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Navigating your way through a communications career

How did you get into communications career? I’ve recently had a few people ask me about my career pathway and how I got into communications.  In truth, I never thought I’d end up where I am today. So, I thought some of you navigating your way through a communications career might value hearing about my journey....

Media relations 101: Don’t say ‘no comment’

I’ve been watching a story unfold over the last week about a high profile organisation.  This story is nothing we haven’t seen in the news before.  There are clearly some staffing issues within this organisation which have been brought out in the public forum. Now they’re in crisis mode and local and national media are all over it. What struck me with this story is the obvious lack of basic media training which made it completely blow up. So here’s a quick, essential tip. If y...

10 ways to email like a boss

Emails are one of the most useful ways to communicate with colleagues, customers and stakeholders.  They’re also a powerful tool for digital marketers. On an average day in the office, I typically send and receive about 150 emails a day. My inbox is crazy and I could very easily tap my days away at my keyboard if I didn’t organise my inbox well, send emails with the right content to prompt the best response, and know when it’s the right time of get off email altogether. Emails provide...

Can I have a copy of your comms plan?

As a senior public relations practitioner, I absolutely love mentoring and supporting other communications professionals seeking to learn and develop in their career.  It’s what I have enjoyed most of all as a communications team leader and am excited to be mentoring another PRINZ candidate for their Accreditation in Public Relations (APR). I have personally been incredibly lucky throughout my career to have had fantastic senior public relations mentors.  Now I’m determined to...

Is an elevator pitch still a thing?

Last weekend I was incredibly lucky to spend a few days in the Coromandel with my husband and his colleagues, a very generous thank you gift from his employer for the team’s hard work during 2020.  How cool is that?! As we were getting to know each other, it provided me with my first real opportunity to chat to people about my new business venture, Belle PR, and my future plans.  They’d heard I was going out on my own to consult, but didn’t know what exactly I’d be consulting o...

Listen up

How much of your day did you spend listening? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like in the fast paced, busy, high stress world we’re living in, we’re spending less time listening to each other. We simply love talking. We often call it ‘information sharing’ to make it sound better, especially in communications and public relations.   Yet I can’t recall a time when I thought, ‘gosh, I love it so much when people talk at me.’  Listening is one of the single most important ...

Just keep it simple

If you’ve worked with me before, you’ll know I champion plain English.  I like to call it “BBQ language".  When I say that, I don’t mean talking and writing in casual way.  I’m referring to keeping it simple for the audience - like you would with a neighbour - so they know what you’re talking about and can take the right course of action.I recently had a situation in an organisation where a brochure was circulated far and wide by one of the teams.  The brochure wa...