The Risky Mix Podcast

Key Learning Points1.The highs and lows through different stages of parenthood2.How insurance companies can better support their employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance3.The importance of implementing clear boundaries as a working parentOn the final episode of the Parenthood Diaries, we welcome David Clamp, who is the founder of one of our series sponsors - The Camelot Network - and also works as an independent consultant helping insurance businesses to navigate and embrace digital innovation. As a father of four adult children, he reflects on the different challenges he faced juggling work and family life through the years, before giving us his take on where the insurance industry has made progress in supporting working parents and where there is room for improvement.Katie asks David if some stages of parenting were easier than others. David explains that in the beginning, he found parenting to be physically challenging - sleepless nights were just the tip of the iceberg! But also, an important part of his role was supporting his wife emotionally, as she had a lot to contend with… not least those dastardly hormones! Once the babies became toddlers and then young children, he found that parenting entered an ‘amazing middle phase' where they would show him lots of love, including running up to him as he returned home from work. ‘Kids that age spell love as “T.I.M.E.”; the most important thing is to spend time with them.' The teenage years were more difficult mentally than physically, and he learned that the most important thing throughout was to work on maintaining the bond with his wife - the kids took notice!Raj then asks David how he managed his responsibilities at work when he began his career in the 90s. David explains that he had to ‘ruthlessly prioritise' his time to stop work from expanding into all hours. He found it vital to establish clear boundaries and stick to them - such as rejecting calls late in the evening or weekends; ‘understand that when you come through the door, you leave work behind'. David tells us how he had to remind himself to change his language from that of a project manager to a Dad and partner. Offering a different viewpoint, Josie shares that whenever she called her Dad at work, he would never fail to pick up the phone and say ‘I always have time for you.' - a powerful reminder that kids remember your actions.Katie also asks David whether he has seen much change in how the insurance industry treats its employees. David says that there wasn't much active support at the start of his career - the norm was not to bring your family life to work. He believes that changes brought in by COVID-19 - namely, working from home - have been positive, although they do place more responsibility on the individual to set boundaries. David still believes that the industry has a way to go and could be more forthcoming with financial and family support and advice.  He recounts that at work he often put on a ‘front', so he'd be seen to be achieving all their objectives. He thinks it would have been helpful to talk more openly about his family at the beginning of his career.David notes that senior leaders need to pay attention to these conversations: ‘The more you have motivated people who are really buying into the actual culture (rather than the espoused one) of your company, the more effective they will be, the better reputation you have…. the more that will improve your organisation's bottom line.' He also notes that the days of working for one organisation your whole life are over; employers need to create an environment where their employees want to work and feel comfortable bringing their whole selves. ‘As talent becomes more scarce, organisations need to attract the whole person, not just the “9-5”'.His top tip? Do everything you can to relish and treasure every moment. Work will always be there, your family won't be.

Key Learning Points:1.The Father Stunter Culture and how it is holding men back at home and at work2.Replacing the concept of Breadwinning with Carewinning and why this matters3.How workplaces can help to challenge some of the harmful social norms that get in the way of gender equity in modern society On the penultimate episode of the Parenthood Dairies, we are here to talk about modern fatherhood with Danusia Malina-Derben. Alongside being a mum of ten, an academic, entrepreneur, author, speaker and thought leader, Danusia also leads a global firm that fixes boardroom strategy and consults on achieving peak performance. And on top of that, she also hosts two podcasts, School for Mothers and School for Fathers and has also recently written two books on parenthood. We are very excited to have her on the podcast to discuss the latest of these: Spunk.We first ask Danusia where the idea for Spunk came from. Writing on leadership and feminism, Danusia tells us that she released her first book on motherhood from her own experience and research in 2021. Spunk was the next natural step in that journey, as she had spoken to hundreds of men about fatherhood. Yet this book needed to be research-led even more than her last - so she built a small team of researchers and spoke to over 1,300 respondents, all who were fathers.Josie says to Danusia how she particularly enjoyed her chapter ‘Share' - about how Fathers are viewed as the assistant - whether that's with regard to parenting or domestically. Often, Dads are seen as the fun ‘playmate' rather than a part of the day-to-day grind.Danusia says how her research revealed that the ‘domestic zone' remains women's, and there were tasks that the surveyed men unanimously did not do in the home. We discuss how mothers are often perpetuating this through ‘maternal gatekeeping', where women see certain tasks as theirs and assume that they can do them better than their male partner could. This contributes to the ‘father-stunter culture' - which Danusia believes makes it difficult for men to step into ‘the fatherhood they really want'. Her research revealed a clear desire from men for fatherhood to be viewed differently and to dismiss the idea that men cannot parent as well as women. Danusia points out that it is only through addressing the imbalance in the domestic domain that we can achieve real change in the workplace. She believes that Men, as well as women and children, are being hurt by these ‘patriarchal narratives'.Josie then asks about another chapter - ‘Fathers with Spunk Care' - and the concept of a ‘carewinner' rather than a ‘breadwinner'. Danusia found that men's identity ‘is squarely around work and financial contribution', and wished to explore what was standing in the way of being caring fathers. She found that fathers are often ridiculed by others when showing care, as well as demeaned when prioritising their family life over work. She, therefore, invented the phrase ‘carewinner' - which keeps the narrative of breadwinning - but also embraces fathers who dearly care for their families. Sadly, men who are carewinners are often inhibited to express their feelings as a carer. Danusia argues that workplaces have an opportunity to disassemble these stereotypes; for example, by making sure that part-time and flexible working is targeting men as well as women.We wrap with Danusia by asking for her final thoughts. Danusia says she believes progressive workplaces have the opportunity to revolutionise domestic life by considering the home lives of their people. There needs to be an understanding that work and home life are linked - which she believes is the key to having a happy and motivated workforce.Danusia's top tip is simple: have those difficult conversations. Talk with your partner and analyse your household responsibilities - and involve your children too!

Key Learning Points:1.The challenges faced by parents of neurodivergent children in school2.How seeking a diagnosis for a neurodivergent child can affect a parent at work3.The support that parents need from their employers Today on the Risky Mix, we welcome back Rebekah Bostan and Eilish Jamieson! Rebekah is Director of Research & Insight at InsTech and Eilish is an Executive Coach & Board Advisor. Both will share their experience raising neurodivergent children, including their journeys to gaining diagnosis, their challenges navigating the education system, parental mental health and the support they may require from employers. Thank you for being so open and honest with us, ladies!A big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network, for enabling this to happen!We first ask Eilish and Rebekah to tell us about their family setup. Eilish explains how she is a mum of three, where her middle child has autism, ADHD and dyslexia. For a while, her family normalised her son's ‘character traits', believing he had a ‘fiery' personality and embraced it. Once he went into secondary school, it became apparent that her son was struggling. He saw the word in ‘black-and-white terms' but was also highly intelligent and ahead of his peers. Eilish tells us she went through the private healthcare route to gain a diagnosis. Eilish also tells us that, although she thought she had worked with diverse teams before, she knew nothing about neurodiversity because, as she admits, she ‘didn't have to'.Rebekah explains how her experience was different; her family has a long history of neurodivergence. She is a mum of two; a 13-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. Her son was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia - which didn't come as a shock. Yet what shocked Rebekah was how schools treated neurodivergence. Rebekah explains that she brought in private tuition to help his education which put a financial strain on her family. Rebekah also explains that seeking government help and the associated paperwork adds additional stress. In that context, Rebekah says it's no wonder that over 75% of parents with neurodivergent children struggle with their mental health. Eilish tells us that we often see statistics released about women leaving the workplace due to ‘childcaring responsibilities', yet there's never a definition of exactly why this is. She tells us that neurodivergent children often have more demands on parents' time and as such, having a community is incredibly important so she encourages parents to find support groups online.We also ask Eilish and Rebekah what change they would like to see from employers. Eilish tells us that workplaces are far more aware of parents' challenges and special educational needs than ever before but often wait until parents reach a crisis point where they can't sustain their work hours. At that point, most organisations are supportive but Eilish insists that it should never get to that point. She praises employee assistance programmes, so that children get access to professional support, but acknowledges there is still a way to go. Rebekah tells us that her main points of stress came from assessing her child's needs, the diagnosis and behavioural issues. At all of these points, Rebekah needed time away from work and flexibility in working hours. Her previous employer gave her what she needed and she stayed for 14 years.Eilish also pointed out these resources for finding support and advice:IPSEA - works with parents to understand their rights and how to get their families the support they needFor business:Neurodiversity In BusinessGAINMade By Dyslexia

Key Learning Points:1.How employers can support workers in blended families2.What a ‘blended family' looks like3.How rigid working environments can impair employees' performance Welcome back to the Risky Mix! In this episode, we welcome newlyweds Sam (a former Risky Mix guest) and Jennie, who are here to talk about the challenges and joys of their ‘blended' family. Sam is the Founder & CEO of Stella Insurance and Founder & Chair at Freedom Services Group. Jennie also had a big job in the city but is now the Creator & Author of a successful children's book and expanding brand, Howie Blend, which aims to promote diversity through featuring various forms of blended families!A big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network, for enabling this to happen!We start by asking Sam and Jennie what their ‘blended' family looks like. Sam explains that she was previously married and had two kids, Frankie and Harry. After she divorced, she joined Tinder and found it both ‘terrifying and enlightening' but ultimately met her other half on the platform. Sam came as a ‘package deal' for Jennie, as she already had kids - making their unit a ‘blended family' - where two separate families come together. The fact that they were an LGBT+ couple added an extra layer of ‘greatness'! They both explain how they are also adding to their family via IVF.We then ask Sam and Jennie what it's like living in a blended family. Jennie first explains that their family isn't as divided as it might seem; they don't use labels like ‘step-parents' and ‘step-siblings' - their kids call them their ‘mums' and nothing else. ‘We are one unit, one family'. We then ask how Sam splits her childcare responsibilities. Sam explains how she has a 50/50 custody split, which has worked well for her and Jennie. Her workplace advocates for flexible working, so she scales her work according to when her kids are with her. Jennie tells us that it can be difficult to be separated, but they still find the ‘joy in every circumstance'; they maximise time away from their kids by spending it together.Raj then asks whether being part of a blended family adds another level of complexity at work. Sam explains how it does, but other people in her workplace - including several single mums - are in similar situations. Her companies have flexible working policies in place which lets parents like her work around their childcare requirements, but it's important that they establish good communication first. For example, Sam learnt that colleagues abroad preferred to schedule meetings later at night and leave their early evenings free for their families. She says that many people go through personal issues, so ‘trying to parent and be good at your job' at the same time can be ‘psychologically jarring' - making it difficult for people to perform at their best. ‘If you give that flexibility to people, they give it back in dividends.'Katie also asks what employers should do to support people. Sam talks about how her company brought in a psychologist to work on ‘emotional contracting' and understanding where people's boundaries lie. Sam explains that many people at work often lack ‘professional intimacy'; if you're trying to create high-performing teams, people have to understand each team member, how they work together and what their boundaries are. Often, situations arise where someone is completely inflexible due to their family situation - but unless people trust each other and communicate properly, team members and bosses can feel let down. Raj agrees and says that there is often a culture in corporate environments where anything outside of work is not talked about - a toxic culture which becomes prevalent. Sam also agrees; she has worked with people who have been but has supported them through those times and ‘have come out on the other side and had lots of success'.

Key Learning Points:1.The challenges faced by working parents as they juggle being a parent and having a career2.What employers can do to help support working single parents3.The need for employers to plan for the impacts of their policy changes to ensure the policy works in practice In this episode, we speak to two single working parents, Sonya and Amanda, about juggling life as single, working parents. Sonya wears multiple professional 'hats' as a Board Advisor, Accredited Coach and Insights Discovery Practitioner and Amanda has recently joined Element Materials Technology as their Global Senior Manager for ESG.We begin by asking Amanda and Sonya to talk about their experiences as working parents - from having kids to getting divorced and their relationship with their employers during this time. Sonya explains that she is a mum of two and step-mum to another two, all of whom are now grown up. She tells us how after her divorce she felt the need to fight for promotion to earn more money and support her children as much as she could. Amanda, who is mum to a little boy called Harvey, left a life in Switzerland after her divorce and moved back to the UK. She had to adjust to the lack of flexibility in childcare services and juggling working full-time as well as commuting early to pick up her son. Amanda goes on to talk about how the opening hours of nurseries are much shorter in the UK than in Switzerland, making it much harder to fit her long working hours around the care of her child.Sonya then tells us that she couldn't afford childcare, so, instead, had to rely on lots of help from friends and family. She explains how she suffered from years of mum guilt as a working parent, especially as she missed many school events such as sports day and parents' evenings. She explained that the teachers and other parents at the school barely knew who she was, which was challenging. Sonya speaks about how she was a part of a toxic and inflexible working environment, where, for example, she couldn't take a day off to pick her sick child up from school and take care of him, she had to drop him off to her mum's and head right back into work.We go on to ask them both about what employers can do to better support single working parents. Sonya talks about how many companies have policies in place, such as allowing their staff five emergency days, but that they don't often plan well for the operational and financial implications of these policies, meaning they don't work in practice. In fact, employees can be left feeling unable to activate them for fear of repercussion. Essentially, allowing employees greater flexibility requires planning and infrastructure that goes beyond the policy alone. For example, if a business wants to give all of their employees time off for parents' evenings and school plays, then they probably need to hire more people to cover that. She then talks about how senior roles should lead by example; if you have a sports day to attend then mark it in your calendar as exactly that.Reflecting on being single parents, they both go on to say that it's about balance and give-and-take between work and personal life, you have to be realistic about your expectations and that goes for both parties involved. They also emphasise the importance of having clear boundaries in all areas of your life.Finally, we ask both Sonya and Amanda for their top parenting tips. Amanda says ‘be present' when you are spending time with your children: do it with intent and fully engage with the activity, and the same goes for work. Sonya tells us ‘don't beat yourself up'. You are still teaching your children valuable life lessons through working full time.

Key Learning Points:1.How different workplace policies can support working parents returning to work and sharing responsibilities2.The importance of challenging societal norms for childcare and work and doing what is best for your family3.How leaders setting an example as a working parent can make cultural change happen at work In this episode of The Parenthood Diaries, we speak to new parents André and Nikita Symes about the challenges of juggling parenting and work and how employers can help. André is co-CEO of our series partner, Genasys, and Nikita is Ops Manager at Carebit.We begin by asking André and Nikita what things were like when they were expecting their baby, Seb. They both explain how they were excited but daunted, realising that things would be changing in their lives. Yet they also faced people questioning how they would cope with a baby, adding to their collective anxiety. None of their family members lives in the UK; some asked ‘how are you going to do it without “a village”?'As a working mum, Nikita says that she faced judgement from many during and after her pregnancy, driving a feeling of guilt: ‘...society needs to stop telling us what to do with our time'. In this regard, André believed the lockdowns helped ‘rip open what the “norm” was with society at work'. In a normal office, he would never have brought baby Seb into his boardroom; yet in 2020, everyone had to look after their children at home. He says this sense of normalisation created empathy amongst parents - a step towards encouraging shared parental responsibility.André then recounts that, unlike Nikita's experience, becoming a Dad was seen as ‘cool' despite his ‘minimal contribution' during pregnancy and birth! Yet he still felt pressure from the world of work, a ‘general sense that you are the boss, setting the example…'. And so he did: after Seb was born he brought him along, sitting him on his lap into his meetings, which didn't bother his colleagues at all. André tells us he feared empathy would be confused for weakness. But in fact, his team saw confidence and a good role model.André and Nikita also talk about full-time childcare and its prohibitive cost - which can be around £2,500 a month per child in London. André says this ‘cuts people off at the knees', forcing some to stay at home and often resulting in women losing progression in their careers. Nikita says that whilst being a stay-at-home mum may be the ‘norm', it doesn't always make sense. She says that some companies offer flexible hours or stagger return to work back up to full-time hours, which can keep critical experience in organisations - allowing retention of ‘a workforce that has been there a while and is loyal…just working in a different way.' Nikita thus urges organisations to think outside the box and look at these kinds of alternatives.Katie then asks André and Nikita what employers can do to help.  André says he wants to see the option of later paternity leave, so that Dads can create a bond with their children when they are a little bit older. He also wants to see empathy towards Dads with responsibility during working hours and the flexibility that goes with it - other Dads shouldn't frown upon others for helping out with parenting. For example, André's team at Genasys were told to ‘work when they need to' on flexible hours - to great results.Finally, we ask both André and Nikita to give us their closing top parenting tips. Nikita tells us that, as ‘your child's first teacher and role model',  it's really important to take care of yourself: ‘...how you treat yourself will be how your child treats themselves one day.'. André says that it would be tough to follow that one up! Nevertheless, he reminds us that in the more challenging moments ‘it will be ok… the sun will rise tomorrow…have patience and empathy and things will work themselves out'.

