Full transcript: Monique Lester on London Real
0:16 Welcome to London, Real. My name is Brian Rose With Me is the extremely good-looking Nick Gabriel and joining us in studio. Today is Monique Lester, and she’s the directive. The director of London Digital PR Welcome, thank you. It’s the first time any of us have met Mo’Monique Monique’s.
0:34 We had a really cool phone conversation, but we’ve never met her. So, you know, props to you for just coming into a really strange scenario that you don’t even know what’s going to happen. How exciting it is exciting, right? It’s very exciting. Well before we get to Monique and I think Monique’s got tons to talk about, I’m just going to quickly talk about our sponsor.
0:50 Now we have a sponsor because this show’s free for everyone out there and we want to keep it that way. We’re never going to charge for the show, and that’s just the way it is. So if you’ve heard this, who wo? I was thinking we’ll get. I quoted that later to us, like in a year when it’s like $5 a show.
1:05 But in the immediate future, we have no plans in charge of this, so we have a sponsor. If you seen this ad before, that’s cool, just skip forward YouTube by like, 3 minutes. But if you want to hear more, we can tell you about ONIT Labs. Who are the makers of Alphabrain, which Monique’s just taken, and which is a Neut tropic to basically help your brain work a little bit better. It’s got a lot of ingredients that I think, Nick, you take anyways a lot of your physical supplements.
1:28 And then also Shum Tech Sport, which I’ve taken the third time now. I took it before my Kettle Bell workout on Wednesday and, man, I felt good, I just felt like I was processing the oxygen better. I mean, okay, so small sample size, but I’m happy with it so far. I was looking through the ingredients you know, it’s got like green tea extract and ginsing and stuff you take anyways right pretty much. I still want to try it, though.
1:47 Cuz I mean, you’ve seen how many pills I take. Dude, I’d rather just have one single having lunch with him. He pulls out his pills, there’s like 30 pills, and he always says to the waiter, He’s like, All right, remain calm, everything’s fine, just need some water, and he takes all these pills. But anyways they have those two. Also, they have something called Shum tech immune, which is just to help your immune system at a slightly different mushroom.
2:08 As opposed to the Shroom tech sport, which has the coret mushroom. And then rounding it out is New Mood, which has El trip Toan in there. And it’s just to kind of keep you in a better mood that one’s cool. Put me on a buzz after the last show, you like the new mood, don’t you? Yeah, I haven’t had as much of that, but if you want any of these products, you can go to on it.
2:24 .COM That’s o nit t for those people listening to us on ITunes. And if you type in London, you get 10- off, check it out, or don’t you know? Also, the ingredients are on the website, so if you, if you want to just mimic your own, you can look it up and go. Buy them separately and mix up your own batch and sell it and get rich. So anyways there it is.
2:45 I’m going to turn this over to Nick, who is has a new look. I would call you four eyes, but that’s so that’s so, but you know, I can beat you up preschool. Yeah, it would be close, but I do know Nick can beat me up. That’s how I met Nick. So I’ll turn it over to you, Nick Yeah, Monique, so, so good to have you here and tell, tell us about.
3:06 It’s called London Digital P. Yeah, London Digital PR is my little agency, I’m a resource bank. I work with some great guys that do graphics and web design, and I started it when I got interested in social media in 2008. Okay, and social media is an it’s a tool, it’s a tool. But I developed a following just by writing and in fact, sometimes my own nonsense.
3:32 U. My followings been built really, because I tweet about everything, anything and engaging in conversation, just talking to people. Okay, when you say following how many Twitter followers do you have? I think I’ve got nearly 8,000, but it’s all been without actually buying them or any of that stuff. It’s all organic, it’s all from having conversations with people, So I probably said hello to a lot of those people at some point, which is which is cool, tricky to grow a Twitter following, isn’t it?
3:57 Because it really has to, it has to grow on its pH. You can’t really force it you. You can friend someone on Facebook, and then you all of a sudden have a Facebook friend. But for Twitter followers, they have to. They have to find you, don’t they?
4:06 There are ways there are ways there are tools you can use to help you follow it. But I just found with me that the best way was really to actually have conversations with people. And so basically, mimicking real life interactions. Or using real life interactions to fuel the growth of your own social network. Absolutely.
4:24 And as SUPP London Digital PR grew because people started contacting me through social media, that’s where most of my workers come from. So do you think it’s like to get someone to add you on Twitter, or to follow you on Twitter, or even on Facebook? I know Brian and I, we have thousands and thousands of people watching and listening to the show every week. But to get people to like the Facebook page is like a Herculan task. What could you, what would you say you’ve identified is some of the key requirements that you need or that you need to fulfill in order to get people to take that secondary step of actually clicking like on the page or clicking, follow on Twitter, right?
5:05 You’ve got to do something that’s going to get them joining in with you and talking. You can ask people to like your page, but that’s not really going to get them involved. You need to do things like competitions, contests, asking them questions. So getting them to vote for the best podcast, what they want to hear about getting them involved. So you know ideas for you guys about what you want to be, who you want on your show.
5:27 At some point. Getting your audience to Inter with you, okay, which I think really works. I mean, I post lots of things on my London Digital PR page and I have to say I was just because I’ve done so much work for clients. I haven’t actually done that much work promoting myself. It’s just happened organically over the last four years, which has been fun.
5:44 GU It’s a sign that you’re good at what you do. It’s interesting. Yeah, I. I was reading a couple like top tips for Twitter and top tips for blogs, and it was said, like, use a 7525 rule, so only 25- of the time. Promote yourself or your own product, and the rest of the time either promote others.
5:57 Or just talk about interesting things like, Don’t you’re to me all every time your tweet you’re to? Absolutely, it’s more and more about, like a real social action. I mean, if you were sitting with someone having a conversation and you tried to sell them every two sentences, they would walk away, right? It’s like on Facebook when, son, I don’t know about you guys, but for me, if someone says something like I just had an amazing breakfast, it’s instant unsubscribe, you know, like, I don’t even think twice. It’s straight away unsubscribe for my news feed.
6:29 But if I see a link through to something that I find interesting, and this person, I might not even know them, you know, I might just. They might have been someone who added me from my Jiujitsu page or something. But if I see a few interesting posts or retweets or something by them, I think, Okay, this, this guy’s adding value. He’s got something cool to show me, and then I’ll take more of a notice of him. I guess.
6:49 Would you say it’s the same kind of thing? No, no interesting, no, because I haven’t tweeted about what I have for breakfast, although there are times when I have said that I need chocolate. Which is a real girly thing, but unscribe for, you see, for me, that’s got loads of conversation going on, it’s got loads of conversation. You know, it’s a female to female thing, speaking to other people. Not everybody wants information all the time about everything.
7:12 Sometimes it’s the human stuff. It’s the talking about stuff that’s not really anything to do with anything important. That is going to get you talking to people. I mean, I interesting, that’s how it’s worked for me. It’s it different on Twitter than on Facebook CuZ on Twitter.
7:24 You expect it’s just. There’s so many feeds that it’s not like a Facebook, where it’s like, I think it’s a little bit more. You’re notting. Yeah, very, very much so. Facebook is very much a business marketing tool if you’re using a page on Facebook.
