#awinewith Winona Bedford
MEET Winona Bedford, Founder of Sophroneo Creative
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
So good. Winona, welcome to Spark tv.
Winona Bedford (00:08):
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me.
Danielle Lewis (00:11):
I'm very excited to chat with you. I know you've got a very interesting story, so let's dive straight in and tell everyone who you are and what you do.
Winona Bedford (00:21):
Yeah, of course. So I'm Winona, obviously. I do a few different things, juggle a few different things. So I'm a film and advertising producer. I've worked nearly a decade in the industry working. I worked in London in LA and Dubai and Sri Lanka and India, basically everywhere and anywhere. Working with a lot of high-end brands to create production work and a lot of TV commercials. I used to work with a lot of brands like Nike and Bentley and Miller Light Beer, which I love the experience, but now I'm more transitioning into, I guess more ethical minded clients that have a heart for purpose. So that's what led me to start Schizophrenia Creative, which is a creative agency that works with brands that have more of a heart for purpose. A heart for change doesn't necessarily mean have to be an NGOA non-for-profit. It can be, but it can be e-commerce brand or a marketing brand that wants to do more. And along the side of that, I also run an ethical clothing label. So I started that in Sri Lanka. That's I guess more kind of like a case study of how it can work. But yeah, so that keeps me busy, those few
Danielle Lewis (01:36):
Things. Yeah, I'm tired just listening to you. Okay. No, I think it's so interesting because it sounds like it's been an evolution. So you've kind of gone into one thing, built a career. It almost sounds like maybe when you were in Sri Lanka there was an opportunity to start the brand, the ethical clothing label. So has life kind of takes you to these different places and you discover new passions, you get more and more clear as to what we're all doing with our lives.
Winona Bedford (02:10):
Yeah, exactly. That's it. I think it, you have this idea of where you're going. You have a goal and then you get there and something still feels a bit, I don't know, off or not centered. And then you find something that aligns more, not just with your talents, but also your heart and your passion and your purpose. I think it's like that Japanese model, I can't remember what it's called, the life of me, but
(02:33):
Allowing, is it Ikigai? I think so, yeah. Something. I'm terrible remembering the exact name of things, but I can, yeah, so I think that it kind of resonates in the sense of finding what you're good at, what can make money as well. I'm a big believer in that. I think that's why I made the creative agency a for-profit. My mindset with it was the more we bring in, the more people and different organizations we can help within that. And that was the same with the ethical clothing label was from going from living in London, LA and Dubai to coming to Sri Lanka. It's polar opposite worlds. And then you think, okay, how can I use my skills here to help create means and access to different opportunities to these women in these villages that might not have access to that? And how could I use a for-profit product or what do I have to offer that I could actually bring those two worlds together and create it more rather than a charity, but more like, I guess the thing of if you teach someone how to fish, they don't go hungry.
(03:39):
We're just give them fish. Couldn't go hungry the next day. So that was the basis around the clothing label was teaching these women how to make the clothes and then giving them employment through that. And then a part of the prophets went to art and music therapy at an all girls orphanage in Srilanka as well. So it was like, okay, we're utilizing my advertising skills with sustainable fashion to teach these women to make clothes to also help their community. So it's about the more we do or make the better, more we can give as well. And then seeing the fruit in that and the favor on that and the ease, not the ease, obviously it's difficult. Every business is difficult to start, I think. But seeing the favor on it, when we launched it, I figured, okay, there must be a way to help other brands do this as well. Coming from an advertising world, which is thinks very differently to that, trying to bring that within it and see how you can kind of blend almost these polar opposite worlds that you would never think that would need together and see what happens.
Danielle Lewis (04:46):
No, I love it. A woman once said to me, purpose and profit, they should coexist. And the more money you make, the more good you could do in the world. But it is
(05:00):
Funny, I think sometimes as women especially, we do have this tendency to, I guess look at money differently than men. And I guess we've kind of grown up generationally not being able to work, not being able to get a bank account or a credit card in our name up until a point. So we've got all of this baggage around money, but polar opposite to that, women tend to have more impact driven businesses, tend to employ more, do more for her community. Think about I guess more altruistic outcomes in the business. So I always love when somebody like yourself has really married the two and understood that profit does equal impact. It's not taboo.
