IPA On... Mentorship matters

For this episode of IPA On… Antonia Stearn is joined by Mercy Abel, a multi-award-winning marketer, speaker, and co-founder of Futures UNLOCKED, which provides paid internships and free workshops for emerging creatives across Scotland. They explore Mercy’s route into the ad industry as a graduate during Covid, why she is so passionate about mentoring, and why making mentoring and internships as accessible as possible is so important. For more on the programmes mentioned during the episode and to get involved: •Home from College - https://homefromcollege.com/ •Creative Mentor Network - https://www.creativementornetwork.org/ •Ok Mentor - https://www.okmentor.me/ •One Month Mentors - https://theelephantroom.net/casestudy/one-month-mentors-5-years-anniversary/ •Futures UNLOCKED - https://www.futuresunlocked.co.uk/ •UK Black Comms Network - https://blackcommsnetwork.co.uk/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to IPA on Talent Matters, the IPA podcast covering all things people, culture, and talent. Hello and welcome to IPA on Creative Careers and the importance of mentorship. I'm your host, Antonia Stern from the IPA, and I'm joined today by Mercy Abel. Hello. Hi, it's good to have you. So Mercy is a multi-award-winning marketer, speaker, and the co-founder and former director of an award-winning marketing and creative internship programme named Futures Unlocked. Mercy is passionate about platforming talent, building community, and connecting people to opportunity. She does this by helping other Gen Zs to navigate the world of work on her careers podcast, Audacity of We. Being the chair for the Middle Leaders Group within the UK Black Comms Network, and through her ambassadorship for Europe Wide Creative and Hospitality Organisation and Social Hub, hosting a content series of creative conversations called Mercy Chats. Throughout her career, she's been awarded for this year's The Media Leader's 50 Black Women Game Changers in Media, 2024 Campaigns IPA Eye List, 2023 Media Week 30 Under 30. There's quite a few here. The Media Leader Future 100 Club and 2022 Advertising Association's VRIM Change Maker. So wow. Wow. It's good to have you. I didn't realize you were gonna read it all. Once I was like, you know what, I'll continue.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I love it. Honestly, I was like, wait, is that me? Thank you so much. No, I'm so happy to be here. Like, I'm just I love a podcast, I love a yap, and I'm so excited to get into the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, very excited. I'll just start off by asking you when did you get into marketing and what kind of drove you to go into that career?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, so I oddly enough, like always knew I wanted to do marketing. I guess I just didn't have a like a name or something to put it to. Um, especially I grew up in a household where um my background is I have East African heritage, so my family's Tanzanian. Um, and we have a setup, I have two amazing sisters, one of them's a lawyer, the other one's a doctor, and then there was me. Because the next thing, if you know the trifecta when it comes to African households, it's lawyer, doctor, and engineer. And my mum and my dad, like my dad never pushed me to anything. My mum was always like, Let me just try like give you ideas, like you're great at tech. No, mum, I'm Gen Z. Like I know how to work your remote, like that that's how this is. Um, and they just kind of let me kind of navigate and fumble around and figure out what I wanted to do, and it always leaned creative, it always leans, and things were like I loved iMovie and editing videos and stuff like that. So I always kind of knew there was some sort of creativity, and as I got older and like did subjects in school, like I loved business, and once we hit the marketing module, I was like, Oh, that's it, like, absolutely love that. I loved looking at ads and just trying to like guess what the ad was before the ad like revealed the brand or whatever it was. So, um, when I kept going through like school, and then when it was time to pick what I wanted to do in university, I already knew it was gonna be marketing. I wanted to do marketing. Now, how I got into the industry. Well, I was a 2020 COVID graduate, um, and my plan after graduating was to travel. Um, but obviously we all hit a like pandemic. The literally the rockiest of bottoms, um, and I had no jobs lined up, like I had absolutely no idea of what I like. I knew I wanted to get in marketing, but we all know it's a very who, you know, industry, and I had not set myself up like that at all. Um, and I was I was like quite panicked in a sense because the job that I did during school and then university was um gymnastics coaching. So I did gymnastics when I was younger, and then I went into coaching, became a qualified coach, which I could have gone down that route, but once again, because of the pandemic, we were very much not flipping around in gyms, we were very much at home in our bedrooms, and so I was like, I need to try and you know find connections and find people who can give a bit of guidance because I had no plan, and I'm very type A, weirdly transitioning to type B right now, but I'm like just very usually type A, and I felt very uncomfortable not having a plan. And I'm always have the rhetoric where it's like if I don't have the answer to some something, someone else will, and I'm gonna find that person who does have the answer. So I started searching online for like internships or just like people who were in the industry and like started firing out emails, and then I ended up getting onto my first mentorship programme, which was funnily enough, an American program, but they were offering it to people across the world, and it was the first of its kind, and it was an organization called Home from College, and they did their debut mentorship program where they match, and I laugh because I think it's such a great concept, but it's also funny. But um, they matched people who were who graduated during the 2008 recession to people who graduated during COVID. Those two times are similar, yeah. But they were like, you know what? Like, let's put trauma with trauma, like put crisis with crisis.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

