A Former Criminal’s Leadership Lessons with Duro Oye

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But you know, I did some terrible things. I never really had a childhood. I had to grow up very quickly and continued the life of criminality and lived that life. Started quite early, I think from probably from the age of 12, serving a long stretch in prison or being killed. That guilt, you know, is always going to come back. You have to do that inner work, you know, took about 30 years for me to make sense of my life and be at peace.

Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers. In every episode, I bring you an inspiring leader or expert that help you lead your life and business on purpose. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.

Sometimes in life you meet people and when you walk away from a conversation with them, you're moved. You think, whoa, that was powerful. Well, you're about to meet one of those humans. Juro oye is the CEO of 2020 Change, an award winning social enterprise. But Juro, going back to his younger years, was in a life of crime in London and his life was taking a very slippery slope and he was leading many others to becoming criminals. He made some pivotal decisions in his life and now he is transforming the lives of hundreds and hundreds of young people. He has a massive vision to take 2020 change global. His story is phenomenal. His heart is huge. So I hope you sit back and enjoy the show.

A massive welcome to the Lead on Purpose podcast.

Hello, James. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

Oh, I'm so glad you're here. And I'll tell you what, I've heard so much about you from the incredible Alistair Gray, a mutual friend of ours.

Yeah, yeah, Alistair's great. Love him to bits.

Yeah, he's a special human and he's shed some light on what you do and why you do it. And I was just intrigued, fascinated, inspired. And I know that the listener is going to feel the same way as we Start to converse, and we're going to talk a lot about 2020 change and where that's headed. But before we do that, I'd love to know a little bit more about you. So what's your story? Where. Where did life begin for you and what were some of your highlights and lowlights?

So really good question. Thank you, James. So life started for me in Nigeria. I was born in Nigeria.

And early life started for me in Nigeria. And at the age of five, my parents sent me to the UK to live with my sisters. So I had a number of different sisters in the uk, So I started with one and just kept moving around. But what they didn't realize in their hope to try and help me have a better future, they kind of had a bit of foresight in terms of understanding the economic downturn that Nigeria was going to face at that time, and they wanted to essentially provide me with more opportunities, you know, for myself. But what they didn't realize is, like, my sisters weren't living in the best kind of situations in London, so they lived in council estates, they were working night and day. So. And they also had kids of their own as well. So I went from being the youngest in the house to now being the oldest in the house. With that came a lot of responsibilities.

I joke around and say that, like, I never really had a childhood. I had to grow up very quickly because of the environments that I was in. But I joke about it, but it was also. There's also a huge element of truth there as well. But, yeah, to be fair, growing up, life was pretty tough. It was challenging, and I just took that as my lot, really. I didn't think of it as, you know, what was mean and.

You know, why is this happening? I was just like, it is what it is. Let me. Let me run with it. I was exposed to a number of things that, you know, at a tender young age, formative years, a young child shouldn't have been exposed to. So the person that my sister was seeing at the time, he kind of became my. My male role model, so to speak. And he wasn't. He wasn't the best of guys. You know, he was involved in a number of, you know, things that he shouldn't have been involved in. And as a result of growing up in that environment, I kind of saw that as normal. And just by default, I kind of followed that same route as well and continued the life of criminality and lived that life. Started quite early, I think, from probably from the age of 12 right through to the age of 21.

And I just slowly but surely worked my way up through the ranks, learned from him. I was very quiet, very observant, picked up things from him, you know, very quickly, put my own kind of crew together and passed on the knowledge to them. And yeah, I guess my leadership qualities were always there. They were somewhat innate and I used them in the wrong way. And I think the switch really just came for me when I went to university. So by the age of, I'd say 18, my mum had moved to the UK and I was staying with her. And her one ambition in life was to make sure that all of her kids go to university, because she never had the opportunity to go to university, although she was very entrepreneurial. She had a number of shops and.

She was a dressmaker and a tailor that she opened a number of shops in Nigeria. And that's what she was. She was able to afford sending all of her kids to the uk. So I guess my work ethic kind of came from her. But yeah, her one ambition out of all of her six kids, just to make sure that every one of them went to university and got a university degree. Because in her mind, in order for you to be successful and to stand on your own two feet, you need to go to university and have a degree. And I didn't want to. So I was very creative, both in fine art, design and acting. So I thought that was my path. I thought, yep, I'm gonna to become an actor. And I didn't need to go to university, become an actor. I'd already got the grades at secondary school level and I went to college and studied graphics, fine art and graphics. But she kicked up a fuss and, yeah, forced me to go to university. And I just wanted to keep her quiet, keep her happy. So I thought the best degree or the easiest degree that I could do would be a graphics and advertising degree because I could just blag my way through it, I thought. But to be fair, that was. That was the best decision I ever made because it was in that moment, that was the first time that I was able to remove myself from the environment in which I grew up, remove myself from the friendship circle that I had, and kind of secluded myself in my university town. I have my own house, so I had a lot of alone time, a lot of time to reflect and really just kind of think about my life and my future and what I wanted to do, really. And I realized that the path that I was on could only lead me three ways. One would be serving a long stretch in prison or being killed or necessarily.

