About the Founder
So, what’s the story?
I’m a change agent with 20+ years creative business experience spanning professional services, financial services, publishing, television, film and theatre - making mistakes and learning from them…
Rocking down to Electric Avenue
Passion for print started at The Voice Newspaper in 1992 - a gap year before studying Media at the University of Sussex. A job that became my summer job throughout university.
An affirming way to start a professional career - surrounded by past and present legends from black culture and creativity.
LESSONS LEARNT:
The power of print, pitfalls of entrepreneurship and the importance of representation and mentoring.
Five, Four, Three, Two, One
In my teenage years and early twenties I was able to access work experience on shows broadcast on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 & MTV due to the mentorship of Angela Ferreira, Diane Donner, Paul Day, Jacqueline Steward.
In 1996, Television & Young People (TVYP) at the International Edinburgh Television Festival exposed me to the range of roles in television starting my professional journey into broadcast TV at Channel 5 during their inaugural year.
Headhunted by Jacqueline Steward, in 1997 I joined Channel 4 to support her to set up the Independent Relations department at Channel 4 focused on developing new talent and advising production companies on commissioning guidelines. Producing the annual Channel 4 PACT Day and masterclasses introduced me to the world of TV commissioning.
LESSONS LEARNT:
Importance of mentorship, the impact of good and bad leadership, the power in creative collaboration, the evolution of digital media and how the lack of diversity in commissioning content and talent is reflective of inequities in society.
Shuffling into the world that Hollywood built
Running at The Mill in the late nineties learning about editing and CGI; between 2000-2004 working with independent filmmakers, the International Film Festival Summit, Bermuda International Film Festival, and in marketing and theatrical sales roles at Universal Video, Warner Bros. and Buena Vista provided me with a 360 view of the industry and how the studio system works.
LESSONS LEARNT:
How to make the perfect cappuccino, avoid smooth surfaces and operators in edit and casting rooms; and the power of brands, marketing & relationships.
Look Mum, I’m a professional business woman
From 2004 - 2018 I worked at Ernst & Young (EY) with global brands across a number of industries including consumer products, healthcare, technology, financial services and media and entertainment.
Spending 14 years working for a Big 4 professional services firm in various change management consulting and business development roles based in the UK, Americas (Caribbean) and also covering their Japanese Business Services; I developed an expertise in people and organisational change management, stakeholder engagement, customer relationship management, knowledge management, business development, marketing and communications.
Certified in Prince 2 Project management, MSCEIT Emotional Intelligence, Williams Bridges Transition Management and Miller Heimann strategic conceptual and professional selling methodologies, I have created inclusiveness programs for large, complex organisations – working closely with senior leadership teams and HR to embed inclusiveness as part of their people and business agenda.
In 2007 I developed the relaunch strategy and chaired the Employee Resource Group (ERG) - EY Black Network in 2008; winning a Race for Opportunity Award for Most improved Firm, brokering the Power List Magazine relationship, launching the BME leadership and a reverse mentoring programme, achieving 80% of the annual strategic plan within 6 months of the relaunch of the network.
LESSONS LEARNT:
Understanding your context in a room and being underestimated are secret weapon.
Great sales professionals don’t sell they create win/wins by actively listening; getting anything done globally quickly and sustainably always starts with building relationships and understanding people’s why; learning how to critically read annual reports and financial accounts saves time and identifies where the elephant dung in a business is very quickly; an understanding of how international business ‘really’ works is not a common skill, having values is not for everyone, the power of being in an organisation that provides you access to million dollar knowledge and minds is worth nothing if you don’t find the time to read it.
Your network determines your net worth.
Accessing the beauty within me
My career burnout opened the door to learning about natural wellbeing techniques to manage stress and anxiety which I explored in a hobby blog called Phenomenal Healthstyle. My interest in wellbeing and film led me to executive produce a documentary called 'The Big Fat Fix’ (2016); and my passion for sneakers led me to the UK documentary SoleSeekers (2018).
LESSONS LEARNT:
Values are not for everyone. Understanding the difference between failing well and badly; how to go with the flow; the joy gained from incorporating my interests and wellbeing into my day to day life is important to me.
The transformational effect of understanding ‘The Four Agreements’ - forgiving myself and others for messing up sometimes and not having it all figured out enables me to recover quickly and gain wisdom from being both vulnerable and compassionate.
Living the dream
Niche on Demand was co-founded in 2018, to create a space for black creativity, culture and capital to meet. It is a hybrid company focused on using creativity and capital to enable a more equitable and inclusive society. We are currently in post-production on an independent documentary project called Finding Sherpas - a 6 part documentary series about people who lift as they climb.
LESSONS LEARNT:
The importance of values aligned collaboration and building trusted ‘radically transparent’ relationships to get the best out of my creative business life.
Becoming an emotionally intelligent entrepreneur
Trained as a MSCEIT Emotional Intelligence trainer/facilitator in 2010 by David Caruso, PhD co-author of 'The Emotionally Intelligent Manager’ written in collaboration with the current President of Yale University Peter Salovey; who along with John Mayer are widely credited with laying the scientific foundation for the emotional intelligence (MSCEIT) theory, later popularised by Daniel Goleman in his bestselling book 'Emotional Intelligence'.
My training and experience delivering emotional intelligence coaching to business professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives and small business owners over the last 10 years, inspired me to create a business development programme called Emotional Maths to provide people with the tools to build their business ideas and projects more emotionally intelligently and sustainably.
LESSONS LEARNT:
That I’m not as emotionally intelligent as I thought I was, so having a framework has been a useful tool for me to increase my own self-awareness, emotional development and leadership skills over the last 10 years…and help others to do the same.
