Creating Positive Change with Phoebe Benta

Graham Allcott 0:07

This is Beyond Busy. I'm Graham Allcott. I'm the author of a number of books, including the global bestseller How to be a Productivity Ninja. And I'm the founder of Think Productive. We work with some of the world's leading companies to help them get stuff done, but more importantly to help their people to make space for what matters. Beyond busy is worrying explore the often messy trues and contradictory relationships around topics like work life, balance, happiness and success and explore with interesting people what makes them tick. In short, this is where we ask the bigger questions about work. My guest today is Phoebe Benta. Phoebe is the national president of JCI Junior chamber International, a network of young leaders with over 200,000 members around the world in 124 countries. She's also the founder of the Northwest Charity Awards, and has a day job as global digital events manager for at Atos medical. So in this episode, we talk about juggling and balance when you have a lot on your plate, how volunteering can help boost your career aspirations, dyslexia, career pivots, and much more. And I'm sure you're gonna find Phoebe's outlook and attitude as inspiring as I did. This is Phoebe Venter.

I'm with Phoebe Benta. How are you? I am very well, thank you. Well, I guess the the main reason you were nominated for this is you are the national president of JCI. International. So should we start with that? So what is JCI?

Phoebe Benta 1:47

JCI? Well, Junior chamber International, we're a global nonprofit membership organisation for young people 18 to 40. And we have approximately around 200,000 members across the world. And in the UK, we have local organisations across the UK doing fantastic things. JCI mission is to provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change. And the vision for us is to be the leading global network for young active citizens. So in a nutshell, a little bit about GFCI. We have four key pillars or areas that we focus on. And the first one is personal development. And this is something that I'm really passionate about, because this is something that's really helped me along my journey. So that's training, mentoring, coaching, and a lot of academies and other leadership events. We also have the international side, which is one of my very sweet spots as well. We have European conferences across the world, world congresses, and also in different parts of the UK, different local organisations and EU and European events as well. The business side, we have a lot of young entrepreneurs in JCI, this is a great place to build a strong network and connecting again, support each other, especially if you're just beginning it's a great way to start. JCI is all about learning by doing. And that's something that really just jumped headfirst in and you know, do as much and learn as much and see how you could transfer that in other parts of your life. And the final part is the community. We do run quite a few local community projects working with charities, and it's a great way for our members when they join to be active, and to have things to do that will help them so in terms of being on a project team, time management, budgeting, public speaking, this is something I've been a lot more confident over the last few years. And again, it just has a few areas that you could pick and choose what you want to do what you want to get involved in. So just the overview.

Graham Allcott 3:48

Yeah. And what's the link between so Junior chamber international Is there any link between Junior chamber and the chambers of commerce that are chambers of commerce world?

Phoebe Benta 3:57

JCI was a British Junior chamber and they were really connected with Chamber of Commerce was across the UK, some local organisations like JCI, Nottingham which I re engaged with the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, we do still have that relationship and a few others in Sheffield I know and probably Southampton they still have that connection with the Chamber of Commerce is but it's very started

Graham Allcott 4:21

from there and then it's kind of spun out and sort of got legs and it's quite old, right like 1915 I read that it that it started

Phoebe Benta 4:30

over 100 years for some local organisations like fixture Nottingham, 92 years old. A wide range of you know, old local organisations been around for years and some new starters and again, it's all about having that person on the ground who is really passionate about doing something and having some change and been a part of it and started something so for me I live in just in Manchester was a membrane at Manchester, and when I relocated to Nottingham, there wasn't a junior chamber. And I thought, What am I going to do here? So, yeah, I've got JCI, Nottingham re established and a part of GTA UK again had a group of young people who really wanted to get involved and create projects and do amazing stuff. And that's how we got involved. So again, anybody at any location in the UK if they're interested in, you know, recreating a JCI. And being a part of the community, that is an exciting thing to get involved with.

Graham Allcott 5:30

And I in in a sort of earlier part of my career, I was quite heavily involved in student volunteering. So I was a student volunteer, then I ran a student volunteer group in one university than a resident ran the national charity that was promoting student volunteering, and then worked quite a lot with the British Youth Council. And I think for me, there's, there's something really special about empowering young people to become leaders and to make stuff happen. Right. So if you had to sum that up, what's the essence of that? What, what really makes that such an important thing for the world?

Phoebe Benta 6:04

Yeah, so I think in terms of leadership, and I think one thing that I get from Jesse is the whole leadership and learning by doing, especially if you're in a role, where people are looking up to you for that motivation, and that leadership, and you've been in that position, you could, you know, talk from experience or be that guide. I think, for me, from my experience with Jesse is that learning by doing part in leadership, that's been absolutely amazing. And just given me a lot of different ways to try new roles without being like in a paid job, but you're doing these things. I think that's that's really important in leadership is, you know, getting stuck in and doing things and learning from it and not being scared to try new things.

Graham Allcott 6:44

Yeah, for sure. We used to talk about with the student volunteering project around in the university, we used to talk about it, because we had all these young people that were running, running their own projects, right. So they weren't just volunteering for another charity, they were setting things up from scratch and making stuff happen. And we used to talk about it like it was a safe space to make mistakes. So like, we were there in the background, that if we saw something that was just, you know, really alarming, we'd step in, but otherwise, we just let mistakes happen. And if people ran a fundraising event, and they lost money or something, it's like, that's a really great way to just learn how to do better next time. And that, that safe space, I think is a really, really important thing, isn't it?

