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#11. Meet our Marketing Intern Nicole Hilton 🇮🇹
103 Plays3 years ago
"Some of you may have read my name before in an Instagram DM, or may have heard my voice during one of the live sessions we organise with baristas and people from the coffee industry at I’M NOT A BARISTA. So let me tell you a bit more about myself."
As an intern, Nicole's tip is
Read Nicole Hilton's full story here
https://notabarista.org/nicole-hilton/
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the I'm Not a barista podcast where you can get inspired by real life stories from the people behind the cup. Join us as we talk about everything to do with coffee from having a career in this industry to brewing tips and how you can support this global community. Humanity runs on coffee and together we can empower the people behind the cup.
Guest Introduction: Nico Hilton
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello everyone, my name is Mickey, the host of M. Knobberste, and today's guest is Nico Hilton. Some of you may know her name before, or you may heard her voice before on Instagram during one of our Instagram live sections. Nico Hilton is one of our marketing interns.
00:00:46
Speaker
and who recently finished her internship with us. During her four months internship at M.N.U.P.E.R.S, Nicole has been working really hard and she helped us a lot, especially the Boring Guide project. She has been doing copywriting, marketing, also organized online events with us on Instagram and Zoom party.
Nico's Background and Education
00:01:05
Speaker
So Nicole, she's half British, half Italian, and currently she's living and touring in Italy. All right, without further ado, let's welcome Nicole Hilton.
00:01:15
Speaker
First of all, hi, Miki, and thanks for choosing to have this chat with me. I'm pleased to be part of this podcast episode, this new format. As you said, I'm Nicole and I've been a marketing intern. I'm not a barista for four months.
00:01:38
Speaker
And I'm currently based in Turin, Italy. I'm 24. I'm studying, obviously, marketing, advertising, and PR. And I'm about to graduate from my master's in advertising and marketing from Goldsmiths University of London. So yeah, this is a little bit about me.
Passion for Vintage Markets
00:01:59
Speaker
And in my free time,
00:02:01
Speaker
Well, I don't have a lot of free time, but in my free time, I like to go to the cinema. I love vintage markets, so I like strolling around and going to see if I can find anything cool from a vintage market, just hanging around the city. Yeah, that's about it. Thanks for sharing. You mentioned vintage market. Could you tell us why?
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how, I can't tell you exactly how it started. I think it became a trend at one point among 20-year-olds in Italy, you know, to go and look around for vintage pieces. And I think I had a friend who was really into vintage and she said, like, tag along, come with me to check it out, to check this store out. And I thought, oh, okay, weird, strange, you know, you're wearing other people's clothes. What exactly is, what do you like about it, you know?
00:02:59
Speaker
But when I got in, I really liked the atmosphere. Everyone was so nice and just made you feel immediately comfortable. And there were so many cool pieces, like from the 80s and from the 90s, like Nike, Adidas, like branded things that felt special. You know, I thought, first of all, some people have worn this already, but then that became like, oh,
00:03:24
Speaker
So there's a connection there between me and this person in the past who knows who this person is and why they gave their clothes to the store it just felt special and I don't mind just going around looking for pieces and thinking about the story behind a certain item of clothing you know so I guess this is why I'm interested in it.
00:03:44
Speaker
All right, I guess you are a romantic person. You're seeking a relationship from the items so you can create or have this relationship or connection with the previous owner, right? It's fascinating. Could you tell us how you feel about visiting vintage markets, comparing with going to a regular shopping mall?
00:04:08
Speaker
I think just sometimes when you're stressed out and you just want to go and dedicate a moment to yourself and you're looking for something to wear but it's mostly a moment to
00:04:24
Speaker
distracted I think like going to the mall having a coffee just randomly buying a t-shirt you like which maybe you don't particularly love but you just find core and you think why not okay it's my day it's my moment of free time going vintage hunting like vintage market hunting is quite different because
00:04:45
Speaker
Yes, it is a distraction, but you're going to find one specific piece that you fall in love with. It's not like, oh, I'm having a coffee and just having an half an hour break. It becomes like a special trip for me, like a day out, a nice occasion to find the piece and then maybe have a drink with my friend. But yeah, I think it's completely different. One is more kind of a distraction if I find anything that's kind of cool, basic, then okay,
00:05:14
Speaker
vintage I don't know just feels a little bit special like you're looking for one special piece that you can fall in love with and that's yours and it's calling you you know so to all audience who is listening right now if you have never been to a vintage market and I suggest you give a try you may discover something very special in your life
00:05:36
Speaker
Why not? With all that, you're a student.