7:37 There’s a loads of things you can do, you can be adding vouchers. You can be, as I said, doing the competitions all sorts of things. You can do the same on Twitter as well. You can obviously have codes and or ask people to retweet and do all kinds of stuff. But Facebook is very much you have to get your community to interact with you.
7:51 And also the thing of having a Twitter on your mobile phone and being able to tweet a picture or everything else. It’s it makes it really easy, and it’s 140 characters. Facebook is much more about a bigger post or something more interesting to say, saying more, saying more. And these are constantly changing mediums, aren’t they? I mean, even a couple years ago there weren’t any Facebook corporate pages right, it was just people right?
8:16 And then Facebook is changing constantly right there all the time, all the time. To do this stuff, you have to do a lot of reading, Okay, what’s weird? I can’t get into Twittering, I don’t know why I just can’t get into Twitter tough and it’s tough to grow. Cuz We’re growing from nothing with real, and if you know, we might have 5050 followers or 60. I don’t know last time I checked, but to grow that is difficult, isn’t it?
8:36 It is, but I think the more you interact with your audience and the more you actually start doing things that mean that you’re. You’re getting your audience involved in what you’re doing, rather than just putting out your podcast. And you actually start asking them for feedback on what you’re doing, and it’s the feedback that will get people talking to you. I think on that note, we have to say a big shout out to I’ll read Julian Oh yeah, actually wrote down Julian Bales. Yeah, he did this crazy master post on Our Last episode about the movie Shame.
9:02 I mean, it was like four, six paragraphs long about his thoughts on the movie and everything. And so it actually gave me quite a cool perspective on the film as well. It was quite, it was very, very well written. I just had a message with him and I was like, Are you an English major? Very well written, very well thought out.
9:16 And, yeah, some great comments by him also Roseanne Frza. She wrote some really great comments. I just want to shout out to those people, but that’s really good advice. What do you think’s the biggest mistake people make when it comes to digital PR? Because obviously everybody wants to be in it now?
9:32 And most people I would say, don’t know what the hell they’re doing. And there must be tons of people out there in your field that don’t know what they’re doing, but are taking lots of money. From Ford Motor Company from Coca-cola. What’s the biggest mistake some people make? Do you think that’s a great question?
9:48 Maran Biggest mistake? I think you’ve got to be prepared to answer if you’re a company and you’re using social media. And you know, if there’s a criticism and you don’t answer it, then it’s not going to look good. And I think really anything that you’re putting online, you got to be aware that it’s going to stay online. Anything you do is going to be on, you know, it’s very, very hard to get rid of content really hard.
10:12 You know, to go to Google and get something taken off of somebody’s blog or get something removed is really difficult. You still need an injunction to do it. Very interestingly, they don’t really want to know about what’s put on there as long as their tools are being used properly. So I think, you know, one of the biggest bits of advice is be sure that what’s going out there is positive. Be measuring, what’s going on, what people are saying to you and just keep watching what’s being said.
10:36 I mean, what I would say to business owners as well, especially, you know, with small businesses as well, is put your own name into Google and see what’s coming up. There’s some interesting stuff if you put mine in really will not cover that today, but yes, it’s, but it’s very interesting. You’re saying, Watch what’s being said about you, what’s being said about you, and, you know, as a company actually engage with. If someone said something negative about you, be prepared to answer it and be prepared to answer it fast. You know, I saw.
10:59 There’s a website called Trip Advisor and you can go on there and check at the hotels and things like that and see what’s good and bad. And you found that the smart hotels watch that like a hawk, and if anyone complains because there’s always a complaint in a hotel. Oh, the breakfast was cold or something. I saw the good hotels were on there right away, saying, We’re really sorry about that. Next time you come back, we’ll give you a free breakfast.
11:17 We’ve already fixed that problem and when you read that they’re interacting with you, you’re like, Okay, this hotel gets it. And they care as opposed to just these people that don’t respond to that social media. So it’s completely changed customer service and retail, because it is so easy to find out straight away. As you said, What hotel is crappy, what restaurant is crappy? I can walk down the street and open little app, and then I can find out if I see a restaurant that I want to eat in.
11:40 I can tell straight away if the food’s good, based on people’s obviously subjective opinion, but I that, that will affect my decision for sure. And it’s, I think it’s overall for the consumer. It’s such a cool thing because they don’t have to go and drop 100 Co on a meal and be totally disappointed with it. They don’t. That’s or read a review in a magazine that might, I don’t know, be skewed one way or the other, I guess so.
12:02 I think that’s why corporations are embracing Facebook. CUZ, they put these ads out and people like them. So when, when? When your friend recommends a movie, you go see that movie, and it’s like, when the advertisement comes on, you’re like, Eh? Maybe that’s where viral marketing comes in as well.
12:17 Yeah, of course, and I think, you know, like you guys are. Using video is a big deal now. Powerful. Visually putting a message across that people are going to get to see is, I mean, I. I’ve worked with quite a few clients in the last few years, have really got into this way more than I have.
12:32 Actually. They’ve really, really got into actually promoting what they’re doing by using video tips, and I think it’s fantastic I there, there’s a coach I work with and she’s done the most amazing. I think she did a whole load of tips, which were just a minute long, but imparted enough information that it was interesting to watch. And it’s getting her out there. So, yeah, videoos really important as well.
12:56 What would you say? Cuz One of the things Brian and I, we I wouldn’t say we’re struggling with it, but it’s always in our mind, is we get one of the biggest criticisms of our show is that it’s too long. People are like, Oh, I just don’t have a spare hour. And I’m personally of the opinion that like, look, if you can’t find like a spare hour once a week in your life to watch London Real, you need to seriously rep, prioritize your life. But it’s like, Do you think there’s some merit to that?
13:22 Ian, do you think the show would be different if it was 30 minutes or obviously be different? But you think it would be better if it was 30 minutes or no, okay, why no? If you build a fan base and you build a following, people watch TV programs, it’s just a different way of watching a show. If this was a talk show on TV and it was an hour, then people would watch it. So video is just another medium.
13:42 It’s just another way of you doing it. MH No, I don’t think so personally. I think it’s about it’s about your, your fan base and who’s going to be following you because they’re interested in what you’re. I mean, I watch podcast that are 3 hours long, you know, I mean, I, I might not watch them all at once. I might be cooking while I’m watching it or listening, and that kind thing, but I think it’s a new medium people aren’t used to.
14:01 When you click on a YouTube video, everything’s usually a minute and a half, so when you look at our video, it’s like, Whoa, but that’s interesting. You said that? I don’t think we can get to the bottom of meeting someone in 30 minutes because usually the juicy stuff starts coming out and, you know, half hour, 40 minutes. When Monique starts telling about our crazy life, how far in are we? BRI?
14:19 We’re like 15 minutes in, so tell us more about you. Monique I know that you recently launched or relaunched a website for your art. Yes, as well. I’ve looked at some of it, but can you just tell us more about you as an artist? Yeah, in fact, I have to thank my dad for that one who will never watch this on a video unless I actually show it to him.
14:39 Bless him, but he sat me down when I was a little girl and started teaching me about perspective and about. He’s an amazing artist. I mean, he’s never shown it, he’s never really sort of gone for it, but he’s a really, really good artist. And I loved it and I loved it from. I don’t know as far back as I can remember.
