For as long as I can remember I have loved words, the way we use language to express ourselves and how people may use different words in different company or circumstances. Words are what inspired me to start a career in PR, but it wasn’t the words alone it was stories.
I have loved stories for as long as I can remember. I love happy stories, romantic stories, ones that make me laugh until my belly hurts, the stories that have made me cry until my eyes were sore and my throat hurt (thanks One Day). One of my biggest joys at the moment is that my 5-year-old has started enjoying chapter books (we read a little bit to him each night). Seeing him get pleasure from books I loved as a child such as The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the two we have read so far) brings me immense happiness. Today we had to go to the Post office which is in WHSmith and he went and chose a new chapter book for us to read and I swear my heart nearly exploded with excitement.
Anyway, I digress my point is that stories make me happy and are the reason I started doing what I do. I absolutely adore speaking to clients or potential clients who come to me and cannot quite grasp what their business or individual story is. I take pleasure from learning about people, what makes them tick, how they got to where they are now and what life events have shaped them. I thrive on taking those stories and getting them out to the public and even after more than 20 years in public relations I still get a real buzz from seeing client’s stories in the media.
As well as PR I am now taking strides to take my love of stories and use it to pursue my original pre graduation dream of becoming a journalist. I have a journalism degree but when I got my first job in a national news agency, I hated it. All I really wanted to do was write features and first-person pieces for magazines, but coming from a working class, single parent family going to London and doing an unpaid internship was not possible, but I have decided that alongside my business I am going to follow my passion and have just recently had my first piece commissioned. Exciting times.
So, tell me what is it about your job that you love? What is your favourite bit, and do you have an unfulfilled ambition that you think you might still go after?