October 14, 2024 • 21 mins
Join us as we chat with Jade Parkinson-Hill, Canva's Education and Community Manager, about her incredible career journey and how she found her way into the world of Canva.
Jade talks about how Canva’s innovative features, like AI tools and website creation, are empowering freelancers, small business owners, and educators to unlock their creativity.
She also highlights the importance of self-belief and resilience when navigating a non-linear career path.
In this episode, Jade also discusses:
- The supportive gaming scene in Liverpool
- The crucial role of digital literacy
- How key mentors have shaped her career
- The challenge of staying connected in a fast-paced, tech-driven world
If you're interested in technology, education, or career growth, this is a conversation you won't want to miss!
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast.
Every week I get the mostamazing opportunity to speak to
role models from all walks oflife, all levels, all different
stories, and guarantee that notwo have the same straight line
path, because that's just notlife right, anyway.
But every week it's great toget some of those top tips,
(00:20):
advice and guidance.
So, whether it's for yourcareer, your life, whatever your
adventure on, we hope to beable to pass some of those on to
you and this week I'm veryexcited to bring from the world
of Canva.
I'm very excited, jade.
Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you so much for inviting me.
I'm so excited to be here Inthese great studios.
How cool are they?
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And you are the education and community manager
for Canva.
For those of you who live undera rock right, tell us about.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Canva.
Okay, so Canva is a visualcommunications platform we
launched back in 2013 and wequickly became every
freelancer's, every smallbusiness owner's best friend.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Absolutely Me too, because Iwas a business owner at the time
.
So our platform really makesdesign easy for people who
(01:16):
aren't necessarily trainedprofessionally in design.
So we started out with lots oftemplates for social media
leaflets, posters and theplatform now is just like a huge
iceberg because you can do somuch on it.
You can create docs, videos,animations.
We've got AI tools on there.
(01:38):
You can even create websitespretty snazzy ones in Canva.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What about bios for your podcast guests?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Right there, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And it's business and education as well, isn't it?
It's, you know, it's somethingthat we definitely we are power,
northern power, women towershave used for years and years
and years.
And, what's interesting, you'vebeen there since the start of
the year, but you were a superfan anyway, weren't you?
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
totally, totally so.
I was a business owner in theeducation world and you know
Canva enabled me to.
I used to pay like 600 poundsfor a logo and and then we could
kind of do an all right one inCanva.
So that was great.
And then I used it every dayand I did actually used to bring
in a designer who would come inevery term and do all of our
(02:24):
resources, all of our socialmedia graphics in canva and then
as a team, we would take those,we could make amendments, we
could put them out, we couldrefresh them.
Um, when I used to work withschools as a marketing
consultant, every client that Itook on I created them a canva
account.
We got a designer in, designedall the templates.
(02:44):
I just made life so much easier.
You know I'm more costeffective as a business to run.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But you've had a really varied career up until
you've worked in school.
You've had your own businesses.
You've just alluded to what was, what was your clearly not a
straight line path.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No, not a straight line path at all.
So I started my career in tech,which I loved, did loads of
travel, um, ended up inAustralia at one point.
Okay, absolutely about to hit30, let's, let's sell up and
move to Australia, um, which Iloved.
But I was very homesick forLiverpool.
So I came back, I set up abusiness and you know what it's
(03:24):
like when you're on a business.
You know it's crazy, isn't it?
All of you?
And I started doing somementoring for a friend who was a
university lecturer, and my mum, my stepdad, all my brothers
and sisters we all worked ineducation in some way.
So my mum said to me yeah, Ithink you need to go into
teaching.
(03:44):
You know, I think it will giveyou a better social life.
That's what she said.
So I said, okay, I'll considerit.
And then one of the newacademies opened just at that
time.
I was really, really lucky and Isent in an application for a
job that I had no businessreally applying for.
I didn't have any of the.
I could do a couple of thingslike marketing and partnerships.
(04:05):
That was it.
I did an interview.
I didn't get it and then Iwrote back to the head teacher
and said you know, please giveme a job.
I would, I would love to workwith you.
And and she did.
She found a job for me andstill one of the best jobs that
I've ever had.
I really kind of like found myniche.
Really, I could bring all ofthose marketing and business
development skills and, you know, use them for good.
(04:27):
So I was the um.
My official title was directorof enterprise, but I did lots of
work in the community.
