Sarah Fox

Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden

In this episode, Katie talks with Sarah Fox a coach and mentor helping organisations and individuals who are motivated to do good and do well, being drivers of positive social change. Sarah’s mission is to help people who care about the world to live a life of fulfilment, a life that is truly well lived, meaningful, purposeful and creative.

We discuss:

• Sarah’s strive to always do good and her journey with ‘kindness’
• What is means to be good, not just to the natural world but to ourselves.
• Sarah’s values of kindness, compassion, cooperation, collaboration and courage (added during the podcast!)…and how these relate to our self-worth.
• Why this group of people, who are working so hard to look after everybody else and bring about positive change in the world, find it so difficult to take care of themselves.
• Do we need to learn to look after ourselves in order to look after the planet, are those things connected?
• The importance of connecting with nature, observing nature in the human world and reminding ourselves of the bigger picture.

Here are some highlights:

What does it mean to be good?

“Essentially for me, the doing good bit is what it's about it's about leaving the world or trying to leave the world in a better place than you found it. Really stepping into what we can do that somehow contributes positively and whilst doing that, really thinking about how we do well based in terms of quality. But also in terms of our own well-being. When I talk about wellbeing, I'm talking about physical well-being emotional well-being and financial well-being. So how can we bring those things together so that we are making an impact of some kind and we're doing that in a way that is conscious and we have a self-awareness about that. But also, how can we do it so that we're not breaking in the process.”

I have value in the world!

“It’s as much about being kind to ourselves, as it is to everybody else. And if we can hold up a mirror, if we can talk to ourselves in the way that we talk to other people, if we can take action, and be kind to ourselves in the way that we are with other people, then I think the world would be a much better place, because it's coming from people feeling like they are enough already, without having to do all the things.” “if you already feel safe and enough, then you can really focus on delivering benefit in a way that most benefits the people you're trying to serve.”

How can we step into our wise Jedi self?

“I think if we're going to have these regenerative, restorative businesses, there needs to be a complete self-awareness as much as possible. We need to be in our autonomy, not standing in the narrative pattern that we have been in in the past. And how do we kind of step into, I call it the wise Jedi self, rather than that kind of inner critic? How do we step into that? So that we can create these businesses that are making a difference, that is having the impact that we want to have and that we don't get distracted?”

Books & Podcasts we mentioned:

• Consumed by Aja Barber
• Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig
• The Choice by Edith Eger
• How to Own the Room by Viv Groskop | How To Own The Room on Apple Podcasts
• How to be Hopeful by Bernadette Russell 

You can find out more about Sarah here, connect on LinkedIn and listen to her podcast on Spotify or Apple 

With reference to our conversation on what is “good” and who gets to decide – here is Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s PhD “better”: https://www.daisyginsberg.com/work/better 

Spread the Word:

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About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.

About our partners:

Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.

Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/

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