After taking to the aisle to marry a stranger on the UK version of the TV reality show ‘Married at First Sight’, it’s fair to say that Sophie Brown likes to take a risk.
Having left university after three months, an 18-year-old Brown stepped into a technology sales role and worked her way up to channel manager at eCommerce giant The Hut Group (THG).
While working at THG, she took a short stint to find love on TV, where she has since amassed a following of over 130,000 on Instagram. Now at 27, Brown joined Manchester-based SaaS startup Flowlio last year as the project management vendor’s commercial director.
How can your firm’s project management tools help businesses?
Flowlio has come on an insane amount since I came on board. It’s a project management SaaS solution that is cloud-based and open-source. It’s an enterprise-level end-to-end project management platform which helps simplify processes.
It lends itself well to local authorities such as housing, government, and healthcare where projects are unfortunately not run to the standard they should be.
We also offer a project management course. Normally, you pay a lot of money to do a course and just get given a manual. For ours, we’ll go into businesses, and for three days, they’ll bring ideas and projects they’re working on to the table, and they’ll get tangible feedback they can take back to the workplace.
It’s great because we can go into a business, train them up, and slowly integrate the software into their business over time and give them a new way to work.
As a young woman in a senior role, what’s your take on the tech sector? Any advice to pass on?
I’ve learned to build resilience. If I wanted to achieve something, I encouraged myself to put myself forward. At THG, I was part of its internal women in tech group, and I took it upon myself to deliver a talk on salary negotiation.
I’m not an expert, but I’ve always asked for more money. I didn’t realise until I spoke to other people that people don’t usually do that, especially women – I’m a commercially-minded person, so that’s probably why my head goes to money.
Whereas for those in tech roles, whether it is coding, engineering or anything, it’s just not where their brain goes. So, for me, I’ve realised how important it is to clue younger people up on that.
How do you balance your influencer work with your current role?
It’s crazy because when I was on [Married at First Sight], I spoke about being a woman in tech so much it almost pushed me to the point of being a bit comical. But afterwards, I was inundated with messages from young people, mostly women, getting into tech celebrating it and saying: ‘We don’t normally see a young voice that’s speaking about it and that’s passionate about it.’
Then I went to speak about my ADHD diagnosis online after the show, when I was diagnosed at 26, and I couldn’t believe the number of messages I got. I had parents saying, ‘My kids have ADHD, and this has been so helpful’. I honestly think people forget what influence they have online.
I’m so happy with where I am now because I’ve still got that influence to be able to show that in a positive way. It’s not just a social media influencer, but I have this business side of me, so I can take things from both sides.
How do you find switching off?
I find it so hard to switch off. I don’t take medication for my ADHD. I tried, but I just didn’t get on with it. They say if you want your personality that day, then don’t take it because it kind of dulls you down a bit.
It was great in the morning when I was getting stuff done, but there was one time I was driving home from work in floods of tears. It just pulled the essence and emotion out of me. So, I thought, I’ve done 26 years without medication and for me, I think I’m okay.
It’s amazing in some ways because it keeps me on my toes, and I’m constantly thinking of ideas and things, but then, on the flip side, it can be frustrating. It’s a constant battle.
Does having ADHD bring positives to your role?
Yeah, people say ADHD is a superpower. Tech roles lend themselves to those who are neurodivergent because of the higher focus and the detail-driven work and creativity. So, I think I kind of channelled that.
Sometimes, it’s extremely annoying, but I think it’s about harnessing the parts that can help you in the right way. I could get really frustrated with myself all the time because I have so many thoughts going on, and I can’t concentrate on one thing or focus. But, bigger picture-wise, it’s definitely helped me in the long term.
What can workplaces do to support neurodivergent people?
We’re in an era of self-diagnosis, which shouldn’t be undermined because some people don’t have the funds to go private or the time to wait for an NHS diagnosis. So, it’s not just those who have a diagnosis from a doctor who feels they have tendencies; there are people out there who feel they have tendencies.
However, there are still so many people who don’t come forward when they’re neurodivergent. They don’t say: ‘I’ve got ADHD’, or ‘I’m autistic’, or ‘I’m dyslexic’ because there’s still a bit of a stigma.
Employers need to create safe spaces for people, and make people feel comfortable to talk about it. You must do things with integrity. You can’t put [neurodiversity] campaigns or days in place to talk about this just to tick a box.
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