Transcript
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Imagine being able to design your company, a
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company that you came up with to be like, hey, I want to help the planet. I
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want to help the oceans, especially, and be able to come up
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and design projects that actually help the ocean. Not in your traditional
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ways of saving a reef or going out and doing marine
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biology and science stuff, but actually helping conservation, helping
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policy, and building a company that has all
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those people, that has scientists, that has policymakers, that has communications people.
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It's just a great company. Imagine building that. Imagine being
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able to work on projects that you want to work on, that even you come
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up with yourself, as well as help others with. Well,
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that's who we're going to be talking to today. We're going to be talking to Katrina Ryan,
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who is the founder and in charge of
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Mindfully Wired. We're going to talk about some of the projects that she's been able to
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do and some of the projects that she hopes to do in the future. It's
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going to be a great episode. Let's start the show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
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your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean
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by taking action. Now, today's episode, usually
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on the Wednesdays, we usually talk about science communication. And I
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thought that's what this episode was going to be about. I
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hit up Katrina Ryan on LinkedIn. We hadn't spoken in
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a few years really, off and on, like through email,
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but not really online. Though I first connected with
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her, we talked about how her Mindfully Wired
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company was helping market a straight-to-consumer,
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a direct-to-consumer seafood plan from the
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fishermen and fishing villages in Cornwall, UK, really
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being able to offer a plethora of like 40 different
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sustainably fished species to the UK people in
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and around the area of Cornwall so that they can have fish during the pandemic because
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imports weren't coming in properly because of the whole pandemic and the shutdown and
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everything like that. So she was able to help keep a lot of
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those businesses open just through Mindfully Wired with
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her colleagues. And now she's built up her company to almost 20 people.
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That's amazing to be able to say, hey, in a few years, we're going to start to work on
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these different projects. We're going to assemble the team, not just of
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marketing people and communications people, we're going to put some policy makers
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with this, we're going to put some lawyers, we're going to put some
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scientists, we're going to put all these different people in and we're going to be able
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to have this company that can offer a plethora of different services
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and I think that's amazing and I want to have Katrina on to
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talk about some of her projects, which she did. And some
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of the projects she's actually, you know, with the help of her colleagues,
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been able to design herself and have them
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funded. And I think that's something that's really admirable about the companies
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that are coming out now is really a for-profit being
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able to design something that is insanely wonderful.
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And so that's what we're gonna talk to Katrina about today on
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this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Here's the interview, and
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we'll talk to you after. Hey Katrina, welcome back
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to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to
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Hi Andrew, it's lovely to see you again. I've missed our
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Absolutely. It's been a long time since we've actually chatted. We've
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communicated over email and over LinkedIn a number of
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times, but I'm really happy you were able to come on
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the podcast again today. This is a bit of a catch-up call for both
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of us, as we love chatting with each other
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and catching up on what type of work we've been up to and things
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like that. But today I want to share that with the audience and just be
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like, look, your company has grown in number of people. the number
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of diversity of projects. You know, we first
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interviewed you when it was during the pandemic and you
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were talking about helping, you know, fishing communities in
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Cornwall, you know, basically save their businesses in
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a way with your communication strategies and I feel like that's
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just grown from there into all different sorts. And
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going on your website now, you know, you see you have linguists, you have
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policy people, you have communicators, And it's just great to
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kind of just get to know how you build a company like this,
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how you build a firm like this to serve the marine conservation
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and science community. I think it's something that is unique. And
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I wanted to share that with people to show that you don't
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always have to go the quote unquote traditional way with joining one organization. You
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can create your own and develop it from there. So I'm
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looking forward to that. But before we get into all of that, Katrina, why
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don't you just remind the audience of who you are and what you
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Yeah, happy to. Although I'm never great at doing this in a super pithy
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way despite my job. So my name is Katrina Ryan. I
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am the founder director of a company called Mindfully Wired. We're
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a specialist communications consultancy working in the kind of ocean,
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marine protection, marine biodiversity and fisheries space.
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I guess we'll delve into a little bit more about what that means, but really we work
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with such a broad church of stakeholders. It could be fishing industry, seafood
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sector, governments, research, NGOs,
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retail, the whole mix, and we work all
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Yeah, it's quite interesting to see how diverse
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you've gotten. I think when we first met and discussed on
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the podcast, a lot of it was essentially seafood, right?
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I think was that the first sort of iteration,
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I guess, or first types of clients that you had, but you've grown quite a bit
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since then. You've grown in the number of people as well. Can you
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kind of just take us through a little bit of that growth
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through the pandemic? Not a lot of people had their companies grow in
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people, especially during the pandemic. Can you
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just kind of talk a little bit about sort of how things have
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changed since the last time we've talked? I know we probably don't
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have the amount of time that it takes to go over how all those changes happened
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Yeah, of course. And the first thing I'll say is, yeah, we've always worked with the seafood sector and
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fishing communities. But the mission at
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the heart of Mindfully Wild has always been about, you know, a better future for
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people and the ocean. So it's about, I really believe that we
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can't just have conservation conversations in isolation. You've got to work with the
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people that live on the coast and that make a living on the sea. You've got
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to include industry in conversations around conservation. And
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that is the slightly complex space that we've always
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tried to hold for the projects that we work on. You know, it's
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not flying a flag in one direction or another. So as you said, you
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know, we first came across each other during the pandemic when Mindfully Wired
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pivoted quite abruptly to kind of targeting
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all of our efforts on supporting coastal communities here in the UK during the
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pandemic. Obviously, as with elsewhere, their
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markets were closing off, fishermen weren't able to sell their catch into restaurants.
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And as I'm sure you're aware, you know, the lifeblood of coastal
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communities is often their fishing industry and coastal communities
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are 75% more likely to be deprived than inland communities. So
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it's essential to maintain this kind of jobs and employment and people need food.
