Podcast Episode 15: Resilience, Growth & Leadership in iGaming with Georgia Parry

Leo Judkins: Hey, everybody. Today I'm joined by Georgia Parry, who's director of Key Accounts at Blueprint. I'm so excited to talk to you today because you've got such a remarkable career in just seven years. You know, you've gone from office administrator to director.

[00:02:00] Super impressive. And people see that success, of course, but you've gone through, like, as we spoke about before, you've gone through so many challenges as a single parent, you've faced health scares. We're going to talk about all of that. But,  first of all, I just want to say thank you for joining me on the iGaming Leader.

Georgia Parry: Thanks for having me, honoured to be here and yeah, excited to talk to you. Hopefully I can give some interesting stories for people. I am 

Leo Judkins: Let's just start there actually about that amazing journey. I often think that people see that from the outside, you know, they see a big title and they see you're in your position now. 

But first, can you just tell us a little bit about what your role is today and what you do at Blueprint?

Georgia Parry: Yeah, sure.  so my role today is Director of Key Accounts. UK is officially my title. so my main responsibilities is I'm lucky enough to manage a team of four account managers. Our main focus is predominantly the UK just because Blueprint is so big in that market and that's the majority of where we get our revenue, where we focus and where our content does well.

[00:03:00] But naturally it operates in the UK have international business. So, yeah, we kind of look after the key kind of UK sports books, casinos, the bigger groups like the Entain and the flutter and, evoke and things like that. And so everybody has UK business, but also international. and then with that falls in the lines of MGM.

So we have, Ontario business and we're kind of responsible for the relationship between Blueprint and our operators, kind of working alongside operators to align strategy, to make sure Blueprint are doing all we can to be the best in the market, that we're keeping up with the times that our commercials are in the right place.

Yeah, just kind of overarching face of the business really. And keeping kind of moving forward as much as possible.

Leo Judkins: Love it. Hey, let's start at the beginning. You, uh, you told me that you had a, I think a science teacher, right? That told you that you talk yourself into a career. That sounds like a really good story. So can you tell me a little bit more about that, about that prediction and how that works out for you?

Georgia Parry: [00:04:00] Yeah, absolutely. So at school, I was, a big talker, so to say, and I was my feedback in all parents, evenings and reports more secondary school than primary, was,  Georgia's great, very capable, but very easily distracted, spends a lot of the time talking to her friends, laughing, So often my parents, my parents were like, are still very, involved and really wanted me to do well at school. You know, trying really hard to get me to do more at school.

And I would sit and cry in the summer holidays because my dad would be doing maths paperwork with me. It's a story we still talk about now. It was my poor dad really would just spend hours and hours trying to improve my maths because I would just have not concentrated in class and things like that.

And I managed to get, you know, perfectly fine GCSEs, kind of did the bare minim I'm not proud to say, just to get by, you know, school just wasn't, I like the social side of school, I

Georgia Parry: [00:05:00] there for the work aspect, I was not naturally academic and enjoyed that part of it, and one of our science teachers I had a really, like, just a bit of an affinity with, I really enjoyed. I enjoyed him as a teacher.

I thought it was very engaging, very fun, kept lessons, kind of interesting.

Parents evening one day, my mum and dad kind of said to him, we're just so worried, you know, George is so capable, she just talks a lot and she's, she's not giving it a role. She's, we know she could be better than she is.

She's just doing, you know, the bare minimum to get by, but she's not giving it everything. And he laughed and said, you know, Don't worry, will, will get a good job, but she'll talk her way into it. She'll, she'll be fine. She'll just, she'll just do it with her personality. And my mum was like, Oh God, okay.

Am I just supposed to rely on that for, you know, forever? And she still talks about it now. And they didn't tell me massively at the time. They kind of only told me when I was an adult So yeah, one of those stories that ended up probably being a bit true, really.

Leo Judkins: [00:06:00] as a director there, can you tell us a little bit more about maybe your proudest moment in that journey?

I'd love to hear what that looked like. Can you take me back there?

