S03 E05 | Start Small, Think Big: Hayden Taylor on Building Unlock

In this episode of Inspiring Working Lives, we speak with Hayden Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO of Unlock, about building a social enterprise dedicated to helping young people access opportunities, develop confidence, and achieve their potential. 

Hayden shares how a youth programme inspired him to launch Unlock at just 16, the lessons he's learned leading a growing organisation, and why mentorship, social mobility, and real-world experience are so important for the next generation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I've been in this role now for for more than twelve years. I started Unlock when I was sixteen, you know, literally sixteen in a few days, we walked into the local accountant's office and said, help us start this company. I'm not sure it was confident in our capability at that time. I'm not sure I was confident that we were gonna pull it off.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

But at some point, this social enterprise which is unlock is gonna go from a good idea to actually transforming people's lives. Can you walk us through that?

SPEAKER_03 0:25

I I I don't think that young people don't want to work. I think there's an unhelpful misconception that, you know, young people coming through are lazy or, you know, they're snowflaky and that they, you know, they don't want to put the graft in. I don't think that's true at all. I'm actually a little I think I'm still a bit angry about that, really.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Okay, let's pick apart that anger of yours.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Welcome to Inspiring Working Lives, the Morgan Hunter podcast where we explore public sector leadership journeys. From honest chats about career highs and lows, to lessons and wisdom to inspire the next generation of leaders that will shape our society.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Today's guest is Hayden Taylor, co-founder and chief executive of Unlock, a UK-based social enterprise dedicated to empowering young people to become changemakers in their own communities and future careers. Hayden. Hello. Hello. Great to have you here at Morgan Hunt. Thank you for coming in.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

My absolute pleasure, it's good to be here. You've got a wonderful office. Everyone's been incredibly friendly to me. I'm excited to get stuck in.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Right, we always start in a familiar place. Can you tell us about your childhood? And did you have any career aspirations as a child?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

That's a great question. Um so my career aspirations are definitely not where I am now. Um so I was quite a creative entrepreneurial kid. Um I grew up in Portsmouth, but I had a kind of very kind of working class family. You know, my mum worked in the school canteen, my dad uh was a bricklayer, um, and I knew I was entrepreneurial because for my 10th birthday I asked for a greenhouse so that I could grow fruit and veg, which I sold on subscription to my neighbours. So I knew I had that kind of like creative entrepreneurial spark. I loved it, you know, and the and the Murray mints from the back of your bag and the you know selling cans of coke and whatever. Um so I knew I kind of had that spirit. I I did find that transitioning into secondary education though, that a lot of that kind of creative spark felt quite crushed, contained a bit, um, and I really struggled with with getting on board with the national curriculum and not having like a feeling of being able to shape things, own things, do different things. Um so as I kind of transitioned into secondary education, I think my at one point I decided I wanted to be uh an architect, which if you've seen me draw anything, you'll realise that you know I dodged a bullet there, really. Um but that yeah, so I always had that creative entrepreneurial spirit. I just never anticipated it living out in the way that it now does. Um so effectively I was you know uh finding myself in this kind of box almost, or what what felt like a box, um uh as I went through secondary education, not kind of really finding my groove, the thing that I really connected with. Uh, and then I got involved in an amazing youth leadership program in Portsmouth that changed my life overnight, pretty much. Um it gave me a platform where I felt like I was listened to, where I could try new things and failed and learn from them, and felt for the first time, I think, that I was really being listened to. Um, so that was a game-changing moment in my life, and um when that lost its funding, uh, that's when I was forced to be an entrepreneur. Uh, it wasn't really intentional, it was a case of do it or this thing disappears and dies, as many um public services, youth services have done over the last decade, really. So that's a really long way to kind of answer your question, but um yeah, I I think I had that inherent entrepreneurial spark within me. I just didn't I didn't realise it in terms of my career until I really had to.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Okay. But it happened quite quickly because many people who sit in that chair and talk to me about their leadership journey, it takes them a while to find their feet and they try different things before getting pulled into something. But you had that spark and stuck with it.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Yeah, I you know, I I've been in this role now for more than 12 years. I started Unlock when I was 16, you know, literally 16 in a few days, we walked into the local accountant's office and said, help us start this company. Um so it's been a pretty consistent driver of me and my kind of trajectory in life. But I I wouldn't say I was intentionally looking for leadership. Um, I would say I was drawn by a sense of of requirement almost. Um I felt the onus was on me to do something about it because nobody else was willing to do it to do anything about it. Um I remember growing up and feeling like you know, Portsmouth as a city was real disadvantage where the life expectancy gap between the the most um economically able and the least economically able uh people is is massive, enormous, um more than more than eight years.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

