Hello, and welcome to Pookie Ponders, the podcast where I explore big questions with brilliant people. I'm Pookie Nightsmith and I'm your host. Today's question is, how much of ourselves should we bring to the workplace? And I'm in conversation with Lisa Cherry. So I'm Lisa Cherry and I'm a trainer and speaker on trauma recovery and resilience. So the episode topic today is about how much of ourselves we should bring into the workplace, which is something we've talked about a little bit in the last podcast we did together and we talked about it a bit on and off in between, but I think it's a really big and thorny topic. I don't know what your opening take is on it and how much you want to share about your journey and stuff.  And I guess I would start off by saying that we bring all of ourselves into our work, whether we do that consciously or not. And I think that's the key, really, that there's this idea that somehow you can separate yourself out. But actually, I would be more inclined to feel that there is a conscious, a consciousness about what you do, or there isn't. And regardless of where you are on that journey, you're still going to be bringing all of yourself to work. So I think the more important question for me is how do you develop a consciousness about who you are? How do you get to know who you are so that you can bring your best self to work? Ah, okay, that's really interesting. And which parts of ourselves do you think are kind of relevant there? Because I've come into this with a view on, you know, experience of mental health issues or other adversities that we might be supporting the people in our care with. But using your idea there, that could be kind of any part of us, couldn't it? It might be, well, yeah, which must matter. So I think, if I think about my own experience of working in social work settings and education settings as somebody who was care experienced, but not just care experienced, a whole range of things that came with that experience that I carried a lot of shame about in a professional context. So I'm very comfortable being this vulnerable with you, but I don't want to do this without acknowledging that this takes a level of vulnerability that I'm comfortable with. But when I worked in those spaces, I was also very aware that I had been homeless. I was very aware that I went to AA meetings. I was very aware that I had lived in residential homes and foster homes. And I was very aware that talking about any of those things was not likely to end up in a satisfactory conversation. And by satisfactory, I mean that on the odd occasion when I did mention it, I felt that it just was a very uncomfortable interchange with the other person, as if it was something strange or unusual that I was there in a professional capacity. I don't feel like it was managed well, it was handled well. And as such, it just silenced me. And the problem with the silencing and we talked about this in our conversation on my podcast. The problem with that is that there are less opportunities then to confront those aspects of yourself that you're bringing to work. So it's a kind of double edged sword in a way that you can't bring yourself to be in spaces that are appropriate to work with who you are because you're working with other humans.  And so what happens is you still bring all of that stuff, except that there's not an explicitness about it. And for me, I think I would say that there wasn't necessarily the consciousness about it was that I didn't want anyone to know about it. If that makes sense, there wasn't a consciousness about the impact of it. And where I was on that particular recovery journey. The consciousness was that this doesn't feel so. So let's just stuff it down and not deal with it. Wow. So you were presumably inspired to do a lot of the work that you choose to do, which isn't easy, because of your experience. But yet you didn't feel you could share it, or is that not right? Yeah, I'd say that's yeah, I feel like my whole my whole working life path was set in motion. The moment I was born in a mother and baby unit, you know, I just and I feel so grateful and lucky that those experiences created a pathway that aligned with my passion.  Absolutely those personal experiences offered me. I suppose career ideas. You know, if you've never been around a social worker as a young person, why would you think I want to be a social worker, you know, you're going to have been exposed for some reason in some way to different types of work, which is one of the reasons why education is so full of inequity but that's for another story but there are things that I was exposed to that showed me that I wanted to do those things with that wonderful youthful arrogance of I will go into the system and I will fight it from the inside rather than fighting it from the outside. As, as, as one feels when we're younger, you know, not feel like that now. I guess it's a different energy. Of course, I'm still him wanting to make a difference. That's what gets me out of bed. There's no question about that. But is it still driven with that kind of, I can't fight it from the outside so fight it from the inside. Absolutely. For a start, I don't necessarily see myself as fighting. That energy has changed. And that might just be a perception might be that other people see, see what I do is fighting, but I don't, I doesn't feel like that. Yeah, I mean, certainly creating, making things be better is that is the key driver still. Absolutely. So in terms of your experience and how that has sort of shaped the route that you've taken then it sounds like it's about your experience not necessarily having been wholly good and you wanting it to be different for other people in that situation or was there some of you know you had great experiences and you would like to echo those. No, I think there was a real understanding from a very young age in the system that systems themselves were not necessarily in a position to heal support healing from trauma and actually often added to trauma. And that was something that I think I understood really very quickly, maybe by about 16 actually. Yeah. And that felt very wrong to me that felt. And I think I recognize that there were people within the system that were really like amazing people. Yeah. Despite the system. It's a really difficult one isn't it because when you start talking about systems it's almost like you forget that there are humans in that system. And I guess it's always a balance and sometimes I think systems are more powerful than the people in them. Yeah. And did you ever experience anyone who kind of touched your life because they did bring their own experience into their work. Oh, that's a very good question. No. No. No, I didn't. And I think social work was very caught up in separating personal and professional. Yeah, this idea that you're somehow don't have a personal. Yeah. And also not really a structure and framework for how you bring your personal safely into work. Yeah. I didn't meet other people like me. Even though I'm very aware that there must have been other people like me milling around who also felt that there weren't other people like them. But no, I didn't really. That's interesting isn't it. I think so you must have, you must have, did you feel a bit alone. I think the whole experience is very full of isolation. And again, I think that's that's down to the system and I was talking about that this week in a project that I've been doing in collaboration with the Care Leaves Association and the Department for Education which is very much around thinking about how you create sustainable long term. Relational opportunities for young people. Yeah. So that there can be those connections and that people don't have to feel so alone and I do think things are a bit better with social media now. But certainly when I was coming out of that system and for a number of years afterwards. No people like me. No. And I think when I think about that. There's something really powerful about wandering around thinking that there's just you. Yeah. And even going to uni. I think the statistic back then was one percent of people who'd come out of care went to university. That statistic did not make me feel connected. It left me feeling very alone. And when I talked about the experience of being in care at university. Nobody really knew what I was talking about. And I don't think that's changed massively. I think unless you're speaking regularly to lots of people with different life experiences. It's very difficult to know and understand. Yeah. What that experience is like what the experience I think the most defining element of that is just being separated from your birth family.  