Behind success, status, and strength, many men are quietly carrying pressure they never speak about. After facing his own personal breakdown, mental health struggles, and life-changing turning points, Joel White, founder of Rewired for Men, turned his pain into purpose — creating a powerful movement that helps men reconnect with themselves, break free from unhealthy patterns, and lead their lives with clarity instead of pressure. In this honest and thought-provoking interview, he opens up about identity, mental health, relationships, and what real strength truly looks like for men today. 

“Most men are not broken — they’re exhausted from living by a programme they never chose.”

What inspired you to create Rewired for Men?

I have been to the edge more than once. I have sat in a psychiatric ward not knowing if I wanted to be alive. I have walked away from a marriage knowing it might cost me time with my son. In those moments, I was not weak. I was a man who had been running on the wrong programme for so long that everything eventually gave way. When I came through the other side, I looked back and saw the same man everywhere. Successful on paper. Privately exhausted. Holding it all together on the outside while something on the inside had gone very quiet. I could not find anything that spoke to that man. Nothing that understood the specific pressure of being someone who is supposed to have it sorted. So I built it. Rewired for Men exists because success is not supposed to feel like this. The man reading this deserves to feel proud of the man he sees in the mirror. Not one day. Now.

Can you explain what you mean by “rewiring unconscious beliefs”?

Every man reading this is running on a programme he did not write. It was written for him in childhood, shaped by everything he was told a man should be. Worth must be earned. Stopping means something is wrong. Needing help is a weakness. Those beliefs do not sit in the conscious mind, where you can argue with them. They run underneath everything. They drive the money anxiety that does not match the bank balance. They drive the inability to switch off. They drive the distance in a relationship that used to feel close. Rewiring means going underneath the surface and changing the code at the level it actually operates. Not talking about it for years. Shifting it. When the belief changes, everything built on top of it changes with it. The pressure quiets. The clarity comes back. The man underneath all of it comes back.

How can change really happen in 30 days or less?

Most men have been told that change is slow. That the patterns of a lifetime take years to unpick. That is not true. It is just what happens when the work stays at the surface. The approach I use targets the nervous system and the subconscious patterns driving the pressure, not the symptoms sitting on top of them. When you work at that depth, things shift fast. 82% of men who have been through Rewired for Men reported a reduction in internal pressure. 79% reported increased clarity of thought. 91% said they would recommend it to another man. Men do not recommend something unless it has genuinely moved something inside them. What they describe is not dramatic. It is something quieter and far more valuable. Decisions that come more easily. The weekend that finally feels like theirs. The version of themselves they had stopped believing was still in there. Still in there. Coming back.

Who are the men you mainly help?

The men who come to me look like they have it together. They are running businesses, leading teams, building things. From the outside, everything looks fine. On the inside, something is grinding. They fall into 1 of 2 patterns. The man who is always running: the pressure is never fully off, always proving, always chasing a finish line that keeps moving. He calls it drive. It is costing him more than he lets on. The man who is quietly numb: still functioning, still showing up, but the meaning has gone. Something that used to feel alive has gone flat. Both men are carrying the same pressure across the same 3 areas: money, work, and relationships. Both men want the same thing underneath. To stop performing and start living. To feel like themselves again. To be proud of the man they see in the mirror. That man is still in there. He is just running on the wrong programme.

What are the biggest struggles men come to you with?

Money, work, and relationships. Always those 3. They look like separate problems. They are not. The money anxiety does not match the balance in the account. The sense that no matter what they earn, it is never quite enough. The inability to close the laptop and actually be off. The burnout they have been pushing through for so long has become their normal. The relationship where the distance has quietly become the default. Present in the room but somewhere else entirely. Underneath all 3 sits the same belief: worth has to be proved through output. When that belief shifts, all 3 shift with it. Not gradually. Not one at a time. Together. Most of the men who come to me have never said any of this out loud before. That first honest moment is always where everything begins.

How did your own breakdown shape the work you do today?

It did not just shape it. It is. I am not someone who studied men’s mental health from a comfortable distance and built a methodology. I lived the thing I now help men through. I know what it feels like to carry pressure that never leaves. To perform the strength you stopped feeling years ago. To be in a room full of people and feel completely alone. I also know what it feels like to come through the other side. To stop managing and start living. To look at your life and actually want it. That is what I bring into the room with every man I work with. Not theory. Not a framework borrowed from a textbook. The real knowledge that the man on the other side of all of this is not a fantasy. He is who you actually are. The work brings him back.