Finishing a stretch in prison and then being deported back to Nigeria. And all three options I'd seen happen to a number of my close friends. So it was very, very close to home. And I just thought, you know, really and truly, if I really think about this, I am better than this. And I'd never really applied myself to anything other than what I was doing. So I thought, let me try at least, you know, apply myself to something tangible, see what comes of it. My faith had a major part to play in it as well. I grew up in a Christian household, so I'd always kind of dabble in the faith. One foot in, one foot out. And I also thought, let me take my face seriously and let's just see what comes of it. So I still remember the date. It was August 16, 2006. Moved back from uni, back into London, back into my mom's house, and made up my mind that, you know, I was going to get rid of everything that I gained from the lifestyle that I was living before, start over on a clean slate. You know, I walked into the church, um, and that was it. I haven't looked back since. You know, I think we're, what, 17, 18 years in now. And, yeah, I'm still on that journey. And then that's where the calling kind of came for me to do something to help those that were on the path that I was on or currently still on the path that I was on, to show them that, you know, there's. There's so much more to life. I started working with just individuals that had similar experiences to me. But over the years, I realized that all young people, regardless of their background or their experience, need the knowledge and information that I was sharing that could help them build their confidence, self esteem, help them become better versions of themselves, get them to really take that deep introspective look into who they are, find out their true identity, and be proud of who they are and be able to walk into any room and shine. Because we all have something in us. We all have a gift, we all have a calling. But because of the circumstances of life, we kind of bury it. And we tend to just do things just to get by, just to pay the bills. And it's like my philosophy is that you're robbing the world of your gift. And my mission in life is to help young people discover what that gift is and bless the world with it. And, you know, that's what I hope that we do with 2022.

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It's incredible.

You should be so, so proud of the man that you are and how you've traversed some of the greatest challenges. And there's going to be a listener listening right now that goes, hey, I have no idea what a life of crime and being involved in that looks like. So would you mind letting me inside for a moment to. Not necessarily what exactly you'd done, but what was going through your mind? How did you feel when things were happening and you were doing things around that criminality piece?

You know what, when you're in it and you're in it to that stage and at that level, you don't, you don't think about it. You know, you're not thinking about the harm that you're causing, the people that you're hurt. And it's just, you know, this is what I need to do to get by. This is what I need to do to sustain myself. So in that moment, you're in that. You're in the crux of it and, and you're just rolling with it. And like I said, I needed to remove myself from it in and being away from that environment to really think, wow, like, this is damaging to people. You know, this is damaging to people's lives. It's damaging to me. You know, it's chipping away at my good nature, you know, and I didn't realize it until I just had that moment to take a breather, to pause. So when you're, when you're in the thick of it, you're not, you're not really thinking about that. It's when you come out of it that you're just, wow, I. Okay, things need to change. Like, I'm better than this. And not everyone gets that opportunity. Right. Because you could be in the thick of it. You could get snapped up, when I say snapped up, either by, you know, the feds or, you know, you could get snapped up by, by an enemy or an opposing group and that could be the end of your life. And you know, what's going to be said of you? What would you have done? What would have been your gift to the world? So, yeah, to answer your question, when you're in the thick of it, you don't really think about it. It's really post that you start to think about it. Or sometimes when people get locked up once again, they hit that pause button. They're not on that constant wheel. They really start thinking about how damaging it is to their family members and people that they left behind. And that's why, like, you know, when people are in prison, it's a good time for them to kind of recalibrate and rethink. But when they come out, if they don't have something tangible to move to, it's very easy to get sucked back in because in your mind, you feel like that's all that, you know. That's why I feel like the work that we do is so important just to help people with that mindset shift, help them realize that, no, there's more to you, there's more to life than living that kind of lifestyle. Yeah.

I'm excited to go into some of the different approaches and tools that you use with these amazing. But I want to just before we do that is I want to go back to birth. And my belief is all born with goodness. Like, we have good, beautiful, loving hearts and that's how we're born into the world. And we are then born into certain situations and different things happen across our lifespan and we get surrounded by different people and different challenges and, you know, different environments. So how important do you feel it is for someone who's, say, between the age of 9 and 16, very influential age, how important is it for them to be around a really wholesome environment?

Hey, James here. I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know about something. Look, I get asked to deliver keynotes I and workshops for teams and companies all over the world, from London to Antarctica, from America to Australasia, from armies to small businesses to large corporates to sports teams. But I go in and deliver keynotes around the mindset of high performers, around the habits of High performers about how we navigate change. If you would like me to come and speak to your team or speak at your conference or deliver a bespoke workshop, please get in touch with my team. Caroline jlachlan.com will be able to help. I'll also make sure that we put that in the show notes.

I mean, it's, it's, it's probably one of the most important things. And that's.

From my last work. That's what, that's what I've recognized and that's what I've noticed.

Because they're the formative years of a child, right? What a child experiences in those years, it's going to shape them for a very long time. So with our work, I feel like we're having to.

Reorientate a lot of the young people that come onto our programs because the knowledge and the information that we're sharing with them at a later stage in life, they didn't get in those stages at those early formative stages in their life. So it's like, what had become normal to them. We're having to help them shift. Actually, that wasn't normal. This is normal. And sometimes that's the battle. You know, I call it the battle of the mind. Because all these years you grew up believing and thinking this was normal. And then we're bringing you out of that and showing you a new normal, and you're like, can it be, you know, maybe that's normal for you. I don't know whether it's normal for me, you know, and, and that's the beauty, beauty of my journey and my story and the way that I've come up, because I can then trace it back and be like, well, I thought it was normal, too, until I came to this new realization. And I can help you come to that realization also. So sometimes, depending on where that young person is on their journey, it could take a couple of months, it could take a couple of years, you know, and that's the beauty of what we've designed here that, you know, we've got that scope to be able to support young people for up to five years on their journey of rediscovering who they are. But to your question, those stages are so, so, so important. And if families and individuals and households can get that right, then we'll have more wholesome adults being churned out, more wholesome individuals going out into society, you know, understanding who they are, being confident in who they are, and being able to be their true selves, regardless of what direction they decide to take. But it's fundamental, you know, and some would say maybe that should be taught in schools. I would agree. But then at the same time, there's only so much the school system and the education system can do. In most countries, the education system is already stretched. So we can't, as parents, as individuals who make decisions to bring life into the world, bring that life into the world and say, yep, it's the government's responsibility, it's the education system's responsibility to instill the core values that everyone needs in that child's life. I don't think it's right. I think we need to call a spade a spade and be like, you know, if you're able and you made that decision to bring your life into this world, you need to be responsible for that child until the stage where that child is able to be responsible for themselves.

