Shona Langridge: shares an international voyage of self discovery, from developing business across automotive, sports marketing and the charity sector to becoming the most complete version of herself practising and teaching yoga.

After working in the corporate sector for nearly 30 years (in varying sales and marketing roles), Shona decided to take a completely different career path and step into the world of yoga.  It took her a little while to navigate the transitions, but after 8 years of teaching yoga full time, she tells me that it feels completely natural to have taken that step change that combines a vocation with a passion.

She teaches a variety of different yoga styles, including: bikram, vinyasa, yin, pilates and HIIT.

She says, "We all have to start somewhere and there is never any ending to where Yoga can take you… I've come to believe that everything we do in our lives is some form of Yoga. There are always ways to grow and develop and this practice allows us to see ourselves as we truly are. It transcends the physical and marries together emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing."

In our conversation we also talk about her corporate career journey that included a period with Rover Corporate Finance and Alphabet when that business was in its infancy. We talk about her time working for Alan Pascoe, the elite athlete, and other high flying international roles in sports marketing  and, with this episode recorded in the week that the world mourns the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, we hear a first hand account of Shona's personal encounter with the great man.

Shona is a beautiful soul who has had a quite extraordinary career journey filled with experiences that can offer insights to us all. I am extremely proud and excited to be able to introduce her to you in this episode.

And if, after getting to know Shona through our conversation, you want to do some yoga with her you can contact her at www.ShonaLangridge.yoga

If you enjoy listening to my guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app. 

You can also contact Shona via LinkedIn

Why not follow us on Instagram @careerviewmirror where you can see a directory of all our episodes and comment on those you have enjoyed?

This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by Aquilae. 

Aquilae's mission is to enable Fulfilling Performance in the auto finance and mobility industry, internationally. Adopting our Fulfilling Performance Paradigm helps you identify what steps you need to take to enable Fulfilling Performance for yourself, your team and your business. Contact cvm@aquilae.co.uk for a no obligation conversation about your situation.

Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

Episode recorded on 1 September 2022

Transcript

Shona Langridge: 0:00

Just remember what you learned back back in that first job Shona and try and be the boss that you wanted to have when you were 22, 23

Andy: 0:09

Welcome to Career-view Mirror the automotive podcast that goes behind the scenes with key players in the industry looking back over their careers so far, sharing insights to help you with your own journey. I'm your host Andy Follows.

Shona Langridge: 0:40

Shona Langridge listeners. After working in the corporate sector for nearly 30 years in varying sales and marketing roles, Shona decided to take a completely different career path and step into the world of yoga. It took her a little while to navigate the transitions but after eight years of teaching yoga full time, she tells me that it feels completely natural to have taken that step change that combines a vocation with a passion. She teaches a variety of different yoga styles, including Bikram, Vinyasa, Yin, Pilates, and HIIT. She says, we all have to start somewhere, and there's never any ending to where yoga can take you. I've come to believe that everything we do in our lives is some form of yoga. There are always ways to grow and develop and this practice allows us to see ourselves as we truly are. It transcends the physical and marries together emotional, mental, and spiritual well being. In our conversation, we also talk about her corporate career journey that included a period with Rover Corporate Finance and Alphabet when that business was in its infancy. We talk about her time working for Alan Pascoe, the elite athlete, and other high flying international roles in sports marketing. And with this episode recorded in the week that the world mourns the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, we hear a first hand account of Shona's personal encounter with the great man. Shona is a beautiful soul who has had a quite extraordinary career journey filled with experiences that can offer insights to us all. I'm extremely proud and excited to be able to introduce her to you in this episode. And if after getting to know Shona through our conversation, you want to do some yoga with her, you can contact her at Shonalangridge.yoga. If you enjoy listening to my guests career stories, please follow Career-view Mirror in your podcast app.

Aquilae Academy: 2:45

This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by the Aquilae Academy. At the Academy, we turn individual development into a team sport. We bring together small groups of leaders from non competing organisations to form their very own academy teams. We build strong connection between team members and create a great environment for sharing and learning. We introduce the team to content that can help them tackle their current challenges. And we hold them accountable for take the actions that they decide are their priorities. We say we hold our team members feet to the fire of their best intentions. We do this internationally with teams across the world. If you'd like to learn more about the academy, go to www.aquilae.co.uk

Andy: 3:31

Hello, Shona and welcome. And where are you coming to us from today?

Shona Langridge: 3:36

Hello, beloved Andy. I am here in Wimbledon, in London, sitting in my living room as happy as happy can be to connect with you.

Andy: 3:47

Very good. Thank you very much. You're so so welcome. Where did your journey start? Where were you born?

Shona Langridge: 3:53

Oh, my goodness. We're taking me back now. So I was born in Baghdad, in Iraq. 55 years ago. My parents were working in Baghdad. My father was a civil engineer, my mother, a nurse. And because of his work, they were shipped off to Iraq. And me and my brother were both born there.

Andy: 4:19

Wow. I'm sure people will have been hooked right from Baghdad. You're definitely my first guest born in Baghdad. So you mentioned mum and dad and you had a sister as well. Brother. Sorry. So how long did you stay in Baghdad?

Shona Langridge: 4:36

Brother Yeah, so we kind of came and went. We lived in the first sort of tranche, first five, six years we lived in Baghdad. And then because of my father's work, we were moved to Jordan, to Afghanistan back in the day when it was a beautiful place to live. And then we came back to Iraq in later life when I was about 10, 10 to 12. And so yeah, I lived most of my formative years in the Middle East and the Far East, and eventually eventually ended up back in the UK when I was 12. So yeah.

Andy: 5:18

Wow. So first 12 years of your life out there in the Middle East. And how, well can I just ask them what nationality were your parents or are your parents?

Shona Langridge: 5:30

Yeah, so no, my, my, my father is a real explosive combination. My father was from Belfast. And my mother was Armenian, born in Iraq. So it was actually coincidental that my mother, my mother, and father married and met in London. And it was coincidental because of my father's work that they were sent back to Iraq, which is where she originally was born and brought up herself. And so yeah, me and my brother spent the first years of our lives in the Middle East, which is beautiful. We had a really privileged I guess and very loving and adventurous childhood, we travelled all over the Middle East, we travelled all over the Far East with my parents, obviously, because of the work we were moving locations every kind of two to three years. So it was very exciting as a child actually yeah, but like everything it has, its it has its pros and cons. But we can talk about that later. Yeah, it'll be interesting how that has impacted you in later life, which is why I like to start at the very beginning to understand what was the situation and if there was any kind of trajectory if you like that you were on what what might it have looked like? It must have made it easier I imagine that your mum was from Iraq when you went to Baghdad, so the integration into Baghdad the first time must have been helped by your mum being a native if you like. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, there's just so many funny

Andy: 6:59

At the end of these episodes, I always say to my stories about because obviously, she she spoke Arabic, she spoke Armenian, she spoke Turkish, she she spoke Syrian, she was very, very much a linguist. And my father was very much the engineer and the scientist. And so the two of them together was quite an eclectic mix. And all her family so my aunt's, my uncle's, my cousins, all the Armenian family lived in lived in Iraq. So we were very lucky to be able to be integrated into that culture. Although we went to an international school me and my brother, we had a really good mix of the International lifestyle of kind of mixing at school with with kids from all over the world. And then also having the grounding I suppose of being you know, with our with our family, and our cousins and, and speaking speaking Armenian, speaking Arabic, you know, whatever it is, which unfortunately, I can't remember. But yeah, it was, it was a really lovely, lovely upbringing in that respect, it was very grounding too. listeners, you are unique, when I'm when I'm saying you are unique, and different aspects of Shona's story will resonate with you. But I'm just thinking this really is unique to be almost an expat, if you like living an expat lifestyle, but with your family and cousins, and it's quite extraordinary.

Shona Langridge: 8:26

Absolutely. I remember, you know, I've always considered myself British. But at this point, up until 12 years old, I'd never been to England, or maybe just for like, a week or so on holiday or something. So, yes, it was. And I remember, you know, lots of lots of school friends used to actually not live with their parents, the parents would be working in the Middle East, but they would be in boarding school in the UK. And I always remember thinking, that was really sad. Because I, I loved having that family and being with my parents, my parents had the choice to send us to boarding school, but they, they wanted us to be with them. They wanted us to, to grow up in that in that multicultural environment. And so you know, other friends that would just come for summer holidays, you know, there was definitely, definitely a different energy around them. But I think it was it made us or made me a lot more flexible, a lot more able to integrate into different situations because we were constantly moving. And I know you've, you've travelled a lot yourself, it takes a bit of adjusting and kids are very good at adjusting. And I think that was a really lovely tool to have to have as a young child to be able to be integrated into different cultures and appreciate them for what they are and that definitely set me in good stead for the future.

