When I was growing up, I didn’t dream of having a career in PR, if I am honest, I didn’t even know such a thing existed other than in the world of Absolutely Fabulous. When I was small, I had several dreams of what I would be which included:
Becoming a nun (I was about 8) – not because I was particularly religious but because I had a kid crush on Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music. I don’t think wanting to marry a handsome man is a reason to become a nun.
A heart and a lung surgeon (I was 11) – it turns out I was ok at science (not great but ok) and biology was my best science but given I couldn’t deal with any of the dissection stuff I doubt I would have been a success.
A lawyer – I'm not sure what prompted this desire.
I am sure if I spoke to my mum, she would have a full list of careers I had dreamt of. In the end, I decided that I wanted to be a journalist and between the ages of 16 and 18 did quite a bit of work experience on local newspapers before heading to university to study for a journalism degree.
I loved journalism until the point that I graduated and got a job as a journalist (well editorial assistant) at which point I realised that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the intrusiveness, the fact you were expected to knock on people’s doors at bad times in their lives and I didn’t enjoy the newsroom atmosphere (shouty with a lot of testosterone). After only a year I had a rethink and decided I still wanted to write, and I wanted to speak to people and hear their stories and that led me to the world of PR.
More than 20 years later I still love it.
• I love finding out about people and their stories. When I first work with a client, I have a big in-depth chat with them so I can find out more, establish what the story is, and look for any hidden gems there might be.
• Writing, this has always been a passion, and PR gives me the chance to write in various styles, to date I have written general press releases, a thought leadership piece as the voice of a large company, a piece on behalf of a 15-year-old girl for a teen magazine, a regular first aid column and an article as a meat packaging expert to name a few.
• Helping businesses be seen and heard. I work mainly with SMEs, not-for-profits and social enterprises and a lot of them think they don’t have a story, won’t be heard amongst everybody else or that they can’t afford PR and I like helping them realise they do, they will and they can.
• Organising events. In my non-work life I love a party and PR gives me plenty of opportunities to come up with ideas for client events whether it is a ball or an in-store event to thank loyal customers I enjoy the whole process, coming up with the idea, the planning, getting everything organised and seeing it all come together.
What do you love about your work?
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