What was meant to be a relatively focused week, with my girls away with their mom, and a handful of client projects to focus on, actually turned into me being admitted into hospital.
Don’t worry - everything is fine.
They did endless tests, and found nothing wrong. Reassuring and frustrating at the same time.
I’ve been discharged, and whilst there are a number of out-patient tests which need to be completed, I’ve basically been told I need to “reduce my stress”.
Yup - it’s official folks, my body hit the brakes for me. Is it burnout? Is it exhaustion? Is it post-viral? Is it everything that’s going on right now? I’m not sure. And I’ve work to do, to find a new sustainable rhythm and approach to work, no life.
In the two weeks I’ve been offline, my brain has been going in circles.
I’ve realised just how much I use reading, scrolling, consuming, being online as a crutch - it’s a way of silencing my racing brain, by filling it with someone else’s ideas and commentary, but also chasing those dopamine hits - as opposed to being okay with a) doing nothing, and b) letting the thoughts come and go.
wrote a post this week about the various forms of rest which are essential for health - not just physical, but emotional, creative, spiritual (go check her post for the full rundown).
But when your default state is ‘brain=overactive’, switching off, stepping away, turning the volume down can be HARD.
The usual recommendations are using your other senses: going for a walk, physical activity, spending time in nature, seeing friends - but I’ve had to be physically still and effectively horizontal for the last two weeks.
So, I’m turning to meditation, white-noise and podcasts in other languages. Trying to find the off-switch for a few weeks, as an apology to my brain and body.
Fellow active-brain-folk - how do you switch off your head, before your head switches you off?
I chatted to Will Rowe, founder of the legendary Protein. Protein brings together brilliant minds to collaboratively discover, incubate and release projects that enable a better future. Founded in 1997, they are a studio, an agency, a collaborative platform, an insight business, a sort of undefinable mix of things, but have been consistently creating remarkable work for decades.
Q. Tell us a little bit about Protein and how you work with independent thinkers and contributors?
Protein is a place where people and ideas grow. We do this through our agency, studios and XYZ (our intelligence platform).
We've been decoding culture since 1997 and we believe in the power of decentralised research to ensure our foresights (what's coming) and insights (what's already here) are both valuable and actionable, but also representative and unbiased.
Our global community of 270 experts sow and grow hundreds of ideas in SEED CLUB — our private walled garden — feeding our collective intelligence in the hope of enabling a better future.
Q. Seeds are a fascinating space on your platform, they’re more than just an initial idea, they’re well researched and considered thought pieces, yet, feel you wanting so much more - can you explain how they work and contributors collaborate to build them?
Thank you for saying that. The idea for SEEDS, grew from the previous incarnation of the Protein Community that was focused on how we could use "Web3 for good" and we ran in Discord between 2020 and 2023.
We had a section on our server where members could share interesting links with the best selected and included in our monthly SUPPLEMENT newsletter. When we closed the Discord (because the platform is kinda terrible!) I wanted to find a new space for our members to share and discuss the ideas that were germinating in their minds.
We're intentionally non-prescriptive about what makes a SEED – it could be a link you've seen in your feed or something you've been obsessing about for 5 years — and care more about why rather than the what.
Once the SEED is sown in SEED CLUB, it grows by other members adding commentary, comment or extra references and then every Monday our small editorial team review the SEEDS and commission the ones we like the look to be written up and planted on Protein XYZ for all to enjoy.
We pay £150 per SEED and plant two a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) with one from the community and one from the Protein team.
Our AGENCY team are also plugged into SEED CLUB, so they're also sharing paid freelance opportunities from live client briefs that our members can jump on if relevant/interested/available.
Q. I think I read you’ve just hosted the first Seed Club in-person meetup - what value does real conversation have over digital interaction with fellow contributors? Are these real-world manifestations of digital communities more evidence of the much needed/desires fourth-space?
100%. I've always been a massive advocate for in-person meetups and even more so since COVID.
The simple truth is that people need people and relationships are always best forged IRL — ideally socially and/or with some kind of shared activity. The idea of fourth spaces is something that deeply resonates.
Q. Protein has some 36k in its network - the value of the community is untold, how do you ensure you’re curating a diverse and wide range of perspectives, is it simply volume of voices or is there method?
