What I Did Next

This week, I’m joined by the show’s producer, Chirag Desai, to look back at the highlights of our latest season, some common threads among our guests, as well as general insights from our recent conversations. We also discuss the issue of crisis management. This is a big picture conversation that impacts all of us and comes on the heels of discussions I've had recently with friends about concurrent crises happening around the world.

This episode is sponsored by EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

Last week, I spoke to mega star Youssra about the roles that shaped her iconic career, and the secrets to balancing her stardom and her private life. On this week’s bonus episode, Youssra tells me how different the film industry is today compared to when she started out in the 80s, and her thoughts on the future of the Egyptian and regional film industries.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

My final guest of this season is the one-and-only Youssra, who tells me about her life’s journey from key decisions that led to her breakout success to her ground-breaking acting career that took on societal taboos. With over 80 movies, countless serials and theatre performances, her career has spanned seismic shifts in society, culture and politics, and she has witnessed, interpreted and contributed to all of them.  

Youssra is also a role model to younger actors and people in the industry and is often championing new talent in her films and TV work. What struck me most about her was her professionalism, her simplicity and how down-to-earth she is—there is no entourage, assistants, or arriving late.

My conversation with Youssra was recorded in September 2023 at our studio here in Cairo.

This episode is sponsored by EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

Last week, entrepreneur and investor Ramy Adeeb told me how his appetite for risk played a pivotal role in shaping his career. On this bonus episode, Ramy shares his insights on the venture capital market, and his entrepreneurial experience with Snip-It and 1984 Ventures.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

I’m joined this week by Ramy Adeeb, founder and Managing Partner of 1984 Ventures, a firm that specialises in providing seed funding to start-ups. Ramy’s is a quintessential What I Did Next story, he moved to Canada for high school, went on to have early jobs at Microsoft and then as an investor in Silicon Valley, before launching his own start-up, Snip.It, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2013. He tells me how important risk taking has been for his career, and how his life’s journey led him to the launch of his current company, 1984 ventures.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

In case you missed my conversation with fitness entrepreneur Amina Naguib, here’s a quick clip from our conversation. 

You can listen to the full episode in your podcast app.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

Last week, fitness entrepreneur Amina Naguib told me how a pivotal moment in 2020 has radically changed her approach to life. On this bonus episode, I talk to Amina about how her brand, B-URN, has evolved to offer a holistic health approach to drive happiness. 

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

I’m joined this week by Amina Naguib, fitness entrepreneur and founder of B-URN. Amina always wanted to explore the human body and health—she studied sports science in Washington and then physiotherapy in Amsterdam before returning to Egypt. With B-URN, she has created a community of people looking to improve their health and wellbeing.

Amina and I talk about how she’s been connecting the dots of her life, particularly a major pivot in 2020 that was also a pivotal moment for me. She’s a believer in each of us having the tools to better the quality of our lives — you just need to figure out how to unlock them. 

We’ll continue the conversation next week on a bonus episode where Amina talks about the intersection of exercise and physical therapy with happiness, and the B-URN community she continues to build.

This episode is sponsored by EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

We’re continuing my conversation with Mohamed Hefzy, award-winning film producer and screenwriter. On this bonus episode, he tells me how his creative process has evolved to bring other people’s screenplays to life under his company, Film Clinic.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!

Mohammed Hefzy is the award-winning film producer behind mega hits such as Clash, Sheikh Jackson, Microphone, Paranormal, and Perfect Strangers, to name but a few of the films that make up his incredible catalogue of work. Hefzy began his career as a screen writer but made the transition to producing quite quickly, realising he wanted more control of the film-making process as a whole. This led to the formation of his company, The Film Clinic, where he not only develops his own movies but produces new and emerging talent as well.

Hefzy and I go way back to his pre-film industry days when we were both London-based. Meeting in a formal interview setting gave me a license to ask all my nerdy questions about the film industry that you can't get away with at a party! We’ll also have a bonus episode next week where he dives deeper into the writing process, and how different it is for him to produce other people’s work versus writing his own.

This episode is sponsored by EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Hermes One, your one app for investing in more than 35 stock markets. Start investing today!