Winona Bedford (05:54):
Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. It's really encouraging. I think it's like we had the whole break, the glass ceiling movement and then the feminism movement, which it's all wonderful for them to be in that setting and leading. But I think the one thing that I always come back to is not forgetting those feminine attributes. Actually we have heart and emotion and we don't need to deny that in our work. That actually makes it different to counterpart in the sense that they're actually, it's a part of us and it's something we should bring into our business fearlessly without being, oh no, she's just being emotional. She's just being those kind of words that you hear that kind of, oh gosh, I've just got to be really cold and very masculine. Yeah, exactly. To fit in when realistically we have both those traits, but we don't, not denying that that's within us. And I think that was something that I was missing originally in my career in advertising was I was just go break the glass ceiling, get this promotion, this promotion, more money, bigger client, then realizing it actually for me personally didn't mean anything because there's no substance or heart
(07:14):
Because there was no real legacy that I was leaving, even though that's a long way to think of. It's like what are you actually leaving in this world as well? And I think that's why it's so powerful to match purpose with profit. And it can be done in any business. It doesn't necessarily have to be a charity because people called to different areas. Some people had the grace to go and start a charity in Uganda and other people have more the skill sets or the experience to work in advertising or have a clothing brand and have a perfume label or skincare brand. And you can always find a way to do good. And the thing is, it's essentially free advertising because it's storytelling. Brands like Patagonia do so well because of the story they tell their products are great, but you buy what they are doing because of what they actually do. And that sort of storytelling within a brand becomes very powerful. So it's win-win. Why wouldn't you?
Danielle Lewis (08:17):
Totally. I mean it's so interesting, the marrying of the masculine and feminine traits, rates and I guess the polarization of doing good things in the world, leveraging that for the brand and storytelling, leveraging that for profit. But then it circles back to being able to do more good things in the world. And I love that you have touched on as well, that you don't have to be a charity to make that happen. I mean, I think about Spark and our profits go towards funding a grant for women in business and to a DV partner that we donate to. And I think to myself, day to day, I'm not doing anything to save the world. I'm media company love and the podcast education community, amazing, amazing, amazing. So we're not charity first. I don't even think we're impact first, but that is why we do what we do so that we can have this meaningful contribution to the word world. I love that you used the word legacy, and I love that you said that that's a long way off, but you do have to start now. If you plan to leave a legacy in the world,
(09:40):
It's going to be the small actions that you take every day and what it is that you build for yourself and for the world that's going to be that legacy.
Winona Bedford (09:50):
Yeah, exactly. Wow. And it's so amazing seeing what you are doing as a business and seeing as you said, part of the profits giving back to other women business because that's essentially planting all these seeds where you've got all these different organizations growing from what you're doing, and it's also not denying the skill sets that are yours that are naturally, as you said, media and podcasts. You want to be working that, but you can still align this other world that comes together where you're also helping a community of women that are building legacy as well. And it's those little seeds that we don't realize actually plants so much. Like for instance, in Lan with the art therapy, there was a girl, my neighbor, who I used to do art lessons with, and some of the kids would come over and it was very just painting. And I'm not a very specialized artist or anything. It makes it sound. But the joy that they got from it was beautiful. You'd see these young girls that better paint amazing painters. And one of 'em in particular, when I went back to visit Srilanka last year, it was really beautiful to see because she had started as a business. So she started Instagram account, started a little web thing, and then started selling her paintings to local foreign and boutiques and to local foreigners. So she's fully started this whole business. I think she's 16 now
(11:15):
From her artwork and it's beautiful artwork. And I just was so amazed that because you don't really think you come back a year or two later been, oh, they would've forgotten about this one thing that we did. Yeah, one chick that came in and did a few art lessons with their paints and gallant off. But yeah, it's really powerful to see that those little things that you do actually have such an impact. And as you said, like a legacy. And it doesn't take, I think we think sometimes it takes this big huge thing that we have to do and it can seem so out of reach and how can we do it? But it's actually just those small things that slowly builds so much impact and it's so
Danielle Lewis (12:04):
Powerful. Yeah, I think sometimes we look at other people online and see the size of their platform and think, I won't be noticed. What does it matter that I do this small thing? But you're so right that it is those small actions that have massive impact in people's lives.