Andy: 9:49

Yeah, thinking about you moving around those countries at that age. What a shame it would have been if you hadn't been there with your parents if you'd been missing out on all that, all that variety and as you say all those cultural differences. So touching on the cultural differences, let's have this as a little lighthearted question, if you like, Are there thinking about having a father from Belfast and a mother who's Armenian, what are the sort of stereotype characteristic cultural differences there? And how do they come to you know, what do you think about what you've that you've got from your father's side and from your mother's side? Not and I'm not talking about the nature versus nurture? I'm just talking, you know, not sort of your DNA if you like, but just some of the country characteristics, do you spot some?

Shona Langridge: 10:39

That is just such an awesome question I have to say it really is. And, and interestingly, the more I reflect on it, as I've got older, actually, there's probably more similarities than differences, interestingly enough, and one of the one of the key things from the Irish perspective is this kind of a light heartedness, you know, this, this joviality, like, the Irish have this amazing ability, no matter what the situation, no matter how tough it can be, they interject a bit of humour. And that just changes everything. It changes the atmosphere, it changes the way people approach things, the way people think. The Armenians are a bit different, they're a little bit more serious about those sorts of things. So that that was one of the big key differences. My mum was, was really very serious about, you know, there's an expression in Armenian actually, which I'll obviously say it in English, but in Armenian, they say, even if you're eating bread and onions at home, tell everybody outside that you're having a feast every day. So in other words, you know, you never really tell people the truth of what's happening inside of your house, inside of your relationship, what's really going on, because it's all about faith. It's all about showing that everything is good, you know, you're having a feast every day. The Irish on the other hand, just tell it as it is, just say it as it is, you know, if you're eating bread and onions, just tell them you're eating bread and onions. And that that was that was an interesting dynamic growing up, because my dad was all about telling the truth, not lying, being authentic, coming from the heart. My mum, whilst she had that element, because of the cultural thing, and this is the biggest difference was Don't tell anybody what's really going on. Just hide the truth, cover everything up, tell everybody everything's okay. And, and then just Yeah, I mean, essentially lie. I mean, you know, as a child, it was an interesting thing to see the two differences.

Andy: 12:41

Did she find your father a bit frustrating then?

Shona Langridge: 12:45

Totally, totally. Are you kidding me? They used to argue like cat dog, but they were married for nearly sixty years. So something something must have gone right.

Andy: 12:55

I just think I'm picturing it, wonderful, wonderful. My eyes are wide open imagining watching the two of them interacting.

Shona Langridge: 13:06

You know, my Yeah, I mean, my mum was explosive in her in her emotions, and she would shout them, because that's the Armenian culture. Everything is about shouting and big. My dad was very quiet, very grounded, very stable, very sensitive. And he would say, we would sit around the table with all the Armenian cousins and uncles and everything and everybody's shouting. It's like, everybody's talking. Nobody's listening. My dad, my dad was saying, My God Shona, Shona or Alice, my mom, you know, what do you want arguing about? And she would stop and she'd go, What do you mean, you argue, we're not we're just talking.

Andy: 13:44

It just looked like an argument.

Shona Langridge: 13:46

It was very, it was very Middle Eastern. It was very, very much like the Italian kind of the Italian or the or the, you know, the Mediterranean way of being you know, loud, loud. But don't tell the truth.

Andy: 14:00

So, I'm thinking in a moment, I'm going to ask you what it was like to be 12 years old landing in the UK, pretty much for the first time, as someone who considered themselves British. First of all, though, school, international schools that you went to tell us a little bit about that. Did you enjoy school, what sort of a student were you?

Shona Langridge: 14:22

International School. Yes. In Afghanistan, in Jordan, in Iraq, we were always in an international school. The two main languages were either well, mostly English, but some some French as well. I loved school, I actually enjoyed school. I was quite a little creep actually, I was a bit of a bit of a little swot, although I wasn't particularly good at school, like I, you know, I would work really hard and not to much avail. You know. My brother, my brother, on the other hand, was the scientist and the bright one and the very, very kind of, you know, he could read something once and just get it. I've never ever been like that I've always had to work very hard to to understand and I have to read things 2, 3, 5 times, whatever to just get it. And, and I really enjoyed being at school. I mean, our lifestyle was was was wonderful, you know, we would have school in the morning from like, eight till two and then we'd have the rest of the afternoon to go to the pool and swim and do all these wonderful things.

Andy: 15:31

Were there particular subjects that you leaned towards when you were at school?

Shona Langridge: 15:35

Definitely, definitely the language, the language side, maths was a complete and utter mystery to me, it was like, it was like a quagmire of evil. Maths and sciences, science I struggled with, but but the languages, anything creative, whether it was you know, sort of music dance, yeah, English, reading that kind of thing. I really enjoyed that side of it.

Andy: 16:04

Lovely. Let's just talk about your brother for a moment. Was he older or younger than you?

Shona Langridge: 16:09

He's actually less than a year older than me. So for 11 days we are the same age, believe it or not, but he is he is older. Yeah.

Andy: 16:17

Right. Right. And did travelling together as a family, how did that affect your relationship with him?

Shona Langridge: 16:23

We have a really good relationship, we always have done and we've always been very, very close. In fact, I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say, I'm 55, he's 56, we never had an argument. Like we've disagreed. We don't always like what the other person has to say. But it's a very healthy discussion. You know, we've never physically argued in terms of, you know, you know, you hear about siblings falling out, and they don't talk to each other for 10 years. And I couldn't imagine that he's, he's a very special person to me. Definitely. Yeah. A very good man. What's his name? Zareh. It's the name of an Armenian King. So yeah, he's he's a he's a he's a really special special bloke actually.

Andy: 17:10

That's lovely. Well, the reason I asked his name just because if he does listen to this there's a little, you know, he gets a mention

Shona Langridge: 17:15

Well, yeah, I hope he realises how much I love him. But there you go. I do tell him though, I do tell him. Although probably not enough

Andy: 17:25

So there you are 12 years old, coming back, or coming to the UK. What can you remember from that? What did that feel

Shona Langridge: 17:34

Do you know, it's really interesting when you like? just said that one image just popped into my head. And I remember being very excited, because basically, the reason my parents decided to come back to the UK was for, for our education for me and my brother, because there was only a certain point that we could get to in the Middle East. And they decided that they wanted us to have a really sort of proper education in the UK that, you know, not that the education was bad, but it was, you know, proper O levels, A levels, all that stuff back in the day. So they made the decision to come back. We could have easily stayed in the Middle East. But I remember landing, we came by car, my dad would have, we'd go on these amazing trips through Europe and used to drive all the way through Europe. He drove from England to Afghanistan, amazing journeys of self discovery and adventure as a child. And I remember we, we ended up in Dover. And it was, it was a horrible day. It was raining, it was it bearing in mind, we'd lived in the Middle East pretty much all our lives and it was beautiful sunshine. And I remember this image of gosh it's freezing, it's really cold. And I saw this young girl that looked about my age, walking through the streets of Dover, and she had beautiful, beautiful rosy cheeks. And I was like, I want rosy cheeks like that. I don't want to be brown, I want rosie cheeks, you know. And I remember that. And. And then yeah, it was very exciting to be coming back to the UK, because again, it was it was part of that. Oh my gosh, it's a new place to live. Oh, because we were so used to oh, we're moving here. Oh, we're moving there. So it was it felt like it was another new adventure. I didn't think we were going to stay here for the rest of our lives. But anyway, that's where we ended up and we we ended up settling in Cambridge, because that's where my dad's head office was for his company. So that's why we ended up in Cambridge.

Andy: 19:32

And what was it like then going to school in the UK with, I'm guessing not much cultural, you know, cultural references. You wouldn't have known what was on TV for the last 12 years, or any of the things that kids were talking about. Was that

Shona Langridge: 19:48

Yeah, it's really interesting you say that. I mean, I did struggle a bit actually when we first came back, and that's because I remember when we were in Iraq, in the international schools, you know, everybody was very inclusive, and very open. Because everybody was in the same boat. We were all expats in a multicultural school, you could be next to Japanese or, or Ugandans, or whatever it was, it was it was really normal. When we, when I came back to Cambridge, it was very small. And I remember the thing, and I don't mean that negatively, but it was just in terms of the way of thinking. So all the kids that I went to school with bearing in mind, I was 12, I was in the first year, whatever, nobody even knew where Iraq was. They thought the Iraq was part of India. And they thought that we were somehow different. And they treated us that way, me and my brother and we got bullied for a while, especially my brother, because I was a bit more loudmouth and a bit more bolshie, I kind of pushed it off. But it did, it did definitely affects me, because, for example, I mean, I know it's a strange thing to say in these times. But back in 1978, when we came back, you know, it was to be slightly different coloured skin, which I am because I'm, you know, it was really odd. And people would tease me about that. And as a 12 year old, that was really hurtful. I didn't understand it, because we we'd lived all our lives in this cultures of mixed and you know, being everything was accepted. It didn't seem to matter. So it was, it was hard to adjust at school. And yeah.

