Hi I’m Ellie or ‘Ells’ Talent & People Partner here at Modern Milkman. My role is a bit of everything on the people side: Hiring (my bread and butter), Employer Branding, People Ops- basically, if it touches the team, I probably have a hand in it both in the UK and US!
So why am I writing blogs? Honestly, because I wanted to give it a go. I care about what we’re building at Modern Milkman and I thought it’d be fun (and slightly terrifying) to try and share it…in my own words. Will it be polished? Absolutely not. I’m no way a Copywriter, but the gist I’m trying to share here is that at Modern Milkman we’re constantly learning, experimenting, and hopefully giving you a real glimpse into what makes this place and our mission special.
That brings me swiftly onto the first topic of many: Squiggly Careers. I’ve always admired people who have taken a sharp turn in their careers, to do something completely new. It’s brave. It’s bold. It’s being curious, and if we’re all honest, it’s something many of us dream about but quietly talk ourselves out of.
Careers that can twist, turn, surprise and evolve. You learn fast. You adapt quicker. You get comfortable being out of your comfort zone (which tends to be where all the good stuff happens) You pick up unexpected skills, build resilience and develop a broader perspective that makes you better at just about everything: leading teams, solving problems, even just rolling with the chaos!
At Modern Milkman, having the space to lean into something new, make mistakes and grow, is something I think we’re pretty great at. We’re not always looking for perfect, but we are looking for people who live by our values of being curious and brave and that sometimes means, leaning into the unknown.
I had a chat with Lu, our Brand Director recently about her career journey, before and during her time at Modern Milkman. Lu started in the People team, taking on various roles including Learning and Development Partner. Since then, she’s now our ✨Brand Director ✨ working alongside Dan, our Social and Content Lead, in a lean but incredibly creative Brand team – you only have to look at our Instagram to see what I mean … check our page out here: https://www.instagram.com/modernmilkmanuk/
And Lu’s story is just one example of the opportunity available here at Modern Milkman!
Can you give us the whistle-stop tour or your career to date?
The squiggling really started after studying Geography at university and then going on to do a Master’s in Clothing Product Development. This was my first taste of having to pivot and it led me to a graduate scheme at adidas UK. I fell in love with technical textiles, fashion and sports. I was there for 4 years. It was just before the Olympics in London and right at the start of digital channels evolving. So an exciting place to be, it also taught me that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!
I then moved to London to work at Google UK. This was a baptism of fire, thrown into selling ad spaces across YouTube, Google Ads and Search. I still remember creating a deck for Ford, trying to convince them that one day people would look at cars on mobile phones. I loved being somewhere that was on the bleeding edge of technology. It was also where I realised that ‘work’ could look very different from what I was used to, and I was fascinated by that.
I moved back up North to join Kellogg’s UK after that and worked in their retail marketing team, looking after some of their kids and family brands. After a few years I was ready to take another leap and decided to become a makeup artist, focusing on special effects makeup. After completing a course I set up my own business, specialising in prosthetics and freelanced at Manchester United TV, First Aid makeup, friends’ weddings and lots of modelling shoots.
After having my first son, Bo, I went back into the world of marketing and joined a service design agency to help run the studio there. It taught me how to think from a user perspective, fix problems through design and work alongside Dev & Tech teams. Three core skills that led me to People & Culture. I became really interested in how to get people to work together, how ideas are formed and how important your working environment was. I spent a lot of time there building out those practices and passing them on to other businesses.
By coincidence, my final project there was looking at subscription-based businesses and that’s when I came across the People & Culture role at ✨ Modern Milkman ✨ It blew me away and spoke to all the things that I knew how to do. I joined in the middle of Covid and 4.5 years on,…I haven’t looked back!
It’s been nearly 19 years of trying all sorts of different things and I’m sure there will be many more squiggles to come!
What gave you the confidence to make those twists n turns?
To be honest, Ell, I have no idea! I’m surrounded by extroverts that I love, so I’ve had to adapt. Someone once said to me to think of ‘confidence’ as a verb. You only become confident by doing, and that’s sort of stuck. It wasn’t just going to happen by hoping it would. I wanted to do it, so I did, even if I felt completely uncomfortable at the time.
How does your squiggly path fit into the culture here at Modern Milkman?
Our core values really drive everything we do, and that starts with our leadership team. We’re all from different backgrounds and bring a mix of experiences to the table. Most of us wear a lot of hats and pitch in wherever we’re needed. Simon, our CEO, has also believed and demonstrated that you can do anything here if you put your mind and hands to it. We seem to thrive on solving problems, switching gears and being ambitious.
Because of that mindset, Modern Milkman has without a doubt, been the business where I’ve learnt (and keep learning) the most.
What skills have you developed in your different roles here at MM?
Being part of the People & Culture team, taught me many things, particularly how people are complex and my own levels of resilience. I really enjoyed creating a function where People & Culture was delivered like a product design squad: user-first, agile, always evolving.
Being back in Brand has allowed me to tap back into being creative whilst also learning new things, design, video, content, and battling imposter syndrome (still ongoing 😅) I really love coming up with ideas and connecting the dots. There’s so much to do still and lots of great, exciting work ahead.
