WEBVTT
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I want you to think about something.
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Who do you spend the most time with?
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Not your closest friends, not your family, the people you're actually around every week, the people you sit beside, the people you live with, the people you work with on projects, the people you see at societies, the people whose opinions you listen to.
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And now here's the important question.
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Are those people helping you grow?
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Because one of the biggest myths about university is that success is all about individual effort.
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Work hard, get good grades, manage your time, stay disciplined.
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And while all of those things do matter, there's something equally important that often gets overlooked.
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Environment.
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The people around you influence what you think is normal.
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They influence your confidence, your ambitions, your opportunities, even your willingness to take risks.
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And that's why today's conversation matters so much, because finding your people isn't about being popular.
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It's not about having hundreds of friends.
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It's about intentionally building an environment that helps you become the person you want to be.
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Today's guests have both experienced the power of being in the right environment.
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Galena Sudyarova took part in the Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge while studying at the University of Strathclyde, became one of the first Inspire ambassadors, secured an internship with University Spinout Entropist, and now works there full-time.
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Jesselyn Gerboltz has built businesses, advised founders, invested in startups, and worked closely with entrepreneurial communities while completing her MBA at Strathclyde.
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Both of these women and their journeys have been shaped by the people around them.
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And today they're here to share what they know with you.
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Galena and Jesselyn, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
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When people think about success at university, they usually think about effort.
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But I'm curious whether environment deserves more credit than it actually gets.
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So, Galina, you got involved in entrepreneurial activities very early in your Strathclyde journey.
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How did being surrounded by people who were taking initiative influence your own confidence and ambitions?
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Oh, okay, Katie.
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Can I just say beforehand, thank you very much for inviting today?
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Because it's amazing to take part in the content that you're creating, because you're creating it with passion.
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And you know, I love taking part in what you do.
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So thanks again.
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So nice to see.
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Yeah, and I love the question as well.
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Um, I think you're very, very much right to kind of question just the effort and put some emphasis on environment, kind of shift this emphasis, because um, in the challenge, actually, what we did, um we were in a very diverse environment.
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Um, our team was not uh made out of entrepreneurs or business people.
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We were coming from all kinds of backgrounds.
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It was myself with public policy.
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Um, there was an accountant, someone from pharma, biotech, um, there was a finance person who was probably the closest um to the business background.
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But what I'm trying to say here is um none of us was like a perfect fit.
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And that was this amazing push in this environment where you kind of see to try something to achieve and to even succeed, you don't have to be a perfect fit.
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You can just kind of go for it, um, develop your agency, and just don't wait kind of for the perfect, the right moment, because it will never come.
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While you're waiting for a perfect moment, other people who are maybe less prepared or not a perfect fit, they just have this confidence and ambition to just go and take.
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Uh so I think that was my takeaway from being surrounded by this amazing, ambitious and creative people is that don't wait for the perfect time, just kind of go and take what you want.
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You'll become ready in the process.
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And so this was a challenge that you took part in at the university that was to do with beginning to learn how to work with people in a team, come up with an idea, and you just decided I'm going to give this a try and get involved.
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And so that was kind of the beginning of how we got to know you as a student.
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And you've had quite a long journey with us and it's been quite successful.
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We'll cover that as we go through um the episode today.
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Um, Jesselyn, you've spent years observing founders, investors, and leadership communities.
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What changes, in your opinion, when people start spending time around other ambitious people?
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I think to your point, your environment is maybe even more important than your effort.
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Because if you are in an environment in which your ambition and high effort and um high goals is looked down upon, it's going to be constantly draining that energy from you.
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So so you have, we all just have a finite pool of energy, right?
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And you can choose to be, and sometimes you can't, let me be clear about that.
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So sometimes you can't choose, but if you can, you could choose to be or in an environment where you spend a lot of energy kind of tolerating your environment, or you could be in an environment in which that environment adds to your energy and boosts you up.
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Um and so when I've seen high-performing teams, often they're they're very small teams, but it's just people who are very good at communicating, not afraid to have conflict, um, not operating out of ego or fear.
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Everybody's kind of aligned in the goal, everybody's excited about the goal, um, and everybody's very enthusiastic about kind of stepping up and building something.
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Yeah.
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Absolutely.
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So, like you say, this thing of not being afraid of conflict either.
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And I think that was something you were touching on that you weren't necessarily from the same background or from the same environment, but you had a similar goal, which was in this challenge, you're trying to create a good idea, and I suppose it will be the same in the kind of groups of people that you work with.
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Everyone's moving towards a shared ambition.
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You might not all know how you're going to get there yet.
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You might disagree about how you're going to get there, but having that ability to have conflict and have confidence that you're going in the same direction can really sort of speed things up and make things happen.
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Have either of you noticed yourself thinking bigger because of someone you met?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Okay, can I um I just want to say how much I agree with your previous point about you know finding the right environment that boosts you rather than drains you, and it's kind of like directly connected to what I'm gonna say now.
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Um, I found myself thinking bigger and acting bigger um around my team.
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Uh so I work with Entropist now, um business development manager, and we have such an incredible team.
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Uh, if if you mind, I'm gonna give a little shout out to our, you know, uh to Arash, to Nassim, and to Hussein, because what we're doing is um we're building potentially a global business from just a research idea.
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And this kind of environment, when you are surrounded by people who think globally, and you know, the baseline for them is so high, it pushes you to think bigger and do more and be more ambitious every day.
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So I'm exposed to such a great team, a small one, again, as you said, great communication, and it's it's amazing experience every day.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, no, I I I agree.
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I can think of I can think of a number of examples of this, but probably the best one is um what I was involved in a founding team of a company in New York.
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And one of my uh co-founders, he um was older, more experienced, and he's kind of typical New Yorker, very like direct, like maybe even brash guy, if you know what I'm saying.
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And I originally am from the South in the US, and so we're very, you know, polite and so forth.
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And so it was, it took us a while, and we worked together before the the business that we started.
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But when we were first working together, we kind of I was very unsure about him.
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And we had a sit-down conversation, we had a heart-to-heart, we both communicated what was going on with us, and we found a great way to work together.
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And when I we were talking about conflict before, we had a lot of conflict, but it was very positive.
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And I feel like he shaped me so much in a way that I can't even like credit anybody else for because we spent so much time and we spent so much time honing ideas.
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And when you have to really back up and uh clearly articulate exactly why you think the way you think, and then something's coming back for you, and you have very deep respect for this person on a on a very deep level, it hones your thinking in a way that that nothing else does.
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Um, and I came out of that, you know, with so many skills I didn't have beforehand, but also with so much exposure to different parts of different kinds of business that I didn't have before.
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So then now I had things that I was interested in that I wasn't even aware of before I had that experience.
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And then I also had such a great group of friends in New York.
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They were all kind of in the tech environment, they were all doing something interesting, something cool.
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And so again, when you're like in a room where it's like, okay, everybody, I'm like, wow, you're doing that, and you're doing that, and you're doing that, and we're all just kind of encouraging each other, you know?
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So I've definitely find that I don't know if it's a whole cross-American thing, yeah, or just the the areas of America that I've been to.
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Yeah.
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But being in Scotland, I don't think we necessarily always want to talk ourselves up about the things we intend to do.
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Um, and anytime I found in America when I've talked about a plan or an ambition, the person who's speaking to me has always gone, Oh wow, that's amazing, that's fantastic, tell me more.
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And they've been so convinced that I was going to do it when they don't even really know me, that it felt like a kind of different way of thinking, and it has been quite useful, I think, sometimes.
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So I do think it's quite a powerful idea that the people you surround yourself, even if it's just one good person, someone who has different experiences to you, someone who's further down the road, or if you yourself are further down the road, someone who is just starting, that kind of contrast can really be very useful.
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And it's about seeing what's possible through someone else's example or someone else's lens.
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I think many students might underestimate how one community can change basically their entire university experience.
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I mean, you started with the Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge, Galina, and then later you became an ambassador of Strathclyde Inspire, and we're the kind of organization who do the challenge.
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How did those communities change you, or what did they give you that you might not have been able to gain through your studies alone?
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Okay, let's see.
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Um, so because I was doing masters in parallel with the challenge and ambassadorship, it's kind of like a great uh thing to compare.
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Um, in terms of uh, you know, classic education, it's still great.