What tools or methods do you use with your clients?

NLP, EMDR, breathwork, somatic movement, motivational interviewing, mindfulness, tapping, and visualisation. I am a qualified counsellor, a trauma-informed practitioner, and a life coach. But the tools are not the point. The point is what they make possible. A man who can look at his finances and feel settled rather than threatened. A man who can lead his working week from choice rather than from fear of what stopping means. A man who can walk through his front door and actually be home. The right tool for the right man at the right moment. The destination is always the same. The gap between the life he is living and the life he actually wants. Closed.

Why do you think many men struggle to talk about mental health?

They were taught before they were old enough to argue with it that talking about pain is weakness. That a real man handles. Those emotions belong to other people. By the time most men reach me, they have been carrying something alone for years. Sometimes decades. The mask becomes the identity. Taking it off feels like losing something rather than finding something. We do not have a men’s mental health crisis because men are broken. We have 1 because we built a culture that trained men to stay silent and then act surprised when they break. The question that needs asking is not what is wrong with men. It is what men actually want. Across money, work, and relationships. What does life on the other side of all this pressure actually look like? Answer that question honestly, and men do not need convincing to move toward it. They are already walking.

What is the first step a man should take if he feels stuck or overwhelmed?

Admit it to himself. Not to anyone else yet. Just to himself. That 1 honest moment of saying something is not right, or I want more than this, or I am tired of feeling like this, is where everything starts. Most men I work with spent years getting to that moment. The men who get there and then do something with it discover something that surprises them. They are not broken. They never were. They were running on a programme that was never theirs to begin with. The free guide on my website, Always Running. Quietly Numb names the patterns most men are living in but cannot find the words for. Most men who read it tell me it is the first time they have felt genuinely understood. That recognition is the beginning. The programme changes. The man comes back. Fully.

What does success look like for your clients after working with you?

91% of men who complete Rewired for Men say they would recommend it to another man. That is the number I am most proud of. Men do not recommend something unless it has genuinely moved something inside them. What they describe is not a dramatic transformation. It is something quieter and far more real. The money decisions now come from strength rather than fear. In the working week, they lead rather than survive. The relationship where the connection is back, not because anything external changed, but because the man inside it came back. 1 man told me the biggest shift was internal. He felt lighter. Another said he could think clearly rather than react. Another said he finally felt present in conversations instead of holding back. These are not men who were broken. They were men running on the wrong programme. The programme changed. They came back to themselves. That is what success looks like. Not the life that looks good on paper. The life that actually feels like yours.

From reporting in war zones to witnessing global injustice up close, Laurence’s work has always been driven by a deep intolerance for inequality and a commitment to telling the stories that matter most. But over time, his purpose evolved—from reporting the news to helping others find their own voice.

Today, Laurence Lee dedicates his work to teaching communication and presentation skills, empowering young people and vulnerable groups to speak with confidence, own their stories, and step into opportunity with belief in themselves.

“Confidence is not about being the loudest person in the room — it’s about learning to tell your story without apologising for who you are.”

What made you want to become a journalist?

Honestly, I fell into it after university. I had started a PhD because I didn’t know what else to do. I was living near the BBC centre in Birmingham when my mother suggested I try to get some work experience, so I wrote to them. The first time I walked into a newsroom, I knew it was for me.

You’ve reported from war zones—how did that shape you?

I started during the second Palestinian intifada in 2000. It was a steep learning curve—you can’t understand what’s happening without getting your head around decades of history, and any inaccuracy gets picked up immediately. So doing that while also worrying about not getting shot is quite a lot to handle at once.

I think being single at the time helped. By the time I joined Al Jazeera, I had done quite a lot of conflict reporting and was used to it. But when I was posted in Delhi and sent to Kabul shortly after we had our first child, I remember thinking I had no business doing it any longer. I continued reporting from conflict zones after that, but gradually I stepped back because of my responsibility to my family.

Why did you focus on stories about refugees and women facing discrimination?

I’m deeply affected by injustice. The way Europe treats asylum seekers really troubles me—it claims to be a leader in human rights, yet often denies them to people based on skin colour or religion, even when their claims are legitimate.

I also struggle with organised religion and the way women—half the world’s population—are still treated as less than men. I genuinely believe women’s rights remain one of the most underreported issues in global media.

What made you switch from journalism to teaching communication skills?

I had simply had enough of Al Jazeera, but I had also long felt the education system isn’t fit for purpose. Young people are expected to learn vast amounts of information they’ll never use, yet are rarely taught how to speak in a room or perform in an interview.