Key Learning Points:1.How surrogacy works in the UK and the misconception surrounding the process2.The emotional challenges sometimes faced by men looking to take parental leave3.How workplaces can support working parents through the surrogacy process In this episode of the The Parenthood Diaries, we speak to Ash Daniells, an Associate Solicitor at RPC with insurance experience through his specialism in professional indemnity and financial services dispute resolution, and father to his 9-month-old son Billy.A big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network, for enabling this to happen!We begin by talking to Ash about his surrogacy journey and how he and his husband started looking into becoming parents via adoption or surrogacy. He admits that he did not know much about the surrogacy process and thought it was ‘only for the rich and famous'. Fortunately, they had a friend who had been through the process to recommend information and resources.In the UK surrogacy isn't legally binding and is based on friendship. This meant that Ash and his husband had to get to know their surrogate, Kirsty, very well to ensure that they all saw eye to eye – a process they enjoyed and has led to them maintaining a solid friendship since. He explains that in the UK a surrogate is not allowed to make a profit, so the surrogates are typically doing it to be able to give the gift of a child to someone else. Ash tells us that there is still a lot of stigma and misinformation surrounding surrogacy in the UK; many people assume that the surrogates are being mistreated or ask questions such as whether they are worried that the surrogate will run off with the baby, as most people's perceptions of surrogacy still comes from sensationalised TV dramas.We then move on to talk about the birth and the experience of taking Billy home. In the UK, when a child is born via a surrogate then it is the surrogate's name, and the surrogate's husband if they have one, that is written on the birth certificate at first. The parents can then apply for parental responsibility between 6 weeks and 6 months after the child's birth. Ash explains the process of being assessed by a member of CAFCASS to ensure that the surrogacy was done fairly and recalls their day in court - a day he found enjoyable as it meant Billy was now legally their child.Finally, we discuss how Ash has been supported by his employer throughout. He recalls being nervous to tell his workplace that he was going to have a child as he felt that as a man, they wouldn't expect it in the way they would have for a woman. That was not the case, however, as his colleagues were very supportive and not surprised at all, saying that he was ‘the biggest family man they had ever met'.Because surrogacy is still relatively new in the UK and does not have its own plan for parental leave, Ash had to take something called ‘adoption leave'. There are some aspects of this plan that differ from normal parental leave such as not being able to take time off before the birth to get things ready. Fortunately, RPC were very supportive, working with his feedback and allowing him time off beforehand. He explains how his decision to take 12 months off work to be with Billy was daunting and his imposter syndrome returned as he worried he would lose the relationship that he had built with his clients. In reality, he has even been recently promoted whilst off work, a fact that he says shows how much RPC values their employees and supports those taking parental leave.When we ask what advice he would give to listeners to end the episode, Ash cites the importance of strong communication between parents about how they will share the caring responsibilities. He also emphasises the importance of good communication with your manager when returning to work so they can ease you back into things whilst giving you enough responsibility.

Key learning points1.The different challenges facing new parents, including postnatal depression2.The importance of role models in insurance3.How the insurance industry can help working parents Trigger warning - this episode discusses miscarriage, birth trauma and postnatal depression.In this episode of the Parenthood Diaries, we chat with a long-time friend of the Risky Mix Podcast, Hilary Banks. Hilary is Director of Sales at Guardian Financial Services and a mum to two young boys, Ernest (10) and Herbie (6).A big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network, for enabling this to happen!We begin by asking Hilary to recap her story so far. She tells us how she feels super fortunate to be the mother of two boys who make her laugh every day but then goes on to describe her first pregnancy, which sadly ended in miscarriage, and how she struggled to recover. She pretended that it didn't happen and told no one at work about her experience. She points out that many women's miscarriages take place in secret, for fear of their employers knowing they are trying for a family. Hilary then explains how, when she told her employer that she was 12 weeks pregnant with Ernest, she started ‘sobbing uncontrollably' to her boss, thinking that they would regard her as a disappointment and that her career progression would be impacted. It was then that Hilary found out about her poor maternity package; she only got 6 weeks of full maternity pay. Hilary returned to work after 12 weeks, as she couldn't afford not to, despite having a traumatic C-section only weeks before. We agree with Hilary that attitudes need to change - both around maternity and paternity leave. ‘To have a husband or partner at home only for two weeks…it's not enough'Hilary then tells us about her experience with postnatal depression and describes how, when she took maternity leave for the second time, she'd imagined ‘gliding around the house for 16 weeks hugging my baby'. In reality, her baby was crying constantly and she felt increasingly isolated. It was her husband who spotted that she was suffering, and, whilst returning to work proved to be the ‘fix' Hilary needed, she recognises that this won't be the same for all. Hilary also reminds us that postnatal depression may not be immediate, but can occur several months after giving birth.She tells us how her relationship was under a lot of strain during the first four years of parenthood. Hilary explains how she'd felt guilty doing things like getting her hair done or exercising, as she felt she couldn't justify taking a day for herself. But she had her ‘lightbulb moment' - that she and her husband had to make time for themselves. ‘I don't want anyone to wait 4 years. I want new parents to do this from day one because it's healthy. It's better for the children and it's better for your relationship.'Finally, we ask Hilary what the industry can do for people with young families. She shares her early mistakes of hiding the fact that she was a mother when she was at work, missing school assemblies, and even checking her emails from her child's hospital bed. Now, Hilary tells us that she tries to be a role model, transparent about the fact she is a mum prioritising both kids and work, and encourages others to do the same. She provides an environment where her team feel they can get things off their chest, ‘so that people are not going through these bizarre experiences where we can't talk about miscarriages, or trying for a baby, or postnatal depression' without the risk of career repercussions. Hilary also believes that people should have the option to gradually return to work and be fully paid for that time - which is better for everyone, particularly those with postnatal depression. Her top tip to working parents is: don't be embarrassed or hide the fact that you are a parent whilst you're at work.

Key Learning Points1.The stress induced on couples experiencing rounds of IVF and infertility2.How organisations can help people cope through their fertility journey3.What (not) to say to couples struggling with infertility Trigger warning - this episode discusses ectopic pregnancy and failed rounds of IVF.In this episode of the Parenthood Diaries, we speak to Samantha Davidson, a 29 year-old Senior Product Manager at Simply Business, who will be talking about her ongoing fertility journey and how the insurance industry can help those struggling to conceive.Sam explains how she began trying for a baby with her partner, Dean, in June 2020, but had no joy after 6 months. They went to the NHS for tests, but came back all clear. People often told her to ‘not to worry so much' and ‘relax', which, she shares, was easier said than done! Sam tells us that after her first two rounds of IVF, she was diagnosed with poor egg quality - making the chance of conceiving naturally ‘very slim'. Sam would either have to adopt, or use a donor's eggs if she wanted to carry a child herself. ‘DNA-wise, the child wouldn't be genetically mine… it hit me like a slap in the face'. Sam tells us DNA is a now non-issue, but carrying a child is very important to her.After the two failed UK rounds, Sam and her partner looked abroad, eventually choosing a clinic in Prague. Using a donor's eggs, they got 8 top-quality embryos, returning the next month to have them implanted. They then became pregnant - but Sam soon began to feel unwell. She had cramps, nausea and started bleeding, and headed to A&E at 4AM in the morning. Doctors found that she had an ectopic pregnancy, which needed keyhole surgery to remove the pregnancy and a fallopian tube.We then ask Sam if she knows how common infertility is. She tells us that 1 in 7 couples struggle with infertility - that's 48 million couples globally. Recent studies suggest that microplastics and other common chemicals are increasingly to blame. But Sam also warns that things can ‘get absolutely ridiculous' if you ‘bury yourself in a rabbit-hole of things to avoid'. She tells us she stopped using chemicals to clean her house and drank and ate things she hated. ‘I said to my consultant: “If you tell me that I need to eat cat poo to get pregnant, I will!'When asked all this has affected her work, Sam tells us that she struggled, as IVF put a big mental and financial strain on her and her relationship. Sam tells us that work could sometimes be a good distraction, but mounting stress meant she reduced her hours to 4 days a week, which helped. After her ectopic pregnancy, and during IVF rounds, Simply Business gave her plenty of time off to recover. Yet Sam also said that as a woman she was anxious that her career would fall behind, or that she would be seen as incapable or emotional.Finally, we ask Sam for her top tips to employers and employees on how to communicate properly with those on a fertility journey. Sam tells us that, first and foremost, employers need to be understanding and sympathetic. She then tells us what not to do - like refusing a request to work from home. She encourages managers to ‘give people what they need', offer resources available, and be patient. She also encourages employees to go to HR if they aren't getting the support they need from their manager. Sam also explains that people can be (unintentionally) insensitive. She recommends that people never say ‘at least' when talking about infertility, but that the worst thing you can say is nothing at all - it's best to just let them know you care.To listen to more of Sam's story, check our her podcast called “Infertility and Me - Samantha” available on Spotify and Anchor.As always, a big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network!

Key learning points1.Challenges for parents returning to work2.Where the inspiration for the Risky Mix Parenthood Diaries came from3.The topics that the series will cover Here on the Risky Mix podcast we are delighted to kick off our new ten-part series - the Parenthood Diaries! For the next 5 months, we will be covering a huge range of parenthood-related topics with insurance guests who have ‘been there and done it'. We'll be chatting about things like going back to work two weeks after giving birth; managing a rising career alongside rounds of IVF; parenting children with additional needs and blended families. Whether you're a parent in the industry, hoping to have children soon, or are working for an organisation looking to create inclusive workspaces and cultures, we think we've got something for everyone. In this episode, Josie and Raj chat about what's to come in the Parenthood Diaries, and share a behind-the-scenes look at life as a new mum with our returned co-host, Katie!A big thanks to our series partners, Genasys and The Camelot Network

Key learning points1.How Zurich is changing company culture by embracing diversity and inclusion2.The learnings from Zurich's D&I initiative3.How to get leaders on board with D&I change Today on the Risky Mix podcast we're delighted to be joined by Steve Collinson, Chief HR Officer at Zurich UK. As well as sharing his personal journey and passion for D&I, Steve is here to talk about Zurich's impressive efforts to overhaul company culture and improve both diversity and inclusion across the organisation. From flexible work initiatives to more inclusive employee benefits, Zurich has led by example over the last few years, and we're really looking forward to hearing more about the progress they've made and what they've learned along the way.Being a Zurich ‘lifer', Steve has worked in all sorts of change-focused roles, eventually becoming Chief HR Officer in 2018. Steve shares his passion for change at work, particularly through listening to employees' lived experiences, not just examining data. His core goal was simple: ‘To put weight to the voice of our own people'.We ask Steve about the change employees were asking for. Taking gender as an example, he tells us that whilst Zurich's workforce had gender parity in their most junior roles, the same could not be said for senior positions. He emphasises how important it was for the firm to be open and honest about its starting point and progress; Zurich still published its ethnicity, gender, disability, and LGBT pay gap data, despite the reporting government's break in 2020.Steve engaged The Behavioural Insights Team, who challenged Zurich to introduce a ‘behavioural nudge'. Now, all job roles are advertised as 'part-time, job-share or full-time', which made a significant difference; the proportion of women hired rose and the number of applications for all positions more than doubled. Moreover, the number of women working part-time has risen significantly – almost one in four female hires in the last 12 months are employed part-time.When asked about Zurich's progress with inclusion, Steve tells us that the firm has put massive effort into diversity, yet inclusivity is almost more important – as it's critical for employee retention. He introduced various initiatives, including having employee resource groups visit the board at least twice a year. Steve also worked to introduce benefits and policy to ‘celebrate diversity' – including equalising parental leave, and creating menopause, premature babies, IVF, and other policies – not just for support, but to also create a conversation around these experiences.We also ask Steve how he got leaders on board with his ideas. Steve notes that he was lucky to work with a supportive CEO. But he has also stressed the importance of D&I to his executives, with the knowledge that ‘a more diverse and inclusive, empowered and engaged organisation delivers a better bottom-line result'. But Steve also adds that he avoids ‘opening Excel and creating a business case for every scenario' as many initiatives ‘were simply the right thing to do'. Where costs are associated, communicated these in advance and planned for them.And the result? Engagement in the company is ‘at levels that would have been dreamed of five years ago' and Zurich is the only insurer ranked in the top fifty places to work on Glassdoor. Yet whilst Steve is very happy with the progress made, he believes the company still has a way to go. Steve realises it remains a challenge in financial services to attract workers from the black community, which he argues is a reality leaders need to accept and resolve. He is adamant that Zurich seeks a diverse and balanced applicant pool ‘at the top of the funnel' and wants to ensure that the recruitment process is free of unconscious bias that does not create disadvantage to certain groups.

Key learning points1.Changing attitudes to part-time and flexible working2.How part-time workers could contribute just as much as full-time workers3.Tips for how you can make the shift to part-time work Today on the Risky Mix podcast we're delighted to be rejoined by Rebekah Bostan, Director of Research and Insight at InsTech. Through sharing her learnings as a 14-year award-winning flexible worker, Rebekah will take us through the advantages that part-time work arrangements can offer both employees and businesses and will also challenge the stereotypes that surround this type of work, before providing some tips on how to ask your employer for a part-time role.Rebekah begins by sharing how she looked to pursue part-time work after starting her family relatively young. It was the early-2000s, so part-time and flexible work options were quite rare, but as she was looking to balance childcare with caring for her partner with a disability, she was determined. She made a bold request and with a bit of help from lady luck, was successful in securing a part-time role. Rebekah tells us that this set-up not only allowed her to balance household responsibilities but also to do other things – she helped rebuild her local community centre and became a board member in local organisations.Discussing attitudes to flexible work, Rebekah explains how throughout her career she encountered a wealth of ‘superfluous' reasons for why part-time would never work, and yet during the pandemic, flexible working has proved completely possible. People have had no choice but to juggle work with caring requirements and social distancing necessitated work-from-home arrangements. But there is a long way to go for changing perceptions on part-work. She tells us of its ‘gendered nature' as mostly women work part-time; often it's seen as going down a ‘mummy career track'. Rebekah says you are still perceived as contributing less if not working a five-day week. Yet having experienced both full and part-time roles, Rebekah tells us that part-time workers are some of the ‘most structured, efficient, organised people because they have narrow time to do the work'. Working five days a week, she argues, can leave the door open for unproductive tasks and procrastination.Rebekah also shares with us her ‘formula' for how to ask your employer for part-time work:1.Recognise the business before yourself. It's not just about what you need - you have the right to ask for part-time work, but you don't have the right to be granted it – your employer isn't obliged to make changes unless it's a medical adjustment. So you need to think about how you going part-time would benefit the business too.2.All teams have their limits – think about what consequences your move to part-time will have on your managers and team members. Lots of teams are often overstretched and exhausted – so a request could be viewed as additional pressure - how will you counter this?3.Recognise the role of manager discretion. Take time to figure out what your managers are worried about. Eg, is it cost, delivery timelines, or headcount? This can help you form a counterargument.4.Triage your role. Get your work tasks down on paper, and sort them into three circles): a.The ‘core' tasks – high-value stuff that's important to your manager or next job – the things you can't compromise on and you will keep. b.‘Low-value tasks' – can these be automated, or even stopped?  c.The ‘delegation' tasks – these should be sold as a golden opportunity to the people doing them – how can these grow your team's skills?5.Treat it like you are building a business case!Rebekah also recommends looking at the charity Timewise (https://timewise.co.uk).

The Key Learning Points:1. How organisations can support women during menopause2. How people are affected by (early) menopause3. The importance of discussing menopause in society and at work Today on the Risky Mix podcast we're delighted to be joined by Rebekah Bostan, Director of Research and Insight at InsTech London and an award-winning diversity champion. Rebekah will be talking all about the menopause, including outlining some of the lesser-known symptoms and addressing some of the big misconceptions. Drawing from her own experience of unexpected early menopause, Rebekah will also share strategies for managing menopause at work and suggest how colleagues can support someone going through it. Rebekah explains that, in her late 30's, she started to experience changes in her menstrual cycle. She says she was becoming increasingly intolerant and felt claustrophobic (later recognised as hot flush). She forgot common details like her children's names (brain fog) and found it uncomfortable sitting down (a sign of vaginal dryness). Rebekah says she also struggled with anxiety. She wanted to grow her career, now that her kids were teens, but feared she would have to ‘lean out'. She explains it was a scary conversation to have; she had worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder and to persuade people to respect her as an equal, but now she had to ask to be treated a little differently (which, she reminds us, is ok too!).Rebekah went to her GP believing she had early-onset dementia, but her GP recognised the signs of early menopause – having 28 out of 30 known symptoms! It turns out that both her mum and her grandmother had experienced early menopause, yet they'd never shared this with her. Rebekah believes this is because as a society we have ‘pushed menopause to a place where we don't talk about it'. As a result, she struggled to recognise and define her symptoms - she lacked the language. She tells us it angers her that menopause isn't discussed more, despite being a natural thing with symptoms that can generally be treated.Rebekah tells us that her GP's referral to an early menopause clinic had a nine-month wait, but she was lucky to have access to private medical treatment. But Rebekah tells us that she also leaned on other resources, including ‘menopause cafés' where she talked to women at different stages of menopause.Rebekah also tells us how she navigated her diagnosis at work. She worked part-time, which helped tremendously. As her company wasn't talking about menopause, she created a menopause policy and groups (but warns us that policies only work if management buys into them!). She also tells us how asking for help was hard, but the best thing she did – she delegated her tasks to her team and chose opportunities that would allow her colleagues to grow.We then talk about what teams can do to support someone experiencing menopause. Rebekah stresses the value of flexible working – such as working from home and the option to reduce hours. She wants employers to give people room to say what they need and then to provide that support. Rebekah told us how she felt comfortable telling her team when she was having a ‘brain-foggy' day – allowing her colleagues to step in where necessary – and she would support them when they needed help too. She also urges people working in HR to distinguish menopausal sick days from normal sick days – as it can be stressful if you are perceived to be taking too much time off.We also ask Rebekah if she has any final advice for people going through menopause. She urges people to track their symptoms and see a GP. If your GP isn't taking your symptoms seriously, she says, find another one! She also recommends the resource menopausematters.co.uk. Finally, she urges people with the financial capacity to use private healthcare where they can, as she wants as many women as possible to stay in leadership.

