L’avalanche - How Libbation Began

2020 closes out and I’ve made it home to South Australia where I’ll wave the year goodbye from my room above Hindmarsh Square in hotel quarantine. At this same time in 2019 I published my first blog — Welcome to the Tipping Point. The Tipping Point was my realisation of the effects of technology and change… like an epiphany where I felt compelled to take action on the opportunities for youth because of what I’d experienced internationally and in Australia. At the Tipping Point I was deconstructing a belief system and unlearning everything I'd learnt. In March of this year I held an event at the Gawler Business Innovation Hub and played a short film that I’d put together which ran for 30 minutes. I got a bunch of people together and talked about the need for innovation and an entrepreneurship program called Formation.

When Covid-19 restrictions hit Sydney I wanted to go home to work on Formation. We’re maybe always drawn home because where and how we started has to be relevant, or maybe it’s that after being away you start to see the picture in new contrasts and lights. A year later from the Tipping Point I’ve gone through its avalanche... pushing myself which has felt overwhelming at times amongst the hostility of a Covid world where everything became so unclear. With my need to create my own pathway I had to continue formulating my very own Formation. Long story short, the learning and growth I’ve experienced has been wonderful. There have been curious turns and the space to accommodate creativity which I haven’t had in years. Although I’ve felt very lost in 2020, like my need to return home, I couldn’t help but end up doing what I’ve always been drawn to. That's writing and creating. Amongst all the noise of 2020 I just let myself go.

The mediums that I’ve been able to work across such as social media, film and fashion have made for rewarding work; great learnings and exposure. At a time where people die from Coronavirus, now 10% of traditional media firms will die (Magna Global), because of how we as consumers have changed. I still feel strongly that we can’t shy away or detract from the need for innovation and change. We know the health measures that we must take in our everyday lives such as wearing masks, socialising outside, working from home and using hand sanitiser for protection. We need to continue to seek out opportunities. From my year, I know that in order to do so you need to be in an environment that embraces new ways of working and a society that will tolerate it.

On Facebook I was just notified that 5 years ago I was in Conques in the South of France, 21, working on my first marketing project. In a small tourist town, a small business owner was interested in my experiences and opinions. And as I continue to formulate these… I’m reminded that I don’t want to lose where I was at that moment before my career in Sydney had even begun. I want to express myself how I want to, wear the clothes that I want to, have my own business and work in the areas that I have degrees in… and I don’t think any of these things need to cancel each other out.

How funny to have thought up a product that I started to consume and lean so heavily on. My thoughts are, how might I incorporate an entrepreneurship program into what I’ve formed this year? I’m setting off into 2021 with what you’d call a small marketing agency… I didn’t plan it, it just happened so I’ll run with that. I’m not sure that it’s something that can be taught but something that needs to be experienced — like an avalanche. I am sure that where the experience happens doesn’t matter; it could be in the most unpromising of countrysides, so long as you have the mindsets, any uniqueness can be exploited and yield up something extraordinary. Best wishes for 2021, Libby.