There is something incredibly defining about that experience that feeds a whole range of narratives about your worth about your value about how important you are about how lovable you might be. And we carry those narratives then into adulthood and they take a long time to unpick. Yeah. And there's a massive challenge in there isn't there. It's just sort of triggered a thought for me. One of my daughters is adopted and there was recently a situation at school whereby she's at quite a new school. And all our friends kind of suddenly found out in one day that she was adopted and it had just never kind of come up before. And it was really as her mum it was so hard to manage not because of actually any of the distress that that day caused for her. And it's always difficult when you know these things happen and all her friends were asking her questions all at once. The thing that really got to me was when I said to her well do you mind your friends knowing don't you want them to know and I don't want them to know I'm adopted. And that broke my heart because I didn't know what have I you know it just brought a lot of questions and I guess it makes you think about yourself doesn't it. And made me think well what what have I would have I not got right here that she recognizes that as something that she wouldn't want people to know and to be proud of and do you know what I mean it's yeah. That is challenging and I think it also speaks of how curious we have to be with with each person because each person is going to have a completely different kind of interpretation of those events and what they mean for them. And I think the challenge of course is that where it comes to policy there's a keen desire to speak about people as homogeneous groups in all sorts of ways you know and of course that's really unhelpful because we're all very different. And actually the curiosity about those experiences is where the richness lies and to be that curious of course there has to be a relationship. And that's that's really that's really challenging when those relationships are predominantly in systems rather than like for example where you are in family it's much easier to have that curiosity. Yes, I guess that's that's true. Do you do you think that kind of having experience of the thing in which you're working makes you better at your job what do you think it ever gets in the way. I think it's again it's a mixed bag I think it can get in the way. I think about certain examples certainly I mean I haven't done any direct work for about 10 years now, but I recall something interesting I wrote about it in my book The Brightness of Stars that I wrote quite a few years ago now. And I recall a situation where I'm moving a young person from one place to a next to the next, and all of their things were in bin bags, which were then put in the back of my car and I should have been dealing with why that young person had all their stuff in bin liners. But actually what happened was it triggered something in me. And I remember vividly my eyes welling up with tears and I remember vividly saying to myself, I am not going to let that happen to myself again. Wow. I think that that's that balance where there's a hindrance. Yeah, I wasn't able to be present in the way that I would have liked to have been, and actually the space and the platform by which to have the conversation about that wasn't available either. And that's where we have a real difficulty about what we bring into our work and whether that is therefore going to help or to hinder. Does it mean that, you know, I have a different lens through which to view the world, absolutely. It's a defining experience when people talk about defining experiences, they're usually talking about things that I don't, that it mean anything to me, you know, whether it's, you know, meeting a husband or a 21st birthday party or they're not defining for me, you know, whereas I think care and what came after has has been very defining for me and it's been a really weight, weight lifting experience to be in a position where I'm very open about that. It's not that it defines me more than any of my other experiences, and professionally, it's not the most defining experience but personally, it is very defining. Is that true even now, you know, as more time goes by and that becomes a smaller chunk of your life if you like, does that make any difference or is it, you know, so formative. I think I have children and they're adults now, and when you have children, you're watching them each year and, you know, children are really triggering, right.  How, how, how you parent is so shaped by your own childhood experiences, whether it's, I will do the opposite of what was done to me. Or I will repeat what was done to me, or I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do, because I'm just going to pretend nothing happened to me.  And I don't think that's talked about enough in the whole parenting arena. So is it defining as much now. It's just differently so because I'm so aware of things that I've done with the best of love and intention that I now see playing out. With my adult children, if that makes sense. And it's not all doom and gloom, you know, it's not all the bad stuff. There's some great stuff in there. But nevertheless, I know where it comes from. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, that's hard, isn't it anything where you're trying to kind of break cycles or make change and obviously you're doing that on a, on a big level with kind of trying to address a system that maybe doesn't work as you might want and hope for the child that that's where but equally within your own home on a kind of much more macro level and I don't think, I don't know, I'm sure you put as much energy probably into to both I would guess. Yes, I would like to think so.   And the other one who says it's not either has a huge amount of support, knowledge or wisdom that I didn't have. That's for sure because I found it incredibly hard graft. Yeah, you know, really. I think for me that's always the challenge that I don't think, and this sounds so incredibly naive. I don't think I realized what it was to really love someone until I have my own children. I've never experienced that degree of, of love and something where somebody else's welfare mattered quite so much. And suddenly you had this thing and you can't put it, you know, once the genie's out the bottle, it's there, isn't it? And it really matters. Everything you do really, really matters. And their pain is your pain, isn't it? And I don't know, I spend a lot of time feeling I'm not doing it well enough. Yeah. And I always said that my children taught me how to love.     But yeah, I mean, God, we've gone deep into a really intimate, vulnerable conversation, Kiki. We have a little bit, sorry about that, you bring it out. Yeah, like warm me up for God's sake, you're taking me straight to the heart of the core. This is what happens when you have someone who's autistic doing the interview. I'm not interested in the small talk, tell me about the good stuff.  And I think about three minutes in, we went right in there and he, yeah, he, yeah, sorry about that.   Yes. But even you saying that to me, I feel emotional, you know, I find that a very difficult kind of thing to think about to say to own. I think we, we often, and by that I mean lots of us. Yeah. Don't appreciate how amazing we are. I think we are all far more amazing than we think we are. So I often tell myself that sentence. I know that people, I know that I'm very highly regarded in the work that I do, and that's such a lovely thing.  Not always, no. I think sometimes I'm like, wow, that is amazing, but I do need it buried back. I had a great conversation the other day, for example, with the lovely Andy Biley, who is a great guy to talk to. He's also care experienced criminal justice experience and works in criminal justice. And we were having a chat and because I don't know if you know, and even saying this makes me feel really uncomfortable. But I'm going to do a doctor in October. I didn't know that that's amazing. Did you not know? Well, I'm surprised you didn't know because I keep saying it because I'm trying to, I'm trying to wear the cloak. I'm trying to try on what it feels like. So I keep saying it wherever I go. And it must be really annoying for people. But I think it's because I don't really believe I'm going because I'm going to Oxford, right? I know. So I keep saying it in the hope that I will align with it in some way from every aspect, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. I'm not quite there yet, but it is only July, so that's okay.  And he was just like, really good at mirroring to me. Yeah, but they invited you to apply. Like, wow, you are whatever it is you're bringing, they want to have that and why can't you just own it? And I just thought, yeah, why? Why? Why can't I just own it? Why can't you just own it? Yeah, why? Yeah, God. Come on. Yeah, I know. I mean, yeah. And so I think that has been the case all the time. It's just a sheer amazement at everything that I get to do. And I wonder if I ever stopped feeling really grateful and amazed and, you know, if I stopped feeling all those things, then maybe that's what it's time to stop. But as it stands at the age of 50, I still feel utterly grateful and kind of just amazed that people like to listen to what I'm saying. I bring something that is valuable and, yeah, I don't feel quite humble about it. I don't feel. Wow. It's so interesting hearing you talk because I feel a little bit like I'm listening to myself. Yeah, I kind of empathize hard with where you're coming from. But I find it weird hearing you say that because, you know, we've not spoken for that long because I've been sitting on the outskirts of your world going, oh, my God, Lisa's amazing. Lisa's amazing. I'm feeling like so intimidated by your general awesomeness so that when you kind of, I can't even remember how we started talking. I was like, Lisa's talking to me.  