Live Event: Zulum Elumogo, Managing Director @ TC & Friends

Welcome back to The Graduate Guide. This episode is being recorded, so I have to say something for the camera. Um, usually I introduce a guest in a couple words, but I guess Zulum has done so many things, so I just leave it to you. Can you say in like 3 sentences what you roughly do?

Oh wow, okay. Um, so hi everyone, my name is Zulum Olumogo. Uh, I'm the managing director of an international design agency called TC and Friends. So we do visual communication, branding, graphic design. I'm also on the board of directors at the Barbican Centre, Europe's largest multi-arts venue, and vice chair of the Fair Education Alliance. But to summarize it all, I'm a leader who wants to serve others and help them to achieve their potential in creative and interesting ways.

Yeah, great. So I actually met Zulum in 2019 when I was a student at LSE, like first-year student. And Zulumuzhansak, like, of the SU at the time.

So, fancy word for president.

Yeah, yeah, so president of the student union at the time. And yeah, I would love to know, I think you were a person at university that a lot of people admire, that was very outspoken. So can you tell us, how do you look back at yourself? Who were you at university? What did you think you were going to do career-wise?

Wow, yeah, thank you for the kind words firstly and for setting that up. Um, so I'll start with my, um, high school career, I guess. I'm from a small city called Norwich in the east of England. Does anyone know Norwich? You're from Norwich? Which school did you go to? Okay, great. So I went to Norwich School and then Windham College. So you know those places. Usually no one knows where Norwich is, so Google it for those of you who don't know. Um, and yeah, I grew up there, um, from a Nigerian family, uh, and always wanted to be in an international diverse and dynamic space. I always loved the social sciences. I did Spanish, history, and politics at A-level. Before going to university, I did a gap year in Argentina serving with the church out there, which I loved, and got fluent in Spanish whilst I was out there. But an important part of my story is that I was actually rejected from the LSE the first time I applied, so I didn't get in first attempt. But you know, first you fail, try and try again. Second attempt with those, um, unconditional offer with confirmed grades, I managed to get it. Um, so persistence is very, very important. And I always wanted to come to London because my very first love, if we take it even back before my sixth form, is dance and choreography. That's something I discovered age 14, entered into a high school competition with my best friend. We won, literally my love for the expression through dance has only grown from there. So I wanted to be in London because I could grow myself both artistically and creatively as well as intellectually and academically. One amazing thing about this city is just how varied it is in terms of its cultural diet, but also the amazing people you meet and incredible career opportunities it provides. So I was able to kind of have the best of both worlds by coming to the LSE. And I think when it came to my leadership career at the institution, because I didn't get in first time, I was so hungry to just make the most of the opportunities. Like, I don't know if you've ever had a near-death experience or something, but yeah, you live life differently when you kind of resurrect and you can navigate. You're like, wow, my gosh, this is— life's amazing, I need to really make the most of it. A bit dramatic, but you know, I am a dramatic person. Um, uh, so yeah, it was— it was— I felt like it was such a privilege. I didn't feel entitled to the position. I sort of got in there and said, wow, this is a huge opportunity. Also, having the year to kind of think about it in my gap year, I was able to plan. So I looked at all the student societies, I actually got to understand the institution well, so from day one could hit the ground running. So I was president of my halls of residence within the first few weeks, which I loved. Tiny halls not too far from here, um, called Carl Saunders, uh, just off Tottenham Court Road, which was the smallest halls but super intimate, and we had a lovely common room budget so we could spend money on fun things like open bars, cinema trips, going to the theatre and all that stuff. And this is stuff that really bonds people together. And even for there, at that stage, I was able to get a taste for community building, actually what it means to bring people together. And at that stage as well, first year is so consequential to one's not just university career but life. I mean, I actually have some friends from my halls that just got engaged in the last few months, which is incredible. And they met in halls, just 120 of us. So it's an amazing space. I always took the approach of, wow, if I'm— if I design this event, people could meet potentially, you know, friends for life, business partners that they create with, and maybe even spouses and lovers, which is an amazing thing. So I always had that appetite and perspective. So president of my halls of residence, vice president of my African Caribbean societies. Anyone in the African Caribbean society here? Yeah, yeah, you're on committee. Yeah, good, good. Love that, it's good. Um, so I had an amazing time there, and then crucially, it was a student trustee at the LSE Student Union from, uh, this my second year. So when I say now I'm on the board of the Barbican, age 27, my career in governance starts when I was 19. So I've been, you know, I'm young but I'm not new to this. I've been around And I want to shout out to student unions in particular for granting serious professional opportunities to young people at that stage, because it's stuff you can put on your CV. I was a director of a multi-million pound organization in my students' union at such a young age, and it's only student unions that can do that for young people. So if you're in that stage right now, please do make the most of the opportunities there, because it all matters. You can leverage that for future opportunities. When I joined the board of the Barbican, uh, aged 24 in 2020, I already had 4 years experience of governance, so I wasn't seen as a newbie. I was kind of— I had a blend of both youth by experience and of course diversity as well, which is a huge thing that a lot of governance boards lack. And then of course, ran to be president of the student union in my final year, which was a lot of fun. The last thing I'll say about that is I think— did you come to one of the welcome talks? Is that where you— yeah, okay. So at the start of my welcome talks, I always used to play my campaign video. Which may be a weird thing to do because I already won the election, right? But I, I rap and dance in my campaign video. And as I said, I'm a creative person. You can Google it, but if you look, Google my name and just type in, uh, it's GenSec Living is the name. Um, I use my creativity to kind of share my message. I think a lot of student politicians or leaders, uh, quite dry with their delivery and message. And I thought, look, I need to earn people's time here. They don't need to listen to me, they don't need to care, they need to vote. I want them to. So how can I engage them? And at that time, there's no TikTok, it was Facebook. So I said, okay, I'm gonna have a quick 2-minute video. When people scroll, they're gonna— it's gonna capture their attention. And it worked. Yeah. 2 landslide victories. Thank God.

