“Write what you know. Two black girls from South London wrote a book that resonates with
1000s of people around the world.”
– Elizabeth Uviebinené on 40 Minute Mentor
With a mission to raise aspirations and inspire the next generation of category-defining Founders — listeners can learn first-hand from today’s successful leaders what it takes to be brilliant, all in just 40 minutes.
‘We know people’ is the ethos that sets JBM apart. 40 Minute Mentor combines this people-first approach with something for everyone — whether you’re at the start of your career journey, have just founded a start-up, or want to learn from the wisdom of their brilliant guests.
Joining LinkedIn’s Top Voice for Careers, and Founder and CEO of JBM James Mitra on the podcast this week is Elizabeth Uviebinené, FT columnist, multi-award-winning author, and the Founder of Storia, a brand-new journaling platform.
In the interview, the pair discuss Elizabeth’s career journey from her early life in marketing, to feeling like she was being treated differently in the workplace and deciding to write Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible. Despite an early rejection, the book became a huge success.
Elizabeth shares some amazing advice for aspiring writers, saying that:
“My number one universal advice is to write what you know. I think that sometimes it’s easy to play into social media. What do you think people want? And I think we’ve all been trained to have this very click-bait attitude toward our own experiences. People are afraid to be niche and specific. But I think if you write, the more specific the experience, the more universal it is.”
Elizabeth also shares the importance of journaling in her life as she embarks on a new career
stage as a Founder.
“We are so plugged into other people’s points of view, be that on Twitter,
seeing other people’s image of themselves on Instagram. Essentially, there are very few places
where you can really tune into who you are, and nurture that at every point in your life. And I
think journaling has helped me do that.”
Guests in the upcoming season include:
- Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE.
- Graham Hobson – co-founder of Photobox.
- Molly Johnson-Jones – co-founder and CEO of Flexa.
- Sho Sugihara – CEO of Pave.
- Amali de Alwis – CEO of Subak.
- Ian Hogarth – CEO of Songkick, founder of Plural Platform.
- Nikki Wicks (live) – CEO of The Body Coach.
- Job van der Voort – Co-Founder & CEO of Remote.
- Simone Maini – CEO of Elliptic.
- Joe Robinson – CEO of Defence and Security at Improbable
40 Minute Mentor is available on Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, and all major podcast platforms. This series is sponsored by Alchemist.
About James Mitra
James Mitra is the Founder of JBM, an award-winning executive search firm working with some of the fastest-growing Tech Startups & Scaleups in the world. The host of 40 Minute Mentor, one of the UK’s most popular business and career podcasts, James is passionate about making business mentorship accessible to everyone. He has also been recognised as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices for Careers and sits on the board of not-for-profit and public sector recruitment firm, Ivy Rock Partners and a Consumer Impact focused accelerator, Unrest.
