This Way Up

For this episode, I interviewed fellow Ad woman Jane Evans. Jane is well known in our industry, she was one of her generation’s most successful advertising women, winning tons of awards for her creative campaigns. BUT and there is a big but here, in her fifties, she was made to feel completely invisible by the advertising industry. 

 This became a big problem.  She quickly realised that there is a huge issue of unemployment and invisibility for all midlife women. Emails and calls were ignored by every ad agency and personally, she didn’t know how she would make ends meet – she ended up having to go to food banks and even being evicted from her home. 

This led to her creating the Uninvisibility project. A platform dedicated to highlighting this issue, showcasing brilliant women, and creating opportunities for women to return to the workplace.

 And god, I thank her for it. We all should. As Jane points out during our conversation, this is a huge societal issue and one that we should all be concerned about. She makes the very good point that we've been basing our lives on the fact that we're going to live to around about 70. Yet we're probably going to live to 90 or 100. So being in your 50s is not the end, it's actually the middle of our lives. And women are bearing the full brunt of this neglect, with unemployment at an all-time high.  This is an issue that we discuss at length including the ways in which we can start to bring about change.

 We also talked about another important issue and that’s how we talk about menopause. Because let’s face it, that’s been and still is taboo. Though Jane attributes her lack of confidence to menopause she also says one thing that women don’t realise is that although you may have a difficult time with it, there is also a huge part no one talks about and that is the surge of energy and confidence you get afterward. Why? because suddenly you have testosterone in your system.

 There is, of course, a lot more that we discuss, and if like me you are a fan of all of what Jane says then you can continue to hear more about her story through her wonderful book that she co-authored with Carol Russell called ‘Invisible to Invaluable. Unleashing the power of midlife women’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08JY58CYJ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 

For episode 46, I had the pleasure of interviewing fellow French woman and super talented artist Camille Walala. If you’re a Londoner, you will have probably seen her work around town- that’s because it cannot be missed. Camille uses buildings or any type of man-made landscape as her canvas, using a fusion of bold colours and playful geometric patterns. Whether it’s reviving an entire street in Leyton stone, creating a weird and wonderful house for Lego, taking over a disused petrol station in Arkansas, or most recently creating a pop-up supermarket selling artist-designed foods at the Design Museum. Her work is bold, colourful, and striking to say the least.

As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of her work so I was so excited to sit down with her to talk about her journey. From growing up in a small town in the south of France, she went to London as a student to work on her English and fell in love with the city and its free spirit. Her biggest struggle, however, was to find her career path. We go deep to understand what it was that made things so hard.  

She attributes her lack of confidence and being a harsh self-critic as two of her biggest hurdles she had to overcome. Multiple jobs and a textile degree later, out of pure frustration her creative voice was born. It was her hardship and tenacity that led her to be one of the most recognizable artists today
  and such an inspiration.

The thing I love most about Camille is her passion to elicit joy in everything she creates and this conversation is no exception. 

I hope you enjoy this interview just as much as I Ioved recording it. 

This episode features the amazing Sophie Williams. For those who don’t know Sophie, she is a TED Speaker, a leading anti-racism advocate, and the author of two great books. The first, Anti-Racist Ally is an Introduction to allyship at home, work, and in the community, and was published in October of last year.  

And just this week, I’m very excited as she has just released her latest book - Millennial Black. The book is the ultimate guide to the workplace for black women. It offers empowering, practical, and comprehensive advice for black women to build a career. But not only that it also has inspiring interviews from the likes of June Sarpong, Aja Barber, Candice Brathwaite, Naomi Ackie, and Munroe Bergdorf.  

I feel extremely lucky to have recorded Sophie’s story as she is one busy lady and this episode brings you not only a great insight into her views but also how she got to where she is today.

 From a challenging time as a drama student and the all too familiar experience of being the only black person for the majority of her time at uni, to randomly falling into the world of advertising and to writing her book Anti-racist ally in just 9 days after a fateful social post threw her at the heart of an important debate. 

Regular listeners to the podcast will know that I love nothing more than to go deep and so I could not be more proud of this episode as it’s probably one of the deepest, most emotional, and important discussions I’ve had in a long time. 

In this episode, I had a lovely conversation with Sarah Ellis. Sarah is the co-founder of Amazing If, an award-winning career development company with a mission to make work better for everyone. She’s also known for the great career podcast: Squiggly Careers and co-author of a book by the same name.