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It gives you a wide variety of uh skills, it prepares you for your career, uh, but it's very different to what you will get from the extracurricular activities.
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Uh, because I would say um in the classic education, you you're giving a bit less of creativity, but also it limits um the horizon of your thought in a way, because you're kind of given the template that you have to fit into.
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When you're doing the extracurricula, such a complicated word.
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First of all, you're already stepping out of your comfort zone.
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Uh so you're going after something new that you want to try, or maybe something that you already love, but just kind of in a new version, and you go out and you socialize.
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And I think it's a very like two important aspects.
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First of all, is um the challenge and the ambassadorship.
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They gave me this opportunity to kind of act and think outside of the box and be more creative in um my activities.
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And then second, it was a wider socialization because you exposed um to, as we mentioned before, way more environments, which is very important.
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Uh, you meet people not just from your course, so not just people with shared interests and shared knowledge, but also people from other backgrounds, and it kind of enriches your whole student experience.
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And I would say it prepares you way more for a real world as well.
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Because once you graduate, you kind of go out there and you're not in this enclosed environment anymore.
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You're by yourself and you need to be prepared for a more complex environment.
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So I think those were my takeaways.
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That sounds absolutely it chimes with the kind of same experience I think I've had um with university, that this idea of you're there for the grades, and that there are these kind of criteria that you need to check off and you you fit in this template and you get that thing done.
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And then there's this whole other world outside of that that's so much larger and messier, I think, and uncertain.
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Um, and if you can learn how to thrive in that at the same time, then university can do so much more for you than you need the grades so that you can prove I have this knowledge, but then alongside that, having the ability to kind of exist in the messy world and to forge a direction for yourself is is a really big learning point for university.
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Yeah.
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I mean, you've worked across countries, businesses, networks.
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Have there been communities that have fundamentally changed your direction or accelerated your growth?
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Yeah, um, so just to add on, it kind of goes with it, but just to add on to this point too, I think for universities it's so important too, because in addition to being a place of learning, it's a place of discovery, right?
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You have academics that are working on very new and interesting technologies or you know, life science solutions for medical problems, things like that.
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And I think so often it sort of goes buried and unused.
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So when you have a university that really has a thriving entrepreneurship scene, um, you can take some of those things out of the lab and put bring them into the real world and make them, you know, helpful and useful to people, if that makes any sense.
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So I think I think there's such a difference in a university when they really have uh a really good thriving um entrepreneurial environment.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
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And I think that was one of the reasons you wanted to come to Strathclyde.
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Yes, exactly.
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Yeah, when I was like, me and my husband were, well, we were coming to Scotland in particular, but I kind of looked around and I found that I felt that Strathclyde was very entrepreneurial uh in comparison and that they had a really good program and I liked what Inspire was doing, so yeah.
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Yeah.
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So I came and got involved.
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Lucky us.
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Um and so of course there's the idea of joining a community and thinking, I want to be part of this.
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But being part of a community, I guess, is larger than just joining.
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Does anyone have an opinion, the difference between joining and truly participating?
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Well, yeah, I mean, you can you can just sort of show up on a daily basis or just kind of pop in here or there, but I guess maybe the underlying difference would be whether you're building a community in that group, um, whether you're developing sort of deeper relationships with the people around you to the point where that would be somebody you would call on, you know, you'd be integrated more into that world.
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And so those people would obviously then have a much deeper impact on you.
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Um, versus, you know, I mean, and it can be tempting to just kind of pop in here or there, show up because we all have busy lives and and things.
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But I do think it is really important to actually build a deeper community for yourself and find people within, you know, those those groups that um are really there for you.
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Um, maybe not even in like a personal way, but in a in a professional way, right?
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You have you have mentors, you have people that you can call on when you're in a difficult situation because there will be many difficult situations.
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So yeah.
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For Sarah.
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Do you have a uh an opinion on whether there's a difference between joining a community and being a participant in it?
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Yeah, yeah, I think um so these two, they are just kind of different roles um of the same phenomenon.
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Uh joining a community, just being a part of it, I think it's more about taking or maybe like a form of exchange.
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So it's more about what you're gaining and the benefits that you get from the community, versus participating in one is probably aspiring to contribute more and probably um leaving it in a better state rather than uh to compare in comparison to what you found it to be when you just joined.
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So I think participating is about contributing.
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Um, but it doesn't mean that you know one or the other is necessarily worse or better.
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It's just different modes of how we interact with the community.
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Um but um as Jocelyn mentioned, you know, it's so important to kind of especially if it's a small community, try and give.
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Um because, you know, those are people who might need something from this community.
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And if you operate together, you might build something great.
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And I'm sure like Inspire Hub one day used to be like a tiny, tiny, tiny community, but now it's grown in something so big because of people who were participating and contributing rather than just kind of taking.
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It's definitely something I've noticed from the way both of you kind of operate, and um it has kind of singled you out, I think, that you arrived and you quickly began to do things that would be useful to the entire ecosystem.
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You became an ambassador, and so you were telling other students the opportunities that they could do, explaining what your experience had been so that other people could see themselves in that, and you immediately, I felt you were in the hub, you took part in the challenge yourself as well, even though that kind of level of experience is definitely something you already had.
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So you were giving your expertise to the students who were taking part, and then you were hosting events, you're bringing people together, and it makes you visible in a way that I think is really useful to other people in the community, and so it makes such a big difference.
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I definitely think that it's true that collaborating and asking, not what can I get from this group of people, but how can I contribute makes such a huge difference, and it definitely has singled both of you out to me when I've been in the ecosystem myself.
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So one thing I think students can feel quite a lot of pressure about is friendship and the expectation that you should have this huge social circle when you get to university, you find your people, you find your friends, and that if you can't do that quite quickly, if you haven't figured it out, you'll get left behind because these groups will form and you won't be part of them.
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So, how do you know when you found the right people and not necessarily just more people?
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Galena, were there relationships during your time at Strathclyde that opened your eyes to opportunities or possibilities that you hadn't necessarily considered?
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Yes.
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Uh, but you know, Katie, the thing that you said just before, in terms of not fitting into already formed uh community, that was kind of my case.
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Uh, because I was originally supposed to start my studies in September, uh, but my visa got rejected, so it got shifted to January intake.
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And essentially um I began my classes um in the same group with students who've been studying from September already, and they had a big friend group, and I was like, oh, kind of like, what do I do now?
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Yeah, how do I fit into this?
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Um so, but yeah, I I kind of tried to open up this group and get in there, and it was kind of successful.
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Um, I just connected with one person, I didn't even know that they had this huge uh friend group behind them already, but I ended up uh at a house party, and that's how I met all those other people.
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Um but the point here is not just about meeting this like large friend group.
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I think it's about um, especially as an international student, creating sort of a support system here.
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Because um, you rightfully said it's not about uh the quantity, it's about the quality.
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And when you start your university journey, especially like far away from home, you want um to have people here who probably are in the similar situation, and people who can relate to your experience, and you can also kind of all support each other while you're away from your families and your normal environment.
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And that kind of what happened in our friend group because everyone was from everywhere.
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We had like two people from Norway, uh, Spain, Chile, a local person, India, everywhere.
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And none of us, besides the Scottish person, had a family here.
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So we were all kind of like a family to each other and supporting in that way.
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And uh even As a local student, not an international one.
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I think similar experience in a way because you are away from your family who, for example, lives in a different city or something like that.
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Just kind of it's important to find a local support system.
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It can be one, two people, a big friend group.
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Just kind of, I would say, look out for quality in that way.
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What qualities do you think you look for in the people that you choose to spend time with?
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Oh, I was actually really thinking about this recently.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:38.160
So in my old age, I've gotten a lot more particular about uh quality over quantity because you have you have just less energy.
00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:39.119
Yeah, for sure.
00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:47.920
Frankly, when I was uh 18, this is 20 years ago, uh in university, I was, you know, I was like, let's let's go out every night with everybody, you know.
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.519
And now I'm like, I just can't.
00:22:49.759 --> 00:23:00.480
Um, but so qualities that I look for, I look for um, I really enjoy interacting and feel inspired by people who have high agency.
00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:14.559
They're very curious, they have a growth mindset, um, they have a high tolerance for discomfort, trying new things, putting themselves in new environments, um, enjoy discussing ideas rather than people.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:15.119
Right.