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So we kind of overnight became fish merchants
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working with some of our clients in the southwest and redirecting healthy
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sustainably caught seafood to people's houses contact free and
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that was obviously that was wild for us that was really odd
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really exciting really energizing completely restructuring the business working
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with new partners But behind all of that, there was still important
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advocacy and communications work to be done. The bigger seafood and
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fisheries and marine conservation organizations still needed to advance their
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agendas during the pandemic. But because they were larger and
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often government funded bodies, they were more likely to have to furlough
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big chunks of their staff. mindfully wired
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as a nimble consultancy at the time of about six staff, we
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decided we would kind of try and outpace the economic shock of
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the pandemic and be there to service those projects as a
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more nimble bolt-on. And, you know,
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it was a time for a lot of growth in the company because there was a lot
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of important work to be done. And I think we closed out the pandemic
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with about 20 staff. And our projects during that time
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was everything from supporting governments and facilitating international
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meetings with their peers on important marine science issues through
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to furthering the work we did in coastal communities on marketing locally
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caught and sustainable fish, helping universities with communications
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training for their science graduates. developing new
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coastal connectivity initiatives and new geographies, just
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a bit of everything. It was really exciting, but it was almost
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a time of such rapid growth that you couldn't keep track of it, you just had to keep going, you
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Well, that's what I was going to ask. I mean, that's a lot of work to be able to, you
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know, if you're starting off with six people and then pivoting so
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many times, you know, you pivot for the seafood industry, helping them
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basically redefine the industry there. That's essentially what you
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did there, not only redefining the industry, but also reintroducing the
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people of the UK to their own species because a lot of the times,
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I've covered stories on this, where most of the fish that they have is imported and
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then now here you have this fishery in Cornwall
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being like, look, we have about, I think it was like 40 species, 40 different species
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of fish that could be fished and you're offering it to the people of the
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UK and so they kind of got to rediscover, which could happen
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not just in the UK, it could happen in Canada, it can happen in the US, We just
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tend to eat the popular types
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of fish that we know and we're comfortable with.
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But there's so many different fish species that could be sustainably fished
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and offered to us. We just don't know because it's different and it's change
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and things like that. Well, the pandemic was all about change. You offered that in
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a communication style and the people of Cornwall and the fishing community
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offered that in product and it worked out really well. So
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love to hear that kind of stuff. But then to be able to offer
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the services that you do to a number of different organizations, you
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know, in and around the UK or internationally. That's
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a lot of work to be able to do that. Did you have to, did you have
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the network at the time to introduce Mindfully Wired
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to these, these organizations? And can you just maybe mention a
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couple of the ones that you did work with right off the bat, like during that
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time? Did
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No, that's my, it happens every once in a while, it gets cut, so I apologize for
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that. Essentially what I asked is like, did you have the network
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of people where you could introduce MindfullyWired to,
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or did you have to sort of go out and find, like
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develop your own network during that time online, of course, because
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you couldn't do it in person as much because of the pandemic. And
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then, you know, Was that a difficult thing
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to keep up with, all that work to keep up with, and
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be able to do the work for those organizations?
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Yeah, there's so much to respond to that. I think one thing I'll say is that it's
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always difficult to keep up with all the work that we're doing. There's so much to
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do. It's all really exciting, as I've kind of already alluded
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to. It's often quite complex, the work that we're undertaking. And
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that's partly about the DNA of who we are as a business. I can come back to
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that because we're by no means the traditional comms consultancy. But
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in terms of that work coming to us during the pandemic, I think MindfullyWired
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already had one really important key
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USP, which is that we've been specialists in our area from day one.
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We're 10 years old now, and we've always known fisheries
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inside out and the marine world inside out, we can engage with science. So
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there's very few bolt-on agencies that can also bring
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creative thinking that can engage at that level with the
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complexity of marine management and fisheries management. So we
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had a good network in the sense that people knew kind of who
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we were. And I think what the pandemic was, was a time for us
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showing the breadth of what we mean when we say
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communication. So I don't mean an off-the-shelf PR
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package. I mean, we can build your website. We can make
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you an incredibly moving film that we'll also script and package and
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distribute. But we will also, you know, develop your long-term
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strategic vision for your organisation and write a comms and governance strategy that
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sits alongside that. We'll help interpret your science and communicate that
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better. We will hold events for you, whether that's online or in person. It's
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kind of anything that helps bridge gaps between groups
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and that helps people communicate more effectively is
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what I include under my umbrella definition of communication. So it's
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kind of much broader. And in that sense, we're almost like
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a blend of an NGO and a traditional comms agency. We've come
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to think of it as a cause and effect agency. So we
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try and create change with the way in which we communicate about these things. And
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the pandemic was a real time for testing and proving that. I
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just, another thing that we had to do as we grew during that
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time was become bolder in the work that we went for. And,
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and that was a huge thing for us as well kind of living. our
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values through some larger projects like during that time
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we were invited to pitch for a project on promoting
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safety in fishing communities amongst fishermen. It's
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the most deadly profession in the UK and globally
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it's an enormously deadly profession so anything to
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improve safety at sea is vital and I remember getting the tender on
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my desk in the middle of the pandemic and being so intimidated by this big piece of national
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work and you know could we actually bid for it, could we win it
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and talking to my kind of second-in-command at the time,
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Harriet, and saying, oh, do we have the guts to go for this? And thinking, yeah, we're
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gonna do it. We're gonna flip the safety narrative on
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its head because all people do at this point in time in terms of safety comms
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to fishing communities is tell fishermen they're gonna die and that they should wear a
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life jacket so that their body is brought home for their wife. And
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we wanted to talk to them about reasons they had to live. So we
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went out and spoke to fishing communities about what they care about, what they
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come home for. and developed this campaign called
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Home and Dry. And that was, again, that was a real mission that energised us
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during the pandemic. And that campaign went on to create an enormous
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amount of impact in fishing communities. It was seen by 77% of the fleet. You
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know, around 70% of people took action as a result of it. We've won
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awards. We had an award-winning artist, Johnny Flynn,
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write a song especially for us to be the track behind the video. You
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know, it's been one of those campaigns we can feel really proud of,
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because at a time when fishermen were perhaps more desperate to get
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out to sea to catch when they could during the pandemic, we
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wanted them to be safety minded as well. So when I think back on that
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time of crazy growth and the pandemic, it's also a time when we
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were perhaps more or most fully expressing our values in the type of
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Well, and this is what it really comes down to, I feel, and
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this is a lot of other companies that I've noticed. I
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want to reiterate this point that I've been putting together for
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a number of episodes is it comes down to
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the business's values, right? I've talked to a lot of businesses around
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here. I've looked for a lot of businesses. I've always looked for eco-friendly, sustainable businesses.