14:54 So I started painting and I’m very much self-taught. But I. I worked with some people in a studio stud, and I’ve started developing all sorts of things. And then I sort of progressed and set up a website. And I was having my own exhibitions at one point and I didn’t do it for quite a long time.
15:08 And now my soul re needs it. Now I’m going therapeutic, to a certain extent therapeutic. And also I’ll be doing some good stuff with it because I’m doing some bodycasting training and some body painting, training. And I want to combine all of it, work with people with it, so it’s good. People see themselves in a different way when you’re making them look beautiful with paint, so you do body painting and body casting.
15:29 What and what are can you explain? Both of those? Okay, so bodyc casting, I’m just finishing training for. It’s creating scul sculptures, 3D sculptures in clay, in plaster or resin that you can then paint and you can. Beautiful pieces, really, of someone’s body, someone’s bit body parts or of a complete body.
15:49 Yeah, absolutely, so it’s, and it’s really quite special. You know, it’s sort of like people do it for their pregnant bellies and that sort of thing. They come to you and say, Want a copy of my body? Yeah, well, that’s what I will be doing. That’s the thing that I’m working on now, but I’ve done that a bit with pregnant women with body painting, so painting their pregnant stomachs, which is gorgeous.
16:09 And then and then they wear it to a party, or they go to the beach, they take a picture, they take a photo of it, and they remember what their stomach look like. And it’s really it’s really cool, it is cool, it is cool, it’s interesting, it’s right. The only time I ever heard of body painting is when Hugh Hefner does it at the Playboy Mansion once a year. And he paints the Naked Girls. And then, yeah, so you should get to that party.
16:28 But that’s the only time I’ve really seen body painting. Well, actually, I was in a bea one time and with my girlfriend and they painted her leg and it was really cool. It is cool, it is cool, hard to explain, but it’s something quite. It’s really cool. And it’s like using a human body as a canvas, which to me is, I paint naked people.
16:46 Wow, what’s that like? Great? Well, I thought. Most people are uncomfortable with their bodies and most people aren’t proud of their bodies. So how do you get them to come in and make a cast of a body that they might not be perfectly proud of?
16:57 I’m shameless, I don’t feel that I feel, you know, it’s like my. My body gave me two great kids, and I don’t care about any of that stuff. So, but if you impart that to the person that you’re painting, then I think it’s very easy. I think it’s very, it’s about making them feel comfortable, it’s about making them feel you know what go for this because everybody’s beautiful in their way. And it’s, I suppose it’s a Don’t get me started on the whole stereotypical girl thing, but let’s get started, let go.
17:24 Tyal You know, the sort of the Hu Hefna super model thing, it just it doesn’t. You know what there’s. There’s loads of different kinds of beauty. And I suppose what you’re saying is people compare themselves and you know what men do too. Men do too.
17:37 I just had a great experience on the Tube, actually listening to. Two young guys talk about what they thought of the girls in the office. And I was really laughing and they got caught and they knew they got caught. It was great and it was all about the size of the girls boobs in the office, and I thought it was hysterical. But, yeah, look, of course, girls, girl, girls and guys do the same kind of thing, and I think you’re right, I think men do it, and it’s actually it’s interesting.
18:00 You say that, Cuz, I think it’s something that comes up for guys that they don’t deal with very much. Is that there a lot of self-image stuff that guys have that isn’t written about in the press as much? There’s a lot, a lot, I mean, a lot. Yeah, I read a book while that called the Adonis Complex. Okay about it, No.
18:15 It’s how the social pressures on men to conform to particular body ideals are becoming just as strong there. The ones for WOm. And that’s why you see these dudes who work out in the gym like 2 hours a day and take Creatine and whatever. Probably Anab anabolic steroids as well. I’ve got this buddy and I won’t say his name, but he knows he’s got it on his complex.
18:37 He’s like, If I miss a meal or if I don’t work out one day, I feel guilty. I start feeling fat and he’s the kind of dude will be. We’ll go to watch a movie and he’ll pull out like a chicken breast wrapped in Tinfoil. In the cinema. You know what I mean, so it’s like he’s really into it.
18:54 I, I can see it, you know, and you see it. Now there’s more and more billboards of Men and Pictur your Abs and all that. And yeah, Ian, I used to train a lot, I still do, and I used to train just lot. Nick and LIf a lot and St, and the first thing I would meet with guys out in the city, they’ be like, All right, what’s your workout routine, how you doing that, how you doing that? How can I do that?
19:12 What do you eat? They all want to know Cuz. It’s like it’s like they could get their money or they could get this, but that’s like that. One thing they haven’t figured out yet, and it stresses them out. Yeah, well, I just, I, I suppose, you know, being an artist and painting nudes, sometimes it would be just.
19:29 I mean, if you look at my stuff, it’s just been a body part rather than the whole person. Because, you know, you’re focusing on the beauty of something in particular, or a face, or, you know, it doesn’t. It doesn’t really matter. For me, it’s just an extension. These things I’m doing now, the body painting and the body casting are an extension for me of n painting nudes.
19:50 But just using a human being, which is, I think it’s fantastic, it’s really nice, actually, it’s a really nice feeling, it’s really fun, it’s quite intimate, it’s quite, it’s, it’s good. So you wouldn’t do it for like a party. I would do it for a party, I would do it for a party. But you know what? For me, I mean, I did some stuff you can see on the website.
20:08 I did some stuff with face decorating and I did some stuff for my daughter when she was off to a fancy dress party, and it’s. It’s great fun. But there is definitely something great about getting someone to stand there naked and covering their body in really great designs. Andain It’s kind of like tribal. I mean, back in the day used, put on paint andere pain, absolutely, and you and you always photograph it afterwards.
20:32 That’s idea, and can you tell us the website? Yes, it’s Nakedsol art,.com, Nickou Art,.com Okay, well, we’ll put it up on the video as well. Yeah, sounds, that’s pretty interesting, although I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think, well, I don’t know, but yes, so how long have you been doing PR or how long have you been? I don’t know networking, or, however, you, you say it, what do you say you do?
20:57 PR is such a generic term is a very generic term. And I’m not, I’m not a sort of classic PR print media girl at all. I think the thing that I’ve been doing over the last few years is taking people’s messages and putting them on the net. Lots of training, people in how to use social media. There’s a lot of people doing that stuff now and I, that’s why I’m sort of veering on to doing other bits and pieces.
21:17 And I think the generation sort of coming through school now will be able to do this stuff in their sleep. It’s not going to be something we have to teach them. I think really, if you sort of look at the 30 plus age group, they’re still getting into it. Who’s an influencer, who’s not an influencer? You know, the young guys behind Facebook and all of these companies are obviously, you know, it’s really hot right now.
21:39 But I think these things are going to change and I think we will be. We’ll have to offer something quite special later on. I don’t think there’s going to be so much that it focuses just on social media itself. As time goes on, I think we’re going to have to be, we’re going to have to be doing other stuff as well. Now Facebook is coming out with their I.P.O. it’s big news now they think it’s going to push billion, yeah, it’s probably somewhere between 75 and 100.
