S8: From the streets to the House of Lords, through the power of business with Lord John Bird MBE, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Big Issue
Conversations of Inspiration
Holly Tucker MBE
5.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2020
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lord John Bird’s story is one of the greatest Holly has had the pleasure to share on this podcast.
From his early days in an orphanage, surviving through fighting and stealing, John’s childhood was not an easy one. Poverty-stricken, and in and out of prison, John realised that he would have to make his own path in life.
It was a chance meeting, which developed into a friendship with Gordon Roddick (Anita Roddick’s husband), that would set John off on his incredible journey with ‘The Big Issue’.
29 years later, and over 200 million copies sold, The Big Issue is a social enterprise synonymous with the UK and has supported hundreds of thousands of people on the streets.
This is a story of grit, chance meetings and the belief that poverty and social inequality should be tackled by empowering those so often forgotten in society.
Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.
Transcript
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| 0:13.7 | Today's interview was just such a privilege to capture Lord John Bird has the most incredible story from poverty-stricken childhood to founding and building a phenomenal social enterprise that continues to change the world for those who find themselves homeless. |
| 0:18.9 | I was nervous before starting this interview because John has such a huge and incredible story to tell. |
| 0:26.0 | I wanted to make sure that I did him and his story justice, but I needn't have worried. |
| 0:31.7 | He was so outgoing outgoing funny and just a brilliant story teller |
| 0:37.1 | Sometimes you just need to be reminded that business and the way that we live our lives should be simple. |
| 0:43.4 | John's interview will stay with me as a guiding light throughout my career. |
| 0:48.0 | I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to conversations of inspiration. I'm the founder of Not |
| 0:57.0 | on the High Street and Holly and Co and I'm the UK Ambassador of Creative Small |
| 1:01.5 | Businesses. I believe that having a business doing what you love |
| 1:05.4 | is the key to a happy fulfilled life and my dream is to help everybody start theirs. |
| 1:11.2 | So I've reached out to all my favorite small businesses, |
| 1:14.8 | acclaimed entrepreneurs and those who just simply inspire me and ask them to share theirs. |
| 1:20.6 | With thanks to our sponsor NetWest who have helped bring this |
| 1:24.5 | free podcast to life. Here are my conversations of inspiration. |
| 1:29.2 | Bow your head and let your eyelids close on down where we're going. Wow John we've only had one lord on this |
| 1:33.4 | where we're going you won't need to bring your frown you will find that all |
| 1:38.8 | well John we've only had one lord on this podcast so far and that was Lord Bilimoria. |
| 1:45.0 | So it's a pleasure to welcome our second Lord. |
| 1:48.8 | We recently also spoke to Dr. Sabrina Hatton, |
| 1:52.1 | who was one of your most inspiring big issue vendors when she spoke about you. |
| 1:57.1 | It was just absolutely obvious. You were my number one guess that I wanted to speak to. So thank you so much for your time today. |
| 2:05.2 | Thank you. Thank you. Well first of all we're currently 10 weeks into lockdown |
... |
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