Andy: 21:34

Yeah, thank you for sharing that Shona. I um, it makes me wonder how much it helped having spent the very formative years in a very accepting culture where the colour of your skin was never a topic or never even noticed because as you say, you were sitting between Ugandan, Japanese all different cultures represented, hopefully gave you some, you know, solid foundation if you like, before you were exposed to this rather odd new behaviour at age 12 of people finding it difficult to deal with. Thank you for that. So academically you mentioned you used to work very hard, not always, you said to no avail, or too little avail, how did you how did second secondary school play out for you?

Shona Langridge: 22:26

Yeah, I mean, secondary school actually was, you know, again, I carried on the theme of working really hard. And it was interesting dealing with that kind of with that dynamic of of adjusting to, to being back, but it did seem very natural because obviously English was always our first language so it's not like we had problems with language or anything. So yeah, I enjoyed school. I really did. I ended up being made head girl at you know, secondary school and all that stuff. I mean, you know, considering considering I was the fat one, and the dark one

Andy: 23:02

Look at that. So throw in you throw in that you were head girl, so there's a little bit of a veil there if you can use the word in that way. But then you quickly you quickly have to tell us you were fat as a

Shona Langridge: 23:17

I was Andy, I was super fat child. And I think that didn't help coming back to the UK because everybody was super thin. No, I think I think I did. I did struggle at school in terms of that first little bit but then I think again, we went on to do all the O levels by the way, which I failed. I took 10 I failed most of them to start with and I had to resit them. Yeah, that's what I mean about about being you know, working really hard. Yeah, so I took 10 O levels failed five of them, resat five and got them all the next time, which was fine, but it was like you know, it was it was hard work. it was oh crumbs, here we go again. Yeah.

Andy: 24:04

And and then you went on to do A levels.

Shona Langridge: 24:06

I did that was in Cambridge. At Hills Road. Sixth form. Yeah, with it was French, French, German and Geography is what I did for A level

Andy: 24:16

And how did you do there?

Shona Langridge: 24:18

Yeah, I got through it.

Andy: 24:20

Good. Okay. Well, we don't need to

Shona Langridge: 24:23

We don't need we don't need to keep talking about my

Andy: 24:25

No, no, no, no, I think you've given enough there. Thank you. Did you know when you left school, did you know what you wanted to do? Or to what extent did you know what you wanted to

Shona Langridge: 24:35

No, not really. I from from when I was a kid I do? wanted to be everything from a ballerina to an astronaut. I mean, and everything in between. I mean, I kept chopping and changing. I wanted to be a therapist, a psychologist, a you know, you name it. And then when I was at what happened was when I was doing my A levels, I got involved in something called the Young Enterprise scheme which was back in the day, it was about trying to encourage young people to set up their own businesses and to run a business for a year to see what it's like to be in business. So there was a group of there was five of us,

Andy: 25:10

So you went to Business School in London, did it seemed we set up this business and we ran it, like it was a business, you know, you had an MD and marketing director, a financial director, etc, we had to come up with a product, we had to market it, sell it, you know, do all the accounting and everything else. And then at the end of the year, obviously put the company into liquidation. So when I was involved in that, it formulated this sort of interest in in business marketing. And it was only then that I thought, actually going to business school might be quite a nice idea. So after I did my A levels, I ended up going into the European Business School, which is based out of City University in London. And that's really where it all started. So yeah. like a good fit? You'd thought that would be something based on your experience at school with the enterprise group, you thought that would be a good experience. And did it live up to your expectations?

Shona Langridge: 26:10

Definitely. I mean, it was a four year four year course with French and German. So it was International Business Studies with French and German. So I spent a year working in France, a year working in Germany within a business context. So I had to find jobs in various companies. So at the time in Germany, for example, I worked for Philips within their marketing team. So I just spent time understanding what it's like to work in a, in a company with the knowledge that we have through through studying. So and also, again, in that school, there were people there from all over the world. So it got back to that international context. And it just seemed to mesh with me a bit better. So yeah

Andy: 26:56

Yeah, I can imagine that feeling somewhat liberating to get back out into an international environment again, and you'd be able to leverage your language skills would give you a solid foundation for your degree course and help you.

Shona Langridge: 27:10

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it was, yeah, it was it was it was fantastic. And met some really, really special people that I'm still in touch with today. So you know, it was a, it seemed to yeah, as I said, as you said, it's really integrated the the international idea of travel, but also with the business context, and and also the languages. So yeah.

Andy: 27:33

And when you came to the end of that, and started going out into the workplace proper, what happened then?

Shona Langridge: 27:39

Yeah, I had to sort of go out and get a proper job. And that was a bit nerve racking. So the first ever job I got after I graduated was actually in Germany, working for RTZ, which was a Rio Tinto Zinc, which was a big mining company. And it was only a year's contract. So I went out and lived and worked in, in Germany for a year, which again, I really wanted to do, because it consolidated that language aspect, and also gave me some experience internationally.

Andy: 28:11

So you'd already done a placement in Germany, so you were fairly comfortable about going out there.

Shona Langridge: 28:16

Yeah, I actually loved Germany, I really wanted to stay in Germany, and I felt really comfortable, much more comfortable about being in Germany than actually, funnily enough being in the UK or in France. So it was it was really, it's really interesting. I, yeah, I

Unknown: 28:31

had

Andy: 28:32

Why was that do you think, what made that more comfortable?

Shona Langridge: 28:34

I just think that the people that I spent time with, I think I really loved the language. I think I think that the Germans, the Germans have a very efficient way of working, which which we know about through our time at BMW Group, but they might, you know, for example, working with certain cultures, you know, they might not ask as many questions, but they'll promise to get things done, I think, I think with the Germans, you know, they'll they'll ask specific questions and might take longer to get things done. But actually, you know it's going to be it's going to be right to the end of the day. And I liked that way of working. It was It taught me a lot. Yeah.

Andy: 29:14

So first job out of university in Germany with RTZ, one year contract, that didn't faze you either. And what happened at the end of that?

Shona Langridge: 29:24

Well, at the end of that, I tried to find another job in Germany and that didn't work. And I thought, Okay, nevermind, and they didn't want to extend the contract because things were changing in the organisation, so that's fine. So I just came back to the UK and found myself working for a promotional agency down in Andover, which was probably honestly the worst job I've ever had in my entire life. And I took it, I took it, why did I take it? I took it a because I needed a job and b because I needed the money. And it was it was hideous Andy, it was absolutely hideous. And it was the first time I've ever worked for a woman. And I thought, oh my god, I hate working for women. And I thought if I ever become a boss of a team or whatever, I want to do this differently. She was bullying. She was scary. It was a Yeah.

Andy: 30:27

Is that what made it such a bad job? The leadership?

Shona Langridge: 30:31

Yeah, I think it was, it was the leadership. It was the style. It was the and you know,it was a sales job. And so they were very, very heavy on the targets. And if we didn't meet the targets, I mean, people would literally shout at me in the corridor. And there was, and there was this level of anxiety that was, that I just never experienced before. I mean, how old I was, I was, I was 23. And at 23 what do you know? We think we know everything don't we at 23. But we don't know anything. And I thought it was okay to be treated this way. Because I didn't know really, I mean, I'd obviously had a job before, but I didn't really know, the first job I'd really had in the UK. And I thought God, so I stuck it out and wanted to prove them wrong. And it just went from bad to worse, bad to worse. So eventually, I actually they made me redundant in the end after about nearly two years. So they made me redundant. And I at time I was really affected by that, because I really wanted to make it work. I wanted to stick it out, it was that kind of work ethic of working hard, but wanting to make it work. And so I was quite gutted by that, actually, that they didn't want me.

Andy: 31:47

Can we just, I just want to, sorry, I just want to interject, because what's interesting there is how our inner drive or desire to work hard and to succeed at things can can make us stay and do things even when actually the environment's wrong, and the way things are being done is wrong. But we don't know enough about that. So we just stay in the bad place if you like

Shona Langridge: 32:11

Absolutely, and there was a lot of fear as well, Andy around that, you know, there was fear of coming back to my mom, you know, don't tell people what's really going on, there was a lot of fear about having to admit that I couldn't do the job, a fear that, you know, everybody else around me seemed to have jobs that were doing really well. And I you know, from university, but I was the one that was seemed to be in this job that was struggling. So I didn't want to admit that. And so I wanted to make it work. And there was a lot of fear. But that fear kept me so stuck and so crippled, I wouldn't admit to my parents, I wouldn't admit to my friends that I was really hating this, this job. And I could I could feel it was affecting my health, like inside, you know, it just wasn't healthy. And yet, I didn't want to admit that I was not doing a good enough job. Or should I say I wasn't doing the job that they wanted me to do. And the fear stick, the fear keeps us stuck. And I think it was Einstein that said, you know, we create, we create our own prison cells of comfort. And I'm not saying I was comfortable, but I was what I'm saying is I stayed stuck there because I was fearful of moving on, because I just didn't think I'd be able to find anything else.

