#Paris' decluttering journey

[anonymousdormhacks]

I'm eternally trying to declutter my items but so many clothing decluttering tips don't work for me. If I put clothes in a box to see if I will miss them, it's not that I don't like the clothes in that box (or even that I won't wear them regularly) it's that if you put anything outside of my immediate eye sight I will forget it exists.

I could hide my computer that I use every day and I'll forget about it 3 days later and wonder why my school work is so hard to get done. "See which clothes you don't wear by hanging them up" trick question if they're in a closet I won't see them and at that point they're not objects that I own

[luxuryshopper]

The PH Luxury Experience for Hermes Birkin Enthusiasts in Australia

In the world of luxury fashion, few items hold as much prestige and allure as the iconic Hermes Birkin bag. Coveted by fashionistas and collectors alike, the Birkin represents the epitome of timeless elegance and exclusivity. For those in Australia seeking to indulge in the luxury of Hermes, PH Luxury offers an unparalleled experience, from buying to selling and consignment.

Buy Hermes Birkin

Founded in 2018 by the visionary entrepreneur Paris Krimotat, PH Luxury has quickly become a beacon of luxury in the Australian market. Paris's journey from the Gold Coast to Sydney and her global adventures have shaped her passion for luxury goods, culminating in the creation of PH Luxury. With a background in marketing and a keen eye for luxury trends, Paris has meticulously curated a global team of sourcing agents, ensuring that PH Luxury offers only the finest selection of luxury items, including the coveted Hermes Birkin bag.

Sell Hermes bag Australia

For those looking to indulge in the ultimate luxury experience, PH Luxury provides the opportunity to buy authentic Hermes Birkin bags directly through their platform. Whether you're a seasoned collector or a first-time buyer, PH Luxury offers a curated selection of Birkin bags in various sizes, colors, and materials, ensuring that there's something for every taste and style.

Hermes Birkin price Australia

But the luxury experience doesn't end there. PH Luxury also offers a seamless selling process for those looking to part ways with their Hermes Birkin bags. Whether you're looking to upgrade your collection or simply declutter your closet, PH Luxury provides a hassle-free selling experience, ensuring that you receive top dollar for your pre-loved luxury items.

For those who prefer a more flexible approach, PH Luxury also offers consignment services, allowing you to consign your Hermes Birkin bag with confidence. With PH Luxury's extensive network of buyers and industry expertise, you can rest assured that your luxury item will find a new home while maximizing its resale value.

Consignment Australia

When it comes to luxury, PH Luxury sets the standard in Australia. With a passion for the finer things in life and a commitment to excellence, Paris Krimotat and her team have created a luxury destination like no other. Whether you're buying, selling, or consigning, PH Luxury offers a personalized experience that caters to your every need.

So why wait? Indulge in the luxury of Hermes Birkin with PH Luxury and experience the epitome of style, sophistication, and exclusivity. With PH Luxury, luxury is not just a dream – it's a reality waiting to be unlocked.

[dippedanddripped]

As retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to get shoppers (particularly new, young ones) into their brick-and-mortar stores, a slew of luxury brands seem to have a strategy for engaging consumers: Get them to go somewhere else — not to shop, but to hang out.

This summer, Dolce & Gabbana opened a "cultural hub," as it's calling it, on Mercer St. in Soho, New York. While one can shop there during the day, the space is first and foremost a luxurious, Instagrammable clubhouse for the youths. It hosts monthly events, like a concert featuring up-and-coming bands, or a "drink and draw" night.

Also this summer, Coach debuted Life Coach, an experiential pop-up in New York meant to "lead guests on a journey of self-discovery." It contained exactly zero products for sale; instead, it housed immersive and photogenic rooms. Perhaps you saw one made to look like a New York City subway station, where guests could graffiti the walls, on your social media feeds; there was also a Coney Island-inspired room with games and a mystical forest with tarot card readings.

Over the past few months, Hermès, the most exclusive and luxurious of all exclusive, luxurious brands, opened "Carré Club" (carré means "scarf") pop-ups in New York, Toronto, Singapore, Los Angeles and Milan. With free public admission, guests could get photos taken, sing karaoke (sorry, Carré-Ok), enjoy complimentary refreshments from a café and watch artists and designers work in an on-set atelier. Scarves were available to purchase, but they were in no way the main focus of the event.

A guest at Dolce & Gabbana Mercer St. Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

In September in London, Matchesfashion.com opened 5 Carlos Place, a Mayfair townhouse with a retail component that most notably serves as a community space where all sorts of event programming has and will take place, as well as live streaming and podcasts for those who can't visit it in person — think high-level events like book signings, panel discussions, supper clubs, luxury brand installations and intimate musical performances. The opening follows a series of temporary residencies the retailer held in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Hong Kong for its 30th anniversary featuring similar types of engaging, often-educational events.

Chances are, you've seen at least one of these activations on Instagram, but aside from their photogenic designs, they all have one major (and initially surprising) thing in common: Unlike the many ephemeral retail concepts that came before them, the main goal here is not to sell you stuff. These brands are investing in physical spaces and events without any expectation that they will see a return on that investment — at least not a return that can be measured in dollars.

This concept didn't exactly come out of nowhere. There was February’s Chanel Beauty House in LA featuring room after room of Instagrammable moments. Tiffany & Co.opened its Blue Box Cafe last fall, resulting in a robin's-egg-blue flood of "breakfast at Tiffany" Instagram posts, and it's still tough to get a reservation there. Nordstrom debuted its Local concept in 2018, where service is prioritized over inventory. All the way back in 2016, Burberry opened Makers House in London, a pop-up featuring activities and installations meant to showcase the work of British artisans, which it revived in 2017.

The Carré Cafe at Carré Club. Photo: Courtesy of Hermès

Brands and retailers have also started to create Instagrammable moments and/or host workouts, Q&As and panel discussions in their existing stores with increasing frequency, some going so far as to host their own festivals and conferences (see: the In Goop Health wellness summit, Beautycon and Sephoria). Outside of the luxury fashion and beauty markets, Instagram-fueled experiential spaces have reached a fever pitch in cities like New York and LA, from Refinery29's 29Rooms to the Museum of Ice Cream to the Rosé Mansion that draw lines of people simply hoping to get some good content out of their outing.

"Lululemon really started this shift a number of years ago when it started offering yoga classes in-store," explains Petah Marian, senior editor for WGSN Insight. "It's evolved as other brands saw how consumers bought into this strategy, and then evolved it for their brands."

Today, we're seeing more instances of brands creating these experiences outside of their stores, simply because people don't need to go to stores anymore. "There is a shift taking place where people aren't as keen to spend Saturday afternoons wandering around the mall looking at stuff, because they're largely doing that on their phones," says Marian. "Experiences give them a reason to come into a retailer's space and have an interaction with a brand."

For luxury labels, which tend to be especially precious about their messaging and often shy away from inclusivity and accessibility for fear of brand dilution, the goal should be to convey the value of their brand and product to people who aren't going to visit their store to find that out. "Consumers are increasingly discerning, and simply placing an expensive item on a rail is not going to convince the customer of its worth," says Marian. "These events help create the perception of a product or retailer as a purveyor of valuable goods." Take the Hermès Carré Club, which was clearly about educating attendees about the brand's heritage in an accessible, entertaining way.

Coach's Chief Marketing Officer Carlos Becil tells Fashionista how the company chose to promote its signature collection from Spring 2018: "Instead of being more precious with it, we really set out a plan to be much more inclusive." Hosting the pop-up in a separate space from its retail stores and having nothing to sell were both conscious decisions. "We deliberately wanted to create a new environment and not have the limitations of a pre-designed retail space," he says. That way, guests could "roam throughout the spaces and be on a discovery mission and explore." The goal? That "every single person that walked through it had a very unique experience and walked out of there with a sense of what Coach was about."

Matchesfashion Chief Brand Officer Jess Christie explains that it now takes more than offering free champagne in a store to create a community-like experience. After the 30th anniversary residency events, she realized, "People were looking to make more connections, and the storytelling and content aspects were more important." With the residencies and 5 Carlos Place, the goal is to create community and inspire loyalty, acquiring new customers while engaging existing ones with sophisticated events and educational talks. Marian thinks this is the right way to go about things. "The events they host fit in with ideas of modern luxury around intellectual sophistication," he says. The retailer's sales rose 44 percent last year, so whatever it's doing seems to be working.

