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Inspire Club EP #17 - Beth Collier
8 Plays4 years ago
In this episode we talk with Beth Collier, Communications, Creativity & Leadership Expert at Beth Collier Consulting.
Beth has had more than 15 years of experience helping individuals and companies improve their communication and leadership – from executive communication and massive transformation programs to everyday business writing and presentations. She has also worked closely and delivered programs for people at all levels – from senior executives and leaders to graduates.
In her chat with Matt, Beth details her experiences working in the television industry, why she believes everyone has a creative side and why it is important to have courage to help express your creativity.
We hope you enjoy it.
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Transcript
Matt's Return & Team Reunion
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome and hello to another episode of Inspire Club from Inspiring Workplaces. It's me, Matt Manners, your host. Ruth Dance has taken our hosting duties the past couple of weeks. Thank you very much, Ruth. It's great to be back. In England, we're kind of coming out of lockdown right now and a vaccine rollout around the world seems to be going well. So
00:00:25
Speaker
Who knows, we might be getting to a world where we did things in the past that just seemed like we shouldn't have a song and dance about, but now are seeing huge, like going down the pub for a pint with your friend. So I'm seeing my team tomorrow for the first ever time in 14 months.
00:00:46
Speaker
We're going out to lunch in Clapham, outside. It's rained for a month in England, raining like it was the Brazilian rainforest. But it actually is sunny today, so hopefully we have a well-earned lunch. So I'm really looking forward to that.
00:01:01
Speaker
I've just had almost an hour-long conversation with our guest today before clicking record. Absolutely amazing woman. I can't wait to start having a formal conversation with her on our podcast. Recommended from one of our previous guests, Jason Anthon, who also is the Chief Inspiration Officer for Inspire Atlanta.
00:01:26
Speaker
from from midwest america have gone to hollywood to new zealand and now living in in our part in my part of the world in london about 30 miles away so maybe have a have a drink with her at some stage in the future i'd love to welcome someone that is basically always helping to build creativity communications and leadership with it within human beings welcome beth collier how you doing
00:01:50
Speaker
I'm doing well, Matt. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for being on the podcast. And I'm glad you love the boss, Bruce Springsteen, like I do. I love your curious mindset and that's what set you off traveling around the world and finds you here in London now.
Introducing Beth Collier
00:02:08
Speaker
How's life treating you at the moment?
00:02:10
Speaker
Well, I'm looking forward to returning to some of the simple pleasures of life. As you mentioned, like last week the restaurants just opened up and I went to a cafe with a book for an hour and had a cup of tea. How British does that sound? And I just read and I was realizing like I haven't done this in so long. And
00:02:31
Speaker
You know, I booked tickets to go to a museum this weekend because clearly I'm getting older and nerdier that one of the first things that came to mind when we opened up that I was like, oh, I can go see some art. But it's all those little things that are wonderful about London, you know, the theater, the art, the museums, the restaurants that we've missed for so long. So, you know, I'm excited to get back to some of that again.
Beth's Joy in Simple Pleasures
00:02:57
Speaker
And I'm hoping it snaps back in as easily as that too, because I saw one friend for the first time last week, once the rules have been relaxed, and I was waiting for him, a friend and colleague, and just like I took my laptop, and I had to wait an hour for him. So I was just doing some work on my laptop with a beer, because it was the end of the day. And I'm like, oh, this, I remember this, this is what used to be, you know, this is how life was.
00:03:26
Speaker
I see people do some work. It was great. I think people not from six feet away. From six feet away or on a camera and then just see my mum and my in-laws for the past year. That's been my social circle and they're fantastic human beings if they ever listen to this podcast.
00:03:45
Speaker
So anyway, to you, like I say, it's been an absolutely fantastic conversation off the podcast. And I'm really looking forward to seeing your views and answers to some of our staple questions. So especially this one, The Only Rule of Inspire Club, to share a story of somebody at work who's inspired you along the way in your life.
Inspiring Leaders: Intelligence & Kindness
00:04:10
Speaker
Sure. Well, when I when I think about who's inspired me, I think about, you know, I've been working for 20 years and in a variety of industries and seeing a lot of different leaders and people and the people who really inspire me. I think of starting out in my career when I was in Los Angeles, I worked at a TV show and there was a producer there named Janet Spellman.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I really respect Janet, even more so now, having reflected on 20 years of other people that I've worked with, because Janet was someone who was very smart. She was good at her job, but she was also very kind. And those are things that are important to me as I've worked and the people that I want to work with, that it's not just about being
00:05:01
Speaker
intelligent or smart or good at your job, but it's also the kind of person you are. And I think, you know, another one who inspired me when I was in New Zealand was the CEO, one of the CEOs I worked with who, again, was incredibly intelligent, but just also such a he was a good person. He really cared about employees.