And if these people could think really interesting, right? And what did you find by having someone who'd faced kind of I guess finding a job? Is it they were finding a job within the financial crisis? Exactly. What was their advice to you as someone going through the COVID?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

So I was paired with someone amazing called Hugh Thomas, and he um owned his own brand at the time, he's kind of like a serial entrepreneur, um, and he is from the UK but lived in lived in New York at the time. It was a completely virtual um mentorship program, and he was just like, Listen, if I could make it through what I got through, you can make it through what you get through. But what I really loved about Hugh, and like we still talk like to this day, um, five years later, but what I really loved about him was that he was like very aware of what he could help with, but also very aware of what he couldn't help with. So he was like, Listen, what I can do is connect you to people. I feel like you're based in Scotland, you're based in Glasgow, whether you wanted to move or not, or whether you wanted to travel or not, that's where you are now. So I'm gonna open up my network to you and connected me with people once again that I still talk to today. Um, and he was like, I'm gonna connect you with people who are based in Scotland, but I'm also gonna connect you to women in the industry because he's like, There's a difference in terms of what I can help you as a white man versus what a woman or a person of colour can help you with. So he did both of those things, and two really great things came out of it. I was connected to someone who was based in Glasgow, and she is absolutely amazing. Her name's Stephanie, and she's in the copywriting world and stuff, but what she's really good at is kind of navigating a career, going from like agency to self-employed and freelancing and things like that. Um, and she was a like kind of one of the first like women in the industry in Glasgow connections that I had. And then another person was someone called um Asad Dunn, which I don't think he's a stranger to the IPA. I was just saying, I've I've met him. Exactly. So he um is the founder of the Unmistakables, and um I was connected to him through Hugh because they went to university together, um, and two weeks later, after I had a conversation with Assad, I got my first job.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

It's interesting because I would never have but I I also was looking for a job in COVID, and it never would have occurred to me to do a mentorship. I was down the recruitment side, which is actually quite soul-destroying. Yeah, it's not this uplifting thing of like we're gonna find you what you want. It's like we're gonna find you something.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah, anyway. But like we don't at that point.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Yeah, what you want. So it's such an interesting way to get a job in a field that you really want.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah. I think for me is that like I'd be I've grown up in a household where I have been blessed with family and parents who really believed in me and gave me this sense of confidence that I'm like, I can put anything, I can do anything I put my mind to, which I'm so blessed to have. So I never really thought that I couldn't get a job. So I graduated in COVID, but also graduated at a height of social unrest. Like it was when the resurgence of Black Lives Matter was happening, and there were so many social factors that were happening that I was just like, I remember one thing I told Hugh, my mentor, was that I want to go to somewhere that cares. Like, we made a list of all of these companies, like all of these agencies that I wanted to work at, and I was like, Yeah, but I want to go to somewhere that makes a difference, or that I can just feel that my morality's like not being like shaken too much right now. Um, and so the Unmistakables is a DI consultancy, and so I did not expect to land in the world of diversity and inclusion, but I didn't know what that world was. So I entertained the conversation, but I really like locked in because I was like, listen, one, it's COVID and we need a job, but two, like, I did say I want to go somewhere that cares, and if I'm gonna make a difference, it's definitely gonna be in the world of diversity and inclusion. My only like kind of main concern was that I have very little patience, so I was like, okay, needs to have a nap. Yeah, exactly. I was like, my patience is gonna really be tested here, which it was. I mean, I was there for um over two years, and I learned so much from the team, from Assad himself, and it all came through being open. Like, I was like, what I need right now is guidance, like, especially in a world so like unprecedented at the time, it was like no one really knew what was going on. So I was like, I felt like my opinions were valued because of just my identity as a you know, woman, as a black woman, then a Gen Z black woman, then a Scottish like all of these intersections coming through. And I was just like, it was really great to be in a space where that was all like valued, um, and then just being able to learn all the different aspects, and I ended up finding my specialisms, like inclusive language was something I specialized in throughout my years there, and then I worked on a lot of like external campaigns, which is when I was like, Oh, like this is the marketing arm, and it also reaffirmed that I wanted to still be in marketing, even though you can feel kind of like on the outskirts of it as a consultancy because you're doing all the work prior to then the activation, and so it helped me be very open-minded, and I think I wouldn't I've always said I would not be where I am without mentorship. Like at this point, I've called myself a serial mentee, and now I'm like in the mentoring world as a mentor, but I wouldn't have gotten where I was without all of my mentors. But who was the first one? And that was like the door that opened to everything else.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah, and I wanted to ask, so I guess that may have like influenced you setting up the internship for Futures Unlocked. But I wanted to ask about like how you set that up, I guess your reasoning behind it and what you found from working with people.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