The Key Learning Points:1.How a lack of diversity affects the employee experience for minority groups2.The impact of D&I focused internships3.How companies can shift their mindset to become more inclusiveToday on the Risky Mix podcast we're joined by Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, co-founder of Redington, an investment consultancy, and Mallowstreet, a platform for education and convening in the asset management industry. Dawid is also the co-founder of 10000 Black Interns, a not-for-profit organisation that is finding 10,000 internships for black graduates across 24 sectors over the next five years and in this episode, he will take us through the story, the successes so far and the things he has learned that could help organisations striving to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce.Dawid begins by sharing his early career and the initial hurdles he faced. He qualified as a junior barrister in 1987 and was accepted onto a pupilage with The Bar, however, was informed that there was no chance of this developing into a job, as they'd ‘already hired a black person last year'! Nevertheless, Dawid went on to have a 30-year long career in the city, working as an in-house lawyer for banks, before eventually transitioning into investment banking and then founding Redington in 2006.Dawid noticed that, though he never faced any outright racism during his time in the City, he was often the only black person in the room. He was approached by one of his junior staffers, Grace, who was also of black heritage and shared a similar story. As the daughter of a single mum, she had worked hard to get a job as an actuary in the City but felt that her confidence waned as she was outnumbered by mostly older, white colleagues - she didn't know how to ‘be'.Dawid tells us that at the time, out of the City's 3,000 asset managers, only 12 were black. Thinking introspectively in June 2020, deep in lockdown and in the wake of George Floyd's murder, Dawid wanted to take action. He spoke with his asset management contacts and asked them to take 1 black intern for 6 weeks during summer. After phoning up 30 companies, 30 had accepted. Eventually, over 200+ firms said ‘yes' to 500+ internships.The response, Dawid tells us, was incredible and messages from ecstatic interns flew into his inbox. Dawid tells us this inspired him to grow the scheme to set up 100 internships over 20 sectors for 5 years - hence the target of 10,000 emerged. Dawid reminds us that firms ought to do more than simply accept BAME interns, but it's a step in the right direction, showing that when people come together, change can happen quickly. He tells us he used the 'here comes everyone' approach to persuade bosses and keep momentum, saying ‘everyone is doing it, so why don't you!'. Amazingly, 30% of the interns placed got a job and those that didn't were inundated with high quality offers from other firms. He reminds us that a hallmark of inequality is a lack of contacts – afterwards, the interns had a flood of LinkedIn requests. Dawid tells us that the programme changed the way in which firms work and think about recruitment – placing less emphasis on educational background (important, given that black people are underrepresented at the top universities).We finish by asking Dawid what can be done by organisations to create a more diverse workspace. He acknowledges that there are plenty of well-meaning people in organisations who want to enact change, but there is a pervasive belief that success is entirely determined by how much work people are willing to put in. Dawid reminds us that this simply isn't the case – take the fact that there are only 6 CEOs in the FTSE 100 are women. If corporations want to make a difference, he tells us, they need to make it their no.1 item on their agenda. A company can have a high stock price and great retention – but diversity is also crucial for business success.

Key learning points:1.The impact of dyslexia on someone's life2.The value of neurodiversity in your organisation3.The benefits of making websites accessible for everyoneToday on the podcast we're delighted to be joined by Ross Linnett, CEO at Recite Me, a company creating inclusive online experiences through its web accessibility plugin software. We're hear Ross' story, including the impact that his late dyslexia diagnosis had on his journey, and discuss how companies in financial services and beyond can deliver a more inclusive digital customer experience.We first chat about how Ross' undiagnosed dyslexia impacted his school life. Ross was very confident but hated reading aloud to his classmates and wasn't performing in exams. Ross asked his teachers if he was dyslexic and was dismissed. He thought ‘I must just be a bit thick!' Ross then tells us how he made his life choices around dyslexia, picking electrical engineering, despite not having a passion for it. He eventually got tested after a friend noticed he was showing signs of dyslexia.Ross explains that we are all on a neurodiverse scale, with Autism and Asperger's on one side, dyslexia on the other and non-dyslexic people in between. He reminds us that the world is mostly built for neurotypical people, but having a dyslexic brain can be a superpower in itself. Whilst neurotypical brains can only process one or two streams of information at the same time, dyslexic people can handle four or five. Ross reminds us that dyslexia is about the brain performing differently, despite being labelled as a disability. He tells us that The World Health Organisation thinks that 10-15% of the western population is dyslexic, but it could be as high as 25%!Ross then tells us about how he became President of his Student Union where his abilities could shine.: ‘I got into running a £3 million business when I was 22'. He even pitched into the white paper for the Disability Discrimination Act. Before this, it was up to disabled people, not employers, to make necessary adjustments. We then asked Ross about how his experiences led to founding Recite Me. After his diagnosis, accessibility software was a game-changer. Being able to have text read out aloud and change background page colour would allow him to stay switched on and work faster for longer. To make websites more accessible, Ross started Recite Me. Tools like text-to-speech, magnification, dyslexia-friendly fonts help his clients (including Boots and Tesco Bank) make their sites more readable for all. Ross tells us that these systems don't just benefit dyslexics – everyone has their own combination of background colour, font and text colour that can make the work up to 20-25% faster. That's why Ross believes that digital accessibility tools should be as common as a wheelchair ramp.We then talk about the need for accessibility in financial services. Ross reminds us that we must read lots of legalese on websites. He questions how well companies could enforce a contract if someone couldn't properly absorb that information. Walls of text like policy documents can easily make him bored – so he often leaves buying his insurance right to the last minute.Ross warns us that the biggest impact on a dyslexic's life can be the resistance of systems. Where something, like education, hasn't worked for someone, they either design a system for themselves or reject it. He tells us that a study of a prison's population revealed that 85% of the inmates were dyslexic. He urges people to get tested if they believe they are dyslexic.Finally, we ask what non-dyslexic people can do to help, as community members and employers. Ross hopes that neurodiverse conditions are seen less as disabilities but more for their advantages in teams, such as their analytical and memory skills. He wants this to be as universal as having gender diversity in modern organisations.

The Key Learning Points:1.Misconceptions about careers in insurance, and why it is actually a fantastic industry to be part of2.Lessons from AXA's ‘Fairer in Five' campaign for diversity reporting3.How the culture of concealment in the financial services industry may be impacting negatively on the diversity of the workforce Today on the Risky Mix Podcast, we're delighted to be joined by Tracy Garrad, CEO at AXA Health and executive sponsor for D&I at AXA UK. We'll hear Tracy's personal career journey, including where her passion for changing perceptions of the insurance industry came from. We will also discuss Tracy's experience leading AXA's D&I disclosure campaign and explore what insurance companies can do to improve their D&I reporting.Tracy starts by telling us about her career journey and her untypical path, which led her to becoming the CEO at three different organisations. Tracy grew up on a council estate in Blackpool, which now has one of the highest poverty rates in the UK.After leaving school at 17 to look after younger siblings when her mother passed away, Tracy ended up working for someone who changed her life. They supported her practically and emotionally and helped her go back to school to study Business and Finance, alongside holding down her job.In addition to Tracy's role as CEO of AXA Health, she is the executive sponsor for diversity and inclusion for AXA UK. She tells us all about the ‘Fair in Five' campaign launched last March. The campaign encourages employees to share their diversity and inclusion data characteristics. Tracy says that many businesses, not just insurers, have little data on the makeup of their workforce.Tracy tells us that by having this data and having a baseline, AXA will be able to develop targeted interventions that will help make the workplace fairer and more inclusive.Tracy is also passionate about changing perceptions of the insurance industry. She says that many have a perception that insurance is dull and really technical, but Tracy explains that insurance is actually really personable.She wants to inspire and encourage more people to choose insurance as a career path and put the message out there; that you can make a difference to people's lives by working in the insurance sector, plus have a brilliant career.One of the ways Tracy believes we can encourage more people to choose insurance as a career is by getting rid of the existing culture of concealment that surrounds people's backgrounds, which research has shown is very typical in the financial services sector.“The data would suggest that there are more people, within the higher ranks of the financial services firms, that do have people who have come from a lower socioeconomic background but actually just aren't comfortable talking about it publicly.”Tracy adds that this culture of concealment creates this belief that you have to follow a certain path to success. She says that the more role models that we have, that are willing to be open and share the adversity they may have experienced, the more that myths will be dispelled and a wider range of people will believe that that could be them.Tracy also shares her tips for young people and how best to progress in their career.Her main big tip: have a plan.

Key Learning Points:1. Key lessons from some of the most impactful episodes2. A look ahead at what is to come for the podcast3. New Year's resolutions for the financial services sector For our Christmas episode, we thought we'd do something a bit different. We're pulling back the curtain on the Risky Mix by bringing on the team who help to make happen. We're thrilled to welcome Josie Clamp and Teah Richardson from Bright Lights to join us as we reflect back on the Risky Mix journey so far and take a look ahead at what's to come in 2022. These ladies work hard behind the scenes, reaching out to potential guests and managing all of our marketing activity, and of course, Josie was a guest on our podcast for episode 30!Josie tells us how she has been busy building a solid team, taking on more clients and expanding beyond insurance, and is loving the adventure. When asked about her favourite episode, Josie picks Eilish Jamieson's episode (49) about showing vulnerability in the workplace and explains that she has tried to apply what it taught her when shaping the Bright Lights culture.Teah tells us how she struggled to find a job after completing her masters in journalism, especially given the state of the job market mid-pandemic. But in the midst of all the doom-scrolling, she was moved by an encouraging message in a Bright Lights job ad. She applied and has enjoyed working with Josie ever since. Teah explains that her experience working in insurance has been really positive, helped by the fact that she spends so much time speaking to amazing people who are driving positive change in the industry, thanks to her work on the Risky Mix. Her favourite episode is no. 50, which featured Priscilla Law talking about unconscious bias training. For the rest of the episode, Teah and Josie turn the table and quiz Katie and Raj, including returning the question about favourite episodes. Katie picks Episode 63, where Chloe Tait and Katy Murray speak about the potential for job sharing to make the world of work more flexible and accessible. Raj opts for Rob Anarfi's Episode on racial equity and leadership accountability.When asked about the stand-out learnings from the year, Katie pinpoints Rob Anarfi's message about creating space for people to make mistakes when talking about race, and Raj highlights Miriam Reason and Eilish Jamieson's episodes for teaching her so much about the importance of promoting mental wellbeing in the workplace and embracing vulnerability. After spilling the beans on their dream podcast guests (Ru Paul and Gal Gadot, of course!), Katie and Raj look to the year ahead. Katie shares that she will be taking a step back from hosting the podcast for a few months as she has recently become a first-time mum! While she spends some quality time with beautiful baby Billy, Josie will be stepping in as temporary co-host. Katie and Raj share that they would like the Risky Mix to continue to be a space for authentic conversations about important topics and that they would like to continue reaching beyond insurance and into financial services more broadly. They see the podcast as a platform for people who are driving change, where positive role models and leaders can share their personal challenges to help make the industry a place that embraces difference and authenticity. Finally, they set these New Year's resolutions for the financial services industry: ·       Wider ethnicity pay gap mandatory reporting·       More embracing of new working styles·       Better support for employee resource groups·       More of an embrace of career transitioners, sideways moves·       Even more support for the career progression of women

The Key Learning Points:1.The impact of developing a visual impairment on someone's life and wellbeing2.Tell-tale signs that someone has a visual impairment they don't know about3.How workplaces and insurers can better support people with a visual impairmentToday on the Risky Mix podcast we're delighted to be joined by Daniel Williams who runs Visualise Training and Consultancy. We'll be talking about Daniel's work, campaigning and advocating for inclusion, equality and diversity when it comes to visual impairment, and we'll be exploring what workplaces can be doing more of to support those with sight loss. At the age of eight, Daniel was diagnosed with a visual impairment called retinitis pigmentosa. He tells us how, during his teenage years in mainstream education, he was confronted by his friends being able to do things he would never be able to, and he struggled with mental health issues while he was grieving his sight loss. Daniel explains how the turning point for him was starting a college for the visually impaired, where he had the realisation that there were other people going through the same struggle. He was inspired to see others pursuing careers that he had thought were no longer an option for him. Now, through his own consultancy business, he aims to make the world more inclusive for people with visual impairments by delivering visual awareness training and workplace assessments, and disability awareness training online. Daniel goes on to tell us that in the UK, alone, there are currently two million people with a visual impairment and around 250 people per day who start losing their sight in some shape or form. There is also an overwhelming number of people who don't even know that they have a visual impairment. Daniel says that if you notice something isn't quite right with a colleague, for example, if they are often clumsy, you shouldn't just dismiss it; you should speak up and suggest they get an eye test. He then shares how finding out you're visually impaired can really take an emotional toll, comparable to losing a family member and going through the stages of grief, loss and then acceptance. Daniel says that it makes it even harder to accept if there is no awareness of the help or support available. There are a lot of people out there who, after their diagnosis, simply don't know what to do next. He adds that there is also a lack of role models, “there aren't many people who are visually impaired and in the public eye where you can think ‘oh they have a really good job'. You think David Blunkett or Stevie Wonder - but not everyone wants to be a politician or a singer.”For workplaces that want to be more accessible, Daniel explains that they need to go beyond a tick box exercise. They should contact a specialist and engage people that can give them the right advice, information and support, especially as the individual themselves may not actually know what they need. He provides some great examples of small changes that employers can make that take very little time or money but could make a huge difference to someone with limited vision. On the topic of recruitment, he mentions how it is crucial to ensure that websites adhere to web accessibility standards so that people with a visual impairment can access the opportunity in the first place, and also emphasises the power of asking someone if they need any reasonable adjustments made during the onboarding process.Finally, he explains that, while insurance products like income protection may be providing money to people who have become visually impaired, insurers could be doing more to educate people on the support available and to encourage them to use the payout toward their rehabilitation. 

