In this episode of The SAFE Leader Podcast, Mark sits down with Enoch Adeyemi for an open conversation about resilience, belonging, and humanity. From childhood in a tough Nigerian boarding school to building community and inclusion in Scotland, this discussion explores what it means to grow through adversity and to lead with empathy. It’s a story of learning that strength comes not only from endurance, but from understanding others’ experiences and perspectives.
Together, they unpack how conversation can be the bridge that connects difference, across culture, race, and identity. This episode challenges us to move past fear and speak honestly, reminding us that we are all human first.
Read the Transcript
Mark McBride-Wright 0:00
Mark, hello. Welcome to the next episode of the safe leader podcast. I’m your host, Mark McBride-Wright, and I am delighted today, finally, to be joined with Enoch Adeyemi, who is the founder and CEO of black professionals United Kingdom. So Enoch himself identifies first as human Moreover, he holds the distinction of being a Fellow of the Association of Chartered certified accountants and specializes in consulting within the financial services industry, driven by a strong commitment to positive change, Enoch has founded several organizations, including black professionals United Kingdom, a rapidly growing entity that offers support to professional students and corporate partners. Additionally, he contributes his expertise in leadership, finance, diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as entrepreneurship across multiple advisory boards. Enoch, welcome,
Enoch Adeyemi 0:58
yeah, thanks Mark for having me. We got there eventually,
Mark McBride-Wright 1:02
I placed a bit of emphasis there in the introduction, yes, because in setting up this podcast, I, like, went through my LinkedIn and was like figuring out right who in my network could be really interesting to talk to. So you were in that first batch of people that I, you know, reached out to and scheduled talks with but then, yeah, life got in the way for both of us, didn’t it? We kept, I think we rescheduled about four times,
Enoch Adeyemi 1:30
a few times, a few times. I mean, I think the universe has said this recording is going to happen today. So today’s the today
Mark McBride-Wright 1:39
exactly so nice that we both mutually respected one another’s time and made, have made that commitment to show up for each other, to to do this recording, and this is also our first time meeting, I think, isn’t it? We’ve never met before. We’ve been been in mutual circles and similar overlaps, but we’ve never actually met an event or met online or met on a webinar or or anything. So
Enoch Adeyemi 2:06
so the next, the next step, really, is to meet in person. So you need to come up to Edinburgh again to go for a drink.
Mark McBride-Wright 2:12
I do next, next time I’m back at home, in my in my in my hometown, I absolutely need to, need to let you know that. It’s funny, though, isn’t it? When you go back to wherever it is you grew up, I kind of go back into teenage Mark modes. You know, it’s almost like, I find it strange when I work with clients based in Edinburgh, or I’m doing actual work in Edinburgh, I’m like, Oh, this is, there’s actually businesses here, and work happens, right? No, no, no. Used to just, you know, go to the Omni center to go for pizza, pizza hut, and then use my young Scott Card to get 25% off the view cinema, you know, anyway, anyway, so safe leader podcast, in terms of the structure I love starting off, first and foremost, finding out a bit about the person on the podcast, finding out a bit about your your past, your history, your motivations. You know, are you doing now what you thought you would be doing, doing back in the past, and I’m really interested in your description of yourself as human, first and foremost. So take us back to the young Enoch. And has that always been part of your identity, or how has that evolved over time? What? What? What did the young Enoch? What was the young Enoch like?
Enoch Adeyemi 3:43
Young Enoch grew up in Nigeria. I grew up in Lagos. So okay, if you know anything about Lagos itself, go, go, go. Type of city and I went to, I went to boarding school. And I have to put a clause on that, because whenever I tell this to British people, they just assume, Oh, posh. So boarding school in Nigeria, very different experience. So it’s basically where your parents I don’t want to use the word dump, but where parents dump you so they can sort of get on with life type of thing. So we are five, we eventually became six children, and my parents were very busy business people, so there really isn’t the capacity to sort of look after us day by day. And also being in a boarding school was a good experience, because then you’re just learning, right? Yeah, you’re away. So the boarding school system in Nigeria is different, again, in the sense that you’re basically there for three months at a time, like bye, see, ya, type of thing. So that was, that was how I grew up, and that was very tough. So I like to describe the boarding school experience in Nigeria as, you know, there’s hell, and then the next level after hell is boarding school, Nigerian boarding school. It was just tough six years and that was me going in, you know, my son is 10 years old now, and I was telling my wife the other day like it’s I was. Age when I went to boarding school, and I can now thinking of it, I can’t believe it seems so young and innocent, and that was the age at which I went into this space where everybody wanted to kill you. Your teachers wanted to kill you, your we call them seniors, so those that were years ahead of you in school wanted to kill you. Everybody has a thing out for you, have to survive that for six years, right? But you know what? What that has then done for me is it’s made me who I am now to the point that almost nothing faces me. You can’t, you can’t. You can’t reach me. I don’t know what the word is, you can’t. You can’t face me anymore. I feel like I’ve gone through my my toughest years very early on in life, right? So that was I grew up, though I was very ambitious. I wanted to become an accountant from a very early age. I think from 1112 I was good at maths. I was good at bookkeeping, which was one of the subjects in school. And I knew if I studied accounting, that could be a path for me to have a successful career. Because in Nigeria, when you’re deciding what you want to do, you want to do career wise, you’re looking at it from from the lens view of income as well. Just because you know you’ve got to make an income. It’s not like the UK, where, if things fail, you can rely on the government. In Nigeria, if things fail, things fail. So, so, so the income side was very good. So, yeah, that was, I always wanted to become an accountant, and that was how I grew up. And the old concept of human being, human first was not something I I coined up. Then it was in my later life, when I started doing the work I do around community and support and equity that I realized that as a as a human race, we have forgotten that we are first. So Mark, a white guy, your was it called sexuality is different to mine. We have a lot of things that are different. However, we are human first, yeah, underlying core similarity between us, similarity between us before all the 10 million differences. And that’s why I like to describe myself as human first. So that way we are the same first before differences we have. So yeah, that’s that was of my childhood, growing up in Lagos. And then that’s how I came about this whole concept of describing my first self as human,
Mark McBride-Wright 7:21
to feel like you’ve gone through the hard years of your life early on, where the experience of it is just one above hell, that’s quite an indictment or description, I guess, of the of what you must have endured.
Enoch Adeyemi 7:40
Yeah, I’ll give you, I’ll give you a quick, a quick example, just to paint the picture, right? So 10 years old, first day boarding school. The boarding school was really good academically. So it was over subscribed, so the hostels were really full, so there wasn’t any bunk bed for me. So essentially, when I got to the school, I the only space I got was the floor. So I came with my mattress and everything. So I set up bed on the floor, I put my mattress on the ground, and that was me in the bowling school for the first time. I didn’t know what the rules were. I didn’t know how things operated, and I was trying to offset myself or put my things away at the age of 10, right? And then 10pm they just shouted, light out. I didn’t understand the concept of lighthouse, so they switched up the light in the room so that everybody can go to bed. But I was still trying to sort my stuff out, and this senior, I just felt this lash on my back, and I looked up and it was a senior just lashing me with his belt like light out bedtime, and that was welcome to boarding school. So that was that sets its own for the for the minute six years. So, yeah, so it’s, it’s, it sort of sets me up for where I am now. So life is much easier for me now, to the point I went into the workplace and challenges came across. I was like, this is easy.
Mark McBride-Wright 8:59
Man. Did people are like, I don’t feel like I belong. You’re honestly, I grew up with, and this is, this is heaven,
Enoch Adeyemi 9:13
yeah, this is Indeed, indeed. I mean, yeah, so and then. But then I do understand that we are all different. So I’ve gone through the adversity, and no matter what you try me now I’m fine, but then not everybody is the same, and I’ve come to learn and respect that, because early on, I just go, people should just freaking toughen up, right? Why do they complain? Why do they moan? Yeah, but over time again, I’ve become matured in my thinking to understand that we’re all different. You know, my capacity for adversity is different to John or Jane or whoever’s um capacity, right? And again, is that bringing empathy, bringing kindness. I’m not just looking at it purely from my lens view, but trying to look at it from other people’s lens view as well. So that’s, again, part of the maturity journey I’ve been on. Um. In the last few years?
Mark McBride-Wright 10:01
Yeah, yeah. It’s, yeah, totally get that. It’s like the I was actually delivering some training this week, and we were doing the stress bucket exercise, where you look at stressors coming into your life, and what coping mechanisms are you doing, healthy, unhealthy to, like, release that pressure, release that stress, so that you’re managing it and you’re not overflowing. And the point I sort of make is each person has a different volume bucket, and that bucket volume can vary from day to day, from, you know, hour to hour, almost. So it’s the same, same point you say about your your propensity and ability to endure a challenging situation will be different to another person’s and vice versa. It’s other people may be able to breeze through certain contexts that you find challenging or or, I guess this is, this is where the equity comes in as well, where systemic bias exists. You know, just by virtue of who we are and how we show up there are, there’s a higher wall to climb, unfortunately, with how how things are, and which is what we’re both driving to try and change. And so really interested to you know, if you could talk us through, like some of the projects that you now, do you know, you’ve got an array of organizations, initiatives, you know, brands, like, things that you’ve established where I guess each one ties to maybe one of your hobbies or part of your identity, because there’s a Real mixture in there, from walking groups or from conferences or from awards program. So yeah, tell us a bit about the work that you’re doing with your advocacy nowadays. Yeah.