Phoebe Benta 7:24

Yeah. And that's something we really do promote in JCI. And if you're on a local or national board level, because again, these are groups led by the members, you know, you have experienced in terms of meetings, right in councils, and you know, the whole organisation as a volunteer, and everybody having a role and you know, pulling together because we're all wanting the same thing, we want to see the local organisation, we want to see JCI succeed, we want to give people those opportunities to try new things or get involved with a project or something that would not have usually done. And that way, you know, everybody is getting something from it in terms of personal development, or even just a fun, a lot of people enjoy being around people enjoy, you know, just getting to know new people or having fun. So again, that's a big part of the junior chamber culture is that we really want to enjoy what we're doing together.

Graham Allcott 8:15

Yeah. And my experience of those kind of networks is that you get a lot of young people get involved in that stuff, who were there already, they've already got that instinct to be movers and shakers, and really dynamic and, you know, really ambitious. So you're the president. So do you have to hold all those people in check? Like, is it? Is there a downside to that where, you know, the room is just so full of energy and entrepreneurial spirit? And everything is like, how do you how do you create the order around?

Phoebe Benta 8:44

Yeah, I think it's a little bit opposite in JCI. And in terms of, you know, holding accountable, I'm the one that you know, is being held accountable. Me really, you know, so everything that we do as a national board, you know, we really, we report to our members and local council, everything that we want to go forward with, we need approval, and really, like, do everything for the best interests of JCI. So everything that I do is, you know, thinking about how is this gonna affect the membership? What are they going to think about it, how they gonna interact with it, you know, and making sure that everything is in line with the JCI mission and vision. So it's mainly Yeah, I'm put to task in terms of making sure I'm doing what I should be doing. Each year, the national president, we have a plan of action. So we say what is it that we want to achieve throughout the year? What initiatives are we wanting to choose? throughout the year local presidents Will you know, follow us up on that? You've said you were going to do this Have you done it or you're doing it fantastic. We're getting people involved. So again, it's not one of those organisations where as I'm the president, and nobody could come and talk to me and I'm have a weapon.

Unknown Speaker 10:00

thing. Yeah.

Phoebe Benta 10:01

Oh, I should have actually got a special this but No, I'm not. Yes, quite. It's quite exciting and I think for me it's it's a little bit different this year especially with Coronavirus and yeah, my personality as well, I'm such a people's person, I love being around the members and I get so much energy from it and I give so much energy from it. I think everybody I speak to about JCI they're like, how do I sign up? Yeah, right? No, I just, it just comes out. So it's been a real challenge for me in a way in terms of new way of, you know, engaging and keeping that motivation and energy level up, you know, all the time on the computer metaphor, my day job as well. Digital events manager and PC everyday. So it's like, you know, balancing on energy and how it comes across button, I have a really great national board team. So have different directors, such as membership and engagement. We have personal development and training, etc. And some general board directors have a deputy as well, who's getting prepared for next year and pass national president. So there is a great network of people who are working alongside me to, you know, achieve everything we want to do this year. But it definitely has been challenging a big part of juice. Yeah, we love the people. We love the interaction. And yes, it's great, we could see everybody, but we're still such a big part of what we do. We're really keen to get back to some kind of normality in terms of being able to have our physical events and be around each other in that aspect as well.

Graham Allcott 11:41

Yeah, for sure. One thing that might be worth talking about is just so you mentioned COVID. There, I would say, just the nature of this podcast, I have a lot of people on who've written books, I have a lot of people on here at a certain point in their career, which is, which is why they're there on the show. And so I sometimes struggle to really have, you know, a mix of ages on the show. So you're probably the youngest person I've had on the show for a while. So firstly, congrats. Do you want to that's always a very unfair question to ask a lady, right?

Phoebe Benta 12:17

I know, I am. 29. I'm very soon. So

Graham Allcott 12:21

one of the youngest people I've had. But so I suppose my question is, with, obviously, you know, the period that we've been through with COVID, do you think there are particular effects that have been more felt by young people than by anybody else? And if you're listening to this, and you're quite a lot older than 29, what do you need to be thinking about in terms of how you manage the younger people in your team, you know, some of the things that for young, younger personal perspective might need to change as a result of what we've been through.