00:05:22
Speaker
And it's just a real pleasure to work with those kind of people that are not, they're not just there for the job. They care about the people. They genuinely care about the people. And those are the ones who've really inspired me.
Creative Industry Experiences
00:05:36
Speaker
And are we able to name drop the CEO in? Yeah, so his name's he's retired now. John Whitehead was the CEO of Treasury. So very, you know, high pressure organization. You know, you don't work. You're not the CEO of Treasury unless you are an incredibly intelligent person. But John was just such a good person as well. And that's really stuck out to me all these years later is kind of reflecting on those people I've seen along the way.
00:06:04
Speaker
Fantastic. And what a great common denominator to have for people that have inspired you to be good people, good human beings and the impact they have. Well, thank you to Janet and John for inspiring Beth because Beth inspired me this morning. So thank you. Thank you for doing that. I've got to ask, can you name drop the TV show? You know, just curiosity and all that.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, so I worked on Days of Our Lives, the soap opera at NBC. And I also work for New Line Cinema, the film company. And I worked for a show that is didn't last very long called it was called Jesse when it aired. It was with Christina Applegate. Yeah, it was done by Bright Kaufman Crane, who that might not ring a bell, but they there are people who did Friends. So that was really interesting. Like when Friends was at its height back in the late 90s to see
00:06:54
Speaker
those producers and how they worked and it was just a really interesting experience.
00:07:00
Speaker
Wow. And Days of Our Lives obviously featured on Friends with Dr. Drake Remora as well. There you go. I was laughing about this earlier today, Matt, thinking about, you know, when I worked at Days of Our Lives, our big thing was we were number one on college campuses and people would say like, but the storylines are so far fetched. They're so ridiculous. But then I look around at the world and I think that those ridiculous storylines that seem far fetched in a soap opera actually prepare you for life because particularly when you're here in the UK,
00:07:26
Speaker
watching what's happening with the politics here. It's like, yeah, it's kind of like the
Overcoming Fear in Public Speaking
00:07:30
Speaker
soap opera. Oh, yeah. Life is definitely a soap opera and all about timing. It's constantly full of drama. You think you've gone through one drama and then there's another one waiting for you around. Absolutely fantastic. Absolutely awesome. And the Friends Reunion Show are things on this week as well. It is, yeah. I might have to tune into that one as well. Big, big fan. Took my wife to
00:07:56
Speaker
the village and showed the corner of Bedford and Grove or whatever it is in the village to show the apartment building. But anyway, it's such an awesome career background. And again, thanks to Janet and John for inspiring you. We did touch on this a bit earlier, but it'd be great to know about what your why is, what gets you out of bed every day. What's your why at work?
00:08:21
Speaker
So I think the biggest thing is for me now, Matt, is that I see people held back and they're held back from things that they don't have to be held back from. So when I see people who are held back because they fear public speaking, and this can manifest in a lot of different ways, but they might not want to share their ideas in
00:08:44
Speaker
something as simple as a team meeting or with their boss or they might not want to stand up in front of people and present at a town hall or something like this. They may not want to share their ideas because they, which their ideas may be really creative, but they're scared for, you know, they might be laughed at or they might be ridiculed or they might be rejected. And these things hold people back. So this lack of identity of like people will say to me a lot, well, I'm not creative or I used to be creative and I will fight that.
00:09:13
Speaker
every time to say, no, you are creative. Maybe your creative muscles have become weak because you haven't used them enough, but you as a human being are creative and you are capable of things. And if you are struggling with public speaking, for example, it does not have to be that way. And so my why is to help people build those skills that are going to
00:09:34
Speaker
like this sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true, bring them joy. Like when you build your skills and build your confidence and you get your ideas out there, like, yes, it can help you, it can help your career advancement, of course, people like to talk about that, but like when you don't have to face those fears of, you know, my palms are sweaty, I feel sick, I feel nervous, I physically don't wanna do this, when you don't have that anymore, it can be really joyful.