Another goal of these experiences is, of course, to generate social media content that those who aren't in attendance will see. "A lot of times, you're like, does it make a good picture for Instagram? That wasn't our first thought," Becil claims. "Our first thought was: How does this space make you feel? If it makes you feel a certain way, you're going to want to capture it; you're going to want to share it."

A rep for Dolce & Gabbana who preferred not to be quoted was open about the fact that the Italian house's space was largely meant to generate social media content. As with its entire marketing strategy lately, from runway shows to campaigns, it's designed to engage younger shoppers, namely millennials, who might not otherwise feel inclined to walk into a regular Dolce & Gabbana store.

"It surprised us when we did In Residence in the U.S., the reach we got was just incredible," says Christie. "In New York and LA, a few thousand customers [in attendence] across all events reached over 21 million on social and Facebook Live."

For most of these events, the metric of success is engagement. Becil says that visitors spent an average of an hour inside the Life Coach space and that social media engagement and editorial coverage exceeded the brand's expectations. He confirmed Coach plans to debut different versions of Life Coach in China, Japan and across North America over the next year, starting with Shanghai, where it's staging its Pre-Fall show on Dec. 8, suggesting the first pop-up was a success.

A panel discussion at Matchesfashion.com In Residence. Photo: Courtesy of Matchesfashion.com

Many of these experiential concepts are meant to engage young people and generate social media content, but, increasingly, that's not enough. "We are going to get to a point where consumers tire of 'brand museums,' those that are just backdrops for Instagram shots," says Marian. "They will start to seek more from those experiences — to learn, play, connect (with a brand or likeminded individuals) or feel a sense of wonder."

Indeed, the brands mentioned in this story seem to be getting that. Matchesfashion's programming has expanded beyond fashion to encompass a 360-degree lifestyle, including workouts and panels on wellness, spirituality and how to become an art collector. Culturally, Christie feels luxury shoppers have "moved away from being on the surface and about status; it's about all what makes you an interesting person, and that's the music you listen to, your food, wellness ... it feels very considered."

On Thursday, Anya Hindmarch will begin a four-day series of events at her Sloane Street store in London geared towards helping attendees get more organized, literally. There will be talks led by productivity enhancement experts who train Google employees, as well as Gill Hasson, the author of "Declutter Your Life," and Helena Morrissey, a financier and mother-of-nine, according to WWD.

That's exactly the sort of thing Marian thinks we'll start seeing brands do next: "Experiences that add more value to a consumers' life, stuff around co-creation, learning new skills, and helping people to live their best lives."

It makes sense given that millennials are increasingly prioritizing self-care and self-improvement when it comes to how they spend their money. It's probably why the name Life Coach resonated so well: In the U.S., the self-improvement market is expected to grow 5.6 percent per year, reaching $13.6 billion by 2022. Millennials reportedly spend twice as much as baby boomers on things like exercise, diet plans, therapy and, yes, actual life coaching.

Brands are just starting to reach millennials where their money is, and while these inventory-less experiences might not drive sales immediately, they will put those brands at top of mind for said millennials when they are ready to make a big purchase, which is increasingly important and invaluable in today's crowded landscape

[lygum]

fave self-help/spiritual books and also fave educational books? thanks angel xx

I do not really believe in self-help books, they often just tell you that you are living your life the wrong way and make you feel kinda worse etc and are so pretentious. I have a few on my to-read list but I don’t even know if I ever read them.I do enjoy ‘Quiet’ by Susan Cain a lot, it is about the power of introverts.‘Ayurveda and the Mind’ is a pretty interesting and helpful book which I read in Sri Lanka.

Anyways; here is my list of self-help books I think I’d enjoy (both spiritual, self-helping and somewhat educational):

- The Dreamer’s Dictionary

- Why Men Love Bitches

- Hot Pants: Do it Yourself Gynecology and Herbal Remedies 

- Feindbild Frau: männliche Sexualität, Gewalt und die Abwehr des Weiblichen

- The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe

- Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression

- French Women Don’t Get Fat

- The Anxiety Solution: A Quieter Mind, A Calmer You

- The Tools: Transform Your Problems into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity 

List of educational books I’d definitely recommend:

- How to be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum

-  Hallucinations 

- A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of ‘A Course in Miracles’

- Jenseits von Gut und Böse

- The Hatred of Poetry

- Camera Obscura: An Archeological Survey from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age

- The French Beauty Solution

- Promises Kept: One Man’s Journey Against Incredible Odds

- Astral Travel: Your Guide to the Secrets of Out-of-the-Body Experiences

- Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

- Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners

- The Cinema of Cruelty: From Buñuel to Hitchcock

- Linda Goodman’s Love Signs: A New Approach to the Human Heart

- A Field Guide to Getting Lost

- Where Art Belongs

- The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

- Untenrum frei

- L’art de la simplicité: simplifier sa vie, c’est enrichir

- Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969

- Poesie und Gewalt: Das Leben der Gudrun Ensslin

- Abenteuer Freiheit: Ein Wegweiser für unsichere Zeiten

- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and the Body in the Healing of Trauma

- Über guten und schlechten Schlaf

- Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London

- The Feminine Mystique 

- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing 

This is just a collection of books I fairly enjoy or find interesting.

Please do not rely on those books and if you have severe mental issues, please see a professional and do not try to “cure” your self.Also, some of these books could possibly be triggering, so please take care of yourself and do not force yourself to read something that brings back bad memories or takes you to a bad place / aggravates your current mental state.

These books are either educational or can help with some issues but only to a certain extent.

A few of the titles are in German but English versions should exist.

[cessanderson]

Springtime DIY Decor & More https://ift.tt/2JmgLFv

Good bye winter! Arrivederci! Helloooooo Spring, my long lost pal! Welcome! Sunshine is the best medicine and am I every ready! How about you? 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Spring! Finally! Can I get an “amen”?!  I’m so in love with the longer days, the sunshine and warmer temps. It’s motivation for Spring cleaning and decluttering, refreshing and creativity! Right? Same for you? Let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at some past DIYShowOff Spring decorating projects: 

Spring floral centerpiece – I love fresh flowers and I think it’s the perfect time to grab a bouquet from the grocery store. Split it up into several smaller fresh bouquets for a spring touch bedside, on the bathroom vanity and desktop but a new silk/faux arrangement for the dining room table lasts longer! Bonus: Zero maintenance.

How about a fun spring craft project? Gather up some friends, finger foods, a fresh essential oil infused water bar and get creative with a Spring succulents arrangement – succulents in robins’ eggs…what cuties! 

Think ahead! April showers bring May flowers. This would be a fun spring fling get-together too! Put that Silhouette or Circuit to good use! Decorate your Rain Boots  – personalize with vinyl! 

Spring entertaining – it’s almost time for outdoor gatherings! My dog is already asking for me to move her cushion to the sunlight streaming through the French doors. lol! I can’t wait to be out on the patio.

Do you decorate for the change in seasons? Spring mantel – this past mantelscape had so much charm, didn’t it? It’s been a while since I’ve decorated my mantel for Spring but I’m working on one for this year. Check back with me next week. The studio could use a bit of Spring bling! 

Spring break is coming up! Freshen up the guest room with some Spring accents. Check out this Spring bloom pillow cover tutorial. So cute!

Create a pretty Spring floral arrangement, add some French accents for a SpringTime in Paris vignette. I’ve never been. Have you? Tell me all about it! Romantic? Inspiring? This is as close as I’m getting for a while. 

SpringTime in Paris  

Harsh winter ice storms and high winds brought down a TON of branches here in our yard. Time to whip up an easy Spring branch centerpiece! Seriously! This is about the EASIEST DIY ever! Grab a twig or branch from the yard and give it a coat of spray paint. Add a mini-nest and some eggs. Cheap! Cheap! 

Not convinced to browse the floral aisle at your local craft store yet?

Here’s another Spring centerpiece – add a twist. I love this artichoke nestled in there. Butterflies, birds, nests, lemons. Try adding a fun unexpected element to keep it interesting!