Winona Bedford (12:25):
Definitely. Yeah. There's a Heidi vague, she's a missionary that I follow, but she talks a lot about how she's helped hundreds of millions of people in need mobi, but she always says it's just about the one person in front of you. So she's not about the numbers on how much, even though she has such impact, it's always who the one person in front of you in that moment, that is where you create the most impact. So whether it is in your business or however, I think remembering that it becomes more, I guess, realistic and not such this big kind of complex mountain thing of I need to change the world by doing this massive charity. Or I could tend to get down that path where there's, you have this complex of if you're a perfectionist or a high achiever that you need to do a thousand million things to make difference, but it's really just the one person in front of you, and it's so yeah, powerful.
Danielle Lewis (13:28):
I love it. I love it so much. So how did you go from advertising career to starting a fashion label, teaching these women how to actually make clothes? That's a pretty big leap.
Winona Bedford (13:43):
Yeah. So yeah, it was, as I said, I was in London, no, I was in Dubai at that point. I was working with, which is crazy, a polar opposite type of world. Working with Nike and just completely opposite in terms of the worlds there. I was still very fortunate because I got to work with some really talented creatives and they've got great big budgets, so you just could create and do anything. And as a producer it's like, wow, this is my dream come true. I've got these budgets and I'm working in the FIFA ones World Cup and working it. Just by the end of end, all these projects I felt very like, I just lost in thinking, oh, hang on. I wanted to get to this point in my career and I'm here, but why is it still feel so void and why don't I have the feeling I thought I would have?
(14:32):
So I kind of packed up my life in London and moved to Sri Lanka. Well, I did pack up my life in London and moved to Sri Lanka, and then I was just taking, I guess a sabbatical and be like, I'm not going to work for while. I'm going to stop and just take time. And then, yeah, actually through somewhere I hired my car from this man, Sri Lankan man was, oh, there's this orphanage nearby. I think I have a feeling you'll love it. And it was an all girls orphanage. It was all these beautiful young girls and I started popping in every so often and just teaching them art and music. Cause that was the only thing I knew I could give, just bringing instruments and things like that. And then I thought, oh, how could I use the skills I have to help this environment that I'm in right now?
(15:18):
Because it's so real to me because I'm there. It's not this long video I'm watching from overseas of something happening. I'm here and my mom, when I was little, used to make clothes using natural raw cotton, and she'd make them in the backyard and sell them at markets and then hand dye them, and she's a fashion designer. So I kind of was like, oh wait, I have this thing that I know that's an inheritance in my family, that fashion kind of skill that I've learned from my mom. And I have advertising. I know how to build a website and do photography and make a video. How can I combine these things? And so I just went and it just happened very naturally. It was a lot ease with it in the beginning. So yeah, I sent the material in from Australia, found local woman in the village, and that means Sri Lankan has got seamstresses everywhere in need of work.
(16:14):
So it was very easy to find, very talented seamstresses there. And then started doing the photography and then had other women come in and take the clothes around the world and they did a lot of photography and then social media, they would take photos of it and tag, and that kind of let it grow. And then I started playing boutiques around Sri Lanka and then launched it online. And then I launched it. And just by chance, this was the absolute chance the first people that bought in Australia were the Veronicas. And when they put it on their profile and for free, oh my God was such, I remember getting the order in Shopify. I'm like that name, his name sound really, obviously it wasn't like the Veronicas on the thing, they're a bit more discreet. So I had to do a lot of Googling and investigating and try to figure it out and then figure it out.
(17:05):
It was then, wow, that's crazy. At that time, I wasn't putting a whole lot of money into advertising. It was more content creation than I was doing out of my own time. It wasn't like I had hundreds of thousands of followers at that point. It was still building very organically. And most of my clients buying the clothes were from foreigners that were buying in Srilanka at local boutiques. So to have that was amazing and then launched it, and then Covid happened. So I had to stop, unfortunately, which I feel like a lot of happened to a lot of businesses. You got like, wow, this is, and then I had to stop. So coming back to Australia, I hadn't been home years. I had to think of another way to kind of put that on hold. And then I went back into freelance advertising and just doing, producing commercials within Sydney ad agencies and then started schizophrenia, creative creative agency to help other brands within that.
