Sometimes it’s healthy to take time out to reflect on your own achievements, for to quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

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​Once upon a time, two women came together with a shared idea. Looking around, Angela Prentner-Smith didn’t see anyone else in Scotland offering a business transformation service, so she decided to step up and give it a go.
 
That once upon a time took place just a few years ago and in the subsequent months, a lot has happened. The  idea has taken seed and that seed has grown into a business development agency called This Is Milk. Two and a half years and 20 clients later, we’ve surpassed milestones that we could previously only have dreamed of – and this is just the beginning.
 
As This is Milk celebrates its two-and-a-half birthday, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the journey so far and to look ahead at what’s still to come.

 The story so far
 
​So what’s happened since Angela first floated the idea of This is Milk? Let’s see. We’ve. had...

• Attracted over 20 clients in 16 industries
• Created a board of 3 businesswomen
• Supported 5 internships
• Taken on team members
• Hosted 5 Milk Bars​

Milk Bars? That’s the name given to our quarterly free events which are designed for anyone who shares a passion for making business better. Five Milk Bars have been held to date, with hundreds of delegates attending to exchange ideas and learn ways to improve their business.

Milking it
 
Catching up to the present day and it’s all systems go here at This is Milk as we plot a course for the next two years. We’ve got bold goals and exciting plans to foment, but before we can level up, there are a few tasks to tick off:

• Moving premises. We’re leaving our office in a former prison and claiming our freedom by fleeing to a new enterprise centre this month
• Participating at prestigious industry events. We’re privileged to have been nominated for no less than three awards this year, there are not more important things to be doing, like looking out our heels and cocktail dresses for awards season
• New everything. It’s not just the TiM offices that are getting an upgrade: we’re also adding to our team as well as expanding our services and taking on new clients and partnerships

​We’re excited to discover what the next years will hold and we’d love you to join us on the journey. Get in touch and let’s see what we can do to grow your business together.

A big hello to Barbara Géczy, the newest member of the TiM team! While we prepare to welcome her,  Barbara explains why Milk has been a recurring theme in her working life to date!
Barbara Géczy

​Exactly two years ago, I spent a month long internship at a dairy farm in France to improve my French and get to know farming practices related to my food engineering studies back in Hungary, where I'm from. I had to face new challenges I'd never encountered as a student such as getting up at 6am every morning to milk the cows. Now cows have extremely efficient body clocks, they know exactly what to expect and when to expect it, so I had no choice but to adhere to their routine - tough task masters for a first job!

As I'm a small girl from a  big city,  it was hard to get familiar with this new lifestyle:  dressing like an authentic French cowgirl, cleaning my boots in the evening,  looking after cows all day... Back then, I wouldn't have considered that the words 'This is  Milk'  could have any other meaning for me than a mug of nutritional hot liquid. But fortunately, now they do.

Right now, I count myself very lucky as I've enjoyed every opportunity and step on my career path so far. After the farm I went back to Budapest to finish my degree and started to work for a startup. Each Monday we opened the week on the couch with a cup of caffe latte, creating plans and writing new ideas on the whiteboard, with no holds barred. Quite a change from dairy farming, isn't it? We developed creative employer branding strategies and online platforms, and our work was recognised when we won the HR Innovator Award of  Hungary in  2015.

After that, I had the opportunity to move abroad and work on the communication strategy for a Spanish food company that has just launched a new natural cereal on the EU market. The target group was very niche and specific, so it was essential to have an in-depth understanding of the market. As colleagues, we also had to embark upon some unusual self-learning: train ourselves to be better 'Biscuit and bread tasters' (think GBBO with less of the Mary Berry glamour) as the company was continuously working on improving the quality of their products.

My story continues in Glasgow, Scotland. As the newest member of This is  Milk's team, I can use my previous experiences and immerse myself in the exciting and ever-changing digital life. 

From early starts and sharing ideas, to making a mean latte and caring deeply about my audience (from cows to healthy cereal lovers), I think these experiences stand me in pretty good stead for my next chapter with this customer-centric business. 

Now, This is Milk takes on a different meaning for me, one of new beginnings, fresh ideas and the chance to learn and grow - not too far removed from the benefits of drinking a cold pint of the white stuff after all!

Marketing Intern Annina talks about her experience in Cell 8 and what she's learned along the way
​Annina Claesson

I imagine that anyone's This is Milk story starts with the name. I was looking through the University of Glasgow's Internship Hub vacancies when I came across a strangely-monikered company looking for a Marketing Intern. After it became clear that this company did not in fact deal in dairy, but rather business improvement, my attention and interest was immediately caught by its emphasis on people, and its drive to stand out from the crowd of grey suits. My background was vastly different from business consultancy, but that did not seem to be a disadvantage at This is Milk. It was different. From what I could glean from the job description and the website, This is Milk seemed like a place where I could make a real contribution, and have fun in the process. 