And I think, aren't we all like that? Well, actually, no, we're not. Donald Trump isn't, for example. He thinks he's great. So, you know, some people do actually get up in the morning and just think, I am so great. But it's so interesting when you say that because, and this is going to, we're going to start getting all a bit fangirling. But, you know, I watch you and your output. I mean, I think my output is not bad. You know, I keep going every day. I've been self-employed for 10 years. Every day I'm creating something, making something, you know, writing something, trying to meet what people need. But I watch you and your output is like triple mine. You know, and I think, oh my God, how do you even do that? You must be like, I've got visions of you at five o'clock in the morning going, there's a program. Okay. Oh, I've just read a book and I read it in 14 minutes. So I think we have to be really cautious, don't we, about what our outsides look like to people. I really want my outsides and my insides to be as aligned as possible. So for example, when lockdown happened and every day I thought, right, I'm going to do 21 days of self-care. I called it even though I think the term self-care is complicated. And on the days I didn't want to do it, I showed up and I said, I don't want to do this. I don't feel like it today. I don't understand what's going on. Everything feels really uncertain. And I think I wanted to do that because I wanted people to see that we don't get up every day and we've got it all going on every day. I wanted my insides and my outsides to have some kind of resonance rather than people using their insides to compare my outside with. And I think, yes, we have a responsibility to show up and to be what we want to be and to take responsibility for what we put out there. But I also think let's do that with compassion. Let's do that with honesty and integrity and show, and I know you do this and show the parts of us that are struggling. But in a way to kind of inform connection, human connection requires us to not be slick and perfect and these incredible people, because I'm not an incredible person. I'm just a person who is lucky enough to do something that I absolutely love every day and get paid for it. That's it. It's pretty cool when you think about it like that. Do you still love it as much as you ever did? Every day. Really? Every day. I mean, no, that's not strictly true, actually. When I think about. I doubt. Yeah. Okay. Inside coming out. I think I have periods where I get very fed up. So I got very fed up towards the end of last year. Yeah. Because I felt like everything had got very tick boxy. Okay. And people were just talking about trauma and attachment and I've done trauma and I've done attachment and I've done this and I've done that. And I was like, no, no, you're really missing the point of this. This is not a thing you do. This is not a folder. No. And I don't want to be part of that. I want to be engaged in something with other human beings where they feel slightly uncomfortable. And I want to feel slightly uncomfortable. I want us to come together and shift in our thinking. I want us to feel safe in our discomfort so that we can talk about really difficult things. I don't want us to, you know, reel through some slides and then everyone goes home and they're like, oh, that's great. That's really good. And then they come back the next day and nothing has shifted. I want people to go home. I want them to be going through the processes in their life and they're thinking, God, yeah, that came up when we were talking about that. And oh, I've just noticed I've just been really judgmental about that. Oh, that's an interesting sensation going on inside my body since I was thinking about that thing. That's what I want to be a part of. And so, yeah, I am really passionate and I do love it every day. But there are times when if I'm not careful, I slip into being part of the very systems that being self-employed affords me the freedom to challenge properly. Yeah. And I think that's an interesting part of this whole thing, isn't it? About how, yeah, how we choose to be employed and what that means in terms of how much of ourselves we can bring into our work. Because at the end of the day, you're Lisa Cherry, you're employed by Lisa Cherry and you can be whoever you decide and no one above you is going to have anything to say about that because there is no one, right?  Have you been employed? Have you ever had a situation where you've had an employer saying actually you need to be different in the workplace? Oh my God, yeah. That's like my whole employment life. Is that why you're self-employed now? Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. Listen, I can tow the party line to a degree. I think one of the things I found most limiting about being employed was the lack of creativity that I could exercise. Yeah. It's my ability to be creative that gives me the most pleasure. Okay. You know, I can literally write what I like, create what I like. I can see a gap and I can offer something. Yeah. Nobody's going to have Lisa Cherry come and work with them unless they want Lisa Cherry. Yeah. I mean, literally nobody because, and I've had people say to me, I've said to them, look, I might say things that are going to be really challenging. And they've said to me, well, that's what you're doing here. Yeah. You know, that's why we've got you here.  I'm often just given complete free reign to do my thing. And actually, it's not that I'm particularly challenging, but I certainly, I guess what people see is that they can see that I don't have the chains around me that prevent me from being authentic and true to who I am and what I believe. Do you ever have to kind of rein that in depending on, you know, where your work's coming from or where you think it might come from next. So for example, you said you're doing this care leavers project with the department.  They get me. And depending on that audience, I, you know, I talk more about different things. So if I've got a very education audience, I speak very education if I've got very social work audience I speak very social work doing stuff with care, the Care Leaves Association. I'm doing stuff that's, I'm going to bring my personal more into it, because it's appropriate to do so. And, and, you know, that's the freedom that I have and also, you know, the broadness, I suppose the spectrum of experiences, if I need to get academic I can bring my research in. You know, so that I can, I can draw upon all of those spaces. Listen, I don't have to get personal. At the end of the day, there's enough other things I'm bringing to the party, upon which to hang my hat, you know, but I think adding in the personal aspect brings something else that people can connect with. And I think that is very connected and linked to where we started this conversation, and where we are around it being employed and how much you can say and how much you can't. Yeah, certainly don't bring my stuff into the space, because it needs dealing with. I bring stuff into the space that is well and truly dealt with. It's, and we talked about that so beautifully when we looked at lived and living experience. They're two very different spaces and have different places. I think that, and that's one of the things I am struggling with personally at the moment is how much is it okay to be honest about how things are right now because I feel like there are increasingly role models around me for people with lived experience who talk about their past really eloquently and draw on that in a vulnerable way. And I find that really inspiring. What I find there's less of our people around me who are still dealing with their stuff. So, you know, I today have spoken to my psychiatrist because I'm having a bit of a bump. I can't eat. I'm too anxious to eat. That's a problem. And actually being able to be honest about that and be out there about that is important to me because I know that there are other people out me like that who will look at me and go well, she's managing. And I need them to know I'm not some days, you know, and what next? Do you know what to mean it? But then there's another part of me that's like, well, but does that just look bad? Does it, you know, people going to judge and do I need, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that is a messy space. And people are, well, first of all, people are always going to judge. I think one of the best sentences that anyone ever told me in my early 20s is what other people think of you is none of your business. Because you can't stop what other people's view of you is going to be. No.  