I remember growing up and thinking, how can that be? How can that be? Uh and I guess my journey into leadership came from a feeling of I've got to do this because otherwise no one else is gonna do it. Uh, and it was kind of thrust on me, really. Um I'm actually a little I think I'm still a bit angry about that, really. I'm I'm angry that young people were left in that place and that people like me were kind of forced to kind of pick up the baton when really we should have been investing in the things that we're gonna give kids from disadvantaged communities the things they need. So, yeah, I wouldn't say it was intentional, but it's been a really beautiful journey, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Okay, let's pick apart that anger of yours, right? So it's it's it's calmed down a bit. It was sizzling as a as as a 16-year-old. It's not, I would I would say I've channelled that in in a positive way now.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Okay, but what was the genesis of that? Was it the the the funding disappearing for the programme you were on? Was that the thing that pushed you into this initially? I think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Yeah it was. Because you were enjoying that and suddenly it's not there anymore. Exactly. I could see the impact it was having on young people's lives, and I could equally on the flip side of that, I could see the economic disparity in my community, and I I just couldn't add those sums up. Like, how can you cut 73% of youth services in Portsmouth pretty much you know, in a in a one one one-year cycle, and at the same time have that enormous disparity on show. I I could not make those two concepts meet. Um, so that's that I think was the source of of where the anger came from. You know, uh how do kids like me get ahead? If we're not going to give them the platforms to do it, you know, and uh a lot of the work that we do is about giving kids the types of skills, the opportunities, the experiences they truly deserve, but their economic reality doesn't deliver. Um, and so we invest in things like public speaking, like how to um craft your career plan, um, how to absolutely smash it as an entrepreneur, the kind of stuff that you might consider to be at the heart of an independent education, and actually we're saying, look, every every kid deserves that platform to really sing and shine and and smash it in life. Um, our role is to democratize access to that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Great, okay. So, once again, just going back to that bit where you're really angry, that program is pulled, the funding is pulled. Yeah, you have an idea at that stage, which is to actually do something about it. So, what did that idea sound and look like at that stage?