Um brought lots of techcompanies in funding yeah and I
had a great time.
then I got involved in settingup schools, setting up
specialisms.
But, yeah, after creating aschool for gamers and working
(04:49):
with lots of digitalentrepreneurs, I was like, yeah,
I'm going to do this myself.
And I left education with thisreally good job, with this vague
ambition to set up a communityfor geeks young geeks across the
world.
I had no idea what I was doing.
In fact.
Actually, I thought, if I playaround on Canva every day, that
(05:10):
was job done, you know.
But yeah, I kind of set up amarketing consultancy alongside
it, launched that, loved it.
It was a wild ride, you know,it was great.
Got to work with some big brandsas well, like Pokemon and Epic
Games and Instagram, virginGalactic, um, but the pandemic.
(05:32):
Really, after the pandemic, Ineeded a break from running a
business because it was a lotyou know, um and and so yeah, so
found myself doing lots ofconsultancy and then saw the job
.
I actually created a Canva sitetwo days before I saw the job
advert.
I didn't even know Canva had aneducation product and sent it
(05:54):
in, sent in my Canva site.
I was like I am a super fan,give me a job.
And yeah, about six monthslater, here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So, yeah, seems to be a pattern there.
So the job that you applied forearlier on in your career that
you didn't get, but you, youpersisted, yes, you know, yeah,
and then the same again.
But there's something in that,isn't there?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
oh, there is.
There is absolutely.
There's something about, uhlike one knowing your worth and
knowing like I can give a lot tothis company.
You know I might not fit theexact box, but I can give a lot
and actually just saying it outloud and sharing it with
whoever's hiring.
You know, there is definitelysomething in that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Manifesting it, and do you think yourself?
Do you think you're a confidentperson?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I am outwardly confident, like everybody you
know, like you have moments of,you know, insecurity and
imposter syndrome, like when Idid join Canva.
I was a bit star-trucked, youknow, because it was like wow,
like I have loved this brand foryou know what seems like
forever, and now I work in thisamazing company.
(06:57):
So so, yeah, I'm glad to behere.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And what does an education and community manager
do?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Glad to be here.
And what does an education andcommunity manager do?
So my role is to really enableschools, teachers and students
across the country, across theUK, to access our product, which
is completely, 100% free forschools, so they get access to
all of those pro features, but100% free.
Canva is, like you know, I Iloved it before, I loved the
(07:26):
company before I worked for them, but now what I know about
Canva is that they have, um have, these really strong values,
one of which is being a goodhuman and the other is to do as
much good as we can in the world.
So, uh, yeah, that's why wegive away Canva to schools
across the globe.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And you've talked about some of the brands that
you work with on your.
Some of them are like Galactic,virgin Galactic, great big
names, aren't they?
Pokemon, but you were named inthe top 100 women in games for
establishing the UK's first geekschool, which you talked about
earlier.
Yeah, where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I'd had my son and I'd actually started working
outside of Liverpool, inBlackburn, but I didn't want to
travel with a small baby.
So the lady that first employedme, kay, when I said to her I
need a reference, I'm going tohave to look for a new job, she
said, oh, just come back here,we'll figure something out.
So she asked me to open ascience school.
Um, and you know how you makean application to the government
(08:32):
?
Um, and I said, well, at thesame time, can we do something
around gaming?
We may as well just throw intwo applications at the same
time.
And because she was a realmaverick, she was like, yeah,
sure, let's do it.
So I literally had a fewcontacts socially in the game
industry and I was like, right,introduce me to everybody.
And I went round, met lots ofpeople Sony at that time, we're
(08:55):
in the Runcorn office, they'reback in Liverpool now and I just
said write me, write me aletter of support.
So we did and, uh, and we wereone of the first studio schools
to be approved.
And then, yeah, it took us alittle longer to open because we
waited for that lovely buildingwhere both schools were housed.
So, yeah, it was like anamazing adventure.
(09:17):
I loved it.
It was a really unique projectto be part of.
Really unique students that weattracted into that school
because they were all, like youknow, hype, really creative,
quite entrepreneurial, but intheir previous schools they'd
been, you know, quite isolated,you know, because they were
(09:37):
quite geeky, creative and youknow, a little bit different.
But when they all came together, like it was just amazing.
It was such a lovely, you know,project to be part of, really.
Uh, and all the gaming.
Everybody in Liverpool was sogenerous, you know, they used to
help out so much.