Yeah, I agree 100% with you, 100%. And before we move into really going deep with 2020, you talked a bit about leadership and developing leadership even in your life of crime. And you're. I get this 100%, because we're always trying to meet our needs. We're trying to meet our human needs, and we meet them in an empowering way or a disempowering way, but we still meet them. So what, when you reflect back, what were some of those leadership attributes that actually came from your time in crime and that you've actually turned them into really positive attributes now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd say definitely effective communication.

I'd say the ability to.

Win people's hearts and minds. The ability to.

Paint the picture of a vision, of a destination, and lead a group of people to get in there. Even if, you know at first they don't want to. They don't buy into the vision. They don't believe it. As a leader, it's your responsibility to be able to not only paint the vision, but sell the vision to the point where everyone that's with you sees it as their own vision. So from that life, it was like, we're all standing here on the street corners doing nothing. Life's got wasting away.

You could be here for the next five, 10 years. Nothing would have changed. Or you can come with me. We could do this. You could have a bit of money in your pocket and you live a different lifestyle. And because I somewhat look the part and they could see that, okay, this guy's. He's on to something.

What are my options here? I could believe him and see where it goes, or I Could stay here on the street corner, you know, just doing nothing all day. And then slowly but surely, obviously not everybody came along at first, started with a few, and they saw that the change happened in their lives. And then more and more came along, and that's just how. How the network and the empire grew. And it's the same thing as growing a business, leading people.

With a social cause, leading people with purpose. So all of these things. I think at my core, I've always been a good person, but, you know, I did some terrible things, some of which I still kind of grapple with day to day. But people tell me people that need me back then, you know, they see the work that I'm doing now, and they're like, yeah, this is. This is what you. You were born to do, you know, because, yeah, even when we were doing all of that, you were always a nice person. People always gravitated towards you. It was just always something about you, you know, And I realized that all those years, in the strangest way, it's like, if it was nurturing that, and I was really just having these tools already on the inside of me, but utilizing them in a different way. So I think you mentioned earlier about the environment in which. In which a child is brought up in environment which a child is born into kind of shapes them. And I know if I was born into a different kind of, maybe even the same household, in a different environment with different circumstances around us, I'll be a very, very different person. And I think it took took about 30 years for me to make sense of my life and be at peace with. With the journey that I went on. Because it was at that point that everything just clicked. I was like, I needed to go through everything that I went through to become the person I am today. I needed to have experienced the things that I experienced in order to be able to do the work that I'm doing now. Because if I didn't live the life that I lived, there'll be a number of people that I wouldn't be able to relate to, you know, because I look very different to my past. I look very different to my experiences. When I speak, unless I tell you the lifestyle that I was involved in, you never know, you know, and it's the same thing with a lot of young people. When I'm able to engage with them on that level, they're like, yeah, gets there. If he's able to turn it around in the way that he turned it around, and there's hope for me too, you know, so, yeah, that's why I feel, I feel compelled to kind of share my story from time to time just to let people know that, like this journey didn't start yesterday. You know, I didn't wake up yesterday and become the person I am now. I call it a transition. And I'm still transitioning, right? So every year I celebrate that 16th of August. As, you know, my rebirth is my birthday. The day that I decided to own.

My past and take a hold of my future. And I think it's important for everybody to have that reflection point. At what point are you going to grab your life by the horns and say, I'm taking charge of this regardless of my past and taking charge of this regardless of my experiences, regardless of, you know, things that I've been through. I'm no longer going to complain or lay blame on my circumstances, my experiences, my family. I've got the opportunity to shape my future. And, you know, that's part of what we try to instill in the lives of young people. Incredible.

And you really, you talk about that word, blame. It's almost. To me, it feels like you go to the other end of that, you're like, I'm going to own it. I'm not going to blame, I'm going to own it. This is what it was, this is who I was. But it doesn't define who I am tomorrow. And to me, that takes such an ability to be an observer of your life, an observer of your thought processes. Now you talked about getting that kind of a sense of peace of mind or just that, that breaking point where you felt there was like a sense of peace. When was that? When did you actually make the turn from like, okay, I'm going to go to uni, and then after uni I could go back to crime. That's a possibility, but actually I'm going to go this way. What was happening there that sent you the different direction?

I remember it was quite vivid, quite vividly, actually. I received an article from my brother.

I think he had a major part to play in my decision to go on straight and narrow. So he sent me like these monthly devotionals. I had an article each day and that morning I literally just picked up the devotion. I read the article and the article illustrated.

I think the title or something along the lines of you can't do anything or build anything positive with ill gotten gains. And up until that point, my exit plan was always to make a bit of money. Had a number in mind from my life and then flip that and turn that into Something tangible. And I'd always kind of looked at those that went before me and I thought, you guys are in your 40s, but you're still on this game and you've been trying to put money here, put money there, but it never amounts to anything. I just used to think I'm going to do things differently, you know, my story is going to be different. But I mean, there's no sense in that, right? So the article illustrated a man that stole a bag of a sack of rice. And as he picked up the sack of rice, it hooked onto a nail. So let's say the, the sack of rice was like 10kg or whatever. So he's running, thinking he's got 10kg sack of rice, he gets to his destination and there's less than half of the, of the 10 kg in the sack, right? And it's basically just trying to illustrate that, like, you know, you're living this life.

