00:02 My name is Cherry Shaw and I’m the marketing manager for icould. Well icould is a new organisation for young people to give them ideas about their futures and my job really is to get the messages out there about icould.
00:18 I wanted to be a dancer so a completely different, all through school, later years of school I wanted to dance I wanted to perform, that was going to be my job. I had a really good teacher one particular teacher at school who saw the potential in me I guess and helped me and nurtured me.
00:39 My father owns his own business he owns a business that designs and manufactures bathrooms, so completely different to me but I think my father is a frustrated performer, he loves singing and dancing so I think he really like the fact that I wanted to do something in that field.
01:01 I had a traditional education ‘til I was 16 and did my GCSEs and then when I decided that I wanted to take it seriously and do a performing arts course I went to a school that still had academic lessons as well. My parents were quite strict about that they said I could go and dance but they wanted me to still do A levels. I guess there was a point of conflict because I wanted to dance and I thought, that’s it, I’m going to be a dancer and what do I need to do academic lessons for. But actually it was a great grounding and it was really good that I did them.
01:35 I moved from school from being a performing arts school into London. I lived with 2 friends and my dad said to me, that’s it you’re on your own kid, off you go and it was a tough thing to say but it made me always think I’ve got to earn for myself and keep myself and, I always worked and even if I wasn’t dancing then I’d do something else to support myself or some other promotions work or something, so I always brought a wage in.
02:02 After working for sort of 3 or 4 years as a dancer I thought I can’t do this anymore because it was really competitive and lots of disappointments and going along to auditions and not getting a job because your hair’s the wrong colour or your eyes are the wrong colour, it was, it was just I’d had enough of the environment really. So I decided to go to university and I wanted to do something that was creative and still sort of arts related and thought about PR communications and that’s what I did as my degree. And in my last year of university I worked for a radio station, I worked for Talk Radio which has now become Talk Sport and that became my first job. I was a researcher on the drive time show and I also worked on Russell Grant’s horoscope show, I can’t remember, Zodiac Zone it was called. That was a weekend show and I was a researcher on his show. So researching weird and wonderful guests.
03:01 I really enjoy working in a creative marketing PR kind of sector, I’d like to do more online marketing I’ve really enjoyed the fact that this present role is web based, has taught me a lot and I think there’s a lot more to learn.
03:18 When I think of what I used to do and what I do now it’s a massive leap, I remember meeting up with a friend of mine and I’d just done an event where David Blunkett had come along to my event and, he was then home secretary and I’d had to write a speech a briefing note which is turned into a speech for David Blunkett and I met a friend of mine who I used to dance with and she said, what, you, you’ve been writing for a minister, and it made me think, oh my god yeah and I just suddenly thought yeah, I’m kind of doing OK here.
03:56
Cherry Shaw
Cherry Shaw
My name is Cherry Shaw and I’m the marketing manager for icould. Well icould is a new organisation for young people to give them ideas about their futures and my job really is to get the messages out there about icould.
I wanted to be a dancer so a completely different, all through school, later years of school I wanted to dance I wanted to perform, that was going to be my job. I had a really good teacher one particular teacher at school who saw the potential in me I guess and helped me and nurtured me.
My father owns his own business he owns a business that designs and manufactures bathrooms, so completely different to me but I think my father is a frustrated performer, he loves singing and dancing so I think he really like the fact that I wanted to do something in that field.
I had a traditional education ‘til I was 16 and did my GCSEs and then when I decided that I wanted to take it seriously and do a performing arts course I went to a school that still had academic lessons as well. My parents were quite strict about that they said I could go and dance but they wanted me to still do A levels. I guess there was a point of conflict because I wanted to dance and I thought, that’s it, I’m going to be a dancer and what do I need to do academic lessons for. But actually it was a great grounding and it was really good that I did them.
I moved from school from being a performing arts school into London. I lived with 2 friends and my dad said to me, that’s it you’re on your own kid, off you go and it was a tough thing to say but it made me always think I’ve got to earn for myself and keep myself and, I always worked and even if I wasn’t dancing then I’d do something else to support myself or some other promotions work or something, so I always brought a wage in.
After working for sort of 3 or 4 years as a dancer I thought I can’t do this anymore because it was really competitive and lots of disappointments and going along to auditions and not getting a job because your hair’s the wrong colour or your eyes are the wrong colour, it was, it was just I’d had enough of the environment really. So I decided to go to university and I wanted to do something that was creative and still sort of arts related and thought about PR communications and that’s what I did as my degree. And in my last year of university I worked for a radio station, I worked for Talk Radio which has now become Talk Sport and that became my first job. I was a researcher on the drive time show and I also worked on Russell Grant’s horoscope show, I can’t remember, Zodiac Zone it was called. That was a weekend show and I was a researcher on his show. So researching weird and wonderful guests.
I really enjoy working in a creative marketing PR kind of sector, I’d like to do more online marketing I’ve really enjoyed the fact that this present role is web based, has taught me a lot and I think there’s a lot more to learn.
When I think of what I used to do and what I do now it’s a massive leap, I remember meeting up with a friend of mine and I’d just done an event where David Blunkett had come along to my event and, he was then home secretary and I’d had to write a speech a briefing note which is turned into a speech for David Blunkett and I met a friend of mine who I used to dance with and she said, what, you, you’ve been writing for a minister, and it made me think, oh my god yeah and I just suddenly thought yeah, I’m kind of doing OK here.
Cherry Shaw is the Marketing Manager for icould, but she started her working life as a dancer. "It was really competitive... going along to auditions and not getting a job because your hair's the wrong colour or your eyes are the wrong colour. So I decided to go to university, I wanted to do something that was creative and still arts related and thought about PR communications and that's what I did as my degree".
As part of icould's continuous development, we plan to include additional material from icould storytellers in the form of Blogs and other information which will enrich their filmed stories. So watch this space!
Comment guidelines, terms and conditions
If you think that a comment that has been posted is offensive, unsuitable or has in some other way breached our terms and conditions, please email us at comments@icould.org.uk with a link to the comment and your reasons for objecting to it. Please note icould reserves the right to remove any comments that are not appropriate.
