You Are So Much More Than Your Job
By Kim Rowell
Resilience, reframing, redundancy and everything in between

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- Kim was the executive producer of Bryony Gordon’s Mad World and If I Can Do It podcasts, as well as Diana Henry’s At the Kitchen Table. She is also currently the presenter, producer and editor of the Women of the Future podcast, part of the Women of the Future programme, and an Executive Producer and Assistant Editor for the Original Journalism team, BBC Three and BBC News.

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- Having worked for the country’s biggest production companies, TV broadcasters and newspapers, with a side-helping of retail and entrepreneurship, Kim is an experienced mentor and has a wealth of lived experience and insight to draw from to help you get the most out of your current situation.

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Part memoir and part extremely helpful guide to what to do when you find yourself out of work, by someone who has been there, got the t-shirt and then some.
Having been made redundant three times in five years, Kim draws on her own experiences and numerous life lessons to address some perennial issues and hot topics of the current climate: the importance of perspective; how to build confidence when you're at your lowest ebb; how to overcome and use vulnerability; imposter syndrome; the importance of reframing; and how to turn negatives into enormous positives.
Including personal anecdotes and inspirational quotes from well-known women who have been there, the book also incorporates cleverly devised exercises to enable the reader to put to good use, and into working practice, the information and knowledge gleaned from each section.
ABOUT THE BOOK
- Foreword by the Women of the Future Programme founder - author, motivational speaker, food expert and women's advocate, Pinky Lilani CBE DL.
- Inspirational quotes from women including Jess Phillips MP, Cherie Blair CBE QC and Lisa Smosarski, Editor-in-Chief of Stylist Magazine, taken from the ‘Women of the Future’ podcast.
- Demy-format hardback.
- Approximately 272 pages, 65,000 words.
Quick select rewards
Podcasting for beginners
Only 5 available
PLUS:
- Kim was the executive producer of Bryony Gordon’s Mad World and If I Can Do It podcasts, as well as Diana Henry’s At the Kitchen Table. She is also currently the presenter, producer and editor of the Women of the Future podcast, part of the Women of the Future programme, and an Executive Producer and Assistant Editor for the Original Journalism team, BBC Three and BBC News.

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Kim Rowell
With a ‘day job’ as a documentary commissioner, Kim Rowell produces programmes for BBC Three and BBC News targeted at underserved audiences; her work has been shortlisted for a Broadcast Digital Award, been named as ‘stand-out journalism’ in industry press and also seen the Cancer Act debated in Parliament.
In her previous role at the Telegraph, as a Commissioning Editor and Executive Producer on Bryony Gordon’s award-winning ‘Mad World’ and ‘If I Can Do It’ mental health podcasts, the Prince Harry episode made global headlines.
Her achievements include a ‘Women of the Future Media Award’ in 2018, being listed as a Financial Times ‘Kindness and Leadership: Leading Light’ in 2019, named as a Yahoo! Finance’s ‘HEROEs Future Women Leaders’ in 2020 in recognition for making a significant contribution to gender diversity in the workplace and as an Honouree of Campaign Magazine’s ‘Female Frontiers’ Awards twice.
Kim was a founding member of the international virtual kindness festival ‘Kindfest’ in 2020, opened by Captain Sir Tom Moore and raising thousands for mental health charities; is a board member for ‘In Place of War’ – a global organisation that uses creativity in places of conflict as a tool for positive change and her mental health children’s book ‘Townie Spider’ was published in 2019.
Kim’s TEDx talk on the power of communication, kindness and mental health has been streamed nearly 6,000 times.
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Remember that time when you wanted everything you have right now? Hold on to that.
When I was living in a house share with a family whose grandmother thought I was the devil reincarnate (apparently a couple of late-night stumbles through the doorway and an unfortunate choice of Halloween outfit had put her nerves on edge), I never for a second thought I’d end up happily married living in the ‘Shire’ with a small person and hedgehog house. It is a lovely hedgehog house. We all at various inconvenient times in our lives have been made to move our goals and roll with the punches, but give yourself a little credit for getting to the point that you’re at now – in fact, list out five things that you’re grateful for and/or never thought you’d achieve and keep it in your purse or wallet for those moments when you wonder just what the hell this wonderful thing called life is all about.
I’ll start: 1) The sun is shining, 2) I have an expertly brewed cuppa in front of me, 3) It’s nearly Spring, 4) There’s chocolate with my name on it in the fridge and 5) If I go for a brisk walk it will level out the chocolate. Obviously not profound, perhaps dig a little deeper for the gratitude you carry around with you daily, but case-in-point that you can find positivity in the smallest of things, you just need to look.
Social media undeniably has its part to play - we’ve all been warned about the dangers of it, no matter what age you are. I’m guilty of it myself – I was told I was at risk of redundancy the day after I won a national award (more on this later), yet the photos I posted still showed me in the ‘afterglow’ of my win, feeling honoured, astounded and very lucky. Whereas at the same time I was also desperately trying to arrange meetings with lawyers to thrash out my settlement, whilst searching for a new job that ideally would be equally as fulfilling and seeking independent financial advice. It also stopped us trying for a second baby, something both my husband and I were eager to be ‘get going’ on with, I’ll leave it at that. None of this made it to social media – I wasn’t honest. I wasn’t prepared for the ‘I told you so’, or ‘Look how far she’s fallen’. I wasn’t prepared for the inevitable negativity. I hope there are those of you reading this and thinking, yes, but Kim, genuine friends that love and care about you would’ve only wanted to support you in your hour of need, and you are undoubtedly right, dear reader, but as one of the world’s great over-thinkers, for me it ultimately came back to garnering a sense of control from the situation; the fewer people I told the fewer difficult conversations I would have to have, and batting off of ‘oh no, I’ll be fine, don’t you worry about me’. The employment equivalent of the break-up of a long-term relationship and equally as painful.
A quote of note: ‘The first people you call when something good happens because you know they’ll be happy for you, those are the people to keep close’.
I don’t think I need to explain that one.
I wish I had the skin of a rhino as opposed to a caterpillar – though caterpillar’s morph into butterflies, so perhaps not the worst of comparisons.
Comparison is a key word here – many a wise person has cited that ‘It’s the thief of joy’, and speaking from maybe a little too much experience, it truly is.
The final project I worked on at my last job published weekly the month after I’d physically left the building, so I had a few more weeks to bask in the accolade on a career level, but as the last one was broadcast I soon found out that the company had extended the project and made it bigger and better and essentially gone on without me. It was a kick in the teeth, but I genuinely believe, and still do, that what is meant for you doesn’t pass you by.
Plus, as much as people tell you to never look back, there does seem to be a common theme in my work to date in that I’d never been one to stick at the same thing for too long anyway. I’d always fully committed, put my heart and soul into the task at hand and then sat back to behold the fruits of my labour. It’s during this period of ‘taking stock’ that I often begin to look round and start to wonder ‘what’s next?’. Make your mark and move on, that’s always been my mantra, it may not work for you, but I’ve found that it certainly keeps life interesting which keeps my hairdresser in business if nothing else.
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These people are helping to fund You Are So Much More Than Your Job.
Susi Castle
Suzanne Bearne
Mary Coles
Alice Morgan
Claire Furner
Gill Powell
Martin Bryant
Meg Rowell
Alan Hookway
Pinky Lilani
Niels Aagaard Nielsen
Ciaran Kane
Seonaid Mackenzie
Brian Mcleish
Lauren Darke
Jackie Scully
Joe Frederick
Kat Savage
samantha frankel
Michael Litman
Bernie Rowell
Rachel Beattie
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