Ever pondered on the stark reality of a CEO's life or the power of personal branding? Well, you're in for a treat! We're thrilled to welcome Freddie Paxton, the dynamic CEO of the UK's leading personal branding agency, WOAW. Freddie takes us on an inspiring journey, sharing his transition from a university dropout to a C-suite executive. He peels back the layers of the CEO role, revealing its challenges and responsibilities - which can often be a far cry from the perceived glamour.
Freddie's insightful narrative extends to the realm of personal branding in our digital age. He emphasizes that we all have a personal brand, often unconsciously, and harnessing it can yield significant benefits. With Freddie's expert guidance, we delve into the importance of carefully crafting our messages and the role of a robust personal brand in streamlining networking. His unique perspective on this emerging branch of marketing is a treasure trove of knowledge.
We are not just about business; we delve deep into Freddie's life experiences and values. Growing up with a single mother, Freddie discusses the importance of hard work, mental health, and supportive environments. He even opens up about his favorite clients, mission-led campaigns, and influential books.
Join us, and let's explore the intricacies of personal branding, leadership, and the transformative power of vulnerability together.
Ever pondered on the stark reality of a CEO's life or the power of personal branding? Well, you're in for a treat! We're thrilled to welcome Freddie Paxton, the dynamic CEO of the UK's leading personal branding agency, WOAW. Freddie takes us on an inspiring journey, sharing his transition from a university dropout to a C-suite executive. He peels back the layers of the CEO role, revealing its challenges and responsibilities - which can often be a far cry from the perceived glamour.
Freddie's insightful narrative extends to the realm of personal branding in our digital age. He emphasizes that we all have a personal brand, often unconsciously, and harnessing it can yield significant benefits. With Freddie's expert guidance, we delve into the importance of carefully crafting our messages and the role of a robust personal brand in streamlining networking. His unique perspective on this emerging branch of marketing is a treasure trove of knowledge.
We are not just about business; we delve deep into Freddie's life experiences and values. Growing up with a single mother, Freddie discusses the importance of hard work, mental health, and supportive environments. He even opens up about his favorite clients, mission-led campaigns, and influential books.
Join us, and let's explore the intricacies of personal branding, leadership, and the transformative power of vulnerability together.
for me, sharing things openly with the world and on social media also, it's, firstly, practicing what we preach in terms of how we work with our clients and encouraging them to do more of that, but also it shows my team.
Speaker 1:I hope that I'm willing to sit and be vulnerable and talk honestly about my struggles and my journey, and I want to cultivate an environment of work where they're also comfortable to do that and they can bring their whole selves. I know that's a little bit of a cliche, but they should be unafraid to come to work with their feelings laid bare If they want to. They shouldn't have to worry about putting a brave face on all the time and acting like everything's okay if it's not, because if they feel comfortable to share those things, they know that they're in a safe space, in an environment where we seek to help each other and there's no judgment over those things. I think that's a really good place to be and obviously, by me leading by example in that way, I think that's the most effective way of cultivating an environment like that. It's very very effective.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Diverse, Inclusive Leaders podcast. This is a show where I speak with the most inspirational and thought-provoking leaders of today and unearth their unique stories of diversity and inclusion to help inspire, educate and motivate others to make the world a better place. Today, I am so excited to be joined by the marvellous Freddie Paxson. Now Freddie is the CEO of the UK's number one personal branding agency. It's called WOW, spelled W-O-A-W. Freddie began his career in journalism and he transitioned into marketing in his early twenties. By 26 years old, he'd already reached the C-suite level, and through the work that WOW has done when it comes to looking after celebrities, looking after C-suite leaders and a lot of the most successful founders and CEOs, Freddie has gained an unusual and interesting insight into the mind of a whole number of successful individuals and leaders. But he also has an interesting story to tell of his own. Welcome to the show, Freddie.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for having me pleasure to be here. I'm really excited to get cracking.