You know, you're building and you're acquiring gains, thinking that, you know, you've got something, but really and truly you don't have anything. And that stuck with me, you know, And I was like, it's true, you know, I've been on this journey for so long, yes, I've got a bit of money put aside, but really and truly, that money is rotten because I can't. I can't use it for anything. Not that, you know, I tried, but nothing that I did with that money ever panned out. And that was where the decision came to actually get rid of it all, you know, literally start from zero, not use any of that money to try and do anything, you know. So that's what I did. I thought, let me just try. Worst case scenario, I could always. One thing that I knew that I was good at was making money, right? I never had a problem with that. Just give me a problem, I'll solve the problem. It will bring me one, right? That was my mentality. So I always knew that worst case scenario, I'd always be able to make it back. I didn't know how, but I knew that I'd come up with a way. So I thought, let me just try. And I'd never, up until that point, done anything that was straight down the line.

I thought, let me try it, see how it pans out. And then I always thought to myself, I had a brilliant mind. Because a lot of the schemes that I came up with just came to me as I was sitting down, thinking creatively, right? So I thought, yeah, let me try and use that in a Different way and see if it pans out. And thank God it did. Yeah, you know, thank God it did. Yeah. So I spent a lot of time kind of volunteering in the church. The church that I went to had a TV station connected to it. I studied graphics and advertising, so I volunteered to help them with their graphics. I learned motion graphics there. I fell in love with. With storytelling while I was there. I went to film school while I was there. I think I volunteered with them for about three months. And because I was there every day and I was just eager to learn. I was eager, and I was. Obviously, I was running away from the life that I was living, and I just needed something to keep me focused. They gave me a job within, like, a month, and they were like, you know. Yeah. So that was my first kind of, like, big break. And I spent about four and a half years with them, and I was. Yeah, I started in the design lab, went into the editing suite and started producing this presenting, Then started doing my own shows. And I wanted to find people with stories like mine, because those early stages, I wasn't. I wasn't comfortable and confident enough to share my own story. But I believe that there were other people with even more groundbreaking stories of change and transformation than me, and I wanted to showcase them. And in doing that, that's where I got my first big break. I made my first documentary film following the lives of six gang members. And it was in that moment, spending 18 months with these guys, that I realized that actually I had a lot of privilege. You know, in my mind, I thought we were the same. In my mind, I thought we came up the same. In my mind, you know, we all grew up council estate, got involved in things that we shouldn't have got involved in, turn our lives around. But what I had that they didn't have was a strong support system, a family of people that saw something in me that constantly told me that I could do better.

And I felt like I was a bit further along in terms of my transition than they were. Took me under my wing, kind of mentored them. And that's where I was. Like, how many more of these young people are out there just wasting away in the streets? How can I. How can I help them? How can I do more? How could I rewrite some of my wrongs? How could I, you know, help more young people in a positive way than I led astray, you know, in a negative way? And in my reflective moments, I counted how many young people I led astray. It was 450 and that was my one ambition at the time, was to transform the lives of more than 450 young people in a positive way. We're now at 1760.

That's amazing. Well done.

Thank you. Yeah. And yeah, it's like a bug. It's still going. It's an army.

That's like a whole army of people.

Absolutely. Wow. And they all go on to. To do the same for others as well and help others along and yeah, it's just each one teach one mentality.

I really love that. And thank you for the listener that wants to listen and watch the documentary. What was that first documentary called?

It's called 247365 hinge, but it's not available online. We had to pull it because, similar to me, one of the guys in the dock came out somewhat unscathed. So.

Never been to prison, never, never died. You know, it doesn't have a record or anything, but he was very. He's a bit too open and too honest in the doc about some of the things that he did. So as a result of that, he's now working in financial services, really high up, one of the big four. So when we were making the doc, I think that's when he landed a job once the doc was finished. So thankfully the doc was self funded.

So we couldn't release it in the way that I wanted to release it. So we could only kind of host private screenings for the doc now just because we don't want it to get out. But we've kind of protected him in the doc as well. But at the same time, it's always good to be safe, 100%.

And have you had any other documentary since then? Was that the start of.

Yes, that was the start of something. Something really big. So, yeah, I built a career for myself in documentary filmmaking. Made a number of different docs, been part of a team making a number of different docs for major TV stations here in the UK. So the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5. All around the same kind of theme.

Yeah. Gang members being involved really heavily in that life, turning their lives around. Teenage drug runners on the bdc.

Wow.

Really being able to get into the hearts and minds of young people that are involved in that life to help the wider public understand why a young person will get involved in that. But most importantly, how difficult it is for them to break that cycle, how difficult it is for them, once they made that decision, that they want to stop this life and re. Engage back of society, how society kind of rejects them and puts these barriers up that kind of forces the young person to.

Go back to that life. But what I really wanted to show my body of work is the tenacity and the resilience that the young people that we work with have that they're not going to take no for the answer. Once they made up their mind that they're going to change, that change is long lasting. So that's why I got involved in that. Then things with 2020 just kind of picked up and that's been put on the burner. But I'm getting back into it in a different kind of way, which I'm sure we're gonna, we're gonna talk about soon as well. But telling more positive stories of young people that have come through our program that are doing amazing things now and really just using the form of media to change perspective and change mindsets because it's a powerful tool. You know, you can listen to someone's story, you can watch someone's story, and you can put yourself in their shoes and you can really have that empathy and really understand that, wow, okay, I live in this bubble. But there are other people that are really struggling and it really kind of gets used to think in the same way that me spending the 18 months with those guys made me think.

There'S something I can do. Even in the, in the littlest form, which started as mentoring those six guys, you know, started with there. And that's where my passion came from. That's where my vision was born, so to speak, you know.

Well, I'm excited to talk about the 2020 vision. And one thing before we get to that.

I.

A word that comes up for me as you're speaking is forgiveness. And what I mean by that is self forgiveness. So I imagine for you and for all these amazing young people that you work with, there's a process of learning how for you to move forward. There's a process of how do I forgive myself? So what was that experience like for you personally?