SPRING into essential oils!

Is what you put into your body important to you? Me too! ‘m pretty sure by now that you’ve heard a lot about essential oils, right? ::groan:: and ::eye roll:: <— that was my initial reaction too! lol! What IS all the fuss about? It’s not something new. It’s not just something trendy. It’s all about living about the wellness line and supporting our body systems. It’s about surrounding yourself with less toxins and creating a chemical free home. 

CLICK —> HERE TO SPRING INTO ESSENTIAL OILS

& RECEIVE A FREE DIYSHOWOFF SPRING WELCOME BUNDLE

Spring scents: ditch the chemical filled synthetic fragrances and breathe in some fresh air!

Spring Cleaning!

Ditch & Switch! This bottle of Thieves Household Cleaning is AH-MAZING! We use it on every surface. It smells good, doesn’t have the harsh chemicals and does an awesome job! There’s a sample packet that makes two 16 oz. spray bottles included in the premium starter kit. Bonus! You will LOVE it!

So grateful someone shared with me: When I first heard, I thought it was some temporary popular trend and I tuned it out. la-la-la-la-la!!!!!! But nearly 4 years ago on a blogging retreat, two of my blog buddies shared essential oils with me…I have a bit of an issue with traveling which causes some uncomfortable side effects (TMI! you don’t want to know) and the essential oil shared made all the difference! Oh.my.good.NESS! If it worked for that, how else? In my world at the time, my mom and sister were going through treatments for breast cancer. I was ready and open to making healthier choices. Baby steps. Just starting somewhere.

You guys, I’ve had 6 family members diagnosed with cancer in SIX years! This has to stop! 

Essential oils have been around FOREVER and I know that lately they’re ALL THE HYPE but I believe it’s because word of mouth spreads faster these days via social media. They aren’t new. And specifically, Young Living has been around going on 30 years! I was still practically a child (and I’m a grandma now!). That’s not anything bright and shiny and just born. And “Young Living” is THE BRAND everyone wants. Because guess what? Not all essential oils are created equal! What I really love about Young Living is their Seed to Seal Guarantee. They aren’t just buying from a supplier and slapping on a label. Young Living controls the process of planting, harvesting, distilling, bottling, labeling and shipping from their own farms and partner farms from around the world with high standards and lots of testing. In fact,

Young Living is the #1 essential oils company in the world. I am confident that I am getting the best quality essential oil. One other quick point about Young Living…unlike buying a cheap oil from Amazon or WalMart or even TJMaxx (be aware: even a label with 100% pure doesn’t mean that’s the case), I love that I have support, resources and testimonials from personal experiences to help guide me on my oily journey. I’ve never had to work about my health but now I’m empowered to research, to learn more and to embrace wellness. When someone tells me they tried an essential oil and it didn’t work, I’m pretty sure they tried a fragrance or lower grade, not the quality of Young Living essential oils. 

Seasons Changing: 

Spring brings about some seasonal changes. Be prepared!

SPRING is all about renewal and growth. It’s a GREAT time to get started on a wellness journey! Young Living is running a …

Flash Sale! 

While supplies last, you can snag this beautiful essential oils Premium Starter Kit valued at over $300, regularly priced $165 for $144 AND get $10 cash back from DIYShowOff! 

Already have essential oils from another brand? Essential oils just not your thing just yet? Then check out the beautiful Savvy Minerals Makeup collection for a fresh new Spring & Savvy face! It’s lightweight with clean ingredients! 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

How? Just go to YoungLiving.com. Be sure that my member#1836762 is in the enroller and sponsor spots, choose your Premium Starter Kit and you’re all set! Want recommendations for more or to learn how you can get free products with your order? Contact me for more info and I can walk you through the sign up process. 

I’m excited for you to join an amazing oily family filled with so much love and support and fun! Can’t wait!

*This blog is sponsored by DIYShowOff & Young Living Essential Oils (Independent Distributor). The information on this blog is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

***Be sure to make your purchase at YoungLiving.com using the enroller/sponsor#1836762 to qualify for DIYShowOff welcome bundle, incentives and gifts.

How are you freshening up your home for Spring? 

https://ift.tt/2HR5aJL Roeshel

[devinclaire]

Season Of The Witch: Virgo Season Report For The Week Of August 19th

This week in the Northern Hemisphere we leave the height of summer to transition to fall on Friday, August 23rd. This marks the start of Virgo season.

Like the change of seasons, we’re transitioning too. If you’ve been feeling stuck by the end of this week expect for something to give way.

Virgo is known to represent witches and magicians. Being the season of the harvest this is a time when lots of vegetation is ripe for potion making. It’s a time when magic can be manifested into tangible practical things on Earth. Virgo is the sign of the maiden, who is an independent woman (let’s get away from the idea of it being if someone has had sex or not). This is someone who sets intentions, a very potent form of magic.

Venus also switches signs this week, moving from passionate Leo to detailed Virgo on Wednesday, August 21st. Pay attention on the days leading up to Wednesday. People may want to engage in fits of passion, or someone makes a last desperate attempt to be noticed.

Looking to woo someone? Come this weekend if you remember someone’s favorite food, movie, restaurant,or place to star gaze, you will have them wrapped around your finger. Sparks fly on Saturday, August 24th. This is the perfect night for a moonlit walk along the beach.

Also, if you’ve been wanting to know the truth about something, this is the week to ask. People will be unable to hold the truth from you. If someone laughs off a comment they make by saying “I’m only joking,” know that they’re not. This is also the first time since spring that you have some much needed clarity about where you want to go next on your journey.

Sunday, August 25th is a great day for hunkering down to rest in preparation for next week’s New Moon. If you’re feeling antsy, this is a lovely day for decluttering. You’re Mari Kondo, or Martha Stewart and you only want things in your life that spark joy or make you say, “It’s a good thing.” While you declutter let your mind reflect on how this past month has gone, what energized you? What made you tired? This is prime time to decide what you’re not going to do anymore, and then at the end of the upcoming week you can vibrate at the frequency of what you do want to bring more into your life.

Monday, August 19th

Moon in Aries

Tuesday, August 20th

Moon in Aries goes void at 9:06 pm PDT; Goes into Taurus at 9:37 pm

Wednesday, August 21st

Moon in Taurus

Thursday, August 22nd

Moon in Taurus goes void at 2:32 pm

Friday, August 23rd

Virgo Season begins, Moon goes into Gemini at 7:34 am

Saturday, August 24th

Moon in Gemini goes void at 11:58 pm

Sunday, August 25th

Moon enters Cancer at 2:05 pm

News Right Now

We’re doing something a little different with the weekly forecast. I’m going to add a current events section to talk about the news of the day.

While I used to do this in the monthly New Moon Social Club e-mail, there’s plenty of news to write about things weekly.

Remember, the personal is political. I’m grateful we’re all taking responsibility for the energy we emit and receive in the world by paying attention to astrology!

Portland

People taking action about who gets to shine, and who gets to be king is a big theme during this weekend’s protests in Portland. This energy is coming from Mars being Leo. Mars is in Leo every two years. Two years ago Mars was in Leo during Charlottesville when again white supremacists attempted to intimidate with their message of hate.

For the rest of us, who want to use this energy to our benefit of helping the world and helping ourselves align on our path of purpose, think back to July up until now, and take note of how you asserted yourself and how you desire to shine in this world. From now and throughout September, you’ll be invited to put details toward how you desire to shine. Now you’re making headway. Also think about what two year cycle is ending for you, and what you’re creating over the next two years. It doesn’t even have to be a big thing, just know in the scheme-of-it-all it’s significant.

Hong Kong Protests

Last week we talked about the energy shift that takes place when a planet goes from retrograde to direct. In this case we were talking about Jupiter who is currently in the sign of Sagittarius. Jupiter in Sag is all about expansion and foreign affairs.

Well the expansion has come in the form of a peaceful protest where an estimated 1.7 million people of all ages are protesting in the streets of Hong Kong. The protests are also spreading to all different parts of the world including London, Paris, New York, and Vancouver.

Again, we’re keeping an eye on that first week in November to see what continues to happen.

In your own life, how are you choosing to expand and test your limits? Where are you choosing to travel?

