What Brooklyn Beckham can teach you about your career
Here’s your first *proper* issue of The Grind - your career coach, shoulder to cry on, and source of inspiration for navigating your work life without completely losing the plot.
Hello fellow career-obsessives,
The last time I rambled at you, I was bemoaning my lack of a job. I’m happy to report that I now have one - have for a while, in fact - and it’s bloody wonderful. I run brand marketing for a food media brand called Good Food (previously BBC Good Food). Technically, it’s a boomerang job: I worked there for many years in a more junior role, left in 2019 to go and work at Stylist magazine, and then, by sheer lucky timing, Good Food had an opening for something right up my street at the start of the year, when I needed it most. So, I’m back. Any other marketers out there? I’d love to grab a coffee.
Now, with a bit more headspace, I’m finally giving this newsletter thing a proper go. From here on out, you can expect regular emails built around some of the topics below, and designed to help you advance your existing career or build the confidence to try something new. The content will evolve based on my gut instinct, your feedback (please comment on what you like and don’t like - it helps!), and whatever I can pull together. This first edition is a bit of a brain dump, but hopefully an engaging one. And, for anyone out there worried about starting something new, this is your sign to pull your finger out and just do The Thing.
Let’s get going.
👭🏽 Meet my pal: Nayab Malik, a Senior Integrated Producer at Saatchi & Saatchi
Ever wondered what your friends actually do at work all day? Me too. We may hear about the office gossip, but we rarely know the day-to-day realities. This is the (slightly selfish) section where I get to grill a different friend each week for all their career secrets. I’m incredibly lucky to have a plethora of talented friends, but when I inevitably run out of them then I’ll be looking to you for suggestions on the kinds of careers you’d love to hear about.
First up is Nayab, who I went to school with and has had a very cool job making things happen at Saatchi & Saatchi for many years now. Nayab has produced billboards in Times Square, rubbed shoulders with celebs like Billie Eilish and Peter Crouch, worked with StreetDoctors on a moving campaign designed to combat knife crime, and even had a hand in the famous John Lewis Christmas ads.
Hi Nayab! Walk me through a typical day at work. What’s in your calendar, and what do you actually end up doing?
Hey! So, it depends on which stage of production we’re in.
If towards the beginning it’s a lot of meetings on ideas and scripts. Figuring out how to make them happen, and within the budget/timelines. Working with Creatives on finding directors/ photographers/ specialists for the gig. Once we’ve got them awarded then we’re off to the races - attending sessions for finding the cast, location, wardrobe plus everything in between.
If it’s a shoot week, we’ll all be on location/on set together. After which we go into post-production phase - working together over many weeks with creatives and experts on editing, vfx, audio and sound mixing etc.
As the Producer I’ll stay on the job right through to handover of the files to the media teams at the very end (who will then process and put it out on whichever channel it needs to go - cinema/ TV/ online/ radio/ billboards/ press etc… often all of the above). Then it’s back to the start - rinse and repeat for the next campaign!
What’s the part of your job that gives you the most energy?
The people. Getting to work with like-minded individuals, who care about making the best work possible whilst having a giggle. There is a real sense of “we’re in this together” - not just internally in the agency, but with external partners too. The industry is full of great, kind, fun humans.
What’s your most-used app at work, and has this changed over the years?
Oh god, nothing sexy at all I’m afraid. A lot of work us Producers do is in Sheets/ Excel (budgets, timings) or Slides/ Keynote (presentations and production docs). Pepper that with Outlook and Teams, and you’ve got yourself the Production starter pack.
What qualifications, skills, or experiences actually helped you land the job, and which ones turned out to be less important than you expected?
Organisation and time management are key. It’s the Producers role to keep everyone on track, in the right place, and know what is happening at any given time. [Check out Anna Newton’s viral Substack about how to stay organised in 2026 for some tips on how to organise everything from your desktop to your jewellery box] Foresight is also essential, spotting problems before they happen and solving them quietly in the background. Another helpful one is being able to chat to anyone and everyone - a lot of what we do is based on relationships.
If someone wanted to break into your industry today, what’s the first step you’d advise them to take?
