Sneak peak! 👀 Designing Differently: Dyslexia, Leadership, and Design with Dicky Lewis

0:00Dicky Lewis:How do you feel like it does shape you? How do you feel that you might lead differently or design differently? It's always hard to self-evaluate but I definitely have focus and attention issues which is kind of obviously at school looking back on my own course it's quite shocking but I see it now as kind of pace and the cadence of how I'm getting through processes and ideas. I think that's kind of that that instigation that has really helped white red or helps in business and we often heard joke between jesus and i at one of my co-founders jesus he's more of an implementer and i'm more of an instigator and then joe almost sits perfectly somewhere in between and that instigation and implementation you kind of can't have one without the other um because it's just full-on instigating and never getting anywhere it's probably where i would be without that that support and help you know that's what i think you know i i found that with being dyslexic i found that kind of lack of attention span and focus that you can actually use it to advantage and in exploring ideas and testing things so yeah i know what you mean after like a little bit kind of gets boring yeah who drops off and you're onto the next thing oh fabs i've done you know i think my wife was joking once about me i was i was desperate to set up a business from from the early age and then you know i was almost getting frustrated of not being set up my practice quickly so i was like oh maybe i'll just set up a house painting business and my wife's like what is wrong with you just stick to the path keep going why you don't know anything about house painting and you touched on richard branson so i want to pick up on that because you did i don't know if you'll be able to get pictures of version of you to like share with this podcast yeah definitely um that would be wicked but yeah how did that all come about how did you get the brief how did you get the opportunity yeah so originally we were introduced uh into to the virgin team they were looking at just doing a small refurbishment so i think we pitched first to help with this very small job and that then suddenly you know they came in and they said you know good news and bad news the bad news is this we've got to cancel this job it's stopping i thought what's the good news there and the good news was that they're actually looking that they're kind of procuring their own headquarters but there was a kind of kicker in that is that you have to re-pitch again and because it's a way bigger job it's you know it's not a given at all that you're going to get this so it was kind of back to the table the pitch mode again you know we were so happy to have you got the first opportunity to work for virgin and uh so the second one was the was really the main pitch and that's where we we threw everything at it and honestly it meant a lot to me and also to us as a team um i also did the version startup accelerator before as part of setting up white red so we were part of the startup alumni so we really pitched our hearts out and said we will do everything to make this successful and work and you know we are that cheeky startup that you know you you think of yourselves as it was an amazing pitch process because it was the first pitch where we just did everything we could think of to try and win it and uh it was really great when we did win it was just so exciting but we had a mammoth task ahead of us i think typically what's the biggest point and what some of these clients are looking at as well when we pitch is are they going to get on well with the team a lot a lot of projects that we pitch for they say we want to see some of the team members as well so you know it's very important we're all you know human and we need to make sure and especially on construction jobs it's a long journey when you do encounter difficulties you want to hopefully understand that you're going to get on and work well with those people and it works both ways as the client team and gear consultant team we got to gel to make it successful there's also that balance of letting yourself enjoy it and i think that's what i've started to try and work on a bit more as well is the the reality is that our practice is a lifestyle business it's not a tech scalable startup that's gonna 100x and and when you exit it's this is a this is a business that we we need to enjoy and go on the journey with for our lives and enjoy the work enjoy working with the team and enjoy working with other consultants and suppliers yeah it's a really good message not just to founders and um directors but also to everybody like if you're in this you're in a really enjoyable you're tangibly making a difference to people's everyday yeah and like it's so much more than just a transaction so i mean when uh we've completed uh so richard came and had a little round and it was myself and charlotte and our client who who showed him around and showed up everything and it was funny because it was not quite finished it was just pc day number three so practical completion and all the lights were 100 luminescence and lux level whereas they were meant to be tailored and dim down and it's the dali system which hadn't been set up right so he's he's just going around be like okay yeah great but it's really bright but it's not going to be like this he just kept on saying it's really bright it's really bright so it was one of those moments he's like oh god this is more tonight but but overall he you know he loved it and it was quite cool because he'd been out the night before with Niall Rogers and like opening his hotel in Shoreditch so he's a little bit hungover or tired and and so when he thought it was bright yeah yeah I should grab some sunglasses but it was really lovely to show him around it was obviously a dream come true to even meet him and uh we sat down on the sofa and had a little chat and and some say you're into the dyslexic architects and he actually ended up writing an article about the dyslexic architect that did hit their quarters so it's really nice as well because um i wrote an article about that on their intranet and he picked up and and kind of wrote his own version of it as well and then it was really lovely last christmas i came back in january and one of his team got in touch oh so richard wanted to send you something and and uh i was like what amazing and then they said oh it's a it's a handwritten note and it was this amazing card from Necker Island you know so Rachel Branson and just thank you Dickie for our headquarters and your team yeah I really appreciate the new headquarters and it was just like a handwritten note that kind of shocked me that he'd taken that time out you know his time his precious time to do something you know so courteous it was really inspiring about you know how he where he was the impact he had on other people.