What is the Squiggliest thing you have ever done?

There are two moments that stand out to me. The first was leaving law and moving from Wellington, New Zealand to New York City. I had never been to New York, I had never lived outside of Wellington but something told me this was my destiny. The second was deciding to move to Boulder, three months after meeting my now husband. Boulder felt like the place I needed to be and Mark felt like my guy. Both moves created start-up opportunities for me and lead me to my true love. I owe my life to those fearless steps into the relative unknown.

What do you do when it gets hard?

I tell myself this is part of the process, part of the journey. When you know what is happening it is a lot easier to deal with the constant sense of unease, the desire to quit, the feelings of hopelessness. This is all 100% normal, the bit that makes it hard is thinking no one else ever feels that way. The big secret is we all do. But the exceptional results come from riding through those tough moments to get to the good.

 How do you feel about asking for help?

I was the most headstrong know-it-all for the longest time.

When you ask someone for help it’s very vulnerable for you but the thing you have to realize is people, in the main, love to help. It’s one of the things Broadli is based on, that through helping our bodies release the chemical oxytocin, which is a natural high. So it’s extremely powerful.

What is your favorite thing on the planet?

My life-enhancer. Rugby the Golden Retriever, he is a constant reminder to embrace life, drink water and take time out (AKA take him for a walk). And a total and utter goof-ball.

What did you want to be when you “grew up”?

A rockstar. Actually, worse, a popstar. I had a now-embarrassing desire to be Madonna or the next best thing. I like to think I have achieved the next best thing and certainly take inspiration from her constant re-invention.

Claudia can be followed / Loved here: @ClaudiaBatten / claudiabatten.com /about.me/claudiabatten

Scouts honour, the main reason I was ever interested in meeting him was because he photographed Honey Boo Boo. And we have been fast friends ever since.

So George sat down with me for an hour, which quickly turned to two, and we talked about Squiggling.

George – squiggling mostly starts with having a great idea pop in your head that makes you kinda nervous. When was the last time you did something that made you nervous?

Always asking questions about things I don’t know.  The process of exploration with my camera in my hand is totally exhilarating and empowering.   

Take these farm dinners I have been photographing this summer in Boulder. The dinners are different every night, depending on the rainfall, the wind, what’s freshest.  It is all based literally on which way the wind is blowing.  The business is incredible - they post news of a lottery the next dinner and they are sold out almost immediately. Each experience of these dinners is unique. So why would I go in with a formula about how I will shoot the pictures?

I am just operating on instinct, pointing my camera where it needs to go.

I am interested in capturing a moment and even better a feeling. Not a pose, or a “look” or a manufactured anything. I want to capture life.

There are places you can stick your eye, your camera or your mind to see the world differently.   I stick my lens deep down in the steaming pot of fresh pasta.

So be in the moment, be guided. That’s is entirely my process, to the extent it’s a process. But have you ever felt uncertain if the pictures would “come out” and you’ve screwed up a whole shoot?

What do we really think we have control over? Why do we insist on telling ourselves, and the world, what we already know? I want to push past what I know and come out the other side more enlightened. I want to take pictures where I have idea what will happen, that is where the good stuff unfolds.

I want to go to a dinner party where I don’t have a clue what anyone is talking about, and just listen. Maybe I learn something and maybe I don’t. Admit to yourself how much you don’t know.

I have no interest in predictable and I am not looking for anyone to be what I expect. That is my job - to show up and show what is different and unique.

Ultimately I think that is what the Squiggly Line is about. It’s about TRULY showing up. We talked a little about one of the “most sexy women alive” that you photographed. I called her plastic and you said she was very unattractive in real life. What is happening there?

What connects me to people who they really are are.  I am not so concerned about what they look like on the surface.   The more personal I can make a shoot, the more powerful it is.

I am constantly searching for the goodness in my subjects. The place where we are unique, where we are connected, where we are special. I grew up in a very sheltered community where I felt very much a part of the group.  Then I went to college and started to realize I was different and I learned that all that I can do is to be the greatest version of myself.