After 25–30 years in live TV news, I felt I could help young people learn how to “broadcast” themselves. I also have a personal connection to this—having had a severe stammer as a child due to bullying, I understand how difficult it can be for introverted people to express themselves.

Why are speaking and presentation skills so important for students?

Almost every job requires communication skills. Employers care far less about grades than about confident young people who can look someone in the eye, explain themselves clearly, and talk about how they handle challenges or failure.

There are constant complaints from employers about entry-level candidates who can’t communicate effectively. At the same time, AI is likely to remove many jobs that don’t rely on human interaction, making communication skills even more important. Yet it’s still not properly taught in schools.

You’ve worked with inmates and former addicts—how do communication skills help them?

The course I run at the Financial Times is the same whether I’m teaching 17-year-olds, Oxbridge graduates, or people in recovery from addiction.

Everyone should be able to express vulnerability with confidence and speak with pride about overcoming challenges. It builds resilience and empathy.

Most people I’ve worked with aren’t “bad people”—they’re people to whom bad things have happened. Rather than being ashamed, they should be encouraged to recognise that they are still here and still fighting.

How did having a stammer affect your career, and why do you support Action for Stammering Children?

I never told any employer I had a stammer, and I always worried it might come back—why would a TV company hire a reporter with a stammer? So I hid it.

I developed breathing techniques that helped me manage it, and it never affected me on air. I later spoke about it publicly when I became a “stambassador” for Action for Stammering Children. It’s a small charity doing very important work.

How can companies help you teach communication skills in schools?

I don’t believe companies should try to insert themselves into the education system. I spent four years working largely for free in schools, and I found it doesn’t really work within the current structure.

However, big employers often struggle to choose between candidates because so many can’t communicate effectively. It would make sense for companies to invest in oracy coaching for candidates before interviews.

If the education system won’t change, then we need to work around it.

What advice do you give young people to speak and present with confidence?

Young people often find it very hard to say anything positive about themselves. So when asked “Why should we hire you?” they don’t know where to start.

I encourage them to identify their qualities and values, and then build stories from their lives that demonstrate those traits. Once they do that, everything changes—they become more confident, more prepared, and more in control of interviews.

It’s simple once they understand how to think about it, and it has a huge impact on their confidence and self-belief.

What’s your goal for the future of your work in communication and oracy?

I once hoped to build a national charity and connect former broadcast journalists with schools across the country. But I’ve learned that working within schools at scale doesn’t really work.

For it to grow properly, it would need corporate backing or a philanthropist who truly believes in its value and wants to build a legacy. For now, I continue as a one-man operation, doing the best I can.

Brian Miller turned a lifelong passion for magic into a career that goes far beyond illusions. What started as performing tricks on stage became a profound study of human connection, communication, and trust. From thousands of performances across five continents to a viral TEDx talk, Miller has honed the art of making every interaction meaningful — whether on stage, in business, or in everyday life. His journey shows that success isn’t just about skill or knowledge; it’s about presence, empathy, and understanding the people you serve.

What made you leave a PhD in philosophy to become a magician and speaker?

I was never quite a PhD student, although I was accepted into a doctoral program in philosophy to study metaphysics. As I was staring down seven more years in the ivory tower, I had a moment of clarity: I’d been performing as a professional magician since I was 16, traveling on nights and weekends throughout college, writing papers in hotel rooms. And it looked like I might actually have a chance to make it. That’s incredibly rare. So few aspiring magicians, comedians, musicians ever get that window, and I thought, “I don’t want to get to the end of my life wondering if I could have done it.”

So I turned down the PhD offer and gave myself two years. And I meant it seriously: no fallback jobs, no part-time work. I knew myself well enough to know that if I had a safety net, I wouldn’t have the hunger I needed. At the two-year mark, I was still struggling. Incredibly thin, not eating well, ready to admit defeat. I reapplied to grad schools, bracing myself to tell my dad he’d been right all along. But while I was waiting to find out, I caught a couple of lucky breaks, gained some momentum, and, before even hearing back, decided to continue with my magic career.

Eventually it worked. I started touring the country. I’ve given thousands of performances as a magician across five continents. A few years later, I was invited to give a TEDx talk about my journey as a magician. That talk went viral, launched my speaking career, and the rest is history.

You say every interaction matters. How do you practice that in everyday life?