Andy: 33:25

Yeah, which looking back now you know that that wasn't a good environment. But it just shows at the time you can accept it or not know enough to be able to get yourself out.

Shona Langridge: 33:37

I thought my life was coming to an end you know, when they made me redundant thinking, Oh, God, gosh, you know

Andy: 33:44

So you saw it as your failing

Shona Langridge: 33:46

I thought as my failing and that's an interesting thing, because I think that's a theme of of me and my characteristics of I tend to self blame rather than looking maybe outwardly at the role that maybe other people play in, in a situation that isn't quite going according to plan. So I'll always take it on myself as it's, it's my fault. And that's something that I've learned and I've had to work with over a period of time. So yeah, they made me redundant. And I thought oh crumbs, what am I going to do? So I ended up going back to stay with my parents in Cambridge, and had a couple of months off.

Andy: 34:29

Just to regroup

Shona Langridge: 34:30

Regroup. And then I found myself this most incredible job working for Alan Pascoe, who was the Olympic hurdler, 400 metre hurdler and he set up his own sports marketing agency in central London in Covent Garden. And so I was employed as their kind of head of sell what do you call, sponsored development. So to basically to, to find corporate sponsors to sponsor sports events and art events, or whatever it is that we had to have sponsored. So that was a totally different sector to get into.

Andy: 35:14

So that sounds like a job, that would have been a sales job. And yet you said you sort of apparently hadn't succeeded at sales in the previous organisation? Help me make? Yeah, go on. How did you get that job? What made you think that you know, and I know how good you are at sales, so this is sort of also going to come up later. But how did you get that job? What was your mindset having thought you'd failed previously? How was this going to be different? Just talk a little bit about that please

Shona Langridge: 35:55

Yeah, that's a really that's a really good question. Because I think I, after when I went to Cambridge, and kind of to lick my wounds, after being made redundant. Obviously, I had to give myself a little bit of a talking to and I just thought, Well, what what is my skill set, and I really had to regroup and think about what it is that I'm good at. And what I realised was that, you know, I'm good at relationship building relationships, I'm good at chatting to people, I'm good at understanding different organisations and trying to try and fit things together that that might not necessarily be obvious, but just try and meet people's needs through to finding a solution to what they're looking looking for. And I thought, well, yeah, so whether you, whether you call it sales or not, I mean, ultimately, it is a sales job because you're building relationships, you're you're trying to raise money for a particular event. But to me, it was the people that made the difference. So what I really recognised was it it wasn't that I was bad at sales, it was the product that I was working with. And it was the people that I was working with. And that clearly was a job that needed to teach me something. And that's what it taught me, it taught me that actually, yeah, it's a to be a bit more confident in my own ability, b to stand up for myself and not be bullied and c, yeah, that I can do sales. So rather than sales, I'd say business development, which I think is a slight, slightly different, different thing. So So I got the job. Basically, I just applied through through an agent and had a couple of interviews with them. And the job was to work originally, on the international side working on international events, which is what I really wanted to do, I didn't get that job, but they gave me a job working for events in the UK. And that was probably probably the best thing that could have happened, because it it grounded me a bit more, you know, I had this kind of image of I had to travel around the world and do all these exciting things. Actually being in the UK and, you know, I would go into companies, talk about their marketing objectives, and then create events around what they using sponsorship, but not necessarily sport, could be art or music, sponsorship, whatever it was to meet the objectives of that particular product and brand that they wanted to market. So it was a really creative, creative way of working.

Andy: 38:27

There's so much in there.

Shona Langridge: 38:30

Good luck with that.

Andy: 38:33

I'd like to just pause a moment and think what did I love about that? The description of what sales actually is, and that paradigm that you have that well, it's about building, creating relationships, and identifying challenges that people face, problems they have that you can solve and helping them to solve it. And as soon as you have that paradigm about sales, I think it gets an awful lot less scary, and allows you to be a lot better at it than potentially if you don't have that paradigm. The other thing I loved was the way you refered to that job in Andover as it taught you something it was obviously there to teach you something as if there was kind of a inevitability about the journey or there's the design of your life journey and you have these things that come along to teach you something and that particular jobs role was to teach you certain thing.

Shona Langridge: 39:23

I think we have to look at life like that Andy and, you know, sometimes it's like anything, I wish I knew then what I know now, because I think, you know, we can learn anything from any situation. We can learn anything from any one if we choose to look at it that way. And, you know, we can we can beat ourselves up about our own ability, we can do whatever it is, but at the end of the day, it's about how we reframe our own experience. So, you know, I could look at that experience and say Oh, woe is me. I was made redundant. I'm I'm not good enough. And we just spiral or I could have spiralled into really struggling to get out of that. And it's like anything, it's just the way we reframe a situation. The same situation can happen to two different people and they'll always react differently. Do you know what I mean? It really is how we take those learnings on board.

Andy: 40:25

So, you learned from that. What did you learn from working for Alan Pascoe, then elite athlete, very successful, highly competitive individual, what did you learn from working for him?

Shona Langridge: 40:39

Well, actually, that that organisation really was the sort of the springboard into a kind of a different Shona in a way because they were the antithesis of this other company that I just worked for. Like, I don't mean this in an arrogant way. But I just never ever seemed to be doing anything wrong. Like everything, everything was Shona's amazing Shona can do this. Let's give that to Shona. Shona can develop that. I was like wow. And then suddenly, you know, that's what I mean about it's about the people, and believing and working together as a team and people believing in each other, that we all had this same purpose of an event to sell, or whatever it was, it was we were working on the European Athletics Championships, for example, well, you know, that's a that's a global event, you know, so we all have this common goal that we have to work towards. And there was this sense of togetherness, the sense of, yeah, we can do this. And if something doesn't work, well, let's find a way of doing it. And that's an incredible thing of how I learned, you know, they will really strong on that team building and teamwork. And just to go back slightly about what you said about sales, it was really interesting, because as part of that, I was with them for seven years. And they sent me off to their office in the US to work on a number of different projects, which was fantastic to work in the US. And the US have a very different approach to sales, you know, sales is a profession, for the Americans. They love that word sales, if you're a sales person, they love it. So that taught me something different as well, you know, it was like, Well, I don't have to kind of be embarrassed about being in sales or business development, whatever you want to call it. It's okay. You know, it's like, it's, it's, it's a respectful place. It's respectable. And then again, that's opened up that whole kind of international career path of working in a different country, again, working on with different attitudes. And that was phenomenal. Yes. So that was a really important part.

Andy: 42:49

That's wonderful. And what a great opportunity to have that after what you'd had, and to see how teams can be built, and how you can build confidence. You just made me wonder why do we have in the UK an attitude towards sales or a perspective on sales that it's maybe not as respectable? I um, I don't know what sales people listening to this will be thinking whether there'll be disagreeing with me or not. But maybe

Shona Langridge: 43:18

I think a lot of it's a cultural thing as well. You know, it's like, we're kind of a little bit scared to ask for things in England, aren't we? It's like, I don't want to interrupt and I don't want to disturb anybody. I don't want to, you know, so I think it's I think it's a it's a cultural thing. You know, you don't want to get in the way, you don't want to seem overbearing, the Americans, for example, they don't care about any of that. And you know, no disrespect to any Americans that are listening as well. I love it. I think it's great. And I think we can learn a lot from that you know, just about being, it's about clarity, isn't it? Clarity, and simplicity are two words that are underrated, in my view. Just be clear. Keep it simple. Say what you mean, mean what you say and there's your sale. Be true to your word.

Andy: 44:07

Love it. That reminded me a bit of how you were describing how your dad liked to be as well.

Shona Langridge: 44:14

I know. Oh, I'm channelling my dad's energy.

Andy: 44:20

So you did seven years there got a little bit more international experience but huge confidence boost and saw a much much more wholesome better way of leading people and a better culture in an organisation so and then what came after that?

Shona Langridge: 44:37

Well, don't we all know what came next. What came next, was working for Alphabet, and working with Rover Corporate Finance. That was another experience that I have to say will will never ever leave me. It will never ever leave me and this is this is an example of what I mean about people believing and the difference people make. So I went to to be interviewed by Mike Baldry who at the head at the time was the head of Alphabet. And, you know, you have all these psychometric tests, you have all these, you know, math tests, this that test, interviews, interviews, interviews. Anyway, did all of that at Heathrow bearing in mind, I just flown in from the US from somewhere. So I was a bit jetlagged. Anyway, I did all these tests, and apparently, the maths one, which we know from what I've said before, the maths was just, it was, I think it was, it was the worst result he'd ever seen in any in any, in any interview, ever. And so he rang me up, and he said, Shona we actually can't believe that the maths result was so bad. Could you come in and do it again?