I learned to embrace what makes me different, rather than always trying to fit in.   I was the outsider that dipped in and out of people’s lives with my camera.   It has been an incredible privilege to be invited in with so many people in my search for that happiness I had as a child.

You once mentioned to me, with much disdain, that a client had told you that the work only needed to be “good enough”.

This makes me frustrated. Do you want to be a “good enough” husband or wife? Or a “good enough” mother or father. Do you want to eat food that is good enough or do you want to eat great food? Do you want to have “good enough” sex? Watch “good enough” theatre?

But, one brave squigglier to another, I have my moments of massive anxiety about whether I am doing the right thing. Do you ever feel “I can’t do this”?

I feel anxious all the time except when I am doing what I love, when I pick up my camera. If I let my head get in the way I do get in trouble, my head wants to undo the most inspired ideas I have. Just the other night I was questioning decisions I had been making and I felt paralyzed by it. Then fear does take hold, for sure, I haven’t mastered that part of the equation.  Luckily I have a partner who can zoom out, see the big picture, then resets my compass.

What do you do then?

I talk to Stephie (George’s wife) who can zoom out, see the big picture and reset my compass. I remind myself why I am doing what I do. I get active checking in on possible clients, working on my new website and reaching out to friends to ideate. I do what I have to do to get through that moment and keep moving forward. But, do you want to know the funniest thing? (And I hope this doesn’t sound self-obsessed). On Monday morning I went to work and I thought “I don’t know what I am going to do today”. I felt so raw, I didn’t think I had it in me.  I started looking at some photos I had just taken and needed to edit and before I knew it  hours had gone past and I was totally absorbed in my work and happy. As Stephie always reminds me, “the work leads to the work.”

Steve Jobs said have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, the somehow know what you truly want to become. Do you agree?

Your intuition often tells you something that makes no sense. Every move I have made in my life has been intuitive. The gigantic decisions can’t possibly be logical. I have made 4 major life moves, all amazing. Both my boys were born from single intuitive moments of our knowledge that our family needed to grow. Moving from New York to Boulder was intuitive. Picking up the camera, every time, is intuitive. Sticking the lens in a boiling pot of water the other day – I didn’t think for a second that I could have ruined my lens – fear would have ruined the images. All these things make sense in reverse, when you look back. Didn’t Steve Jobs also say something about connecting the dots afterwards always shows you the path? All these moments craft the journey. It’s not a map - the steps don’t always make sense on paper. Were they logical? No. Big things can’t be “decided”.

I completely agree, we can only get a sense of where we need to go and just show up, do the work with no fear of the unknown right?

We have to embrace the unknown. We have to embrace what we can’t control and push past that concern that you might fail. You have to look UP, get your head away from your screens, and start to see the world, see the connectivity, stick your lens in the boiling water. None of the great things that will happen in your life will happen in front of a screen.

George, I knew this would be a delight and what a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon. One final question - who would play you in a movie?

I want the story of my life to be a Pina Bausch dance. That would make me very happy.

Shout-out opportunity to the incredible Stephanie Lange, George’s phenomenal life and creative partner. 

George Lange’s incredible world can be explored here: http://langestudio.com/

He can be followed/fan’d and tweeted about at: @LangeStudio / instagram.com/lange55 / https://www.facebook.com/LangeStudio

Hi Serena, we are going to dive into this. Squiggly Line stuff, get real time, talk to me about your story?

Well, travel has been a passion, always. My family was spread across the world and so I started by making travel guides to the places that I had travelled to. Before I knew it the guides were being shared extensively and the idea brewed. I thought: I should build a company from this. What is really interesting to me now is that, at the time, I could think of a hundred reasons why it was a bad idea. But something in me just told me I had to do it.

Ahhh, intuition, the first step on the squiggly path. So I guess your “concerned friends and family" thought you were crazy?

