The artist and executive creative director, Gordon Hull, on longevity, relevance, and what it really takes to live a creatively fulfilled life.

Gordon Hull first made a name for himself as the founder of Surface to Air — the cult-favorite creative agency and fashion label that helped define a generation of downtown cool in New York City. Since then, he’s brought his distinctive mix of art, humor, and humanity to collaborations with brands like Ralph Lauren, Adidas, and Tory Burch, as well as creative studios including Chandelier and Mother.

Known for his punk attitude and relentless curiosity, Gordon has built a career that balances creative integrity with reinvention. In this conversation, he reflects on the desire to create and the quiet fight to stay true to his creative mission and personal values as priorities shift and the definition of success evolves.

In this episode:

• Why failure has always been part of Gordon’s creative process — and how every misstep, idea, and wrong turn becomes raw material for the next thing

• What it takes to build a creative career that endures — one driven by curiosity and craft, not just recognition

• The tension between staying relevant and staying true to your creative mission — and the pressure of navigating an industry that is constantly reinventing

• How to tell the difference between self-doubt and intuition, and knowing when to push a project forward versus when to let it go

• Why he believes the best collaborations are built on honesty, friction, and trust — not just shared taste

• The ongoing challenge of balancing artistic integrity with commercial reality, and redefining what success means when the metrics start to change

• Why he’s surprisingly optimistic about AI — and how he sees it expanding, rather than replacing, human creativity

A candid reflection on creative ambition, relevance, and the resilience it takes to keep showing up — even when what drives you starts to change.

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Stay Connected with Alanna (Host) & Gordon (Guest)

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Gordon Instagram: @gordon_harrison_hull
• Gordon Linkedin: gordonhull

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The President of Sotheby’s Motorsport on leading through uncertainty, owning failure as a leader, and learning to balance vulnerability with authority.

A lifelong theater kid turned luxury auction executive, Colleen Cash shares how her background in performance shaped her leadership and how she’s found success as a self-proclaimed spin doctor—reframing and repackaging setbacks not to disguise them, but to maintain momentum, protect morale, and move her team forward.

In this episode:

• How Colleen’s theater roots taught her presence, adaptability, and the power of reading a room

• What it takes to lead people older and more experienced, and earn their trust

• The self-proclaimed spin doctor mindset: reframing failure as forward motion and keeping teams energized through uncertainty

• The risk of the silver lining: when quick reframing becomes avoidance, and why reflection still matters

• Building learning cultures that turn failure into feedback rather than fear

• The realities of leading in prestige industries built on perception, and how to stay grounded

• The moment vulnerability reset trust in her team, and how she balances transparency with authority

An engaging conversation about reframing failure, leading with conviction when you’re the youngest in the room, and finding the power in vulnerability.

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Stay Connected with Alanna (Host) & Colleen (Guest)

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Colleen Linkedin: @colleencash

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From an internship at Stella McCartney to her current role as Luxury Client Director at The Wall Street Journal, Agnes Majewska has built a career at the intersection of culture, creativity, and commerce that many would dream of.

Fluent in three languages and having lived and worked in Milan, London, and New York, her career seems full of risk and reinvention. In reality, it’s been steady and cautious — shaped by careful choices and a desire for stability.

In this episode, we explore the tension so many high achievers face between striving for more and being present with the success they’ve already achieved — and why Agnes believes regret can be more haunting than failure.

Agnes opens up about:

• Growing up in Warsaw as the youngest of three, and how learning to persuade and perform became both a superpower and a coping mechanism

• Building a global career across Milan, London, and New York — and how constant reinvention can be both exhilarating and isolating

• The tension between ambition and comfort, and why she’s realizing that stagnation can be just as costly as failure

• Confronting her biggest fear — not failure, but the regret of wondering what could have been

• The power of empathy and cultural fluency in building trust across global teams and luxury clients

• What it means to lead and succeed steadily and cautiously in an industry that often rewards dominance and extroversion

A reflective and relatable conversation about ambition, how we lead, and what it really means to live without regret.

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Stay Connected with Alanna (Host) & Agnes (Guest)

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Agnes Linkedin: agnesmajewska

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is one of the most fascinating people you’ll ever meet, with one of the most unexpected career journeys you’ve ever heard.

Alexandre Stipanovich is a neuropharmacologist whose PhD research on the molecular mechanisms of addiction was published in Nature. After completing postdoctoral work at Yale and Rockefeller Labs, he took a wildly creative detour into the cultural industries, designing cultural programming for creative agencies and luxury brands (where we had the great pleasure of working together), launching an independent record label, and founding a boutique event production agency. He now runs Cascades Analytics, a consultancy at the forefront of psychedelic science and the neuropharmacology of consciousness.