Georgia Parry: I'd say my proudest moment is honestly being asked to move out of the office admin role and would I consider moving into an account management coordinator role like a support role. And I'd only been in the job six months and remember being Feeling really super excited and proud of myself. And, you know, like it was just such early days and I never envisaged that place, this business would ever be more than just a stopgap and an admin job.

I remember ringing my mom and I was just so excited at the prospect of what could be in the future that I would ever be considered to be in the commercial team. And yeah, I'd say that was probably. the pivotal moment obviously where it became a job to a career. 

so yeah, I'd say that, that is probably my proudest, my proudest moment and that I was considered in that aspect early doors.

Leo Judkins So how did that go? What did that look like? You saw it as a temporary place to be and you applied for something? And what did that look like? What did they look like? Yeah.

Georgia Parry:[00:07:00] it was, it was, yeah, six months into my role and my, my manager at the time who was,  Sophie Pope, our FD, she, she kind of pulled me into the meeting room and said, you know, things are going really well, you're obviously enjoying your job. Would you consider doing anything else with the business?

I think Matt had spoken to her and Jo had spoken to her and said, that we're kind of expanding the commercial team. Perhaps I could do a role in a support role, and help out with the account managers and the, the people facing part of the business. And, I was like, absolutely.

Yes. Like it was like, no hesitation. I'd love to that would, that sounds amazing. And she was like, Oh, fantastic. Great. And, and that was it really. And it kind of just, it went from there. I started as account management coordinator about a month later once they replaced me in, in the admin role. So yeah.

Leo Judkins: [00:08:00] and then in 2022, you, it's all shine, right? That when we see it from the outside, we see really good progress. But I know in 2022, you went through separation. 

That must've been so, so difficult. So, and then in 2023, you had a big health scare.

 Tell me a little bit more about those two events and how you dealt with all of that.

Georgia Parry: Yeah, so I did go through a separation from a long term partner, Henry's dad, and I've been very lucky. It was a very, very amicable separation. We get on really well still today. Henry's obviously our biggest focus. but the reality of separating from somebody means that you do have a lot going on.

You know, I had to our family home eventually, and I bought myself a house, that became very stressful, as you know, with legals, you know, just the side of everything was a lot, Not wanting to spend time away from Henry, obviously, nobody really wants to do that as a, as a parent , but it's important that both his parents see him.

[00:09:00] So we chose to split the time 50 50. So that was a really, really difficult adjustment for me. I found it very hard, spending half my time away from him, especially

And yeah, just kind of doing that alongside. It was actually just after COVID. So just a stressful time for everybody. Their own problems and their own stresses and I'm, I'm, you know, I'm not the only one. So, navigated it at the time I found work became my focus, really like my constant, kind of always there for me to focus on to concentrate on working and progressing at Blueprint. gave me a better life, gave me things I could give to Henry, gave me, you know, the ability to buy my own home to, do things with Henry without, his dad who I was always a bit more reliant on financially. 

So concentrating on my career really, gave me that stability when everything else was very unstable, I'm, I'm very grateful and work were very supportive at the time. think it kind of helped a little bit that people working from home a lot then so I could be at home a bit more and get my life together a bit whilst also working. So, it seems like a lifetime ago now, even though it wasn't probably, you know, all that long ago.

[00:10:00] But, yeah, that that was kind of a moment for me, really. And, I was actually quite proud of in a way, of how, how it was handled and, I think work was really a lot to, a lot to thank for that in the process too. 

Leo Judkins: of that because that is such a whirlwind right it's not just it's not just the separation it's the moving it's like you said all of a sudden 50 percent of your time you're you're no longer seeing your son are you spending all that time with normally especially coming out of lockdown and imagine where you're on top of each other even more than we would normally be right 

Georgia Parry: yeah, absolutely, yeah. 

Leo Judkins: quite extreme 

Georgia Parry: it was and it was it was difficult. I did, you know, spend some weekends crying as he left to go

[00:11:00] I always I'm a true believer in trying to look at things in a positive light where you can, there's always caveats to that, of course, but a lot of situations, I do think you can always try and look at the lighter side of it or look at what it can give you rather than what is taken away. And it has allowed me to comfortably go Progress in my career without having mum guilt because if I'm not with Henry anyway well travel for work or spend a working in the evening or you know networking Whereas I think if I'd have been at home with Henry all the time I would have probably talked myself out of doing some of those things because

He's with his dad and I couldn't see him. Anyway, it's kind of given me that Freedom, I'd say to 

Leo Judkins Yeah. Almost permission. Yeah.

