Episode #15
Ellen was ubloquity’s official first ever employee and recently celebrated her first year in the role.
12 months in any startup is a long time and this is no exception. Ellen reflects on the role she started doing, and how she and the company have developed in such a short space of time.
In her first year she has trained as a scrum master and been recognised by her peers in the tech industry as one to watch.
Her advice to other young women or girls at school or uni would be to broaden your horizons and focus on building your network now.
Take opportunities and placements, ask questions of those around you, and experience new things.
Next month Ellen has her most important project to date to deliver as she heads off on maternity leave for the first time.
The entire team at ubloquity wish her and her family well. We know she’ll make a great mum, as everything she sets her heart on achieving she succeeds.
SPEAKERS
Dom Burch, Ellen Marks
Dom Burch:
Welcome back to the ubloquity podcast with me Dom Burch. This is the podcast where we get to speak to thought leaders and experts in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technology welcoming onto the podcast this week, Ellen Marks now Ellen is the agri tech manager at ubloquity. But not only that Ellen was employee number one, a title that nobody can ever take away from Ellen, and has just celebrated her first 12 months in the role, which for a start up Ellen, like that’s a big achievement, isn’t it being in a company for a year when it’s only really been in existence 15 months?
Ellen Marks:
Yeah, it’s funny, saying that Dom, like, we’re only a year old, but I’ve been here from the very beginning and it feels like a lifetime. Is that a good thing or a bad thing.? Some days, it’s good.
Dom Burch:
So when we I mean, we chatted right at the start, you were one of the first people to come on the podcast. And we were talking about the role that you do and your farming background. But part of being inside a business that’s growing quickly and developing new products is the you know, you forever pivot and move where the action is described your job today, what’s a day or a week in the life of Ellen Marks look like now compared to maybe what it looked like a year ago?
Ellen Marks:
Yeah, Dom, you’re 100% right. In comparison to this time last year, whenever we spoke, I’d say my job role has completely changed. There’s no two days that are the same. And there’s no two weeks that are the same. And I suppose that’s the beauty about a startup as well, things happen so fast, and things change direction, and move so quickly, probably in directions that we probably never thought it would, or things just creep up and come along at the right time. I would say it’s changed so dramatically from this time last year, I was kind of thinking a lot about the agri tech side of things last year. But as my job role developed, and as ubloquity grew and developed, there were so many more opportunities out there for me. And that, again is the beauty of being at a startup as well, that I was presented with opportunities, chances to meet people and share ideas with people that I never probably would have gotten any other kind of organisation or a well established business. A week at ubloquity, for me, it’s so different. So this week alone, it’s only Wednesday. I’m sitting in my kitchen recording podcasts with you. But yesterday we were at local council agri event where they’re pushing to start up an agri centre of excellence within the local area for agri tech companies and farmers alike to come and collaborate together. As we spent yesterday that the day before I met with the new minister of export with the Department of international trade. And we showed and give insight into the Atamai Freight project that we’re working on alongside Fujitsu. So every day is different and it can be doing different things. I kind of have a running joke now that whenever I’m going somewhere I pack welly boots and good shoes, just in case because I don’t know what I’m going to turn up to.
Dom Burch:
I love that? I love that. And I like the idea that you forget which ones you’ve got on in your walk into an award ceremony with your big wellies on? So what would be what would be some of the highlights Ellen as you just kind of stop and pause and reflect and look back over the last even six months. Right? Because 12 months feels like a different lifetime ago. But But what’s happened in this, you know, this current year, what are the kinds of things that you look back on with a sense of pride or, or wonder actually think, Gosh, actually, look how much we’ve achieved. Look how far we’ve come down.
Ellen Marks:
Dom, there’s been so many things like that, that I’ve thought, oh my God, that’s been a fantastic week or something’s happened, I’d say highlights for me or even this past since January onwards have been like, I got to qualify as a scrum master. I took on new job roles within ubloquity. But a even simple things as the people that we’ve on boarded within ubloquity and the team dynamics and how everybody has grown and gelled together. And we’re basically building a business around the people that work with us as well. Is a major highlight for me, but then there’s so many other things out there that will be huge milestones in a lot of people’s careers. And sometimes we forget about them because everything moves so fast within a startup we have had so many opportunities to meet with fantastic people, fantastic companies, and be invited to a lot of different events. And it’s even hard to remember that what has happened over the past six months it’s not even worth thinking about what’s happened over the last 12 months because there’s no way I would even remember that but a lot of the highlights have been that we got introduced with the Department of International Trade have had some really good conversations and connections with them. We’ve got to meet people like Lord Grimstone we’ve had to meet so many different ministers all of that kind of side of it, but then it’s even being out on the ground with the farmers it’s a huge highlight for me as well and how we can make differences for those people on the ground as well. So we’re we’re really are covering the entire supply chain as one end of the spectrum to the other.
