Learning is a lifelong process
I’ve been working in public relations for 25yrs in May this year. It’s a career that I’ve loved and I still do today. PR has changed immensely since I first started out. Long gone are the days of photocopying press releases, paper filing, courier bikes and paper cuts from monthly coverage boards (more on that soon)! Public relations is a creative brand marketing discipline that has many faces and abundant opportunity. This fast-approaching anniversary got me thinking about the changes I have seen and how much I’ve learnt.
The pros and cons of living in the UK versus NZ
I came to the UK nearly thirty years ago from my native New Zealand. Initially I planned to stay for a six-month overseas experience - and I’m still here today. Why, a lot of people ask, have I stayed so long, leaving such a beautiful country behind? And NZ is a truly beautiful country, but then again so is the UK. Both countries have their pros and cons…
Working with your spouse - how to make it work
I jointly own and run a Public Relations consultancy with offices in London and Beaconsfield with my husband and business partner. I often get asked what it’s like working together. In all honesty it not that bad, as long as you both follow simple rules and honour those rules, working together can be fun and rewarding. For work relationships to succeed it’s important that certain boundaries are kept. Here’s my secret sauce…
How to make the best first impression and win in your traineeship
At MANDATE, we offer a six-month fully paid PR trainee scheme which leads to a fulltime position, with an attractive salary, benefits and bonuses. Candidates who join us on this scheme work for four days per week and have one day dedicated to external training and skills development. This approach means that a candidate will develop all of the foundation skills and core competencies needed to win as a generalist PR, content and communications consultant. After the training period we encourage people to specialise in the area of PR that they enjoy and excel in the most; editorial, media relations, social media, content creation, creative services etc.
Time to say Goodbye: how to end client relationships positively
Every PR consultancy will have had at least one account on the books that was not working out for whatever reason. Before deciding to call time, it is important and prudent to look for solutions. Perhaps a change of strategy, refresh the team, address concerns or issues in an open two-way forum. However, through no fault of either party sometimes the chemistry is just not there, expectations are not set, or met, and it’s simply a case of ‘time to say goodbye’. The negative impact of retaining such clients when the magic has gone is detrimental to overall business performance, mental wellbeing, productivity, motivation and ultimately the business’s longer-term successes.