SPEAKER_03 8:23

So that's a great question. So at the time it was just about continuing what was already there. Um but within a year, what we'd realized was actually it was some fundamental component parts of that program's design that really made it special and really impactful for young people in their lives. Um some principles around um creating platforms for young people to lead rather than follow, um, allowing them to fail and learn from failure, um, telling young people that we believe in them regardless of what that aspiration looks like. So there were some fundamental principles that kind of that made up the premise of this program. So we took those principles and then we built it out into a suite of education programs which we knew would appeal to a wider range of young people, that would connect more powerfully in a kind of a a really kind of young people-friendly way, so that it it wasn't this kind of weird elite group of young people doing amazing things in their communities. Actually, it was accessible to everyone, and we could just take the kind of core component parts of what made it special and deliver it to you know a much larger range of young people.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Great. So you had that idea that this had to be continued. You walk into your accountant's office and say, right, you've got to find funding for this or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Pretty much, pretty much. Yeah, he he, I'm not sure he was confident in our capability at that time. I'm not sure I was confident that we were gonna pull it off at that point in time. Um I remember after our first year of trading, uh neither me nor my co-founder Ben are finance people, that's not our bag. So I remember after our first year of trading, literally taking a physical blackbin bag of receipts into our accountant's office, handing it over and saying, like, good luck. Yeah. Um but do you know what? I think I think that's because we we didn't want to omit what we didn't know. I think we were fearful of owning up to the things that we didn't yet know, that we weren't good at. Um yeah, we we kind of try to mask all of that stuff, and actually, uh I think as an entrepreneur, as a leader generally, you have to be really up front with the things you're not good at, the things that you're you've yet to master, the things that you need to learn from others, and the team that you need around you, we hadn't worked that out. You know, 16-year-old Hayden hadn't worked that out at all. It took us a few years to really understand that good leadership requires radical honesty when it comes to who you are, what you're good at, and what you're not good at.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Okay, right, I get that. But at the same time, it's propelled by this anger and this sort of punk ethos to do something about a difficult situation, which I guess to a certain extent, all the planning in the world sometimes can reduce that sort of drive and determination to make something happen. Yeah, the the the the odds are stacked against you, I think.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Um it's really hard to drive social change to and to bring new ideas to life. That's why not ever not everybody does it, not every per every person chooses to be an entrepreneur, not not everybody chooses to engage with social change. Um, but I think when you are when you're driven by a vision and that sense of anger kind of fuels your direction towards that vision, it can be a a really kind of positive thing. Um and I I've met leaders that are driven by you know, kind of are really level-headed, and they're driven by kind of sense of purpose, but they they don't let anger kind of drive that. I actually think it can be a powerful tool. I think anger can be, or frustration can be a brilliant tool. And it's what drives innovation. I think it's what brings new products to market, it's what what moves our economy forward is people realise something's not quite right and they do something about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

I think certainly you need to know your emotion that's driving these things. That's the stuff that gets things built. Exactly. Okay, so you've dropped off your back black bin liner of receipts, the accountants going through those, but at some point, this social enterprise which is unlock is going to go from a good idea to actually transforming people's lives. Can you walk us through that?

SPEAKER_03 12:45

Yeah, so it it was very iterative. We we knew what we wanted to achieve, we knew what we wanted young people to feel at the back end of an unlocked program. So we started there. What does it mean to have been on an unlocked program? What would we have done for that young person? You know, and we defined it as confidence, connection to purpose, and skills to get ahead. Um, so we knew what the end outcome was, and it was then really about how do we you know work back from that and build experiences that were gonna deliver those those outcomes. And in a way that was interesting, that was dynamic, that was gamified, that wasn't kind of tokenistic. You know, you can see a lot of stuff, particularly in the youth space, that feels a little bit kind of like performative or or even dare I say it kind of cringy. You know, how do we actually deliver this in a way that that doesn't patronize young people and says actually look, the reason we're doing this is to genuinely support you to get ahead, it's not a performative action. Um so that that's that's what happened. So we we got a bunch of head teachers together, we've got a bunch of young people together, and we started designing these programs together in a very kind of creative fashion. They didn't all work. Some of them were were not what we hoped or envisaged they would be, and some of them have stood the test of time and have just grown and evolved over the last 12 years into what they are today. Um so I I I think um if I reflect on that journey of like how did we build this thing, it was it was very iterative and it was it it was built with co-production in mind. Like we didn't have all the answers, head teachers didn't have all the and principals didn't have the answers, neither did young people. But if we could try and bring all of those groups together centred around that vision, those outcomes that we wanted to achieve, then we could build something that could be quite magical. And I think that's what we've now got is a suite of things that are genuinely quite magical.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And through that suite of experiences, education, uh where are you getting young people to? Or almost where do they start and where do they come out through the unlock experience?