We’re in a loneliness epidemic. Depending on which report you read, upwards of 60% of Americans feel lonely or isolated on a regular basis. That means roughly three out of every five people you encounter are starving for connection—they just don’t know how to ask for it or where to find it. That puts something on the rest of us: to offer the gift of connection at every opportunity we get.

And it is a gift. You offer it, and if someone accepts it, wonderful. If they don’t, that’s about them. All you can control is your intentions, not the outcomes.

While I’m certainly not perfect, in every interaction I have I try to show up as if to say, “This is the most important thing to me right now.” You can do that with the barista taking your coffee order in 20 seconds. Connection doesn’t require a long conversation. It just requires focused effort and a bit of practice.

How did being a magician help you connect with people in your work?

Magic is a fundamentally antagonistic art form. At its core, it’s “I know something you don’t know”—a schoolyard taunt come to life. There’s no logical reason people should enjoy it. It’s built on lies and deception. And yet great magicians find a way to bridge the gap between what they know and what the audience isn’t allowed to know, and create something extraordinary in the middle, where everybody leaves uplifted, transformed.

The real job of being a magician isn’t tricking people. It’s connecting with them. Over a decade of performing, across thousands of performances on five continents and in all kinds of cultures, I learned how to make instant, meaningful connections with strangers in the most trying of environments.

What I took away from all of that was the ability to understand different perspectives. To see people, recognize where they’re coming from, and navigate the gap between what I know and what they don’t, and what they know and what I don’t. When I brought that skill off the stage and into my professional and personal relationships, it completely transformed my life.

Your TEDx talk has millions of views. Why do you think it connects with so many people?

I’ve had just over a decade to think about that question. A lot of it comes down to timing. The talk dropped in 2015, right as we were starting to hear the first rumblings about loneliness, right as the political climate was becoming the most divisive of my lifetime, right as the world was accelerating into social media, smartphones, and algorithmic silos. It was the tipping point of the world we now live in. Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a hopeful vibe. People looked out for each other, division wasn’t part of ordinary conversation. By 2015, everything was starting to feel really bleak, and I think people were genuinely frustrated by it.

The talk itself wasn’t groundbreaking. I talked about listening to understand, asking meaningful and relevant questions, and gave a simple framework for doing both. None of that is new. But because it landed at exactly the right moment in the culture, and because I approached it not like an academic on communication but like a professional magician who just happens to have learned some things along the way. Clearly it struck a chord, and then it took off.

Many experts struggle to explain big ideas. What’s the biggest mistake you see, and how do you help them?

The biggest mistake experts make, by far, is starting with the wrong question. Most people begin their planning by asking, “What do I want to say?” They have 20 minutes or an hour, and they think: what do I want to tell these people about my topic? So they get excited and they unload, going on about the research, the data, the studies, the statistics, everything they wish the world knew about how fascinating their work is. And they completely overwhelm their audience.

The problem is that people don’t have the context to understand what you’re talking about, why it’s interesting, or why it’s relevant to them. You’ve essentially walked into a conversation that only you were invited to.

Instead of asking “What do I want to say?” you should always begin by asking “What do they need to hear?” Who are these people? What do they want? What are they struggling with? What do they believe, and what do they fear? How do I meet them where they are? The best communicators don’t start with their ideas. They start with their audience, and build up from something the audience already holds to be true, before ever asking them to consider something new.

In your book Three New People, you talk about daily interactions. Can you share a small interaction that had a big impact on you?

I was rushing through an airport on no sleep, delayed by a mechanical issue that had turned my leisurely layover into a 25-minute sprint to my gate. No phone out, no earbuds in. Just me scanning for my gate so I could make it to a speaking engagement. And then I see this short bald guy walking toward me, and my sleep-deprived brain goes, “That short bald guy kind of looks like Seth Godin.” The closer he gets, the more certain I become. It is Seth Godin. The father of modern marketing. My hero in business. A guy whose books have genuinely changed my life.

I had no filter. I just blurted out, “Seth!” He found where the voice was coming from, spotted me, broke into a big smile, made a beeline for me, stuck out his hand and said, “What can I do for you, sir?”

That’s how my hero became a cherished personal connection.

Here’s what stuck with me: everybody is stressed in airports. Seth was traveling with his wife, almost certainly heading somewhere important. And yet this man—one of the most recognized names and faces in modern business—stopped completely, gave me his full attention, and didn’t rush me for a second. I thought: if Seth Godin can find time for a stranger in an airport, I have no excuse. It completely reframed how I think about the moments when I’m tempted to put my head down and tell myself I’m too busy to connect.