Georgia Parry permission to do, to do things and without guilt because be with him anyway, so I may as well go and go to Leeds and see people or go to London and do a dinner with clients or maybe travel to Gibraltar for three nights instead of two, you know, kind of just expanding what I would have probably allowed myself before.

[00:12:00] A little bit progress, you know, in this job which, which needs somebody to be able to travel. So, flip side of, of the separation and spending time away from Henry is, is that. And, of course, if somebody said to me, Would you rather be with Henry? The answer is, of course, I would.

I try and look at it differently. In a positive, which is, use that time effectively to progress myself to be a better mom to show Henry that I can be successful and that, there's a world out there and there's jobs out there that will let you travel the world and, it's all out there for everybody if they if they want to get it.

Leo Judkins: so difficult to then kind of see the end results, right? The outcome, how do you juggle all these things?

And you've overcome those challenges. You've navigated through it. You've come out better mom, better business person. but then you had a, you had a health scare in 2023.

Georgia Parry [00:13:00] it's a, a woe is me or a sob story. It's not, it's just, what happened to me could happen to everybody really. And so, basically on and off I was done well with what I thought was a chest infection. For about 12 months, I'd visited the doctors multiple times, just very short of breath, coughing regularly, pains in my chest when I was taking deep breaths, things like that. Nothing that you would be overly worried about, which I think is why I'm trying to share some exposure on it, because it wasn't anything you'd have rushed to the hospital for, or rushed to the doctors for even, you'd probably have thought it's a viral infection, I'm just going to ride it out. And  we actually took some customers to the rugby, And I got really sick at the rugby. I was in like really painful in my chest and things like that and When I got scanned the hospital a week later They did an x ray all was clear and so I had had regular checks and nothing could really be seen and then about 12 months later I started to get pain in my calf it was it was really quite like and couldn't walk very well.

[00:14:00] It was, it was a slightly different color to the other one. It seemed quite swollen. The chest pains and everything remained. They were on and off and they were back. I decided to go to the doctor's. I said to my partner, I think my legs so painful. I'd really like somebody to take a look. And they suggested I went to A& E just to rule out a blood clot in my leg, which you just tell yourself, of course, that's absolutely not what that is.

and ended up being that I did have a blood clot in my leg and the hospital said, what we're trying to do is avoid that traveling to your lungs.

Which is called a pulmonary embolism, where the blood clots travel, you know, to your lungs and it's extremely life threatening. And so, they were saying, what we really need to do is stop that happening. We need to put you on some anticoagulants, blood thinners. And so they sent me away, sent me home with blood thinners.

But I did say at the time, what are the symptoms of pulmonary embolism? It going into your chest, they explain the symptoms all sounded very similar to what I've been experiencing months, which I told them, but they said, Don't worry, the treatment would be the same. Just go home. Take your blood thinners. We'll see you in a [00:15:00] week. And they rang me the next day, actually, and said a consultant had reviewed my results and they needed me back. ASAP, they said you need to come to the hospital right now, we need to scan you. And I was actually at the park with my son, like, ugh, it's a bit inconvenient. So off I went back to the hospital, had a CT scan, that confirmed, unfortunately, I had suffered pulmonary embolism. And,

multiple blood clots on both of my lungs and they traveled and because they'd been there for so long It caused my heart to fail on the right hand side and that is a sign That you've had them for quite some time, so they're very confident.

I lived with this for probably 10 months to 12 months

if you ever Google life expectancy of somebody who has pulmonary embolism for that long, it's not very positive So I was extremely, extremely lucky that I, fortunately managed to Live with that for so long without any repercussions. I mean, I recovered fine. I stayed on the anticoagulants. I've got to be on them for the rest of my life because they don't really know why it happened to me. All the doctors were perplexed because I'm not overweight. I don't smoke.