I thought I was crazy, it seemed like the most irrational thing I could do. I was a full-time student and was committing to something that would literally commandeer every other waking hour. But I wanted it so badly that I found every opportunity to devote myself to doing it and just made it happen. I've met so many people who come up with an idea but never bring themselves to take the first step to make it happen. It’s like they are waiting for the perfect moment or sign, but the thing is, there is no perfect moment, you just have to take the first step on that path and then figure out the second step.

Now a big issue is the anxiety of the unknown you have stepped into. How do you deal with that?

I find it hard to open up about the negatives because I have to be ruthlessly focused on the positive, otherwise it’s really hard to invest your life in an uncertain path. What is really interesting to me is the number of people that were critical of what I was doing. I struggled with this a lot at the start. Well-meaning (I think) people who looked at me like I was making the biggest mistake of my life. People seem to love having opinions about the non-traditional path you are treading. You have those moments at a dinner party when it gets awkward, where someone tells you all the reasons your idea can’t work. It’s kind of them, to care so much about my impending failure <sarcasm>. I try not to take it personally and I really try to separate business from who I am – but it’s hard and I can’t pretend that it doesn’t hurt me deeply.

My personal view is that this is more about them than you – I have learned to embrace the haters and take it as a sign I am on an edge that is disruptive in some way. And that’s a good thing!

That is where I am now but it’s been a journey for sure. In the beginning I adapted an iron-lady type approach to protect myself. I literally visualised myself suiting up with amour and heading into battle. That is what I thought I had to do to work through it; not allow anyone in. Let me tell you, that didn’t work, I just came over like a bit of an ass and rubbed people the wrong way. Now I am more integrated with who I am - and it draws the right people to me. I just have to make sure I keep the wrong people at bay. I really feel now you need to know yourself before you start building something. If you don’t know who you are it’s really hard to expect people to follow you; what you're building is as much about who you are as it is about your idea.

I agree, I fundamentally believe that the journey is about evolving who you are…

That has been my experience. When I started I was obsessed with startup culture and working. “Weekends are for the weak” is what was on the wall at the incubator I worked at. And that was my god. Now I am a convert to Arianna Huffington - maybe because the exhaustion caught up with me <laughs> but this is about more than the win. It is about enjoying the journey and I am trying to do that now. I don’t always win that battle of course.

I have to invest in that tool, I try to take time off and allow myself recovery, to create room to breathe and take stock of the whole. If you don’t do this, the small incremental pieces start to overwhelm you.

This goes back to intuition for me – when you are in tune with yourself you make the best decisions, you are most connected to intuitive knowledge, does this resonate?

Absolutely. Intuition is my most powerful asset. There are numerous decisions that I have make based on this and that ultimately will drive the most value in my business.

Do you get pushback though? That is the hardest pat of intuition I think, justifying it to others?

I’m beyond justifying what I do. I am not trying to please everyone in the world. It’s just ok that some people don’t get it. <this was the moment I fell in love by the way - amen!>

Ok – last question – you mentioned your travel must-have was a white t-shirt. Ending on a light note, what is your fav?

Ha! Ummm. Topshop – can’t get better than a Topshop basic on this one.

You are amazing, thank you for sharing and we will look forward to watching, and helping you grow to be the Number One platform for young (of age and spirit I hope) people.

Follow/Love/Like Serena here: http://SUITCASEmag.com/ - https://www.facebook.com/SUITCASEmagazine - http://instagram.com/SUITCASEmag - http://instagram.com/SerenaGuen - http://twitter.com/SUITCASEmag -  Http://twitter.com/SerenaGuen

Hi Sarah - digital hug - thanks for not making this a 5am start for me. You have made a lot of big leaps in your career. What was the biggest?

