Hey, welcome to another bonus episode of the Daring Creativity podcast. I'm back to unpack some of the gems from this week's conversation, Polinaido's moments, their deserve a second look and dig deeper in what makes them special. This week I spoke to illustrator Monica Favre and designer George Wu about their project titled I Can't Afford This but Maybe She Can, which is a curation feed built on friendship, taste and care for creativity. In our conversation we talked about curating as an act of generosity to show that the algorithm will never beat someone who genuinely cares. The episode published a few days ago was titled Dare to Start with an Audience of One and it was a great conversation about what it actually takes to build something meaningful without a business plan, a marketing budget or any intention of selling out. If you haven't checked out our full episode, let me share these full standout moments. We were sending each other things that you would dream of buying as any normal friends do. Your hopes, I want to go here on holiday or one day when I have my own place, I'll buy this chair and it actually started with, I think it's when Hay was quite new and they released a gold side table that was almost too small to be properly functional. You couldn't have it as your coffee table and too pretty to want to use it every day. It was definitely like a luxury dream. I sent this to Malik saying, oh, look at this thing, gorgeous. Then we went, I think for a week later we went for a drink and then Malik was like, oh, by the way, my new table is arriving. I was like, what table? My table? Then it became this weird pattern where I'd go to your house and I would see all these things that I'd sent you. Almost. I was shopping in real time, was literally every week. I literally had a free personal shopper. As a joke, as you can imagine, I was torn between insane jealousy and also curiosity of what I could get Malik to buy. I made an Instagram account for literally an audience of one. I called it, I can't afford this, but maybe she can, maybe the one that I can't afford this and started like posting genuinely things that I really loved. Then Malik would comment on the bottom saying, I'm buying this one, I'm buying this one and then we'll run it here in our house. I left it open to the public because I didn't know anything about Instagram and who's going to follow this account anyway. It was just a really silly idea. I love that origin story of genuine creative partnership. George and Malik have been friends for a while and this Instagram account started as a joke. There was obviously no strategy, no growth plan, no content calendar, just a genuine delight to share with one person who kept buying the things that George found. What I think was really great here is that the authenticity was almost baked in from day one because there was no audience to perform for and that zero pressure starting point is exactly why the account eventually felt so different. When the world showed up, it's a reminder that the best creative projects often begin when you stop trying to make something and start making it for the love of it. Anything goes. As long as it makes us smile and we find it interesting, then it goes on. So thinking about where we get it from, we've talked about this before, but yeah, I'm a very reluctant influencer. I find social media really difficult. It doesn't take long for me to be like, someone's on holiday and that's nice for them. Someone's doing an extension on that house. So I actually have to go out of social media to find stuff and that generally comes from projects that happen to be working on in my day job or things that I'm interested in terms of my hobbies. I go a bit around the houses and then bring that back in. Whereas I know the Malika, you go out about in a really different way. Yeah. I'm on a constant fight with the algorithm. So trying to tame it so that he gives me what I want. And I would say that sometimes the algorithm has given me really interesting things. And when you look at our explore page, a lot of it is extremely good. I mean, being a reluctant influencer is one of the things that it just showed a genuine curve. In a world where influence is treated as a career goal in itself, George is discomfort with the whole thing is brilliantly refreshing. And actually it explains a lot about why the account I can afford and maybe she can actually works because she doesn't enjoy scrolling. She doesn't find what everyone else finds. She goes to her day job, her hobbies, her personal rabbit holes and finds things that haven't done around. The irony is that her reluctance is actually her secret weapon. George's friction with social media is in limitation. It's the very thing that makes a curation feels like a discovery rather than a reblog. Sometimes the best person to share something is the one who wasn't really looking for it. And I remember we had that conversation with George and that's when I think it really defines us. It's such a brilliant definition of who we are. George wants to do things that are innovative and new. I want to make this thing that already exists perfect or better. And I think these are two ways of being creative and approaching. My entire work is playing with cliches with almost images you have in your subconscious, the collective mind, but making them so striking that you feel like you're seeing them for the first time. My work, my illustration work is not innovative. It's trying to reach that perfection. How perfect is that line? I feel like this moment explains the whole dynamic of the conversation and the project itself. Malika wasn't just describing herself and George. She's naming attention that exists inside almost every creative partnership, studio or team. The innovator gets restless, the perfectionist gets frustrated by impermanence. Nothing is wrong but alone each has a ceiling. What Malika and George accidentally built is a creative ecosystem where both instincts are given full permission to exist. The result, a feed and a store that feels simultaneously fresh and considered. And it is approved that this pairing works. If you've ever struggled to understand why collaboration feels electric or why work in solo sometimes feels flat, this moment can offer a genuinely useful lens for figuring out what might be missing. What's interesting as well is that remember when we were doing the website with George, we talked about do we put a manifesto? Do we talk about why we do what we do? And then we decided not to. We shouldn't be saying anything. We both felt what we are about is there. If someone wants to look, it's very obvious. It's in the tone. It's in the way we talk about people. And I think, yeah, no one in the end, it wasn't needed. It wasn't needed to. And maybe one day we will explain it. But I always find it more interesting to explain it on podcasts or interviews or but to not brag about things because I think a lot. Everyone brags a lot. And a lot of it is a lot of bullshit. I loved that moment when it was just said that, you know what, we don't need a statement. We don't need a manifesto or purpose deck or anything else in between. Malika and George made a decision to say nothing and let the collection speak for itself. And it is worth expanding on because it gets something most creative people or businesses struggle with. It's our compulsion to over explain. Let's be honest. We've all been there. Clients, customers, audiences don't really read manifesto because they feel the intent instead. What Malika was describing here is the confidence that comes from having built something so consistent and so genuinely values led that the statement is already written in every post, every product choice, every brand they choose not to feature. Trust your work to communicate who you are. And if you have to tell people that you care, you probably need to care a little bit more. Thank you for joining me on this bonus episode. I hope you check out a full interview with Malika and George because it's joyous, happy conversation about what it means to be enjoying the current chapter of what they've created and I believe they're destined to do incredible things. Thank you for being here and I'll catch you on the next episode next week. If you enjoyed this episode and would like more accessible resources to help you discover your daring creativity, you can pick up one of my books on themes of mindful creativity, creative business, branding and graphic design. Every physical book purchase comes with a free digital bundle including an ebook and audio book to make the content accessible whatever you are and whatever you do. To get 10% of your order visit novemberuniverse.co.uk and use the code podcast. Have a look around and start living daringly.