Mauna Kea

Passion is present on both sides of the argument of whether a telescope should be built on sacred land in Hawaii, but over here at the New Moon Society let me be clear, we’re on the side of the protesters who are protecting this sacred land.

When the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed setting aside 200,000 acres of land for Native Hawaiians the asteroid Chiron was in Aries. Chiron’s energy invites the healing of wounds, but can also indicate the place where the wound happened in the first place. Now, almost 100 years later Chiron is back in Aries. Protesters are showing the world how colonizers have terrorized the land. It’s not that the protesters are against science, they’ve made this very clear, but they are clear that the colonizing bullying has to stop. It’s an old wound that needs healing.

Mystery TVs

To end this news briefing I point you toward a tale reminiscent of the Twilight Zone- the TV drop offs that took place early on the morning of Sunday, August 11th in Henrico County, Virginia.

This story is a great example of retrograde energy. This event took place on the day Uranus stationed to go retrograde. Uranus is the planet that rules TV and anything else that uses frequency waves to function. Retrograde energy always adds a twist, or quirk to the energy of a planet, so a person with a TV head leaving old TV sets on doorsteps is the perfect manifestation of this energy,

[markssailingthecrisscolfership]

Springtime DIY Decor & More

Good bye winter! Arrivederci! Helloooooo Spring, my long lost pal! Welcome! Sunshine is the best medicine and am I every ready! How about you? 

    It’s beginning to look a lot like Spring! Finally! Can I get an “amen”?!  I’m so in love with the longer days, the sunshine and warmer temps. It’s motivation for Spring cleaning and decluttering, refreshing and creativity! Right? Same for you? Let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at some past DIYShowOff Spring decorating projects: 

Spring floral centerpiece – I love fresh flowers and I think it’s the perfect time to grab a bouquet from the grocery store. Split it up into several smaller fresh bouquets for a spring touch bedside, on the bathroom vanity and desktop but a new silk/faux arrangement for the dining room table lasts longer! Bonus: Zero maintenance.

How about a fun spring craft project? Gather up some friends, finger foods, a fresh essential oil infused water bar and get creative with a Spring succulents arrangement – succulents in robins’ eggs…what cuties! 

Think ahead! April showers bring May flowers. This would be a fun spring fling get-together too! Put that Silhouette or Circuit to good use! Decorate your Rain Boots  – personalize with vinyl! 

Spring entertaining – it’s almost time for outdoor gatherings! My dog is already asking for me to move her cushion to the sunlight streaming through the French doors. lol! I can’t wait to be out on the patio.

Do you decorate for the change in seasons? Spring mantel – this past mantelscape had so much charm, didn’t it? It’s been a while since I’ve decorated my mantel for Spring but I’m working on one for this year. Check back with me next week. The studio could use a bit of Spring bling! 

Spring break is coming up! Freshen up the guest room with some Spring accents. Check out this Spring bloom pillow cover tutorial. So cute!

Create a pretty Spring floral arrangement, add some French accents for a SpringTime in Paris vignette. I’ve never been. Have you? Tell me all about it! Romantic? Inspiring? This is as close as I’m getting for a while. 

SpringTime in Paris  

Harsh winter ice storms and high winds brought down a TON of branches here in our yard. Time to whip up an easy Spring branch centerpiece! Seriously! This is about the EASIEST DIY ever! Grab a twig or branch from the yard and give it a coat of spray paint. Add a mini-nest and some eggs. Cheap! Cheap! 

Not convinced to browse the floral aisle at your local craft store yet?

Here’s another Spring centerpiece – add a twist. I love this artichoke nestled in there. Butterflies, birds, nests, lemons. Try adding a fun unexpected element to keep it interesting!

SPRING into essential oils!

Is what you put into your body important to you? Me too! ‘m pretty sure by now that you’ve heard a lot about essential oils, right? ::groan:: and ::eye roll:: <— that was my initial reaction too! lol! What IS all the fuss about? It’s not something new. It’s not just something trendy. It’s all about living about the wellness line and supporting our body systems. It’s about surrounding yourself with less toxins and creating a chemical free home. 

CLICK —> HERE TO SPRING INTO ESSENTIAL OILS

& RECEIVE A FREE DIYSHOWOFF SPRING WELCOME BUNDLE

Spring scents: ditch the chemical filled synthetic fragrances and breathe in some fresh air!

Spring Cleaning!

Ditch & Switch! This bottle of Thieves Household Cleaning is AH-MAZING! We use it on every surface. It smells good, doesn’t have the harsh chemicals and does an awesome job! There’s a sample packet that makes two 16 oz. spray bottles included in the premium starter kit. Bonus! You will LOVE it!

So grateful someone shared with me: When I first heard, I thought it was some temporary popular trend and I tuned it out. la-la-la-la-la!!!!!! But nearly 4 years ago on a blogging retreat, two of my blog buddies shared essential oils with me…I have a bit of an issue with traveling which causes some uncomfortable side effects (TMI! you don’t want to know) and the essential oil shared made all the difference! Oh.my.good.NESS! If it worked for that, how else? In my world at the time, my mom and sister were going through treatments for breast cancer. I was ready and open to making healthier choices. Baby steps. Just starting somewhere.

You guys, I’ve had 6 family members diagnosed with cancer in SIX years! This has to stop! 

Essential oils have been around FOREVER and I know that lately they’re ALL THE HYPE but I believe it’s because word of mouth spreads faster these days via social media. They aren’t new. And specifically, Young Living has been around going on 30 years! I was still practically a child (and I’m a grandma now!). That’s not anything bright and shiny and just born. And “Young Living” is THE BRAND everyone wants. Because guess what? Not all essential oils are created equal! What I really love about Young Living is their Seed to Seal Guarantee. They aren’t just buying from a supplier and slapping on a label. Young Living controls the process of planting, harvesting, distilling, bottling, labeling and shipping from their own farms and partner farms from around the world with high standards and lots of testing. In fact,

Young Living is the #1 essential oils company in the world. I am confident that I am getting the best quality essential oil. One other quick point about Young Living…unlike buying a cheap oil from Amazon or WalMart or even TJMaxx (be aware: even a label with 100% pure doesn’t mean that’s the case), I love that I have support, resources and testimonials from personal experiences to help guide me on my oily journey. I’ve never had to work about my health but now I’m empowered to research, to learn more and to embrace wellness. When someone tells me they tried an essential oil and it didn’t work, I’m pretty sure they tried a fragrance or lower grade, not the quality of Young Living essential oils. 

Seasons Changing: 

Spring brings about some seasonal changes. Be prepared!

SPRING is all about renewal and growth. It’s a GREAT time to get started on a wellness journey! Young Living is running a …

Flash Sale! 

While supplies last, you can snag this beautiful essential oils Premium Starter Kit valued at over $300, regularly priced $165 for $144 AND get $10 cash back from DIYShowOff! 

Already have essential oils from another brand? Essential oils just not your thing just yet? Then check out the beautiful Savvy Minerals Makeup collection for a fresh new Spring & Savvy face! It’s lightweight with clean ingredients! 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

How? Just go to YoungLiving.com. Be sure that my member#1836762 is in the enroller and sponsor spots, choose your Premium Starter Kit and you’re all set! Want recommendations for more or to learn how you can get free products with your order? Contact me for more info and I can walk you through the sign up process. 

I’m excited for you to join an amazing oily family filled with so much love and support and fun! Can’t wait!

*This blog is sponsored by DIYShowOff & Young Living Essential Oils (Independent Distributor). The information on this blog is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

***Be sure to make your purchase at YoungLiving.com using the enroller/sponsor#1836762 to qualify for DIYShowOff welcome bundle, incentives and gifts.

How are you freshening up your home for Spring? 

from https://ift.tt/2JqoAdn

[isobelatntu]

The New Trend In Luxury Retail? Not Selling Anything

Via - Fashionista

As retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to get shoppers (particularly new, young ones) into their brick-and-mortar stores, a slew of luxury brands seem to have a strategy for engaging consumers: Get them to go somewhere else — not to shop, but to hang out.

