How'd You End Up Doing That?

Hosted by Alex Jeffers

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Jun 2024

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About the show

Join Alex Jeffers as he talks to regular people with professions and career paths which are a little out of the ordinary. Rather than discussing the high flying lives of celebrities and comedians - these are the stories of regular people who have taken the path less travelled to arrive where they are right now - hopefully inspiring you to do something similar.

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12 recent

January 7, 2024Episode 155 min

S01E01: Mark Mansfield from Nation Cymru

In this first episode of How'd You End Up Doing That? We speak to Mark Mansfield from Nation.Cymru about how he went from reporting on local football stories for Charlton Athletic to running the leading national news publication in Wales. Towards the end of the episode we talk about Mark's appearance on a compilation album for Cherry Red Records - I couldn't include the song in the pod, but here's a link to it on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/3e7l4HieftVSHvu3KDZEFB?si=e59ee78d6bfa4938 If you've got any questions, or want to get in touch feel free to drop me an email to alex@howdyou.com and I'll get back to you asap.

January 15, 2024Episode 21 hr 14 min

S01E02: Rob Jones From DASH Mental Health and Wellbeing

In this episode, we're going to be speaking to Rob Jones from DASH Mental Health and Wellbeing about how he went from studying music at the Royal Welsh College of music and drama, to teaching in a prison to eventually setting up his own company supporting the needs of young people in schools. Rob talks a lot about school avoidance, behavioural issues, ADHD, learning difficulties and learning needs. It's a really interesting chat that follows his journey and also looks at how the brain works in parts. If you want to learn more about the work Rob does, take a look at his website here: https://dashmhwb.co.uk/ You can find Rob on socials here: https://twitter.com/Dash_MHWB and here https://www.instagram.com/dash_mhwb/ You can also watch his TedX talk on school avoidance here: https://youtu.be/YA7KtRtN1tU?si=uoPATjI56dR8-VQ4

January 22, 2024Episode 31 hr 12 min

S01E03: Joe Latham Graphic Novelist

This weeks episode is with Joe Latham who has gone on a journey from studying design at University, through being in a band and making a living out of customising myspace pages for people and now works as a graphic novelist, with a few stops in between. We also talk on his feelings of imposter syndrome, how a lack of confidence potentially put his career on the back foot and how he ended up designing golf balls for Vernon Kay. You can find Joe on the following places: Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LookhappyShop Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joe_latham_illustration/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/Lookhappy You can also find a list of places to buy Joe’s upcoming book Haru on Simon and Schuster here - https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Haru/Joe-Latham/9781524884734 If you would like to get in touch with me, please feel free to send an email to alex@howdyou.com or find me on Twitter here - https://twitter.com/LxJffrs

January 29, 2024Episode 41 hr 23 min

S01E04: Kaptin Barrett, Hip Hop Coordinator with Amgueddfa Cymru

This weeks episode is with Kaptin Barret who is currently the Hip Hop coordinator for Museum Wales / Amgueddfa Cymru. Before this though he was the head of music for Boomtown festival and he’s always been a staple act on many of the festival lineups under one of many guises. In the episode we talk a bit about his playlists that he made over lockdown - you can find these on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/user/axaxx6ndw2opzzwztz5xs5me9?si=e531a2c46d8b4e1e You can find Kaptin on his website here: https://www.kaptinbarrett.com/ and on his Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/kaptinbarrett/ If you'd like to get in touch with me, you can email me at alex@howdyou.com or find me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/LxJffrs

February 5, 2024Episode 51 hr 30 min

S01E05: Steve Dimmick, Commercial Director with Awen Cultural Trust

This weeks episode is with Steve Dimmick, who started his career as an engineer and currently works as the Commercial Director for Awen Cultural Trust. Prior to this however Steve was one of the founding members of DooPoll which is probably what he’s best known for in the startup world. Steve was also the host of Ignite and has been involved in many other Networking and social events based in and around Cardiff. We talk through some of the big moments in Steve’s career - and he mentions people are welcome to get in touch with him if they want to chat, so I’ve dropped the links to some places you can find Steve below: https://ignite.wales/ https://www.questionpro.com/doopoll/ https://awen-wales.com https://x.com/thedimmick