Embracing Fear for Workplace Progress
00:09:56
Speaker
And when you know that you are creative and you're capable of these things and you get your ideas out there and you see what you're capable of,
00:10:03
Speaker
that brings you joy, too. And so that's what I'm here to do is just to help people, you know, find that inner strength, find those inner talents and get them out there. Amazing. You know, what a great reason to get up in the morning and then especially when you help people overcome that fear and find that joy and what they do. I imagine it's incredibly fulfilling just to see that take place.
00:10:26
Speaker
It is like, because it brings joy to their like, I mean, I have seen this with my clients that like, not only does it help them in their career, but it helps them in their personal life, too. Like, you know, creativity is not just reserved for the workplace, you can use this, you know, in your communication as well, you know, when you know how to get your ideas across, good things can happen. And so to see people really the transformation that happens is really wonderful. I actually did a I seldom write blogs, I try and again, stay in the background a bit.
00:10:54
Speaker
But I wrote a post yesterday called F Fear. And it's obviously a bit strong title, but it was bubbling up for a while. But we obviously try and inspiring workplaces, trying to build psychologically safe environments, workplaces that have no fear. But I fear that I fear that fear itself is starting to really get in the way of progress at a point in time, coming out of the pandemic and the things that have happened around social justice in the world, where
00:11:24
Speaker
we've got such a great opportunity and if we're not capitalising on it because people are afraid of trying to do change but they might be doing it and they might say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing that might come across as backdated or wrong and the fear of those mistakes might be jumped upon and
00:11:45
Speaker
And therefore, they just don't ever do anything in the first place. I mean, if we don't do anything, no change will ever happen and bad things to fill that void. So I was basically saying that we're all afraid of something at work or in life. And what we need to try and do as individuals is not necessarily trying to overcome that fear. Yes, that'd be great. But as individuals, we should all try and create environments
00:12:09
Speaker
that and assume positive intent in some way where you don't necessarily jump on somebody straight away or you can educate them or show them the way or say that's a good idea and then try and spark off other ideas. But what I'm trying to get to without going on a bit of a rant is I love the fact you're trying to help people overcome their
Fostering Innovation through Safe Environments
00:12:30
Speaker
fear. And I think we as individuals have a responsibility to try and create those environments and atmospheres that allow people to open up.
00:12:39
Speaker
to share opinions, to try and make change, because they're probably trying to do it for a good reason. Yes, absolutely. I think fear is a big I talk about courage is one of the traits that you need if you want to be creative. And it's because and I'll be honest about this, like creativity is not easy. It's not easy to work in a cup, particularly for like a big corporate, like a lot of my background is, it's not easy to have this idea that is new and different.
00:13:05
Speaker
to share that idea that's new and different. And that's what a creative idea is. Because humans, as much as they say, we want out of the box thinking, humans, we cling to what we know. The status quo is much more comfortable for us. So when you have that crazy idea, and I put that in quotes, it can be hard to share it because people might say, well, that will never work here. We tried that once.
00:13:28
Speaker
Those are the things that people say all the time. That's not how we do it here. And so then people clam up in this idea of psychological safety. It's such a grand word, psychological safety, but there's a reason it's so important because you need someone to say, I have this idea and maybe my idea is crazy and maybe it won't ever work.
00:13:48
Speaker
But when I share it, it might mean it might spark an idea out of you and you might hear an idea or you might find a way to say, well, you know what, we can't do this aspect of it because of whatever reason, but we could do this or how how could we do this or, you know,
Challenges in Remote Communication
00:14:02
Speaker
it's just getting that thinking. And for people.
00:14:04
Speaker
I feel like leaders have such responsibility and opportunity here to say, let's put those ideas out there. And if they fail, I mean, look at all these things. Look at these companies that are talking about embracing failure or just showcasing it. It's getting you a step closer. You're not going to create something incredible on your first go most of the time, but the refinements that come, the learning that comes, all of that is good.
00:14:29
Speaker
And hardly ever on your own either. The others around you. People can help you. People can collaborate. And you're right. I think you mentioned about this positive intent. I think we do have to cut people some slack. I think cancel culture being this big thing now. And I think particularly for people who have grown up with social media, if you were in the generation where you shared your every thought when you were 17 years old or whatever,
00:14:56
Speaker
You know, I think we have to put a little bit of grace and compassion to knowing that, you know, what you said at 17 may not be what you believe at 27 or, you know, there's a difference between what people said today and every day versus like, oh, when I was 16, I said this thing because I was I didn't know better, you know. And I referenced that in the post as well, I think because
00:15:21
Speaker
Social media has allowed people to comment quickly, because it's easier to comment on things when you're not face to face with somebody. And you can also when face to face, you can see people obvious positive, obvious positive intent or the meaning in which they're trying to drive this change, but they might have said it in the wrong way. And I think in the world where we might be going back into now where remote working might be more prevalent, and going to the office might be less regular,
00:15:50
Speaker
There is, I think there's a real risk here if we're following the trends of...
