40 Minute Mentor

JBM, James Mitra

40 Minute Mentor is on a mission to raise aspirations and inspire the next generation of category-defining Founders, through powerful career stories and inspirational mentorship. From purpose-led Founders to Olympic champions; learn first-hand from today’s successful leaders on what it takes to be brilliant, all in just 40 minutes. 40 Minute Mentor is one of the UK’s top Business and Careers podcasts and can be found on all popular podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts and Stitcher.

Episodes

Mentioned books

Mar 13, 2023 • 18min

From Google To Building The Fastest Growing Healthy Meal Subscription Business with Simmy Dhillon, Founder of Simmer

“I was finally getting all of these jobs that I always wanted, but I was always more passionate about my own business and would keep working on it outside of my normal hours.” Landing a role at Google as a graduate will make most people put thoughts about their next moves on hold. Not for today’s 40 Minute Mentor. We’re joined by the brilliant Simmy Dhillon, Founder of Simmer, the meal subscription service on a mission to nourish and delight through food by making eating well everyday easy and delicious. What started out with cooking jerk chicken in his university dorm room, turned into one of the fastest-growing meal subscription services in the UK. In today’s episode, we get a front row seat to their incredible journey and hear about: ➡️ What celebrating diversity should actually look like [05:40] ➡️ Simmy’s upbringing and where his entrepreneurial spirit comes from [07:47] ➡️ Where the idea for Simmer came from and the humble beginnings of the business [10:24] ➡️ How Rice & Spice evolved into Simmer [13:31] ➡️ Why he couldn’t stop thinking about his side hustle, even after joining Google [16:20] ➡️ The compromises you have to make when going all in on your side hustle [19:35] ➡️ The difficulties of hiring in a bootstrapped business [21:57] ➡️ Bootstrapping vs raising investment [22:54] ➡️ The power of podcasts for early stage Founders [25:58] ➡️ Working with celebrities [31:58] ➡️ Why you should try Simmer and a special Birthday offer for you [34:48] ➡️ Building a business with your family [38:35] ➡️ Why you need to stay authentic when building your personal brand [40:39] ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ More about Simmy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simmydhillon/➡️ Check out Simmer: https://simmereats.com/➡️ Redeem your offer to get 50% off your first order, plus 25% off your first month following this link https://simmereats.com/?code=jbm50 or by using “JBM50” during check out 💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:Alchemist - an industry leading learning and development company, whose learning journeys and experiences help organisations who want to grow, change or transform by putting the learner first to optimise organisational performance.To learn more about Alchemist and see how they work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, head over to https://thisisalchemist.com/40minutementor/ to find out more. 🏆 Want to partner with us? Do you want to get your brand in front of leading Startup Founders, Investors and C-Suite decision-makers, and attract some of the sharpest talent in the Startup/Scaleup scene? Get in touch with our Head of Marketing and Producer, Hannah to find out more about how we can co-produce content that will help you stand out and engage with over 40,000 loyal monthly listeners. You can reach her on hannah@jbmc.co.uk 🤝 Explore Hidden Pages: For this year’s Black History Month, we’ve had the great pleasure of partnering with Samuel Tholley and Hidden Pages - a zine discovering hidden Melanated history & lists of sources exploring the Melanated/"Black" experience. We talked about his motivation behind Hidden Pages, why it's so important to normalise black history and he shares some amazing historic figures we can all learn from.This is only the beginning of this partnership, so make sure you check out our initial conversation with Samuel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_-blY_kUQ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 20, 2023 • 20min

Becoming a Chief of Staff, with Emily Good, Libby Dangoor and Simon Rodrigues

In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re looking at a role which has gained increasing popularity within the Startup and Scaleup world over the last 12 months - the Chief of Staff role. To help us explore more of the day to day and the skills any aspiring CoS needs, we’re joined by: 📌 Emily Good, Chief of Staff at Lantum. 📌 Libby Dangoor, Chief of Staff at Multiverse. 📌 Simon Rodrigues, former Chief of Staff at Curio, now Founder & CEO at Saber Works. They share tons of advice in this episode, including: ➡️ How Libby, Emily and Simon became a Chief of Staff [01:25] ➡️ How varied the day to day as a CoS is [07:02] ➡️ The skills any aspiring Chief of Staff should work on [12:48] ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ Check out our Chief of Staff Secrets series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9Z5v0dwtFJAVcQRHc3mW2I5db-g84xxc➡️ Download the Chief of Staff Guide: https://mailchi.mp/jbmc/the-chief-of-staff-role-uncovered➡️ More about Emily Good: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-good1/➡️ More about Libby Dangoor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libby-dangoor-73b042a/➡️ More about Simon Rodrigues: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simondejesusrodrigues/ 💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:Alchemist - an industry leading learning and development company, whose learning journeys and experiences help organisations who want to grow, change or transform by putting the learner first to optimise organisational performance.To learn more about Alchemist and see how they work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, head over to https://thisisalchemist.com/40minutementor/ to find out more. 🏆 Want to partner with us? Do you want to get your brand in front of leading Startup Founders, Investors and C-Suite decision-makers, and attract some of the sharpest talent in the Startup/Scaleup scene? Get in touch with our Head of Marketing and Producer, Hannah to find out more about how we can co-produce content that will help you stand out and engage with over 40,000 loyal monthly listeners. You can reach her on hannah@jbmc.co.uk 🤝 Explore Hidden Pages: For this year’s Black History Month, we’ve had the great pleasure of partnering with Samuel Tholley and Hidden Pages - a zine discovering hidden Melanated history & lists of sources exploring the Melanated/"Black" experience. We talked about his motivation behind Hidden Pages, why it's so important to normalise black history and he shares some amazing historic figures we can all learn from.This is only the beginning of this partnership, so make sure you check out our initial conversation with Samuel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_-blY_kUQ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 15, 2023 • 52min