We used to do mentoringsessions, used to have 50 people
(10:00):
every other week come up, cometo school to mentor kids, which
was amazing, um, so yeah, andnow my son goes to the science
school of the same building,which I would have never
predicted, because he isn'tgeeky, he's sporty, um, but he
loves it and do you think geekyalways comes with gaming, or do
you think that's the thing ofthe past and things have changed
(10:23):
?
I think now tech is so dominant.
You know, whatever job you arein, you have to have a certain
level of digital literacy.
You know 100%.
It's just part of our everydaylives now, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And were you a gamer at school?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
No, so what on earth got you into gaming?
I think, just as part of myrole at North Liverpool Academy,
I met lots of the digitalpeople.
I met people in gaming and theywere so passionate and they
told me about how Liverpool hada really unique history in games
.
And at that time, I think, Sonywas moving out and lots of
(11:05):
people who previously worked atSony were now setting up their
own company.
So it's just kind of like aperfect storm, perfect timing.
The gentleman that made TombRaider I can't remember his name
, Ian Liverston he'd alsoreleased a report at the time
which said every child needs tolearn these skills.
(11:27):
So it was just like perfecttiming, really.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And who were your role models growing up?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
My role models.
I was a bit of a book geek,really, so I always, always had
my head in a book and I wantedto be a lawyer.
I don't know why.
I would have been really bored,um, but, um, I guess my my real
role models come from, you know, when I actually started
(11:56):
working properly.
Um, I've always been really,really lucky.
I've started to work for anIrish entrepreneur when I was 23
who just basically gave me ablank canvas and said you know,
go and do what you want, um, butthen also brought in lots of
mentors as well.
So wherever I've worked, I'vealways had a really, you know,
talented group around me, and Ithink that's so important,
(12:19):
because then you raise your bar,you know to work, you know, and
and then subsequently everybodyraises, you keep raising that
bar.
So, yeah, I've just been really, really lucky in my career.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And what do you see as sort of the opportunities for
the gaming industry and inparticularly kind of levelling
up the playing field for women,to progress?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well, not just the gaming industry, but anywhere in
the tech industry.
You know companies like Canva,but anywhere in the tech
industry, you know companieslike Canva.
If you're able to teachyourself new skills to be able
to keep up with, you know, thehuge, vast rate of pace of
change in technology, you canwork for any company anywhere in
(13:02):
the world.
You know, last year I wasworking for a Silicon Valley
company, for here, fromLiverpool, you know, in my spare
room.
This year I'm working for Canva, who's an Australian company.
Uh, you know my colleagues, myteammates are in France, italy,
turkey, spain, argentina,australia.
(13:23):
You know that's where myteammates are and it's the tech
industry is just so amazing.
It's because tech is such agreat enabler.
The opportunities for women areamazing, because you can, you
can.
I'm a single parent of ateenager and somehow I managed
to juggle it.
All you know, and I don't knowwhether I'd be able to do that
(13:43):
without tech.
You know and you've talkedabout having colleagues all over
the'd be able to do thatwithout tech.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You know, and you've talked about having colleagues
all over the world, if you likehow do you manage, how do you
feel connected within thatcommunity?
Because tech is that greatenabler it is.
You know.
So how I mean.
And obviously we saw, we saw itin massive practice, didn't we?
Over pandemic.
I don't think I could doanother pub quiz, though.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I'm not gonna lie um, but what?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
what do you use?
How do you you best manage that?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
so, um so.
So we talk a lot on slack, um,so we have those daily chats.
We also have weekly zoommeetings as well.
Sometimes.
You know there's somecolleagues that I'll see twice a
week.
Sometimes maybe not, for, youknow, every other week, but we
do have that regular contact andsharing of ideas and of course,
we're all rolling out similarprojects in our own countries,
(14:35):
so that kind of keeps us united.
But the other thing that we dois off-site.
So it's a big thing in techcompanies where we all come
together for a week and we havethat face-to-face time which is
so important.
So, yeah, a couple of weeks agoI was in London for a week, um,
and yeah, lots of workshops,but some, you know, some great
(14:57):
bonding time together as wellduring that week, just for us to
all have that social time aswell as, as well as work and
what advice would you give toyour younger self?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
because it it just strikes me that your path I said
at the top, didn't I, you know,no one has that one straight,
lenient path.
And your path is, you know,from entrepreneur to, to
maverick, to, business owner, toeducator, to oh, just creating
a new education establishmentwhile you're at it, you know,
and now working at big techorganisations, what advice would
(15:28):
you have given yourself to go?