Enoch Adeyemi 11:51
So again, because of my own experience of finishing university and my the challenges I went through in sort of starting my career. So I just put this number out there for those listening, and again, because of my experience in my early years, that helps me go through, helped me solve, um, survive that space. When I finished investing between I went to the University of Liverpool, it was a degree from 2003 to 2006 so essentially, from 2005 I started applying for graduate roles for the next year, right? So from 2005 I started application all the way 2006 nothing came true, and then went on to do a master’s. 2006 2007 so between 2005 and 2007 I put out about 300 applications. And for those over 300 applications, most of them was just went into a black hole, never got a response. And for the few that then responded, that I got to an interview stage, I was not successful. So again, it just ties into the propensity I went through that and I kept going until I eventually got a role. Unfortunately, a lot of the people I went to university with did not just to the point I made around we all have different capacity for adversity, so I had the capacities just keep going like just keep hitting me with a no, and now someone is going to hit me with a yes. Nobody could do 300 some people stops at 50. Some food stocks are 100, right? So because of that experience I went through, and that challenge when I eventually was settled in my career, I was had done my qualifications, I was I was chartered. I felt, wow, that was a painful experience that I went through. You know? Yeah, it was the thing around, what can I do to make it easier for others that come in after me? And that was where the idea came to start a network. Network started as Edinburgh black professionals, and then evolved over year, over the years, to become black professionals UK. So what we do within the network is we support black students and professionals. We’ve broadened to an extent to other ethnic minority as well. So just support them on their journey from finishing university, trying to get into work. So the challenges I faced interesting, right them on that journey that,
Mark McBride-Wright 14:14
yeah, that that that’s your your niche, you know that that band, that’s what you try and cover, mainly the finishing university and then securing a professional role in interest, yeah?
Enoch Adeyemi 14:27
Because, one thing to add as well, because we started this in Scotland. So for context, for your for your members that are for the audience, that are not based in Scotland, most of the black people in Scotland today, in 2025 are first generation immigrants, right? Yeah. So we are very different to your black people in London, in Manchester, in Birmingham, right? Our challenges are different. We have no community. We have no family, no uncles, no aunties, no no networks going on. So having that network was very essential, because then you were not walking that journey by yourself. You could also. One you could tap into that network. And yeah, we’ve grown into over 6000 members, so those professionals, yeah, it’s been, it’s been a journey of growth. The first four years, nothing happened. And then after 2020, covid Black Lives Matter. George Floyd, we, you know, things really picked up for us as an organization, and the amount of impact we’ve had since then. I’m only only by it to think here I am, this lowly guy without any, you know, not much I don’t know. Just wanted to do something to support going on, to become, you know, black fresheners UK, working with businesses, working with the government, working with our community, and working with the wider Scottish community and the wider UK community as well. But then beyond that, that has then given birth to other organizations. So Black fresheners UK has then gone on to black fresheners Ireland, black professionals Europe, black Australia as well. And then on the back of that, we have then started our big career Conference, which is an annual conference we host in in Glasgow, and bring about 500 delegates to the conference, and take employers, and essentially that conference is a full day empowerment conference for the attendees, or for the delegates, again, supporting giving them all the soft skills and all the networking and all the connections for their career journey. So you we usually get a good mix of 5050 attendance. 50% of the attendees are students, 50% professionals like myself, you know, 20 years but then there’s still a lot of opportunity to learn from others and also to network as well. And then on the back of that, we’ve gone on to start the black Scottish Awards, which we hosted two Saturdays ago on the 20/27, of September. So again, that is about 500 guests coming to celebrating. The reason for the awards is we wanted to celebrate. I mean, I’ve been in Scotland for about 20 years, and the the black population in Scotland has grown significantly in that time. So it was that from that place of we’ve grown so much. We are doing so much within Scotland. We’re adding so much to the Scottish community. How can we spotlight all these amazing people that are doing so much? And that was where the awards idea came from. But then beyond spotlighting them, it’s then, how can we get them and their story to inspire the rest of us to say, you too can, right? And that was where the black Scottish hours came from. And of course, we’ve started the young black future as well, which is an initiative to support young, young children from the age of 11 to 17. So in that high school age where they serve us unsure what the future holds, they need those soft skills, because a lot of those kids are growing up in African Caribbean households, right? And some of the things in our household may not be beneficial to going out into the world to succeed. I’ll give you an example. Some of it is around, you know, don’t challenge authority, right? Don’t, don’t pick up and things like that, which is all good in the house. But then when you get out into the workplace, you need to challenge authority, so just supporting them and getting them ready for the future of work, and then also helping them with career guidance and all that. So a lot of initiatives have sort of grown from from the original black professionals UK So, but yeah, they want to go,
Mark McBride-Wright 18:17
no, no. Back to you. No. I love it. I’ve been love hearing the context, the evolution, the I heard. I heard that statistic or read about it. I might have even read it in one of your blogs or a post that you put on LinkedIn about that point that the black population in Scotland is all first generation, more or less, and therefore you’re building community. You’re building a community. That’s what you’re doing, you know, because there is a there is not a community based on historical anchor points. And so I think that is absolutely fascinating. Absolutely fascinating and and I can completely relate, because when I was at school, you know, there was one black family in a high school of, you know, however, many hundreds of people, there was, like one, one black family. So it very much was ethnic minority. I mean, can you get more minority than like, you know, and so, so and, you know, this was, I mean, I didn’t know about diversity, equity and inclusion when I was a teenager and growing up, and differences and all that. And when I think back on it now, or when I think about how things must be now. It’s, it’s my hope is that whilst we still have dei as a concept, and something that we we hold dear in terms of our the fabric, our population and stuff, that actually the work that people like yourself are doing for your community is. Is generating a positive experience. It’s helping young people, not withstanding the fact that the generation coming through now are more forward thinking. And I think, I think, I guess my nieces are going through, you know, the schooling system that I went through, and I think their experience is just different to what I had 20 odd years ago, in a good way. Yeah,
Enoch Adeyemi 20:27
definitely. And you know that change is across Scotland. So as I said, I don’t live in Edinburgh. I live in a small town between Edinburgh and Glasgow. So that’s a small town in context. But and in that small town, the my kids are in primary school, take my kids to school, so many black families, you know, and you would not see that 20 years from now. I mean, when you were in school, Mark and also, but then, because I’m an accountant, I’m some people may challenge this, because I’m an accountant, I’m a very logical thinker, right? I’m black and white, so I’m always around so all these initiatives and and solutions and programs have gone on to be part of starting or CO creating. It’s always around. If we support these people to win, Scotland wins. Yeah, it’s not just for them. It’s for Scotland. It’s for the UK. So I’ll give you an example. When I went to university. Love the guys I went to university. Bright guys, you’re an engineer, Mark. A lot of them studied electrical. Because when you come from Nigeria, right, you don’t come to study philosophy. No offense to philosophy students, right? You come to study the the medicine, the accounting, economics, the engineering, yeah. So these guys are pretty smart, you could say that. And then they finished their degree in Liverpool, and most of them ended up in customer service roles and sort of door roles and and all that. So if you look at it from point of view of the economy, it’s a loss for the UK economy. This guy can operate at a certain level, and is operating here that’s under employment. It’s not just a loss for them that then translates down to the next generation, and ultimately there’s a wider loss there. So plug that loss, fix it now, and let these people blossom, and then that translates to the next generation and so on.
Mark McBride-Wright 22:14
No, you’re right, actually. And you remind me, actually, of some universities we’ve worked with, which have been non Russell Group, you know, and their students, whether it’s elitism or snobbery, they just, they’re high achieving engineers, but they just, they’re working in a supermarket, you know, a year after graduation, and there’s nothing wrong with that. People have to fill those jobs and do those roles, but to your point, they also could be running like engineering programs, you know. And the longer you are away from your core technical career, the I don’t know what the actual percentages are in terms of time passing, but you’re you’re less and less likely to actually getting back in exactly, so, yeah, it’s a it’s a real, it’s a real. Yeah, it’s a real, it’s a real issue. One, one, what, what, where has the the net immigration then come from with the how is the black population in Scotland started growing in terms of like, has there been some like interest to emigrate to the UK from communities in Africa? And, I mean, I went to Imperial so it was a culture shock for me, moving from small parochial town in Scotland where, like I said, there was only one black family to then go into Imperial College London, where there was loads of people, different diversity groups all round. And we had a large Nigerian contingent actually studying chemical engineering. And it was, it was great, you know, you got to learn about different cultures, about different different different identities. I will admit, as a gay man, as a gay teenager, actually, when I say there was a bit of a barrier there for me personally, because of I know homophobia is quite rife, can be quite rife in the black community, compared to so I sort of had my guard up quite a bit when I was studying. But yeah, maybe if I’d opened that up a bit more, I would have, I would have mingled more. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Enoch Adeyemi 24:32
So you made two points, and I’ll just pick them up one by one. So to get to that point around homophobia, being right earlier on this, is why, you know, the work we do is around having cross divide conversations, right, over different conversations, right? And if I don’t have a if I as a straight guy, don’t have a conversation with you as non straight guy. If I can call it that, and get to come into your world, I will never understand the challenges you face. All right, yeah, just the same with, if a white guy doesn’t have a conversation with a black woman, you can never understand the challenges they face. You can read about it on, on whatever. But if we’re not having those conversations where I’m telling you just everyday, daily stuff, right? Okay, before I came to work today, this was what happened to me and bring you into my world. And you know, so again, I’ve done a bit of work in that space around I’ve written a book myself, my wife, I’ve written a book to break down those barriers and help us all have better conversations. Because I’m of the opinion that we are good first before we are not good, right? Yes, our core is good, human right? Yeah, the layers that that are polluted by maybe the way we grew up, or where we grew up, and some of the things that were fed to us when we’re growing up, so, and that’s why, I think if we have those conversations, we can get
Mark McBride-Wright 25:52
back to that core, that good ethnicity, there’s nothing
Enoch Adeyemi 25:56
wrong with this, um, sexuality, there’s nothing wrong with this gender, you know, to your point, around what drove the growth of black folks in Scotland? Because Scotland is just amazing, right? You’re missing out mark. You went to London. So you went. Someone has got to feel that space, right? Yeah. But, but Jokes apart. One reason why I came to Scotland was I came here for my masters, all right. And, you know, things have worked out for me since then. And what has driven a lot of people to Scotland? Two reasons, a good amount of them have come from England because of everything that’s happening in England, with with the black community around, you know, gang culture and all that, that’s one most, most the prevalence migration has been purely straight from Africa and just people wanting better economic outcome. And you then ask me, Why Scotland? Why not England? The case that one person comes to Scotland, goes around says, oh, you know what? Scotland is nice. And then they tell their uncle and their sister, their brother that point, and it’s just that ripple effect here. So, um, so myself. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a very good example of I came here in 2006 so since then, my brother has joined me. Another brother has joined me. Sisters joined, Dad has joined, Mom has joined. So it’s that, you know, Scotland is nice. Scotland is nice. Scotland is nice. You can build a good life here, and that has just then that good word has spread, and that’s why we’ve seen that growth in the black community. So this is not to say Scotland is perfect. It’s not, but it’s just it’s a place where there are opportunities for you to have a good life. And you know, the people around are generally good people. You can you can build a good future for yourself and your
Mark McBride-Wright 27:43
children. You sort of know where you stand. I like to think with Scottish people, like, there’s no nonsense. Yeah, exactly like, it’s the sort of place where you just can’t really complain about customer service whatever, because the bartender or the restaurant will tell you if you are being
Mark McBride-Wright 28:11
but I like to think therefore it’s, it’s, it’s friendly and welcoming, because, you know, when it gets nasty, it can get really nasty, like generalizing my entire like Scotland, but, you know, I find when, when, when I hear this about Scotland being a really friendly place, but then sometimes when I see things in the news or whatever about something that’s happened, I’m like, gosh, that’s really, that’s really Extreme, you know,
Enoch Adeyemi 28:40
yeah, absolutely. I mean, I say all that nice, nice stuff. And it’s not to say there are no bad stuff. There are bad stuff happening every day in Scotland. But ultimately, that does not represent the whole of Scotland. Those are just people going out to their way to do what they want to do. As a people, as a population, Scottish people are lovely people. On here for 20 years, my kids are now Scottish. So yeah, now I can’t say anything against Scottish people. My kids.
