Notes to Nono - Ep. 1: Don’t be afraid to speak your mind and show others who you are! Adults can learn as much from you as you from them with HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands

This Podcast journey is now almost 1 year old and never in a million years could I have dreamt that it would grow into what it has become today. 

We have tens of thousands of listeners from around the world, incredible guests who have indeed achieved amazing things in their own right and most importantly an enormous wealth of life experience wrapped together as 3 challenges for each episode that each guest has so kindly shared with us. Hundreds of people have rated or reviewed the interviews and we are building up followers on all the Podcast platforms that we are submitting our Episodes to. 

So whatever happens next, I first want you to know that I am incredibly grateful to everyone who made this happen. From the team at Landmark Communications to our Producer Natalie to our Project Managers Inva and Genta to our Sponsors but also to my friends for sharing their honest feedback with me so I don’t create an echo chamber of incoherent noise and my family (father and mother who have been very supportive)  

Most importantly my wife Leila for letting me take this leap and allowing me to go wild and creative bringing this together each and every week. 

So thank you to all of you - I won’t let you down. 

And then there is someone that I haven’t mentioned yet. My daughter Norah - also called Nono. 

Now I can fight all cliches as much as I like and spend my time lying to you that my daughter isn’t the center of my universe currently but that would all be rubbish. 

Doing my little bit to bring that little human into this world and then taking on the shared responsibility to raise her is a task that I do not take lightly. 

Now one of the things I realized is that my experience, influence and knowledge for her to become a balanced, loving, honest, healthy individual is going to be crucial. And that - at times - frankly scares me a bit. 

Another thing I have realized is that I have been born into privilege. 

Not only because my crib was in the house of a well to do Western European (Dutch/Belgian) family but also because I am a white, straight man who has absolutely no idea what it is like to be deprived of anything, to be discriminated against or to be excluded from anything - because of my gender, race, sexuality or color of my skin. Without having done anything of value, I tick all the boxes and just for that, I lead a privileged life. 

So the story of my daughter might be a very different one to mine. 

She is growing up in a different era as a toddler, a young girl and as a woman. 

And just for that society might have different expectations from her and could ask for different things. She might be excluded or yelled at or (God forbid) abused because of the fact that she is a woman. 

Even though things have evolved a lot in the right direction, we are far from being equal which might make the journey of my daughter a lot more challenging than mine - just because of her gender.  

Now I am going to be honest here, there might be a lot of things I do not know. I might be completely blind to the issues she is up against because I have not experienced any of this first hand. And this is where I might fall short in being a good parent. I might let her down because I cannot fully grasp how unreal or unfair such a situation could be. 

Now to make a long story short, I am determined to provide little Nono with the best advice available so she can grow up as a strong, independent, resilient, autonomous human being and right now I have an opportunity to gather up on this advice and to collect notes for her when she grows up. 

I have been so fortunate to have spoken thus far to so many strong, independent spirits who have achieved tremendous things. Many of them are incredible women and by fishing out crucial advice that they have given me and passing this on into notes I hope that I can harness Nono with some valuable life lessons that she hopefully uses should it come to it. 

So without further ado, we present to you Notes to Nono. Hoping you might know or be a Nono as well. A concerned parent, caretaker, teacher, family member, friend or even just an interested listener who is kind enough to pass it on. 

Notes to Nono 1 

So the first one that I picked are snippets from Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands who I spoke to for Episode 19. She was a very kind, hands-on, warm person who had a clear message. Now I had slightly rehearsed something for the end of this interview which was a comment around a Disney Princess - which is Nono's current career choice - and us as parents not approving of this. 

I boldly shared this with the Princess and her response was admirable. Please enjoy these very first Royal ‘Notes to Nono’ from a very special Power-Princess.