This is what it could look like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah.
So I think it sounds reallycheesy, isn't it?
But I, you know, I would say,like you know, if you have big
ideas, always have thatself-belief that you can make it
happen.
If you want to work at acompany, always have that
self-belief that you can.
You can make it happen.
And don't be afraid to trythings, don't be afraid to share
(15:52):
ideas out, Because you know,when we share ideas out, when we
connect with people, it's likea chain reaction, isn't it?
Eventually, it leads to was youknow to, to to always be
(16:20):
cultivating your talents andalways find a space where you
can share them.
I saw a gentleman that came tospeak at an animation conference
from Marvel and he said justshare your drawings online.
He said, your audience willfind you and then we will find
you.
So, yeah, I think, justcultivate your creativity and
(16:41):
then share it out as much as youcan.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And I think that connection between industry and
education is so critical, whichis a good job, because that's
your new job, right?
But you know, it's one of theroles, but the fact that you
talked about the sessions where50 individuals from industry
were coming because they wantedto to mentor.
Yeah, you know, mentoring is soimportant and it's it's for
(17:05):
everyone.
It's not for specific, it's foreveryone.
There's always someone outthere what, who, who have been
your mentors?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
um, so, so, so, probably my, my, very, the very
first gentleman that employed me.
Tom Kelly, who was an Irishentrepreneur.
He was really, reallyinfluential in my career because
he had no fear and he was like,yeah, let's just try things.
It didn't matter if thingsdidn't always go to plan.
We always, you know, couldalways take something from it
(17:37):
really.
So he's been very, veryinstrumental.
Kay Askew, who employed me inmy first school, huge maverick,
and I loved working for herbecause, you know, everything
that she did was for the kidsand she set a really, really
high standard.
So sometimes it was tough, youknow, it was a tough place to
work, but everything that I tookaway from that experience, you
(18:02):
know, has made me who I am todayand I've got some great friends
who I've kept.
And then another one, agentleman you probably know, is
David Wafer.
So, david, I met when I firstsat in the business.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
He's going to love this being named Jack.
He's going to love it.
He will love it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But yeah, so he, although I am older than him, I
would say he's like my bigbrother, but he's always
somebody who I've been able tocheck into and say have a little
bit of a sense, check, what doyou think.
You know, I've got an interviewat Canva.
What do you think you, what doyou think?
So he's been great throughoutmy business journey.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And what is next for you?
Because you're clearly notsomeone who's afraid of a
challenge or something new orsomething a bit out there.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Well, for now, I really love working at Canva.
I love the vibe.
They're an Australian company.
I love that they want to dolots of good in the world, but I
also love that they have fun atthe same time.
So, as an example, we host anannual event called Canva Create
, and you know how Apple doeswith.
(19:11):
This is the new iPhone.
We have our version of that.
Did you?
Oh yeah, it was brilliant.
So I hosted a local event inLondon.
We invited some of our keycommunity members to come along,
but there was a dress code andit was like ombre, bright
colours or maybe a bit ofglitter, and I thought this,
(19:33):
this is my company, you know, soI love it, and it's so fast
paced it's there's alwayssomething new to launch.
I can see it really kind of,you know, sustaining my interest
for for a good while, and thenalso there's a big job to be
done on it.
You know I I am so passionateabout education and, uh, you
(19:54):
know, I want to make sure thatwe get Canva in the hands of as
many kids as we can.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Absolutely, because they become the business owners,
the influencers enables them tomake sure that we get Canva in
the hands of as many kids as wecan.
Absolutely, because they becomethe business owners, the
influencers enables them to maketheir dreams come true, doesn't
?
It 100% Jade.
What a conversation.
Who doesn't want to work for acompany that puts on their dress
code Ombre bright?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
or glitter, I mean literally.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Right, there's my application.
Right there, Jade, thank you somuch.
Please keep fangirling anddoing awesome things and thank
you for joining us today.
You're welcome, my pleasure.
Thank you all of you forwatching, tuning in and staying
connected on all of ourbrilliant podcast guests.
I told her every single week,talk to somebody.
That is so amazing, with adifferent story and a different
(20:37):
path.
No two humans alike, thankgoodness is what I say and
please do stay connected tosomebody that is so amazing,
with a different story and adifferent path no two humans
alike Thank goodness is what Isay and please do stay connected
on all of our socials.