00:15:54
Speaker
the council culture element, that that could find its way into the world of work a bit more. And then you're creating a more fearful environments. And we're actually what we're all trying to do is we're trying to create these environments where there are no fear where we do feel safe. So I think there's a real we're at such an important stage of the world, I think right now where the workplace can have a real positive influence. And like I say, that that blog had been bubbling up for a while, but to hear your what your your why is, it really rings true. And
00:16:24
Speaker
If we can support you in any way and whatever you do and your voice, then we'd love to publish as much of your content as possible, Beth.
Continuous Learning: Advice from Bill Hayes
00:16:32
Speaker
It's a great why. That's fantastic.
00:16:35
Speaker
And you touch on a good point too about, this is why I care so much about communication because particularly now where we've seen in this hybrid environment or if we move to a more hybrid environment, there's so much communication happening via Slack and email. And you lose a lot when you don't have tone, facial expression, body language. And so often, like I talk about this where people
00:17:01
Speaker
people I don't know why people aren't more interested in learning how to write better like if I talk about writing to people they're kind of like you know but I'm like writing is such an important skill because how often do you get either angry or upset because of an email that you foresee like I think everyone can think of examples where they think like oh that really made me mad or
00:17:22
Speaker
or confused, you know, like, so if you think about it in this way of like, if you write well, you have a better chance of getting the outcome you're after, and to keep people on site as well.
Courage & Creativity: Managing Fear
00:17:32
Speaker
And I think it's really important for people to think about when they're writing, your words matter. And when people don't have your tone, and they don't have any other cues, it's, it's more important than ever. So it actually reminded me of a time when I did
00:17:44
Speaker
media training for a load of different soccer players or football players, depending on where you're listening to this and probably get shot now for saying soccer in England, but there we go. And I used to show them a video clip, because I just trained them to do interviews after each match. And it was a video clip, where there's a really, really angry manager doing a post-match interview. And it was essentially
00:18:10
Speaker
all you saw like 90% was the tone of the voice and the body language but people weren't listening to what was coming out of the manager's mouth but everything was that tone as you said and body language and you don't have that you don't have that in that remote environment so i think it's really really important as we say right now in the world we're coming into to think about these different factors so um yeah well done for everything that you do um
00:18:35
Speaker
To another question from the Inspire Club that we usually touch on, and I'd love to imagine there's some great advice being given to you over the years, but what is the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who is it from? Okay, so the best piece of advice, I think the best piece of advice actually was when I was interning in California. So an actor named Bill Hayes,
00:19:00
Speaker
told me he had been an actor for a very long time. And he said, yeah, there are a lot of interns that come in and out of this place. And a lot of them don't take advantage of what this opportunity is. Because you come in as an intern, you're at the bottom of the food chain, right? Like you're doing all the jobs that nobody else wants to do, photocopying scripts and running around the set and answering telephones, that sort of thing.
00:19:26
Speaker
But he said to me, you know, don't don't miss the I think from from our conversation I took away from it he said don't miss the opportunity to learn. And so when I was there, I didn't know if I would work in film or TV I loved, I've always loved pop culture I love the industry.
00:19:42
Speaker
But I took his advice to heart and so it when I was finished if I was finished doing stuff or we had a little bit of a slow period I used to ask like can I go down to the set for a while or can I go to the editing booth or can I go down to where the music team like I would just go and watch people and some people were very they were just so kind to tell me about their
00:20:03
Speaker
you know, what are they doing and what are their jobs? And like one director said, we were filming on a Saturday and I said, can I come in and just shadow you and just watch how you direct a TV show? And I didn't want to be a director. That wasn't my aim to be a director, but I just thought this could be, when am I going to get to be on a TV show and spend a day with a director and watch how
00:20:24
Speaker
how they do it, how they put it together. Like this is just an opportunity to learn. And I think that that's really good advice to tell people, you know, don't miss an opportunity to learn. Even if you think, well, I'm not interested in that area or like you never know. And I find like in my work, I take inspiration from so many places. Like I read a lot of books and I, you know, I try to just absorb a lot of information and you never know what is going to give you an idea. And so that's what I would encourage people to do is just don't miss those opportunities to learn.