In this episode, Alex explains the neuroscience of failure — why rejection feels so physically painful, how our brain chemistry shapes our appetite for risk-taking, and what science can teach us about creativity, ego, and bouncing back from failure.

This episode blew my mind, and I think it will do the same for you.

Alex breaks down:

• How failure activates the same parts of the brain as physical pain, and why it can feel painful and personal

• Why brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin influence creativity, motivation, and our appetite for risk

• The delicate dance between ego and fragility in creative work, and how too much of either is never a good thing

• Why some people spiral after failure while others grow — and how mindset, emotional regulation, and awareness determine resilience

• How embracing uncertainty and curiosity can turn fear into fuel for creative breakthroughs

• How reframing failure as a natural part of the creative cycle could unlock more empathy, experimentation, and progress

A fascinating and thought-provoking conversation that blends science and creativity, revealing what failure can teach us about who we are and how we grow.

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Stay Connected with Alanna (Host) & Alexandre (Guest)

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Alexandre Instagram: @astipanovich
• Alexandre Linkedin: Alexandre Stipanovich 

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Known for his drive and charisma, Guy Griggs has spent two decades climbing to the top of some of the world’s most powerful media companies. When this episode was recorded, he was Vice President of National Sales at The New York Times . Today, he is SVP of Advertising Sales & Partnerships at CNN. 

But behind all of Guy’s well deserved career success, is a hidden pressure. Shaped by a childhood that demanded excellence, and by navigating the industry as a Black gay man, Guy has always carried the sense that he had something to prove. 

In this episode, Guy opens up about how those early experiences fueled his drive and built his resilience — and how he is learning to trade blind ambition for a motivating force bigger than himself, one rooted in faith, family, and a definition of success that finally feels like his own.

We talk about:

• How early childhood experiences left him feeling he had everything to prove, and why that pressure became both a driver and a burden

• The identity piece — what it has meant to succeed in media as a Black gay man, and the resilience it demanded

• The double-edged sword of people-pleasing, and how it fueled both career advancement and burnout

• His networking philosophy — why he sees every room as infinite possibility, and how genuine connection has driven his career

• The role of faith and integrity in his leadership, and why doing the right thing when no one is watching is his ultimate red line

• Redefining failure from disappointment and shame into resilience and learning, staying positive through downturns, and how he bounced back from the toughest feedback of his career

A deeply personal conversation about ambition, identity and belonging, at the highest level of corporate America.

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Stay Connected with Alanna (Host) & Guy (Guest):

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Guy Griggs Instagram: @guygriggs
• Guy Grigg's Linkedin: guygriggs

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own career, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of (FAIL) UP, host Alanna Lynch sits down with celebrated arts & culture journalist, Julia Halperin.

Julia Halperin has been asking tough questions about power, equity, and representation in the art world for more than a decade. She co-founded the Burns Halperin Report, the largest tracking study of its kind examining diversity in museums and markets, and is a contributor to The New York Times, Financial Times, Cultured, W Magazine, and The Art Newspaper. From 2017 to 2022, she was executive editor of Artnet News, where we first worked together.

Behind her rigorous reporting is a personal story about perfectionism, people-pleasing, and how she found the conviction to stop putting herself last.

In today’s episode, Julia opens up about:

• How her work as a journalist tries to answer the question “Why do we value what we value?” and what the data really reveals about progress (or lack thereof) for women, Black, and Latinx artists

• Why mid-career women are often overlooked in the art world, and how that reflects broader gender bias across industries

• Reframing failure as friction and how avoiding conflict early in her career taught her the importance of trusting her gut

• The shift from perfectionism and people-pleasing to setting boundaries and making choices aligned with her own values

• Her take on the future of arts journalism, and why she believes individual voices will rise as legacy institutions shrink

An honest and inspiring conversation about bias, value, and what happens when you stop living by other people’s expectations and start claiming space for yourself.

Stay Connected with Alanna & Julia:

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Julila Halperin Instagram: @juliahalperin
• Julia Halperin Linkedin: juliahalperin

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of (FAIL) UP, host Alanna Lynch sits down with builder, creative leader, and founder of PRESENT, Josh Horowitz.

Josh Horowitz has never loved the word entrepreneur. Even after building the experiential agency Fake Love and selling it to The New York Times, he has always seen himself less as a businessman and more as a builder of artful experiences that bring people together.

So when he walked away from the company he had spent more than a decade building, it wasn’t just a professional pivot — it was a reset of his creative vision and personal identity.