February 12, 2024Episode 61 hr 5 min

S01E06: Tony Hassett - Fibrous Plasterer

This weeks Episode is with Tony Hasset, a specialist type of plasterer who works restoring old building and creating highly decorative mouldings in new buildings too. He also works on film sets to create the backgrounds and scenes for some major Hollywood blockbuster films. I love talking with Tony about what he’s worked on and hearing him go into detail about his passion for art and manufacturing. It’s so fascinating to hear him talk about his experience of creating massive sculptures for people like Damian Hurst through crafting intricate and delicate models right the way to now how he creates decorative features in some of the most famous and recognisable buildings in the UK. You can find Tony on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/ohaisi?igsh=NzRlOTV0ZzljMm1z

February 19, 2024Episode 759 min

S01E07: Miles Cook - Tech Consultant, Race Instructor & more

This weeks Episode is with Miles Cook, who works as a senior technical consultant, a race car instructor and manages a co working space in Cwmbran. I’ve known Miles for years now and we’ve worked together on a few projects - but he still surprised me with some of his work history and how certain jobs / experiences affected his mental health and attitude towards what he was working on. Through his career, Miles has been in many different software engineering roles including some of the early forms of AI which looked at social media monitoring, travel and tourism startups and running his own consultancy business - which currently he focusses on delivering Amazon Web Services (AWS) Solutions and building products in PHP You can find Miles in various places online: https://twitter.com/milescook https://twitter.com/springhubcw https://www.instagram.com/milescook82 https://www.youtube.com/cookracinguk If you’d like to send me an email you can do on Alex@howdyou.com

February 26, 2024Episode 81 hr 30 min

S01E08: Gary Piazzon, founder Porter Travel & Innovators Uncensored

This weeks episode is with Gary Piazzon, who is the founder of Porter Travel - a business which has evolved and pivoted a few times but the core idea is about making the process of travel simpler. Gary’s career started in Admiral Insurance as a stop gap job while he worked out what he was going to do and the journey he went on from that is quite the story. https://www.portertravel.co.uk/ Gary now also runs Innovators Uncensored, a media business which publishes a regular newsletter aiming to help startup founders. They are also organising their first event which takes place on the 21st of March in Cardiff. https://www.innovatorsuncensored.com/ Between Admiral and now there’s also stories of socks, soaps and jewellery and other startup stories, so pack your bags and hop onboard as we go on a journey through startup life.

March 4, 2024Episode 91 hr 14 min

S01E09: Sue Revell - Leadership Coach & Podcast Host

This week's episode is with Sue Revell who works as a leadership coach, a podcast host, director with Practise Solutions and a guest lecturer. She’s had a fascinating career going from working as a nurse through a range of managerial roles to ending up where she is now. We talk about how she overcame adversity in sexist attitudes and working with difficult people, how she decided she wanted to host a podcast and what she thought about the move from working in the public sector world to then being a self employed coach. You can find Sue in the following places online: https://womenonamission.club/ https://twitter.com/WoaMPod https://www.linkedin.com/in/suerevell/ https://www.instagram.com/suerevell_womenonamission/

March 13, 2024Episode 101 hr 6 min

S01E10: Deborah Price - Production Coordinator, Aardman Animation

This weeks episode is with Deborah Price who works as a production coordinator with Aardman Animation in Bristol - previously working on Chicken Run 2, Dawn of the Nugget and currently working on the next Wallace and Grommit production which will be coming out on Christmas Day 2024. In a previous role at DNEG, she worked as part of the production team on the Disney film Rons Gone Wrong. It’s a great chat about all things film production, looking at the different roles available to people who are interested in the creative industries, but might be looking for a role which sits outside of the regular scope of what people think of as creative. You can watch Chicken Run 2, Dawn of the Nugget on Netflix now - and if you’ve got anything you’d like to ask feel free to email me at Alex@howdyou.com