Andy: 46:00

It's you O levels, your O levels all over again.

Shona Langridge: 46:03

I was like, oh no. He said, I know you'd just come in from New York or something and you were you were jet lagged, we're just gonna give you another chance because we really like you, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I thought oh crumbs, here we go again, you know, talk about, you know, having to repeat this nightmare. Anyway, I went and did it again, and it was even worse. And so I just thought, Okay, I've really blown this, I've really blown this chance. But credit to that man, he he said, and this is what we were talking about earlier about characteristics and knowing the job that he wanted me to do, which was to build relationships with the Rover Group, and their corporate sales team, he said, this, this is something that you can do, we can teach you the maths bit, don't worry about it. So he against the grain of the HR team, because of course, HR, they have to tick boxes, they would have said, well, she's failed this exam twice. We can't We can't employ her. He insisted that, that well not insisted but you know what I mean, he encouraged them to offer me a position.

Andy: 47:09

I think insisted might have been ok

Shona Langridge: 47:12

Maybe insisted then. Mike, I hope you're listening to this if it hadn't been for you. Anyway, so I took on this role as one of the working with the Rover Group, and Rover Corporate Finance,

Andy: 47:25

What have I mean, that's one I do love that Mike was able to separate what was really important, and what are the really important characteristics to be able to do this job successfully, and we'll teach you the maths. So I can speak now from personal experience, because I have the absolute privilege and pleasure to sit opposite you. First of all, actually, I was still at Rover Cars when you joined. And so I was one of the team members that you were tasked with working with. But then subsequently, I moved across to Rover Corporate Finance and had the privilege and pleasure to sit opposite you. And I was in awe of your abilities as a relationship builder. I just thought you were amazing at it. And I remember thinking you could swan into an organisation at any level, there was no something I suppose we see in others the things that we are challenged by ourselves and you you didn't have any, as far as I could see, any notion of, of like hierarchy, if you like, not a negative you didn't have, you know, there are no barriers to you, someone's status did not prevent you from building a relationship with them and operating at a really good level within an organisation and I think for for salespeople, and for the people running sales teams, those people who can walk into that, you know, let's keep it automotive for for an example, if you can walk into if you're a field based person, you can walk into a dealership, and you're talking with the dealer principle not with you know talking at that level. And maybe they're they're a lot older than you or are certainly more senior in the organisation, that is an absolute, you know, golden behaviour to be able to have so I used to look at you and see how you were dealing with your customers and the level of people you were dealing with and how that you were the same with the same bubbly, vivacious, energetic laughing absolute ball of energy Shona. So was that just what you'd got out of being at Alan Pascoe and that's the way you that was Shona. This was the version of Shona that came out of Alan Pascoe was this

Shona Langridge: 49:37

Yeah, it was, and trust me, Andy, there was there was a lot of insecurity within all of that, because, as you know, the automotive industry is very male dominated. It's very male focused. And I did, I did feel intimidated without a doubt, without a doubt in certain scenarios. And I seem to have this ability to suppress that intimidation and somehow transfer that energy of fear of getting it wrong and not not be able to get the maths right into some positive. And what I realised was very, very quickly and I know you helped me a lot with this was that it's okay to say that I didn't know. It's okay.

Andy: 50:27

I was probably wandering round saying, I haven't gotten a clue.

Shona Langridge: 50:33

But it's okay not to know, do you know what I mean? And I always felt that I had to know the answer. Like I had not not not, I'm not talking necessarily in this specific job. I'm just talking generally. And as I progressed, I realised that when, when I and this was this happened a lot at Rover Corporate Finance, and at Alphabet. I didn't know the answer. And there was always somebody around that could help. And always, more importantly, willing to help. And that was phenomenal. And that was what was so special about our little team when we, when we were together, whether it was in the Rover Corporate Finance team, or whether it was in the wider Alphabet or BMW Group, there was a willingness to make it work or somehow find a way through. And that gave me this, perhaps air of okay, we can we can do that. But there was a lot of there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of, oh god, what am I doing, what am I doing? I'm talking about cars, I don't know anything about cars. So you know, there was there was a, there was a lot of that if I'm honest. And at the end of the day, my job was to fit pieces of a puzzle together and get people like, like you from a corporate sales perspective, whoever it was to work, and come up with a corporate client to come up with something that would make everything work together. And that's what we did.

Andy: 52:11

And you did it exceptionally well. It was a wonderful team spirit.

Shona Langridge: 52:15

It really was

Andy: 52:16

A great opportunity those years. What it made me think when you're describing is that that your situation there and how you were feeling inside versus the Shona that I saw, and was so much in awe of, was that inside, maybe you were eating bread and onions, but me looking on it was all champagne and oysters.

Shona Langridge: 52:37

It was a feast. I know right. Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. I mean, I think it taught me a lot. And I think one thing that that that time did teach me was that I don't have to act. I really don't. I mean, what you saw, what you saw was genuine. And I remember going home sometimes at night going God, you know, I really just don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. Why am I here? And I think we've all had those days in any job at some point, if we're honest. And as I said, I recognised that the skills that I could bring to it, were bringing people together, building the relationships, making it enjoyable, making it fun, and then somehow, everything else would would would fit in together. And it did. And it actually did.

Andy: 53:33

It absolutely did. And I remember you getting flowers delivered to the office one time because someone I'd found particularly challenging, a procurement head, I think he broken down or something and you'd rescued him and this bunch of flowers came in.

Shona Langridge: 53:51

Oh my goodness, Andy I don't even remember that.

Andy: 53:56

It's interesting, isn't it. We probably all remember different things about each other's journeys that some of us, you know, we've completely lost ourselves. Why did you leave Alphabet? And what did you go on to do?

Shona Langridge: 54:10

Well, I so I was there for four years. And again, it felt that times were changing the structure was changing, the dynamics within the industry were changing. And I thought that I had reached my level of, of max in terms of what I could contribute to the organisation. And one of the guys that I worked with at Alan Pascoe in, in London had moved to this organisation called IFL, which was based in Switzerland, which is another big sports marketing, global conglomerate. They market they market FIFA, the World Cup, the Formula One, ATP Tennis Tour, all about. So Nigel approached me and said, Would you like to come back into the sports marketing sector but you're going to be based in Switzerland. What a shame. So I went off to interviews there and, and basically got the job and left, left, moved to Switzerland to work specifically on World Athletics Championships, which was an amazing an amazing, to find sponsors for those events. But in the same building we were working on, you know, as I said, FIFA, the World Cup and global sports events like Formula One and the ATP tour. So yeah, I moved to Switzerland lived in Zug, which is in the German speaking part, which again, was very helpful because of my German experience. And as part of that, and, you know, and that was, that was great. That was exciting to me moving again, into a different culture, living in Switzerland, setting up, getting a new flat, and getting a car and I got a Freelander. And I was all very thrilled, because of, you know, the four by four connection with with BMW, it was it was it was brilliant. And then, as part of that job, they then sent me off to Hong Kong to live there for a year to work on the Asian Games, which was in Korea, the same year the World Cup was in Japan. So that was 2002. So I spent a year in Asia, working in Hong Kong, and travelling a lot backwards and forwards to Korea. And that was a really interesting experience, again, in terms of a woman in Asia, working with major corporate making presentations to the board of Samsung, or the board of they, they didn't there were some really funny stories that came out of that, you know, that they'd either think that I was the secretary or I was the translator. They didn't, they didn't appreciate that I was like the person that was actually running the meeting. So that was, again, a really good learning. A lot of a lot of funny things happened there, a lot of funny stories. I'm very happy to share one with you.

