BOLDLY FEMININE

In this episode of Boldly Feminine, Konstantina Mahlia, founder of Mahlia Collection, switches roles to be interviewed by Cory. Konstantina delves into her European and North American influences, explaining how they shape her timeless and pragmatic designs. She shares her journey from launching Mahlia in 2005 to becoming a top jewelry brand. Konstantina discusses the challenges and triumphs of working with luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and appearing on QVC, revealing how she maintains integrity in a fast-paced industry. She also touches on the importance of social justice in her work, her belief in creating long-lasting pieces, and her innovative marketing strategies utilizing podcasts and direct communication with consumers. Finally, she provides valuable advice to budding entrepreneurs about standing firm in their values and having a clear exit strategy.

00:00 Introduction and Role Reversal
00:47 Early Life and European Influence
03:40 Starting the Malia Collection
05:42 Challenges and Successes in Retail
11:34 QVC Experience and Negotiations
18:44 Marketing and Sales Strategies
21:33 Exploring the Belief System Behind Malia Collection
21:56 The Symbolism in Renaissance Art and Jewelry
24:44 Maintaining Integrity in Design and Retail
26:22 Adapting to Social Media and E-commerce
26:59 The Impact of Podcasting and Social Activism
30:11 Challenges and Strategies in Modern Retail
34:23 The Future of Luxury and Consumerism
40:49 Advice for Young Designers and Entrepreneurs
44:48 Concluding Thoughts and Exit Strategy

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

“Hello!“ After quite the hiatus, BOLDLY FEMININE is back! And I am delighted to be your host. I’m Konstantina Mahlia. 

My amazing guest for this auspicious day is none other than the wonderful RIANE EISLER. Riane Tennenhaus Eisler is an Austrian-born American systems scientist, futurist, attorney, and author who writes about the historical effect of gender, politics and how those affect social and economic systems. Her most published work is "The Chalice and the Blade," one of my favorites, with no less than 57 publications to date.

Riane’s broad and profound knowledge of so many focal pain points weave together with an interdisciplinary mastery and unique futuristic approach. It ties together "historical" and cross cultural points of precedent -- by applying systems science to macro economics. I hope we can all appreciate what a feat that is, to bring together opposing forces into systems solutions. Her inspirational prospective of macro economics upon social systems, and the focus of our conversation today, is her book titled "The Real Wealth of Nations."
_____________

Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the lives of people worldwide. Her newest work, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry, shows how to construct a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on Partnership rather than Domination.

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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.

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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.”

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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. 

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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.

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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.

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com

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.”

Platform Seven | platform-seven.com/

Boldly Feminine | https://linktr.ee/boldlyfeminine | youtube.com/@boldlyfeminine
Mahlia Collection | mahliacollection.com