We go deep into equality, openness, diversity, changing cultural bias, oh and swinging from stuff, with Ori Chandler, the Managing Director of Involve (the inclusion people) and without stealing her thunder, as she can put it far more eloquently than I can, champion diversity inclusion in businesses, but this is only half the story as throughout her career Ori has worked for various organisations representing their members and championing great causes. Takeaways - A diverse workforce helps to attract and retain others, it’s all about talent management. The next generation, the millennials, look to organisations that have an open culture, where someone can thrive and grown rather than the structured approach you sometimes see in the more established companies, which can stifle diversity and creativity. Diversity of people also breeds diversity of thought, which in turn will help with understanding your clients and customers much better by way of happier, healthier more productive team members - I thought the reverse engineering of mentoring where senior leaders are paired with emerging talent so they can share their insight into what its like to be seen as different in a workplace of today is such a good idea. We can always learn and sometimes we just need to see things a little differently or from a different angle to start to actually understand something in a different way. - Openness is incredibly important and communicating openly is essential. This openness means you can be yourself, your best self. Getting out of your comfort zone to achieve this can only bring good, as this is where you start to create a culture that can thrive and you also get to know the true you - and who doesn't want to know the true you, you’re brilliant.  If you’re not being true, you’re not being true to yourself. No one should be held back by their identity - Be bold, be brave, be open.   Top Tip - Mentoring My top tip this week includes a little advice on what to do after you have passed your qualification - and that's get a mentor, which I’ve mentioned in a previous episode not so long ago. You’ve worked hard, studied, done the research, written your last assignment, got the grade you wanted (obviously!) but now what? What is your clear plan after your qualification? You don't have to go it alone, in fact it would be ill advised to do so. You need someone that has been there and done that, almost emulating where you would like your career to go, someone that can advise you on the macro details and the long term future but also offer some help with the micro or day to day elements that you maybe struggling with. Don't feel restricted by any way of asking multiple people to be mentors in different areas of experience, this can also pay dividends. But where to go to find someone willing to be a mentor? I think you would be surprised how may people are willing to help the next generation of Marketers. I would advise staring with the CIMs own dedicated mentoring program which can be found at www.cim.co.uk/more/mentoringI have also mentioned this in previous episodes as I don't think it is highlighted enough or given the recognition it deserves as such a valuable resource to CIM members. One final note, back in our interview with Ori, she mentioned reverse engineering the mentoring, which is a fantastic idea and something that could potentially work within Marketing, specifically around digital, social and influencers, so although I’ve mentioned only one way of finding a mentor, it maybe the case that you go direct to someone you admire on a social platform (younger or older, it doesn't really matter as long as they can provide advice and guidance to get you to where you want to be) – simply ask them if they’d be interested in mentoring you, but make sure it is specific to the area of their own expertise, they can only say no but they might just say yes! Happy Marketing Everyone! Peter www.marketingstudylab.co.uk www.linkedin.com/company/marketin