Tolu Stedford on Film Production

Tolu Stedford is a writer, producer, and actor with over 20 years of industry experience. She has written and produced an assortment of multi-award-winning short films, stage plays, concept teasers, and music videos. As well as working in production as a woman and member of marginalized groups, Tolu is committed to activism lobbying for better representation within the industry.

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Transcript

Roy Sharples: 0:06

Hello, I'm Roy Sharples, welcome to the unknown origins podcast. Why are you listening to this podcast? Are you seeking inspiration? an industry expert looking for insights or growing your career, I created the unknown origins podcast to provide access to insights and content from creators worldwide with inspirational conversations and storytelling, about art, architecture, design, entrepreneurship, fashion, film, music, and pop culture Tolu Stratford as a writer, producer and actor. With over 20 years of industry experience, she has written and produced an assortment of multi award winning short film this stage plays, concept teasers and music videos, as well as working in production as a woman and member of marginalized groups. Talu is committed to activism lobbying, for better representation within the industry. Hello, and welcome, Tom. So what inspired and attracted you to the creative industry in the first place?

Tolu Stedford: 1:12

Oh, now, this is a story. So I was a dyslexic child. And reading, writing did not come easy to me. And then in year six, which is the last year in the UK, in primary school, I got the lead in the school play. And that was amazing. I don't know why, well, they saw something in me. And they were like, Yeah, you got the lead. But I was not very good at reading. And I had a whole script to learn and songs and routines. And I had a fantastic music teacher who taught me how to kind of really put emphasis in finding a character. And in that it gave me all the will passion to kind of look at this script and memorize it literally just got used to memorizing it. And so that went really well. But before that I should backtrack to be fed. What first started this passion for being in this industry was I grew up watching musicals, I loved musicals. And my mum used to play musicals, sitting in front of musicals all day, My Fair Lady, Annie, Oliver, Charlie, and the Chocolate Factory, all of them. I knew them off by heart. And none of them had anyone that looked like me. I was a young black girl. Little bit on the chubby side, I'd say, and nobody looked like me at all. And so I grew up thinking, I really want to do this, I want to do this, but I don't think I'm allowed. I don't think people like me can do this. And I then got to a teenager, and I saw Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple. And suddenly, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I can do this. I'm allowed. There is someone that looks like me, and can take me to another world with a character with just her smile. And it opened a whole new opportunity for me. So which is why I went and auditioned for the lead role in the school play. And I got that role. And once I got the role, as I said, it was it was an experience, but I did really well I got really great reviews, I think, and my mum who was a nurse came to see me and I don't know how or what happened, but one of the nights leading after her seen me in that play, property coming off the night shift, she saw an advert for the National Theatre youth Youth Theatre Company. And this is very unlikely my mom, this is why it's underlined. She took it was on Carlton TV so I can tell you how long that was. She took me to the audition at the National Theatre and I got in and that was just life changing. It was literally life changing. I was in the National Theatre youth theatre and I was with the likes of Peter systems children and use presenters and all these very poor children. To be fair, no one looked or sounded like me at all. I think I was the only underprivileged kid that was definitely in my co thought back then. And I, I learned my craft and it was incredible. I got to bump into Judi Dench in the canteen and discover all these roles and learn circus tricks. And I need to anchor this in the fact that I struggled with my academic academia, because I was an undeserved diagnosed dyslexic child. And back then, and I'm sad to say is still very similar. We fall through the neck, because we're quite capable, and we're very, we present well. And so without the knowledge, you tend to kind of as a child, look at how do you cope? What, what do you? What can you do, and I was really good at practical stuff. My school did not do drama. So I was very lucky child to be able to go at the weekends and after school to the National Theatre, and do play reads and all sorts of performances in the Old Vic and the Young Vic. So that was brilliant. And I got a really great advert that they wanted to do with the National Theatre to promote it, which had like Ewan McGregor, it had all the stars in it. And then I got pregnant. And so that derailed my career. But I had my children, and I still had a love for acting in the arts. But I was completely out of it. I went into finances and working as an office manager for an investment banking company, and I was miserable, absolutely miserable. And so I thought to myself, right, just go and take a course in acting, just to just to, to enjoy something just to find out, you know, just have some fun. So I did like, an acting course, in City Academy. I remember. And Jake Lyons was the principal who was taking the class, I was very lucky to be with him. And at the end of the course, he said to me, out of everybody, and on the course, he said, I seriously think that you should go and do this for a living. I'm not telling you this for a lie. I'm not I'm not guessing you. I'm just, I think that you could make a living doing this. And I think you should. I was like playing, really? And he's like, Yes, I think he said, so. I went and applied for drama school as an adult. And we as a mother, and a wife. And so I went to drama school, I went to identity drama school, which was fantastic for me, because it was a drama school. It was a part time drama school that you could pay by term. And I went there and it was fantastic. And I learned so much. And then started acting because I got represented. I've got a great agent, which is one of the best agencies for people of color, which is identity IAG. And I started having roles, fantastic. But I was getting a little bit frustrated. I was extremely frustrated because I wasn't doing exactly what I wanted to do in regards to representing really complex, interesting characters. And so I started writing. And so I started writing, I wrote a play that did well and then I started writing some short films with some friends, and started producing my own films and content and long story short, that has led me to where I am now at the independent film class

