S10 - E9: Life is a squiggly line – Anisah Akhtar

Asif Choudry (00:02.414)
Hello and welcome to a new episode of the You’re My commsHERO podcast and I’m your host Asif Choudhry. Today my guest is Anisa Akhtar. From a degree in education and philosophy from UCL to starting her career off in student recruitment field, Anisa fell into PR in your not so traditional way. She’s now head of student experience and corporate communications for one of the oldest, largest and most academically successful six form colleges in the country.

Anisa is the youngest female ethnic minority head of department in the college’s history as well. So what an accolade. She’s a born and bred Lutonian, a trustee of level trust, ambassador for Step Forward Luton, and more recently won the Asian Women of Achievement Award for Young Achiever of the Year 2023. So a fantastic roll call of accolades there, Anisa. Thank you for joining us. And it’s a pleasure to welcome you on the podcast.

Anisah Akhtar (00:55.871)
Thank you, Asif. Just hearing you say all that made me well up a bit. No, I wasn’t actually going to cry. But you know, when you hear someone say it’s quite a lot going on there. But thank you for having me on the podcast today.

Asif Choudry (01:04.802)
is lots of things that you’re up to and what have you but you don’t often get the chance to reflect on that i’ll hear somebody else saying it so good on you and you should celebrate and all coms here are people should celebrate their achievements a lot more so we’re gonna get into the meat and drink of the podcast shortly but let’s do the getting to know you set a section here so i’m gonna kick off with um apple or android

Okay, what is it about Apple, anything in particular?

Anisah Akhtar (01:34.935)
I have an Apple, I know how to use it. Androids just aren’t really up scratch, are they?

Asif Choudry (01:41.268)
It’s always, we do get some Android users on, but I think it’s a comms thing, a creative marketing thing. I think that’s what it is. Yeah. Okay. What about, are you an early riser or do you love a lion? Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (01:48.307)
Yeah, camera is better as well, I think.

Anisah Akhtar (01:55.68)
Early riser, always, every time, all my life, even on Sundays, I’m up at 6am. Even on Sundays, yeah, there’s no such thing as a lay-in. I feel ill if I lay in for too long. Yeah, the body doesn’t like it.

Asif Choudry (02:01.246)
Are you on Sundays as well?

Asif Choudry (02:06.562)
Ha ha.

We always have differences of opinion on that. It’s always a good one. And ebook or printed book? Okay. Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (02:15.851)
printed book every time. I like to feel it. I actually feel like I’m reading something.

Asif Choudry (02:21.294)
I think most people in comms have said that, you know, there’s a convenience with eBooks, taking it on holiday and stuff. And I’m a big fan of audible on the commute and stuff. It’s great. But that printed book for, I recorded the podcast with somebody the other day and they said for learning, they prefer, you know, highlighting pages and marking pages up and stuff like that. So.

Anisah Akhtar (02:23.296)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (02:36.211)
Yeah. It feels more authentic when you’re holding a book. I mean, e-books are great, like I said, more convenient, but it’s just not the traditional way. You know, we’ve been brought up reading books that you get to hold in your hands and get to feel it. And it’s just, you actually get to immerse yourself in the experience if you’re reading for pleasure.

Asif Choudry (02:46.551)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (02:55.138)
That’s true. It’s very true. And as communicators, we do spend a lot of time in front of our screens anyway. So to have that bit of downtime, it’s nice to do that. So that’s been really nice. Thank you for sharing some of those insights into you and Issa. And we’re going to get into the podcast, which the title of this is life is a squiggly line.

Anisah Akhtar (03:01.649)
Exactly.

Anisah Akhtar (03:17.328)
Yes, it is.

Asif Choudry (03:19.142)
And so in this episode, you’re going to talk about the interesting journey into the magical world of PR and communications, which certainly was never in your so-called plan of life, but with a little bit of confidence, some talent spotting and a bunch of incredible leaders in your corner, you’re going to talk to us about how you now manage PR communications, marketing and student recruitment.

Anisah Akhtar (03:33.311)
No, it wasn’t.