(18:00):
And then now waiting for the right time to go back and do the clothing, business production, being a mom as well. Obviously it can put things on hold when you decide to have a kid or something that you're like, okay, this will take me out for a few months or maybe longer. But yeah, so it's been like, it's interesting. It was, the beginning in ad career was a long, nearly 10 years, and then the loading business was just full throttle the first year and then a stop with Covid then it's now slowly coming back. So it's been a very different race, not race, but to what I'd originally thought and which is fun because I think those things that build that organically at the right time, you can build to a point where you can actually manage it rather than outgrow, not outgrowing you, but going so big that you're like, wow, how do I reign this in? It allows you to get the foundation together. So I hope the answer is that's kind of how I went from advertising to clothing to agency to, yeah,
Danielle Lewis (19:09):
I love it. I love it. And it's so interesting because it's such a common story of a business owner that you don't know what the path is. You are just going, how do I solve this problem? How do I solve this problem? How do I make an impact here? And it's just asking those questions leads you to these beautiful answers, products, services, businesses, whatever it might be. And I love your point around you ramping up, ramping down, creating a new business as a byproduct. I think that's the beautiful thing about business is we are in control. We're in the driver's seat. We get to pick, design it how we like so that it suits our lifestyle. And particularly as women and mothers, that's bloody great because life can take us on these little hair turns. Exactly.
Winona Bedford (20:04):
Yeah, that's definitely been a huge rollercoaster in the sense when I was pregnant, but with my first, I was like, oh yeah, I'll be back at work probably four weeks after, he'll be in the little bassinet and I'll be on my laptop. And it's such a wild journey. And then everything for me, it felt like a massive change and shift in who I was because you feel this love for this human that you've never felt before. This unconditional love that I would do anything for you love. And it's this balance of you want to be there with them, but you also want to see them. You want them to see you live out your passions as well. Because I think that's the best thing you can do as a mother and a parent. Any parent, is for your child to see, oh, wow, the things that you have in your heart and you want to do, you actually did them rather than one day, oh, I wanted to do this, but I didn't because I was too scared or I was worried I would fail or this and that.
(21:00):
I think not on the point of success, I just mean your passions of what we're doing so they can see that and as they grow up like, oh, I can make decisions that or what I want to do or what's on my heart. So that's my motivator because I know mom guilt is a massive thing that comes in if you're on a call or something, you kind of having to navigate that whole world of all those things that come as a woman mother in business. But I always come back to what they will grow up with and what they'll see, and they'll see that the family is priority and your health is priority, and that your business and your passions are still a part of you and who you are and not your identity, but it's an expression of you are.
Danielle Lewis (21:48):
And
Winona Bedford (21:48):
I think that them seeing that is very healthy, especially for women. I mean, that's such a wonderful thing for them to see. I don't have a girl yet, but if I ever have a girl, that's something I want her to see.
Danielle Lewis (22:02):
Yeah, absolutely. And it is interesting, your comment about that multifacetedness, right? You want them to see you being your best self as mother, as friend, as person who looks after themselves as go-getter, business, entrepreneur, all of the things. It's just, but yeah, balancing that with all I want to do is just be with you because you're just
Winona Bedford (22:32):
So incredible. Exactly. It's, it's such a balance and I think it's okay that it's a balance and it's okay to want those things as well, and to not lose, not discredit that connection you have with your child and that other things come maybe second after that happens. And that doesn't mean that those things don't do well, it's just things shift and things change. And in the sense,
Danielle Lewis (22:58):
I think there can be a lot of guilt around that sometimes.
Winona Bedford (23:02):
Definitely.
Danielle Lewis (23:02):
But I love that. I love that you said that just because maybe it's second now doesn't mean it can't be successful and it's not important. It's just life shifts.
Winona Bedford (23:13):
Yeah, exactly. And I feel like a mother's, if you give a mom 30 minutes, she's going to do just so much about 30 minutes. You give 30 minutes.