Roy Sharples: 8:57

people who are misfits, frequently become the real iconoclasts for being authentically creative. These restless natives are the outsiders who never seem to quite fit in the rebels with a cause, if you will. They are the real deal in that they are the self defined self styled self educated would be cultured agitators who often overturn the status quo, not by being reckless, but by rejecting conventions and creating the new and modern because he do things differently. People who achieved greatness do not fit a formula or follow a structure. They break the mold by charting their own, sometimes unorthodox path they turn left when others are told to turn right. They break through the doors that you're not supposed to enter or even knock on and fight in their way toward making their unique voice heard, and their original style noticed by driving their actions forward. And they don't compromise their integrity. They circumnavigate the mainstream to develop a de Her relationship with them themselves and their audience by being present living in the moment and staying true to themselves. And so all that swimming, you've done against the tide, by experience and social exclusion, has helped you tap into and fuel your inner psyche and gusto for life.

Tolu Stedford: 10:18

It's really important. I mean, I wouldn't want to dismiss it or cut it out, because I feel like everybody should probably have the capability of understanding what it feels like to be excluded. And I think it's important to hold and bank that feeling. And a lot of us have fought to overcome that feeling when that's happened. And so we don't want to revisit it. And so we forget. And in forgetting, what we we do is disarm ourselves with the skills to think about people who are overlooked and needing to be included. And I this part of me being at the Independent Film Trust is purely out of the complete conviction, and passion about opening the doors for other people. And I always say, I don't want to necessarily work to open the doors for people that look like me, I want to open the doors for the people who are not in the room. So if I'm in a room with a bunch of black people only, and only fighting for them, I'm not doing my job. My job should be the people who are not included, the ones we have forgotten to invite to the party. So and that is purely driven from my own experiences, and knowing what it feels like. So I don't think, although they're different, if everyone just remembers what that feeling was like, we all would make better choices by

Roy Sharples: 11:52

embracing diversity and difference helps us both understand each other and ourselves, and recognizing and respecting our individual differences in gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, physical abilities, social and economic status, religion, and political beliefs. And other ideologies must be accepted, without without question. And when people feel included, they build meaningful social relationships have a stronger sense of belonging, and inspire creativity and innovation in themselves and others. So the more you interact and collaborate with people from different cultural backgrounds, disciplines, industries, geographies, the more you understand respect and value them, and the more enriched and fulfilled your life experience will be we all benefit from learning from others. What is your creative process in terms of how do you make the invisible visible by dreaming up ideas, developing them into concepts, and then bringing them to actualization?