Because my change kind of came from my faith and in the church and obviously the Christian faith was all about forgiveness. Right.

So that process was somewhat easy for me. But for those that don't kind of share the same faith, I can understand how difficult, how challenging that might be. But it's. It's an inner work. You have to do that inner work. You know, it's very easy for you to say, yep, I'm going to turn my life around, I'm going to go out and I'm going to help people. But until you've worked on yourself, it's going to be near enough impossible. Because that guilt, you know, is always going to come back. You know, you start to think about it really starts with the people that you hurt along the way. Most times it's like family members that you let down and you feel like you need to right those wrongs. And once you overcome those hurdles, then that, that internal kind of like, I need to forgive myself. You know, I need, I need to help myself understand and realize that the person that I was.

No longer exists. I'm now this new person. And I need to not bury what happened in my past, but own it, like we mentioned at the top of the, of the conversation, and build on it. You know, appreciate those experiences because it's made you who you are, but know that you're never, ever going to go back there. That was then, this is now. What are the learnings that you can take away from that? And I think when you give back and you're able to own your story and share your story, so in order to help people not make the same kind of mistakes that you made, it makes you see value in the experiences and some of the wrong slash stupid things that you do. Because now I have a story to be able to share with someone that I can see is going down that path. But because of my story and my experience, they can see the end from my journey without having to experience it. And that way, it's that deviation point. So this is where they're going. You know where it's going to end. You're like, yo, this is where you're headed. This is how it happened for me. I can help you. So it's not for you. And hopefully that person listens, they take it on board.

And they change. But I've also come to learn that not everybody gets it at that moment in time. And you can't save everyone, you can't help everyone. And all you can do is all you can do in terms of planting those seeds, hoping that over, over time they get watered and they produce fruit. But like I said, sometimes that process for every individual takes longer than others.

Of course. And let's talk about 2020 change. So what's your vision there? What, where are you taking them? What's the ultimate outcome you'd be so proud of?

For me, 2020 Changes is a vision that started with just wanting to change and help 450 young people.

The vision is limitless. If I'm being all the way honest with you, I am very ambitious. I've always been very Ambitious. I can see 2020 change and the work that we're doing go global because I believe every young person around the world could benefit from the teachings and the knowledge that we're passing across. So starting in London, working with young people from black and underrepresented ethnic groups, low socioeconomic backgrounds, teaching them the skills that they need to become better individuals, but then also.

Gain access to employment within the corporate world. It's growing and it's evolving from that to also now support.

Young, young black entrepreneurs with their business ideas and their side hustle, connecting them with seasoned business leaders from across the globe, helping them take their business to a point where it's investment ready, introducing them to investors, you know, investing in their business, equity free investment in their businesses as well.

And really just empowering young people.

Right across the globe. Like I said, we started with the demographic that I'm from, but it doesn't need to stop there. We've got a blueprint that we can actually take and license out to anyone that's running a youth organization in any part of the world.

I just recently came back from a conference video talking about the power of AI and.

How that could be used as a force for good. I'm already thinking about ideas of how we can incorporate that into what we're doing and really just, just grow and expand. So yeah, like I say, the possibilities are endless. It's just a matter of strategically planning on how we're going to utilize the tools that we have and expand in the right way and not, not rush, you know, because, yeah, left up to me, I want to take over the world tomorrow, but I know that let's do it. You got to take things one step at a time.

But what I love, I mean, I'm excited. So I'm obviously here in New Zealand and I'm listening to this going. We have lots of young people here that could really benefit from this. And I'm sure there's a listener listening right now in New York and there's another listener listening right now in South Africa and another one in Central Europe. They're all thinking the same thing. We have got people, young people who are going down the path that you just talked about who would so greatly benefit from this. So I'm going to put all of your details at the end of the show. Make sure and put them.

Yeah, please.

So I want people to be able to reach out and learn more and see who can support. But let's talk a little bit about.

What you actually do. So let's say You've met me, I've been pretty. I've been up to no good. I've been making some poor decisions. I've been hanging out with people that are encouraging these poor decisions. It's a slippery slope. But you and I bump into each other, I guess, first of all, where would we bump into each other? How would that first of all happen? How would I get to connect with an amazing human like you?

Sure. So it usually happens by word of mouth. You know, young people that have been on the program, they talk about the program to their friends or their friends, starts to notice a change in them. They're like, what's going on? Where have you been? You know, where are you getting all this new information from? They tell them about the program. Another avenue is social media. So we're really kind of heavy on social media. Young people get to see the program, the impact of the program on people that look just like them, and they sign up that way. We also have an outreach team that goes out into schools, colleges, universities, other youth groups, faith groups, kind of sharing what we do, how we do what we do, and the young people come on board that way. So that's how the word gets out and every once in a while, bump into young people, and then, you know, just kind of, you know what you're up to, what you're trying to do. What's the plan for the future? Is anyone helping you achieve those plans for the future? Oh, you should check out this organization. And then we find out that, you know, it's an organization founded by. Okay. But, yeah, I'm constantly in contact with and engaging with young people and telling them about it, because the opportunities that we have for young people now are absolutely amazing. And it's like I'm living that dream of, I wish I had these opportunities when I was younger. And now we're able to afford the young people these opportunities. And yes, it's a dream come true for me. And it's a dream watching them start out on a particular path and then progress and rise up through the ranks. And, yeah, I feel like a proud dad, proud uncle, proud brother. Each time I'm scrolling through social media or LinkedIn and we're seeing one of our young people gain employment. We've seen one of our young people progress and be promoted. It's always. It's always a joy for me.

It's incredible and it's. It's interesting. I just want to remind the listener, right now, obviously you're listening to Lead on purpose, and to me, you are the epitome of purposeful leadership. You are leading on purpose and it's, it excites me just to be hearing what you're doing.