For sure. Like, so I I smile because it is I just love a lot of the stories that have are in relation to like my career and things, but Futures Unlocked kind of came from a conversation on the train ride back from Edinburgh between Glasgow and Edinburgh, it's 45 minutes. But for Futures Unlocked, how that all came to be is that I worked remotely with a London network and kind of like a London pool of clients when I was doing consultancy work with the Unmistakables. Um, but then when I moved out of DI, the world of DI into the world of advertising, I joined an agency that is called John Doe, and they're based in Glasgow and London with a satellite in Manchester. So um I had transitioned from being based in Glasgow but working with London Networks to then coming to a place where there's a Glasgow base as an office with John Doe as the creative agency, but I still had that London link because I worked across the London office as well. Um, but now that I was, you know, the world was open, um, events started happening again, and I went to my first Scottish industry event as someone who was actually now operating in the Scottish industry. And I kid you not, like, as much as it's a great event and things, I was the only black woman in the room. And as in the only black woman who was part of the guest list versus a server like in the room. Yeah, and I we all know that diversity is a lot more prevalent when it comes to London versus up north, but I also have grown up around, you know, black people, of course, and you know, my communities and things that it's not like it doesn't exist, the numbers may be smaller, but I very much aware that there are many people who look like me in you know my my hometown of Glasgow. So I was just like, what's going on? Like it I don't know what it was. No, it doesn't sit right. Yeah, it doesn't sit right, that's exactly it. And like the event was great and everything, but I think I was just like, I don't want this to be what the industry I work in to be like. Um, and not only was I the only black woman, I think the only other person of colour was an Asian man, and it just all of that was just really, really hard to kind of sit with. Yeah, and mind you, I was like barely a month into my job, um, and I was on the train back with my boss, and we were having a conversation, and I was just like, I'm so sorry, but this representation is just a lot different from what I thought it was gonna be. Um, and we really started talking about it, and I'm so glad like that we were able to have an honest conversation. Um so I picked up the conversation with her name's Pam Scobe, she's the CCO at John Doe, and we had an honest conversation, and I yeah, like by the end of the year, we were like, right, like what are we gonna do about it? And we came up with Unlocked and as an internship program. Um, and I was just like, What we with the world of D ⁇ I and like consulting and working with clients to build programs like this, it's often that there's so much goodwill, there's so much desire to do it, but there's very little follow-through, really overwhelming, there's no capacity and there's no money. Yeah. So it got to a point where I was like, okay, so I know my passion point is race and ethnicity, and I would love for the races and ethnicities that are marginalized and and underrepresented to be a priority focus for this. And Pam's um passion point was for those from low-income backgrounds and so um lower socioeconomic backgrounds, because that's um something that she resonates with as well, with her upbringing. And I was like, perfect, we have two areas, and that is what I think we should run with because that's what we have, and that's where our passions lie, but that's also where our capacity lies. If we start adding on to that right now, we won't get this out of the gate. So we were in building phase for a couple of months, and it got to a point where we were ready to launch, and we built a um we called them industry leaders, a little steering group of people who are representative of those criteria that would be able to help us shape what the program looks like, had conversations with them and within the Scottish industry, and then I was just like, all that's left is to launch it, like we won't know how it lands. Um and something else that I'm really passionate about is like collaboration and and having a collective mindset when it comes to doing something. So I was like, the way that we can make a bigger difference is for it to be a partner-based program. Um, so making sure that we have people who will join the program in itself as its own entity that would then be able to provide the internships. So we in our first year had I believe we had seven partners, um and up until now, I think you know, we've had I think almost 20, no, 23 partners.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

So and so those are all like are they all agencies based in Scotland?