This summer, Dolce & Gabbana opened a "cultural hub," , on Mercer St. in Soho, New York. While one can shop there during the day, the space is first and foremost a luxurious, Instagrammable clubhouse for the youths. It hosts monthly events, like a concert featuring up-and-coming bands, or a "drink and draw" night.

Also this summer, Coach debuted Life Coach, an experiential pop-up in New York meant to "lead guests on a journey of self-discovery." It contained exactly zero products for sale; instead, it housed immersive and photogenic rooms. Perhaps you saw one made to look like a New York City subway station, where guests could graffiti the walls, on your social media feeds; there was also a Coney Island-inspired room with games and a mystical forest with tarot card readings.

A post shared by Coach (@coach) on Jun 11, 2018 at 7:02am PDT

Over the past few months, Hermès, the most exclusive and luxurious of all exclusive, luxurious brands, opened "Carré Club" (carré means "scarf") pop-ups in New York, Toronto, Singapore, Los Angeles and Milan. With free public admission, guests could get photos taken, enjoy complimentary refreshments from a café and watch artists and designers work in an on-set atelier. Scarves were available to purchase, but they were in no way the main focus of the event.

In September in London, Matchesfashion.com opened 5 Carlos Place, a Mayfair townhouse with a retail component that most notably serves as a community space where all sorts of event programming has and will take place, as well as live streaming and podcasts for those who can't visit it in person — think high-level events like book signings, panel discussions, supper clubs, luxury brand installations and intimate musical performances. The opening follows a series of temporary residencies the retailer held in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Hong Kong for its 30th anniversary featuring similar types of engaging, often-educational events.

Chances are, you've seen at least one of these activations on Instagram, but aside from their photogenic designs, they all have one major (and initially surprising) thing in common: Unlike the many ephemeral retail concepts that came before them, the main goal here is not to sell you stuff. These brands are investing in physical spaces and events without any expectation that they will see a return on that investment — at least not a return that can be measured in dollars.

This concept didn't exactly come out of nowhere. There was February’s Chanel Beauty House in LA featuring room after room of Instagrammable moments. Tiffany & Co.opened its Blue Box Cafe last fall, resulting in a robin's-egg-blue flood of "breakfast at Tiffany" Instagram posts, and it's still tough to get a reservation there. 

Today, we're seeing more instances of brands creating these experiences outside of their stores, simply because people don't need to go to stores anymore. There is a shift taking place where people aren't as keen to spend Saturday afternoons wandering around the mall looking at stuff, because they're largely doing that on their phones. Experiences give them a reason to come into a retailer's space and have an interaction with a brand.

For luxury labels, which tend to be especially precious about their messaging and often shy away from inclusivity and accessibility for fear of brand dilution, the goal should be to convey the value of their brand and product to people who aren't going to visit their store to find that out. These events help create the perception of a product or retailer as a purveyor of valuable goods.

Matchesfashion Chief Brand Officer Jess Christie explains that it now takes more than offering free champagne in a store to create a community-like experience. After the 30th anniversary residency events, she realized, "People were looking to make more connections, and the storytelling and content aspects were more important." With the residencies and 5 Carlos Place, the goal is to create community and inspire loyalty, acquiring new customers while engaging existing ones with sophisticated events and educational talks.

Another goal of these experiences is, of course, to generate social media content that those who aren't in attendance will see. How does this space make you feel? If it makes you feel a certain way, you're going to want to capture it; you're going to want to share it."

A rep for Dolce & Gabbana who preferred not to be quoted was open about the fact that the Italian house's space was largely meant to generate social media content. As with its entire marketing strategy lately, from runway shows to campaigns, it's designed to engage younger shoppers, namely millennials, who might not otherwise feel inclined to walk into a regular Dolce & Gabbana store.

For most of these events, the metric of success is engagement. Many of these experiential concepts are meant to engage young people and generate social media content, but, increasingly, that's not enough. We are going to get to a point where consumers tire of 'brand museums,' those that are just backdrops for Instagram shots. We will start to seek more from those experiences — to learn, play, connect (with a brand or likeminded individuals) or feel a sense of wonder.

Indeed, the brands mentioned in this story seem to be getting that. Matchesfashion's programming has expanded beyond fashion to encompass a 360-degree lifestyle, including workouts and panels on wellness, spirituality and how to become an art collector. Culturally, Christie feels luxury shoppers have "moved away from being on the surface and about status; it's about all what makes you an interesting person, and that's the music you listen to, your food, wellness ... it feels very considered."

Anya Hindmarch hosted a four-day series of events at her Sloane Street store in London geared towards helping attendees get more organised, literally. There were talks led by productivity enhancement experts who train Google employees, as well as Gill Hasson, the author of "Declutter Your Life," and Helena Morrissey, a financier and mother-of-nine.

That's exactly the sort of thing Marian thinks we'll start seeing brands do next: "Experiences that add more value to a consumers' life, stuff around co-creation, learning new skills, and helping people to live their best lives."

It makes sense given that millennials are increasingly prioritising self-care and self-improvement when it comes to how they spend their money. 

Brands are just starting to reach millennials where their money is, and while these inventory-less experiences might not drive sales immediately, they will put those brands at top of mind for said millennials when they are ready to make a big purchase, which is increasingly important and invaluable in today's crowded landscape.

[touristguidebuzz]

CEO Interview: Trainline Aims to Steal Airline Share Down the Line

Clare Gilmartin, Chief Executive of Trainline. The company has expanded from the UK into mainland Europe in recent years. Trainline

Skift Take: Rail travel still remains a stubbornly offline mode of transport when it comes to booking a ticket. Companies like Trainline are trying to change this by making it easier to search and buy tickets across Europe.

— Patrick Whyte

Rail travel has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years.

New high-speed rail lines are springing up across the world and the rolling stock used on existing routes is also being upgraded. While this is all good news, what is almost as important is the work going on behind the scenes.

Unlike airlines, which have had their ticketing standardized for decades, rail transport remains fragmented and it has been left to individual companies to attempt to declutter the data and pull it all together.

UK-based Trainline, the leading rail-bookig site in the UK, is one of those businesses. Just like with Sabre and Amadeus, Trainline was originally developed by a transport operator before being spun off. In 2015, private equity firm KKR bought the company for an estimated $756.5 million.

Since the acquisition, Trainline has expanded, buying Captain Train in 2016. The deal not only improved its in-house technology, but also gave it greater access to European markets.

This looks to have been a shrewd move given that rail travel continues to grow. In 2015, rail passengers increased by 2.1 percent to 9.4 billion, compared with the previous year.

Trainline has also spent a great deal of time and money developing tools to improve the overall user experience. The latest of these is what it claims is the rail industry’s first price prediction tool.

The person who has driven this expansion is CEO Clare Gilmartin. We spoke with her about rail’s ability to compete with air, the evolution of rail ticketing, and why there are so few female tech CEOs.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Skift: Could you, for an international audience, explain how Trainline works and a little bit about its history?

Clare Gilmartin: Trainline was started in the late ’90s because the rail network was starting to fragment in Europe.

We’re now operating across 24 different European countries, serving customers in 173 different countries, and we have 137 carrier partners, so Trainline is one place where you can come – single app, website – and buy all of rail.

Our mission is ultimately to create the world’s single biggest rail platform, just making rail a lot more accessible for everybody, making it easy to compare across carriers, making it easy to buy and giving people a lot more travel information on the go through mobile specifically.

Skift: In terms of your revenue stream, you get your money from commission from the train operating companies?

Gilmartin: Train companies pay us a commission for every ticket that we sell. That’s good because it means we’re only successful if they’re successful and vice versa. We also partner with many global travel brands, B2B and B2B2C, we provide rail for them. Then the third piece of our business is white label where we provide the online retailing for many of the train companies, and that’s both giving them an app as well as mobile web and desktop.

Skift: I guess the benefits of using you, rather than the operating companies themselves, is that you can compare fares, because you charge a booking fee and some people don’t. Why do customers go to you and not direct? What’s making them come to Trainline.com as a platform?

Gilmartin: Well there are a few things. As I said, we are the place where you can combine different carriers and you can compare across carriers where multiple carriers compete on the same route. We have a world class app and website, so it’s one click to make a purchase with all your familiar payment methods, languages, all that sort of stuff.