Mark McBride-Wright 29:12
Have you got this lovely situation where you and your wife and your kids have all got different accents when you’re
Enoch Adeyemi 29:18
so my wife is Nigerian like me, so similar accent, but my kids, my kids, it’s interesting. So I think if you grew up in a in an in a migrant home, you probably pick up the Scottish accent as strong as Scottish kids growing up in Scottish homes. So yeah, kids don’t have strong Scottish accents, but at the same time they don’t, or they’ll have a kid growing up in London. So now they’re somewhere,
Mark McBride-Wright 29:43
they’ll have Scottish accents. They do just very subtle. It’s not your
Mark McBride-Wright 29:50
yeah, yeah, true, yeah, where you have to kind of scrunch your eyes up and think, what did they just say? That English? I love it. Love it. You made a point. You said some people have been driven to have made the relocation to Scotland because of gun crime.
Enoch Adeyemi 30:17
Yep. Okay, yeah, so with everything happening in London, right? Or London, Birmingham, Manchester. So I’ve met, I’ve met families that have basically just hooked moved up to Scotland, just you’ve got a better chance. You’ve got a chance of having a more balanced life in Scotland. If you lived in London or wherever, I’ll give you, I’ll put some numbers to it as well, right? So if you lived in London, you are probably living in some small flats just because you can’t afford a, should I say, proper house, quote and unquote, just because of the cost of living in London. And with that community, the committee I’m talking about that have made that move. They are not doing the 100k 200k job. No, they’re doing the 30k 40k job. So you’re living in a place where you’re earning low and your cost is high. So what they are then figuring out, again, just from conversations with family and friends that are in Scotland, is, look, no, you know what? With that income you’re getting, if you move to Scotland, you can live in a nice area, your kids are safer. They go to a good school, and your your your outcome is better, yeah, that is driving that move around, its madness to stay in this city. And then you, because they end up income, they live in certain areas that leave their kids more exposed to drama. However. I mean, you know Edinburgh very well. You pick, using Edinburgh as an example, if you end 40k you can live in a decent place, in go to a decent school, and have a better outcome. So again, we’re seeing some of that as well, but most of the immigration, or the moves to Scotland has been folks coming from from Caribbeans, but mostly from from Africa.
Mark McBride-Wright 31:58
Okay, and so for you had in your portfolio of things as well, for entities that you’ve created as well, like a walking group, I was interested find out more about that.
Enoch Adeyemi 32:09
Yes, yes. So my, I grew up in Lagos, right? So there is no, I didn’t grow up. I can then I didn’t. I’m sure I came was not my dictionary when I was growing up on my vocabulary. But when, I moved to Scotland in 2006 I must have gone on ATO seat. I think it’s a rite of passage. You’ve lived in Edinburgh, you’ve got seats. So I went on out of seats, got to the top of the mountain, looks down. And I thought, this is this experience is nice. I’m actually looking down at the world. And so since then, I’ve been excited about, about the outdoors, but then that excitement, or that journey, then spiked when my brother came and joined me, and I think he took it to the next level, right? So we go on, we then start going on the big mountains, the Monroes and all that kind of stuff. So doing the more extreme stuff, like camping, skinny dipping and all that. But then from doing that, we started my brother again. He is very good at creating content, like pictures and videos, right? And then we added drone at that time, so he was capturing experience, putting it on his Instagram. Folks started reaching out to say, Oh, can I come with you guys, folks from our community, saying, Guys, we’re next to go. How does because you guys, make it fun. You make it look exciting. Yeah, that was essential. I started, we started taking folks with us, and then after, after a while, we realized this is something, yeah, and then we named this black Scottish adventurers, and it’s just grown since then. So we have over 4000 members within that network now. We started our first proper trip together as a group. Was April 2022 and what I’ve enjoyed about it is we’ve now exposed folks from our community to the outdoors, folks that would never before think about it, because generally do not, as I said, first generation immigrants, the priority is, and it’s in an income, right? A decent life, that’s the priority. I came to them every hour, yeah, so we’re not shifting their mindset around, yeah. You can do all that, but you can also enjoy Scotland. You can enjoy the Monroe. You can enjoy the album. Can go for work and you can do it safely, because we can provide you with all the the information and the empowerment and all that. So for me saying, on our trip, you know, you see the 65 year old woman, you see the five year old girl. You see a good range of people, black folks, right? Everyone. You see the Asians, the whites, the blacks, everyone coming on the adventure, having a good time together, and then having breaking bread together after the after the trip. But more importantly, it’s what happens once you finish the adventures. Because we go on adventures once a month. Speaking of which, we’re going on on Saturday, we’re going to pep after the adventure. Folks are then networking and going on to do their own. Something, yes, that community we’re building as well because, because it’s first generation immigrants, there’s still a lot of loneliness issues. People are migrating, and they’re finding themselves in a strange land, and then coming on that adventure. You do have an opportunity to build a community, to make new friends? Yeah, you can go to the cinema with you, go do those everyday
Mark McBride-Wright 35:19
business and do business as well. Contract with you do business. I’ve built a few communities myself over the years, and I’ve always thought, you know, if business deals can be done on golf courses between white men, you know business deals can be done in gay bars and SOHO and so business deals and networking can be done and connections can be made that might lead to business on Adventures in the Scottish Highlands, absolutely.
Enoch Adeyemi 35:49
So, yeah, that’s, that’s the, that’s the black Scottish adventurers story. And I think our highlights is the fact that we’ve been on Ben Nevis. So benev is the highest mountain in Scot in the UK, yeah, we go on that every January, 1 weekend in January, which is hardcore, right? I mean, going on benefits on a good day is hard, but then going in the middle of winter is really hard. So we’ve been doing that for we usually go with about 2030, adventure. So we don’t go with everyone, we go with people that can actually do it because a level, a good eight hours in snow, in the cold, in the wind, like the everything is thrown at you. Again, we’ve just done that just to again, build that community of really the hard core adventurers and those that just want to set themselves up for the year. And what we always saw on that trip is, if you can do benevis In the first weekend in January. You’re set for the year.
Mark McBride-Wright 36:49
My goodness. My goodness. So you mentioned that your you and your wife had written a book. Why is this wrong? Yes, tell us a bit about your book.