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:16.880
Um things like that.
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:20.559
Yeah, that all sounds like very good advice.
00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:25.119
I really especially enjoyed discussing ideas rather than people.
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.240
I feel like that's something I can pass on to my children actually.
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.519
You can start young with that.
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:32.880
Find people who are who are interested in talking about ideas rather than people.
00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:34.799
That's definitely what I'm gonna tuck into my pocket.
00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:43.279
Do you think that there are any signs in a group or an environment that actually it's holding you back rather than helping you grow?
00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:44.799
Yeah, for sure.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:50.960
I think um, and I'm one, you know, I you should treat everybody with kindness and respect.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:54.720
And if I'm in a group with people, I will try to be friends with everybody.
00:23:54.960 --> 00:24:02.880
Um, some sometimes I've realized almost to a fault where I'm like, I'm really trying very hard, but feeling very drained by this.
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:08.880
Um, and perhaps spending time and energy doing things and being places that aren't serving me.
00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:15.759
So um I I just tend to go on what I said earlier, kind of how does this interaction make me feel?
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.039
Do I feel drained or do I feel like boosted?
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:26.880
Um and then I'll choose to allocate my time and energy in into places and situations and people where I feel energized.
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:27.599
Absolutely.
00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:31.440
Getting that energy from the grip is going to be a sign that it's going well.
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:44.000
If you do feel disconnected or maybe stuck in the wrong circles, is there anything you would encourage students to do, Galina, who might feel, oh, I think I've, you know, I've I've spent all this time and effort to get into this friend group.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.960
Now I'm here, it doesn't feel quite right to me the right fit.
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:49.200
Any advice what to do in that circumstance?
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:53.200
Okay, so I think first of all, it's completely normal, right?
00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:56.079
We have we have a right to change our mind.
00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.839
We are changing ourselves.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.240
So if we don't fit a particular environment anymore, especially as we grow, it's completely normal.
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:12.559
Sometimes it's way better to let go what is not a fit for you anymore rather than trying to kind of squeeze back into that.
00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:22.720
So if you don't feel comfortable in your environment anymore, of course, like don't try to feed back in.
00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:28.559
Um, I would say um don't keep it to yourself as well.
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:47.279
Um talk to your close people, talk to maybe your other friend group, or not in the way of like gossiping, not in a way of discussing people, but more like seeking for the advice, kind of because you don't want to lose a big part of your community that straight away it's it's hard.
00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.759
You kind of need to have it as an informed and prepared decision.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.880
And then also I would say speak to your family, just speak to people who are close to you.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.200
Um, it's a hard situation to be in, but you don't want to be there for too long.
00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:01.519
Yeah.
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:06.480
So just kind of seek for a way out, uh, but the least painful one, I would say.
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:11.200
Because I think university can be such a time of change, and you're working out who you are.
00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:14.400
In fact, life is probably larger than that.
00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:24.640
You're always kind of working out who you are, and the more that you begin to understand yourself, you might begin to understand the people around you better and realize, oh, actually, that isn't the fit that I thought it was.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:37.279
And so we're all moving along this journey trying to figure out who we are, and the closer we get to that, the closer we can get to being with the people who help us to be who we are, I think.
00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:47.920
So thinking practically, if imagine you're speaking to someone who's starting university this month, they want to make the most of their time, they maybe don't know that many people yet.
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:48.960
Where should they start?
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:55.759
If you had to build your university environment again or any kind of fresh start, what would you do in your first month?
00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:02.319
I mean, I think this well take a step back.
00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:12.240
I think it's really, really important to know yourself really well and sit down and intentionally think to yourself, what am I interested in?
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:16.240
And who can I interact with that's interested in something similar?
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:17.839
Because there's so many groups.
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:29.759
Like the amount of groups at Strathclyde when I first got there that I heard about is like there's so like anything you can think of, if you're interested in it, there's somebody else meeting up to discuss this.
00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:30.960
Right?
00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:36.240
So just really take time and think to yourself like, what am I truly interested in?
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:39.519
What kind of environment am I am I interested in?
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:46.400
And also just really develop the confidence to live your life aligned with your inner voice, right?
00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:59.200
Don't repress yourself or or try to change yourself or alter yourself in any way to sort of fit in with a group because those relationships are never going to be satisfying because they don't know you and they're not going to be aligned with you.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:06.079
When you're very deeply aligned with yourself and you know yourself, you find other people who are on that same playing field.
00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:15.200
So it's, you know, just turn up, be really proactive, be really like interested in specifically what you want, and go for it.
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:16.079
Fantastic.
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:16.640
Yeah.
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:20.720
I think it's so true of the when you can know yourself.
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:27.920
When you're at school and I see it with my own children, you go through the stage of fitting in.
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:29.440
It's very important to fit in.
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:38.720
I think even biologically, in terms of our evolution, that stage fitting in is more important than standing out because it's about safety.
00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:50.880
And then you get to university and it's a chance to kind of start again, and you don't necessarily want to follow the same rules that you did at school about fitting in is the most important thing to do for safety.
00:28:51.039 --> 00:29:13.200
Instead, it's actually helpful to think about the ways in which you might stand out and then look for the other people who do that too, um, because it is that moment when you can really make decisions based on, like you say, that inner voice rather than the forces of the crowd that might be more shaping you, I think, at a younger age.
00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:15.200
Any advice for that first month?
00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:19.039
How to listen to that inner voice and find the people who are going to be the right ones for you?
00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:22.240
First month, wow, that's the most intense one, right?
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:32.240
It's um when you like arrive and you see the university, you try to figure out your way around the campus, everything is kind of overwhelming and new.
00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:35.200
Um I would say so.
00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:41.200
The first month is kind of like it's the season of the high opportunities.
00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:51.839
It's when you have most opportunities, like Freshers Week, um, all this society is kind of presenting themselves, there's a society fair, you can go and sign up for everything.
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:53.359
I think like everything.
00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:13.519
Um, so I would say, like, in the first month, while you see still have the energy, while you don't have your assignments and you know, like routine anymore, um, I would say try and expose yourself to as many communities as you can, because um, as you go, you'll see what kind of like what's the best fit for you.
00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:16.160
Uh because it's not a hard commitment, right?
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:21.279
You don't have to you signed up there and you have to graduate from the same kind of society.
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:24.000
No, you can kind of drop off any second.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:30.480
I'm not saying about the unsustainable practice in terms of starting everything and then just never finishing.
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:35.359
I'm saying about more finding what works the best for you early on.
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:40.240
So then later on, you can stick to what's most aligned with you.
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:50.319
And in my time, I did like three different societies, and I ended up just with one because I felt like the best fit and it gave me the best result at the end.
00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:53.200
So I think just figuring out as you go.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:59.279
Saying yes to those opportunities that show up at the start, because so many do, like you both have highlighted.
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:07.440
There's everything at university, there's all sorts of people right at the start, it's all out there for you to choose from, and it can feel overwhelming.
00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:12.720
But if you can manage to say yes when you have that energy, then you might find the ones that stick over the longer term.
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:20.000
How did saying yes to one opportunity eventually lead to an internship for you and then the start of your career?
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:20.880
Oh, yeah.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:33.279
So um it's been like a very uh long but a very fast-paced journey over the last couple of years uh with those incredible developments uh with Inspire and now with my work.
00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:41.279
Um, and I would say those were not like this, were not just oh yes, yes, yeah, let's go, let's go.
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:54.640
It was more like being proactive and reaching out and seeking for their opportunities because I felt back then I felt that I found the community that I like, and I love people in the community.
00:31:54.799 --> 00:32:05.440
I love being surrounded by um, as Jocelyne mentioned, like so many innovators that you feel that you are capable, you are so capable and you want to do the same thing.
00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:14.319
And um, it was just kind of once I found what I like, I just started reaching out there and seeking for more opportunities in the same field.
00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:16.880
So it was very intentional.
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:21.359
It was just building my career path in the place that I loved.
00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:22.640
It's as simple as that.
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:29.359
Yeah, and that's that's how like opportunities were created because I think I was reaching out and asking for them.
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:37.839
And now more opportunities kind of naturally just appear and fall uh back to me on an in a nice way.
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:39.359
Um so yeah.
00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:43.359
It can be uncomfortable though, being the one to make that ask.