Dom Burch:
Now you’re far too humble to mention it so I’m going to mention it on your behalf but also earlier in the year you were recognised as being a real talent actually One to Watch in the Northern Ireland Women in Tech Awards. What did that mean for you Ellen? Somebody who is right at the start of your career and you’ve obviously got great education behind you, you’ve qualified with a first degree from from Queens. What did it mean being able to go to an event like that and be recognised amongst your peers. And what’s that led to, since?
Ellen Marks:
It was absolutely fantastic Dom and even to be recognised with such a group of phenomenal people at that time, nevermind even winning the award, the people that were in shortlisted for that award are fantastic individuals as well, and are really succeeding in their careers too. But on the night of the awards, when they were reading out a little, I would say, like a small biography of the person that’s won it, as soon as they mentioned ‘farmer’, and I knew straightaway, it was me, that has won, because I was thinking there’s nobody else going to be sitting in this room as a farmer within tech, that’s going to have won something like this. So I knew straightaway, and I just immediately felt overjoyed, overwhelmed, before they even called out my name, because, for me, it was something that I had never thought about, I was never a techy person. And you probably know this, as well as everybody else, within ubloquity, I’ve said it so many times, I struggled even to use my computer at the start, nevermind being recognised as someone that’s influential or one to watch within the tech industry. I was very much so agriculturally driven and never seen myself in a job role like this. So to be recognised, in a field that wasn’t my comfort zone, if you like is absolutely phenomenal. And just goes to show you can do anything that you put your mind to, you just have to take those chances and go for it. Whenever an opportunity is presented. I was kind of scared of it at the start in terms of working for a tech company and all this blockchain stuff I had no idea about. But when you’re ingrained in it, and you really put in all your effort, you can pick it up so fast, and you can actually make a difference.
Dom Burch:
And since that event, has that given you a sort of different level of confidence, then that you can actually set your mind to anything you want. And there’s an opportunity to succeed at it.
Ellen Marks:
Absolutely. It completely changed my perspective and my outlook, even in my job role. And the confidence that I had in myself within that job role. Everybody probably suffers from it at some point. But I would say I was kind of in that imposter syndrome kind of scenario, where I thought to myself, I’m working for a tech company, I have no idea about any of this blockchain stuff, I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing or how I’m to do it. But being recognised within that technology environment, actually gave me the confidence to say, do you know what, you actually can do this. And you can do anything that you really want to do, you can really put your mind to anything at all.
Dom Burch:
Now, one of the pivotal moments I remember was when you had to go into Finnebrogue Artisan, and I suppose map the process of how they take goods in, and and how they process those goods and how those waggons arrive over on the boat from England and so forth. And that you know, you to do that you have to spend some time with them for a couple of days. But you also had to be in the room with the Director of Logistics or head of operations. And that the Ellen Marks I know just held her own and just got on with it right? Down to earth, Ellen just said, I need to talk to you. And I need to understand what you do. But you’ve taken that. And now you’ve started to apply the same thinking then in a very different sector, which is pharmaceutical, and then one of the companies Trans-Bridge, who are now piloting Atamai as part of their kind of growth into this field that we’re working in. What is it as you know, as you start to do those things, and you notice that the transferable skills exist, it must be quite exciting, right to be able to spot those opportunities for companies and to be able to give them really, really good advice, which ultimately then is going to sit on top of the technology bit that we’re you know, that’s our bread and butter.
Ellen Marks:
Yeah, absolutely, Dom. And I suppose it’s the people aspect of it, too, that comes first and foremost, before the technology. And you were saying about how I was confident enough to speak to those people. I think that’s even been ingrained into me throughout my childhood. And my early career, I suppose, that I’ve always been in an environment, especially within agriculture is so poorly represented by females on by young women, especially, that I was always the person that was maybe the only young person in the room speaking to a lot of older men, I was the only female in the room. So those sort of things never really bothered me. And I suppose that’s why I had the confidence to go into Finnebrogue. That wasn’t really an issue for me speaking to those people that were probably much more superior to me, but it was a case of, I just need to understand where your pain points are. And I need to understand how we can help you. So taking all of that hierarchy out of it. We’re just talking to people and that’s the way I look at it most of the time. If you can communicate with people, you can make such a difference. And I suppose that’s where I really enjoy that aspect of it. And those transfer transferable skills you’re talking about it’s the communication with other people, and it is understanding where their pains are, where the problems are, and how we can use the technology that we have to make a difference in their daily work lives.
