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I know I haven't really posted for a few weeks, and I apologise because that's very lazy, dull and adorable of me.
But! As far as excuses go, I reckon I might be the High Priestess of them: I scored a promotion, moved into my very own brand spanking new townhouse, and navigated all things COVID-19 (including the personal grief of losing my beloved pubs, balanced with the shake-up to my weekend sleep schedule with the +1'ing of a specific man into my bed each Friday night).
And with the past few months being nothing like any of us have ever experienced before, I am very much looking forward to being BACK, and boring you with the details of this new life I lead (one of which I'm assuming will be a trail of posts debating whether I should get that choppy blunt lob......................... SHOULD I?!? I think I should. I don't know).
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| If Margot Robbie can, why can't I?! |
But for now, I'm very happy starting being back blogging (she types as she wipes the melted chocolate off her shift key), and to answer some questions I had thrown at me through my eloquent Instagram story the other day - you know the one, the one that seemed like ramblings of a flaky madwoman who's always promising that 'big things are coming soon' which you never actually end up seeing. Other than the fact, you are seeing them - RIGHT NOW! Your Q's, answered as A's.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
As a preface, my first boss, Jenny from Rhetoric PR, is probably one of the coolest, smartest, most understanding women I've ever had the privilege of working for. Her mantra was 'It's not a person, it's a process', meaning that if someone fucks up (usually me), it's important to find the reason why that mistake was made and put a tangible process in place to ensure it doesn't happen again (or at least not as frequently; I can only promise I won't spell neccessary incorrectly so many times). To this day, if I see something not working the way it should, I usually take a step back to brief better/create a new process, or to ask a whole lotta silly questions to find out how I can fix what's going on instead of placing blame.
What’s your advice to others looking to start their own business – PR or otherwise?
I started my own PR Agency. It was fabulous. Every day was heels clacking on the marble floors of my office, reading up on Roxy Jacenko's PR tips before morning meetings and double-shot macchiato's for snaps around the office when we had client win after client win. Wait. No it abso-fucking-lutley was not. It was a lot of activewear and crying because clients weren't paying me after the 31-day payment terms had elapsed and many firmly worded emails had been sent. My advice, especially for young women trying to get into the game; is to not glamourise the really hard fucking work that goes into running your own gig.
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| Pictured: Me; boss of my own PR Agency, definitely not having a mental breakdown early 2019 |
How do you deal with hesitating or second-guessing yourself when you’re about to start a new project?
I've learned to take my time when considering taking something new on - whether it's business or creative. I usually spend months, sometimes years with an idea of what I want to achieve marinating in the back of my head, mulling it over with my inner circle to see if an idea has legs, and working out timings and planning before I actually launch. I used to follow my gut feeling on what I wanted, but you can easily stretch yourself thin with the wrong approach.
How do you like to start your day?
Waking up to the sound of chirping birds, walking down to King William for a cappuccino and croissant, with my favourite book of the moment tucked neatly under my arm. I have not yet achieved this level of morning-personess. My actual mornings are more frantically throwing on the warmest jumper after I've snoozed my alarm one too many times, running out the door for the office as I check my phone and see I've forgotten about my 8.30am meeting that's happening in 15.
What are you currently reading, listening to and watching?
Reading: Misery by Stephen King. I'm a huge King fan and it's actually way scarier than I thought it was going to be. Listening: to my Red Wine & Rain playlist (think jazz and lots of it; perfect for weekend wines) and the Hamish and Andy podcast. Watching: Rosemary & Thyme illegal uploads on YouTube and Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars every Saturday afternoon, hungover in bed.
I will strive to imperfectly continue, with hopefully less time between my posts throughout the rest of 2020. We are past the winter solstice, so things are quite literally getting shinier each day and I'm holding onto that shred of hope like my heel tips after a night of dancing on sticky club floors in what I hope will be in less than a month. A girl can dream!