Phoebe Benta 12:57

We've seen this across the board in terms of our membership, and you know, engagement, and everybody is dealing with this very differently. And something that we're very cautious of in terms of how people are reacting to what would have been like a normal situation now very, you know, different. In terms of my experience, right now, it's mental health is the biggest thing. And even for me, like for one example, you know, my first day back into the office, my closest colleagues, and seeing them for the first time really excited, but I was so nervous of being close to people, right, just having that I'm usually the hugger. And it was just, you know, it's, I think it's just being aware of where people's comfort level is, and you know, how they're gonna approach this. It's the same situation, but in a different time. You know, people's productions going to be different in terms of our young people, and our members were found motivation, and you know, just having that extra energy to put into things. I think that that has definitely been a bit lowered. Because of all the online activity. People just want to take time away from it. I think, definitely, we've had a lot of conversations around mental health, health and resilience, and you know how to get through right now. I help sisters, you know, who finished university, they didn't have their graduations or they had internships and evolving cancelled and, you know, I'm looking at my sister's going through this and compared to when I finished university and had all these things and excited to see them just sat at home. With all these opportunities just disappeared. This is really heartbreaking. And you have to really think, try and put yourself in their shoes, and it's something now, it's made me think in terms of junior chamber. What could we do to you know, make sure these young people still carry on with the energy and passion and things that they could do to support the community and JCI UK, or JCI in general launch day JCI rise initiative last year. Mr Coronavirus, and this was all about rebuilding, invest in sustaining and evolve. It all came from Jr, chair, Junior chamber because of the COVID crisis, we have three key areas in terms of the rise initiative and is sustaining and rebuilding economies by supporting local and small businesses, motivating the workplace, for young youth, entrepreneurship, and preserving mental health and wellbeing. So with all those three pillars, we've been creating different events and activities to help, you know, bring young people out the shop, show the show into new opportunities, you know, volunteer opportunities, training opportunities, and opportunities to network with other young professionals or students or people in similar positions and giving them a platform to create something to own something to be a part of rebuilding their communities, rather than, you know, sort of home and not really having much to do. It's, it's a great platform. And with JCI, we see, you know, learning by doing if you have a great idea, you have a team of people interested or you want to get more people involved, you know, come up with these initiatives, and we will, you know, provide the resources and support to help. And we've had some fantastic projects come in from not just USA, UK, but JCI Europe, that has just been connecting young people. And I definitely think around mental health and well being having JCI UK members having events with JCI, Amsterdam, JCI, Latvia, Riga, and connecting with young people from all over Europe in the same position is absolutely amazing. One of the events that we did was the JCI hackathon. And this had young people from across Europe giant for full day. And this event was hosted by JCI, Nottingham, and now their friends for life, you know, they can't wait to see. And some of these things are still some of the projects that came out of that hackathon are still being run in other European JCI local organisations. So things like this is really excited to see young people, although it's very difficult trying to find ways of how could they support, how could they contribute and be active citizen. And that's what GSA is all about. That's one thing I wanted to definitely bring up was the GSA rise initiative. And that's mainly because of the pandemic and you know, seeing how we could support and provide those opportunities for members and as well as supporting the community coming out of this.

Graham Allcott 17:24

Amazing Well, I mean, it sounds like the future is in safe hands with you guys. Right? If you want to, if you want to run for Prime Minister some point, I'm sure that's so that's, that's

Phoebe Benta 17:35

really exciting things. And that's what you know, keeps me motivated, as I said, you know, genuinely, you know, around people and just seeing all these things happen, it just makes you want to keep going. So, really, some of the things that not just in the UK, but just the European world has, you know, putting down for young people across the globe to get involved with

Graham Allcott 17:56

and one of the things that you mentioned a couple of minutes ago that people might have missed, they just slipped in there that JCI and being national president that's like what you do on the side from your day job as a manager. So let's talk about that. So that your your day job is with atoss Medical, and your global digital events manager. So is was that a roll that? Did did they have a global digital events manager before COVID? Or is it this is a reaction to COVID? Right?

Phoebe Benta 18:26

Yeah, so Wow, this whole process has just been incredibly I have no words for it. But I started at ETS medical UK in 2017. When I moved to Nottingham, as one of the events managers there quickly took on got a few promotions to senior. And last year, April time I was actually in London. So it is medical were a medical device company. And we create medical devices for people who have had a total laryngectomy or tracheostomy, produce valve and ah me. So what we produce the business is giving people a voice back because they box. So we create these products that the wind move in different ways. And they could speak again, which is really just makes you feel like wow, I am doing something so amazing. And I was in charge of the community events and also the clinical events. So going out to see patients when they lost their voice and they got these gadgets for the first step, speak for the first time. It's just incredibly, you know, overwhelming just to be in that kind of situation. So that's what I was doing at this medical on last year. I was actually in a London hospital for an event with some clinicians, and we got to shut everything down. COVID pack up leave I hosted about 60 events a month, and from 60 events to zero events. And I thought oh my God, I've just lost my job. No like I was in such shock. I just could not believe this was actually happening. Again, this is where my JCI Spirit came in in terms. All right, okay, this is a problem, how can I fix it? What can I do, I know the value in terms of what we provide for customers, as well as the clinicians. And there's a lot that we could do now to make sure we keep supporting people throughout this crazy time. And turned it all around. So quickly, I was so impressed with myself understood, because I just didn't one minute, I thought I was gonna lose my job to turn everything around. Yeah, totally forbid business where we did, that was not something that we even, you know, knew much about. And in the space of three weeks to have all these events online, for clinicians, patients, and this is all new for them. To have, you know, success straightaway, in terms of the number of people who are logging and the families, the friends, the clinicians, and seeing how much what we're doing now is just helping them because our clients, our patients, that vulnerable in terms of the state in terms of where they breed through, and you know, COVID in the whole situation. So we were that safety net, to reassure them have that network with them and others so and it was just fantastic. And because of what it did in the UK, and turned it all around. I didn't lose my job, but I got promoted. Yeah, so now I do what I do. And I help all the other markets replicate what I've done in the UK, and make it even bigger and better. So now dealing with the rest of Europe, UK, Australia, us, and China. No way. Yeah, so it's getting super excited. And it's something that I never even thought about. It didn't exist in the business days, and believed in it on a global level is Yeah, I just, I don't know how all this has happened. But I could definitely say in terms of me being able to see problems and finding solutions, not being negative about things and thinking, Okay, what could we do to turn this around? How could I get colleagues excited about this idea of and my manager at the time to say, Okay, this is good signing off, you know, to have that passion behind it. I think that's definitely something that's helped me along the way. So, yeah, now currently, the global role, really excited about seeing how digital is taking off taking off really.

