After being fostered, Andrew Missingham became a drummer and musical director on gold-certified UK records, then spent three years running British Council music programmes across 43 countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, then lead arts programming at the ICA. He later moved into data and strategy, becoming a Chief Data & Insights Officer and AI adoption pioneer for clients including Nike, Google, Unilever, Discord and the Southbank Centre, and a serial entrepreneur who founded 8 businesses and built and exited a 30-person consultancy.
In 2020, the pace caught up with him. A nervous collapse forced Andrew to rebuild his life from the ground up, and 1,300 consecutive days of vipassana meditation later, he's become one of the most thoughtful voices on what it looks like for a man to lead by listening instead of force. Andrew now lives by a mantra tattooed on his arm: Live to Listen. Listen to Learn. Learn to Share.
Andrew is one of the most genuinely curious people I've met, and someone who has spent decades doing the connective, uncredited work of bringing people, culture and data together without ever chasing recognition for it.
In this episode we cover:
Choosing to be fostered
How drumming led to managing and producing
Blacktronica Club nights at the ICA and other memorable events
What is an ‘insight’?
His 2020 nervous collapse and what it forced him to rebuild
The 4 key steps of his recovery: his new tools
A 10-day Vipassana that led him back to his foster parents
What gentle masculinity looks like in practice, and leading by listening
His fears of being a good father & his relationship with his daughter
Mentions:
Emergency on Planet Earth by Jamiroquai (1993 album)
The Messengers (1995) by Barungwa
Blacktronika https://www.blacktronika.com/
The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts)
Dhamma Sukhakāri https://www.dhamma.org/en/schedules/schsukhakari
The Eye's Mind by Bridget RileyAbout a Boy (film)Shakara by Fela Kuti, ft. Tony Allen on drums
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmissingham/
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