Enoch Adeyemi 37:00
Yes, sure. So my wife is in HR, coincidentally, and we just over time, we’ve found that folks are not having conversations anymore because of the fear of saying the wrong thing, right? So when I say folks are having conversation that over defense, conversation where people from different backgrounds, maybe ethnicity or age or gender or whatever, they’ve stopped because I don’t want to say the wrong thing to you, Mark, because I don’t say something that you may see seem see as homophobic, you don’t say something to me that I may see as as racist and all that. So everybody’s just staying in their camp, right? Yeah, and we thought, and we already, we already seen it, right? I mean, we see that play out on the street now. We thought that would just create echo chambers where people go into their own bubble and just blow up in in their bubble and say that group is bad, that those groups are bad, those guys are bad, right? And we’re seeing that, unfortunately. So because of that, because of saying that, we thought, what? Again, my the way my mind works. I’m a very, maybe, like an engineer. You guys are very solutions driven. I’m a very solutions driven person. So I thought, Is there anything I can do, or we can do about that? So okay, let’s write a book. So we came up with this idea of, let’s break everything down into the mind protected characteristics. Yeah, let’s look at the inappropriate phrases that are said to all those nine protected 10 for each category. So we have about 90 phrases in there, and then what we try to do with those phrases are, why? So this phrase, for example, where are you from? It’s innocent. There’s nothing wrong with it. However, I personally, I don’t have anything against it. If you ask me, where are you from? I’ll tell you, well, at least live in forka. I’m from Nigeria. I don’t care. However, if you didn’t ask, my children’s children were born in Scotland. Their grand, their dad, is Scottish. Their you know, all they’ve known is Scotland. You’re asking them, where are you from? They may find out offensive, because they’re thinking, I’m from Scotland. Yeah. Why? You know, asking Marky with us and I’m white, you’re just asking me because I’m black, right? Yeah, it’s going into that book and explaining why that phrase is wrong, and also empathizing with the with the person asking to say, we get why you’re asking it. But this is perceived and then sometimes suggesting optional questions to ask. And most of it’s the optional things we suggested is just have a general conversation, get to know that person. If you get to know them, you will ultimately find out where they’re from or what. Yeah, right. If you make friends with my son over time, you’ll find out his dad is Nigerian, right? Without asking him, because that will come up in conversations. So it’s just about encouraging people to just have those conversations and be okay to make mistakes. Be okay to get around sometimes with more importantly, let’s just have conversations. So that’s what the book is about. And yeah, it’s been exciting writing it and pushing it out into
Mark McBride-Wright 39:57
the world. Amazing. Well. Put a link to it in the show notes and that as well. And I completely can relate to one of the most powerful slides that I use in my content when I’m delivering training. Is the is a foot walking on some eggshells, and everyone in the room is like, yes, that’s how we feel about X, Y and Z, you know? And I remember when I broadened out from inter engineering my LGBT network, which was always very comfortable in because I’m gay, and then I’m part of that community. So, you know, I’m with my people and stuff. But when I set up equal engineers, I found I set it up in the July we did our first careers fair in the November 2017 but before that for Black History month in October 2017 I really wanted to do an event for Black History Month, so I got a panel of people. We think UCL hosted it, and we ended up having about 35 people in the audience and a panel for Black History Month, and I was, I was hosting it, and I was so nervous, you know, I felt like that, that walking on eggshells. This was before I had that slide that I used my content, but I’d been working with and also, there were about four of us that were white at the event. Everyone else was black and ethnic minority, or BME, as the phrase was back then, that we that we used, and which I know we don’t use much now. But anyway, my friend Nikkei falaen, who’s one of the co founders of afbe, the Association for Black Engineers, Nikki and Ollie Nikki, was like, Mark, don’t worry about it. We’ve got your back, you know. And you know, we fully know you’ve got positive intent. So if you say anything wrong, if you slip up, I’m going to correct you. Don’t worry about it. Just go out there. Be confident do it and just own the moment. Say you’re learning in real time. And that really put me at ease, and because I noticed that I was one of those white people that used to pause before I said the word black, or I would say the word black in, like, you know, a lower volume, you know, like community, you know. And the black community in the UK, you know. And I, and I was like, I was like, such a real moment for me, and I still see it in people, in my in my when I’m delivering training that you know, and I’ll just, and I’ll just say black in the same like because it’s part of the sentence. So stuff like that is where it language matters, how you communicate and how you say. Stuff matters not just what you say, but how you say it, your confidence saying it, and it takes for you one to understand what words mean in community and how they’re how they’re received. So I’ll definitely get a copy of your of your book. I only saw that you had it when, when we connected recently, planning this. So yeah, thank you for writing that and putting that out in the world. No worries. Thanks. So before, before we move on the quick fire questions, then, what? Um, what’s next for you? What new projects have you got bubbling up your sleeve, like, what would what do you envisage the next few years holding for you?
Enoch Adeyemi 43:18
So Mark, if you asked me that question five years ago. All these things I’ve told you I’ve done, I wouldn’t have mentioned it, just because I don’t live life that way. I just, I just do it. So as things come my way, I just decide to pick it or not pick it. So if I decide to pick I just run with it. So what I’m gonna be doing next year. Other big things I generally do not know, however, something something exciting I’m currently working on is my son. So nothing to do with accounting or community or still community, but nothing to do with sort of black or dei and all that. So my son started competing recently as an athlete. Is a 10 year old boy, and I’ve been, he’s been doing that for a year now, and I’ve sort of been sucked into that world. And doing my brain works again, as I said, so that engineering, accounting brain been to the competitions. I’ve looked at it, and I’ve thought, I reckon I can do this better. So, um, I mean, better for everyone, better for the athletes. Better for um, those coming to watch the spectators. And then, more importantly, it’s around thinking something happened as well, right where my some of my son’s friends came to watch him. So my son is actually quite fast, so
Mark McBride-Wright 44:43
you’re underplaying that. I remember seeing your LinkedIn posts in the 48 group. He was the fastest runner in Scotland,
Enoch Adeyemi 44:49
Scotland, yeah, yeah. So he is that fast, right? So his friends, yeah, I don’t know where he got it from. And then he just blew the competition away. Was that one where he was just running his own. Is everybody was stuck behind and then his friends got so excited, and they thought, I want to do athletics as well, because I’ve always looked at athletics and thought we could get better athletes in Scotland. But then most people in Scotland don’t think athletics. They just think football or gymnastics and yeah. So again, part of reasons why I wanted to do that is to get non athletic people and family to come as spectators, just as a day out event. So there’ll be a lot of exciting stuff happening. It’s not it’s not just and what we’re also doing is we’re inviting only the fastest athletes.
Mark McBride-Wright 45:33
So I missed what you’re doing. So you’re creating a new running festival or something, a new athlete. Yes, yes.
Enoch Adeyemi 45:41
It’s called Sprint. We call this print first. So it’s just 100 meter sprint, inviting only the fastest athletes in Scotland to the competition. So it’s not open to everyone, it’s not open to all the athletes, it’s just the fastest people. So you, as a spectator, come in. You’re coming to watch the fastest guys in Scotland compete for a cash prize and just for for bragging rights. But then, in the midst of that, there’ll be other entertaining stuff as well. Get cheerleaders come do their cheerleading stuff. We just make it an entertaining day for the kids. They’ll be face painting for the kids. So that’s something I’m working on next year. It’s It’s strange, it’s crazy. It’s a new world. I don’t know anything about how to host an athletics event, but I’m learning every day. I’m just figuring it out. Every day I’m speaking to people, I’m pulling things together. So I’m excited at the same time sort of nervous, but because of my of my back, I mean history of delivering, I hope so just I’m pretty confident I can pull it together and make it a spectacle and all hopefully, that can then become a catalyst for other good things, for athletes and just for the for the sporting community, that’s something I can definitely say I’m working on beyond that, I don’t know,
Mark McBride-Wright 46:57
I love it. You’re, you’re love it. I love, I just, I love, I love your energy and like, I just, yes, you’re I love it honestly, keep doing what you’re doing. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Okay, quick fire questions, what’s your favorite book or podcast at the moment?
Enoch Adeyemi 47:18
Okay, podcast, it’s, it’s a podcast called so don’t judge me for this. It’s called UK true crime. And basically, yeah, this guy just talks about crime. Yeah, that’s my favorite podcast, yeah. And book. I enjoy the Bible. I enjoy reading the Bible. I know that’s a juxtaposition, like reading the Bible and then listening to True Crime two different things. But what can I say?
Mark McBride-Wright 47:44
Right? Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Enoch Adeyemi 47:47
Morning 5am. Day starts at five, and then once it’s this is 325, any moment from now, my brain starts to shut down.
Mark McBride-Wright 47:57
If you could have dinner with any historical figure? Who would it be?
Enoch Adeyemi 48:00
It’s going to be Miriam Makeba. And I don’t know if most, most people probably don’t don’t know her. So she is a Grammy Award winning artist from apartheid South Africa. And what I loved about her is, even though she had a fame and she had all that she was still able to put her reputation and name on the line and sort of speak against the evil of apartheid and just injustice. So if I could, I think to be fun to have dinner with. I think she will have some good stories to share as a as as a show girl and and hopefully Sing, sing for me as well. So Miriam Makeba from South Africa,
Mark McBride-Wright 48:44
what’s one app or tool that you can’t live
Enoch Adeyemi 48:46
without? WhatsApp?
Mark McBride-Wright 48:50
What’s your favorite spot in Scotland,
Enoch Adeyemi 48:53
the rest spot? So the Hermitage. So I don’t even know the Hermitage. So the Hermitage is spots in in Perth. It’s a beautiful sort of woodland area. There’s waterfall, there’s a beautiful so if you go at this time of the year, the leaves are just turning orange, or Tommy, it’s just a beautiful place to just go for a lovely, long walk on a on a nice sunny day, or even a nice cold day. So the Hermitage in Perth,
Mark McBride-Wright 49:21
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Enoch Adeyemi 49:26
Best advice, it’s not important.
Mark McBride-Wright 49:31
If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing? Comedy? What’s a fun fact most people do not know about you?
Enoch Adeyemi 49:43
Hate socializing. Really, believe it or not, I like I like being at home. I like being away from people. I know it. It goes against everything I’ve done. It’s a strange one. I just love my own space. Just. By myself, even my wife figured it out after a few years of marriage that you’re strange. You like being by yourself too much.
Mark McBride-Wright 50:08
Describe your leadership style in three words, do your thing, do your thing. And finally, what’s one word you’d use to define your
Mark McBride-Wright 50:19
legacy humanity, humanity.
Mark McBride-Wright 50:24
Oh, look at that. Full circle back to defining yourself first. Love that. And that was unintentional. I can tell it was not love it. It shows, it shows. It’s wired into you. It’s who you are. It’s your DNA, your fabric. Thank you so much, Enoch for being such a great Do you know, as I’ve been saying your name, it’s occurred to me that you’ve got such a great Scottish name as well, because you’ve got the at the end of it, I feel like I’m saying loch. Enoch. Enoch. Yeah. Yeah. Like, look. Like, yeah, people usually say lot, but actually it’s Locke, like, in the middle of your name. So as I’ve been saying,
Enoch Adeyemi 51:12
Scottish rep just went up with that. Yeah, yeah.
Mark McBride-Wright 51:16
In fact, maybe being with you, you’re saying you we were talking before the call, I think before I pressed record, about change in accents and me becoming more Scottish, I think seeing your name there and saying Enoch, I’ve become a bit more Scottish, right? If people want to find out more about your work, get in touch with you. How should they do that?
Enoch Adeyemi 51:39
I’m so a few things. So I, because of everything I do, I decided to just create a website, so, um, spotlight everything I do, and so put the link to everything in there, so it’s just my name in okademi.com but where I’m most active is on LinkedIn. So if you type in Akademi on LinkedIn, you probably find my name come up there and you can connect with me. And, yeah, we can have a chat so or you can send me a contact message from my website as well.
Mark McBride-Wright 52:05
Perfect, perfect. Well, thank you very much. I’ve really enjoyed it, and hope we’ll cross paths at some point again in
Enoch Adeyemi 52:12
the future. Absolutely, Mark and thank you very much for inviting me. Sometimes I it’s good to have these conversations as well, to take me down memory lane and just to relieve some of some of the work myself and those around me are doing, and just to laugh at some of, I guess, some of my failures as well. So thank you very much. Mark. You.