Asif Choudry (03:44.718)
for the first ever established and fourth largest six form college in the country, all whilst trying to make a difference, a small difference in a very special town, which is Luton.

Anisah Akhtar (03:55.315)
Yes! Shout out to Luton. Luton girl. Yes!

Asif Choudry (03:57.394)
Yeah, shout out to Lewton. So to kick us off then, Anisa, tell us a bit more about who you are or where you’ve come from.

Anisah Akhtar (04:06.731)
Who I am. So my name’s Anisa and I come from a town down south in Luton. You Leeds lot might not be very familiar with it, but it’s a great town. We’re Premier League. We’ve got Radio 1’s big weekend coming to us. We are now the cool place. We’re up and coming. And genuinely, I’ve even before all this exciting stuff happened and I’ve always been so proud to come from this town. To give back to a town that’s always given me so much and my family.

I come from a very humble beginning, working class family, dad’s a taxi driver, used to work in factories, mum works in retail. So working class family and I just have, in the last few years, especially as my career has taken off, I felt so lucky that has all happened for me. My plan was never to excel this much. I had my parents in my corner, but for this to happen to me, I always feel like Luton and my town has always provided me with opportunities to get here.

So yeah, it’s a bit about me, mom and dad, brother, work at Six Form. Just, yes, little girl in Luton, trying to make a small difference, as you said.

Asif Choudry (05:14.946)
Yeah. Very good. Humble beginnings. There’s nothing wrong with that. You know, a lot of comms people have come from that space and, uh, and it’s interesting. I must put out a disclaimer at the time of recording, Luton are still in the premiership that may change, that may change. Um, so if you’re listening to this after the premiership has been decided, we accept no responsibility for any, um, misinformation that may have occurred during this podcast. So.

Anisah Akhtar (05:20.171)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (05:26.939)
We are, say it again, Asif, sorry. It will not. Positive vibes.

Anisah Akhtar (05:41.843)
uh

Asif Choudry (05:44.034)
Tell us now then, you’ve told us a bit about your background, which has been interesting to hear, but tell us more about where you are now in your comms career.

Anisah Akhtar (05:52.535)
So currently, as you said, head of student experience and corporate comms for Luton Sixth Form College. You’ve done a bit a lot of PR on them. So, you know, they’re a great college, obviously. And right now, my career, I feel very stable. You know, I recently got this promotion but it’s been about a year now. So in any job, you need the job for a year to really feel it. So now I understand all my responsibilities and the role itself.

I feel very stable, but I also have this feeling of I’m not done yet. And it’s quite an unhealthy thing. I get bored very quickly. Like I’m always like looking for the next thing. I’m like, okay, well now what I’ve done it for a year now. What? So I’m badgering my boss. Okay. Well, what more can I do? What more can I, how else can I expand my portfolio? Because I’m just so hungry for more. And that’s, that’s been in me since very young. Really.

Asif Choudry (06:43.934)
Yeah, so I think that’s, so you’ve gone to this position of the head off now, which is all great to see, but then what’s the journey being like on route to that for you? Then you said that you’ve had that change on a year by year basis because you didn’t just come in as head off. How have you got to that place?

Anisah Akhtar (06:50.506)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (06:57.775)
Yeah, no, no. I don’t even know how I got. So I started here at the college about five years ago, my five year anniversary was last month. And I came in as a very low level admissions officer starting, I think this was my second real life job in the world after graduating, start off in recruitment in London. So I came here, admissions officer, did that for a year.

the stars started aligning for me. COVID happened and my predecessor left just before COVID. The college was stuck during the pandemic of, yeah, we couldn’t recruit anyone. I was young, I still am young, but I was younger then and I enjoyed social media. So I went to our VP and was like, and it genuinely was just an innocent request. There was nothing I wanted to gain from the college at that point. It was just because I was quite bored anyway, working from home, didn’t enjoy it. So I said, you know.

