The Diary Of A Dadpreneur…
By Oli The Choc…

Time Flies, but I’m not complaining! We’re just so bloody lucky to be here in the first place!

The year flies by quick, but time flies when you’re having fun, even quicker when you have offspring, businesses, busy social lives, fitness aspirations, hobbies and an insatiable appetite for travel, new experiences and meeting new people.
Therefore I have no qualms about time moving by so fast, time is a blessing and I’m grateful to have it at my disposal in the first place, the opportunity to spend it how I want, abundantly, lovingly and in a nutshell cramming as much as possible into every single day.

So we’re into the months ending with “ber” already, well I’m not even mad at that, I’m flipping and it I’m inspired by it instead.

The start of the academic year, almost feels like a new year do you agree? Except with added pressure and urgency, if we haven’t succeeded in ticking some big ones off the list then now is the time to get it done before the year is up.

Even though New Years resolutions can be cliché, tacky and last about as long as the conversations you have about them, I am a little bit of a sucker for them. I feel a power in the new year and I get sucked into the hype and excitement of the opportunity to redesign my life.

However, every day is a new beginning and every “now” is the beginning of a brand new creative process, the opportunity to have a new thought, that leads to a new thing, that grows, expands, develops and manifests into amazing new experiences and circumstances.

They say a thought thinks, so I choose those little sparks of energy very carefully because I believe they aren’t as insignificant as most people tend to think, they grow and gain momentum, which is why you can manifest what you do want or what you don’t want, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not.

I’m hyper aware of this throughout the year but I also thrive under pressure. I only really get things done either because the desire is so strong or the pressure to get it done can’t be challenged.

I call it the power of the 11th hour, I embrace that along with any other quirks in my personality which I’ll uncover in good time. I give myself a break.

So my New Years resolution was to be more curious and I feel that I have been more curious in 2022, asked more questions and discovered new answers.

I’m going to double down on curiosity for this last quarter of the year.

It’s time to ask more questions, of myself and others in order to learn more about both and the world around us, creating even more new and exciting opportunities. Who knows what stories I’ll be telling by New Years Eve and not just those about chasing a toddler around an airport lounge or military style nappy changes, but stories about things I’ve been able to achieve and exciting situations I’ve found myself in.

I feel it’s my job to prove to others what’s possible in life, anything.

My point is it’s not too late for resolutions, it’s never to late to become a better you, improve your life and create new opportunities, even do something completely different if you want to, or have multiple things on the go, even if one of those is raising a small human, there’s no rules, the only barriers are the ones we tend to put up in front of ourselves.

Also don’t be too hard on yourself, embrace who you are and how far you’ve come.
Remind yourself of what you’ve achieved this year so far and the ways in which you have grown, then also remember we still have 4 months left of this year so it’s never too late, it’s always the beginning.

Reflect for clarity and confidence to launch you into this last quarter.

It’s time to step into your power! 💥

Peace, Love, Choc ‘n’ Roll….
Oli ✌🏼

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“Becoming a Dad has inspired me.”

Becoming a Dad has inspired me.
It’s important for me to show Romy you can do something you love and pursue random fun experiences in life, just because you want to. You can live the life you want and you can show others that they can too.

As a child I wanted to be a TV or radio presenter but I always felt from feedback that this was “unrealistic” so I joined the family business and became a chocolatier. Which I loved then and love even more now.
This actually led me down a path of presenting which I didn’t realise at the time, hosting children’s parties and corporate events. The main skill aside from working with chocolate was presenting and entertaining.
This has opened doors and created opportunities for me outside of chocolate in that I have a Podcast called Goin’ In Deep, and I host live shopping shows on TikTok working with brands such as I Saw It First, Disney, Warner Bros, Zavvi, Lego etc.

I want to be able to say to Romy that she can be and do whatever she feels inspired to and to know that nothing is “unrealistic”, so my drive is to be able to show her that this is true through how I’ve lived my life. Living proof.