00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:50.079
Why do successful people do you think Jessaline often place themselves in these kind of slightly uncomfortable environments?
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.279
Um, because that's how you grow and you're gonna get bored otherwise.
00:32:53.359 --> 00:33:10.960
I think if you're a person who's um uh really wanting to build something and really wanting to do something new and impactful, um, that is just inherently going to be different and uncomfortable because it's not standard quo or status quo, sorry, excuse me.
00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:21.839
Um and so I think the more you put yourself in positions where you expand, um, the greater the opportunity you find yourself in.
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:24.960
I mean, it's it's and it compounds upon itself, right?
00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:27.279
To your point, where it's like it's like one thing.
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:34.400
I tell my younger siblings, because I am the oldest, and my youngest sibling is 18 years younger than me, and then there's Wow, okay.
00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:35.759
So they're younger than me.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:42.559
And I'm like, anything that you want to do, when you look at it, it seems so far away, it seems such a big jump.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:43.759
Just do one thing.
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.720
Just do one thing, and then the next day do one more thing, and that's it.
00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:54.559
And then you look back two years later and you're like amazed at the progress that you've that you've had.
00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:00.960
I think that works for pretty much everything, whether it's like a career goal, it's a friendship goal, it's finding the environment.
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:02.799
Literally climbing a mountain.
00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:11.199
We went in the summer to do our climb our first one role in Scotland with my family, and I've climbed them before, so I knew that it would be fine.
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:18.320
But I have two kids and one of them's quite little, and they're looking, going, which one is it that we're going to climb to trying to see the top.
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:22.719
And I was saying, I don't actually know which of those peaks it is that we're getting to.
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:23.840
Here's the path here.
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:25.920
We're just going to follow this path.
00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:30.880
Because I could see one of them was feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the prospect of how am I going to?
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:34.159
I want to know which one it is, so that I can look at the enormity of that.
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:39.280
And I was thinking, I don't think that's going to be useful to them right now, because it does look enormous.
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:40.719
So this is the path we're on.
00:34:40.880 --> 00:34:42.159
Look at that bird over there.
00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:44.480
Look at this lovely view that we can see already.
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:47.840
Look back, see how far we've come, and we got to the top.
00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:50.880
And I think that that was one of the ways that got us there.
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:58.719
And I think that's so I'm going to use that, I think, in the future, and I already have, when they're feeling a bit overwhelmed about, I don't know if I can do this thing.
00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:01.440
It's like, well, don't think of it as this mountain.
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:06.880
You're just getting to the end of this part of the path that you can see, and then we'll we'll make the next move from there.
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:11.360
Well, I just to add on to that too, you create opportunities for yourself in this way.
00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:17.360
So also kind of back to what I was saying before about really knowing yourself, spending time intentionally think about what your interests are.
00:35:17.519 --> 00:35:19.360
That's what I did when I first came here.
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:23.039
Um, I was like, what I knew I wanted to be a part of the startup community.
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:25.519
So let me just get involved, let me start asking questions.
00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:32.719
And I start to see, okay, there's, you know, barrier to scale in Scotland for a lot of these companies.
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:33.519
Why is that?
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:35.840
What are these underlying structural reasons?
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:45.360
And so I just had many, many conversations with lots of people about that to try to think about what's the what's the what's a problem here, what could I do to help solve that problem?
00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:52.960
And so as I'm talking to people, I'm then going to other people and being like, listen, here's here's what's going on, here's what I think should be done.
00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:55.440
You're you seem like in a position to do this.
00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:58.880
And, you know, not I can't say too much about it.
00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:08.239
Again, we talked about this earlier, but like now, now I'm kind of have created opportunities for myself in this world of, okay, I've spent time thinking about this problem.
00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:16.480
How can I fit in now in this ecosystem to help solve that with, you know, people I probably wouldn't have been connected to otherwise?
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:16.880
Yeah.
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:17.119
Yeah.
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:25.119
So putting yourself in, being willing to put yourself in that environment and it will eventually show you a way.
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:25.679
Yes.
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:29.280
As long as you're willing to then take that way when it's presented to you.
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:30.880
This is so useful.
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:39.119
And having this kind of conversation before people might start university, so they're thinking about it intentionally when they go in, I think can be so useful.
00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:40.880
Can we do some rapid fire?
00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:43.760
So, like the shorter answers just to finish up.
00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:45.119
So, one sentence if you can.
00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:46.639
I appreciate it, can be hard.
00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:51.519
Jessaline, one type of person that every student should try to have in their life.
00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:53.920
Someone you can call when you feel discouraged.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:54.960
Okay.
00:36:55.440 --> 00:36:59.920
Galena, one quality that makes someone great to collaborate with.
00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:03.199
Their ability to listen.
00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:04.320
Yes, okay.
00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:05.760
Listen intentionally.
00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:11.599
Jessaline, one thing students should stop doing when they're trying to fit in.
00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:16.400
Repressing their inner voice.
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:17.599
Okay.
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.320
Galena, complete the sentence.
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:26.480
The best opportunities usually come from you trying and reaching out.
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:28.719
They come from proactive approach.
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:29.679
Brilliant.
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:30.480
This is so great.
00:37:30.559 --> 00:37:34.639
I feel it's it's high stakes, you know, having to think in such tiny sentences.
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:36.719
One last one, and this is for both of you.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:41.199
One piece of advice for someone who feels like they haven't found their people yet.
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:46.079
Stay true to yourself and they will find you.
00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:51.360
I can just agree with that because I think that's the right way.
00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:52.159
Yeah.
00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:56.159
It feels like the thing that has chimed over and over, I think, in this conversation.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:38:00.320
If you know who you are, that's going to be the best starting point.
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:10.320
So if you're not sure who you are yet, spend some time trying to figure it out, what feels aligned, what feels like it brings you energy rather than sucking it all away.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:15.920
But don't be afraid at the same time to be in that uncomfortable environment to see if it might be the one for you.
00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:16.239
Yeah.
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:18.320
I think, sorry if I can just add on.
00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:18.800
Yeah.
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:28.000
Particularly younger students who are coming away from home for the first time, you've been a part of a family environment, and now you're off on your own for the first time.
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:37.039
And generally speaking, you don't really have a super solid self-concept of who I who am I as an individual, not as a part of this group I was in for so long.
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:52.960
And I think a strong self-concept is really something if you look at all of the most successful people in the world or all of the people who have had the biggest impact in the world, you they have a very strong self-concept.
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.960
They have a very deep understanding of what it is that they're doing and why.
00:38:57.280 --> 00:38:57.519
Yeah.
00:38:57.599 --> 00:38:57.840
Yeah.
00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:02.880
And I think that's quite empowering because the problem, therefore, is not how do I find the right environment.
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.159
You're starting with yourself and you have control over that.
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:06.480
Yes.
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:10.800
So begin with yourself, and that will certainly help with the next steps.
00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:13.519
Thank you so much for all of your input today.
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:15.199
It's been such a pleasure to have this conversation.
00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:16.239
Thank you.
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:16.880
It was amazing.
00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:17.440
And thank you.
00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:18.000
Thank you.
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:18.639
Nice to meet you.
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:19.920
Nice to meet you too.
00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:26.639
Today we talked about collaboration, but really we talked about something bigger, the power of environment.
00:39:27.119 --> 00:39:34.559
Because university isn't just where you earn a degree, it's where you build relationships, communities, experiences.
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:38.880
And those things often shape your future far more than you realize at the time.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:45.119
So as you go into this week, here's a simple challenge take one step towards a community.
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:53.199
Attend the event, join the society, stay after the workshop, introduce yourself, volunteer, put yourself in the room.
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:57.679
Because the people you surround yourself with will influence who you become.
00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:02.480
And one of the smartest things you can do at university is choose that environment intentionally.
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:05.840
Thank you to Galena and Jesseline for joining us.
00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:06.639
And thank you for listening.
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:14.800
Follow Strathclyde Inspire on Instagram because we share more insights about how to achieve your goals and set yourself up for success using an entrepreneurial mindset.
00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:24.960
And join us for the next episode in this series where we'll explore how to stand out without burning out and why the students who have the biggest impact aren't necessarily the ones doing the most.
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:29.280
Until next time, remember that your environment shapes your outcomes.
00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.240
I want you to think about something.
00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.400
Who do you spend the most time with?