[00:16:00] I don't really heavily drink, you know, like I'm not a big, big drinker. Socially, I drink,  it's not really in my family. Like everything that you list that would be a reason. I'm no to all of it.

it's just super important that everybody understands the Symptoms which are like pain in your leg, pain in your chest shortness of breath Any of those things, Just please be aware and just know that it could happen to you and if you're ever unsure, please just get an opinion because it can definitely save your life. 

Leo Judkins: Wow. That's so heavy. So, so I'd love to hear just from your, while you were in that, right? While you were experiencing those pains. And for people that may be now experiencing the same thing, what were some of the things that were going through your head before you even know that anything was going on?

Georgia Parry: Yeah, I just thought it was a chest infection. I've been on times with antibiotics. Then I was told it was viral. 

[00:17:00] it didn't stop me doing anything. It was just something you'd notice. It wasn't there. scary. It wasn't anything I would have been worried about at the time. It was just very much like, oh gosh, the chest infections back. still able to do my day to day life, go to work, look after Henry. was to me, it was quite, yeah, you noticeable, but not life changing symptoms or anything. so yeah. 

And obviously in this industry, travel is huge and international travel, long haul travel, which  increase your chance clots, as we all hear these things where you wear your compression stockings on a long haul flight. Who does that? They look silly. Please wear them. not like, what have you got to lose? Me and my friend went to New York a few years ago and we wore our stockings. This was after I'd had my,  health scare and stuff and she was next to me wearing a stockings, you know, and yeah, okay They look a bit silly, but it doesn't matter.

I just think. It's the age old thing. Isn't it? Keep healthy. Keep fit. Try and look after yourself drink lots of water And yeah, just do everything you can to to avoid those things really much as possible

Leo Judkins: [00:18:00] Yeah. Makes sense. Thank you for sharing that. What, how did you, how did you feel, uh, Georgia afterwards once, once it was identified as the cause and like, how did that process go? So what were the steps that you were taking after?

Georgia Parry: well after it's actually remained quite active. So the worst thing you can do is sit around and do nothing. kind of move around, keep active. Obviously took my anticoagulants, keep hydrated. I wasn't allowed to travel abroad for about three to six months. 

They were confident that the blood clots had gone. And yeah, really, to be honest, within a few days of taking my medication, I felt great. Like all my symptoms disappeared. I felt good. was really a relief and, also the doctors reassured me that because I'm on this medication, the chances of it happening again are just so slim, long as I remain, you know, all the things I've already discussed.

I'm probably the least likely for it to happen again next to somebody on a flight I'm less likely for that to happen because I'm on So you always trust the doctors don't you and I think they gave me a huge amount of confidence That everything will be okay I'm lucky that I've got a big group of friends that are all nurses and they absolutely were like this happens every day to people You're going to be fine.

[00:19:00] You know, you're on the right treatment. It's all okay. it was a worry and I was very frightened when I first found quite quickly you adjust and you just trust that they know what they're talking about. And, know, don't get me wrong.

It goes through my mind sometimes,  traveling long haul flights, it makes me a little nervous, doesn't stop me doing anything. So, yeah. 

Leo Judkins: you've got such a positive mindset, you know, because some people would just be angry for the fact that it hasn't been found out earlier, right? Or other people would be super frightened all the time. Or like you're, you sound so positive in life with all this, like all this adversity that you've gone through that you've, that you've learned through and that you've grown through.

Have you always been like that?

Georgia Parry: probably not. No, not so much. I think I've always tried to be kind of positive. I just think everything's relative if you can always remain aware of that and that your problems, you know, there's always somebody suffering something a little bit worse.

[00:20:00] And that doesn't take away what's happening to you or anything like that. And you can absolutely take time to process that. But for me, life is so short as we all know, and you don't really know how long you've got and I just think waste any of it being negative is just the one thing you have 

But I think generally speaking you can control how you react and that's that's the main thing you have control over if you can always try and be positive look at things from a positive light Makes life easier.