SPEAKER_03 15:03

That's a great question. Um so we really think you've got to start early. Yes. You know, we talk about developing change-making potential in young people, and that is skills, confidence, connection, purpose, so that you can shape your own life in terms of your career, your next steps, but also the world around you. Um for me, that starts in primary schools, um, and starting to plant those seeds, helping young people to connect to their community, um, understanding what it means to drive change, what drives you, who you are as a person, all of that introspection stuff. Um so it starts in primary school and it has to taper all the way through into FE and beyond, and then once you've got to that point, you then need to invest in the brilliant ideas that come out from those young people. So we developed a change makers fund. So once young people had gone from age nine, starting to discover the thing that they care about, connecting to their community, and they've got all the way through to being 16, 17, 18, and they they now have a project idea or something they want to get off the ground, maybe it's a business, maybe it's a community idea, we have the resource to actually invest in that idea and bring it to life. Um so that's the ecosystem. Cradle to grave, start early, and then invest in their ideas.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Great, okay. And do you have some sort of poster children for this uh generation who've been through the uh Yeah, there are some incredible alumni of our programs that have gone on to do insane things.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

In fact, in fact, our chair of our board was involved in our work and on one of our programs when she was 15. Uh, she then um came and worked for us when she was 17, uh, and now she's gone on to having the most incredible career in the civil service. She's now head of budget at the UK Treasury, um, so has a huge job reporting straight into the Chancellor. Um, and that came from uh, you know, she was brilliantly talented, um, but she's a great example of how you can nurture that wider set of skills to enable somebody to really kind of level up their game in terms of what they do next. Uh, and there's there's so many examples of young people that have gone on to do incredible things. It's not always their career, sometimes it's what they've done outside of their career. Um, and for me, the most magical moments are those young people who've gone through our experiences and developed a sense of inner confidence they didn't have before. Um, there's one young lady that we work with called Katie. I remember this because it was so powerful, she was selective mute, she she didn't want to engage with our program. I actually delivered that program, so I got to know her quite well. Um, by the end of her journey with us, she was talking at the Houses of Parliament in front of decision makers and legislators about mental health and her journey and how she battled with that and um with with real passion and honesty and rawness. So, you know, that for me was just a kind of a textbook example of what you can do when you create the right conditions for a young person.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Brilliant. Okay. So this is wonderful. So this is setting them up, this is this is information and experiences and education which aren't normally in college, school syllabuses, it's all added and they're coming out and they're going off to do wonderful things across the uh across the country. That's the idea at least, maybe. That's the idea. What's the idea? Well, I've met some of your alumni, and I I that they blew me away with their confidence at such young age in quite an intimidating environment.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Yeah, yeah, they and that's at the heart of it, right? If if if you have the confidence to be able to show up in a room full of people you don't know, and you can you can start conversation, you can showcase who you are and the unique offer that you can deliver to that um person or indeed to that situation. Um what a game-changing skill set that is. And I think it's um it's a skill set that needs more love and attention, particularly in an in an era of of AI, in an era driven by technical disconnection, driven by emerging you know technology. That that skill set of being able to show up, have a powerful first impression, connect with other human beings in a in a really powerful way, is a skill set that needs much more um investment in terms of time, resource, and intentionality uh put into it.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yes, because that's all the stuff that AI can't do. Exactly. Which is interact with human beings and yeah, and make stuff happen. 100%. Okay. Okay, so during this journey of building this whole thing and having suddenly you've got people going through the programmes, etc., but you've also got staff members. What was there a day where this all dawned on you that this thing is real and people are dependent on you for their salary and other aspects of it?

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yes, definitely. After the I think we had our first employee after a couple of years of developing this idea, and um yeah, that was the moment it kind of all felt real. Uh, it was no longer just our kind of baby anymore. There were other people that were gonna take what we'd started to develop and take it to the next level. Um, and there's not a day that that response that that goes past where that responsibility isn't ingrained in my brain. Um the sector we work in is really poorly resourced, as you'll know. Uh, so we have to be very creative, very entrepreneurial, and very quick on our feet to make the numbers stack up every year. Um, so I lose a lot of sleep over the potential of not having the resource to pay people and therefore those people's ability to pay their mortgages and so on and so forth. Um so there was definitely a moment in time where it felt real, and it that moment of responsibility I don't think is ever left. Right. Can sometimes be very shack, you know, it can be very shackling. It feels feels like it can hold us back at times because we're so dependent on the re resource of others to deliver the overall mission.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yes, and it sounds to me that you had this this anger-driven, we've got to do something here, let's make something happen, and then sort of the everyday reality of kicks in. Kicks in, and then it's like, gosh. And has that blunted your sword in any way in terms of what you're doing with the organisation? Well, almost certainly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

