Every Saturday, aunts, uncles, blood, and chosen family gathered around my mother's kitchen table. Some loud, some quiet, some still finding their way. Everyone was different, and everyone was entirely allowed to be. Belonging required no performance, no masks, and no hierarchy, just distinct personalities; one collective PULSE.
Years later, I recognised echoes of that same spirit in Nordic cultures. Their flatter, more egalitarian approaches to hierarchy have long interested me, particularly alongside their international reputation for innovation and quality of life. I love the idea of environments where less energy is spent navigating status, and more can go into the work, the thinking and the enjoyment of being together.
The Work
At 53, I walked away from a 20-year corporate career and into acting, without drama school training or industry connections. At 59, I became an entrepreneur again. I had ideas I wanted to bring into the world, and I followed them.
But beyond the freedom I'd known around my mother's table, I began to notice the psychological cages that can remain long after the physical ones have come down on paper.
That tension has stayed with me. On screen, on stage, through speaking, in the studio or around a table.
Looking back, I see that my life hasn't been a corporate ladder or a traditional career path. It has been a series of unexpected creative choices.
I don't have a blueprint for how anyone else should live. I'm interested in what happens when we give ourselves the freedom to question the script, follow an idea and create from the pulse.
