"Wellbeing is about capacity": A Conversation with Emma Gannon

It's time for a new interview series! First up: EMMA GANNON, author of The Success Myth and other books.

Context: I wanted to do a series of interviews, and I wanted to do them differently than what you see elsewhere. Let me know what you think—we’ll continue to experiment and evolve along the way. 🙏

Our First Interview! Introducing Emma Gannon

Among other things,

Emma Gannon

is a British author. In fact, while we were chatting about this feature, she reminded me that several years ago we each had books out (SIDE HUSTLE and THE MULTI-HYPHEN METHOD) that were often packaged together in classic bookseller “If you liked this…” fashion.

I learned more about Emma as I was preparing to shift focus and work on this newsletter. I always like to learn from people who’ve mastered a particular platform, and Emma is exhibit A for newsletter writing.

In fact, she even left Instagram (mostly) last year, to devote more attention to her newsletter community. (As for me, I haven’t left Instagram, but I’m also not very good or consistent at it.)

Anyway, in professional terms, here are a few highlights from Emma’s bio:

Emma is a Sunday Times bestselling and award-winning author of non-fiction and novels. Her newsletter

The Hyphen by Emma Gannon

is currently the #5th most popular Substack globally and reaches thousands of readers every week. Alongside writing, she hosts creativity retreats in the UK and all over the world.

Fun fact: she once recorded a podcast from inside Buckingham Palace. 👑

All that is cool, but of course, we’re more interested in the person behind the impressive bio. And since this is

🌻 A Year of Mental Health

, I’m interested in how people think about wellbeing in general.

So let’s have some questions and answers with Emma! (There’s also a fun audio recording from her—scroll down for that.)

Qs & As with Emma

• What does mental health and wellbeing mean to you?

This might sound a tad cringey or tenuous, but it’s when my soul feels happy. You know that feeling, when your chest/heart area just feels calm. My own personal belief is that when I first started having my panic attacks a few years ago, it was because my inner self / soul was like “hey! this isn’t working! we need to change direction now! It’s time.”

As painful as it all was – the act of changing up so much of your life is never easy – when I went through it and came out the other side, my soul quieted down again, like it was settling into a warm seat. I was happy again. Everything felt peaceful. Like when a storm ends.

I know that I’m in a good place mentally when I have capacity. Capacity for others, for myself, for a friend in need, for my work. I can respond to a text, or take an unexpected call, or take an impromptu walk without feeling like something is being taken from me.

I like the word ‘capacity’, it makes me think of a wide airy space, an open sky, lungs breathing in fully, or a calendar with blank slots. When I have no capacity for a short walk, bath, journaling, or reading, and I start to feel panicky, I know that something has to change and this often means sacrificing something else.

Wellbeing for me isn’t really about the green smoothies or hitting the gym — it’s about slowing down, connecting, opening my chest, letting things in, being in integrity and also paying attention to my body and not just my mind.

• What is your primary or most important message?

Now that I’ve published a few books, I can start to see a common thread, even though they’re all quite different. Something like: “it’s OK to do things differently, outside of society’s expectations.” The Multi-Hyphen Method was about working on your own terms and earning money outside of the traditional career ladder; OLIVE is about living a great life without kids; The Success Myth is ripping up the rule-book on the Western ideals of ‘success’ that actually ends up harming us and what ‘enough’ can look like.

• What’s something contrarian or highly unusual that you passionately believe?

I believe that the Universe is benign and that human beings are inherently good. It feels unusual to think this perhaps, in a world of War, and evil billionaires and murder and negativity — but I still think our in-built most dominant human characteristic is to love each other. I truly believe the universe has our back and wants us to grow and be well. When things feel good it’s because things are on the right path, when things feel horrible it’s because we’re being squashed.

I’m not trying to sound too much like a Richard Curtis movie, but most days, if you look really closely, love is absolutely everywhere. Every time I glance down at someone’s phone on the London Underground when they’re typing, they’re almost always typing heart emojis or “Love you” to a friend, partner or family member.

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Emma’s Audio Recording 🎙️

Brief side note: I’m asking our interviewees to make a short audio recording in addition to the written questions. This isn’t a long podcast interview, it’s just two minutes long—so you don’t want to skip it. Here’s the one from Emma! ⬇️

Okay, back to some more Qs and recommendations!

• What’s difficult for you right now? What are you struggling with? 

I guess it’s the mourning of my youth. I’m 34, so technically still ‘young’ to many of my peers, but my nephews think I’m pretty old now. I’m in that in-between where I’m not young or old and so I can’t commit to either. It feels like a state of limbo. I'm at the beginning of the ‘middle aged’ vibe but then my twenties weren’t that long ago.

I was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List a few years ago and kept being celebrated for being young all the time — so I had to find a new identity outside of that and it's really freeing now to embrace the positives of age. Now, I’ve embraced what I want my 30s and 40s to look like, and I’m feeling really good. I read the phrase ‘age fluidity’ recently, meaning we can be old and be youthful, or be young and be very wise. We don’t need to categorize people as old or young. 

• What is a simple thing (or 2-3 simple things) we can do to be better?

1. Give ourselves more down-time and time to rest. When we give to ourselves more, we have more capacity for others.

2. Listen to someone — like actually listen, not just waiting to say your bit.

• Lastly, what are a few things you’d like to recommend to our community?  

  • Memoir: Any book by Deborah Levy 

  • Book of essays: The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

  • Book for creatives: The Practice by Seth Godin

  • Book for burnout: Rest, Pause, Be by Octavia Raheem

  • Book to pre-order: Ambition Monster by Jenn Romolini

  • Song: Peace Train by Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens

  • Recent film: Past Lives or American Fiction

  • Cozy film: Julie and Julia or You’ve Got Mail

  • Substack:

    Jess Pan
    on working in a little London bookshop

Big Thanks to Emma!

I’m very happy to have Emma as our Q&A debut.

Be sure to check out her newsletter if you haven’t already, and also check out the new book The Success Myth. It’s very much aligned with some of what I’ve been sharing this year, but written in its own way and in the context of her own personal story. (Five stars, would recommend.)

Finally, let me know if you were able to read the interview! More of them are in the works, so be sure you’re subscribed—and stay tuned. 🙏