Hacking Your Concentration at Home & Why Community Matters!

Welcome to the ninth Interdisciplinary Thinking!

I wanted to use this newsletter to make things more accessible. I want to highlight some incredible people to share their stories to elevate social mobility. 

This is a personal blog of sorts which I want to explore more themes including neurodiversity, at work and inclusion and other interesting things.

This week I am joined by my dear friend Rotem Carmely, CEO and co-founder of Clustered who is based in Berlin. So excited to talk all things entrepreneurship, digital and female founder, my guest, this week!

Fun stuff:

With the Notting Hill Carnival going fully remote this year, Spotify (with the help of some amazing people) has a fantastic carnival takeover! Having grown up in the area, this is a brilliant happiness-inducing series!

South Korea's soft powerhouse BTS became the first all-Korean pop act to top the Billboard 100 singles chart. I absolutely love BTS (having studied Korean!), go listen!

Wired examines how dance is thriving on TikTok and meets a bunch of choreographers from the platform. I find this super interesting when you think about what this can mean for creatives.

The British Foreign Policy Group is hosting a session on the Future of UK-China Relations. It looks like a great session to attend!

A miniature record shop for mice has opened in Sweden called Ricotta Records. I absolutely love it!

Spotlight: Re-engineering networking (part three)

Establish clarity with your networking by knowing your why.

Networking isn't at the top of everyone's to-do list and it can often feel draining or even overwhelming. Understanding your why can have incredible benefits with this whole process. This clarity will allow you to understand whom you want to connect with, improve your talking/conversation points and offer a platform to connect with people easier.

However, starting with why can be often the hardest thing in anything. Why do you even bother? Why make the effort? Why even show up? Why does it matter? All of these questions we all go through, no matter the subject.

I began to think about my why after several conversations with close friends who work in marketing and PR. I then happened to land on Simon Sinek's TEDx Talk titled 'Start with why -- how great leaders inspire action' and his notion of the golden circle.

For Sinek, the role of why is the most important part any organisation/individual can communicate. Why is what inspires others to take action.

Why is important, as it explains your purpose and why you exist and behave as you do. Sinek's theory is that successfully communicating the passion behind why is a clear way to communicate with the listener's limbic brain (the place that processes feelings such as trust, loyalty and decision-making).

Why is a purpose, cause or belief. It is the very reason an organisation or individual do what they do.

The role of how is something that most organisations/individuals do. These are the things that set them apart from the competition, like strengths or values. Sinek believes how can also communicate with the limbic brain and that articulating how with why will improve things greatly.

On the notion of what, this is the easiest part of the ladder. What is expressed through say products a company sells or services on offer. In the individual sense, it is their job title for example. Sinek believes that the narrative around what is less of a driver for people, as it only engages with the neocortex, the part of our brain that's rational. Successful people and organizations express why they do what they do rather than focusing on what they do.

Putting why into practice

So I've given you some theory behind the importance of your why. So how do you go about making a why statement?

Your why statement should seek to be simple, clear and actionable. It should also focus on how you’ll contribute to others and use affirmative language that resonates with you. The statement should be evergreen. By this I mean it should seek to apply to everything you do, both personally and professionally. There shouldn't be any separation to this. It should be one sentence.

Ultimately it is the statement of value at work and the reason your friends love you. We don't have a different professional why and personal why. You are yourself at every point in the day, wherever you are.

Trying to craft a sentence that encompasses everything you do is difficult. I say this from personal experience. I have changed industries six-times, spent seven years abroad in all kinds of places and organisations and now straddle the nexus between culture, diplomacy and innovation. Aligning all of this together into one sentence to bring impact has been really tricky for me for sure.

| focused on what my contribution was to others. I believe this is a core part of the equation, as the contribution you make to the lives of others is done via the mechanism of your why. I then also began to think about the impact of my contribution.

The why statement format + purposeful networking

Sinek and his team have come up with a great why statement formula that is very useful in generating your own.

Sinek's own why statement is: "To inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that, together, we can change our world.”

As Bokhari notes, "the impact Simon wants is for each of us to change the world, in however way we can, for the better. But this alone is too broad. It’s incomplete until his intended impact is combined with his contribution—the work he actually does on Monday morning to make change happen."

