The Purpose Made Podcast

In today’s episode we chat to the phenomenal Sophie Milliken. Sophie is a multi-award winning entrepreneur, director, board member, chartered HR professional, author, public speaker and investor. 

In today’s episode we chat to Sophie about her childhood, family, her time with John Lewis to also founding SRS, pitching to the Dragon Den’s James Caan and Sara Davies to her charitable work and thoughts for the future. 

This is an amazing episode exploring what it is and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, as Sophie shares her warm and engaging story about growth, development and the strength of weak ties. So, without further ado, please sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy.

Links:

Breaking boundaries to creatively generate value: The role of resourcefulness in entrepreneurship
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902621000513

Interesting article on people’s personas. Are you a drain or a radiator?
https://pathwayscoaching.co.uk/drains-and-radiators/

Strength of weak ties
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200701-why-your-weak-tie-friendships-may-mean-more-than-you-think

From Learner to Earner: A recruitment insider's guide for students wanting to achieve graduate job success
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learner-Earner-recruitment-insiders-students/dp/1781333912

The Ambition Accelerator: The working woman's guide to powering up your professional success
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ambition-Accelerator-working-powering-professional/dp/1781335001

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In today’s podcast, we speak to the amazing Professor John Ashton CBE, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of public health and author of the book, ‘Blinded by Corona.’ Professor Ashton is a British doctor and academic who has held positions at the University of Southampton, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Liverpool School of Medicine and also as Regional Director of Public Health for North-West England for 13 years. 

On February 1st 2020, Professor Ashton was one of the first voices to sound the alarm of a global pandemic via an interview held with British broadcaster, Sky News. During the interview, he mapped out the need for urgent and swift action, at a time the UK were witnessing 83 British nationals return from Wuhan, landing at RAF base Brize Norton, and the countries first confirmed cases of coronavirus we being identified in York. It proved to be a decisive moment, as Professor Ashton was asked by the Crown Prince of Bahrain, to join Bahrain’s COVID-19 Task Force and provide hands on training and knowledge to the countries coronavirus response. Bahrain alongside Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand and Singapore would go on to be one of the few countries who provided a beacon of hope, in respect to their handling of the coronavirus pandemic so far.

How well a population can migrate beyond a pandemic, will depend on preparation, resilience, openness, transparency, trust, leadership, communication, cooperation and crucially the mobilisation of the public to act with evidence and science. Chatting to Professor Ashton was an absolute pleasure, this is an amazing episode and one not to be missed. So without further ado, please sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy.

Links:
Lanesberg wine
https://www.lanebergwine.com

Blinded by Corona by Prof John Ashton
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blinded-Corona-Excellent-Pandemic-Britains/dp/1783341955

Exercise Cygnus
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/927770/exercise-cygnus-report.pdf

Guardian article may 2020 (Exercise Cygnus):
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/07/what-was-exercise-cygnus-and-what-did-it-find

PPE, Test and Trace and ongoing cronyism and legal cases.
https://goodlawproject.org/news/ 

Independent Sage Blueprint to achieve excellent find, test, trace, isolate and support system: https://www.independentsage.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/New-FTTIS-System-final-06.50.pdf

Covid Bereaved Families justice group
https://covidfamiliesforjustice.org

Johnson’s superman speech - Greenwich Speech
https://youtu.be/OMwXlOQLu44

Take it on the chin - This Morning
https://youtu.be/SQDXmipIYF8

Edelman Trust Barometer
https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer

Prof John Ashton Question Time
https://youtu.be/M-Up5XbgUg8

Panorama - Cashing in on Covid
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000t8td

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In this episode we chat to the wonderful James Martin, seasoned Mo Bro and Movember ambassador.

Movember is a charity that are quite literally changing the face of men’s health. From its Brunswick Street foundations, whereby the original Melbourne Mo Bro got together in 2003, to bring back the Mo for their fellow Bros; today we witness a community of engaged, mobilised and global Mos, who have raise over a $1 billion for men’s health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. 

Chatting to James was an absolute delight, as he speaks passionately and eloquently about Movember, the amazing work they’re doing together with the struggles which brought him to the cause. From fighting the stigma, to growing a Tom Selleck, it’s often the worst moustaches that start the best conversations! So without further ado, please sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy.

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In this episode we chat to the amazing Dr Joanna Berry, Associate Professor at Durham University Business School, Director of the Durham Energy Institute and also the acclaimed public speaker, mentor and Northern Power Woman.

 During this episode I chat to Jo about everything from her university days at Oxford, her role as a solicitor in South Africa during Apartheid, diversity and the leveling up agenda to climate change and the planet. This is an episode I absolutely loved and you’re not going to want to miss any of it!! So without further ado, please sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy. 

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In this episode we explore testimonies from fathers from around the globe, who share their unfiltered heartfelt stories around the beauty, challenges and life affirming changes that happen upon becoming a father, and identify what the question, to be a father is, truly means to them. 

Huge thank you to all our amazing participants, specifically Chris, Darren, Simon, Jonny, Ross, Leigh, Andy and Matteo and to those of you listening, sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy. 

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In this episode I chat to the amazing Sarah Pittendrigh.