Graham Allcott 22:26

So that's like, that's like the Albert Einstein quote, in every difficulty lies opportunity. And seems like yeah, you figured out where the opportunity was?

Phoebe Benta 22:36

Yeah, definitely. I'm, I'm so happy. And because I've seen what's happened with other young people, and you know, what my sisters and other people who have close to in terms of losing their jobs, yeah, opportunities that will come in, you know, I feel very fortunate and really just happy to just carry on working hard, you know, do what I'm doing to support and to help other young people. That's why I'm doing things like this.

Graham Allcott 23:02

I mean, I've always been very passionate about the idea that if you do volunteer roles, then generally what happens is you learn skills that you can take back into your role within the business. So there's a couple of bits, I wanted to unpack with that. So it sounds a bit like you JCI your local events job to be this suddenly, as this international thing, right, feels like there's there must be some transferable skills from JCI, that have really helped you to figure out how to do that transformation into into becoming a global role. So is that fair to say, first of all,

Phoebe Benta 23:38

definitely. And in terms of like, in for the COVID situation, when this happened, not just for the business, but for junior chamber in my role as deputy national president at the time, we had to do all this transformation. And we started a little bit ahead in JCI. So when it came to my day job, and like, what is it that we're going to do? I really had loads of ideas, I really had platforms and things, you know, what could just jump right in confidence with it, rather than? I don't know. So 100% I say, everything you do is a learning experience. You know, not just the training, but I think public speaking and just being comfortable and confident in you know, what you're seeing, I think definitely has transferred into my day job. Because it's I'm passionate about events management, I study event management and University of Sheffield, Hallam University, and it was fantastic. So the event management side of stuff, absolutely love it. But there's a whole bunch of other parts of the business. You know, it's not my full understanding of knowledge. But from being a junior champion, doing so many different roles in so many different project groups. You know, it helps you finally position where you could take things from differently And implanted. And I've taken so much. I'm taking so much. And and this both ways.

Graham Allcott 25:07

So that was the other question I was gonna ask just about the relationship between the two? And do you find that there must be times where you just flat out with the day job, and then you're flat out with JCI. And there must be a sort of negotiation in terms of like, Who's going to get your time and energy? And I wonder whether you're your boss in the day job has ever said to you like, you know, listen, Phoebe, I really need you a bit more involved in in the day to day and doing a bit less of that JCI stuff like, how do you manage that sort of balance and potential sort of conflict between the two,

Phoebe Benta 25:41

when I first started in terms of dress and work, I kept work very separate to JCI, in terms of work did not really understand all the things I was doing outside work. And they didn't have a clue about it. Until they would see stuff on my LinkedIn and planning on these things, or they will see me, you know, hosting a charter was at hundreds of people and they look at me, like, how do you get time to I was very cautious about it. Because when I get involved, like get involved, I just don't have things. And everything that I was doing, I was doing alongside work, and I was given work 110%. And that's why, you know, I've been able to get all these promotions, but it did take a toll on my energy. My, you know, just when I was out, I was doing everything the energy was up. But when I was home, and it was probably three o'clock sometimes in the night, I'll go to sleep because I'll work till 530 then I'll go home dinner, and then I'll start working on JCI things and then I will stop JCI things that same night and start working on charity it was sometimes I was going to bed at 3am waking up next day for work. And I did that for years. And honestly, I don't know how I did it. And I did have some moments where I was completely burnt out. And it made me physically ill. And that's where I thought, you know what, I can't keep doing this. I need to figure out what is it that's important. What is it I need to carry on? I'll probably plan my time a little bit better. But yeah, they came a few times. And at certain times every year because of what I was doing so much. I was just completely just embed. couldn't do anything. Yeah. And I realised that is not a good thing to you know, to do to yourself. First off is a thing, you know, you need sleep. So and a few people around me, you know, who knew what I was doing? Just like, yeah, you probably need to pause or think about, you know, managing this a little bit better. So that's something I've acted on and you know, helped. Now, I am doing only two things instead of three. But my heart is still with the other part that have cut out to them straight still. Yeah, and because of Coronavirus as well, in terms of the physical event that's definitely stopped. But I did launched in East Midlands as well.

Graham Allcott 28:07

It was just a backtrack. So the Northwest charity was you were the founder of that.

Phoebe Benta 28:12

Yes. So just a little bit on the northwest charity was started that think 2016. First one said 2017. And I started to freelance I started in your company in Manchester, I started to freelance and insert as your event manager started to you know, create events for business or personal. And in the beginning, I was a little bit confused in terms of where I'm going to settle. There's so much stuff, you could do any events, personal events, business events, and I was still just so unsure. But then I just ended up doing a lot of pro bono work with a lot of the local charities I lived in Marshfield at the time. And there were a few charities around that area and Cheshire that I just started to reach out to them myself use things under LinkedIn on social media will come in or join a group that command JCI. And I will just start helping them in the mail and the designs. So help at some of the events, the narcs benefiting from it because I thought you know what, the more I help, probably stuff will come back to me eventually, I'm just starting off. So I want some experience as well. And I just saw there was so much amazing stuff happening in some of these charities that I didn't even know about. And I live next door to some you know, and I thought there must be something to showcase what these charities are doing. And in the space of a week. I think I just was scribbling on people what I could do when I came up with the awards. And I thought that said I'm going to try it. And I run the middle end Hotel in Manchester. I don't know if you've been there before.