The Key Learning Points:1.What mindfulness is and the benefits of it2.How mindfulness compares to meditation3.Three tips to help you build mindfulness practice into your daily life Over the last few weeks, the Risky Mix has been exploring mental wellbeing and on this week's episode, we're delighted to welcome back Miriam Reason, founder of Reasonful and mindfulness teacher and wellbeing consultant to talk all things mindfulness! We'll be going back to basics to understand what it actually is, asking whether it really works, and Miriam will provide her tips on how we can all become that bit more mindful!We first talk about what mindfulness actually is and how it compares to meditation. Miriam explains “there's no one way to do mindfulness.” You can be mindful when having your first cup of tea in the morning. “It is just tuning into now, the current moment, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions.” It's about not trying to change anything, just noticing what's there and there's no pressure, no right or wrong way to do it.  She adds that “meditation is one way to be mindful. It's a type of formal mindfulness”. We ask Miriam what the benefits are of being more mindful. She explains that it gives us some headspace and distance between us and our thoughts. Research has also shown that mindfulness can promote better sleep, reduce stress, improve symptoms of depression and anxiety, boost self-esteem and improve relationships with others. Miriam adds that of course, not everyone will experience all of these, but she likes to think about mindfulness as putting space between a reaction and a response to certain events: “Reacting is not the same as responding.” We chat about the various mental health apps that have emerged in the market, and while the merits are clear, Miriam expresses some concerns around the gamified nature of these apps: “I don't think that is particularly productive.” It helps maintain that cycle of “I must do this, I must enjoy it, it must help me.” For Miriam, it's about making mindfulness practice work for you, it's okay not to enjoy it. “It's a bit like going to the gym for your mind”, sustained commitment to something is what's needed to see results: “It's not always going to feel good, but rarely do you regret sitting down and spending that time.”To round up, Miriam providers her top three tips for people wanting to build mindfulness into their daily routines: 1. Start small, even one minute every few days can help2. Tune in to your five senses when doing daily tasks, even the washing up!3. Try different approaches and various apps and classes to find what works for you

The Key Learning Points:1.Trends and themes around mental wellbeing, many emerging as a result of the pandemic2.Lesser-known mental health conditions and the importance of language in tackling stigma3.Areas where organisations can improve to support their staff around mental healthFor the next few weeks on the Risky Mix podcast, we're going to be exploring mental wellbeing and its impact in the workplace. We're fortunate to be joined by the founder of Reasonful, Miriam Reason, mindfulness teacher and wellbeing consultant. And in this episode, we're going to be exploring some of the hot topics around mental health – including the rise in perfectionism, our ‘always on' culture, the role of technology and we'll discuss why some of those mental health stigmas simply won't budge.Miriam walks us through her career journey, starting out in operations at a large insurer: “I really liked what I was doing but I felt like ‘is there something more out there for me?'”. Miriam has first-hand experience with mental health challenges and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety at age 19. She saw just how important a role her employer and boss played in supporting her recovery, so decided to explore a career move. She went on to complete a Masters at Kings in psychology, neuroscience and mental health and set up Reasonful this year. We ask Miriam what themes and trends she's seeing around mental health: “There are a whole host of different things that are coming out, especially since the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, companies and people in general were already starting to be much more open about mental health..but since the pandemic we're just seeing a lot more conversation about what companies can do to better support their employees.” Miriam explains about the impact of our “always on” culture and the concept of perfectionism. She explains that when we can't socialise and see friends, which has been the case during the pandemic, social media and the internet become our primary ways to engage with people. So we're being bombarded with images of perfection and idealised versions of life: “I get the impression that people are reflecting a lot more on what their life means and what drives them.” We also discuss some of the lesser-known mental health conditions such as eating disorders, OCD, PTSD and personality disorders. “The cost of eating disorders to the UK is astronomical and we're seeing that that's gotten much worse during lockdown, particularly in young people.” Miriam also dealt with an eating disorder while working and explains the challenge she faced around receiving treatment because of her weight: “Only 6% of the people who have an eating disorder are actually underweight.” We ask Miriam about what organisations can be doing to support employees with their mental health:1.      Make sure you have structures that will genuinely support people ie.EAPs, and check what it's like to actually use those services. 2.      Mental Health First Aid programs are useful and a way to empower your teams to get involved. 3.      Establish a wellbeing strategy and get creative around mental health. 4.      Ensure that leaders and managers lead by example - making time for self-care and being open about their own mental health and showing vulnerability.5.      Don't shy away from conversations – encourage teams to be open and supportive of those around them in the workplace. You can also find Miriam and Reasonful on  Instagram and Linkedin.

The Key Learning Points:1.The role of data in enhancing recruitment practices 2.A spotlight on the financial services sector and attracting more women 3.What graduates want to see from companies regarding D&IA couple of weeks ago we were joined by Anu Manthri, director of business development at Bright Network, and two graduates who spoke about their experiences starting in the world of work. Today we're thrilled to welcome Anu back on the podcast to speak more about Bright Network and in particular the power of data in supporting companies to recruit in a more diverse and inclusive way.We ask Anu what she's passionate about. Starting out in teaching with Teach First and subsequently moving to the Bright Network, Anu says that “the key theme that runs between is passion about young people and opportunities - I just wanted to make a difference to as many people as possible!”We then hear more about the Bright Network, which was launched by its founder when, in his final year of university, he thought “how does everyone know how to get an internship? How does everyone know even what career to go down?” For him, it was clear that networks play a key role: “How do we create a network that is free to access, available to all and really targets everyone, regardless of their background?” 10 years on and today Bright Network supports those pre, during, and post uni to make the best choice in the first step of their career. And what really sets them apart is their use of data to drive recruitment processes. The Bright Network membership currently sits at around 500,000 and employer partners can dive into the candidate database and segment across a huge number of data points: “We can pinpoint really bespoke segments to target on behalf of employers - it's almost like Big Brother, but the less creepy version! Because our members know that we're targeting them, they want to be targeted!”A focus of Bright Network is diverse recruitment and improving social mobility. And currently around 45% of the membership are from ethnic minority backgrounds, 80% are state educated, 15% receive free school meals and 41% are the first in their family to go to university. We speak about recruitment in financial services and Anu explains that targeting women has always been at the forefront of the agenda. Employer partners want to encourage more female applicants and help them to feel more comfortable throughout the recruitment process. One of the biggest barriers Anu sees is female confidence: “My tips and my encouragement would be to the finance sector to think – we know the issue, we know the problem, but what can we put in as interventions now that we have the data?” It's about using the data to really understand the issues and then implementing changes to address those issues. There's been increased focus and energy around diversity and inclusion in recent years, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Anu explains that “92% of members will consider the diversity and inclusivity of an organisation before applying.” So it's important for firms to show they're passionate about diversity and be honest about any under-representation.Finally, Anu tells us about Internship Experience UK they launched last year which, at the time, was the largest virtual internship in the world with 150k applicants! This was in response to employers being unable to offer standard insight days and experiences and generally, students feeling less prepared to enter the world of work.

The Key Learning Points:1.The graduate job application experience in financial services2.The impact of the pandemic on recruitment processes and the need to provide a personal touch3.The top three tips for organisations looking to attract new fresh talent For the next few weeks on the Risky Mix podcast we're delving into the world of recruitment in the financial services sector and on this week's episode we're pleased to be joined by three wonderful guests – Harriet Lockey, Van Sada – both recent graduates and new starters in our industry, and Anu Manthri, director of business development at Bright Network – a business passionate about diverse recruitment and improving social mobility. In this episode, we'll be hearing all about Harriet and Van's experiences as they started in the world of work and Anu will be sharing her words of wisdom for organisations looking to appeal to young, fresh talent!The impact of the pandemicHarriet speaks about the increased competition for roles: “There was just a huge pressure, during the pandemic, around finding a graduate role. We all were aware that there were fewer options available.” She added that job hunting was like taking another module in university! Anu adds that 85% of members were worried about the pressure of careers during the pandemic, however, has seen some real positives coming out, including a push towards innovation and increased use of technology and virtual interviews which has helped to better include those in social mobility groups. Anu continues that 90% of members felt that virtual events supported their careers but suggests that the novelty may now have worn off so perhaps now is the time to think about hybrid recruitment and getting a bit more back in person.The personal touchWe talk about what the graduates enjoyed about their job application processes and for Harriet, having a human touch was important: “One of the things that stood out to me were companies that you actually spoke to people!” She explained that you go through three or four application stages with large firms before you get face-to-face and “only then can you really understand what their values and culture as a company are like.” For Van, it was about feeling comfortable through the application process: “I was just looking for a rapport with the people who actually interviewed me.” A lack of feedbackHarriet faced a number of automated rejections from job applications but explains that “you don't actually know how you did, or where you went wrong. You don't know if it was the CV or cover letter or the psychometric test.” Anu adds: “The harsh truth is that not all organisations do give feedback.” But explains that where employers get it right is where they have a portal where grads can ask for feedback. What grads look forFor Van, career progression prospects were key: “I always looked at where I wanted to go in the future, not necessarily the role itself.” It was important for him to get a foot in the door of a company he liked and where he could see himself working for a long time. Harriet explains that not coming from a Russell group university, she felt at a disadvantage: “Made me feel as though I would take what I got but now I'd say to someone, absolutely go for company culture. Really home in on what you want out of that role.” Anu adds that pre-pandemic, salary was so important to graduates but “this year it's all been about people and culture” for their membership.Top tips for organisations on improving recruitment practicesAnu has three tips for organisations: 1. Have more face-to-face meetings and insight days 2. Offer mentoring schemes 3. Provide upskilling opportunities - 95% of Bright Network members feel this is a job of an employer. 

The Key Learning Points:1.How the ABI's #MakingFlexibleWork campaign is designed to address the gender seniority gap and increase flexible working 2.The main myths and misconceptions about job sharing3.How job sharing is a key element of flexible working and how it can benefit employers and employees On this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're lucky to be joined by not one, but two wonderful ladies from the Association of British Insurers – Katy Murray and Chloe Tait – who job share in their current role as diversity and inclusion campaign leads at the ABI. Today we'll be chatting about their #MakingFlexibleWork campaign and we'll be busting some of the main myths about job sharing as well as highlighting the benefits of job sharing for employers and employees.We speak about the ABI's #MakingFlexibleWork campaign which aims to increase flexible working in the Insurance and Long Term Savings sector. The Charter contains three key commitments:1.      Advertising the majority of roles as open to job sharing, part-time or flexible working2.      Putting processes in place to support anyone who wants to work flexibly, part-time or in a job share3.      Publishing flexible work policies online so that they are transparentIf you'd like to know more, or if you'd like to find out which firms are supporting job sharing and flexible working, please visit the website.While job sharing appears to be less common in the financial services industry it's actually quite prevalent in other sectors: “It's really great to think about how it can be effective at a range of different levels, including very senior ones.” And we talk about why flexible working and job sharing are so important to combat the gender seniority gap we face – at executive level 24% in insurance and long-term savings are women and sadly that hasn't changed over the last few years.  The discussion then moves onto the top myths around job sharing. Cost is often a big barrier for firms who think “you're employing two people to do one job”, however Katy explains the productivity benefits - The Job Share Project Report states that companies can see an increase of 30% in productivity through recruiting a job share team. Other myths include that job sharing is just for mums or women. The ladies bust these myths during the episode.Katy and Chloe explain that there are typically two types of job share: ‘pure job shares' are where both employees work across all aspects of the role and ‘hybrid job shares' are where employees split elements of the role. They also share wider guidance on how to make job sharing work and there's more information in this free ‘Job Share Toolkit'. We ask for our guest's key pieces of advice for HR teams or senior management looking to improve their flexible working policy. The ladies suggest that companies should adjust their policies to enable job sharing. Chloe adds that it's about culture change – awareness of job sharing, using case studies to demonstrate success and internal communications to bust myths. It's also about systems change and making it easier to put a job share partnership in place.

The Key Learning Points:1.Link's mission in the insurance sector2.The experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals working in the industry3.Considerations for organisations looking to create a more inclusive environment for the LGBTQ+ communityOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Maurice Rose, senior manager in PwC's insurance regulatory practice and chair of Link – the LGBTQ+ insurance network. Maurice recently made Intelligent Insurer's top 25 D&I champions in the insurance sector and is here today to speak to us about Link's mission, the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in the industry and where companies can better support their communities. Describing himself as measured, driven and fabulous, Maurice says: “I always like to bring people together, to have fun with what we do. I think it's important as well to work hard, play hard, build on relationships, make connections and have fun while you're doing it!” After completing his degree in biochemistry, Maurice realised that he wanted to be out working with people and joined the insurance industry – originally with Old Mutual, then spending time at a Lloyd's managing agency, AIG the PRA and now at PwC.Maurice admits that he fell into the D&I side of his work after learning more about Link. He joined the committee and then two and half years ago stepped up to be chair. “It's been a fantastic opportunity to learn about the D&I side and also I think apply some of my can-do consultancy attitude to actually help to drive things forward.” Maurice is a gay man and says that “having that personal experience and that passion – it [Link work] doesn't necessarily feel like a chore.”Link was set up in the summer of 2013 and Maurice says that the network has gone from strength to strength since inception, now with over 1,700 members from across the insurance industry. “Link's mission is to make the insurance industry the employer of choice for the LGBTQ+ community” and Maurice adds that the group is “open to anyone and everyone”, so if you're interested in getting involved, please sign up to the Link newsletter via their website to learn how. We speak about the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in the insurance industry and Maurice's view is that the lived experience of an individual depends on the employer, that individual's background, experience and any intersecting characteristics. “To give an example, from my perspective, I don't feel that I have suffered from a career or development perspective because of my sexual orientation and the fact that I identify as LGBTQ+, but I think that's partially because, in many regards, I fit in.”  We talk about coming out as an LGBTQ+ individual and Maurice adds: “People see coming out as a once in a lifetime event, but actually, it's something that's constantly happening in an LGBTQ+ individual's life.” Maurice explains that he often sees younger Link members, particularly at a graduate level, who were out and proud at uni/college and when coming into the industry they go back into the closet because they don't know how their sexual orientation will be perceived. “If you're able to bring your whole self to work, be your authentic self, you're going to be more productive. And that's a benefit to the organization, so there is a business case to this.” We ask Maurice what employers should be thinking about when welcoming new LGBTQ+ individuals to the workplace: “It's around being inclusive from day one!” Using inclusive language and raising awareness of company diversity initiatives and networks. Maurice adds that people should be calling out bad behaviours, taking a stand, and suggests that if you work with someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, ask questions, take an interest, understand what it means to them!

The Key Learning Points:1.The number of professional women on a career break but who plan to return to work2.The pros and cons of LinkedIn for recruitment 3.The three main myths about returnersOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Dominie Moss, founder and MD of The Return Hub. Dominie is here today to tell us more about The Return Hub, the importance of hiring fresh and diverse talent and what recruitment processes need to look like, plus we'll be busting some common myths about returners!Dominie started her career as a headhunter in 2001, and after turning 40 a few years back, decided to set up The Return Hub in 2016 – a decision that was partly motivated by her internal desire to do something different: “I had a bit of an entrepreneurial itch to scratch for a long time” and partly by a number of external factors: “I began to look around me and thought ‘where are all the women of my age – where've they all gone?'” For Dominie, there seemed to be a missing generation of women her age, so after meeting a lady from Morgan Stanley and learning about the firm's return to work program, Dominie became a “woman on a mission!” She quotes a PwC study which found that there are 427,000 professional women who are on a career break who will go back to work. So, she took what she knew about the search process and applied it to the returner space, with an aim to enable companies to reach the “off the radar, hard to find, pool of people, in a way that was strategic and not just chance and luck.” Dominie realised that “there was this huge untapped pool of talent, that was highly skilled, highly experienced, but was just not really well served by the current recruitment industry.”We talk about the role LinkedIn is playing in the industrialisation of recruitment – creating a scalable way to recruit, but Dominie speaks about the downsides of recruitment based on the outputs from an algorithm – namely the fact that an algorithm can't assess someone with a career break or a period of study – Dominie believes that the process has to be managed by a human being. “The system really is screening out these incredibly talented, experienced women.” In addition to this, there are a number of myths around returners:1.      They're all women2.      They're all mothers3.      They all want to work part-timeDominie adds that, in fact, 73% of their candidates tick the full-time box. “There is no average returner” but they often have one thing in common, which is their response to the question “what do you want to do?”: “I want to do interesting and challenging work and I want to be part of a team again.” Dominie explains that the returner group tends to look at things more holistically, rather than taking the more binary view when it comes to career - around pay and promotion alone.Dominie explains that she's recently broadened The Return Hub offering, launching Career Academy, which delivers a range of free resources on CV writing, interview skills, LinkedIn profile writing and much more, so check those out if you're looking to relaunch your career or want general tips on career development! 

