Meet the Mancunian - 7 - Meet the Artist -Bonus

Hello and a warm Mancunian welcome to you today. I'm Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, your host, and it's an honour to share Season Seven of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester with you. This season is all about celebrating the stories of our local changemakers and the profound social impact they're creating.

Every season, I sit down with Mahua Roy, the artist behind the attractive creatives for the Meet the Mancunian podcast. In Season 7 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, Mahua and I discuss our collaboration over seven seasons, the highlights of Season 6 and a sneak peek into Season 7. Of course, as we met just before the end of the year, we also discussed some of our goals for 2024.

You can check out Mahua's art @ Purple Art_Studio at Instagram. You can listen to the podcast episode and read the transcript on www.meetthemancunian.co.uk.

The first episode of Season 7 launches on Tuesday, 16 January 2024 with a new set of inspiring guests.

Episode

[00:01:14] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Hi Mahua, how are you doing today?

[00:01:17] Mahua Roy: Hi Deepa, I'm fine. How are you doing?

[00:01:19] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Doing good, looking forward to the end of the year and the beginning of New Year.

[00:01:24] Mahua Roy: Absolutely. Welcoming 2024 with open arms.

[00:01:29] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And we were just talking about vision boards and manifesting our goals and how to make that real. And of course, I have some goals for the podcast as well, so really hoping they come true.

[00:01:41] Mahua Roy: Absolutely. I'm hoping it too, because I've been with you since the beginning of this podcast. And, I feel such an integral part of this. And I've seen the amount of hard work you've been putting, the brainstorming that we've been doing together.

It's been such a beautiful journey and I'm also looking forward to the podcast growing. I want listeners to listen and subscribe to the podcast. Keeping fingers crossed for 2024.

[00:02:12] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you, Mahua, and you've been a big part of the journey. I don't think this podcast would have had its very friendly face without you. Because all your beautiful creatives give it its personality, so I really appreciate that.

[00:02:26] Mahua Roy: Thanks, I enjoy the creatives that I do. It's so much fun, it doesn't feel like work. It's a passion project as much as it is yours. It's become my passion project too.

[00:02:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That is so lovely, and we always have such good ideas.

[00:02:40] Mahua Roy: Absolutely.

[00:02:41] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I was thinking a little bit about how we started working together almost two years ago now. I think probably November 2021. When I came to you, oh, I have this podcast I'm planning to do, but I have no idea how to go about the creatives. Anything on that time you want to reflect on.

[00:03:02] Mahua Roy: Actually, Deepa, I was going through a very tough time. If you remember, I lost my father to COVID in 2021 July. And this podcast came to me a time when I needed to be away from all those dark thoughts that I was having.

It's been like a blessing for me actually because it helped me get my mind away from all those negative thoughts that I used to get post my dad's demise. And I got so involved in the process of creating these, the initial discussions that we had, what it should look like and, what kind of a personality do we give to the podcast, whether it should be serious, whether it should be fun or witty. And of course, the look of the podcast, gives it that personality.

It came to me at a very crucial time in my life, and I needed it. And I'm so grateful to you choosing me to do these creatives, and I learned a lot in the process.

I had just started working with Procreate and I did get an iPad in 2020, and. I was trying stuff, I didn't really put my heart and soul into it, because I'm a traditional artist, like I work with watercolours and inks and stuff like that. I've never really done illustrations on an iPad.

Apart from learning, how to design a creative for a podcast, I also learned a new skill. So, this podcast helped me in many ways that you can imagine Deepa, in terms of building my skills to actually working like a balm for me at that time when I was going through a very rough patch.

[00:05:02] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I am so sorry, That was a very difficult time for you. I know you miss your dad a lot. It was a difficult time, I'm so glad this was a creative outlet for you as well.

And I think there was a lot of interesting discussions because I was also new to Manchester where we had to learn about Manchester, learn about Mancunians, the Worker Bee, which became such a big part of the podcast.

[00:05:20] Mahua Roy: Absolutely. I did a lot of research. I read about Manchester's history. I learned a lot, in the process and what I also appreciated was the clarity that you had. Worker bee was your idea, your brief was just perfect.