“From Layoffs To Lemonade” with Abadesi Osunsade, DE&I Leader and Founder & CEO of Hustle Crew

“It’s sad when you go into something with the idea of building a legacy and then that gets cut off. You have to realise, this is happening because you take risks, and that’s a good thing.” In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Abadesi Osunsade, DE&I leader and Founder & CEO of Hustle Crew, a inclusion education provider on a mission to create a world in which businesses are centred on inclusion, belonging and redistributing power. Before building Hustle Crew, Abadesi followed a hugely successful career path in Tech - from roles at Product Hunt, Elpha, Amazon, HotelTonight and Groupon, where she was promoted after her first 8 months and helped scale her department 5X leading up to their record breaking IPO.Amongst all the success, Abadesi was also laid off twice in her career and is refreshingly honest about her experience, in today’s episode. We chat about:➡️ More about our sponsors, Alchemist [00:23] ➡️ The obsession with raising funding and capital [05:05] ➡️ Abadesi’s hugely successful career in Tech [07:45] ➡️ Being the only black employee at HotelTonight and how that led to Hustle Crew [11:45] ➡️ Getting stuck in the DE&I Founder echo chamber [13:00] ➡️ Her experience of being made redundant, twice [16:22]➡️ How to bounce back from layoffs and figure out what’s next [26:54] ➡️ A podcast recommendation from us [30:30] ➡️ Navigating layoffs as a Founder [31:44] ➡️ The evolution of Hustle Crew [34:58] ➡️ Why community building isn’t about size and not everyone needs to have one [40:12] ➡️ Advice on getting into Tech [45:31] ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ More about Abadesi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abadesi/➡️ Check out Hustle Crew: https://www.hustlecrew.co/➡️ Get your copy of ‘Dream Big, Hustle Hard: https://www.hustlecrew.co/dream-big-hustle-hard➡️ Read ‘Do Things That Don’t Scale’ by Paul Graham: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html 💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:Alchemist - an industry leading learning and development company, whose learning journeys and experiences help organisations who want to grow, change or transform by putting the learner first to optimise organisational performance.To learn more about Alchemist and see how they work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, head over to https://thisisalchemist.com/40minutementor/ to find out more. 🏆 Want to partner with us? Do you want to get your brand in front of leading Startup Founders, Investors and C-Suite decision-makers, and attract some of the sharpest talent in the Startup/Scaleup scene? Get in touch with our Head of Marketing and Producer, Hannah to find out more about how we can co-produce content that will help you stand out and engage with over 40,000 loyal monthly listeners. You can reach her on hannah@jbmc.co.uk 🤝 Explore Hidden Pages: For this year’s Black History Month, we’ve had the great pleasure of partnering with Samuel Tholley and Hidden Pages - a zine discovering hidden Melanated history & lists of sources exploring the Melanated/"Black" experience. We talked about his motivation behind Hidden Pages, why it's so important to normalise black history and he shares some amazing historic figures we can all learn from.This is only the beginning of this partnership, so make sure you check out our initial conversation with Samuel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_-blY_kUQ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 13, 2023 • 14min

Getting Into STEM with Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon & Amali de Alwis