The Key Learning Points:1.The model minority myth and how it applies to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)2.The rise of AAPI hate as a result of the COVID19 pandemic3.Eight tips for companies around better supporting their AAPI communitiesOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Jeff Le, from across the pond in Washington DC! Jeff is currently VP of public policy and external affairs at fintech startup, Rhino, and a Political Partner at the Truman National Security Project, a DC-based think tank. He also speaks about issues in the D&I space, regularly speaking on podcasts and contributing to articles in the New York Times, POLITICO, and Washington Post, particularly around anti-Asian sentiment because of the coronavirus pandemic. We will be discussing this and more during today's episode.The son of Vietnamese refugees, Jeff really has lived the “American dream”. Calling himself a “broader generalist”, Jeff breaks his career into three areas: International affairs, politics and tech. He's currently working at Rhino, a fintech startup that aims to reduce the barriers to affordable and stable housing for US citizens. Jeff also tells us about his interest in D&I and the turning point for him being a shocking experience in March 2020, when a woman spat in his face (he adds that it wasn't the first time!). For Jeff, the most crushing part was having people see it happen and pretend it didn't happen: “That blessing to say that's okay is 100 times worse than any spitting. We're creating conditions and a permission structure to allow for someone to feel less than human, and that their humanity is conditional, is arbitrary and is decided by others.”Jeff tells us about the “model minority myth” which is often applied to AAPI communities – a mindset that this community is the best minority. This myth is firstly not true, as Jeff explains, that by segmenting and analysing the AAPI data we see that “they have much lower rates of university or high school graduation, they have less access to healthcare services, they have more experiences in the criminal justice system and they have lower life expectancies.”We speak about why awareness of these AAPI issues is so low. For Jeff, the first factor is population size – the AAPI community makes up just 7% of the US population, so there's a lack of exposure from a numbers perspective. The second factor is cultural. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exaggerated AAPI hate, with hate crime increasing by 107% in California alone between 2019 and 2020. Children aren't going back to school due to fears of bullying and people are sheltering and not returning to work. And as Jeff touched on earlier, much of the problem is with non-active bystanders: “By not doing something, you are complicit.” Jeff believes that organisations can be doing more to support communities of colour back into the workplace during this time and also create an inclusive work culture that promotes equity. He provides his eight top tips for companies in this episode.If you'd like to know more, check out some of Jeff's previous articles and comments:I Thought I Knew How to Succeed as an Asian in U.S. Politics. Boy, Was I Wrong (POLITICO, Apr. 3, 2021)Quotation of the Day: Back to Normal? Not for Asian Americans (The New York Times, Jun. 8, 2021)Are you ambivalent about celebrating July 4? You're not alone (USA Today, Jul. 1, 2021)

The Key Learning Points:1.Considerations for individuals thinking about taking a career break2.As a returner, the need to consider your CV as product placement - presenting the most relevant experience in the right way3.The importance of maintaining a network and keeping abreast of industry developments to support confidenceOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're fortunate to be joined again by Stephanie Dillon, partner and founder at Inclusivity Partners, a business that designs and delivers returner programs for individuals who have taken career breaks. Stephanie joined us a few weeks ago and told us about the latest returner program launched in the insurance industry and what organisations can do to tap into the returner talent pool. In this episode, we'll be discussing the personal perspective of being a returner and the three things Stephanie would recommend to returners looking to reignite their careers. We ask Stephanie for her tips for people considering taking a career break. Firstly, she explains that if you're stepping out because you want to reduce your hours and you're employer perhaps hasn't been accommodating to that, which Stephanie often sees, “remember you worked hard for the career, so fight hard to keep it.” The challenge is that organisations often idealise the full-time position which doesn't work for many women, so Stephanie recommends the following: “I encourage people to treat this like a business plan”. Explain how you see part-time working: “We need to put them [employers] in a position where they would feel ‘how can I possibly say no to this?'' Stephanie thinks that too often we put this problem back on them, which can often lead to a poor outcome. “We do have to fight harder and be a little more creative and forward-thinking about how we approach that situation.” Her second piece of advice for those considering a break is: “It's always easier to find a job when you're in a job!” Stephanie suggests considering applying for other jobs because you may find an employer who is more accommodating to what you need and your personal circumstances.And for those people already on a break and wanting to reignite their career, Stephanie talks about the importance of your CV: “Your CV literally becomes product placement.” She explains that a research study found that recruitment teams look at CVs for six seconds and the first thing they look at is role titles and dates, which presents a huge challenge for returners who may have lengthy breaks on their CVs. Stephanie recommends pulling all relevant experience closer to the top of your CV so that it's within an eye-catching area. The conversation moves on to the power of the network for returners: “It's so much easier to get your career back on track via your own network.” Stephanie explains that people know you and respect you, they know you haven't changed during the career break. Interestingly, “you're four times more likely to get back into the workforce via your own network than you are through a recruitment company – that's how important the network is!”Another tip Stephanie has for returners is to keep up to date on things going on in the industry and maintain market knowledge while on your break. Stephanie adds that this is a great tool to keep confidence. “I'd encourage you once a month to carve out 45 minutes to an hour to read the FT, look at what's going on in the industry, read a blog, read a journal etc. You'd be surprised how much knowing a little bit can make you feel more confident.” Stephanie finishes by explaining about her free career reignite boot camps, where she shares tips about job searching, getting yourself out there and using Linkedin. You can find more information on these events at her website: Inclusivity.co.uk.  

The Key Learning Points:1.What makes a returner and how organisations need to better understand the career paths taken by women2.Two main barriers which hold companies back from achieving the diverse candidate recruitment they seek3.Three top tips for organisations wanting to access the returner talent poolOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Stephanie Dillon, partner and founder at Inclusivity Partners, a business that designs and delivers returner programs for individuals who have taken career breaks. Inclusivity Partners recently launched a returner initiative in the insurance industry and we're looking forward to hearing more about that today!Stephanie admits that she “stumbled into the world of recruitment” after joining Michael Page on a graduate program. She left when she had her first baby who was subsequently diagnosed with a number of neurodiverse conditions which lead Stephanie to take a real interest in the diversity space. Stephanie realised that “from a talent perspective, when we recruit, we tend to have a very very limited definition of what constitutes talent”. She set up Inclusivity in 2015 to help those who want to return to their careers after taking a break.Stephanie explains more about the returner initiative which recently launched in the insurance industry, with support from the Insurance Families Network, and adds that they currently have nine member insurers participating in the first pilot. In September, recruited returners will commence a six-month contract role with these insurers, and “it's specifically designed to be a softer landing” – Stephanie explains that her firm will be providing training for hiring managers and coaching for returning candidates to make the transition back to work as smooth as possible.Stephanie believes there are two big disconnects between what corporates say they want in terms of diverse recruitment and accessing returners, but what actually happens in reality. Firstly, “organisations consistently underfund their resourcing teams.” Stephanie explains that because of this underfunding, hiring teams are often sitting on too many vacancies which doesn't allow them the time to properly investigate and explore a wide arrange of candidates so they “fall back on perceived safe bets”.  Another consequence of underfunding is that resource teams become unable to do strategic workforce planning to actually attract these diverse candidates. The second key disconnect for Stephanie is the support of middle management. Often the conversations and D&I buy-in happen at a senior level, but she believes you need to put the structure in place for hiring managers to “live that reality”, otherwise it's “all talk and no action”. We ask Stephanie for her three top tips for companies looking to access the diverse returner talent pool:1.      Investment in your resourcing team. Do more interviews, speak to more candidates, broaden your mindset about what makes a good candidate.2.      Education in talent acquisition. The talent pool is getting older but we're always shopping in the younger age brackets for talent.3.      Put middle managers in a position to win. They need support to achieve more diversity, give them the leeway to make that happen. 

The Key Learning Points:1. Five key areas of neurodiversity and the broad impact on individuals and their families2. The opportunity that neurodiverse talent represents to organisations and the value of new skills and ways of thinking3. Barriers faced by neurodivergent individuals in the transition from school to work and beyondOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're thrilled to be joined by not one, but two wonderful guests as we explore the topic of neurodiversity and why the financial services sector should be embracing neurodiverse talent. Barbara Schonhofer is founder and chair of the women's business community, the ISC Group, as well as being a founding member and co-chair of GAIN which is the Group for Autism, Insurance and Neurodiversity. Ailsa King is the chief client officer and CEO of risk management at Marsh. She also leads the neurodiversity workstream within the ISC.Barbara tells us more about the GAIN group, which interestingly started on a dive boat in Turkey! A number of conversations later with various experts in the field and the charity, Ambitious about Autism, and GAIN was born: “The idea behind GAIN is to tap into this talent pool, this untapped talent pool, for the insurance industry. What we want to do is get more young people who are on the spectrum into meaningful employment where we actually use their talents.” One of the hardest things for Barbara is actually building the community because people may be afraid to join in, potentially worried about being identified by colleagues. She asks: “How do you provide that safe space for them to have the courage to actually say who they are and bring their whole selves to work?” Her ask: “If you are on the spectrum, you've got someone in your family, you know a colleague, come forward and speak to us!”Barbara explains that there are five key areas of neurodiversity, which have a far-reaching impact on individuals and their families. There are 700,000 people on the autism spectrum in the UK and the condition is part of the daily lives of 2.8m people (including families). Dyslexia affects 10% of the population and dyspraxia, or developmental coordination disorder, 3% of adults in the UK. Dyscalculia, which is dyslexia with numbers, is seen in around 5% of people in the UK, and the final condition is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which affects around 2 -5% of school-aged children. Barbara adds: “I think it's really important to see the broadness of this and how it affects so many people and so many families.” Ailsa King tells us about the Insurance Supper Club (ISC), which is a group of female leaders from across the industry, representing a broad community of insurers and brokers. “As a senior woman in the industry, I feel it incumbent on me to improve the lot of the next generation coming up behind us.” We discuss the skills that neurodiverse individuals bring to corporates and Barbara believes that we should be recognising the whole spectrum. And now is the time, as more disruptors enter our industry who are thinking differently and challenging the old ways of doing things. Ailsa explains that the pandemic and lockdown has shown us just how innovative we can be: “We are capable, we just need to embrace. We need to understand the need and the urgency of the need and then get on and do something about it!”We discuss the journey from school into the workplace and beyond for neurodiverse individuals and Barbara explains that post-school provision is insufficient and not inclusive. Beyond school, there are also many barriers and Barbara believes a general fear in organisations about how to recruit, manage and retain these individuals. For Ailsa, manager training is absolutely essential. “There are complexities that the corporates have to put some time and effort into dealing with.” 

The Key Learning Points:1. The existence of cognitive dissonance around diversity and inclusion in the workplace2. Quantifying the discrimination faced in America and Canada around gender and race3. A young person's perspective on what companies can be doing better around D&IToday we're joined by a lady from across the pond, dialing in from Vancouver! Amy Tom is a tech marketing expert, offering freelance content and marketing strategy support to a number of tech clients based in the US. Amy recently wrote a fantastic article about addressing the dissonance around workplace D&I, and we were keen to get her on the Risky Mix to share her findings, hear about her experiences in the tech industry in North America and explore transferrable learnings that can be applied to the financial services industry.Amy has been working in the tech industry for the last five years and is currently working as a freelance writer offering marketing strategy and copywriting services to tech companies. We asked Amy what motivated her to write her article and she explains that D&I has always been important to her, but she only started to place emphasis on it after her time backpacking Southeast Asia where she experienced more racism than she'd ever faced before. As a Chinese-Canadian, Amy grew up in Canada and adds: “I had been looking at leadership positions or people in the tech industry that I admired and I just was feeling very frustrated with the fact that no one in leadership positions looked like me or that I could truly relate to.” Amy explains that she communicated her feelings to a white male colleague who responded with “when will it stop being about gender and race”. Amy was frustrated that she couldn't articulate why it was such a problem so decided to write an article about it: “For me, words are my power. I'm a writer, I'm a copywriter, I'm an editor. I communicate through written word a lot”. We ask Amy about some of the stats she found when researching for the article and for her, one of the biggest findings was the way that different generations define diversity and inclusion. She explains that millennials see D&I as a culture of connectedness and something that positively impacts business outcomes. Baby boomers and GenX, on the other hand, see workplace inclusion as ensuring everyone is protected and fairly treated. They believe it's a moral and legal issue that doesn't necessarily impact business outcomes. Amy believes that this difference in perspective is driving the makeup of businesses today.Amy relays some of her research findings: “In American fortune 500 companies there are almost as many male CEOs named John as there are women CEOs all together!” Adding that the entire American population is 51% female but males named John make up just 3%! She adds a shocking example of a case of two identical job applications, one under the name of John and the other under the name of Jenny. The hiring professionals gave John an employability rating of 3.75/5 and Jenny 2.85/5. One of the stats that surprised Amy the most was that in Canada, you're 40% more likely to get a job interview if you have an English-sounding name compared to a foreign-sounding name. We ask Amy what tips she has for companies in their journey to becoming more inclusive. Amy says that she looks for companies who “put their money where their mouth is.” - investing money into their D&I programs. For her, it's also essential to address workplace biases, namely affinity and confirmation bias. Amy also recommends organisations do a survey to access levels of sexism and racism within their workplace and track employee demographics at all levels.

The Key Learning Points:1. The power of the collective and providing a safe space to underrepresented groups2. One year on from George Floyd's murder, what's been achieved and what work do we still need to do3. The need to move beyond optical allyship and implement practical steps that will improve the lives of employeesOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Teniola Tijani, associate underwriter at Travelers and founder of Ladies That Lunch, a network that supports ladies in navigating work-life and dealing with the tensions that come with being underrepresented. Teni is here to chat to us today about her work creating Ladies That Lunch and, on the anniversary week of George Floyd's murder, we're going to reflect on what has changed and the importance of keeping the race discussion on the table.Teni tells us how she entered the world of insurance, initially taking a summer placement with a Lloyd's syndicate, and returning to the industry after completing her economics degree. Teni quickly realised: “There aren't many people who look like me” and her “passion for people” lead her to launch Ladies that Lunch. “I remember the Lloyd's environment feeling very lonely and me standing out like a sore thumb.” After an event, where Teni met other Black women in the industry, the first Ladies That Lunch event was put in the diary. “If I'm feeling all of these feelings then I'm sure another Black woman in another insurance organisation is feeling similarly, so how can we provide a place of refuge or comfort? Which is what Ladies That Lunch was intended to be.”We ask Teni about some of the common themes or topics discussed within the collective and she explains that members often mention things like appearance, workplace promotion, acceptance, actually feeling included at work and the microaggressions they face: “These are things that people have lived through. Imagine working day in and day out, not being able to express yourself, and constantly going home with that weight” One year on and the conversation moves onto the George Floyd murder. We're keen to hear Teni's thoughts on how far she thinks we've come, and the work still needed. “It's still very fresh for me - the murder of George Floyd changed my life!” Teni explains that this event lit a spark and motivated her to become bold and unapologetic in sharing her experiences. She adds that company responses to Black Lives Matter sat on a scale – from those simply putting out statements to those who took the time to listen, understand employee pain points and respond in a meaningful manner: “We had some companies who put out statements and thought that was enough. I saw how that felt for my members. I saw how disappointed people were.” Considering where we are today, Teni adds: “I think there is more of a consciousness, but when the verdict was read out, from a personal standpoint, it didn't feel like a moment of elation because when I think about where the world still is, we still have a lot of work to do.” Teni believes one of the challenges we now face is fatigue: “My call to companies would be to not get tired because whether it's a small part of your population, it's an important part of your population, and there are still those tensions and feelings.” It's because of this fatigue amongst Black people that the support of allies is needed more than ever: “We need our allies to stand up the most and stand in for us and make sure the agenda is still on the table even if we can't be the face of it”. Teni explains that allies are needed to represent us, especially those in senior positions. Her hope is that companies continue to engage and are bold in the steps they make. She wants us to move beyond optical allyship and implement practical steps that will improve the lives of employees.