We are power underscore net onInsta, twitter and TikTok and we
are power and all of our othersocials.
And please do join us.
Next week I'm going to betalking to someone else Awesome
with all of those top tips.
My name is Simone.
(20:57):
You are watching the we ArePower podcast.
Thank you for joining.
Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast.
Every week I get the mostamazing opportunity to speak to
role models from all walks oflife, all levels, all different
stories, and guarantee that notwo have the same straight line
path, because that's just notlife right, anyway.
But every week it's great toget some of those top tips,
(00:20):
advice and guidance.
So, whether it's for yourcareer, your life, whatever your
adventure on, we hope to beable to pass some of those on to
you and this week I'm veryexcited to bring from the world
of Canva.
I'm very excited, jade.
Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you so much for inviting me.
I'm so excited to be here Inthese great studios.
How cool are they?
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And you are the education and community manager
for Canva.
For those of you who live undera rock right, tell us about.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Canva.
Okay, so Canva is a visualcommunications platform we
launched back in 2013 and wequickly became every
freelancer's, every smallbusiness owner's best friend.
Thank you, thank you so much.
Absolutely Me too, because Iwas a business owner at the time
.
So our platform really makesdesign easy for people who
(01:16):
aren't necessarily trainedprofessionally in design.
So we started out with lots oftemplates for social media
leaflets, posters and theplatform now is just like a huge
iceberg because you can do somuch on it.
You can create docs, videos,animations.
We've got AI tools on there.
(01:38):
You can even create websitespretty snazzy ones in Canva.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What about bios for your podcast guests?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Right there, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And it's business and education as well, isn't it?
It's, you know, it's somethingthat we definitely we are power,
northern power, women towershave used for years and years
and years.
And, what's interesting, you'vebeen there since the start of
the year, but you were a superfan anyway, weren't you?
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
totally, totally so.
I was a business owner in theeducation world and you know
Canva enabled me to.
I used to pay like 600 poundsfor a logo and and then we could
kind of do an all right one inCanva.
So that was great.
And then I used it every dayand I did actually used to bring
in a designer who would come inevery term and do all of our
(02:24):
resources, all of our socialmedia graphics in canva and then
as a team, we would take those,we could make amendments, we
could put them out, we couldrefresh them.
Um, when I used to work withschools as a marketing
consultant, every client that Itook on I created them a canva
account.
We got a designer in, designedall the templates.
(02:44):
I just made life so much easier.
You know I'm more costeffective as a business to run.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
But you've had a really varied career up until
you've worked in school.
You've had your own businesses.
You've just alluded to what was, what was your clearly not a
straight line path.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No, not a straight line path at all.
So I started my career in tech,which I loved, did loads of
travel, um, ended up inAustralia at one point.
Okay, absolutely about to hit30, let's, let's sell up and
move to Australia, um, which Iloved.
But I was very homesick forLiverpool.
So I came back, I set up abusiness and you know what it's
(03:24):
like when you're on a business.
You know it's crazy, isn't it?
All of you?
And I started doing somementoring for a friend who was a
university lecturer, and my mum, my stepdad, all my brothers
and sisters we all worked ineducation in some way.
So my mum said to me yeah, Ithink you need to go into
teaching.
(03:44):
You know, I think it will giveyou a better social life.
That's what she said.
So I said, okay, I'll considerit.
And then one of the newacademies opened just at that
time.
I was really, really lucky and Isent in an application for a
job that I had no businessreally applying for.
I didn't have any of the.
I could do a couple of thingslike marketing and partnerships.
(04:05):
That was it.
I did an interview.
I didn't get it and then Iwrote back to the head teacher
and said you know, please giveme a job.
I would, I would love to workwith you.
And and she did.
She found a job for me andstill one of the best jobs that
I've ever had.
I really kind of like found myniche.
Really, I could bring all ofthose marketing and business
development skills and, you know, use them for good.
(04:27):
So I was the um.
My official title was directorof enterprise, but I did lots of
work in the community.
Um brought lots of techcompanies in funding yeah and I
had a great time.
then I got involved in settingup schools, setting up
specialisms.
But, yeah, after creating aschool for gamers and working
(04:49):
with lots of digitalentrepreneurs, I was like, yeah,
I'm going to do this myself.
And I left education with thisreally good job, with this vague
ambition to set up a communityfor geeks young geeks across the
world.