And I think I remember saying it like, I often said that in a training event because lots of people come up to me they go, I've got to leave at such and such time it's nothing personal. I'm like, I don't take it personally.  I don't, I don't look at people and think, is that because of something I said or is that because of something I did. So I think, first of all, yeah, it's about understanding that people are always going to judge regardless of how amazing you are. And secondly, I guess, I think it's, it's, it's good from the work that you do to have that openness. While at the same time looking after yourself because of course the problem with being open about living experience is that lots of people will have an opinion about. Yeah, how you should do it. And of course, that's really difficult because, you know, you're working hard with your team around you, and what you don't need. In a way you're not inviting people to give you lots of advice about what to do to help pookie.   Not from a place of, hey, I'm struggling right now and I'd really like the 30 odd thousand people who run my Twitter feed just give me some advice about that so I can figure out what to do. I think crowdsourcing one's emotional input. I mean, it's not a bad idea. No, I, I, no. I love that crowdsourcing emotional input. I love it. But I think, see, some of it though is about, I feel like when we're open and honest, we can change how people feel and that might change what they do. Right. So I think like you said, you don't need to bring your lived experience into your work. There are so many other kind of places to hang that it's not necessary, but actually that maybe your work is more impactful sometimes when you do that. And I guess that's the thing like this morning, I thought really carefully, do I tweet that I've spoken to my psychiatrist and actually my main motivation for doing it partly is holding myself to account actually when I feel myself slipping sometimes it's about being honest and saying, this is a tricky moment. It's going to be fine, actually, but much more likely if a bit like at home. If I talk to my family and say, I'm finding food a bit hard right now, I'm more likely to get through that than if I hide it. But the main motivation for me actually was loads of psychiatrists follow me on Twitter. And what I needed them to know is my psychiatrist did an awesome job today. And she did an awesome job because she listened because she was human because she was compassionate because she was practical. And I needed people in my life to know that that matters because I've had some awful psychiatrists in the past. And when they get it right, it makes, you know, this means that I've had one conversation with her. I'm really confident that, you know, a couple of weeks time it will be fine, it will be gone. If I'd not had that conversation or she'd not dealt with it in that way, then it might be three months time and I'm in an inpatient unit again, you know, it really matters. Yeah, so you're modelling, aren't you? I don't know, am I? Yeah, I think you are. I think you're modelling what a good relationship looks like with your psychiatrist. You're modelling that when we share something, it helps us. Yeah, you've got an audience and you're taking that very seriously, which is that you know you're being watched and you know that people are looking to you about how you're doing this thing called life with all of the complexities and challenges that you've got within and without you. And I think that's the most responsible way to use a platform actually. It's okay if you don't agree. That's the thing. I'm always up for healthy challenge, but I don't, yeah. I wish there was a manual, don't you? Well, that's an interesting, an interesting one. So that that whole idea about this thing called life and how you live it. When I was 20, I found myself in an AA meeting. And I haven't had a drink since. And one of the things that they talk about is, you know, you know, this is like the rulebook of life. And actually, I really felt like I'd found the rulebook of life having not had any comprehension or understanding about how you do life. Having said that, you know, I still didn't mean that I always understood how you do life. And I think I remember being very floundering around in my early 30s with two small children on my own wondering how do people do this. Yeah, and it didn't occur to me actually that most people don't raise two children on their own without any family that actually and work full time and do course and you know, all the rest of it. And I think I really gave myself a hard time about not being able to do that because I hadn't read the bit in the book about system connection community, how you do that, you know, and that really impacted I think on me and my kids. I got better at it. I definitely got better at it. Yeah, what helped. I think certainly going becoming self employed helped because it meant that I have more control over my time, which meant that I could meet other people who could form a support network, but trying to do that when you work as an employee full time just meant that, you know, you're away from the for the whole day. So drawing upon community support just became something that I just couldn't do but I could do that. Once I became self employed and also becoming self employed. I was working on the most incredible kind of personal development journey that sat on top of all the work that I'd already done previously, but was much deeper because of course, when you work for yourself. You literally have no backup.  And that is incredibly affronting when you first realize there's no HR department. There's no department for if somebody's horrible to you. There's no department for if you don't get paid. There's no finance department. You know, so you kind of have to go on this really deep journey. That's very strengthening and growing, should we say, great foundation, really.  And I think getting to a point where you begin sort of choosing your work rather than assuming everything that crosses your desk you have to do. And I think there's a lot there. It is quite a journey, isn't it? I've certainly, yeah, certainly found that. And now you're on that next step doing the doctorate. Tell me about your doctorate. Well, what can I tell you really, because I haven't started yet and I'm still trying the cloak on, but I'm going to be at the recenter in the Department of Education. I'm going to be continuing my master's research, which looked at the intersection between school exclusion and being looked after across the life course, the impact of that, which I did for my MA. There isn't, it is a unique piece of research. There's nothing that looks at that particular intersection through the lens of life course. So I'm very interested in what happens to people, very interested in the adults that the children become. So it will be a piece on that. I'll be based at Wolfson College, which is very exciting because they do lots of stuff all about life writing, life story writing. And I mean, oh my God, talk about looking at other people. I had a look at some of the bios of the people there and I was like, oh my God, I'm going to be like talking to these people. Honestly, just incredibly well read, well travelled people. I mean, I have a real humility about going. I know what I'm bringing and I'm not devaluing that, but I also know that I'm going to be hanging out with some incredible people. And they're going to be hanging out with you. Well, yes, that's lovely. But I feel very open to learning from them. Yeah. I think that's important. I think the thing you'll find though, I might be wrong about this, but I've often found when I'm in those kinds of situations and I do find myself in them often where I feel like, you know, why am I in this room? I think that you'll be surrounded by human beings and that if you bring yourself, there will be connection there. I don't feel intimidated by any of it. I'm not sure that I wouldn't have maybe 10 years ago. It's come at the right time for me. You know, I feel very, I'm very, I think I feel clear about what I'm bringing. Why are you doing it? That's a good question. And it's multi layered. And I'd be lying if I didn't say because it would be great to be Dr Lisa Cherry. So there is that in there. Why am I doing it? Because it's a really important piece of research. And because it will serve, I hope to inspire people who think that Oxford isn't for them, that it is. So yes, it's three pronged. I'm going to be interested to hear how you find Oxford because I went to Oxford as an undergraduate. And they asked me every now and then to be part of their sort of like outreach programs and stuff because I, you know, grew up in poverty and ended up going to Oxford. And I can never be involved in those things because I just wouldn't recommend it to someone like me. I just, you know, if I could go back in time, I'd have told myself to go to Guildford. That's where you really wanted to go. And I wouldn't change it because I met my husband there and it was the start of, you know, brilliant things for me career wise, but I was deeply uncomfortable there.   