Raise The Bar BRICK

For this Christmas special there was no one better to join me than my brilliant friend, and returning guest, Upasna Bhadhal!Over the past two and a half years or so, Upi and I have shared offices, kept each other sane and generally picked each other up in the hardest of times, especially as covid rapidly affected our businesses and lives in such unexpected ways.I hope you enjoy listening, and more than that, I hope that you have a really restful and enjoyable Christmas and new year break - wh...

Hello! I’m really excited to introduce today’s guest to you, Jess Phillips MP.Jess almost needs no introduction. She is the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. Jess has been an MP since 2015 and joined Keir Starmer's Opposition frontbench in 2020.I’ve hugely admired Jess’s tenacity from afar, but what I saw close up is the tenderness and generosity that makes her a great spokesperson and representative to so many. She was an absolute pl...

Welcome back to Raise The Bar! I'm so excited to be bringing you some new episodes with great guests!Today's episode is with behavioural neuroscientist Katherine Templar.As we near the end of 2021, burnout is at an all-time high and our resilience is at an all-time low. Two years since the first Covid case was reported in China, we are exhausted, and a large contributing factor is our low tolerance for uncertainty.In this episode, Katherine sheds light on how our brains evolved to prefer cert...

Hello! We're back... and we've decided not just to bring you a new series, but a whole new podcast!That's right; same host, same production team. But this time, focused on green innovation, uncovering the stories of those who are building our future.Introducing... What Does Green Really Mean? Climate change and environmental damage is our most pressing global challenge.Right now, greenwashing, eco-anxiety, global politics and misunderstanding are getting in the way of real progres...

This week meet Imogen Tazzyman, Executive Creative Director at McCann Manchester, a 370-strong marketing and communications agency.A few months ago, Imogen emailed me about the lack of diversity in the top roles in advertising. Despite the diversity and inclusion initiatives that many companies have rolled out over the past few years, the default leaders still tend to be white, male, straight and able-bodied.The truth is that that profile doesn’t represent the broad demographic of consumers i...

This week meet the founder of Radswan, Freddie Harrel. Freddie’s entrepreneurial journey began as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. A proud shapeshifter, hair is Freddie’s freest and earliest form of self-expression. But she struggled to find great afro hair products, and the market was both biased and constrained.Seeking to solve this problem for herself, Freddie sought out a supplier in China who could help her to develop a better quality hair product. Not long afterwards, demand was high...