Graham Allcott 29:36

Yeah, I've been to the hotel. That's a really beautiful building. Right? Yeah.

Phoebe Benta 29:41

But I you know, I had this idea and I wanted it to be granted. So I thought during the middle of hotel, I'm gonna ask for the room size. And you know, I knew a few of that already. So I booked the smallest room and I think the smallest like nice ballroom, it was about 60 people. So it was with 60 people. It was fantastic. Six months later, the awards night, we had the biggest blooming in the hotel. We had 400 people attended. And I stood on stage and I just could not believe it. I could not believe it. Everybody was dressed up. It was fabulous. We have all the awards. I had judges and speakers, entertainers. And I was just so shocked. How did I do this? I was working full time. And from the energy in the room, and everybody came up to me, and I was doing everything for it. I was doing websites, social media invoice everything. And somebody at that event came up to me and said, Oh, yeah, before I went on stage, before it started, they said, Oh, so you're Phoebe. Also, you must have so much work, doing all this admin stuff at this event, working with your team and stuff. And when they saw me go on stage and said, yeah, this is the next level like, wow, we didn't realise it was. But I had some help from a few of my JCI friends, and that's why I have friends for now. Now, a few of my friends from JCR Manchester, I told them about what it wanted to do. And they said, we're going to help you. One of them call host, one of them helped on the night to the events and getting people in and directions. And, you know, they were just like, so excited to see me do something like this, they just jumped in. And the second year hosting at JCI, Manchester gave somebody who was learning to public speak, the opportunity to be the hospital amazing, is how I got more people, you know, getting involved in, you know, develop their skills. As you know, your first time you do the public speaking, it's the room of hundreds of people and your host. So I felt really proud of you know, giving somebody the opportunity and including people from major credit. And that's again, where you know, as a young person, especially if you're entrepreneur, and things like that where GCI does come in because you meet like minded people, and they will help you without you even after asked, they will. They will see you know how passionate you are about it, and they will definitely jump in and help. So being alone in our park was a big part of that hosting and she's Superwoman as she does a lot of things as well. Sometimes I think, where do you have the time.

Graham Allcott 32:19

So you've now handled that oversee, you've got other people picking that up to continue. And then you've got your your two main focuses now.

Phoebe Benta 32:27

So the charging was Northwest, I did launch it in the east, as well. But the East Midlands one because COVID, we had the awards online, okay. And for now, the last year, I've just like, put it on, just pause for a while just see everything that's happening. And we're definitely going to be back in what form we don't know yet. But it's something that we've got the concept on, right? We know from the attendance and how excited people were about it. Some people from the charter awards went on to get Queen's awards and all these other fantastic things. And it's just like, that makes me happy. I don't know, the full impact of doing this awards for years. I don't know, you know, but I know I've seen such fantastic things coming from it. And it that's one of the things that keep me motivated. And keep me going because I feel like I'm doing something. I'm doing something good. Yeah. And people appreciate it. And it's the hundreds of hours of volunteer and on top of everything else.

Graham Allcott 33:21

Yeah, for sure. So let's come back to that burnout thing. So you've got these three different things going on. And then you have the period after the awards every year, whether your awards finished and suddenly it's like there's often though things isn't isn't the way your body can keep going until the day or the event or whatever. And afterwards, you just kind of collapse in a heap. I've had a few of those in my own career as well. But like, do you feel like you've learned lessons from you know what, what to do to spot that how to stop it happening? So tell me about your relationship with burnout and how how are you? How are you thinking differently about it

Phoebe Benta 33:58

now? Yeah, I think I've definitely learned in terms of if you don't look after yourself and you don't look after your body. You know, there's no point in doing anything for you because this you you know, you're that vessel is going to do everything so if there's no you need to look up. So I've definitely taken some time in terms of my personal well being and now I do go to sleep. And it's such a big deal. Like I go to bed and I think 11 o'clock 1030 shut everything down and go to sleep. And that for me it was one of the hardest things to do because it's something I'm not accustomed to. You know in the mornings I feel so much better for myself. And also I do get regular massages now. Nice. Enjoy to the spot. Now I think this is if you haven't done one yet go and get a hot stone massage or full body massage. Honestly does wonders. And I've also started to float in. So this is when you go into that pod, saltwater, like Epsom salts and you float and darkness for like an hour. and stuff like that. I think just taking a couple hours out in the week, and just starting to listen to podcasts. And audio books. I've mentioned before to you before we started, like I do have dyslexia. So in terms of reading, reading is okay, but spelling and certain stuff, it really gives me high anxiety, I don't really talk about it that much. But that's why I do enjoy, listen to audio books, it's just like, it just makes me feel like I'm a part of something like, and when people are speaking about certain books, I could, you know, relate to it, because I haven't read it. But listen, definitely does a few of the things and running as well. I've definitely got into DC I had a month in the year where we call step up January where everybody will get out in the January and start running and things like that to get you. You go. And so yeah, a few things I've done now. But sleep, going to bed at a reasonable time was the biggest thing. And I've felt so much better for it, you know, the last couple months, just taking that time and you know, not staying on my computer until three o'clock in the morning.

