Work and Career

1.?????What do you do for work, and what’s one thing you enjoy about it? (I run an education company, so when I’m not on YouTube, I’m making my English courses, and my favorite part of the job is receiving feedback from my students who’ve taken the courses.

2.?????How did you get started in your line of work? (It all started with this YouTube channel here in 2019, and then slowly, it grew into sth. a little bigger.

3.?????What projects are you currently working on? (We are currently working on a huge project, which is our C1 level course, our advanced English course. It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to come out in May. If you’re watching this in the future, check the description box. I will leave a link, and if you are interested, I have left the waiting list so you’ll be the first to know.)

4.?????What do you think the future of your industry looks like? (I think it has a lot more artificial intelligence involved.)

5.?????What’s one thing you’ve learnt recently that’s helped you in your job? (I have learnt to listen carefully to criticism but to not take it all to heart.)

6.?????What’s the best professional advice you’ve ever received?

Well, it’s not the most impressive, amazing, mind-blowing piece of advice ever, but when my YouTube channel was starting to make a little bit of income. I asked my dad if I should do it or if I should continue with my planned career path, and he said, “Give it a go. Do it for two years. If it doesn’t work, you’ll only be 23. All you’ve lost is a little bit of time.” It ended up being the best piece of advice I’ve ever followed.

7.?????What do you think sets successful people apart in your field? (I think they are excited about what they do and what they create.)

8.?????What’s one challenge you’ve faced at work, and how did you overcome it? (One thing I found really difficult is managing a team of people. That’s not ever something I thought I was going to be doing, and I’ve been trying to overcome it. I’m still learning. Recently, I have opened my calendar so that at the beginning of every month, everyone who works for me can check in for a 20- minute chat. We start this next week, so I hope that will help me be more in touch with my employees.

9.?????Do you have any career goals you’re working towards? (I would say more of a lifestyle goal. I would like to not have to work all the time whilst my children are young. I’m not expecting children at the moment, but I would like to have them in the future.

10.?Have you ever had an interesting work experience or job? ( I worked in a juice bar for a number of years, and I learnt a lot about fruit, and I love fruit, so that was great for me.)

Travel

1.?????Have you travelled anywhere recently, and where did you go? (Most recently, we visited Thailand, and we went to Phuket and Ko Yao Noi, and it was beautiful.

2.?????What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and why? (That would have to be Seville. I totally fell in love with the city and its culture, and its people.)

3.?????Where would you like to go on your next trip? (WE really would like to go to Vietnam. I am desperate to try pho I think it’s called the bone broth soup with noodles-pho. I just really am desperate to see that country.

4.?????Do you prefer relaxing vacations or adventure trips, and why? (I like to have a good balance. I do need to get the relaxation out of my system. I need to read a book. I need to lie in the shade. I need to swim. But I go a bit stale if I stay relaxing for too long. I need to do things and see things.

5.?????What’s one unique or exotic food you’ve tried while travelling? (Most recently, mangosteen. That fruit blew my mind. It was so delicious, I wish I could eat it every day.)

6.?????What’s the craziest or most memorable thing you’ve done on vacation? ( I would say climbing to the top of Lion’s Head in Cape Town at sunrise. That was absolutely beautiful.)

7.?????What’s your favorite way to travel? (In style.)

8.?????Do you prefer travelling alone or with others, and why? (Always with my husband. Well, my husband was a farmer, and now he works with me. And before, I used to travel alone, and I used to think, “damn it, he would love to see this. I always used to feel so sad that he couldn’t come with me. So now it’s such a pleasure to travel together.”

9.?????Have you ever had a negative travel experience, and how did you handle it? (Yes. I once turned up at a supposedly five-star hotel that was nothing like the photos, and I very calmly explained that I was going to move to another hotel and I’d like a refund. And luckily, they did comply.

10.?What’s one cultural experience you’ve had while travelling that you’ll never forget? (La Feria de Abril en Seville- the Feria in Seville. It’s just this incredible party with striped marquees everywhere. Everyone wears flamenco dresses. I can’t wait to go back.

Hobbies and Interests

1.?????What’s one hobby or interest you’re passionate about? (Exercise. It just makes me feel so good.)

2.?????What’s the most recent hobby or interest you’ve taken up? (I would say learning Italian with my tutor, Alice, who is amazing. I found here on LanguaTalk, which is a platform that I’m a part of. You can find you own tutor for the language you’re learning. There’s a link down below.)

3.?????Do you have any hidden talents that people might not know about? ( I can play the violin, and I’m also really flexible.)

4.?????What’s one thing you’ve learnt recently that’s related to your hobby or interest? (I’ve learnt to speak Italian a little bit.)

5.?????Have you ever taken a class or workshop related to your hobby or interest? (Oh, well, a workshop I took recently was a jewellery-making workshop where I learnt to make a silver bangle, and that was great fun.)

6.?????What’s the most adventurous or daring thing you’ve done related to your hobby or interest? (Well, to do with language learning, I think going to Spain at the age of 16,17 and spending a week there, immersing myself in the language, was quite daring. I spent ages saving up for the language course myself, and it was fantastic and the start of my language teaching career, basically.

