"Valuing employees as friends strengthens team dynamics and fosters loyalty."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Chere Di Boscio, the visionary founder of Eluxe Magazine, a trailblazing publication at the forefront of the sustainable luxury movement.
With over three decades of experience in editing, writing, and academia, Chere’s journey from the glamorous world of high-end fashion magazines to pioneering eco-friendly journalism is nothing short of inspirational.
In this exclusive conversation, Chere takes us on a captivating voyage through her career evolution and the inception of Eluxe Magazine, the world’s first sustainable luxury publication.
With an unwavering commitment to promoting ethical fashion and environmental consciousness, Chere shares her insights into the transformative power of eco-luxury and the urgent need for sustainable practices in the fashion industry.
Join us as we delve into the fascinating mind of Chere Di Boscio, exploring her passion for sustainability, her entrepreneurial spirit, and the profound impact of Eluxe Magazine on shaping the future of fashion and journalism.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Chere Di Boscio: My career path has been diverse. I’ve worked as an editor, writer and university lecturer over the past 30 years.
I love the finer things in life and believe I have a good eye for what would be considered ‘luxurious’, so I was happy for awhile, editing high-end fashion magazines. However, over time, I began to realise the amount of harm the fashion industry does to animals and the planet.
In fact, it sickened me to have to promote products I knew were doing heinous damage. I looked for an eco-fashion magazine to edit, and finding none, launched Eluxe Magazine, the world’s first ever sustainable luxury publication, in 2013.
It began as a printed magazine, with the website being secondary. That has since changed.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Chere Di Boscio: We are a small company, staffed by like-minded people. I have retained the same 5 core staffers since day 1. Some writers have come and gone, but that’s mainly because they were seeking out more pay.
Since we’re a small company, we don’t have the capacity to pay as much as say, Hearst or Conde Nast, and that’s where some of my previous writers ended up.
I consider my employees to be friends as well, and am very understanding when it comes to requests and problems they may have. For example, one of my writers had a baby, and I made many allowances for flexibility for her in terms of deadlines and workloads.
Another of my staff works for another publication and needs to travel frequently. I’ve taken that into consideration when it comes to her workload, too. In short, I’ve not felt even the tiniest ripple of ‘the Great Resignation’ at Eluxe.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Chere Di Boscio: I’m a huge reader, so I’ve been influenced by many, many books. But perhaps the one that most pertains to my work is 1984. Since I started Eluxe over a decade ago, I’ve seen online censorship ramping up to terrifying degrees.
Not only blatant censorship and de-platforming of so-called ‘misinformation’, but also changes in the algorithms that essentially make some sites all but invisible.
In fact, as a publication focused on ecology, we became quite concerned with geoengineering and GMOs and their effects on food. We did a few very well-researched articles on these topics and got slammed by Google for doing so. We even got listed as a ‘conspiracy’ website, which is just absurd!
It’s very concerning that journalists can’t even ask questions about certain topics today without being punished by Google and shadow banned. And things are just going to get worse.
The Online Safety Act in the UK, for example, can actually put people in jail for questioning vaccine safety. We are entering Orwellian territory for sure.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Chere Di Boscio: I absolutely believe everyone does! I have written a short book on organic gardening for beginners for a charity in Peru, and have written the introduction for a book on fashion called Style & Trashion.
The book I’d love to write is a bit surprising, though. It would be on the wives of Led Zeppelin’s band members. I’m a huge fan of the band, and Robert Plant is actually my neighbour in London.
The stories of the band members are already well known, but those women went through so much, from the death of a child and the death of a husband to witchcraft and Satanic ceremonies, near-fatal accidents and so much more.
And all of that on top of the mere fact that their sweethearts went from cute 20 year old unknowns to global mega-stars in just a few years…I can’t imagine how that must have felt!
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Chere Di Boscio: The hours you need to put in. People think I’m just the Editor in Chief, but in fact, I do so much more than just editing.
I’m also in charge of the payroll, figuring out taxes, overseeing the team and ensuring they’re happy, following up on tasks people are meant to do, answering advertising and PR enquiries…the list goes on .
This is far from a 9-5 job! While the hours are flexible, I’d say it’s a rare day I don’t spend around 10 hours on work.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Chere Di Boscio: I wish I could see into the future. Right now, it’s clear that AI will take over a lot of journalistic jobs. Will that mean the end of media as we know it? Already, magazines and newspapers are dying out, and I believe it was Sports Illustrated that was using mainly AI to write articles.
Then they got caught, and stopped, which I think is a good thing. But I still really do worry about the future of journalism and media. The attention spans of Gen Z are pretty low, and the generation after them will be even worse. That’s mainly thanks to the likes of social media, especially TikTok.
Apparently, most people get their ‘news’ from social media today! I’m concerned about the intelligence of the next generations.
They’re so reliant on electronic media and Google searches, I fear the skills of reading, analytic thought and researching will be forever lost. All that censorship I spoke about previously will just compound the ignorance problem.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Chere Di Boscio for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
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