Tolu Stedford: 12:57

It's such an interesting question. For me, it's, I'm a people person. So I always start by listening and watching. A lot of my work has come from just looking and seeing people. But I like to see the people that people are not looking at. So one of the films that we made was about what happens when you just walk down the street, what happens to just the experience of people looking at you, and judging you, just by the way you look. And this was kind of this idea popped into my head by being on the tube. And I watched a very pretty girl, you know, on on the platform. And your first I could see I was literally judging, not the woman, but everyone around her. She was just trying to stay on. She's probably listening to a podcast, maybe your podcast, who knows? And then she was, you know, in her own world, just just just being her just being. And everyone was looking at her because she was very attractive. And she was wearing something that was drawing attention. And we saw the obvious one or the guys looking at her like, oh, you know, she's pretty. And then you see some of the women look at her like, oh, gosh, really? And then you see some of the children looking up like is what's going on? Why is my dad not look talking to me anymore? It was just really interesting to just watch all the stuff that was going on around her that she was trying not to penetrate, but some of them do penetrate. And it's just the human effect on human that is just completely like, gravitating to me. And so my inspiration for kind of dreaming the invisible ideas is looking for who is invisible who On this earth needs to be bought to the to the forefront to have a platform to share their story. And that is what really motivates me in regards to the work that I want to do. I, it's not to say I don't want to sit in any genre, particularly. But what I do want to do is really find vulnerability, but the power in vulnerability, the strength in darkness, the the revelation, in complete chaos. And all of those things really, really, really just excite me. And so once I found a really deeply human insight into something that we might not have seen or heard or heard from, then the idea is collaboration. Or I find that every creative project is about a team. It's no, no one film that you've watched is by one person. As we know, there was so many layers to bring in that final, you know, vision to life. And what it means is that a load of really great people and talented people got together shared ideas and valued each other's input. Now, they might not have expressed it all the time, or in different sets, I can't tell you, but for me, it's about finding a fantastic team to work with, and that are really connected and authentically passionate about finding true human stories. And then after you've got your great team, it's all about the hard work and determination to finish it. Because anyone who's really created anything, any piece of art knows that a lot of time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears go into that project. And we are it's a deeply organic thing that actually requires you giving something of yourself. So it's, I find it a little bit spiritual in a way with art is that it comes from deep inside because talent really is inside you. It's not you can't really recreate talent, you just born with it. And that's why I feel like being in this industry is a little bit of a vocation, it's literally you were born to do this. And so each time you create something, you give a little bit of yourself to the world. And that's in all the different areas and contributions of creating any piece of art. So it does take people who are passionate and determined to go through that process, because otherwise you just wouldn't, we probably mostly don't get unless you reach the highest highest highest heights don't get paid enough to do what you do it there has to be a little bit of love that goes into it. So hard work and determination, literally just because you love it and you believe in what you want to do. You believe in the story and the vision that you want to share. And then it's a bit of tenacity, because I'm a producer as well. So that is just really being really outside of the box and tenacious in how you're gonna bring it together. It's a lot of problem solving. And it's a lot of kind of figuring out the best way that works for everyone. And there's a lot of compromise in that too. And lastly, I would say there is a perfectionist complex, probably from my side for sure. Which is I want to do it well. I don't just want to do it. I want to do it. Well, I really do. And I just think there is no point in me doing it unless it's as good as I can, can make it from my from my contribution. And so I will always keep pushing reevaluate in asking for feedback, and really trying to root out how can we make this the best. And that is so that whoever story were telling we're doing them justice, because if we are trying to highlight a story or somebody's narrative that usually doesn't get told them they deserve the best they does. They deserve it. They deserve it. And so call it professionalism, perfectionism, or call it whatever you want to call it. But I really want to do it well. So I think that's more or less the process for me.

Roy Sharples: 19:50

What are the critical skills needed to survive and thrive as a creative leader in film production

