Today's episode features Claire Graves, President of The Webby Awards. Each year, The Webbys highlight excellence in digital art, media, design, content, and more. Also each year, you hear your favorite major podcast hosts begging you to vote for their show to win a Webby Award. Claire and I talk about the history of The Webbys, internet trends, and why adding gaming and metaverse content was especially critical to the Webbys.

Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the

issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

female talent and business executives operating in the

gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey, the

boss poss the metal woman podcast starts now. Hello, and

welcome to the metal woman podcast part of the holodeck

media Podcast Network. I'm your host, Lindsay DeVos. Class and

from struggles to success. We're covering it all. To our

returning listeners. Thank you so much for listening to me week

after week. Thank you for all your love and support. I

appreciate it. It means the world to me. And for all the new

listeners out there. I hope you will enjoy the show. I hope

you'll join me again. I am just so excited about today's guest

because I live my life very online. Meaning I'm big into

social media and podcasts and just the internet in general. I

guess it's kind of a generational thing but also not

really I just really love being alive. Today we have Claire

Graves, who is president of the Webby Awards. Straightforward

pedia the Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the

internet presented annually by the International Academy of

Digital Arts and Sciences judging body composed of over

2000 industry experts and technology innovators. And if

you're someone who also listen to podcasts, you'll occasionally

hear the host say, don't forget to vote for me or check me out

on the Webby Awards for being nominated. So, one day I'm

hoping to get there. But Claire, thank you so much for having me

on. coming on today. I'm just so excited to have you here. If you

could introduce yourself give a little bit of background I'm

sure everyone wants to know. Well, first of all, thank you

very much for having me on Lindsay. This is I think gonna

be really fun. As you say, I'm Claire, I'm president of the

Webby Awards. We have been honoring outstanding achievement

on the internet for the last 27 years this year coming up in May

will be the 27th annual Webby Awards. And we honor everything

from you know websites. We started with websites 27 years

ago, and now we recognize everything the breadth of the

internet. So videos social mobile apps Dapps. We introduced

this year software, podcasts as you say, games. And now this

year we introduce Metaverse immersive and virtual categories

as well. Yes. And that's what I'm so excited to talk about.

Because I would imagine, for the audience that listens to this,

they may think, Oh, why are the Webby Awards here. But I think

this speaks to why the web these were created and the kind of

changing nature of content and entertainment. So I would love

for you to dive a little more into the gaming category, which

is a newer category. There are kind of different awards out

there for games. So when you are judging for Gaming Awards, what

kinds of things are you looking for? What kinds of games and

people and all of that, like what are your kind of core

categories that you're looking at? Well, you know, one of the

things that I think is really super fascinating about our role

as the Webby Awards is that we have this kind of really

interesting view on how the internet is changing and how

content changes. So actually, you say that us recognizing

games is new, but it's not we actually have been recognizing

games since the very beginning of the Webby Awards. So like you

know, 27 years ago, one of the very first winners at the Webby

Awards was I'm sure. Again, many of your listeners recognize it's

called You Don't Know Jack.

That was a winner in 1999. And we've continued to recognize

games at my very first Webby Awards, which is in 2011, we had

Angry Birds was our breakout of the year. But you are right. In

essence, we have only started recognizing dedicated, dedicated

categories for games, I think probably about five years ago.

And our sweet spot for the games that we recognize is really like

casual games, mobile games, so games like hauwa, it takes to

one of my favorite games winners from last year as a game called

Alba, Acadian fire and 12 minutes. So we're really

recognizing you know, those games that you can really play

it play on your phone. But we also recognize work from games

companies across all of our categories as well. So in the

advertising categories in the brand and entertainment

categories as well, that makes a lot of sense. Just because I

know I mentioned I live my life very online. And a huge part of

that is mobile gaming. And a huge part of this podcast is to

say that people who play mobile gaming are a huge part of the

gaming industry. So I think that that flows very naturally into

giving kind of awards for that when you're looking to add new

categories because as you mentioned, it's it this is more

geared towards the casual side, the mobile side of things, which

I love, and frankly, there's not enough awards out there for

mobile games.