I had no idea what I was doing.
In fact.
Actually, I thought, if I playaround on Canva every day, that
(05:10):
was job done, you know.
But yeah, I kind of set up amarketing consultancy alongside
it, launched that, loved it.
It was a wild ride, you know,it was great.
Got to work with some big brandsas well, like Pokemon and Epic
Games and Instagram, virginGalactic, um, but the pandemic.
(05:32):
Really, after the pandemic, Ineeded a break from running a
business because it was a lotyou know, um and and so yeah, so
found myself doing lots ofconsultancy and then saw the job
.
I actually created a Canva sitetwo days before I saw the job
advert.
I didn't even know Canva had aneducation product and sent it
(05:54):
in, sent in my Canva site.
I was like I am a super fan,give me a job.
And yeah, about six monthslater, here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So, yeah, seems to be a pattern there.
So the job that you applied forearlier on in your career that
you didn't get, but you, youpersisted, yes, you know, yeah,
and then the same again.
But there's something in that,isn't there?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
oh, there is.
There is absolutely.
There's something about, uhlike one knowing your worth and
knowing like I can give a lot tothis company.
You know I might not fit theexact box, but I can give a lot
and actually just saying it outloud and sharing it with
whoever's hiring.
You know, there is definitelysomething in that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Manifesting it, and do you think yourself?
Do you think you're a confidentperson?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I am outwardly confident, like everybody you
know, like you have moments of,you know, insecurity and
imposter syndrome, like when Idid join Canva.
I was a bit star-trucked, youknow, because it was like wow,
like I have loved this brand foryou know what seems like
forever, and now I work in thisamazing company.
(06:57):
So so, yeah, I'm glad to behere.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And what does an education and community manager
do?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Glad to be here.
And what does an education andcommunity manager do?
So my role is to really enableschools, teachers and students
across the country, across theUK, to access our product, which
is completely, 100% free forschools, so they get access to
all of those pro features, but100% free.
Canva is, like you know, I Iloved it before, I loved the
(07:26):
company before I worked for them, but now what I know about
Canva is that they have, um have, these really strong values,
one of which is being a goodhuman and the other is to do as
much good as we can in the world.
So, uh, yeah, that's why wegive away Canva to schools
across the globe.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And you've talked about some of the brands that
you work with on your.
Some of them are like Galactic,virgin Galactic, great big
names, aren't they?
Pokemon, but you were named inthe top 100 women in games for
establishing the UK's first geekschool, which you talked about
earlier.
Yeah, where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I'd had my son and I'd actually started working
outside of Liverpool, inBlackburn, but I didn't want to
travel with a small baby.
So the lady that first employedme, kay, when I said to her I
need a reference, I'm going tohave to look for a new job, she
said, oh, just come back here,we'll figure something out.
So she asked me to open ascience school.
Um, and you know how you makean application to the government
(08:32):
?
Um, and I said, well, at thesame time, can we do something
around gaming?
We may as well just throw intwo applications at the same
time.
And because she was a realmaverick, she was like, yeah,
sure, let's do it.
So I literally had a fewcontacts socially in the game
industry and I was like, right,introduce me to everybody.
And I went round, met lots ofpeople Sony at that time, we're
(08:55):
in the Runcorn office, they'reback in Liverpool now and I just
said write me, write me aletter of support.
So we did and, uh, and we wereone of the first studio schools
to be approved.
And then, yeah, it took us alittle longer to open because we
waited for that lovely buildingwhere both schools were housed.
So, yeah, it was like anamazing adventure.
(09:17):
I loved it.
It was a really unique projectto be part of.
Really unique students that weattracted into that school
because they were all, like youknow, hype, really creative,
quite entrepreneurial, but intheir previous schools they'd
been, you know, quite isolated,you know, because they were
(09:37):
quite geeky, creative and youknow, a little bit different.
But when they all came together, like it was just amazing.
It was such a lovely, you know,project to be part of, really.
Uh, and all the gaming.
Everybody in Liverpool was sogenerous, you know, they used to
help out so much.
We used to do mentoringsessions, used to have 50 people
(10:00):
every other week come up, cometo school to mentor kids, which
was amazing, um, so yeah, andnow my son goes to the science
school of the same building,which I would have never
predicted, because he isn'tgeeky, he's sporty, um, but he
loves it and do you think geekyalways comes with gaming, or do
you think that's the thing ofthe past and things have changed
(10:23):
?