22:02 They have to IPO because they’ve got over 500 shareholders, so they’re going to have to start publicly reporting information. So might as well IPO it. And obviously there’s a lot of people with shareholdings and stuff. I mean, there’s some crazy stories out there. There’s a guy who painted the murals of the wall on the original Facebook headquarters five years ago or something.
22:17 And they said, I’ll give you $1,000, I’ll give you some stock, and he’s like, I’ll take the stock. And he’s going to be worth $2,200 million on the float. That’s pretty, no, that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? for worky, awesome. And at the time, he said, I think this is a stupid company and it’s pointless. CU Why he was an artist, I don’t know. he was just like, whatever, I don’t know.
22:35 Maybe he saw everything going around him and he just took it, but he didn’t think he thought social media was dum. That is insane. Yeah, I mean, then that’s only one story. Obviously, Zuckerberg and everyone is going to be really rich. It’s going to be one of the highest valued companies.
22:46 It’s going to be the largest IPO ever bigger than Google. And it’ll be worth more than, you know, Ford Motor Company. And things like that insane. And then the whole question is, people are saying, is Cuz what they’re really selling? What the value is really all of our personal information, everything we’ve liked, every message you’ve sent.
23:02 You know, all the ads that are targeted on the right, they’re targeted based on the messages you and I send to each other. What we’ve liked, what we’ve posted and the question is, is there a value for that information and is it worth 100? But is it worth dream? Is it worth $100 billion? I’m sure it is, I’m sure it is.
23:16 Will Facebook be here in 10 years? I think so, but you think it’ll be different, I think it’ll be different. I think they’ll be doing other things. I think there’s a lot of stuff they haven’t actually tapped into yet, which I’m quite surprised about. I’m surprised they’re not doing more of their own.
23:27 E.-commerce surprised that they’re not selling more of their own product in a way. Okay, but yes, I think I think they will be here, I think they will be here, but I think there’ll be other things too. I think we have no idea what’s going to happen from day to day. Brian said something really interesting to me a long time ago, which was Cuz. I think I made some comment about how, like Facebook is here to stay, it’s become such a juggernaut that there’s going to be nothing to stop.
23:52 And he was, and you said, Just look at MySpace, look how fickle people are. Yeah, I mean, MySpace is dead and buried now, basically completely dead. Yeah, and who knows, something could come along next week. That’s the new Facebook net. Netscape was another one, it was a big I.P.O. in 1995, it was a Web browser.
24:06 No one had ever seen this thing that you could just pull up all this information on the Web. Huge IPO 6 years later, B Zero Internet Explorer came out with Microsoft and it was just dead. There’s tons of examples of this absolut. I do think Facebook has some legs and, you know, it’s interesting, you say, about the E.-commerce Cuz. If you’ve seen the movie, the social network, I’m sure you’ve seen it.
24:26 You know, he Zuckerberg was hesitant to put ads up. He’s like, That makes it cheap, this is cool now. He also said We don’t know what this is yet. And so they didn’t do that in the beginning. Of course they’re doing ads now.
24:37 It’s much like much the same with London, Real. I said that to you, yeah, the first couple times, it’s like, we don’t really know what this is yet, and it’s funny. In Monique, when we were created London Real, everyone was trying to tell us what it should be. They like now you guys need to do this, you need to do that, you don’t have a topic, you don’t have. A. It’s too long, you know this, and we were like, You know what?
24:55 We know what we want this to be, you know, and know what it’s going to be. But we know the general direction it’s, and it’s not what you want it to be, it’s what we want it to be. You know, everyone has an opinion on everything you know, and if you listen to everyone else, you’ll never get anything done. And, yeah, and you might probably won’t create something unique. So, but yeah, so we have a little bit of maybe we’ll be doing an I.P.O. in 10 years.
25:15 You never know, we’ll give Monique stock perfect. I’ll come and pay something for you, and you can pay me in stock. That’s perfect. You know what we should do, Brian So for those of you watching listening, sometimes Brian and I speak about having a London Real party and I know we will sooner or later do it. But we should do like a reunion for all the guests, and all of them could do something along the lines of their speciality.
25:37 So like we could have Monique painting and James from humble grape, like giving out wine and fantastic. I love that, I like that. We should do that. Let’s do it in the summer. Yeah, part good.
25:47 We get Demat to give out vaccines, pass around clean needles. That’s great, that’s great. Thank you, so you can, you’re not doing this to make money with your painting. Or I will be, I will be. It’s going to be commercial, but it’s very much a soul thing as well.
26:05 It’s very much art for me. Is, is it all about expression, is it, is it all about expression, or is it more than that? Is it more therapeutic and communicating with? It’s all that what you do, I think I have. I’ve been rolling this thought around my mind for a long time.
26:21 Maybe I could get your opinion on it. I think human beings are naturally created and expressive right entities. Because I mean, if you, if you take my perspective and I’m not saying it’s a right one. But what I believe is that we’re a reflection of God, which is this creative source which created the universe, right? And that’s why so many people are so miserable in like boring office jobs because we aren’t created as drones or worker ants we’re created to create and express.
26:52 And when you take some dude and you sit him down and you say, Look at this ExL spreadsheet for every day for the next 8 hours, 5 days a week until you’re 65. And then we’ll give you a watch and a payout like, no wonder, so many people want to kill themselves. It’s just don’t have a creative outlet, it’s not like that anymore, it’s not like that anymore. Most people don’t have a job for life anymore. Fair enough, but you know what I’m saying.
27:13 But I agree, I mean, that’s why I’ve never been really good at the office job sort of thing. I’ve never really. No, I’m not very good at that, I’m not very good. I am much more about interacting with people, so yeah, for me it’s great, but I write as well. I mean, I’ve done lots of marketing writing with London Digital PR, and I like, it’s the expression.
27:32 Writing is fun. What kind of writing did you do like writing C content and press releases and writing tweets? And, yeah, and I’m looking forward to doing some of that on naked soul art. I’m going to be writing a bit about my journey and how the website got to, where it got to, and then what? I’m what I’m doing next, and, you know, it’s very self-indulgent, but it’s really good fun.
27:52 So but people do start paying attention, and you know you, you trigger something in someone else’s was going through a similar situation. And that’s how community start online. MHM What do you think about communicating digitally and communicating in person because so many people are plugged into the Facebook and everything? And I am now because of the show and we promoted on there. And I’m checking the YouTube views, and I’m checking Facebook.
28:14 And I’m meeting, You know, this, dude, Julian, from who lived in Beijing. And but like at some point, are we missing something? Because, like having a conversation like Nick and I agreed we would never have a Skype guest? We need the guest in studio like I need to see what Monique’s thinking and how feeling. I mean, like, are we substituting something here?
28:32 Are we missing? It’s really interesting. Cuz I have done a lot of getting to know clients. I mean, obviously, you know, talking to people in another country on Skype as a way to introduce myself to them or whatever. And one of the things I would say is that, yeah, we have lost a bit of the ability.
28:50 I mean, you know, we’re texting instead of picking up the phone to people. Now we’re not driving over and going out for a coffee. We’re chatting on Skype or Facebook or whatever. So we have lost something and I. But I do think I think for me, the important thing to remember is when you’re actually interacting online, you’re interacting with people.