7.?????What’s one thing you’d like to learn or accomplish related to your hobby or interest? (Well, if we’re going to talk about language learning, I always like to learn how to make people laugh in the language I’m learning. That gives me satisfaction.)

8.?????Do you prefer indoor or outdoor activities, and why?

Well, it’s hard to say. If the weather is good. Outdoor 110%. But I’m English. I live in England, so I’ve just bought a treadmill to run indoors.

9.?????What’s one activity or interest you’d like to try in the future? (What I wanna do…? I don’t know… Oh, I don’t know why, but I really want to try archery.

10.?What’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever learnt unrelated to work or school? (How to run a business. It’s such an amazing experience, and learnt absolutely nothing about it at school.)

Food and Drink

1.?????What’s your favorite type of food, and why? (Fruit, because it’s so refreshing. It tastes amazing, and it makes me feel good.

2.?????Do you enjoy cooking, and what’s your favorite dish to prepare? (I love cooking, and my go-to dish is actually normally a risotto. I can whip up a good risotto with very few ingredients in my fridge.)

3.?????What’s one unique or exotic food you’ve tried and enjoyed? (Well, in Thailand, we actually went on a cookery course, and we learnt to make Pad Thai and mango sticky rice and green Thai curry, and that was amazing.)

4.?????Do you have any dietary restrictions, and how do you manage them? (I don’t. I’m very lucky to have no dietary restrictions, so I don’t need to manage them.)

5.?????What’s your favorite restaurant or café, and what do you like about it? (I love a good local pub. We’ve got some great ones around us. For me, the best part is on a sunny day, an unexpectedly sunny day in England, sitting outside in a pub garden. )

6.?????What’s one dish or cuisine you’ve been wanting to try, but haven’t yet? (Vietnamese food. I need to try pho.)

7.?????What’s your favourite type of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage? ( I really like wine and gin for alcohol. Non-alcoholic, I love fresh fruit juice.)

8.?????Do you prefer sweet or savoury foods, and why? (Definitely savoury. Sometimes sweet foods can be overpowering, and also, because we eat them at the end of the meal. I often don’t have room. I’m not very good at managing my appetite.)

9.?????What’s one food or drink you’ve tried that you didn’t like? (For me, it’s anything that is really, really spicy. I can handle spice, but not obnoxious levels of spice. Not the level that hurts your tongue.)

10.?Have you ever tried cooking a new dish, and how did it turn out? (I tried cooking pierogi I think they’re called. Potato dumplings that you often find in Ukrainian and Polish cuisines. And they went okay. I found them delicious, but when I showed my Polish friend, she said I’d done the wrong.)

Family and Relationships

1.?????Do you have any siblings, and what’s your relationship with them like? (I do have a younger brother called George. He’s four and a half years younger than me, and we have a fantastic relationship. I consider him a good friend. )

2.?????What’s your family like, and what do you enjoy most about spending time with them? (My family is small. My mum, my dad, my brother, my husband and me. And what I love about spending time with them is that we just do not stop laughing. )

3.?????Do you have any nieces or nephews, and what do you enjoy doing with them? (I’ve got a niece or nephew that is due to be born in April, so I’m going to be an aunt. I’m so excited. I haven’t met them yet. But if they are watching this in the future, I’m so excited to meet you.)

4.?????Are you in a relationship or married, and how did you meet your partner? (Yes, I am married to my husband, Will, who is doing a very good job reading out these questions to me. And we met at Young Farmers Club, which is a very British rural teenager social club which is just as cool as it sounds. But if you got a husband out of it, it’s totally worth going to. )

5.?????Do you have any children, and what do you enjoy most about being a parent? (I don’t have any children, so I can’t really answer that question. But I hope to have them at some point one day.)

6.?????What’s one challenge you’ve faced in a past relationship, and how did you overcome it? (Being unsuitable for each other and leaving.)

7.?????What’s one piece of relationship advice you’d give to someone in a new relationship? (Infatuation is very different to long-lasting love, but you can enjoy both stages with each other in different ways.)

8.?????Have you ever been on a memorable or interesting date, and what happened? (Once, I went on a date with a guy, and he asked me what I wanted to drink, and I said,” Please, can I have a gin and tonic?” And the barman said, “normal or slimline?” and the guy looked me up and down and said, “slimline”. And it wasn’t a joke. He was weird.

9.?????Do you have a best friend, and what’s one thing you love about them? I have two best friends, and I love them in different ways. I’ve got my friend Ellie. I have loads of history about her. We’ve known each other since we were born, basically. And my friend Felicity is someone I see sporadically, but when we get together, it’s like no time has passed at all.

10.?What’s one memorable family holiday or trip you’ve taken together? (So, growing up, my grandparents had a little apartment in the south of Portugal. They used to hibernate there in the winter and play golf, and we went there every summer as a family. And I hadn’t been back there for seven years, and I went back last year with my husband and my parents, and it was amazing to be in my childhood holiday location and to have my husband. I just, I felt like a child and an adult all at once. It was a crazy, crazy experience.