The Key Learning Points:1. The life of a serial social entrepreneur and the power of purpose2. The need to consider diversity, equity and inclusion as a strategic business priority, rather than a philanthropic action alone3. Three pieces of advice for financial services business looking to do better when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion On this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're thrilled to be joined, all the way from Wisconsin, by Deanna Singh - business consultant, keynote speaker, and podcaster who is internationally recognized for her work in leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We're excited today to hear about Deanna's eclectic background and the fantastic work she's doing to give power to marginalised communities.Deanna is an African American and Sikh American mum based in Milwaukee and is the founder of four social enterprises. Deanna explains that her first company is called Uplifting Impact, which is focused on diversity, equity and inclusion work, providing coaching and training to almost 100,000 people to date across 30 countries. Her second company is Purposeful Hustle, with aims to help people find their purpose and bring that purpose to life. Deanna adds that her third business, Story to Tell Books, is a children's book company which creates more positive images of children of colour, explaining: “Our children of colour make up more than 50% of our school-aged children, but are represented in less than 14% of books for kids. How do we change the narrative?” Deanna's two sons, aged 8 and 12, are chairmen of Story to Tell Books and Deanna adds: “Unfortunately one of our biggest marginalised communities is our children. Where are their voices being heard? We make decisions about them and for them all day long. How often do we actually step back and give them the opportunity to use their own voices.”Deanna's fourth social enterprise is called Birth Coach Milwaukee. She is a certified Doula – a type of coach for people before, during and after birth – a move which was motivated by the high disparities in birth outcomes in her area: "If you are a woman of colour in our area you're five times more likely to have a tragic experience during the birthing process.” Deanna learnt that by introducing a Doula or a midwife to the process, you can eliminate those disparities. The conversation moves onto Deanna's experience working with financial services firms around diversity, equity and inclusion. “When you're thinking about what you can do as a sector and where you can have the greatest impact, so much of it has to do with not what you're offering but it's in how you're doing the business that you're doing.” Much of her work involves helping clients to understand that diversity, equity and inclusion are not only altruistic things, they're a business conversation: “This is a conversation about how you're thinking about the new markets you're going to go into. This is a conversation about recruitment and retention. This is a conversation about growth opportunities. This is a conversation about your competitiveness and your ability to have innovation. This is a conversation about your marketing and branding.” Deanna explains that because diversity, equity and inclusion conversations are often seen as philanthropic, rather than strategic, it becomes harder to accept that there's a real business case and even if the business case is accepted, business execs often don't know how to implement the necessary change. Finally, Deanna shares her top three pieces of advice for financial services firms looking to get better around diversity, equity and inclusion:1. Agree where you are now and where you want to go? 2. Do an inventory - what will it require from us as an organisation to get to that place?3. Do it! “Make a commitment and hold yourself accountable to the commitments that you're making”

The Key Learning Points:1. The role of digital as an enabler and making protection insurance more accessible to the underserved2. The importance of choice and empowering consumers to self-serve when it comes to protection3. How fear of change may be holding us back as an industry and acting as a barrier to innovationOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Chris Samuel, business operations director at iPipeline. Chris describes himself as a creative thinker, relationship builder, people motivator and passionate customer experience advocate and we're excited today to be talking with him about protection and how we can make products more inclusive.Chris admits that he found his calling when “falling into” an opportunity with the BGL group back in late 1999. A marketeer by trade, Chris always considers the end consumer and “this rather uninteresting thing we're all selling called insurance.” He later stepped into operations roles with BGL and after helping to set up Beagle Street, the direct life insurance proposition, made the move to TCP LifeSystems which was subsequently acquired by iPipeline. Eight years later at iPipeline, Chris now looks after all UK and European clients from an implementation, sales and new business perspective.The conversation moves onto the role of digital within the protection sale. Chris believes that digital enables accessibility: “It's an enabler, it is no more”. When it comes to reaching the underserved, mass, or “low-value” markets, digital is key in delivering direct-to-consumer (D2C) propositions, but Chris questions why the industry believes that “D2C needs simplified products”, relying on the assumption that consumers won't understand the full comprehensive insurance offerings: “Direct to consumer is seen as an inferior access to the cover people need and it gets denigrated.”Chris explains that he'd like to see a shift away from the ‘all-or-nothing' mentality when it comes to protection. The desire to serve only the best “gold-plated cover”, ensuring full protection of all needs – which clearly delivers the best outcome for many - but leaves a huge proportion of the population excluded from the conversation because they simply can't afford that gold-plated protection. For Chris, “some cover is better than no cover”. He wonders how, as an industry, we can make it more appealing for advisers to speak to this end of the market: “Why is it that we can't make selling a £10 a month policy profitable for an advised piece of business?” But as things stand today, Chris believes that there should be some acknowledgement that “we can co-exist together” – D2C and advised distribution should work together and address the different needs within the market.For Chris, it's not about simplification of propositions to reflect separate sales channel, it's about choice and delivering the ability for consumers to self-serve where it's desired. It's about empowering the consumer, giving them flexibility and options. It's about offering a protection policy that flexes as a consumer moves through different life stages - reflecting the modern way of living.So, what's held us back as an industry in delivering this? In Chris's opinion, it's fear of change: “Can we afford to be different and get this wrong?” Of course, these are long-term insurance contracts and to do things differently presents risks in terms of mix of business and assumptions made, which Chris believes has encouraged formation of a more conservative approach, and as a result, sadly many innovations have died when arguably they shouldn't have. A special thanks to iPipeline for their ongoing support of the Risky Mix and partnering with us to help make the financial services industry more inclusive.

The Key Learning Points:1. Creating an inclusive work environment and the necessity for leadership accountability2. The race fluency barrier and why we need to give each other space to make mistakes3. The importance of not preaching to the converted and instead, taking someone with you on the journey, who otherwise wouldn't get involvedOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're thrilled to be joined by a real powerhouse in the industry. Rob Anarfi is the global head of compliance at Beazley, and he's a vocal, active champion of providing a voice to underrepresented groups. He's the senior sponsor of RACE at Beazley and is an international role model for iCAN, the insurance cultural awareness network.It was during Rob's time working with the regulator that he became more aware of the inequity that exists in the industry and today he finds himself in the position of an “activist”: “One of my beliefs is, if you've been in a position of a minority, you should really be able to empathise with another minority.” We ask Rob what enabled his journey and helped him to become an educator and activist around race, in particular. He provides three answers:1.      Inspiration  “You can't be what you can't see” – Rob was inspired by public figures, like Barack Obama, and also those around him who were brave enough to put their “head above the parapet”. He adds that you need role models to inspire you. 2.      Motivation  “I came to understand my privilege at a certain point in time” – Rob explains how his life trajectory was completely different because he was born in the UK, and recognises the privilege that came with that, especially when compared to so many others from his home country of Ghana. His motivation came from understanding that privilege. 3.      Confidence “The confidence came the more senior I got” – Rob explains that he was never too afraid to speak his mind, but admits that he never spoke his mind when it came to inequity or race. In fact, early on in his career, he chose to block it. As Rob became more senior, he felt that people recognised what he brought as an individual, and were less concerned if he spoke about his culture.The conversation moves onto the importance of holding leaders accountable around inclusion: “Cultural change has to come from the top - inclusivity is a cultural change.” Rob adds that many organisations often look to their marginalised communities to “fix things”, but asks: “If they didn't create it, how can they fix it?” Rob believes that leaders need to take responsibility and ask employee resource groups and those communities for advice. Racial equity has to be a priority for the most senior people in the organisation.We ask Rob whether he feels that leadership teams are equipped to do this. “It's a very sensitive, complex and emotive subject” - the language, and what's acceptable is always moving on. Even people who want to have the dialogue have to get over the “race fluency barrier”. He provides the following pieces of advice: “I would really encourage people who are nervous, if they have the right intent, to just speak.” And for people in the community: “Let's try and move past the amount of emotion we attach to the words if they are coming from people who are trying to help” Let's give each other the space to make mistakes. Finally, we speak about the importance of bringing people with you on that educational journey, in the interest of not "preaching to the converted". So if you've made it this far, and enjoyed this episode with Rob, please share it with someone, perhaps a leader within your organisation, who you think would benefit from hearing these messages.

The Key Learning Points:1. Experiences of sexual assault and the challenges around speaking up, driven by the inner conflict many women face2. The importance of recognising the wider context, and how this drives gender norms and poor behaviours3. The approach organisations can take to shift away from treating the symptoms to actually addressing the causesOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're lucky to be joined by a former guest, Emily Shaw, founder and CEO of Pineapple People, and Clare Knight, an independent consultant in the London insurance market. The ladies are here today to talk to us about speaking up, and why it's important for us all to remember the context around poor behaviours and the need to treat the cause, not the symptoms.Clare started her career as a lawyer in London, focusing on insurance litigation as a professional indemnity defence litigator working in the Lloyd's of London market. After 6 years she moved to work in-house at one of the big syndicates and eventually left to become an independent consultant, which she's been doing for the past two years.Clare has had to deal with a number of incidents of sexual assault and harassment during her career and offers to share three particularly hard-hitting stories. She recalls the challenges around speaking up, and after the first incident was disappointed by the reaction from the female law partner: “She rolled her eyes at me and said ‘oh, well it's your fault for flirting.'” Feeling like she had nowhere to go, Clare found herself in a similar situation after the second incident and admits: “So what did I do? Absolutely nothing. Didn't speak up, didn't do anything about it.” She explains the role of programming in all of these situations but shares how she berated herself for not speaking up and calling out the poor behaviours she'd fallen victim to. The punishment and shame around not speaking up come from an inner conflict many women face, Emily explains: “The conditioning we've had our entire lives about our gender and how we should behave is at odds with our beliefs and our values and our need to protect ourselves.” She adds that this is why there's a struggle - it's not about being brave, having courage or feeling strong, so women shouldn't punish themselves for not calling these things out. “The idea of speaking up in itself represents something quite problematic - what we're doing is saying ‘this problem exists. Let's not worry about the perpetrator, let's make sure that the victims are doing everything they can to stop themselves from being victims.'" Emily believes that we need to look at the wider context and step away from the bad behaviour for a moment.We are taught so many messages about gender, even from a young age, which inform our beliefs and create stereotypes. Emily shares some shocking statistics around how the media plays a role in perpetuating the belief that women should not take up space, simply demonstrated by how little speaking time females get in films, even when the leading role is played by a female character. Emily adds that we're giving these messages to children about how women take up space, then we're surprised that women aren't represented in boardrooms?!Emily believes that speaking up is not about teaching women to navigate this space while removing men from the narrative. The work is about recognising, unlearning and dismantling this culture. We need to start really looking for this stuff. Emily adds that when you notice it more, you understand it and you're less susceptible to it. “Instead of holding active bystander sessions, or unconscious bias training, perhaps we should be having conversations about the wider context?” - Dealing with the cause, not the symptoms.Catch our previous episode with Emily here. 

The Key Learning Points:1. The difference between implicit and explicit bias, and why language should change around unconscious bias2. The history of unconscious bias training (UBT) and recognising it's just one small piece of the D&I puzzle3. Three key limitations of our brains and how biases compensate for theseOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Priscila Law, founder of the Inclusive Leadership Company, a business that helps organizations boost performance by building diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. Priscila is a true D&I expert, holds a PhD in social sciences and is a certified brain-based coach and today we're excited to be exploring the topic of unconscious bias and the effectiveness of training. Priscila shares her career story. She started working in the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil, alongside studying for her degree and MBA. She then moved to the UK at the age of 23 and started working in HR, continuing her studies and completing her PhD. Priscila worked in HR for 10 years, moving up the career ladder to become more specialised in leadership development and D&I. In July 2020, she set up her own practice - the Inclusive Leadership Company.  We talk about the differences between implicit and explicit bias during the episode and Priscila explains that unconscious bias and implicit bias are really the same thing but suggests a change of language away from ‘unconscious' because we're not actually unconscious, we're responding to a stimulus. Priscila explains that three events lead to the creation of unconscious bias training – the implicit association tests launched by Harvard in 1998, the 2010 Equality Act and a report on race in the workplace by McGregor-Smith, combined with a recommendation for the government to deliver UBT to every adult in the UK workplace. But the problem was that “people took the report out of context…'if I do the training, I have all my equality issues sorted!'” The issue of implicit biases is so complex, and while it's great to build awareness, ”knowing is not doing.” Priscila adds: “You can't expect UBT to make people change their behaviours, because they won't” adding that even if behaviours do change, it will likely be a short-term shift because we act on autopilot. And raising awareness of bias presents issues also – people can feel guilt when the results of a test highlight biases which don't agree with an individual's value set and beliefs, because they may be perceived as explicit biases, when they're, in fact, implicit. This incongruence can lead to inaction. Priscila feels that awareness is one thing, but organisations must give teams the tools to outsmart their implicit biases. Priscila adds that we all have biases and they're there to compensate for some of our brain's limitations:1.      Bounded rationality theory – our brain is limited in terms of how much information it can process, so it goes to short cuts which are full of bias2.      It takes energy to act on a highly conscious level – our brains favour autopilot to save energy and therefore introduces biases3.      The brain is wired to keep us safe – different is a threat to us, so we naturally exclude what we don't knowUBT is just one single piece of the puzzle. Priscila advises - be careful with the content - help people understand implicit bias and the neuroscience element so that they feel empowered to change. Give them tools to change, instead of just providing awareness. UBT is not the only solution, it's part of a bigger picture.  

The Key Learning Points:1. The power of vulnerability and creating that human connection based around compassion2. The role of workplaces in creating physiologically safe environments that allow people to be authentic3. Ways to connect to our intuition and its influence in driving career pivots and changeThis week we welcome back Eilish Jamieson to the remote Risky Mix podcast. Two weeks ago, Eilish spoke to us about her impressive career and the difficult experiences she faced around burnout. Listen to episode 48 to hear more about this and her journey to setting up her own coaching business. This week we explore two important areas, and topics that Eilish often sees coming up with her coaching clients – vulnerability and career pivoting. Let's get into it…In episode 48, Eilish shared her story of burnout and today acknowledges that it probably took a year to “own it”. The thing she was most fearful of was being seen to be vulnerable. It was a big learning curve, acknowledging that the damage she'd done was as a result of punishing herself for something that wasn't there in the first place: “All the things I thought I was hiding from the world, in many ways, were the things that I think connected people with me.” It's vulnerability that people connect with. Eilish refers to the binary view of failure, something that she bought into fully: “You're one or the other. You're either successful or you're a failure.” We've been brought up to believe that “you've got to be successful because if you're not, you're a failure!” Eilish adds that when she owned the burnout, she started to show herself compassion: “When I was energised and happy, all the people around me were energised and happy. The energy I created within myself extended to the people I loved.” The conversation moves onto what companies can do to create spaces that allow people to be vulnerable: “The most important thing is that organisations create physiologically safe environments for people to be human.” We talk about career pivoting, which, for Eilish, is about packaging the best of what you already have, recognising your needs and designing something that gets you from A to B, appreciating that that journey isn't linear. Eilish refers to TheoryU by Otto Scharmer which says you must go deep before you start to plan out. First of all, explore into you - what got you to where you are today, what isn't working and why it isn't working? Eilish believes that you need to intuitively connect to yourself. For individuals considering making a career change, Eilish recommends starting to reach out, building a support structure and connecting with people who do what you want to do. It's through that expansion you can start to access your own instincts.

The Key Learning Points:1. The difficult balance between work and motherhood, accentuated by workplace cultures and societal pressures 2. The impact of chronic stress on the body, leading to eventual burnout3. The role of coaching in developing self-compassion and getting clarity on the things we really care aboutToday on the remote Risky Mix podcast, we're thrilled to be joined by the inspiration that is Eilish Jamieson. Eilish has a hugely impressive background, with a successful career in financial services with names such as KPMG and Goldman Sachs. She pivoted from the fast-paced corporate world to establish her own coaching business in 2018 and now works with high performing women from all kinds of industries, but who share a common desire to transform the path they are on, and for the women coming behind them.Eilish started her career with KPMG, training to become a chartered account: “I was one of these people that did accounting at A level. And then did accounting as a degree. And then joined an accounting firm!” After a three-year stint in Australia with KPMG, Eilish decided that it was time to try something different. A Headhunter approached her about joining Goldman Sachs and shortly after she found herself developing the audit strategy for the bank: “I pretty much worked my way around every team within Goldman Sachs in audit over the 12 years I was there.”Eilish had an impressive, and varied, career with Goldman, but adds that “every good story has another side to it.” Eilish had applied herself 100% to her job, but when she had her first child at 32, Eilish explains that things needed to change: “That was really the start of me having to confront aspects of my role and how suited it was to my life and my needs.” Eilish went on to have two more children over the next five years and tells us the story of how tricky it was to balance work and being a mum. She was conflicted and wanted to spend more time with her family but felt this pressure to work at the same pace, almost as if she was being forced to do so: “That pressure that you can put on yourself, alongside an organisational culture and a societal pressure. All of that, when you bring it together, really can leave you feeling like you don't have choice.”The tipping point for Eilish came one night in January, when at age 39, she woke up to the scary realization that she couldn't move her arm or legs. In A&E the doctor asked: “Are you stressed by any chance? I think it's likely that you're very stressed.” This came as a huge surprise to Eilish, because she'd been operating for years at this plateau level of stress and elevated cortisol - it had become her norm: “In that stage of my career I was living from my neck upwards.” This surprising insight was the push Eilish needed to resign from her job at Goldman.“When I left Goldman, the biggest challenge I faced was an identity challenge.” Eilish had had 20 years with two organisations and after leaving was left understandably thinking “What am I? Who am I?” She spent her first year desperate to create something and explains that her brain was like “popcorn” – coming up with weird and wonderful business ideas: “I was all over the place”. For Eilish, this time felt quite panicked and chaotic.Eilish went on to work with a fantastic coach who helped her to better understand how she'd been working and, at the same time, she recognized a passion for the line of work so she completed a coaching psychology postgraduate and launched her own business.Eilish will be joining us back on the Risky Mix podcast to discuss vulnerability and career pivoting, so join us in a couple of weeks for more fascinating insights!