Diversity within a community is essential for it to be happy and healthy. This is why we have an application process to ensure we are intentionally onboarding underrepresented people to ensure their voice is heard.
I also do all the onboarding calls, as I'm keen to fully understand everyone's needs and ambitions as well as explaining why we exist and how everything works.
Q. Finally and naturally - what type of folk are you looking for to join your crew right now, and where can they find out more and/or apply?
Our primary filter is cultural curiosity and then look for people who are strategists, researchers, creatives, journalists and/or community builders.
Side note, we ask for people's starsign on your application (and have a Witch Club sub-club) as we're big fans of human design and if you're wondering, our top three signs Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius ... but obviously open to all the others ;-)
You can apply here: https://www.protein.xyz/contribute/
» has defined the ‘Strategy Swamp’: “Freelancers are flooding the market. Not by choice, but by force. Laid off, burned out, or boxed out of a shrinking set of full-time roles. The gigs that do appear are underpaid, over-applied for, and gone in hours.”, along with a repost of her ‘Going Solo’ advice from last year.
» Joe Burns thinks there’s a whole new operating system for work - I’m inclined to agree - the New Meta, which has parallels to this take from Jasmine Bina
» on the freelance fear of running out of money.
» Jasmine Bina on Psychotechnology - the architecture of belief that shapes how we see the world, and it’s impact on what ‘brands’ are and mean.
» on content strategy, and how audiences are turning off branded content.
» With environmental concerns, GreenPT is putting sustainability first as its strategy. Do we need to triple think about the impact of the tools we’re using?
» I’ve been wondering how Chinese Keyboards work.
» Taking an Internet Walk by Spencer Chang & Kristoffer Tjalve is a sort of digital psychogeographic way of seeing systems - from the amazing Syllabus Project
» Short-termism is the greatest threat to humanity
» Elon Musk is literally blocking out the sky, and astronomers are not cool with it.
» Vicki Tan’s “Ask this book a question”
» This claims to replace a $200k/year CMO by creating and reviewing your digital ads. (It might be misunderstanding the role of a CMO).
Wanna share your work, ideas or thinking with the community? - drop me a message, and I’ll pop it in the next issue. This is a scrapbook of our ideas, so please open up your brains.
Each week, I’ll try to profile one of our members, so you get to know each other better, and find folk you might want to connect to. Shout if you fancy having your face here.
👋 Hey everyone, I’m Emily O'Brien
I’ve worked in charity and health communications for over a decade - working at a health and social care think tank, then at Cancer Research, eventually becoming Comms and Brand Strategist for an agency in York.
I became freelance nearly 3 years ago after my maternity leave with my identical twins - nudged into freelancing by hefty childcare fees, the back-end of a pandemic, and the need to work for clients and projects that I enjoy and care about.
In the last year, my favourite two client projects were:
1. Managing the rebrand and website for Global Witness - a climate NGO. I worked alongside a creative agency and a digital partner, but helped with the content strategy and messaging work too.
2. I also worked with Miracle Moon, a community supporting parents who are currently in neonatal, or after they’ve experienced neonatal, in validating their experiences and providing therapy and support. They launched their membership offering and I worked with them on the marketing and messaging strategy and project managing the launch.
In the future I’d love to continue doing what I am doing - working with charities, NGOs and businesses that are working for social good - in marketing and brand strategy, and project management. I enjoy defining the strategy but ensuring that it gets delivered accurately too - as that’s what I did whilst working in-house and in-agency.
Things I’m loving at the moment:
Moving - Finally getting back to the gym and using a PT app, which is giving me confidence in lifting heavier weights and trying out new equipment that previously looked intimidating.
Reading - currently I’m finishing The Salt Path which has really made me want to get my hiking boots back on. Looking forward to the film coming out shortly.
Gardening - The days getting longer, and warmer so I can get back out into the garden again - I’m hoping to start tackling the back of my garden this year and planting some fruit trees - fingers crossed.
Say hello to Emily on LinkedIn, or via the community.
Apologies - I’ve been too unwell to be chasing these this week, but I’ll be back on this next week, promise!
But I need introducing to businesses who hire freelance strategy people - so I can keep the flow of briefs coming. If you’re up for introducing me to someone who leads a strategy team or business who hires strategy people, please connect me!
Feel free to CC me any time: [email protected]
That’s all for this week.
mk✌️
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