00:00:00 Linda talks about how she got into the industry and how she decided to niche down her focus to working with independent restaurants.

20:18 Ben, the host, asks Linda about the benefits of niching down her focus. Linda says that it has helped her to create a more personal connection with her clients and to be able to provide them with more specialized services.

22:20 Lily Elsner was born in Georgia, nut yes… North Carolina then South Carolina. #17 Positive pessimist startup Founder & CEO Lily Elsner | What Do They Do?

24:11 Ikigai - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40534545

26:42 The Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath has a section about how purpose beats passion.

27:08 What did you want to be growing up? Ambitious young Linda!

32:35 Growing a love of food through a Buddhist, Cambodian family and learning that this can influence the niching process.

37:05 Ben asks Linda about her typical day-to-day work as a brand strategist. Linda talks about the different tasks she performs, such as conducting research, developing marketing strategies, and creating branding materials.

01:06:20 Ben asks Linda about the most rewarding part of her job. Linda says that she loves being able to help independent restaurants succeed and to make a positive impact on their communities.

01:24:07 Ben asks Linda about the challenges of her job. Linda says that one of the biggest challenges is working with tight budgets. She also says that it can be difficult to get independent restaurants to invest in marketing and branding.

01:37:07 Ben asks Linda for her advice to aspiring brand strategists. Linda says that it is important to be passionate about the industry and to be willing to work hard. She also says that it is important to be creative and to be able to think outside the box.

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Ben spoke to Design Sprint Goddess Jing Foon Yu, who approaches design with a female lens. They spoke about her facilitation approach, confetti buttons, design sprints and her journey as a Chinese-Dutch female through coloring competitions, atlas exploration, graphic design agencies and going freelance and the people who doubted her at their peril!

The conversation was originally recorded in January 2023

You can connect with Jing via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jingfoonyu/ or through her agency Jingeling https://www.jingeling.nl/

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Drew and Ben caught up in May 2023 to pick up a conversation they started in London in 2022 at a conference where Drew, head of experience at Braindate, was leading the Braindate experience that Ben participated in at EdtechX..

Drew is based in Montreal and we caught him between travel to find out more about his role with Braindate alongside his freelance facilitation, community dance projects and his former roles as an entrepreneur in the Yoga and wellness space.

Braindate

7:30 Being head of experience for Braindate, a mechanism for networking at conferences

10:00 Is travel something you look for in a job?

12:13 What were the aspirations when growing up?

Drew mentions his wellness studio, which we talk again about later: https://studiojuly.co/work/elmnt-studio/

15:40 Reflecting on education and skills where Drew discusses being a ‘university dropout’.

22:09 Your skills versus a job description and the value of ‘soft skills’ and things that are harder to teach

29:00 Building culture in new organisations

31:28 Advice from Drew about spotting an authentic company

35:10 Drew mentions B Corp organisations https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/

36:00 Migration dance film project https://migrationdance.com/

51:40 Drew’s Yoga/wellness studio business https://www.instagram.com/elmnt.studio/

1:00:45 “I don’t like the gym…”

1:07:47 The theme: Bringing people together

1:10:09 If you could do anything…?:

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Ben spoke to CEO and co-founder of Jack Fertility, a male fertility startup. They spoke in February of 2023 9 months into the startup’s journey. Lily also works part time for University of Oxford on their Oxford Character Project as a relationship manager, working with industry partners to research the state of good leadership in UK businesses. Lily is a rowing coach and mentor… She does a lot!

The conversation explored how Lily became the co-founder of a Male Fertility company. This touches on her MBA and meeting Nick Shipley on the course just as Covid hit and as Nick was expecting a child.

After exploring the role of a startup founder we tracked back over Lily's fascinating journey through education in the US and Ireland, taking a route to medicine then deciding to pivot before university after time working in Washington DC and being exposed to healthcare policy and options around the world. Lily then pivoted to Law as a way to influence healthcare more effectively.

Throughout, Lily’s attention to detail and dedication is clear. It is an intriguing journey that includes an incredible amount of experience for someone so young. Probably why she gets mentioned by Prime Ministers and is a young innovators award winner for 2022/23!