Thank you.

That's incredible. So, okay, now I've met you and I'm in, I'm in 2020 change. What different experiences and shifts would I be experiencing? What kind of work would you do with me? What are some of the maybe programs or techniques or tactics?

Sure. So the program is a 10 week, we like to call it a mindset adjustment program. So regardless of where you are in your mindset, regardless of what you've done previously, regardless whether you had checkered password, whether you're involved in crime, whether you stayed on the straight and narrow, went to school, got the grades, but still struggling to land that first role, we can help you. So the program is centered around the mind and how the mind works. There's a lot of psychology embedded in there. So we start with understanding the mind thoughts, the train of actions where your thoughts from, you know, who's in control of your thoughts and can you choose your thoughts? Then we move on into success motivation. Because every young person wants to be successful. But how do you define success? You just grab, grab what society tells you success is or can you reframe what success means to you and work towards that? Right, so we kind of unpack that for young people or we help them unpack that with the tools that we use. Then we move on into happiness. Because a lot of young people tend to think that, you know, if I'm successful and I have a lot of money, I'm going to be happy. But then what is happiness? You know, is it, is it a feeling, is it an emotion, or can it be a choice? Can you choose to be happy regardless of the states, the state that you're in, or the environment that you find yourself in? We leave them with that. And then we move on into one of my favorite sessions, which is unique identity, which helps you take that introspective look into who you are, why you are, the way that you are, and is it possible for you to be proud of who you are and walk into any room and be able to be your true authentic self. There's think about the power in that where you don't have to wear these masks that society tells you about, where you don't have to pretend to be someone that you're not, where you could just be accepted for who you are and people love you for who you are. Just imagine the level of confidence that that will give you. And then the final session and the core part of the session is unique responsibility. So taking that responsibility for your own future. So parking, the fact that, you know, you didn't grow up in the safest environment, in a stable household, in a wealthy or loving household, all of those things have happened. You know, the government failed you, education system failed you. We hear that that happened there. This is where you are.

Beauty is you're still here, which means you have an opportunity to turn things around for yourself. Just take responsibility of that. And that's where people are. Okay, cool. I'm ready to dive in now. Then we move into our partner sessions, which is where I met Alistair. So the part on the sessions kind of teach you things that weren't taught in school, but we believe should be taught in school. So the core sessions are things that should be taught in the household. Right. But because people don't grow up in a strong, stable household, they didn't get that. So that's why we teach you all of that, take you on that journey. And then we go into the partner session. So that's where we teach things like financial literacy, money management, digital skills, corporate and social etiquette skills, how to conduct yourself in a professional environment, mindfulness, breath work to help you deal with anxiety.

Then we also then look at, you know, what you want to do with your life, your cv.

We give you, teach you cover letter writing techniques, prepare you for interviews, create a mock assessment center. So when you do go into the real life interview settings, you know how to, how to navigate. And then at the end of it, you know, you graduate, you have a big elaborate graduation ceremony with a cap and gown, you get to invite all your friends, the big celebration. And then you're inducted into our alumni network. And that's where we then try and help you figure out what your next steps are. So whether that be you want to enter into employment, we have our corporate sponsors and employer partners who already earmark roles for our young people who pass you on to them. Interview prep you land you a job, or if you have a business idea, we have currently a sister company that helps people with their businesses, helps them, you know, make it a viable idea, and then introduces them to investors as well. That's, that's the whole journey and that's what we do. And regardless of where the young person is or what they want to do with their lives, the program really helps them ground themselves, really have a clear understanding of who they are and the direction in which they're headed. And you just help them Shape that create a picture for themselves, and then they go out and live it out.

Amazing. To me, I hear it's the ultimate life incubator. Like, it's an incubator for life. And to get to really grasp life fully and purposefully. It's beautiful. And what's a success story that you're really proud of? Someone that comes. I'm sure there's many.

There's so, so many. So, so many.

Yeah. One that comes to mind because I was actually just with him yesterday. Our jobs and careers fair, and he's doing exceptionally well. I'm so proud of him. The young man that did our program, I think it was 2019, and he was at a stage where he was at a difficult crossroads in his life. He had got in bed with the wrong people, and they're kind of taking advantage of him. And he tells the story quite well because he says he was scrolling on Instagram and he saw his friends on. On this program.

They were getting free food, and he saw that they graduated, and he was up. But David, Grace University. What's this graduation about? And they told him about the program, but he didn't take it seriously. But he's now found himself in this rock, and he decided to sign up for the program, landed his place, earned his place on the program, started doing the program. One of the things that we teach on the program, one of the tools that we use is the videotape. So at the beginning, you kind of introduce yourself as you would five years from now, but you're speaking in present tense. So what you're doing, where you work and where you live in, do you have a family, all of these kind of things. But you also get them to throw in challenges in there. So when those challenges show up in real life, you kind of learn how to. How to navigate it. So he was delivering his videotape, and his phone was blowing up. And it turns out that his cousin.

And.

He didn't want to stop delivering his videotape to go and take the call. So after the videotape, he realized his phone was still blown up, so he asked to be excused. Then he realized what was happening. And in that moment, he had a decision to make, because the people that were calling him were calling him to go out and retaliate to what happened. And he said he came on this program to change. He's got a unique opportunity here to change. And if he goes back to that, then he would have failed and he wouldn't have changed. So he made the very hard decision to stay in the session and stick with the program. Fortunately, his cousin died.

