Choë Downes from WeSHFT

I was excited to have Ms Chloë Downes as my guest. The CEO and Founder of SHFT, an influencer talent management agency based in the UK, she seeks to bring genuine inclusivity to an industry of smoke and mirrors. While many companies have an inclusive work culture on paper, Ms Chloe has seen firsthand that doesn’t always translate to the real world. After graduating from Bournemouth University, she worked for 2 events companies where she was underappreciated. The only person of color, and from a working class background, she worked and succeeded more than anyone else, but was never treated like an equal. She was the go-to advisor/ the-person-actually-doing-all-of-the-work for all of her managers, but when the cookie would crumble, who were the managers then to give her that credit? So why do it for someone else, when you can do it yourself, and enable others to do it themselves? A valid point, a question that shouldn’t need to be asked, but company culture is rarely a melting pot. Ms Chloë realized that to shift the industry to inclusivity ironically required removing the big “I” altogether – SHFT, I guess it’s called. Might as well stop speaking about it now, also, because leaving it behind, SHFT is four letters more– and so much more – than a single person. While nobody knows what trend influencers will follow tomorrow, I think the trend of tomorrow will follow the influence of SHFT.