But as a, you know, 19 year old with no money and no background there at all. Like, I mean, wow, it's a it's a unique place. Yeah.  And I've not spoken to anybody who is, you know, has a different background than the predominant one at Oxford who said they enjoyed it. Oh, really? Really. And of different ages, actually. And I think that's what I mean, being 50, not needing it for a career. Yeah. Doing it for its own sake. I think means that I can arrive into it. Yeah. And be unalarmed by that which I find disdainful. It will be a very different experience. And I think, I think you're amazing. You're 19 year old self to go through that when you're carrying the weight and shame of poverty is phenomenal. And I couldn't have even walked through the grounds at 19. I just slept in the grounds. I was, yeah, you know, I'd have slept in the grounds drunk. Yeah, I had an interesting experience a few years ago when I got asked to go and teach at there's a school that's right next to the college that I went to. And I went to teach the staff there. And it was weird because I've been back to Oxford since but I haven't kind of allowed myself, I guess to be sort of fully present and walking down, you know, exactly the places where I've been and I was not my my best self when I delivered that training because I just had all these past and it was it was really challenging, you know, and that's the thing I did. I did it. I wouldn't change it. I'm really delighted that I met my husband and all those things but it was, yeah, it was hard. I went to university. It was the only way I could see of moving on. So I done this job during my gap year and I realized X months into this job I was a cafe supervisor in a theme park. And it was like the Truman show every day was the same and the aim of each day was at the end of the day you wanted to get everything back to exactly where you started and then the next day you started again. And the person who whose job I got promoted into had done it for 30 years. And I had this realization that I will do this for 30 years unless I take up that university place and I leave this town and I make a new life. And I did go and I never went back. But that was why not any other reason really I just needed a way out and it offered one I guess. Yeah, and I remember I went to Goldsmiths to do my undergraduate degree and I went because it felt rustic enough for me. So it's really interesting, you know, why we choose the spaces that we choose. Or how they choose us. See, I only ended up at Oxford.  I hope my children make better life choices than I did. I literally so I flipped a coin to decide what course to apply for. And I applied for Oxford just because I was curious about whether I could get in. I think I was very convinced I couldn't. And I wanted to know if I could and my best friend was applying and I knew she would because she's like the cleverest person I've ever known.  Yes. Well, yes I did I loved it. I mean God I loved education, and I love it. I mean considering I've been expelled from every school I went to. I absolutely loved going to goldsmiths, goldsmiths. I loved the courses that I chose the modules I mean I was working for a lot of it I had a flat on Battersea Park Road. And, you know, I had to work as well. I was 21 when I started so I'd lost three years I suppose in that sense, but the the 18 year olds I couldn't connect with them at all. The privilege was phenomenal. I don't just mean financial privilege I mean relational privilege. The privilege of being at university at 18. The privilege of talking about how you're only there because your parents made you whereas I was like, oh my God, I'm at university. You know I didn't believe that they would have me you know and yeah no I loved it. I got sober actually about the same time. So I started a personal development journey. And it was an incredible time you know it was my early 20s and everyone else was slumped up against the wall in the student union and I was reading Louise Hay books and you know women and psychiatry. So it was it was fantastic and amazing image to mind. And I just I really hope what I really hope is that this experience that I'm about to have from October is as enriching as stimulating and as challenging I want to be challenged. I like being challenged. How long are you doing it over what's your kind of three years. Oh you're doing it so you're doing it full time. Well yeah I mean yeah I mean obviously don't tell anyone but I am going to have to work you know I'm not I'm not a lady what lunch is but yes it is it is full time so but the terms are ridiculously small. And also because you get stuff done so I found when I did my PhD and I hope no one I studied with is listening to this. I was really productive compared to other people because I had you know full time job and two small kids and stuff so I had to fit it in.  They I mean don't get me wrong I'm sure that they love it but it takes up every minute of every day but they don't necessarily produce stuff whereas I think you sound hyper focused and yeah. I will be working I will be writing I will be reading and I will have different days for doing different activities. I will just structure the way that I do things. I'll have days where I am only studying and days where I am only working and I'll just make it work like that and actually having a lot of my work online now really supports that model. Which is what lockdown has brought. So envious that you're at the beginning of that journey I mean you're not at the beginning because I'll see a building on work you've already done but that you've got wow. I'm so excited for you. What would you I've got and you'll be able to hear it when I finally get around to publishing it soon. I've got to. She's not my niece but I like to be her unofficial auntie a girl called Kira who is a recent care leaver in Jersey. I interviewed her recently for my podcast and she is going to be one day the director of children's services in Jersey. Her plan is to come over to England and study social work and work her way up through and she's finding this challenging because it's not the expectation for kids in her circumstance to be coming away to the UK and she's got nowhere to live and doesn't know practical stuff like where will she put her things when she doesn't have a home because she's kind of half living in the UK and then maybe going back home and there's loads of questions and I'm really sure and particularly because I really will make it my mission to try and help her I'm really sure she will actually fulfill this dream as long as her dream stays the same. But what would you you know what would you advise her because she seems to me maybe like 18 year old you in many ways I don't know if that. I mean I love the fact she's thinking about her things I mean I just wouldn't have thought about my things I'd have just been like right I'm going and that's what I'm doing so I love the fact that she's organized enough to worry about some of those questions. She sounds incredible. She is. And I would say to her.  All you have to really do is think it. Okay. If you think that is what you want to be if that's the expanse of your imagination. And that's where it has taken you. Then you can be that. Wow. And do you think that because obviously there's this whole thing about being a caregiver and then wanting to go into the system to to, I mean it's very similar than your aspirations were and she's entering a different system than the one that you entered at the beginning of your career but. I mean is it do you think she will find that fulfilling is it likely to be a good path for her or would you say do you know what maybe go do something else. Who knows. Who knows. I mean I've had I've had a great career. And there's still plenty of it that makes me sound very old. But it's really difficult isn't it.  You will never have to work a day in your life. If she truly has that drive. Because listen I tried to leave all this, you know at the end of the day, I've had enough of all this. I trained in holistic therapies I was just going to work with that and you know I was, I literally was pulled back in. And I now understand that leaving this work is not an option ever.  This is where my heart is. And if you if you do work from your passion. It's not it's not work. You know, and that's what I would say to her it doesn't in a way it doesn't matter. You know the right thing or the wrong thing what matters is that you're doing something from a place that's driven from within you. And I know that we've spoken a bit about. Eunice. And, you know, she, she regularly says to me. That there is no surprise that I am who I am from the 15 16 year old that she met. And that fills me really with warmth and happiness. Because it means that despite everything I got to be the person I was meant to be. Yeah. Wow. What thought would you like to leave people with what night do we end this on. I guess. Just remember how amazing you are. You know, if you're listening to this. Just remember that you know you're amazing and that do do what it is that is in your heart to do in this lifetime do what it is that is in your heart to do, and you will do what you are meant to do.


