Quickfire Questions: Patricia Bright

Quickfire Questions is a Forbes Advisor UK series in which business leaders share exclusive insight on their background, the secrets of their success, their hopes for the future, and what they would do if they were handed a magic wand…

Patricia Bright established herself as a popular YouTube personality with a channel devoted to lifestyle, beauty and fashion issues. Earlier this year she launched an online finance platform for women entitled The Break. 

This channel aims to “help ambitious young women harness their desire to improve their lives” in a number of areas, from budgeting to saving and investment to how to get on the property ladder. Interviews and case studies explore career and professional development, with female enhancement always at the core.

The Break has racked up over 320,000 subscribers and almost six million views of its video content since launch.

Born in Wandsworth, Patricia went to Burntwood school in Tooting and attended Manchester Metropolitan University. She lives with her family in London.

What set you on the road to success?

My mum. I watched her work really hard and achieve so many great things, all of which were way beyond what anyone ever expected of her – it was very inspiring to see.

Did you have a hero when you were younger?

When I was growing up, my younger sister was my hero. We were like two peas in a pod – always together and always ready to be each other’s cheerleader. We all need our own cheerleader, right?

Do you have one now?

I wouldn’t say there’s anyone in particular that springs to mind… If I’m honest, I’d say I’m my own hero. I’m so proud of the way I’ve managed to build a career with my YouTube channels, such as launching The Break earlier this year to help inspire women to take life and their careers by the horns.

Not just that, but I’m also proud of being part of so many other amazing ventures, while also raising my two kids. Any woman out there with kids is a hero too in my eyes.

Do you get bored easily?

I wish! I would love to be bored as I think slowing down can be really important, but there’s just too much going on in my house for me to be bored at the moment.

Who do you admire in business and in life generally?

Arianna Huffington from Huffington Post. She completely understands the importance of needing rest as well as making sure she works hard, and I think that is something that should be celebrated more.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I’m definitely a casual leader, as I’m quite a laid-back person overall. With everything that I do, I put so much trust in the people around me to make sure they know what they’re doing. I always try to employee competent people who are really skilled in what they do and, so far, have been very lucky.

What are your ambitions?

My goal is to make sure I am always creating whatever can bring the most value to the community I want to serve. I have had such an amazing response from my viewers of the videos on The Break. I’ve heard so many stories of people saving huge amounts of money and transforming the way they handle money entirely. This was my ambition for so long – to help normal people by sharing my tools and experience. I just want to keep doing this!

Do you believe in luck?

Definitely!

What qualities do you look for in colleagues?

A key quality I look for is a ‘make it happen’ attitude. I don’t want to be working with people who come up with excuses. It’s important to be surrounded by people who can make it work and get the work done by any means within reason.

Micro-manage or big picture?

Big picture for sure. I wish I could micromanage more, but I tend to leave that to other people.

Do you think business is valued by society?

No, not in the way it should be. I believe a good business shouldn’t be seen as ‘business’ – it should instead be seen as a part of society and part of our everyday lives. To me, a good business is something that we may not even recognise is there.

How do you think business will change from 2020 onwards?

A lot of business will now be focused on making people feel good in addition to performing well. We’ve got so much amazing technology at our fingertips now, which can be used to sort out what I would call the world’s practical problems. If that’s taken care of, then we can focus on the next most important thing in life: making sure people are happy.

Business has to enhance people’s lives, not detract from them.

How would you like business to change from 2020 onwards?

There’s a few changes I would like to see. I believe it’s important to make sure businesses continue to perform, but they must make sure they are mindful and cautious of their impact on the environment, as well as making sure they are sensitive to people’s wellbeing.

Something that really needs to recognised is that businesses are driven by those on the bottom rung, and not everyone accepts this. I believe everyone should be earning a fair wage, with a higher base level to ensure much more balance overall. In my eyes, businesses really have to step up and focus on caring about people more.

Here’s a magic wand – what are you going to do?

Right now I would say clean up my house and sort all my laundry! But if you mean more widely, then it would also be: get rid of Twitter.

What’s your favourite time of day?

Around 9am. It’s just after kids have gone to school and right before I get my head into writing my emails.

Where next?

Wales! After all, international travel probably won’t be on the card for a while… Oh, and reaching one million subscribers on The Break wouldn’t be too bad either…