Graham Allcott 36:29

There's probably a load of stuff in there that I hope as people listen to this, they think that's permission, write permission to go and book the massage or, or just go to bed early, or just eat better or get out or whatever the thing is. And I sometimes find I struggle with giving myself permission for things, right. So if you've got loads going on in the day, knowing I'm training for a half marathon at the moment, and behind on the training, well, what happens is I booked the Brighton half marathon, like most years, and then I sort of forget that I've booked it and then you get that email that says 12 weeks to go or 15 weeks to go wherever and you're like oh no, it's half and this this year, because they move the dates around for COVID. I actually just forgotten about it completely. And then you get the email and you're like, well, I committed to I said I wanted to do it. So I might as well. And this year I was training from a very, very behind level of fitness, shall we say, as opposed to like, usually, I'm getting out running a bit more regularly. And I just kind of got out the habit a bit. But there are days where I'm so busy with my day job that the idea of taking an hour, an hour and a half out to go and do training runs and stuff. It feels, you know, it feels like I like I shouldn't do that I feel guilty if I do that. So are there are there things that you've had to tell yourself or teach yourself to? To give yourself that permission or to make those things

Phoebe Benta 37:51

happen? Yeah, I have my regular pep talks in the mirror. Because I think it's so important just to take that time off. And I do listen to Oprah Winfrey, she has some really good quotes. And you know, I think sometimes if I'm feeling a bit like down on certain things, I always find something really good on YouTube. In terms of inspiration, it just gives me a bit of a pep, right? Yes, you know, you can go on to do it. But

Graham Allcott 38:16

I was gonna ask you what's, what's your what's the pep talk, but maybe the pep talk is partly depends on something but yeah, give me the best ones.

Phoebe Benta 38:24

Yeah, no, it really just depends, I think on what the situation is a bit down after meeting or, you know, I've been leading on something and you know, anything's happened. I try and find, you know, motivation for this situation. And, you know, find some really useful things on YouTube, but a quote, I love, Oprah does have quite a few quotes. And I can't read one off the top of my head. But I think the first the one that really did resonate with me Is she was saying, don't try and be, you know, important are trying to be like you have the title, but be significant in terms of what you win. And then successful farmers will not chase the title, don't chase all these amazing things. But if you're actually doing the work, people around, you will see that to know, recognise this is stuff like that in terms of you know, you know, now that, you know, I'm in the position that I'm in, it's not something that I've actually been, I didn't even know it was possible. You know, it just happens. And as you know, I keep progressing. This stuff that I didn't even notice was there because I wasn't actually looking for it. And then somebody would say, oh, you'll be really good at this because of what you've done effort. Oh, thank you. Okay, that's Yeah, that's, that's interesting. So yeah, definitely quotes a lot of inspirational things. David Goggins, the runner, the guy will, is the strongest man on the world in the world. I started to listen to a few of his stuff when I need to get off the software and do some exercise. So maybe one for you. The strongest the strongest man in the world.

Graham Allcott 39:57

So comparison with the strongest person in the world. This is the way to just ensure that if you, you know, few inches for

Phoebe Benta 40:06

that motivation, sometimes I think, with me and my family and friends and everybody just been so, you know, in different parts of the world, and I grew up in carbon, like my mom's still in the Caribbean, my sisters live here, everybody's all over. So you know, you don't have that close knit, you know, fingertips. So is you know, what else you could do to reach out and get inspiration from other people or the place, for sure. JCI has just been such a big part of my life for the last, you know, five years in terms of everything that I've done that now, I can say, I have friends for life in JCI. People who are, you know, really successful in doing what whatever they do and in their careers, and people who are in positions now, like a lot of people who have, you know, been very successful and have lost their jobs, and you know, how all businesses gone and having to rethink what they're going to do. You know, I could be a support, though, and what, you know, what we could do to help each other, I think that's something now that it's in the back of my head with everything that I'm doing is like, what opportunities can I provide here for somebody? Something

Graham Allcott 41:12

you mentioned dyslexia a minute ago? So can we just talk about that for a minute? So I'd love to know more about your experience of that, what what are the things that particularly feel hard around that, I mean, it's amazing that you've, you know, you've you've navigated yourself through, you know, such a lot of things in terms of your career, and all the successes you've had, you know, with the fact that you've got dyslexia and having to manage that as well. So, I'd love to know more about, you know, how you do that. And then also, perhaps, if you could think about it, from the point of view of someone like working with you, what do they need to do to just make your life easier, and, you know, and to sort of deal with dyslexia,

Phoebe Benta 41:57

I think in the last few roles in terms of applying for jobs, and finally getting one, I've actually never put that on there, and you know, that you do x, if you have any disabilities, and you know, put that down, I never put it down. And because it's something that I don't know where it's come from, but it's not, it's an embarrassing thing to talk about, you know, when people say you have a disability, even in university, you know, it was just not a positive experience be, you know, having a label, so it's something that I've actually never really talked about, and it's only the CFO, you know, now I have a little bit of a platform, and I could actually talk about my experiences in some way, how it's really actually affected me since primary school. I've always noticed, like, spelling and read, and I just nothing stuck. And I was always really good with my hands, really good with building stuff, God and then talking, talking. But everything in terms of academia and learning, I really, really struggle with and honestly to, to graduate from university. I sometimes it's something when I was even 1013 years old, I just thought never could I even have done that. It was something that you know, right now, I think about what I have actually managed to focus on what I'm good at, and not something I would say to people who have learning disabilities or dyslexia and things that that is actually fine, not a focus on what is it that you're really good at, and just completely smashed. And everything else people won't even realise that you're not as good at. And that's exactly what I did, I did everything I could to highlight all the amazing qualities about me. And nobody ever noticed that I was actually very dyslexic to a lot of emails and things, I would have a lot of anxiety, sending emails, because I'll be sending them to managers and you know, VPS, and things like that. I proofread or send stuff to my mom. For me, that's how bad it was in some pilots, because I was just so nervous and having to write essays and all these things, capacity. And now in my current role, I think the struggle is everything is online. So when we're doing things like sharing screen and doing all these whiteboard exercise, and you're writing all these things, and every two words that I write is spelt wrong. It's really embarrassing. So I'm trying to figure out how might like now people will know I'm dyslexic, and I'm like, Oh crap, but I shouldn't really feel like that. So it's something that I'm trying to see how I could you know, if I talk about it more probably make it a bit more normal because I don't see it as a disability. But everybody else think around me is like something's wrong with you. So it's Yeah, it's one of those tricky stuff that I would say focus on what you're really good at, and then everything Multiple, you know, fall in line, but I do try to, you know, see what surrounds See how I could like, improve, you know, uncertain stuff in terms of the spelling part. And I have a very picture memory I remember places things conversations from Yeah, okay. Rod in a country I've never been to, and I have been there for years and a buck, I know exactly where I'm going. Whereas with a word, I will see it and seeing it again, it will be scrambled.