Amazing. I think that's such a good lesson. And also like standing outside from the crowd, like not just being part of the status quo and like feeling like you can be unique and being different is a good thing. Like having a campaign that no one's ever seen before involving dancing.

Absolutely.

No one has ever done that.

No, I wanted to stick out, be memorable. Yeah.

And I think it's such an, like a crucial part of what you did is like going to university and immediately joining the student union. So like, what gave you the confidence to think you can manage that budget, you can create communities, and that you were able to do that job? I think that's what a lot of people in the room struggle with, that fear of like, am I good enough? Yeah, do I have those skills?

Yes. Uh, I wasn't— I wasn't good enough. I just, I just loved that. I just enjoyed it. Um, and said I can learn on the job. And I think I was always honest about my abilities, not because I did have qualities. But in terms of the budget management and events management, we're all learning together on the committee at the time. So I was president, but you had a whole committee like vice president, events officers. So we're all in it together. So it wasn't like, uh, there was huge expectations. I think I just had a vision, I cared, I applied myself, and then we worked out as we went. But yeah, regarding imposter syndrome, I would say just, just get stuck in. Everyone's in the same boat. I remember you know, the really awkward icebreakers in first year when everyone's like, oh, you know, I'm not going to make friends. It's like everyone's in the same boat. Everyone has just come here with hopes and dreams, trying to make it work. If you can kind of be the one to say, hey, you know, I'm excited to be here. I'm also nervous. Let's figure this thing out together. I think you'll be fine.

And like, I'm very curious about what your perception was of being president of LSU. And do you think— I think a lot of us perceive universities as kind of very hard to work with, like they're very bureaucratic and it's difficult to change things.

Yes.

And obviously you were there for 2 years.

Yeah.

Do you think, like, as someone who is a bit skeptical of is it worth it working with the SU, what, what did you change? What can you change in a year or two?

Yeah.

What did your everyday work life look like?

Wow. So firstly, I mean, the privilege of being the main representative of 12,000 of the best students in the world, if you ask me, coming from LSE was just an amazing privilege. And often I was thinking, how do I serve leaders? How do I lead leaders? And it's through service. So I never sought to kind of direct or rule with an iron fist. That would backfire, you know. A lot— most of these students are better than me, or whatever it is, um, that they were pursuing. And I really sought to ensure that the the sum was greater than its equal parts, that we could create strong structures that could— there were a lot of structural deficiencies in the student union in particular that I just solved. I was striving to fix. And we used to be in a shared staffing arrangement with the University of the Arts, which evolved out of the financial crisis in the late '00s. I ended that. Um, I got our communications up. I started a number of student funds that students could just apply to and get money to pursue different extracurricular activities. Um, watch the campaign video, I talk about it there.

Still promoting it.