Use social media to your advantage. Follow agencies [like Saatchi!]. Follow independent studios, production and post-production companies. Follow general social accounts showcasing creative work - old and new. Through exploration you’ll get a feel for who is making amazing work, how they’ve done it, who is up and coming - all of whom you can reach out to.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few real “pinch me” moments in my career, but producing a Super Bowl commercial one day would be an unreal milestone. For the rest, without stealing Peter Pan’s thunder, I’m not sure I want to grow up. This job is addictive. I want to keep smashing out campaigns that give me heart palpitations and a huge buzz simultaneously. It sounds mad, but they really feel worth the chaos.
Thanks so much Nayab! Leave a comment below if you want to get in touch.
👯♀️Women being very good at things
From Willy-Wonka-style brand thinking and scroll-stopping property content, to a restaurant launch powered by smart, generous storytelling that built genuine hype long before the doors opened… here are three women absolutely nailing it in their niches.
I’m super late to the party, but have recently fallen in love with the Instagram posts from girl in blue studios. I adore the way she thinks outside the box, and she’s worth a follow if you want to look at branding or brand partnerships in a new light. I particularly love this post about how she’d start an ice brand (think coffee-flavoured ice to refresh your latte, and an ice bar pop-up to generate hype). Absolute genius.
Confession time: I’m addicted to property content. In particular, I love looking at houses I definitely can’t afford, in places I’m never going to move to. And, to feed my insatiable hunger, Tanya Baker’s videos are standout for me - beautifully shot, refreshingly different, and a masterclass in how to sell homes on Instagram. A reminder (whichever industry you’re in) that doing things your own way can stop the scroll and close the deal. If you look closely, you’ll start to notice other brands starting to emulate her style.
If you’re into food and HAVEN’T heard of chef Ravneet Gill and the restaurant - Gina’s - that she recently opened with her husband, then where have you been?? Not only does the food look great, but the hype around launch was unprecedented for a restaurant that size, and it definitely wasn’t a fluke. One of the best (IMO) things Ravneet did to promote Gina’s was… to start a Substack explaining how to open a restaurant. It’s genius when you think about it - it answered all the things you wanted to know but were too scared to ask, and brought you along on their personal journey. Club Gina is definitely worth subscribing to, even now, as they navigate the early days of restauranthood. Here’s the email where I got hooked:
👁️ Job stuff that caught my eye
Not every internet rabbit hole is worth falling into. I’ve done the digging so you don’t have to:
Have you heard of the Riser app yet? It uses a Tinder-style swiping function to narrow down job opportunities until you land on ones that actually feel right. A big part of the experience is hiring managers recording their own video job ads, which is equal parts very cool and slightly intimidating, especially when you realise you’re also expected to record a video about the kind of role you’re looking for, too. The Android version does feel a bit buggy at the moment, but if used correctly, I think it could be a genuinely useful resource.
Speaking of genuinely useful resources, Welcome To The Jungle has been my favourite job board for a long time now. Questionable name aside (sorry, guys), it really gets the basics right. You can filter roles by things like ‘Led by women’, ‘Jobs with salaries’ - because let’s be honest, it’s the first thing we all look for, and it’s deeply frustrating when it’s not included - and ‘Fully remote’. The team there also shares their take on the company and/or founder, and the algorithm learns what you’re interested in and starts surfacing suggestions based on your activity. All-in-all, it feels surprisingly thoughtful.
I loved this piece by Substack queen Emma Gannon. Taking a career break is, undeniably, a hugely privileged thing to be able to do, as it usually requires a decent amount of savings, but if you are able to swing it, it can work wonders for motivation and give you the headspace to figure out what you actually want to do next. Some people get an automatic “break” when they have children, but as any working parent will tell you, parental leave is less a career break and more a temporary redistribution of labour… from your job to everything else.
This TikTok cracked me up. I’m planning a proper LinkedIn deep dive in a future email, because I think a lot of people are using it… not wrong, exactly, but definitely not to their advantage. And while I wish you well, Susan, I personally don’t need a front-row seat to your Employee of the Month announcement. Snore.
🤖 AI, but make it useful
You’ve probably heard that AI is coming for all our jobs. Personally, I’d rather it came for my admin. So instead of panicking, let’s talk about how to actually use it to work smarter and get ahead of the robots.