Speaker 2:So, freddie, before we dive deep into a conversation around personal branding. So I think that into itself is really interesting how personal branding and what that means, that's evolved a lot over the years. But talk to me a little bit about how you came to be where you are today, because you're still very youthful and you've achieved a lot in a very short period of time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, it's been an interesting journey and definitely one that's not been straightforward or linear, so to speak. I went to university for two years but I dropped out. So I guess that's a. I guess I would say it's unconventional from a success standpoint, but actually you hear a lot of people that have been super successful that didn't stick out education. I just found that it wasn't for me.
Speaker 1:But there were certainly times in those earlier years when I was sort of 18, 19, 20, where I was wondering, okay, I'm gonna drop out of uni, but what on earth am I gonna do next?
Speaker 1:And so I just placed a real focus on being industrious and trying to gain as much practical experience as I could, which I felt I wasn't really getting in education.
Speaker 1:So that led me to sort of broaden my horizons from the sports well, started in sport then broaden my horizons from that into wider marketing, was trying lots of different things, speaking to lots of different people and ended up actually during the pandemic, getting a job here at WoW.
Speaker 1:I started as an account manager but obviously, being a small and growing company at the time, I had a real opportunity to kind of shape the way that we worked, moving forward, and I was very lucky to work under somebody like Joe who founded the company, and so I was able to develop a lot of skills that perhaps I wouldn't have if I was working at a bigger company where you are more limited in your progression, and that really led me to develop not only as a professional but a person, and then that put me in good stead, or in a good place, to take over from Joe when he decided that he wanted to take a step into doing something else. So, yeah, certainly been given some good opportunities along the way by people like Joe, but I think it all boiled down to just me being industrious and learning to kind of back myself more and leverage the skills that I had and being open to improve and learn new ones where possible.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So an industrious dropout who then became a CEO of a top branding agency. I think that's something to be pretty proud of Friday and, honestly, we were talking about it before we started recording. But it's not always the easiest thing to be a CEO, and I think the CEO title itself these days has these grandiose connotations of sitting at the top of a tree and getting to enjoy a swanky lifestyle. Is it really like that, or is it something perhaps that's like a leading question, like no, it is not.
Speaker 2:And we're talking about focus room, some of the challenges, because, like you, I went to university, I got a first class honours but then could not, for the love of God, get a job in one of the corporate organisations which I now, rather serendipitously, find myself advising. So talk to me about that CEO role. Is it all that it's cracked up to be?
Speaker 1:I think obviously it's easy to look from the outside and think, oh, when you're the CEO, you can take time off whenever you want, or there's no one telling you that you need to get this done by then, and there's not the kind of same pressure as having a direct line manager that might be constantly kind of watching over you, asking you to do things. Or you might look at a CEO that goes out to meet clients for lunch and think, oh, I wish that was my job, going out for lunch. But actually it's not all glitz and glamour at all. It's a complete pressure pot where you're in charge of not just the success of your own career and the company, but also the people that work at the company. You're responsible for people earning a salary and progressing in their own careers and paying their rent and putting food on the table. And if I don't do my job properly, there will be no company, and if there's no company, there's no jobs for these people. And so within that there's lots of intrinsic pressure. There's lots of having to wear lots of different hats.
Speaker 1:I had a friend come into the office yesterday and shadow me because he wanted firstly to see what my day-to-day is like now being a close friend of mine, he was interested, but also he wanted to see more about what our world really involves in terms of our industry and our work. And something that he said to me is that you have to wear lots of different hats throughout the day, and he noticed that I'd go from speaking with a member of the team and having to obviously conduct that conversation a certain way to perhaps speaking to another member of the team but having to conduct myself in a different manner, because they're different personalities and people respond to different things. And then you speak to a client and you then become an authority and you're an expert and you're having to give advice to them in a certain way. And then you speak to a potential client and you're a salesman. So there's some insight there into how varied it can be, and obviously that's really enjoyable at the best of times, but at the worst of times it's extremely draining.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of pressure and there is not enough hours in the day often to get all the things done that you want to, so you really have to be hard on yourself and hold yourself accountable, and so no one else is going to tell me that I need to get up now and do this and then do that. I've got to just make sure I do it myself and that is a challenge and can be very draining, but it's not all. Woe is me, because obviously I do enjoy that challenge and other people in this kind of position obviously are motivated by that challenge. But it's not as easy as some people might think.