E045: The Power of Shared Experience
Podcast Description
Read the Transcript
Mark McBride-Wright 0:00
Mark, hello. Welcome to the next episode of the safe leader podcast. I’m your host, Mark McBride-Wright, and I am delighted today, finally, to be joined with Enoch Adeyemi, who is the founder and CEO of black professionals United Kingdom. So Enoch himself identifies first as human Moreover, he holds the distinction of being a Fellow of the Association of Chartered certified accountants and specializes in consulting within the financial services industry, driven by a strong commitment to positive change, Enoch has founded several organizations, including black professionals United Kingdom, a rapidly growing entity that offers support to professional students and corporate partners. Additionally, he contributes his expertise in leadership, finance, diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as entrepreneurship across multiple advisory boards. Enoch, welcome,
Enoch Adeyemi 0:58
yeah, thanks Mark for having me. We got there eventually,
Mark McBride-Wright 1:02
I placed a bit of emphasis there in the introduction, yes, because in setting up this podcast, I, like, went through my LinkedIn and was like figuring out right who in my network could be really interesting to talk to. So you were in that first batch of people that I, you know, reached out to and scheduled talks with but then, yeah, life got in the way for both of us, didn’t it? We kept, I think we rescheduled about four times,
Enoch Adeyemi 1:30
a few times, a few times. I mean, I think the universe has said this recording is going to happen today. So today’s the today
Mark McBride-Wright 1:39
exactly so nice that we both mutually respected one another’s time and made, have made that commitment to show up for each other, to to do this recording, and this is also our first time meeting, I think, isn’t it? We’ve never met before. We’ve been been in mutual circles and similar overlaps, but we’ve never actually met an event or met online or met on a webinar or or anything. So
Enoch Adeyemi 2:06
so the next, the next step, really, is to meet in person. So you need to come up to Edinburgh again to go for a drink.
Mark McBride-Wright 2:12
I do next, next time I’m back at home, in my in my in my hometown, I absolutely need to, need to let you know that. It’s funny, though, isn’t it? When you go back to wherever it is you grew up, I kind of go back into teenage Mark modes. You know, it’s almost like, I find it strange when I work with clients based in Edinburgh, or I’m doing actual work in Edinburgh, I’m like, Oh, this is, there’s actually businesses here, and work happens, right? No, no, no. Used to just, you know, go to the Omni center to go for pizza, pizza hut, and then use my young Scott Card to get 25% off the view cinema, you know, anyway, anyway, so safe leader podcast, in terms of the structure I love starting off, first and foremost, finding out a bit about the person on the podcast, finding out a bit about your your past, your history, your motivations. You know, are you doing now what you thought you would be doing, doing back in the past, and I’m really interested in your description of yourself as human, first and foremost. So take us back to the young Enoch. And has that always been part of your identity, or how has that evolved over time? What? What? What did the young Enoch? What was the young Enoch like?
Enoch Adeyemi 3:43
Young Enoch grew up in Nigeria. I grew up in Lagos. So okay, if you know anything about Lagos itself, go, go, go. Type of city and I went to, I went to boarding school. And I have to put a clause on that, because whenever I tell this to British people, they just assume, Oh, posh. So boarding school in Nigeria, very different experience. So it’s basically where your parents I don’t want to use the word dump, but where parents dump you so they can sort of get on with life type of thing. So we are five, we eventually became six children, and my parents were very busy business people, so there really isn’t the capacity to sort of look after us day by day. And also being in a boarding school was a good experience, because then you’re just learning, right? Yeah, you’re away. So the boarding school system in Nigeria is different, again, in the sense that you’re basically there for three months at a time, like bye, see, ya, type of thing. So that was, that was how I grew up, and that was very tough. So I like to describe the boarding school experience in Nigeria as, you know, there’s hell, and then the next level after hell is boarding school, Nigerian boarding school. It was just tough six years and that was me going in, you know, my son is 10 years old now, and I was telling my wife the other day like it’s I was. Age when I went to boarding school, and I can now thinking of it, I can’t believe it seems so young and innocent, and that was the age at which I went into this space where everybody wanted to kill you. Your teachers wanted to kill you, your we call them seniors, so those that were years ahead of you in school wanted to kill you. Everybody has a thing out for you, have to survive that for six years, right? But you know what? What that has then done for me is it’s made me who I am now to the point that almost nothing faces me. You can’t, you can’t. You can’t reach me. I don’t know what the word is, you can’t. You can’t face me anymore. I feel like I’ve gone through my my toughest years very early on in life, right? So that was I grew up, though I was very ambitious. I wanted to become an accountant from a very early age. I think from 1112 I was good at maths. I was good at bookkeeping, which was one of the subjects in school. And I knew if I studied accounting, that could be a path for me to have a successful career. Because in Nigeria, when you’re deciding what you want to do, you want to do career wise, you’re looking at it from from the lens view of income as well. Just because you know you’ve got to make an income. It’s not like the UK, where, if things fail, you can rely on the government. In Nigeria, if things fail, things fail. So, so, so the income side was very good. So, yeah, that was, I always wanted to become an accountant, and that was how I grew up. And the old concept of human being, human first was not something I I coined up. Then it was in my later life, when I started doing the work I do around community and support and equity that I realized that as a as a human race, we have forgotten that we are first. So Mark, a white guy, your was it called sexuality is different to mine. We have a lot of things that are different. However, we are human first, yeah, underlying core similarity between us, similarity between us before all the 10 million differences. And that’s why I like to describe myself as human first. So that way we are the same first before differences we have. So yeah, that’s that was of my childhood, growing up in Lagos. And then that’s how I came about this whole concept of describing my first self as human,
Mark McBride-Wright 7:21
to feel like you’ve gone through the hard years of your life early on, where the experience of it is just one above hell, that’s quite an indictment or description, I guess, of the of what you must have endured.
Enoch Adeyemi 7:40
Yeah, I’ll give you, I’ll give you a quick, a quick example, just to paint the picture, right? So 10 years old, first day boarding school. The boarding school was really good academically. So it was over subscribed, so the hostels were really full, so there wasn’t any bunk bed for me. So essentially, when I got to the school, I the only space I got was the floor. So I came with my mattress and everything. So I set up bed on the floor, I put my mattress on the ground, and that was me in the bowling school for the first time. I didn’t know what the rules were. I didn’t know how things operated, and I was trying to offset myself or put my things away at the age of 10, right? And then 10pm they just shouted, light out. I didn’t understand the concept of lighthouse, so they switched up the light in the room so that everybody can go to bed. But I was still trying to sort my stuff out, and this senior, I just felt this lash on my back, and I looked up and it was a senior just lashing me with his belt like light out bedtime, and that was welcome to boarding school. So that was that sets its own for the for the minute six years. So, yeah, so it’s, it’s, it sort of sets me up for where I am now. So life is much easier for me now, to the point I went into the workplace and challenges came across. I was like, this is easy.
Mark McBride-Wright 8:59
Man. Did people are like, I don’t feel like I belong. You’re honestly, I grew up with, and this is, this is heaven,
Enoch Adeyemi 9:13
yeah, this is Indeed, indeed. I mean, yeah, so and then. But then I do understand that we are all different. So I’ve gone through the adversity, and no matter what you try me now I’m fine, but then not everybody is the same, and I’ve come to learn and respect that, because early on, I just go, people should just freaking toughen up, right? Why do they complain? Why do they moan? Yeah, but over time again, I’ve become matured in my thinking to understand that we’re all different. You know, my capacity for adversity is different to John or Jane or whoever’s um capacity, right? And again, is that bringing empathy, bringing kindness. I’m not just looking at it purely from my lens view, but trying to look at it from other people’s lens view as well. So that’s, again, part of the maturity journey I’ve been on. Um. In the last few years?
Mark McBride-Wright 10:01
Yeah, yeah. It’s, yeah, totally get that. It’s like the I was actually delivering some training this week, and we were doing the stress bucket exercise, where you look at stressors coming into your life, and what coping mechanisms are you doing, healthy, unhealthy to, like, release that pressure, release that stress, so that you’re managing it and you’re not overflowing. And the point I sort of make is each person has a different volume bucket, and that bucket volume can vary from day to day, from, you know, hour to hour, almost. So it’s the same, same point you say about your your propensity and ability to endure a challenging situation will be different to another person’s and vice versa. It’s other people may be able to breeze through certain contexts that you find challenging or or, I guess this is, this is where the equity comes in as well, where systemic bias exists. You know, just by virtue of who we are and how we show up there are, there’s a higher wall to climb, unfortunately, with how how things are, and which is what we’re both driving to try and change. And so really interested to you know, if you could talk us through, like some of the projects that you now, do you know, you’ve got an array of organizations, initiatives, you know, brands, like, things that you’ve established where I guess each one ties to maybe one of your hobbies or part of your identity, because there’s a Real mixture in there, from walking groups or from conferences or from awards program. So yeah, tell us a bit about the work that you’re doing with your advocacy nowadays. Yeah.
Enoch Adeyemi 11:51
So again, because of my own experience of finishing university and my the challenges I went through in sort of starting my career. So I just put this number out there for those listening, and again, because of my experience in my early years, that helps me go through, helped me solve, um, survive that space. When I finished investing between I went to the University of Liverpool, it was a degree from 2003 to 2006 so essentially, from 2005 I started applying for graduate roles for the next year, right? So from 2005 I started application all the way 2006 nothing came true, and then went on to do a master’s. 2006 2007 so between 2005 and 2007 I put out about 300 applications. And for those over 300 applications, most of them was just went into a black hole, never got a response. And for the few that then responded, that I got to an interview stage, I was not successful. So again, it just ties into the propensity I went through that and I kept going until I eventually got a role. Unfortunately, a lot of the people I went to university with did not just to the point I made around we all have different capacity for adversity, so I had the capacities just keep going like just keep hitting me with a no, and now someone is going to hit me with a yes. Nobody could do 300 some people stops at 50. Some food stocks are 100, right? So because of that experience I went through, and that challenge when I eventually was settled in my career, I was had done my qualifications, I was I was chartered. I felt, wow, that was a painful experience that I went through. You know? Yeah, it was the thing around, what can I do to make it easier for others that come in after me? And that was where the idea came to start a network. Network started as Edinburgh black professionals, and then evolved over year, over the years, to become black professionals UK. So what we do within the network is we support black students and professionals. We’ve broadened to an extent to other ethnic minority as well. So just support them on their journey from finishing university, trying to get into work. So the challenges I faced interesting, right them on that journey that,
Mark McBride-Wright 14:14
yeah, that that that’s your your niche, you know that that band, that’s what you try and cover, mainly the finishing university and then securing a professional role in interest, yeah?