Student Life During Pandemic
00:05:39
Speaker
And then tell us about your student life and what it's like to be a student now in pandemic. Right. So I currently, unfortunately, live with my parents, which is very common in Italy because generally people tend to live at home till they finish up with their master's degree. And that in Italy happens when you're usually 20,
00:06:05
Speaker
then again, it depends on what you're studying, but most of the people that move out don't move out before they're like 26 or 27. So it's really a cultural thing. I don't feel like I reflect my culture because I would really like to have my own independence, but unfortunately, university is expensive, life is expensive. So not having currently a paid job, it's difficult to be able to pay for your own
00:06:35
Speaker
flat or just to pay rent, do your own groceries. So my parents have always told me like, you can stay as much, like as long as you can. And whatever I make from maybe some English lessons or from tutoring, I spend to do like my groceries, my medical expenses, my transport. So we have this kind of agreement that they can
00:06:58
Speaker
let me stay if I pay for my own things. So yeah, student life is, I guess is common. This is common for many people, especially in Italy, but it's not easy as a student to find a proper paid job that can help you pay rent, pay uni and all your expenses. So yeah, so I'm still living at home, but hopefully moving out soon. I hope.
00:07:23
Speaker
I remember my student life before, and I have to say being a student is never easy thing, especially if you have to support yourself financially. And I know that you were teaching English also, you work 20 hours a week at M.Barista, helping us here and there.
Internship at M.Barista
00:07:41
Speaker
I wonder, could you tell us more about your experience as an intern at M.Barista?
00:07:47
Speaker
Sure. So I started off really not knowing what I was going into. I felt I liked the format of the company and I felt like you had a mission and I was really interested in finding out more about specialty coffee. But when I got in this
00:08:06
Speaker
this new, in this team, I thought, my God, I know nothing about specialty coffee. Like the first week I remember you guys talking about brewing, air repressed, clever drippers, and I felt lost. I felt like I knew nothing. And how was I going to
00:08:24
Speaker
help you with marketing, with creating a buzz around coffee if I knew nothing about it. So I felt like I needed to pick up the pace. So I started like watching brewing videos on YouTube, just reading in general a little bit about coffee. Then of course you taught me a lot about coffee and the brewing tools and what it means to be a barista champion and
00:08:46
Speaker
especially talking to baristas has helped me a lot because many of them tell us, I started by chance, you know, I really didn't want to end up in coffee and it happened. And seeing that some champions have started the same way I have started made me feel like less lonely in a way. I feel like, oh, okay, I'm not alone in this process. Many professional people, professionals started the same way as me, so.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, so I felt more confident and slowly I, you gave me more responsibilities and more tasks. I remember like my first task was, I think creating a caption for Instagram, which I really enjoyed. And I thought, oh, I really like this. And there were just more and more tasks. And I remember being team leader just after two weeks. I remember you asking me like, are you ready to become team leader already? Like.
00:09:37
Speaker
I was half-scared but I accepted and from that moment I think I learned so many things. I did a bit of social media marketing, a bit of content creation with coffee stories,
00:09:54
Speaker
We had a lot of sessions on WordPress to learn how to write SEO-friendly content and learning podcasts now and recording and doing some market research, researching latest trends. It's been a lot.
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm happy to have reached this point because I feel confident now. I don't feel like that scared girl I was four months ago. So it's definitely helped me a lot. I have to say, I'm so happy to hear this. It means a lot to us, especially me. It means our internship has this value. So thank you. I want to ask you, among all the tasks that I assigned you, which part of the job do you enjoy the most?
00:10:41
Speaker
It's a good question. It's a really good question. I've always told you this. I think I really like to meet people and to talk to people and hear about their stories. So I guess any part that involved
00:10:59
Speaker
speaking directly with baristas and people from the coffee community. So I really enjoyed doing Instagram live sessions with baristas that would do lights and brewing sessions, interacting with the coffee community through social media. So maybe posting a caption and then seeing people comment, oh, what a great post or what a great story that's really rewarding. And I think
00:11:24
Speaker
The Zoom party I also enjoyed a lot when we had this Zoom party with 50 people from the coffee community, baristas, brewers, and just coffee lovers in general. It was nice to see so many people dedicated to this world and it was nice to see different faces. There are many people who I just
00:11:43
Speaker
had heard of some names of baristas that I'd never met. So it was nice, like, even if it was, of course, virtual and remote, it was nice to meet them and hear about their stories. So I guess my favorite part is just interacting with the community. I feel like I'm a people's person, so I like to talk, in case you haven't noticed. And just share, yeah, share and exchange feedback, exchange stories and exchange comments, yeah.