How to train Google’s AI to drive leads and sales - Neil Patel is the marketing guru, and his recent videos on using AI to your advantage are genuinely useful, whatever industry you’re in.
ChatGPT may be eroding critical thinking skills, according to a new MIT study - This study did the rounds after being referenced on Diary of a CEO last year and really made me think about how we should be using AI - and, more importantly, how we guide the next generation to use it well, too.
If you’re not using Google’s NotebookLM yet, then you should be. I loved this Medium article breaking down how NotebookLM can save small businesses hundreds of hours, but there’s no reason it can’t be just as powerful in plenty of other roles too. I’m thinking of doing a deep-dive into this one in an upcoming email, because there’s a lot of potential, and I’m not hearing enough people talk about it.
🤑 Money talk
This part of the email is intended to be about what you should (or could) be earning - because no matter what we say in job interviews, that’s kind of what it’s all about.
When Refinery29 UK shut down last year, Money Diaries (UK) went with it - and I’m still not over it. To say I loved Money Diaries is an understatement, because there is something deeply satisfying about peering into a complete stranger’s bank account. Some weeks it made me feel smug about my own finances; other weeks it made me feel personally attacked. Why couldn’t I be a Creative Consultant earning £250k, jetting off to the Bahamas for work, and casually dropping £446.25 a week at Waitrose? In all seriousness, make sure to wade through the MD archives if you want some tips on how to hike up your salary, or to get an insight into dozens of different careers.
Recently recommended by a friend, the Go Fund Yourself IG account is starting to fill the Money Diaries shaped hole in my life. This is one of my favourite recent posts, not because she buys her kids second-hand clothes or likes to find bargains in Sainsburys (who doesn’t?), but because she attributes her success to project managing her own career. This is great advice, especially when you’re aiming to hit specific salary goals. It’s unlikely that pay increases are going to land in your lap, so creating and following a plan is a great way to guarantee success. Even if your plan is to be earning £5k more next year, saying it out loud often helps to actually make it happen.
A simple one, but I find myself reaching for this take-home salary calculator more often than I’d like to admit. Whether I’m working out how much extra a higher-paid role would actually mean each month, or daydreaming about the jump in take-home pay once my student loan is finally gone (don’t get me started on student loans!), it’s a really useful way to sense-check decisions and make the numbers work for you.
🗞️ In the news: What Brooklyn Beckham can teach you about modern day career paralysis
If you’ve made it through last week without encountering the Beckham family drama then I applaud you - you’re much less online than the rest of the world. Posh Spice’s alleged slut dropping aside, I wanted to address the (questionably photographed) elephant in the room - the ‘professional obligations’ Brooklyn alluded to in his statement, and his CV thus far.
Brooklyn Beckham’s career path has been (rightly so) much discussed. Photography, cooking, publishing, hot sauce - it’s a recruiter’s worst nightmare… right?
Strip away the surname, and what you’re left with is actually a very 2025 way of working. Fewer people are choosing a single, linear career (see: Squiggly Careers and the wonderful women behind it). More are building what’s been dubbed as a portfolio career - trying things, quitting publicly, learning fast, and moving on when something doesn’t fit.
Yes, access matters, money matters. Having doors open for you changes the stakes, and having the time to experiment isn’t a luxury everyone is afforded. But privilege doesn’t automatically solve the hardest part of modern work: figuring out what you’re actually good at, and then making a living out of it. Few people have figured out that part truly yet, myself included.
What looks like indecision may actually be experimentation. What looks like failure can be skill-building in disguise. And what looks like chaos can be a career shaped by curiosity rather than permanence. It’s never too late to learn new things, or tread a new path - and hopefully this email is the start of that exploration into newness.
The real lesson isn’t about nepo babies - it’s about how the definition of success is changing (Elizabeth Day’s wonderful How To Fail podcast has one of my favourite examples of this for many years). Careers today aren’t ladders. They’re portfolios. And knowing when to pivot might be just as valuable as knowing when to stick it out.
So, shoot for the stars, Brooklyn Beckham. As long as the stars don’t involve another dice into photography, because hun, it’s probably not the one.
Thanks for reading guys, it means a lot. Please share using the button below, or leave a comment - I read them all.
Until next time… Adieu ✌🏼
Yes Tash! Love this so much, a great read 👏👏👏