You can create the life you want and if you truly want to do something, you can and you will.
You have to be patient and work hard but trust the process. Give yourself a pat on the back now and again and remind yourself how far you have come. Nothing will get in your way, not even becoming a parent. Everything you do leads to something else, opportunities are everywhere, so keep going.

I’m excited to share that message to Romy and to see where she takes this perspective in her life, the sky is the limit.

I am excited to share more of my perspectives and experiences with you through my Brood articles and I hope you will come with me on my journey and I hope as well you will be able to relate and take something away.

Until next time, but for now I’ll leave you with this thought;
Stop what you’re doing and be Grateful AF for what you have and have achieved so far.
Keep being the best ‘you’ you can be and remember to enjoy the journey, every single thing you do leads to something else. Trust the process.

Yours Chocolatey,

Oli
@Oli_The_Choc

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“It’s really important for kids to see where their parents work and what they do.”

I’m consistently impressed by individuals who have dared to make a career change and pursue what’s right for them, professionally and personally. Therefore, I was keen to explore this topic with someone who has lived it. My interview with Tawfe’eq was a testament to the power of the career pivot. It’s a conversation brimming with intrigue, honesty and inspiration, read on to discover the full story >

Our interview and photoshoot provided some wonderful Brood-esque moments as Tawfe’eq, his wife and twins collided with me and photographer, Tom Pitfield with his months-old baby Iris in Morson reception. A new baby, 2 excitable toddlers and 4 people desperately trying to adult, just another day in the life of a professional parent!

Let’s jump right into it. Tell me a little about your career to date?

I started in hospitality, then moved into retail and finally became a freelance digital marketer. I loved working with a range of clients in Manchester from fitness, fashion and music to corporate SMEs.

What was the catalyst for you to consider another career path?

When lockdown happened my digital marketing career went out of the door. As a freelancer, I had no job security and many clients dropped off because nobody knew what was going to happen.

At the same time, my wife told me she was pregnant. I was washing up at the time and I vividly remember just going into complete shock and cleaning the same plate for about 15 minutes. Because I bring in our primary income my immediate thought was ‘how am I going to provide for this child?’ We subsequently found out she was expecting twins which doubled the anxiety!

It was a very stressful and scary, but pivotal moment. I knew I had to change my career to provide. After the initial shock, I sat down and drew out a spider diagram with my name at the centre. I considered what am I good at? What am I interested in? What avenues have I not explored that have potential?

My mum was a real inspiration. Around 5 years ago she was fortunate enough, through her employer, to go to Oxford University and do a masters degree. Not only did she write her dissertation about the digital divide, which piqued my interest in tech, but she also showed me that a career is an ever-evolving thing and that learning and growing are natural, positive and essential. This took away some of the fear.

How did you decide that tech was the route you wanted to explore?

I had been doing an email marketing campaign for a friend and he had some issues with his WordPress website. I had never used WordPress at the time, but my friend said, ‘look, you’re more technical than me, just give it a go’, so I learned online, solved the problem and enjoyed it.

I started to explore this world a little bit more. I always thought you had to be a mathematics major or do a computer science degree to be a software engineer as that’s the traditional route a lot of my friends who were in the industry took. I’ve always struggled with maths, I went to high school in Ethiopia from 2006-2012 and their maths is extremely advanced, so I struggled even more. I’ve always had this fear that I wouldn’t be technically able to do something like programming. Thankfully the industry has come a long way, many people are self-taught and there are so many online learning resources.

I moved into DevOps through the apprenticeship firm QA Consulting. When I applied there, I had to take an aptitude test. It felt like less of a barrier to entry, less intimidating. Yes, there is a numeric test but there was also a personality and a logical thinking test to assess my aptitude. I passed and the rest is history. It was a big eye-opener that sometimes you don’t know until you try.

To anyone unaware, could you explain what DevOps is?

