Today, Sinead Bovell is confident, poised, and knows exactly who she is and what she wants. However, that wasn’t always the case. After years of building her perfect resume with top internships and receiving her MBA, Bovell began what she thought would be her dream career in consulting, yet found herself terrified and unhappy, realizing not once had she stopped to ask herself, ‘Am I actually passionate about this?’.
At twenty-four Bovell took a gamble, leaving her consulting career in Toronto, Canada and the only life she had ever known to take an unconventional path, defining success on her own terms. She relocated to New York City to build her modeling career and company, Weekly Advice for Young Entrepreneurs (WAYE), in an effort to make “the future of technology cool, digestible, and relevant to all demographics.”
Known as ‘The model who talks tech’, Sinead Bovell is carving her own path, using her experiences and platform to prepare young entrepreneurs for the digital future, equipping them with the foundation and tools to build something sustainable.
On founding WAYE
People always say that Millenials and Gen Z are ‘tech savvy’ and yes the average person under thirty-five can make something go viral on Youtube or Instagram, but they couldn’t tell you how blockchain is going to change their job and that’s a problem because advanced technologies are going to impact every single one of us. And when you look at who’s talking tech, it’s coming from people that most of us can’t relate to. It’s almost like this ‘bubble’ in Silicon Valley that’s writing the rules of the future and we’re all very separate from it, but fundamentally dependent on what they are producing.
What we do at WAYE is change the narrative of who’s talking tech and who should be listening. You don’t have to necessarily have to have a PHD or work in Silicon Valley to be in the room. And in fact, the people that don’t have that stereotype or aren’t in that demographic should be in the room because we’re likely the ones that are going to be impacted the most by automation and the future of those technologies in our lives.
Who were you at twenty?
At twenty, I was incredibly focused and ambitious, studying both finance and chemistry at university, with 100% certainty I would go on to get an MBA and work in a corporate job that my peers would deem as successful. All of those things came true, but what was missing was any sense of what success meant to me. I was chasing other people’s versions of success. I had never defined it for myself.
On realizing her lifelong dream was not ‘her dream’
At twenty-four I hit an absolute ultimatum - I was gearing up to start as a management consultant, anxious and unhappy, when an opportunity to model presented itself. What I was quitting and giving up to go do wasn’t really something that anyone had done. To go to business school and be this really corporate person and then say, ‘I’m actually going to quit and become a fashion model and move to New York to start over and build a company from that’- there was nobody I could bounce that idea off of to be like ‘oh yeah well when I did that…’.
How have you evolved since?
Since then, I have realized that it doesn’t matter how high up you are in a lane that you are not passionate about, because it will never make you happy. I look inward when it comes to measures of success and life goals, and I focus on the 10 year vision of who I want to be, versus what I “want to do.”
On an unlikely modeling career
When I was having all that doubt and anxiety about consulting and thinking, ‘What have I done, how have I gotten this far on this path that I don’t actually want to be on?’, once the opportunity presented itself, modeling became a strategic choice. I would have never considered it in a million years, but it seemed too much of a miracle to pass up.
On using her modeling platform to build WAYE
My modeling career has really helped to amplify my message about technology and has also been integral in the brand of WAYE. We’re preaching a change in the narrative of who’s talking tech and being a mixed race model that can also tell you about code and the future of blockchain is the core identity of what our brand is. We don’t all have to look a certain way and have the same resume, we can wear sneakers and still be heard and I think that’s why a lot of young people gravitate towards WAYE. We’re saying, ‘Don’t change your identity, don’t feel like you have to be nerdier, be you and you can still have these really important conversations.’
On adopting the ‘New York hustle’ and speaking at the United Nations
The opportunity to speak at the UN was actually kind of a New York hustle at it’s finest. When I had just started WAYE, I had also just moved to New York, become a model, all of these things were new all at once and I didn’t really have a business network or mentors here. So I started to reach out to females in business that I admired. I would literally google ‘Female entrepreneurs in NYC’ and then find them on LinkedIn and reach out and say, ‘I’m new to the entrepreneurial world, I really admire your work and I would love to meet for coffee.’ And that’s how I tried to build my network.
One of the women I reached out to was hosting a breakfast for founders and invited me to come. I started talking to a gentleman there and through a series of meetings I ended up in front of a group of people from the UN. I used the opportunity to pitch what WAYE was about and why the UN needs to take seriously the future of automation and our lack of preparation for it. They really heard the message and invited me to speak, which when it actually happened, was a very surreal and empowering experience.
What advice would you give yourself at twenty?
People always say don’t settle in relationships, but why would you treat your career any differently? Why would you treat your life any differently? It doesn’t matter how high up you are in a lane that you aren’t passionate about, if it's just a "job," you will never feel satisfied. Your dream career should be an extension of your life and who you are.
On the importance of loving your work
It’s ingrained in our culture that work is work and I realize that for some people that actually is motivating. I have friends who like doing what they do from 9 to 5 and they just live for everything after 5PM. For me, I couldn’t accept that reality; of dreading Sunday nights knowing that on Monday, I couldn’t wait until the clock struck 5. If you don’t feel inspired and you live for 5 pm, don’t let that be the end destination or don’t keep building towards that life. Just take what you need from that- the experience, the resume, the connections, whatever it is and be directional of where that’s going to take you.
On building your ‘toolkit’, first, and trusting your gut, second
Don’t bet on your internship being the thing you do for the rest of your life. We’re always told to think about our career as, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ Who really knows… there’s not one job that’s perfect for anybody. What you need to think about is ‘Who do you want to be? What impact do you want to make?’ and then think about the tools you need to get there.
I’m a firm believer that if you build the tool kit and do the work and build the foundation, you owe it to yourself to then go and pursue the thing that you think is going to make you happy, but know that your dream job is something you’ll usually have to create yourself.