But when you're looking to add new categories like this, what

kind

To have audience, it's a little bit hard for me to say but like,

what kind of audience? Are you out there looking for? Are you

looking for people who are I don't know, I don't like what's

your like average kind of user? Like, are your average the

average experience or the average entertainment experience

you're thinking about for a person? Like what is what is

that?

The web is, you know, we're really recognizing companies and

people that are creating the best work. And I think, you

know, back to your point before, you know, one of the important

reasons for us deciding to go out there and recognize games in

a dedicated way is because there's so much innovation going

on within that space. And for us, it's really important to be

making sure that we're really kind of like holding up and

benchmarking and recognizing the people that are making the best

work. So it is independent creators, we do have a ton of

independent creators that enter and participate and win at the

Webby Awards. But it's a lot of the games companies as well,

that makes sense. And how has Gaming Evolved in the time that

you've been at the web is, as a category of interest in what

you're looking at. I mean, it's huge, right? The industry is EA,

I don't even need to tell you, you and your audience, the

industry is human, humongous. And I think there's so many ways

that you can show how it's grown and how it's changed and how

it's becoming, I think I would say one of the, you know, kind

of like most one of the most important kind of cultural

centers at the moment, as well as the gaming industry, you

know, we get a lot of entries, we get 14,000 entries from last

year, we got 14,000 entries from all over the world. And we can

really see how content is being shifted where people are going

and where advertisers are going to advertise to those people

through what is entered into the Webby Awards. So over the past

few years, we've seen a really huge increase in the work that

is around games. So not only just games submissions into our

dedicated categories, they keep doubling every year. But also

we're work that's made for games companies, so like, you know,

fortnight advertising or Minecraft advertising. But then

alongside that, you know, we're getting that we're getting

those, we're getting branded content pieces from those

companies. But of course, we're also getting a lot of

advertising within those games as well. So experiences that,

you know, companies are creating within those spaces to reach new

audiences and bigger audiences that are gathering on in LA on

games as well. Yeah, there's been so much growth and it's

it's cool. I mean, yeah, every year the audiences are growing.

