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Amy Asks: Shivangi Walke on leadership, mentoring, and building ecosystems

Amy Jones talks with Shivangi Walke, leadership branding coach, founder of Thrive with Mentoring, and author of WanderWomen, about the path from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship. The conversation covers career pivots, building a women-to-women mentoring model, and how AI is reshaping leadership, identity, and work. Shivangi shares how she moved from 17 years in corporate roles into independent work, repeatedly reinventing her business while staying focused on helping people and organizations create cultures of abundance. She also explains how Thrive with Mentoring grew from a local idea into a multi-country mentoring initiative, and how her book WanderWomen became the center of a wider ecosystem.

Shivangi Walke | Empower Leadership Growth

Thrive with Mentoring | Empower Your Growth – Join Now

WanderWomen | Empower Your Journey Today

(3) Shivangi Walke | LinkedIn

Amazon.com: WanderWomen: How High-Skilled Immigrant Women Thrive: 9798889263869: Walke, Shivangi: Books

SHIVANGI WALKE (@shivangiwalke) • Instagram photos and videos

Key topics

• Shivangi’s business pivots, from individual coaching and corporate training to branded products and strategic leadership work with executive teams.
• Why she turned down the opportunity to give a TEDx talk twice during COVID, and what eventually changed.
• How Make the Stage used deliberate practice and feedback to help participants build a signature speech.
• Shivangi’s work with executive teams, including strategic offsites and 30-, 60-, and 90-day sprints.
• Why she launched Leadership at the Edge of AI to explore AI’s effects on leadership identity, meaning, and organizational culture.
• How Thrive with Mentoring began, and the bias Shivangi observed against nominating women as mentors.
• The development of Thrive’s women-to-women mentoring model and its growth across cities and countries.
• Why Thrive moved from year-long mentoring relationships to six-month cycles.
• The research behind her book WanderWomen, including interviews with 60 high-skilled immigrant women.
• Her advice to invest earlier in people who have already done the work.
• Future plans for retreats, mentoring events, and more work with management teams.

Notable quotes

“If you're not feeling confident, just borrow the confidence of your mentor.”

“AI doesn’t fix things. It accentuates it and makes it faster or deeper.”

“Change happens in relationships.”

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Amy Asks Abbie Keech on becoming a Solicitor and Owner of a Law Firm in Leeds

Amy Jones speaks with Abbie Keech, owner and managing director of Oakwood Solicitors in Leeds, about how she took over and grew the firm while raising a young family. The conversation covers leadership, succession, recruitment, marketing, and the realities of building a law business without a perfect roadmap. It’s especially useful for anyone interested in legal entrepreneurship, female leadership, or scaling a professional services firm.

Oakwood Solicitors | Award-Winning Law Firm in Leeds

(3) Abbie Keech | LinkedIn

Key topics

• Abbie shares how she took over Oakwood Solicitors in 2015 from a retiring owner, stepping into leadership with a six week old baby and a large team already in place.
• She explains her route into law, starting with temping and admin in 2004, then moving into paralegal work, a part-time law conversion course, a training contract, and qualification as a solicitor in 2010.
• She describes why she expanded the firm beyond one area of law, adding property, wills and probate, personal injury, and military injury work to reduce risk and create more resilience.
• She explains Oakwood Solicitors’ female-led culture, including a full female board of directors, and why she believes empathy and communication are strengths in the kind of legal work the firm does.
• She talks through the firm’s use of technology, including a client messaging app, case management systems, and selective use of AI for reviewing records while keeping legal judgment human-led.
• Looking ahead, she says growth, mergers, taking on new caseloads, and succession planning are all part of the future, though retirement is not imminent.

Notable Quotes

“Sometimes you just have to take that leap and see where you land.”

“You just have to put the extra time in and eventually at some point you’ll get it back out in spades.”

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Amy Asks Ellie Marriott co-owner of Castle Vets, thriving independent practice, about her journey as a Veterinarian with particular interest in Feline Medicine

Trusted Independent Vet in Dorchester & Weymouth | Castle Vets

Amy Jones speaks with Ellie Marriott, co-owner of Castle Vets in Poundbury, Dorchester, and Weymouth, about her path from science-focused student to veterinary business owner. They cover the realities of running an independent practice, from managing people and finances to growing a cat-friendly clinic that balances clinical excellence with a strong team culture.

