Hello from Londontown, where I find myself officially starting my summer antics for the 2026 season. And where I’ve found inspiration for this week's compilation episode. From an early episode with crime writer, Leye Adenle, to last year’s conversation with activist and social entrepreneur, Lavinya Stennett, we’ll hear a range of Pan-African perspectives on how London is local for these guests--all of which happen to also be writers.

Serial entrepreneur, investor and author of We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World, Eric Collins shares perspectives as an immigrant from the US to the UK. Lawyer, international development consultant, journalist, politician and author of Love Does Not Win Elections, Ayisha Osori helps us to understand home as presence. Award-winning author of Easy Motion Tourist, with a forthcoming new series due to launch this year with Fall From Grace, Leye Adenle shares about his London before experiencing it as a writer. As a lux-preneur herself, award-winning luxury business consultant, Elizabeth Solaru, author of best-selling book, Opulencia and LUXpreneur: How to start and build a successful luxury brand, is taking us along in her experiences transitioning from a career in the sciences to business. Architect, artist, and multi-faceted creative, Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay shares how his talents from design to music helped to give his London life an artisic flair. And finally, founder of The Black Curriculum, fimmaker and author of Omitted: The Untold Black History Lessons We Need to Change the Future, Lavinya Stennett helps us to understand effective organizing techniques for impact.

If you haven’t already settled in, mind the gap and take a seat on this Tube ride through London.

Where to find full conversations and show notes from episodes with this week’s guests?
Eric Collins
Ayisha Osori
Leye Adenle
Elizabeth Solaru
Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay
Lavinya Stennett

Soundscape:
Sounds Like a Train on YouTube

Special Guests: Ayisha Osori, Elizabeth Solaru, Eric Collins, Lavinya Stennett, Leye Adenle, and Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay.

For this week’s episode I found myself in a hidden gem of a community in East London with a not so hidden gem in the European investment space, Eric Collins. Eric, born an raised in the southern United States, has called London home for the nearly 10 years. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technology executive and host of Channel 4 business show, The Money Maker, which is based on the highly successful US show The Profit on CNBC.

Eric has spent much of his career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft and most recently, Touch Surgery, where he was COO. He sits on the boards of companies in San Francisco and London, including Tech Nation.

In 2011, President Obama, a fellow Harvard Law School classmate, appointed him to the Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities.

Eric is also a brand ambassador for luxury car manufacturer, Audi, and the youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

In 2018, The Financial Times named him among the UK’s top 100 BAME leaders in technology. Since 2019, he has been voted one of the most influential Black people in Britain on The Powerlist.

In his award-winning book, We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World (Penguin), Eric argues investing in Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs is the surest, fastest socio-economic game changer there is. And with his work as a Founder and CEO of Impact X Capital we believe him!

Where to find Eric?
www.impactxcapital.com
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram

What’s Eric reading?
J. Califoria Cooper

What’s Eric watching?
Purlie Victorious
The Lehman Trilogy

Other topics of interest:
Revisit fellow Glocal Citizen Natasha Moore
Greensboro, North Carolina
Tuskegee University
Bennett College
North Carolina A&T State University
On Charles Blow’s The Devil You Know
Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving
On the Black Power Movement
About the inaugural SBA Council on Underserved Communities and Chair, Cathy Hughes
Audra McDonald & Brian Stokes Mitchell Perform 'Wheels of a Dream' From RAGTIME
First Black Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt
Former Governor of Virgina Douglas Wilder
GiveBLACK
About Ric Lewis
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
About Marshmallow

Special Guest: Eric Collins.