And this This leads right into kind of this discussion about

the metaverse and this new category. I will absolutely link

the announcement in the show notes. But that is something and

like you said I was a little wrong about gaming being a new

category. So please correct me again, if I'm wrong in the

metaverse, but what are those new categories? And what made

you want to add them to this year's awards? Yeah, so I think

it kind of goes with us wanting to add those into the those

categories into the awards. We launched Metaverse, a massive

and virtual this year. And for us, it's always really important

to be recognizing the new work that is being created as a

pandemic hit and everything kind of went to these virtual

experiences. And people started spending more time in Metaverse

experiences as well. We opened up what we call virtual and

remote categories. And we had those, you know, people

participating in those categories for a couple of

years. And then we kind of identified that actually, most

of the work that was being entered into those categories

was Metaverse work. It's what the industry is kind of talking

about at the moment. It's really a kind of interesting place for

brands to go in and experiment. So we set up the metaverse

categories that people are entering at the moment work is

really super interesting. But also at the same time, we're

kind of going out there and getting some of the kind of

biggest and most important people within the metaverse and

work through space to be judges as well. And they help us kind

of define what we are what we're recognizing, and define the

criteria for judging as well. That makes a lot of sense,

especially given the growth during the pandemic. Why do you

think it's important to start thinking more about the

metaverse? I think this can probably be a bit of an obvious

question, but it's just it. This is a bit early on in terms of

the industry and the web is is something that kind of follows

industry trends. Obviously like you said during the pandemic,

there's a explosion in credit these experiences and what's

going on in the metaverse, but where do you kind of think we

are with that and why do you think that we should be thinking

about it, you know, for awards, for example. It's kind of a big

step close. So I think I totally agree with you. I think we're

kind of taking our first steps into what the metaverse is and

and what is good

within that space, and for us, it's just really important to be

focused on what innovation is happening and what new work is

being created. And one of the really hard things to do when

something is so new is to be able to benchmark, what's

actually good in that space. What's a what's a good

experience for the people that are in those spaces? What's

really smart, what is what's a really clever execution, maybe

what's a bit gimmicky and what doesn't make sense. And so we

think it's important to benchmark that work so that

people can see what's good. And that's really why we've done it,

that's definitely a new way of thinking about it, especially in

a world of user generated content. And that makes a lot of

sense. It's hard to establish that baseline,

when, unlike, you know, traditional industries where

people become experts in something experts in

advertising, our experts in brand activations are experts in

even hosting a podcast. Now anyone can do it, that totally

makes sense. And I want to tie this into kind of this broader

question of what you have seen, in your time at the web use in

terms of changes in, you know, just, and again, some of this is

really obvious, but I'm interested in your perspective,

changes in how we think about entertainment, what we how we

spend our time what we do, how we engage with the internet,

even, like what have been some of the things maybe that have

surprised you and things that you know, five years ago, you'll

this will never happen and then it happened or just anything

unexpected. That's kind of come up as you've been the one

studying the internet here. I mean, some of the stuff maybe it

hasn't, maybe it's never gonna happen. We'll see. So I joined

the company in 2011. And when I joined the company, when I

joined the Webby Awards, we didn't on social social wasn't

really even it was like at the was at the beginning of brands

getting on Twitter and brands getting on Facebook. And so that

in 2012, we opened up, we opened categories like we're doing now

for Metaverse for social. And I think, you know, when when I get

asked that question, that is the space that I think has kind of

changed the most. And you know, it's not always for the good.

It's not for the better of the internet, when I joined, you

know, when I joined this company, Twitter, Twitter was

kind of like a place that most people were just using for like

updating people about, you know, going to get coffee, or bagels

or breakfast. It was so long. I when I look back now, I'm like,

Why? Why did I need to put that out there?

I would say today, it's probably the most talked about thing that

is happening in the world at the moment. And you know, people are

really thinking about it as an extra existential thing. Like,

what, what what is going to happen? And how is it going to

be made a good place? Or is it going to be made an even worse

place for people to be at the algorithms weren't the same when

when I first started, and when we first opened up the social

media categories, they weren't really based on, you know, in so

much on engagement, and you know, rage engagement as well.

And so I think that that's really one of the things that we

have really, you know, watched and seen change. But at the same

time, social is also really used for good. You know, a couple of

years ago, we honored Greta tunberg at the Webby Awards, and

that movement that would not have gone anywhere, if it wasn't

for social media. And you know, she really changed the

conversation about the climate crisis and, and enabled, you

know, young people to go out there and tell everybody what

they think. And so I think, you know, it's kind of it is very

powerful place, but it's a place for us to be really conscious of

what's going on on social media as well. Definitely. And I want

to tie that into one more thing that was kind of in this again,

this announcement that I will link in the show notes about the

metaverse, and that is the responsible tech category. Can

you tell me about the inception of that, and kind of what the I

mean, again, sort of obvious, but what the goal of putting

that out there and what impact you think it will have, and how

you hope that things like the web is can kind of help shape

responsible tech, as we talked about Twitter. So responsible

technology. Now it's kind of this huge term that not a lot of

people really understand in a way. And I think that one of the

reasons that we have launched the responsible tech categories

is to address that. So Responsible Technology for us is

about creating technology for the good of the world. And that

could be across lots of different areas, accessibility

diversity algorithms and AI, and we launched them this year.

Actually, we have been thinking about it for a long time and

thinking about how to do that in the right way.

And we were lucky in that we were encouraged to do it by some

partners that we have. They're called Media Networks. And they

are a social good fund. And so together, we worked on the kind

of creating the categories to honor responsible technology

work across information for good accessibility, a ton of

categories, a few categories. We also launched it with an in

depth report looking at the state of Responsible Technology

for our industry. And with a survey that we did to 200 people

in our industry as well. And our industry is, you know, the

people that are part of the Webby Awards community. So that

is people that work at media companies, and startups and

advertising agencies and technology companies and brands.