What’s next for you in your mission to help people connect better?

I’m on a mission to restore humanity’s trust in experts. We are in a trust recession. Trust is at historic lows across almost every conceivable industry—education, healthcare, politics, you name it. We don’t even trust each other. Only one in three Americans says that most people can be trusted. That’s a staggering number.

Accompanying this collapse in trust is what some are calling the “death of expertise.” We no longer look to experts for answers. In fact, as a culture, we’ve become actively skeptical of them. The more letters after your name, the more degrees you have, the longer you’ve studied something, the less likely people are to trust you. That’s a complete reversal from where we were half a century ago. And it’s a serious problem. Experts aren’t always right, of course not—but they are far more likely to be right, and more likely to be right in ways that non-experts haven’t even considered.

Here’s what I think is happening: non-experts have figured out something that most experts haven’t. The name of the game is no longer knowledge. It’s trust. If someone with a YouTube channel or a TikTok account can figure out how to earn trust, they will spread ideas through the culture. Even if they’re wrong. Meanwhile, experts are still stuck in the ivory tower, publishing for each other, speaking in jargon, wondering why nobody’s listening. Until they learn to speak clearly, earn buy-in, and drive action on their ideas, they’re going to keep losing ground. And as a society, we are paying a real price for that.

My work is about closing that gap. I’m on a mission to help smart people explain their ideas to the rest of us. To earn the trust they deserve, and drive real change on ideas that matter.

Your new book is called The One-Page Keynote. What does that even mean?

Most experts, when tasked with presenting their work—particularly in keynote-style environments, 20 to 60 minutes on stage or in front of a room—tend to think the success of their presentation comes down to charisma or performance skills. And because they’re not “naturally talented speakers,” they expect to fail. In this book, I argue that design beats delivery every time. It’s not the speaker, it’s the speech. If you design the speech properly, by working backwards from who it’s for and asking “What do they need to hear?”, you will drive action on your big ideas. No charisma required.

The book teaches you how to design an entire keynote-length speech that can be outlined clearly on a single typed piece of paper. Something you could actually walk up on stage and reference. The goal is to ensure you’re presenting the right ideas in the right order.

And here’s the big secret at the heart of the book: the speech structure I teach—the one we’ve used with all of our clients and that I use in my own presentations—is built on answering the eight questions that every audience silently asks themselves while you’re on stage. If you simply answer those questions in the order they ask them, your speech will work. Every time. For any audience, on any topic.

When you trust the system, you trust yourself. And when you trust yourself, your audience will trust you.

The One-Page Keynote: How to Design a Speech That Always Works, No Charisma Required will be released May 2026 (Rethink Press).

When a single moment can change your life forever, how do you find the strength to rise again? For Kijuan M. Amey, that moment came in 2017, when a devastating motorcycle accident left him without sight. Yet in the face of unimaginable loss, Kijuan didn’t just survive — he transformed his life.

A former veteran of the United States Air Force, resilience has always been part of his DNA. Drawing on military discipline, a powerful mindset shift, and an unshakeable belief in his inner vision, he rebuilt his life from the ground up. Today, he is a celebrated speaker, author, and coach, inspiring others to redefine their limits, embrace adversity, and discover the power of purpose.

From challenging misconceptions about disability to showing how creativity and music can heal, Kijuan M. Amey proves that true vision isn’t about sight — it’s about how you choose to see the world.

“I may have lost my sight, but I never lost my vision — because real vision begins in the mind, not the eyes.”

After your accident in 2017, what was the first mindset shift that helped you begin rebuilding your life?

The first thing I had to do was distance myself from the victimized mentality. Having this mindset would keep me in those depressed and feeling lonesome moments. Once I shifted my thinking from “why me” to “what’s next for me,” I began my empowerment journey.

How did your experience in the Air Force shape the resilience you later needed in civilian life?

The resilience I would adopt from the military would ultimately give me the tool for dealing withsociety. Whether it was rejection, a feeling of acceptance, or being addressed and not going unnoticed. These are ongoing battles in the daily lives of those with disabilities.

You often say you “lost sight but not vision.” What does that phrase mean to you today?

“I may have lost my sight, but I did not lose my vision,” is all about how you view life. I choose to view sight as something physical I lost, but the vision I yet have, is mental. Your eyes are gateways to the world, but always remember, there is no functionality without the brain.

What were the biggest challenges in adapting to life without eyesight, and how did you overcome them?

