Welcome to Coffee Shop Date - the new blog series in which our Junior Copywriter, Kasey Leigh, will be nabbing each and every member of the Clearbox team for a sneaky coffee date to pick their brains, ask some hard-hitting questions, and generally get to know them better!
First up is Alana, Senior Account Executive and Head of our PR department here at Clearbox.
Name: Alana McPhillips
Star-sign: Aquarius
Drinking: Decaf Cappuccino
So, Alana - what is your go-to coffee order? Do you think it says anything about you?
Depending on the time of day, it’s usually a cappuccino, sometimes a decaf. If I’m out and it’s a nice day, an iced latte with syrup, very basic I know. I don’t think my coffee order says much about me except that I don’t know very much about coffee, which I don’t pretend to!
How did you come to work at Clearbox?
Well, I started last year, but I actually first applied to Clearbox back in 2017. When I was doing my masters some of the Clearbox team came in and spoke to us about what they do, and I remember thinking they seemed really cool! At the time I used Twitter a lot to engage with people, so I started doing that with Clearbox.
I went to Australia for a little while after my masters, but when I came back, I messaged John asking for advice about getting back into the industry and we met for a coffee. I applied and didn’t get it unfortunately; I was gutted! Since then, Clearbox has always been on my radar, and I’d kept in touch as it was somewhere that I knew I could imagine myself working. I’ve learned so much from my previous jobs, but when I saw another opportunity come up with Clearbox I felt I had to take the jump. If I didn’t grab the chance now, I knew I never would!
I’m so glad I did because I’m really enjoying it, it feels like I’ve really done something for me, and working on the team has really re-energised me professionally.
(You can find out more about Alana’s career background here).
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I went through a few phases! I initially wanted to be a teacher. I used to line my teddies and dolls up and sit with a notebook doing roll call! Then I wanted to be an actress for a bit as a teenager - I went to see Wicked on the West End when I was 17 and it had such an impact on me. There was a girl from Belfast playing Elphaba and I can remember thinking, that could be me! I was definitely a theatre kid growing up; I loved doing it because I was able to do things as a character, not as Alana. I probably was quite anxious as a teen, so I liked that it gave me the chance to do things as someone else.
What is on your playlist at the moment?
My music taste would be quite varied - I went through a massive emo phase when I was younger. My most played also tends to get skewed by what Oisin (my son) wants to listen to. It’s funny, he has such varied taste as well - he loves Hall and Oates and Foo Fighters. I love country but I would also like Cascada or DJ Sammy played at my funeral! I ran the Spar Craic 10K on St Patrick’s Day, and have a running playlist that includes everything from Ariana Grande to Metallica. Very random.
There’s quite a lot of content about ‘morning routines’ around at the moment - do you have one?
I try and make my morning routine as easy as possible - I’ll do as much the night before and get my son’s bits and pieces ready - you would not believe the number of times I’ve dropped him at my mother’s house without shoes! Thankfully this usually happens on work from home days so I can always shoot back around.
I'll make a decaf coffee before I leave - a little placebo before I have some of the real stuff when I need it later on!
One thing is if I don’t have my eyebrows on, I know I’m going to have a really bad day. You know how people say they’re supposed to be sisters and not twins? Mine aren’t even fifth cousins…
As a mum yourself, I wanted to know if you saw Mummy Pig’s pregnancy announcement? What did you think?
I did, and I thought it was genius, because it’s just so novel and kids can get excited about watching the news - it’s such a big deal to them. Unfortunately, we’re not a Peppa household - I think she’s so cheeky! I feel like Daddy Pig gets a lot of abuse! I guess for that reason when I saw the news and everyone sharing it I perhaps wasn’t as excited, because I have this irrational dislike of a cartoon pig haha. I do think it was very well done, but also things around pregnancy can be so sensitive and there might have been some people who loved it and some people who didn’t need to see it while they’re trying to catch up on what’s going on in the world.
I’m someone who tries to see a lot of sides in everything, in that I’ll seek out other opinions so I can fully understand, rather than launching into things with nothing but feelings. I studied psychology so I did quite a bit on social psychology - herd mentality and things like that, which can be useful in this line of work. I love data and proof points. One of my pet peeves is when people make bold claims on social media without any evidence. I love finding data to back things up. Always do your research!
What do you like about your job?
What I love about my job is that a lot of what we do involves cutting through the bad news with the good, focusing on good stories - even if it’s just a business story, that’s often still making a difference. Especially if it’s a small business, as it can oftentimes mean the world to them and give them so many touch points for growth.
One of the first stories I worked on for Amazon was a delivery that had been made to a food bank in Belfast that was around the corner from me. I thought it was so amazing and couldn’t believe that I might not have heard about it otherwise!
It’s nice to know that there is so much good going on around you.
