Career Ladder Podcast

Career Ladder PodcastThe Career Ladder Podcast inspires ambitious people on their path to success. Each episode, Philipp Hattingh interviews movers and shakers from various fields to explore their habits and success strategies. This episode’s guest is Beki Muinde. Beki is the Deputy General Counsel at Helios Towers. Helios Towers is a telecom tower infrastructure company that owns, builds and operates telecom towers in several African markets. Beki is a lawyer with expertise in a broad range of legal issues such as M&A, regulatory interactions, litigation and capital raising. She is specialised in the telecoms and regulated industries sectors with deep experience in African markets. She studied at Oxford and started her career at Linklaters, which is one of the biggest global law firms. In 2017, after 7 happy years at the company, she then decided to take a break from law and became an adventurer. For a year she travelled the world, got a floristry diploma, did political speech writing and got more involved in various charities and community initiatives. Amongst many other things we discussed her approach for taking a year off and her transition back into work life. So, if you dream of doing something similar, tune in :-) Books mentioned by Beki: • Poems by Wendell Berry Feel free to navigate your way through the episode with the timestamps below: 02:40 The reaction of Beki's friends and family to her decision to become an adventurer 06:15 How to structure a year off 09:55 Transition back into work life 13:00 Writing as good as a lawyer 15:18 Factors in choosing the first job 18:38 Beki’s advice on presenting arguments 23:33 Preparations for a debate 27:05 Beki’s internal self-talk before a debate or negotiation 29:23 Beki’s ted talk topic 30:40 A book Beki has read more than once 32:57 Beki’s advice on staying motivated 33:53 Beki’s best investments so far Beki’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/beki-muinde-8337972b/ [http://www.linkedin.com/in/beki-muinde-8337972b/]

Career Ladder PodcastThe Career Ladder Podcast inspires ambitious people on their path to success. Each episode, Philipp Hattingh interviews movers and shakers from various fields to explore their habits and success strategies. This episode’s guest is Olivia Lin. It is hard to pin-point in a single word what Olivia does. She has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and currently is the Executive Director of HLX Innovations, a consulting company in the areas of psychology, technology, and STEAM learning. Olivia is also a co-founder and was a previous Executive Director of Studio 1 Labs, which is a Canadian textile health technology company that developed a new material for many uses such a smart bed sheet that monitors the physiological signals of patients laying on it. Olivia grew up in Canada and now lives in Taiwan where she is one of the Leads in the initiative Women Who Code Taipei. She is a self-taught coder and teaches programming and STEAM to kids. Her activities in the areas of technology led to her being featured by Girls in Tech Taiwan 40 Under 40. She is an expert on the topics of learning, understanding, and merging the forgotten with innovation. One of my highlights of the conversation is when Olivia describes her key learnings from the early stages of founding a startup and being a co-founder. So if you’re passionate about start ups or thinking about becoming an entrepreneur yourself, tune in :-) Books mentioned by Olivia: * The Harry Potter series by Joanne K. Rowling * The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians by Cynthia Kelly * Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith * How Women Rise by Marshall Goldsmith und Sally Helgesen Feel free to navigate your way through the episode with the timestamps below: 02:22 STEAM learning 09:02 Learning how to Code 10:47 Advice for women, who want to pursue a career in technology 13:52 Mentors and how to find one 16:25 Merging the forgotten with innovation 20:32 Learnings of being an entrepreneur 28:25 Product Design 30:50 Cognitive Bias 34:32 Practicing Kendo 42:34 Olivia’s book recommendations Olivia’s homepage: www.linolivia.com [http://www.linolivia.com]Olivia’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/oyhlin/ [http://www.linkedin.com/in/oyhlin/]

Career Ladder PodcastThe Career Ladder Podcast inspires ambitious people on their path to success. Each episode, Philipp Hattingh interviews movers and shakers from various fields to explore their habits and success strategies. This episode's guest is Diego Gutierrez. Diego is Chief Officer International Markets at Vodacom in South Africa. In his role he is part of the Vodacom Group Executive Committee and in charge of the international markets across Africa, such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Lesotho, DRC and Ghana. Vodacom is a leading African communications company providing a wide range of communication services, including mobile voice, messaging, data, financial and converged services to 116 million customers across Africa. Diego was born and raised in Bolivia but lives and works for over 12 years on the African continent. He is an expert on emerging markets and in the podcast he explains, among other things, what you need to be embraced for if you want to work in emerging markets. One of my highlights of the conversation is when Diego explains how to successfully pitch an idea to senior management. So if you want to find out how to structure and formulate your next pitch to your boss, tune in :-) Books mentioned in this episode: * Getting Things Done by David Allen * Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore (Elevator Pitch book) * The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli * The Art of War by Sun Tsu * Good to Great by Jim Collins * The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Feel free to navigate your way through the podcast with the timestamps below: 02:07: Diego's move from South America to Africa 06:27: Lessons learned growing up in South America that helped Diego to succeed in Africa 08:33: Passport struggles 12:56: Transformational technologies on the African continent 19:44: Time Management 24:32: How to pitch ideas to Senior Management 30:15: Emerging markets 35:30: Navigating cultural differences 37:42: Important skills and character traits for working in emerging markets 41:45: Which subject would Diego teach at a university 47:32: Book recommendations 49:40: Diego's daily, monthly, yearly routines 51:58: What would Diego tell his 32 year old self? You can find Diego on LinkedIn 'Diego Gutierrez'.

Career Ladder PodcastThis episode's guest is Al Peasland. Al works in Formula 1 for Williams Racing as Head of Technical and Innovation Partnerships. Apart from his passion for engineering and fast racing cars he is a Karate 5th dan black belt. What this means and how he got to such a proficiency in martial arts, Al describes in the podcast. Furthermore, Al explains what happens in your body when you’re nervous because of a meeting with the CEO or because of a keynote in front of a big crowd. So if you want to find out how to handle this kind of nervousness and how to potentially use it for your advantage. Tune in :-) Books mentioned by Al: * Beyond The Limits: The Lessons Learned from a Lifetime's Adventures by Sir Ranulph Fiennes * The Feathermen by Sir Ranulph Fiennes * Survival Of The Fittest: The Anatomy of Peak Physical Performance by Mike Stroud * Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl * Fear: The Friend Of Exceptional People: How To Turn Negative Attitudes In To Positive Outcomes by Geoff Thompson * Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity Into Advantage in Business and in Life by Ralph de la Vega * The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey by Muhammad Ali * Taming Tigers: Do Things You Never Thought You Could by Jim Lawless Feel free to navigate your way through the podcast with the timestamps below: 03:30: The roundabout way in Al’s career 06:28: Al’s current role 09:15: Traveling due to Formula 1 & Travel hacks 18:05: A Formula 1 race weekend 21:53: Recruiting in Formula 1 28:06: Black eyes at interviews 30:24: Al’s journey with martial arts 39:14: The philosophy of martial arts 59:52: Al’s mentors 01:12:23: Al’s book 01:20:02: The emotion of fear 01:41:38: Al’s routines 01:47:08: Book recommendations 01:53:55: What would Al tell his 25 year old self? You can find Al on LinkedIn 'Al Peasland' and on Twitter @Al_Peasland.