Enoch Adeyemi 14:27
Because, one thing to add as well, because we started this in Scotland. So for context, for your for your members that are for the audience, that are not based in Scotland, most of the black people in Scotland today, in 2025 are first generation immigrants, right? Yeah. So we are very different to your black people in London, in Manchester, in Birmingham, right? Our challenges are different. We have no community. We have no family, no uncles, no aunties, no no networks going on. So having that network was very essential, because then you were not walking that journey by yourself. You could also. One you could tap into that network. And yeah, we’ve grown into over 6000 members, so those professionals, yeah, it’s been, it’s been a journey of growth. The first four years, nothing happened. And then after 2020, covid Black Lives Matter. George Floyd, we, you know, things really picked up for us as an organization, and the amount of impact we’ve had since then. I’m only only by it to think here I am, this lowly guy without any, you know, not much I don’t know. Just wanted to do something to support going on, to become, you know, black fresheners UK, working with businesses, working with the government, working with our community, and working with the wider Scottish community and the wider UK community as well. But then beyond that, that has then given birth to other organizations. So Black fresheners UK has then gone on to black fresheners Ireland, black professionals Europe, black Australia as well. And then on the back of that, we have then started our big career Conference, which is an annual conference we host in in Glasgow, and bring about 500 delegates to the conference, and take employers, and essentially that conference is a full day empowerment conference for the attendees, or for the delegates, again, supporting giving them all the soft skills and all the networking and all the connections for their career journey. So you we usually get a good mix of 5050 attendance. 50% of the attendees are students, 50% professionals like myself, you know, 20 years but then there’s still a lot of opportunity to learn from others and also to network as well. And then on the back of that, we’ve gone on to start the black Scottish Awards, which we hosted two Saturdays ago on the 20/27, of September. So again, that is about 500 guests coming to celebrating. The reason for the awards is we wanted to celebrate. I mean, I’ve been in Scotland for about 20 years, and the the black population in Scotland has grown significantly in that time. So it was that from that place of we’ve grown so much. We are doing so much within Scotland. We’re adding so much to the Scottish community. How can we spotlight all these amazing people that are doing so much? And that was where the awards idea came from. But then beyond spotlighting them, it’s then, how can we get them and their story to inspire the rest of us to say, you too can, right? And that was where the black Scottish hours came from. And of course, we’ve started the young black future as well, which is an initiative to support young, young children from the age of 11 to 17. So in that high school age where they serve us unsure what the future holds, they need those soft skills, because a lot of those kids are growing up in African Caribbean households, right? And some of the things in our household may not be beneficial to going out into the world to succeed. I’ll give you an example. Some of it is around, you know, don’t challenge authority, right? Don’t, don’t pick up and things like that, which is all good in the house. But then when you get out into the workplace, you need to challenge authority, so just supporting them and getting them ready for the future of work, and then also helping them with career guidance and all that. So a lot of initiatives have sort of grown from from the original black professionals UK So, but yeah, they want to go,
Mark McBride-Wright 18:17
no, no. Back to you. No. I love it. I’ve been love hearing the context, the evolution, the I heard. I heard that statistic or read about it. I might have even read it in one of your blogs or a post that you put on LinkedIn about that point that the black population in Scotland is all first generation, more or less, and therefore you’re building community. You’re building a community. That’s what you’re doing, you know, because there is a there is not a community based on historical anchor points. And so I think that is absolutely fascinating. Absolutely fascinating and and I can completely relate, because when I was at school, you know, there was one black family in a high school of, you know, however, many hundreds of people, there was, like one, one black family. So it very much was ethnic minority. I mean, can you get more minority than like, you know, and so, so and, you know, this was, I mean, I didn’t know about diversity, equity and inclusion when I was a teenager and growing up, and differences and all that. And when I think back on it now, or when I think about how things must be now. It’s, it’s my hope is that whilst we still have dei as a concept, and something that we we hold dear in terms of our the fabric, our population and stuff, that actually the work that people like yourself are doing for your community is. Is generating a positive experience. It’s helping young people, not withstanding the fact that the generation coming through now are more forward thinking. And I think, I think, I guess my nieces are going through, you know, the schooling system that I went through, and I think their experience is just different to what I had 20 odd years ago, in a good way. Yeah,
Enoch Adeyemi 20:27
definitely. And you know that change is across Scotland. So as I said, I don’t live in Edinburgh. I live in a small town between Edinburgh and Glasgow. So that’s a small town in context. But and in that small town, the my kids are in primary school, take my kids to school, so many black families, you know, and you would not see that 20 years from now. I mean, when you were in school, Mark and also, but then, because I’m an accountant, I’m some people may challenge this, because I’m an accountant, I’m a very logical thinker, right? I’m black and white, so I’m always around so all these initiatives and and solutions and programs have gone on to be part of starting or CO creating. It’s always around. If we support these people to win, Scotland wins. Yeah, it’s not just for them. It’s for Scotland. It’s for the UK. So I’ll give you an example. When I went to university. Love the guys I went to university. Bright guys, you’re an engineer, Mark. A lot of them studied electrical. Because when you come from Nigeria, right, you don’t come to study philosophy. No offense to philosophy students, right? You come to study the the medicine, the accounting, economics, the engineering, yeah. So these guys are pretty smart, you could say that. And then they finished their degree in Liverpool, and most of them ended up in customer service roles and sort of door roles and and all that. So if you look at it from point of view of the economy, it’s a loss for the UK economy. This guy can operate at a certain level, and is operating here that’s under employment. It’s not just a loss for them that then translates down to the next generation, and ultimately there’s a wider loss there. So plug that loss, fix it now, and let these people blossom, and then that translates to the next generation and so on.
Mark McBride-Wright 22:14
No, you’re right, actually. And you remind me, actually, of some universities we’ve worked with, which have been non Russell Group, you know, and their students, whether it’s elitism or snobbery, they just, they’re high achieving engineers, but they just, they’re working in a supermarket, you know, a year after graduation, and there’s nothing wrong with that. People have to fill those jobs and do those roles, but to your point, they also could be running like engineering programs, you know. And the longer you are away from your core technical career, the I don’t know what the actual percentages are in terms of time passing, but you’re you’re less and less likely to actually getting back in exactly, so, yeah, it’s a it’s a real, it’s a real. Yeah, it’s a real, it’s a real issue. One, one, what, what, where has the the net immigration then come from with the how is the black population in Scotland started growing in terms of like, has there been some like interest to emigrate to the UK from communities in Africa? And, I mean, I went to Imperial so it was a culture shock for me, moving from small parochial town in Scotland where, like I said, there was only one black family to then go into Imperial College London, where there was loads of people, different diversity groups all round. And we had a large Nigerian contingent actually studying chemical engineering. And it was, it was great, you know, you got to learn about different cultures, about different different different identities. I will admit, as a gay man, as a gay teenager, actually, when I say there was a bit of a barrier there for me personally, because of I know homophobia is quite rife, can be quite rife in the black community, compared to so I sort of had my guard up quite a bit when I was studying. But yeah, maybe if I’d opened that up a bit more, I would have, I would have mingled more. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Enoch Adeyemi 24:32
So you made two points, and I’ll just pick them up one by one. So to get to that point around homophobia, being right earlier on this, is why, you know, the work we do is around having cross divide conversations, right, over different conversations, right? And if I don’t have a if I as a straight guy, don’t have a conversation with you as non straight guy. If I can call it that, and get to come into your world, I will never understand the challenges you face. All right, yeah, just the same with, if a white guy doesn’t have a conversation with a black woman, you can never understand the challenges they face. You can read about it on, on whatever. But if we’re not having those conversations where I’m telling you just everyday, daily stuff, right? Okay, before I came to work today, this was what happened to me and bring you into my world. And you know, so again, I’ve done a bit of work in that space around I’ve written a book myself, my wife, I’ve written a book to break down those barriers and help us all have better conversations. Because I’m of the opinion that we are good first before we are not good, right? Yes, our core is good, human right? Yeah, the layers that that are polluted by maybe the way we grew up, or where we grew up, and some of the things that were fed to us when we’re growing up, so, and that’s why, I think if we have those conversations, we can get
Mark McBride-Wright 25:52
back to that core, that good ethnicity, there’s nothing
Enoch Adeyemi 25:56
wrong with this, um, sexuality, there’s nothing wrong with this gender, you know, to your point, around what drove the growth of black folks in Scotland? Because Scotland is just amazing, right? You’re missing out mark. You went to London. So you went. Someone has got to feel that space, right? Yeah. But, but Jokes apart. One reason why I came to Scotland was I came here for my masters, all right. And, you know, things have worked out for me since then. And what has driven a lot of people to Scotland? Two reasons, a good amount of them have come from England because of everything that’s happening in England, with with the black community around, you know, gang culture and all that, that’s one most, most the prevalence migration has been purely straight from Africa and just people wanting better economic outcome. And you then ask me, Why Scotland? Why not England? The case that one person comes to Scotland, goes around says, oh, you know what? Scotland is nice. And then they tell their uncle and their sister, their brother that point, and it’s just that ripple effect here. So, um, so myself. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a very good example of I came here in 2006 so since then, my brother has joined me. Another brother has joined me. Sisters joined, Dad has joined, Mom has joined. So it’s that, you know, Scotland is nice. Scotland is nice. Scotland is nice. You can build a good life here, and that has just then that good word has spread, and that’s why we’ve seen that growth in the black community. So this is not to say Scotland is perfect. It’s not, but it’s just it’s a place where there are opportunities for you to have a good life. And you know, the people around are generally good people. You can you can build a good future for yourself and your
Mark McBride-Wright 27:43
children. You sort of know where you stand. I like to think with Scottish people, like, there’s no nonsense. Yeah, exactly like, it’s the sort of place where you just can’t really complain about customer service whatever, because the bartender or the restaurant will tell you if you are being
Mark McBride-Wright 28:11
but I like to think therefore it’s, it’s, it’s friendly and welcoming, because, you know, when it gets nasty, it can get really nasty, like generalizing my entire like Scotland, but, you know, I find when, when, when I hear this about Scotland being a really friendly place, but then sometimes when I see things in the news or whatever about something that’s happened, I’m like, gosh, that’s really, that’s really Extreme, you know,
Enoch Adeyemi 28:40
yeah, absolutely. I mean, I say all that nice, nice stuff. And it’s not to say there are no bad stuff. There are bad stuff happening every day in Scotland. But ultimately, that does not represent the whole of Scotland. Those are just people going out to their way to do what they want to do. As a people, as a population, Scottish people are lovely people. On here for 20 years, my kids are now Scottish. So yeah, now I can’t say anything against Scottish people. My kids.