Speaker 2:That resonates such a lot with me personally and I'm sure that will resonate with a lot of our audience as well, and this will make you laugh, but I have a little postcard here which says nothing will work unless you do, and the wearing of the multiple hats and tasks which in can be, as you say, really emotionally draining but also, at the same time, very rewarding. You know, one of my favorite expressions is the hardy work the luckier you get, and I guess I wonder whether that has been the case yourself, because obviously a lot of CEOs you represent, a lot of very well-known influencers and even celebrities as well. Is that the case, do you think? Because in the modern world of diversity, inclusion, belonging, equity and certainly social media, you sometimes think, hey, is everyone really working that hard? Have they just landed into these positions?
Speaker 1:I think it's always been the case that, you know, for some people they can just kind of fall and land on their feet and perhaps they might be given something, maybe a business to take over or maybe given an opportunity that completely changes their lives. But I think on the whole, you've got to look at it in a way which is like, ok, well, if somebody is given a business by their dad, it's very easy to look at it and be like, oh, they've been given that. But ultimately, if they then do a good job of running it, that still makes them a good leader. So I think in a lot of cases, yeah, you do make your own luck, and I would often sometimes feel that sometimes, especially some peers and people my age people sometimes are a little bit skeptical, like, oh, like, how have you got to a C-suite level at our age? Like there must be something to that, you must have got lucky somewhere along the way, and sometimes it's easy to fall into that chap of thinking and sort of believe that.
Speaker 1:But actually no, I've been trying to be much more cognizant of the fact that I've got here through my own hard work, by making difficult decisions and being unafraid to do so, and obviously, the more that you put yourself out there, the more conversations that you have, the more things that you say yes to that, perhaps even when you've got a bit of trepidation about saying yes, the more likely that you are to then meet someone that might be able to introduce you to someone with a life-changing opportunity, or the more likely you are to put yourself in front of someone who's really impressed by the way that you communicate and therefore then a conversation starts and then you're on to something good.
Speaker 1:And so it's about putting yourself out there and I think, yeah, it's a cliche about creating your own luck, but it's a cliche for a reason. I do think that it's true, and one thing's for sure is that you're never going to get lucky if you just sit around and don't put yourself out there. It's very unlikely that anything good is going to come of that. So I think that, for me, resonates for sure.
Speaker 2:Talk to us about personal branding. This is why I was so excited about doing this podcast, because you obviously spend a huge amount of your time looking after others' profiles and looking after their personal brand and you know I've seen over the last decade that the connotations around personal branding have now really become very positive. Perhaps wasn't the case. Maybe a decade ago people were saying personal branding, why would we do that? What is personal branding? I know it sounds a rather simplistic question, but it would be great to understand why personal branding is really important to what you do and how you've seen that trend start to shift with a lot of your clients, entrepreneurs, ceos, celebrities alike.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, as it's a kind of newer arm of marketing, in the sense that social media and the grand scheme of things is also still relatively new and it's evolving, and within that, so is personal branding. So, naturally, you face some skepticism from people who perhaps think that it's just for egotists or they don't really care about social media, so why would I want to put myself out there? But the reality is that everybody has a personal brand. Everybody has a personal brand, whether they like it or not. We're all known for something. You might be known as the funny guy around the office. You might be known as the approachable one who's always ready to give advice. You might be known as an absolute expert in your field. That in itself is having a personal brand.
