Greater Than 11%

For episode 87 we are joined by the gorgeous Shanice Mears, Head of Talent & Co-founder of creative agency, The Elephant Room.

Shannie shares her passion for fostering community and supporting others - being a bridge between talent and opportunity.

She goes back to her creative roots and discusses her love of dance and how she shaped her talent and skills to work within advertising.

Ambitious and wanting to connect with like-minded people she founded 'Girls Let's Talk' before she relocated from Birmingham to London and how her love for music led her to be a Community Manager for the London Chapter of shesaid.so - a brilliant organisation, which brings together a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry.

In 2017 she co-founded The Elephant Room with Dan Saxaby and they have just received the news that they have made the shortlist for The Drum Awards for Best Independent Agency of the Year and Best Approach to Diversity and Inclusion. Huge congratulations. 🎉 🎉 🎉

Shannie is bloody incredible (you'll hear Renee fangirling) - her focus on nurturing, supporting talent and literally building a more diverse creative industries, makes her legendary in our book. 🧡

You can connect and get in contact with Shannie: [email protected]

You can find out more about Creative Storytellers and how to get involved here: theelephantroom.net/case-study/creative-storytellers

Check out Girls Let's Talk via Instagram: @girlsletstalk__ and click here for shesaid.so.

Please note this is our final episode for Series 2. We are currently looking for sponsorship to continue with Series 3 - sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date on our future plans.

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

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🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

For episode 86, we aren't featuring a panel discussion as Crystal is on holiday but rather the amazing Chief Operations Officer and co-founder of market research agency Imagen, Cat Agostinho.

When I say 'amazing' I mean it! I think Cat is one of the loveliest people - EVER. Keep an ear out for how many times I say 'awesome' & 'amazing' -think it is fair to say I went a bit fangirl!!!

Not only is Cat highly talented with a stellar CV, she is also the co-founder of dawn network and founder of her own Media & Marketing business - Agostinho Consultancy.

She discusses some real challenges she has faced in her career and shares what she did to overcome them. She also talks with passion about her businesses, supporting others and the importance of walking (and looking up) when thinking.

You can connect with Cat via LinkedIn, find more about Imagen and how to get involved and how to attend a dawn network event.

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

Occupational Therapist, artist and 1/3 of the electro-punk band, Charismatic Megafauna - this episode we are joined by the fabulous Georgia Twigg.

Georgia discusses the benefits of working across different industries (acknowledging it can also be exhausting), a DIY approach to whatever they focus on and applying 'doing, being, becoming' to areas of their life that pushes them outside their comfort zone. A great example - deciding to learn the drums whilst performing to audiences. 😳

They also share combing their skills as an artist with their knowledge of physical and mental well-being to form a workshop focusing on staying positive and engaged in the face of disagreement. You can listen to a version of the workshop commissioned by ‘Keep it Complex’ titled: ’How to talk to people you disagree with.’ and also purchase an accompanying zine here:
https://makeitclear.eu/posts/how-to-talk-to-people-you-disagree-with/
It is super practical and provides a lot of useful information on managing your own health and wellbeing in confronting situations - such as campaigning or protesting (or at Christmas family dinners!).

You can also listen and purchase Charismatic Megafauna's music here:
https://charismaticmegafaunamusic.bandcamp.com/album/semi-regular

Georgia is open about their experiences and delivers so much wisdom about self-journey, creative expression and social justice - some real gems to mull over. 💎

A big thank you to all of Charismatic Megafauna of allowing us to use their music on this episode. 🧡

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

On this month's Greater Than 11% Panel while Renee is busy raising awareness for our 20k for 20k campaign, Crystal is joined by Emma Sexton, CEO and Founder of creative agency MYWW, former presenter of Badass Woman's Hour and all-round trailblazer. 

Emma's agency MYWW is a remote-first agency and she's been leading creative teams remotely long before Covid hit. They discuss the power of vulnerability in building strong teams, challenging conventional wisdom about creativity and the creative industry's response to Black Lives Matter. 

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

Welcome to this special episode of Greater than 11%. We are celebrating and shouting out to all those that have donated to our £20k for 20k fundraising campaign.

The Greater than 11% podcast will reach 20,000 downloads by the end of August. We are super proud of this figure and thank all of our wonderful contributors and for listeners helping us reach this milestone.

The podcast is a self-funded initiative and we set off to fundraise - on the premise coined by co-host Crystal Eisinger - if we had a £1 for every download we would be able to raise £20,000. Ambitious yes but we wanted to give it a shot and with the funds, award financial assistance to fellow creatives that are struggling fiscally, emotionally and mentally as a result of the pandemic and its impact.

Who are we talking about:

Artists, 

Musicians,

Those that work as cast & crew in the Film+TV and Theatre Industries

Creative educators outside the schooling system

Creative Producers

Creatives

Craft makers

And so many more people and jobs that have been affected.

If you are a regular listener or this is your first time to Greater than 11% you can find details on how to donate here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/greater-than-11---20k-for-20k 

A huge thank you and shout out to those who have donated to date: 
Pascalle Burton

Lucy Ferguson

Beth Foster

Nicola Rix

Mari Continenza

Ally Waring

Simon White

Craig Fenton

Nicola Kemp

Jen Clark

Amarat Sehgal

Jay Richards

Rina Atenza

Joe Hill

Lisa Goff

Lucie Gledhill

Hilary Joiner

Still Epsilon

Beck Gooby

Tessa Atkins

Marilyn Ford

Chantell Glenville

We have also had a number of anonymous donations so thank you to those secret squirrels! 🐿 

For episode 82, we are joined by film and television royalty, Script Supervisor, Emma Thomas.