Tolu Stedford: 19:58

who isn't required? Hey, hey, where do I start? Oh my gosh, this is that lots of critical skills. Definitely survival is, I think one of the most profound words in our industry, because that's what we find working at the Independent Film Trust, and that's a lot of our work is trying to enable people to survive. That's around sustainability that's around mental health, that's around self confidence that's around sometimes trauma, as well. It's it's survival is, is really necessary in this industry, because I think that actually, especially from being in this industry, from a child all the way to my ripe old age, I've seen lots of people that have not survived the industry, for whatever reasons, and, and, and sometimes for good reasons, too. But for me, I will always go back to humanity, and the ability to see people, I feel like it is all of our duties within the arts, and around film production, especially, that we see everybody who's in our team. Don't, there's no one, whether you think it's just the runner, it's just the person who delivered the catering, or everyone deserves to be seen. And when you see people genuinely see people, then it actually empowers you to proceed with relationship accordingly. So if somebody's putting in all of their work, and is you can see is passionate, and or if somebody is struggling, you can help them. Somebody's doing well congratulate them and encourage them. But also somebody's not acting right, pull them up, pull them up about it. I don't like it. I've seen it on set before, especially in major productions, where I've seen people go outside to have a cry and then come back in. We all saw that, why didn't No one just say nothing? Why have we just let that happen? No, because somebody was either, you know, alright, it's long hours, we're all ready. And it's really tough. But you can still speak to somebody with respect, you can. So the critical skill, I would say is to see other people around you, but also have the confidence to see yourself, believe in your choices. And believe that you have a right to have a choice. I think one of the things that I had to learn the hard way was finding my own voice, and finding that I don't need to be invited to contribute for me to contribute. I think I found a lot of my early days that I was kind of trying to fit in. And please people, please, that's probably part of my personality, too. And in that I would let the big boys talk and just stay silent until somebody asked me something that did not give me nowhere, darling. No. Okay, you need to hear what I if I have something really valuable to contribute, then then hear my voice. And that is partly from me having to find the confidence within myself. And I find that a lot. I have to do lots of industry events. Sometimes I went to an industry event very recently, and I'm pretty sure I don't know how they think I felt but I went into an industry event which were top leaders in the industry. And I went into the room. And the room was with like 12, middle aged white guys at the top of their game. And I came in with my brightly colored jumpsuit, the only woman in the room, the only woman of color. And I was just I sat there when I came in late because I ran over another meeting. And so it was all a bit like oh, I mean, and I sat down and I was just like, oh my goodness, I really do feel nervous. I do. And I've got two choices right now I can either just be quiet and not contribute and just hope that nobody really, you know, judges me or says anything, or I can take my seat and own it. I value what I have to say, because I wouldn't be saying it. So I have to empower myself and with the confidence. Even though I didn't I was boy I was scared. But I had to tell myself Why are you here? What is all All these years of experience giving you if you can't use your voice right now, to speak, to speak for all those other people who are not in this room right now. And so I would say if you really want to be a creative leader, and you actually get the blessing of taking that seat as a leader, your responsibility is to encourage yourself, and empower yourself to look at yourself and celebrate what you have to contribute. Because this industry should be about contribution. It should be about us collaborative, collaboratively, get it out, putting what we have on the table, our unique offering on the table for us to share and build something magical together. And so that is, self confidence is a huge critical skill, I think we need to have, and the confidence to know that you value yourself. Meaning that you will not tolerate not being valued. And you have to do that not just for you. But for everyone else you're leading. So it's a long winded way. But I mean, I deeply it's something we don't talk about, and especially being a female leader. I feel there's lots of times when we carry this self doubt impostor syndrome, feeling like we shouldn't be here, or we should be doing something else. And I would say that really put them to acknowledge them, hear them, and use them to represent everyone else that you lead. And to help everyone that you lead accordingly. The last thing I would say is to be flexible. If you really want to survive and thrive, you have to be flexible to kind of, you can't be rigid. And this, I need to just achieve this one thing, I need to just because really and truly, if anybody's done anything creative, they know that you go around the houses, it changes day by day is the reason why they say they never say it's a finished script until the film is made. Because that thing is going to change, it's going to change, it's going to change. And it's very hard to live with the fact that it's not going to go the way that you planned, I would say arming yourself right now with the knowledge that you are going to be flexible, to move with the project with the people with the people you lead. It just enables you to be open to new stuff, you know, and it can take you into much more exciting, beautiful places, magical places that you would never have imagined. Just because you was flexible enough to live with it.

Roy Sharples: 28:01

Your values and moral compass are spot on. And it's clear that it's symptomatic as someone who has lived a full life story living a full life and their own way and style, so hats off to you! As you reflect upon your life and career to date, what are your lessons learned in terms of the pitfalls to avoid, and the keys to success that you can share with existing but also aspiring creative leaders in film production.

