On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Lydia Brearley, a sustainable fashion advocate, about fashion, legislation, and how we can make changes together as an industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• While I was living and working in Shanghai in 2016 the Chinese government was focussing on pollution levels and a lot of the factories had restrictions imposed on them in terms of their output. At the same time mills were closing down which meant that orders were going late, prices were going up and this started affecting my business.
• Occasionally a siren would go off in the city, which was panicking for me having never had it explained. It was a pollution siren indicating that the pollution level was so high that school kids couldn’t play outside. In that moment my business didn’t fell aligned with my own personal values and I started to pivot my career toward sustainability.
• When was first consulting and speaking to directors it felt like they had intentions, but trying to move the dial and impact change was quite difficult. A lot of us in the industry need to almost unlearn all that we’ve learned in our careers because it’s not fit for the future.
• Whether your business is impacted or not you need to have an understanding of what these legislations are about and why they’re being introduced, what the challenges and risks are in the textile industry and why they’re being implemented in the first place. Even if you don’t need to officially comply, it’s important that you understand the principles behind it and start to adopt that in your business.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Enkel means ‘simple’ in Swedish, it’s all about simplifying sustainability.’

‘There’s so much happening in legislation, it’s really overwhelming. Everyone’s talking about it but there’s very few resources where you can identify what things mean, the differences between different acts and what acronyms mean.’

‘It can take seasons to implement change, when you look at the reports about where we’re going, we don’t have that much time.’

‘I appreciate how challenging it is for bigger brands to do a lot of this stuff, but I’m very much in the mindset of: You can’t just tick a box, it is a journey, start with the biggest impact and go from there and make sure that everybody in the business is aligned with that vision.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lydia Brearley is a Fashion Buyer and sustainable fashion advocate, with over 20 years global experience, having lived and worked in London, Brussels, Shanghai and Sweden. She now specialises in Sustainability and Circularity @thisisenkel, and supports brands and businesses to drive meaningful change within the Fashion Industry.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges.

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company.

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

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On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Dr Teri Baydar, a leadership development coach & author, about her book, ‘Flip The Switch’.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The book is about the 2 forms of consciousness that most humans experience (only 3-4% of us don’t). We live in a state of almost perpetual conflict, inner and outer, which I call ‘war consciousness’ and it stems from the structure of the left brain where we spend way too much time trying to fix things, tactically/practically figure things out, where we feel like we have to capture, contain and control something out there. Systemically we’ve pushed ourselves as a species more and more into that kind of consciousness which is really bad for us.
• The other form of consciousness inhabits the right brain and that is where we take a step back, relax and know that pretty much everything is OK. From that state of mind we seek to comprehend, we want to connect with people, with life, we build relationships and solve problems. We’re open to not needing to be right or wrong and to solving the problem from a higher sense of consciousness.
• We have created a system – economically, socially – that has certain outcomes that are undesirable, such as trashing the planet, but we keep doing it. Why? Because we can’t get out of our own way to think differently. Any leader that wants to disrupt or change anything has to first understand that you have to do it in your own mind.
• We mistakenly think strategy is going to solve a problem. I can strategically destroy someone, but strategy is only applying very good tactical, practical techniques from a higher level, but what’s missing there is connectivity to life. Understanding that if I want to destroy something or someone that’s destructive, not creative, healthy or beneficial.

BEST MOMENTS

‘In order to change things, to solve problems, to think critically, we have to get out of our left brain and into our right mind.’

‘The book is the MC2 of absolutely the thing you have to do as an entrepreneur, a leader, a person in order to solve problems from a higher level.’

‘Instead of disrupting in order to create better we end up disrupting and destroying and doing the same things over again, just in a slightly better, less toxic wat.’

‘A lot of high achievers think even of themselves as units of productivity, you’re not.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dr Teri Baydar is the CEO of White Lily Individual Development, LLC. Dr. Teri is a leadership development consultant, executive coach, and personal development expert who educates and supports C-suites and high achievers towards their personal path of self-actualizing growth for the greater good. During the decades she has spent coaching high-potential individuals, she has filled the role of mentor, friend, confidante, counsellor, healer, educator, the “CEO Whisperer,” and even “my own personal Yoda.”

Website

ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges.

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company.

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn