40 Minute Mentor JBM, James Mitra

“Dyslexia is a learning difference. There’s nothing difficult about it. You have challenges, but you’re not a difficult individual.” 
In our final episode in this specialist advice series, we’re joined by Onyinye Udokporo, one of the UK’s youngest education experts, entrepreneur, dyslexic author, neurodiversity consultant and content creator. 
Onyinye’s entrepreneurial journey started when she was only 12 years old, when she began tutoring children and young people from her local community in her parent’s living room. 
Following her own diagnosis with Dyslexia, she became an author of ‘Dyslexia and Me: How to survive and thrive if you’re neurodivergent’ and started her own Neurodiversity Consulting firm in 2022, where she delivers training and workshops as well as consulting services to businesses including Google and the BBC. 
Today we’ll dive into her entrepreneurial journey, from day one in her parent’s living room to using AI for good, and everything in between. 

Episode Chapters: 
➡️ Learning from setbacks [02:15] 
➡️ Upbringing & starting a business at the age of 12 [04:10] 
➡️ Quitting big 4 consulting on Day 1 [09:10] 
➡️ Early entrepreneurial inspirations [18:30] 
➡️ Being diagnosed with dyslexia [21:15] 
➡️ Making businesses more neuro inclusive [27:50] 
➡️ Advice for neurodivergent Founders [30:40] 
➡️ Hiring & retaining neurodiverse talent [36:30] 
➡️ Education & AI [41:30] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Onyinye on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onyinyeudokporo?originalSubdomain=uk 
➡️ Find out more about her work: https://www.onyinyeudokporo.com/

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“It very often feels uncomfortable for Founders to put themselves out there in that way. But the more you do it, the easier it will get.” 

In this 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re covering a topic critical for every early-stage Founder - the power of Public Relations. 

To help us discover the do’s and don’ts and share some of the biggest advice for Founders and Communication teams, we’re joined by Rhiannon Evans-Young, Founder & Director of Crest, Isabella Cookson, Director at Milltown Partners and Hannah Urbanek, Fractional Head of Marketing and 40 Minute Mentor Producer. 

Episode chapters: 
➡️ The Do’s & Dont’s of PR [01:10] 
➡️ Building your Founder brand [05:00] 
➡️ Common PR mistakes [10:30] 
➡️ Navigating a communications crisis [15:00] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Rhiannon on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rhiannon-evans-young-0179885b 
➡️ Follow Isabella on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/isabella-cookson-03218280 
➡️ Follow Hannah on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hannahurbanek 

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“Make networking a daily occurrence. It’s everyday interactions. It’s making a good impression early doors and really taking the time to build meaningful relationships and connections.” 

In today’s episode, we’ve put our host, James Mitra, into the interviewee seat. 
James was recently invited on Alembic Strategy’s Strategy Café, hosted by Founder and MD, Nick Mayhew. 
If you haven’t heard of Alembic before, they’re a team of facilitators and coaches working at board level with family businesses, founder-led businesses, private equity and with developing leaders, in the UK and internationally. 
Nick and James discuss the unique journey JBM has been on and the key lessons James has learned over the last 11 years of leading JBM. 

Episode chapters: 
➡️ Introductions [01:08] 
➡️ The power of networking [04:45] 
➡️ Bringing networking into your day to day [08:20] 
➡️ Starting JBM at age 25 [14:20] 
➡️ Disrupting traditional recruitment [17:40] 
➡️ Dealing with competition [20:15] 
➡️ Changing lives through recruitment [24:50] 
➡️ The mistakes along the way [28:30] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayhewnick/ 
➡️ Follow James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmitra-jbm/?originalSubdomain=uk 
➡️ Find out more about Alembic Strategy: https://www.alembicstrategy.com/ 
➡️ Find out more about JBM: https://jbmc.co.uk/ 

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“[Debating] teaches you to listen, to challenge well, and it teaches you all the skills that you need to be able to be in any room at any time, with anyone.” 

The world seems more divided than ever before. 
But is it actually or are we simply shying away from debating and leaning into disagreeing with each other? 
This is exactly what we’ll explore in today’s episode - the power of debating and the benefits of disagreeing, in business and beyond. 
To help us unpack this important topic, we’re joined by Scarlett McCabe, Co-Founder and CEO of Debate Mate and Lewis Iwu, debate champion, author of ‘Words that Win’ and Co-Founder and CEO of Purpose Union. 

Episode chapters: 
➡️ 60 second CVs [04:55] 
➡️ Finding the right people [13:05] 
➡️ Writing your own playbook [16:50] 
➡️ Introduction to debating [18:30] 
➡️ What debating teaches you [22:25] 
➡️ Skills needed to be good at debating [27:50] 
➡️ Benefits of debating in business [30:30] 
➡️ Getting into debating now [35:00] 
➡️ Communicating better [37:50] 
➡️ The power of disagreeing [41:30] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Scarlett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlettmccabe/ 
➡️ Follow Lewis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-iwu-b3125024/ 
➡️ Find out more about Debate Mate: https://debatemate.com/ 
➡️ Find out more about Purpose Union: https://www.purposeunion.com/ 
 
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“The most difficult part [of going fractional] is starting a business. It’s having to wear every hat yourself, from selling, marketing, relationship building, finances, ops and admin. You are everything.” 

Fractional careers have been on the rise over the last few years. Both, for experienced Operators making the move into fractional work and for Founders who are looking to hire highly experienced Operators, at the fraction of the cost of full-time hires. 

To discuss how you make the move into fractional work and why you might want to work with fractional leaders, we’re joined by Neda Sahebelm, fractional COO and Carla Hoppe, Founder and CEO of Wealthbrite, the startup educating non-finance people in finance. 

Neda and Carla are working together on a fractional basis and open up about how they make fractional work in today’s episode. 

Episode chapters: 
➡️ 60 second CVs [06:15] 
➡️ Transitioning into fractional work [14:00] 
➡️ The most difficult part of being fractional [16:35] 
➡️ Hiring fractional talent [22:15] 
➡️ Fractional vs Full-time hiring [27:15] 
➡️ Defining your fractional scope [29:35] 
➡️ The day to day as a fractional COO [34:30] 
➡️ Making your fractional talent part of the team [38:30] 
➡️ The experience you need to go fractional [41:40] 
➡️ Making the switch from permanent COO to fractional COO [43:45] 
➡️ What to consider when hiring fractionally [46:20] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Neda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nedasahebelm/?originalSubdomain=uk 
➡️ Follow Carla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlahoppe/ 
➡️ Check out Wealthbrite: https://www.wealthbrite.co.uk/ 

🤝 In partnership with Operations Nation 🤝
This episode was produced in partnership with Operations Nation, the community-powered knowledge hub for Operations leaders. You can find out more about Operations Nation and join their community here: https://operationsnation.com/ 

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“If you’re in a situation where you’re dealing with [a difficult boss], I think the question is - am I actually getting something from this? And if the answer is ‘no, I’m getting nothing’, then it’s time to really think about what could be your next step.” 

To kick off our brand new ‘Specialist Advice’ series, we’re joined by workplace expert and long-time contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, Amy Gallo. 
You may have come across Amy on her own co-hosted podcast ‘Women at Work’ or have read one of Amy’s best-selling books, including her latest work ‘Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)’. 
In today’s episode, we dig into Amy’s advice on effective communication, conflict management and how we can get along, even with the most difficult colleagues and bosses. 

Episode chapters: 
➡️ Failing every day [02:40] 
➡️ Leading by example [06:40] 
➡️ An early career in consulting [09:50] 
➡️ Getting into Harvard Business Review [17:10] 
➡️ Why relationships get difficult [19:55] 
➡️ Dealing with difficult bosses [25:00] 
➡️ The eight archetypes of difficult people [30:00] 
➡️ Embracing conflict in your team [35:10] 
➡️ Building resilience to bounce back from conflict [41:10] 
➡️ Relationships in hybrid & remote first environments [43:55] 

⛳ Helpful links:
➡️ Follow Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyegallo/  
➡️ Grab a copy of Amy’s latest book: https://www.amyegallo.com/books 

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