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, so it's agencies and businesses. So our first year we had STV on board, which is the ITV equivalent in Scotland, and we had ourselves at John Dole, we had Leith Agency, who's based out in Edinburgh, and we had the likes of Union as well. So we we had a lot of different agencies, but we also wanted to ensure that we had like businesses and organizations as well. So over the years, we've then brought on um Scottish government who have hosted interns and and hosted workshops as well, and we've had smaller agencies. There's a really great agency called Story Shop, and they've been with us for two years, and they've had three interns they've hired based off of their interns as well, who've come on full-time. So there's been a real nice kind of like cycle of partners coming on board, having an intern, either hiring that intern, or we've had cross-hiring before, where an intern comes from another partner, they've done their unlocked internship, but then they're able to be hired by someone else who's also a program partner. So it's been really great to kind of see it grow and it like I obviously it's just come from a conversation on a train.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

No, that's really great, and obviously to have people actually getting jobs out of it, and so I mean it's absolutely amazing. Um, but also having people who will back it, like do you know what I mean? Who are like in on the conversation and actually like also agree and also want to make a difference, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Cause I think it's for for us when we were building it, we were like, listen, as we want to align with the mission of Unlocked as an entity. I think for me, I know coming into the industry, I was proper naive in terms of like, oh my god, like everyone can be friends and everything's amazing. Um, and granted, like that could be, but I do recognize it is quite hard to like bring people who you know is technically your competitor when it comes to client work, but we're all under the mission of we want to make the industry more inclusive. And people there are like um people who are very passionate about that, and I truly believe and still believe that doing that collectively is the way that we're gonna make that go further. So, I mean, there's like this African proverb, and I hope I don't butcher it, but like it's literally what I go by, and it's like if you want to do things fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together, and like that's what I sit in and everything I do. If I can partner with someone, if I can bring people into a collective, having these 23 partners, we've um had almost 60 internships, um, paid internships, they're all paid, which was also very important for us. Um almost six people have been able to have experience in the industry. 40% or so of them have gone on to um future employment, and that's all because of the collective nature of the programme. And I'm like, why not just do it together? Yeah, but you need to have people on board and you need to have that buy-in, and I think kind of what you were saying about recruitment's not the most sexy world, you know? Like it's and and it's not the most, you know, glamorous either. But I think what's been really nice about the program is that we make it feel like a collective and we build a network. So when it comes to the Unlocked Network, it's anyone who's had kind of any interaction with the programme, and that network is over 600 people now across Scotland who have been interested or been a part of Unlocked in any shape or capacity.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

You said earlier, it's like a lot about networking and knowing people, like you've managed to like create that network so people actually go from like knowing nobody potentially to like suddenly having this huge network that they call upon. I also wanted to pick up something I read about unlocked that you there's no age limit for the internships, which is something I absolutely love because obviously you can like career change at any point, but like you wouldn't necessarily think to go and do an internship. But like, how has the pickup been on that?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

So, my thing is is that as long as you make your case undeniable, people can't actually argue with it, and as long as you believe it um and are convincing enough, people will be like, Oh, I've not thought of that before. So, when it came to age, I was like, I am blessed that I was able to get a job during COVID, but I know way too many people who their career has been quote unquote delayed and then get didn't get to get into marketing until they were 23 or 24. And in the usual internship world, it's usually like 16 to 25 or 18 to 25, and it's like, well, a lot of these people only have one year left, or they've aged out. And I'm like, that's entirely unfair, and also like why I want to give people the choice. So, not having an age cap was because of one, a lot of people are already aging out of something they didn't even have a chance to get their hands on, but also, like you were saying, career change. There's so many people that have decided, like, especially the world of marketing, where it's like, oh, I'm actually really creative, and I never thought like creativity was a path for me, and they might be in their 30s or their 40s. So, um, when we ran it, we said we were like, we're gonna have a minimum age of 18. A lot of our partners have like alcohol brands and things like that, and it's just you know, we want people who are able to be in the trajectory of you know having a job. Um, so 18 was the minimum age, but we had no age cap because we were like, let's just see, let's see what happens, let's see who's out there. I think in our first year, our age range was 18 to 50.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

