How did you do that?

Part 2 of a two-part interview with Antonia Dixey, founder/CEO of the youth participation agency, Participation People.Fourteen years ago Antonia embarked on a mission to give young people more agency and control over their lives. She founded her company to do this her way, returning her to the joy of working with young people she experienced early in her career.Today Participation People is a thriving social business, with a large cohort of young advisers and clients in the statutory, non-profit and commercial sectors. Episode 1 covers Antonia’s journey to date - her motivations for founding the business, how youth participation has changed on her watch and her valuable insights into Gen Z.Part 2 covers the what next? When a founder sets out on a mission, what do they do when they’ve achieved it?Read more about Participation People: https://participationpeople.com/

Part 1 of a two-part interview with Antonia Dixey, founder/CEO of the youth participation agency, Participation People.Fourteen years ago Antonia embarked on a mission to give young people more agency and control over their lives. She founded her company to do this her way, returning her to the joy of working with young people she experienced early in her career.Today Participation People is a thriving social business, with a large cohort of young advisers and clients in the statutory, non-profit and commercial sectors. This episode covers Antonia’s journey to date - her motivations for founding the business, how youth participation has changed on her watch and her valuable insights into Gen Z.Part 2 (to follow) covers the what next? When a founder sets out on a mission, what do they do when they’ve achieved it?Read more about Participation People: https://participationpeople.com/Connect with Antonia on LinkedIn:

"I do it because I have to believe there will be change"The new episode of hashtag#HowDidYouDoThat? meets Ian Braid M.Sc. MCIMSPA, founder of DOCIAsport Ltd and pioneer of duties of care for athlete welfare.Join us for a fascinating life and career story as Ian recounts his highly unusual journey into elite sport, playing drums for Tanni Grey-Thompson and an extremely candid take on the personal impact of supporting people going through trauma.How Did You Do That? > The career podcast for hashtag#entrepreneurs, hashtag#freelancers, hashtag#soletraders and anyone looking to hashtag#becomeyourownboss

*Ho..Ho…Ho.. * Time for something Special! Join our hosts Simon and Gethyn to uncover the stories of their years, what has been learnt and what is to come! If you are new to HDYDT take a listen o our episodes and head back to where it all began with our two hosts and their stories and meet the inspiring guests we have been fortunate enough to interview this season. A fantastic insight into the ways careers can develop and change course so quickly and at such a pace. Find out about having too much work, and then missing it when it’s gone. Merry Christmas!!

And here we are - the end of Season 1 already! But what have we learned? In this wrap-up episode we catch up again with all of our amazing Season 1 guests James, Amy and Tony, to unpack their collected life and career wisdom - what they’re proudest of, how they make major decisions, what advice they’d give their younger selves. If you haven’t listened to our guest episodes yet this is a great introduction - and if you have then rest assured this episode is all brand new content - no compilation clips, no filler. Following these quickfire questions, Simon and Gethyn reflect on what they’ve taken from the season and recap on where they are in their own career journeys, touching on the major themes of the season - work life balance, the value of money and the meaning of failure. All this (and possibly the worst Michael Caine impression you’ve ever heard) brings our first season to a fitting close. We really hope you enjoy it - please leave us a comment or review!

For our third and final interview this season we ventured deep into the heart of Canary Wharf for our only IRL meet up of the series, to the tech hub on level 39 of the iconic, pyramid-topped number 1 Canada Square. There we caught up with Tony Colville, MD of The Cancer Awareness Trust to hear more about one of the most unusual career arcs in the non-profit sector you’re ever likely to come across. Hailing from Birmingham, Tony has always been one of those people that effortlessly seems to keep a lot of plates spinning. Starting his career in Local Authority leisure services, whilst juggling studies and significant caring responsibilities, Tony’s talent for developing, inspiring and connecting saw him move into the voluntary sector, riding that wave of social entrepreneurship that swept the UK in the early 2010s. At that point however his career took quite the turn, as he found himself becoming something of an architect-fixer for a succession of high-profile, highly ambitious philanthropists. In a space that didn’t previously exist, Tony became the go-to guy to ignite and launch your new social purpose initiative. Doing their best not to fixate exclusively on the many household names that populate Tony’s CV, the conversation takes a more nuanced turn towards the dynamics of working for powerful people with big egos, the real meaning of work-life balance and the underlying nature of doing good. “It’s not a career” is how Tony describes it, but it is a hell of a story about building your own path, and a fitting way to conclude our S1 interviews. Join us next week for our season closer as we return to the start, to catch up with Simon and Gethyn on their own progress.

What’s it like to start your career on one continent and then suddenly switch it to another, quite different one? And what happens when that career is in something specialist, something that doesn’t easily translate into a new environment? Meet Amy Rose, a practicing commercial litigator for ten years in San Francisco before crossing the Atlantic to continue her career in Europe, a completely different legal system. Join us to learn how Amy navigated this major change, what led up to it and how she’s built an unusual career path through multiple legal jurisdictions and cultural Connect with Amy on LinkedIn

For our first guest we caught up with James Allen, owner / MD of Counsel - a boutique policy and public affairs consultancy working across the voluntary, statutory and sports sectors. In many ways James was the perfect first guest for us - one of Gethyn’s longtime collaborators, he was a crucial point of reference as our co-host started out on his own solo journey, as well as occupying a professional space in between Gethyn (non-profit sector) and Simon (motorsport). James’ career began with political ambitions but was curtailed by a lack of the personal networks so crucial to advancing in that world. Nevertheless, he developed a niche influencing the political space through the sports and voluntary sectors, albeit in a quite a different environment to the one we see today. After holding a number of senior positions in non-profit trade bodies and membership organisations, James took the leap to go solo after realising he could provide a better, cleaner service outside of the trappings for a larger organisation. IN this episode he not only recounts this journey but describes how he designs his services, how to charge without guilt and what he won’t do for money. Towards the end of the episode we take a deep dive into the inequalities still rampant in the sports sector covering the shortcomings around athlete welfare, financial inequalities in motorsport and what we can really do to improve gender diversity in participation.Connect with James on LinkedIn

Introducing How did you do that? A new podcast about people stepping out of the traditional career path to create their own or goal it alone. Meet Simon and Gethyn - the pods creators and co-hosts - reflecting on their own versions of this journey. Simon is a Gen Z who had a very unrewarding couple of Covid-era years at University before deciding to drop out early in order to focus on developing his own marketing and development business, working mainly in motorsport. Gethyn is Gen X, spending much of his career in short term, stressful roles in the charity sector before finally leaving traditional employment and going freelance in 2020. He still works mainly for non-profits, albeit in a consulting capacity, offering a very different work/life balance. Though from different generations Simon and Gethyn realised they had a lot in common - the stresses of making the leap to going solo, the unknowns around starting your own business, the effort it takes to wrench yourself from a traditional, structured career path. In this episode you’ll hear their back stories in their own words - where they’ve been, what they’ve done, how they’ve failed and what they’ve learned - revealing their hopes and fears in ways both personal and universal. And in the following episodes we’ll meet a host of different individuals who have done something similar, all with their own stories to tell. We hope you enjoy How Did You Do That - please consider rating the pod and leaving a comment below :) Read more about Simon or Gethyn, or connect with them professionally, here: linktr.ee/howdidyoudothat.