E007: ELLA'S KITCHEN: Be curious & brave: Learning from toddlers & building a more compassionate world

Paul Lindley OBE is a British entrepreneur, children's welfare campaigner and an inspirational force for good. He is the founder of organic children’s food brand Ella's Kitchen, named after his daughter, and later launched organic toddler toiletries brand Paddy's Bathroom, named after his son. 

Paul's legacy and work extends far beyond entrepreneurship. As the Chancellor of the University of Reading and the Chairman of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights UK, he champions the values of compassion, dignity, and fairness. He is also an author of best-selling book Little Wins: The Power of Thinking Like a Toddler and has a new book coming out called Raising The Nation: How to Build a Better Future for Our Children (and Everyone Else). 

Paul believes that his purpose is to help make the world richer in opportunities, ideas and compassion. He explains why curiosity and bravery are two of the most important traits for an entrepreneurial mindset. 

In this episode, he eloquently draws parallels between toddlers and successful entrepreneurs, highlighting the virtues of fearlessness, creativity, and self-assuredness that we often lose touch with as adults. As toddlers, we were at our most brave, free-thinking, confident and creative, and we need to rediscover the inner toddler that conforming to societal expectations has squashed out of us. This is the focus of his book Little Wins, which shows how humans are wired for curiosity, to think divergently and to explore. 

He explains his three essential elements for tackling seemingly insurmountable challenges: relationships, resources, and recognition. He explains the importance of audacious goals, persistence, and unwavering self-belief in order to drive meaningful change and realise your goals. 

This episode is a call to restore humanness in all aspects of life. Paul discusses the power of teamwork, cultivating a strong culture, and redefining success beyond financial metrics. We have to work together, from community to corporate to government, to tackle societal problems and create cultural change for the better.

TOPICS COVERED:

Ideas, opportunities and compassion

Entrepreneurial thinking 

Why toddlers are the ultimate role models

Living curiously and bravely 

How to solve impossible problems 

We need more humanness in business and the world

How to build a better world for our children and ourselves

Loneliness, purpose and connection in Blue Zones

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: https://www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Paul Lindley: 

Website: https://www.paullindley.uk/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-lindley-obe-212045a/ 

Raising The Nation: www.raisingthenation.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E006 - Tatty Macleod: Tenacity, self-belief and coming back to your ‘why’

Tatty Macleod is a stand-up comedian, actor and influencer, possibly best known for her hilarious Frenglish comedy sketches on Instagram and TikTok. She is also a good friend of Grace’s, having lived together in a Greenwich flat-share in their mid-twenties. 

After nearly a decade of being a multi-hyphenate waiter-tour guide-receptionist-playwright-consultant, working multiple jobs whilst working towards her dream of becoming a comedian and performer, Tatty has a refreshingly honest take on what it takes to ‘make it’. 

Tatty believes that coming back to your ‘why’ is vital to your success, because when things get hard, you’re broke and all your peers seem to be ‘successful’, remembering your why and your passion for what you’re doing will drive you through the hardest times. She discusses the importance of distinguishing between loving the ‘idea’ of something, versus actually really loving the reality - doing it because you can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s important to know that it’s ok to quit and it’s ok if your goals and desires change. 

She believes that you have to be shameless in the pursuit of your dreams, and explains the importance of reframing the journey and visualising where you want to be. She says that authenticity is vital; if you have a passion at the heart of your business and you don’t disconnect from that in favour of profit margins then you’re creating something authentic that others will believe and buy into.

She discusses her experience of working as a consultant for a leadership and development company, utilising her acting and improv skills to help employees role play difficult or challenging conversations and situations in order to better handle and resolve them. She explains how “yes, and”, one of the fundamental concepts of improv, can help teams to build on each other's ideas, innovate and work better and more creatively together.

Her main advice? Speak up. 

TOPICS COVERED:

About Tatty and her background

Self-belief and staying power

Being shameless in your pursuit of your dreams

The financial struggles of being a creative or startup entrepreneur

What creatives and entrepreneurs have in common 

The role of performance work and improv in the workplace

Not being afraid to use your voice and speak up

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: https://www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Tatty Macleod: 

Website: / Edinburgh Fringe Tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22Tatty%20Macleod%3A%20Fugue%22 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatty_macleod/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tatty.macleod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E005 - Crew & Riot: Helping leaders build innovative, inclusive and creative brands and cultures 

Chin Ru is the founder of Crew & Riot, a consulting firm that specialises in helping organisations build inclusive cultures. Her work has been recognised by numerous organisations, and she is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a seasoned marketing and innovation professional with over 25 years of experience working with large, well-established organisations across multiple geographies and companies. She is known for her expertise in building cultures that foster creativity and innovation, and for her unique perspective on what inclusion means in an end to end way. 

Having worked with teams around the world, Chin Ru has gained a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with building diverse teams. She has spent a lot of time thinking about how to motivate people and create the right conditions for them to do their best work. Through her work, she has also gained a unique perspective on how to build inclusive cultures that allow all team members to thrive. 