The biggest leap was without a doubt Gatorade. I was at Nike and it was all happening for me. I was on the senior mentor program and the "high potential list”; everything was set up for me to have a big career there. I was loving it too, Nike was my dream job, I fought really hard to get there. So here I am, it’s all laid out in front of me and I am about to move my family to Portland to take things to the next step…and Gatorade call. 

I’m in suspense, even though I know the ending. Sarah takes the Gatorade gig, has her Jerry Maguire moment, and takes Gatorade from under performing to over performing. Superstar. But Sarah you left your dream job, how did you know you should do that?

It was a huge gamble, without a doubt. But I could see the path in front of me at Nike and I felt, while I would continue to learn, it was a steady path. I wanted the challenge that Gatorade was offering,

But it was such a gamble, bigger than I likely realized at the time. I knew I could have screwed up my career if it didn't go well- but if I pulled it off, it would be a springboard.

People - corporate squiggling at its finest. Stepping into the unknown. Did you have doubts?

Oh absolutely. I mean, on the one hand your intuition is screaming at you that this is the right thing to do, but then there is no safety net whatsoever. One of my mentors pulled me aside before I left and said “you know you are on your own now, there is no coming back”. Woosh!, there goes your safety net. If I had known there was a safety net I'm not sure I would have worked as hard. At the time those words shocked me, but now I am very thankful for it.

This is the hardest bit about squiggling, when your fears and self doubt of failing knock at the door. You can’t let that in. How did you squash the voices!

Well at one point I actually said to management - fire me now or let me do this my way. To succeed you need to go all in, you have to almost put it all on the line. I have always done this to be honest, I didn’t always succeed but I just kept trying and pushing forward. That is the truth of success, just to tackle failure head on.

We talked about the fact that we were not the kids that made the teams, or who were picked as soloist, or got the top grade. I think that made us gritty and resilient, so winning was not what we were expecting. Do you think this makes us better risk-takers?

 I have a HUGE self-definition around failure. I remember all the failures; the times I didn’t get picked or the 2-times I was fired.

 Knowing this, how are you raising your children?

Well this is the big question isn’t it. And not just my kids, but everyone that surrounds me. The big thing I hope to be able to teach is just to embrace who you are. This is all about you, it comes from you, self-belief is the most critical component to trying - often, again, and again and again. If you think the path will be defined for you, think again.

Final question. I talk about momentum and I say it’s the hardest part of this. That you need to keep finding ways to progress forward. As a sports-buff I think you will understand this well, what is your take on the importance of momentum?

I think we expect things all at once. That you have the idea and, boom, everything will line up to make that happen. At Gatorade I realized I had this expectation early on and I had to turn it off. There really is no finish-line, there is no moment that you break through the tape and say “I won”. If you expect black and white you will miss the golden opportunities that present themselves, the moments where you see places that your thinking can be refined and finessed. The moments where a problem arises and, through solving it, you create even more potential. Momentum is the key to this, it goes hand in hand with the idea that an achievement is a journey. Every day you need to advance forward and refine your idea, if you can’t advance you will get stuck chasing an artificial finish-line. I think that is how you lose.

Ok final final question. What did you want to “be” when you grew up?

I wanted to be a Vet and I very definitely did NOT want to work in an office.

Follow / Love / Like Sarah here: 

@SarahRobbOh - about.me/SarahRobbOHagan 

Nicky is a powerhouse. She is one of those people who has achieved incredible career feats as a young female in the advertising industry. Let’s just say, for those of you outside the industry, this is NOT an easy career path. Given this it would be fail to expect her to be pretty tough, kindof aggressive, maybe a little closed.

And that couldn’t be less true. Nicky is warm, open, curious and has this energy that just sucks you in. I am quite sure she has managed her teams through a complete and utter desire to do their best work for her. That’s all I feel in her company, a compulsion to do my absolute best.