You know, we have sponsors, partners, um, that want a defined outcome from working with us. Not everybody jumps on board because they totally believe in our mission.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

So that does mean that to an extent our focus is diluted because we're meeting the needs of a wider range of stakeholders. So yeah, that's a challenge for us. But it's also an economic reality. Without the support of those organizations, without grant funders, without businesses getting behind our work, we just wouldn't be able to do it in the first place. So I take quite a pragmatic view that actually sometimes you need that. You've got to service those wider needs, the economic benefit that the businesses get from working with us, the talent that they attract as a result, because that gives us the resource to be able to power up the engine in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Okay, and then from a funding point of view, so clearly there are partner organizations who I guess are contributing to you. Where else does funding come from?

SPEAKER_03 22:57

So schools and colleges chip in where they can. We're really cognizant of the fact that budgets are tight in the education space. So we we try and operate subsidized models where we can. So schools and colleges will chip in, but often there's a business that's also contributing to the cost of the program, which means it's more accessible for them as an organization. We also have support from businesses, as you as you mentioned, some big household names that get behind what we do, and grant funders and philanthropists. It's my belief that you've got to have all of those in order to sustain a diverse set of income streams that mean that we're sustainable for the long run. The modelling is dead simple. A third comes from academia, a third comes from businesses, and a third comes from public sector. And if we can get all of those partners paying in towards the mission, then we can do far more than if we rely on any one of those kind of uh legs of the three-legged stool.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

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SPEAKER_01 24:19

Okay, so it's all wonderful stuff, Hayden. Um, I mean, it's really in my personal life, I'm getting hit with lots of stories about NEETs at the moment as well. And there does seem to be this huge gap that's forming in some cases between this population coming out of education and how they get that first job. Yes. And is it a job that's meaningful? Is it a job where they feel their skills and unique talents appropriately showcased?

SPEAKER_03 24:47

Yeah, there's a real challenge here. Yeah. Um, and I think uh I think it's really hard for young people today to find that first gig. Um and often their first experience of work is not as early as it once was. You know, the the the death of the Saturday job, yeah, or the weekend job or the after school job has meant that young people's taste of work comes much later and they have less experience to talk about, less relevant um threads to pull on in an interview interview. Um and there's also a there's a disconnection problem here as well. I I I think um young people find it hard to navigate the complexity of the job market. That's one of the things I'm excited about. Technology is an enabler of of uh of addressing that kind of problem. You know, how can we use AI to do a better job of helping young people explore how their unique skills, passions, and interests connect to what's out there in the labour market? Um but it's a complex it's a really complex problem. Um and I I I don't think that young people don't want to work. I think there's an unhelpful misconception that you know young people coming through are lazy or you know they're snowflaky and that they you know they don't want to put the graft in. I don't think that's true at all. I think they're struggling to navigate what's a really, really complex labour market right now, and at the same time, I think their exposure to the world of work is it's is a it's further away than it once than it once was. Um and at the same time, in the economic reality we find ourselves in in the UK, you know, right now, employers don't have a huge amount of resource to offer those early stage gigs that require real nurturing of the individual. You know, we've seen apprenticeship numbers come down as well, which I think are part of that equation. Businesses are looking to make safer bets because the economy feels topsy-turvy right now. Um so those are some of the reasons why I think we are where we are. Um, and we we've got to be more intentional about creating those early career opportunities for young people and finding new ways to support businesses to take on early career talent, whether that's an apprenticeship, whether that's a pre-apprenticeship program, um, there's a lot of work to do in there.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Yes, yeah. And from a recruitment point of view, not relying on the CV, which is a rear view mirror, and we should be looking at what skills somebody possesses in terms of their future prospects in the workplace, those are the important things I think for employers.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Exactly. Well, that doesn't that does not filter through into careers advice and guidance very often. Um there is a an enormous gap between the reality of what businesses want from new talent and what we're delivering as a message in schools and colleges. Yes. We're making some progress, but that gap is still way too big. There is a lot of work to do to make careers, information, advice, and guidance relevant, real, and up to speed.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And if somebody's involved in giving that advice right now, maybe in a college or something, what advice would you give to them at this stage?

