Start Fail Repeat

Katy Leeson is the Managing Director of Social Chain and former head of new Business and Marketing at MediaCom. 

Social Chain is a Global Social Media Marketing Agency, working with some of the largest brands in the world including Superdry, Warner Music, Coca Cola and Boohoo. Katy’s impressive career and accomplishments led her to secure the managing director’s position after just six months at Social Chain. 

Since her appointment, she has become an IPA women of tomorrow finalist and developed a number of new initiatives within Social Chain’s existing structure, such as Data Chain which has become a key focus for growth and source of revenue since its onset. 

Katy is the host of the podcast ‘I Shouldn’t Say This, But’, which is ranked in the top 5 business podcasts on iTunes.

We talk about stress-related illness, toxic work culture and how to avoid burnout and leadership lessons she's learnt.

https://socialchain.agency

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-leeson-39931a53/ 

https://open.spotify.com/show/0dILJHvos2jWWZ2RbNjZol?si=azRJ__4nQlqI4sbhfeIzGw 

William Woodhams is the CEO of luxury bookmarker Fitzdares. 

Will cut his teeth at Group LVMH in the wine’s team, where he launched Belvedere vodka. His rapid rise saw him evolve through to the watch division, where he worked on both TAG Heuer and Christian Dior. He soon became global CMO of French Connection group, instigating a total rebrand and re-organization of global marketing and brand. He then joined the board of creative agency Mission where he worked on brands as diverse as Amazon, Tiffany, Victoria Secrets, Pirelli and his final project, the launch of the iconic new Annabel’s and cycle phenomenon Peloton. He is now CEO of luxury bookmaker Fitzdares. The business has seen a dramatic turnaround in both brand perception and value as it balances cutting edge technology and luxury experiential moments with world-class customer experience. In March, William Launched the Fitzdares Club in Mayfair, the world’s first luxury sporting club.  William Woodhams relished the opportunities and challenges that lockdown presented. Although it was a real challenge to the business and difficult decisions were made at speed, it was also an opportunity to galvanise the hard work the team had done and for the first time get a competitive edge.

Woodhams comes for a background of technology, marketing and luxury and had accepted the CEO position at Fitzdares because he had seen an opportunity. The industry was going in one direction, while governments were catching up with legislation focused more and more on compliance.

Woodhams believed there was room for in the market for a mid-sized player that focused on customer experience over advertising and algorithms. A premium alternative, if you will.

https://www.fitzdares.com/club/ 

 Shanice Mears is the co-founder of The Elephant Room. The Elephant Room is a new creative company and they are taking a new approach to how they work within the advertising industry. 

Shanice has been named one of Managements today 35 under 35 and most recently the champion for change by Oystercatchers in 2020. She has consulted and worked with with brands such as; Converse, Uber UK, Adidas, Wray and Nephew and more.

www.theelephantroom.net

Eshita Kabra is the founder and CEO of By Rotation, the UK's leading peer-to-peer fashion rental app, where you can hire luxury designer clothes and accessories from top brands.

We talk about:
-  The personal story behind why she decided to launch the business 
- Moving from finance to fashion and the obstacles she faced
- Her experience being a first-time founder

www.byrotation.com

Benjamin Hall is the founder and Managing Director of Loft.

In May 2003, Ben  started; “BuyToLet-Furnishings" with a £15k student loan, after completing his degree at Nottingham University. His aim was to provide a "one stop" furnishing solution for the residential property sector within Greater Manchester.
 
 In 2004, they re-branded and became LOFT Interiors. Since then, the business has grown into a nationwide operation. They’ve become the go-to for furniture and interior design for residential properties in London and Manchester. 

Ben started LOFT with £15k and now it's turning over close to £20m. 

W chat about: 

• The realities of the entrepreneurial journey – he started really young and learnt some lessons early on
• To management when growing a company and leadership during difficult times like now
• His journey from hitting the Manchester party scene in his 20s to being completely sober now and the amazing impact that’s had. 
• His new venture with remote outdoor living and how he’s helping the homeless community
• His POV on failure and why we should all think more about what we have to gain vs. lose

His outlook is so positive and I think you’ll find this conversation really motivating,

If you like it, please do subscribe or leave a review – it means a lot!

 https://www.loft-interiors.co.uk

https://liveoffgrid.co.uk

Today’s guest is Bryony Cole.

