What did you actually learn?

If networking is something to be endured rather than enjoyed, listen up because networking supremo Grace Fogarty could be the answer to your prayers. With a background in acting and presenting, Grace understands that if you want to connect with the right people, you’ve got to put the work in so you’re prepared when you show up. It’s this experience and practice which has led her to set up Present...

At what point should a business owner put their foot on the accelerator and head for the heights? Alternatively at what point should that person put their hand up and say ‘I’m stuck’! B usiness coach Sarah Yandell knows all too well that fast growth without structure leads to chaos whereas little or no growth will inevitably just fizzle out. As a woman who’s grown more than one business to six fig...

If you watch a play or film do you feel sorry for the villain or do you think they deserve what’s coming to them? Good drama is rarely black and white so the actor playing the baddie, needs to portray what makes them tick to ensure the audience ‘gets it’. Actor Francesa McChron firmly believes empathy is essential for all characters both good and bad in an every setting whether that’s on the stage...

When starting out in our careers we’re all encouraged to ‘think big’ so that one day we’ll ‘make it’ in whatever form that takes. Once there, what then? Learning consultant Andy Candler did indeed ‘make it’ reaching the top of his profession, running a highly successful agency, managing staff and huge budgets but then it all came to an end. Andy had to change tack. That change included a trip to B...

Technology is impacting our lives whether we like it or not so we may as well learn to live with it, or even embrace it! That’s the view of Gina Blackie of Nurture Public Relations who works with tech firms to help them explain to the public what they do and why. Except what they do can be complex and hard to understand. Journalist Jill Sainsbury met up with Gina in Whitchurch in Hampshire for a m...

Jasmine Sainsbury started a YouTube channel aged 16 to help her revise for her GCSE history exam. Seven years later, it’s amassed nearly 40,000 subscribers and is being used by history teachers far and wide to help their students get through their exams. What started as a hobby led to a first class history degree at the University of Sheffield and now a masters in ‘public history’ at a university...

Lisa Henshaw of Parker Robinson Communications loves a good story and she’s particularly good at drawing them out of people who don’t necessarily realise they have anything interesting to say. Stories have the power to get a point across in a way that sticks which is why storytelling is so valuable in education, training and business, as long as it’s clear what’s fact and what’s fiction. As Lisa l...

This episode sees Jill catch up with long time friend and associate Paquita Lamacraft in her new neighbourhood in South West France. Having lived all over the world, Paquita’s latest venture to start a new life in France is ‘un morceau de gâteau’ compared to the challenges she’s faced bringing people to work happily together in a range of vastly differing workplaces and overcoming all sorts of cha...

PR and marketing are often lumped together as one entity but talk to any PR professional and they’ll tell you otherwise. Public relations is like any other form of relationship - it needs nurturing. Jill talks to Julie Jackson founder of Essential PR and Marketing about how she goes about building those relationships and how she releases the ‘brand voice’ of her clients - so that what they say is...

eLearning can be as complicated as an immersive VR experience or a simple PDF and everything in between. While much is made of the tech, perhaps rather less is made of the learning. The team at the Learning Network , a meeting place for those working within the Learning and Design (L&D) industry run an annual awards scheme to showcase the very best of both. Jill went along to their showcase event...

Can business be a force for good? While ‘doing good’ sounds good, making that a profitable reality is rather more difficult which is where operations consultant Andrew Ormerod comes in. He supports mission-driven businesses whether that’s a social enterprise or a limited company in their mission to make the changes they need to ‘do good’ because ‘good’ doesn’t just benefit society and the planet,...

How do you make IT training interesting for those who aren’t interested? How do you enable the unconfident computer user, to be confident or persuade the overconfident that there is still stuff to learn? How do you ensure everyone ends up in the same place from different starting points? Debbie Sawyer is an IT trainer with 30 years experience and knows all the tricks to get the best out of those s...

It’s official, learning is fun, or at least it should be because that way the info goes in. Kevin Morgan is the CEO of Course Kings, compliance training specialists to the dental sector and other industries. Jill met up with him in central London to talk about how he ensures everyone in the room enjoys learning. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

How do you explain a difficult concept and know they’ve understood it? The answer? Coronation Street! Problem is today’s undergrads don’t watch it. Jill takes a trip to a beach in Brighton to catch up with sociology lecturer Dr Stephen Brown to find out his methods for ensuring his students know what he’s on about. •••••• "What did you actually learn?" is the podcast that gets out and about to fin...

We all need some extra help with those tasks we either don’t want to do or find difficult to do. So how does that person who offers the help, cope with everyone else’s unwanted/difficult tasks? Gemma Lane is a virtual PA and her company Hidden Gem accurately describes the value she brings to her clients because she quietly and efficiently gets on with all sorts of tasks the rest of us put off. Jil...

This week, we’re on the balcony at Switched-on HQ talking to our very own content producer Byron Lewis. Byron spent his time at uni running the student TV and radio stations and so had to learn many new skills in a short space of time and then quickly pass them onto the next cohort. Jill asks him what it’s like to go from being taught to teacher in a matter of months. •••••• "What did you actually...

Why is it when we do something that really benefits someone else, we fail to mention it? Rachel Dunford – the Impact Specialist aims to change all that. The things we do have an impact not only on our clients, families and communities but on many other connections and associations that we may not even be aware of. Jill meets Rachel on London’s South Bank and finds out how to measure our impact and...

Getting on the wrong side of the GP’s receptionist or the ward doctor does nothing towards a patient’s recovery. Senior nurse and clinical educator Carrie Hamilton, director of SimComm Academy has witnessed first hand the positive effect, good communication can do but knows that these skills don’t come naturally to everyone. Jill joined Carrie on a dog walk in the Hampshire countryside to find out...

Model, model coach and fashion marketing graduate Laila Moccia talks about modern-day modelling. You need to understand the brief, ooze confidence, have heaps of determination and be business smart. That’s before looking the part, which in the case of this episode’s title, she does. As Laila is never in the same place from one day to the next, Jill caught up with her on the mainline train to Londo...

You finally put pen to paper to write the book you’ve always wanted but the editor then attacks it with a red pen. Rather than feel despondent first time author and experienced human resources consultant Jill Aburrow could soon see that those small edits made it even better. What’s more her book ‘Redundancy with Love’ turned out to be better than any business card which she told our Jill (Sainsbur...

That old fashioned idea that the teacher has all the answers is put to the test. Jill catches up in a cosy cafe with experienced facilitator and communications consultant Anna Thame to find out why the best learning happens when people work it out for themselves and more importantly sample the sticky toffee biscoff cake. What did you actually learn is the podcast that gets out and about to find ou...

As business owners we know we have to do ‘marketing’ but how many of us really know what it is, how to do it or know how to measure if it’s working? Strategic marketer Kara Stanford, CEO of the Marketing Spaces tells Jill Sainsbury, that marketing always works if you understand what to do, when and why and do it in small steps - which is why Kara’s garden path is now famous. •••••• "What did you a...

What did you actually learn? is the podcast that gets out and about to find out how people learn new stuff and help others to do the same. Join Jill Sainsbury as she shuts her laptop and heads out the door to talk in person to people who love learning, in the places where they hang out, to find out how they absorb and pass on new info. The series starts on Tuesday 17th September at 8am - be sure t...