Blog
Social Legacy with Emily Chang
My guest today is Emily Chang. Emily is the CEO of the McCann group, a 400 plus marketing agency based in Shanghai, China. And she has also held senior roles at Apple and Starbucks, and she's the author of the spare room. In this episode, we talk about her making the move to work in China, and she tells us the story of opening up her spare room to strangers, and why social legacy and living an intentional life really matter. She also shares some stories about the kind leaders who inspired her along the way and what makes her tick. And honestly, I could listen to her all day. It was such a treat to do this one. This is Emily Chang. Emily Chang, welcome to be on busy.
Emily Chang 1:27
Thank you so much for having me.
Graham Allcott 1:28
Firstly, I want to talk to you about so you're CEO of the Macan group, based in China for 100 plus people. And it feels like you've had, you've had about eight careers already, like just just you're a bit of a powerhouse, I've you with the various companies that you've worked for. So you spent a long time working for Procter and Gamble. You worked for Apple, you work for Starbucks, so I just love to dig into that a little bit. So perhaps what I'll just hand it over to you and just say what have been your highlights working with some of those amazing companies?
Cycling Without Age with Ole Kassow
My guest today is Ole Kassow. Ole is a social entrepreneur based in Denmark and the founder of Cycling Without Age, a global movement bringing together volunteers to provide cycle rides outdoors to older people who would otherwise be stuck inside. He's also spent a lifetime experimenting with different ways to bring kindness into the world of work.
And in this episode, we talk about his journey creating Cycling Without Age and growing it to become a truly global organisation the importance of intergenerational conversations, his experiments and slowness why kindness is good for business and how his dad inspired his playful spirit. I think you're gonna love this one. This is Ole Kassow. Ole, how's Copenhagen today?
Ole Kassow 1:31
Copenhagen is rainy. Today,
Graham Allcott 1:33
you are the founder of Cycling Without Age. It's an incredible organisation in terms of just its reach around the world and just feels like it's really captured people's imaginations, do you want to just tell us the story festival what is Cycling Without Age?
How to Be Happy with Nic Marks
My guest today is Nic Marks, Nic is one of the world's leading experts on happiness, and the founder of Friday Pulse, a tool to help organisations find out how happy their people are at work. He also created the Happy Planet Index to show which countries have the happiest people. And he spent years thinking about how to be happy, and the relationship between happiness and success. So in this episode, we talk about how to be happy. He talks about his mentor, a Chilean economist who changed his life, his five ways to wellbeing and much more. This is Nic Marks. I'm here with Nick marks, how are you?
Nic Marks 1:25
I'm very good. Thank you. Very good. Nice to meet you, Graham.
We're here to ask the bigger questions about work. Let's start with your your day job and what you're currently doing. So Friday polls, helping organisations to really focus on happiness and figure out what that means in in the workplace. So you want to just start with Friday pulse and just explain what you guys do.
Black Founders Hub with Denise Nurse
Graham Allcott 0:07
My guest today is Denise Nurse. Denise is the co founder of the Black Founders Hub that is now increasingly global. She's also a lawyer and entrepreneur, having started built and then sold a really unusual law firm. And she's also worked as a TV presenter for sky travel and on shows like escape to the country and watchdog. In this episode, we talk about race and how to encourage black entrepreneurs the journey from starting and growing to selling a business. And I think you're going to really learn a lot from Denise's outlook and energy. So let's get straight into it. This is Denise Nurse.
We're rolling on with Denise Nurse. How are you doing? really well. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, really nice to connect. And there's so much stuff I want to talk to you about. Let's start with the black founders hub. And this is something that you have launched with David McQueen, who has been on this podcast before, why the Black Founders Hub? And what does it do? And just give us the background to that.
How to Deal With a Fast Changing World with Azeem Azhar
My guest today is Azeem Azhar. Azeem is a serial entrepreneur, a journalist, startup investor and technologist and is the founder of exponential view, a weekly email with 200,000 subscribers, including many of the leading lights in tech, his new book Exponential is a fascinating look at the rise of rapid growth technologies and industries. And really, it's a must read for all of us right now, if you want to keep pace with the rapid changes happening right now. And perhaps even more importantly, what's to come. So in this episode, we talk about exponential technologies, and is not all about AI. As he talks us through what he calls the exponential gap, we talk about the future of work, adapting to shift in power, and whether he's optimistic or pessimistic for the future. This is Azeem Azhar. Welcome to Beyond Busy. How are you doing?
Azeem Azhar 1:38
I am doing super well. Thank you, Graham,
How to succeed as a workparent
Graham Allcott 0:07
My guest today is Daisy Dowling, Daisy has worked in senior leadership roles on Wall Street, and has now left that behind to start Workparent helping companies to best support working parents. She's also the author of work parents thrive in your career whilst raising happy children. So if you have kids, or you're thinking about having kids, this episode and Daisy's book are for you, we talk about how to support working parents, which organisations do well what to do if your boss isn't so understanding. We talked about the zeigarnik effect, how to think about money, and also what it was like to leave Lehman Brothers just before it collapsed in the 2008 crash as well. So lots to get through.