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And not a lot of businesses will necessarily sell for
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environmental reasons. They're like, oh, well, buy
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us because we're sustainable clothing, or we're this, we're good for the environment. It's
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buy us because our product's the best. That's why here's the
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coolness factor if it's a company that sells clothes or
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things like that. But it really comes down to their base values. When
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you go to the About page on their company, I've never gone to more About
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pages on companies now where it's like, what's their intrinsic value
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of starting this company? Was it to make the world a better place and
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offer their values in that product? And I find the product
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becomes better that way. It's more eco-friendly. It's more sustainable in
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that way. I feel the same way just talking to you, Katrina, about your company.
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It's, look, We talk down a lot
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to the fishing community. You know, you can't do this. You
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can't do this. You can't fish here. You can't fish. That's what a
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lot of times when I speak to fishermen, that's what they hear. But
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they love the environment. They love fishing. It's a
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cultural thing for many of them that I've
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spoken to. It's something that they love they take pride in
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and when somebody says you can't you can't you can't it's almost like hey
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you can't go out there without being safe like you need to be safe you
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need this it's no no why like what are your values
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you know what are the fishermen's values like You want to come home and
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you want to be with your family. Fishing is life, but it's also your
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family's life too. And sometimes we all need to be reminded
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of that with work and things like that. You and I need to be reminded of
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that. We have a life outside of work and we want you to
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enjoy that life. So how about you come home safe? Let's flip
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the switch and put it into a positive manner and sort
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of tap into their values of family. You
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know, you want to be able to explain to your next generation of
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how to be able to fish. Well, you can't do that if you're not around. You
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know, you can only do that if you're around. And I think by putting
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that message together, that just it flips everything. If you
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One thing we'll never do is negative campaigning. We
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are always trying to tell a positive story because I think that's where
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you create change. We're trying to shine a light on things that are positive so
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that people want to travel in that direction. Yeah,
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that was a real lesson for me as well in just how much people can
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exclude groups from conversations that are about those groups.
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So no one had thought previously in developing these safety campaigns for the fishing
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community to go and talk to the fishing community in depth about what
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might motivate them. And I'm
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not one for people being excluded from conversations. I think that's very much
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where MindFleaWide has grown up from, is that idea that we all work
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better if we're collaborating and if things are inclusive and positive. So
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that's just one example of how that carries through in our work, but it's certainly one that we're
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So for the work that you've been able to do, you mentioned the
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work with the fishermen, that was a bid, like you had a tender and you bid on
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it against other companies who wanted the same type of
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job. Are most of your jobs, you know, from grant
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writing or from bidding on specific things or some of
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them just from relationships that you've built with some of the companies or
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organizations over the years? Because I mean, if you think about a lot of non-profit organizations
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where most of the work you would think would come from, from marine conservation. They
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don't necessarily have a lot of money to be able to pay an organization
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where it's profitable for, you know, your company to do that. I
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might be way off base here, but I was just wondering, like, where, how
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do you land a lot? And I don't want, don't
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take any secrets, so don't tell any secrets here, but how do, does a
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company like yours land a lot of the jobs? Is it through tender? Is
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So there's three pillars to this, and no secrets at all here. The
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first one is word of mouth. We've always benefited enormously from
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that. We get a lot of organic outreach from potential
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clients. We get a lot of repeat business. That's our stickiness factor. Lots
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of our clients stick with us for years on end, which we're very grateful for, and we love building
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those long-term relationships. Then we have the tenders
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where we'll see something and we think, God, that just feels so mindfully wired.
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We're definitely gonna, we're gonna go for that one. And
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I think it's not just me on the team. Lots of us love a pitching moment.
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So those can be lovely, creative times in the team when we're coming up
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with a vision for a project. And then the third one is the one that maybe excites me
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the most. And it's again, perhaps an area where we're slightly
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odd or rare as a business is that we'll identify an
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issue that exists, something that we think needs addressing and resolving, or isn't getting
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enough attention. And we will develop a project that
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we think can plug that gap, we'll see who we think we wanna work
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with on that, and we'll go out and find the funds, and then create
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that project ourselves. We'll introduce that into the ecosystem,
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the landscape that we're working in. And those
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So the first one, our oldest one, is kind of a concept we
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developed and then went out, got funded, and is still running to this day, which is
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six years later, is we run something called the All-Party
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Parliamentary Group on Fisheries in Westminster. So that is a
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fully cross-party platform within the system of parliament
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that holds events and conducts research to
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basically increase the knowledge base on fisheries and marine issues within
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parliament so that the legislature can make more informed decisions
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around policy and law. That was something that I
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had in my mind well before Mindfully Wired
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that I wanted to do. And then when the Brexit vote came
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around and fisheries was such a totemic issue in the UK, but
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it's so complex and it's so different depending on where you are. it
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felt like a real moment for parliamentarians to need to have access to
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some free, broad, sector-wide source
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of information brought to them so that they could comment in
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an informed way on these important issues that are at the heart of Brexit. So
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we secured some funding to run that within Parliament, and we do run
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that. I should say at the moment we technically don't exist
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because we've just had a general election over here, but we are out.
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recruiting new MPs to come on board with our all party parliamentary group
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and we have an enormously ambitious program of research and events moving
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forward. And that is about open access to democracy, it's about
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open access to power for the sector, it's about our
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decision makers being really, really well informed and it's about there being a
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space for everyone at the heart of Parliament. So I love that
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and we've been very lucky to secure continued funding to keep that going. So that's
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Even just to have that level
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of federal government, not influence, but you're
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putting that together at the federal level, that's
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And for us, the importance is that our role is neutral. This isn't lobbying.
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And again, that speaks to a personal passion of mine, which
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is that lobbyists are expensive. You're talking a minimum $25,000 a
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month plus. I used to work in Westminster, so I know I
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just choose not to use that because it's an exclusive form of access and
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I think people should be able to approach their decision makers on
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an equal footing. So by creating this all-party parliamentary group,
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we can have fishermen from Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, the East Coast there
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with academics and yet people who would never have a lobbyist can be
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there having the conversations they need to have. Then
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a really exciting project, I feel like you'll like this one, is a
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piece of tech development that we formed a consortium around
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a few years ago with a government science body
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called CFAS, the Zoological Society of London,
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and an engineering firm called Arabada, who are amazing. to
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think about how to improve at-sea monitoring systems for
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fishermen so that they're less burdensome for scientists to
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interpret the data from. At the moment, you just get 24 hours of video footage. They're
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expensive, big, chunky pieces of kit, 15 grand a system, that
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kind of thing. And specifically, we wanted to work on one that might work to
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capture better data about interactions with endangered species like dolphins, porpoises.