No, okay. So people were I that's why I was worried if people did come.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

They absolutely did. I mean, so our first intern when I was at John Doe um was in his 30s, and he was a chef before and then moved into marketing, and now he's a senior account exec. Wow, that's less than three years later. Yeah so imagine he didn't get the opportunity to be able to go through that true um trajectory, but he seems to be loving the world of marketing, the world of advertising, and that's what I just wanted someone to be able to make that shift if they wanted to make that shift.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

But I think people stay in jobs less long, obviously, than they used to, and there's more this idea that you can up and change if you're not enjoying anymore, or you know, you may have done a degree in something and actually that's not for you. But I think it's so amazing to have like internships where it's available to any age, because then there's not that kind of thing of like, how the hell am I gonna get into this industry?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, exactly that. I think even like from my career in itself, like I started in gymnastics coaching, the world of sport, um, and then it could be seen as a career shift to go into marketing, even though I always knew. Now I'm also like, why can't people be multifaceted? No, exactly. How does it be? Yeah, so be a multi-hyphen. Like it's so fun. Like, we are very complex beings. Like you can have multiple um interests and things that you're allowed to dabble into, build a portfolio career. Like, I'm now becoming a spin instructor. So, like, I'm just like, why can't we just have all kinds of things? If you can make it work, please don't burn out. But like, if you can make it work, like I feel like leaning into being a multi-hyphenite is no issue at all.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

The literally the last topic on here this was like onside hustles and how important they are. But I also I've just become a yoga instructor to do that on the sun, like twin. I was just like, I need something else as well. Like as much as I love exactly, you know, work. Although, like obviously yoga instruction, it doesn't feel like work in the same way. Um imagine being paid for something you actually love to do.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Like in terms of like it's not your traditional or typical like nine to five kind of energy. It's something you would do for free.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

So why not get paid?

SPEAKER_00 23:02

I know, and it's something that I do anyway, like I go to a class like two or three times a week, and now I get to like teach and get paid.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Exactly. Oh my god, I love it. It's a dream. Yeah, it's and I think that's I look I really do believe in the um what's that word I'm looking for? The scarcity of choice that has happened over the last five years, and I feel like I've been hearing more people leaning into the fact that they now have the choice to maybe not be part of the hustle right now, or maybe add on something else that feels you know, more aligned with them or with their wellness and things like that. Having that portfolio career, I see absolutely I feel quite passionate and being like excited that people are getting that choice because that's the same thing with me. Like, I feel like I only now feel afforded the choice to lean into things that I want to do because the hustle has just been so much the last five years. But you felt like you had to grasp onto the next thing and the next thing, the next thing, and whatever you could, and whatever you could at the time, and mind you, like great things have happened off the back of it. That is no like can't dispute that at all. But a few accolades, yeah, just a few little rattle off that let's begin. But no, like, really and truly, like, I feel all of that needed to happen. But I think there's such a wonderful thing of of having choice and being afforded choice because once that's taken away, like it's it's not a very comforting place to be. No, how is the um spin instruction going? Oh my goodness, so this is so funny because I never saw this on my bingo card for 2025 at all. But I got into spin at the end of last year, so 2024, and I've just like been loving it, and you know, like there's I love documenting things as well, so like on socials, like now I'm going to spin classes and like recording the classes and like make little snippets and share the whole stories, yeah, exactly. And um the studio that I go to, so it's called Revolution, um, all over um Glasgow, and they reached out to me and were like, would you would you like to be a spin instructor? We see that you love spin, and I was like, Oh my god, first of all, everyone like post the content, it works, but also like I just love that it came at a time where I was making decisions for myself in terms of doing things differently and um choosing myself a little bit more, and I was like, Absolutely. So, mind you, I've had like two training sessions, um, but I'm loving it, like I think it's so much fun, like it's a really good link back to coaching that I did when I was doing gymnastics, and I mean, once again, I go to spin like every week, like multiple times a week, um, at some points, and I'm just like, Imagine the fact that I get to work out and get paid. I know, it's the best. It's the best thing ever. So, I mean, everyone's gonna be so sick of me when my spin instructor error really kicks off. But I'm just glad that once again it's another choice, it's another thing that I get to do because I want to do it. Um, so it's been fun. I'm really leaning into different things right now, and spin instructing is one of them.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