When I was invited for an interview, I became even more convinced. I had been attending a few different interviews for internships at the time, and This is Milk gave me a completely different feeling than any other company I'd interviewed for. They didn't just recite standard questions from a list that were only going to make me repeat what I'd already written in my application. They had an actual conversation with me, asking original questions and chatting with me about what they read in my CV. It felt like they were interested in me as a person. I was in the waiting room for another interview when I received the happy news from the Internship hub that they wanted to offer me the position. 

It's now been three months since I received that call and my time at This is Milk has now sadly come to an end. I'm happy to conclude that all of my assumptions were true. This is Milk never loses its people focus, whether that concerns customers or employees. This creates a culture that encourages and inspires everyone in the office while remaining supportive and collaborative should you ever need a hand.  

What strikes me the most about This is Milk's approach to client projects is that they ask and find answers to the right questions. Often, these are also the most simple questions. Who are your customers? What do you want them to see from you? It's all so basic, but it's so easy to forget about these questions along the way. This is Milk reminds you of what is really important for your business, and then shows you how to best make use of that insight. 

My role at This is Milk was centered around finding answers to the simple (and oh so complicated!) question of "what are the right words for what we want to say here?". If you've been seeing any of This is Milk's content over the past few months, I most likely had something to do with it. I've been writing blogs, social media posts, website content, newsletters, press releases, and a whole lot of emails. Writing has always been what I like to do most, but through this internship, I have learned so much about how to be strategic about the right words at the right time  in a business context. 

A highlight of my time here was definitely volunteering for and attending the TEDxGlasgow event in early June, which Denis and I talked about in a previous blog post. It was a fantastic experience all around and I can't remember the last time I got to meet so many interesting people in such a short period of time. 

I am so happy that I ended up doing my internship in a startup, especially when I compare my experience to that of my peers who ended up making copies and coffee at larger organisations. Startups always need all hands on deck, so you as an intern have a better opportunity to make a real contribution, find out about all aspects of running the business, and get to know people in the office. All of this held true for my time at This is Milk. Being welcomed into a smaller team meant that I quickly forged a strong connection with the company and all the inhabitants of Cell 8. I got the chance to learn about everything that went on with the business, whether they were included in my job description or not. 

The next time I find myself across the table from someone glancing down at my CV, I'll be proud to tell them about my three months in the jailhouse with This is Milk. I will be describing my experience here as a key stepping stone of my professional development, certainly in terms of the many practical skills that I have gained or polished in a new context here, but perhaps most importantly in terms of the inspiring and unique environment that I found here. This is Milk is about changing business itself. As a business idea, we're unabashedly ambitious while still keeping a firm grasp of our revolutionary simplicity. What better place could there be for a student intern starting out in their career? 
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As I'm writing this, I'm a day away from jumping on a plane to new horizons, but I'll be eagerly following the exploits of This is Milk over social media until the day when I might return to a completely changed version of it. A huge thank you to Angela, Nicky, Denis, Stefan, Steven, Mark, and everyone else who taught me so much and made my time with This is Milk so rewarding and memorable! 

Michelle shares how she came to be This is Milk’s HR wing woman
Michelle Botia

I met Angela six months ago; she was friendly, outgoing, sincere and capable, and I liked her immediately.

She was inspirational, had big ideas and most importantly realised that like-minded, able people would be key to bringing her business ideas to life. It soon became apparent that we were on the same page about lots of things, not least our passion for doing things better and simpler in business.

We had a similar approach and values, which was important to me, we both:

• consider ourselves to be approachable
• care about doing a great job
• listen to our customers and colleagues
• use the full capabilities of teams to help businesses perform better.

We decided that we could help each other by combining our skills and expertise in our respective areas of experience - well in small business collaboration is key after all!

I also identified with Angela, having raised my family and balanced their needs while working. I knew exactly how hard that was!

So I agreed to work as part of her team and together we gave ourselves the challenge of creating a company where people felt valued, needed, wanted and rewarded – we would listen to what employees really craved from work and try to make that happen.

All the simple things that sound like common sense but, like so many common sense things, seem to get lost or diluted along the way.

As a result, I’m now This is Milk’s ‘HR wingwoman’ and we will continue to work hard during 2016 to make our ideas a reality!

In creating This is Milk Angela recognised, like me, that it's not always easy to manage competing priorities and demands in the workplace, or to manage these smoothly so that the benefits are realised by all. I think that there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between personal life and business life. Lessons can always be learned from things that have worked well and things that haven't. I look forward to sharing some of these in my next blog posts.

Thanks for reading my first ever post! 

Michelle

​Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

Learn more about us here!

We say goodbye to Stefan Taylor, our BBC Make it Digital in Scotland intern, with a video interview
Angela Prentner-Smith

We’re sad here at This is Milk to say goodbye to our BBC Make it Digital intern, Stefan Taylor.  Over the last 3 weeks, Stefan has become part of the TiM team. Before he left, we took some time to do a little interview with him and find out whether his first impressions of life at This is Milk held true, what he learned and what he most enjoyed. The interview was Stefan’s idea too.