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Not your closest friends, not your family, the people you're actually around every week, the people you sit beside, the people you live with, the people you work with on projects, the people you see at societies, the people whose opinions you listen to.
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And now here's the important question.
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Are those people helping you grow?
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Because one of the biggest myths about university is that success is all about individual effort.
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Work hard, get good grades, manage your time, stay disciplined.
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And while all of those things do matter, there's something equally important that often gets overlooked.
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Environment.
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The people around you influence what you think is normal.
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They influence your confidence, your ambitions, your opportunities, even your willingness to take risks.
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And that's why today's conversation matters so much, because finding your people isn't about being popular.
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It's not about having hundreds of friends.
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It's about intentionally building an environment that helps you become the person you want to be.
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Today's guests have both experienced the power of being in the right environment.
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Galena Sudyarova took part in the Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge while studying at the University of Strathclyde, became one of the first Inspire ambassadors, secured an internship with University Spinout Entropist, and now works there full-time.
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Jesselyn Gerboltz has built businesses, advised founders, invested in startups, and worked closely with entrepreneurial communities while completing her MBA at Strathclyde.
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Both of these women and their journeys have been shaped by the people around them.
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And today they're here to share what they know with you.
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Galena and Jesselyn, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
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When people think about success at university, they usually think about effort.
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But I'm curious whether environment deserves more credit than it actually gets.
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So, Galina, you got involved in entrepreneurial activities very early in your Strathclyde journey.
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How did being surrounded by people who were taking initiative influence your own confidence and ambitions?
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Oh, okay, Katie.
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Can I just say beforehand, thank you very much for inviting today?
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Because it's amazing to take part in the content that you're creating, because you're creating it with passion.
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And you know, I love taking part in what you do.
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So thanks again.
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So nice to see.
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Yeah, and I love the question as well.
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Um, I think you're very, very much right to kind of question just the effort and put some emphasis on environment, kind of shift this emphasis, because um, in the challenge, actually, what we did, um we were in a very diverse environment.
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Um, our team was not uh made out of entrepreneurs or business people.
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We were coming from all kinds of backgrounds.
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It was myself with public policy.
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Um, there was an accountant, someone from pharma, biotech, um, there was a finance person who was probably the closest um to the business background.
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But what I'm trying to say here is um none of us was like a perfect fit.
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And that was this amazing push in this environment where you kind of see to try something to achieve and to even succeed, you don't have to be a perfect fit.
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You can just kind of go for it, um, develop your agency, and just don't wait kind of for the perfect, the right moment, because it will never come.
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While you're waiting for a perfect moment, other people who are maybe less prepared or not a perfect fit, they just have this confidence and ambition to just go and take.
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Uh so I think that was my takeaway from being surrounded by this amazing, ambitious and creative people is that don't wait for the perfect time, just kind of go and take what you want.
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You'll become ready in the process.
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And so this was a challenge that you took part in at the university that was to do with beginning to learn how to work with people in a team, come up with an idea, and you just decided I'm going to give this a try and get involved.
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And so that was kind of the beginning of how we got to know you as a student.
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And you've had quite a long journey with us and it's been quite successful.
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We'll cover that as we go through um the episode today.
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Um, Jesselyn, you've spent years observing founders, investors, and leadership communities.
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What changes, in your opinion, when people start spending time around other ambitious people?
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I think to your point, your environment is maybe even more important than your effort.
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Because if you are in an environment in which your ambition and high effort and um high goals is looked down upon, it's going to be constantly draining that energy from you.
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So so you have, we all just have a finite pool of energy, right?
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And you can choose to be, and sometimes you can't, let me be clear about that.
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So sometimes you can't choose, but if you can, you could choose to be or in an environment where you spend a lot of energy kind of tolerating your environment, or you could be in an environment in which that environment adds to your energy and boosts you up.
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Um and so when I've seen high-performing teams, often they're they're very small teams, but it's just people who are very good at communicating, not afraid to have conflict, um, not operating out of ego or fear.
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Everybody's kind of aligned in the goal, everybody's excited about the goal, um, and everybody's very enthusiastic about kind of stepping up and building something.
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Yeah.
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Absolutely.
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So, like you say, this thing of not being afraid of conflict either.
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And I think that was something you were touching on that you weren't necessarily from the same background or from the same environment, but you had a similar goal, which was in this challenge, you're trying to create a good idea, and I suppose it will be the same in the kind of groups of people that you work with.
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Everyone's moving towards a shared ambition.
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You might not all know how you're going to get there yet.
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You might disagree about how you're going to get there, but having that ability to have conflict and have confidence that you're going in the same direction can really sort of speed things up and make things happen.
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Have either of you noticed yourself thinking bigger because of someone you met?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Okay, can I um I just want to say how much I agree with your previous point about you know finding the right environment that boosts you rather than drains you, and it's kind of like directly connected to what I'm gonna say now.
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Um, I found myself thinking bigger and acting bigger um around my team.
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Uh so I work with Entropist now, um business development manager, and we have such an incredible team.
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Uh, if if you mind, I'm gonna give a little shout out to our, you know, uh to Arash, to Nassim, and to Hussein, because what we're doing is um we're building potentially a global business from just a research idea.
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And this kind of environment, when you are surrounded by people who think globally, and you know, the baseline for them is so high, it pushes you to think bigger and do more and be more ambitious every day.
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So I'm exposed to such a great team, a small one, again, as you said, great communication, and it's it's amazing experience every day.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, no, I I I agree.
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I can think of I can think of a number of examples of this, but probably the best one is um what I was involved in a founding team of a company in New York.
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And one of my uh co-founders, he um was older, more experienced, and he's kind of typical New Yorker, very like direct, like maybe even brash guy, if you know what I'm saying.
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And I originally am from the South in the US, and so we're very, you know, polite and so forth.
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And so it was, it took us a while, and we worked together before the the business that we started.
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But when we were first working together, we kind of I was very unsure about him.
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And we had a sit-down conversation, we had a heart-to-heart, we both communicated what was going on with us, and we found a great way to work together.
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And when I we were talking about conflict before, we had a lot of conflict, but it was very positive.
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And I feel like he shaped me so much in a way that I can't even like credit anybody else for because we spent so much time and we spent so much time honing ideas.
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And when you have to really back up and uh clearly articulate exactly why you think the way you think, and then something's coming back for you, and you have very deep respect for this person on a on a very deep level, it hones your thinking in a way that that nothing else does.
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Um, and I came out of that, you know, with so many skills I didn't have beforehand, but also with so much exposure to different parts of different kinds of business that I didn't have before.
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So then now I had things that I was interested in that I wasn't even aware of before I had that experience.
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And then I also had such a great group of friends in New York.
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They were all kind of in the tech environment, they were all doing something interesting, something cool.
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And so again, when you're like in a room where it's like, okay, everybody, I'm like, wow, you're doing that, and you're doing that, and you're doing that, and we're all just kind of encouraging each other, you know?
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So I've definitely find that I don't know if it's a whole cross-American thing, yeah, or just the the areas of America that I've been to.
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Yeah.
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But being in Scotland, I don't think we necessarily always want to talk ourselves up about the things we intend to do.
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Um, and anytime I found in America when I've talked about a plan or an ambition, the person who's speaking to me has always gone, Oh wow, that's amazing, that's fantastic, tell me more.
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And they've been so convinced that I was going to do it when they don't even really know me, that it felt like a kind of different way of thinking, and it has been quite useful, I think, sometimes.
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So I do think it's quite a powerful idea that the people you surround yourself, even if it's just one good person, someone who has different experiences to you, someone who's further down the road, or if you yourself are further down the road, someone who is just starting, that kind of contrast can really be very useful.
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And it's about seeing what's possible through someone else's example or someone else's lens.
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I think many students might underestimate how one community can change basically their entire university experience.
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I mean, you started with the Exploring Entrepreneurship Challenge, Galina, and then later you became an ambassador of Strathclyde Inspire, and we're the kind of organization who do the challenge.
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How did those communities change you, or what did they give you that you might not have been able to gain through your studies alone?
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Okay, let's see.
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Um, so because I was doing masters in parallel with the challenge and ambassadorship, it's kind of like a great uh thing to compare.
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Um, in terms of uh, you know, classic education, it's still great.
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It gives you a wide variety of uh skills, it prepares you for your career, uh, but it's very different to what you will get from the extracurricular activities.