Speaker 1:Some people, though, are choosing now and more and more people are choosing now to control that narrative and to put messaging out there with intention, and to really figure out exactly what they want to be known as and to be seen as, and how that can benefit them, whereas others are kind of just letting that narrative play out as it plays out, without intention, and I think to use an analogy that I always use when I speak to our clients or potential clients. If you think about you go to an industry event and I'm sure you'd be familiar with this lately you go and go on to lots of events, do lots of networking. Often, when you walk into a room especially if you're earlier stage in your career, you've just started your business you walk into one of these industry events and there's that necessity to go and introduce yourself to people and say, hi, my name is X and my business is called Y, and we do this and that conversation then starts to get going and then you might be able to make a nice connection. But if you think about somebody with a strong personal brand who is known as a thought leader in a certain space, because they've been putting consistent messaging out there and really working on that narrative and putting the right messages out there and telling a story in the right way, they walk into that event.
Speaker 1:People already know who they are, they know their name, they know what their business does, they know what the values of that business might be, they know what the biggest achievements have been in the business's recent history, because they've seen that content and those conversations that you have are therefore then already facilitated and those potential clients and those people that can really benefit you in the business gravitate towards you, and that is, I think, the most powerful example of what a good personal brand can do. And obviously, social media being what it is, you're able to reach lots of people very quickly and therefore, that's why it's such a powerful tool. So, no, it's not just for egoists, it's not just for people that like talking me, me, me. It's not about posting pictures of your kids or talking about all your vulnerabilities online. That can be part of it, sure, but it's about a thoughtfully curated set of messages that you want to put out to the world to achieve very particular goals, and I think that's what we do very well at WAM.
Speaker 2:I love how you articulate that, because we all do have a personal brand. It's how much we choose to share and how vulnerable we may or may not want to be. Now, as you say, when you walk into an exhibition or a conference or a room, how much do you share about yourself? Hey, my name is Layla. I have mental health issues, for example. Now would you introduce yourself when you walk into a room? And, if I may be so personal, I'd love to know more about Freddie's personal brand, because I've noticed that you put some really really quite sensitive, beautiful posts up there and actually you don't always get to know about the person from what you see on the surface, which kind of loops back to the beginning of this conversation, where there's a need to feel and be a certain way. Actually, this wasn't gifted on a play. Actually, you have your own vulnerabilities and things that you wouldn't know unless you ask the question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I appreciate you asking that and I think how would I introduce myself at an event? Well, I would like to think that some people would come up to me and say, oh, you're that guy who is running that company. Now I saw that you've taken over from Joe and I'd be like, yeah, and then that's a good example of how that conversation is facilitated. But how would I introduce myself if they didn't already know me? I think I would often go into those conversations actually leading with my age and be like, oh, I'm a 26, now 27-year-old CEO. But actually I realized that I was using that as a limiting factor and that could come across. I was given some really good advice by somebody who was like I understand why you might start a conversation like that, but actually it makes me feel like maybe you're insecure and you're downplaying yourself straight away, like you're not a 26-year-old CEO or 27-year-old CEO, you're just a CEO. So I would just introduce myself by talking about what we do in the power of it and using it as an opportunity to soft sell, I guess and talk about how we can provide solutions to problems that lots of people face in terms of how to articulate their story and their message. But with regard to my own story, yeah, I'm always happy to share vulnerabilities and talk about things that I've struggled with throughout my adult life. You know, when we talk about mental health, for example, I think that's something that lots of people are able to relate to and if you're going to build a community and look to kind of build trust with people and show that you're not just some guy writing a lot of posts about how great your business is, but actually, like, here's the highs, here's the lows, here's some encouragement for people who may want to kind of get to this position and, like I said, it's not linear. So, yeah, I've had my own struggles with mental health. I went through a couple of periods of depression, I used to struggle really badly with anxiety and sometimes, obviously, those things can still creep up on you, but I've been fortunate enough to have found coping mechanisms and had a real openness to try therapy and different types of therapy, which I think is, unfortunately, it's kind of a necessity for us all. I think anybody, everybody should go through some sort of therapy, because I think it's really important for the expansion of the way that you think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, of course you know, family life is why I'm so lucky to have such an incredible family. You know my mom is my best friend and someone I learn an incredible amount from and her work ethic. But you know, I think I learned the value of hard work and things like that from her because, you know, she was a single mother. My dad died when I was really young and so I watched her, you know, struggling at times to make ends meet. We were never, we never went without and for me to act like I grew up in extreme poverty, as many people do, that would be unfair. But we struggled at times and money was tight and I watched her work so hard to make sure that myself and my brother were really well provided for, and that, I think, has rubbed off on me and given me the sort of work ethic that I would like to think I have now.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, when I look at the whole journey combined, there's certainly might be easy for people to think, oh, you're in a good position in business and you're a white guy, you've got you know sort of that privilege and therefore you probably grew up in a privileged environment and I guess, compared to some people, in many ways I did, but at the same time, I certainly wasn't born into money or success and I never had anything handed to me.