[00:05:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think it's been a really amazing collaboration because I think, like you said, it's a passion project for both. We worked together on it. I think in the very first season, we didn't have the worker bee avatar.

[00:05:48] Mahua Roy: We did. You were clear about the bees. Then I brought those bees to life. They came alive.

[00:05:53] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Yes, with the little lots of emoticons. That was very cute. And some really beautiful backgrounds of flowers.

[00:06:01] Mahua Roy: We explored everything,

[00:06:02] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's been really good fun.

[00:06:04] Mahua Roy: And then you transformed into a bee yourself. Basically, you became a Mancunian yourself in the process. The bee avatar, that's going to be there. That's, what Meet the Mancunian is all about.

[00:06:17] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Definitely.

Tell us a little bit about Season Seven. It's been quite a journey, like we said. Wow, seven seasons have passed. Our inspiration this time for Season Seven, which is coming up in a few days?

[00:06:29] Mahua Roy: The idea was yours to have a jewelled background. To me, when I was creating it, I really like the idea. I think it's more about looking forward to something new, something different from what we've been doing before. Basically, it's about hope, and newness.

So doing things differently, doing things innovatively is what this season is going to be all about and that's what I tried to depict. And of course, we had a lot of discussions and then you said how about a jewel theme, and I like that idea.

Let's do something different and new and innovative. Therefore, if you see the creatives, for this season and for the seasons to come in this year, is going to be different. We're not going to follow the same design in every season.

It'll be out of the box. We won't confine ourselves to, maybe this is how it's going to be. This is how it's going to look. Work with different looks, that's what we're aiming to do this year, do innovative things.

[00:07:39] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Definitely. And I think it also reflects Manchester and, how Manchester's community is so multifaceted. Jewels are about celebration and a new start.

[00:07:50] Mahua Roy: 2024 has this energy which I feel is all about innovation and doing things differently. I have this feeling that it's going to be like this across professions, across people's lives, things are going to change for people and for good. I'm really very hopeful about 2024.

Deepa, you tell me about your Season 6. It's been very successful. You did a lot of things. You achieved a lot of things. I think you should talk about it and not let it go.

[00:08:23] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Season Six has been really amazing because listeners have really liked it. We have more than doubled the number of people who listen to the podcast. I was nominated as the best business podcaster by the Independent Podcast Awards. There were a lot of rankings about best social impact podcast in the UK and best social impact podcast in the world. So that was really exciting.

[00:08:50] Mahua Roy: That's really good.

[00:08:51] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's a little podcast, it's just the two of us and it's lovely that there's so much recognition and also now a lot more guests are getting in touch to be featured.

[00:09:02] Mahua Roy: That's fabulous. That's when you know that your podcast is getting popular. And you're really a good job at it.

[00:09:09] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I hope so. I have so many hopes and dreams for the podcast. Ultimately, it's there to inspire people to follow their own dreams. That's the reason of the podcast. So, I want that to continue and I hope more and more people can see that inspiration.

[00:09:26] Mahua Roy: I'm very grateful to you for picking me to do the job because I really love it.

[00:09:31] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Had to be you, Mu. I think your vision and your passion for podcasts have come together. Because I think it's been a real journey. Over the last two years, you're the person I can actually discuss the podcast with, bounce ideas off, or you make good suggestions that I can then think about and incorporate. I'm always looking to make the podcast better.

[00:09:53] Mahua Roy: I feel Meet the Mancunian will grow in many ways a podcast and then many other ways. I have this feeling because what's important here is, see, Meet the Mancunian, like you mentioned, is not about the host. It's about the guests. And what's unique about it is it talks about people you and I, who've to make a change in whichever way they can. And that has made an impact.

[00:10:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Happy New Year

[00:10:23] Mahua Roy: Happy New Year. Looking forward to Season 7. And wishing both of us a great Season Seven.

[00:10:30] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: For sure, and a very wonderful 2024 with all these amazing goals coming true.

Outro

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