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Uh, because I would say um in the classic education, you you're giving a bit less of creativity, but also it limits um the horizon of your thought in a way, because you're kind of given the template that you have to fit into.
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When you're doing the extracurricula, such a complicated word.
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First of all, you're already stepping out of your comfort zone.
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Uh so you're going after something new that you want to try, or maybe something that you already love, but just kind of in a new version, and you go out and you socialize.
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And I think it's a very like two important aspects.
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First of all, is um the challenge and the ambassadorship.
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They gave me this opportunity to kind of act and think outside of the box and be more creative in um my activities.
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And then second, it was a wider socialization because you exposed um to, as we mentioned before, way more environments, which is very important.
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Uh, you meet people not just from your course, so not just people with shared interests and shared knowledge, but also people from other backgrounds, and it kind of enriches your whole student experience.
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And I would say it prepares you way more for a real world as well.
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Because once you graduate, you kind of go out there and you're not in this enclosed environment anymore.
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You're by yourself and you need to be prepared for a more complex environment.
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So I think those were my takeaways.
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That sounds absolutely it chimes with the kind of same experience I think I've had um with university, that this idea of you're there for the grades, and that there are these kind of criteria that you need to check off and you you fit in this template and you get that thing done.
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And then there's this whole other world outside of that that's so much larger and messier, I think, and uncertain.
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Um, and if you can learn how to thrive in that at the same time, then university can do so much more for you than you need the grades so that you can prove I have this knowledge, but then alongside that, having the ability to kind of exist in the messy world and to forge a direction for yourself is is a really big learning point for university.
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Yeah.
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I mean, you've worked across countries, businesses, networks.
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Have there been communities that have fundamentally changed your direction or accelerated your growth?
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Yeah, um, so just to add on, it kind of goes with it, but just to add on to this point too, I think for universities it's so important too, because in addition to being a place of learning, it's a place of discovery, right?
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You have academics that are working on very new and interesting technologies or you know, life science solutions for medical problems, things like that.
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And I think so often it sort of goes buried and unused.
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So when you have a university that really has a thriving entrepreneurship scene, um, you can take some of those things out of the lab and put bring them into the real world and make them, you know, helpful and useful to people, if that makes any sense.
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So I think I think there's such a difference in a university when they really have uh a really good thriving um entrepreneurial environment.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
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And I think that was one of the reasons you wanted to come to Strathclyde.
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Yes, exactly.
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Yeah, when I was like, me and my husband were, well, we were coming to Scotland in particular, but I kind of looked around and I found that I felt that Strathclyde was very entrepreneurial uh in comparison and that they had a really good program and I liked what Inspire was doing, so yeah.
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Yeah.
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So I came and got involved.
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Lucky us.
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Um and so of course there's the idea of joining a community and thinking, I want to be part of this.
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But being part of a community, I guess, is larger than just joining.
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Does anyone have an opinion, the difference between joining and truly participating?
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Well, yeah, I mean, you can you can just sort of show up on a daily basis or just kind of pop in here or there, but I guess maybe the underlying difference would be whether you're building a community in that group, um, whether you're developing sort of deeper relationships with the people around you to the point where that would be somebody you would call on, you know, you'd be integrated more into that world.
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And so those people would obviously then have a much deeper impact on you.
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Um, versus, you know, I mean, and it can be tempting to just kind of pop in here or there, show up because we all have busy lives and and things.
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But I do think it is really important to actually build a deeper community for yourself and find people within, you know, those those groups that um are really there for you.
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Um, maybe not even in like a personal way, but in a in a professional way, right?
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You have you have mentors, you have people that you can call on when you're in a difficult situation because there will be many difficult situations.
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So yeah.
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For Sarah.
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Do you have a uh an opinion on whether there's a difference between joining a community and being a participant in it?
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Yeah, yeah, I think um so these two, they are just kind of different roles um of the same phenomenon.
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Uh joining a community, just being a part of it, I think it's more about taking or maybe like a form of exchange.
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So it's more about what you're gaining and the benefits that you get from the community, versus participating in one is probably aspiring to contribute more and probably um leaving it in a better state rather than uh to compare in comparison to what you found it to be when you just joined.
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So I think participating is about contributing.
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Um, but it doesn't mean that you know one or the other is necessarily worse or better.
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It's just different modes of how we interact with the community.
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Um but um as Jocelyn mentioned, you know, it's so important to kind of especially if it's a small community, try and give.
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Um because, you know, those are people who might need something from this community.
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And if you operate together, you might build something great.
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And I'm sure like Inspire Hub one day used to be like a tiny, tiny, tiny community, but now it's grown in something so big because of people who were participating and contributing rather than just kind of taking.
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It's definitely something I've noticed from the way both of you kind of operate, and um it has kind of singled you out, I think, that you arrived and you quickly began to do things that would be useful to the entire ecosystem.
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You became an ambassador, and so you were telling other students the opportunities that they could do, explaining what your experience had been so that other people could see themselves in that, and you immediately, I felt you were in the hub, you took part in the challenge yourself as well, even though that kind of level of experience is definitely something you already had.
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So you were giving your expertise to the students who were taking part, and then you were hosting events, you're bringing people together, and it makes you visible in a way that I think is really useful to other people in the community, and so it makes such a big difference.
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I definitely think that it's true that collaborating and asking, not what can I get from this group of people, but how can I contribute makes such a huge difference, and it definitely has singled both of you out to me when I've been in the ecosystem myself.
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So one thing I think students can feel quite a lot of pressure about is friendship and the expectation that you should have this huge social circle when you get to university, you find your people, you find your friends, and that if you can't do that quite quickly, if you haven't figured it out, you'll get left behind because these groups will form and you won't be part of them.
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So, how do you know when you found the right people and not necessarily just more people?
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Galena, were there relationships during your time at Strathclyde that opened your eyes to opportunities or possibilities that you hadn't necessarily considered?
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Yes.
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Uh, but you know, Katie, the thing that you said just before, in terms of not fitting into already formed uh community, that was kind of my case.
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Uh, because I was originally supposed to start my studies in September, uh, but my visa got rejected, so it got shifted to January intake.
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And essentially um I began my classes um in the same group with students who've been studying from September already, and they had a big friend group, and I was like, oh, kind of like, what do I do now?
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Yeah, how do I fit into this?
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Um so, but yeah, I I kind of tried to open up this group and get in there, and it was kind of successful.
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Um, I just connected with one person, I didn't even know that they had this huge uh friend group behind them already, but I ended up uh at a house party, and that's how I met all those other people.
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Um but the point here is not just about meeting this like large friend group.
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I think it's about um, especially as an international student, creating sort of a support system here.
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Because um, you rightfully said it's not about uh the quantity, it's about the quality.
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And when you start your university journey, especially like far away from home, you want um to have people here who probably are in the similar situation, and people who can relate to your experience, and you can also kind of all support each other while you're away from your families and your normal environment.
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And that kind of what happened in our friend group because everyone was from everywhere.
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We had like two people from Norway, uh, Spain, Chile, a local person, India, everywhere.
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And none of us, besides the Scottish person, had a family here.
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So we were all kind of like a family to each other and supporting in that way.
00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:03.279
And uh even As a local student, not an international one.
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I think similar experience in a way because you are away from your family who, for example, lives in a different city or something like that.
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Just kind of it's important to find a local support system.
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It can be one, two people, a big friend group.
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Just kind of, I would say, look out for quality in that way.
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What qualities do you think you look for in the people that you choose to spend time with?
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Oh, I was actually really thinking about this recently.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:38.160
So in my old age, I've gotten a lot more particular about uh quality over quantity because you have you have just less energy.
00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:39.119
Yeah, for sure.
00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:47.920
Frankly, when I was uh 18, this is 20 years ago, uh in university, I was, you know, I was like, let's let's go out every night with everybody, you know.
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.519
And now I'm like, I just can't.
00:22:49.759 --> 00:23:00.480
Um, but so qualities that I look for, I look for um, I really enjoy interacting and feel inspired by people who have high agency.
00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:14.559
They're very curious, they have a growth mindset, um, they have a high tolerance for discomfort, trying new things, putting themselves in new environments, um, enjoy discussing ideas rather than people.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:15.119
Right.
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:16.880
Um things like that.