I think now tech is so dominant.
You know, whatever job you arein, you have to have a certain
level of digital literacy.
You know 100%.
It's just part of our everydaylives now, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And were you a gamer at school?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
No, so what on earth got you into gaming?
I think, just as part of myrole at North Liverpool Academy,
I met lots of the digitalpeople.
I met people in gaming and theywere so passionate and they
told me about how Liverpool hada really unique history in games
.
And at that time, I think, Sonywas moving out and lots of
(11:05):
people who previously worked atSony were now setting up their
own company.
So it's just kind of like aperfect storm, perfect timing.
The gentleman that made TombRaider I can't remember his name
, Ian Liverston he'd alsoreleased a report at the time
which said every child needs tolearn these skills.
(11:27):
So it was just like perfecttiming, really.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And who were your role models growing up?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
My role models.
I was a bit of a book geek,really, so I always, always had
my head in a book and I wantedto be a lawyer.
I don't know why.
I would have been really bored,um, but, um, I guess my my real
role models come from, you know, when I actually started
(11:56):
working properly.
Um, I've always been really,really lucky.
I've started to work for anIrish entrepreneur when I was 23
who just basically gave me ablank canvas and said you know,
go and do what you want, um, butthen also brought in lots of
mentors as well.
So wherever I've worked, I'vealways had a really, you know,
talented group around me, and Ithink that's so important,
(12:19):
because then you raise your bar,you know to work, you know, and
and then subsequently everybodyraises, you keep raising that
bar.
So, yeah, I've just been really, really lucky in my career.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And what do you see as sort of the opportunities for
the gaming industry and inparticularly kind of levelling
up the playing field for women,to progress?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well, not just the gaming industry, but anywhere in
the tech industry.
You know companies like Canva,but anywhere in the tech
industry, you know companieslike Canva.
If you're able to teachyourself new skills to be able
to keep up with, you know, thehuge, vast rate of pace of
change in technology, you canwork for any company anywhere in
(13:02):
the world.
You know, last year I wasworking for a Silicon Valley
company, for here, fromLiverpool, you know, in my spare
room.
This year I'm working for Canva, who's an Australian company.
Uh, you know my colleagues, myteammates are in France, italy,
turkey, spain, argentina,australia.
(13:23):
You know that's where myteammates are and it's the tech
industry is just so amazing.
It's because tech is such agreat enabler.
The opportunities for women areamazing, because you can, you
can.
I'm a single parent of ateenager and somehow I managed
to juggle it.
All you know, and I don't knowwhether I'd be able to do that
(13:43):
without tech.
You know and you've talkedabout having colleagues all over
the'd be able to do thatwithout tech.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You know, and you've talked about having colleagues
all over the world, if you likehow do you manage, how do you
feel connected within thatcommunity?
Because tech is that greatenabler it is.
You know.
So how I mean.
And obviously we saw, we saw itin massive practice, didn't we?
Over pandemic.
I don't think I could doanother pub quiz, though.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I'm not gonna lie um, but what?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
what do you use?
How do you you best manage that?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
so, um so.
So we talk a lot on slack, um,so we have those daily chats.
We also have weekly zoommeetings as well.
Sometimes.
You know there's somecolleagues that I'll see twice a
week.
Sometimes maybe not, for, youknow, every other week, but we
do have that regular contact andsharing of ideas and of course,
we're all rolling out similarprojects in our own countries,
(14:35):
so that kind of keeps us united.
But the other thing that we dois off-site.
So it's a big thing in techcompanies where we all come
together for a week and we havethat face-to-face time which is
so important.
So, yeah, a couple of weeks agoI was in London for a week, um,
and yeah, lots of workshops,but some, you know, some great
(14:57):
bonding time together as wellduring that week, just for us to
all have that social time aswell as, as well as work and
what advice would you give toyour younger self?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
because it it just strikes me that your path I said
at the top, didn't I, you know,no one has that one straight,
lenient path.
And your path is, you know,from entrepreneur to, to
maverick, to, business owner, toeducator, to oh, just creating
a new education establishmentwhile you're at it, you know,
and now working at big techorganisations, what advice would
(15:28):
you have given yourself to go?
This is what it could look like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah.
So I think it sounds reallycheesy, isn't it?
But I, you know, I would say,like you know, if you have big
ideas, always have thatself-belief that you can make it
happen.
If you want to work at acompany, always have that
self-belief that you can.