And his friends that were calling to go and retaliate, you know, called him all kinds of names and kind of broken, broke his relationship with them. All he had was us at 2020 change and we went all in. You know, he finished the program, graduated. We wanted to get a job in advertising, got him a job in advertising. Did that for about a year and a half, then realized that, you know, this isn't for me. Wanted to retrain and go into tech sales. We did a number of courses that we helped him to kind of get onto and took him probably about six months post qualifying within tech sales to land his job. And now he started his new job within tech sales in January. We've been doing exceptionally well since. I think he's can't remember what the valuation was in terms of what he was earning in advertising compared to what he's earning in tech sales now. But say he's very, very comfortable with where he is and he's actually lived out his videotape. So one of the things that he said he wanted to do is be able to go back and share his story with young people. And literally a few weeks ago I saw it come up on my Instagram feed. He was teaching a group of young kids in school how to build and how to build their Instagram profiles. Not Instagram, LinkedIn profiles. And this is someone that wasn't on LinkedIn previously, before he did our program. Now he's a LinkedIn wiz, sharing blog posts and getting all kinds of likes and comments. And now he's able to use. Use the knowledge that he has to be able to give back to young people who's living a very comfortable life. And yeah, I'm just so proud of him. And he's just one of hundreds of young people. But his story came to mind because, yeah, I invited him along to talks with me and I was literally, like I said, just with him yesterday, where he brought a few other young people and friends to sign up to the program for the next cohort.

It's incredible. Thank you for sharing that story. I hope you get to meet this amazing young man one day, Certainly introduce us on LinkedIn. I would love to connect with him.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's really special. And probably a couple of questions I've got off the back of that. So one, this is really extensive. It's really well thought out.

It must take a lot of time and finance to fund this. So how does that model work? How do you Keep things moving in the right direction from a financial standpoint.

Yeah, so really interesting. It took a lot to get off the ground because at the time it was kind of like a new, new model. And like I said, my background's creative. So when I came with this whole concept, no one thought it would work, no one thought I was the right person to lead it. Mainly because I wasn't comfortable sharing my story. So I had to self fund it, I had to prove the model.

And the model that I decided to go with was a corporate sponsorship model. I believe that if we found people sitting at the top table working for corporate, they would really get it. And I didn't have any corporate contacts at the time, so my mindset was just to go out there, make as much noise about the impact that we're making as possible and one day someone will pick it up. I didn't know how long that would take. I was ready to commit 10 years. Thankfully it happened in five. So it was a shoestring budget. For the first five years I was working in film and TV, you know, project work. And then I start working for a charity. And then the big break came.

Converse to train a brand. Their GM was on his commute home, picked up the paper and said, I love what you guys are doing, how can I support? And I already had it in the back of my mind that the moment we get a corporate sponsor, these are the list things that I'm going to ask for multi year funding. I'm going to ask for access to office space, I'm going to ask for products, I'm going to ask for warm introductions to their supply chain and their clients so we can replicate the model with them. And yeah, I gave him that whole spill. He sat there for about 30 seconds and said, yeah, let's do it. And that's how I actually met Alistair, because Alistar, you know, yeah, he used to train the team at Nike and Converse. He just done one of these mindful talent sessions with them and they introduced us and yeah, we've been tight ever since. So shortly after we got with Converse in 2018, yeah, they introduced us to Alison. He's been with us ever since, you know. So the model is corporate sponsorship. That's the main model. So 65% of our core costs are covered by our corporate partners. So they fund us, we sign multi year contracts with them, we draw down funds every quarter to pay for our core costs to deliver the program we then have.

We now receive funding from trusts and foundations, grant funding. So that's probably about 15, 20% and then the remainder is revenue that we generate. So we've now got a sustainable model which sees each time we place a young person into employment through one of our employer partners, not corporate sponsors because they pay us and they have access to the talent because of the money that they pay us to take the young person from program. But employer partners pay us a fee, the same fee that they would pay a recruitment agency helping them find talent. So we get funds that way and then we also deliver training, so diversity, equity and inclusion training for corporates as well. So to help them understand how to manage Gen Z, particularly Gen Z that come from an underrepresented ethnic group or low socio economic background, some of the challenges that they face entering into the workplace for the first time. So we deliver that training and that's revenue that we generate as well. So that's, that's the model quite simply, but took a little time. But I feel like we're there now to the point where you build a sustainable model.

Oh, I just think it's mind blowing. You truly are a visionary. And you talked about it, you know, from when you were a youngster and you were involved in crime. You're like, I always had the ability to have a vision and then influence others and motivate them and get them along for the ride. Wow. Well, this vision is monumental. You've clearly been able to get some incredible people behind it and you've got over a thousand people that have went through the program. So to me, proof of concept, well and truly done. Clearly it works incredibly like massively successful for the individuals going through lots for you guys that are taking them through it as well. I mean the feeling good, the sense of joy, fulfillment, contribution must be so significant for everyone.

It really is, it really is.

It's amazing.

And thank you James.

No, hey, thank you for what you're doing. It's amazing. So I'm gonna ask you to consider doing something right now. So we're gonna fast forward five years from now and.

You'Re going to talk in the present tense, going to explain to me and the world and yourself as to what has happened with 2020 change and with your, with your life, where things are at. So it's five years out, where are we at?

So the year is 2028 and I'm sitting here talking to my good friend James, telling him about.

The impact that we've had in the lives of thousands of young people now around the globe. I'm glad to say that, you know, we've established 2020 change in America, in Europe, we're exploring opportunities in Africa. And I'm about to pass the baton on and step down as CEO of 2020 change and pass the baton on to a young person that came through the program, has risen up through the ranks.

And they're going to lead the organization into the next phase of our growth and our development. I'll still be involved, but I'll be taking more of a backseat on the board with the hopes of eventually maybe chairing the board. And yeah, I now have more time to spend with my family. I've got three kids.

All of school going age, and one of my dreams and ambitions was to be able to at least take my kids to school and pick them up at least three days of the week. On those days, I'm only working between the hours of 10 to 2, so I have more time to spend with my family and kind of filter the things that my kids are learning at school.