Graham Allcott 45:33

And do you think that's the thing in dyslexia that sort of compensates for memory around words by, you know, by kind of giving you almost like, other memory superpowers or other parts of your brain kind of working? Sort of overdrive to compensate? Yeah,

Phoebe Benta 45:49

definitely. And that's why like, of course, it's something I know, for a lot of people, it's not something you go around advertising, but you do have other things that you're so amazing that, that that is your thing, do that thing and do that fantastically. And I think that's what I've done. And that's exactly what's helped me I knew, I loved event management, I loved being, you know, speaking to people being around people that energy, and I went into studying events, management with tourism, so you know, destination management and all that fun stuff. And that was my personal, that made me shine really, for, you know, when you have that passion, you will put all the extra effort into everything else that you're doing. So, all the essays and all the things, especially if you are studying, you know, I made sure that they were 100% correct, you know, got it to the tee, because I'm putting an extra 10 there, but I do think more awareness needs to be to be in that area when it comes to corporate jobs, and you know, people just assuming everything, you know, and obviously, if they're seeing a lot of errors here and there, they'll be like questioning things, but I do think more awareness in corporate environments on having people with dyslexia, or other learning disabilities and how to, you know, work with us in a way, not gonna cause us anxiety, or stress, because I do feel stress A lot of times, but I have to share my screen and type.

Graham Allcott 47:18

So find find ways where you can share your screen and draw pictures, or someone else can do the same thing. Yeah.

Phoebe Benta 47:26

No, I'm definitely trying to, you know, speak about it more, because it's something I haven't spoke about. And I think it just makes me feel a little bit better about you know, what I'm doing and I don't see it as a disability anymore. It's more of a superpower. So yeah, that's a little bit uncertain. It's, yeah, take it, take what you're really good at and run with it.

Unknown Speaker 47:47

I think that's just such a

Graham Allcott 47:48

good lesson for life there. Right? It's like, Don't focus as much on your weaknesses as you do on just maximising strengths. And the things that you can bring to the table that other people can't, is, that's where the value is for, for everybody in the job, right. And also have my son is he's only seven, but he has a learning disability as well. And I've definitely noticed already that there's, there's obviously a lot that we do that, you know, that that's about helping him you know, sort of us translating the kind of regular neurotypical education system to his needs. But he's all he is also in my memory in so many parts of life, like, My memory is really terrible. And he will just he'll just remember times and places and you know, and anything to be honest to do with trading maps as well, like he's just got it absolutely nailed already at seven. So kind of feel like he's, you know, he's going to be a superpower for me as well.

Phoebe Benta 48:40

With the flexible dyspraxia No, I'm just gonna keep doing so yeah, don't take the labels just do what you do. And you know do it to the best Yeah,

Graham Allcott 48:55

like say just focus on their strengths. Last thing I wanted to talk to you about was and so you also mentioned that you grew up in the Caribbean you've got the best mix of Northern and Caribbean accent by the way I love I love I love your accent. So I suppose I suppose what I wanted to ask you about that was so you to your childhood was in the Caribbean and then you then you came to the UK? And so like in making that journey like what did you What surprised you about coming to the UK so it wasn't like you came when you were two years old or something like you see you had another life that you remember. And now you hear like what really surprised you maybe positive or negative just about coming to the UK.

Phoebe Benta 49:35

I found the biggest surprise was if the sun is shining, that doesn't mean it's warm. I mean that was my first experience. When I landed in Heathrow and the sun was shining. It was September thought so took all my coats off and walked out the plane. new for us. So the sun is shining in England. That doesn't mean it is cold. Like, it should be

Graham Allcott 50:00

some kind of philosophy. But as you've probably quite quite negative philosophy is there