This interview could not be more relevant for our current times. One of the reasons I reached out to Sarah was because of what happened to my best friend. After being furloughed and then made redundant from her job, my friend found herself lacking confidence at the prospect of finding new work – something she had not done in years.  She knew she should take this opportunity to go after her dream job, a career that would be ‘squiggly’ as it was completely different from her old one. Thanks to Sarah and her cofounder’s advice through their book and podcast she was able to not only find her confidence but get her dream job.

Unfortunately, my friend’s experience is not unusual. In fact, working mothers were 47% more likely to have permanently lost their job due to the pandemic. So it was great to sit down with Sarah and to understand not only her own career path but also get excellent advice on how to embrace a squiggly career. As well as all the great things we can do or put in place to ensure that we can thrive in the workplace. 

For this episode, I caught up with Annie Atkins. You might not have heard of her name but you will certainly have seen her work. She's the mastermind behind some of the most iconic graphics props and set pieces for multi-award-winning films. Notably and probably one that stands out the most is her work for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and most recently the French dispatch. And yes the famous iconic pink patisserie box from the grand Budapest hotel is made by her! She’s also worked on the animated feature The Boxtrolls, Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, and most recently his West Side Story adaptation. And that’s just to name a few!
 
To say I was excited to record this interview is an understatement. Annie is, as expected, fascinating! As usual, I followed her career path, from starting her design course at Ravensbourne to her challenging time as a designer in the world of advertising to her first job on the set of The Tudors and finally her time working as a fully fledge graphic designer for the film industry. 
 
We go deep into the work that makes up her extensive career to date and Annie is full of great stories – from designing the carpet in the grand Budapest hotel to making a spelling mistake on that famous French patisserie box, to constructing maps, Maps, newspapers and dog tags for Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. 
 
She is also open about the type of mindset that is required to make it in this highly stressful job. And as a woman, we talk about how things seem to be finally changing in the film industry, where the importance of flexibility at work is starting to be recognised. 
 
I could go on about how much I enjoyed this conversation but instead, I will let you hear it for yourself. 

Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did recording it!
 

For this episode, I spoke to Olimpia Zagnoli. An Italian illustrator known for her incredible bold, colourful and sometimes ‘naughty’ illustrative style. She is prolific, her work has featured everywhere from the cover of The New Yorker to the shopfronts of Uniqlo, to a series of illustrations for Prada and she even has her very own line of homeware. It is not just her style that stands out, it’s her witty observations and effective execution that makes her so recognisable. 

What struck me during our conversation is her ‘Che palle’ as they say in Italian. Literally translated as ‘She’s got some balls’! Whether it was deciding to dress up as a punk in her conservative high school, to tracking down top Italian art directors home addresses in order to deliver her portfolio. Or deciding to leave everything behind for the bright lights of New York and getting work from editors of her favourite magazines. Finally and maybe my favourite story is when she got asked to work for Dior by its famous creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri and for deciding to abandon her fail-proof art direction to try something new and totally different - and of coursed it worked! 

This for me encapsulates Olimpia. A great illustrator who not only has found her voice but isn’t afraid to use it and is now rightfully reaping the rewards. 

In this episode, I interview the artist Jade Purple Brown.

If you don’t know Jade, you may have come across her work if you use Adobe illustrator as her work is the splash card that comes up when the application is loading. That’s how talented she is and so I was excited to capture her story. 

And what a story it is. I actually reference during our conversation that her life is akin to a movie. From being fired from her first job as an art director to rising up and working hard to finding her voice as an artist and all the challenges that come with this arduous path. 

Her ethos is to bring messages of optimism to create new, dynamic worlds of individuality and empowerment. And it shows, it's hard to quickly pass her work without being mesmerized by her bold lines and punchy colours. Along with pushing herself to create 2 pieces of personal work every week, she also creates work for some pretty big brands including Nike, Refinery 29, Sephora and Apple.  

Jade also imparts some really important practical advice - whether that’s how much you should charge for your work or how to build a strong portfolio or following on social. 

Our hour-long conversation flew-by and for good reason as Jade is fascinating and being in her 20s, I suspect this won’t be the last we hear of her. 