Give me the social media, let me have a bit of a play around with it. And that was my worst, let me just have to play around with it. Um, and I’ll keep the area warm for you until you find your permanent qualified person. Um, and Ian, our VP then took a chance on me and said, you know what? Show us what you got, so I said fine. So I did it for the pandemic. That pandemic then lasted about a year. So I was doing that. And then, um, eventually Ian and our CEO then thought, you know what? Let’s, let’s give it to her.

So after admissions officer, I then got added to my portfolio, PR and comms. So did that for about a year, then jumped into solely PR because I realized I couldn’t do student recruitment and PR at the same time within my capacity. So did PR manager for a year for the college. And then a year later again, got a bit more bored and then, you know, structurally the college changed. And I was.

then given the title of Head of Student Experience and Corporate Communications that sees that oversees the recruitment side of it. So all the missions that sort of admin left side brain kind of thinking and the PR and the comms, the marketing community engagement side, um, all fall under me and I love my job so much. I have never had those kind of Sunday blue, the Monday blues where you think, Oh, I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow. Um, I love this place. The people I work with. And.

Anisah Akhtar (09:18.251)
This is the job itself. I feel so blessed to be able to, like I said before, just give back. And it comes from a good place. Like I want nothing back in return. I just want to be able to make a small difference.

Asif Choudry (09:30.858)
Amazing. That’s really inspirational, I’d say, to be honest with you for that. And that zest for the job five years later, congratulations on the five year anniversary. So that, you know, that’s, that’s good. And you’ve had quite an interesting journey. And you’ve shown a lot of kind of proactive

Anisah Akhtar (09:38.847)
Thank you.

Asif Choudry (09:49.494)
you know, moves towards wanting to progress your career. And that’s been done within the same organization, which is always nice to see because there are a number of people in the profession who’ve had to go outside of their organization to be able to achieve those next steps or fulfill challenges that they want to have, which is a good thing in anybody, you know, you want, you want your comms people to, to want to try and improve. And if you’re getting involved in CPD, then you would expect to be doing different things year on year.

Anisah Akhtar (09:54.645)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (10:00.073)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (10:07.52)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (10:17.73)
in the job, so congratulations on that. So it’s really good to hear. So in our career journeys, there’s always gonna be people who will inspire us and support us on that journey. Who are those people for you that have inspired and supported you?

Anisah Akhtar (10:31.611)
There’s quite a few and I think I will offend people if I don’t list them out, but there are two that scream out at me that I have to obviously, first and foremost, my parents, but in particular, my dad. Shout out to my mum too, but my dad in particular isn’t your average dad. He’s always been my biggest supporter from little up until now.

has always been in my corner, always pushed me, even on the days where I didn’t want to push myself, he’s always given me that strength, just go do it, go do it. Himself, he wasn’t educated, came from Pakistan, and has just been a worker all his life, but he’s always wanted to give back to his kids to kind of pave that forward. And I think he’s seen that a lot in me and, you know, a lot of, well, all of this I owe a lot to him, if I’m honest with you. So yeah, my dad, definitely my biggest supporter.

Asif Choudry (11:11.552)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (11:24.051)
followed closely by my boss, Altaf. I know, you know, he’s probably gonna roll his eyes, but he genuinely has played the biggest part in my career journey here, you know. He’s seen something in me, probably my sense of humor, if I’m honest with you. But he’s seen something and he’s just run with it and he’s just believed in me. And it’s that belief that’s given me the confidence to wanna do more and actually has kept me here because yes, the college is great, but you know, the college.

an organization is only as good as the people around you. And it’s for people like Altav who have supported me and have given me, he’s let me take risks. He’s let me kind of go with it and has trusted me to like fix it if it’s not worked out. And he was actually, he was the person who nominated me a few months back for the Asian Women Achievement Awards for the Young Achiever. And I only found that out afterwards that he nominated me, but.

Asif Choudry (11:55.469)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (12:06.634)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (12:20.539)
Things like that, he’s always wanted to champion female leaders. You know, Altaf himself is actually one of two ethnic minority CEOs of a six-alm in the entire country. You know, the top tables are, and there is change, but the top tables tend to be white male dominated. And, you know, to see a face like his in a CEO’s position, he’s always said he wants to pave that forward. So, you know,

Asif Choudry (12:31.47)
Wow.

