This episode introduces Donna's new book 'WIN!' and explains the inspiration behind this must-have guide to winning awards for all entrepreneurs. Find out how recognition could help you achieve your true potential and discover the benefits of winning awards. Get your hands on WIN! from Amazon today by clicking HERE.Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. She ha...
In this insightful episode, Donna talks about the New Year Honours List and looks at how diversity has grown in recent years, with recipients from all walks of life, backgrounds and ethnic groups.Learn more about who was honoured this year for their outstanding work, and the impact that this recognition can bring.Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. She has ...
In this episode, Donna is joined by Antoinette Oglethorpe - a multi-award-winning consultant, coach, speaker and author who specialises in career management and mentoring.She has created unique models, tools and templates to empower employees to take ownership of their career development with support from their manager and organisation. In the past few years, she has supported multiple career management programmes or initiatives at international organisations in the United Nations System. She...
In this episode, Donna is joined by Gez McGuire - an award-winning digital marketer and international marketing awards judge with over 20 years' experience in marketing. Gez is now working at the forefront of blending AI adoption and machine learning with human intelligence to deliver strategic digital marketing campaigns, and he is about to launch an exciting e-commerce brand in 2022.Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, busine...
Neil Skehel is the CEO of Awards International, an international awards organiser with 12 programmes around the world including in Europe, the Middle East and the UK. I’ve asked Neil to join me on the podcast today to talk about the launch of a brilliant new award - the European Customer Experience Awards (European CXAs).In this episode, you’ll discover how these awards will work, along with a preview of the inaugural UK Business & Innovation Awards - also operated by Awards Internat...
In this episode, Donna is joined by Dominic Colenso, who began his career as a professional actor, before training as a director at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.He’s worked alongside some of the UK’s most famous actors, appearing on the London stage, in BBC period dramas and most famously played Virgil Tracy in the Hollywood film adaptation of Thunderbirds.Through his company In Flow, he now empowers businesses, sales teams and leaders to increase the impact of their communicat...
Donna O'Toole is joined by Head of Events at The Learning and Performance Institute, Pauline Saunders. Pauline talks about their flagship awards programme The Learning Awards, including what the 2021 entry process entails, who should enter, and which new categories have been introduced.The Learning Awards, since its beginning in 1996, have continually adapted to align with significant trends in L&D, and to ensure that categories represent current technologies, innovations and people skill...
In this episode, Donna talks with Debbie Gilbert - a multi-award-winning Entrepreneur and owner of Viva Business Support, a marketing and events agency. She is also the founder of Mums UnLtd, a networking company aimed at mums in business which provides support for mums in business. Her book ‘The Successful Mumpreneur’ has been a global success, which shares her knowledge on growing a business around a family.Over the past 20 years, Debbie has built a reputation for being an excellent support...
In this inspirational episode, Donna discusses The Queen's Awards for Enterprise and explains why these awards are widely regarded as the world's most prestigious.Learn more about this year's winners and find out how the entry process works, so that you're armed with the information you need to get started on your Queen's Awards journey.Donna O'Toole is the Founder of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious award...
Sarah Austin is a leading voice of the awards and events industry. In addition to a 12-year career running an international awards portfolio at Informa (formally UBM), Sarah was notably the Awards Director for the National Business Awards. She has now launched two exciting ventures in 2021 - the first being sarahaustin.co.uk which is a full end-to-end events management consultancy specialising in awards, conferences, virtual events, weddings and private events. Sarah's business has had ...
As the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of the Ministry of Purpose and Host of The Unconventionalists® podcast, Mark Leruste is on a mission to help entrepreneurs and business leaders have an impact on the world with their message.Mark previously served as Country Manager at the Movember Foundation, where he helped raise €2.8 million for men’s health and inspired 110,000 fundraisers to sign up, winning multiple awards along th...
David Henson MBE is a highly successful parasport athlete, who took up athletics following a life-changing incident whilst serving in Afghanistan almost exactly 10 years ago. Having stepped on a hidden landmine, the impact of the blast led to the amputation of the lower half of both his legs. Following an extensive rehabilitation program, he began walking with the aid of prosthetic legs several months later.From this moment on, Dave was determined to make the most from his ‘new life’ and has ...
Neil Skehel is the CEO of Awards International, an international awards organiser with 12 programmes around the world including in Europe, the Middle East and the UK. I’ve asked Neil to join me on the podcast today to talk about the launch of two brilliant awards - the flagship UK Customer Experience Awards and the newly formatted UK Business Awards. In this episode, you’ll discover how the UK Customer Experience Awards will work this year, and what can we look forward to in October...
Join Donna in conversation with Ian Washington-Smith, the Director of Rego, an organisation that works with people to solve problems and support individuals and teams to achieve their goals and reach their potential. With the company strapline “Changing Realities” Ian had his own reality changed when he retired from the police after 30 years as a Detective Inspector. In his last post, he managed the Counter Corruption Unit working across the Thames Valley Police force area, leading a tea...
Donna is delighted to welcome Charly Young to the podcast. In 2013, Charly co founded The Girls' Network with her colleague, Becca. Starting out as a one-to-one mentoring scheme for 30 girls, The Girls' network has grown to support over 1000 girls a year aged between 14 and 19 to overcome barriers and access to opportunities, as well as giving them the confidence and skills to seize those opportunities and thrive. Their impact speaks for itself: 93% of girls on the programme last year s...
Join Donna in conversation with Stephen Fear, The Phonebox Millionaire™, British entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and author with 50 years' international business experience.Stephen first went into business at the age of 15 after reading an article in the Financial Times that would affect the way industrial ovens were cleaned. He used a red phone-box on the council estate where he grew up and persuaded an American firm to send him their product to sell in the UK. Before he knew...
Donna is delighted to be joined by Alison Edgar MBE, also known as “The Entrepreneur’s Godmother” because of her incredible support of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.Amongst her many achievements, Alison has pioneered culture change within her five-star global clientele which includes Sky, Equifax, The NHS, and The Discovery Channel, where she has delivered her world-class ‘Intrapreneurship’ methodology to enhance the development of teams by helping employees to think like entrepre...
Today we are joined by Neil Foster, Vice President of the Guinness World Records Consultancy who works with brands, agencies, community groups and charities to make and break records by creating challenges that complement their marketing campaigns. And we are also delighted to welcome Hayley Woodward, Head of Global Marketing for Rubik’s - the iconic toy puzzle cube that has swept the world since 1980 and is as popular in Christmas stockings today as it was 40 years ago!We spoke about th...
Donna catches up with Dr Rebecca Zhi Herbert, founder and the Academic Director of Wisdom Spring Education. As Silver winner of the UK Customer Experience Awards for Customer Experience during the Crisis, and finalist of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, 2020 has certainly been an eventful year for Rebecca and her team!Originally from Wuhan, China, As a highly respected and Chinese/British education expert based in the UK, Rebecca set up Wisdom Spring Education in 2014 to help fami...
In this episode of our podcast, Donna spoke with Marvin Sordell, former Premier League, England and Olympic footballer, turned creative producer, writer and ambassador for mental health. Marvin shares his stories on leaving the footballing world, being fearless whilst striving boldly into a new industry and his advice on how we can all achieve our dreams. Born in 1991 in Northwest London, Marvin achieved great success as a professional footballer, making more than 300 appearances and scoring ...