From our perspective, we learned a lot from Stefan and feel privileged to have been able to offer a young person vital work experience. He surprised us with his excellent report writing and research skills. A few examples of the work he did for us: a report on B2B social media best practice; competitor analysis for a client; customer journey workshopping and digital presentation tool research.

He gave us some excellent insight and a fresh perspective we simply wouldn't have had without him.

Asperger Memos

Stefan also opened our eyes to the difficulties that young people entering the workforce face and more so those affected by Asperger’s syndrome. Stefan has used his experiences and new digital skills to create and design his own website, aspergermemos.com, sharing his personal struggles and triumphs. 

Stefan is clearly highly capable with much to offer any workplace, and through working with him we've realised just how much of a hurdle traditional recruitment processes must be for young people with Aspergers and other disabilities. A new angle for us to consider when working with our partners and clients - how can we help make this part of business better?
 
BBC Make it Digital in Scotland

This is Milk had the pleasure of taking part in the BBC Make it Digital in Scotland pilot, a collaboration from Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the BBC, DWP and colleges around Scotland. It’s a pre-employment work placement programme for students (age 16 to 24) to build the digital skills they’ll need to prosper in the modern workplace.   

Learn more about the programme here

Stefan Taylor

My name is Stefan, I am an intern working on a three week placement with This is Milk, learning digital skills as part of the BBC Make It Digital course pilot. A collaboration between Skills Development Scotland, BBC, DWP and Glasgow Clyde College Langside campus. Make It Digital, Inspiring Digital Creativity.

Make It Digital is a course designed to "create life-changing opportunities for up to 5,000 young unemployed people",
through teaching them digital skills and to get a foot on the jobs ladder. So far on the course I have learned:

• Basic coding
• Website creating and maintaining
• Video editing
• Digital campaigning
• Digital image creation
• Also getting some CV and cover letter advice

These skills have been a good acquisition to have, and another thing that has been good for me was everyday for the past four weeks I was on campus 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday. You are in a habit of work before your placement. I attribute this and the skills above to being able to settle in well to my internship here at This is Milk. 

I feel welcome here at This is Milk. Might be only the first week but I've enjoyed each day of the role. The tasks I have done so far I've enjoyed working on with staff and working myself. A shy reclusive person one would describe me but when it came to using teamwork I felt comfortable and appreciated. In the first few days the staff took time to figure me out rather than mould me to what they thought I could do at first. A testament to This is Milk's open approach to working with other companies.

Below is a slideshow describing my first week with the company. A journey slideshow describing work with This is Milk was my idea in a task I was given to come up with some recommendations to engage more with potential customers. So you can see my  journey so far as what I've learned, what I will learn. An idea I came up with I am implementing on my own on my first week. So this is my This is Milk user journey. I am enjoying the ride.

Nicky Logue

​This is Milk is delighted to be taking part in the BBC Make it Digital in Scotland pilot, a joint collaboration from Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the BBC, DWP, and colleges around Scotland. It’s a pre-employment work placement programme for students (age 16 to 24) to build the digital skills they’ll need to prosper in the modern workplace.
 
We’ll host our trainee for 3 weeks, starting in mid-November and we’re already making a list of work they can get involved in to gain some practical experience of digital working.
 
What do we have to offer our trainee?

Most of our client projects use transferrable skills, valuable to any online business, so we’re well placed to offer some great grounding to our girl or guy. Some ideas we’ve had so far include:

• Website usability audits
• Customer journey mapping
• Creating user stories
• Customer insight listening
• Social media strategy
• Digital promotion 

Skills for life...

To provide a well rounded experience we’ve also been thinking about how we run our own business day-to-day and what works best for us. Some of the new tools we’ve come across in the first few months of This is Milk have proven invaluable for our productivity and collaboration as a remote team. So our trainee will be getting involved in:

• Team Google hangouts – keeps the communication flowing when we’re apart.
• Video meetings with clients – one of our clients lives in Canada!
• Digital project planning collaboration - Trello, Slack, Evernote, the choices are endless.
• Shared task tracking – so we stay on the straight and narrow.
• Idea jams – lots of tea and scribbling on the wall makes for excellent lightbulb moments.
• Advanced social search for learning – helps us sift through the mountain of customer and industry research available and get specific.

 
These skills are only going to get more important in future and we can’t wait to share them. And we know we’ll learn a lot too.
 
We haven’t been allocated a college yet but we’re looking forward to meeting our new friend and welcoming them to the wonderful world of This is Milk! The extra pair of hands will really come in handy too….!
 
BBC Make it Digital in Scotland are still looking for employers to offer placements to students.
Learn more about the programme and get involved here