Reflecting On The Past Half A Decade

If you follow me on LinkedIn you might have seen the news that today is my last day at Source PR after nearly 5 years. Sob!

As many of you will know I’m no stranger to how much I’ve loved working here. It’s brilliant having a manager who genuinely cares for your wellbeing and improvement, all the while being given the professional capacity to grow, prosper, and be creative. I joined Source after being desperate to leave my previous job because it was taking a serious toll on my mental health. My interview with Louis was a happy coincidence as he actually reached out to me on the same day I decided I needed to leave my job, we had the interview the following evening and I was offered the job the morning after that.

Only after joining did I realise how much of a perfect decision I made. Source was (and is!) a place that puts you first and gives you the capacity to run with your own creative ideas.

There are a few reasons I’m leaving which I won’t go into here, but what I will say is I’m headed to a business I’ve admired from afar for a long, long time. It’s in the city closest to where I grew up, and it was absolutely the right decision for me after going through a plethora of life changes the last two years including having to sell my home and buy again all on my own (which all ended up to be the best thing that could ever happen to me!).

As you can probably tell, I’m feeling particularly sentimental today so I thought I’d take some time to look back at some of my proudest achievements of the last half a decade before I switch off, re-charge and get ready to begin my new chapter in just over a week’s time!

‘Pinch Me’ PR Moments

If you work in PR you’ll understand the butterfly feeling of getting coverage, even when you’ve been at it a while! However, there are a few moments that have really gone above and beyond for me in my career and they include…

• The #SaveOurHospiceAppeal – back in lockdown we decided we’d give a year’s worth of free PR support to a cause that needed it. We ended up working with The Hospice of the Good Shepherd who were struggling to keep their doors open due to funding drying up. I was able to take their annual ‘dedicate a daisy’ campaign and get it front and centre of people’s minds with regional and national news coverage, including an evening slot on BBC North West Tonight. The next day I heard from the charity that they completely sold out of all the daisies (which they were struggling to shift). Over 1,800 daisies were sold at £30 apiece, resulting in around £54,000 raised for the charity.
• Pura’s ‘nappy road’ – another of my clients, Pura, an eco-friendly baby product company, partnered with NappiCycle a few years ago to re-lay a stretch of road in Wales with pellets made from recycled nappies. With my team I was able to take the story to BBC Online, ITV News and countless nationals (pretty much every one you can think of – it was mega!). The attention the story got was in part the reason they were able to introduce England’s first nappy recycling trial in Bristol some months later. Which again, got some awesome coverage including a TV segment on BBC Points West.
• Getting a new client the front-page news story – finally, highlighting the value of regional media coverage, I was working with Cheshire Boutique Bathhouse to promote its opening and ended up scoring a front-page story on the renovation and transformation story of this GORGEOUS aparthotel. The owner Rachael is one of the kindest and most grateful clients I could have ever wished for and it gave me so much pleasure to see her story in print in this way. I was also able to go on to get her coverage in her dream publication alongside some great reviews more recently in the likes of the MEN.

I had a final nostalgic flick through of my print coverage folder this morning and it did make me feel really proud of what I’ve been able to achieve seeing my clients in the likes of the Telegraph, Times and OK! Magazine just to name a few. PR is an industry that will undoubtedly be online only one day, but I’m sure many will agree it’s hard to beat the feeling of seeing a business you care about in a lovely print piece.

A Lot Of Personal Growth

I did plan to type out ‘enough of the gloating’, but that kind of defeats the object of my next point. And that’s that over the last five years, I’ve done a lot of growing. I joined Source as a shy, somewhat damaged young PR exec and am leaving as a senior manager who’s doing her best to know her worth. My confidence has undoubtedly not just recovered but grown in the past half a decade and it’s led to me being able to do things I’d never have dreamed of in a pre-pandemic life including:

• Getting up on stage and talking about business
• Solo-conferencing at BrightonSEO and MancSEO
• Attending networking events on my own and pushing myself to start conversations
• Learning to celebrate my successes on social media and in the workplace

Making Friends For Life

And finally, from the people I work with at Source to the clients I’ve had the pleasure of managing and the journalist friendships I’ve made – I’ve had the joy of getting to know some lovely people over the last decade, and long may that continue in my professional life. I’m definitely a people person and thrive in a team so I’ve been very lucky to have been able to meet and work with so many fantastic people.

If you didn’t see my gushy LinkedIn post, I’m off to Lake Bled next week for a lil’ getaway before starting my new role the following week. I am SO excited to get stuck in and swap the countryside for the city again. This is a business I’ve followed for a long time on LinkedIn and have always loved what they do. So to be a part of the team will be a real privilege for me. Keep you updated, but until then, lots of love 😘 x