Velvet Salon Podcast

In this Office Hours, we had a fun conversation with the inspiring photographer and selfie coach Monique Floyd. First and foremost, she addressed the myth that selfies are for shallow people. Selfies are in fact extremely deep because they give us an opportunity to heal. As Monique likes to say, "see yourself, be yourself, free yourself". Monique also told us about her alter ego King Moe. King Moe is stunning, radiant, full of life, a lover of rich colors, and a wearer of a kickass crown. It took time for King Moe to emerge and bloom. Learn about how that happened, and how you can emerge and bloom too.

In this episode we share print objects that inspire us. From calm and confident kraft paper covers, to the simplicity of folded paper, to large tomes we come back to again and again and again. This conversation will likely inspire to you take a field trip to your bookshelf / book box / pile of books on the floor and see with fresh eyes what magic awaits you there.

In this intimate conversation, we talk with Karen Mitchell about our inherent worth as artists. Karen is a brilliant meditation leader and art facilitator with experience working with Fortune 500 companies. In our conversation, Eva Knox shared the relatable feeling of being watched, and needing to care about how an audience responds to our art. That helped us think about the impossible standards of the dominant culture that tell us that we need to have all the tools, training, and credentials to prove that we're worthy enough to start. Amy Walsh shared the delightful example of the bower bird, an unapologetically artistic animal that creates elaborate sculptures using leaves and twigs and trash. In contrast to us in our human cultures, the bower bird is not trying to prove to anyone that they're worthy of doing this. The bower bird just does it, with cleverness and creativity that would astound the fanciest of modern art institutions. With these insights and reflections in mind, Karen led us through a beautiful meditative exercise where we practiced letting our visual art effortlessly emerge.

In this intimate conversation, we talk with the project's anti-racism coach Alyssa Hall. As described by Tema Okun, in white supremacy culture, "mistakes are seen as personal, ie. they reflect badly on the person making them as opposed to being for what they are --- a mistake." The harsh personalization of design reviews digs this cultural wound deeper. It was refreshing to talk openly about these features of white supremacy culture, and to realize that it is not our fault that we feel hurt, unhappy with creative processes, and ashamed. To burst the bubble, we discussed using curiosity and "I wonder" statements in our creative containers. Listen to the full conversation to learn more about how you too can lean into curiosity to break your bubbles of creative shame.

In this intimate conversation, we talk with the badass zine maker Jackie Ayala: an email systemizer by day and a DIY zine maker by, well, all the time. One of the most beautiful things that happened was how we got vulnerable about our relationship to perfectionism — how it has protected us, and how it has held us back from doing our life's work. There were many gems to this conversation, but one that especially stood out: selfie prototypes! We talked about how radical it would be to print selfies in the magazine, to take back our personal power over how we're visually portrayed. We discussed using Newspaper Club to print the selfie showcases — and showcases of other media too — to really help us value ourselves (individually and collectively) during the content creation and design process.

In this intimate conversation, Erin talks with the brilliant Sascha Schlossberg: movement designer, consumer psychology wiz, and messaging simplifier. She helps us understand in super simple terms what the ingredients of a movement can look like (they're not expensive or complex!). We drew interesting parallels to political movements, and explored what makes movements successful or not. Sascha's experience strategizing a movement ("Occupy Wealth") was so cool to hear. At the end, you'll be thinking about how you too can mobilize your audience to spread the core message of your work.

In this intimate conversation, Erin talks with the creatively brilliant Leah Hall: brand strategist, designer, marketing maven, and signature offer synthesizer. We talk through the magazine's target audience, potential brand pillars, and also its physical experience. We go on a rich tangent with Vanessa Roberts as we think about our collective visual language. We also can't help crushing on Newspaper Club, the inexpensive service for printing and distributing newsprint publications.

In this intimate conversation, Erin talks with the brilliant Meira Greenfeld: Harvard-trained lawyer, licensed trauma therapist, and anti-racism coach. We unpack the word equity. We also explore the concept of an embodied magazine (where we honor our physical bodies and limits in the process), and how taking imperfect action (with boundaries and guard-rails) is necessary to do anti-racism work in the world. A gem from this edition was shifting how we think about our anti-racism impact from producing a product (a physical print magazine) to designing a process (how we implement inclusion and agency, and how subscribers engage with that process).

In this intimate conversation, Erin talks with the multi-talented Jacqueline Lisenby: acting coach, film writer, pro interviewer, sponsor magnet, and film producer. We walk through the full process of doing an interview, and we explore how we might use the medium of interviews to create great content for the magazine. A gem from this edition was realizing how we could "break the walls" between articles.