So much has happened over the last year. Organisational restructures; redundancies; business launches; impact on family and friends; new additions to the family (ok, mainly dogs); the strain on our mental health; the adjustment to home working; your weekly shop being the new “out-out”; dressing up for Saturday night Zoom quizzes; no opportunities to wear your extensive shoe collection; muted birthday celebrations and our much-coveted cars gathering dust….

And we’re retrospectively grateful for the lessons that every experience – good, bad, or indifferent – has taught us. 

Everyone we speak to has similar stories, and when we recently shared a post about practising gratitude, it got us thinking…

A thing of beauty for us has been the (largely inadvertent) deeper insights we have gained into the lives of our colleagues, neighbours, clients and even family. The newly found virtual existence introduced us, sometimes with comedic effect, to the pets, the kids, the partners, their homes, their taste in décor – and even bed hair!

On occasions, we got a real and guttural insight into the daily struggle for people we previously may have perceived as totally having their shit together.

Largely, irrespective of their usual socio-economic differences, the sense of isolation, missing, longing, etc., has strangely brought so many together. Juggling life, loneliness, homeschooling, work, loss of work, bereavement, and fear served to create a commonality where it simply did not exist previously.

This period has broken the silence and created a new openness. Long gone is the standard “I’m good” response to the also standard “how are you?”

Nevermore so has it been ok, to NOT be ok.

We are grateful to have connected more deeply with people and have loved being observers, players, and narrators of ‘life’ in the virtual world. 

At Elev-8, we are committed to holding onto the newfound sense of openness, vulnerability and connectedness, in whatever the “new normal” looks like.

We are embracing vulnerability in a way we may never have seen in our lifetime otherwise. And, in doing so, uncovering so much about each other, we may not even have imagined. And do you know what? It is an amazing thing!

We simply want to continue these incredibly valuable conversations. The stiff upper lip plays no part in the future we are aiming to create and sustain.

Enter stage left…… UNWRAPPED.

We’re launching a human-focused podcast series that focuses on the story of the individual, today, yesterday and tomorrow.

What it IS

Insight into the person behind the profile…It is simply the sharing of the human being’s story that sits behind the “profile” and what LinkedIn or any other social platform will not tell you, or you do not typically see. Raw, real, and honest.

The highs, the lows, and lessons learned. The experiences that have shaped us.

We have already spoken to some amazing people, and there is so much inspiration to be found.

No topic is off-limits, and it only affirms that an overwhelming number of us have largely lived our lives, fitting in or trying to. Putting a brave face on things. Settling. Accepting. Hiding. Excusing. Compensating.

What this is NOT

It is not selling a product or pitching an idea.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Or a do as we did and you will be happy, overnight. 

It’s also not an outpouring of how terrible the world and/or life is.

In truth, we all struggle. We all have doubts. We have all made mistakes. We just have bad days – errors in judgement. We are human, after all. BUT, it’s never too late to take back control, make that bold move, own our destiny. Really align to our true purpose and be our authentic selves. 

Join us in our mission to ensure that the humanity we have found, remains.