Speaker 1:All I had handed to me was, you know, a great role model in my mom and people around me that loves me and that's enabled me to then, you know, see the value of hard work, know what it's like to have strong priorities and a good work ethic, and I think that's been, you know, the key driving force behind what's enabled me to maybe accelerate my career and get to where I've got to so far, because I've had that sort of influence. So so, yeah, and those are the sorts of things that I think are really powerful to share through content if people are comfortable to and obviously my audience have found that relevant, because for them it answers a question like so so yeah, you're in a good position, but how did you actually get there? What does that look like? And so that's the value for me in sharing those things.
Speaker 2:Freddie, thank you so much for sharing that Honestly. It's so great to hear you talk about the journey, and not just the personal journey, but obviously the successes that you've had In order to have had a lot of struggles with mental health and, like you, I think, seeking therapy is not something ever to be ashamed of. Actually, it's something that, to your point, it makes you think very, very differently and it gives you that headspace that we all need in a world where there's, you know, eye watches, phones pinging everywhere, social media and the likes. But taking those moments just to have a pause, and in particular, you mentioned white males and privileged that, which I'm so glad that you did, because it's easy for us to judge books by their cover and it frustrates me a lot at times because if we don't ask the questions of how people are, but how they really are and what it is that makes them driven and how they came to be where they are today, then we would never know some of these things.
Speaker 2:I worked for the Samaritans for about three years when I was younger and I was at university, doing various different jobs, and one of the well, there was a whole number of people that would call up about lots of different things, obviously can't disclose, but suicide was hugely common in the statistics at that time and still is.
Speaker 2:Often the case, is predominantly with guys, and younger guys as well, because this previous idea of what a man or a manly man would be is that whole big boys don't cry kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Now, sometimes tease my husband because I say that's what he is like. You know, up in Idaho it's all about big boys don't cry. Actually, why shouldn't we be talking about this? Because without sharing some of the vulnerabilities and we don't create the safe space that ultimately, in your case, obviously engages with the audience. But actually it really helps others understand that it is okay to then seek therapy, that is okay to be going through mental health struggles, anxiety, depression and all those different kind of things. In particular, when you get to that place of being CEO, whatever your age, is so important to be not only a good role model but a really great real model, which is what I think you really are, freddie, and I can tell correct me if I'm wrong that your mum being a really brilliant real model to you as you were growing up has been a key driving factor in your tenacity to get to that place of success.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. I appreciate you saying that and you're right in saying that about you know being a driving force for me and I think you know on that sort of leading by example piece, I think for me, sharing things openly with the world and on social media also is firstly, practicing what we preach in terms of how we work with our clients and encouraging them to do more of that. But also it shows my team I hope that you know I'm willing to sit and be vulnerable and talk honestly about my struggles and my journey and I want to cultivate an environment of work where they're also comfortable to do that and they can bring their whole selves. I know that's a little bit of a cliche, but they should be unafraid to come to work with their you know, their feelings laid bare if they want to. They shouldn't have to worry about putting a brave face on all the time and acting like everything's okay if it's not, because if they feel comfortable to share those things, they know that they're in a safe space, in an environment where we seek to help each other and there's no judgment over those things. I think that's a really good place to be and obviously by me leading by example in that way.