DevOps is the bridge between software development and business operations. It’s not just understanding how to execute the technical aspects of a project, it’s managing the whole lifecycle i.e. understanding the requirements from the product owner, the programme specification, the customer base, the goals of the company and managing workloads, the project and stakeholders throughout the process. Cross-department communication and understanding is the difference between software development (whose main focus is making sure the code works and has been tested and debugged) and DevOps.

How have you seen your career in tech benefitting you and your family?

The immediate benefit for me is being able to work from home. Having twins who are under 2 is hard work. By being more available I’m able to support my wife and I’ve seen a boost in her energy levels. I also get to see my children more which makes us all happier. For some women, it can be difficult to maintain an identity outside of the family unit, so it’s really important to be able to support her so she can explore things she wants to do outside of being a mother. She’s always been such an independent person and I don’t want her to lose that. Through my work, she’s been looking at how she can develop professionally. Being able to find a solution for all of this through tech has been amazing.

Although, we’re pregnant again…

Wait, what, you’re pregnant again?!

Yes, haha. So we have twins, and we’re expecting twins again.

(Audible gasp)

Yes, it’s going to be a challenge for sure. To be honest with you if I wasn’t in my current career, I would hate to think how stressed I would be about it. I wouldn’t be working from home and I wouldn’t have the flexibility I’m currently afforded to support my family. But it’s not just that, working in tech has allowed me to dream about true career development. The idea that I won’t be in the same position in five years is motivating and job security is key. Having four children under the age of two won’t be a small task, but the benefits of working in tech all make it feel achievable and will hopefully make it a happy experience too.

What advice would you give to people considering a career pivot?

One thing I would say is that things are always worse in your head. For example, if you think tech is this super technical thing which is unlearnable, you’re wrong.

So, my first piece of advice is to almost take a helicopter view of yourself. My pivotal moment was doing that spider diagram exercise; putting myself in the middle and matching my aspirations to my interests to my skills and trying to see the trends. Do your research and you will be very surprised at how many things you are interested in and how varied roles and opportunities are.

My second top tip is once you’ve chosen your route, get yourself a mentor. You’ll be so surprised how many people, no matter how busy or senior you perceive them to be, are willing to help, share their insight and connect you with others that will be able to help you in your career. One thing I’d say to people who are looking to get into tech, in particular, is that there are some amazing mentors here in Manchester that are willing and want to help and it’s such an amazing privilege to have access to that.

Would you like to give any of them a shoutout?

Yes! My Dad always used to say we are fishermen of people, you cast your net wide, keep the good, and throw the bad back in the water. These are the exceptional ones:

First, Naomi Timperley. I spoke to her initially at the Manchester Tech Festival and we arranged a coffee over Zoom where she set me some assignments; one was to talk at their next event. Having someone willing to give you advice and push you into action can be so impactful because it can be daunting coming into an industry for the first time. To have someone senior or who is an expert in the field have your back isn’t something I have seen outside of tech, to be honest.

Another person is James Akrigg, he’s ex-Head of Technology for Microsoft. I met him at the tech social as well. He’s another person who has given me advice, guidance and, most importantly, feedback.

Why is tech a great career option for those looking to re-skill?

The tech industry is booming not only with opportunity but with a fantastic network of diverse people who have different backgrounds and experiences. People are doing some amazing things for diversity in tech and addressing the digital divide. It’s refreshing. As a community, we must champion these facilitators to positively disrupt the industry.

What many people don’t appreciate, is that there are loads of non-technical roles within the tech industry too. I want people to understand they don’t need to be a mathematical genius to come into the digital realm because it is an amazing space. One thing I love about software development and DevOps is that you can take an idea and bring it into the real world and see it positively impact people. That’s so cool and empowering.

There is something for everybody in this space. Through recruitment and outreach programmes we need to help people understand there are so many transferrable skills in tech. People have ability based on aptitude and therefore ample opportunity to find a role in tech that they love and can excel in. As I said earlier, not every tech role is a technical role and we need to promote that. We need to show that tech is an open door and there is something for everybody. With tech being one of the fastest-growing economies there are huge opportunities here.