We have created, over the last few years, data driven features specifically because we believe customers want real-time travel information and they want predictive machine-learning driven travel information.

Consumers wouldn’t say it that way, but things like predictive congestive information, predictive price information, predictive delay information, all that sort of stuff. We’re both the single place to buy everything and cross-compare by multi-carrier journeys, but also a real-time travel companion on the go.

Skift: It seems like in the past, maybe 10 years ago, Trainline was mainly transactional. Now you’re trying to get people to use you more for other things as well, making it more of a full-service proposition.

Gilmartin: Yeah, I think that’s fair. We’ve invested heavily in our technology team over the last three or four years. We have 250 rail tech engineers now, which I think is the single biggest technology team in rail probably globally. We’ve invested a lot in mobile very specifically because it’s such a natural mobile category.

Over 77 percent of our visits today are through mobile to give you an example, which seems a lot higher than many travel players. We’ve invested in data science, leveraging our scale and our data to translate that back into helpful features for travelers on the go. I think there’s so much more potential in that quite honestly.

Skift: You’ve also grown your geographical reach in the last couple years. Can you tell us a bit about that and how you’ve gone into Europe and how it all kind of fits together for Trainline?

Gilmartin: Yeah, absolutely, so in early 2016, we acquired a company called Captain Train, which we rebranded quickly to Trainline, and what they had done is they’d built out the European partnerships in rail and the combination, therefore, of the two means we’re now present in 24 different countries supply-wise, and we have over 137 different supply partners.

And I guess the market dynamics in Europe are similar to what they were in the UK 20 years ago in the sense that the market is liberalizing and fragmenting. You now have multiple players operating in most markets and indeed the European Commission has been on a journey to open the market up further by 2023, all the domestic markets will be open to private tender and private competition.

We saw the same opportunity in a way across Europe as we have seen in the UK all that time ago. That is to bring it all into one app, one website, deliver a world class online experience, not just world class for rail but world class in general, and layer in all this machine learning and artificial intelligence by way of helpful data driven features on the go to encourage people to take the train more because rail is such a better way to travel than short-haul air.

Today, there are 10 times more rail journeys in Europe than there are air journeys, so I firmly believe that rail needed a great travel companion, that it needs to be more accessible online. It needs to be more transparent and that’s the job that we’re doing.

Skift: There’s a new route opening from London to Amsterdam and you can go to the South of France, you can go to Belgium and as long as you can connect all these different journeys up, it’s going to make it easier for customers.

Gilmartin: Exactly. It’s not just the fragmentation of the supply base, and you know there’s now over 300 different rail carriers in Europe, which is probably 50 percent more than there were 10 years ago, so it’s fragmented fast.

But it’s not just fragmentation, it’s also the fact that the high-speed network is growing massively in Europe. I mean it started in France in the late 80s, but now most major governments across Europe are investing in high-speed rail, and if current plans are followed through on, the high-speed rail network in Europe will quadruple over the next, say, 10 years, up to 30,000 kilometers.

Every time a major artery or a major line converts to high speed, we see a dramatic share shift from air to rail. I mean London-Paris is probably the best example, but Berlin-Munich has opened, there’s a whole host more, Madrid- Barcelona, Milan-Rome, all of those have seen a dramatic shift from air to rail and it’s because it’s a much better customer experience.

Whether you’re traveling for leisure – people see it as part of the destination experience, the café style experience – or whether you’re traveling for work, it’s just much more productive time.

You don’t have all the stop-start friction that you have in air, so all of that together with the fact that it’s so much better for the environment than traveling by air. I mean one twentieth of the CO2 emissions. I think if you stand back, the right thing for us to be doing as a society is to be encouraging people to take the train more instead of air, but also instead of road.

Skift: Do you think it’s realistic in say the next 10, 20, 30 years’ time that these journeys that were done maybe by flying or driving will be replaced by rail, or at least rail will have a greater chance to take those customers from cars and from planes?

Gilmartin: Yeah, yeah, I do. I think our customer research suggests around four hours is the journey time, anything four hours or less is when people will typically choose rail over air and yes, as services get better, as more and more journeys become high speed, it brings more of those air routes into contention for a rail.

I think people have a growing awareness of the detrimental environmental impact of transport as well. I think that will be a consideration factor of the medium to long term.

Skift: You mentioned before about the EU’s influence and the EU has had a massive impact on the air industry. It liberalized it and made it easier to fly. Train travel within Europe, until recently has been left behind. Do you see a bright future for it?

Gilmartin: We’ve seen a dramatic change in terms of the number of carriers operating in the market over the last 10 years. In Italy you have Trenitalia and Italo competing head-to-head on many of the major lines, and that’s been great for customers. In Germany, you have HKX competing against Deutsche Bahn but also many regional players also operating in the network. In France, you have Trenitalia and SNCF competing on some lines, so across Europe really, we’re seeing the market fragmenting and multiple carriers competing and I think that’s great for customers, better service, better punctuality, more choice.

Skift: In terms of you accessing the tickets from these European players, do you just plug in to the direct feeds from these companies. How does it work?

Gilmartin: Rail is a data scientist or a technologist’s dream because it is not standardized at all. The data isn’t standardized. There’re 35,000 train stations in Europe, there’s only 2000 airports, ish.

And there’s no standardization for station names, for ticket types, for adult versus child, nothing, so we’ve had to create our own proprietary data standardization and equally we’ve had to create our own proprietary journey search, so we’re the only operators, to the best of our knowledge, that combines multiple carriers in the same journey. Be that outbound with one, return with another or be it multiple carriers delivering different journey lengths.

All of that we’ve had to create from scratch quite frankly because it didn’t exist in rail. What you had before was quite siloed train carrier inventory systems.

Skift: In terms of the future, how far ahead are you looking because there’s blockchain and the threat it poses to intermediaries like Trainline. Are you worried about it?

Gilmartin: I’ve been in technology now for 15 years. I think there will always be new technologies and new innovations. What we do, is stay incredibly close to our customers and as I said, we have with the 250-strong rail tech engineering group, we have probably the biggest engineering and development team in online rail globally and our job is to continue to listen to customers and tailor what we do exactly for them.

I mean it’s certainly served me well over the last 15 years. Of course, we stay tuned to advances in technology, be they through payments or voice or whatever it is. We have multiple R&D projects on most of those.

Skift: How difficult or challenging would it be to add the U.S. or Asia to the overall Trainline experience?

Gilmartin: Not difficult at all.

Skift: Are there any competitors over there who are doing something similar?

Gilmartin: Not especially, not especially. As I said, to the best of our knowledge, we’re the biggest online independent rail platform in the world. I mean in essence, customers are, the customer’s needs are quite similar, globally. You know, I need complete transparency on all my options, I need to be navigated to the cheapest or the fastest journey, I need to be able to buy in one click, and I need real time travel information and data and journey information along the way.

That’s the same regardless of what country or the complexity is often in the carrier connections and the interfaces and harmonizing the data and you know, all the backend stuff, but that’s what we’re here for.

Skift: It just seems at the moment, it seems there’s quite a lot of change going on because Voyages-SNCF bought Loco2, Expedia bought SilverRail. Does this mean people are catching on to what you’ve been doing?

Gilmartin: We have a bunch of things happening I think. Rail is a huge vertical within the overall travel landscape. It’s $230 billion, so it’s huge, and as I said, 10 times more rail journeys than air journeys, so it’s a big vertical.

Yet today still 70 percent is offline, and clearly, we’re blazing a trail to convert more of that offline into online by aggregating everything up and doing all the things I described. I think others are taking interest because it’s a huge opportunity. It doesn’t surprise us that there’s activity in the space. We’ve long believed that this a huge opportunity. It seems, you know, finally others think the same.

Skift: Expedia obviously see the benefit of having rail holidays, rail travel integrated within the wider travel landscape, which makes me think that there’s plenty of untapped potential for rail.

Gilmartin: Yeah, yeah. I mean I started at Trainline nearly four years ago now, and I couldn’t get over how much of rail was still bought offline.

That horrible queuing experience where you look at people in front of you, they’re stumbling at the ticket machines, and this happens right the way across Europe. You’re worried that your train’s about to leave, I mean, it’s possibly the most stressful, horrible situation imaginable, and technology can solve it.