So the people that are really creating the internet, creating

the best work on the internet, their report, I think, is a

really great document for the industry to understand the

complications within the group creating ecosystems for

Responsible Technology. But also, it just speaks in really

human terms. And so it's a really easy way to understand

what were the issues and how to address the issues and how to

also make change yourself. So we're so proud of it was really,

really, it's where the idea of of doing this is not only just

to educate and help people understand Responsible

Technology and why it is so important. But the aim is to be

encouraging people to create new work within this space as well.

Well, I'm so glad that we're having this discussion, because

I again, like I said, I've heard all about the webinars because I

know so many people who get nominated, and you win, which is

really fun and cool. But I haven't thought about the kind

of real impact behind consistently picking out the

good parts of the industry and of any industry really, and of

noting that and of how that can be a real driver for change. So

I really appreciate all your perspective on that. It's just

not again, not a viewpoint that I have ever really needed to

think about or have thought about. So this has been really

great to learn about. Do you see, as the web has evolved? Do

you see kind of more work or categories, especially because

tech is like kind of such a huge problem in society

geared towards highlighting these kinds of solutions? Like

do you see that kind of data as a as a path forward for

expansion, like starting with responsible tech, maybe growing

out of categories there, I'm sure there's already plenty of

work and things that you've highlighted that do kind of pick

out the good, but I'm wondering like how you kind of balance the

fun parts of it would be like we can actually make a real impact

parts of it. And if one has outweighed the other previously,

or if you're kind of both working with those in

conjunction all the time, if that makes sense. Your question

is a great question. Because it is something that we have we

really noticed for the Webby Awards over the last six or

seven years, we noticed that more and more work was social

impact work. And so we started to create more categories for

that for that work. So you know, we have this Sustainability and

Environment category and the diversity, equity and inclusion

category and our public service and activism categories, which

we've had forever, always some of the most competitive. So with

that insight, you know, that workers growing with also the

understanding and insight that social impact is becoming more

important to people more important than it ever has been

before people are starting to think about, you know, social

movements that they think are important, but they're also you

know, really kind of wearing it on their sleeves as well, it so

the what that what they buy at the supermarket is based on how

ethical and how good they think that company is, what they watch

on Netflix, or Hulu is often about, you know, how learning

about social impact, who they follow on social media is often

related to social impact. We also, you know, really kind of

like looked at the landscape and looked at companies and the fact

that companies have noticed that when they have a purpose and a

mission, they retain talent much more, they're actually much more

innovative. And so we created the Webby Awards created a new

award solely for social impact work. It's called the anthem

awards. We launched it last year, and it recognizes work

across seven different causes for social impact. So health

education and the arts, humanitarian action services,

Sustainability and Environment and responsible technology as

well. You know, it's amazing, it's the most amazing thing

being able to recognize social impact work and people that are

making work in nonprofits and brands that are really making an

impact. It's the most incredible thing and we thought that it was

going to be successful, but we really had no idea that it how

the industry would respond.

And and it's been an incredible ride. So far, we're in year two

now. And it's pretty amazing. You definitely found that. And

then we'll also link that in the show notes that people can check

it out and nominate and vote for people who are in that category.

That's, that's really cool to hear. And obviously, we've gone

through so much social change in transition. And I think it does

speak to the fact that the web is is is listening, which is

really good, because that your right people are paying more and

more attention to that lately. And again, providing that

benchmark and that baseline can be really valuable, a powerful

tool to make sure that that continues in a good direction. I

want to change it up a little bit, because we've been talking

about the weapons so much, we haven't talked about you quite

yet. So tell me about your work and how you got to where you are

your role, how you've been kind of able to move up in your time

at the movies and and continue to stay motivated and continue

to stay creative. Think it's very easy to get into a slump

after 10 years at a company but you have just remained creative

and open and exploring new ideas. So tell me about your

journey a little bit. Okay. Well, you can tell from my

accent that I'm Australian, hopefully, yeah, I had an

English.

