian Anderson in Street Car Named Desire today which is on until Thursday.
I’ve been geeking out on NoCode for a time-sensitive side project I’m working on and spending some Fiverr credits I won a while back which is coming in handy.
Drum roll. I have Beta Access to a new site called With, from some folks who worked for Apple, Paypal, and Sketch. I have my Getting Stuff Done room where you can hangout/collaborate/socialise. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to use it yet but I’m considering a Getting Stuff Done weekly virtual meetup where you can spend an hour working without interruption, similar to Georgia’s Out of Hours but without the need to have a side-hustle. You can check it out here. The room password is 912935. If you’re interested in meeting up virtually to share what you’re going to get done and then do it, over one hour, message me and let me know.
That’s all from me. Enjoy the weekend. Stay alert. :)
Suzanne