Speaker 1:I think that's the most effective way of cultivating an environment like that. So that's largely the intention behind it, and I think that's something that we're really good at. You know I'm probably biased, but I think my team are excellent at that. You know, there's no judgment here. There's no sort of horrible bitchy culture. There's no nastiness. Everybody's here to kind of support each other and if someone's going through something difficult, they know they can rely on one another, and I don't like that whole thing. You know we're a family here at this company. No, we're not. We're colleagues, we're professionals and we're here to do good work, but we're also here to look after each other while we do it and to have a nice time while we do it and show each other respect and love and allow each other to bring our whole selves to work, and I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:Respect, love and trust absolutely Key, key things when it comes to being, I think, a great CEO, but then also being a great colleague, leader, brother, sister, son, all of those various different things. And I think you know how you've articulated that is. It's very much how we think it dial. Actually, it's about how diversity means different things to different people and whilst we may say we're a family in the sense that we spend more time with our colleagues and we do with our loved ones and our actual family, we need to have that glue that binds us together to help us ultimately Do great business and help people do well by doing good. Before we wrap up, I'd love to ask you a couple of little lightning round questions. I'm going to give you 30 seconds to answer each. I'm starting with the hardest one. First, what would you define success as, or what does success mean to you?
Speaker 1:Success to me means feeling contentment and feeling you know, feeling happy in what you're doing every day. If you feel motivated by getting up in the morning or you go home in the evening and you feel excited about what the next day brings and you're excited by what you might be able to achieve, that success should never be measured by money or you know things like that. Those are all contextual things. It's about happiness.
Speaker 2:What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?
Speaker 1:I think, the first things that come to mind when you think about diversity. It's easy to think of race straight away, but that's not necessarily it. I think for me, it's about welcoming different perspectives, different ways of thinking, embracing the fact that you actually are never going to fully understand or be able to relate to everybody with their own quirks, their differences, their backgrounds, etc. But actually embracing that there are just different people that you don't need to fully understand, but if you, you know, can accept and try to understand where possible, I think the world would be a better place. So that's what diversity is. For me, it's all about those differences and the multitude of those differences.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That equals great innovation and success. Cheeky question here who's your favourite client? And tell us about some of the people you refer to them.
Speaker 1:Do you know what? Like? Obviously we're under NDA with a lot of them, so we don't want everyone to know that we're doing what we do for them, and that speaks for the authenticity as well, because a lot of people don't know that we're doing this for certain people. But obviously we do have permission to speak about some of them and I think you know we work with a number of the dragons from Dragons Den. For example, tage is one of our clients. He's given us public testimonials, so I know that we can say that and he, yeah, he's a fantastic guy, always has so much wisdom to share. He has a lot of interesting insights from his time working in TV but also running, you know, one of the worlds the UK's in the world's most successful companies in vital biotics, and so just being round people like that and just picking up little bits of wisdom from the things that they say Incredible.
Speaker 2:I have to say I am a big Tage fan. A very big Tage fan and Dragons fan as well, so Tage is maybe the favourite. Well, anyone else that you particularly loved working with. And then, finally, I guess before we wrap up, have you any favourite books or podcasts other than this one? Obviously that you'll listen to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think where, yeah, other people that I like to work with, like the campaigns that we run that I really enjoy, ones that have a strong mission led angle. So we've had people whose businesses seek to reduce the geographical birth lottery and give access to people anywhere in the world the same access to jobs, essentially and that sort of thing I really feel inspired by working on, because we're actively helping them achieve that mission. And if they're able to achieve that mission, then you're genuinely making the world a better place. So there's tons of examples of clients that we work with that have really strong social missions that we really buy into, and we're quite selective as well about who we work with. For that reason, we really want people that we can have a genuinely good impact on the world through. So, yeah, that would be the answer to that.
Speaker 1:And then books wise, it's a difficult one. What am I reading at the moment? I think I always go back to kind of classics like Shoe Dog, rich Dad, poor Dad, things that can kind of open your thinking of perspectives. They're absolute classics, but I enjoy books like that. I also there's the Mark Manson book as well the Satellite of Not Giving a Fuck. I enjoyed that just because it's quite funny and it challenges certain norms.