I grew up in Australia, but I actually I was born in the UK.

And then I went back to the UK for University. I went to

university up in Edinburgh in Scotland. And then after school,

I moved down to the to London to England, and I started working

in the advertising industry. A year or so I landed at and

digital agency called poke, which was an incredible place to

work it was Do you know one of the most creative digital only

firms in the UK at the time, it was just like a magical magical

place. It was 60 people but everybody was like best friends

and just wanted to create the best work. So there I was a

project manager at the time, which was a digital agency back

then, was somebody who both managed the client and manage

the production of the work. And I was working across like big

consumer brands. So the Guardian, which you know, is the

newspaper, one of the newspapers out there, American Express Red

Top Shop, or a little bit of work for Orange, which is a

telecommunications company out there. Barnardos, which is a

children's chat, charity and Skype, which was a huge client

for us back then we did skype.com, which was a really,

really, really big website. Yeah, just you know, barely

anyone gets off there too big.

You know, I moved to London, it was a bit it was like the place

to be. And then I realized that maybe the place to be was New

York City. So I wanted to move to New York, I moved to New

York, I interviewed at so many places I interviewed all over

the city. And I was talking mostly to like advertising

agencies and some production companies, I just couldn't

really like find the opportunity that I really wanted to get

into. Or the one that I was excited about, I suppose I

should say. And then I had known the founders of the web GIS for

a long time, a few years, because they came to London

often and we would hang out when they were in London. And they

said, why don't you come and work here. And actually, it was

the most amazing gift and opportunity to me because the

internet people they're my people. And I really love the

internet. I love like talking about the internet. I love

internet banter. This job I get to like be with the internet

people, you know, I get to like spend time with the best people

in the industry. And then look at how it is changing and how

content is being new contents being made and contents being

shaped and formed. And I find that really fascinating. And

it's also like an incredible job because I don't know of another

one like this where you just celebrate for a whole year. We

just celebrate love that. You did say you said the magic words

about being within people. I actually joked the other day, I

still think about if my head wasn't so full of tweets that I

could constantly reference, I might have an original thought.

They're all just sitting in there waiting to be used.

So totally get it. Yeah, same. Can you talk to me a little bit

about how you've been able to since you started at the web

GIS, how you've been able to move up? And what were the ways

that you continue to be able to grow like what did you do to

keep yourself kind of moving forward? Well, you know, we're,

we're lucky at this company because it's not a huge company,

but it hasn't, we don't have a lot of people here and so

everybody kind of gets to wear lots of different hats at the

one time. And so you can find areas that are interesting to

you and you can you know you can eat a lot

Together, we can get excited about ideas and then make those

ideas happen. So, you know, as I said, I started as a producer,

and maybe I didn't say that I started as a producer, then, you

know, I've been here for 12 years. So I've kind of grown as

the company's grown. And we've really grown the Webby Awards

since I started as well. And which means that we're able to,

you know, hire new roles and create new roles and be able to

go out there and grow the company in interesting ways as

well and grow that grow what we recognize and grow, who we

recognize in interesting ways as well, as you have moved up. Do

you miss the production side? All I would imagine that you

spend kind of more time on like people management than maybe

actual kind of production work? What has that changed been like

for you? So production work, I mean, I think that there's parts

of production that any manager still does in a way, because

production is all about like working to help get people to

create the things that you need to create and do the things that

you create to do. So it's a little bit like that being a

manager as well, because you're still working with people to

mentor them and get them to think about, you know, their

work in new ways, as well, as well and create, you know,

they're, they're managing people that are managing people to get

the work done. But I see what you're saying that the thing is,

is that, for me, the biggest creative project that we have is

the Webby Awards. And it says, you know, it's a 90 minute show.

