I'm excited to share the first podcast of 2022 with such an inspirational guest, Amali de Alwis, CEO of Subak. 

Amali and I first met when she was CEO of Code First Girls, the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK; the impact she had here saw her awarded her MBE in the New Year's Honors list 2019 for ‘Services to diversity and training in the Tech Industry’. 

During our conversation, I learn about her experiences of Degree education and how she felt she'd "done the same degree twice", and she draws comparisons between the worlds of manufacturing and consumer product design. 

Amali talks to the importance of creating spaces to think and reflect, identifying opportunities for continuous learning and the importance of apprenticeships which can help individuals prepare for the working world, where the pace of technology is accelerating. 

Highlights of the conversation focuses on personal growth and continuous improvement (34:30), bringing thinkers together (38:00), measuring trust in business and adding a fiscal value on trust (41:00), innovation and company growth by hiring diverse talent (49:00), creating a culture where all cultures are welcome (50:40), building your own learning journey to be a better leader in a start-up (54:30), advising businesses around growth (1:05:00), and why she decided to join Subak, the world's first accelerator for climate not-for-profit (1:07:00). 

You can connect with my guest here: Amali de Alwis, MBE

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is Róisín O'Toole, a wonderfully creative UX Design Director that illustrates her passion in every sketch she scribbles, every pixel she moves and every word she writes. 

Ró and I were first introduced when I contacted her about a UX Design freelance role back in the winter of 2015, and at that time, she was open to a new challenge having only arrived in London at the beginning of that year. 

When we met in-person...we chatted about everything BUT the job opportunity...we  covered London-life, values, music, design and art - I think a 30-minute meeting lasted well over an hour! 

Since then, Ró has established herself as a successful UX Director, and in our chat we discuss the path she has navigated to her current new role; we delve into her thoughts and experiences when it comes to the power of great feedback and the negative impact of poorly delivered feedback and we discuss her creative inspirations.  

Also, she talks very candidly about why she is a passionate advocate for well-being and mental health awareness in the workplace. She also shares, how she - as a senior leader - creates safe and positive spaces for her team members to thrive and bring their whole self to work. 

I am very thankful to have had this conversation with Ró and I thank her wholeheartedly for sharing her story and experiences. A truly AWESOME human-being! 

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Róisín O'Toole

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is Emma Freivogel, Founder and CEO of Radical Recruit, a social recruitment consultancy with a values led approach to sourcing talent and represent those who are underrepresented and marginalised from the labour market. 

In her own words, Radical Recruit exists to excite, agitate and shake shit up in both the recruitment sector and business community! 

During our rollercoaster chat, I learn more about Emma as she talks about the catalyst behind her move from Australia to the UK, her experiences of the charity and care sector and she shares some emotive and insight stories about the people she met on her journey. 

She candidly talks about how Radical Recruit was established and how one mighty leap of faith from a single investor has generated so many positive outcomes since she started her proof of concept in 2018. 

She shares why she is on a mission to make meaningful change and have a long-lasting impact on the lives of the people and why businesses need educating about the challenges marginalised individuals have accessing the mainstream employment market because of labels like ‘ex-offender’, ‘former drug addict’ or ‘homeless’. 

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Emma Freivogel 

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is Justyna Koziczak, a surreal artist who has decided to devote her life to art. 

Justyna is an incredibly talented painter who creates dream-like compositions such as portraits, landscapes or interior scenes using an innovative approach which see's her use fire to paint on metal where she blends paint and scorch marks. 

Justyna joins me to talk about her journey through the prestigious Polish art education system, when she discovered her love for surreal art and how she started experimenting with her unique scorched metal and paint style. 

It's a fascinating conversation as we talk about her inspirations as an artist, what inspires her on a daily basis and which colours are important to her in her work, I also ask her her views about religion as a source for art and what she thinks about street artists like Banksy.

Talking to Justyna, you immediately get the sense of an artist who is passionate and intentional in her art, thoughtful and playful in the way she would like us to experience her paintings and she would like to challenge our perception of art as she hopes to present stories of struggle, loss, hope and faith. 

As she tells me on the podcast, "not all that is gloomy and sinister must be bad, not all that is beautiful and fine must be good".  

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Justyna Koziczak 

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is the one usually asking the probing and insightful questions, so it was my pleasure to host  Roderick Lambert and ask him about his career journey. 

Roderick’s mission is to help high-performing human-beings create 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮, 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝𝙮 and 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙛𝙪𝙡 lives…and with a dual-focus on the 5 Pillars of Health: improve Sleep, Movement, Nutrition, Hydration, Stress levels, he helps people find and live the ‘best version of themselves’.

On the show we discuss Roderick’s early life and education focused on music and I discover he is a multi-instrumentalist amongst other musical talents…

...we discuss his thoughts and reflections on his own personal ambition, how his intrinsic confidence supported his decision-making when making bold career decisions that would open and end chapters of his life. 

We discover his two Aha moments... 

...the first, when he realised he’d become numb to his corporate job and that it didn’t have purpose, and the second, when he started to question health guidelines and that the simple “eat less, move more” advice would lead him to irreversible health issues. 

As we near the end of the conversation, we circle back on the subject of purpose and Roderick shares his theory on this subject and how we all have more choices -when it comes to our own  life’s purpose - than we realise!