The first thing I had to find out was how did it happen. I initially woke up out of a medically induced coma, at a hospital without eyesight, which I doubt anyone is prepared for. Once everything was explained to me, it helped, but there was still an uphill battle with denial. Being a military veteran helped because I could utilize my benefits and resources provided. They have blind rehabilitation centers, which are basically schools for learning how to live with your visual impairment. You learn orientation and mobility, cooking, cleaning, shopping/purchasing items at a store, using technology, and much more. I believe getting myself back into the community was the greatest help in reintegration with society.

How has your work with veterans influenced your approach to coaching resilience?

When it comes to working with vets, it did help with coaching resilience, but there’s a bit of a difference to the approach. Certain connections I have with veterans are similarities and bonds that only someone who has worn the uniform would know about. It makes for a quicker icebreaker and getting the ball rolling. For those who don’t fit this mold, it requires a more graceful connection. Generally allowing them to take the reigns on how they would like to start off the conversation. Neither approach is better than the other, but it definitely helps to be aware of this so you make the client feel as comfortable as possible in the session(s).

Your memoir focuses on overcoming adversity — what message do you hope readers carry with them after finishing it?

The hope I have when readers finish with my memoir is a distinct feeling of hope. If you listen to my comeback story and nothing moves you, I’m honestly not sure if you have a pulse. I honestly have to go back and read it just to remind myself of what all I survived in one motorcycle accident. When everyone told you how the doctors counted you out, and it was even said to my face by the doctor who performed the spinal cord surgery.

Music and drumming have been part of your life for decades. How does creativity contribute to healing and resilience?

Music is a huge part of my life and the recovery journey. For those who don’t know, music actually carries vibrations. These vibrations have positive and negative frequencies, which can affect your entire being. There was a study done on lab mice where they played two different types of music, one being positive and the other negative. Let’s just say the negative connotation of the music made one set of lab mice very violent amongst one another. The mice who were played the positive music were very productive and able to carry out task the scientists gave them. We can use this example in our daily lives to understand how these things could be influencing our lives. At the end of the day, you have to be careful which frequencies you allow to influence you. I always say, music is me, but choose wisely!

When speaking to large audiences, how do you connect personally with individuals despite the scale?

Despite the scale, I am looking to treat the speech like a flight, almost. I want to have a nice clean and sometimes exciting, takeoff, hit our different levels of altitude with a little bit of turbulence (emotions), and get you to your destination with a smooth landing. As long as I am able to do these three main things, and throw in an unforgettable nugget, the size of the audience becomes a “how big is the room,” thing. Alternatively what this means is, am I scanning the room or is it 10-20 people in front of me.

What misconceptions about blindness or disability do you most want people to rethink?

The biggest one is that we are so helpless. Majority of us have been through some kind of training in our life, so we understand how to do things for ourselves, but we also know when to ask if we can’t figure it out. With this being said, don’t intentionally ignore us when we do attempt to ask for assistance because this has personally happened to me. I just want people to understand we can do, think, and speak up for ourselves. So the next time you see me ordering at a restaurant, feel free to ask me what I want , rather than asking the person I’m with.

Looking ahead, what legacy or impact do you hope your speaking and coaching will leave?

I am hoping my speaking legacy will leave behind the true life of resilience. I want people to look at my life and say, “if he could do what he did with a life altering change like his, what am I complaining about.” Always remember, it’s not about comparing life journey’s, but understanding “if they can , so can I!”

Hugo Pacheco works at the intersection of cash, trust, and financial infrastructure in African markets. Rather than focusing on apps or digital-first solutions, his work centers on how people already manage money and how financial systems can be built around those realities. By embedding financial services into everyday businesses and community structures, he has helped expand access to payments, savings, and banking services in markets long underserved by traditional banks.

“Financial inclusion starts not with technology, but with understanding how people already trust and use money.”

Can you share a project where you helped bring financial services to people who didn’t have access before?

One example comes from Ethiopia, where I helped design a women-led mobile money agent network using existing small businesses rather than bank branches. These women were already trusted in their communities and handled cash daily, but had no way to offer formal financial services.

By enabling them to act as agents, people could deposit, withdraw, and transfer money locally for the first time. Within six months, the network reached more than 3,000 previously unserved users. The impact came less from technology and more from embedding financial access into familiar, trusted places.

How do you make sure financial solutions are both helpful to communities and sustainable for businesses?

I design for real economic behavior rather than idealized users.