Let's get straight into it. This is Daisy Dowling.
20 years on, what do we know?
As any of my friends will tell you, I have a terrible memory. These days, I'm on a mission to do nothing twice, so that everything at least has a chance of lodging somewhere in my deeply flawed memory bank. But I remember vividly how I felt, on this day 20 years ago.
On 9/11, I was hosting a big meeting for volunteer-managers running volunteer programmes for young people. It was in the very fancy and historic surroundings of the debating chamber at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students. I was just a few weeks into my first proper job, and was keen to make a good impression on all my contemporaries. We finished the event around 4pm, and I went back downstairs to my office. My boss Max asked me how it had gone, and then said "OK, that's great. Now, I need you to go up to the bar and watch the TV. Just go."
I remember, like many of you, just watching replay after replay of what had happened. I remember the feeling of disbelief. The surrealness of watching a disaster movie that wasn't Hollywood fiction. I remember talking to colleagues "will they close the university tomorrow?", "I guess the 5-a-side is cancelled tonight?", "do you think this is a war?".
Ready for Anything with Dr Samantha Boardman
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 help people to make space for what matters and get more done. And we partner with some of the world's leading companies who share our mission to transform the world of work. Beyond busy is where I explore the often messy truths 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 Dr. Samantha Boardman. Samantha is a clinical psychiatrist, as well as a medical doctor and has a master's in positive psychology. So her work joins the dots between all those different fields. And she's the founder of positive prescription.com. She's also the author of a new book ready for anything, how to build resilience and cope with daily stress. And so in this episode, we talked about resilience being on you how to create uplifts in your mood, and many other practical ways to deal with stress and be happier in your thinking. So I think you'll get a lot out of this episode. I really enjoyed this conversation. Let's dive right in. This is Dr. Samantha Boardman with Dr. Samantha Boardman, how are you doing? I'm well, how are you? Yeah, really good. And your your early morning in the states and I'm early afternoon. Here in the UK. Where are you at? on the east coast of the states there right now with normality vs COVID.
Dr Samantha Boardman 1:49
I'm personally on Long Island right now. And New York City is feeling a lot better.
The First 100 Days as CEO with Ndidi Okezie
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 help people to make space for what matters and get more done. And we partner with some of the world's leading companies who share our mission to transform the world of work. Beyond Busy is where I explore the often messy truths 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 Ndidi Okezie. She is a rising star in the charity world, the CEO of UK youth and a board member on three boards, including Centerpoint. We talk in this episode about being thrown into the deep end, having courageous conversations, the idea of audacious confidence, kindness, and much more. It's a really wide-ranging episode and the last one before our summer break. It's a really good one. This is Ndidi Okezie.
How to Raise Entrepreneurial Kids with Jodie Cook
My guest today is Jodie Cook. Jody is an entrepreneur, a power lifter and a writer. She writes regularly for Forbes and is also the author of a number of different books, including how to raise entrepreneurial kids. And we catch Jody here in a quite an interesting spot, having just sold her business, JC social media, and reflecting on her experiences of leading her team through the pandemic. And then through that sale. We talk about why she's determined not to make plans just yet how to get mentored by your heroes, and much more. This is Jodie Cook. Welcome back to Beyond Busy Jodie Cook.
How you doing?
Jodie Cook 1:27
Hey, thank you. I'm great.
Graham Allcott 1:29
So you've had quite a big year. And I thought maybe we'd start with a couple of those big things. So there's, you've released two books this year, both to lots of acclaim, which we'll talk about in a minute. And also, you've sold your business. So yeah, we're in May right now, how does it feel reflecting on the last few months, it must have been a bit of a whirlwind time.
A World Without Email with Cal Newport
Cal Newport 1:28
Hey, Graham, it's, it's good to talk to you again.
Graham Allcott 1:30
First of all, just just how are you? How's how's the last few months been? We were just talking before I hit record just about some of our experiences of the pandemic, but just like how are you feeling today and right now and have the last few months?
Cal Newport 1:45
I'm feeling well, I would say things are optimistic. You know, I'm so I'm joining you from Washington, DC here in the States. And we are rapidly removing pandemic restrictions, which means among other things, I, for the first time will actually have other people come into my studio. I don't know if I'm ready for it. So this is a this is an office space, I started leasing during the pandemic, to have a place to do my my interviews and teach and, etc, and built the podcast studio and here when I start doing podcast, but I'm the only one who's ever really been here. And so now I am desperately trying to make this look like a place where humans live. So you know, buying more than two chairs and putting pictures on the walls and this desperate scramble to get prepared to welcome other human beings into my space. That's what I'm focused on right now.