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, no fantastic advice and almost spins off into another piece there culturally if you don't ask you don't get so I think and not stereotyping so please don't label me as one anybody listening but I think I think as a culturally Americans would
00:21:14
Speaker
would ask for things or if something was possible much more readily than an English person because an English person is feeling like that might be a bit too cheeky or I don't want to impose but if you ask somebody's going to say yes or no and usually they would love for you to be there mirroring them or seeing what you do or it'd be actually seen as a polite request to actually be interested in what they do
00:21:38
Speaker
So don't ask don't get and that's actually philosophy I live my life by and the amount of things that you'll have done by asking and just what the list you rattled off in that time in LA and the stuff I've been able to do by just going is it possible to
00:21:54
Speaker
And it's not just a cultural thing. There's a gender thing at play, too, because as women, like I can speak a lot on the woman side of this, that, you know, there is that hesitancy to like, I'm going to be in someone's way or how you take the rejection. If someone says like, no, you can't like to pick yourself back up and go, OK, well, that person said no, or maybe they said not now. But to look at it like, well, that doesn't mean everyone is going to say no.
00:22:19
Speaker
absolutely
Stress Relief through Peloton & Music
00:22:20
Speaker
yeah if you get a no keep going yeah absolutely okay this is a good one and i think it really is as relevant now as it was a month a year ago probably even more relevant you know what do you do to beat stress
00:22:34
Speaker
Okay, what do I do to beat stress? So probably some of the best things, and I actually bought this pre-lockdown, and it's kind of funny because it starts with curiosity. I bought a Peloton at the beginning of 2020. So before lockdown happened,
00:22:51
Speaker
And the reason it's funny is because, I don't know if you remember, Peloton did an ad in late 2019 at Christmas where they had this woman that she was called Peloton. And I remember seeing this and thinking like, this is so terrible. Like, what is this? And Peloton was already big in America, but it wasn't big here in the UK. But what that Peloton ad did, which is dangerous for people like you and me, is it made me curious.
00:23:14
Speaker
And I just happened to be walking down the street, like, you know, not very long after that ad aired, and I passed a Peloton shop. And I'm like, you know, what is this thing anyway? Because I also was curious because they didn't come out and immediately apologize, which you expect a corporate to kind of they've been, you know, once they're criticized, shouldn't be like, oh, sorry, you know, if anyone found a fence, blah, blah, blah, and they didn't do that. So that made me curious, too, of like, why aren't they doing that? Anyway, I went into a shop and
00:23:41
Speaker
Yeah, I went in because I was curious and I came out with a peloton. But yeah, so that's one thing I do to be stressed. I think music is great. I think walking is great. Anything like that that gives you a distraction that those are those are good things.
00:23:56
Speaker
I'm looking at the the rowing equivalent actually for my new home at the hydro so but I desperately need to get myself fit and healthy but um but no Ryan Reynolds came out and I think you got the actress from the advert for his gin or something and had a real rip absolutely hilarious rip off of that but
00:24:16
Speaker
obviously did peloton some good by the sounds of it as well. To support that there's no such thing as bad publicity because that's how they came on my radar was I thought like what a terrible ad and then what do you know then I end up with a peloton. I'm not sure you would but I'm going to ask if you could swap jobs with anybody for a day who would it be?
00:24:38
Speaker
You know what,
Improving AstraZeneca's Communication Strategies
00:24:40
Speaker
I'll tell you the job that I would really like to be doing right now is I would like to be working in AstraZeneca. And here's why, because here in the UK, AstraZeneca is the vaccine that's been offered to, you know, that's been the dominant vaccine offered, now they're doing more of the Pfizer. But when I look at what Pfizer has done from a communication standpoint, and even Moderna,
00:25:06
Speaker
like, they have been, in my opinion, so much better than what AstraZeneca has done. And AstraZeneca has had problems, obviously, with the way they communicated their results, the percentages, etc., which that is not good from a communication and trust standpoint of, you know, you think like, well, you're only talking about a couple percent, but
00:25:27
Speaker
if I say to Joe Public, do you want the vaccine that was 90% or 60%, we're all going to choose the bigger number. But we don't get the full story there. And I'm willing to actually try to understand, what does efficacy rate mean? And I think it's an important point for these vaccine companies to understand that not everyone is a scientist. And when you get people who are really smart in the science, they
00:25:51
Speaker
sometimes can speak in a way that they're so used to speaking to other scientists that they forget what other people don't know. And I feel like AstraZeneca, they've done some really good things of making this vaccine available at cost. They have not chased the money as much as you could or you might think a pharmaceutical company would do, but that message has been lost.