Following International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re looking back on two 40 Minute Mentor episodes with two absolute trailblazers - Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon and Amali de Alwis. Anne-Marie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Stemettes, an award-winning social enterprise working to inspire and support girls, young women and non-binary people in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths careers. You may also know Anne-Marie from the popular Channel 4 show Countdown, or have come across her new book, ‘She’s In CTRL’. Amali is the CEO of Subak, the world’s first not-for-profit accelerator that scales climate impact through data policy and behaviour change. Prior to joining Subak, she was CEO of Code First: Girls - the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK. Anne-Marie and Amali shared so much great mentorship in their 40 Minute Mentor episodes. In today’s STEM career feature, we’ll focus on: ➡️ Why a societal change is needed to make Tech more inclusive [01:54] ➡️ How the industry itself is a barrier [04:21] ➡️ The importance of just getting started and finding a community [08:01] ➡️ Advice for more inclusive hiring practices [10:30] ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ Anne-Marie’s full 40 Minute Mentor episode: https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/changing-the-face-of-stem-with-dr-anne-marie-imafidon-mbe/➡️ Amali’s full 40 Minute Mentor episode: https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/series-8-amali-de-alwis-subak/➡️ More about ‘She’s In CTRL’: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444767/shes-in-ctrl-by-imafidon-anne-marie/9781787635029➡️ More about Stemettes: https://stemettes.org/➡️ More about Subak: https://subak.org/➡️ More about Code First: Girls: https://codefirstgirls.com/ 💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:Alchemist - an industry leading learning and development company, whose learning journeys and experiences help organisations who want to grow, change or transform by putting the learner first to optimise organisational performance.To learn more about Alchemist and see how they work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, head over to https://thisisalchemist.com/40minutementor/ to find out more. 🏆 Want to partner with us? Do you want to get your brand in front of leading Startup Founders, Investors and C-Suite decision-makers, and attract some of the sharpest talent in the Startup/Scaleup scene? Get in touch with our Head of Marketing and Producer, Hannah to find out more about how we can co-produce content that will help you stand out and engage with over 40,000 loyal monthly listeners. You can reach her on hannah@jbmc.co.uk 🤝 Explore Hidden Pages: For this year’s Black History Month, we’ve had the great pleasure of partnering with Samuel Tholley and Hidden Pages - a zine discovering hidden Melanated history & lists of sources exploring the Melanated/"Black" experience. We talked about his motivation behind Hidden Pages, why it's so important to normalise black history and he shares some amazing historic figures we can all learn from.This is only the beginning of this partnership, so make sure you check out our initial conversation with Samuel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_-blY_kUQ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 8, 2023 • 52min

Building An Accidental Global Fitness Brand with Nikki Wicks, CEO of The Body Coach

“A lot of people expected me and Joe to go off the rails. We almost had permission because of our childhood. Because of that, there was always a part of me that wanted to prove people wrong.” In this inaugural episode of 40 Minute Mentor’s 9th Series, we’re joined by Nikki Wicks, the CEO of the legendary global fitness brand, The Body Coach. There won’t be a lot of you who haven’t heard of Joe Wicks and The Body Coach, but today, we get a real inside scoop into how the brand grew to what it is today and the often unspoken challenges they faced along the way. We find out: ➡️ Why Nikki doesn’t consider himself to be entrepreneurial [05:09] ➡️ The difficult balancing act of running a business and raising children [06:33] ➡️ Joe and Nikki’s turbulent childhood and upbringing [09:06] ➡️ How their upbringing has shaped Joe and Nikki’s relationship with each other [10:56] ➡️ Nikki’s publishing career and why he became CEO [17:00] ➡️ The realities of being a first-time CEO [22:15] ➡️ More about our sponsor’s Alchemist [23:51] ➡️ How The Body Coach went from 15 second Instagram videos to a book deal and a global brand [25:49] ➡️ Building and scaling a team and why TBC had to restructure earlier this year [32:03] ➡️ Keeping the purpose at the core of the brand [39:17] ➡️ How Nikki and Joe work with each other [43:04] ➡️ How to stick to your new year’s resolutions and form healthy habits [45:43] ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ More about Nikki Wicks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-wicks-15065661/➡️ Check out The Body Coach: https://www.thebodycoach.com/➡️ Listen back to our Sifted Summit episode: https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/live-at-sifted-summit-purpose-v-profit-with-nikki-wicks-the-body-coach-emma-steele-ascension-amali-de-alwis-subak/ 💙 A big thank you to our Sponsors:Alchemist - an industry leading learning and development company, whose learning journeys and experiences help organisations who want to grow, change or transform by putting the learner first to optimise organisational performance.To learn more about Alchemist and see how they work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, head over to https://thisisalchemist.com/40minutementor/ to find out more. 🏆 Want to partner with us? Do you want to get your brand in front of leading Startup Founders, Investors and C-Suite decision-makers, and attract some of the sharpest talent in the Startup/Scaleup scene? Get in touch with our Head of Marketing and Producer, Hannah to find out more about how we can co-produce content that will help you stand out and engage with over 40,000 loyal monthly listeners. You can reach her on hannah@jbmc.co.uk 🤝 Explore Hidden Pages: For this year’s Black History Month, we’ve had the great pleasure of partnering with Samuel Tholley and Hidden Pages - a zine discovering hidden Melanated history & lists of sources exploring the Melanated/"Black" experience. We talked about his motivation behind Hidden Pages, why it's so important to normalise black history and he shares some amazing historic figures we can all learn from.This is only the beginning of this partnership, so make sure you check out our initial conversation with Samuel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_-blY_kUQ ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️Keep up to date with all our latest episodes, by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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40 Minute Mentor

Episodes

Mentioned books

History’s Leading Female Black Voices, presented by Samuel Tholley

Social Media For A Better World with Sue Fennessy, Founder & CEO of WeAre8

Embracing Equity - International Women's Day 2023