And together as a team, we create that. So we decide who

out of the winners, we want to go on stage. And we work with

our academy on the special achievements and making sure

that the special achievements are the big things that have

happened that year and credible for the you know, when you're

thinking about the history of the internet, and that year, I

still got a lot of energy and a lot of excitement of producing a

really big award show. It is big, and it's only getting

bigger.

I feel like every year I hear more and more about the web is

how has your kind of mental load changed as you've moved up? I

think we talk a lot about work life balance. And honestly, I'm

like a little tired talking about it. But I'm also curious

as to how people who wind up in positions as yourself or your

President, you know, you're in charge of this thing, how you're

able to kind of keep everything running smoothly, as well as

have a life.

So what are some of the things in ways that you're able to kind

of balance everything or tools you use? I'm hoping that those

might be useful to someone out there? Well, you know, the thing

is, is that you have for me, I have, you know, progressed in my

career at the same time as it feels like at the same time as

having a family as well. So I have two children, Frankie and

ray, ray is one and Frankie is four. And so it's you kind of

when you have children, you kind of have an enforced work life

balance, because you can't not go home to look after the

children. And on the weekends. You have to look after the

children.

They don't just raise themselves I've been

upstairs.

So you have to check you have to check off we have a lot of rules

here, I guess I guess they're not really rules, they're maybe

unwritten rules in that, you know, we don't like contact each

other off of work hours, that we don't really slack before nine

or 10am in the morning, and we don't really slack after six or

seven at night. And that is on the weekends, there is no

communication unless it's like you know, the weekend before the

Webby Awards. And we've got to like deal with stuff. And I

think that that's really important. Another couple of

things that we've done here, which I think are kind of

amazing, are on Fridays, we have no meetings at all. And that's

kind of fantastic. Because it means that you know that you

have a full day to like put your head down and really like think

about strategy and think about like just getting a thing done.

And you also know that the rest of your team is kind of doing

that as well and not having to you know, sit in meetings and

sit, sit on Zoom. And that means that you can also like go and

get lunch with someone or get coffee with someone and you know

that for me they're always particularly when I'm meeting

with people in the industry. There are always some of the

times that I get my good ideas or some of my best ideas is when

I'm like out and about and meeting with people and

understanding what other people are thinking about as well. The

other thing I will say is that um, this is maybe for you I'm

not sure Lindsay if this is for you, but I do

A lot of yoga, I love that.

Um, I'm glad I am not a yogi. But I think that the greater

point is that it's important to have something that's for

yourself outside of work hours. Yeah, and for me yoga is and

whatever a lot of people, you know that he's running that, you

know, classes or whatever, but it's one moment of just like tea

exactly time for myself on my mat. I'm actually kind of

sometimes the most creative when I'm on my mat, just like in the

flow. And it's also really good to stretch. Yes, I am not

necessarily a yogi, but I am a big stretch every night for

sure, like 2030 minutes of just stretching, and it feels

fantastic. So highly recommend that. I do. I was laughing

actually, to myself this morning, though, when I thought

about all of the kind of wellness stuff that I always

think I'm gonna do. I'm like, you know, I could just stop

lying to myself about journaling every night and waking up at 8am

Every day doing morning runs, and all this stuff. And like,

you know, having like one to two things that I actually do would

be more beneficial than starting and stopping 1000 things that

I'm not going to do.

That is like the point, right? Like, I think I've last couple

of years, I've just like, stopped beating myself up, like

I've stopped, I've stopped, like putting expectations as high as

possible for myself when I don't really expect that of anybody

else. And like you you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be mad at

yourself for not, you know, the I don't know, meditating every

morning, whatever goal you've set out, which is unrealistic

anyway. And just like to enjoy it when you do get to do it. I

like that point of don't put up the same. Don't put up higher

expectations for yourself than you would have anyone else. I

think it's easy to get lost in trying to implement all these

things. I read a ton. I read a ton books, news, all kinds of

stuff and so much wellness stuff. And I was like, oh, like

the research says I should be doing it. And it's like, but the

research also says that nobody does this. And there's a reason

why. And it's because people can't find the time.