For communities, that means reducing the time, distance, and risk involved in managing money. For businesses, it means ensuring agents earn predictable income and that operations can scale without permanent subsidies. If agents cannot make money, services become unreliable. If services are unreliable, customers disengage.

In practice, sustainability and inclusion are inseparable. A solution that does not work commercially will eventually fail the people it aims to serve.

In places where people trust cash more than digital money, how do you get them to try digital payments?

You do not reduce cash usage to grow digital money. In most cases, cash volumes need to increase first.

Digital adoption depends on people being able to move reliably between cash and digital value. In markets like Mozambique, DRC, and Nigeria, uptake only accelerated once agents consistently had enough cash to meet demand. When withdrawals or deposits fail, trust in the digital system breaks down.

If cash availability is ignored, digital services become exclusionary, benefiting only people with stable income, smartphones, or bank access. When cash is properly supported through agents, digital money becomes a bridge rather than a barrier.

How do agent networks or agency banking help people get access to money and financial services?

Agent networks bring financial services into places people already use, such as shops, kiosks, and markets.

Mobile money agents typically provide access to fintech/telecom-led wallet top-ups and payments. In contrast, agency banking agents act on behalf of banks to offer deposits, withdrawals, and account services. In both cases, agents reduce the need for costly bank branches and make services available closer to where people live and work.

For many first-time users, agents are their only interaction with formal finance. They provide access, explanation, and confidence, especially in environments where trust in institutions is low.

What are some common challenges when building agent networks, and how do you solve them?

The most common challenges are cash shortages, inactive agents, and low earnings.

Agents struggle when they cannot meet customer demand or when commissions are too small to justify the effort. I address this by redesigning incentives, improving access to working capital, and segmenting agents based on their capacity and role in the network.

Successful networks treat agents as small businesses that need predictable income and liquidity, not as passive distribution points.

How do you work with regulations while still bringing new financial products to market?

I design products to align with regulatory intent while solving real operational problems.

In Mozambique, I worked on mobile money and agent systems with Mpesa and Vodacom under a tightly regulated environment. Instead of pushing rapid expansion, we focused on compliant agent onboarding, clear transaction limits, and strong identity processes. This allowed the network to scale nationally without regulatory backlash, while maintaining trust with both users and authorities.

In Nigeria, I worked on the expansion of the BVN national identity system. The challenge was increasing coverage without raising costs or excluding low-income users. By redesigning enrolment workflows and distribution models, identity coverage grew from roughly 29 million to over 60 million people in a few years.

In both cases, regulation was not a blocker. It provided the framework that made scale possible once operational realities were respected.

Can you tell us about a partnership that made a big difference in your Work?

One impactful example comes from my work with Advans Microfinance across multiple countries, including Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Senegal, and Cameroon.

I coordinated the rollout of digital field teller systems where deposit-taking and loan origination rules differed significantly by country due to regulatory and operational constraints. Beyond technology, this required aligning workflows with local regulation and frontline realities.

In Côte d’Ivoire, I also helped set up an agency banking model in partnership with cocoa farmer cooperatives. These cooperatives acted as aggregators, consolidating demand in rural areas where individual agents would not have been viable on their own. The partnership worked because each party had a clear role: the bank managed risk and products, cooperatives managed trust and aggregation, and the platform enabled operations via USSD.

How do you make sure your projects actually empower local communities, not just grow a business?

I look at long-term behavior rather than launch metrics.

If agents earn stable income, customers continue using services without incentives, and systems still function after pilots end, then communities are being empowered. If usage drops once external support is removed, the model was not sustainable.

True empowerment shows up in daily habits and income stability, not press releases.

What do you see as the next big change in fintech and financial inclusion in Africa?

The next shift will be away from growth driven by agent numbers toward systems focused on agent quality, liquidity, and productivity.

We will also see more hybrid models that treat cash as permanent infrastructure rather than a temporary problem. Fintechs that understand cash flows, identity, and regulation together will outperform those chasing purely digital scale.

The future is less about new apps and more about stronger financial plumbing and resilience.

How does your platform, The Barefoot Economist, help people understand and improve financial access?

Through a weekly newsletter and The Agent Network OS, it focuses on how agent-led financial systems actually work in cash-heavy, low-trust markets. Rather than promoting products or trends, it explains why certain business models scale and others fail, drawing on real operational, regulatory, and economic constraints.

The aim is not theory, but better decisions in real financial systems.