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And so that project, again, is ongoing, but we're also now kind of
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really testing out in the field a product that we call Insight 360, which
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is a small kind of plug-and-play machine learning device that
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has a voice-activated node, an underwater acoustic recorder,
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and continuous video monitoring. As I say,
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it's continuous learning. It's AI, so it's better with time, and fishermen can
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speak directly to it. And effectively, therefore, annotate the
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video footage that is bounced back to scientists by a satellite. So it's much more
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efficient. But at the end of that project, that all
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the designs, all the specs will be made totally open access for other people to build the
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same thing. The point of the kit is it should cost just 100 quid or
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so, you know, really, really affordable. And we want it to go global because it
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can help fishermen, it can help the marine environment, and it shouldn't cost so
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much money to monitor effectively at sea. So that's another one. That's
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been incredible to work on because I'm no engineer, but we each
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tripped in our little bit of expertise. And
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then the third one I wanted to mention just quickly, because it built on that coastal communities
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and spreading knowledge around seafood, kind of improving
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a seafood palette from a breadth perspective, you know, tasting local. We
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also secured some funding to do a brief pilot study in Cornwall after the
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pandemic, working with a processing company, a local
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fleet, environmental consultants and a
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chef to identify two top species where, you
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know, if we ate more of these, they're totally sustainable, it would take pressure off
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other slightly less sustainable stocks, and the consumer doesn't know
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anything about them, how do we introduce them? What are
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the constraints from a processing perspective? How much does the fleet need to
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make per kilo for these to be viable target fish? What
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can our chef do to introduce these to a broader audience? And we did a
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three-month feasibility study on these two fish, megram sole and
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spider crab. We rebranded them as Cornish sole
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and Cornish king crab. By the end
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of our three months, yeah, love that. By
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the end of our three-month blitz of research, menu
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testing, consumer tasting, processing, engagement retailers, I
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think Megram sole or Cornish sole was maybe the second most sold fish
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in Cornwall. And there was a contract for Cornish king crab
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to be sold into one of our major retailers here in the UK. So that's
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had real longevity. That was only a three-month project, but it's kind of rolling and
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rolling. And we hope that the Cornish fish producers organization down there is
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doing more on that front. Yeah, so just three
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examples there of things where we were like, there's a need here, we think we can do something to
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Can I just say something? First of all, unreal.
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Oh, like all three of those projects are projects, you
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know, as I was thinking, I've had conversations with people,
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not obviously about those specific projects, but conversations with people like
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ideas, like, you know, when you're at conferences and you're with other people that that are in the
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same business, you throw around ideas and you're like, oh, that would be really
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cool if we're able to do this or that would be really cool if we're able to do this. But
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here are the challenges and here's the thing. And it's like, The
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ideas that you mentioned feel very similar, obviously not
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the same, but very similar to be like, yeah, there are a lot of challenges in this
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way. You know, but if we partner with the right people, we collaborate with
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the right people, or we speak to the right people, we can really get this going.
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And if you if you have that network, or you have that ability to
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be like, let's This is a great idea. Let's find the funds to get it.
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Let's do, you know, let's put all this together. Let's put the collaboration. Let's
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put everybody in the same room or on the same computer in the same zoom call or
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whatever that might be. And let's have, let's have this talk and maybe we can
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get this going. And then three projects right there that you're able to get
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that going. This sounds more like NGO type
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work, you know, where it's like you have your own projects, you're just able
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to do it because it comes from your audience. All of them have
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Or it will continue to create change, you
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know, in whatever they are. Like you're marketing
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new, or not new, local types of food. How
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do we get this local type of food into a market? How do we get
449
00:27:35,527 --> 00:27:39,529
access to data and equipment that's affordable?
450
00:27:39,909 --> 00:27:43,291
How do we get to do that? Boom, we've done it. That
451
00:27:43,851 --> 00:27:47,053
just like just those two alone, you know, it's just
452
00:27:47,093 --> 00:27:50,454
like it's unreal to just think from idea to actual put into place.
453
00:27:50,494 --> 00:27:53,695
And it seems like Mindfully Wired is just that's what you guys do.
454
00:27:53,855 --> 00:27:57,256
It's like you take the ideas and you're like, OK, let's talk about these ideas. Let's
455
00:27:57,296 --> 00:28:01,058
formulate, you know, a plan. Let's put it together and let's put it in place. Three
456
00:28:01,098 --> 00:28:04,179
month project. Now, all of a sudden you get like a contract to put into one
457
00:28:04,199 --> 00:28:09,101
of the major retailers. Come on now. That's
458
00:28:09,301 --> 00:28:12,703
awesome Katrina. That's fantastic. I mean it obviously like, you
459
00:28:12,723 --> 00:28:16,305
know, you have the people to do that, right? And
460
00:28:16,325 --> 00:28:20,007
that helps, right? You invest in your people. So you
461
00:28:20,047 --> 00:28:23,569
mentioned at the beginning, it's a very unique company because
462
00:28:23,609 --> 00:28:26,871
you don't just have comps people. You have all different types of
463
00:28:26,891 --> 00:28:30,453
people. Can you just talk about how that
464
00:28:30,553 --> 00:28:34,034
came to be, where you have so many people
465
00:28:34,094 --> 00:28:37,415
from different sort of professional backgrounds coming together to
466
00:28:37,455 --> 00:28:40,636
work on these and solve these problems, essentially, is what you do.
467
00:28:40,676 --> 00:28:45,018
You guys are problem solvers in the marine conservation world. Yep. Can
468
00:28:46,590 --> 00:28:49,852
Of course, and I think there's something to be said there, just a broader point about
469
00:28:49,892 --> 00:28:54,774
the fact that it's one of the luxuries of being a small business versus
470
00:28:54,814 --> 00:28:58,396
a big NGO or a government department. There's never been any constraints
471
00:28:58,476 --> 00:29:01,897
in my mind about how nimble we can be on acting on something. There's
472
00:29:01,937 --> 00:29:05,479
no bureaucracy because we've been tiny and
473
00:29:05,519 --> 00:29:08,788
we're less tiny now, but there's still... There's
474
00:29:08,828 --> 00:29:11,973
no need to have meetings for meeting sakes and put things through a system. We can kind
475
00:29:11,993 --> 00:29:15,117
of just see something and jump in there and get going and we have the confidence to
476
00:29:15,157 --> 00:29:19,283
do that. I think partly because of the structure. But
477
00:29:19,303 --> 00:29:22,707
yeah, in terms of the team, it's a great question and it's actually something
478
00:29:22,747 --> 00:29:26,011
I've only reasonably recently realized. is quite
479
00:29:26,071 --> 00:29:29,174
strange, right? It's that we're a comms consultancy, but the
480
00:29:29,214 --> 00:29:33,177
vast majority of our staff are not people from a comms or PR background.
