William Barraclough has built a creative career driven less by formal pathways and more by instinct, curiosity, and a willingness to try things before knowing where they might lead. Now Head of Product Design for International Wealth and Premier Banking at HSBC, his journey spans skateboarding, DJing, restaurant work, early digital agencies, global brands, and leadership roles earned without ever studying design formally.

In this episode, William joins Adam for a wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation about curiosity as a creative force. He reflects on growing up between cultures, finding creativity through motion, music, and experience design, and discovering design almost by accident through making flyers, editing video, and hacking together early digital work. From running a one-person studio straight out of the Job Centre to working at M&C Saatchi, Yahoo, and beyond, William’s career is a story of learning by doing and asking better questions along the way.

William talks openly about leadership, self-doubt, and resilience. He shares what it was like inheriting teams in moments of change, the importance of reading the room, and the leadership lesson he learned the hard way when context was missed. He and Adam explore imposter syndrome, pressure, nerves, and why those feelings often signal that something meaningful is at stake, not that you’re doing something wrong.

This episode is also about life beyond work. William reflects on community, mentoring, parenting, loss, and the importance of staying curious about the world around you. From food and travel to design education and career pathways, his perspective is grounded, generous, and deeply human.

This is a conversation about staying open. About curiosity as a mindset, not a skill. And about building a creative life by bringing people together, staying positive, and continuing to learn long after you think you should have it figured out.

In this episode, we cover:

* Finding design without formal education and learning through making

* How skateboarding, DJing, and motion shaped William’s creative instincts

* Early digital careers, hacking ideas, and building confidence through experience

* Leadership lessons learned from pressure, mistakes, and context

* Imposter syndrome, nerves, and why fear can be a useful signal

* The power of community, peer support, and creative networks

* Why curiosity matters more than certainty in a fast-changing industry

* Navigating career ladders, specialisms, and evolving design roles

* Mentoring, design education, and opening doors for the next generation* Parenting, presence, and life outside work

* Why optimism, kindness, and helping others still matter

#AwaitingApproval #CreativeLeadership #DesignLeadership #LeadershipPodcast #curiosity #aidesign

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This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.

Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.

Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.

© Cordial Fox Limited, 2026.

Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?

Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.

✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)

✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort

✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community

✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.

Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.

🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com

Hardy Sidhu is the Founder and CEO of Format-3, but labels have never sat comfortably with him. Designer, strategist, business builder, father, philosopher…

Hardy has moved fluidly through roles and identities since entering the industry as a teenager, driven less by titles and more by a constant need to feel, question, and stay awake to the moment he is in.

In this episode, Hardy joins Adam for a raw, expansive conversation about presence, discomfort, and what it really means to be alive inside your work. He talks about growing up working class in West London, building a career without formal qualifications, and learning early on that comfort is not where he does his best thinking. For Hardy, creativity lives in tension. In pressure. In chaos. And in the willingness to sit with both the good and the bad without trying to escape either.Hardy reflects on why every project should make you feel something, how anxiety, frustration, and uncertainty are not signs of failure but signals of engagement, and why honesty with clients and teams matters more than polished delivery. He shares the philosophy behind Format-3, from vetting clients as carefully as projects, to embracing chaos as a prerequisite for innovation, to protecting his team from burnout by choosing the right partners, not just the right budgets.This is also a deeply personal episode. Hardy opens up about therapy, self-acceptance, slowing down, and learning to stop chasing and start welcoming whatever shows up. He talks about presence as a daily practice, about listening to yourself as much as you listen to users or trends, and about why love, not ego or fear, is the only sustainable way to move through life and work.

This is a powerful, unfiltered conversation about creativity, humanity, and staying present in a world that constantly pulls you out of yourself.

In this episode, we cover:* Why every project should make you feel something, not just look successful* Understanding anxiety, frustration, and pressure as part of the creative process* Growing a career without qualifications and trusting your own path* Why Hardy actively seeks discomfort and avoids staying comfortable too long* The philosophy behind Format-3 and embracing chaos as part of innovation* How radical honesty with clients builds stronger partnerships* Vetting clients to protect team wellbeing and creative quality* Therapy, self-reflection, and learning to accept who you are* Presence as a practice and why slowing down changes everything* Listening to yourself as much as you listen to users, trends, or technology* Why love, not anger or fear, is the most powerful creative force* Letting go of approval, even from yourself

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This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.

Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.© Cordial Fox Limited, 2025.

Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?

Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.

✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)

✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort

✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community

✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.

Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.

🚀 Learn more and apply here:

https://www.growwithadamjennings.com

Angela Arnold has built her career by listening deeply. To herself, to others, and to the quiet signals that tell you when something feels right… or when it doesn’t.

As Head of Product Design at Genomics England, her work sits at the intersection of craft, care, and impact, shaping experiences that matter in some of the most sensitive and complex human contexts.

In this episode, Angela joins Adam for a thoughtful, warm, and deeply reflective conversation about creative leadership, instinct, and trust. She shares how curiosity and gut feeling have guided her decisions, from navigating uncertainty in design work to knowing when it’s time to pause, reframe, or take a leap into something new.

Angela talks openly about losing confidence early in her career, finding her way back through learning-by-doing, and becoming a self-taught product designer through making, coding, and hands-on experimentation. She reflects on the mentors who believed in her, the environments that shaped her, and how working across agencies, finance, and not-for-profits eventually led her toward healthcare, where her work could have a more profound human impact.

This is a conversation about grace under pressure. About patience, self-care, and staying true to yourself in an industry that constantly shifts. Angela’s clarity is calm and powerful. Her leadership is rooted in empathy. And her belief in thoughtful, human-centred design comes through in every story she shares.

In this episode, we cover:

* Trusting instinct and knowing when something doesn’t work

* Losing confidence early on and rebuilding it through making and learning

* Becoming a self-taught product designer through code, prototypes, and practice

* The importance of asking “who is this really for?” in design critiques and leadership

* Why alignment on outcomes matters more than perfect solutions

* Understanding your strongest creative rhythms and working with them, not against them

* Learning when to pause, reframe, or let go of an idea that isn’t serving you

* Moving across industries and what each environment teaches you

* Why healthcare design became a calling, not just a career move

* Designing the spaces between decisions, where real change actually happens

* Self-care, simplicity, and creating a joyful life outside of work

===

This is Awaiting Approval. A podcast about the messy, human side of creative leadership.

Hosted by Adam Jennings - a creative leader with three decades of experience leading teams and projects for global brands including Microsoft, Salesforce, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Ancestry, Dolby, BBC and many more - this show features honest, unscripted conversations with the leaders shaping design, storytelling, and innovation today.

These are the conversations you don’t hear in keynotes. The ones about imposter syndrome, trust, failure, confidence, and finding your voice as a leader.

Whether you’re just stepping into creative leadership or you’ve been at it for years, Awaiting Approval is your place to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged.

Awaiting Approval is a Cordial Fox production.Hosted by Adam Jennings.Produced by Adam Jennings & Jasmin Egner.© Cordial Fox Limited, 2025.

Ready to level up your leadership with real, honest support?

Join the next cohort of Supercharged Creative Leaders - my flagship four-week programme for creative leaders who want clarity, confidence, and a community that gets it.

✅ Small groups (just 6 per cohort)

✅ Weekly live sessions with me and your cohort

✅ Async access to me and your cohort via a private Slack community

✅ Invitation to join my alumni community once you’ve completed the programme.

Previous attendees have gone on to win major pitches, land new roles, get promoted and step into leadership with more purpose and presence.

🚀 Learn more and apply here: https://www.growwithadamjennings.com