3. Lesley Toche | Culture as a Tech Diversity Solution | NextPlay CEO

Explicit content warning

03/07/20 • 85 min

In this episode, we learn all about Lesley Toche, the CEO and founder of NextPlay Events. NextPlay is dedicated to making professionals of color 20x more likely to get hired in tech. Lesley shares about how the company got started, a bit about his background as a musician, as well as his upbringing in Cameroon to California.
Learn more about Lesley by checking him out on IG: @LesleyToche
Learn more about the NextPlay movement here: https://www.nextplayevents.com
⚡️Show notes:
00:43 - Who is Lesley Toche
01:56 - Why NextPlay
03:54 - Growing up in Cameroon and moving to California
05:58 - Playing sports and hobbies
13:35- Lesley’s favorite performance
15:39 - Going from High School to Community College to UC Berkeley
17:46 - Becoming a college a tutor
19:40 - 3-4 side hustles and a full set of classes
20:00 - Transferring to UC Berkley
22:53 - Studying abroad in Norway was one of the best decisions
28:52 - Post-college life and Lesley’s internship
30:25 - Going back to US after searching for a job in Norway
32:40 - How Lesley got to LinkedIn
34:58 - Lesley’s top advice to job hunter
36:00 Leverage LinkedIn to land a job. Period.
37:36 - Transitioning to Diversity and Inclusion Role
41:55 - Organizing the LinkedIn Open House
47:45 - The magnitude of hiring 6 people in one event.
51:24 - The creation of the Diversity Open Mic
56:33 - This could solve a lot of Diversity Recruiting Challenges
57:30 - Launching NextPlay
1:05:17 - Lesley’s lowest point with NextPlay
1:07:58 - The Difference of NextPlay Events and other companies
1:13:15 - NextPlay’s Summer Vibes Experience
1:16:24 - How Lesley manages his time
1:19:01 - How Lesley unplugs from the world
1:19:54 - Lesley’s biggest learning from Starting NextPlay
1:21:09 - Lesley’s motivation to keep on going
1:21:51 - Lesley’s upcoming goals -- plus, a sneak peek at what to look out for from NextPlay 👀

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Grab the Get Ish Done Book here.

Connect with Ish on Twitter here.

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Grab the Get Ish Done Book here.

Connect with Ish on Twitter here.

Previous Episode

2. Carlos Gil | "The End of Marketing" Author | Social Media Strategist | Gil Media Founder

In this episode, we learn all about Carlos Gil.
He shares about his upbringing, dropping out of high school, running social media for some of the biggest brands in the world, touring the world as a speaker for marketing conferences, and even shares a bit of insight to his new book "The End of Marketing".
Find Carlos on Instagram @CarlosGil83 and check out his new book on Amazon: http://bit.ly/carlosgilbook
⚡️Show Notes:

1:15 - Who is Carlos Gil?
4:30 - Carlos' Forces
4:40 - Growing up with entrepreneurial parents
8:10 - Working at a young age
9:54 - High school hobbies and experiences
11:17 - Why I dropped out from high school and my mantra in life
11:59 - Married at a young age
13:04 - The Big Break
14:54 - Branch Bank Manager at Regents
15:28 - Economy Hits, lost job and joined LinkedIn
16:59 - Jobs Direct USA
17:15 - Built my Own Business and rebranded myself
17:34 - How to flip social media into a business
17:54 - Met the venture capitalist in Florida
20:38 - How to growth hack LinkedIn
21:54 - "Pink Slip Party"
22:29 - Started Growth Hacking Twitter
24:02 - "I went Broke"
27:43 - Winn Dixie offered me to be their 1st Social Media Head
32:11 - Carlos left Winn Dixie and worked at Savla
33:45 - Started going to conferences
34:54 - Moved to West Coast
38:50 - "LinkedIn Offered me a Job"
39:45 - Social Media Marketing Aspiration
47:40 - Going back to LinkedIn
49:10 - Tipping Point
51:20 - Things Carlos has learned from the Corporate World
52:40 - Gil Media Journey
1:01:53 - The Day in a life of Carlos Gil
1:07:05 - Daily Routine
1:08:22 - Things I’ve learned while writing The End of Marketing Book
1:14:38 - Advice for People who want to go with Social Media Marketing
1:18:40 - How do you manage to unplug
1:20:38 - Upcoming goals
1:23:30 - Advice to a younger Carlos Gil
1:29:16 - Speaking engagement preparation
--
Grab the Get Ish Done Book here.

Connect with Ish on Twitter here.

Next Episode

4. Bomani Mintz | "Stay Humble, Keep Persevering" | CEO of Crave It | Ex-Customer Success & Sales Manager

Bomani is the Founder & CEO of Crave It their mission is to help spread joy to the world through food. To Crave It food is love and they plan to build a community around food and cultural awareness.
What gets Bomani out of bed everyday is that he believes there are few things that are more satisfying than finding great food or being introduced to great food.
For the better part of 3 years Bomani juggled being a top performer at his full time job at LinkedIn while working on Crave It as a side hustle clocking 11-13 hour days during the week. His dedication and persistence finally paid off allowing him to launch in June 2019 and go full time in July of 2019 with Crave It.
⚡️Show Notes:
02:38 → Who is Bomani Mintz
02:59 → What is Crave it?
03:34 → Why start Crave it?
06:00 → Bomani's Favorite Food Growing up
07:01 → Growing up in DC, moving to Zimbabwe, going back to DC and moving to Northern Virginia
08:16 → Bomani's Hobbies
10:12 → Job before LinkedIn
11:30 → Day to Day Job in LinkedIn
13:11 → How Bomani manages his time
15:15 → Hitting burnout
16:56 → Building the Entrepreneurship Community
17:37 → Transitioning to early days of Crave it
19:36 → Things to avoid in starting a business
20:28 → What happened after the early days of Crave it
21:25 → Advice on branding and for people who are starting a new business
23:01 → Biggest Milestone of Crave it
24:12 → Shipping the product
27:01 → The process of launching the food app
30:24 → Weekly routines and habits
32:33 → Motivation to keep going.
33:47 → What it's like to be an Entrepreneur
35:16 → Bomani's lowest moment
37:28 → Key learnings from the lowest moment of life
38:29 → How Bomaniâ€TMs unplugs from the world
39:26 → The reason for leaving LinkedIn
40:25 → Surviving life in San Francisco
41:30 → Things Bomani has cut out in order to survive
42:56 → Best advice Bomani's ever received
43:51 → A day in Bomani's life
46:56 → App used for time management
47:41 → Most valuable book and podcast channels
49:41 → Valuable skills of being an Entrepreneur
53:48 → Crave it upcoming goals
56:07 → Why start a food app?
57:06 → Piece of advice to younger Bomani
1:00:45 → Last piece of advice to all the listeners