Connect with Lily:

LinkedIn

4:00 Becoming a female founder of a male fertility startup

10:45 What Jack Fertility does (sperm is mentioned!)

15:00 Lily’s appearance on the Empower podcast

18:36 Proving your business isn’t viable

21:55 Lily’s journey growing up in Georgia, US then Cork, Ireland and back to Us in rural South Carolina and wanting to be a Physician (Medical Doctor).

29:14 Choosing not to go to medical school

34:00 Lawyer then… in New York for a global firm then corporate governance back in Washington DC.

41:30 Deciding to go to business school in Oxford, UK

44:09 “Get paid to learn”

48:48 Forté Foundation MBA launch supporting women going into business

51:00 New Zealand wine harvest between work and MBA course.

54:00 March 2020 mid MBA when covid lockdowns began

59:00 Becoming a female founder

1:16:00 Shout out to Christian from Founders and Funders

1:17:00 January business highlight mention from Rishi Sunak

1:18:00 If you could do anything…?

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Event host, facilitator, workshop designer and stand-up comedian Brittni Bowering joined Ben for a chat in Jan 2023. We caught Brittni at an interesting time as she is focussing on finding the one thing after exploring lots of options and roles.

The conversation took in the journey from growing up in Canada, to moving to Berlin where Brittni taught her future husband English and worked with AJ&Smart as they became the number one agency for Design Sprints.

Connect with Brittni…

IG: https://www.instagram.com/brittnibowering/?hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittnibowering

Website: www.hibrittni.com

2:45 The 1 thing book: https://amzn.eu/d/dSjOECV

6:25 Growing up in Calgary, Canada

11:06 Creating Moments, Brittni reflected on a talk where she gave away popcorn to create a peak moment for attendees. This includes a conversation about The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath at 12:30

17:50 From Canada to Berlin

29:00 Business English teacher in Berlin

31:30 Marketing and advertising agency work

32:30 Discovering Design Sprints (created by Jake Knapp) and workshops at @AJ&Smart. Developing content and social media to grow the business, creating a sales funnel.

41:00 Social media branding and strategy freelancing after AJ&Smart

50:30 Finding the one thing

55:20 Being a stand up comedian

1:04:44 The Art of Gathering by Prya Parker.

1:08:00 If you could be anything?

1:10:30 Final tips and advice

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The podcast is back with new guests where Ben is asking them what they do, and how they got there. In this season preview Ben gives an introduction to the guests where we have the recording in the can and an overview of upcoming interviews we have on the schedule.

Dean and I have been super busy but have managed to get back on to the podcast. Ben has been conducting some interviews to kick off season 3...

1:06 We are now on YouTube (but you knew this)

1:38 The one thing with Brittni Bowering

2:23 Excerpt from Brittni's episode

3:28 Positive pessimist with Lily Elsner

4:12 Excerpt from Lily's episode

4:58 Design Sprint goddess Jing Foon Yu

5:30 Excerpt from Jing's episode

7:05 Niching with Linda Lim

8:02 Excerpt from Linda's episode

8:50 Reframing failure with Loell Wolfries

9:38 Excerpt from Loell's episode

10:16 Upcoming guests we have yet to record with

12:20 Connect us with great guests! Comment with suggestions

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Les McBeth leads special projects for Future Design School. Based around their persona of a future ready graduate Les brings the various projects together across schools, higher education, corporate and community. We discussed the role and how Les got from a small Oil town in Canada to the role via some different degrees, studying in Lancaster, working in Geneva and New York before working for Future Design School.

Les shared some really interesting stories about picking up roles through less traditional routes that don't match any of your qualifications. From working for Monks and Nuns to finding your perfect role at a party on a convent rooftop, there is lots to enjoy in this episode.

We are still searching for the RAF base near Lancaster that Dean mentioned!

Related links:

Find out more about Psychogeography

Design Trust for Public Space

Google for Education Innovator Program for Teachers

We use riverside fm to record our podcasts. Check it out

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