A Beginners Guide To Being A Grown Up

Tina Dean, 98.

Tina started her first business in the 1950s starting and growing a arts and crafts shop in Bristol market for many decades.

She has been an active people’s rights activist  and became the leader of the South Gloucestershire older people’s forum in her 60s and led it for over 13 years, helping the voices of older people be heard across the county.

Listen to find out how Tina has found success in different aspects of her life, and what she would put in the guide...

Pregnant, sixteen and homeless, Claire Parkinson became a UK Prison Governor by 30.

She went on to join the world’s largest mining company in Australia as a vice president, before stepping away to write her memoir, SHiTTY GRiT, which became a bestseller in three countries.

Born in Britain and now based in Australia, she has led high-stakes change from maximum security prisons to multibillion-dollar boardrooms.

Listen to find out how  Claire has found success in different aspects of her life, and what she would put in the guide...

Helen is an award-winning Global Entrepreneur, international business expert, Non-Executive Director, TEDx speaker, coach and author.

Trusted by both UK and foreign governments to tackle some of the most complex issues in the world’s trouble spots, Helen was awarded an MBE by the King for services to international trade in 2022.

Helen led the scaling and internationalising of her company from humble beginnings to tackling modern-day issues such as terrorism, corruption, addiction, and medical forensics, to deliver in 27 countries - winning Best Small Business in the UK at the National Family Business Awards.

Helen went on to found Helen Gibson MBE (www.helengibsonmbe.com) to reach and help more people. A Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation, a UK Export Champion, and university Lecturer, Helen was appointed to represent the UK at the UN Women Commission on the Status of Women 2024. She has featured in The Guardian, Business Insider, International Journal of Education Management and BBC.  Helen will soon publish her first book “Go for Goosebumps!” about cultivating encouragement in today’s world.

Listen to find out how  Helen has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Liz Bradford has over 20 years of diverse leadership experience, having worked across three continents and at firms spanning HSBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and SWIFT. She studied Information Communication Technologies and technological revolution before being a geek was sexy or cool. She is the founder of Transform Perform, a platform delivering employee development, engagement and wellbeing at scale. Through Transform Perform, she is on a mission to change the lives of a billion people through positive contagion by 2030.

Her career has ranged from product management to C-Suite roles driving operational excellence, people engagement, and technology transformation across teams of 7,500+ in 19 countries and oversight og U$bn+ P&Ls. 

Her passion is employee engagement, wellbeing, and culture, specifically nurturing healthy, inclusive cultures and tackling toxic ones. Examples includes: 

• Leadership of employee resource groups representing 48,000 diverse employees
• Co-Founder and master trainer of coaching programmes delivering personal development and inclusive training to over 24,000 employees in 44 countries
• Design and delivery of female talent development programmes across 14 countries and, 
• Implementation of wellbeing challenges and programmes impacting 5,000+ a year globally. 

An ICF-accredited organisational and executive coach, a qualified personal trainer, and a certified wellbeing coach, Liz regularly speaks on the topics of cultural evolution, technological transformation, inclusion, female leadership, wellbeing, busting burnout, stress management, and developing healthy cultures. 

Listen to find out how  Liz has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Emmie Faust is an exited founder, investor, and passionate advocate for women-led startups in the UK. She is the creator of Female Founders Rise, a thriving community of over 8,000 female entrepreneurs dedicated to closing the funding gap and amplifying women’s visibility in the startup ecosystem. Through this platform, Emmie provides access to resources, investor networks, and peer support, while actively investing in women-led businesses herself.

Her voice carries weight in the venture space, with a verified LinkedIn influence score of 91.4/100. Emmie’s daily posts spark meaningful dialogue around the realities female founders face—burnout, lack of access to capital, and gender bias in investment. Blending personal insights with community-driven advice, her content is both relatable and actionable, earning trust from founders and investors alike.

Before launching Female Founders Rise, Emmie successfully exited multiple ventures, bringing firsthand experience of scaling businesses through high-growth phases. This journey informs her mentoring style, particularly around leadership, mental health, and navigating toxic workplace cultures. She has also built partnerships with early-stage funding platforms and impact-driven brands, further expanding opportunities for women in business.

Based in the UK, Emmie speaks openly about work-life balance, resilience, and the importance of building supportive ecosystems. Her mission is clear: to empower female founders with the tools, networks, and confidence to thrive.

Listen to find out how  Emmie has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Leigh Smyth is the Founder of Impact Match and she is an award-winning pioneer in inclusive and impact-led talent search, digital skills and social impact strategy. Leigh was the first leader to introduce young peoples access to Technology via retail to the UK and then went onto to work for UK Government to design access to Technology for Low Income families. As the UK’s first-ever Responsible Transformation Director, she led the creation of the Lloyds Banking Group Digital Skills Academy, designing its strategy and pilot which has go on to train more than one million people for free. 

