from one globe-trotting, multi-hyphenate polymath to another...
Welp, another week in the hellscape!
How YOU doin’?
My news: I got a job and launched a thing and TechCrunch wrote about it.
Summary: I became an investing partner at Magma Partners 6 months ago, and we’re finally announcing it now because I’m launching Brava, our initiative to invest in 20+ Latin American female founders. Investing in women ain’t a charity, and we’re here to show it.
The inside joke on the name is that when one of my best friends was a wee high schooler she had the honor of writing a book review in the Philadelphia Inquirer for Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, a novel which was all the rage in the year 1999. In it, she used the amazing and pretentious word “Brava!” — as in “Brava, Tracy Chevalier!” Her review got featured on the COVER of the paperback copy for years to come and we laughed and laughed. Years later, when we moved into a tiny apartment in Italy during a particularly depressive time of my life (tldr: don’t ask, but if you do it was about a boy) there was one book on the shelf: Girl with a Pearl Earring!
Brava, Tracy Chevalier. And Brava, self.
Some other things:
What’s this for? This post (which is directed towards digital marketers, but is true for any project) says that’s your #1 most important question to reduce cognitive overload.
The question was inspired by Seth Godin (and introduced to me by the brilliant RadReader Ozan Varol). Now while the question is simple, answering it is not. It requires us to harness our inner 5 year old and their relentless ability to ask why.
I used it this week when hitting the old head against a wall of frustration and rumination around a choice I had to make. It worked.
After reading Always at Home, the lovely memoir by Fanny Singer, I’ve become rather re-obsessed with the life of her mother, Alice Waters, and her famed restaurant, Chez Panisse. It’s led to all kinds of rabbit holes, including a great mother-daughter TED talk interview. I’ve been lucky to go to Chez Panisse a couple of times, including once to the nice part when I was 6 weeks pregnant with Lucia (poorly planned; no wine, womp womp). I’m hoping to go back all COVID-era-outdoor-dining-like when I’m in Berkeley for the elections.
I’ve been really digging this newsletter by Boz, the Latin American Risk Report, which may be too intense for some readers, but others may find it just the thing! This is the kind of good news you can expect if reading about my home, Argentina;(
We’ve discussed my wide-ranging interests before, and nothing displays that better that this morning’s rabbit hole, which came after a PR person pitched me a new book: Dance Adventures, Stories of Dancing Abroad. As the worst dancer known to man this is obviously in no way up my alley (cue my BFF telling my husband at our wedding: “Now you’re in charge of dancing with her, forever!”) AND YET. There is nothing I love more than learning that there is a whole sub-culture of “dance adventurers” out there!
Dance provides a way to travel far beyond the typical tourist experience. By connecting with local people through a shared love of movement, dancers catalyze many unique opportunities. They build cross-cultural friendships with dance as the only shared language, discover ways to train with celebrated teachers, experience cultural immersion key to their personal development, and more. [These] tales about epic dance adventures across North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa highlight various dance traditions, as well as unique aspects of each country's geography, history, demographics and educational systems. In this way, Dance Adventures celebrates the power of dance to connect us to the best parts of humanity, as well as to the best parts of ourselves.
And this, when discussing the benefits of doing it:
You practice resilience in extreme contexts: Dance forces vulnerability in a public setting; dance abroad doubly so. The beginner’s mindset pushes the comfort zone keeps you (literally!) on your toes. The stress of learning new ways to move the body while also staying with the beat cultivates resilience and shifts the goalposts of what is hard when you’re at work. Challenges don’t seem so insurmountable!
and
You cultivate confidence in your voice: Dancing and leadership are more engaging and (dare I say it?) fun when you find your own style. Through dance, you learn to be seen for who you are (have you ever been spotlighted on stage? It takes courage!), as well as to trust your instincts and your unique contribution. You may not move exactly like the performer next to you, but what you offer is often just as valuable.
Learn something every day, people.
Also, How to diversify your child’s toybox. Do it.
Goodbye,
Claire