In this podcast she explains what inclusion actually means, and the importance of creating a culture of innovation and creativity, where the historically underrepresented or marginalised are always welcomed, represented and valued. She discusses the importance of identifying your blind spots and how using the BRIDGE analogy can help cultivate an inclusive mindset. 

She unpacks the ripple effect of British Colonialism on both her life and the lens with which many of us view the world, and reveals how her multicultural upbringing has influenced her world view. She highlights the importance of defining and understanding your true values and staying true to them, even - and especially - when things get difficult.

She explains the importance of having empathy for different cultural backgrounds and values, and believes it is vital to create psychological safety, vulnerability and a shared sense of purpose for a good workplace culture. 

TOPICS COVERED:

About Chin Ru and her background

Creating a culture of innovation and creativity

What inclusion means within a business context

The BRIDGE

Discovering what your values are and staying true to them

Creating psychological safety for people within the workplace

Policies over profit

The ripple effect of British Colonialism

50 shades of makeup

Recognising privilege in its many forms

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: https://www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Chin Ru: 

Website: https://www.crewandriot.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crewandriot/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chin-ru-foo-crewandriot/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E004: Female Founders Rise: Burnout to balance, business, motherhood & funding female founders.

Emmie is a mum of four, board advisor, angel investor, growth and marketing expert and the founder of Female Founders Rise. She is a serial exited founder and entrepreneur, with over 20 years experience in running her own businesses across digital, marketing and tech.

Emmie has dreamt up and registered many business ideas over the years, fully running six to date. After suffering from burnout last summer, she has had a complete readjustment of her life and priorities; focussing on her health and wellbeing above all else and eliminating all sources of stress from her life. The upside of burnout was this life overhaul, that led her to creating more space and time for joy and fun activities just for her, including joining a choir and trying ecstatic dance.

She explains why she left a ‘dream’ job at Google after just six weeks, and why she knew it was time to leave. She believes in the importance of intuition and listening to her gut instinct, despite not always doing so in the past.

She discusses how juggling businesses, motherhood and consulting work, combined with long covid led to burnout. She explains how, despite her husband sharing childcare responsibilities, the default from the children’s schools is ‘email the mum’ and that the lion’s share of caring for children and family members is usually placed on women.

She reveals the why behind her newest project Female Founders Rise, a community created to help more women get funding for their businesses. At the moment just 2% of funding goes to female founders, and often women are judged on their track record performance, while men are judged on their potential. She started Female Founders Rise to address this inequality, champion women and build a safe, supportive community.

Emmie believes that a good workplace culture stems from good leadership and good management, and making sure there are checks and balances in place on managers and bosses, to make sure they are really supporting the people that report to them. 

TOPICS COVERED:

About Emmie

Changing your life after burnout

Leaving a ‘dream’ job at Google 

The extra load and expectations placed on women

The challenges of motherhood and business

Prioritising health and wellbeing over everything

Just 2% of funding goes to female founders

The mission behind Female Founders Rise

What makes a toxic culture?

What makes a great culture?

What is your ultimate tip for creating cultural change?

Boundaries between work and life

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: https://www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Emmie: 

Website: www.emmiefaust.com  

IG: www.instagram.com/emmiefaust/ 

LI: www.linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust/ 

Female Founders Rise: www.linkedin.com/company/female-founders-rise/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ABOUT THE CULTURE COACH:

We discuss all things culture - from creating a great company culture to what contributes to a toxic one. What does a strong culture look like? How do some organisations get culture so right, and some so very wrong? How can you create lasting, positive cultural change within organisations? These are the sort of topics we cover on The Culture Coach podcast. 

E003 - HECTOR HUGHES, UNPLUGGED: Normalising the Digital Detox and how simplicity is the key to happiness.

Hector is the co-founder of Unplugged, digital detox cabins across the UK on a mission to normalise digital detoxes and drive the change for a happier, more connected society. 

He reveals how a two week meditation retreat in the Himalayas gave him the headspace to realise that he needed a drastic change from his previous work-hard, play-hard corporate life. After returning home, he quit his job the next day and decided he wanted to give people the same benefits he felt in a more accessible way, closer to home. 

Along with co-founder Ben, Hector decided to create minimalist modern cabins just an hour or so from city life. Off-grid retreats where people could lock their phone in a box, rest and reconnect for a few days at a time.

He discusses the pros and cons of technology and believes that we are living in a state of constant overstimulation which is a major contributor to the skyrocketing levels of depression and anxiety we are seeing throughout society. Our devices are literally rewiring our brains, making us less intelligent and empathetic. 

We are taught to believe that adding more - more money, possessions, achievements - is the key to happiness. But actually, it's about subtracting and simplifying; enjoying simple pleasures and real-life connection.

He believes that to have a good workplace culture you need to practice what you preach and create a culture where people feel safe to try and fail, particularly if you are a leader or manager. He explains how his daily meditation practice has helped him be present and in the best possible state for his team and company.

TOPICS COVERED:

About Unplugged and the mission behind it

Digital Detoxing as a trend

Retreating to meditate and learn about Buddhist philosophy in the Himalayas

Non-Attachment to external things and goals

Living in a constant state of overstimulation

Navigating and understanding our inner world

Culture isn’t about free sweets and go-karting trips - it’s about people’s moods and how they feel

Should we be optimising for happiness? 