00:12:13
Speaker
Thanks, Nico. I'm happy to hear that you found something you feel passionate about and you feel this is something you do it right. Since this is the last week you work with us, next week you will start a new position. And why don't you tell us about your new job?
New Role as Social Media Manager
00:12:29
Speaker
Right. So I guess it's strongly related, but what I've just told you, I really like interacting with a community. I like using social media. So my, my interest in social media management grew.
00:12:46
Speaker
And I started looking for similar roles. So next week I will be starting as a social media manager for an advertising agency based in Turin. They've been around for about 20 years, but they've just created a second agency. So they need new staff for this second agency. And they were looking for someone that was fluent in both Italian and English because
00:13:14
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's not very common in Italy to find someone that can speak English, so that was a good point for me. Yeah, so basically I will be creating content, creating campaigns for two clients. One is a wine company, which is, they told me
00:13:35
Speaker
is celebrating 200 years of business next year. So they'll be creating a special campaign. And the other one is a beauty and hair care company. So obviously the role will be creating our campaign, creating photo shoots and just events around these two clients.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, and then something new, which I've never experienced, which I'm quite excited about is the whole process of scouting influencers because they work with influencers. So looking for the right person to promote your content and just interacting with influencers and understanding how and why you should market in a certain way and choose a
00:14:15
Speaker
specific person and just do CRM. So obviously communication, customer relationship management. And this is the main part of what my job will be. Yeah. In the agency. Really very excited. It sounds like there are a lot of new things we can learn. So are you ready? That's probably the hardest question. Um, I feel like I'm ready. I feel like I want to.
00:14:45
Speaker
Meet new people. Grow.
00:14:48
Speaker
enhance my skills even more. So I mean, my dream was to end up in an advertising agency. Like I knew I wanted to get into one of these crazy places, you know, because from the outside, they're just big. There's so many people doing so many things. They have so many roles, which you hardly even understand. They have like creative directors, business managers, CEO, CFO, CMO, sometimes you just feel overwhelmed. I always feel like that was the right place for me to
00:15:17
Speaker
learn and progress because it's exciting that an agency has so many different clients. So one day you can end up promoting someone that has a wine business or someone that has even a coffee business or just beauty, hair care. So it's exciting to think that I'll be working with so many different
00:15:40
Speaker
clients. That's probably the most exciting part for me. So I'm definitely ready to start, then we'll see how I will progress and how it will go. We cannot wait one day to become that famous marketer, you know, from a famous agency. And we wish you the best. Everybody's here at Amnabarsa. We're happy to see that you could find, you know, start your new career. And I believe that that's where you take off.
00:16:08
Speaker
All right, last, let's talk about coffee.
Appreciation for Coffee
00:16:11
Speaker
What have you learned from this internship? It's strange because...
00:16:17
Speaker
I wanna say that, well before, if I think about Nicole in the past, Nicole in the past would have said, I know everything about coffee because I'm Italian, because I was taught to drink espresso at an early age. So yeah, I definitely know a lot about coffee. Then after these four months, I feel like I still don't know so many things because it's just,
00:16:40
Speaker
so wide. There are so many people involved in this industry. I think I learned not to take anything for granted, not to take a cup of coffee for granted, because I know there's so much work behind it. There isn't only the barista that's making the cup for you. There's the farmer planted the coffee. There's the roaster, roasted it for you, put it in a bag for you. Then there's
00:17:08
Speaker
the person that's bought the bag, maybe like a coffee company and the coffee company sells the coffee and it goes to a bar and then a barista makes it for you. So there are so many people and we need to appreciate this world so much because of all the hard work that goes into one single cup. So that's something I've learned.
00:17:30
Speaker
about coffee tasting, about enjoying coffee in itself. I think the best experience for me was trying coffee beans. When you sent me the beans from Pacamara Lab in Italy, I had, of course, the grinder that you gifted me.
00:17:49
Speaker
And I remember just casually grinding the beans and trying them, brewing the beans with my mocha pot. And I thought, okay, I'm going to add some sugar as always because I always have coffee with a little bit of sugar. And I tasted it. I felt like, whoa, I've just ruined this coffee so badly with sugar.