Ticket machines, much as they did serve a role in the past, they get updated every two years and we change our UX 200 times a week. So clearly, a more mobile and online driven user experience can deliver so many more benefits to customers, it can be personalized, amongst other things. It was the vertical that I think probably has the biggest online upside from where we sit today

Skift: There’s also the potential, as we’ve seen with apps like CityMapper, in multimodal, so you know, rail to taxi or rail to plane, and bringing the whole system together. Is that something you’ve thought about?

Gilmartin: Yeah. We have, we’ve built out our long-distance coach offering across Europe, it’s not as big obviously as rail overall, but there are many examples of journeys where coach can fulfill the last leg, or in times of disruption, coach offers an alternative.

Skift: Do you feel that the travel and tech industry could do more to support female leadership?

Gilmartin: I think we have far too few female CEOs in general, not just in travel and tech, and I don’t think travel is particularly better or worse, but yes, in general I don’t think we have enough women in leadership roles, be it business, politics, healthcare, whatever it is.

I see is as my generation, our generation’s job to change attitudes, to change how work gets done, to encourage more women to go further in their careers, and I’m quite bloody-minded about that. I work incredibly hard. We’re very focused on results here, but I equally get to see my kids in the evenings and at weekends, and you know, that’s what I mean.

I think a lot of the policy changes were made by previous generations to help women continue in careers, but a lot of the more subtle attitudinal changes need to be driven now by us.

We try to do that. We’ve created a Women At Trainline group, which is really a network so that women can share stories and in a way, derive confidence from the things that others have done. That’s hugely helpful. We have a mentoring program to help both women and men actually learn from those that are five or ten years ahead of them, which has always helped me. We’re reaching out to Code First: Girls and others to just encourage more women into tech.

Skift: Are you optimistic or do you still think it’s a long way away?

Gilmartin: I mean, many people before me have been asked that question and I have as well and I’ll be asked I’m sure many times again. I am really hopeful to be honest with you. I think you know we’ve hired some great women at Trainline over the last few years, and they are thriving, women and men.

I think it’s up to us to share stories and to help make leadership seem achievable together with the other priorities women have in life.

[rollinbrigittenv8]

CEO Interview: Trainline Aims to Steal Airline Share Down the Line

Clare Gilmartin, Chief Executive of Trainline. The company has expanded from the UK into mainland Europe in recent years. Trainline

Skift Take: Rail travel still remains a stubbornly offline mode of transport when it comes to booking a ticket. Companies like Trainline are trying to change this by making it easier to search and buy tickets across Europe.

— Patrick Whyte

Rail travel has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years.

New high-speed rail lines are springing up across the world and the rolling stock used on existing routes is also being upgraded. While this is all good news, what is almost as important is the work going on behind the scenes.

Unlike airlines, which have had their ticketing standardized for decades, rail transport remains fragmented and it has been left to individual companies to attempt to declutter the data and pull it all together.

UK-based Trainline, the leading rail-bookig site in the UK, is one of those businesses. Just like with Sabre and Amadeus, Trainline was originally developed by a transport operator before being spun off. In 2015, private equity firm KKR bought the company for an estimated $756.5 million.

Since the acquisition, Trainline has expanded, buying Captain Train in 2016. The deal not only improved its in-house technology, but also gave it greater access to European markets.

This looks to have been a shrewd move given that rail travel continues to grow. In 2015, rail passengers increased by 2.1 percent to 9.4 billion, compared with the previous year.

Trainline has also spent a great deal of time and money developing tools to improve the overall user experience. The latest of these is what it claims is the rail industry’s first price prediction tool.

The person who has driven this expansion is CEO Clare Gilmartin. We spoke with her about rail’s ability to compete with air, the evolution of rail ticketing, and why there are so few female tech CEOs.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Skift: Could you, for an international audience, explain how Trainline works and a little bit about its history?

Clare Gilmartin: Trainline was started in the late ’90s because the rail network was starting to fragment in Europe.

We’re now operating across 24 different European countries, serving customers in 173 different countries, and we have 137 carrier partners, so Trainline is one place where you can come – single app, website – and buy all of rail.

Our mission is ultimately to create the world’s single biggest rail platform, just making rail a lot more accessible for everybody, making it easy to compare across carriers, making it easy to buy and giving people a lot more travel information on the go through mobile specifically.

Skift: In terms of your revenue stream, you get your money from commission from the train operating companies?

Gilmartin: Train companies pay us a commission for every ticket that we sell. That’s good because it means we’re only successful if they’re successful and vice versa. We also partner with many global travel brands, B2B and B2B2C, we provide rail for them. Then the third piece of our business is white label where we provide the online retailing for many of the train companies, and that’s both giving them an app as well as mobile web and desktop.

Skift: I guess the benefits of using you, rather than the operating companies themselves, is that you can compare fares, because you charge a booking fee and some people don’t. Why do customers go to you and not direct? What’s making them come to Trainline.com as a platform?

Gilmartin: Well there are a few things. As I said, we are the place where you can combine different carriers and you can compare across carriers where multiple carriers compete on the same route. We have a world class app and website, so it’s one click to make a purchase with all your familiar payment methods, languages, all that sort of stuff.

We have created, over the last few years, data driven features specifically because we believe customers want real-time travel information and they want predictive machine-learning driven travel information.

Consumers wouldn’t say it that way, but things like predictive congestive information, predictive price information, predictive delay information, all that sort of stuff. We’re both the single place to buy everything and cross-compare by multi-carrier journeys, but also a real-time travel companion on the go.

Skift: It seems like in the past, maybe 10 years ago, Trainline was mainly transactional. Now you’re trying to get people to use you more for other things as well, making it more of a full-service proposition.

Gilmartin: Yeah, I think that’s fair. We’ve invested heavily in our technology team over the last three or four years. We have 250 rail tech engineers now, which I think is the single biggest technology team in rail probably globally. We’ve invested a lot in mobile very specifically because it’s such a natural mobile category.

Over 77 percent of our visits today are through mobile to give you an example, which seems a lot higher than many travel players. We’ve invested in data science, leveraging our scale and our data to translate that back into helpful features for travelers on the go. I think there’s so much more potential in that quite honestly.

Skift: You’ve also grown your geographical reach in the last couple years. Can you tell us a bit about that and how you’ve gone into Europe and how it all kind of fits together for Trainline?

Gilmartin: Yeah, absolutely, so in early 2016, we acquired a company called Captain Train, which we rebranded quickly to Trainline, and what they had done is they’d built out the European partnerships in rail and the combination, therefore, of the two means we’re now present in 24 different countries supply-wise, and we have over 137 different supply partners.

And I guess the market dynamics in Europe are similar to what they were in the UK 20 years ago in the sense that the market is liberalizing and fragmenting. You now have multiple players operating in most markets and indeed the European Commission has been on a journey to open the market up further by 2023, all the domestic markets will be open to private tender and private competition.

We saw the same opportunity in a way across Europe as we have seen in the UK all that time ago. That is to bring it all into one app, one website, deliver a world class online experience, not just world class for rail but world class in general, and layer in all this machine learning and artificial intelligence by way of helpful data driven features on the go to encourage people to take the train more because rail is such a better way to travel than short-haul air.

Today, there are 10 times more rail journeys in Europe than there are air journeys, so I firmly believe that rail needed a great travel companion, that it needs to be more accessible online. It needs to be more transparent and that’s the job that we’re doing.

Skift: There’s a new route opening from London to Amsterdam and you can go to the South of France, you can go to Belgium and as long as you can connect all these different journeys up, it’s going to make it easier for customers.

Gilmartin: Exactly. It’s not just the fragmentation of the supply base, and you know there’s now over 300 different rail carriers in Europe, which is probably 50 percent more than there were 10 years ago, so it’s fragmented fast.

But it’s not just fragmentation, it’s also the fact that the high-speed network is growing massively in Europe. I mean it started in France in the late 80s, but now most major governments across Europe are investing in high-speed rail, and if current plans are followed through on, the high-speed rail network in Europe will quadruple over the next, say, 10 years, up to 30,000 kilometers.