SPEAKER_03 28:09

That's a that's a great question. I'd I'd encourage you to get out there and spend time with local employers. Um immerse yourself in their environments as much as you possibly can so you can understand the shifting patterns that are that are that are emerging in terms of the types of people they're recruiting, how they're recruiting. Um I think colleges in particular have made a a really kind of positive step towards having meaningful employer advisory boards which can deliver that insight, but they're often only going, they're only being plugged into the commercial side of those organizations. Actually, employer advisory boards are really powerful as an engine of connectivity between the labour market and the careers information advice and guidance that young people are getting. So I'd encourage colleges to think about how they join those dots between the two and get their staff, uh particularly careers information advice and guidance staff, out into the industries that they're spending an awful lot of time talking about. Some of my favourite models from the Nordics, for example, you kind of have to do work experience as a careers advisor. You've got to you've got to spend a chunk of your year back in industry. Um, and I know some colleges that are doing doing something similar where careers advisors and those in that space are spending time back in industry. I think that's that's an awesome model. And it means that the content they're delivering is more real, is more relevant, it's more up to speed.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Great. Yeah, I think Morgan Hunt can help there because we've got a number of recruiters up and down the country. If there's a local college who wants to engage and find out who we're recruiting for, what skills they need, they should get in touch.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

So that's good. I'm I'm sure there's tons of insight you've got on that front because you get the opportunity to have all the kind of mega trend stuff, right? You're seeing where the resource is going, what people are asking for. So, yeah, I think that's that's hugely valuable insight.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Brilliant. Good. Okay, we were talking there on the mission of Unlock and what you're trying to do in terms of driving for better outcomes for young people. I want to take you back to the running of Unlock now and sort of challenges, because it's inevitable this sort of organization gets challenges, which probably land on a Monday morning and go, oh my goodness, didn't see that coming. You personally, sort of way you cope with that and deal with those challenges as and when they come along. Yeah, it's a great question.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Um to start with, I'm I'm a big believer in being really open with my team about those challenges and not trying to make them my uh solely my challenge. Um I have a really strong leadership team that I feel very capable and able to share those challenges with and tackle them together head on. Um so I think that's that's one of my coping mechanisms is not seeing it as solely my challenge to address, but actually as a team challenge that we can address together. Um I think uh secondly, I kind of I kind of have faith that if we stick to the mission and we do the right things for the right people in the right way, we'll get to where we need to be and the money will follow. Um that steadfast belief has carried us through our entire journey up to this point. Um we've had funding challenges in the past, we've had big funders who are no longer able to be big funders for us, and you know it felt like the world was gonna crumble around us, but because we've stuck to our strategy and our belief in what we're doing, it's all come good in the end. Um and then thirdly, I think reflection and introspection is is the other thing that I've learned to do. Not perfect at it, uh, and it often takes me a couple of days of kind of breathing space before I can find myself in that headspace. But taking the time just to reflect on what that issue is, uh, whether it's an existential issue that we need kind of really need to build a strategy or response around, or whether actually it's just a perspective thing that in the heat of the moment it felt bigger than it really was, and actually this is something we can we can manage, we can tackle, um, and to not let my emotions drive that response to what comes next. So those are a few of the things that I do, but it's not easy, you know. That the nature of running a non-profit is is throughout with challenge financially, in terms of people, in terms of the work that we do. It's our bread and butter. We we have to be good at dealing with challenges because pretty much every day we've got some some something something new that's landing on our on our lap.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Yeah, okay. And I guess there's this sort of balance there, isn't there, between you being so passionate about this as a subject and driven from really young age in terms of like this is what we've got to do, this is the right thing to do, yes, plus the commercial realities of the whole thing. Yeah. And there's just an element of you know, you won't have been round the block that many times to begin with. And how did you get through that? Who supported you for those things?