Asif Choudry (12:39.147)
Okay.

Anisah Akhtar (12:49.883)
Our directors are one of the most diverse boards you’ll see. Our governors, diverse, our middle leaders, diverse, and that’s one of his things. And he’s really shown that through me. You don’t have to come in at a high level. You can start lower and you can build your way up and opportunities will be given to you if you want it enough.

Asif Choudry (13:11.15)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (13:15.095)
So yeah, my dad and Altaf, two of my probably biggest supporters. And obviously there’s so many people on my journey that have inspired me. You know, I had a few bosses previously who, you know, I had some great experiences with, I say great loosely, but you know, it’s the not so great managers as well that teach you things because you then learn how not to do things in the future, you know, and I think trusting people around you and trusting those words of wisdom is important, I think.

Asif Choudry (13:34.46)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (13:42.998)
No, it’s good. I think you’ve got to accept that. And people, you know, having good managers and leaders around you is, is an important thing and hopefully inspires individuals themselves to become, like you say, I think it’s important. One thing you mentioned there about taking on the qualities, both the good and the bad qualities, knowing what to avoid and what to remove from your own, um, kind of personal makeup, as it were.

Anisah Akhtar (13:51.723)
so important.

Anisah Akhtar (14:02.431)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (14:08.746)
and what to enhance and encourage within them. It’s great to hear managers for supporting and championing the comms teams within organizations. I’m always a big fan of doing that. And that’s, yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (14:08.809)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (14:17.895)
Yeah. And he does, he gets it. He completely gets it. Like, you know, you don’t have to explain the import. And I think that’s the thing within comms and PR. You know, I recently went on a training course in London and it was a mixed mixture of different people from different sectors. And their main primary concern was that they are not at the top table. Their organizations don’t get to, don’t see the value or the importance of comms people.

And I couldn’t relate. I was like, what are you talking about? Just go talk to your principal, go talk to your, you know, MD. But they didn’t get it because for me, our senior leadership here at the college have always seen the importance of PR and communications and the reputation of our college has always been at the forefront. And I’ve been lucky enough to always be not at, but close enough to the top table to, to put the comms side in the conversation because it’s so important.

Asif Choudry (15:11.618)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (15:13.661)
So important.

Asif Choudry (15:15.114)
Unfortunately, in our profession, we hear all too often the stories of, um, comms teams who yearn for that seat at the top table and don’t have that recognition for comms marketing PR as a strategic function within the business. It’s more of a service, um, uh, service based department in effect. So I think that’s, that’s a challenge that is still too prevalent in our profession and, but it’s encouraging to hear, and I hope people will be inspired.

Anisah Akhtar (15:18.39)
Mm.

Anisah Akhtar (15:26.07)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (15:30.185)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (15:39.655)
It is.

Asif Choudry (15:45.078)
by the situation that you’re in. And, and that’s important because I think the more of these, it does exist. There are people like that do exist, but I think it’s important for people to, it can be easy to get a bit disheartened by the situation that you may be in. So if, if there is any of our listeners who are in the position of not being recognized for their value, yeah, what advice would you?

Anisah Akhtar (15:48.758)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (15:54.379)
It happens. Yeah, they do.

Anisah Akhtar (16:11.199)
Oh, come and talk to me. Let me introduce you to our CEO. Like, let’s get our CEO to talk. Well, you know what? I think it’s about letting your work do the talking. Like I never asked to have PR and comms at the forefront. Like it’s a strategic aim. I would like to say it was, we realized the value of it when we, I think it was during COVID when we realized how important comms was.

Asif Choudry (16:15.03)
Yeah, what advice would you give? Yeah, what do you think, what should they do?

