Mad Influence

How can someone pursue ambition, creativity and high performance without burning out along the way? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Matt Follows, a coach and performance psychologist who works with founders, creative leaders and senior executives operating in high-pressure environments. Before moving into psychology, Matt spent more than 15 years in the creative industrie...

How do creators turn influence into income - and build a career that lasts beyond one viral moment? In this episode of Mad Influence , Helen Saul is joined by Monique Sar, founder of De Vitesse, an agency focused on partnerships and influencer campaigns, and President of BNC Speakers, representing pro athletes, speakers and business leaders. Over the past decade, Monique has worked with Fortune 50...

What if the only thing standing between you and being seen, heard and recognised is your clarity? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Rebecca Okamoto, a communication and clarity expert whose TEDx talk on how to introduce yourself has been watched around 2 million times. Rebecca works with what she calls “Lost Einsteins” - people whose thinking is valuable and original, but w...

What does it take to build a successful agency without sacrificing culture, values or the people inside it? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Sinéad Gray, co-managing director of Kindred, a purpose-led PR and communications agency focused on campaigns that create positive change. Kindred has twice been named Agency of the Year at the Purpose Awards and works with organisati...

What makes someone choose purpose over financial security, and keep taking action even when the path ahead isn’t clear? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Krish Patel, founder of Tales to Inspire, an organisation creating space for people to share real stories of resilience, challenge and change, particularly those whose voices aren’t always heard. Krish’s journey to this wo...

What happens when recovery doesn’t come from reinvention, but from returning home and taking one careful step at a time? Content note: This episode touches on themes of mental health, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and recovery. You can find support for these topics at: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk and www.thecalmzone.net In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Harrison Ward,...

What happens when the version of success you’ve spent decades chasing suddenly disappears, and you’re forced to rethink who you are, what matters and how you live? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Roderick Jefferson, a former corporate executive, speaker and author whose life and career were fundamentally reshaped after surviving a near-fatal stroke. Before his stroke, Rod...

What does it take to build brand and creative work that genuinely connects with culture - without defaulting to clout, pile-ons or empty critique? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Tamira Hamden and Victoria Montgomery, co-founders of Women in Brand, a global community supporting women working across brand, marketing and creativity. Women in Brand was founded in response to...

How does someone build a tech startup from scratch when the odds are stacked against them, and help thousands of other young people improve their access to opportunity across the UK? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Joe Seddon, Founder and CEO of Zero Gravity, a tech platform supporting students from low-opportunity backgrounds into top universities and high-impact careers...

What does it take to build a personal brand that leads to real opportunity - not just visibility, but credibility, career momentum and influence? In this episode of Mad Influence, Helen Saul is joined by Claudia Cardinali, Strategy Director at Great Influence , where she runs personal brands for founders, entrepreneurs and leadership teams, including leaders from brands such as Booking.com, Gousto...

Lauren Ashcroft, the founder of UltimateYou , joins Mad Influence to talk about how she launched a globally successful business in the middle of the pandemic, to help people realise their ambitions. We talk about her journey from being made redundant to creating a set of products that have been reviewed by Women’s Health as having ‘life-changing powers.’ We also discuss her U-turn from a planned c...

Katie Martell, speaker, writer, documentary maker, and marketing expert, joins Mad Influence to talk about what happens when social movements and brands collide. We talk about how Katie carved out her career by being brutally honest, and as ready to critique the marketing industry as to champion it. We talk about the difference between genuine allyship versus co-opting a movement for a brand’s own...

Claire Eades, CEO and founder of Marmalade Film and Media, joins Mad Influence to talk about what it was like setting up an agency aimed at getting brands to care about purpose a decade before it became top of everyone’s agenda. We chat about some of her most memorable campaigns, like the one which reduced teen pregnancy by 25%, and had everyone in the UK talking about it, including the prime mini...

Lee Wilcox and Adam Barrie, founders of Electric House and On The Tools, join Mad Influence to talk about what it’s really like running a successful business with your best friend, and how they streamed the Mars landing live on TikTok to 100,000 people. We delve into their journey from being broke to employing 100 people and how their attitudes to supporting mental wellbeing and inclusion have evo...

Marta Decarli, founder of Marta Decarli Yoga, and marketing executive at Kuula, joins Mad Influence to talk about why it’s OK to change your life plan, and how she felt adapting hers after her dreams of becoming an Olympic skier fell through after a decade of training. We also talk about what led her to leave her successful corporate job during the pandemic and set up a yoga business instead, and...

For this special episode on International Women's Day, Mad Influence is excited to welcome Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% movement, to talk about how she has helped increase the percentage of female creative directors in the US from 3% to 29%. We discuss topics like why it’s a healthy thing to live abroad and put yourself in a situation where you aren’t centred, and how to reach people who don’t ag...

Amy Rollings, founder of Let’s Connect, and Head of Partnerships & Mentoring at Good Nugget , joins Mad Influence to talk about the community she set up to support people going through redundancy. She created it after being made redundant herself five months ago, after a very successful career working for brands like Burberry, Kurt Geiger and Michael Kors. We have a very honest conversation ab...

Jay Richards, co-founder and CEO of Imagen, joins Mad Influence to talk about his research agency which pays thousands of its Gen Z community to help brands and agencies shape culture. We chat about how he started out by setting up his first business selling t-shirts aged 14, after an injury put an end to his pro football career. In the brutally honest spirit of Imagen, we also talk about everythi...

Today’s guest has interviewed everyone from Sir David Attenborough to Ben Fogle, but today we get to turn the mic on Vikki Stephenson, Senior Creative at the BBC . Vikki joins Mad Influence to talk about her career of over 20 years promoting content with purpose. We chat about everything from the time she landed her “dream job,” only to find out that it clashed with her values, to coming up with t...

Jean Kilbourne, a pioneering activist, speaker and writer, joins Mad Influence to discuss her research for over half a century into how advertising represents women. We talk about what it was like starting her career as a young female in the 1960s and how things have changed since then. We discuss why her critically acclaimed Killing Us Softly documentary shocked the world when it was first releas...

Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project , joins Mad Influence to talk about saving millions of meals from going to waste and feeding the world. He also talks about using his platform to speak up about mental health after surviving a suicide attempt ten years ago, and inspiring people to improve their lives, while not having all the answers.  We chat about why the media seem to think...

Jack Parsons, CEO of the Youth Group and The UK’s Chief Youth Officer , joins Mad Influence to talk about his mission to help millions of young people into meaningful employment. Jack opens up about the personal reasons behind his drive, from being a young carer for his Mum who suffered from alcoholism, to realising he wanted to leave a legacy after being operated on for skin cancer. We talk about...

Oisika Chakrabarti, Acting Chief of Communications and Advocacy for UN Women, joins Mad Influence from her home in New Jersey to talk about her 16 years at the United Nations and her current role working towards gender equality. She explains how growing up and studying in India inspired her deep interest in social justice, along with her early roles in TV reporting and filmmaking. We discuss partn...

Laura Johnson, director at Zebedee (a specialist talent agency for disabled and visibly different actors and models) joins Mad Influence to talk about why disability has to be included in the conversation around inclusion. We chat about how she went from calling up brands’ customer service departments in search of marketing contacts, to now being responsible for Gucci and Kurt Geiger’s most liked...

Kate Dale, Campaign Lead for This Girl Can joins Mad Influence to talk about what was going through her mind the night before launching a globally successful campaign which won multiple Cannes Lions and got 3 million women active worldwide. We talk about why it’s hard for her to shout about that success and what we can all do to beat imposter syndrome. We also chat about everything from her move f...