In a special podcast looking back at some of the highlights from Creative Forces episodes one to five, new media visionary Ajaz Ahmed explains whether he knew what he wanted to be when he was school, dating industry expert Charly Lester explain why she loves taking on challenges, author Nick Royle outlines where his ideas come from, health food entrepreneur Juliane Ponan talks about her fears over appearing on the BBC TV programme Dragon’s Den, and illustrator Stan Chow explains how he’s able to capture the incredible likenesses of the rich and famous in his iconic portraits.

After joining CBS as a trainee tape operator at the age of 17, Grammy and Brit award-winning record producer Steve Levine has gone on to enjoy a hugely successful career in the music business, working with artists like The Clash and The Beach Boys and producing the first three Culture Club albums. A pioneer of digital recording techniques, he’s also been named BPI Producer of the Year and Top Singles Producer by Musicweek, and runs his own label, Hubris Records. Steve has also appeared on many radio and TV programs and is a regular guest on BBC Radio 6 Music, and his radio production company has produced several shows, including the documentary series The Record Producers, which featured interviews with some of the biggest name in record production including Trevor Horn, Nile Rodgers & Tony Visconti. In this interview hear how Steve got his big break in the music industry, what it was like for him and the band when Culture Club’s Do You Really Want to Hurt Me became a huge hit, and which record changed everything for him as a producer.

Jason Wingard is a multi-award winning filmmaker, writer and director. His latest film, the critically-acclaimed comedy Eaten By Lions starring Jack Carroll, Antonio Aakeel & Johnny Vegas, premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Bagri London Indian Film Festival. His short film In Another Life, which tells the story of a young man’s journey to the UK through Europe as a refugee and was shot in the Calais Jungle, won Best UK Feature at the Raindance Film Festival. Two of his short films, Bus Baby and 2:20, have won at the Virgin Media Short Awards. In this interview hear how Jason started out as a professional footballer before moving into stand-up comedy, how he made his first short films on a very tight budget, and why seeing Johnny Vegas perform live made him decide to quit stand-up. 

Paul Blanchard is a PR guru, author, media commentator and creator of the hugely successful Media Masters podcast. As well as his two decades working in the media industry, Paul has created and sold an IT business, served as a local councillor and stood for parliament. In this episode hear how he started the Media Masters podcast and how its format has evolved, how he’s bounced back from setbacks in his career, and why an incident with a lobster in France changed his diet forever.

Keith Farrell is a writer and director. After several years working on period drama documentaries, including the multiple-award winning A Terrible Beauty, the story of the the 1916 Easter Rising in his native Dublin, Keith has most recently moved into writing and directing contemporary drama. His 2017 short film, Rabbit Punch, about a young refugee in Manchester struggling to cope with life at home and school who finds salvation in boxing, has been hugely successful, winning Best Short Film at the Omaha Film Festival and enjoying screenings at fourteen film festivals around the world. In this interview, hear how Keith moved from sports journalism into film-making, why dealing with rejection is a vital skill for a filmmaker, and how he uses running to refine his scripts.

In 2009 Rowan Hoban and Sarah Bird spotted a gap in the market for family-friendly festivals and decided to co-create the Just So Festival in their spare time. Just under a decade later, Just So has gone on to win multiple awards and Rowan and Sarah, through the arts organisation they created alongside it, Wild Rumpus, organise events all around the world from their horsebox office in the Whirligig Woods on the festival site at Rode Hall in Cheshire. In this episode, which was recorded in the woods in one of their caravans, Rowan and Sarah explain how a chance meeting led to them starting their business, what makes their partnership work, and why being outdoors fuels their creativity.

Dave Haslam is a DJ, journalist and author. After setting up his own fanzine, Debris, in the early 80s, Dave DJ’d over four hundred and fifty times at Manchester’s legendary Hacienda nightclub before going onto gig at festivals and club nights all around the world and play alongside bands like the Stone Roses and New Order. As a writer he’s now published his fifth book, ‘Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor; Music, Manchester & More’, a brilliant memoir of his life and career. In this interview, Dave explains why sharing has been the main theme of the various things he’s done over the years, why he loves weirdos and why he’s just recently formed a band.

Tessa Cook is the co-founder of OLIO, the smartphone app which connects neighbours and local businesses so they can share surplus food rather than throwing it away, and since its launch in North London in 2015 it’s now being used by hundreds of thousands of users in more than 30 countries. After leaving the family farm in North Yorkshire Tessa went on to study at Cambridge and Stanford and enjoy a successful career in business which included stints at the publishing group Emap and the technology pioneer Dyson. In this episode Tessa explains how she learnt a lot about entrepreneurship by watching the way her parents worked, how she suffered from ‘impostor syndrome’ at Stanford, and how she worked on a number of different company ideas before experiencing the lightbulb moment that led to the creation of Olio.

Andrew Bloch is the co-founder and group managing director of Frank, one of the UK’s leading consumer PR agencies. After starting life with just three people in 2000, Frank now has offices in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Sydney, and counts Disney, Volkswagen and Sir Alan Sugar among its clients. In this episode Andrew explains how he got into PR by accident, how he overcame his doubts about whether he was ready to start a company before co-founding Frank, and how he swapped PR for rent in Frank’s first office.

Charly Lester is an entrepreneur, dating industry expert and journalist. After creating the hugely popular 30 Dates Blog as a twenty-nine year-old financial contractor, Charly went on to become the Guardian’s dating editor and created The Dating Awards covering the UK, Europe and the US. With professional matchmaker Caroline Brealey she’s now launched A League of Her Own, a club for female entrepreneurs, and the Dating Expert Academy, an online accreditation program for aspiring dating experts. She’s also now head judge at the 2017 UK Blog Awards, chairing a panel of 40 expert judges. In this episode hear how Charly’s entrepreneurial streak has come to the fore in a variety of ways, the impact her parents have made on her life and career, and why she works best at night.