Every time a major artery or a major line converts to high speed, we see a dramatic share shift from air to rail. I mean London-Paris is probably the best example, but Berlin-Munich has opened, there’s a whole host more, Madrid- Barcelona, Milan-Rome, all of those have seen a dramatic shift from air to rail and it’s because it’s a much better customer experience.

Whether you’re traveling for leisure – people see it as part of the destination experience, the café style experience – or whether you’re traveling for work, it’s just much more productive time.

You don’t have all the stop-start friction that you have in air, so all of that together with the fact that it’s so much better for the environment than traveling by air. I mean one twentieth of the CO2 emissions. I think if you stand back, the right thing for us to be doing as a society is to be encouraging people to take the train more instead of air, but also instead of road.

Skift: Do you think it’s realistic in say the next 10, 20, 30 years’ time that these journeys that were done maybe by flying or driving will be replaced by rail, or at least rail will have a greater chance to take those customers from cars and from planes?

Gilmartin: Yeah, yeah, I do. I think our customer research suggests around four hours is the journey time, anything four hours or less is when people will typically choose rail over air and yes, as services get better, as more and more journeys become high speed, it brings more of those air routes into contention for a rail.

I think people have a growing awareness of the detrimental environmental impact of transport as well. I think that will be a consideration factor of the medium to long term.

Skift: You mentioned before about the EU’s influence and the EU has had a massive impact on the air industry. It liberalized it and made it easier to fly. Train travel within Europe, until recently has been left behind. Do you see a bright future for it?

Gilmartin: We’ve seen a dramatic change in terms of the number of carriers operating in the market over the last 10 years. In Italy you have Trenitalia and Italo competing head-to-head on many of the major lines, and that’s been great for customers. In Germany, you have HKX competing against Deutsche Bahn but also many regional players also operating in the network. In France, you have Trenitalia and SNCF competing on some lines, so across Europe really, we’re seeing the market fragmenting and multiple carriers competing and I think that’s great for customers, better service, better punctuality, more choice.

Skift: In terms of you accessing the tickets from these European players, do you just plug in to the direct feeds from these companies. How does it work?

Gilmartin: Rail is a data scientist or a technologist’s dream because it is not standardized at all. The data isn’t standardized. There’re 35,000 train stations in Europe, there’s only 2000 airports, ish.

And there’s no standardization for station names, for ticket types, for adult versus child, nothing, so we’ve had to create our own proprietary data standardization and equally we’ve had to create our own proprietary journey search, so we’re the only operators, to the best of our knowledge, that combines multiple carriers in the same journey. Be that outbound with one, return with another or be it multiple carriers delivering different journey lengths.

All of that we’ve had to create from scratch quite frankly because it didn’t exist in rail. What you had before was quite siloed train carrier inventory systems.

Skift: In terms of the future, how far ahead are you looking because there’s blockchain and the threat it poses to intermediaries like Trainline. Are you worried about it?

Gilmartin: I’ve been in technology now for 15 years. I think there will always be new technologies and new innovations. What we do, is stay incredibly close to our customers and as I said, we have with the 250-strong rail tech engineering group, we have probably the biggest engineering and development team in online rail globally and our job is to continue to listen to customers and tailor what we do exactly for them.

I mean it’s certainly served me well over the last 15 years. Of course, we stay tuned to advances in technology, be they through payments or voice or whatever it is. We have multiple R&D projects on most of those.

Skift: How difficult or challenging would it be to add the U.S. or Asia to the overall Trainline experience?

Gilmartin: Not difficult at all.

Skift: Are there any competitors over there who are doing something similar?

Gilmartin: Not especially, not especially. As I said, to the best of our knowledge, we’re the biggest online independent rail platform in the world. I mean in essence, customers are, the customer’s needs are quite similar, globally. You know, I need complete transparency on all my options, I need to be navigated to the cheapest or the fastest journey, I need to be able to buy in one click, and I need real time travel information and data and journey information along the way.

That’s the same regardless of what country or the complexity is often in the carrier connections and the interfaces and harmonizing the data and you know, all the backend stuff, but that’s what we’re here for.

Skift: It just seems at the moment, it seems there’s quite a lot of change going on because Voyages-SNCF bought Loco2, Expedia bought SilverRail. Does this mean people are catching on to what you’ve been doing?

Gilmartin: We have a bunch of things happening I think. Rail is a huge vertical within the overall travel landscape. It’s $230 billion, so it’s huge, and as I said, 10 times more rail journeys than air journeys, so it’s a big vertical.

Yet today still 70 percent is offline, and clearly, we’re blazing a trail to convert more of that offline into online by aggregating everything up and doing all the things I described. I think others are taking interest because it’s a huge opportunity. It doesn’t surprise us that there’s activity in the space. We’ve long believed that this a huge opportunity. It seems, you know, finally others think the same.

Skift: Expedia obviously see the benefit of having rail holidays, rail travel integrated within the wider travel landscape, which makes me think that there’s plenty of untapped potential for rail.

Gilmartin: Yeah, yeah. I mean I started at Trainline nearly four years ago now, and I couldn’t get over how much of rail was still bought offline.

That horrible queuing experience where you look at people in front of you, they’re stumbling at the ticket machines, and this happens right the way across Europe. You’re worried that your train’s about to leave, I mean, it’s possibly the most stressful, horrible situation imaginable, and technology can solve it.

Ticket machines, much as they did serve a role in the past, they get updated every two years and we change our UX 200 times a week. So clearly, a more mobile and online driven user experience can deliver so many more benefits to customers, it can be personalized, amongst other things. It was the vertical that I think probably has the biggest online upside from where we sit today

Skift: There’s also the potential, as we’ve seen with apps like CityMapper, in multimodal, so you know, rail to taxi or rail to plane, and bringing the whole system together. Is that something you’ve thought about?

Gilmartin: Yeah. We have, we’ve built out our long-distance coach offering across Europe, it’s not as big obviously as rail overall, but there are many examples of journeys where coach can fulfill the last leg, or in times of disruption, coach offers an alternative.

Skift: Do you feel that the travel and tech industry could do more to support female leadership?

Gilmartin: I think we have far too few female CEOs in general, not just in travel and tech, and I don’t think travel is particularly better or worse, but yes, in general I don’t think we have enough women in leadership roles, be it business, politics, healthcare, whatever it is.

I see is as my generation, our generation’s job to change attitudes, to change how work gets done, to encourage more women to go further in their careers, and I’m quite bloody-minded about that. I work incredibly hard. We’re very focused on results here, but I equally get to see my kids in the evenings and at weekends, and you know, that’s what I mean.

I think a lot of the policy changes were made by previous generations to help women continue in careers, but a lot of the more subtle attitudinal changes need to be driven now by us.

We try to do that. We’ve created a Women At Trainline group, which is really a network so that women can share stories and in a way, derive confidence from the things that others have done. That’s hugely helpful. We have a mentoring program to help both women and men actually learn from those that are five or ten years ahead of them, which has always helped me. We’re reaching out to Code First: Girls and others to just encourage more women into tech.

Skift: Are you optimistic or do you still think it’s a long way away?

Gilmartin: I mean, many people before me have been asked that question and I have as well and I’ll be asked I’m sure many times again. I am really hopeful to be honest with you. I think you know we’ve hired some great women at Trainline over the last few years, and they are thriving, women and men.

I think it’s up to us to share stories and to help make leadership seem achievable together with the other priorities women have in life.

[jadorejujuetfifi]

MINIMALISM WITH KIDS? IS IT POSSIBLE? The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying...

In, MINIMALISM WITH KIDS? IS IT POSSIBLE? The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Purge Family Life Ep 79, we attempt to live with less, especially in hopes of having minimal toys in an effort for less stress and time cleaning up and more organization! I read Marie Kondo's how to declutter book last year and it changed my life and shifted my perspective on things and their role in our lives so we get busy with a toy declutter.

A very Powerful Video showing Middle Class Americas Clutter Problem https://youtu.be/3AhSNsBs2Y0

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FAQ's ❤

Q: Why the Eiffel Tower? A: Alex worked in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant “Le Jules Verne” on the 2nd floor for 3 years and we have made hundreds of memories in and around the Eiffel Tower.

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