So I like that idea of keeping her thinking about if if you

were kind of a friend like what would you be telling them about

the expectations they have set for themselves? I think that's

very wise and magnesium at nighttime

coffee to someone that wakes up in the middle of the night and

can't get back to sleep. Take it keeps you if you wake up, it

puts you back to sleep that I actually do not have a problem

sleeping but several people of America do. So that will be

helpful advice. Undoubtedly. Well, that that is Amenia part

of what I love doing on the show is bringing people on for advice

just like that of, of how to just be happier. I think there's

there's a lot of competing opinions out there. But it's

nice when someone can just share what makes them happy and why.

And what works, because it might work for someone else. I want to

kind of end with a discussion on podcasts because you and I

briefly bonded over both being huge podcasting as a no joke. I

think I'm subscribed to about 20 Like for daily ones and series

and all kinds of stuff like I just I have favorite hosts and I

mean just a lot. So first, what are some of the ones you love

listening to? Obviously, I'm sure ones that have won Webby

Awards, but either daily ones or series that you think like oh,

everyone should listen to this. It's amazing. Well, so I have

like a I listened a lot. Yeah, so I probably listen to I don't

know maybe the ones that you listen to the on the on the

daily but I start with the daily. Yeah. And up first. Those

are news, obviously. And then Axios is my after that. And then

I end with the Washington Post there daily. That's Post reports

which is great and also webby winner. I really recommend that

that's an afternoon that's on your commute home podcast. Mm

hmm. Are there any? Yeah, get tell me about series or like

theories. Have you? Have you listened to the new Anderson

Cooper podcasts on grief? No, I didn't know if you have one.

It's fantastic. It's called all there is. Ooh, what's it about?

So you know, his mom just passed away. Gloria Vanderbilt passed

away last year. And he's kind of it's really I think he just

started it as part of his process in grieving and he's

kind of in the middle of clearing out her things and

she's kept a lot. He kept a lot of stuff. But he also you know,

he kind of has gone through grief a few times in his life

and it really weighs on him. His dad passed away when he was a

kid and then his brother committed suicide as well. And

so he's still like grieving those and then he's also

grieving his mom because then that's his whole family that has

passed away. So he's out talking to people about

The grief process. And it's just amazing. It's amazing to you

know, because in this culture and you know, Australian culture

investment in British culture, we don't really talk about grief

a lot. We don't talk about death a lot. And so I am just finding

it really moving, because he's been really open about it. And

he's talking to people that are really open about it as well.

And it's yeah, it's amazing. I really recommend it. Well, that

sounds like difficult but useful. I don't know if this is

true for you. But I have found myself more often now laying on

the couch or sitting on the couch, and listening to podcasts

over watching television. And I just think to myself, if the

folks during the radio time learned that TV existed, and

that we are now going back, I am now going back to the radio, I

think they would be judgmental.

Are you that way to I don't know if I just sit and listen, I

definitely am listening all of the time. I find if there is not

like a conversation going on with somebody. I'm listening. So

I listen from from when I wake up in the morning until when I

get in back into the house at night. And also I teach so I

don't stop listening. That way as I walk into the house, no one

air pods just make it so easy to just pop on and pop one out.

Yes, I am totally with you on that. It's like when I take a

break. I actually forgot about music for probably a solid year.

Like I used to listen to a lot of music and I just totally

forgot it existed interspersing now with more music but but then

I was like, Oh, I don't listen to enough music. So I said

listen to music podcast. Oh, there you go smart.

Work around I like it.

Um, well, before we get into our last little segment, I am going

to just summarize what we talked about. We started with a

discussion on the Libby's and how, from 27 years ago, they're

giving out awards for websites and for brilliant design online.

You could have an interesting take on history of the internet.