And I think you it takes so much more energy to be negative, to be moaning, to worry, to, waste time thinking of things that might never happen or worrying about the future if it's out of your control. I just think as long as you're controlling what you can control, Try really hard to kind of put everything else out of your mind and just think,  and if there is negative things, try and look at if there's even just a tiny bit of positive that comes off the back of that focus on that and always remembering to be grateful as well.

[00:21:00] I think being grateful is something that's really important. And I think if you try and really hard to remain a little bit more Open and keep perspective and think about things from others point of view.

It really has helped me It when I started my job at blueprint I kind of took that as a bit of a clean slate weirdly. It was an odd period of time I'd I'd left my old role as an estate agent I've not long had my son about a year and a half afterwards and job It started on the 1st of January, and I think I just had it in my head like it's a new job, it's a new year, to think of the things I didn't like about myself, and I thought this is like a time where I might be able to change those things, because the people at work don't know me, and I can almost like, you know, be the person I want to be, still true to myself, but kind of, change your attitude towards work or towards people and things, and it honestly sounds dramatic, but it really changed, changed things for me, changed how people responded to me, changed how the opportunities that came my way, and you don't realize how much your attitude affects everything, around you, the opportunities that come your way, it's huge.

[00:22:00]And if you're a negative person it's hard to, progress sometimes. I think, I think, does that make

Leo Judkins: Agree. No, no, you're 100 percent right. You're, you're preaching. I love it. You're 100 percent right. It's so true. And, I love that the fact that you moving into Blueprint kind of created that pivotal moment for you. Was there something that happened that kind of caused you to think this is no longer the way I want to be or did somebody say anything or were you quite negative beforehand?

How did that, how did that moment happen?

Georgia Parry: No, I don't think so. I think I just, I thought, what can, what can this be beyond a new job?

Maybe I could things a little bit more positively where I can and,

Let's use this opportunity to. Carry on being the best I can be in every way, you know, and little habits about myself that I'm perhaps I didn't love and, it was all about positivity really. And, just trying to see things from a better light where possible. And,

Leo Judkins: well, yeah, of course it's, it's amazing. It's such a, such a great mindset to have, because it's so easy to linger on the past or to, to think about all the things that you haven't got and it's such, a death trap, right?

[00:23:00] It's awful. How has that helped you in your in your lead? Yeah, in your leadership, or maybe even in your personal resilience? Can you give me an example of how that positive thinking or progressive thinking or not focusing and lingering on problems has helped you in specific situations?

Georgia Parry Yeah, I think just in work in general, like never sweat the small stuff too much, you know, just do the best you can. And I think in like, managing people as well, like, except they're human beings and they have lives and we all have distractions and that's okay.

I think if people are good people, if you, if you have people in a business, are positive and that, care about whether the business does well and a loyal and, you know, you can kind of teach many things, especially in this industry.

We're not. We're not heart surgeons, you know, we're not doing anything that necessarily needs a degree, especially in more account management, salesy role, 

you don't need to have a qualification to do this job, but you need to be a certain type of person to do well.

00:24:00] I'm managing obviously that kind [ of team in a sales account management role. And I truly believe that understanding people's lives, their personalities, their likes, their dislikes, what, what makes them. Be motivated. What do they enjoying and keeping them happy at work to an extent, you know, not not at the detriment of the business, but keeping them satisfied within work and enjoying work is you will absolutely get the best out of out of people without having to punish them or be a strict leader or anything like that.

I think just be a good person or try to be and be transparent and they will. If you've got good people, they will respond to that. you know, Be clear about the business objectives, about what we're trying to achieve and why. And sometimes that means telling difficult news or, or not giving somebody what they want.

But I think if you always explain why and, and are honest about that, they get it. And, you know, they share the view that we all want to do well. So yeah, I think just, doing that really has probably helped me in a management perspective, just being positive, being a human, you know?

Leo Judkins:  [00:25:00] It's how you build trust. So I love that. It's absolutely true. 

Leo Judkins: [00:26:00] One of our masterminders, Rich McKee, which you may be known from Flutter, he was asking, how do you balance being liked and respected in a business where stakeholder relationships could be quite firmly established with operators and key points of contact?

