In this episode we speak to Hannah Oyewole, Author, TEDx speaker and CEO and founder of Young Ladies Club, a social enterprise that has supported over 10,000 young women to raise their aspirations and fulfil their potential.

Hannah shares her journey growing up in Hackney and how she chose a different path, turning adversity into purpose and impact. We explore the role of belief, habits, and personal responsibility play in creating change, alongside practical ways to overcome limiting thinking.

This is a grounded conversation about purpose, forgiveness, and taking action - even when you start with very little.

Key Topics

• Rewriting limiting beliefs
• Finding purpose in a busy world
• The power of daily habits
• Why forgiveness unlocks progress
• Creating opportunity through action

Key Insights

• You can’t control everything — but you can control how you respond. Hannah focuses on attitude, beliefs, habits, and daily actions as the foundation for change.
• Beliefs can be rewritten. Actively identifying negative thoughts and consciously replacing them with more constructive ones is a practical way to shift direction.
• Purpose is discovered through reflection, not busyness. Creating space to step back, think, and ask honest questions is essential for clarity.
• Forgiveness unlocks movement. Letting go of past experiences or self-judgement creates the conditions for change.

Key Takeaway

Change starts with what you can control: your mindset, your habits, and the actions you take next.

Links:

Home - The Young Ladies Club

I Dare You: Roll the Dice of Life: Oyewole, Hannah: 9780957557901: Amazon.com: Books

TEDx https://youtu.be/Fi0Vkoa8fc4?si=6otVtyY4BDnAUuQU

You Win or You Learn: Culture, Space and the Reality of Work.

In this episode James and Alex speak to Steve Henigan, Founder & MD of HCG, about the reality behind workplace culture and transformation.

This conversation goes beyond office design, exploring how leadership behaviour, clarity, and culture shape whether workplaces actually work.

Steve shares his journey from corporate roles to building his own consultancy, along with powerful lessons from swimming the English Channel and applying performance thinking to business.

Key Topics

• Why great offices don’t always create great cultures
• “You win or you learn” – reframing failure
• Lessons from swimming the English Channel
• The importance of leadership visibility in change
• Hybrid working: balancing people, clients, and business reality
• Why behaviour matters more than perks or policies

Key Takeaways

You can design the perfect space on paper. But if people don’t feel safe to be themselves within it, it remains just that - space.

• Culture is created through behaviour, not design
• Leadership visibility is the single biggest driver of change
• Big challenges become possible when broken into small steps
• There is no perfect model, only clarity about what matters
• People don’t need more perks, they need permission

Links

• Steve Henigan: LinkedIn
• HCG: HOME | HCG
• We.Are.Powerful: wearepowerful.org

Guest: Chris Herbert, Founder of Fit for Life Youth

In this episode, James Russell and Alex Sellers are joined by Chris Herbert, founder of Fit for Life Youth, an award‑winning community organisation working with children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Ladbroke Grove, London.

Chris shares his personal journey from growing up on a local estate to creating a charity that supports confidence, resilience, life skills and healthier lifestyles through sport, mentoring and community connection.

In this conversation, we explore:

• How early experiences with youth workers shaped Chris’ sense of purpose and legacy
• Why sport – and boxing in particular – can be a powerful vehicle for confidence, discipline and emotional regulation
• The modern pressures young people face today, including social media, online comparison, and public “slip‑ups” that never disappear
• Challenging the “snowflake” narrative by naming the very real pressures facing today’s youth
• How Fit for Life Youth creates belonging, structure and positive role models at a local, human level
• Stories of young people who have grown from participants into coaches, leaders and role models themselves
• The realities of running a grassroots charity: funding pressures, uncertainty, and navigating the Voluntary sector
• Turning setbacks into opportunities, including building a permanent gym space after losing community facilities
• Why community still matters – for young people and for adults – and how real connection shapes wellbeing
• Advice Chris would give his younger self about self‑belief, starting sooner, and keeping calm through uncertainty

Key themes:

• Belonging before performance
• Community as a foundation for resilience
• Sport as a metaphor for life and leadership under pressure
• Faith, persistence and “keeping calm and carrying on”
• The quiet impact of consistency and care

Quote from the episode:

“The feeling you get from seeing people develop and grow and become happy — that’s why we do this. It’s a feeling you can’t really put into words.”

Find out more:

• Fit for Life Youth: Website FFLY HQ
• Chris Herbert on LinkedIn: Christopher Herbert
• Follow Fit For Life Youth CIO (@fitforlifeyouth) • Instagram photos and videos for updates, stories and community work

If this episode resonated with you, consider how community shows up in your own life and where you might choose to contribute, reconnect, or support others.

www.wearepowerful.org