And the goal is to recognize innovation, and benchmark the

people who are making the best work from independent creators

to companies in hopes that we can kind of set some standards

encourage new work encouraged inspiration to make the internet

a more welcoming place. You opened up virtual and remote

categories during the pandemic and kind of wound up putting

them into this new Metaverse category because a lot of that

fell under Metaverse work. And the metaverse category was set

up to actually start thinking about what's good in the space,

as is the ethos of the web is what's smart, what's fun, what's

a clever execution of a new technology? How can companies

build on that? How do people experience it? That all kind of

rolls into the metaverse category, we talked about the

things that you've seen change and how the growth in social

media has been the biggest and most powerful kind of change

that you've seen during your time with movies. And we've all

we all been a part of that. So I get it, how there's been equal

parts good and bad, highlight that story of credit tuned work

as the good. And I'm glad that you highlighted the good because

I think we all know that. We talked about the Responsible

Technology category and how helping people to educate and

understand what Responsible Technology is will hopefully

push more people to be inspired and creative. Social impact has

been a core tenant for the web GIS, and it's becoming more

important than it's ever been. Which means there's more

interest in expanding these categories. And eventually, the

anthem awards were then created to highlight all kinds of social

impact work. We talked about your kind of journey in your

career and how managing and producing have a lot of similar

aspects. You're constantly thinking about how to get the

best out of people how to get the best production out there

and make everything kind of run smoothly. And when it comes to

work life balance, creating the culture is one of the most

important things. So not contact people outside of work hours, no

meetings on Fridays, to allow people to have strategy,

reflection, time, even personal time for themselves just to

recharge and refresh for the next week. And then also the

third part, which is adding the outlet outside of work, whatever

it may be, for you it is it's yoga for sure. But just

implementing something that you can go to that makes you feel

good. It kind of helps you get through the week, one of the

points that I loved that we talked about was setting

expectations for yourself and to not put high expectations on

when you wouldn't in fact do that to other people. So making

sure that your expectations are reasonable and thinking about

hey, would I expect this much out of another person? And am I

calibrating properly to actually meet what I'm doing, which I

will absolutely work on in future because I calibrate

improperly all the time. And then we ended with one of my

favorite discussions which is on podcasts are both huge

listeners. Both of the people out there who are listening to

this are also huge listeners because I would love everyone to

come back week after week. But some of the recommended ones

from you on the daily side were

Are the New York Times is the daily Axio says daily news

podcast and the Washington Post daily news podcast. And when it

comes to series that you've been loving lately, Anderson Cooper's

on grief and reflections after his mother passed is one that

you recommend for everyone. So what I like to end on in every

episode is called a moment of reflection. And it's just a

chance for you to kind of look back on your career, think about

where you started, where you ended up now. And what I like to

ask people is what is one thing you would like to tell your

younger self, about getting into this kind of gaming

entertainment industry? And being successful? I think that

isn't, you know, when I get this question, the thing that I just

think for my younger self, because when I was younger, I

was like, kind of, I feel like reflecting on it, I was kind of

stressed out, like trying to, like make it work and trying to

you know, always like trying to do like an incredible job like

100% Perfect job all of the time. And I would just say to

past Claire, like, just stop and have fun. Like you're here

everybody is there to do the best work and make the best

thing and really enjoy it at the same time. So just keep having

fun and like, it's amazing. Enjoy it. You have such an

incredibly light energy to you that I hope that everyone can

take that advice to heart and go have fun. Because this has been

so fun for me. I think that we are kindred online spirits for

sure.

That is my point unless you're having fun right? Like if you're

not having a good time you spend so many hours at work. Yeah.

bring you joy every day. Very true. Thank you so much for

being here. Where can people find you follow you learn about

your work learn about the why these what things do you want to

plug plug away? For me, I'm at sai graves across everything you

can always find me at at Claire graves and then the web is you

can always find that the Webby Awards make sense. For everyone

out there. Please be sure to leave the five star ratings and

reviews. Check out other holodeck media podcasts

including metal business and business at esports. I'm on

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and Lindsey pass. You can catch

me Wednesday afternoons on the business of esports live after

show you can catch this podcast and your feed every Tuesday.

We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us here on meta

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