It's historical record.

Yeah, nice. And back on like how it was for you to, to work with the student union in the 2 years, I think COVID also came around.

Yes. Yeah, like, well, actually, you know, so I, uh, COVID happened just at the end of my time. So COVID happened March 2020, I left office July 2020. So thankfully.

And so the transition from having been at LSE for 5 years, right, 3 years of study, 2 years of GenSec, and then sort of being thrown out in the real world, I must say. And what— I mean, obviously you were already a leader at that stage, and I think getting, you know, a normal graduate program maybe didn't sound as attractive to you. So how did you develop your career going from that point?

Yeah, excellent point. So one thing university life taught me me is that, uh, network is everything. I'm sure you guys have heard your network is your net worth, and that is absolutely true. Every single opportunity I've had since university has come through a connection, has come through meeting someone that believed in me, that introduced me to someone that provided me an opportunity. That has been— I've not like sent a CV out for a very long time, and I, I believe that can be true for us all. Firstly, I've always, um, sought out opportunities that were organic. To who I am and how, um, I see the world, you know, organizations that share my values. And perhaps there's some privilege in that, actually, when I think about it. And, you know, I kind of had the capacity and space to think about it, and the patience as well. For example, I left LSE in July, started July 2020, and I started my next job in PR in November. So I was able to kind of have that. It was the pandemic as well. I was living at home in Norwich with my family, so, um, there was that space. Sorry, remind me of your question.

No, no, don't worry. It's just how— what kind of happened after you left that?

Yeah, yeah.

Opportunities that you get into.

Yeah, so joined the board of The Barbican in July 2020. That came about again through a network, uh, through my network, through an amazing connection. Essentially, I did an event for Black tech professionals, not too dissimilar to this, a mixer. Um, in April 2019, and the only Black board member at the Barbican just happened to attend. He was working in tech, he's a tech entrepreneur himself. Um, I danced at that event, so gave a speech and also did a piece of choreography, and he was like, uh, let's go for dinner, let's chat. I was like, sure, there's an interesting man. And he just took me under his wing and said, yeah, you should be, you know, on this board. And I said, yeah, it'd be amazing to serve in this way. And from there I was serving on the board, so attending meetings and so on. It was all on Zoom as well at the time, so I could, you know, really do a lot with little. I didn't have to travel around. That was one sort of hidden benefit, I think, during the pandemic, for me at least. And I met an amazing woman who worked in the built environment, and her husband was a director at this PR company I ended up working for. And yeah, he basically plugged me CEO who gave me an offer to become his special advisor in November 2020.

Amazing.

I think it's— for everyone in this room, I'm sure they'd love to know a bit more detail around that first event, because that sounds like that was the— whatever happened before that event and your thinking behind hosting that event then opened that door that led to the Barbican, that land, that space. I'd love to kind of go into a bit more detail about—

so the main thing is just stay curious. I've always been curious. I've always leaned into opportunities, and when I meet interesting people, I always follow up, whether it's a LinkedIn DM, whether it's an email, just ask for a coffee. People are a lot nicer than you think. You never know where it could lead. So I never went into these, um, opportunities with a kind of strategic aim. I didn't say they need to give me something, but I would say, look, I'm here right now, is there something you can do? And people are just like, yeah, I think you'd be great at this, and then just see where it goes. That's how it's been for me.

And I'm also really curious to know, obviously you're a dancer and you've been since you were 14 and you're really into the creative field. And then also you're quite into activism, or at least you were at LSE. So going into the professional space, like how did you maintain to kind of integrate these elements into your careers?

Yeah.

And I think you have a very special role at my department. I'm at UCL now and you have— you're a director, like a dancer in residence.

Dancer in residence.

So can you explain like what are all these titles? What do you do as that?

And—

Titles are so funny. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

People just sort of choose them and then you read a lot into it. Uh, again, I've always taken the approach of I, I am me. I, I kind of clear what I love and what I'm about, which is creativity, public service, um, leadership, communications, these sorts of things. And I think I'd maybe— if I have a sixth sense— is to spot out where I can maximize that, where I can add value in organizations that are open to that sort of input. So yeah, with the dancer-in-residence thing, that was really interesting. So I met the director at the Institute for Global Prosperity, which is a research center at UCL. She was on the Barbican board as well, and she literally, after an away day we had on Zoom in October 2020, just sent me an email. Super proactive entrepreneurial woman, and which is quite unusual for an academic. Incredible. Um, Dame Henrietta Moore is her name. Uh, she just invited me to become your dancer-in-residence. I've not been to a class though. No, I haven't seen you at a class yet. There's one coming in September, so Make sure you're there.