481
00:29:33,197 --> 00:29:36,620
To me, it just made perfect sense because we're talking about
482
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,623
technical environmental issues, whether
483
00:29:40,683 --> 00:29:44,125
it's offshore wind or seafood supply, or even we
484
00:29:44,145 --> 00:29:47,315
do some things on forestry. it's good to have
485
00:29:47,355 --> 00:29:50,538
that science base in the team. It's a real luxury, but we look for
486
00:29:50,558 --> 00:29:53,740
those scientists that also have
487
00:29:53,780 --> 00:29:57,182
a way with words, have a way with art, have a kind of
488
00:29:57,522 --> 00:30:01,665
desire to make their work more accessible. Because
489
00:30:01,705 --> 00:30:04,787
it's something that I believe is so important more broadly, right? When the biggest issues of
490
00:30:04,847 --> 00:30:08,489
our time are environmental, we have to be able to communicate them. Then, you
491
00:30:08,529 --> 00:30:11,731
know, drawing in linguists and people with policy experience, it's the same
492
00:30:11,771 --> 00:30:15,514
thing. I feel like we've been able to incubate comm skills because
493
00:30:16,621 --> 00:30:20,906
that's about connecting to people, it's about using words and art and design
494
00:30:20,946 --> 00:30:24,049
and digital in a specific way, but having that knowledge base behind it
495
00:30:24,089 --> 00:30:27,673
has been incredible. More recently, in our kind of more
496
00:30:27,713 --> 00:30:31,517
recent expansion, we now also have the luxury of some seriously
497
00:30:31,777 --> 00:30:35,681
impressive and experienced agency communications experts
498
00:30:35,981 --> 00:30:40,247
in MindfullyWide as well, lending that kind of senior
499
00:30:40,267 --> 00:30:44,329
dimension from across the more traditional communication space.
500
00:30:44,989 --> 00:30:48,410
And so now I feel like MindFleaWide is in its best iteration yet, because
501
00:30:48,450 --> 00:30:51,872
we have that almost like a hub of scientific and policy
502
00:30:51,912 --> 00:30:55,153
knowledge delivering on complex and technical projects. And then we have this
503
00:30:55,733 --> 00:30:59,155
wraparound of creative vision and traditional communication skills. And
504
00:30:59,175 --> 00:31:03,530
we're able to bolt the two together and work on projects in a way that means You
505
00:31:03,550 --> 00:31:07,471
know, as I've said, we're starting to see ourselves as a cause and effect agency
506
00:31:07,511 --> 00:31:10,891
because we can develop the projects and work on the science, then we can also communicate them.
507
00:31:11,331 --> 00:31:15,552
We can have those big mass market skills and expertise that
508
00:31:15,572 --> 00:31:19,273
you get in larger agencies, but we have them in our small, nimble, environmentally
509
00:31:19,293 --> 00:31:22,673
focused agency. But yeah, the breadth and diversity of
510
00:31:22,713 --> 00:31:25,934
the team's expertise is one of my favorite things about working at Mindfully Wired. It's
511
00:31:26,154 --> 00:31:29,355
never a dull day, and there's always someone that is a subject expert on
512
00:31:32,161 --> 00:31:35,602
Well, and what I love, too, it's like, as you mentioned before, it is
513
00:31:36,022 --> 00:31:40,543
you are putting together positive, optimistic projects
514
00:31:40,863 --> 00:31:44,264
that may not necessarily, I mean, mind you, you've
515
00:31:44,284 --> 00:31:47,725
put together something that has potentially a federal impact on
516
00:31:48,285 --> 00:31:52,326
fisheries. So that's pretty big from a national perspective. But we
517
00:31:52,366 --> 00:31:55,659
look at the problems that we face With
518
00:31:55,719 --> 00:31:59,463
our oceans, climate change, you look at overfishing,
519
00:31:59,663 --> 00:32:02,986
you look at plastic pollution, all these major
520
00:32:03,026 --> 00:32:06,689
things that can really provide people, give people anxiety. You
521
00:32:06,729 --> 00:32:10,452
know, we call it climate anxiety or ocean anxiety, and it's
522
00:32:10,492 --> 00:32:14,253
very difficult. But you are focusing on these projects that
523
00:32:14,413 --> 00:32:18,035
provide results and positive results
524
00:32:18,215 --> 00:32:22,957
in the way, like even in their potential from a futuristic
525
00:32:22,997 --> 00:32:26,419
point of view, but also from sort of the impact level.
526
00:32:26,619 --> 00:32:30,500
And you're kind of like cutting away at
527
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,202
some of this anxiety, like taking it away and kind of giving people sort
528
00:32:34,242 --> 00:32:37,864
of this positive outlook. Like that's how I see it, from my perspective
529
00:32:37,904 --> 00:32:42,525
anyway, in terms of the work that you're doing. I
530
00:32:42,585 --> 00:32:46,432
know a lot of the work is focused around helping these organizations
531
00:32:46,472 --> 00:32:51,139
and helping a fishing community to get
532
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:55,043
more access and things like that. Do you talk
533
00:32:55,083 --> 00:32:58,585
to the public, or do you have mechanisms to talk
534
00:32:58,625 --> 00:33:01,887
to the public to provide some of the, like, information on
535
00:33:01,947 --> 00:33:05,249
some of these projects that you're doing to show some people,
536
00:33:05,309 --> 00:33:08,431
like, in the UK? Like, I know the UK, you've gone through a lot of changes over the
537
00:33:08,471 --> 00:33:11,913
last couple of weeks, and people are asking for change.