Tolu Stedford: 28:35

Lots of lessons, and I'm still learning and the one biggest lesson is that we should never stop learning. No matter until the day we leave. I don't believe that process should ever stop. So it goes into lots of of the other stuff that I've mentioned about being flexible and seeing people. But I would definitely say one of my biggest learnings that come to mind is learning my own authentic voice. This is something I struggled with so long. I really did. I think it was yeah, just finding my own identity and who I was. And it's a complex thing. I won't go into my whole family history, but I have two moms. And I have a white mom and I have a black mom and I was informally adopted, fostered should I say by my white mom, but I have both of my parents in my in my life and they're both very active mothers to me. And so it gave me a unique perspective by also opened up a lot of anxiety in me understanding who I was particularly. And I think especially being in the industry when I came in the industry I think I used to treat auditions and being in the industry in general as an interview process, which is, Hello, my name is Tolu. How are you? I'm going to talk very, very well. And only answer when spoken to. And, you know, basically leave all the interesting things of Talu outside of this room, and then come and give you this complete blank canvas, which is really uninteresting in this industry, because we're all about color. And, and, and new thoughts and like exciting things. And so I had to really have a word of myself. And it's something that I still continue to talk to myself about, which is making sure I come from a working class background, I make sure that I stick with my own vernacular, I often say to people, especially in boardroom meetings, babe, I'm gonna call you, babe, because that's how I talk. And you need to get used to seeing people who talk like me, it doesn't mean I can't do the work. It means in fact, I'm going to do the work fantastically well, because I'm coming from a different perspective. And so finding my authenticity and feeling relaxed in that feeling. Daily, proud, proud of my working class background, I'm proud of my Nigerian heritage. I'm proud that I'm on the big side, I'm proud that I'm a mother. I'm proud that I'm a wife, all of these things that possibly could be used as something that would be a negative, I think gives me my authentic voice. Having two moms having a white mom having a black mom being informally fostered. These were things being dyslexic, I can take a lot of boxes, okay, I can take a lot of work. That is my authentic voice. That is what's interesting. And so my biggest lesson learned into anyone coming in the industry, no matter what point you're coming in, and what level you're coming in at, know that you are enough, just you the stuff, all the vulnerabilities, all the negativities that are perceived negativity, all the stuff that makes you unique, is what is amazing about you, it's what the industry needs. So I had to tell it to myself, and that's what I tried to inspire others to kind of find what it is that makes you you, and sit in it and own it, own it. And so finding your authentic voice is a big lesson. And if everyone could learn that lesson, I would definitely encourage them to do that. I think it's made me very successful, because it's made me strong enough to push myself into places that I ordinarily wouldn't have felt comfortable to be in or to do. And it's given me a can do attitude, because I know what I have is unique. And I don't want the world to miss out on it. Okay, you need a bit of Talu in your life, a bit of whoever is a we need a bit of ROI, we need a bit of every other person in the industry. We need you. You are a blessing to what we can create together. So learning your authentic voice, surrounding yourself with the right people. Oh my goodness, that is a huge thing. That's been a real big learning for me because I think I'm, I'm quite what you want to call it. I'm quite ambitious. And I think that sometimes because I'm quite headstrong and I wouldn't want to say I'm headstrong, because I have my doubts, I have