Speaker 1:You know this whole idea of looking in the mirror every morning and telling yourself that you are beautiful and you love yourself, and his thinking towards that is like, well, if you're doing that, it already shows that you kind of think that you're not. So like, snap out of all of that rubbish. And I kind of sometimes like those things that you read and then it kind of gives you a smack across the face and you're like, oh yeah, no, I should stop thinking like that. Like it's just, let's just take it back to basics and not over complicate things. So I enjoy things like that. Also like autobiographies a lot as well. So obviously I come from a sports background, so any sports autobiographies that can kind of give you an insight into the way that super successful people think and like create high performance environments the likes of Pep Guardiola there's been books written about him which aren't autobiographical but also like Arsene Venga, the former Arsenal manager, and just some insights into the way people think and create those environments. I find stuff like that really interesting.
Speaker 2:Super answers. I love Richard Kawasaki. I'm not sure if that's how you pronounce it or whether that's the motorcycle, however, he is fantastic. Rich Dad, poor Dad, is such a brilliant book. One of my themes for authors at the moment is a guy called Ryan Holiday and he does a lot of around stoicism, so he wrote a book called Ego is the anime which I taught, and there's another one called the Obstacle is the way. But to your point, it's kind of really, you know, giving you this smack around the face and giving yourself a kick and going Right, you know what. Actually I might have gone through hard times, but actually you live once and let's make the most of that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I was reading some stuff on stoicism recently as well. It's really interesting. There was a story about there's a philosopher who was in Auschwitz and he speaks about his concentration camp experiences and then also in the second half of the book about how that relates to like a stoic Mindset and attitude and it's called man's search for meaning. If anyone listening to this is interesting, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, sorry, that is the book that. I Know it sounds weird, but that is the book that Really helped me through grieving my father. I've read it about three times. I've got it on audible. Victor E Franco absolutely Incredible, and it does sound horribly depressing, but his theories around logotherapy just Fascinating and insightful. And I'm already thinking right, fred, we need to do a podcast now, on the next day, so it it's incredible.
Speaker 1:It does sound depressing, but when you realize how people can find joy and Excitement in the most menial things during the most stressful, difficult, awful time of their life, it really puts things into perspective. Okay, if you switch your mindset a little bit to look for joy in things you know you can, you can be much happier and it's really powerful.
Speaker 2:It is so powerful, so powerful. I read that. And then I read a number of Ronald holidays books and then I bought a coin. It says memento mori on it, which is all about, you know, the fact that you could die tomorrow. So what you're gonna do about right now, it sounds very profound and it is very profound, but I ordered my coin off Amazon and it was like I carry around with.
Speaker 1:A nice little reminder. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2:So, freddy, I said podcast was gonna be 20 minutes. Obviously you spilled over because you are an absolute, brilliant, brilliant guest. I'm gonna do my best to summarize. I don't know if I'm gonna do a very good job, but you have already taught me a huge amount just being in this podcast with you. You've taught me power of vulnerability, the power of personal brand so incredibly important given the fact, the society that we live in today and being a CEO, being a founder, it can be a very, very, very lonely place and it's really easy for people to take to social media and be keyboard warriors and say this and that and the other. Actually, the importance of controlling who you are, the brand that you represent, both, whilst also doing it In a meaningful and a thoughtful way that has true passion behind it. And I think how you've articulated yourself, your vulnerability so kindly and the work that you do with wow, I think, is really exceptional. So thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for having me. You asked some really great questions. I really enjoyed chatting through all that stuff. It's nice to have the space to be open and honest about things. So thanks for for making me feel comfortable and for being a great host.
Speaker 2:Thanks, freddie. My name is Lea McKenzie-Dellison, the Founder and CEO of Dialglobal. You've been joined today by the marvelous Freddie Paxton of Wow. Make Sure that you Check Him Out. You can visit us on any of your favorite podcast channels Apple, spotify or directly on the website. Please do hit subscribe and leave us a review. Wwwdallglobalorg forward slash podcast. See you again very soon.