You can make it happen.
And don't be afraid to trythings, don't be afraid to share
(15:52):
ideas out, Because you know,when we share ideas out, when we
connect with people, it's likea chain reaction, isn't it?
Eventually, it leads to was youknow to, to to always be
(16:20):
cultivating your talents andalways find a space where you
can share them.
I saw a gentleman that came tospeak at an animation conference
from Marvel and he said justshare your drawings online.
He said, your audience willfind you and then we will find
you.
So, yeah, I think, justcultivate your creativity and
(16:41):
then share it out as much as youcan.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And I think that connection between industry and
education is so critical, whichis a good job, because that's
your new job, right?
But you know, it's one of theroles, but the fact that you
talked about the sessions where50 individuals from industry
were coming because they wantedto to mentor.
Yeah, you know, mentoring is soimportant and it's it's for
(17:05):
everyone.
It's not for specific, it's foreveryone.
There's always someone outthere what, who, who have been
your mentors?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
um, so, so, so, probably my, my, very, the very
first gentleman that employed me.
Tom Kelly, who was an Irishentrepreneur.
He was really, reallyinfluential in my career because
he had no fear and he was like,yeah, let's just try things.
It didn't matter if thingsdidn't always go to plan.
We always, you know, couldalways take something from it
(17:37):
really.
So he's been very, veryinstrumental.
Kay Askew, who employed me inmy first school, huge maverick,
and I loved working for herbecause, you know, everything
that she did was for the kidsand she set a really, really
high standard.
So sometimes it was tough, youknow, it was a tough place to
work, but everything that I tookaway from that experience, you
(18:02):
know, has made me who I am todayand I've got some great friends
who I've kept.
And then another one, agentleman you probably know, is
David Wafer.
So, david, I met when I firstsat in the business.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
He's going to love this being named Jack.
He's going to love it.
He will love it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But yeah, so he, although I am older than him, I
would say he's like my bigbrother, but he's always
somebody who I've been able tocheck into and say have a little
bit of a sense, check, what doyou think.
You know, I've got an interviewat Canva.
What do you think you, what doyou think?
So he's been great throughoutmy business journey.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And what is next for you?
Because you're clearly notsomeone who's afraid of a
challenge or something new orsomething a bit out there.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Well, for now, I really love working at Canva.
I love the vibe.
They're an Australian company.
I love that they want to dolots of good in the world, but I
also love that they have fun atthe same time.
So, as an example, we host anannual event called Canva Create
, and you know how Apple doeswith.
(19:11):
This is the new iPhone.
We have our version of that.
Did you?
Oh yeah, it was brilliant.
So I hosted a local event inLondon.
We invited some of our keycommunity members to come along,
but there was a dress code andit was like ombre, bright
colours or maybe a bit ofglitter, and I thought this,
(19:33):
this is my company, you know, soI love it, and it's so fast
paced it's there's alwayssomething new to launch.
I can see it really kind of,you know, sustaining my interest
for for a good while, and thenalso there's a big job to be
done on it.
You know I I am so passionateabout education and, uh, you
(19:54):
know, I want to make sure thatwe get Canva in the hands of as
many kids as we can.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Absolutely, because they become the business owners,
the influencers enables them tomake sure that we get Canva in
the hands of as many kids as wecan.
Absolutely, because they becomethe business owners, the
influencers enables them to maketheir dreams come true, doesn't
?
It 100% Jade.
What a conversation.
Who doesn't want to work for acompany that puts on their dress
code Ombre bright?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
or glitter, I mean literally.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Right, there's my application.
Right there, Jade, thank you somuch.
Please keep fangirling anddoing awesome things and thank
you for joining us today.
You're welcome, my pleasure.
Thank you all of you forwatching, tuning in and staying
connected on all of ourbrilliant podcast guests.
I told her every single week,talk to somebody.
That is so amazing, with adifferent story and a different
(20:37):
path.
No two humans alike, thankgoodness is what I say and
please do stay connected tosomebody that is so amazing,
with a different story and adifferent path no two humans
alike Thank goodness is what Isay and please do stay connected
on all of our socials.
We are power underscore net onInsta, twitter and TikTok and we
are power and all of our othersocials.
And please do join us.
Next week I'm going to betalking to someone else Awesome
with all of those top tips.
My name is Simone.
(20:57):
You are watching the we ArePower podcast.
Thank you for joining.
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