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:20.559
Yeah, that all sounds like very good advice.
00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:25.119
I really especially enjoyed discussing ideas rather than people.
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.240
I feel like that's something I can pass on to my children actually.
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.519
You can start young with that.
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:32.880
Find people who are who are interested in talking about ideas rather than people.
00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:34.799
That's definitely what I'm gonna tuck into my pocket.
00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:43.279
Do you think that there are any signs in a group or an environment that actually it's holding you back rather than helping you grow?
00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:44.799
Yeah, for sure.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:50.960
I think um, and I'm one, you know, I you should treat everybody with kindness and respect.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:54.720
And if I'm in a group with people, I will try to be friends with everybody.
00:23:54.960 --> 00:24:02.880
Um, some sometimes I've realized almost to a fault where I'm like, I'm really trying very hard, but feeling very drained by this.
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:08.880
Um, and perhaps spending time and energy doing things and being places that aren't serving me.
00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:15.759
So um I I just tend to go on what I said earlier, kind of how does this interaction make me feel?
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.039
Do I feel drained or do I feel like boosted?
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:26.880
Um and then I'll choose to allocate my time and energy in into places and situations and people where I feel energized.
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:27.599
Absolutely.
00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:31.440
Getting that energy from the grip is going to be a sign that it's going well.
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:44.000
If you do feel disconnected or maybe stuck in the wrong circles, is there anything you would encourage students to do, Galina, who might feel, oh, I think I've, you know, I've I've spent all this time and effort to get into this friend group.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.960
Now I'm here, it doesn't feel quite right to me the right fit.
00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:49.200
Any advice what to do in that circumstance?
00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:53.200
Okay, so I think first of all, it's completely normal, right?
00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:56.079
We have we have a right to change our mind.
00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.839
We are changing ourselves.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.240
So if we don't fit a particular environment anymore, especially as we grow, it's completely normal.
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:12.559
Sometimes it's way better to let go what is not a fit for you anymore rather than trying to kind of squeeze back into that.
00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:22.720
So if you don't feel comfortable in your environment anymore, of course, like don't try to feed back in.
00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:28.559
Um, I would say um don't keep it to yourself as well.
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:47.279
Um talk to your close people, talk to maybe your other friend group, or not in the way of like gossiping, not in a way of discussing people, but more like seeking for the advice, kind of because you don't want to lose a big part of your community that straight away it's it's hard.
00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.759
You kind of need to have it as an informed and prepared decision.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.880
And then also I would say speak to your family, just speak to people who are close to you.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.200
Um, it's a hard situation to be in, but you don't want to be there for too long.
00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:01.519
Yeah.
00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:06.480
So just kind of seek for a way out, uh, but the least painful one, I would say.
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:11.200
Because I think university can be such a time of change, and you're working out who you are.
00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:14.400
In fact, life is probably larger than that.
00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:24.640
You're always kind of working out who you are, and the more that you begin to understand yourself, you might begin to understand the people around you better and realize, oh, actually, that isn't the fit that I thought it was.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:37.279
And so we're all moving along this journey trying to figure out who we are, and the closer we get to that, the closer we can get to being with the people who help us to be who we are, I think.
00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:47.920
So thinking practically, if imagine you're speaking to someone who's starting university this month, they want to make the most of their time, they maybe don't know that many people yet.
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:48.960
Where should they start?
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:55.759
If you had to build your university environment again or any kind of fresh start, what would you do in your first month?
00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:02.319
I mean, I think this well take a step back.
00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:12.240
I think it's really, really important to know yourself really well and sit down and intentionally think to yourself, what am I interested in?
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:16.240
And who can I interact with that's interested in something similar?
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:17.839
Because there's so many groups.
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:29.759
Like the amount of groups at Strathclyde when I first got there that I heard about is like there's so like anything you can think of, if you're interested in it, there's somebody else meeting up to discuss this.
00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:30.960
Right?
00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:36.240
So just really take time and think to yourself like, what am I truly interested in?
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:39.519
What kind of environment am I am I interested in?
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:46.400
And also just really develop the confidence to live your life aligned with your inner voice, right?
00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:59.200
Don't repress yourself or or try to change yourself or alter yourself in any way to sort of fit in with a group because those relationships are never going to be satisfying because they don't know you and they're not going to be aligned with you.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:06.079
When you're very deeply aligned with yourself and you know yourself, you find other people who are on that same playing field.
00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:15.200
So it's, you know, just turn up, be really proactive, be really like interested in specifically what you want, and go for it.
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:16.079
Fantastic.
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:16.640
Yeah.
00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:20.720
I think it's so true of the when you can know yourself.
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:27.920
When you're at school and I see it with my own children, you go through the stage of fitting in.
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:29.440
It's very important to fit in.
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:38.720
I think even biologically, in terms of our evolution, that stage fitting in is more important than standing out because it's about safety.
00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:50.880
And then you get to university and it's a chance to kind of start again, and you don't necessarily want to follow the same rules that you did at school about fitting in is the most important thing to do for safety.
00:28:51.039 --> 00:29:13.200
Instead, it's actually helpful to think about the ways in which you might stand out and then look for the other people who do that too, um, because it is that moment when you can really make decisions based on, like you say, that inner voice rather than the forces of the crowd that might be more shaping you, I think, at a younger age.
00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:15.200
Any advice for that first month?
00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:19.039
How to listen to that inner voice and find the people who are going to be the right ones for you?
00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:22.240
First month, wow, that's the most intense one, right?
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:32.240
It's um when you like arrive and you see the university, you try to figure out your way around the campus, everything is kind of overwhelming and new.
00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:35.200
Um I would say so.
00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:41.200
The first month is kind of like it's the season of the high opportunities.
00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:51.839
It's when you have most opportunities, like Freshers Week, um, all this society is kind of presenting themselves, there's a society fair, you can go and sign up for everything.
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:53.359
I think like everything.
00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:13.519
Um, so I would say, like, in the first month, while you see still have the energy, while you don't have your assignments and you know, like routine anymore, um, I would say try and expose yourself to as many communities as you can, because um, as you go, you'll see what kind of like what's the best fit for you.
00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:16.160
Uh because it's not a hard commitment, right?
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:21.279
You don't have to you signed up there and you have to graduate from the same kind of society.
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:24.000
No, you can kind of drop off any second.
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:30.480
I'm not saying about the unsustainable practice in terms of starting everything and then just never finishing.
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:35.359
I'm saying about more finding what works the best for you early on.
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:40.240
So then later on, you can stick to what's most aligned with you.
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:50.319
And in my time, I did like three different societies, and I ended up just with one because I felt like the best fit and it gave me the best result at the end.
00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:53.200
So I think just figuring out as you go.
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:59.279
Saying yes to those opportunities that show up at the start, because so many do, like you both have highlighted.
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:07.440
There's everything at university, there's all sorts of people right at the start, it's all out there for you to choose from, and it can feel overwhelming.
00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:12.720
But if you can manage to say yes when you have that energy, then you might find the ones that stick over the longer term.
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:20.000
How did saying yes to one opportunity eventually lead to an internship for you and then the start of your career?
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:20.880
Oh, yeah.
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:33.279
So um it's been like a very uh long but a very fast-paced journey over the last couple of years uh with those incredible developments uh with Inspire and now with my work.
00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:41.279
Um, and I would say those were not like this, were not just oh yes, yes, yeah, let's go, let's go.
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:54.640
It was more like being proactive and reaching out and seeking for their opportunities because I felt back then I felt that I found the community that I like, and I love people in the community.
00:31:54.799 --> 00:32:05.440
I love being surrounded by um, as Jocelyne mentioned, like so many innovators that you feel that you are capable, you are so capable and you want to do the same thing.
00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:14.319
And um, it was just kind of once I found what I like, I just started reaching out there and seeking for more opportunities in the same field.
00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:16.880
So it was very intentional.
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:21.359
It was just building my career path in the place that I loved.
00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:22.640
It's as simple as that.
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:29.359
Yeah, and that's that's how like opportunities were created because I think I was reaching out and asking for them.
00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:37.839
And now more opportunities kind of naturally just appear and fall uh back to me on an in a nice way.
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:39.359
Um so yeah.
00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:43.359
It can be uncomfortable though, being the one to make that ask.
00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:50.079
Why do successful people do you think Jessaline often place themselves in these kind of slightly uncomfortable environments?