00:26:11
Speaker
And I think there are some really positive messages that haven't come out from AstraZeneca, and that would be something I would want to do is just help them, like, let's actually look at your messages, because this at the end of the day is about saving lives. Like, I used to joke about communication years ago, like, you know, oh, I'm saving lives, you know, and I'd say it in a...
00:26:32
Speaker
joking way, you know, when you're when you're writing an email for the CEO, you know, you're like, I'm just saving lives. But you know, like, they are saving lives. Like, there's nothing more important than getting these messages out to help people understand, you know, what are the options? What are the benefits? What are
Productivity through Timeboxing
00:26:46
Speaker
the risks? Like, how does this work? And, you know, and also understanding, you know, when you've got negative side effects, like, well, what are my chances of getting, you know, getting something negative from a vaccine versus what are my chances of getting that
00:26:58
Speaker
Problem if i had a long-haul flight for example like blood clots happen on long-haul flights but we go to australia we go we do these things and so i feel like astrozemic as a company has such an opportunity and i would just love to be like a little helper.
00:27:14
Speaker
Well, if you're listening in Oxford at AstraZeneca, then get in touch with Beth. So there's one last question around professional life, and then we'll switch into the personal stuff. What's your go-to productivity trick? I imagine you're very busy and there'll be lots of things pulling at your time. So what's your go-to productivity trick?
00:27:38
Speaker
So one of the things that I find really helpful is something called timeboxing. I read a book called Indestractable by Nir I.L. and he talked about this this thing called timeboxing. So you look at your day and I actually do this by hand. You could do it on you know you could do it on computer but
00:27:56
Speaker
I actually like I print out a calendar every week and with boxes for every hour of the day and I will assign things to that hour and you know you have to give yourself some flex like sometimes I'll just put a free box where it's like I don't know what I'm gonna do in this hour but I'm not pinpointing my thing into
00:28:12
Speaker
to an activity, but I find it really helpful to just struck I like structure with with the degree of flexibility. I find that simple process of thinking about, okay, I've got, you know, 10 hours in the day or whatever it is, what do I want to achieve? And when am I gonna? So if I say, right, I'm, I'm researching this article that I'm writing between nine and 10.
00:28:34
Speaker
And that is what I'm going to do between 9 and 10. And when it's 10 o'clock, I can make that choice to go, I can either go on to my, hopefully I have something else planned for the next hour. But if I'm really in the zone, I might go, you know what, I'm going to flip it around. But just putting a little structure, I find that really helps.
Night Owl Habits & Music for Motivation
00:28:49
Speaker
Yeah, timeboxing has been very popular throughout this podcast so far. And I'm a wannabe timeboxer. I call it the power hour. And when I do it, it works. I just haven't got there consistently. So after quite a heavy period recently,
00:29:10
Speaker
I've just, I've just, I'm gonna only have phone calls between these three hours every day, each day of the week, rather than just having sporadic phone calls. But whether I get there or not, I don't know, I'm like I said, I have a wannabe timeboxer, but I haven't quite got there just yet. So, so we might have to write do something on it, I think, because I think it seems so popular. So maybe we get somebody in and to do a talk around it. And that might even help me as well. So early bird or night owl?
00:29:38
Speaker
I would choose to be a night owl, but I have young kids, so that doesn't work as well.
00:29:46
Speaker
Wow, okay. So that's been an interesting year for you than I imagine if you if you've had young children as well. So Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm getting up on my year two math maths, as they say here. And, and the rest of it. Yeah. Yeah. No, friends of mine, men and women just all going, wow, this year we've had with our young children. Just bonkers. Yeah, one one hopefully we leave in the past.
00:30:12
Speaker
I've always appreciated teachers. I appreciate them even more. Yeah, no, yeah, I agree. My mum's one. And yeah, again, if she's listening, I appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know how you took care of us after a classroom for the kids every day, actually, to be honest with you, but there you go.
