The headlines of our time are enough to make anyone feel helpless. But when we start to think and act like Citizens, not Consumers, everything changes.
So I've written a book about it. It's called CITIZENS - Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us
I spent the first decade of my career working in the advertising industry, selling some of the world's biggest brands, and even winning a few awards along the way. Then I realised I was caught up in a story I didn't believe in: the Consumer Story.
In 2014, I co-founded the New Citizenship Project with Irenie Ekkeshis, a former adland colleague. Our mission was to figure out how to use our skills not just to sell stuff to Consumers, but to involve people in the decisions that affect their lives as Citizens.
NCP have partnered with organisations and institutions including the Co-op, The Body Shop, National Trust, BBC, European Central Bank and many more.
Then in 2020, with Britain in lockdown, I saw the ideas we were working with come alive in front of my eyes. As Citizens, we were getting involved, helping one another through unprecedented challenges. A whole new society became possible in that time. But our leaders couldn't see it, because they were blinded by the Consumer Story.
That's why I wrote CITIZENS: so that we can see what is possible.
Working with Ariane Conrad, a best-selling writer who has built a career turning big ideas into books that change the world, I've drawn on all my experience with NCP, studied the best of what's going on all over the world, and interrogated three Masters degrees-worth of knowledge to pull this together.
I truly believe that we humans are collaborative, creative, caring Citizens by nature - and if we give ourselves and each other the chance, we can fix this.