29:07 Of course, there’s the robots and the people that are following automated profiles and all the rest of it. But I think the important thing is when you are putting anything out online is to remember that actually, what you’re doing is you’re talking to people. W people are at the end of those profiles. You’re at the end of your profile, when you’re putting a message out there, you’re putting it out there. But in the end, the people that are reading it are people like us.
29:27 And I, I think that’s something that has always been at. The back of my mind is that you’re not just talking to another computer that’s well said, that is really well, said Cuz. I guess they want to make a personal connection with you at the end of the day. Absolutely. Are we starved for from, I mean, as humans are, we just starved to make a personal connection with others?
29:44 I don’t think so, like I used to believe that for a long time because I, I had quite a negative worldview about how everything’s getting worse. And things aren’t as good as they were back in the day. You know that the problem of RO romanticizing and idealizing the past, you know? But sure of the ex amount of people on Facebook on each of our profiles. Yeah, maybe we don’t meet every single one of those people in a coffee shop once every few months or even once a year.
30:05 But how many of them would you have no interaction with whatsoever if they weren’t on Facebook? Yeah, absolutely, no, I agree. And the other thing is, I think there’s an awful lot of love out there for. People are sharing a lot of good stuff as well. I mean, there’s obviously it’s used for some awful stuff and it can be, but you know, well, I’m not going to talk about the negative side of it because there’s loads of it, and I think it’s better.
30:26 You know, the way I like to look at it is there’s some. I’ve met some amazing people, you know. I’ve worked with a film maker journalist in Norway and I would never have met her. Had it not been for Facebook, I just wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have bumped into her in a coffee shop in Oslo.
30:42 And, you know, she’s become a great girlfriend of mine and she does some amazing work, which I would have known nothing about. So as far as I’m concerned, social media for me has been pretty much a positive okay in my life. I find it. Most people are positive on the social media, especially when they’re not anonymous. You know, back the day with YouTube, I get a lot of anonymous comments on my old videos.
31:01 And but I, especially with London Real, we get 98- positive. The people I follow on Facebook, it’s 95. -. Positive, I think, is like, as the old clan mentality I think is we were talking about as like a group of hunter gathers. I think we naturally we push away, I think we push out the negativity because I don’t.
31:18 I don’t think it’s positive for the whole group and I think nobody wants that, and I think that’s why I don’t see it as much. Well, those people will congregate in their own little negative group. You know what I mean, maybe, but I don’t know. I find it mostly positive. Like you said, Yeah, I know there is a load of negative stuff out there, but I think, you know, for me personally I’ve.
31:36 I’ve really had great experiences meeting people there. But then it does become, you know, I flew out to Norway and I met my friend Linda and she’s fantastic, so she is now a real life friend. And that’s happened a lot for me, that’s really happened a lot, and I think I think that’s the truth, is that in the end, we are meeting real people and if we build a friendship with those people, that friend is just as valid as if I was sitting having a coffee with them, so, yeah, it leads to that. Basically, yeah, I just sometimes I’. I’ve been on social media like, 6 hours in the day, and I’m like, Wait a second.
32:08 You know, I haven’t actually said hello to another human being, and I’m like, What’s going on, what’s wrong with me? Yeah, it’s not good to be stuck. I mean, I just spent. I just spent a lot of time on a big project I was working for a client last year. And, yeah, I, I got to off by my boyfriend a lot.
32:22 Because he said, You’re always buried in Facebook and he’s right, you know, it was it, I did. It is. It’s not about being addictive, it’s about the fact that we could do so much by sitting in front of our laptop. Now that we don’t actually have to go out and socially interact, there is that interaction. For me, that’s not enough for me.
32:39 That’s one of the reasons I want to get back into doing hands. -on art and lots of things that are very much not about sitting in front of a laptop. Yeah, I mean, sometimes I mean, there. There was this show about gambling in Las Vegas. And it’s like they have these machines now, they’re not just like slot machines, and they’re like these really super duper like slot machines.
32:53 All sort of like video. And you put your money in and you always get like, you know, a few cents back, a few cents back, and they just charted it in the lab. And you get all these DOp dopamine spikes and stuff, and it’s really addictive. And sometimes I plug in for our stuff and I’m checking our stats on London Real. And I’m checking who’s the comments?
33:10 And I’m like, Wait a second, am I just this little monkey? Just like I would be in Vegas trying to get all these little dopamine? Every time you see that little red notification on your little world symbol on your Facebook, you get that or that little message you get back a little. Do. Yeah, interesting.
33:24 I’m think, man, I got to walk away from this, I need get out and there’s something to be said for not doing it all the time. Right, man, tell me more about that, You, you’ve mentioned the information diet like, Oh, what, that hour or before, back in the You maybe like, 10 episodes ago. Tim Ferris in his original book, The 4-hour Work Week. You know, now he’s on the 4-hour diet, and he’s super famous now and prob he’s got a 4our cookbook as well. Or something, does he?
33:49 I’m sure he does. But the original 4our Work Week book, I read it, I didn’t finish it, I did. You know, it could only apply to certain people. Maybe it apply to you, I don’t know, but with certain businesses where you and run them and not be present. And all the time, like 8 hours a day, you know, I used to work in the city and I had to be on the phone 10 hours a day.
34:05 But one thing he called was the information diet, which I started using, and I would only open my email afternoon every day. And that was what it was known, and people would know that, and like I sent you a message this morning, you didn’t get it. I’m like, I don’t open my email till noon. If it’s really important, you call me otherwise, I don’t. And so that was the information diet, and so he just restricted themselves.
34:22 I check it once, and then I leave it alone. Cuz Otherwise you sit there all day and you’re like, I actually love that, I do love it. Yeah, I’ll do that too. I love it, I love that idea. Can you do that in your work? so just check your email once check your Facebook once.
34:37 I think you have to set up an expectation that would be the case and it is and it is, and it is doable. But actually there’s something amazing about getting out and going and going to the gym and having a cup of coffee. And actually, not checking into your Facebook and not being, you know, not being answerable. I mean, that’s one of the things about going on holiday that, you know, it’s a laptop free zone. I did coin that phrase from the other half, but it is a laptop freezer leave.
35:01 I can’t, you know, no, I don’t want to know, don’t want to look at it. How many hours do you do you estimate that you work at De Monique? Now? Less because I’m, I’ve just become a student and I love it, so, yeah, so now less. Now I’m taking on projects that I really want to take on, I’m working with people that I really want to work with.
35:20 But yeah, there’s been times when I’ve done 18 hours a day of sitting in front of a laptop and thinking, I’m not finished yet. But you know what, in the end, you have to stop, have to stop. Are you from London originally? I’m a sorry girl, originally just outside London. All right, but you’ve been living in the city or near the city for most of your life.
35:37 Yeah, okay, and how has London changed and do you? do you? Do you love London? Do you know? I’ve been on the tube a lot today and I’ve been watching the buskers in the In the Tube stations and they are fantastic. And it’s just sometimes just watching people’s reaction. I it made me smile, I just, I love London, but I actually dis discovered, suffed very recently that I quite like being a country girl as well. And that sometimes it’s quite nice to get away from it.
36:03 It’s noisy, it’s busy, it’s dirty as well, it’s dirty. It has changed, but then has it changed that much? I suppose when I was a teenager in clubbing, it was just as messy and dirty as it is for my kids now. So you probably wouldn’t be doing this in shortage 20 years ago. Maybe not, maybe.