00:30:32
Speaker
This is probably the toughest question. A favourite album that you're listening to, your favourite album that you can just put on and listen to and your best song that you need to fire yourself up on the peloton or at work.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah, so favorite album. I mean, I'd have to go back old school for that. You know, I'm an MTV generation person. So probably the album I would choose would be Madonna. I'd probably go with Immaculate Collection just because it spans a lot of that kind of early Madonna stuff. Like the sons are still so like a lot of them are still so fun and enjoyable. And I'll do a lot of 80s and 90s rides on the Peloton, which is probably one of the reasons that I like it if I get that.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, my go to song. So I do a lot of presentations and workshops and I will talk about like, how I like to listen to music before I do it. And my pump up song is ACDC, Thunderstruck. Oh, yes. Like, it just gets it. I did. That's a great song as a great song before you got your presentation. Absolutely. The drum beat and the guitar. What's your song, Matt?
00:31:40
Speaker
Oh, I think I got interviewed on this, two episodes in or something. I'm the same as you. If I have to go speak or something, I need... Luckily, when I speak, I usually get a gala dinner and I play the song that I need to walk on to. So I play the song that fires me up.
00:31:58
Speaker
What's the Story of Morning Glory by Oasis would be one that gets me going, but Thunderstruck is right up there. It is absolutely right up there. It's really, really good. I think they're pretty my two. I like a bit of Christina Aguilera fighter as well with them being honest with you. Interesting. Yeah, I know, but it's a good song.
00:32:21
Speaker
And it builds. She's a great singer. She's got a good set of pipes. Yeah, she does. What's the funniest thing that's happened to you recently?
00:32:32
Speaker
So the funniest thing that's happened recently is because I talk about creativity, I talk, I've got young kids, they're seven and five, and I will talk about it with them and we will do things with creativity and we will talk about, you know, when I'll draw with them and my drawings are, I'm not a great drawer yet, I'm working on it.
00:32:53
Speaker
But I try to talk to them about how we try and we have fun and we do things that are different. And my daughter put together an outfit recently.
00:33:04
Speaker
that I think the best label for it would be creative. And she came down with these, like, she's got these striped pants that look like pants that Picasso used to wear, the trousers that were white with the blue stripes. She's got something like that. And then she had this dress and a little sweater over it. And then she put
Favorite Films & Love for Travel
00:33:19
Speaker
these rainbow shoes that she has on and she came downstairs and I thought, what an interesting, you know, I thought, what an interesting combination. And she looked at me and said, look mom, it's creative.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I said, yes, it is. And so, like, I thought, right. Yep. You know, you're seven. Go for it. I'm not going to be I'm going to be the voice that says like, oh, no, we don't really wear stripes and, you know, it's like, nope, you want to wear it. You're seven is creative. Go for it. Fantastic. Fantastic. And good honor. Good honor, too. So luckily, there are as many people out now. I'm sure we probably got some looks when we were outside of like, who is dressing that child? But that's all right.
00:33:58
Speaker
Her, herself, the creative genius. Exactly. That's what life's all about. Um, household chore, the one you'd have to, if you can leave, so somebody else has to do it, so you don't have to do it, you know, what would it be? Making my bed. I hate, I hate making my bed. And I know all those productivity people, and you know, the general, from whatever he says, like, start your day and make your bed. I'm like, I don't, I love a made bed. I just don't like to make it. I haven't. Yeah.
00:34:26
Speaker
It's like time boxing. I've seen the video in general, you know, from the Navy SEALs and every day make your bed. And when I do make it, I feel proud of myself. It is one of those things that's so easy not to do. A favourite film you can just throw on the TV and watch.
00:34:43
Speaker
So I always think these ones are tough ones because I do love film and, you know, to pick one is pretty tough. My immediate thought of like, oh, you know, like I love Aaron Sorkin's writing. Like A Few Good Men is one of my faves. Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King, another brilliant writer. But if we're going to pick on
00:35:01
Speaker
Let me give you something that's less common of an answer. And that would be my go-to classic in December, which is Die Hard. And talking about the hill you will die on, I'm ready to fight anyone who says that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. I will say Christmas film. Maybe not a family Christmas movie, not when your kids are really young. But Die Hard, I think, is such a joy because you wouldn't expect an action film
00:35:30
Speaker
to have like drama and humor and like the fun, like it's such a fun, such a fun movie. It goes so fast. Yeah and there's so much that's like, there's foreshadowing and there's like illusion, like there's so much good stuff in it. It's just such a fun, it's such a fun film. Absolutely, absolutely. So I'm assuming you're a fan of West Wing as well then if you're an Aaron Sorkin fan. Yes, yes. Okay, yeah.