538
00:33:11,933 --> 00:33:15,515
You know, Just Stop Oil, one of the organizations that making headlines around
539
00:33:15,535 --> 00:33:18,670
the world with their protests and people wanting change, In
540
00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:22,112
Europe, you have the Greta Thunbergs of the world who are
541
00:33:22,172 --> 00:33:26,134
trying to make change, but oftentimes it gets aggressive
542
00:33:26,194 --> 00:33:29,796
feedback, let's just say, from deniers
543
00:33:29,836 --> 00:33:33,037
and naysayers. The work that you're doing, do you have those
544
00:33:33,098 --> 00:33:36,319
mechanisms to the public to just kind of say, hey, check out what we're
545
00:33:36,339 --> 00:33:39,861
doing here. It's pretty cool that we're doing this, because it's such a positive thing.
546
00:33:39,881 --> 00:33:43,203
So that's a really interesting question. We don't go
547
00:33:43,283 --> 00:33:46,524
out and do a lot of proactive storytelling about our work, because what
548
00:33:46,564 --> 00:33:50,230
we do, is for the vast majority,
549
00:33:50,250 --> 00:33:53,432
it is the work of our incredible clients. We are lucky to
550
00:33:53,472 --> 00:33:57,374
be bolt-ons to their teams and so we want their projects to become visible
551
00:33:57,414 --> 00:34:02,117
and for some of those that is a general public audience, that's a consumer audience. For
552
00:34:02,137 --> 00:34:07,695
some of our projects it's governments, for some of them it's science. So
553
00:34:08,235 --> 00:34:11,457
I guess we always try and stay slightly out of the limelight in
554
00:34:11,497 --> 00:34:14,779
that way. It's actually unusual for me to talk about Mindfully Wide, and it's a treat.
555
00:34:14,839 --> 00:34:18,241
It's really nice to talk to you about it, but it's not my normal kind
556
00:34:18,261 --> 00:34:21,403
of speed. I'm more used to talking about a client's mission than my own, or
557
00:34:22,123 --> 00:34:26,826
our own, because it certainly is collective within the team. But
558
00:34:26,866 --> 00:34:30,308
we also try and engage the public in ways that help them craft and
559
00:34:30,348 --> 00:34:33,790
deliver their own mission. So a really brilliant piece
560
00:34:33,830 --> 00:34:37,832
of work we did a couple of years ago was with Surfers Against Sewage. to
561
00:34:38,473 --> 00:34:42,355
facilitate and bring together I think it was 200 youth activists
562
00:34:42,415 --> 00:34:46,077
for climate and co-author the first youth
563
00:34:46,658 --> 00:34:49,800
ocean and climate manifesto to deliver to 10 Downing Street and so
564
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:53,382
that was a lovely way of kind of directly engaging with a new constituency of
565
00:34:53,402 --> 00:34:56,564
the public and oh my goodness these youth activists knocked
566
00:34:56,584 --> 00:35:00,126
my socks off they were like seven up and They were so well informed, so
567
00:35:00,186 --> 00:35:03,288
charismatic, so clear on what they wanted in their manifesto and
568
00:35:03,308 --> 00:35:06,390
how they wanted to be expressed. So that was
569
00:35:06,410 --> 00:35:10,613
an incredible piece of work, reaching a kind of new sector of the public. And
570
00:35:10,633 --> 00:35:15,465
I'd say another thing we do in terms of public
571
00:35:15,525 --> 00:35:19,828
outreach is we go into universities and run training courses in
572
00:35:20,668 --> 00:35:24,491
normally for kind of masters or PhD level scientists in the environmental space
573
00:35:24,591 --> 00:35:27,813
and helping them think about what their work is, the impact it could have
574
00:35:27,854 --> 00:35:31,056
and how they might want to communicate that impactfully as they develop their
575
00:35:31,096 --> 00:35:35,356
own careers. So I like to kind of spread this gospel of you
576
00:35:35,396 --> 00:35:38,758
know, don't work hidden away, don't work in a silo, reach
577
00:35:38,858 --> 00:35:42,059
out, connect, collaborate, communicate. If you don't know how, find someone
578
00:35:42,079 --> 00:35:45,181
who does work with them. You can make amazing change if
579
00:35:45,221 --> 00:35:48,722
you can develop partnerships and that's, you know, good communication
580
00:35:51,904 --> 00:35:55,266
I completely agree. I do think you should talk about Mindfully Wired more
581
00:35:55,346 --> 00:35:58,628
often, just as from a personal standpoint, I would love
582
00:35:58,649 --> 00:36:02,131
to see the behind the scenes of a lot of the things. But
583
00:36:02,171 --> 00:36:05,413
I think, I think you're right. You know, your work speaks for
584
00:36:05,433 --> 00:36:09,015
yourself and your work speaks for your clients. And, you
585
00:36:09,035 --> 00:36:12,357
know, when you talk about, you know, 200 youths coming out
586
00:36:12,397 --> 00:36:16,039
and saying, you know, we want to make sure that we have clean water
587
00:36:16,079 --> 00:36:19,876
and clean access to water, for, especially for surfing, um,
588
00:36:20,116 --> 00:36:23,538
that's a, that's a huge, that you, you have a huge impact on
589
00:36:23,618 --> 00:36:26,820
not only the people, but to say, hey, not only are we putting this,
590
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,522
are we activists in putting this protest together, but we're putting a manifesto so
591
00:36:30,542 --> 00:36:33,783
we're heard, and it's going to the right people, and you have the way to
592
00:36:33,823 --> 00:36:37,205
get to the right people. And I think that is, you know, that's the
593
00:36:37,265 --> 00:36:40,587
communication that I think really matters in this, in
594
00:36:40,607 --> 00:36:43,768
this point of view. Um, but, because you speak for your clients, I think
595
00:36:43,808 --> 00:36:47,410
that's, that's the, the beauty of, of this whole thing. I
596
00:36:47,450 --> 00:36:51,072
know we're coming short on time, but just a last
597
00:36:51,152 --> 00:36:54,613
question. Do you have a project or
598
00:36:54,633 --> 00:36:58,135
a couple projects that are sort of developing that
599
00:36:58,155 --> 00:37:01,416
you're excited that you're able to talk about just to kind of give us a little sneak
600
00:37:01,456 --> 00:37:04,518
peek? Because obviously I'd love to have you come back or some of
601
00:37:04,558 --> 00:37:08,439
your staff come back to be able to talk about this or partners and collaborators.