Hey guys, Vladimir here. In my last video I showed my gingerbread house kit which was this year's holiday design and 3D print. Now the cool thing with this model and 3D print is that I designed it and then created a flat pack version of it that you can stuff in an envelope and give it to friends and family and they get to snap it apart and build this gingerbread house. So as I mentioned before there were a lot of really valuable Fusion 360 design techniques that I take advantage of in this design that I wanted to do some separate videos to talk about. So today what I want to do is go over how I turned this model into the sort of flat pack holiday card here. So let's go into that. I'm going to show two different approaches here. The one approach is going to be for those of you who have the free Fusion 360 personal or heaviest license and then I'll also cover if you do have the paid license how you can use the arranged feature that you have access to that makes that workflow even faster. All right, so let's jump right in. I'm going to come back to this design here. So basically I designed it like this and the important thing here is you'll notice that all these are their separate components right. So I've got my bottom here that base and then the front and then all the other walls and so nice thing with that you know is the timeline gets neatly organized here. So if I hadn't done that this is the entire timeline and you can see how a painter would be to try to find one feature and change it. For example in the night if I just activate the left side here you see the timeline for that. So if I want to make changes it's really easy to make changes. But the other advantage of designing your models in separate components is that you can easily move them around. So for example if I just drag this I can kind of move it around like this right and if you have bodies you can't do that you actually have to go and right click go to move copy select your model and then tell it which object you want to move bodies or components and then go ahead and move it. So it's a whole bunch of extra clicks that you don't have to do. So let me just put these back together and so what I'm going to do here is I'm actually not going to touch this model and this is really important here because you would hate to mess everything here up and then come back later and realize you need to do a change and you need to see how for example maybe the parts come together and then you need to reassemble it. So what we want to do is not touch this we want to leave this as is and instead of creating a whole new design or copy of this you can take advantage of your derived tool. So the first sort of lesson here and in this approach is use your derived tool here go to create down to derive. Okay it's going to say once you do save it so we'll go ahead and save and we'll get this dialog box here. Now I think I will do a more deep lesson into the derived tool because a lot of features I want to show but I don't want this particular video to be just about the derived tool so I'm just going to quickly go through how it works right now with this example. So we can choose to save it in a new design or existing design I'm going to choose new design derived objects I'm going to go with components and just select my top level components going to select everything. If you want parameters to go as well you can choose parameters from components or favorites I'm going to go with components here click okay and what Fusion does is it creates a new design here that brings those components from this existing design. The neat thing with that is now I can completely make changes to this without affecting this original design here but the cool thing with that is if I do decide to go back and make changes to the original designs those changes can get pushed through to my new design here or I should call it the derived design. So okay now that I have my derived design here the approach you can take here without doing anything really fancy is just taking advantage of your align tool so you modify a line here. So here's what I'm going to do let me untangle the visibility of the roof I'm going to do the right and the left roof here and next what I'm going to do is show my origin and expand it here so I can see my XY plane it's just going to make it a lot easier selecting it here than having to try to get through it with other models in the way. Okay now that I've done that I'll simply go to modify down to align I'm just going to click to select the face that I want to lie flat click on the XY plane click okay and then I'll right click and just keep repeating that. So you can see here I just select anywhere on the face that I want to align with the XY plane click okay and I'm just going to do that with each one here and let's not forget the roof so bring that in again repeat align XY and one more oops click okay and we'll do one more here so okay that gets it all flat and you can see that's pretty quick you know I mean unless you've got hundreds of parts that you're dealing with you know in that case you may want to get the paid license version but if it's just a few components here then this works great and now the fact that they're components right I can just go ahead and move them and it can easily just kind of get them arranged how I want them and so one thing I did here is I created a sketch let's select that XY plane again and we'll go ahead and click capture position I'll create a rectangle here so let's do a two-point rectangle and I know that I want this to be five by seven so I'm in millimeters right now but that's okay because I can just type five inches as long as I type inch after it it'll convert it so five by seven inches here and now I'll click finish sketch oops let's turn this back around and now I can just move this piece into place to fit how I want them to so you know that's that's how you can approach this again with the free habeas license here without installing any sort of other plugins or anything else you can just kind of take this approach get it to you know how you want it I think the way I did it is I you know I eventually got this all lined up and left some room on top here that I could write you know Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays up here and I realized you know what this didn't actually need to go all the way to seven inches I can get away with making that shorter so if I go back to that sketch what I did was I just kind of removed that dimension here let me just delete that and then I can drag this back a bit to bring it down to just as big as I need it then I can always go back to that sketch and then enter a dimension here to lock it in place so maybe 165 and that's how I got to this part here where I just arranged them you can see here I angled the sides here to make this shape look like a house wrote Merry Christmas on top and then I'll show in a later video how I apply the little tabs here so okay I'm not going to do all that here but I just wanted to give you the basic principle if you do need to flip a model around in that case you need to right click move copy change this to components and let's see place your little widget there and then you can go ahead and flip it 180 so okay all right and then so that's how I got that arranged in a flat manner now I want to show you the other way and this is if you do have the paid license for fusion 360 or actually if you also have the student license you can do this you can go to modify down to a range if you only have the hobbyist license this will be great out so with the arrange tool I would still first create a derived design because again I don't want to make changes to this so again we go to create derive go ahead and save it click okay tell it that we're going to go with components here we're going to choose my component click okay and it's going to open up a new design here you see it says on title two there's my model and then I'll go to modify go down to arrange get this dialog box here it's going to have me choose my objects and what you'll want to do here is do a shift select so I'm going to choose my first component here hold shift choose my last component it'll select all the components and I can then go down here it's going to have me select the plane sketch or face let's go ahead and for this one let's do the x y plane again so let me just bring that in and select it here for my origin and I can go ahead and give it a length and width here so let's say seven inch by five inch offset that's the height above the the plane if you want a height there to be if you want it to be offset I don't want that because I want it to be flat with the x y plane and then frame width here this is if you want a certain distance off the border you can enter that so here we've got four inches and then object spacing two inches object spacing is just the spacing apart from component to component so you can see if I maybe change this to let's say five you see these will move further apart so okay I'll go back to two and a nice thing there you can check auto preview and it'll automatically you can you can preview without confirming to see what settings you want here so okay and you also see that that four millimeter border I've got there around so now if you click okay there it is everything gets quite easily flat packed very quickly you can see how that saves you the step of having to go to modify down to a line and clicking each model and choosing your x y plane so you know if you got like 30 or so parts that you need to do that then you can see why the arrange feature really would save you a lot of time if you only have like seven like I do here not that big of a deal just to use your align tool instead but okay so there's