Creating Positive Change with Phoebe Benta
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.
The Power of Young Leaders with Perry Maddox
Graham Allcott 1:35
So you're the CEO of Restless Development. Do you want to start just by explaining to people who have not come across restless development before, like, who they are, what they do?
Perry Maddox 1:46
Resteless Development, we are all about young leaders. And what we do is we work with young leaders from around the world to tackle the problems that they they think are most important, whether that's getting a job or kind of taking care of their families or playing a role in and how their countries and communities work. We work with young people to kind of make change happen. And most of that's volunteer power we work with about, you know, 1000 volunteers around the world and, you know, 1600 Youth organisations out there to help them do do that even better. So whether or not the individual young leader and volunteer, kind of a rural community, getting it done, or kind of young leaders coming together to shape change in the world, it's all about that kind of notion of tapping into youth to to make the world a bette
Alien Thinking with Cyril Bouquet
My guest today is Professor Cyril Bouquet. Cyril is one of the authors of Alien Thinking how to bring your breakthrough ideas to life and Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. Cyril has spent many years advising some of Europe's leading companies on strategy, as you're going to hear talking about the French train operators and UAE for amongst others. And we talk about how to experiment how you can use your imagination to get stuff done, managing attention, and much more. This is Cyril Bouquet.
Let's stop thinking about business like it's a war
You talk, you type, you stare into space. You drink coffee and somehow end up on the Daily Mail website but keep it a secret. Maybe you do all of this in your pyjamas sometimes.
It can be fun and rewarding, and other times it's hard.
But it’s hardly the trenches, is it?
The Conversation with Dr Robert Livingston
My guest today is Dr Robert Livingston. Robert is a social psychologist based at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is one of the world's leading experts on the science underlying bias and racism. He's also the author of the book The conversation, how talking honestly about racism can transform individuals and organisations. And in this episode, obviously, as you can imagine, with someone with such a long history, in this field, we talk about biases, we talk about what we can learn from black lives matter what you can do in your workplace, we share some of Roberts various different models. And I think you're gonna find this a really accessible, interesting, fascinating conversation. This is Dr Robert Livingston. I'm with Dr Robert Livingston. Firstly, just congratulations on the book, the first thing I wanted to ask you about, which I thought might be quite a nice frame for this whole discussion is your press model. So you want to explain the press model. And then we're actually just going to use that for just how we structure the rest of this.
Changing Confidence with Lauren Currie
My guest today is Lauren Currie. Lauren is a serial entrepreneur with a background in service design, and she's the CEO and founder of upfront, an organisation helping women to tackle issues around confidence. Lauren is one of the most interesting and articulate speakers on subjects of gender and race and diversity. And on this episode, we talk about the recent goings on at Basecamp empathy and curiosity and what it meant to her to be awarded an OBE. There's also some really interesting insights around what it means to be busy. The importance of kindness and leadership and Lauren share some of her productivity. This is Lauren Currie.
Start Up Life with Jon Smith
My guest today is Jon Smith. John is co-founder of pebble a tech startup helping children in schools to get more engaged in creative writing. And problem has grown massively during COVID as a tool to help with homeschooling. So in this episode, we talked about the growing pains of startups, productivity while managing a fully remote team, the work life balance benefits of being based in Cornwall and how that helps him to get beyond busy. And there are some brilliant perspectives on success, people management, and much more. This is Jon Smith.
Two Beats Ahead with Panos A. Panay and R. Michael Hendrix
So it's one of the rare occasions where we have two guests on Beyond Busy this week, and they are Panos Panay and Michael Hendricks. They're the co-authors of two beats ahead. What great musical minds teach us about creativity and innovation. They're both leading figures at the legendary Berklee College of Music. They're both entrepreneurs. They're both musicians and designers. And as a huge music geek myself, it's safe to say I really enjoyed this one. In this episode, we take inspiration from furrow Williams, Bjork, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, and many more. And behind all these inspiration stories are little nuggets that I think will help you unlock creativity and innovation. wherever you happen to work on. This is Panos Panay and Michael Hendricks. So I'm here with Michael and painters, and we're with we're struggling three countries in three locations right now. So I'm in Brighton as ever, Panay here is in Cyprus.
Being "On the Hook" with Seth Godin
My guest today is Seth Godin. Seth is the author of iconic bestsellers like Purple Cow, Linchpin, This is Marketing and Tribes. He's also the founder of Akimbo and the alt MBA, the host of the Akimbo podcast, and much more. He spent 30 years as one of the most in demand authors and speakers on marketing and creativity. In this episode, we talked about his latest book, The Practice, a surprising and multilayered book and what it means to put brave and interesting work out into the world. And I took away some brilliant lessons around kindness, willpower, and generosity. This is Seth Godin.