00:18:11
Speaker
I'm sure it tasted great without sugar. So I had to try it again. I just couldn't get over the fact that I'd ruined this amazing cup of coffee. So I did it again and I had it without sugar and it was just perfect. I didn't think I could enjoy black coffee, just pure as it was, but I think coffee beans did change my perception of coffee for the first time. And it just felt like, yeah.
00:18:37
Speaker
pure, authentic, you could feel the work in it because I'd manually been grinding it. So yeah, a lot of dedication went into it and it felt special, I guess, just from learning how many people are involved and how big this industry is and how
00:18:55
Speaker
how to make real coffee and just learns. I learned a lot about specialty coffee and I still need to learn so much more. So I'm about to purchase, I think a clever dripper. I wanted to try that out. So yeah, so I'm just slowly
00:19:14
Speaker
Catching on because as I said, there's so, so much behind this world, but it's been a wonderful journey. I didn't think coffee could be such an essential part in people's lives, but it is.
00:19:29
Speaker
I believe that our internship program has this value. Definitely. At least we transform one regular coffee, coffee consumers into, especially coffee lover. And she's into learning more about coffee and start appreciating every single cup of coffee. That's amazing. Let's say next time when you walk into coffee shop and you order coffee, how are you feel? Is there anything you will feel differently from before?
00:19:59
Speaker
I don't know, you walk in with more empathy, you kind of connect more to that person. And I would maybe feel more comfortable speaking to that person just asking about how their day is. I know sometimes even you just discuss the weather and that's the end of the conversation. But
00:20:17
Speaker
they do such a great job and they work so many hours, they work long hours. So I think it connects you on an emotional level with baristas and I would definitely feel more comfortable now that I know what's behind it to actually interact with the person that's making my cup of coffee. Maybe have a conversation with a barista next time and not just ask him
00:20:42
Speaker
an espresso, please. And that's it. So yeah. You're right. Um, we should see our world in a different way. And through small talk, communication can fix a lot of issues. So next time, if you walk in a coffee shop, why don't we start a conversation with a barista and ask about their day or even ask us some questions about coffee.
Advice for Future Interns
00:21:05
Speaker
I believe all baristas are willing to share what they know with you.
00:21:10
Speaker
All right, one last question. Do you have any tips for our future interns at EMBA Barista? Yes, yes, I would a lot. Yeah, I don't know where to start, actually. I would definitely recommend
00:21:29
Speaker
to just go for it and don't feel like you're behind anyone else. That's a fear I constantly have, like I'm behind that person or that person is so much better than me. When you understand that everyone has their own pace,
00:21:50
Speaker
then that's the key to feel more confident with yourself. Just remember that you have your own pace and you can learn so much more, but you need to have patience. You don't need to feel like you're constantly behind someone else that's better than you.
00:22:05
Speaker
And I would say that this is a great opportunity to meet new friends because I've made a new friend. I started my internship with Virginia, who's also Italian. I guess that's what connected us because we would obviously have our chats in Italian. And we started talking about so many different things that weren't work-related or coffee-related.
00:22:29
Speaker
It's such a great experience not just to learn and enhance your skills and meet new people from the coffee world and learn so much, but also a great experience to meet friends and yeah, just share your life with someone else and share your journey with someone that's exactly on the same level as you, learning and progressing.
00:22:52
Speaker
and finding someone who you can talk to and talk about your fears and your occupations and your your achievements even you know maybe you get a coffee story written and you're happy to share it with your friends and don't be afraid because it's such a good experience and you can get so much out of it.
00:23:09
Speaker
Thank you for sharing your internship experience with me, with our audience. And whoever is listening, if you're a student currently looking for an internship and you love coffee, you want to learn more about the coffee
Episode Conclusion
00:23:24
Speaker
community. So you're welcome to join us and check our website or DM us directly on Instagram.
00:23:31
Speaker
We're sad that Nicole's leaving us, but you still can hear her happy voice in the future because she will continue working with us as a co-host for M.L. Barista podcast. So don't worry about it. She's still with us. And thank you so much again, Nicole, for sharing everything and doing this podcast together. And again, we wish you the best in your new career.
00:23:57
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for letting me join. See you soon. Thank you so much for tuning in to the I'm Not a Barista podcast where people get inspired and connected through coffee stories. If you want to join our community, then please subscribe for future episodes and follow us on our Instagram to get connected. Until next time, keep smiling and most importantly, keep drinking coffee.