Andy: 57:08

Yeah, go on

Shona Langridge: 57:09

Well, I know I just never forget the time when we went we went, there was my my boss, Chris, and Nigel, this colleague of mine, and myself. And we all went and there were there was probably about 20 Samsung board members around. And I was the only woman there. So we turned up to their massive headquarters, it was absolutely insane. Never seen a building like it really. Anyway, we got in and then the Chairman said to Chris, right you can start the meeting now. And he said, he said, no, no, Shona, Shona's leading this presentation. And they all stop. They froze . They looked at each other. And they then they said, Okay, right. Okay, off you go. So I stood up, did the presentation, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, it all went very well. And, but it was cold, really cold. Like there was no warmth at all in terms of the but then as soon as the meeting finished, every single one of them came up to me and said, We want to take you for dinner. You must come out with us. They treated me like some kind of a long lost friend. So of course, they got these big limousines. We all traipsed in, 25 of us or whatever it was into these limousines. We went, we went through town we ended up in this in this amazing restaurant. And I swear to God Andy I was treated like a queen. So I was the only woman there. And they were chatting and they were they were just completely opposite. Then at 9pm there was this little tap on the shoulder. And they said Shona, you go now and I'm like what? They got me a cab, they got a limousine. They shoved me into the limousine. And I said to Chris, my boss, what's going on? He said, You've got to go Shona, you've got to go and I was like, what's going on? Anyway, what was going on was they were getting the girl out of the way that they did all go to a little girly bar and party with whisky, till like four o'clock in the morning, and they wanted me out of the way. So I was like, I missed all the fun. And so all of them traipsed off and I said to Chris and Nigel, could you please phone me when you get it. And so they phoned me like in the hotel at four o'clock in the morning when they got absolutely hammered because of course we had to buy everything for everybody all the whisky bottles and everything else you can imagine can't you, they spent a fortune on whisky, but I was shoved out of the way like like a little broken teddy bear. But yeah, that's Yeah. Funny. Funny story. Yeah. is a really special time actually again in Switzerland. Actually talking about stories, in honour of the incredible Mr. Gorbachev just passing away. Can I can I tell you a story of how I met Mr. Gorbachev in Switzerland.

Andy: 1:00:04

Ye s, absolutely.

Shona Langridge: 1:00:06

So, so while I was working for this company in Zug, a friend, a friend of mine was working for an organisation that was all about neutralising plutonium. So they had, they were going to do this big celebration of 50 kilos of plutonium that had been neutralised, which was obviously anti nuclear and all the rest of it. So they'd invited this was in 2002, or 2003, they invited to Switzerland, major people like Princess Karolina of Monaco, there was Gorbachev, there was Desmond Tutu, there was all these major leaders. And the idea was that there was this big celebration in this big hall of Russian, it was a Russian thing, and he worked for the Russian organisation. So the Russian Philarmonic was there and we had it was beautiful. We had a big black tie thing, we had all this music playing. But anyway, at this one point just before the whole thing started, they announced that we all have to go and sit down and there was their KGB agents everywhere, you know, literally, all wired up on their on their little, little headphones. So they were trying to usher us all in and I was like I said to my friend, Dan, I've got to go to the loo, I've gotta go to the loo. So really desperate. Anyway, so I'm trying to I'm trying to turn and the KGB agents, they're huge Andy, they they're like, nope, no, you've got to go in. You've got to, we've got to close the security, we've got to close the security. And I was like no, but I really need to go to the toile, this is actually desperate. And he said no, no, no. Then suddenly, literally, I felt this tap on my shoulder. And I turned around. And there he was, Mr. Gorbachev. And he said, because he could see I was struggling with this KGB agent. And he said, Madam, is there a problem? And I just looked at him Andy and I said, Mr. Gorbachev, I need to go to the toilet and he just looked at me. I said, I just I was in such shock. And he so he spoke to the KGB agent and the KGB agent said, You come with me. And I just looked at him and I said, Mr. Gorbachev, thank you. I mean, What? What? You can't make that story up. It's like, seriously, this world leader is worried about me going to the toilet. Anyway. So I I said thank you. And he just smiled because I don't know if you've watched any of the programmes about him but he really was such a playful like he was so play he laughed. He's I just couldn't believe I was the words I speak to this man are about going to the toilet. Anyway, the KGB man, ushered me to the toilet. He said you have one minute. I thought okay. So then he brought me back. He placed me in my seat. And that's the time I met Mr. Gorbachev. God rest his soul.

Andy: 1:03:04

Oh, dear. I am in tears here Shona, that is wonderful. I think that's possibly the best line, I think you'll be about my 80th episode. And I think the best line, at the moment, I cannot imagine one that Mr. Gorbachev, I need to go to the toilet.

Shona Langridge: 1:03:31

But he was so gentle Andy. This man, to me is a legend, absolutely an absolute legend. It's a shame he's anyway, it's a shame his country doesn't feel the same way. But the guy was inspiring. Anyway, the funny thing was, the event went off really, really well. And as I was walking out of the the auditorium, the KGB agent was there with his little headphones. And I said to him, can I take the flowers because they were these big flowers? I said, can I take the flowers? He goes, Oh my God. I said why don't you join us at the after party party. Anyway, the KGB agent ended up in the after party party with me and my flowers. Shame Mr. Gorbachev didn't come with me but nevermind.

Andy: 1:04:18

Classic Shona. This is what I was in awe of. There's more flowers you can see flowers back into the story. Amazing, amazing. Thank you for sharing that story. In fact, it's such a good story, I have no idea where to go from there. I have the simplest framework for these episodes. And I'm just thinking I suppose I just get back on this so well, there you were. I think we we possibly peaked there but Okay, back to the hard work Shona of telling us your story. So what happened? There you were, that was when you were based in Switzerland working for ISL and good lord

Shona Langridge: 1:05:08

Amazing experience. So obviously travelled, lived in Hong Kong for a year then came back to Switzerland, did various events. And then again, it's really interesting actually, because my whole life, I kind of thought, oh, I need, I want to live abroad, I want to live somewhere else. But I always keep gravitating back to England. So after four or five years there, I ended up coming back to the UK and got a job at, again, all business development related, but at an ad agency called Zoot and that was, again, on the business development side, it was an integrated agency. So from above line, all the way down to digital below the line. And, again, it wasn't my dream job at all, because it was just kind of doing a bit more of the same. But it was, and I should say, and it was the team of people there that really made it special. There was nothing defined about that job that I No, you can make a cheap comment about that, you know, a weak particularly but what was happening, by the time I got back into that agency world, I really started to begin to question why I'm repeating the same sort of job over and over again, this kind of development, and what's that all about? And is it really making me happy, and I really began to question, and that's really when things began to change, and moved me slightly into the more holistic kind of world of yoga. Because I started practising more yoga, I just began to meditate a lot more, because the sort of adrenaline filled jobs, just were just exhausting me. You know, there's only so many times you can, you know, go out and drink bottles of champagne and, and all the rest of it. It's, it gets quite wearing actually, joke about oh, you know, really, perhaps I should start What, drinking champagne all night

Andy: 1:07:07

No, no, yeah. We tackle the really tough stuff on this show. So was it while you were at Zoot then that you start doing yoga and meditation?

Shona Langridge: 1:07:20

Yes, it was. Yeah, I think that was just to deal with this anxiety of, you know, targets, hitting, doing things the right way, getting getting new clients in, because you know, business development is the lifeline to any business, really. And if new clients aren't coming in, then the business, of course, you have to look after your existing clients and at the end of the day, you still need a lifeline. So I began to really feel the pressure of really getting those new clients in. So yeah, I started meditating more, started going to yoga. And then I thought, Oh, I wonder if there's a way in which I can start looking at combining the marketing skills and the development skills in a different industry. So I started looking at doing, you know, looking at charity work, so I thought, well, at least, at least if the organisation I'm working for is doing something useful for the world, then that somehow makes makes the pain of the job or the struggle a little bit a little bit easier to deal with. So that's that was real, the real transition when I started transitioning into the charity sector, but still working in the marketing field. So I got a job working for the Lord's Taverners, which is a charity was based in London, using sport, which combines a sport heritage, I have spent most of my career in sport. So it's using sport as a platform to encourage kids with disabilities to engage them. My my job, again, was to develop the relationships with the corporates, to work with the charity and fund various programmes for charities working so using sport, to incentivize kids to get off the streets and, and also kids with disabilities to get into sport.

Andy: 1:09:03

I love how you've used your sports experience to help you get that job and do that job. And also, that bit about purpose where you know it's still going to be sales, it's still going to be challenging, and there's still gonna be the anxiety that you have around having to hit targets. However, will it feel better if the greater purpose of the organisation is something that's more meaningful, perhaps, and it will make it worth it'll almost be worth it because we're doing this for a really good cause.

Shona Langridge: 1:09:33

I mean, I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say, you know, there were I probably because I worked for three different charities, I ended up working for the Lord's Taverners World Vision, when I moved to Australia, and then coming back to the UK working for Water Aid. So there were three big global charities and I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say I probably worked harder for those charities than I did for any other corporate job. And it seemed to not matter, it seemed to somehow be okay to think that wow, you know, we're helping kids in Uganda or we're helping kids with disabilities have some semblance of a life, whatever that is using sport. So it really fulfilled something close to my heart, it really made me feel like I was contributing to something bigger than just somebody's bottom line.

Andy: 1:10:26

Beautiful, perfect. What you've just described then is you said you worked harder in those charities than you did for any corporate job that you had. And we know you would have worked extremely hard in those corporate jobs. And the level of discretionary effort that people will put in when they really care about what the organisation is doing is phenomenal. And you've just proved that.