Georgia Parry Oh gosh, okay. That's a really good question. I think, take your time, and don't, be false. It goes back to being a true person. push people.

Don't be salesy and gross, you know, be, be you. And, also having a great relationship internally with those stakeholders is super important because it's no hiding. Like person who did of my role before was Joe Purvis, who I'm sure anyone who listened to this and she's really helped me progress and in me before I believed in myself. So therefore, wanted me to build those relationships, so she's helped me do it. And I think that goes back to what I was saying at the beginning, if you're a good person with a good attitude, people will want to do those things for you.

[00:27:00] It's not from a false, you should never do it. you know, like in a manipulative way. I think if you are genuinely just there to work hard and to do well and, a nice person where you can, people want to help you. And so she, she did that for me. And I think then she was taking me to meetings and taking me to events and I was taking notes at the beginning.

I would be in a QBR taking people's coats and making a drink and doing the notes. And then all of a sudden fast forward two years and I was leading the meeting. Like, how does that It's a slow progress and you build relationships with everybody as well. That's another main thing is to treat everybody the same.

Never ever talk to somebody because they have a good title. That's my biggest pet peeve is, talking to the most senior person in the room. Or giving them more time because they're senior. It's like, that's not, that's absolutely not how you should, in my view, how you should work. You should treat everybody the same. Everybody has a job to do. Everybody is very valuable. And a good

so yeah, just, build relationships naturally. And you can't force them either. Like there's people that, you know, Joe will have better relationships with than me. And that will always be the case. And I'm not going to battle that.

[00:28:00] I'm not going to be like, no, you need to speak to me now. That's just how personalities flow. And, you know, there's probably people I have a perhaps a better relationship with than Joe or than somebody in my team, because that's just we might have things in common or, you know, I think just don't force it and just be natural. And it, really. And if people don't like that, then

Leo Judkins That's such a great. great answer and great shout it. It also kind of leads me to what you've mentioned to me before about imposter syndrome. So I'd love to talk about that a little bit because it's something 

That everybody experiences and nobody really talks about that much.

But I think, especially when you progress really quickly 

in your career, like you have done, it's probably even more parents, right? Because you like you've gone so fast that a lot of things are well outside of your comfort zone because they are completely new, right? 

So how has that shown up for you?

That that kind of that feeling of imposter syndrome? How have you dealt with that in perhaps really difficult situation where you started shaking and feeling, you know, whatever that is?

Georgia Parry: [00:29:00]yeah, no, definitely. Imposter syndrome is a huge, very big part of my career so far. I've learned it's just a friend that sits with me a lot of the time.  I think you, I listened to this podcast once actually and it said that it changed my view on imposter syndrome. It's, it said that like if you're progressing and you're going to the next step, you should have it.

I think if you don't have it, you're probably too overqualified or you know, you should be looking for the next thing, depending if that's what you want to do. Some people don't want to always progress, that's totally fine too. but if you are looking to progress, imposter syndrome is natural. You should embrace it. You should think that's because I'm out of my comfort zone. And, it's okay. Yes, I do suffer from it, but less, less and less as time goes on. I think knowledge is everything. So the more you learn, the less it's there, because I think you have confidence that what you're saying is, is right.

And, you know, actually, no, I'm okay to say that. I do know that. You know, having that confidence within yourself to think, actually, I've got seven years [00:30:00] experience now. I am entitled to have an opinion on that and, it's okay, you know, and you don't have to look to somebody else to, to validate what you're saying, 

that's, yeah, good, you know, good job, Georgia. and that's another thing as well, like not always needing,  Validation, that's something I've struggled with a lot, always needing somebody to tell me I'm doing a good job. people can't always just be doing that for you all the time. They've got their own work to do. so accept that if you know you're doing the best you can, that's okay.

And if you're always trying to learn, always trying to progress, nobody's perfect. You're always going to get things wrong. just life and that's being a manager and that's being in a role.

the best advice I ever got actually was from, really from Joe's husband, David. He said to me in my very early days, it was in my first year at Blueprint, if you ever don't know an answer, just say, I don't know and I'll

Nobody will ever blag it. be upset that you don't know. I think people respect that. I'm not sure. Let me find out. And I took that and I rolled with it and I've used it many a time and I still do now.