It's obviously like it's things you're passionate about, and off the back of that, you know, great things can happen. Exactly. But I wanted to ask that you're also running the debut mentorship programme for UK Black Comms Network. So this is the UK's first and only network for black PR and comms professionals. I'd just love to hear a bit about this.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, so I've been with the Black Com the UK Black Comms Network for can I think it's three years now. Um it's run by someone called Camille Poilate, who's also probably no stranger to the IPA as well. Um, but she has been running this network for I think uh five or so years, and essentially um it's made up of a lot of different groups, it's a wider network made up of a lot of different groups within it. So um there's like the Emerging Talent Group, which are people who are like zero to three years in the industry, there's a student and grads group, um, there's the middle leaders group, which is my group that I chair. People are trying to progress and it's a little bit tricky and things like that. Then there's a senior group, and then there's a women's group, etc. etc. Um a men's group as well, because we must remember the men. Um but with that, I think what we realized was that there's a lot of cross-learning that can happen between the groups, and with the middle leaders group, they're in a position where they're getting into their first stages of management, they're quite fresh off of you know, they're no longer an emergent talent, but they're quite fresh off of that, so they understand what they've been through, but they're also like now walking into the world of leadership and management and being line managers and stuff. So we thought, why don't this group connect with the um student and grads or the emerging talent groups and get to have that mentorship experience? So when this was brought forth, I was like, obviously yes, because I love a mentorship program. Um so we ran our first um cohort and our debut cohort last year, um, well, last year into this year, and essentially matching mentors from the middle leaders group with um early talent from the student grads or emerging talent group, and we did 10 matches and kind of just set out guidelines and and is up to you to decide kind of what is best, but what we match them on are interests. So obviously, a connecting factor is that everyone is um has black representation within the matches, and but it'd be good to match them based on interests. So maybe someone's in the world of public affairs, so they'd be matched with someone who has experience in that, or maybe someone's not sure what they're interested in at all, and but they'd be matched with someone who's maybe had quite a broad career, going agency sides, maybe in-house and things like that. So we made the matches in that sense. Um they went through their six months and we um wrapped our first year of it this year, um, which was really lovely. We all got on a call, it's across the UK, so we had people like in um the Midlands, we had people in Scotland, we had people in London, obviously, and it was just quite nice to have everyone on a Zoom and just like getting to hear, even for ourselves, to like see how do we run this when we launch again. Um, but it was just really lovely to hear these matches and that one they're sound matches, because the thing is, I feel like I'm quite a matchmaker, like whether it's like career, relationships, whatever, like I love a matchmaking situation, it's my favorite thing, but there's something so even though we have these guidelines and we have these mechanisms to make the matches work, there's still something so lovely to hear that it did work, yeah, um, and that's kind of what we heard from each match is that they they really did work and they were very helpful. Um, and I just think that kind of especially with the younger generations, the Gen Zs of the world coming into the workforce, Gen Alpha not long behind us. Like, people think that we just want to do our own thing, and like, mind you, yeah, we might have a bit more like goal to be like, yeah, I want to do this and that, and just you know, really choose things for ourselves, but we also don't know a lot, so that's why guidance I think is really important. I think that can be overlooked because they're like, Gen Z have got it figured out and they don't want to listen to us and va ta ta ta ta and whatever, but actually, like, especially people who want to like lock in and like really make something for themselves, like, guidance is a really important thing, and we're due to launch that again. Um, next is it this month? This is September, September October time, we're gonna be kicking off again, um, which is really exciting. Um, so but if you are a student or grad and um you're interested in the Black Comms Network and you have zero to or you have zero to three years of experience, it's free to join and if you're in that category, and then you can look at the membership criteria if you're out with that category. But it's been a really lovely network to be a part of, and I'm just glad we get to keep adding things to what we're doing with the Black Comms Network.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

No, it sounds great, and I'll add like a little link to the people who are listening that they can click in and look. But I just wanted to pick up on something you said about like Gen Z having like people thinking they've got it all figured out and want to work by themselves. Have you had any kind of negative stereotypes about being a Gen Z, or have you not really come across that?