36:22 Yeah, I mean this exactly. Some of the inner city areas have really changed and which is good, which is good. But yeah, I’m sing old now. Do you have a place in Syria where you can kind of go? And no, I don’t have any connection to that at all.
36:35 You do miss the having the country a little bit. Yeah, and you know, for me, I, I, actually I actually I lived in the country for a while recently, and I just I loved it. It was, it was really good, did you, were you coming to work, commuting and stuff? No, because I was there and it was, you know, just being able to walk in, you know, go out in the middle of tiny little villages, and it’s all very pretty green countryside and there is something nice about that. But I love London.
36:58 I think the diversity in London is fun, it’s insane, it is, but I also city the world. I don’t know about that, I don’t know I. What. City, what city is more diverse than London, New York? And everybody is much more of a melting pot, and I think here we have.
37:11 It’s quite an interesting setup. You looke with you, you look at it. I think that we have a huge amount of different communities but who don’t always interact very well. Maybe I just in when I go to New York, I find that everyone wants to be an American, so everyone tries to assimilate because I’m an American. Even though they just got off the boat from Kenya, which is cool.
37:28 But I find in London everyone doesn’t need to be British, they can just be their own people. You don’t see people. A woman walking down with a burka in New York City. But she’ll wear one a nice sprit, she doesn’t give a [expletive], so I find I think it’s more diverse. That’s my opinion, I don’t think so, I don’t think so.
37:43 I think we’ve got communities all over the place who are really living as communities rather than as Brits. And I, yeah, yeah, and I’m not so sure that’s a great thing you think they should. I remember sitting in, I remember sitting in a I can’t remember which books store it was in New York. And actually, having really quite amazing conversations with people who I’d never met before. And that so doesn’t happen in London, get on the Tube, I’m going to have to disagree with you.
38:08 Cuz I. That happens to me quite a bit. Where, wherever, man, I mean, I’m. I instigated as well in offness with like a girl, but, but I’m pretty open. If I see someone reading a book I think is interesting, I’ll say, Hey, dude, like, what’s what you reading? or is that a good book?
38:24 Yeah, yeah, I guess I don’t do that very often. They’re not British, they’re like, Well, the British way isn’t to go ahead and open up and talk to people. And that does permeate the city. And I found when I first got here my first 20 friends, none of them were British. Oh, that’s a good point.
38:37 Yeah, why is that? Why? why are you guys like that? Yeah, very reserved. culturally, huh? I don’t know, I’m not a typical Brit, really I can’t say that, and actually I did get chatted to today by somebody who was looking at the book. No, no, but it was by somebody who, you know, he was looking at the book I was reading, and it’s quite unusual. You know, no, I mean, it was. I think it was a bit of a chat up line, but anyway was it was quite unusual to be spoken to.
39:02 I think the most we do, which I think is really, really funny, is when I sit on the tube. And I’m smiling like a, You know, mindlessly mad person, because I feel like smiling and most, Oh my God, what’s wrong with? And the most interaction that’s going on in that Tube train is the fact that everybody’s sharing their newspapers. You know, can I read your paper when I’m finished with it, you know? So is that just the nature of an urban, highly urban culture, though just a I?
39:24 I don’t know, there is still this. There is an element of the stiff upper lip MH There is there is we. You know, there is still an element of that stuff in British society, for sure, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Keep C and carry on right. Yeah, it’s not bad, it’s not keep No for me, it’s keep comm and eat chocolate.
39:40 But yeah, yeah, absolutely. You’re talking about the subway, though, I mean, if you in the subway in New York and you ask someone for the newspaper, I mean, they’re going to tell you, get that, get out of their face seriously. I remember I moved from New York to Chicago and I was going to in the elevator and someone hit the elevator in Chicago. And they were like, How are you and I? My first reaction was, Who the [expletive] are you?
39:59 No? CUZ in New York, in New York. It’s just like it’s a standoffish, it’s like, Get the [expletive] out of my way, Who do you think you are? Why are you following me? It’s always like, really aggressive, and so, you know, I find it surprising. Maybe you just bring out the best in people money.
40:11 Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s just you, or maybe I’m just a jerk. You were talking about the Busker and I got a really quick Busker story, and then I’ll let it go. When I was 18, I had to decide between two universities and one was one was Caltech, where my dad went, which is the California Institute of Technology. Very, very good school in L.A. and one was M.I.T. which is in Boston. Yeah, right, so they’re like two of these top competing institutions, right?
40:35 And my dad went to Caltech, he took me up and showed me Caltech and Caltech’s great. There’s not a lot of girls around, it’s a very small school. Super smart dudes. I mean, they those guys created the first microchip and like all this crazy stuff and they’re still doing great. And then my mom took me to Boston and I saw Boston and saw the city, and then we were going to leave and we went down.
40:51 In the subway, there’s obviously no subway in L.A. and there was a busker there, man. He was singing some crazy [expletive] like some crazy stuff, and I was just like, Man, this is exactly where I want to be. I want to be in this urban kind of central thing where you see these crazy things happen? You know, maybe it’s Cuz? I grew up on the West Coast, too.
41:07 I needed a change, but that Busker sealed the deal. Yeah, I like that, I mean, I’ve seen it twice today and on the lovely Northern line, do you give them money sometimes? Okay, do you know what? I had an idea the other day about London, Real? What we should do is we should have a homeless person on the show about that.
41:25 Yeah, I think it would be interesting, like one of the questions, in fact, I will ask it when they come in is, I mean, I always? When I see a homeless person, the first thing that goes through my mind is, How did it get to that point? You know what happened, what events transpired for you to find yourself with no home and nothing to eat? Sitting in that spot like, I mean, probably very simple. You know, it just happened and could have happened to a lot of people, and they probably have a really fascinating backstory.
41:53 You know, it’s easy just to kind of look, and, oh, you’re homeless, I’m not going to look at you. But they probably have a lot of interesting things to say, Yep, we should do that. I wanted to get an Occupy wall stre in here as well. When you go talk to him, it’s hard to find a leader. Cuz there’s no leaders, you know, yeah, that’s quite interesting, all of that stuff.
42:09 I mean, do either of you guys know anyone who’s become homeless? No, Cuz, I don’t either, but I was close really seriously. Oh yeah, yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been not really. You know what? You relationship ends, your marriage ends, you’ve lost all your money, you start again, it’s doable, do you?
42:25 So I don’t know your backstory, but I’m just going to take a guess. This is based on my own stuff and stuff that Brian and I have chattered about a lot. So that when that happened, when your marriage ended and you lost all your money like it was obviously incredibly traumatic. But looking back now, would you say it’s one of the best things that ever happened to you? I think I think I’m blessed.
42:46 I think everything that’s happened to me is, is, Yeah, I mean, I suppose in a way I’m a survivor, nothing really would stop me. You know that there’s been. We all have rough times, we all have rough times. But, you know, I look at it now and I’ve got two grown-up kids, and I’m pretty free. And my life’s going the way I want it to go, and I’m doing what I want to do.