602
00:37:08,499 --> 00:37:12,021
But do you have anything that you're excited about? I'm
603
00:37:15,486 --> 00:37:18,847
Yeah, I should say at the outset, I, of course, have no favorites. All of my clients are
604
00:37:18,867 --> 00:37:22,048
my favorite clients, and I will certainly run over time in order to talk
605
00:37:22,068 --> 00:37:25,228
about my clients. There's kind of like a stable of clients I want
606
00:37:25,268 --> 00:37:28,669
to talk about briefly, which is about the market acting in a really interesting way
607
00:37:28,709 --> 00:37:31,910
to push for better conservation and environmental outcomes. And then there's one
608
00:37:31,950 --> 00:37:35,051
project that's making some exciting announcements in the
609
00:37:35,091 --> 00:37:38,152
near future that I can give you a little sneak preview on, but I hope might also speak to
610
00:37:38,172 --> 00:37:41,892
you about their work in lots of detail, because it's fascinating. So
611
00:37:41,912 --> 00:37:45,514
in the first instance, just to talk about Again, talking about
612
00:37:45,534 --> 00:37:48,698
the kind of complex space we occupy that isn't always about working with an
613
00:37:48,758 --> 00:37:52,101
NGO on a pure conservation issue, but looking to how other people
614
00:37:52,141 --> 00:37:55,364
can act in a way that benefits people on the planet. We've
615
00:37:55,384 --> 00:37:59,168
got a kind of three-client stable at the moment at MindfullyWide of
616
00:37:59,328 --> 00:38:03,393
big, pre-competitive collaborations between huge
617
00:38:03,433 --> 00:38:08,758
companies in the supply chain, retailers, buyers, processors. literally
618
00:38:08,878 --> 00:38:12,460
billions of pounds of global purchasing power. And it's
619
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:16,042
fascinating to see this movement now. These coalitions forming around
620
00:38:16,102 --> 00:38:19,744
specific environmental and social issues where they want to drive positive change
621
00:38:19,804 --> 00:38:23,166
and they're saying government isn't moving fast enough. We the
622
00:38:23,206 --> 00:38:27,028
supply chain are going to try and use some of our heft, our perspective, our
623
00:38:27,068 --> 00:38:30,150
point of view on this to help push change in a positive direction. And
624
00:38:30,170 --> 00:38:33,373
that's been a new form of project for Mindfully Wide in the last two to three
625
00:38:33,393 --> 00:38:36,536
years. They're very advocacy focused, but we've got
626
00:38:37,176 --> 00:38:40,860
three clients we're working with at the moment. One, the North Atlantic Pelagic
627
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,484
Advocacy Group is pushing hard for Europe
628
00:38:44,884 --> 00:38:48,507
and Iceland, Greenland, the UK, Norway,
629
00:38:49,008 --> 00:38:52,491
Russia, all vested coastal states to come together and
630
00:38:52,591 --> 00:38:55,953
act responsibly follow the science and fish three
631
00:38:55,993 --> 00:38:59,793
pelagic stocks in line with sustainable science-based management in
632
00:38:59,813 --> 00:39:03,314
the Northeast Atlantic. That's a big mouthful, but we're talking about Atlantic Scandian herring,
633
00:39:03,734 --> 00:39:07,235
mackerel, and blue whiting. Iconic stocks in the most data-rich fisheries
634
00:39:07,295 --> 00:39:11,156
on the planet that are currently being fished beyond scientific advice
635
00:39:11,616 --> 00:39:14,897
due to a lack of political agreement. And that client is
636
00:39:14,937 --> 00:39:18,257
a bunch of businesses putting their competition to one side to come together and think
637
00:39:18,297 --> 00:39:21,398
about new ways to campaign and drive change. for
638
00:39:21,418 --> 00:39:24,901
those fisheries so that we hope, as soon as possible,
639
00:39:24,961 --> 00:39:28,164
the coastal states negotiators come together and come
640
00:39:28,204 --> 00:39:31,307
to a science-based sharing agreement. It's change on an
641
00:39:31,467 --> 00:39:35,450
ecosystem scale. If it goes wrong or right, it is generationally
642
00:39:35,490 --> 00:39:38,553
impactful. So there's no option for it
643
00:39:38,593 --> 00:39:42,156
to go wrong. But it's tricky because it is the most intense and entrenched
644
00:39:42,216 --> 00:39:46,299
politics you could work with. So that is a really fascinating project. And
645
00:39:46,319 --> 00:39:50,943
we have other clients using a similar model to advocate for better human
646
00:39:50,983 --> 00:39:54,126
rights protections and avoiding social labor abuses as
647
00:39:54,647 --> 00:39:57,809
part of the seafood supply chain, and advocating for
648
00:39:57,829 --> 00:40:00,952
better tuna management. So again, huge issues, but over the
649
00:40:00,992 --> 00:40:04,215
horizon, offshore, out of sight, easy for people to ignore, and therefore all
650
00:40:04,235 --> 00:40:07,398
the more important to communicate about and advocate for.