Nicky is currently the Managing Director of R/GA in LA. She has the utter, utter, utter privilege of working with the incomparable Bob Greenberg <so jeals>. She and I both (relatively) recently made big career and city (or in her case country) moves, so that was my first question to her…

So Nicky, first, holy shit you look AMAZING, LA really suits you! Talk to me about the LA move, what compelled you to make that massive shift (from New Zealand as CEO of Saatchi's NZ).

I love the business I’m in, I want to do it for the next 20 years, which means I need to work for the most progressive companies: growing and stretching myself. 

Taking on the role of CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ was a big growth opportunity for me because, although I’d managed large global teams while I was in New York, I’d never actually run an agency. I loved it.  The challenge, building the team and enabling our own culture.  But it was time to get on my edge again. LA was our #1 choice in the search for our next adventure. It’s an incredibly interesting and exciting market right now because of all the surrounding disruption. Everything, from who gets to tell stories on what media platforms, to who the influencers are is being disrupted.  There is such energy around the reinvention of storytelling and the backdrop of technology that democratises that.  R/GA is a company with true vision and an insistence on constantly evolving the model.  I couldn’t be happier to have made the move.

I’m obviously a huge proponent of making the big uncomfortable shifts in life. Most people find every reason not to. You moved with your whole family, how do you overcome all the reasons not to?

We have always been a pretty self-contained family unit.  The girls (our twins) were born during our decade in New York (which sadly was as far away from the grandparents as we could have been) so from the beginning we’ve been our own gang.  We’ve always said that as long as we are together and are happy we will benefit from these big adventures.

Ultimately, Cameron and I know that building resilience in our girls is important for how they will fare in the world. Has it been easy?  Does it happen automatically? No. But we are figuring it out together, and six months in, it’s feeling good.

There is our magic word - resilience. Talk to me about that. From the outside world you look like you have it all in order and figured out. I know that’s not true for me, where are you on the perfect-spectrum?

“I am so messy around the edges” (ooooooo - love that). The truth is, from a young age in the industry I made sure I always presented myself professionally, which, especially as I was so young in the business, gave me confidence.  To be honest, I kind of find it shocking that people extrapolate that to me having it all figured out. 

Early days I focused on keeping up with the boys, but at a point, I finally realised that I don’t need to try to be like anyone else. 

So perfection is not a goal for me. There is literally NO ONE out there that is perfect. Now I coach people to simply try to be the most amazing version of themselves, and not to try to emulate one narrow model of leadership. (boom - right freaking ON). 

Ok, so now you see why Nicky is in the badass club. Sooooooo, the big question then, if no perfection….what do we do with that big ole ugly failure thing. How do we deal when it doesn’t work out?

You know, it’s rare that there is a catastrophe. Really. We need to learn to be open and humble to things not going the way we want them too.  

FULLSTOP. Love that. For me it’s more about staying inspired, because then there is always something else to go and try not to fail at. So then I ask Nicky how she stays inspired and it was interesting. She wasn’t sure. We meandered around a number of things she does but she kept pausing, like the museums and beach walks and time with her family wasn’t the right answer. It was a cool moment watching her wrestle with the question. Then I said, Nicky, I feel like you have created your life to be inspiring. It’s everything….

She lit up. Visibly. 

So I guess that would be my last question. You have had in some respects a “classic” career working your way up in an industry. But you are a squiggler because of your attitude and approach to life. That you do what you love and allow that to take you where it needs to take you is what squiggling is all about. What is your view or advice on career planning VS opportunity creation?

I am not a planner, per se. I think it’s important to do what you love and stay as long as you love it and are still learning. When it’s not great anymore, it’s time to look around and question. We have this saying in our family – we have no plans to stay, and no plans to go. That’s not to say we aren’t committed, but we don’t believe we should make strict plans and timeframes that we become slaves to. 

Woohoo, I made it. This has been a great new beginning to Squiggly Life. Apologies for the delay between blogs but we are back and if you have suggestions of people you would like me to interview or questions you want answered - tweet me @claudiabatten #squigglylife and we will work on it for you.

Stay inspired.

Claudia