SPEAKER_03 33:36

I've I've had some incredible mentors through the years that have supported me on that journey. Um, one of the key pieces of advice we give to every young person on an unlocked program is find a mentor, even if that's a friend, if that's somebody at college, maybe that's an unlock uh you know, member of the of our ecosystem, um, because we know how transformative they can be. I've been very lucky to have some incredible mentors through the years, and that started with my head teacher at secondary school who could see I was driven to to achieve what I wanted to achieve. Mr. Lebeds, an absolute legend. Um then, kind of fast forward a couple of years, the principal of my college, Portsmouth College, uh Steve Frampton, um you know, personally mentored me, supported me, helped me work work out what that economic model needs to look like. Um he was the first person to give us an office at Portsmouth College. We had literally a prospectus cupboard that we were offered as our office, and we had to clean it out ourselves, turn it into something that was usable. Um, yeah, that early support really made a difference. And as I've as I've gone on and developed in my career, I've always looked for um who the right mentor is at the right stage. Uh I'm very, very lucky now to have a couple of mentors, one in the corporate sphere and one in the third sector, that have helped me to work through those challenges and find our economic model. And you approached those mentors, did you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think most people want to help. I almost I don't think I've ever asked for support from a mentorship point of view where somebody has said no, unless they've got a really good personal reason. Most people, I find, want to help. They want to support the next generation to get ahead. Um, you know, we instill that in young people. Just ask. Just ask. Um, you'll be surprised how many people there are there are out there that want to help other young people get on the career ladder.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

I'd agree, I think it's really important. Okay, good stuff. So if we now turn our sort of views to sort of advice now, if there's somebody out there who doesn't get feels they need access to the sort of um experience you're giving people and they can't get it, what should they do?

SPEAKER_03 36:08

Um that's a great question. Um there are a number of entry points, but the the starting point is just to have a conversation with us. Yes. We have some brilliant open access programs that people can lean into, that they can benefit from. Um we have some fabulous online programs. Uh we have a platform called Unlock Plus, where there's a whole host of opportunities, learning tools, and so on to help people go on that journey. Um but I think the starting point is to recognize that and uh get in touch and we can work out how we can support you to access those kind of opportunities, those platforms that we've been speaking about.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Great. Okay. And then the second question about advice if there's somebody out there who believes they've got an idea for a social enterprise that's going to make a big difference, and they could be young or they could be old, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_03 37:05

Uh I would probably I would echo some of the things I shared earlier about what I've learnt on this journey. The first thing is to to be honest, radically honest, about what you're really good at and what you're not good at, and then find the people who can fill the gaps.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Secondly, find a mentor, somebody in the social enterprise world or the charity world, that has been there, done it, and got the t-shirt and built something similar before. There's an enormous amount you can learn from them. And then third and finally is be brave and give it a go. Um, we really believe that you've got to start somewhere. Um, we use this kind of phrase that uh that really resonates with me, which is start small, think big, um, which was a tagline of an amazing program that used to exist called O2 Think Big, which gave us our first grant of £300 when we began as an organization. So start small, think big. Um, nobody else is gonna do it for you.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah, and it's just that first conversation, and even that conversation doesn't lead to direct support, they'll could give you a name or somebody else that you should speak to so and so. Yeah, people want to help people.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

Yeah, you you've just got to start somewhere, ask the question, be brave.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Brilliant, okay. Hayden, thank you so much for coming in and sharing your story today. Pleasure, it's been really fun. Good. Yeah, I wish you every success. It's it's a righteous cause, and I will all power to you in terms of driving this forward. And uh thanks for sharing your passion.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

No, thank you for having me, thank you for Morgan Hunt for creating the platform for me to be able to share this story. It's been really good fun.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Thank you for listening to Inspiring Working Lives, the Morgan Hunt podcast driving positive change and helping you to grow your career. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss another inspiring conversation.