Danielle Lewis (23:24):
Mom's make the best business owners
Winona Bedford (23:26):
Seriously. They're just like, okay, I'm here. I've got an hour or 30 minutes before my toddler wakes up and you'll just accomplish so much with the capacity. This is the one moment I have to do it. So I think it's that thing is that shift in the mind. You're thinking, oh, but I'm not working my 12 hour days. I used to. Am I really accomplishing? But it's just different. It's just you get more done in a short amount of time.
Danielle Lewis (23:54):
Oh, I can work a 12 hour day and do nothing. So yeah, that's how I think moms are amazing. Here's the window, get it
Winona Bedford (24:01):
Done, get it done in and out. And I think just remembering that, recognizing that, and also giving yourself the grace. If you have a day you are like, I just want to go to the beach with my kid, and that's what we're going to do. And I think that's the best thing about being a business owner as well, is that life in advertising, full-time advertising, they don't have that flexibility for months. From my personal experience, I mean different agencies, but you're expected to be there and work late and can work weekend shifts or shoots. A lot of shoots can go over time, so you can be away from home for, which is why it doesn't really work for me in this season. And I don't know if I'll ever go back to it, who knows. But I think that's the best thing about being a mom and having a business is you can work it around your lifestyle and create it, balance it how you want to create it sustainably as you can, and you want to have different pockets of busier and slower and yeah, I think that's the best part of it.
Danielle Lewis (25:08):
Yeah, it's really interesting. I think sometimes we talk about the word consistency, but we don't think about it in context of how life really exists. And I love that you just said you can kind of ramp up and rant down, and it's more about seasons and where you're at in the moment, and that doesn't mean you're not consistent consistency every day, militant 6:00 AM doing this, it is more of a long, long game. It's the arc, not the
Winona Bedford (25:42):
Little notches on the Yeah, it's so hard. We've got so many different extremities in our culture of got the positive mentality culture, whereas be positive, do this wake up at five or no regrets and you have to do it and get to the gym. And so much pressure to be this. And I think being a woman or being connected to your emotions or as you said, the different levels that happen with your business, whether it's more intense in this time or a bit slower or a bit quieter or a bit busier or maybe other aspects of your life take forward ahead of that. There's nothing actually wrong with it. It's more sustainable. It's more of a marathon than a sprint. The classic tortoise in the hair. I love it. I love it. It's just like maybe you need to take a break under a tree and have a glass of water, but you're probably going to get there to the end anyway before the rabbit or hair. I don't know.
Danielle Lewis (26:43):
Yeah, no, and it's so true. I feel like I need to sit under a tree and have a glass of water today. So good. It's such a good lesson though. I think we can be so hard on ourselves sitting at the desk going, achieve, achieve, achieve, do, do, do. And it's just then we wonder why we are burnt out and miserable wherein if we thought about it as much more of a long game, and I don't have to hit the goal today. I need to take a step towards the goal today.
Winona Bedford (27:15):
That's
Danielle Lewis (27:15):
Really what I'm trying to take into 2025, is stop focusing on the goal and being mad every day that I haven't hit it, but measure the success of the day on. Did I do all the tiny things that I know I have to do to achieve the goal someday?
Winona Bedford (27:30):
Yeah, exactly. And it's also all those little things that we do. It's hard. So can be hard when you're not, I guess the corny saying like reaping the harvest. My partner's agriculture. So I always see things that way. That's why you're not reaping the harvest in that time, so you're planting a seed of something, whatever it is, whether it's a new business idea or creative project. I do a bit of screenwriting as well. So at the moment I'm doing writing a screenplay, and it's a lot of hours that I spend at night when my toddler's asleep writing a screenplay, but I'm not seeing anything from yet. It's just me and my computer writing. That's something I've always wanted to do. Having worked in advertising and film, I always wanted to write a comedy series on working in advertising industry. So I thought it was very funny.
(28:14):
Well, yes, I'm awesome. Yeah, so I'm working on it on this Australian naive, overly optimistic girl that moves to London and essentially based a character based on me, but more for film. But yeah, I'm not going to really see anything from that for a while. It might be year or two, but it brings me a lot of joy writing, and it brings me, it makes me feel connected to myself and my humor and my memories. I can write different things that have happened in different situations or pictures or embarrassing Bridget Jones moments. I used to have so many embarrassing Bridget, Joan Bridge Jones moments in my work so that I might not see anything from it for a while. But that doesn't mean that it's not successful or that it's not important. It's just, just different seasons finally away, different times and then see what happens, happens.
