Strands of Genius: Ending on a Sweet Note: Chocolate-Covered Generosity, AI May Make Human Culture Obsolete, but at Least It Helps Me Streamline My Writing, Sometimes I still Loathe My Body

Guest curated by Elisabeth Bromberg, Founder & Chief Strategist at Mildred Mae

Jun 08, 2023

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, ELISABETH BROMBERG ::

LOCATION: New York, NY

Hey there! I’m Elisabeth, and I sometimes refer to myself as a professional overthinker. It’s a pretty accurate description of who I am as a strategist and a person. Whether I’m working on a strategy project for a client or simply watching Succession (I MISS YOU ALREADY, LOGAN FAMILY, YOU CRAZY BASTARDS 😩), my brain tends to think laterally and wants to find patterns and connections (sometimes to my detriment.) I'm also an external processor, which means my speaking and writing styles can be excessive (something I'm constantly working on, as brevity is crucial to being a strategist). Still, on the positive side, I've been told it helps me come across as warm, empathetic, and relatable. As a neurodivergent, professional woman, I believe that every so-called weakness can be a superpower.

When I'm not strategizing or talking too much, you can usually find me obsessively binge-watching brilliant, nuanced TV series (I currently have a soft spot for French crime thrillers), belting show tunes, Taylor Swift, or 90s pop throwbacks while cooking in my tiny NYC kitchen, diving down Reddit rabbit holes, or dreaming about becoming a wine critic (as an amateur wine snob, I'm probably like one of 5 total people who subscribes to SommTV).

Perhaps most importantly, I’m a pet Mom to a 9-year-old rescue dog, Moses, and two cats, Naomi and Levi, all of whom have prominent, hilarious personalities and make my life a joy.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We appreciate how open Elisabeth is in speaking about eating disorders and how she has dealt with hers over the years. Eating disorders, body dysmorphia, body image, etc. are all things that so many people (including us) struggle with everyday. We are grateful for people like Elisabeth who are able to talk about it and create decks like this one so that more people can learn and understand what they are and how you can help. Thank you Elisabeth for being with us here today!

:: THE LINKS ::

ENDING ON A SWEET NOTE: CHOCOLATE-COVERED GENEROSITY

I was born in London and lived in the UK as a kid, so Cadbury’s Chocolate, whether in the form of a perfectly crumbly Flake or the classic Dairy milk chocolate bar, is my ultimate sweet treat. And as the founder of a brand consultancy whose mission is rooted in empathy, I loved reading this Marketing Week piece about how Cadbury tapped into the Quaker values of the original Cadbury family through a renewed purpose of generosity, which has helped them turn around the brand's declining sales problem in the past five years. With more and more “purpose-driven marketing” becoming just a buzzword or empty promises from brands to attract Gen Z customers, Cadbury’s evolved their entire brand platform with a sustaining, heartwarming mission that ties directly back to their brand DNA: inspiring small, everyday moments of kindness with chocolate. Have your hankies ready for this one. (Marketing Week)

AI MAY MAKE HUMAN CULTURE OBSOLETE, BUT AT LEAST IT HELPS ME STREAMLINE MY WRITING

I’ve read many books that changed my life, but few do I remember the experience of reading with as much clarity as Yuval Noah Harari's first narrative on the anthropological and sociological evolution of the human race, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I had been working on the Global Marketing team of Kiehl’s Since 1851 at L’Oreal at the time, and everyone was talking about it. While usually I’m a speed reader and binge books the same way I binge TV series (aka prone to hyper-focusing to the extent of isolation and sleep deprivation, oops), but while I didn’t want to put Sapiens down, I found I cognitively had to so I could ingest and process each fascinating, provocative chapter. The same thing happened when I read Harari’s succeeding books, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
Few other intellectuals have so significantly impacted how I think about humanity, human behavior, and our future as a species, which is why Harrari’s recent op-ed in the NY Times warning about the dangers of AI has me unequivocally convinced that it’s highly likely, perhaps irrevocably so, that humans will be responsible for our ultimate demise. While this isn’t exactly an astute observation (hello global warming, the constant threat of bio or nuclear war, the ever-increasing gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us, guns, attacks on human rights, an entire globe of people conveniently pretending like a Pandemic didn’t just happen/is still happening and impacting high-risk individuals, etc, etc, etc), Harari’s op-ed captures the crux of it all: with great power comes great responsibility, and humans have proven time and again that we cannot handle being in charge. And with the exponential speed at which AI is progressing, its harrowing implications may be realized much sooner than we are willing to admit. And on that positive note, may I also give a shout-out to @cheerful_nihilism on Instagram for helping me manage my existential dread with dark humor memes. (NY Times)

SOMETIMES I STILL LOATHE MY BODY, AND THAT'S OK - BUT YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT IT AREN'T

I’m not shy about recovering from a 20+ year-long eating disorder or how my body size has been all over the spectrum throughout my life. My experiences both as a professional woman in eating disorder recovery and having existed in the world as a very large woman, as well as a very small one, have had an enormous impact on my personal values and perspectives on how society’s obsession with body size and relentless perpetuation of diet culture not only takes a tremendous toll on our perception and treatment of our own bodies but both the conscious and subconscious biases and beliefs we inflict on each other’s. That’s why I’m relieved to start seeing more content in mass media about body neutrality, which, unlike body positivity, promotes a neutral stance on all bodies, an understanding that health is not contingent on size or shape, and, above all, the permission to feel how you’re going to feel about your own body and accept those feelings, without being pressured to resort to unhealthy behaviors or deny your emotions by the weight - pun intended - of others’ opinions. I think there’s so much work to do on better understanding eating disorders and the role that we all play in perpetuating them, particularly in populations outside the stereotypical white, cis, female adolescent sufferer. (Time)

Looking for more from Elisabeth Bromberg? Coming Friday, look for an interview from her in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: $1-$2 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em.

:: City :: Tie between NYC and London - the two cities I've called home.

:: Book :: Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl.

:: Podcast :: Beautiful / Anonymous.

:: Album :: Picaresque, The Decemberists.

:: MYTHBUSTERS ::

As I shared above, eating disorders are still grossly misunderstood, and professional environments can be highly triggering for women suffering from or in recovery from eating disorders and/or disordered eating. I created this deck a couple of years ago in an effort to help educate more people around this often taboo topic and hopefully inspire behavior change in those who may not realize some of the negative impacts that common aspects of workplace culture can have on eating disorder sufferers and those in recovery.

Thank you for reading!

I swear I'm way less intense than the links I shared may lead you to think! You can learn more about my brand consultancy here at Mildred Mae, follow me on Instagram and Twitter (IG for photos of my pets and IG Stories of curated memes that people much funnier than me created, and Twitter for random interesting content and equally random thoughts) or read my sporadic hot takes and musings on my Substack.

PS: I'm not on BlueSky yet, but if anyone wants to throw me an invite, I'll love you forever.

- Elisabeth

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Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

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