Her contribution to the industry has not gone unnoticed and in 2019 she received a BAFTA Craft Award  - for her talents.

Emma’s career, started as a clerk-typist, at Elstree Studio where she was responsible for answering the fan mail for her boss - Kermit the Frog. Amazing! 🐸

She has gone on to work on 50+ production - features and series. She explains in detail all that a script supervisor does and the importance of training the next generation.

Emma is incredibly positive - I tried to get some industry gossip but she was so lovely about everyone. Enjoy.

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
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We are fundraising at present to support creatives that are struggling as a result of lack of income as a result of Covid19. If you've enjoyed listening to Greater than 11% and  are in a position where you can donate you can do so here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/greater-than-11---20k-for-20k

You can also support by sharing the campaign on your social channels.

After the COVID19 series & Allyship panel, Crystal and Renee have a good old catch up. They cover how they're doing in the "new normal", their continued allyship journey and they share their top reads and watches from the last few weeks. As ever their conversation ranges far and wide from the fruits of foraging, definitions of equity versus equality, Japanese reality TV and period tech!

We also discuss our BREAKING NEWS!
The Greater than 11% podcast, now in its second series and having interviewed 100+ people, will hit 20,000 downloads in September. We wanted to mark this milestone by continuing to support our community and are focusing on raising £20K for 20K (downloads). The rationale being, if we had a £1 for every listen, we would quickly be able to raise the cash and create a grant fund providing 20 x £1000 for female / non-binary creatives based in the UK.

If you've enjoyed listening to Greater than 11% and  are in a position where you can donate financially you can do so here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/greater-than-11---20k-for-20k

You can also help us by promoting the campaign on your social channels.

As per our all our panel episodes we end on our watch and read segment. 

📺 Cracked Up: The Darrell Hammond Story, Netflix
📚 The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Crystal's Recommendations:
📺 Terrace House, Netflix
📚 Period Power by Maisie Hill

Remember to check out the new Greater Than 11% website (greaterthan11.com), subscribe to the newsletter. 

For episode 80 we are joined by Coach and Co-Founder of Hack Camp, Isabel Sanchez.

Isabel’s career started off in social enterprise and then merged with the tech sector working with the likes of Lifeline & Just Giving. Most of her roles revolved around working with people - establishing collaboration with clients, colleagues and developing others. As a result, her passion for empowering people led her to pursue a career in coaching.

Together with the wonderful former Greater than 11% podcast guest, Samira Musa, they founded Hack Camp - coaching to enable ambitious young leaders to transform their lives from the offset. In addition to their coaching, their fist initiative ‘Future Leaders’ was put together and launched in a matter of weeks in response to The Black Lives Matter movement. They are currently focusing on arming the next generation of young Black leaders with the right tools and methodologies to reach their full potential.

Isabel discusses why she was drawn to coaching, her personal approach and shares her and Samira's vision for Hack Camp and Future Leaders.

If you want to learn more about Hack Camp and get some coaching you can do so here: https://www.hackcamp.co.uk/

Isabel and Samira are currently raising funds for their 2nd cohort of Future Leaders you can contribute to here: https://www.hackcamp.co.uk/future-leaders


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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

 

Allyship: A Verb Not A Noun

In this month’s panel show, Crystal and Renee are joined by Aluma, the owner and founder of ADN photography and Beth Foster, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead for Alphabet and Chief of Staff for the Black Googler Network. 

Aluma shares her personal experience of the past few weeks; ranging from the exhaustion to personal growth. 75% of respondents to our poll said they didn’t know what Allyship means so we discuss Allyship fully and practically. What it looks like, what it feels like and crucially, that it is rooted in action. Beth discusses how intentions matter less than impact and her own Allyship journey. 

Tune in for an honest, touching, kind and hopeful discussion about the small bold actions we can all take, to further racial equity and for a deep yet highly practical understanding of Allyship and what it entails. 

Resources which were discussed listed below:

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/white-fragility/robin-diangelo/9780141990569

White Fragility YouTube Video by Robin DiAngelo.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ey4jgoxeU&feature=youtu.be&t=89

READ: 

All BAME Ain’t The Same
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/why-bame-aint/1672936

Natives by Akala 

ACT:  

Write to your MP using this template to make Black histories mandatory in the national curriculum
https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/action

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven

For episode 78 we headed to South West England - to Bristol precisely and are joined, virtually of course, by Foley Artist, Louise Brown.

To flag, we had a bit of a dodgy Zoom line at times, so there is a little static here and there but nothing too unbearable.

Louise breaks down exactly what it is a foley artist does. From hugging bowls of water for a shark film to walking on the spot for up to 8 hours. Ok, it is a lot more complex than that, but you'll have to listen to the episode to hear it from the metaphorical horse's mouth... or should I say hoof?

With a burning desire to work in the music industry, but with no understanding of how or any industry connections, Louise made the decision to jack in her job at a factory and do a BTEC followed by a degree in Music Technology. Whilst doing a summer job with an unplanned visit Pinewood Studios she discovered foley and this began a long and slow slog to break into the industry - even having to ignore and push on after being directly told by her boss at the time 'women can't do sound' 😱.

Louise pulls back the curtain and shares some trade 'foley secrets' - who would have thought paper clips attached to leather gloves would double up as claws? She also breaks down the whats and hows when working on a brief for the likes of BBC's Doctor Who or Netflix's Sex Education.

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🛎 We need your help pushing for change: a more diverse creative industry within years, not decades. Please share the podcast with others who you think may be interested or benefit!

💓Leave us a review/rating and we will love you forever: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/greater-than-11/id1435811372 

Be sure to follow us:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaterthaneleven/

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gre4terThan11
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greater-than-eleven