Dom Burch:
Now next month Ellen, you’ve got a really important project to deliver because you’re going to be giving birth to your first child. Now that in itself is a huge change in, in your in your life. But also you’re looking forward to the future. What sort of future do you imagine, bringing that child up into, because you’re involved in the cusp of like this digital transformation. And you’re right in the heart of seeing how all of these things are coming together and going to shift? What are your hopes and aspirations? As you look forward? And sort of look over the horizon?
Ellen Marks:
Yeah, definitely, it’s gonna be a huge change for me, but one that I’m really looking forward to, I would say, it’s gonna be a different type of a challenge, but one that I think will be good in a sense, but in terms of the hopes and aspirations for what my family and my children will grow up in, in terms of technology, I think technology is advancing so fast, that I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like when they’re starting their early careers in it 18-20 years time, because from whenever I grew up to now, it’s completely changed as well. And I suppose everybody could say that in a sense. But technology can sometimes be portrayed as negative. There’s a lot of negative things associated with social media and all that kind of side of it. But, but there’s so many positive aspects of technology, and its embracing that side of it, and it’s understanding how you can use technology to make positive changes. So for me, within agriculture, technology can make tremendous changes within agriculture, in terms of addressing labour issues, work life balance, sustainability, data collection, all of this kind of side of it. So I think technology needs to be embraced for the right reasons. I’d say there’s a slight part of me that has a fear in terms of how technology will affect children growing up these days. Is it a case of they’ll never have a phone out of their hands, or they never get to experience the real world, if you like aside from it being like a virtual through their phones and things like that. But there are also like I say, so many positive aspects to the technology. And that’s what needs to be embraced. And for me, that’s what will probably be enforced within my children growing up, I suppose that there are so many positive sides to love, but it needs to be used in the right way.
Dom Burch:
And haven’t had the pleasure of spending some time with you over in Northern Ireland and on your parent’s farm. And in that neck of the woods. I mean, it’s almost impossible not to put your phone down and just be in nature, right. I mean, it’s just such a staggering part of the world to bring up people in.
Ellen Marks:
Yeah, absolutely. We’re so lucky where we grew up. And I say that to my mum and dad all the time, the childhood that we had. And the environment that we grew up in was just phenomenal. And it’s and it probably made us the people that we are today and me and my siblings, in terms of how we look at things and how we probably just embrace things, the people that we got to meet we, we socialised with all our neighbours, or we were at the mart with daddy or things like that. And that’s probably where our confidence has came from as well because we weren’t engrossed within our phones as children growing up. But like I said, there’s a lot of positive aspects of technology that can be utilised today and in the future.
Dom Burch:
One last question, then I’m going to let you go because I’m sure you got plenty of things on your to do list Ellen Marks. But if somebody was listening to this podcast, and maybe they’re where you were three or four years ago, they’re going through university or they’re studying at school, and they haven’t you know, they’re a young girl who hasn’t considered maybe a career in technology. Maybe it doesn’t have a Scooby Doo like I didn’t a year ago, what blockchain is, what would be the one piece of advice you’d like to give them that maybe you would like to have heard yourself a few years ago,
Ellen Marks:
A few years ago, whenever I was at university, in my mind, I was going on that I wanted to teach agriculture, I wanted to be a ruminant nutritionist or something along those lines. But the advice that I would like to give to somebody in that position is broaden your horizons and take every opportunity. And think really outside the box. I never thought that I would be in this job role working for a blockchain company, basically. But it’s just the way things happen. And I suppose it was through my network. And that’s probably the most important thing that you could try and build and work on throughout your time at university, take placement opportunities, meet with people, talk to people ask questions, build a network, because you will soon realise that you need to rely on that network. And you’ll always go back to those people that you met throughout that time in your life, to progress within your career. So I’d say the advice for a younger me would be to broaden horizons think completely outside the box.
Dom Burch:
Brilliant. Well, Ellen Marks, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. And congratulations on being employee number one, but also celebrating your 12 month anniversary. I don’t know if you get a carriage clock, you know, at ubloquity for being here a year. But whatever the equivalent is, I’m sure it’s wheeling its way to you as we speak. But for the meantime, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.
Ellen Marks:
Thank you very much for having me Dom.