What are your aspirations and where do you see yourself in the future?

I have a very personal ambition. I studied in Ethiopia and I have African heritage so the issues that affect the country are very real to me.

Specifically, I aim to use my skills in the digital arena to work on food loss preventative measures within East Africa. Africa loses enough calories to feed 1.7 billion people, three times a day every year. The idea that Africa suffers from famine for a lack of produce is largely incorrect. For example, in the UK we waste food, this waste is everything after it gets to the consumer – throwing food away after it goes off etc. In Africa or other developing countries, food waste happens before it gets to the consumer. Not having the correct packaging for produce, poor communication between farmers, suppliers and the marketplace are examples of this loss. In addition, lack of refrigeration causes toxins to get into the food which leads to illness, susceptibility to things like malaria and cholera and a long list of other issues.

Growing up in Africa seeing so much food but realising how little of it reaches the consumer was shocking to me, because I always assumed that the reason people go hungry is that they haven’t got it. But systems around the supply chain are so broken, that’s the main reason that these situations arise. Within five years I aim to be using tech to help solve these issues, helping farmers and suppliers to communicate across the supply chain accurately, implementing systems so data can be harnessed to help see what needs to be optimised and where processes fail. Better transparency across the supply chain is a big thing, but it’s solvable, and it’s solvable through tech.

I also hear you’re an advocate for digital literacy and you’ve also mentioned the digital divide. Could you tell us a little bit more about the issue and your activity in this area?

Of course, the digital divide means the difference between those who have access to the internet, computers and smart devices as opposed to demographics who don’t have access to the same resources. For example, Manchester City Council is still trying to get enough computers for students. We’re considered the second biggest city in the UK but we’re the sixth most deprived area in the UK.

And the reason the digital divide is so important is that pretty much everything has gone or is going digital. Every business is a digital business now, they all have a website or some other digital outreach, email, or social media. This means if you aren’t digitally able or haven’t had the resources to use these online platforms, you’re already going to be outskilled by the rest of the market. For example, a lot of homework is now done online and children that don’t have the access to computers or the internet are already falling behind.

I want to advocate for better digital literacy because technology is moving exponentially and as time goes by, if no action is taken the digital divide will become almost unclosable. I’d like to see a holistic approach to solving this issue; increased awareness of the digital divide coupled with private sector investment and a curriculum that serves the needs of our children’s futures.

—– It was a joy to meet Tawfe’eq and his growing family. I’d like to thank him for an inspirational and eye-opening discussion, personally champion his game-changing ambitions and offer support by focusing the conversation on the digital divide. I’d also like to wish them the best of luck as they juggle 4 kids under 2, a feat I can’t even comprehend!

As a lad originally from Blackpool I’ve personally seen the impact of digital poverty. It’s a topic I’m particularly passionate about and one of the main reasons we’re proud to partner with Manchester Tech Fest (MTF) a week-long event in Manchester in October. The festival is not only providing a space for the tech community to connect and inspire the next generation but is committed to finding practical solutions to breaking down the digital divide. I’d highly recommend for anyone looking to get into the tech industry to attend and get involved with the MTF community. Registrations for this year’s festival, together with more information regarding partners, sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors, can be found at www.manchestertechfestival.co.uk

If you, like Tawfe’eq are considering a career change, looking to take your first steps into tech or are interested in recruiting great people for your organisation, the tech team at Morson is on hand to help you every step of the way.

We’re also keen to speak with organisations who are considering offering training to develop and grow their workforce. As Tawfe-eq so clearly articulated there’s great people with aptitude and potential who just need an opportunity – whether that’s returning parents, career breakers, ex-forces personnel or ex-offenders. As a business, offering training enables you to develop and retain a workforce that fulfils your specific needs. We’re actively working with several organisations who are exploring this path to help guide and set a course for success. Get in touch at adrian.adair@morson.com to find out more.

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