No matter your background, ambitions or challenges
This week marks a big milestone for me. Not only is it three years today since I joined the National Trust, but it’s also the week I handed in my final resignation letter before I properly go it alone.
And trust me, it’s scary. Having been on someone else’s payroll for 22 years, I’m finally taking the biggest leap in my career and doing something I’ve wanted to do for years – set up my own PR and communications business.
The thought of losing that regular monthly wage, guaranteed work arriving in my inbox and being surrounded by a team of colleagues to bounce ideas off - and moan and gossip with – gives me the heebie-jeebies. But the opportunity to be the master of my own destiny, create my own variety in the work I undertake, free up some much-needed time for those closest to me and, most importantly, do a job which provides me with such satisfaction, is what’s driving me.
I’ve had some amazing roles in my 20+ years in communications, and I look back fondly at interviewing Nicholas Cage as a junior reporter, breaking a world exclusive about Kylie Minogue, managing international media for countless royal events and being at the sharp edge of some of the UK’s highest profile stories.
But now it’s time for me to bring all that experience together and focus more local; on those that want to shout about what they’re doing but perhaps don’t know how or want to do it, or have the people in their organisation to make a good go of it.
If this most recent move has taught me anything, it’s to follow your heart, and make yourself happy.
I never dreamt, 24 years after jacking in college before my first set of A-level exams, that two decades later I’d bring together my wealth of experience - alongside my home-grown website and social media training - to set up my own company to tell other’s stories.
But if you have the drive and determination to be successful then it is within your grasp, you just need to go and grab it; no one else will do it for you.
I remember years ago as a journalist being asked to attend careers fairs at local schools to give pupils inspiration before heading into the world of work. This was at a time when heading to college straight after school was an absolute must, and numerous times I had to pre-warn staff that my pathway was, perhaps, not what they wanted me to preach. I wasn’t your typical college or university student, but I’d still made a success of my life despite some of my personal barriers growing up.
To this day, I’m super proud of what I’ve achieved. I may not have letters after my name, but at the age of 40 I have more than two decades of experience under my belt and an already growing business to boot.
No matter what your background is, no matter what your ambitions are, and no matter the challenges you’ve faced, decide what you want out of life and go get it. There’s a big world outside that window, and it’s there for the taking.
Now, finally after 22 years, it’s time to pass me a soapbox so I can express my own views on news and current affairs without being worried about getting in trouble with my employer; watch this space…!