The Side Quest

This week on The Side Quest, I'm joined by Mayowa Quadri, one of the team behind Versus — a football lifestyle magazine pushing the conversation around what sport can connect to. Mayowa didn't set out for a career in football media, but an early podcast gave him a foundation in storytelling that shaped everything that followed. We met working on the Women's Euros in 2022, and this conversation gets into how he balances everything he does while maintaining a focused, calm and consistent presence. If you're curious about sports journalism, or have questions about your personal brand and showing up online, this episode is for you.

This week on The Side Quest, I'm joined by creative entrepreneur Shana G, just as she prepares to launch Fanmail — a new project exploring the fan archives of people who are artists themselves. Shana has built podcasts, communities and businesses across her creative journey, and in 2024 won the BBC Radio 1 Christmas Cover competition, taking over the airwaves on Sarah Story's show. If you've explored multiple creative pursuits on the way to understanding yourself, and you're thinking differently about what success looks like across different areas of your life, this episode is for you.

This week I’m joined by a music pal, Lewis John. In this episode, we explore the close relationship between Lewis’ day job, as a music producer and engineer, and his side quest as a music producer but with an artist project. To distinguish for anyone a little confused… this means essentially the music he’s working on with other people versus that which he creates purely for his own joy and satisfaction, and would release under his own name. Lewis and I met through mutual music friends and actually shared a studio before he spun off to join independent dance label Toolroom. Toolroom is a label well known in the house world, who have released music from DJs like Hugel, Green Velvet and Solardo originally founded by Mark Knight and his brother Stuart Knight in 2003. If you’re using your side quest to pivot your career, or youre a fan of dance music culture, this episode is for you. 

This week I’m joined by another special being, Claire Venus. Claire is a Sustack best seller with over 18,000 subscribers regularly consuming and benefitting from her guidance and mentorship.  She’s been teaching about the platform since 2023 and was an official mentor for Substack in 2024. If you’re thinking ‘what is this substack thing?’, I’d argue it’s side quest central. What started as a newsletter platform has evolved to being a community building space, and social network in its own right, attracting increasing audiences due to its founding principles on writers being able to earn from their work, and its often felt warmer and deeper tone compared to other sites where you mights build an audience. I met Claire at the Substack summer party and we’ve stayed in touch since, having some lovely conversations. While it’s many peoples Side Quests, Substack and Audience development is now Claire’s day-to-day job so we also explore how she makes room for her passions of allotment gardening and property investment. If you’re interested in nurturing spaces around your passion, this episode is for you. 

She looked at the way female leaders were being represented and decided the image didn't match the reality — so she built her own platform to show what it actually looks like. Frances Odera Matthews is the founder of Coffee and Oysters, a podcast and community celebrating London's business babes with the kind of authenticity that slick branding usually edits out. But what I find fascinating about Frances work is how she thinks in systems, using tools like Notion and smart automation to run a podcast, a consulting practice and a community without burning out in the process. She gets into why longevity beats virality, how she built a content machine that actually works for her life, and why the lived experience of older generations of entrepreneurs might be the most underrated resource in the room. If you're building something that reflects your real values, or you're trying to work smarter without losing the soul of what you're creating, Frances is going to give you a lot to think about.

Jess Iszatt is BBC Radio 1 presenter and has been a part of giving talented artists that are now household names, their first big support via her new music show, BBC Introducing. This was how I met Jess myself, after submitting a mix of my own productions for a BBC in Ibiza competition a couple of years ago. I’ve been lucky enough to see first hand how her passion for artists and determination to make things happen, has also extended into her own career - both in DJing and presenting. I’ve also seen how her love of sport has begun appearing more frequently in her professional life, as a DJ with Tottenham Spurs, and a part of The Hundred. In this conversation Jess gets into the persistence that built her career, why human curation will always beat an algorithm, and what it really means to celebrate the wins when you're doing well, but the climb still looks steep ! If you've ever felt overwhelmed by how much you want to do, or are interested in what it means to have a career in entertainment - this episode is for you. 

She trained as a classical musician, got a masters in International business law, and then did what made perfect sense - became a DJ and event organiser embedding in nightlife and electronic music. Lidia Lo's path is a series of bold twists and steps. Based in Amsterdam, she co- founded Velvet, a party concept built on consistency, elegance and community, and has embedded in her mission a willingness to create opportunities for women around her. IN this conversation she gets into how curiosity led to passion, smart strategies for managing unhelpful thoughts and how she keeps focused on what important now as well as what a Burning Man moment taught her. If you've ever felt like your interests seemed uncomplimentary, or you're building something from scratch in a city where nobody knows your name yet, you’re gonna get a lot out of this conversation. 

She climbed the corporate ladder in sustainability and operations, but despite the trajectory, Sade Akindele couldn't shake the feeling she was living someone else's definition of success. That realisation didn't just change her career - it became the foundation for Women On Our Way, a community helping women navigate transitions toward values-aligned work. Sade gets granular about trusting intuition over expectation, the "lift as you climb" mentality that powers real community, and why curiosity matters more than traditional success metrics. If you're confident in what you can do but uncertain about what comes next, or if you're ready to lead with heart instead of just strategy, this conversation will feel like coming home.

This week on The Side Quest, journalist and writer Michaella Parkes. I give her that title but as you'll see it's one that only really came into being in the past couple of years. Before that, she was deep in corporate life, until a move to writing and Substack cracked something open. What started as a career pivot became a full embrace of writing, community-building, and the kind of creative life that doesn't fit neatly into a job description. Michaella gets real about imposter syndrome, the power of supporting other writers instead of competing with them, and why networking is actually just relationship building in disguise. If you're wrestling with multiple interests, questioning whether your creative output is "strategic" enough, or learning to trust your own evolution, this one's for you.

She's the creative force behind House Party and a voice on Select Radio who’s life is a bit of a permanent side quest. From DJing in university to stepping away, then returning years later with her children's encouragement, Meera (@meeramixes) has built a practice of turning passions into platforms. Even her cake business evolved from a daughter's birthday to Central Cee's birthday. It was through music that we met and now, she's working on different music ecosystems designed to uplift other artists all while navigating the tension between creativity, time constraints, an ADHD diagnosis and finding personal boundaries. If you've ever wondered if now is the right time, this conversation is for you. 

She’s a DJ, producer and music promoter embedded in the world of dance music who in her first year of releasing scored a number one trending release on Soundcloud in 10 countries. But, it’s in long distance running that Arielle has found a way to regulate the party lifestyle which is an undeniable part of her creative profession. This episode will give you insight into how quickly you can get up and running with a new challenge, pardon the pun as we explore the mindset which lends itself both to music and semi-professional sports. 

She was a marketing professional who experienced a real burnout and made the decision not to go back to full time work and instead, try and make it as a freelancer. What followed was what Vicky describes as personal development on crack.. she built the platform and events brand Happy Freelancers, and as that has evolved to become a full time pursuit, has turned the ignition on a new quest, dance and choreography school ‘Empower Her’. if you’re interested in gaining freedom, confidence or developing a community as part of your quest, this conversation is for you.