Anisah Akhtar (16:38.363)
in communicating with our customers, our community. So my advice would be, talk to your CEO. Like, what is it? It’s not unreachable. You can’t talk to your senior leaders. Just do it. You know, disclaimer alert, there isn’t actually a team at the colleges, it’s a one-man band here. But you know, when there’s a few people in the organization saying the same thing, and find your allies actually, that’s something I learned at the course, find your allies within an organization. There’ll always be people who appreciate this, or will get it, who will get PR.

Asif Choudry (16:59.672)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (17:07.399)
It may not be your CEO, but there’ll be someone somewhere at the top who gets communications and marketing and it’s just bringing them on side and making them your people, get them to advocate for you. Um, cause I think that holds high value as well.

Asif Choudry (17:23.278)
Love that. Some really sage advice for people to listen in. And speaking of advice then, just to wrap up these questions, what advice would you give to your younger self and perhaps those listening who are keen to move into the world of PR, comms and marketing?

Anisah Akhtar (17:32.259)
Ugh.

Anisah Akhtar (17:39.291)
to my younger self, I’d tell her, just do it, stop overthinking it. Like it’s even now such a bad, I’m such an overthinker. Like I, you know, it’s funny, even at work, like I’m not the optimistic one. I’m not like the morning, chill it. I’m like, okay, well, I question everything. So I would just tell my younger self just to get on with it, stop overthinking. And what’s the worst that could happen? You know, you will make mistakes along the way. I’ve made terrible mistakes along the way, but.

Number one, you can’t change it. Number two, you’ve got great stories to tell the kids in a few years. You know what I mean? You, what’s the point of dwelling on the past? Just don’t look back, do it. And you can relate that to getting into PR and comms. It’s what’s the worst that could happen? You know, PR and comms isn’t, well, for me, wasn’t my trajectory. Like it wasn’t the plan of life, but it happened. And when things happen for you and the stars align, things happen for a reason. Go with it. Um, and if I also believe, and this is quite controversial.

You’ve either got it or you haven’t. Um, I think with PR and comms, people have a natural flair for it. Like I learned on that, this course is getting great shout out by the way, CIPR is a great course and, um, you know, no one in that room actually had a formal degree coming out of college. No one actually went into a degree in comms or degree in marketing. We all came from so many different varied backgrounds, but it was, we fell into it. Someone sort of bit tense about it.

Asif Choudry (18:43.51)
Yeah.

Asif Choudry (18:55.467)
Yeah.

Anisah Akhtar (19:04.695)
And we’ve made a career out of it. Um, and obviously, you know, for those who have got a formal qualification, that’s great. And that’s amazing that you’ve learned it, but for those of us who haven’t, you can still do it. Like nothing is stopping you.

Asif Choudry (19:16.586)
Yeah. I love that. So that just do it in comms hero world. We have the dare to fail mantra, which is, uh, you know, one of those things you’ve got to, but you’ve got to have the environment that encourages that kind of spirit and attitude as well at the same time. So that’s why those supporters. Yeah. Those supporters work because they are the journeys to reaching that success. I don’t think many people have got to that successful point without getting a few things wrong on, on route anyway. So.

Anisah Akhtar (19:21.803)
Just do it.

Anisah Akhtar (19:26.155)
Yep.

Anisah Akhtar (19:32.327)
Yeah, you do. You do. You got to find your allies. Find your people.

Anisah Akhtar (19:45.847)
That’s life, isn’t it?

Asif Choudry (19:46.962)
So good advice there for people like all our listeners. So we’re here because of the comms era community. So why is comms era important to you? And would you recommend people working in comms and marketing to be part of it?

Anisah Akhtar (20:00.375)
So the comms here are a platform I stumbled again upon on LinkedIn a few years back. And actually it was one of the best things I did. I think it was, I think I DM’d you. I think it was actually about, I think it was just a general kind of, I just wanted to open my network up. I think I asked you about, again, courses. Yeah, it was just doing, what’s the worst that could happen? What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll ignore me. And you were lovely. And shout out to you. You know, I’ve known you for a couple of years now. We’ve communicated over online.

Asif Choudry (20:18.294)
It was your just do it moment, wasn’t it? It’s another one of those.