In today’s episode, we dive into:

• Why he rejects the label “entrepreneur” and prefers to see himself as a builder

• The evolution of experiential from short-term brand activations to long-term cultural installations, and how this clarified and deepened his sense of purpose

• His new partnership with Ventureland, with Kerstin Emhoff joining as an investor, and what this means for how agencies and production companies collaborate across formats like film x experiential

• Why he believes art and experience design are universal languages — and what that means for the future of human connection.

• Leaving Fake Love behind after its NYT acquisition and finding the courage to start over

• Why he sees self-awareness as his greatest strength, helping him spot the right opportunities that align with his creative mission

• His perspective on failure as an everyday practice, not a fatal outcome

• Why community, creativity, and persistence matter more now than ever

A candid and energizing conversation about self-awareness, entrepreneurship, and the unexpected detours that shape a creative life.

Stay Connected with Alanna & Josh

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin: alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Josh Horowitz Linkedin: joshhorowitz
• Visit PRESENT: www.nowpresent.com

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of (FAIL) UP, host Alanna Lynch sits down with Emmy Award-winning war correspondent, bestselling author, and founder of Noosphere, Jane Ferguson.

Raised in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, Jane’s life and career have always been shaped by courage, resilience, and a willingness to step into uncertainty. For more than 15 years she reported from the front lines of the world’s most dangerous conflicts, but her biggest challenge came when she made the bold decision to launch Noosphere, a new media startup connecting audiences directly with the journalists they trust. 

In this episode, Jane opens up about:

• Growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and how it shaped her worldview and career
• Choosing courage in the face of fear, and why standing still often felt riskier than moving forward
• The burden and privilege of being a woman in war reporting, and the double standards around failure
• Walking away from external validation and accolades to embrace being a beginner again
• How years as a foreign correspondent prepared her for the resilience required in startup life
• What failure has taught her about persistence, pride, and letting go
• Why she believes empathy and adaptability are critical leadership qualities today
• Her thoughts on whether everyone deserves redemption

A fearless and unflinching conversation about risk, resilience, and what happens when you leave behind certainty to build something new.

Stay Connected with Alanna & Jane:

• Alanna Lynch Instagram: @meliorfuturi
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin alannalynch
• (FAIL)UP Instagram : @failupbymeliorfuturi
• Jane's Instagram: @janieferg
• Jane's Linkedin: janeferguson
• Visit Noosphere: www.noosphere.app

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Raised with the pressure to pursue a conventional career, Meetra trusted her intuition and chose a creative path — one shaped by risk and grounded in vulnerability. Today she has built a thriving career in New York, producing global campaigns, directing films, and self-publishing Standard Deviation, a deeply personal collection of her own poetry and essays that caught the attention of Vogue and New York galleries.

In this episode, Meetra opens up about:

• Walking away from family and cultural expectations to build a creative life on her own terms
• How her parents’ immigrant story shaped her relationship with failure and risk
• Finding the courage to publish vulnerable work in an industry obsessed with polish and perception
• The power of community, and why she sees it as fundamental to creativity
• Creative burnout, and the double-edged sword of sharing it all on Instagram
• Why integrity, not external validation, is her true measure of success
• The cultural contrasts between America, Australia, and South Asia when it comes to failure and resilience

An honest and inspiring conversation about pressure, risk, and what happens when you stop living by other people’s definitions of success and start defining your own.

Stay Connected with Alanna & Meetra:

• Alanna Lynch Instagram
• Alanna Lynch Linkedin
• (FAIL)UP Instagram
• Meetra Javed Instagram
• Meetra Javed Linkedin

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The show is hosted by Alanna Lynch, executive coach, founder of MELIOR FUTURI, and former executive at The New York Times and Artnet. Each week she sits down for intimate, unfiltered conversations with some of the most influential voices in the creative, entertainment, and cultural industries. From Emmy-winning war reporters to high-flying media executives, from artists and the journalists who cover them to New York's most sought-after creative directors, producers, and marketers.

Together, they unpack the early influences, unexpected career turns, and untold stories of each guest: the self-doubt they had to overcome, the blind ambition that drove them, and the setbacks that shaped them. What you get is an honest and revealing look at what it really takes to lead at the highest level of the creative, entertainment, and cultural industries.

Alongside headline guests, (FAIL) UP also explores the science and psychology of failure, with insights from neuropharmacologists and psychotherapists who explain what happens in the brain when we fail and how leaders can develop resilience and bounce back.

Each episode wraps with a lightning round of hot takes on creativity, leadership, and the rollercoaster of life in the creative, entertainment and cultural industries.

If this conversation left you wanting to think bigger, feel braver, and influence change in your own organization, head to melior-futuri.com to explore our executive and leadership coaching programs, available internationally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.