Phoebe Benta 50:08

got to be but the culture shock was just, I don't know what I was expecting, but everything was just different. The way people live, speak and you know, the whole education system, everything was such a massive shock to me. And I remember when I started college in Nottingham, I went to New College Nottingham, I just thought, you know what, I'm just going to get involved with every single thing, take every single opportunity. And I think at the end of my two years in college, I was student union president and had all these awards and everything because I thought, you know, what, just just get involved, just do it. Try not to get because it was easy just to see all these other stuff happening around, you get into the wrong crowd and go in opposite direction. You know, my mom wasn't with me, she was still an anterior. And I just moved in with my dad, who I haven't seen since I was five years old. So not even culture shock, but I kind of was just completely and I thought, you know, what, I have this opportunity. Now, I'm going to just take, take everything and just run with it. Because I needed to not think about home too much. And you know, that kind of stuff that there was a lot of new opportunities here that I would never have, if I still lived in Antigua, and that's what I took it as, but the food and the Gregg's and the McDonald's. So I definitely learned a lot in terms of in the UK, but I i in terms of moving over 18 to start college and a new life not really knowing much about the country, anything, I must say, it's been the best decision to relocate to the UK. And, you know, do everything I've done because I went back to Antigua last year. And it was you know, for me, it was quite a surprising, you know, thing to see where I could see exactly where it was going to be. And a lot doesn't change a small island. So, you know, I saw a lot of people doing the exact same thing that I left them doing nine years ago, doing exactly the same thing. So I just thought, you know what, yeah, just keep going, keep doing what you're doing. And you know, especially when it comes to young people, motivation and leadership, just try and help as much people as you can. Because if I were I was antiga, I just, if you told me I would be here right now. It is just unimaginable, how I've managed to pull myself up, and you know, keep myself motivated. Because no one was doing that. For me, I had to really just, you know, take everything and don't as I mentioned, like, now my, my sisters are in the UK of finished university and doing other things. And it's because, you know, they saw me as that person to look up to and to, you know, get them excited and motivated about other things in their life. And, you know, taking that step up to progress. So again, it's not just about what I could achieve, but how can I help those around me, you know, improve their lives, because, you know, some people are lucky, but some people, it's not luck. It's hard work. Yeah, lateral talking to yourself in the mirror, telling yourself that you know, you've got this you can do it and other people around you see that and you know, be inspired by it. And that's something I'm really, it's really kept me going is seen how I've helped.

Graham Allcott 53:42

So giving yourself this pep talks and then inspiring lots of other people as well. That just feels like a really perfect note to end this on. So Phoebe, tell me how people can connect with you. And anything else you want to share? Maybe where people can find out about JCI Yeah, how do we, how do people find you, connect with you, and

Phoebe Benta 54:03

we've been very busy on our JCI Instagram. So this is to be no kids. But Jesse, we do have a website. So if you visit WWW dot JCI. UK, of the UK, you'll find out about all the local organisations in your area, and also about all events coming up across the UK. Right now majority of these are virtual. So this is really great for you to you know, jump in and see what it's all about and meet some new people and hopefully, you know, near the end of the year or start to have some more physical activities. We do have a Business Academy coming up for anybody thinking about starting business entrepreneurs in versa. That's something definitely if you're interested in we have some amazing trainers there who have started their own business and doing different things in their career. So definitely have a look at this I UK his website. And personally I am on LinkedIn, Pb benta on LinkedIn and Also on Instagram JCI. UK, you'll find a lot of our social activities there, we have a few talks and get to know some members and you know, member and spotlights. And so you can get to see what everybody in JCI has been up to over the last few weeks. Amazing.

Graham Allcott 55:15

Cool. And we'll put links in the show notes, which is all that getbeyondbusy.com. And thank you so much for being on be on Beyond Busy.

Phoebe Benta 55:22

No worries, it was lovely to speak to you today. Thanks so much.

Graham Allcott 55:26

There you go Phoebe Benta really enjoyed that word. And you know, a lot of my early career was in working with young volunteers and young leaders, and really just getting into this whole area of you know, people change the world when they're naive enough to think they can write and that's a really important quality that I think we lose a lot in business and a lot as we kind of go through. The generations have become middle aged ourselves, we kind of lose a little bit of that kind of daring, audacious passion. And it's great to be around it. And it feels like it kind of infuses me with a bit more of that as well. Just listening to Phoebe there. So hope you enjoyed that one. Just want to give a quick shout out also to Pavel who is currently camped out next to the Olympic Stadium in Rio on his travels, but he is our our new producer on the podcast. He's been kind of picking up the reins of the last few weeks and just did a really great job with it. So I want to say a huge thank you to Pavel for that. And also to Emilie for managing all of that process and just doing a lot of that project management around it as well. So really great team around the podcast at the moment with Emilie and I'm also really happy about that. So yeah, just want to give a bit of a shout out and say hi. And yeah, we we end up kind of texting each other through WhatsApp and like weird times of our both of our days and nights because of the timezone differences and stuff. But it seems to just work really well It feels like it's in really good hands. So just wanted to give a little bit of a shout out. There we are. Back with another episode next week. The only other thing I want to tell you about is I'm sort of working away on this book about kindness, you've probably heard me talk about it before. And if you want to just kind of keep in touch with what I'm doing there. If you head to www.GrahamAllcott.com, you better sign up to my mailing list, which is called rev up for the week. And basically the idea is every Sunday, I send out a productive or positive idea for the week ahead. But it's also the place where I'm just going to give some updates around the book. And you know, if you want to just catch up with what I'm doing there, just head to www.GrahamAllcott.com and sign up for that. And we're going to be putting out over the next few weeks some details of a little thing that I'm planning with Chris Kinsley, my co conspirator in the US around kindness, which will be a kind of four week zoom event thing in the autumn. So sign up to my mailing list at grammar calm, and then we will, we'll give you the details of that as it emerges in the next few weeks. So Graham Allcott calm. We'll be back next week with another episode.

So until then, enjoy the sunshine if you're lucky enough to have some and hope you're dodging the rain if that's what it's being dealt to you and we'll see you next week. Take care Bye for now.