Behind The Future

Stressing over how to land your first-time job*or handle the pressure of your very first shift? In this quick, simple bonus episode of Behind the Future, host Becky Simms sits down with students Finn and Ruby to share their real-life experiences of getting hired and surviving their first roles.
What you’ll get from this episode:
- How to ace the interview: Why you do not need a fancy suit to stand out, including why Finn wore a Nike tracksuit to his retail interview to read the room while Ruby wore her school uniform straight from class!
- Surviving day one: What it is really like to get thrown straight into the deep end, from Finn handling the chaotic rush of Black Friday to Ruby starting with the pot wash before working her way up to the till.
- Conquering shyness: Honest advice on building public confidence, including how Finn overcame being too shy to talk to customers after initially wanting to hide in the back room to avoid them.
-Practical survival tips: Why mastering your time management is essential once you have a shift schedule to plan around, and why simply "owning your mistakes" is the quickest way to learn and win respect at work.
Tune in to get your ultimate first-job survival guide, learn how to handle minor blunders, and start earning your own money with confidence!
Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.
Hosts: Becky Simms
Guest: Finyin Akinleye & Ruby Howard
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckyreflectdigital/
Would you like to see an Aspiration Digital event near you? Let us know by registering your interest here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV9Rg8QzZdtsauF5B7YURVFpK48wWrKZCIE6uCaeiEBFUZEA/viewform

Are you stressing over your A-Levels, terrified that picking the "wrong" university course will completely ruin your future marketing career? If you are feeling the massive pressure from school to have your entire life mapped out in a perfectly straight line, take a deep breath! In this episode of Behind the Future, we sit down with Chantel Jordan, Marketing Director across the agencies Reflect Digital and LAB, to talk about her incredibly unpredictable and wiggly career journey.
Chantel's story is the ultimate proof that your career journey doesn't have to follow the traditional rules. Even though she discovered her love for digital early on by building a website for her uncle's window tinting business at fourteen and filming a hilarious "Made in Maidstone" series for her Media A-Level, she still felt the enormous school pressure to follow the standard university route. She bravely realised university wasn't for her and dropped out, instead securing an apprenticeship within a childcare training marketing team.
Instead of panicking, Chantel embraced the twists and turns of her career journey, taking advice from a mentor who taught her that a degree does not have to dictate what you go on to do. Later, while stuck at home during the COVID lockdowns, she self-funded her CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) qualification, studying on the weekends. She is the living proof that you can completely bypass a traditional university degree and still gain elite marketing qualifications while learning on the job.
We also dive into the harsh reality of job interviews; early in her career, an interviewer bluntly told Chantel she was a "jack of all trades and master of none" because she didn't want to pick one single specialism. Instead of letting that crush her confidence, she boldly leaned into it! She explains why being a "T-shaped" generalist marketer with a broad breadth of knowledge is actually a massive superpower in the digital industry.
Tune in to discover why you don't need a perfectly planned career journey to succeed, why being a "sponge" who is always willing to learn is your best asset, and how backing your own skills is the absolute key to launching your marketing career!
Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.
Hosts: Becky Simms & Bella Ashlee
Guest: Chantel Jordan
Would you like to see an Aspiration Digital event near you? Let us know by registering your interest here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV9Rg8QzZdtsauF5B7YURVFpK48wWrKZCIE6uCaeiEBFUZEA/viewform

Stressing over exams and wondering how to get revision to actually stick in your brain? In this quick bonus episode of Behind the Future, host Becky Simms sits down with students Ivy and Ruby to share their real, blunt, and tested tips for surviving exam season.
What you’ll get from this episode:
- Fun revision tricks: Learn how watching video game playthroughs
and making funny memes
can actually help you remember facts.
- Smart study habits: Why studying "little and regular" beats trying to cram at your desk for eight hours straight.
- Results day reality check: How to handle the nerves of walking into the hall, and why your grades do not define your future
.
Tune in to grab your ultimate exam cheat codes and get through this term with confidence!
Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.
Hosts: Becky Simms
Guest: Ruby Howard & Ivy Stanley
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckyreflectdigital/
Would you like to see an Aspiration Digital event near you? Let us know by registering your interest here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV9Rg8QzZdtsauF5B7YURVFpK48wWrKZCIE6uCaeiEBFUZEA/viewform