my vulnerabilities. I have all of those things that are about me when I don't think that I'm I'm good enough or all of those things. I've also at times struggled with my mental health. I mean, it's a stuff we should talk about, we need to talk about it. So surrounding yourself with the right people is critical to avoiding pitfalls. And it's critical to your success. If you're with the right people, you can go anywhere, you can do anything. If you're with the wrong people, you can feel stagnant, which is what I felt before. And sometimes I felt like I needed to carry people and carrying people can be it's not good for the people you're carrying or yourself. The people you're carrying, never ever learn how to walk by themselves and everybody has to learn how to walk. And you yourself. Don't get to run when you could have run but you chose to carry and I just don't think it's a healthy way of working in this industry. So surrounding yourself with people who feed you. And equally in that exchange, my friend says it's contract, I give you the same, I'm going to feed you, you feed me, okay? And we can we can make each other survive, we can survive anything, because there's always going to be some sort of crisis that we're all having to go through. Look at the pandemic, nobody could predict that. But if you're around great people, you can survive anything, you know. And so surrounding yourself with the great people is really essential. And then I would say, knowing your worth, knowing your worth, I keep on repeating that. But it's something that I had to kind of learn. And I'm still learning. Because in this industry, it's a lot of judgment, it's if you're auditioning for a role, it's not great. If you made a film, you get negative criticism. And don't forget, going back to what I said, before you gave a piece of yourself, you cut a little bit of yourself and put that in this project. So when this gets negativity, it cuts deep, it really does cut deep. And, you know, people rejecting you from jobs or opportunities, or losing awards and all the rest of it, it can leave us really vulnerable, it can leave us really vulnerable to thinking that we're not good enough, or we didn't do it right, or we messed up or whatever those negative thoughts are. So reinforcing, knowing that you are doing something and just because you're doing something means that you have worth, you created something you, you know, loads of people can criticize your work, but if they're doing it on the sofa, and they haven't done nothing, what does their opinion mean? Know that you tried something and just try and means that you were worthy of doing it, you know. And so knowing your worth is great, but it also gives you strength to not be bullied in this industry. And I think sometimes because people start what, especially when they're successful started to get things their own way all the time. They tend to think that anybody else around them just needs to do what they say. And I think that we have to know our worth and know when to walk away from something and say, this is just not for me. I don't want to do it. And don't do it. And that's okay. That's okay. It's okay to look after you. It's okay to have ambition and see how this this career this industry can serve your needs to what do you want out of life, you know, and there's so much of us that work for pittance, literally, until you get to the higher echelons And people wonder why people get so paid when you get there. Because we spend most of our career eating out of people paper bag, because we're just trying to survive, you know, so many of the years just just trying to survive. And so I just think knowing your worth gives you the best chance of having options. And all the options are open to you if you know that you deserve them. You deserve it. I'm telling you this, but I have to tell myself this often. So now I've got a recording, I can play it back to myself, because it's not easy. It's not easy. It's easier said than done is really hard, hard thing to practice. But it's a lesson that I've learned and I will continue learning it and I will continue trying to implement that