[00:31:00] I think just that transparency helps. And yeah, I think imposter syndrome totally normal and it's okay to have it. And I think I've learned that as I've, as I've gone on, you know, 

Leo Judkins About saying that you don't know. I think it's a sign of confidence, even right when you're 

able to just admit that, especially in front of a bunch of really senior people that perhaps you have that feeling of imposter syndrome. Like, what am I doing in this room? 

I do not belong here.And then being able to say, I don't know, I actually don't know. Let me get back to that is such a such a power move, I feel.

think the other thing is you don't suffer with imposter syndrome. You live with it. And I think that reframe is also so really important because it's just like you said, it's a friend that sits next to you all the time.

Georgia Parry [00:32:00] is, is brilliant for that. Our leader does not,  sweat the small stuff or worry about things that can't be worried about and I think that culture travels down. He always wants people to make mistakes. You cannot learn without making mistakes. So I think feeling like you can and that's okay and you're not going to get sacked or you're not going to get, actively encouraging people to call out, to ask a question in a room, to silly, you know, laugh at yourself, laugh at each other, create that environment where people feel they can learn and develop without being shamed for not knowing things. That all comes back to culture and people and everything like that. 

Leo Judkins Somebody else in the mastermind that you will know is Rob Fell and he had a question for you as well. He said, what is the serious work 

side of Matt Cole like? I assume he's a, he's a great leader, but how does that manifest itself and what have you learned from him?

Georgia Parry yes. Anyone who will know Matt Cole, he has two different sides.  here's, he is an amazing leader, but it's making me cringe saying this because if he listened to this, he'd be sick in his mouth. But, by far the best person I've ever worked for. Not that I've had loads and loads of jobs, you know, but as a leader, as an MD, He's fantastic.

[00:33:00] I think just his attitude to life to what I was saying before, just don't, he doesn't worry things. He's, he's very like, stable. I don't know so consistent. So he would never come into work and be or, you know, like he's, he's just like, unsinkable, sort of that, that, that. that everyone's looking at all the time, and I don't think he really knows he's doing it, to be honest.

I think it's just, he's just not phased by things. He always says, you know, we're not heart surgeons, we're not, you know, don't, don't overthink it, don't stress it. That, in itself, is huge. that culture of people just feeling safe, feeling at ease, you can make a mistake. He's obviously super clever as well, clearly good at what he does, otherwise Blueprint wouldn't be where it was today, and where it is today, and, Yeah, he's just very knowledgeable, very easy to approach, learn a lot from him in that way. Just, just be a person, be a human, be approachable. he's not got an ego, or anything like that.

You know, he'll talk to everybody and, and, All of those things I think help create an amazing [00:34:00] culture where people want to work. so yeah, learned an awful lot from him and obviously he has amazing relationships within the industry, which you can build off the back of. And, yeah, I hope that answers that

Leo Judkins Yeah, it makes such a, it's such a game changer, isn't it? When you have somebody that you really want to work for, it makes everything else easier.

with your amazing progress in your career, if you would go back seven years and you kind of face yourself, you look at yourself, what would be the one piece of advice you'd give yourself those seven years back when you first started out in blueprint?

Georgia Parry Oh, that's a good question.  you know, I would have, I wouldn't change anything. I would have just said to myself, keep it doing what you're doing, you know, and probably not to worry. I think in the earlier days I was a bit more, I was pleasing, worried a lot, you know, am I doing the right thing? probably have told myself just to chill out a little bit on that side of things. and just it's all gonna work out, life's gonna get really really good. It's probably what i'd have said and just Just carry on. Yeah, just be yourself. Just work hard be yourself.

[00:35:00] Be silly. Enjoy it. Yeah, just stick to what I what I did really and  just don't overthink it

Leo Judkins Don't take life too seriously. Love 

1. really, really fantastic podcast episode. Thank you very much, Georgia. It was 

great having you.

Georgia Parry Thank you for having me. Thank you.