Normalising the digital detox: taking a break from the city and your phone

Moving towards a society that cultivates empathy and real relationships

Our relationship with our technological devices

Working more hours doesn’t mean you’re more effective 

What makes a toxic culture?

What makes a great culture?

What is your ultimate tip for a healthy culture?

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: https://www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Hector: 

Website: https://unplugged.rest/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unplugged.rest/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hector-hughes-10082195/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ABOUT THE CULTURE COACH:

We discuss all things culture - from creating a great company culture to what contributes to a toxic one. What does a strong culture look like? How do some organisations get culture so right, and some so very wrong? How can you create lasting, positive cultural change within organisations? These are the sort of topics we cover on The Culture Coach podcast. 

EPISODE 002 - NICOLA TEMPORAL. TEMPORAL CONSULTING:

Nicola Temporal trained as a psychotherapist, meditation teacher and founder of a cultural change and executive coaching consultancy. She also happens to be Grace’s mum. 

In this episode we discuss the start of her career, how her background in meditation and psychotherapy became the lens with which she saw the world, and how this informed her 35 years of work dedicated to creating cultural change in the workplace. 

Nicola has a human-led, heart-centered approach to business, believing that we need to reconnect our heads and hearts. She creates safe spaces through her work which enable people to be honest with each other, build trust, and truly listen to each other on a thinking, feeling and willing level.

Nowadays, meditation seems commonplace, but Nicola was bringing meditation, self-awareness and self-mastery into the business room 25 years ago. 

With her pioneering, award-winning ‘Wheel of Wellbeing’ experimental programme in the construction industry, she proved that a holistic approach to wellbeing - encompassing both the person and their environment - was needed to create lasting cultural change within organisations. 

Nicola reveals that her top tip for creating cultural change within organisations is meditation and that a toxic culture is an unaware, unconscious culture. She shares her belief that listening is the greatest gift we can give each other, the difference between self-awareness and self-mastery, and that collaboration is our natural state of being. 

Topics:

Early context

How meditation and psychotherapy inform my work

Collaboration is our natural state

Reconnecting people with our hearts and humanity

High-quality relationships lead to creativity and innovation

Removing the judgement around self-preservation

Driving fear out of organisations

The difference between self-awareness and self-mastery

Blame within business

How to listen with your whole body

Why I teach meditation within business

Creating cultural change within the construction industry

Changing both behaviour and environment

Connecting back to our humanity

Holding our agendas lightly in a complex world

What makes a toxic culture?

What makes a great culture?

What is your ultimate tip for a healthy culture?

Meditation

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Nicola: You’ll have to ask Grace… Nicola is a digital enigma who works solely on recommendations.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ABOUT THE CULTURE COACH:

We discuss all things culture - from creating a great company culture to what contributes to a toxic one. What does a strong culture look like? How do some organisations get culture so right, and some so very wrong? How can you create lasting, positive cultural change within organisations? These are the sort of topics we cover on The Culture Coach podcast. 

EPISODE 001 - NELL BYRON. BE HER LEAD:

In our very first episode we sat down with Nell Byron, the director and co-founder of Be Her Lead - a non-profit social enterprise on a mission is to create intersectional feminist spaces in schools, delivering workshops for teachers and pupils across the UK.

Before leaving teaching to run Be Her Lead, Nell taught Spanish and worked as Deputy Head of Year 9 and Assistant Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator at Villiers High School in Southall, West London. She trained with Teach First after first working as an Advertising Sales Executive.

Nell is passionate about creating safe, nurturing environments within schools for young girls to be able to express themselves. She reveals how the pandemic and social media have been adversely affecting young women and girls, and the differences between boys and girls behaviour at school. 

She tells us that through their focus groups at Be Her Lead, they discovered that the main emotions young women are feeling is stress and anxiety, and how this can be addressed by working with teachers to create bespoke programmes for their schools, creating open spaces and communities to learn and discuss everything from friendships and failures to periods and social media. 

Nell reveals her top tips for creating positive cultural change within schools and organisations, and why listening to everyone is key. Be Her Lead currently run programmes in a total of 65 schools serving disadvantaged communities, training over 300 teachers to run workshops for over 900 girls aged between 8 and 18. 

Topics:

Early context

The difference between boys and girls at school

Feeling inferior based on your gender

The impact of the pandemic on girls’ mental health

“33% of young girls feel sad most of the time”

Training teachers to support their student to be human beings

Social mobility and breaking down self-limiting beliefs

Does anyone ever ask if you’re happy?

The importance of community

Needing help doesn’t equal failure

Ticking boxes rather than changing the culture

What makes a toxic culture?

What makes a great culture?

What is your ultimate tip for a healthy culture?

Listen and collaborate

Cultural Calculator: 

Website: www.culturalcalculator.co/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@culturalcalculator

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/grace-temporal-sorabji-17345b104/ 

Nell:

https://www.beherlead.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/beherlead/ 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.