Asheesh Malhotra is a global technology and transformation leader with over 25 years of experience shaping AI, digital strategies, and business transformation across multiple continents. From scaling high-performing teams to driving ethical innovation, Asheesh combines deep cultural insight with a clear focus on purpose and impact. His work helps organisations navigate change, embrace technology responsibly, and deliver measurable value worldwide.

“True transformation happens when technology is driven by purpose and measured by the value it creates for people.”

What inspired you to pursue a global career in technology and transformation?

From early in my career and post graduate time, I was fascinated by how technology could fundamentally change the way businesses operate and create value. Growing up in India, I was naturally curious about global business trends and I wanted to work in environments where technology wasn’t just a support function, but a strategic driver. The opportunity to work across continents—UK, Europe, US, Middle East and Asia Pacific—allowed me to see first-hand how diverse businesses leverage innovation differently, which has been both inspiring and enriching.

You’ve grown teams and businesses massively—what’s your secret to building strong, motivated teams?

I’ve always believed in building a culture of purpose and ownership. People need to understand why their work matters and not just what they’re doing. I focus on giving teams clear goals, autonomy to innovate and recognition for their contributions. I follow the old adage of ‘treat people like you want to be treated’. Investing in capability-building and fostering a truly inclusive environment has been critical. And, of course, leading by example—being visible, approachable and transparent—helps create trust and motivation.

How do you make sure AI and digital tools are used responsibly in business?

Ethical AI isn’t just a checkbox—it’s about embedding responsibility into the design and deployment of technology. I have worked in areas of AI Centres of Excellence and frameworks for responsible AI, including trust, transparency and governance. I also encourage organisations to consider the societal and human impact of AI alongside its business benefits. It’s about balancing innovation with accountability and making sure technology enhances decision-making rather than replacing ethical judgment.

Can you share a moment when understanding different cultures made a big difference in your work?

Absolutely. When integrating a newly acquired business in Europe, the team had a very different approach to decision-making and hierarchy compared to our UK operations. Recognising and respecting those differences allowed us to design processes that were collaborative rather than prescriptive, which significantly improved adoption and engagement. My upbringing in India, combined with global experience, has taught me that cultural sensitivity isn’t optional—it’s central to successful transformation.

How do you help leaders and boards navigate big changes in their companies?

Change can be daunting, especially at the board level where decisions impact entire organisations. I focus on translating complex technology and digital strategies into clear business outcomes while keeping people at centre. That means defining measurable goals, outlining risks & mitigations, and establishing governance frameworks. My role is to build confidence, provide evidence-based insights and ensure leaders understand both the strategic and operational implications of change.

What advice would you give someone trying to scale a business or start a new service?

Start with clarity of purpose and customer value—understand the problem you’re solving better than anyone else. Invest in the right team and culture from day one; talent and collaboration drive scale. And, critically, combine ambition with discipline: set clear milestones, measure progress and be willing to adapt, but don’t compromise on quality or values. Growth without sustainable foundations is not sustainable.

How do you stay innovative while keeping things practical and realistic?

Innovation and pragmatism go hand in hand, if you don’t innovate you would become stale. I encourage teams to explore emerging technologies and experiment with new ideas, but always anchor them in business value. Pilots, prototypes and measurable KPIs help test assumptions quickly. Being innovative doesn’t mean being reckless; it’s about creating solutions that are aspirational, but achievable.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

Scaling EY’s Technology Strategy & Transformation business by 20 times in 5 years was a huge challenge. It required growing the team, integrating acquisitions and maintaining culture while delivering client outcomes. We overcame it through a combination of clear vision, rigorous planning and relentless focus on people and governance. In hindsight, there were several things that could have been done better, especially internal stakeholder management – lessons learnt. Every decision was aligned to purpose, value creation and sustainability—without that, rapid growth can quickly become chaotic.

How do partnerships with companies like Microsoft or ServiceNow help your work?

Strategic alliances are about more than technology—they’re about creating ecosystems of expertise. Partnerships with Microsoft and ServiceNow allowed us to co-develop solutions, leverage best practices and accelerate client outcomes. They provide scale, credibility and access to innovation, enabling our teams to focus on solving complex business problems rather than building everything from scratch.

Outside of work, what helps you relax and stay balanced in life?

Family is my anchor—I enjoy spending time with my wife, two children and our dog. Golf has been a passion for the past 15 years; it’s not just sport, it’s a mental reset, teaching patience and focus, while keeping yourself in a relaxed mindset. Balance comes from dedicating time to what matters most personally, which in turn makes me more present and effective professionally.