43:06 And it’s all been about lessons, so, no, I don’t really regret any of it. It’s been good cool, it’s a great perspective. I feel the same way. Yeah, too. I was speaking with someone the other day and they were like, I might get sacked and I was like, Okay, you can deal with this.
43:18 I was like, the three times I’ve been sacked, they the greatest things that ever happened, you? I got sacked in Chicago and I mean, lovely City, but, man, I don’t want to be live in Chicago the rest of my life. And I’m like, They got me out of it, but I hadn’t got sacked. I would have kept on, kept on earning that, going to that job. You didn’t really love, but it was paying the bills.
43:34 And but since you got sacked like, Okay, now you got to go do something new. And it’s like, I’m thankful for all of those things. It’s all perspective, isn’t it? Absolutely? On a slightly unrelated note, you showed us your pennant earlier, which has got the What do you call that symbol again?
43:48 It’s a Hamza. Yes, Ham okay, and it means what, exactly? It’s. I think it’s I’m not, I’m no expert on this, but it’s very much a Middle Eastern. For me, it’s a Jewish thing, it’s the Ham Israel connection thing, and it’s, Is it like cabalistic?
44:03 It’s keeping the evil eye away. It’s, yeah, so is it like a Turkish evil eye? It’s all around the same thing, it’s all the same kind of stuff, and actually you see a lot of this. Yeah, the evil eye thing is huge in the Middle East. Okay, now you, you flashed us your tattoo.
44:19 Earlier, I did flash my tattoo of all I did. Are you? I mean, if you’re of the Jewish faith, you’re not supposed to get tat, are you? No, you’re not, you’re not, but you know what, I know, so many people who are, and you know, all that are we allowed to swear on this. Okay, all that [expletive] about the fact that you won’t be buried and all that stuff, it’s just liable nonsense.
44:38 Don’t get me started on all that. Well, you know what, I just, I have no time for ignorance. No, you know, what if I if I had dropped dead yesterday and I’ll always say it that way? But if I had, my rabbi would be quite happy to stick me in the ground in a sheet. Okay, so, yeah, it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense.
44:54 Yeah, I’m a bit of a rebel, but I’m not really not really that much of a rebel. And, yeah, loads of my Jewish friends are tattooed. Okay, hugely, so it’s funny. Cu, we had a We had a Muslim girl sitting in that seat two weeks ago and she’s got the tats and I’m like, What’s up? And she’s like, Well, in Islam, they say, it’s you shouldn’t hurt yourself, she’s like they didn’t hurt [expletive] off.
45:15 We get mine hurts, mine hurts. What if you went to your like Rabbi with a tattoo of the star of David? I mean, he couldn’t be angry with you then, right? No, that’s, you know what? I really didn’t want to do that.
45:24 Cuz I didn’t want it to be like branding, and it’s too ObV obvious, and I sort of do want another one. Is that your only one? Yeah, but I’m veering towards more because there is, there is, I have to say I’ve looked at, I mean, that I wouldn’t want it everywhere, I wouldn’t, but I’ve seen some that they’re just amazing works of art. I think I got a bit addicted one evening to L.A. In and I was watching it and just thought, Oh, this is just Amaz. I mean, they’re amazing artists, they’re amazing artists, I watch those shows and I, I don’t.
45:52 I want to run from those tattoo. It’s just amazing what they do. So some of it, it’s hysterical, like a guy want, like some memory of his like grandfather or something. So coming with this like weird mural of his, his grandfather with a dolphin and a rainbow. I don’t get those that’s like, my brother died and I want a picture of his head on my back.
46:13 I just sometimes I feel sad for these people, like, Are you sure you want to do that? Cuz, You might not want that in a couple years, that was quite a sweet one. I saw where this woman had lost her baby and she got her baby put on her arm, and that was actually quite sweet. But yeah, it’s not, it’s a bit freak, you know what? I actually speaking of tattoos the other day I saw I was reading some article about Mike Tyson.
46:34 There was a picture of him and I saw a tattoo that I hadn’t seen on him before. I think it’s an old one, though not the face one obviously not Ma on his shoulder. He’s got like General Mao or Chairman Mao from China, but he has. He has days of Grace written Oh yeah, under a picture. I think it’s Arthur Ash is the picture of the dude, but I think that sounds kind of cool.
46:53 Days of grace, interesting days of grace. So how does tattoo? I mean, you obviously paint people for body art and then you have a tattoo. have you ever painted yourself? Do those have any kind of parallels? Have I ever painted myself painted on myself?
47:09 You paint other people, so when I check put on make, I have actually paint. I have actually face painted myself and I, I would actually go the whole hog with it. And I’ve got some really quite cool ideas about things I want to do in the future with all of that. So they’re all ideas in development. But yeah, yes, exactly, we do paint ourselves, don’t we?
47:26 Every day. Well, if you wear makeup, then you what, what are your thoughts on that? I had a girlfriend once, and she was like the biggest feminist, but then every morning she’d wake up and have like, a 2hour makeup routine. And I was like, Can those not coexist? Well, I don’t know, dude, because, ah, I love that question, I no, I love it that you asked that, Okay, so what do I think?
47:44 Yeah, I suppose I’m a bit oldfashioned, and maybe if you asked a girl 10 years younger than me, what I think, I think you know what? In a way, the feminine FE feminism movement is amazing, however. I like men that are men. I like I, I like the oldfashioned thing. I like flowers and having the door held open.
48:03 And, you know, I quite like that, and I think we’ve done a lot, you, it’s about how you have it all. MH I’m very much an advocate of women who work if they’re being, if they’re doing the same job, be paid the same amount of money. I mean, we still have huge prejudices here in certain fields and we do, and that’s even in the UK, it doesn’t matter. There are still certain careers that you can go into as a man and you’re going to do better than a woman. Because if you stop and have children, it’s a problem, you know?
48:32 What if a woman’s doing the same job as a man and she’s working in an office and she has to leave at 4,-00, pay her the same salary. Prat, you know, take that hour off her pay and let her go home and look after her kids. It’s doable, and I think it’s a lot more simple than we’ve made it as a society. I don’t think it’s so difficult, but I think it is a lot more simple and this is probably going to piss a lot of people off. But for me, I think Feminis and one of the Tenents of it is that men and women are equal and men and women are not equal.
49:02 Cuz equal means the same men and women are very different. Neither one is better than the other. Correct, but they are. They definitely have different skills and different weaknesses. And when you try to say everyone’s the same and a woman can do this the same as well as a man can.
49:18 It’s like saying that a man could like breastfeed a baby, it’s just mean it’s different personalities. I mean, the is her name Le Gardin, she’s is the head of the IMF. Now that French lady that took over for the French dude that had those charges in New York City that were dropped. Christine Legard She’s a very impressive woman and they had an article on her in 60 Minutes the other day. But she said, Look, she’s like, as a woman, I don’t need to, I don’t need to go to be celebrated as the man.
49:45 She’s like, I’m here to get things done and she’s like, I can. I think I can get them done in a different way. As a woman, I mean, look at Margaret Thater and she. She used to call Ronald Reum up and she’d be like, Ronnie, this is the way it needs to be. You know, a guy wouldn’t couldn’t talk to Ronald like that.on be like, No, I’m the biger man, I, I’m this, but she I think she, she.
