Ep. 3 Lesley Toche | Culture as a Tech Diversity Solution | NextPlay CEO

In this episode, we learn all about Lesley Toche, the CEO and founder of NextPlay Events. NextPlay is dedicated to making professionals of color 20x more likely to get hired in tech. Lesley shares about how the company got started, a bit about his background as a musician, as well as his upbringing in Cameroon to California. 

Learn more about Lesley by checking him out on IG: @LesleyToche
Learn more about the NextPlay movement here: https://www.nextplayevents.com

⚡️Show notes: 

00:43 - Who is Lesley Toche
01:56 - Why NextPlay
03:54 - Growing up in Cameroon and moving to California
05:58 - Playing sports and hobbies
13:35-  Lesley’s favorite performance
15:39 - Going from High School to Community College to UC Berkeley
17:46 - Becoming a college a tutor
19:40 - 3-4 side hustles and a full set of classes 
20:00 - Transferring to UC Berkley 
22:53 - Studying abroad in Norway was one of the best decisions
28:52 - Post-college life and Lesley’s internship
30:25 - Going back to US after searching for a job in Norway
32:40 - How Lesley got to LinkedIn
34:58 - Lesley’s top advice to job hunter
36:00 Leverage LinkedIn to land a job. Period.
37:36 - Transitioning to Diversity and Inclusion Role 
41:55 - Organizing the LinkedIn Open House
47:45 - The magnitude of hiring 6 people in one event.
51:24 - The creation of the Diversity Open Mic 
56:33 - This could solve a lot of Diversity Recruiting Challenges 
57:30 - Launching NextPlay
1:05:17 - Lesley’s lowest point with NextPlay
1:07:58 - The Difference of NextPlay Events and other companies
1:13:15 - NextPlay’s Summer Vibes Experience
1:16:24 - How Lesley manages his time
1:19:01 - How Lesley unplugs from the world
1:19:54 - Lesley’s biggest learning from Starting NextPlay
1:21:09 - Lesley’s motivation to keep on going
1:21:51 - Lesley’s upcoming goals -- plus, a sneak peek at what to look out for from NextPlay 👀