651
00:40:08,708 --> 00:40:12,310
And then the one I'll give you a little sneak peek on is a client, the Blue
652
00:40:12,370 --> 00:40:16,032
Carbon Action Partnership, which is really, you know, we
653
00:40:16,073 --> 00:40:20,655
love action at MindFleaWide, and this is a really action-focused collaborative
654
00:40:20,695 --> 00:40:23,897
initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum, but to
655
00:40:23,937 --> 00:40:27,459
drive high quality blue carbon projects
656
00:40:27,519 --> 00:40:30,860
around the world. So blue carbon is amazing environments like
657
00:40:30,940 --> 00:40:34,242
salt marshes and mangroves where they store, they suck in
658
00:40:34,282 --> 00:40:38,464
and store carbon. They're beautiful, they're precious, they're often very fragile, have
659
00:40:38,524 --> 00:40:42,265
enormous importance to local communities. And
660
00:40:42,866 --> 00:40:46,248
it's a very complex project. Again, it's about creating pipelines
661
00:40:46,268 --> 00:40:49,449
for investment and protection. It's working with NGOs. And
662
00:40:49,650 --> 00:40:53,252
at the heart of it is the importance of local communities. And
663
00:40:53,272 --> 00:40:56,954
that project's got lots of exciting stuff around the corner, some announcements to be made. So I'm
664
00:40:57,634 --> 00:41:00,856
hoping that you would have a chat with some of the scientists and
665
00:41:00,876 --> 00:41:04,218
the people involved in that, because that really is another project that
666
00:41:04,238 --> 00:41:07,920
is, on a global scale, trying to make exactly the right kind of change and
667
00:41:07,980 --> 00:41:11,884
bring to life these blue carbon environments that are just so precious. So
668
00:41:11,904 --> 00:41:15,534
yeah, you can hear from how I talk about them. It's all too exciting. There's
669
00:41:19,166 --> 00:41:22,568
I love that. I'm excited. Maybe we could have
670
00:41:23,148 --> 00:41:26,571
some of your partners on to talk more about those projects
671
00:41:26,631 --> 00:41:29,893
on in the future. And of course, Katrina, we'd love to have you
672
00:41:29,953 --> 00:41:33,174
back on to get updates and talk more
673
00:41:33,214 --> 00:41:37,117
about science communication. And I think
674
00:41:37,737 --> 00:41:42,440
what you've built and what you continue to build with
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00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,122
the people that you have in the company is
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not just communications, it's change. And
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00:41:49,423 --> 00:41:53,005
I think that's really, really huge. And it gives me
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00:41:53,505 --> 00:41:57,447
a lot of hope in this industry of communications and
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00:41:57,687 --> 00:42:02,269
conservation and inclusivity. and
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00:42:02,989 --> 00:42:06,251
diversity. I just think it's really great. I really
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00:42:06,311 --> 00:42:09,473
love what you continue to build here and I'd love to
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00:42:09,793 --> 00:42:13,335
have you on and talk more shop and
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00:42:13,375 --> 00:42:16,738
so forth on the podcast and maybe off the podcast but definitely on
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00:42:16,758 --> 00:42:20,300
the podcast so the audience could get to hear about all the wonderful projects
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00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:23,522
that you're working on and that your company's working on. So thank you so much for joining us.
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00:42:27,937 --> 00:42:31,179
Thank you Katrina for joining us on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean
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00:42:31,219 --> 00:42:34,320
podcast. I just love the fact that
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00:42:34,340 --> 00:42:37,522
I got to hang out with Katrina. There's so many more things that
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00:42:37,542 --> 00:42:40,804
I wanted to ask her and I'm hoping that she'll be able to come back on soon to
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00:42:40,824 --> 00:42:44,306
be able to talk about more of the projects that she's working on through Mindfully Wired
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00:42:44,666 --> 00:42:48,568
and why. I think when you start to look at the way people
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00:42:48,608 --> 00:42:52,330
are building out their projects, people are building out their firms, and
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00:42:52,350 --> 00:42:55,874
their companies and what they want to do around oceans. I've met a lot of
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00:42:55,954 --> 00:42:59,457
people in different avenues from storytellers to
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00:42:59,517 --> 00:43:02,780
people to startups to scientists and
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00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:06,383
they're all doing different things but with the goal of protecting
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00:43:06,443 --> 00:43:09,667
the ocean. And over the next number of months I'm going
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00:43:09,687 --> 00:43:13,070
to be trying to interview people who are working with
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00:43:13,170 --> 00:43:16,553
companies, working or building their own company to
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00:43:16,613 --> 00:43:19,897
provide options alternative options to what
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00:43:19,937 --> 00:43:23,661
we think are wasteful options in fact on friday's episode
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00:43:23,701 --> 00:43:27,545
next episode i'm going to be talking to regan kelly who is one
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00:43:27,565 --> 00:43:30,689
of the founders and people like of her family that work on
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00:43:30,769 --> 00:43:49,002
better for all which sell is a Or
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00:43:49,222 --> 00:43:52,284
like companies and organizations working towards this common goal of
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00:43:52,304 --> 00:43:55,525
just being sustainable and putting it out there not expecting You
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00:43:55,565 --> 00:43:58,686
know handouts from the government not just saying hey, you know what? Here's a
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00:43:58,746 --> 00:44:01,908
problem that we see we're trying to solve it That's what business people do and
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00:44:01,928 --> 00:44:05,169
we're trying to solve it in the right way that they can feel good and follow their
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00:44:05,229 --> 00:44:08,551
family Values and I think that's really important. So we're being
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00:44:08,611 --> 00:44:11,812
able to do that we're able to do that with Katrina Ryan and next episode we're
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00:44:11,832 --> 00:44:15,094
gonna be able to do that with Reagan Kelly and and I'm super excited to be able
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00:44:15,114 --> 00:44:18,417
to present that to you. So if you don't want to miss the next
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00:44:18,477 --> 00:44:22,800
episode or episodes after that, don't forget to follow or subscribe on
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00:44:23,100 --> 00:44:26,302
your favorite platform. And just to let people know, those of you who have
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00:44:26,342 --> 00:44:30,245
listened all the way through, those of you who are listening through Spotify,
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00:44:30,305 --> 00:44:33,808
you can now add comments. I think they started to add out comments.
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00:44:33,888 --> 00:44:37,150
I'd love to hear your comments if you're listening through Spotify or
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00:44:37,190 --> 00:44:40,273
if you don't normally listen through Spotify. maybe you listen to it
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00:44:40,353 --> 00:44:43,616
later on and so there's options there that you
721
00:44:43,636 --> 00:44:47,200
can use. So there's comments, we're gonna put polls together
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00:44:47,220 --> 00:44:50,763
in the future and there's just a much more interactive way to engage
723
00:44:50,904 --> 00:44:54,067
with people through Spotify with your favorite podcasters like
724
00:44:54,107 --> 00:44:57,389
myself, hopefully I'm your favorite. But you can check that out and
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00:44:57,449 --> 00:45:00,972
you can also see I'm actually started to put up video podcasts on Spotify
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00:45:00,992 --> 00:45:04,314
because they're now allowing that. So a little different way of doing things, but
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00:45:04,334 --> 00:45:07,576
it'll be a lot of fun. So I hope you enjoy that. Let me know your
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00:45:07,616 --> 00:45:10,999
experience on Spotify if you normally listen to it or if you're converting over
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00:45:11,059 --> 00:45:14,240
to that. Love to hear your experience with that. But it doesn't matter how you
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00:45:14,281 --> 00:45:17,882
listen to the episode. I just want you to hear it and share it with your favorite people so
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00:45:17,922 --> 00:45:21,123
that they can get the most out of this podcast, and you can get the most
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00:45:21,163 --> 00:45:24,465
out of this podcast, and we can share that message of how
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00:45:24,685 --> 00:45:28,107
to protect the ocean. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode
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00:45:28,487 --> 00:45:31,708
of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, and have a great day. We'll