Are you currently stressing over exams and wondering how to land a high-paying ad tech career with absolutely zero industry experience? If the pressure of school has you feeling completely overwhelmed, take a deep breath. In this super fun episode of Behind the Future, we sit down with Paul Lowery from GumGum to get the absolute truth on how to stand out and bypass the standard job application queue. Paul is here to give you the ultimate behind-the-scenes cheat codes that you can actually use to fast-track your future.
Paul’s own journey kicked off with a major plot twist. During his first week at university, he came down with a bad case of glandular fever and couldn't join the football team. Instead, he decided to join the student radio station because he thought it would require way less effort. Little did he know, standing in front of a microphone chatting to an invisible audience would build his confidence so much that he sailed through his first group interview and landed a job selling cinema ads. This role turned out to be an absolute blast, letting him attend exclusive film premieres and glamorous afterparties in London in his early twenties.
We also dive into the reality of working for a massive US company like GumGum, where "the sun never sets" because you are constantly collaborating with teammates in New York, Tokyo, and Sydney. Paul drops some massive wisdom on how to deal with the rise of artificial intelligence, sharing why you shouldn't panic about robots stealing your future, but why "the person who can use AI better than you probably will". He also reveals how you can use AI tools as an assistant to speed up your workflow, making space for your own human brilliance and creativity.
Finally, Paul spills the ultimate LinkedIn hack for teenagers looking to launch their ad tech career. He reveals that because almost no one actively posts or comments, simply interacting, liking, and sharing industry news puts you in the top 1% of users and makes you completely unmissable to recruiters and employers. Tune in to discover why digital advertising is one of the coolest and most exciting industries on the planet, and how you can confidently build an ad tech career on your own terms!
Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.
Hosts: Becky Simms & Finyin Akinleye
Guest: Paul Lowery
Would you like to see an Aspiration Digital event near you? Let us know by registering your interest here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV9Rg8QzZdtsauF5B7YURVFpK48wWrKZCIE6uCaeiEBFUZEA/viewform

Are you tossing and turning over your exams, wondering if you will ever be able to launch a successful copywriting career? If you are constantly stressing about whether an English degree is actually worth it, or how you can stand out in a world obsessed with AI tools like ChatGPT, this episode of Behind the Future is exactly what you need. We are hanging out with Nicola Joyce, a freelance copywriter who has been crushing it in the fitness industry since 2004, to get the real truth about writing for a living.
Nicola’s story is the ultimate reminder that you don't need a perfectly mapped-out plan at seventeen. Even though she always loved writing stories and poetry at school, and dreamed of being a magazine journalist, she actually started out in London doing conference production, handling tasks she didn't even realise were copywriting! After facing a massive curveball when she was suddenly made redundant, she used that exact moment as the ultimate push to take the plunge into the freelance world. She also shares how her dedication to her personal passions, like training for years to swim the English Channel, gave her the grit and focus to carve out a highly successful niche combining her love for sports and writing.
We dive deep into the massive elephant in the room: artificial intelligence. If you are terrified about robots taking over your future copywriting career, Nicola drops some incredibly reassuring truths. She shares how some businesses tried using AI to write their fitness blogs, only to realise it completely lacked personality and a unique voice, resulting in heavy penalties from Google. They ended up having to hire her back to fix the entire mess! She reveals exactly why authentic, human creativity is completely irreplaceable.
Finally, Nicola spills her ultimate cheat codes for students wanting to break into the freelance world. Spoiler alert: you don't need to be the absolute greatest writer on the planet! She explains why simply being reliable, delivering what you promise, and being a genuinely nice person to work with will instantly put you ahead of the competition. Tune in to find out why making real-life connections, backing your own skills, and bringing your true human self to the table is the ultimate secret to winning in your copywriting career!
Behind the Future is a podcast for the next generation of digital talent, offering weekly interviews, real-world insights and career advice. Subscribe for more conversations like this, and follow us on TikTok and Instagram @aspirationdigital.
Hosts: Becky Simms & Bella Ashlee
Guest: Nicola Joyce
Would you like to see an Aspiration Digital event near you? Let us know by registering your interest here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV9Rg8QzZdtsauF5B7YURVFpK48wWrKZCIE6uCaeiEBFUZEA/viewform