"From South London to SHFT: How My Multicultural Roots Shaped My Career Trajectory"

1. How has growing up in south east London influenced your values and work ethic?

As both of my parents are from South London, I would always say that South London is my main culture despite being of Irish and Caribbean descent. I think South London is an amalgamation of so many different cultures that have all shaped who I am. I was raised by my parents to work hard, but I was lucky to have also been allowed the freedom to decide what path I wanted to take. I didn't have many people to look up to in my area. I saw a lot of people who were incredibly intelligent and capable end up excluded from school, in prison, or worse. I was very aware that it would be easy for me to be swept up in that, so I tried to make a conscious effort to distance myself from that path. I was privileged to have parents who had the resources and information to enroll me in after school activities, which definitely helped with my focus and drive and allowed me to cultivate an incredible network of friends who had similar interests and passions.

How did living in Egypt and South Africa shape your worldview?

I believe everyone should experience living in another country if possible. Living in two countries made me realise what a privilege it was to be born in the UK, where we have (or maybe I should say had) a decent welfare system and free healthcare. I was raised to be independent, but moving away at the age of 18 and then again at 20 really reinforced that further. I think traveling or going on holiday is amazing, but living within a culture different from your own helps you to really understand the culture, and it also makes you realise that many of the things that people stress about in the UK really do not matter.

3. What motivated you to study events management at university?

I hit a bit of a crossroads when I was in college. I had spent the majority of my life training to be a dancer, giving up my weekends and evenings to train and perform. I got to 16 and decided it wasn't for me anymore and felt unsure what to do next. I've always been very academic and also creative, so I had a lot of options but was worried about choosing the wrong path again. I knew I wanted to go to university (unfortunately, mainly to prove to others that I could), so my mum bought me a university guide. We went through it and tried to find subjects that would allow me to be creative while also leveraging my academic strengths and organisational skills. We found event management, and I was sold.​

4. Can you tell us about your first experience entering the workforce?

I have been working consistently since the age of 16 and first realised the struggles I might face when I was in my first job. My boss made comments about my hair, telling me not to wear it out because it looked "messy." I also remember her throwing away a CV without reading it because she couldn't pronounce the person's name.

Moving into the corporate world after university, I quickly noticed that my South London, working-class accent was causing people to deem me as unintelligent and incapable. I started to try to assimilate with my surroundings by dropping my accent slightly and wearing similar clothes to my colleagues. I had one experience where my managing director was shocked that I read for leisure, despite him allowing me to have a day off to attend my graduation where I achieved a First-Class Honours.

Throughout most of my jobs, I experienced similar situations with comments on my race, hair, accent, etc. I was often overlooked for promotions, even though managers would tell me I was excelling in my roles. I was also asked my opinion on matters as though I was the voice of all Black people.

5. What have you learned about leadership and community building through managing influencer partnerships?

I believe that I am innately a leader. Throughout my life, whether it was organising things with my friends or working on university projects, I always ended up in a leadership role. Since starting my own business, I have learned the importance of delegation. As someone who is neurodivergent, I like things done a certain way, making it difficult for me to let go and allow others to manage tasks. However, I recognise this and am working on it, as I have been micromanaged in previous roles and do not want to do that with my team.

In terms of community building, it is everything in this industry. You definitely get far on ‘what you know’ but it’s integral to have the ‘who you know’. I have a strong network of peers who work in the industry including other agency owners. In my opinion, it’s important to champion other people’s wins, this is an industry where there is now a lot of competition but there are also a lot of opportunities - everyone can win.

6. Can you talk about a time when you faced adversity in your career, and how you overcame it?

Something I have been reflecting on is some of the terrible work environments I have experienced in the past. This includes working for people who were racist, being in toxic work cultures, and feeling excluded due to differences in culture. While I am aware of my privilege in corporate spaces – my name sounds very white, which has probably helped me gain access to opportunities that some of my peers would not have – I also know that these experiences have had a significant impact on me. In most of the companies I worked for, I was the only person of colour and often the only person from a working-class background. This can be quite lonely, and it can also be tiring to constantly have to code switch.

Surprisingly, I am grateful for all of these experiences. I believe it is important to view everything as a lesson, and I think that working for poorly managed companies has made me a better manager. It has also helped me to build a company that I would have been happy to work for.​

7. How have you been able to find a balance between your personal life and your career?

This is something that I need to work on. I think I've sacrificed having much of a personal life for the past 4 or 5 years, and I'm trying to find more balance this year.​

8. Tell us a bit more about SHFT, what are the key reasons you brought this business to life?

SHFT is a full service influencer talent management agency, we manage some incredible content creators across multiple sectors including fashion, fitness, wellness, activism, presenting and lifestyle to name a few. The main reason I wanted to start SHFT is because I had been working for other agencies that didn’t align with my values - I felt that diversity had become a buzz word in the industry and the core meaning had been lost. We don’t mention diversity on the SHFT website because we shouldn't have to - I believe diversity and inclusion should be innate in every company. As an agency we sign talent because we think they’re amazing at what they do and we hire people because they’re the best applicant - we don’t take people on to tick a box. Diversifying the industry is also incredibly important to us. I read a study at the start of 2020 that said that only 12% of marketeers are not white and working class people made up about 20% - I felt this at every industry event I went to. I realised there were too many barriers to entry including needing degrees and years of experience for entry level positions. I’ve tried to remove all barriers to entry and look at transferable skills so we can get more people into the industry that might not have previously had the opportunity.

9. What advice would you give someone who wants to join the talent management industry?

Many people ask me how SHFT became so successful in a short amount of time and it's because I was patient. I could have launched the agency much earlier, but I knew I wasn't ready. Instead, I wanted to focus on building up experience and contacts. I wanted to build up enough experience and contacts to know that when I launched, it wouldn’t fail. I’d encourage people to go and work for a small agency where you have direct access to the owner of the company and where you’re going to have real responsibility. I think that a key factor in my fast progression was that I worked for a small agency which meant that I learned quicker.

10. What are some of the biggest lessons you have learned on your personal journey to success?

i - Timing is everything - it’s very easy to rush and do things before you’re ready. I think it’s better to do something later and do it well than to do something now and do it poorly.

ii - Not everyone needs to work for themselves. There seems to be a narrative that you’re failing if you’re working for someone else and I think that’s completely wrong. I would have happily continued to work for other people if I’d found somewhere that valued me and where I enjoyed working. I think that people neglect to mention the difficulties of working for yourself and it’s often romanticised.

iii - Not everyone has the same 24 hours as Beyoncé. To be honest, I have always disliked that saying. It's important to recognise your privilege and that of others. Some people start life a few steps ahead and have greater access to resources and information. This is something I realised much later in life, and I wish I had spent less time comparing my journey to others'.

iv - Always admit when you don’t know something and when you’re wrong. As an employee, I would often get frustrated when managers passed the blame or pretended to know something that they didn’t.

v - Admit that you don't know everything and ask for help from people who are knowledgeable in areas where you are not - community is everything. I have built a network of individuals who know they can approach me for advice, and I know that I can do the same with them.