Through partnership consultation, Leigh also built what became one of the country’s largest digital skills-based volunteering networks. Her team also developed the UK’s first benchmark for Basic Digital Skills, now embedded into the national agenda and referenced globally. The Consumer Digital Index, now in its 10th year, is still the UK’s largest measure of digital and financial capability, used by policymakers, educators and employers to track progress and shape inclusive services. 

A lifelong talent matchmaker, Leigh has placed some of the UK’s most influential social impact leaders into senior roles across FTSE firms, NGOs, and purpose-led scaleups. Through her work at ImpactMatch, she continues to connect values-driven talent with organisations serious about doing good, helping them embed inclusion and impact into their culture, leadership, and workforce strategies. She also helped establish the Digital Poverty Alliance, helped to establish 11 national advisory taskforces for financial inclusion, and played a key role in embedding inclusive design and accessibility into Lloyds Banking Group’s transformation programme, enabling the bank to become the first FTSE to achieve Accessibility accreditation. 

Leigh is also the Co-Founder of ActionAble on a mission with Sara Weller CBE to drive workplace disability inclusion. From designing inclusive strategies to building the teams that deliver them, Leigh’s work sits at the intersection of impact, innovation, and inclusion, making her a vital voice in shaping the future of recruitment and training.

Listen to find out how  Leigh has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Lisa Conway-Hughes is a Chartered Financial Adviser and a Fellow of The Personal Finance Society. Lisa joined the financial industry nearly 20 years ago and has previously been voted Financial Adviser of the Year – London by Professional Adviser Magazine – WIFA.

In April 2024 Lisa became directly authorised with the FCA and set up LCH Wealth Ltd.  More than 95% of Lisa’s existing clients moved with her to LCH/WEALTH demonstrating the strong relationships she builds with her clients.

Lisa, also known as Miss Lolly, writes, speaks, tweets, and blogs on all things money related. Lisa is passionate about making financial education open to all and loves taking the jargon out of the financial world. Lisa’s book, Money Lessons, was published by Penguin in 2019. Lisa also features as a money expert in the female press, newspapers and news channels, including the Telegraph, Red and Good Housekeeping.

Lisa is regularly invited as a guest speaker at both corporate events and private members clubs.

Listen to find out how  Lisa has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

 Lee Chambers is the Founder and CEO of Male Allies UK. After a diverse career, from corporate finance to building and exiting a tech company, he is now focused on supporting organisations to engage men in inclusion and promote effective allyship. He has been featured on the Startups 100 Index, has received a Great British Entrepreneur Award, and sits on the board of CMI Women, Regenerage UK and the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. In 2024, he received the Freedom of the City of London for services to equality in business. 

He is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA, the first Black British scientist to be awarded in its 33-year history, received for his work on health inequalities. He is the 2023 UN Women Changemaker of the Year, and is an ambassador for the UK Government’s Lilac Review for Disabled Entrepreneurship. He speaks globally on allyship and intersectionality, having taken the stage at One Young World, ChangeNOW and the Bloomberg Global Equality Summit, and is the author of the bestselling book, Momentum: 13 Ways To Unlock Your Potential.

Listen to find out how  Lee has found success in different aspects of his life, and what he would put in the guide...

Pip Stocks – Founder, Brand Strategist & Champion for Change

Pip Stocks is a powerhouse business builder, brand strategist, and unapologetic question-asker who thrives on growth—both personal and professional. With a double major in Marketing and Psychology from Monash University, Pip launched her career in London, sharpening her customer insight and marketing skills at Grey Advertising and Virgin Energy.

Back in Australia, she co-founded and scaled BrandHook into a three-city consultancy, partnering with leading brands to solve complex challenges. Her next chapter led her into tech, where she built Hearsay, an AI productivity platform designed to help corporate brands have smarter customer conversations.

Today, Pip mentors female founders, sits on boards as a Non-Executive Director, and is building The Startup Muse, a bold new platform for tween girls. She’s your go-to for customer discovery, product-market fit, brand strategy, and experience mapping—always bringing fresh perspective and fearless curiosity to the table.

Her passions? Disrupting the status quo, championing fairness (especially around gender and neurodiversity), and empowering first-time entrepreneurs with practical, battle-tested wisdom.

Listen to find out how Pip has found success in different aspects of her life, and what she would put in the guide...

Sarah Pittendrigh is a true example of a serial entrepreneur that has experienced the full cycle.

Losing it all in 2008, to rebuilding again from the dust as a single mum to become a multi award winning entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker and investor.

At 53 she is embarking on her 4th start up creating a beautiful range of knitwear, designed by her, manufactured from British Wool, here in the UK.

When not at work she enjoys country life with her family, horses, dogs and chickens.

Listen to find out how Sarah has found success in different aspects of her life, and what she would put in the guide...