Yeah, no, good. Um, yeah, and I think for everyone, I mean, you're so many board members as well, so I think, can you explain a little bit what does a board member do? Yes, and what are your responsibilities?

Absolutely. So, uh, any well-run organization will have a tier of administrators and managers and a tier of governors, and that's to ensure that power is effectively shared and, um stewarded effectively in an organization. Now, the governors are typically focused on the long-term health and prosperity of an organization. So you know about school governors, for example, in high schools, multi-academy trusts, charities will all have trustees, for example. Um, and good governance is effectively having people— usually it's voluntary, sometimes they're paid. The ones I've done are all voluntary. Usually you have a demographic demographic of people that I would say reflects the target audience for an organization. So for example, the Barbican Centre, where you're a large multi-arts venue, a civic center in East London, it's very important that you kind of represent the area you're trying to engage with on the board as well. So it's important you have, you know, young people of color but also older folk who are maybe in more traditional industries familiar with the city, like banking and finance, the law. And so on. Um, and yeah, our aim is to, I guess, scrutinize and support management in the delivery of the strategic aims of the organization through the finances— very important for the organization— um, and to ensure the organization is in, is in good health, because it's, it's not, not easy, especially for the Barbican being an organization so large. So it's a dynamic model of leadership and public service.

Um, and going into I guess you had such a role of authority at LSE and then jumping into Freud. Yeah, yeah, right.

Yeah, um, PR agency.

I work PR agency. Like, how did you find that transition and how do you find your experience at Freud before you obviously went on to do work?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, uh, it was very humbling. I think, um, if you've been, I guess, at the proverbial mountaintop, um, because, uh, let's say I didn't have a boss. I was elected by the people, so I guess the people were my boss. But that's not— it's not like you have a line manager breathing down your neck every day. Um, it was a necessary adjustment. It was— I still had some agency, but of course I was working in a private enterprise. Um, I think my time before is very much like being in the trenches, uh, just learning how to do the craft of PR. So doing press releases, doing client management, doing sell-ins, which is when you want to essentially plan a story in a publication or a paper. Um, so very, very formative and important, and I love my time there. I did a wide breadth of things. I worked on the launch of Lewis Hamilton's, uh, commission into diversity in motorsport. I worked on the Premier League's 30th anniversary campaign, which is in August 2022, which was great. And I did a lot of media training as well for various clients from the worlds media, sport, politics, which was fascinating. Um, so, you know, so, you know, when you see young politicians now on Question Time, that was me. I fed them those lines. Yeah. Um, so I learned a lot. And but ultimately, I wanted to build my own thing. And, uh, to link on to TC and Friends, what I'm doing now— Tony Chambers, who's the founder and creative director of my agency, is also on the board of the Barbican Centre. So we'd been friends for 2 and a half years prior to him offering me a full-time job, full-time opportunity. And he was like a mentor and friend, and that relationship has now grown into, into business, which I think is the most organic and beautiful thing.

How did you— when did you, like, describe the moment— I should say, describe the moment when you felt most out of your comfort zone when you took that transition before you went into doing what you do now?

So at Freud, at the PR agency, where—

when I felt most uncomfortable? Yeah. Every day, most days. Um, ah man, okay, so I think I struggle with the fact that I had quite a unique role. They plugged me in as special advisor to the chief executive, but that was never really substantiated. It sounds fancy. Again, titles, be careful of titles there. So it's the thing. Um, but yeah, I just was there to learn, and I didn't think I was special. They told me I was special, and I just, I was just trying to learn. I came in with a unique experience. And a particular perspective and definitely strategic approach, I think, to my role rather than maybe a tactical one. I wanted to learn the craft. I really wanted to cut my teeth in storytelling. PR is so powerful. I mean, this is, this is great PR. This is what it's all about. It's all about sharing narratives and shaping perceptions. So yeah, it was— I think it was difficult walking into a company that has such a storied legacy and has such a set way of doing things, yet being quite innovative, perhaps disruptive force in that space, especially when it wasn't— I didn't feel like much was done to kind of prepare the company for me and what it could have been. But hey, I stuck it out. And I just want to say one thing, I know most people are Gen Z in the room here, guys, don't quit when it gets hard. Stick with it, stick with it. I wanted to do at least 2 years because not just because it looks good on the CV, but that does matter as well, but also you want to kind of see a full cycle of activity. And of course there were really hard moments, but I was able to get through them. And I had guidance and I had mentors inside. So, you know, stick with it. I know, I know a lot of people— there's lots of criticisms about our generation. I'm just about Gen Z, 1996, um, so I can say this, uh, but I think on, on the resilience point, on like sticking with it when times get hard, super important because nothing's perfect initially. You have to work it out, you have to, um, stick with it and see what happens.

