Dear Younger Self

Have you ever acted unlike you? Have you done something that it's usually not you? Or maybe you speak a certain way? Or pretend to be someone who you are not, just so you can fit in? Sounds familiar? Well, this can be pretty common for many and especially young people trying to find their feet. There's often pressure to fit in and meet the expectations of others, which can make it hard to stay true to yourself. However, being authentic is essential to living a fulfilling life and finding happiness.

Today I speak with Anne Manuales about the challenges facing the youth today. Anne was born in the Philippines grew up and moved to the UK at a young age. Anne shares her experience of growing up in a single mother household, how Anne had to grow faster and what it means for youth today. Furthermore, Anne discusses the mental health challenges faced by the youth today including harming yourself as a norm. Getting help by youth today is not easy and Anne shares the push back she got when faced by such challenges. Anne eventually landed a job as an apprentice at Google with her own conviction and hard work. A brilliant discussion if you want to understand what youth face today

Today I speak with Noah, an up-and-coming rapper music artist about all the struggles in making it big in the music industry. The mental health struggles young people are going through and what can be done. 

Noah Bouchard is a 25 year old alternative hip hop artist from Cardiff, Wales, now based in East London. He is known for creating lyrically focused and vulnerable music. 

One of his earlier songs, Pantomime, has now streamed over 3 million times on Spotify alone, gaining hundreds of thousands of streams and views on other platforms also. Noah has performed countless times across Wales and in other parts of the UK, including 2 intimate sold out headline shows in Cardiff and London, as well as performances at the BBC 6 Music Fringe Festival, Hub Festival and the National Lottery's ReviveLive Tour.

Noah is one of the current artists supported by Youth Music UK’s NextGen Fund and has had support previously from the BBC Wales Horizon's Launchpad Fund, as well as being played on BBC Radio 1xtra, BBC Radio Wales, Reprezent, Unity Radio, Netil Radio, Balamii Radio and many more. 

He has also been featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday and Fresh Finds playlists, as well as playlists by Ministry of Sound and Wordplay Magazine to name a few. You can listen to his music here - https://linktr.ee/noah.bouchard?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=b5c33899-9d75-441c-8987-32f59bea63fb

Go check out the episode!

I speak with Ally Owen who founded Brixton Finishing School due to the need to create a diverse and equitable talent blueprint for our industry. Its award winning family of programs finds, trains and places structurally excluded’ talent in roles across marketing, advertising and communications ecosystem.

Recognising the impact that COVID-19 had on young people’s futures, Ally also launched the game-changing ADcademy program which gives over 2500 students a year across the UK a fairer chance to succeed. 2021 also saw the launch of ADventure, which aims to introduce our industry to 100k diverse 14-18 year olds and Visible Start (funded by WPP) for women over 45s which is fighting ageism.

Allys' accolades include Future is Female 2022 (ADweek), Media Leader 2022 (Judges’ Choice), Campaign 2021 Female Frontiers Championing Change Honouree/Campaign 'Trailblazer' 2020/ BIMA 2020 Champion for Change/ AD Age 2020 'Woman to watch in Europe'

We face challenges in life all the time. Some are smaller than others. Some are larger than others and some seem impossible to overcome. Resilience is tested through these challenges, through trauma or tradegy in your life, or your health concerns or maybe your relationships or at work or school. In fact, we will probably face all of these challenges throughout our lifetime. How we deal with them defines how resilient you are. Resilient people face these tests but they have the tenacity to deal with the circumstances to rise above the challenges.

Anshul is the founder of Academic Underdogs, a tutoring service that helps students improve their grades through self-study. He is a BBC Radio London exam expert and the author of two #1 best-selling study guides. Anshul is also the creator of Yojana, the UK’s first personalised study strategy generator, used by over 20,000 GCSE & A-Level students each year.

In this episode, I spoke to Anshul about his journey to entrepreneurship and how his risk-taking enabled him to find his passion and success. Despite studying chemical engineering and eventually landing as a financial trader, Anshul found his true calling when he was able to translate his journey to achieving high grades at school and university.

Failing A-Levels and not going to university yet experiencing growing a community from 0 to 1.7 million young people, working with the Prime Minister after being elected Member of Youth Parliament for Surrey representing 250,000+ people in Parliament and launching a company that open and equalises many opportunities for young people,

Taking a different route to most can be incredibly daunting. Still, in today's episode, Oliver talks about his journey to success after having a mental health crisis, then having to deal with it with little support and still being able to come out the other side and use their post-trauma to help process their emotions.

Oliver also discusses the importance of young people knowing there are alternative routes to university and other ways to discover their passions and interests and the need for more opportunities and support for studies once they get their degrees.

In this episode I speak with an industry colleague and a friend, Namita, about gender equity, why it is important for young women to to understand the challenges faced in the industry but more importantly how ‘showing up’ is a small step towards a big success.

Namita Singh Thakur leads Global Strategic Accounts for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions EMEA.  She has also been the  Co-Chair of the Women@LinkedIn Employee Resource Group (ERG) for EMEA for the last 2 years, co-leading the operations across ten countries in EMEA where LinkedIn has a presence. The ERG's mission to create an inclusive community that empowers women to advance their careers whilst being their authentic selves. LinkedIn has made great strides in gender diversity and currently prides itself on achieving gender parity across all levels of the organization. Throughout the year and across EMEA, Women@LinkedIn has found ways to bring its mission alive through a line-up of events, L&D Programs, workshops and speaker series. Besides her formal involvement in the ERG, she regularly participates in speaking engagements related to women's education, empowerment & endorsement.

Outside of her formal role, she is passionate about arts & democratization of art & regularly supports emerging women artists and artists within under-represented racial groups as a patron, art-collaborator and collector. She is particularly perceptive about women & their role in corporate/social life & personal experiences that have shaped their journeys. This has enabled her to help & create impact for women around her.

Joe Seddon is a 25-year-old social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Zero Gravity, a tech startup that supports low-income students into top universities and careers. Joe has scaled Zero Gravity from his student bedroom into one of the UK's fastest-growing tech-for-good companies, supporting 3,000+ students into top universities and hundreds into careers with corporate partners such as HSBC, KPMG, and Fidelity. In addition, Joe has raised £4m of investment to grow Zero Gravity has resulted in becoming Forbes under the '30s. 

In this episode, Joe talks about his journey to becoming an entrepreneur. Despite coming from a small town in England, Joe succeeded in getting through Oxford university. This made Joe realise the opportunity of young people. Joe was also awarded Diana award and Points of light award for social impact in education for his impact through Zero Gravity.