Mark McBride-Wright 29:12
Have you got this lovely situation where you and your wife and your kids have all got different accents when you’re
Enoch Adeyemi 29:18
so my wife is Nigerian like me, so similar accent, but my kids, my kids, it’s interesting. So I think if you grew up in a in an in a migrant home, you probably pick up the Scottish accent as strong as Scottish kids growing up in Scottish homes. So yeah, kids don’t have strong Scottish accents, but at the same time they don’t, or they’ll have a kid growing up in London. So now they’re somewhere,
Mark McBride-Wright 29:43
they’ll have Scottish accents. They do just very subtle. It’s not your
Enoch Adeyemi 29:47
hardcore hits Scottish accent,
Mark McBride-Wright 29:50
yeah, yeah, true, yeah, where you have to kind of scrunch your eyes up and think, what did they just say? That English? I love it. Love it. You made a point. You said some people have been driven to have made the relocation to Scotland because of gun crime.
Enoch Adeyemi 30:17
Yep. Okay, yeah, so with everything happening in London, right? Or London, Birmingham, Manchester. So I’ve met, I’ve met families that have basically just hooked moved up to Scotland, just you’ve got a better chance. You’ve got a chance of having a more balanced life in Scotland. If you lived in London or wherever, I’ll give you, I’ll put some numbers to it as well, right? So if you lived in London, you are probably living in some small flats just because you can’t afford a, should I say, proper house, quote and unquote, just because of the cost of living in London. And with that community, the committee I’m talking about that have made that move. They are not doing the 100k 200k job. No, they’re doing the 30k 40k job. So you’re living in a place where you’re earning low and your cost is high. So what they are then figuring out, again, just from conversations with family and friends that are in Scotland, is, look, no, you know what? With that income you’re getting, if you move to Scotland, you can live in a nice area, your kids are safer. They go to a good school, and your your your outcome is better, yeah, that is driving that move around, its madness to stay in this city. And then you, because they end up income, they live in certain areas that leave their kids more exposed to drama. However. I mean, you know Edinburgh very well. You pick, using Edinburgh as an example, if you end 40k you can live in a decent place, in go to a decent school, and have a better outcome. So again, we’re seeing some of that as well, but most of the immigration, or the moves to Scotland has been folks coming from from Caribbeans, but mostly from from Africa.
Mark McBride-Wright 31:58
Okay, and so for you had in your portfolio of things as well, for entities that you’ve created as well, like a walking group, I was interested find out more about that.
Enoch Adeyemi 32:09
Yes, yes. So my, I grew up in Lagos, right? So there is no, I didn’t grow up. I can then I didn’t. I’m sure I came was not my dictionary when I was growing up on my vocabulary. But when, I moved to Scotland in 2006 I must have gone on ATO seat. I think it’s a rite of passage. You’ve lived in Edinburgh, you’ve got seats. So I went on out of seats, got to the top of the mountain, looks down. And I thought, this is this experience is nice. I’m actually looking down at the world. And so since then, I’ve been excited about, about the outdoors, but then that excitement, or that journey, then spiked when my brother came and joined me, and I think he took it to the next level, right? So we go on, we then start going on the big mountains, the Monroes and all that kind of stuff. So doing the more extreme stuff, like camping, skinny dipping and all that. But then from doing that, we started my brother again. He is very good at creating content, like pictures and videos, right? And then we added drone at that time, so he was capturing experience, putting it on his Instagram. Folks started reaching out to say, Oh, can I come with you guys, folks from our community, saying, Guys, we’re next to go. How does because you guys, make it fun. You make it look exciting. Yeah, that was essential. I started, we started taking folks with us, and then after, after a while, we realized this is something, yeah, and then we named this black Scottish adventurers, and it’s just grown since then. So we have over 4000 members within that network now. We started our first proper trip together as a group. Was April 2022 and what I’ve enjoyed about it is we’ve now exposed folks from our community to the outdoors, folks that would never before think about it, because generally do not, as I said, first generation immigrants, the priority is, and it’s in an income, right? A decent life, that’s the priority. I came to them every hour, yeah, so we’re not shifting their mindset around, yeah. You can do all that, but you can also enjoy Scotland. You can enjoy the Monroe. You can enjoy the album. Can go for work and you can do it safely, because we can provide you with all the the information and the empowerment and all that. So for me saying, on our trip, you know, you see the 65 year old woman, you see the five year old girl. You see a good range of people, black folks, right? Everyone. You see the Asians, the whites, the blacks, everyone coming on the adventure, having a good time together, and then having breaking bread together after the after the trip. But more importantly, it’s what happens once you finish the adventures. Because we go on adventures once a month. Speaking of which, we’re going on on Saturday, we’re going to pep after the adventure. Folks are then networking and going on to do their own. Something, yes, that community we’re building as well because, because it’s first generation immigrants, there’s still a lot of loneliness issues. People are migrating, and they’re finding themselves in a strange land, and then coming on that adventure. You do have an opportunity to build a community, to make new friends? Yeah, you can go to the cinema with you, go do those everyday
Mark McBride-Wright 35:19
business and do business as well. Contract with you do business. I’ve built a few communities myself over the years, and I’ve always thought, you know, if business deals can be done on golf courses between white men, you know business deals can be done in gay bars and SOHO and so business deals and networking can be done and connections can be made that might lead to business on Adventures in the Scottish Highlands, absolutely.
Enoch Adeyemi 35:49
So, yeah, that’s, that’s the, that’s the black Scottish adventurers story. And I think our highlights is the fact that we’ve been on Ben Nevis. So benev is the highest mountain in Scot in the UK, yeah, we go on that every January, 1 weekend in January, which is hardcore, right? I mean, going on benefits on a good day is hard, but then going in the middle of winter is really hard. So we’ve been doing that for we usually go with about 2030, adventure. So we don’t go with everyone, we go with people that can actually do it because a level, a good eight hours in snow, in the cold, in the wind, like the everything is thrown at you. Again, we’ve just done that just to again, build that community of really the hard core adventurers and those that just want to set themselves up for the year. And what we always saw on that trip is, if you can do benevis In the first weekend in January. You’re set for the year.
Mark McBride-Wright 36:49
My goodness. My goodness. So you mentioned that your you and your wife had written a book. Why is this wrong? Yes, tell us a bit about your book.