Shona Langridge: 1:10:52

Absolutely. Yeah, the charity sector, at any level, whether you're BMD or you're, you're just a new graduate, people don't go into charity sector for the money. They do it because they believe in the purpose and they believe in what they're doing. And they want to do something useful. So I could see myself transitioning really strongly into something that felt ethically a little bit more in alignment and with integrity. I'm not saying I wasn't working with integrity in the other job. And I know that I wasn't really, because it never felt like there was that completion like it did within the charity sector

Andy: 1:11:38

It never felt like there was that completion. What do you mean by completion?

Shona Langridge: 1:11:41

Meaning that the job, the effort, the the, you know, everything was in alignment, how I felt within myself doing those jobs. Does that makes sense?

Andy: 1:11:52

It absolutely makes sense. It's wonderful. I love it. So it wasn't a whole, completely, it wasn't all just a holistic whole coming together. Because I was going to ask you, would you say you were performing at a high level in those charity roles? And by that, I mean, did you feel like you were really able to use a lot of your talent, intelligence, creativity and capability in those roles.

Shona Langridge: 1:12:20

Without a doubt. And it was, they were probably three of the most challenging jobs I've ever done, for different reasons. And as I said, it somehow felt that it was okay to have those challenges. It didn't grate on me, or it didn't, it didn't affect me like it did in the other corporate sectors, because I felt like there was a beautiful result at the end of it, somehow doing something better, the supporting people that were less fortunate, I think.

Andy: 1:12:52

So you were working incredibly hard with serious challenges. You were using a lot of your talent, intelligence, creativity and capability. There wasn't much left, kind of unused that you had. And how fulfilling was it?

Shona Langridge: 1:13:11

Beautifully fulfilling. Yeah, it really it really was it, it lifted it, it lifted, it was actually a pleasure to go into work. As challenging as it was. And interesting, coming back full circle to, to what I said at the beginning, where my first job was for this woman who was just hideous, I ended up managing a team of like, 20 people. And I remember thinking, I don't want to be the boss that she was, I want to be I want these youngsters that are in their first job to do a Career-view Mirror one day and say I loved my first boss, I want to do you know what I mean? And so that was a huge learning that was almost like full circle, like, yeah, just remember what you learned back back in that first job Shona and try and be the boss that you wanted to have when you were 22 or 23. And that was really special to me and to be able to cultivate and support new people and also what I did Andy was I employed all these people are much more intelligent than me. But they made me look good. They were brilliant.

Andy: 1:14:23

There's an advert for employing talent. But also

Shona Langridge: 1:14:29

But I think but I think that's a really important thing actually. I think people often people in management can sometimes be fearful of employing people that somehow they think, you know, they feel threatened by, by and I think that's not the right attitude. Personally, you know, nothing would please me more than to employ somebody that is really, that really knows their stuff and that that, you know, can can make them wants my job, basically. And that was a big shift in my own way of thinking and way of working because, you know, we can all be very fearful of our our little positions. And that's not going to help the greater good if that make sense?

Andy: 1:15:10

No, very another golden nugget. Thank you very much. You've also though just described in your time in those charity roles, fulfilling performance, the definition of fulfilling performance, which is my mission is to enable fulfilling performance. So that level of performance, where people are using all of their talent, intelligence, creativity and capability, they're performing at a really high level, and they're going home at the end of the day, feeling absolutely fulfilled by the work that they've done, so that they can be great all round partners, parents and human beings. And you've just given a beautiful, beautiful definition real life example of you doing that. You also in telling us that story casually dropped in which I loved, oh, yeah, that's when I moved to Australia. Which I didn't realise you'd moved to Australia. So can we just go back? How come you ended up in Australia? What was that?

Shona Langridge: 1:16:06

Oh, well, I ended up in Australia. So I was working for the Lord's Taverners. And then I had my partner, Chris, he got this job working for the Australian Submarine Corporation, based out of Adelaide. So we with his job, basically, we moved to Adelaide. And unfortunately, our relationship didn't, didn't last, and so I was like oh crumbs, well, what am I going to do, I'm in Australia, shall I shall I either come back to the UK, or I make the most of being in Australia. So I got myself a job in the charity sector working for World Vision, which is basically like the Red Cross of Australia. So it works in globally around sort of Africa, the Far East, building communities, and supporting communities. And again, it was it was working out of Sydney. So I moved from Adelaide to Sydney and lived in Sydney, basically, for four years on this job and I ended up travelling a lot to Africa specifically to work on the community projects that we were that we were finding sponsors for. Again, that was just really, really, really fulfilling to be in, in the middle of nowhere with people that have very little and yet seem to have this sense of grounding and happiness. And, again, very humbling, very humbling.

Andy: 1:17:36

Is this bringing back some memories.

Shona Langridge: 1:17:39

Yeah, it is. You know, what can I say? You know, we can, and I was like this, listen, I was like this, when I was in my teens in my early 20s, I wanted to be business woman of the year I wanted, you know, I wanted the Ferrari, I wanted to, you know, the six children with, you know, but actually, that's what I thought I wanted. And when when, when I went into these communities with people that have very little, and yet, they somehow kind of have more than we do. They have a sense of community, they have I mean, okay, they don't have, you know, the practical things that we have, but and we're supporting them, you know, but but just being able to go to school being to be educated, especially for girls in Africa, it's a massive thing. You know, it's beautiful to see these girls just flourishing to, you know, they've got, they've got this opportunity to go to school, because somebody's paid for a school to be in their village or whatever it happens to be. It's very moving, really moving to, to spend time in that environment.

Andy: 1:18:44

So on your journey, you've now through iteration, really, so you've you've tried things, you've picked up some skills on the way, you've brought out of yourself, or different roles have brought out of you real talents that you have and developed them. And you've kept iterating. And then you find yourself in the charity sector, which felt or looking back, the previous roles weren't complete, they weren't as whole as as it was when you had a really meaningful purpose behind what you were doing. And so it's lovely to hear that story and the progression that you've been through. And, and then you went so you went from World Vision, you went to Water Aid, I think you said

Shona Langridge: 1:19:31

Yeah, I ended up coming back to the UK after four years in Australia and got a position working again in heading up the water sector, the water industry sector at Water Aid. So they have a specific team of people that work only with the big water companies like Thames Water and Southern Water. So I was heading up that that team and that was a maternity cover contract. So I knew it wasn't going to be for long, actually, after the end of the year, they wanted me to stay but then that's when I really decided that this is in 2017 when I decided, okay, you know what I've been because at the moment I've been straddling the corporate job with teaching yoga at the same time, so I was teaching yoga early in the morning or late at night. And I thought, you know what, now I think it's time to give yoga a full time go. And I was really fearful about Andy, you know, to go from a six figure salary to finance my own business doing doing teaching yoga was really scary. And I remember Zareh my brother saying to me, Shona what's the what's the worst thing that can happen? Try it for a year and if it doesn't work, just go back and get a corporate job. I was like god, you're right. Yeah. What are you so fearful of? It's your vocation? It's your passion. It's what you really believe in. And so why would it not be successful. And then five years on here, I am still still 100% doing yoga. And I have to be honest with you. I don't regret leaving the corporate sector one iota, not even the charity element of the of the corporate sector. It's been a really beautiful transition, not just physically but emotionally, mentally, spiritually, it's been a really, really big transition for me,

Andy: 1:21:21

is it as fulfilling then as anything you've done?

Shona Langridge: 1:21:25

Probably more, more so than anything I've done, because it's combining something that I love with a job. So it's, it's a vocation, it's a passion, and it's a job. And also, because it's so holistic, it's supporting me more than I think I ever thought it would. I thought it was about me teaching people, actually, they teach me, the students teach me more than I could ever teach them, to be honest.

Andy: 1:21:58

So you're learning through teaching them,

Shona Langridge: 1:22:01

it's about self observing, observing yourself, observing them, observing them in their process, and how that relates to me in a yoga class, and how we're all interrelated and how it's all interconnected. You know, your energy will affect me, my energy will always affect you. It's, and that's, that's in a corporate world, too. But I never really thought of it that way. And now I see it very clearly. I don't regret it at all.

Andy: 1:22:31

It sounds like before you were doing what you were very good at. And in the charity, by the time you'd moved into the charity sector, you were doing what you're very good at. And it was meaningful, there was a strong sense of purpose. And now what you've added is, and you really love doing it. So now you're doing what you're good at, it's very meaningful, and it's a passion, you absolutely love it. So you've added that third dimension,

Shona Langridge: 1:22:57

I'm very conscious about turning it just into a job. You know, anything that we do repeatedly over and over and over again, it can just, no matter how much we love, it can just become routine and exhausting. So I've had to work very hard at not being in that corporate mode, in my approach to yoga, so not being I've got to do it, I've got to do it, I've got to, I've got to do more, you know, sometimes less is more really, it really is. And I see that. And I don't always get it right. But I think it's much more in my awareness than it ever was before.