Bryony has appeared in Forbes, TedX, New York Times, Wired, Vice, Mashable and Vogue. She is a trailblazer who is questioning and redefining what the future of sex looks like, what the effects of tech are on our intimate and personal relationships, and the implications for female sexual pleasure. Bryony followed her curiosity and  developed her own podcast called The Future of Sex, which she has grown while becoming a thought-leader and expert in this space.

While Bryony is hugely successful, she’s also one of the most genuinely kind, curious and positive people i’ve met. Her energy is infectious and the work she has done in changing perceptions of this fascinating industry is commendable. 

Check out her podcast The Future of Sex - https://open.spotify.com/show/6efexpa6WDsGtZDpGdfazf?si=oQUcSJGuS5CKjFa-wiaX1w and her Sex Tech School - https://www.sextechschool.com/ 

Nafisa Bakkar is co-founder and CEO of the award-winning media platform, Amaliah. 

After graduating with a degree in Natural Sciences, Nafisa learnt to code and built Amaliah, with her co-founder and sister, into one of the UK’s leading platforms for Muslim women. Today, Amaliah has a digital footprint of 4.2 million each month. Through articles, videos, podcasts, events and brand partnerships, Amaliah creates meaningful moments for Muslim women to feel seen. Nafisa has worked with global brands and agencies like WGSN, Universal, eBay, Lush, and Marks and Spencer to help them understand how to create meaningful moments for their audience and communities.

Nafisa is also the CEO of Halal Gems, a halal food discovery platform which runs one of London’s biggest street food festivals, seeing over 150,000 attendees over 3 years at Old Spitalfields Market.

In this episode, we chat about what led Nafisa to start her platform Amaliah and the challenges she's faced overcoming imposter syndrome.

We also discuss why brands need to be better at speaking to Muslim audiences and how they can go about doing that.

If you liked the episode, please subscribe and leave a review!

Thanks for listening,
Katie

Stefanie Sword-Williams is the founder of platform and event series F*ck Being Humble, having refined her method of imparting self-worth and self-promotion skills giving talks at industry panels and events. She has been commissioned by international companies including Google, Warner Music, Unilever, Bumble, SmartWorks and Cannes Lions Festival to run professional development workshops. Stef was also named as one of The Dot's 'Creative Trailblazers', identified as one of the 100 women redefining the creative industries.

Whether it is through our parents, our education, our bosses, our colleagues, or the media we consume, we are constantly told that being humble is essential to our professional success. It's often seen as distasteful or arrogant to shout about our achievements. But in a modern workplace, where the conventional, steady, linear career path is becoming rarer and rarer, this advice seems ever-more obsolete. In the age of flexible working and portfolio careers, it's time to F*ck Being Humble.

In this episode, I chat to Stef about her career journey and why she decided to launch this platform. We also discuss toxic work cultures, the mistakes she made early on, how to get a book published and how to promote yourself.

‘When you have a truly world-changing start-up, you have to change the world to fit it, not the other way around.’

Excited to share episode 4 with you! I speak to Cindy Gallop who used to work in advertising at esteemed agency BBH, running the Singapore and New York offices.

She since did a Ted Talk that went viral, about the impact of porn as default sex-ed, and uncovered a global social issue that inspired her business.

She talks to me about how she effectively built her own category - sex tech - and has turned every obstacle she's faced into a business opportunity. 

We discuss why sex is the final marketing frontier and the brands or agencies who don't realize this are missing out on a huge business opportunity.

She also talks about the double standards faced by female-led tech companies. 

I loved chatting to Cindy - she doesn't hold back..! Hope you enjoy the episode.

Abadesi Osunsade is a VP at BrandWatch. She previously worked at big names in the London tech scene, including Amazon and Groupon. 

She's the host of the weekly podcast Techish - which is all about the intersection of tech, culture and life. Abadesi self-published a book about starting out in tech, called 'Dream Big, Hustle Hard - The Millennial Women's Guide to Success in Tech' and was named on the Financial Times list of top 100 influential leaders in tech.

Abadesi shared stories of her early years starting out in tech, and the challenges she overcame. She has loads of advice for shaping your own career and avoiding living on auto-pilot. We also talk about the community she founded and how she published her own book.

I hope you enjoy!