A Beginners Guide To Being A Grown Up

Pregnant, sixteen and homeless, Claire Parkinson became a UK Prison Governor by 30. She went on to join the world’s largest mining company in Australia as a vice president, before stepping away to write her memoir, SHiTTY GRiT, which became a bestseller in three countries. Born in Britain and now based in Australia, she has led high-stakes change from maximum security prisons to multibillion-dollar boardrooms.Listen to find out how  Claire has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Helen is an award-winning Global Entrepreneur, international business expert, Non-Executive Director, TEDx speaker, coach and author.Trusted by both UK and foreign governments to tackle some of the most complex issues in the world’s trouble spots, Helen was awarded an MBE by the King for services to international trade in 2022.Helen led the scaling and internationalising of her company from humble beginnings to tackling modern-day issues such as terrorism, corruption, addiction, and medical forensics, to deliver in 27 countries - winning Best Small Business in the UK at the National Family Business Awards.Helen went on to found Helen Gibson MBE (www.helengibsonmbe.com) to reach and help more people. A Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation, a UK Export Champion, and university Lecturer, Helen was appointed to represent the UK at the UN Women Commission on the Status of Women 2024. She has featured in The Guardian, Business Insider, International Journal of Education Management and BBC.  Helen will soon publish her first book “Go for Goosebumps!” about cultivating encouragement in today’s world.Listen to find out how  Helen has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Liz Bradford has over 20 years of diverse leadership experience, having worked across three continents and at firms spanning HSBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and SWIFT. She studied Information Communication Technologies and technological revolution before being a geek was sexy or cool. She is the founder of Transform Perform, a platform delivering employee development, engagement and wellbeing at scale. Through Transform Perform, she is on a mission to change the lives of a billion people through positive contagion by 2030.Her career has ranged from product management to C-Suite roles driving operational excellence, people engagement, and technology transformation across teams of 7,500+ in 19 countries and oversight og U$bn+ P&Ls. Her passion is employee engagement, wellbeing, and culture, specifically nurturing healthy, inclusive cultures and tackling toxic ones. Examples includes: Leadership of employee resource groups representing 48,000 diverse employeesCo-Founder and master trainer of coaching programmes delivering personal development and inclusive training to over 24,000 employees in 44 countriesDesign and delivery of female talent development programmes across 14 countries and, Implementation of wellbeing challenges and programmes impacting 5,000+ a year globally. An ICF-accredited organisational and executive coach, a qualified personal trainer, and a certified wellbeing coach, Liz regularly speaks on the topics of cultural evolution, technological transformation, inclusion, female leadership, wellbeing, busting burnout, stress management, and developing healthy cultures. Listen to find out how  Liz has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Emmie Faust is an exited founder, investor, and passionate advocate for women-led startups in the UK. She is the creator of Female Founders Rise, a thriving community of over 8,000 female entrepreneurs dedicated to closing the funding gap and amplifying women’s visibility in the startup ecosystem. Through this platform, Emmie provides access to resources, investor networks, and peer support, while actively investing in women-led businesses herself.Her voice carries weight in the venture space, with a verified LinkedIn influence score of 91.4/100. Emmie’s daily posts spark meaningful dialogue around the realities female founders face—burnout, lack of access to capital, and gender bias in investment. Blending personal insights with community-driven advice, her content is both relatable and actionable, earning trust from founders and investors alike.Before launching Female Founders Rise, Emmie successfully exited multiple ventures, bringing firsthand experience of scaling businesses through high-growth phases. This journey informs her mentoring style, particularly around leadership, mental health, and navigating toxic workplace cultures. She has also built partnerships with early-stage funding platforms and impact-driven brands, further expanding opportunities for women in business.Based in the UK, Emmie speaks openly about work-life balance, resilience, and the importance of building supportive ecosystems. Her mission is clear: to empower female founders with the tools, networks, and confidence to thrive.Listen to find out how  Emmie has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...

Leigh Smyth is the Founder of Impact Match and she is an award-winning pioneer in inclusive and impact-led talent search, digital skills and social impact strategy. Leigh was the first leader to introduce young peoples access to Technology via retail to the UK and then went onto to work for UK Government to design access to Technology for Low Income families. As the UK’s first-ever Responsible Transformation Director, she led the creation of the Lloyds Banking Group Digital Skills Academy, designing its strategy and pilot which has go on to train more than one million people for free. Through partnership consultation, Leigh also built what became one of the country’s largest digital skills-based volunteering networks. Her team also developed the UK’s first benchmark for Basic Digital Skills, now embedded into the national agenda and referenced globally. The Consumer Digital Index, now in its 10th year, is still the UK’s largest measure of digital and financial capability, used by policymakers, educators and employers to track progress and shape inclusive services. A lifelong talent matchmaker, Leigh has placed some of the UK’s most influential social impact leaders into senior roles across FTSE firms, NGOs, and purpose-led scaleups. Through her work at ImpactMatch, she continues to connect values-driven talent with organisations serious about doing good, helping them embed inclusion and impact into their culture, leadership, and workforce strategies. She also helped establish the Digital Poverty Alliance, helped to establish 11 national advisory taskforces for financial inclusion, and played a key role in embedding inclusive design and accessibility into Lloyds Banking Group’s transformation programme, enabling the bank to become the first FTSE to achieve Accessibility accreditation. Leigh is also the Co-Founder of ActionAble on a mission with Sara Weller CBE to drive workplace disability inclusion. From designing inclusive strategies to building the teams that deliver them, Leigh’s work sits at the intersection of impact, innovation, and inclusion, making her a vital voice in shaping the future of recruitment and training.Listen to find out how  Leigh has found success in different aspects of hier life, and what she would put in the guide...