The Key Learning Points:1. Workplace cultural challenges faced by women, ways to reclaim your power and the importance of doing so2. Digital marketing approaches around life insurance and how they need to change as you move down the marketing funnel3. The role of women in households today, the importance of recognising unpaid care and the use of targeted marketing messages to close the female protection gapOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Vickie Smith, now Chief Marketing Officer at Falling Rain, a global data privacy company, and a lady with lots of experience marketing life insurance in the US. Vickie calls herself an ‘international digital nomad' and is speaking to us today from Barcelona. We're looking forward to hearing more about her travels in this episode and diving into the world of marketing insurance.Vickie started her career as a receptionist at an internet security company in Georgia and quickly moved into the marketing team. After a few years, Vickie moved to New York and secured a marketing job for a cable TV provider. In 2007, she moved back to Massachusetts, where she was born and raised, and joined a marketing agency which served non-profits. Eight years later she entered the world of insurance and joined a large corporation looking to launch a new direct-to-consumer offering. At the same time, she returned to school to get her MBA and recalls the learnings she gathered around D&I: “Schools, nowadays, are really aware of the struggles that diversity and gender and all these things - how they impact people in the workplace. They are teaching skills to develop a healthier work environment.” Vickie admits that her work environment was “tough culturally” and focused on applying techniques that she'd learnt in school to “take back her power.”Vickie spent five years working in life insurance in the US and explains some of her marketing frustrations: “The biggest difference I noticed right away with marketing in insurance is that it was a little tougher to be really creative.” She adds that this was mainly due to the brands she worked with and a desire for these established brands to remain consistent, and while these approaches originally worked, Vickie questions whether a different approach may be needed to reach today's consumers. We talk about the marketing funnel and the approaches Vickie has seen work, at each stage, when it comes to life insurance. She explains that to get people engaged in your brand, the creative is really important, especially on channels like social media. But as you move down the funnel to the point where a consumer is about to purchase, thinking becomes more practical, more product-focused, more price-led, and this is where things can get complicated: “You have to pay attention to which channel you are in the marketing funnel. Is it awareness, where you have to be more creative? Or are you now going to lower in the funnel where they're aware and about to make a decision?” The conversion moves onto women and the need to get more women financially protected. Vickie explains that the makeup of households is very different today: “Never have we had a time when there are so many different types of roles in the household. We have stay at home mums, we have two mums, we have two working parents, we have households with multi-generational homes.” She adds that all of these groups need unique marketing messages. She has some experience of running a marketing campaign around life insurance for a targeted group of women but adds: “I don't think we were risky enough in how we said it. What happened was that the messaging became bland and safe.” She wishes they'd gone a bit further and had more fun with it. 

The Key Learning Points:1. Three things the insurance industry can do to help those outside of the industry with health conditions, who don't know anything about insurance2. The support that advisers need when speaking with customers who could be in vulnerable situations3. How companies can create a culture that removes barriers for employees with health conditionsOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Kathryn Knowles, managing director of Cura, protection advice business focused on ‘insuring the uninsurable'. She's also a podcasting pro, hosting The Practical Protection Podcast and has won a number of industry awards including Female Diversity Champion of the Year and Social Media Influencer of the Year!Kathryn entered the protection industry back in 2010 and around a similar time, she started looking for her own personal protection insurance. Because she has hypermobility syndrome and suffers with generalised anxiety disorder, only two insurers even considered her application: “I've got a mortgage, I've got a husband, I'm working full time. And yet I can't have insurance.” Eventually, she accepted insurance at a higher premium, which she was told that was because of her mental health, an explanation she found difficult: “You're being told that you're still not normal!” Kathryn saw a need to help those outside of the industry with health conditions, who have limited knowledge of insurance. This became a focus when launching Cura in 2012.  The conversation moves onto the support that advisers need when speaking with customers who could be in vulnerable situations and who need to have challenging conversations around physical and mental health. Kathryn explains that advisers at Cura have six months of training – three months training on the industry and three months on how to approach difficult conversations and also complete industry exams. “Tone and empathy is a massive thing with our advisers.” Cura has a “red flag system” in their office, so if someone needs support they wave their flag: “It's the responsibility of the owners of advisory firms to make sure that the team is completely safe and they have these systems in place to feel safe.”We ask Kathryn what three asks she has of insurers and the industry:1.  More detailed decline letters - “I think there is a duty upon insurers to contact people and speak through it.”2.  Broadening critical illness definitions – introducing more catch-all, broader, definitions3.  More life cover for people who've had mental health conditions – using more self-harm and suicide exclusions: “A lot more people would be happy with exclusions than insurers think”We then chat more about the Cura team that Kathryn and Alan have built. The team of 20 is very diverse in terms of gender, with 80% females and 20% males. She explains: “It's who comes to apply to work for us. So far, it's been a lot of women who want to work for us, and we're getting quite a few female advisers now.” Kathryn explains that Cura still has some work to do to achieve a better racial mix: “I'll be very honest and say that the company is white. That's not something I like. I would absolutely love to have more diversity in the company." Kathryn hopes that remote working will help to achieve a greater mix around race and ethnicity.Kathryn adds that many individuals within the Cura team have health conditions and explains: “We're diverse when it comes to gender and we are very inclusive when it comes to health.” She has focused on removing barriers for Cura employees - for working parents, they offer adapted hours to fit around schooling. Cura also offers flexible hours to fit around sporting seasons and events for team members taking part in local sporting activities.

The Key Learning Points:1. Tips for organisations looking to build diverse and inclusive work cultures2. The importance of encouraging difficult conversations about race in the workplace and embracing the discomfort involved3.The need for companies to provide better support to, and attract, colleagues with disabilities in order to create a more representative industryThis week, we're joined by a lady who's been a pioneer in many ways for diversity and inclusion within the insurance industry. Tali Shlomo is an internationally recognized HR director, and diversity, inclusion and wellbeing specialist.  As well as being shortlisted in the 2020 Women in Finance awards for Ambassador of the Year, she was highly commended in the Financial Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards 2020 for Diversity Champion of the Year. She's also been recognised in the 2020 Insurance Business Global 100 influential people for creating inclusive cultures.We start by asking Tali about her career journey. She left university and started a summer job in London in, what she described, as the rag trade, working in haberdashery. She then moved to a telecoms start-up - joining as number 11 and working her way up to become head of European operations, and leaving as number 1,000! Tali joined the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) in 2001 and stayed there for almost two decades, holding HR manager, HR director and global people engagement director roles. She has benefited from working in a wide variety of industries: “In each one of them I've learnt something, and fundamentally the common thread is all about people. How do we support people, how do we support the business to get the best out of people?”During her time with the CII, Tali not only supported her colleagues within the institute but also member firms, which she enjoyed as she could see her work being applied practically. She helped to create the dialogue around diversity, inclusion and wellbeing – starting the conversation around things like dyslexia and Aspergers, all while using the Equality Act as her “anchor”.Two of her main focuses, during her time at the CII, were ethnicity and disability. As the government started to look towards the ethnicity pay gap and broadening out the legal requirement to disclose the gender pay gap, Tali worked on a thought leadership paper, providing insight on the steps that need to be taken by organisations in preparation. “Ethnicity is so much more complex than gender. Ethnicity has many layers.” Tali believes that we need to feel uncomfortable: “Talking about race – we're uncomfortable. Sometimes the only way we grow is through being uncomfortable. Creating a place where we can feel uncomfortable in the workplace so that we can grow and better ourselves, is fundamental.”Tali believes that we're still not tackling disabilities, especially invisible disabilities: “The next opportunity for us is looking at how we support our colleagues and attracting colleagues with disabilities. Because if we are really here to deliver better consumer outcomes, then surely, we need to represent our consumers.”The conversation moves onto technology. Tali believes that AI amplifies biases because it's developed through groupthink: “Yes it's tested, but how mindful are we to test it around ages, different skin colours, different accents?” She acknowledges that none of this is intentional, however, says that we do need to be mindful and break down the groupthink.Tali providers tips for organisations looking to build diverse and inclusive work cultures. For her, it's all about continuing the conversation. And for leaders, start to invest more budget into the area, look at policies that can shift and celebrate some of the wonderful things that have taken place already around D&I.

The Key Learning Points:1. That focusing more on your competence and less on the things that make you a minority can really help with self-belief and confidence when navigating non-inclusive environments2. The importance of finding passion in your professional life to pull you through the inevitable ups and downs3. How technology could have the power to transform life insurance sales - but it's all about balanceJoining us on this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, is Neha Agarwal, head of actuarial at iPipeline - a business on a mission to grow the UK protection insurance market through innovative technology. Neha is here to share her career story, her experience as a young Indian woman in the sector and her thoughts on how technology has the power to transform life insurance sales.Neha joined iPipeline six years ago as an analyst. She's progressed in her career and is now head of actuarial, managing an actuarial services team and helping to drive actuarial innovation within insurance companies in the UK and US. iPipeline helped Neha to realise her passion for technology and actuarial work. She tells us a bit more about iPipeline, a business which she believes is “at the forefront of digital transformation”, processing 30% of the UK's protection business, through the ‘SSG Digital Platform', alone, which, to date, equates to 3.5m policies.Neha's belief is that “technology is reinventing the life insurance industry” and from her perspective, the current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in two outcomes for insurers when it comes to digital transformation. There are those companies who have already invested in digital which have been able to react very quickly in terms of reprices and changes to the underwriting rules. Then there are other companies, for which the pandemic has been a “wakeup call”, and there is now much urgency to innovate. When it comes to the role of technology in the protection insurance space, for Neha “it comes back to the right balance.” Neha believes that everybody has different needs, so an automated process which delivers the same journey for every individual won't work. We can add human interaction where it's required “but we have to automate the processes which cause unnecessary delays.”Being a young Indian woman in both the actuarial and tech space, we were keen to hear about Neha's experience. She explains that she has never faced any challenges around her race, because her role involves working with colleagues from across the globe, including China, India, Sri Lanka and Romania. She admits, though, that she did face some difficulty as a woman:  “I was doing very well from the very start of my career, but that also meant that I had to be in meetings that had a predominantly male audience.” She explains that meetings which took place early on in her career were difficult: “I remember walking out of meetings without even saying a single word!” But Neha decided to run a “series of experiments”, where she would try being a little more assertive and confident: “I started considering myself as not a female among the males, but I started thinking of myself as a confident individual who knew what she was saying."Neha quotes iPipeline's gender mix statistics, a business with women in over a third of senior management roles, with different splits across the two offices:  “We are on a journey and I see iPipeline, as a business, achieving gender diversity.”We end the episode by asking Neha for the key message she'd like Risky Mix listeners to take away: “Life will give you ups and downs. But something that can keep you going is your passion. So always search for your passion and your life journey becomes really easy.” For Neha, that passion is “helping insurers move up the ladder of technological innovation.”

The Key Learning Points:1. Tips on how to explain CV gaps to potential employers to avoid harming career prospects2. The importance of learning to communicate the value - in addition to ‘soft skills' - that you can bring to a company, which often aren't included in a CV3. Where empathy and the human side of individuals comes into play within the insurance sectorOn this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by someone who I think is one very cool lady! Hayley Maynard works in strategy at Chaucer, the specialty reinsurance group, and holds a PhD in geospatial econometrics. Oh, and she also spent six years living in a van chasing her passion for wine, climbing, surfing, and ultra-marathoning!Hayley grew up in Laguna Beach, California, where she did her undergrad and made the decision to start living in her car after she “found climbing”, got into long-distance running and surfing. She was able to live an amazing nomad lifestyle - working at vineyards during wine season and enjoying the best climbing and surfing that Nevada, New Zealand and Australia had to offer. Hayley and her partner decided to move to Australia and they agreed to settle down. It was in Australia that Hayley “fell into” her PhD, becoming curious about the use of technology to manage vineyards better and make better wine. Hayley then moved to Sydney, where she finished her Postdoc, and started looking for a job.Hayley explains that it took her a while to find a full-time job because many employers didn't like the fact that she had a PhD, assuming that she'd be bad with people! Hayley refused to take this experience off her CV and she tells us about the frustration she feels around CV gaps: “I hate it when people tell me I need to explain a gap on my CV. Or if I take a year out, I'm taking a career break. No, I'm absolutely not. I'm investing in myself.” Over time, Hayley became better able to explain the value she was bringing and how her unique life experiences made her into an individual that businesses should hire. Like many of the Risky Mix guests, Hayley admits that she “fell into insurance” and she joined Allianz in the small business insurance space but says - “I really did fall in love with insurance.”Hayley has spent four years in the insurance sector. Starting in product management at Allianz and then moving into strategy at Allianz Australia. She then transitioned over to the London office and took a role as chief of staff for a board member and is now currently working at Chaucer, reporting into the chief strategy officer. Hayley adds that her job really involves three key parts – innovation, parametrics and competitor analysis.For individuals thinking about taking a career break, whether that's to go travelling, or perhaps to start a family, Hayley shares her top tips on how to do that without allowing the negative career impact that so many of us worry about. Hayley starts by saying: “How do you value a soft skill? How do you value a life experience?” These softer skills rarely appear on CVs, so how can we communicate their value? “95% of my job is story-telling, but where does story-telling sit on your CV? Where does empathy sit on your CV?”Hayley shares how she communicates her value: “The first step is the hardest, and that's noticing what the quality is, what the skill is or what you've learned.” Next, it's about quantifying that value, across three time horizons: “There's every day, there's sometimes – which is once a month, once a quarter, and then there's every now and then, and that's once a year, once every five years, once in your career.” Finally, it's about selling your value: “It's incumbent upon you to make it as easy as possible for whoever you're explaining your story to, to understand the value.”

The Key Learning Points: 1. The importance of diverse recruitment in the workplace 2. The most effective to implement inclusive hiring methods3. The extent to which the Black Lives Matter movement has put the United States ahead in conversations about race and diversity in the workplaceToday on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by the wonderful Christina Brooks, co-founder of Ruebik, a boutique executive search firm specialising in sourcing and placing diverse candidates. Christina has a stellar career history in HR with experience in research, delivery, leadership and learning, and global executive talent acquisition at firms such as the BBC, Frazer Jones, Kinsey Allen and Rolls-Royce. She's now taken this impressive experience to Ruebik. She's also a trustee of the Footsteps Trust, a charitable organisation offering students with emotional behavioural difficulties alternative pathways for education, career progression and the ability to reach their maximum potential.Born in Gloucestershire, Christina moved to Tottenham in London at the age of 14 when her mother identified that London offered far more opportunities for black individuals than their hometown did. “It was a real eye-opener to me because I was just introduced to this explosion of colour and different people and different ethnicities. I really got to see and live with other cultures, which was very fundamental in shaping my business and what I stand for today.” Christina decided not to go to university and instead started work at the BBC, where she “cut her teeth” in the corporate world, working in the HR department. From the BBC, Christina moved into the financial services executive search industry and says that “it was actually really hard” to transition from a creative industry into financial services: “I didn't notice the colour of my skin or the gender that I happened to be in that environment. It was somewhere that I felt I belonged.” The new world of finance was not as diverse or inclusive and Christina says “I felt like I'd left colour behind”. She shares a particularly shocking story of a time when she met a finance candidate face-to-face:  “What I didn't realise at the time was that my colour wasn't an issue because they assumed that they were speaking with a white individual, they didn't actually realise I was black on the other end of the phone.” Christina left exec search behind and moved into more corporate function roles. “Yes diversity did increase, but the conversation was still not there around racial diversity. What we were talking about was gender diversity and making that more of a level playing field.” She also spent some time with a diversity recruitment agency: “What I was fortunate enough to do was to champion underrepresented communities all day every day. And that's really where my passion came from in terms of specialising in the underserved.” The conversion naturally moves onto diverse recruitment and Christina explains that she doesn't believe in positive discrimination because she feels that it dilutes professionalism and skillsets. For her, inclusive methods of hiring are key, and they have to come from the top. Christina does some work internationally and she adds that the US is much further ahead in terms of the conversation around inclusion because it's been so polarised there for such a long time as we've seen with the Black Life Matter movement, so conversations have happened sooner than they have here in the UK. “There's an electricity of opportunity right now! Firstly, the conversation around race. And secondly, COVID-19, which has completely revolutionized the way in which we work.”