Sarah, is a proud mum, a multi award winning entrepreneur, financier and mentor. She is also the winner of the prestigious Daily Mail and NatWest Everywoman Female Entrepreneur of the year award in 2015.

Yet like every great success story, we find a journey built on courage and in 2008 Sarah was bankrupt, a single mum, on income support, plagued by anxiety and panic attacks with a bank threatening to repossess her home.

From these inauspicious beginnings, she's transformed her life. Founded the hugely successful business Simply Bows & Chair Covers, secured her home, became financially free and in a final touch worthy of Hollywood remarried her husband and did so whilst twice battling cancer and also helping to nurse her dying mother-in-law.

To call Sarah extraordinary is an understatement and we do hope that her journey is one which will inspire you and provide you hope and also provide you solace that by working hard and believing in yourself, anything is possible!!!

Thank you for listening, don't forget to like, share and subscribe and we do hope you enjoy!!!

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In this episode we chat to the amazing Jamie Sadler, managing director of Food Nation, Harissa Kitchen and founder of the phenomenal Men’s Pie Club. This is a Purpose Made special for World Suicide Prevention Day.  

Every year, organisations and communities, come together on Sept 10th to raise awareness of how we can create a world whereby fewer people die by suicide. As it is estimated that 800,000 people across the world die from suicide each year. For every death there are many more people who have planned or attempted to take their own lives. According to the World Health Organisation, it’s estimated that one person every 40 seconds dies from suicide, each with their own personal and heart-breaking story. 

Each and every suicide is a tragedy, causing devastating and permanent impacts on families, friends and broader communities. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we do more to support those in need, invest in care and provisions, openly talk about the issue in hope of reducing these tragic losses. 

Suicide is a serious global health problem, and is preventable with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions. One of those such interventions, is that of the Newcastle based Men’s Pie Club. A club formed as a response to the increasing need for social connections, particularly for men who are at greater risk of becoming socially isolated. 

Pie Club is a welcoming place where you can come to get stuff off your chest and put something in your belly and chatting to Jamie was an absolute pleasure and we really hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

For more information on Men’s Pie Club, feel free to head over to their website

https://www.menspieclub.co.uk/

Thank you and we do hope you enjoy. 

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In this episode, we chat to Constantin Papadopoulos, founder of the Zurich based sale firm Snipers sale. Constantin is a former colleague of mine, who I first had the great pleasure of meeting whilst working in Switzerland for Nestlé. As well as chatting through everything from the pandemic to the purpose behind Snipers sale, we wanted to focus in on the importance of storytelling in business in respect to building trust, loyalty and engagement. 

Chatting to Constantin was an absolute pleasure and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

For more information on the power of storytelling, beyond this podcast, feel free to head over to our website www.purposemade.uk and check out our blog.

https://www.purposemade.uk/blog/storytelling-its-up-to-you

Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy. 

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In this episode we chat to David Smith and Alex Laing from Oasis Community Housing. Oasis is a charity that exists to reignite a hope and provide a future for everyone facing homelessness and like ourselves they believe that anyone’s life can be transformed for the better. That’s why, every year,  Oasis offer hope and futures to people facing homelessness. 

David is the Chief Executive of Oasis whilst Alex is the Project Team Lead for Resettlement. We wanted to speak to Oasis specifically around the fantastic work they are doing within the community and also about the wider impacts the Covid pandemic has had on homelessness and on the charitable sector as a whole.

It was reported in June 2020, by the Guardian and as part of a Pro Bono Economic study conducted that 1 in 10 UK charities were facing bankruptcy as they struggle to cope with a £10bn shortfall caused by soaring demand for their services and lost fundraising income due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Additionally, homelessness is a notoriously difficult thing to quantify. As elements such as sofa surfing, means people often don’t consider themselves to be homeless. Furthermore, there is no national figure for how many people are homeless across the UK. Crazy isn’t it. But that's because homelessness is recorded differently in each of our nations, and because of this, many homeless don’t even show up in official statistics. 

What we do know is for the last 5 years’ core homelessness has been rising year on year in England, reaching 219,000 before the pandemic with current estimates believed to be in the region of  280,000. 

Homelessness isn’t inevitable. Finland for example are showing the rest of Europe homelessness can decline. But homelessness must be beyond buildings. It’s about people and nurturing supportive relationships that offer hope and futures and not simply a temporary “Everyone in” accommodation . 

Chatting to David and Alex was an absolute pleasure and we really hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

Thank you.

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In this episode we chat to the wonderful Peter Neal and Andrew Marsh of the Experience Bank Group

The Experience Bank Group was founded on May 31st 2020 and primarily focuses on supporting SME’s and charities to build effective boards and optimise performance. Some of our listeners may have had the pleasure of speaking with either Andrew or Peter via the Experience Bank or through the numerous peer support groups they also chair. Andrew for example chairs peer support groups for Vistage, helping executives drive better results whilst Peter also chairs peer groups with Andrew and for non-executives helping to optimise performance.

Chatting to Peter and Andrew was a pleasure and in today’s episode we discuss their career journey’s, combating Covid and the challenges faced, the growth and development of the Experience Bank Group and what they envisage for the future once the pandemic abates. So sit back, relax and we do hope you enjoy.

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