Danielle Lewis (29:06):
And I dunno if anything, and I dunno if anything worth doing can even happen in a day.
Winona Bedford (29:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Danielle Lewis (29:15):
If you want to accomplish anything, it is very likely you're going to have to have a few boring days.
Winona Bedford (29:21):
Yeah, exactly. That's so true. Yeah, which is, it's something I've had to, I think I used to be a very high achiever to write on my goals on my wall, and I don't know, it's actually such a great asset to be motivated or want to achieve. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think when we put our identity in it, that's when it starts to can become a shame cycle almost. Because
(29:51):
You see your happiness or your unhappiness based measured on what you've done or what you haven't done. So it's like you get something or you do something, well, oh my gosh, I'm so happy because I did this, which is great to be happy for yourself, obviously. Then when you don't do it well, you don't achieve feeling it. Shame and it's learning to just wake up every day and no matter what you've done or you haven't done being happy within yourself, so that's not based. And then when things do go well, it's just icing on the cake. And then when things don't, it's like, oh, well, didn't hit that mark. Let's just start again
Danielle Lewis (30:27):
Tomorrow. We'll pop that one on the lessons list.
Winona Bedford (30:29):
Yeah, exactly. On the lessons list. I mean, you can still sit in it for a moment and not, but rather maybe be sad, but not let it actually impact who you are is very difficult in this kind of culture and social media and the glass ceiling being broken for women that we have so much pressure to be the wife, the friend, the mother, the sister, the entrepreneur, and be all those things. Yeah, I think it's like Ally Wong talks about the comedian misses the day where women could just lean back. She just jokes about it basically with Cheryl Sandberg or whatever name the book about Lean In, which is like, I just wish they just kept a secret and we just lean back. But obviously I
Danielle Lewis (31:14):
Know some days I say that to my husband, he's like, you wanted equality? And I'm like, I don't want it. I don't want it anymore.
Winona Bedford (31:22):
I just want to sit home and do nothing. Someone just open the door for me and I'll just bake a cake and I just stand up for me on the butt. I don't know. Don't catch what I do. Yeah, it's funny. Go from this thing of like, oh, it's a lot of pressure, isn't it? We should just play dumb. Pretend we didn't really know for longer how the bag, whatever the saying is now. So everyone knows we are capable now we have to follow through. But bittersweet it think it's a choice as well. I've had some mom friends that don't want to go back to work, and that's beautiful as well. There's nothing wrong. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (31:57):
Absolutely.
Winona Bedford (31:58):
Any of it. I think it's having the choice, having the freedom to choose, but yet there are days where I'm like, I've been asked lean back.
Danielle Lewis (32:06):
I would like to join that club if that's a membership I'm in.
Winona Bedford (32:13):
Just go complete opposite.
Danielle Lewis (32:15):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, I love it. I love it. We could talk all day, but I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Winona Bedford (32:33):
I think it's really simple, but I think it's taking the time to ask yourself honestly what you want and then working to make that happen. In a sense. I think we can get very lost in doing things because we should do this, because it's like if you have different cultures in your family or different, I dunno, parents like, oh, I went and got a degree and then became a doctor. That's what you should do and then you can do that. I think I did law psychology physiotherapy before I actually went and did what I wanted to do. So my one probably, it's not a regret, but I wish I actually took a moment and asked myself earlier on, what do I want to do? Ask my heart what, because you might as well try. Otherwise you could try the thing you don't want to do for years and years and years and then maybe it fails anyway. See, might as well try and do the thing that you want, whether it's a business idea or venturing into a different business. And it's also never, ever too late to change things. No matter where you are in your career or in your business or wherever you are, it's never too late to actually, I'm going to change into this direction for a bit because every skill you have is transferable to another field. But yeah, that would be it. Ask yourself, want to see what you can want and work towards that. And it's never too late,
Danielle Lewis (33:54):
Too late. I love it. Winona, you are absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today on Spark tv. I've enjoyed every
Winona Bedford (34:03):
Minute. Oh, thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It's been real joy. Thank you.
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