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here:  Roderick Lambert  

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is one of the nicest people you’re likely to meet on the talent acquisition, recruitment and HR circuit - Rohan Dickinson. 

Rohan and I were first introduced when he was a guest on The #SocialRecruiting Show back in 2019 and we’ve stayed connected since then…

...I wanted to get him on the podcast because he’s just recently changed careers and I wanted to learn more about the decision-making process behind that switch. 

Proof that on Never Mind The Job Spec, there isn’t really a script or structure - we start by chatting about Rohan’s ultra-marathon achievements and what motivates him to push himself to his physical limits and what “hitting the wall” feels like. 

Through our chat I discover more about Rohan’s educational background, how sport plays an important part in his physiological approach to work, his resilience in the face of personal and career challenges - such as redundancy due to Covid-19 - and his creativity in finding new opportunities and career pathways in HR and how he landed the Head of Partnerships at Adway. 

A really great moment for me was when Rohan shared his hopes for his son, Luca, as we chat about the future of work.

A note for listeners, I make reference to talking about being a Non-Executive Director and Leadership buy-in later in the podcast and we never actually get round to it...I think that opens the door for another chat with Rohan which I think would be really cool. For now, here's part 1 of our conversation....

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Rohan Dickinson

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guests are entrepreneurs and co-founders Mae Yip and Samantha Hornsby

Mae and Sam are life-long friends and co-founders of ERIC, an acronym for the four principles that embody their process and company ethos - Empower, Represent, Immerse & Create.

Through the conversation, I discover why Sam and Mae established ERIC, how very different their respective career journeys have been, what they think about the world of talent acquisition and recruitment and how they aim to deliver continuous learning opportunities for the ERIC community.

ERIC is focused on supporting Gen Z individuals to source and find employment opportunities in the creative industry and Mae and Sam share fascinating facts and feedback from research they've conducted with their community - the findings are mind-blowing!

We also talk about investment in internships and apprentice level opportunities, employer responsibilities regarding their employees' mental health and well-being and how far does an employer's duty of care extend. 

A special moment for me personally was when Mae and Sam talk about how their relationship is the foundation for all they have achieved so far - VERY AWESOME and INSPIRATIONAL! 

We round out the show talking about their hopes for the future of ERIC and how they will continue on their mission to drive change for the betterment of their community! 

A small disclaimer for the show; we are interrupted a couple of times by my cat Iggy, and, full credit to Mae and Sam for answering possibly the most-winded question I’ve asked to date on the podcast to date - also, we laugh a lot!

You can connect with my guests on LinkedIn here: Mae Yip and Samantha Hornsby

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is the audio magician, Nicolae Bogdan Bratis

Nicolae is the founder of Saw & Sine,  a boutique audio studio with a mission to offer the best sound for your music production, mixing & mastering and podcast and audiobook editing.

During the course of working with Nicole, I was struck by his passion for audio and music and this intrigued me - I was curious to know where this passion came from and what was the driving force behind it - so, I decided it was time to invite him on as a guest. 

Nicolae shares more about his early education and how this shaped his understanding of music, he discusses how music took him to the final of the Romanian X-Factor to playing in house bands across shows and TV in Bucharest....and most importantly, he shares his ‘Aha’ moment when he changed the direction of his career and came to the UK to study audio and then establish his business, Saw & Sine.  

For you music lovers who tune in, Nicolae also shares some of his early music and we chat about the future of his musical career under the name ‘Bratis’.

As a side-note, we do discuss the merits of classic Star Trek versus the new offerings such as Discovery - this could be quite contentious for fellow Trekkies! 

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Nicolae Bogdan Bratis 

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is the very AWESOME, Ted Hewett

Ted is now the Marketing Manager of Totem and he and I first met about 2-years ago at an HR and Recruitment event called DisruptHR, in London. I was struck by Ted’s energetic talk and his enthusiasm for promoting company culture - and at the time, I had no idea what he actually did for his company - an observation we chat about on the podcast! 

Ted joins me to talk about how his early career as a musician offered insights into marketing, how he decided to leave a degree in Law and study Philosophy and how he has navigated his way through a career in sales and his 'Aha' moment when he passionately connected with a company vision. 

We discuss his thoughts, observations and experience of company culture and he offers his opinion on how companies can be intentional about company culture and create meaningful connections with their people. We also discover why he has made the transition from sales to marketing and his vision for his new career pathway 

And of course...we find out why Ted encourages everyone to be Excellent To One Another! 

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Ted Hewett

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

My guest is my friend and former colleague, Luke O'Mahoney. 

Luke is the People and Operations Manager at The Fuel Store and we've known each other from our recruitment agencies days when we used to spend many a coffee break discussing and debating the future of recruitment and the tools and technology we predicted would disrupt the industry.  

Luke joins me to chat about his choice of an experimental degree subject, how his curiosity and drive secured him early career challenges that drew him into the world of recruitment. 

I discover more about his goals as a tri-athlete and how personal and professional goal-setting doesn't have to be mutually exclusive and he shares how he keeps himself accountable for his own personal and career growth and development. 

Luke also shares his own experiences of building a vision for a business, how creating a clear business identity is key to driving team performance and how he uses storytelling to bring people on the journey to achieve their collective goals. 

You can connect with my guest on LinkedIn here: Luke O'Mahoney

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can stay updated on all future Never Mind the Job Spec podcasts on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn

You can connect with me, Glenn Martin, on my website or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter