Shownotes

PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board(REEB) was set up in 2020 in response to the urgency and momentum created by the tragic killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter movement. REEB was set up with a view to helping build a fairer, more representative industry. It has standing committee status and two members of REEB(including the Chair) sit on the PRCA Board. And in the short time that it has been around - it has created a toolkit for the industry on ethnicity pay gap reporting; a mentoring programme called PRISM along with continuously advocating for change. As a founding Board Member I am incredibly proud of what REEB has achieved under the stewardship of Chair Barbara Phillips. My fellow board members are a group who motivate and inspire through their actions. 

So, I am delighted to have had the opportunity to engage with Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah, the newly appointed Vice Chair Vice Chair of PRCA Race and Ethnicity Board (REEB) for this episode of The Elephant in the Room podcast. In his day job Emmanuel is PR Manager at Mercer, he is also a trustee, a mentor and a speaker advocating for a more equitable PR Industry. In this episode we spoke about his journey into PR…..

👉🏾 His internship at Havas, The Taylor Bennett Foundation program and how it paved the way for a career in the PR industry

👉🏾 A tragic experience in his teens that shaped his identity and who he is today

👉🏾 Why so few black men are visible in the PR Industry? 

👉🏾 The systemic issues that impede progress 

👉🏾 Why it is important for him to lead on conversations on race and ethnicity equity

👉🏾 The role of PRs in spotlighting inequity in the industry 

Thank you Emmanuel for the wonderful conversation. And here is a heart warming quote from the episode on what motivates him to do better....

“I've got someone that looks up to me now, that is reliant on me to set a good example for him. And that's what i'm hoping to do. I hope in 15 years time, 20 years time, he will be able to sit down with me and say, "You know what Dad? You set a really good example and I'm proud of what you've done" and that's what I want really.”

Like to know more, listen here 👇🏾👇🏾

Memorable passages from the podcast

👉🏾 Thank you Sudha for a warm welcome. I'm really, really pleased to be here.

👉🏾That's a very good question. Actually, I can probably take you all the way to the beginning. So I studied at the University of Manchester in 2009 and I graduated in 2012. I studied English language, literacy and communications. And pretty much I have no idea around what I wanted to do when I finished university. As you know, at Uni you meet a lot of different people. Everybody comes from different backgrounds and my course was actually quite small, we only had about 35 to 40 people on my course. So our course cohort was very, very close and a lot us kind of shared ideas around what we wanted to do. And, our lecturers organised a session for people from different backgrounds and different professions to come into our university and basically talk to us about their careers.

Luckily for me, there was a really, really kind of lady called Claire, who was working at an agency called Havas, which is one of the biggest kind of global advertising/marketing agencies. 

👉🏾 She came in and she spoke about public relations and I was just like, wow, PR, what's this PR thing about. I'd obviously heard about it in the past and I thought, it was all about, drinking champagne and meeting celebrities. I didn't know that there was a whole corporate side of public relations, which is pretty much what I wanted to kind of get into. So after Claire gave a talk around what she did day to day, I said to myself, you know what, this sounds like a really interesting career. My background and my university degree at the time was quite relevant. So I approached her and I said, look, I'd be really interested in doing an internship in your agency. Lucky for me I was basically invited to come and do a kind of internship over two or three weeks. It was mainly focusing on consumer public relations, which is very different to what I do now, but it was working with big brands, such as Greggs, Pets at Home, loads of massive brands. And I built a really good relationship with the MD at the agency and we just stayed in contact. 

👉🏾 That summer, I was on Twitter and I saw the Taylor Bennett Foundation program, which is another initiative that's been set up to get people from ethnic backgrounds and diverse upbringings into public relations. And I said to myself, okay, this is perfect for me because; number one I'm black, number two I didn't come from a privileged background and no one in my family knew anything about public relations. So this program by the Taylor Bennett foundation sounded like an amazing opportunity for someone like myself.

And I said to myself, look, I want to get into this program to build on my experience that I had built up in Manchester on the internship. Luckily for me, I was accepted onto the Taylor Bennett Foundation, and that was with Brunswick group, another massive corporate and financial communications firm.

👉🏾 And it kind of just gave me a real insight into what public relations was all about. I understood how to write, press release, review news articles, the actual power of the media relations and what it's all about. So this was a fantastic introduction for me into public relations.

 👉🏾 And here I am now 10 years coming up to 11 years next year. It feels like such a long time ago but I can still remember when I was scared to even call a journalist. The first time I had to call a journalist I was shaking. You hear these horror stories of picking up the phone and slamming the phone down on you. So I just had a bit of nervousness around the whole media relations thing. But 10 years on, I speak to journalists every single day now and I don't actually get scared by picking up the phone. I'm quite confident in building relationships with journalists and building relationships with internal stakeholders as well. So as you can see over 10 years, I've kind of come a long way in terms of where I was and where I am now. I really, really am thankful to the Taylor Bennett Foundation and to Havas for giving me an opportunity to kind of get into the industry.

👉🏾 That's a really really good question Sudha, Thank you. I think the Taylor Bennett Foundation was pretty much instrumental for me in getting into the public relations industry. And the reason I say that because as I said before I came from a pretty normal background. Pretty much no one in my family have gone to university before me, so I was the proper first graduate in my family and no one had a white collar career before. So this was the first time I was doing something like this in my career and I had pretty much not many links into the corporate world. So the Taylor Bennett Foundation was a fantastic door because they allowed me to understand the field of public relations, what it's all about and number two, as part of the program, we got to visit so many different organisation in-house and on the agency side. So while I was doing these visits and we were given tours of some of these agencies. I was looking at the companies and doing my research before the next visit that we had and just building my knowledge on the different types of public relations agencies there are, the types of work that these agencies do and what the industry was all about. 

👉🏾 So I think the Taylor Bennett Foundation was for me a fantastic door and something that pretty much shaped my career right from the start. Even until now I try to support people that are on the Taylor Bennett Foundation program. I try to mentor people informally as well because I've actually been down that path, I've done the program, I've seen the results of the program and now I can say to myself, look, I'm a case study of somebody that stuck with public relations. I feel that a lot of the people on the Taylor Bennett foundation look up to people like myself and others within the industry from diverse backgrounds. Because they also want to see themselves in leading organisations and leading corporate communications agencies. And I think that's where the industry has a very, very big weight on its shoulders to say look we've got talented leaders within the field, are they being recognised? Are they being given the opportunities to thrive as well? And I think that's what will also support people coming in at the start of their careers as well.

👉🏾 This is a question that I've asked myself a lot over the years. When I came into the PR industry I didn't see much role models and specifically black men in public relations. When I looked at other careers; banking, I saw a few, when I looked into law, I saw quite a few, when I looked into medicine, I saw quite a few. And I was thinking to myself, so why are there not black men in public relations and I think a big issue is that a lot of people, well a lot of black men in the PR industry either, feel that there's not a place for them or it's more of a kind of mental barrier. Whereas some people have been brought to think that being a doctor or a lawyer is more of a, kind of a respectable career from a kind of background where your parents have told you, become a doctor or become a lawyer. I remember growing up and my parents always kind of comparing their friend's children. 

👉🏾 So sometimes it's a bit if a peer pressure thing whereas when you look around and you see people of your kind of same skin tone and background doing particular careers, you kind of just follow the train. And I didn't want to do that, I wanted to kind of do the opposite to what everybody was doing because I probably wasn't clever enough to become a doctor and I'm not sure if I really was that passionate about the law to study it. 

👉🏾 So I think it's also a case of looking at somebody's issues and thinking about how the industry can reach people from these background. I've recently become the Vice-Chair of the PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board and we've got a really really big, focus on trying to improve diversity in this the industry. Not just with black men but also trying to get more black women into the industry. We've also seen that at the senior level, there's not enough black and senior women role models. We've seen that people from diverse background and diverse women have an even harder time getting into those kinds of senior positions.

So as for me I think there's a lot of work to be done and I believe that we just need to keep talking about this issue and creating solutions with programs like the Taylor Bennett Foundation. The UK Black Comms Network are doing a great job as well, they're trying to really raise the profile of communications amongst the black community; so these initiatives are really, really positive. 

👉🏾 But I think for me we also need recognise the people in the industry right now. I'm not talking only about myself because I know there's a few other black men within this industry who are trying really hard to kind of break that glass ceiling. And it's quite difficult when you get to a certain point in your career where you want to kind of elevate yourself and you're not being given opportunity. It's quite hard to see yourself actually growing within that industry. So, I believe in my message to a lot of the agency leaders and the in-house kind of global heads and head of communications is that, if you see talent from a diverse background, you need to give them a second xxxxxxxx to really prove themselves.

👉🏾 Sometimes it's just a case of giving them additional responsibilities and just seeing how they can deal with it and I think that's how people grow by being challenged. I know that's how I've grown in my career so I definitely feel that there's opportunities for people to really stretch themselves and grow in their careers as well, especially when they're from diverse backgrounds.

👉🏾 That's a really, really interesting question actually.

I would say there was a really, really dramatic experience that I had at age of 15 years old, I lost one of my closest friends during my school days, he was actually stabbed to death in London. It was a very well-known case, his name is Kiyan Prince, he was a football player for Queens Park Rangers at the time. He was stabbed to death outside of our school. And I was right there when it happened and that was a very traumatic experience for me because I was very, very young and you don't go to school thinking that one of your best friends will be stabbed to death. And I think once that happened, it really changed my view on life. I realised that look your life can be taken at any minute. You never know when will be your last day. So while you're here you need to make the best use of your time and make sure that you add your value in whatever you're doing, whether that be school work, whether that be working with young people. Just adding value and giving back and that's something that I've held onto ever since my friend passed away. And I've always tried to say to myself if he was still here, what would he be doing? I would probably see him in a premiership now, I'll probably have some VIP tickets in the box and everything, you know. To me in terms of how I look at life as well, I don't want to look back and be like, I didn't reach my full potential. Because I know that if he was here he would have reached his full potential, so that's always encouraged me. 

👉🏾 Even during the most difficult times in my career, where I felt like I'd not excelled in certain areas or have made a mistake. I would think back to where would Kiyan be now and what would he be doing? He'd probably be overcoming challenges, just like I'm trying to overcome. So it's always something that's in the back of my mind that encourages me to keep going. And yeah, I'm just hoping that, he would be proud of who I am today and I think I'm really, really, grateful I've had people around me to have supported my growth. Even people like yourself Sudha. When I joined the PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board, you supported me from day one and everybody else on the board has really shown me support in terms of just listening to my views. I'm not an expert in everything but as you said your experience is valid and I believe that every experience I've had in my career has allowed me to do a lot better in my next kind of position. So yeah, I'm really excited for the future and yeah, I'm sure that I'll probably have more experiences as I develop as a PR professional and that will also shape me as a person as well. 

👉🏾 I definitely agree, that Black Lives Matter has made things move a bit quicker. I think before the whole incident with George Floyd, there were issues around racism. People were scared to talk about it. I believe that when George Floyd passed away, it kind of just took the lens away and people actually saw that there was some deep-rooted issues around racism, all over the world, not just in the US, because it's not just a US issue.

👉🏾 I think the one thing that we need to talk about here is George Floyd was murdered in such a horrific way, there's so many people all over the world that are being tortured and so many bad things are happening behind closed doors that we just don't see on a daily basis. We were just unfortunate at the time to see that incident recorded live on TV.

👉🏾 I think now every business is trying to understand where can they play a part in this whole game around social responsibility? How are they treating their diverse employees? Is there a level playing field? Are people being paid equally? If we talk about pay and equity within the PR industry, there's a massive gap between I'm sorry to say, black and white PR professionals. And I'm not sure why there's such a massive gap but, it's something that the industry has started to look very, very seriously. And I know there's some agencies that are doing a fantastic job to try and really close that. It just goes to show that, what if George Floyd didn't pass away or what if this was not recorded, would people take notice of this issue? I know that so many black professionals and asian professionals who have been kind of pigeonholed in a way to say, oh, just do this, this is what you've always done. They're not really given equal opportunity sometimes, and that's just not fair. 

👉🏾 So I think Black Lives Matter is a great initiative because it's allowed people to kind of take action now and I hope that the PR industry will continue this conversation 10, 15 years, 20 years from now. When I think about what I do today around diversity and inclusion, it's not just about me, it's just about putting my face out there. It's about telling a story and basically letting people realise that we really need to really value the talent that we have from diverse backgrounds because if all the diverse were to leave the industry, I think the PR industry would be a very, very different place to what it is now. And I hope, through the work that we're doing at the PRCA, Race and Ethnicity, Equity Board and what we're hoping to achieve this year, is just to create even more progress around race and ethnicities. I'm hoping that we can make some really really good progress in 2022 and beyond. 

👉🏾 Wow. This is a very interesting topic, I think, well looking at it from my point of view probably one of the issues is a lot of people enter the industry via people they know. And sometimes it's a case of are we really bringing in the best talent, into the industry, or are we just bringing people in that look and sound the same. That's something that I've heard time and time again.

👉🏾 In the PR industry, everybody looks the same, there's not enough diversity, but you need to look at where is talent being sourced from? That's the number one question, are you actually having an open recruitment process. Now with LinkedIn, at the end of every job application, you will see, ‘we encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply’, but when those people do apply, are they even given an opportunity to interview? Are people just being shut down at the application process, we encourage you to apply, but you don't get an interview.

👉🏾 How do we as an industry, expect people from diverse backgrounds to feel even confident that they will be able to rise in an industry when they can't even get through the door, that's one of the big things. And there needs to be a...