Enoch Adeyemi 37:00
Yes, sure. So my wife is in HR, coincidentally, and we just over time, we’ve found that folks are not having conversations anymore because of the fear of saying the wrong thing, right? So when I say folks are having conversation that over defense, conversation where people from different backgrounds, maybe ethnicity or age or gender or whatever, they’ve stopped because I don’t want to say the wrong thing to you, Mark, because I don’t say something that you may see seem see as homophobic, you don’t say something to me that I may see as as racist and all that. So everybody’s just staying in their camp, right? Yeah, and we thought, and we already, we already seen it, right? I mean, we see that play out on the street now. We thought that would just create echo chambers where people go into their own bubble and just blow up in in their bubble and say that group is bad, that those groups are bad, those guys are bad, right? And we’re seeing that, unfortunately. So because of that, because of saying that, we thought, what? Again, my the way my mind works. I’m a very, maybe, like an engineer. You guys are very solutions driven. I’m a very solutions driven person. So I thought, Is there anything I can do, or we can do about that? So okay, let’s write a book. So we came up with this idea of, let’s break everything down into the mind protected characteristics. Yeah, let’s look at the inappropriate phrases that are said to all those nine protected 10 for each category. So we have about 90 phrases in there, and then what we try to do with those phrases are, why? So this phrase, for example, where are you from? It’s innocent. There’s nothing wrong with it. However, I personally, I don’t have anything against it. If you ask me, where are you from? I’ll tell you, well, at least live in forka. I’m from Nigeria. I don’t care. However, if you didn’t ask, my children’s children were born in Scotland. Their grand, their dad, is Scottish. Their you know, all they’ve known is Scotland. You’re asking them, where are you from? They may find out offensive, because they’re thinking, I’m from Scotland. Yeah. Why? You know, asking Marky with us and I’m white, you’re just asking me because I’m black, right? Yeah, it’s going into that book and explaining why that phrase is wrong, and also empathizing with the with the person asking to say, we get why you’re asking it. But this is perceived and then sometimes suggesting optional questions to ask. And most of it’s the optional things we suggested is just have a general conversation, get to know that person. If you get to know them, you will ultimately find out where they’re from or what. Yeah, right. If you make friends with my son over time, you’ll find out his dad is Nigerian, right? Without asking him, because that will come up in conversations. So it’s just about encouraging people to just have those conversations and be okay to make mistakes. Be okay to get around sometimes with more importantly, let’s just have conversations. So that’s what the book is about. And yeah, it’s been exciting writing it and pushing it out into
Mark McBride-Wright 39:57
the world. Amazing. Well. Put a link to it in the show notes and that as well. And I completely can relate to one of the most powerful slides that I use in my content when I’m delivering training. Is the is a foot walking on some eggshells, and everyone in the room is like, yes, that’s how we feel about X, Y and Z, you know? And I remember when I broadened out from inter engineering my LGBT network, which was always very comfortable in because I’m gay, and then I’m part of that community. So, you know, I’m with my people and stuff. But when I set up equal engineers, I found I set it up in the July we did our first careers fair in the November 2017 but before that for Black History month in October 2017 I really wanted to do an event for Black History Month, so I got a panel of people. We think UCL hosted it, and we ended up having about 35 people in the audience and a panel for Black History Month, and I was, I was hosting it, and I was so nervous, you know, I felt like that, that walking on eggshells. This was before I had that slide that I used my content, but I’d been working with and also, there were about four of us that were white at the event. Everyone else was black and ethnic minority, or BME, as the phrase was back then, that we that we used, and which I know we don’t use much now. But anyway, my friend Nikkei falaen, who’s one of the co founders of afbe, the Association for Black Engineers, Nikki and Ollie Nikki, was like, Mark, don’t worry about it. We’ve got your back, you know. And you know, we fully know you’ve got positive intent. So if you say anything wrong, if you slip up, I’m going to correct you. Don’t worry about it. Just go out there. Be confident do it and just own the moment. Say you’re learning in real time. And that really put me at ease, and because I noticed that I was one of those white people that used to pause before I said the word black, or I would say the word black in, like, you know, a lower volume, you know, like community, you know. And the black community in the UK, you know. And I, and I was like, I was like, such a real moment for me, and I still see it in people, in my in my when I’m delivering training that you know, and I’ll just, and I’ll just say black in the same like because it’s part of the sentence. So stuff like that is where it language matters, how you communicate and how you say. Stuff matters not just what you say, but how you say it, your confidence saying it, and it takes for you one to understand what words mean in community and how they’re how they’re received. So I’ll definitely get a copy of your of your book. I only saw that you had it when, when we connected recently, planning this. So yeah, thank you for writing that and putting that out in the world. No worries. Thanks. So before, before we move on the quick fire questions, then, what? Um, what’s next for you? What new projects have you got bubbling up your sleeve, like, what would what do you envisage the next few years holding for you?
Enoch Adeyemi 43:18
So Mark, if you asked me that question five years ago. All these things I’ve told you I’ve done, I wouldn’t have mentioned it, just because I don’t live life that way. I just, I just do it. So as things come my way, I just decide to pick it or not pick it. So if I decide to pick I just run with it. So what I’m gonna be doing next year. Other big things I generally do not know, however, something something exciting I’m currently working on is my son. So nothing to do with accounting or community or still community, but nothing to do with sort of black or dei and all that. So my son started competing recently as an athlete. Is a 10 year old boy, and I’ve been, he’s been doing that for a year now, and I’ve sort of been sucked into that world. And doing my brain works again, as I said, so that engineering, accounting brain been to the competitions. I’ve looked at it, and I’ve thought, I reckon I can do this better. So, um, I mean, better for everyone, better for the athletes. Better for um, those coming to watch the spectators. And then, more importantly, it’s around thinking something happened as well, right where my some of my son’s friends came to watch him. So my son is actually quite fast, so
Mark McBride-Wright 44:43
you’re underplaying that. I remember seeing your LinkedIn posts in the 48 group. He was the fastest runner in Scotland,
Enoch Adeyemi 44:49
Scotland, yeah, yeah. So he is that fast, right? So his friends, yeah, I don’t know where he got it from. And then he just blew the competition away. Was that one where he was just running his own. Is everybody was stuck behind and then his friends got so excited, and they thought, I want to do athletics as well, because I’ve always looked at athletics and thought we could get better athletes in Scotland. But then most people in Scotland don’t think athletics. They just think football or gymnastics and yeah. So again, part of reasons why I wanted to do that is to get non athletic people and family to come as spectators, just as a day out event. So there’ll be a lot of exciting stuff happening. It’s not it’s not just and what we’re also doing is we’re inviting only the fastest athletes.
Mark McBride-Wright 45:33
So I missed what you’re doing. So you’re creating a new running festival or something, a new athlete. Yes, yes.
Enoch Adeyemi 45:41
It’s called Sprint. We call this print first. So it’s just 100 meter sprint, inviting only the fastest athletes in Scotland to the competition. So it’s not open to everyone, it’s not open to all the athletes, it’s just the fastest people. So you, as a spectator, come in. You’re coming to watch the fastest guys in Scotland compete for a cash prize and just for for bragging rights. But then, in the midst of that, there’ll be other entertaining stuff as well. Get cheerleaders come do their cheerleading stuff. We just make it an entertaining day for the kids. They’ll be face painting for the kids. So that’s something I’m working on next year. It’s It’s strange, it’s crazy. It’s a new world. I don’t know anything about how to host an athletics event, but I’m learning every day. I’m just figuring it out. Every day I’m speaking to people, I’m pulling things together. So I’m excited at the same time sort of nervous, but because of my of my back, I mean history of delivering, I hope so just I’m pretty confident I can pull it together and make it a spectacle and all hopefully, that can then become a catalyst for other good things, for athletes and just for the for the sporting community, that’s something I can definitely say I’m working on beyond that, I don’t know,
Mark McBride-Wright 46:57
I love it. You’re, you’re love it. I love, I just, I love, I love your energy and like, I just, yes, you’re I love it honestly, keep doing what you’re doing. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Okay, quick fire questions, what’s your favorite book or podcast at the moment?
Enoch Adeyemi 47:18
Okay, podcast, it’s, it’s a podcast called so don’t judge me for this. It’s called UK true crime. And basically, yeah, this guy just talks about crime. Yeah, that’s my favorite podcast, yeah. And book. I enjoy the Bible. I enjoy reading the Bible. I know that’s a juxtaposition, like reading the Bible and then listening to True Crime two different things. But what can I say?
Mark McBride-Wright 47:44
Right? Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Enoch Adeyemi 47:47
Morning 5am. Day starts at five, and then once it’s this is 325, any moment from now, my brain starts to shut down.
Mark McBride-Wright 47:57
If you could have dinner with any historical figure? Who would it be?
Enoch Adeyemi 48:00
It’s going to be Miriam Makeba. And I don’t know if most, most people probably don’t don’t know her. So she is a Grammy Award winning artist from apartheid South Africa. And what I loved about her is, even though she had a fame and she had all that she was still able to put her reputation and name on the line and sort of speak against the evil of apartheid and just injustice. So if I could, I think to be fun to have dinner with. I think she will have some good stories to share as a as as a show girl and and hopefully Sing, sing for me as well. So Miriam Makeba from South Africa,
Mark McBride-Wright 48:44
what’s one app or tool that you can’t live
Enoch Adeyemi 48:46
without? WhatsApp?
Mark McBride-Wright 48:50
What’s your favorite spot in Scotland,
Enoch Adeyemi 48:53
the rest spot? So the Hermitage. So I don’t even know the Hermitage. So the Hermitage is spots in in Perth. It’s a beautiful sort of woodland area. There’s waterfall, there’s a beautiful so if you go at this time of the year, the leaves are just turning orange, or Tommy, it’s just a beautiful place to just go for a lovely, long walk on a on a nice sunny day, or even a nice cold day. So the Hermitage in Perth,
Mark McBride-Wright 49:21
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Enoch Adeyemi 49:26
Best advice, it’s not important.
Mark McBride-Wright 49:31
If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing? Comedy? What’s a fun fact most people do not know about you?
Enoch Adeyemi 49:43
Hate socializing. Really, believe it or not, I like I like being at home. I like being away from people. I know it. It goes against everything I’ve done. It’s a strange one. I just love my own space. Just. By myself, even my wife figured it out after a few years of marriage that you’re strange. You like being by yourself too much.
Mark McBride-Wright 50:08
Describe your leadership style in three words, do your thing, do your thing. And finally, what’s one word you’d use to define your
Mark McBride-Wright 50:19
legacy humanity, humanity.
Mark McBride-Wright 50:24
Oh, look at that. Full circle back to defining yourself first. Love that. And that was unintentional. I can tell it was not love it. It shows, it shows. It’s wired into you. It’s who you are. It’s your DNA, your fabric. Thank you so much, Enoch for being such a great Do you know, as I’ve been saying your name, it’s occurred to me that you’ve got such a great Scottish name as well, because you’ve got the at the end of it, I feel like I’m saying loch. Enoch. Enoch. Yeah. Yeah. Like, look. Like, yeah, people usually say lot, but actually it’s Locke, like, in the middle of your name. So as I’ve been saying,
Enoch Adeyemi 51:12
Scottish rep just went up with that. Yeah, yeah.
Mark McBride-Wright 51:16
In fact, maybe being with you, you’re saying you we were talking before the call, I think before I pressed record, about change in accents and me becoming more Scottish, I think seeing your name there and saying Enoch, I’ve become a bit more Scottish, right? If people want to find out more about your work, get in touch with you. How should they do that?
Enoch Adeyemi 51:39
I’m so a few things. So I, because of everything I do, I decided to just create a website, so, um, spotlight everything I do, and so put the link to everything in there, so it’s just my name in okademi.com but where I’m most active is on LinkedIn. So if you type in Akademi on LinkedIn, you probably find my name come up there and you can connect with me. And, yeah, we can have a chat so or you can send me a contact message from my website as well.
Mark McBride-Wright 52:05
Perfect, perfect. Well, thank you very much. I’ve really enjoyed it, and hope we’ll cross paths at some point again in
Enoch Adeyemi 52:12
the future. Absolutely, Mark and thank you very much for inviting me. Sometimes I it’s good to have these conversations as well, to take me down memory lane and just to relieve some of some of the work myself and those around me are doing, and just to laugh at some of, I guess, some of my failures as well. So thank you very much. Mark. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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