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.279
Um, because that's how you grow and you're gonna get bored otherwise.
00:32:53.359 --> 00:33:10.960
I think if you're a person who's um uh really wanting to build something and really wanting to do something new and impactful, um, that is just inherently going to be different and uncomfortable because it's not standard quo or status quo, sorry, excuse me.
00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:21.839
Um and so I think the more you put yourself in positions where you expand, um, the greater the opportunity you find yourself in.
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:24.960
I mean, it's it's and it compounds upon itself, right?
00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:27.279
To your point, where it's like it's like one thing.
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:34.400
I tell my younger siblings, because I am the oldest, and my youngest sibling is 18 years younger than me, and then there's Wow, okay.
00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:35.759
So they're younger than me.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:42.559
And I'm like, anything that you want to do, when you look at it, it seems so far away, it seems such a big jump.
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:43.759
Just do one thing.
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.720
Just do one thing, and then the next day do one more thing, and that's it.
00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:54.559
And then you look back two years later and you're like amazed at the progress that you've that you've had.
00:33:54.799 --> 00:34:00.960
I think that works for pretty much everything, whether it's like a career goal, it's a friendship goal, it's finding the environment.
00:34:01.279 --> 00:34:02.799
Literally climbing a mountain.
00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:11.199
We went in the summer to do our climb our first one role in Scotland with my family, and I've climbed them before, so I knew that it would be fine.
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:18.320
But I have two kids and one of them's quite little, and they're looking, going, which one is it that we're going to climb to trying to see the top.
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:22.719
And I was saying, I don't actually know which of those peaks it is that we're getting to.
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:23.840
Here's the path here.
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:25.920
We're just going to follow this path.
00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:30.880
Because I could see one of them was feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the prospect of how am I going to?
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:34.159
I want to know which one it is, so that I can look at the enormity of that.
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:39.280
And I was thinking, I don't think that's going to be useful to them right now, because it does look enormous.
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:40.719
So this is the path we're on.
00:34:40.880 --> 00:34:42.159
Look at that bird over there.
00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:44.480
Look at this lovely view that we can see already.
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:47.840
Look back, see how far we've come, and we got to the top.
00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:50.880
And I think that that was one of the ways that got us there.
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:58.719
And I think that's so I'm going to use that, I think, in the future, and I already have, when they're feeling a bit overwhelmed about, I don't know if I can do this thing.
00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:01.440
It's like, well, don't think of it as this mountain.
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:06.880
You're just getting to the end of this part of the path that you can see, and then we'll we'll make the next move from there.
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:11.360
Well, I just to add on to that too, you create opportunities for yourself in this way.
00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:17.360
So also kind of back to what I was saying before about really knowing yourself, spending time intentionally think about what your interests are.
00:35:17.519 --> 00:35:19.360
That's what I did when I first came here.
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:23.039
Um, I was like, what I knew I wanted to be a part of the startup community.
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:25.519
So let me just get involved, let me start asking questions.
00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:32.719
And I start to see, okay, there's, you know, barrier to scale in Scotland for a lot of these companies.
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:33.519
Why is that?
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:35.840
What are these underlying structural reasons?
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:45.360
And so I just had many, many conversations with lots of people about that to try to think about what's the what's the what's a problem here, what could I do to help solve that problem?
00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:52.960
And so as I'm talking to people, I'm then going to other people and being like, listen, here's here's what's going on, here's what I think should be done.
00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:55.440
You're you seem like in a position to do this.
00:35:55.760 --> 00:35:58.880
And, you know, not I can't say too much about it.
00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:08.239
Again, we talked about this earlier, but like now, now I'm kind of have created opportunities for myself in this world of, okay, I've spent time thinking about this problem.
00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:16.480
How can I fit in now in this ecosystem to help solve that with, you know, people I probably wouldn't have been connected to otherwise?
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:16.880
Yeah.
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:17.119
Yeah.
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:25.119
So putting yourself in, being willing to put yourself in that environment and it will eventually show you a way.
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:25.679
Yes.
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:29.280
As long as you're willing to then take that way when it's presented to you.
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:30.880
This is so useful.
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:39.119
And having this kind of conversation before people might start university, so they're thinking about it intentionally when they go in, I think can be so useful.
00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:40.880
Can we do some rapid fire?
00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:43.760
So, like the shorter answers just to finish up.
00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:45.119
So, one sentence if you can.
00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:46.639
I appreciate it, can be hard.
00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:51.519
Jessaline, one type of person that every student should try to have in their life.
00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:53.920
Someone you can call when you feel discouraged.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:54.960
Okay.
00:36:55.440 --> 00:36:59.920
Galena, one quality that makes someone great to collaborate with.
00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:03.199
Their ability to listen.
00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:04.320
Yes, okay.
00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:05.760
Listen intentionally.
00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:11.599
Jessaline, one thing students should stop doing when they're trying to fit in.
00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:16.400
Repressing their inner voice.
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:17.599
Okay.
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.320
Galena, complete the sentence.
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:26.480
The best opportunities usually come from you trying and reaching out.
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:28.719
They come from proactive approach.
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:29.679
Brilliant.
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:30.480
This is so great.
00:37:30.559 --> 00:37:34.639
I feel it's it's high stakes, you know, having to think in such tiny sentences.
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:36.719
One last one, and this is for both of you.
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:41.199
One piece of advice for someone who feels like they haven't found their people yet.
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:46.079
Stay true to yourself and they will find you.
00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:51.360
I can just agree with that because I think that's the right way.
00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:52.159
Yeah.
00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:56.159
It feels like the thing that has chimed over and over, I think, in this conversation.
00:37:56.320 --> 00:38:00.320
If you know who you are, that's going to be the best starting point.
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:10.320
So if you're not sure who you are yet, spend some time trying to figure it out, what feels aligned, what feels like it brings you energy rather than sucking it all away.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:15.920
But don't be afraid at the same time to be in that uncomfortable environment to see if it might be the one for you.
00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:16.239
Yeah.
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:18.320
I think, sorry if I can just add on.
00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:18.800
Yeah.
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:28.000
Particularly younger students who are coming away from home for the first time, you've been a part of a family environment, and now you're off on your own for the first time.
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:37.039
And generally speaking, you don't really have a super solid self-concept of who I who am I as an individual, not as a part of this group I was in for so long.
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:52.960
And I think a strong self-concept is really something if you look at all of the most successful people in the world or all of the people who have had the biggest impact in the world, you they have a very strong self-concept.
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.960
They have a very deep understanding of what it is that they're doing and why.
00:38:57.280 --> 00:38:57.519
Yeah.
00:38:57.599 --> 00:38:57.840
Yeah.
00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:02.880
And I think that's quite empowering because the problem, therefore, is not how do I find the right environment.
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.159
You're starting with yourself and you have control over that.
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:06.480
Yes.
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:10.800
So begin with yourself, and that will certainly help with the next steps.
00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:13.519
Thank you so much for all of your input today.
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:15.199
It's been such a pleasure to have this conversation.
00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:16.239
Thank you.
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:16.880
It was amazing.
00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:17.440
And thank you.
00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:18.000
Thank you.
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:18.639
Nice to meet you.
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:19.920
Nice to meet you too.
00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:26.639
Today we talked about collaboration, but really we talked about something bigger, the power of environment.
00:39:27.119 --> 00:39:34.559
Because university isn't just where you earn a degree, it's where you build relationships, communities, experiences.
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:38.880
And those things often shape your future far more than you realize at the time.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:45.119
So as you go into this week, here's a simple challenge take one step towards a community.
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:53.199
Attend the event, join the society, stay after the workshop, introduce yourself, volunteer, put yourself in the room.
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:57.679
Because the people you surround yourself with will influence who you become.
00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:02.480
And one of the smartest things you can do at university is choose that environment intentionally.
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:05.840
Thank you to Galena and Jesseline for joining us.
00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:06.639
And thank you for listening.
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:14.800
Follow Strathclyde Inspire on Instagram because we share more insights about how to achieve your goals and set yourself up for success using an entrepreneurial mindset.
00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:24.960
And join us for the next episode in this series where we'll explore how to stand out without burning out and why the students who have the biggest impact aren't necessarily the ones doing the most.
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:29.280
Until next time, remember that your environment shapes your outcomes.