And now that you've done like all these impressive things, how do you sort of look back at yourself at university? I mean, probably you've always been quite confident and going into leadership positions, and I think that's unusual already. But still looking back, how do you feel you've sort of changed, or what would you tell your younger self, um, going back?

Wow, I'm very bad at reflecting, so you're making me reflect right now. Uh, honestly, I think I'm proud of myself. I've never let fear stop me from doing anything I wanted to do. I remember the first public speech I gave as a candidate. It was terrible. It was snowing. I don't know if you remember this. This is March 2018. There was a crazy beast from the east, they called this snowstorm. It was so bad that they called off the other hustlings. But I was terrible. And I couldn't even watch back my tape. I just knew I was stuttering and all this. And I thought I kind of blew it. But maybe because the rap video was good and people were inside because it was snowing, I still got the message across somehow. So yeah, I'm just— I'm, I'm pleased with myself that I stuck with it and I cared. So hopefully even if my delivery wasn't super polished at that point, people could still feel the essence of my soul and what I wanted to share with them at that time. And yeah, we, we achieved a lot together, and I've always seen leadership as a means to serve others fundamentally. So, um, when I look back at what I've achieved, I very much see it as a facilitative thing. I see it as me bringing others in to like fully realize a moment and an opportunity.

Can you talk more about like what leadership means to you and how you look at leadership? Because I guess a lot of us, you know, are going to enter jobs where after 2 years having some sort of managerial role, or they lead us at universities, and then, or they have leaders that they look upon in a certain way.

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

What do you think is good leadership? What makes that in a professional setting especially.

Yeah, for sure. I really do believe leadership is about service and bringing the best out of others and yourself in an environment. I think we are all called to be leaders in different ways, shapes, or forms. Um, I guess you do have more public-facing leaders that will be addressing rooms and galvanizing people, and those are the guys that often— and women that often get the headlines. But I think the most effective leadership is— can often be just the supportive arm on the shoulder. It can be 'Are you okay?' I'll never forget this. On the campaign trail, when I was going for my second term, I was really going through it. I thought I might lose, and it was very, very stressful. There were so many kind people that just got around me that just said, 'It's going to be okay. We appreciate you,' and really rallied for me to win. Without them, I wouldn't have got there. That is a form of leadership. That's supportive leadership. You understand what I'm saying? So everyone absolutely has their role. And even though maybe I was the name on the ballot, I had an incredible team. That really, um, got me across the line. So wherever you are, I think you can lead, whether it's your small team, whether it's, um, a large team, whether it's your peers. There's always ways in which you can serve others. And the beautiful thing about service is that you often get more back in return, even if you don't set out for it initially.

Nice. Good. I think before we give it Q&A to the audience, we ask every guest that comes on the podcast the same question. Um, and that is, what does success mean to you? Especially reflecting back on when you started university, how has it maybe changed? What did you envision, like, success to be, or successful career, and what is it now?

Wow, what is success? Yeah, you didn't tell me these, these questions earlier. No, it's good. Off the top, I did actually. I know this one. Success. Um, man, it's Sounds so cliché. Success is like love and contentness. I love my family, I love God, I love Jesus. I love the fact that, um, I mean, I'm about to go to my cousin's wedding in the summer. That to me is like success. Maybe the fact I can afford to do that is success. Um, I really don't see success as like being a FTSE 100 CEO, although that's an amazing thing, and maybe someone's calling But for me, it's like flourishing and fulfillment. I feel like every day I have purpose and I'm alive and I can support the things I want to do and support others in the process as well. So that's not too vague, but—

No, that's really nice. It's nice to hear everyone say that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great.

All right.

I mean it.

Good. Thank you so much. Well, we're going to leave it here for our questions, but if anyone in the audience wants to ask anything—