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Um, I would say that not necessarily negative, but that could also just be in the fact that I'm very delusional and I'm just like I don't actually care. I don't think I face it in terms of like negative connotations towards me, but I've seen it towards others. Okay. And that is what annoys me. Um because I'm like, have you even had a conversation with this person that you're having all of these assumptions about? Yeah. Probably not. Um, and also like just because it's Gen Z, like you were young once. It's a very interesting dynamic, and I'm very big on like um intergenerational conversations and people actually getting to understand each other, and like generations are gonna, you know, exist and times are gonna move, and so like let's all kind of move them along with each other.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Absolutely and always pitting like generations against each other just doesn't make any sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

This is what I'm saying, like, we're all still in the same work building, the same workforce. So, like, there's four to five generations going at a time in a workplace, so I'm like, we all really just need to get our act together and start having conversations and stop separating each other so much.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

And I guess just to finish, what advice I mean you've given lots of advice, but what advice would you give to people wanting to either start their career in marketing or the creative industries or move into it?

SPEAKER_01 32:06

I love this question. Um I would give okay, so I would give like a practical advice I'd give is like network, but I know a lot of people are gonna be like, oh, networking disgusting. Um networking looks different in so many different ways. And like I think someone, if you're like me and you're a gaffer, like events, events are so good to go to, especially if you're in London, there's like an event every other day um to like rock up to and I think really get your name out there and talk to people and things like that. There's also, I mean, when I came into the industry, the amount of LinkedIn messages and emails I sent out, and mind you, not a lot of people said no, and never mind saying no, a lot of people replied. Yeah, it was also COVID, so I'm gonna put that context. But a lot of people true though, people were bored, like I mean, they had time, people had more time on their hands, and but I do think people are still kind of like um interested and locked into like hearing, you know, or helping where they can. And let's be so real, like someone being like, Oh, I love what you do and would love to hear more. It's like such a confidence push. You're like, wait, hold on, like my ego. Um, but I would say there's the element of use LinkedIn, like definitely use LinkedIn, reach out to people, have conversations with people. Like, I have met amazing people through Connect in that way, who um I still talk to today and across several different um sectors in the industry from broadcasting to agency world um to the world of like retail and things like that, and it's been really lovely having that spread across. Um, and then mentorship. I think mentorship is a huge one, like just coming back to the beginning. Like you said, mentorship wasn't really something on your radar when you came into the industry, and but I've been a part of four amazing mentorship programs. I was a part of Home From College, like I'd mentioned, and there's one called Creative Mentor Network, who are absolutely amazing, they focus on the um socioeconomic side of things and have partners like Soho House, and they've partnered with Prime Video before Sony Music, and so really quite a broad range in terms of um industry or sectors of the industry that you can get into through mentorship with them. Um, and then I was a part of something called One Month Mentors, which is run by Shani Mears at the Elephant Room and her team over there. Um, I did that during their Black History Month cohort, gosh, a couple years ago now. There's just so many mentorship programs that you can be a part of, and then the final one is OK Mentor, which is a program and a platform for women progressing through the industry. They have an amazing advisory network and with the likes of people from Snapchat, um, Amazon, um, people who own their own agencies and things like that. So mentorship's a big one, and finally, I would say like get in touch with people that you like admire. I know that's like networking in a sense, but like there's really something when if you see something that someone's doing and you're really interested in that, like reach out to them. Um, so yeah, here's to to more of that.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Here's some more mentorships, more mentorships, small mentorships, but no, it was so great to have you on, and like again, it'd be good to link all those mentorship programmes you mentioned, just because people probably don't know they even exist.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Exactly. And I will say as well, all of those mentorship programmes I was a part of was based are based in London, so there is definitely a gap for mentorship programmes outside of London. Um sorry, I'm tapping the table. Let's go. There's definitely a gap for um mentorship programmes outside of London, which is something I'm working on. Um, yeah, there's gonna be more on that um soon.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Oh, so I think we'll watch out for that. But thank you so much for coming on the IPA on Alan Marty's podcast.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Oh my god, I've had the best episode. Yeah, this was so fun, and this is like my first podcast in a minute, and I've really enjoyed it. Oh, it's been lovely to have you. Thanks for having me. It's been lovely to be here.