Bokhari continues that "the contribution portion—to inspire people—is what ties it all together, bringing focus and direction to the impact he wants to make on the world. Simon’s contribution is essentially WHAT he does (to make his WHY a reality). The books he writes, the workshops he conducts, and the speeches he gives are all part of WHAT he does to move his cause forward—to inspire people to do what inspires them."

You could also think about another sentence if you are having difficulty. You can think about what you help people to accomplish or what pain point you help people with.

For example, mine is:

I help professionals improve their interdisciplinary thinking through international collaboration.

By doing this exercise you are taking the first step in purposeful networking. Much like other crucial business processes, networking works best when carried out thoughtfully.*

*Purposeful networking will be covered at length in the next segment.

This Week: An Interview with Rotem Carmely, CEO and co-founder of Clustered.

Rotem is the co-founder and CEO of Clustered, Originally hailing from Israel, she moved to Berlin over four years ago. She is an incredible female founder to seeks to empower others.

Clustered is a platform that supports experts to turn their talent and skills into scalable online programs that offer learners unique growth experiences facilitated in small, intimate groups.

You may ask, how did Rotem and I meet? Well, through another dear Berlin-based female founder friend, Andrea Babi? of course.

The joys of communicating, collaborating and celebrating each other know no bounds in the digital age. I say this from experience, especially when we come together.

Jess Gosling: What inspired you to get into start-ups? Was there a pivotal moment in your career?

Rotem Carmely: There were so many pivotal moments in my career. I was always drawn to technology and innovation, but I was actually on my way to an academic career when I started my first tech job in a small startup, during my Master's studies at the TLV university.

I fell in love with the startup vibe and really enjoyed the collaboration around building products people use and love. That's when I decided to leave school and invest 100% of my time building my career in tech. Best decision I ever made!

I was also super lucky to end up at one of the best companies in Israel - Wix. It was an amazing experience to work there and see the company grow so much while working on a product which was helping millions of people build a successful business alongside some of the best people I ever worked with.

Another pivotal moment for me was moving to Berlin and starting my professional network from scratch, which eventually led me to start my own company - Clustered - which is all about connecting people around their common challenges and giving them the right tools and mentorship to overcome them together.

?JG: What was your biggest challenge and success in working in tech? How have you overcome them?

RC: I think the number one challenge for me was around leadership - either dealing with bad leadership or learning to become one myself. Leadership is a major challenge in every organisation, but startups are exceptionally difficult due to the innovative process and the development speed.

There is so much pressure to move fast and create amazing things, that sometimes leadership skills are not given the appropriate importance and investment that they deserve.

I have had really bad bosses and really good ones, and I do believe that it makes all the difference - most people leave managers, not jobs.

Once I became a leader, the most important thing for me was to remember to put humans first, and KPIs after. To be a leader and not just a manager, and make sure I understand what drives the people I lead. Goals are important but they can blind you to a point that you ignore the needs of people who are working towards those goals with you. I believe that being a good leader also means being a mentor and not just telling people what to do, and it's about listening instead of talking.

JG: You have co-founders, but what advice do you have for female entrepreneurs? Do you have any top tips to share?

RC: That's a tough one! I feel that one of the most challenging things about being a female entrepreneur is that we have that constant pressure to be perfect and exceptional, in order to convince people that we know what we're doing.

Whatever we do, we become this token for our gender, whether we succeed or fail. We can't be just "entrepreneurs", we are specifically marked as an exception to the rule, which adds a lot of unnecessary pressure to a job that is already difficult.

Unfortunately, I can't offer a remedy for that, but I try to be super aware of it and remind myself that it's ok if I'm not perfect, it's ok to fuck up and give myself permission to even be mediocre at some things. I think that entrepreneurship and building my startup has really taught me about the benefits of failure, and how to harness these experiences to become an empowering part of my story.

JG: Who are some Europe/Israeli entrepreneurs we should have on the radar?

RC: So many! But one who I'm following really closely and is a good friend is Hilah Stahl who founded Spoak, an indie design platform & community for interior design lovers of all levels. She is a truly inspiring person who managed to create a super fun brand and a great product!

Jess works within the UK Government in cultural diplomacy matters and also co-leads the Growth & Grace Collective (G&G) network, a global network seeking to connect, inspire and empower people in all stages of their lives. She is a serial multi-hyphenate seeking to bridge the gap between culture, diplomacy and innovation.

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Thanks for reading—see you in two weeks!