
Following your curiosity, with Mel Wiggins
11/27/20 • 79 min
1 Listener
Things We Talk About In This Episode:
- Multi-layered, multi-hyphenated careers and what to call yourself if you’re asked at a party
- Being led by curiosity, the value of deep-dive research, and the joy of starting something new
- Mel’s early career in the not-for-profit charity sector, and the turning point she reached that led her to galvanise a group of volunteers and ultimately, to co-create Freedom Acts, a not-for-profit group aimed at ending modern slavery
- How pregnancy can be an impetus for both creativity and personal rebellion
- Doing something new, how to “be a learner at every stage,” and how to get things done despite feeling totally unqualified
- Pivoting careers, self-doubt and self-worth wobbles when it comes to moving from charitable work to for-profit work, the desire to “do good,” and the realisation that roles, and work, can be “both-and” rather than “either-or”
- Finding your ‘ideal community’ on Instagram, and building space to make that community part of your offline life
- Starting an “accidental business”
- Allowing your values to drive your business, or the work you do in the world
- The inner work that goes into making peace with charging for your services, skills and time
- That women need to have more stakes and autonomy in economics, finance and making money... and that we are to be trusted
- Navigating the world of online influence
- The concept of being influential as an improvement (what it means to be “improvingly influential”)
- Mel’s research into what people consistently find “influential” in both social and personal contexts (three core pillars of intuition, integrity, and impact)
- The value of finding and maintaining our own personal boundaries when sharing online
- The very human desire to “be seen” - and giving ourselves permission to admit this and pursue it
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Mel’s website
- Mel’s business, Assembly
- Mel on Instagram, @melwiggins
- Freedom Acts
- Sara’s podcast episode “Using Instagram for Charity Fundraising, with Creating for Good”
- Sara’s story in Stylist magazine: “How becoming the breadwinner changed my relationship with my husband”
- Tara Mohr (coach and author)
Get full access to Entre Nous at meandorla.substack.com/subscribe
Things We Talk About In This Episode:
- Multi-layered, multi-hyphenated careers and what to call yourself if you’re asked at a party
- Being led by curiosity, the value of deep-dive research, and the joy of starting something new
- Mel’s early career in the not-for-profit charity sector, and the turning point she reached that led her to galvanise a group of volunteers and ultimately, to co-create Freedom Acts, a not-for-profit group aimed at ending modern slavery
- How pregnancy can be an impetus for both creativity and personal rebellion
- Doing something new, how to “be a learner at every stage,” and how to get things done despite feeling totally unqualified
- Pivoting careers, self-doubt and self-worth wobbles when it comes to moving from charitable work to for-profit work, the desire to “do good,” and the realisation that roles, and work, can be “both-and” rather than “either-or”
- Finding your ‘ideal community’ on Instagram, and building space to make that community part of your offline life
- Starting an “accidental business”
- Allowing your values to drive your business, or the work you do in the world
- The inner work that goes into making peace with charging for your services, skills and time
- That women need to have more stakes and autonomy in economics, finance and making money... and that we are to be trusted
- Navigating the world of online influence
- The concept of being influential as an improvement (what it means to be “improvingly influential”)
- Mel’s research into what people consistently find “influential” in both social and personal contexts (three core pillars of intuition, integrity, and impact)
- The value of finding and maintaining our own personal boundaries when sharing online
- The very human desire to “be seen” - and giving ourselves permission to admit this and pursue it
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Mel’s website
- Mel’s business, Assembly
- Mel on Instagram, @melwiggins
- Freedom Acts
- Sara’s podcast episode “Using Instagram for Charity Fundraising, with Creating for Good”
- Sara’s story in Stylist magazine: “How becoming the breadwinner changed my relationship with my husband”
- Tara Mohr (coach and author)
Get full access to Entre Nous at meandorla.substack.com/subscribe
Previous Episode

Understanding Instagram Trends (And how to use them for growth)
Things I Talk About In This Episode:
- The evolving trends of Instagram
- How our fears and doubts stay the same, no matter how the platform evolves
- The risks and costs of buying too heavily into one trend
- Why I'm always wary of one-size-fits-all solutions online
- The importance of staying connected to your own creative vision and voice
- How to use trends for growth without getting blown off-path
- The importance of building meaningful connections with your audience/customers
Links mentioned in this episode:
- My Instagram
- My Insta Retreat Class
- An example of my window photos
- My Vodafone Business Story
- My upcoming Lunch N Learn session in growing your Instagram, with Vodafone Business UK and Enterprise Nation
Get full access to Entre Nous at meandorla.substack.com/subscribe
Next Episode

Tiktok, Reels and 4 million views in a year With Ida @toeverymom
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Ida on TikTok
- Ida on Instagram
- Ida on Youtube
- Ida’s lumberjack TikTok
- Clubhouse
- My Instagram Class, The Insta Retreat
- Me on Instagram – @me_and_orla
Times for our Clubhouse chat
16:00 GMT
11:00 AM EST
08:00 AM PST
04:00 AM Sydney
Get full access to Entre Nous at meandorla.substack.com/subscribe
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