that I want to show you one more feature here so let me undo so with this arrange tool let's go back to modify arrange uh choose my models here again so I'll shift select all my components and instead of um plane here I can go with a sketch so actually let's cancel out of that I'm going to create a sketch on my x y plane and I'm going to create a two-point rectangle here so again I'll just make this five inch by seven inch and finish sketch now that I have that sketch you know let's go back to arrange select my components and for the plane here I can just select the sketch that I made well obviously if it's too small it just won't work um it'll they just won't arrange you'll tell you you know this isn't going to work um but if it does fit it'll go ahead and arrange them for you um again so uh you know the rest of the settings are the same I just wanted to show you that feature that if you already have a designated area you can just select that uh area and it'll try to fit those components in there by first just creating a sketch okay so that's basically it for this video I just wanted to show you um how I went from this 3d model here to creating a flat pack so just to summarize first thing whether you go with just aligning them manually or using your arrange option here um you first would want to create a derived uh model here so uh first go to create derive because you may not want to touch this model here better to keep this as is and then it'll create a new model um bring those designs in there and then you can use you know for the free version your align tool is a great approach to take if you have the paid version you can do the arrange feature here and uh if you do have the free version I believe you do see the arrange it it'll just be grayed out you won't be able to access it so all right that's it for today guys I'll come back I've got a few more things I want to teach with this model here but I'll be back in a few days to show you some more valuable design techniques if you would like to print this model I have the link to the stl uh files below um and for my patreon subscribers um making the fusion 360 file available to you so you can come in and change the designs um and the nice thing with this model is that you can use sort of the the base for anything really right like uh right now it's currently a gingerbread house but maybe you want to make into a little like log cabin or um I don't know something completely different you could just you know come in and get rid of the snowflakes here in the trees and put your own features but the nice thing is you have this uh really solid base here um for design that snaps together and it's just really fun to to build so uh yeah if you want the fusion 360 model consider becoming a patreon I've got the link below if you would like to acquire the superpower to be able to design anything you want make sure to check out my quick start course below to get you up and running with fusion 360 and of course if you have any questions with my uh approach here go ahead and leave them below or if you have any other methods you think uh um that would be useful for getting this into becoming this uh flat pack design here uh something I didn't touch on um go ahead and leave that in the comments as well all right guys I will see you soon


Do you want to be tool Tom? As of this moment Dave has been removed from the tool Tom set as well as the art resin premises. Oh Hello, I didn't see you there. Things have been so quiet around here ever since Dave left People are happier Food tastes a little better Mmm, even the drinks tastes a little sweeter And I can finally focus on my vision for the ultimate art resin show Let's face it tool Tom was tool terrible And since nobody has seen or heard from Dave in months. We figured it was time for a proper reboot So no more dim basement No more silly cutaways This is a chance to start fresh with a whole new show and that show is Resin tips with Jeff Stern check Welcome to resin tips with Jeff Stern check I am Jeff Jeff Stern check and as you can see we have a brand new Clean set we have proper lighting. We have a tripod and then I actually I might you can actually hear me And yes, we're gonna provide actual real tips for you the artist that you can actually use And we have a second sliding camera angle. Look at that side to side. Oh now we're going back over here. Look at that Back and forth It's pretty cool. I really don't know why we have it But we're gonna have an actual proper real professional show tool Tim is dead So in this episode of resin tips, we're gonna show you how to create and resin a simple painted on design on a white wooden canvas I'm gonna take this home do something with my kids that I know they'll love and then I'll bring it back Show it to you and hopefully it will inspire you to do something for your home resin tips Okay, so here we go. We had some fun on family night last night where the kids and I put our footprints on there And not only do I have their footprints here, but I also have Jasmine here beside me Jasmine Welcome to resin tips with Jeff Stern Chuck. Thank you, Joe. Jeff Stern Chuck Jeff Sturge, right? Thank you, Jeff Stern Chuck. Anyways, what I do want to do is actually add the words always by your side Well, I think it's gonna be pretty simple kind of fun We have the print out of the words and you just position them where you'd like them And then we have this magic carbon paper Which you'll probably remember if you're as old as Jeff And you put it down like that and then I just trace it. Yeah Boom, all right. That looks all right. Hey. Oh Boom, what do you think? Yeah, I think it really worked out Resin tips All right. Well, let's actually get to the marker Always when you're using Sharpie, it's like putting your mascara on right. I know Eyeliner eyeliner and then all of a sudden you got eyeliner up to your eyebrow and you say, oh I've done too much gone too far Well, actually What is it? That's what we call big budget productions at their slider. It's a bit hypnotizing, right? Resin tips what we've done now is we've actually put the board on to the stands We do have to check and make sure that the board is balanced like so pretty solid Let's resin you want to stir for three full minutes And you want to scrape the sides and scrape the bottom. I heard they spotted Dave in Bolivia Hmm FBI told me Kyrgyzstan Resin tips This looks good. Look at the colors. They're like popping now any dandy spread it out there Now the colors are so much more vibrant. They were great before but now it's got that little extra pizzazz Right jazz. Yes It looks like we're good. You want to check for some bold spots And I think we got them covered so now you take your torch I'm gonna want to hold it maybe like three inches above like this until you've gotten rid of all your bubbles almost like you're ironing, right? Yeah Honestly Jasmine, this looks amazing.  There are plenty of more tips and surprises coming at you this season including Let's look at it over here That is our new toy What is it? It's a gimbal What's it for again? Oh, that's there. That's what it's for. I mean I kind of get it boom boom Dave it would have never done this for you guys so like Whatever happened to Tom Hanks What I know Tom Hanks is is done Thank you Jasmine for All your help So tune in again for another episode of resin tips coming your way I'm Jeff Sternchuk


Hello it's Missy! Thank you for watching. For today's video I wanted to share some hairstyles using fishtail braids so let me know in the comment section which of the hairstyles is your favorite. Like and subscribe, click that notification bell so you never miss any future uploads and let's get started! For the first hairstyle I'm going to begin by flipping my head upside down. Since I'm creating a braid going up the back of my head I find that this is the easiest way to do this style so the hair will fall out of the way. So I'm going to divide off a small section of hair at the nape of my neck to use for my braid and I'm dividing this section into three pieces to begin a regular three strand braid and then I'm going to combine the middle and right strand together so I have two sections for the fishtail braid. So to create the fishtail braid I'm going to be taking small sections of hair from one side and cross them over and add them into the opposite side while also incorporating new sections of hair into the braid. So I'm dividing off a small section of hair from the left side crossing it over to the right side then I'm picking up a new section of hair from next to the braid and crossing it over to the opposite side as well. Then I'm going to divide off a new section of hair from the right side and cross it over to the left side then I'm picking up a new section of hair next to the braid and incorporating it into the opposite side as well. And I'm going to continue this pattern creating a French braid style fishtail braid crossing small sections from one side over to the opposite side while also incorporating new sections of hair into the braid. So I'm taking a small section from the left side and crossing it over to the right side. Then I'm picking up a new section of hair and incorporating it into the right side section as well. Then I'm dividing off a small section of hair from the right side crossing it over to the left. Then I'm picking up a new section of hair and incorporating it into the braid crossing it over to the left. Then I'm going to divide off a new section of hair from the left side and cross it over to the right side. Then I'm picking up a new section of hair from next to the braid and incorporating it into the opposite side section. I'm going to divide off a small section of hair from the right side and cross it over