The Key Learning Points:1. Practical advice for women to develop confidence and knowledge in order to advance their careers within insurance2. The struggles people face through unforeseen career setbacks and how they can be turned into a positive3. The importance of working to break barriers within the insurance sector to close the gender gapOn this episode of the Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Katherine Bryant, founder of the fantastic Insurance Breakfast Club, a leadership development programme that supports women in developing the confidence, knowledge, network, and skills to advance their careers. Katherine is also a qualified cognitive behavioural coach and Managing Director of The Progress Partnership, which delivers coaching, mentoring & training programs to companies within the risk and reinsurance sector.Katherine has spent her whole career in insurance, specifically in the Lloyd's of London market, and was exposed to the sector from a young age because her father was a loss adjustor. When Katherine reached the age of 16, her dad presented two work experience opportunities: One with an accountancy firm and one with an insurance broking house. Despite her dad's guidance, Katherine opted for the broking route and vividly recalls her first day back in 1993, being escorted to the international property floor. She explains that she saw a sea of people in suits, shouting at each other, and the room was just full of passion and energy. And that was it, Katherine thought: “This is where I want to be!” She went back there for a few summers of work experience and when she left school, decided not to go to university, instead taking a full-time role in the Lloyd's market.Katherine has had a varied career in insurance. She held an underwriting role at AXA, an innovation role at an insurtech, she's worked for Marsh and JLT and was COO at Aon. It was during her time at JLT that Kathrine ended up with repetitive strain injury (RSI) in both hands which sadly meant that she was signed off sick. Katherine explained that this was a challenging time for her and felt herself going into a “downward spiral”. It was when her hand therapist referred her to a coach, that Katherine was able to process her struggles, build self-esteem and re-enter the world of work. Katherine had actually qualified as a coach during her time at JLT, and when offered an elevated position at Aon, decided to focus more on the coaching side and what she loved and excited her. Katherine explains: “Within two weeks I had a book of coaching clients.” 90% of her clients were women, most were mid-senior level, all were ambitious and great at what they did, but all of them were facing similar challenges and obstacles. She hadn't noticed the barriers and inequalities that existed in the industry until she took a step back. “The culture really encourages a certain type of behaviour and if you don't fit that mould you really struggle.”The conversation then moves nicely onto The Insurance Breakfast Club which Katherine founded and describes as “the biggest joy in my life.” Katherine explains that the work she does through The Progress Partnership is with organisations to help shift the culture but adds: “I'm also a pragmatist. I know that if we just wait for these cultures to shift, we could all be waiting a very long time.” Having spoken to many women facing the same challenges, Katherine asked: “How can I help more people than I can one-to-one?” And so, The Breakfast Club was born. For Katherine, it's about giving really practical advice and delivering tangible outcomes to help more women move up organisations and close that gender gap. One year in, Katherine says: “I can't wait to see what they achieve next.”For ladies interested in getting involved you can visit https://insurancebreakfastclub.com/

The Key Learning Points:1.The challenges of being a young and confident woman in a male-dominated industry.2.Top tips for developing a resilient mindset.3. How fitness, one day, could have a place in the corporate world.On this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by a rising star of the insurance industry. Sophie Vickery was named Employee of the Year at Allianz early in her career and was one of Insurance Business Magazine's Young Guns in 2018. Having moved to Simply Business in mid-2019, she recently won the SB-er of the Year award and alongside her insurance career, juggles a wide variety of other activities - including being a fitness and dance instructor.Sophie explains that she has two main passions – people and health and fitness. It's these passions that led her to start a number of side hustles alongside her career in insurance, which we speak more about later in the episode. Sophie has spent five years in the insurance industry so far and found her first role after looking for a sector that combined her love of English and Maths. She lives in Guildford which placed her perfectly for a role at Allianz but admits: “I knew absolutely nothing about insurance. I'd bought maybe two policies for contents insurance, that was it!” Sophie's role involved looking after brokers and she held various roles in personal and commercial lines. Having started at the insurer when she was just 22, Sophie explains: “I look back now and I'm like, ‘I don't really know how I did some of those things!” Sophie worked at Allianz for three to four years when she received a knock on the door from a recruiter who presented the Simply Business role. She was attracted to the prospect of working for a new, tech-focused company, which would enable her to develop new skills and experience. Sophie has now been at Simply Business for just over a year. We speak to Sophie about her experience in the broker space as a young woman. “Being a young woman in the industry certainly had its challenges.” Sophie explains that there were so many times when she was the only woman walking into broker meetings: “You walk in and you feel it.” Sophie's approach was to make sure that she was adding value - bringing expertise that they didn't already have in the room: “I need to know more. I need to be ahead!” She would put in extra work before meetings to get rid of that “back-foot feeling” and aimed to come across as strong and assertive, even though she admits that at times she didn't feel very comfortable, but it was her way of setting the tone. “There were times when I'd leave meetings and be in the car on the motorway and be in tears because I found it exhausting to put on this big confident aura.” Sophie also noticed that her age held her back, possibly more than her gender in the early stages of her career. Sophie speaks a lot about getting yourself into the right headspace and building resilience: “It does take practice. It does take a lot of grit and confidence.” For her, audiobooks and podcasts really help, and she shares her top recommendations:  Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, Girl, Stop Apologising by Rachel Hollis, Annie Mac's podcast, Changes, and Positively Selfish by Robyn Lee.We move on to chat about Sophie's numerous side hustles. She's been a fitness instructor for around six years, starting out in the world of Zumba, explaining that she “fell in love with the class.” Sophie was initially teaching in studios but C19 has meant that she now runs all of her classes online. “The future of fitness is going to be a bit of a mix of in-person, online, virtual pre-record. I think it will be a whole host of things and you know what, that's fantastic because it means it's more accessible for people.” Sophie is looking to expand her Zumba business and her dream is to bring it together with the corporate world – you heard it here first! 

The Key Learning Points:1. That it is okay to change industries and have an unusual career path2. The importance of providing proper support to people undergoing IVF and surrogacy processes3. Some suggested coping mechanisms for if you have sadly been told you are unable to have children, from the perspective of someone who has been through this themselvesThis week on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by Ella Harper, Executive National Vice President with the health and beauty brand Arbonne. Ella has a varied career background, as a designer, entrepreneur, coach and counsellor. Amongst many things, Ella works as a counsellor for women who are undergoing IVF treatment and/or surrogacy.Ella explains that she's had somewhat of a wiggly career: “My career journey is really more of an adventure than a straight path in one particular chosen field.” She started working at 11 years old, clearing tables in a restaurant, and explains that she has a very high work ethic. She was led into graphic design after studying it in university and later moved into the production side of design and advertising. Ella was a session singer in the music industry for a while, exchanging her graphic design background for music theatre school. Then after realising that there was a limit to the success that she would see in any of the companies that she worked for, Ella decided to become her own boss and set up an interior design business, a marketing strategy business and an Arbonne ‘franchise'. When asked where she found the courage to take the steps that she has in her career, Ella explains that there's an element of her life that gives her courage to step into new situations, which is that she became a foster child after her parents died when she was a teenager: “I've been the incomer, I've been the guest, for the majority of my life.”During this time Ella was also trying to start a family and went through IVF and surrogacy, adding “they were life experiences!” Ella explains that she naturally fell into a counselling role, supporting other people who were going through the same IVF and surrogacy processes. “My forte is helping people come through the other side of things when there was no baby. What happens next? Because I'm living proof that actually there is life beyond IVF.”Ella adds that when she was having her own treatments, the only counselling offered was quite generic, often focused on grief, there wasn't any specific IVF support. Ella explains that men and women respond quite differently to fertility treatment because of different coping strategies: “A woman just expects, that at one point, she is going to have the choice to have children. That's what we're brought up to believe because that's what most people do.” She continues: “The idea that a woman can have a baby is inherently female. It's also a part of my female identity that I am able to conceive a child… and be a mother. When you find out that you can't do that, there's a part of you that dies.”Ella wasn't able to have children and understands the impact that this can have on women's and couple's lives. Ella embraced her position as an aunty and lives by her core regime to “create a magnificent life” as “There are all kinds of wonderful creative ways for women to enable themselves to live fulfilling quality lives.” Ella advises women to find their “things” - maybe that's a change of career or embracing certain hobbies. “It is much easier to blame than take charge of your own life” to which Ella advises that when feeling completely out of control, you just have to find ways to build your armour.Anybody listening in who is looking for some additional help around fertility treatment, please do contact Ella on Ella.harper@me.com for free support.

The Key Learning Points:1. The impact of balancing motherhood whilst working, and the effect it can have on career progression.2. A view on the extent to which gender equality has been implemented in the workplace and how women can still experience a delay in career progression when they reach their mid-30s.3. The importance of the ‘Lift as you Climb' community in providing women with the opportunity to share tips and experiences with other women across all ages and industries.Today on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by two guests – Elizabeth Jenkin and Jane Gibbon, ladies who co-founded and now run the Lift As You Climb network – an organisation that aims to harness the vast skills and collaborative power of women across ages and industries to support growth.Jane is a HR director, originally from the US but has lived here for 18 years. Elizabeth has worked in insurance for 25 years – initially in underwriting, then 18 years at Aon and she now works for an insurtech disruptor. Jane explains that her passion is authenticity, and she loves creating workplaces that allow employees to be themselves. Elizabeth is passionate about creating a legacy where women have fewer speed bumps in their careers. Both ladies are balancing motherhood with successful careers. In regards to support for women in the workplace, Jane adds: “There's been some progress, but we still hit the same stumbling points around women having to balance work and home."Elizabeth feels that awareness has increased, and businesses are today placing more focus on equality from a gender and race perspective but asks “has it really moved the dial, particularly in terms of senior management, senior female leaders? I don't think it has.” Jane adds that younger generations may have seen a change because companies are better at recruiting for diversity and providing equal opportunities for all graduates, but people in the middle of their careers are still being impacted – it's women in their 30s. One of the big reasons for this is that many women at this point choose to start a family, and that time out of work can really impact progression.For Elizabeth, it's important to have role models in the workplace who say it's okay to take that time out: “Had those people not been in my career I have no idea what my career trajectory would have been.” Elizabeth explains that she “took her foot off the gas” when she was trying for a baby, but admits that she regrets this decision, adding: “I lost time” and advises other women going through a similar situation to keep going, to not only avoid that loss of time but also the earning power.The conversation moves onto the Lift As You Climb (LAYC) community, which is there to support women throughout their careers. The idea was to build a network for women, across multiple generations and industries, who could learn from one another. The ladies share their experience of more traditional networking events: “We would go to these events, we would generally see the same people, they were generally about the same age as us, they were generally the same colour as us, they probably earnt about the same money as us.” With LAYC they've chosen a refreshing format of themed events, guest speakers and interactive group work. They want their members to be able to take back learnings from the events and really act on them.You can find details of the network at www.liftasyouclimb.co.uk where you can also join the network, and follow them on Linkedin for thought leadership content and event information.InsTech London podcast episode: https://www.instech.london/podcast/katie-crook-davies-raj-variyar-risky-mix-podcast-hosts-diversity-inclusion-innovation

The Key Learning Points:1. The important role that diversity plays in providing new perspectives and driving innovation within businesses2. Tips for companies to enact cultural shifts within their workplaces 3. How to communicate with employees to understand their perspective of the workplace culture and what they value about the companyToday on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by Heather Frost, founder and managing director of People and Practice. Heather is an executive coach and has been previously described as strategic glue, the human face of strategy, mentor, guide, adviser, agitator and coach. Heather has an interesting perspective on how businesses can think in a more diverse and inclusive way.Heather grew up in Australia and explains that her passion for experience lead to her spending a number of years travelling the world. One of her biggest trips was undoubtedly the 18-month overland journey from India, through China across Mongolia and Russia, through the Baltics and into Italy! For Heather, “rocking up in a new city, no job, no apartment” was the norm and often “staying put was the most unusual piece!” Heather adds that she never likes to be bound by what everybody else thinks is normal. She trusts her gut, which sometimes means going against the grain and other's opinions: “The more crazy what I've been doing is, the better it usually ends up panning out in the end.” The conversation moves onto Heather setting up her own business - People and Practice. She adds: “I'm fascinated by this blend of what work gives and takes from people.” A big part of what Heather supports businesses with is cultural change. She adds that many people think about culture as a fuzzy concept, something that HR is in charge of and something that is to do with competencies and behaviours. She goes on to explain that if you really look at the culture of an organisation, you see that “it's the oil, it's the engine that makes it run. It's everything there.” Making a cultural shift is no small task and Heather explains that many look first at their operating models and start to create a plan, putting in place timescales for change, but adds that it can take several years for an organisation to go through this process, by which point they may, in fact, need to start the whole process over again. For this reason, Heather believes that it's important to focus on the enablers and build continuous resilience into a business. For Heather, diversity of thinking is key to making cultural shifts: “If you start with diversity of thinking, all of the other parts and aspects of diversity and inclusion that we want to encourage, usually knock-on from that.” Embracing new perspectives and ways of thinking will help to drive change and innovation. Heather feels that companies focus a lot on skillsets, but much less on how differently people think, and when asked for her top tips for businesses looking to make a cultural shift she says: “Don't be afraid of messiness or complexity!” She encourages businesses to avoid oversimplification and bring different minds in. Companies often think about what their employees need and the value set that they want to see. Heather's advice is to “ask the people! What do people believe the culture in the organisation, at all levels, is? Why did they join? Why are they still there?” It's the values that you don't ever need to voice that people talk about, the ones that are being lived day in and day out.InsTech London podcast episode: https://www.instech.london/podcast/katie-crook-davies-raj-variyar-risky-mix-podcast-hosts-diversity-inclusion-innovation

The Key Learning Points:1. The support that some companies offer to women who are trying to balance work and motherhood2. That stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing a career change should not always be frowned upon3. The extent to which COVID-19 has changed the future of insurance and the types of claims people makeToday on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by Helen Mann, innovation and change lead within the claims department at Aviva.  Helen has spent an amazing 28 years at Aviva and is here today to tell us more about her impressive career in the general insurance claims space.Helen left school at 16 years old and started exploring her career options. She explains that money talked at the time, and she was attracted to an insurance claims role which paid over £6,000 a year, which at the time was a “gamechanger salary”. 28 years later, and Helen is still at Aviva! She's held a number of claims roles, working her way up through the ranks, and explains that most of her career has been spent as a people leader. “People leadership roles are incredibly rewarding but also challenging. You learn so much about yourself and others.” In more recent years Helen moved into planning and innovation type roles, motivated by a desire to affect change on a larger scale. She adds, “this is what gets me up in the morning!” When asked about her transition away from technical claims positions into more generalist roles, Helen says: “At the time it did feel quite scary to move from an area that you have deep knowledge in, to move to something else where you have an understanding but you lack that depth of knowledge that you've really relied on in previous roles.” But explains that if there's even some similarity between different roles it should be a relatively easy move and wouldn't discourage anyone from trying something different. Helen's career moves haven't always been by design, some have been out of necessity. Helen explains that when she had her first son there was no such thing as flexible working. So, in order to balance her career with childcare, she had to apply for a new part-time job within Aviva, which moved her into a different area of the business. She adds that things are very different today: “We're able to accommodate different working patterns to suit childcare. Things have changed so much for the better.” We move on to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the insurance industry, in particular, general insurance claims. Helen adds that Aviva has seen an increase in fire claims as more people are enjoying better weather and BBQs. In addition, refuse collection sites have been closed, so people have been choosing to burn materials at home. “Fire claims aren't common, but they can be quite catastrophic when they do happen.” Aviva has been working with the fire brigade to get messages out around this and helping people to reduce fire risk. “We've also seen a bit of a spike in the theft of bicycle claims.” Helen explains that demand for cycling has gone up, and it's been harder to find a bike, so people are finding other ways of fulfilling that demand. We also speak about how the pandemic will change, if at all, the way that people think about insurance. Helen's view is that “where people can afford to pay for products that give them certainty, they will.” However, talk of mass redundancies and pay cuts mean that this is not going to be easy for many people. “The gap between the haves and the have nots is getting wider and there's a responsibility on all of us to look out for that and make sure that we're all doing our best to reduce that gap.”  

The Key Learning Points:1. The role marketing plays in creating a successful business 2. Tips for marketing in the insurance sector and how men and women react differently to marketing campaigns 3. How Gen Z's changing attitudes to ownership and their ability to compare prices online will change the future of marketing strategyToday on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we're joined by Erica Mackay, founder of We Are Orange Tree, a marketing strategy firm which helps businesses find their marketing voice and optimise their marketing and sales processes.When asked what three words describe her, Erica answers “detailed”, “nosey” and “weird!”, and at this point, we know this is going to be a fun conversation! Erica started down the accountancy path, studying accounting but quickly realising that this was not the best path for her: “After the first year I released that it would be the worst possible job for my personality type!” She then stepped into marketing within the financial services industry, starting in South Africa and spending the last six years in UK. She started work at AIG in 2009 in the product development space and realised her passion for marketing strategy - understanding the target market and “getting the message so right that it sings!”. Erica identified an opportunity to support small businesses who were lacking that focus and expertise around marketing strategy – and so Orange Tree was born. We discuss some of the marketing techniques and approaches that Erica has observed and used during her career. On the life and health insurance side “continuity and frequency of message are really important for brands. When the need arises, you need to be top of mind.” There are two pieces of advice that Erica offers: 1. Always focus on the single main pain point, rather than lots of pain points and different messages and 2. Consider seasonality: “January is the best month for life insurance globally.” She explains that people have post-Christmas blues as they come away from family and are focused on New Year's resolutions. Erica tells us about the "switch off effect". We hear about flight, fight but there's also freeze, which is our automatic instinct to anything negative in our environment: “There are certain messages that make the customer run”. Erica brings this concept to life by comparing the reaction to cancer insurance between men and women. A breast cancer insurance product sold well because, in Erica's opinion, “women are really open. We talk about it. We know survivors. We share our stories.” On the other hand, a testicular cancer insurance product didn't sell well at all, which Erica believes is because “in general, men don't like hearing about their private parts being hurt!” Erica adds that men switch off and withdraw from the message, they don't want to think about being hurt, it's overwhelming. We move on to discuss the future of marketing and touch on the growth of the sharing economy. Erica explains that younger generations don't want to own things and yet insurance is all about ownership. And while previous generations looked for ownership, stability and listened to authority, Gen Z do not: “The triggers that worked in marketing before are not necessarily going to work now.” Erica believes that Gen Z are all about price because they have access to everything online - comparison shopping is automatic, prices are visible. Erica thinks that this will be a challenge for the insurance industry going forward as product features are so different, but consumers are expected to increasingly make decisions based on price.