And yeah, I'm very comfortable, made the right kind of investments and I can live off of those investments. And I spend my time helping people, advising people. I set a number of boards, advisory boards, NED boards.

And that's my life.

Jiro, that is so beautiful. And in five years time, I promise you, it'll be on my calendar right after this. I'm going to make. I'm going to send you this video. I'm going to say, let's have another interview.

Absolutely.

Oh, what a great vision. And I just want to say for the listener that's listening right now, whether you're driving, walking, running, what Giro just did is a powerful, powerful exercise. And that's something I would love to challenge you today as a listener to go and do for yourself and imagine where you might be in five years. And so much can change in five years. But it's about the intentionality. I fully, firmly believe what Giro just said is going to come to fruition. He's very clear on where he wants to go. He's got great people around him. He's passionate, driven, ambitious, going to come together. And I'm sure the listener feels a bit like me right now. I just want to help. I want to see this succeed. Right. I imagine you're going to have a lot of people reach out after this. And I want to help. And as I say, all the links are going to be in the show notes. So that's something I want to explore with you off air and just talk about where I can help support in any way over the next 5, 10, 15, years. But simply incredible what you're doing. And our good friend Alistair will shout out to Alistair again. Alistair Gray. I'm just so glad he did connect us. And I believe you and Alistair are collaborating on something pretty cool. Literally light on that.

Sure. So Alistair, as you know, is a phenomenal human being. He just oozes love and positive energy and he spreads that love wherever he goes, you know, spread that love to me, spread that love to the young people on our program. And he's very well connected, as you know. So he had this vision of creating a retreat for our young people.

I think originally the plan was in Scotland and then one of these contacts reached out from the Mandali experience in southern Italy and they said they just, you know, launched this new retreat center and they're looking for charity partners like, well, you guys need to speak to Jura 2020 change. And we thought it was going to be kind of like a long process. We had one zoom call with the and they said, look, we love what you guys are doing, we love to invite you and a group of your young people out to the site to host a retreat. So we jumped at the opportunity we've been planning. I think by the time this comes out we would have announced it. So we're going to be taking 15 of our young people from inner city London into the over to the over to southern Italy for the Mandali experience so they can have four days at a wellness retreat center with Alistair and his team taking them through mindfulness and well being and we're going to document the whole thing, you know, so that's what I was talking about in terms of getting back into film. So we're going to select the young people, give me a competition for them to apply to go on this journey with us and then we're going to interview them before they go just to understand where they are and what they're hoping gained from the experience. We're going to take a crew, film crew out there with us that's going to document their whole journey and their experience there. Alice the sessions of our young people are absolutely incredible. You have people, you know, unpacking some of their, some of their trauma, people crying, people laughing. So I can only imagine what that experience is going to end his sessions like two and a half hours, right? Imagine four days of that. So I'm really, really looking forward to that, being on that journey and experiencing that with the young people. But then when they come back into London, we're then also going to continue kind of checking in with Them seeing how they're doing, how they're re engaging back with society with the hope that once we've got that documented one, it's going to highlight the work that we do and the impact that we make. But then also it's something tangible that we could potentially turn into something meaningful that can go on to streaming platform so that can form kind of like a pilot of a documentary series. And the team over at Mandali has said that, yeah, the, the site is open to us once a year, so it's going to be a regular thing that we're going to be doing. So yeah, it's just an amazing. It's going to be one. They're going to be amazing experience for our young people. But then the ability that we're able to capture that moment and share that with the world is also going to be phenomenal as well.

Oh, I'm so excited. That's phenomenal. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like to be a part of it. And I will be watching on Netflix one day and go, I know that guy.

Absolutely, Absolutely. I can't wait.

Oh, that's so special.

Yeah.

Well, I just, I want to be respectful of your time and I want to ask one last question and I'd like us together just to travel with way into the future and many, many years. It's your very last day here on Earth and you're aware that it's your last day here on Earth. You know it. Now, somebody very young in your life that you care for and love, they come up to you and they say, jiro, I want to know how to lead my life on purpose. What would you have to say to them?

I'd say you have to dig deep.

To find out who you are.

And find out who you are, discover what your purpose is. And regardless of how big or how scary or how daunting that might be, just step into it. You know, take each day one step at a time. You know, the vision that you have for your life and the purpose that you discover is going to be big. And it's supposed to be, you know, as you step, don't allow that vision to overwhelm you. Don't allow that purpose to overwhelm. Just step into it and see it as a scroll. The more you step, the more is revealed, the more it will start to make sense. And the more the people, the resources and the conversations and the connections that you need to fulfill that purpose, the more that they will be attracted and drawn to you because you're living and stepping in purpose. So by default in doing that, everything that you need and require comes to you because you're living out your purpose. So, yeah, you have to have tunnel vision. This is my purpose. This is where I'm headed. I'm going to do whatever it takes in order for me to get there. And once you have that mindset and it's there, everything that you need will come to you. That's what I found.

I didn't have the full blueprint. I had the envision. I had the end goal. I didn't know what the road or the route was going to be. And the more I stepped, the more it started to make sense. Sometimes I step and there wouldn't be anything there. Like, there's no platform for me to step onto by the time I take my first step. But by the time my foot lands on the ground, platform appears. So, yeah. Believe in me, believe in your vision, believe in your purpose, and it will all work out. It's incredible.

You know, that's just beautiful. And I know that there's a listener listening right now who needed to hear that. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for making space.

Thank you, James.

And I'm so excited to support you in any way that I can. And listeners, please get off your phones or stay on your phones and hit that link and go and follow Jiro, follow 2020 change. We'll put all the links in there because this is a journey we all want to contribute to and be a part of. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, James. Thank you, listeners. Looking forward to connecting with you all.

Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button. And I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders, it's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.