Key topics

• In this episode, Ellie shares how she knew veterinary medicine was right for her by sixth form, after deciding she wanted a science-driven career that would challenge her intellectually.
• She explains the important misconception she had early on: she thought vet work would mean less people contact, but in reality the job is deeply about listening, translating concerns, and advocating for both pets and their humans.
• Ellie describes how Castle Vets transitioned from a three-vet practice to a nine-vet business, with ownership evolving gradually through a business handover rather than a sudden takeover.
• She talks about the fork in the road she faced between pursuing feline medicine through internship and staying in practice, and how that decision ultimately shaped her route into practice ownership rather than academia.
• She breaks down the Castle Club membership model, which bundles routine pet care into monthly direct debit payments, giving clients predictable costs and the business steadier cash flow.
• Ellie compares independent practice with corporate veterinary groups, highlighting the advantages of personal service, lower management overheads, and having owners who work clinically in the business.
• She describes what it means for Castle Vets to be a gold standard cat friendly clinic, including separate cat areas, upstairs cat wards, and species-specific handling standards.

Notable quotes

“My job is listening to a person’s problem and then translating that into advocating for the pet.”

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Amy Asks: David Smith on LittleBigPlanet, creativity, and building Media Molecule

Amy Jones speaks with David Smith, co-founder of Media Molecule and technical director of LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway, and Dreams. They trace his path from self-taught childhood coder to game creator, then dig into how LittleBigPlanet came together, why its creative tools worked, and what it took to build a studio culture around trust, curiosity, and respect. The conversation also covers funding, teamwork, awards, company culture, women in games, remote work, and why David is now taking time to garden, make puzzles, and figure out what comes next.

LittleBigPlanet™3

Media Molecule | The Home of Creativity and Innovation

Key topics

• How childhood experimentation turned into a career in games, even before it felt like a career path
• The gap between playing video games and realizing games could be a job
• How Media Molecule grew out of a small experimental project at Lionhead
• The importance of tactile mechanics, especially the game’s run, jump, and grab structure
• How the team balanced creativity with deadlines, and why fast iteration mattered
• What Sony saw in the project and why Phil Harrison became such an important champion
• How studio culture was shaped by respect, shared meals, and hiring people with complementary strengths
• Why LittleBigPlanet resonated with families and autistic players

Notable quotes from David Smith

“What's exciting is to make something that's kind of beyond my ability to think it through.”

“For it to be kind of true art, it has to have an audience.”

“Your life is so much bigger than any single creative endeavor.”

Podcast music: Cause for celebration. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: IB0FGWHSLRVYHT5J

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How Tom Gillie became a barrister, wrote Organised Politics, and sees the future of rights work

Tom Gillie Barrister Matrix Chambers

Organised Politics, Law and Practice eBook : Gillie, Tom: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Amy Jones speaks with Tom Gillie, a barrister at Matrix Chambers in London who specialises in equality, discrimination, human rights, employment, public law, and political party law. Tom shares the winding path into the profession, what training as a barrister really looks like, and why his work now sits at the intersection of law, politics, and justice. They also discuss his book Organised Politics, Law and Practice and the pressures facing human rights and equality in the UK.

Key topics

• Amy introduces Tom Gillie, his practice at Matrix Chambers, and his book Organised Politics, Law and Practice
• Tom discusses why equality and human rights law matter in practice, not just in principle
• He reflects on Cambridge, class privilege, and the contrast between elite academic environments and frontline legal aid work
• He talks about writing Organised Politics, Law and Practice, including publisher proposals, peer review, and why the book was needed
• Tom shares a major pro bono Court of Appeal case that helped clarify special educational needs law
• He finishes by discussing plans for a UK human rights institute bringing together practitioners, thinkers, and policy voices

Notable quotes

• “My favourite part of being a barrister is representing a claimant and winning.”
• “Equality is common sense.”
• “Often being self employed is about the skills of how to say no well and how to ask for things well.”

Podcast music: Cause for celebration. Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: IB0FGWHSLRVYHT5J

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Please be nice in comments, the world is a better place when we are all kind!