Andy: 1:23:42

Sorry, I have gone quiet because you're making me think so much, that not making it yeah, a job. You have to really work hard not to turn what you love doing into you know, don't take the magic away, I guess.

Shona Langridge: 1:23:57

Yeah. And I think, yeah, I think that's, that's true. And it's very rare. And bless him my dad always, I mean, he made me think about this a lot because he loved what he did. And he was so passionate about what he did being an engineer. And he didn't you know, he didn't care about money. He didn't care about status. He just loved doing what he was doing. And interestingly, it's taken it's taken me quite a few years to figure that out to understand what he actually meant. And here I am in exactly the same situation. So yeah, so I'm still eating bread and onions.

Andy: 1:24:37

So tell us a little bit about what you do now Shona, tell us about the types of yoga you do and how your business works and how people can come and do yoga with you if they want.

Shona Langridge: 1:24:50

Yes, yes, you're welcome anytime Andy. Obviously.

Andy: 1:24:54

I am so inflexible. my hamstrings are just shocking

Shona Langridge: 1:24:57

You see this is the thing, everybody says oh I can't do yoga because I'm inflexible. Yoga is not about being flexible. Yoga is just about doing what you can do for your body at that point in time. You just do what you can do and do your best. You don't have to be you don't have to get your foot around your, stand on one finger and get your foot around your neck. You don't have to do that. So what I do so I basically I have my own business, it's Shonalangridge.yoga. And I have I teach classes online, I also teach private classes, I go to people's homes and teach them yoga. I also go to different studios around London and teach in studios. So the type of yoga I teach is Bikram hot yoga which is the hot it's the hot yoga, Vinyasa which is more flowy, Yin which is very therapeutic and stilling. I teach HIIT classes as well, which is completely the antithesis to yoga, jumping up and down and shouting and screaming with fantastic playlists. And I also so yeah, one of the other things I did, which I didn't really touch on, but I've travelled a lot to the Himalayas to Nepal, to Bhutan, Tibet. And I've learnt I spent some time in a monastery with some Buddhist nuns, learning how to play Tibetan sound ball. So I do healing sessions with those with within yoga. So yeah, it's a complete, complete, complete 360 turn around from running up and down the M1 motorway with a sandwich in my hand shouting expletives

Andy: 1:26:33

I'm having to hold it, I'm having to hold it all together right now. Because just just thinking of the Shona of the

Shona Langridge: 1:26:40

Looking at your face, like what the hell you early 2000s in a monastery is pretty much more than I can process.

Andy: 1:27:02

No ones ever played those bowls like Shona doing

Shona Langridge: 1:27:05

Oh, my goodness, I know people, people, it's really interesting people, people that know me from, you know, old, I think are quite not shocked, I think shocked is a bit dramatic, but kind of confused. But, you know, I think I think we're all in the puppet of everything, aren't we, you know, we all have a playful side, we all have a grumpy side, we all have a spiritual side, we all have a corporate side, but whatever it is, I guess it's just tapping in to those different sides. But I've never, I've never felt more myself than I have now ever. And that's not to say I don't go out and have a glass of champagne and take my shoes off and dance around or dance on top of a table, I still do that too. And, you know, I don't know if you've ever listened to any of the Dalai Lama's conversations, but he is probably one of the most playful cheeky little characters I've ever come across. So you know, you don't have to be serious and be spiritual. You can you can have everything. You know, there's a place where everything is what I'm saying.

Andy: 1:28:09

It's wonderful. And yes, confused is confused the word? I think it I'm still in awe. So I love I love the journey that you've been on and the fact that you've I love that you've said that you're actually feel more yourself now than ever. So it's been about becoming who you are and allowing more of that. Giving a fair share of voice and time to each part of you. And that's where you're at now with

Shona Langridge: 1:28:44

that's beautifully put Andy, I couldn't have put it better myself.

Andy: 1:28:47

Well I thought I was just repeating what you said. That's how what you said landed with me anyway.

Shona Langridge: 1:28:56

I think I think we all think we know who we are, don't we? But you know, we're constantly evolving. And I think as I said to you before, the person that I was at Alphabet and at BMW, it's not that that wasn't me. It's just a different incarnation. It's like a Doctor Who incarnation isn't it? It's just constantly evolving

Andy: 1:29:17

It's versions isn't it with different releases of Shona over the years and and unleashing elements that might have been kept suppressed, you know, in an earlier role comes to the fore. Whether it's by adding on we're now we're going to add on more meaning or we're going to add in a greater sense of purpose in the charity world and that unlocks a whole load of energy from you to be able to commit to that and and then adding extra things, not adding they were always there but allowing them to step front of stage for a while.

Shona Langridge: 1:29:57

You know also everything has its time you know I mean, for me to have been a yoga teacher, for example, at 23 years old, I mean, I wouldn't have known anything. And I think there's a there's a certain maturity, obviously that that that you bring. And it's, it's different. Because we can all dress in Sweaty Betty or Lululemon gear and walk down the high street, but that doesn't make us a yoga teacher. I think it's, it's the intention with which you deliver or which I deliver that makes it different. So, we'll see what happens next.

Andy: 1:30:34

Is there anything I haven't asked you Shona that's that's left any golden nuggets on the table?

Shona Langridge: 1:30:40

I don't think so? I think you've taken the very, you've actually you've actually, it's been a really interesting process going through that whole lifespan, I suppose. Because I think sometimes we give ourselves a hard time, don't we? We think we haven't done anything

Andy: 1:30:58

You've done quite a lot

Shona Langridge: 1:31:00

But it's true, isn't it? And I sometimes think, Oh, God, what have I done at 55? You know, I'm not married, I've got no children. And then all my friends that are married with children, they think oh god, we wish we had your freedom, and

Andy: 1:31:13

I'm pleased to hear that. And I'm delighted that you your your ability to just, you know, up and move whenever you like. And that's, my mom used to describe me as a free spirit. She said, you're like a little gypsy. And I think that's true, actually, and I think to be to be confined and in some respects, the corporate world maybe was confining, but I didn't know it at the time. And now it's the freeness of me so we'll see. No, I don't think you've missed anything. It's been wonderful to reflect. joined me today. Thank you so much. It's been really wonderful to reconnect and to hear your story. So thank you again Shona

Shona Langridge: 1:31:54

Thank you. You're a blessing.

Andy: 1:31:55

You've been listening to Career-view Mirror with me, Andy follows, I hope you found some helpful points to reflect on in Shona's story that can help you with your own career journey, or that of those who lead, parent or mentor, you are unique. And during my conversation with Shona, you'll have picked up on topics that resonate with you. A few things that stood out for me were her having been brought up in the Middle East and Asia, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, and the impact that would have had on her in those formative years. Having to try hard at school and being willing to try hard even though the results weren't always great, leaning towards languages and how they then enabled some of Shona's international moves, starting school in Cambridge, age 12, and finding the culture less open minded than what she'd been used to, and the value inherent in having a multicultural background. That first job in Andover and how we can learn just as much from bad bosses as good ones. The reflection she did back home in Cambridge after leaving that job, to understand where her strengths lay, and how a completely opposite culture at Alan Pascoe, allowed all team members to develop and thrive. Mike Baldrey's insistence to bring Shona on board at Alphabet in spite of her record low scores in the maths assessment, and how that illustrates the need to separate out what the real and maybe rare skills are, that are required for a particular job, then the move back into sports marketing, and moving to Switzerland, and that included a year in Hong Kong. And I will never forget the exchange with Mr. Gorbachev, moving into the charity sector, finding a greater sense of purpose. So wrapping up all the skills that she had, and prior experience, and now coupling it with a greater sense of purpose, and working harder in those roles than ever before, and feeling highly fulfilled. That definition of fulfilling performance that's my mission and Aquilae's mission. And that's the business that supports the podcasts, and her being able to tell us a story that totally illustrated that concept, and how she's happier, and feeling a more complete version of herself than ever since she began her yoga business. You can contact Shona at Shonalangridge.yoga, and we'll put links in the show notes to this episode. We publish these episodes to celebrate my guests careers, listen to their stories and learn from their experiences. And I'm genuinely interested in what resonated with you. Thank you to all of you for sharing your feedback. Thanks also to Hannah and Julia, who as part of the Career-view Mirror team here at Aquilae work so hard to deliver these episodes to you. This episode of Career-view Mirror is brought to you by Aquilae. Aquilae's mission is to Enable Fulfilling Performance in the auto finance and mobility industry. We use our very own Fulfilling Performance Paradigm to help you identify what steps you need to take to Enable Fulfilling Performance in your business. Contact me directly if you'd like to know more, my email is andy@aquilae.co.uk. If you want to know more about fulfilling performance, you can listen to episode 60, 61 and 62. There are short side mirror episodes that explain our mission and its origin. And remember folks, if you know people who would benefit from hearing these stories, please show them how to find us. Thanks for listening