Anisah Akhtar (20:30.395)
Um, but you’ve always been such a good advocate for comms people. And you, again, you’re, you’re one of the allies who I know I can, for example, tag you on the post and you’ll, you’ll get it and you’ll comment and you’ll get, and you’ll just spread that within your network. And I think that’s one of the beauties about the comms hero family is that it opens up a network of new people for you to relate to and just to bounce ideas off. Um, and it’s a platform for us just to be all shouting from the same thing. Um, and there’s not enough of that. Like I, this was the problem with the first. Kind of.

feel comms groups I’d ever come across. So it’s very unique and there needs to be more of it and more people need to be shouting about it, I think.

Asif Choudry (21:08.31)
Thank you. That’s his feedback that continues. It gives us that kind of energy to keep going because it’s 10 years and there’s a team of people who are involved. So it’s the 10th anniversary now. So yeah, 13th of May is the official 10th anniversary. So, so yeah, it’s been amazing. What a journey. Um, well, we’ve got our comms here, a conference, which is on the 17th of October. So that will be the official celebration. So, and this year you are one of our.

Anisah Akhtar (21:13.779)
Yeah. Wow. It’s a long time. Congratulations.

Ah…

Are you holding a party?

Anisah Akhtar (21:29.031)
Yes, shameless plug. You’re welcome.

Asif Choudry (21:36.786)
exclusively chosen comms here are ambassadors. How does that feel?

Anisah Akhtar (21:41.887)
Amazing. That’s great. Didn’t even know. Didn’t even know. Great. Thank you. Oh no, I’ll definitely be there. Yes, I’ll be there. It will be on social media. And I think last year as well, I think I dragged a few, I got a few Lutonians to join along and actually one of them won. Melissa, shout out to Melissa from Keech Hospice, she won. And again.

Asif Choudry (21:47.814)
So you’ll be there shouting from the highest rooftops.

Asif Choudry (22:01.506)
Yeah, absolutely. So, one of our award winners.

Anisah Akhtar (22:05.451)
It’s those sort of networks that again, as my Luton hat on, step forward Luton ambassador, is getting our people from this town into more kind of national platforms, getting us out there because we’ve got so much homegrown talent here and it’s about time it was recognized about time.

Asif Choudry (22:21.858)
So there’s a Luton coach leaving on the, what time will that be leaving on the 17th of October? Ha ha ha.

Anisah Akhtar (22:27.831)
Oh my god, probably crack a door and make you to get there on time.

Asif Choudry (22:31.842)
So listen, it’s important you talked about connecting and with that kind of the rest of the community. So it’s important we want our listeners to connect with our guests. So where will they find you? What are the social handles they need to be looking out for?

Anisah Akhtar (22:36.086)
Yes.

Anisah Akhtar (22:45.611)
I’m on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, obviously the college website. I’m easily accessible. I mean, I’m quite, for a stalker, I’m a great project because it’s not hard to stalk me. So yeah, type me on Google and you’ll find me.

Asif Choudry (23:00.942)
So your digital footprint is alive and well. Excellent. So you’ll find this podcast on Spotify, Apple, or your chosen platform, and also on our website, comshero.com. You can follow us on Twitter or X. I don’t know what you’re calling it. I know you’re calling it Twitter. It’s X apparently, but I’m still calling it Twitter. So you can find us at comshero. And if you are listening on Apple or Spotify, please take the time to leave a rating and review and hit the follow and subscribe button so you get.

Anisah Akhtar (23:03.659)
Thank you very much.

Anisah Akhtar (23:15.047)
What is it now, by the way? Like… Oh, I don’t like that. Yeah, Twitter.

Asif Choudry (23:28.578)
the new episode. So Anisa, it’s been fascinating. Life is definitely a squiggly line for you and it is probably is for most of us. So I hope the listeners have enjoyed it. And thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

Anisah Akhtar (23:34.027)
is.

Anisah Akhtar (23:38.281)
Thank you for having me, Asif. Appreciate it.