to the left side. Then I'm going to pick up a new section of hair next to the braid and cross this over to the opposite side as well. And I'm going to continue the braid up the back of my head until I've added in hair from above both of my ears. And once the braid reaches high enough on my head, I'm going to grab a bobby pin and just slide this over the end of the braid so it doesn't unravel. And now I'm going to create the bun portion of the hairstyle. So I'm going to flip my head back right side up and brush the rest of my hair together at the crown of my head being very careful with the braid that's at the back. And I'm going to create the bun right at the crown of my head. So I'm going to take my hair band and wrap this once over the section. Then I'm going to bring all of the hair forwards and spread the hair around the hair band, kind of finding the center of the ponytail. Then I'm going to wrap the hair band twice more over the hair to create a bun shape around the hair band. And then I'm just going to pull sections of the bun in opposite directions and this will tighten the bun against my head while also making the sections a little bit bigger and fuller. Then with the ends that are left sticking out I'm going to combine all of these together at the front of the bun and I'm just going to loop this section back towards the base of the bun and tuck the hair around the hair band to hold it in place. But then I'm just going to pull on sections of the bun to close off any gaps in the hair, add some volume at the top and then just smooth down any flyaways with some hairspray. For the ponytail hairstyle I'm going to begin by parting my hair in a deep side part on the right side. I want the majority of my hair on one side so I can use it to make the braid a lot bigger. So I'm going to divide off a small section of hair right next to the part and split this into three smaller pieces. I'm going to begin a regular braid but I'm going to be crossing the side strands under the middle strand so the braid will sit out on top of my hair. So I'm going to cross the two side strands once under the middle strand and then I'm going to switch to a fishtail braid so I'm combining the middle and the right strands together. So now I have two sections of hair for the fishtail braid. Now I'm going to begin crossing small sections of hair underneath and add them into the opposite side and then also incorporate new sections of hair into the braid as well. So I'm dividing off a small section from one side and crossing it under to the other side. Then I'm going to pick up a new section of hair from my head and cross it underneath and add it into the opposite side as well. So I'm taking a small piece from the left side and I'm crossing it underneath and adding it into the right side. Then I'm picking up a small section of hair next to the braid and crossing it under adding it into the right side as well. Then I'm going to take a small piece from the right side and cross it underneath adding it into the left side section. I'm going to pick up a new section of hair next to the braid and cross it underneath adding it into the left side section as well. And I'm going to repeat those steps, continuing the braid by dividing off small sections of hair from one side and cross them under to the opposite side while also incorporating new sections of hair into the braid as well. And I'm creating this braid down the left side of my head along my hairline. And I want the braid to go into the ponytail. So in order to make sure that happens easily without any bumps in the hair, I'm going to continue the braid down towards my left ear. And then once the braid reaches my ear, I'm going to stop incorporating sections of hair into the braid and just continue braiding the section in a regular fishtail braid. So I'm still taking small sections of hair from one side and crossing them under, adding them into the opposite side, alternating between the left and the right side sections of hair. And once the braid goes down far enough that it will reach into the ponytail, I'm going to go back over the braid and gently pull on small sections along the sides of the braid so they slide up and out of the braid. This will make the braid look wider. So I'm going to go up and down both sides of the braid, pulling on the hair so the hair slides out of the braid and this is what will make it look a lot more full. And then once the braid is as big as I would like, I'm just going to take a bobby pin and slide it over the ends so it doesn't unravel.   Once the ponytail is all tied off, I'm going to create another fishtail braid with a section of hair from the ponytail. This is an extra step, but it will make it look like the braid from your head is continuing into the ponytail and down the ponytail, which I think looks really cool. So I'm just dividing off a small section of hair and then I'm splitting it into two smaller sections and I'm going to take a small piece of hair from one side and cross it under to the opposite side. And I'm just going to continue this pattern, crossing small sections of hair from one side, adding them into the opposite side, alternating between the left and the right side sections until the braid reaches down near the bottom of the section. Then of course, I'm going to go back over the braid and carefully pull on the sides to gently loosen the braid and the hair will slip slightly out of the braid as well. And this is what will make it look wider and more full. So it will show up better and be easier to see. Then I'm just going to take a clear elastic band and tie off the end of the braid. And now as a last step, of course I'm going to hide the hair band around my ponytail. So I'm going to take my topsy tail tool and slide the end underneath the hair band so the loop is at the top.  And then I'm just going to bring the ends through the loop at the top of the tool. And then while holding the hair in place through the loop, I'm going to pull the end of the tool down so the loop at the top slides underneath the hair band. This will pull the ends from that wrapped piece through the hair band and this is what will help hold it in place. For the half up style, I'm going to have my hair parted on the right side. I'm going to divide off a small section of hair on this left side near the part and divide it into three pieces to begin my braid. And again, I'm going to begin a regular three strand braid. So I'm crossing the side strands once over the middle strand before combining two of the strands together because now I'll switch to the fishtail braid. So I always combine the middle strand with the right strand because I tend to cross the right strand over first. But then what I'm going to do for the fishtail braid is I'm going to take a small piece from the outside edge of the right strand and cross it over, adding it into the left strand. Then I'm picking up a new section of hair and crossing it over to the left strand. Then I'm taking a small piece from the outside of the left strand and crossing it over to the right strand. Then I'm going to pick up a new section of hair and cross it over to the right strand as well. And I'm going to repeat this pattern four more times. So I'm always dividing off a small piece of hair from one side section, crossing it over the top to the opposite section. Then I'm picking up a new piece of hair next to the braid and crossing it over as well, incorporating it into the opposite side section. And I'm going to be bringing in four new sections to both sides of the braid. So I'm just alternating this pattern, crossing small sections from one side over to the opposite side while incorporating new sections of hair into the braid. And once I've brought in four sections, I'm going to stop adding in new sections of hair and just continue crossing small pieces of hair from one side over to the opposite side to continue the fishtail braid. By only bringing in a few sections of hair, this will create the French braid style braid, but it will also ensure that once the braid is pinned, there won't be any weird bumps in the braid at the top against my head. So I'm crossing small sections of hair from one side over to the opposite side and incorporating them into that opposite section. And I'm going to repeat those steps, continuing the fishtail braid until it reaches about halfway down the section of hair. Then I'm going to go back over the braid and of course, gently pull on the sides. So small sections slide up and out of the braid. This will make the braid look wider and a little more casual instead of being really tight and small. So I'm going to go up and down both sides of the braid, gently pulling on small sections to make the braid look more full.  I like to slide my bobby pins in through the middle of the braid, going up along the braid so they don't show. This will also help make sure that they don't snag other sections of hair as well and get caught in the bobby pin. And then I'm just going to lay some hair from the top of my head over the end of the braid. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed today's video. Let me know in the comment section which of the hairstyles was your favorite. And if you like videos like this one, make sure to click the thumbs up or the thumbs down. Either way, it helps me out. Be sure to subscribe, click that notification bell, then you'll never miss any future uploads. And I will see you next time.


Yeah, we are okay.  Well, that's so not fair Yeah, just get just get round them Yes, yes, they're all hurting each other.  Oh, oh, I didn't realize that.  Oh god. That's it. That's my help done. That's my help done Well done. Well done guys. Well done. Well done.  Ready? Where'd the other guy go? Yeah coward, there he was