50:04 I think a female can do things, especially in an executive role, that men in a different way than I think. A man, Yeah, I think that’s cool, I think it’s really good, I actually think, and I actually think you’re right. I think women still there are, unless there’s a day when men are going to have babies. We are never going to be the same, we are never going to be the same. You know, until women are not the mothers and the nurturers and the caregivers, and you know what?
50:27 For me, I don’t really want to fight to be anything different than I am. I don’t want to be, you know, I suppose in some ways I am, you know, I’m. I don’t sit and wait for everything to be done for me, but you want be a ball breaker either. No, I don’t. Yeah, no, it’s interesting, you know.
50:44 I mean, I used to work in the city, very few women in the in the city, but the ones there are very good. Oh, really, they are, yeah, very good, but they have to also, just, you know, they’re around these animals all day long. You know, these 95- – of these men, and they’re shouting and being nasty. But the ones that do it can do it very well, and they know how to handle it. And they can push the buttons on certain people the way other people can’t, so they just use their femininity to their advantage.
51:09 That doesn’t mean in a sexual way it just means they come at things with a different approach. You know, some sometimes. I mean, let’s just look at two bulls in the past year. We’re trying banging on our heads to with each other, and there’s obviously other ways of doing it. And the intelligent female executives, I think they, they, they find a way around that, absolutely right.
51:26 And then some of try to be guys. And I don’t think that works always for them. It maybe works in some situations, but I don’t know, I don’t know. Interesting, Yeah, so tell us, tell us, tell us something about us about you, that you haven’t told us so far. MONQUE So it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be a student.
51:43 Okay, you’ve never been a student before, I’ve never gone to university. Before. I left school at 16, I started working young. What were you working? I was working in promotions when I first left school, which I had really good fun doing.
51:57 Okay, what your parents think about that, my parents, you know, it’s a question of. There wasn’t enough money for me to go study and do what I wanted to do. So I went out there and I did something else okay, and I worked, and it was like a blessing in disguise. I’m guessing then I got married very young, okay, had children very young, which I don’t regret at all because they’re fantastic young human beings. Okay, do you want your kids to get married and have children?
52:18 Young? You know what, I’m not going to want anything for my children, it’s not a question of what I want. That was how my life worked out for lots of reasons, but it’s not a question of want. I want my kids to be happy and fulfilled and do it. So then after that, it’s up to them completely.
52:31 I’m their mom, that’s it. So, yeah, I mean, that is there. Not a lot of parents like that, by the way, I don’t know. Actually, I you maybe, and maybe not, but I actually, you know what, I will support them and I’ll be there. And they, they’re, they’re really very different, my kids are very different, but they’re both really great kids.
52:50 So it didn’t work out for me, and then I was bringing up young kids and then I was for to go to university. Oh, okay, I thought, you said, Like the marriage or something, no, the marriage didn’t work out for me. Some people take divorce so seriously. My mom has been divorced twice and she’s like, I was divorced twice and be like, Mom, who cares? I broke up with, like, eight, 10 girls.
53:10 It’s a marriage who what you’re so right. There are people who never, ever get married, but they have loads and loads of relationships that never last more than six months or a year. So what, you know what, I got married to the guys and great, I’m very happy about it. I had, you know, my kids are great U, my second husband, I don’t really speak to anymore, but no big deal. That’s the way it was, and for me it had never been the right time to do it.
53:33 So I just decided that now is the time and I’m loving it. Awesome. What are you studying and where? Psychology? Oh yeah, oh, I saw that on your profile.
53:39 BRB Right, yeah, so that’s great, Just started. Just absolutely love it. It’s going to be amazing, Dude, it’s learning something like that is it really changes. It’s a different part of your brain, isn’t it? Yeah, well, it’s, you know, it’s challenging, and maybe you guys are to young for this. But educating Rita, that’s so me. I remember that movie. Have you seen that movie? a famous movie with who was in it?
54:04 Michael Jy Waters Yeah, she’s aming, She like goes to. She’s like an uneducated like hairdresser in her, like late 20s or something. She goes back to university and with all these kind of university kids, and she doesn’t really fit in. But it’s a good movie education, it’s really good. So all the kids in the class younger than you. And no, this is.
54:25 This is quite interesting. I am one of the oldest in the class, but everybody’s in their sort of 20s and 30s, perhaps, but it’s not like going to university with kids. My kids age. I mean, both my kids started university this year as well after their various gap years, so it’s quite funny there. Three of us now studying at the same time, it is cool.
54:45 I encourage that kind of education, you know, I took four weeks out and took this TEFL course, which is teaching English as a for language, which, I mean, it was a [expletive]. I mean, I mean, I studied in MIT and they beat the [expletive] out of us there. But this was weeks of hell. They said, You’re not going to have a social life just, and it was true. I mean, I was doing homework to, like, Midnight every night I was teaching every day.
55:04 English to foreign students was doing my head in. It was like, four weeks, really hard. But, man, I learned so much about phonetics and all these things, and I was just like I was just. I was really glad I took it. Yeah, someone said to me, Nick, what?
55:17 What makes you most happy? And I think about it for a while. For me, it’s learning, learning is just the it’s my joy. Yeah, when was the last time you learned? Learn something every day, every day walking up?
55:28 I mean, first of all this, this past 40 minutes or whatever it’s been, I’ve learned a whole bunch. Yeah, but walking on the walking in the Tube, like every time I’m watching people in body language and listening to conversations. And just looking at the world is in an open as possible way and learning all the time. And yeah, I want to be one of those people who’s contin continuously or continually open to inut input from the world. You see these people who they.
55:56 I don’t know what it is, but there’s certain individuals who make a decision at a certain time in their lives that like, Okay, I know everything I need to know. Yeah, and Happ, older people, you know what I mean, but doesn’t happen to all older people. Yeah, that’s true. Not all older people, some people, you know, like I said it was going to zip by, but we only have a few minutes left. So I was wondering if we can get your Twitter and any other, any other pages, if you’re on Facebook or any, yes, you can.
56:22 Well, the best one is at Monique Lester, that’s the Twitter I use. Yeah, all one word, and then you can go to Nakedsol Art.com. I’ve got a Facebook page, which I’ve just started for that as well. And, of course, London Digital PR. So, yeah, all right, we’re going to flash all those up on the on the video.
56:40 People can check them out. But Monique, that was tons of fun. Thanks so much we’re going to now pick your brain once the cameras are off about PR for London Real. Because, you know, we’re trying to get this out there. But, yeah, I think it’s great to get some suggestions out there.
56:54 And I’ll just say it now. If anyone’s listening out there and has some ideas about people for the show, we definitely want your input. And like I said, any feedback is great. We love comments ITunes. If you can leave a comment there.
57:04 It just moves us up in the rankings. We were actually number 48 of new and noteworthy podcasts at one point. Dude, a couple weeks ago. So that’s pretty cool, that we’re up there and we have more. Let’s get to number one, right?
57:15 Yeah, let’s do that. We have more people listening on ITunes and watching the videos, and it’s thousands of people, so that’s really cool. So thanks for that. Thanks morning for coming in. It was tons of fun.
57:24 You’re very welcome, good to be here, nice to meet you, good to be here. It’s about the journey, it’s about the journey. All right, kids, thanks bye that always.