For this episode, I interview Yomi Adegoke. I first came across Yomi through her amazing book ‘Slay in your lane’ which she co-wrote with Elizabeth Uviebinené. Slay in your lane is an absolute must-read, from education to work to dating, this inspirational, honest and provocative book recognises and celebrates the strides black women have already made, while providing practical advice for those who want to do the same and forge a better, visible future.

The book is filled with stories from both Elizabeth and Yomi’s own lives, as well as interviews from dozens of the most successful black women in Britain – including BAFTA Award-winning director Amma Asante, British Vogue publisher Vanessa Kingori, Karen Blackett OBE CEO of Group M and Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis. 

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook describes the book as “a gift for anyone who wants to better understand what Black women and girls are up against – and the tremendous resources they draw upon as they make their way in the world” 

Yomi is a busy lady. Alongside her book, she also writes for the Observer and The Independent and hosts her own podcast with Elizabeth. So, as you can imagine, during our conversation we cover a lot.

Yomi opens up about the importance of putting herself first and taking a year out of Uni due to depression. We also discuss how during that same year she struggled to find work placements so instead decided to create her own magazine. It was through this significant year that she found her passion as a journalist. Finally, she gives some really inspirational and practical advice on how she launched her book ‘Slay in your lane’.

I’m not going to reveal too much about our conversation as it is much better if you hear it straight from Yomi. 

For this episode, I interview the super inspiring Anna Ginsburg. Anna is a filmmaker who specialises in traditional hand-drawn and stop-motion as well as live-action videos.

Her films have earned her a lot of well-deserved accolades over the years, including a Bafta for the Bombay Bicycle Club's for the music video 'How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?', ‘Private Parts’, a film that features, you guessed it, women and men’s private parts, which was screened at film festivals worldwide. And most recently Anna has directed a short film called 'What is Beauty?', released for International Women's Day in 2018, which has received over 15 million views.

Her work stands out and so does she. From the get-go, I was hooked by her story, especially how it was thanks to a tutor at university that she ditched the world of architecture; for the somewhat uncertain world of illustration and motion graphics. It was then that she saw the value of taking risks, something that she goes back to over and over with her work.  

We also talk about how she made it as one of the few female film directors and the disappointments, anger and misogyny she encountered along the way. It was not easy but she unashamedly; and rightly so; credits her self-confidence and ability to speak up as skills that were key to getting her where she is today. 

Finally, we discuss her work processes and the importance of feeding the ‘creative’ flame so to speak that makes your work stay relevant and stand out from the crowd – I’m not going to give it away now but it’s really good so you’ll have to hear it from Anna!

You’ll hear the occasional train noise coming from above her studio which is based in a railway arch in London. I had an absolute blast and I urge you to listen to the full hour, it is well worth it as Anna is full of great advice and is really fun to listen to! 

For this episode, I interview Hong Kong restaurateur Lindsay Jang, who is behind some of Hong Kong’s hottest restaurants. 

I’ve always been fascinated by restauranteurs. Simply because to be a successful one you need to combine a lot of different and varied skillsets – from branding to creating an atmosphere and of course making sure you serve up delicious food.  It’s also notoriously super hard to make a success of it. And with Lindsay I got someone who's done exactly that, she talked me through her entire journey into the restaurant business – co-creating not one but three successful restaurants - Yardbird, Ronin and Roti Tori. And having eaten at Yard bird I can say first hand how amazing the experience is.

Originally from Canada, we discussed Lindsay’s upbringing and her different influences including working at her parents’ restaurant and how it led, albeit much later, to finding her passion as a restauranteur. She also credits working everything single job there is at the super-exclusive and world-famous restaurant, Nobu, for teaching her everything she needed to know about the restaurant business. It was there she started creating the master plan for setting up her own restaurant and after a few years of fine-tuning, she took the plunge and hasn’t looked back.

What strikes me with Lindsay is her ability to learn from the best around her but also her confidence to pick and choose what would work best for her restaurants; which she successfully managed by creating fun, exciting and unique restaurants that has certainly resonated with the Hong Kong scene. 

And as usual, we go through a lot more than what she is doing now, we discuss how she travelled the world with a newborn before starting her restaurants in Hong Kong, the benefit of going to drama school in order to learn the art of bullshitting and why competitiveness with others is a complete waste of time. 

She has an amazing career story that is different to most for sure – I found this conversation fascinating and I hope you do too.

Other mentions: Restaurants: Masa, Zuma, Sweetgreen