00:35:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's my favourite TV show. Is it? Oh, okay. And then it's funny when you see a film and you're going, it's Aaron Sorkin, like the social network. I didn't know he had written it. And then afterwards you go, okay. And he's writing his first class, isn't it? Yeah, so good. He's so clever.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah, Molly's game again hadn't really didn't realize that was him and like, okay, yeah, that obviously was him. Yeah. Yeah. If I see his name, I have pretty high, high expectations. Didn't he do I were talking about Killer Mockingbird off, off, off the podcast. Didn't he do a Broadway version of that? I think it's coming to London, actually. I had tickets to that as one of my, one of my casualties of the I think might ask me what I'm doing in July 2022. Matt, I think they've rescheduled my ticket.
00:36:44
Speaker
Right, because I saw that coming to London, I didn't realise it was coming to London, because I walked past it in New York, and I went, I have to watch that if Sorkin's involved as well. Anyway, great story. Yeah, exactly. Well, but yeah, so last last couple of questions. Let's go to best place in the world you visited, and where would you be right now if you could be anywhere in the world?
Guest Recommendations & Episode Conclusion
00:37:09
Speaker
Best place. This is kind of like film. It's really hard to make a narrow down to one because I've been lucky to go to a lot of places. I think probably one of the most fantastic trips I ever took was I went on a safari in Kenya, and that was just an it was just an incredible trip. It was incredible to see, you know, it's like you've only seen animals in a zoo and then you see them in the wild. Like that was that was pretty incredible.
00:37:37
Speaker
And I think place where I would like to be now, aside from like, if I can bring my family who I haven't seen in too long with me, like that would be the key. But I would like to be anywhere in the world where a piña colada is on the menu.
00:37:53
Speaker
Because you know, there's palm trees, there's sunshine, there's a beach, like I, you know, as you said, we've had a month of rain in the UK. And I would just love to have some sunshine and water that's warm, but cool at the same time. And it's like a little bit warm, just refreshing to put your feet in the water. And yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
00:38:18
Speaker
Absolutely. Great, great answer. So, last question. And actually, you're on the podcast because Jason recommended that we speak to you. So thank you, Jason. Absolutely. Awesome recommendation. Who would you recommend we go speak to? On another episode of Inspire Club.
00:38:36
Speaker
So there are some people who I have followed on, though I've seen through LinkedIn, that I think are pretty inspiring. They're not people I know, but just their work. And two of them are Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, who do something called the squiggly careers, where they talk about, you know, instead of people looking at their careers, you know, the steps kind of stepping up, that actually, you know, we move all the way around and do different things. And I like that ethos and that thinking.
00:39:04
Speaker
And the other one is a woman named Rachel Carroll, who is from New Zealand. But she runs a company called Coru Kids that looks at helping people with child care in the UK. And I love just this idea of like what Rachel is doing is looking at this problem, seeing child care in this country.
00:39:23
Speaker
which you may experience someday is such a broken process. And it's really, really hard for professionals who get to the point in life that they wanna have children and then they find that the options just don't suit the working life. Like I never had a corporate job that would let me leave at two o'clock to go get my kids and my husband didn't either. So she's looking at coming up with a solution to that. And I just think it's so great what she's doing to, again, helping people.
00:39:51
Speaker
Fantastic. And the expense of it, I know some of my friends who just, you know, one of them quits their job, because the difference between the cost of childcare and their salary is, so you know, my friend, he's a policeman, he's stopping being a policeman to stay at home with the children. So because the difference is just, there's no point really, you may as well spend more time with the children.
00:40:15
Speaker
Well, yeah, and a lot and a lot of people and it's it generally tends to be women who are, you know, statistically who make that choice. And then at some point, you might want to go back to work and then, you know, making that transition again. So it's definitely it's definitely a problem. Childcare is like Rachel talks about, you know, it's like infrastructure. It's something that a society needs to, you know, to help people thrive. So I think her work there is really interesting.
00:40:38
Speaker
I think that's pretty something. I'd love to speak to Rachel about that, because I think that is a clear and present problem, and only going to get worse and something we need to solve. And it does pay into the gender imbalance as well, like you say. So yeah, thank you so much for those recommendations. And thank you for being you and being on the podcast. Well, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
00:40:57
Speaker
I know we've overrun a little bit, so I apologise. But thanks so much to you, Beth. Thanks for listening. It's an honour to be able to have these conversations and for you to listen to them. And we'll be back with another episode of Inspire Club soon. Take care. Bye bye.