Roy Sharples: 38:46

Tolo, you are an inspiration and role model for Creative Leadership. Only you know, your true worth. So true. Follow your heart and do what you love. By falling in love with your craft and pursuing it with intensity and being exceptional at everything you need is already inside of you. So free yourself from others expectations and walk away from the games and boundaries they impose upon you. The defining question, is a stalemate be acceptable to others or to yourself? What's your vision for the future of film production and the role of creativity?

Tolu Stedford: 39:26

Okay, my future for film production and okay, and the role of creativity. That's so big. It's so big. Do you know what my vision for film production is that we can really have a culture change. I was actually in a meeting today and I was talking about this and I was talking about, actually, out of all the industries that you can go in. We've been pretty unregulated, really, you know, all people really saw was the Any product and nobody really knew who was behind it, how it got made and who was treated? Well, there's no really, it's not there's so industry of freelancers. So HR, you know, it's, it's not been really a thing. So a lot of us have had to survive and lots of different ways, and it's not good. And so what I would really like is film production to be a safe space to become a safe industry that looks appealing to people, because actually, we're in a skill shortage at the moment. And I think part of the skill shortage is this. First of all, some a lot of the roles, the intricate roles, the complex, multiple roles behind the camera are not visible to especially marginalized talent. That is not visible, nobody knows what a first, well, even first ad might be, that might be a bit more evident, but a sound designer or you know, a gaffer, what, what are all of these tiny roles, not tiny, they're so huge, very huge and very impactful and very important to film production. But I would love to have more visibility to those people that make a film, not just the end credits, but for them to actually get platforms to. But I would also like it to be a safe space that looks appealing, okay? That you can come in this industry and have a lifelong career and be successful. And I would like for us as an industry to have a culture changed that just dispel dispels the notion of whistleblowing. And you know what happened? You know, we talk we hear about how Harvey Weinstein and stuff is coming up. Now it's coming up, it's coming up into service, and we're in a different world, which is really great. But we all have to understand that we're all responsible for everybody in this industry, we're in, we're responsible for looking after each other. And I just want this to be an industry where we can say, you know, come and you're going to have a fantastic lifelong career here, and not have to, you know, eat beans on toast for the rest of your life, or get shouted out in the most horrible way. I would like to know that we can kind of unite as an industry to just kind of really open up the doors for good, and build this safety, this, this mechanism of safety for everyone, and that's from the top to the bottom, everyone should feel safe, everybody deserves to feel shit safe. So that would be one of my visions, and definitely getting much more representation. The more I'm in this industry, and sitting in this space, where I'm behind the camera, the more underrepresented I see it. And I'm still shocked sometimes I really am. Because we've done a lot in front of the color palette, camera, we've done a lot in the you know, kind of very visible creative spaces. But the higher we get commissions and commissioners and executives in general, is very underrepresented. And I just want to make sure that, you know, when we're building the studios next to a school from a low socio economic group, you know, Barbara, that they can see that they can get a job, this can be their life, be like Talu, looking at those looking at Whoopi Goldberg and saying I can I can do this, and I've got something to contribute, I've got something that you are going to benefit from, and we're all going to benefit from it. The more we grab all of these people, the better it is for everyone. And I always say that I know that some of the people that are in the senior positions now can get a bit defensive. Thinking about oh my god, that means I can't be here. And I would say no, you can be here, we want you here. This is not about one in one out. It's just about sharing the table. And I would say our independent film, Josh Charlotte, who's been on the show before has been a fan us together is a fantastic example about what can happen when you bring great people together from different perspectives. And she is a great example of somebody who's taken the courage to understand that actually, bringing someone else in door to share your seat can empower you and rich both of your lives and also the industry that we impact. So I would just like to say to anybody who's thinking about diversity and getting defensive, like, does this mean I'm not here or can I not be here or does this mean I'm not allowed to have a job? No, I want you to have your jobs. They hate your job. Just bring more people in. There's enough room for all of us. us, we can make some really good food, I always say it's like, you know ingredients in the cake. One of them by themselves is not that great, just having butter is not great. You need the flour, you need the sugar, bit of oil, all sorts of things that go in the cake. And we make some magnificent cake and we can eat it together. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. So I would like to have this industry look at itself as a cake. See all of its ingredients as individual components to creating something special, value them, and then share, share this share, break bread together, break bread together. One last thing that I would really like to just say is about mental health. And allowing people to really be honest, when they're not feeling okay. I'm not seeing that as a weakness. I feel like our industry is full of people who suffer from mental health, from the top to the bottom. And we have to not just as an industry, but as the world have to see mental health as just the same as our physical health. It's, it's negligent for us not to do it. And after something like a pandemic, we can see that it's it nobody, nobody is excluded from that. And nobody's weak because of that. Actually, it's understandable and everybody has a different perspective. But we have to ask for help. Because if we don't we lose people and that's really dire. So I would like all of us to be able to own when we're not feeling okay, and to be able to say it. And for everyone around them to be understanding and just ox What can I do for you

Roy Sharples: 46:51

Tolu Stechford, take a bow! Creative leaders have confidence in their ideas, and never give up on bringing them to fruition. It means leading Without Frontiers by seeing around the corners and fearlessly navigating into the future. The inspire, empower and stimulate people and teams to achieve the unexpected and exceed normal performance levels. They have the charisma that engages excites, inspires and motivates people by having and living a compelling vision that provides clarity, generates enthusiasm and deliver success. They are genuinely empathetic toward people's needs and feelings and help them grow and become self actualized which solidifies trust and confidence in themselves, along with our transparency, and honesty. Do you want to learn more about how to create Without Frontiers by unleashing the power of creativity? Then consider getting CREATIVITY WITHOUT FRONTIERS: How to make the invisible visible by lighting the way into the future. It's available in print, digital and audio on all relevant book platforms. You have been listening to the Unknown Origins podcast please follow us subscribe rate and review us for more information go to unknownorigins.com Thank you for listening.